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What's been happening this year - 2019

27th August Members bought in "interesting" things. It was more like...." d'ya know what this is?? ". Which is exactly how we are going to present these pictures. No prizes for identifying them....as Hughie Green used to say...."its just for fun".






This, however, we will reveal as being an ATU from a Lancaster bomber - part of the T1154 transmitter. Better pictures and info here






The members also discussed various topics for meetings in 2020 - details will be published once confirmed with various speakers.


13th November Slade 2E0SQB, gave a very detailed & interesting talk about Amateur Satellites, despite having "lost" his copious notes seconds before the meeting began !!. He illustrated his talk with two visual presentations, which explained a fair amount about satellites currently in orbit, as well as ardware & software used by enthusiasts; both can be accessed in the members section of this site.



23rd October Rob bought along his VERY expensive atronomy equipment and gave an extremely interesting and, at times, quite complex talk on astronomy and astrophotography. [You thought Amateur radio could be expensive....]



He also bought in his home-brewed Bahtinov mask. This is a device, which when placed in front of the telescope objective, such as the primary mirror, is a great aid to accurate focussing.


Telescopius , is fascinating free website that will show what celestial objects are in the sky at any location at the resent time. A great aid for pointing your scopes !!


28th August Wes, Jordan and Larry all passed the intermediate exam tonight with very high marks. We look forward to working them with their new 2E0 callsigns: 2E0WZR, 2E0WLQ & 2E0FOQ !




14th August Ivor G6ATJ and John G8XQQ demonstrated the delights and advantages of model railways using DCC (Digtal Command Control). They explained how the voltage in DCC systems differed from plain 12V D.C. and how the decoder controls various functions of the train, or other hardware.


Ivor had bought in 4 metres of Peco flexitrack with his Digikeijs D5000 controller , which itself was controlled by a wireless handheld Roco wLanmaus . This allowed the locomotives to run fast or slow, forward or backward, and to emit realistic sounds (Horns, whistles, "chuff chuff", even the sound of breakfast being cooked on the coal shovel!). John also bought his Gaugemaster DCC-14 Prodigy controller.




John bought in a diesel Bachmann Class 25 and a Hornby Fowler 4P tank engine, that he had converted to sound with a Hornby TTS sound decoder chip, whilst Ivor showed his Class 416, Ketley Hall and Fountain Hall locos.

2 of our new foundation holders Jordan M7JCE and Wes M7WEZ, along with Larry M7SKA started practical work to gain their intermediate licence. Last chance before the new syllabus kicks in !!


24th July Following on from the 12th June practicals, all four foundation license candidates passed the RSGB written exam on 26th June.
They were the last candidates to take the "old" syllabus, as it's all change from the 1st September 2019. Both foundation and Intermediate exams will be harder, but the full licence will (in theory) be easier, as topics have "rippled down" from the full.
Pictured are {l - r} Jordan (now M7JCE), trainers Pete G3ZVI, & Slade 2E0SQB, Giles (now M7MTG) and Wes (now M7WEZ).


12th June Going for their Foundation license, club members Giles & Wes (amongst others) were performing a practical showing how SWR is related to transmitter/aerial impedance matching.


Here, the candidates are carefully copying down slow speed morse sent by club member Harry M0IHT


Whilst our yet-to-be-licensed members were performing their practical, Slade 2E0SQB and Rob M6UJM had discussions regarding their relative "smart" watches......(for "smart", read expensive. Nothing wrong with a 30 year old timex - with radioactive dial)



22nd May Club members bought in a variety of aerial MATCHING units (sometimes incorrectly referred to as aerial TUNING units as they do NOT tune an aerial, they MATCH 2 differing impedances.)




20th May Exeter Raynet gave comms support to the Exeter Live Better Marathon run, comprising of a full (26mile) route, a half marathon, and a childrens run. The whole event passed without incident, with the minor exception of an injury to one of the full marathon runners at Trews Weir Bridge, which was quickly resolved by one of the Raynet team, together with the marathon medics.



It is with great sadness that we report the death of long-time (we believe >20 years!) club member Tony Jordon M0GJX. Our thoughts are with his family at this time. The funeral took place on Tuesday 7th May in St Peter's Chapel, Exeter Crematorium (Topsham Road). The club made a donation to Tony's chosen charity.


24th April Harry gave an excellent talk on station logging software. His powerpoint presentation can be viewed by clicking here.



13th March The club held its well attended annual AGM, followed by the Exeter Raynet AGM.

Reports from the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary were read, along with repeater and rally reports by Pete, G3ZVI.
Newly licensed Jason, M7JOY joined the commitee; full details on the members page.

Phil 2E0PCJ was thanked for managing the two club nets, namely the 2M net, held on Tuesdays and the 4M net, held on Thursdays. Details of both can be found here.    They are NOT exclusive to club members....ALL radio hams (including SWLs) are more than welcome to join in.
Next years AGM will be 11th March 2020.


Further to Harry's talk on digital modes, here is some interesting news regarding the use of FT8.

FT8 News1

FT8 News2


3rd March A well attended and highly successful rally was once again held at America Hall.
The usual stands were there, including this year, the RSGB stand.


We THINK these characters got in without paying....so they were put to use marshalling! (Its OK...they ARE club members)



27th February Harry, M0IHT gave a informative talk on digital modes used in Amateur radio, including the very popular FT8 mode. His presentation notes can be viewed as a PDF by clicking here.

Pete, G3ZVI gave a run-down of preparations for the upcoming club radio rally, including help needed on the morning of the 3rd March 2019.

Doors open to the public at 10.30am....traders exhibiting are respectfully asked to NOT arrive before 8am, and to observe the fact that the hall is in a residential area, so to switch engines off and keep noise to a minimum whilst unloading and setting up.


13th February Club members enjoyed Petes and Slade’s fun night, as they had to solve small construction puzzles that led to clues to find a lost boat!
Pete and Slade enjoyed laughing at the members as they speculated and guessed what the clues could mean.


Afterwards Jason M7JOY gave a demo on the IRN network using the teamspeak platform. We spoke to BOB in Springfield Wisconsin USA who explained his enjoyment. Jason mentioned how he used this to gain confidence on the unlicensed channels before he gained his licence.



23rd January Harry gave a very informative talk about contesting.

His powerpoint presentation ( which has been converted to a pdf ) can be seen by clicking here.



5th January Exeter Raynet attended a motorcycle club trial at Fingle Bridge. This annual event consisted of 3 separate hill climbs involving about 200 motorcycles & vintage cars.
Some years ago this event sadly suffered a fatality on one of the hill climbs. Emergency services could not be contacted quickly enough using conventional communication systems, mainly because of the terrain.
The Raynet team setup comms. using mainly VHF with VHF/UHF crossband repeaters. The whole event was successful and passed without incident.




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