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Jason Buchanan, N1SU, has announced a new digital voice mode based on WinDRM called FDMDV which claims to offer robust digital voice communication with enhanced interference rejection. The new mode requires just 1.1kHz of bandwidth and is claimed to work at signal to noise ratios as low as 3dB. It is based on 15 carriers using the 1400 MELP codec with no FEC. Fourteen 50 baud QPSK carriers with 75Hz spacing surround a central BPSK carrier at twice the power level for auto tuning and frame indication. Higher power in each carrier combined with an occupied 1.1kHz bandwidth provides improved robustness over its WinDRM and DRMDV predecessors. A poster on the WinDRM Google Group noted that audio quality was fair at an SNR lower than DRM versions.

To celebrate the rebuilding of the WWII code breaking machine Colossus, the National Museum of Computing is running a challenge. During 15th and 16th November, historic Lorenz SZ42 ciphertext will be transmitted by radio amateurs at Heinz Nixdorf MuseumForum in Paderborn, Germany at the following times and frequencies preceded by a preamble in RTTY. The preamble message, which contains information needed to receive the SZ42 transmission is here. The ciphertext will be received by two teams of amateur codebreakers at Bletchley Park. The first will comprise members of the Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Society operating amateur radio station callsign GB2BP and using modern equipment. The second team will use the same type of equipment as used in the intercept (more…)

This is the question I’ve been asking myself and others since Thursday when I passed my Foundation Amateur Radio exam.

The process is apparently as follows - On the night we took the exam the papers were marked and we got our results, then the papers were sent by post to the RSGB (more…)