THE CATSWHISKER - AUGUST 1999
NEWSLETTER OF SOUTH DORSET RADIO SOCIETY
Editor - John Rose, M0BQO 45 Ringstead Crescent, Weymouth, Dorset DT3 6PT. Tel: 01305 832057
Editor's Notes - No droppings from my pen this month, or there won't be space for all the contributions. (Putting it another way, three sheets won't be filled, two sheets is now full.) Thanks all, keep 'em rolling!
Internet News - From Geoff, G0EVW
I have reserved 20 Mb of space on the Internet at: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/g0evw/index.htm so that SDRS can have its own Web Pages. What is needed now is material. (Where have I heard that before hi!) In particular I hope we can document the history of the Society much as I have done for the South Dorset Repeater Group at: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/9900/index.htm The Catswhisker could be posted on the site and a mailing list could send a copy to anyone by e-mail free of charge. Jon, M0BQQ who had already volunteered his services and myself will maintain the site and collate the material. At the moment Jon is busy at work on the SDRG2000 Web Pages at: http://www.sdrg.co.uk/ (Please note that this address is correct, unlike the one given in RadCom!) Members who have the facility can e-mail me at g0evw@freenet.co.uk
FOR YOUR DIARY - Please note there is no Club Meeting in August, except for the Weymouth Carnival Special Event Station, which needs your help (see below). Aug 8th - Flight Refuelling ARC's Hamfest at Wimborne. Aug 18th (Wed) - Weymouth Carnival - Special Event Station. Aug 19th (Thu) - Talk at Yeovil A.R.C. Sept 4/5 (Sat/Sun) SSB HF field day. Sept 5th (Sun) (if anyone is in the Bristol area - i.e. not with our SSB Field Day team) - Bristol Radio and Computer Rally at Temple Meads. Sept 7th Club meeting - Robert G0RYL with his postponed lecture on aerials and feeders. NB - at Chickerell Church Hall
Ideas for future meetings include video of 1998-99 season, look at archive material, quiz. More suggestions wanted please.
Weymouth Carnival Special Event Station - Appeal for help. Carnival Day (August 18th) - We hope to be mounting a Special Event Station again, and as last year it will be at or next to the old Filling Station by the Weymouth Sea Life Centre. The QTH will be either the refurbished van from last year or an open-fronted tent - or, hopefully, both. This appeal is for the loan of a gazebo type of tent for the day - please?
MEETING PLACE - As the Charlestown Social club venue is no longer available to us (at least, until further notice), we have booked the Chickerell Church Hall. Directions - continue past Social Club for another mile when at the bottom of a dip you will see East Street, with a brown sign to 'Turks Head Inn'. In East Street, take the first right and it's down there. If you overshoot, there's a roundabout two hundred yards further on. Weymouth Rugby Club has been suggested as an alternative venue so we are considering other options and are open to suggestions.
THE SSB FIELD DAY - 4/5th SEPTEMBER - From Alex Shannon G3KKJ (Alex is going to run the event for SDRS and has submitted this account of what is required and how it is done.)
There's not much time left to get the programme on the road. Nevertheless we can get up and running with a little enthusiasm.
Field Days can be quite exciting and a great experience, particularly for the younger amateur and indeed for the more mature who have not taken part in such an event.
The event requires the station to be active with the minimum amount of off air time and to exchange reports and serial numbers with as many other field day stations as possible in the twenty four hour period. Contests may sound intimidating to some but after the first few contacts are made it becomes no different than calling CQ for a general QSO or calling your pal around the corner, be it on two metres or any other band one may be accustomed to. The exception being that all contacts are to be as short as possible and of course the addition of logging the call sign, report and serial number received from each station that is worked. As you progress through your first stint on the mic you will find an automatic improvement in your operating technique. Your second stint operating the station offers the challenge to log more stations than on your first attempt but don't be disappointed if you fail as conditions may let you down, and not your operating ability or effort.
Contest operating is not new to the club but it would be nice to see the club' call sign back again in the listings when the results are published in RADCOM.
Next year, if the event proves to be worth a re-run, we can look at methods of improving our operating tactics with the hope of increasing the number of contacts we make and points we score.
The contest could be activated by a single operator but even with two ops it is quite hard (enjoyable) work. It is desirable that we have at least four class A ops backed up by the class B and novice ops who can of course operate the station with a class A in attendance. It would be nice to have all members as keen as mustard and available but that never is the case, however we live in hope!
It would be a great help if we could get one or two class A ops who could kindly step in to cover the night shift. I can stay late and return early in the morning but being new here in the area my wife would be reluctant to be left by erself overnight. So any kind volunteers please?
The aim of the contest is to exchange reports and serial numbers with as many portable or mobile stations as possible as they count for most points per contact; all score points however. The contest is not confined to Europe so there is the opportunity to seek out some juicy DX that may be active.
If you would like to be part of the team in any function please contact John M0BQQ or XYL Emma M1CCJ on 01305 8823232 as soon as possible. If you want to have a chat about contesting don't hesitate to give me a shout on 01305 262311, remember the old adage 'the more the merrier'.
The Practicalities - There are two sections in the contest, one is for the high power boys but I believe we will be very happy to contest the restricted section which calls for simpler station set up and doesn't require massive generators and aerial arrays with the interaction problems between close proximity aerials with strong near field radiation. In addition there's no problems of finding and installing towers and multi-element arrays.
In the restricted section we are permitted the use of the following equipment: one active transceiver or a separate transmitter and a matching receiver, plus a standby pair (the standby pair may only be used in the receive mode); one aerial per band (see below); two masts (see below); maximum power of 100 watts into the aerial or aerials; the station must be portable and supplied by batteries or a portable generator.
