Cocl(enzie ? Port Setonk44*tevr Rabio Club

Volume 4 Issue 7 NEWSLETTER

JULY EDITORIAL

Hello folks and welcome once again to our monthly Newsletter,

First of all I would like to give everyone a small reminder tJrat we are nowentering the main holiday season so please take care when talking on the airabout the possibility afadvertising when you are, or others ale, on holidaybecause we really never know who is listening. On a brighter note I hopeeveryone does have a really good holiday this year.

This month sees us enter the "The Major Contest of the Year", YHF Field Dayso why not come and take part in it, I know you need to be a RSGB Megber tooperate but there are so many othersjoba that require doing ie. loggingerecting aerials,etc,etc so your efforts will not be waste{ infact itwouldbe the opposite, they wouldbe greatly appreciated. Plus if you havenever taken part in a contest before Field Day really does show you what itis all about, so corne on come andjoin us.

This last month has seen the club take prt in the PW Contest as well as theSecond Backpackers l44Mhz Contest (runs at the same time as the PW Contest)and from the logs we se€m to have done not too bad considering the conditionsand power being used- Again thoroughly enjoyed by all those that took part.

Thanks to all who answeredthe "Legal" enquiry about what we c:m carry on ourcars and the answer is that an item can protrude 3 feet in front and 3 feetto the rear as long as a "rag" is attached to show this.

For those that don't know our local BBS GBTEDN is now bck on the air underthe watchfirl eye of Fred GM0ALS who lives at South Gyle. I would on behalf ofall of us who are on plcket like to thank Ellis GM4GZW for the sterling workhe has done for us all over th€ years as GBTEDNs Sysop. For informationthere has been changes for access to GBTEDN ---(l) Direct access to GBTEDN is NOW ON 144.550 (User Input)(2) Node access is still on 144.650 ie. This means that you connect to EDIN2I

on 144.650 and once you are connectbd there you t]"e C GBTEDN which willroute you autornatically onto GBTEDN vta 70cms.

If you are not aware then I wouldjust like to mention that an other radioclub has been '*born" out at Livingston under the wings of Alistair GM4UQD andMartin GM0JCN so tlrough the Newsletter I would on behalf of us all wish themevery success as I know how much hard work is required to rnake it work.

Finally, to the future, our Junk Night is ever approaching, approximately5 weeks away as you read this, so I again we are looking for your help,particularly from our good ladies for providing some home baking for the teastall !!! plus donations for the Raffle. Thanks in advance for whatwer youcan do.

That's it then so bye for now...""Bob GM4UYZ @) GBTEDN

JULY 1996

,73'

In the year 1853, line operators used '73'to mean"My love to you'. This was usedwithin the text of personal messages - Atleast we hope so!By the year 1857 it had started to be usedto convey 'Fraternal Greetings' betweentelegraph operators. Two years later, inlSlg,tfrestern Union made'73' a part oftheir 92 Code to indicate "Accept myCompliments". Frorn about 1895 '73' wasused to mean "Best Regards" for telegraphand later on, radio operators. '73' by itselfis correct... not "Best 73's" as one oftenhears!Useless information .. just thought youwould be interested!

(With acknowledgement to RAOTAJournal Old Timers News)

LIVINGSTON & DISTRICTAMATET'R RADIO SOCIETY

(LATIARS)

Some ofyou may already have heard butfor those who haven't, a new amateurradio club has been formed in Livingston.The club meets every third Tuesday at7pm in Crofthead Cammunif Centre,Dedridge, Livingston. They are atpresent trving to raise club funds and havcset dates for their lst AGM and also aJunk Sale (see Events Column). As wellas normal club activities (whatever theyare!!!) they also plan to hold a CW class ateach meeting. Anyone who is i*terestedis welcome to turn up on the night and ifyou require more information please feelftee to csntact eithsr Ally (GMaUQD) ontel.0l-506 ;t67351 or Martin (GMOJCN) ontel.0t506 413421.I am sure that you will join me in wishingall at LADARS erery success with theirclub.

