INS IDE

TH I S

I S SUE :

Dave’s Digital page

2

DAB cont 3

And more DAB 4

Crossword 5

Return of GW0IQP 6

Rallies 7

Club Programme

HF aerial s

8

9

J O U R N A L O F T H E J O U R N A L O F T H E J O U R N A L O F T H E J O U R N A L O F T H E

P O W Y S A M A T E U R P O W Y S A M A T E U R P O W Y S A M A T E U R P O W Y S A M A T E U R

R A D I O C L U B G W 4 H V NR A D I O C L U B G W 4 H V NR A D I O C L U B G W 4 H V NR A D I O C L U B G W 4 H V N PARC NEWS A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 V O L U M E 1 6 I S S U E 1

• PARC meets

on the sec-

ond Thurs-

day of each

month at

the Belan

School,

Llwynderw,

Welshpool

SY21 8SF

• Meetings

normally

start at 2000

hrs.

• Radio Nets:

Suns 1100

hrs 3.792

Tues: 1830

hrs 1.955 or

via GB3PW

• Web:

http//:parc.c

are4free.net

CHAIRMAN'S CHUNTER

Hi, Folks, It's me again, scratching my head trying to remember what we've been doing in the last few months. Here goes: In June John Thompson gave us a well-attended, very interesting talk on the development of cellular telephone equipment - hasn't it got smaller! This was followed three days later by our Summer Junk Sale - held for the first time on a Sunday afternoon; judging by the feed-back, perhaps we should stick to this arrangement. Thanks to Pat and Pat for once again letting us come and play - it turned out be one of our most successful junk sales. To continue our busy programme for June, a joint BBQ with SARS at the Sun Inn, Marton, swiftly followed. Once more we were lucky with the weather and it was a very pleasant evening - good food, good drink and good company. This is the second joint BBQ, perhaps we should make it an annual event on our calendar. In July Nick, M5DND, gave us a presentation on meteor scatter; I think we all learned a lot - personally I know I did! Thanks Nick. Our annual August Garden Party was held, once again, at Maesbrook - thanks to Bill and Chris; a very successful evening - judging by the fact that people were reluctant to go home!! Unfortunately, owing to a variety of circumstances, our summer outings have, so far, fallen by the wayside - perhaps we should all make a concerted effort next year. Don't forget, in September we have the construction contest and a quiz with SARS; unfortunately I shall be unable to attend either of these myself - but I'm sure both evenings will be very enjoyable. That's all for now - remember it's not long to the next junk sale, in November, so start saving the junk and the pennies. 73s Glyn

Repeater Scene 10

Dave’s Digital page

P A G E 2 V O L U M E 1 6 I S S U E 1

Hi Everyone. Well, in spite of the voices of doom (including mine!) the digital switchover went swimmingly and picture quality at my home is excellent from Long Mountain. Just a shame that we are not getting the full list of channels as those watching main stations do. With the change of government the efforts to get this locally mean starting from scratch—probably an aim to far. Right, now for DAB and thanks to Bill G4JUW I offer the latest:

Digital radio 'to miss Govt target by 3 years' Switchover in 2025? By Andrew Orlowski

Digital radio listening won't hit the Government's 50 per cent target until 2018, according a new industry analysis - putting the great analogue switch-off in jeopardy. And when the big day arrives, most of that digital consumption will be via the interwebs and TV - not DAB radio. The figures can be found in analyst Grant Goddard's counterblast to Ofcom's recent digital radio survey. This draws on publicly available research, but without the Panglossian coating Ofcom sprayed on the figures in its most recent report, and nicely laid out in 24 full page charts. There's no accompanying editorial - the figures speak for themselves. If you're a radio listener, two charts in particular might pique your interest. One

