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The newsletter of Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

May already who can believe that, where has the last four months gone as far as I am concerned they have just van-ished. It is also hard to believe that we will soon be into the major holiday season of the year, oh how time flies. So what has happened this month, from the club events point of view we will have had our 10 Pin bowling night and I am sure it will have been an-other good night, obviously with writing this early I cannot com-ment on it. The other major event that took place was ex-tracting the generator from Barns Ness lighthouse. Hope-fully a story on that will be ap-pearing in the newsletter. I would like to thank via our newsletter, Lafarge for their kind generosity in donating the gen-erator. Geoff MM5AHO is un-dertaking the refurbishment of the generator so please keep looking at the website for con-tinual updates or any help that is required to complete the pro-ject. At the end of the day it will help the club enormously for any outside events that we wish to undertake where we need power. Thanks Geoff for your sterling work here. My training Program has now totally finished for the

2009/2010 session but believe it or not I already have a rough plan in place for the 2010/2011 training program but I cannot confirm this up until the RSGB can confirm the Advanced dates for 2011. Yes it is strange to be looking so far ahead but my whole training program is based around the Advanced exam dates. My rough plan is to go for the April 2011 Advanced exam and the reasoning behind this comes from constructive com-ments made by the last years Advanced pupils. They all felt having a break at Christmas did them more harm than good as they all felt they lost the “training” momentum. Thanks lads for the input I did appreci-ate it. Once everything is con-firmed, the dates, costs and information for all my planned training on all the courses up until April 2011 will be placed on the club‟s web-site. Any one interested in any course will they please get in touch with me so that I can get them regis-tered for that course. To the future, this month we have our annual DF night, Fri-day 14

th May on 144MHz, rules

will hopefully be attached to the newsletter plus hopefully will be up on the web-site as well. Starting of from the Ship Inn car park (east) at 19:00, assemble

at 18:30. This is a real fun night and has produced many funny stories over the years that we have done it so come on folks come along and join in I can assure you, you will have fun. (By the way DF‟ing is not as easy as you think). This year Cambell Stevenson MM0DXC has offered to be the fox so an-other change of personnel with no doubt some different tactics but that is what makes this event all the more interesting.. Also starting soon is the “Contesting Season”, as I like to think about it with PW QRP, 6M Trophy, VHF Field Day and also IOTA from Tiree. There has been lots of talk and now the preparation has started for Tiree, which really has to be done, but we must not forget about the other contests par-ticularly VHF Field Day off which preparations are also underway.

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EDITORIAL

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

May 2010 Vol 18 Issue 5

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For the Tiree IOTA trip please contact Cambell Stevenson MM0DXC mm0dxc@aol.com if you are interested and he will give you all the details. VHF Field Day this year will be at the same site down around the Dumfries area, which has al-ready been registered for the contest. If you want to take part, of which the offer is open to everyone, then please contact John McLean MM0CCC who is co-ordinating the event mm0ccc@gmx.co.uk Moving on, one thing that has come out of the Tiree organisa-tion is finding out who is going and who is not as this has en-abled operating rota‟s to be pro-duced which at the end of the

day does give everyone a “play at radio” but as important, a well earned rest. The question is who is interested and who is definite about taking part during VHF Field Day? Can you spare a cou-ple of hours? Whatever the an-swers can you let John know. This year we will be operating on 70cms, 2M, and 6M on the Sat-urday and 4M on the Sunday, basically 3 stations will be on the go. If you haven‟t done any con-testing why not come and give it a try you may just like it. I do ad-mit it is like the “old” CW sce-nario you either love it or hate it. Not to forget those not interested in contesting well we still have our demonstration and special events. The events start off the

Port Seton Gala Day on the 12th

June then over the weekend of the 19/20

th June we have Mu-

seum‟s Weekend at the Museum of Flight, so if you fancy a little bit of relaxed operating then come along to these events. Not forgetting the Club‟s 20M Activity Night on the 23

rd June as

well. As you can see there is plenty scope for getting on the air one way or another. That‟s it then with something for you all to think about and give some sort of reply enjoy the newsletter and we will see you all on DF night and all our other events Bob GM4UYZ

Working Russian Oblasts

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

As an incentive when on the air I decided on trying to contact all of the Russian Oblasts. It all started after reading an article by Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF in the April 1984 “Short Wave Magazine”.

General Information

Russia, the world's largest coun-try, obviously defies a "brief de-scription," as it covers 11 time zones, all climate zones except tropical, with land that stretches almost halfway around the planet. In fact, by jet from Moscow, it takes about 8 hours

to reach Vladivostok on its Pa-cific Ocean coast. If you were to take that trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, count on your journey taking four days mini-mum. Russia has over 1,000 major cities, with 16 having a metro population of more than one mil-

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Contents 2 Working Russian

Oblasts

5 Sparker

6 The Hybszer Trophy

7 10 Pin Bowling photos

8 New Club Generator

10 Contest Report

12 Club Tables

13 144Mhz DF Hunt Rules

14 Test Your knowledge

15 Event Calendar

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Contributions to the newslet-ter are most welcome. Please don‟t send these items to GM4UYZ, he‟s busy enough doing the many other things he does for the club. Send any items you‟d like included to newsletter@cpsarc.com or submit items for the web site direct to www.cpsarc.com

lion. The most populated cities are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. Moscow, the capital, with over 12 million (metro) residents, is the coun-try's major economic and politi-cal centre - the seat of the Presi-dent, the government and the State Duma. The Russian landmass west of the Ural Mountains is referred to as European Russia by most educational atlases and geogra-phy experts. It is not a separate country, but rather called that because of its political, cultural and geographical blending with Europe. East of the Ural‟s is known as Asiatic Russia. Historically, the land called Rus-sia was occupied by Mongols, and the likes, for centuries. In the early 17th century, the 300 year control of the Romanov family began, and it was Czar Peter I that really began the transformation of the Russian Empire. After the reign of Queen Catherine II, it emerged as an influential and powerful Euro-pean force.

