november 2013 what could this be? - …westlakesarc.org.au/magazine/november 2013.pdf · westlakes...

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. - Magazine June 2010 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine June 2010

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Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

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WESTLAKES MAGAZINEIS SPONSORED BY

CARDIFF RSLSUB BRANCH

November 2013

WHAT COULD THIS BE?

Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or abackpacker will run across something puzzling: a large concrete arrow, as much as seventyfeet in length,sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. What are these giant arrows?Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? The direction of truenorth? None of the preceding. It's The Transcontinental Air Mail Route.On 20 August 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery.


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Published by Westlakes AmateurRadio Club Inc. York Street Teralba,as a magazine of news, informationand opinions on amateur radio andassociated topics for the benefit ofthe members .Copyright:In general there is no copyright onarticles, they may be copied at will.The exception being those articlesfollowed by an asterisk *preceding the named source.

Founder and mentor:Keith Howard VK2AKX (SK)Patron:G.Piper MLALife members:Gregory Smith VK2CWPaul Lorentzen VK2ATRAlec Efimov VK2ZMLeslie Payne VK2ZPAPeter Sturt VK2ZTVDavid Myers VK2RDGeoffrey Clark VK2EO

Correspondence to: The Secretary W.A.R.C., Box 5, BOOLAROO NSW 2284Telephone:- (02) 49 581 588(24 hour answering service)Email:[email protected]

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.is an affiliated club with theWireless Institute of Australia.

Radio CallsignsClub Callsign: VK2ATZClub Repeaters:VK2RTZ 146.775MHzVK2RZL 146.875MHzClub Digipeater:VK2RTZ 147.575 MHz IRLP Node 6040 Echolink 356838

Club Activities:Club Nets:Club broadcast,Sunday 0900146.775Mhzfollowed by call backsand the VK1WIA News.

EZB Net 146.775MHzSaturday 0800Stone the Crows NetSaturday 3.588MHz 0600

Internet HomePage:www.westlakesarc.org.au

Business:Tuesday after 1700Saturday after 1200Club Distance Record:2m SimplexVK2FGM 2040 kmQRP CW VK2YA 2680 km

Note: Opinions expressed in thismagazine are those of thecontributors and do not necessarilycoincide with those of the Executivenor the members in general.

a

Club meeting: 1st Saturday ofeach month 13.30

Membership RatesAll members................ $20.00 P.AJoining fee.................... $ 5.00

WANTED

Club fees are due 1st February

FOR SALE

Magazine assembly day "OZZI HAMS" Maxi Port-a-pole


Proof reading by: Stella

President:Steve Beveridge [email protected] President:Geoff Linthorne VK2GLSecretary:Barrie Downward: [email protected]:Greg Smith VK2CWCommittee:Allan Brown VK2JEDHerb Herivel VK2ZVFKen Jackson VK2KJLeonie McGuiness VK2FHRKBarry Finlay VK2FINBWarren Payne VK2UWPBarry Sullivan VK2BZMichael Welsh VK2CCWDiane Wilson JP VK2FDNEMagazine Editor:Greg Smith [email protected] Liason Officer:Alex Efimov VK2ZMStoreman:Aly Zimmer VK2AFZProject Officer:Norm Cameron VK2KNCMaintenance Officer:Barry Sullivan VK2BZRadio and Contest Officer:Dave Myers VK2RDPublic Relations:Diane Wilson JP VK2FDNESecurity:Warren Payne VK2UWPInternet Webmaster:Geoff Clark VK2EOExaminations Officer:Geoff Linthorne VK2GL

Club Directory

STONE THE CROWS 3.588 MHz SATURDAYS 6AM

THE EZYBEE NET 146.775 MHz SATURDAYS 8AM

PROJECT CORNER

TH3 Jnr beam (needs a little work) plusapprox 15m 213 coax make an offer.Jim VK2XI 0416863024 email: [email protected]

Icom IC27a with sub-tones, and speechsynthesizer, plus manual. Goodcondition $90.Yaesu FT-1807 UHF mobile 50 watts,tones, good condition. $180.UV-5R plus 2m/70cm dual band handheld. Brand new $30.2m/70 Diplexer, new, never used. $30.

Norm VK2ZG (02) [email protected]

One length only of 30 metres RG213 coaxas new complete with end connectors $60Contact Aly VK2AFZ at the WestlakesStore

For all project ideas and enquiriescontact Norm vk2knc@gmail .com

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Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. - Magazine November 2013

route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop.There were no goodaviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the countryusing landmarks.This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flyingwas just about impossible.The Postal Service solved the problem with the world’s first ground-based civiliannavigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to SanFrancisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Eacharrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepowerrotating beacon. Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter ofweeks, but in just 30 hours or so.Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, couldfollow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out ofa Tex Avery cartoon. By 1924, just a year afterCongress funded it, the line of giant concrete markersstretched from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Cleveland,Ohio. The next summer, it reached all the way toNew York, and by 1929 it spanned the continentuninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide.Radio and radar are not as romantic as a concreteYellow Brick Road from the Atlantic to the PacificOcean. New advances in communication andnavigation technology made the big arrows obsolete,and the Commerce Department decommissionedthe beacons in the 1940's. The steel towers were torndown and went to the war effort. But the hundredsof arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, theirconcrete cracks a little more with every winter frost,but they’re still out there. Courtesy of Les VK2LT

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR OLD MOBILE PHONE (And your wallet for that matter)

The first thing is not to throw your old mobile phone away. Keep it and when you are outat night (or by day it seems) carry it in a prominent pocket. Your new and expensivephone meanwhile, should be carried in a concealed location upon your person - justhow concealed is up to you.When you are accosted by a blade-wielding ne'er-do-well on the street and asked tohand over your phone and/or wallet, you can do so with a smile. A fake wallet alsosecreted on your body is a good idea. I have both about my person when I venture out. (Name withheld in case this magazine falls in wrong hands.)

THE X1M IT'S SMALLAND SO IS THE PRICE

The X1M is the latest HF QRP transceiver fromChina. It is an SSB/CW 5 watt radio that has5 bands: Band 1: 3.5 ~ 3.9 MHz Band 2: 7.0 ~ 7.15 MHz Band 3: 14.0 ~ 14.5 MHz Band 4: 21.0 ~ 21.45 MHz Band 5: 28.0 ~ 29.7 MHz

The radio can transmit continuously from 100 kHz - 30 MHz via a menu option butthe preset transmit range is the five amateur bands shown above. The five bands areconfigured with bandpass filtering but transmitting on frequencies outside these rangeswill require external bandpass filtering. Modes are USB, LSB, and CW with 100memories. RIT, internal CW keyer, receive preamplifier, and PTT microphone areincluded. How much, you ask? Check on Ebay or the Wouxun site. They are advertisedfrom $350 to as low as $299. But I have kept the best until last. The X1M comeswith "Xiegu Technology." VK2CW

YAESU GOES DIGITAL

While the use of D-Star appears to be stable orslightly declining, Yaesu have introduced theFTM-400DR radio.Andrews Communications advertise the radiowill be available in October and at the time ofprinting this magazine, the price is POA.The all-new FTM-400DR is both an analog anddigital mode twin-band mobile/base transceiver.It can be Bluetooth controlled and features two separate receivers, along with individualvolume controls for each. The radio uses C4FM FDMA digital communicationstechnology.The FTM-400DR can also capture video and images. It can transmit andreceive them via a USB camera.Features: • DIGITAL and analog FM modes • Extra-large colour display has 5 backgroundcolours selectable • Bandscope feature • Wideband receive 108~470MHz and 800~999•Dual-receive • 50/20/5W output levels •500 memories per band • Each memory storesfrequency, mode, tag, repeater info. • Altitude info display • Internal clock with calendar• Four scanning modes • Packet ready; 1200/9600 bps • Has DCS, TOT and APO• USB camera is not supplied • GPS, APRS, Bluetooth, ARTS, microSD slot.That seems to be enough features for anybody. One can but wonder how large theOperating Manual will be.


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next page

Steve VK2LW


PORTISHEAD RADIO GKA

Portishead Radio (callsign GKA)was a radio station in England thatprovided worldwide maritimecommunications and long-rangeaeronautical communications from1928 until 2000. It was the world'slargest and busiest radiotelephonystation. In 1974, there were 154radio operators who handled over20 million words per year.The radio station's control centre,which was based at Highbridge,

near Burnham-on-Sea, opened in July 1928. It was constructed by the Marconi WirelessTelegraph Company and operated by the General Post Office until the privatisation ofthe post office in 1981, the station was operated by British Telecommunications. By 1936,the station already had a staff of 60 radio officers who handled over 3 million words ofradio traffic per year.The station played a vital role during World War II in maintaining communications withthe British merchant navy and with patrol aircraft in the North Atlantic. During thewar, all communications with ships were one-way in order to avoid revealing the ships'locations to the enemy. The station was short staffed because many staff were awayon secondments to various government services, such as operating other radio stations andtraining new radio officers to work in naval convoys. In 1943, the workload was so greatthat a Royal Navy officer and 18 telegraphists were brought in from HMS Flowerdown,a Naval Shore Wireless Service station near Winchester.By the end of the 1980s, satellite communications had started to take an increasinglylarge share of the station's business, and a program of severe rationalisation wasstarted, leading to the closure of two transmitting sites at Leafield and Ongar. In thestation's penultimate year to March 1999, there were on average per month 571 radiotelegrams, 533 radio telephone calls, and 4,001 radio telex calls.In 1998, British Telecom Maritime RadioServices announced its planned closure ofPortishead Radio. The long-range services(HF bands 3-30 MHz) ceased at midnight on31 August 1999. The short-range VHFmaritime band (156-174 MHz) services closedat 12:00 on Sunday 30 April 2000, and themedium-range services (MF maritime band1.6-3.0 MHz) services at 12:00 on Friday 30June. The station closed in April 2000.

RADIO CONTROLLED POLICE DOGCOMPLETE WITH CAMERA

Meet Hobs, the latest recruit to the MetropolitanPolice Force in London UK. Note his fancyheadwear which includes a small radio receiverplus a headcam.Hobs has proven invaluable in instances such assiege situations or where police believe a propertymay have been booby trapped.Hobs can be sent into a property and his handler

gives directions over a VHF radio, such as look left or right, up or down, go forwardor back, while at the same time remaing in a safe location and watching the scenetransmitted by the headcam unfold on a monitor in full colour.

WHO INVENTED COPPER WIRE?Copper wire was invented in 1809 by the McAlister brothers of Edinburgh, Scotlandjust after they found a penny.

