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The May dates for Mills on the Air 2023 have shifted by a week, so please take note. In fact the actual dates haven't changed, it's just that our calendar was wrong!
Apparently, some chap is being fitted for a new hat the week before, so the correct dates for Mills 2023 are the 13th and 14th of May, with equipment loading on the Friday evening of the 12th - which is handy, as that is a regular club night, so there will be plenty of willing muscle on hand. We hope!
Please support MSARS Mills this year. It was really disappointing to have to run an unofficial event last year, but we'll do it again if we don't get members' support!
Berni M0XYF
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AI is truly the hot topic right now, but the breakthroughs just keep on coming. I've been looking at some of the free and paid-for options recently, including the headline-grabbing DALL.E-2 and the promise of Google's Muse along with several others. Some of these tools are completely free to use online and are incredibly straightforward to configure. The latest ones can clearly do an awful lot more than photo restoration, but when Dick G0LFF sent me a few photos the other day, I thought I'd put one of those engines to good use.
Anybody recognise these fellas?
Yeah, OK - not too tricky for some of you, but how much better is this version?
Admittedly those curtains are beyond help, but why not try running some of your grainy old photos through an AI image engine? This technology is just getting better and better, and at a frightening rate of knots.
Dick also sent me a handful of photos from his time in Antarctica, which I've posted in the members section, so log in and check those out if you get a chance.
Berni M0XYF
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Bob N4XAT has kindly forwarded this video of a visit he made to Amberley Museum, including their 'Radio & Television Collection'.
They also have a working amateur radio station to this day and the museum makes a great day out for anyone - especially in the good weather. Several of our members have had a connection with the museum in one way of another over the years, and so it's wholly appropriate to post this video of still photographs on the MSARS club website.
Click the icon below to download/stream it. It's around 86MB and has a runtime of just under three minutes.
Berni M0XYF
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There was another net running on our usual frequency of 145.350MHz on Sunday morning, so I took it upon myself to put a quick call out to MSARS members to QSY to 145.375MHz, which was clear. There I caught up with Phil M5BTB, and we had an interesting chat for 50 minutes or so. Sadly nobody else joined, despite a few excursions back to 350 to redirect any lost souls.
I'd just like to say to everyone, that if you don't hear a net running on 350, have a tune around the band - we'll likely be on an adjacent frequency! Not so easy to spot if you don't have a waterfall available for 2m, but just try twiddling the VFO knob, like we used to do in the olden days 🙃
Anyway, a bit of fun, though not the half-a-dozen or more members I was hoping for. Please try and join us again next week if you can.
Berni M0XYF
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Sorry, I don't have one, officially.
I believe the 'plan' was for the CHCA to call me once the line had been re-activated to go and make whatever changes were required. I didn't hear anything.
Here is some of what I worked out for myself.
Yes, the ISP switch went ahead OK, and the new router appears to be the standard Vodafone WiFi unit.
I checked the Flex and the eWeLink app late last night, and all is working fine. The KiwiSDR won't work until I make the internal router changes, which I may be able to get done on Friday evening. The hall WiFi is up and running, which is good news.
Until the Kiwi is sorted, I'll run an alternate WebSDR from the west tower of my Sussex mansion as an option for you all.
Update to the update
Friday night saw the KiwiSDR back-end updated, new firmware flashed, a new short coax link-cable installed, the hall network reconfigured and the website homepage banner reset to the Kiwi URL. Phil installed a new and improved Flex antenna relay, so this will now work again from the app. A big batch of QSL cards were signed from Town Day last year, a spot of high-level Flex training was completed (nice to meet a few new faces at the club - and very glad to have some fresh input and opinions on-board at MSARS) and there was even time for a cup of tea. I haven't sent or received a paper QSL card since the bad old days of the '80s, when nobody gave the state of the environment a second thought.
Wonderful to see a photo of Chris M7VJE's brand spanking new granddaughter Mary. How cute! Congratulations.
Loads of people in attendance tonight - if you weren't one of them, then you missed out on a lively night. Get yourself along there next time.
Berni M0XYF
