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The newsletter of Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

That’s it then folks we are now in official British Summer Time so we can all look forward to those long sunny lazy days where we can play at radio. Well it is a dream isn’t it! No doubt our summer will be as normal, a couple of sunny days and the rest pouring with rain, but we can dream of the oppo-site can’t we. The first topic is the good news that my last batch sounds terri-ble, of Intermediate Class stu-dents, 10 of them, all success-fully passed their exam on Sat-urday 7

th March and 17th March

respectively. I did have another candidate but due to illness wasn’t able to take the exam so hopefully I will get another one arranged. Congratulations to everyone in passing the exam. As I write this another 6 candidates will have sat their Foundation exam so good luck to them as well. I am now taking my sabbatical and will start up again my next training program in September, still to arrange dates. I am ready for the break that I can assure you-.. Overall the entire last training program has been very suc-cessful and congratulations to all who have passed their ex-ams.

So what has gone on last month? The only event which as I write this is about to take place and that is the talk by Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG on “Databases and their Uses” I am sure it will have been a very informative and great talk. To this month we have the 10 Pin Bowling Night, which I am sure, will be good night of fun. Tonight is the last night for you to decide and pay if you want to take part so please let me know ASAP please? To the future our Special Event at the Scottish Parliament is coming along nicely. We have just held another meeting to confirm details and address some loose ends which was very positive indeed. Announcements on the event will be via the newsletter and predominantly via the website. I have also made a decision and that is to stop sending out via my distribution lists any thing that is For Sale. If any one who has anything for sale can you please put it di-rectly onto the Club’s Website? We are trying to encourage that for all club matters, the website is the main focal point. Registering is easy to do and once you have then access is available to all areas of the site.

John MM0JXI who looks after the site will deal with any of your queries. See the back page of the news-letter for John’s contact details. I know this is a regular plea but we are desperate for material for the newsletter. I am really, really struggling each month to find material for input so can you help please. I have had lots of people offer but nothing ma-terialises so please, please try and put something together and submit it to John MM0JXI it will be greatly appreciated. That is it then so hopefully you will come along to the all the events and have a great month on the radio. See you all then. Bob GM4UYZ

EDITORIAL

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

April 2009 Vol 17 Issue 4

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GB10SP—10 Years of the Scottish Parliament

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

Cockenzie & Port Seton Ama-teur Radio Club (CPSARC) will be running a Special Event sta-tion from the Scottish Parlia-ment at Holyrood, Edinburgh to celebrate 10 years of the Scot-tish Parliament. We will be us-ing the callsign GB10SP and will be active on 16

th and 17

th

May 2009 from 09:00 to 17:00 each day. The club was invited to run the Special Event station by Jim Hume MSP (the first South of Scotland Liberal Democrat MSP) MM0DXH who is also a member of CPSARC. We will be active on 40 metres and pos-sibly the 80 and 20 metre bands from 09:00 to 17:00 each day using Yaesu 1000MPs and am-plifiers giving 400 watts on both bands. Special QSL cards will be sent to acknowledge every contact. Background: In 1999 Scotland was granted a devolved administration with its first Parliament for nearly 300 years. The Scottish Parlia-ment sat for the first time on the 12th May 1999. Until 2004, the Scottish Parliament was situ-ated in temporary accommoda-tion at the top of the Royal Mile. Scotland's new Parlia-ment building houses 129 MSPs, and is located at the foot

of Edinburgh's famous Royal Mile in front of the spectacular Holyrood Park and Salisbury Crags. Constructed from a mixture of steel, oak, and granite, the com-plex building has been hailed as one of the most innovative de-signs in Britain today. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding landscape, the flower paintings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the upturned boats on the seashore, Enric Miralles, one of the world's premier architects, developed a design that he said was a building "growing out of the land".

The new Scottish Parliament building was officially opened on Saturday 9 October 2004 in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. In her speech, The Queen described Holyrood as a "landmark for 21st century democ-racy". November of that year alone saw a record 100,000 visitors to the Parliament. Since 1999, the Scottish Parliament has passed 127 Acts. More information about the Scottish Parliament can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/

GB10SP

Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

www.cpsarc.com

Celebrating 10 years of the Scottish Parliament

GB10SP EVENT ACCESS REQUIREMENTS Due to security restrictions within the Scottish parliament it is imperative that you let me know if you will be attending and providing the following in-formation. What day or days will you be attending? What time you will arrive? Will you be staying all day?

