W ell folks this must have been about the busiest

month that I have encountered for a long time not just with radio club activities but my work as well. From the club point of view we have once again had another suc-cessful Junk Night and I must thank everyone who helped, do-nated refreshments and raffle prizes. A fuller report can be found later in the newsletter. Still to come as I write this is Light-house Weekend and a proposed second visit to the Blue Circle Quarry at Dunbar plus the possi-bility of a look over the Dunbar Lifeboat. The last two are still un-der negotiation with regard to set-ting up final dates but as soon as they are settled I will let everyone know. Lastly from a personal point of view I have started another Novice Course. This month is a relatively quiet month with the only planned ac-tivity being the trip to Leicester. There are several club members attending the Leicester rally on Fri-day 21st September at Castle Don-ington and if you haven’t been be-

fore it is definitely a rally worth at-tending. I have started to organise the Christmas Night out so please see later in the newsletter for full de-tails and let me know as soon as possible if you are going. This year I must say now, that I will need the full money up front by November Club Night so your help would be greatly appreciated. My hobbyhorse this month is lack of responses from members to re-quests that are put out. It is diffi-cult enough trying to keep the club running at full tilt but is made harder by the lack of responses. What I mean is that I look for ideas, require feedback on issues, etc and what do I get. The answer virtually nothing. All that I ask is if I put out a query no matter what you at least respond, even if it a simple Yes or No then at least I know that you have looked at whatever it is. Enjoy this month’s newsletter. Bob GM4UYZ

Volume 9 Issue 9

September 2001

COCKENZIE & PORT SETON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

editorial

Club newsletter

Junk Night 2

HF Report 3

Events Column 4

Night Out 5

Contest Report 6

VHF / UHF Report 7

Lighthouses 9

Club Accounts 10

Contesting from 12

Contest Calendar 13

MM0CCC wedding 15

HF Field Day 17

Club memorabilia 18

Inside this issue:

Special points of interest:

• Lighthouses Weekend

• Club Accounts

• Christmas!

• IOTA & HF Field Day

• Contesting Caravan

P A G E 2

Junk night

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

O nce again we were blessed with a beautiful night for our Eighth Annual Junk Night.

The number of people attending this year saw an-other small increase to 168 from 2000's Junk Night where a 157 came along, so hopefully the trend will continue to stay in the upward direc-tion. I must admit looking around the hall this year it certainly did seem a great deal busier than it did last year, I don't know if it was because peo-ple stayed longer or not but whatever the reason was it was great to see. This year I received sev-eral compliments about our Junk Night like “Great Venue”, “Tremendous Friendly Atmos-phere”, “This is what Rallies used to be like, great”, “Wish there was something like this in the West of Scotland” and “Well run night congratulations to you all, keep it up”. Once again Bill & Betty of Jaycee and Rose & Nor-rie of Tennamast continued to give us their sup-port on the evening. I am most grateful to them, the Thorntree Inn (kindly donated for the sup-port that we give them over the year) and to every one else for their donations to our Raffle. Before the raffle was drawn Heather Gregory of

the British Heart Foundation thanked us for our continuing support for them. The actual figure that we raised on the night was £758.85. This added to what we had raised before Junk Night gives us a grand total of £1610.10, which has now been donated to the British Heart Founda-tion. Thanks goes to everyone for all the effort put in to raise the money as it really is going to a tre-mendous cause. For your information since we started we have now raised a grand total of £6920.10, not bad for a “wee” radio club. Lastly I would like to say a personal thanks to eve-ryone who helped put the Junk Night together. To Sylvia 2M1FMX ensuring that no one will pass at the door and also selling the raffle tickets. To Yvonne, Liz, Gabriella and Rose who worked hard behind the refreshments counter and lastly to everyone who handed in food or raffle prizes. Without this sort of help this type of event would never happen. So again thanks. WELL DONE EVERYONE FOR A VERY SUCCESS-FUL JUNK NIGHT AND FUND RAISING YEAR! Bob GM4UYZ

TOTAL MONEY DONATED TO BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £6,920.10

Account Year Description Value Year Total

Year 1993/1994 Money left from Bunny's Wreath Collection £50.00 Year 1993/1994 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £220.00 £270.00 Year 1994/1995 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £473.00 £473.00 Year 1995/1996 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £727.00 £727.00 Year 1996/1997 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £1,190.00 £1,190.00 Year 1997/1998 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £873.00 £873.00 Year 1998/1999 Donation Cheque Malcolm McLennan F5VBU £25.00 Year 1998/1999 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £961.00 £986.00 Year 1999/2000 Donation Cheque Malcolm McLennan F5VBU £25.00 Year 1999/2000 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £766.00 £791.00 Year 2000/2001 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £70.00 Year 2000/2001 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £1,540.10 £1,610.10

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Crete(SV9), Iceland(TF), Mexico(XE), Nicaragua(YN), El Salvador(YS), Gibraltar(ZB2), British Bases Cyprus(ZC4); 28MHz : Uruguay(CX), Mongolia(JT). The final HF report this month comes from Brian M5BAP who, having missed last month's deadline includes 2 months worth this time. Like all of us he has been busy with other things (contests, holidays etc) but he still managed to add a few to his score. Brian says "not a great deal to report exciting DX wise", however his highlights still in-clude India(VU), Brazil(PY), Kuwait(9K) and Jor-dan(JY) on 20m with the only addition on 10m being Indonesia(YC). Sounds exciting enough to me Brian! Colin GM0CLN

G M4WLL adds a few more to his 14MHz and 21MHz data totals this month. The activity,

which I presume is still on RTTY, has netted the following new ones… 14MHz : European Russia(UA1); 21MHz : Georgia(4L), Panama(HP), Italy(I), Argentina(LU). At GM0CLN it has once more been a relatively quiet month on the HF bands (mainly due to club contesting activities). I did manage a few SSB ad-ditions though. They are… 7MHz : Denmark(OZ); 14MHz : Germany(DL), Denmark(OZ), Bra-zil(PY), Sweden(SM), European Russia(UA1); 21MHz : Nevis(V4). Next we have the first report since April from Kent ON9CLV(SM0ELV). He has been pretty busy again and also entered the IOTA Contest from Estonia. He says "I did OK during the IOTA weekend worked about 500 QSOs with my sim-ple equipment. It was so hot so I did spend a lot of time on the beach too"…..alright for some eh! On the domestic front Kent adds a good number of new ones to his score. This time around the best of the bunch are… 7MHz : Georgia(4L), West Malaysia(9M), Liechtenstein(HB0), South Korea(HL), Aland Is(OH0), Crete(SV9), Macedonia(Z3); 14MHz : Kyrghyzstan(EX), Liechtenstein(HB0), Sardinia(IS), Japan(JA), Crete(SV9), Turkey(TA), Albania(ZA); 18MHz : Guinea-Bissau(J5), Aruba(P4); 21MHz : Cuba(CO), Azores(CU), Canary Is(EA), French Guiana(FY), Dominican Republic(HI), Thailand(HS), Japan(JA), Jordan(JY), Brazil(PY),

