G0MWT, GX0MWT, GB5HF, GB5SM, GB100MWT & M2T
CARS Skills - September-2015 |
Monday September 21st saw an excellent turnout at Skills Night, hosted by the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society. A wide variety of demos was accommpanied by a great socialising oppoutunity. Overall, 74 people came through the door - beating the previous best of 73 in January. The count included 19 M6/2E0 callsigns and 8 SWLs, with attendees from right across the county and wider, including RSGB Region-12 Manager Steve M1ACB, and Keith G4JED, the Kent DRM. Activities on the evening included:
- Construction – In the rear Hawkins room, Peter M0PSD and Chris 2E0CUU were managing their popular hands-on construction class, offering 2m and 70cm Slim Jim antennas and other construction.
Foreground-right - Joel G0URK at the construction class
- CARS – The CARS AGM is the next club meeting on Tue Oct-6. Ahead of this Chris G0IPU was having success with several renewing early at the CARS membership table. Come and (re)join us for the AGM!
Acting Membership Secretary, Chris G0IPU (left), having a busy night
- Raspberry Pi – Peter G0DZB who had given a talk on the Raspberry Pi in April at CARS, brought some of his projects and accessories. This included an LED matrix aray on which a variety of demos ran - including this Tetris game (video):-
- Radio Programming – Charlie M0PZT had his popular facility for setting up handhelds (esp. Baofeng and other Chinese rigs), as well as a selection of RTL dongles, datamode kit and other accessories/goodies.
- Morse – Rob M0KCP and other members of the Essex CW club were promoting Morse in Essex
Essex CW morse demo using a Yaesu FT-DX3000
- Flying Cameras – Dean M6NSX brought his custom made hexacopter which included first person video camera and viewing goggles. Licence exempt links for these are low power so he had examined all sorts of options. The camera it carries can shoot high defintion.
Deans Hexacopter
- More Antennas! – Skill Nights have seen an increasing variety of antennas. This month had a few new ones too. One of Deans many talents applied to his drone was his own cloverleaf 5GHz Wi-Fi antennas to enhance the link reliability. Andy G7TKK who last month had a huge terahedral antenna, this month had a more compact folding-umbrella design
 
Little and Large antennas by Dean M6NSX and Andy G7TKK
- Getting Started – 'Getting Started' material and questions from the Essex Ham online Foundation Online course were on show from Peter M0PSX
- Callsign Badges – James 2E0JTW brought his engraver so callsign badges could be made while-you-wait
- Quiz – Quiz questions are normally presented by Clive G1EUC However due his sad passing, this month’s quiz was hosted by Chris G0IPU. questions included an anagram of 'Bearded Pinups' (answer Upper Sideband') and other contemporary ones such as:-
An environmentally friendly question? - on eQSL awards - no cards needed
Next Event: Monday Oct-19
Venue: Danbury Village Hall, CM3 4NQ
Skills Night takes place at the Danbury Village Hall – Entrance is free, and the event is open to all – no need to be a member of CARS.
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See Also:-
Skills Night Main Page Training Main Page CARS Home Page