Activity in 2015

Exam Successes

On Friday 4th December 2015, three of our candidates sat and passed their Intermediate Exam, whilst another sat and passed their Foundation Exam.  We are looking forward to working each of them on the air.

Alan Stepney G8BLW SK

It is with great sadness that Poole Radio Society reported the passing of Alan Stepney G8BLW. 

Alan’s main amateur interests were in the VHF and UHF bands.

Apart from his amateur radio interests, Alan was a wonderful model railway engineer. 

Many members attended his funeral which took place on Monday 16th November at Poole Crematorium, followed by a gathering at the Hamworthy Engineering Sports & Social Club at Canford Magna.

 

JOTA 2015

Poole Radio Society supported the Scout’s Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) over the weekend of 18th/19th October 2015 from Butcher’s Coppice. 

There were several stations operational, one mainly on 40m SSB, one mainly on 20m SSB and another using datamodes.  In addition the Scouts were introduced to Morse code. 

Antennas used included the club’s trapped dipole and a Hex Beam. 

JOTA is all about Scouts talking to Scouts and the 40m station was always busy with contacts mainly with other UK stations.

Churches on the Air

The club set up to operate on Saturday 12th September 2015 using the special event callsign GB4SDN.  We had three stations running using a variety of portable and vehicle-mounted antenna systems. 

Unfortunately poor propagation made contacts very difficult to come by, even using Morse and datamodes.  Colin G0JII is seen making one of the few successful SSB contacts. 

Nevertheless, it was a useful exercise in demonstrating various options for antennas at our new premises.

 

 

Hamfest 2015

The club had its usual stand at Hamfest on Sunday 9th August 2015, which was well supported by club members.

As is usual on these occasions, visitors were able to purchase all sorts of surplus equipment and other useful items from our stand.

On the Air from our new home

On Friday 31st July 2015, Colin G6MXL brought along his portable hf station, and made some PSK31 and PSK63 contacts on 20m, running just 2.5 Watts from a FT817 to an inverted V 20m dipole.  Contacts included stations in Finland, Sicily, Spain, France, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic.  These are believed to be the first contacts made from the club’s new home.

On Friday 7th August 2015, contacts with European Russia, Austria, Lithuania, Asiatic Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were added. 

On Friday 28th August with the 20m band in poor shape, Colin switched to 40m and with 5 Watts to an inverted V dipole and had PSK31 and PSK63 contacts with Hungary, Serbia, Spain, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy.

Bill’s Antenna Challenge

Bill G4ERV launched a new challenge in 2015.  It is to make an unusual antenna that works.  Members can choose their design.  Anything that members designed, built and lets you make contacts or hear stations counts!

Rotary International Youth on the Air Day

Several members supported the Rotary International Youth on the Air Day on 8th July 2015.  80 children from Bethany School visited the event at Northwick House in Boscombe.

Using the special event callsign GB4RIY, there was an hf station manned by Colin G0JII and Alan G4UWS, Satellite tracking manned by Bill G4ERV.  Students could also try their hand at sending their names in Morse Code, with Pete G4TFF and Leri 2E0SDZ.  RSGB Youth Representative Oscar Hall 2E0SWE attended who was a real asset on the day and mixed in well with the youngsters.

 One of the highlights of the day was when one of the students exchanged greetings message with a station Portugal in Portuguese.

 All students left with a signed Certificate, showing what they had done during the day. They also took home a Morse Sheet, a RSGB leaflet, a Rotary Brochure and a Rotary Shoe Box leaflet.

A nice write-up appeared in the local Echo newspaper a few days later.

Foundation Exam Success

Four of our candidates passed their Foundation Exam on Friday 17th July 2015.  We are looking forward to hearing them on the air in a week or two.

VHF NFD Contest

Poole Radio Society operated from a site Corfe Mullen during the RSGB VHF National Field Day Contest on the Saturday/Sunday 4th/5th July 2015. 

