RC 2016 jan to mar

My Fan Dance by Lisa 2E0FSE

Plus JONATHAN G1EXG’S SHORT CIRCUIT COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES FROSTY CAMP G4BBS CLUB DIARY RALLIES

A Quick Summer SOTA

January – March 2016

Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club Established 1948 Website: www.wadarc.org.uk

E-mail: info@wadarc.org.uk President: Chris Smith G3UFS

Life Vice President: Peter Robinson G8MSQ

WADARC meets every Wednesday at 8pm in the Lancing Parish Hall, South Street, Lancing BN15 8AJ. All who have an interest in radio communications and associate subjects, whether a licensed amateur or not, are invited. WADARC can also arrange training for the radio amateur Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced licences.

The WADARC Committee 2015 - 2016 Andrew Cheeseman Alan Baker Andy Braeman Sally Holland Jonathan Hare Peter Head Norman Jacobs Alastair Weller Bodie Goodall Peter Penycate

G1VUP G4GNX M6RFE SWL G1EXG G4LKW 2E0RKO M0OAL 2E0VRM 2E0FVL

Chairman Vice-Chairman Secretary Treasurer Press & Publicity Coordinator Outside Events Coordinator Quartermaster Content Coordinator Training Coordinator Membership Manager

These Members have volunteered to accept these responsibilities for 2015 - 2016 Contest Manager Ragchew Editor Website Website

Graham Bubloz Roger Hall Andrew Cheeseman Alastair Weller

G4FNL G4TNT G1VUP M0OAL

WADARC Club Nets (all times are local) 07.30

Sunday

3.725MHz Âą QRM SSB

19.30

Monday

145.425MHz (V34/S17)

11.00

Thursday

7.106MHz Âą QRM SSB

CONTENTS Editorial ........................................................... 4 Chairman’s Chatter ......................................... 5 Presidential Ponderings ................................... 6 My Fan Dance by Lisa 2E0FSE ............................. 8 A Quick Summer SOTA by Chris M0VUE .............. 13 Short Circuits by Jonathan G1EXG.......................... 17 Frosty Camp by Pete G4LKW & Pete 2E0FVL............. 20 Club Calendar for April..................................... 23 Committee Meeting Notes ............................... 24 Rallies ............................................................. 26 Silent Key – Peter Dodd G3LDO ..................... 28

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EDITORIAL

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elcome once again to the latest edition of Ragchew. It’s not quite as late as usual this time because I’m slowly getting it back on schedule.

In this issue, as well as our reliable regular contributors, it’s been great to get plenty of interesting material from some of or new members.

The first is Lisa 2E0FSE, who has written all about her Fan Dance.

No, it’s not really a dance; it’s a race and a pretty demanding one too.

To quote the organiser’s website, “The Fan Dance is a gruelling 24km non-navigational race over two sides of Pen Y Fan, the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons. This infamous route has long been a part of SAS (Special Air Service) and SBS (Special Boat Service) Selection and is considered the yardstick of a candidate's potential to perform well on Test Week and ultimately pass the Special Forces Selection programme.”

Reading about it made me feel very old when I realised I would never be able to complete the course at my age but then I felt better when I remembered I’ve never been able to do anything like it at any age.

Chris M0VUE has written about a summer trip up to Ditchling Beacon for a quick SOTA with Phil and another Chris.

Jonathan G1EXG’s Short Circuit column this time covers absorption wave meters, field strength meters and RF sniffers and he tells you how you can easily check on the RF coming out of your antenna.

Pete G4LKW and Pete 2E0FVLA have written about GB4BBS, the special event station that they ran at the Scout’s recent Frosty Camp.

Following a very successful Club evening devoted to soldering, Alan G4GNX sent in a great article on the subject. It’s very comprehensive so it’s quite long and the only way I would have been able to fit it in this time would have been to shorten it, which would be a waste because it is very good. Rather than do that, I’ve held it over for the next issue.

My thanks go to everyone who contributed for taking the time and trouble to send in their material.

73, Roger G4TNT

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CHAIRMAN’S CHATTER

H

ello fellow members of WADARC. As many of you already know, over the last three months I have been building up a new business venture and this has led to me not having much time to play radio nor to be able to attend as many of the Club meetings as I would have liked. However, things should settle down soon and then I hope to be able to take a more active part in the Club.

