www.cpsarc.com

The newsletter of Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

Once again this month I am writing the editorial and my newsletter input reasonably early this is due to other com-mitments. It is hard to believe that soon we will be moving into the major holiday period, isn’t time flying by? Moving on to what has hap-pened over the past month. On the club front we had our first DF night and we will also have had our Special Event at the Scottish Parliament. Fuller reports later on both activities. Also our 25

th HF Challenge has

kicked off and I for one have made a start by logging some new locator squares although I must admit Band conditions have been absolutely atrocious any time I have been on. How are the rest of you doing? Worked any thing exotic/? Re-member there is a good bottle of malt whisky , kindly donated by Malcolm MM0YDG , for the overall winner//. To the future, this month, there is one important change and that is the July Club Night will be one week early and will take place on Friday 26

th June. The

reason for the change is that our normal first Friday of the month is clashing with VHF Field Day where many of the club members will be away to.

So, what else is happening? Well we are now starting to en-ter the main contest season for the club of which we will be en-tering a few. They are the 6M Trophy, PW QRP. I am not sure if anyone is taking part this year in the PW QRP 2M contest on the 14

th, which is certainly a

good challenging contest for beginners. It also offers quite a few surprises to what can be worked with only 3 watts. This month we also have on the weekend of the 6

th i.e. tomorrow

as you read this, Port Seton Gala Day then on the 20

th &

21st the “Museums on the Air”

weekend again from the Mu-seum of Flight, East Fortune. We will be operating from our normal hanger up beside the Vulcan bomber. These demon-stration stations offer everyone to have a real go at HF operat-ing using a tremendous HF set up so I hope you will take the opportunity to come along and give it a try. Last but not least is our own 20M Activity Night on the 24

th June. I have changed

this night from a contest to Ac-tivity night in the hope that many others will take part. It is all for a bit of fun and an oppor-tunity to see what can be worked. It is not a serious event but just an excuse to go out for a few hours on a Wednesday evening to “play at HF Radio”. If

you can’t get out then why not go on the air from home as a single operator and see what you can work. So please do not dismiss the idea about not do-ing it, go on and try and partici-pate. I am interested in what people do work so any chance you could send me your logs and I will try and do a small right up on what was achieved. So can I please have a copy of your log by the 4

th July at the

latest? A busy month then all rounds so I hope you can take part in all the events. This month certainly has a lot of operating activities so there is something there for everyone. Some of the events will certainly give you an opportunity to prac-tice some of the skills required to go contesting so why not take time out and give it a try. Events like Museums on the Air al-

(Continued on page 2)

EDITORIAL

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

June 2009

Vol 17 Issue 6

www.cpsarc.com

2

10 Pin Bowling night

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

though are demonstration set-ups can at the same time be extremely hectic. What they offer is the ability to use some of logging programs and learn all about them, and also how to handle a pile up like we have experienced over the last few

(Continued from page 1) events we have run at the Mu-seum of Flight. It is better to play at these events rather than try and learn when you are in-volved in a major contest. The opportunity is there so why not use it.

That’s it then for me this month, I hope you will take part in all of the events; it would be tremen-dous to see. Enjoy the newslet-ter. Bob GM4UYZ

On Saturday 20th April we held

our 10 Pin Bowling Night at the Ten-Pin, located at Fountain Park, Edinburgh starting at 20:00. Originally 34 people paid their money but in the end due to various circumstances only 31 people turned up and took part and as before at this event it cer-tainly turned out to be another fun night. This year there were no special packages available so it was just the case of playing the 2 games, including the shoe hire at a cost of £12.50 for the adults and £10 for the children, with a small amount out of this going for some prizes at the end. With regard to the prizes Kris, my Son-in-Law won both the two games and overall but he de-cided that he would only accept one prize and to hand out the other two. To that end the sec-ond and third overall placings received the prizes which were Gary MM0FZV and Jamie. Congratulations to all the prize winners. I also made the same decision as previous years that the kids would all be treated the same no matter how good or bad they actually did they all received a prize. Thanks to everyone for making it a real good fun night. Hope you all enjoyed it. For interest the scoring achieved is as follows: Bob GM4UYZ