P A G E 3

Hf report

HF Report As Of 21 August 2001HF Report As Of 21 August 2001HF Report As Of 21 August 2001HF Report As Of 21 August 2001

B a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l s 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 7 7 7 7 10 10 10 10 14 14 14 14 18 18 18 18 21 21 21 21 24 24 24 24 TOTALSTOTALSTOTALSTOTALS

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PHPHPHPH CWCWCWCW DATDATDATDAT

GM0CLN 1 0 0 3 2 0 3 12 0 12 0 13 3 0 3 7 0 3 1 0 2 4 0 2 3 0 30 44 0 GM4UYZ 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 9 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 22 5 0 GM4WLL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42 M0BEX 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 2 7 6 6 M5BAP 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 9 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 0 0 37 0 16 MM0AMV 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 8 42 15 0 0 4 0 14 0 0 1 1 0 0 26 8 57 ON9CLV 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 35 0 5 0 29 22 0 0 8 0 26 31 0 0 2 0 13 18 0 84 121 0

Totals are the number of Phone (P), CW (C) and Data (D) DXCC countries worked on each band.

28 28 28 28

P A G E 4

EVENTs COLUMN

DateDateDateDate TimeTimeTimeTime EventEventEventEvent ContactContactContactContact TelephoneTelephoneTelephoneTelephone 07-Sep-01 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723 21-Sep-01

and 22-Sep-01

9.30am to

5.30pm (Fri) 5.00pm (Sat)

Leicester Amateur Radio Show, Donnington Park 1 Day Ticket : £3 (or £2 concession for OAP/Under 16) 2 Day Ticket : £5 (or £4 concession for OAP/Under 16) Contact Bob GM4UYZ for details of club member atten-dance Further detailed info at www.lars.org.uk

Geoff G4AFJ 01455 823344

05-Oct-01 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723 12-Oct-01

to 14-Oct-01

? RSGB International HF & IOTA Convention See http://www.rsgb.org/hfc2001/index.htm for further info about this event.

? 07809 047373

13-Oct-01 ? Moray Firth ARS Autumn Sale Geoff MM5AHO 19-Oct-01 7.30-9.30pm C&PS ARC Video Night in Port Seton Community Centre

Meeting Room (upstairs). Videos are…“WINNING ON THE HILL” and “SECRET LIFE OF RADIO”. Entry £1

Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

28-Oct-01 11am Galashiels and District ARS Rally, Volunteer Hall, St Johns Street, Galashiels. Entry £2. You can find more info at www.gm7lun.freeserve.co.uk

Jim GM7LUN 01896 850245

02-Nov-01 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723 10-Nov-01 ? GMDX Group Convention & Dinner in the King Robert

Hotel, Stirling, (Tel. No. 01789 811666). It is hoped to have speakers from D68C, 3B6RF and ZD7K Expeditions plus an IOSA talk by Charles GM0OMC. A very popular event so book your hotel rooms ASAP if you wish to stay overnight. When booking mention the GMDX Conven-tion for special rates. The afternoon convention is £7.00 and the Evening Dinner £16… not sure about rooms though!

? ?

11-Nov-01 ? South Yorkshire Repeater Group, Great Northern Hamfest Ernie G4LUE 01226 716 339 16-Nov-01 7.30-9.30pm C&PS ARC Talk “RNLI LIFEBOAT TALES” by Landles Fair-

bairn GM4XZZ (Ex-Dunbar Lifeboat Crew Member) Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Room 2, Entry £1

Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

»»»» 25-Nov-01 ? Bishop Auckland RAC Rally Mark G0GFG Brian G7OCK

01388 745353 01388 762678

01-Dec-01 7.30pm to

1.00am

C&PS ARC Christmas Meal and Disco at the Woodside Hotel Musselburgh. Cost £25 each. Please confirm your attendance & give Bob your money now as non-refundable deposits of £10 per person have to be paid by 8th September!

Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

07-Dec-01 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723 »»»» 11-Dec-01 ? Kilmarnock & Loudoun ARC Bright Sparks Social Night Gordon

MM0BIM ?

»»»» 17-Mar-02

? Norbreck Rally, Norbreck Hotel, Blackpool. More info at http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/ (Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)

? ?

»»»» 13-Apr-02 and

14-Apr-02

? RSGB Spring Radio & Computer Show (Incorporating RSGB National VHF Convention)

Jan 0870 904 7377

07-Dec-01 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723 »»»» 11-Dec-01 ? Kilmarnock & Loudoun ARC Bright Sparks Social Night Gordon

MM0BIM ?

T hings are starting to get a bit quieter again with the summer busy season now behind us. The main events in the next few months are all shows and conventions. I have included the main de-

tails for each but if extra info is required then you could use either the contact numbers or web page links below. Here is the latest list…..

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

Y es believe it or not my thoughts have now turned to thinking about our Christmas

Night out. Yes it seems ages away but regarding the number of club nights left it only counts for 3. Right seeing that last years visit to the Woodside Hotel in Musselburgh was deemed a success I have provisionally booked one of the "CHRISTMAS PARTY NIGHTS" for Saturday the 1st December. Yes—we have moved it to overcome anyone who may want to take part in CQWW CW, so hopefully those who missed last year will go this year! The Christmas Party Night will be held in the main hall at the hotel and we will be sharing with other parties, so hopefully will increase the whole party spirit. Full details are as follows:

The question do you want to go and if so can you let me know as soon as possible and I mean soon!. I need to confirm the booking by 8th SEPTEMBER. If you do want to go I would appreciate the money paid early as you will notice it has to be paid to the hotel in full 3 weeks in advance for the function. Thanks. So can you let me know ASAP with a YES or a NO so I can mark off who has responded to this article and who I still need to contact. Bob GM4UYZ

CHRISTMAS NIGHT OUT

P A G E 5 C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

CHRISTMAS PARTY NIGHTS

7 for 7:30pm till 01:00 am Fri & Sat.

With Christmas 'around the corner' why not come along

and enjoy our succulent dinner, and dance the night away

to our Disco to suit all ages.

Cost: Friday & Saturday £25.00 per person.

