We found conditions very hard going on the the higher bands 20/15/10m but also due to spending time calling CQ lost some most needed QSOs on the low bands.

Maybe 2010 can improve this.

You can find out more about making a donation at http://www.rsgb.org/defencefund/ and help this worthy cause.

ICOM IC9100 on Display

There was a good selection of stalls too at from clubs, to large manufactures showing off there latest and greatest radios like ICOMs IC9100 and Kenwoods new HF radio which hasn’t even got a model number yet! one impressive item on show was the Luso tower which could be purchased for a small £25,000 not sure any council would give planning for it though!

The impressive Luso Tower

You can see more photos on Paul (MoTZO)’s Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadget17/sets/72157622377568237/

]]> http://www.m3php.com/2009/10/03/national-hamfest/feed/ 0 http://www.m3php.com/2009/09/03/intermediate-exam-and-kit-building/ http://www.m3php.com/2009/09/03/intermediate-exam-and-kit-building/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:01:38 +0000 Peter http://www.m3php.com/?p=356 Last Thursday afternoon I was speaking to Paul (M0TZO) who aired the idea of me taking the intermediate exam at the RSGB Convention this October, at first I sort of shrugged at the idea but after 20mins came to the decision of might as well try it and sent an email to the RSGB asking to take the exam.

Yesterday I got a reply and the Candidate Application for Training Course & Examination form attached as a jpeg (would rather a PDF but never mind), today that was put in the post along with a cheque to cover the exam fee. So I’ve now 36 days study and to start/finish the practical elements of the training before the exam!

I started that bit this afternoon a while ago I ordered a Morse code generator kit via the internet, and it’s sat on my bookcase for about 9 months waiting to be made. Today though I sat down in the kitchen with the solder iron and actually built the thing!

First thing I did was solder on the negative lead for the power and the resistors which you can see below at first I was a little nervous never really being a kit builder but soon got the hang of it and started making reasonable progress.

Next step was the IC socket I was pretty worried, I’d end up soldering all the little pins together in one big mess but was pleasantly surprised that didn’t happen! The two polyester capacitors were then added just below it.

Onwards I moved nearing the end (Yay!) next up was soldering the variable resistor, electrolytic capacitor and the timer IC needed pushed in and speaker wires soldered on.

Once this was all done I connected up the battery and Morse key and to my delight everything worked first time when keying it made the right sounds so great hour spent, Only a few more bits to make and get signed off and keep at the training book and mock exams.

The end Product

With issues of privacy which completely baffles me as the Radio Society of Great Britain make the data available via a paperback yearbook and PW Publishing make a CD and supply it for a couple of pounds. and nearly every other country makes this data available look at USA (FCC) and Australia.

Then last week I got an email from Ofcom saying that they’ve decided to suspended further distribution of the callbook data, whilst they explore options with the Information Commissioner’s Office. This oddly enough came the same week the RSGB confronted Ofcom over license database publication due to breach of the Data Protection Act, if this is the case are the RSGB not also at fault? or is there some licence which makes them “OK”. Either way I think personally that it comes down to the fact that if its made available it would effect there profits with the yearbook and callseeker cd.

So the wait continues the actual programming side of http://www.callbook.org.uk is finished, its just missing data I am tempted to import the US FCC data and at least get the callbook live and allow others to add there details but that really wasn’t what I had planned to do.

Its rather frustrating that Ofcom supplied a method to apply for the data under strict licence then revoke it within a month. I’ll keep everyone posted to how things plan out I definitely will not be giving up and will get the site online as soon as I can without breaking any laws myself

But today it seemed different I was calling people and they were coming back to be and before I knew it I had a good few QSOs in the logbook. I’ll admit I didn’t decode any of the Morse myself I had software doing all the work but still had an enjoyable time giving away some points.

End results:

Total QSOs: 47
Total Time: 2 hours
Equipment: Yaesu FT950, 80m CW Special Windom and LDG AT200PRO auto atu.

I then took an hour out and had an interesting chat with Eric K3NA (more on that soon maybe), and finalised my short talk about DXAnywere for the Ham 2.0 session. it also allowed me to stock up on mugs of hot chocolate!

