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The newsletter of Cockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club

That‘s it then folks we are now in official British Sum-mer 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 opposite can‘t we. The first topic is the sad news that on Tiree, Callum and Aaran‘s father has passed away so I would like to pass on our deepest sym-pathies to them at this sad time. OK then, what has happened this month. Firstly I have started my final course for this winter session, it is an Intermediate Course and I have 4 candidates studying ready for their exam on April 10th. I am sure you will join with me and wish them all the best with the exam. I am now taking my well earned sabbatical and will start up again my next train-ing program in September.

I can assure you I am ready for the break! Overall the entire 2009 train-ing program has been very successful and congratula-tions to all who have passed their exams. Next, the only event which is still to take place as I write this is is the talk by Paul Henderson 2M0BUY on ―Forensic Chemistry‖. Paul is a lecturer on this sub-ject at Heriot-Watt University so I am sure it will be a very informative and great talk. This month we have the 10 Pin Bowling Night, which I am sure, will be good night of fun. Club Night is the last night for you to decide and pay if you want to take part so please let me know ASAP please? I would like to thank Robin MM0VTV who has decided to start writing a monthly arti-cle for the club newsletter. The article is about contest-ing so I think it will be show-ing what contests that will be on that month, activities from

club members, etc. Please support him in his task and supply him with all your efforts. Continuing on, and I know this is a regular plea but we are desperate for material for the newsletter. I am really struggling each month to find material for input so can you help please. I have had lots of people of-fer but nothing materialises so please, please try and put something together and sub-mit 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 2010 Vol 18 Issue 4

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I keep 2 sets of club logs, one containing all the contacts we have made whilst out on club events like Lighthouse Weekend, demonstration stations, etc and the other purely for contest con-tacts using the club callsigns MM0CPS and GM2T. The logs are all available on paper plus they have also been entered into the logging program WINLOG32. Why do I keep the logs you may ask? Well it is a simple as it is a

record of what we have done plus in the case of any queries I have a copy, pus I am responsible for the club callsigns MM0CPS and GM2T therefore I have copies of these logs.

Below are 2 tables showing some of the statistics that we have achieved with each of the logs. This is where WINLOG32 comes into its own as extraction of this information is so simple. What has amazed me is that in the club

log we have worked DXCC but just confirmed it and I thought we had a long time ago. We have achieved DXCC (Confirmed) in the Club Contest log but there is more chance of this happening due to the contests we enter.

Bob GM4UYZ

Club Logs—Latest Update

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

BAND 1.8 3.5 7 14 21 28 50 70 144 432 ALL

BANDS

DXCC Worked 76 118 153 213 211 180 50 8 28 9 246

DXCC Confirmed 45 61 73 97 85 67 32 6 16 4 122

IOTA Worked 10 121 161 229 169 95 6 4 7 1 268

IOTA Confirmed 10 61 87 127 84 50 6 4 6 1 163

WAZ Worked 13 25 32 39 39 38 11 2 3 1 39

WAZ Confirmed 7 11 16 29 26 21 5 2 3 1 35

WAS Worked 1 10 19 44 40 41 0 0 0 0 48

WAS Confirmed 1 10 19 44 40 41 0 0 0 0 48

BAND 1.8 3.5 7 10 14 18 21 24 28 50 70 14

4

43

2

ALL

BANDS

DXCC Worked 16 43 75 0 14

8

40 92 4 43 3 0 3 0 162

DXCC Confirmed 4 31 51 0 93 22 55 0 27 0 0 1 0 102

IOTA Worked 1 22 40 0 75 3 15 0 5 0 0 0 0 107

IOTA Confirmed 1 22 38 0 72 3 12 0 3 0 0 0 0 101

WAZ Worked 4 10 21 0 34 9 29 3 16 1 0 2 0 36

WAZ Confirmed 3 7 14 0 28 7 20 0 10 0 0 1 0 30

WAS Worked 0 1 1 0 39 4 23 0 16 0 0 0 0 43

WAS Confirmed 0 1 1 0 39 4 23 0 16

0 0 0 0 43

Club Contest Log (MM0CPS & GM2T)

