Month: February 2004

As you may (or may not) have read earlier in my blog, I have started an Amateur Radio Foundation License course. As part of it there is a Morse Assessment which so far scares the bejesus out of me, so I looked at AC6V.com Morse pages for help.

Most of the links contain software for Mac or PC which meant I could only use on one or other of my Machine. But the link I liked was the A beginners’ course in Morse which you can run from your browser or download package to run locally. There is also a French (Français) version.

So far though I am still on day one, but am getting more confident with those letters (A, E, R, N, T, I).

CQ CQ CQ Gadget17 has made his first radio message at the WARG. As we were with the trainer it was to practice the initial call. I also got my first QSL card.

During the evening there were only 2 of us training (the other guy works as a pilot for a major airline). We practiced some radio etiquette on PMR radio’s, setting up a radio (to a power supply, antenna amplifier, antenna, and mic).

We then had a break from the training while club members discussed an event they will be marshalling in April.

Then we got to use a big Icom radio in which we were shown how to tune an ATU (Antenna Tuning Unit) on SSB (Single Side Band) then tuning the radio itself. Was a revelation when I got a hit on someone broadcasting and managed to (with some help) get the person’s Amateur License call-sign.

The only downside with WARG is that it’s quite a distance from Sutton. I had to get a bus and 2 trains to Whitton. I must say though that the club seems a friendly affair and it’s a shame will only be able to go there due to distance for the Foundation License training.

My good old (oops Young) friend from AAS has set-up a Themes site for Symbian phones like Nokia 6600 (and eventually the Nokia 7650/3650’s).

The site is called Symbian Themes and features a nice layout.

The site is still in Beta stage, but I feel has a lot of potential if J2K can offer the 7650 user Themes, even if they are limited due to memory restraints of the phone.

One small point, I was apparently the 50th visitor!

Good Luck J2K