Month: July 2023

Brian and Jon are pleased to announce that the Motorola DR3000 repeater and Cavities have arrived and the repeater is now programmed for GB7WW and the South West Cluster.

GB7WW 70cm DMR Repeater on test at Chippenham Club – Coming soon to the South West Cluster Network.

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to test the new machine in to a dummy load and everything seemed to work perfectly. We had a QSO with Russ M0WYB in Peasdown and Dick G8DER in Salisbury. We hope to switch WW on before the Wiltshire Radio Rally on Sun July 30th.

We also welcomed Thomas from Devizes who came along to learn more about the hobby and we hope he had an enjoyable evening and we hope to see him again soon.

Of Course we couldn’t pass up on some more HF activity and our STAR portable operator Jacek M0PLS operated with the Discovery 500 transceiver with its matching 60watt amplifier. Tonight Jacek was keen to try a 40m Double Bazooka purchased from Wire Antennas UK from Salisbury Wiltshire. Jacek said ” I cant believe the low noise levels on that antenna” as he worked one station after another. The 40m Double Bazooka was an instant hit and here’s an image of it below:

The 40m Double Bazooka certainly caused a stir on Tuesday.

Well that’s about it for this week but don’t forget our rally is coming up fast and we will be holding the final rally planning meeting next Tuesday the 26th July. Till next time our best wishes from the Chippenham Club Website Team.

The storm passed through Chippenham an hour before our Club meeting and just in time for us to erect the Buddipole for a super evening on 40m.

Brian G6HUI was intending to try a 6m hookup with Jon DL/G0IUE in the Mosel valley but conditions on 50mhz just weren’t condusive this evening. Brian therefore assisted Jacek M0PLS with the installation of the Buddipole and before you knew it we were set and ready for an evening on 40m.

The Buddipole ready for unpacking

The Discovery 599 and matching amp ready to go. Now just needs the antenna.

Up it goes the Buddipole ready for action.

Up and up it goes…. ready for 40m Ops.

So shortly after 7.45pm local we got going and worked one station after another. The little notepad log soon ran out of space…

The little notepad log early on in proceedings.

DL/G0IUE gave us a call. Club member Jon G0IUE was over in the Mosel valley in Grid Square JN39NX and heard the pile up and gave us a shout. Jon was 5-8 to 9 back in Chippenham and he gave us a similar report.

Jon DL/G0IUE in Enkirch Germany working GX3VRE

We had some great fun this evening and putting in the effort to get the antenna up in the air really paid off. We thank everyone who helped on the night and those who called in for making it such a fun event.

Time to take it down again..

Till next week, best 73 and good DX from the Chippenham Radio Club website team.

Big thanks to Club Member Alan G6YCG for signposting us to the latest news from Matt and Mark from GB7BS and the South West Cluster HQ.

A useful guide for programming your radios for the existing, newly on air and upcoming (GB7WW) repeaters on the South West Cluster.