Volume 4Issue 9

Cocker,r zie * P ort SetonAn4aterlr Rabio Club

NEWSLETTER September 1996

SEPTEMBER EDITORIAL a very excellent site.Lastly for myself I have once

At last I have managed to find n again started another Novice Class so

few minutes to sit down and write py enough saidthere.

EVENTS COLUMN

Here is the latest list of the local events tobe seen at...

Radiocommunications Agenry in theResources Room at Port Seton CommunityCentre. Due to start at 7pm prompt so bethere at 6.45pm please. Admission isonce again f 1.00.

18/19th Leicester AR Exhibition. A fewpeople are making the trip south so askaround to either offer a lift or get one frotnsomeone else!

bits and pieces for this months Moving on a reminder about the

Newsletter. This from my point of view Club logo's and Meal for Novembsl 1 SEPTEMBER

must have been one oi'dt. busiest still need input for that ASAP. About &h 4th RSGB l44M.Hz Backpackers

months that I have encountered with the meal can I have your preference ie lotrst ll00-l500GMT' Mainslaughter

reference to club activities *a *," chinese, etc as r *o"rjiir..;:.;:; tfiX?ill"i"lffH:ff"H:tt'*:::Twork that goes on behind 61e what you want, then I will be looking f"t ;;* and will be counted towards thescenes..never mind though I really 6s numbers as this I would like to g"t noatscore(best3 from 4). Weenjoythechallenge !! booked ASAP, for obvious reasors. will be on site from about 9.30am local

Ok then why was it busy you This year once I know what it is going time.may well ask and the reasons are that to cost I will be looking for the frrll 21st SARCON'96 at Cardonald College,

we had our Annual Junk Eveming, (see money as a deposit. Note..this will be Glasgow. From llamto 5pm, admission

inside for full report,) which t am glaa the meal as people can pay for their f.2:,. oAPldisabled fl, accompanied

to announce was once ug"in ,r*f, i"tt Oti*t on the night children under 14 years free' RSGB

successfirl. To that I would throug[ the lust a couple of reminders that we stan4 Trade stands' Talk-In S22' Bring

editorial like to thamk all vdro hel@ 16 will again be contestins in i";";;; and Buv "t"*11?,rli'r?ire

details

achieve this I really am most grateful and we have a talk by the Radioas without your help it could never be Agency in October so see the Events OCTOBERachieved. Finally on this event the column for full details. 1lth C&PS ARC talk by TheOfiicial Presentation to the British Thinking about that I am now rn

Heart Foundation will take place on the process of trying to put next years

Club Night 4th October at 20:00 ;n ths Club Calendartogetherofwhich lhave

Thomtree trnn so I wonder if you could tentatively got a couple of things

all try to come that linle bit early 1s see organised for February and March but

the results of the Clubs work. For your as you know there are other months in

information did you know that OUR the year so can I have some input from

Club is recognised in many circles, You all on what you would like to see,

and I dont just mean locally for the do, etc, as it is your Radio Club.

work we do for the British Heart Right then, the brain has gore

Foundation so all of you should 6s dead and I am sure I have more to saY, 3lst Dunfermline RS AGMreally proud of that fame as it is all no commefits please, but alas it all has

down to you all for achieving &at..... gone !! So again enjoy the Newsletter.. NOVIMBER

Ok" what else has made it busy, Bob GM4UYZ @ GBTEDN 30th Club Christmas Meal.

well there was Historic Scotland , . ^11

*** DATE TO BE CONFIRMED ***

tr5$ :H: #H:#:iffi Y*mffi{tfl 6,srrur Graup Ra v Maryh,,;;1# $*r;,:fi Hi,',.j* ;l $1rrr\,JX"*fi,ts*u ifiluotlo .,*n,farmers to secure what tumed out to be $t'rp\g$:' Continued Fage 3

Cockenzie & Port Seton.ARCPage 2

3rd Annual Junk Night

Again we were lucky this year thatwe managed to pick once again a real nicesunny and warm evening. The doors thisyear opened a little later at 18:30 whichfrom our point ofview allorryed us for onceto be ready and waiting for the "hord€s" toarrive.

