A nother busy month has past for myself on a personal ba-sis, so my input for this

month’s newsletter will unfortu-nately be very small, however I have tried at least to put some items in. We are always looking for input, as you all know, so come on folks put the fingers to the keyboard and give us something, it really would be ap-preciated. I would like to pass on our con-gratulations to Willie 2M1IBF for passing his 5-WPM CW exam. For those of you who haven’t met Willie he was one of my last years Novice Pupils so it is great to see him taking the hobby further and I do know he is also studying for the RAE so I wish him all the best for that. My little hobbyhorse this month is what the club is all about. In my opinion the club is all about, help-ing each other in no matter what is being done? A club is not a one-man outfit, even though some peo-ple may think that, but groups of like-minded people doing what they enjoy most and working together to achieve it. Even though on a per-sonal basis you may not be inter-ested in “driving” the club, but no matter what, you’re input to those who do is very important, so please

remember that. The bottom line it takes everyone to make a successful club. I can assure you we do have a successful club and are admired from a far. Last month our presentation took place to the British Heart Founda-tion so see later for a write up on that. Other activities have been the club’s activities in various HF con-tests plus our Video Night. This month we have a talk by Landles GM4XZZ on “RNLI LIFE-BOAT TALES”, should be very inter-esting that one! Also we have our Christmas Night out so please come and join those who are going and have a good fun night, it only costs £25 a head which by today’s stan-dards is very cheap indeed. If you want to go let me know but it will be money up front as I have to pay it by the 10th November at the ex-treme latest. As always please check the events column for full details. That’s it then enjoy this month’s newsletter and I hopefully will see you all at this month’s coming events. Bob GM4UYZ

Volume 9 Issue 11 November 2001

COCKENZIE & PORT SETON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

editorial

Club newsletter

BHF Presentation 2 HF Report 3 Events Column 4 VHF Report 5

1296MHz Report 6 Contest Report 7 GM3WOJ Article 8 Contest Calendar 9

Inside this issue:

Special points of interest:

• 1296 Trophy Report

• Another Club Mem-ber passes his morse

• BHF Presentation

P A G E 2

BHF PRESENTATION

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 1 1

L ast club night we performed our official presentation of £1610.10; the money raised this year, to our adopted charity

the British Heart Foundation. I was extremely pleased to see the turnout to witness the event so thanks to you all for coming early. This year we managed to obtain some publicity for both the BHF and the Club by the photogra-pher from the local papers (The East Lothian Cou-rier & the East Lothian News) turning up and tak-ing some pictures. After the picture session I don’t know what happened this year but unfortunately Iain Lowis, Director for Scotland for the British Heart Foundation didn’t get chance to say a few words thanking us once again for all our hard

work. I know as we sat chatting he still is abso-lutely amazed in what we achieve and is ex-tremely grateful for all our hard work. Once again well done to everyone for achieving such a magnificent sum this year. Bob GM4UYZ

HF Station Equipment Codes HF Station Equipment Codes HF Station Equipment Codes HF Station Equipment Codes

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign 1.81.81.81.8 3.53.53.53.5 7777 10101010 14141414 18181818 21212121 24242424 28282828 GM0CLN 1C100 or 1G100 GM2T 1C400 3Y400 GM4GVJ - 1G100 GM4UYZ - 1W100 1G100 GM4WLL 1C100 M0BEX 1C100 M0RNR 1C100 1C100 1C100 3Y100 MM0AMV - - 1G100 MM0CCC 1C100 1G100 1C100 MM0CPS 1C400 ON9CLV 1G100 1C100 1G100 1C100 1G100

3Y400

nation. I hope you will all come along to club night and at the same time buy a raffle ticket as it is going to a very worth cause. Bob GM4UYZ

A s it is getting near that time of year I am going to run a raffle on club night 7th December (Christmas Club Night) with

the money raised going into the "British Heart Foundation" pot. If you would like to donate a prize I would be more than grateful, thanks in advance for any do-

CHRISTMAS CLUB NIGHT RAFFLE

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Lithuania(LY) and are all courtesy of Brian's new MFJ vertical. On the subject of Brian's new verti-cal antenna you SHOULD hopefully see it some-where in the newsletter this month. Sorry – I for-got to pass the photo on to John last time!

