RSGB Abandons 2010 Board Election

A few days ago, the RSGB made the following announcement:

"Governance of the RSGB is regulated by the Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) of the Society, a copy of which may be found on the Members’ only section of the website.

"An irregularity has been identified in the nomination of the two candidates to stand for election as nationally elected members of the Board. Unfortunately, it was not noticed until after RadCom had gone to press that both candidates shared two nominators. This is not in accordance with the M&A and therefore the candidates were not properly nominated.

"The Board has considered its options under the M&A and has determined that the only course of action open to it is to declare the election for nationally elected members of the Board invalid. Given other requirements of the M&A, the Board will now co‐opt both candidates as Board members for a twelve month period until the next election (late 2011) when the candidates may stand for election again.

"The Society very much regrets this error, but believes that the best interests of the membership are served by acting as set out above."

This simple apology, without a description of how the error occurred or what steps have been taken to ensure that it does not recur, belittles a serious breach in the process by which members have their only input on important aspects of the operation of the society.

The structure of the RSGB is that the members elect the Board. The board directly appoint the chairman of committees, and the chairman of the committees appoint the committee members and define the mode of operation of the committee. The operation of these committees has a major impact on the amateur radio in the United Kingdom.

A number of us in CARC already have grave concerns at the lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of openness, and unwillingness to take member input into their decision making, of RSGB committees. This is particularly the case with the ETCC which directs Ofcom in the allocation of spectrum to major amateur radio systems such as repeaters.

Thus the RSGB Board has this year denied the membership of the society any input into the only part of the process that it can use to affect decisions that have major impact on the regulation and operation of amateur radio in the United Kingdom.

Given that in some aspects of its the work the RSGB acts as an agent for the elected UK government, the absence of a proper Board Election in 2010 is, in my view, an affront to democracy and therefore unacceptable behavior by the body that represents amateur radio in the United Kingdom.

Stewart/G3YSX

Questions to Prospective RSGB Board Members

To

Phillip Brooks, G4NZQ
Charlie Morrison, GI4FUE

Dear Sirs,

I am writing on behalf of the Crawley Amateur Radio Club. You are a candidates for election to the RSGB Board. We have read your statement in RadCom, but we have a number of questions that we wish to put to you to factor into our decision making before voting in the Board Election.

To make this an open process I have posted the questions on the CARC Blog (carconline.blogspot.com), and have requested that Southgate ARC (http://www.southgatearc.org/) post them on their Newswire service. We would request that you copy your answers to those two web services, or that you request that I do so on your behalf.

1) Many elements of the RSGB decision making process take place behind closed doors with little effort to consult with members before a final decision is made. In this modern, Internet connected era, there are many ways to solicit wider input from the community. If (re)elected what steps will you take to ensure that the RSGB Board gathers wider input as part of its decision making process?

2) The sub-committees of Board, for example the ETCC is composed primarily of unelected members. What steps will you take to ensure that the membership of sub-committees is more representative of RSGB membership, that they are accountable to the membership for their decisions and the that decision making process is transparent and includes an appeal mechanism?

3) The RSGB recently increased its membership fees at a time when members are under considerable financial stress. What measures do you feel the RSGB should take to ensure that it does not place additional financial burdens on its membership during the current financial crisis?

Stewart Bryant
Chairman Crawley ARC

Simple LCR Bridges

I have mentioned to a few people that I built the LMS Impedance Bridge published in both QEX and QST by Dr George R. Steber, WB9LVI. The design can be found at http://wb6dhw.com/RLC_Meter/N%20LMS%20Impedance%20Bridge.pdf . Indeed I thought that I had written it up for the CARC blog, but when I went to look for it I remembered that I had delayed writing it up because I got bogged down trying to compare the results of a number of LCR meters at the G3YSX QTH.

The thing that brought this to the top of my mind, was the following design by Rik Strobbe ON7YD http://www.rcl-meter.strobbe.eu/index.html which shows an even simpler version using just two resistors and two capacitors. Rik, ON7YDD is well know for his excellent technical work on LF communications. The only downside with Rik's design, in common with all of these instruments, is that it requires an audio card with line in (i.e. with stereo in), and unfortunately these are only to be found on desktop machines or on the more expensive USB sound "cards".

I have not tried the ON7YD version of the LCR bridge, though I expect that I will, if anyone does build one I would be interested in reports on its performance.

- Stewart/G3YSX

A CAT5 fed PA9RDT antenna for VLF

This blog has reported on the excellent work by Roelof, PA0RDT on active antennas. In a note earlier in the year Roelof reports on an other variant of the design.

"Michael Oexner has had good results with a mini-whip E-field probe I build for him. The circuit diagram is below. The feedline is CAT5 network cable.

"Note that the RF-isolating transformers in the signal path are not correct. I have used MCL TT 1-6 parts, rated for 0.004 - 300 MHz at the -3 dB points. The common mode chokes are not optimum, as I used the parts I had on hand. Type 75 or 77 ferrite should be better.

"Michael used a PERSEUS SDR, which has a noise figure of about 25 dB at 9 kHz. This is due to the fact that there is also a RF-isolating transformer in the signal path.

"It is amazing that with this not optimized set up it was possible to have good reception over a 72 km path. The actual capture area of the antenna is 30 x 40 mm single sided copper clad PCB.

