Meet the RSGB - Saturday 22nd Oct

An Invitation to:

Meet the RSGB

at

Normandy Centre, Denne Road, Horsham

at

1200 until 1700 hrs on 22^nd October 2011

In co-operation with

SCARF

(Southern Counties Amateur Radio Forum)

arranged by Mike Senior, G4EFO

RSGB DRM for Sussex.

Programme:

12.00 - 2.00pm meet have a drink and ploughmans lunch ( food by pre order only ) , visit other clubs represented.

2.00 - 3.00pm President of the RSGB: Talk and Q&A

3.00 - 3.15 comfort break

4.00 - 4.15 Mark Allgar from HQ: Talk and Q&A session

4.15 perhaps any final socialising

Hall to be clear by 5.00pm.

Cloth Cable

The following clever method of creating a retro look was posted to the QRP-L list and is reproduced with the permission of the author, Chris K4FH.

I've always liked the look of cloth cable over plastic insulated cable. I bought a pair of head phones that had a retro look and it used a cloth cable.

I've formulated a way I can simulate the look using paracord.

1) Cut a length of paracord

2) Using the butt end of a drill bit, insert the bit into the cord and use a lighter to singe the cord.  This keeps it from unraveling.  I use the bit to keep the cord from closing up.

3)  Run as many strands of #22 stranded inside the cord as you need.  

4)  Solder those to the connector

5)  Use the strain relief in the connector to hold onto the paracord.

After you get one end done allow the cord to relax and then do the other end.  This keeps it from being bunched up.

It is not a perfect replication of look and feel.  You can hold it and tell there is wire inside and room for more wire.  In 550 there is not much room for more than 3 wires.  If you want to make something bigger
try the larger dacron used as antenna rope.

I chose the silver ends with the springs because I wanted a nice look. I also made a cable for my J-38.  Since one end uses terminals I used heat shrink to bind the lead wires (with terminals) to the cord and make it look nice.  

In the audio cable in the pic I used a single pair of spare wire I pulled out of some CAT-5.

With this method you can make any length you want with any number of wires you need.

73,
Chris k4fh

Military Matters

As some of you may know,  V.M.A.R.S,  Vintage and Military Amateur Radio Society are a group of like minded people who have an interest in preserving and refurbishing military and civil radios.  Many of their members have fully fitted vehicles with all their radio equipment mounted within.  These vehicles can often be seen at Fairs and Shows throughout the country and their owners are only too glad to answer any questions you may have about their kit.

On the 10^th September they held an operating day near Gatwick Airport in the grounds of a house called Hunters Moon.  The owner of which is also a member and a licensed operator.  As I had the time I visited the site to see what was going on as my knowledge of Military Radios is limited.  I must add that I only located the site after ringing the organiser.

I was welcomed by the site owner who explained what the attendees were doing and where to park.  A few show vehicles and tea tent were located by the entrance which made the site more inviting.  Further up the field was a line of wire dipole antennas and another radio equipped vehicle.  At the end was a large tent for sleeping and cooking for some of the ‘crew’.  To the right was a wonderful display of military radios past and present all set out on various tables and in two vehicles.  Perhaps sets with names like No9, No18, Larkspur and Clansman amongst many others would have brought back memories for some of you.

A few of the display vehicles on show, all fully kitted out.  Yes, even a 6 pound anti-tank gun.

The wonderful display of radios on the tables, the army tent used for sleeping in, the Landrover overloaded with radio kit and finally an Austin Champ with a full Larkspur set up.  Note the Loop Antenna!

During my time there I asked many questions regarding the use of the radios and discovered that most of them will operate on the amateur bands easily.  Some of the radios are not as easy to operate as ours but will perform very well.  The quality of build is probably better in many respects as they have to endure harsher conditions than ours.  They could be operating in the Artic or a steamy jungle and are expected to perform with the same efficiency.