This flexible and durable giant somehow survived decades of political uprisings; a bloody civil war, one led by Vladimir Lenin; its participation in World Wars I and II; the tragic oppression of Joseph Stalin, Communism and a long succession of ideological, often brutal, leaders. In 1991, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) dis-solved, and when that union ended, Russia itself and its for-mer republics all became sepa-rate countries.

Oblasts before 1991

Before 1991, Russia was divided into 184 active administrative regions and these were known as “Oblasts” basically they are equivalent to counties within the UK or USA States. There were more but these had some have been deleted due to changes in the regions. When contacting an amateur in Russia how did you know what Oblast he was oper-ating from? It was quite easy as

you could work it out from the call sign of the amateur. For ex-ample UA1A was in Oblast 169, UK9AAN was in Oblast 165. There was a reference table pro-duced for identification and from this table 1A = 169, 9A = 165, basically you looked at the call sign i.e. UK9AAN and extracted the “9A” from the call sign then looked up the reference table. (see page 4)

My efforts up to 1991 and the dissolving of the USSR were as follows; out of the possible 184 Oblasts:

Confirmed All Bands: 65

Not Confirmed: 19

Total: 84

So in essence still 100 to work. Trying to work the oblasts is a massive task on its own right due to Russia‟s physical size, which in my opinion makes it a great challenge. Contacts to European Russia are easier to achieve than those of Asiatic Russia due the distances in-volved.

Oblasts after 1991

As mentioned before Russia or the USSR as it was dissolved into what I will call the new Rus-sia. Physically Russia dropped in size as foe example the Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia and many others are no longer part of Russia and are now countries in their own right. The regions (Oblasts) are now identified by two letters and not by a number and they are now called RDA‟s (Regional Dis-trict Authorities). Within each region there are now districts which are identified by numbers so as an example the new for-mat is as follows:

RDA (Oblast): MO-60 where MO = Moskovskaya obl. and 60 = district within that region

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PFX Name RDA OBL PFX Name RDA OBL

R1A, R1B, R1D, R1F, R1G, R1J, R1L, R1M

Saint-Petersburg SP 169 EU R6E Karachaevo-Cherkessia KC 109 EU

R1C Leningradskaya obl. LO 136 EU R6H, R6F Stavropolsky krai ST 108 EU

R1N Karelia KL 088 EU R6I Kalmykiya KM 089 EU

R1O Arkhangelskaya obl. AR 113 EU R6J Severnaya Osetiya SO 093 EU

R1P Nenetsky AO NO 114 EU R6L, R6M, R6N, R6O

Rostovskaya obl. RO 150 EU

R1Q, R1R, R1S Vologodskaya obl. VO 120 EU R6P Chechnya CN 096 EU

R1T Novgorodskaya obl. NV 144 EU R6Q Ingushetiya IN 096 EU

R1W Pskovskaya obl. PS 149 EU R6U, R6V Astrakhanskaya obl. AO 115 EU

R1Z Murmanskaya obl. MU 143 EU R6W Dagestan DA 086 EU

R2F, R2A-R2Z Kaliningradskaya obl.

KA 125 EU R6X Kabardino-Balkariya KB 087 EU

R3A, R3B, R3C Moscow city MA 170 EU R6Y Adygeya AD 102 EU

R3D, R3F, R3H Moskovskaya obl. MO 142 EU R8T Ust-Ordynsky Buryatskiy AO UO 174 AS

R3E Orlovskaya obl. OR 147 EU R8V Aginsky Buryatsky AO AB 175 AS

R3G Lipetskaya obl. LP 137 EU R9A, R9B Chelyabinskaya obl. CB 165 AS

R3I Tverskaya obl. TV 126 EU R9C, R9D, R9E Sverdlovskaya obl. SV 154 AS

R3L Smolenskaya obl. SM 155 EU R9F Permskaya obl. PM 140 AS

R3M Yaroslavskaya obl. YR 168 EU R9G Komi-Permyatsky AO KP 141 AS

R3N, R3O Kostromskaya obl. KS 132 EU R9H, R9I Tomskaya obl. TO 158 AS

R3P Tulskaya obl. TL 160 EU R9J Hanty-Mansiysky AO HM 162 AS

R3K, R3Q Voronezhskaya obl. VR 121 EU R9K Yamalo-Nenetsky AO YN 163 AS

R3R Tambovskaya obl. TB 157 EU R9L Tyumenskaya obl. TN 161 AS

R3S Ryazanskaya obl. RA 151 EU R9M, R9N Omskaya obl. OM 146 AS

R3T Nizhegorodskaya obl.

