10
Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club Elements 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. 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 aending 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 ll late. Editorial Welcome to our monthly newsleer and I hope you enjoy the read!!! We are now into the month of February already, where did January disappear too, and already we are beginning to see the nights geng longer and the dreary dark nights of winter starng to fade away, thank goodness says I!!!! First of all I must thank all of you who turned up for the January Club Night. I do have a dream in that I would love to see all those who have promised to come along, those who have gone by the wayside come back to club night and join in. I feel we have so much to offer. Anyway I will keep dreaming. What has happened since last month? First of all some bad news in the sense that Nial 2M0KPZ’s Father-in-Law sadly passed away aſter a very short illness. As always I would like to pass on Deepest Sympathies to Nial and his family and to say our thoughts are with them at this me. January was its normal quiet month and to be honest I use it as definite rest period before everything kicks off again for the year although our Morse Training nights did restart again, I must admit I don’t see it as a “chore” but something that I thoroughly enjoy doing. I do like the mode even though I am not the greatest at it. It is great to see the connual support for this event as everyone struggles to learn the code. I took part in the RSGB 80M AFS CW contest and managed a few QSO’s. It was nice to get back on the air from home and it is something I must do more of this year. One of my 2012 aims!!!!! On the teaching front my Advanced (Full) pupils will have sat their exam so fingers crossed for them. I start the next Foundaon Course on the 11 th with their exam on the 18 th so on behalf of us all I would like to wish them all the best with their exam. I am starng another Intermediate Course on the 3 rd March with the exam at the end of March. So far I have only 1 candidate so fingers crossed others will join in. That will be my last up unl September as I definitely need a sabbacal. If you know of anyone who is interested in any of the courses will you ask them to get in contact with me direct and I will get all the required details. I am sure you will join with me in wishing each of the candidates all the best with their respecve exams. The events program for the year starts this month with another of John MM0JXI’s Radio Check Nights on the 17 th February. The radio check night has certainly been well aended in the past years and has been very useful at finding faulty radios so whey not bring along what you have and give it a MOT. THIS REALLY IS A WORTHWHILE EVENT so I hope you will all take advantage of it. On all our events I hope that you will all make an effort to aend as many as you can throughout the year. For full up to date events please read the Events Column or even look on the web-site and you will find them all in the calendar area. I think that is about it for this month, I am sure there was something else but I cannot think what it is, sign of old age or whatever. Anyway enjoy the newsleer. Bob GM4UYZ In this issue Future Articles P.2 2011 IOTA Provisional Results P.2 Radio Test Night P.3 Clublog tables P.3 Make a 2m DF Loop Antenna P.4 Stacking triband YAGIs P.5 Contact with ISS P.8 Test Your Knowledge P.9 Event Calendar P.10 Volume 20 February 2012 02

Elements 201202

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Elements 201202

Citation preview

Page 1: Elements 201202

Cockenzie

& Port Seton Amateur Radio Club Elements

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.

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.

Editorial Welcome to our monthly newsletter and I hope you enjoy the read!!! We are now into the month of February already, where did January disappear too, and already we are beginning to see the nights getting longer and the dreary dark nights of winter starting to fade away, thank goodness says I!!!!

First of all I must thank all of you who turned up for the January Club Night. I do have a dream in that I would love to see all those who have promised to come along, those who have gone by the wayside come back to club night and join in. I feel we have so much to offer. Anyway I will keep dreaming.

What has happened since last month? First of all some bad news in the sense that Nial 2M0KPZ’s Father-in-Law sadly passed away after a very short illness. As always I would like to pass on Deepest Sympathies to Nial and his family and to say our thoughts are with them at this time. January was its normal quiet month and to be honest I use it as definite rest period before everything kicks off again for the year although our Morse Training nights did restart again, I must admit I don’t see it as a “chore” but something that I thoroughly enjoy doing. I do like the mode even though I am not the greatest at it. It is great to see the continual support for this event as everyone struggles to learn the code. I took part in the RSGB 80M AFS CW contest and managed a few QSO’s. It was nice to get back on the air from home and it is something I must do more of this year. One of my 2012 aims!!!!!

On the teaching front my Advanced (Full)

pupils will have sat their exam so fingers crossed for them. I start the next Foundation Course on the 11th with their exam on the 18th so on behalf of us all I would like to wish them all the best with their exam. I am starting another Intermediate Course on the 3rd March with the exam at the end of March. So far I have only 1 candidate so fingers crossed others will join in. That will be my last up until September as I definitely need a sabbatical. If you know of anyone who is interested in any of the courses will you ask them to get in contact with me direct and I will get all the required details. I am sure you will join with me in wishing each of the candidates all the best with their respective exams.

