EYRG.net

A question on operating etiquette and dealing with abuse will be added to syllabus section 8 and the paper will comprise 26 questions with a pass mark of 19. The text below will appear in a reprint of the Foundation Licence Now course book.

Etiquette
It is important to remember that anyone may be listening including short wave listeners considering becoming amateurs. Abuse and bad language are not part of amateur radio and on-air transmissions should always be polite and respectful. It is also worth remembering that radio has no boundaries and your remarks may be heard in other countries with different cultures and beliefs. Indeed it is in being able to talk with such people that gives amateur radio the richness it enjoys.
Sadly there are those who do seem to find entertainment in disrupting other people’s conversations, playing music and being generally abusive. This kind of behaviour has no place in amateur radio. If you do overhear such material or feel it is directed at you the important thing to remember is that you must not react or respond to it. That is often what the abuser wants you to do so they can send even more abuse. Talking to an unlicensed station is a breach of your own licence and could get you a bad name or reported to the authorities as well. Simply find another channel or frequency. If it is on a calling frequency or a repeater wait a while and see if the problem has ceased. The abuser should not even know he has been heard.
Advice on many aspects of operating and ethics can be found on the RSGB web site at www.rsgb.org/operating/. It is worth reading!
Persistent abuse can be reported to the RSGB’s Amateur Radio Observation Service (AROS) but any formal action requires good evidence, dates, times, locations and recordings and will also have to take its turn in being followed up. Obviously you must not put yourself in an awkward position but AROS operates in a strictly confidential manner...

The team at XenForo, creators of this forum software have published their first release as a finished, stable product. The upgrade has gone smoothly (as far as I can tell!) but if you have any issues you should contact me as soon as possible. Also, I have updated the forum style to include an array of colours which can be chosen by:

1. Scrolling right to the bottom
2. Click 'East Yorkshire Repeater Group'
3. A box should pop-up with all the colours available
4. Choose your colour!
5. If you don't like your choice, don't worry, just follow the same steps. (Note that the default template, blue, is the full repeater group name)

Thanks,
M0LDR

The Pontefract &DARS have been successful with their entry in the RSBB Club of the Year and will go on to the National finals to be judged shortly. As RSGB region 4 winners they pick up a handsome engraved shield sponsored by LAM Communications, and a framed Certificate. Their entry will be judged along with the other 12 regional winning entries thoughout the UK. 1st. prize is £1,000 plus the coverted RSGB Club of the Year trophy! 2nd. prize is £500 & the 3rd. prize £250. The winning clubs will be announced, along with presentations, at the RSGB AGM in Derby on Saturday 16th. April.

Before this award went National last year, the Pontefract &DARS did win the first ever RSGB region 4 Award back in 2008 and were presented with their trophy & certificate by the RSGB president Colin Thomas, G3PSM at the Newcastle AGM in April 2009. I am sure all of us in RSGB region 4 wish them the very best luck. Come on "Ponty" bring that trophy home to region 4!!

All clubs that submitted entries will also recieve a Certificate of Merit. The quality of all entries was very high.

This is the new membership form for the EYRG. All future subscriptions, updates to information and more must now be submitted using this form. This compliments a move to a digital database of our members and their information allowing us to have greater management over subscriptions and how we inform you as a group in terms of our yearly newsletter and a reminder of your subs due date.

Existing subscribers will only have to fill a form once their fees are due, however, if they have expired and you wish to renew or you are a new member to the group, the form is attached to this post.

You will need to register in order to download any document from this website.

Also: Details of the AGM and election of officers shall be posted shortly.

Thanks,
M0LDR

Hello all, I hope you are doing well.

Now the website is fully up and running, with old content almost complete (its just a matter of linking stuff at the top bar, but theres no 'easy' way to do that on this version of the software) I am now starting to add user permissions. This makes some members have higher power than others, currently its a free for all, which is not so bad with this many users.

Once permissions are in place it will be easy to distinguish between Committee members, Donators and moderators on the forum who can post where and what.

Account upgrades are also being introduced. These are paid upgrades that give you more flexibility, for example the 'Trader' account upgrade allows you to post more than two items in the marketplace.

