LoRa-APRS as used in SOTA
LoRa1 usage is coming on in leaps and bounds, and exciting new-ish tech that is very different from traditional Amateur Radio modulation schemes offering dif...
posts by Year
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SAQ Alexanderson day
SAQ came up this morning sending out message on their VLF frequency of 17.2kHz The signal was received quite clearly. An 8kHz sampled copy of the audio sign...
IoAARC AGM 2024 on Friday 17th May 2024
We held an AGM this Friday Friday 17th May 2024 at Site 2 This has been held, minutes are available as a PDF. Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club AGM Date: ...
Marconi Day GB2MRS SES at Somerton Radio Station
John G8VZA together with Mid Somerset Amateur Radio Club (MidSARC) have been looking at putting the old Marconi radio station at Somerton1 on the air for Mar...
Programming the Anytone AT778UV using CHIRP
At the club last night I programmed John G8VZA’s Anytone AT778UV(VOX) using the hand mic and the front panel. It was tough going - over a quarter of an hour ...
Meshtastic Revisited
You do not have to be a licensed radio amateur to use Meshtastic, anybody can use it, provided you use the correct frequency bands for Europe. Meshtastic ...
OFCOM changes to the amateur radio licence
This is a pretty big deal in the UK amateur radio world, while not one of our events specifically: General notice of decision to vary amateur radio licenc...
replacing a LCD suffering from zebra stripes in a Yaesu FT897
I bought this rig in 2006, and it is getting elderly. I have already had to replace one stock fault, the Toko ceramic IF filters, and now I get to deal with ...
OHIS Audio Interface Standardisation for Multiple Operator working
OHIS is an attempt to harmonise rig audio accessory interfaces, a bit like CAIRO and the 6-pin packet/data interface
Kanga Mini Transmatch Kit
I built this mini-transmatch in advance of getting a QDx transceiver. The QDx has a rep for being persnickety about loading, in particular the BS170 finals s...
2023
Christmas Eve with SAQ at 8 am
SAQ came up this morning sending out a Christmas Eve message on their VLF frequency of 17.2kHz The signal was received quite clearly. An 8kHz sampled copy o...
FLDigi over Android on 70cms FM with andFLmsg
This an Amateur Radio take on a similar theme as Meshtastic which we experimented with last year, text comms in an group out of mobile phone range, this time...
Wireless Set WS38 from the Second World War
Amateur radio covers a variety of interests, more so nowadays since technology lets you do more, often with less. Club members have been into digital voice, ...
Glastonbury Tor HEMA Activation
Glastonbury Tor is our local hill, 158m high. This is a HEMA summit G/HSC-006. Glastonbury Tor is a popular tourist attraction - this is St Michae...
Using a Yaesu Fusion rig on DMR via a Pi-Star node (update)
This is an update to the previous post about hooking up a Yaesu Fusion rig to a DMR talkgroup using Pi-Star. Several things have changed about DMR and GB7FI ...
SAQ loud and clear in Glastonbury on Alexanderson Day 10:00 and 13:00 UTC
SAQ is a mechanical low-frequency TX at 17.2kHz, designed in the 1920s to send telegraphy across the Atlantic, over an open-water route, to Riverhead, Long I...
A SOTA digimode station using the KX3 and xggcomms Digimode-4-USB
I run digimodes at home using a FT897, but remotely in a shed up the garden, using a Raspberry Pi4 to run WSJT-X or FLdigi. In the beginning I used a separat...
IoAARC AGM 2023 on Friday 30th June 2023
We will hold an AGM this Friday 30th June 2023 at Site 2 Full agenda is available as a PDF. Update This has been held, minutes are available as a PDF. Is...
SAQ loud and clear on World Radio Day 15:00Z
SAQ is a mechanical low-frequency TX at 17.2kHz, designed in the 1920s to send telegraphy across the Atlantic, over an open-water route, to Riverhead, Long I...
2022
Trying Out Meshtastic
Meshtastic isn’t amateur radio, but it’s interesting stuff done with radio, worthy of interest. It uses LoRA, but in a peer-to-peer mode rather than infrast...
SAQ Grimeton 50th UNESCO anniversary transmission received on 17.2kHz
SAQ is a lovely old non-electronic transmitter - a 200kW alternator directly generating the RF signal at 17.2kHz - the CW is modulated using a magnetic ampli...