First QSO 3/8/1999 Last QSO 28/11/2009 ---- 72779 QSO's

QSL Card Rate: 100% (Note: Only QSL if a card received therefore reason 100%)

Club Log First QSO 29/9/1990 Last QSO 23/10/2009 ---- 24037 QSO's in Log

QSL Card Rate 41% (QSL every contact)

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Contents 2 Club Logs

3 What are your interests?

5 Contest Report

7 Soldering

8 A Simple Homebrew Sound Card Interface

11 Talk: Forensic Chemistry

12 Test Your Knowledge

13 Event Calendar

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Contributions to the newslet-ter and web site 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 mm0jxi@cpsarc.com or submit them direct to the www.cpsarc.com

A good question so what are your interests in this great hobby of ours? We would all love to hear about them so why not write an interesting article for the club‘s newsletter.

Me, well I obtained my licence GM4UYZ a way back in October 2003 so it will be 27 years this October that I have been im-mersed in this hobby. Over the years I have dabbled with a few things but my main operating has always been HF as I find it absolutely amazing how I can talk to people at the other side of the world, more on this later.

What I really have spent most of my time on in my amateur radio years is actually running the ra-dio club which I established back in 1984. My original idea was a night once a month for all the local radio amateurs in Port Seton to get together and have a good old ―rag chew‖ but here we are twenty six years later.

To get to where we are has been a heck of a lot of work and hours spent, all running in the back-ground and invisible to the out-side world but all and truly worth it. Although through the years there have been a few frustra-tions the joys and successes far, far out way them.

It has been my way of putting something back into the hobby. It has been fantastic trip to see the club evolve to where we are now, not just down to my efforts but from many others who have contributed along the way.

he one area within the club structure which has given me probably more satisfaction is the training. Little did I realise when I made the decision back in 1994 to run a Novice Course, which was held in my garage each Sunday for about two months leading up to the exam, that I would still be delivering training up to this present date.

Since 1994 I have taught 190 people, some have done one

course, others have done two and others all three with me. Pass results as a percentage: Novice = 93%, Foundation = 94%, Intermediate = 99% and Advanced = 72%.

Lots of work and hours spent preparing the courses and all the other background work that goes on before I kick off on the first day of a course but when you get the results and see those happy faces you know it has been all worthwhile.

To everyone that I have trained I hope that they get as much en-joyment and fun out of the hobby as it has given me over the years. I have been glad to help you all along the way...

Apart from the radio club what else have I been interested in or still interested in...

Working on radios and working on the bench... For many years I thoroughly enjoyed working on radios whether it be repairing them or modifying them. Also building various projects either for club use, personal use or to help repair a radio. Sadly due to other commitments and time constraints plus noticing that my eyes are not as good as they were I do very, very little now.

Certainly working on radios en-hanced my knowledge and un-derstanding on how they actually work. I just hate to be beat and I can genuinely say that in all the years that I did repairs I had to give up only a couple of times. If a bit of circuitry didn‘t work it was back to the books to study and understand. Having a circuit dia-gram was an absolute must as without one it was like being blindfolded then told find your way to XYZ... One of the best books I ever used was written by Lou Franklin on CB repairs. It was written in a way that it was easy to understand and without high fluting maths, etc.

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What Are Your Interests?

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

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Operating... I have from home dabbled with VHF on both 4M and 2M and a minimal amount on 70cms but being located at sea level does not help for any long distance contacts. As the main centre of VHF population is to the south of me I have the disadvantage that my signal has to get up over the hill towards Tranent which sadly is a no-go.

If the signals were to the north and particularly Aurora then it was fantastic.

To that end I gave up my VHF SSB VHF operating from home. The only VHF that I do is occa-sionally and I mean occasionally the odd 2M FM QSO.

For a great number of years I did run 2M and 70cms packet radio from home but due to the cheap-ness of the Internet that has long since gone.