Courses In the meantime, the members of the committee are doing a fine job of keeping the wheels turning. For example, we are still doing great guns with our training courses. The last Foundation course was attended by eight delegates, all of whom passed.

There is anecdotal evidence that shows these delegates found us via the Club’s website so the update and revamp have proved their worth.

Events Alastair M0OAL and Bodie 2E0VRM are doing a great job keeping the events calendar ticking over. There are some excellent speakers booked for Club evenings and the spring and summer look as though they will be exciting with the outside events that are planned.

On that subject, Pete G4LKW and Pete 2E0FVL will soon be looking for some help with the special event stations they’ll be running. Please let them know if you are available to help out in any capacity. They’re fun events and everyone involved usually has a good time so please do think about joining in.

Welcome Finally, I would like to welcome all the new members who have come on board in the last couple of months – it’s been great to see. With their help, attendance at weekly Club meetings is currently higher than it has been for some time, which makes for a flourishing Club.

73 for now, Andrew G1VUP

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PRESIDENTIAL PONDERINGS

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t seems like only yesterday I was composing my quarterly view of things and suddenly, it’s that time again. Luckily, there’s plenty to write about as we’ve had some fun meetings recently. One that I particularly enjoyed was the Soldering, The How and How Not To evening, which I think to everybody’s surprise was very well attended by both members wishing to learn more about the subject and those members who brought along their own kit to demonstrate how it’s done. Alastair M0OAL took some great

photos – you can find them on his Flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/alastairweller/24078222170/in/photostream Club Nights All eight of the candidates in the recent Foundation exam passed, for which I must congratulate them all, and their presence on Club nights has certainly boosted attendance numbers. Every meeting nowadays seems to be packed, which is great, but there is a downside; just occasionally we don’t seem to have enough chairs!

Wednesday night regular Norman 2E0RKO continues to impress us all with his mobile shack, which is quite an imposing sight with its telescopic mast fully extended – very well done Norman. If you haven’t seen it yet, come along to a Club meeting and experience it for yourself. Many Club members have already made interesting contacts from its well-appointed interior.

We have recently been informed that our application to have a Windom antenna erected on the roof of the Parish Hall has been approved. That means we should soon have the means to actually chase some DX on a Wednesday evening. However, I still think we have to address the practicalities of operating the station without it being drowned out by the noise from the general meeting taking place at the same time. Perhaps this is something we can discuss one evening.

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A I understand that for the Club night on May 11th we will be repeating our Club Dinner at the Old Tollgate Restaurant in Bramber. The last one was very well attended and everyone had an enjoyable evening so even though it is still some time off, I do hope you will put it in your diaries as a ‘Must Attend’ event.

Spring Spring is on the way so now is the time when you should be thinking about spending a little time maintaining your antennas and equipment. I know I must.

Every year I try to oil all the lifting cables on my tower. I’ve found that with our salty atmosphere, they dry out very quickly and the last thing I want is rusty cables and the resultant possibility of failure.

I am also hoping that by the time spring arrives, Sporadic-E will have returned, allowing the VHF bands, especially 4 and 6m to open up to some useful DX. I know I go on about those two bands but they are exciting to operate on and because there are very few pieces of equipment ready made for 4m, it’s a challenge to find or make something that works and to be proud of! Old fashioned radio at its best!

I do think a more ‘hands on’ approach to making and building pieces of equipment should be the aim of all of us – in the true spirit of amateur radio. I’d like to see some Club nights set aside for building simple pieces of equipment.

It’s been mentioned before – perhaps we can now think about it some more.

Birds Normally, I don’t have anything against birds but once in a while I curse the ones flying overhead. It’s usually just after I’ve had my car washed and some gigantic thing flies over it with open bowels, covering it with you know what!

Adjacent cars seem to escape this onslaught and it seems to me that they look down, see the white roof of the car and assume it’s a large hole, just right to let go. What can be done? Apologies for the moan, but it is annoying.

That’s all for now. Enjoy your radio and keep coming to the club – it’s a jolly good place to meet.

