News
- Details
- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
- Hits: 374
This weekend is the superb Mills On The Air event. You may have seen from previous years (search for it here on the website) that we always have glorious weather guaranteed, and it's one of the best places on Earth to be on a sunny May weekend - but add a little radio fun into the mix and you'd be hard pushed to top it at any price.
We'll be there on the Saturday only this year. Please try to give us your support on site (these events always require membership support, so if you haven't told Stella of your intention to attend, then please do so ASAP, as planning is near impossible otherwise).
Hopefully we'll be in the grounds of Jill Mill itself, but if not we'll be in the public car park. You won't miss us, we'll have our radio trailer 'Arrow' in tow (literally) and a big old vertical antenna up. If the antenna is already up by the time you arrive, then you should have been there a bit earlier - those things are hard to manage in 40mph winds! (...sorry, definitely NO WINDS this Saturday).
Jill Mill is a lovely attraction in itself, and you can get hot drinks, cakes and other goodies from the mill shop in the base of the windmill on this special open weekend.
If you can't make it in person, then be sure to find our Special Event Station GB0JAJ on the bands and get yourself in the log. You can also check out the background to 'Mills' at the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).
Greetings and thanks also to the overall organisers of Mills On The Air, Denby Dale Amateur Radio Society.
- Details
- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
- Hits: 393
Another quick one from me.
I've been lucky enough to have a bona fide professional DPO (Data Protection Officer) look over the club's Privacy Policy this week, and they've identified an area that needed tightening up, which was to do with the identification of our Data Controllers and Data Processors. That I have now done, along with a basic review in advance of the latest legislation coming our way - the Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill, which is currently at the Committee Stage in the House of Commons. It's likely that something very similar to the currently proposed bill will eventually make it into law, so it's worth paying attention especially if you're a poor old Webmaster.
For those that are interested in such things (and it will significantly impact everyone's rights, not that many will even notice its implementation) there is an interesting briefing on what it might mean for large and small companies, individuals and data professionals here: https://www.ecase.co.uk/event/the-2023-dp-bill-what-it-means-for-dp-and-the-public-sector.
As far as club members are concerned, the club will deem the amended policy to have been accepted by each member if they have not raised their concerns within 14 days of today, 5th May 2023. You can read the updated policy here: Privacy Policy
If you made it this far, then well done!
Regards,
Berni M0XYF
- Details
- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
- Category: News
- Hits: 364
After the feast of DX in the first few months of the year, April has been relatively quiet.
Another bout of Chemo laid me low for a few days, then on recovery, all went wrong. The loop antenna feeder finally gave up the ghost and had to be renewed with the last of my stock of new 450 ohm.
Then, the computer threw its toys out of the pram! Now I’m no expert, but after nearly 20 years, why would my logging program suddenly decide to crash on boot-up? I tried everything in the book to get it working with no luck. I won’t go into all the details as I expect everyone has a different set up. I finally gave up & accepted that I had to ask for help.
I put a call out on a user group and received a barrage of good ideas (from New Zealand) most of which I had already tried. I gave an update on my lack of progress and then another ideas guy from France suggested a possible fix buried in Windoze. I went through this, step by painful step, and hey presto it works again. After a few more adjustments all is now OK. What surprised me was that as a result of our messages, many more sufferers came out of the shadows complaining of the same fault. Perhaps I was the only one to be brave (daft) enough to admit defeat. The fix has now been published in the help files for others to see.
Now back to radio - what radio? It seems we were hit by a massive coronal discharge that not only gave us pretty Aurora to look at but virtually killed all propagation.
While waiting for conditions to improve, I did an analysis of my log to see which of the “most wanted” I had worked using only my delta loop. Not surprisingly all the top ones are still on my wanted list, but once I get to No 14 (ZS8) then they appear thick & fast, 17 (PY0T), 18 (KP5), and 23 (EZ). Both 14 and 23 were a result of a chat on a quiet band not just a “59 next” in a pileup.
Now we are getting toward the middle of the year fresh pickings are becoming fewer, however those of us who have beams are able to pick off the ones I can only just hear in the noise. Now I really wish I had my tri-bander on the top of the tower rather than keeping dry in the garage! Unfortunately, I am now unable to do anything about it, as the XYL has banned me from ladders with more than 3 steps.
So to round off the month, conditions remain poor but another half dozen in the bag for the year and 8 new islands to add to the total.
73s till next month
Chris
- Details
- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
- Hits: 444
Please don't forget to join our new Facebook Group page @
https://www.facebook.com/groups/midsussexars
or do it the QR code way
- Details
- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
- Hits: 512
From the RSGB...
hi-impact, based on the Wirral, is planning another high-altitude balloon launch.
This one will feature on the team’s live-stream platform and be viewed by a number of schools across the UK and beyond.
The team is planning to launch two high-altitude balloons. One will be running with a HABDuino and the other with some help from AmbaSat, using LoRA. The HABDuino side will be running on the standard setup - 434.650MHz USB, 50 Baud RTTY, 450Hz Shift, 7N1 data format and with the callsign ‘hi-impact’.
If you’re planning to upload telemetry to SondeHub, you’ll need Dave Akerman’s HABBase software and Fldigi. The launch, from Cilcewydd in Wales, will be between 11 and 11.15am on Wednesday 3 May.
More information can be found on hi-impact’s Facebook page and on Twitter via @hiimpactconsult
