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club and that ―apathy‖ and lack of attendance to ALL club events will be a thing of the past. LET US ALL SUPPORT THE CLUB because if you don‘t it will just die and that is something I would hate to see happen. By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ Bob GM4UYZ PS: Remember January Club Night is the second Friday in January, the 8 th January 2010. My wish for 2010 is that some of the ―old faces‖ will return to the
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www.cpsarc.com
The newsletter of Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club
Well folks another year, our 25th Anniversary, has nearly gone, oh where do they vanish too? Per-sonally, it has been another busy year on both the club and per-sonal fronts to the extent that I have not played as much radio as I would have liked to, plus I still have lots of outstanding things I should have done so maybe next year I will end up with a nice clean sheet, knowing my luck, some hope! Over many years, I have done a recap in December of what has happened over the last year but I have decided to hold it back until January as I did last year as it then lines up with a full year. I am also changing the Club Accounts to start on the 1st January away from what was historically done in August after our Junk Night. The 25 year Club Challenge is now finished so many thanks to all those who supported the event and took part. Results are up on the website and fuller re-sults hopefully will be found in this month‘s newsletter. No doubt John MM0JXI will be shouting at me due to the results coming in table format, sorry John…… Congratulations to all the win-ners and I am holding a presen-tation to hand over their certifi-cates and prizes tonight (Club Night 4th December @20:00)
So what else has happened since our last club night? We started of with our second Con-struction night although not as busy as the first those who did turn up continued enthusiastically with their projects. There was a talk on ―Borders Search & Res-cue Unit‖ by Stuart Fuller-Shapcott which as I write this is about to happen but I am sure it will have been a tremendous talk. On the teaching front seven pu-pils in the Intermediate class sat and passed their exam so well done to them all. I have now started an Advanced Course where I know all the stu-dents are finding it quite hard but I am sure they will all pass with flying colours when they sit their exam on Tuesday 2nd February 2010. I am sure you will go along with me and wish them all the luck. To the future: Next Saturday a few of us are going out for our Christmas Meal (Party Night) which I am really looking forward too, it is an occasion where we get a chance to go out along with our partners and have a meal, a boogie and a good laugh. I am taking a sabbatical for the rest of December and January to try and recharge the batteries ready for the restart in February. My wish for 2010 is that some of the ―old faces‖ will return to the
club and that ―apathy‖ and lack of attendance to ALL club events will be a thing of the past. LET US ALL SUPPORT THE CLUB because if you don‘t it will just die and that is something I would hate to see happen. That is about it again for another year so all that is left to say to you all is to WISH YOU ALL AND YOUR FAMILIES A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PRO-SPOROUS NEW YEAR. I should add I hope you get what you want as well from Santa, assuming you posted your letter! Bob GM4UYZ PS: Remember January Club Night is the second Friday in January, the 8th January 2010.
EDITORIAL
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
December 2009 Vol 17 Issue 12
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Entry Call Sign Name Band Band
Equaliser
Ant No.
Ele
Power
(W) Date Mode Station Wkd
Your
Locator
1 MM0DXH (20-1) Jim Hume 20 1.1 3 400 18/09/2010 SSB ZL4IV IO85LM
2 MM0DXH (40-1) Jim Hume 40 1.2 1 400 15/10/2009 SSB ZL4IR IO85LM
3 MM5AHO-1 Geoff Crowley 20 1.1 1 400 03/10/2009 USB VK4KW IO85DW
4 GM4IKT-20 Bob Purves 20 1.1 3 400 03/10/2009 SSB VK3MO IO85MX
5 GM0NTL (20-1) Ron Fraser 20 1.1 3 400 12/05/2009 RTTY VK2KM IO85NW
6 MM3XXW (20-11) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 12/07/2009 SSB WB9Z IO85JX
7 MM3XXW (20-4) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 04/06/2009 SSB VK6MV IO85JX
8 MM3XXW (20-10) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 11/07/2009 SSB W4SVO IO85JX
9 MM3XXW (20-3) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 28/05/2009 SSB KH7XS IO85JX
10 MM3XXW (20-2) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 16/05/2009 SSB A41MX IO85JX
11 MM3XXW (20-9) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 11/07/2009 SSB 5B4AII IO85JX
12 2M0WRX (20-5) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 22/08/2009 SSB VR2009EAG IO85IV
