Team G3WOR/P at SSB Field Day
Special Event Station GB2WFB
PLUS Jonathan G1EXG’s Short Circuits Club Calendar Rallies
Special Event Station GB8SL
October – December 2016
Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club Established 1948 Website: www.wadarc.org.uk
E-mail: info@wadarc.org.uk President: Chris Smith G3UFS 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 2016 - 2017 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 Presidential Ponderings .................................. 5 Special Event Station GB8SL.......................... 6 Short Circuits by Jonathan G1EXG ......................... 10 SSB Field Day with Team G3WOR/P ............. 12 Special Event Station GB2WFB ...................... 25 Club Calendar for November & December ...... 28 Rallies ............................................................ 30
3
EDITORIAL elcome once again to the latest edition of Ragchew. This month’s main article chronicles the activities of WADARC’s Team G3WOR/P at the SSB Field Day. It was kindly sent in by Graham G4FNL, a regular contributor who I’d like to thank for coming to my rescue yet again. Without his excellent article this would have been a very thin issue indeed because events have prevented a couple of our other contributors from sending in their words this time.
W
Other Articles My thanks must also go to Edmund M0MNG for helping me fill this issue. He’s contributed two Special Event Station reports, one on GB2WFB at Worthing Fire Station and the other on GB8SL at Shoreham Lighthouse. Thanks also to Jonathan G1EXG for his regular Short Circuit column. This time he gives us a couple of very simple LED flasher circuits that can be powered by a single 1.5V cell. I’d never really thought about building something like this but Jonathan’s suggested uses and the simplicity of the circuits have tempted me to get out my soldering iron. Unfortunately, there is no Committee Meeting Report this time nor is there a Chairman’s Chatter. I’ll do my best to get them in again next time. Finally I’m pleased to see that we now have a Facebook group. For those of you who are not familiar with Facebook, it’s a bit like the reflector but it’s public so anyone can see it. It has the same immediacy in that anything you post is instantly displayed but it has the added advantages of being able to easily display pictures and you can scroll back through previous posts to catch up with what’s been said. It’s also good for announcing and inviting people to forthcoming events because everything happens inside the group and there’s no need for anyone to visit an external site to say they’re going. As with all these things, it’ll only be as good as the people who use it so please take a look and join in. It can be found at: www.facebook.com/groups/g3wor/ If you’d like to see how a radio club can use Facebook for reports and to announce events, have a look at this effort from the other WADARC (Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club). www.facebook.com/wadarc/ 73, Roger G4TNT
4
PRESIDENTIAL PONDERINGS
I
recently had occasion to cast my mind back to my National Service days in the RAF back in 1951/53. I was trying to put together a piece for the quarterly magazine produced by my ex-RAF association The Old Uetonians. What came to mind were the two occasions when I was called on to ‘defend’ my camp. I should add I was not alone, others helped. The first time was in the autumn of 1951 while I was learning Morse code at No. 3 Radio School RAF Compton Bassett in Wiltshire. After school one day we were called to a meeting where we were told that we were all going on an exercise so we should change into our fatigues, report to the armoury and draw a rifle and some blank ammunition. Once outside, we were ordered to man the surrounds of the camp to repel the invaders coming from RAF Yatesbury, which was just down the road. We took up our positions and luckily for our little group, nothing happened near to us, although I did hear shouting and rifle fire in the distance. At around 22.00 the exercise ended so we made our way back to the armoury. As the ‘fighting’ had bypassed us, we still had our blank ammunition and I found the temptation to do something with my five unused rounds irresistible so as we passed one of the allotments in the camp, I blasted several cabbages; murdered them in cold blood (vegicide?). You’d be surprised how much damage just the wadding in a blank cartridge can do. Nothing was ever said about those shattered cabbages so I got away with it and although I’m ashamed to admit it now, I have to say it was great fun at the time. The second time I was called out for an exercise was in 1953 while stationed at RAF Uetersen, Northern Germany. I came off a Night Bind (the 00.00 to 08.00 watch), ate my breakfast and went to bed. I was soon fast asleep but an hour or so later I was woken up by loud hammering on the billet door and a burley Sergeant shouting, “Get up all of you” at the four of us who had just come off watch. We all loudly complained that we’d just finished a Night Bind but no avail. It was an emergency call out so we had to comply. Sleepily I made my way to the armoury and drew a good old Mk4 SMLE .303 rifle but no ammunition this time. We were marched out along a track adjacent to the camp and told to form an ambush either side. By bad luck, I jumped straight on to a nest of the largest ants I have ever seen and they instantly started crawling all over me but, luckily, not biting! I couldn’t move as it would have given away our ambush so I had to stay in there until the exercise was called off about an hour later. Looking back, I guess it was funny but it didn’t seem it at the time. I’ve enjoyed reminiscing; I just hope I’ve not bored you all too much. 73, Chris G3UFS
5
SPECIAL EVENT STATION Shoreham Lighthouse GB8SL Edmund M0MNG reports on his visit to the special event station GB8SL that WADARC set up in Shoreham Lighthouse for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.
