I have a flat!

I have had the wouxun radio a few days now and not had time to sit down and use it, I went to use it today and found it was dead, I have been tilt the wouxun battery will discharge over time but 3days? I guess the battery may be on its way out.

Put it back on charge and will test it in a few days.

Baofeng GT3 Arrives

Well it arrived today my gt3 radio I opened the box to see the radio and I was impressed it didn't look bad for a £40 radio I was expecting it to look cheap and nasty but it didn't look bad.

I plugged it all together and went to charge it up, I fount issues with the charger, I seated the radio in the base and found it bent one of the pins, so i made a repair on it, the mains plug went from a two pin charger to an adaptor to fit mains sockets, not a big deal but none the less it was disappointing.

31/12/15
After a few days use I upgraded the antenna as it would not pick up much from the local repeater from in the house, I ordered the bigger sansonic areal to see what I get from that, I also found the gt3 badge had come away from its glue.

To programme the memories of the unit it is easier to download the software, drivers, manuals and information from sainsonic

I found the software unstable on windows 10 and it needed reinstalling twice before i gave up and used a different bit of software for it

Wouxun arrives

Ok my wouxun arrived today well impressed it's almost like new, plugged it in and put it on charge ready to play with tomorrow.

Looked at the specs of it and it's not a standard 2mtr 70cm band it appears to be a 4mtr 2mtr one, this is something very hard to find in a hand held radio! What a bonus! 

See specs on back of the radio.

Echolink

 
This is a system that allows armature radio enthusiasts to communicate to others all over the world via the internet this can be via a computer, an app on your smart phone or a repeter that is echo link enabled.

It is easy to conect via a computer or the app as you can select where you wish to connect to in the world.

Note: you need good 3g signal to use the app as a minimum,your computer may have its the gateway blocked by your router so you may need to go into the port forward settings

I WON I WON!!!

Well put that  cheeky little bid on the Wouxn KG-UV1P for a hardly used unit and I won this 2nd hand unit it for £23.00p off eBay!

I cant believe it, it doesn't state the frequency's it operates on but I guess 2mtr and 70cm range I guess ill see when it gets here.

I'm expecting the battery to need replacing but will see once it arrives.

Lets see what I get when it arrives

repeter book app

To help with being out and about you can download an app for your smart phone so you can find the closest repeter to you on 2mtr and 70cm, this way you can add them to your radio as you go.

As your smart phone has gps on it this app will always list the closest repeters to you, it helps when you dont have them in the radios memory already

For more information on this app goto the app store or google play or repeaterbook site

intermetiate exam help

OK I have ordered the intermediate book from eBay and will wait for it to arrive

Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society intermediate slides for download

videos link this is the 1st of the three videos about what you need to know about the intermediate exam (note there may have been some changes from the time the video's had been posted but the majority is correct)

ham tests remember to select the uk tests not the American ones, also keep in mind it is a lot of questions to help get you per paired for the exam there may be no relevance to what questions you get on the day of the test!

rsgb mock exam these are for the intermediate section, download and print them off and study this may help

QRZ site and app

I have found pepole want to find more about you and what you do so for radio hams you can set up a profile on QRZ!

If its your foundation one you need to register on QRZ once you have your call sighn, then you will need to get someone that has been on QRZ for a while to set the basic profile page and link it to you on you.

Then its up to you what you wish to put on it!

I want to thank Mick 2E0XVX and Chris 2E0UKH on getting me set up

My 1st radio

well now I have my ham licence its time to order my 1st radio, I have been searching for a good radio for a while but as a foundation licence i'm limited to a max power of 10 watts!

a lot of the people in the club have hand held radios made by baofeng so i did some research and a lot of them have a maximum transmuting power of 5watts but i found the GT£ mark3 TP has a Max wattage of 8watts and found them on eBay for around £40 with a long larger battery so i took the plunge, now I guess I need to wait for it.

I also found a wouxun going cheap on eBay so I had a cheeky little bid I guess ill see if I win it!

No luck

Well tried again and had no luck registering with the OFCOM so I called the RSGB and they confirmed it was sent to OFCOM they even gave me the number to call them and chase that end.

Called OFCOM and the lady was very helpful in putting me in the right direction, apparently the information is case sensitive, what is on the certificate should be on my details, she kindly adjusted the details while i was on the phone.

I logged on and applied for the licence number and the one i wanted was M6HBJ and it was takedso i tried a few others and ended up with M6HBJ Close enough)

NOW the fun begins!!!

certificate arrived

I got home from work and I found my certificate from the RSGB had arrived with my candidate number on at last.

I went on the OFCOM web site and logged in to my account and went through my applying for my licence and found my candidate number wasn't accepted it says wait a few days as paperwork may still be going through.

A tiny bit disappointed ill wait a few days

onwards and upwards

OK I have decided I want to go for my intermediate licence this will make me a 2E0 call sign I aim to have this done by end of march 2016 lets see how this goes.

Book is ordered from eBay will wait for it to arrive.

Foundation exam help

To help with your foundation course I used a book called foundation now, I purchased it off eBay and it arrived in a few days.

also Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society these are slides you can read on your computer to understand more about what's needed before you waste any money going any further.

you are also needed to do some practical work for the exam but this can either be done at the club you intend to do your exam with or on the course where you do the exam.

you will need to pay a fee for the exam and possibly a fee for the course or a membership fee for the club.

The begining

This evening i became sat my exam for my foundation licence to operate an armature radio in the UK.

after the exam the paper was marked by the examiners and they gave me the provisional agreement that I had passed, it needed to be confirmed by the RSGB and a certificate will be sent in the post.

I was informed this will take up to 8 working days to arrive possibly a little longer as its near Christmas, I was also told to register with Ofcom so once I receive my certificate I can apply for my licence number.

To register go to OFCOM UK then go to licensing and amateur radio, then go to the licensing system and then register.

remember your details you will need them once your certificate arrives through the post.