The First Class CW O - FOC

http://www.g4foc.org/

http://www.g4foc.org/

FOCUS 105

The First Class CW Operators’ Club

President

Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF Falcons, St George's Avenue, Weybridge, KT13 0BS, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1932 851414 E-mail: [email protected]

Treasurer Don Field, G3XTT 105 Shiplake Bottom Peppard Common Henley on Thames, Oxon RG9 5HJ, UK Tel: +44 (0) 118 972 4192 E-mail: [email protected]

Chairman Rob Ferguson, GM3YTS

19 Leighton Avenue, Dunblane,

Perthshire FK15 0EB, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1786 824 199

E-mail: [email protected]

Internet Services Ray Goff, G4FON

2 St. Leonard’s Road,

Headington, Oxford OX3 8AA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 788 418 3580


Committee Secretary Nick Henwood, G3RWF Confers House

Church Road, Littlebourne Canterbury, CT3 1UA, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1227 721791

E-mail:

[email protected]

Committee Fred Handscombe, G4BWP Sandholm, Bridge End Road Red Lodge Bury St Edmunds IP28 8LQ, UK Tel: +44 ( 0) 1638 552 080

E-mail:

[email protected]

Membership Secretary

Tyler Barnett, N4TY

213 Camelot Court

Georgetown, KY 40324, USA

Tel: +1 859 221 9266


Committee

Wes Spence, AC5K

465 Creekwood Street

Lumberton, TX 77657, USA

Tel: +1 409 755 4753


Webmaster Ed Tobias, KR3E

13110 Coastal Highway, Apt. 713

Ocean City, MD 21842, USA

Tel: +1 410 250 7357


Committee Iain Kelly, MØPCB 261 Bodiam Avenue Tuffley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 0XW, UK Tel: +44 (0) 7949 383 194 E-mail: [email protected]

Non Committee Roles

Committee

Joe Vollbrecht, DL4CF

Steingasse 3 D-06642 Nebra (Unstrut),Germany Tel: +49 (0) 344 612 5171


• Accounts Examiner G4HZV • WAFOC Award Manager G4HZV

• Windle Award W4PM

• FOC WAS Award W4CK

• Webmasters N4TY, G7VJR • Call Book Editor N4TY • Activity Co-Ordinator MØPCB • Subscriptions (non-web)

• Marathon F5VHY UK & Overseas G3XTT • FOC QSO Party KZ5D North & South America K2VUI

• FOCUS and News Sheet Man. Ed. S57WJ • FOCUS Mailing G3LHJ

• News Sheet Co-ordinating Editor WB2YQH • FOCUS Mailing NA WB2YQH

mailto:[email protected]











3 FOCUS 105

Contents From Your President Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF 4 From Your Editor Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ 4 2015 Bill Windle Memorial Award H. M. “Puck” Motley, W4PM 5 The Bug De-bouncing Circuit Wes Spence, AC5K 11 The 26th Florida Dinner Vic Abell, W9RGB 12 A Relic of Radio Communication “Doc” Henry E.Van Kets, ON4IZ 14 Upgrading an Elecraft K2 – 5MHz and an IF output Iain Kelly, MØPCB 16 My Tower Crash October 2015 John Muzyka, G4RCG 18 The QSO’s that weren’t with Apologies to “The Man Who Never Was”

John Schwartz, WA9AQN 20

A Christmas Present to Myself Derrick Webber, G3LHJ 23 The SAL-30 Shared Apex Loop Array: A Story of Two Installations

Jim George, N3BB & Don Haywood, WB6BEE

24

The Secret Q Codes Dave Ellis, G4AJY 28 ARRL Field Day – Old Farts Reunion Style Ron Evans, K5XK 30 TVI and Other Interferences-Part two VE3HX, G3SXW, W7AQK, G4RMV,

G4BUO 31

Invitation to Central European FOC Dinner Jelka Samec , S57NW & Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ

35

Welcome to New Members Tyler Barnett, N4TY 36 Ten-Tec Hercules II Solid State Amplifier Repair John DePrimo, K1JD 42 Contesting: WRTC: An Entirely Different Kind of Contest

Pat Barkey, N9RV 44

Invitation to Condin Baldur Drobnica, DJ6SI 46 WAFOC & WAFOCC Honour Rolls Bob Bagwell, G4HZV 47 Awards News Bob Bagwell, G4HZV 49 Readability Values from 1 to 10 Gary Hinson, ZL2iFB 49

Front cover: Ellen’s, W1YL family (W1CW, K4OJ, W1YL) was instrumental in starting two major contest clubs in

the U.S.: Murphy's Marauders (the start of YCCC) and the Florida Contest Group. She accepted a plaque on behalf

of all of them at the ARRL National Convention held in Orlando, February 2016 (Photo K5KG)

Inside back cover top left: Rare bug key Mecograph #6 S/N 05867 made in 1909, Cleveland, OH (photo IKØIXI).

Inside back cover top right: The second operator of Cristi, YO3FLR (photo 4Z4KX).

Inside back cover middle: In mid December Red, K5ALU had a lunch in Dallas with Bob, K5AY (photo K5ALU).

Inside back cover bottom: Kjell, SM5CCE; Dave, K9FN and Rune, SM5COP in Stockholm, Summer 2015 (photo

K9FN)

Back cover- op: Geo, SV1AOW and Mort, G2JL in Athens, December 2015 (photo G2JL).

Back Cover bottom: The PJ6A team in ARRL DX CW contest Back row W6IZT, K4UEE; front row G3SXW, NM1Y,

GM3YTS (photo GM3YTS).

FOCUS is the quarterly magazine of FOC which is published four times annually in January, April, July and October.

It is distributed to all members. Articles and contributions for FOCUS are always welcome and should be submitted to the Editor by mail or email <[email protected]>, CD, disk, typed or hand written. Drawings can be re-

drawn if necessary and original photographs returned after scanning.

© First Class CW Operators’ Club

Articles may be re-published from FOCUS with permission from the Editor

and with the usual credit given.


FOCUS 105 4

From Your President, G3TXF

Being regularly active on CW is a basic condition of continued membership of FOC. There are many ways to define 'activity', be it rag-chewing, contesting, working DX or operating on DX-peditions.

The basic premise is that continued full membership of FOC requires that you are active. If you can't be active for a short while then (subject to Committee agreement) Associate is available. Each year your Committee tries to ensure a reasonable level of activity among Members, by doing some simple checks. Log cross-checking databases and RBN make this possible.

This year a pool of some 90,000 QSOs was used as the data source. Your Committee then, with great reluctance, identified a number of members who, for whatever reason, have been shown to be inactive for some while. In some cases they have been inactive for several years. Every attempt is made to contact directly each individual concerned. The Committee does not relish the prospect of having "to throw out" persistently inactive members, but there is no other choice.

Equally it is unreasonable for FOC to

‘carry’ members who are no longer active.

Regular activity on CW is the sine non qua

of continued full membership of FOC. Do

not feel offended if the Committee has

contacted you about your perceived

'inactivity'. They probably have excellent

grounds for doing so. Make life simpler for

your Committee and get on the air

regularly on CW!

73! Nigel, G3TXF

From Your Editor, S57WJ

It finally happened

after 13 issues: I did not

make this issue on time.

Things piled up at

my/our end. We

planned to renew the

hallway in the house in June but the main

contractor said that he is available for

inside works till the end of March. There

was nothing to do but start. In the

meanwhile I was busy at work as well. Last

but not least, on 31st March was the

premiere of new play I am playing in. Finally

get some rest and focus on the magazine.

I used up the last vintage picture for

‘Who are they?’ column. The correct

answer about the fellow member in Focus

104 is on page 17. I would like to continue

with this column but I need some pictures.

The information about Central

European FOC dinner in Ravne was

announced in February News Sheet. You

can read about it again in this issue of Focus

on page 35. No one made any reservation

yet and the capacities are available. Jelka

and I hope that we will have a decent

crowd of FOC gang in August.

I used up almost all the material I had in

stock, both articles and Focal pictures.

Please send me what you have.

161! Gabor, S57WJ

5 FOCUS 105

2015 Bill Windle Memorial Award

By H. M. “Puck” Motley, W4PM

The year 2015 was the 31th anniversary of the Bill Windle Memorial Award. The award was proposed in 1984 and instituted in 1985 as a suitable way of recognizing Bill's tremendous record of involvement in all areas of the Club's work, especially his role in encouraging and building an active club. The intent of the award, in addition to honoring Bill Windle, was to encourage activity! As Bill said, "no member has a right to hold on to membership for having done something towards amateur radio in the distant past. The membership certificates are clear in their intent when they say ‘Elected to ACTIVE Membership' and that means just what it says…" In later correspondence he said, "The value of a member to the Club can be measured by his support. All members have the duty by getting on the bands and on the CW end”.

The Award from 1985 to 2001 was based on the number of members worked each year. In 2002 the Award was changed to a point system instead of just members worked. That was done to encourage increased activity on all of the bands. In 2010, the Committee approved the addition of Certificates for any and all members who report working certain levels of members during the year. This allows the recognition of the many who participate all year but who do not have the station and/or the time to compete for the Trophy or the continental points’ awards.

For the year 2015, we saw an increase in the number of members reporting scores. The increase to 190 from 172 participants was indeed encouraging and hopefully a positive trend that will continue. Martin, OK1RR, was the Trophy and European continental winner for 2015. This was Martin’s first win! The North American winner was Bud, AA3B. Again a first time winner! The North American West Coast winner Dick, K4XU, repeated his 2010, 2013 and 2014 victories. Barry, VK2BJ posts his fourth win in Oceania and Andy, EA8CN wins Africa for the 20th time since continent awards have been given! Harry, 7Z1HL, wins Asia for the fifth year. There were no entries from South America.

To sum up the continental and trophy award winners in order of number of reports received by continent:

Reports by continent Continental Winners Score

Europe 87 OK1RR Trophy Winner 1448 North America 76 AA3B 1183 NA - West Coast 15 K4XU 693 Oceania 4 VK2BJ 240 Asia 5 7Z1HL 463 Africa 3 EA8CN 1048 South America 0 No entry

I would be remiss not to mention here that the runner up for the Trophy with the second highest number of Windle points was AA3B with 1,183 points.

A big congratulations to our winners. You spent the time and effort to be extremely active and it paid off!

FOCUS 105 6

A total of 100 certificates were earned - 6 Gold, 37 Silver and 57 Bronze level. This is up from the 84 earned in 2014 consisting of 3 gold, 32 silver and 49 bronze. The six who worked over 400 members in 2015 were OK1RR (445), WØJX (434) AA3B (430), VE3DZ (420), EA8CN (412) and HA9RT (409). It is indeed possible, although difficult, to work over 400 members in a year! The number of certificates earned has steadily increased each year from 51 in 2010 to the current total of 100!

For 2016 the committee approved a change allowing the counting of Marathon contacts for the Windle Award. We should see a bit higher point scores and more certificates earned in each category as a result. Perhaps we will see a member’s worked score or two over 450? The jury is still out on this change but hopefully it will be a positive change. Please hold your opinion on this and let us see how the year progresses. My sincere thanks to all who participated in the Windle Award during 2015.

The following is a list of all scores received in 2015. The format is call sign, score (points/members worked), and certificate earned (G - gold, S - silver, B - bronze). Some folks record only the number of members worked and do not count points. Both numbers being the same reflect their scores. There is nothing wrong with this. Participation is the important thing not how you count your score!

Please note that we also recognize the new members who entered the club in 2015 and who participated in the Windle Award Program. Those members have a number beside their call which indicates the number of months they were active members during the year. Of the thirty-one new members added during 2015, sixteen submitted scores and seven of them even earned certificates! This is indeed encouraging for the future and we congratulate these new members on their activity!

Europe

Call Points/members Cert. Call Points/members Cert.