M
y first visit to the Shoreham Lighthouse event was in August 2009, a couple of months before I had even obtained my Foundation licence. I’m sure that I have visited GB8SL every year since then for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW) and I can’t remember a previous ILLW where we were battered by such strong winds as we were for this one. Pete G4LKW reckoned you need to go back almost a decade for the last time we faced such adverse weather. Luckily, our off-centre-fed dipole didn’t fall down at any point, nor did the tent blow away! I worked two semi-local Special Event Stations (a lighthouse and a non-lighthouse) who weren’t so lucky. They both had their antennas blow down and in one case it had landed on a car belonging to a club member. I hope it was only a wire one rather than a big heavy Yagi. Unfortunately, having to reinforce our tent periodically meant that some operating time was lost during the Saturday. However, this was slightly compensated for by marginally better conditions than we have (generally) been experiencing on the HF bands lately. I know that by the Saturday evening, which
6
C was when I visited, we had managed to work the east coast of the USA and the Middle East (possibly Israel). Pete mentioned that we had also heard a station in Indonesia on 20m during the afternoon. Sadly, trying to break through the pileup would have been a hopeless endeavour – unlike many others, we were not using a beam and running several kilowatts! By the time I left on Saturday night we had made around 200 QSOs altogether, mainly on 40m SSB. Normally we would have worked more stations by that stage but the weather had conspired against us. VHF/UHF GB8SL has always been HF-only since I started visiting but this year Pete brought along a 2m/70cm collinear antenna as a last-minute addition. It sat nicely on top of the pump-up mast and it worked very well despite a small amount of breakthrough from our Elecraft K3 with its linear amplifier pumping out 300W on HF from the other side of the tent! I worked nine stations using Roger G7VBR's Yaesu FT-857, a couple on 2m simplex FM but mainly on 70cm via the GB3IW repeater on the Isle of Wight. These stations all seemed very happy that we had appeared on those bands; not everybody has the luxury of being able to have an HF station at home and not everybody can be at home to operate it at just the right moments. It is far easier to take a small VHF/UHF handheld with you if you are out and about than it is to slip even a Yaesu FT-817 into your pocket, for example. Previous Years I don't know how the Sunday fared but at least the strength of the wind dropped right down overnight. Last year GB8SL went QRT a couple of hours earlier than planned on the Sunday afternoon because propagation was so bad but this year I worked and heard the station on 40 and 20m several times from home during Sunday so I don’t believe it closed early this year or that things ran anything other than smoothly. Casting my mind back to previous ILLWs made me think of two things, apart from how lucky we have been with the weather previously. First, from 2009 until 2014 GB8SL on 40m SSB was always barely audible above the noise at my home QTH in East Preston. However, in
7
C 2015 and now in 2016, the station has been 59 every time I've heard it. This is despite GB8SL still being in the same location with its antenna running in the same direction (roughly east/west). Surely running a linear amplifier to bring the standard 100W at the back of the radio up to 400W wouldn’t account for that number of S-points difference on its own. Is it purely down to the vagaries of propagation or has something else changed that I have overlooked? Second, in recent years the other noteworthy thing is the absence of QRM caused by the Medium Wave (AM) broadcast mast at Southwick. It radiates five stations between 693kHz (BBC Radio Five Live) and 1485kHz (BBC Sussex) at various power levels. My research on the internet suggests the strongest (TalkSPORT on 1053kHz) currently uses over 2kW ERP! In the early years of my visits to GB8SL, I remember that QRM from the broadcast mast was mentioned every