1

Est. 1938 G4HRS

Sponsored by:

The Journal of

Horsham Amateur Radio Club

September 2016

H A R C N E W S

2

Contents

In this issue

3. Notes from the Editor Help at hand

4. Vintage A tale to bring back those memories

9. The news Mobile to mobile

10. Official Julian tells us what we should be looking out for

12. Which,what,where? Did you find him?

14. Listen to the radio A roundup of monthly news

16. Widescreen Vintage trip, DJ and unknown

17. Diary of events Full listings for the month

MemberScore The latest results in the Club Championships

Cover picture: FT101 - a popular rig

Published by Horsham Amateur Radio ClubHARCNEWS is produced at home by G4JHI

3

The cable used was UR67 that’s the thick one so losses would be minimal particularly on UHF. Then the test using my handheld. I wanted to visit a shop across town and found a suitable spot near Roffey and was able to QSO well on 2 metres once the appropriate spot was found since I wasn’t running that much power. Unfortunately the 70 cms test failed.

I had no idea as to why until I was back at home and noticed that 70cms was set to WBFM! The rig won’t transmit using that mode! Since then I did have a QSO on 70 cms with David though it wasn’t difficult since we live very close to each other! I’m already booked for the next job to align a satellite dish after it is put on a wall to receive Romanian television! The viewer concerned has moved and took her dish along with her. The joys of life!

David G4JHI

Recently I was asked by David 2E0NKC to help connect up a new collinear antenna that had been acquired. When I arrived at the QTH the antenna was already sitting up on a pole. After a few minutes and a bit of action with the soldering iron we were ready to go. I took with me a tried and tested SWR bridge and found the SWR reading particularly good on 2 metres. I then tried 70 cms and it was slightly worse but nothing to worry about.

Editorial

Copydeadline for emailed items forOctober edition14th September - For written items the deadline is 11th September.

These earlier deadlines are due to holidays

For items sent by email please send to this address:

harc.news@g4jhi.co.uk

4

August Meeting

Early Amateur Radios

by Keith Evans G3VKW

Keith began his talk by explaining the types of commercially made equipment available to amateurs before World War 2, these were mainly ex-military radios. The first slide in his presentation was a picture of a magazine advert from May 1940 for a Hallicrafter SX25 receiver. One of the few receivers designed for the American amateur market.

Similarly, the very popular receivers such as the AR88 or the HRO would have been priced at £49 in 1937 equivalent to £3000 in 2016.

He pointed out the advertised price of £39 10 shillings would be equivalent to £2300 today.

5

Thepost-waryearsbecametheeraofAM/CWPicture of a typical shack with a HRO receiver in the centre and a Panda Cub transmitter to the left.

The HRO use a set of plug-in coil packs, seen here stacked on top of the receiver.The Panda Cub AM/CW Transmitter used 50W input power and cost £59 in 1957 equivalent to £1300 in 2016.During the 1950s The Shortwave magazine printed a regular column entitled “The other man’s shack”. These articles enabled different amateurs to explain the types of equipment they used and offered guidance on aerials, operating and suggestions for planning permission etc.A very popular receiver and readily available, the ex-RAF R1155 which performed well after a few mods.

The next series of slides showed many other well-known types:BC348, Eddystone S640, Minimitter Top 2-7, LABGEAR LG50 and KW Vanguard.

During the 1950s and 60s Heathkit equipment became very popular.They offered a complete kit of parts with an excellent set of instructions. The overall appearance was very professional finish. Removed the need to buy components from various suppliers and manufacture your own chassis.

Heathkit DX100

6

The LABGEAR LG300 was considered to be the Rolls Royce of amateur transmitters costing £200 in 1958. Equivalent to £4300 today.

The 1950s saw the introduction of using Single Sideband modulation and this gave rise to more advanced equipment.

COLLINS 75 These were highly sought after being both very rare and very costly. It used ferrite tuning mechanism and very advanced mechanical filters.The well-known G2DAF receiver design was available for home construction and gave very good performance for far less cost.

The slideshow continued with several other makes and models which included:The Eddystone S888A, KW77, Eddystone EA12, SPMINX 40w transmitter and theKW Viceroy.Keith highlighted a major difference between today’s radios and all the early equipment being that prior to the 1960s the transmitter and the receiver were separate units.

ThearrivaloftheTransceiverArmy19 set could be considered to be the first AM transceiver.

Keith remembers buying one for £3 just for the bits, and would be worth considerably more now.The early model had a duck egg blue front panel the later units were painted grey.

Collins KW2A was a rig many amateurs dreamt of being able to own one. The second-hand value in 1963 was £1300.

Arthur Collins the designer wanted his radios to have front panels with the same professional finish as his Leica camera.

