Category: Meetings

A bit quieter than last time as a few people were put off by the rain but we had an in-depth discussion about David2’s aerial possibilities and the best bands to try to work on, and we taught him the microwave test for suitable aerial materials. John K told us more about the old rigs he’d unearthed in his garage.

The AGM which will take place in next months online meeting was discussed but no further candidates for the committee posts came forward.

There was general interest in having a Christmas meal or social even but it was noted that meetings for the end of the year may present a problem since the current schedule would put the December pub meet three days before Christmas when pubs will be packed and many will have conflicting events. We could therefore do it in place of the November pub meet or simply bring it forward resulting in three meetings in a short time and then a long gap to the first meeting in January. But there’s nothing to stop us having the Christmas event around the end of November/early December and perhaps an extra online meeting over the Christmas period. Should we throw it open to guests? Have a think and we’ll discuss at the next online meeting.

[Footnote] I’ve since checked with The Albion, the pub round the corner from the old church where we met, and they’d be delighted to reserve the end of the upstairs bar, and they do decent giant-sized pizzas along with a range of other meals and snacks.

We’ll try to nab that same area as last time in the central section on the right.

There was an impromptu demonstration of FT-8 culminating with Gregor making QSOs with several others via remote operation of his station in Poland.

John K. showed us some of the spoils from his garage clearout including some Yaesu rigs from the 1980s in immaculate condition.

Blazej reminded us that James Ryan has invited us to clear him out of thirty years of radio magazines so Blazej and David will try to visit to get an idea of the scale.

Members were reminded that the next online meeting on 12th November will be the AGM and nominations for committee posts are invited.

Don’t forget the next pub meeting at The Pear Tree on Wednesday week, 20th October, and the next month or more of events is on the calendar at Upcoming Events – m0xhs

We’ll meet online but this week we’ll use Jitsi which has proved to be fine for both Gozo Amateur Radio Society and London Hackspace Radio Club. As usual a link will be posted nearer the time.

If you have any ideas for topics that either you’d be prepared to talk about for as little as ten minutes or you think someone else has done and you’d like to hear them speak about.

The current arrangement of one online and one physical meeting each month on the second Friday and second following Wednesday seems to be working well but we should re-affirm that we’re happy with that for the foreseeable future. The November meeting will be the AGM where decisions like this can be ratified.

We had a record turnout and commandeered the middle section of the pub which was perfect. Topics of conversation ranged from electric vehicles to 1970s wallpaper, with a passing mention of radio along the way.

The subject of antennas inevitably comes up and Dave (new) mentioned the danger of the wind when leaving things out on high terraces and JJ confirmed this from his own experiences in Gozo.

Godfrey has been invited to an interesting Zoom talk at another club and is going to enquire whether the invitation could be extended to all club members.

JJ announced that he’s going to sell his FT-817, FT-857D and FT-1000mkV field to fund the purchase of an FT-DX10 and will post full details in the Google Group https://groups.google.com/g/hars-friends

So far we’ve found it quiet on a Wednesday both inside and out but if six or more people let us know they’re coming we’ll book a table to make sure we have space.

We welcomed a newcomer David who like Julian recently did his exams back-to-back through to the full licence.

It was announced that at a committee meeting last week we decided that for the forseable future there will be an online meeting normally on the second Friday of the month followed by a pub meeting 12 days later. Once we have a good number attending meetings we’ll start to organise visiting speakers again at a venue yet to be decided, and we’d like members to offer to present something or lead a discussion for 15-30 minutes of the online meetings. We’re also hoping to organise a field day before the weather turns so if you have any suggestions for somewhere outdoors, ideally with some height but at least a reasonable takeoff and where we wouldn’t attract undue attention from police, park patrols or nutters please put them forward.

We had a brief demonstration of Google Groups so please don’t be afraid to start a ‘conversation’ there. This website was unveiled and was generally well received with comments about needing more visual appeal. Julian explained about ‘inbound marketing’ and that the website is a ‘brochure’ for one way communication while the Google Group is a forum for two-way communication.

David explained his problems getting out with his homebuilt CW transceiver and ideas were discussed.

Don’t forget the next pub meeting at The Pear Tree on Wednesday week 22nd September, and the next month of events is on the calendar at Upcoming Events – m0xhs

We’ll meet online but this week we’ll use Jitsi which has proved to be fine for both Gozo Amateur Radio Society and London Hackspace Radio Club. As usual a link will be posted nearer the time … and here it is: https://meet.jit.si/moderated/17299bb461db869adcca554142f0434601e03e9ed5ee379910cd7daf8f4d64ef

Please put your thinking caps on and suggest topics that either you’d be prepared to talk about for as little as ten minutes or you think someone else has done and you’d like to hear them speak about. Even a ten minute talk with a couple of slides or pictures or screenshots will give us half an hour of material once there’s some Q+A and people adding their own experience. We’d like to have material lined up so we can be confident when inviting new people to the meetings that there’ll be something of interest.

The evening was enjoyable despite a low turnout and there was general agreement that alternate physical and online meetings is the way forward for the foreseeable future.

The main topic of conversation was rechargeable batteries, but less in the context of amateur radio but that of Godfrey’s new ‘wheels’. Aerials for flats and small gardens were also discussed.

Despite the beer prices we’re going to meet again this Wednesday at the Pear Tree pub at 14 Margravine Road, W6 8HJ from about 19:00 and also have a Zoom meeting running so anyone who can’t get there in person but is otherwise free can join us.

If you have any new shiny toys by all means bring them, and if you have any suggestions for other venues we’ll be happy to discuss them.