SOS Radio week raising money for  the Royal National Lifeboat Institution through Amateur radio

Picture credits photographer Derek Hughes

“Having rescued persons just off Black Rock Sands, Criccieth lifeboat returns from another job well done.”

This past week local radio amateurs have been activating special event stations up and down the country  to help raise public awareness of the  roll and  work of the Royal National Life boat institution at the same time raising money for the RNLI through Amateur radio called SOS Radio week some of the amateur radio stations are located at  very interesting place’s and can help in adding a new one for the worked all Britain award or by making that much needed radio contact with a Scottish island for IOTA award or Scottish Island award programmes.

The following is a list of station’s I work during the week some times the pile up’s were very large due to the interest shown by the amateur radio community but it was worth the wait for the pile up to die down before calling and making the much needed QSO.

I worked on 40m CW  GB4RNLI.

and I worked the following on 40m mode SSB

 ”Foxdelta FoxTrak”

Part 1.

Last may 2011 Peter 2E0SQL brought himself a Foxdelta FoxTrak I had never come across this unit before Peter paid around £14 plus P&P So far so good as is often the case a lead or two has to be home brewed some times that easy but I was soon to discover a few pit falls were waiting for me to fall into hook line and sinker that came in the way of serial plug 3.5mm 4 pole and battery connector that we brought from maplin I had no problem with the battery connector however I soon fell into a large whole regarding the serial plugs however after a couple of tries I soon got the lead made up properly however it took a little longer for the penny to drop that regardless the maplin 3.5mm jack just did not fit correctly into the VX-150 handheld and the next hole came as a complete surprise I own two Garmin e-Trex’s GPS the newer one for some reason did not supply the NMEA data but the older GPS did much time could have been saved by trying the older GPS first. Peter Got a lot of fun using this set up bicycle mobile also I could monitor his progress in the shack.

For some reason Peter thought it might be a good idea to use this set up in the shack with the GPS handing out the shack window so it could and more often than not – did not pick up the satellite signal that would supply the location He was transmitting from  – I asked Peter was there any chance of a different unit that has a programmable pic that we could program  our latitude and longitude instead of risking a GPS I was delighted to learn that there was and it was called the Foxdelta Foxview 3 So I ordered one so that Peter could use this in the shack.

Part 2.

“The Foxdelta Foxview 3 APRS”

The Foxdelta Foxview 3 APRS viewer Peter had ordered the MX614 chip from Argent Data in the states and this arrived first Getting it all connected up was easy enough to start with we used the lead for Yaesu VX-150 handheld as the connection was the same as the Foxtrak but later on I made a new lead up so it would work using the FT-7800E and this has been very success full one of the big advantages of the Foxdelta Foxview 3 APRS view is that it is a stand along unit and does not need to be connected to a computer because it has its own display.

The Foxview features are

APRS viewer on a 4×20 LCD

APRS Position encoder (Fixed or GPS (not easy to setup)

Digipeater

APRS TNC

Peter 2E0SQL has had a lot of fun out of this unit that only cost’s a few pounds and perhaps an hour helping peter set the unit up. Since Christmas 2010 peter has taken this one set further and you can read about this on his website

“Wouxun 2/70 full dual band handie”

The West London Radio & Electronics Fair has been running twice a year for 10 years. It started out at Epsom racecourse but the organisers soon ran out of room. The Event has been held at Kempton Park Sunbury-on-Thames for the last eight years. Whilst these sorts of events have declined over the years, The Kempton rally has continued to grow year on year.

“The finishing post from the  panoramic bar and restaurant”

Today, it is the only National Rally in the south and attracts most of the popular traders. Many of the clubs in the region take space along with flea market traders and charities. The CATS bring and buy sale is a permanent feature of the rally.

“A view looking down the race course from our table in the panoramic bar and restaurant”

The main hall spans more than 2500 sq. metres and is fully air conditioned. There is ample room to expand and offers various meeting rooms and seminar centres – just right for holding special meetings such as lectures and AGM’s. Kempton park is London’s all-weather horse racing and entertainment venue with fantastic facilities for every social and business event the panoramic bar and restaurant offers good value for money breakfasts and lunches and are very popular with Radio Amateurs visiting the radio rally the race course is situated at junction 1 of the M3 and is easily accessible by road, bus or trail.

“Barry G4AZN in the panoramic bar and restaurant”

Peter 2E0SQL and I went to the radio rally with Ken M1SLH and Barry G4AZN visiting Kempton radio rally gave us the opportunity of meeting the radio traders and manufactures under one roof with the added bonus of meeting up with old friends and new it was great meeting up with twitter friend’s during our visit at Kempton I took advantage of buying the wire and connectors to make a nest of dipoles for 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m and I also treated myself to one of the Wouxun 2/70 full dual band FM handhelds no doubt there will be more about this once I have been using it for awhile.