Week 13 2010

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22nd March Monday

I spent some time getting all the information together for this episodes podcast.
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23rd March Tuesday

This episodes feature has now been recorded. The feature was requested by some of our listeners from the USA and hopefully demystifies the different UK callsigns.
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24th March Wednesday

Colin and I recorded the rest of the next episode of the ICQPODCAST. This is number 48.
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25th March Thursday

Sutton & Cheam Committee Meeting

This went well and is always an enjoyable evening with friends. This is no hardship doing this these meetings.
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27th March Saturday

Intermediate Course: the last day of lectures and practical’s. In the morning we covered antenna gain, feeders and marching. The afternoon was set aside for the group project. This involves building a simple receiver and by the end of the session we had 14 working radios and 14 happy students,












Chris Howard (M6HUD)










Mike and Mark









Alan and Anibal


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28th Sunday

Intermediate Course Revision / Exam Day

After a morning of revision there is not much more we can do.

We had a visit from Dr Alison Johnston (G8ROG) our RSGB area representative who came to audit the exam process. I have been expecting a visit for months due to the volume and pass marks achieved by our students.

We had 13 out of 14 pass the intermediate exam this afternoon and I still have mixed feeling because one failed. However my best wishes go to the students who passed.









The students who passed the intermediate exam and the instructors of this course.


We released a new episode of the ICQPODCAST this morning.












Series Three Episode Seven of the ICQ Amateur / Ham

Radio Podcast. News Stories include:-
* Canadian access to 137 Khz
* Canadian Surfacewave HF Radar
* 5MHz for Danish hams
* Viet Nam DXpedition include satellite operation
* Iraq DXpedition
* 60M in Czech Republic
* Beeping Morse Code into business
* Changes to SA radio regulations
* New 8.97kHz DX record
* Hams of the Future Sourced
* Popular After-School Club
* Youngster receives DXCC certificate
* Society celebrates 50th Anniversary
* Installing transceivers in vehicles
* Lightning Predictor kit available
Your feedback and Martin (M1MRB) explains callsigns.

The ICQPOCAST can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

Week 12 2010

A few funnies:

Saliva drools O.K.

In school I was the teacher's pet.
She couldn't afford a dog.

Father: Son, what are your results in the end of term examination?
Son: Underwater.
Father: What do you mean, underwater?
Son: Below "C" level.

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An interesting websites I found over the last week

Amateur radio plaques, names, displays... Personalised and custom made for your shack. Precision cut Radio Call Sign displays.
AA Woodcrafts (Isle of Wight) Tel: 01983 873056
http://www.callsigns.woodenletters.co.uk/
Sample image:






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A slow start to the week, I did manage to keep busy at work.

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18th March Thursday

Thursday, club night at Sutton United Football Club. I don’t do football but it’s a good meeting location for Sutton and Cheam Radio Society. This month we had a talk and demonstration of digital modes by Evan Duffield MØTJU.

A good talk which was very informative for all the members who attended. We also had a number of visitors who were made welcome and enjoyed themselves.
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20th March Saturday

I spent too much time playing with computers. I did spend some time doing preparation for the course on Sunday.

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Sunday 21st March

Another day training with the guys. This turned out to be an easy day for me because we now have a number of trainers who are willing to take part in the training.

Photo taken by Chris Howard (M6HUD) of me training.









Chris also took this picture to wind up his friends Mike and Mark. As Chris said “my work is on Martin’s blog.”

Week 11 2010

8th March Monday

I had a long chat with Colin, both family matters and ICQPODCAST business. I would like to get a second podcast going and we discussed this.

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9th March Tuesday

I spent the evening configuring Samba server on my Ubuntu server. This has been up and running for a long time but not in use. I now need the extra disk space to tidy up my files.
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10th March Wednesday

We should have recorded the ICQPODCAST but Colin ran out of time so we deferred recording until Thursday.
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11th March Thursday

Recorded the ICQPODCAST with Colin. The feature is about growing your club. It’s my opinions on how the club I belong to has almost doubled in size over the last four years. If this helps other clubs, it will grow our hobby.