13 MM3XXW (20-1) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 15/05/2009 SSB RK0UT IO85JX
14 MM3XXW (20-13) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 21/10/2009 SSB K1UA IO85JX
15 MM3XXW (20-12) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 16/10/2009 SSB W1OW IO85JX
16 2M0WRX (20-4) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 11/08/2009 SSB VK3MO IO85IV
17 2M0WRX (20-1) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 01/05/2009 SSB 3DA0TM IO85IV
18 MM3XXW (20-7) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 24/06/2009 SSB VE3KO IO85JX
19 MM3XXW (20-8) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 11/07/2009 SSB RV3ACA IO85JX
20 2M0WRX (20-2) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 17/06/2009 SSB JE7YSS IO85IV
21 MM3XXW (20-6) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 16/06/2009 SSB UA9QCQ IO85JX
22 GM4UYZ (20-1) Bob Glasgow 20 1.1 1 100 24/05/2009 CW WA9MAG IO85MX
23 2M0WRX (40-1) Kevin Glacken 40 1.2 1 50 11/07/2009 SSB N1NR IO85IV
24 2M0WRX (20-6) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 27/10/2009 SSB ZL1IV IO85IV
25 MM5AHO-2 Geoff Crowley 40 1.2 1 400 03/10/2009 USB VK4KW IO85DW
26 2M0WRX (20-3) Kevin Glacken 20 1.1 1 50 12/07/2009 SSB NF4A IO85IV
27 MM0WST (20-1) Derek Caiden 20 1.1 1 400 07/05/2009 RTTY ZP6CW IO85IX
28 GM4UYZ (20-2) Bob Glasgow 20 1.1 1 100 30/05/2009 CW NC4CW IO85MX
29 GM4UYZ (20-3) Bob Glasgow 20 1.1 1 100 31/05/2009 CW AD4J IO85MX
30 MM3XXW (10-1) Martyn Whyte 10 1.5 1 10 04/06/2009 SSB OH8A IO85JX
31 MM3XXW (20-5) Martyn Whyte 20 1.1 1 10 11/06/2009 SSB JW/OK1JST IO85JX
32 MM0YMG (20-1) Malcolm Gibson 20 1.1 1 95 01/08/2009 SSB RG6G IO85jv
33 GM4IKT-10 Bob Purves 10 1.5 3 400 26/06/2009 SSB VE1TK IO85MX
34 GM4UYZ (15-1) Bob Glasgow 15 1.2 1 100 31/05/2009 CW W9AO IO85MX
35 2M0WRX (40-2) Kevin Glacken 40 1.2 1 50 13/09/2009 SSB PY1NB IO85IV
36 GM4UYZ (40-1) Bob Glasgow 40 1.2 1 100 30/05/2009 CW WE3Y IO85MX
37 2M0WRX (10-1) Kevin Glacken 10 1.5 1 50 25/07/2009 SSB 9A2BD IO85IV
38 2M0WRX (80-1) Kevin Glacken 80 1.3 1 50 08/06/2009 SSB HB0Y/ IO85IV
39 MM0YMG (80-1) Malcolm Gibson 80 1.3 1 80 03/10/2009 SSB SP2EKI IO85JV
40 MM0YMG (40-1) Malcolm Gibson 40 1.2 1 90 16/08/2009 SSB DA0LCC IO85JV
41 GM4UYZ (10-1) Bob Glasgow 10 1.5 1 100 31/05/2009 CW S58AW IO85MX
42 2M0WRX (15-1) Kevin Glacken 15 1.2 1 50 24/06/2009 SSB IZ4BBF IO85IV
25 Year Competition Entries
3
Contents 2 25 Year Competition
Entries
4 Construction Night Club Tables report
5 Future Articles
6 QSL Managers for Scotlnad
7 A Twig Jockey‘s Tale
8 CQWW One Year On
9 25 Year Challenge—Results
11 Intermediate Exam Passes BT Community Champions Award
12 Test Your Knowledge
13 Event Calendar
14 MA3XXW—a ‗special prefix‘
3
Contributions to the newslet-ter and web site are most welcome. Please don‘t send these items to GM4UYZ, he‘s busy enough doing the many other things he does for the club. Send any items you‘d like included to [email protected] or submit them direct to the www.cpsarc.com
Their
Locator
Distance
Kms
Power
Mult
Ant
Mult
Best QSO
Total
QSO Final
Total
RE54HF 18838 1 5 152588 2891319
RE34VS 18723 1 5 247144 2764278
QG62EW 16296 1 10 213478 2425517
QF12WO 16820 1 5 136242 2363418
QF56dm 16799 1 5 136072 1828293
EN60br 6071 15 10 164524 1811608
OF87nb 24985 15 10 677080 1727111
EL96xp 6777.3 15 10 183665 1659137
BK29jx 11168 15 10 302656 1641591
LL93gl 6120 15 10 165841 1592997
KM75aa 3650 15 10 98906 1540363
OL72CM 9521 5 10 162809 1489513
OO62RB 6677 15 10 180949 1430814
FN41tq 4953 15 10 134226 1313889
FN42da 5009 15 10 135744 1309689
QF22FU 16854 5 10 288203 1266477
KG53NQ 9715 5 10 166127 1132482
FN03hs 5330 15 10 144454 1000705
KO85sr 2506 15 10 67926 984587
QM09BP 8854 5 10 151403 947990
MO16tb 3986 15 10 108043 935800
EN51VS 6020 2 10 84882 933603
FN21MD 5270 5 10 90644 917070
RF81MJ 18113 5 10 309732 909959
QG62KO 16350 1 10 215820 905705
EM70EF 6815 5 10 116537 904009
GG14LM 10388 1 10 136083 888573
EM92IC 6408 2 10 90353 883873
EM73VX 6427 2 10 90621 870379
KP24gq 1786 15 10 49120 843159
JQ88dv 2647 15 10 71751 783840
LN05xa 3345 2 10 47165 694637
FN74XW 4344 1 5 36924 460726
EN63AF 5889 2 10 83624 432404
GG87MO 9485 5 10 163142 392831
EN90XH 5659 2 10 80358 217615
JN86BI 1713 5 10 29978 191598
JN58QC 1323 5 10 22888 167754
JO92JK 1475 2 10 21093 135078
JO43IU 795 2 10 11289 82644
JN65SM 1637 2 10 23737 56318
JN54MO 1612 5 10 27726 27726
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on what was going on and help-ing where necessary. Steve MM3YPN built a small signal generator, Malcolm MM0YMG building an attenu-ator, Brian MM3WZB continuing with his project to build an am-plifier for his HF radio and my-self I completed my 40M VFO and Voice Recorder (both I still need to test) Over the evening you could have heard a pin drop as every-one was deep into building or doing their own project.