The FT-101 became a real success story for Yaesu and sold in the millions.

7

During this period other popular models were The KW2000, The Drake R4C and The Collins S-Line pictured below.

The introduction of the Class B licence in the mid-1960s led to the use of 2m FM transmissions.

This was the first FM black-box, and upset the establish band plan with all the stations running AM equipment.The use of SSB on 2m produced another set of transceivers such as the Belcom Liner-2.The mention of the Liner-2 caused an instant response from the audience apparently due to the radio’s infamous reputation.Adrian thanked Keith for a fascinating insight into the history of these radios and a trip down memory lane for all whose who remembered owning several of the radios pictured.

G4TMC

Yaesu FT2F

8

9

News from HARC

Newlocalrepeater

GB3HO which is the 70cmsFM repeater for Horsham is now on air

Channel RU71

Output 430.8875 MHz

Input 438.4875

CTCSS 88.5hz

The site is located south west of Horsham and locator: IO91TB

On a hand held rig the Editor can easily access the repeater using a rubber duck and the lowest power setting whatever that is. However reports from some other club members have found that they needed to use external antennas.

Currently although operational the repeater is in test phase and may be subject to interruption. A collinear has been set up but initial coverage appears to be not quite good as expected and a different antenna is expected to be tested.

Up to the time of wiring the Editor had been unable to raise anyone through the repeater. Maybe his microphone is faulty!

10

Big question: is regulation policy redundant?

by Julian Thompson, G1ODN Friday 12th August 2016

During 2006, Ofcom as the UK Regulator, published a collection of Next Decade essays. At that time, Ofcom refarmed a large chunk of radio-communication spectrum for competitive use. Regulation policy was to liberalise spectrum: that was a scarce resource. But what of the future?

Case for regulation, or not?

In his Next Decade essay: ‘The case for regulation - Not’, (Cochrane, 2006); <1> Cochrane pointed out that fifty years ago, transmitting devices were used only by those with proper expertise: military officers, safety-of-life search & rescue teams; and national security experts (spies?). And of course, amateur enthusiasts: (that’s us!). One decade further on, the big question is whether or not collectively, government intervention policy levers are redundant?

The so-called ‘digital revolution’ (sic.) had delivered Britain a proliferation of short-range wireless radio transmission devices around the home, used typically with minimal power needs. Beyond the home, buildings obstruct signals and consequently there’s usually high path loss in the local vicinity. Not that you’d notice that at home.

Moving from ageing copper wires to wireless infrastructures

In another Next Decade essay from the same source: The challenges of a digital world and the need for a new regulatory paradigm (Waverman, 2006); <2> Waverman asked how outdated regulations that were designed for layering ‘me-too’ services provided along the same ageing copper wire infrastructure, could remain fit-for-purpose, for any length of time?

11

Don’t care mode

Ten years later, false belief tells us that there are no interoperability problems within the unlicensed Wi-Fi bands. Expecting trouble around now, Cochrane coined the conceptual ‘don’t care mode’ (sic.).

Rain check?

Now we find a decade later that optimistic action by government and industry worldwide has not happened. Can we afford ‘not to’ care about the constraints to interoperability of ultra wide band modulation (for example) within the 200GHz-300GHz range of frequencies? At some point, if studies find the so-called ‘cloud’ can become saturated, then outbursts of rfi should come as no surprise.

Consequently existing ‘non-interference’ regulation (Wireless and Telegraphy Acts) remains and there’s still no need for Waverman’s new regulatory paradigm. Not just yet.

References

1. Cochrane, Peter (2006) The future of regulation - not, in Communications the next decade: A collection of essays prepared for the UK Office of Communications (Foster, Kiedrowski and Richards) (Eds) Ofcom, pp.205-219.

2. Waverman, Leonard (2006) The challenges of a digital world and the need for a new regulatory paradigm, in Communications the next decade: A collection of essays prepared for the UK Office of Communications (Foster, Kiedrowski and Richards) (Eds) Ofcom, pp.158-175.

12

May 2m Foxhunt Results

The weather was perfect for the first Thursday evening fox-hunt this year.My location was less than 5 miles from the start.

The Fox was easily spotted parked in a lay-by next to the main road.

19.4519.5520.0820.2520.4720.49DNFDNF

ResultsAdrian G4LRPRobin G3OGP Alister G3ZBUSteve G4TPO & MariaMike G8CKT & Richard 2E0XRTJenny G8BBP & Jim M0JGD Mick G4EFODom M0GUZ & Harvey

1st2nd3rd4th5th6th

13

I was soon found by Adrian G4LRP after only 2 transmissions. He managed to arrive in the same time as the Sat-Nav predicted from the start point, which was an achievement considering he had stopped to take a bearing!

