So, I came down to the RSGB Convention to see what’s what in the world of radio. After day 1, it’s been good - Here’s a disorganised selection of my notes and thoughts. Session 1: Advances in Amateur TV Given by Noel Matthews, G8GTZ Noel started out telling us about the bands that ATV is on these days, the ones that caught my interest were: 13CM (Roughly 2432MHz) 70CM (2MHz, Digital centered around 437MHz) 2M 2M D-ATV 2M Digital Amateur TV is really interesting, it seems. …

WOW I HAVE SO MANY RADIO THINGS TO TALK ABOUT! There’s been lots rolling about inside my head recently, mostly related to radio. I’m doing lots of wee things in the exciting world of amateur radio to fill my time as summer hits. I’m focussing mostly on packet radio and digital modes, and have done various vaguely interesting things over the last month or two. TCP/IP over AX.25 This is a thing that happened with Iain / 2M0STB in mid march. Using our testbed setup of a Yaesu FT-7900 and FT-817, we invoked the magic of soundcard modems (Direwolf and Soundmodem) to make the magic of modern networking happen over a 1200 baud AFSK link. …

Having been curious for a while, I’ve decided it’s time to start properly playing in the world of packet radio. Not just APRS, though - that’s a ‘solved problem’, and quite simple to get a quick hang of. My main station radio that lives in the hackerspace is a Yaesu FT-7900, and it’s a lovely piece of kit. I’ve got a data cable with proper, separate PTT and audio out/in. It’s got a 9600baud mode as well, so hopefully I can get faster data once all of this has been set up. …

CampGND Draws closer, and I’m worried about ’the project'. Having got really excited about SATnogs, it’s been really frustrating to learn that the project is currently just a shell of what it could be. As far as I can see, there’s some STL files describing items to be printed, some software and some other things, but a complete lack of documentation. Poking through other branches of the main software, I did find what looked like a kind-of-incomplete bill of materials. …

So, I’d love to tell you from my tiny seat on Easyjet that I had a massive revelation this week, and that I’ve rediscovered all my old passions and that life is better than ever. I can’t though - I’ve not spent all week excitedly doing things I’ve loved in the past. Who does, however? You move on from things because your personal circumstances require it or you lose interest or you have too many hobbies and can’t handle everything all the time. …