Crawley Amateur Radio Club

Posts

The Revival of Packet Radio

Over the past year, I began exploring practical amateur radio projects and noticed a growing interest in the resurgence of packet radio. Affordable TNC Pi boards for the Raspberry Pi were becoming widely available, along with low cost sound card–based interfaces sold through platforms such as eBay and Amazon. These devices connect directly to the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header or via USB, making them ideal for experimentation. A key contributor to this renewed activity is TARPN (Terrestrial Amateur Radio Packet Network), an international group of more than 560 amateur radio operators. TARPN supports the development of packet radio networks and provides extensive documentation for builders. One of their flagship designs is the TARPN NinoTNC, created by Nino, KK4HEJ. This TNC interfaces with a Raspberry Pi or any PC via USB. More information is available through TARPN’s NinoTNC builder resources. The current model, the N9600A, uses through hole components only—no SMD parts—making it acc...

Easily find unactivated POTA, WWFF, IOTA & SOTA sites with a new tool from the World Radio League

We all love the feeling of becoming the first person to activate a POTA or SOTA site. Well, now there is a free tool to help you find those sites local to you which are ripe for activation. Released by the World Radio League, this web application tracks POTA, WWFF, IOTA & SOTA. Simply provide location permissions, and you are presented with a map of local sites. The ones in red have never been activated. Have you any sites near you which have never been activated? Let us know. https://app.worldradioleague.com/activities

Two Fascinating Youtube talks

The first talk is a conventional amateur radio talk given at the Pennine Ham club on the QMX+ transceiver. This features Hans Summers (QRP Labs) and Martin Butler (ICQ Podcast) talking about the QMX+. In the talk Martin goes through the build process whilst talking to Hans and the Hans talks about the design of the transceiver. I have heard many talks about the QMX+ and even taken part in one, but I still learned new things and the practical element of the video may well give you confidence to build your own. The video is at https://youtu.be/mJvpNADFmrg?si=Fd07vgxlujARSwkj The second one is the IET AF Harvey lecture on "Dynamic Control of Light Waves with Atomically Thin Optoelectronic Devices - Exploring how quantum scale materials are redefining the way we shape, direct and control light. Please don't be put off by the title. This is a fascinating talk about the future of optics. One particular example is the fabrication of flat plate lenses using nano particles. Skate over...

With a Morse Key and Rifle

With a Morse Key and Rifle: One Man's Humorous Attempt to Survive the British Army is a paperback by Graham Hill and is the autobiography about the national service of a (mainly wireless) Telegraphist in the Royal Signals in the late 1850s. It captures the boredom and a waste of time, which was the resigned mood and experience of many young men who were called up for national service at that time. At other levels it is it gives an insight in the experiences of relatives, and for others of course it will be nostalgic. The author was certainly a rebel. Interestingly there are a number of references to ham radio and the ham radio shack they built and used on Cyprus. However I cannot figure out if the author held an amateur radio licence. Overall an interesting read. Stewart/G3YSX

FT8 Tactics for working DXPeditions

With Bouvet Island (3Y0K) now QRV with decent antennas and amplifiers, working them should be well within the abilities of most HF stations in the UK with 100W and a wire antenna using any mode. The best opportunity for most however will be to use FT8. As with most DXPeditions, 3Y0K will be using Fox/Hound mode. There is plenty written about using this sub-mode of FT8, the best and original can be found here, https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/FT8_DXpedition_Mode.pdf However there are tricks which can be used to get your signal heard above the cacophony of other stations. One good way is to wait until the mania dies down after a week or so. Another is to be listening before 3Y0K begins working on a certain band. Another very effective technique is to transmit where the DX is listening but others are not transmitting. In regular FT8 stations can only receive up to 2700Hz above the dial frequency. This is the default for the WSJTX software. However...

Topographic Maps

In the Spring a young radio amateur's fancy lightly turns to operating portable. The joy of getting away from the S9 noise at our QTH is immense, as is the ability to hear signals that we wouldn't normally hear. We all know the phrase "height is might". This common ham radio maxim, highlights that, generally the higher an antenna is, the better it will perform. This is where topographic maps come in useful. For those new to these maps, they are described by Wikipedia as follows - 'In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterised by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines' We recently found a great site for easily viewing the topology and elevation at the location of your choice. Click the link below to take a look at a map centered on our location. https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-kb57/England/?center=51.09317%2C0.08102&zoom=11 By left clicking on any l...

DX Code of Conduct

With a couple of big expeditions coming up in the next few weeks, it's worth a reminder of the DX Code of Conduct. These are common sense steps which aim to make working DX more reliable and more enjoyable. Much fun can be had spotting poor behaviour and ticking off the list. Keep smiling and enjoy the chaos.