Information about Alan G4ZFQ and the Isle of Wight Radio Society G3SKY
Last revised: December 08, 2010. Links open in a new window
My station as it was some time ago!
My Home and the Isle of Wight still the same after 30 years.
SOME LINKS TAKE YOU TO MY LOCAL SITE (In a new window) I FIND IT EASIER TO KEEP UP TO DATE
My local site Index - more than on here.
Greyline Index Page Greyline (Grayline) Propagation investigations.
The Isle of Wight. Maps showing WAB and Maidenhead Locators.
Please send me mail Click here if no link is seen. Please include QSL.NET / my Callsign in the Subject Line. Make the subject VERY relevant - with the amount of spam I get an email from an unknown source can easily be discarded!
My Software Defined Radio - on line.
At http://www.sdr-radio.com/OnAirServers.aspx is my Softrock SDR. This is, most of the time, available to use by anyone who downloads Simon, HB9DRV's SDR Console. Note the "Web Radio" Java utility does not work, clicking the "Speaker" icon is no good!
BROKEN
AUDIO If the audio is broken then the latency may need setting. In
SDRConsole. Click "AF Output" on the top menu
and, on my setup, it is directly underneath. try increasing it until good audio
is received. This setting is dependant on the quality of the overall internet
connection.
The radio is a Softrock, actually a V8.3 with updates to make it similar to the current version. http://www.wb5rvz.com/sdr/ensemblerx/ Here is Robby's Home Page http://www.wb5rvz.com/ and here http://homepages.wightcable.net/~g4zfq/Si570.htm my page with more links covering many aspects of the Softrock and SDR.
The Softrock series of SDR "front ends" uses a soundcard to convert the analogue signals to digital, then the computer processes a band of signals which is almost as wide as the sample rate of the soundcard, 96KHz in my present set-up. Almost any mode can be used if there is software that supports it.
The radio is specified from 1.8 - 30MHz but will work down to about 850KHz so some local medium wave (AM) signals may be heard with reduced performance. Radio Solent on 999KHz is the local station with news on the half-hour during our day.
Note the SDR software is only in beta form, Simon has lots of work to do! One deficiency is is that there is no software image rejection so that interference from signals on the opposite side of the soundcard SDR's centre frequency may be heard. Sometimes the software "freezes" for a few seconds, restarting with an echo effect. You may well find other bugs with this software. It will be worth waiting for the finished software, Simon's Ham Radio Deluxe/DM780 is famous in the world of Amateur Radio. Of course, on some frequencies you may hear some spurious signals produced from my computer or other gear here.
The antenna in use may vary but I have mainly been connecting my version of the "Cobwebb" http://homepages.wightcable.net/~g4zfq/Cobwebb.htm This works fairly well, good for the higher frequencies and picking up an adequate signal on the lower frequencies. Other times an 80m diplole is used, not quite so good on the higher frequencies.
Home phone
01983 240340
Amateur (Ham) Radio and shortwave listening is one of my main interests.
Location: IO90IR, SZ49, 50.74°N 1.31°W.
I enjoy playing with relatively simple electronics.
An interest not much practiced at the moment, Now have digital but I think the "old" SLR and film still have their place!
Include this because I waste so much time trying to get things working that I must be interested! Computer is assembled AMD dual core on a Gigabyte mainboard. NOTE parallel and serial ports ARE still available for radio computers.
Used to enjoy walks of 5-10 miles in the country fairly regularly, now I've gone back to a regular cycle ride.
Listen to mainly orchestral classical music.
If you would like to know more about the Isle of Wight Radio Society please ring 01983 240340 or Alan Ash 01983 298731.
More details and pictures
Please send me mail Would be interested if anyone sees this, or how about a contact on HF or VHF?