Weston Rally and Worlebury Fort SOTA chase
Matt 2E0FNT and I went to Weston Rally, we met some other radio amateurs, this time neither of us bought anything. I was tempted by a vacuum capacitor, but I...
T2LT antenna for CB and 10m
M0JII brought along a T2LT1 antenna he had constructed for 11m CB, so I thought I would give it a try on the club CB net, UKCB channel 34, and later on I tri...
Have Your Say Meeting
We held a Have Your Say meeting to canvass ideas for what radio activities people wanted to see. We had nine people at the meeting, the results are in the mi...
Wills Neck SOTA activation
I activated Wills Neck on the Quantock Hills near Exmoor today, using a handheld Yaesu FT3DE and a flowerpot antenna. This was much less of a battle than Bea...
developing a ferrite rod receiver for SAQ at 17.2kHz
SAQ is a mechanical low-frequency TX at 17.2kHz, and usally transmits a signal on Alexanderson Day, the next one is Sunday, July 3, 2022. Unfortunately they ...
Ailunce HS1 (mcHF clone) trials and tribulations
The Ailunce HS1 is quite a useful QRP HF rig, but it’s quirky as hell, and not really supplied in a usable form. The documentation sucks bricks, and needs a ...
SOTA Activation of Beacon Batch
Matt 2E0FNT and I decided to activate Beacon Batch G/SC003, travelling up to time things to match with the club 70cm net at 21:00 BST. The weather was fine, ...
Frequency testing with GPSDO
I use quite an old Yaesu FT897, getting on for 16 years old. Not old enough to be venerated as vintage, but old enough to be getting on for decrepit and occa...
IoAARC AGM 2022 on Friday 27th May 2022
We will hold the the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club AGM, to be held on Friday 27th May 2022. Full version is available as a PDF. Update This has been h...
Yaesu FT3DE mic connector pinout and wiring
I have a Yaesu FT3DE with on-board APRS, FM and Fusion/C4FM. I wanted to plug an external mic into it, and use an earpiece for the audio. Because: SOTA among...
Satellite Project
Dear all, as the token AMSAT member I get to do this, in the hope of attracting more interest. Anyone motivated by any of this to get involved please do so....
Exercise Blue Ham result
We made many contacts on the second day of Exercise Blue Ham, another lovely sunny day. We used the same setup as on the first day. A good start in the morn...
Exercise Blue Ham Day 1
Great day on Exercise Blue Ham, we have set up the club station with a 60m flat NVIS dipole which Chaz, Mike and Matt rigged on Wednesday. We caught the prob...
Blue Ham Setup
We were rigging the antenna for Blue Ham in 2022, and to get it out of the way fo the car park we thought we would try it a bit more east-west than north-sou...
Exciting Start To The New Year
This was meant to be a reasonably quiet start to the year with a committee meeting just before the first meeting of the year. We propose the AGM for Saturday...
2021
doing Exercise Blue Ham as a team again
It was a relief to be able to do Exercise Blue Ham again as a club, after the tumultuous interruptions of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s also the 80th annive...
RS0ISS SSTV from the International Space Station
At the Friday meeting Matt 2E0FNT was trying to receive the ISS with an ipad using the lightning connector - it was news to me1 that there was any ISS activi...
Fish And Chips Social
Now that England has lifted most Covid restrictions we look forward to meeting up more, and what better way to celebrate that with a great meal of fish and c...
VHF/UHF Field day
We took the opportunity to try out Site 2 for VHF/UHF field day. We are never going to set the bands alight from a site at sea level, but it has a good clear...
ARISS award
The club received this diploma for our participation in receiving images from the ISS in June MX0IOA ISS participation award The explanatio...
More ISS tinkering - trying different approaches to ARISS-SSTV
the essentials Like everything in amateur radio, you can put a lot of effort to get an optimal solution. However, for a quick easy-ish win: High altitude p...
Celebrating the Summer Solstice with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station - SSTV
This is about receiving pictures in Glastonbury from the International Space Station using slow scan TV (SSTV). The ISS passed over Glastonbury on the Summer...
First 2021 Meeting In Person
We had our first in person meeting today at 7pm at Site 2. AARC club Membership Sec Mike 2E0RWW fronting the group, with Chairman Matt 2E0FNT in t...
