CARC

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CARC During COVID

Posted: 02 Apr 2020 06:55 AM PDT
http://carc.org.uk/2020/04/02/carc-during-covid/



Times are certainly strange. I hope that you and yours are all well. Life
at KAD towers is slightly strange. My wife works at Crawley Hospital and
is leaving home each morning, as usual, I am working from home this week
while my kidults (21 and 18) are home and bored.

Were all getting used to spending much more time indoors and of course, the
club is closed for meetings at Hut18.

At CARC, weve been experimenting with a few different things to keep the
club active and the committee are very busy ensuring the club continues to
serve our members.

Below, Ive added a few of the activities weve been running both online, on
the air and a mixture of the two.



CARC Talks Online




Stewart, G3YSX has used his experience of working from home to organise
series of WebEx talks and discussions for club members online. We are
sending invitations for these by email to all members. Click on the link
just before the advertised time and if havent already done so you can
choose to install the WebEx application or continue using your internet
browser. I would recommend installing the application as it gives a
consistent experience and access to some of the advanced features such as
text chat, multimedia and voting. You dont need a WebEx account just add
your name when joining the talks as a guest.




WebEx supports both voice and video (if you have a webcam). I use a simple
USB computer headset with a boom mic though this isnt required to join in.



Example WebEx app




The CARC website event calendar will have details of these talks but you
will need to use the link in the email to join as we cant support more than
50 participants and want to keep access available to our members.



CARC On-Air Nets




We currently have two nets organised, one for Sunday morning (10:30BST on
80m 3.720MHz +/- QRM hosted by Net Controller Richard G3ZIY and the other
on Wednesday evenings (19:30BST) on GB3MH, our local 2m FM repeater hosted
by Net Controller Phil M0TZZ. Join us for a natter.



GB3MH Site at Turners Hill



CARC Whats App Group




We have created an online WhatsApp Group for members. You should have
received an invitation to this by individual email. At the time of
writing, we have 24 members online in the group. WhatsApp is a messaging
platform primarily for smartphone use but there is also very good web
browser connectivity to use from a home PC or laptop. Youll need to supply
a mobile number when signing up to WhatsApp and this appears to te group as
part of your identity so if youd rather keep your mobile number private,
this isnt for you.







CARC Web SDR




To help members who dont have access to an 80m radio weve added an Airspy
HF+ receiver located at Hut18, connected to the 80m dipole to the Spyserver
network. This means that members can access and tune the radio from home
using the free SDR Sharp software.



CARC 80m SDR




Download the free software here, install and configure to connect to the
CARC receiver.

Configuration is simple. Open the SDRSharp program on your computer and
follow the steps in the pictures below:




Run SDR Sharp and follow the two steps above.



Find the CARC SDR using the two steps shown above.



Click as shown to connect to the receiver.




Ive set a limit of ten connected users at any one time. The first one to
connect can tune the radio, others will be able to listen to whatever is
tuned. Give it a try.