NN 122 EU R9L Tyumenskaya obl. TN 161 AS

R3U Ivanovskaya obl. IV 123 EU R9M, R9N Omskaya obl. OM 146 AS

R3V Vladimirskaya obl. VL 119 EU R9O, R9P Novosibirskaya obl. NS 145 AS

R3W Kurskaya obl. KU 135 EU R9Q, R9R Kurganskaya obl. KN 134 AS

R3X Kaluzhskaya obl. KG 127 EU R9S, R9T Orenburgskaya obl. OB 167 AS

R3Y Bryanskaya obl. BR 118 EU R9U, R9V Kemerovskaya obl. KE 130 AS

R3Z Belgorodskaya obl. BO 117 EU R9W Bashkortostan BA 084 AS

R4A, R4B Volgogradskaya obl. VG 156 EU R9X Komi KO 090 AS

R4C, R4D Saratovskaya obl. SA 152 EU R9Y Altaysky krai AL 099 AS

R4F Penzenskaya obl. PE 148 EU R9Z Gorno-Altayskaya AO GA 100 AS

R4H, R4I Samarskaya obl. SR 133 EU R0A Krasnoyarsky krai KK 103 AS

R4L, R4M Ulyanovskaya obl. UL 164 EU R0B Taymyrsky AO TM 105 AS

R4N, R4O Kirovskaya obl. KI 131 EU R0C Khabarovsky krai HK 110 AS

R4P, R4Q, R4R Tatarstan TA 094 EU R0D Evreyskaya obl. EA 111 AS

R4S, R4T Mary-El MR 091 EU R0F, R0E Sakhalinskaya obl. SL 153 AS

R4U Mordoviya MD 092 EU R0H Evenkiyskiy AO EV 106 AS

R4W Udmurtiya UD 095 EU R0I Magadanskaya obl. MG 138 AS

R4Y, R4Z Chuvashiya CU 097 EU R0J Amurskaya obl. AM 112 AS

R6A, R6B, R6C, R6D Krasnodarskiy krai KR 101 EU R0K Chukotsky AO CK 139 AS

R0L, R0M, R0N Primorsky krai PK 107 AS R0X Koryaksky AO KY 129 AS

R0O Buryatiya BU 085 AS R0Y Tuva TU 159 AS

R0Q Saha YA 098 AS R0Z Kamchatskaya obl. KT 128 AS

R0S, R0T Irkutskaya obl. IR 124 AS R1AN Antarctica AN -- AN

R0U Chitinskaya obl. CT 166 AS R1FJ Franz Josef Land FJ -- EU

R0W Hakassiya HA 104 AS R1MV Malyj Vysotskij Isl. MV -- EU

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Above is a table showing the Russian Amateur prefixes along with what Region it belongs too, its RDA prefix and its old Oblast number and whether it is in Euro-pean Russia or Asiatic Russia and the map shows where the prefixes lie within Russia. So to work the oblast or RDA it follows the same procedure as before 1991. From the call sign given i.e. UA9MA refer to the above ta-ble... it shows as below: So it is in the Omskaya Oblast with its RDA being OM, its old Oblast was 146 and it is located in Asiatic Russia.

One great contest for working

Oblasts is the Russian DX Con-

test which takes part on the third

Full Weekend in March from

12:00 on the Saturday to 12:00

on the Sunday.

The contest program that I use is

Wintest and its Multiplier window

for the contest shows all the

oblasts or RDA‟s and is show

below. As soon as you contact a

Russian Station and complete

the QSO it highlights the Oblast

or RDA contacted, basically

keeping track of all your Russian

Oblasts.

I have produced a spreadsheet for keeping a note of which Oblasts that you have worked on all off the HF bands so if you are interested in a copy then it is available from the downloads section of the website. Happy Oblast hunting.... Bob GM4UYZ

R9M, R9N Omskaya obl. OM 146 AS

Sparker

By John Tuke GM3BST

Like many radio amateurs, I was first interested while I was still at school - in fact when I was about eight or nine I can remember listening on earphones to crystal sets - quite a few people still had them for the simple reason they cost little to build and nothing to run. Valve radios were very ex-pensive in those days. By the time I was in secondary school, I had made simple valve receiv-ers, mostly for short wave broad-cast, and this interest grew until when I left school I went to a wireless college and trained to become a ship's radio operator.

Since then, I have certainly seen some changes, but nothing re-mains in my memory so much as seeing the big rotary spark trans-mitter which I encountered when I joined my first ship - a big pas-senger liner trading between Southampton and Buenos Aires.

There is something very special about a spark transmitter, it is real basic radio. It sat there, un-der the bench like a huge gen-erator, with a toothed wheel on one end to which two fixed elec-trodes pointed and across which were some 60-80,000 volts. All

the connections to it were made in brightly polished half inch di-ameter copper tubing ('elf an' safety, hide your eyes) There was a huge aerial tuning induc-tance, about eighteen inches wide and a couple of feet long hanging from the bulkhead with various taps on it. When you pressed the key, you just knew you were transmitting. I can look at my FT 950, which is probably generating about as much RF as the spark set did, and doesn't do anything exciting when I press the key. On the ship, passengers stopped and stared if the cabin door was open, and they thought how wonderful we were!! You can't beat that - how many wives have looked at us when we were on the air and think that.

For all the changes I have seen, the rotary spark set remains my first love. It sometimes made me a bit of spare cash - although generally telegrams were handed in to the purser occa-sionally a passenger would come to the wireless cabin and ask if we could send a message imme-diately. So I would start the ma-chinery, call CQ a few times or a

few QRZ‟s knowing that at that time no one would hear us.

The passenger would watch with wonder, pay for the message and say "That was most interest-ing, keep the change".

The coming of the war was the end of spark at sea - the trans-mitted signal spreads over a wide frequency range and so any form of secret transmission is out of the question. I had left the sea by this time, and was working with civil and service aircraft us-ing medium frequency direction finding. Compared to today's navigational aids it is almost laughable, but you would be sur-prised how many aircraft were navigated by and sometimes rescued by this system. Many bombers returning from ops, with damage and casualties relied on it to get them home, and I always felt it was a job well done when someone had been saved by this method.

