Matt MØPUH @m0puh@mastodon.radio

Enjoying #introductions, so here's mine:

I got my full license in July, having done my intermediate in Jan and Foundation in Dec, so I consider myself a newbie with an M0 license.

Got into radio to regain some knowledge in electronics (I have a degree in it, but don't use it for work so have forgotten a LOT).

Loving it so far, especially construction and and messing with digital modes. Definitely still a bit mic shy but working on it!

Also, I 100% recommend the Bath based courses!

My 9 year old nephew has been making stop motion videos for a few weeks now.

Here's the latest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBl2XzyE7rI

👌

Well, I clicked the button to "tax" my car. Even though there's no fee! And actually I've not really used it much for months now.

Over 400 people replied to the GQRP club's survey about holding the convention online, and most were keen.

That's an impressive number! When I went to the live convention a couple of years ago there were probably about 40 of us there in total!

It makes me think that when things go back to normal talks also need streaming.

NASA have been making images of the sun every 0.75 seconds for a decade, that's pretty amazing.

They released a video where each second is a full day, at:

https://youtu.be/l3QQQu7QLoM

I found this via: https://kottke.org/20/06/a-decade-of-sun
which also lists the days a few cool things happened.

WSJT-X 2.2.2 is out. It's a bugfix release with some decoder speedups, so that's cool:

> It is particularly targeted for slower single board computer users such as the Raspberry Pi Model 3 or similar.

Announced at: https://sourceforge.net/p/wsjt/mailman/message/37043488/

And release notes at: http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt

#hamradio #ft8

This article on magnetic amplifiers is really interesting: https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/the_magnetic_amplifier

#electronics

Yay, my yearly fortnight of moderate stress at work is basically over, and now we move into the season of many interns.

Of course this year we got a puppy to act as a stress multiplier 😂

Here's Kin the golden retriever. About .9.5 weeks old and made of teeth....

It's nice to see the RSGB's response to the Ofcom EMF consultation:

http://rsgb.org/main/files/2020/06/200605_Ofcom-EMF-Consultation_RSGB-Response.pdf

I've only skimmed it, but it looks to be detailed and well argued, and recommends some tweaking to license wording, rather than anything more extreme.

In my mind this is why we should be paying our national societies!

#hamradio #amateurradio

Ohh, WSJT-X 2.2.1 was released with some bug and regression fixes. Get it at http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html

See: https://sourceforge.net/p/wsjt/mailman/message/37031060/ for the announcement.

Release notes at: http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt

Looks like it's worth grabbing for the fixes. It's interesting that they statically link their own hamblib that's much more recent than the last release.

#hamradio #amateurradio #ft8

The GQRP club convention is running remotely this year.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm increasingly of the opinion that if I can't physically _go_ to the thing then I'm going to find it hard to make time for it.

There's a survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/F7CNQS6 which is also open to interested non-members.

Went to a virtual club meeting last night, which was pretty interesting.

Roy G0VFS's "VirusPerplexed" bug key is pretty amazing - https://sites.google.com/site/hamradiog0vfs/projects/virusperplexed-key?authuser=0
especially when you consider he made it using photos of Vibroplex keys.

The RSGB posted a pic of it as well: https://rsgb.org/main/blog/radio-amateurs/2020/05/08/roy-bailey-g0vfs-morse-key-lockdown-project/

I'm jealous of all these people with all this free time!

WSJT-X 2.2.0 GA is out.

Details at: https://sourceforge.net/p/wsjt/mailman/message/37027511/

Release notes at: http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt

The release cycle seems to have been focused on decoder and hamlib improvements.

#hamradio #amateurradio #ft8

WSJT-X-rc3 is now out, just a few days after rc2.

See https://sourceforge.net/p/wsjt/mailman/message/37024179/ for details.

Primarily hamlib related bug fixes.

#hamradio #ft8 #amateurradio

WSJT-X 2.2.0-rc2 is out.

See https://sourceforge.net/p/wsjt/mailman/message/37019565/ for details and https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Release_Notes.txt for release notes.

Bug fixes and some random improvements, like:
- Significantly reduced the rate of false decodes in FT4 and FT8.

#hamradio #ft8 #amateurradio

I have an eBay saved search for "roller inductor", just so I don't miss any bargains (😂).

These things are so expensive, but look gorgeous. 1.5kW ATU anyone?

#hamradio