IoAARC AGM 2021 held on Friday 30th April 2021
See below for headlines only, the full version is available as a PDF with more details of the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary’s report, and wider plans for...
Proposed IoAARC AGM 2021 on Friday 30th April 2021
Proposal for the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club AGM, to be held on 30th April 2021. This is where we look at what we have achieved last year and what we a...
replacing the ceramic IF filters in a Yaesu FT897
I bought this rig in 2006, and these rigs use three ceramic IF filters from Toko, which is/was a large Japanese manufacturer of RF components. Even the Japan...
Raspberry Pi Lan Remote Setup
I am lucky enough to have an outbuilding with mains power, which is the obvious place for the radio gear. I have used FLdigi successfully for digimodes with ...
Rig Expert AA-650 Zoom review
The AA-650 Zoom is a new product from the renowned Ukrainian company Rig Expert, and was obtained from Martin Lynch & Sons for £572 delivered. This is a ...
2020
South-West HF Data Net - Datamodes
Datamode Net We have been experimenting with datamode nets which are a way of getting signals out with much less power and bandwidth requirements than SSB v...
Using FL Net with British callsigns
One of the challenges with running digimode nets is getting callsigns into the program when people are next up. You either end up trying to type them into th...
SW daytime Data Net results, 14th Dec
This is a follow-up to the 80m SW wide net, it was a lot more successful than the last Tuesday evening’s attempt. All stations were able to copy each other, ...
SW Data Net Experiment, Monday 14th December 2020 13:00 GMT
This is a follow-up to the 80m SW wide net we trialled last Tuesday, we aim to work with the grain of propagation to see if we can improve regional coverage ...
SW 80m data net experiment - results
This 80m data net took place yesterday at 9pm to about 10:30pm, I have collated the results from the participants and listeners. We have a way to go to get a...
SW Data Net Experiment, Tuesday 8th December 2020 21:00 GMT
This Tuesday we trialled an 80m SW wide net, using NVIS 1 The critical frequency falls at night, so 80m is not a bad choice for an evening net, however, skip...
Teaching Joint Services Voice Operating Procedure to Members of the ATC
In my last article on Worked All Britain , I mentioned that I progressed to Amateur Radio from my time in the Air Training Corps. In this article, I will out...
Data Net 80m Experiments
On Tuesdays we often have a data net on 10m at 28.118MHz centre frequency, which was initially chosen so that we could mess about with a low risk of botherin...
Using a Yaesu Fusion rig via a Pi-Start hotspot on DMR for South-West TG810 on GB7FI
Quite a lot has changed with DMR and GB7FI since this was written. The basics are the same this post updates the Phoenix server details and where you can mo...
Worked All of Britain, My Experience
I have been a Radio Amateur for a number of years now, coming into the hobby via the Air Training Corps; where I used to teach radio to cadets. After a coup...
Setting up DMR for simplex and use on the GB7FI Phoenix-UK repeater
Many members of the club have the Anytone AT878UV DMR/analogue handheld. It’s quite a neat rig, with GPS, APRS, FM voice and DMR at a reasonable price point ...
Data Net Experiments On 10m
We have been experimenting with data modes, using the 10m frequency of 28.118 MHz. Beforehand, all stations had been in the Glastonbury area, and signal stre...
Patching Freetrak APRS tracker to work with modern GPS modules
As part of looking at typical PMR446 coverage, I want to use APRS on PMR446. I want to get a Freetrak APRS tracker to automatically key the Tx and then walk/...
Floureon PMR446 connector pinout for APRS tracker
As part of looking at typical PMR446 coverage, I want to use APRS on PMR446. I want to get a Freetrak APRS tracker to automatically key the Tx and then walk/...
Coronavirus pandemic: Club meetings at Scout Hut cancelled until further notice
Update from Matt IoAARC Chairman: It doesn’t look like we are going to be having meetings in person for the rest of this year given the situation and word f...
PMR446 coverage experimentation
This is a follow-on to yesterday’s Friday Night Net experiments I have three PMR446 rigs, a Retevis RT24 and a Floureon bright orange rig from Amazon and a ...