In the amateur world during the years immediately following the war, most equipment was home made, but as time went on, transceivers appeared, until fi-

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nally for all practical purposes they took over from home built. I was still working with ground aircraft services - now with the grand name of Civil Aviation Au-thority, and in the years shortly before I retired in 1980 solid state gear was replacing valve equip-ment, just as it had done with amateur radio and so it has pro-gressed to the present day in which actual radio does not play as big a part as it used to apart from entertainment, mobile ser-vices and satellite communica-tions. This has had a big effect on amateur radio - for many years, you could hardly find a quiet spot on7 or 14 MHz at any time of the day - now when you listen, and there may not be a single signal on the band.

Now that I am well into the 'dotty' era, and spend quite a bit of time reminiscing over the past, some items stand out. Most make me chuckle, though some have a more serious background.

Here are a few, and if they raise a smile, so be it.

When I joined my first ship, I got a little safety lecture from the senior operator as follows ......

"There are some things you touch, and some you do not touch. If you touch the ones you should not, we will put you in a box and throw you over the side. The passengers will enjoy a burial at sea...

The worst of it is, the second op and I will have to work six on, six off for the rest of the trip".

The first tramp ship I joined (at 17 1/2 years old) and the captain said "Good Lord, they'll be send-ing them in nappies next"

Nothing to do with radio, but two weeks in London during the blitz is not easily forgotten!

Manning a small DF station on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides on a night watch in 1941, and hearing at two in the morning, the sound of a heavy diesel engine in the distance - knowing no such thing existed on the Island so creeping down to the shore in the darkness to see a German sub-marine on the surface, charging her batteries and wondering if she was going to drop a shell on my station before she left. In fact, nothing happened and by morning she had gone. All I could do was radio HQ with the information.

In 1948 still in the Islands, giving a CQ on 7 megs late one night and being answered by an Ice-landic transatlantic airliner with one of its four engines out, and another overheating so was des-perate for somewhere to land. Our little airport was of course closed, but we opened it, lit a par-affin flare path and he landed safely only because severe aurora conditions prevailed at the time, the aircraft operator being an amateur himself, had turned to 7 megs as a last resort and I was the only station he could hear. That was a lucky CQ.

Deciding in the middle sixties that I was going to be part of the APT weather satellite transmission system on 137.5 MHz - building a

drum type picture receiver with Meccano and making an 8 turn fully steerable helical aerial. About six month‟s hard work! But being rewarded for what I was doing by a free trip round the American space program by Gen-eral Electric who made the satel-lites.

Quite recently deciding to have a go on 500 KHz - which will always be „600 meters‟ to me, we never spoke of frequency before the war. My TX had four 807's in parallel push-pull and delivered about 200 watts with 1000 volts on the anodes. (Back to the 'don't touch days'). But lack of aerial space made this fairly ineffective, in spite of getting 8 amps round a loop aerial, and after a year, I gave up.

It has all been really good fun, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Amateur radio, like so many other hobbies, is now noth-ing like it used to be, and for peo-ple like me it will never be quite as good as it was. But for newcom-ers, it is a wide open field, and an excellent hobby, and I am sure even though it may be in a differ-ent form, it will go on for a very long time yet.

John Tuke GM3BST...

(90 years old)

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The Hybszer Trophy

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

The above trophy has been do-nated by Ron Fraser GM0NTL in memory of one of our club stal-warts Bill Gordon MM0BXK/GM8ZLI who passed away on the 11

th January this year. Ron

felt he had to do something to keep the memory of Bill alive so he decided on donating the tro-phy. Before donating the trophy Ron visited Margaret, Bill‟s widow to show her it and she was overwhelmed of what Ron was doing in Bills memory and gave her blessing for it to go ahead. Bill was a real character and al-though was a real quiet man he was a fountain of knowledge and experience. Sadly a great miss to us all who knew him. Why is the trophy called “the

HYBSZER TROPHY” well Bills was polish and this was his pol-ish surname. When moving to Scotland and marrying Margaret he decided to change his surname to Gordon to make life easier particularly for his two daughters when attend-ing school. I am sure there were other reasons but this is the one I know about. What are we going to do with the trophy? Well the decision has been made by Ron GM0NTL and it is to be awarded to the winner of our DF Nights and the reason being that this was the one event that Bill thoroughly enjoyed taking part in so it is fitting that the trophy is to be awarded to the winner of the

event. It is also to try and en-courage more people to go out and take part in the event so I hope that everyone will take this on board and really support the DF night. Have a bit of fun, see how diffi-cult DF hunting is and com-memorate Bills memory by trying to win the trophy. As we have two DF Nights in our yearly events program, one in May and the other in September It will mean that the winners of each event will keep the Trophy for the time period between the DF nights. See you all on DF Night – Friday 14

th May....

Bob GM4UYZ

10 Pin Bowling Photos

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For many years the club has been operating from Barns Ness Lighthouse on the east coast neatly sandwiched between Tor-ness Nuclear Power Station and Lafarge Cement Works, a little south of Dunbar.

