The email I forwarded eve-ryone regarding OFCOM and de-regulating is quite worrying. It is not a hoax email as some people might think as it originates from the RSGB Headquarters and was sent to me under my role of being a “Deputy Re-gional Manager”. I was sup-posed to go round the club’s I am responsible for and offer it as information and discussion but to be honest I felt it was better if everyone read what I was given then there was misconception. The topic is definitely very worrying and I am sure the RSGB will get it sorted out in the long term. You may agree or disagree with the RSGB but, and I am not on a selling game, they are the only body that the “officials” will talk to, so they are our voice. Lastly, I have sent out an email and all being well there should be a copy of it in the newsletter, about the proposal to change the club night in July by one week to the 8th July due to VHF Field Day. If you have not replied can you do so by the 10th April please? So have a think about the above issue, come along to the all the events and have a great month on the radio. See you all then. Bob GM4UYZ

say is we have tried. The next event which took place was a very interesting and fascinating talk by David Dodds GM4LL on “Natural Transmitters -- Bats and Radio”. I must say a thank you for the support that you gave for this one it was greatly appreciated; all I can say is keep it up for all our other events. There was the Norbreck Rally at Blackpool where both John MM0JXI and I along with our respec-tive wife’s made the trip down on the Saturday, stayed overnight and at-tended the rally on the Sun-day before coming home. It was also nice to see other club members at the rally that had made the trip down on the actual day. To this month the only club event that is organised is the 10 Pin Bowling Night, which I am sure, will be good night of fun. I am also delivering my last Founda-tion Licence course before I take what I feel is a well deserved rest from the teach-ing front. For anyone reading this newsletter and wish to participate in any future Foundation or Intermediate Course please do not hesitate to get in touch and I will put you on the waiting lists. I am hoping, all being well, to start again possibly around the beginning of September. Lastly, for any other future events please see Ron’s Events Column.

That’s it then folks we are now in official British Sum-mer Time so we can all look forward to those long sunny lazy days where we can play at radio. Well it is a dream isn’t it! No doubt our sum-mer will be as normal, a couple of sunny days and the rest pouring with rain, but we can dream of the oppo-site can’t we. My first topic is the good news that my last batch (sounds terrible!), of 9 Inter-mediate Class students all successfully passed their exam on Wednesday 16th March. Well done to them all and I'm sure it will not be long before they will all have their new licences and enjoying all the extra fea-tures that the Intermediate Licence offers. Also on the same evening 4 students, who all self studied, sat the Advanced Exam and are patiently awaiting their re-sults. The Advanced papers are sent away to be marked and can take up to over a month for the results to be issued. I would like to wish them all the best and I hope the get the correct result. So what has gone on last month? The first event was the last construction night, and it will be the last as only three of us turned up. It looks like from the interest that has been given since we started them is that really nobody is interested in doing construction, well all I can

Editorial

Inside this issue:

Newsletter Survey Re-sults

2

Contest Calendar 5

An Australian Expedi- 6

Natural Transmitters 8

News snippets 9

Test your Knowledge 10

Aviation and Radio 11

The Future of Amateur Radio

12

Events Column 13

Special points of interest: • M0RNR on how to take ra-

dios on your honeymoon!

• Natural Transmitters

• RSGB President in Scotland

• Radio Quiz

April 2005

Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

Volume 13, Issue 4

Club Newsletter

Newsletter Survey Results

“To catch the reader's attention, place an

interesting sentence or quote from the story

here.”

Club Newsletter Page 2

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Survey carried out between January and 1st March 2005. Many thanks to everyone who responded to the survey, your input were certainly greatly appreciated. As you can see from what replies that were received that the newsletter is certainly read far and wide. From conversa-tions and emails that I have had with people over the years I certainly know that is read more than what the sur-vey actually shows but obvi-ously they cannot be in-cluded in the results ob-tained. I feel overall our newsletter is greatly received judging by ratings given and the comments made. On the comments side many thanks for your honest opinions and hopefully we can take them onboard to help deliver a hopefully better newsletter. I will add that all the opinions and comments as made are in the survey results below so you can see what exactly was said. Lastly, I know that the statement has been made numerous times before but at the end of the day it is your newsletter so hopefully all the promised “articles” or “occasional articles” will now start appearing. Thanks again for your valued re-sponses. Total Number of Replies received: 23 Replies Received from: East Lothian, Mid Lothian, West Lothian, Edinburgh, Berwickshire, France, Fife, Glasgow, Borders and Spain Number of replies who have attended a club night: 18 Number of replies who have never attended a club night: 5

Question 1 About you Everyone responded with their name, callsign and email address where applica-ble Question 2(a) How do you normally obtain your copy of the Newsletter I get it at club night 8 I download it from the web site 13 I get it from a friend 0 Other please specify By Mail 1 Didn’t fill out the section 1 Question 2(b) And if you do not download it from our website – why don’t you? I get a copy at club night 6 I can’t be bothered 0 I prefer a paper copy 1 The download takes too long 0 I don’t have internet 1 Other please specify 1 (never had a copy before) Question 3 If you have downloaded the news-letter from the web site in the past How did you find out about the web site? Via printed newsletter 1 Via club 10 Via Intermediate course 1 Via old newsletters 1 Via survey 1 Via Ohio & Pennsylvanian DX News 1 Via RSGB website 1 Via Bob GM4UYZ 1 Via CPSARC member 1 Can’t remember 2 No answer given 3

