Tonight’s set up saw Club members using an ICOM IC-718 and the Hawkins 20m vertical placed out in the car park. Conditions on 20m were good and we made QSOs to North America.

All in all another enjoyable evening had by all.

Tonight we tested the Comet through window adaptor with an Icom IC-756 and our Hawkins Vertical. All working well with 100w on SSB.

Tonight saw Dave G8TTI setting up his newly built Loop Tuner using the G4HCW design. With the antenna indoors and Dave’s multiband 200mw HF to VHF WSPR transmitter we set about sending our Club Callsign on 30m WSPR. Below you will see some images including the initial reports out to about 1200km.

The 2023 AGM will take place on Tuesday 18th April at 7.45pm. Open to all members. We look forward to seeing you there.

One of our members had high noise on 144mhz SSB where it had not been detected before. After turning everything off in the Shack the noise was still there.

Then the Smart Speaker that was playing was turned off and the noise vanished. The culprit was not the speaker or its supplied power supply but an after market cradle that has a rechargeable battery so you can use the speaker without plugging in to the mains.

Anyway we did some tests at the Club on Tuesday and the Peak of the noise was 147mhz but so close to 2m it gave 4 to 5 s-points of noise on 144.300.

So if you have unexpected noise on 2m it may be wise to check your smart speakers too. Here’s the manufacturers details below.

Tonight we did some RX noise level checks in the Shack, the Hall and Outside. These tests were set against an S9 noise level received on our Triband Rotary Dipole on all the HF bands.

The Mag Loop in all 3 locations (indoors and outside) provided improved reception on all bands with a significant reduction in noise.

Here we see Chairman Brian G6HUI explaining the benefits of the Magnetic Loop when trying to overcome local RF noise issues.

The first Club night of 2023 saw us take down the Decorations on behalf of the Hall Committee and GX3VRE taking part in the 144mhz UK Activity Contest. We also extended a warm welcome to Ciaran M7GGC from Southwick who popped in to pick up some kit.

All in all a great start to 2023.

Club members were out and about once again over the Christmas period. Visits to both Martin Lynch and Sons in Staines (Weds) and Nevada Radio (Fri) made up for no club meeting this week.

There were some great bargains to be had. Here are some pictures of our radio trips.

Once again another top turnout and some great fun at the Club last night. We had a selection of surplus equipment on test as well as plenty of items being displayed on behalf of a local QRT Sale.

With Jenni’s fruit cake plus plenty of nibbles supplied by the Club Committee it was a friendly and welcoming festive social event.

Season’s Greetings to you all from all of us at Chippenham and District Amateur Radio Club.

Some of the equipment on test plus Brian running his very own GX3VRE Santa Net.

News in from Gary M0OTL who will be hosting the Net.