Friday Night Net PMR446 coverage experimentation
We were experimenting with a new format of the net for Friday, also listening on PMR channel 08 for a separate PMR446 net. It was a chance for compare the pe...
Emcomms Experimentation And Enquiry
NB this is the author’s personal opinion, not the view of the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club To most UK radio amateurs, Emergency communications means Ra...
Friday Night Net
We have decided to hold a net on Friday night to replace our meetings which have been cancelled due to the rise in coronavirus cases. Please do not attend e...
Coronavirus pandemic: Club meetings at Scout Hut cancelled until further notice
Sorry to bring bad news but I would like to express my concerns regarding the new law that comes into place in England from Monday 14th September 2020. The ...
Site 2 outside field meeting, testing Raspberry Pi field computer
The weather looked fine among the thunderstorms, so we held this week’s meeting outside at the field known as Site 2. AARC field meeting Ma...
SOTA ideas, grass now cut at the Scout hall so we can use the outside space
Matt M6MQB very kindly got a pasture topper onto the scout hut grass which was chest high (see pic from last time below) so we can use some of the Summer wea...
Club meetings at Scout Hut recommenced from Friday 10th July
After a safety and social distancing review of the Scout hut on the 3rd July I am pleased to announce that from Friday 10th July we will be reopening the clu...
Tuesday Digital Modes And Morse Net
Following last night’s experiments on 10m by a few club members, it was decided to start a regular digimodes net, beginning next Tuesday evening, at 2100 loc...
Exercise Blue Ham - a placeholder performance
The coronavirus pandemic meant that the club had a very reduced effort on this exercise. The 60m band is restricted to Full licensees only, so Richard G7LEE ...
Training And Exam Changes
We have observed an uptick in people looking to do Foundation during this pandemic and the lockdown. We are offering a Foundation online course given by Mike...
Exercise Blue Ham - 72 contacts certified by RAFAC
Exercise Blue Ham have very kindly updated the score from last weekend’s exercise and issued us with our contact certificate - 72 contacts recorded. It was a...
Coronavirus pandemic: Club meetings at Scout Hut cancelled until further notice
As my role as chairman of the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club I have a duty of care to all members and visitors to the club. Following other clubs and even...
Exercise Blue Ham - a successful weekend
The station was set up on the day before and the antenna tuned. AARC Chairman Matt 2E0FNT at the dipole centre We used the Club callsign MX...
Exercise Blue Ham Setup
Matt 2E0FNT and I have have set up the club station with a 60m flat NVIS dipole at 5.8m height above ground, engineered by Chaz. We learned from last time to...
Minutes of IoAARC AGM 2020 on Friday 17th Jan 2020
Reminder of the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club AGM, to be held on Friday 17th January 2020. This is where we look at what we have achieved last year and w...
Crystal Oscillator For Intermediate Practical
The Amateur Radio training syllabus was changed last year, and the practicals are more extensive and more prescriptive. At Intermediate there is a new sectio...
2019
Christmas Meal Celebrating A Successful Year
We celebrated a successful 2019 at the Christmas meal - we took four people through the exams this year and took part in Exercise Blue Ham three times with g...
So what’s all this Digital Voice Stuff Anyhow?*
Private mobile radio has largely gone digital in the professional world, with the advantages of narrower bandwidth (6.25kHz as opposed to 12.5kHz for analogu...
Notification of the IoAARC AGM 2020
It’s the time of year to start thinking about what we want to achieve in 2020, this is formal notice of the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio Club AGM, to be held...
Changes to IoAARC meeting schedule over Christmas and the New Year
Our meeting schedule is changed over the Christmas and New Year period as follows: Friday 13th December last club meeting at scout hut of 2019 (with balance...
Book now for IoAARC Christmas Meal
Please could everyone let us know their plans for the Christmas meal at the Brewer’s Inn, Glastonbury with their choice and cost of their meal. We are bookin...
CAIRO Audio Interface Standardisation for Multiple Operator working
Exercise Blue Ham showed us we may need to have multiple operators working a rig, or in a contest it would be handy for a second person to be able to do some...
Halloween Activation of Glastonbury Tor for HEMA
Mike 2E0RWW activated Glastonbury Tor this Halloween. The Tor is our local HEMA summit, designated G/HSC-006 in HEMA The Tor was very busy on Halloween, so ...