Christmas Party Night Menu

Prawn Platter Marie Rose

Deep Fried Mushroom Garlic Mayonnaise

Chef's Lentil Soup

####################

Roast Rib of Beef Chasseur

Roast Norfolk Turkey with Chipolata Sausage & Bacon &

Chestnut Stuffing

Filo Basket filled with Vegetable Stir Fry served with Rice

& Honey & Ginger

Honey Roast Ham and Seasonal Salad

####################

Chocolate Rum Log

Christmas Pudding and Brandy Sauce

Sherry Trifle

Cheese and Biscuits

####################

Coffee or Tea and After Dinner Mints

£10:00 non-refundable deposit. Balance to be paid 3

weeks prior to function

P A G E 6 V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

Contest Table As Of 21 AUGUST 2001Contest Table As Of 21 AUGUST 2001Contest Table As Of 21 AUGUST 2001Contest Table As Of 21 AUGUST 2001 B a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l s 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 7 7 7 7 14 14 14 14 21 21 21 21 TOTALSTOTALSTOTALSTOTALS

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PHPHPHPH CWCWCWCW DATDATDATDAT

GM0CLN 0 6 0 5 16 0 1 37 0 2 24 0 2 21 0 6 16 0 16 120 0 GM2T 0 0 0 22 9 0 42 31 0 83 55 0 72 30 0 42 9 0 261 134 0 GM4UYZ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 22 0 0 8 0 0 54 0 0 GM4WLL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 36 7 5 19 0 0 0 7 7 55 M0BEX 0 0 0 3 3 1 0 0 29 0 31 34 2 0 20 0 0 29 5 34 113 M5BAP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 6 0 0 MM0CCC 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 MM0CPS 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 ON9CLV 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 4 3 0

Totals are the number of Phone (P), CW (C) and Data (D) DXCC countries worked on each band.

28 28 28 28

VHF / UHF Report

CONTEST REPORT

A session in the IOTA contest and some more data activity has increased GM4WLL's tally

again. During IOTA David added the following… 14MHz : Turkey(TA), Asiatic Russia(UA9); 21MHz : Germany(DL), Canary Is(EA8), Kyrghyzstan(EX), England(G), Hungary(HA), Japan(JA), Jordan(JY), Austria(OE), Aland Is(OH0), Turkey(TA), Asiatic Rus-sia(UA9), U.S.A.(W). The new data ones were Bul-garia(LZ), Canada(VE) and Macedonia(Z3) on 14MHz while on 21MHz David managed to catch Spain(EA), Kyrghyzstan(EX), Czech Republic(OK), Brazil(PY), Latvia(YL) and Romania(YO). A new addition to Contest Report this month is GM2T. I have included the club's QSOs from the IARU (20m only) and IOTA (10m-80m) contests to

see how a contest station compares to the rest of us plodding away at home. With opening scores of 134 on CW and 261 on SSB, from only 2 con-tests, I'm sure you will agree that there is quite a difference. The CPSARC 10m Contest provided the only addi-tions in this category for Brian M5BAP. He was only QRV for about one and a half hours but still managed 10 QSOs with stations in Germany(DL), Italy(I), Finland(OH), Slovenia(S5), Sweden(SM) and Poland(SP), all of which were new ones this year. Colin GM0CLN

T he first VHF/UHF submission of the year from David GM4WLL this time. It includes "a bit of

2m, some 4m from the Trophy contest AND SOME 23CM DX!!!!" (which sadly isn't included in the Ta-bles!). First of all I'll deal with David's 23cm activity which I feel deserves a mention. He had his full 23cm set-up with him during the 70MHz Trophy Contest and (on 23cm) managed to work G4BRK at 460kms as well as G0EHV at 120kms and G1LPS at 140kms. So, as David says, "me a happy bunny!" However, he also adds "mind you, putting my 23cm monster yagi up to 35 feet with the pump-

up mast is NOT for the faint-hearted!" In the 70MHz Trophy Contest itself David managed a new all time square and country in the form of EI3IO in IO63. He also heard S53DI off and on right through the contest but couldn't raise him. David's 144MHz activity was from a public view-point in IO76 for another contest earlier in the year and he has also managed to squeeze in a 432MHz QSO. His VHF/UHF additions are therefore… 70MHz : Eire(IO63), England(IO81, IO82, IO91,

(Continued on page 7)

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R P A G E 7

VHF/UHF Table As Of 21 August 2001VHF/UHF Table As Of 21 August 2001VHF/UHF Table As Of 21 August 2001VHF/UHF Table As Of 21 August 2001 50MHz50MHz50MHz50MHz 70MHz70MHz70MHz70MHz 144MHz144MHz144MHz144MHz 432MHz432MHz432MHz432MHz DXCCDXCCDXCCDXCC SquareSquareSquareSquare GrandGrandGrandGrand

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS TotalTotalTotalTotal TotalTotalTotalTotal TotalTotalTotalTotal

GM0CLN 4Y20 22 61 1C20 0 0 14Y100 15 62 - 0 0 37 123 160 GM4UYZ - 0 0 4Y10 0 0 4Q100 1 2 18Y10 1 1 2 3 5 GM4WLL - 0 0 6Y160 5 13 8Y200 7 13 21Y100 1 1 13 27 40 M5BAP 1G100 16 39 - 0 0 4Y100 0 0 - 0 0 16 39 55

Totals are the number of DXCC countries (C) and Maidenhead locator squares (S) worked on each band.

ON9CLV 5Y30 32 135 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 32 135 167 MM0CCC 3Y100 0 0 3Y10 0 0 10Y100 4 9 - 0 0 4 9 13

(Continued from page 6) IO92, IO93, IO94, JO01, JO03), Isle Of Man(IO74), Scotland(IO85, IO86), Wales(IO73); 144MHz : Eire(IO63), England(IO80, IO81, IO83, IO91, IO92, IO93, JO01), Isle Of Man(IO74), Northern Ireland(IO74), Scotland(IO75, IO85), Guernsey(IN89), Wales(IO73); 432MHz : Scotland(IO85). There hasn't been a lot of activity from GM0CLN in the past month but I have been lucky enough to catch some more sporadic-E on 6m and an aurora, on both CW and SSB, on 2m. These events have resulted in a new country and 4 more squares on 6m while the 2m aurora helped me add a further 3 squares to my total. Sadly there were several tasty got-aways in the aurora too. I heard/called GM4ODA/P in IP90(Shetland) and SM0NKZ(JO99) without success on 2m while I also heard/called GM7PBB and GM0EFT on 6m with the same out-come. On 6m my failures were not really surpris-ing though as my indoor 6m yagi points South East towards Italy…. hardly ideal for a North East-erly aurora! In the end I added the following squares… 50MHz : IN51(CT), JN38(F), JO45(OZ), JO53(DL); 144MHz : IO77(GM), JO38(LA), JO48(LA). One interesting point about the aurora on 144MHz was the doppler shift introduced. When calling CQ on SSB you had to listen approximately 1.2kHz higher in frequency for the other stations to be readable! Kent ON9CLV (SM0ELV) joins the VHF fray in grand style this month with a big 50MHz total. When we received his last report, back in April, the Sporadic-E season on 50MHz hadn't quite started

