Month: July 2023

It was a rather damp old night outside so we opted to stay in the dry and assemble a Buddipole antenna on a tripod. Jacek M0PLS had just received a shipment of new high power coils and an extension kit from the USA and was keen to test it out. Ideally we would have done this outside but the inclement weather put pay to that.

Here are some pictures from our indoor tests:

Jacek M0PLS assembling the elements

Time to check the SWR with the NANO VNA

All done and working fine.

Jacek tested the antenna on both 40m and 20m and a good SWR was achieved on both bands. He hopes to test this antenna again at the club when the weather is better and it can be set up in the car park.

Thanks for brining it along Jacek.

GB7WW

We are pleased to announce that a new DMR Repeater covering Chippenham and North Wilts has been licensed. The new repeater will be connected to the South West Cluster and will have two Talk Groups (TGs 950 and 9).

This is a privately funded repeater and at this time there is no need for any financial assistance. The aim of this venture is to provide enhanced coverage along the M4 between Junctions 18 & 16 and also to improve SW Cluster coverage for mobiles and handheld stations in and around Chippenham. The MOD have only sanctioned 6w output at the transmitter so we will be doing our best with what we have been allowed.

We hope to get WW on the air in the next few weeks (by end of July).

Those all important frequencies for your radios:

Set your radio’s RX to 439.475Mhz

Set your radio’s TX to 430.475Mhz

Set your Colour Code to 7

For SW Cluster set your radio to TG950 on SLOT 2

and on a 2nd Channel do the same but select TG 9 and Slot 1

Here is a likely coverage map based on a mobile station and a basic set up.

If you love contesting this is one event not to be missed. This event runs in total for 24 hours but check timings for individual bands. All you need is your Callsign, your Locator and be ready to exchange a Signal Report and Serial Number. 50/70/144/432 and 1296mhz Bands. Enjoy !!

For more info look here for all the rules and info – RSGB