Endeavouring to learn CW
Was thinking a couple of days ago, (but forgot about until now) that what would be great for Amateur (or even CB, PMR, etc) Radio is a BlueTooth headset.
It would have to consist of 2 parts one to fit Radio (so you could leave in bag, on desk) and the other bit being the Headset. This might be inpractical as there can be various types of connections to radios, but the headset could be universal across the range.
Well I have had my Icom IC-E90 for a few days now and battery life is pretty good so far. The Charger that comes with the Radio requires 15hrs to charge, so I may have to purchase the 2-1/2 hour desktop version very soon. As I am writing this it’s having it first charge since Christmas day, but has been charging since 2am and is now 7pm and is not complete (But that may be because the cable when I picked it up at 10am fell out so may not have been home snugly. We’ll have to wait and see.).
I have managed to program in all the CB (UK & EU) and PMR (446Mhz) channels into the memory, as well as some normal radio stations like Capital FM (95.8fm), Kiss (100fm) and Radio 1 (98.8fm). This radio has a feature that when listening to Public radio stations and TV channels (yes can get them as well) switches to a WFM mode.
My uncle will be making a cable to connect to a PC for me and then once I have the Icom software I can arrange all the channels via the computer. (Hopefully that will be easier than programming on the handset.)
On Boxing day I also caught about 5-10 minutes of a broadcast (I think they call a net) by the Sutton & Cheam Radio Society. I heard them using their Amateur Radio call signs, but either because I am not used to listening or they were said to fast I missed them.