Note: There are only two pre-defined access times on the Saturday and Sunday and they are 08:00 and 12:00 re-spectively. Arrival out with these times NO ACCESS will be allowed. The question is “are you inter-ested in taking part in this event”? YES/NO What Day or Days are you attending? SATURDAY/SUNDAY/BOTH

What time will you be arriv-ing? 08:00 or 12:00 What time will you be leav-ing? 11:45 or 17:00 LAST DATE FOR CONFIRMA-TION IS SATURDAY 9th MAY 2009 after this date the names will be submitted to the Scottish Parliament. SEND YOUR REPLY TO: bob.gm4uyz@talktalk.net ASAP

3

Contents 2 GB10SP

3 Databases and their uses

4 Club 25 Year Chal-lenge

5 Club Tables 2009

6 A Cautionary Tale

7 2m Portable Aerial

12 Test Your Knowledge

13 Event Calendar

14 Snippets

3

Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG pre-sented a talk on databases and their uses in the Port Seton Community Centre on 20 March 2009. For the talk Malcolm described what a database was and illus-trated several practical applica-tions. He then went on to describe the various components of a data-base, tables, queries and forms and how splitting data across several fields makes it much easier to manipulate the data. The example he used was—take an address such as Bob Glasgow, 7 Castle Terrace, Port Seton EH32 0EE that’s fine as an address for a label or an envelope but if you split it up into

• Bob

• Glasgow

• 7

• Castle Terrace

• Port Seton

• EH32 0EE Then you can have your data-base display addresses in Cas-tle terrace, Port Seton or EH32 (or indeed houses with the num-ber 7!) Dividing the data across several tables allows you to create rela-tionships between chunks of data so a table of names and callsigns could be linked to a table of addresses so that you could ask for all the callsigns in Port Seton. Malcolm then went on to illus-trate how a working database was put together, how to use common naming conventions to name database objects such as tables, fields and queries so it is easy to infer what the object is meant to contain. He then showed how to ensure that only appropriate data was

entered in a field by validating it and introduced Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) which is a powerful programming lan-guage for MS Access and com-pared it to the less flexible mac-ros. He then showed how a com-mercial database application worked by drawing a series of fields on a form, validating their input and entering the data into a database so that it could be retrieved using queries. Malcolm also gave a sneak pre-view of work he’s been doing to apply his database expertise to a database of contest results for the club. This data was origi-nally provided as a series of unrelated MS Excel spread-sheets with different fields for each contest. My original idea was to shove all this data into one huge MySQL table and try to extract the data by brute force. Malcolm is dividing the data up into lots of smaller ta-bles (contests, bands, callsigns and results) which allows him to extract the data in simple que-ries. Once all this design work is complete and the results data is loaded up then we’ll start look-ing at how to display it in real time on the website. So thanks to Malcolm for a clearly presented and lucid talk on databases, the small group of people who came along cer-tainly enjoyed it and several questions were asked showing that people were beginning to see how databases could be used effectively in their lives. John MM0JXI

Contributions to the newslet-ter and web site are most welcome. Please don’t send these items to GM4UYZ, he’s busy enough doing all the other things he does for the club. Send any items you’d like included to mm0jxi@cpsarc.com or submit them direct on the web site.

Talk: Databases and their uses

By John Innes MM0JXI

www.cpsarc.com

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The club was formed in 1984 so it is 25 years old this year there-fore to mark the 25th anniver-sary I have decided to generate a small challenge around the 25 figure i.e. Number of QSO’s per entry 25, etc, etc. The challenge will be open to all radio amateurs who wish to take part. The reason behind using QSO’s as the challenge is that we are a radio amateurs, and our main function at the end of the day is to use our radios and make contacts with other amateurs. Hopefully it will encourage eve-ryone to have a bit of fun and give them something to aim for whilst “playing radio”. The QSO’s on each entry sheet must be sequential in date and time and it is up to the individual to choose what they feel is their best long distant QSO’s or even enter every single QSO they make, they have a choice. Using the Maidenhead Locator system as part of the exchange gives the ability to score cor-rectly but also offers the chal-lenge to obtain the remote con-tacts Maidenhead Locator. I have certainly noticed that over 90% of all QSL cards that I re-ceive have the stations locator written on the card so obtaining one should, hopefully be quite easy. As in competitions there are a certain amount of rules, which are listed below. I have also created the competition entry paperwork in both WORD and EXCEL format which can be downloaded from the club web site at www.cpsarc.com or if requested I can send a copy direct. (My preference to re-ceive for adjudication is the EX-CEL format, as it will help scor-ing the entry).