The events program for the year starts this month with another of John MM0JXI’s Radio Check Nights on the 17th February. The radio check night has certainly been well attended in the past years and has been very useful at finding faulty radios so whey not bring along what you have and give it a MOT. THIS REALLY IS A WORTHWHILE EVENT so I hope you will all take advantage of it. On all our events I hope that you will all make an effort to attend as many as you can throughout the year. For full up to date events please read the Events Column or even look on the web-site and you will find them all in the calendar area.

I think that is about it for this month, I am sure there was something else but I cannot think what it is, sign of old age or whatever. Anyway enjoy the newsletter.

Bob GM4UYZ

In this issue Future Articles P.2

2011 IOTA Provisional Results P.2

Radio Test Night P.3

Clublog tables P.3

Make a 2m DF Loop Antenna P.4

Stacking triband YAGIs P.5

Contact with ISS P.8

Test Your Knowledge P.9

Event Calendar P.10

V o l u m e 2 0

Fe b ru ary

2 0 12

02

Page 2: Elements 201202

2

This is an old war cry and I make no apologies for continually raising the subject. It is certainly not helping in that I have not had the same time to devote to trying to write articles due to a some home commitments and an increasing heavy workload giving me very little time to do anything. 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 outcry if no newsletter was produced so come on please put “fingers to the keyboard “or” pen to paper and do something. It doesn’t have to be a huge article anything will do. I get lots of people saying I must do something but it never materialises so be positive for a change and do it. The lack of time is no excuse as I am continually “up to my ears” as they say, and struggling for time but I am aware if nothing is written then there will be no newsletter.

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

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

Safety in the radio environment

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

2011 IOTA Contest provisional results

The provisional results for the 2011 RSGB Islands of the Air

Contest which the club entered as GM2T.

This year we have been placed 6th in the Island Expedition

section. This is a fair drop from the dizzy heights of last year’s

3rd place but still an excellent result so well done to all the

team.

Looking at the scores from the teams above us, it’s plain that a

lot more work needs to be done on improving our multiplier

count, the best stations got nearly 200 more islands than us so

there is plenty room for improvement.

I’m sure the morse improvement classes that some of the club

are attending just now will pay some dividends are having

more team members who can turn their hand to contest

morse is a good thing.

John MM0JXI

Page 3: Elements 201202

I will be holding another of my very popular

Radio Test Nights, where Club Members can

bring their radios along to have them checked

out on professional test gear.

I have access to professional test equipment

like a Marconi 2955 Radiocomms Test Set and

a Hewlett Packard Spectrum Analyser and Bird

Thruline Power Meter.

Using this equipment we can test almost any

radio you care to bring along for:

Power Output (from 1mW up to 400W)

Deviation

Spectral Purity

Receive Sensitivity

Frequency Accuracy

Sub-audible Tones

The Test Night takes place on Friday 17th Feb-

ruary in Resources Room 2 in the Port Seton

Community Centre from 19:30 to 21:30, entry

fee £2.

Over the years this has been a very popular

event and also very worthwhile. It is a great

opportunity to give all your radios an annual

check up which can be recorded in your log.

Remember to bring all your power/

microphone/etc. leads for your respective

radios.

John MM0JXI

2

Clublog DXCC Tables

Radio Test Night

Our club has been added

to the excellent Clublog

system developed by

Michael Wells G7VJR.

www.clublog.org

The system allows

members to upload their

logs in ADIF format and

have them displayed in a

table with all the other

club members.

Clublog also has great

facilities for tracking your

DXCC status etc so is well

worth taking the time to

register and get your log

uploaded.

To update your log with

the next set of contacts

(SSB, CW or Data) you can

simply upload your whole

log again and the system

will take care of the

duplicates. Alternatively

you can export the bits

you want from your own

log and just upload that.

The tables we’ll publish

here will be the club,

filtered by the current

year, so everyone starts a

new year at 0 contacts.

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

1 GM4IKT 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 5 6 8 yrs

2 M0RNR 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 13 yrs

3 GM4UYZ 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 32 yrs

4 MM0XXW 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 6 yrs

This is the new Clublog table for 2012, as you

can see, only a few members have uploaded

any of their QSOs for the new year.

