Despite football on the TV it was another top turnout at the Club this evening. Jack M0PLS was keen to try out his 2nd Discovery 599 transceiver purchased on a Black Friday Special from Nevada. It certainly looked and sounded good with QSOs a plenty on 40m.

Meanwhile Dave G8TTI got to grips with an IC-271e which needs some TLC but Dave will no doubt get it back in to service very soon.

Here are some pictures.

A pair of Discoveries

Member’s were once again out in force at the Hall putting up the Christmas decorations for the benefit of all Hall users. Big thanks to G6HUI, M3HUI, M3KIR, 2E0CXH, G6YCG and G0IUE for their help this morning.

Tonight we bid a warm welcome to Kevin Kelly who popped along for a chat and a cuppa and it was good to see him.

We also tested a QRM eliminator to see if we could reduce some of the high noise we get on our loft mounted HF Triband Dipole. Using a Chameleon F Loop 2.0 as the auxiliary antenna on a camera tripod in the Club shack we were able to null most of the noise very effectively.

We also had a collection of items on display from a local Amateur who unfortunately is going QRT. Several items were sold or reserved which is good news.

Andy 2E1GQX is writing a Rally report for Radcom and we hope to get some pictures included for a future edition of the magazine.

Good to see Gary M0OTL who dropped off a modified drive on mount to accept a Spiderbeam fibreglass mast.

The picture below shows the QRM eliminator on test. Till next time have a great week ahead and 73s.

Today the 19th November 2022 was our first proper Winter event and it was a great success with 200+ attendees and a wide variety of traders on hand to tempt the buyers to purchase something old or new.

We’d just like to thank everyone who supported our event and we look forward to seeing you again next year.

In the meantime here are a few images from today’s event. Thanks also to our friends from Flight Refuelling ARS who supplied one of the images.

Another great Club night this evening and thanks so much to those who attended. Tonight we installed the 20m Hawkins Vertical and tested a number of radios in preparation for sale by a local Amateur who is going QRT due to ill health. We tested an ICOM IC-756, IC-706 and a also an IC-7300. All radios were found to be in good working order.

With our rally almost upon us please check our Rally Page for all the last minute updates. We’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of interest for the event and could have doubled the number of traders if we’d had more space!

For those of you travelling to get to us please have safe journey’s and we look forward to seeing you soon. Please have your £2 entry fees ready as you enter the hall and we’ll exchange it for a wristband so you can come and go as you please.

There is limited trading space on the hardstanding on a first come first served basis. Please contact Brian G6HUI on email: rally@chippenhamradio.club to check availability.

Another great evening at the Club with the 432 Mhz UKAC in full swing and an update for WSJT-X for our FT8 operation successfully conducted. Jacek M0PLS once again operated 80/40m with the Club’s 120′ long wire antenna.

Tuesday’s Club night was our final Rally Planning Meeting ahead of the main event on Saturday the 19th November. Brian G6HUI reported that all indoor tables had now been sold with several Special Interest Groups booked plus many others, including Silent Key Sales, Exeter DX Group, RAFARS, RSGB and RAIBC. Lotties Kitchen will be with us serving hot food and drinks from opening time onwards. If the weather is good we may be able to offer some outdoor ‘Car Boot’ spaces on the hardstanding outside the hall.

The message is we’re ready and looking forward to welcoming our traders, visitors and friends on the 19th.

See you soon.

Tonight we tested a new Off Centre Dipole kindly loaned for the evening by Jack M0PLS. We teamed it up with a classic Alinco HF transceiver the DX-70TH. Jack made plenty of QSOs on 40m but it was good to note the OFCD was tuned for 40 and 20m without the need for an ATU. Jack used a 12m Spiderbeam pole with Sotabeam heavy duty straps and the whole set up worked very well. It was another great night and plenty of friendly chat to be had. Great to see Jenni and Merfyn back with us again after a few weeks absence. Till next time have a great week ahead and plenty of DX!

Another great evening on HF with Jacek M0PLS busy working the Pile-Ups with his Discovery 599 and the Buddipole in the car park.

Later we see Jacek and Dave G8TTI reading from a selection of Amateur Radio related books the Club purchased at the Newark Hamfest 2022.