Current Rates
Subs are £2 per annum. Payable in Spring each year by Mar 31st.
Internet Banking
The branch prefers subscriptions and donations to be paid electronically.
Here is a snapshot of how to use e-banking to pay subscriptions or make a donation. It includes the branch bank account details.
When paying in please make a clear reference, linking the payment to yourself for the branch records.
Alternatively you may send cheques made out to REA Radio Branch to:
REA Radio Branch Treasurer
Mr MJE Gater
17 Douglas Road
Duston
Northampton NN5 6XX
Our Current Net
On Saturday Morning the net controller calls CQ at around 0730 Hours. Stations call in to set up communications. It’s usual to establish communications first on 3.722 Mhz and then establish the order in which stations transmit. The next round of overs comprises weather, location and signal reports (radio checks basically). After the last station reports the net controller initiates another round of overs – stations go in the order decided.
In this over we usually present some views of our various projects or branch matters and anything goes within the terms of the licence. We may make several overs.
(It helps to plan what you are going to say to keep it brief and to the point.)
The net controller can decide whether to close down the net or QSY (change frequency) to 60M on 5.371.5Mhz. (If QSY and that frequency is occupied we usually have a second or guard channel – See here.)
(You can find various recording of the net on various days throughout this site.)
On 60m we listen out for both amateur and military call signs and exchange contact details, do radio checks and various experiments before closing down.
New callers
New callers must first call in and prove comms with the net controller. Also each other station on net will want to exchange contact details for QSL purposes.
Becoming a regular.
After your first call in you may want to think about becoming a regular caller. This helps us to perfect our radio stations, keep our gear in good condition and tuned up.
Wot no sixty meters?
If you can’t TX on 60m then it you have the option to listen and report via G3RE at QRZ.com or QSL or send emails afterwards. (But see below).
Listeners
Listeners are welcome to report on all nets. On the menu bar above “Listen In” is a link to a web shortwave receiver where you can get excellent “armchair copy”.
For the future
As there are more than three novice and intermediate licensees in the branch – we are actively considering the opening of a third frequency on the 40meter band. It may be we need a volunteer to run this but it is early days.
For now…
If you are a novice or intermediate licence holder join us on 80m. If you have a view about how we can improve our activities, or want to join in as an organiser then please let us know.
Stu – G4IYK said that
Welcome
The branch has a new member – Sgt Jim McLelland from Bellshill in North Lanarkshire – 2M0RMP. Welcome Jim.
Also in this bulletin is a report from the 2015 RE C3S Technical Update.
On Net
No G3RE today, but Mike G4ICC ran the net. On Net are me, Tom, G4CMG and Derek, G3XWD. We speculated the weather kept the yorkshire stations off the air due to the thunderstorms sweeping across the country but Gordon, G3WOV later gave his apologies – he has a full house this weekend.
80 Meter Net
80m Net
Radio Conditions on 80m are OK. Tom Milne gives an account of his attendance at the national armed forces day service.
60 Meter Net
60M Net
On 60M only a slightly difference in conditions. Both recordings via the internet from Web SDR received at Nantwich.
Website updated
Some time was spent revamping the membership application form this week and surprisingly it took less than four hours to design and build a new one. (Jim kindly tested it and declared it fit for purpose). This gives us another opportunity to close down parts of the old website which weren’t used or popular or didn’t work.
Operating today
The station here is augmented by a SmartPhone which is used to receive the net today. You can see the waterfall display of the Hackgreen Web SDR on the phone in the foreground. I found this a very acceptable way of listening, while transmitting using the analogue radio in the background. (TS570D).
C3S Wing Technical Update
Jock McLay has kindly summarised the C3S Wing Technical Update held on 18th June and provided a very useful update of the trade as it stands today.
BATCO
BATCO finally demises. (Yay!) A decision has been taken to withdraw this as obsolescent due to the availability of digital secure speech. It lasted about 24 Years.
Training Systems
The C3S Wing delivers both vocational and non vocational courses and demand is steady. Virtual and Distance Learning are standard options for unit training.
Battlefield Information Systems
Some information about BOWMAN and its replacement (already).
Morpheus Rises. The design stage for the replacement of Bowman is under way with a national consultation on requirements.
Stores and Accounting
For us old guys, The AFG 1045 (now Incident report form) is now tracked via the web with updates available.
Trade and Career
On the trade and career side there is more training responsibility for signals senior NCOs and opportunities to diversify into SQMS\RQMS roles but as yet how this works may need to be seen.
