Greetings from a slightly cooler Crete where we have just had our first rain in the village since the last shower in the first week of June.
RSGB QSL Buro…
After sending my last missive I had a chance, with the XYL being away, to sit and go through September RadComic again. One thing caught my eye and I wonder if you missed it.
It is the drip, drip, drip of hints about the QSL Buro.
When the Buro was taken over, several of us commented that the chap who took it on did not really do his homework on the amount of cards he would have to deal with and ever since he started putting a ‘report’ in RadComic, he is always trying to cut down on his workload, or so it seems. We are told to send QSLs direct to overseas Buros if we have lots of cards, to use eQSL or LoTW etc but his workload keeps increasing. There could be several reasons for this, better band condx over the past few years or just people wanting a proper QSL card and not some electronic facsimile of one. From the outside, it seems that the job has got too much for him.
I mentioned some time back that it would not be long before we would be charged for using the Buro. Several of you laughed but Buro costs are mentioned regularly at Board Meetings and now in Sept RadComic, Page 62, the phrase ‘charging mechanisms will have to be reviewed.’ is used.
This is part of the drip, drip, drip approach.
No doubt, in a few months, an announcement will be made regards charging for the Buro, options given and comments sought. It will be said that this subject has been mentioned in RadComic previously, though the word ‘directly’ will not be used.
So, what if you don’t send QSLs through the RSGB Buro? I don’t. Should my Subs be reduced? Why should I subsidise those in the UK sending cards? What if you only use LoTW or eQSL? Should you be paying for the Buro?
Lots of questions.
Along with the inability to download RadComic, at a reduced subscription rate (like QST) the RSGB really need to consider where they are going. As I have said before, they are trying to be all things to all people, and to me and a lot of others, they are not doing a very good job of it.
Down memory lane…..
How’s your memory? Mine’s shot to hell and I now cannot recall stuff from some years ago so it is good to jog the old grey cells sometimes and that is what looking at some old RadComics from 1990 did.
Starting with the Club, back then it was called ‘Loughton & District Amateur Radio Society’ and on the 9th April we could have heard the dulcet tones of John, ‘DZH, talking about ‘The Versatile Diode’. I seemed to have missed that one. Other items include ‘Who has L&DARS worked’ a chat about QSLs by Chris G6BPA, ‘Map reading’ by someone unknown and a talk by Ray Pedley, G0LWF (SK) on ‘The GDO and its uses’.
Back then, the RadComic column layout in the magazine was 4 to a page, now there are 3. The full 3 column system was introduced by Steve T-L when he was editor a few years later. However, the three column system uses larger print and so basically there is now less information on the page. Of course there were the odd exceptions back then including a 4-page report on the ‘Squarebashers’ tip to Gozo for a contest, a Peter Hart review of the then brand new Icom 781, and, of course, the Technical Topics columns by Pat Hawker.
Apart from the IC-78, the latest rig to have was the brand new FT-1000. This was the first model, no MP versions etc. Other popular rigs at the time were the Kenwood TS-940 and TS-440, the Yaesu FT-747 (remember that clunky dial?) and the Icom 735 (I still have one!)
So who still advertises in RadComic? Well, Waters and Stanton were there but with their two shops, the other one being in Hornchurch. Their advert then was one page only. No Lynchie but A.R.E.(Amateur Radio Exchange) are in there along with Arrow and SMC (South Midlands Communications). Other long forgotten names include Hately Antennas (Dipoles of Delight), Amcomm of London, Eastern Communications, Bredhurst Electronics, KW Communications, Radio Shack and Lowes (aka Bandit Bill). As an aside, did you see the picture on Tony G4NBS in Oct RadComic? He used to work at Lowes when they had a shop in the basement of Burtons in Kings Cross. [Not a lot of people know that!]
Quite a few job adverts too. Several recruitment agencies advertising as well as Racal, Vodaphone and GCHQ. Looking at the GCHQ job, they want a ‘radio officer’ covering everything from DC to light (their words). £12.6k after a residential course that could be 29 or even 52 weeks long!
