#amateur licence radios

[crazydiscostu]

TIDRADIO TD-H3 5W GMRS Radio

The TIDRADIO TD-H3 5W GMRS Radio is a versatile communication device designed to meet the needs of enthusiasts, professionals, and hobbyists who require reliable connectivity in diverse environments. This two-way radio offers robust functionality for outdoor activities, emergency preparedness, and general communication. With a suite of innovative features and enhancements, the TD-H3 sets itself…

[cleverreports]

We report: we met a storm chaser today, and he and our expert chatted about amateur radio licences for a long time. While they were talking, the storm that the storm chaser had come to meet slowly started to unfurl. The clouds' shadows moved as they exchanged call signs.

[z-arcane]

i can get an amateur radio licence from the RSGB whenever I WANT

[g4ljw-amateur-radio]

Routine availability of paper exams to end on 31 December 2024

Currently 97% of amateur radio licence examinations are sat online using the TestReach platform, either at home under remote supervision or in a club setting. Following the implementation of Syllabus v1.6 on 1 September 2024, the new examination question bank will only be maintained online. Generating paper exams will involve significant additional work for the […] http://dlvr.it/TDNXzK

[kd8bxp]

Liked on YouTube: The Most Hackable Radio / Quansheng UV-K5(8) / UV-K6 / UV-K5

The Most Hackable Radio / Quansheng UV-K5(8) / UV-K6 / UV-K5 With a custom firmware this radio can send off grid messages at very long distances and receive a far wider frequency range than intended. This is the Quansheng UV-K5(8). It is an extremely cheap dual band handheld radio, but unlike similar radios before it, this might be the most hackable radio. Link to the firmware I've used in this video JOAQUIMORG: https://ift.tt/N0fPlaz You can install it using the online flasher: https://ift.tt/CPhauDR EGZUMER firmware (can be flashed directly from browser): https://ift.tt/hpflTm0 Custom version of CHIRP: https://ift.tt/LXBPT4f UVMOD online patcher: https://ift.tt/0nCLZdx 0:00 Intro 0:53 Physical properties 1:47 Modded frequency range 2:32 Off grid messaging 4:22 JOAQUIMORG and EGZUMER firmware 5:02 Amateur Radio Licence 6:24 More Quansheng functionality 6:57 Programming with CHIRP 7:23 More custom mods 7:36 Normal radio operation 8:07 Outro via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dt6ykstvOo

[cursedthing]

.welcome to the saga of "should I get into amateur radio so that I can be a nasty little creature and tinker with the equipment to my heart's desire but also play battleship with the amateurs". I need a licence for this.

[coolmoggy]

OFCOM consultation re amateur radio 2023

I definitely would not run 400 watts with this and an amplifier. Good on about 6 or 7 watts no matter what you have heard. OFCOM has published its proposals for changes to the amateur radio licence. I thought I should share my thoughts, so here is my two penn’orth; link to the OFCOM page below. Consultation: Updating the amateur radio licensing framework 2023 So, should each licensee only be…

[imlg0pdz]

May 2023 144MHz contest

RSGB May 144MHz Contest.

Once again the nomadic Invicta Contest group was very kindly hosted by the Bredhurst Amateur Radio Transmitting Society (BRATS). The BRATS are very fortunate to have a compact but very well-appointed clubhouse & shack with a large field at the rear of a pub high above Medway just off the M2. Thank you, BRATS.

The Invicta Contest Group (ICG) is a loose affiliation of Kent (& out of county amateurs) who wish to participate in VHF & up contesting. We tend to participate in the larger weekend contests. Ian Hope, M5IJH provides high power, legal limit, kit along with various arrays & the means of putting them high in the air. Stuff which most of us could not install or use in our average gardens surrounded by neighbours.

The ICG is a group in addition to & not instead of local clubs, many of whom do not or cannot support VHF contesting. ICG works with local clubs (like BRATS), has supported them with kit at their events or to demo the QRO kit. Whilst we are a contest group & want to do as well as we can in each contest we are not ‘rabid’ in our approach. We are very content to introduce the novice into operating & don’t mind sacrificing the contact rate to give a newcomer of the returning ham the experience of working a contest. Obviously, we have to work within with licencing conditions as well as contest rules, but they are our only hard limits on who operates.