but you can see that Kent has taken full advantage of many openings to obtain his total of 135 squares in 32 countries. I wont list all of his squares, as it would take too long and would probably bore the pants off most of you, but his countries are… Croatia(9A), Malta(9H), Morocco(CN), Portugal(CT), Germany(DL), Spain(EA), Bale-aric Is(EA6), Eire(EI), Estonia(ES), France(F), Eng-land(G), Scotland(GM), Italy(I), Sardinia(IS), Norway(LA), Bulgaria(LZ), Austria(OE), Finland(OH), Aland Is(OH0), Slovakia(OM), Belgium(ON), Faroe Is(OY), Denmark(OZ), Netherlands(PA), Slovenia(S5), Swe-den(SM), Poland(SP), Bosnia(T9), Ukraine(UR), Lat-via(YL), Romania(YO) and Yugoslavia(YU). Pretty good going for a 5 element yagi and 30W! I guess that's why they call 50MHz "The Magic Band". Last of all was Brian M5BAP who comments that on the VHF front he "had a field day on 16/17 (not sure if that was July or August - CLN) on 6m and racked up a few new squares for the collection". Brian has 17 new squares to add. His new coun-tries were Portugal(CT), Spain(EA), Switzerland(HB9), Norway(LA), Austria(OE), Sweden(SM) and Poland(SP). This brought the 50MHz Country total at M5BAP up to 16. Finally, can I please have your HF, Contest and VHF reports for the October Newsletter by mid-night on Tuesday 18th September at the latest. See you all soon. 73 Colin GM0CLN

Vhf / uhf REPORT

2. Kenwood TM702 dual band mobile (with minor display fault) £150

3. Target HF receiver £75

If you are interested in any of these items drop me a line at gm7olq@cpsarc.com. All the items can be seen working on request.

John Innes GM7OLQ

For those who are interested, the new PC is a 1.2GHz Athlon on an ASUS motherboard with 256Mb RAM, 20Gb hard drive, 32Mb GeForce video card. Boy it’s fast!

D ue to a PC upgrade I have a number of PC related items for sale.

1. AMD k6-2 450MHz on an ASUS P5-A (AT) motherboard with 128Mb RAM and a Fu-jitsu 6Gb Hard drive. ATI video card and Soundblaster 128PCI sound card. AT Key-board. MIDI tower £200

2. ISA parallel port £10

3. PCI USB controller £20

4. Logitech Wheelmouse £10

5. Opticpro 9630p scanner £25

6. Apollo P1200 inkjet printer with new colour cartridge £30

I still have some of my radios up for sale too

1. ADI AT200 2m handy (takes dry cells) £100

for CLUB EVENTS, nothing else. With that in mind, is anyone out there prepared to assist with the work that will need to be done? The caravan will probably reside near Colding-ham Moor, on a farm owned by a friend of Landles. If/when we work on it, it can be brought back to a more suitable location. If/when we decide to go ahead with this, we can discuss fixtures/fittings soon after. We might need to buy some items but I'm sure that be-tween us, there will be wood etc that we can do-nate to the cause. Note: If do decide to go for it, we will need to move fast, as the caravan will be lifted by the local council soon. I will count 4 or more replies (including myself) as sufficient to take this forward, but again please remember that time is of the essence. John MM0CCC

M ost of you will have heard recently via Derek that we have the chance of a cara-

van for free. Robert and myself have just been down to see it and there are some good points, and some bad. Good points are : Outside, it's in pretty good condition, and appears structurally sound. It's double glazed (perspex). Fridge, gas boiler, gas container, sink, oven etc. Bad points : It needs a SERIOUS clean. The inside wall linings need replaced in most parts. Some wooden frame structures within, need removed/replaced. In summary, a large part of the inside of the cara-van needs gutted, however as the intention is to use it purely as a radio shack, that would have happened anyway. This is where YOU come in. I do not want to em-bark on any restoration on my own, and besides, the caravan will be for use by CLUB MEMBERS,

P A G E 8

For sale

Contesting caravan

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

great to see. The real surprise was that of Caroline 2M1HVR who after about 5 minutes was han-dling pile-ups like and “old” hand. From Caroline’s point of view this was tremendous as she is totally blind in one eye with, very much reduced visibility in the other so managing to keep notes and run a pile-up at the same time took some effort. A huge help and thanks goes out to Robert MM0ANT who logged for her as well as keeping her right. To prove that she enjoyed it that much she had to be dragged of the mike to get her lift home.—Caroline well done. This year we had a large number of visitors on the Saturday which was absolutely great to see and thanks to all who came as it makes the effort all that more worthwhile. Sunday we only had one visitor but I put that down to the terrible weather. Talking about the weather we at least managed to get our barbeque in on the Saturday evening before the heavens opened up and it stayed that way for the rest of the event. As well as the operating we certainly managed a very sociable Saturday evening. At the end of the day that is what the event is all about, putting on a station having a rag-chew and having a socia-ble time as well. In summary it proved to be another great week-end, newer operators got chance to enhance their skills, we made lots of contacts and had a few beers, so roll on next year! Bob GM4UYZ LIGHTHOUSE COUNTRY LOCATION EI/GI3VFW Eire Malin Head, County Donegal GB0BMB England Beaulieu Millenium Beacon GB0PBL England Portland Bill GB2BL England Bamburgh GB2CL Scotland Corran Point GB2LBL England Lightship Planet GB2LCL Scotland Little Cumbrae GM3TKV/P Scotland Covesea Lighthouse, Nr Lossiemouth IQ1L Italy La Lanterna, Genova IQ3V Italy Vittoria K8FGL USA Fort Gratiot LY1CM/A Lithuania Cape Vente OZ7DAL Denmark Lightship Fyrskib XXI OZ7TOM Denmark Hanstholm SK2AU Sweden Gasoren SP2WGZ/2 Poland Jastarnia TA7KB T urkey Yorez Burnu Feneri/Trabzon ZB2LGT Gibraltar Europa ZS1CT/L South Africa Green Point

S aturday and Sunday the 18th &19th August was this years now Annual Lighthouse

Weekend. Although this year it turned out to be a very damp weekend it certainly didn’t dampen the radio activity. We departed from home at 07:00 arriving on site at approximately 07:40 and then proceeded to start erecting all the necessary bits and pieces. I must add at this time, yes the weather was kind to us with even the sun out and not a breath of wind. This year for what ever reason we certainly seemed to be slow in getting on the air but never the less our first QSO was with HA5VW on PSK31 at 10:07 BST. This year Ron GM0NTL experimented with PSK31 as well as the normal SSB QSO’s. It turned out cer-tainly to be very worthwhile as those on site and our visiting amateurs showed lots of interest in the mode. Thanks Ron for all your efforts. The predominant band worked this year was 20 metres purely because the rest of the bands were absolutely useless. Even the lower bands 80M (nobody on the band at all) and 40M we just couldn’t find a space on the Saturday, luckily we got in early on the Sunday to claim a spot. Even at that 40M was showing very strange skip condi-tions with one minute very short then the next very long. As mentioned earlier 20M proved to be the mainstay band and it managed to produce a steady stream of contacts over the two days. Our set up was: Located in the Tent. PSK31 Station - FT1000MP using a Butternut Ver-tical. Station 1 – FT1000MP + Alpha Linear at 400W using a 3 Element Cushcraft up at 60 feet. Located in the Caravan Station 2 – Kenwood 690 using a Butternut Verti-cal. Logging done using the NA software. Number of QSO’s in total 604. Number of Lighthouses worked worldwide = 20 This year it really was great to see some of the novices taking a real active part in operating. Derek 2M1IBG still a bit nervous on the mike to start with but as the time progressed it showed less and less, (keep it up Derek you are doing well). Willie 2M1IBF operated like an old hand,

