As most of us that regularly use the local repeater GB3WS know it takes a long time to access the repeater for the first time when it has gone into standby mode. For example unless you prefix your callsign with six seconds of silence, the beginning of your first call is cut off. I personally recite a short phase like "sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairly" before saying anything on the microphone to avoid this problem. This delay is due to reconfiguration that was necessary to prevent spurious access. The essence of the reconfiguration was that 531 cycles of 88.5Hz continuous tone-coded squelch system (CTCSS) are now needed to start up the repeater. The very crowded nature of the 2M repeater segment in the UK has meant that this long access time will become common to all UK repeaters. There is, however, a fix for this and that is to increase the CTCSS tone by a factor of 10 which will bring the access time down to about 600ms. Indeed there is an EU directive on communications efficiency (I/IV2010) that requires UK repeaters to move to this fast access system. As is typical in the UK, there is an opt-out scheme that individual repeater keepers can apply for provided that they can show that a majority of the local users have contacted them and asked for a retention of the old system.
All of the manufacturers have updated their new rigs to support this fast access mode with will additional CTCSS tones in the range 670Hz to 2750Hz. However the dealers are reluctant to sell the sets with the new software until all of the existing inventory has been sold. It is reported however that if you are sufficiently insistent and prepared to pay a premium you can get a newer model with the support needed to access the latest generation of repeaters.
For those of us with older sets there is a retrofit available from an enterprising UK firm based in
Ffwl just west of Cardiff by the name of Ebrill. More information about this organization can be found through the Google Welsh service.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Successful Re-enactment of the “Daventry Experiment”
We reported recently a plan to mark the anniversary in 2010 of the historic “Daventry Experiment originally carried out on 26th of February 1935 by Robert Watson Watt and his technical assistant which in effect marked the birth of the development of radar in the UK which was to play such a vital role in the outcome of World War2. The recent re-enactment was organised by the Coventry ARC and Northampton Radio Society together with the help of several private aviation pilots who flew modern light aircraft to form the targets.
The directional phased array to receive the 2m signal from the Daventry site
The Fly Past at Noon on February 26th 2010An interim account can be seen on the G8GMU website “Birth of Radar”
de Derek G3GRO
Thursday, March 25, 2010
IC92 Display Problems Continue
I have written in the past about problems with my IC-E92D http://carconline.blogspot.com/2009/05/major-display-problem-with-icom-ic-92.html, and would by now have expected that this problem was resolved by Icom manufacturing. Unfortunately I have been contacted by two local amateurs who have both purchased brand new IC-E92D handhelds that appear to have this problem. In both cases the display goes blank as the transmit on 2m despite a fully charged battery. I will update the blog if more information becomes available.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Dayton Technical Excellence 2010 - Simon Brown HB9DRV
The organizers of the Dayton Hamvention have just posted the following announcement giving Simon Brown HB9DRV the 2010 Technical Excellence Award. Many of us in the club use Simon's software and have met him in person. The Technical Excellence award is very well deserved indeed.
Three amateur radio (ham) operators who have made significant contributions to the Amateur Radio Service, will be honored guests when Hamvention® 2010 opens in Hara Arena on May 14. In addition, a club of the year will be honored in keeping with the 2010 Hamvention theme, Amateur Radio Clubs Worldwide: The Lifeline.
Recipients of this year's Hamvention® awards are:
*Special Achievement* - Dick Ross/K2MGA for his excellent work over the past number of years on CQ magazine.
*Technical Excellence* - Simon Brown / HB9DRV for the invention and development of Ham Radio Deluxe.
*Amateur of the Year* - Jim Stafford / W4QO for 50 years of service to Amateur Radio and his support for public service and unending efforts to recruit and develop hams of all ages.
*Club of the Year* - North Fulton Amateur Radio League, NFARL, North Fulton, GA - Serving the greater Atlanta Area, the State of Georgia and the US with emergency services, training and the preparation of Amateur Radio in general.
" Choosing the finalists was a difficult process due to the number of fine nominations" said Frank Beafore, Chairman of the Awards Committee. This year, an additional award category was added - Club of the Year. This award honors a ham radio organization that contributes to the good of Amateur Radio.
"Although we narrowed our club choice to North Fulton, GA, we had a number of deserving candidates" stated Beafore. "The winner of this year's award is certainly a great example of the thousands of clubs and organizations around the world perpetuating our avocation".
An intimate dinner on May 15 will be held in downtown Dayton honoring the 2010 Hamvention Award winners.
Three amateur radio (ham) operators who have made significant contributions to the Amateur Radio Service, will be honored guests when Hamvention® 2010 opens in Hara Arena on May 14. In addition, a club of the year will be honored in keeping with the 2010 Hamvention theme, Amateur Radio Clubs Worldwide: The Lifeline.
Recipients of this year's Hamvention® awards are:
*Special Achievement* - Dick Ross/K2MGA for his excellent work over the past number of years on CQ magazine.
*Technical Excellence* - Simon Brown / HB9DRV for the invention and development of Ham Radio Deluxe.
