Joined the Macedon Ranges Amateur Radio Club 80m net over wifi and bluetooth

It's 7C in the shack tonight so I decided to set up the IC-705 and use it remote from the warmth of the house. The client software on macOS is SDR-Control and I was using AirPods bluetooth headphones.

Even running just 10W reports were all good although Graeme, VK3NE, mentioned a bit of boomy audio.

The main issue is the delay when switching between receive and transmit - I doubled with other stations several times. It was mentioned that my final words of an over were chopped off so I think that I need to not switch back to receive for a few seconds after ending what I was saying - perhaps there's an audio buffer to send.

The IC-705 is an amazing radio and it's great that 10W with a good antenna is enough to be easily heard by other stations. Joe, VK3MAB mentioned that I was 10dB over S9.

You can join the MRARC nets if you are in Victoria, Australia too!

SwiftUI Charts to monitor power generation and use

We have 6kW of solar panels here but it's important to know when the sun is shining on them so I can use that power to charge the car or dry clothes. In recent months I've been learning Apple's SwiftUI and one of the gems is the new Charts View. Here's how it looks:

This wonderful chart is created with very little code:

Chart {

                ForEach(model.netHistory) { sample in

                    LineMark(

                        x: .value("time", sample.id),

                        y: .value("Generating", sample.generating)

                    )

                    .foregroundStyle(by: .value("", "Generating"))

                    .interpolationMethod(.catmullRom)

                    

                    LineMark(

                        x: .value("time", sample.id),

                        y: .value("Using", -sample.using)

                    )

                    .foregroundStyle(by: .value("", "Using"))

                    .interpolationMethod(.catmullRom)

                    

                    BarMark(

                        x: .value("time", sample.id),

                        y: .value("Net", sample.net)

                    )

                    .foregroundStyle(by: .value("", "Net"))

                    

                }

                

            }

            .chartForegroundStyleScale(domain: ["Generating", "Using", "Net"], range: [.green, .orange, .blue])

ABC Friends (Southern Bayside Victoria) event at Brighton

It was a pleasure to assist at an event organised by ABC Friends - southern bayside. The topic being discussed was "The ABC Past, Present and Future" and hundreds of people turned up on a cold and somewhat damp evening.

Great to catch up with Zoe Daniel and Dr Gael Jennings. Good to meet John Faine for the first time.

The discussion was wide ranging and animated. It's great to see the deep love for the ABC from the community. ABC Alumni support the wonderful efforts of ABC Friends.

Volunteered at GovHack 2023

After competing in GovHack in 2017 I became heavily involved as a volunteer for a few years. After a break and a move to Melbourne I volunteered to help with GovHack in Victoria.

GovHack encourages software projects that make use of open government data. It's a wonderful contest that lets teams come together and do a quick project in one weekend.

I was tasked with taking photos and enjoyed the challenge of photographing groups.

As a volunteer it was a tiring weekend, I'm not used to standing up for long periods and talking to lots of people. Overall, very rewarding and I look forward to the state and national awards ceremonies in the months ahead.