8th August: A breezy FDARS
took place over the weekend 15/16 October.
I was helping at the station GB2IRS (Ipswich Radio Scouts) at Hallowtree Scout Campsite, at Ipswich, Suffolk. We had a TA33jnr HF beam this year and worked around the world including several RS59 contacts with Australia and Japan.
My station locator: JO02pa82
Equipment:
Station: Yaesu FT847, DB6NT transverter for 23cm + G4BAO PA, Eddystone EC958 receiver (10kHz – 30MHz)
and a FUNcube Dongle! It’s a 64MHz to 1,700MHz Software Defined Radio which I have working with DL2SDR’s DSP Radio software on my iMac.
Mobile: Yaesu FT-2200 (2m FM)
Portable: Kenwood TH-D7 (2m & 70cm FM + APRS)
VLF: UKRAA VLF receiver
Other kit: MAC-200 antenna controller
GPS disciplined oscillator NTPX26AB 06
Antennae:
VLF (22kHz): loop
2MHz: 160m – Rx loop
3.5 – 3.8MHz: 80m – dipole
10MHz: 30m 1/4wave fishing pole vertical
14, 18, 21, 24 and 28MHz bands – CobWebb antenna
50MHz: 6m – triangle
144-146MHz: 2m – 9 element Yagi
432-435MHz: 70cm – 19 element Yagi
145/435MHz – colinear for FM
50/145/435MHz – another colinear for FM
1296MHz: 23cm 10 element yagi (Kent Britain design) + 23 element Tonna yagi (thanks, Sam!)
3400MHz: pending tx/rx construction
10GHz: 3cm – 80cm offset dish
Modes: FM, SSB, PSK31
Projects:
Working on equipment for 1296MHz and 10GHz
Completed “The Bernie Box” – a 10GHz LNB-based receiver-converter.
Built and now tested: G4BAO 23cm PA
Building G4DDK Very Low Noise Amplifier and Source for 23cm
Repairing Eddystone EC958 receiver (10kHz – 30MHz)
Still have Ionica bricks for 3400MHz (9cm) transceiver.
Meanwhile see http://www.microwavers.org/3400mhz.htm
Starting an optical transceiver.
The Bawdsey Research Station project (now shelved)
Finningley SDR kit awaiting assembly.
Franco I2FHW 10GHz PA for beginners (see Scatterpoint June 2011)
Member of:
FDARS – Felixstowe and District Amateur Radio Society.
30MDG 30 Meter Digital Group, member 1175
Old Codgers Association – formed in 2006 by Sam G4DDK See the newsletter for what we get up to.
RSGB The Radio Society of Great Britain
South Anglia Repeater Group (SARG)
Suffolk RAYNET - part of RAYNET, the Radio Amateur Emergency Network
UKµG - the UK Microwave Group (I ‘m General Secretary and edit their newsletter Scatterpoint since May 2011)
EME2012 organising committee (webmaster). This biennial conference is being held at Churchill College, Cambridge 16–18 August 2012. EME, short for Earth Moon Earth communications involves using the Moon as a passive reflector to enable beyond the horizon communications on frequencies where this would not normally be possible.
Radio Astronomy Group (part of British Astronomical Association) and the UK Radio Astronomy Association (new web site in preparation)
OASI Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)
Links:
N0NBH solar data and HF propagation