Category Archives: General

Well I have recently re-installed the software to run SETI@home software.

But in the time away the software it can now run more than just Seti@home. It’s now run using BOINC software from http://boinc.berkeley.edu and I am running on 2 projects.

As well as Seti@home I have setup to process work for http://climateprediction.net. “Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century.”

Will add a box soon to About to show how I am doing in the search for Aliens and a Weather forecast.

I was registered before on Seti@home but alas I seem to have lost my stats as none of my logins work so starting from scratch. Have joined the Ham Radio Op team for my stats though.

Saturday and Sunday this week was out using the radios instead of stuck in the shack.

Saturday:- Went up to Reigate hill. Martin M1MRB, Denis MØNDJ, James MØBOV, Tim M3TKB (soon to be 2E??), and myself operating. Worked various bands with various radios and antennas. Some photos (taken with camera phone as I left my digital camera at home) are here. One antenna was even the infamous Slinky Antenna.

Sunday:- Went up to Warlingham Ridge with James MØBOV. I setup my SandPiper antenna. It’s based on a 9M fibreglass pole and there are 2 coils (I had to wind). A coil for 10/12/15/17/20/40M and 1 for 10/12/15/17/20/80M. It closes down to approx 1.1M & can handle up to 300 Watts SSB. I used the 40M coil today.

I didn’t make many contacts but worked some stations on the Polish contest and also heard a Brazilian station almost 5/9, but alas I virtually ran my battery flat trying to work him. Antenna though worked as expected.

Note:- Make sure battery is fully charged and don’t spend too much time trying to work one station.

Now considering I don’t do much HF (which reminds me I must put my Hustler 6BTV up soon) I got my 2nd batch of QSL cards on Saturday.

I was quite surprised as it was not long ago got my first batch. Then the discovery I have 13 cards from German World Cup Special Event stations. 5 Stadium and 8 Districts cards.

Also I received a card from OE9Y/p who I worked in National Field Day.

See my Previous Post Here for updated info on the World Cup cards.

Peter (M3PHP) and myself are amazed with how well Hamtests.co.uk is doing.

If you had said to either of us a year ago “your site would have 700 members in a year” we would have said you are crazy. But it has (well 680 at moment).

In April Hamtests.co.uk Domain will be 1 year old and what a year. We’ve moved software (from a simple Q&A system to Moodle, moved hosts (from DreamHost to a VPS in London’s Docklands), as well as a steep learning curve for running a domain.

The next phase of Hamtests.co.uk is currently being looked into. We are planning a New Theme to change and hopefully improve how the site looks and works.

We are also planning a more interactive experience. Instead of just Questions & Answers, we are planning to have each section of the Syllabus broken down and users to work through slides of the courses.

This may take some time to come into effect, but we are looking for help. If you think you might be able to assist in creating the new sections, please visit the posts on Hamtests home page.

Over the weekend I paid for and took delivery of the first part(s) of my DIY computer project.

Some may say from my original text in My DIY PC I am not doing as I said and spending under £50 per component. I would like to say it’s the opposite. By paying £120 for Tower, PSU, MotherBoard, 1.3GHz chip, CD-W & CD-Rom I have saved loads. It’s possible I could have spent upto £300.

When I got home this evening, I just had to power it up. Now the observant reader may have noticed the fact I didn’t mention a HDD. This was not an error as I will need to eventually get a hard-drive to get the PC it fully working (ie, came without one).

At work though I hatched a plan to test The Beast “Das Tier” (in German) as I have nick-named it due to it’s massive size. Once I got home an old keyboard & mouse, VGA lead and power lead. Also a CD.

I plugged the PC into our LG 32″ LDC TV and powered up the computer with Ubuntu Live CD. It worked. I had fun on various levels mostly 1st* time these events happened for me.

• Using Ubuntu *
• Using Linux *
• Running PC through LCD Tv *
• Run a PC with No HDD *
• Booting new (2nd hand) PC *

Well I forsee a few more fun tests until I purchase/obtain a HDD for it. 2 possible are booting from USB stick and Damn Small Linux (DSL) as I have done neither before.