Congratulations to our own Stewart G3YSX on his election to the position of RSGB President.
More to follow…
Stewart Bryant G3YSX Elected RSGB President
Museums on the Air 2020
CARC will be participating in the International Museums Weekends with the special event call GB1CTM, representing Crawley Town Museum. The International Museums weekends take place over the last two weekends in June each year – so this year that is the 20th/21st and 27th/28th June (this weekend and next). More information can be found at https://www.radio-amateur-events.org/IMW/ including a list of other museums registered to take part.
Due to COVID it is not possible to operate from the museum itself, and OFCOM have removed some of the restrictions on Special Event Calls. The requirements to operate from the location and that the station be open to the public have been relaxed. Other demands such as operating within the license restrictions still apply. For this reason, operating the club station in person or by remote is limited to full licence holders only.
How to take part?
Members can operate either the club shack having prebooked a slot, operate the shack station remotely having booked a slot, or operate from home during a prebooked slot. Booking is via the form at the bottom of this post.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CAR PARKS AROUND THE HUTS ARE STILL FENCED OFF THOUGH THE PAY AND DISPLAY CAR PARK IN TILGATE PARK IS NOW OPEN. WE HOPE THIS WILL CHANGE SOON BUT ACCESS TO THE CLUB CURRENTLY REQUIRES A WALK FROM THE NEAREST PARKING.
COVID restrictions still apply so we will only allow one operator at a time (or perhaps more than one person from the same household) in the shack. Suitable precautions to clean the equipment, desks, etc must be carried out before and after their slot. Instructions on how to operate the shack station will be printed out.
If operating the shack station remotely then of course sanitising is not required!
If operating from home then the licensing situation is unclear and the recommendation is to use your own call together with the special event call, for example, M0WID/GB1CTM.
FT8 is not banned but doesn’t really fit with the spirit of this event as no information about the museum can be exchanged.
Logging
If operating the CARC station either locally or remotely then Log4OM will be running on the club PC. Please use that. If operating your own station then use whatever logging system you use and export the contacts as ADIF so they can be imported into a combined log later?
Crawley Town Museum
Some background on the Crawley Museum can be found on their website. Until recently located in Goffs Park the museum has now moved to a central location close to the shopping area and post office. The museum tells the history of the town and local area from pre-history, medieval settlement, Victorian town, and modern New Town. It would be great if anyone has actually visited the museum and can add some more! The museum’s blog is perhaps the best way to find out more https://crawleymuseums.org/blog/.
Also of interest is that John Leech who illustrated Charles Dickens Christmas Stories lived in the museum building when he was a medical student in 1833.
The museum is keen to add to their collection, and perhaps some members could contribute with stories of their time working and living in the Crawley area, and the changes that have taken place.
Have Fun!
Please feel free to have fun and use this as an excellent excuse to take to the air operating the special call. Hopefully next year we will be free of restrictions and be able to set up at a Museum or Mill and publicise amateur radio to members of the public which of course is one of the main objectives of these Special Events.
RSGB / Ofcom EM Field Exposure Consultation
On the 21st February 2020, Ofcom launched a Consultation on EM-Field exposure —Proposed Measures to Require Compliance with International Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields. Our view is that while we appreciate the need for ICNIRP guidelines we feel that the proposals from Ofcom are not proportionate and indeed potentially onerous for all amateur licensees.
All amateurs are encouraged to contribute to the consultation, full details, and the return can be found here: https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/emf-exposure/
Please do take some time to understand what is being proposed, how it might affect you, and MOST IMPORTANTLY send in your response.
RSGB Get on the Air to Care
The RSGB is supporting clubs and societies to get on the air during the current COVID situation. Click on the picture above to find out what’s happening and to take part in the activities.
CARC During COVID
Times are certainly strange. I hope that you and yours are all well. Life at KAD towers is slightly strange. My wife works at Crawley Hospital and is leaving home each morning, as usual, I am working from home this week while my kidults (21 and 18) are home and bored.
We’re all getting used to spending much more time indoors and of course, the club is closed for meetings at Hut18.
At CARC, we’ve been experimenting with a few different things to keep the club active and the committee are very busy ensuring the club continues to serve our members.
Below, I’ve added a few of the activities we’ve been running both online, on the air and a mixture of the two.
