amiga600.net blog

A QRP operator is supposed to compensate lack of power by using efficient antennas. But what if efficient antennas are not practical? At my QTH, I cannot put huge antennas up due to lack of real estate. I tried a Diamond CP6 but sold it to a friend after the overwhelming size and venerability to the wind, especially when I was out of town, I was always worrying when it got a little windy.

So, I have thus far been using just a 25M end-fed longwire, but I was missing the local 10M club net, so I found an old Sirio Boomerang 27A and put it up. It worked a treat on 10 meters, but trying it on other bands with my LDG Z-817 Tuner seemed to be acceptable all the way down to 40M. It is especially “sweet” on 20M and 17M. I have made contacts into the USA, Cuba and all over Europe. I hope that others will try this remarkable antenna. I tried to go one better using a half wave CB antenna and it didn’t come close to the performance of this quarter wave – perhaps its some matching circuit in the Boomerang – whatever it is, its the perfect small HF vertical.

It seems like the British Airways/Unite dispute has been running for ages, and still no agreement has been reached. Shame on the section of union members who voted for the disruption to service, that do not seem to grasp the fact that BA is currently a loss making business and to be competitive, pay and perks need to be bought down to a level that is closer to the other air carriers.

Gone are the days of BA’s dominance in the British airline business. Now there is lots more choice, consumers have more options for flights than ever before. By remaining steadfast in their refusal to compromise, all Unite are doing is weakening an already fragile business that cannot take the level of losses and public confidence forever. My take on modern day employment – if you do not like working for a company, leave! It amazes me a union can bring a company to it’s knees by blocking essential streamlining that is evidently needed.

The Conservative-Liberal coalition government has been running relatively smoothly so far, but it amazes me how the media and many people seem to make a point about the proportion of the cabinet members who are millionaires and/or graduates of the universally accepted top UK universities, Cambridge and Oxford. Whilst we don’t want to go down the road of politicians buying their way into power, I for one would prefer to have the country being run by successful educated people than bolshy trade unionists who don’t know the first thing about politics.