Monday the 22nd of October 2012 saw a get-together on DA, aimed at the new M6 licence-holders, but welcome to all. Lots of people, and lots to talk about. Here’s a summary:
The attendance list for tonight was as follows:
- M0PSX – Pete in Leigh-on-Sea, in the chair
- M6BZS – Ken in Eastwood
- M6BPK – Jim in Hullbridge
- M6ECG – Lucy in Brightingsea (Building 20m Antennas)
- 2E0TNC – Tom in Tiptree (congrats granddad!)
- M6KDP – Rob in Maldon
- 2E0RMI – Jim in Chelmford
- G1KPS – Brian in Canvey
- M6BZW – Fred in Maldon
- M6GEJ – Glynnis, Hullbridge
- 2E1GUA – James in Chelmsford
- M0IEO – Mark on Canvey (explaining that the fog is causing the 2 metre ducting)
- F4GYW – Nicolas in North France (Great skip conditions, and made for a good discussion!)
- G0BDY – Gary in Brentwood (Bellowing at Bruges)
- G0URK – Joel in Chelmsford
- G1EFL – Martyn in Chelmsford
- M6NXZ – Nikki, on a handheld at Writtle College
- M0WDG – Dave in Kent
- M0XLD – Paul, mobile in South Essex
- G7FFI – Keith in Rochford
- M6PSK – Sarah, taking us up to 21 participants, even if it was a last-minute cheat!
The topics discussed tonight included:
- Repeaters, and how they like narrow deviation to reduce interference to other repeaters
- The QRZ database appears to be down, due to an outage at Amazon web services
- Requests for more information on SOTA (One for G1FOA?)
- Setting up eQSL and getting cards from the RSGB Bureau
Talking to the ISS
One very smug Pete managed to send a packet to the ISS this evening, containing a word randomly picked by one of the Net participants. The word “Thames” was sent as packed and relayed to Europe from the International Space Station. As you can see from this screenshot from ariss.net, the signal was picked up in Germany, Italy and Ireland.
Thanks
… to everyone for taking part (especially our French guest star!) As a reminder, the GB3DA Danbury repeater is operated by the Essex Repeater Group – Donations are welcomed to keep the repeater running.
If you’re interested, happy to do the same next week – Monday the 29th of October
Got a comment? Please add it below:
Hi Pete,
Couldn’t make the net tonight as I still haven’t had an opportunity to sort out my hardware (outdoor antenna). Will be trying to get on next week. Been listening for most of the evening on my ICOM scanner (more sensitive receiver than my HT). Great discussion this evening, highlights for me:
10m discussion, I’m interested in this, spent some of my weekend reprogramming my 10m set for amateur frequencies, hope to get on there sometime (only HF hardware I have at the moment)
ISS APRS contact, *fantastic*, well done. Was checking out your weather data on APRS. I spent many years as a pro meteorologist specialising in automatic WX stations, so something I try to keep current with. Also, related to space topic, I have worked on some space hardware currently in orbit on WX satellites, e.g. NOAA K,L,M series, MWR instrument on Metop, HSB on Aqua etc.
Next steps for me: purchase desktop 2m/70cms set plus vertical colinear on garage roof (best I can do in my area!)
All the best and hope to make contact on the 2m net next week.
Cheers
Angus M6GZO
Hi Pete
Its nice to see you not getting too carried away contacting the iss tonight HI
You will have to show me the next time i pop round
Satelites aside mate you done another good net with such a variation in topics
I enjoy being a part of it
Well done mate
Tom
2E0TNC
Hi Pete & All
We’ve only just got back from Shropshire and due to the fact that I forget to take the PSU for the laptop we’ve been in communi cardo.
Saw your comment on SOTA, and I’m only too pleased to inpart a bit of information but ———–
as Santina M6TTR completed her first SOTA contact, first summit to summit and activated five summits perhaps she could give her take on it as well. (Give her something to talk about as she complains that she doesn’t know what to say).
As we came back yesterday afternoon 10m FM was wide open and the New York (USA) repeater was endstop. Interesting things were said I’ll say more on Monday. Also gave an insight into how not to behave on Amateur radio.
Peter
G1FOA
(Note to Pete. Check the call down list I think you have promoted someone)