OK1RR 1448/445 G DK2GZ 565/326 S

F6HKA 998/389 S LY2PX 553/303 S

G3TXF 935/379 S PA7RA 513/303 S

DL5YL 923/382 S DL1VDL 511/294 B

G3LIK 879/380 S R7KZ 508/309 S

HA9RT 835/409 G SM5COP 493/291 B

DL4CF 828/376 S GØIBN 486/301 S

G4BUE 825/383 S SM3CER (8) 477/200 B

R6AF 793/389 S G4HZV 447/262 B

DL5YM 773/363 S G4IIY 433/270 B

DK5AD 771/350 S SM5CCE 444/271 B

DL6LBI 728/340 S G3KTZ 378/248 B

DL8PG 715/293 B DL3AZ 378/230 B

S51WO 689/337 S G2JL 370/259 B

GW3KDB 655/342 S UA6HZ (4) 367/221 B

MØPCB 641/302 S OZ8SW 356/232 B

DL1BUG 622/314 S G5LP 346/203 B

G3WPH 620/330 S SM3EVR 336/211 B

Continued on page 7…

7 FOCUS 105

…continued from page 6

Call Points/members Cert. Call Points/members Cert. G3KOJ 328/205 B G3LDI 197/146

OK2CQR 326/204 B F5VCT 195/163 9A2WJ (5) 308/207 B G4BWP 188/156

IKØYGJ 308/204 B G8VG 180/129

F5NZY 328/222 B DJ1YFK 170/132 G3LHJ 297/224 B US9PA 168/130

G3ZRJ 295/209 B DK7VW 164/125

G3ZGC 289/198 DK4LX 157/121 G4XRV 287/172 G3HEJ 157/113

G3PDH 273/204 B G3JUL 140

SV1AOW 270/165 S57NW 138/122 TF3DC 269/176 SM2EKM (2) 137/126

IKØYVV (1) 255/255 B F6JOE (4) 132/101

OH2EA 254/183 LA3FL 123/92 HB9QO 253/189 G3MCK 123

DJ5IL 251/174 G3MBN 135/99

GM3YOR 248/187 DK1WU 129/103 PAØDIN 237/169 DJ4KW 120/101

GØEFO (6) 236/150 GØCHV 117/74

G3VTT 234/127 F3AT 105/93 DL1CW (5) 227/128 G5CL 94/46

IK6BAK 223/159 SM6CNN 87/73

G3YJQ (6) 218/161 LA5HE 85/69 S57WJ 214/167 GØORH 53/53

OH2KI 213/141 SM1TDE 53/45

GØGKH 207/151

Certificate: G - gold; S -silver; B - bronze

North America


AA3B 1183/430 G N5AW 683/287 B

WØJX 1132/434 G K5KV 680/336 S

K4BAI 961/378 S N5RR 673/312 S

KZ5D 880/386 S W1FJ 645/337 S

AC5K 872/359 S K2NV 639/333 S

W9RGB 855/389 S N3RS 636/282 B

VE3DZ 849/420 G W4PM 632/336 S

AC4CA 811/274 B K5OT 602/308 S

K2SX 763/339 S W1RM 579/265 B

K9QVB 761/345 S N5CW 528/288 B

W5ZR 752/332 S WØVX 523/270 B

NA5G 687/315 S N3AM 518/277 B

Continued on page 8…

FOCUS 105 8

…continued from page 7


North America-West Coast


K4XU 693/336 S KF7E 255/172

N9RV 616/287 B K6XG 245/171

K6AR 586/343 S K8RD 173/152

K6RB 444/191 NN6T 171/144

AC2K 398/220 B W6RGG 120/120

W7QC 317/211 B KC7V 115/87

K7HP (10) 303/202 B W7AQK (3) 92/78 WL7E 358/218 B


Oceania


VK2BJ 240/173 ZL1MH 53/47

VK4TT 121/102 VK7CW (1) 14/14


K1JD 513/293 B NO5W 271/162

K9WA 490/275 B N5KD 256/181

OX3XR 481/270 B W1EBM 251/170

WØVTT 476/267 B K5ALU 251/156

K2QMF 469/299 B W1EBI 268/168

N2UU 468/238 B W5SG 265/170

W1AO 461/305 S N2ATB 243/174

WB6BEE 430/267 B K4JJW 239/167

W4YE 422/218 B W9VNE 231/173

K5VWW (2) 415/283 B W1JR 230/160

WA9AQN 399/243 B W1AAX 225/140

K5AX 394/234 B AK5X 223/165

K5NA 379/225 B W5PEH 221/154

N3WT 376/249 B W3YY 212/165

AD8P 365/231 B WØZR 200/154

K9FN 355/222 B VE3HX 183/126

KR3E 349/225 B K4OSO 151/120

KØVBU 336/193 W1HL 148

W1ZT 328/226 B K1SA 131/103

K1ESE (3) 318/220 B WB2YQH 125/125

N3BB 316/201 B KCØVKN (4) 125

W4ZYT 316/188 K5VR (4) 122/101

K2ZR 311/181 AI2Q 96/67

VE3USP 294/222 B WK2G 59/54

K5TF 292/218 B K4WJ 46/42

VE3VA 291/186 WB4FSF 18/18

9 FOCUS 105

Asia


7Z1HL 463/256 B 4Z4KX 111/93

HSØZLM 217/145 4X1FC 79/71

VU2PTT 151/111

Africa


EA8CN 1048/412 G ZS1C 102/82

ZS1EL 225/181


South America: No entry

The following shows record scores of both points and members worked by continent. One record fell in 2015 with EA8CN’s 412 members worked bettering his previous record.

Highest number of members worked Highest score Continent Members Call Year Continent Score Call Year EU 458 YO3CD 1987 EU 1803 G4BUE 2012 NA 457 W2BA 1992 NA 1591 K4LTA 2003 NA-W 434 W9KNI 1997 NA-W 807 K4XU 2014 SA 363 YV1NX 2000 SA 1041 YV1NX 2002 AF 412 EA8CN 2015 AF 1310 EA8CN 2007 AS 376 5B4AGC 2000 AS 817 5B4AGC 2006 OC 372 VK4XA 1989 OC 517 ZL2IFB 2012

Soapbox

G3MCK -This year I put a big effort into 80/40/30n and was disappointed to work only 40% of the European membership. G3TXF -It must be several decades since I last tracked my Windle Points. Probably the last time that I did it was in the late 70s. However Fabian DJ1YFK's excellent online facility now makes it so easy. I have just uploaded my 34,000 QSOs in 2015 and it shows 935 Windle Points with 379 FOC Members. G3VTT -234 QSO's 127 Members - all non contest QSO's. G8VG -The comments on the reflector about the Windle programme are very interesting and the most important point made is that it is not a contest. It was introduced to increase activity and that it has surely done. My thanks for the hard work you do and of course for keeping us in order. When are likely to have 60m included? (Note: CW contacts on any amateur band count!) GØCHV-My final score for the 2015 is 113/75. Will try to do better in 2016, bands and my wet string permitting. K1JD-There’s the old saying that anyone who has more than one watch never knows what time it is. Well, that apparently applies to Windle calculators so I only use the one. K2ZR/4 - I still manage my count using the old method: paper tick sheets and a pencil. And, it still works… I’ll never be the top dog: But, for me, it is lots of fun & and a worthy way to keep up with the members of FOC. K5OT - It has been a great first (complete) year for me in the club, and I'm looking forward to many more. K6XG - A Windle to me means I had a pleasant chat with another member who shares my love of CW. Allowing contest QSO's in 2016 cheapens the meaning of the Windle count in my mind. There are some members I have never worked other than in a contest.

FOCUS 105 10

KZ5D -Thanks for the fine job tabulating all of this during the year. Glad to read your logical approach to the countless posts about different numbers from different programs. Bottom line, let's just get on the air and make contacts. too much time posting/reading emails! Sadly, I missed the 400 member mark by a handful. LA3FL -Terrible HF conditions here way north of the Arctic Circle. I am the FOC Club's northernmost member. When Aurora Borealis (northern light) is active, HF radio propagation’s are killed. I am QRV almost daily but struggle to get QSO’s outside Europe and Russia, rarely hear NA, SA, JA etc. Sometimes I do not even hear any HF station any band for hours. OH2EA - I'm now in my usual winter ham hibernation mode in Thailand. Not being a permanent resident here I just can't get a license, no matter what loops I jump through. I can operate HSØAC as a guest, but that's 200 miles away, so does not compute. Windle score: If one goes back many years a funny thing appears. My scores now are higher with 100 W and a Windom, than they were with a beam and kW. Go figure. Having worked almost everything almost everywhere, maybe I'm just back to enjoying good old CW ragchewing with old - and new – friends again?

R6AF -Unfortunately, at the end of last year, I lost the activity due to a fire in my Remote

Control transmitting site. Now I start slowly step by step and hope to take a part in

Marathon. SM1TDE - I managed a not so impressive 53/45 during my comeback year

(starting May 2015) as HAM. It is good to be back! VE3DZ -My first Windle submission

since I became a member in 2000. Four calls used: VE3DZ, VE2IM, 6Y2T and VE3DZ/VP9.

I also operated VE3MIS and VO1AAM, but these logs are hard to find now. VE3HX -I am

always happy to QSY when asked to do so by Members in order to provide them with

new Windles but I feel that my main objective each year is to work as many different

Members as possible. W1ZT -My heartfelt thanks to Puck for his refreshing effort and

encouragement to all of us to keep our Windle challenge a year long event. I find lots of

QSOs with a few members all through the year followed by a few QSOs with many at odd

times of the year. Just what I would expect from this diverse groups of operators. I like

the idea of including the Marathon and look forward to being able to track those active

in that event. W7AQK - I was a bit crippled while my R8 was down. I only had my regular

40m antenna, and a make-shift antenna for 20. The R8 is back up now, so I am more

functional!

WØVX - I used the DJ1YKF online calculator and was amused by the discussion over various calculation methods. There must be a $1 million dollar prize that I am not aware of. WA9AQN -Frankly, I like the Windle program as it presently stands and have no desire to see it changed. I use it as a measure of my own interest and activity and really do not concern myself with the more competitive approaches some of our colleagues take. I would have preferred to leave the Marathon out of the Windle process, but having made the change will not really alter my level of activity nor interest. I am not in favor of changes that increase the technical burden on you or the club in running the program. I see no reason for you to become an activity cop. However, having said that, if there are other changes or improvements to be made, I'll go along but I doubt that they will affect my operating very much.

11 FOCUS 105

The Bug De-bouncing Circuit

By Wes Spence, AC5K

The de-bouncing circuit shown above might be of interest to the many FOC Members that routinely use semi-automatic keys (“bugs”) on the air. This circuit was first shown to me by ex FOC Member, K2VCO. The purpose of this circuit is to decrease the problem that often occurs with bugs where the mechanical contacts make an intermittent connection and result in distorted ‘dits’ in the transmitted signal. This circuit is connected between the radio key input line and the bug output. What it does, is not allow the reed relay to follow the very fast intermittent contacts often found in the output of bugs.

I have been using this circuit for years with great success. It will not clean up every

single imperfection in the output of bugs, but it will fix the majority of them. I used a

dropping resistor in the one I built, so I could use a junk box 5 V reed relay I already had

on hand. I built the circuit in an Altoids© metal tin that is a favourite box often

repurposed by QRP project builders. I have connectors for both the input and output on

the box for quick

interconnection with the

existing wiring in my

station and my bugs.

This circuit is sort of an

unsophisticated way to fix

the fuzzy contact problem,

but it works. Other

examples of debouncing

circuits can be found on

Internet. There is also a

mechanical device called

the “Dot Stabilizer” that

several Members are using

successfully with their bugs. With modern very small computers like the Raspberry Pi, I

wonder if there might be a better way to de-bounce bugs and get the keying as perfect

as possible using something like that and a software program. However, in further

thought, doing that would end up being a backwards way to end up where we already

are when we are using keyers! After all, bugs and bug operators need to preserve a bit

of imperfection and individuality, right? Thanks to 4X6GP (K2VCO), NO5W and K5KV for

their review and advice on this article.

Dit dit.

FOCUS 105 12

The 26th Florida Dinner

By Vic Abell, W9RGB

When David, W4CI, suggested he lead a jam session during the Saturday afternoon

programs at the 26th annual FOC Florida Dinner, I was delighted with the prospect. I was

also reminded of an FOC dinner in Lafayette, LA a few years earlier when now silent keys

Ink, N4OO, and Gary, WØCGR, had joined their guitars and serenaded the attendees. I

wondered how the two sessions would compare. It transpired they were equally

enjoyable and vastly different.

Ink and Gary were

relaxed friends, playing

music they enjoyed. David

and his volunteers were

polished professionals,

playing for themselves

and for their audience as

well, who responded with

so much enthusiasm that

some started dancing. The

four who made up the jam

session, were (left to right): Bernie, K1SA; Lee, W4EDE; W4CI’s friend Bryan, AF4K; and

David, W4CI.

The jam session was such a success that it may well be on the schedule for the 27th

Florida Dinner.

Two other programs graced the Saturday program: a discussion by Dave, W1DV, of

his experiences commanding a nuclear submarine when it traveled to the North Pole;

and a description of his ZD9XF Tristan de Cunha DX expedition of September 2014 by

Nigel, G3TXF. Both were excellent

presentations. All during the weekend the

hospitality room was filled with conversation and friendship. Del, W8KJP, constructed a display of his key collection in one room, and here we see Lee, W4EDE, admiring the keys with Del.

Of course the W4FOC station was

also active, especially during the ARRL

160 meter contest. Here is Mick at the key after the Saturday evening banquet, dressed

in his traditional red jacket, working the top band for Windles. He was very successful.

13 FOCUS 105

Forty two members and guests attended the Saturday evening banquet. This year they enjoyed the hotel’s “A Visit to Italy Dinner Buffet,” which was well received. Seating at the banquet always allows some time for small groups to enjoy themselves. The picture below of Dave, W1DV, Lee, W4EDE, Bernie, K1SA, and Bernie’s wife, Marlene, shows one gathering.

Following the banquet, Jerry, KC4YDP, and his wife, Jardy, conducted the traditional Florida Dinner Raffle. Among the many excellent prizes were two special prizes, awarded by a special drawing to Wes Sanchez, guest of KC4YDP, and Fred, K4LQ. But with savvy trading, Norm, W1MO, first secured the prize that Wes won by exchanging a box of chocolates for it, then traded that prize for Fred’s. It was a delight to watch Norm at work, although he claimed he had never done something like that before.

After the raffle, most attendees adjourned to the hospitality room for further enjoyment. That conviviality is at the heart of the Florida Dinner and I am sure it will be repeated in December 2016, when we gather again at a renovated Holiday Inn Hotel. Mark your calendars for December 2 and 3, 2016. See you then!

Thanks go to the hospitality room logistics man Del, W8KJP; to Jerry, KC4YDP and Jardy for the raffle; and to my wife Carol for her care of the hospitality room. Nigel, G3TXF; Mick, G3LIK; Ellen, W1YL and Del, W8KJP provided pictures.

FOCAL This TE-NE-KEY made by KK5PY is a very tiny

key. Andy, GØIBN purchased it for around £30. It arrived in a 35mm film case and is ideal for the SOTA operator or anyone going portable.

To operate the key it is held between two fingers of one hand and operated with the other hand as you would a twin paddle key.