Having said that about VHF I do still thoroughly enjoy the chal-lenges of VHF Field Day every year and I would love to do more VHF contesting like PW QRP, 6M trophy, 4M Trophy and the 2M Trophy but unfortunately due to clashes with other club events and time constraints they are a no-go.

My predominant radio from home is therefore on HF. I just love the thought of going on the air and

putting out a CQ call and won-dering who I will make contact with. It could be just along the road or it could be the other side of the world.

The best contact that I have ever made was with a ZL (New Zea-land) station who actually called me...I can remember one‘s that I have struggled with for example my one and only time of working OA (Peru)... I also enjoy CW, I am not the greatest CW operator but I just think it is a fantastic mode. My best contact I have ever made on CW is with a 14 year old lad from Sweden as he obeyed the most important rule of CW operating is that you send at the same speed as the person who called you...so for example if I call at 15 WPM then the per-son should respond at 15 WPM and not 30 WPM. Apart from that we had a great QSO then also one using SSB.

Contests and Special Events...

If I do have one major love it is taking part in Special Events and Contesting. The Special Events give us the opportunity to sell this great hobby of ours to the ―masses‖ as well as having fun operating.

Using the club‘s equipment we set up some great stations like the Museum of Flight and Light-house Weekend and because

our signals are so good we cre-ate massive pile-ups, what a great operating experiences to new and old operators.

Contests, well they are a chal-lenge and particularly from home it is a great test of how well your station is performing. A test of your own operating skills whether it is dealing with a pile-up or just searching and pounc-ing to get that elusive station and also learning about propagation when to use the lower bands or the higher bands, etc.

I have even won certificates from meagre efforts that I have achieved in a contest so it is al-ways worthwhile submitting your log.

When we do it as a Club event there is the skill and enjoyment of putting a full blown large con-testing station together and get-ting it all to work.

All of the above are what I am interested in and it is only a small snap-shot on what this hobby has to offer. The beauty is that we as individuals have a choice and what is good for me is not necessarily good for you.

Look forward to hearing your story in the future...

Bob GM4UYZ

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Contest Report

By Robin Farrer MM0VTV

Before I start I would like to thank Bob GM4UYZ for inviting me to do the club contest re-ports, it will be a big challenge but keep sending me your re-ports. This will be very much ap-preciated! I will start in the biggest contest in which most people took part in March was the Russian DX con-test. ( I would start with WPX but I have to submit this article on the Day it starts – so for next month can I have your CQWW WPX reports please.) Bob GM4UYZ sent in his report, however due to a lack of time teaching the intermediate course and personal commitments he only managed to squeeze in a small amount of time, but none the less he was very happy on what he achieved. For a begin-ner like me, it certainly shows what can be achieved in the final results with only a small amount of QSO's held. “I only managed 30 minutes dur-ing the Russian DX due to deliv-ering an Intermediate Course and having to work as well. Still out of that I managed 11 new Countries and 9 new large squares for my tables this year. I had planned to take part in this contest as one of my interests is working Russian Oblasts and only two were contacted and not all time new ones either. With only 12 QSO’s in the log for the 30 minutes I have still submitted my log as it will be useful as part of the cross checking that is done.” Martyn MM0XXW was also ac-tive on the bands and writes: “I love this contest and have con-sistently improved on my score year after year. This year the conditions were great albeit quite a lot of qrm from stations using high power but nonetheless I really enjoy this one!” and after-

wards includes “Managed 165 in total but I'm just waiting for the confirmation from the RDXC as they may not accept my entry .... I was only band-specific not fre-quency specific and the new rules are for the frequency! So there lies a good piece of advice for anyone .... read the rules be-fore the contest NOT after-wards!!!!” *I also back the statement up for reading the rules before a contest and reading it several times more! I nearly fell prey to this during the 80m Club Championships! * Bob GM4IKT: Overall worked Saturday evening about 1 ½ hours and the same for Sunday morning and had a fairly good run on 15m catching the major DX stations. ―Started about 19:00 and found the bands were still wide open. Kicked off with Brazil & Argentina on 10m, changed to 15m and worked Senegal, Bonaire, and Dominican republic then USA & Aruba then Argentina, Croa-tia ,England, Brazil, Colum-bia, Venezuela, Dominica on 20m.‖ ―I only got a total of about 4 hours of operating. I used the time to pick and choose DX as I new I could not put in a serious entry. I made 9 contacts in this session search and pounce. I started on 15 and worked CN2 & ZY7 Morocco & Brazil. I changed to 20m worked Estonia and some Russians and then Ukraine on 15m.‖ ―So as you can see not much of a contest score but I had a ball and increased my country count.‖ Finally me Robin MM0VTV: I really enjoyed this contest. “ I started the contest from the start at 1200 and worked to late Sunday morning, I took several breaks to rest the ears and voice

