elements 201302

8
Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club is affiliated to the Radio So- ciety of Great Britain and holds the call signs MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our special event and contest entries. The Club was formed by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in 1984, to help the local am- ateurs get to know each other. Far from being just a local club we have members regularly aending from the Borders, Dumfries, Strathclyde, Fife and New- castle. The Club meets on the first Friday of every month (Second Friday of January) in the lounge of the Thorntree Inn on the old Cockenzie High Street from 7pm ll late. We are now into the month of February already, where did January disappear too, and already we are beginning to see the nights geng longer and the dreary dark nights of winter starng to fade away, thank goodness say I !!!! First of all I must thank everyone who came along for the January Club Night. It would have been nice to see a lot more of you and a massive turnout will occur…I do keep dreaming. Seriously though I would love to see all those who have promised to come along, those who have fell by the wayside come to club night and join in. Sadly I have to announce the passing off Izzy Paterson GM4YNA. Izzy never came to our club but did aend the Livingston one. I have known Izzy for years as she was on the same RAE course as me and we did keep in touch over the years. I also know a few other club members knew her so hence the reason for inclusion. Our deepest sympathies go out to her husband David and her family at this me. What has happened since last month? January was its normal quiet month and to be honest I use it as definite rest period before everything kicks off again for the year. I took part in the RSGB 80M AFS CW contest and enjoyed the short me that I was on. As I write this I hope to maybe get on the SSB leg but that will depend on finishing me of the advanced class On the teaching front we have started our final training session of the 2012/13 training year with the Advanced Course. It is a big class with 9 candidates and I also have one person who is self-studying. Their exam is on Saturday 2 nd March so I am sure you will join with me and wish them all the best. This will be my last training event unl September as I definitely need a sabbacal. If you know of anyone who is interested will you ask them to get in contact with me direct and I will get all their required details. The events program for the year starts this month on Friday 15 th February with the first of two construcon evenings. The second evening is on the 22 nd February so hopefully by the end of the two evenings the projects will be completed successfully. The projects that people could select were either the SDR receiver or the SWR/Power meter. I Must admit I am really looking forward to the evenings. Thanks to Cephas MM0INS who is organising this. In March we will be having another of John MM0JXI’s Radio Check Nights on the 22 nd March (the usual slot in February has been taken up with the construcon nights). The radio check night has certainly been well aended in the past years and has been very fruiul to the extent it has found faulty radios so why not bring along what you have and give it a MOT. THIS REALLY IS A WORTHWHILE EVENT so I hope you will all take advantage of it. Lastly our April event will be another visit to the Museum of Flight this me to help the last year that a Vulcan bomber will be flying. We are hoping to get the call sign GB2VEF (Vulcan East Fortune) but as yet I have not submied the paperwork as I am awaing some further informaon. It is another (Connued on page 2)

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We are now into the month of February already, where did January disappear too, and already we are beginning to see the nights getting longer and the dreary dark nights of winter starting to fade away, thank goodness say I !!!! First of all I must thank everyone who came along for the January Club Night. It would have been nice to see a lot more of you and a massive turnout will occur…I do keep dreaming. Seriously though I would love to see all those who have promised to come along, those who have fell by the wayside come to club night and join in.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Elements 201302

Cockenzie & Port Seton

Amateur Radio Club is

affiliated to the Radio So-

ciety of Great Britain and

holds the call signs

MM0CPS and GM2T which

are used for our special

event and contest entries.

The Club was formed by

Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in

1984, to help the local am-

ateurs get to know each

other.

Far from being just a local

club we have members

regularly attending from

the Borders, Dumfries,

Strathclyde, Fife and New-

castle.

The Club meets on the first

Friday of every month

(Second Friday of January)

in the lounge of the

Thorntree Inn on the old

Cockenzie High Street from

7pm till late.

We are now into the month of February already, where did January disappear too, and already we are beginning to see the nights getting longer and the dreary dark nights of winter starting to fade away, thank goodness say I !!!!

First of all I must thank everyone who came along for the January Club Night. It would have been nice to see a lot more of you and a massive turnout will occur…I do keep dreaming. Seriously though I would love to see all those who have promised to come along, those who have fell by the wayside come to club night and join in.

Sadly I have to announce the passing off Izzy Paterson GM4YNA. Izzy never came to our club but did attend the Livingston one. I have known Izzy for years as she was on the same RAE course as me and we did keep in touch over the years. I also know a few other club members knew her so hence the reason for inclusion. Our deepest sympathies go out to her husband David and her family at this time.

