Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club in the north of Ireland hold online ZOOM presentations every few weeks which they then post to their YouTube channel.
This week, they had a presentation by Dick Pasoe, G0BPS about the history of QRP (low power) radio operation.
Many radio amateurs prefer the challenge of building their own low power radios and have the satisfaction of using something they built themself rather than buying a 'plug n play' commercial radio.
The video gives a general overview of what is involved.
The Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club are continuing their successful lecture series for 2020 and on Tuesday the 27th of October, they had a presentation by Bob Henderson, 5B4AGN on band pass filters.
The video of the talk which is about 1hr 40m in length can be seen below...
06:30... This is the start of the slideshow and Bob outlines some basic configurations.
20:40... This section of the talk outlines the use of the ELSIE programme for designing band pass filters.
33:20... In the main section, band pass filters for the HF bands are covered and it is mainly aimed at those interested in contesting and expeditions.
1:03:34... This is the start of the Q&A section.
* * * * *
The 5B4AGN Band-Pass Filter is shown above and there is a lot more information available in the links below.
In the past, traditional good quality superhet receivers have tended to be somewhat expensive as they required a fair amount of hardware in terms of mixers, amplifiers and filters. In the last decade, modern software defined radios have turned this on its head and now, a good quality receiver can be bought for a very modest price.
In October 2020, the Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club had a lecture about the SDRPlay range of receivers. These are generally well regarded in terms of performance and price.
The video can be viewed below. It is somewhat long at 1hour 38mins.
The main presentation starts at 02:29 and runs until 49:30. After that, there is a Q&A session which lasts for another 50 minutes.
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club are continuing with their successful Tuesday night lecture series. Recently, they had an interesting talk on VHF Propagation from meteorologist Jim Bacon, G3YLA.
Video...
The video above can be broken down as follows...
00:00 to 07:00... Introduction
07:00 to 10:25... GB2RS VHF Propagation Report - A brief outline of how the weekly bulletin is put together for the RSGB news.
10:25 to 28:30... Tropospheric Propagation - In this section, Jim covers elevated and surface ducts as well as the best time to watch any high pressure weather systems.
28:30 to 1:12:30... Sporadic-E - This section covers meteors which are the fuel for Sporadic-E and the various trigger mechanisms like atmospheric gravity waves due to mountains, thunderstorms and changes in the Jet Stream.
1:12:30 to 1:13:50... Rainscatter - This mode of propagation at microwave frequencies is briefly covered.
1:13:50 to 1:21:20... Propquest - Sporadic-E prediction website
1:21:20 to 1:23:30... Pulling it all together - GB2RS VHF Propagation Report
The Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club are holding a series of lectures online and their most recent one was from Joe, EI7GY.
While the full video is 1 hour 44 minutes long, it can be broken down as follows...
00 to 04 mins - Introduction
04 to 34 mins - EI7GY talks about the IRTS contests and how they are organised
34 to 49 mins - Q&A session on the contest presentation
49 to 68 mins - EI7GY talks about the licence situation in Ireland (EI) and how the exams for the licence are held. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes that many people won't be aware of
68 to 104 mins - Q&A on the exam presentation. Other items like 5 MHz operation and how to reach out to more people are also discussed.
The Mid-Ulster Amateur Radio Club recently posted a video on their YouTube channel titled 'The history and appreciation of Morse...With Victor Mitchell GI4ONL'
The video can be broken down into three parts...
00 to 33 minutes - The first part deals with the the history of morse code and deals with the origins of terms like CQ, 73, 88, the various Q-Codes, SOS, Mayday and some terms that are still in use today on the marine bands.
33 to 47 minutes - How to learn morse code properly.
