AmateurRadio.com

To a novice it could sound worse. But to a seasoned operator I’ll bet is sounds like the equivalent of a rusty nail being used to score poorly formed tones in your ear hole. I’m referring to my CW style.

When I say amateurish I mean it in a couple of ways, firstly I am a radio amateur. This means I’m not getting paid for it (which, as my wife points out, is good as I would be bankrupt quickly). I’m also not a high performing (but talented amateur) mixing it with the pro’s. This means I’m somewhere down the peloton. Holding the latern rouge.

To carry on my cycling analogy. Mostly because I ride a bike as well. My gear isn’t a pinarello dogma, its not the latest shimano Di2. But its adequate, its circa 2007 and it works. My fitness is average but I can, when pushed, climb some steep hills.

The steepest hill I could find it morse code. So far I have spent nearly every lunch time since Christmas using LCWO to attempt to copy at 15wpm. This week marks the end of the letters. I can pretty much copy them all without too much trouble providing there is enough thinking gap.

I thought I’d have a go at sending tonight (Thanks Ian MW0IAN for the ear). CQ sounded like CQ in my head, but came out like QQ, T, K and a few other characters that I hadn’t intended to send but I’m hoping an operator on the other end will see through this. Just like when I hear bad practice or mistakes with SSB I hear operators ignoring their mistakes I’m hoping the same will happen with CW.

So forgive me. I have created some shocking characters. But stay with me because one day this year I will complete a QSO without making any mistakes. That much I promise! If you want to join me in rubbish CW then I can recommend it as a way to diet. I’ve enjoyed the learning so much I forgot to go for something to eat a couple of times. If you hear me calling CQ and respond only to get a seemigly random response, don’t worry its not you, its not me, its my novice brain not getting it right all the time.

Whilst twittering / tweeting / wasting time on twitter (delete as applicable) I came across a group @lids_cw . This is an informal twitter based group of CW and low impact data mode fans in the UK that seem to have their heads screwed on. The idea behind it is that the group encourages general radio chit chat then suckers you into having a go at CW.

Morse is not something I decided I wanted to do when I started out in radio, Hence the G7 callsign (For those unsure, G7’s in the 1990’s were VHF only because we couldn’t be bothered with CW. Hence the 19th Century rules at the time kept us away from HF as were weren’t proper or some such daftness). But over the years I’ve hankered after at least one QSO in CW. I’m only browsing, for research purposes, I wont be giving up VHF officer!

Sunday at 16:00hrs GMT see’s their net on 40m. I listened in and attempted to decode what was beeping through the speaker an got the occasional character. I cheated a bit and used HRD to decode some more of the text and fill in the gaps. It wasn’t until I let slip on Twitter I was listening in I heard my callsign being called by MW0IAN. Fortunately I had no way of returning the call (otherwise we might still be at it exchanging signal reports now!).

For those of us who struggle with CW but are too scared to admit it, there are others like you. For those of you who had the 5wpm RSGB cassette and never got further than ‘it’,’meant’,’mine’ and ‘nineteen’ but fancy spending hours listening to bleeps but secretly want to have a go. Watch out LIDS  or Less Involved Data Society as it’s known will get you. Keyer at the ready for next Sunday. Snails will be faster.

So Christmas has left us again. this time I’ll be glad to see the back of it after being and bit part player in the events in George Square, Glasgow just before Christmas and spending most of the subsequent days either laid up in bed or coughing and spluttering my way round the place.

On a lighter note the days between Christmas and New Year led themselves nicely to The RSGB Christmas Cumulative VHF series. A Contest run between the 26th and 29th December that gets me out of the house and either into the wilds of Cumbria at this time of year, or as it happened yesterday one of the clearest, crispest days we’ve had in a long time.

The contest is only a couple of hours long and the choice of band(s) is up to you. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take my dual band 2m and 70cm antenna that I got from Nuxcom in the summer. The antenna is a tad fiddly to construct in the field as the elements wander with the slightest touch but the lack of wind helped there.

The rig was the usual FT-857 that I have had on loan from the club for a while now that gives me my choice of 10w out on the VHF bands.

The map above shows my results. ODX was 450 miles to G7RAU, which equals my best to date. Other bigger stations will have undoubtedly made more miles but it’s not all about the DX. Hopefully I will get the chance to get out and about on the UKAC evenings as well as the back end of the year was a bit of a non event for me. Here’s an obligatory view form the ‘shack’ and dual band antenna (Here’s a link to the original site for the antenna)

I’ve just about had enough of rig CAT control with my IC7000. After buying 4 different CAT interfaces and attempting for numerous hours to get the things working, some of which do for a while, I’ve stripped away the (lack of) capability.

One of the more frustrating aspects of this hobby is that whilst some areas move on, some just relentlessly remain steady in the mediocre. The argument between serial and USB is about as dead as it can be but us with serial to USB converters get short shrift.

I like my IC7000. Its my main rig but when it comes to rig control with a PC then its been a complete disaster, working one minute then not, then back to working again. Oddly enough my IC703 before it wasn’t too bad but this one refuses to behave for any length of time.

The last straw was to plump for a complete reset, removing all my memories and leaving me with a blank rig and still no CAT control.

Anyone want to buy a partially used G4ZLP digimaster pro?

If your pockets are deep and your mind open then DStar offers some useful opportunities to connect to other amateurs via a very robust network. I on the other hand am a cheapskate with very shallow pockets and a healthy distrust of proprietary stuff. So how does one get involved in a changing view of amateur radio? There seem to be a few options that are more that dongles for your PC.

FreeDV is one way. It promises a way of connecting up your existing analogue radio to the digital networks. A very brief look at it this afternoon gave the impression that if there was a signal to be heard (On 14.236Mhz) then it would decode it and display the QSO on the screen. Trouble is there where no HF signals.

DV3000 bridge is another way to connect your radio to and existing set up (Analogue VHF)

Jonathan Naylor, G4KLX also has spawned a range of hardware and software that makes use of digital voice that appears through the link.

All these little bits of knowledge came from an a hour or so when the kids were at their quietest (which is not often) so there’s clearly a bit to learn. I hadn’t paid much attention to DStar or its friends as at face value it was asking me to buy more stuff at £300+ . That was a turn off. But if there are options at a lower price point then I could be persuaded to join in the digital voice game.

Nice to see that SatNOGS won the hackaday prize this evening. A little sad that PortableSDR didn’t win as well. They both prove that Ham Radio is alive and kicking and has a very well rooted place in the 21st century……As if it was ever in doubt

Pinched from hackaday.com

I remember reading something about this on the Southgate ARC news a while ago. When I tried to find it I couldn’t. Thanks to Hackaday.io I found it again.

So what is it. The website has some big ideas on it but, to me it is a homebrew, simple Az El rotator using open source software and 3D printed parts. Something that, funding willing, I will be able to do over the winter. Info on availability seems a bit scarce but I’ve emailed regarding PCB’s.

Here’s a few links and a video

Hackaday.io Project page

Website