On average how many times a year do you download our newsletter (1-12)? 0 7 7 0 1 2 8 2 2 1 9 1 3 2 10 1 4 2 11 0 5 1 12 3 6 1 How long have you known about our newsletter? 1 year: 5 2-3 years 5 More than 3 years 11 Didn’t specify 2 Do you print a hard copy of our newsletter YES or NO?YES 4 NO 15 Didn’t Specify 4 If YES how many others look at it? 0 2 2 2 Didn’t Specify 19 What was their reaction?Very positive Favourable Have you told anyone about our newsletter YES or NO? YES 6 NO 13 Didn’t Specify 4 If YES how many others look at it? 2 2 Few 1 Didn’t Specify 20 What was their reaction?Very positive Not bothered as not Hams Favourable Thought it very good

(Continued on page 3)

Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

What do you think of the newsletter?

Survey Results

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 3

Question 4 How do you rate the newsletter? Poor = 1, Excellent = 5 1 0 2 0 3 2 4 8 5 8 Didn’t Specify 5 Question 5 Content of the newsletter Are you happy with its content YES or NO? YES 18 NO 1 Didn’t Specify 4 If NO what would you like to see included or removed I've only had one news letter so my views may not be that useful, so I can only com-ment on that. The contest-ing section was too long. That’s okay if you're into contesting but if you're not…..? Also, Amateur Radio in the Philippines was a bit for the 'niche market'? All the other articles were interesting. Maybe you could include stuff out of the RSGB year book or the Amateur Radio Operating Manual - you know the sort of thing, tips and tricks you experience guys know about that we “newbie’s” don't. Things that you take for granted like the QSL bureau. I thought the newsletter lay-out way good. I hope this helps. More input from club mem-bers and or readers i.e. Club member/reader's letters, questions, views, sugges-tions i.e. The attendance at club nights what was dis-cussed and who actually

attended including call signs, etc I think each copy of the newsletter is too similar to previous issues but it’s hard to come up with something else considering it’s printed every month. There may be a case at this stage to have a discussion on the way for-ward. One of my thoughts is to change it to a quarterly publication which should make the content a bit more interesting and fluid. This would also give more time to authors in preparing arti-cles etc What about a "radio knowl-edge quiz", including mod-ern, historical, and technical questions. I may be prepared to help, but I think discus-sion required with you be-fore giving it a try. This and the crossword (which I al-ways liked) could be used as a filler if need be. I would like to say that I really enjoy the newsletter, and the club site generally Question 6 Future Articles Would you like to submit articles YES or NO? YES 13 NO 6 Didn’t Specify 4 If YES how often? Monthly 0 Occasionally 13 Question 7 Any other comments or suggestions about the newsletter Thought you might like to know that if I was able to make it to the club on a regular basis I would prefer getting it at club night there’s nothing like looking at a hard copy plus it's nice

to look over it the next day after the club night, it was always something I looked forward to. I think the download version is great for people like me who can't come to the club night on a regular basis. I greatly look forward to seeing the new website; I particularly like the idea of it being more interactive where members can leave spontaneous info and mes-sages to each other. The easier you make it for peo-ple to contribute and com-municate the greater the chance that they will, I hope it sparks off many interest-ing things. When I have suitable mate-rial Newsletters are always diffi-cult to keep fresh, but you have achieved it. It is hard work to keep it topical, and you bear this well. When the Newsletter was first published, few of us were on the Internet, some were on packet radio, cell-phones non-existent but quite a lot of us actually used amateur radio for com-municating! Now, dissemination of club news can now be immediate by email as I would think almost 100% of Club mem-bers are now on-line. Conse-quently a lot of the informa-tion in the (printed) News-letter will be have been read before it has been printed so perhaps now there is less of a requirement for a monthly one.

(Continued from page 2)

(Continued on page 4)

Newsletter Survey

Intermediate Exam success

Club Newsletter Page 4

The last construction night was held on Thursday 10th March 2005 where sadly only three people turned up and

plus two apologies received for non attendance. This means that due to the lack of support I will not be

organising any more Con-struction Nights. Bob GM4UYZ

Construction Nights—no more!

Also the amount of ham radio information available on the Internet is immense. Perhaps there might be a case for a “rolling on-line” Newsletter with items being added as the need arises. But would it be looked at? So often one hears members saying that they didn’t know about an event despite their having a hard copy of the Newsletter! Anyway, just a few thoughts. Keep up the good work! Having run the social com-mittee (Aka 1 person - me) at work for 3 years now I know what a thankless task it is!

If you can think of an avia-tion article I could write I'd be willing, we occasionally still use HF comms in the aircraft, SELCAL and Stockholm Radio phone patches etc. Anyhow let me know, may take a few weeks for me to write something up. I try and read the newsletter every month. The newsletter is a good informative read. Although I stay in Glasgow and never get to visit due to working Friday nights (well Mon-Fri 5-9 actually) it’s still good to see what has been happening with the club. This is great club newsletter.