FOCUS 105 14

A Relic of Radio Communication

By “Doc” Henry E.Van Kets, ON4IZ

Probably a few of our older members have made their first steps in shortwave radio by listening to broadcast radio stations. In the late 1950’s a huge amount of national broadcasts filled the spectrum: some were advertising their country as a heaven for immigration, others were more prone to spread their ideology but all were to be heard on a number of frequencies. Among others Radio Canada, Voice of America, Radio Australia, Eretz Israel and the ubiquitous Radio Moscow sent QSL cards, leaflets and even packages of books in exchange for SWL reports. The keen listener could also intercept maritime communications, commercial traffic and strange transmissions consisting of only dots and dashes if his receiver had a beat frequency oscillator.

Some countries also relied on radio to communicate with their far away colonies long before satellites were even considered possible. Most of these radio stations have become redundant and the internet seems a much more appealing and reliable way of spreading the message.

During a cycling holiday in the beautiful nature in the Dutch Veluwe nature reserve Mia, my XYL, and I found a relic of that era in the middle of nowhere. The locals had told us to visit “the cathedral” and inquisitive as we are, we did. Sand dunes and heather fields surround a large concrete building in Art Nouveau style, roughly shaped as a Sfinx or a sleeping lion and adorned with sculptured figurines from the ancient Egyptian culture . This building housed the first long wave transmitters intended to communicate with the Dutch colonies known as “The Indies”, now Indonesia.

Building began in 1917 and it was common belief that Very Low Frequencies (VLF) were the most suitable for long distance communications. The first transmitters built by the German Telefunken were purely mechanical transmitters without vacuum tubes. A generator, quite similar to those used in power plants was driven by an 800 kilowatt electric motor and produced a signal of roughly 6 kilohertz transformed by iron core transformers to a wavelength of 12.500 m (24 kHz) or 6.250m (48 kHz) with 500 kilowatts antenna power. I have no idea how this was technically done without vacuum tubes. On Google I found some information under the name of “Alexanderson generator”. Construction was completed in 1923.The oil in the transformers was water cooled and a grid of pipes carried the hot oil to cool down in a large water pond in front of the building.

“The cathedral”

15 FOCUS 105

In addition a dedicated water tower was built in the neighbourhood foradditional capacity. To radiate this signal six 210 metre (approx.630 ft.) high towers in a star configuration were erected and interconnected with copper wire. Initially transmissions were in CW. Keying such a huge mechanically generated power was a major problem and the CW was very slow: only a few “telegrams” were exchanged per day.

A similar radio station was established in Malabar near Bandung on the island of Java. Propagation was limited to the timeslot where both Holland and Indonesia were in the dark and tropical storms very often disturbed reception.

Soon after completing these VLF transmitters the advantages of shortwave for long distance communication became clear and much less power was needed to reach Java.

Several vacuum tube transmitters were established in huts adjacent to the main building with antennas strewn all over the area and amplitude modulated telephone communication became possible. History says that the service was opened in 1929 by the Dutch queen-mother Emma with the words: “Bandung, do you hear me?”

In four major cities in the Netherlands special telephone boots were installed where the public could book (and pay) a three-minute timeslot to talk with relatives in “Dutch India”.

A village,”Kootwijk Radio”, was purpose-built as a housing for the many technicians and operators and their families. In 1935 a Long Wave (1875m) national broadcast station with a 120 kW antenna power transmitter was added to the site.

During the Second World War the German occupant used the VLF transmitter for communication with submarines. At the end of the war the German army tried to destroy the site but the concrete building escaped undamaged even when the huge antenna mast fell on its concrete roof.

Indonesia became independent from The Netherlands in 1949 and the link became redundant. Gradually the importance of shortwave radio for maritime communications decreased and in 1998 Radio Kootwijk was decommissioned when the Dutch maritime radio (Scheveningen Radio) switched to satellite. Gradually all masts and technical equipment were removed, sold for scrap and lost for history.

Nowadays the building is used for cultural events. Occasionally Dutch amateurs have access to the site and operate from the building.

The radio station near Bandung on Java

The 210 metre high towers around the building

FOCUS 105 16

Upgrading an Elecraft K2 – 5MHz and an IF output

By Iain Kelly, MØPCB

In late 2014 I had a moment of weakness while browsing a well-known online auction site. I saw an Elecraft K2 with various options at a very attractive price, and having used the one that belongs to my partner Chloe, MØGEJ I was tempted.

A low bid was placed, low enough that I never thought I would win and so promptly forgot about it. That was until my phone alerted me to the fact I had purchased the radio. As it happens I am very happy with it, but I did suffer some ridicule from my amateur radio friends – and Chloe!

Sadly I didn’t get to build the K2 myself, so I looked through the list of options to see if there was anything that I could add myself. The 5MHz / transverter board stood out as a straightforward addition so I took advantage and picked up the kit while on a business trip to W3. I also took the opportunity to do a firmware upgrade – swapping out integrated circuits is somewhat more involved than the software download of a K3.

I had also come across the G4HUP PAT (Pan-Adaptor Tap) boards and found that there was a version suitable for the K2 (<www.g4hup.com/PAT.htm>). At a cost of around £11 for the kit and a hardware kit for installing into a radio this seemed a worthwhile addition too.

The various work I needed to do required almost complete disassembly of the rig. Most boards were removed to do the firmware updates, the 100W PA was removed and a new rear case panel had to be fitted to allow the transverter connections to be fitted. Everything went rather well with the build, no parts were lost or injuries sustained which was somewhat novel.

Once the 5MHz module was built, fitted and tested to the 10W level it was time to fit the IF tap. I’d already mounted the SMA bulkhead connector on the new heatsink/rear panel, though in hindsight it could have been a few millimeters lower to avoid the 160m board. Using instructions found on the Clifton Laboratories website <www.cliftonlaboratories.com/k2_interface.htm> and the PDF version:

<http://cliftonlaboratories.com/Documents/Z10000B-K2%20v1r0%20Manual.pdf>

I decided to try the IF tap at Option 2, which should offer lower BFO leakage, but less gain.

The IF tap instructions suggested that an 8V supply was required and that a switched supply which was active when in receive and 0V in transmit. It just so happens that the K2 has just such a line – how convenient. Both the connection points can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Location of IF Tap and 8R (8V switched power)

http://www.g4hup.com/PAT.htm

http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/k2_interface.htm

http://cliftonlaboratories.com/Documents/Z10000B-K2%20v1r0%20Manual.pdf

17 FOCUS 105

The completed K2 now waiting for the 100W PA module to be fitted again is shown in Figure 2. The IF tap board is fixed to the top of the IOC controller on the main board with sticky back hook and loop strip, meaning it will be very easy to remove.

I was really pleased to have mounted the SMA socket on the new rear panel, it was even pretty square and not too close to the BNC socket for the RX Ant connection. However, panic swept over me when I tried to fit the 160m board and it no longer fitted. As you can see the SMA is held in with only one screw, this was the only way I could make it all fit in the space without drilling another hole for the SMA socket and making a mess of the back panel. Lesson learned, must measure up much more accurately when space is at a premium.

All in all the K2 is a fine little rig, very easy to work on and easy to modify. There aren’t any more modules I really want to add to this one now but it was a nice few hours spent at the workbench both in the shack and in the new garage. Once I get my 80m/60m antenna sorted out I shall be more QRV on those two bands and the K2 will continue to see air time on CW.

Who are they? The correct answer from Focus 104 page 13 is GU4CHY. The ones who recognized

Dick were Dave, G4BUO and Fred, G4BWP.

Figure 2: The K2, ready for the PA module to be fitted

Figure 3: Measure once... Drill the wrong place...

FOCUS 105 18

My Tower Crash October 2015

By John Muzyka, G4RCG

My tower disaster started with the forecast of yet more bad weather for us with severe gale force winds being forecast for the next day. So to avoid having a sleepless night I decided to bring the Versatower 80 feet Heavy Duty tower with my Force 12 EF230/240 (2 el. on 30 and 2 el. on 40m) and my Cushcraftt AW3S 12/17m beams down to a safer height of about 35 feet. It was just getting dark and it was raining so just wanted to get it down as quickly as possible and get back into a nice warm house.

I use an electric TDS 8.5 (8,500 lb pull) winch on this tower and not the Fulton manual winches that come with the tower. On putting tension on the lifting wire rope to raise the tower to clear the flapper plate to lower the tower down, either there was some snag in the guy ropes or I had not loosened them enough but whatever it was the ropes were too tight which strained the lifting wire rope, and with a big electric winch like that something had to give and it was the main wire rope which just snapped with no warning. The tower just came down vertically in seconds (see the CCTV footage video I managed to capture). The resulting inertia that was in the tower as it hit the stops was incredible. Both booms on the beams snapped, part of the 30m beam came crashing down at the side of me, all the elements were bent and twisted, to say that I was in shock was an understatement. As it was just about dark I made sure that nothing was left in a dangerous state and went in so that I could look at it the next day in daylight to see just how much damage had been done.

The next day I went out to inspect the damage and to be quite honest my heart sank, not only had it smashed the beams but it had also bent and twisted the 80 feet Versatower. The second section which had smashed into the stops of the first section was buried into the stops by about three inches -anyone who knows what the steel is like on one of these towers will understand that it takes an awful amount of power to do that. The fourth section that carries the Heavy Duty Head Unit with the Prosistel PS61 rotator where the head unit bolts to the top section was really bent and twisted, the third section was bellied in so would probably not slide out. All in all it was horrendous, antennas can be replaced reasonably easy but not towers.

The damaged tower and antennas

19 FOCUS 105

My main concern was if my insurance which I had on the towers would cover me for the accident, I have always had my radio and antennas insured first with the RSGB scheme run by ARIS who a few years back decided that it was not profitable to run the scheme any more so stopped renewing policies. At that time a new firm came on the scene South West Broking <www.southwestbroking.co.uk/amateur-radio-insurance> run by a very nice guy called Julian Dent who I rang that morning to tell him about the accident. He re-assured me that the cover was an all risk policy and that I would be covered. When he asked at an approximate cost of replacement I said about £12,000 at today’s prices (I am sure I heard a gulp over the phone!) to which he said it was the biggest claim for radio gear since he had started, but that he would inform the insurers and asked me to start getting replacement prices from a recognised supplier. I spent most of that day on the phone with Martyn Lynch and Vine Antennas (Ron GW3YDX FOC 1611). After getting the quotes I passed on all the costs to Julian Dent who then submitted them to the insurers, who after sending out a loss adjuster and agreeing prices with Vine Antennas agreed to the replacement of all the equipment the cost of which came to £11,800 (less the £200 excess I had to pay). The order was placed with Vine for the equipment and I just waited for Vine to tell me when it was all coming, the new 80 feet H/D tower came from Radio Structures in Leicester: <www.radiostructures.com/masts-and-towers/wind-up-lattice-masts/cat_41.html >

The OB4030 beam came from Optibeam in Germany <www.optibeam.de>. The WARC beam and came Prositel PST61 came from Vine Antennas <www.vinecom.co.uk>

It took me nearly three months in all to get the installation back into full operation but now it is working great and getting great results on the WARC and 40m bands with the new set up. I must say that if I had not been insured there would be no way that I could have afforded to replace all that equipment and it would have meant me going back to a more simple set up for those bands. So if you are not insured I would say to you make sure you are and pretty soon!

See you on the bands!

The new antennas

http://www.southwestbroking.co.uk/amateur-radio-insurance%3e

http://www.radiostructures.com/masts-and-towers/wind-up-lattice-masts/cat_41.html

FOCUS 105 20

The QSO’s that weren’t with Apologies to “The Man Who Never Was”

By John Swartz, WA9AQN

Adrianne and I planned a visit to the UK for late October, 2015. Our timing enabled me to not only attend the FOC dinner, but to also renew my acquaintances with David White, G3ZPA, with Bob King, G3ASE, and with Stan Ames, G4OAV. David has an extraordinary collection of historic diplomatic wireless equipment, which had been on display in what was “Hut 1” at Bletchley Park for many years. It was one of several private collections that helped keep BP open and available to the public. However, with the recent monumental restoration work that has been undertaken there, David has had to store the collection while searching for another permanent home. Bob King is a WW II voluntary Interceptor veteran whom I met when he was a presenter at the 2002 Enigma conference sponsored by Christ Church, Oxford. Bob has been a prime mover in the annual reunions of VI/RSS/SCU veterans at Bletchley Park. Stan is an historian who has unearthed a wealth of information about the Radio Security Service and the Voluntary Interceptors. And, I had the opportunity to meet Brian Styles, G3NSD, who has also been a great supporter of the Voluntary Interceptor/Radio Security Service veterans’ organization, and who has his own fine collection of period gear.

Together with Pete Windle, G8VG, who is spearheading our FOC effort to install a permanent, interactive display at the RSGB’s National Radio Centre to commemorate the Voluntary Interceptors, we gathered for a pub lunch and brainstorming session at the Prince George at Tattenhoe, near Milton Keynes, on the day before our FOC Annual Meeting and dinner. Our FOC Membership Secretary, Tyler, N4TY has graciously engineered a prototype interactive installation, but was unable to join us.

David’s endeavours began with his own post-war assignment at Hanslope Park. Hanslope had been a listening post during WW Hanslope park wireless

intercept station-1942

21 FOCUS 105

II and, as we learned, became a gathering point for many amateurs who were Interceptors and who had become active members of the Radio Security Service during the war. David brought along a sack full of documents and information for us.

