[Ridders]

What a good idea. I may see if I can get G8MQA back...(from 1976 I think)

Regards

Mike

Blimey mike I didn't know you were licensed!
73 DE G0FHR

[aerial]

I'm more of a listener!

Get the BaoFeng to talk to myself, Ridders and Samsonite at fly-ins. We've all got one. Or two. We normally use them simplex on UHF - "Where are you?"

I get the listener bit. I could never get into the 'I've bought a more expensive one than you' crowd. My background is making communications stuff work not necessarily working with it.

It seems there is quite a bit of Radio Amateur interest in flying circles - we should have a fly-in sometime. Who would be up for that?

I live in the far Southwest but the aeroplane is in the Midlands (better weather and more places to go!)

G8GLL (from 1972)

[ajgelectrical]

I've just re applied for mine M0ADZ luckily still had my old licence.

[Flying_john]

Crikey - with all this interest and a cheap 70/2m Txvr and the fact we can go HF too - I may just have to ask for G8TOU back !

I did re-kindle my interest a few months ago and bough an HF receiver and QRP HF and re-learn slow morse; sounds fun. Are we allowed to go /A and carry on a QSO from our aeroplanes ?

[Ridders]

Are we allowed to go /A and carry on a QSO from our aeroplanes ?

Nope
But you can operate /P from an airfield, or as I have done, operate a special event station callsign (7, 14, 28Mhz, SSB) at the airfield alongside the runway.

[Grumpy One]

Not quite on topic , but this one caused me to look up an old associate to see how he's doing.
He was Alan Pampling ( G3RSP (Maritime Mobile)) (Astonished that I could still remember it)
Unfortunately I discovered he'd died earlier this year. Shame. He was a lovely guy.
He and I sailed together some 47 years ago. He as the Radio Officer and myself as a scrawny 20-something 3rd Navigation Officer - on board ss Esso Mercia. (169,000 tdwt)
I believe Alan became a senior bloke in the Amateur Radio sphere.I distinctly remember him board the ship carrying two suitcases (which was a trifle unusual for a seafarer).
Chatting to him whilst he unpacked, I was astonished to see that in one case he had a pair of socks! The rest of the case was full of radio kit, including his trembler type morse key unit. His other case has a few shirts and more electronics. I can see it now.
Just thought I'd mention it as he was such an unusually committed radio enthusiastic and a thoroughly nice chap - He taught me a lot.
RIP Alan.

[Lindsayp]

Grumpy, look up the Radio Officers Association if interested, it's good for connecting with ex-RO's and the quarterly newsletter QSO is full of stories from ex-RO's. Not ham radio of course but fascinating history.

[Lindsayp]

This topic makes me wonder if we should set up a monthly Flyer Forum Net on 80 or 40m?

[Paul_Sengupta]

This topic makes me wonder if we should set up a monthly Flyer Forum Net on 80 or 40m?

Those of us who fly can't afford houses big enough to get an aerial up on 80 or 40...

I did once try a sked with Keef on a couple of bands but we couldn't hear each other.

I hope to get a compact antenna up on 40 at some point. 80 would be ideal, but I'm not sure my neighbours would like aerials strewn across their gardens!

[Ridders]

This topic makes me wonder if we should set up a monthly Flyer Forum Net on 80 or 40m?

I’m on 6, 10, 17, 20, 40 all mobile,
name yer time

[PhilE]

Update: Looks like I'll be able to get back on the air sometime in the next 2 - 3 weeks.

Ofcom weren't able to find my details in their archives, but an e-mail to the RSGB got me a PDF of the relevant page from a 1987 call book. I e-mailed that over to Ofcom along with a completed RA licence application and they've confirmed to me today that all is in order.

They've got as far as September with their backlog of licence applications as of lunchtime today, so it's just a waiting game now.

73

(soon to be) G1BCG (again!)

[JonathanB]

Can I ask why and what you do with your callsigns and radios?

[PeteSpencer]

Can I ask why and what you do with your callsigns and radios?

"And it's a ten-four from rubber duck, I guess we got ourselves a con-voy"

Peter
Edit:
Joking apart I can remember when I were a lad (late 50s-early60s) listening on my old Pye valve radio which had a large number of SW bands to a retired GPO engineer I can still remember his callsign 'G3NBP' who lived just up the road. He used G3 Norway Boston Portugal : not sure this was radio geek-speak of the time : It certainly wasn't ICAO.
I can also remember his name still which I won't post, but I could never hear the other end of the conversations: on the 40 metre band.
He seemed to spend all his time repeating 'CQ40, CQ40 G3 NBP.....' with very little response.

Peter

[Ridders]

Can I ask why and what you do with your callsigns and radios?

Quite a lot, or nothing at all.....
There’s a lot of aspects to this particular hobby, just like people who fly for fun (aka Irv Lee ‘Hobby Pilots’) there’s aerobatics, bimbling, air racing, tail dragging, strip flying, going places, etc etc.

In Radio, theres a lot of different frequencies you can use, some primary user some secondary and a lot of different modes...
For example I used to run TV transmissions on 23cm band, via local repeaters and between a load of friends. Theres a wide Frequency spectrum, From microwaves, UHF, VHF, HF...
Bouncing signals off the moon...bouncing signals round the world via the ionosphere, talking to space station, communication with amateur satellites. A lot of the challenge is understanding sunspots, how radio is affected by solar activity, how different bands (or frequencies) change during the course of a year, something called propagation. Then there’s meteor scatter, sporadic e layer.... these are the challenges of operating on different frequencies..... Then there are different modes, voice (AM, FM, single sideband) carrier wave, using morse, slow scan TV, RTTY, digital modes, (lots of new stuff on digital now days)....
building aerials, using different types of aerials, building transmitters, decoders and receivers, using computers linked to radios...
mobile, portable, home base operation..
Basically it’s such a wide range of aspects to this, that’s why it’s so interesting, there’s just such a lot to do.

If your mildly interested and can stand it, then this load of YouTube videos covers many of the aspects of the hobby.

[Richard Dastardly]

Wot 'Ridders' said - I've a few rigs & antenna too (G6KBJ)