To make the table really interesting it needs

as many members as possible to keep upload-

ing their logs, CW, SSB or DATA

Page 4: Elements 201202

Club Attire

The club has a design for

Club Tee-shirts, Polo-

shirts, Sweat-Shirts, Fleec-

es and Jackets and all of

these can be obtained

from the address below.

When making an order

please quote ‘Cockenzie &

Port Seton Amateur Radio

Club’ as this will ensure

that the Club Logo will be

placed on the required

ordered garments.

If you wish to add your call

-sign to the logo then

please ask at the time of

the order.

Cost will depend on gar-

ment and should cover the

garment and logo, call-sign

addition will be extra.

Order from:

PATRICIA BEWSEY DESIGNS,

UNIT 11,

FENTON BARNS RETAIL

VILLAGE,

FENTON BARNS,

NORTH BERWICK,

EAST LOTHIAN

EH39 5BW

Tel/Fax: 01620 850788

Mobile: 07970 920431

Make a 2m DF Loop Antenna

DF contests can be fun. A foxhunt style game trying to find a hidden, intermittent transmitter somewhere in the town or the country requires some skill and some cunning. But one tool that is almost essential is a directional antenna. Here’s an easy 2m loop antenna you can make in a couple of hours or less.

Another use for this style of antenna, is to DF a source of interference. That’s actually why I made it. There was an unlicensed person who was interfering with a 2m repeater, and I got sick of it. I decided I’d find out exactly who this was and get it stopped. The loop was sufficiently directional to determine exactly which house (a semi) this person was in. The antenna outside helped of course! But I had to find the street first.

I made this one from junk lying about in my shed, but you can use many different things to get this to work.

Essentially this is a dipole folded up into a loop. The ends of the dipole don’t quite meet, but are held together by an insulator for mechanical strength.

The feed point of the dipole is tuned by 2 variable capacitors of 30pF each, and some coax connections to connect to your rig. I terminated these with a BNC plug, so that I can use it on a hand-held, making the whole system very portable.

The diagram gives the general arrangement, and the images show how I adapted the original design to suit what I had available.

Variable capacitors at such small values are not so common, but I have boxes full, so contact me if you can’t find your own.

Geoff MM5AHO

4

Page 5: Elements 201202

4

BY Colin Brown GM0RLZ

The article below was written by Colin one of our Club Mem-bers. Colin’s interests lie with antennas and antenna designs. With the Advanced (Full) Training Course being run at the present time I thought a re-run of this article would be of interest to the students as well as anyone else who may be interested. UNUN (unbalanced-to-unbalanced transformers) belong to a class of matching devices known as transmission line trans-formers. They are unbalanced, wideband and a flexible im-pedance transformer. When properly designed, they can have extremely high efficiencies and very broad bandwidths. Anoth-er feature is that even high power UNUN’s are small and do not require careful cutting of various lengths of coax. Since their transformation ratios hold true over a large fre-quency range, it is now possible to stack tribanders, log peri-odics, multiband quads or even multiband verticals and di-poles. Now you don’t have to be a Big Gun to have a stack of antennas. This is probably the most effective upgrade you could do to your station, even better than buying the latest mongo 8 kilowatt Yugoslavian amplifier (2x gu84b) I saw ad-vertised recently. You also have the added ability of beaming in 2 directions at the same time, control of the take off angle and able to suppress rain static/local noise. Dr Jerry Sevick W2FMI and Jay Terleski WX0B are credited with leading the field of UNUN design and their use in stacking an-tennas. Jay Terleski is the owner of Array Solutions and a keen contester. Jay was looking for a way to build a single tower, Multioperator contest station. He wanted to feed equal power to either 1, 2 or 3 stacked yagi's and be able to switch them into any configuration of upper, middle, lower, upper two, lower two and upper and lower. After searching all the availa-ble literature he found no easy to build solution to this prob-lem. What he realised was he was searching for a gadget that could transform impedances. He had seen W2FMI Jerry Se-vick’s book Transmission line transformers and it dawned on him that a UNUN was just what he was looking for. The classic way to feed a two high stack of yagis is to use quar-ter wavelength, 75 ohm coax transformers. If the stack is to be made switchable, these sections have to be switched out. To switch all these cables in or out for 2 or 3 antennas calls for a very complicated switching matrix. The other disadvantages are that this system requires accurate cutting of transmission lines and it only works on one frequency.

