Radio Frequency

Here is an intereting blog post on long distance optical links.

So its that time of month again ;) Yes the intense radio/puter/geek meeting weeks =) Adelaide Hills Amatuer Radio Society -
VK5BAR are having their monthly meeting on Thursday the 15th, May. I joined up as a member at the AGM in January. I finally received my certificate for my foundation licence last week, so I'm all good to go =)

I have a 10watt radio on loan from Jacqui and I've manged to listen to the WIA broadcast on Sunday morning. Only just mind, there was so much noise it was barely readable. Thats probably a task for this weekend is to get an antenna sorted for the 80 meter band. That was the clearest of all the available repeaters. The 40 meter band seemed pretty empty. The 10 meter band had the faintest of signals and the only thing I could pick up on 80 meters was the WIA broadcast. I had a 40 meter half wave length dipole strung across the front yard, well maybe more like a inverted vee, still need to build a decent balun too. Maybe HAMs don't get out of bed before 10am like other sane people? Maybe they've all been up late working the radio until the wee hours? ;) I need to get a better space for the radio and get an antenna up more permanently.

Sydney Morning Herald: Farmer gives low-cost laptop a proper field test

Rob just sent us a link to the new web site for the Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club.

"The Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club is an active group of like minded radio and electronics enthusiasts. The Club meets twice a month, once for a business meeting and the second is a technical discussion on a specific subject or simply a social chat. These are the 1st and 3rd wednesday of the month additionally there are two "on-air" nets that occur on the 2nd and 4th wednesday all are welcome." -- www.earc.org.au