73, Chris G3UFS

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EVENT My Fan Dance Lisa 2E0FSE reports on her participation in the Fan Dance Race Series winter event earlier this year.

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n Saturday January 9th I took part in the winter Fan Dance. If you’d like to find out more about it, full details can be found on their

website. www.thefandancerace.com The Fan Dance isn’t like any other event I have taken part in and it has to be the toughest one so far. It isn’t the distance that is the issue, it’s the terrain and the weather. Because this one is held in January, you know the weather is going to be bad. You also know that if you have a problem on the mountain, it could be hours before you get down. There is no easy way down and the only place where you could The top of Pen Y Fan. voluntarily withdraw from the race is the halfway point; there is no road access to any other part of the course. I remember chatting to a friend about it beforehand and they asked if it would be possible to simply get a helicopter to pick me up. That’s when I suddenly realised how people can underestimate what the weather can do and overestimate what is actually possible! On the day, I doubt that any helicopter pilot would have been able to get anyone off that mountain. Visibility was almost non-existent, it was absolutely hammering it down with sideways rain and sleet and blowing a gale so strong it was blowing the water back up the mountain. So no, I don’t think just asking for a helicopter to come and pick me up would have been an option.

Radios The event has some quite serious radio operators on hand to ensure everyone’s safety and all competitors are encouraged to carry a radio to help operate the safety A Mountain Team Safety Pack with Radio.

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A radio net. This is run under their commercial license. The mainstays of the communications systems are the civilian versions of the military AN/PRC152 (Handheld) and AN/PRC117 (manpack) radios.

The 152 operates entirely in The kit packed and ready to distribute. the VHF/UHF spectrum with outputs of 10W on high power and 5W on low power.

The 117 manpack model also covers Airband as well as VHF/UHF and is capable of digital encryption. It outputs 50W on high power and 10W on low power and it has a remote cabled Key Display Unit (KDU) and a remote handset control for radio operation. The 117 also has rebroadcast capability and it can be synchronised with other 117s when in rebroadcast mode.

The team has 12 and 6m composite masts that they deploy with Sigma HG antennas. They also operate SATCOM using two units, one with the main radio operator and one with the Event Director.

All of the 117 manpacks are programmed with Brecon Mountain Rescue Team Working Channels, including SAR Aircraft for which both the second in command and main radio operator are qualified and experienced in communicating with.

The 117 battery contains 15 replaceable rechargeable cells, which gives the battery pack greater longevity as individual cells can be replaced rather than having to change the whole assembly.

The Race You know an event is a bit different when everyone listens very carefully to the safety briefing. This time they warned us about the black ice on the steepest part of the course (in with the wind that nearly took me off my feet and the rain that felt like needles in my face). They also warned us which side of their flags we

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A needed to be. On the wrong side is a cliff and if you fall off, you will die.

The race started dead on 0900 with a thunder cracker and we all set off at a brisk walking pace. This is still the only event I have taken part in were the vast majority of people start off walking and it soon becomes apparent why! It is a long, hard slog up to the top of Pen Y Fan in horrible weather. I managed to run some sections of it but all the time I was conscious that my ankle had only just recovered enough and I really didn’t want to go over on it and not complete the whole race.

At the top of Pen Y Fan, I couldn’t see much at all. In fact, for most of the race visibility wasn’t good hence the lack of scenic photos. We had also been warned not to linger at the top and the Directing Staff (DS) were quite keen to keep everyone moving.

At regular intervals I heard a request from Zero (aka Dave) over the radio for a radio check; they like to know roughly where When it gets too bad to put up an outside antenna. everyone is on the course and who they can communicate with at each point of the course. I also had my own personal backup team listening in on this channel as well as tracking me via APRS so they knew roughly when I would finish and how I was doing.

One thing I will say is that this is where I noticed the difference between the Yaesu FT-1DE and the Baofeng UV5R (apart from the best part of £200!).

Apparently, my radio signals were stronger and clearer than most other people’s.

I also had my radio programmed with all the local repeaters, just in case͟.

Down the Ladder Jacob’s Ladder is always my nemesis.