How did everyone fair? Well we all ended up at different stages some completed their project and tested it whilst others still have some work to do. Overall it was a successful eve-ning with everyone eagerly looking forward to February and the ―Antenna Trap‖ building night. Bob GM4UYZ
Friday 13th November
The second construction night evening was held on the above date and there is also a request to have a further night in Febru-ary but the date has still to be arranged. The February date the decision was made to make it an ―Antenna Trap‖ building evening. The night was not as successful as the first one with regard to how many turned out with only 6 people turning up with 4 all doing different projects and Cambell MM0DXC and Bob GM4IKT keeping an eagle eye
Construction Night
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
The last few months have seen some very variable conditions on the HF bands. There have been signs of things picking up a bit and sun spots have been seen on a regular basis, the first time for a very long time. CQWW phone has been & went and did very well on 15 metres and even had a good few con-tacts on 10 metres.
Bob GM4UYZ has not been able to get on the bands from home because of other commit-ments but has done sterling work on keeping the club call signs tables up to date.
MM0CPS --- 160M – SSB New Countries: 5 European Russia, England, Netherlands, Poland, Switzer-land 20M – SSB New Countries: 2 Serbia, USA 15M – SSB New Countries: 1 Spain
40M – SSB New Countries: 37 Alaska, Antilles, Armenia, Asi-atic Russia, Barbados, Ber-muda, Bosnia, Canary Islands, Ceuta & Melilla, China, Costa Rica, Crete, Dodecanese Is-lands, Estonia, French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Senegal, Spain (Balearic Islands), St Kitts & Nevis, St Maarten, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, US Virgin Islands 20M – SSB New Countries: 41 Alaska, Andorra, Antigua & Bar-bados, Antilles, Aruba, Barba-dos, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia, Cape Verde, Montserrat, Ceuta & Melilla, China, Ecuador, French Guiana, Galapagos Is-lands, Greenland, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macedonia, Mozam-bique, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, Qatar, Senegal, St Maarten, Sudan, Surinam, Swaziland, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, United
GM2T --- CQWW SSB Contest 160M – SSB New Countries: 49 Aland Island, Asiatic Russia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bos-nia, Bulgaria, Ceuta & Melilla, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Repub-lic, Denmark, Dodecanese Is-lands, Eire, England, Estonia, European Russia, Faroe Is-lands, Finland, France, Ger-many, Greece, Hungary, Ice-land, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liech-tenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madeira, Northern Island, Neth-erlands, Norway, Poland, Portu-gal, Romania, Sardinia, Scot-land, Serbia, Slovakia, Slove-nia, Spain, Spain (Balearic Is-lands), Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, USA, Wales 80M – SSB New Countries: 20 Barbados, Belarus, Bosnia, Ceuta & Melilla, Corsica, Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Ice-land, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lux-embourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Svalbard, United Nations USA, Venezuela
Club Tables report November 2009
By Bob Purves GM4IKT
5
As always we are always looking for articles for the newsletter and at the moment I am certainly struggling each month to think about what to write about, in fact I have noticed recently if it wasn‘t for my input and the occasional contributor there would be no newsletter at all. It isn‘t fair, as I know there would be a huge out-cry if no newsletter was produced so come on please put ―fingers to the keyboard ―or‖ pen to paper and do something. It doesn‘t have to a huge article any thing will do. I get lots of people saying I must do something but it never materi-alises so be positive for a change and do it. The lack of time is no excuse as I am continually ―up to
my ears‖ as they say, and strug-gling for time but I am aware if nothing is written then there will be no newsletter. Here is a list of suggestions for articles that spring to my mind, I am sure there are many more but they elude me at the moment. The ideas are:
Fitting a radio into a vehicle.
There are lots of new amateurs out there so it could be used to describe the do and don‘ts of a Mobile Installation.
Working Portable. Going out
portable and setting up a station from scratch i.e. erecting poles, fitting antennas, station layout, etc, etc.
Setting up a station at home.
Again some do‘s and don‘ts.
What is your main interests
CW, SSTV, Data Modes, etc? Tell everybody about how you got into it; what gave you the buzz with the mode? Etc, etc.