and took time out to watch Scot-land V Ireland, I am glad they won otherwise it could have lost me valuable operating hours if they had had lost. I could not take part on the Sunday due to going to the Falkirk Junksale in Grangemouth” “ I reached a personal best re-cord during the contest with 130 QSO's and score of 56364, al-though I did enjoy the contest I did have a complaint with one operator on 80m from England who completely blanked my call, fair enough it only counts as 3 points but points are points in my opinion” “I also had a good run on 15m to the Caribbean, USA, South America and Africa and it was very good to hear club members on the band.” “ I was getting ready to call the Dominican Re-public when a big GM4IKT signal calls first also I heard MM0XXW on 20m.” ARRL DX CONTEST - 6 March 2010 – 7 March 2010 Not many reports from operators taking part in this contest. I might put it down to poor propagation on the bands. Martyn MM0XXW entered the category SOAB-Low log entry with 858. A pretty good score! He also writes; “Not my best ever entry however trying to break through the QRM caused by every second station using 1kw of power with only 100w from my transmitter was a near impossibility so I just gave up!” Bob GM4UYZ again was very busy during the contest but was dedicated to make a few con-tacts in both the SSB and CW legs and writes. “Took part in the following con-tests ARRL CW on the 21/2/2010 and ARRL PHONE on

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7/3/2010. In both contests only managed 25 QSO’s in each as very limited for the amount of time I could spend on the air due delivering training and personal commitments. In the CW contest all the QSO’s were around the eastern board of the USA and Canada but in the SSB contest I managed to work Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. I was really pleased with the Brit-ish Columbia contact as it is only the second time I have ever managed to contact there from home in all the years I have been licensed. I heard California and called him but was unsuccessful in contacting him.” BARTG HF Spring RTTY Con-test 20-22 March 2010. Ron GM0NTL has kindly sent me a report from his recent RTTY contest. Its good to get a good mix of data modes and SSB. Apart from trouble with equip-ment during the contest, how-ever Ron did do a sterling job to secure him 150 QSO's and over-all 30,000 points. Call sign used: GM4W BARTG Spring HF RTTY con-test: Single band 20 metres LP ( 50Watts RTTY), 150 qsos, 30 DX countries, points 30,000. Pretty poor effort on my part as I was plagued with equipment fail-ures. DX worked: W ( including California), VE, JA, VU, TF, DL, SP, SV, SM, OH, ES, I, HA, YU, YO, S5, GW, OM, CT, EA, EA8, OK, HB, LA, RA9, RN3, UT, ER, 9A,UN

GM0NTL writes: “I did not know this contest was on until about lunchtime on Sat-urday and when I realised enter-ing might help me retain my SCC, I decided to have a go. Big mistake! I opened up Win-Test, my favourite contest logging pro-gramme, to find that BARTG is not supported. “The contest started at 02:00Z on Saturday and it was now into the afternoon. I decided to enter SS20m only and got off to a good start into Europe. After an hour or so, I heard a loud splut-tery, fizzy sort of noise from the rear of the linear, and yes, it had died. OK, I did not panic but ut-tered a few descriptive adjectives suitable for the occasion and carried on with the rig output only at 50 watts. Not recommended to use the rig on full power on RTTY. With the beam pointing North and calling CQ, I had sta-tions from Japan, US & Canada all call me, so did I really need 400 watts. I managed to keep some fairly good runs into the US at one time but the big guns with the large and sometimes illegal amplifiers caused enor-mous splatter.” “One of the rules for single en-tries is that you can only work 30 hrs of the contest and any breaks must be of no less than 3 hours which was a real pain as I seemed to spend more time sit-ting around waiting to start oper-ating again than I did working the contest. This was shown in my minuscule score of only 30,000 points.” Finally I finish the article with my