The May 144MHz contest is one of the first ‘big’ weekend contests & with the weather starting to warm up is usually well supported. This year the ICG decided to run a ‘proper’ weekend event. That means the trailer tent to provide the shack, kitchen & sleeping accommodation along with two arrays.

The arrays chosen this time were as below to give us best coverage but manageable with the limited manpower to build & hoist them.

The first array is a pair of 9ele LFA Yagi vertically stacked, put up on a SCAM pump up 12m mast. This array is used as the DX hunter & is fitted above a rotator. This array allows us to focus in on weak signal stations not resolved by or covered the parts of the compass by array two.

The second array is four 3ele LFA Yagi, also vertically stacked, again on a SCAM 12m mast. This array is the ‘UK workhorse’ fixed roughly NW to point up the spine of the country with enough beamwidth to reach out to as low as South Wales across to Essex & with enough gain to hear most of the stations in the southern part of Scotland. The Isle of Man & Ireland are often worked on this array & most stations in the Southeast can usually be worked ‘off the back of the beam’.

Both arrays have a mast head box that contains a relay that switches between the RX & TX feeders. A low noise preamp along with a chosen attenuator to control the amount of gain & bandpass filter are in the RX line.

The station this time consisted of an Icom 7400 on 14MHz driving a Q5 transverter with split RX TX outputs. The TX output is then amplified by a valve amplifier that is adjusted to deliver up to legal limit power at each array via a splitter. Both arrays are driven at the same time. The RX side is chosen via a switch at the operating position. Logging is on a laptop using Minos with a combined database of previous contest contacts to provide an immediate lookup table when data is entered into the log. An entered callsign immediately shows previous locators & bearings from our position, greatly assisting in pointing the beams. If a locator is entered, it shows previous callsigns logged from that square helpfully assisting identifying a potential contact this time. Obviously, these are only an aid & should not be relied on as confirmation of required exchange information. ICG is a prime example, we operate from different sites & so don’t use the same locator each contest, also depending upon the contest we may use a different callsign from a previous contest at the same site.

Saturday morning was thankfully warm & dry which allowed for a quick deployment of the trailer tent, the shelter which permits everything else to happen. Whilst I left Ian & the BRATS members to place out & put up the very heavy SCAM masts, I concentrated on building the 9ele array aided by Paul, G0ILO, running out the two feeders & control cable ready for checking then putting it the mast. This is where we hit our first problem of the weekend. Once all was assembled on the SCAM we attempted to pump up the mast, the mast hardly budged & checks revealed an air leak in the top section. This is often caused by a dry seal, so a very light smear of silicon grease was applied & the section manually lifted & dropped to lubricate the section. Sadly, all to no avail, so the mast sections were manually pushed up & locked off. Hard & slow work for Ian.

This time-consuming process absorbed nearly all the time left before the start of the contest at 1400UTC, so I left the rest to complete the build of the second array whilst I prepared the operating position & started the contest.

The start of the contest was a steady affair calling CQ getting a trickle of contacts rarely getting a run of more than two at a time, that said many of those were very satisfying working a good number of Scottish stations & more Irish stations than usual. As the first hour concluded a very brief interlude was taken as Ian plumbed in the second array & we were fully operational. I hogged the mic for the best part of the next hour to allow the labourers to rest, make a brew & gratefully cook the first bacon bap of the weekend. Fortified I passed the mic on to Paul, G0ILO & later Ian, M5IJH. The three of us then taking about an hour or so in the chair in rotation.

Fairly quickly I noticed that the usual roar of European stations wasn’t present & even when pointing East, we weren’t picking off the usual string of German stations along with the ever-present Dutch & Belgians. When I commented, Ian reminded me that the European contest was no longer coordinated with this one but with the VHF & UHF one earlier in the month. This certainly had an impact upon my operating tactics, spending more time with the 2x9 array pointing SW or N rather than sweeping across Europe. The lack of EU Stations certainly affected our contact rate & it will be interesting to see how well supported the contest was by UK Stations compared to past years. The lack of runs of contacts responding to our CQ calls led to more sessions of ‘search & pounce’ but again in these sessions most stations heard were already in the log. It was certainly one of the hardest contests I can recall gaining contacts for the efforts made.

