Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society
G0MWT, GX0MWT, GB5HF, GB100MWT

CARS Meetings: Oct - Dec 2024


October Meeting
Tuesday 1st Oct 2024, 7:30pm
Danbury Village Hall 		"CARS AGM"
By CARS Members

The CARS AGM took place on Tuesday 1st October at Danbury Village Hall. It was quite well attended and was conducted with a Slide presentation to assist the officers reports and activity during the year.

In addition to reports and elections, there were opportunities for members to voice their suggestions for future events and overall running of the Society.

The AGM marked the retirement of David Ingrey M0HBV as Equipment Manager and John Roe G4IMS as Treasurer.

Prior to the AGM John O'Connell M0JOC had volunteered to be the new treasurer, but unfortunately no other volunteers came forward for other tasks - please do so!

Following the presentations of reports and healthy accounts, the old committee was retired and Vice President Murray G6JYB oversaw the election of the new committee. On the AGM evening itself the key/relevant proposals were:-

All three proposals above received unanimous support with no objections

Following the formal business, John Bowen G8DET was presented with an 'upgraded' President's Badge that John M0JOC had skilfully arranged - larger than its predecessor to facilitate engraving

Overall an enjoyable evening, but do remember we are still short of:
Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Equipment Manager and Operators/volunteers for events.


John G8DET gets the new Presidential badge of office

November Meeting
Tue 5-Nov-2024, 7.30-9pm
Danbury Vilage Hall		 "HF Propagation"
By Gwyn Williams G4FKH

For November we were privileged to have RadCom Propagation and local expert, Gwyn Williams G4FKH, tell us more about HF Propagation and where we are in the solar sunspot cycle.

Gwyn started with the latest Solar Cycle report which suggested that we have nominally peaked although it is often the case it can be a ‘double-peak’ as the north and south magnetic poles of the sun may not be in perfect sync. Also - the so-called 11-year cycle in reality is actually a 22 year one for the suns magnetic polarity to return to its initial orientation.

The Earths Ionosphere is key for HF propagation in the ~70-400km range. It is strongly influenced by Solar-UV every day and season; and then modified by ionised particles in the solar wind - which varies with both the the solar cycle and short term surges and disruptions from solar flares. The earth’s magnetic field largely shields us and feeds much of this to the poles (and thus auroras). On a much longer period, the earths field also varies (as our magnetic poles slowly drift) and can have local low points such as the South Atlantic Anomaly which can be a hazard for small satellites.

Even when a signal propagates there is another factor affecting reception - the background noise level. There are well established ITU curves for average rural, suburban and urban noise levels. The latter seeming getting worse due to domestic electronics.

This well attended talk, saw Gwyn cover a lot of ground and was greatly appreciated - our thanks!


Gwyn G4FKH explaining Solar effects, HF propagation and background noise levels

December Meeting
Tue 3-Dec-2024, 7.30-9pm
Danbury Village Hall		 "Xmas Social"
By CARS Members

Seasons Greetings!

CARS members, other amateurs/clubs and prospective trainees are welcome to join us for our Xmas Social at Danbury.

Nibbles, raffle and socialising - and perhaps a seasonal quiz too :)

Do come along, so you don't miss out on:-

Refreshments are free, whilst its £2/ticket for the prize raffle.

If you haven't renewed your membership yet, it's a great opportunity to settle up on the night - bearing in mind its great value at just £5/yr and you can make our membership secretary Andy G0IBN very happy :-)

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