CANCELLED – TSGARC XMAS Meal – Tuesday 9th December

All,

With respect to the meal out idea at the Hungry Horse near Aztec West the selected date is Tuesday 9th December.

Can you all either confirm that you wish to attend or let me know that you are not interested? Those that wish to attend please let me know whether you wish 2 or 3 courses?

I will book this up sometime next week, after which I believe a £5 per head deposit will be required.

Paul
M0ZMB
‘Chief Cat herder in charge’

TSGARC Programme update

G4ROJ - Kite supported Antenna

G4ROJ – Kite supported Antenna

I have secured us a new talk.

Roger, G4ROJ has kindly agreed to come and give us a talk on kite supported antenna’s.  The presentation has been entered into programme for Wednesday 25th March 2015.

Roger has been doing some amazing stuff with kite supported antenna’s and I can highly recommend a look at his website.  He has also reached stardom, appearing in episode 3 of the TX Factor.

Roger suggested that on the day of our talk he would most likely get to our patch mid/late afternoon and, weather permitting, have a couple of hours free prior to the talk to fly an antenna.  So, have a think people and if anyone has time before the talk and we identify a suitable location in our neighbourhood there is an offer to get some hands-on time.  Roger also indicated that he is willing to come down on a Saturday or Sunday and fly from a field, salt flat or beach.

Andrew
G0RVM

JOTA callsign update

The logbook on QRZ.com is now active and the first 50 requests to confirm our QSO’s from the Jota weekend at Conygres have been issued to the stations responding to our CQ’s.
We have opened an eQSL.cc account and will be sending electronic and direct email QSL cards. The design for the card will be based on some photographs taken by Paul. I will make this available on QRZ.com when we have completed it.

BIG antennas…

I’ve had this long held dream of getting on top-band with a full size antenna!  Just imagine what could be achieved on a winters night with a full wave loop 😉  Even a full sized 1/4 wave vertical with a good counterpoise should be a magnificent antenna…  Don’t image I’m thinking shortened antenna’s here, no, I’m thinking BIG 😉

So, who is up for a bit of fun this winter?  We have several sandy beaches nearby with vehicular access that offer more than enough space to erect such an antenna…  OK, so what planet am I on, you ask? Ah, well like Baldrick I have a cunning plan 🙂  But I’m pretty sure my plan will work as its been done several times before and by Marconi himself….  Yes, I’m thinking kite antenna’s. 🙂

First off, the 1/4 wave vertical seems like an achievable start and flown above the worlds best counterpose it should be phenomenal!  Other configurations would work too – why not a delta loop?  OK it needs a couple of kites but that should be doable…  There are lots of video’s on Youtube but check out the website of G4ROJ and also note that he lives just up the road and is willing to do a club talk…..

Who’s in?

Andrew
G0RVM

History of Bob Heil (K9EID)

heil_soundYou have heard of Heil Sound, right?  Of course you have.  Bob and his company are mostly known in this country for their amateur radio microphones.  But do you know his background? Do you know what he has done for our hobby?  No, well take a few minutes and watch this video.  Its inspirational and reminds us just what ‘Ham Radio’ is all about and has achieved over the years.

http://youtu.be/zl5k0YLalBk?list=UUzgG5iIOZpqFBBkAgg5iN1w

TSGARC – can we get Bob, George and co to give us a presentation one evening?  They do this for other clubs as you will hear in the video.  What do you think?

Andrew
G0RVM

JOTA after the Scouts had gone…..

GM001.10.2014GM002.10.2014

The dynamic trio in action……..

The camera stayed in the same position, apart from the order of the dynamic trio can you spot the difference between the two pictures?

The pictures were taken with a Raspberry Pi with a camera module using a time lapse. The time lapse was created using a simple Bash script and a “CRON” job. The script had to be edited a couple of times before it did what was required.

Garry
G7NVZ

JOTA Planning & Operation

This week at the Thornbury & South Gloucestershire Amateur Radio Club is the final planning for JOTA.

JOTAWe will be operating a VHF and UHF station at Conygres teaching Scouts how to send a message over the air to Woodhouse Park Scout camp using Voice or Morse code.  The intention is to use VHF for FM phone and UHF for phone/slow Morse.  If you have time this weekend please say ‘hi’ to a Scout by responding to a CQ call.  We will be using the callsign: GB1WSG

Anyone who would like to help can operate with Peter and Rex from Woodhouse or operate from home.

Full details including operating frequencies are on QRZ.com.

GARES will be operating the HF Station during the day on Saturday18th and Sunday 19th hoping to make longer range contacts.

My thanks to John M0HFH for the content 🙂

Andrew
G0RVM