Roberts R862 Short Demonstration

 

Crystal Scanner Oscillation Fault

This is a short video demonstrating the fault I have with my Swinburne Electronics CR600

airband receiver.

Initially it only displayed this behaviour on one or two channels and it was intermittent. But now it behaves like this permanently, which makes me think that perhaps a component in the crystal oscillator part of the circuit has failed. 

When I tune to the fundamental frequency of the crystal on a handheld scanner, there is an oscillation from both sets. But the working set continues to oscillate strongly as I move the scanner several feet or so away from the crystal circuit. The faulty radio oscillates only weakly and stops doing so only a few inches away.

France ATC Sectors UAC and frequencies

For those of you living in the south of England and listening to VHF airband traffic over France I hope the above will be of some help. They are taken from the AIP for France on the 30th of December 2021 from section GEN 3.4. The AIP package is available to download for free from the SIA website but you need to create an account first and check out, even though the AIP package PDF file (approximately 1 GB) is free. 

As well as Brest UAC LFRR, there are frequencies listed for Paris, Bordeaux, and Reims. 

French ATC sector map is available here:

https://www.cypouz.com/article/150203/cartes-des-secteurs-controle-espace-aerien-civil-francais

Orion Nebula with Celestron Travelscope 70mm and Smartphone

 This is a photo of the Orion nebula taken with my Celestron 70mm Travelscope and Huawei P20 Lite. No stacking, no tracking, just a simple 2.5sec exposure. Great fun! Next project is to try to capture a moving video of the Moon and also in the autumn a planet, hopefully Saturn. If I'm lucky enough to capture the latter I shall try to use the PIPP program and Deep Sky Stacker to create a photo. 

I've seen some cool videos on YouTube of people using a budget 70 mm (and even a low-cost 60mm) to obtain photos and videos of Saturn where surprisingly the rings are discernible. 

I tried taking multiple exposures of the Orion Nebula and stacking them in DSS, but despite multiple attempts none of the final images looked half as good as the single shot taken on the camera. 

As you can probably tell I don't want to get into the hobby in too much depth, but it has been great fun to dip my feet in with budget equipment and obtain results that I have found pleasing.