CNN News in Morse Code

The Southgate Club recently posted a note regarding and novel type of Morse practice.

"Chris Kantarjiev K6DBG has set up an application that takes the CNN news feed on Twitter and converts it to Morse code.

"The Morse audio is streamed in a WinAmp format and so will NOT work with Windows Media Player. You need to install WinAmp on your PC, which is available from the URL below.

"Two variants of the Morse CNN news are available, slow and fast, at
http://cw.dimebank.com:8080/CNNslow.m3u
and
http://cw.dimebank.com:8080/CNNfast.m3u

"

However I found that just clicking the links on my Mac fired up iTunes and added them as pair of streaming sources.

Stewart/G3YSX

Heathkit

If any club members needs a manual for Heathkit equipment the following site is worth looking at:

http://www.vintage-radio.info/heathkit/

Talking of Heathkit, there are a few Heathkit items on the back bench at CARC in need a better home than the recycle bin they will soon find themselves in.

Stewart/G3YSX

Spy Radios and Their Detection

Matt Burns, kc8com, posted an interesting link to the QRPL list that I thought would be of interest to club members. As Matt says, it's a declassified article from the CIA on some Eastern Bloc "spy radios". The pictures aren't very good but it's an interesting article and I'm sure with a little effort more information could be found.

Adversary Agent Radios by James J. Fauth:

He also points to another interesting radio related article - DFing stations by their receiver's LO.

Agent Hazard in the Super-Het by M. J. Angelicchi

Buck, N4PGW, then noted that you can do more than DF a station by their LO. Stated that when he was in the US Navy as a Radioman, he had the privilege of visiting the intelligence van
that was installed when he traveled the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. He was able to see the RF generated by radio equipment in a civilian ship. The monitoring equipment was capable of seeing what signals were being received. That was a ship that was over the horizon and probably never knew we were in the vicinity. It taught him a great deal about Emission Control,
(EmmCon) and Radio Silence.

The concept of LO detection was also noted in Peter Wright's autobiography, Spycatcher. As I recall however there was a little more subtlety to the technique. I seem to remember that the detector van transmitted a signal and listened to the pulling of the LO to confirm the frequency being listed to. I will lookout the copy of Spycatcher I smuggled in from Holland (remember how Thatcher banned the book in UK, when it was freely available in English elsewhere) and reminded myself what they actually did.

Stewart/G3YSX

WSPR (Weak Signal Position Reporter)

Further to my recent report on the above I have started to transmit as well as monitor this mode. I carefully set it up to only work at 5 watts output and watched for any reports to come in. Most of them were about the same distance as for listening.

Today I checked on the Database/Reflector and found that I had been heard in Australia and New Zealand. How satisfying that is. To think that I cannot hear them at all but they are able to hear me. As I said before, there is no need for our radios to gather dust when they could be used for research purposes when we are not using them in the normal way.

2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140123 -6 0 IO91vc 5 DH8SA JO53bn 753
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140127 -22 0 IO91vc 5 DF5FF JO40kd 649
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140130 -25 0 IO91vc 5 K1JT FN20 5664
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140114 -4 0 IO91vc 5 DH5RAE JN68pv 994
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140117 -23 0 IO91vc 5 VK6ZRY OF78wd 14476
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140125 -17 0 IO91vc 5 DL2YED JO31op 518
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140121 -25 0 IO91vc 5 DF2LV JO44rs 764
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140131 -13 1 IO91vc 5 HB9AFZ JN46me 871
2009-08-09 16:58 2E0MZB 10.140115 -24 1 IO91vc 5 ZL2TLD RE79tb 18840
2009-08-09 16:48 2E0MZB 10.140125 -22 0 IO91vc 5 G8SQH IO81tx 179
2009-08-09 16:48 2E0MZB 10.140114 -8 0 IO91vc 5 DL2NI JN48ul 769
2009-08-09 16:48 2E0MZB 10.140125 -22 1 IO91vc 5 G4AKU JO02kc 134
2009-08-09 16:48 2E0MZB 10.140108 -10 0 IO91vc 5 SV8ARJ KM08gd 2171

Have fun!
BrianG
2E0MZB

Another slap in the face for Bletchley Park

The government has turned down an e-petition signed by 22,000 to 'save Bletchey Park.'
By Nicole Kobie, 27 Aug 2009

The government has again turned down calls for funding for Bletchley Park, the home of wartime codebreaking and other UK milestones in computing history.

The site has been struggling for cash for years. Last year, the site faced closure if it couldn’t raise enough funds to fix its roof.

Earlier this year, Darren McGuicken posted an e-petition on the government’s site, asking the Prime Minister to “save Bletchley Park”.

“Please do not allow this crucial piece of both British and World culture to disappear,” wrote McGuicken. “If ever an example were needed of Britain leading the world, this surely would be it. To allow it to fall into the hands of developers would be simply unconscionable.”

