Serving the Amateur Radio Community of South-West Scotland
Weekly meetings Thursday evenings at 7pm in Stranraer — Details
Contact
Click here for a contact form, or send email to info@gm4riv.org
Recent News and Articles
On June 27th 2019, WARC will hold exams as required for Foundation, Intermediate and Full (Advanced) Licences. This is the last set of exams for the “old” exam syllabus.
Please note that applications must be submitted by Thursday 6th June 2019. Payment confirmation from the RSGB website must be included.
Below you can find details of the sign-up process. Please contact us if you need any help!
Signing Up For An Exam
To sign up for an exam, download the form [EX200] Candidate application for examinations (all levels) from the list on the RSGB website.
At the bottom [ … ]
The Braehead Rally is the main Scottish Rally. Wigtownshire Amateur Radio Club will be having a table there where you can bring along items for sale. We will also require members to look after the stand – can you help? It is also a good place to meet old friends who you speak to but never get a chance to see.
If members are going, maybe you could let us know to see if it is possible to car share.
Please contact Clive GM4FZH who will collate help offered and possible car sharing / travel details.
For a PDF version of this article, please click this link
This is a simple circuit that can be used to test all those coaxial cables that we have or make. It only uses a few components and will test if the cable is OK, has any shorts between screen and inner and if both screen and inner are continuous. The circuit is shown below along with components required.
Note: switch shown in “SHORT TEST” position.
| Designation | Value |
|---|---|
| R1, R2 | 680R, 0.25W |
| D1, D2 | LED, Green | [ … ]
As we have announced previously, the club will run a Special Event Station for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW) on August 17th and 18th 2019. Location is the Mull of Galloway.
This will be a fantastic weekend and we hope that many of you will take the time to visit and help out. Every little bit helps, even if you can’t spend the whole weekend!
For those who can make themselves available, setup will begin Friday the 16th. The station will operate Saturday and Sunday, and will be taken down Monday the 19th.
Sleeping and catering accommodation will [ … ]
On the 20th and 21st of July 2019 (Saturday and Sunday), members of WARC will help run a Special Event Station at Dumfries&Galloway Aviation Museum. The callsign for the station will be GB0DAM.
This is an event for all radio amateurs from the area and everybody is welcome to join in. Please let us know if you can help in any way!
There is a Military Vehicle show on Sunday 21st of July, which should attract additional attention.
Please contact Clive GM4FZH for details, or feel free to use the contact form.
The first WARC mobile meet happened on January 26th this year, and it was a great success in spite of the rain! At our committee meeting last night we decided to arrange a second date for the same location:
April 27th 2019, 1pm
The meeting location is once more the public car park on the High Street in Gatehouse of Fleet, and we will proceed from there to the nearby cafe for a tea or coffee. Everybody is welcome, and those with mobile equipment in their cars can have a chat via the DK and DG repeaters on the way [ … ]
The club will be running a station at the Mull of Galloway for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW). This is the weekend of 17/18th August 2019. Please put this date in your diary as we will need help to establish the station and operators. For further details of this event see https://illw.net/ . All are welcome.
This post has been contributed by Edward Beck. Thank you very much!
I’ve been asked to do an article about Zello, or internet radio. Network Radios have taken off in UK in a big way, with many thousands of more specialised phones being sold for this new market. Most of us don’t need a specific phone for this hobby, a smartphone, tablet or computer will do. Therefore, you can join up free today!
Radio hams seem to be on two specific internet groups, and the most popular is using the Zello app, available on Android or Apple. If [ … ]
If you are a Foundation licence holder, the Intermediate level is the next step for you. WARC is planning to offer a distance learning course for the Intermediate licence to begin in April 2019. The course will take 10 weeks to complete and you will be required to come to the Aird Unit in Stranraer three times during that timeframe for the practical work.
If you would like to hear more or sign up for the course, please get in touch using the Contact Form.
For a PDF version of this article, please click this link
Introduction
You may well have come across impedance expressed in the the terms real and imaginary (or resistance and reactance) when using equipment such an Antenna Analyser or impedance in the form R + jX. This may mean something to some readers whilst it probably means nothing and is somewhat baffling to many others. In this article I am going to try to explain in SIMPLE terms what it is all about. Please do not “get turned off” because it contains some mathematics, it’s all [ … ]