QUA Welcome, to the December 2014 edition of the Stockport Radio Society (SRS) Newsletter Written and compiled by SRS members, ‘QUA’ (Have you news of… ?) is your source of news, views and informed opinion on all matters relating to - and about - your hobby.
AGM & Social Night 16 December 2014 All members are welcome to the AGM and social evening that follows - Get a raffle ticket on entry with the chance to win a £10 RSGB voucher - Walthew House - 7.30pm Tony M0SAV presenting our Chairman Nigel G0RXA with his trophy - Pint pot and a bell for calling time!! Presentation at AGM 2013
Diary Dates Tues 2 Dec 2014 Society Meeting Thurs 11 Dec 2014 On Air from Home QTH Tues 16 Dec 2014 AGM and Social Evening Sunday 28 Dec 2014 Xmas & New Year Special On the Air from Walthew House - 2m and 40M HF Nets
2015 Dates Tuesday 6 Jan 2015 Society Meeting Sunday 11 Jan 2015 CW Event (AFS) 80m contest 14.00-18.00 GMT Thursday 15 Jan 2015 On air from QTH Saturday 17 Jan 2015 SSB Event (AFS) 80m contest 14.00-18.00 GMT Tuesday 20 Jan 2015 Society Meeting Tuesday 27 Jan 2015
Skills night from HQ
Tuesday 3 Feb 2015 Society Meeting
Website : www.g8srs.co.uk
Thursday 12 Feb 2015 On Air from QTH
Tel : 07506 904422
Tuesday 17 Feb 2015
SRS Wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Society Meeting
Stockport Radio Society - Review of Events
Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) Local scout group Radio Orienteering Team
Local Scout Groups have been organising an annual Technical Camp for scouts for the last few years at Linnet Clough, Marple. Not by accident is the event organised for JOTA weekend as one of their key activities is geared to enable the scouts to gain their Communications Badges by using amateur radio to contact other scouting groups around the world. This year a shortage of radio operators led to SRS being asked to support the event. Members Tom M0DCG, Kieron M5KJM, Tony M0SAV, Andy 2E0GCL, Mike M6MPC, Neal 2E0NAL and myself joined Ian G4ZVA and Peter M0ZED to operate 2 HF and a VHF/UHF stations to support the 35 or so scouts tackling the training required prior to taking the oral exam needed to gain their badge. Antenna / Building used for Briefing sessions were set-up to outline amateur Radio Operations radio licencing requirements, operating procedures, phonetic alphabets and HF/VHF/UHF propagation conditions. These sessions were then supplemented with practical’s where they exchanged messages over the radio and logged QSOs they observed.
SRS Links: Stockport Radio Society www.g8srs.co.uk RSGB - www.rsgb.org RSGB Region 3 www.rsgb-region-3.org.uk UK FM Group Western www.ukfmgw.org.uk Ofcom www.licensing.ofcom.org.uk ARRL - www.arrl.org QRZ.com - www.qrz.com UK Repeaters www.ukrepeater.net Raynet - www.raynet-uk.net Summits on the air www.sota.org.uk
Local Radio Clubs:
These activities were just part of the very structured weekend organised for the scouts where, every half hour slot of both days, were assigned to cover a variety of topics that including Electronic Construction, Digital Photography, Radio Orienteering, Radio Controlled cars, Flight Simulation and computer skills.
GB3PZ.com Macclesfield Wireless Society GX4MWS Manchester Wireless Society, G5MS
Where were all these when I was younger?! A thoroughly enjoyable though tiring weekend.
Bernard G3SHF
Peak Contesting Group - Last Contest of the Season Following the 48 hour CQWW SSB contest over the weekend of 25/26 October, the PCG are gearing up for the CW section that takes place over the weekend of 29/30 November. Again a 48 hour contest starting at midnight Friday and ending midnight Sunday when the group participate in the MULTI2 section. MULTI2 is where a station can run 2 transceivers simultaneously but on different HF bands requiring 2 lots of operators for the 48 hour period. This in itself will be a challenge as Carsten G0SYP and Michael G4OCR are not available to operate this year. However this does provide an opportunity for Tom M0DCG and Kieron M5KJM to join the operating team of Dave G0LZL, Evan M0TJU and myself.