I know a lot of hard work and time is put into produc-ing this paper and I would hate to lose it. I will try and contribute something as and when possible. I have no problems at all with the newsletter, I would write you some articles on the work but that might be more hassle than it's worth! However I could write some articles on the packet, re-peater and dxcluster situa-tion down here and the links available to use. I also have various PMR conversion articles if they would be of interest. Attached - will download and look now I know about

(Continued from page 3)

In last months newsletter I had submitted an article about “How welcome you were made?” The following is from Bob GM4IKT, so thanks Bob for taking the time to submit an email on how you feel. As I said in the article I feel it is important that everyone is made welcome to the extent they want to keep on coming back so if you would like to add your “tuppence” worth then please do so and what ever you say will get pub-lished if further newsletters. Bob

In the newsletter you asked for comments re the welcome received from club members to visitors. As you are aware I came back to the hobby after many years of being QRT. I have been made very welcome by all members of the club I have come into contact with. I have taken part in a few of the clubs activities including demo stations, contesting, talks etc and have been made to feel at home by everybody. I have also witnessed at first hand the welcome given to visitors whether it is for a pint

and a natter on a Tuesday or at a club night they are in-cluded in the chat and made very welcome. I would like to express my thanks to you and all the club members. Regards Bob GM4IKT Look forward to hearing how others feel. Bob GM4UYZ

How Welcome Were you Made? - Reply

Date Start

(UTC) Dur

Hours Contest Notes & Info

02 Apr 05 15:00 24 SP DX Contest

04 Apr 05 20:00 1.5 80m Club Championship CW

13 Apr 05 20:00 1.5 80m Club Championship SSB

12 Jun 05 TBA Practical Wireless 144 MHz QRP Contest 16 Apr 05 00:00 24 Holyland Contest

21 Apr 05 20:00 1.5 80m Club Championship Data

04 Jun 05 15:00 24 RSGB National Field Day

02 Jul 05 TBA VHF FIELD DAY

30 Jul 05 12:00 24 RSGB IOTA CONTEST

Club will be taking Part from Tiree GM2T

01 Oct 05 TBA RSGB 21/28 Mhz Contest 29 Oct 05 TBA CQWW SSB Contest

10 Apr 05 09:00 3 First 70MHz Contest

24 Apr 05 19:00 2.5 First 50 MHz Contest

21 May 05 14:00 24 144 MHz May Contest

22 May 05 11:00 4 144 MHz Backpackers Contest

12 Jun 05 09:00 4 144 MHz Backpackers Contest

19 Jun 05 11:00 4 50 MHz Backpackers Contest

03 Jul 05 11:00 4 144 MHz Backpackers Contest

17 Jul 05 11:00 4 144MHz Backpackers Contest

06 Aug 05 14:00 6 144 MHz Low Power Contest

07 Aug 05 08:00 4 432 MHz Low Power Contest

General Notes : The club or its members plan/hope to be active in those events shown as bold above.

Full Event Rules Are Available On The Internet As Follows : RSGB HF : http://www.contesting.co.uk/hfcc/calendar.shtml RSGB VHF : http://www.blacksheep.org/vhfcc/index.html ARRL : http://www.arrl.org/contests/ CQ WPX : http://home.woh.rr.com/wpx/ CQWW : http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cqwwhome.html

Links to most of the other events, or their rules, can be found on the SM3CER Contest Web Page Start at http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/ and use the appropriate links to find the info you require.

Contest Calendar

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 5

Club Newsletter Page 6

or How to Take a Radio on your HONEYMOON and get away with it!! by Brian Pickup M0RNR/VK2IAC Just before our respective stag and hen days in mid September 2004 Sarah, my future wife said to Cambell MM0DXC and Bob GM4UYZ “Guess what I’m going to be doing on my honey-moon guys?” Logging! Was the tactful reply from Cambell. Now you see - that might not have been far from the truth if the propagation had been kind to us. The fact that we all fell about laughing at such a ridicu-lous proposal that I take my FT 817 portable station away on my Honeymoon to Australia, actually it turned out to be fact! Here’s how... When some of the club ven-tured to Tiree to run a founda-tion course, they took with them a Yaesu FT 817. Now as, according to Bob, GM4UYZ, I was only going for the beer, that gave me many hours to sit and play with this amazing little rig. After an afternoon on 40m running 5w into a dipole I though, “got to get one of these” so when I got back I purchased one on Ebay. It arrived on Saturday morning and I eagerly opened it to en-sure all was well. “Whats that?” asked Sarah my XYL. “Oh just a little portable rig” I replied. “What are you going to do with that then” “Well I thought it would fit in my suitcase when I’m away” meaning whilst travelling around the UK with work. “You’re not taking a radio away with you on your Honey-moon are you ?” She asked “Hmmmm now there’s an Idea,” I thought So over the next few months I’d kind of mentioned it in passing till I thought, “It’s no good I’m going to have to men-