Lane Name Score

Game 1 Score

Game 2 Total

1 Yvonne 60 72 112

1 Elyse 61 99 160

1 Holly 61 76 137

1 Karis 59 70 129

2 Bob GM4UYZ 100 87 187

2 Shaun (M0KLN) 98 72 170

2 Lesley 83 75 158

2 Kris 131 129 260

2 Lisa 65 81 146

2 Robin MM3SRF 76 101 177

3 John MM0JXI 103 99 202

3 Kirsty MM3FZV 90 57 147

3 Gary MM0FZV 109 117 226

3 Eilidh 90 79 169

3 Steve B 73 84 157

3 Kevin M0KLN 93 82 175

4 Liz 2M1GLD 71 74 145

4 Stevie MM3YPN 74 113 187

4 Janet 45 44 89

4 Jamie 106 106 212

4 Kyle 76 61 137

5 Ricky GM1PLY 95 88 183

5 Cathy 66 82 148

5 Gregory 67 79 146

5 Adrian MM3YPQ 87 116 203

5 Debbie 100 62 162

5 Sean 79 67 146

6 Derek MM0WST 82 67 149

6 Denise 70 68 138

6 Campbell 95 83 178

6 Jim GM7LUN 77 82 159

3

Contents 2 10 Pin Bowling report

3 How welcome were you made?

4 May DF Hunt

5 Repairing a Watson FC-130

6 GB10SP Report

9 Mountain Bike Diaries

10 Test Your Knowledge

11 Event Calendar

12 20m Activity night

3

The following was received from Robin MM3SRF. Thanks for your positive re-sponse/ “I was reading over the May edition of the clubs newsletter under the title of "How Welcome Were You Made?" and I thought I would share to you my feelings of the club welcoming me in February. When I joined the club for the first time in February I wasn't really looking forward to the reception I was about to receive and had a vision of walking through the pub doors and be-ing surrounded in complete si-lence, like an old western film! But instead I was welcomed with so much enthusiasm from the club members that poured through the doors. Upon saying that I had in depth conversa-tions with John MM0CCC and Cambell MM0DXC about propa-gation, how to modify a vertical CB antenna to any band on the HF spectrum and other experi-ences from other club mem-bers.

My opinion is that the web site is a valuable asset to club. When doing my research on clubs in the area I found that CPSARC had the best by far. I was soon convinced that the club would be the best for me when I saw the phrase "if you walk through the door you are automatically considered a member" which I was disap-pointed not to see on other clubs introductions. I am still finding my feet and there are loads of people that I still have to introduce myself to, but once you start chatting to someone in the club you can lose track of time! I am person-ally glad to be part of a large community that shares the inter-ests in radio as me.”

Contributions to the newslet-ter and web site are most welcome. Please don’t send these items to GM4UYZ, he’s busy enough doing all the other things he does for the club. Send any items you’d like included to mm0jxi@cpsarc.com or submit them direct to the web site.

How Welcome were you made?

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

GM4UYZ with the GB10SP Scottish Parliament QSL card (not actual size (the card!))

www.cpsarc.com

4

Friday 8th May

Once again we were reasonably fortunate with the weather dur-ing the DF Night; it basically stayed dry apart from the odd spots of rain and certainly chilly. So were there any disasters or stories to tell/read on. As normal everyone who took part assembled in the Ship Inn car park ready to go at the 19:00 start. This time there were 5 cars which set out so the teams consisted off: Liz 2M1GLD & Ricky GM1PLY, Cambell MM0DXC & Stevie MM3YPN, Colin 2M0CRR & Hugh MM0HSA, Bob GM4IKT and Malcolm MM0YMG & Bob GM4UYZ giving us a reason-able turnout. The fox was once again Iain MM1CPP who was accompa-nied by Tor MM0PID The seven o’clock start came and off we all went. My team we headed up to the lay-by at Gladsmuir just of the A1. Nothing was heard so we headed east along towards Haddington. We listened once again but nothing heard. As we started to move away from where we had stopped and with the aerial lying in the back of the car up popped Iain's voice. We then discovered that he was transmitting about 1.5 minutes after what the clock in our car showed. Now we at least had a time marker. On the fact we heard the fox we knew he was in close proximity so now it was all about getting bearings and trying to find him. We then stopped for the next transmission and with the fox now being heard we managed to get a bearing in a line going across the west of Haddington towards Samuelston. We then started moving around trying to get cross bearings and