Mid Cheshire ARS, G3ZTT North Cheshire RC, G0BAA Northern Amateur Radio Societies Association (NARSA) Oldham Radio Club RSGB Region 3 Website Radio Millennium Lodge, M0RML Rochdale & DARS (R.A.D.A.R.S), G0ROC South Cheshire ARS, G6TW
The venue will be Whitgate’s Field at Common Barn Farm Rainow. This site is 1300 asl with excellent take off in all directions enjoying very little electrical noise.
South Lancashire ARC, M0SLR
Two towers will support the 2 aerial systems required. Yagi’s will be used for 20, 15 and 10m. While dipoles will be used for 40, 80 and 160m. 2 FT1000 transceivers will be used with linear amplifiers fed via multi Band Pass Filters essential to protect the receivers from the high powers transmitted from aerials less than 200 feet apart.
South Manchester Radio & Computing Club
Logging is done by networked computers running Wintest contest software. Additional operator support is provided by the Return Beacon Network accessed via the internet. While a local Skimmer system using an SDR receiver will provide additional spots. Anyone interested in visiting the site either while the contest is taking place, or during the set-up/down phases will be made very welcome. Please ask any of the team members for more details if required. 2
Bernard G3SHF
The Simpson Amateur Radio Society, M0SRA Warrington Radio Club West Manchester RC, G4MWC
Stockport Radio Society - Double Sapphire Award / Presentations
Double Sapphire Award The award has now been running for just over four years. The idea of the award was to bring together all the licensed hams in our club to talk to each other and gain confidence in operating ham radio equipment.
Local Repeaters in and around Stockport 6m
The Double Sapphire Award itself is in the form of a skillfully crafted certificate and available in two classes.
The two classes of the award for contacts are as follows:
2m
Silver - 25 members or 20 members +1 society call, or 15 members +2 society calls, or 10 members +3 society calls = 25 points any mode any band and only current call being used.
GB7MA (Bury)
GB3MN (Stockport)
Gold – a further 25 members or 20 members +1 society call, or 15 members +2 society calls, or 10 members +3 society calls = 25 points (25 silver points +25 gold points = 50 points) any mode any band, and you can work any member, or club call again in this section as long as it is not on the same band as it was work on in the silver section, and again only current call to be used.
GB3MP (Denbigh)
GB3VT (Stoke on Trent)
Support your club, get your name on the Roll of Honour. We have 5 members with the Silver Award and 1 member with the Gold Award.
GB7DV (St Helens)
GB3CR (Widnes)
GB3LI (Liverpool)
GB3LL (Llandudno)
GN3MA (Bury)
GB3MF (Macclesfield)
GB3MR (Stockport)
GB3PZ (Dukinfield)
GB3SM (Stoke on Trent)
GB3ST (Stoke on Trent)
GB7WC (Dukinfield)
GB3WP (Hyde)
The joy of amateur radio is speaking to people.
Double Sapphire Award Presentation At the last society meeting Tuesday 22 October, our Chairman Nigel G0RXA presented Tony M0SAV with his double sapphire award for reaching 25 points Well Done Tony
Cheque Presentation to Walthew House Dear Kay, Harry Arnfield was the President of Stockport Radio Society for many years. Unfortunately, Harry died on the 10th August 2014 and in his memory the Society wanted to donate £100. The Executor of his will Mrs Susan Linney, asked us to make the cheque payable to Walthew House, as the blind was one of Harrys charities.
Alan Gurnhill on behalf of the Committee.
GB3SX (Stoke on Trent)
70cm
23cm
GB3SE (Stoke on Trent)
Not Operational GB3MF All information provided above is sourced from www.ukfmgw.co.uk There is normally a yearly charge for using the repeaters. If you use a repeater on a regular basis please support them by subscribing to them.