I’m not really sure which I hate more, going down it or up it. Going down is a scramble over rocks before the steps appear. Because of the black ice, we had been warned to keep to the grassy slopes to the right (not forgetting the cliff to our left) but they were also incredibly slippery and I made slow progress down.

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Approaching the halfway point.

Approaching the halfway point.

A When I made it to the halfway point I needed to get someone to open my jelly babies for me because my fingers were a bit wet and a bit too cold. That’s when I thought about the fact that I now had to turn round and do it all again!

Parts of the paths were running like streams and there was one particularly deep gully that we had to cross. There was no way we could do this without getting in the water.

Up the Ladder As I was going back up Jacob’s Ladder, the wind had increased (as had the rain) and I was finding it really difficult to stay on my feet without being blown over. I just took it steady and stayed to the side that had the odd thing I could grab hold of.

When you get back to the top, you do feel as though you are nearly home but in reality you still have another few miles to go (including another uphill!).

Approaching the finish.

Heading back towards Jacob's Ladder.

The Red Phone Box As you come down the last hill and see the red phone box, all sorts of emotions run through you. Relief that you have made it, exhaustion when you realise you can actually stop now and sadness that it has come to an end.

The support from other competitors, the Directing Staff and Mountain Safety Team is amazing and it really does make this the event that it is.

Would I do it again? You bet I would! I’ve already signed up for the summer event and I hope to be back again next winter too.

Kit Obviously, wearing and carrying the right kit for an event such as this is very important. I was wearing Inov-8 Roclite 280 trainers, Hilly monoskin merino wool socks, Inov-8 debris gaiters, Nike long running tights because the top is a thicker

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A

Looking back down the Roman Road.

warmer material but they are really fast drying, a shock absorber running bra, an Inov-8 merino wool base layer, a Fan Dance Technical t-shirt, two buffs round my neck (they were used to cover my face in the worst of the weather), an OMM Kamleika Race Jacket II (this was an amazing piece of kit that really did its job), a warm

hat with a fleece bit over my ears and Nike gloves.

What I carried with me – the following items were all packed into an Inov-8 Race Ultra 10l backpack that had a waterproof cover over the top: a Mountain Warehouse down filled jacket (to keep me warm at -20C), a spare hat, spare gloves, spare socks, an additional Inov-8 Merino Wool base layer, a Survival Bivi Bag, spare laces, two litres of water, a stainless steel flask of coffee, a First Aid kit (split between two of my side pockets), two Chia Charge Flapjacks, two head torches, a Yaesu FT1-DE radio with a Diamond 771 antenna.

Also in the pockets of my OMM jacket I had maps, a compass, a mobile phone in a life proof case and a whistle.

APRS My Yaesu radio has GPS and APRS built in and I had it set to beacon my position once every three minutes. I wasn’t sure if any of this would make it to the APRS website in Finland or not but my support team had an APRS radio that could also receive the data so they could see when I was nearing the halfway point and the finish.

I found out later that my APRS data did make it to Finland. Unfortunately, there’s far too much of it to print here but if anyone would like a copy, please just let me know.

73, Lisa 2E0FSE

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SOTA A Quick Summer SOTA Chris M0VUE

Before I plough on with this SOTA account, I thought it would be a good idea to give you some background on why I carry my radio around. As we all know there are many types of radio amateur, from the elusive DX hunter to people who are more than happy working nets and having a good old chat with their friends and everything in between.

Myself, I must admit I like the DX side and I find portable DX is really good fun because it makes it a little harder. It’s actually quite cheap to do too, relatively that is, when compared to a home-based HF setup.

Also, being up a hill a few miles away from a town usually gives you a good background noise level. On the SOTAs I normally go to, the background noise is typically S2 or below. If you’re into VHF (which I do most weekends), being up a hill really helps, especially with a handheld. I have worked a lot of stations with my FT60, but that's another article.

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A At this point I would like to say that normally when I SOTA, I walk at least two or three miles to get to a SOTA point. This makes me feel like I have done some exercise to earn the QSOs. In this instance, however, I needed a quick post-work fix. I'd been away in the USA for a while so I needed some radio time. As I was working in Brighton, I took the very easy option of driving to Ditchling Beacon, affectionately known as G/SE-006 or Great Britain/South East summit 006 248m high.