tion it” “Do you mind if the 817 comes to Australia with us” I asked nervously half expect-ing “a radio, a bloody radio, aren’t you supposed to be giv-ing me your undivided attention on our honeymoon, telling me how much you love me, taking me to restaurants to wine and dine me, I’ll give you radio” “No darling of course I don’t” came the reply, which is what I’d come to expect from the star that she is but I must admit; I thought on my honeymoon might just have been pushing the envelope a wee bit! So off onto the Internet for some research. I already had the Yaesu FT 817 but the prob-lem with it of course is I’m not going to work much with 5w and certainly not back home at this point in the sunspot cycle. What I needed was some power, not too much, but some-thing extra. That’s where the RM electronics KL203 amp comes in. 20w drive gives you 200w out on all HF bands on SSB and as I had 5 watts I was expecting about 50w. The next consideration is weight, you see we were holi-daying for 3 weeks, 2 of those would be in a camper van, but you don’t want to be lugging power supplies, big antennas and such like if you are only going to play radio for an hour or so a day. So after much de-liberation, I decided on an HFp Vertical antenna from Ventenna in the States. At just over £125 shipped it wasn’t cheap, but is really is a true portable antenna. Full coverage from 40m to 10m with full bandwidth, up to 300w power rated, coming with guys, radials , a base mounting plate, coax all in a handy carry case and the whole thing cased in at just over 1kg in weight. Add one 817, plus a linear, and HFp, 4 meters of power lead to run from the van, some Coax and a tuner just in case and what do you have ? A complete shack in a shoebox, well a lap-top bag but you get the idea. All weighing in at 5.4kg ...hand

luggage ! Next a licence, Emailed a really nice chap at the ACA (Australian Communications Agency) in Sydney and he gave me all the details, which were fairly simple. Arrive at our offices with your passport, licence, $35 AUD in cash and wait 15 mins. It doesn’t get any easier than that ! So, nuptials over, a great day had by all and off to Australia from London Heathrow via Singapore and 23 hours later you’re in Sydney.

Now some facts about Australia … it’s big! Australia is the worlds 6th largest country and is its largest island. It’s the only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country! You following so far? It was the first continent con-quered from the sea…and the last, and it is the only nation that began life (as we know it) as a prison. It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef and of the most famous and striking monolith, Ayres Rock or Uluru to use its more respectful Abo-riginal name. Australia also has more things that will kill you than anywhere else on the planet. Of the worlds ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian - five of its creatures – the funnel web spider (only found in New South Wales – just where we’d landed), box jellyfish, blue ringed octopus, paralysis tick and stonefish – are the most

(Continued on page 7)

An Australian Expedition

M0RNR and Sarah with some people who wandered in from the cold !

Everything you wanted to know about Bats!

An Australian Expedition

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 7

lethal of their species found anywhere in the world. This is the only country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you, but actually go for you. Pick up an pretty little coneshell from a Queensland beach as innocent tourists so often do, and you will discover that the little fella who lives inside is not just astoundingly swift and testy, but exceedingly venomous and not very pleasant. And if you’re not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, then you’re likely to be fatally chomped by sharks or croco-diles, carried helplessly out to sea by amazingly strong cur-rents or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking heat of the outback… It’s a tough place. Why then, you may ask, would anyone want to visit such a hostile environment? Its simple, its by far the best place in the world to visit. The people are friendly, beers cheap and cold, food plentiful, sights are amaz-ing, beaches stunning – you couldn’t really ask for more... you just have to be careful. The first morning we arrived, we were both awake at 04:00 hrs…. jetlag you see is a funny thing. The sun just rising above Sydney central business district and I’m eager to get off to the ACA to obtain my licence.

However before we can do this, you’ve got to have an Aussie breakfast (almost as big as an Elaine Williams’ Tiree break-fast) and a cup of coffee. So up and out for a feed and a walk in

the Australian spring sunshine to await the ACA offices open-ing at 08:30. At about 08:45 we wandered into this huge office block in Sydney on what felt like the 1000th floor to the ACA, sur-prisingly innocuous office for a communications agency with a little reception hatch. However on pressing the buzzer I was met by a happy smiling chap and told him I wanted to apply for an Australian Amateur Li-cence “no worries” he replied, came back with the relevant form, I paid my $35 and there I was VK2IAC. I immediately ran back to the hotel – via the pub, it’s the law! and got out the 817 to have a shot on 2mtrs. I had printed out all the bandplans before I came over, but what I hadn’t checked were the frequencies. Australian 2mtrs runs from 144MHz to 148 MHz and re-peater frequencies are 147 - 148MHz and my 817 stops transmitting at 145.999MHz so the moral of the story, always check the radio can transmit on the bands allowed abroad – it is really disappointing. Not disheartened we spent 3 days in Sydney until we picked up our Mercedes Sprinter camper van from Maui Rentals in Sydney. Its amazing that with the invention of the inter-net I’d managed to organise an entire honeymoon without once picking up the phone or writing a letter and did most of it in a day. I’ve been to Australia twice before but the first time I turned up an Maui’s offices in Mascot, 12,000 miles across the world and all I had was a refer-ence number and everything was ready for me, great service! They were just as efficient the day we picked up the van, they had even emailed me 2 weeks earlier to expect a busy day due to the Bathurst Car Race taking place that weekend, it’s Austra-lia’s equivalent of LE Mans . All the gear was stowed on the van and we were off. The plan was 2 weeks on the road,