Other upgrades allow for simple donations as well as increased power such as moderator status.
Currently you can not buy these, and are still being developed, but once available all funds go towards EYRG for the benefit of the group and not for profit or personal gain.

Please leave your suggestions for additional account upgrades through a reply, currently we have:
Donator, Trader and Moderator

Also: Thanks to the activity of the 'BBC News Feed' we are now the top ranking page in all search engine results over the East Yorkshire Ringing Group!

In other news...

After wrangling with facebook's API, you are now able to simply log in with your facebook accounts for those hip social types.
Simply logout (if you haven't already) and click log in with facebook. Don't worry if you already have an account, the system recognises this and asks for your EYRG.net account password to merge the two.

NB: You will have to allow the application EYRG.net on facebook access to your details for this to work. We do not see/collect any information from facebook, if you have any concerns over privacy involving facebook and your account in general please send me a personal message.

Today I received the following e-mail from the RSGB ETCC...

"I am pleased to tell you that we have been able to get clearance for GB3HU to become GB7HU. The Primary User has ( not without some persuading!) agreed to the mode change with no other change in parameters. I am working with Ofcom Licensing to get the paperwork sorted."

As mentioned in our newsletter, I have been in correspondence with both the RSGB Emerging Technology Coordination Committee (I did prefer the old name Repeater Management Committee) and Ofcom, regarding our D-Star Application. It appears we are at stalemate with the Primary User with regards to our application for a new Frequency Pair on 70cms.

As the time for us to complete our Lottery Funded project is rapidly running out, I have enquired if our existing NoV for GB3HU can be made “dual mode”. This means we can swap out our existing FM repeater and put the D-Star in its place on the same site and retain the option of reverting it back to FM when our Application finally goes ahead.

Once we have an NoV in our hands we can finally place our order with Icom for a D-Star Repeater. However, there are still some technical issues to resolve: Firstly the UHF D-Star Repeaters are designed to operate with a 9MHz split and single antenna, we can use the filters from GB3HU but this is an unknown quantity. Secondly, our site at Weedley does not have an Internet connection and I am currently investigating the use of a 3G mobile router provided by Clive G3GJA.

GB3HS has developed an intermittent fault with the repeater going offline – I have bought a text-message controlled relay board that can be used to remotely reset the repeater, thus avoiding the need for site visits but don’t have the time to install it at present.

I would like to note that despite the return of the deliberate interference on GB3HS that activity has started to return. During the respite following the court case, our repeater was once again used as a lifeline for Yorks / Lincs 4x4 Response Group during the snowfall in early December.

A recent QSO with those in South Yorkshire involved in emergency communications tells a different story: Other Response Groups are turning to Business Radio to avoid the problems we are encountering with GB3HS and the politics associated with a well known Network…

Many thanks to all that attended the EYRG AGM at the Hull &DARS on Thursday evening (24th. Feb). Thanks again should also go to our hosts, the Hull &DARS for the use of their clubhouse. Thanks also to the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), the RSGB region 4 management team, the EYRG committee & the Hull &DARS for the raffle prizes and their valued support. I do hope that the evening was enjoyed by all, but more importantly was informative. As the EYRG Chairman I would like to welcome our new members, and thank our existing members for their continued support. Your comments and veiws are always welcomed to help us to improve your service. Also a warm welcome to our 2 new committee members, Tony & Phil who I do hope will enjoy their time on the EYRG committee. We look forward to working with them very soon.

The Northern Cross Radio Rally (Wakefield) is on Sunday 13th. February 2011 at the Thornes Park Athletics Stadium — A642 Horbury Road, Wakefield WF2 8TY, West Yorkshire — First rally of the year 2011 in Yorkshire. Easy access from the Motorway network. Ample parking on site. Dealers on ground floor, good disabled access.Bring & Buy — booking-in from 10:15am. Refreshment facilities. Miniature steam railway in afternoon (weather permitting!). Doors open 10:30am — disabled access 10:15am. Admission charge £3.00. Visit website: www.northerncrossrally.org