31 Jan 2020 – I can hear it, why can’t I decode it?

This evening’s programme was meant to follow the live demo of FT8, however, since the person giving the demo was called away, the demo will be moved to another evening.  All of which means this evening’s planned programme needs to be held over till we have seen the demo. To that end, the assembled group of members decided to watch another video instead.

Unfortunately, the video which looked to be the most interesting, turned out to be less than expected. The presenter held up various items which we couldn’t make out and there was never a description.  Most of the presentation was two views side by side on the screen of which the view with the technical details were presented in lettering too small to read from the second row in the auditorium. There were some questions as to the validity of the earthing system being proposed as the best to use in the shack.  All in all, a bit of a disappointment.

23 Jan 2020 – Construction Contest

Members are the Judges

It’s always amazing what members have been working on during the past year and enter in the Annual Construction Contest.  A good turnout for the evening provided the judging panel and the winners were:

Novice: (a class for any member’s first entry into this contest) was won by Rob, M0IXM with his submission of a touch sensitive CW key using surface mount components.

Rob’s touch sensitive key

The Weekend Special: was won by Don, G4LOO who made a Test Jig to enable testing of the pin in and out of the Racal amp control boards he wanted use in another project.

Don’s Test Jig

The Kit class was won by Alan, G4PSO who submitted a QRP Lab QCX CW transceiver.

QCX QRP Kit built by Alan, G4PSO

The Major Project was won by Don, G4LOO with a truly ‘Major’ project, A 500w 1296MHz Linear Amplifier.

Don’s 1296MHz Linear

The cups and plaques will be awarded at this year AGM on the 19th of March.

16 Jan 2020 – A change to advertised programme…

Since our speaker had been unexpectedly called away, the promised FT8 demo will be given at a later date. To help members know what they will be looking at, it was decided to have an evening introduction to finding and installing the programme, as well as a look at what is being displayed and how you might set it up.

9 Jan 2020 – Welcome Back

In spite of the wet and cold weather, a good turnout attended the club’s first meeting after the holiday recess. Members sat with chairs in a circle and had a general discussion ending with detailed info on separate RF earthing and how that can impact the radio shack that’s using the PME system.