November Meeting

This month CARA will be meeting at a different venue which may become our regular venue: Newlands Park, the home of Cheltenham Rugby Club and formerly the Smiths Industries Sports and Social Club.  As many of you will know it’s located just off the A435 between Cheltenham and Bishops Cleeve.  From Cheltenham turn right at the “Smiths” traffic lights and the entrance is a little way along Southam Lane on the left.  A licensed bar will be available.

The speaker will be Tim G4VXE who used to live in Cheltenham and was, form many years, an enthusiastic member of CARA.  He was very active on the air and continues to be so today.  He is currently the “World of VHF” columnist for the monthly PW magazine.  The subject of his talk will be “Simple Satellite Operation” which will appeal to many in the club.

Please note that the meeting will be on Wednesday 16th November and not on Thursday 17th as previously advertised.   We look forward to a good attendance at the meeting; to justify asking Tim to visit us from his home near Oxford and also so that many members will have a chance to experience the venue and to comment before the Committee decides whether or not to move there from Brizen.  If the decision is to move, it will not take place until next year.

Foundation Course

CARA is pleased to announce that the next Foundation Licence course will be held over the weekend of 3rd/4th December 2016 from 9am to 5pm each day.

The next Foundation exam will be held the following weekend, date and time to be confirmed.

W e are planning to run an Intermediate Level course and exam sometime in early 2017.  A Full exam will be held at the same time as the Intermediate exam.

For more information please go to the “training” page on this website.

Amateur Radio Courses and Exams

CARA is currently working towards running a Foundation Licence Course and Exam towards the end of this year and an Intermediate Course and Exam in the New Year.  A Full Licence exam is also being planned.

If you’d like more information please look at the training page on this website or contact Barry at:  training@g5bk.uk

October Meeting – Report

We started with a mini-auction to dispose of a number of items from a former member who died earlier in the year.  These were mainly of low value, most of which went under the hammer, but the most valuable piece, a Hunter 750 HF Linear Amplifier failed to generate any interest so will now be advertised more widely.  Thanks go to the auctioneer, Chairman Tony G3YYH, who conducted proceedings in his usual efficient and humorous manner.

The auction was followed by a presentation by Matt 2E0MDJ on the work of the Gloucestershire Repeater Group.  Matt was well placed to present the talk as he is the Chairman of the Group.  He explained the Group’s history, described the repeaters currently maintained by the Group and spoke about future plans including the desire to introduce digital repeaters into the county.  This latter proposal generated some lively discussion with arguments for and against!  In all, a very interesting and informative session which enlightened some (many?) of the audience about the world of repeaters and digital voice.  Many thanks to Matt for taking the time to prepare and present the talk.

Thanks also go to John G8TTJ for manning the kitchen and providing us with tea, coffee and biscuits.

October Meeting

Another meeting in two parts.

We will start with a short auction to dispose of a few Silent Key items.  This should not take more than about 10 minutes.

Then Matt 2E0MDJ will speak about the work of the Gloucestershire Repeater Group (GRG).  Matt is currently chairman of the GRG so he is well placed to tell us about the local repeaters and the Group’s plans for improvements and enhancements.

Thursday 20th October, 7.30 for 8pm at the Brizen Young People’s Centre, Up Hatherley Way, located between the Shurdington Road and Morrison’s Superstore.

Visitors and prospective members will be most welcome, as always.

Beware of the height barrier when entering the car-park.

CARA CHALLENGE

The Autumn Challenge runs from 1st October through to 31st October and is open to all members of CARA – the rules are on this website under “Activities”.

Please send in your reports regularly so as to keep the interest going.

Good luck and have fun!

September Meeting – Report

This month we had a two short talks given by club members

Christopher M0YNG introduced us to the need for computer security.  He spoke about the need for passwords to be long but not complex and to be easily remembered (so that we don’t need to write them down) and recommended the use of LastPass.  He went on to describe some of the ways in which our privacy can be invaded by, for instance, the inclusion of mal-ware in adverts from certain sites.  He urged us to keep our software up-to-date especially our operating systems and never to post anything on-line which we don’t want the whole world to know!

Tony G3SNN began by giving us a brief history of his DX’ing successes and showing us photos of the antenna at his previous QTH near Hasfield where he had a big HF yagi on top of a 60ft tower.  Over the years he has worked 339 different DX entities (or countries, if you prefer) which puts him in the top league of DXers.  On moving, several  years ago now, to a house with a small garden he was at first disappointed with the prospects for on-going DX’ing but using a suitable multi-band vertical he has continued to be successful.  His current challenge is filling in as many “band-slots” as possible (ie working each DXCC entity on each HF band).

Many thanks  to Christopher and Tony for their very interesting and informative talks which were much appreciated by those present.  Thanks also to Colin G3TA for manning the tea bar.

September Meeting

Two short talks.

Christopher M0YNG will explain the dangers we face when going on line and will describe some of the precautions we can take to avoid our PCs, tablets etc being infected by mal-ware.

Tony G3SNN will tell us how he has managed to work nearly 300 DXCC entities (countries) from a modest back garden, mentioning some of the aerials he has used.

Thursday 15th September at the Brizen Centre, Up Hatherley Way, located between the Shurdington Road and Morrison’s superstore.  Doors open by 7.30 for an 8pm start.

Beware of the height barrier when entering the car park.

Visitors and prospective members will be warmly welcomed.

CARA Fun Field Day No 2

The second Fun Field Day of 2016 took place over the weekend of 3/4 September from a farm near Withington.  One of the aims of the event was to introduce members to the fun of contesting and to achieve this we ran a station on HF for RSGB SSB Field Day and another on VHF for the RSGB 144MHz trophy Contest.

Unfortunately the weather was not good, with heavy rain and strong winds for much of the Saturday.  But nevertheless we managed to hold the promised BBQ and we had a lot of fun on the air.  G5BK/P on HF made just short of 400 QSOs using an IC-7300 feeding a 120ft inverted vee doublet at 30ft.  G5BK/P on 2m made 78 QSOs with the best DX being TM0W at 824km; good going for 50W to a 9 element yagi at 15ft.

Many thanks to everyone who took part, especially those who supplied equipment, tents etc and those who turned up just to help with the rigging and de-rigging of the stations.

August Meeting – Report

The “Bring and Show Something from your Shack” proved to be a very popular format with some 20 items being brought along and displayed.  These ranged from a WW2 Wireless Set 19 complete with accessories and a 1950’s Raymart Bandchecker (an absorption wavemeter, a mandatory piece of test gear for every shack up until the 1960s) to modern equipment such as the latest Icom IC-7300 multi-band transceiver and the SDR Play.  Other items of particular interest included a Vizkey (a vertical mechanical bug-key), an SG Labs 23cm transceiver, and a home-constructed bi-quad for 23cm.  Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the evening by bringing along kit.   Another well attended and enjoyable meeting in spite of the uncomfortable heat and noise level.