This year seen a total of 162 peoplethrough the door,although at times thehall did look a lot quieter, so it just shows

how you can be deceived. Thenumber was slightly up on 1995 so in thewhole that can't be too bad.

Reference actual Junk being sold itdid ap'pear quieter but I think overall allthose who were selling did not too bad, Iknow I did for a change !!

One thing I did notice was that therefreshments seemed to be going downwell with very little left at the end of the

ing with this area raising just over100, not bad if you consider the prices

that we were selling the Tea, Cofflee, cakesand rolls at.

Well done to Susan 2MlEPK forraising [40 in her competition to guesswhat young Craig's weight was, pity Iwasn't near the answer. ah ! well there isnext year.

Tables were set aside for the BritishHeart Foundation, Jaycee and Tennamastsadly Bilt of Jaycee, due to circumstancesbeyond his control, was unable toattend

Heather Gregory of the BritishHeart Foundation was extremely pleasedthat they were able to promote theFoundation on the night and from allaccounts was kept reasonably busyanswering a few health related questions.

Norrie and Rose of Tennamastwere unfortunately late in arriving due tobusiness reasons but never,the less enjoyedwhat time they were there.

Once again the club had the honourof being presented with the Frank HallTrophy for being the leading Scottishstation in the PW QRP Contest. Norriedidthe general announcing andMrs FrankIlall did the presentation.

The final part ofthe night was thedrawing of the Raffle prizes, here I mustthank Jaycee, Tennamast, Thorntree Innand all the others who donated to the raffleprizes. The top pdze was a Full SizeG5RV worth f,50 and won by MelGM6JAG.

Lastly, again I would like to thank allwho donated their time and efforts, raffleprizes and donations to make this onceagain another successful year. The totalmoney raised on the night was f'477.74and this along with what we have raisedthroughout the year gave us a grand totalof L727..well done all. The cheque shouldnow be with the British Heart Foundationand it has been arranged that the officialpresentation will take place on ClubNight,Friday 4th October at 20:00 so ifyou can make it early that night please do.

Right folks I suppose it will soon betime to think about next years sale whichall being well will be organised for Friday15th August 1997..so start saving yourJunk now.......

Bob GM4UYZ @ GBTEDN

..THf, ANORAK'' My lifestyle, language,habits changeI now speak fluent frequency r:mge

People hide or look awaYWhere one would spend the time of day

And now the situation is much worse

I've been bitten by transmission curseThat need to speak to peoples abroadOr over the border or just up the road

A licence now I need to liveAnd many hours I've had to give

To leaming about radio amateurthingsLike dipoles, watts and ferrite rings

My brain now bursts with radio factsAnd my bore capability is set to MAXXYL has wamed of impending doorn

If I spend more time in radio room

Yes, an Anoraks life is the life for meFive and nine,CQ,QRM, 73

These little phrases that mean so muchWhen in realitv vou've lost Your touch

By Wallace MMIAMU

When I was young and in my primeMany hobbies had I to fill mytime

From winkling trout from sparkling brooksTo pressing wild flowers in weighty bmks

I've collected stamps and fossils and thingsAnd beautiftl butterflies with golden wings

I've practised judo,karate and golfAnd tried to paint like bearded Rolf

But none of these amusements can compareWith the interception of a station rareThat feeble sound, that distant whisperWhat a joy to be a short wave listener

But stop! Oh no! Alas and alack!Too late ['ve become an AnorakSwopping SINPO 5's for a QSL

I have become that creature frorn hell

Cockenzie and Port Seton ARCPage 3

AMATEUR AI\AGRAMS

Suffering from brainache? You will be smn! Here are this months anagrams.The answers shoul4 as usual, be entered horizontally in the grid. Spacesbetween words are shown by a black box. As usual all of the words can belinked in some way, however vaguely, to amateur radio. This months verticalbox will give you a word which can be used to describe some electroniccomponents.

I

Y1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7-

THIS MONTIIS CLUESI. OPENPIT, 2. DUMPATILE, 3. CRUMPETS, 4. OATMTS,5. NOISE I.D., 6. GAVE LOT, 7. ODDEST YEN.