T he Shack By The Sea has moved! Wal-lace MM0AMV tells me this month that the "shack is still in cardboard boxes, and

until all the DIY is done, it will stay there" follow-ing his recent house move. Nothing new to re-port as a result of this but hopefully we will hear more from Wallace again soon. Our Stockport Radio Society correspondent John M0BEX has been active again. He says that "there are a lot of new ones" but he adds "the ones that I would highlight are those which, for me, are NEW ones". Most are contest QSOs but one non-contest addition he mentions is… 14MHz : India(VU). Check out Contest Report for the rest of Johns NEW DXCCs. A new callsign for the Tables now…. How about M0RNR? Well, it may be a new callsign but it is not from a new contributor. The owner of this callsign, Brian (formerly M5BAP), says that he is "now M0RNR due the RA announcement on the change of circumstances. The lowering of Morse speed to 5wpm has prompted me to apply for a full M0 callsign Royal Naval Reserve (very nauti-cal) but does send well on the key even at 5wpm!!" Congratulations Brian! So how about a new call for GM7OLQ as you passed the 5wpm a few months ago John? Comments? Return-ing to the business in hand, Brian goes on to say that "work commitments have made it very diffi-cult this month" and as a result he only has 5 QSOs in his log of which 3 are new DXCCs. The new ones are San Marino(T7), Latvia(YL) and

P A G E 3

Hf report

HF Report As Of 12 October 2001HF Report As Of 12 October 2001HF Report As Of 12 October 2001HF Report As Of 12 October 2001

B a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l s 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 7 7 7 7 10 10 10 10 14 14 14 14 18 18 18 18 21 21 21 21 24 24 24 24 TOTALSTOTALSTOTALSTOTALS

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PHOPHOPHOPHO CWCWCWCW DATDATDATDAT

GM0CLN 1 0 0 3 2 0 3 12 0 12 0 13 3 0 3 7 0 3 1 0 2 4 0 2 3 0 30 44 0 GM4UYZ 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 9 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 22 5 0 GM4WLL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 M0BEX 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 2 11 1 3 4 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 4 1 2 25 6 7 M0RNR 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 13 0 16 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 23 0 0 50 0 16 MM0AMV 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 8 42 15 0 0 4 0 14 0 0 1 1 0 0 26 8 57 ON9CLV 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 35 0 5 0 29 22 0 0 8 0 26 31 0 0 2 0 13 18 0 84 121 0

Totals are the number of Phone (P), CW (C) and Data (D) DXCC countries worked on each band.

28 28 28 28

P A G E 4

EVENTs COLUMN

DateDateDateDate TimeTimeTimeTime EventEventEventEvent ContactContactContactContact TelephoneTelephoneTelephoneTelephone 02020202----NovNovNovNov----01010101 7pm till 7pm till 7pm till 7pm till

latelatelatelate Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZ 01875 81172301875 81172301875 81172301875 811723

10-Nov-01 ? GMDX Group Convention & Dinner in the King Robert Hotel, Stirling, (Tel. No. 01789 811666). It is hoped to have speakers from D68C, 3B6RF and ZD7K Expeditions plus an IOSA talk by Charles GM0OMC. A very popu-lar event so book your hotel rooms ASAP if you wish to stay overnight. When booking mention the GMDX Convention for special rates. The afternoon convention is £7.00 and the Evening Dinner £16… not sure about rooms though!

? ?