Our recent foundation candidates with their tutors
Individual £12.50 per year Family £20.00 per year 3
Stockport Radio Society - Morse Morse Code
Mike’s Morse Page A
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Clue - You will need this to get on air
O
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Stockport Radio Society have a regular morse class at the start of every society meeting 7pm to 7.30pm run by our own ‘Tintwistle Tapper’ Mike Carter. Just for Fun - Morse Countdown (Conundrum supplied by Al G0ROW) Using the morse letters below, re re--arrange to solve the conundrum -
Answer :
Morse Keys - The difference Straight Key - A straight up and down switch (or key). This was the only mode for fledging wireless or radio systems of the early twentieth century.
5 Bug - Around the turn of 20th century, as more speeds increased, operators wanted a faster sending key. This would 7 enable the sending of dots to be more automated using a vibrating steel mechanical arm. These were called ‘bugs’ or semi 9 automatic keys.
_ _ _ _ . 10 _ _ _ _ _
Phonetic Alphabet Side Sweeper - This is a speed key without electronics. This is a very rare device.
Electronic Keyers - In the late 50s, a new type of key was developed using electronics to produce dots and dashes in the correct ratio of 1:3 when a paddle was connected.
Paddles (keys) - This is a mechanical interface between sender and an electronic keyer. Normally touched by the sender’s thumb (for dots) and fore-finger (for dashes). There are a couple of types - single lever / double lever. Keyboard - Sending is made by using a keyboard. These are normally standalone boxes which take keyboard input and produce morse directly. Nowadays morse can be sent using computers whilst also running other programs. Last Issues Answer - operating 4
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu
Stockport Radio Society - Members Page
Members Profile - Jack M6FRI First of all let me thank all those who guided me through the Foundation exam and letting me put myself back on the Amateur Radio ladder as M6FRI, although its only at foundation level it means a great deal to me. Going back a few years (1960) in fact, I was called up to do what they called National Service in those days, it was New Years day 1960 when a young telegram boy complete with pillbox hat and a red bicycle handed me a telegram that told me to report to Ducie Street just off Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester to sign on for military service. I was conscripted into the Royal Signals and was told to report to 7TR Catterick for basic training (square bashing as it was nick named). After basic training came Trade training reporting to a training unit in Newark to start studying to be a Radio Operator, I was in training for three months or so, cannot remember exactly, we were taught Morse to a certain level and mostly HF using of course the famous 19 set. Having done all the Radio training I was posted to a an operational unit in Colchester—209 Signal Sqdn,19 Brigade Headquarters and this was where I started my interest in Amateur Radio. There were two people licensed at the time, an officer from the Royal Engineers and a corporal by the name of Dave Jack, G3OFV and because he was Irish he also held EI3AH. Although Dave was already licensed we were keen to get a call sign for our squadron, we approached the Officer Commanding 209 Signal Squadron for permission and he agreed, because Corporal Jack was a Radio Technician it was agreed that we split the RAE and for me to sit the Morse test and for Dave G3OFV to sit all the technical, there was a bit more to it than this however everything went to plan. About a week to ten days later I am waiting at the camp gates for the post to arrive and hopefully have notice of pass and if so a call sign allocation ect, A brown envelope arrived marked OHMS on the top of the envelope, I am excited at this stage so off i go to see Dave G3OFV to have him open the letter, and right enough the contents contained everything I wanted. Dave of course had been through it all before, anyway it was not long after this and under the supervision of G3OFV I was to make my first call using the new 209 Signal squadron call sign. At this time G3OFVs equipment consisted of an Eddystone 750 HF receiver, and a Apache transmitter 50 watt if I remember, but all the antennas used in those days were home made. In the field at the back of the shack was a home brew Cubical Quad, made out of garden canes, a 20 meter dipole, a bought antenna called a Rhombic, a Yagi type antenna if that rings a bell with any of the older members. Being all excited to establishing my first CQ call on 80 mtrs, I commenced CQ CQ CQ this is G3PTE (new call sign) CQ CQ CQ this is G3PTE in Colchester in the county of Essex approximately 70 miles north east of London. CQ CQ CQ this is G3PTE, what say someone please. The speaker nearly shot off the wall, G3PTE, G3PTE this is G3XYZ (don’t remember his C/S) also in Colchester in the county of Essex and if you stand on your roof I’ll wave to you, he was about 4-500 yards across the field at the back of the shack, so this was my first contact using the new Squadron call sign, what the biggest laugh was, he sent me a QSL card. Happy Days Regards. Jack M6FRI
5
Membership You can become a member of Stockport Radio Society by completing a membership form and, either emailing it to treasurer@g8srs.co.uk or hand the form to the Treasurer at any Society Meeting.
