NOTICES
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Royal Engineers - 10th March 2012
We are trying to organise a visit to the RE for Saturday 10 March 2012.
The conducted tour takes about 2.5 hours. There are a couple of ex-majors RE who are licensed amateurs and might also meet with us. We need to firm up numbers for those that are interested fairly quickly.
Please email Karl or Eileen with numbers etc. Partners are welcome!
From Alan G7RBB: SOS Radio Week
RNLI Fundraising week 21st to 29th January 2012: see the website below:
http://www.sosradioweek.org.uk/
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FOR SALE. Canon Pixma MP560 Wi-Fi Printer/Scanner/Copier. Two side printing, Cost £115 in May 2010. Perfect working order. Genuine reason for sale. £50. G3ISD QTHR g3isd@tiscali.co.uk 01795 477431
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From Armando to all members:
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The meeting will start at 8.00pm and will consist of the usual reports, selection of Officers and Committee Members, and of course the 'Construction Contest'. Please find below links to the agenda, last years minutes and Calender of events.
AGM Agenda 4th October 2010
Last years Minutes
Calendar of Events
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New Courses Foundation and Intermediate
If you are interested in doing a Foundation or Intermediate Course contact Karl Davies:
New Examination Fees for January 2011
Please note that from 1 January 2011, the new examination fees will be as follows:
Foundation £27.50
Intermediate £31.50
Advanced £37.50
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Club News From UKSMG July 2011
Club News from UKSMG September 2011
__________________________________________________________________Email from Armondo Martins: DXCC Entity List
Hi Karl here is a new list of prefixs including the new ones J5/6/7), could you pass it around on the club web site.
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Amateur Radio data mode ROS proving popular
Although it's only 3 months since the first HF contact with the new Amateur Radio data mode ROS, it's proving popular with plenty of activity on 14.101 MHz.
ROS is a digital spread spectrum mode but with a narrow total occupied bandwidth of about 2.2 kHz. The software has two Symbol Rates: 16 and 1 baud (the latter aimed at weak signals down to -35 dbs of S/N) and can automatically synchronize any Symbol Rate.
Initial reports talk of it being able to copy signals so weak that they don't show up on the Waterfall and there are early indications that it is several dB better than Olivia. However, HF with its Fading, Doppler, Multi-Path and Interference is a hazardous environment for digital signals and only time will tell how well it performs against the other modes.
One issue the mode has thrown up is the restrictive Amateur Radio License conditions in the USA. Here in the UK we are used to the "Technology Neutral" approach adopted by our regulator Ofcom. This permits us to devise and use any mode we like with any bandwidth as long as the transmission fits within the Amateur band.
The United States is not so fortunate, there the FCC specifies which modes Amateurs can use and where. Some Amateurs in the States are concerned that FCC regulations appears to prohibit the use of Spread Spectrum below 420 MHz and ROS is a Spread Spectrum mode.
To be fair to the FCC they did try back in 1977 to change from a mode based band plan to one based on bandwidth. At the time the ARRL opposed the change and was successful in defeating it, as a result the development of digital modes was crippled for decades to follow.
In recent years the ARRL has been trying to get the FCC to re-introduce band planning by bandwidth and hopefully they will be successful.
You can download ROS from