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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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A Quick Round-Up of This Evening at the Hall
Loads of quick bits and bobs to pass on, none of them too waffley, I promise.
A huge turnout of people, which was brilliant to see. Several new faces (to me at least) and a real buzz about the place. Even better, most people were clutching laptops, phones, iPads and tablets. I guess most of that hardware was Windows-based, and everyone seemed to be successfully running the Flex software and accessing either the MSARS or Worthing club radios - maybe others too.
Really happy to see that. So many people running SmartSDR in one place! Couldn't believe it really. That absolutely justifies the acquisition of the Flex radio to me. Even if the number of actual users doesn't immediately shoot up, there is clearly a significant level of interest and I'm sure that eventually, there will be far greater patronage as people get properly comfortable with it.
I wasn't planning to do a 'talk', but you know what happens when I get yapping. I hope everyone got a little something out of it.
Towards the end of the evening, I sneaked into the shack, and together with Phil and Merv, managed to clip-on around a dozen cheap Chinese ferrites I picked up off eBay this week. Alan also dug out and re-connected the shack mains filter (I didn't know there was one in there!) which will do no harm at all. It still needs a darn good tidy up back there, but I think that all the common sense shack housekeeping measures are now in place.
Testing Update
As soon as I arrived home, I grabbed some dinner and was straight on the Flex to see what effect all that ferrite material had made.
As it's the issue that's been keeping me off the club radio since before Christmas, I fired up some FT8, and over a period of about half an hour, gradually dialled the power output up to around 65W - and no blown fuses! Have we finally fixed it? Maybe we have :) If you're going to use full-duty cycle digital modes, please be kind to the radio and keep it under 70w.
Then I tried some tests on the KiwiSDR. It had automatically performed a firmware upgrade when we power-cycled it, but it came through that OK, and I can confirm for sure that it's now far less troubled by RF from the Flex than at any time since it was installed. Less in fact than when it was installed here at my home QTH. Way less overloading and it displays a much more civilised output from the Flex on the waterfall, except when you're really booting it.
So then I tried the Flex for it's audio output level and quality. Wow, what a difference. It's now possible to turn the mic gain up quite a bit more, and even turn on the Processor (at any of the three levels) and still project an acceptable audio profile. Of course, you can still overdo it, but when used in moderation you can have it sounding pretty good with compression turned on. The other upside to that of course, is that you can obviously stuff much more power into the envelope. Very happy with that result, but will reserve final judgement until we've hijacked a few of Ken's nets with it and obtained a lot more reports. Who would have thought that a bit of stray RF could have so many negative effects? OK, most of you experienced guys, and to be fair, I think it was more than a little bit of RF.
By the way, for those who expressed an interest in running digital modes remotely on the Flex, this is the YouTube video I mentioned.
It explains the basic configuration far better than I can. You'll have to set up your own COM port and data port definitions, as they'll differ from machine to machine. Shout me if you get stuck.
That's it for now, catch you all again soon... and great to see Russell tonight too. Hope you're finally feeling better. We were getting worried about you.
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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I'm pretty sure that Phil won't be shouting this from the rooftops, as it's only a bit of fun after all, but I think it's worth a mention. I found it challenging enough getting to 10 FT8 QSOs (it's harder than it sounds!) but Phil managed 105 SSB and CW QSOs during December, and picked up a Silver Award as well as making it over the 'Ton' and getting on the overall leaderboard. Well done mate.
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- Written by: Ken Gibson
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As is customary, I am presenting my analysis of the Club’s HF nets for the year now ended for your consideration. By the end of 2022 the new cycle had begun to become favourable allowing the HF bands to gradually open for traffic.
I made the change from 20m back to 15m on the 8th January 2022 anticipating that 15m (where we started up so many years ago) would allow us to hold a regular net without too much QRM and this has proved to be the case so - I cut down my 20m loop to make a new 15m square quad loop with vertical polarisation and this has proved to be about as good as a simple wire antenna can be.
My findings on the two HF nets for the past year are as follows:
The Sunday Morning 80m Net (from 8:00 clock time on 3.742 MHz +/-)
14 MSARS members took part, 3 less than in the previous year and 13 non-members joined in, just one less than in 2021. Alain F4GHB was a very welcome participant again and Bob, N4XAT tells me that he heard us via an SDR once or twice even at that time of the morning!
