This weekend (15-16 June 2019) it’s time for another “Exercise Blue Ham” event – Exercise Blue Ham 19 on 60 metres. The RAF invites all full licencees to take part and make contact with their special callsigns.
While researching for club talks, I ran across the following link regarding the tropo scatter system used in the 1970s/1980s with eye watering ERPs. A few members will know about this system, however many new to the club may not:
Like Graham, G3XYX I have visited the Stenigot site in Lincolnshire wolds (in itself an incredibly beautiful place) – sadly only one dish remains now. Possible club talk if anyone knows a speaker…?
Thanks to kind assistance from John G4RDC, Graham M7GRA and Mike M0DYD on Saturday we now have a Diamond V2000 (2m, 70cms and 6m) on the Rugby Club building which we can use at practical evenings. Thanks to the Rugby club as well for kindly allowing this.
Dear Members, RADARC is pleased to announce that we are holding an 85th year celebration at the Royal Oak, Knowl Hill RG10 9YE on Saturday 15th June 2019 We will be setting up a small station/display in the field at the back from 11:30am, and from that point onwards you are very welcome to join in informally, have a pint etc. At 18:00 there will be a barbeque @ £5 per head. If you wish to just come along just for this that is of course fine.
The Royal Oak is a nice traditional pub in a beautiful location, so it should be fun. Lets hope the weather is kind as well. If you are intending to join us for the barbecue, please let me know so that I can give the Royal Oak an idea of numbers. Looking forward to seeing you there. Thanks and 73 Simon M0ZSU, RADARC
Heard of QO-100? Also known as Es’hail 2, the first geostationary satellite carrying amateur radio transponders launched from Kennedy Space Center at 20:46 GMT on Thursday, November 15, 2018 and is now in a geostationary orbit at 25.9° East. These are the first amateur radio transponders to be put into geostationary orbit and the satellite footprint covers an area from Brazil to Thailand. The transponders are very wideband indeed, and have been designed to be relatively straightforward to access. Being a wide linear transponder, there’s plenty of room, but also plenty of activity, and the activity is in all sorts of modes, including digital ATV, digital voice, CW and SSB. The downlink is 10GHz and the uplink is 2.4GHz. These frequencies are no coincidence…
Receiving QO-100 is a matter of connecting an inexpensive commercial LNB, like you’d find on the arm of any Sky dish, to a suitable power supply via a bias-T, to an inexpensive SDR connected to your PC, including the RTL USB dongles, or indeed to any wideband multi-mode receiver that covers 7-800MHz. An unused Sky installation could be used pretty much as-is, by simply tweaking the dish to point to a very slightly different point in the sky – 25.9°. Indeed there are reports of QO-100 being heard via Sky dishes while the dish is still aligned on the Sky constellation at 28.2°E. PLL-equipped LNBs are better, but not essential.
Once you have a receiving setup sorted, it’s time to turn your attention to the transmitting side. The uplink is in the 13cm amateur allocation, adjacent to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. There is a lot of room for creativity here, and lots of options. OE5HSR has pulled together an excellent PDF, which is pretty much a must-read for this topic. You can find this here.
I’m sure that some of our members will be having a go at working this unique satellite, and if you’re one of them, we’d absolutely love to hear from you at one of our show-and-tell evenings, or even better a live demo!
72000km+ SSB QSOs using a couple of watts and some recycled gear? Yes please!
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.
Min G0JMS will kindly bring along a RigExpert HF to VHF SWR meter (Digital display) RigExpert to show you and VHF to UHF swr power meter (Cheap unit) which includes frequency. He will also do a brief demo of Yaesu Fusion – Wires X technology RF paths permitting.
If necessary, I’ll bore you for a few minutes before the bottles and
tomatoes start flying:
Geostationary satellite project – es hail 2. Mike G4CDF (and possibly others???) is making the running on this one but I will present on his behalf a very short overview. iirc it’s 2.4GHz up and 10GHz down. tx/rx is based on an SDR transceiver (lime sdr mini).
Adventures with FT8 internals and taxi radios (generating FT8 tones by pulling a carrier around) – update. TBH anything that generates a stable carrier and can be pulled a bit maybe down to 1Hz resolution looks like it might work – eg. voltage controlled oscillator.
cheap RTL-SDR dongles (£15 delivered). Mine does work but probably better to get the real ones rather than fakes like mine.
short gnuradio demo (maybe)
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.