P A G E 9

LIGHTHOUSE WEEKEND 2001

P A G E 1 0

Club accounts 2000 / 2001

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001 BRITISH HEART FOUNDATIONBRITISH HEART FOUNDATIONBRITISH HEART FOUNDATIONBRITISH HEART FOUNDATION

DateDateDateDate ActionActionActionAction IncomeIncomeIncomeIncome ExpenditureExpenditureExpenditureExpenditure 24/08/00 Money Raised -- Visit to Blue Circle Quarry £18.00 30/08/00 Money Raised -- First Aid Training £187.20 30/08/00 Hire of the Room -- First Aid Training £14.20 04/09/00 Invoice for First Aid Training £165.00 06/10/00 Donation Jim GM7LUN ex-PMR Radios £50.00 06/10/00 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £50.00 20/10/00 Hire of Room - Video Night £7.10 20/10/00 Money Raised - Video Night £13.10

14/11/00 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA £148.99 14/11/00 Expenses - Petrol to collect Ex-equipment GM4DMA £48.99 17/11/00 Hire of Room - Talk by Landles GM4XZZ £7.10

17/11/00 Money Raised - Talk by Landles GM4XZZ £11.10

01/12/00 Money Raised - Christmas Raffle £44.00 22/12/00 Donation Nicky GM3NEX/EI9CK £20.00 03/01/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £20.00

06/01/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £20.00 09/01/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £100.00 12/01/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £55.00 12/01/01 Donation Les 2M1GWV £1.00 17/01/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £30.00 02/02/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £10.00

02/02/01 Donation Kenny GM0WHM £8.00 13/02/01 Money Raised - Old Postage Stamps £11.00 16/02/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £4.00 16/02/01 Hire of Room - Radio Check Night £7.10 16/02/01 Money Raised - Radio Check Night £17.00 16/03/01 Hire of Room - Talk by Bob GM4UYZ £6.60 16/03/01 Money Raised - Talk by Bob GM4UYZ £14.00 03/04/00 Donation Gabriel 2M1IBH £2.00 06/04/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £50.00 17/04/01 Money Raised - Ex-equipment GM4DMA&GM8BZX £30.00 19/04/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £10.00 20/04/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £6.00 20/04/01 Money Raised - 10 Pin Bowling Night £14.00 21/04/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £5.00 21/04/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £10.00 22/04/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £8.00 04/05/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £20.00 04/05/01 Money Raised PSU's £35.00 04/05/01 Donation Vic GM4GGF £10.00 18/05/01 Money Raised DF Night £12.00 27/05/01 Money Raised PSU's £20.00 31/05/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £4.00 01/06/01 Donation Vic GM4GGF £10.00 01/06/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £2.00 04/06/01 Money Raised PSU's £20.00 04/06/01 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £20.00 12/06/01 Hire of Room - Stefan ON1KSZ Talk £7.50 12/06/01 Money Raised - Stefan ON1KSZ Talk £12.00 12/06/01 Money Raised PSU's £20.00 03/08/01 Money Raised Old Batteries £2.00 03/08/01 Donation Junk Night - Bob GM0BWU £10.00 04/08/01 Donation Junk Night - Mr & Mrs R Glasgow £20.00 08/08/01 Donation Junk Night - Bob GM4UYZ £9.20 10/08/01 Donation Junk Night - John M0BEX £20.00 10/08/01 Hire of Hall - Junk Night £28.75 10/08/01 Money Raised -- Junk Night £758.85 11/08/01 Donation to BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION £1,540.10 TotalTotalTotalTotal £1,902.44£1,902.44£1,902.44£1,902.44 £1,902.44£1,902.44£1,902.44£1,902.44

P A G E 1 1 C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Club accounts 2000 / 2001 Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001Year 2000/2001 CLUB EXPENDITURECLUB EXPENDITURECLUB EXPENDITURECLUB EXPENDITURE

DateDateDateDate ActionActionActionAction IncomeIncomeIncomeIncome ExpenditureExpenditureExpenditureExpenditure Notes 20/08/00 Donation Bob GM4UYZ -- MM0CPS callsign £15.00 20/08/00 Annual Renewal SSL for club Callsign MM0CPS £15.00 01/12/00 Donation Cambell MM0DXC - Club Insurance £10.00 01/12/00 Donation John MM0CCC - Club Insurance £10.00 01/12/00 Donation Bill MM0BXK - Club Insurance £1.00 05/12/00 Donation Ron GM0NTL - Club Insurance £2.00 12/01/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £30.00

23/01/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Ins (GM4UYZ

Year) £11.00

23/01/01 RSGB Affiliation £22.50 23/01/01 Club Insurance -- Public Liability £52.50

23/01/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Ins (GM4LRU

Year) £11.00

23/01/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Ins (GM0NTL

Year) £10.00

02/02/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £50.00 04/02/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Ins (MM0AMV) £3.00

12/02/01 Club Insurance -- All Risks £161.70 £98.70 borrowed from

BHF Money 02/03/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £24.00 06/04/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £23.00 04/05/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £23.00 01/06/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £20.00 06/07/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £18.00

02/08/01 Annual Renewal SSL for club Callsign MM0CPS £15.00 £5.70 borrowed from

BHF Money 03/08/01 Money Donated Club Night - Club Insurance £15.00 11/08/01 Transfer to Year 2001/2002 £9.30

TotalTotalTotalTotal £276.00£276.00£276.00£276.00 £276.00£276.00£276.00£276.00

There are two sets of figures because we keep the money raised for the Heart Foundation separate from the money raised to cover our expenses (callsigns, insurance, printing etc.)