*Amateur of the Year* - Jim Stafford / W4QO for 50 years of service to Amateur Radio and his support for public service and unending efforts to recruit and develop hams of all ages.
*Club of the Year* - North Fulton Amateur Radio League, NFARL, North Fulton, GA - Serving the greater Atlanta Area, the State of Georgia and the US with emergency services, training and the preparation of Amateur Radio in general.
" Choosing the finalists was a difficult process due to the number of fine nominations" said Frank Beafore, Chairman of the Awards Committee. This year, an additional award category was added - Club of the Year. This award honors a ham radio organization that contributes to the good of Amateur Radio.
"Although we narrowed our club choice to North Fulton, GA, we had a number of deserving candidates" stated Beafore. "The winner of this year's award is certainly a great example of the thousands of clubs and organizations around the world perpetuating our avocation".
An intimate dinner on May 15 will be held in downtown Dayton honoring the 2010 Hamvention Award winners.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Solar Storm Watch
Scanning the pages of the BBC website I came across a very interesting link. The Solar Storm Watch project aims to get web users interested in astronomy to help analyse the 25Terabytes of data in 100,000 images of the sun and map solar storms and coronal mass ejections.
Now as our hobby relies so much on the sun to power propagation, I thought I'd learn more. The project which is a collaboration between the Royal Observatory Greenwich, The Ruthford Appleton Laboratory and Zooinverse is aimed at everyone from school children to astronomers with some time on their hands. After a basic registration a series of multimedia guides gives you a basic understanding of the subject and introduces the type of analysis that's required. You are then set free on some older events to analyse. The results are averaged between observers and then checked by a professional. Its hoped this process will save hours of crunching and lead to much early warnings of potentially dangerous solar events.
Oh and it's fun. So if you want to get the drop on your HF operating friends give it a go.
You can find the website here.
73
Mike
G0KAD/AP2
Now as our hobby relies so much on the sun to power propagation, I thought I'd learn more. The project which is a collaboration between the Royal Observatory Greenwich, The Ruthford Appleton Laboratory and Zooinverse is aimed at everyone from school children to astronomers with some time on their hands. After a basic registration a series of multimedia guides gives you a basic understanding of the subject and introduces the type of analysis that's required. You are then set free on some older events to analyse. The results are averaged between observers and then checked by a professional. Its hoped this process will save hours of crunching and lead to much early warnings of potentially dangerous solar events.
Oh and it's fun. So if you want to get the drop on your HF operating friends give it a go.
You can find the website here.
73
Mike
G0KAD/AP2
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Hexacopter
Initially I though that the following really cool link forwarded to me by Adrian G3VJM had nothing to do with amateur radio
http://www.flixxy.com/hexacopter-rc-helicopter.htm
which is an absolute "MUST WATCH".
However a write up in IEEE spectrum http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/quadcopter-hexacopter-octocopter-uavs suggests that it does have significant electronics interest.
"Five years ago few people had even heard of Quadcopters (also called Quadricopters or Quadrotors). Now they seem to be everywhere, from university labs and hobbyists to UAV competitions and commercial platforms. What happened?
"According to a recent Robots Podcast interview with Joshua Portlock, manager of the CyberQuad project at Australia's Cyber Technology, what happened is a classical case of an enabling technology being driven by the consumer market. Fast, precise and affordable accelerometers are a key technology for Quadcopters. Their development was initially driven by their use for airbags in cars, and now increasingly by their use in consumer devices such as mobile phones."
There is some more information here http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/HexaKopter.
Cost works out between €700 and €1200.
Stewart/G3YSX
http://www.flixxy.com/hexacopter-rc-helicopter.htm
which is an absolute "MUST WATCH".
However a write up in IEEE spectrum http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/quadcopter-hexacopter-octocopter-uavs suggests that it does have significant electronics interest.
"Five years ago few people had even heard of Quadcopters (also called Quadricopters or Quadrotors). Now they seem to be everywhere, from university labs and hobbyists to UAV competitions and commercial platforms. What happened?
"According to a recent Robots Podcast interview with Joshua Portlock, manager of the CyberQuad project at Australia's Cyber Technology, what happened is a classical case of an enabling technology being driven by the consumer market. Fast, precise and affordable accelerometers are a key technology for Quadcopters. Their development was initially driven by their use for airbags in cars, and now increasingly by their use in consumer devices such as mobile phones."
There is some more information here http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/HexaKopter.
Cost works out between €700 and €1200.
Stewart/G3YSX
Antenna Party - March 2010
As members and visitor to CARC will be aware, the antenna started freewheeling over the winter, and today, the first Sunday this year with reasonable weather we set about rectifying the problem. I say reasonable weather, it was very cold and there was a fairly strong breeze (according to NOAA, it was -6C and 15knots at Gatwick at 1400 today).
We luffed the system over
which was not easy because with the windmilling antenna meant that we had to select exactly the right moment to lower mast so that the StepIR and then the 2m Yagi were on the right side of the ATV mast. Unfortunately the observant among you will see that the upper ATV Omi was a casualty of the process, but that is a job for another day to fix.