Forster for a couple of nights 3 hrs from Sydney, then up North towards the NSW/Queensland boarder, 4 nights in Surfers Paradise (where I hoped to do most operating) then turn around and head back to Syd-ney via, Coffs Harbour, South West Rocks, Mannering Park and Back to Sydney for 2 days before flying home. We arrived in Surfers Paradise at 09:30 and by then it was 32c and very humid. I put up the awning full of good intentions at setting up the station but it was just too hot. So Sarah and I each cracked a beer before breakfast and headed off for a swim…. the station could wait. I finally got on the air the after-

noon of 14th October 2004 after texting Bob GM4UYZ back home to find out which bands were running to VK and when. It seemed 20m and 15m were the best bets early morn-ing UK time that made it mid afternoon our time. Got every-thing rigged up the HFp Verti-cal going together in about 10 minutes, quick check of the swr on 20m and 1:1.5 across the whole band, turned up the vol-ume and … nothing, not a dickie bird the band was flat. I quickly re-tuned to 40m and it too was quiet, although there were stations calling UK on 40m I quickly worked VK9LA on Lord Howe Island OC004, using 40w pretty easy you’d think, but Lord Howe is about 1200 Miles from Surfers Para-dise in the Pacific Ocean. … [more next month—ed]

(Continued from page 6)

Sunrise from the Ibis Hotel Darling Harbour Sydney

Beer for breakfast…. you can’t beat it !

• If anyone needs help or advice with grounded bats or bats in their home they should contact their local Scottish Natural Heritage office. Details can be found at - www.snh.org.uk

• The Magenta bat de-tector kit can be ordered for £37.99 inc p&p from Magenta Electronics at www.magenta2000.co.uk. For experienced builders it's an easy 3-hour job. For less experienced builders allow a couple of evenings, but it's a well-designed and well-presented kit and the novice builder should man-age without difficulty.

• More advanced bat detectors can be sourced from Stag Electronics at - www.batbox.com or from Alana Ecology via a link on the BaTML website. Most local countryside ranger services organise regular bat walks. Ones I know of include Midlothian Ranger Service at Roslin Glen and Vogrie House, Historic Scotland Ranger Service at Holyrood Park and at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian Ranger Ser-vice at Beecraigs, Almon-dell etc., but there are oth-ers locally too - check your local council website for contact details. Bob GM4UYZ

Talk by David Dodds GM4WLL This talk took place on Friday 18th March as part of the club’s annual events and as normal it was held in the Community Centre at Port Seton. First of all I must thank you all for the support that you gave for this talk, it really was ap-preciated so hopefully it will stay that way. On to the talk itself, David approached me many months ago to ask whether it would be a worthwhile talk but just after a small discussion about it, there was no doubt in my mind that it was certainly going to intriguing and very en-joyable, and I was not dis-appointed. I also then made the decision that I was not going to tell people exactly what it was about but tried to offer some intrigue to make you all come along, and I think it was reasona-bly successful. David initially started his talk explaining about the different bats that can be found in this area along with an explanation on how they look, how they com-municate and how each type of bat can be recog-nised by the way they com-municate. The latter was fascinating as David actu-ally had recordings of each of the bats. He then went onto explain the various

“tools” that are used to record or hear the bats and this is where the radio side starts to come into the sub-ject. Finally David talked about the various on-going projects on how they are trying to find out more about how the bats feed, how far they travel, etc. Overall it was certainly one of the best, if not the best talk that I have attended and not just with the radio club so David well done and many thanks from us all. Lastly you may have no-ticed that I have kept this short but the reason for this is that I have asked David to write an article on the subject for the newsletter of which I am sure you will all enjoy reading. Below is what David has asked to be submitted into the newsletter for anyone who was at the talk and is interested in finding more about the project, etc.

• More information on the organisation I work with, BaTML (Bats and the Millennium Link), which studies bats on the Union & Forth and Clyde Canals, can be found at www.batml.org.uk

• Further information on British bats and bat con-servation can be found at the Bat Conservation trust website - www.bats.org.uk

Natural Transmitters—Bats and Radios

Everything you wanted to know about Bats!

Club Newsletter Page 8

I am looking for a set of HEADPHONES, (preferably) padded with Boom Mike and also a FOOT OPERATED (PTT-Switch) as both are for

my FT107M rig. Contact Derek Boomer 2M1IBG Tel: 07719541663

Wanted

Snippets of News

RSGB President in Scotland

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 9

Dear Gentlemen On Monday the 11th April 2005 the current RSGB presi-dent, J D Smith MI0AEX, will be addressing the Lo-thians Radio Society on the work of the RSGB. Gordon Hunter GM3ULP, our DRM, will also be in attendance. We would like to extend a cordial invitation for you and your members to join us for this meeting which will take

place in the Holyrood Room, Royal Ettrick Hotel, Ettrick Road, Edinburgh. The doors open at 19:30 and the meeting will commence at 20:00. I would be grateful if you could RSVP with approximate num-bers wishing to attend before the end of March. It will be a rare chance for us north of the border to benefit from the opportunity to hear from our president and ask questions about the RSGB.

