News
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
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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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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
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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
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
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A fantastic new experimental ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Addressing and Reporting System) plugin has been released for SDRplay's SDRuno package, and it's really very interesting. If you thought ADSB was cool, try pairing it with ACARS. With FlightRadar24 alongside, you can know more about any given aircraft than the pilots. I watched real-time as the nose-wheel fell off an Airbus A320-214 on approach to Lisbon!
OK, so I made that bit up, but you can download the plugin from Github here: https://github.com/JvanKatwijk/unoPlugins-jan
Just hit the Code button, then Download Zip and install into the standard SDRuno Community Plugins folder, wherever you configured that to be.
Many thanks to Jvan Katwijk for this excellent piece of work.
If you want or need more help with this, then check out the equally professional Tech Minds YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/E391Z8mb6kk
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
- Category: News
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Just a quick one - I've added a module in the right hand sidebar (on most pages, but not all) where you can type in a callsign and hit enter to look it up on QRZ. I thought it might be handy in certain situations. You have to be logged in to QRZ if you want the additional details etc. so it depends on how often you clear your cookies etc. but I hope you find it useful.
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Alex M0TOT
- Category: News
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I have recently bought a NanoVNA-F V2 Portable to replace my miniVNA - originally marketed by miniRadio Solutions (Mrs).
The latter was supported by Dietmar Krause DL2SBA for many years. However, he recently gave up his role of development and support for this range of VNAs via his website dl2sba.com. It is now no longer possible to download the software for the miniVNA from this site, although I still have the most recent upgrade on my PC. This VNA was a useful piece of equipment with a variety of different graphical outputs and was easy to use.
In the past, the following website has proved useful with the miniVNA in determining the characteristics of impedance of ferrite and iron-powder cores, filters and coils etc. I expect it could also be used with the NanoVNA, although I have not tried it out:
https://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/frank_radio_coax-sw.htm
Whereas the miniVNA covered analysis from 0.1 to 180MHz, the NanoVNA-F V2, supplied by SYSJOINT Information Technology Co. Ltd. covers 50kHz to 3GHz.
There is a user group: NanoVNA V2 Forum and you can download the manual here: 
This is as much as I can say at the moment, until I have spent more time using it. Hopefully other people will come along and share their experiences.
Regards
Alex Henderson M0TOT