PARC NEWS August 2010 Page 3

The first shows while “digital radio” means lost of things, only one of them is DAB. Here’s a snapshot of what the “others” are (this is for commercial radio listening in Q2

this year, the most recent figures). Quite surprisingly “other digital” amounts to 11.9 per cent all listening. DAB snags 13.4 per cent and radio via a digital telly five per cent. Most digital radio isn’t DAB. Podcasts are a hugely popular “other”, while internet radio listening is almost certainly undercounted by industry ratings body RAJAR, which relies on a sample group filling pen-and-paper diaries of what they listened to. (no, seriously—it does). The government’s Culture Minister ed /Vaizey was critcal of the radio policy while in opposition, but after inheriting it, decided to leave it pretty much intact. You’ll recall theat Carter’s Digital Brtitain report stated two objectives had to be in place for what it euphemistically called the “Digital Radio Upgrade”, at which point a date could set. DAB coverage had had to be as good as FM, and digital - note, not DAB - listening had to reach 50 per cent of all radio consumption. So when will that be? The Digital Economy Act set 2015 as the target, but Goddard ex-trapolates that this might be 2018, missing the target by three years. But Goddard might be being generous to DAB, here. This could be optimistic His trend line includes the great DAB growth years of 2005-2007, when many people got their first DAB radio set. In 2005, for example, digital radio listening doubled from 5.9 per cent to 11 per cent. But more recently, growth in DAB receiver sales has been flaccid - DAB sales showed negative growth in 2009, and now only 21 per cent of radio receivers sold in the UK are DAB. Continued..

P A G E 4 V O L U M E 1 6 I S S U E 1

DAB continued…..

If you exclude the growth years, the 50 per cent target won’t be reached until 2025. Policy must take this reality into account/. The industry needs to choose one of the many technology options that could be “Son of DAB” - DVB-H, DAB+ for example, and stan-dardise on it for economies of scale, allowing cheap low-power receivers to be bjuilt into almost anything. Broadcasters need to be lured back into DAB, and here the regulator and politicians can help. But the “steady as she goes” policy isn’t appropriate for a medium that at the moment isn’t waving but drowning.

And from the other side of the “Pond”: In a nation so devoted to television, radio has to shout pretty loudly to be heard. Drive out from any big city in America and the dial all too quickly shrinks to a choice of nothing but dueling banjos, Bible-thumping preachers and swathes of soft rock. Prime territory, you might think, for digital radio, which is capable of delivering dozens of niche stations over the same chunk of waveband occupied by a single analogue channel. Four years ago, America duly backed a system called HD Radio that promised extra chan-nels, crisper reception, text information and some smart extras such as “tagging” songs for later purchase at Apple’s iTunes online music shop. So why today do only 1,750 out of the country’s 13,500 stations broadcast in HD radio, with sales of new receivers running at less than 2% of traditional AM/FM sets? It’s partly that the old analogue system was never switched off. So rather than spend $100 (£54) on a new HD Radio receiver, listeners just ploughed on with analogue. Another reason was that new technology was overtaken by an even newer one. American listeners have been turning to subscription-based digital satellite radio, which is delivering hundreds of stations to suit all tastes and, unlike HD Radio, is doing it nationwide. Last month, regulators approved the merger of the country’s two satellite radio broadcasters, Sirius and XM, into a single company boasting more than 18m subscribers and offering packages of commercial-free music, intelligent talk channels and major sports events for around $17 (£9.20) a month. Does this sound familiar? In the UK the BBC has long been championing DAB radio, but it’s had a lukewarm reception. Now it looks as though the millions of pounds spent on DAB could have been wasted, caught between two new developments: the threat of the powerful new Sirius XM conglomerate turning is sights on Europe, and the rise of internet radio with thousands of stations catering for every possible interest—an offering that broadcast radio can’t match.