eventually we found that the signal was massive just to the north of Samuelston at the crossroad with the main Had-dington to Pencaitland road. It was at this point we ended up going round in circles trying to hone in on the fox but we ended up getting ourselves a little mixed up. We made a decision to go back to the crossroad but this time we decided after taking a bearing to head towards Samuelston itself. We then discovered at the next stop no matter what we did with the aerial and with maximum attenuation in the signal were massive so we knew he was very, very close. We moved east a little and the signal dropped. We came back to the “big signal” spot we noticed a sign that says No Through Road/we then said “I wonder”. We had about 4 transmissions left so we decided we may as well take a look. We drove on and on up this road to where it really went no further. I then reversed back up a side road to turn the car when I noticed Iain and Tor sitting in the landrover. YES, OH YES we found them at 20:35 and we were the only ones. The DF finished and off we headed to the Thorntree, Malcolm and I as proud as punch for finding them and no-body else did. Little did we know that our excitement was to be short lived. When we got back and we said where we had found Iain and Tor the others said he was off the DF Map area, no they weren’t was our reply until they showed us the map I had handed out. OOPS they were right, as the map we had used was one that Malcolm had downloaded himself. It turns out Iain was using a map that we used to use many years ago instead of the new one which we have used now

for at least a couple of years. If nothing else it will now be-come another DF legend and talking point/ the “Fox” who used the wrong Map!!!! Any way we still found them never the less which Malcolm and I were extremely chuffed about/. Well done Iain and Tor you cer-tainly made it a very entertain-ing evening even though you were outside the new map boundary/. Now who said DF’ing was easy, but once again it proved that it isn’t particularly when you only get a transmission for less than a minute, every 5 minutes. Eve-ryone certainly enjoyed the eve-ning and wants more, well they will have to wait till September when the next one takes place, and in the dark as well. Yes another test! Roll on Septem-ber!!!!!!!! Bob GM4UYZ

May DF Hunt

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

5

There's a range of relatively inexpensive frequency count-ers, badge engineered by vari-ous companies; Watson, MFJ, Optoelectronics, etc. that ap-pear to share a lot of common design. (I suspect that the only thing that changes is the front panel, and the switches in-stalled.) At least, the Watson FC-130, and the Optoelectron-ics Scout 40 seem to share the same front end.

Unfortunately, that front end is a little fragile. It uses a 50Ω MMIC to terminate the antenna. The upside is that this is quite sensi-tive and low power. The down-side is that it's easily destroyed. For example by plugging it di-rectly into an FM-1000! It would appear that this is a common problem, but in contrast to the likes of Yaesu, etc. the manu-facturer takes steps to obscure the workings of the device — going so far as to sand the part numbers off some of the ICs! While the input MMIC wasn't specifically obscured, it isn't a common British part. Or a com-mon part at all, as I finally tracked down the markings (A06Z)in a Russian web forum.

It's an MSA-0611, apparently available only by import from the US, with attendant substan-tial shipping charges. They are, at least, a lot cheaper than re-placing the entire counter.

A device this small is quite hard to desolder with conventional

tools, since surface tension in the legs renders them immune to solder braid. However, since I didn't intend to recover the de-vice, it was easy enough to ap-ply some larger snips to the package, reducing the problem to some plastic crumbs and four slightly pathetic looking legs still attached to the board. These were easy enough to clean up using a conventional soldering iron and braid.