REPEATER POWER LIMITDid you know the ACMA limits power output of all repeaters to 50 watts maximum,regardless of the general power limit specified in the amateur LCD. The reason for thisis to limit the potential for cross-interference on co-shared transmitter sites. To complywith this requirement, and to avoid applications being automatically rejected by theACMA, the WIA will modify all repeater applications received to specify 50 Wattspower output. Co-shared transmitter sites may also be required to comply with thecommunal site licence conditions.This condition, if applicable, will be attached to the repeater licence. If an amateurrepeater is proposed in a remote location well away from other services, with evidencesupporting the operational need for higher power, an application may be made to theACMA to have the restriction removed. Naturally, in this case the repeater applicationmay be delayed. From VK1WIA News

COMING EVENTS

Westlakes Monthly Meeting Saturday 2 November

Westlakes 3rd Car Boot Sale Saturday 9 November (See Page 16)


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In September 2004, Sedgemoor District Council adopted a local development plan thatincluded the site of Portishead Radio for future housing development. In October 2007,planning permission for a development of 190 houses and flats on the site was granted, andshortly afterwards the old radio station buildings were demolished.And that, as they say, was that. Goodbye GKA.

WHAT'S THE DELAY?

As we know, distance communications by radio arecarried by electromagnetic radiation - commonly byradio waves, but increasingly by light. The speed ofpropagation of these carriers is about 300,000kilometres per second. Although this is fast, thedelay already causes problems in some day-to-daycommunication. Contemplation of interplanetarytravel shows serious limitations on communications..The table below indicates the communication delay that occurs in a one-way transmission.

Circuit Distance Delay Time HF link (UK-NZ) ~20,000 km 67 ms Submarine cable(UK-NZ) ~20,000 km 67 ms Geosat Link (US-Aus) ~80,000 km 0.25 s Earth-Moon 384,000 km 1h.3 s Earth-Mars 55 - 378 million km 3h.21 minutes Earth-Jupiter 590 - 970 million km 33h. 53 minutes Earth-Pluto ~5800 million km 5 hours Earth-Nearest Star ~9.5 million million km 4 yearsOnly the first two circuits listed have a delay that is barely noticeable in a two-wayvoice conversation. On telephone calls between continents that are routed via ageosynchronous satellite, the time between when one person stops speaking andthen hears the other person reply is half a second. This can cause immense confusionif the other person starts speaking before the first has finished. It can take severalsentences before the confusion is finally sorted out. Two-way digital communicationbetween machines at high data rates suffers from this problem even more acutely,and protocols must be established which prevent conflicts arising.Communication with a future lunar base will be worse, and for voice communications willnecessitate an "over to you" simplex radio communications type approach. Two-wayinteractive communication with any station beyond the moon is basically impossible.Although there are no manned bases currently on other planets, this delay is presently ofgreat concern to people who send remotely controlled spacecraft to Mars. There is nopossibility of detecting an incipient vehicular crash in time to do anything about it. Thevehicle must thus be given a very large degree of autonomous control.If we were to ever establish colonies on planets around other stars, we can essentially

Figure 3: Beverage Antenna – 40m

Figure 4: Vertical Antenna – 40m

The results are very good. Receive signal comparisons between our vertical transmittingantenna and the beverage receive antennas show the noise floor is about 20dB lower onthe Beverage antennas. This is 3 “S” points down! So S9 noise is reduced to S6. Thereceived signals are also down slightly but typically only about 3dB. An Elecraft P3Panadapter has been used for the comparative signal measurements.Christoph Kunze, DK6ED, presented an interesting Beverage antenna article in QEX,July/August 2012. Christopher discusses the basic theory of operation with some EZNECmodelling. He also presents a shortened version of the classic Beverage antenna.The focus of our experiments was to gain some experience and understanding of theBeverage antenna performance. The results confirm the published characteristics. Thecontest experience has demonstrated the advantage of the Beverage receive antenna.The 2013 RD contest conditions deteriorated on the Saturday evening as an offshore stormmoved north. There were plenty of on-air comments about the QRN. The Beveragereceive antenna provided a comfortable QRN level despite the lightning crashes. Craig VK2ACH / 5W0CW / V63CWH Marcel VK2FMDB

It is a china coffee cup with a POST OFFICECOMMUNICATIONS AUSTRALIA logo on one side.Underneath stamped John Maddock & Sons - Made inEngland. The cup was from the PMG Cafeteria which wassituated on the 9th floor of the Sydney GPO. The cafeteriawas patronised by telegraphists from the Central TelegraphOffice located on the fourth floor.

HERE IS A RARE ITEM


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forget about communicating with them. This is not to say that we couldn't followprogress reports, but by the time we had replied, our advice would be totally irrelevant.Unless of course, we manage to break the light barrier - something physics currently seesas impossible

LEAPING CATERPILLARS!

But only in one direction - south east! Anunusual caterpillar, Calindoea frifascialis,which is native to Vietnam, jumps in a piston-like motion. It had been thought that thecaterpillars always jumped toward the sun,even in a darkened room meaning that thelittle dears somehow knew the sun's positionin the sky.

Researchers at the Ontario University conducted tests and found that the leaps were infact always in a southerly direction. But as Ontario is in the northern hemisphere and thesun is always to the south, were the caterpillars receiving 'sun signals' or not? A bunch ofthe little green grubs were taken to to South America where their leaps remainedsoutherly even though the sun was now to the north.Back in Ontario, more research showed that the jumps were more or less always southeast. Could these caterpillars be guided by the earth's magnetic field? A compass wasplaced in the caterpillars' container and magnets arranged so that the compass was pulled180 degrees. Now the little demons jumped north west. But there is more. A deadcaterpillar was dried out like a stick and placed on a delicate rotating mechanism. Spin itas many times as you may and it always comes to rest with its head facing south east.

Our tests demonstrated that the common mode noise levels on this long wire are very high.The transformer has a 6 turn primary (antenna) & 2 turn secondary (9:1 impedance ratio)to provide a match to the 50 ohm coax cable to the radio. A BN73-202 binocular core wasused for the transformer. The selection of the 73 mix high relative permeability (mu=2,500)ferrite core is also important. The well-known design rule for an RF transformer requiresthe reactance (at the lowest operating frequency) of the smallest winding to be more thanfour times the load impedance (50 ohms in this case), i.e. greater than 200 ohms. The 73mix core high mu value permits this reactance/inductance to be achieved with just twoturns on the BN73-202 core. The measured inductance (2 turns) was 65uH, hence XL =2*pi*1.8MHz*65uH = 735ohms.

Figure 2: SWR Plot – Spanning 160m, 80m & 40mSWR

5

4

3

21.5

4.900 MHz 8.1001.700The SWR plot for the 140m long Beverage antenna demonstrates the broadbandcharacteristics of this antenna. The SWR plot from 160m to 40m is flat with less than 1.5:1over the entire frequency range. The SWR was measured using a RigExpert AA-54antenna analyser. The yellow strips indicate the amateur bands. This is impressive. Theantenna looks like a well terminated transmission line.The Beverage antenna is not resonant and it is classified as a travelling wave antenna.Agood quality high pass filter (1.8MHz up) filter is used to reject BC AM transmissions,noting that the BC antennas are visible across the Hunter River and less than 4 km away.The Beverage receiving antennas have been tested on several occasions as well as duringthe 2013 80m Transtasman and the2013 RD contests.A 12V changeover relay poweredvia the coax cable and a bias tee enables remote switching between the south and theeast Beverage antennas. A coax relay provides the switching between a vertical and theBeverage antennas on receive. A simple three position rotary switch selects the antennas.The experience is more pleasant listening on 160m, 80m and 40m. The improved signalto noise ratio certainly lifts the signal readability. The directivity is also very noticeable.Switching to the east pointing Beverage pulls the ZLs out of the mud.

The Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) is an astronomicalinterferometer of radio telescopes in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. Since a highand dry site is crucial to millimetre wavelength operations, the array has been constructedon the Chajnantor plateau at 5000 metres altitude, near Llano de Chajnantor Observatoryand Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. Consisting of 66 12-metre and 7-metre diameterradio telescopes observing at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths, ALMA isexpected to provide insight on star birth during the early universe and detailed imagingof local star and planet formation.ALMA is an international partnership between Europe, the United States, Canada, EastAsia and the Republic of Chile. Costing more than a billion US dollars, it is the mostexpensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observationsin the second half of 2011 and the first images were released to the press on 3 October 2011.The array has been fully operational since March 2013. The initial ALMA array will becomposed of 66 high-precision antennas, and operate at wavelengths of 0.3 to 9.6 mm.The array will have much higher sensitivity and higher resolution than existing sub-

ALL ABOUT ALMA


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factor reduces the required physical wire length to 140m.The antenna wire is supportedjust above the ground. The available information suggests that the height above groundhas little impact on the performance if the height is less than 0.05*wavelength (8m foroperation on 160m). Our site has a number of old rural fence posts about 1m high. Thereare two rows, one running towards the east and the other towards the south. These postshave been utilised with some additional fibreglass supports where the fence posts aremissing. Two 140m long wires were run along the two fence lines. Each far end isterminated with a 470 ohm resistor and a ground stake.The radio end of the antenna is fitted with an impedance matching transformer.The common mode isolation provided by the two winding transformer is important.

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

During the past few years Marcel VK2FMDB and I have been participating in contestsfrom an industrial site at Tomago. The site, despite being industrial, has electrical noiselevels (QRN) that are relatively quiet on weekends. High QRN levels on 160m and 80mcertainly discourage operation on these bands. We have also observed that wet or highhumidity atmospheric conditions cause the noise levels to rise significantly, mostly due todischarge on the high voltage transmission lines feeding power to the Tomago Aluminiumsmelter.The challenge is to find a method to deal with high noise levels. Some research indicatedthat Beverage antennas would provide improved receive operation on the lower frequencybands. Beverage antennas offer reduced noise and improved signal to noise ratios. Aninternet search will uncover a large quantity of information about the Beverage antennas,their history, how they function and various implementations. Beverage antennas have bothbroadband and directional antenna characteristics. They are also low efficiency antennasthat are not suited for transmission.