AUGUSTAT{SWARSI. ANALOGUE IffiTER 2. METEORTRAILS, 3.IffAVELENGTT{,4. CARRTE& 5. VERTICAL, 6. AMMETER.

The word in the vertical box was the country with the callsign prefix SV andshould have been'GREECE'.

73 Colin (GM0CLN)

FEBRUARY ( from page I )7th Club night.T.B.C. Calibration and Test Night.Another chance to check out your radios*** DATE TO BE AITRAIIGED ***

IVTARCTI7t|n Club nightT.B.C. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation(CPR) night with Heather Gregory of theBritish Heart Foundation. Learn the ABCofresuscitation, it cotrld help savesomeones trife!*** DATE TOBE AI{F.r$\iGED r*{<

I hope you all enjoy SARCON'96. If mylast visit to Cardonald was anflhingto go by it should be a great event. Seeyou nfirt rnonth.

Message receivedfrom MIKE, GM4SACufter the Historic Seatland ll/eekenil.reproduced here for information of nonpacket users

Hi Bob ! Fint can I thank you and all themembers of the Cockenzie andPort SetonARC for putting GB2HST on the air.There was only eight stations active overthe weekend:- GB2HSC GB2HSIGBzHSM GB2HSN GB2HSO GB2HSSGB2HST GBZHSW so I have amendedtoaward scheme to UK require 6 for theBasic and all I for Merit. Non UK require4 for the Basic and 7 for the Merit-So far the data I have on t]re event is:GB2HSS 3.5 Mhz 192 Contacts 7l\/frrz359 14 Mhz 69 Total620 QSOsGB2HSC 3.5 Mhz 190 7 \fiu24O 14N|Jlrz234 Total664 QSOs

I have issued a Press Release to our threelocal papers given a general discription ofthe event and then a bit about GB2HSCand the club. It was amazing the reactionfrom the papers "Thanks very much, doyou have any photographs ? ffYou doarything like this again let us know andwe will send a photographer. Ifyou do apress release to the local ppers and itgets prblished I would greatly appreciate acopy Bob to let Historic ScotlandPLC that even wilhout their helpwemanaged to plublicise their sites.Thanks again, Bob.73s Mike GM4SUC @, GBTAYR

,gab,y 'N,]N

73 de Coiin (GMOCLN)

Cockenzie and Port Seton ARCPage 4

HISTORIC SCOTLAND WEEKEND24I25TH AUGTJST 1996 AT TANTALLON

CASTLE

Would it take place at all? Wouldwe have to move site part waythrough the weekend? Would we get thunder and lightning?These were all questions which arose during the week leadingup to the Historic Scotland Weekend this year.

With just over a week to go we discovered that the site we hadorganised at the beginning of the summer was now notarailable.Several frantic phonecalls later a visit was arranged for theweekend before the event with a local farm manager to try andarrange a new site. Fortunately he was able to help us out and afield within a few hundred yards of the castle was madeavailable to us BUT this was only if we did not distutt a carriagedriving competition which was taking place over the sameweekend on the farm. It was made quite clear that if there wereany problems we would be asked to leave the site. Finally, theweather was very changeable and it looked as if we were goingto have some very healy rain showers over the weekend if notthunder and lightning! It sounded like a recipo fordisaster......but was it? Read on to find out....

The need to be on air by 9am on Saturday 24th meant an earlystart for us all so most left home at about 7.30am and were onsite sometime between then and Eam. To begin with weconcentrated on setting up the 80m station as it tends to be theone most sought after by the stations trying to work us. Wewere running a little late so to get things going Ron (GM4IKLDand Jim (GM3BQA) began operating on 80m from Ron's car.Soon we had every*hing set up and we switched on the 80mstation. There was a problem!! Interference at 40dB over 9from the generator so it was all hands on deck to find a cure.We tried swaping generators, swapping mains leads, addingearth spikes and putting several turns ofantenna feeder around aferrite ring. Eventually we moved t}le ferrite ring onto themains lead of the radio power supply and a marked reduction ofthe interference was noted. It was now possible to beginoperating in earnest.

