Reboot Amateur Radio Blog: Feedback: Reboot Amateur Radio WhatsApp Group – Reboot Coffee Drink Event 23 November 2019 9am STARS Restaurant, Mossel Bay

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The Reboot Amateur Radio WhatsApp Group as well as the Reboot Coffee Drink Event is open to all radio amateurs and prospective radio amateurs in South Africa. All our events are informal !! In other words no politics, no religion and no contraversial or personal differences will be allowed or tolerated!!

Saturday 23 November 2019 at 9am was again an enjoyable and successful Coffee Drink session in Mossel Bay at STARS Restaurant. We could not have asked for better weather. Once everybody bought the necessary refreshments which included a breakfast the chin-wagging started!

Those present by way of mind: = 8

John ZS1ZR, Nick ZS1N, Johann ZS2BVD, Mari ZS1MEH, Russel ZS2AHF, Casey ZS1AAS, Wessie ZS2A and Francois ZS1Q

Those present in the flesh: = 12

Beat ZS1HB, Johan ZS2I, Danie ZS1DBJ, Willie ZS2CC, Chris ZS1M, Hentie ZS1LH, Abe ZS1ZS, Jimmy ZS1RB, Dave ZR1OAC, Saney ZR1S, Kevin ZS1ABU and Johan ZS1I.

All present were welcomed by the administrator of the Reboot Amateur Radio WhatsApp Group. This time there were a few formalities that needed to be mentioned. The following were presented to those present:

Short summary of the 2019 Coffee Drink Events – Success recipe created by all the radio amateurs that attended these events.
Reboot WhatsApp Group – Activities, projects, DX and HF Band Conditions.
Public Interest re: Coffee Drink Events.
Projects – Wide variety and the most ever in the Southern Cape.
2020 Coffee Drink Event dates.
Lucky Draws 2020.
Thanks and Appreciation.

It is impossible to provide all the finer and juicy details of this event. Moral of the story is to attend each and every coffee drink event, not to lose out.

Rondomtalie/Round Robin

Chris ZS1M – Show-cased a Homebrew 2 Meter Receiver build by a non active amateur radio operator. Freq. 145 – 146 Mhz.
Hentie ZS1LH – Cherrie Pi vs Raspberry Pi? Radio Control Aircraft Interference.
Kevin ZS1ABU – Relocation from Cape Town to George. VHF Contests – Piketberg. Demonstrated his Homebrew 2m/70cm Dipole Antenna.
Abe ZS1ZS - Showed pins for BNC connectors turned by Danie ZS1DBJ on the metal lathe. Overview of his Homebrew Receiver for the Es’hail-2 / QB-100 Satellite. He also provided information to those who would like to build a similar project. ZS6J – Johannesburg Club website contain information on the feedhorn construction. Abe also displayed his CW Keyer using a Arduino Mega 2560.
Beat ZS1HB – Discussed the modifications he made to his Kenwood TS50S for RS232 conversion to use with his Pactor Modem/Controller. Mod. Micro-computer Interface and Remote Control Interface build.
Saney ZS1S – Update on the 40m Beacon, Victron Regulator, Battery Back-Up and 2 mW output power. A big thank you to Casey ZS1AAS for doing the maintenance on the beacon.
Danie ZS1DBJ – Displayed the homebrew pre-amp project he and Willie ZS2CC played around with on the Icom 7000 Radio. Danie indicated that the pre-amp is noisy and did not perform well.
Dave ZR1AOC - The Icom 7000 is well known for microphone hick-ups. He suggested to Danie ZS1DBJ reset the radio to factory defaults and then try the pre-amp again. Dave has an Icom 7000 in his shack and the reset solved bad microphone issues.
Johan ZS2I, Jimmy ZS1RB, Johan ZS1I and Willie ZS2CC opted for the silent mode and enjoyed their coffee and refreshments.

Please see all the fotos of the above discussions and demonstrations. As said before you need to attend the coffee drink sessions to get the finer detail and juicy bits. If you do not attend you will miss out on detail.

Finally:

I concluded the event by thanking everyone for attending the event. A special word of thanks must go to Kevin ZS1ABU who on his first Coffee Drink, undertook the task to sort out the STARS account. (Not an enjoyable task at all.) Kevin’s willingness is highly appreciated.

I trust that everyone enjoyed the event and that everybody had a great time.

We look forward to the next Reboot Coffee event in 2020 which will be held in George on the 25 January 2020 at 9 am. The venue in George will be announced closer to the date.

Johan ZS1I

Mossel Bay

28 November 2019

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