EXPERIMENTING WITH A BEVERAGE ANTENNA By Craig VK2ACH

Favoured Direction

1 to 2 Wavelengths in Free Space

Favoured Direction

470R450 Ohm

75 OhmCoax

to RadioClassic

Beverage Antenna

Fig 1A Beverage antenna isat least one fullwavelength long at thelowest operatingfrequency. In our casethis is 160m. Fortunatelythe site has a large areaof open fields, hence theopportunity to do someexperimenting. Using aninsulated wire (1.5mm2)with a 0.88 velocity

Basic construction.Figure: 1


millimetre telescopes such as the single-dish James Clerk Maxwell Telescope or existinginterferometer networks such as the Submillimetre Array or the Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) Plateau de Bure facility.The antennas can bemoved across the desert plateau over distances from 150 m to 16 km, which will giveALMA a powerful variable "zoom", similar in its concept to that employed at theVery Large Array site in New Mexico, U.S.The high sensitivity is mainly achievedthrough the large numbers of telescopes that will make up the array.The telescopes are provided by the European, North American and East Asian partnersof ALMA. The American and European partners have each placed orders for twenty-five 12-metre diameter antennas, that will compose the main array. East Asia iscontributing 16 antennas (four 12-metre diameter and twelve 7-metre diameter antennas)in the form of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) which is also part of the enhancedALMA.By using smaller antennas than the main ALMA array, larger fields of viewcan be imaged at a given frequency using ACA. Moving the antennas closer togetherwill enable the imaging of sources of larger angular extent. The ACA will work togetherwith the main array in order to enhance the latter's wide-field imaging capability.

WHACKYDOO!!

Behold, it's a McDonald's Pendograph and it is now in my modest collection oftelegraph keys thanks to Ray VK2ARY/ZL. He was kind enough to give it to me atthe last Westlakes Field Day. Ray, being an ex-PMG Telegraphist knows about thesethings. Prior to this, I had never seen one except in photos, let alone own one.This example still has the original metal plate that reads, "Mcdonalds Pendograph -Adelaide SA" and was designed by Albert McDonald, a telegraphist himself, in 1908. Thevibrating arm is vertical and wobbles sideways sending automatic dits when the left paddleis pressed while dahs are manually sent on the right paddle. I have had a Morse contactor two using the device connected to my Yaesu 817.Well done Albert and thank you Ray. VK2CW


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The detection of weak radio signals is a ubiquitous problem in the modern world.Everything from NMR imaging and radio astronomy to navigation and communicationdepends on picking up faint radio signals that would have been undetectable just a fewdecades ago.That’s why many groups are racing to find better ways to spot these signalsand to process them using state-of-the-art techniques.Denmark physicists have demonstrated a device that detects ultra-weak radio wavesin an entirely new way converting radio waves into light signals, which can then betransmitted and analysed using standard optical tools. The new approach is simple inprinciple.The device consists of a thin membrane of silicon nitride coated with a mirror-like layerof aluminium. This nanomembrane is suspended above an electrode forming a capacitorwhich is itself part of a standard LC-circuit that picks up radio waves at its resonantfrequency. When this happens, the resonating circuit causes the nanomembrane tovibrate. By bouncing a laser beam off the nanomembrane causes an optical phase shiftthat can be measured using standard optical techniques.The result is that the nanomem-brane converts the faint radio waves it picks up into optical signals.This approach has significant advantages over traditional radio receivers. The big problemwith current methods for detecting faint radio waves is that noise generated by heat canswamp the signal. The only way to get around this is by cooling the detection equipment,a process that significantly increases the complexity, size and cost. The advantage ofconverting the radio signals into a resonant mechanical vibration is that the random effectof heat becomes negligible. So the reflected light picks out the radio signal with littleof the noise that swamps conventional radio receivers.That should significantly simplify this kind of work. Looking further ahead, there’s noreason why this kind of approach might not have even broader application, perhaps forordinary mobile phone communication and for navigation. The ability to detect faintersignals could make these devices smaller and less power hungry. From MIT Review - October 2013

DETECTING RADIO WAVES WITH LIGHT

THE KITANO PADDLE KEY

This miniature paddle has black horizontal plasticpaddles. You push down on the paddles to work the keyjust like playing a piano. They were hand made in Japanby the Kitano Key Company. The solid brass base hasthe letters "KK" located in a circle logo on top of thekey. If you see one it maybe a good buy as only 200were made. A similar design is made by ON4MAC andis appropriately named, the "Mactapper Paddle."

THE DAY JAPAN BOMBED AMERICA By Norm Goya

On 9 September 1942, the I-25 class Japanese submarine was cruising in an easterlydirection raising its periscope occasionally as it neared the United States coastline.Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor less than a year before and the captain of the submarineknew that Americans were watching their coast line for ships and aircraft that mightattack the United States. The Japanese mission was to bomb the west coast withincendiaries in hope of starting a devastating forest fire.

The submarine was capable of carryingthree aircraft. The photo shows the firstactual plane ever to drop a bomb on theUnited States during WW-II. It was asubmarine based Glen. The aircraft carriedtwo incendiary 168 pound bombs and a crewof two. The Glen was a small float planewith a nine cylinder 340 hp radial engine.The plane was launched via catapult fromthe I-25 class Japanese submarine.

The Japanese invader was spotted by Ranger Keith Johnson, on top of a forestry fire look-out tower who could see the two bombs under the wing of the plane and knew that theywould be dropped. He grabbed his communications radio and called the Forest FireHeadquarters informing them of what he was watching unfold. The pilot activated therelease locks so that when he could pickle the bombs they would release. His instructionswere simple, fly at 500 feet, drop the bombs into the trees and circle once to see if theyhad started any fires and then head back to the submarine.The small float plane lined up with the surfaced submarine and landed gently on the ocean,then taxied to the sub. A long boom swung out from the stern. The crewman caught thecable and hooked it into the pickup attached to the roll over cage between the cockpits.The plane was swung onto the deck, the plane's crew folded the wings and tail, pushed itinto its hangar and secured the water tight doors. The I-25 submerged and headed backto Japan.This event, which caused no damage, marked the only time during World War II that anenemy plane had dropped bombs on the United States mainland. What the Japanese didn'tcount on was coastal fog, mist and heavy doses of rain made the forests so wet theysimply would not catch fire. A Memorial Plaque is located in Brookings, Oregon at thesite of the 1942 bombing.Fifty years later the Japanese pilot, who survived the war, returned to Oregon to helpdedicate a historic plaque at the exact spot where his two bombs had impacted. The elderlypilot then donated his ceremonial sword as a gesture of peace and closure of the bombingof Oregon in 1942. Courtesy of Les VK2LT


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THE ALL NEW GEMINI

Designed, manufactured and assembledentirely the UK, the GEMINI linear amplifieris an all new solid state linear amplifier with300W output available in 6, 4 and 2m versions.Designed to fill a market gap between the low

power outputs of transverters and smaller rigs and the 1kW plus amplifiers that not allusers want or can afford, the Gemini range combines low drive requirements withinstant on solid state performance. Furthermore GEMINI is a complete solutionincorporating a complete integral 50V linear power supply so no external PSU isrequired.First production will be a 4m (70MHz) version to be followed with 6m (50MHz) and 2m(144MHz) versions. The first public appearance of GEMINI was at the NationalHamfest , Newark in September 2013. Key features: • Solid state instant-on design • Integral 50V linear power supply • Advanced cooling design ensures high duty cycle operation for MGM modes with

low fan noise. • In-built sequencer • Full protection against overdrive, high SWR and over-temperature • Ultra compact all aluminium chassis measuring just 270w x 300d x 120h mm • Input drive levels from 3W – 25W can be specifiedFull details are available at www.linearamp.co.uk

MAKING SHUNTS AND MULTIPLIERSFOR UNKNOWN MOVING COIL METERS

+

_

RsRm

+

_

Rm

Rx

Rs = Rm xAm

At - Am_ Rm Rx =

VA

_ Rm

Current Shunt Am = FS Current of Meter At = FS Current Required Rm = Meter Resistance Rs = Required Shunt

Voltage MultiplierV = FSD Voltage RequiredA = FSD Current of MeterRm = Meter ResistanceRx = required Series Resistor

HOW TO FIND THE INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A METER

1. Disconnect R2 at point X2. Value of R1 must be large enough to limit current through the meter to FSD. Adjust R1 to obtain full scale deflection of the meter.3. Reconnect R2 and adjust the meter reading to half full scale.4. R2 is equal to resistance of meter. Disconnect R2 and measure on a

By Geoff VK2GL

M

R1R2

1.5 v+

By Geoff VK2GLsuitable Ohmmeter.

+

IT'S ON AGAIN!

Westlakes 3rd Car Boot Sale will be heldin the club grounds, York St. Teralba onSaturday 9 November starting at 9 am andfinishing when everyone has had enough.It is a FREE event - free to sellers, buyers,and onlookers.But there is more! The club will beproviding a FREE sausage sizzle from thebarbecue, so don't bring your lunch.What can you sell? Anything from potplants, to knitted doilies - and radio gear ofcourse.So drive in with a boot load of pre-lovedwhatever and set up under a shady tree.


10 10 10 10 Page 15 15 15 15 15

AA

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. - Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

The random wire antenna is probably one of the least expensive, easiest and cheapest HFantennas to use if you have a tuner and you want to get the "most" out of a length of"random" wire without having to pull out that calculator, doing the maths, getting the centreinsulator built or bought, running the feedline, and all the rest that goes with putting up amore elaborate antenna. All you need for a random wire antenna is some wire, your tuner,one or more supports up as high as you can get them to string the wire from the supportsto the tuner, at least one or two insulators and a little time.One single wire, no solder connections, very simple.... all the way from the tuner to theend support. That's it in a nutshell.....or is it? Many hams have tried till they are blue in theface to install the random wire antenna that works on most, if not all of the HF bands withterrible results.SWR usually is all over the place and the tuner will just not do it's job. Youcan get good loading and low swr on sometimes 2 or 3 bands, but one or more of the bandsthat you want, just will not cooperate with an SWR that can be adjusted with the "tuner".The tuner needs to "see" a fairly low swr to work within it's range, that the antenna hadto be NOT A HALF WAVE ON ANY FREQUENCY that we wanted to use, becausea half wave will give us a very high impedance and the resulting SWR into a 50 ohmtransmitter!The table below represents half wave lengths and multiples that you DO NOT WANT TOUSE! You have to stay away from a half wavelength on any frequency. Therefore, thefollowing numbers to avoid are (IN FEET): Frequency MHz 1/2 Wave 2nd Multiple 3rd Multiple 4th Multiple 1.9 984 3.8 492 7.2 260 10.1 184 14.2 132 18.1 104 21.3 88 24.9 76 28.5 64

738492246 369

195138

9978665748

246

92665244

130

3832

123654633

26 221916

So those are the numbers above that we have to stay as far away from as possible whenbuilding a long-wire antenna. Courtesy of Col VK2YP

BEWARE OF FOLLOWING LENGTHS

NOW IT'S THE TURN OF VK6

VI6WA100 a special event callsign, will be used to celebrate the centenary of organisedAmateur Radio in Western Australia. It was In October 1913, the Perth Radio Club(then changed to WIA VK6 Division a few years later) held it's first meeting. The callVI6WA100 will be on air from October 1 until the end of the year.

