exeter
GX4ARE

Home

Meetings

Our club on Youtube

Nets


Raynet

Repeaters

Training

Members only


Devon Shipping Live Map

Devon Air Traffic Live Map

Links


About us

2011 EARS Club meetings

Tuesday 20th December 2011 The pre-Christmas EARS Breakfast at Freshas Cafe on the Sowton Industrial Estate.

Wednesday 14th December 2011 The club held its annual Christmas Party and Skittles Night at the Moose Centre.

Keith G6FXH won the highest skittles score of the evening. Theo G3EQM's team trounced Ivor G6ATJ's by one point!

 

Monday 28th November 2011 Discussion evening where John G8XQQ referred to an extremely useful Icom Cloning Interface design that can be used to program every Icom product from a computer. John built the circuit, mounted it in a box with cables running to a DB9 RS232 interface on the computer, a battery and a 3.5mm phono plug and RJ-45 plug. Costing only a couple pounds it does the work of the advertised Icom product that costs 20 times as much.

Matt M6GLP was looking for antenna solutions and John G8XQQ recommended a Bazooka antenna as a low cost, easy-to-build VHF antenna that could get him wider coverage quickly. Several design options were discussed, but the Emergency Bazooka was seen to be the best solution.

Geoff M0UWD also introduced advanced planning Exeter Amateur Radio Society's participation in the May 2012 Worked All Britain award special event station that is part of the 2012 Olympics Torch Relay. On the 20th May, EARS plans to operate on 40m, 80m and 2m.

Sunday 27th November 2011Raynet members on Woodbury Common participate successfully in the Raynet Inter County Exercise 9. This exercise linked computers across the region so that emergency information could be passed between Plymouth, Jersey, Guernsey, Exeter, Dorchester, Westbury and the the Mendips.

Monday 14th November 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre where John G8XQQ configured PMR receivers and we evaluated the performance of a Clansman radio.

Tuesday 25th October 2011 09:30 EARS Breakfast (short video) at Terry's Restaurant , Sidwell Street, Exeter EX4 6NN.

Monday 24th October 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre with Nick 2E0NRJ presenting a short talk on data modes then showing how to install and configure Fldigi and the G4ZLP Digimaster Pro+ interface unit. Using the information on the CDs distributed by John G8XQQ members were able to start using the most popular modes BPSK31 and BPSK125. He recommended a useful reference for recognising different data modes by their display and sound. 70% of club members are now installing interface units and learning to use the modes.

Monday 10th October 2011 Exeter ARS successfully transmitted and received its first colour images on VHF using the Fldigi MFSK-64 Picture mode.

In a scene reminiscent of Raymond Baxter's famous 1962 Goonhilly reception of the first Telstar images, Exeter club members gathered to watch the line-by-line appearance of a picture of a club member's grandchild appear on a computer. Ivor G6ATJ was delighted to have initiated the first successful transmission.

Ivor G6ATJ configures his Kenwood handy and laptop running Fldigi, while on the other side of the club John G8XQQ makes sure all the controls are correctly set.

A combination of data speeds, colour and monochrome images were tried. Using MFSK-64, a 80 Kbytes (200 x 400 pixels) image takes less than a minute to receive. A colour version takes about two minutes. MFSK-16 transmission times are four times longer.

On completion of the reception of the image the audio modulation sounds like an alarm to indicate to the receiving operator that the image is ready for saving.

The centre audio frequency (1500 Hz) must be correctly set at each end otherwise Fldigi will not correctly decode the image header and trigger the image handling program.

Monday 26 September 2011 Club night at Moose Centre where members evaluated many data modes on 2m FM between three computers and transceivers. John G8XQQ, Ivor G6ATJ and Nick 2E0NRJ used PSK31, Domino, Feld-hell, RTTY, Throb, PSK250, PSK500 enabling them to learn how to use Fldigi software with base stations and a handy.

Data mode trials between Exeter, Cullompton and Crediton occurred on the following evening on 2m. A selection of interfaces were used: homebrew, Digimaster Pro+ and a straight connection.

Ian M1FHU from the Burnham Beeches Radio Club visited and is intending to join EARS. Welcome to Ian!

Monday 12 September 2011 Club night at Moose Centre reviewing yesterday Raynet participation at the NSPCC Hack at Dawlish Warren. Also planning a data mode demonstration and participation with other amateur groups. Congratulations to Andy 2E0KMP and Nick 2E0NRJ on passing their recent Intermediate Licence examination.