year without fail; it was particularly prominent on the lower HF bands and 80m was close to unusable. All kinds of filters, chokes and devices were fitted to every cable in sight and whilst they reduced the broadcast QRM, they didn’t get rid of it completely. I mentioned this to Phil G4UDU when he visited GB8SL while I was there and he explained that this is an indication of how the quality of radios has improved over the years. I can’t remember what make and model of radio we used in those days but this year our Elecraft K3 certainly did not suffer any broadcast breakthrough that I am aware of so it does seem radio build, design and quality has got better with the passing years, even if HF conditions have not. Next Year Next year sees the twentieth anniversary of the ILLW in its current format so it would be really nice to see an extra special effort and turnout at GB8SL from all WADARC members to help mark this occasion. Complete details of the ILLW, including its history, can be found at www.illw.net The ILLW is by far my favourite special event station weekend of all and I would like to encourage everybody to suggest ideas we could implement
8
C in advance and then to visit, operate and help to make the GB8SL 2017 20th birthday of the ILLW activation even more special. For example, I have ordered an Elk antenna from AMSAT and I’ll be taking my first faltering steps with working the FM satellites in the coming weeks. I’m hoping that after 12 months of practice, next year I’ll be able to activate GB8SL via satellite. I was also wondering about running an APRS beacon from the site as another way of letting people know our exact QTH and telling them that we are on the air. Having the VHF station again next year would be very welcome too, especially if HF conditions continue to be so unspectacular as we move closer and closer to the sunspot minimum. Videos I made a video of GB8SL in 2014 and this year I made another one which I hope will encourage amateurs to participate in the ILLW, even if it is ‘just’ by trying to work lighthouses from their homes. GB8SL features in the new video a couple of times. Both videos can be found on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFQGuvBjA8U (2016 video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcQX_Mfn6as (2014 video) Just click on these links to be taken to YouTube to view them. 73, Edmund M0MNG
9
G1EXG’S SHORT CIRCUITS This time Jonathan Hare G1EXG takes a look at LED flashers and gives you a couple of simple circuits for powering them from a single 1.5V cell.
Short Circuit No. 13: LED Flashers
I
t is useful sometimes to have flashing indictors on equipment and around the house. For instance, I use one by the light switch inside my garage so I can find it in the dark. Similar circuits are used in emergency torches, real (and fake) burglar alarms, security cameras and so on. The two circuits described here both incorporate a capacitor voltage doubler that allows an LED to flash on just a 1.5V battery. This is something that’s not normally possible with a single cell because LEDs need about 1.6 to 2V to light. If you use hyper bright LEDs, these circuits will create a nice bright flash. Each circuit takes very little current and will flash an LED continuously for many months or even years on a single battery (see below).
The first circuit uses the LM3909 LED flasher chip, a capacitor and the LED. The chip charges the capacitor up to 1.5V and then connects it in series with the battery providing a brief pulse to the LED. The result is a nicely timed brief but bright positive flash. Although no longer being produced, surplus stocks of the LM3909 are easily obtained on eBay. They are, however, often a bit pricey, which leads me to the next design.
10
C The second circuit uses standard NPN transistors to create a very similar effect. It's a standard flip-flop oscillator but with Darlington pairs of transistors for high gain and an IN5819 diode and a 100uF capacitor as the voltage doubler. The flash is not quite as satisfying or 'punchy' as the LM3909 circuit (it trails away a little at the end rather than going out abruptly) but it works pretty well.
