More focus on Amateur radio, though stepping back from twitter... there comes a point

I have made a decision, for my own good, to step back from twitter and put more focus on Amateur radio (and the rest of the radio hobby too of course) and step back from IRC too, and if you read my twitter you'd understand why but it will be covered here.

An individual who I have simply referred to as 'the disgusting creature' owing to some deplorable and disgusting comments they made about a very frightening experience I had behind the wheel of my car while I was working a few months ago has been, for some considerable amount of time. block evading my twitter and using what they can from it to try and get me to "grow up" after I made the choice to cut ties with this individual because their behaviour was unhealthy and I felt excessively uncomfortable.  This individual later went on to try and find my current home address (without success) using QRZ.com (I only put the closest street onto that as my previous address had been compromised and I refused to allow a repeat it) and using aprs.fi to try and locate my work, again without success as I will NEVER run my APRS beacon during working hours, I only transmit analogue and digital voice during work hours.

This blog and my YouTube channel will not be affected nor will any other website I run, this stepping back mainly affects twitter and to a degree IRC (I run an IRC bouncer at home and therefore don't need to disconnect from IRC completely, just not run any clients on my machines.

This decision was not made lightly, I had become stressed and angered after I discovered my email address signed up to spam and given their track record of doing this in the past I knew full well who did it.

At least with Amateur radio I can not only get away from this unwanted drama, I know it cannot follow me there as this individual is not licensed and their behaviour would not be welcome in the Amateur radio hobby, they've earned a ban from ##hamradio on freenode which proves this point greatly.

My twitter will still be updated just not as regularly as it was and it will be more topics on Amateur radio and my YouTube videos as I upload them, I have no plans to put my YouTube channel on hold at present.

73 de 2E0EIJ

CRT SS9900 returned to the car

The SS9900 has made its way back into the car, connected to the cigarette lighter as before however this time it is plugged into that lead using Anderson Powerpole connectors, which should ensure a satisfactory connection.

The radio was connected to the antenna as well and powered on during my shift last night, popping it into 11-meter mode after I watched a video by fredintheshed on YouTube I had a listen on 27.555 USB (I don't TX on it) and found it was busy compared to other times I have listened in, which more or less correlates with the fredintheshed video, bearing in mind he was receiving on a proper CB antenna and using a Yaesu FT-450D, which is a better setup than my mobile antenna and CRT SS9900, though I have no issues at all with the 9900.

I'm going to have to get the antenna retuned for 10-meters, I just need to shorten the whip as far as I can and hope to do this when I get 5 minutes as it looks like conditions may be picking up and I can start to think about operating 10-meters.

Before I do that I'm going to be trying to do some CB tests using the RTL-SDR at a distance and the legal CBs on a clear enough channel, using the antenna on the car of course, and put the results up to YouTube, most of my CBs are now also on Anderson Powerpole connectors so can use the same lead.

After this I can tune the antenna for 10-meters

73 de 2E0EIJ

Upcoming events at the Colburn & Richmondshire District Amateur Radio Society

The club of which I am a member, the Colburn & Richmondshire District Amateur Radio Society, callsign GX3EKL, have, albeit in my absence due to work commitments, put up a a summer programme of events, complete with an idea that I was going to suggest myself to the club however it looks like Chris G4FZN got the idea in before I could (great minds think alike), that being a "fox hunt", or ARDF (Amateur radio direction finding).

The first meeting of June sees the club erecting a colinear thus putting it on air on 2-meters and 70cm, which since its formation it rarely if ever has been and from its elevated point at Hudwell it should do quite well with, ideal for those new to the hobby and not gaining the confidence yet to go on HF, I hope to be there for this however work commitments may not allow for this so what I can do is help out on receive from my car, this should allow me to participate in some capacity with the club when I am not able to attend due to work, though on operating nights only.

The direction finding appears to be taking place in August, due to slightly conflicting schedules I may or may not be able to attend however this remains to be seen, the regular Wednesday meetings usually depend on work commitments, however with an increasing number of drivers at the place I work it may well be that I will be able to make more club meetings however we will see.

The calendar of events for the club can be found here and at time of originally posting the events listing goes from the 5th June to the 16th October, a link to the club's website can now be found at the side of this blog (for computer and most tablet browsers) and if you are in the Richmond area and have an interest in Amateur radio or are licenced then we at the club welcome you to pop in, and membership details can be found on the website if you wish to become a member, the more the merrier as they say.

I attend most meetings where possible and if I am there please do say hi

73 de 2E0EIJ

Testing the Leixen VV-898 on APRS receive and the hopeful igate plans

I've set up the Leixen VV-898 on a power supply and connected the antenna from the NooElec NESDR SMArt to it, using a creative method to adapt it and left it on RX on the APRS channel, so far it sounds like it is working fine on RX however I'd like to test it out both ways at some point.