One of the gems David brought along was an album containing 57 QSL cards from the war years. Pete and I were immediately interested because it potentially contained information about VI’s whose names and callsigns may have escaped Pete’s efforts to document the identities of as many of the VI’s as can be found. Various sources have reported numbers from 1000 up to 1700 amateurs or shortwave listeners who had been active, volunteering their time from their home listening posts to work in secrecy, copying the random code groups of enciphered Axis message traffic. But, in an effort to protect the secrecy of what had been done during the war, records identifying the listeners seem to have all been destroyed. So, creating a listing to honor those who served is a daunting task that Pete has undertaken.

The collection had belonged to G5HN, Ted Handcocks, and most of the cards are made out or addressed to him. Handcocks had been a VI, left his civilian employment to serve in the Radio Security Service (RSS) and was stationed at Hanslope. Each operator there had two, and some had three, National HRO receivers to carry out his assigned searches. Handcocks described the installation and history of his service in an article written in 1990. (<http://cdmnet.org/RSS/SecretListeners/Handcocks.pdf).

We were pleased to note that a number of the callsigns in the QSL collection were those of pre- and post-war FOC members: G8VG, G3VA, G2BTO, G2CIW, G2UX, G3AMG (as BRS 4583), GM3AWF (as BRS 4046), G8PL, G8ML, G8TP, G3IV, and G8NM.

Almost immediately after the outbreak of hostilities on the continent in 1939, UK amateurs were forbidden to transmit. Transmitting equipment was confiscated. But, amateurs and listeners were permitted to keep their receivers, and those became their “tools of the trade” as Voluntary Interceptors.

I began to notice some unusual things about these cards. Many of the cards were not dated, but those that were bore dates after 1939 and before the restoration of transmitting privileges. Instead of the usual detailed information about the date, time, or band of a QSO, most of the cards were blank. Certainly, that was curious but supportive of the conclusion that the cards probably evidenced “eyeball” contacts with fellow Hanslopians.

One card in particular caught my eye, from “2BTO.” Some years ago, I had carried on correspondence with Gerry Openshaw, G2BTO (now SK), who had written about his work in direction finding. His description is worth a look and his own words can be found at: http://cdmnet.org/RSS/SecretListeners/page11.html. Gerry, who became FOC 200 after

http://cdmnet.org/RSS/SecretListeners/Handcocks.pdf

FOCUS 105 22

the war, had an even more unusual quirk in his QSL. His card read, “On ACTIVE SERVICE,” “Royal Corps of Signals, Somewhere in England.” That’s bizarre, I thought. 2AUA had a similar pre-printed note: “On ACTIVE SERVICE,” and also reports his “TX: - in Dry Dock…”

Several other cards in the collection bear similar entries. The most common notation showed that the card evidenced a “Personal Contact,” 2DQL’s card says “Working: Farmyard.” Hanslope was known as “The Farmyard.” (G)2CIW reports “RMX: At the Country Farmyard Hanslope.” G3IV’s card notes that his transmitter input is “10 pints… beer.” G6LL’s QSL to G5HN particularly notes that HN’s signals were 5/1/9 on 28 Mcs. The only thing odd about that was the thought that maybe there had been a “real” QSO.

Pretty clearly, much of what was going on were “eyeball” QSO’s among hams who circulated through Hanslope Park at various times during the war.

But, was there something else happening?

According to David, there was. David, who knew Handcocks, told us that some of these cards memorialized “real” QSO’s between the operators at Hanslope. These clever fellows really knew their gear and were determined to have some fun. They were using the local oscillators in the receivers to make QSO’s with each other by inserting a key into the antenna feed at the receiver, and keying it. According to the story, then, a QSO could take place between listeners at opposite ends of the room. Enterprising chaps, no doubt.

Well, I think it is time for me to warm up my old HRO and set up an experiment to verify whether it can be done, so I’ll sign with you for now.

Whatever the result, it makes an interesting story and lends some life and levity to what must have been the drudgery of copying hours and hours of random cipher groups. I’m not saying that any of the Voluntary Interceptors or RSS operators took their work lightly; far from it. As was portrayed in the movie, “The Imitation Game,” Menzies, of SIS, asked Turing if he knows how many people have died because they haven’t broken the Enigma. The answer came back, “Three, while we were having this conversation.” The VI’s, RSS, and the Y services were the source of all the raw material the codebreakers had for their endeavours, and while the almost religious application of the “need to know principle” may have kept them in the dark about what was done with their work, there is no doubt that they understood that what they were doing was of grave importance to the survival of their country.

Pete continues to work diligently to bring to fruition the establishment of a permanent commemoration of the work of the V.I.’s. To date, more than 700 interceptors have been identified, including more than 50 FOC members. But, we know there is much more material to be located and searched, so if you have any information that may assist in identifying Voluntary Interceptors, please contact Pete, G8VG.

Many thanks to David, G3ZPA for the photos of the QSL cards.-S57WJ, Ed.

23 FOCUS 105

A Christmas Present to Myself

By Derrick Webber, G3LHJ

I was thinking of getting a radio-like present but was not sure what I wanted, so I did

a bit of browsing on my Kindle while watching TV with Sylvia just before Christmas. I

came across the site of “Morse Express” a division of “Milestone Technologies Inc” in

Aurora CO, which displayed quite a few goodies. What took my fancy was a nice-looking

straight Morse Key in bright sparkling chrome with an ebony knob called “The Morse

Express 2015 Christmas Key”. Only 150 keys are made and my S/N is 71. It looked good

and compact in the photo. It’s made in Japan by the GHD Telegraph Key in Sendai City

for MT Inc. Like you do, you give the write-up a scan through, but I didn’t go to the end,

the size of it !!!

So I e-mailed my order to Milestone in CO and had a very speedy reply telling me it

would be shipped the very next day the 16th Dec, I received it on the 28th, but not to the

door. A note was put through the letter box asking me to collect the package and to pay

the Duty on it. It was the day I was off to post the FOC Focus packages. Being three heavy

boxes I asked Tony, G6GLP to give me a hand and to call into the post sorting office on

the way. I duly collected my airmail package and paid my £20 duty, got into Tony’s car

and couldn’t wait to see my key. I opened the package and removed the invoice & a

catalogue, and said to Tony there’s nothing else in here. But on feeling down at the

bottom of the package there was something wrapped in foam. Yes it was my key and

what a surprise: the base is 2” x 1.5” and the key 1.5” high, it’s a super little key and sends

CW beautifully. I am looking forward to using it on the Straight Key events.

FOCUS 105 24

The SAL-30 Shared Apex Loop Array: A Story of Two Installations

By Jim George, N3BB & Don Haywood, WB6BEE

The Shared Apex Loop Array first hit the scenes as a receiving antenna for low band DXing in 2012 and an article was published in QEX Magazine by the ARRL. The author and creator of the antenna is Mark Bauman, KB7GF. The antenna was commercialized and now three versions are being offered by Array Solutions. The complete write-up for the line of antennas can be found at: <www.arraysolutions.com/Products/sal_array.htm>

The antenna is essentially a group of four right triangle loops of wire erected in such a manner that each loop is facing either NE, SE, NW, or SW. The loops are connected to a relay/preamp at the base of the antenna through a series of ferrite bead based couplers that are strategically placed along the horizontal base wire of the antenna loop. The location of those couplers is adjustable and the owner can fine tune the antenna for forward gain or maximum RDF, or any combination of the two. The switch/combiner/preamp is connected through a length of RG6 coax to a controller in the shack. The controller is very well designed and fabricated, and allows the user to rotate the array electronically to any of eight directions. It also allows an instantaneous switching from front to back, as well as for unidirectional or bidirectional patterns at the push of a switch.

When the antenna is purchased from Array Solutions, it comes complete with all the center support pole sections, loop wiring, couplers, guy lines, guy-line anchors and spacers to hold the vertical loop wire off the support poles. The instruction manual is included and provides not only the necessary descriptions of the operation of the antenna, but an extensive section on installation. The center support is made from nine

The drawing of the antenna

http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/sal_array.htm

25 FOCUS 105

pieces of fiberglass poles, each about 1.75 inches (45 mm) in diameter. After assembly, each fiberglass piece has an effective length of approximately 3.5 feet (1.07 m). When the center support is erected, the entire assembly rises to a level of approximately 31.5 feet (9.1 m). Needless to say, raising the center support from horizontal to vertical is critical, and it’s possible that the sections will be cracked or broken trying to raise the completed antenna in one piece from a horizontal position on the ground

At N3BB, Jim decided to proceed differently. His team pre-measured each of the four loop wires in advance such that the distance from the “top apex” to the bottom, and then out on the horizontal loop section was set to be equal to the vertical distance and the desired horizontal distance combined, or about 38 feet. Since the mast would be raised from the ground section-by-section, the loop wire 38 feet from the end of the loop was strung through the top-most “spacer” on the vertical mast, and was “crimped” and taped such that it would stay in place as the vertical mast was raised segment by segment. After all four loop wires were positioned in this manner, the next vertical section was added at the bottom and the mast was extended by one segment. In this fashion, the entire mast was constructed piece by piece, and the “down segments” of the four loop wires were brought down through the appropriate spacers until the final segment was in place. It was necessary to position ground crew members out at the end of each of the loop wires to gently tension the loop wires to keep everything vertical as the process continued.

At WB6BEE, there was a different challenge. Located within a forest of tall pine trees, the site location had to first be cleared. Fortunately, an area of approximately 50 feet by 50 feet (15m X 15m) was reasonably clear of trees. Overhead branches, however, were an issue and an extensive amount of time was spent cutting limbs off of the trees with a “chain saw on a stick”. The second issue was lack of assistance. Being in a remote section of SW Colorado, not too many hams are around, much less those that are willing to travel for such an event. So, Don was challenged to install the antenna single handed! The last issue was antler clearance, since the area is overrun with deer and elk. To clear the wildlife, the lower horizontal wire had to be at least 6-7 feet (approx. 2 meters) above the ground.

The installed loop at N3BB

FOCUS 105 26

The supplied poles could be used to accomplish the additional height by locating

them on a post for the additional elevation. However, this is really complicated for a

single-man installation. Don opted for a tapered fiberglass center support that is

available from several ham radio suppliers. The tapered support is made of seven

sections of tubing, the lowest tube with a diameter of 2.5 inches (64 mm). When

collapsed, they are 6 feet tall (1.8 m). When extended, the support is 38 feet tall (11.5m).

Considering the length of the vertical element is just under 30 feet, with this installation,

the horizontal element would be 8 feet (2.4m) above ground. Perfect.

The overlap for each piece of the vertical support is a maximum of 8 inches. It is very important that prior to installing all the pieces into a single collapsed assembly that each of the tubing pieces be marked at the overlap point. To accomplish this, a ring around the tubing was placed with a black marker at the 8 inch location from the bottom of each tubing. To help prevent overrunning the mark, a series of marks were placed above the ring mark so that when pushing up the mast, you could see that you were getting close to the mark. A four-wire guy ring is located at the top of every section of the tubing. To hold the guy ring at the very top, a slightly shorter sleeve of larger tubing is slid over the top tube to locate the top ring.

With the benefit of Jim’s advice prior to erecting the antenna, the wires were pre-

measured for the apex and the location of the right angle at the base of the vertical

support. The collapsed center support was set on the ground base and temporarily guyed

the support at the six foot level. The ground base was a piece of 2 inch steel tubing driven

into the ground to prevent the base from moving. From a step ladder, the pre-assembled

wiring was strung through the series of guy rings, being sure to secure the top guy ring

to the apex of the wire as done at the N3BB installation.

Once everything was pre-assembled, the process of pushing the antenna vertical was accomplished by pushing the mast up one section at a time. After the first two sections were pushed up, a set of guy lines were tied to the guy rings at the top of the third section. The antenna wires acted as a guy line support for the very top of the antenna. Intermediate guy lines were to be set at the 27 foot mark (two sections from the top) and the 16 foot mark (four sections from the top). The guy line for the 27 foot mark was precut at 40 feet and the guy line for the 16 foot mark was precut at 25 feet. A common anchor would be used for both. The section by section push-up process continued. At the fourth section, the lower intermediate guy lines were tied off.

If weather conditions are perfect, it is possible to raise the center mast to the full length without temporarily tying of the guy lines. At WB6BEE, Don decided to err on the side of safety and once the mast was extended out to all but the last couple of sections, he temporarily tied off the upper guys. Then, a process proceeded of relaxing the guys and pushing up a distance until the guys were tight, followed by a repeat of the process. Once completely extended, Don tied off the full set of intermediate guys with the mast vertical, installed the couplers and terminated the lower wires, using the procedure from the Jim’s installation. Pulling out the wires into their final position was last, making sure that the lower horizontal wire was exactly horizontal.

27 FOCUS 105

In operation, the antenna is amazing. The full sized antenna (SAL-30) is an effective tool from 160 meters up to 30 meters. Unlike a beverage antenna, the shared apex loop consumes a relatively small foot print, but has excellent performance. The ability to rotate the antenna in eight distinct directions is a true advantage for users that have local noise or interference. Without going into the technology of how the antenna works, the user can individualize the antenna operating characteristic by moving the couplers. Locating the couplers closer to the center mast results in increased directivity (and less forward gain) of the antenna. Moving the couplers further away from the mast results in increased forward gain (and a wider beamwidth). Changes in coupler location will likely require a change in the length of the delay line. Stations in low noise areas may benefit more from additional gain than from antenna directivity.

A Yahoo group exists for anyone interested in the antennas. Operating characteristic tables and antenna simulation files are available in the files section of the group. The group is quite active and full of stations experimenting with the various aspects of the antenna. It is frequented by Mark, KB7GF, the originator of the design and Jay from Array Solutions. Very nice to have questions answered from the experts.

No matter what method you use for installing the antenna, you will be pleasantly surprised on how well it works.

