After our trip to Europe and Japan I really want to do FT8 or other digimodes – my preferred mode because of naff hearing etc – rather than just take handhelds. But the weight of the FT818 + tuner + PSU + a laptop is prohibitive. True, the PSU and tuner would go in the checked bag but I feel that the FT818 would really need to come as carry-on. And anyway I do not own a laptop, plus the fact that we tend to travel light so there is very little room for my stuff anyway.

So it got me thinking. At home I use one PC for Linux, one for Windows 10, the Mac mini, and a Pi. Four systems, four screens, and great flexibility as all the audio is interconnected by a mixer. But the Windows PC is now playing up and is too old for Windows 11, not that I want that but I guess it is inevitable as running Windows without security patches is just about the worst thing I can imagine. Well, ok, my imagination runs a lot deeper than that, but you know what I mean.

The QRP Labs QMX+ looks most interesting, small and portable, and with the QRP Labs heritage ought to be a really useful bit of kit. So it got me thinking, is it time I invested in a small Windows laptop, junk the current Windows box and use the laptop connected to the screen for here plus simply unplug it and go portable? I mean, it’s not like I’ve not done that before and it is a pretty standard model. It’s just that, all my life I’ve used old hardware, secondhand or chucked out, cobbled together to make it do what I want. I’ve never had a new system other than the Mac Mini and its MacBook predecessor, the latter not eve being mine anyway. It is, therefore rather uncharted territory, purchasing a new or new-ish laptop which will not see a great deal of use as I really prefer the Mac. Or do I find an older MacBook and cobble that together? I have an older 11″ model with a dead battery – I changed the battery before but the replacement didn’t last. That was going to be sold but I no longer trust eBay as suitable for someone that sells very little.

So, the choice, should I go this route seems to be a new(-ish) Windows laptop that will take Windows 11, or a cobbled together old MacBook which I already have but could potentially sell to offset the cost of the Windows one.

Either way I will investigate the QMX+ first because the weight of my other HF transceivers is the killer.

We just had a short trip to Europe and then Japan and so I took a couple of handheld radios along. For Europe the CEPT licence was fine but for Japan I arranged a short term one via JARL who were very helpful.

So, licences and HTs in hand, or, rather, in carry-on bag, off we went. I had broken the radios down into battery, radio and antenna and put each in a plastic bag to keep everything clean. Big mistake! My bag was searched at the UK airport and in Schiphol. The bags were causing confusion, especially as, at Schiphol they asked how the battery related to whatever the Mouser code was on the old plastic bag I had used. Very quick though, it only added a couple of minutes each time and they were happy.

So I left the radios intact for the onward trip from Schiphol and into Japan. No issues at all at either end or on the return.

So… note to self, leave the radios intact.

I wanted to get a programmer for the ID51. So, off to RT Systems as I have some of their programmers already. Got the Mac version of the package for the ID51 but it does not allow programming via SD card. That caught me out because their package for the FT2D does and I wrongly assumed this would too.

Of course, it needs a cable! Off to eBay… an allegedly suitable cable arrived today but the RT Systems program will not find it. Typical, it needs one of their enfangled cables that are incompatible with the rest of the world. No way that will arrive in time for our trip.

So… Chirp then. Downloaded the Mac version but it, too will not see the eBay cable. I know the Mac sees it so why won’t the software? RT Systems has no option to select a USB port, Chirp does but offers no help as to what it is.

Try Linux? Hmmm…  I’m really not into fiddling with flatpack or any other enfangled package managers – apt is enough, no apt, no use.

Windows then! Got Chirp, and it can find the cable, and Chirp will see it and will download from the ID51. All good then? Nope!

This exercise was to enable me to program up all the foreign repeaters ready for the trip and also to figure out why our local repeater was in the list incorrectly. So let’s take a step backwards now…

I had tried to update the list of repeaters by downloading from Icom. This method works fine by loading the relevant file onto an SD card and telling the radio to load it. RT Systems take note – why does your FT2D software allow this but the ID51 software does not? This should be standard!

But the resultant list was missing the local repeater. I tried to add it but then the radio tells me there are no repeaters at all. I tried downloading the file from repeaterbook which at least knows about the local repeater. No joy. I tried editing the files already on the radio but each time it somehow messed up. After many attempts and permutations I had to give up which is why I though getting an actual programmer would help.