Monday 22 August 2011 Club night at Moose Centre where Nick M6NRJ demonstrated his home-brew 3.5 MHz VFO and everyone assisted in determining how to improve its operation.

Monday 8 August 2011 Club night at Moose Centre. Examination of an unidentified ex-PMR VHF radio and reconstructing its use by analyzing the circuitry.

Monday 25 July 2011 Club night at Moose Centre where Keith VK50Q gave a short talk about amateur radio in Australia, especially at his local club, the Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club in North Adelaide. He told our EARS meeting about the Wireless Institute of Australia, club activities, his shack and the WIA Emergency Communications network. Of special interest were his observations of working on 3.4, 5.7 and 10 GHz. He also described the evolution of the very popular VK5JST antenna analyzer, which has received many positive reviews for its design and cost. Many thanks to Keith for such an interesting talk at short notice. Have a great trip back home.

Monday 11 July 2011 Club night at Moose Centre.

Monday 26 June 2011 Video night at Moose Centre with the showing of:

  • Space Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment in July 1985 by US ham/astronaut Tony England W0ORE
  • The Secret Life of the Radio by engineer/cartoonist Tim Hunkin (1989)
Monday 13 June 2011 Club night at Moose Centre where Alan G4TKV demonstrated his home-brew 10 MHz CW transceiver. Featuring a 7 watt output it is a miracle of compact design and engineering.

The club also contacted Dave G6XUV, Peter G3ZVI and Peter 2E0DYM using the new GB3SW repeater which has moved from Honiton to the Norman Lockyer Observatory near Sidmouth .

Finally, congratulations to Andy M6AZA on obtaining his licence!

Monday 23 May 2011 Showing of two films illustrating the manufacture of radio valves. The first showed the detailed construction of a Mullard EF80 from its beginnings in a titanium ore crusher through to glass welding the final product, sometime in the 1950s. The second featured testing of 1920s Osram valves such as the VMS46(?), A fascinating look at industrial Britain generations ago.

Monday 9 May 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre, with Nick M6NRJ giving a talk (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) about "Software Defined/Designed Radio - user experiences". Specific links are:
- Elektor Software Defined Radio May 2007
- G8JCFSDR Software for controlling the Elektor SDR and many others.
General SDR links:
- The SDR Club - a UK SDR special interest group formed this year.
- "A Software Defined Radio for the Masses" by Gerald Youngblood AC50G. Part 1, 2, 3, 4.

Monday 11 April 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre featuring Keith G7NBU's recent assembly of his Small Wonder Labs 30m CW transceiver kit. Keith G6FXH brought in his PSU to find the intermittent fault on it. Alan G4TKV showed his home-brewed 1296 MHz interdigital filter for the 23 cms band and noted that at these frequencies prototyping means production. And everyone lamented the impending closure of QSL communications in Western Super Mare as it is the club's closest ham shop. Southgate ARC report that they close on April 21but open between May 10 and 31 to sell off the last items.

Saturday 9 April 2011 Exeter Raynet provide communication services for the Exeter Night Walk in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Support and Exeter Leukemia Fund. Picture Gallery

Monday 28 March 2011 Exploring QRP beacons on HF, Raynet planning for the 2011 Macmillan Ladies Night Walk, SHF experiments and planning future talks.

Monday 14 March 2011 AGM at the Moose Centre. The following officers have been unanimously re-elected:
Chairman: Keith G7NBU
Secretary: Geoff M0UWD
Treasurer: John G4AP
Newsletter: Alan G4TKV
Committee: Keith G6FXH, John G8XQQ
Publicity: Nick M6NRJ

Monday 28 February 2011 Club night discussing 4m antenna designs and Echolink at the Moose Centre.

Monday 14 February, 2011 John G8XQQ shows how to test an Ascom 70 MHz transceiver using a fully automated Marconi test test.

Examining the society's archives of photographs, letters, press releases and newspaper coverage.

Saturday 12 February, 2011 Nick M6NRJ tries his first SOTA expedition to High Willhays on Dartmoor.

Monday 24 January 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre. Theo G3EQM conducted CW practice from his QTH to the club.

Monday 10 January 2011 Club night at the Moose Centre. Dean G0UIL and Steve M0ZZT talked about the progress with their Easysat venture.

Visit our Facebook site


Contact the webmaster  
Locations of visitors to this page