The final transmission was at 21.00 after which we drove into Plaistow village to the Sun Inn for some refreshment. Alan 2E0BTO also joined us at the pub.

My thanks to everyone who took part.

G4TMC

14

Broadcast Listener

Monthly Roundup

by David Ansell 2E0NKC

All times BST

If you want to hear the local FM service in Oman then Radio Sultanate of Oman relays the English FM service at 1500 on 15450 kHz. BBC Radio Stoke was heard at 2200 on 1503 kHz Medium-wave with QRM from Spain. I remember many years ago hearing Radio Stoke in the Austrian Alps on a Sony portable receiver. Flame CCR the community low power station for the Wirral was heard at 2200 on 1521 kHz but again there was Spanish QRM.

Radio Slovenia’s domestic service on 918 kHz has news in English at 2130. Transmitter site is Domzale. BBC Radio Jersey (1Kw) makes it to my shack on 1026 kHz by ground wave during daylight hours. Distance about 135 miles but a lot of this is sea path which enhances ground wave propagation. Last month I mentioned the mysterious “numbers” stations. These are rare nowadays but on July 26th a strong numbers station was heard on 11582 kHz USB at 2130 with an Eastern European sounding lady reading the numbers.

On Long-wave Czech radio’s domestic radio Zurnal heard at 2100 on 720 kHz. Radio ‘Wings and Wheels’ was expected to be on the air once again August 27th and 28th on 87.9 MHz FM from the Dunsfold air show near Cranleigh. German weather station Deutsche Wetterdienst has QSY-ed from 5905 kHz to 6180 kHz for the wx bulletin at 1304 hours.

15

16

TV Addict

by David G4JHI

Houdini & Doyle is a crime series featuring master illusionist Harry Houdini played by Michael Weston and Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle played by Stephen Mangan. They grudgingly joined forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant. There is also Adelaide Stratton played by Rebecca Liddiard whose character was the first female constable ever to work for the London Metropolitan Police Force.

In total there are 10 episodes set in 1930 and if you like that sort of programme then this could be for you. In one particular episode there is a safe being broken into and opened with the help of some equipment which appears to be a coil and at least one radio valve. There is reference to Marconi’s first radio transmission across the Atlantic. At a party there are distinguished guests which include Mr Tesla and King George V although the latter is actually an impersonator.

Well you can’t win them all! The series was premiered in the UK starting back in March with the first episode shown on ITV in parallel with ITV Encore and all the other episodes shown exclusively on ITV Encore. At the time of writing it was noted that all of season 1 were available on the catch up option via Sky+ HD. Unfortunately it looks that there will be no season 2 due to low ratings in the US.

In late August series 3 of the BBC Three show ‘People just do nothing’ was due to start. This has been mentioned before in this magazine and is a mockumentary about a typical pirate radio station in London ‘Kurupt FM’. It should be pointed out that the radio station is nothing like anything heard in the 1960’s and you certainly won’t hear any of the typical jingles from that era. It should be pointed out that the programme does contain content which may not appeal to everyone’s taste. The show is available on the BBC iPlayer and it was noted at the time of writing this it was also due to be screened on BBC2 on Wednesdays nights.

Talking of mockumentaries, Channel 5 have been running one entitled ‘Borderline’ on Tuesday nights. The programme follows an inept team of UK border officials at an airport which everyone’s heard of called ‘Northend’ but we’re not sure which county it’s in! If you liked the BBC series ‘Come fly with me’ (this has been repeated very recently on Gold channel) then you might like Borderline too.

Happy viewing!

Houdini, Doyle and Stratton

Diary

17

September 1st, Club Night: Life at sea as a professional radio operator - Peter Gavin

September 3-4th, SSB Field Day (HARC not in attendance)

September 11th, Murphy Radio Day 11:00

Mill Green Museum, Hatfield www.welhat.gov.uk/specialeventdays

September 14th, 80m Club Sprint SSB 20:00 - 21:00 QRG 3.600-3.650 & 3.700-3.775MHz

September 15th, Social Evening: The Royal Oak - Winehamwww.horshampub.co.uk/royal-oak-wineham.php

September 23rd-27th, HARC Weekend Away - Berlin

September 25th, Foire Radioamateur de La Louvière 09:00*http://www.louvexpo.be/events/foire-radio-amateur/?lang=en

