Mohd Zulfadzli Ridzuan, base station in Ipoh, Perak is an Amateur Radio Station Operator by the call sign 9W2FZR. After several years as SWL, the station officially started operating as a class B operator on 4th January 2008. Trasmitting between 144-148 Mhz, he currently equipped with Motorola MT777 transceiver, with Tx power 5 watt max.
As the number of Amateur Radio Station in University of Nottingham increases, I and my colleagues think that we should form an official group that will unite us all. There are lots of activities we have done together (outdoors, radio experiment, etc.) and we even became guides in some of the hiking program conducted by the students. So it is necessary for us to have a group so that anybody who has enquiries regarding Amateur Radio and outdoor activities can easily find us. As the result, the Nottingham Amateur Radio Group or NARG is formed.
Today is the most historic day of my ham life. Why? I managed to assemble a Homebrew antenna for 2M band. It's a J-Pole!! . I’ve tested the antenna on 6th March 2009 at 2200 GMT (Malaysia). I’ve tried transmitting from my base station, located at Tambun, Ipoh (N4 37.582 E101 08.952) to Bukit Larut, ASTRA 9MX244 Repeater (N4 51.711 E100 47.587). Using J-Pole, transmitting at 5 watt, I manage to break in and start conversation with 9W2DKL and 9M2NM (Pak Nordin). Signal report has been requested and 9M2NM reported that he got my audio at readability 4 and 5. That’s good news. Days before, I tried using telescopic antenna and mobile antenna, transmitting with 5 watt, I can’t even get feedback from the repeater.
For me, the overall cost in making this antenna are not really cheap, but if to compare with other commercial antenna that provide the same performance, I can say it is quite cheap and reasonable. Worth every cent you spend. To be exact, the cost is about RM 82 for the antenna. Actually that’s the price of the material only, if combine with the tools I just bought exclusively for this project, it’s already exceed RM200. Adoyai!!
Anyway, as I said just now, it is worth the money. I don’t mind spending a little too much off my budget for the excitement assembling the antenna and the excitement using the antenna to the max! hehe.
I like to share my experience in making this antenna right here, right now, but I really need to rest (exhausted being excited). I will post the report of my antenna assembling processes later. At the meantime, you can view the photos.
