2E0TNH - Radio Ramblings

12 July 2025 Another warm, sunny summer day; I could get used to this. Only having weekends to play radio now, meant i have to combine my love of the outdoors with my radio activations and the menial tasks of life. Todays plan Todays plan was a POTA (parks on the air) location near Sheffield, short walk and then off to Ikea for a new frying plan and 12 meatballs and mash, with gravy and Jam.  The Location Blacka moor local nature reserve (GB-2416) is a 2'fer with the Peak district national park (GB-0048) about 8 miles to the west of Sheffield.  The carpark has room for about 5 cars, luckily i sneaked my little I10 between a BMW and Transit van, still leaving ample space to open the doors, because i am not that kind of person.  When you step out the doors you are greeted by the beautiful sprawling views of heather covered hills. A nicely kept track leads from the carpark up onto the hill and into the woodland to the left. I would say easily accessible by the less able pers...

I'm not one to weave a tale of woe, but like a football match, this activation was definitely a game of two halves.  Day 1 5th of July, 2025.   After filling my face with a nicely stuffed bacon sandwich and a large mug of coffee i perused the Bunker base for places to activate.  It was a  beautifully sunny day, and very hot, so somewhere that didn't involve too much walking was a must. I found a 3'fer, with a layby and trees, what could be more perfect. Today the FT710 would be my weapon of choice. B/G-1880 RAF Ludford Magna Cold War storage bunker B/G-1881 RAF Ludford Magna WW2 bomb storage bunker B/G-2321 RAF Ludford Magna Thor Launch Control Bunker I packed the car up, remembering my coax joiner this time, and set off on the short journey to my destination.  Locations either never quite live up to their expectations or far exceed them. In this case the trees, that looked so promising on google maps, were definitely a tad on the short side. Good job...

  I awoke at 6am as usual, Saturday, a day off, and the weather was beautiful. Already about 18 degrees C,and forecast to rise to the mid to late 20s, there was no way i was staying inside. The band conditions didn't look promising, but that wasn't going to stop me.  I hopped on the computer, fired up the BOTA website and looked for a Bunker/Park that would give me the edge.  Park: GB-2232 - Donna Nook National Nature reserve. BOTA: B/G-2154  -  N orth Somercotes WW2 Pillbox cluster. G90/Chelegance MC750. A look at the location on Google maps at the location gave me two possible starting locations. a 2.8 mile walk from the donna nook seal sanctuary carpark or a 1.7 mile walk from a place called Howdens Pullover, a carpark on the saltmarsh to the south. The shorter distance appealed. I set off and arrived at Howdens Pullover, refilled my coffee mug from my flask and set off along the grass bank that ran north. On the map I could clearly see a bridge directly acro...

  Lets talk about my shack/working conditions..... Its not ideal, but as I'm in the early stages of my ham radio hobby, I think i am still deciding what i need to do what i want to do9, which is, pretty much everything. I hunger for BOTA/POTA/Digital and satellites ...... this list goes on.  What you initially buy, because you think its what you need, soon becomes apparent that you probably made some ill informed choices, very expensive choices.  So day one, you pass the test, and off you trot to the nearest radio shop or online store. I was advised that if i was thinking about taking my next licence level maybe my initial purchases were a tad limited. The wise words of the proprietor of my favorite radio shop, which soon became true. I started with a Xeigu G90 and a Chelegance MC750 vertical antenna and a 30amp power supply and a 8ah LIFEPO4 battery.  I still love and use everything I bought. Everything  fits in a rucksack and is great for trekking up the hills...

  HI, and welcome to my blog. My name is Nick and my callsign is 2E0TNH. I got my foundation licence at the end of 2024 and my intermediate licence in the month of May 2025. I started in my teenage years as a shortwave radio listener and it wasn't until my 57th year that someone suggested that i might as well get qualified and join in with the fun. Many thanks to that gentleman as it was probably the best thing i have done in many a year.  I'm not a real people person, so the detachment that getting on the radio gives me is brilliant, switch it off and on as and when the need occurs. I mainly operate on the HF Bands, usually 40m, 20m, 10m and the WARC bands using SSB and FT8 and FT4. I have also started frequenting 6m  and can be found on hubnet on occassion. I Decided to create this blog to document my radio activations, general radio stuff, and from time to time maybe one of my other hobbies will sneak in and make an appearance.  I don't think anyone will probably ...