What made you decide on
Amateur Radio as a hobby? Any thing else you can think off. The ball is now back in your court so come on then lets see what you can do. Bob GM4UYZ
Future Articles
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
Nations USA, United Nations Geneva, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, USA Hawaii, Uzbeki-stan, Venezuela 15M – SSB New Countries: 64 Antigua & Barbados, Antilles, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Asi-atic Russia, Australia, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bosnia, Bul-garia, Canada, Montserrat, Brit-ish Virgin Islands, Cayman Is-lands, Ceuta & Melilla, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Crete, Dodecanese Islands, Domini-can Republic, East Malaysia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, French Guiana, Galapagos Is-lands, Georgia, India, Indone-sia, Israel, Jordon, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Ro-mania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain (Balearic Islands), St Maarten, Sudan, Surinam, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, UK Bases Cyprus, US Virgin Is-lands, USA, Uzbekistan, Viet-nam
10M – SSB New Countries: 31 Armenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Ca-nary Islands, Ceuta & Melilla, Croatia, Dodecanese Islands, Estonia, European Russia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Is-rael, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Ma-deira, Mauritius, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzer-land, Turkey, Zambia Martyn MM£XXW now 2M0XXW congratulations on the new call. Martyn had his antenna nicked which kinda stopped any oper-ating for a while 15/10/09 TF4M on 20m 20/10/09 MA6TMS on 20m (for an all time new one :) 20/10/09 RZ9UI on 20m 23/10/09 CT3NT on 20m 23/10/09 KP4EE on 20m 24/10/09 OH0Z on 20m 24/10/09 VP5T ( & VP5DX) on 20m (for an all time new one) 24/10/09 GM2T on 80m 24/10/09 K7RL on 20m 24/10/09 Z37M on 15 & 20m
(new one this year) 24/10/09 TS9A on 20m Ray GM0CDV still the most regular contributor HS,VK,HV,PZ5,VP8 on ssb and on cw 3D2, 6Y. C6 . Lastly myself GM4IKT Some quite good ones on 15m lately showing definite upward tendencies. 9G5 Ghana on 15 & 20 m, TL0A Central Africa on 15m yanks on 15m 6Y5 Jamaica on 20m YC6 Indonesia on 15m Thank you for the ones who put in a table recently 73 de Bob GM4IKT
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(November 2009) Callsigns: GM0AAA – LZZ GM1AAA - AZZ Mr F A Roe GM0ALS 74 Willow Grove, Livingston, West Lothian EH54 5NP Email: [email protected] Callsigns: GM0MAA – ZZZ Mr Michael Whitehead GM0PHW 185 Allanton Road, Allanton, Shotts Strathclyde ML5 5AX Email: [email protected] Callsigns: GM2AA – GM3ZZ GM2AAA – GM3ZZZ Mr C O‘Hennessy GM4VVX Savalbeg, Lairg, Sutherland IV27 4ED Callsigns: GM4AAA – ZZZ Mr Tom Wylie GM4FDM 3 Kings Crescent, Elderslie, Johnstone PA5 9AD Email: [email protected] Callsigns: GM5, 6, 7, 8 MM0AAA – LZZ Mr M C Clark GM6OFO 9 Burghmuir Road, Perth PH1 1LS Email: [email protected]
Callsigns: MM0MAA – ZZZ MM1AAA – ZZZ MM5 Series Mr BA Shearer MM1HMV 113 Auchamore Road, Dunoon, Argyll PA23 7JJ Email: [email protected] Callsigns: MM3 & MM6 Series Mr R Simpson GM7NZI Flat 2/1, 53 Jedworth Avenue, Drumchapel, Glasgow G15 7QE Email: [email protected] Callsigns: 2M0 & 2M1 Series Mr M McDonald 2M0MCD 106 Stamperland Gardens, Clarkston, Glasgow G76 8NR Email: [email protected] Callsigns: Abbreviated Callsign Series Mr RAC Bunce M1EBN 3 Pinnings Lane, Waddingham Gainsborough, Lincs DN21 4SL Email: [email protected] Callsigns: GBxAAA - ZZZ Mrs D Williams M0LXT 20 Neale Close, Wollaston, Northamrtonshire NN29 7UT Email: [email protected] Web: www.gb-special-event-qsl-status.webs.com Callsigns: RS (SWL’s) Mr D F Borne G4CYW Roughways Chub Tor, Yelverton, Devon PL20 6HY Email: [email protected]
QSL Managers for Scotland
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
7
A Twig Jockey’s Tale
By Bob Purves GM4IKT
Ah end of October again time for CQWW SSB. Arrived at Barns Ness at 7:30am on Friday 23
rd October
to set up stations for CQWW. First things first the kettle goes on & we discuss which anten-nas are going where & who is doing what job. Gary ( MM0FZV ) and I are on 15 metre beam as usual, so tea finished we get the 60 foot Versatowers into position and all the rest of the bits needed to erect a 5 element DX yagi on a 60 foot tower. First of all the tower is positioned with the tow bar facing due south as the ro-tators are all set on south be-fore being switched off at the previous contest which was IOTA. The outriggers are posi-tioned and blocks of wood posi-tioned under the jacks and the jacks are adjusted until the tower is exactly vertical. The rotator cage is attached to the tower & the rotator cable run back to the shack & plugged into the correct controller. Gary continues with setting up the guys while I go & assemble the 5 element beam. I stand and put the parts of the beam into the correct places so that when I am actually doing the assembly I don‘t have to go looking for bits. I find that I have some bits of the 10 metre boom first of all and part of my own are missing. I go on a scouting mission and find the parts I need & return the 10 metre parts where they belong. Next I tale a look at the elements and find I have the correct centre sections but the wrong element tips. Another scouting mission and that is cured. All the centre sections are assembled to the boom & all the tips likewise. Doh!! The gamma match is still lying in the grass! I try several times until I get it the right way up and mounted correctly, then
