Makers eXperimenters and Operators

Friday, 14 April 2017

Wendover woods, looking at a SOTA site

As it was good Friday, I decided to take the Children on a bit of an adventure and head over to Wendover woods near High Wycombe / Chilterns / Amersham.

This is a national Trust site, has good facilities including on site lots of parking for about £4, reasonable toilet, and a cafe.

The Children are kept entertained by a large play park, several trails, which they can take part in building camps and searching for the infamous Gruffalo

This stone is placed t mark the summit of the hill.

Bob M6FLT with his home made 2/70 yagi and the Arrow antenna (CQ sats)

Bob M6FLT using the HF in the mobile, much needed coffee break and warm up

Great contact from the ISS with a French School 59+60db all the pass and pleased to understand it 😊😊 #amsat #hamr pic.twitter.com/omHCvsUfFH
— Abdel (@M0NPT) December 31, 2016

M0JFP Arrow antenna and baofeng handie working So-50

The arrow antenna taking a break....

Wednesday, 12 April 2017

M6FLT/KG7VZD Homemade baby yagi for 70cm band

Homemade baby yagi for 70cm band

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Phoenix DMR repeater network now available via the DV4-mini and other dongles.

At long last you can now use your dv4-mini, sharkrf and DV mega etc to access the (local for us) Phoenix repeaters / talk groups. This should give DMR a little bit of a kick start and hopefully allow a bit more activity on the local repeaters and allow more interaction from abroad.

DV4Mini

In the DV4mini control panel software, click on the “Expert Settings” tab and under “Choose nearest DMR Master:” select Phoenix-C.

From the DVControl tab you can then select “DV4mini Settings” DMR+, and from the TS2 Reflector list select “4404” for access to TG840.

SharkRF OpenSpot

Log into the web interface and select the “Connectors” tab. Select DMR+. From the Server list, select “Phoenix-C”.

DVMega

Currently only connection to our network via the MMDVMHost application is possible. When setting up the MMDVMHost software you will need to edit the MMDVM.ini file to point to our Master server. Under the section “[DMR Network]” set the following settings.

[DMR Network]
Enable=1
Address=109.69.105.88
Port=55555
Jitter=300
# Local=3350
Password=PASSWORD
# Options=
RSSI=0
Slot1=0
Slot2=1
Debug=0

If you would like the DVmega to automatically connect to reflector 4404 for use on TG840 remove the “#” before “Options=” and change the line to say.

Options=StartRef=4404;RelinkTime=60;UserLink=1

StartRef = Initial Reflector

RelinkTime = If you change reflector this is the timeout before it switches back to 4404

UserLink = Whether reflectors can be changed via private calls from a radio.

You will need to use the 24112016 version (latest as of 28th Nov 2016) for the Options to work. A windows 32bit version of the MMDVMHost.exe can be found HERE. It should replace the current windows version you are using (rename existing or backup).

for updates and latest information refer to : http://www.dmr-uk.net/index.php/hotspots/

REFLECTOR	NAME
4400	CALLING CHANNEL - PHOENIX - TG235 - UK WIDE
4401	PHOENIX - TG80 - USER ACTIVATED
4402	PHOENIX - TG81 - USER ACTIVATED
4403	PHOENIX - TG82 - USER ACTIVATED
4404	PHOENIX - TG83 - USER ACTIVATED
4405	PHOENIX - TG84 - USER ACTIVATED
4406	UK6
4407	UK7
4408	UK8
4409	UK9
4410	PHOENIX - TG810 - REGIONAL: S.W. ENGLAND
4420	PHOENIX - TG820 - REGIONAL: N.W. ENGLAND
4430	PHOENIX - TG830 - REGIONAL: MIDLANDS
4440	PHOENIX - TG840 - REGIONAL: EAST OF ENGLAND
4441	PHOENIX - TG841 - REGIONAL SPECIAL LINK: EAST OF ENGLAND
4442	PHOENIX - TG842 - REGIONAL SPECIAL LINK: EAST OF ENGLAND
4450	PHOENIX - TG850 - REGIONAL: SCOTLAND
4460	PHOENIX - TG860 - REGIONAL: N.E. ENGLAND
4470	PHOENIX - TG870 - REGIONAL: WALES & MARCHES
4480	PHOENIX - TG880 - REGIONAL: NORTHERN IRELAND
4491	PHOENIX - TG801 - REGIONAL: S.E.ENGLAND

Monday, 10 April 2017

Summits on the Air talk by Michael G0POT

Online club talk on SOTA activation

presented by Michael G0POT

On Friday 7th April, Michael G0POT, kindly did an on-line presentation, sharing his experiences and expertise in SOTA activation, operation and tops tips on keeping safe whilst having fun.

The main SOTA web page is located at: http://sotawatch.org/

You can register there and update your activations and chaser points.

Please click on the link below to watch the presentation

If you have any questions or need any information please get in contact with us info@chertseyrc.uk or twitter @chertseyrc. We would love to hear from you and share how you get on.

Michael did a great write up to go with the above video

http://peanutpower.co.uk/sota

Take a look at Michael's other web pages and videos below