Saturday petered out at about midnight local time after getting only a couple of contacts over the last hour. All the BRATS members had retreated home hours before & Paul who had pitched his own tent to camp overnight had decided to return home for a warmer bed. The benefit of a nice settled high pressure zone giving a clear, bright, dry & warm day led to a noticeable drop in temperature once the sun had set, resulting in a chilly evening & night. I had packed a buffalo shirt as a just in case but was pleased I did as it kept me operating in comfort. I was also pleased I had grabbed my four-season sleeping bag rather than the summer job, so had a warm comfortable night’s sleep, well until 5am local. My alarm clock was my little Jack Russel dog, Maddie who was in her portable kennel under my sleep pod in the trailer tent. I thought it was the call of nature causing her whine, but I soon realised as I released her it had been the local rabbit population who had started to graze adjacent to the tent. A flurry of cotton tails exploded in all directions towards the hedges as we emerged.

So being up & awake it was back to the operating chair, an initial tune high to low & back again resulted in only hearing one QSO in progress, both stations previously worked. So, with the amplifier fully powered after being left on idle to keep the damp off the tubes the keyer was again fired up. It took nearly an hour before the first contacts started to trickle in. But fortified by first, second (Third?) breakfast bacon baps & my two-pint insulated tea mug the log was steadily filled with contacts, but not at the rate we would really like! The mix of contesters & the Sunday morning casuals who had fired up the rig to find the band full (!) of signals & joining in to give a point away is always enjoyable. We even got a few more EU stations coming on to liven the mix.

We were looking forward to the Backpackers coming on air at 1100UTC to add a fresh source of contacts. Either the hills were sparsely occupied this time or we were unlucky in attracting responses as the contact rate remained fairly slow when calling & it was hard to find new ‘stroke P’ stations when we went search & pounce.

At the contest end we agreed we had enjoyed ourselves; the kit had worked (well the defects hadn’t stopped us!), the lack of EU station was disappointing & something to be considered in our planning for next time & the weather had been kind. A good contest. Now to dismantle.

The beams were rotated to the right direction to lower them & then power cut to the station. The first array to be dismantled was the 2x9, the mast lowered with ease. But then came a realisation that we were short of help, we were just the three (two able & me semi-capable) & lacked the BRATS who had helped with muscle to lift the heavy SCAM with the array from its rest to vertical. A quick brainstorm between the three of us formed a plan of action. Ian& Paul successfully removed the stub mast out of the top of the SCAM & lowered the array to the ground without dropping it or spearing me below in the process. It was then that we noticed what had been a potentially serious problem. The lower rotator clamp to the stub mast had cracked, surely if the wind had blown any harder over the past 24 hours it would have toppled. Luck had been with us this time.

The same process was successfully applied to the second array without incident. It was then just a steady process of dismantling & packing all the kit down under Ian’s supervision into & on the trailer tent as well as his car which does a fantastic impression of ‘the Tardis’ as it swallows kit that it couldn’t possibly fit.

I quick walk of the area of the field to check for litter or other small dropped items was the final task after locking up the BRATS shack & driving home.

Later in the evening Ian messaged the map of our submitted log as well as a photo of the fault on the SCAM, a spacer collar had cracked & as a result of its failure it had shredded the seal. Annoying but readily repairable. The cracked rotator clamp will be replaced, but discussion on merits of this lightweight but vulnerable solution over a safer but heavier rotator cage will be rehashed. We are already discussing nested arrays on the same mast to have fixed but switchable coverage over our main target directions & possibly a lighter rotatable array. All stuff to keep the conversation going between contests.

Again, thanks to BRATS for being such good hosts, to the amateurs who visited the station. Especial thanks to Ian, M5IJH who provides & builds the kit, operates, as well as cooks the necessary bacon baps which fuel this operator. Finally, Paul, G0ILO who provided great company, conversation & most importantly a share of the operating.

ICG                 https://invictacg.weebly.com/

BRATS            https://brats-qth.org

MINOS           https://minos.sourceforge.net

73,

Ian, G0PDZ – AG5XD

G5H at BRATS 

Maddie (the DX Dog)

Ian, M5IJH operating whilst being supervised by Paul, G0ILO & Maddie the DX Dog.

The failed PTFE collar which destroyed the seal.

The cracked lower rotator clamp that held on long enough!