SWR. Base-loaded trap verticals do not perform well when compared to full-size, linearly-loaded, or verticals where the traps are not at the base of the antenna. Above poor ground, elevated radials are best – above good ground the radials can lie on the surface. QSL cards QSL cards QSL cards QSL cards Here I am on my soapbox again! In the last 4 years of contesting we (the GM7V group) have had 62000 QSOs, and that means a flood of direct and bureau QSL cards. Our contest station does not want ANY of these cards – we are not applying for any awards. However, we fully appreciate that the other station may need a GM card for an award, so we do our best to reply. We have a QSL manager who does a good job, but the underlying problem is still there. I would go as far as to suggest that our hobby is a (radio) com-munication hobby, not a ‘posting pieces of cardboard’ hobby and that there really is no onus on anyone to confirm any QSO with a QSL card. However, if some-one sends you unwanted $ bills through the post, what should you do? It’s going to cost you almost as much time and money to send the money back as it is to send them a QSL card, so you send them a QSL card. We’ve tried an ‘electronic QSL’ system using a log-server on the GM7V web-pages, but at the time of writing electronic QSLs are not accepted by the DXCC desk. For an average station QSLing is not a problem, but it is a very time-consuming activity if you work a lot of stations each year. Twenty years ago a ‘contest’ QSO was not regarded as a ‘proper’ QSO and there-fore it was not usual to exchange QSL cards with a contest station – nowadays however many of the con-test stations are in rare locations, they usually are fairly easy to work, and QSLing is the norm. On the other hand, many stations would not bother calling a con-test station if there was no likelihood of receiving con-firmation of the QSO, so the contest station would lose vital QSOs/points. Some people like QSL cards – I don’t – there must be an easier way to confirm QSOs in this high-tech. 21st century! This whole issue of QSL cards merits further discussion. The next article will look in detail at the many uses of computers in a contest station. 73 Chris GM3WOJ/GM7V (e-mail : gm3woj@talk21.com)

PPPPart 7 art 7 art 7 art 7 –––– More about antennas More about antennas More about antennas More about antennas

T his is a pretty obvious statement: - antennas which are physically large work better than

smaller antennas. Of course, we are all restricted in some way or other about what size or complexity of antenna we can erect – we just have to use the best antenna possible. Almost all physically small anten-nas, whether they use electrical ‘shortening’ effects or other methods, will work, but will not match the per-formance of a full-size antenna. Similarly, multi-band antennas, whether using traps, linear-loading, etc. will work, but not as efficiently as mono-band antennas. This leads to a quandary for contest stations – should they be as efficient as possible on one band, or com-promise performance to enable multi-band operation? An ideal HF contest station would have 6 separate towers with 6 monoband antenna systems, but this is difficult to achieve. Over the years there have been various manufacturers offering ‘miraculous’ perform-ance from small radiators (usually at large prices!) – do not believe claims made by any manufacturer unless they are independently verified, quote gain figures (dBd or dBi) or, better still, do a comparison yourself, before spending any money. One design which was widely marketed in the 1960s and 70s was effectively a broom-handle with a coil wound round it, fed with a length of wire – you could have made this for 50p! (This would work quite well if the broom handle was mounted on top of a 60’ tower!) The power lost Plost in a conductor of resistance R when a current I flows is calculated by using Plost = I2 R it is therefore crucial to keep the resistance R as low as possible. Similarly, if current I can be minimised (for the same transmitted power Ptx = V I ) then power lost is reduced. In other words, a low-resistance (physically large) radiator, voltage-fed to minimise cur-rent, will be most efficient. This also shows why main-taining low-resistance joints in yagi and vertical anten-nas is crucial to ensure high efficiency. Unfortunately, voltage-feeding an antenna poses some practical prob-lems – feeding with a 50ohm coax line will need some sort of tuner/matching network, a large insulator may be required, etc. Another key principle is to ensure that the high-current point of any antenna is as high as possible above ground level. This applies especially to vertical antennas – if the base of a vertical can be raised even a few feet above ground level, the performance should improve. Another advantage of raising the base of a vertical is that the radials can be sloped down, with the angle adjusted to achieve the lowest

P A G E 1 2

Contesting - from Scotland

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

P A G E 1 3 C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Contest calendar

T here aren't any big events in the remainder of this month but I suspect that the club (or a few members)

will try the RSGB 21MHz/28MHz SSB and CW events in October. These events usually provide reasonably good conditions with a few nice prefixes to be found who are try-ing to work the UK for multipliers! Why not give it a try? Finally, the suspension on portable contesting, following the Foot & Mouth outbreak, has now been lifted (see notice

elsewhere in this issue). However, guidelines still exist un-til further notice. I would encourage you all to follow these guidelines so that we do not risk, either spreading the dis-ease, or tarnishing the name of Amateur Radio. See you soon

73 Colin GM0CLN

General Notes : (1) The club or its members plan to be active in those events shown as bold above. Full Event Rules Are Available On The Internet As Follows : RSGB HF 2001 : http://www.g4tsh.demon.co.uk/HFCC/Rules-2001/calendar.htm RSGB VHF 2001 : http://www.blacksheep.org/vhfcc/rules/01rules/frameindex.html ARRL : http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/ WAB : http://home.freeuk.net/wab/ Links to most of the other events, or their rules, can be found on the SM3CER Contest Web Page under Calendar 2001 or Calendar 2002. Start at http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/ and use the appropriate links to find the info you require

Contest Commentary

DateDateDateDate StartStartStartStart (UTC)(UTC)(UTC)(UTC)

DurationDurationDurationDuration (hrs)(hrs)(hrs)(hrs)

ContestContestContestContest Notes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & Info

12-Sep-01 19:00 2.5 144MHz UK Cumulatives 12-Sep-01 19:00 1.5 3.5MHz Slow Speed Cumulatives Max CW speed 12wpm 16-Sep-01 09:00 8 WAB 144 MHz Phone 20-Sep-01 19:00 1.5 3.5MHz Slow Speed Cumulatives Max CW speed 12wpm 23-Sep-01 09:00 4 2nd 70MHz Contest 27-Sep-01 19:00 2.5 144MHz UK Cumulatives 30-Sep-01 09:00 6 WAB 432 MHz Phone 07-Oct-01 07:00 12 21/28MHz SSB Contest21/28MHz SSB Contest21/28MHz SSB Contest21/28MHz SSB Contest 13-Oct-01 12:00 24 WAB HF Phone 19-Oct-01 19:00 2.5 144MHz UK Cumulatives 21-Oct-01 07:00 12 21/28MHz CW Contest21/28MHz CW Contest21/28MHz CW Contest21/28MHz CW Contest 21-Oct-01 09:00 4 50MHz Contest 21-Oct-01 09:00 9 WAB LF CW 27-Oct-01 00:00 48 CQWW SSB 03-Nov-01 14:00 24 144MHz Marconi CW 04-Nov-01 08:00 6 6 Hour 144MHz CW 10-Nov-01 20:00 3 1.8MHz Club Calls Contest 17-Nov-01 21:00 4 2nd 1.8MHz CW 24-Nov-01 00:00 48 CQWW CW 02-Dec-01 09:00 8 144MHz AFS 26-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cumulatives 27-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cumulatives 28-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cumulatives 29-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cumulatives 13-Jan-02 05:30 2 NRAU Baltic Contest – CW 13-Jan-02 08:00 2 NRAU Baltic Contest - SSB 20-Jan-02 00:00 24 HA DX Contest CW 26-Jan-02 06:00 36 REF Contest CW 26-Jan-02 13:00 24 UBA DX Contest SSB

T here has been some debate recently about the resumption of field day type portable operation in

RSGB contests in view of the Foot and Mouth situation. Opinions differ and while F&M has not gone away completely the outbreak appears to have reached a point at which controlled access to the countryside is acceptable, and most footpaths have been reopened. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that as of the 1st September 2001 both HF and VHF RSGB portable contests will resume. In order to minimise any risk of spreading Foot and Mouth Disease participating groups are asked to abide by the following code of practice. This code of practice will remain in force for all RSGB portable contests until further notice. • If you have handled cattle, sheep, goats or pigs

in the last 7 days please do not go portable. • When operating on private land, check that the

owner of the land is happy for you to operate from the location in line with standard practice and respect any concerns which they have over F&M prior to turning up to operate.