11-Nov-01 10am South Yorkshire Repeater Group, Great Northern Hamfest, Metrodome Leisure Com-plex, Queen's Road, Barnsley town centre. Entry £2.50 Talk-In on 145.550MHz

Ernie G4LUE 01226 716 339

16161616----NovNovNovNov----01010101 7.307.307.307.30----9.30pm9.30pm9.30pm9.30pm

CPSARC Talk “RNLI LIFEBOAT TALES” by CPSARC Talk “RNLI LIFEBOAT TALES” by CPSARC Talk “RNLI LIFEBOAT TALES” by CPSARC Talk “RNLI LIFEBOAT TALES” by Landles Fairbairn GM4XZZ (ExLandles Fairbairn GM4XZZ (ExLandles Fairbairn GM4XZZ (ExLandles Fairbairn GM4XZZ (Ex----Dunbar LifDunbar LifDunbar LifDunbar Life-e-e-e-boat Crew Member)boat Crew Member)boat Crew Member)boat Crew Member) Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Room 2, Entry £1Room 2, Entry £1Room 2, Entry £1Room 2, Entry £1

Bob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZ 01875 81172301875 81172301875 81172301875 811723

25-Nov-01 11am Bishop Auckland RAC Rally, Spennymoor Lei-sure Centre, Entry £1.

Mark G0GFG Brian G7OCK

01388 745353 01388 762678

01-Dec-01 12 noon RSGB Annual General Meeting, Strathclyde Fire Brigade HQ, Hamilton.

RSGB 0870 9047373

01010101----DecDecDecDec----01010101 7.30pm7.30pm7.30pm7.30pm totototo

1.00am1.00am1.00am1.00am

CPSARC Christmas Meal and Disco at the CPSARC Christmas Meal and Disco at the CPSARC Christmas Meal and Disco at the CPSARC Christmas Meal and Disco at the Woodside Hotel Musselburgh. Cost £25 each. Woodside Hotel Musselburgh. Cost £25 each. Woodside Hotel Musselburgh. Cost £25 each. Woodside Hotel Musselburgh. Cost £25 each. Please confirm your attendance & give Bob Please confirm your attendance & give Bob Please confirm your attendance & give Bob Please confirm your attendance & give Bob youryouryouryour money now! money now! money now! money now!

Bob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZ 01875 81172301875 81172301875 81172301875 811723

07070707----DecDecDecDec----01010101 7pm till 7pm till 7pm till 7pm till latelatelatelate

Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port SetonClub night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZBob GM4UYZ 01875 81172301875 81172301875 81172301875 811723

11-Dec-01 ? Kilmarnock & Loudoun ARC Bright Sparks So-cial Night

G o r d o n MM0BIM

?

17-Mar-02

? Norbreck Rally, Norbreck Hotel, Blackpool. More info at http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/http://www.narsa.org.uk/ (Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)(Date To Be Confirmed)

? ?

13-Apr-02 and

14-Apr-02

? RSGB Spring Radio & Computer Show (Incorporating RSGB National VHF Conven-tion)

Jan 0870 904 7377

N o new additions this month but a few updates to make sure you have the latest info avail-able….

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 1 1

I n a short aurora on 30th September GM0CLN managed to work G4HGI for a new square in the shape of IO83. However, better was

still to come! Following a large disturbance on the sun we had a very good aurora on 3rd Octo-ber which helped the 144MHz cause at GM0CLN even more. With limited operating time I man-aged a total of 35 QSOs with stations in DL, F, G, GW, HB9, OK, ON, PA and SM. None of these were new countries but I did add the following new squares… JO60(DL), JN57(DL), JO63(DL), JO00(F). With 15 QSOs over 1000km, 4 new squares and a best DX of 1318km I was a happy bunny! A little more at the last gasp… just as I was finalising this article there was another, smaller, aurora on 11th October. Although 2 Nor-wegian and 2 English stations were worked on 144MHz there were no new squares to add. David GM4WLL has been busy again on the VHF/UHF bands. In particular it has been a busy

month on 1296MHz (23cm). He picks up the story… "all the excitement has been on 23cm. In three sessions I've worked 13 stations in 8 squares, with a best dx of 488km made quite easily. The target now is 600km, which earns an RSGB award. More importantly, people in the South are now starting to beam North as the word is getting out that there IS activity up here!" As well as all the excitement on 23cm there are also additions on 432MHz (70cm). Here David adds two Eng-lish squares (IO92 & IO93) to help his annual tally. Finally, can I please have your HF, Contest and VHF reports for the December Newsletter a bit earlier than usual again. This time I need them by midnight on Tuesday 13th November at the latest. See you all soon. 73 Colin GM0CLN