While 80m operated we set up the other stations. The 20mstation was ne$ on air and was set up without any majorproblems. Only a smali amount of interference was present butthe Digital Signal Processing (DSP) facilities on the radio soonsorted that elut.

Eventually we got around to setting up 40m. As with 80m, atrap dipole was to be used. This was soon in the air and readyto go. At this point I hadjust started operating on 80m and allofa sudden there was 40dB over 9 of noise on the bandagain....or was there? Yes, you've guessed it, interferencefrom the 40m station!,A,ffer much deliberation it rvas decided that a mobile antenna

mounted on the back of Ron's (GM4IK[-D car may help reduce theproblem. Sure enough the interference was cured and all systems

were definitely GO!While all of this was going on the Carriage Driving Event had

sta(ed and carriages were pa.ssing us at regular intervals. Many

of them were quite happy to give us a wave, rvhich wasreciprocated.As the day wore on the carriages became bigger and bigger untilwe finally had teams of four horses, instead of only one, pulling

them along. By mid afternoon they had finished and I am pleased

to say we had no problems at all with people getting in their way'Mrs Dale, the landowner, who kindly gave her permission for us tt

use the site, also pid us a visit and pronounced herself happy with

the way things were going.

Back on the radio front we were as busy as ever althoughconditions on both 80 and 40m were very changeable. Oneminute you had a pile-up and the next all was quiet! [n general

though, 80m was worse than last year however 20m and 40m werea lot better with considerably less noise and hence more stationsbeing worked.

Alex (GM6VIU/GM0WSN) haddecidedthat the DX Clusterwould be very useful and would allow us to kecp everyoneinformed of our operating frequencies on each bnd. This turnedout to be almost invaluable and meant we could stir up someactivity when things went quiet. It also meant that we could keepin touch with what some of the other Historic Scotland stationswere doing.

The operating was taking its toll by the end of the afternoon. Bol(GM4{.iYA had a very rough sounding t}roat and was croakingaway good style because of all the talking he had done- I was onlmarginally better but still had a very rough feeling thruat. Looksas if we could do with a few more operators next time HINTHINTI!!! (As I write this on the following Tuesday Bob is stillcroaking !)

"Ron's Chuck Wagon" was doing a roaring trade as usual withMargaret (GM0ALX) and Ron (GMONTL) at the helm. Ron hadalso brought along his gas powered furnace...er barbecue! (Askhim about the sausages!) This was put to good use by Carnbell(MMIAVA) and John (GMTTKA) who had raided the localsuperstore and its drinks section! I also found the hrbecue veryuseful for heating up pies to go with the drinks (thanks lads!).

As the day wore on the rabble on 20m and wentually 40m dieddown until there were only a few stations around, the main activitwas still on SOm though with the steady flow of contactscontinuing. One or two DX contacts rvere picked off on 20 and40m between chats, drinks and food. At about lOpm it wasdecided that a visit to the local chip shop was called for. A partyconsisting of tain (ZMIETD and Harry (GM7PPI$ was dulydispatched with appropriate ftinds to get the goodies.

Once all the food from the chip shop had been consumed the

Page 5Cockenzie and Port Seton ARC

orlcratlng

ft'()fi| pret,t ott.\ pagenext p(tge

continued for a rvhile longer and a fe* more contacts $€relnade.It rvas particularly pleasing during the whole event to seesome of the B-Class licence holders and novices having ago. John (GMTTKA). and Cambell (MMIAVA) bothoperated for long periods and did a great job, while lain(2M IETI) rvorked a Russian station on 40m and Calum(2MIDZS) did a sterling job, writing almost all of the 80mQSL cards!

People started heading offto bed at about midnight and Irvas horizontally polarised (!) by'about hatf past midnight.I am toldthat Cambell and one or fwo others kept operatingfor another hour or so before finally closing down far thenight. It was a calm night, which suited those of us undercanvas, but there were some verj stmnge noises comingfrom the tent ne\t door! ! (I didn't know that raspberriesxere in season, or for that matter that they were so big thisyear! !).

Things got going at about 6.30am on the Sunday morningbut to our surprise the bands, particularly 80m, were veryquiet.Ron (GMONTL), once supplied with the relevant bits,cooked another lovely breakfast (not quite up to NFDstandards though!) to keep us going. We all set offtowardsthe tents ready for another day ofhard work.

