Monday 21/02/2011

This Monday we were looking at a couple of portable antennas and playing with an old Tentec rig.

I showed my Yaesu ATAS 25 manual antenna which is designed for QRP and back packing.

The ATAS-25 is a manually-tuned portable antenna system ideal for the FT-817, FT-897, and FT-857 transceivers. Capable of operating on the Amateur bands between 7 MHz and 450 MHz, the ATAS-25 is designed for mounting on a standard 1/4" camera tripod stud (tripod not supplied), and includes an innovative fine-tuning system allowing precise SWR adjustment in the field.

This is a well made antenna however it is not on sale in the UK due to its high retail price.

The other antenna shown was the Diamond version of the Icom antenna for an IC703. This has an interesting design however I have not had much luck with this one.

I did some operating on Dstar late in the evening with a contact to the States. Thanks to Chris (2E0CTH) who put a video on Youtube of the event

Others enjoyed the various conversations happening in the hall as well as the flowing Tea and Coffee.

Monday 14/02/2011

Valentine’s Day and we are out playing:-)

We had three new visitors, Mike (M3WLX) and wife Lyn as well as Ian who is a member of the Crawley club.

This Monday we had a sit down workshop to talk about Linux and free amateur radio software. Chris Howard and I gave an overview of Linux, how to install and configure it. After a lot of questions and demonstrations we concluded the workshop by showing some amateur radio software.

Linux download sites:

http://www.ubuntu.com/Linux with the Gnome Desktop

http://www.kubuntu.org/ Linux with the K Desktop

http://www.xubuntu.org/ Linux for low spec systems

http://www.linuxmint.com/

http://fedoraproject.org/

A few software applications worth a look:

Ibp a beacon display program

fldigi a good program for many digital modes

gpredict a great to predict satellite passes

Plus many more.

Steve (G1MPW) showed us his latest project. This is an aid for tuning in a Morse signal, which ensures you are on frequency. This is very useful for those of us who are tone deaf.

From the website:

NEW (01/29/2002) - Son of Zerobeat

Son of Zerobeat is our version of the original Zerobeat project published in Circuit Cellar Magazine in 1996 by Ed Nisley, KE4ZNU. 

Son of Zerobeat has 7 LEDs which graphically indicate the frequency of a received CW audio tone. Adjust your transceiver's frequency until the center green LED lights and you are within +/- 10 Hz of zero beat with the transmitting station.

• one pot audio detector setting
• board size (2 by 1.5 inches)
• offset frequency setable from 400 to 1200 Hz with a switch press
• default offset frequency is 600 Hz
• all board mounted parts including machine pin sockets come with kit
• just add your metal enclosure, +12V power jack, audio jack and switch to complete the kit
• Kit price including manual is $28 + $3 USA shipping/handling
• Kit price (No manual) is $25 + $3 USA shipping/handling
• DX (outside the USA) add $3.00 to USA prices
• want to operate the Son of Zerobeat with a 9V battery ? Consider using the Battery Saver kit along with the Son of Zerobeat

Checkout: 

 

            Here is the link for the zero beat kit            http://wb9kzy.com/zerobeat.htm

            they've got loads of stuff listed on the kits page   http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Monday 07/02/2011

The last two Mondays have been discussion evenings. There is always some operating happening and this Monday there was some HF Morse and VHF Dstar.

While members are encouraged to be active and work on their projects, some of these have been a bit lacking over the last couple of weeks.

This week we had a look at a couple of masts and discussed there deployment.

As a starter I will run a workshop in part of the hall to demonstrate Linux and Free Software. Linux has some very good free software for amateur radio. If you have not seen Linux this will be a good chance to play and you don’t have to buy.

If this is not of interest to you please come along and play in another part of the hall.

The Tea and Coffee will be flowing :-)

31/01/11

Operating:

Chris (2E0CTH) and Barry (M6BJT) spent some time operating on HF.

Antennas:

Most of the group spent time with Steve playing with his magnetic loop antenna and discussing other antenna projects they are going to build this year.

Mick’s Antenna Video (2E0RBH):

http://www.liveleak.com/e/07b_1284580365

Lectures:

Derek (G3WHK) has offered to come along and talk to us about contesting. With a large number of new amateurs in the group this was agreed to be a useful session. The club would like to get back into contesting and this would give us an insight into what is required.

A follow up discussion on contest logging would help complete the picture.

Test Equipment

A number of evenings have been requested on some of the things you can do with test equipment. The first of which will be on oscilloscopes. Keep checking for dates.

Neil Playing:

Neil gave us a preview of part of his talk he gives to schools. This was on liquid nitrogen, with some practical experiments. Not radio but a lot of fun:-)