Also in GB2RS this week…

Have you voted yet in the RSGB elections? If not, please take a few minutes to go to www.rsgb.org/agm and make sure your voice is heard. The deadline for receipt of votes is 23:59 on Thursday the 19th of April 2018.

The British Amateur Television Club has announced that its 2018 convention, CAT 18, will take place at the Midland Air Museum on the weekend of the 15th and 16th September 2018. More information will be available via the BATC website.

The RSGB is pleased to welcome Dr Martin Sach, G8KDF to the role of Chair of the EMC Committee. Martin has a strong background in electronic engineering and communications. He has been the EMC Vice Chair for some time and is thus well-acquainted with current issues in the Committee’s areas of interest. Martin replaces Dr John Rogers, M0JAV who was Chair for over six years. Members will have seen the results of John’s recent efforts on VDSL RFI, working with BT and Ofcom. His RadCom articles and Convention presentations show what evidence can be gathered by any amateur driving around with straightforward equipment. We thank him for all he has done.

Adding to the existing guidance at tinyurl.com/radcompix Royal Photographic Society Licenciate Alan Messenger, G0TLK, has published some tips on how you can take better pictures of amateur radio events and portable activity this spring and summer. You can find them at tinyurl.com/GB2RS-0804A and his site also has guidance on image editing and generally taking better pictures.

We learned recently from QRP Labs that the first EU to USA contact on 136kHz was achieved by Chris, 2E0ILY and Paul, N1BUG. They used the slow, Morse-like mode DCFW, which uses a small frequency shift to indicate ‘dit’ or ‘dah’. They used a 60 second dot-equivalent and a 0.25Hz frequency shift, leading to a far higher signal to noise ratio than pure Morse – but at the expense of speed. The successful system was running at about one word per hour and it took four nights to complete the contact. More details are at www.n1bug.com/LFMF/

Category: GB2RS Headlines