I found this great presentation about data modes from W6AER.
http://w6aer.com/downloads/Digital_Modes_W6AER_NCDXC.pdf

In memory of Graham Maynard G3XZJ an inspirational and accomplished trainer, an active and respected club member  who will be sorely missed.

Folks,

Happy New RADARC year!

John Turner (ex-BG Group) joins us once again with an insight into the oil and gas industry to give us a view of the key process at the heart of most modern refineries: “Fluidised Bed Catalytic Cracking”. About 30% of the world’s petrol comes from this process. The talk will give an insight into the various parts of the process by someone who spent many years designing, upgrading, operating and optimising this strategically important plant. You can guess who that is.

If you’ve not seen John before, he’s an entertaining speaker. Given the technical challenges faced keeping such volatile substances safe, there should be some good stories. Not something you’d want to get wrong.

So…if you want to hear about excellence in engineering here’s where to be:

Venue: Woodford Park Sports Centre, Haddon Dr, Woodley, Reading RG5 4LY
Time: Thursday 11th Jan 8:00pm

Refreshments to be served as usual but with safety precautions probably not at a level acceptable to BG group. I’m sure John will tell you all about that. Won’t be quite as good as the nosh we had at the AGM (Min G0JMS/James 2E0JPM truly excelled themselves there) but hopefully the biscuits will be acceptable.

73

John
G4RDC

A new FM repeater AMSAT satellite AO-91 has just been opened up for general use. Other than it being very popular and thus very busy in the early days, it sounds like it will be particularly easy to work, including from a handheld with a whip.

Downlink: 145.960

Uplink: 435.250 +/- Doppler

Tone: 67.0 Hz

John KG4AKV has put a great post up here with all the info.

Programming chart courtesy AMSAT UK:

Memory 1 (AOS) – Transmit 435.240 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), Receive 145.960 MHz

Memory 2 (Approaching) – Transmit 435.245 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), Receive 145.960 MHz

Memory 3 (TCA) – Transmit 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), Receive 145.960 MHz

Memory 4 (Departing) – Transmit 435.255 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), Receive 145.960 MHz

Memory 5 (LOS) – Transmit 435.260 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), Receive 145.960 MHz

Another series of SSTV transmissions from the International Space Station is under way, running throughout this weekend.

Listen out on 145.800 FM. A handheld up to a smartphone’s mic will yield fairly good results.

Passes below – though it’s not expected to be on for every orbit, just select orbits that favour Moscow.

A contact between the International Space Station and youngsters at Gilwell Park, north London, is scheduled for Tuesday 8 August (next week), as part of Youngsters on the Air 2017.

The youngsters will take part in a Q&A session with astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA, Flight Engineer of Expedition 52/53, lasting around 10 minutes.

The contact will be at 1838 UTC (that’s 1938 local time) on 2m FM, likely on the standard ARISS frequency of 145.800 MHz, and should be readily receivable using handheld Yagis, turnstiles, or even rubber duck antennas over the UK and northern Europe.

A simultaneous HamTV transmission is also planned, with live pictures from ISS coming down via DVB-S, streamed live via the BATC website.

Some more information provided by Southgate ARC here.

Many thanks to the ARISS team for once again coming together to make this event happen – we look forward to seeing the results.

For anyone into military radio, Patrick kindly pointed out that these Clansman SURF units are available quite cheaply on well know auction sites currently. It is essentially a variable bandpass filter I believe, designed for using VHF manpacks together in close proximity. It is a beautiful piece of engineering if slightly radioactive!

I love the worm drive – a variable capacitor and variable inductor is driven from the tuning knob via this drive.

Looks like new inside.

Sorry about the bright pink basket!!

We had some Clansman fun at the Barbecue – thanks John, Patrick and Alison for helping out – learnt a lot about the Clansman kit. The mast is a Clansman 5.4 metre with Clansman dipole (eventually set correctly for 60m!) and an elevated groud spike antenna on top for 4 metres.

Just some of the interesting items which were on show at the makers bazaar…

As of Friday 3rd February, a new GB3RD was put on air. It uses a similar type of base station but has new logic. The Repeater is now CTCSS only access so you will need to set an encode tone of 118.8Hz on your transceiver. The ident. is now by voice and occurs every 15 minutes.

The repeater is located on a farm and there are many potential sources of interference. To minimise these we have had a 3dB attenuator located in the antenna feeder. This has now been removed so the repeater should be 3dB (which isn’t much) stronger and also receive should benefit by the same amount. The implementation of full CTCSS should minimise potential interference.

Chris,

G4CCC. o/b/o Thames Valley Repeater Group.