Crawley Amateur Radio Club

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KADRAD: a radio front panel built in the club

KADRAD is a new program, written over the past three weeks by Mike G0KAD, that puts a realistic radio front panel on a computer screen and drives a real transceiver, in the shack or across the internet. It already runs the club's FLEX-6400 from home, and on 12 October it worked Poland and Belgium on 6 m FT8 that way. This article explains what it does, how it works, how it was built, and how you can try it with your own radio. What it does KADRAD looks and behaves like a radio rather than a computer program. There is a big glowing frequency display, a meter with a moving needle, a tuning knob you spin with the mouse, and proper buttons for mode, filters, noise blanker, AGC and the rest. Mike's aim was a panel you could operate without reading a manual. Real radios, honestly shown. KADRAD asks the radio what it can do and only shows controls that work. A button that does nothing never appears. Skins. The default "Classic '80s" panel can be recoloured, and there a...

Repeaters in the Sky

A quick update on the satellite projects which members have been pursuing at CARC. Many people have been building the homebrew dual-band (2m and 70cm) handheld antennas at the club. At the same time several members have updated their handheld DMR radios to the Open GD77 firmware which some excellent satellite operation functions built in. It can be a bit of a puzzle as to which satellites are overhead, when. Also where the satellites are in the sky at any time. I found a really nice piece of software called OscarWatch which makes this really easy. The latest version can be downloaded here https://github.com/magicbug/OscarWatch-Tracker/releases Set your location and the satellites you want to work and look for the passes. I recalled that the club has a G5500 Azimuth / Elevation rotator in a box under one of the workbenches. Alas, it needed a small repair to get the elevation reading properly on the control box, a simple job which took all day! O...

Windows 11 Bloatware and AI

They do say that if you pay for something you're the customer, if it's free then you're the product. In the case of Windows that actually means your data and your internet activity. Now of course you always read the terms and conditions of usage ? No? Ah. So what do Microsoft collect from your Windows 11 PC? If you believe Microsoft, not much but some things which I'm sure you'd prefer not to share. Did you know that the CoPilot AI has a feature called Recall which takes periodic snapshots of your desktop to "help with your searches". Since Q3 2025, you can't easily disable this. Another bugbear of mine is the amount of Bloatware (unwanted applications) that ship with Windows. If you buy a brand name PC, chances are that the likes of ASUS and HP will bundle software to make you experience better i.e collect data about you. All that bloatware is taking up your memory and your disk space you have paid for it but can't use. ...

Accurately Measuring Resistor Values

For years inexpensive Digital Volt Meters (DVM) have been available to the amateur radio world. Professional ones are also available, but their prices are sometimes prohibitive to the amateur. In the professional world, four lead ohm-meters are used for measuring resistance. In a basic measuring set up with just two leads, the result is compromised by the resistance of the leads connecting the device under test (DUT), i.e. the resistor in this case to the DVM. It is particularly troublesome when trying to characterise low value resistors. If the leads have say 0.05Ω total resistance, and the DUT is a 0.1Ω resistor, the measurement will be wrong by 50%, as the DVM will show 0.15Ω instead of 1Ω. The way around this is easy to achieve with modern op-amps, and is achieved by using 4-wire Kelvin leads, some circuitry, and a DVM. The circuitry will need to provide a constant known current through the DUT from say a Jfet operating in constant current mode. This known current is connected such...

NavHam Repeater Finder

NavHam is a new website from Chris Barber (2E0UCB). NavHam provides a repeater and gateway locator for amateur radio operators in the UK. Find nearby repeaters and personal gateways on a live map, filter by mode and band, and get bearing and distance from your current location. Give it a try here: https://navham.co.uk/ Features include: Live map with all UK repeaters & gateways Gateways & hotspots directory — add your own Filter by mode (FM, DMR, D-STAR, C4FM…) & band Distance, bearing & compass view for the field Favourites & Top repeaters quick-access Coverage reports, fault reporting & station comments Submit repeaters & gateways for moderator review Leaderboard, community stats & onboarding points Testimonials wall & referral program Request features & see the planned roadmap My QTH: Maidenhead grid, WAB, OS grid, CQ/ITU zones

Understanding E Layer Propagation: From the Regular E Layer to Sporadic E at VHF

Radio propagation through the ionosphere is one of the great gifts nature gives to anyone with an antenna and a receiver. While most of us are familiar with the F layer's role in long-distance HF communication, the E layer — and especially its unpredictable cousin, Sporadic E — deserves its own detailed look. This piece covers both the traditional, well-behaved E layer and the wild, VHF-opening phenomenon known as Sporadic E, with an eye to what it means for CARC members working HF and VHF from here in West Sussex. Part One: Traditional E Layer Propagation What Is the E Layer? The E layer is a region of the ionosphere located roughly 90 to 150 km (56 to 93 miles) above the Earth's surface. It sits below the F layer and above the D layer, forming one of several ionized layers that make radio propagation possible. The "E" designation comes from the original naming convention used by physicist Edward Appleton, who studied the layers using "electric" wave ...