One down it was clear what has happened: the bolts holts attaching the stub mast carrier to the main rotator has somehow worked their way loose and fallen to the ground. Similarly the through bolt that locks the stub mast to the rotator against the torque of the antennas in the wind and the inertia when rotating had worked it way loose in the wind.
The other problem that we rectified was the fact that the StepIR had originally been installed 180deg out of alignment. This was rectified and a through bolt installed. The length of the 2m Yagi makes work on the system quite difficult as you can see from the next picture.
Thanks to Rob M0ZAF for doing the high level work and Adrian, Rob's son, for all of his help with the antenna repairs.
Stewart/G3YSX
We luffed the system over
which was not easy because with the windmilling antenna meant that we had to select exactly the right moment to lower mast so that the StepIR and then the 2m Yagi were on the right side of the ATV mast. Unfortunately the observant among you will see that the upper ATV Omi was a casualty of the process, but that is a job for another day to fix.
One down it was clear what has happened: the bolts holts attaching the stub mast carrier to the main rotator has somehow worked their way loose and fallen to the ground. Similarly the through bolt that locks the stub mast to the rotator against the torque of the antennas in the wind and the inertia when rotating had worked it way loose in the wind.
The other problem that we rectified was the fact that the StepIR had originally been installed 180deg out of alignment. This was rectified and a through bolt installed. The length of the 2m Yagi makes work on the system quite difficult as you can see from the next picture.
Thanks to Rob M0ZAF for doing the high level work and Adrian, Rob's son, for all of his help with the antenna repairs.
Stewart/G3YSX
Spring Surplus Equipment Sale - NEW DATE
The CARC surplus equipment sale will now be on Wed 31th Mar 2010, and not 24th Mar as previously advertised. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Stewart/G3YSX
Stewart/G3YSX
A non-technical view of CARC
Having been interested in electronics, mainly valves, for many years a change in circumstances prompted me to join a club and acquire an amateur licence. I searched the RSGB web site for a local club and was presented with several both near and far. After rejecting one club, after a depressing visit to club night, I decided to turn up at the Crawley hut one Sunday morning in January and see what sort of welcome I would receive.
All I can say is that anyone contemplating joining a club and or becoming licensed should do exactly what I did and just turn up at CARC. The welcome could not have been friendlier. After a cup of tea and a biscuit I got a comprehensive tour of the extensive facilities and the chance to meet quite a few of the members.
It became quite obvious that while there was a great deal of technical expertise in the club, the conversations were very varied and certainly not all of a technical nature. I was never made to feel like an outsider and after gathering an appropriate e-mail address, left with a determination to follow my chosen path.
The rest is history. With the help of several members of the club, not least Malcolm Harman I have passed my Foundation Exam and looking foreword to an attempt at my Intermediate Licence in the near future.
Ian Coulson M6????
All I can say is that anyone contemplating joining a club and or becoming licensed should do exactly what I did and just turn up at CARC. The welcome could not have been friendlier. After a cup of tea and a biscuit I got a comprehensive tour of the extensive facilities and the chance to meet quite a few of the members.
It became quite obvious that while there was a great deal of technical expertise in the club, the conversations were very varied and certainly not all of a technical nature. I was never made to feel like an outsider and after gathering an appropriate e-mail address, left with a determination to follow my chosen path.
The rest is history. With the help of several members of the club, not least Malcolm Harman I have passed my Foundation Exam and looking foreword to an attempt at my Intermediate Licence in the near future.
Ian Coulson M6????
Training update.
Once again I am pleased to report that on Saturday 6th March we had two more Foundation successes. Namely Peter Raine and Ian Coulson, pictured here proudly holding up their certificates. Furthermore, they have both become CARC members, so look out for a couple of new faces at the Club and extend a warm welcome. As on previous occasions I was ably assisted by Ted MacDonald with the practical assessments, then Brian Gutteridge and Dick Lupton helping with tutorials and invigilation on the day.
While on the subject of training, we have now had eleven Foundation passes since December 2009 and I am conscious that a few of our students are now showing an interest in progressing to the Intermediate stage. In one or two cases the candidates only wish to do the practical work and just take the exam, on the basis that they would be self taught and thus no tutorial course would be needed. Building a simple DC circuit, fitting a 13 Amp plug and constructing an electronic circuit to test soldering skills, could possibly be accomplished one Saturday at the Club, when instructors would be on hand to assess their work. If there is anyone else who would like to adopt this same "fast track" approach please let me know.
Malcolm Harman (G3NZP)
Training Secretary
training@carc.org.uk
While on the subject of training, we have now had eleven Foundation passes since December 2009 and I am conscious that a few of our students are now showing an interest in progressing to the Intermediate stage. In one or two cases the candidates only wish to do the practical work and just take the exam, on the basis that they would be self taught and thus no tutorial course would be needed. Building a simple DC circuit, fitting a 13 Amp plug and constructing an electronic circuit to test soldering skills, could possibly be accomplished one Saturday at the Club, when instructors would be on hand to assess their work. If there is anyone else who would like to adopt this same "fast track" approach please let me know.
Malcolm Harman (G3NZP)
Training Secretary
training@carc.org.uk
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