wythall radio club

We are pleased to announce that all four of our candidates (pictured) who took the Advanced course and exam with us in December,  passed and gained their coveted M0 callsigns. Well done to them.

The Advanced course is not a walk in the park and requires a  lot of work and effort to slog your way through the 15 sessions of theory and  practise and then face a 2 hour, 62 question examination at the end of it. But  it is achievable as our record at Wythall shows. It is almost 100% pass over  the past 5 years. Our next course will be in September 2012.

Pictured left to right: Paul, M0TVU, Paul K. M0PYT, Stu M0NYP and Mark M0RKX

Very well done.

This edition covers the Bat Detector by Barry, M0DGQ, Lord Pettitt’s Shooting Party and an outline of Chris, G7DDN.

• 201111Newsletter

New Zealand amateur radio operators have had their power limit raised from 500W to 1000W (1kW) although their national website is still showing no news to this effect.

Coming into force on 30th Nov 2011, their Radiocommuinications Regulations, section 5.5 state:

Except as provided to the contrary in this notice,
transmitter power output must not exceed 1000 watts peak
envelope power (pX), as defined in ITU Radio Regulation
1.157

RSGB currently have an open agenda item with Ofcom to discuss the power limits for UK amateurs. The objective is apparently be give contest stations in the UK a lift in their power limits. More news on this topic will probably come available sometime next year.

Chris, M3IKN has just called to tell us that his Birmingham University student team are payload testing their electronics prior to a meteorological balloon flight shortly. The transmitter is sending on 434.650, LSB using RTTY with 20mW power output to a small antenna. The team hope to capture the telemetry using a hand-held yagi.

If you are near Birmingham and fancy a listen, have a go. If you have digital modes, you may be able to decode their telemetry too. Be aware that the device if close to the ground right now so you may not hear much.

Their real flight is sometime soon. They are aiming for 100,000 feet. We’ll keep you up to date.