Maritime? Mobile

On Thursday the 10^th of September I spent a very pleasant afternoon with David, MøVID, aboard his cabin cruiser moored at Maldon on the river Crouch.

The boat is 32 feet long and this does not allow for an aerial to be installed larger than 30 feet. We had been discussing what aerial would be suitable and a doublet was decided on and installed. As can be seen in the photo it is installed from the bow to the stern and the centre is above the wheelhouse.

A 300 ohm feeder is brought down to a 4:1 Balun in the wheelhouse and co-ax to the station. I took my portable rig, an Icom 706mk11G and ATU with me and set up on 40m.

Whilst I was setting up David put a brew on which was gratefully received.

The tuning on the ATU was quite sharp as the aerial was a little short for 40m, never the less, it worked and I managed to work stations over the UK. One problem did raise a concern and that was the boats 12v charging system which turned out to be a switch mode power supply. Whilst moored the boat is connected to the mains supply so we were not working off of 12v and it was switched off. The bands were not in a good condition, noisy and with heavy QSB. One unexpected problem was a big noise source from welding equipment at the boat yard some 200m from the mooring. It was not there all the time and the bands went quiet during the lunch hour.

All this activity was supervised by the dog. Who, after a while, got bored and went to sleep.

I understand that a close eye needs to be kept on the dog or she would be in the water or off exploring.

David opening up the boat

I signed MOBILE as I am not sure of the ruling on operation on the tidal water. I always thought that one had to be in international waters to sign MARITIME MOBILE but there seems to be some confusion on this.

A great afternoon in a quiet area on a sunny and warm day with pleasant company

John Mulye GøVEH