the tips are put back on the driven element. The beam then has to be put on the tower. Firstly the centre sec-tion is put on being careful to put it on with the front facing south. The tower is cranked up a bit & the front section is fitted . The tower is cranked up to the vertical and the beam is rotated to face North from the controller in the shack. The tower is cranked over again and the rear section complete with feeder is fitted. Almost forgot the pulley and green string for the top band antenna. That fitted to tower is once more cranked up to the vertical. Before going any further we use the antenna ana-lyser to check the SWR on the antenna. Absolutely perfect flat 1:1 from 21.000 to 21.400 and under 1.5 :1 at 21.450 MHz. The coax to the shack is con-nected & chief shack pansy Bobby G connects it at the shack end. We then crank the tower up to it‘s full height and set out all the guy ropes and make sure they are tight. Then it‘s back to the shack to check SWR. It was infinite over the whole band! It can only be the feeder so we decide to replace it but before we start some one
shouts the magic words LUNCH. Thanks to Malcolm ( MM0YMG ) we had some ex-cellent Lentil soup greedy Bob had 2
nd helping it was so good.
After lunch we run out a re-placement feeder after checking it for continuity & shorts. Retest and it is exactly the same. Sh**. A closer check reveals that the wrong antenna is selected on the rig. That corrected and SWR is perfect over the whole band. 15 metre up & working we de-cide to turn our attentions to 10 metre. There are more of us working on it so it goes up in record time. The SWR is not great but we are all dog tired & darkness is approaching fast so we decide to leave it until early Saturday morning. We put up antennas for the fol-lowing bands, 40 metres ( 3 element monobander ) 20 me-tres ( 4 element monobander ) 15 metres ( 5 element mono-bander ) 10 metres ( 6 element monobander ) all on 60 foot towers. We had a sloping dipole from the top of the lighthouse ( 120 feet ) and an inverted ―L‖ for 160 metres. Quite an im-pressive antenna farm.
(Continued on page 8)
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Problems encountered. 40 metres was up & down 3 or 4 times, I believe SWR prob-lems and then oh sh** they forgot the pulley for the other end of the 160 inverted ―L‖. Both the 20 metre & 10 metre antennas slipped on their ro-tators and had to be taken down and tightened ( some-one with limp wrists ! ) There was also a PL259 blown to bits on the 80 metre dipole probably water ingress but thankfully no huge weather problems like last year. Time to sit down with a couple
(Continued from page 7) spend the day on the radio. I had a good day mostly on 15 metres. Sit down after tea and have a few beers and per-haps a wee dram. This is liv-ing! Up bright and early Monday morning to get all the gear packed away after an abso-lutely fantastic weekend. Thanks guys for another good one.
Bob GM4IKT
of beers and a pizza. Checked the rota and I‘m on the radio at )4:00. Off to bed early, or at least sleeping bag in the back of the car. Not much sleep because of noisy sods slamming car doors. Up at 03:30 cup of tea and head-set at the ready. Just about to plug it in and everything goes black, no power. The supply had tripped and as the reset is in the house we have to wait until they get up. Time to go home for a nice hot bath and a sleep in a de-cent bed! Back down Sunday and
Last year was my first CQWW – in fact my first contest. It was tiring, challenging and a bit confusing; so how have things changed with the pas-sage of time? Well it was still tiring and physically demanding but it was far more enjoyable since I understood more of what was happening, and felt I was able to play an almost fully functioning part of the team. Of course there is still loads to learn, but the antennas no longer phased me and I was able to provide some decent help with construction on the 20m beam, and troubleshoot-ing the 80m sloper, without having to be led by the hand all the time. The maze of wir-ing was also much less intimi-dating – and even better I managed to avoid having to put out the radio mat for top band! The biggest difference, how-ever, was in the operating. I was generally able to get the call signs recognised and onto the PC if not first time, then at least after a couple of moments listening – last year it took me forever to make out the call, so that was a huge improvement. I was also able
CQWW One Year On
By Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG
to hear and distinguish signals that last year even if I had heard them, they were so feint I would never have managed to work them and get it in the log. This year I was working difficult sig-nals that amazed me. I worked all the bands this year, and enjoyed it whilst last year 20m held a fair degree of fear for me – somehow it was too fast and too hairy for the likes of me. This year I loved being on 20m. The other joy was being able to work stations that I can-not work from my QTH simply because my main 40m/80m antenna is a cloud warmer as I cannot get it high enough for proper DX; oh and having an Alpha in the line helps a bit too! High points were getting into the Galapagos Islands with the first shout on 20m; eventually get-ting a Greenland station on 40m; and working one of my RAYNET friends in Edinburgh on 10m from his FT-817 on 5w – it did take me a while but his signal was hovering at around S1. Socially it was good too with a very cohesive group with every-one looking out for each other. The banter was continual, mostly in poor taste, but always supportive. The food and drink
was plentiful and hit the spot nicely. The weather was pretty fair, considering it was October, and camping tucked in under the lighthouse was brilliant. The only potential downside was the methane, of which there was plenty! So for those starting out, as indeed I am, it is well worth the effort and I cannot commend enough the idea of coming along to the big events since whilst it is undoubtedly a bap-tism by fire you learn very quickly! It also lets you know whether contesting is for you or not. For me, it is.