Map of G5H contacts in the May 144MHz contest.

[mllebleue]

My only clear memory is the amateur radio licence stuff, because my father (who styled himself a radio historian because he knew how to change radio tubes) ranted about it every time I saw him back then.

I remember the Prince of Wales thing, vaguely, and I think it's more or less accurate. He did sleep his way through the Dominion at the time.

watching this Paul Gross thing he did in the 80s (chasing rainbows) and ive been enjoying it despite the knowledge that there'd be some kind of a het love triangle thing going on and that the other two characters simply aren't that interesting, but. oh boy. is... is the woman in this constellation meant to be read as a villain???

(ME DOING A BREAKDOWN ABOUT A SHOW NOBODY WATCHED AND NOBODY WILL WATCH ✌)

PG character -- a working class man who is fundamentally good to everyone in trouble he meets, to the detriment of himself more often than not, but scraping by until he gets his big break (which he also works very hard for) and becomes the owner of a relatively successful nightclub

other two characters -- come from rich backgrounds and sort of suck him into their lives by the coincidence of the two men having been at the front in WWI and PG saving the other guy's life and consistently don't realise he's got way more working against him than they do

the lady in this situation initially dumping said other guy "to find herself" when he comes back from the war, which, fair, it's 1919, she's going to college, she wants to be sure she can make informed choices, chill enough

said lady imprinting on our working class heroic character, because he's working class. i just. cannot read it any other way. she clocks him as such at a party (that he was invited to as a veteran) straight away, insults him, throws water in his face when he doesn't take it, but simultaneously is into the whole idk... rugged unpolished nature of him

discovers a diary written during the war with poetry in it that she presumes was written by him -- steals the book and reads it out loud to her college friends and is offended that he's not flattered by this

despite numerous protests that he didn't write the poetry (and he didn't, it was written by a kid he tried to save who was later shot in front of him for desertion), she just doesn't believe him, because she desperately wants him to have the "hidden depths of a poet" or some nonsense. never mind his actual good traits -- his kind-heartedness, his tenacity, his savvy, his sense of humour, nonono she wants a Poet

also, she is a failed playwright. she writes terrible plays about things she doesn't understand (including the war), asks his opinion and is offended when he (under duress) admits he doesn't think they're very good

and now she fucking... copied down the poems without his knowledge and published them under his name with an article she wrote about said hidden poetic depths!!!! gets incredibly offended when he is upset about this, first of all with a "I thought you'd be pleased" then with a "you should be happy for me for getting an article I wrote published in a major newspaper!" (because at the end of the day it's about her)

he initially -- not knowing how to handle the situation -- goes along with it, because what do you do now? go to the publishers and say it wasn't you? out yourself in the news?? I mean??? but pretty quickly re-emphasises He Did Not Write Those Poems!

the plot then mysteriously seems to pivot into saying it was his fault for "stringing her along" because the "hidden poet" bit was the only thing she really liked about him... and she vehemently denies this (but girl, tell me one other thing that draws you to him, and you can't say because he's pretty!) and says he's hurt/betrayed her by lying. i just... don't know... if the plot... is writing her like this because she's meant to be a self-absorbed college girl who has her working class dream-boat fantasy get broken, or if it's meant to be presented as him having betrayed her. it is. unclear

and now she's threatening to write a new article about how he's a fraud. im just. waiting for the plot to point out that she's done all of this herself and she also won't suffer for any of it in the way he will...

this boy can do better than these rich kid tourists 😔

[raracool04]

Stares autistically at ham radio

[g4ljw-amateur-radio]

Ofcom licence revalidation video

Ofcom has released a new step-by-step video on its YouTube channel to assist radio amateurs on the process of revalidating a UK amateur radio licence using the online licensing portal. Ofcom does note that whilst it is a requirement to revalidate your licence every five years, it is recommended to do it annually. Make sure […] http://dlvr.it/TC05SF

[40metres]

Ham Radio Exams And How To Prepare For Them

Ham Radio Exams And How To Prepare For Them

Exams are currently suspended owing to the Covid19 virus. However, here’s a guide on how to revise and prepare for them, so you are ready once they return! Here’s an excellent channel to help with Advanced Licence questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLsDr3dkA3Q Another useful site: http://www.brats-qth.org/training/advanced/index.htm

[taperwolf]

So! AD4M was (most likely) Wendell K Merck, Jr., who held the ham radio callsign AD4M in 1980, and lived in Hollywood, Florida.