• Respect footpaths or rights of way still closed and the 3km controlled areas around infected premises. Do not operate inside of the 3 km con-trolled areas. These are detailed at the DEFRA site

• Do not go near, and never touch, handle or feed

livestock : - if you come across them unexpect-edly, move away slowly; if necessary re-trace your route. Do not operate in fields with animals or where animals have been present in the past 7 days.

• Do not take dogs. • Do not leave any waste food or litter. • Leave all gates as you find them. • Use disinfectant where provided. • Start your trip with clean equipment, footwear

and clothing. • Just for some more background to confirm the

tiny level of risk which contesting poses • Finally if you have any doubts about operating in

a certain area then please don't. Try and find an alternative location.

Justin Snow G4TSH Chairman HF Contests Committee Martin Platt G4XUM Chairman VHF Contests Committee

RSGB Portable Contesting To Resume

this. Eventually off we went and whilst on our way to collect Robert MM0ANT I made the re-mark "have you got your tablets?" the reply being "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", otherwise I cannot re-peat. We then picked up Robert and returned to Gladsmuir for the now infamous tablets then off to we went on our trip to Tiree. Now during the journey there is a bit of dubiety to where there it was his tablets he had forgotten or his "piece bag" as all he did was eat all the way to Oban followed by the comment " Are we not there yet?". Certainly in our car it was a laugh a minute on the way there obviously helped along by Ron sleeping in. The whole trip was certainly a great one so roll on next year. Bob GM4UYZ

"I t’s tomorrow we’re going to Tiree", the com-ment made by Ron GM0NTL when I arrived

to collect him for the IOTA contest. The story goes that I left home at 23:45 on the Thursday eve-ning, collected Ron GM4IKU then Liz 2M1GLD and then arrived at Ron GM0NTL's about 00:15. I noticed the light on so as I would normally expect Ron to just appear around the corner of the house, but alas no Ron. I then went in and knocked at the door, quietly so as not to disturb Sylvia, still no Ron, so I had to knock again, still no Ron. This time I certainly gave the door a good old knock to which appeared Ron half a sleep and in his dressing gown. On opening the door his comments were " What you doing here it is tomorrow we are going to Tiree?" to which I re-plied, "No Ron it is now". The panic set in and he then started flying about getting his bits and pieces ready, fortunately he had have prepared

P A G E 1 4

We’re leaving when?

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

Wedding Wishes Everyone at C&PS ARC would like to wish

John MM0CCC and his fiancée Janice the very best of luck for their wedding on 15th September at Gretna Green. We hope the weather is kind to

you and that you both have a wonderful time. Anyone wishing to get a glimpse of the "before"

and "after" scenes on the day could perhaps try the "Old Blacksmiths Shop" webcam at

www.gretnaweddings.com/webcam/ either side of 3.30pm!

Gretna Wedding FactsGretna Wedding FactsGretna Wedding FactsGretna Wedding Facts

1. In both 1999 and 2000, 17.4% of all Scottish marriages took place in Gretna. 2. In 2000 this 17.4% amounted to 5278 marriages! 3. Only 14% of Brides & Grooms married in Gretna last year were resident in Scotland

A Few Thoughts For John aA Few Thoughts For John aA Few Thoughts For John aA Few Thoughts For John and Janicend Janicend Janicend Janice (1) Whenever you introduce your wife to someone—introduce her as your first wife to

keep her on her toes. (2) It's said married men live longer than single men...It's not true it just seems longer. (3) Before marriage a man yearns for a woman after marriage the y is silent. (4) A good wife will stick by you through all the troubles you wouldn't have had if you

hadn't married her. (5) If you're having trouble with being a sex maniac get married it will soon taper off. (6) If a husband's words are sharp he may be trying to get a word in edgeways. (7) The penalty for bigamy is two mother-in-laws. (8) Never criticise your wife's faults. It's because of them she didn't find someone better.

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R P A G E 1 5

Band conditions didn't seem too good and it was ap-parent that due to on-load voltage drop we would have to limit the amplifier output. Too much drive power to the amp caused BIG demand on the genera-tor and the initial "mains" voltage drop was tripping the amplifier safety circuit. This was particularly no-ticeable on 40m but was just about acceptable! As a result, for the duration of the contest, it was a fine bal-ancing act between optimising output power and not tripping the amplifier. Even so, we were still at the helm of a fairly potent contest station.

The equipment in use was as follows…. Main Station FT1000MP, Alpha 91B Amplifier Cushcraft A3S Tri-bander for 10/15/20m at 60ft agl ¼ Wave 40m Vertical with elevated radials 4ft agl 80m Inverted-V Dipole supported in the centre at 60ft agl Mult Hunter Station Kenwood TS850SAT 40m Inverted-V Dipole supported in the centre at 20ft agl For the first two or three hours the work of the mult hunter station wasn't very important as the main sta-tion didn't really have much time to mult hunt. As the initial rush subsided we started swapping band more often and asking some of the rarer prefixes to QSY with us so that we could get their DXCC country on other bands. As the event progressed our band changing abilities became slicker and more profes-sional. The highlight in this respect must have been working 8P9HW from Barbados (in the last hour of the contest) initially on 10m, and thereafter, on 15m and

W ell, that's another HF SSB Field Day Contest over and done with. Today is the day after the

weekend before and I am just about awake, having had about 3hrs sleep on the Saturday night! It was very hard work, because all of the setting up and oper-ating was done by just 3 of us…. MM0CCC, GM0CLN and MM0ANT. However, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and bagged a healthy number of QSOs as well. John MM0CCC and GM0CLN left Tranent at ap-proximately 9am after raiding the local Co-op for sup-plies and headed to the usual HF site at Barns Ness. Robert MM0ANT, who was suffering from cold/flu, was to get the tower at a more leisurely pace and join us later. This turned out to be MUCH later as one of the tower's trailer tyres was flat! Fortunately Robert had a compressor in the car with him so disaster was averted! Upon arrival, we set about putting up the tent first of all and unloaded the radios, computers, chairs tables etc into it. The generator and petrol was also unloaded so that we could get access easily to all the antenna bits. With everything disgorged from the two cars the A3S tri-bander was assembled and the 80m dipole was spread out so that it was ready to go on the tower later. The 40m vertical and radials were also assembled and the antenna erected. Finally the rotator and cage was prepared and the rotator cable attached. With most of this work complete, and the equipment set up on tables in the tent, Robert arrived with the tower - just after midday! As the contest was due to start at 2pm local time we immediately began attaching antennas to the tower and completed our adjustments before hoisting the metalwork skyward. For the first time, probably ever, we didn't need to lower the tower again for the whole contest! Adjust-ments were finalised on all antennas and the com-puters were powered up by 1.40pm. Almost ready, and just in time! But WAIT! Who knows how to start the computer network? None of us had EVER set up the network before! Fortunately I had remembered my "NA User Guide" so Robert was dispatched with the guide to "fix the network" which he duly did. At T minus 15 minutes and counting Robert suggested that I switch on the mult hunter radio and get it ready. There was sudden silence… What about the mult an-tenna? While John carried out final checks and took tuning readings for his amp I ran outside with Robert to erect the mult hunter 40m dipole and its support mast. At 2pm the contest started, at 2.05pm we started and at 2.15pm the mult hunter was ready for action.