RULES

• Challenge Starts at 00:00 on the 1st May 2009 and runs for 25 weeks ending at 23:59 on the 23rd October 2009.

• Entries must be with Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ by Sat-urday 6th November 2009. They can be posted direct to 7 Castle Terrace, Port Seton, Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland EH32 0EE or emailed to bob.gm4uyz@talktalk.net

• Entries must be submitted if being sent by post using the copy of the word docu-ment entry form. Email en-tries can either be the word document or the preferred excel format. (Copies of the entry forms can be found on the club’s web site at www.cpsarc.com or by re-quest from Bob Glasgow)

• Each entrant can submit as many entries as they desire over the 25-week period. Each 25 QSO entry that is submitted will be treated as a separate entry for adjudi-cation.

• Each entry must be as a SINGLE OPERATOR.

• All entries must be submit-ted with complete HON-ESTY!!!!!

• Entrants The competition will be open to all radio amateurs who wish to take part.

• Band of Operation = 20M (14 MHz)

• Mode of Operation = SSB or CW

Each QSO Entry must contain the following: Date Time Power in Watts (not dbW) Mode of Transmission Callsign of Station Contacted Maidenhead Locator of the Sta-

tion Contacted (FN32LL) Note: I will accept the locator as 4 characters (FN32) if that is what the station gives you but please try to obtain the full 6 characters as this will give a very accurate distance. If 4 characters are given I will use the centre of the square which is LL to make the locator FN32LL Maidenhead Locator of where the contact took place (IO85MX) ** Distance between the two stations in Kilometres (Note: I will be using the Locator Calcu-lator within the G0GJV Logging program to calculate the dis-tance). ** If you don’t have the means to calculate the distance please leave blank. A Power Multiplier should be allocated to each QSO as per the table below.

An Antenna Multiplier should be allocated to each QSO as per the table below. Scoring: QSO Total = (Distance between the two stations) X (the Power Multiplier) X (the An-tenna Multiplier)

(Continued on page 5)

Club 25 Year 20m (14MHz) Challenge

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

Entrant’s TX Power (Watts)

QSO Points

Multiplier

1 to 5 20

6 to 10 15

11 to 25 10

26 to 50 5

50 to 100 2

101 to 400 1

5

e.g. For an entrant making a 225Km QSO with 10W and a 3 element yagi the QSO points will be- 225 x 15 x 5 = 16875

(Continued from page 4) The QSO’s can be made from either your home QTH, Port-able, Mobile or a mixture of all three. Final Score = Sum of all the QSO Totals on the specific en-try form.

Winner The person with the highest Final Score for a 25 (or Less) QSO Log. (Adjudicators deci-sion is final on who is the win-ner). The winner will be announced on the club website ASAP after the last entry date of the 6th November 2009. Winner = Certificate

Antenna Used by Entrant for QSO QSO Points Multiplier

Single Element (e.g. Dipole/Vertical/Whip) 10

2 Elements (e.g. YAGI/Array/etc) 8

3 or more Elements (e.g. YAGI/Array/etc) 5

Some of you will know that Bob GM4IKT agreed to take over the maintenance of the Club Tables from Brian M0RNR who has had to give it up due to pres-sures of work. The 2009 tables have been up-loaded to the website and below is Bob’s first report This is my first entry for the club tables 2009. There have only been 3 people sent in anything at all. Myself, Bob GM4UYZ & Martyn MM3XXW. Martyn has us all licked with 58 countries and 45

Club Tables 2009

By Bob Purves GM4IKT

DXCC entities worked. Bob GM4UYZ did some useful work in the Russia DX contest raising his totals by 14 countries on CW and 15 on SSB. Well done to Bob the only entries on CW. Bob GM4UYZ worked a lot of European countries and the USA on both CW & SSB includ-ing both European Russia and Asiatic Russia, Canaries, Ser-bia, Romania, Moldova and many more. Martyn worked quite a variety including Greenland on both 40 & 80, Assiatic Russia on 20m, TS7C an island off Tunisia AF 073, Georgia, Israel, Iraq, and

some good ones on the west coast of both USA and Canada. Well done Martyn. Now to blow my own trumpet! I worked some good ones in Central America and the Carib-bean, Jordan, VK4 Queensland, South Korea, Senegal as well as west coast USA and Canada and Hawaii. Could everyone please e mail me their latest club tables to gm4ikt@cpsarc.com by the end of the second week of every month.