Above are photos of a W&G fv slide rule showing back and front. It comes from a collectorof slide rules who believes it has to do with rado/amateur radio. The front has scalesfor frequency and elevation, the rear has a different scale for height. Although thegeneral purpose seems clear, why a different height scale on either side and what doesthe Omega cursor do?The date of manufacture was perhaps in the 1960's or early 70's, it seems to be the onlyone that exists. No other collectors recall having seen one and no manual or docu-mentation seems to have been discovered. For a 'special' model to be made, presumablyseveral hundred would have been ordered. Can anyone throw some light on thismystery slide rule? VK2CW

DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS?

AMATEUR RADIO NSW BARBEQUEARNSW is having a barbeque on Sunday 10 November at 63 Quarry Road Dural.Gatesopen at 9.30 and entry is free to AR NSW members, others pay $10. Registration isrequired prior to entry and there will be a membership list at the gate Some traders will bein attendance and food will consist of a continuous sausage sizzle, hot dogs, tea, coffee,soft drinks and ice cream all free to AR NSW members.There will be four lecture presentations each of about 45 minutes on:- 1. HF antennas2. P25 3. Microwave 4. Software defined radio - all done by hams who have specialistknowledge in their fields Due to space restrictions, each presentation is limited to 30people. Registrations for these lecture presentations are filling fast so book early toconfirm a seat To register for the event including a particular presentation on yourpreferred topic, email [email protected] as we need t o know numbers for


Page 14

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

transceivers were sold during the company's lifetime. Swan’s entry into the amateur radioequipment market consisted of transceivers primarily designed for the newly popular singlesideband mode of voice transmission, and covered only those portions of the amateur radiobands where SSB could be used.Following single band only transceivers, Swan introduced the model 240, which coveredthree bands in one unit, and then the model 400, which covered the five popular amateurbands and had a VFO in a separate unit. Later, in the mid 1960's, Swan introduced the moreers. full-featured models 350 and 500

transceivers. The Swan 500 was amore costly version of the 350, withhigher output power and moreoperating features. Although theylacked the higher selectivity and tuningaccuracy of higher pricedtransceivers, each performed solidlyas a basic SSB station.They both used an outboard ACThe Swan 350

power supply with a built-in speaker, the model 117C and its variants. Improved versionsof the 350 and 500 continued to be released into the early 1970's and were Swan’s best sellingmodels. One of the distinguishing design features of that generation of Swan transceiverswas their dual rate, gear-driven tuning dial. A front knob provided slow rate tuning whilea metal, outer collar tuned much faster enabling rapid frequency changes across a band.Improved models of the two transceivers were periodically introduced well into the 1970'salong with accessories, including a remote VFO for separate control of receiver andtransmitter frequency and the Mark-I and Mark-II linear amplifiers.Swan merged with Cubic Corporation in 1967, and Johnson managed Swan as its subsidiaryuntil 1973. Johnson founded Atlas Radio in 1974. Atlas produced smaller solid state radiosfor mobile communications from vehicles. Cubic, Atlas, and Swan are no more.

Amateur Radio Newsline carries a report about a D-STAR net on 7.215 MHz. For those who have an interestin digital audio on the High Frequency bands might want totune their D-Star equipped transceiver to 7.215 MHz atnoon UTC. This to see if you can take part in a D-Star test

net operating most mornings.The net control is Brian Farrar, VK2AH, in Bulli, New South Wales, who says the bestcontact so far has been from his location to the city of Horsham, Victoria, about 550 milesaway. VK2AH says that net participants have tried other bands with not much success but40 metres seems promising. He also tries 40 metre D-Star at other times of the day as well.While operating he also monitors D-Star Reflector REF003 and does put out alerts when heis looking for D-Star contacts from his QTH

D-STAR ON 40 METRES IN VK

Ernst Lecher was an Austrian physicist who, from1909, was head of the First Institute of Physics inVienna. He is remembered for developing anapparatus called Lecher Wires or Lines to measurethe wavelength and frequency of electromagneticwaves. These Lecher wires are a pair of parallelwires that were used to measure the wavelength ofradio waves, mainly at UHF and microwavefrequencies.They form a short length of balanced transmissionline. When attached to a source of radio frequencypower such as a radio transmitter, the radio wavesform standing waves along their length. By sliding a

conductive bar that bridges the two wires along their length, the length of the wavescan be physically measured. The pair of parallel uninsulated wires or rods held a precisedistance apart. The separation is not critical but should be a small fraction of thewavelength; it ranges from less than a centimetre to over 10 cm.The length of the wires depends on the wavelength involved; lines used for measurementare generally several wavelengths long. The uniform spacing of the wires makes thema transmission line, conducting radio waves at a constant speed very close to the speedof light. One end of the rods is connected to the source of RF power, such as the outputof a radio transmitter. At the other end the rods are connected together with a conductivebar between them. This short circuiting termination reflects the waves. The wavesreflected from the short-circuited end interfere with the outgoing waves, creating asinusoidal standing wave of voltage and current on the line. The voltage goes to zero atnodes located at multiples of half a wavelength from the end, with maxima called antinodeslocated midway between the nodes.However, better methods of frequency measurement are available today, and Lecherlines are now more often used as components in radio frequency equipment suchas television sets, serving as resonant circuits, narrow band filters, and impedancematching devices. They are used at frequencies between HF/VHF where lumpedcomponents are used, and UHF/SHF where resonant cavities are more practical.

LECHER WIRES

seating and catering. Leave your name, callsign and a contact number The address again,[email protected] Entry to the lecture presentations is sequential receipt ofregistration, that is, first in best dressed As a special bonus to our members, in theafternoon, we will be raffling a beautiful pair of strippers lf any member has recordingequipment and is prepared to organise a recording of the lecture presentations for someof our country members, would they please contact the office on 9651 1489 and leavecontact details. From Al Hirschel VK2KAM AR NSW event commander


Page 13

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine Nonember 2013

WHO OR WHAT IS THE IARU?

ARRL. The IARU is a federation of national amateur radio associations in more than160 countries of which the WIA is one and is the international organization recognizedby the ITU to represent the interests of the more than three million amateur licensees inthe world of which each of us are one.

For a start, it was created in Paris, France. Its full title is theInternational Amateur Radio Union and it has been thewatchdog and spokesman for the world Amateur Radiocommunity since 1925. The IARU Constitution was lastamended in 1989. It organizes the Union into three RegionalOrganizations. Australia is in Region 3. These regionscorrespond to the three radio regions of the InternationalTelecommunication Union (ITU).The duty to discharge its responsibilities under the IARUConstitution is borne by the host society which is currently the

WELL IF THAT DON'T "CLIPS ALL"

That's how the brand name of the firm, Clipsal, manufacturer of electrical componentsand especially Morse keys got it's name - because the firm's products "clips all."Clipsal was established by Alfred Gerardin Adelaide, Australia in 1920 and wasresponsible for the invention of the firstall-Australian electrical switch in 1930. Itwas electrical plastic and bakelitecomponents where Clipsal made itsname and money. It sponsored all typesof sporting events such as the Clipsal 500car race.Our interest in Clipsal lies in the largerange of Morse keys made at the Adelaide factory. The best known of these is the onepictured - the Post Office Pattern key. It was based on the key used by British GPOTelegraphists and was virtually indestructible. The metal parts are all solid brass.Many war-time keys were made by Clipsal. These are marked on the base with "D arrowD" (which stood for Defence Department) under maker's mark, Clipsal. The metal partswere nickle plated and the bases Bakelite. Most of these keys seem to be dated 1942.

THE COFFEE CAN ANTENNABy Dave KG0ZZ

coffee can, or other similar size tin can, in place of using radials.This project was the firstof several experiments using a vertical antenna element and some sort of metal groundplane surface. I knew beforehand that quite frequently home-brew ground plane antennas

tend to be a little taller than the 1/4 wave thatthey start out to be. After trying antennas fordifferent bands, I found that each time theantenna was high in frequency and that thevertical element needed to be made longer. Thisseemed to be a typical characteristic for avertical antenna using a smaller than normalcounterpoise.After mounting the antenna outdoors atop a 10'section of PVC pipe, the antenna then workedhigher in frequency than as tested indoors. Thefinal length of the vertical element came out tobe 25-1/4". By the way, when using the number1005 to calculate wavelength the vertical elementworks out to be about one half of 5/8 wave.For a more rigid vertical element you may use apiece of copper or aluminum welding rod insteadof the 12 gauge house wire. If a wire coat hanger

is long enough you can also try that. Soldering the steel coat hanger wire to the SO-239might not be as easy as soldering copper wire but an uninsulated butt end connecter canbe added between the UHF connector and the wire element and filled with solder. Youcan also sand, prime and paint the outside of the can if desired to help prevent rust andimprove the look of the antenna.Tuning is by either lengthening or shortening the vertical element. When I found thatmy original vertical length needed to be longer I used an uninsulated butt end connecterto splice another small section of wire on the end of the element. Making a new verticalelement was not necessary but of course one solid piece of wire looks best and it only takesa few minutes to make a longer replacement.

The 2 metre coffee can antenna is easy tomake and you will make many contacts withit. The coffee can antenna is actually aground plane antenna made using a large

Swan Electronics was a manufacturer of amateur radio gearlocated in California, USA. The founder, Herbert Johnson,W6QKI founded Swan Engineering in 1960. The more expensiveCollins KWM-2 was the only other US competing transceiverat the time. Swan Engineering at one point, was manufacturingmore than 400 radios per month and more than 80,000

A SWAN SONG

NEW MEMBERSJoining Westlakes last month were Nigel Rowe VK2FNT who hails from Fassifern, PaulVK2BPL from Edgeworth and Lionel Stead from Waratah.Welcome to the club, Nigel,Paul, and Lionel.


Page 12

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine Nonember 2013

WHO OR WHAT IS THE IARU?

