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It has been interesting hearing from various people who have logged into the test setup of the KiwiSDR I've got running here at my home QTH.
I've just finished configuring it all and bolting it into it's permanent enclosure etc. and will be writing a whole series of articles on the process from start to finish. I'm really encouraged so far by the positive reception (no pun intended) it's received, so that's all good stuff.
You'll all just have to be a little bit patient on that front though, as well as on the results of testing various receive antennas, as my focus is now on preparations for this weekend's festivities at St. Johns' Park. As a quick aside, several of us had a very good Zoom meeting last night to finalise practicalities for the Burgess Hill Summer Fair, and I can promise you that it's going to be impressive. Massive thanks to Peter, Merv, Chris and Phil without whom this would not be happening.
Anyway, returning to the subject in hand, the SDR required much problem solving and head-scratching, and entailed a long session working with the KiwiSDR developers to resolve some show-stopping technical issues. I'd like to say at this point that they were astonishingly helpful and it was actually really good fun. I love it when tech doesn't work, and if that makes me weird, then so be it!
After getting over the software build issues (the Kiwi software, based on Debian 8, is dynamically built on the device rather than just installing binaries, which is interesting and I'm glad they've stuck with this method) everything went very smoothly. The KiwiSDR community is one of the best I've come across. It's supposed to be a proper hardware/software project after all, and not just something that you pick up in town with your bread and milk.
It took some quite extensive back-end configuration once built, and I'll be covering all that in a future article too, but I'd like to thank Chris M7VJE who has been doing a little bit of beta testing for me. More tuning will be required over time, no doubt.
I've 'branded' all this as MSARS, because that's obviously what I want to achieve, but at the moment it's all self-funded and set up at home. To facilitate testing, I have it connected to my main EFHW antenna, and so I've been sitting in the comfort of my lounge and monitoring the bands - MSARS nets in particular. For that reason, and also because I now have no transmit antenna, I wasn't able to reply to Ken when he was calling me earlier today!
I definitely agree with Dick G0LFF though, that we ultimately want to locate a receive antenna in a new very RF-quiet location with mains power and good (10mbps uplink) broadband. Anyone got any ideas or contacts? Get your thinking caps on, because that's where radio reception is going to have to happen in the near future. Peter tells me that there are often S9 noise levels in the club shack.
Anyway, lots more to come from me soon, but for now, see you all on Sunday!
Berni M0XYF
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Town Day is nearly upon us - in fact it's THIS SUNDAY 19th June at St. Johns Park in Burgess Hill, and once again the club are represented with our own pitch. This year is going to be a little bit different. We're going with less comfort and more technology.
It sounds pretty exciting considering it's almost been thrown together in a few days. Gone is the Club's operating trailer, gone is the heavy-duty Clarke mast and guy wires and gone is the G5RV. With less members committing to attend, and more paperwork and safety stuff to worry about than ever before, we're going relatively lightweight but with a strong emphasis on high-tech visuals and graphic displays. Laptops, SDR's, hotspots and large computer monitors will be in evidence, and we won't be doing that much operating - this is not just a jolly day out for us - we'll be trying to hook unsuspecting members of the public into the world of modern radio communications.
Alan and Stella have printed out some full-colour RSGB leaflets, and several members will be bringing their own hardware and software, antennas, event shelters, generators and sun-screen, because it looks like we're going to need it. What we could also do with is a couple of extra folding tables and a few more smiling amateurs to make the whole thing really convincing, so PLEASE come and support us if at all possible on Sunday 19th June from around 10:00am until we pack up at just after 15:00.
This is absolutely the best opportunity of the year for us to promote amateur radio to the general public. If you care about the future of the Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Society, you'll be there at some point during the day.
Here is a not-to-scale layout of the park, showing where all the relevant pitches will be, including ours marked 'C':
Our on-site location is not dissimilar to previous years, which means we may well be able to make use of a nearby tree to help elevate an antenna wire or two, which is handy.
Talking of which, although the famous G5RV antenna won't be on-site, excitingly the callsign will most definitely be in use, and it'll be going digital for the first time ever!
Can you imagine the pileup on FT8? No, neither can we, so we'll press some buttons and see what happens. We've also registered the Special Event Station callsign GB1BH for the day.
Please support us if you can, and bring your family for the 2022 return of the Burgess Hill Summer Fair.
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A fair few members congregated at Jack & Jill Windmills public car park last Friday evening to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the formation of Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Society.