73s Bob GM4IKT

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Any experiment that ends with-out death or loss of limbs can usually be seen as a success of some sort. The essence is that often as much, or even more, can be learned from failure as from success. This is just one such story. True it has a rather big element of bad luck but it is an invalu-able learning experience. I wanted to put a bigger mast at my QTH. Partly it was to get a 2m antenna as high as possible but also to improve the geome-try so as to get a full HF an-tenna into my back garden rather than one half being tied off to the lamp-post at the front. My options for mast erection are extremely limited and very cramped. I had been given a pair of strong T&K brackets and then got a sleeve connector to ex-tend my existing 2.1m of 38mm aluminium pole to 4.2m. I even wrapped the ends of the alu-minium in cling film to cut down the bimetallic corrosion. The 2m waste pipe (carefully cam-ouflaged with grey paint) con-taining the homebrew 2m an-tenna was then attached to the top with a universal bracket. With hindsight this was ambi-tious given the circumstances. Saturday went fine with me getting the old mast down and putting in good solid fixings for the brackets. I also did an as-sembly check on the grass and all seemed well. The sun was shining and the weather was idyllic. Sunday saw the plan put into action – all went rather swim-mingly. The bottom section with the connector was fixed in with the lower U-bolts first [Lesson 1 – make absolutely sure you have the correct size of U bolt for the diameter of pipe] mine were a size too small

which caused problems later on] so that the connection could be completed at a rea-sonable height. Dave is a bas-ketball player so that helped. The top section had the length of RG213 cable tied into the pole up to where it was to join the connector – I even re-membered the two pulley sys-tems – with green string al-ready threaded - to eventually pull up the dipoles. It was a bit unwieldy but nothing too much with the two of us. I then pushed the whole con-traption up so that the connec-tor was above where the up-per U bolt goes – this was now getting trickier since a gentle breeze had developed [Lesson 2 – check the weather forecast first!] and I was now perched at my upper limit of comfort. This meant the job of threading the nuts and washers on whilst Dave held the pole sort of steady got more complex [Lesson 3 have plenty of spare nuts and washers; once they have fallen 15’ to the ground and bounced they are effectively lost!]. Mission accomplished, we shoved the pole to its full height in my excitement and enthusiasm to get it sorted – big mistake. We now (hindsight is a wonderful thing) had about 6’ of RG213 that was effectively out of reach and had no cable ties on it. [Lesson 4 – steady and me-thodical makes for a better night’s sleep! (see below)]. U bolts now all tightened up hard and all was in place. Dave asked what the long bits of green string at 90° to the top of the mast were for – blast, should have secured them first, and that wind was

fair getting up! This was the bad luck bit in that it was the first big blow for weeks and weeks. Eventually a lull al-lowed the green string to be recaptured and the W-8010 was attached and hauled up with multiple trips down into the garden to sort out secur-ing points for the four ends. The pole was now bending well with the wind – in fact rather too well for comfort I felt. I decided I would try to lower it a bit. Some hope, the U bolts (see comments about size above) had formed a strong and lasting relationship with the pole! After an initial attempt tuning the W-8010 I got nervous about the wind and perhaps made the first really good decision of the day and lowered the W-8010 down to level with the bottom of the pole so reducing the loading on the pole. [Lesson 5 is that wind load-ing is higher than I had thought with the height and I think particularly the di-ameter of the 2m antenna]. I got a chance to test the 2m with the RAYNET Sunday evening sked and for the first time I heard, and was heard by, GM4GVJ which was ex-tremely satisfying. The height clearly made a huge difference. The wind got stronger and stronger and eventually we went to bed – big mistake! The 6’ length of RG213 pro-ceeded to beat an endless and very loud tattoo on the hollow pipe which did its best to amplify it beyond all rea-sonable levels. This went on all night. Next I heard bits of the W-8010 clanging on the railings so at 0200h I went out into the rain and gale in my dressing gown with rope and cable ties and made some

(Continued on page 7)