Enter Chirp (on Windows, yuk…). It downloaded from the radio fine but when I looked at the repeater list it seemed broken – all it had was a list of callsigns and no other information. Ugh! But then I remembered that the radio had whinged that there were no repeaters. So, I loaded a known good repeater list file already omitted the SD card, checked the radio would see repeaters when DR is pressed, and downloaded that from the radio into Chirp. The repeater list is just as broken.

Ok… so I exported everything from Chirp as CSV and opened in LibreOffice. But it does not export the repeater list so I am no further towards understanding how the data works. Time to hit the ‘net. Meanwhile, I checked the current repeater list to see if the ‘Near Repeater’ option was working… nope… 20 minutes in and the radio still has not got a GPS location, just like the FT2D!

Fiddling further with Chirp I found someone had kindly created a list of repeaters that does include our local one. I downloaded this and tried to load it into Chirp but it just says the file format is invalid. I copied it to the SD card and tried to import it into the ID51 – data error. Ok, this has gone far enough, this is not rocket science but it seems that it is made so.

Let’s try Icom’s own software, apparently called cs-51plus2. This is called cloning software and, of course is for Windows. After installing the software it read the ID51 ok. I found the repeater list under ‘Digital’ and, indeed, the local repeater is missing. The big question is, can I add it? Ok, I added the  local repeater to the end of the list of repeaters, adding the frequency and offset, plus coordinates. Coordinates are degrees, minutes and seconds but I had digital so had to convert – not a biggie. Wrote the data back to the radio and rebooted. And… the repeater is there! And it keys! Just had to wait for the radio to find the GPS – I reckon it does this by carrier pigeon – but finally the ‘Near Repeater’ function works and also finds the newly-added local repeater. Now to add the foreign ones…

So what is the takeaway from all of this? I wasted money on RT Systems software by assuming it would work the same as the FT2D software i.e. use the SD card. Never mind. I tried Chirp but that just confused the issue. And the manufacturer’s own software, generally looked down on, worked fine! (Apparently the software comes with the radio, I don’t remember it having a CD and there is no sign of it but I downloaded it from Icom just fine). I must remind myself if I ever get another radio to first try the manufacturer’s software as my needs are generally lightweight, otherwise try Chirp, and last get the RT Systems software after making sure (by which I mean email them as it is very muddled reading the literature) whether it needs their special cable – and, personally, if it does then I won’t buy the software. I mean, come on, I pay for the software and I am forced to buy a lead I’ll probably only use once or twice?

“Zilog has called time on the Z80 CPU.” (https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/29/opinion_z80/) Wow. Actually I had no idea (through never having checked) that it was still being produced.

And a fine chip it was too. I never built a system from wires up using the Z80 though. My first system, designed, built from chips and wire-wrap was an 8080 system, hand programmed to control al x-ray diffractometer. This was decades ago now but I still remember it, although I have no photos unfortunately. The system had a timer chip for a 1-second count and was interface to a Nuclear Engineering (I think it was!) counter that used nixies.

But I did at least use Z80s, just they came as boards. The first was a Transom Triton computer and by then I was programming in Turbo pascal – back then this was really neat as one could have procedures full of assembler code which made interfacing easy. Later I used Gemini boards and that also gave the ability to have a graphics card. By then my interfacing to the diffractometer included a stepper motor and shaft encoder to control the arc motor.

In the end there were two sets of Gemini Z80 boards, one for the x-ray diffractometer and one for an optical microdensitometer. Both gathered data and were interfaced to a mainframe computer for the processing using a suite of Algol 60 programs. Good old days…

Personally my first system was a 6502 Newbear single board, followed by the ubiquitous Nascom 1 which was, of course, Z80 based.

Farewell, Z80…

I now have a Raspberry Pi set up on one of the four monitors in the shack. The original layout was two screens at the top on Linux, then bottom left on Windows and bottom right – central to where I sit on the Mac as the main screen. But that layout had two major issues…

I use a program called Barrier to basically act as a KVM switch for the three systems with the Mac as server. That way the Mac mouse and keyboard controls any of the systems, although it can be awkward sometimes where Windows expects keys which Apple doesn’t have. But Barrier does not understand dual monitors and so moving the mouse up from the Mac got to the Linux box fine, but moving it down from the left hand screen would not get to Windows as the program does not see it being physically there. I could live with that, except for issue two…

The main issue was with the Linux screens being at the top and thus making me sit back or crank my neck upwards, not a good position.

So…

I got to realising that although I use both screens on the Linux box for radio stuff this tends to be with wsjt-x on the right screen and pskreporter on the left.