There are quite a few people around with a PERSEUS SDR, who are probably interested in receiving Stefan's (DK7FC) signal on 8790Hz (ed- yes Hertz). So a simple antenna design might help. "



Stewart/G3YSX

Chinese Fake Electronics

Recently there was a mention in Sprat of fake 2SC1969 transistors being supplied from China. Leon Heller, G1HSM, pointed out to readers of the GQRP list that there's a lot of it going on, largely due to the current shortage of many components. Sparkfun has an interesting account of their investigation of fake AVR chips on their web site: www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=350

Stewart/G3YSX

GCHQ - The Uncensored Story

GCHQ - The Uncensored story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency by Richard Aldrich is a well written book that should be of interest to many members of the amateur radio community, if only because much of the GCHQ SIGINT input is captured by radio intercept.

GCHQ is the successor to the famous Bletchley Park wartime code-breaking organisation and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. During the war, it commanded more staff than MI5 and MI6 combined and has produced a number of intelligence triumphs, as well as some notable failures. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain's secret state. Still, we know almost nothing about it.

In this ground-breaking new book, Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ's evolvement from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside, staffed by eccentric crossword puzzlers, to one of the world leading espionage organisations. It tells many dramatic spy stories that shed fresh light on Britain's role in the Cold War - from the secret tunnels dug beneath Vienna and Berlin to tap Soviet phone lines, and daring submarine missions to gather intelligence from the Soviet fleet, to the notorious case of Geoffrey Pine, one of the most damaging moles ever recruited by the Soviets inside British intelligence. The book reveals for the first time how GCHQ operators based in Cheltenham affected the outcome of military confrontations in far-flung locations such as Indonesia and Malaya, and exposes the shocking case of three GGHQ workers who were killed in an infamous shootout with terrorists while working undercover in Turkey.

Today's GCHQ struggles with some of the most difficult issues of our time. A leading force of the state's security efforts against militant terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda, they are also involved in fundamental issues that will mold the future of British society.

For me the key takeaway is that pretty well any place where a Union Jack flys and a good many more places besides are likely to be listening sites feeding this SIGINT machine. Until relatively recently this involved men and women with headphones undertaking a very stressful, but boring job, a mixture that created a number of security risks described in the book. In modern times the remote site is more like a hoover sucking up spectrum for the big SIGINT machine in Cheltenham.

One of the more interesting example of GCHQ activities is contained in the closing chapter: "The surveillance effort between the war in Afghanistan and the "war" at home were now seamlessly connected. The RAF had purchased two Norman Islanders which were equipped with sigint suits. Based at RAF Northholt they are used as covert surveillance by MI5. In early 2007 they were used to support West Midlands police when tracking terrorist suspects. The aircraft fly at fairly high altitude and have been seen loitering over the East End of London for long periods....

Another example cited in the book concerns attempts to place monitoring equipment in shipping containers that were destined to carried back to the Chinese heartlands.

Of course it is in the nature of the subject that one cannot tell truth from myth from disinformation from economies of truth. None the less this is a well written book that set one thinking about modern methods of intelligence gathering and clearly demonstrates the impact that radio intercept has on modern life.

Stewart/G3YSX

A MILESTONE - The CARC 50th Anniversary Club Dinner

This year’s annual club dinner held on Saturday 5th June was a special event in the Club’s history - commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Crawley Amateur Radio Club’s inauguration. The venue was the Heathy Farm Restaurant on the Balcombe Road at Worth.

Now clubs come and go, and it is quite special when a club can survive - and thrive - that long, amateur radio itself having changed out of all recognition during the past half century. Witness the sophistication of present day equipment, the convergence of computer and radio technologies, the small size of most modern rigs compared with the boat-anchors of yesteryear; the emergence of new technologies -D-Star and SDR to cite two examples of many, not forgetting the commercialisation of what had once been a build-it-yourself hobby. After all, the change and improvements in technology are part of the fascination of radio communications – it wouldn’t have much appeal if there were no improvements in performance and no new modes. And the older ones among us have witnessed these changes.

So, back to the Dinner. Come the evening we had a good turnout with over thirty members and their partners. Because of the numbers attending, Heathy Farm had to accommodate us in two rooms, but this worked out quite well as both were adjoining and it was relatively open plan with no intervening door so their was little sense of being separated, and after the excellent meal everyone was able to inter-mingle quite happily.

The two longest serving members of the Club present were our President Derek Atter G3GRO, and Mike Underhill G3LHZ, both CARC members since the early 1960’s, and we were also pleased to welcome several new club members.

Crawley Amateur Radio Club together with Reigate Amateur Transmitting Society was joint winner of the open section of the 2009 VHF Field Day, and the evening culminated in the presentation to the membership of the RSGB Surrey Trophy. The Trophy had earlier been formally awarded by RSGB President Dave Wilson M0OBW, to the RATS chairman and co-team member Peter Tribe G0VVE, who accepted on behalf of both clubs. To close the formal part of the evening Mike Underhill G3LHZ gave a short address outlining the history of the club.

According to comments this was a very pleasant evening enjoyed by all who attended. We are now taking bookings for the 75th.

John G3VLH