FOCAL Photo of Jan, John, 9V1VV

and Phil, G3SWH was taken in Chinatown, Singapore during an excellent dinner washed down by lots of Tiger beer during Jan's and Phil's stop over there during December 2015.

The installed loop at WB6BEE

FOCUS 105 28

The Secret Q Codes

By Dave Ellis, G4AJY

There are a number of Q codes that have never been revealed to the public or published in any accessible form. Only the cognoscenti know of them. Now, at last, and exclusively for QSO readers, these secret codes can be made known. The usual requirements of the 1887 Telegraph Act apply – readers may not reveal the content of this article, or even its existence, on pain of immediate cancellation of their PMG tickets.

QBB: This is sent when in deep waters there are no signals heard on 500 kHz, no messages to send or receive, no maintenance to attend to, and the accounts are completely up to date. QBB means “Buggar, I’m Bored.”

QGB: A Radio Officer must deploy his utmost ingenuity to use this call. A typical call might be: “QGB QGB QGB = Gear Broken = Main TX and Reserve TX down = I am transmitting on the Purser’s transistor radio = Please send assistance+”

QBG: Can also be used in the interrogative. Meaning: “Where are the best bars for girls in … port?” Example: A vessel approaching Hull may signal to one just leaving “QBG GKZ?” To which the reply could be “QBG GKZ Fred’s Flophouse, check out Big Olga.” QOL: This Q code can be rated 1 to 5, QOL5 being the most severe. It effectively means, “The operator is a LID.” QOL1: Operator normal. QOL2: Operator runs letters together, unreadable at times. QOL3: As QOL2 but operator unable to read signals sent back at the same speed he is transmitting. QOL4: As above but operator tunes over other transmitted signals, interrupting other QSOs. QOL5: All of above plus operator does not understand Q codes, particularly QOL codes.

Operators should understand that there is no point in using the interrogative form for level 5, “QOL5?” as the recipient does not understand Q codes.

The most important of all among these secret codes is QLL1 to QLL5, corresponding with very low occurrence (1) to very severe occurrence (5). They may also be used in the interrogative mode. LL here stands for love-lorn.

QLL1: I am an asexual, vegetarian robot devoid of feeling or genitalia.

QLL2: I am feeling randy but we are three months from port.

QLL3: We have reached port and I have just received a “Dear John” letter.

QLL4: I am passionately in love with a gorgeous woman. Unfortunately, she does not even know I exist. It is the Chief Engineer’s wife.

QLL5: My life is over. It turns out the woman I was besotted with is not at all what she seems. This is my last transmission – ever.

QLL5 is an extremely serious call and should only be made in real emergencies. Here

is an example from real life when it was used in completely appropriate circumstances.

Albert was a young radio officer on a regular North Sea run to Rotterdam. He frequently arranged radiotelephone calls for the Master and crew, using PCH

29 FOCUS 105

(Scheveningen Radio) in the 2 MHz range. He soon came under the spell of the delightful voices of the female radiotelephonists. He even listened to them in off-watch periods. One young lady’s voice in particular captivated him, and he mentally named her Brynhildr.

One day his ship was detained for several days in port at Rotterdam for engine repairs. He hired a car and made the run up to Scheveningen, where he persuaded a staff member to give him a tour. By clever suggestions, he eventually wound up in the R/T room and listened to the operators’ voices. He soon recognised Brynhildr’s beautiful, lyrical tones and turned in that direction for the first glimpse of the love of his life.

He received an awful shock. Instead of the delicate, angelic features he had imagined,

he saw she had pock-marked skin and three dark warts, each sprouting long, stiff hairs.

Her eyes were crossed and her nose was broken. There were several teeth missing

among the crooked, discoloured molars. Brynhildr’s hair rivalled that of Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns. Like a stereotypical

German stormtrooper, she had no neck – the chin melded directly into the shoulders. Albert had imagined slipping his arm around her trim waist. But she had no waist;

her body was barrel-shaped and bosom-less. His eyes slipped despairingly down to her legs. He had dreamed of those legs. They

should be long and slim, with shapely calves and twinkling ankles. Instead he saw that they resembled two tree trunks, plunging directly into her feet. Each tree trunk sported bulging, knobbly varicose veins and a hirsute covering of gorilla-like hair. He was unable to judge the feet as they were clad in mountain boots.

Albert gasped and felt reality slipping away from him. Just then Brynhildr glanced up and smiled at him. It was not a pretty sight. Those strabismic optics were of different colours and one was a half inch higher than the other. They were shielded by spectacles whose lenses appeared to be made from the bottoms of milk bottles.

“Hello!” she said brightly in that lovely, warm tone, her voice modulated and

meltingly attractive. She stood up, and various parts jiggled unpleasantly. Albert backed away, stuttering incoherently, his legs trembling. Brynhildr flopped

back onto her chair. Everything stopped in the room, everyone staring at the distraught Albert. He turned and fled back to his car.

Driving furiously he soon reached his ship and dumped the car on the quay, much to the annoyance of the dockers working there. He rushed aboard and ran up the main transmitter, even though he knew he wasn’t allowed to transmit in port.

“CQ CQ CQ QLL5 QLL5 QLL5 AR VA” That was all he sent. When the time came to sail, Albert could not be found and a relief had to flown out from the UK. Albert was never seen again.

Although his protocol was incorrect in some ways – no ID in the CQ call, using the TX in port, etc. – his judgement on the correct level of QLL was completely correct. All Radio Officers should understand from this that QLL5 is strictly reserved for very severe emergencies of the love-lorn kind only.

The article first appeared in QSO, the magazine of the Radio Officers’ Association, and is reprinted by the permission of the author.

FOCUS 105 30

ARRL Field Day – Old Farts Reunion Style

By Ron Evans, K5XK

Our Club’s motto, “A man should keep his friendship in constant repair.” borrowed from Samuel Johnson, has taken on new meaning for me in recent years. Seven years ago, XYL Debbie and I moved back to NW Arkansas and were delighted to relocate in a beautiful resort and retirement community. A bonus to K5XK was that the area has long been considered fringe for OTA television reception, thus despite the availability of cable and satellite subscriptions, the property owners association still allows a tower for TV antennas—and Amateur Radio!

Unfortunately, I’ve learned that retirement area living also means that some of our closest ham radio neighbours become Silent Keys at an alarming rate. My first Bella Vista friend and CW pal was W5FO who was introduced by former FOC member N4TB. Our budding friendship lasted only a year before Lynn became an SK. In the intervening years, many other terrific relationships have also been cut short.

As I passed the 50 year mark as a licensed ham, I read and enjoyed Dave Bell’s (W6AQ) wonderful book, “The World’s Best Hobby.” I began to reminisce and memories flooded in about my early years as WA5BQI, a young teenager in Little Rock. Like many kids of the early 1960s, I didn’t own a microphone until years later. My time was occupied with Morse ragchews on 80 and 40 meters, often with other locals around Arkansas.

One of the first things I felt motivated to do was to locate and telephone old-timer K5TUY, my former neighbour and Elmer, and thanked him for introducing me to this fantastic ‘hobby of a lifetime’ a half century ago. I also recalled many after school on-air exploits with other pals who helped craft my Morse skills. An idea began to form about assembling a group of these now “old farts” with the goal of recreating some of those enjoyable early operating experiences.

Most of my friends operated Field Day, and many of us had operated together at various venues. The idea crystallized into organizing an “Old Farts Field Day” for ARRL FD in late June 2015. At the top of my proposed list was good friend and fellow FOC member K5ALU. Red was game with the idea, so we proceeded and soon the list included

The crew is setting up the N1MM+ logger: Standing: WI7N, W5VY (standing), W5RZ and K5ALU (sitting)

31 FOCUS 105

FOC’ers K5XK, K5ALU, and six other old friends WA5BDU, AE5L (ex WA5HNN), W5RZ (ex WA5IIS), WI7N (ex WA5IZR), W5VY (ex WA5KAK), and W5KI (ex WA5KUD).

We set-up a Google Group and began to explore how to proceed. The plan was to use Red’s call (K5ALU) and to operate two stations in Class 2A (low power, emergency power generators) operating from two side-by-side cabins atop Mount Nebo State Park, in west central Arkansas.

The results were a resounding success. Although the score was secondary to reassembling a group of old friends, the OF FD Group using call sign K5ALU achieved a Top Ten finish. We placed 8th nationally, placing us among the top 2% in class and 45th overall among all ARRL Field Day entries. Not bad for old guys who had lost some stamina, and who were using modest stations with basic wire antennas. More importantly, the stories and fellowship enjoyed among old CW pals were memorable and priceless.

Sadly, old friend and OF team mate AE5L became an SK in early October, 2015. Our sadness was tempered with gratitude for the memories that we had quality time with Sam during our reunion weekend. It reminded us that we should not only keep our friendship in good repair, but that we should find opportunities to tell everyone we appreciate how much they mean to us.

TVI and Other Interferences-Part two

By Alan Goodacre, VE3HX

I used to search for long delay echoes from my Ottawa QTH Thirty years ago the urban noise level was considerably lower than it is now so at least there was some rational to operate from home. I set up my 10 meter transmitter to automatically switch on and send one-second pulses every 15 seconds for a half hour and then switch off. I would also switch the tape recorder on and off but leave the receiver running.

Since I was always looking for echoes in the evening I decided one time to try at sunrise. I think it was on the second morning that I got up to see if everything was OK and to my horror a touch lamp in the bedroom of a neighbour who lived across the road was cycling through its various stages. I immediately turned my transmitter off. She never said anything but I am sure she suspected me.

On another occasion when there was a comet in the sky the same neighbour said she thought she had seen the comet at the top of my 10 meter antenna. It turned out that my gamma match was arcing over. I hate to think over what frequencies I was radiating! I was careful after that to put enough insulation around the gamma rods on my antennas.

By Roger Western, G3SXW

My first wife (Iranian) was somewhat superstitious. One day I bought one of those touch beside lamps. A few days later at breakfast I could sense that something was wrong. I asked “What’s wrong, darling?” She replied “Oh, nothing”. But I saw the strain on her face so I insisted. My persuasive charm (!) eventually made her give way. She said, “We have ghosts”. Gulp, choking on my cornflakes. She was deadly serious.

FOCUS 105 32

You guessed it, I had been transmitting the night before. The touch-lamp was activated only on 80 metres. It just flashed away, dot after dash after dot. One small ferrite ring later but she still believes in ghosts (as far as I know)!

By Dave Yarnes, W7AQK

I suspect that, at one time or another, we all have been wrongfully accused of creating problems. Even when the manifestation of such problems was that we were interfering, it wasn’t necessarily our fault! Also, many of us may remember the days when transmitting on 15 meters was very problematic—not because our equipment was necessarily faulty, but because of the way TV sets were made back then.

My current neighbour was quite unhappy with me a couple of years ago, and I was, indeed, getting into his stereo system. However, some of the local volunteer, ARRL sponsored, RFI/TVI trouble-shooters came over and demonstrated to him that almost any rig would duplicate the problem, pointing out that it was highly unlikely that all of these rigs were faulty. This convinced him to let us look behind his somewhat massive installation. There we found an unbelievable rat’s nest of wiring. By simply shortening some of the leads, using twisted pair where practical, the problem went away.

Anyone having RFI issues should read the treatise by Jim Brown, K9YC, on RFI issues and solutions. It is available on his website, and you can Google it by entering his call. However, here is a link: <http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf>. Therein Jim also points out the perils of what he calls the “pin 1” problem, where most currently manufactured consumer products are not properly grounded to the chassis, but only to the PC boards. Jim covers a wide range of issues, and solutions, in this document, and it really should be in everyone’s library in my view. Great stuff!

By the way, this same neighbour also subsequently blamed me for his poor cable internet service, but like others, I was able to nip that complaint in the bud by standing next to him while he experienced his problem. Ironically, I had noticed issues with my internet as well, and jointly we intercepted one of the service techs making routine inspections in our area. The tech’s response was that yes, they had been noticing something “strange” going on with their system around our location. Something spurious kept popping up periodically. Well, it turned out to be a faulty power supply in their system. Once they fixed that, everything worked just fine.

The sad part of all this is that, in the interim before these problems were resolved, and I was absolved, I experienced a somewhat increasing amount of verbal abuse. I tried my very best to remain calm, and show absolute interest in resolving the problem regardless of who’s fault it was. When it became quite clear that I was innocent in both cases, and that everything I had told him was true, he only retreated sheepishly without an apology. I do not really need an apology, but gads, we get blamed for almost anything!

By Mike Buckle, G4RMV

It is now 20 years since I joined the ranks of the FOC, I have fond memories of many real gentlemen in the club that are sadly SK these days, Stan G3MRP, Bob GØADE, Phil

http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

33 FOCUS 105

G3LPN and Otto, LA1IE to name but a very few. These guys used to keep me company for at least four or five days a week on 80m together with other friends.

Due to TVI Problems with the guy next door, I was restricted to running QRP 5W on most bands in my early days so my activity levels on HF were not sufficient to warrant FOC sponsorship.

I have sympathy with people that have suffered this issue with neighbours who until TVI is mentioned are quite responsible and intelligent people. On one presenting these people with some minor discomfort to their viewing, they develop into real maniacs. As example, my neighbour, a scientist in a military establishment, was thinking of purchasing a new Video Player, he got the local Electrical Emporium to provide him with three different models to try, only one of the three models picked up RFI, a Panasonic Model. In the end, what did he purchase? Yes, the Panasonic. In addition, he had one Chimney mounted Aerial but wanted to feed about five rooms with splitters off the coax. He then fitted a Mast Head amplifier which was wide open to RF.