The Lighthouse at Barns Ness was built by David A Steven-son, Engineer to the Commis-sioners. The light was first ex-hibited on 1 October 1901, ap-proximately 2½ years after building operations com-menced. The tower is 121 feet high, and is constructed of stone from Craigree (near Cramond) and Barnton quar-ries, as are the other buildings. The stone has proved to be tough as Barns Ness was ma-chine gunned during the War, and no damage was sustained. Until 11 July 1966, the light-house was manned by two lightkeepers; it then changed to one keeper as the light was being converted to semi-automatic operation. A sealed beam light, powered by mains electricity, replaced the old mantle and paraffin-operated light. The candlepower of the light was 1,300,000 and was the first of its type to be used in the Commissioners' Service. The optical equipment con-sisted of a gearless pedestal, manufactured by AGA (UK) Ltd, on which was mounted an array of eighteen sealed beam lamps, similar to modern car headlights. The gearless ped-estal operated from a 12 volt DC supply and battery stand-

bys for both these and the lamps were available. In the event of failure of the mains electricity supply a standby generator automati-cally started up. If this genera-tor failed to start, then the light was operated from batteries. The lighthouse was automated in 1986 and was then remotely monitored from the Board‟s headquarters in Edinburgh. In January 2005, the lighthouse authorities decided to close various lighthouses, including Barn Ness, and it was discon-tinued from 27 October 2005. In 1986, Lafarge Cement pur-chased the lighthouse. It already owned the old keep-ers houses and other buildings. With the light having been de-commissioned, and the light mechanism removed, only the standby generator remained as a reminder to the workings of the old light. At various times, sight of this old generator had prompted club members to ponder the idea of asking to acquire it for portable use. Geoff, MM5AHO and Bob GM4UYZ discussed

the possibility and together drafted a letter. to the Lafarge manager in 2009, This elicited a decision in 2010 that the club could have the generator, and so a day was chosen to go and extricate it. April 3

rd 2010 saw a team of

club members arriving with various equipment to do the deed. The generator is a heavy brute. It‟s a Lister 2 cylinder 19 HP diesel driving a 12.5kVa single phase alternator, producing 240V and 10kW. Tracing a Lister engine or gen-erator set is easy if the serial number is still there. This unit has been well maintained and the various nameplates are all legible. The unit is No 1876HA215. This deciphers into Serial No 1876, a model HA, 2 Cylinder and the last two digits are years after 1950 to manufacture. In this case 15 = 1965. The engine operates at 1500 rpm. The capacity is 1853cc with bore of 4” and stroke 4.5”. The engine is rated at 22HP at 1800 rpm but for this service is 19HP and 1500 rpm. The electric start is sup-plemented by a crank handle and decompression levers.

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The New Club Generator

By Geoff Crowley MM5AHO

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(these hold the exhaust valves down preventing compression, allowing the poor guy elected to crank start to get some revs up before flipping the levers to compression when it should start!) The tachometer has an hour meter reading 535 hours. Its feasible that this is correct, though in the 40 years of possi-ble operation, that‟s a little over an hour a month running time. The lighthouse installation was an automated starting standby supply, so various controls and connections were in place. A battery supply to the starter motor, with mains charging for that. A control circuit using 1960‟s relays and parts, caused the unit to start up on mains power failure, with some instrumentation to allow the keeper to see that the voltage was right etc. All this equipment was discon-nected and the residues tidied up. Some of the control equip-ment will be useful in making the genset useable for club events. At 0900 a short discussion about how to safely do the job was had, and with various club members allocated different tasks, the work started in ear-nest. Disconnecting the ex-haust (which of course went outside the building), the fuel line and the electric cables, the unit was eventually free from all except the floor. Six large studs, cast into the concrete floor held down the skid mounting frame. The whole unit needed to be jacked up over these to free it, and then it was moved using lengths of pipe as rollers,

through a door into the adjoin-ing room was not too difficult, but turning 90 degrees and down a step of about 150mm and another 90 degrees in con-fined space proved more tricky. But it was accomplished safely and without incident. Across the concrete path the Lister was carried using an en-gine crane. (One of those used to pull the engine from a car). This crane had to be used at minimum extension to enable it to lift the weight, estimated ini-tially at 800kg (estimate proba-bly generous. The engine found to be 280kg on its own). To transport the Lister, Cam-bell‟s trusty van was called into service, and while the weight was obvious, it seemed to han-dle well on the trip to West Lo-thian. The generator is now in the hands of Geoff, MM5AHO for building into a trailer mounted portable generator set for club use. It‟s hoped to have an elec-tric start (crank handle still available), and enough suitable instrumentation to satisfy the typical radio ham, with trailer equipment including brakes suitable for towing behind an average car. Some sound proofing with be welcome, and protection from the elements will be a require-ment for the typical field day weather!

A running blog on the progress of this project is on the club website with pictures showing progress towards getting this veteran (but little used) genera-tor operational.

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Thanks to all contributors who sent me their reports last month. A good opening to the contest report. Now that we are in May (is it really the 5 month already!?) , we can hopefully look forward to that long beautiful summer we have all been waiting for. To me this a great way to enjoy radio, go out mobile or portable and try work some of that elusive DX. Also a great time to do some contesting! So anyway enough about the weather before I start sounding too old! April Contest Reports From what I received in contest reports and what I gathered from the internet, April was a quiet month to be taking part in con-tests. Looking thorough SM3CER's website most contests in April were too 'small' in size and were not very popular enough to take part in. In a result it would have been a waste of time sitting down at the radio and only mak-ing 1 QSO per every hour due to a low amount of participants tak-ing part. So what I have learnt is always make sure which contest is time efficient. No doubt as this article goes on through out the year I shall learn more from the club contesters! CQ WPX 2010 The Biggest contest which I will start with was the CQ WPX con-test which took place in March. This like all of the CQ run con-tests is very popular with most stations around the world. Even if you are not into contesting you are most likely to work a rare country, some good DX or collect a large amount of new prefixes. The contest runs for 48 hours so a large amount of QSO's will be

rewarded to you for your efforts but on the other hand 48 hours can be very tiring and before you know it your well deserved week-end has gone! But its good to give some time to your hobby once in a while! Only 3 Stations took part in the contest. Overall not a bad turnout, considering only a few Scottish stations submitted a log last year. Bob GM4UYZ: Again during this contest was teaching the Interme-diate course and only managed a small run. But never the less he achieved a good score and some pleasant results for his log. “Took part in CQ WPX SSB Con-test... Managed 110 QSO’s which is 90 down on last year. I Was hoping to get a good score this year but not too be.