Down

1. La Divina (6)

2. A receptacle for holy water (6)

3. Pig fat (4)

4. E. Vallance Transport Services (1,1,1,1)

5. Unit of weight or currency (6)

6. Unter den ———, famous Berlin boulevard

(6)

10. Buffoon (9)

11. e.g. mobile, cordless, candlestick (9)

13. ———— Gun, Hong Kong Island weapon

fired at 12:00 hrs (7)

14. Without purpose (7)

18. Small finch renowned for its singing ability

(6)

19. Characteristic of certain potatoes (6)

20. Eyes’ protective covering (6) 21. Type of fishing (6)

Across 24. Grew old (4) 25. To place (4)

3. 9ot tight (5)

7. Feeling of sickness (6)

8. String instrument (6)

9. Tries to lose weight (5)

12. Rule (5)

14. Milk dispenser (5)

15. A waste of time (9)

16. Author of the famous architectural guides (7)

17. Chicken less than a year old (7)

19. Farmer’s house (9)

22. Male goat (5)

23. Church assembly (5)

24. Anglo-Australian test cricket series (5)

26. Vehicle for the final journey (6)

27. 9orth Yorkshire market town (6)

28. Duck’s partner (5)

Crossword

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 6 I S S U E 1

Solution to September 09’s Crossword

G E A T P S

D E L T O N P H I L I P E

O H O O N O O A I M

N R N O A D U L T R M

W A G E N A D I V A

E E C O X C O M B N W

L A S S O A G G R O

L L A T C H E T O

A G R E E E R R E D

B M S U R P A S S A H

B E A U N O H E R O

E R B O X H I L L B U

Y E T A Y N A U R S

S I L L U S T R A T O R E

N L T I E N

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8

9 10 11

12 13 14

15

16 17

18 19 20 21

22 23

24 25

26 27

28

A Welcome Return!

Having been off the airwaves for 14 years, I decided it was time to do something about it., so I con-tacted Ron Stone, GW3 YDX who owns Vine Antennas at Four Crosses, & has recently been ap-pointed agent for Icom. We discussed my needs, as I wanted to try & do a bit of DXing from the lo-cal hill. We decided the new Icom T70E dual band hand held would do the job, & Dave NQJ sorted out the bells from the whistles for me. Thank you Dave. Ron designed a 4 element yagi that would fit in my car. The boom length is 46inches, & only just fits in the car on the back seat. It has a rear mounting point for vertical polarisation, & a centre mounting point for horizontal work. We looked around for a suitable mobile mast, & the cheapest one we could find was a Walters & Stanton 4x5ft 2” swaged poles at a cost of £75.00, with no base, which I thought was a bit much, so I went to our local tv aerial man, & bought 2 x 6ft lengths of aluminium 2/1/4” poles for £13.00, cut down 2 broom handles, (so now have 2 brooms with short handles) & my good friend at the foundry in Newtown made me a mobile base for £10.00. I have drilled holes through each section where they join, to stop them turning, but I can go direc-tional by turning the antenna on the top section, & tightening it with a jubilee clip. I cut 3x3ft lengths of the aluminium pole, & fitted a 12” length of broom handle up inside (6”) & I now have a 9ft mobile mast with a base for £23.00. The antenna was £65.00 inc. cable. The Icom dual-bander, plus Dual-band antenna, boot mount & headset with VOX & PTT cost £294.00 Dick, GW0IQP.

PARC NEWSAugust 2010 Page 6

PARC 9EWS RADIO RALLIES local to PARC

5 SEPTEMBER TELFORD HAMFEST - Enginuity Technology Centre, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DU. OT 10.30. TI S22 & GB3TF 433.200MHz. TS, SIG, discounted admis-sion to Enginuity Centre. Details from Martyn, G3UKV, 01952 255 416

Visit website: www.telfordhamfest.co.uk

3 OCTOBER AUTUMN MILITARIA & ELECTRONICS & RADIO AMATEUR HANGAR SALE - Hack Green secret Nuclear Bunker, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 8AL. OT 10.00, £2.50. Contact Rod Siebert, 01270 623 353