As the power required to run these LED flashers is very low, they work well on homemade batteries, for example, a potato with two dissimilar metals pushed into it such as a zinc screw and a graphite pencil 'lead' (vinegar or salt water can also be used as an electrolyte). It makes a fun hands-on science workshop to get the LED to start flashing (you might need two potato batteries wired in series). I have found that if I use the LM3909 circuit with a large D cell battery, it will run for about eight years – longer than the ages of some of the kids in my science workshops! 73, Jonathan G1EXG
11
CONTEST SSB Field Day September 3rd & 4th 2016 Team G3WOR/P took part in SSB Field Day this year and despite a couple of initial glitches, they did very well, as Graham G4FNL reports.
The G3WOR/P Team from L-R: Graham G4FNL, Bodie 2E0VRM, Chris M0VUE, Pete G4LKW, Peter G4BVH, Roger G7VBR, Phil G4UDU, Norman 2E0RKO, Alistair M0OAL, Andrew G1VUP and Bryan G3GVB. Missing from the photo are Hayley M6YTI, Christine G4WYL and Mike G4TSQ.
I
was a member of the Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club’s team G3WOR/P for SSB Field Day this year and apart from a few minor glitches, it all went very well. We had a good number of operators, the weather was fine most of the time, we had very little trouble with the equipment and we ended up with a good number of QSOs.
Preparation SSB Field is quite a complicated event and preparation is important so in July we had a planning meeting to discuss some of the initial preparatory arrangements. I’d already asked for those who might be interested to let me know their availability and likely involvement in the contest this year. From their replies, we created an operating roster.
12
C We were all keen to promote the Club plus we wanted to do better than we did last year. We also hoped to encourage newer members who probably have less HF operating experience to be involved. After all, they will be the Club contest operators of the future. In an attempt to achieve all this, we devised the ambitious plan of having two completely separate stations running simultaneously. One was to be the main station using the callsign G3WOR/P and the other was going to be used as a training station using the callsign G1VUP/P. We didn’t use G1WOR/P – the club’s other callsign – for it because we thought other competitors might confuse it with our main station’s callsign. The accompanying photos show the main station setup; a K3 with a voice keyer and one of the logging computers. What you can’t see is that we actually had two computers networked together to let two operators to operate ‘big knob/little knob’ style, allowing QSOs to be dovetailed into the combined log. The two stations were almost identical so operators could have a practise run on the training station before getting involved with the main one. An Elecraft K3 with a voice keyer.
They both used Elecraft K3 radios fitted with the same foot-switch controlled PTT and the same headsets. Even the logging programs were exactly the same. The stations were located about 200m apart at Lordings Farm, which is in Adversane. We’re fortunate because we have a long-standing connection One of the logging laptops. with the farmer, whose father was Ernie G8OS. This site has been used as a Field Day QTH for many years and prior to its use by the Worthing Club, the field was used by the G4DAA contest group in the 1970s. Having this local connection helped enormously in obtaining permission to use the site in 2016.
13
C
The main station antenna system and operating tent beneath.
The white mess tent shown left is in the centre of the field with Andrew’s camper van alongside. The training station is way over to the right and in the foreground is a rather sad-looking gazebo that’s covering the generators. The toilet tent can’t be seen in this photo because it had fallen over!