What has happened since last month? January was its normal quiet month and to be honest I use it as definite rest period before everything kicks off again for the year. I took part in the RSGB 80M AFS CW contest and enjoyed the short time that I was on. As I write this I hope to maybe get on the SSB leg but that will depend on finishing time of the advanced class

On the teaching front we have started our final training session of the 2012/13 training year with the Advanced Course. It is a big class with 9 candidates and I also have one

person who is self-studying. Their exam is on Saturday 2nd March so I am sure you will join with me and wish them all the best. This will be my last training event until September as I definitely need a sabbatical. If you know of anyone who is interested will you ask them to get in contact with me direct and I will get all their required details.

The events program for the year starts this month on Friday 15th February with the first of two construction evenings. The second evening is on the 22nd February so hopefully by the end of the two evenings the projects will be completed successfully. The projects that people could select were either the SDR receiver or the SWR/Power meter. I Must admit I am really looking forward to the evenings. Thanks to Cephas MM0INS who is organising this. In March we will be having another of John MM0JXI’s Radio Check Nights on the 22nd March (the usual slot in February has been taken up with the construction nights). The radio check night has certainly been well attended in the past years and has been very fruitful to the extent it has found faulty radios so why not bring along what you have and give it a MOT. THIS REALLY IS A WORTHWHILE EVENT so I hope you will all take advantage of it. Lastly our April event will be another visit to the Museum of Flight this time to help the last year that a Vulcan bomber will be flying. We are hoping to get the call sign GB2VEF (Vulcan East Fortune) but as yet I have not submitted the paperwork as I am awaiting some further information. It is another

(Continued on page 2)

Page 2: Elements 201302

opportunity to get on the air with a big station.

The aim is to have a 40M & 20M station for the Friday afternoon through to Sunday afternoon.

With all our events I hope that you will all

make an effort to attend as many as you can throughout the year.

For full up to date events please read the Events Column or go onto the web-site and you will find them all in the calendar area.

I think that is about it for this month, enjoy the newsletter.

Bob GM4UYZ

(Continued from page 1)

16th ANNUAL GMDX CONVENTION AND DINNER

Saturday, 6th April 2013

at King Robert Hotel, Stirling

Once again the GMDX Committee is pleased

to announce that the above convention will

be held at the King Robert Hotel, Whins of

Milton, Stirling, on Saturday, 6th April 2013

starting at 13.00. Bar snacks will be available

from 12.00 noon.

Provisional Programme

1300-1330 Registration and Welcome

1330-1400 H44KW Solomon Islands Expe-

dition by Jim G3RTE Jim is a

keen IOTA activator and also

DXpeditioner. There’s time to

work Jim on the Solomons this

February.

1400-1500 Developments in HF Multiband

Antennas by Justin G0KSC Jus-

tin is a keen designer and man-

ufacturer of antennae.

See http://www.g0ksc.co.uk

1500-1530 Coffee

1530-1630 Cycle 24 Update, Propagation,

and Other Related Topics by

Carl K9LA Carl writes and lec-

tures internationally on propa-

gation, and is also a pilot in-

structor. He might be the only

one to have operated a contest

from an aeroplane!

1630-1645 Short interval

1645-1715 XR0YG Easter Island expedition

by Nigel G3TXF and team Nigel

is one of the UKs most trav-

elled DXers with over 40 DXpe-

ditions under his belt. A keen

contester too, he has operated

from over 80 countries. Nigel's

talks are always very well re-

ceived.

1715-1745 T2GM Tuvalu expedition by

Tom GM4FDM and team. The

team, all members of GMDX

and all very experienced DXpe-

ditioners, includes GM0GAV,

GM3YTS and GM3POI.

1745 Convention Close and raffle

draw

2000 DX Dinner

2200 Hotel Bar

Note In addition to this Peter Waters G3OJV

of Waters and Stanton will have a display

and demo of Elecraft gear in the back room

during the course of the day.

Card Checking available for DXCC, WAZ,

WAS, IOSA and RSGB awards.

Non Members are very welcome

The cost of the afternoon’s convention is £9

The Club

The Club is run in a very

informal way, 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 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 dis-

ease by donating the

profits from some of the

events we hold, we have

raised over £15,832 since

1994.

2

Supported by BT Community

Champions

Page 3: Elements 201302

3

which includes tea or coffee, whilst the dinner is priced at £24 per person.

We would be grateful if you could pre-book to give us an idea of numbers – please return the booking form below. Booking your dinner tickets is particularly important as numbers are limited.