If you have any queries or would like directions to the venue please do not hesitate to contact me; Toby Sigouin, MM0TSS Honorary Secretary, Lothians Radio Society Tel:07739-742367 Email: toby-sigouin@onetel.com

Jim GM7LUN writes: We hope to have the GB3DU repeater testing in beacon mode only within the next day or two (written on 24 March). The CWID should go out between every 5-10 minutes.

The repeater is located near Duns in the Borders and will be transmitting on 145.7875Mhz. Reports would be appreciated. Jim yahoomail@gm7lun.co.uk

New Repeater being tested at Duns

A few weeks ago a letter was delivered and when I opened it up I was really taken by surprise when I read its con-tents. I had been nominated to the Cockenzie & Port Seton Community Council, not by one person but by two sepa-rate sources for an Achieve-ment Award for the year 2004 in the “Contribution to the Community” category for all that I have done with the Ra-dio Club. What was actually said by those who nominated me I still have not a clue but to say that I was bowled over, speechless and really hon-oured is very much an under-statement? I have never thought that I have done any thing special as it is all part of the hobby for me and over the years since the club has started I know I have had my share of lows, highs, disap-pointments and achievements but then I just see that as part

of the role of running a club. To the nominee’s thank you for even thinking and even taking the time to submit a nomination form I really am greatly taken aback and touched. The actual presentation of the certificate took place at the Community Centre on Satur-day 5th March between 14:00

and 16:00 when the Commu-nity Councils award cere-mony took place. A photograph of the certifi-cate is attached for you all to see. Bob GM4UYZ

Achievement Award

doesn’t always work, until sat-ellite communication is more widespread and cheaper, HF radio will still provide a valu-able role in aviation.

In the next article I’ll look at VHF radio, ACARS and the future for radio in aviation.

(Continued from page 11)

How much can you remember? Well I am going to run each month questions that can appear from the Foundation, Intermedi-ate and Advanced Exams just to test your knowledge? The answers for the questions will appear in the next month’s newsletter.

1. Assuming that your normal call sign is

M3QBC, you set up a holiday radio station in a cottage in Scotland your call sign will be?

a. M3QBC

b. M3QBCM

c. M3QBC/S

d. MM3QBC/P 2. Which transmissions are NOT permitted

by the Foundation licence? a. Passing on the remarks of a radio amateur

friend. b. Audio sounds received from an amateur data

signal. c. Details of the next radio club meeting.

d. A short piece from a music CD or tape. 3. The Volt is a unit of

a. Current flow

b. Power.

c. Potential difference.

d. Resistance. 4. The audio signal is recovered from the

radio signal in the a. Detector.

b. Tuner and RF amplifier.

c. Modulator stage.

d. Audio amplifier stage. 5. The unit of capacitance is the

a. Henry

b. Ohm

c. Hertz d. Farad 6. At a particular frequency a series tuned

circuit tends to accept current. This is known as the tuned circuits

a. Intermediate frequency b. Radio frequency

c. Audio frequency

d. Resonant frequency 7. A radio receiver is set to receive a signal on

1.9MHz and the local oscillator is on a frequency of 1.5MHz. What will the inter-mediate frequency be?

a. 400kHz

b. 500kHz

c. 1500kHz

d. 1900kHz 8. The VFO stage of a transmitter is nor-

mally followed by a: a. Detector

b. IF Amplifier

c. Buffer Amplifier

d. Frequency Multiplier 9. The class of emission designated J3E is:

a. Frequency modulated television signals

b. Amplitude modulated sub-carriers

c. Single sideband suppressed carrier signals

d. Double sideband, exalted carrier signals 10. One component a high Q tuned circuit

must contain is: a. An inductor with a fairly high self-resistance.

b. A capacitor with a slightly lossy dielectric. c. An inductor with the lowest possible self-

resistance. d. A capacitor with air as a dielectric.

Test Your Knowledge

How good is your Amateur Radio

Knowledge?

Club Newsletter Page 10

By Gavin GM0WDD Aviation and Radio have a linked past. Without radio, aviation would not be the suc-cessful industry that it is now. Having been licensed 10 years as a pilot (6 of them in com-mercial aviation) I thought I’d contribute a few articles on how aviation users of the radio spec-trum utilise the HF, VHF and higher frequencies. First a bit of background information. When a pilot starts their train-ing they have to pass thirteen exams, two of these exams are to do with communication, one is entitled “Radio & Radar Aids” and the other is a 5wpm morse exam. Topics in these exams are not too dissimilar to those that radio amateurs have to study; electricity, radio wave propagation, modulation tech-niques and so on. The 5wpm morse test is required so that pilots can identify navigation beacons. It would be a tad em-barrassing to mis-identify an Instrument Landing System navigation aid and land on the wrong runway in fog! Defi-nitely a tea and biscuits situa-tion with the Chief Pilot, of course bringing your own tea and your own biscuits! So what communications equipment does a typical short haul jet such as a Boeing 737 carry? The standard fit is two VHF units and a single HF unit fitted with SELCAL. The trans-ceiver part of the radio is lo-cated in the Electronic Equip-ment compartment beneath the cockpit. The operating controls are located on the central ped-estal between the pilots. For VHF the antennas are located on the top and bottom of the fuselage. On HF the vertical fin on the tail is the antenna, output power on HF is approximately 300 watts. Buying an aircraft is a bit like buying a new car, you get to choose the equipment levels! Other options include ACARS, Aircraft Communica-tion Addressing and Reporting

