Greetings to all members, friends and readers

I hope you will be able to find a use for the centre spread - a year 2000 calendar - perhaps for club dates etc?

I stumbled across the program lurking in a photo suite in my computer and started playing around with layouts, images and pictures. Thus, there are several versions but they aren't exactly collectors items!

I also hope you noticed the appropriate front cover picture: no guilty cat caught at the Christmas cake this year! Our December feline was drawn by George, G3AVV - an artist of no mean talent as visitors to his house will know. Thanks, George.

Practical Wireless’s comment on Catswhisker (PW 'Spotlight' competition) was ‘A friendly, informative and informal one-man effort.’ Except that it is not 'one man' - thankfully there are now always offerings from SDRS members and others, leaving the Editor to do little more than put them together. There is room for improvement, though, so keep your contributions rolling in - and I’m always willing to accept advice.

Meanwhile, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to you all

John, M0BQO

DECEMBER SDRS MEETING

Dec 6^th - There is no guest or theme, except a pre-Christmas get-together. For one thing, we always seem to have a lot to talk about so an eyeballing opportunity would be welcome. For another, well it’s the season to be convivial: we expect to have a few snacks - I will bring a tray of home-made mince pies (real ones, not on the air!) and if you feel like doing likewise that would be well appreciated. Just tell me or Mike G0NEV.

JANUARY'S SDRS MEETING

January 4th - Quiz time again. This time I’ve devised a lot of questions based on Radcom and Practical Wireles, so, get reading!

PRACTICAL WIRELESS ‘SPOTLIGHT’ COMPETITION

The adjudicators comments on Catswhisker were as follows:

Dave Wilkins G5HY: Good effort - not too much clip art! Sadly it’s a little thin. 6

Jim Bacon G3LYA: A simple but interesting newsletter - monthly too! I liked the 'inclusive feel' welcoming new members/licensees and the get well spots. 7

David Barlow G3PLE: a monthly production which will keep members informed but as a result is thin on content. Well presented and I like casualty corner! 7

Tex Swann G1TEX: A club I know - a little thin on variety within the magazine - but this is difficult to change without dragooning members to write them. Editor has my sympathy. Covers the needs though. 7

Rob Mannion G3XFD: A friendly, informal and informative little one-man effort from a club which is reflected well in its magazine. I admire the club and its mag. Well done the editor. (Another tear when I saw Mandy’s tribute!) 7

The numbers are marks out of ten. The winner in this category got 43.5 out of 50. I must say that I had expected more constructive comments dealing with specific points such as selection of text styles, clarity of layout, quality and appropriateness of illustrations as well as function as a club memorandum, but it appears that in the absence of a check-list the judges simply gave an all-inclusive numerical evaluation based on gut-feeling.
I hope we can enter the competition again next year. Once again though, your comments would also be valued.

The Radio Enthusiast Magazine

The latest edition of the Radio Enthusiast magazine (formerly 934 Enthusiast) dropped through my letterbox the other day. Neville, 2E1HFY, is making a super job of these bright and breezy newsletters and this is no exception. It's packed with interesting and useful articles (including one about a ship on New Year's Eve I've seen somewhere before - hi!.)
As usual the Magazine will be available to read and/or borrow next SDRS club night.

A bit of home-brew

Neville is a busy chap these days: as well as making his commodious shack home to a Novices and RAE course, he has been doing a bit of kit construction.
Neville has become interested in downloading weather satellite information and to do this he needs a dedicated receiver/decrypter. The finished article is stunning - beautifully made, cleanly soldered and it looks terrific.

Neville writes: "The kit that I have built is a Remote Imaging Group RIGsat-RX2.
It is to receive on 5 different frequencies, 137.300 137.400 137.500 137.620 & 137.850 MHz. It took me about two and a half days to build, and the antenna - a morning.
The antenna is called a Quadrafilar Helical Antenna and looks like the insides of an industrial food mixer!
It provides circular polarisation and complete hemispherical reception.
As a two metre antenna it should receive horizontal, vertical and clockwise-circular polarisations from all directions.
The receiver is linked to a computer and with the right programme one should be able to get weather satellite on the computer screen."

It's the kind of thing you don't want to hide inside a case, like a valve amplifier made by someone I knew with chassis highly polished, immaculate transformers and glowing valves symmetrically arranged, on show where it was used.

Perhaps Neville can demonstrate it to us all one evening?

RADIOWAVE

An interesting publication has come my way, via 2E1HFY. This is the first issue of Radiowave by one of Neville's successful novices, Alex 2E1HEJ.

The main article gives advice on buying a handheld which ties in very nicely with its avowed purpose - "bringing more youngsters towards the microphone".

You'll be able to sample this "New Magazine for the New Millennium" next SDRS meeting.

PEOPLE NEWS

Terry G0VHS is off to the Philippines for a couple of months and will let us know his e-mail address in due course.

George G3AVV had a spell in hospital, we wish him well.

Ken O'Brien is home now, but he has to take it easy for several weeks without getting too excited.

The 'Wondergram'

Following the news of Sony's patent for a toy car that chased around the groove of a record, I have come across a description in one of the old Newnes Radio/TV servicing books, giving details of a portable record reproducer dating from 1958.

This small record player (8.5 x 4.5 x 2 inches) had no conventional turntable. The record stood on a free-running central disk and was rotated by one of two rubber wheels depending on whether it was 33 rpm or 45 rpm. A conventional arm and stylus tracked the groove, and the sound came out of a 3-inch speaker housed, with batteries and amplifier, in the lower part of the instrument.

This was developed, of course, taking advantage of the new technology of transistors and the space-saving they permitted.