Breakdown by Band:

40M New Countries: 13 New Large Squares: 15 New countries as follows: Bel-gium, Hungary, Germany, Esto-nia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, England, Eire, Wales, Lithuania and Spain.... 20M New Countries: 18 New Large Squares: 41 New countries as follows: San Marino, Slovenia, Ukraine, Ger-many, Czech Republic, Greenland, Lithuania, Sweden, Belarus, Canary Islands, Asiatic Russia, Finland, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal and Bulgaria 15M New Countries: 10 New Large Squares: 15 New countries as follows: Euro-pean Russia, Afghanistan, Bul-garia, Greece, Ukraine, Mace-donia, Asiatic Russia, Scotland, Turkey and Cyprus. The bonus countries for me were

Greenland on 20M and Afghani-stan on 15M as both first from home.... Ron GM0NTL: Back in March Ron was suffering from a faulty amplifier and equipment but from what can be seen made, Ron achieved a good score and QSO count without it. Just shows you don't need to have a big meaty amplifier in the corner of the shack running 400w. “This was a rather rushed effort with all my time having been spent on trying to sort out the problems with my tribander yagi. Despite my best efforts, it refused to tune on 15M's. However, my home made 40M vertical tuned up on 15M which enabled me to log a few contacts. All bands were in good shape apart for 10M. Having only 100 watts these days made it an uphill struggle and call-ing CQ was pretty futile. So, I elected to confine my activities to S & P and go for multipliers. When the bands opened to North America, I was quite sur-prised how with 1 call and my 100 watts QRP, I managed to break through the European pileups several times and work into the US. Only 1 call also got me Australia, Indonesia and Thai-land as well. My claimed score was 307725 and my prefix totals on the various bands were: 160M: 15, 80M: 37, 40M: 38 , 20M: 44, 15M: 19 Best DX was: 160M only Eu: 80M USA: 40M Antigua, Azores, Bar-bados, Cyprus, USA : 20M Argen-tina, Australia, Canada, Indone-sia, Thailand, Turks & Cacos, Tu-nisia, USA: 15M Brazil, Canaries, Cyprus. My biggest complaint would be the enormous QRM that was gen-erated mainly by eastern Europe-ans stations using over driven enormous amplifiers, most of

Contest Report

By Robin Farrer MM0VTV

11

whom were being operated by totally deaf operators! Will I enter again next year? Not without 400 watts in my shack !” Robin MM0VTV: “I had a great time during the con-test. Even though it was really hard working straight into the very early hours of the morning and only getting a couple of hours sleep the result was well worth it! What I really did hate about the contest was the fact of getting sore ears and very mild headache due to the long duration of wear-ing headphones, but “needs must” I suppose!” “My final score was 124,914 with a QSO count of 305 with 1 being a dupelicate on 15m. The bad thing about this high score and QSO count means that a lot of hard work will be needed to beat it in 2011!” Equipment used: Yaesu FT-990, 100w, Inverted L resonant on 80m. SPDX 2010: The next contest in April was the SPDX Contest. This contest is the national polish contest. Again this contest always seems to be mar-ginally populated by UK contest-ers. Attached in the article is a certifi-cate awarded to Bob GM4UYZ for coming first in his category in 2009. However what is just unbe-

lievable and utterly strange but true is the fact that Bob was the only station to submit a log for Scotland! Well done Bob for win-ning not just your category but representing Scotland in the world! At least for now as I get off my soap box, there are many Scottish entrants in the 2010 con-test. As far as I am aware of only 2 club members took part in the contest. Bob GM4UYZ and my-self. Bob GM4UYZ: “I managed to get on for 1.5 hours on the SP-DX Con-test...hard going and only made 17 QSO’s all on CW .

Anyway my latest update is:

Band: 40M Mode: CW New Countries: 1 Poland New Squares: 1 Band: 20M Mode: CW New Countries: 1 Poland New Squares: 7”

Robin MM0VTV:

“This contest was not a priority in my view, however I did take part to get a feel for the fact it was a foreign contest. As a beginner you have to adapt to the skills of work-

ing the DX, which in this case were the Polish stations.”

“Conditions were a little worse for wear and most of the QSO's were made on 20m, which overall seemed to be the best band and during the evening 40m saw an increase in Polish contesters.”

“My overall score was 1152 with a total QSO count of 24. A very half hearted attempt but at least some QSO's were made which makes it a little more worth while!”

Before I sign off for this month, I must again thank all contributors. Congratulations to all award win-ners and to Martyn MM0XXW who has secured the call sign MM1X, N no doubt we will hear this call on the air sometime in the near future!

Unfortunately due to a short amount of time preparing this arti-cle I have to apologise for missing out the contest calendar. If you need more information on upcom-ing contests please visit the vastly filled website at www.sk3bg.se/contest/.