The UNUN system (Stack Matcher) When we feed three 50 ohm antennas with equal lengths of coax, the total impedance is 16.7 ohms. Two 50 ohm antennas with equal lengths of coax give us a total impedance of 25 ohms. We could build two UNUN's one with a 3:1 ratio to feed 3 beams and one with a 2:1 ratio for 2 beams. But if we were to compromise and build a UNUN with an intermediate turn’s ratio 2.25:1 we can still achieve a 1:1 SWR see Figure 1. FIG 1.

2.25:1 UNUN's are very easy to build; they don’t require any taps and can be made to handle high power. There is a trade off between bandwidth, number of turns required and core permeability. Jay reports that there is also a small trade off between permeability and efficiency, but the efficiencies are so high that ferrite cores with a 125 permeability or lower will give nearly 100% efficiencies at HF frequencies. The windings are trifler of high voltage wire 12 or 14 gauge wire. Wrap five turns round the core and bend the ends to make connections as in fig 2. FIG 2.

Once the UNUN has been constructed check it by putting a 25 or 16.7 ohms dummy load across it, paralleling 2 or 3, 50ohm dummy loads, works fine. When I constructed my first UNUN I

(Continued on page 6)

STACKING TRIBAND YAGI'S AND PHASING VERTICALS WITH UNUN TRANSMISSION LINE TRANSFORMERS

Page 6: Elements 201202

The Club

The Club is run in a very

informal way, just a group

of like minded people

doing something they

enjoy!

This does not mean that

we don’t do anything, we

enter (and win!) contests,

train newcomers, hold

talks and video nights and

run a popular annual Junk

Sale. Our newsletter has

won the Practical Wireless

‘Spotlight’ competition on

several occasions.

The Club supports the

British Heart Foundation

in memory of a member

who died from heart dis-

ease by donating the

profits from some of the

events we hold, we have

raised over £14,795 since

1994.

Supported by BT Community

Champions

used 2 x 1.5kw loads in parallel and was able to run the full output of my Alpha 91B into the unit without any heating in the core so I would reckon that this UNUN would handle that Yugoslavian Amplifier! It’s a good idea to wrap some fibreglass tape round the core to prevent damaging the enamelled wire. I used an AB240 balun kit available from Bytemark, it consists of a FT240-61 core and 14 gauge enamelled wire, power handling 2KW CW. An F114-67 ferrite core could also be used. I used Finder single pole 16 amp 12volt PCB mounting relays see EI7BA’s web site for further infor-mation on using these relays for antenna switching. A simple rotary switch and diode matrix selects each array combination. A good waterproof enclosure is all that is needed to mount the UNUN match outside. I will leave it to the individual how they switch the relays. FIG 3.

Other Uses The UNUN match does not just have to be used with YAGI beams; it can also be used to phase vertical antennas. It can be set up to feed 2 or 3 verticals in phase giving broad-side pattern when spaced properly and an end fire array in each direction when each antenna is selected individually. It is also possible to set 3 verticals up in a triangle. Erect the two verticals so that the broadside patterns and end-fire patterns are oriented in the desired direction. Space the verticals from ¼ wave apart to ½ wave apart. If you are using three verticals erect them in a tri-angular pattern with 0.145 to 0.25 separa-tion. Model your antennas to verify the pattern you are seeking is correct. Remem-ber these verticals could be vertical dipoles

hung from your existing tower. Connect two feed lines, which are 0.41 wavelengths long at the desired band of operation. Remember to take the feed line velocity factor (VF) in mind when constructing them. By feeding equal power to the two verticals you will achieve a broadside pattern. By se-lecting antenna 1, antenna 2 or antenna 3 (if in a three element array) you will have cre-ated an end-fire pattern in the direction of that antenna. The un-selected antenna(s) become a reflector due to the effects of the feed line stub. You will see 4.0 dB gain over a single vertical if the spacing is ½ wave-length between verticals. For 3/8 wave spac-ing the gain will be 2.4 dB over a single verti-cal. For The End-Fire mode you will see from 3dB to 6 dB gain depending on spacing. It is a good idea to model this array to deter-mine the gain and pattern for the spacing you have chosen. Just use +J 65 to +J100 ohms as your "load" placed at the feed point of the verticals. The 65-100 ohms of +j im-pedance is what you will see from the stub when that antenna becomes a reflector. This is like adding a coil to the feed point to low-er the resonant frequency of the vertical by 4-6 %. You will also see the pattern is very forgiving and will provide useful gain over the entire range. Example of a 3 element array: To make a simple 3 element triangular array. Build three vertical dipoles and mount them from the same tower. Pull the middle sections away from the tower and fold the bottom ends back into the tower. Space the dipoles as you would your guy lines, 120 degrees apart. Feed as dipoles from the UNUN match, mounted half way up to the tops of the dipoles. This makes a very effective array (3dB gain, 15-20dB front to back).