run during the SSB March Club Championships. “Overall the contest was very enjoyable, however the whole band was very noisy and full of qrm. It was nearly impossible to find a clear frequency to run! Whenever I found one I was promptly told to move, however when I called if the frequency was in use I heard nothing. I did move just reduce the amount of confrontation. Overall I managed 33 QSO's, not a bad result but I could have done better, hoping to beat my score this month.” More than 1 club member can take part in the contest, so why not give it ago this month on 14 April starting at 1900 to 2030, So why not represent the club? So that is all from me for this month. Thanks to all the reports from all competitors, it is very much ap-preciated! Please keep sending them in. I hope you have enjoyed the arti-cle and if you have any ques-tions or ideas for the article please contact me at mm0vtv@cpsarc.com Robin MM0VTV Bob GM4UYZ has received this certificate for coming first in Scotland in the CQWW WPX CW Contest last year.

Date Times Contest Modes

3-4 Saturday 1500—Sunday 1500 SP DX Contest CW SSB

4 0700—0830 RoPoCo 1 3520-3570kHz CW

5 Monday 1900—2030 RSGB 80m Club Championship CW

10-11 Saturday 0700—Sunday 1300 Japan International DX Contest SSB CW

11 Sunday 0600—1000 UBA Spring Contest SSB CW

14 Wednesday 1900—2030 RSGB 80m Club Championship SSB

22 Thursday 1900—2030 RSGB 80m Club Championship DATA

24-25 Saturday 1200—Sunday 1200 SP DX Contest RTTY

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A recent query on the website regarding replacing a soldering iron led me to do some investigat-ing into solder and soldering.

What is solder?

Solder is a fusible metal alloy with a melting point range of 90 – 450ºC, used in a process where it is melted to join metallic surfaces. Alloys which melt between 180-190ºC are most commonly used.

Traditional solder is a 60/40 alloy of tin and lead which melts at 188ºC. The proportion of tin in the alloy determines how hard the alloy is. 63/37 alloy is used princi-pally in electronics, it melts at 183ºC and is eutectic – it solidifies sharply below that temperature.

Other alloy proportions are used to make solders for plumbing (e.g. 50/50 – which solidifies more slowing allowing it to be wiped round joints)

Chemical agents called fluxes are added to prevent the soldered surfaces from oxidising during the soldering process which improves electrical connection and me-chanical strength , most people will be familiar with rosin cored wire solder where the fine tube of allow is wrapped around a core of rosin which acts as the flux.

What about lead-free solder?

In 2006 the European Union pro-duced regulations which pre-vented the use of hazardous sub-stances in Electronic Equipment (RoHS), one of those substances is lead so manufacturers have had to move away from the use of tin/lead alloys for solder.

As it happens, there are other alloys which behave in a similar way to 60/40 tin/lead alloy, the most common are Tin/Silver/Copper. Alloys around 3.5% silver and 0.9% copper produce a eutectic alloy which melts at 217ºC.

The bottom line with lead-free solders is that the melting point is slightly higher than traditional tin/lead alloys, the long term reliabil-

ity of these new alloys is still to be proved, and lead was added to early solders to help prevent whiskers forming.

Soldering

Soldering is a process where two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint. The filler metal has a much lower melting point (below 400ºC) than the sur-rounding metals. The filler metal is called solder.

Heat is applied to both the parts to be joined, solder is then applied which melts and is drawn into the joint by capillary action. Once the heat is removed the solder solidi-fies again leaving a joint with good electrical conductivity, the joint should not be moved until the solder has cooled. Solder is not a strong alloy; joints should be me-chanically joined (wrapped or bent) before soldering to prevent them pulling apart over time.