MM0YMG 29/10/9
9
BEST DISTANCE FOUNDATION LICENCE HOLDERS
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station
Wkd
Your
Locator
Their
Locator
Distance
Kms
1 MM3XXW (20-4) Martyn Whyte SSB VK6MV IO85JX OF87NB 24985
2 MM3XXW (20-3) Martyn Whyte SSB KH7XS IO85JX BK29JX 11168
3 MM3XXW (20-10) Martyn Whyte SSB W4SVO IO85JX EL96XP 6777
4 MM3XXW (20-1) Martyn Whyte SSB RK0UT IO85JX OO62RB 6677
5 MM3XXW (20-2) Martyn Whyte SSB A41MX IO85JX LL93GL 6120
BEST DISTANCE INTERMEDIATE LICENCE HOLDERS
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station
Wkd
Your
Locator
Their
Locator
Distance
Kms
1 2M0WRX (20-6) Kevin Glacken SSB ZL1IV IO85IV RF81MJ 18113
2 2M0WRX (20-4) Kevin Glacken SSB VK3MO IO85IV QF22FU 16854
3 2M0WRX (20-1) Kevin Glacken SSB 3DA0TM IO85IV KG53NQ 9715
4 2M0WRX (20-5) Kevin Glacken SSB VR2009E
AG IO85IV OL72CM 9521
5 2M0WRX (40-2) Kevin Glacken SSB PY1NB IO85IV GG87MO 9485
BEST DISTANCE ADVANCED LICENCE HOLDERS
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station
Wkd
Your
Locator
Their
Locator
Distance
Kms
1 MM0DXH (20-1) Jim Hume SSB ZL4IV IO85LM RE54HF 18838
2 MM0DXH (40-1) Jim Hume SSB ZL4IR IO85LM RE34VS 18723
3 GM4IKT-20 Bob Purves SSB VK3MO IO85MX QF12WO 16820
4 GM0NTL (20-1) Ron Fraser RTTY VK2KM IO85NW QF56DM 16799
5 MM5AHO-2 Geoff Crowley USB VK4KW IO85DW QG62KO 16350
Club 25 Year DX Challenge—The Results
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
To celebrate the clubs 25 years of existence the above challenge was run between 00:00 on the 1
st May 2009 and
ended at 23:59 on the 23rd
October 2009, basically a 25 week period. The number of QSO‘s for each entry was 25. As can be seen everything was based around the figure 25.which commemorated the 25 years of the clubs existence. The challenge was open to all radio amateurs who wished to take part. At the end of the challenge there were 42 entries covering all bands from a total of 9 club members; to be honest I am disappointed that others did not submit entries as I know there were many people (club members) active on the air over this period. To those who did submit an entry or many entries many thanks for doing so. See below for the full results submitted Considering band conditions one or two made the trip to Australia and New Zealand and the best of these was by Martyn MM3XXW who worked VK on Long Path with a distance of 24985 Kms. Looking at all the entries there were certainly some DX in them all and from all levels of licences i.e. Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced, so it just goes to show what can be achieved. Hopefully all who took part enjoyed the challenge…. OVERALL WINNER – Highest Final Score for a 25 or Less QSO Log Winning Certificate and Bottle of Whisky (Donated by Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG) JIM HUME MM0DXH with a total score of 2891319 points
WINNER – MM3/MM6 ENTRANT – With the most distant QSO Winning the ―Left Handed Capacitor Trophy‖ in memory of Vic GM4GGF and donated by Bob GM4FIB & Ron GM0NTL and a bottle of champagne MARTYN WHYTE MM3XXW with a best DX of 24985 Kms (Long Path) with VK6MV WINNER – INTERMEDIATE ENTRANT – With the most distant QSO Winning Certificate and Bottle of Wine (Donated by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ) KEVIN GLACKEN 2M0WRX with a best DX of 18113 Kms with ZL1IV
WINNER – ADVANCED ENTRANT – With the most distant QSO Winning Certificate and Bottle of Wine (Donated by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ) JIM HUME MM0DXH with a best DX of 18838 Kms with ZL4IV Congratulations to all the winners… Bob GM4UYZ