This did indicate that APRS activity around here is next to non-existent though I did hear the odd packet come through over the course of this, and there is, of course, a blackspot in the area as far as APRS is concerned, with there no longer being an igate in the locality which is inspiring me to apply for the NoV to run an igate from home, the radio is capable of 10 watts though can be dropped to 5 watts if needs be, the radio has already been configured to make it a little difficult for anyone casually going near it to press buttons and change settings as well as to turn off the backlight if no buttons are pressed to save energy.

I have alluded to looking to purchase the Yaesu FT2D now it has come down in price and with APRS on board it makes sense to have an igate in the locality, and it would be of benefit to other local hams, at present the closest igates are MB7UMB at about 13 miles LOS and MB7UVU which is a little further than that in the opposite direction, not ideal on a handheld right down in a built up area.

I am now looking at a TNC and have my eye on the TNC-Pi from the US, sadly I cannot find any local sellers of this unit and would have to import it from America then build a custom loom for the VV-898 to work with it and do various bench tests with the radio and the Pi to get everything just so, it may also require a ground loop isolator though I can get these cheaply off Amazon or ebay.

As I plan to run this unit off a battery and solar charging I will need to fit a fusebox to the output of the charge controller then an output with Anderson PowerPole connectors to take the radio connection, this way should someone unplug the radio it can be reconnected without causing a reverse-polarity incident, I also intend to fit a stop button to the same circuit and a heavy current relay to kill the radio instantly if requested to do so by Ofcom or in an emergency, a light will be added to the shed as well ahead of time all being well.

The antenna, well I have a clever plan for that one to disguise it from the local residents.

73 de 2E0EIJ

YouTube channel “Ringway Manchester” on indefinite hiatus

I, amongst the many that are subscribed to YouTube channel “Ringway Manchester” by Lewis M3HHY, found out yesterday that for personal reasons, Lewis has had to make that hard decision to put the channel onto an indefinite hiatus, some very sad news as his radio reviews were truthful and honest, and I as such bought one radio he reviewed based on that fact, the Retevis RT87, I also own a Radio-Tone RT-3 Network radio which he also did a review on however I bought it based on exploring Network Radios rather than Lewis’ review.

This means I may not be working him through GB3MN and/or GB3MR as hoped, however in the grand scheme of things there are things that take priority over YouTube channels and the radio hobby, those must come first and the hobby and YouTube have to take a back seat until such times they can be returned to.

I, as a fellow Amateur radio operator and YouTuber, wish Lewis well and I hope that whatever is happening in his life right now is resolved with a positive outcome and he returns to YouTube and Amateur radio, if he has also had to step away from it which I get the impression he has had to do as well, sometime soon.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Manchester repeaters and potential for possible QSO with M3HHY

So today I received some good news that will involve me driving to Manchester, and my first ever use of GB3MR and GB3MN, as these are the local repeaters of Lewis M3HHY from YouTube channel Ringway Manchester there is a potential that I could work him for the first time during this journey and maybe on the return leg too while in the coverage of both those repeaters, one is 70cm, one is 2-meters.

I try and work through local repeaters when I can on journeys that take me away from home while /m, gives me an idea of what is actually going on from a radio standpoint there, and also get me on the air through repeaters I’ve would not otherwise be able to use.

I am not going to divulge any information on the nature of the journey or the news I received as it is off-topic for this blog and there are certain individuals on the Internet that do not need to know why I am travelling to Manchester, nor on what date, it will be a few weeks before I go though.

73 de 2E0EIJ

APRS in-car mapping again

The new tablet arrived a few days ago and I got it working with APRSIS32, the Bluetooth GPS receiver and the FTM-400XDE, so I took it out for a test run to see how it faired, it worked fine and was able to show me stations that the radio received, as well as gate them to APRS-IS but it also showed up stations out of range as I used my phone as a WiFi hotspot to connect it to the Internet, in a previous post I mentioned that I need a mount, I still do as it is not quite the end of May yet, in fact it’s only the beginning of May.

As the tablet is Windows 10 it should also allow me to update the firmware of the radio and reprogram it as needed, though I don’t have a need to do either in a hurry as the radio is working and as far as I am aware there are no major fixes though I will double-check Yaesu’s website in the coming weeks.

The best test for the setup will be long journeys though at present I have none planned, next one hopefully will be the Bowburn rally and after that the National Hamfest, though by the latter I should be an M0 by then.

I’ll keep you posted on this topic

73 de 2E0EIJ