The Sherwood Ratings: Transceiver Performance for the HF DX & Contest Operator , Rob NC0B

Rob Sherwood’s name has become something of a standard in the radio amateur equipment world as a trusted comparison guide to the technical performance of a wide range of transceivers.

This presentation will explain the process that Sherwood Engineering go through to produce detailed performance figures for a wide range of transceivers. Rob will talk about the acquisition of a true random sample of the radio, through to the technical processes of measurement and the compilation and presentation of comparative results.

The presentation will also include details of Rob’s recent findings on the long awaited new Elecraft K4D.

Rob will also talk about how modern receivers have become very good but how generally many transmitters need attention to some aspects of their performance.

The Sherwood comparison table

Assessing your station against ICNIRP EMF levels  –  John M0JAV

Ofcom is implementing changes to all transmitting licences to require licensees to comply with ICNIRP general public limits on EMF exposure. This will include previously licence exempt users who transmit at powers of more than 10W EIRP. John will introduce the work of the RSGB and ARRL experts in assessment of exposure to EM fields.

RSGB responded to the Ofcom consultation (on behalf of UK amateurs) and we are now preparing guidance on compliance with the new requirements. The talk will outline these requirements and introduce four ways to conduct and record the results of the assessment include calculating required separation, use of known compliant station configurations and potential mitigating actions.

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Introduction to Meteor Scatter communications  –  Gavin MM1BXF.

Have you ever thought about making more QSOs over a longer range on VHF? This talk will give you the background on how to achieve that through bouncing your signal off meteor trails. During the talk Gavin will show you how and why Meteor Scatter communications work: what software you should use, how you should use it, and when you should use it.

He’ll also look at what tools are available to help you to maximise your QSO count.

Repeaters: how they are built, planned, commisioned and used  –
Steve F4VTF/G8SFR

Voice repeaters have been with us in UK for almost 50 years a lot has changed in that time. We all are aware of repeaters but how many of us have considered what’s involved in getting one commissioned?

In his presentation, Steve will cover a wide variety of information about repeaters, including the following:

• What is a repeater, even in its most basic form?
• What is required to put a repeater on air?
• Are all repeaters connected to the internet?
• Is it important to support your local repeater group?
• Don’t just listen….put out a call, respond to other people’s calls even if you don’t know them!
• Is a Simplex Gateway an alternative to a voice repeater?
• What does Emerging Technology Co-ordination Committee(ETCC) do?
• Where can you find out more information

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Bitx to SBitx: The journey and development of this exciting and affordable range of transceivers by Ashhar VU2ESE.

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Using the Pluto and RPi4 for Amateur TV and narrowband  –  Noel G8GTZ.

Following on from his “Advances in Amateur Television” talk at the 2017 RSGB convention, Noel Matthews, G8GTZ will be presenting on the latest developments in the ever-evolving world of Amateur TV.

Noel will give an overview of ATV activity in the UK and in particular how the use of Reduced bandwidth (RBTV) signals has enabled ATV QSOs on the lower VHF bands. He will give an introduction to the QO100 geostationary satellite which has enabled QSOs with fellow DATV operators as far away as Brazil, India and South Africa.

Noel will also be describing how the development of Software Defined Radio (SDR) based hardware and powerful single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi has revolutionised the development and capabilities of amateur radio dedicated products.

He will describe how it is possible for radio amateurs to build an advanced touch screen multimode narrowband and Digital ATV transceiver covering 50 MHz to 10GHz for under £350.

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All you need to get started in Software construction is a personal computer (Windows, Linux, Mac – they’ll all do), some spare time and, if you want to make a ‘thing’ then some loose change.

There are three easy and virtually free routes into writing your own programs: develop applications that run on your PC using the free Qt environment; write programs to run on one of the Arduino boards (£3 from China plus a USB cable) using the free Arduino application; or go for the middle ground with a Raspberry PI (around £40) and a wi-fi connection.

Heather will take you through the setup for each of these and show you just how easy it is to go from flashing an LED through developing an ATV receiver to producing a fully-featured windows PC application such as her Mapper entry in the RSGB construction competition.

Find out more

https://www.arduino.cc

https://www.raspberrypi.org

https://www.qt.io

https://github.com/

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Hidden deep in a serene forest yet taller than the clouds, standing in surreal beauty is an antenna array like none other on earth, having an aperture area greater than 15 U.S. football fields. One of the great wonders of the world – a top secret Soviet radar, so secret that even the name is uncertain, for it had many. It was the Russian Woodpecker. It was the Steel Yard. It was Duga.

The story of this top secret place is one of mystery and intrigue. Now abandoned, a rusting testament to man’s cold war hubris, almost all popular accounts on the web are seriously flawed – victims of deliberate disinformation. Where did it come from? What did it do? Did it transmit? Did it receive? Was it the first of three, or the third of two?

Keith Snyder, KI6BDR, has been busy reverse engineering to uncover truth before time erases history. Keith shows visible engineering clues that reveal the mission and correct the history of the huge “Duga 3” antenna Array. The Duga 3 is located a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site. Although it has fallen into disrepair, it stands today due only to a hasty exit forced by radiation from the
Chernobyl nuclear accident. The nuclear accident ironically protected the array from dismantlement, a reprieve from all but the ravages of time. The antenna array today attracts tourists who visit Chernobyl. It is one of the 8th wonders of the world due to its Titanic size.

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