A few other members arrived and started to set up their antennas and rig layouts.  In the four hours I was there only one other ‘outsider’ looked in at the event, pity, because I felt that a bit more support from outsiders would help them along.

I enjoyed increasing my knowledge and made to feel very welcome by the members.

Give it a try next year.

BrianG

2E0MZB

CARC Programme 2011

Issue:         October 2011 Meetings:  Every Wednesday Evening commencing 8.00 pm Every Sunday Morning from 10.30 a.m. Main Meetings: 4th Wednesday in the month starting at 7.45 for 8.00pm (unless otherwise advised.) MONTH DATE TOPIC BY September Wed 28th FFT’s and the PC in your Shack. An overview of the new wave of mainly low cost computer-based test instruments, including Vector Network Analysers, oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers. October Wed 12th Wed 19th GB3MH A presentation on our newest and technically most advanced local repeater. This covers the site acquisition history, hardware and installation, with an explanation in simple terms of the network architecture and the way to access/operate through EchoLink/IRLP. Excalibur, SDR-IQ, broadband loop, and novel applications.  Malcolm G3NZP, David 2E0DDG & Richard G4ANN Mike Underhill G3LHZ November Wed 23rd Wed 30th Technical Systems in Air Traffic Control in the UK HARC/CARC Challenge.  This promises to be another fiendishly plotted but fun contest by our friends from Horsham ARC.  Do come along to take part in this fun evening. Alan O’Donovan G8NKM December Fri 2nd Wed 7th CARC Annual Fish and Chip Supper – put it in your diary! Introduction to Microwaves Part 2 by Derek G3GRO.  A follow-on to Derek’s excellent talk earlier in the year. January Wed 25th Annual General Meeting Another date for your diary!

CRAWLEY ROUNDTABLE

The 2011 Crawley Roundtable is on Sunday September 11.
As usual we will be running the UK Microwave Group annual construction contest for the G3VVB trophy. Please do bring along your constructed equipment and enter the contest. Entries do not necessarily need to have been constructed during the last year.
Do come along and support the construction contest and hear the talks.
Below is the finalised timetable:

Microwave Round Table - Sunday 11th September 2011

          Crawley Amateur Radio Club

10:00AM   Venue opens

12:00     Construction contest judging commences

13:00     Lunch (rolls, sandwiches, tea/coffee available)

13:30     Opening address by Derek G3GRO

          and the results of the construction contest

14:00     'An Experimental Transverter for 3.4 GHz' or "Fun with filters"

           - by Mike Scott G3LYP

14:45     'An Examination of Local Oscillator Noise'

           - by Chris Bartram GW4GDU

15:25     Break (tea & coffee available)

15:45     'A simple Diode RF Power Meter usable from HF to 6.0GHz'

           - by Peter Head G4FYY and Derek G3GRO

16:30     End of meeting

If you need further information, contact Derek Atter G3GRO or Chris Whitmarsh G0FDZ 

 





Access to Site:



The access road into Tilgate Recreational Centre

and the CARC Clubhouse (Hut18) is via the sliproad at the new traffic lights on

the southbound carriageway of the A23 (Brighton Road), just south of Crawley

heading towards Brighton, and about 200m from the Broadfield Football Stadium

roundabout which is well signposted.
The Clubhouse is accessed via a fairly narrow track for about

200m. Watch out for anti-traveller caravan chicanes then turn right at the 3rd

sleeping policeman!

· 

More Directions:   CARC Directions
· 

Roundtables:   General Info
Click here if

you do not see the main microwavers.org menu bar on the left

  

GB3MH

The GB3MH 2m analogue and Echolink/IRLP Repeater at Turners Hill was commissioned on 26th August at 18:00. This is working well as a local repeater but we are having some technical problems with the DTMF Echolink/IRLP signalling and the audio pass through from local RF to Echolink/IRLP. Work is underway to debug the problem and we will post an update when these issues are resolved.