14
C Getting Started The advance party consisting of Andrew G1VUP, Alistair M0OAL, Pete G4LKW, Chris M0VUE, Norman 2E0RKO, Bodie 2E0VRM, Roger G7VBR and Phil G4UDU arrived on site on the Friday afternoon to set up the stations. A visitor to the Club, Peter G4BVH, arrived a little later to set up the main station radio and IT equipment. (Peter had tested the setup a few weeks before at home to ensure that it would work without any hitches). Despite the weather being a little unkind – drizzly rain and everyone ending up with very wet feet – with such manpower available, both stations were up and running before 20.00. I received a phone call from Andrew letting me know the good news. We deliberately made the antenna setup for the two stations different this time. From experience we chose to use a doublet (40m long and 15m high) at the main station. This was to cover the main HF bands from 3.5 to 28MHz. For the training station we used an inverted L antenna that was pointed away from the main station antenna in order to minimise any interference at such close proximity – it was to prove a very good HF aerial. Problems Aside from a couple of very small issues there were few problems. During the setting up, both Pete G4LKW and I both managed to lose our glasses. After a lot of frantic searching, I found mine hidden behind a laptop just before the start of the contest at 14.00 but it wasn’t until around 16.00 on the Sunday, long after most people had gone home, that Pete’s glasses turned up. Christine G4WYL, who was onsite with a VHF station with Mike G4TSQ, found them close to a guying line that Pete must have helped to erect on the Friday afternoon. At around 14.08 on the Saturday, as one of our team was leaving the site for an appointment at home and, his car inadvertently snagged the 240V power cable that was feeding power to the operating tent. Luckily, Norman 2E0RKO was there and he sprang into action and immediately organised the repairs. There was no real disruption because we were running from a 13.8V supply that was float-charging a large capacity battery coupled in parallel although it did cause a little bit of a commotion. Fortunately, it had absolutely no impact on our score. There was also an RF problem caused by siting the operating tent just a little too close to the antenna but that was soon resolved by moving equipment around. We also suffered with an anomalous problem with the auto ATU which refused to remain tuned on 28MHz and would randomly retune for no apparent reason. This is something we’ve added to the ‘to do list’ to be resolved before next time. The other thing that we’ll have to sort out is the problem we found with the Club’s generators. The Club has two petrol generators that rarely get used and Norman had kindly arranged to service the machines before the contest but when he did, he found
15
C that the fuel tanks had signs of internal rust. This resulted in some small particles getting into the carburettors, causing the generators to cut out every now and again. Once again the large float battery we’d connected in parallel to the 13.8V PSU came to the rescue and kept us on the air but even so it was a little disconcerting when the 240V lights went out occasionally. Norman had rigged the electrics to allow either of the two generators to be ready to go at any time and he had a lamp illuminating the area to enable safe refuelling and power changeover. Saturday Saturday morning arrived and we had pleasant sunny weather, which was much appreciated. Alistair had managed to put together a rudimentary kitchen in the large white marquee tent that the Club owns and he was up early on Saturday morning to get breakfast consisting of hot coffee and bacon rolls on the go.
The Saturday morning crew: L-R Pete G4LKW, Norman 2E0RKO, Andrew G1VUP, Alistair M0OAL, Chris M0VUE and Bodie 2E0VRM.
16
C
Al Fresco Breakfast: L-R Alistair M0OAL, Bodie 2E0VRM, Chris M0VUE, Pete G4LKW, Andrew G1VUP, Norman 2E0RKO, Christine G4WYL and Mike G4TSQ.
The Worthing and District Amateur Radio Club (WaDARC), in common with many other amateur radio clubs, has a few members who are keen on the competitive element of the hobby and many others who aren’t but who still enjoy getting involved with putting up a temporary radio station in the middle of a field, without any infrastructure or utility services, and operating the radio in an environment where there is very little man-made noise and where simple antennas seem to work so much better than from an urban location. We are not a contest group so operating radios in a contest environment is a little foreign and unusual for most members. Consequently, at 11.00 on the Saturday I ran through the rules, the proposed operating roster and I also explained how we would need to work together to try to make the ‘big knob/little knob’ operating system work.
17
C It’s a very simple and effective system that utilises two operators sitting in front of the radio – one on the left and the other on the right. Each one operates his or her own VFO knob, one the larger main VFO (VFO A) knob and the other the smaller VFO B knob, hence the name. As the K3 we were using has two two identical but separate receivers, each operator could listen to another part of the same band so that when landing on a new band, the VFO would be centrally located on, say 3700kHz, and one operator would tune HF and the other LF, each trying to spot and work new stations, working in the ‘search and pounce’ (S&P) way. Once the band had dried-up, the choice was to run by calling CQ or to change band. We were to do this process continually throughout the contest, looking at the rate meter and multiplier score on the logging programme to motivate us. The scoring for this contest works as follows: 2 points for each valid QSO with stations within IARU Region 1 (mainly Europe), 3 points for anyone worked outside of this area and 5 points for a QSO with a portable or mobile station. Then the score is multiplied by the quantity of unique DXCC entities (or countries) that are worked per band. The start of the contest was at 13:00 and visitor Peter G4BVH and I were in place about 20 minutes beforehand to assess band conditions and get things started. Conditions were poor and our check of 28, 21 and 14MHz revealed very few workable signals on any of these bands so we decided to move further LF, straight onto 7MHz. Within an hour we had 53 QSOs in the log, which was significantly more than in previous years. Whilst the higher QSO rate was encouraging, we were aware that staying solely on 7MHz would reduce our multiplier total and hence we kept a watchful eye and ear on the HF bands in case they opened up for some valuable multipliers. At 14.00, the next pair of operators took over. They were Andrew G1VUP and Pete G4LKW, They’d spent some time at the training station during the first hour and now they were ready to go on duty at the main station. They decided to move to 14MHz and by 15.00 we were up to serial number 115, which was 79 ahead of the previous year’s number. It was starting to look very The main station setup with Andrew G1VUP and Pete G4LKW. encouraging.
