Highfields Amateur Radio Club
Amateur Radio News.

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NEW!

An Apology

The 2 items of news that were reported here on 26 March were actually April Fools items and have now been moved to the Fun and Games area.

QSL System Changes

From April 1 2012 the RSGB are making changes to the way the QSL Bureau be handling QSL cards.

Up to now Club member's calls have been lodged with the Bureau sub manager(s) and any cards received were sent to the Club QSL Manager to be passed to the member. This service, which saved postage and envelope costs for our members, must now, regrettably, cease.

Club members who are RSGB members will need to send addressed C5 sized envelopes with postage affixed to the QSL Sub Manager.

Club members who are not a member of the RSGB but would like to receive QSL cards via the RSGB Bureau will have to register for the service, paying a registration fee, and also send addressed C5 sized envelopes with postage affixed to the QSL Sub Manager. The subscription fee will cover all UK callsigns you hold but is restricted to a single UK address for receipt and the callsigns must be registered to you (for example if there are 4 of you living at the same address you will each have to register/pay separately. If you personally have 2, 3 or more calls all registered at the same address then only 1 fee is payable). Payment by credit or debit card or by direct debit are accepted.

For further details and to register see:
RSGB QSL Receive Service

To get the details of your Bureau Sub Manager see:
List of QSL Sub Managers

Full details of the new system and requirements are expected to appear on the RSGB site in the QSL area soon (http://www.rsgb.org/qsl).

Some Sad News

A double helping of sad news came to my attention this week.

On Thursday 21 I received an email from Ann Thomas who used to visit the club with her father, Istvan Gulyas, GW0CKL.

Istvan has recently suffered a brain haemorrhage and, as a result, is now brain damaged and awaiting placement into a specialist care home.

On Friday 22 Wayne, GW1UDK, phoned me with the news that, after his battle with cancer, Mike Voss, GW8ERA, had passed away earlier that day.

Mike was the NOV holder and tech for GB3BB, GB3BC, GB3BU, GB3MG, GB3SG, repeaters covering South Wales and South West England.

I'm sure that you would like to join me in sending sympathies to both families.

Website and E-mail

If you checked the website around the end of last week (17 March on) you may have noticed a problem or two. These should all now have been resolved with a change of hosting company, re-editing the site and uploading to a new server. If you do notice any problems while visiting the site let me know (webmaster@highfields-arc.co.uk) and I'll sort it out.

One of the benefits of the new host is that the Club can now offer its members personal e-mail facilities, an e-mail address i.e. your callsign @highfields-arc.co.uk can be set up for your use. The server allows leading numbers (unlike some) so addresses like 2w0bdw@highfields-arc.co.uk (try it, it is live and don't worry it is registered to me) are valid. Forwarding is also an option so if you upgrade your licence you can upgrade your email and still receive messages sent to your "old" address too.

The e-mail server is compatible with most e-mail client software (Outlook, Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Windows Mail etc.) and is also accessible via a web interface (webmail) so you can check your email whilst away from your home machine. There will be no charge for this facility for Club Members.

Contact the webmaster@highfields-arc.co.uk for more details or to apply for your e-mail box (Club Members only please, any non members who wish to apply will be required to join the Club before the facility can be made available to them).

Wales QSL Manager Change

You may have read in the January issue of RadCom about the change to the QSL Bureau Sub-Manager for Wales. All Welsh calls (GW, MW & 2W) are now being handled by Lloyd Thomas, 2W0LLT, who used to handle just the 2W series of calls.

GB3BC Malicious Interference.

Those of you within the footprint of the GB3BC 2 Meter Repeater will be aware of the illegal and malicious interference being caused to legitimate traffic on the repeater.

I can report that there is a small group of Radio Amateurs that have had enough of this situation and have taken a pro-active stance on this.

The offending signals are being tracked back to their origin and reports of the observations of the interference, and the originating locations, are then handed to Ofcom, who are taking the necessary legal steps to remove the offenders from the airwaves.

What this means to the offenders is that they could lose their Amateur Radio Licence (and possibly any other Radio Licences they hold), possibly lose the chance of ever being able to hold one again, have all their equipment seized and forfeited, be presented with a fine and end up with a criminal record.

One recent offender has been tracked down to a location in the North of Bridgend and reports have been filed. Others are pending.

If you receive VERY strong interfering signals on the input frequency (145.150) and you have UHF capability a quick check on 435.450 (the third harmonic) will tell you if they are VERY close to you.

If you wish to report signal levels, dates and times observed etc (and please include at least the date, time, your location, frequency and signal strength) then either go to the GB3BC Website and report it to one of the email addresses shown.