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12th March Friday

I must be doing well, I am up to date with the podcasts I listen to each week and am now using my iPod for music.

Friday night is visit mum night, and teased her dog. Some things have to be done
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13th March Saturday

Busy doing jobs, no time for radio. If I was not a PMR engineer I would be getting withdraw symptoms now.

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14th March Mothers Day

Carole and I visited my mum on mother’s day this morning and spent an hour with her. Mum had the offer of Sunday lunch but declined the offer.

Carole and I had Sunday lunch with Lee, Miranda and Isabella. Lee is a chef and he cooked his mum Sunday lunch before presenting her with a bouquet of flowers.

We released a new episode of the ICQPODCAST this morning.

ICQ Podcast Series Three Epsiode Six (14 March 2010) - Growing your Amateur Radio Club











Series Three Episode Six of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:-

* Memorandum on PLT
* Reverse Beacon Network
* ROS outside US license
* Special short contest callsigns
* NoV's for operation below 9 kHz
* Automotive Electromagnetic Compatibility
* New Zealand's Amateurs get 600m band
* Delayed QSL Card
* 20m ROS frequencies moved
* Tripod test with Miracle Antenna & FT-817
* Amateur Radio World Prefix Maps
* Tape Measure Satellite Antenna
* Trapping sunlight with silicon nanowires

Your feedback, Upcoming Events and Martin (M1MRB) gives some tips for growing your Amateur Radio Club.

The ICQPOCAST can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

Week 10 2010

Hope for me!!!

I’ve just found out I can still have sex at 73!


I am so happy because I live at 65, so it's not far to walk home . :-)

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1st March Monday

I was the net controller for the Sutton and Cheam Radio Society net at 20:00 tonight. I do this once a month and this time it seemed to come round quickly. A good chat with friends and catch up on local news.

I installed Sun Virtual Box on A couple of computers. This allows you to create and run virtual machines on a host computer. I have installed VirtualBox under Ubuntu 9.10 and would have had Windows XP running on a virtual machine if I could have found my licence key.

I managed to create a Ubuntu 9.10 Workstation virtual machine and get it running under Windows XP. While slow because of poor hardware it works well.

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2nd March Tuesday

Spent more time playing with Virtual Box on my computers. I managed to backup an image on a Windows computer and restore it on a Linux computer.

This playing with Images can take a long time. However I now know how the basics work, so its time to read the manual to find out about extra features.

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4th March Thursday

Sutton and Cheam Natter Night (20:00) in the Bar at Sutton United Football Club. A good night out with the boys as always. Denis M0NDJ had another military radio which created interest among the group as well as other people in the bar.

I spent some time talking too and answering questions with two guys from Sutton Cricket Club. It was great to answer some of their question and spent almost half an hour with them. I have offered them a link to Sutton and Cheam Radio Society and a talk later in the year for their members.

Chris Howard (M6HUD)showed me the Echolink applications running on an iPhone and we connected to the local repeater for this test with others listening via RF in the bar.

We also had a potential new member who joined us for most of the evening. Let’s hope we see Fred again.
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5th March Friday

Friday night is Mums night. I visited Mum before coming home and getting the training gear ready for tomorrows course.

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6th March Saturday

Day three of this Intermediate Course. Another early start however I am finding it strange the amount of gaps in this training. However to keep the cost of these courses as low as possible we have to fit in with the Scouts who’s hall we use.
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7th March Sunday

No radio again today. I did fit a house number on our house. The old one was removed when we had the new front door fitted. The new number is above the door in the porch and lights up at night. We will see how long this works for?

I spent Sunday night out with Carole. OK she took me to Bingo however I do not play and did this post from the Bingo hall. A much better use of my time :-)
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