18
C Other operators in the team, including Bodie 2E0VRM, Alistair M0OAL, Chris M0VUE and Hayley M6YTI, also spent some time getting used to the training setup in Norman’s ‘TransMit’ van. Bodie 2E0VRM getting ready for the TransMit.
Hayley M6YTI operating the training station G1VUP/P
Bodie 2E0VRM and Pete G4LKW (with spare specs).
The main station operation continued, with a change of operators every hour or so. As mentioned, HF propagation was poor on the Saturday and despite many frequent band checks, no QSOs could be made on 21 nor 28MHz. When the QSOs started to dry up, we continued the cycle of landing on a new band and carrying out a search and pounce operation. We also called CQ frequently whenever we felt that we could generate some QSO traffic. We’d previously planned to switch to 3.5MHz at about 19.00 because that’s when we would be assured of a good run rate but we were forced to go there a little earlier whilst it was still light but even so we still managed a respectable rate for 30 minutes or so. Having worked all we could, we then moved bands again although we would return to 3.5MHz a little later, just as darkness was falling. We decided to ask newly licensed Hayley M6YTI to call CQ on the main station on 3.5MHz when her shift started at 19.00 with Andrew on hand to help with the log keeping. This partnership worked very well with Hayley producing plenty of callers and
19
C by 20.00 we were up to serial number 250, which was 100 up on the previous year. Throughout the event, as operators’ shifts came and went, there was the ever-present pressure to maintain rate and accuracy and to keep an eye on the DXCluster for any new multipliers that might be available. Here are some of them in action.
Pete G4LKW and Al M0OAL
Andrew G1VUP
Hayley M6YTI
Chris M0VUE
Norman 2E0RKO
20
C Whilst the rest of the team were concentrating on taking part in SSB Field Day, two other Club members Mike G4TSQ and Christine G4WYL had already set up their mobile home on the field between the two stations. They were there to take part in the RSGB 2m contest that was also running for that weekend. Their mobile home and aerial setup is shown below. Mike and Christine operating 2m from G4TSQ/P with G3WOR/P in the background.
Saturday Night & Sunday Morning The weather during the earlier part of Saturday evening was quite wet but, fortunately for us, by about 21.00z it had stopped and it became a rather balmy and dry night. It was also unusually mild so the tent was a (relatively) comfortable operating environment. The contest continued through the night although the QSO rate and new multipliers started to fall. Pictured here are Andrew G1VUP and Hayley M6YTI making QSOs on 3.5MHz at 01.45z (that’s 2.45am local time!) Over in the training environment station, we’d closed down activities at 21.00z for the night, having bagged 146 QSOs in the log.
