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Author Archives: M1ACB

DXpedition Tea Sponsorship

April 29th, 2015 | Posted by M1ACB in General - (1 Comments)

James M1TESWe are extremely grateful to Freshpac Ltd in Halesworth for sponsoring our DXpedition again this year. They have very generously supplied us with a huge ‘sack’ of high quality tea, to compliment the excellent coffee they gave us last year. Camb-Hams consume an enormous amount of tea and coffee during our DXpeditions, so this is a very important sponsorship deal for us.

James M1TES, who works at Freshpac, presented the tea to Steve M1ACB at the South Anglia Repeater Group AGM in return for a custom made Camb-Hams Mull 2015 mug.

The Decca and visitors

May 17th, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in General | Isle of Lewis - (1 Comments)

Our home for our week on the Isle of Lewis was The Decca, owned by Pete and Louise.

We couldn’t have picked a better location and couldn’t have been made more welcome. We did wonder if 13 radio amateurs arriving with so much equipment, taking over the garden for antennas and ‘re-modelling’ the houses for the shacks, would have been too much for our hosts – but we couldn’t have been more wrong. We were welcomed by Pete and Louise when we arrived and told to do whatever we needed to do to make our trip a success. They let us take down all of the washing lines in the garden, so that we could guy the masts, they turned a blind eye when we distributed the living furniture around the house to make room for the HF stations, they laughed and got used to their touch-switch bedroom lights going on and off in the middle of the night when we went on 80m and they switched off their solar panels and everything else in the house when we tried to find the source of some noise (it was one of our own laptop power supplies). It was excellent accommodation, in a great location, with fantastic hosts. We’d like to thank them for their hospitality and recommend that any other groups going to Lewis give them a call.

Decca ShackDecca Aerials

 

Before it’s retirement in 2000, The Decca was part of the Hebridean Chain of the Decca Navigation System.

The Decca Navigator System was a hyperbolic radio navigation system which allowed ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving radio signals from fixed navigational beacons. The system used low frequencies from 70 to 129 kHz. It was first deployed by the Royal Navy during World War II when the Allied forces needed a system which could be used to achieve accurate landings. After the war it was extensively developed around the UK and later used in many areas around the world.

Norman Smith

Norman Smith

We were visited by many local and visiting radio amateurs during the week, just wanting to say hello, swap stories and see what we were doing.

On our last day, we were really lucky to be visited by a very interesting local resident, Norman Smith from Lionel, Ness. Norman worked at the Decca station for all of its operational life from 1954 to 2000 after being a ships radio officer. He told us about the 185 foot masts which were at the station and the 300 foot mast which was nearby. He explained that the main house in the centre of the building used to be the main radio operations building, with the houses either side being accommodation for the Station Engineer and the 2nd Engineer. He was able to tell us about the earth mat which is still below the ground which we had been wondering about all week.

It was really nice to meet Norman, who celebrated his 90th birthday with a meal at The Decca a few weeks earlier, and we’re very grateful that he took the time to come a visit us.

6m and 4m at GS3PYE/P

May 2nd, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in Isle of Lewis - (0 Comments)

Gav M1BXF is a big fan of VHF, so he always takes the opportunity to improve the 6m and 4m stations each year for GS3PYE/P. Most of his shack made the trip up to the Isle of Lewis this year and you can see him at work in the pictures below :

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The antennas for 6m and 4m with the 2m and 23cm EME system in the background : Lewis64-3

Securing a Network and Devices

May 2nd, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in Isle of Lewis | Satellite Ops - (3 Comments)

Securing a network requires a complex combination of hardware devices, such as routers, firewalls and anti-malware software applications. It also requires designing the installation and configuration process for those devices. By deploying a special malware-suppressing feature, we’re delivering the ability for network admins to control and secure their networks without the need for special software, workstation hardware or complex network configurations.

An Amazon web services direct connect service is beneficial to enterprises, which is the dominant cloud platform, with a global reach and a strong range of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings.

A Network Defense & Security solution

In the past year, we have been working with companies, businesses and public and private sector organizations in two areas to address the growing number of attacks coming from adversaries who are using malicious code with the explicit aim of doing business harm. These two areas are:

The private sector building security into a private business network can create an immunity from attacks, and the less common threat of ransomware.

Building security with the help of threat detection software into a private business network can create an immunity from attacks, and the less common threat of ransomware. Government organizations Governments are among the most widely-employed, most trusted and most complex businesses in the world. In addition, the evolution of cyber security isn’t restricted to the private sector since they know about Active Fire Protection vs. Passive Fire Protection: What is the Difference?. There are numerous open government networks networks operated by the government that you need to secure and these networks can pose significant threats to critical infrastructure.

