Foundation: Intro continued

I missed a week of notation and i've now caught up with the intro...
As we were gently broken into the Foundation course, the introduction ran into another evening under the moon-lit sails.

We were told about the must's and must not's when it comes to identifying oneself. Upon getting on the airwaves, find a spot by requesting if anyone is using the bandwidth. Then we use what is known as CQ, seek you - ha! This is a call out to other hams to make contact. Upon each CQ call you must provide your id using the same mode of communication e.g. voice, morse, CW. This also applies to handing over, changing frequency and dare I say, talking for longer than 15 minutes - on the air waves really there is not an awful lot to say, particularly with regard to the Q code (a series of abbreviations) mentioning the weather, old boys and the signal strength. Tis true there is no coding for the female of the species. I shall make one up, LFB. There.

There were more tedious rules about not using your own codes, sticking to those known. Morse. Mmm. Oh and addresses, for your license. As I frequent to myself... I do not have a permenat address for correspondance, I told you, I live on a boat... One thing you need to know for the exam is that to change address contact Ofcom. There are certain bands we can use and some we cant. There is a chart notifying of this so I wont go into details.

BTW (I apologise if these code words upset!), if I haven't mentioned the gang and I are working through the Foundation booklet available from RSGB Radio Society Great Britain.

Roger.

Foundation: Technical details

This session involved some tidbits of mathematics, trudging up some forgotten science plus clarifying some basics in electronics.

Current measured in Amps (A), symbol: I
Resistance measured in Ohms (upside-down horse-shoe shape), symbol: R
Power measured in Watts (W), symbol: P
Voltage measured in Volts (V), symbol: V

Electrons which carry the charge flow from positive to negative in a circuit. The energy loss measured from the circuit is known as potential difference. This allows us to calculate the voltage. The more voltage there is then essentially the more power there is.


We now have to know some details regarding lengths such as 1cm= 0.01 of a meter and 1mm=0.001 of a meter. This is to enable us to do some calculations in the exam. Three important amounts are:
Milli = 1/1000 or 0.001m
Kilo = 1000 or K
Mega = 1million or M

Have a look at a simple circuit to understand the symbols for battery, light bulb, switch and resistor.

Now, this is where I got a little stuck in mud. Fundamental point to note is that Current is the rate of flow and Voltage is the pressure. We will have to calculate either Power, resistance, current or voltage and so have to use the triangle symbols to help.

Cover the symbol you want and multiply or divide the alternate two symbols for your answer.

There was a brief mention of Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current which are quite self explanatory.

Next was the mention of Waves(upside-down y) and Frequency (f). Best to view a waveform for this one! The cycles in a wave are known as frequency per second and are denoted at Hertz or Hz. We need to know the ranges in frequency and so here they are:

300KHz - 3MHz = MF medium frequency
3MHz - 30MHz = HF high frequency
30MHz - 300MHz = VHF very high frequency
300MHz - 3000MHz = UHF ultra high frequency

For sonic applications; the shorter the wave length, the higher the frequency.

In the exam we will be given several documents,one of which is a chart stating (in binary) length vs. frequency. Knowing how to read this means we can work out who uses the different ranges e.g. emergency services.

what what eh?

Dead Wood

Making fire in the pit
breaking branches,
clearing dead wood.
I stood rooted.

The wind took heart,
with a breeze up her tail
she flinched, danced, drove
Scalextrics round the grass.

Smoke took my sight
so i felt
my way round
the potted plants.

Ruffle and flicker, a blink a, soft whisper,
could it be?
a bullrush?
ah-ha little kitty, I have your tail in my palm.

Vibrating Poetry

Click poem to read...

Nocto Loco 1

Purchased by Leigh, I now have in my mits Nocto Loco by makers 4ms pedals. It is a right, grimey pedal that can drive the input sound down several octaves and frequency shift to make a truely dirty noise. Marvellous. It came as a kit with all the parts illustrated above to fix onto the PC board and house in a tidy aluminium box.

I had just organised all the bits and began with the IC chips when it occured to me that there didn't seem to be enough points on the PC board for the other chips (or so I thought). Turns out that the IC chips aren't to be soldered (oops) direct to the board but to solder the IC sockets (that's what they are!) and simply pop the chips on top to protect them. The word 'dufus' springs to mind.

