so.... progress on antennae....

a copper J-pole for the side of the house.

a 3m length of 21.5mm copper pipe, a T, 2 caps 2 angles (only need one, but they come in pairs), and some support brackets.  total cost, £14.

 Dimensions are all over the net, so I'll not bore you, but here it is all soldered up.  I used my blow torch from the kitchen.... the one for melting the sugar on top of a creme brulee.........

and a tv antenna bracket holds it onto the side of the house.  some plans suggest a choke so I thought, why not?

 have to arrange with somebody local to have a wee net to get radio checks sorted.... I'm waiting for an adapter for the boafeng to a regular coax plug so I can connect it up to a "real" antenna... as it is, I can HEAR on the Piezo, I can even hear the piezo on the baofeng, but as I'm on my own, I cant dissappear up the road in the car with the piezo mic keyed now can I?

so, here's the shack as it is now......

Piezo PCS-2000, Baofeng UV-5R a couple of SWR meters and a power supply culled from a PC.

also in the pic is a silly receiver that I paid £3 for..... I can detect a signal from the 2m sets on it, and get the automated weather signal from Belfast City airport, but that's about it......

I'm waiting for some stuff to arrive from ebayland, but I'll spill the beans on them when they get here!

I've joined eQSL and posted all my QSOs so far.

as I'm only using a 5w hand held with a rubber duck, I'm not expecting huge DX, but via the GB3NI repeater I've made it out of Northern Ireland to EI4DP Tony in Drogheda and MM6CTH in Girvin, Scotland.