VHf report

VHF/UHF Report As Of 12 October 2001VHF/UHF Report As Of 12 October 2001VHF/UHF Report As Of 12 October 2001VHF/UHF Report As Of 12 October 2001

50MHz50MHz50MHz50MHz 70MHz70MHz70MHz70MHz 144MHz144MHz144MHz144MHz 432MHz432MHz432MHz432MHz DXCCDXCCDXCCDXCC SquareSquareSquareSquare GrandGrandGrandGrand

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS EqptEqptEqptEqpt CCCC SSSS TotalTotalTotalTotal TotalTotalTotalTotal TotalTotalTotalTotal

GM0CLN 4Y20 22 61 1C20 0 0 14Y100 15 67 - 0 0 37 128 165

GM4UYZ - 0 0 4Y10 1 2 4Q100 1 2 18Y10 1 1 3 5 8

GM4WLL - 0 0 6Y160 5 13 8Y200 10 27 21Y100 2 3 17 43 60

ON9CLV 5Y30 32 135 - 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 32 135 167

Totals are the number of DXCC countries (C) and Maidenhead locator squares (S) worked on each band.

M0RNR 1G100 16 39 - 0 0 4Y100 0 0 - 0 0 16 39 55

MM0CCC 3Y100 0 0 3Y10 0 0 10Y100 4 9 - 0 0 4 9 13

P A G E 5 C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ has the following for sale: 2 SEATER SETTEE – Colour: CARACUS BURGUNDY. £50 Reason for sale upgrading to a 3 Seater Settee.

For sale

GM4WLL/P at Lauder Common - IO85NR Station: DEM Transverter, Masthead 18W amp and preamp, 67 ele yagi. Best dx: G3XDY at 488kms.

A ctivity was a little bit disappointing, after the amazing turn-out for the last 23cm contest, but I guess Saturday afternoon/

evening isn't the best time for an 8 hour contest. However, what there was was excellent and I was pleased to work 4 new stations and 3 new squares and to add 28km to my best ever dx - not bad with only 5 QSOs! It was also great to see another GM /P station in the form of Alan GM4ZUK/P at Cairn O'Mount. Activity died away altogether in the evening so I packed up while there was still light. This meant I missed the chance of trying to work a couple of continental stations later on but that'll keep for next time! I took a 70cm station with me in the hope that I

could make skeds for 23cm, but in the event I only made one successful sked that way. The mobile phone was responsible for two QSOs and the other two were replies to CQ calls on 23cm. I think next time I'll try a DX cluster connection. I also heard but failed to work G8P and attempted to work G7IGC (IO92BM), who could hear my cw 429 but I couldn't hear him. Stations Worked: 1. G3XDY in JO02OB @ 488km 2. G8VHI in IO92FM @ 367km 3. G5B in JO03CE @ 346km 4. G6DER in IO93GN @ 257km 5. GM4ZUK/P in IO86RW @ 136km 73 de David GM4WLL Please reply to: gm4wll@talisman41.freeserve.co.uk (Wendy) gm4wll@qsl.net (David) See our web-site: www.qsl.net/gm4wll

P A G E 6 V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 1 1

1296MHz Trophy report

T his year we had our annual video night on Friday 19th October, held in Re-sources Room 2 in the local community

centre. Sadly it was a very poorly attended event with just enough people to cover the cost of hir-ing the room, which makes me wonder if I should hold any more extra events. Enough of that and to the video’s themselves. The first video we watched was “WINNING ON THE HILL”. It was about the Rochester Club in America (New York State) organising and taking part in the American VHF Field Day. It was very interesting to see all the planning, etc that takes part in organis-ing such an event and from my point of view I per-sonally picked out a couple of snippets that could help us. (Liz it certainly puts your IOTA, Tiree Video in perspective and with it edited etc it could be just as good). Basically I thought it was a good video.