While we call it a summit, it’s really a hill with a car park. The drive to the car park from Brighton is quick and the 300m walk thereafter to the trig point is about as easy as it gets. It’s not much of a summit either because it’s flat but it is easy and it’s a very comfortable spot to operate from.

A key thing with Ditchling is that it can be worked very quickly on VHF and there’s no need to take supplies, although when Phil G4UDU turned up he had biscuits and tea with him. I actually think Phil can't go anywhere without biscuits and tea – maybe at some time in the past he was a builder or is it an HF thing?

Activation This is what went into this activation. I finished work at 1730, drove to Ditchling at about 1800, met Phil G4UDU and Chris M1BMR (they had been playing CW on 40m) and we then walked to the trig point. When we got there, we set up the 40m vertical Buddipole with the long whip, the 40m loading coil and the counterpoise. I then attached my small M-P50-M linear amplifier. It puts out about 30-50W with my Yaesu 817ND, which, incidentally, has had its microphone modified for a better SSB response.

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A I tuned the antenna by running the tap point up the coils until the noise went up and then tapped it. I normally measure out the counterpoise based on the band used so for 40m it’s a 1/4 wave or 10m, which is about five lengths of my arms reach. The counterpoise is then draped on a bit of grass or hedge somewhere pointed roughly where I want to talk.

I check the SWR with a meter at this point and adjust the counterpoise to get the lowest SWR. The counterpoise does make the antenna directional because it's effectively an L-shaped dipole with a low take-off angle that’s good for DX. The setting up always takes about 15 minutes to get everything done. On this occasion it took a lot longer due to the biscuits and tea.

For power, I use a 4200mAh LifePo battery that works for about three hours with the amplifier turned on.

On The Air Now it was time for the tricky bit that a lot of people don’t seem to bother with these days, calling CQ, again and again and again and again. More tea and a quick biscuit and then more CQ calls.

I’ve found that for SOTA you really need to call "CQ CQ M0VUE SOTA activation SE-006". This usually gets a far better response than just calling CQ.

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A As an aside, I’ve also found that calling Pedestrian Mobile when I'm walking the Downs gets a better response than using just Mobile.

This time I kept calling and then, yes, an answer from Croatia, then the USA, followed by Oman and Croatia again. A quick band change brought in Spain, England and Denmark.

Normally, I would work the radio for two or three hours but we did less this time. Phil and I were chatting while the other Chris was operating and the sun was setting. It had been a good SOTA and in 50 minutes I had worked six countries, two of which were DX – the furthest was 3,600+ miles. I did work a station in Paraguay but I didn’t write down the callsign correctly so it doesn’t count, grr!

So is SOTA worth it? Yes, it is – it’s not because you can't set up anywhere without getting DX but I have noticed if you are calling SOTA, you do get a better response than just calling CQ. On a previous trip, I worked more than 50 contacts on 20m in 70 minutes. If I tried doing this at home, I know it just would not work as well.

Stations worked on 2015-07-30 - SOTA G/SE-006 Time Callsign Band Freq.

Country 1939 OZ1JVX/P 40m 7.150 Denmark 1931 MØMDA 40m 7.122 England 1929 EA2U 40m 7.122 Spain 1928 EA2DT 40m 7.122 Spain 1915 9A/S51AC 20m 14.225 Croatia 1913 A45XR 20m 14.220 Oman 1853 WB2GMY/P 20m 14.212 USA 1852 9A/S54MTB 20m 14.212 Croatia 73, Chris M0VUE

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G1EXG’S SHORT CIRCUITS This time Jonathan Hare G1EXG takes a look at how you can monitor the RF power in your radio circuitry and radiated from your antenna.

Short Circuit No.10: Absorption Wave Meters, Field Strength Meters and RF Sniffers

I

t is often useful (and reassuring) to be able to monitor the radio frequency (RF) power that’s in your radio circuitry and radiated from your antenna. You can do this with the following simple and cheap circuits.

Absorption Wave Meter An absorption wave meter is basically a tuned circuit (an inductor and a capacitor) connected to a rectifier diode, a capacitor and a meter. The detector diode needs to be a germanium type such as OA91, IN30, IN34, IN60, IN270 or AA117.

