We had much the same radio setup as last month and Alastair achieved some success with his IC-705 and a length of wire but Dave and JJ spent some time configuring a new dedicated laptop and while we were able to receive plenty of FT8 before the bands shut down we were thwarted by the school firewall apparently blocking the ports used by PSKreporter and by an SWR problem with the DP-200 aerial or cable. The firewall also seems to be preventing HamClock from initialising so we’ll do some testing with VPNs between now and next meeting.
We welcomed another visitor who works nearby alongside two licenced amateurs who promise to attend when they’re able. He saw demonstrations of the radios and was given information about getting a Foundation licence.