Update for May

I’ve had a life changing experience since I last wrote. On 30th March I had a stroke - luckily my wife came back from walking our dogs just in time and managed to call an ambulance which got me got me straight to the hospital very quickly. They gave me a clot busting drug and after a very scary first day or two, I have made a remarkable recovery so far. Evidently I had a brain stem stroke which is quite serious and lock down syndrome which means total paralysis; I could only move my eyes which was quite strange, but luckily a doctor noticed this and was able to communicate with me so at least I was aware what was happening. After various stages in different wards at Hospital I eventually ended up on the stroke ward at the General Hospital where I was well cared for.

I came home the other week having stayed there for about 3 weeks and now am having lots of physio etc at home. I've been very lucky and don't have any paralysis but do feel very tired and I'm a bit wobbly on my feet. My speech is improving all the time but does deteriorate when I get tired, so I find it difficult to speak on the radio for long periods of time. It is early days and if I carry on improving as I have been doing I am sure I will make a full recovery before too long.
CW is a bit strange I’ve had to stop the local club challenge (locating & contacting the 73 countries that make up the whole of Europe!)as my control of the key both paddle and up & down key has somewhat slowed right down, (5 wpm) which is most annoying!

 I’ve bought myself a new VHF radio as a present for getting better so quickly, it’s a Alinco DR138_H 2 meter transceiver with 60 wtts of power so I can get out from the house quite easily. It’s a very nice radio all for the princely sum of £64 which I reckon is pretty good deal! I’m still learning how to work it, gone are the days of simple instructions, this thing takes quite a while to work especially if you have lost all of your coordination skills!

I’m also on the lookout for a manual ATU for my K2 transceiver, I’m getting annoyed having to alter the LDG auto tuner every time I use the rig at more than 10 watts of power so I figured a manual tuner would be better and I could adjust for accuracy. I know most would find it annoying to have a manual but they seem to be more accurate than the auto ones so I’m going buy one and see.

 I’ve also decided to make another cobweb antenna as a project to keep me occupied for the next few weeks also to improve my coordination skill. I have built two already, so I am quite experienced in making them. Although I wont start from scratch as that would be too difficult, so I have bought a semi built one off EBay and will alter it to my specifications’ my interest in Cobwebs started along time ago and so far I’ve built two  have been the

G3TPW original and the G3TQX and this time I shall have a play  and do my own design changes to get the best out of it and have a bit of fun!