The King Robert Hotel has given us a special rate for convention delegates – this is £65 B&B for a double room and £45 B&B for a single room. In the event that all single rooms are taken, the rate for single occupancy of a twin room is £45. If you would like to stay at the hotel please contact them direct and mention that you are attending the GMDX Convention to get the special rates. We suggest you arrange your accommodation as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

The King Robert Hotel telephone number is 01786 811666.

BOOKING FORM Pre- book by completing this form and returning it with your remittance to Sheree Ferguson, 19 Leighton Avenue, Dunblane, Perthshire FK15 0EB. Please make cheques out to “GMDX Group”.

Please make cheques out to GMDX Group

Note you can also pay by Paypal to [email protected]

or by on-line banking to

Royal Bank of Scotland

Branch Dunblane

Sort Code 83-18-09

account 00211009

account name GMDX Group

If using any of the above payment methods please clearly state your callsign for reference

Name and callsign

DX Convention tickets £9

DX Dinner tickets £24

Total remittance enclosed

Page 4: Elements 201302

Club Attire

The club has a design for

Club Tee-shirts, Polo-

shirts, Sweat-Shirts, Fleec-

es and Jackets and all of

these can be obtained

from the address below.

When making an order

please quote ‘Cockenzie &

Port Seton Amateur Radio

Club’ as this will ensure

that the Club Logo will be

placed on the required

ordered garments.

If you wish to add your call

-sign to the logo then

please ask at the time of

the order.

Cost will depend on gar-

ment and should cover the

garment and logo, call-sign

addition will be extra.

Order from:

PATRICIA BEWSEY DESIGNS,

UNIT 11,

FENTON BARNS RETAIL

VILLAGE,

FENTON BARNS,

NORTH BERWICK,

EAST LOTHIAN

EH39 5BW

Tel/Fax: 01620 850788

Mobile: 07970 920431

Age Groups of who have attended CPSARC

Training

I was updating some of my training infor-mation and it made me wonder about the ages of the people who have attended the training at CPSARC since I started delivering training with the Novice Licence back in 1995. Since then the licence structure has changed to the present format of the Foundation, In-termediate and Full (Advanced) licence. I must admit it is absolutely fantastic to see someone attending the Foundation Licence training with absolutely no knowledge of Amateur radio and progressing through the Intermediate and Full licence programs and obtaining the elusive Full licence. I must say they have achieved it through lots and lots of hard work, so well done to them all. Back to the task in hand and what were people’s ages when they attended the train-ing.... One thing that strikes me right away is the number of 10 to 15 year olds that have attended the Foundation Course. Out of the 28 only 3 have failed so that is quite amaz-ing., The most popular ages for taking any of the training is between 35 and 55 so shows that it is when “Middle Age” is reached that people are coming into the hobby. Yes I appre-ciate that people have different reasons for wanting a licence and who am I to say it should be any different. It is also interesting to see that people still want to get a license when they are 60 plus. Note: As I am still teaching the 2012/2013 Full Licence the people quoted are up the last exam (December 2012) Who is the Youngest and Oldest to pass each of the Licences?

Like all statistics you can read what you want out of what is displayed but any way I thought this set of figures were of interest. Bob GM4UYZ

4

Age Novice Foun-dation

Interme-diate

Full

0 to 10 0 1 0 0

10 to 15 8 28 3 1

15 to 20 5 10 4 2

20 to 25 0 14 1 6

25 to 30 1 14 5 4

30 to 35 3 13 9 7

35 to 40 1 25 24 18

40 to 45 0 23 18 14

45 to 50 2 15 17 16

50 to 55 5 11 11 13

55 to 60 1 17 10 9

60 to 65 0 11 3 4

65 to 70 0 2 3 2

70 to 75 0 1 2 2

75 to 80 0 0 0 1

Total Attendees

26 185 110 99

Licence Call Sign Youngest Age (Years)

Callsign Oldest Age (Years)

Novice 2M1HCI Ewan Finlayson 11.8 2M1IBH Gabriel Noonan 58.7

Foundation MM3DZW Calum Graham 8.4 MM6??? Dr David Bushby 77.7

Intermediate 2M0FCR Rachael Murray 12.4 2M0IAH Ian McDonald 71.1

Full MM0PSA Paul Smith 16.5 MM0GKT Dr David Bushby 79.4

Page 5: Elements 201302

5

The question that I ask is do we want to get involved? I think it would be nice but we have one issue in that we do not have club premises so where would we operate from ?(see note from the Regional Manager on this point)? Suggestions on this would be welcome. As you can see from below if we are going to do it then we need to get in touch with the RSGB Regional Manager so we can get it all co-ordinated (dates and times). I would appreciate your feedback by the 5th February one way or another. From the Regional Manager: It need not be from a public place in fact an individual can take part. It’s a bit more flexible than your standard SES. If you or any of the club members do wish to take part please let me know ASAP as I wish to arrange everything by the end of the month as I expect to be standing down as Regional Man-ager in the next couple of months.