Good luck to yau all.73 Cotin (GM0CLN)

Cockenzie & Port Seton ARCPage 2

EVENTS COLUMN

Here is the latest list ofevents for vourdiaries....

JULY6/7th RSGB W{F National Field Day,14:00 to l.l:00 GMT, the club has itsannual mass exodus to MainslaughterLaw. In case you hadn't realised thisevent is this weekend so get your gearpacked and come along for the contest.As ever, all helping hands greaffirllyreceived. Setting up will probably startat about 9 or 10 am on the Saturdaymorning.

9th Livingston & District AmateurRadio Society, lst AGM at 7pm in theCrofthead Community Centre,Dedridge, Livingston. Details from Ally(GM4UQD) on 01506 467351or Martin(GM0JCN) on 01506 413421.

18th DunfermlineRS talk by AlanFletcher of the RadiocommunicationsAgency For details tel. 01383 735967

20th RSGB l44MHz Low PowerContest 1400-2200 GMT. Some of usheaddown to Dumfries & Galloway to tryand improve on the 4th O/A we managedlast year!

21st RSGB 432MI{z Low Power Contest0800-1400 GMT. The continuation of afun weekend..... we can't improve on lstOverall but can we re[ain our position?

30th Livingston & DARS Junk Sale.Location, time & details as per their AGMon 9th July (see above). As this is a newclub struggling to get on their feet acharge oflO% commission will be madeon all items sold to go towards club funds.Please give them your support and helpget the club going.

AUGUSTlst Dunfennline RS 144MI{z DF Hunt{,** TOBE CONFIRMED ***

l6th C&PS ARC Junk Sale at PortSeton Communitl Centre from 6:30pm to9:30pm. Talk-in on S22. raffle atapproximately 9pn. Spread the word and

help us raise more money for the BritisltHea( Foundation.

22nd Dunfermline RS talk on TCP/IP byGM4CTP *** TOBE CONFIRMED ***

21l25th Historic Scotland Special EventStation Weekend. Along the same linesas the Liglrthouses Weekend. Thestation is to be located near TantallonCastle just outside North Berwick usingthe callsign GBZHST (Historic ScotlandTantallon).

25th Galashiels Open Day, TheVolunteer Hall, St. John's Street,Galashiels (iust offBank Street Gardens).Open from 1lam-4pm. All the usualattractions.

*{.{. NOTE : NEW VENUE ***

SEPTEMBER8th 3rd RSGB l44lvIIIz BackpckersContest. Mainslaughter Law again! !

21st SARCON'96 at CardonaldCollege, Glasgow. For details te1.0141773 2882.

OCTOBERllth C&PS ARC talk by TheRadiocommunications Agency in theResources Room at Port Seton CommunityCentre. Due to start at 7pm prompt.Admission is once again f,1.00.

18/19th Leicester AR Exhibition

31st Dunfermline RS AGM

DECEMBER8th SDX Support Group Rally,Maryhill, Glasgow.

Have ftin on VHF NFD and if you cantmake it please come on for 5 minutes andgive us some points...they all count.

73 de Colin (GMOCLN)

Have YOU any articles for YO{IRnewsletter?

Please contactRon GM4IKU or Bob GM4UYZ

PRACTICAL WIRELUSS144MHz QRP CONTEST 1996 &

2ND RSGB l44MHzBACKPACKERS CONTEST

I6TH JUNE 1996

When xas the last manth of Sundaysthat ]'ou heard ofl Well there must havebeen one just prior to l6th Ju*e this yearbecause for once we actually hadscorching sunshine and very little wind fota contest. To be fair" mother nature keptus wondering as it was overcast and misty*'hen we left Port Seton on the drive toMainslaughter Law but by the time wereached fhe far side of Gifford we were inglorious sunshine and had clear blue skies.It was to stay that way for the rest of thecontest.