In use the device is set to your transmitter frequency and placed near a coil in the radio. You can then use the meter deflection to peak various stages.

The circuit derives its power from the RF and so it does not need a battery.

To minimise the load or damping on the resonant circuit, the germanium diode is usually tapped into the coil a few turns from the 'earthy end', providing a sharper tuning response.

If you add a short antenna, it will convert it into a field strength meter to monitor the RF from your antenna. The circuit above shows one I built into a small Really Useful plastic storage box to tune from 14 to 28MHz. I included a

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A switchable resistor (low/high power) and a range change switch. I also added two places where a telescopic antenna could be screwed in and connected into circuit (one hole on the top and one on the side) so that the device could be used flat on the ground or vertically when put on the shelf in the radio room.

Coil details can be found in RSGB or ARRL handbooks – there is, of course, loads of scope for experimentation here. Birds-nest type construction is fine.

Untuned Field Meters Very simple untuned field meters can be made with just a small inductor (an RFC - radio frequency choke, try 100μH), diode(s), a sensitive meter (e.g.

100μA) and a telescopic antenna.

The FET circuit provides greater sensitivity (but it needs a battery, of course).

These circuits will detect RF over a wide range, something like 1 - 150MHz. RF Sniffer Sometimes you just need to know that RF is present somewhere in a circuit, cable or antenna. To find out, you can make a little RF sniffer from a small coil of wire wired to an LED. At UHF you might also need a germanium diode in series because of the relatively large self-capacitance of the LED. A simple 7 or 8cm per side quad loop wired to a diode and LED will show the RF pulses from a mobile phone and can also be used on the 23cm (1296MHz) band.

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A

You should note that although the untuned circuits are useful for monitoring the RF from your antenna, they should not be used for peaking or aligning a transmitter because they will respond equally well to harmonics or spurious signals and so they can often give you a misleading reading.

A very simple connector block version with a circular one wavelength loop.

For more information, check out my mobile phone RF detector at: www.creative-science.org.uk/mobile_LED_simple.html

73, Jonathan G1EXG

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OUTSIDE EVENT Frosty Camp GB4BBS Pete G4LKW and Pete 2E0FVL

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n Friday January 22nd through to Sunday January 24th, the Bramber & Beeding Scouts held their Frosty Camp. We were there too, operating the special event station GB4BBS.

Setting Up The setting up crew arrived on site at 1400 on the Friday afternoon and their first job was to get the antennas up between two trees. As we’ve been there before, we knew which trees we were going to use so you might think it would be an easy job! In fact, it was far from it this year because with all the rain we’ve had, the camping field was a very large bog, with some areas best avoided altogether when trying to get around.

With the antenna up, the next job was to set up the station in the site warden’s office and then to set up a 2m station in the main hall as well. Phil G4UDU was the main man for these jobs.

The next job for both of us was to move into what was going to be our home for the weekend and with that done, it was time for a fish and chip supper with the scout leaders who were on site awaiting the arrival of the first scouts who would be staying overnight Friday and Saturday.

Friday on the Air Then it was into the shack and on to 40m. Our first contact was Spain at 1909, followed by England, Scotland and Jersey. However, the bands were not in our favour so we decided that we would have an early night and give it a good go in the morning.

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A Saturday On Saturday morning it was up and on the radio for 0700, with our first QSO on 40m at 0710 into Poland.

Again, band conditions were not at their best but we stuck at it until 0820 when we heard the words, “Breakfast is ready” so off we went, well it would be rude not to.

Well fed, we got back on the radio. We were still on 40m but we moved on to a different frequency because where we were had become very noisy. We did what we could with the noisy band and then we decided to take a look at 15m, where we managed one QSO into Greece.

After about an hour, we realised that people wanted talk to us less on 15m than they did on 40m so a switch back to there was in order for an hour until lunch was called.

After lunch, we decided to give15m a second chance as 40m was proving to be hard work. We had two QSO’s with the USA and then South Africa, Kuwait, Canada and another two with Greece.

After fighting to get these contacts, we had a look at 20m and had a run of European stations but then the icing on the cake – Australia. The guy was amazed that we were only using a simple dipole antenna.