Below is an extract from the RSGB’s website

Clubs and groups are encouraged to join in the fun and apply

for inclusion in the Gx100RSGB Special Event Station (SES) ro-

ta. This is managed by the RSGB Regional Managers, who will

be collating calendars for the SES operation in their area for

the dates applicable to their Region.

Gx100RSGB Considerations and Guidelines

The Gx100RSGB call sign is an SES that we expect will attract a

great deal of interest throughout the year, partly because of it

helps to celebrate the Society’s Centenary and partly because

it features prominently within the RSGB Centenary Award pro-

gramme. Thus, clubs, groups or individuals considering apply-

ing for a chance to operate this SES will need to consider the

following:

Choice of bands – Centenary Award chasers will be inter-

ested in HF as well as VHF/UHF contacts

Multiple stations allowed – so long as they are at the

same location

UK as well as Overseas interest in QSOs

Log exports in ADIF Format – to enable central QSL man-

agement and online log search (Most computer logging

programmes provide an ADIF export option)

Quality of operating – some operations, bands and modes

can expect to attract significant “pile-ups”

Centralised LoTW & QSL Management – no QSL require-

ment placed upon clubs or groups operating the SES

Apply at least 2 months before the SES operates in your

Region – we need to clear all SES locations at least 28

days before operation starts in each Region

Potential applicants need to provide the Regional Manag-

er with the following information:

Preferred dates

(within dates allocated to the specific region)

Region 1—5 November —2 December

Lead SES Licence Holder (name, call sign, address inc.

postcode)

Note: Must be holder of a UK Full Amateur Licence and

be in attendance if not operating the station.

Designated SES site location, address, postcode, tele-

phone number and email address

(This contact information will only be used for the pur-

pose of licensing and management of the SES station)

Name of Club, group, etc.

Confirmation that ADIF log export file will be produced

Proposed bands and modes of operation 160m – 70cm,

exc 60m allowable)

Page 6: Elements 201302

Thanks to the sterling

work by M0RNR, our club

has been added to the

excellent Clublog system

developed by Michael

Wells G7VJR.

www.clublog.org

The system allows mem-

bers to upload their logs

in ADIF format and have

them displayed in a table

with all the other club

members.

Clublog also has great

facilities for tracking your

DXCC status etc so is well

worth taking the time to

register and get your log

uploaded.

To update your log with

the next set of contacts

(SSB, CW or Data) you can

simply upload your whole

log again and the system

will take care of the dupli-

cates. Alternatively you

can export the bits you

want from your own log

and just upload that.

The tables we’ll publish

here will be the club, fil-

tered by the current year,

so everyone starts a new

year at 0 contacts.

As usual, we are always looking for articles for the newsletter and at the moment I am certainly struggling each month to think about what to write about, in fact I have no-ticed recently if it wasn’t for my input and the occasional contributor there would be no newsletter at all. It isn’t fair, as I know there would be a huge outcry if no newsletter was produced so come on please put “fingers to the keyboard “or” pen to paper and do something. It doesn’t have to a huge article anything will do. I get lots of people saying I must do something but it never materialises so be positive for a change and do it. The lack of time is no excuse as I am continually “up to my ears” as they say, and struggling for time but I am aware if nothing is written then there will be no newsletter.

Here are a list of ideas for articles that spring to my mind, I am sure there are many more but they elude me at the moment. The ideas are:

Fitting a radio into a vehicle. There are lots of new amateurs out there so it could be used to describe the do and don’ts of a Mo-

bile Installation.

Working Portable. Going out portable and setting up a station from scratch i.e. erecting poles, fitting antennas, station lay-out, etc, etc.

Setting up a station at home. Again some do’s and don’ts.

What is your main interests CW, SSTV, Data Modes, etc? Tell everybody about how you got into it; what gave you the buzz with the mode? Etc, etc.

What made you decide on Amateur Ra-dio as a hobby?

Anything else you can think off.

