There were only 5 participants in Net 40 on 6th January, the first in the New Year of 2021, but they managed to fill the whole hour of the net!: Pete GM4BYF (Controller), Briain GM8PKL, Mike GM8KCS, Melvyn GM4HYR & Brian GM4DIJ. Apologies from Alan GM3PSP & Peter GM4DTH – (“don’t ask” x2), and Colin GM4HWO who was celebrating his 60th birthday.
Briain had been busy installing smoke alarms and would be assembling his 2m beam (in his lounge) the following day to fit to his new pole. See photos on his QRZ.com page. Mike had been active on a 60m net. Attempts at repairing hand-portables had resulted in several being dumped. He had heard the Irish 2m beacon tonight at S5. He had seen several people at West Linton who had been skiing on the Pentlands. Melvyn continued to work on his daughter’s new house including installing central heating radiators. He noted that new smoke detectors were now wireless, greatly simplifying the new legal requirement for them to be linked together. Others also discussed this. Melvyn suggested a virtual junk sale (!) and mentioned a digital warbling noise on 2m – probably the GB7DE digital repeater in Edinburgh on 145.6375MHz – psp. Brian had been busy repairing things – his old soldering iron and his FT-847 which had lost its 15m band function. On the 2m contest last night his best DX was G8REQ on the Wirral, worked via aircraft scatter. Pete commented on ice problems including when he had to deliver music sheets over 8km in Musselburgh. On smoke detectors he mentioned new batteries which were predicted to last 10 years. On 2m he had worked 26 stations, the best DX being G8CUL in Didcot, Oxon. The GD beacon was very strong through Allermuir Hill!! To avoid rotator noise he recommended earthing the rotator case to the pole. Brian recalled a frog being put in Colin’s sleeping bag at Field Day many years ago. The weather, especially the ice had limited his running recently but he had been out once or twice. Having just received a new computer and monitor he now had to transfer all the software from his old machine. He would be participating in the Wigtownshire club net on Zoom tomorrow. Pete wound up the net mentioning difficulties replacing surface-mount components. He now used a digital microscope to see what he was doing! He was also concerned that the days of cheap Chinese components might be over with post-Brexit customs duty and VAT being payable and a customs declaration label required for each item..