ARRL. The IARU is a federation of national amateur radio associations in more than160 countries of which the WIA is one and is the international organization recognizedby the ITU to represent the interests of the more than three million amateur licensees inthe world of which each of us are one.

For a start, it was created in Paris, France. Its full title is theInternational Amateur Radio Union and it has been thewatchdog and spokesman for the world Amateur Radiocommunity since 1925. The IARU Constitution was lastamended in 1989. It organizes the Union into three RegionalOrganizations. Australia is in Region 3. These regionscorrespond to the three radio regions of the InternationalTelecommunication Union (ITU).The duty to discharge its responsibilities under the IARUConstitution is borne by the host society which is currently the

WELL IF THAT DON'T "CLIPS ALL"

That's how the brand name of the firm, Clipsal, manufacturer of electrical componentsand especially Morse keys got it's name - because the firm's products "clips all."Clipsal was established by Alfred Gerardin Adelaide, Australia in 1920 and wasresponsible for the invention of the firstall-Australian electrical switch in 1930. Itwas electrical plastic and bakelitecomponents where Clipsal made itsname and money. It sponsored all typesof sporting events such as the Clipsal 500car race.Our interest in Clipsal lies in the largerange of Morse keys made at the Adelaide factory. The best known of these is the onepictured - the Post Office Pattern key. It was based on the key used by British GPOTelegraphists and was virtually indestructible. The metal parts are all solid brass.Many war-time keys were made by Clipsal. These are marked on the base with "D arrowD" (which stood for Defence Department) under maker's mark, Clipsal. The metal partswere nickle plated and the bases Bakelite. Most of these keys seem to be dated 1942.

THE COFFEE CAN ANTENNABy Dave KG0ZZ

coffee can, or other similar size tin can, in place of using radials.This project was the firstof several experiments using a vertical antenna element and some sort of metal groundplane surface. I knew beforehand that quite frequently home-brew ground plane antennas

tend to be a little taller than the 1/4 wave thatthey start out to be. After trying antennas fordifferent bands, I found that each time theantenna was high in frequency and that thevertical element needed to be made longer. Thisseemed to be a typical characteristic for avertical antenna using a smaller than normalcounterpoise.After mounting the antenna outdoors atop a 10'section of PVC pipe, the antenna then workedhigher in frequency than as tested indoors. Thefinal length of the vertical element came out tobe 25-1/4". By the way, when using the number1005 to calculate wavelength the vertical elementworks out to be about one half of 5/8 wave.For a more rigid vertical element you may use apiece of copper or aluminum welding rod insteadof the 12 gauge house wire. If a wire coat hanger

is long enough you can also try that. Soldering the steel coat hanger wire to the SO-239might not be as easy as soldering copper wire but an uninsulated butt end connecter canbe added between the UHF connector and the wire element and filled with solder. Youcan also sand, prime and paint the outside of the can if desired to help prevent rust andimprove the look of the antenna.Tuning is by either lengthening or shortening the vertical element. When I found thatmy original vertical length needed to be longer I used an uninsulated butt end connecterto splice another small section of wire on the end of the element. Making a new verticalelement was not necessary but of course one solid piece of wire looks best and it only takesa few minutes to make a longer replacement.

The 2 metre coffee can antenna is easy tomake and you will make many contacts withit. The coffee can antenna is actually aground plane antenna made using a large

Swan Electronics was a manufacturer of amateur radio gearlocated in California, USA. The founder, Herbert Johnson,W6QKI founded Swan Engineering in 1960. The more expensiveCollins KWM-2 was the only other US competing transceiverat the time. Swan Engineering at one point, was manufacturingmore than 400 radios per month and more than 80,000

A SWAN SONG

NEW MEMBERSJoining Westlakes last month were Nigel Rowe VK2FNT who hails from Fassifern, PaulVK2BPL from Edgeworth and Lionel Stead from Waratah.Welcome to the club, Nigel,Paul, and Lionel.


Page 11

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

transceivers were sold during the company's lifetime. Swan’s entry into the amateur radioequipment market consisted of transceivers primarily designed for the newly popular singlesideband mode of voice transmission, and covered only those portions of the amateur radiobands where SSB could be used.Following single band only transceivers, Swan introduced the model 240, which coveredthree bands in one unit, and then the model 400, which covered the five popular amateurbands and had a VFO in a separate unit. Later, in the mid 1960's, Swan introduced the moreers. full-featured models 350 and 500

transceivers. The Swan 500 was amore costly version of the 350, withhigher output power and moreoperating features. Although theylacked the higher selectivity and tuningaccuracy of higher pricedtransceivers, each performed solidlyas a basic SSB station.They both used an outboard ACThe Swan 350

power supply with a built-in speaker, the model 117C and its variants. Improved versionsof the 350 and 500 continued to be released into the early 1970's and were Swan’s best sellingmodels. One of the distinguishing design features of that generation of Swan transceiverswas their dual rate, gear-driven tuning dial. A front knob provided slow rate tuning whilea metal, outer collar tuned much faster enabling rapid frequency changes across a band.Improved models of the two transceivers were periodically introduced well into the 1970'salong with accessories, including a remote VFO for separate control of receiver andtransmitter frequency and the Mark-I and Mark-II linear amplifiers.Swan merged with Cubic Corporation in 1967, and Johnson managed Swan as its subsidiaryuntil 1973. Johnson founded Atlas Radio in 1974. Atlas produced smaller solid state radiosfor mobile communications from vehicles. Cubic, Atlas, and Swan are no more.

Amateur Radio Newsline carries a report about a D-STAR net on 7.215 MHz. For those who have an interestin digital audio on the High Frequency bands might want totune their D-Star equipped transceiver to 7.215 MHz atnoon UTC. This to see if you can take part in a D-Star test

net operating most mornings.The net control is Brian Farrar, VK2AH, in Bulli, New South Wales, who says the bestcontact so far has been from his location to the city of Horsham, Victoria, about 550 milesaway. VK2AH says that net participants have tried other bands with not much success but40 metres seems promising. He also tries 40 metre D-Star at other times of the day as well.While operating he also monitors D-Star Reflector REF003 and does put out alerts when heis looking for D-Star contacts from his QTH

D-STAR ON 40 METRES IN VK

Ernst Lecher was an Austrian physicist who, from1909, was head of the First Institute of Physics inVienna. He is remembered for developing anapparatus called Lecher Wires or Lines to measurethe wavelength and frequency of electromagneticwaves. These Lecher wires are a pair of parallelwires that were used to measure the wavelength ofradio waves, mainly at UHF and microwavefrequencies.They form a short length of balanced transmissionline. When attached to a source of radio frequencypower such as a radio transmitter, the radio wavesform standing waves along their length. By sliding a

conductive bar that bridges the two wires along their length, the length of the wavescan be physically measured. The pair of parallel uninsulated wires or rods held a precisedistance apart. The separation is not critical but should be a small fraction of thewavelength; it ranges from less than a centimetre to over 10 cm.The length of the wires depends on the wavelength involved; lines used for measurementare generally several wavelengths long. The uniform spacing of the wires makes thema transmission line, conducting radio waves at a constant speed very close to the speedof light. One end of the rods is connected to the source of RF power, such as the outputof a radio transmitter. At the other end the rods are connected together with a conductivebar between them. This short circuiting termination reflects the waves. The wavesreflected from the short-circuited end interfere with the outgoing waves, creating asinusoidal standing wave of voltage and current on the line. The voltage goes to zero atnodes located at multiples of half a wavelength from the end, with maxima called antinodeslocated midway between the nodes.However, better methods of frequency measurement are available today, and Lecherlines are now more often used as components in radio frequency equipment suchas television sets, serving as resonant circuits, narrow band filters, and impedancematching devices. They are used at frequencies between HF/VHF where lumpedcomponents are used, and UHF/SHF where resonant cavities are more practical.

LECHER WIRES

seating and catering. Leave your name, callsign and a contact number The address again,[email protected] Entry to the lecture presentations is sequential receipt ofregistration, that is, first in best dressed As a special bonus to our members, in theafternoon, we will be raffling a beautiful pair of strippers lf any member has recordingequipment and is prepared to organise a recording of the lecture presentations for someof our country members, would they please contact the office on 9651 1489 and leavecontact details. From Al Hirschel VK2KAM AR NSW event commander


Page 10 10 10 10 10 15 15 15 15

AA

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. - Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013

The random wire antenna is probably one of the least expensive, easiest and cheapest HFantennas to use if you have a tuner and you want to get the "most" out of a length of"random" wire without having to pull out that calculator, doing the maths, getting the centreinsulator built or bought, running the feedline, and all the rest that goes with putting up amore elaborate antenna. All you need for a random wire antenna is some wire, your tuner,one or more supports up as high as you can get them to string the wire from the supportsto the tuner, at least one or two insulators and a little time.One single wire, no solder connections, very simple.... all the way from the tuner to theend support. That's it in a nutshell.....or is it? Many hams have tried till they are blue in theface to install the random wire antenna that works on most, if not all of the HF bands withterrible results.SWR usually is all over the place and the tuner will just not do it's job. Youcan get good loading and low swr on sometimes 2 or 3 bands, but one or more of the bandsthat you want, just will not cooperate with an SWR that can be adjusted with the "tuner".The tuner needs to "see" a fairly low swr to work within it's range, that the antenna hadto be NOT A HALF WAVE ON ANY FREQUENCY that we wanted to use, becausea half wave will give us a very high impedance and the resulting SWR into a 50 ohmtransmitter!The table below represents half wave lengths and multiples that you DO NOT WANT TOUSE! You have to stay away from a half wavelength on any frequency. Therefore, thefollowing numbers to avoid are (IN FEET): Frequency MHz 1/2 Wave 2nd Multiple 3rd Multiple 4th Multiple 1.9 984 3.8 492 7.2 260 10.1 184 14.2 132 18.1 104 21.3 88 24.9 76 28.5 64

738492246 369

195138

9978665748

246

92665244

130

3832

123654633

26 221916

So those are the numbers above that we have to stay as far away from as possible whenbuilding a long-wire antenna. Courtesy of Col VK2YP

BEWARE OF FOLLOWING LENGTHS

NOW IT'S THE TURN OF VK6

VI6WA100 a special event callsign, will be used to celebrate the centenary of organisedAmateur Radio in Western Australia. It was In October 1913, the Perth Radio Club(then changed to WIA VK6 Division a few years later) held it's first meeting. The callVI6WA100 will be on air from October 1 until the end of the year.

