Well, its some 18mths now since I became an M3 at Colchester and I thought it might be an opportune moment review my progress.

There hasn't been much activity on my behalf on HF since the end of last year as the conditions have not been that brilliant. I have had a long arranged but never fulfilled sked with N7ZI in Utah to complete and another one with maritime mobile station David Cowper, VP85DEU, who is trying to circum-navigate East-West on the MV "Polar Bound" via the north west passage. I have been trying to reach him every Sunday on 15m since the end of last year when he left the Falklands, with no success at all (15m is all he can use). If anyone catches him on 21.300mhz SSB please let him know that I have been trying.

I have joined a couple of Amateur Radio Clubs, CARS and The Suffolk Data Group. I haven't managed to get to a CARS meeting yet, but I have managed to make two of the SDG meetings and they seem a very friendly bunch.

As a future project I am planning to sort out some bits and pieces to get into data modes as it's probably the area I've become most interested in. I fancy RTTY, PSK31 and APRS on HF. I shall possibly also use data as my first serious foray into construction projects.

Morse code is also a hurdle that I must cross, as its ability to get through when all else is failing makes it still a very worthwhile mode. When I get a full licence I will be active maritime mobile myself and Morse will be quite relevant. I plan to give one of the Morse camps a go next year.

My equipment has grown a little since I first started and I now have Yaesu 757 for HF, Yaesu FT1500M for 2m and a Kenwood THD-7E for mobile and 70cm.

My antennas have improved a little with a pole on my garden shed supporting the W300 collinear and also my 40m dipole. In the fullness of time I'll get a crossed rotating Yagi on the roof, well, when theYL gets used to the idea J

My main area of concentration has been trying 2m FM and in particular APRS. I was lucky to live near a chap called Ciemon G0TRT who helped me out with advice on how to set up. I run a spare 2.4 GHZ 256mb Athlon PC supporting Uiview32 (registered!) through a DRSI DPK-2 TNC (anyone got an instruction book I can borrow please?) in to my 1500M.

What I have found very useful with APRS is the ability to see where your transmission goes as a direct signal and also what your receiving range is. Because a map is displayed on the screen and stations that Rx you reply, it is reasonably straightforward to see where your paths are.

I had assumed my best path would be straight down the river valley towards Ipswich but for some reason its up the side of a hill across another valley and cross country to Rendlesham, I guess I'll work out why one day.

Another handy use of APRS is keeping up with pals abroad, I have a friend in Utah and sometimes I'm able to see him driving around and using UIView's packet message facility pop him a quick message. This only works if you are both on-line and is not like a BBS system where the message sits waiting to be collected.

I did have a bash at BBS but my antenna is a tad to low for a reliable connect with GB7TGE so I will try again when I get a directional Yagi mounted on the roof.

I'm also contemplating setting up a weather station (another of my hobbies) and linking it to APRS and the Internet. I have been running APT satellite for a couple of years now and a live station is a natural extension.

One of my recent trials has been receiving RTTY (USB 50 baud, 425 shift, reverse tone) data from Hamburg (Offenbach) radio on say, 10.101mhz (10.0996) and decoding the file through a program called Digital Atmosphere. This creates synoptic charts from the data and you can become your own weather forecaster. The data from Hamburg contains live weather readings from stations all round the world and also many ships at sea, giving a good view of the weather all round the globe.

I have done a little bit through the Ipswich 2m repeater GB3PO, but no success yet with a QSO on 70cms. I guess it will happen one day.

So, its quite busy really with plenty of plans afoot to keep me busy for the next year.

My next stage was to complete the Intermediate exam but again the RA and RSGB have conspired against me. The foundation suited my work style very well with a weekend course and a weekend exam, but the intermediate seems mostly to be run as an evening class and is examined on the one day a week I find hard to get off…Mondays!! Hopefully somehow and somewhere (I don't care where) I will be able to do the intermediate over one or two weekends and take the test at the same time. Until then I will stay an M3, which quite honestly isn't the end of the world and I must say still great fun!

73 Nick M3NIC