Scoring for contacts with:
Fixed stations in IARU Region 1:2 points.
Stations outside IARU Region 1: 3 points
/P or /M in IARU Region 1: 5 points.
IARU Region Stations include those in Europe, Africa, USSR, ITU Zone 39 and Mongolia.
Multipliers: one for each DXCC Country worked on each band. So we will be on the lookout for /P and /M stations and one off DXCC countries on each band.
There are two methods of operating in a contest, firstly "Running" which means we find a clear frequency and stay on that frequency until we have saturated the field, i.e. until incoming calls only come every few minutes. In the mean time our reserve Tx/Rx will be scanning the other bands to find the best band to move to or to find frequencies of other /P or /M stations who are also running on adjacent frequencies on the same band. However, never move from a good running frequency until it has run dry. The second method is to search up and down the bands to find all the other stations that are running, which is fine for locating multipliers but not as productive as the first method.
In the restricted section of the contest we are permitted the use of only one aerial per band, each aerial being made up of a single element. The use of separate aerials for each band has proven to be no more effective than a single adaptable multi-band extended Zepp aerial.
The double extended Zepp is made up with 0.64 of a wavelength on each side of the aerial feeder on the desired band, giving a gain broadside to the wire of 3db over a dipole designed for that particular frequency. If we take 14 MHz as an example which has a wave length of approximately 69 ft then this calls for a length of 42 ft each side of the feeder (including accounting for the volocity factor 0.97). It will be found that 14 MHz is a good band for Europe and will provide a high number of /P and /M stations and a good frequency to start the contest. 7MHz is also very good for Europe. So having made up our 14 MHz aerial we now provide a link to extend our aerial into a double extended Zepp on this band. Again a wave length on 7 MHz is 134 ft so a further 42 ft each side of the feeder provides a total of 84 ft. This 84 ft length is also good for 3.5 MHz. Either Zepp can be loaded up on both the 21 and 28 MHz bands and will provide useful lobes and gain in varying directions for the more DX countries that we cannot find on the lower frequencies.
If required a separate aerial could be erected for these two bands but this has never proved worth the trouble. Obviously an ATU is needed to finely tune the system.
In the restricted section we are permitted the use of two aerial supports having a maximum height of 15 metres above ground at the highest point, but an inverted "v" single centre support extended Zepp has always proven to be quite successful in all previous Field Days. However there is no reason why we cannot utilise two masts if available and desired, but this does call for the extra guy ropes and assembly time. A reserve Tx/Rx is permitted for use in the receive mode only during the contest which could be connected to a multiband vertical. This part of the station in good hands coud provide essential information for the active operator. It is advised that the receive operator should always use earphones to minimise interference with the operation of the active station.
I hope these few notes have provided some useful information for any prospective contesters and encouragement to have a go in the forthcoming Field Day.
The contest commences at 1300 hrs UTC.
Volunteers are still required as operators, loggers, teamakers etc - anything - at all times of the day. If you are able to help, please contact Jon M0BQQ or Alex G3KKJ; alternatively, me, and I'll pass on your offer. Ed.`
REVIEW OF THE NOVICE COURSE IN WYKE REGIS - By Alex, 2E1HEJ
Being on the citizens band for over a year I decided to progress my hobby of radio further. I was offered a chance to take on the Amateur Radio Novice Course and the Exam after that course was completed successfully.
The initial cost of the course and exam totalled a reasonable £30, this included the Student's Notebook, components for the kit plus the examination fee. A friendly cup of tea was also included each evening at the course.
Because I was the youngest student on the course I felt that the chances of me becoming a Novice would be slim, however it was reassuring to know that there were a few students over 50!
The course was held in a converted garage supplied by Neville (a student on the course, now 2E1HFY) in Wyke Regis. On the initial evening (10th September 1998) the 5 other students and myself met up with the 4 tutors, they were Mike (G0NEV), Rob (G0RYL), Bill (G3EAT) and John (G7BRU).
On my first glance of the Student's Notebook by John Case (GW4HWR) I came across some unusual words such as Propagation and Harmonics, I did not however let these complex words put me off.
The tutors explained everything in a detailed way, on many occasions we did not have a clue to what the tutor was trying saying. By simply asking the tutors to help explain certain matters that were bothering you resulted in you understanding the principle better.
One of the tasks that I enjoyed greatly was building the Audio Frequency Amplifier; this task involved following instructions then soldering the correct component onto the PCB. Before building the kit I was taught the Resistance code this was revised in free time not in class, another code that I had to learn was the Q-code.
Unfortunately the examination date in December was cancelled; this resulted in us having to wait three months till the next examination. Over this winter period our usual Thursday evening classes continued, during these I answered many of the specimen examination papers. These sample question papers were in a multi-choice style therefore I instantly had a 1 in 4 chance of selecting the correct answer, the possibilities were reduced again, as there were always booby answers that did not even resemble the question. We often joked about some of the questions because they were totally hilarious for example: -
What action should be taken if a mains operated power supply unit overheats?
a) Call the fire brigade. b) Disconnect the unit from the mains. c) Shut all doors and windows. d) Pour water over the unit.
The examination date approached quickly and everyone sat the paper at the Burton Bradstock Hotel (the nearest registered centre).
After a few week of patient waiting 6 creditable passes appeared.
Once again I would like to thank the tutors for instructing us all and enabling us to progress in the valuable hobby of amateur radio.
I would appreciate any comments on my first article, please pass them on to the editor John (M0BQO) or myself. Alex Smith (2E1HEJ)
The South Dorset Radio Society meets on the first Tuesday of every month.
DEADLINE FOR NEXT MONTH is Friday 27th August, please ensure that I receive your contributions before that date.