Those that got there early (I think I was there at around 18:45) enjoyed some early evening warmth from the sun, but as the evening crept on, caps and hoods were increasingly donned and collars turned up against the chilly wind. Maybe a dozen of us were present, and it was nice to see a couple of other interested folks who turned up to chat and admire the views. Bob N4XAT also joined us via a video app. on Dicks phone, which was excellent, and we all had a turn chatting to him. It was obvious that he would dearly have loved to have been up there with us in person.
Merv M0WVE had bought his little Tarheel which was mounted on a tripod. He had succumbed to the overwhelming truth; that the path of least resistance is to control your radio and squirt some data back and forth with a Windows laptop and a USB soundcard. Yet still it was not straightforward, and we all stood around pointing and shouting at various Control Panel options before finally shuffling away in defeat. I suppose we really should have checked that the radio audio input and output cables were connected round the right way. Never mind. I'm sure it will all be sorted for Town Day on Sunday.
I got to the car park early because I wanted to do some more testing on the wee Amphenol Procom wideband antenna currently on loan from Phil G4UDU. I'm testing a number of options for consideration as a 'fit and forget' receive-only antenna for Cyprus Hall such that we can run WebSDR's and the like from the club shack. I'll produce an article on how that's going soon, but suffice to say for now that it performed remarkably well up on the Downs. Unfortunately, at home it happily pre-amplified more spurious noise than you can shake a stick at. My next testing location is going to be the public car park behind Cyprus Hall. That will be pretty telling I think. Lets hope I don't get arrested for hacking again.
Anyway, a pleasant evening was had, even though I seemed to be the only one observing the shorts-and-T-shirt dress code. I can see that next year we'll have to have bouncers on the gate.
73's
Berni M0XYF
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This Friday 10th June 2022, we celebrate 56 years of our society. Come along and share in both our amazing history and our exciting plans for the future.
It would be really nice to see some interested non-members turning up as well, in one of the most beautiful places in Sussex. Maybe some ex-members too? Come on... how about it? You'll be made to feel very welcome.
You can see more details of the event on our Calendar, here: https://midsussexars.org.uk/calendar/eventdetail/61/-/msars-birthday-party
For old times sake, here is a copy of the minutes from that first ever committee meeting:
And for those struggling to read it, my best attempt at a transcription, including original typos.
Result of inaugral meeting 15/6/66
Meetings
To be fortnightly, 1st & 3rd Weds ea month.
To start straight away, without any breaks. First 2 - 6th & 20th of July at G3PEQ.
Newsletter
Discussed - agreed not necessary yet, to start when need arises. Any odd absent members to be kept in touch by the sec.
Title
In abeyance for consideration later.
Possibles
Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Club (Society)
Southdown Amateur Radio " "
Programme
Not too keen on formal lectures, but one meeting per month devoted to this, with the other strictly informal.
The feeling at present is that we use our own resources & entertain ourselves.
Morse classes
To be included in the 'informals' at least, preferably in both meetings with weekly instruction by individuals & recorders.
This to be arranged.
Formation of club
Decision unanimous to form one.
Officers
| Chairman | M. Brown | 3BZO | |
| Sec. | E. Letts | 3RXJ | |
| Treas | P. Tony | ||
| Committee | A Campbell | 3PEQ | |
| B. Walker | |||
| D. Dawson | 3AJE | ||
| Bennett | 3VAB |
Agreed 7 comittee, 5 to be a quorum.
Subscription
£1 annual suggested - seems agreed, but is dependant on...
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Wow, what a mouthful.
Back in 2010, Ofcom approved a request from Media Sound Holdings to share programming across all four of its recently acquired broadcast radio stations. These stations were the former Bright FM, which served Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Lewes, Splash FM which was Worthing based, Arrow FM which was based in Hastings and Sovereign FM which covered the Eastbourne area. These stations were re-branded as More Radio, with the ex-Bright FM station being known as More Radio Mid Sussex.
Now, we hear that from June 1st 2022, Burgess Hill Radio, which is rather unsurprisingly located in Burgess Hill, has changed its name to Mid Sussex Radio.
Thank goodness there isn't any confusion with Mid Sussex Amateur Radio Society in Burgess Hill.
Come on guys, we've had our name for over 50 years - pick your own bloomin' name and leave ours alone!
Google is going to have a meltdown.
#MoreRadio
#MidSussexRadio
#MidSussexAmateurRadio