Payable Annually Dec 1st Senior
£12.00
Family
£12.00
Country
£ 7.00
Pensioner
£ 7.00
Junior
£ 1.00
Meeting Admission £ 2.00 per meeting or an annual meeting admission fee of £36.00 ’Guide to Membership’. A copy can be requested or can be downloaded from our website
Course Fees Foundation £45.00 - Based on a minimum of 4 students Intermediate £90.00 - Based on a minimum of 4 students Other costs : Kit from Kanga : £26.00 inc P&P Text Book RSGB : £6.99 plus P&P
Advanced £85.00 - Based on a minimum of 4 students
Prices correct at publication but maybe subject to change
Email courses@g8srs.co.uk to book or request further information.
Stockport Radio Society - HF Ladder with Evan M0TJU HF Ladder Summary As at 1 Nov 2014
Frequencies LF (Low Frequency)
In the two months from the end of August the HF Ladder just got bigger and better; ‘bigger’ because there are now 12 entrants instead of 10, and the number slots earned has jumped by more than 50%; ‘better’ because the competition is getting tighter, especially in the middle of the leaderboard, where a couple of dark horses have emerged. Relative activity across the bands is little-changed; no band has significantly gained (or lost) favour over the past couple of months. The WARC-to-non-WARC ratio of slots hasn’t moved much, either. What clearly has changed is that operators are more willing to try – or to allocate greater time to – modes other than their ‘specialties’, and have been rewarded with slots as a result. Digital has been the main beneficiary of this: digimode slots presently account for a fifth of the slots compared to only an eighth when we took our last snapshot. Sideband has also boosted its share, with CW (Morse) being caught in the pincer movement: CW slots now make a little over half of the slots, down from two thirds. Looking at the individual ‘players’, two of the society’s three Nigels – Roscoe G0RXA and Stanley 2E0CKA – have entered the fray, with G0RXA having registered 86 slots, so immediately placing himself in the middle order. Particularly impressive was his 37 slots on 10m phone, which is by far the highest tally for that band/mode combination. 2E0CKA, who has just started operating on HF from his home QTH, is off the mark. His seven slots are spread across the 40-, 20- and 17-metre bands. Joining G0RXA as the other dark horse of the 2014 Ladder is Pete M1PTR, who has shot up from the near-bottom to fifth place with his handy total of 137. Also like Nigel R, a decent chunk of Pete’s slots (22) were earned using 28MHz phone, putting him second place, behind G0RXA, in that band/mode combo. Pete has also put digimodes to good use, gaining a quarter of his slots using PSK and RTTY. There has been little change in the scores and the ladder positions of Bob GM4UYZ, Graham G3ZOD and Tom M0DCG over the last couple of months. (Bob may not have updated Clublog in the interim, as his shown score is unchanged.) That said, each of these contestants has concentrated heavily on only a few select bands, leaving him able to easily gain slots on other parts of the spectrum – should he choose to do so. Kieron M5KJM, while nearly doubling his slot total since the last Ladder report, still finds himself in the bottom half of the leaderboard. As nearly all of his contacts are on 14MHz and above, a simple change in focus – to the medium-frequency bands – should change his fortunes. As we head into the final weeks, an interesting tussle has developed between Bernard G3SHF and Alan G0ROW for (at-present) third place. Bernard has more than doubled his slot count in the past two months, and is now 11 points ahead of Alan (whose total is 234). Bernard made a particular effort to boost his tally on 20 metres, a band that he needed to work on a couple of months ago. Even if both operators stick to their modes of choice (CW for Bernard and SSB for Alan), there is still quite a bit of room for each to boost his respective total: Alan has underworked 10m, and Bernard could do more on 15; both could pay greater attention to 80. While Alan may presently be fourth in the overall count, he has over twice the SSB-related slots of his nearest rival: M1PTR, with 103. Incidentally, Alan is the only contestant to have made slots on 60 metres. Continued on next page ...