The Technical details are:

CALLSIGN	GB3MH
BAND	2M
CHANNEL	RV50
OUTPUT	145.6250 MHz
RX1	145.0250 MHz
MODE	ANALOGUE
QTHR	IO91WC
LOCATION	W SUSSEX
NGR (view)	TQ337354
REGION	SOUTH-EAST
CTCSS	88.5 Hz
KEEPER	G3NZP
IRLP NODE	5877

The projected coverage is shown below.







Reports are appreciated and may be added as comments to this blog entry.



Stewart/G3YSX

NEW MEMBERS EVENING

CARC Meeting 27th July 2011



At the July Committee Meeting it was suggested by our training instructor Malcolm Harman G3NZP that we should run a "show and tell" evening at which all recent Intermediate students bring along their radio related project and spend 10 minutes or so explaining reasons for choice and how it works. The committee agreed that this was a good idea and it was left that Malcolm should liaise with the members concerned.



Part of the RFC /RSBG Intermediate Exam involves a whole series of practical assessments of which the Radio Related Project is just one. Nevertheless it's the most interesting because it's down to the student to agree with the Instructor a sufficiently challenging construction task to be assessed as part of the course work.



This would accomplish two things. Most importantly it would offer an opportunity for others to get to know our new members better and personally welcome them into the club. Secondly it will provide a very interesting evening of mini-talks.



We had at least three Intermediates confirmed and two possibles, dependent on work commitments, each kindly agreeing to make a short presentation on a project they have built.



On the evening we had three new members, Ian Coulson, David Davies and Barry Denyer-Green. Two other members who had hoped to be available and to give presentations, Biton Walstra and Graham Parsons, had work commitments and sent their apologies. Hopefully they will have other opportunities in the coming weeks.







The Valient 3 - Ian, David and Barry



Ian bravely started the ball rolling with a small FM receiver/tuner kit that he had built. This covers 1.5 to 100 MHz and after a few initial problems and “a prod with a sharp stick” burst into life. Ian explained that amongst the difficulties that he experienced were that the kit was now obsolete and the amount of backup from the supplier was pretty limited. However he has spent more than half a century using a soldering iron and the practical aspect held no real fears for him.



Next up was David Davies. He described a low-ish cost alternative to the Kinetics SBS-1 radar receivers that currently retails for around £400. David works at Redhill Aerodrome and there was a need for three such receivers in order to receive the ADB-S (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) signals from approaching light aircraft and to triangulate their bearings. He found a kit designed and marketed by a German amateur which sold for some 50 Euros and decided to give this a try. The result was a very neat and cost-effective little unit, which plugs into the USB port of his MacBook. Operating on the appropriate 1090MHz channel frequency, and running the appropriate software which includes PlanePlotter, (a program for Windows that provides a radar-like display of aircraft derived from ADS-B position reports), and with a makeshift antenna David was able to give a live demonstration of the receiver with the screen rapidly filling up with aircraft ID signals. Fascinating.







David's radar receiver









David with the read out from his radar receiver



Barry, last but by no means least, had two projects for us. Starting with his PP3 - powered solid-state regenerative receiver this was a very neat 3-band radio covering 80, 40 and 20 metres, and will have brought back happy memories to many of us who similarly cut their teeth on these simple but effective designs. Barry spends quite a lot of his working life staying in hotels and this little receiver with a length of wire strung out of a window keeps him in touch with the world.







Barry's receiver and signal generator



Barry’s second piece of home brew was an RF signal generator with switched bands and housed in a small Eddystone-type aluminium enclosure. Very useful for aligning and fault-finding on other receiver projects.







Barry with his signal generator



This is only a very brief write up of the various projects and in no way does justice to the amount of work that these brave chaps put into building and de-bugging their projects.



Thank you, Ian, David and Barry for your excellent presentations, which made for a most enjoyable evening.



John G3VLH