Read by his son in law Peter at the funeral, a fascinating read.
Tribute
Peter
was born in Reading, the only child of Eric and Winifred Smith, and
lived all of his life in Caversham, attending Hemdean House,
Caversham Primary and Wilson schools. His early years coincided with
the second world war and Peter recalled vividly the occasion in which
their Caversham home was hit by 2 incendiary bombs – one of very
few houses in Reading to suffer damage in an air raid. Peter’s
father was a machine workshop instructor with the REME at Arborfield
and Peter was proud that, with a lathe and other machinery specially
installed in the back bedroom of their modest home in Rectory Rd,
both of his parents helped the war effort by manufacturing aircraft
parts. It became clear only recently, that they were part of a
clandestine network throughout the South of England that secretly
built thousands of Spitfires hidden in garages, sheds and barns. The
story is now told in the recently released film, Secret Spitfires
which includes Peter recalling some of his wartime memories. He
enjoyed being filmed, and the family will treasure the footage.
Peter’s
lifelong friend, Tony Halford, recalls their pre-teen exploits,
including making soap box go-carts and testing them out on the hill
at Bugs Bottom. Sadly, Tony is unable to be here today – but he
told us that as they moved into the teen years, Peter shared with him
his interest in the wonders of electronics which in those days
centred around the thermionic valve. They spent many happy hours in
the shed at Peter’s parents’ house, constructing and modifying
“Government Surplus” equipment, and it was during this time
that Peter taught Tony the skill of soldering the correct way – a
skill that Peter later taught to both his children and all of his
grandchildren. On one memorable occasion Peter and Tony assembled a 3
valve audio amplifier, with an old loudspeaker frigged to act as a
microphone, so that from the shed they could listen to the ticking of
the hall clock. They also discovered that because of the wondrous
sensitivity of their creation, they could listen to Peter’s
parents’ conversations as well – all over the house – a scientific
achievement which, as you can imagine, was not appreciated by Winnie
and Eric!
Peter
would say that his school career was undistinguished but it was here
that he first met Ann, who was to become his lifelong companion and
soulmate. He also gained the qualifications that he needed to start
an electrical engineering apprenticeship working at Taplow Court for
British Telecommunications Research. He loved his days there and told
many apprentice prank stories – such as the time when he had the job
of wiring up a circuit to test a very expensive prototype valve –
the only one in the country. When ‘switch on’ time came, much to
Peter’s horror, wisps of smoke started to rise from the wiring. On
closer inspection, Peter found that someone had placed a resistor
across the valve supply which blew a few seconds after switch-on –
just to trick him. He and Ann also enjoyed the social aspects of
Taplow such as the tennis courts, boating, rifle range and Christmas
parties.
Peter
then moved to work at the Rutherford labs at Harwell. He was never a
lover of bureaucracy and recounted stories of his frustration with
the Civil Service. Seeking promotion, he moved temporarily to
Daresbury in Cheshire, but after a brief and unfulfilling soujourn
there he returned to Rutherford where he gained his Chartered
Engineer status. While at Rutherford he met his future business
partner, and in 1968 they set up their own electronics company-
CONTECH – where Mac was in charge of the drawing office and Peter the
design. Colleagues, who became lifelong friends, recall not only a
brilliant engineer but also a kind, calm and generous boss who was
always happy to pitch in whatever the task.
Peter
relished the freedom of having his own company and enjoyed working on
many interesting projects – a key one being the design, development
and production of equipment for TV audience monitoring, subsequently
employed widely around the world until the advent of digital
television.
To
say that he was an engineer does not really do justice to his
affinity for mechanical and electrical things. He had the wonderful
ability to understand how things were supposed to work, even if not
all the parts were there. He could picture whatever was missing –
go to his workshop and make them. A talent that will be greatly
missed by his family and friends. As an engineer, his passion was to
unravel unnecessary complexity in favour of elegance and simplicity.
He had a very similar approach to everyday life!
Outside
work too, Peter was always busy. At 21, he and Ann married (Tony was
his best man!). Peter built the first marital home by purchasing a
caravan shell. He installed heating and lighting and built the fitted
furniture inside. Just prior to the arrival of Wendy a year later,
they moved in to live with Ann’s father and aunt while Peter
planned his next project. This was to build the house in Kidmore Rd
where they brought up their family and where he lived for the rest of
his life. Peter familiarised himself with building regulations and
taught himself the necessary skills such as bricklaying and plumbing.