The second video was a Technical one called the “SECRET LIFE OF RADIO” covering the very basics on how a radio works and how signals are trans-mitted. It was certainly very entertaining with good working examples demonstrating the points. Overall it was a good night, sadly only seen by a few people so lets hope more will turn up this month to listen to Landles GM4XZZ talk on his RNLI tales whilst on the Dunbar Lifeboat. See you all there then. Bob GM4UYZ

Video night

C L U B N E W S L E T T E R P A G E 7

CONTEST REPORT

Contest Report As Of 12 October 2001Contest Report As Of 12 October 2001Contest Report As Of 12 October 2001Contest Report As Of 12 October 2001 B a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l sB a n d T o t a l s 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 7 7 7 7 14 14 14 14 21 21 21 21 TOTALSTOTALSTOTALSTOTALS

CallsignCallsignCallsignCallsign PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PPPP CCCC DDDD PHOPHOPHOPHO CWCWCWCW DATDATDATDAT

GM0CLN 0 6 0 5 16 0 1 37 0 2 24 0 10 21 0 9 16 0 27 120 0 GM2T 0 0 0 22 9 0 42 31 0 83 55 0 72 30 0 42 9 0 261 134 0 GM4UYZ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 32 0 0 19 0 0 75 0 0 GM4WLL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 35 12 5 18 11 0 0 23 7 53 M0BEX 0 0 0 4 7 1 20 13 32 39 33 49 33 4 35 28 3 36 124 60 153 M0RNR 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 9 0 0 MM0CCC 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 MM0CPS 0 0 0 20 0 0 18 0 0 46 0 0 48 0 0 31 0 0 163 0 0 ON9CLV 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 4 3 0

Totals are the number of Phone (P), CW (C) and Data (D) DXCC countries worked on each band.

28 28 28 28

I 'll go first this month with my short effort during the RSGB 21/28MHz SSB Contest. Due to other commitments GM0CLN only

managed to be QRV for just over half an hour. The new ones I managed to add during this short spell were… 21MHz : European Russia (UA1), Yugoslavia (YU), Canary Islands (EA6), Ukraine (UR), Italy (I), Czech Republic (OK), Lithuania (LY), Spain (EA); 28MHz : Ukraine (UR), Bulgaria (LZ), European Russia (UA1). Nothing startling, but that's all I have to report on the HF front. John M0BEX has indeed been pretty busy and adds a large quantity of new ones with his up-date. He lists the most memorable contest new ones as… 14MHz : East Malaysia (9M6), Antartica (CE9), Uru-guay (CX), Panama (HP), St Vincent (J8), Costa Rica (TI), 21MHz : French Guyana (FY), Crete (SV9). 28MHz : Ecuador (HC). All but one of these are on data so it just shows what can be done. Some other nice contest DXCCs I spotted in John's sub-mission were Zambia (9J), Kuwait (9K), Galapagos Islands (HC8), Japan (JA), Svalbard (JW), US Virgin Islands (KP2), Market Reef (OJ0), Aruba (P4), Brazil (PY), Australia (VK) and Venezuela (YV). A very healthy haul, I'm sure you will agree!

From Penicuik, David GM4WLL found the 21/28MHz SSB Contest "was too much of a temp-tation". He says "I didn't work a great deal, but nice to work Zambia and the US Virgin Islands on 10m". We almost managed to get the anomalies in David's submission sorted out this month so his totals in the various tables should be correct now. Finally for this month's Contest Report is an up-date from Bob GM4UYZ. Bob was another to take advantage of the RSGB 21/28MHz SSB Con-test. He was on the bands for a couple of hours and says "I was most surprised at what I achieved without trying". The new ones are… 21MHz : Czech Republic (OK), Scotland (GM), Finland (OH), Moldova (ER), Bulgaria (LZ), Puerto Rico (KP4), Po-land (SP); 28MHz : Ukraine (UR), Bulgaria (LZ), Zambia (9J), Yugoslavia (YU), Moldova (ER), Scot-land (GM), Japan (JA), Romania (YO), Italy (I), Bela-rus (EW).