The solution, which somehow never occurred to me, was simple. Move all the wiring about so that the Mac is right and central, Linux is to the left at eye level so no neck ache, Windows is top right because I rarely use it anyway, and that left a dead screen top left. Enter a Pi 4B. So now I can arrange the four screens with pskreporter top right, Hamclock top left, wsjt-x bottom left and logging bottom right. QED.

Another new toy, a Quansheng UK-K5(8). Size-wise it’s taller and heavier than the Baofeng UV5R and has a nicer display. The reason I got this, apart from the price is there is firmware available to enable a spectrum display among other things.

I’ve loaded this version: https://github.com/egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom/wiki. Loading was simple enough. There have been mentions that one needs to insert the programming cable very firmly but I found that my aftermarket Baofeng USB cable went in quite easily with a click. Once I had remembered you need to turn the radio on in program mode the firmware went in via the Edge browser in just a few seconds.

Other than that I have yet to use it on air and it has not yet been near a spectrum analyser so no idea how good or bad it is RF wise. There’s plenty of information out there already anyway. For me, like the UV5R it’s a handy little radio that won’t hurt too much if lost or damaged, but it is the available firmware that seals the deal.

I may have the chance to visit Japan for a couple of weeks this year. I was hoping to take a couple of handhelds with me and to apply for a license. The information how to acquire a license as a non-resident foreigner seemed straightforward until I got to the requirement that any radios need a ‘technical standard certification number’ without which each one needs to be certified at a cost of around £30. It took some searching but I eventually found a document about this including the mark applied to equipment.

Neither my Yaesu FT2D or Icom ID-51 carries that mark. The Yaesu came with a printed booklet which discusses various conformances, the Icom has a PDF which says very little on that score. Presumably this is because of the market – I remember reading that some radios which can be wide banded cannot be if they are Japanese spec ones.

Both the handhelds are, of course radios which are made in Japan, and say so, but it seems I cannot bring them to Japan without incurring costs to have them certified. Both carry the CE mark. I am not (yet) convinced that I read everything correctly but that is what seems to be the case.

So, a radio-less holiday then! At least with an upcoming trip to Amsterdam I can just bring any radio and use it under the CEPT agreement. I am determined to use one outside the UK at least once!

After having ditched Meshtastic, for now at least, I had a fiddle with two of the LoRa modules with a view to repurposing them. And there they are. The first is a LoRa APRS r/o iGate, listening on 439.9125MHz, and the second is a receiver for radiosondes listening around 400MHz.

Nestled under a 70cm ground plane in the shack is, of course a good way to ensure nothing is ever received unless it is very close! However, it is destined for greater things… although at the end of the day it’s just me fiddling. The LoRa APRS map is at https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/

The radiosonde one stands a better chance of actually receiving something, especially as it is currently connected to the 70cm big wheel antenna in the loft. See https://sondehub.org/

The plan is to connect these two along with the module running TinyGS to a common antenna currently in the loft. They will be connected using a Crosscountry Wireless multicoupler which is due to arrive in a day or so.

For me, and this is in no way intended to persuade people not to dabble, Meshtastic was the usual ‘new shiny’ that I like to fiddle with, but it was just that. A bit of radio fun for little outlay using devices I can redeploy. In our wider area it seems to have snowballed and become rather congested. While I can see the point, I have many other radio bits and bobs to play with and having yet two more antennas in the loft was rather overdoing things.

I had to seriously think exactly what I had used it for and it came down to occasionally saying ‘good morning’, answering when people ask if anyone is receiving them, and… well, I am struggling to find anything else. Of course I stress that is what I had used it for, not taking away from what others are doing. It is a neat idea.

So both nodes have been switched off.

Both my 868MHz and 433MHz nodes are being odd today. I had been looking into the data that arrives when ‘–noproto’ is sent to the node and, typically there is a fairly constant stream of data. But today, despite both being power cycled there is no data at all. Odd, because when I ask the 868Mhz node for its nodelist it is being updated. Maybe it’s something in the new firmware but for now I’ve been fiddling enough and it’s time to take a step back. I have not had any successful traceroutes today, I responded to a couple of requests and got no reply. It’s made worse by the fact that, having moved the nodes in the loft they are now out of BLE range. Both are connected to a Raspberry Pi via USB so I can access the nodes that way but for client use I use my mobile node assuming that the node in the loft will relay everything – maybe not. And for 433MHz I only have the one node anyway.

Mind you, it is raining and I suspect that is making a fairly decent shield for 868MHz, and I have yet to see any activity on 433MHz. So maybe it’s just the wrong time…

The other issue, at least around here is the popularity with over 120 nodes in the list, many sending telemetry and position updates all the time.