www.cpsarc.com
10
BEST DISTANCE BY BAND (All Licence Levels)
80M
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station Wkd Your Locator Their Locator Distance Kms
1 MM0YMG (80-1) Malcolm Gibson SSB SP2EKI IO85JV JO92JK 1475
2 2M0WRX (80-1) Kevin Glacken SSB HB0Y/
DO4DXA IO85IV JN58QC 1323
40M
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station Wkd Your Locator Their Locator Distance Kms
1 MM0DXH (40-1) Jim Hume SSB ZL4IR IO85LM RE34VS 18723
3 MM5AHO-2 Geoff Crowley USB VK4KW IO85DW QG62KO 16350
4 2M0WRX (40-2) Kevin Glacken SSB PY1NB IO85IV GG87MO 9485
20M
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station Wkd Your Locator Their Locator Distance Kms
1 MM3XXW (20-4) Martyn Whyte SSB VK6MV IO85JX OF87nb 24985
2 MM0DXH (20-1) Jim Hume SSB ZL4IV IO85LM RE54HF 18838
3 2M0WRX (20-6) Kevin Glacken SSB ZL1IV IO85IV RF81MJ 18113
15M
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station Wkd Your Locator Their Locator Distance Kms
1 GM4UYZ (15-1) Bob Glasgow CW W9AO IO85MX EN63AF 5889
2 2M0WRX (15-1) Kevin Glacken SSB IZ4BBF IO85IV JN54MO 1612
10M
Entry Call Sign Name Mode Station Wkd Your Locator Their Locator Distance Kms
1 GM4IKT-10 Bob Purves SSB VE1TK IO85MX FN74XW 4344
2 MM3XXW (10-1) Martyn Whyte SSB OH8A IO85JX KP24gq 1786
3 2M0WRX (10-1) Kevin Glacken SSB 9A2BD IO85IV JN86BI 1713
4 GM4UYZ (10-1) Bob Glasgow CW S58AW IO85MX JN65SM 1637
11
Congratulations to Barry Taylor MM3ZFK, Adrian Cumming MM3YPQ, Robin Farrer MM3SRF, Stevie Hargreaves MM3YPN, Martyn Whyte MM3XXW, Graham Tinn MM3ZFW and Brian Wilson MM3WZB for passing their Intermediate Exam. Thanks to Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ Instructor, Cambell Stevenson MM0DXC Lead Invigilator and Gary Bourhill MM0FZV Assistant Invigilator for all their work in running the course and holding the exams.
Intermediate Exam passes
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
BT Community Champions 2009
By John Innes MM0JXI
I‘m please to announce that a little while ago the Club was awarded £310 from the BT Community Champions Scheme. This scheme recognises and rewards BT employees who do voluntary work with community groups and clubs for their com-mitment and enthusiasm. This is the second award the club has received and as I can apply once a year, I look for-ward to being successful in fu-ture years. The scheme has been running
since 1993 and reflects the massive contribution made by BT employees outside of office work. Every year the scheme awards a total of £159,000 to over 800 community groups throughout the world. It offers the opportunity of an annual cash injection which can be vital for a groups‘ sustain-ability. I hope to be able to repeat the application on a regular sched-ule to provide the club with some funds.
It is still to be decided what to use the money for but the Club‘s Contest Group plans to buy a 70cm amplifier have been suggested as a suitable desti-nation—watch this space! John MM0JXI
www.cpsarc.com
12
1. The digital voltmeter will read a. 27.0V b. 30.0V c. 33.0V d. 60.0V
2. A high voltage power supply for a valve
transmitter produces about 1500V. The smoothing capacitor is 100μF and the bleeder resistor is 600KR. After 1 minute the P.D. across the capacitor will be approximately
a. 50V b. 500V c. 1000V d. 1500V
3. Three inductors, each having an inductance of
6mH, are connected in series, with no mutual coupling. The combined value of inductance is
a. 2mH b. 6mH c. 12mH d. 18mH
4. Which arrow line on the graph indicates the RMS
value of the voltage?