System. This is a digital data link system transmitted via VHF radio which allows airline flight operations departments to communicate with the various aircraft in their fleet. Both short-haul (Boeing 737 types) and long-haul (Boeing 767, 777 and 747 types) use HF radio but for different things. HF radio is used by long haul aircraft to give position reports, get weather and communicate with the company. Shorthaul aircraft mainly use HF radio to communicate with their com-pany whilst airborne. In the old days there would be a radio operator located in the cockpit who would tap away in morse code with position re-ports. The cockpit then would have been very sociable place to work; two pilots, an engi-neer, a radio operator and a navigator. However it wasn’t an economic place to work with 5 salaries needing to be paid. Along came SSB and the radio operator was removed. Modern technology eventually removed the navigator and then more recently the engineer leaving just the two pilots. One pilot would have to main-tain a listening watch on HF which as you all know would be very tiring so they invented SELCAL or Selective Calling. Those of you who have listened to aviation frequencies on HF will be familiar with the burst of tones. A bit like the xylo-phone in the old television se-ries “Hi-de-Hi”! SELCAL is a system that al-lows a ground station to call an aircraft without the pilot having to keep a continuous watch on the HF radio. It works like this, aircraft equipped with SELCAL have been assigned a SELCAL code consisting of four letters, each letter representing a spe-cial tone. The letters are grouped in pairs and always noted in ascending order within the pair, e.g. AB-CD. When the ground station transmits the SELCAL, the two

tones represented by AB are sent followed by the two tones represented by CD. On board the aircraft the decoder senses if the received tones correspond to the ones stored in the de-coder. If they do then a chime sounds in the cockpit and a light illuminates on the SEL-CAL panel. If you’re on your way to Pra-gue, Geneva or Krakow in the middle of winter and there is snow forecast you’ll have taken extra fuel and selected an alter-nate aerodrome (and the fuel to take you there) where the weather is better. On your way the operations department can monitor those airfields and if one is closed due to a snow shower passing through then they can advise you where is good and where they’d like you to go. With a bit or warning via HF the operation can run better. The best use of HF for me was demonstrated when we were flying into Paris Charles de Gaulle airport when I worked for a previous employer. We were about 15 miles out when we lost communication with the approach controller. All our VHF radios were dead and we were flying in cloud. After a quick discussion we dialled up Stockholm Radio (this is an HF station that you can call up and they’ll give you phone patches etc). We asked them for a phone patch to Paris Charles de Gaulle tower, this was a long shot and they said it would take a while. Two minutes later we were speaking on HF via Stock-holm and a telephone line to one of the tower controllers who gave us a final vector onto the approach and cleared us to land. That day HF really proved its worth. In summary, HF is used for position reports whilst crossing areas outside of VHF radio range. It allows operations de-partments to keep in contact with their fleet and ensure smooth running of that fleet. Although due to propagation it

(Continued on page 10)

How Radio is used on Aircraft

Aviation and Radio

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 11

publication of the supposed consultation document. They have sent the document back for re-evaluation. RSGB has 80 years of amateur radio experience. We know what the hobby needs. We are prepared to challenge Ofcom arrogance. We deplore ‘preferred options’ being issued under the guise of consultation. We will now seek to get a document that is genuinely ‘consultative’ RSGB is prepared to assume responsibility for issuing and renewing licences. However, when the new docu-ment eventually sees the light of day it may still try to de-regulate our hobby. If that happens we will need every amateur, both our mem-bership and those few who are not members, to be prepared to fight to save amateur radio. If you do not fight, when the time comes, be prepared to say goodbye to operating on holi-days abroad, to foreign DXpe-ditions and all the benefits the hobby brings. THESE ARE NOT EMPTY THREATS ON THE FU-TURE OF AMATEUR RA-DIO. THEY ARE REAL AND THEY MUST BE ROBUSTLY OPPOSED BY THE AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY. THE RSGB IS THE ONLY NEGOTIATION VEHICLE SO THE MESSAGE TO MEMBERS AND NON MEMBERS MUST BE JOIN US TO FIGHT DE-REGULATION JOIN US TO SAVE OUR LICENCE JOIN US IN THE FIGHT TO SAVE OUR SPECTRUM JOIN US TO SAVE OUR STATUS

