At the RSGB Convention I went to a well attended talk by Mike Richards, G4WNC on Ham Radio and the Raspberry Pi (RPi). He started by asking how many people had a RPi…about two thirds of the room put up their hand. He then asked how many people had a RPi actually doing something…just a […]
Kamal Singh (M0IOV) gave a passionate and thought provoking presentation entitled “The future and growth of Amateur Radio” in which he proposed that, as a hobby group, we are no longer relevant. He blamed our lack of relevancy, not on the internet, but on the 3rd Industrial Revolution; the move to Digital. He highlighted that […]
EA4GKY Keys While wasting valuable operating time reading the funny things Ham’s have to say on Twitter I came across Alberto (EA3GKY) a new (to me anyway) CW Key maker (Alberkeys). He had some great straight keys and paddles so I wasted no time dropping him an email and putting my name on the list […]
SOTA is most enjoyable in the Summer…ask any activator! With that in mind I took the opportunity to add a few points to my activators cache by heading over to South Wales and two good hills within walking distance of each other, Pen y Fan (GW/SW-001) & Fan Fawr (GW/SW-005). The pair made for a […]
We had a sneaky week off before the main school holidays get started and took the dogs to the Pembrokeshire coast. I took the satellite gear and worked a few passes of SO-50 but also took the opportunity to meet up with Richard GW1JFV to climb and operate the local summit of Foel Cwmcerwyn (GW/MW-011).On […]
WSPR analysis of an EFHW and a DipoleWith only a little time for radio this month I decided to use the excellent WSPRlite from SOTABeams to compare my two staple SOTA (portable) aerials; the 3 band linked dipole and 3 band End Fed Half Wave (EFHW) (which uses SOTABeams pico traps rather than links). I achieved […]
MTR4BI was very fortunate to receive an early version of the LNR Precision MTR4B (Mountain Topper Radio) which is available in the UK & Europe fromDennis at Kanga UK. The MTRs are a pretty amazing family of radios and the MTR4B is a four band version that introduces 80m as standard along with simpler band switching, […]
SatellitesI finally put some effort into working out how to operate through satellites starting with the nice and easy FM sat, SO-50. I treated myself to an Arrow hand held 2m/70cm crossed yagi aerial and connected it up to a Yaesu VX-6 hand held which I pre-programmed using 7 discrete frequencies to receive the satellite […]
I’d been watching the weather forecast for most of March waiting for a few days of good weather to attempt a triple SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation in Snowdonia and, on 24th March 2017 I saw a gap in the weather that looked perfect for a flying visit. AccommodationI drove from Berkshire to Beddgelert on […]
It’s been a bit of a SOTA extravaganza this month starting with a cheeky activation of my local summit (G/SE-001 Walbury Hill) to record a video of a CW SOTA activation using the MTR5B and EFHW. At the end of February I took my annual pilgrimage with James, M0JCQ to the English / Welsh borders […]