P A G E 8

Contesting from scotland excellent program is Hfx – we used this at GM7V and it did draw attention to paths/propagation that we might not otherwise have exploited. However, I’m still sceptical – with HF amateur sta-tions there are too many variables in the equa-tion for my liking! For a full review of Hfx see Oc-tober 1999 Radcom. InternetInternetInternetInternet As with most other activities, the Internet pro-vides a lot of useful information for contest sta-tions – dates/times/rules of contests, photos and descriptions of contest stations, and extensive post-contest analysis of results/propagation etc. These is a ‘cq-contest’ e-mail reflector which pro-vides a forum for discussions about contest-related issues all year round – some of the discus-sions get very heated! Immediately after major contests, participants post their claimed scores to another reflector called the ‘3830’ reflector, so you can compare (roughly) how well you have done instead of waiting anything up to a year for the results to be published. Most equipment manufacturers have web-sites, and there are in-dependent reviews of most types of equipment on the ARRL members web-site. The next article will be about VHF/UHF contest-ing. It’s not all plain sailing at the GM7V contest station – hurricane-force winds struck my QTH in January 2000, blowing down 5 trees and bend-ing the top section of my P80 Versatower, despite some serious guy technology (obviously not seri-ous enough) – this ‘global-warming’ gale even loosened a concreted-in guy stake – amazing. It’s taken several months to complete repairs, and it was nerve-wracking tilting over the P80 with a 5ele 20m yagi on top, with the top section of the P80 only half telescoped in! Please e-mail me any comments/feedback to gm3woj@talk21.com 73 Chris GM3WOJ/GM7V

CCCContinued from last monthontinued from last monthontinued from last monthontinued from last month Computers in ContestingComputers in ContestingComputers in ContestingComputers in Contesting Antenna modelling softwareAntenna modelling softwareAntenna modelling softwareAntenna modelling software C omputers now allow a contest station the

ability to optimise commercial or home-made antennas very effectively, which in

turn will give better antenna performance, which gives a better score and less operator stress/fatigue (you can 'null' out QRM more easily!) Early antenna-modelling software was highly spe-cialised, and required computing power well be-yond that available to amateurs, but now soft-ware is based on NEC or MININEC - a really excel-lent derivation of this is 'YO' (Yagi optimiser) writ-ten by K6STI. 'YO' was mentioned briefly in a pre-vious article - it cycles through thousands of possi-ble combinations of element lengths and spac-ings in a few seconds – it’s amazing to watch and gives you a design which will work. The associ-ated ‘AO” (Antenna optimiser) and ‘TA’ (Terrain Analysis) programs are also excellent, giving 3-D plots on the average home PC. DX Cluster DX Cluster DX Cluster DX Cluster Computers allow a contest station to connect to the DX Cluster network (using a TNC or Modem) - increasingly this network is becoming 'global' with Internet linking used between countries and continents - it is not unusual to see 1200 other users connected. For a contest station there are many advantages of being connected to the DX Cluster, and a few disadvantages which I've high-lighted before - the main one being the increased intensity of pile-ups calling a rare station. So, al-though the DX Cluster saves time finding a DX station, that time may be wasted by having to call for longer to actually work the station. 'CT' soft-ware allows a contest station to 'grab' a spot from the DX Cluster (suitably filtered to be on the cor-rect band) - the software enters the callsign of the spot into the callsign field and QSYs the trans-ceiver to the correct frequency. Propagation predictionPropagation predictionPropagation predictionPropagation prediction I've already said I'm not a great fan of trying to predict propagation - however some of the re-cently released software again allows contest sta-tions access to powerful prediction tools. One

V O L U M E 9 I S S U E 1 1

P A G E 9 C L U B N E W S L E T T E R

Contest calendar

A slightly quieter month ahead this time with the main events being CQWW CW and the RSGB 1.8MHz Club Calls Contest.