The next set of lectures was a double stream by Dom (M0BLF) on Ham 2.0 – sharing amateur radio information across the Internet. which gave an in sight to Web 2.0 and what it can offer amateur radio he also put in a couple of short presentations by Michael G7VJR on Club Log which is a tool for producing DXCC league tables, log search services and most-wanted lists for ham radio clubs and societies.

I then followed up with a short presentation about DXAnywhere which is a Social Media engine to provide features which include cluster notification, social networking and mini applications.

After this we returned to the bar for a short period to grab some lunch and a drink before getting ready for the afternoon lecture by John Gould G3WKL on Update on Countering Deliberate QRM, to finish up the weekend there was the final farewell from the RSGB President and the Raffle Draw. It was good to see it wasn’t fixed when Janet (2E0LLM) got called out (Well done Janet!!).

Which finally concluded a fantastic weekend yet again and very much looking forward to next year, was also nice to see a slightly larger turn out of young people!

First up was Lee (G0MTN) who started with the Joys of Contesting, covering why people contest and the types of contests which you can actually take part in, which we all know can vary by large amounts, for beginners it gave a good insight to what they might like to try first while they get interested.

Next up after a coffee break which at this venue was free and you could have as much tea, coffee, hot chocolate (my preference) as you like! so you could be nicely topped up throughout the day, was contest operating procedures by Roger (G3SWX) covering what to expect when operating and how to actually handle yourself on the air like not giving your callsign 10 times, he also covered operating as SO2R and that if you lose your run frequency because you QSY’d to the other radio you can’t expect to have it back.

At the end of this session I decided to take some time out, and prop up the bar for a while and socialise you could also check your email, twitter etc as there was free wifi covering the whole venue! after some lunch I returned back to the lectures Propagation by Steve G0KYA was insightful even though I’ve been licensed since 2002 I’m no expert at this subject he covered the basics of solar physics, explaining things like A and K indexes explaining that the geomagentic field A index is an average over 24 hours were as the K index shows a three hourly effect.

Steve then went on to explain what needs to be considered

• Solar Flux
• Geomagentic Disturbances
• Direction signals travel
• Time of day and year
• East west/North south polar
• Bands
• Path (long, short, hops)
• Working mults (important in some contests)

He also covered some of propagation prediction programs like W6EL Prop, VOA Cap and ACE HF explaining they use different algorithms and will normally display different results! but do offer a good guide on what to expect and can help plan what bands your going to use during the contest and when you should expect to work JA, USA etc.

Next session was on Antennas for contesting by Steve G3UFY, who covered antennas which UK gardens can cope like verticals and dipoles explaining what you should expect out of them. He also covered some of the larger antennas which most people dream of like large quads and beams! After this followed a 30minute break before going back to Contest Strategy by Dave (G4BUO).

Who covered what you should do before contest like sorting antennas and sleeping arrangements and food so you have a clear idea of what your going to be doing, he also covered during the contest giving tips like don’t check email, surf the web or even watch the telly! as this means your not 100% focused at the task at hand. Dave also covered post-contest like remembering to send your logs and make sure you correct your log so that its error free! He also said that’s it worth noting down some notes about the contest to help with next years (I do this with my blog!)

The final lecture I attended was Station Equipment & Layout by Paul (G6PZ) who has his on super station, Paul covered how you should layout your shack so that’s its ergonomically correct and comfortable like placing the monitor at eye height and the keyboard and mouse in front of it so you don’t have to stretch around to find them. He also went on to talking about what equipment you need for SO1R, SO2R and M/* style contest efforts and things you should make sure you have more so in a M/* style event so you don’t suffer from any problems.

At the end of the Contest Uni stream if you had attended more than 4 lectures you got issued a certificate to prove the fact which was a nice touch and gave you something to put on the shack wall.

The evening was taken up with socialising and the dinner, afterwards us youngsters hanged out in the bar drinking beer in till the small hours.

The rest of the day was also interesting at the AGM, although the open forum session in the afternoon proved very interesting to hear member’s views and getting answers from the board.

To finish off the evening we went for dinner with Iain M0PCB, Chloe (M0GEJ), Paul (M3JFM) and Terry (G0LUQ)