CARC Talks Online
Stewart, G3YSX has used his experience of working from home to organise series of WebEx talks and discussions for club members online. We are sending invitations for these by email to all members. Click on the link just before the advertised time and if haven’t already done so you can choose to install the WebEx application or continue using your internet browser. I would recommend installing the application as it gives a consistent experience and access to some of the advanced features such as text chat, multimedia and voting. You don’t need a WebEx account just add your name when joining the talks as a guest.
WebEx supports both voice and video (if you have a webcam). I use a simple USB computer headset with a boom mic though this isn’t required to join in.
The CARC website event calendar will have details of these talks but you will need to use the link in the email to join as we can’t support more than 50 participants and want to keep access available to our members.
CARC On-Air Nets
We currently have two nets organised, one for Sunday morning (10:30BST on 80m 3.720MHz +/- QRM hosted by “Net Controller” Richard G3ZIY and the other on Wednesday evenings (19:30BST) on GB3MH, our local 2m FM repeater hosted by “Net Controller” Phil M0TZZ. Join us for a natter.
CARC Whats App Group
We have created an online WhatsApp Group for members. You should have received an invitation to this by individual email. At the time of writing, we have 24 members online in the group. WhatsApp is a messaging platform primarily for smartphone use but there is also very good web browser connectivity to use from a home PC or laptop. You’ll need to supply a mobile number when signing up to WhatsApp and this appears to te group as part of your identity so if you’d rather keep your mobile number private, this isn’t for you.
CARC Web SDR
To help members who don’t have access to an 80m radio we’ve added an Airspy HF+ receiver located at Hut18, connected to the 80m dipole to the Spyserver network. This means that members can access and tune the radio from home using the free SDR Sharp software.
Download the free software here, install and configure to connect to the CARC receiver.
Configuration is simple. Open the SDRSharp program on your computer and follow the steps in the pictures below:
I’ve set a limit of ten connected users at any one time. The first one to connect can tune the radio, others will be able to listen to whatever is tuned. Give it a try.
CARC Suspends Meetings
Given the recently updated advice from the UK Government advising against all non-essential social contact, CARC will not be holding our regular meetings at Hut 18 for the foreseeable future.
We are hoping to offer members a series of virtual talks via Webex and to arrange club skeds on 2m and/or 80m. Keep an eye on your email inbox or check back here for updates.
Let’s hope this doesn’t last too long and we can return to a semblance of normal fairly soon.
Mike, G0KAD. CARC Chair.
2020, Solar Cycle 25
We are right at the bottom of the solar cycle between cycle 24 and 25. December 2019 saw the record for the most continuous time with NO sunspots observed at all. That’s not to say that there is nothing about to work. Since the New Year there has been a great deal of DX about. At CARC we have our very own ClubLog league. If you’re a CARC member you can join the CARC ClubLog group and have your QSOs recorded as they happen. Most modern computer logging software can be configured to automatically upload to ClubLog and your call will appear in the table below. We can expect to see HF conditions steadily improve over the next few years. Things will get (even) better.
VHF NFD 2018 (The Big One)
This is the big contest of the year for CARCRATS. We’ll be looking to defend last year’s win which will need the maximum effort of on all five bands.
We’ll be using the upgraded 70cm system tried in the March contest and will also have a repaired and upgraded 23cm system on the air.
Everyone is welcome, indeed everyone is essential. We’ll be on site from 1500 local time on Friday, July 6th with the contest starting at 1500L on Saturday afternoon.
Please do join us for a fun packed weekend up on the cliff at Swingate.
Reigate ATS and Crawley ARC Win VHF NFD
A fantastic effort by the combined team from our two local clubs has been rewarded by winning the Open Section of the RSGB premier annual VHF contest. The team operated on five bands (6m, 4m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm) with the best four scores counting towards the overall result. The final score is 3862 for RATS/CARC with Colchester in 2nd place on 3839, a very close run thing.
The team are planning on being QRV in the 2m Trophy contest on 2nd/3rd September with a location to be confirmed. Why not come along and see what’s involved, get your hands dirty and work some DX.
73 Mike, G0KAD
Crawley ARC and Reigate ATS win the RSGB May 2m Contest
A great effort by the team resulted in a much increased score and 1st place in the May RSGB 2m contest. 461 valid QSOs were made in 24hours at an average distance of over 350km. The best DX was into Bulgaria at over 2000km. If you want to join the fun come along to VHF NFD on 1/2 July when we will be using our winning site near Dover. Speak to Mike, G0KAD ot Alex, M1YAP for more details.
http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin//vhfresults.pl?Contest=144MHz%20May%20Contest&year=2017