The ball is now back in your court so come on then let’s see what you can do.

Bob GM4UYZ

6

Page 7: Elements 201302

1. Signals from a transmitter working on 3.56MHz are

reported as causing interference over the whole of the FM broadcast radio band. This is probably caused by a harmonic of the RF signal getting into the

a. RF Amplifier

b. 10.7 MHz IF amplifier

c. AF amplifier

d. Power supply

2. Masthead pre-amplifiers intended to improve TV

broadcast reception are often

a. Narrow Band devices

b. Wide Band devices

c. Pre-tuned to VHF bands

d. Pre-tuned to UHF bands

3. Unwanted RF can cause problems in semiconductor

equipment by

a. Overheating the components

b. Reducing the gain

c. Overloading the power supply

d. Rectification at PN junctions

4. A ferrite ring can minimise breakthrough onto speaker

leads of audio equipment by

a. Reducing the current carrying capacity of the leads

b. Screening the leads from radio waves

c. Improving the insulation of the leads

d. Increasing the inductance of the leads

5. Breakthrough on one particular frequency is best cured

by which of the following?

a. Balun

b. Ferrite Bead or beads

c. Low-pass filter

d. Notch filter

6. At a distance from a transmitter the power flux density

(p.f.d) is 1W/m² and the field strength (f.s) is approxi-mately 20V/m. At twice that distance the p.f.d. is

a. 0.5 W/m² and f.s. is 10V/m

b. 0.25 W/m² and f.s. is 10V/m

c. 0. 5 W/m² and f.s. is 5V/m

d. 0.25 W/m² and f.s. is 5V/m

7. Powering a transmitter in a car, via the cigarette lighter

socket is

a. A simple and safe solution for a temporary installations

b. Acceptable if the current required will not exceed about

5A

c. Ill advised because the lighter socket is intended for in-

termittent use

d. Ill advised because of the risk of RF entering the car elec-

tronics

8. When there is an EMC problem due to lack of immunity

in the TV receiver, and no fault is attributable to the amateur station, it is the responsibility of the

a. RSGB

b. Amateur licence holder

c. TV owner

d. Broadcast authority

9. UK TV broadcast stations use the frequency band

a. 455 – 500KHz

b. 33 – 40MHz

c. 470 – 854MHz

d. 1240 – 1260MHz

10. If an FM transmission causes the picture of a TV receiv-

er to disappear,, this form of breakthrough is called

a. Under deviation

b. Cross-modulation

c. Image

d. Blocking

7

Page 8: Elements 201302

General correspondence,

training and contest en-

tries

Bob Glasgow

7 Castle Terrace

Port Seton

East Lothian

EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723

E-mail:

[email protected]

HF Contests

Cambell Stevenson

[email protected]

VHF Contests

John MacLean

[email protected]

Club Tables

Bob Purves

[email protected]

Contest Reports

Robin Farrer

[email protected]

Newsletter, website,

event calendar

John Innes

[email protected]

1 February 2013 Club Night

15 February 2013 Construction Night

22 February 2013 Construction Night

23 February 2013 Newsletter Deadline

1 March 2013 Club Night

22 March 2013 Radio Check Night (moved from it’s normal February slot)

5 April 2013 Club Night

20/21 April 2013 GB2VEF (Vulcan East Fortune)

3 May 2013 Club Night

10 May 2013 DF Hunt

7 June 2013 Club Night

9 June 2013 PW QRP Contest

15/16 June 2013 Museums on the Air

19 June 2013 HF Activity Night

28 June 2013 Club Night (early due to VHF Field Day)

6/7 July 2013 RSGB VHF Field Day

27/28/ July 2013 RSGB IOTA Contest

2 August 2013 Club Night

9 August 2013 Mini Rally

17/18 August 2013 Lighthouses Weekend

6 September 2013 Club Night

27 September 2013 DF Hunt

4 October 2013 Club Night

18 October 2013 Video Night

26/27 October 2013 CQWW SSB Contest

1 November 2013 Club Night

6 December 2013 Club Night

Answers from Elements February 2012 “Test Your Knowledge”.

1B, 2B, 3D, 4D, 5D, 6B, 7D, 8C, 9C, 10D

Rank Callsign 160 80 60 40 30 20 17 15 12 10 6 4 2 70 DXCCs Slots Range

1 MM0DXH 0 0 0 12 0 13 0 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 22 32 10 yrs

2 GM4UYZ 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 6 33 yrs

3 MM0GZZ 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 5 yrs