A wasted weekend.
I think it was John Lennon who said that time you enjoyed wasting wasn’t wasted time. I subscribe to that view entirely but this past weekend was just time wasted and certainly wasn’t very enjoyable.
First of all the weather was terrible…then it was lovely…then it was terrible again…and so on and so on, all weekend. Alternating sunny spells and showers (of varying intensity), all to an almost meticulous hourly cycle. Very difficult to make any plans when trying to get out and operate some portable amateur radio.
Then the technology (or my understanding thereof) let me down. A new doublet antenna I had high hopes for didn’t seem to work very well at all (see ‘An inconclusive test’ below). Time will tell if the new z-match tuner (SEM TranZmatch) will prove to have been a worthwhile purchase.
Then on Sunday, when despite the weather I did get out portable with my 17m vertical dipole (one of the Par End-Fedz), I heard what would have been two all time new ones in the form of Madagascar and St Helena but both stations were buried beneath serious pile-ups with no hope of a QSO in the time I had available. Oh well - another time maybe.
Maybe on reflection I’ll consider it mostly wasted weekend. I did at least get a few contacts in the log and I did learn a little bit about doublet antennas and balanced feedlines. I’m sure I’ll have better luck as the weather improves through the summer and I’m able to spend more time out and about with the portable station and maybe, just maybe, that doublet will come good after all.