Our next meeting

IMPORTANT NOTICE
The 3rd Monday of April is a bank holiday and The Boot is not available. So, we are delaying the meet to the 4th Monday, i.e. 28th April, again at The Boot public house in Kimpton. Topic:
‘Meshtastic / MeshCore’
– by Andy Kirby
ALSO 18th May 2025: VARC intends to have a stall at the Boot Sale organised by our good friends at the DDRC. Volunteers – please contact Steve G5SRO.
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Previous meetings

March:
Our March 2025 monthly meeting was ‘VARC’s Remote Radios; Introduction and Demonstration’ by Jeremy M1CVZ‘

February:
Our February monthly meeting included our Annual General Meeting (AGM) where we chose our Committee for the next Club year and review £subscriptions. Key was agreement by members that a voluntarily increased subscription of £50 be paid by those members making use of our Cabin and VARC supported repeaters. THESE SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE NOW DUE please.

Plus the ‘officers’ of the Club gave brief reports.

Will (2E0OWM) gave an introductory talk on FT8. Members’ knowledge of this mode varied from minimal to regular users and there was a healthy exchange of wisdom. Thanks Will.

January:
We had an excellent meeting where Matt G4IYT presented a talk on software antenna modelling. He showed how this is a cheap and powerful way of testing antenna designs without leaving the comfort of the shack, and is accessible to anyone with a computer.

He covered the basics of antenna modelling with MMANA-GAL, and showed us how to analyze common antenna types like dipoles, long wires, and verticals.

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December meeting:
Was a fun quiz and social gathering with food.

November 2024:
We had a freewheeling ‘presentation’ of what has been going on at the cabin recently (a lot!).
The meeting started with the Satellite Group attempting to access the ISS using the new remote system at the Cabin. Unfortunately the tech was not playing ball, but we did manage to catch it on the next pass at the end of the meeting.
We also heard from Ambrozy (M7MLU) on the intricacies of satellite working and Alex (2E0KUD) gave a very good insight into the world of contesting.

Peter (G4HSO) gave an account regarding our position as tenants at the cabin site and the plans we have for the upkeep and work to be done to improve on the cabin facility.

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October 2024:
Our October meeting featured Alex 2E0KUD who gave us a very interesting talk on ‘An introduction to nanoVNA. He covered VSWR, impedance, smith chart, measuring coax and its other useful functions around the shack.

Thank you Alex for a very well thought out and practical demonstration of the nanoVNA.

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LOCATION:
Directions to our Cabin can be found on this website – contact peter@g0oik.co.uk for the password.

Guests are always welcome.