21
C It was at 08.17z on the Sunday morning that finally we experienced an improvement in the HF propagation with our first QSO on 21MHz. It was with 5B4AIF, who kindly exchanged numbers with us even though he was taking part in the All Asian Contest. As ever, SSB Field Day coincided with the All Asian contest, where your own age is part of the contest exchange. In 2016, The Worthing Club is 68-years-old and we had to remember to state that each time we worked a station in Asia. To help the less experienced members, I had made sure script cards with the typical contest exchanges for both the All Asian and for SSB Field Day contests were printed and put out on display in the operating tent so that all operators could use them as an aide-memoire. A little later at 10.12z, we finally found that 28MHz was open and subsequently managed to work a few European stations. Picking off the QSOs on 28MHz was worth the additional effort because of the valuable multiplier factor. For the remainder of the contest, we continued cycling around the bands. Making QSOs was becoming increasingly difficult and frustrating because we’d already worked most of the stations that we could hear. Nonetheless, this process is essential in order to get the highest score possible with a basic 100W SSB signal and a simple wire antenna so we had to try to raise as many of the weak signals as we could. This was a bit laborious but necessary because I knew our competitors would almost certainly be going through exactly the same routine. During the latter part of Sunday morning, we started the tear-down process, removing the tents and gear, in fact anything that was no longer needed to keep the main station running. The training station over at G1VUP/P had done its job and that too was closed down with the last QSO in their log at 11.31z. Finally, over on the main station we made our last QSO at 12.58z and then the process of breaking down that setup began. All the team worked really well and, surprisingly, everything was down and we were ready to leave by 15.30, less than two hours after the contest ended. Conclusion At the end of the 24 hours continuous operating period and with a tired team, we ended up with the QSO statistics shown in the table. The numbers compare very favourably with the score from last year and going by claimed QSO totals only on the RSGB Contest Committee website, we are at the time of writing (mid-September 2016) sitting in third place (out of 23). The training station sent in a checklog with a QSO count of 182 QSOs. Part of the success in achieving a good score is to minimise the logging errors. Leading contest groups usually expect an error rate of 0.5% or lower. Ours was 3.78% - see the larger table at the end of the article for an analysis of the errors.
22
C BAND
QSOS
POINTS
MULTS
3.5
254
1043
28
7
181
852
27
14
127
501
26
21
26
100
16
28
10
47
6
Totals Claimed Score (points x mults)
598
2543
103 261,929
I would like to record my thanks to all those who got involved this year. Considering the mix of skills and abilities combined with establishing and operating a fairly complicated contest radio setup, I think that we can be proud of what we achieved and I am sure that it will be useful experience that can be used in many other radio environments. 73, Graham G4FNL
Late News Graham submitted this article before the final scores were known. They are now in and this is his latest e-mail: “The results for SSB Field Day are in. WaDARC came second in the restricted section. We had the SAME QSO count as the first placed station but six fewer multipliers (those who were on site will recall that I kept going on about working mults!) So, all-in-all, a good result I reckon…”
23
SSB Field Day Error Analysis
24
SPECIAL EVENT STATION Worthing Fire Brigade GB2WFB WADARC set up a special event station at the Worthing Fire Station Open Day and Edmund M0MNG was there.
E
arlier this year WADARC set up a Special Event Station (SES) at the base of the training tower in the school field behind the fire station as part of the Worthing Fire Station Open Day. I don’t have a copy of the log in front of me as I type this but these are how events unfolded from memory. My family arrived during the early part of the afternoon so, unfortunately, there will inevitably be gaps in this account; both in terms of QSOs and the other club members who made them. SES GB2WFB went on the air at 10.00 local time and we headed straight for the 40m band using SSB. Our very first CQ drew an instant reply and we ended up staying on the same frequency for a couple of hours. Our first six or so contacts were to countries such as Northern Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands. No WADARC SES would be complete without us working the living legend that is Jaap PA1MV, who worked us very early in the proceedings. He seems to chase after every British SES
25
C in existence and he’s easy to spot thanks to his audio, which is always ‘distinctive’! All of a sudden, we stopped hearing overseas stations and were called instead by a string of stations in England. It really did feel like somebody had flicked a switch, it was that sudden. We worked several people in Worthing and the nearby Sussex area via ground wave / Near Vertical Incidence Skywave. I am not sure if many of them were club members though. We also worked Ian F/G7HFS/M from Eastbourne, who was sitting in his van near the port of Calais. He was particularly complimentary about the audio quality from the Club's Elecraft K3 so it seems the discussions we had about the optimum settings for our K3 at the Yapton ‘on the air and activity weekend’ have paid off. Eventually we found the contacts on 40m dried up. I know that Brian G0SIU managed to work a couple of stations on 20m after that and I believe that these were SSB contacts, even though we had a straight CW key sitting in front of us. Then, during the early part of the afternoon (13.30 local time), all the bands suddenly seemed to become devoid of any strong signals. Once again, it was as if somebody had thrown a switch.
