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