I tried everything to cure the TVI problems, I purchased, tried and fitted filters everywhere (He complained that there was less than 0.1dB insertion loss by adding these filters and refused my offer to purchase professional filters for him.) In the end, a fellow ham made him a filter in an old Tobacco tin, he tried it but no improvement. I made numerous filters from a schematic in one of the ARRL Hand Books. I put one on the input to the Mast Head amplifier and wrapped the amp in foil, still no good.

In the end, I took a long length of 75Ω coax, popped TV fittings on and connected said length of Coax through my front Window and into his property. Hey Presto, no TVI. Armed with this proof, I offered to pay for three new antennas, throw away the amplifier and proceed to at least cure the TVI problem. His response was "I should refrain from working on HF while he watched his TV in peace". He was adamant that he was not going to disconnect the amplifier.

I decided to allow this guy a cooling down period, after which time, I was going to operate irrespective. Four days went by and there was a knock at the door, suddenly, he had seen the light and agreed to my "Very Kind Offer to get New Antennas fitted". I in turn said that if he wanted to watch Videos, I would refrain from transmitting while he did so. (A very generous offer on my part I thought).

Without the amplifier, everything went along tremendously well for a couple of weeks. I then got a telephone call saying I was breaking through his "High Fidelity Surround Sound Stereo System". A Large Ferrite wound with PCB Mini Coax and a 300ohm Ribbon RFI Filter for the Aerial sorted the issue out once again.

Yes, now we went along in a neighbourly fashion for about 10 years with no major

issues. In the mean time, as I was able to run QRO at last, I agreed with Phil, G3LPN to be

put forward for FOC Nomination. In due course, I received the required nominations plus

a few more and was allowed to join the ranks of the FOC. Something that I am proud of

to this day.

On around the tenth year, I got another telephone call stating I was wiping out all his

TVs again, "Arrrgggghhhhh, what can the problem be now" I wondered? In the course of

finding out what the issue was, it transpired this guy had fitted a DTV Antenna and

FOCUS 105 34

another Mast Head amplifier. Here we go again I thought, I purchased a TVi Filter from

Maplin and additional fittings to adapt to this guys special Coax he had fitted.

I was truly amazed that the addition of this filter on the input to the Mast Head

amplifier had actually worked. I ordered the very same Mast Head amplifier and fitted to

my system with DTV Antenna complete with TVI filter on the input.

So, now, I can get on the radio more often, the oddball Panasonic Video has long since been relegated to the bin so here we go.

By Dave Lawley, G4BUO

I entered my first NFD in 1977 while at University. We had got permission to operate

from Little Rissington, a military airfield in Gloucestershire which was no longer used for

flying but which was now used as an Army barracks. The contest committee had asked me to inspect the Oxford & District ARS entry, so

Julian, G3YGF drove me to their site about 20 miles away. When we got back Hugh, G4CNV told us that the Army had ordered him to stop transmitting as we were "causing interference to Heathrow radar".

He had gone back to the guard house with the sergeant to talk with the authorities, who said they had taken a second bearing from Brize Norton to the south and the bearings intersected at our site.

Hugh explained that we were transmitting on 14 MHz and therefore could not be responsible for the interference. They said ok, you can continue transmitting.

On HF we were using a tribander on a 60ft scaffold mast. Talking about it later we were pretty convinced that the most likely explanation was that something was arcing at the top, which was being seen on the radar. We're glad they accepted our assurances and let us continue with Field Day.

Hugh has gone on to a very distinguished career as a professor at UCL specialising in radar, perhaps this formative experience helped to shape his future career.

FOCAL There was a littler

gathering at “Cutter Inn” by the river Cam in Ely, a Cathedral city some 20 miles north of Cambridge, UK.

The reason was to greet Don, N8DE and his wife Bonnie who were visiting family who currently live and work locally. Pictured left to right: Jan, G5LP/2; Bonnie, N8DE/2; Don, N8DE; John-Michael, Don's son; Fred, G4BWP; Bob, G3PJT; Lionel, G5LP and Rosemary, G3PJT/2 (photo G4BWP).

35 FOCUS 105

Invitation to Central European FOC Dinner By Jelka Samec, S57NW and Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ

The Central EU Dinner will be held in Ravne na Koroškem, Slovenia between 19th and 21st August 2016. The event will be at Hotel Delalut <www.delalut.si>. Reservations should be made directly via e-mail: <[email protected]>. Please do not forget to mention FOC in the subject of the email. The room prices are 35€/night for single room and 60€/night for double room. The whole capacity of the hotel is reserved till 1st June. After that date, the rooms will be again on the free market.

We expect the FOC gang on Friday, 19th August. On Saturday, 20th August we offer an organised tour with site-seeing, visit to the old lead and zinc mine <www.podzemljepece.com> and local food in the village of Šentanel at tourist farm Pekav. The idea is that we drive together on a bus to these locations. The transport fee is about 10€ per person.

The dinner will be in the evening hours at the hotel. There will be three menus with local food. One menu is vegetarian. The dinner prices are 22€ for regular and 16€ for vegetarian meal. You will choose the menu on the day of arrival.

On Sunday 21st August there will be a garden get-together at home of S51WO, S57NW and S57WJ.

For those who will travel by airplane we suggest the following airports: Klagenfurt and Graz in Austria and Ljubljana airport in Slovenia. The best and the fastest way to get to Ravne na Koroškem is with rented car. If someone would like to have a transfer from any of these airports, it is manageable. To avoid any misunderstanding, please keep in your mind, that there are at least half dozen towns named Ravne. Ravne na Koroškem is the right one, near the Austrian border.

We kindly ask those members who are coming that let us know their interest in Saturday’s tour.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly via email: Jelka, S57NW <[email protected]> or Gabor, S57WJ <[email protected]>.

http://www.delalut.si/


http://www.podzemljepece.com/



FOCUS 105 36

Welcome to New Members

By Tyler Barnett, N4TY

John Huffman, K1ESE (2079) I was born in the state of Michigan in 1947. My radio history

started as a Novice in 1959 at age 11. Despite the efforts of my father and uncle, my army surplus novice station never worked and I never made a contact. Determined to continue as a ham, a novice license could not be renewed in those days, I earned my Technician license in 1961.

My family moved every couple of years and in those days. I was required by the FCC to change callsigns whenever I changed call areas. That meant I had four different callsigns while I was growing up. They were WA8EIY (Michigan), WA2VBF (New York), K3IVT (Pennsylvania), and my Novice call KN9QMQ (Illinois).

High school was followed by college and in 1967 I married my wife, Charlotte. But, the bug to get onto the HF bands still itched. In 1968 I finally managed to meet the CW requirement and earned my Advanced license as WB8CIY, later as KD8QL. I’d had so many callsigns over the years that I didn’t hesitate to grab a new one if it sounded better. In 1992 I earned my Extra license. This led to the callsigns AA8FP, K8HJ, and NA8M.

After 35 years as a public school Superintendent in Michigan, I retired in July of 2001. We have one son who lives with his family in the Boston area. To be closer to them, in April of 2005 we moved to Waterford, Maine. We bought a house and barn in the historic district and have been renovating and maintaining it ever since.

My interests include CW and DX. After years of trying, I finally made DXCC Honor Roll using only wire antennas. These days I prefer to have conversational CW contacts. I am the QTX manager of the CW Ops group. QTX encourages conversational CW. I do some contesting and am a member of the Yankee Clipper Contest Club. I am the Maine Section Traffic Manager and I am a net controller on the section’s CW traffic net. As you can see, most all of my activities revolve around CW.

I am especially grateful to my sponsors for their support. I believe that membership in FOC and what it represents is the highlight of my amateur radio career.

Jindra Prokel, OK2LA (2080)

I was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in 1948. When I was 13 years old I received a wonderful two battery vacuum tube kit from Santa Claus. I built various receivers, amplifiers, buzzers, etc. One day I heard the radio amateurs in 80m band in AM. After that I began visiting the radio club in Havirov. I started a CW course that was available for new candidates. The first CW QSO I did was when I was 14 years old. The time I spent using radio passed very quickly. I often worked into the early morning hours and I had to run quickly to catch the bus to school. I got my class

37 FOCUS 105

"B" licence in 1967 with call sign OK2BPJ. Then I spent two years in an army club station using call sign OK1KWR. During my time there I built my first tribander Swiss quad.

I thoroughly enjoyed using radio at my cottage in Slovakia using call sign OM9AAZ. There was very good QTH in the mountains. I have been the chairman of radio club OK2KHF for about four years. I have trained about 60 new people in CW. My current call sign is OK2LA and OLØF in contests. Nowadays it is very difficult to transmit in the city. I had a two element tribander quad antenna on the roof of a three storey house. Unfortunately after the house renovation, the antenna was banned. That is why I moved to a village where an antenna in garden is allowed. I have about 300 square metres for my antennas. Currently I am using the spider quad, horizontal loop on 160m, 80m, 40m and 30m bands and 1/4 vertical for 40m. Almost all my QSO are in CW. I enjoy using CW greatly. I prefer a higher speed of 40 wpm.

A long time ago I used a manual key made for the Czech Army (model RM31). Since around 1971 I have been using a simplex paddle. I am currently using the Begali model HST Mark 2 key, Yaesu FT-2000 transceiver and OM Power HF2000 amplifier. I am happy using QRPp with KH6, FK8, VK, etc. with 1W only.

I worked with electricity and electronics throughout my professional career, mainly for repair and maintenance of mining machines used in hard coal mining. Electronics is still my main hobby.

I have made a few transceivers, HF amplifiers with an output up to 1300W. My other hobbies include twiddling with antennas, antenna analysers and working with the Smith chart. However my biggest hobby is CW and chatting with my friends. My wife Eva and I have two children and four granddaughters. My granddaughter, Adele, enjoys SWL. I hope that she will be on air one day too.

Rudy Rood, UR5MM (2081) The first time I came into a radio club was in autumn 1964.

They organized the novice group for students, and I got my SWL-call UA1-74613, which gave me a chance to operate from club station UA1KUA. I started to learn Morse-code with a great enthusiasm. At age of 16 I was able to work at 30 WPM and spent all my free time in the club. Most of the hams in our city were professional nautical operators and fine sample for imitation. I still remember our team: Bob, UA1ZX; Boris, UA1YR; Yuri, UW1YY; Eugene, UA1ZM etc. We were running big and very heavy Naval RX+TX, only CW and AM modes, maybe its reason

why I spent all time in CW. It was a good school for future activity. In 1972 I moved from Murmansk to Lisichansk, and with great help of Stan, UY5LK (now R7KZ/K6WG) got a job in the coalmine and a hostel apartment in the same building with club station UK5MAF.

In 1975 I qualified as a USSR Master of radiosport, and amateur radio in the USSR was an official technical sport and we had several championships during the year. My calls over the past 51 years: UA1ZAX, UB5MNM, UB1MM, UR5MER and since 2008 using UR5MM. I have 314/302 DXCC, finished 9BDXCC (via LOTW). I am retired after 23 years of mining work, have XYL Svetlana and son Oleg. They are not in ham radio, but endure my hobby and me all the time. My rig is a Yaesu FT-1000MP and wire antennas. Other hobbies are gardening, flowers and fishing.

FOCUS 105 38

Orville Burg, K5VWW (2082) I started my HAM radio in 1959 when I received my Novice

License, KN5VWW, while in college. A year later I upgraded my license and thus became K5VWW, which I have held continuously since. I became quite active in VHF and UHF operations while I was operating as W2CUX, a secondary call I held from 1966 until 1971. This choice of frequencies was predominately due to lack of antenna space while in New Jersey apartments. I upgraded to the “Extra” class license at the FCC offices in New York City while living in New Jersey. That was intimidating.

I returned to Houston, Texas in 1971 and became fervently active on all modes of VHF propagation, became an officer in the

Central States VHF Society, and finally worked Moon Bounce in 1972.

My ham career took quite a change when I was inducted into the Texas DX Society in 1979, and I had the opportunity to have several friends and mentors such as Richard, K5NA; Tom, K5RC; Bill, W5SG; Jan, K5MA; Wes, AC5K and others to give me guidance.

Although my college degree is in Mining Geology, my professional career was in Telecommunications Engineering. I enjoyed designing and managing the installation of several microwave systems up to a length of 1500 miles, plus designing a multi-mode SCADA system consisting of over 900 remotes stretched from Texas to New York. One of my last projects was a multi-stage satellite system and MUX for both voice and data operation. This lasted for 37 years until I retired. Retirement was short lived as I soon became a school administrator for several additional years. I am now officially retired.

I took a 30-year hiatus from radio to raise a family of one son and three daughters. I became active again in 2011. I enjoy all facets of ham radio. I operated on the 1984 Texas DX Society DXpedition to XE2FU for the 1984 ARRL DX Contests, plus several trips to 4U1ITU in Geneva, and a great guest operation as HV3SJ with IØXXR (SK). I currently hold 8BDXCC, DXCC Honor Roll, 6m WAC and other awards.

Many thanks go to the members who sponsored me, and it is certainly an honour to be a member of the FOC.

Bruce Blain, K1BG (2083) My first experience with Amateur Radio came in 1958 (at the

age of 4) when Jim W1GPN (SK) (who lived across the street) showed my dad his hamshack. Dad told me to be quiet and we would be back home in a minute. That brief encounter changed my life. From that day forward I always knew that someday I would be a ham. I was first licensed at 14 in 1968 as WN1KBG (Canton, MA), and became WA1KBG in 1969. I changed my callsign to K1BG in 1977.

These days, most of my time is spent on CW (although it was not always this way). Most of my contacts are made contesting or DXing, but most of my time on the air is spent rag-chewing.

The number of contacts made is not nearly as important as getting to know the person

39 FOCUS 105

you are speaking with. QRO and QRP are both exciting, and all my modern equipment runs QSK.