His argument – and the signatures of 21,920 others – didn’t sway the government, however.

“The Government agrees that the buildings on the Bletchley Park site are of significant historic importance and, although recognising the excellent work being carried out there, at present it has no plans, nor the resources, to extend its sponsorship of museums and galleries beyond the present number,” the government said in a written statement.

It noted that Bletchley Park has already won a £330,000 grant from English Heritage and another worth £600,000 from Milton Keynes council. While it has previously been refused a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the site has reapplied this year.

Earlier this year, Baroness McIntosh filed an early day motion in the House of Lords asking for financial help for the historical site, but the plea was refused, much to the disapointment of Bletchley's supporters.

Report of the 2009 HARC/CARC Challenge

On the 5th August CARC welcomed their colleagues from the Horsham Club for the annual HARC-CARC challenge. The challenge was set by myself (G3YSX), and I was assisted in the adjudication by Richard G4ANN.

In summary challenge this year required the contestants to construct an antenna withing a 2m cube located on the ground, to send a signal using no more than 5W, and to provide proof of receipt using any means. The teams heard at the best DX would be declared the winner. The Internet was allowed as a means of determining receipt of the signal. One further constraint was that the antenna could only be constructed using the feeder and wire that I supplied on the night. The two teams were supplied with 10m of 1/2" 75R coax and a large spool of multi-strand wire that I found on the floor of my shed. The teams were able to supply any other equipment they wished, including antenna supports, but they were not told the details of the feeder/wire until they arrived on the night.

HARC chose to construct a set of TAK-tennas for 40m, 30m and 20m.



Assembling the TAK-tenna ends.



Two different mounts for the antennas.



One of the finished TAK-tennas.

CARC chose to construct a loop antenna using the coax as the radiating element and as the coupling loop using a conventional tuning capacitor.



Both groups used FT817 transceivers and digital modes.













CARC chose to use WSPR, and HARC chose to start with PSK31, although after some problems interfacing the computer to the FT817 they reverted to CW. CARC got off to an early lead with a logged report at VA1CHP in Shad Bay, Nova Scotia, a distance of 4654Km.



CARC then extended this range to 5895Km with a report from W3CSW in Rockville, Maryland. The best DX that HARC worked was a CW contact with UA1TET located at Novg. obl., Pestovo, ul. Lermontova, 3-A, which we estimated to be a distance of 2435Km. All transmissions took place on 30m. The report from VA1CHP indicated that CARC were 17db below the noise and that from W3CSW indicated a signal 23db below the noise. CARC also obtained reports from VA1CHP and W3CSW on 40m.

The relative distance of the contacts resulted in the CARC team lead by Mike, G0KAD being declared the winners. Both teams expressed their thanks to their competitors for a very interesting evening and looked forward to next years challenge.

Stewart/G3YSX

Thunderstruck

I have just finished reading the most enjoyable book Thunderstruck - by Erik Larson



This book was one recommended by Bill Meara, N1CQR of SolderSmoke fame.

The book is novel in that it is an intertwined account of Marconi's development of wireless, and the events leading to the arrest of Dr Crippen, in which wireless played a crucial part. This is almost certainly the first instance when radio communications fed a media frenzy over a news story. The Crippen case, together with the Titanic disaster raised public awareness of radio communications and seems to have saved Marconi's company from parlous financial circumstances.

A very enjoyable read that I picked up for a couple of pounds from the Amazon second hand service.

Stewart/G3YSX

Foundation Success!!

Congratulations to Graham Parsons who passed the Foundation Licence Examination this afternoon, having completed this weekend's course. He has now become a member of CARC - welcome to amateur radio Graham!

Thanks too to the support team of Instructors and the Invigilator for their flawless efforts, and apart from Eugene are featured in the photograph.



73 Malcolm
RSGB Exam Secretary for CARC.

I have just been told that Graham's callsign is M6XDZ. Please give him a call when you hear him on the air.

73's - Stewart/G3YSX

The G3GRO Shack

On the lower shelf running from L to R are :
1 The Kenwood HF/VHF/UHF TS2000 transceiver
2 then the FT1000MP HF rig,
3 then the Expert 1K-FA solid state amplifier with built-in 1KW ATU
4 and finally the memory keyer unit.

On the top shelf can just be seen
1 my home brew VLF converter for 500kHz and down
2 then then a Drake WH7 wattmeter
3 and finally the scanner for the PC on the right.




The G3GRO QTH taken from the garden with GRO himself sitting in the doorway. The 60ft Versatower visible in the

background and further to the left the white stick of the duobander 2m/70cm vertical. Unfortunately the Versatower

is currently shorn of its stack of VHF/UHF yagii antennas!