Problems with soldering The most common defect results from the parts not reaching the correct temperature (the solder‘s liquidus temperature) resulting in a ‗cold solder’ joint which may have poor electrical properties. The most common cause is melt-ing the solder directly on the iron thus evaporating the flux before it can clean the surfaces instead of allowing the parts to heat up first.

Movement of the metals being soldered before the solder has cooled will cause a highly unreli-able cracked joint (known as a ‗dry’ joint). This will look dull or grainy and will be mechanically weak and a poor conductor.

Excessive amounts of heat ap-plied may result in the PCB track lifting off its laminate and the sol-der joint may end up with more solder than necessary and the joint fillet (the area between the two parts to be joined) won‘t be concave.

Soldering

By John Innes MM0JXI

A really poor soldering example

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A Simple Homebrew Sound Card Interface

By Simon Alderson MM0WKC

If you want to start experimenting with digital modes, this cheap and cheerful sound card inter-face could be for you. It is easily built in an evening, connects to your PC (and is powered) via USB, features isolated radio con-nections, has a ―tone keyer‖ cir-cuit to key the radio whenever the PC is sending data and util-ises a removable lead to make the connections to the radio, al-lowing different radios to be used with the interface simply by wir-ing a new cable. The interface itself is little more than two 1:1 isolating audio transformers connected between the audio (data) in & out on the radio and those on the PC‘s sound card. Bolted onto the au-dio line coming from the PC is a clever little circuit that automati-cally keys the PTT of the radio whenever an audio signal is pre-sent. This neatly avoids the need to use a serial port or anything else to key the radio although some care must be taken not to inadvertently broadcast your MP3 collection!

The circuit for the tone keyer was based on a design that originally came from WA8LMF‘s website, with a couple of small modifica-tions to fit around the compo-nents I had available when I built it. It features an LED to provide a visual indication that the radio is being keyed and an override switch that disconnects the cir-cuit from the radio‘s PTT control line. Because digital signals can con-tain brief periods of silence in between the tones being used, it is necessary to keep the PTT line keyed for a short moment after the audio signal appears to stop. This pause before letting go of the PTT line is often called ―hang time‖ and the circuit below uses a capacitor to achieve this, ensuring that the radio is still keyed if the signal continues af-ter a very brief silence. A larger capacitor can be switched in in parallel with the first to increase the ―hang time‖ if required. If this concept seems odd, think of CW as an example – there are short periods of silence between the dits and dahs of each letter and

slightly longer periods of silence between letters themselves. Now consider what happens to these periods of silence if we listen to a slower operator… The radio‘s audio output is con-nected to the PC‘s audio input via a 1:1 transformer while the PC‘s audio output is connected to the radio‘s audio input via a 1:1 transformer and a variable resistor (RV1) so that we can quickly and easily adjust our transmit level. The signal from the PC‘s audio output is also fed to the tone keyer circuit, via R1, which keys the radio‘s PTT line using an opto-isolator. All of the radio connections are brought to an RJ45 socket on the rear panel allowing leads for different radios to be easily made up and con-nected to the interface. RJ45 sockets can be a bit fiddly to work with if you do not etch your own PCBs, I soldered wires di-rectly to the pins on mine and insulated them with Heat shrink tubing while mounting the socket itself on a strip of Veroboard with a notch cut out beneath the socket‘s pins.

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A less fiddly solution might be to get hold of a chassis mounted plug / socket of some sort – per-haps a male 9 pin D-plug, as used on the serial port of your PC. These are easy to work with and using a male one makes it unlikely that anybody will inad-vertently plug your interface into the serial port of a PC with a se-rial cable. As it stands, the interface could simply be connected to your PC‘s existing audio input and output jacks but a far more pro-fessional finish can be achieved using a cheap USB soundcard ―dongle‖ mounted inside the in-terface‘s case.

These things look a bit like a USB memory stick with a couple 3.5mm jack sockets on the end – 1 line out (usually green) and 1 line in. The casing of the ―dongle‖ can be easily pried apart using a screwdriver and a little care and the surface mount USB plug can then be de-soldered and re-moved from the tiny PCB inside.