The RSGB has produced this document about the proposed changes to Amateur Radio licensing. During autumn 2004 at about the same time that Ofcom published the consultation paper, The Radio Spectrum Framework Review, RSGB was led to believe that a fur-ther consultation paper con-cerning the future of amateur radio licensing would be pub-lished, probably early in 2005. In preparation for that docu-ment RSGB intimated to Of-com representatives, on an unofficial basis, that the Soci-ety would be prepared assume the responsibility for issuing licences and all the admini-stration work that would in-volve. RSGB was aware that Ofcom wished to substantially reduce its financial commit-ment to licence issuing par-ticularly the resources cur-rently involved. During February 2005 it be-came apparent that Ofcom had abandoned the idea of a con-sultative document and was preparing a ‘proposal docu-ment’ that would set out Of-com’s intended preference and in which some reference would be made to low priority alternatives. This would pay lip service to consultation and instead would confirm Of-com’s proposals. The Society began to realise that the intended preference was to tempt amateurs with a free licence for life and then after a few years completely de-regulate our hobby. The free licence for life was going to be proposed in such a way that amateurs would think they were going to get a good deal and then once that had been accepted Ofcom would re-visit the licensing issue and de-regulate. We must be on our guard as they have made the de-regulation statement both in the ‘Spectrum Review’ consultation documents pub-lished in late 2004 and in the yet to be published ‘Future of

Amateur Radio Licensing’ consultation document. It is vital that we stop any attempts to de-regulate the hobby, therefore, we must oppose any movement towards a licence for life. IT IS IMPERITIVE THAT REGIONAL TEAMS GET OUT TO THE CLUBS NOW AND GET THAT MESSAGE ACROSS De-regulation would disen-franchise all amateurs. De-regulation would remove the need for examinations. De-regulation would mean that anyone operating on the amateur bands would not need a licence. De-regulation would mean that without a licence ALL UK amateurs would be pre-vented from operating abroad whilst on holiday. De-regulation would mean that any amateur who moves to live in another Country would NOT have a licence to enable them to transfer to a licence in the new Country. De-regulation would mean the end of the repeater network. De-regulation would mean the end of the packet network. De-regulation would mean the end of all NoVs. De-regulation would mean the end of band plans and a free for all on the bands. RSGB is not prepared to see the hobby of amateur radio destroyed. RSGB does not intend to be enticed by short-term prom-ises of a free licence. RSGB will do all in its power to prevent deregulation RSGB has approached author-ity to highlight the dangers of de-regulation. As a result of our initial ap-proaches the Ofcom Board has thrown out the immediate

The Future of Amateur Radio

Club members may want to know about this

worrying proposition from Ofcom

Club Newsletter Page 12

Date Time Event Contact Tel./E-Mail

TBC Talk by Pierre-Louis F5NED “A French Evening”

01 Apr 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

23 Apr 05 18:30 10 Pin Bowling Night Megabowl Kinnaird Park Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

06 May 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

08 May 05 10:30 Magnum Rally (Magnum Leisure Centre, Irvine) Helen MM0HLN

13 May 05 18:30 144 Mhz DF Hunt Meet in Old Ship Inn Car Park (East) Ron GM4IKU 01875 811000

03 Jun 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

12 Jun 05 TBA Practical Wireless 144 Mhz QRP Contest

18/19 Jun 05 Museums On Air Weekend Museum of Flight East Fortune GB2MOF Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

22 Jun 05 19:00 to 22:00 CPSARC 20 Metre Contest Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

1 Jul 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

02/03 Jul05 TBA VHF FIELD DAY

08 Jul 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

30/31 Jul 05 RSGB IOTA Contest from the Island Of Tiree Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

05 Aug 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

12 Aug 05 18:30 ANNUAL JUNK NIGHT Community Centre Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

20/21 Aug 05 LIGHTHOUSE WEEKEND BARNS NESS GB2LBN Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

02 Sep 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

30 Sep 05 18:30 2nd 144 MHz DF Hunt Meet in Old Ship Inn Car Park (East) Ron GM4IKU 01875 811000

07 Oct 05 19:00 Club Night in the Thorntree Inn Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

21 Oct 05 19:30 VIDEO NIGHT Port Seton Community Centre Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

11 Apr 05 19:30 RSGB President at Lothians Radio Society Toby MM0TSS 07739-742367

Forthcoming events are shown below. Please enter in your new diary for 2005 and make an effort to attend as many as you can. These events are organized on your behalf do take a lot of organizing. It’s a great shame that more members are not in attendance on these nights which are ideal for learning more about our hobby as well as enjoying the company of like minded friends. As usual any further events for inclusion in this page can be forwarded to me at gm4iku@cpsarc.com

Events Column

Volume 13, Issue 4 Page 13

Information The Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club was formed by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in 1984, to help the local amateurs get to know each other. Numbers have increased steadily over the years and now average about 20. 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 en-ter (and win!) contests, train newcomers, hold talks and video nights and run a popular annual Junk Sale. Our newsletter has won the Practical Wireless ‘Spotlight’ competition on several occasions. The Club supports the British Heart Foundation in memory of a member who died from heart disease by donating the profits from events we hold, we have raised over £10,392 since 1994. The Club is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain and holds the callsigns MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our special event and contest en-tries. We have our own internet domain www.cpsarc.com and club members can get their own ‘callsign@cpsarc.com’ email addresses. The club also has a Yahoo! Group which is used to manage a mailing list. (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpsarc) Contacts General Correspondence, Novice Training and Contest entries Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com HF Contests, Cambell Stevenson mm0dxc@cpsarc.com Newsletter, Web Site, email admin John Innes mm0jxi@cpsarc.com Events Column Ron Brown gm4iku@cpsarc.com

We’re on the web! www.cpsarc.com

7 Castle Terrace Port Seton

East Lothian EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723 E-mail: gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club