We than had another look at 40m and had eight QSO’s in about 90 minutes before we were forced to stop for dinner.

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A After dinner, we thought we would have a look at 80m and we had a reasonable number of QSO’s until about 2030, when our ears had had enough of the noise so we stopped for the day.

Sunday On Sunday, we knew it was going to be a short day because the Saturday of the sleep-over is the main event so we started quite early. We tried 40m again and we had a steady work rate until breakfast was called at about 0900.

Once breakfast was finished, it was time to start packing everything away until the next time.

Summary Over the course of the event we made a total of 102 QSOs. We were aided and abetted by many kind people who came up to the site or called in on the radio.

They were, in no special order, just as they come to mind, M0OAL, G7VBR, G3GVB, M0RVP, 2E0FVV, 2E0RKO, G0SIU, G1VUP and on the radio M0VUE and G0BRP plus, of course, all those who I’ve bound to have forgotten!

Thank you all for your support. It really was appreciated.

73, Pete G4LKW and Pete 2E0FVL

Pete 2E0FVL

Pete G4LKW

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CLUB CALENDAR APRIL 2016 3rd ........................... Monthly breakfast at the Lancing Harvester 3rd ........................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 4th............................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 6th............................ Fox Hunt Evening 7th............................ 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 10th.......................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 11th.......................... 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 13th.......................... On the Air Evening 14th.......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 16th.......................... Intermediate Training (Day 1) 17th.......................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 18th.......................... 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 20th.......................... Junk Sale 21st .......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 23rd ......................... Intermediate Training (Day 2) and Exam 24th.......................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 25th.......................... 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 27th.......................... Understanding HF Propagation - RSGB Film 28th.......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 30th.......................... Foundation Training Course and Exam

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COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES The Committee has agreed to publish short notes taken from the minutes of its meetings in order to keep Club members up to date with its discussions.

Chairman’s Report.

The meeting started with the Chairman reporting on the good levels of attendance by Club members at the weekly meetings.

Secretary’s Report The Secretary reported on the production of minutes and the benefits to be gained by using an ‘action tracker’ approach to ensure that actions from the minutes are tracked and progressed.

Treasurer’s Report The Treasurer reported on the current balance in the Club’s bank account and the anticipated expenditure and income. A copy of the accounts was then presented.

It was also noted that income from the Christmas party and the surplus equipment sale was beneficial to the Club’s annual income.

Programme of Events Bodie Goodall reported that the club now has a full diary of planned events and the entire program of forthcoming events is now available on the Club’s website.

The committee considered that the recent Club evening devoted to soldering had been a success.

A date in May was agreed for a Club dinner at the Old Tollgate Restaurant in Bramber.

Ragchew The Committee noted that articles are still required for various past events as well as suggestions for future articles and then ideas for possible future content were discussed.

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RALLIES Membership The Membership Secretary reported that the Club currently has 73 paid members, which represents an increase on the previous month.

It was also reported that membership cards will not be given out to members in the future.

Website It was reported that the Club’s revised website has attracted new membership. Alastair Weller will be providing guidance to committee members to enable them to update the site.

Publicity Various methods of future publicity were discussed, including a printable leaflet being made available on the Club’s website and the posting of flyers on local public notice boards.

Contests and Special Events The Club’s attendance at the forthcoming scout event was discussed.

The opportunity for new and possibly inexperienced members to operate at event stations was also raised.

Training It was reported that the training programme is scheduled for the remainder of the year. Alastair Weller reported that more foundation trainers are required.

Equipment The packing and storage of Club equipment was discussed, including the need for the correct foam inserts for the Elecraft K3 Peli case.

Any Other Business The possible change of the club DF event to a championship format was discussed. This would mean that it would be based on the results of a number of DF events.

The possible purchase of an antenna analyser was also discussed.

