I just cannot believe that we are now into the last quarter of the year and that the dark nights are

well and truly here so it is once again time to sit back and reflect what you have done over the summer months. The jobs that you did and more than likely you will remember the ones that you didn’t. I myself had intended to do more operating from home but many factors have not allowed me to do so. Tonight we will be or will have, de-pending when you arrived, have car-ried out our official presentation to the British Heart Foundation so once again many thanks to you all for all your help in raising this years sum of £1351.07 I know that Iain Lowis of the BHF greatly appreciates the money. I also think that we should all take great credit to what we have managed to achieve since we adopted the British Heart Foundation. The total raised, £8271.17, since 1993 is not to be sneezed at. I know I certainly feel proud of my contribution towards this sum knowing, sadly in a way, it might even save my own life. I make no apologies for the “sometimes” push to raise a £1 here or a £1 there as at the end of the day it is all for our own and families benefit. I do feel sad though that one or two within the club do make the comment that the BHF gets too much, I know it is their opinion to which they are entitled, but it has been a major factor about us as a club since the death of Bunny that we as part of our hobby try to help others. We chose the BHF due to how Bunny died and it

was decided then that we would adopt them as our Charity. It would be great to have lots of club equipment and raise money to achieve this but in my opinion it should not affect what we started out to do and what we are known for, all those years ago. Again in my opinion a small donation to help save someone’s life is far more impor-tant than a piece of equipment. September was very quiet with the only activity being that of HF Field Day/144MHz Trophy done by a few club members. A few of us will have been to the Leicester Show but whether or not we manage a write up on this for this edition remains to be seen, if not there should be something next month. We will also have taken part in our second DF hunt night of the year, which I am sure again it will have thrown up a few topics of conversation. On the personal front Bob GM0BWU hasn’t been too well recently so on be-half of us all I would like to wish Bob a speedy return back to full fitness. To this coming month as always consult the Events Diary but a reminder that we are having our video night on Friday 18th so I hope you will all make an effort to attend. Before that there is a visit or-ganised to the Royal Observatory on Monday evening at 19:00 on the 14th October. It is a family outing so if you want to go please let me know. On the contesting front there is a great de-mand for operators to take part in the

(Continued on page 2)

Volume 10 Issue 10

October 2002

COCKENZIE & PORT SETON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

editorial

Club newsletter

Foundation Course 2 Running a Radio Club 3 Events Column 4 Lighthouse Countries 5 Yacht Club 6 Dayton 2003 7 GM4WLL report 8 Leicester Rally 9 Contest Calendar 11

Inside this issue:

Special points of interest:

• Interested in going to the USA next year? Read on…

• How MM0DXC missed out on a MacDonalds!

• Ideas wanted…

P A G E 2

editorial

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 1 0

HF Contest CQWW, which runs for 48 hours over the weekend of the 26/27th October. If you can spare some time please let Cambell know so he can arrange some sort of operating rota. The other contests that the club will be taking part in are the RSGB 21/28MHx SSB on the 6th October. The beauty of these contests that they are on a Sunday and run for just 12 hours so if you want to take part have a chat with Cambell. Note: All the HF contests are being run from the Yacht Club this year. It has been decided as we have use of the building lets try it and see how it goes. If all fails we can return to Barns Ness. To the future I must again bring up the Christmas Night out being held on the 7th December at the

(Continued from page 1) Woodside Hotel. The cost is £26 a head for a party night so if you want to go I must have the money by next club night at the latest, 1st November as I have to pay the night in full by Saturday 9th November. Your help would certainly be appreciated with this. Lastly, this month I am once again looking for your input as I am now starting to look at putting next years monthly calendar together, so what you would you like to see done. I would appreciate a quick response, as I would like to get it completed quickly so that I can submit it to the radio magazines. Thanks for your help. Enjoy the newsletter and see you all on video night and the Royal Observatory visit. Bob GM4UYZ