A Cautionary Tale

By Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG

7

makeshift alterations but could do nothing about the RG213 – even if I could have reached it from the top of the ladder I was damned if I was going to risk it in this wind! Even I have some, albeit limited, sense. [Lesson 6 is that a ruined night’s sleep sets back the possibilities of the XYL’s acceptance of radio experi-mentation by about six months!] Amazingly come morning the pole was still standing and the 2m antenna was still sitting proudly atop – a testament to better engineering than mine since I had fully expected it to

(Continued from page 6) be at right angles to the pole! Something, however, had to be done. The wind had died a fair bit so I got rope around where the U bolts went, loos-ened the nuts as much as I dared and then with a lot of pushing and pulling, plus belt-ing with a hammer, I got the pole slackened in the bolts and was able eventually to slide the pole down nearly 2m out of the jet stream. I do not think it was entirely foolproof but was safer than risking waking up a daughter to give me a hand!! So where to now? Upgrading to a 2” aluminium or strengthened fibreglass pole, with matching U bolts,

seems a good starting point. I also think I need to be less greedy and go for 3m rather than 4.2m, particularly given the difficulties of getting the thing in place. I think, given the exposure of our QTH, I need to go for a much more aerodynamic 2m antenna and so will probably have to buy one – the homebrew was huge fun but I cannot create the slender fibreglass poles. Oh, several hundred more cable ties to the RG213, and a nice bunch of flowers with ac-companying dinner for when Lyn gets home from work! MM0YMG

Design for portable 2m/70cm ribbon antenna based upon Carmarthen Radio Club web site, with additional tweaks based upon my constructions. Requirement I already have a portable 2m (SOTA) beam which works excellently and has a beam width of about 120°. Having just joined RAYNET I felt I needed a 2m antenna that was still portable but was also omnidirectional so that I can Rx and Tx to all quarters, whereas the beam, whilst having higher gain, would re-strict my operational ability. The added attraction of the chosen design is that it can be operated as a portable or alternatively inserted into suit-able polythene pipe, sealed, and used as a base antenna. Materials required 450R ladder line – approxi-mately 1520mm long 12 or 14 SWG enamelled copper wire – approximately 120mm long RG58 coax PL259, BNC plug (or chassis mount if going for base an-

Design for a 2m Portable Aerial

By Malcolm Gibson MM0YMG

tenna) Liquid electrical tape Small cable ties Green string, or other non-conducting material Tools required Stanley knife Side cutter pliers Long nosed pliers Soldering iron Small metal vice (optional) Multi-meter Theory The antenna consists of a sin-gle wire of a half wavelength at 2m (1013mm) at the top, with a balanced section of 457mm below. The 1013mm length is almost a 3/2 wavelength for 70cm. Base antenna If you wish to make a base an-tenna instead of a portable one you will need some additional materials. 2m length of 32mm polythene pipe 2 push fit straight connectors 2 end caps 1 SO-239 chassis mount Attachment means to mast Carry out the building instruc-tions through to step 32, but

missing out step 22 so that no choke balun is in-line. Instead make sure you use a longer length of coax in step 14 – try starting with about a metre. Use a small cable tie to secure the phasing line to the side of the ladder line. Now take a length of suitable polythene plumbing pipe. I used a 2 metre length of 32mm waste pipe with two straight compression cou-plers and two end caps. Cut a suitable hole in one of the end caps to take the SO-239 chassis mount and install it into the cap so that the connection to the outward coax is inside the recess of the cap (which pro-vides some useful weather-proofing). Now tape a length of string to the wire about 50mm back from the tip of the antenna and gently push/pull the antenna into the waste pipe. Aim to have the tip roughly level with the top of the pipe. Put a spot of insulating tape on the coax to mark roughly where you need to cut it. Pull the antenna back out of the pipe to cut the coax at the mark

(Continued on page 8)

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and then solder it to the SO-239 socket. Take a bit of time to make sure you have all the bits in the right place before you solder – the end sequence is SO-239 through hole in end cap, solder ring for braid, nut for SO-239 with the braid lightly soldered to the ring and the central connector to the pin of the socket. I got it wrong first time in that I soldered the centre connector before I got the nut on!! The plastic is thicker than the usual case material so you only have a couple of threads to bite into. It was quite fiddly to solder the braid to the ring so that it still allowed the ring to sit tight onto the top of the cap and also let the nut tighten. Now put everything back into the waste pipe and check the resonant frequency. I found that I had to trim almost 20mm off the top wire to get it resonant on 145MHz, presumably due to a capacitance effect of the piping. Once you are satisfied that it is almost right pull the antenna back out (again) and run a straight connector over the top of the antenna and push the end cap with the SO-239 into place. Put to waste pipe over the antenna and fit to the push connector. The tip of the an-tenna should still be near the