@snowfoxtales noticed the time span on this, and that AD4M was a ham radio callsign. Meanwhile, the site leehite.org/callbooks has an archive of printed ham radio callsigns matched to names and addresses going back to 1906. I pulled the 1980 one, and came up with this:

(The "E" is his licence class, and is the highest class, Amateur Extra.)

Subsequent searches lead me to believe that Mr Merck has since died; I could only turn up his name in his mother's obituary. Edna L. Merck died in 2001, and her obit lists him as already having passed.

I have an idea for a game, and I want to use your ascii art for "THE BIG ONE" for an Easter egg. May I use it? And do you have it as text somewhere I could use?

It’s not my art. I can’t find where I got it, sadly... I definitely searched something like “ASCII art fish” or “ASCII art bass” but sadly it’s not showing up again. 

Sorry! 

[carraways-son]

Mardi

Sur ma terrasse poussent, entre autres, des bambous, du jasmin, des lavandes, de la vigne, et... des antennes. Coming out : j’avoue, je suis passionné depuis toujours par les transmissions radio. Dans mon jeune âge je fabriquais des postes à galène ou au germanium, plus tard, j’écoutais un peu tout ce qui traînait sur les ondes courtes avec des antennes de fortune, et en 1981, après avoir suivi pendant un an des cours du soir dans un radio-club, j’ai passé mon certificat de radiotélégraphiste (code Morse) et radiotéléphoniste, obtenu une licence pour l’exploitation d’une station radio d’amateur et un indicatif internationalement reconnu. Actuellement, le cycle solaire n° 25 (chaque cycle dure +/- 11 ans) est encore au plus bas, ce qui rend presque muettes toutes les bandes de fréquences allouées aux amateurs. Mais grâce à un radioamateur américain, Joe Taylor, prof retraité de Princeton et accessoirement prix Nobel de physique (j’ai eu le plaisir de le contacter le mois dernier !), qui a mis au point des modes de transmission radio numériques très performants (laissés gratuitement à la disposition des autres radioamateurs), il est possible de faire des contacts, certes minimaux, mais très efficaces dans les pires conditions et avec de faibles moyens. Ainsi en un mois, avec 20/25W de puissance et une courte antenne sur ma terrasse, j’ai pu réaliser des échanges avec 83 pays (dont Thaïlande, Japon, Mauritanie, Argentine, etc.), et avec 36 des 50 Etats américains. Magique, non ? D’ici peu mon logbook totalisera 20 000 contacts. Voilà, après ma famille, la navigation à voile, la poésie et la littérature, les arts plastiques, les phares et paquebots, l’astronomie, les coquillages, cailloux et sea-glass, vous connaissez les grandes passions de ma vie, et je conçois sans amertume que vous n’en ayez rien à f...

[forgethemaker]

As I already wrote a few post ago, my girlfriend has a antique/vintage paper e-shop. So she’s constantly looking for more stuffs in flea market etc. Last time she came back from her paper supplier, she gave me this documents from an old french short wave radio amateur. The name of the man was Guy Lemoine and his Amateur Licence dates from 1950. There is a photo of Mr Lemoine with all of his receptors and mics and stuffs. And there are also many ads for electronic suppliers. There is also many postcards from mostly Europe of other Radio Amateurs who wrote their SWL Licence.

__________________________________________

Comme je l’ai déjà écrit il y a quelques posts, mon amoureuse gère une boutique de vieux papiers en tout genre. Du coup, elle est constamment à la recherche de nouvelles choses dans les marchés au puces, etc. La dernière fois qu’elle est revenue de son fournisseur habituel, elle m’a ramené ces documents d’un vieil homme qui était radio amateur. Le nom de cet homme était Guy Lemoine, et son permis d’émettre date de 1950. On peut voir une photo de Mr Lemoine avec tous ses récepteurs/émetteurs, ses micros etc. Il y a aussi des vieilles publicités pour des fournisseurs de matériel électronique. La plupart des cartes postales viennent d’Europe de la part d’autres Radio Amateurs qui y écrivent leur numéro de Licence SWL (Short-Wave Listener).