I started my first course on Saturday 28th August with two students, Dr Ian McDougall from Perth and Simon Bussey a student at Napier University. I

decided to use the Yacht Club facilities as the training location, which has proved to be absolutely ideal. The course attendees I limited the numbers to just two to allow me to sort out any anomalies that might appear. From my experience it is always easier to do if you are dealing with smaller numbers. On the first day the sub-jects covered the Morse Assessment, Licensing Condi-tions, Technical Basics, Transmitters and Receivers and operating procedures followed by on the air exercises. The on the air exercises were carried out with Tom GM4LRU and I was glad to see that my two pupils were very much at ease with this session. It may have helped that both have been short wave listeners for a few years. The second Saturday of the course, which is also the day of their exam, we covered the following areas, Aeri-als & Feeders, Propagation, EMC and Safety followed by a review of the course. Once everyone was happy we departed to the Cockenzie & Port Seton Community Centre so that they could sit their exam. You may won-der why the move. The reason being is that the Com-munity Centre complies with the letter with regard to being an exam location whereas the Yacht Club doesn’t and there will be at some point a visit from the Radio-communications Agency checking that the exams are

being properly run. At the Community Centre I handed them across to Cam-bell MM0DXC and Ron GM4IKU whom did the exam adjudication roll? At the end of the exam the papers were marked and results announced. Both got 20/20 for their exam so you could say they passed with flying colours. Both Ian and Simon have now obtained their MM3 call-signs; Ian is MM3BJU and Simon MM3SJJ so if you hear them on please welcome them to this great hobby of ours. Thanks goes to Tom GM4LRU for doing the “On-the-Air” practical, Cambell MM0DXC and Ron GM4IKU for doing the exam adjudication, your help is greatly appreciated. To the next course which by the time you read this will be well underway. So if you know any one that is inter-ested in taking a course then tell them to get in touch and I will sort out suitable dates. Bob GM4UYZ

First foundation course report

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

donated home baking and maybe a filled roll. The night is aimed at just being a very social night and raising some money for charity. The club runs an annual Novice Class, puts on demonstra-tion stations, very active in both VHF and HF contests, and lots, lots more. So see even though we run it very informally we are very, very active. How is this all achieved, you may ask, well I would tell a lie if I didn’t say that I possibly do 90% of the club organisation, but that is by choice alone. There are members who pro-duce the newsletter, organise the VHF contests, organise the HF contests particularly the trip to Tiree for the IOTA contest, and others do bits and pieces as and when re-quired. If anything needs done it is only a matter of asking and it will be done and I can honestly say since 1984 no-body has ever said "No" to any request. We are a friendly group and since 1984 we have had only one real disagree-ment but this was not kept in and allowed to fester as we promptly hired a room and had an open chat about the problem arriving at a very amicable solution. The above has worked for us and we have been successful with it but it shows that a club can be run without the nor-mal structure. I honestly believe with regards to ourselves that if we introduced the formal structure and subscriptions the club would collapse, it is the informality that is its suc-cess. You always as well need to remember that there is what I class three levels of club member. (1) The very active member who wants to get things done and organised (2) The member that will do when asked and lastly (3) the mem-ber who just wants to turn up to club night and just attend. We are all not the same and we want different things and the club is just the same but it is accepting all these levels that makes the difference. Running a club is hard work, there is no thanks and you cannot please everyone but such is life, so my plea to those giving up just don’t, keep the chin up and look for the right direction to go in. It will not be easy that I know. A huge thank you goes out from me to those that run clubs; you do a great job so keep it up. That’s my say Rob but whether you publish this or not it is how I feel. If anyone wants to chat with me about our club and the way we run it then just put them in touch we are more than glad to help. All the best, Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

B elow is a letter that I sent to Rob Mannion of Practi-cal Wireless back in August 2000 and also included in one of our earlier newsletters. It was in regard to

“people throwing in the towel” and letting clubs die. The reason I am putting it in the newsletter again, apart from coming across it when I was tiding up my files on my PC, is that it is still how I see us as a club. I think that we should sit back and take stock and go back to the real basics to remind ourselves what we are and what we do. It is so easy to lose track of what it is all about and then that is when problems start, begin to fester and cause all sorts havoc. It is at the end of the day a HOBBY and it is meant to BE FUN, is it! Dear Rob, CLUB CLOSURES After reading your editorial on the subject of club closures I decided that I would put “fingers to keyboard” and add my small "tuppence" worth. First of all I am really disappointed to see that club’s are closing as I whole heartily agree with you that they are the future of Amateur Radio. Yes it does take commitment to run a club, that I certainly know about, but no matter how “down “ you get you must be positive and look on the good that can be achieved. I really do ask people that they do not give up but look at other ways of running the club i.e. no committees, no subscriptions or just have a general meeting and keep it totally informal. I feel I can justify any of the above as that is how the club that I started back in 1984 is run. I will say that it works for us and it has been successful to say the least in fact far more than I ever anticipated but that really is down to everyone concerned. Our structure from day one has been that there is absolutely no committee structure, definitely no annual subscriptions and totally informal meetings. What we have is that we meet once per month in the local lounge bar of our local pub and if you turn up to this evening then you are classed as a club member, easy isn't it. We average through-out the year 30 people attending each club night so we must be doing something right. Also on club nights our monthly newsletter is also distributed which is produced free of charge. We also through the winter months try and or-ganise another event like a talk, radio check night, etc, which we hold in our local Community Centre. Everyone pays £1 when they come to these nights, this pays the hire of the room and any excess money goes towards our adopted charity the British Heart Foundation. I know that there will be comments about holding meetings in a public house, as it is difficult for youngsters to attend. This definitely applies to us hence the reason that we try and organise the Community Centre events. As mentioned earlier we have adopted the British Heart Foundation as our adopted charity and have successfully raised over £4500 for them. The ma-jority comes from our now Annual Junk Night. This is run that when you turn up, tables are provided on first come first served basis and at no charge. Pay your £1 entrance fee to come in the door and as well as that hopefully you will buy a raffle ticket and have a cup of tea or coffee with some of the