There was also an advert for Practical Wireless offering a ‘new service’. Phone a 0898 number and hear the latest DX news, propagation predictions, rally info and satellite news all read by G4LFM, the current Editor of RadComic.
Far more Members Ads in those days too. Back in June 1990 there were 206 ‘For Sale’ Members ads and 26 in the ‘Wanted’ list. In RadComic September 2014, there were 42 for sales, and 8 wanted. Yes, I know, different times . . .
This issue also mentions Y2 callsigns. Younger members will not know that this was one of the prefixes of the former East Germany, prior to re-unification later that year.
Of course there were the usual moans and groans in the Last Word and mostly about the use of SSB on 10 Mc/s. The RSGB Subs were £25 per year.
The best bit?
Well, all the Club News is listed in County order, not by region as it is today. Why is this better? Easy, you know which county you live in and can easily see Clubs local to you, whereas if listed by region, you first have to know which region you are in and to be honest, some of the regions have really odd boundaries. Oh, and no pictures of people holding up stupid bits of paper!
The worst bit?
The official announcement in the June edition by the DTI (they ruled us before Ofcom) of the new Novice Licence. It all started going downhill after that . . .
Well, the XYL returned from the UK and after a day or so, she checked her email. Had one from Hertz about the car she hired. They obviously wanted her feedback on this and that, as they usually do. Pity then that it was sent in German!
These faceless companies amaze me. To them, you are not a person or even a customer but just a ruddy number.
“I am not a number, I am a free man!” (The Prisoner)
[You are Number 6 – Ed]
Who is Number 1?
Commented on the Ofcom consultation document yet?
Answers have to be in by 20th October.
It does not really affect me as I am not living in the UK but I must say that unless you have your full licence details to hand, you will not make a great deal of sense out of it as the consultation document refers to various Clauses etc.
Also the language is not easy to follow and when a reference number is put next to an abbreviation, say RSGB2, there is no key to what these numbers mean. So typical Government waffle there then . . .
October RadCom….
October RadComic duly arrived and continues to show lots of ‘padding out’ to fill the pages. Just look at the ‘Getting Started’ picture on the first page of the article.
The five quid voucher would be useful if they had the book I wanted in stock but I ask you, who would pay £28 for the new Handbook. As all the book info is on the free CD that comes with it, so why not just sell the CD for ten quid?
What is with the three SRD reviews? The one by the Editors other half again shows great signs of ‘enlarged’ photos just to fill the space and although the Peter Hart reviews were ok, there was an awful lot of ‘alphabet soup’ in there – talk of ‘DAC’ or FGPA’ and ‘CODEC’ all of which puts me off and is probably only understandable to a few select boffins.
And what is this ‘slice’ thing? To me and I would imagine most of the RadComic readership, a slice is piece of bread or a bit of cake and nothing to do with a radio.
I will stick with a proper radio with dials and knobs thank you very much, along with 99.99% of the Amateur population, I mean, if this SDR stuff was any good, surely Yaesu and Icom would be making the stuff . . .
‘Back to Basics CW…
I am back on the ‘Back to Basics’ CW again (visitors permitting) and played in a nice little contest the other Saturday. A one-day only affair and you basically work Russians for points.
The clever bit is that you have to send in your log or your QSOs and points do not count in the other chaps totals. Called the ‘Kulikovo Poyle Contest’, it only runs on 20m and not all the Ruskies send at stupid speeds. Yes, some do but most plod along at about 16 WPM – nice! Also having a few slow CW QSOs on 40m in the evenings. None of this 599 PSE QSL rubbish but proper QSOs with names, QTHs and stuff. Most enjoyable.
My thought of the month:
“I wake up every day planning to be productive and then a voice in my head says ‘Ha Ha! Good One!’ and we laugh and laugh, and then I take a little nap.”
Yammas!
Dick. SV0XBN/9