July Activity Report - Derek G3GRO

In the run-up to VHF NFD spent quite a bit of time in conjunction with CARC contest manager Mike, G0KAD in locating and sorting out all the bits and pieces including all the RF cables and the 4 by 22 element antenna stack etc. for the 23cm station from the pile of gear in my garage.

Fortunately the 250W masthead PA and the shack-mounted control unit and switch mode PSU ran up faultlessly after 12months in storage. By all accounts it continued to work very well again on site this year judging by the comments from the operators and the claimed score. Looks as if we may even be in the running for 23cm band leader again this year! We also appear to have done pretty well on some of the other bands judging by claimed scores on the RSGB VHCC site.

During NFD there seemed to be an opening on 6m so I thought I would try to work the
CARC/RATS contest station G5LK/P down in Folkestone using my TS2000 via the windom
antenna which has an SWR of 3 to 1 with which the internal ATU coped OK without any problem.
Eventually I managed to work them but on the way, much to my surprise I was also able to work
into eastern Europe with quite good reports from several HA/ S57/9A4//SP7 stations plus stations in the opposite direction into EA in the shape of EA/ON4PS/P and CT1FMX. Also heard CS5BLA the beacon station way down in southern Portugal in IM57PX locator square.

I have also been active on 80m and 40m from time to time although the LF bands were very often very noisy indeed. The 40m band has also often been open on a number of nights to the United States around midnight local time and I worked Ken W3JK in NY City on 7129kHz exchanging 59 reports with very good copy both ways. What has surprised me is just how good the signal to noise ratio is when receiving via my small G4FYY type loop in comparison with my 136ft windom antenna. Often signals virtually unreadable on the windom were easily copied on the loop despite high QRN levels. I have been conducting regular comparisons for example during the 80m “Bad net” on 3722kHz on Sunday mornings.

In order to listen on 80m I have added another separate loop of ordinary 14/006 PVC insulated in parallel with the UR67 coax and resonated it with a series tuning capacitor on 80m and it works fine and with quite a high Q. In order to receive on 40m I simply open circuit the 80m loop.

With the help of Peter G4FFF I have also re-errected my 5ft loop made of FHJ4 heliax using the
convoluted copper outer conductor and mounted it on a tripod with a small rotator. I have mainly
been using this loop antenna in monitoring noise on 80m although the loop will tune up to 7Mhz
and handle 100W although its' intended use is mainly for receiving.

Together with Peter G4FYY I have also been testing what I think is a novel scheme for remote
digital fine tuning on both the small loop as well as the larger version which seems to offer quite a
bit of potential. More of this anon and also info on the 80m add-on to the G4FYY loop.

73, de Derek G3GRO

UK Microwave Group Round Table meeting

Sunday 13th September 2009

Hut 18, Tilgate Recreational Centre, Tilgate Forest, Crawley, West Sussex

The doors will open at 10-00 am for a nominal start time at 10-30
am. The planned format will be for a bring and buy / natter session
in the morning with the display of home-brew microwave gear running in
parallel until lunchtime with the lectures starting at around 2-00
pm.

Immediately after lunch the results of the UK uW Group constructional
competition will be then be announced followed the first talk and
demonstration:

The Goubau single wire RF transmission line revisited.

Speaker : Prof. Mike Underhill, G3LHZ

The Goubeau single wire transmission line technique is often seen as something of an historical curiosity with limited practical application but Mike hopes as ever, to bring some new thoughts on the subject. He also poses the question “Does the Goubeau line actually help to explain how antennas actually work?”

The Type 85 Multi-Megawatt Air Defence Radar – A Cold War Monster!

Speaker : Derek Atter, G3GRO

So you think that you have problems getting your 10 watt TX output on 10Ghz up to the top of your 40ft mast ?. Think of the problems facing the design team of the Type 85 air defence radar when circa 1959 at the start of the cold war, they were asked to design a new high power air defence radar to combat the potential threat posed by possible mass airborne attack by Eastern Bloc aircraft with multiple wide-band jammers against the UK East Coast Bloodhound missile sites and Vulcan bomber airfields.

The required power budget of the radar ran something like – “ Take 12 off frequency-agile “S-band” klystron transmitter each of 6MW peak, 20kW mean, located on the ground floor of a two story hardened building and feed a 60ft by 25ft rotating stacked beam parabolic antenna on the roof with 12 separate beams covering a 500Mhz bandwidth. At the same time, feed 12 associated receiver channels down to the receiver racks on the floor below without blowing the balanced mixer diodes. Throw in a few technical “frills” such as a switchable circular polarisation system capable of handling a maximum of around 250kw average RF power without melting! etc. etc.“

Dr Who and the attack of the Klystrons "Take me to your leader"
(It is actually a picture of one of the twelve 6 megawatt transmitter valves in the Type 85 super power air defence radar from the cold war era when it was being de-commissioned)