P A G E 3

Thoughts on running a radio club

P A G E 4

EVENTs COLUMN

T he Leicester Rally has been and gone by now as has our second 144MHz DF Hunt of the year. Hopefully I will actually have managed to find the fox before the end of the DF Hunt this time! With any luck those concerned should have enjoyed both events. I haven't been able to find any new events for you this

time so here is the current list again… Colin GM0CLN

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 1 0

DateDateDateDate TimeTimeTimeTime EventEventEventEvent ContactContactContactContact TelephoneTelephoneTelephoneTelephone

04-Oct-02 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

09-Oct-02 7.30pm Lothians RS – Talk "TETRA" by Ken GM4EZJ, Royal Ettrick Hotel, Ettrick Rd, Edinburgh (TETRA is a Digital Radio Net-work similar in operation to the GSM phone network - GM0CLN).

Toby MM0TSS 07957 216 952

12-Oct-02 to

13-Oct-02

9.00am Both Days

RSGB International HF & IOTA Convention HFC 2002, Beau-mont Conference Centre, Old Windsor See www.rsgb.org/hfc for info

RSGB 0870 904 7373

18-Oct-02 7.30pm to 9.00pm

Video Night, Resources Room 2, Port Seton Community Centre. Videos are "CQ Field Day" and "Secret Listeners" Entry £1

Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

18-Oct-02 7.30pm on-wards

GMDX Group AGM (followed by DX Talk), King Robert Ho-tel, Stirling

Rob GM3YTS 01786 824199

23-Oct-02 7.30pm Surplus Equipment Auction and Junk Sale, Royal Ettrick Hotel, Ettrick Rd, Edinburgh.

Toby MM0TSS 07957 216952

27-Oct-02 11am to 4pm GALASHIELS AND DISTRICT A.R.S. RADIO AND COMPUTER RALLY, The Volunteer Hall, St Johns Street, Galashiels. All the usual attractions.

Jim, GM7LUN 01896 850245

01-Nov-02 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

13-Nov-02 7.30pm Lothians RS – Talk "Getting Started On 6m and 4m" by Peter GM4BYF, Royal Ettrick Hotel, Ettrick Rd, Edinburgh

Toby MM0TSS 07957 216 952

15-Nov-02 7.30pm to 9.30pm

“HF Car Aerial Systems” by Dave Stockton GM4ZNX, Port Seton Community Centre, Resources Room 2. Entry £1

Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

01-Dec-02 ? BISHOP AUCKLAND RAC Rally Mark, G0GFG 01388 745 353

06-Dec-02 7pm till late Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

07-Dec-02 ? Proposed Date For Club Christmas Meal Bob GM4UYZ 01875 811723

11-Dec-02 7.30pm Lothians RS – Expedition And Contests Report by Norman GM1CNH, Royal Ettrick Hotel, Ettrick Rd, Edinburgh

Toby MM0TSS 07957 216 952

I was playing about with the log with regard to what we worked as regards to countries when we were GB2LBN. See below for the list, which shows some nice ones:

Countries worked from lighthouse weekend

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

Country 80 40 20 17 15 10 Total

Antigua & Barbuda 1 1

Argentina 3 3

Armenia 1 1

Asiatic Russia 4 1 6 11

Australia 2 1 3

Austria 19 19

Balearic Islands 1 1

Barbados 2 2

Belarus 3 3

Belgium 5 5

Brazil 5 1 6

Bulgaria 4 4

Canada 14 14

Canary Islands 1 1

Chile 3 3

Croatia 16 16

Cuba 1 1

Czech Republic 10 1 2 13

Denmark 1 3 4

Eire 2 4 1 1 8

England 13 54 4 71

Estonia 2 2

Ethiopia 1 1

European Russia 1 28 1 12 42

Federal Republic of Germany

1 6 168 3 9 1 188

Finland 12 12

France 21 2 1 24

Gibralter 2 2

Greece 4 4

Guantanamo Bay 3 3

Guyana 1 1

Hungary 9 1 10

Iceland 1 1

India 2 2

Indonesia 1 1

Isle of Man 1 1

Israel 1 2 3

Kaliningradsk 1 1

Kazakstan 1 1

Latvia 1 1

Malta 1 1 2

Moldova 2 2

Morocco 1 1

Netherlands 4 5 9

New Zealand 2 2

Norfolk Island 1 1

Northern Ireland 1 2 3

Norway 8 8

Panama 1 1

Philippines 1 1

Poland 25 1 26

Portugal 9 2 11

Puerto Rico 1 1

Romania 3 1 1 5

Scotland 9 14 2 1 1 27

Slovakia 7 7

Slovenia 4 1 1 6

Spain 19 4 3 26

Special Event Sta-tion

1 9 1 11

Sweden 13 4 17

Switzerland 1 14 2 17

Taiwan 1 1

Tajikistan 1 1

Tasmania 1 1

Thailand 1 1

Trinidad & Tobago 1 1

Ukraine 20 7 27

United Arab Emirates

1 1

USA 120 2 122

Venezuela 2 2

Wales 2 6 8

Yugoslavia 5 2 7

Japan 5 46 51

Italy 49 5 9 2 65

Country 80 40 20 17 15 10 Total

I f you remember last month I asked if any one was will-ing to take on organising some events etc that we could do at the yacht club, how much response did I get, AB-

SOLUTELY NOTHING, surprise, surprise! Enough of being negative. Below is what I have extracted from the Stockport’s Groups Email on what areas that they see that club members want. Basically they are looking on club members who are

interested in the “said” topics to take it on board and give a presentation or demonstration. So I ask again is there some-one who would like to take this project on? I would do it my-self but I just do not have the time. Bob GM4UYZ

P A G E 6 V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 1 0

Use of the yacht club

Subject Priority Presenter Month

ATU’s. Examples. What’s inside and how to tune them Y

SWR Bridges. What’s inside and how to use them Y

Internet Repeater Y

Impedance, Reactance – Inductive and Capacitive. What is it? Y

Connecting up for PSK31. Y

Chat session. Aerials we use. Y

Data Comms. Y

Weather Fax and SSTV Y

How do I learn CW? What PC programs are available. Y

How do I tune an ATU? Y

The DX Packet Cluster. What is it and how can I use it? Y

HF Propagation. Where should I listen and when? Y

DF game & kit Y

Test Equipment Y

Mountain Leadership Y

VHF Propagation. Y

QSLing. How to do it. Where to get cards from. What needs to be on the card. N

Using Repeaters. N

Locators. What are they? How do I calculate mine? N

How to get the best out of my 10 watts SSB? N

RST – SINPO What are they? How do I use them? N

Q Codes explained. N

Working via Satellites. N

Morse Keys. Members bring along and display their keys. N

Make tuning your antenna easy with the Stealth Tuner. N

How do I measure my Power Output? N

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

Radiating feeders

B elow is an extract copied direct from a message to the VK1 Reflector, and I think it may be of interest to those considering possible radiation from feeders.

Thanks to the VK1 system,. 73, Bill M1HQX.. Here's an example: let's look at a station using HF, 6m, 2m and 70 cm. Assume that the station operator / builder has done the right thing - all balanced antennas (dipoles, beams, etc.) are fitted with baluns, and all single-ended antennas (ground plane verticals, etc.) are fitted with ground planes which allow the RF currents to terminate on odd-multiple quarter wavelength long structures. But, what about the RF currents induced in each feedline by the EM waves radiated by the other anten-nas? These will flow back into the shack via the outer conduc-tor of each feedline - once there, they can couple into other conductors (cables, chair legs, bookshelves, etc.) and go al-most anywhere. Coupling doesn't require a direct connec-tion, either. An example of "anywhere" could be the 240 VAC power reticulation wiring throughout the building, and therefore into the power supply or supplies feeding each radio. It can also mean the microphone cables of the other radios, resulting in that special brand of feedback which is the bane of many a budding news re-broadcaster.

