So I'm going to be taking my 'exam' this weekend and with a little luck I'll be licensed M6something and legal to operate in a week or two once the paperwork is done.
Very pleased to be able to say, I passed, informal marking at the exam site would suggest a mark of 100%, I'm now M6KOX (OFCOM 'Next Licence number' option as none of my choices were available) and on the 24th of this month I will be starting the intermediate course
Informal marking at exam says I passed my Intermediate licence last night so I'll be 2Exxx shortly. Taking a break until next year now before I take the advanced exam
To this end I've bought an Icom IC-718 (nice little radio) and dialed it back down to legal limits for my licence class (10 Watts, luxury as my interest is QRP anyway).
I've also got an Icom automatic tuner which when enabled on the radio, to my horror, means the radio transmits when you switch bands to tune, even if you don't ask it to, how do you stop it doing that other than disabling it in the Set menus?
I need a PSU which I'd like to be able to stick with and use as I progress through the licence classes so 30-40 amps would be good, linear would be preferred but I'm aware that makes it big and heavy so suggestions and recommendations please (I'm probably going to go down the PW Marchwood route if I homebrew, I might also go down the server PSU road too)?
Along with the PSU I'll need some way of getting power around my 'shack' so I'm thinking Anderson connectors, again, your thoughts?
I will need an antenna of course, it will have to be unobtrusive and I've got ~22 metres of garden to play with, I could possibly get away with something like the Yaesu YA-30 but the available space is 3 metres too short, I think they can be left to dangle with little effect on performance though?
I've considered building my own version and will definitely give that a try, doesn't look difficult to do but that length of wire, hard drawn copper or stainless?
Morse keys, I'm a fan of QRP Morse, I'm extremely novice but would like to join in on some of the UK Morse tutorial nets so I'll need a key, I have *no* idea what type I'd be comfortable with so, as a novice, how do you work that out without spending a fortune on buying a collection of keys, I *think* I'd prefer a straight key instead of a paddle but...?
Apologies for the brain splurge, I'm sure I've missed stuff so will probably be back seeking more advice...