AmateurRadio.com

A few years ago, when children,  pets and work didn’t need so much attention I took part in a bike race (commonly called a sportive) which took in 6 passes in the lake district (kirkstone, honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott and Wrynose) in a 112 mile day out on 2 wheels. This time I shall not be cycling but helping out with the local Raynet group.

Saturday had us checking the local communication paths for the various areas. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in any of this kind of thing so Paul, 2E0EET took me through the basics and now I’m looking forward to being a spectator and watching those who’ve trained for months on end to attempt this formidable ride.

It took me over 7:30 hrs when I did it do giving up the same amount of time with the rig at cockley beck (not too far from the Hardknott summit) seems a small price for my earlier enjoyment.

I registered with RS Components for a Raspberry Pi board (when they get released) and whilst I’m not expecting one this side of the summer it was nice to get an update from them. If the truth be told I’m having too much fun activating summits in at the moment. Especially now as we seem to have a warm spell. It certainly makes a change from hail and snow I had on Scafell Pike a couple of weeks ago. Anyway see below for the update from RS:

Welcome to the latest Raspberry Pi update from RS Components!

Much has been happening behind the scenes since you received our last update, not least the start of compliance testing on the Raspberry Pi.

Why are we doing this? Compliance testing is an essential part of bringing any electronic product to market. The Raspberry Pi is being tested to make sure it conforms to all the regulations that apply to electronic devices around the world. This means that we can be sure the Raspberry Pi we deliver to you meets the correct standards and is as safe as you would expect any electronic device you purchase to be.

We’re working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to manage the testing process as quickly as possible, while ensuring all tests are carried out to guarantee safety. More information is being posted on the Raspberry Pi website , as well as on our own FAQ pages rswww.com or DesignSpark. We’re also regularly tweeting updates on progress. Follow @RSElectronics on twitter to catch the latest news.

Alongside this, we’ve also been contacting the first group of people who registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS, to help us plan delivery of the initial batch of boards. In next week’s update, we’ll provide more information on how we’re managing the queue and the order process.

RS Components

Happy Birthday WOTA. What do you get a portable operators scheme for its birthday? I simply have no idea.

For those who aren’t too sure what it is. WOTA is a bit like SOTA but for the Wainwright Fells in the Lake District. If you don’t know what SOTA is then one explanation is portable operations from summits (or fells if you live here in the lakes). Or as I like to describe it to non hams, working you way up a fell till you get to the top, looking at the view for a bit then getting out a radio (generally in the fog or rain, in the lake district) and saying ‘hello its me, can you hear me?’ ‘yes, it’s me, can you hear me?’ ‘yes, good stuff, who’s next’. I don’t think I’ve had too many positive looks giving that explanation but its better than trying to explain what that pole sticking out of your rucksack is in a howling gale.

Anyway,m back to the point. WOTA was devised by Julian, G4ILO and the first activations have been tabled as the 21st March 2009. So all I can say is happy birthday and my XYL wants a word with you because I’ve not managed to fix the downstairs toilet whilst I’m out operating from a fell top.

Following on from the kind words I received about the scafell pike photo I thought I’d share this one with you. I took it whilst attempting the Ennerdale horseshoe last August. The horsehoe is a 25 mile hike round the summits and it has 21 summits to activate. Some for SOTA (Summits on the air) and some are WOTA (Wainwrights on the air).

The photo was taken from the Summit of Green Gable which ended up being the second to last activation. The clouds came in as did the rain and so I made my way down to the valley floor and had a 6 mile walk back to the car which was parked at the base of the small fell at the front of the horseshoe in the middle of the picture. Crummock and Buttermere are the lakes on the right and Ennerdale lake is hidden round the back of Pillar on the left hand side. The western lakes are not as popular as the central lakes (Derwent, Windemere etc) and even though its only a few miles from a few small towns there was hardly a sole there.

Each year there is a marathon running race round the horseshoe. No cheating you have to go round all the summits! tempted?

