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University Results Arrived!

peter — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:10:48 +0000

I know this really isn’t got anything to do with amateur radio but it’s important to me. This morning I received my final results for the pasted three years at Buckinghamshire New University in which I’ve been awarded a “First-Class Honours” degree in Multimedia Technology (Web Design).

Really pleased with the end result and 3 years of assignments and exams have paid off!

PSK Automatic Propagation Reporter

peter — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:21:56 +0000

I’ve been doing more digital modes of late and had far more time to try around with software again i noticed that Ham Radio Deluxe’s DM780 supported reporting to the propagation reporter. It works by automatically sending heard station reports to the reporter system which then gathers all the data it receives from around the world and then makes those reports available in nearly real-time via a Google Maps mash-up at http://psk.gladstonefamily.net/pskmap.html

I find this system useful in the way that I can put out a CQ call out on say 20m, and then a few minutes later look at the reporter system to see where I’m heard. Sometimes it’s surprising that someone in the states can hear your signal but you cannot hear anyone!

At the moment the only software which supports it is Digital Master 780, but there is a software development kit on the website http://www.pskreporter.info and I hope to see others implement the system and even better an API to allow others to use the data!

Radio Log (19th June 08)

peter — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:27:00 +0000

After not turning on the radio yesterday today I tried to make an extra effort to actually have a few contacts on HF, after turning the radio on and going to 20m I noticed there was a lot of short path I could hear good into Ireland and could hear signals only 30miles away. Then after a bit the conditions seemed to completely change and I could easily hear into Asia.

Thus today’s 13 contacts where

Ireland (SSB)
Netherlands (SSB)
Norway (SSB)
Serbia (RTTY)
Sweden (RTTY)
Thailand (RTTY)
India (RTTY)
Poland (PSK31)
Germany (PSK31)
Ukraine (PSK31)
Azerbaijan (PSK31)

Some of the digital qsos have been plotted on the map below

Radio Log (17th June 08)

peter — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:48:31 +0000

Today I went and visited Barry (G4AZN) to fix any computer issues he had and also try and work some radio from his place and it was a change to being at home! Conditions did seem rather poor 20m was pretty much dead, 40m was noisy and also quiet but did manage to work:

E73ESP -
GB0SI - Summer Isles EU092
JW7G – Svalbard Island

Plus I went on the local club net on 160m which I cannot do at home due to limited space!

Radio Log (16th June 08)

peter — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:14:14 +0000

After a weekend of no activity on the air I redeemed myself today and switched the radio on had a quick scan over 10m and 6m but didn’t hear any activity so decided to drop down to 10MHz and try some PSK31 as it had been a while since I was on this band.

After sending a CQ call out I had a nice stream of stations working into

Germany
France
Austria
Romania

Once this dried up I moved back to 20m PSK31 and worked into

Poland
Germany
Ukraine
Croatia – EU170

Then just as I was shutting things down for the night I worked into European Russia R45 the guy was booming 59+40. Bring on tomorrow and what conditions bring :).

Newbury & District ARS Boot Sale

peter — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:24:29 +0000

Today I went along to the Newbury & District Amateur Radio Society Boot Sale just on the northern edge of Newbury with Terry (G0LUQ) and my Dad (M3JFM) we left Oxford at 8am thinking that the A34 would probably be busy but we got that completely wrong and managed to drive down within 30mins!

Thankfully we were lucky to have good weather sunny and warm if you had the sun in your face, on arrival we went along to the Oxford and DARS pitch to see what they were flogging and have a chat.

By 9am the boot sale was getting busy and there was lots of things on sale some bargains some junk (Hey you get that anywhere!) although I didn’t pick up anything Dad found a few things which he was after and also picked up a Softrock SDR receiver for 40/80 as I couldn’t get mine to work!

Over all was a great day out, was nice to meet up with friends and catch up with the news, we left around 1:30pm and arrived back into Oxford in good time.

Radio Log (12th June)

peter — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:17:33 +0000

Today’s been rather slow in most aspects with the usual looking and applying for jobs, so this afternoon I took some time out to have a listen on the bands. First thing I checked was 6m and 10m but they were both ultra quiet so decided to move down onto 20m and check the digital end of the band.

I put a CQ call out on 14.070 and to my delight people started to come back although I didn’t work any new DXCCs I managed to work

Germany
Poland
France
Lithuania
European Russia
Finland

All in all had 9 contacts which is better than nothing

National Field Day 2008

peter — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:37:17 +0000

Last weekend was IARU Region 1 National Field Day and just like any other year the Oxford & District Amateur Radio Society, was taking part from the usual location at Worminghall, which is on the boundary of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Setup began on Friday afternoon once all antennas, tents etc were on site, and luckily the tower is stored on the farm where we normally operate from!

The first thing to go up was the Crushcraft A4S which had been given a good clean a week or two before the weekend, so it was all nice and shiny and hopefully would perform a lot better also setup was 40-80-160m dipoles.

While another team worked on putting up the two tents one for operating and the other used as a cook tent.

On Saturday Dad (M3JFM) and I decided to cycle up to the site which was 22miles round trip with each leg taking about 1 hour 10mins according to the small computer on my bike.

Arriving on site around 11am the equipment was being put into the operating tent this year it was G4FON’s Yaesu FT2000D and G3KLH’s ICOM IC737 and 2 laptops running some custom software made by G4FON.

While this was being setup the receiving antennas where erected K9AY loop (built by M0DDT) and an 80m dipole after this there was plenty of time for drinking tea and having a good old chinwag.

3 Years of University Completed

peter — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:17:30 +0000

Last Tuesday 13th May, I finished 3 years of being a University student studying BSc (Hons) Multimedia Technology (Web Design) at Buckinghamshire New University. It’s surprising how fast the time passed more so the last year with normal modules plus my final piece of project work on social networks.

So now I’m free, enjoying the fact I don’t have to write lots of assignments or take any more exams for the time being! Should get final results end of June/start of July and official graduation is in September.

My quest for employment begins and the next chapter of my life starts, with hopefully more time for amateur radio!

6m opening

peter — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:12:22 +0000

After spending most of the day doing revision for my Advanced Networks exam on Thursday, I decided to go check out the bands and to plug-in the Heil Sound FS-2 footswitch which I ordered for my dad (M3JFM).

After turning on the radio I noticed that 10m seemed to have some activity and quickly worked IA2IPY and S57S, at that point I decided to go check 6m was there was some spots showing up on the cluster within HRD.

Within an hour I managed to work:

HB8UT, DG7MHR, IW0SAF, OE6BMG, HA3UU, IZ5ICH, 9A2ZH, IW2NOR, OE9GHV, OK2KR, OE9MON, S57ET, DJ0AH, S57GTW, OK1VSL

Then I finished off working a few more on 10m

OE2008A, 2E0RNM, S51TA

Hopefully a sign of things to come!