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, and began my career in microprocessor based hardware design. For the last 18 years I’ve been involved in the sale and marketing of commercial microwave radio equipment.

I lived in England for several years, and am particularly fond of the time I spent there. I met my wife Jayne there, and still maintain the call G4WJQ for my visits. We live outside Boston in Harvard Massachusetts on two and a half acres with a 110ft (33m) tower and various antennas. Jayne and I have two grown children and two grandchildren. Active club memberships include ARRL and RSGB, the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club (my local club), Yankee Clipper Contest Club, and CWOps.

Jan (Jim) Holm, SM2EKM (2084) I started with ham radio at a very young age as many of you.

I was around 12 or 13 when I started to listen to the radio that

my parents had and it just evolved from there. Got into BC band

listening at first and did find the hams later on. Did learn CW

almost by myself but at the very end I did get some professional

help and it happened very quickly. Back then everything took a

long time so it wasn´t until August 1969 I became SM2EKM. Prior

to that I had been operating from club stations and from friends

places.

Always been building antennas/towers and radio stations. In

the 70´s we were a very active contest group and we tried very hard to get something

big going in our area. The best we did was SL2ZZU and around 1980 that station had five

towers, 25 to 55 meters tall.

In 1982 I finally got hold of a place of my own and started to build what I still use

today, wanted to make it much bigger but really didn´t have enough money and family

things started to take more and more time. I really been in to contesting heavily all the

way until 2010 when I resigned from it. CW has always been my ‘number one’ mode of

operation. Back in the day I was quite fast, could copy up to around 65 - 70 wpm.

In 1977 I was finally out of school and had a degree in engineering. I have been most of the time working in the Telecom industry with all mobile phone systems that has been around, but I´ve been doing other things too. Had my own small company for a short while and in last years before retirement I was working with electronics and telecom on the railroad.

I am now retired since 2013 and try to enjoy life as much as possible. I was divorced

in 2007 and married again in 2009.I´m live with my second wife. I have a son that´s grown

up by now but he never got into radio.

I have been operating from a few places around the world. You might have worked me as SK2CI, SK2DR, SK2KW, SL2ZZU, G5BHX, GU5BHX, GU3HFN, F0GUU, KA1FYD, CT9L, CN2KM. I also operated as W/ 5B/ SV5/ SV9/ TA4/SM2EKM.

FOCUS 105 40

I´m on the bands most every day thanks to remote operating. My radio station is 12 km (8 miles) away from my living space, and it has always been a problem, but not anymore.

This story could be made much longer but I think I will stop now, I can be found nearly every day around the bands, on CW just about 100% these days.

Steve Salvia, VK7CW (2085) I spent 20 years in the Australian Army as a member of the

Royal Australian Signals Corps which is where I originally learnt morse code in 1982, qualifying at 22 wpm in receive and sending with a hand key. In 1995 I obtained my Amateur Radio Licence and shortly afterwards I moved away from a straight key onto an iambic paddle.

My original callsign was VK4EMS up until 1999 when I moved to the Northern Territory and obtained VK8AM. During 1999 and 2001, I made two trips to Bougainville where I was active as P29BI. Over this period, I was extremely active in CW.

Due to a change in jobs and unforeseen circumstances I was off the air from late 2001 until early 2012 when I semi-retired and relocated to Tasmania Island. I was very lucky in that I was able to obtain VK7CW as my new callsign.

Since then I have been extremely active in all forms of CW. I send with a wide variety of keys from a single paddle, sideswiper (my favourite) and bug (need more practise). With a straight key and sideswiper I send with my left hand and with a single paddle and iambic key I send with my right hand. With a bug I can send with both hands.

I do enjoy collecting keys and have a small collection, which is always growing. I have also constructed my own sideswiper key out of a steel ruler.

I am a financial member of the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) and the ARRL where I am also a member of the A-1 Operator Club. My CW club membership includes CWops, FISTS, SKCC and the A1 Club (Japan).

Marco Pimpolari, IKØYVV (2086) I was born in 1973 and started to listen to ham radio in my

early ages. My father had a very old AM radio he had built when he was young; that radio was in a wood case and captured my attention more than the other toys. At age of ten, I received a gift: a small portable transceiver with three CB channels, and I started to listen to those voices and to develop its poor antenna, so my play with wires started early.

Being naturally attracted by DX, and not having much room for big antennas, the only way to listen far stations was CW. So I started to listen to CW and to send code with an old military J38,

and with this key I sent my first notes on the air in 1993. Waiting for my own call sign I operated with my father's call sign (he has never been active on CW). At that time in Italy it took some 12 to 15 months after the examination to get the call sign, but finally I got it in late 1995.

41 FOCUS 105

I will always remember the morning before I got my call, when I worked ZL7AMO on 40m. The postman arrived a few years later, so I had to wait some five years to work again ZL7 on 40 with my own call sign. Since then my daily activity is 99% on CW, but I am active even on SSB and RTTY but just to work new ones on that modes or in some contest, but it's very hard to hear me in other modes than CW.

I consider myself a radio-lover, since I like almost all ham radio activities: DXing, Contesting, Rag-chewing -- the most important thing is being on the air. In my personal life I drive a very small family based company which produces and sell synthetic corks; I’m divorced and I have a wonderful son 10 years old, and a big white Abruzzi Shepherd dog. I've been following FOC for about 10 years, and I will always be grateful to the members who supported my membership. I'm honored to be part of this family and i hope to be able to serve the club for many, many years.

Jack Mandelman, K1VT (2087)

I was born and raised in NYC and was first licensed as WV2SYT in 1961. Previous call signs include WA2SYT and WA1WMK. While residing in Vermont, in 1976 I was issued K1VT under an FCC program giving priority for a 1x2 call based on extra class license date seniority. My preferred operating mode has always been CW.

My principal ham radio activities include encouraging others to use and improve their CW skills. I also enjoy and seek technical QSOs covering a wide range of fields, including but not limited to antenna theory and design, mathematics and physics. I am not a serious contester, but enjoy meaningful extended

QSOs with those of like interests. Professionally, I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and have worked at the leading edge of semiconductor technology R&D for more than 30 years. I am an inventor on over 480 United States patents and more than 725 patents worldwide. My inventions contributed over my career to the 100,000-fold increase in the number of transistors on a chip of silicon. You can find me in the Wikipedia worldwide “List of prolific inventors.” Although now retired, I actively seek to maintain and strengthen my technical skills.

Bill Sepulveda, K5LN (2088) Hello everyone, and thank you for all your support in

becoming an FOC member. I have been an active CW operator for 52 years and love the music of CW. I am presently working on using a bug after Benny’s, K5KV urging for so many years, and after he has now heard me on the bug, I think he wishes he never mentioned it. I also still build small projects, like the “bug debouncer”, the “AQRP Vector Impedance Analyzer”, 75A Power Supply, and two element Pretzel Loop to cover 20 - 10 m. However, I still love the paddle, and teaching CW classes locally in Texas, and three times a year for the CW academy. Thanks again for your support, and I look forward to working everyone as soon as the bands get better. Look me up on QRZ to see my

history in Amateur Radio and how the projects have turned out.

FOCUS 105 42

Ten-Tec Hercules II Solid State Amplifier Repair

By John DePrimo, K1JD

The Hercules II described here was purchased new in January 1997 and was been trouble free (except for replacing the vacuum relay once) for many years. In mid-2013, I began noticing reduced power output which worsened over time and eventually noticed that distinct smell of over-heating electronics that every Ham recognizes. Uh oh. What follows is not a step by step repair guide, but rather presents a summary of what was found and a description of the repairs.

Figure 1 shows the inside of the Hercules II. When removed from the cabinet, additional screws are removed allowing the amplifier to be opened on a hinge.

The Pi Network components are on the hinged side, left, while on the opposite side (below the Bird watt meter) are - top to bottom - RF board PA1, DC power distribution board, and RF Board PA2. Boards PA1 and PA2 are identical.

During the repair process, both RF Board PA1 and the DC Power distribution board were removed from the chassis. The following issues were discovered and ultimately resolved:

An open printed circuit trace associated with power output on RF board PA1

I don't recall a specific event while operating the amplifier that could have resulted in this problem, but there it is. A wire jumper was soldered across the trace that easily resolved the issue. The exact cause remains unknown but presumably some kind of severe load mismatch. Since the other RF related issues also occurred on this board, this opened trace and its cause were likely to blame.

A bad transistor pair also on RF board PA1.

Each RF board has two pairs of power transistors, so the amplifier has a total of 4 pairs implemented with a system of DC distribution, timing and protection circuitry, and RF power combiners.

The bad transistor pair was on the right side of the photo below, taken after the board was removed from the chassis and after the upper right transistor had been replaced and re-soldered.

Figure 1: The inside of the Hercules II

Figure 2: Open printed circuit trace

43 FOCUS 105

The lower right transistor had been tacked in place and was awaiting final soldering. A Hakko vacuum de-soldering gun made it very easy to remove the transistors after which they were tested and found to be bad. The left transistor pair on the board were also removed and tested, but proved to be good and were reinstalled.

The other RF Power board, PA2, was tested separately (with PA1 installed but its RF cables removed) and seemed to be operating OK.

Some folks, Ten-Tec in particular, will insist that all eight transistors be replaced with

carefully matched devices. In this case, I used just one matched pair available from RF

Parts. The amplifier has worked fine over the last year, validating that all 8 really did not

need to be replaced. This approach saved a lot of money since the price for eight matched

devices was about six times the cost of the matched pair!

Distributed instances of poor solder connections on the DC power distribution board and troublesome RF Board PA1.

The separate instances were difficult to find for a number of reasons, not the least of which was not expecting poor solder connections Perhaps there has been degradation over time. Exacerbating this issue is that the Hercules II PC boards do not have through-the-hole plating, so a component lead is often the only connectivity between the top and bottom of the board. Here are a few examples:

On RF Board PA1, there was an issue with solder joints around the upper right transistor in the above photo. This was discovered simply by measuring continuity using a DVM and discovering that top and bottom traces connected with a component lead did not show a short circuit! Fixing the problem was not as easy as reheating the joints; the component had to be removed, the board cleaned on both sides and then the component reinstalled before results were satisfactory.

The DC power distribution board, right centre of the top photo, showed excessive resistance within the circuits carrying high DC current. Resolving this issue included pulling the covers off the relays and spraying the contacts with DeOxit, and resoldering several of the DC distribution leads on the board itself.

The total repair effort was considerably more involved than the description above but again this article was intended to be a summary. The final test after everything was buttoned up made it all worthwhile: a full 500 W out, just like new!

FOCUS 105 44

Contesting

By Pat Barkey, N9RV

WRTC: An Entirely Different Kind of Contest

The grass is always greener somewhere else – and that applies to contesting as much as anything. People travel to run contests, after all. And whether it’s being a rare country, getting to a more southerly latitude, or placing yourself a strategic distance from high population areas that count for full contest points, folks who take aim at the world high scores have always made a plane ticket part of their equipment.

The best place to be? That’s changed a bit over the years. In the CQ WW, where points outside your own continent give the full point value, it has usually been the doorstep to either Europe or North America. In the days before 160 meters was a highly utilized band, the winners stuck to the northern fringe of South America. But for the last twenty years or so the focus has shifted to the islands off the northwest coast of Africa, with some very impressive stations being built in places like D4, EA8 and CT3.

And that makes contesting a bit peculiar. After all, the winners of piano competitions,

horse races or track meets win on their merits, not on where they live. So how can we

say the winners of ham radio contests are the best when QTH is such a dominant factor?

The truth is that we don’t. There are in fact so many variables involved with contesting – the equipment, the propagation, even the weather – that winning almost always involves things in addition to pure operating ability. Maybe that’s why contesting is so fun. After all, personal failure is not pleasant, and contesting gives us a lot of things to blame other than ourselves when we don’t win, right?

But what if we could remove some of those differences – in things like equipment and propagation – and run a contest on a more equal basis? That was the premise of the very first World Radio Team Championship, held in the summer of 1990 in Seattle, Washington. Bringing all of the operators in a competition to a single place, giving them all similar power and antennas presented an entirely new sort of competition.

That was the idea, at least. What has actually happened?

Quite a bit, actually. The seven WRTC’s that have been held on three different

continents have been intense competitions, most definitely. They have also been a

learning process, both for the hosts, the competitors, and the community of contesters

in general. What have we learned?

Lesson #1: Equality is not so Easy

When 22 two-person teams (each with a referee) operated from the U.S. Pacific

Northwest on a Friday in 1990 in a contest that was created specifically for the

competition, no one knew what to expect. Would there even be anyone to work?

Despite terrible conditions, there certainly were. And the beauty of the WRTC was that

all of the teams in the competition had the same propagation. But some had more

desirable calls, better topography, even better antennas. Early WRTCs suffered from the

45 FOCUS 105

inevitable differences that sprang from the differences between stations that were

volunteered for contest use. Tribanders were different heights, different manufacturers,

and fed with different quality coax. And some stations were on the east side the

mountains, and some were on the west. And a few were on top.

The sheer elation of getting some of the best contesters in the world together in one

spot was soon replaced with the realization that it would take more than that to realize

the dream of a pure operating competition. By WRTC 2006, towers and antennas were

made identical, and with WRTC 2010 in Russia, topography was largely removed as a

competitive factor. To do this for 50 or 60 stations is no mean feat. WRTC 2018 in

Germany has a very tough act to follow after the Moscow and Boston-based hosts set

the bar high for QTH standardization.

