Solent Club for Amateur Radio & Television

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Last Updated on Friday, 07 October 2011 18:02 Written by M6PJD

Is there any Dx news?

This is difficult with the current aerial setup but it’s nice to report that Dave Mann (G8ADM) at Harrow has become a fairly regular visitor on 70cms during quite small lifts – 70 digi has a lot of potential.

Also John (M1BAI) at Wimborne is just below the 23cm digi threshold under flat conditions but it doesn’t need much of a lift for him to join us, however he is intending to build a 70cm DigiLite so that he can join us whenever he likes.

Some useful pieces of info from Mike (G8LES): Mike (G8LES) has done some tests with the repeater GB3ZZ (Bristol) and can confirm that he can receive GB3ZZ when the Bristol NB beacon comes up to S9 +20dB.

Mike (G8LES) is also updating his Receivable Beacons List – this is very useful for Dx-ers, so have a word with him (but don’t mention my name)!

Is there any progress on the new aerials?

This is complex but the main hardware is ready to install:

1) As you know, the weather has been peculiar this year – not only have we had a fabulous April; followed by a very poor Summer (usually with unpredictable gusty winds); followed by a record end to September but even the recent ‘high’ had intermittent 23mph gusts in Southampton (so it certainly wasn’t ‘rigging weather’ at Stenbury)!

2) Frank (G0LFI) and Christine’s (M6UBI) cousin Nick (who we rely on for some excellent company and work aloft) had a nasty motorbike accident during the ‘Summer’ and is still receiving treatment for a painful back condition (so rigging is definitely verboten at the moment)! Good luck Nick.

3) Following my email to the team suggesting a digital heading readout for the camera and dish, Colin (G4KLB) got very enthusiastic (as he does)! and started investigations about how to produce a suitable system.

I am sure that all those who have seen the initial results over GB3IV and ‘GB3SQ’ will agree that they are impressive but the snag is that there is too much information at present (we ideally want just a damped 2 or 3 digit LED display) so some software writing in funny languages is needed – and Colin’s (G4KLB) first priority at the moment has to be getting the house finished.

When will we have 10g output?

As I write this, Peter (G3PYB) is finalising an evaluation 10g Tx with cabling and baseband interface for mounting on the small mast. This will produce a similar output to the final version but will have about a 25 degree beamwidth and be FM-only. The intention is to cover the Bournemouth area so that paths and any filtering requirements can be assessed before the wide beam A/D version is finalised.

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