If its a quiet month for contesting in May, I will try and include a small guide on how to begin con-testing! So watch this space!

Cheers!

Robin MM0VTV

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The last few months have seen some very variable conditions on the HF bands. The year started with fairly poor conditions and then picked up dramatically with even a few openings on 10 metres and they have settled down to being rea-sonable with the odd good open-ing. There have been some good totals submitted from the usual entrants. I am sure there must be more people working DX who could take a few minutes every month to send me a spread-sheet. For newcomers please send to gm4ikt@cpsarc.com. Blank spreadsheets can be downloaded from the club web-site. Martyn MM3XXW , 2M0XXW & now MM0XXW congratulations on the new call. Martyn has made the most of his new power level and has worked a few all time new ones. SU , St, YV new ones on 20 me-tres and a good list of DX on other bands. Martyn is awaiting data cables so that he can have a go at data modes. Ray GM0CDV still the most regular contributor. He has a very good total of countries worked using SSB, CW and PSK31 Bob GM4UYZ. I have copied the lists Bob sent for simplicity Band: 80M Mode SSB New Countries: 1 Germany New Squares: 1 Band: 40M Mode: CW New Countries: 1 Poland New Squares: 1 Band: 20M Mode: CW New Countries: 1 Poland New Squares: 7

Breakdown by Band: 40M New Countries: 13 New Large Squares: 15 New countries as follows: Bel-gium, Hungary, Germany, Esto-nia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, England, Eire, Wales, Lithuania and Spain.... 20M New Countries: 18 New Large Squares: 41 New countries as follows: San Marino, Slovenia, Ukraine, Ger-many, Czech Republic, Greenland, Lithuania, Sweden, Belarus, Canary Islands, Asiatic Russia, Finland, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal and Bulgaria 15M New Countries: 10 New Large Squares: 15 New countries as follows: Euro-pean Russia, Afghanistan, Bul-garia, Greece, Ukraine, Mace-donia, Asiatic Russia, Scotland, Turkey and Cyprus The bonus countries for me were Greenland on 20M and Afghani-stan on 15M as both first from home.... Ron GM0NTL/GM4W. Ron has had a lot of antenna problems and a blown linear which have severely limited his operating. His entries are mainly RTTY . Now that his troubles are over I expect great things and a lot of DX. Robin MM0VTV has got the con-test bug and has sent in some good totals. Well done Robin. Malcolm MM0YMG has been very busy but has still manged to send in his club tables. Thanks Malcolm & well done. Lastly me GM4IKT. I have worked quite a few all time new ones and some good DX as well. All time new ones include 3B*

Mauritius,, 3W Vietnam, 8Q Mal-dives & J5 Guinea –Bissau. I made a rotatable dipole for 17 metres and managed to work a few new ones on that band. Please send in tables ASAP after end of April. When sending in tables could I have just a brief list of good DX or new ones for the month please? Thank you to everyone who put in a table recently 73s Bob GM4IKT

April Club Tables Report

By Bob Purves GM4IKT

13

144MHz Fox Hunt Rules

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

Date : 14th MAY 2010

Time : MEET AT 6:30PM FOR A BRIEFING PRIOR TO A 7:00PM START

Place : The "OLD SHIP INN" CAR PARK (Bar Entrance Side),

PORT SETON

Grid Ref. NT408 759

ORDNANCE SURVEY LANDRANGER MAP No.66

Entry Fee : £1:00 PER PERSON, TO BE DONATED TO THE CLUB FUNDS

Frequency : 145.275MHz, FM, VERTICAL POLARISATION

Callsign : MM0DXC/M

Hunt Area : THE FOX WILL BE LOCATED WITHIN THE AREA ON ORDNANCE SURVEY LANDRANGER MAP No.66 BOUNDED BY THE FIRTH OF FORTH TO THE NORTH, THE LINE JOINING GRID REF. NT560728 and NT560855 TO THE EAST, THE LINE JOINING GRID REF. NT370728 and NT370738 TO THE WEST. A SMALL MAP SHOWING THIS AREA WILL BE ISSUED TO ALL COMPETITORS AT THE START.

TX Times : TRANSMISSIONS BY THE FOX WILL BE 30 SECONDS EVERY 5 MINUTES. THE FIRST TRANSMISSION BEGINNING AT 7:00PM, FOLLOWING TRANSMISSION TIMES WILL BE 7:05PM, 7:10PM.etc. THE FINAL TRANSMISSION WILL BE AT 8:45PM AND WILL REVEAL THE LOCATION OF THE FOX AND THAT OF THE POST HUNT MEETING. (Normally the Lounge Bar in the Thorntree Inn)

Access : THE FOX WILL BE IN A POSITION WHICH IS ACCESSIBLE BY CAR (4WD NOT NECESSARY!)

TX Ban : NO TRANSMISSIONS, OTHER THAN THOSE OF THE FOX, SHOULD BE MADE ON THE HUNT FREQUENCY AT ANY TIME DURING THE EVENT

Vacate : ONCE A TEAM HAS FOUND THE FOX THEY SHOULD LEAVE THE IMMEDIATE AREA AND SHOULD NOT TRANSMIT ON ANY FREQUENCY WHILE IN THE VICINITY OF THE FOX

Equipment : ONLY ONE SET OF DF EQUIPMENT IS TO BE USED PER TEAM AT ANY ONE TIME.