On the Saturday we were operational in the low power sections on 6m and 2m, on the Sunday we were on 2m and 70cm. 

On 6m our best DX was with IZ5EME in Italy at 1,337 km.

The contest saw the club’s new 2m yagi and feeder put to good use.  This helped make contact with F4HJC/P some 429 km away in France.

On 70cm our best DX was with G0VHF/P at 262km.

On 6m we obtained 170 points, on 2m 38 points and 37 points, gaining the club an overall eight place in the low power section. 

The late Alan Stepney G8BLW is seen operating a Yaesu FT736 running 25 Watts.

We Moved!

Poole Radio Society moved to new premises from Friday 3rd July 2015.  Our new premises are in St Osmund’s Hall in Florence Road at the rear of St Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church on Bournemouth Road in Lower Parkstone, roughly half way between Ashley Cross and Branksome Roundabout.  The arrangements give us more space for our meetings, and a larger and quieter training facility.  Meetings continued to be on Friday evenings. 

There is a good size car park alongside the hall.  There is a really good bus service with bus stops immediately adjacent to the junction outside the main church. 

Foundation Course Underway

Our latest Foundation Course got underway on Friday 17th April 2015 with 7 candidates enrolled.

More Slow Scan Television Picture from International Space Station

On Sunday 12th April 2015 one of our members received another slow scan television picture from the International Space Station.

Equipment used to receive the picture from the RS0ISS was a small 2m/70cm ‘white stick’ vertical with about 20m of UR67 feeder into a 2m receiver on FM with the bandwidth set to 5kHz.

Output was taken to via the computer soundcard to MMSSTV software set to 48kHz sampling frequency and PD180 mode.

The Russian text at the bottom of the picture says, “80 Year anniversary of the birth of the first cosmonaut of the planet Earth -Yuri Gagarin”.

Yeovil QRP Convention

Poole Radio Society had a stand at the Yeovil Club’s QRP Convention held on Sunday 12th April 2015.  About 15 members attended.

Geoff’s Challenge 2016 - Programmable Device

Geoff’s Challenge for 2016 was to make something that uses a programmable device.  The programmable device might be an Arduino or a PIC Chip for example – but anything that needs a program to operate, and is relevant to amateur radio is fine.  Entries were judged at the Annual General Meeting in April 2016.

New Chairman

Richard Ayley G6AKG (seen on the right) took over as Chairman from Alan Walker G4UWS at the AGM on Friday 10th April 2015.

Contacts with Australia

A couple of our newer members, Leri 2E0SDZ and Tim M0TGY, had contacts with stations in Australia.  Congratulations to both of them on some excellent DX worked!

Annual Lunch

Our Annual Lunch was held on Sunday 29th March 2015 at the Bridgehouse at Longham.  The meal was very enjoyable and we look forward to returning on a future occasion.  Many thanks to Colin G0JII for making the arrangements.

2m Activity Afternoon

Several members took part in the 2m Activity Afternoon on Saturday 28th March 2015.  Whilst most operated from home, three operated from a better VHF site at Pickett Post in the New Forest from where they worked over two-dozen stations, about half of which were with club members.  For many, their best DX was with GB4AOA in Devon.

Message from Space to PRS members

On Thursday 19th March 2015, the Funcube (AO-73) AMSAT-UK Satellite transmitted greetings to the Poole Radio Society directly from Space. Anyone who was monitoring the transmissions will have received it.  The message read ‘Greetings to the members of Poole Radio Society (G4PRS) from Bill G4ERV’.

New DMR Digital Voice 70cm Repeater Operational

GB7DR started operation from the Tower Park area of Poole on Friday 30th January 2015.

This repeater uses the DMR digital system, with colour code 5.  The repeater output is on 439.425 MHz, with the input on 430.425MHz (note the 9MHz split).

The repeater transceiver is seen as few days before installation.

Advanced Exam

Several members sat the Advanced Exam on Thursday 29th January 2015.  We are pleased to report that four passed.