Andrew Garratt M0NRD

Sorting out the garage and find the high altitude balloon payload that I flew in 2015 at the National Hamfest. It was before Bertie's time and he was intrigued by the backup crew!

Went to the RetroTechUK fair yesterday and picked up a radio like my grandmother had (and I dismantled it as a child learning about radio) Powered it up and it works, but sounds like receiving transmissions from the 1950s

Just like that!

Very happy with one of the purchases at the weekend. AFEDRI SDR-Net (rev 3) receiver, a bit of a deep dive yesterday to get some documentation and firmware update, but working nicely now with SDRConsole. Works across the LAN so makes remote monitoring easy (2MHz bandwidth, 100kHz to 35MHz)

Popped over to the Spalding and District Amateur Radio Society junk sale this morning, picked up a few more toys. Not been very active radio wise for the last few years and nice to catch up with fellow operators I've not seen in a while.

It replaced a three year old Hyundai Kona, which was a fabulous car. On the day I handed it back, in June, the 40 mile trip to the office averaged 4.5 miles/kWh the return trip home in the MG 2.9, and not got much better :-) The regen and adaptive cruise is no where near as good or smooth.

it is a company car, looks nice and seems to get rave reviews. I think some of the praise is down to the low price. It is a decent drive but I find it frustrating at times. Dreadful range and has a plethora of annoying design choices and software issues.

Reported it to the local authority. The charger area is their responsibility.

Desperate need to charge the car, no worries two pricey BP Pulse chargers at Nottingham University science park. Well what a grim experience! Area used for fly tipping and stinks. First charger wouldn't work so had to manoeuvre over the shit twice! At least it was giving 50kW

Brightening up the home office with some 3D printing. just waiting for a comment in my next Teams meeting.😃

Can't help but remember the scene in Dog Soldiers? (currently on Amazon Prime in the UK)

Not used DSDPlus for quite a while, decided to stump up for the 'fastlane' release - very impressed with the performance and direct SDRPlay integration, flawless decoding of my MMDVM hotspot as a test. www.dsdplus.com and plenty of information on forums.radioreference.com/forums/voice...

Printed up another L-band helical 'feedpoint' (and mount) for the 60cm offset antenna - definite improvement on signal strength and quality for Inmarsat decoding. (feed www.thingiverse.com/thing:2627680, mount www.thingiverse.com/thing:3585523)

Homebrew 1.5GHz Helical antenna

Screen shot of TDM decoding

Screen shot of AERO decoding

Finally decided to have a go at Inmarsat L-band decoding, 3D printed up a helical antenna support. Needs a bit of fettling and not an optimal 'line of sight' due to buildings next door, but getting some decent decodes of TDM and AERO from Inmarsat 1-4A using the SDRPlay RSP2.

Weekend away, spent yesterday visiting the lost village of Imber on Salisbury plain, and admiring the tank graveyard.

Screen shot showing AX25 software

Haven't been active on the radio for a while. Seems I have missed a resurgence in AX25 Packet use? Heard some traffic this afternoon & following some advice on themodernham.com got FT857, Direwolf & Paracon connected to GB7DIN - First time I've connected to a packet mailbox/BBS

Must be quite stressful, doesn't look delicate but suspect it is, lots of nice views of the workings and water cooling. On the bucket list to go visit one day.

All copied 👍

Receiving the Christmas Eve morning transmission from SAQ Grimeton horrendous QRM but strong signal. 17.2kHZ

I'm just as confused...

?

"..and then of course I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left hand side" - got the 3D printed Marvin working, but not walking properly 😉

I've heard of the "angels share" but this ridiculous, out of 24 bottles of Blitzen 8 are only half full!! Especially galling as we had to pay to have them delivered, because you didn't have in stock in the shop after we made a special trip to the brewery. @blacksheepbrewery.bsky.social

MMDVM hotspot

MMDVM hotspot purchased back in 2018 so decided it was about time I put it in a box! Only took an hour to print.

3D printed parts for a Marvin The Paranoid Android (TV version) model

Always one for a challenge, my brother wanted a 'Marvin The Paranoid Android' model (the original TV version) Thanks to "Robothut" there are some stl files available! Got the motor ordered 😀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlAX...

I assume this was for me? As it came off the printer. I have done a few prints now all good.

Not got a reference but did seem quick, did shake the desk/table at times. The calibration process optimises for noise and vibration.

First print a Christmas Angel ornament, add the little LED tea light. Rather chuffed 😁

The first print is going to be a Christmas Angel ornament, got some LED tea lights as part of the 'free gift'. Seems to be printing pretty well.