(Continued from page 5)

(Continued on page 7)

Morse Training

6

Page 7: Elements 201202

FIG 4.

FIG 5.

The array above was built and tested and found to be equal to a full sized 3-element beam. The disadvantage is that it is fixed in one direction. Antennas are force12 linear loaded 80m verticals. Similar vertical arrays have been used by Team vertical from Jamaica to win CQWW CW contest. A full de-scription is available from http://force12inc.com/PCSDAT-002.htm I have concentrated on 80m antennas but remember the UNUN match will work from 1.8-30 MHz so get planning those 160m phased verticals you have always promised your-self. Talking of 160m antennas a 2:2.25 UNUN is a great way to feed an inverted L, normal feed point is around 18-28 ohms depending on the ground system used. With a little ingenuity on your part multiband verticals could be phased with a compromise on spacing. The average tower would probably be able to support a pair of vertical dipoles for 30/40m. My only other bit of advice is be careful phasing antennas with a slaved driver i.e. Force 12 C3s etc, with a

direct feed YAGI gamma match, hairpin etc. There are articles on the Array Solutions web site, which describe how to phase different yagi’s like these. At my own QTH I played around phasing a Butternut HF9 ver-tical with a Cobweb nest of dipoles and found it significantly reduced local noise. Have fun and join the Big Guns! References and Links ARRL Antenna Handbook 19th Edition BYTEMARK : http://www.bytemark.com/products/kit_bal1.htm EI7BA website: http://www.iol.ie/~bravo/

FORCE 12: http://force12inc.com/

I4LEC Website: http://www.qsl.net/i4lec/

W2FMI Jerry Sevick Transmission Line Transformers, 4th. Ed W4RNL website: http://www.cebik.com/radio.html

WB0X Array Solutions: http://www.arraysolutions.com/

WB0X Jay Terleski: A Single Tower, Multioperator Contest Station, National Contest Journal 95. Jul/Aug

(Continued from page 6)

6

Page 8: Elements 201202

Contact with ISS - Radio-Club de Saint-Quentin en Yve-lines F6KRK

This came from Pierre F5NED about a project he has been in-

volved with. Pierre supports the club and has donated money

every year for two or three years. He was at the Scottish Par-

liament as well...

Bob GM4UYZ

————————————————-

The ARISS contact between the International Space Station

(ISS) and Lycée Descartes, a High School in Saint-Quentin en

Yvelines near Paris, was successful on Monday the 9th of Janu-

ary 2012, 1018 UTC.

Astronaut on board of ISS was Dan Burbank KC5ZSX. Hamradio

operators in the school were Franck F8CRH and Jeoffray

F0GWD. The contact lasted more than 10 minutes with su-

perbe audio conditions and 9 questions from students were

answered by the astronaut.

French astronaut Léopold Eyharts KE5FNO was in the school

for that event and was able to greet his colleague on board of

the ISS at the end of the contact.

The event lasted more than two hours with 250 people, stu-

dents, teachers, radioamateurs and VIP's. The radio-club orga-

nized it like a show with talks and videos on the project on

Space and Radiocommunications in the school for the stu-

dents, the ISS and activities of astronauts, the technical and

coordination project in the radio-club, speeches by official

people, and answers to public questions on ISS by astronaut

Léopold Eyharts.

French radio and television broadcasted the event live and in

the evening, newspapers journalists were in the school.

A radioamateur relay on VHF and UHF retransmitted live the

contact all over the Parisian area and it could be heard from

pupils in schools via radioamateurs.

Jeoffray the second hamradio operator is a student in the

school, he received his callsign on the 7th of January, and the

contact with ISS was his first QSO.

The project started in June 2010, it was 18 months of hard

work for a team of 8 people in the radio-club, with up to 30

radioamateurs in the school for trials and D-day.

A radiocommunication VHF system was designed and built

with redundancy on battery power supplies, transmitters and

antennas.

A good and close cooperation was needed with ARISS France

and International, the school staff and the townhall officials

and personal.