Anyway I hope you liek the photo and if you’re ever in the lakes then listen out on 145.500Mhz as there may be someone activating a summit close to where you are.

Yesterday I made a secong attempt to activate Scafell Pike. Usually I got up to summits alone or with the dog bit this time was with a bunch who were training for the 3 peak challenge. Needless to say the summit was in cloud, it snowed then hailed then rained on me as I came down. Still this time I had a whole load more qso’s and a much more satisfying activation. Wast water (in the photo) is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by some impressive fells. Not as nice a Ennerdale but then again I am a bit biased.

Cloud RF is something that I stumbled over and to be honest I’m not sure where so if I’m telling you something you already know then I’m sorry, its a function of me not concentrating.

Anyway the blurb from the Google marketplace / Google play site indicates that the app is for all sorts of RF planning and I quote ‘DAB, DVB, GSM 2G/3G/4G/LTE, Marine VHF, PMR, TETRA, PTT, WiFi, WiMax
Groups: Emergency services (Ambulance, Coastguard, Fire, Forestry, Police), Amateur/Ham enthusiasts, Armed Forces/Military, Construction industry, Event organisers, Government, Maritime/Private Security, WISPs.’

For me its a way of simply checking the coverage I’m expecting. there are 2 applications for your Android phone and a web based offering to boot. The programme is squarely aimed at the corporate market and the trial offshoot for hams is either a 12km limited plot for free or for a fiver you get 100km of signal plotting. I guess you could reduce power to minimal levels and attempt to extrapolate but it doesn’t seem worth it if you’re into planning for a RAYNET or emergency communications type situation.

Still for the casual user there is at least something to wet your appetite and the operation couldn’t be simpler on your phone. Use the GPS or map to locate where you are / want to be. Entering in the frequency and power as well as height above ground for the rudimentary settings and press the button to calculate your plot. Other aspects can be changed such as type of ground and the usual modelling parameters that you’d expect from a simplified model that bears a similarity to Radio Mobile that Julian, G4ILO posted a while ago. I’m only guessing but I’d image its a similar if not the same engine that delivers the plots (Irregular Terrain Model).

Have a play with the trial version and see if that takes you fancy and if you dip into the paid for version then let me know what you think.

Building antennas seems to be getting to be a bit of a habit for me. This time I’ve bought a kit, for evaluation purposes. No really it is.

I was trying to think of a project that I could use at MX0WRC (Workington and district amateur radio club) to help give some direction to some of the members who may never have built anything other than the kit they built for their intermediate licence. So, as I’ve been roped in to give a talk on my portable set up, which consists of what I thought were low cost antennas I thought I’d found the right direction.

Low cost is not what I came across when researching simple antennas. It seemed that I was way off the mark for commercial offerings until I found a company in Germany called Nuxcom. They supply what look like simple yagi kits at realistic prices. By which I mean the cost of the materials isn’t prohibitive (For example from a raw material supplier 25mm box section can be bought for as little as £6-8 for a 1m length, enough for a 3 element 2m yagi and round tube for similar cost – and this isn’t cheap Chinese metal this is western European fully traceable materials! Don’t even get me started on the price of pipe clamps)

So, to placate my ever growing concern that prices are rising higher than a bankers bonuses, without any real justification I ordered one of the larger kits from Nuxcom, a 2 element lightweight 6m yagi. Purchasing was a bit drawn out as I placed an order and the ‘quote’ was returned with shipping costs added in a few hours later. But at £35 I was prepared to take a gamble, even is a third of the cost was shipping.

I’m expecting the kit before the weekend and I’ll do a little write up when it arrives. On the face of it the kit looks fairly simple in design without any bells and whistles, just what we need to add to the J pole, vertical and dipole designs that I plan on demonstrating.

What I’m really hoping for is a good value, simple lightweight antenna than doesn’t cost the earth so that the club members can learn and experiment without breaking the bank. More later.