Well done to all those who took part – an interesting evening.
Special thanks to Ian G8NXJ for the pictures.
There is a gathering of local tech/creative groups on Tuesday 13th August at the Walkabout pub (upstairs) in the centre of Reading, Friar st.
Wiston Terrace (off Friar Street) Reading RG1 1DG
see https://rdggeeknight.wordpress.com/ for details
The aim is to promote awareness of all the good stuff going on in Reading.
Someone from each group will say a ‘few words’ about who they are and what they do. Here are some of the groups:
Hope to see you there.
Thanks to Simon and “Reading Geek Night” for organising this.
73
John
G4RDC
Some pictures of a pleasant afternoon and evening at the Royal Oak, Knowl Hill for our 85th Year Barbecue. If you have any more photos to add please send them in.
Much fun was had with AM QSOs between an ex army Clansman manpack and and WW2 Wireless set 18 man pack on 40 metres. Note the QSL card! Also, work on ATV equipment and 23cm linear by members using club test equipment.
Some photos of the brilliant stand at this event in Hurley, well organised by Min. (more of Min’s pictures TBA)
Some pictures of an enjoyable evening and a successful station. Thanks to all who took part.
The RSGB Commonwealth Contest runs from 10:00 on Sat 9th March to 10:00 Sun 10th March. You will hear participants calling CQ BERU (British Empire Radio Union). This is a CW contest in which the participants must be in commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana, The Gambia, Grenada to name a few. A full list of Commonwealth Call Areas may be found at https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/information/codes.shtml. Stations from those areas may also work Headquarter stations including those from their own call area. The contest details may be found at https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2019/rberu.shtml.
Bob G3PJT maintains an interesting site at https://berucontest.wordpress.com/ with the latest news about participants, especially those travelling to some far-flung part of the commonwealth. Our own Don G3XTT will be operating as C56DF from The Gambia. I’m sure he would be delighted to work as many RADARC members as possible!
One of the advantages of this contest is that it is easier for UK stations to work DX because you are not competing with most of Europe or the USA. Saturday afternnoon is worth trying for African stations on 20m. You should also be able to work many Canadians on 20m from mid-afternoon to mid-evening, and on 40m during the evening. It’s worth getting up on Sunday morning to operate between about 06:00 and 07:30 as you’re likely to work VK and ZL on 40m and possibly 80m. There’s a very noticeable lift around UK sunrise that coincides with sunset in ZL.
RADARC participated in three RSGB AFS contests in January – CW, Datamodes, and Phone. Each was of 4 hours duration on 40m and 80m. Typically stations started on 40m and as propagation changed, moved to 80m. In all three legs, it was very noticeable that GM stations had much better conditions on 40m than the Gs, and hence GM stations tended to be the winners or runners-up.
AFS CW
RADARC came 6th in the Local Club category with a team consisting of Don G3XTT, David M0DHO, Jim G0LHZ, and Michael M0MPM. I stayed on 40m longer than many, and this helped to reduce the time at the end of the contest whenI had worked everything on 80m. For details, see https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfresults.pl?Contest=AFS%20Contest%20CW&year=2019.
AFS Data
RADARC came 24th in the Local Club category with a team consisting of David M0DHO, Michael M0MPM, and Simon M0ZSU. This was my first attempt at a datamodes contest and using N1MM and MMVARI to send RTTY and PSK, and I treated this as a learning exercise. For details, see https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfresults.pl?Contest=AFS%20Contest%20DATA&year=2019.
AFS Phone
RADARC came 14th in the Local Club category with a team consisting of David M0DHO, Jim G0LHZ, Jonathan M0JSX, and Michael M0MPM. Dealing with the inevitable QRM is one of the challenges. Running with 400W meant that I was able to keep my run frequency on each band. For details, see https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfresults.pl?Contest=AFS%20Contest%20PHONE&year=2019.
Thankyou from Reading and District Amateur Radio Club for another great opening event to the rally season for our area.
It seemed like most of RADARC attended.
14th Feb Woodford Park meeting is a chance for us to catch up on the
various projects/activities we’re up to – in particular any follow ups
to the Great Construction Contest but not limited to that.
If you’d like a short (5 minute or so) slot let me know.
Doesn’t have to be stuff – could be contest updates or how RADARC
contributes comms to events like 3 towers etc.
Also – what would you like to see and I’ll try and arrange?
We can take contributions on the fly on the evening if need be.
If necessary, I’ll bore you for a few minutes before the bottles and
tomatoes start flying:
We’ll have the ICOM IC7300 out for people to have a play with and the spectrum analyser.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be in plentiful supply all evening.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
73
John
G4RDC