Lesson #2: Doing It Right Isn’t Easy or Cheap

Some like to use the analogy of the Olympics to describe WRTC. And that certainly

captures one aspect of the events – they’re getting expensive. The budget for WRTC

these days is upwards of $500,000 USD. And that’s just the money. The time it takes to

do it all – the technology, equipment, logistics, lodging, food, entertainment and even

security – is enormous. Folks like K1DG, RA3AUU, or PY5EG who have been involved in

managing WRTC’s can tell you.

Where does the money go? Just about everywhere – towers, antennas,

transportation, food, tents, motel rooms. You name it, and WRTC is probably buying it.

WRTC is literally hosting the world for a week-long event, and being a good host takes

planning and resources.

DXers pass the hat to support DXpeditions all the time. Contesters really don’t,

except for WRTC. I hope you will consider what you can do by donating both money and

time to help WRTC 2018 be a success.

Lesson #3: The Competition is Only Part of It

A wonderful thing happened at the first WRTC in 1990 that few had anticipated – an

international exchange of good will. Contesters who had never met, who did not share

a language, gathered in one place and forged long-lasting friendships based on their

mutual love of ham radio and contesting. In fact, WRTCs quickly became gatherings for

more than just the competitors and those involved with the competitions. Contesters

and non-contesters alike came together to make these events more than successful –

they were memorable.

Lesson #4: WRTC Lasts Longer Than a Weekend The first WRTC’s were really just invitation-only events. But as they evolved, they

became something akin to the final lap of a longer race. By devising and tracking qualification processes, WRTC competition commenced years before the in-person event, as individuals submitted their contest scores for qualification points. WRTC has really changed contests, as the rules set forth for WRTC qualifications have become a big part of the strategy and participation in contests around the calendar year.

FOCUS 105 46

Lesson #5: WRTC Operators Are Really Good

And then there is the operating itself. It is amazing to think that a pair of operators can go into a small tent with 100 watt radios and modest antennas from ordinary QTH’s and emerge with huge scores. It is true that the rest of the world is keen to QSO them, even though since 1996 the WRTCs have been conducted within the broader IARU contest in July. Not just the scores, but the operating of the top stations themselves – we could all learn a thing or two by listening to them.

Can those who have won WRTC events claim to be the best operators? When you look at some of the calls of the winners – who include some FOC members, present and past – it certainly is an impressive and accomplished group. When you consider the caliber of every team in the competition, ending up on top is really a remarkable achievement. But in the end, WRTC is another competition, with rules, propagation and strategies that some have mastered better than others. And just the chance to participate, in whatever capacity or to whatever ability you can, either on the air or in person, is an experience you’ll never regret.

Invitation to Condin

By Baldur Drobnica, DJ6SI

Condin will take place from 13th to 15th May 2016, in Holzminden, situated on the river Weser. We'll be staying at Hotel Hellers Krug; the owner is Carsten, DM9EE. A powerful radio amateur station with big antennas is available on the premises. As for 'Extra Activities', you can go on a visit to nearby castle and monastery Schloss Corvey (World

Cultural Heritage since May 2015) and to the well-known porcelain works Fürstenberg. During the war they had set up a camp for prisoners of war, British officers in this case, in Holzminden. The prisoners succeeded in digging a tunnel and then made their escape. The film 'The Great Escape', starring Steve McQueen, is based on this incident. For more information contact

<www.pileup.de.com>, e-mail: <www.dj6si.darc.de>.

Thanks to Carsten, DM9EE for the photos-S57WJ, Ed.

http://www.pileup.de.com/

http://www.dj6si.darc.de/

47 FOCUS 105

WAFOC & WAFOCC Honour Rolls

By Bob Bagwell, G4HZV

Thank you to all those members who sent in updates. Here is FOC Roll of Honour, based on applications/updates received by 31st December 2015:

WAFOC Honour Roll (Qualifying score 6000 points)

25693 G4BUE (1308) 12500 G3RVM (1407) 25015 K9QVB (1507) 12374 G3LHJ (841) 23619 SM5CCE (477) 12109 W9RGB (1840) 23456 W4VQ (1299) 11612 DK5AD (1853) 22191 EA8CN (1656) 11428 AC5K (1662) 21263 OZ1LO (1205) 11000 N4UB (1490) 20508 I3BLF (1286) 10165 W1RM (1159) 18000 G3KTZ (1265) 10089 WØVTT (1739) 17235 OQ3R (1493) 9276 G4HZV (1568) 16415 W1FJ (1532) 8500 GØORH (1684) 15172 G8VG (331) 8248 W4PM (1687) 14255 N2KW (1586) 7000 DL4CF (1582) 14140 OK1RR (1437) 6240 KR3E (1878) 13751 K2SX (1599) 6142 F6HKA (2017) 13068 W5ZR (1722) 6000 OK1CZ (1547) 12874 KZ5D (1761) 6000 V31JP (1743)

12723 5B4AGN (1670)

WAFOCC Honour Roll

Qualifying score 100 countries, and 100 countries for each band, except 25 countries for 160 metres, 12 countries for 6 metres and five countries for 2 metres.

290 K9QVB (1507) 196 G3VMK (1332) 132 N2KW (1586) 284 W4VQ (1299) 191 OK1RR (1437) 130 GM3YTS (1430) 282 OZ1LO (1205) 180 GW3KDB 1282) 130 GØORH (1684) 267 G4BUE (1308) 174 W1RM (1159) 130 4X1FC (1411) 254 AC5K (1662) 170 G3SXW (847) 130 W1UU (806) 238 G3RTE (1225) 170 N4UB (1490) 129 KR3E (1878) 235 I3BLF (1286) 168 W5ZR (1722) 120 OK1CZ (1547) 207 EA8CN (1656) 162 DK5AD (1853) 119 W4PM (1687) 206 G3LHJ (841) 158 WØVTT (1739) 106 HSØZLM (1789) 205 OQ3R (1493) 150 K8RD (1876) 102 F6HKA (2017) 200 G3SWH (1513) 144 G3RVM (1407) 100 GW3SB (71) 199 W1FJ (1532) 138 K2SX (1599) 100 I7ALE (1305)

197 G4HZV (1568)

FOCUS 105 48

160 metres (Qualifying score 25 countries)

121 K9QVB (1507) 56 I3BLF (1286) 40 OK1CZ (1547) 112 OZ1LO (1205) 55 OQ3R (1493) 39 EA8CN (1656)

92 G4BUE (1308) 53 OK1RR (1437) 36 G3LHJ (841) 81 W4VQ (1299) 51 DK5AD (1853) 30 G2HKU (293) 62 N2KW (1586) 40 GW3KDB (1282) 28 W4PM (1687)

61 W1FJ (1532)

Qualifying score 100 countries:

80 metres

199 K9QVB (1507) 129 G4BUE (1308) 109 OK1RR (1437) 177 OZ1LO (1205) 118 OQ3R (1493) 103 W1FJ (1532)

170 W4VQ (1299)

40 metres

244 K9QVB (1507) 137 OQ3R (1493) 110 G3SXW (847) 217 W4VQ (1299) 135 W1FJ (1532) 106 WØVTT (1739) 217 OZ1LO (1205) 127 EA8CN (1656) 103 N2KW (1586) 195 G4BUE (1308) 123 W1RM (1159) 100 GW3KDB (1282) 140 OK1RR (1437) 114 DK5AD (1853) 100 W5ZR (1722)

30 metres

200 K9QVB (1507) 147 G4BUE (1308) 114 OQ3R (1493) 184 OZ1LO (1205) 129 I3BLF (1286) 108 DK5AD (1853) 160 W4VQ (1299) 121 EA8CN (1656) 114 OQ3R (1493)

20 metres

284 K9QVB (1507) 152 W1FJ (1532) 130 W5ZR (1722) 247 W4VQ (1299) 151 OK1RR (1437) 128 W1RM (1159) 236 OZ1LO (1205) 150 GW3KDB (1282) 122 DK5AD (1853) 214 G4BUE (1308) 149 OQ3R (1493) 114 N2KW (1586) 173 G3LHJ (841) 140 G3SXW (847) 103 WØVTT (1739) 158 EA8CN (1656) 138 G4HZV (1568)

17 metres

208 K9QVB (1507) 166 G4BUE (1308) 104 W1FJ (1532) 185 OZ1LO (1205) 134 EA8CN (1656) 100 G4HZV (1568)

173 W4VQ (1299) 122 OQ3R (1493)

15 metres

255 K9QVB (1507) 139 G3LHJ (841) 122 W1RM (1159) 228 OZ1LO (1205) 137 W1FJ (1532) 114 G4HZV (1568) 222 W4VQ (1299) 134 OK1RR (1437) 109 W5ZR (1722) 207 G4BUE (1308) 132 EA8CN (1656) 109 DK5AD (1853) 162 OQ3R (1493) 130 GW3KDB (1282) 104 N2KW (1586) 140 G3SXW (847)

49 FOCUS 105

12 metres

180 K9QVB (1507) 134 W4VQ (1299) 109 OQ3R (1493) 161 OZ1LO (1205) 132 I3BLF (1286) 106 EA8CN (1656)

134 G4BUE (1308)

10 metres

235 K9QVB (1507) 154 G4BUE (1308) 109 W1FJ (1532) 201 W4VQ (1299) 143 OQ3R (1493) 108 EA8CN (1656) 191 OZ1LO (1205) 120 G3LHJ (841) 100 G3SXW (847)

182 I3BLF (1286) 109 OK1RR (1437)

6 metres (Qualifying score 12 countries)

29 G4BUE (1308) 25 I3BLF (1286) 14 EA8CN (1656)

27 OZ1LO (1205) 14 W4VQ (1299)

2 metres (Qualifying score five (5) countries): 7 OZ1LO (1205)

Awards News By Bob Bagwell, G4HZV

Congratulations to the following members who were recently awarded certificates and stickers.

New Certificates:

WAFOCC: ON4IZ 398 (Electronic Award)

Stickers:

WAFOC:

DK5AD 11500; OQ3R 17000; AC5K 11000; G4BUE 25500; OZ1LO 21000; EA8CN 22000.

WAFOCC:

DK5AD 160; OQ3R 200. WAFOCC Bands:

ON4IZ 20m 25; G4HZV 17m 100; DK5AD 160m 50, 80m 75, 30m 100, 20m 120, 17m 75, 12m 50, 6m 25; OQ3R 160m 50, 80m 110, 40m 130, 30m 110, 20m 140, 17m 120, 15m 169, 12m 100, 10m 140; OZ1LO 12m 160; W1FJ 40m 130, 20m 150, 17m 100.

Readability Values from 1 to 10 By Gary Hinson, ZL2iFB

The ‘official’ Readability values in normal RST reports are not terribly helpful with just five values specified. Personally, I would prefer a 10-step Readability value as follows: R9 = Armchair copy. I’m getting every syllable and breath, plus the supposedly silent

fan in your shack PC and next-door’s little dog yapping annoyingly. Please use your asthma inhaler. I can hear your pins dropping. I am using my attenuator. My loudspeaker is rattling. Shhhhh.

FOCUS 105 50

R8 = Office-chair copy. Curiously, I find it helps to sit up or lean towards the radio. I might need to con-cen-trate. I am thinking about turning off the attenuator. Can you muffle that amplifier fan, please, or slow it down?

R7 = Office-chair-and-headphone copy. It no longer matters whether I lean back or fore. My brow is furrowed. I find myself autonomously reaching for the volume control. It’s OK, you can turn the amp fan up again if you want – I think the extra ergs might just help and it’s kind of comforting.

R6 = Getting tricky now. Please annun-ci-ate more clearly and remove your gum, or try cleaning what remains of the contacts on your pre-war bug. I am reaching for the RF gain and my noise-cancelling headbones.

R5 = Challenging. I can catch the general gist of what you’re on about but the subtleties are lost on me, sorry. I have turned on the pre-amp and am busy looking up how to set my Digital Noise Reduction gizmo so that you do not sound like ET. Try dampening your string. Do you Morse?

R4 = Distinctly challenging. The odd phrase makes it through but you know how it goes: I gather it is warm and sunny at your end but I’m still not entirely sure you have my callsign correct. Please focus on the essentials. Meanwhile, I have given up on the DNR and am desperately pressing buttons and idly twiddling my knobs (for I have many). Do you PSK?

R3 = Seriously challenging. I am definitely not sure you are working me, in fact I'm not entirely convinced that you are working anyone at all. Not even the audio peak filter and masthead preamp set on Turbo seem to help. I am beginning to lose all hope. Do you JT?

R2 = ESP level. I am thinking of resorting to an Ouija board. My imagination is running wild. I see/hear brief snatches of signal in coincident noise peaks. I am cursing the low noise floor on my remote rural QTH for being too high. Do you JT barefoot?

R1 = You really are not there, are you? Don’t bother replying, I won’t catch it anyway. Trust me, I honestly want to believe you are still hanging in there but even my supposedly eternal optimism has its limits, it seems. Despite the cluster reports from superstations in far-off lands, my waterfall is blank-as. You are no more. Have you QSYd, passed out or gone SK? Is my receiver still working and antenna connected? Have we had another one of those nasty sun-farts? Are my hearing aid batteries as exhausted as I am? Do you JT with max legal?

R0 = I give up. Who cares whether you are there or not, sod it, I’m pouring another drink.

Over time, I am hoping the new R scale will spread. Don't worry about the apparent discrepancies between the normal 5-step and new 10-step Readability values during the transition period: by design, the two scales are entirely compatible. Based on extensive experience over three decades, I confirm that when most people send Readability 5, they are (perhaps inadvertently) using the new scale. What they really mean is "Challenging". That's why we often hear “UR 5NN 5NN PLS UR CALL AGN CALL AGN BK”...