This will expose 4 solder pads, the middle two are for the USB data while the outer two are for +5VDC & GND. I ran two wires from the data connections to a USB-B type socket mounted on the rear panel of my interface. This is the same socket you might find on a printer or external hard drive. I then ran another two wires from the pins supplying the power on my USB-B socket, via a switch, to the solder pads for the power on the sound card‘s PCB and also to the +5V rail to power the rest of the circuit. A second LED and current limiting resistor were then wired between

the +5V rail and ground to pro-vide a power status indicator. It proved easiest to leave the two jack sockets in place on the sound card‘s PCB and to solder wires from the PC side audio connections of the interface di-rectly to the excess metal of their pins. A standard USB printer cable can then be used to con-nect the interface to your PC. The final result was all mounted inside a lovely blue anodized, extruded aluminium project case which was purchased from www.cpc.co.uk for around £9.

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This was by far the most expen-sive component in the project but the professional appearance it gives the interface was well worth it. The LEDs I used were unusual colours and high brightness types, which have a higher for-ward voltage than standard red / green ones. If you use standard colours you may need to in-crease the values of R4 & R5 slightly to around 150Ω. If the interface fails to key the radio while an audio signal is present, suspect the value of R4 and re-duce it slightly. I used the rear panel data jack on my radio which has a single ground connection for the audio and the PTT line so I ran a wire link from the PTT GND connec-tion to the ground rail on my Veroboard circuit. I have left this out on the layout diagram though as you may need a separate PTT ground to the main circuit / audio ground. When first connecting the inter-face to your PC it will probably change the default sound device to be the interface. This is not good as all your PC sounds will now be played through the inter-face so you will need to go into the ―Sounds & Audio De-vices‖ (XP) or ―Sound‖ (Vista & Win 7) control panel and change the default playback device back to your normal sound card.

You should now be able to start up your favourite digital mode software and go into its audio options menu and select your shiny new interface to work with. I have only needed to do this the first time that I connect the inter-face to a PC.

Parts List R1, R2 2MΩ ¼W 5% R3 1MΩ ¼W 5% R4, R5 100Ω ¼W 5% RV1 500Ω Linear Potentiometer C1 1nF Polyester C2 100nF Polyester D1 1N4001 (or similar) LED1 5mm Pink LED (or similar) LED2 5mm Blue LED (or similar) IC1 LM358 (or similar dual op-amp – e.g. LM158 etc) IC2 4N25 (or similar opto-isolator – e.g. 4N24, 4N26, 4N36 etc) T1, T2 1:1 Audio Transformer SW1 – SW3 SPST Toggle Switch

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Talk: Forensic Chemistry

By John Innes MM0JXI

The Club was entered in the 2009 RSGB Regional Club of the Year competition and I‘m delighted to announce that we‘ve been awarded a runner‘s up certificate—so well done to everyone who works so hard to make our club useful, interest-ing, helpful and exciting!

CPSARC has a long history of putting on interesting and inspi-rational talks on a wide variety of subjects, this month we were treated to a talk on Forensic Chemistry by club member Dr Paul Henderson 2M0BUY who lectures in this subject at Herriot Watt University.

Paul travels round the country giving talks like this to schools to explain what the subject is and how it can be applied in the real world (and how it‘s really not like how forensics are portrayed in CSI!)

Paul began by explaining what forensics is i.e. the application of a branch of science to matters pertaining to the law, you can have forensic accountants as well as pathologists and chem-ists.

Paul then talked about how care-ful forensic examination of crime scenes and victims can produce valuable information about the incident, often after attempts have been made to destroy that evidence. You can‘t generally

destroy evidence by fire as ordi-nary ‗domestic‘ fires don‘t get hot enough for long enough com-pared with crematorium fires where 1100 degrees for 30 min-utes will reduce a body to ash,

Going on to chemistry, Paul ex-plained that much of the time of a forensic chemist was spent analysing fibres from a crime scene or looking for drugs and poisons from a body. Paul ex-plained a side effect of drinking too much diet coke was a hang-over in the morning as methanol was produced by the body from the Aspartame sweetener, in-deed drinking very large quanti-ties of diet coke could lead to hospitalisation and even death!