Branch Matters
A proposal has been circulated to restructure the branch committee. Jock delivered the powerpoint presentation which summarises the branch at the C3S Technical Update and we are grateful for that. He is currently following up with a review of amateur radio assets.
73 de Stu – G4IYK
Hack Green SDR Makes for Easy Listening
80M Net
A quiet radio net on the eighty meter band from 0730 today. All signals Readability 5 and Strength 9+ with some minor fading, when listening via the Hack Green Web Software Defined Radio (SDR).
Check out the audio quality by listening to the recording. On my own radio, traffic was much more difficult to receive due to local noise.
IT Problems Here
At this station the shack PC was exhibiting frequent audio drop outs via the browser which I first reported on two weeks ago. The SmartPhone in my pocket proved to be a useful alternative receiver and helped me to further narrow the fault down to a local PC issue.
Activity Reports
Mainly this week, amateur radio is taking a back seat due to the fine weather and summer activities.
Jack, G3PWK worked the French island of Corsica during the week. According to Gordon – G3WOV, while not too distant, Corsica is hard to work due to low levels of activity.
A PRC351 at my location has been playing up on transmit and I managed to find time to “TAP Test” it. Works OK now. The old remedies are the best they say:)
QSY at 0800…
60M Net
On the sixty meter band a slightly noisier frequency with some deeper fading recorded from Hack Green. A shorter than usual net, closing at 0820, and joined briefly by Derek, G3XWD calling in.
Solar activity during the week made for reports of interesting radio conditions. This time around I am pleased the 200 Watt PRC320 based installation I use in Gravesend is producing Five and Nine plus signals at Nantwich and sounds very well. The station uses a low slung inverted vee dipole. This gives the Web SDR a second purpose – for testing HF kit.
We’ve Never had it so good.
Mike – G4ICC mentions that without the Web SDR we would be struggling to hear each other. This reminded me that in previous years, trying to operate this net on these frequencies has proven quite difficult at times. Web SDR has changed that as you can hear in the recordings above.
73 de Stu – G4IYK
Summer Solstice Edition
G3RE (Mike) reminded us today that the nights will be drawing in from this point forward…spooky, I have only just got warmed up after what seemed to be quite a long winter. Mike has been active in the week and made contact with the Special Event Station GB2BOW – Commemorating the Battle of Waterloo on the airwaves.
Radio Conditions
80M
60M
On 80 meters today radio conditions were variable and the Web SDR was providing good audio – while the direct route was near impossible to use.
The 60m band supported the net quite well but again compared to the direct route, Web SDR proved invaluable. Worryingly a sense of dependence is developing. The problems I experienced last week with audio dropping out were replaced with the usual digital artifacts (bleeps, chirps and stutters – aka R2D2) caused by delays in the internet.
Branch Matters:
Corps Signalling
The C3S Wing held their Annual Technical Update or Symposium this week and the Radio branch was represented by our serving member and the corps senior signaller, Lt Col Alastair Bartlam RE. Jock McLay gave a 
presentation on our behalf and we are waiting for some feedback regarding our future plans. Over the period since 6th June interest in the branch has been quite high with some very favourable comments from at least four high ranking officers, the SMI and CI at the wing. We are grateful for all of this and particularly pleased to see signalling recognised as a unique part of the corps.
AGM and Special Projects
A short look forward to our own AGM in September and the potential to operate special event stations for the RE300 and Kitchener 100 celebrations in 2016 were explored. Following the net today the branch approached the REA for details of the events in order to start our planning.
Going by the Net today there is “life Jim” as almost all of us have projects or outings and events planned.
73 de Stu, G4IYK
13th June: Radio Conditions as Predicted
80M Net
On checking the predicted propagation using the chart provided at www.ips.gov.au for signals under 200Km at 3.5Mhz (80M) in UK, it was interesting to note that it did not list the frequency band as being supported. The experience today was along those lines although from where I was listening in Cheshire things were only slightly variable at times and I could only give good reports to everyone on net. The quality of the signals and audio received in Nantwich are excellent as you will hear.
60 Meters
Listen:
60M
Much better still. The conclusion I am drawing from these experiments are that your station needs to be pretty well designed and located to be immune from radio noise these days.