In the wake of the recent reports of ransomware attacks, we have spent the past year deploying new systems for our services and our suppliers to allow them to take full advantage of these new threats. It has been exciting to see how our customers have handled ransomware mostly by the use of professional security services to avoid this. For instance, people using service providers through their Internet of Things devices have realized the value of having a network defense component to make sure their service is secure.

For more information on how you can benefit from creating the right infrastructure for your network defense and security products, please contact us.

Onwards

Cabinet Secretary Pravin Rao

Your Excellency,

Thank you very much for your kind words about our product and about our company. I am appreciative of you for taking the time to write to me today.

We at CloudShield sincerely believe that we are doing a valuable service to all our customers in India and to the broader world. Our network protection and security services are being used by customers like many of the big companies in India, and I thank you for welcoming us into your domain.

I am very pleased to know that you have recently taken a key decision on upgrading the existing Indian service to the latest cybersecurity standards. I am confident that with this decision, we will be able to provide an added value for our customers here in India. It is a very appropriate decision in light of the very serious threat that India’s security industry and the government is currently facing. I am also pleased that you have agreed to meet with me, and I am sure that our whole IT and telecom communities, together with industry leaders, will come up with further steps to protect our core infrastructure.

I am certain that this is not a time for a knee jerk reaction. Rather, it is a time to create long-term growth opportunities for India’s innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

Sincerely,

The Chairman and Managing Director of CloudShield

Thank you again,

As you may have guessed from my words, I am of the view that security is important for India’s growth and it is imperative to educate the citizens and businesses on how to protect their systems. As you know, India has a critical vulnerability towards cyber crime.

VHF & EME Stations in Flossie

May 1st, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in Isle of Lewis - (2 Comments)

This year again, we have the higher band stations based in Flossie.

Gav M1BXF and John G4BAO both put in many weeks of preparations for that stations before we left for Lewis and the photographs below show just how much equipment they brought to support the 6m, 4m, 2m & 23cm stations.

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There are also frequent dashes outside to cover the various pieces of equipment when the rains comes. This is Gav and John covering the 23cm EME equipment in some very strong winds. You can see the bend on the 2m and 23cm EME beams as the wind blows in from the left.

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Gav M1BXF and John G4BAO have spent many hours alone outside in Flossie doing some really great work on the higher bands, but the isolation from the rest of the group doesn’t seem to have affected them at all  …..   😉

 

GS3PYE/P EME on 2m and 23cm

April 30th, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in Isle of Lewis - (0 Comments)

John G4BAO spent a long time preparing the Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) 2m and 23cm systems before we left Cambridge and now he’s in his element working people ‘off the moon’ from the Isle of Lewis.

These pictures were taken of John attempting some CW EME contacts on 23cm this afternoon :

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John G4BAO operating the 2m and 23cm EME system in Flossie, with the 6m and 4m stations to his left.

 

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GS3PYE/P 2m and 23cm EME antennas in operation on the Isle of Lewis.

 

GS6PYE/P on the Shiant Isles (EU-112)

April 30th, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in General | Isle of Lewis - (0 Comments)

Photographs from our GS6PYE/P activation of the Shiant Isles (EU-112) on 28 April 2014.
The operators were Dom M0BLF, Rob M0VFC and Steve M1ACB.

The radios were a pair of Icom IC-706MkIIG’s.
The antennas were a quarter wave vertical for 20m and a vertical dipole for 15m.

We made 1136 contacts on the 20m and 15m bands.

Photos of the activation are available here : https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ShiantsDX2014

Rob M0VFC and Dom M0BLF operating from the Shepherds Hut on the Shiants :

The trip back was a bit bumpy …

 

A windy day on Lewis

April 30th, 2014 | Posted by M1ACB in Isle of Lewis - (0 Comments)

There’s a cold, blustery wind on the Isle of Lewis today and we noticed the Spiderbeam spinning on the mast when we got up this  morning. So, the working party went out before breakfast to lower the mast, remove the Spiderbeam, remove the rotator, replace the Spiderbeam and put the mast back up again. A few more adjustments were necessary to the mast holding the 15m beam, but all is well now and we’re on the air again from most of the stations.

Everyone inside again for coffee and bacon rolls.

 

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Rob M0VFC adjusts the Spiderbeam at GS3PYE/P

Caption Competition

May 13th, 2013 | Posted by M1ACB in General - (9 Comments)

As a bit of fun we will post a photo each day for a “caption competition”.  No prizes, it’s only for a bit of fun.

Today’s image is of Colin G4ERO doing or saying???

Colin G4ERO

Post your answers in the comments section..

GS3PYE/P Group Shot

May 6th, 2012 | Posted by M1ACB in General - (0 Comments)

The GS3PYE/P group stopped for lunch at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar on the way back from Mull. The gang’s all there, except for Steve M1ACB who has a face better suited to standing the other side of the camera and taking the picture.