HERE
In the shack with a little solar panel powering a small USB fan. A moment ago I was tinkering with a larger panel and an old charge controller that appears to be B.E.R. (beyond economical repair). I picked up two large 100W panels yesterday and plan to either run some 12v air-con off them or all my radios.
The sun is finally here with a vengeance and it’s lovely in the UK. Happy Solstice! I’ve had a chunk of work come in and so this sporadic email has been even more so.
I’ve also spotted a few new signups. Welcome. I’m Christian Payne aka G5DOC, photographer, writer and generalist.
THERE
Since I last wrote the biannual EMF Camp was a massive highlight. In my opinion it is the best UK amateur radio gathering there is. I mean, they have a whole Ham Radio village pop up with enough modes happening to keep even the most discerning ham happy. And that’s just a small part of the overall experience. There something for all nerds.
My first emf camp was 10 years ago but this was the best by far. People came from all over the world so should you want to experience it yourself all are welcome. Next one is 2026. Plenty of time to plan for it.
The Meshtastic community bridged a gap between licensed and unlicensed geeks and I counted over 80 nodes meshing across the campsite. The chat was non stop and I suggested that perhaps we could have a face-to-face meet-up at the bar (eyeball) at 6pm.
I’d taken my kids to a lock picking workshop and arrived at the bar a little late only to find a fascinating gathering of fans of 868MHz.
Beer and radio. What’s not to like?
I was at EMF Camp for lots of reasons, not just radio. But it was certainly a highlight. A large number of radio operators doing lots of radioey things. It’s great to hang out with these people in meat-space.
As you wander and discover the event, you’d spot a radio hanging off a belt or a node clipped to a cap and know you’re in the company of kindred spirits.
[The top image on this post shows an amateur radio operator rescuing a floundering shark. Because that’s what we do.]
GEAR
The shack can get really hot in the summer and my search of 12V or low power air-con has me gawping at some insanely priced systems aimed at motorhomes. I also keep getting served ads for those useless evaporators that breed mould. I wonder why someone hasn’t produced something akin to what we have in a car. I’d probably need a few more panels for a 5000BTU system but the insulation on the shed is so good I’d only need to have it on sporadically.
Ali-Express has some reasonably priced systems but unless you can recommend something, I’m not willing to take a chance. I’ll just have to do more fieldwork on the hotter days.
Interesting mod for the Quangsheng. Not something I’m willing to try but these things are getting better all the time. Who knows what the next version of the radio will be able to do…
ONAIR
Back in my neck of the woods I partook in Museums-on-the-Air with my local club Huntingdonshire Amateur Radio Society. We set up at Ramsey Rural Museum for two days of operation.
There is a few moments of M0SKT operating.
HF was from a full size G5RV and underneath the 2m/70cm antenna we had a solar powered Meshtastic node belonging to John, M0XJN.
This is what it looks like inside.
He powers it with two small solar panels off some LED lighting. Works well.
Here’s a little snapshot of what happens on my local repeater.
We mention in passing that the repeater GB3OV will be changing frequency for the first time in many decades. The new frequencies are on QRZ.
I also dropped onto the local DStar net. If you didn’t know DSTAR stands for (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio). If you are local to Huntingdon or St Neots it’s DV on the second Monday of the month on 144.600MHz Simplex. I still prefer analogue but am always surprised how far you can chat digitally while simplex.
ELSEWHERE
Resources should you wish to Learn Morse Code.
We are made of waves.
Open Country - Shivering Sands. [BBC Podcast]
Ham radio things written for Linux.
This is my other more regular, slightly more eclectic email.
After the ARRL LOTW hack I backed up all my logbooks from QRZ and uploaded them to HAM-Toolbox. It’s nice to have an offline copy.
The sun’s poles are about to flip.
FINALS
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.
Please share this wherever you think it might resonate. At time of writing there are well over 500 subscribers to this email. This is just an experiment in sharing my very amateur endeavours. And I thank you. You are some of the more curious people in radio ;-)
If you feature in a photo above or if you’d like to add something …or just say Hi… Please leave a comment below.
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
_._