September 29th, 80m Club Sprint CW 20:00 - 21:00 QRG 3.520-3.560MHz

September 30th-October 1st, The National Hamfest 10:00 - 16:00

Newark and Nottingham Showground - Admission £5.00 www.nationalhamfest.org.uk

October 6th, Club Night: Junk Sale

October 13th, Committee Meeting - G3ZBU

For details on the above contests use this link and follow to the appropriate section

http://rsgb.org/main/radio-sport

All above times are BST except * which is CET

Committee/Club Meetings and Socials start at 20:00

RSGB Club Champs 2016 - Horsham Club Scores Issue: 26th August 2016 Rev A

TOTAL

SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW POINTS SSB DATA CW

G3LET Pete 1000 821 376 941 642 1000 4780 7.4 1018 0 3762

G3OGP Robin 308 407 443 569 236 224 592 364 142 795 488 351 719 5638 8.8 1839 717 3082

G3SWC Bryn 1000 645 885 649 931 975 1000 1000 718 932 825 915 789 767 758 12789 19.9 3674 4579 4536

G3VQO Les 363 265 348 415 105 394 451 2341 3.6 370 0 1971

G3WZT John 771 504 813 2088 3.3 504 0 1584

G3ZBU Alister 474 111 1000 896 621 670 914 800 736 667 871 762 678 691 603 680 11174 17.4 4442 3175 3557

G4EFO Mick 364 415 151 930 1.4 779 151 0

G4LRP Adrian 525 238 594 606 504 380 439 577 416 4279 6.7 2200 2079 0

G4TPO Steve 200 225 93 434 621 788 573 233 585 197 425 835 51 629 533 6422 10.0 3061 2787 574

G7DFV Gavin 138 138 0.2 138 0 0

G8CKT Mike 77 679 213 549 121 425 600 275 451 231 290 297 341 91 258 4898 7.6 1346 2370 1182

G8HQJ Barry 419 293 712 1.1 712 0 0

M0GJH Andrew 495 463 359 1317 2.1 958 0 359

M0GUZ Dominic 211 211 0.3 211 0 0

M0TWM Jon 167 318 93 328 641 396 543 117 289 639 162 715 333 550 219 5510 8.6 1513 3406 591

2E0WEK Keith 5 218 413 312 948 1.5 948 0 0

2E0XRT Richard 56 56 0.1 0 56 0

Mode totals 2226 1867 1704 3833 3594 2605 3592 4435 3365 4255 2330 4220 3293 3576 4047 6514 3518 5257 23713 19320 21198

Month totals to date 5797 10032 11392 10805 10916 15289 37% 30% 33%

Contest dates/times 1st 10th 18th 24th 7th 16th 13th 21st 4th 2nd 11th 19th 23rd 6th 15th 13th 21st 4th - Start times are all 2000 clock time, ending 2130 local

5/27 3/28 2/30 1/34 2/31 1/33 1/34 1/34 1/34 1/34 1/34 1/34 1/35 1/35 1/35 1/35 1/35 1/35

Latest robot entries may be viewed at:-

Contest rules may be viewed at:-

Pos Total SSB DATA CW

1 Horsham ARC 64,231 23,713 19,320 21,198

2 Tall Trees CG 61,202 23,997 17,040 20,165

3 Cambridge & DARC 51,115 20,618 15,341 15,156

4 Torbay ARS 44,571 18,759 14,546 11,266

5 Sheffield & DWS 42,819 27,314 7,985 7,520

6 RAF Waddington ARC 28,215 12,278 6,880 9,057

7 Reading & DARC 24,874 5,243 5,033 14,598

8 Scunthorpe Steel ARC 24,265 5,905 10,097 8,263

(all results data courtesy of RSGB website) prep by: Bryn Tinton G3SWC

http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2016/r80mcc.shtml

THE TOP EIGHT CLUBS - LOCAL CLUB SECTION

out of approx 35 participating in this section

(83 total all club participation)

HARC POSITION

1st place!

MODE TOTALS%

www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfposted.plwww.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfenter.pl

APRIL JUNEMAYFEBRUARY

64231

http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/

This update: - Added July Data results.

CONGRATULATIONS! WE DID IT, 1st PLACE IN THE LOCAL CLUBS SECTION! Well done everyone and a

special thank you to those that rallied around at the last moment. Also, welcome to Richard 2E0XRT a new

participant joining in July data.

I received the following kind note from the secretary (G3KAF) of the Tall Trees Contest Group - our closest

competitor - "Well done Bryn on your clubs success in the 80m CC. We could not match your sterling efforts.

Hope to see you and your team at RSGB Convention. Kind regards"

HARC winning team will collect the Horace Freeman Trophy at the RSGB Convention in October.

Dont forget, it all starts over again next February. What can you do to improve your score? See you there!

PARTICIPANTSMARCH

All entries to be uploaded

with the

Contest Robot at:-

JULY

Club Name

HARC overall position after above

results announced

Contest results may be

viewed at:-