So, assume the operator fits a bulkhead panel with "through" connectors, and this is earthed. How good is the "earth" at RF? If it is a thin cable with a few bends in it, resulting in suffi-cient inductance to look like a relatively high impedance at VHF and above, then replace it with a flat strap with no bends. How good is the earth? Just one stake into dry ground might be worse than no earth connection at all! To make sure the induced RF currents do not make it into the shack, the operator could fit each feedline with choke baluns (or "resonance breaking devices") to each cable at the aper-ture panel. And, these devices need to deal with ALL the fre-quencies expected on the outer conductor of the feedline. Having done that, the operator may still experience problems due to the RF energy from each antenna being induced in each other antenna. This flows down the "inside" of the feedline just like any other RF signal and arrives at the "antenna" terminal on the respective radio. A transmitter be-ing presented with strong out-of-band signals can do some unexpected things, resulting in distortion, intermodulation product generation, etc. Receivers can experience "blocking". One cure for signals of this nature flowing down feedlines is to fit band pass filters to each feedline.

S everal people have expressed an interest in travelling to the 2003 Dayton Hamvention, I have done some basic research to get an idea of prices etc.

The Hamvention takes place from 16-18 May 2003 in the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, USA. This is the world’s largest ama-teur radio show and is well worth the effort of getting to it. To see what its all about visit www.hamvention.com . Because it is such a huge distance away, I propose making it a proper holiday with the weekend of the show incorporated. When I went in 1997 we drove from Toronto down to New Orleans with the show on the middle weekend, we also vis-ited Nashville and Memphis on the way. I have been exploring a trip based around travelling on 12 May 2003 and returning on 24 May 2003, these dates were only for the purposes of getting quotes. Flight prices from Edinburgh Dayton £500 - £700 New Orleans £550 - £700 Boston £400 - £580 It is possible to fly into one airport and leave from another but this pushes up the cost of car hire for the one way trip. Hertz quote £487 for car hire or £834 for a one way trip from New Orleans to Dayton.

Accommodation is straightforward; there are plenty of motels all over the place. We booked a motel at Dayton because this will be very busy. Rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Dayton are from £38 per night. As always there will be better deals, I have not had time to search them out but you can get an idea of the costs involved (£650 minimum plus food and accommodation for the other days – say £250) So if that doesn’t freeze your blood cold, let me know what you think, four people helps share the costs, more means a mini-bus or two cars. What you want to do with the rest of the time in America is up to you, Ohio is farming country – flat and industrial, May is before the tourist season really starts so a lot of places are not open yet. Everywhere will be warmer than the UK, New Or-leans was pretty hot but there were some heavy thunder-storms. I wouldn’t want to spend a whole two weeks driving around in a car again. So let me know what you think, if we’re going to do this we need to be making bookings at the turn of the year. John Innes MM0JXI mm0jxi@cpsarc.com

Dayton hamvention 2003

P A G E 8

Gm4wll cqww rtty contest report The operating highlights were a pile-up of Ws on 20m late on Saturday night and being called by several JAs on 15m. Some nice DX worked included: Indonesia (YB) on 15m Kaliningrad (UA2) on 20m & 15m Galapagos Islands (HC8) on 15m Aruba (P4) on 20m and 15m Franz Josef Island (R1F) on 20m San Marino (T7) on 15m Bosnia-Hercegovina (T9) on 15m and 20m No doubt if Colin were to look at my log he'd pick out some stuff I missed, as usual! All in all, well worth a play! 73 de David GM4WLL

I nspired by recent HF contests I decided to give this weekend's CQWW RTTY contest a shot - not really a serious entry - 48 hours is a bit much and there's a limit

to how many antennas I am going to string up! However, with a repaired (phew!) IC735 running 50W of RTTY into an inverted V for 15m and a sloping dipole for 20m (with a shared feed-point) I had a load of fun. Software was the ubiquitous MMTTTY, version 1.61. In retrospect I should have put up a 10m antenna as well, but that would have resulted in my spending both after-noons on 10m instead of with xyl/kids, which would have been politically dangerous! Anyway - here's what I managed with my "entry level" sys-tem and less than fully-committed approach! 20m 15m Total QSOs 105 204 309 Countries 39 45 54 CQ Zones 13 16 17 US/VE States 20 11 23