(Continued from page 7) top of the pipe. Check the reso-nance and SWR again. If nec-essary pull apart and trim a bit more. Once finished attach the other push fit straight coupler and end cap onto the top of the antenna. I do not think it needs support but if you want you could tape a short length of nylon fishing line and loop it over the edge before you put the coupler onto the pipe (so that any gap in the seal points downwards to help keep rain out). On the end cap of my fittings there is quite a large recess. This is useful for weatherproof-ing the bottom where the SO-239 is but at the top it will gather rain so I intend to fill it with silicone to save water gath-ering at the top. I want to try and camouflage the pipe so I lightly sanded it and will then use an assortment of paints to try and lose sight of the antenna once it was on my pole. Results SWR readings were checked using the MFJ-259. The results are shown below. The input impedance was 50R at desired frequencies. Since the MFJ-259 does not cover the 433MHz band I am unable to check readings for that band. In terms of reception I have

tested the antenna from our upstairs floor with the antenna hanging from the ceiling; about 8 or 9m above ground level (146m above sea level). I have been picking up the repeaters from Fife, Kilsyth and Perth with

excellent signals. I tested transmission from the antenna through contact with MM0IBE in Prestonpans on 145.400MHz, getting a 5/7, and also a good QSO with KB3PFS through the Kilsyth repeater on 145.750MHz. In addition I was getting a good 5/9 on 144.625MHz. RAYNET trans-mission on 144.625 has re-ceived very good signal reports.

SWR for portable version

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

144 144.9 145.9 146.7 147.3

SWR for base version

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

142.4 142.9 143.7 145 146 147 147.8

1 Cut the length of ladder line to 1510mm. Try to get two full “legs” of wire at one end.

2 Strip about 20mm of insulation off the two “legs”. If you have given yourself a full length of “leg” there should still be a reasonable length of insulated wire between the bare copper and the middle separating section.

3 Carefully bend them through 90° so that they overlap.

Do this carefully since the copper breaks more easily than you might expect. If necessary hold the two folded legs together with some short lengths of thin tinned wire. The end effect should be a neat right angled join.

9

4 Tin the folded copper legs, and then apply solder so that there is a robust join.

5 Measure carefully up the ladder line and mark the cable at 457mm from the join you have just soldered. Now re-measure to make sure you are precise.

6 Cut through the partition section in the ladder line. Do not cut any wires yet!

7 On one side only, cut through all the partitions sections close to the wire but try to keep the insulation on the wire intact. This will be your long side and it will currently be over-long (deliberately).

8 Cut off the wire on the side that still has all the trimmed partition sections about 15mm beyond your 457mm mark. You will trim this later.

9 Now make the phasing line. Straighten out the length of enamelled copper wire so it sits as straight as you can get it. Measure back 22mm and hold in vice. Bend the rest of the wire through 90° to make a neat right angle.

10 Now measure very carefully for 67mm from your neat right angle bend and clamp in the vice. You are going to

make a second 90° bend such that you end up with a sort

of wide U shape all in the one plane.

11 Trim the second bend so that you have 10mm from the right angle.

12 Scrape the enamel off both ends of the phasing line and tin them.

13 Back to the ladder line and working on the long side,

measure up from the soldered join to 67mm and mark. Now trim off the insulation for about 3mm either side of this mark and tin the exposed copper.

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14 Strip back about 20mm of the outer coating of one end of the RG58 to expose the braid. Then unpick the braid and form two pig tails. These will be soldered onto the soldered join but try to form so that the central conduc-tion and the dielectric will be held off the join slightly.

15 Check that you have enough central conductor in its dielectric to go through the gap between the soldered join and the partition sector to join onto the phasing line that will be on the other side.

16 When the braid is the right shape tin each side.

17 Solder the two braids to the soldered joint at the bottom of the antenna.

18 Paint the soldered join/braid with two coats of liquid tape, allowing ten minutes between coats.

19 Turn the ladder line over so that the side which has the braids soldered to the join is on the underside.

20 Touch solder the long leg of the phasing line to the 67mm point on the long line. You can line up the short leg on the bottom soldered join. If it helps wrap a twist of thin tinned wire to hold the long leg in place.