Above are photos of a W&G fv slide rule showing back and front. It comes from a collectorof slide rules who believes it has to do with rado/amateur radio. The front has scalesfor frequency and elevation, the rear has a different scale for height. Although thegeneral purpose seems clear, why a different height scale on either side and what doesthe Omega cursor do?The date of manufacture was perhaps in the 1960's or early 70's, it seems to be the onlyone that exists. No other collectors recall having seen one and no manual or docu-mentation seems to have been discovered. For a 'special' model to be made, presumablyseveral hundred would have been ordered. Can anyone throw some light on thismystery slide rule? VK2CW

DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS?

AMATEUR RADIO NSW BARBEQUEARNSW is having a barbeque on Sunday 10 November at 63 Quarry Road Dural.Gatesopen at 9.30 and entry is free to AR NSW members, others pay $10. Registration isrequired prior to entry and there will be a membership list at the gate Some traders will bein attendance and food will consist of a continuous sausage sizzle, hot dogs, tea, coffee,soft drinks and ice cream all free to AR NSW members.There will be four lecture presentations each of about 45 minutes on:- 1. HF antennas2. P25 3. Microwave 4. Software defined radio - all done by hams who have specialistknowledge in their fields Due to space restrictions, each presentation is limited to 30people. Registrations for these lecture presentations are filling fast so book early toconfirm a seat To register for the event including a particular presentation on yourpreferred topic, email [email protected] as we need t o know numbers for


16 16 16 16 Page 9 9 9 9 9


THE ALL NEW GEMINI

Designed, manufactured and assembledentirely the UK, the GEMINI linear amplifieris an all new solid state linear amplifier with300W output available in 6, 4 and 2m versions.Designed to fill a market gap between the low

power outputs of transverters and smaller rigs and the 1kW plus amplifiers that not allusers want or can afford, the Gemini range combines low drive requirements withinstant on solid state performance. Furthermore GEMINI is a complete solutionincorporating a complete integral 50V linear power supply so no external PSU isrequired.First production will be a 4m (70MHz) version to be followed with 6m (50MHz) and 2m(144MHz) versions. The first public appearance of GEMINI was at the NationalHamfest , Newark in September 2013. Key features: • Solid state instant-on design • Integral 50V linear power supply • Advanced cooling design ensures high duty cycle operation for MGM modes with

low fan noise. • In-built sequencer • Full protection against overdrive, high SWR and over-temperature • Ultra compact all aluminium chassis measuring just 270w x 300d x 120h mm • Input drive levels from 3W – 25W can be specifiedFull details are available at www.linearamp.co.uk

MAKING SHUNTS AND MULTIPLIERSFOR UNKNOWN MOVING COIL METERS

+

_

RsRm

+

_

Rm

Rx

Rs = Rm xAm

At - Am_ Rm Rx =

VA

_ Rm

Current Shunt Am = FS Current of Meter At = FS Current Required Rm = Meter Resistance Rs = Required Shunt

Voltage MultiplierV = FSD Voltage RequiredA = FSD Current of MeterRm = Meter ResistanceRx = required Series Resistor

HOW TO FIND THE INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A METER

1. Disconnect R2 at point X2. Value of R1 must be large enough to limit current through the meter to FSD. Adjust R1 to obtain full scale deflection of the meter.3. Reconnect R2 and adjust the meter reading to half full scale.4. R2 is equal to resistance of meter. Disconnect R2 and measure on a

By Geoff VK2GL

M

R1R2

1.5 v+

By Geoff VK2GLsuitable Ohmmeter.

+

IT'S ON AGAIN!

Westlakes 3rd Car Boot Sale will be heldin the club grounds, York St. Teralba onSaturday 9 November starting at 9 am andfinishing when everyone has had enough.It is a FREE event - free to sellers, buyers,and onlookers.But there is more! The club will beproviding a FREE sausage sizzle from thebarbecue, so don't bring your lunch.What can you sell? Anything from potplants, to knitted doilies - and radio gear ofcourse.So drive in with a boot load of pre-lovedwhatever and set up under a shady tree.


17 17 17 17 Page 8 8 8 8 8


The detection of weak radio signals is a ubiquitous problem in the modern world.Everything from NMR imaging and radio astronomy to navigation and communicationdepends on picking up faint radio signals that would have been undetectable just a fewdecades ago.That’s why many groups are racing to find better ways to spot these signalsand to process them using state-of-the-art techniques.Denmark physicists have demonstrated a device that detects ultra-weak radio wavesin an entirely new way converting radio waves into light signals, which can then betransmitted and analysed using standard optical tools. The new approach is simple inprinciple.The device consists of a thin membrane of silicon nitride coated with a mirror-like layerof aluminium. This nanomembrane is suspended above an electrode forming a capacitorwhich is itself part of a standard LC-circuit that picks up radio waves at its resonantfrequency. When this happens, the resonating circuit causes the nanomembrane tovibrate. By bouncing a laser beam off the nanomembrane causes an optical phase shiftthat can be measured using standard optical techniques.The result is that the nanomem-brane converts the faint radio waves it picks up into optical signals.This approach has significant advantages over traditional radio receivers. The big problemwith current methods for detecting faint radio waves is that noise generated by heat canswamp the signal. The only way to get around this is by cooling the detection equipment,a process that significantly increases the complexity, size and cost. The advantage ofconverting the radio signals into a resonant mechanical vibration is that the random effectof heat becomes negligible. So the reflected light picks out the radio signal with littleof the noise that swamps conventional radio receivers.That should significantly simplify this kind of work. Looking further ahead, there’s noreason why this kind of approach might not have even broader application, perhaps forordinary mobile phone communication and for navigation. The ability to detect faintersignals could make these devices smaller and less power hungry. From MIT Review - October 2013

DETECTING RADIO WAVES WITH LIGHT

THE KITANO PADDLE KEY

This miniature paddle has black horizontal plasticpaddles. You push down on the paddles to work the keyjust like playing a piano. They were hand made in Japanby the Kitano Key Company. The solid brass base hasthe letters "KK" located in a circle logo on top of thekey. If you see one it maybe a good buy as only 200were made. A similar design is made by ON4MAC andis appropriately named, the "Mactapper Paddle."

THE DAY JAPAN BOMBED AMERICA By Norm Goya

On 9 September 1942, the I-25 class Japanese submarine was cruising in an easterlydirection raising its periscope occasionally as it neared the United States coastline.Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor less than a year before and the captain of the submarineknew that Americans were watching their coast line for ships and aircraft that mightattack the United States. The Japanese mission was to bomb the west coast withincendiaries in hope of starting a devastating forest fire.

The submarine was capable of carryingthree aircraft. The photo shows the firstactual plane ever to drop a bomb on theUnited States during WW-II. It was asubmarine based Glen. The aircraft carriedtwo incendiary 168 pound bombs and a crewof two. The Glen was a small float planewith a nine cylinder 340 hp radial engine.The plane was launched via catapult fromthe I-25 class Japanese submarine.

The Japanese invader was spotted by Ranger Keith Johnson, on top of a forestry fire look-out tower who could see the two bombs under the wing of the plane and knew that theywould be dropped. He grabbed his communications radio and called the Forest FireHeadquarters informing them of what he was watching unfold. The pilot activated therelease locks so that when he could pickle the bombs they would release. His instructionswere simple, fly at 500 feet, drop the bombs into the trees and circle once to see if theyhad started any fires and then head back to the submarine.The small float plane lined up with the surfaced submarine and landed gently on the ocean,then taxied to the sub. A long boom swung out from the stern. The crewman caught thecable and hooked it into the pickup attached to the roll over cage between the cockpits.The plane was swung onto the deck, the plane's crew folded the wings and tail, pushed itinto its hangar and secured the water tight doors. The I-25 submerged and headed backto Japan.This event, which caused no damage, marked the only time during World War II that anenemy plane had dropped bombs on the United States mainland. What the Japanese didn'tcount on was coastal fog, mist and heavy doses of rain made the forests so wet theysimply would not catch fire. A Memorial Plaque is located in Brookings, Oregon at thesite of the 1942 bombing.Fifty years later the Japanese pilot, who survived the war, returned to Oregon to helpdedicate a historic plaque at the exact spot where his two bombs had impacted. The elderlypilot then donated his ceremonial sword as a gesture of peace and closure of the bombingof Oregon in 1942. Courtesy of Les VK2LT


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factor reduces the required physical wire length to 140m.The antenna wire is supportedjust above the ground. The available information suggests that the height above groundhas little impact on the performance if the height is less than 0.05*wavelength (8m foroperation on 160m). Our site has a number of old rural fence posts about 1m high. Thereare two rows, one running towards the east and the other towards the south. These postshave been utilised with some additional fibreglass supports where the fence posts aremissing. Two 140m long wires were run along the two fence lines. Each far end isterminated with a 470 ohm resistor and a ground stake.The radio end of the antenna is fitted with an impedance matching transformer.The common mode isolation provided by the two winding transformer is important.


During the past few years Marcel VK2FMDB and I have been participating in contestsfrom an industrial site at Tomago. The site, despite being industrial, has electrical noiselevels (QRN) that are relatively quiet on weekends. High QRN levels on 160m and 80mcertainly discourage operation on these bands. We have also observed that wet or highhumidity atmospheric conditions cause the noise levels to rise significantly, mostly due todischarge on the high voltage transmission lines feeding power to the Tomago Aluminiumsmelter.The challenge is to find a method to deal with high noise levels. Some research indicatedthat Beverage antennas would provide improved receive operation on the lower frequencybands. Beverage antennas offer reduced noise and improved signal to noise ratios. Aninternet search will uncover a large quantity of information about the Beverage antennas,their history, how they function and various implementations. Beverage antennas have bothbroadband and directional antenna characteristics. They are also low efficiency antennasthat are not suited for transmission.

EXPERIMENTING WITH A BEVERAGE ANTENNA By Craig VK2ACH

Favoured Direction

1 to 2 Wavelengths in Free Space

Favoured Direction

470R450 Ohm

75 OhmCoax

to RadioClassic

Beverage Antenna

Fig 1A Beverage antenna isat least one fullwavelength long at thelowest operatingfrequency. In our casethis is 160m. Fortunatelythe site has a large areaof open fields, hence theopportunity to do someexperimenting. Using aninsulated wire (1.5mm2)with a 0.88 velocity

Basic construction.Figure: 1


millimetre telescopes such as the single-dish James Clerk Maxwell Telescope or existinginterferometer networks such as the Submillimetre Array or the Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) Plateau de Bure facility.The antennas can bemoved across the desert plateau over distances from 150 m to 16 km, which will giveALMA a powerful variable "zoom", similar in its concept to that employed at theVery Large Array site in New Mexico, U.S.The high sensitivity is mainly achievedthrough the large numbers of telescopes that will make up the array.The telescopes are provided by the European, North American and East Asian partnersof ALMA. The American and European partners have each placed orders for twenty-five 12-metre diameter antennas, that will compose the main array. East Asia iscontributing 16 antennas (four 12-metre diameter and twelve 7-metre diameter antennas)in the form of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) which is also part of the enhancedALMA.By using smaller antennas than the main ALMA array, larger fields of viewcan be imaged at a given frequency using ACA. Moving the antennas closer togetherwill enable the imaging of sources of larger angular extent. The ACA will work togetherwith the main array in order to enhance the latter's wide-field imaging capability.