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 1 0

market to get some money. Bear in mind that we hadn’t eaten much during the day so when Brian spotted the Mac-Donalds sign—we didn’t need much convincing, two double cheeseburgers later we returned to the hotel. We decided to eat in the grill bar attached to the Travel Inn, and it turned out to be a good choice the meal was excel-lent, plates of salad and bread appeared, then steaks and chicken etc with chips and salad—and more chips, beer was followed by more beer and a free round because we were residents. Yvonne, Robert and I found room to stuff some puddings down too. It then slipped out that Brian and I had had a ’starter’ and boy did we get it from the equally hungry Cambell who hadn’t had the opportunity to stoke up like us. We then parted company with Yvonne who doesn’t drink much and Robert and Colin who were knackered, the rest of us headed round the corner to another pub for more beer (its traditional!) An excellent night was had by all. The next morning we weren’t quite so cheery but a bit of breakfast soon got us on our feet and ready to go. We headed across Nottingham to Anchor Surplus to see what goodies they had, as always that place is good for a rake around and everyone came out with something (including two parking tickets! Oops) Then it was back on the road for the trek back to Scotland, the fine weather evaporated at the Border and we trundled back into East Lothian in light rain John Innes MM0JXI

M embers of the club have been going to this show for many years, back to the days when it was held in the sweaty and cramped Granby Halls in Leices-

ter. Now held at Donington Park in a larger, airier venue it is a more pleasant experience all together (especially when the mains stays on) In order to get to this show we have to leave at 4am to drive down the A1 / M1, this year we had decided to stay in Not-tingham, it being closer to pubs and restaurants. The people making the trip this year were Bob GM4UYZ and Yvonne, Cambell MM0DXC and John MM0JXI, Robert MM0ANT, John MM0CCC and Colin GM0RLZ. On the way down we had arranged to collect Brian M0RNR who lives fairly close to Nottingham. The journey down was pretty uneventful, we bypassed breakfast at the Londonderry Services—we regretted that later when the restaurant at Scotch Corner services was closed and the food at the show was really expensive. We arrived about 10.30, the show had been open for an hour so the entrance queues had died down and we walked in without delay. We were all kitted out in our new CPSARC / GM2T T shirts and I think we certainly stood out from the crowd (who said clean T shirts would stand out in any crowd of radio hams!) The show had most of its usual attractions, stands from Yaesu, Kenwood and Icon showing all their latest gear, stalls from most of the prominent UK dealers and the ever grow-ing selection of computer parts. I was a little disappointed to discover that we hadn’t won the Spotlight Trophy for the newsletter this year (we had entered the National Section), chatting to Tex Swann from Practical Wireless we found out that we had missed it by just one point—so we’ll have to try harder next year. One of the attractions of the show that most of us wanted to catch was the talk by Bob Heil, the maker of the famous HC4/5 mic inserts, we even dragged ourselves from the bar in time to hear his talk. This turned out to be most entertain-ing, Bob spoke for about an hour, telling us about his back-ground in concert PA systems which grew from his ham radio hobby (he built the PA for the Grateful Dead and The Who so his credentials are impeccable). His talk centred on how his mic inserts were designed to emphasise the part of the audio spectrum where we hear best (around 2kHz), he switched back and forth from a full range insert and a HC5 in one of his Goldline mics to demon-strate the effect, its not pretty but it works! At the end of the talk, we were asked to check the back of our seats, if there was a Heil sticker on the seat you won a prize, I had a sticker on my seat but by the time I got up to the table the real goodies were gone (HC5 inserts etc) so I had to settle for a CD of Bob Heil playing the organ (another of his hidden talents), one lucky punter had a gold sticker which won him a Goldline mic. After some more browsing about the show, we had all picked up the bits and pieces we wanted, everyone was sur-prised I didn’t buy a new rig (I have to say that I think I have enough—for now!) so we headed back to the hotel to get showered and changed. Brian and I needed to visit a cashline machine so we left our roommates having a shower and set off to the nearby super-

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

Leicester radio rally

W hile the onset of winter sees activity on VHF/UHF die down considerably the converse means a busy time on HF for contest enthusiasts. Octo-

ber sees the first real change in this way with only one big VHF/UHF event to speak of. That event is the IARU 432MHz – 248GHz Contest this weekend (5th/6th Oct). David GM4WLL will undoubtedly be QRV, probably from IO85NR, so if you have any suitable equipment why not have a listen to see if you can hear/work him. HF gets busier again with 3 big events this month alone! The first two are the RSGB 21/28MHz Contests (one SSB and one CW). The 21/28MHz SSB event is a club regular as MM0CPS/P and I'm sure that something will happen locally for this one while the CW event has struggled a bit for club support in the past. Don't rule out an entry this year though…. it may just happen!

