WADARC meets at – TS Vanguard, 9a Broadwater Road, Worthing. BN14 8AD.
THE PAST WEEK
We were supposed to be finding a noise source in TS Vanguard, on VHF/UHF last week, but there was nothing conclusive to work on. Dave’s portable spectrum analyser showed a spike around 149MHz, but that was steady and likely to be legitimate and certainly wasn’t within an Amateur band. Another possibility is that because some of us were using unshielded handhelds (plastic cases) the noise was getting into the IF part of the rig and not down the aerial. That said, it was interesting to watch Jonathan, G1EXG nulling out HF noise, using his homebrew loop antenna – indoors!
Bryan, G0SIU managed to get his KX3 to match the HF dipole that feeds the shack right now. Not sure if any actual QSOs took place, but there was a lot of CW to be heard.
For my part, I concentrated on trying to get the FT101ZD to transmit. The reason it didn’t TX last time we tried it is because the link to the PA heaters was not made on the rear accessory plug. There’s a cable coming out of the plug which is terminated in a DIN plug, but we don’t yet know what it should be plugged in to. Linear? Transverter? Tuner? We will find out when Roger brings the rest of the boxes that came with it, probably in a week or so. In the meantime, I found some solder and formed a crude link and was able to get transmit power out of the rig.
This coming Tuesday is the first leg of the annual Foxhunt. Dorian, 2E0FSI will be the fox and will be transmitting on 145.425MHz FM at regular intervals, starting at 7.30pm local time. There is no fixed starting place for fox hunters, so it is probably a good idea to find a high spot to define the first bearing. If you get lost or can’t hear the Fox, please use talk-back via GB3WO.
For those not taking an active part in the Foxhunt, we will be meeting as usual at TS Vanguard at 8.00pm (no earlier) and it should be possible to follow progress from there. Tea and biscuits will be available.
Further details and rules for the Foxhunt have already been posted on the club reflectors, please read your emails.
CLUB MEETINGS & EVENTS
- 1st leg of our annual Foxhunt – Tuesday 16th April – 1st transmission at 7.30pm – Meet at TS Vanguard from 8.00pm onwards
- Tea and Chat with On the Air FTCALL – Tuesday 23rd April – 8.00pm-10.00pm – TS Vanguard
- Practical – Building a Co-Ax based transmitting loop – Tuesday 30th April – 8.00pm-10.00pm – TS Vanguard
For further information as it occurs, please visit the WADARC website: www.wadarc.org.uk
NETS
Monday – 2 metres 145.425 MHz, FM, 7.30pm (local)
Thursday – 40 metres 7.106 MHz +/-QRM, SSB, 11.00am (local)
Saturday – 70 cms on GB3WO, 7.00pm (local)
Sunday – 80 metres 3.712 MHz +/- QRM, SSB, 7.30am-8.00am (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 2018 edition published – http://www.wadarc.org.uk/ragchew/winter-2018-9
PROPAGATION
HF and VHF:
RSGB propagation info can be found by following this link: https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/propagation-news/2019/03/29/propagation-news-31-march-2019/
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=2019
FINALÉ
Thanks to Chris – G3UFS, Roger – G4TNT, Jonathan – G1EXG, and Roger – G7VBR for donations of biscuits for our weekly meetings. We should now be good for a few weeks.
73,
Alan. G4GNX