WHACKYDOO!!

Behold, it's a McDonald's Pendograph and it is now in my modest collection oftelegraph keys thanks to Ray VK2ARY/ZL. He was kind enough to give it to me atthe last Westlakes Field Day. Ray, being an ex-PMG Telegraphist knows about thesethings. Prior to this, I had never seen one except in photos, let alone own one.This example still has the original metal plate that reads, "Mcdonalds Pendograph -Adelaide SA" and was designed by Albert McDonald, a telegraphist himself, in 1908. Thevibrating arm is vertical and wobbles sideways sending automatic dits when the left paddleis pressed while dahs are manually sent on the right paddle. I have had a Morse contactor two using the device connected to my Yaesu 817.Well done Albert and thank you Ray. VK2CW


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forget about communicating with them. This is not to say that we couldn't followprogress reports, but by the time we had replied, our advice would be totally irrelevant.Unless of course, we manage to break the light barrier - something physics currently seesas impossible

LEAPING CATERPILLARS!

But only in one direction - south east! Anunusual caterpillar, Calindoea frifascialis,which is native to Vietnam, jumps in a piston-like motion. It had been thought that thecaterpillars always jumped toward the sun,even in a darkened room meaning that thelittle dears somehow knew the sun's positionin the sky.

Researchers at the Ontario University conducted tests and found that the leaps were infact always in a southerly direction. But as Ontario is in the northern hemisphere and thesun is always to the south, were the caterpillars receiving 'sun signals' or not? A bunch ofthe little green grubs were taken to to South America where their leaps remainedsoutherly even though the sun was now to the north.Back in Ontario, more research showed that the jumps were more or less always southeast. Could these caterpillars be guided by the earth's magnetic field? A compass wasplaced in the caterpillars' container and magnets arranged so that the compass was pulled180 degrees. Now the little demons jumped north west. But there is more. A deadcaterpillar was dried out like a stick and placed on a delicate rotating mechanism. Spin itas many times as you may and it always comes to rest with its head facing south east.

Our tests demonstrated that the common mode noise levels on this long wire are very high.The transformer has a 6 turn primary (antenna) & 2 turn secondary (9:1 impedance ratio)to provide a match to the 50 ohm coax cable to the radio. A BN73-202 binocular core wasused for the transformer. The selection of the 73 mix high relative permeability (mu=2,500)ferrite core is also important. The well-known design rule for an RF transformer requiresthe reactance (at the lowest operating frequency) of the smallest winding to be more thanfour times the load impedance (50 ohms in this case), i.e. greater than 200 ohms. The 73mix core high mu value permits this reactance/inductance to be achieved with just twoturns on the BN73-202 core. The measured inductance (2 turns) was 65uH, hence XL =2*pi*1.8MHz*65uH = 735ohms.

Figure 2: SWR Plot – Spanning 160m, 80m & 40mSWR

5

4

3

21.5

4.900 MHz 8.1001.700The SWR plot for the 140m long Beverage antenna demonstrates the broadbandcharacteristics of this antenna. The SWR plot from 160m to 40m is flat with less than 1.5:1over the entire frequency range. The SWR was measured using a RigExpert AA-54antenna analyser. The yellow strips indicate the amateur bands. This is impressive. Theantenna looks like a well terminated transmission line.The Beverage antenna is not resonant and it is classified as a travelling wave antenna.Agood quality high pass filter (1.8MHz up) filter is used to reject BC AM transmissions,noting that the BC antennas are visible across the Hunter River and less than 4 km away.The Beverage receiving antennas have been tested on several occasions as well as duringthe 2013 80m Transtasman and the2013 RD contests.A 12V changeover relay poweredvia the coax cable and a bias tee enables remote switching between the south and theeast Beverage antennas. A coax relay provides the switching between a vertical and theBeverage antennas on receive. A simple three position rotary switch selects the antennas.The experience is more pleasant listening on 160m, 80m and 40m. The improved signalto noise ratio certainly lifts the signal readability. The directivity is also very noticeable.Switching to the east pointing Beverage pulls the ZLs out of the mud.

The Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) is an astronomicalinterferometer of radio telescopes in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. Since a highand dry site is crucial to millimetre wavelength operations, the array has been constructedon the Chajnantor plateau at 5000 metres altitude, near Llano de Chajnantor Observatoryand Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. Consisting of 66 12-metre and 7-metre diameterradio telescopes observing at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths, ALMA isexpected to provide insight on star birth during the early universe and detailed imagingof local star and planet formation.ALMA is an international partnership between Europe, the United States, Canada, EastAsia and the Republic of Chile. Costing more than a billion US dollars, it is the mostexpensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observationsin the second half of 2011 and the first images were released to the press on 3 October 2011.The array has been fully operational since March 2013. The initial ALMA array will becomposed of 66 high-precision antennas, and operate at wavelengths of 0.3 to 9.6 mm.The array will have much higher sensitivity and higher resolution than existing sub-

ALL ABOUT ALMA


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In September 2004, Sedgemoor District Council adopted a local development plan thatincluded the site of Portishead Radio for future housing development. In October 2007,planning permission for a development of 190 houses and flats on the site was granted, andshortly afterwards the old radio station buildings were demolished.And that, as they say, was that. Goodbye GKA.

WHAT'S THE DELAY?

As we know, distance communications by radio arecarried by electromagnetic radiation - commonly byradio waves, but increasingly by light. The speed ofpropagation of these carriers is about 300,000kilometres per second. Although this is fast, thedelay already causes problems in some day-to-daycommunication. Contemplation of interplanetarytravel shows serious limitations on communications..The table below indicates the communication delay that occurs in a one-way transmission.

Circuit Distance Delay Time HF link (UK-NZ) ~20,000 km 67 ms Submarine cable(UK-NZ) ~20,000 km 67 ms Geosat Link (US-Aus) ~80,000 km 0.25 s Earth-Moon 384,000 km 1h.3 s Earth-Mars 55 - 378 million km 3h.21 minutes Earth-Jupiter 590 - 970 million km 33h. 53 minutes Earth-Pluto ~5800 million km 5 hours Earth-Nearest Star ~9.5 million million km 4 yearsOnly the first two circuits listed have a delay that is barely noticeable in a two-wayvoice conversation. On telephone calls between continents that are routed via ageosynchronous satellite, the time between when one person stops speaking andthen hears the other person reply is half a second. This can cause immense confusionif the other person starts speaking before the first has finished. It can take severalsentences before the confusion is finally sorted out. Two-way digital communicationbetween machines at high data rates suffers from this problem even more acutely,and protocols must be established which prevent conflicts arising.Communication with a future lunar base will be worse, and for voice communications willnecessitate an "over to you" simplex radio communications type approach. Two-wayinteractive communication with any station beyond the moon is basically impossible.Although there are no manned bases currently on other planets, this delay is presently ofgreat concern to people who send remotely controlled spacecraft to Mars. There is nopossibility of detecting an incipient vehicular crash in time to do anything about it. Thevehicle must thus be given a very large degree of autonomous control.If we were to ever establish colonies on planets around other stars, we can essentially

Figure 3: Beverage Antenna – 40m

Figure 4: Vertical Antenna – 40m

The results are very good. Receive signal comparisons between our vertical transmittingantenna and the beverage receive antennas show the noise floor is about 20dB lower onthe Beverage antennas. This is 3 “S” points down! So S9 noise is reduced to S6. Thereceived signals are also down slightly but typically only about 3dB. An Elecraft P3Panadapter has been used for the comparative signal measurements.Christoph Kunze, DK6ED, presented an interesting Beverage antenna article in QEX,July/August 2012. Christopher discusses the basic theory of operation with some EZNECmodelling. He also presents a shortened version of the classic Beverage antenna.The focus of our experiments was to gain some experience and understanding of theBeverage antenna performance. The results confirm the published characteristics. Thecontest experience has demonstrated the advantage of the Beverage receive antenna.The 2013 RD contest conditions deteriorated on the Saturday evening as an offshore stormmoved north. There were plenty of on-air comments about the QRN. The Beveragereceive antenna provided a comfortable QRN level despite the lightning crashes. Craig VK2ACH / 5W0CW / V63CWH Marcel VK2FMDB

It is a china coffee cup with a POST OFFICECOMMUNICATIONS AUSTRALIA logo on one side.Underneath stamped John Maddock & Sons - Made inEngland. The cup was from the PMG Cafeteria which wassituated on the 9th floor of the Sydney GPO. The cafeteriawas patronised by telegraphists from the Central TelegraphOffice located on the fourth floor.

HERE IS A RARE ITEM


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next page

Steve VK2LW


PORTISHEAD RADIO GKA

Portishead Radio (callsign GKA)was a radio station in England thatprovided worldwide maritimecommunications and long-rangeaeronautical communications from1928 until 2000. It was the world'slargest and busiest radiotelephonystation. In 1974, there were 154radio operators who handled over20 million words per year.The radio station's control centre,which was based at Highbridge,

near Burnham-on-Sea, opened in July 1928. It was constructed by the Marconi WirelessTelegraph Company and operated by the General Post Office until the privatisation ofthe post office in 1981, the station was operated by British Telecommunications. By 1936,the station already had a staff of 60 radio officers who handled over 3 million words ofradio traffic per year.The station played a vital role during World War II in maintaining communications withthe British merchant navy and with patrol aircraft in the North Atlantic. During thewar, all communications with ships were one-way in order to avoid revealing the ships'locations to the enemy. The station was short staffed because many staff were awayon secondments to various government services, such as operating other radio stations andtraining new radio officers to work in naval convoys. In 1943, the workload was so greatthat a Royal Navy officer and 18 telegraphists were brought in from HMS Flowerdown,a Naval Shore Wireless Service station near Winchester.By the end of the 1980s, satellite communications had started to take an increasinglylarge share of the station's business, and a program of severe rationalisation wasstarted, leading to the closure of two transmitting sites at Leafield and Ongar. In thestation's penultimate year to March 1999, there were on average per month 571 radiotelegrams, 533 radio telephone calls, and 4,001 radio telex calls.In 1998, British Telecom Maritime RadioServices announced its planned closure ofPortishead Radio. The long-range services(HF bands 3-30 MHz) ceased at midnight on31 August 1999. The short-range VHFmaritime band (156-174 MHz) services closedat 12:00 on Sunday 30 April 2000, and themedium-range services (MF maritime band1.6-3.0 MHz) services at 12:00 on Friday 30June. The station closed in April 2000.