Hunting : DURING THE HUNT PLEASE TRY TO BE CONSIDERATE TO OTHER ROAD USERS WHEN CHOOSING YOUR STOPPING POINTS ANY TEAMS FOUND TO BE BREAKING THE ROAD SPEED LIMITS IN ANY AREA WILL BE DISQUALIFIED IMMEDIATELY SIMILARLY, ANY TEAMS FOUND TO BE BREAKING ANY OF THE ABOVE RULES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED

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1. Some antenna matching units can have

tuned circuits with a high Q-factor. A

significant implication of this is that

a. there will be a need to reduce the Q-factor for

satisfactory reception of wide band signals

b. the circulating currents and voltages in the tuned

circuits can be very high

c. tuning the receiver to the wanted signal can

become quite critical

d. a low pass filter is also desirable to limit harmonic

radiation.

2. In a transformer the energy is transferred

from the primary to the secondary by

a. mutual inductance

b. electromagnetic coupling

c. magnetic resonance

d. eddy current conduction.

3. A valve RF amplifier requires a load

impedance of 1.8kΩ which needs to be

matched to a 50Ω output. The secondary has

5 turns, how many turns are required on the

primary?

a. 30

b. 36

c. 180

d. 250.

4. The core of power transformers is laminated

in order to

a. enhance the magnetic field

b. improve the coupling from primary to secondary

c. minimise the effect of eddy

currents

d. reduce to risk of vibration and '

hum' .

5. Unwanted radiation from a local oscillator

stage in a receiver can be minimised by

using

a. a balanced output from the oscillator

b. an emitter follower buffer stage

c. a thin metal cover round the oscillator

d. bipolar transistors in preference to FETs.

6. The coil in the LC tuned circuit normally

increases its inductance as the

temperature rises. One solution to

minimise frequency drift is to

a. use a capacitor with a negative temperature

coefficient

b. use a capacitor with a positive temperature

coefficient

c. mount the capacitor further away from any source

of heat

d. mount the coil vertically to minimise the

temperature gradient.

7. The 'P' type semiconductor is doped

with an element containing

a. more electrons in the outer shell than are

required for bonding b. fewer electrons in the outer shell than are

required for bonding c. positively charged ions to improve the

conductivity of pure silicon d. small amounts of copper to change the

silicon to a semi-conductor.

8. A Zener diode is

a. A forward biased to provide a specified

reference voltage b. reverse biased to provide a specified

reference voltage c. forward biased to provide an accurately

known current d. reverse biased to prevent excessive current

flow.

9. The dielectric in a varicap diode is formed

from the

a. potential barrier at the p-n junction when

forward biased

b. small region of un-doped silicon produced

in manufacture

c. depletion layer of a reverse biased

diode

d. electron-hole pairs in the junction

region.

10. The path from source to drain inside an FET

comprises

a. a continuous path entirely of N-type (or P-type)

material

b. a single P-N junction which is normally forward

biased

c. a single P-N junction which is normally reverse

biased

d. two junctions, one forward and the other reverse

biased.

Test Your Knowledge

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

15

Event Calendar

By John Innes MM0JXI

7 May 2010 Club Night

9 May 2010 Magun Rally, Irvine

12 May 2010 Talk: „Radar‟ by Roger Stableford 18;30 Holiday Inn Express, Picardy Place, Edinburgh. Contact norman.d.stewart@selexgalileo.com for more information

14 May 2010 1st 144MHz DF Hunt

29 May 2010 Newsletter Deadline

4 June 2010 Club Night

12 June 2010 Port Seton Gala Day

13 June 2010 Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest

19/20 June 2010 Museums on the Air weekend from Museum of Flight, East Fortune GB2MOF

19 June 2010 Newsletter Deadline

23 June 2010 CPSARC 20 Activity Night

25 June 2010 July Club Night *** moved to accommodate VHF Field Day ***

3 / 4 July 2010 RSGB VHF Field Day

24 / 25 July RSG IOTA Contest from Tiree GM2T

31 July 2010 Newsletter Deadline

6 August 2010 10:30 Advanced Exam

6 August 2010 Club Night

12 August 2010 Perseids Meteor Shower

13 August 2010 17th Annual Mini-Rally

21 / 22 August 2010 Lighthouses Weekend from Barns Ness GB2LBN

28 August 2010 Newsletter Deadline

3 September 2010 Club Night

25 September 2010 Newsletter Deadline

1 October 2010 Club Night

21 October 2010 Orionids Meteor Shower

30/31 October 2010 CQWW SSB Contest

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16

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 website 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 and ar-chived copies from the past.

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 newsletter@cpsarc.com Club Tables Bob Purves gm4ikt@cpsarc.com

The club has a design for Club Tee-shirts, Polo-shirts, Sweat-Shirts, Fleeces and Jackets and all of these can be obtained from the address below. When making an order please:

Quote Cockenzie & Port

Seton Amateur Radio Club as this will ensure that the Club Logo will be placed on the re-quired ordered garments.

If you wish to add your call-

sign to the logo then please ask at the time of the order. Cost will depend on garment and should cover the garment and logo, call-sign addition will be extra. Order from: PATRICIA BEWSEY DESIGNS, UNIT 11, FENTON BARNS RETAIL VIL-LAGE, FENTON BARNS, NORTH BERWICK, EAST LOTHIAN EH39 5BW Tel/Fax: 01620 850788 Mobile: 07970 920431

Club Attire Information

Contacts

Supported by BT Community Champions Answers from May 2010

newsletter “Test Your Knowledge”. 1B, 2A, 3A, 4C, 5C, 6A, 7B, 8B, 9C, 10A