Sean and I completed another year celebrating our 2000th contact on the 20th February when we were joined by 11 others for a 13-member net on that occasion. Our latest total is now at 2040 having completed another 47 contacts last year (well he did go to Friedrichshafen so missed a couple of weekends). We have had a couple of face-to-face meetings and plan to continue our weekend chats on Sunday mornings for the rest of the year at least.
Several of our members took advantage of the remote working facility now available to us, Phil ‘UDU calling in from Portugal one morning using the Cyprus Hall Flex radio and we also had contacts using the Worthing remote several times.
The Weekday Lunchtime 15m Net (13:30 clock time on 21.345 MHz +/-)
A fall off in attendance this year since only 18 MSARS members called in compared with 21 in 2021, but as predicted in last year’s review the new antennas were built and installed during the year allowing members to access the Cyprus Hall facilities and call into the lunchtime nets from a variety of different localities. Phil G4UDU called in from CT1 using the new remote mode and Steve GJ6WRI also contacted us from his home in Jersey and Norway using a LA prefix. Dick G0LFF used several locations mobile and /M during the year as did Mervyn M0WVE.
49 non-members joined in compared to 34 the previous year now that the band conditions have improved, amongst them of course being David WB1EAD and Barry SA7GDB now both very regular. We also had three callers from the Ukraine showing how amateur radio transcends all boundaries.
We had a surprise when G4KEI Chris Gaston reappeared after years off the air. Chris, who some of you may remember as G8FBR was a friend of Tony Bailey G3WPO and was a member of MSARS from 1970 until 1982. Welcome back Chris, I hope we can hear more of you soon.
The new Digital modes would seem to be keeping some members from joining us on the HF nets but the VHF and HY nets continue to flourish. After all, it really does not matter which mode you use as long as you keep in touch with other MSARS members and read the website regularly to keep in touch.
Finally, I would like to put on record my grateful thanks to Bernie M0XYF and Phil G4UDU who have spent so much time and effort into designing, constructing, and installing the Flex radio and the new antennas at Cyprus Hall and continuing to improve these to the benefit of all of us. Bernie has also masterminded the website in his spare time. We are lucky to have members so talented who give so readily of their talents.
Me, I’m getting older day by day but will continue to run the old-fashioned steam radio HF nets for as long as I can. Remember, as I have said before, MSARS is your Radio Club and it’s all about antennas.
73, Ken G3WYN
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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Firstly, happy New Year to everybody. I hope you don't get up to too much mischief this evening.
I also wanted to wish a particularly warm welcome to the new members that have decided to join our ranks this year. We're very glad you've chosen to do so.
I know that some of you may live a little further afield, but we'll be pleased to catch up with you at the clubhouse on any night we're open (please see our calendar page for details) or if you choose to join in with any of our radio or zoom nets. We have various other outdoor activities and events running throughout the year as well. As with all small clubs, the more you put in, the more you get out.
I hope your experience of the website was positive, and that you found the membership application process easy to navigate. I'm always open to feedback on both of those fronts.
And finally from me in 2022, I noticed that yesterday we hit full capacity on the KiwiSDR, with all eight available slots filled. I'm really glad it's getting used on a daily basis, and is available for use by anyone who wants to try it out. If you're reading this and haven't given it a go, just click the banner on the homepage - no installation required.
Regards and 73
Berni M0XYF
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Just a quick note from me to thank everyone who played their part in supporting the club (and my own endeavours) once again this year.
2022 seemed hard work at times, but also enjoyable, and it was encouraging to see everyone pulling together to advance the club in several significant areas.
I'm sure 2023 will bring yet more challenges, and we will meet them all head-on. Don't think that things will stand still next year either. There are plans to further upgrade and enhance our facilities and equipment, and some very interesting possibilities will emerge for all our members - including a potential window of opportunity for some of our Foundation members.
Sign up for 2023 to find out more, and watch our progress as we continue to expand our horizons and take on new challenges.
Happy Christmas to all of you, and I wish you all good health and a sprinkling of joy over the holiday period.
73
Berni M0XYF
