One rally at Weston-S-M on 18th Sept and another in Chippenham on the 25th Sept. Details available from the RSGB site: http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/
Two external events coming up in our locality
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Category Archives: News
Congratulations
Today we had three candidates taking the Foundation and Intermediate tests. All three candidates passed.
Congratulations gentlemen.
The photo above shows Rex (G4RAE), Ron , Mark (Intermediate pass M6KMJ), Peter (Intermediate pass M6KVA), Ron (Foundation pass), Peter (G4OST) and Paul (M0ZMB).
Thanks go to Ron and Rex for invigilating also to the Woodhouse Park Amateur Radio Group for providing the space.
Paul
M0ZMB
Cable Access Kit AKA Hexbeam parts
Some members are building Hexbeams out of the cable access kits to be found at Aldi this month. Knowing that the Thornbury Aldi only had 6 packs left I went to the Bradley Stoke store to find they have approx. 30 left. So anyone wanting them get yourself down to Bradley Stoke.
Paul
M0ZMB
2017 calendar
The Chantry are looking to book the rooms for 2017 and have asked for dates we DO NOT require the room I have suggested the 7th June, mob FH, 5th July ped FH and 27th December between Christmas and New Year, is this OK
Stan
Hosting migration
I’ve had a busy afternoon migrating this website from a server of my own to a hosting service funded by the club. Its taken a few hours as there where a few problems but it now seems to be working albeit a little more slowly. 🙂 If you do notice anything strange please drop me an email.
As part of the migration we can now have club email addresses. I have created role based ones for the committee (e.g. chairman @ tsgarc.uk etc) [remove the spaces] and can do so for any member requiring a club email address. If you would like one, please let me know.
Andrew
G0RVM
Racal frequency counter-timer seen for sale
I have seen a Racal type frequency counter-timer instrument for sale in South Glos for about £30. If anyone is interested, let me know. Generic details on the following web page. The same vendor is also offering some adjustable 30V 2A regulated PSUs: http://ijl.mbnet.fi/racal_9903.html
Transmission Lines
Steven Ring M0SVR delivered a technical talk on the theory and practical uses of radio transmission lines. This was followed by a practical session where simple home-made test equipment was used to measure the characteristic impedance (Zo) of several readily available types of cables. The cable test set-up used is illustrated in the picture. This exploits the use of a quarter-wave length of cable to transform the impedance at the right hand end down to 50 Ohms at the left hand end of the cable under test shown in the picture. A 50 Ohm impedance measurement bridge was used to measure the quality of the 50 Ohm match at the left hand end of the cable under test, whilst a 1k-Ohm variable resistive load (R-load) fitted to the right hand end of the cable is adjusted to achieve a good 50 Ohm match as measured on the bridge. The characteristic impedance (Zo) of the cable under test can then be calculated from the formula: Zo = Square-root(50 x R-load).
Graham
G0MGC
Reading July 2016
A a very pleasent day spent meandering around Reading Rally. In my humble opinion a better rally this year than Newbury. The first picture below (although not brilliant) tried to show a new tri-band mini beam on test can’t remember who from but claims to be totally portable and with a fantastically light head load. To be honest I was at the other end of the show so by the time I got to the arena the demonstration was over. I also couldn’t hear the audio from the PA system well either so apologies on that. In the foreground of the picture there was a model army vechical display which was interesting and I did manage to see some of that. In terms of spend!!! dare I say it I did buy wisely this time and not with either my eyes or heart but head. Some millspec 214 (ex test lab) feeder approx 50m made off neatly with N type £10, ideal for my portable stuff. Galvanised coated base for my antenna mast (perfect inside diameter 65mm) to allow full rotation once slotted together – spot on and some N type connectors and adopters (as you do). Nearly talked into a NOS IC7000 but resisted. Very good day indeed. Same time next year ????
The Icom IC-7300
There is loads of noise about the IC-7300 at the moment in Radcom, QST and other magazines. So I felt we should do our bit too! Here are a couple of video reviews of the radio.
The first is by AmateurLogic and chaired by George Thomas of Ham Nation and Ray Novak from Icom America.
Should the club get one of these? Let me know 😉
The second video is by Bob McCreadie (G0FGX) of TX Factor fame as he talks with Icom UK to give an overview of the radio.
Andrew
G0RVM
Antenna Horizon
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit at your antenna and see what it ‘sees’? Well, this evening I attached a camera to my antenna and shot the following short video as the mast was raised and rotated.
The video starts with the antenna pointing at 45 degrees. Once elevated its rotated to the following directions where it stops momentarily: North, West, South, then back around to East, South, back to North then to 45 Degrees before the mst is finally lowered again.
What this little experiment shows is that the horizon looks pretty flat in all directions – no big hills evident. It also gives a good feel for how well the antenna clears the surrounding houses.
Andrew
G0RVM