Getting the antennas outside will help but that will take a while yet unless I mount them low down on the workshop – actually that may not be that daft an idea. If it stops raining…

Some time ago I wanted a logging program that would do things my way. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of the various offerings they generally try to be everything for everyone and none of them really sat well with me. So I wrote my own in PHP (learning Python is high on my list of things to do, along with Mandarin, Morse, cooking…) which uses the QRZ.com logbook as the backend. Ok then, really I wrote a series of various scripts in PHP that make it all work. The advantage is it does just what I need and nothing more and can easily be modified to add functionality. The downside is I never was a coder (well, ok, I have a certification in COBOL from the 1970’s!) and it is not going anywhere other than my own server. So you can’t have it…

The way I tend to log stuff is via wsjt-x or other software that logs to a local file. I then have a script that takes the ADIF data and populates QRZ.com on a QSO-by-QSO basis. Somehow having to actually do something after each QSO feels like I am actually engaging in the process. But I am not a contester… it would simply not work for any stress situations (but then I could easily make it work if I so desired…)

With QRZ.com being the master a script then populates a local database which does all manner of stuff that I personally need. For example, it holds records of eQSL sent/received, real QSL sent/received, and various tabular data for Worked All Britain (WAB).

Scripts also modify the wsjt-x log file on all my systems such that each has a record of all QSOs. As QRZ.com is globally accessible (not tried from China mind… not that I plan to take any radio gear there anyway) and my main database is on a VPS so is also globally accessible the various scripts work from anywhere.

I do plan to move the database from the VPS to a system at home once we get FTTP broadband and use the VPS as a backup, synchronising between the two. But that will wait.

One plan which is more immediate is LoTW integration because as yet my LoTW logging is via QRZ.com which means an extra step. No biggie, I mean it’s its a few clicks and a password… but it would be nice to integrate it. The same goes for eQSL sends, but as yet I only send on receipt and I have scripts to deal with that anyway.

After a lot of fiddling about writing code to look at mesh traffic I am on other projects (like, sorting the house out!)… so here is my current state of play…

I have an 868MHz node in the loft directly connected to a collinear which is hanging off the rafters. This is powered by USB from one of the Pi systems in the shack. It is set to work over wifi, not BLE as it’s just too far away. Its position coordinates are fixed. But I do not need to access it directly, see below. The useful thing here is I have installed the Python CLI on that Pi and can access the node’s data stream directly.

There is one 868MHz node in the shack with the supplied stubby little antenna. There is no way this can see any other nodes in the local area (I’ve tried) but can access the node in the loft. So this one has hops set to 4 as it uses one just to get upstairs. This node is set to read position data from the iPhone and can thus go mobile. Well, ok, it could go mobile anyway but at least this way it says where it is etc. But it will probably never go mobile. With this powered over USB from the Mac Mini I can also access the data stream via the CLI. One issue with this setup is that the shack node reports all nodes seen as having an excellent signal strength as it only sees data from the loft node. In reality only a couple of local nodes have anything approaching a ‘good’ signal strength.

Both 868MHz nodes are Lily T3S3 units with no GPS.

And there is a 433MHz node, this time a T-Beam with GPS on board, directly connected to a 2m/70cm collinear which is hanging from the window blinds in the shack with some bungee cord. This is of course temporary. I have yet to see any other nodes on 433MHz and I suspect I will quietly give up with that.

868MHz-wise there is a lot of local activity. Currently the loft node sees 180 other nodes, although not all will be active. They do tend to stick and clearing the node database then starts afresh, slowly building up a list as data is seen.

And the use? So far, mainly people asking if they can be heard. There are some private channels, no idea what as they are encrypted, pus there are at least two very well sited nodes acting as routers for the area and beyond. One of those is extremely well made.

This Meshtastic business seems often very hit and miss. Locally there is an expectation that it will always work and if you can hit one node one day you should always be able to. Or at least that’s what I glean from comments. Of course, just a few mW at 868MHz is not destined for long distance comms, and yet I can get 24 miles provided the path is line of sight. Not bad. But I can’t manage 1.3km to my nearest neighbour who can get out all over the place. There is a hill to consider there, plus many houses, so not surprising really. Oh yes, and there is the small matter of the antenna still being in the loft so it has to punch through wood and concrete, often wet at that, before it gets to air.

For now, at least locally traffic is mostly messages asking if one can be heard.

