Hi again.
First things first: –
I must congratulate Marc and the other guys on the Committee and all the helpers at the Club for being Regional Winners in the RSGB Club of the Year. Well Done All!
Well, we are now back on Tinternet with our Dongle. Whilst we only use it for email and the odd search, it is amazing how you miss the convenience of having access to the Web. Of course I will miss the visits to the I/net Café and the cold beer that awaits me there, but I will get used to it . . .
Goat on a warm tin roof
Things are a bit different out here and as we live in a quiet, remote-ish village, one should not be fazed by things that most people would find ‘a little odd’. Earlier in the month, after a few days of fairly strong winds we had a calm sunny and warm day. I go onto the roof to repair a broken wire, and, on a roof across the road – is a goat.
This is not usual but you cannot let it worry you. The beast in question belongs to a mechanic who was working in a small workshop just round the corner from us and the goat follows him everywhere. While he was working, it wanders about and this morning walked into Vangelis’s garden, jumped up on the pile of wood he keeps for his fire and up onto the roof. No one seems worried by this. Even when the XYL went round to see Vangelis’s wife, who had been ill recently, and they sat chatting in the garden, the goat on the roof next to them was not even mentioned . . . like it is ‘the norm’ . . .
Spring is here
Our ‘feathered friends’ are at it again. We now have sparrows nesting in both the front and back air-con units again. The pair in the back unit threw out the others of the ‘commune’ and now defend their little home quite ferociously.
Meanwhile, a male Chaffinch has taken to singing his ‘courting song’ from the top of the Almond tree next door. He is quite loud and has a rival further down the hill who sits in a Carob tree and tries to out-shout him. Will be glad when they both find mates and settle down to some serious rearing . . . That’ll keep ‘em quiet.
Winter LEFARS newsletter
My copy of the Winter LEFARS Newsletter arrived and it only took 3 days to reach me – pity then that RadComic still takes over three weeks . . . [See later]
Looking through the Newsletter I enjoy reading Marc’s reviews of the recent meetings. Pity I missed the one by Dave, ‘TAZ, about LoTW and eQSL. Would have liked to have heard the argument for them but bet there was no one taking the opposing view at the meeting. On 2nd March I actually heard my first station on CW say that he will QSL via the Buro or LoTW. Every CW QSO I have ever had has said that they QSL via the Buro.
This reminds me, I must have a look at eQSL some time and see how many idiots have sent me an electronic card despite me saying that I do not use the system . . .
Datamodes
Although I normally use Digipan for PSK as it is, like me, simple, I have been trying out Fldigi for some of the other data modes. It covers quite a few and has a familiar ‘feel’ about it. One small word of warning here if you do try it – read the help files!
Yes, I know, we just download these things, change a few bits and pieces like callsigns and fire it up but with Fldigi, having changed a Macro, you need to save the changes by going to File – Macros – Save. I spent nearly two hours changing the Macros and adding all my other stuff and next time I turned the programme on – there they were – gone! So remember to SAVE!
Also, when starting Fldigi, you must remember to open your Macros (File-Macros-Open) or you will just get the default ones and again yours will be gone. (Have done this as well!)
Talking of reading the help files, you may recall that I said some time back that the Tigertronics manual would take two days to read and to set the thing up. Well, it did not take that long but unless I had read the manual, I doubt that I would have it working correctly.
It is a little different to some other interfaces but works well with the 590 via the ACC2 socket. The filters and notches in the 590 are a joy to use and can cut down splatter and overdriven nearby signals easily. I had my first MFSK16 QSO a few weeks ago and using the filters to cut out the other noises was a dream.
I have often mentioned that these days people seem to just want a very quick QSO and then be gone. Using Fldigi I have played with PSK125 and here is a quick mode for those who want to have a QSO in less than a minute. I called on UR3 chap on 40m the other evening. The full QSO lasted less than 2 minutes including all the rig and WX, details. As soon as we had finished, I worked another 5 stations, all within 10 minutes. Seems quite a few people want Crete on PSK125. The only problem with this mode, and PSK63, is that it is difficult to have a keyboard to keyboard QSO as I cannot type very fast!