AOB
Sound and sound card issues
I did some fault finding when I discovered the audio from the WEB SDR was interrupted for a few seconds every few minutes. I found the Chrome Browser was the source of the issue, by using a tool provided by Windows called Resource Monitor. In the graph below it shows my computer processor locking up and the source coming from the browser – the orange trace. How neat is that for a fault finding tool? Now to find out why and whether or not it is regular or intermittent. I also have issues with windows 7 in being able to select sound outputs (Phones or Speaker). So its not all roses. Its a bit like HIFI I expect. You need good kit to appreciate the quality. I may invest in a decent soundcard and processing software as my basic equipment (Home made computer using standard parts) has several issues like I can’t record my own SDR. Gordon, G3WOV mentions he was transmitting on a different frequency to his receiver – a problem I found – lat week as there is no tracking between the PC and the Rig (Yet). I say yet because we are using crude equipment which is not yet fully developed. I don’t think this problem exists in remote transceivers.
On Net today, Jack G3PWK is restoring a valved B2 Spy set from WW2 and building a vertical dipole for a club member, Gordon G3WOV is out to a field day with his local club, Mike G4ICC is getting over his windows upgrade and delving into electronic log keeping and Tom G4CMG is enjoying his new computer.
Branch Matters Prevail
Short bulletin today – my main effort this weekend has been to update the regular army through the RE Command Support Branch (Many of us would know this as the Signals Wing). They wanted to know more about our branch and its goals. I must say it has been a privilege to start some very interesting communications at a senior level about the unique nature of our branch within the corps of royal engineers as a whole and which we have now followed up. Our update will be presented by our serving committee member, Jock McLay at their symposium this coming week and I have taken care to ask for feedback.
73 de Stu
Branch delegation:
Tom Milne, Spike Bernard and Stuart Dixon.
Summary
The minutes of the meeting will come out in due course, but it was an interesting one with many of the committee members from the local branches and some opportunities to meet old pals. Kindly hosted by the Group Director, CO of 1 RSME Regiment and RSM Crossen. Lt Col Cuniff responded warmly to our update.
Radio Branch Update
06 June 2015
08:13
Situation as at 2014 AGM
From our AGM last year we were near to disbanding because we could not find enough active members to form a committee.
Membership numbers were vague and we didn’t hear much from anyone apart from the committee and we were about to close the branch.
Family of Royal Engineers
After reading an address by the Chief Royal Engineer to the association in 2013(?) we picked up his theme about building an inclusive community comprising serving soldiers, TA – veterans and anyone who had an interest in the corps – essentially a whole life approach was more preferable to isolated communities. (I was really pleased when the director included that in his opening address – SD).
This approach came at the right time for us.
Problems
Our problems were various. In our branch the veterans weren’t coming together well enough to form a community and we were too weak even to sustain our own membership. There were a number of separate membership databases for the treasurer and newsletter editor and we had an outdated web presence.
The common view was we had very low numbers of members and very small assets , i.e. very little to offer.
Challenge
The CRE had set the pace so we accepted the challenge.
Initial Approach
To get to where we wanted to be we just needed to change the approach (to a more modern one). We set the aim from just surviving as a branch to one of creating a community.
We did a root and branch review of the problems and began to change – we had to basically:
This meant creating meaningful assets and events that appeal to everyone in answer to the question what is it we have to offer?
The membership database review revealed a membership in excess of 90 members in several groups and no serving members. We had previously not been able to identify more than a dozen members. No serving members – just veterans.
TRANSFORMATION PLAN
The branch is currently in the process of change expected to take 18 – 24 Months. The approach is a staged approach to a transition where work packages create opportunities which can then be exploited.
Stage 1 – Membership and Funding
A working database is shared online across committee. Members@reasignals.net gives the branch members a focal point for two way communications and a corporate Identity.
The database has spawned Two mailing lists – one email and one postal.
This leads to more frequent and targeted communications.
The opportunity is there to save money on postage and establish funds and appropriate subscriptions.
Stage 2 – Concurrently Build the Online Community
A means to widen the membership and information about the branch using online assets like Facebook, Twitter and a BLOG called On Net… which gives regular updates on activities and meetings.
We also have an online Registration process etc.
This has led to the opportunity for veterans to engage with serving soldiers.
Restructuring
We recently were able to appoint a serving member of sufficient rank to the committee. And this is expected to promote the veterans within the corps, via various events notably at the Signals Wing Annual Technical Update at Minley in June this year.
All being well, this should have a catalytic effect and create further opportunities.
MISSION PLAN
Given the above and the rate of any further work between now and Mid 2016, the feedback received suggests a mission to establish a number of events that appeal to all interests and which can form a routine going forward.
The current idea is to hold an AGM in 2016 which represent the whole family of signallers, radio operators and IT Operators and which includes a dinner and a keynote speech from a senior member of the corps.
