Amateur radio in West Sussex - Training, Exams, Contests and Special Event Stations

Weekly Bulletin – April 26 2020

THE PAST WEEK

Great to see a new edition of Ragchew. Thanks Roger and all of those who contributed. If any member has an item of interest for the next edition, please send it to Roger as soon as possible.

The GWhip antennas parts arrived in good time and I also have some extra large heatshrink sleeving, but I’m just waiting for some 1 inch ferrite cores, so the OSCFD antenna isn’t repaired yet, but hopefully it won’t be long. Having used it again last Thursday on 40m, I’m convinced that something in the antenna structure is getting too hot and changing the tuning, hence the change of SWR which is mostly fixed by a re-tune.

Alastair, M0OAL has setup a Doodle Poll for you to show your interest in some online lectures. This can be found at: https://doodle.com/poll/4yizg5qst7daxtvi  11 of us so far when I last checked. C’mon people, please join in and register your interest (or not).

Please keep on joining in on the club nets. It’s one of our best ways of keeping in touch with each other and helps to promote WADARC activities.

I had a short opportunity to checkout the SDRPlay unit that’s been donated to the Club. Once the software is setup and an antenna attached (I used 20ft of thin wire for HF) the unit gives a good account of itself and it pulls in many signals. I’ve ordered some antenna adaptors for it and as soon as they arrive, it will be going out to the first recipient. If any of you have no RX capabilities right now, please feel free to contact me and be put on the list to try out the SDRPlay.

Stay home – stay safe……………….

CLUB MEETINGS AND EVENTS – All suspended for the time being and replaced by nets. Coming soon – online talks – watch this space.

  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 28th April – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net each evening (Mon-Thurs) on 3.712MHz – 6.00pm onwards
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 5th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 12th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 19th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm
  • Net on GB3WO – Tuesday 26th May – 8.00pm-10.00pm

For further information as it occurs, please visit the WADARC website: http://www.wadarc.org.uk

NETS

Monday – 2 metres 145.425 MHz, FM, 7.30pm (local)

Tuesday – 70cms on GB3WO, FM, 8.00pm (local)

Thursday – 40 metres 7.106 MHz +- QRM, SSB, 11.00am (local)

Saturday – 70cms on GB3WO, 7.00pm (local)

Sunday – 80 metres 3.712 MHz +- QRM, SSB, 7.30am – 8.00am (local)

Weekday evenings – 80 metres 3.712 MHz +- QRM, SSB, 6.00pm (local)

RALLIES

Local, national and some international rallies can be found by visiting this excellent website: http://www.g4rga.org.uk/All.html

RAGCHEW

Winter 2019/2020 edition published – http://www.wadarc.org.uk/ragchew/spring-2020

PROPAGATION

HF and VHF

RSGB propagation information can be found by following this link: https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/propagation-news/2020/04/24/propagation-news-26-april-2020/

BEACONS

VHF:

GB3WSX – IO80QW – 70.007 MHz

GB3BAA – IO91PS – 70.016 MHz

F1ZXK – JN18KF – 144.438 MHz

F5ZSF – IN88GS – 144.409 MHz

GB3VHF – JO01EH – 144.430 MHz

ON0VHF – JO20HP – 144.418 MHz

UHF:

F5XBA – JN18KF – 432.830 MHz

GB3UHF – JO01EH – 432.430 MHz

ON0UHF – JO20ET – 432.567 MHz

DX NEWS

HF:

WADARC members (and others) can subscribe to the DX News service without joining ARRL.
Send an email to this address: w1aw-list-request@arrl.org
In the subject line put the word Subscribe followed by your email address
ARRL will send an acknowledgement and you will receive the weekly DX News as an email, usually on a Friday

VHF/UHF:

The RSGB VHF/UHF Contest and Activity calendar is available via this link: https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/readcal.pl?year=2020

FINALÉ

I thought you might care to consider this:

Fresh cow dung can stop coronavirus

Dip both your hands in fresh cow dung before going out.

This will make sure that:

  1. You will not touch your eyes, nose, ears, or mouth
  2. No one will shake hands with you
  3. No one will come near you when you are out in the streets
  4. You will wash your hands thoroughly before you eat

Vy 73,

Alan. G4GNX