An MMIC is a Microwave Mono-lithic Integrated Circuit. This can cover a while lot of applications, but in this case, it's just an im-proved transistor — effectively just an op-amp. They are more useful than that might suggest, since the package typically con-tains the biasing circuitry, and matches the input and output to 50Ω, making them useful at any frequency, not just microwave.

They are especially useful at microwave frequencies as the wavelength approaches a sig-nificant fraction of the phase distance between a conven-tional transistor and conven-tional biasing circuitry. Indeed, at that point one needs to think of all the interconnects as trans-mission lines, rather than just wires. The move to SMT com-ponents isn't just to make things difficult to repair!

Soldering in SMD components has been covered in much longer articles in the likes of RadCom, PW, etc. so I wont

labour the point here. The basic procedure is to place a dab of solder on one of the pads, and solder the single leg in place. I chose the bottom right one, since it was more substantial then tha others. One then ap-plies an excess of solder to the legs on the other side, so that the original dab holds the de-vice in place. Soldering the pins together is not a problem, since surface tension draws the sol-der where it's needed, and the excess is cleaned off with de-solder braid. Having done this, proceed to the first side and do the same again. Derry GM4FH

Repairing a Watson FC-130

By Derry Hamilton GM4FH

www.cpsarc.com

6

The GB10SP Event. 09:00 -17:00 Saturday 16

th May

and 09:00-17:00 Sunday 17th

May 2009

The radio club has for many years taken part in numerous Special Events. The main events have been Lighthouse Weekend as GB2LBN (August) since 1995 and Museums Weekend as GB2MOF (June) since 2001. Organisation for these events and all other events has been minimal with only one requiring that little bit of extra work being Museums Weekend at the Mu-seum of Flight at East Fortune aerodrome. The idea of the GB10SP event started back in May 2008 after the radio club’s visit to the Scot-tish Parliament. Jim Hume (MM0DXH) Lib Dem MSP for the South of Scotland who com-pleted his amateur training with the club and is a member sug-gesting that as it was the Scottish Parliament’s 10

th Anniversary in

2009 could we put on a special event station to commemorate the event. I agreed that it would be a great idea and thus the seed was sown. Jim did some initial checking to

see if it was feasible which all came back positive. From then on emails started flowing back-wards and forwards until we got to the stage that it was neces-sary that we had a site visit to check where we could set-up aerials, and equipment The first meeting took place on the 24

th

November 2008 with Jim MM0DXH, Cambell Stevenson MM0DXC, Gary Bourhill MM0FZV and myself. From this visit we identified where we could site aerials and what rooms were available to set-up our equipment, idea for a call sign for the event and a few other issues that needed inter-nal Scottish parliament an-swers. Jim took on board the internal questions that needed answering and I started prepar-ing the paperwork to obtain the GB10SP callsign. Confirmation of the date was given that the event could take place that being the weekend of the 16/17

th May 2009. After

Jim’s chat with the Fire Safety Officer (Bob Bertram 2M0KLL ex MM3LWJ -Training all done at CPSARC) and Jake Fenton Scottish Parliament Health & Safety a whole list of items were

identified that needed to be car-ried out, see below to give you an idea. Jim at the Scottish Parliament --------------------------------------- 1. Booking of Room for the event 2. Supply Official Letter to Bob GM4UYZ about the event to enable getting Special Event Call Sign GB10SP 3. Book and Confirm obtaining 4 x Standalone tables each ap-proximately 2 metres long. 4. Book and confirm obtaining trolleys to take equipment to Committee Room.