Contacts with European Space Agency (ESA) lead to a public

talk on ISS by Léopold Eyharts in October 2011, and eventually

to his venue for ARISS contact with other VIP's.

You will find information on radio-club web

site www.f6krk.org, ARISS page.

Pierre F5NED

8

Page 9: Elements 201202

1. Signals from a transmitter working on 3.56MHz are re-

ported as causing interference over the whole of the FM broadcast radio band. This is probably caused by a har-monic of the RF signal getting into the

a. RF Amplifier

b. 10.7 MHz IF amplifier

c. AF amplifier

d. Power supply

2. Masthead pre-amplifiers intended to improve TV broad-

cast reception are often

a. Narrow Band devices

b. Wide Band devices

c. Pre-tuned to VHF bands

d. Pre-tuned to UHF bands

3. Unwanted RF can cause problems in semiconductor

equipment by

a. Overheating the components

b. Reducing the gain

c. Overloading the power supply

d. Rectification at PN junctions

4. A ferrite ring can minimise breakthrough onto speaker

leads of audio equipment by

a. Reducing the current carrying capacity of the leads

b. Screening the leads from radio waves

c. Improving the insulation of the leads

d. Increasing the inductance of the leads

5. Breakthrough on one particular frequency is best cured

by which of the following?

a. Balun

b. Ferrite Bead or beads

c. Low-pass filter

d. Notch filter

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

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

a. 0.5 W/m² and f.s. is 10V/m

b. 0.25 W/m² and f.s. is 10V/m

c. 0. 5 W/m² and f.s. is 5V/m

d. 0.25 W/m² and f.s. is 5V/m

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

socket is

a. A simple and safe solution for a temporary installations

b. Acceptable if the current required will not exceed about

5A

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

mittent use

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

tronics

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

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

a. RSGB

b. Amateur licence holder

c. TV owner

d. Broadcast authority

9. UK TV broadcast stations use the frequency band

a. 455 – 500KHz

b. 33 – 40MHz

c. 470 – 854MHz

d. 1240 – 1260MHz

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

to disappear, this form of breakthrough is called

a. Under deviation

b. Cross-modulation

c. Image

d. Blocking

Test Your Knowledge

8

Page 10: Elements 201202

Contacts

General correspondence,

training and contest en-

tries

Bob Glasgow

7 Castle Terrace

Port Seton

East Lothian

EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723

E-mail:

[email protected]

HF Contests

Cambell Stevenson

[email protected]

VHF Contests

John MacLean

[email protected]

Club Tables

Bob Purves

[email protected]

Contest Reports

Robin Farrer

[email protected]

Newsletter, website,

event calendar

John Innes

[email protected]

3 February 2012 Club Night

11 February 2012 Foundation License Course (fees to be paid by 18 January)

17 February 2012

Radio Test Night

Port Seton Community Centre Resources Room 2 at 19:30

Admission £2

18 February 2012 Foundation License Course (pt2)

24 February 2012 Newsletter Deadline

2 March 2012 Club Night

3 March 2012 Intermediate License Course begins

(fees to be paid by 4 December)

16 March 2012 Talk by Len Paget GM0ONX on “Planning Permission” Port Seton Community Centre Resource Room 19:30 to 21:30

6 April 2012 Club Night

7 April 2012 Intermediate License Exam

21 April 2012 10 Pin Bowling Night (TBC)

4 May 2012 Club Night

11 May 2012 FIRST 144Mhz DF Hunt Meet in “The Old Ship Inn” Car Park (East) 18:30 for 19:00

1 June 2012 Club Night

10 June 2012 PW 144MHz QRP Contest

16/17 June 2012 Museums on the Air Weekend

Museum of Flight—East Fortune GB2MOF

20 June 2012 CPSARC HF Activity night

19:00—22:00

29 June 2012 Club Night (moved to accommodate VHF Field Day)

7/8 July 2012 RSGB VHF Field Day

28/29 July 2012 RSGB IOTA Contest

Island of Tiree GM2T

3 August 2012 Club Night

10 August 2012 19thANNUAL MINI-RALLY NIGHT

18/19 August 2012 Lighthouses Weekend

Barns Ness Lighthouse GB2LBN

7 September 2012 Club Night

28 September 2012 SECOND 144Mhz DF Hunt Meet in “The Old Ship Inn” Car Park (East) 18:30 for 19:00

Events Column Answers from February 2012 newsletter

“Test Your Knowledge”.

1B, 2B, 3D, 4D, 5D

6B, 7D, 8C, 9C, 10D