Undoubtedly the biggest SSB event of the year on any band takes place at the end of October. Yes, it's CQWW SSB time again. Activity is on 10/15/20/40/80/160m for a full 48 hours from 00:00UTC on Saturday 26th until 24:00UTC on Sunday 27th. However, be aware that British Summer Time ends half way through this event and the local clocks will change. We always record our times in UTC (GMT) though so the contest logs should be unaffected. This year I haven't heard (at the time or writing this) of any planned CPSARC entry for CQWW SSB. However, I am almost certain that some club members will be active. There is also a slim chance that some will join Stirling & District ARS to put on an entry from the Stirling club shack at Throsk

For the first time in a number of years, a new category "Multi-Operator/Two-Transmitter" has been created for the CQWW contests. There's been a strong desire by the contest com-munity to have CQWW bridge the gap between the big guns of the Multi-Multi category and some of the inherent limita-tions of the Multi-Single class. As a Multi-Single operation, it's very common to want to "run" stations on the second trans-mitter, with the rules being the limit. Up to this point, the only alternative was to upgrade to the complexity of a full Multi-Multi station, which is beyond the means and desire of most contest station owners/groups. With the advent of the Multi-2 rule, a relatively modest Multi-Single station can enter the ranks of a two-transmitter operation, often with little or any change. The bottom line is that there is more to do for

the second operator than ever before. And, while Multi-Single still has its appeal, this new class of operation will as well, as evidenced by its success in ARRL's DX contests. To state the rule in different words, M-2 entries may now run stations on both transmitters (unlike the CQWW M/S rule which limits the second station to multiplier chasing). Addi-tionally, unlike the old 10-minute rule, you are free to move around the bands as you see fit, provided you change bands 8 times or less per hour per transmitter. This strikes me as a new section which could be very useful for CPSARC and is well worth consideration! Further CQWW info can be found at www.cqww.com and the rules for this years CQWW con-tests are at www.cqww.com/2002rules.pdf I hope you all have an enjoyable month. 73 Colin GM0CLN

General Notes : The club or its members plan to be active in those events shown as bold above. Full Event Rules Are Available On The Internet As Follows : RSGB HF 2002 : http://www.rsgbhfcc.org RSGB VHF 2002 : http://www.blacksheep.org/vhfcc/rules/02rules/frameindex.html ARRL : http://www.arrl.org/contests/cal2002.html WAB : http://home.freeuk.net/wab/wab-cont.htm Links to most of the other events, or their rules, can be found on the SM3CER Contest Web Page under Calendar 2002. Start at http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/ and use the appropriate links to find the info you require.

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Contest commentary

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 1 0

The following is an excerpt from a uk.radio.amateur newsgroup message from G1LVN dated 27th September. It was part of a discussion about the use of Special Calls...... ******************************************* Worked GM2T on the 8th. Now that's a nice call (strange though because every Scottish amateur I've ever visited starts off with "You'll have had your tea?"). Guess they are happy to be invited though themselves - anyone else had a GM to tea? ********************************************

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Contest calendar DateDateDateDate

StartStartStartStart

(UTC)(UTC)(UTC)(UTC)

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

ContestContestContestContest

Notes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & InfoNotes & Info

05-Oct-02 08:00 24 Oceania DX Contest (SSB)

05-Oct-02 14:00 24 IARU 432MHz – 248GHz

05-Oct-02 14:00 8 RSGB 1.3GHz/2.3GHz Trophies

05-Oct-02 15:00 4 EU Sprint Autumn (SSB)

06060606----OctOctOctOct----02020202 07:0007:0007:0007:00 12121212 RSGB 21/28MHz SSB ContestRSGB 21/28MHz SSB ContestRSGB 21/28MHz SSB ContestRSGB 21/28MHz SSB Contest

08-Oct-02 19:00 2.5 RSGB 432MHz Activity Contest

12-Oct-02 08:00 24 Oceania DX Contest (CW)

12-Oct-02 12:00 24 WAB HF Phone

12-Oct-02 15:00 4 EU Sprint Autumn (CW)

15-Oct-02 19:00 2.5 RSGB 1.3GHz/2.3GHz Activity Contest

20202020----OctOctOctOct----02020202 07:0007:0007:0007:00 12121212 RSGB 21/28MHz CW ContestRSGB 21/28MHz CW ContestRSGB 21/28MHz CW ContestRSGB 21/28MHz CW Contest