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RALLIES 2016 MARCH 5th – Lagan Valley ARS Annual Rally Hillsborough Village Centre, 7 Ballynahinch Road, Hillsborough BT26 6AR 6th – Exeter Radio & Electronics Rally America Hall, De La Rue Way, Pinhoe, Exeter EX4 8PW 13th – Dover Radio Rally Whitfield Village Hall, Sandwich Road, Whitfield, Dover CT163LY 13th – Grantham ARC Radio and Electronics Rally Earlesfield Community Centre, Trent Road, Grantham NG31 7XW 19th – Laugharne Radio Rally Millennium Memorial Hall, Clifton Street, Laugharne SA33 4QG 20th – Wythall RC Rally Wythall Radio Club HQ, Wythall Park, Silver St, Wythall B47 6LZ 20th – Devon & Cornwall Repeater Group and Callington ARS Rally Callington Town Hall, New Road, Callington PL17 7BD 20th – Causeway Coast Glens ARC Radio Rally Bushmills Community Centre, 14 Dunluce Road, Bushmills, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland BT57 8QG

APRIL 3rd – Hack Green Bunker Rally Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 8AL 10th – NARSA Exhibition (Blackpool Rally) Norbreck Castle Exhibition Centre, Blackpool FY2 9AA 10th – Yeovil QRP Convention Digby Hall, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3AA 17th – West London Radio & Electronics Show (Kempton Rally) Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road, Sunbury on Thames TW16 5AQ 23rd – RSGB AGM Glasgow City Hotel, 36 Cambridge St, Glasgow G2 3HN 24th – Cambridge Repeater Group Rally Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 6RN

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A MAY 1st – Dambusters Hamfest Thorpe Camp Museum, Tattershall Thorpe, Coningsby, Lincolnshire LN4 4PE 2nd – Dartmoor Radio Club Rally Tavistock College, Crowndale Road, Tavistock, Devon PL19 8DD 8th – Lough Erne Amateur Radio Rally SHARE Centre, Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland BT92 0EQ 15th – LAMFEST Elescar Heritage Centre, Wath Road, Elsecar, Barnsley S74 8HJ 15th – Newton-Le-Willows ARC Rally Newton Boys and Girls Club, 19 Haydock Street, Newton le Willows WA12 9AB 21-22nd – Dayton Hamvention Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio, USA 22nd – Black Country Radio Rally Portway Lifestyle Centre, Newbury Lane, Oldbury, West Midlands B69 1HE

JUNE 4-5th – Sussex Electronics and Radio Fair (SERF 2016) Eastbourne Sports Park, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne BN21 2UF 5th – Central Scotland Amateur Radio Mini-Convention Crofthead Community Education Centre, Templar Rise, Livingston EH54 6DG 5th – Spalding & DARS Annual Rally The Sir John Gleed Technology School, Halmer Gardens, Spalding PE11 2EF 12th – Junction 28 Rally Alfreton Leisure Centre, Church Street, Alfreton DE55 7BD 12th – East Suffolk Wireless Revival (Ipswich Radio Rally) The Orwell Crossing Lorry Park, A14 Eastbound, Nacton, Ipswich IP10 0DD 18th – South Lancs Summer Rally Bickershaw Labour Club, Bickershaw Lane, Bickershaw, Wigan WN2 5TE 19th – Newbury Radio Rally 24-26th – Hamtronic Show, Friedrichshafen Messe, Friedrichshafen, Germany 26th – West of England Radio Rally Cheese & Grain, Bridge Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BE

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Silent Key – Peter Dodd G3LDO

The funeral service for WADARC member Peter G3LDO took place on Wednesday December9th 2015 at Worthing Crematorium.

Peter was always a fount of knowledge when it came to antennas, both construction and design, and he was an acknowledged expert in the field.

He was well-known through his various articles and books on behalf of the RSGB and other publications and he was well liked, not only by Club members but also by many others in amateur radio circles. It was, therefore, very pleasing to see many people attending and paying their respects, including the current RSGB General Manager, Graham Coomber G0NBI along with his staff, as well as prominent members of WADARC, led by our own President, Chris Smith G3UFS. After the formal service, we were invited to attend Worthing Rugby Football Club at Angmering, to feed our faces and reminisce over Peter’s varied life. We also discovered that Peter had several other interests, including traditional Flamenco dancing and we were treated to an unexpected Flamenco demonstration of song and dance.

Our thanks go to Erica Dodd for her hospitality.

Alan G4GNX

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