21 Now strip back about 8mm of dielectric off the central connector on the RG58 and tin the connector.

22 Touch solder the central connector to the short leg of the phasing line.

23 Wind a small choke balun (6 turns of RG58 on 22mm poly pipe, secured with tape or cable tie) about 150mm from the bottom of the antenna.

24 Fit a suitable RF plug onto the other end of the RG58.

25 Check connectivity using the multi-meter to make sure that there is no short in the coax after your soldering.

26 Double check the 457mm mark on the short line by re-measuring. Trim the short line to the 457mm mark.

11

27 Measure up the long line from the 457mm mark and mark the line about 1030mm up from it. Re-check your measurement and when sure, trim off the long line to the 1030mm mark you have just made. This will be slightly long, but it is easier to trim back than to try and add a bit!!

28 Now either use an antenna analyser or turn down your Tx power to a minimum and connect the antenna to your radio. Check the SWR and nip off the top of the antenna in about 2mm bits till you get the minimum SWR centred on your favoured frequency.

29 Try tuning around the 2m band to make sure you are receiving, and if possible, confirm you are able to trans-mit.

30 Assuming all OK the go back to the two touch solder connections you made and solder them up properly.

31 Re-check the SWR, just in case.

32 Cover all exposed metal, including the end of both the long line and the short line, with two coats of liquid tape.

33 Cut about a 250mm length of green string and heat seal the cut ends to stop them fraying. Tie a figure of eight knot in one end.

34 The long side of the phasing line should be lying along-side the short line. Hold the green string alongside with the figure of eight knot at the top. Use a small cable tie to secure the phasing line and the green string to the short line.

35 Feed the bottom end of the green string through the

polythene pipe used to make the choke balun and then back up to meet the downward line. Tie a bowline above the balun adjusting the length so that any strain on the coax will be taken up by the green string rather than the soldered connection between the coax and the antenna. This will give some physical strength to the connection.

36 Take another length of green string, perhaps a metre, and heat seal the cut ends. Tie a figure of eight knot in one end. Then attach the green string to the top of the antenna using insulating tape. Once secured put two cable ties around the tape and string to give a solid con-nection. This now becomes your top attachment line for the antenna. It can go onto a fishing pole or have a long length of green string with a 2oz fishing weight attached for throwing up to give a good operating height for the antenna.

www.cpsarc.com

12

1. In which part of the frequency spectrum is

the 432.00 – 440.00 MHz band?

a. HF b. VHF c. UHF d. Microwaves

2. A control marked “Mode” on a transceiver

is used to:

a. Adjust the matching to the antenna sys-tem.

b. Select the band on which it will operate. c. Vary the sensitivity of the receiver sec-

tion. d. Select the type of transmission and re-

ception to be used. 3. What is the third harmonic of a frequency

of 10.100MHz?

a. 3.033MHz b. 20.200MHz c. 30.300MHz d. 90.300MHz

4. The output signal of a VHF transmitter may

contain many unwanted frequencies both above and below the carrier frequency. These unwanted frequencies are normally reduced by fitting a:

a. Low pass filter b. High pass filter c. Band pass filter d. Band stop filter

5. A transmitter is set to a frequency of

1.96Mhz. Which one of the following must be used to check for second and third har-monics?

a. A SWR meter. b. A UHF receiver. c. A general coverage receiver. d. A radio frequency power meter.

6. The purpose of a balanced modulator in an SSB transmitter is to remove the

a. Upper sideband b. Lower sideband c. Audio frequency signal d. Carrier

7. A modulator is NOT required when trans-mitting

a. USB b. LSB c. AM d. CW

8. If an amateur radio station is causing any

undue interference to other wireless tele-graphy, the emissions shall be suppressed or reduced, to the satisfaction of :

a. Ofcom b. Radio Society of Great Britain c. Subscription Services Ltd d. Licensee

9. Which one of the following filters should

be fitted to a television aerial socket to minimise interference from an HF amateur radio transmitter?

a. High pass filter b. Antenna Tuning Unit (ATU) c. Low pass filter d. Mains filter

10. To reduce the strength of an amateur sig-

nal entering a neighbours television, a ra-dio amateur should

a. Use an end-fed transmitting antenna. b. Use no RF earth in the station. c. Keep the transmitting antenna away

from the house wiring.

d. Put the transmitting antenna feeder

close to the house wiring.