First on site were Ricky (GMIPLY)and Iain (2MIETI) who I believe had beenthere since the night before playing radioson 6m and 2m. Next was Rcn (GM4IKU)rvho arrived therejust as I left Port Seton.I was next and was elosely followed byAlex {GM6Wu1, Bob (GM4IIYZ),Martin (GM0JCN) andJohn (GMTOLQ).During the rest of the day v!€ were alsojoined at varying times by Ron(GM0NTL), Susan (2MIEPK) and Robert(GMTAVE) (my apologies if I havemissed anyone). Altogether a very goodturn-out of club members this time (musthave been the weather!).

Everyone mucked in as usual and itw'asn't too long before we had everythingset up and ready'to go.

The equipment was an IC275E and3 x 14 element MET yagis atapproximately 10,20 and 30 feet aboveground lerel and this time we had theluxury of using a rotator, kindly broughtalong by Alex (GM6MU) for the day.This year all the contest organisers hadput their heads together and arranged thalthe PW QRP Contest and the 2nd RSGBl44l\/ft12

Backpackers Contest start at thesame tirne (0900 GMT). As a result thebackpackers Contest ran for the first 4hours of the PW QRP Contest and we wereable to enter both contests at the same timewhile starting both with a serial number ol001.

Continued on page s

Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC .-Page 3

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AMATEUR ANAGRAMS

Standby for another dose of brainache courtesy of yours truly!The answers should be entered horizontally in the grid. Spaces betweenwords are shown by a black box. This months vertical box will give you

a piece of computing equipment. The answers are words linked withamateur radio or computing so have a go and see how you get on!

TIIIS MONTIIS CLUES

I. NOTE PRICE, 2. LOW TIPPER REST, 3. EVER RICE, 4. WOVEN GUARD,5. CARTOOL, 6. MEETLEN, 7. OIL PARTY.

JUNE ANSWf,,RS

FOR SALE

Alinco DJ560 2ml70cm DUAL BAND Hand TranceiverWith charger & handbook

and Heatherlite mobile mikelheadset

Good working order but slight fault on rotary tuning control(this does not affect front paneVmemory selection or upldown control)

Clontinueclf"om page 2

Conditions during the contest werequite good with a little bit of enhancementdue to the high pressure weather systemwhich was covering the country.Unfortunately the G stations seemed to behaving a greattime, one siation reportingthe Belgian beacon as being "20 over 9".The improved conditions meant that wemanaged four contacts into TheNetherlands which isnt too bad for 3 wattsoutput power!

While some of us were sweatingunder canvas (!!!) doing the operatingothers were lounging around in deckchairs (those who remembered to bringthem anyway!) and lapping up the sun.One or two tender areas were to be foundthe following day due to over+xposure btrtno lasting damage seems to have beendone (wear a hat the next time John!).During the Backpackers contest wemanaged 8l QSOs in the 4 hour periodandry the end of the PW QRP Contestthat total had risen (slowly) to 110. Thatis an improvement on last years PW QRPContest QSO total even with this yearscontestbeing one hour shorter! Forboth contests PA3DYS in JO2IJP was ourbest DX at 670km.

Junk Salsl6ttr Auguct

A rurninder to start soqrching

r. soLAR FLUX, 2. TERMTNAL, 3. poLARrsArroN, 4. RECTIFIE& ""*"#i##

*!?:fiffit#|"" *-

5. SUPERHETEROD\'NE, 6. INSULATION, 7. SPORADIC E.rhe radio related word in the vertical box should have been 'AMATEUR' #:T!jff.t:T13Jff.,:ffi fifi:Tl;

73 co,in (cM,cLN) *:"T%fr1i,"1,:fi,rfifi:ili Xl, n"ur t r r r r r r byallandhere'shopingthatwehave

. retained the Tennamast Troplty for the' leading GM (or MM) station in thc PW. QRP Contest. It looks good as towards

' the end the best Scottish station we could' find was about 30 QSOs behind] us.......Watch this space!I

' 73 and see you all this weekend on VHF

i *o

c'olin (GM()cr-N)

Price f 120 ono

Offers to Ian Sheffield GM3VEIPhone Arc20 (Haddington) 825010

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t l l l l tatarr l t l r r l r l l l l r l l l t l l t l t l l l l l l l l

Affies ,0aruges, Junk box Ete

Page 4 Cockenzie & Port Seton ARe

Conversion details fot a Tait T 500 Radio to 4 metres

TAIT T 500 (T520c\3)

( I ) To remove covers undo both screw in the bottom cover and lift cover clear by prizing it up from front.(2) tf a tone PCB is fitted (fig3) undo the 4 screws and remove all wires from main board as per fig 4.