For GM4UYZ -----------------------------------------

1. Obtain Special Event Call-

sign: Complete paperwork and submit 2. Produce list of names for

access to building and submit 3. Produce Names and Car

Registrations to allow access for antenna and equipment in-stallation and decommissioning. 4. Produce Equipment Dia-

gram for event. 5. Produce Equipment Inven-

tory. 6. Produce Emergency Fire

Procedure 7. Produce a Risk Assessment 8. Produce a Method State-

ment 9. Produce copy of Club

Equipment and Public Liability (Continued on page 7)

GB10SP Report

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

The team on Saturday F3NED (at radio), MM0YMG, GM4UYZ, MM6TMS, MM0JXI, MM0FZV & GM4IKT

Cushcraft A3S outside the Scottish Parliament

7

The tower was positioned and detached from the van so it could then drive up to the door that we were using to take the equipment into where we were operating from. Everything was unloaded and the two teams went about their respective tasks. Cambell MM0DXC, Gary MM0FZV and Bob GM4IKT looking after the antennas (all better known in the club as “Twig Jockeys”), John MM0JXI and I started to build the two stations and the set-up the web-cam. We are known as the “shack pansies” and are not allowed anywhere near the an-tennas. I must admit on a seri-ous note this is one of our strengths as a club where we work in teams. Teams take re-sponsibility of the aerials and a team takes responsibility for the shack. This way it ensures that when an antenna needs testing there is at least a station avail-

able to test it... We set up two similar stations each with a computer, a FT1000MP and a Linear, re-spective auxiliary equipment and band pass filters. The sta-tions one was on 20M and the other the choice of 80M or 40M. The antennas were an A3S for 20/15/10M (decided to run 20M only) and a W3DZZ for 80M and 40M. We started about 13:00BST and everything was set up and the first test QSO made at 1446BST. In addition to the stations we set up a webcam which fed into uStream.tv and subsequently onto the radio club’s website. We had a few issues with this

(Continued on page 8)

Insurance. 10. PAT test all our equipment

and submit the PAT testing Pa-perwork 11. Create QSL card and en-

quire about costs to be printed Produce document to publicise the event

One of our biggest concerns was whether we could get the GB10SP call sign. Well, that turned out to be totally straight-forward. I sent off the paper-work on the Monday and I re-ceived a telephone call on the Thursday to say it was granted. How’s that for excellent service from Ofcom? There were issues about where we originally thought we would erect the tower for the Yagi for 20M so it was decided another meeting was required, this time in daylight to confirm up location and go through all the details for the set-up with a fine tooth-comb. This was arranged for the 16

th March 2009. At this

meeting the Scottish Parliament Events Co-ordinator was pre-sent along with Fire safety, Se-curity and Health & Safety, Cambell MM0DXC, Gary Bourhill, Bob Purves GM4IKT and GM4UYZ. This was an ex-cellent meeting where all the details required were ironed out leaving a “tweaking” of all the required paperwork to complete everything. After this meeting again a few emails went backwards and forwards tidying up paperwork, confirming small details plus confirming up that we could use a webcam to video our event onto our club website.

(Continued from page 6) John MM0JXI took this task in hand and established that we could video the event and suc-cessfully feed it onto the web-site. Testing of this was done mostly on a Thursday night dur-ing the club’s sked as it was a great opportunity to get immedi-ate feedback. The last piece of paperwork I needed to complete was to obtain a list of names on who wanted to attend the event on the Saturday, Sunday or both days. For the set-up on the Friday it was agreed to limit that to Cambell, Gary, Bob GM4IKT, John MM0JXI and myself. The weekend arrives/ On the Friday afternoon 15

th

May 2009 we duly arrive at the Scottish Parliament to find that a “cherry picker lorry” was parked where we were going to install the tower for the Yagi. Our hearts dropped as we thought, well that is the set-up now going to be aborted. Our fears though were suddenly put to rest when our Scottish Parlia-ment contact popped out say that they would be finished shortly. Whilst we were waiting to go into the area it was decided that we could make the best of the time by going through the secu-rity check. This entailed going down into the car park under the Parliament where the van was stripped of all the equip-ment and duly checked and searched. Thankfully this was made easier due to the form that I had submitted earlier list-ing what we were bringing in. The check now fully over and the “cherry picker” now gone and we were all duly signed in and obtained our passes. Into the “garden” area we went.