There is a series side of course. Nodes can be placed in advantageous positions, run off battery and solar recharged, and left as area repeaters (or routers in Meshtastic parlance) forming a mesh with other similarly advantageously placed nodes. We have this locally to some extent. It is very easy then to get into a position where you a reach those nodes, just don’t expect it to work from your basement. Used correctly – and that probably means used as originally proposed – it is certainly neat, potentially ubiquitous, even anonymous. I already have a use for it at ‘work’ where I need data comms across 3km with no line of sight and with little or no money available…

For now, we’re all playing and having fun or getting frustrated. The worry is people will give up and lack of coordination will make that worse.

Of course, it’s early days, the software is still being developed, the boards are hard to come by but that will change as stock moves. It’s quite interesting to be in this now, relatively early on and as it develops further.

I’ve been rationalising hardware, in particular as the PoE HAT on the Pi running the GB7RVB packet mailbox was noticeably noisy and needs replacing. I had originally moved the packet mailbox off of my AMPRnet router Pi as I needed to install a VPN and the networking was becoming a bit too complex for my liking. In the end I had no use for the VPN, so GB7RVB has gone back, removing one Pi.

Linbpq went across just fine – there is an apt for it (https://wiki.oarc.uk/packet:linbpq-apt-installation) so installation is easy. Just install and copy the config across and the files under /opt/oarc/bpq (there are neater ways but this sledgehammer method works). With the node running I could access via the web interface as expected, but then the axudp route disappeared.

Then I realised that our broadband router had a NAT rule for the UDP port needed for axudp and that was still pushing it to the now switched off Pi. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten this same thing before! So now I have a note as a reminder, assuming I bother to check the note…

Now having removed one Pi with a noisy fan the NTP server Pi is also whining. Grumble.

I had a change of plan. I’ve installed the Python API on one of the radio Pi systems, relocated the node that was hanging in the window up into the loft and connected it to the Pi directly. The node has been set back to using Bluetooth. Now I can get the raw(-ish) data via USB using the meshtastic app and also access the node from the phone. The mobile node – or rather the other node that is intended to be a mobile node when I get a battery etc. – is now disconnected. I will run this off a power bank at some stage and do some range testing but my power bank is currently not even in this continent…

The raw(-ish) data is quite interesting and gives some insight into how the device works, although still at quite a high level. Two examples:

DEBUG | 08:33:54 34116 [RadioIf] Lora RX (id=0x2c340449 fr=0x0c to=0xff, WantAck=0, HopLim=2 Ch=0x8 encrypted rxSNR=-13.75 rxRSSI=-130

INFO  | 08:33:54 34116 [Router] Received DeviceTelemetry from=0xda5c870c, id=0x2c340449, portnum=67, payloadlen=24

I am going to code something to work this data into a useful output, just for fun of course.

In other news, apparently the MacOS app has now been updated to fix the missing messages.

It appears that the web client is not full featured – so I am told anyway – so presumably I should not expect it to work the way I had thought. Never mind, now that the iOS app has been updated it appears to receive messages fine, at least through the second T3S3 device I have.

So, my setup so far (so far? It’s not likely to expand…) is this:

• One T3S3 (Node A) is directly connected to a collinear and is accessed via wifi. For this, the web app will send messages but not receive them.

• One T3S3 (Node B) with its supplied tiny antenna is powered by USB and accessed via Bluetooth and the iPhone. The MacOS app does not receive messages but the phone does, so all is well.

There are issues here though. Because Node B is getting all of its information from Node A it shows every node in the area as having a good signal strength which is false as only one or two do. Also, when a message is sent it is (presumably) acknowledged by Node A (I am not sure on that) which is not a good indication that the message is actually going anywhere.

For Node A with its wifi connection I have installed the Python API on my Linux box (and also on the Mac but I’d rather it be on Linux) and have a small Python script which reads all data provided by the node and writes to a file – for now. A program then parses this and produces useful output, for example when nodes advertise or messages are sent. The next step for this is to make a database so that nodes can be recorded along with their positions, signal strength and times etc.

This is all just a bit of fun really as I always liked playing with data and transforming it and such – a fair bit of my work (when I did actually work) was related to this. I’m sure that now the iOS app has been updated I can swap Node A over to use Bluetooth and access it directly but this way I get a record of everything in the area too. It does add a hop to messages going out from my Node B but I can always adjust that setting anyway.