He broke ground on the build in 1960, aged, 23. Holding down a
full-time job and only working evenings and weekends on the house,
they completed it with virtually no outside help of any kind 2 years
later and moved in in October 1962. 6 months later, the house was
complete and following a couple of years R&R, Helen was born.
Family
was always a priority and Wendy and Helen’s mum and dad had a very
long and happy marriage, celebrating their Golden Wedding in 2008.
Their mum suffered with ill health for a number of years and their
dad became a kind and devoted carer for her until becoming a widower
in 2009.
Both
Wendy and Helen have lived nearby for the majority of their adult
lives and so raised their families locally. Because of this Peter and
Ann were able to be an integral part of their grandchildren’s
lives. Grandpa was always there to join the celebrations, encourage
first Andrew and Elizabeth and then Christopher, Thomas and Matthew
with their projects and endeavours – helping to fix anything and
everything that needed attention. In addition to all the usual family
events, Grandpa continued the tradition he and Nana had started,
hosting two highlights in the family calendar. In the spring, he
spent considerable time hiding mini Easter eggs around his wonderful
garden for the grandchildren to find. Over the years he took great
delight in finding new places to challenge the hunters – a task
that became increasingly difficult as the grandchildren are all now
over 20. Bonfire night too, was always organised meticulously in the
typical Peter fashion. Fairy lights and lanterns provided a magical
setting for bonfires, fireworks and sausages and soup.
Peter and Ann relaxed by
walking in the countryside and family holidays were usually taken in
Scotland, the Lake District, Cornwall or Wales. In retirement, the
Pembrokeshire coastal path became a real favourite for the pair with
many holidays in St David’s – and also Switzerland. Once widowed,
Peter sought new walking partners by joining the Sonning Common
Health Walks where he rekindled old friendships and made new ones.
These times became an important part of his week and he always told
the family about them, including owning up when they had got lost!
Peter’s
interest in wireless began during the war, when his father gave him a
crystal set and from an early age he was often called upon to help to
fix sets for neighbours and friends. He was a frequent visitor to
Bill Good’s wireless shop around the corner in Church St and later
spent many hours at the ‘Shop on the bridge’ in Kings Rd and Bob
Iles’s shop in Southampton St. In the late 1970’s he found time to
resurrect his interest in amateur radio and he became a member of the
Radio Society of Great Britain taking on the A license G4JNU call
sign in 1980. He was a very active member of the Reading Amateur
Radio club where he made many friends through shared interests and
enjoyed demonstrating his restorations of all kinds of vintage
electrical and mechanical curiosities.
Following
from his love of wireless he also became a member of the
Narrow-bandwidth Television Association devoted to all aspects of
early television. He was fascinated by the technology and spent many
hours restoring original equipment, constructing replica mechanical
television apparatus and learning about the origins of early
television by recreating the experiments of its inventor and pioneer
– John Logie Baird. He became one of the most knowledgeable people
in the country on Baird and early mechanical television. He supported
museums, groups and individuals with his masterful engineering skills
and with his passion for early radio and television technology.
Through his efforts many museums can now display original radio and
television equipment working again and he has enabled working
demonstrations of original equipment to be featured on several
television programmes on the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky, including the
BBC’s recreation in 2016 of the 1936 opening night of television.
We
will treasure memories of a loving, kind- hearted and generous man
who was always willing to help whatever the task. He always had a
project on the go either restoring or building something, researching
or making something work – whether it was a family, a house or a
Baird televisor.
The
BBC’s – and the world’s – first regular television service
started on Monday the 2nd of November 1936. The song you are about to
hear was performed in the opening show and captures something of the
mystery and wonder that must have surrounded the new invention at
that time
John G3VHH notes we have a new 4 metre web SDR available to us covering 69.492 – 71.028 MHz
http://81.111.70.181:8091
IP address may change so look at http://websdr.org/ for a definitive address. Text is “4 Meter WebSDR Located in south Hartfordshire UK using a RTL Dongle”. Antenna is a 4 metre quarter wave ground plane.
Many thanks to John and Steven M0XVT for making this available.
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