Test Your Knowledge

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

13

Event Calendar

By John Innes MM0JXI

3rd April 2009 Club Night

5 April 2009 Blackpool Rally (note change of date)

25 April 2009 10 Pin Bowling Night at Fountainbridge £12.50 adult / £10 child (£5 non-returnable deposit)

25 April 2009 Newsletter Deadline

1 May 2009 Club Night

8 May 2009 1st 144MHz DF Hunt

16 / 17 May 2009 Scottish Parliament Special Event GB10SP

23 May 2009 Newsletter Deadline (early due to holidays)

5 June 2009 Club Night

6 June 2009 Port Seton Gala Day

14 June 2009 PW QRP Contest

20 June 2009 Museums On The Air Weekend from Museum of Flight GB2MOF

20 June 2009 Newsletter Deadline (early due to July club night being early)

26 June 2009 Club Night (note change of night due to VHF Field Day)

4 July 2009 RSGB VHF Field Day

25/26 July 2009 RSGB IOTA Contest

25 July 2009 Newsletter Deadline

7 August 2009 Club Night

14 August 2009 Junk Night

15 August 2009 Lighthouses Weekend from Barns Ness GB2LBN

22 August 2009 Newsletter Deadline (early due to holidays)

4 September 2009 Club Night

25 September 2009 2nd 144MHz DF Hunt

26 September 2009 Newsletter Deadline

02 October 2009 Club Night

04 October 2009 RSGB 21/28MHz Contest

16 October 2009 Video Night

www.cpsarc.com

14

The Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain and holds the call signs MM0CPS and GM2T which are used for our special event and

contest entries.

We have our own internet domain www.cpsarc.com where you will find our popular web site which features lively discussion forums and photo galleries.

You can also download an electronic copy of this newsletter.

The Club was formed by Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in 1984, to help the local amateurs get to know each other.

Far from being just a local club we have members regularly attending from the Borders, Dumfries, Strathclyde, Fife and Newcastle.

The Club meets on the first Friday of every month (Second Friday of January) in the lounge of the Thorntree Inn on the old Cockenzie High Street from 7pm till late.

The Club is run in a very informal way, just a group of like minded people doing something they enjoy!

This does not mean that we don’t do anything, we enter (and win!) contests, train newcomers, hold talks and video nights and run a popular annual Junk Sale. Our newsletter has won the Practical Wireless ‘Spotlight’ competition on several occasions.

The Club supports the British Heart Foundation in memory of a member who died from heart disease by donating the profits from some of the events we hold, we have raised over £14,368 since 1994.

Bob Glasgow 7 Castle Terrace Port Seton East Lothian EH32 0EE Phone: 01875 811723 E-mail: gm4uyz@cpsarc.com General correspondence, training and contest entries Bob Glasgow gm4uyz@cpsarc.com HF Contests Cambell Stevenson mm0dxc@aol.com VHF Contests John MacLean mm0ccc@cpsarc.com Newsletter, website, event calendar John Innes mm0jxi@cpsarc.com Club Tables Bob Purves gm4ikt@cpsarc.com

Club Sked The Club Sked has been run-ning for a couple of months now and is proving very popular, it’s driving several people to put up aerials and others to try a bit of operating, all very encouraging. 80m is proving to be quite diffi-cult at times but the wide geo-graphic spread of members means we are a bit limited in choice of bands. If you’d like to join in, keep an eye on the website chat box for the sked frequency. Thanks are due to Cambell MM0DXC for acting as sked controller and doing so much to encourage others to get on the air cpsarc.com email addresses If any club member wants an email address in the form call-sign@cpsarc.com please let mm0jxi@cpsarc.com know and I’ll set it up. Those who had these email addresses previously will also have to request them again as the old system isn’t connected to the new one. Amazon Shop The Club has an Amazon affili-ate and earns money from re-ferral fees for any Amazon pur-chases made through the links and banners on the website. So you can get Amazon’s great prices and service and help the Club out.

Snippets Information

Contacts

Answers from April 2009 news-letter “Test Your Knowledge”. 1C, 2D, 3C, 4C, 5C, 6D, 7D, 8A, 9A, 10C

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