2000m : 135.7 - 137.8Khz
MF (Medium Frequency) 630m : 472 - 479Khz 160m : 1.81 - 2.0Mhz
HF (High Frequency) 80m : 3.5 - 3.8Mhz 60m : Consists of 11 spot frequencies check band plan 40m : 7.0 - 7.2Mhz 30m : 10.1 - 10.15Mhz 20m : 14 - 14.35Mhz 17m : 18.068 - 18.168Mhz 15m : 21 - 21.45Mhz 12m : 24.89 - 24.99Mhz 10m : 28 - 29.7Mhz
Note for operating on 60m Only available to advanced licence holders and also requires a NOV from RSGB
VHF (Very High Frequency) 6m : 50 - 52Mhz 4m : 70 - 70.5Mhz 2m : 144.0 - 146.0Mhz
UHF
(Ultra High Frequency)
70cms : 430.0 - 440Mhz 23cms : 1240.0 - 325Mhz CHECK OUT OUR DEDICATED YOU TUBE CHANNEL STOCKPORT RADIO SOCIETY 6
Stockport Radio Society - HF Ladder with Evan M0TJU
Band Totals: Proportion:
160m
80m
60m
40m
30m
20m
17m
15m
12m
10m
6m
39 2%
165 7%
6 0%
396 16%
147 6%
533 21%
241 10%
464 18%
178 7%
285 11%
73 3%
2527 100%
By Band G0SYP* M0TJU G0ROW G3SHF GM4UYZ
Slots 895 582 234 245 110
160m 4% 0% 0% 0% 0%
80m 10% 6% 0% 2% 7%
60m 0% 0% 3% 0% 0%
40m 17% 17% 18% 16% 1%
30m 7% 6% 0% 18% 0%
20m 12% 22% 22% 20% 47%
17m 9% 10% 22% 12% 1%
15m 18% 17% 17% 11% 44%
12m 8% 7% 10% 11% 0%
10m 11% 11% 6% 10% 0%
6m 4% 4% 3% 1% 0%
WARC 25% 23% 32% 40% 1%
G3ZOD M5KJM M0DCG M1PTR MX5MDX 2E0CKA G0RXA
98 88 43 137 3 6 86
0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
1% 8% 5% 9% 100% 0% 0%
0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
5% 0% 42% 26% 0% 17% 6%
6% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
32% 25% 40% 26% 0% 50% 44%
3% 10% 7% 0% 0% 33% 1%
33% 22% 7% 21% 0% 0% 5%
0% 15% 0% 1% 0% 0% 1%
11% 20% 0% 18% 0% 0% 43%
9% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
9% 25% 7% 1% 0% 33% 2%
CW
Digi Phone modes
Total Slots
* G0SYP's score includes the slots earned when operating as GM0SYP/P on Orkney. However, if a particular DXCC+band+mode combination had already been worked when operating under G0SYP, the working of that same DXCC+band+mode on Orkney has not been counted as an additional slot.
