Just another Newbie...

[GarryG68]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, so prepare for some obvious questions, thanks.

I am currently studying for my UK amateur radio “Foundation” licence, and plan to take the exam as soon as the world is back to normal.
Before then I'd like to get a few things straight in my head, mostly because goggling gives many, many answers depending on what you read. So I thought I'd post here and... well, possibly, get many, many answers depending on what I read!

First of is a 'simple' question that apparently isn't so simple. Is it worth getting a cheep hand-held like the Baofeng UV-5R Plus etc when just starting out, rather than spending hundreds on a base unit?
Secondly I know the answer to "What antenna should I get" is "It depends."
So if I said I'm mostly interested in telecoms, CW Morse, RTTY, Pagers, Weather Satellites, Fax, SSTV, and anything else I can find... What antennas should I be looking at?
As far as antenna go long wires are a bit of an issue as I don't have much garden space around me. I do have a chimney stack on the roof with a bunch of old (dead and decaying) analogue TV aerials on, and a few drainage pipes on the back wall of the house that stand up around 2ft from the guttering (one has a satellite dish attached already) that could take an antenna.

I've already had a (little) bit of success on the 2M band simply by hanging a home made dipole in the loft (well better than nothing). I can also pick up quite a lot of strong POCSAG and FLEX signals with a standard whip antenna from inside the house using an RTL-SDR stick (dongle), and have even had some success with a SI4732 kit radio.

What I ideally want (after I get my licence) is a setup that will allow me to decrypt weather satellite and SSTV as well as send and receive Morse. I'm still learning this even though it is no longer a requirement for the exam, I just think it's interesting.

So any general help and advice would be very welcome.
.

 

[popnokick]

Your stated interests are going to cover not just one radio, but a broad range of radios, antennas, and software. And your "shack" will evolve over time as you add more of each. HOWEVER, if you are receiving strong POCSAG and FLEX paging signals with a simple whip antenna inside the house, it is very likely that you are in a high RF and possible RFI environment. That means a lot of signals bombarding you at fairly high levels... which is an environment requiring a quality receiver with selectivity, rejection for out of band signals, filters, and other "better design" items to ensure proper operation. The Baofeng and many (but not all) the other CCR radios are emphatically NOT in that category. They lack the filtering , selectivity, and image rejection needed in a high RF / mixed signals environment. And that's just in the VHF / UHF range. The same thing will apply to receivers you will be using in the HF range.

 

[GarryG68]

... it is very likely that you are in a high RF and possible RFI environment...

Well I'm pretty much directly under the Craigkelly transmitting station (10 to 15 minutes walk) on top of the bin hill (direct line of sight above me). I know it used to (mainly) carry (analogue) BBC1 and BBC2, but who knows what it carries now!

We also have the Burntisland, Colinswell, (Analogue) Wireless Station just (literally) along the road from me. No idea what that one does!
Also a 2 to 3 minute walk to the nearest cell tower. Oh and right across the street from the Burntisland Museum Of Communications, who also transmit signals as part of their working exhibitions, although not much during lockdown.

So yes, probably a lot of signals floating around! Sounds like this may be more of a problem than a benefit then.

 

[popnokick]

The upside is that for nearby stuff (VHF / UHF) you won't need elaborate, high-gain, or roof mounted antennas. However, hearing DISTANT signals may prove challenging.... regardless of frequency. But an RF-dense environment means you are likely to need higher-grade radios than what you find for the lowest $$$ from Alibaba, etc. And if you do put up antennas, you may require additional filters for AM / FM broadcast and other services. Something to consider strongly to assess your environment: a software-defined radio that will work with computer software so you can examine and visualize a broad swath of radio spectrum, and the relative strength of signals. Not referring to the USB SDR "sticks" but something slightly more substantial such as something from the SDRPlay family (RSP1A, RSPDuo, RSPDX, etc.). Lots of info on YouTube and the web. Nowhere near the cost of a high-quality dedicated receiver or spectrum analyzer.... but almost as useful at a fraction of the cost.

 

[WB9YBM]

The basic rule for antennas is: "height is might", especially at UHF/VHF, so as to get the antennas above the "ground clutter".

 

[GarryG68]

Thanks for the info, it has helped. I'm glad there's an up side!

I have used, am using, a few cheaper USB SDR sticks, but was looking at getting an Airspy or SDRPlay type USB device.

 

[GarryG68]

.... get the antennas above the "ground clutter".

So without building a tower, which I may not get permission for as I live in a listed building, would mounting this on a chimney stack on top of a two story building be high enough!

 

[popnokick]

Sorry about answering a question with a question, but what does "high enough" mean to you? Some examples from your "want" list -
- "high enough" for "telecoms"? (Some, yes... if I understand what you mean by telecoms.)
- "high enough" for CW or RTTY? (Perhaps. If you don't have much of a garden in which to locate long stretches of wires, then you are going to be challenged in the HF bands. Look closely at "loop" or "magnetic loop" antennas such as those from Par or others.)
- Pagers? Yes, no problem there. In fact, paging transmitters may become a source of interference for you.
- Weather satellites? Height is not much of a problem since those antenna(e) will be pointing into the sky.
- FAX? (Usually HF, so read the "CW or RTTY" response again.)
- SSTV? (See "FAX")
... and a couple you didn't ask about -
- Local ham repeaters? Quite probably chimney will be high enough. Distant repeaters, less so.
- Non-repeater (simplex) comms? The higher the better. The chimney mounted antenna will be better than something inside the house, but a 40-50 foot tower (which you wrote is unlikely) would be better.
- Ham radio satellites? No problem whether you have a handheld pair of Arrow antennas on the ground, or a pair on your chimney. What you are trying to communicate with is all up in the sky (outside the earth's atmosphere).
For VHF / UHF bands, height is everything (as noted by WB9YBM). For HF and MW / LW.... not quite as critical. And as I noted above, if you can't string up 70 to 150 feet of wire someplace in the garden.... look at loop antennas.

 

[WB9YBM]

So without building a tower, which I may not get permission for as I live in a listed building, would mounting this on a chimney stack on top of a two story building be high enough!

Depends on how tall your neighbors' houses are, but in general yes, that'd be a good start. In fact I used a similar situation for my first antenna: three 10' mast sections, guyed at the top (using a 40M dipole running east-west & 20M dipole running north-south as inverted "V" configuration as my guys and a two meter antenna stuck to the top).

 

[N4GIX]

Do you have room (and permission) to install a ground mounted vertical? If so, contact Callum (M0MCX) who has developed an entire line of multi-band vertical antennas. See: DX Commander - Amateur Radio - Ham Radio | Ham Radio Antennas Shop

QTH (location): Dorridge, Solihull, West Midlands, UK

 

[majoco]

Oh and right across the street from the Burntisland Museum Of Communications, who also transmit signals as part of their working exhibitions, although not much during lockdown.

So there's your best answer. Go over there and make friends - they should give you all the best answers to your questions - and once they get to know your face they might ask you to join their society - then you get to use their equipment instead of buying your own!