Week 7 2012

This week’s bit of fun:

A WOMAN'S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's rich and self-employed,
And when I spend, won't be annoyed.
Pull out my chair and hold my hand..
Massage my feet and help me stand.
Oh send a king to make me queen.
A man who loves to cook and clean.
I pray this man will love no other.
And relish visits with my mother.

A MAN'S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with
big tits who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me fishing and drinking. This
doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

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I have been using up the remainder of my annual leave this week. Carole and I have spent the week catching up with some jobs around the house. We did manage to do some Geocaching on Epsom Downs one afternoon as well a couple of lunches out.

On the radio front I have spent too much time trying to get my Dstar Hot Spot board to work. After a software upgrade and some extra configuration it all seems to work.

Colin and I recorded the latest episode of the ICQPODCAST which is episode 100

Series Five Episode Five of the ICQ - 100th Episode Podcast has been released.

News Stories include:-

• 1st Interplanetary CubeSat Workshop
• New HF shortwave radio station callsign
• 13cm threat in Sweden
• Bahrain 70 MHz beacon A92C/B
• Open Mission Control software
• Craggy Island Dxpedition Group
• MIT offer free online electronics course
• G0KYA's February HF Propagation
• Android App for UK Band Plan 2012
• D-Star in Namibia V53W
• Radio Amateur to command ISS
• Field day BBQ cookbook published

Your feedback, Steve Nicholls, G0KYA Progation Report, and our 100th episode roundtable discussing the past and future of Amateur radio.

The ICQPOCAST can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

Week 6 2012

This week’s bit of fun:

Breast Feeding in Public causes Traffic Jam

What were you thinking????

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Monday: Not a bad turn out tonight in Banstead. Denis (M0NDJ) was showing us his foxhole receiver which was built on the same lines as the ones during the Second World War. This is basically a crystal set using a razor blade as a detector diode.

As expected we were able to here Christian Radio on this crystal set due to us only being a mile or so from the transmitter.

Wednesday: I recorded Feature 101 with Chris (G0FDZ) on GB3VHF. This will be a very interesting story.

Thursday: it was my son Lee’s Birthday. He came over with his family for an evening meal which we all enjoyed. After taking Lee and his family home I made my way to the Sutton and Cheam Radio Society meeting. This was a good talk by Bob Burns (G3OOU) on Heathkit restoration.

Saturday: I spent the day with the Girl Guides from Upper and South Norwood for thinking day on the air. The event went well and all enjoyed themselves.

Sunday: In the morning I spent some time doing some computer maintenance. I took my Dstar hotspot over to Bob’s House in the afternoon and he reprogrammed the PIC chip for me. We also looked at an old valve receiver afterwards.

Week 5 2012

This week’s bit of fun:

Why do Sharks swim circles around you before attacking?

Two great white sharks, swimming in the ocean, spied survivors of a sunken ship.

"Follow me, son." the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the mass of people.

"First we swim around them a few times with just the tip of our fins showing." And they did.

"Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few more times with all of our fins showing." And they did.

"Now we eat everybody." And they did.

When they were bo

th gorged, the son asked, "Dad, why didn't we just eat them all at first?

Why did we swim around and around them?

His wise father replied, "Because they taste better without the shit inside!"

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Monday: Not as many of us as normal this Monday, probably due to the bad weather. Banstead still had a lot of snow from the weekend and most of us parked in the main car park and walked down to the hall.

I took my Icom ID-E880 Dstar radio again and managed a few contacts before asking Paul (M6PCK) if

Wednesday: Colin and I recorded the latest episode of the ICQPODCAST. This is episode 99, almost three figures.

Thursday: I took my Dstar radio and DVAP to work to show Paul the other engineer Dstar in operation. I worked James MW0SGR in Cardiff, Derek G4WXN in Mildenhall and David G1WXC in Littlehamton. Not bad for a quick demo at lunch time.

Friday evening: I built my Dutch Star Hotspot interface.

Saturday: I could not get the Dutch Star Hotspot interface board to connect to my computer. After much testing I thing that the PIC chip has not been programmed.

Sunday: Colin released the latest episode of our podcast.

Series Five Episode Four of the ICQ Podcast - DVAP - Digital Voice Access has been released.

News Stories include:-

• SumbandilaSat beyond repair
• Sweden loses 13cm amateur radio band
• FCC sets date for medical devices on 70 cm
• RSGB PLA/PLT Devices Announcement
• BATC Convention 2012
• FISTS marks a milestone
• New rules for 5 MHz (60 meters)
• VOA anniversary spurs museum effort
• Morse code not on the way out
• UK Propagation charts for February 2012
• Record set at Winter Hill

Your feedback, Ed Durrant provides his latest Australian report and Martin reviews a DVAP (Digital Voice Access Point).

The ICQPOCAST can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

Week 4 2012

This week’s bit of fun:

The Three Bears (New version)

A far more accurate account of the events of that fateful morning....

Baby bear goes downstairs, sits in his small chair at the table.

He looks into his small bowl. It is empty. 'Who's been eating my porridge?' he squeaks.

Daddy Bear arrives at the big table and sits in his big chair. He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty. 'Who's been eating my porridge?!?' he roars.

Mummy Bear puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells, 'For God's sake, how many times do I have to go through this with you idiots? It was Mummy Bear who got up first. It was Mummy Bear who woke everyone in the house. It was Mummy Bear who made the coffee. It was Mummy Bear who unloaded the dishwasher from last night and put everything away. It was Mummy Bear who swept the floor in the kitchen. It was Mummy Bear who went out in the cold early morning air to fetch The newspaper and croissants. It was Mummy Bear who set the damn table.

'It was Mummy Bear who walked the bloody dog, cleaned the cat's litter tray, gave them their food, and refilled their water.

'And now that you've decided to drag your sorry bear-arses downstairs and grace Mummy Bear with your grumpy presence, listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once....

'I HAVEN'T MADE THE F***ING PORRIDGE YET

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Monday I took my Icom ID-E880 Dstar radio to the Banstead Scout Hall, Set up the antenna and we had a station on the air. We worked a couple of stations via the Bromley Dstar Hotspot MB6IOK. This worked very well and the Bromley Repeater Group posted the following on Facebook.

Bromley Repeater Group

Surprise to hear Martin Butler, M1MRB working through MB6IOK in Orpington from Sutton and Cheam radio club this evening talking to K4GSU in USA and then shortly after Cliff, 2E0RCW in London using a dongle connected to reflector 1c.

Not much happened in the middle of the week apart from me doing some computer maintenance.

This weekend Ii managed to get some time playing radio. I mainly operated via Dstar with a numbers of contacts to the USA via a DVAP.