P A G E 1 6

HF SSB Field DAY

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 9

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

(no not methane!) as it picked up quite a bit. How-ever it remained manageable and we survived. At the end of the contest MM0CPS/P finished with the follow-ing…. Raw Valid Band QSOs QSOs Mults ------------------------------------------————– 80 160 159 19 40 134 134 18 20 457 452 47 15 265 261 48 10 66 66 31 ------------------------------------------————– TOTAL 1082 1072 163 ------------------------------------------————– Following a VERY rough initial log check the provi-sional MM0CPS/P score is 163 mults x 3762 points = 613206 points Many thanks to those of you who worked us (GM0NTL, M5BAP, GM3WOJ - twice), visited us (GM4WLL, MM0ANT's brother, 2M1EPK & Craig), sup-ported us with equipment (MM0DXC, GM4UYZ, GM7OLQ), spotted us on the cluster (GM3WOJ) and screamed "THE FREQUENCY IS IN USE!" at another sta-tion to help us keep our frequency (GM3WOJ - I'm sure it was you Chris - TNX!). Special thanks to Robert MM0ANT who battled through a particularly nasty cold/flue bug all weekend and without whom we wouldn't have had a tower to put the antennas on! I hope your feeling better now Robert! I believe that photos from the event will appear at www.mm0ant.co.uk in due course. 73 Colin GM0CLN

20m in quick succession. All 3 QSOs took place in less than 3 minutes to give us 3 more mults. This was the tip of the iceberg as many more stations kindly QSY'ed to other bands for us to give us new multipliers. The strangest experience of the weekend for me hap-pened on 20m at about 2.30am. The band was open-ing to the USA so having worked a few I decided to ask if someone could put a spot for us on the DX Clus-ter. At the same time I happened to mention that we were at Barns Ness Lighthouse and gave them the ap-propriate Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society reference number (SCO015) for it. Someone kindly obliged and a minute later I was deluged with stateside stations who not only wanted to work us in the contest, but who also wanted to work the Lighthouse. I had sev-eral requests for QSL info and Lighthouse details. (Sorry Bob – more QSL work!) With regular reminders given that we were at a lighthouse this torrent of sta-tions lasted at least 2 hours and produced early morn-ing QSO rates of almost 80 per hour. I think we should learn two lessons from this… (1) Don’t be afraid to ask people to spot you on the DX Cluster and (2) use ANY bait you may have to encourage people to call you. On this occasion one question and a re-minder transformed a very quiet contest period into a DX Pileup! Try it sometime – you could be surprised! Another new experience this time was operating split frequency on 40m to get stateside stations. The USA band plan does not permit SSB in our allocated 40m segment so split operation is required. On the FT1000MP this means having the sub-VFO tuned to a higher frequency (around 7.165MHz in our case) and having the main VFO on your own TX frequency. You transmit as normal but announce the frequencies you are listening on and in receive you set the radio so that you get one VFO in each ear (i.e. USA in right ear @7.200MHz and the rest in left ear on your TX fre-quency). A strange feeling but both John MM0CCC and I found it quite effective. On the visitor front it was a quiet weekend. On Satur-day my wife Susan and my son Craig joined us for about 4 hours during which time we had a BBQ. Later in the evening David GM4WLL, who had been taking part in the 144MHz Trophy Contest from near Lauder, paid us a visit and in the wee small hours (@1am ish) Roberts brother joined us for a while. The weather was generally OK. We started in our T-shirts with bright sunshine and then went to cloudy skies, rain, cloudy skies and back to sunshine again by the end of the contest. The main concern was wind

P A G E 1 7

Information

T he Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club was formed in 1984 by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ, to

help the local amateurs get to know each other. Numbers have increased steadily over the years and now average about 33. Far from being just a local club we have members coming from the Borders, Dumfries, Strathclyde and Fife. The Club meets on the first Friday of every month (Second Friday of January) in the lounge of the Thorn-tree Inn on the old Cockenzie High Street from 7pm till late. The Club is run in a very informal way, there are no fees, no real committee structure, just a group of like minded people doing something they enjoy! This does not mean that we don’t do anything, we enter (and win!) contests, train novices, run talks and video nights and hold an annual Junk Sale. The Club supports the British Heart Foundation in memory of a member who died from heart disease by do-nating the profits from events we hold, we have raised over £6,200 since 1994. The Club is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Brit-ain and holds the callsigns MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our contest entries. We also have our own internet domain name www.cpsarc.com and club mem-bers can get their own callsign@cpsarc.com email ad-dresses.

Bob Glasgow 7 Castle Terrace Port Seton East Lothian EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723 Email: gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

COCKENZIE & PORT SETON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

We’re on the web! www.cpsarc.com

Contacts General Correspondence, Novice Training, Contest en-tries — Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com HF Contests, 5wpm Morse Class — Cambell Stevenson mm0dxc@cpsarc.com VHF Contests — Colin Smith gm0cln@cpsarc.com

Newsletter, Web Site —John Innes gm7olq@cpsarc.com Email admin, Photo archive— Robert Veal mm0ant@cpsarc.com Thanks to Robert for setting aside 50Mb of his web space for the archive. [ed]

W e have a couple of items to commemorate our 2001 trip to Tiree available for club

members. Robert MM0ANT can provide copies of the team photo as a professional quality 8 x 10 print for £5.00. Email tireephoto@mm0ant.co.uk Liz 2M1GLD spend most of her time on the island with her video camera on and has produced a fine record of the whole proceedings. Copies of the 4 1/2 hour video can be obtained from John Innes at a cost of £5.00. The proceeds from the sale of these items will be included in the fund for next years trip.

Cambell and I have been discussing the idea of producing a good quality club T Shirt with the club name and callsign embroidered on it. This would only be possible if there was enough interest to order them in a reasonable quan-tity so drop me a note if you would like to have one of these unique items. John GM7OLQ (gm7olq@cpsarc.com)

IOTA and club memorabilia