For CQWW CW it looks like one or two club mem-bers will be travelling through to support the Stir-ling Club multi-multi entry while for the Club Calls Contest a small club entry may take place. Last years Club Calls Contest saw MM0CPS (GM0NTL) and GM0CLN taking part from their respective

home locations for the first time. We didn't dis-grace ourselves with final positions of 40th for MM0CPS and 60th for GM0CLN from a total of 74 entries. Have a good contesting month. See you soon 73 Colin GM0CLN

General Notes :General Notes :General Notes :General Notes : (1) The club or its members plan to be active in those events shown as boldboldboldbold above. Full Event Rules Are Available OFull Event Rules Are Available OFull Event Rules Are Available OFull Event Rules Are Available On The Internet As Follows :n The Internet As Follows :n The Internet As Follows :n The Internet As Follows : RSGB HF 2001 : http://www.rsgbhfcc.org RSGB VHF 2001 : http://www.blacksheep.org/vhfcc/rules/01rules/frameindex.html ARRL : http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/ WAB : http://home.freeuk.net/wab/ Links to most of the other events, or their rules, can be found on the SM3CER Contest Web Page under Calendar 2001 or Calendar 2002. Start at http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/ and use the appropriate links to find the info you require.

Contest Commentary

DateDateDateDate

StartStartStartStart (UTC)(UTC)(UTC)(UTC)

DurationDurationDurationDuration (hrs)(hrs)(hrs)(hrs)

ContestContestContestContest

Notes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & Info

03-Nov-01 14:00 24 144MHz Marconi CW 04-Nov-01 08:00 6 6 Hour 144MHz CW 10101010----NovNovNovNov----01010101 20:0020:0020:0020:00 3333 1.8MHz Club Calls Contest1.8MHz Club Calls Contest1.8MHz Club Calls Contest1.8MHz Club Calls Contest Possible Club ActivityPossible Club ActivityPossible Club ActivityPossible Club Activity 17-Nov-01 21:00 4 2nd 1.8MHz CW 24242424----NovNovNovNov----01010101 00:0000:0000:0000:00 48484848 CQWW CWCQWW CWCQWW CWCQWW CW Possible member activity at Stirling Possible member activity at Stirling Possible member activity at Stirling Possible member activity at Stirling

ClubClubClubClub 02-Dec-01 09:00 8 144MHz AFS 26-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cu-

mulatives

27-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cu-mulatives

28-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cu-mulatives

29-Dec-01 14:00 2 50/70/144/432MHz Christmas Cu-mulatives

13-Jan-02 05:30 2 NRAU Baltic Contest – CW 13-Jan-02 08:00 2 NRAU Baltic Contest - SSB 20-Jan-02 00:00 24 HA DX Contest CW 26-Jan-02 06:00 36 REF Contest CW 26-Jan-02 13:00 24 UBA DX Contest SSB 16-Feb-02 00:00 48 ARRL International DX CW Contest 02-Mar-02 00:00 48 ARRL International DX SSB Contest

Information

T he Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club was formed in 1984 by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ, to help the local amateurs get to

know each other. Numbers have increased steadily over the years and now average about 33. Far from being just a local club we have members coming from the Borders, Dumfries, Strathclyde and Fife. The Club meets on the first Friday of every month (Second Friday of January) in the lounge of the Thorn-tree Inn on the old Cockenzie High Street from 7pm till late. The Club is run in a very informal way, there are no fees, no real committee structure, 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 novices, run talks and video nights and hold an annual Junk Sale. Our Club Newslet-ter has twice won the PW Spotlight Trophy. The Club supports the British Heart Foundation in memory of a member who died from heart disease by do-nating the profits from events we hold, we have raised over £6,200 since 1994. The Club is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Brit-ain and holds the callsigns MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our contest entries. We also have our own internet domain name www.cpsarc.com and club mem-bers can get their own callsign@cpsarc.com email ad-dresses.

Bob Glasgow 7 Castle Terrace Port Seton East Lothian EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723 Email: gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

COCKENZIE & PORT SETON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

We’re on the web! www.cpsarc.com

Contacts General Correspondence, Novice Training, Contest entries — Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com HF Contests, 5wpm Morse Class — Cambell Ste-venson mm0dxc@cpsarc.com VHF Contests — Colin Smith gm0cln@cpsarc.com

Newsletter, Web S ite —John Innes gm7olq@cpsarc.com

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