World Amateur Radio Day 18th April
Just a reminder, Wednesday 18th April is World Amateur Radio Day. The Polish Publication, QTC, usually gives an award for 20 HF QSOs made on the day. Usual stuff, apply with a simple spreadsheet of those you worked and they send you the award/certificate by email for you to print off. The design changes each year and below is last years.
Spotted some award details the other day and this led me to join the Russian CW Club – I am now proud member #368. The awards are free and sent as an email attachment and so far I have applied for a couple. The first was the 10-N-10 Award – ten different prefixes from ten different countries, and then the Russian Prefix Award that they run. I had not realised that I have worked 138 different Russian Prefixes! [Pretty pics of the Prefix Awards will be in the Spring LEFARS newsletter]
Re RadComic delivery.
By the end of March I still had not received the March edition and hopes of the April one were fading fast . . . I wrote to ‘Them Thar Bods’ at the place in Bedford and asked to have the last two editions sent by post.
I have asked that, from the May edition, my copy should be sent to Folkestone where my Daughter will put it in an envelope and send it to me. This will be quicker than the RSGB sending it via TNT, which apparently means ‘Trying Not To’..
Update: Following my email to the RSGB the other Monday evening – they read it and answered on the Tuesday morning – and sent the magazines out that day. They arrived here on the Friday morning. Now, from a simplistic point of view, the Royal Mail is far quicker than TNT! No wonder TNT have been taken over by UPS. (The people working for TNT will not know what hit them when UPS (aka ‘The Parcel Nazis’) start putting in their way of operating!)
Looking at the March edition, for a moment there I thought I was back in Oz as there were so many articles from Down Under. The only difference to the usual stuff was that G3LDO actually talked about other aerials rather than his obsession with loops. Pity then that most of the diagrams were from the 1962 Radio Communications Handbook.
Good to see the Moxon mentioned by ‘LDO and Skelton – must put mine up!
Other things seen in the March edition include: The advert for an HF amp – Output 100 watts – Input 1025 watts, or the picture of the inside of the Green Shed on page 7 – which looks like a blank wall to me but with a letterbox in it, or the self-advert also on page 7 for the ‘New Board Activity web feature’, which, if you look at the link, contains as much information about the New Board’s Activities as the Icelandic Gazette weekend edition does.
Greek benefit fraud
Just to cheer you up, here is a bit of Greek Financial News:
Here in Greece we have a similar thing to National Insurance, it is called IKA (pronounced ‘eeka’). They deal with unemployment benefit, other benefits, child support, hospital charges etc. So, with all the financial goings on out here, the Government have started to check benefits and stop those that should not be paid. The Government reckon they can save 110 Billion Euros per year by stopping fraudulent claims – such as – like on the island of Zakynthos where 700 people have been claiming disability benefit for being blind.
When they checked, they found that of the 700 people claiming, only 100 had ever been ‘checked’ by a Doctor and of these, 60 were found not to be blind. One of the claimants for the blind disability was a taxi driver. The Doctor who checked these claimants has yet to be suspended.
Then there is the family who claimed for every benefit going and split the proceeds 50/50 with the local IKA office and have got away with 6 Million Euros over the past 9 years.
I take no credit for the following, but for those of you with children . . . .
“All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them”
Yammas.
Dick.. SV0XBN/9. Email: sv0xbn@lefars.org.uk
PS: Just heard this from Belgium. ON3s, similar to the UK M3 class of Licence, are limited to 10 watts. The Belgium Ofcom wants to change this to 50 watts but limit their band allocations to the following:
3.560 – 3.650
7.030 – 7.080
10.130 – 10.150
14.065 – 14.085
14.250 – 14.350
18.085 – 18.168
21.065 – 21.100
21.350 – 21.450
24.905 – 24.990
OK, 50 watts is far better than 10 but you have lost half of the band allocations! What do you do if you like using your 10 watts on 20 or 10m CW? With the new idea, you can’t. Just hope that UK Ofcom and the RSGB don’t hear about this!
PPS: Maybe the RSGB already have as they have a note on the latest news thing about keeping CW on the bands . . . Hmm . . . What about really slow CW on the LF bands, or high speed CW used in Meteor Scatter? April Fool? If so, it’s in bad taste.
Time for a cold one I reckon . . .
