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Thank you  for your continued interest, you will see below a picture of my "SHACK" and yes !! it is a mess ?? but thats half the fun of it, you might be wondering why so much stuff is needed, Mmm, at times I wonder myself, but for me to cover all the frequencies I have an interest in, then I need to have the radios to do it, (at least thats what I tell the wife ?) In fact five of the small radios are used to keep the "BBS" going, If you remember on the last page I said about "Packet Radio" and that it was free to other "HAM'S" well it is ?? apart from the guys that run it !! there are many BBS stations around the world, and we are all linked together one way or another so that messages or mail can be sent, or received, and our stations run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year, and involves a LOT !! of work to keep everything flowing, I said about the guys that run it, well we are all called "SYSOPS" and each sysop has to get a special licence to be able to run a BBS,   and NO  BBS can run without its partners, or "LINKS" so the whole thing is very much a community spirited exercise,

Among other things that happens on a SUNDAY for RADIO AMATEURS, is a special news broadcast of about half hour duration informing all HAMS and SHORT WAVE LISTENERS of any rally's, interesting happenings, special events, meetings, shows, and many other items of interest, and is organised by the RADIO SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, who can also give you information about Amateur Radio, or any other Radio subject, their telephone number is... 01707-659015, give them a call,  I said that the news takes about half an hour ? BUT, this happens every half hour all over the country, and is done in such a way that no NEWS Broadcaster interferes with the next one !! clever stuff,  He ?? and guess what ?? yup, you have got it, I am also one of them NEWS BROADCASTERS, so that means nearly every Sunday is taken up with me waiting to do my NEWS SLOT, Did you know that there is also a "reward" of £10,000 for the first station to make a transatlantic connection between two stations on V.H.F. ?? (very high frequency) so who knows, you might be the one to walk off with a pocket full of cash !!  

Another thing about Amateur Radio is that it has its own language, NO, I dont mean the "good buddy" "giv us a ten" !!!   scenario, but a code that has been used and understood for many years all over the world, below is a copy of this code, or at least one of them, this one pertains to the signal reports that one receives from another station, and is called the "RST CODE".

                                     THE RST CODE

R1    Unreadable

R2    Barely Readable

R3    Readable but with a lot of difficulty

R4    Readable with very little difficulty

R5    Perfectly readable

........................................................................................

S1     Signals very faint, barely heard

S2     Very weak signal

S3     Weak signal

S4     Fair signal strength

S5     Fairly good signal strength

S6     Good signal strength

S7     Moderately strong signals

S8     Strong signal

S9     Very strong signal

........................................................................................

This bit of code is used by Morse Code Operators as well

T1     Extremely rough hissing noise

T2     Very rough unmusical note

T3     Rough low-pitched "ac" note, trace of musicality

T4     Rather rough "ac" note, moderately musical

T5     Musically moderated note

T6     Modulated note, slight trace of whistle

T7     Good "dc" note, smooth ripple

T8     Good "dc" note, trace of ripple

T9     Pure "dc" note

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