20-Oct-02 09:00 4 RSGB 50MHz

22-Oct-02 19:00 2.5 RSGB 50MHz Activity Contest

26262626----OctOctOctOct----02020202 00:0000:0000:0000:00 48484848 CQWW SSB ContestCQWW SSB ContestCQWW SSB ContestCQWW SSB Contest 10m10m10m10m----160m160m160m160m

02-Nov-02 14:00 24 144MHz CW Marconi

03-Nov-02 08:00 6 RSGB 6 Hour 144MHz CW

05-Nov-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 144MHz Activity Contest

08-Nov-02 23:00 48 Japan International DX Contest (SSB)

09-Nov-02 00:00 48 Worked All Europe DX Contest (RTTY)

09-Nov-02 20:00 3 RSGB Club Calls SSB Contest 160m

12-Nov-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 432MHz Activity Contest

16161616----NovNovNovNov----02020202 21:0021:0021:0021:00 4444 RSGB 2RSGB 2RSGB 2RSGB 2ndndndnd 1.8MHz Contest (CW) 1.8MHz Contest (CW) 1.8MHz Contest (CW) 1.8MHz Contest (CW)

19-Nov-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 1.3GHz/2.3GHz Activity Contest

23232323----NovNovNovNov----02020202 00:0000:0000:0000:00 48484848 CQWW CW ContestCQWW CW ContestCQWW CW ContestCQWW CW Contest 10m10m10m10m----160m160m160m160m

26-Nov-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 50MHz Activity Contest

01-Dec-02 09:00 8 RSGB 144MHz AFS

03-Dec-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 144MHz Activity Contest

06-Dec-02 22:00 42 ARRL 160m Contest (CW)

10-Dec-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 432MHz Activity Contest

14141414----DecDecDecDec----02020202 00:0000:0000:0000:00 48484848 ARRL 10m Contest (CW/SSB)ARRL 10m Contest (CW/SSB)ARRL 10m Contest (CW/SSB)ARRL 10m Contest (CW/SSB)

17-Dec-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 1.3GHz/2.3GHz Activity Contest

24-Dec-02 20:00 2.5 RSGB 50MHz Activity Contest

26-Dec-02 14:00 2 RSGB 50/70/144/432 Christmas Cumulatives

27-Dec-02 14:00 2 RSGB 50/70/144/432 Christmas Cumulatives

28-Dec-02 00:00 24 RAC Canada Winter Contest (CW/SSB)

28-Dec-02 14:00 2 RSGB 50/70/144/432 Christmas Cumulatives

29-Dec-02 14:00 2 RSGB 50/70/144/432 Christmas Cumulatives

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. 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 £8,271 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 en-tries — Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

HF Contests, 5wpm Morse Class — Cambell Stevenson mm0dxc@cpsarc.com

VHF Contests — Colin Smith gm0cln@cpsarc.com

Newsletter, Web Site —John Innes gm7olq@cpsarc.com

Email admin, Photo archive— Robert Veal mm0ant@cpsarc.com

Dear Bob,

Many thanks for your e-mail received while I was out on Wednesday. If the following raffle tickets are "winners" then please re-draw or make use of them at your next meeting that has a raffle! (Pink tickets 171-175 & Green tickets 451-455) We had a really great time at the Junk Night, and I have already sent a report to Elaine at RadioActive, I am only sorry that I left the camera in our hotel room so we haven't any pictures.

The best bargain of the night had me laughing fit to burst - as you know we live about 15 miles from Northampton, and after travelling nearly 400 miles to Port Seton, what do I find on the Jaycee Electronics stand but a 40-channel UK mobile CB for the price of £5.00 which originated from Thunderpole at Great Billing, and now it is back home at Rothwell - talk about going round in circles!

As we enjoyed ourselves so much, and East Lothian region is so beautiful, we are definitely coming again and will probably stay in Edinburgh at the Caravan Club site (the one that is open all year) and plan for 2 weeks.

If the Club met while we were there would we be able to come as visitors to the meeting? Tony would love to and I would be quite happy plonked in the bar!!!!! Better still would be long-distance membership but we will think about that for another time.

Well done to everyone who supported your fundraising - the amount realised is fantastic. I wish some of the radio clubs "down south" were as active and welcoming.

Look after yourself and love to Mrs.Bob - we never did ask your wife her name and so she will always be "Mrs.Bob" whenever we see Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club in print.

Cheerio for now

Tony & Sheila Wilkins

Letter received