So lesson learnt the costly and hard way. Still this will not hold me down I am sourcing a supplier for the IC chips as we speak and will, sooner than the snow stops, be back on track for making the Nocto Loco ready for the next musical meltdown of Molten Gods!

Foundation: intro

The course in HAM radio the foundation stage began last night. To clarify HAM radio is non-commercial communication between other members and stations. At the foundation stage we are limited to 10w which on fine days in sun spots can transmit and receive signals world wide. At this stage we can only build accessories and receivers not transmitting equipment due to the wattage restrictions. The course is kindly delivered voluntarily where I attend and the only cost will be £20 for the exam. Once passed I can apply to Ofcom for her license and call-sign.

In the UK call-signs (which is like a number plate which every HAM user has to identify themselves) begin with either the letters G or M. Those that pass the foundation stage have a call-sign beginning with either M3 or now as they have all gone, M6. Full license holders begin with the letters G, M1 or M0. Oi! forgets now about intermediate...

At Foundation stage you can only transmit in the country you are studying. However if you are to go in the UK for example, from England to Wales you have to enter something which is called a regional identifier, in the case as above you would enter the letter 'W' into your call sign. So MW6... There are different letters for Scotland (M), Isle of Man (D) etc.

The next thing we need to know is the phonetic alphabet. There are different versions such as countries, Mexico for the letter M. But we are using the NATO phonetic alphabet, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc. Apparently a good way of learning this is when strolling out and about to observe number plates and recite the letters in the form of the phonetic alphabet.

And after all this fun and laughter, I took along the Phantastron which certainly whet the appetite of some of the boys, from memories back in the days when...

HAM radio

I am getting more excited as each Wednesday swings by... a week tomorrow, is the commencement of her Foundation course in Amateur radio! The boys at the mill have been taking me through the ground work and I will be spending 10 long evenings studying the RSGB booklet in preparation for the test.

The plan is to gather info throughout the course and then build a transmitter from scritch-scratch. This way I will get to know the inner workings and understand the darn thing a lot more. I now have a new soldering iron and tip cleaner and already, soldering is a lot more fun and less frustrating than using the tired-old iron (not the clothes sort mind).

Things of note in the future are 'Mills on the Air' in May (10th and 11th) taking place at a mill near you and 'Newbury Radio Rally' on 21st June for amateur stations, exhibitions and car boot. Final thought before I turn to a zombie from lack of sleep, is that once the boat is afloat and kitted out in all things transmission-like I will have to register as mobile from my station. How exciting! I believe this brings the letter 'm' into the equation regarding her call-sign.

Delia

For my Papa Bear, Delia Derbyshire in the snow!

Phantastron

Today I was found huddled over her table-top twiddling with wires, smelling of solder with a contorted face working through the Phantastron kit (by Electric Western), a noise box based on a pentode circuit developed for radar. This is what it looked like this morning...


After many lovely mugs of tea made by Leigh and his love and support, things started coming together as contacts were made whilst carefully following the schematics. The kit uses a turret board for attaching components including two amazing tube valves which stick out the top. There are five switches on the front for control and pitch variation. Plugs are in the rear of the unit for in/output and inside the box is the additional power supply to run the circuit and tubes.

As the sky turned a darker shade of grey and the house lights started coming on all parts were in place. Leigh had a test run as I beamingly looked on. It works, just some tweeking needed to stop the hummm! This is the final, beautiful, result...

Outdoor visitors

In the remains of the snow some little birdies came into the garden to feed upon bacon rind, old bread, apple and seeds. Here are the characters caught in the act...

Swiss Snow

The snow had fallen across the Midlands covering over shapes and patterns creating a duvet-mix of ground-sky. Work was cancelled and I was invited to Guy's Ski-Resort of Codnor for a spot of sledging by bin-liner and rolling of swiss snow. Swiss snow is an art of snow rolling, forming a ball at the top of a hill and with precision and strength rolling downwards wrapping a carpet of snow up, leaving a trail of exposed land behind. See me in motion below...