Visit website: www.hackgreen.co.uk

17 OCTOBER BLACKWOOD AND DISTRICT ARS RALLY - Coleg Gwent, Risca Road, Cross Keys NP11 7ZA.TI S22, CP, OT 10.30/10.40, £2. TS, B&B, SIG, C, WIN. Details Dave, GW4HBK, 01495 228 516

Visit website: www.gw6gw.co.uk

30 & 31 OCTOBER NORTH WALES RALLY - John Bright School, Llandudno. TS, RSGB Bookstall, CP. Details from Liz Cabban, GW0ETU on 01690 710 257

Dave says “keep your eyes open at the rallies for a Tait T355/T356 and some LD 7-50 He-liax for the proposed 6m repeater!”

PARC NEWS August 2010 Page 8

POWYS AMATEUR RADIO CLUB PROGRAMME FOR 2010

Venue: Belan School Hall Llwynderw Welshpool, SY15 8SF

@ 2000 hrs second Thursday of each month

CURRENT COMMITTEE

Chairman: Glyn GW0JAI Treasurer: Bill G4JUW

Secretary: Pete GW8COE Newsletter: Dave GW4NQJ

September 9th Construction Competition September 23rd PARC/SARS Annual Quiz (Provisional date) October 14th Members' Evening (What I have done) November 11th Junk Sale January 13th 2011 Natter Nite (Glyn is expecting snow!) February 10th 2011 TBA March 10th 2011 Chairman's Talk April 14th 2011 AGM

There has been a lot of discussions recently about “simple” hf aerials. The following (sent

to me many moons ago by Glyn GW0JAI) might be an answer.

PARC NEWS August 2010 Page 9

AERIALS FOR HF

GB3CW

Another reminder - we have QSY’d the repeater.

RB4: 433.100 base transmit and 434.700 base receive, same ctcss: 103.5 Hz. So far, not a

tremendous amount of activity which is a shame. It appears the repeater is not as sensi-

tive as it might be and we suspected the receive aerial, at the top of the tower, may

be damaged. As an experiment, we combined the receiver with the tri-bander, at 90’

that PW uses, to see if it would improve matters. It didn’t! so we are now back on sepa-

rate aerials (thanks for the reports, Glyn.

GB3PW

We installed the Tait earlier in the year, and it really is performing well - it has

proven to be a good investment. Recently, Dave, GW8GLO has installed a se-

quencer so that the repeaters do not come on all together after a mains failure;

we really do not want to blow any fuses! At the same time the old rack has been

replaced with a very posh cabinet (thanks Evan, GW7UNV) and it looks very pro-

fessional. The pic does not really do it justice.

Regarding the repairs to the building, these have come

on well, the roof in particular looks really weatherproof.

Thanks Hugh, MW0DSZ pictured below,hard at it!

Continued…...

REPEATER SCENE

PARCNEWS August 2010 Page 10

REPEATER SCENE cont. GB3ZW

If you attended the PARC 2010 AGM, you will be aware that the Committee agreed to

PARC installing a 6m repeater on the Bryn Gwyn site. Since the AGM the Salop Amateur

Radio Society have offered up to £150 to assist PARC in bringing this about which is very

encouraging.

The callsign will be, hopefully, GB3ZW. Channel will be 50.730 MHz base transmit, 51.230

MHz base receive and ctcss 103.5 (subject to OFCOM/ETCC agreement). Note that

there is no 1750Hz access on 6m.

Equipment required is, preferably, a Tait T355/T356 due to its reliability and “relative” ease

of converting down to 50MHz. For the filters we are looking for 12x 2m lengths of Heliax

LD-750 as I have noted on the Rally page! I would appreciate any pointers to the where-

abouts of any of the above.

Coverage prediction courtesy of ETCC:

73, Dave, GW4NQJ

From the archives……….

Those were the days eh? Pye Telecom equipment carried to the top of Everest.