There rvere a few bits of DX around on 40m and a ZL (NewZealand) station was soon found. Despite many long shoutsthe pile-up won and a contact was not made. A short timelater \,'K4NW in Queensland, Australia, was heard workinga slightly smaller pile-up. Again many long shouts weremade and back came the reply "the station ending in Tangoplease go again". That was it, he heard us, I went on torvork him for my first ever \rK after being licenced fortwelrre J,ears. Not bad using only 100W and Ron's mobileantenna!

The Historic Scotland Weekend had a few'casualties. Wediscovercd via the DX Packet Cluster that only eight of theoriginally intended eleven stations rrere acfire on theSunday. Reasons *'e heard varied fiom not finding asuitable sitc to having a car go on fire !Fortunately nothing so drastic happened to us.

As tlic carriage drivirig did not seem to be anlrvhere uear uson Sunday ths chauccs ofinterfering nith cornnrunications.or thcir FA system, wcrc thought tc be slim so it rvasdccidcd to have a quick shout on 2m after the uews to givc:r fi:u locals tl're chancc to work GB2HST"5n cral contacts wcrc naadc using i(XlW and a 7/tlrr ii\ clilrlgth ri hip" ttrle X'r.rrt1-rcst arvay being ncar .A.bcrdceu.

The rest of the day passcd rvith SOm still going rr'cll and a fervcontacts on 20m and 40m. Bv 6pm the 20m and "l()m stations had

been packed away and. as usual, the tent and equipment rvere beingdismantled around Margaret (GM0ALX) as she operated. On thestroke of 6pm the 80m trap dipole was lowered and the remaininggenerator switched off. with all the helpers present we werepacked up and ready to lear,e in no time.

Over the course of the weekend we had managed a total of 718contacts which were sptit as follows, 80m 459, 40m 139, 20m 111and 2m 9.The averall total was down by approximately 200 on theLighthouses Weekend we did last year but is mainly due to poorer

conditicns on 80m.So far as the countries worked are concerned they were as follows:-80m :Belgium, Eire, England France, Germany, Isle Of Man,Netherlands,N. Ireland, Norway, Scotlan4 Sweden and

Wales.40m :Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Eire, England' Finlan{ France,Germany, Italy, Jersey, Netherlands, Norway, Russia'

Scotland- Sweden. Switzerland and Wales.20m :Austria, Belgium, Bosnia" Brazll. Byelorussia' Canada,Croatia, Czech Repubtic, Denmark, Finland" France, Germany,Ghana, Greece, Guernsey, India, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,

Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netheilands, Norway, Poland, P Porfugal,Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Scotland Slovak Republic, Slovenia,Spain, Swederl Ukraine and U.S.A..2m:Scotland

I think that those present, rvithout exception" enjoyed themselves'It was great fun and a bit of a change operating on [iF instead ofVHF/UHF. The weather also helped greatly as we only had onevery light shower of rain on Saturday evening while thesurrounding areas seemd to be getting lots of very healy showers. 'Once again many, many thanks to all those who helped in whatever!vay. Without your assistance, time and effort this event rvould nothave been possible.For a change we got the last laugh on the wcather, just as we wercdriving offthe site on Sunday it started raining.....

73 Colin (GM0CLN)

FOR SALE

Set of xtalslnr salefor a UHF rle Europa or Westminster.

HC6iu size,Channel is RBl4 idcal for GB3ED.Our localrcpcatcr

GB3HK is moving locatiott to Sclkirk and is also urovingFrcclucno to RE2 hcncc thc surlrlus rlals ll-an1'onc is intcrcstc<j ncf,nrc ktroll and u'c can discuss a pricc Ibr them.

"lim GMTLIIN tr4CBTIED

BritisqJt'The heart ISCOTTISH OFFICE

45A IVIORAY PLACE EDINE

DIRECTON FOR SCOTTAI

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The Foundation is most gratefulfor your supryttwhich willhelp finanre more research into diseasesof the heart and circulation

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Mr Bob Glasl7 Castle TerriPort SetonPrestonpansEast LothianEH32 OEE

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