Hello! It's been a while, I hope you're keeping well! You look great, the packets must be good for your skin!

There have been a lot of exciting changes in our network over the last months, some facilitated by the Ofcom updates to the license and some by our growing understanding through experimentation. It's an exciting time to be a packeteer!

The license has become more relaxed, allowing for greater experimentation! It's exciting it feels like allowing Intermediate license holders access to greater freedom is rapidly accelerating the growth of the network.

The changes are too great to summarise, but an important headline is the NoV Process has largely been replaced with “Frequency Allocation Certificates” which grant 5-25W and GB7/MB7 calls for unattended stations to intermediate & full license holders on many frequencies.

FACs are easy and quick to get and I strongly recommend considering applying for one if you haven't already - have a look at https://rsgb.online/etccsecureforms/self_declare1.php for more information.

The Repo at https://online-amateur-radio-club-m0ouk.github.io/oarc-packages/ has the latest G8BPQ's BPQNODE (6.0.24.33) and other helpful packet software and you might find useful - see the table at the bottom of the linked page for more, and feel free to request me any new open source packages or architectures to be added.

XROUTER by Paula G8PZQ is currently at Xr503b and available from https://groups.io/g/xrouter.

Thanks to Tom M0LTE for his continued work on the infrastructure at https://ukpacketradio.network, I particularly like to have https://nodes.ukpacketradio.network/packet-network-map.html?rfonly=1 on in the background to see propagation change through the day!

Thanks to all who are working on software - your patience and persistence is an incredibly important component of facilitating our fun.

GMPN continues to grow apace!

In the Faaar North West, we're all very excited to see GB7BPQ appear on 40m linking to GB7RDG and GB7OXF.

In the North East, GB7NRT and GB7CQV hold FACs for 2m and 70cm, and GB7HIB has an FAC for 70cm and 40m, bringing message and bulletin forwarding over RF to the subnetwork via GB7AUG and GB7IOW so far. New peers are welcome, and plans are afoot to change frequency and band through the day for different speed links.

In the central belt, GM5AUG advises that GB7AUG has a 4m port planned on 70.4875MHz. The Glasburgh Citylink from MB7NKL to GB7NDH has a high speed 70cm port under development, with an aim of up to 9k6bd!

Welcome to both MM7NSY and MM7WXT who've recently become regular fixtures on the map and congratulations to GM0BKS on establishing GB7BKS.

GB7CNR has been joined by GB7IJC and GB7DLV as a hub of connectivity around Newcastle!

I am sure they are desperate for more users to get on and play!

Nothing was received from the North West but I understand they are active on Facebook - if you're in the region and choose to access to services from Meta, take a look at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018220672883061/

Every time I look at Reading, London, Isle of Wight and the link to MB7NSC I get excited - it's a busy subnetwork down there and I'm very envious of all the connectivity you have achieved and experiments you've got going on.

Matt 2E0HKD advises:

GB7BSK is now up and running in Basingstoke, currently on 144.950 MHz FM, 1200 baud QPSK (2400 bps), NinoTNC setting: 1011. Only linked to GB7RDG at the moment, but hoping to add some more bands in time to expand reach a bit. Running BBS/mail and chat, and hoping to add some other fun and/or useful applications in time as well. It's also using BPQs APRS functionality to send a beacon to APRS-IS to show up on APRS maps with the BBS symbol, in the hopes of attracting curious APRS users. There are a few others doing this too, so if you're running BPQ think about doing the same (if you have APRS RF all the better!) If anyone needs any help setting it up you can contact Matt, 2E0HKD@GB7BSK.#48.GBR.EURO.

Jules, G0NZO advises MB7NSC added a link node on 439.950 9K6 IL2P+crc. This Links to GB7NBH over Bath/Bristol way and GB7GDT at Gillingham.

A 4mtr port (70.3125 1200bd AX25 ) is under trial to GB7RDG in Reading and GB7BDH South of Swindon. The mode may change as experiments develop.

MB7NSC is beaconing on 70.325, but shall be changed on the next site visit.

I regularly see EI9IUB connected to a lot of nodes on The Mainland on the 'high speed' frequency (7052.75kHz BPSK300 IL2P+CRC).

EI2GYB runs a node with a lot of ports but I'm yet to have connected - have any readers managed, I wonder?

Entries are open until April 30 for next month's edition. Please submit notes, comments announcements and feedback to hibby at debian.org or MM0RFN@GB7HIB.#75.GBR.EURO.

This can also be seen at https://groups.io/g/ukpacketradio/ and is where the RFSubs was originally posted.

May your deviation always be fine,

Hibby, MM0RFN

This is a non-exhaustive list of some of the things we're hoping to achieve in the near future.

• Experiment and have fun!

• Join the OARC Discord server ( https://www.oarc.uk/join ) and checkout the #national-packet-project channel
• Join the UK Packet Radio mailing list https://groups.io/g/ukpacketradio/
• See https://packet.oarc.uk for further information, tutorials etc. [As with this project, this page is a work in progress!]
• Build a node and get it on the air, or see if you can hit any of the existing nodes
• Look out for future updates to see how things are progressing