Setting up in committee Room 5

Jim MM0DXH making the first contact

www.cpsarc.com

8

but they were soon overcome and an active feed was now in place. On the Saturday those who inti-mated that they would be arriv-ing for the 08:00 admission to the Parliament duly arrived on time and they were Bob GM4IKT, Gary MM0FZV, Mal-colm MM0YMG, Steven MM6TMS, Jim MM0DXC our MSP sponsor and GM4UYZ. There was to be another intake at 12:00 where John MM0JXI, Brian MM3WZB and Pierre F5NED who had come over from France to take part in the event. Bob 2M0KLL the Fire Safety Officer came in as well. On getting into the room the antennas and rotator cables were connected up with Jim MM0DXH making the first QSO at 08:14 BST. We continued all day on both 40M and 20M with 40M proving to be the general workhorse and 20M going very busy then dying off then coming busy again. Certainly 20M was not what I would call its usual self having said that QSO’s were made into Canada USA, Asiatic Russia and Japan. A few QSO’s were made on CW by Bob 2M0KLL but the predominant mode was SSB. At the end of the day we closed the station at 16:49 as we had to be off site by 17:00 with 547 QSO’s under the belt. We did have a couple of techni-cal issues early on in the morn-ing, one was getting the web-cam to work properly and the other was noise on the 40M audio. This was cured by re-moving a DVK that we had in line. On the Sunday the morning

(Continued from page 7)

two days: 40M CW: 4 New Countries England, Germany, Hungary and Italy 40M SSB: 19 New Countries Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Eire, England, France, Ger-many, Guernsey, Italy, Luxem-bourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slo-venia, Spain, Sweden and Wales 20M CW: 10 New Countries Austria, Czech Rep, European Russia, Germany, Italy, Lithua-nia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine 20M SSB: 44 New Countries Afghanistan, Asiatic Russia, Austria, Azores, Belarus, Bel-gium, Bulgaria, Canada, Crete, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Rep, Denmark, Dodecanese Islands, Estonia, European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Roma-nia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and USA Was it all worthwhile? It cer-tainly was and everyone thor-oughly enjoyed it. A lot of hard work in the background to achieve it but all worthwhile in the end and would be do an-other one! For the radio club this has been an honour to be asked and to be able to do something to help celebrate the 10

th Anniversary

of the opening of the Scottish Parliament. Also the distinction of being the first Amateur Radio Club to actually transmit from inside the Scottish Parliament. Yes it has been a massive hon-our/.. Bob GM4UYZ

team consisted of Bob GM4IKT, Gary MM0FZV, Mal-colm MM0YMG, Martyn MM3XXW, Robin MM3SRF and me. The second intake was at 12:00 when Pierre F5NED ar-rived. Bob 2M0KLL, Jim MM0DXH and Ogilvie GM4VYU arrived at about 11:00. David MM0XDG arrived about 13:00 to complete our Sunday line-up. The first QSO of the day was at 08:16 BST and the last was at 16:00BST. The bands were both a bit strange and it took a while for them really to “kick off”. 20M was definitely the bet-ter band and lots of good pile-ups were made. Most of the QSO’s were on SSB but a num-ber were made on both bands on CW by again Bob 2M0KLL. We had no technical problems at all which was a real plus I must admit. We ended up with 926 QSO’s on the log with 379 made on the Sunday so it can be seen the difference in propa-gation over the two days. At 16:00 we stopped and disman-tled the stations where it took exactly one hour to complete. It just confirms that everything comes down quicker than it

goes up/. After leaving site, it was a case of returning all the equipment to the rightful homes, storing the tower before we were finished. Although that is the operating bit over, the next task is that of the writing the QSL cards and sending them into the bureau. The cards have been ordered and we are awaiting there deliv-ery before that can be done. Listed below are the countries we managed to contact over the

Steven MM6TMS and Bob GM4UYZ

Malcolm MM0YMG and Brian MM3WZB

9

Mountain Bike Diaries

By Robin Farrar MM3SRF

Many of CPSARC members may have been out operating from port-able locations from time to time, for example the tranquil island of Tiree (well not that tranquil when the IOTA team arrive!) and the Mu-seum of Flight. I enjoy operating away from home whether it may be in a car on the road side or taking a handheld up the hills, but what I enjoy the most is operating from my mountain bike; yes you did read it right and trust me it is not a late April fool’s day joke! Crazy as it seems but the whole thought of operating from a bicycle works very well, also an excuse to get you healthy! The setup is that practical that anyone with a suitable bike can get on the air.