a. Arrow A b. Arrow B c. Arrow C d. Arrow D
5. A 3R resistor is connected in series with an
inductor. At the frequency in use, the reactance of the inductor is 4R. What is the impedance of combined resistor and inductor? a. 3.5R b. 5R c. 7R d. 9.4R
6. The circuit shown is the equivalent circuit of a
a. crystal b. parallel tuned circuit c. frequency multiplier diode d. PA output stage
7. The reason the core of a transformer is laminated is to reduce a. Transformer weight b. Hysteresis loss c. Eddy currents d. The turns ratio required
8. The crystal shown is forming part of
a. A local oscillator b. An RF amplifier c. A BFO d. An IF filter
9. A crystal is used inside a temperature controlled
oven. The purpose of the oven is to a. Cause the crystal to operate on a harmonic
frequency. b. Reduce the reverse bias current c. Stabilise the turn-on voltage d. Maintain the frequency stability
10. The graph shows the characteristic curve of a
a. FET transistor b. Zener Diode c. NPN transistor d. Germanium diode
Test Your Knowledge
By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ
13
Event Calendar
By John Innes MM0JXI
04 December 2009 Club Night
12 December 2009 Christmas Night Out (Tranmere Hotel, Tranent)
2 January 2010 Newsletter Deadline
8 January 2010 Club Night (note this is the second Friday in January)
30 January 2010 Newsletter Deadline
5 February 2010 Club Night
19 February 2010 Radio Test Night
27 February 2010 Newsletter Deadline
Now I‘m no expert of course but I think this may be the very 1
st
time that non-full licence hold-ers have been able to apply for an NoV on their licence. Well you just know being the type of chap that I am I had to take the bull by the horns and grab the chance. The NoV application via the Ofcom website was simpler than simplicity itself with very easy to follow instructions hence MM3XXW very quickly became MA3XXW! So what‘s happened is our sec-ondary locator letter ‗M‘ was simply replaced by the letter ‗A‘ which as you all are very well aware denotes “Alba” (the old Gaelic for Scotland). So those who applied were able to hit the airwaves with the call as part of the ―Homecoming‖ celebrations up until the 30
th of November
2009. Now I have to confess to being a bit perplexed as to the reasons for ending this on St. Andrews Day and not on Hog-manay but these decisions are usually taken by folks that are way more important than I am so heyho! Anyway as to the operating, well my 1
st day ‗on air‘ with my
new call left quite a few folks scratching their heads trying to work out my location and de-spite my explanations of the ‗special prefix‘ it took a wee bit for the penny to drop (GM2T syndrome!) however when it did they were very happy to be put-ting another px in their log. Slowly but surely the prefix hunters came a-looking to see if they could manage the contact the elusive MA3 they‘d heard was lurking somewhere around the frequencies and some really great contacts were made! Nearest and dearest: David – MM0XDG with Steven – MM6TMS a close second Furthest contact: RK0AZC – Peter on the mic with a distance of over 8200km Unfortunately I was a bit late in starting with the call due mostly to a sick radio spending a bit of time in Wales but once I‘d sorted that and with a new radio on the desk things picked
up somewhat. The purchase of an FT1000MP together with a Heil PSP made the whole thing a lot easier (well once I‘d sorted the audio settings anyway!) and much more of a pleasure. In the end, which is this evening 30/11/09 as I am writing, I logged just under 400 contacts in 39 countries including Do-minican Republic, Spain, Can-ada, Montenegro, Slovakia, Puerto Rico, France, USA, Italy, European Russia, Georgia, Asi-atic Russia to name but a few! A fantastic opportunity for a ‗novice‘ like myself to have an in-sight into special calls without the need for supervision, all I can say is well done Ofcom!
MA3XXW—a ‘special prefix’
By Martyn MM3XXW
www.cpsarc.com
14
The Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain and holds the call signs MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our special event and
contest entries.
We have our own website www.cpsarc.com where you will find our popular web site which features lively discussion forums and photo galleries.
You can also download an electronic copy of this newsletter and ar-chived copies from the past.
The Club was formed by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in 1984, to help the local amateurs get to know each other.
Far from being just a local club we have members regularly attending from the Borders, Dumfries, Strathclyde, Fife and Newcastle.
The Club meets on the first Friday of every month (Second Friday of January) in the lounge of the Thorntree Inn on the old Cockenzie High Street from 7pm till late.
The Club is run in a very informal way, just a group of like minded people doing something they enjoy!
This does not mean that we don‘t do anything, we enter (and win!) contests, train newcomers, hold talks and video nights and run a popular annual Junk Sale. Our newsletter has won the Practical Wireless ‗Spotlight‘ competition on several occasions.
The Club supports the British Heart Foundation in memory of a member who died from heart disease by donating the profits from some of the events we hold, we have raised over £14,368 since 1994.
Bob Glasgow 7 Castle Terrace Port Seton East Lothian EH32 0EE Phone: 01875 811723 E-mail: [email protected] General correspondence, training and contest entries Bob Glasgow [email protected] HF Contests Cambell Stevenson [email protected] VHF Contests John MacLean [email protected] Newsletter, website, event calendar John Innes [email protected] Club Tables Bob Purves [email protected]
The club has a design for Club Tee-shirts, Polo-shirts, Sweat-Shirts, Fleeces and Jackets and all of these can be obtained from the address below. When making an order please:
Quote Cockenzie & Port
Seton Amateur Radio Club as this will ensure that the Club Logo will be placed on the re-quired ordered garments.
If you wish to add your call-
sign to the logo then please ask at the time of the order. Cost will depend on garment and should cover the garment and logo, call-sign addition will be extra. Order from: PATRICIA BEWSEY DESIGNS, UNIT 11, FENTON BARNS RETAIL VIL-LAGE, FENTON BARNS, NORTH BERWICK, EAST LOTHIAN EH39 5BW Tel/Fax: 01620 850788 Mobile: 07970 920431
Club Attire Information
Contacts
Supported by BT Community Champions Answers from December
2009 newsletter ―Test Your Knowledge‖. 1C, 2B, 3D, 4A, 5B, 6A, 7C, 8D, 9D, 10B
