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- Written by: Ken Gibson
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Those of you who are considering installing a new antenna now that the new cycle is underway might like to look at the website of the University of Sussex G4AQC for a few ideas for your back garden 
No wonder that the University station is a really big signal when they are working contests!
[Webmaster: I'd like to put a link in here, but their webmaster is asleep on the job, and they have no security certificate in place - so just search for 'Amateur Radio Society G4AQG']
They are also mentioned in an article in Decembers Radcom dealing with EMC. The article points out that the University's 850 feet Beverage antennas are suffering from RFI on top band emanating from the substation at Twineham near Bolney which feeds the 150kV output from the offshore wind farms which come ashore near Worthing and are buried underground to Bolney where it is transformed into 400kV to feed the National Grid. Kim will probably know all about that but it was news to me.
As I think I've said before, it's all about antennas!
Ken G3WYN
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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The lunchtime net today was kind of crazy. I tried to hop onto the back-end, but couldn't get my foot in the door. Really weird conditions, with Barry SA7GDB suddenly coming in stronger than anyone else on the frequency (except Peter obviously!)
Barry was landing here in the northern reaches of Burgess Hill at S9+40 and crystal audio like he was on the other side of the road. Never actually heard his voice properly before, always too weak to discern any real tonality. From around 13:40 GMT until the end of the net at around 14:10 GMT it remained the same. Everyone could hear Russell, and well, basically everyone could hear everyone else. It was quite exciting! I could hear Bob and David despite the S7 noise level I experience here at home.
Given that, I thought I'd do a bit of late-night data hurling. At 1am 40M was buzzing. 80M doesn't tune very well on my antenna, but I managed to get a little bit of business done, and then I thought I'd have a listen on 160M to see if it was open. Not sure why, but I then decided to try and get enough of a tune on my 40M EFHW to put out a handful of watts. I've never transmitted on top band before but to my amazement, if I truly wrang the neck of my manual tuner, I could get 50W down the coax without too much buttock-clenching - far more comfortable than on 80M in fact.
So, a first for me - top-band QSOs! Very happy with that. Not sure why I didn't try it sooner. You live and learn as they say. In my case, a lot!
Click the image to enlarge.
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Richard G0LFF
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An appetizer to John's lecture this coming Friday.
I have worked many many stations via the aurora on 2, 4 & 6m from Burgess Hill. It does require a yagi antenna to aim at a hot-spot on the auroral curtain and some power, TX has to be slow as the reflected signals are very distorted and ghostly sounding.
Visually you will not see the aurora anything like in photos - cameras 'see' a lot lot more, it is a diffused and opaque light needing a good 10-15 minutes for our eyes to adjust well away from any light pollution.
The clip is from my Hurtigruten cruise from Bergen right up to and round the North Cape to the Russian border where I did a ceremonial walk through the Russian border gate. Phil G4UDU did the same cruise a year later, and not to be out-done Jane McDonald followed for her Christmas series on TV. Enjoy and hope you get the call-sign of the station calling CQ Aurora :)
Make sure your sound is turned on!
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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After seeing Alan's article on amateur radio direction finding on the MSARS website, our friend Nick Bradley G4IWO from Denby Dale ARS invited him to give a talk on one of their regular Wednesday evening Zoom presentations.
DDARS have built up an impressive back-catalogue of such talks, of which Alan's is just the latest. It's an interesting watch, and Alan did a great job of representing our little group with his specialist knowledge.
A link to the video can be found on our Videos page.
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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For those that wish to move onwards and upwards from the Foundation level licence, applications are now open for what is probably regarded as the best distance learning course in the country.
Co-hosted and managed by training supremo Steve Hartley G0FUW, the Bath-Based Distance Learning (BBDL) course is bang up to date with the latest syllabus and RSGB training manual and available places will probably be snatched up within a few days. So if you're an M3, M6 or M7 and aspire to be a 2E0, then you should definitely be one of those early applicants.
The MSARS training programme hasn't been formally restarted as yet after the pandemic, but there are several club members who would be only too willing to help and support any other club member who wants to reach the Intermediate level. Training has always been something the club has excelled at, and we definitely want to get back to that as soon as possible.
The Bath-Based Distance Learning course for Intermediate level will run from January to May 2022.
The closing date is 15 December 2021.
All applicants must complete some pre-course work using BBDL systems.
A Full licence course will run from August to December 2022.
More information is available from