26
C I called CQ repeatedly using SSB and CW at about 12 wpm on 40m and above but to no avail. Interestingly, our CW signals were heard in several continental European countries and the Reverse Beacon Network picked up our calls on 40 and 30m. www.reversebeacon.net Mentioning CW, I was intrigued when a member of the public visited the WADARC tent and showed us a really attractive-looking vintage Morse key. Unfortunately, I don't have any more details about it. Finally, with only 30 minutes to go until the event closed to the public at 16.00, I remembered that I had brought a handheld with me. I tried a call through GB3WO and am pleased to report that the repeater's output was a very strong signal at Worthing Fire Station. This was despite the fact that I was at ground level using just a handheld (Wouxun KG-UV6D) and its supplied rubber duck. My call was answered by Leon G4FFE and because we were both in Worthing, we QSYed to a 70cms simplex frequency and vacated GB3WO so others could use it. This QSO was not only the final contact of the day but it was also the only one that took place outside of the HF bands. We didn’t have a 2m FM station this year, mainly (I suspect) due to the very sad passing of Peter G8MSQ. 73, Edmund M0MNG
27
CLUB CALENDAR NOVEMBER 2016 2nd ......................... Discussion Evening 3rd .......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 5th .......................... 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 6th .......................... Monthly Breakfast 6th .......................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 7th .......................... 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 9th .......................... Quiz Night 10th ........................ 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 12th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 13th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 14th ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 16th ........................ Discussion Evening 17th ........................ 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 19th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 20th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 21st ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 23rd ........................ Construction Competition 24th ........................ 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 26th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 27th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 28th ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 30th ........................ Discussion Evening
28
C DECEMBER 2016 1st .......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 3rd .......................... 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 4th .......................... 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 4th .......................... Monthly Breakfast 5th .......................... 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 7th .......................... Test or Practical Evening 8th .......................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 10th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 11th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 12th ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 14th ........................ Club Christmas Party 15th ........................ 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 17th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 18th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 19th ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 21st ........................ Discussion Evening 22nd ....................... 40m SSB Net 11.00 to 11.30 7.106MHz ±QRM 24th ........................ 70cm Repeater Net GB3WO 25th ........................ 80m SSB Net 07.30 to 08.00 3.712MHz ±QRM 26th ........................ 2m Simplex Net 19:30 to 20.00 145.425MHz 28th ........................ No Meeting
29
RALLIES 2016 OCTOBER 2nd – British Vintage Wireless Society Auto Jumble The Angel Leisure Centre, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1SF 9th – Hornsea Amateur Radio Rally Floral Hall, 7 The Esplanade, Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire HU18 1NQ 9th – Hack Green Bunker Rally Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 8AL 16th – Holsworthy Radio Rally Holsworthy Community College, Victoria Hill, Holsworthy, Devon EX22 6JD 23rd – Galashiels Rally Volunteer Hall, St Johns Street, Galashiels TD1 3JX
NOVEMBER 6th – West London Radio & Electronics Show (Kempton Rally) Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury on Thames, TW16 5AQ. 6th – Bushvalley ARC Annual Rally United Services Club, 8 Roe Mill Road, Limavady, Co. Londonderry BT49 9DF 19th – Rochdale & DARS Traditional Radio Rally St Vincent de Paul’s, Caldershaw Road, Norden, Rochdale OL12 7QR 20th – Cats Radio & Electronics Bazaar Oasis Academy Coulsdon, Homefield Road, Old Coulsdon CR5 1ES 20th – Plymouth Radio Rally Harewood House, Plympton, Plymouth, Devon PL7 2AS
DECEMBER 3rd – South Lancashire Winter Rally Bickershaw Labour Club, Bickershaw Lane, Bickershaw, Wigan WN2 5TE. 4th – Bishop Auckland RAC Rally Spennymoor Leisure Centre, 32 High St, Spennymoor, Durham DL16 6DB
30