Paul then went on to describe the research he was conducting at Herriot Watt to produce a kind of breathalyser for drugs. He showed the results where treated paper could be made to fluo-resce under UV light when cer-tain drugs – like heroin and co-caine were present. Paul is de-veloping a device which will al-low this testing to be done by

police in the field and eventually the tester will be small enough to be handheld and give a simple go – no go indication for nearly a dozen different drugs with the aim of detecting people driving under the influence of drugs in the same way that a breathalyser is used to detect alcohol.

The talk was very well attended, nearly two dozen people turned up, including several wives and partners which was fantastic to see. The talk proved to be very interesting and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone there.

So thanks to Paul for a very in-

teresting evening.

RSGB Regional Club of the Year runners up

www.cpsarc.com

12

1. A significant feature of the amateur licence

is that

a. it is readily obtainable at the Post Office

b. it is non-commercial in nature

c. attendance at training classes is compulsory

d. the Foundation licence is recognised

worldwide.

2. Which one of the items below is NOT a

type of amateur licence?

a. Advanced

b. Foundation

c. Intermediate

d. Full.

3. A Foundation licensee may design and

build his or her own equipment by

a. obtaining a Notice of Variation from Ofcom

b. passing the Intermediate exam and upgrading

their licence

c. paying a fee of £20 every five years

d. getting a Full licensee to certify the equipment.

4. Which one of the call signs below

indicates a Foundation licensee

transmitting in Scotland?

a. M6ABC/S

b. MS6ABC

c. M6ABC/M

d. MM6ABC.

5. A Full licensee may have the

call sign

a. MW0XYZ

b. MD6XYZ

c. MU7XYZ

d. 2M1XYZ.

6. When identifying their station an amateur

should

a. give their name and licence number at the

start of each 'over' b. give their call sign at the beginning and end of

each over c. give their location to an accuracy of at least

5km d. give their call sign at the beginning and every 15

minutes.

7. In a long contact the call sign must be given

at least every

a. time the PTT is pressed

b. 5 minutes

c. 10 minutes

d. 15 minutes.

8. You are speaking to M6ABC when his non-

licensed sister enters the room. You

a. may continue speaking as normal

b. should give your call sign again

c. may include the sister in the conversation

d. should wait until the sister has left the room.

9. When on the air, which action below is NOT

permitted by the Foundation licence?

a. Speaking to an amateur with a Full licence.

b. Speaking to a French amateur.

c. Speaking to a British amateur on holiday in

France. d. Speaking to a close friend who is not an

amateur.

10. The use of a secret code on the air is

a. not permitted under any circumstances

b. permitted for medical information in an

emergency c. permitted for communication within the UK only

d. permitted if you give your location correct to

5km.

Test Your Knowledge

By Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ

13

Event Calendar

By John Innes MM0JXI

2 April 2010 Club Night

3 April 2010 LaFarge Generator recovery

17 April 2010 10 Pin Bowling Night—Megabowl, Fountainbridge 20.00

1 May 2010 Newsletter Deadline—note if May articles can be ready before 20 April that would really help as the editor is on holiday at the end of the April

7 May 2010 Club Night

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 Club Night

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

24 September 2010 2nd 144MHz DF Hunt

25 September 2010 Newsletter Deadline

1 October 2010 Club Night

15 October 2010 Video Night

30 October 2010 Newsletter Deadline

30 / 31 October 2010 CQWW CW Contest from Barns Ness GM2T

5 November 2010 Club Night

19 November 2010 Talk by Bjorn Franke ‗Software defined radio‘

3 December 2010 Club Night

11 December 2010 Club Xmas Night Out

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 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 mm0jxi@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 April 2010

newsletter ―Test Your Knowledge‖. 1B, 2D, 3B, 4D, 5A, 6D, 7D, 8A, 9D, 10A