Another well-attended club night for SEARS, the South Essex Amateur Radio Society, took place on Tuesday the 9th of June 2015.
After the opportunity to mingle and catch up with friends, Dave G4UVJ outlined some of the upcoming club activities, including the Bay Museum event on the 21st of June, before moving on to the subject of training.
Training Update
SEARS completed its first Foundation training course recently, with a 100% pass rate. Candidates now have their calllsigns (ahead of schedule!) with two joining the Monday Night Net on the 8th of June, and three in the audience at SEARS on the 9th.
Steve 2E0UEH, the SEARS Training Manager, then gave a short summary of how the training course went, with a good collection of photos highlighting the training and the practicals. Well done to Bob, Dean, Laura and Paul for passing with SEARS and diving into amateur radio – The next SEARS course is set for the 16th of October.
Radio Broadcasting
The main theme for the evening was “radio broadcasting” with a talk from Pete M0PSX, who’s worked in the UK radio industry for over 15 years.
The talk covered a wide range of radio topics, including:
- How studio technology has changed over the years
- Computer playout systems – Thanks to Richard M0CLZ for the “Bad Manners” request!
- What happens inside a broadcast transmitter’s “shack”
- Broadcast Radio acronyms such as PFL, PPM, RSL and IRN
- Outside Broadcasts
- Audience research
Also discussed was RDS, the Radio Data System, and the technical solution developed by three Essex amateurs from Essex Radio that used DTMF tones to trigger the “TA” Travel Announcement flag. This system allows car radios to switch to local travel news automatically.
Pete also looked at digital radio technologies including DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and the various plans for an FM radio switchoff at some point.
Pete wrapped up by passing on a couple of secrets not known to most radio listeners, and played a few examples of some of the things that can wrong in the studio. If you want to hear some great examples of recent on-air “problems”, take a look at Radio Fail for some great audio clips.
Bonus Material
Many thanks to John G3ZJZ for bringing along a medallion, and asking for a live performance in the car park of the new Essex Ham Monday Nighty Net Disclaimer Rap. Less said the better! See below for our rather tongue-in-cheek Songify version!!
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Monday Night Net Songified Disclaimer Rap (48 secs, mp3 format) |
Holy hell pete the essex ham rap sounds like something that comes out of harlow.
I know – scary, innit?
Hahahah love the net rap , was a very enjoyable club night too, a great report, best wishes all xx
Thanks Dorothy – Glad you enjoyed the evening, and the rap…