By Mode G0SYP* M0TJU G3SHF
Carsten Evan Bernard
652 285 244
38 65 1
205 232 0
895 582 245
G0ROW M1PTR GM4UYZ G3ZOD M5KJM G0RXA M0DCG 2E0CKA MX5MDX
Alan Pete Bob Graham Kieron Nigel Tom Nigel (SRS)
0 0 46 98 7 0 33 0 3 1,368 54%
234 103 35 0 81 86 10 6 0 659 26%
0 34 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 500 20%
234 137 110 98 88 86 43 6 3
4 or more % higher than the overall propotion 2-3% higher than the overall proportion 2-3% lower than the overall proporion 4 or more % lower than the overall proportion
2,527
100%
In second spot, Evan M0TJU (582 slots) has placed added emphasis on earning phone and digimode slots over the last couple of months, using the September contests SSB Field Day and CQ WW DX RTTY in particular to make those gains. Carsten G0SYP also made use of that RTTY contest to boost his digimode slots from zero at the time of the last ladder review to 205 now. Carsten’s digimode activity was the biggest contributor to the raising of his score from 576 at last count to the mammoth present total of 895. Carsten’s lead looks all but unassailable. (The writer is not, of course, trying to make G0SYP complacent.) It may be possible for other contestants to work towards that score and pass it. However, they’d better start now! Just a reminder that the Ladder closes on 30 November. Given that the CQ WW CW contest ends on that day, too – likely to result in the uploading of files to Clublog to be much slower than normal – the adjudicator will not check the Clublog SRS league table early on 1 December. Contestants will be advised upload cut-off times in due course. All the above information has been provided by Evan M0TJU If you would like any further information, please chat with Evan at a society meeting or via www.g8srs.co.uk 7
Stockport Radio Society - Other Information / Contacts
Our Next Courses
Contact Details
Advanced
Stockport Radio Society Walthew House 112 Shaw Heath Stockport SK2 6QS 07506 904422
The next Advanced exam takes place on 8 December. The exam starts at 7pm. These tutorials are planned for the last quarter of 2014, leading upto the schedule exam. This is aimed at students wishing for some support whilst studying at home for the exam. 5 tutorial evenings and the examination are included in the £85 fee. If you would like further information please contact courses@g8srs.co.uk
SRS Emails
Foundation Next dates for the foundation course are 24 & 25 Jan 2015 - if you would like to book a place on the course, please contact courses@g8srs.co.uk or speak to a member at the society evening.
When Do I Have to Re-Validate My Licence? At intervals of not more than 5 years, or if your personal details change (such as name and address). To re-validate, https://services.ofcom.org.uk/ and amend any details as soon as possible, this will automatically revalidate your licence. If you have not yet registered to use the Ofcom Online Licensing Service you will need to do so in order to access your licence online. When registering for the first time you will need to have details of your lifetime licence number, which can be found on page 1 of your 23 page Licence document. (Info supplied from RSGB website)
Trip to Bletchley Park The club is looking at organising a trip to Bletchley Park next year, provisionally in April (after Narsa). If you would be interested in being part of the SRS trip, please speak to Kieron M5KJM at the AGM. A small deposit of £10.00 will secure your place on the trip. Part of the trip will be subsidised by SRS. Further details to be announced at the AGM.
Date of Next Issue of QUA 1st February 2015 - Articles to be with QUA by January 16, 2015 If you have news, events, contest information etc that you would like to share with your fellow members, please email : srswebsite@g8srs.co.uk
QUA is sponsored by Manchester Office Supplies 8
General Info@g8srs.co.uk Secretary secretary@g8srs.co.uk SRS Nets srsnets@g8srs.co.uk Website srswebsite@g8srs.co.uk Courses courses@g8srs.co.uk Clothing sweatshirt@g8srs.co.uk Treasurer treasurer@g8srs.co.uk Contesting peakcontestgroup@gmail.com
Websites www.g8srs.co.uk www.g5o.co.uk
Social Media @G8SRS @Peak_Contest
StockportradioSociety peakcontestgroup
The Peak Contest Group is the ‘Contesting Arm of Stockport Radio Society’