RADIO CONTROLLED POLICE DOGCOMPLETE WITH CAMERA

Meet Hobs, the latest recruit to the MetropolitanPolice Force in London UK. Note his fancyheadwear which includes a small radio receiverplus a headcam.Hobs has proven invaluable in instances such assiege situations or where police believe a propertymay have been booby trapped.Hobs can be sent into a property and his handler

gives directions over a VHF radio, such as look left or right, up or down, go forwardor back, while at the same time remaing in a safe location and watching the scenetransmitted by the headcam unfold on a monitor in full colour.

WHO INVENTED COPPER WIRE?Copper wire was invented in 1809 by the McAlister brothers of Edinburgh, Scotlandjust after they found a penny.

REPEATER POWER LIMITDid you know the ACMA limits power output of all repeaters to 50 watts maximum,regardless of the general power limit specified in the amateur LCD. The reason for thisis to limit the potential for cross-interference on co-shared transmitter sites. To complywith this requirement, and to avoid applications being automatically rejected by theACMA, the WIA will modify all repeater applications received to specify 50 Wattspower output. Co-shared transmitter sites may also be required to comply with thecommunal site licence conditions.This condition, if applicable, will be attached to the repeater licence. If an amateurrepeater is proposed in a remote location well away from other services, with evidencesupporting the operational need for higher power, an application may be made to theACMA to have the restriction removed. Naturally, in this case the repeater applicationmay be delayed. From VK1WIA News

COMING EVENTS

Westlakes Monthly Meeting Saturday 2 November

Westlakes 3rd Car Boot Sale Saturday 9 November (See Page 16)

22 22 22 22 Page 3 3 3 3 3

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.- Magazine November 2013 Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. - Magazine November 2013

route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop.There were no goodaviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the countryusing landmarks.This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flyingwas just about impossible.The Postal Service solved the problem with the world’s first ground-based civiliannavigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to SanFrancisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Eacharrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepowerrotating beacon. Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter ofweeks, but in just 30 hours or so.Even the dumbest of air mail pilots, it seems, couldfollow a series of bright yellow arrows straight out ofa Tex Avery cartoon. By 1924, just a year afterCongress funded it, the line of giant concrete markersstretched from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Cleveland,Ohio. The next summer, it reached all the way toNew York, and by 1929 it spanned the continentuninterrupted, the envy of postal systems worldwide.Radio and radar are not as romantic as a concreteYellow Brick Road from the Atlantic to the PacificOcean. New advances in communication andnavigation technology made the big arrows obsolete,and the Commerce Department decommissionedthe beacons in the 1940's. The steel towers were torndown and went to the war effort. But the hundredsof arrows remain. Their yellow paint is gone, theirconcrete cracks a little more with every winter frost,but they’re still out there. Courtesy of Les VK2LT

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR OLD MOBILE PHONE (And your wallet for that matter)

The first thing is not to throw your old mobile phone away. Keep it and when you are outat night (or by day it seems) carry it in a prominent pocket. Your new and expensivephone meanwhile, should be carried in a concealed location upon your person - justhow concealed is up to you.When you are accosted by a blade-wielding ne'er-do-well on the street and asked tohand over your phone and/or wallet, you can do so with a smile. A fake wallet alsosecreted on your body is a good idea. I have both about my person when I venture out. (Name withheld in case this magazine falls in wrong hands.)

THE X1M IT'S SMALLAND SO IS THE PRICE

The X1M is the latest HF QRP transceiver fromChina. It is an SSB/CW 5 watt radio that has5 bands: Band 1: 3.5 ~ 3.9 MHz Band 2: 7.0 ~ 7.15 MHz Band 3: 14.0 ~ 14.5 MHz Band 4: 21.0 ~ 21.45 MHz Band 5: 28.0 ~ 29.7 MHz

The radio can transmit continuously from 100 kHz - 30 MHz via a menu option butthe preset transmit range is the five amateur bands shown above. The five bands areconfigured with bandpass filtering but transmitting on frequencies outside these rangeswill require external bandpass filtering. Modes are USB, LSB, and CW with 100memories. RIT, internal CW keyer, receive preamplifier, and PTT microphone areincluded. How much, you ask? Check on Ebay or the Wouxun site. They are advertisedfrom $350 to as low as $299. But I have kept the best until last. The X1M comeswith "Xiegu Technology." VK2CW

YAESU GOES DIGITAL

While the use of D-Star appears to be stable orslightly declining, Yaesu have introduced theFTM-400DR radio.Andrews Communications advertise the radiowill be available in October and at the time ofprinting this magazine, the price is POA.The all-new FTM-400DR is both an analog anddigital mode twin-band mobile/base transceiver.It can be Bluetooth controlled and features two separate receivers, along with individualvolume controls for each. The radio uses C4FM FDMA digital communicationstechnology.The FTM-400DR can also capture video and images. It can transmit andreceive them via a USB camera.Features: • DIGITAL and analog FM modes • Extra-large colour display has 5 backgroundcolours selectable • Bandscope feature • Wideband receive 108~470MHz and 800~999•Dual-receive • 50/20/5W output levels •500 memories per band • Each memory storesfrequency, mode, tag, repeater info. • Altitude info display • Internal clock with calendar• Four scanning modes • Packet ready; 1200/9600 bps • Has DCS, TOT and APO• USB camera is not supplied • GPS, APRS, Bluetooth, ARTS, microSD slot.That seems to be enough features for anybody. One can but wonder how large theOperating Manual will be.


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Published by Westlakes AmateurRadio Club Inc. York Street Teralba,as a magazine of news, informationand opinions on amateur radio andassociated topics for the benefit ofthe members .Copyright:In general there is no copyright onarticles, they may be copied at will.The exception being those articlesfollowed by an asterisk *preceding the named source.

Founder and mentor:Keith Howard VK2AKX (SK)Patron:G.Piper MLALife members:Gregory Smith VK2CWPaul Lorentzen VK2ATRAlec Efimov VK2ZMLeslie Payne VK2ZPAPeter Sturt VK2ZTVDavid Myers VK2RDGeoffrey Clark VK2EO

Correspondence to: The Secretary W.A.R.C., Box 5, BOOLAROO NSW 2284Telephone:- (02) 49 581 588(24 hour answering service)Email:[email protected]

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.is an affiliated club with theWireless Institute of Australia.

Radio CallsignsClub Callsign: VK2ATZClub Repeaters:VK2RTZ 146.775MHzVK2RZL 146.875MHzClub Digipeater:VK2RTZ 147.575 MHz IRLP Node 6040 Echolink 356838

Club Activities:Club Nets:Club broadcast,Sunday 0900146.775Mhzfollowed by call backsand the VK1WIA News.

EZB Net 146.775MHzSaturday 0800Stone the Crows NetSaturday 3.588MHz 0600

Internet HomePage:www.westlakesarc.org.au

Business:Tuesday after 1700Saturday after 1200Club Distance Record:2m SimplexVK2FGM 2040 kmQRP CW VK2YA 2680 km

Note: Opinions expressed in thismagazine are those of thecontributors and do not necessarilycoincide with those of the Executivenor the members in general.

a

Club meeting: 1st Saturday ofeach month 13.30

Membership RatesAll members................ $20.00 P.AJoining fee.................... $ 5.00

WANTED

Club fees are due 1st February

FOR SALE

Magazine assembly day "OZZI HAMS" Maxi Port-a-pole


Proof reading by: Stella

President:Steve Beveridge [email protected] President:Geoff Linthorne VK2GLSecretary:Barrie Downward: [email protected]:Greg Smith VK2CWCommittee:Allan Brown VK2JEDHerb Herivel VK2ZVFKen Jackson VK2KJLeonie McGuiness VK2FHRKBarry Finlay VK2FINBWarren Payne VK2UWPBarry Sullivan VK2BZMichael Welsh VK2CCWDiane Wilson JP VK2FDNEMagazine Editor:Greg Smith [email protected] Liason Officer:Alex Efimov VK2ZMStoreman:Aly Zimmer VK2AFZProject Officer:Norm Cameron VK2KNCMaintenance Officer:Barry Sullivan VK2BZRadio and Contest Officer:Dave Myers VK2RDPublic Relations:Diane Wilson JP VK2FDNESecurity:Warren Payne VK2UWPInternet Webmaster:Geoff Clark VK2EOExaminations Officer:Geoff Linthorne VK2GL

Club Directory

STONE THE CROWS 3.588 MHz SATURDAYS 6AM

THE EZYBEE NET 146.775 MHz SATURDAYS 8AM

PROJECT CORNER

TH3 Jnr beam (needs a little work) plusapprox 15m 213 coax make an offer.Jim VK2XI 0416863024 email: [email protected]

Icom IC27a with sub-tones, and speechsynthesizer, plus manual. Goodcondition $90.Yaesu FT-1807 UHF mobile 50 watts,tones, good condition. $180.UV-5R plus 2m/70cm dual band handheld. Brand new $30.2m/70 Diplexer, new, never used. $30.

Norm VK2ZG (02) [email protected]

One length only of 30 metres RG213 coaxas new complete with end connectors $60Contact Aly VK2AFZ at the WestlakesStore

For all project ideas and enquiriescontact Norm vk2knc@gmail .com


Page Page Page Page 24 24 24 24

W.A.R.C. is supported by..


(02) 49818097

WESTLAKES MAGAZINEIS SPONSORED BY

CARDIFF RSLSUB BRANCH

November 2013

WHAT COULD THIS BE?

Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or abackpacker will run across something puzzling: a large concrete arrow, as much as seventyfeet in length,sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. What are these giant arrows?Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? The direction of truenorth? None of the preceding. It's The Transcontinental Air Mail Route.On 20 August 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery.

november 2013 what could this be? - …westlakesarc.org.au/magazine/november 2013.pdf · westlakes...

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