All in all Meshtastic is a fun / serious / useful ‘thing’ quite literally able to form ad-hoc networks for very little outlay or even experience. Devices can be put in a weatherproof box with a reasonable antenna, plus a battery and maybe a GPS, and perhaps even a solar charger, and positioned in an area to form an ad-hoc network – just like it says on the tin.

There is an issue I cannot put my finger on. I discovered now that I can send messages to the mesh. I know this because I sent a test and the node displayed an answer, but the app did not (neither iOS or MacOS). I just happened to notice the reply on the tiny screen by chance.

After a lot more fiddling and getting nowhere fast I connected the newly flashed node to wifi. This disabled Bluetooth so the iOS and MacOS apps no longer function. The web app does, and this comes directly from the node itself via a browser. The web app can also successfully send messages, but not receive. However, using the Python API I can see all data coming in and the replies are all there. So there is some disconnect between the node and the higher level methods of access, but not the data coming from the node. Odd.

Others have reported similar and the iOS app was updated yesterday so that is another thing to check but the issue above is rather odd. An update to the app does not update the web app, that needs another firmware update.

For now, more fiddling… but at least I can see the data so I can always write something to handle it rather than relying on the inbuilt web app or client apps. So… Python… been meaning to learn it like forever!

Update: running one node via Bluetooth and the phone I can send and receive messages via my other node. Nothing appears in the web app still, but at least I have it working. That leads me to blame the web app itself so I have reported it as an issue.

The 868MHz node has gained a collinear and both nodes are now in the loft powered over a long USB extension that was already routed up there. I was surprised to see numerous peer messages appearing in the web app and after some fiddling these decoded into names etc. and the web app plotted them on the UK map. At present there are 50 nodes, some as far south as Sheffield, one in and two to the east of York, one in Knaresborough, and a cluster nearby and out to the west as far as Hebden Bridge. Some of these are named after callsigns but of course this is not an amateur radio thing so anything goes. The web app recorded a bunch of messages too between people. Sadly, no-one can hear my node so there is work to do yet, not least putting the antenna outside. I have another 868MHz device on order so I can check that the node in the loft is actually transmitting and if so, do some basic range tests.

Another day… I ordered another T3S3 unit which arrived this morning, less than a day since I ordered it! Anyway, on powering it up it immediately saw nodes and messages. It appears that the node in the loft was just passing messages to it, which is after all what these things do. So I have removed the loft node, brought the collinear down and connected to this new node leaving the other powered off. After resetting the Node database it can see nodes but all with ‘bad’ signals (I did not enable the receive boost). I am using Bluetooth to connect to this, not wifi, so it is a virgin setup. At least this proves as far as I can that it is just this node receiving these others. Perhaps the few local nodes will pipe up later on and I’ll see something other than bad signal strengths. The antenna, with the node directly connected is currently hanging in the window so putting it outside is the next step.

Actually the next step is to re-flash the now-disconnected node and start from scratch because I am convinced I messed something up while fiddling! Then I can use that one for a range test.

It’s out! OFCOM today published the new licence terms stating that licences are changed from today, see https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/278345/amateur-radio-general-notice-decision.pdf

I did respond to the consultation. The two things that I was rather unsure of was the new rule that one cannily hold one personal licence – I still have my foundation and intermediate as well as the full – and the business about RSLs.

On the licences I have not used my foundation or intermediate calls since I got the full licence but I maintained domains named after all three and in some cases my login ID for various forums etc is still my foundation callsign. But no biggie, the domains can expire, I will make sure I do not use any old email addresses and it doesn’t actually matter if my login ID is the old callsign in any given forum provided my email address is correct. But to be tidy I’ll work my way through those. It looks like OFCOM will be revoking one’s ‘lesser’ licences during 2024/25.

RSLs always stuck out with me but as I live in England never affected me. I can see the point where people want to use the RSL, I mean if I lived in Scotland, say, I would definitely use MM. But the change is optional rather than RSLs being outlawed somehow. I have never operated outside England (I don’t seem to travel much!) and often wondered how, say I were driving up the A1 do I change callsign on approach to the Scottish border. But it was always academic because I never use radio while driving anyway.

I do like the bits about data stations and such but it will take some time to properly digest the new rules. I did find to my surprise that my 70cm pi-star setup could be heard from a few miles away given it was connected to a dummy load! One half of my setup – it’s a dual HAT – runs a pager for Dapnet and given a bit more power would be rather handy for the local area.

Also nice is the supervised use by unlicensed people whereas before those people needed to be on a recognised training course (I may have remembered that wrong…) – not that I have the need personally but it can only be helpful to the cause.