An 80m Spiral Loop
It’s always tough to get on 80m. Two of us in the IoAARC have an interest in Worked all Britain (WAB) who have their nets on 80m - propagation often favours ...
Scout Hut Work Party
Several members of the Isle of Avalon Amateur Radio club helped the Scouts tidy up the Scout Hut (where we hold our Friday meetings) and cut some undergrowth...
Exercise Blue Ham - 56 contacts certified by RAFAC
Exercise Blue Ham have very kindly updated the score and issued us with our contact certificate - 56 contacts recorded. Congratulations to 2E0RWW who did the...
Exercise Blue Ham October
Mike 2E0RWW has raised our game with Exercise Blue Ham where Amateur radio operators contact military stations staffed by air cadets from RAFAC on the shared...
Weston Rally
Six members of IoAARC travelled to Weston-Super-mare for the radio rally there. Communications between the two vehicles were interrupted by one of us opening...
IOAARC Exam training passes
We have been busy over the past few months training up our candidates to get through the Amateur Radio examinations. This Friday night we celebrated the resu...
Glastonbury Tor Activation of HEMA summit G/HSC-006
Glastonbury Tor is our local summit, 158m high. It is 5 meters short of being a Marilyn, because these require a prominence (ie height above surrounding area...
Exercise Blue Ham Certificate
Between 16-17 June the Club took part in Exercise Blue Ham, in which trainee Service operators obtain on-air experience by contacting amateur stations. The C...
Using a Chinese radio testr spectrum analyser and tracking generator
Radio testr? Surely radio tester? No, really. Globalisation means you can get electronic gizmos from China at a fraction of the price they used to be, the ma...
Exercise Blue Ham June
The club continued the tradition of taking part in Exercise Blue Ham, our score for this weekend is 10. That is fewer contacts than we made in March, however...
A Simple Ferrite rod 1:1 HF balun
This was a follow-up from the earlier QRO balun I ran the same tests using an antenna analyser, based on W8JI’s basic balanced quality test for current balun...
Testing a 1:1 Guanella current balun
One of our members has crafted a QRO balun for our upcoming attempt at Exercise blue Ham on the 60m band. This is a 1:1 Guanella current balun (Theoretical t...
Royal Bath And West Show
We joined with MidSARC1 to staff a public exhibit and special event station GB0RBW at the prestigious Royal Bath and West show. the Amateur Radio ...
How To Make A Programming Cable For The Anytone 778uv
The Anytone AT-778UV mobile rig has been popular with members of the club, there are three of us with this. The price and functionality is right. Martin Lync...
WSPR amplifier for Raspberry Pi using a VN66AF Mosfet
The Raspberry Pi WSPR Tx is a bit low in power for 80m, so I used a VN66AF V-Mosfet to amplify the signal a bit. Power Mosfets have a very high input resista...
WSPR with a Raspberry Pi
We have been looking at setting up an event aerial at the Scout Hut, and the trouble with aerials is that propagation varies so dramatically. WSJT-X has a mo...
RSGB MGM contest 20-21 April 2019
Contests are the Marmite of amateur radio, you either love them or hate them. They are a numbers game, rather than a way to get to know your fellow amateurs ...
80m VFO for intermediate practical training
The Amateur Radio training syllabus requires a VFO, for trainees to calibrate by finding the band edges. I chose 80m for this - there is a standard circuit u...
Yeovil ARC QRP Convention
Several members of IoAARC travelled in a minibus to Sherbone, where Yeovil amateur radio club were holding their 35th annual QRP convention. A good time was ...
Exercise Blue Ham Certificate
Between 16-17 March the Club took part in Exercise Blue Ham, which is an annual event in which trainee Service operators obtain on-air experience by contacti...
What We Learned From Exercise Blue Ham
Between 16-17 March the Club took part in Exercise Blue Ham, which is an annual event in which trainee Service operators obtain on-air experience by contacti...
Exercise Blue Ham Day 2
Another good day on Exercise Blue Ham, we brought up the cadet station contact score up to 12 Blue Ham 2019 score table (NB this is only live on the 16-17 Ma...
Exercise Blue Ham Day 1
Great day on Exercise Blue Ham, we have set up the club station with a 60m flat NVIS dipole at 5.8m height above ground, engineered by Chaz and rigged by Cha...