Monday the 20th of January 2014 saw the first Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society Skills Workshop. This new initiative is aimed at providing help and advice for those new to the hobby, allowing amateurs of all levels to try something new, and offering more experienced operators the chance to pass on their knowledge to the next generation of amateurs.
Forty-five ladies and gents braved the fog to show support for this first event, including one former CARS graduate making the trip from Sudbury in Suffolk, as well as candidates from the current CARS Foundation training course.
The first Skills Workshop was intended as a social get-together to run through some ideas of what areas upcoming events should focus on, and to whet people’s appetites, a number of demonstrations were on offer:
- An Echolink station manned by Jim 2E0RMI, using his homebrew Slim-Jim antenna
- A laptop showing live APRS packets being received on 2m, decoded and displayed on a map of Essex.
- Homebrew projects including a desk mic and a Digimode interface, brought along by Charlie M0PZT
- A collection of bits of hardware brought along by Andy G0IBN and Colin M1OCN, from the Essex CW Club
CARS Chairman John G1UZD kicked off the evening with a quick introduction on the importance of offering skills training, before handing over to the event’s co-ordinator Pete M0PSX to run through the evening’s agenda, introduce the team, and explain the thinking behind the workshops.
Pete outlined that a number of problems have to be addressed to keep amateur radio alive – helping newer licencees to stay engaged, helping M6s to progress, and making existing amateurs to stay engaged with the many aspects of the hobby. By running Skills Workshops that are driven by attendees feedback and questions, the team hopes to be able to offer demand-led demonstrations, mentoring, and support.
Monday Night is traditionally a Monday Night Net on GB3DA. A 2m station was set up at the venue (doubling as the APRS station), but with so many of the ‘net regulars meeting in Danbury (the home of GB3DA), the repeater was a little quiet. A couple of contacts were made on GB3DA from the venue, with Pete M0PSX working the net “/A” (for the first time. The net will be back, as normal, next Monday.
A new logging application was unveiled at the first Skills event – uLog, written by Chelmsford-based Charlie Davy M0PZT, offers a fast and no-fuss way to log contacts, and Charlie ran through the basics of the application for the audience – The ‘flexi-input’ was of particular interest, as you can type the QSO details into a single box, and the software intelligently works out which field to enter the QSO details. Download this free and fast logger at www.m0pzt.com/?ulog
A big thanks to everyone who turned up at this event – far more than was expected, and it was so good to see so many friendly faces. Thanks to the CARS training team, especially David G3SVI and Myra M0MYR for their hard work and support. Also to Jim 2E0RMI, Charlie M0PZT, Peter M0PSD and the Essex CW Club for bringing along things to show-and-tell, and to Sarah M6PSK for the help.
Event Video
Take a look at the following video for more details:
Photo Gallery
It’s hoped that the second in the series of Skills Sessions will be held in mid-February, again on a Monday Night – To find out about upcoming Skills Workshops, register at www.hamskills.co.uk
Nice to know CARS will still be going in 2104 !
Hi Tony – We’re very forward-thinking, you know! Great to meet you last night. I could get used to these “live” Monday nets!
An excellent evening – congratulations to CARS & Pete for organising this – and it was a good reminder about what amateur radio is about – fun, technical challenges, looking at new systems, & drinking tea ! As a respected member of the audience said – we are the first social network… Here’s to the next time…
Jim 2E0RMI
Thanks Jim, and thanks for your help too. Looked like you were pretty busy on the Echolink station. I’ll put you down as a volunteer for a repeat performance!
Well done guys, a fantastic initiative and a good turn out.
Keep up the good work and spread the ‘formula’ so that other Clubs can learn from your ground breaking work.
73, Steve, G0FUW
Many thanks Steve. It was great to see so many turn out for the first one, and we’ve had some great feedback to help with the next event in February. I’m working on a short video that gives more of a feel of what went on, which might be of use to other clubs. Thanks for the kind words, Pete M0PSX
look like a gd night was had by all sorry I couldn’t make it but had prior engagement
No worries Terry – Next one is set for 17 Feb – hope to see you there?
Wow, what a night it was – a great turn-out and lots of interest in the various ideas/projects. Nice to put a few faces to voices that we’ve heard on the Monday ‘net, Rob M0KCP, Jason M3RYT and Lee M6DNR were 3 that I recall speaking to.
The only thing that I didn’t get around to investigating were the biscuits!
You missed the Jammie Dodgers then… Great demo of uLog – I can see takeup for that being good. It’s featured in the new video.
Quite an impresive turn out well done pete and members of c.a.r.s. It was nice to put a face to a few Callsigns.
Nice to see you there Neil – twice in two days, no less!
Peter,
Congratulations on all of your great work.
Lovely Group photo.
If I may I would like to put your Links on the CARS Web Site.
As Jim said “Amateur Radio” was going before Facebook!
I like the look of the uLog Program – everyone has felt the National Logging Programs are produced for all people and therefore got too bit and complex for simply Weekend Logging.
John G8DET.
Hi John,
Thanks for the kind words – A great team effort by all involved, and some very positive feedback. Here’s to the next one!
Superb job everyone thanks to all the people that gave up there time to show how good amature radio can be, being new to the hobby this is ideal for me a great community spirit with a bunch of friendly helpfull people
M6DNR
Lee
Thanks for the comments Lee (and for your email) – Glad you liked it. We really had no idea how well it would go, but judging by the comments, we’re on the right track! Cheers, Pete
Yes a very good night. Well done c.a.r.s & Peter. I had a couple of questions on amplifiers which were answered very quickly. Looking forward to the next skills workshop, nice to meet some of the Monday night net voices. Once again well done guys.
Paul M0PXD
Hi Paul,
Great to see you again, and glad to hear you enjoyed it. See you at the next one? All the best, Pete