Our special interests are:
Stuart Dixon, Branch Secretary
On Net
G3RE operated by Mike G4ICC
Gordon, G3WOV. Tom, G4CMG. Derek, G3XWD and me, G4IYK in Gravesend.
Summary
Traffic was fairly light because Tom and me were off to the REA South East District Meeting together with Spike. This is covered in a separate post. Very interesting day out.
HF Operating
We were all in agreement about the user experience when operating HF radio stations in the average urban environment. This is becoming more and more difficult because of local radio noise interfering with amateur signals when compared with the receivers at Hack Green in Nantwich, located away from noise sources, in a rural environment. There were times when we could not hear each other at all by the direct route, while signals were perfectly clear on the internet – providing a much higher quality experience.
The potential impact to this was part of the conversation and IMHO that would be to deter people from operating HF at home by making it more difficult to use – rendering the low-end transceiver virtually deaf on some bands. We should really evaluate the deterrent impact of this on the short wave listener (SWL), beginners and novices just setting out. On the other hand it will sharpen up the skills of the determined operator and push people to invest in more efficient kit.
We thought we may become dependent on the internet (which could be a challenge…)
Now we have established the problem it is time to look at what to do practically, both locally and nationally.
We think the future may lie in internet radio like hack green, or remote radio operation. A number of issues arise with this. It will be difficult to wean off for a start but you will need continuous access to broadband and the cost of that is an issue in itself. There are still technical challenges when tracking for example, receiving and transmitting on separate systems when trying to stay on the same frequency. In practice this isn’t an issue if you can hear your own signal. Gordon mentioned various techniques to make sure we don’t rebroadcast the received signal. For me it has forced me to look closer at Windows Audio Controls on the PC. For others it has forced them to re-evaluate their own computers.
Audio
80M
60M
Both recordings made via the internet. If you listen to the 80m recording the noise is present in the form of crackles. A bit like a scratched vynil record. On 60 it is much noisier due to conditions. Mike says “Conditions not so good on 60M today.”
Support Hack Green as a facility by donating.
73s de Stu
Google Map
Click on the map for a full size display of our locations
Summary
From this station today (G4IYK), signals on both 80m and 60m were down below the noise although on 80 meters signals were reasonably audible using the Kenwood TS570D with the attenuator switched in.
Very different on 60 Meters using the PRC320 – where very little was heard.
For both sessions I ended up using the Hack Green Web SDR to receive and the audio is published below. As you will hear – mostly good copy except for some fading on 60m.
Mixing it
Have spent some time now (Sunday) setting up the computer to use the Windows 7 Audio mixer to compare results with. The link (see here) is to a screenshot. On the left is the Hack Green Rx showing the waterfall display and on the right my own local receiver (using Power SDR) with its waterfall display. The mixer is overlaid.
Using the mixer I can now compare the audio from both Receivers through the same headset. (I had to fix the Bluetooth issue first.)
The difference is quite overwhelming – on 80m, tuning the same station resulted in nothing but QRM on my own Rx but S9+20 signals at Hack Green. See also correspondence below. I did get a better result on the 60 and 40m bands.
Now I can see what is going on using the waterfall display. This shows up broadband noise characteristics – as you can see in the screenshot on the right it is showing interference across the 40m band, displaying vertical stripes at intervals across the spectrum. A bit like turning up at a swimming pool to find an oil slick.
On Net Today
Mike, G3RE (G4ICC). Gordon, G3WOV. Jack G3PWK. Tom, G4CMG, Bill, G4NRE and Derek, G3XWD.
Today’s Audio
80m between 0745 and 0800 and 60m between 0800 and 0830 from the hack green site.
80M
60m
Correspondence Received
The following message was sent to the sysops at Hack Green.
“Just a note to let you know we are enjoying your set up at the secret nuclear bunker. It has not escaped us how quiet the receiver is compared to the urban noise levels being experienced by most of us. For the last several weeks we have learnt some interesting things from it. Thanks – I hope you keep it going.”
Reply received from Joe Bell, G4PMY:
“Many thanks for your kind comments. We have worked hard on the system, particularly software embedded in the SDR receivers which were of our own design, and aerial distribution system with filters. An aerial upgrade is planned in the near future.
The plague of urban noise is simply not going to go away, and the flood of cheap Chinese equipment adds greatly to the problem. We not only stream amateur HF/VHF onto the web but also by request “other” traffic for MoD and MARS radio service
I am going to live in New Zealand next year, so I do hope the SOT radio club keep the system going as it would be good to tune into the UK from time to time.
Cheers & 73s
Joe Bell G4PMY”