What type of bike do I need? Whether you want to go on a road trip or up the hills, various bikes can suit your needs. It can range from road bikes or mountain bikes. I would settle for a mountain bike due its robustness and accessibility to gain higher ground within min-utes. It might be hard trying to get yourself up a hill with equipment on your back but always think of the journey going back down hill! My trusted bike or what I like to call “my project bike” was bought from Halfords for only £70 a bargain in its own right and sure enough it has served its duty when I cycled from south Edinburgh just to get the CPSARC junk night (It was a good ride out, but bringing back a hefty supply of radios was a nightmare!) The thing I would warn you on is that buy a cheap bike that will serve you well, because a lot of prep work has to be done that will de-crease your bike in value!

What will I need? A mirror mount bracket A patch lead Any antenna of your choice Battery Check List!

When I was first doing my tests I could not find the right SWR read-ing, everything on the meter was sky high. When I was able to search around the internet ask sev-eral people they told me to scrape a small part of paint off the bike. Once the paint has been removed treat with an anti-rusting agent which will prevent the bike rusting away before your very eyes or causing serious danger to you or other road users. Then clamp the mount to the posi-tion of where you want your an-tenna to go, preferably the handle-bars. With my further tests my SWR considerably reduced to a

workable position (but be advised it might not be the suitable SWR for your rig!) Once you have done the necessary tests you are free to operate! My equipment consists of a Yaesu FT-817ND running 5W maximum from a small rechargeable battery, a 2m antenna and 20M vertical. The findings You may be thinking someone must be off their mind to do any-thing like this? Well I am! My big-gest achievements have been Italy,

Germany, Croatia, Russia, Spain and Georgia on a 59 report. When doing this expect some pass-ers-by to stare at you or be pre-pared for some people to come up and ask you questions. Always wait for a shock reply from the radio operator after telling them you are operating from a bicycle! I know several other people who do this kind of stuff. A young lad down in England called Rikki who I have spoken to on the air for some time but strangely enough not bicycle to bicycle, takes a full set up Sony speakers and a car battery to power his 100W radio! NOTE: If you are going to take up the challenge, please be aware for dangers on the road and always comply with the Highway Code! Always wear a helmet and maintain your bicycle to a high standard! Always wrap up warm in the cold and drink plenty of fluids! Thanks for publishing my first arti-cle! Any questions just contact me through the website or catch me at the club night, I should be there! Robin MM3SRF

www.cpsarc.com

10

1. If a transmitter is rated at 10W input

power and requires a 20V supply, what current will it draw:

a. 0.5mA

b. 500mA

c. 2A

d. 200A

2. If three 10kΩ resistors are wired in se-

ries their combined value will be:

a. 1kΩ

b. 3.3kΩ

c. 10kΩ

d. 30kΩ

3. A capacitor is best defined as:

a. a number of turns of wire

b. two metal discs separated by a thin layer of

plastic

c. a diode that can be used to set the fre-

quency of a tuned circuit

d. a semi-conductor

4. To change the resonant frequency of a

tuned circuit you would need to change the:

a. frequency of the oscillator

b. value of the supply current

c. value of the supply voltage

d. combined values of the inductor and the

capacitor

5. In a 24V mains power supply unit the

transformer is used to:

a. smooth the dc pulses

b. change the alternating current to dc pulses

c. reduce the 230V mains to 24V ac

d. reduce the 230V mains to 24V dc

6. In a 24V mains power supply unit the

rectifier diode is used to:

a. smooth the dc pulses

b. change the ac to pulses of dc

c. reduce the 230V mains to 24V ac

d. reduce the 230V mains to 24V dc

7. If a small base current flows in a transis-

tor the collector current will be:

a. equal

b. larger

c. Smaller

d. opposite

8. To measure current in a series circuit,

the multi-meter test probes should be connected:

a. in parallel with the relevant circuit

b. in parallel with the component under test

with the battery disconnected

c. in series with the relevant circuit

d. in series with the component under test

with the battery disconnected

9. In a modern transmitter the balanced

modulator is normally used to produce:

a. single sideband

b. two sidebands

c. frequency modulation

d. two tones for data transmissions

10. Mixing audio and radio signals together

produces:

a. sidebands

b. harmonics

c. Oscillations

d. spurious emissions

Answers on the back page

Test Your Knowledge

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

11

Event Calendar

By John Innes MM0JXI

5 June 2009 Club Night

6 June 2009 Port Seton Gala Day

6 June 2009 RSGB National HF Field Day

14 June 2009 PW QRP Contest

20 June 2009 Museums On The Air Weekend from Museum of Flight GB2MOF

20 June 2009 Newsletter Deadline (early due to July club night being early)

24 June 2009 CPSARC 20m Activity Night

26 June 2009 Club Night (note change of night due to VHF Field Day)

4 July 2009 RSGB VHF Field Day

25/26 July 2009 RSGB IOTA Contest GM2T

25 July 2009 Newsletter Deadline

7 August 2009 Club Night

14 August 2009 Junk Night

15 August 2009 Lighthouses Weekend from Barns Ness GB2LBN

22 August 2009 Newsletter Deadline (early due to holidays)

4 September 2009 Club Night

25 September 2009 2nd 144MHz DF Hunt

26 September 2009 Newsletter Deadline

02 October 2009 Club Night

04 October 2009 RSGB 21/28MHz Contest

16 October 2009 Video Night

24 October 2009 CQWW SSB Contest GM2T

31 October 2009 Newsletter Deadline

6 November 2009 Club Night

13 November 2009 Talk (TBA)

28 November 2009 Newsletter Deadline

04 December 2009 Club Night

19 July 2009 RSGB Low Power Field Day

www.cpsarc.com

12

The 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.

We have our own internet domain www.cpsarc.com where you will find our popular web site which features lively discussion forums and photo galleries.

You can also download an electronic copy of this newsletter.

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.

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 disease by donating the profits from some of the events we hold, we have raised over £14,368 since 1994.

Bob Glasgow 7 Castle Terrace Port Seton East Lothian EH32 0EE Phone: 01875 811723 E-mail: gm4uyz@cpsarc.com General correspondence, training and contest entries Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com HF Contests Cambell Stevenson mm0dxc@aol.com VHF Contests John MacLean mm0ccc@cpsarc.com Newsletter, website, event calendar John Innes mm0jxi@cpsarc.com Club Tables Bob Purves gm4ikt@cpsarc.com

Over the past few years we have tried running our own “small” con-test on the nearest Wednesday to mid-summer’s day. We started at first using 10M but as the sunspot cycle started to fall it was moved to the current 20M band. Over the years it has not been really well supported with many of the com-ments that have come back after the event is, “it is a “Contest” why not make it an Activity Night”. To that end I have changed it to just that an Activity Night. The aim of the event is to get on the air and work as many stations that you can in the allotted time period plus at the same time have some fun. We are Radio Amateurs after all and we are supposed to get on the air and make contacts so come on then let me see you doing it. After the event can you send me a copy of your log so that I can write up some report on what you all managed to achieve plus why not update the club tables and send Bob GM4IKT an entry for that. I know he would be most grateful for it. Look forward to a massive turnout for the event/ Bob GM4UYZ Date: 24 June 2009 Time: 19:00—22:00 local Modes: SSB / CW Power: as per your licence (400/50/10w) Entrants: open to everyone Exchange: Report (RST) Closing Date: submit logs by Friday 4th July to GM4UYZ (see panel on right for address / email)

20m SSB Activity Night

Information

Contacts

Answers from June 2009 Newsletter “Test Your Knowledge”. 1B, 2D, 3B, 4D, 5C , 6B, 7B, 8C, 9B, 10A

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