(3) Now set up the channels.(refer to Figs. I & 2)Remove the dot matrix PCB by lifting it gently upwards. Some diodes canbe seen as having been cut to select the original frequencies ofthe radioSome ofthese may have to be soldered together again and others cut toselect the frequency you have chosen in the 4M band to work on.The channelised operation in 4 metres lies between 70.300 and 70.500.

For our purposes the following channels were selected:-Channel I = 70.425 Channel 2 : 70.450 (calling ch)

DIODE CONFIGURATION Note:- Diodes cut all others made.cHl 70.425TX RXN8+N4+N3+N0+A4+A3+M N8+N6+N2+44+42

cH27a.4s0 Additional note:RX

N8+N4+N3+N0+A5 N8+N6+N2+A4+A3This rig is fitted with a timer which

(4) Now check that the VSO is in lock using a meter (digital one wouldbe inhibits transmission after approximatlybest) NOTE:-Remember to use NON METALLIC trimmers 1 1/4 minutes. To delete this option pins 6a) Connect Negative lead of meter to chassis ground & 7 on IC I should be shorted out ..b) Connect Positive leadof meterto TP2c) Adjust Cvlgl for 4 volts (Adjust very, very slowly)

The RX VCO is now setup....

e) Connect negative lead of meter to chassis ground0 Connect positive lead of meter to TP2g) Press PTT and ajvst at232 for 4 volts

The TX VCO is now set up.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(5) To check that reference frequency is correct.This gives exact RX andTX frequency.Note:- the RX frequency is 10.7Mhz higher than outputfrequency.ie If chl is 70.425 then when checking if this is correctthe reading at the TP will give 70.425+10.7 : 8 I . l25Mhz.To check RX freq:a) Connect negative lead offrequency counter to chassisb) Connect frequency counter lead to TP3 (RX monitor pointc) Adjust L30 slowly to bring out exact frequenryd) Move frequency counter lead to TP3 (TX monitor point)c) Press PTT this should now read exact TX frequenryNOTE This adjustment affects all channels so they should all bc on cxact frequcncy

(6) Solder across points A A on solder side of main board(7) Now to set up the TX power with dummy load and power mcter

a) Set RV256 f,rlly clockwise looking from front of radiob) Adjust CV25+ lor maximum powerc) Adjust CV287 for maximum power (Cover may have to be lifted off for casicr acccssd) Now adjust RV256 for about 15-20 watts

8) To set up receiverConnect signal generator and adjust Ll5,Ll4,Ll3,Ll2,and Ll I forhcst signal

THATS IT FOLKS

TX

Cockenz-ie & Port Seton ARCPage 5

Board detail of Tait T 500

I X morutor pom

Ccv254

ryHI Channel PCB I

I Diode Matnx

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Q-r :o

TP3

T

n

""?

RX motutor pont

o

Component Side

ooTme PCBUO

dl6e pomls

Solder Side

T_l00

Lrnk

SI WHITE

34 (;RI]EN

37 BI, IJI: i r I l i l t i ): i l t - Yi l - l .OWsII I l t .A( K

SI 4 I IJRPL,I :li; l5 llROw N-SI6 (JI t-AN(;I . ,

SI ? ( ;REY

Page 6 Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC:: : -==:=:=================;=:==:===:===:====_=_======_===========

TAII ' T500 Matr i .x Codes. . .

TX I ' IATRIX CODES for 12. 3 / 25 KHz Spacing

FREA N9 N8 H7 I I5 N5 I{4 N3 I I2 Nl NO A5 A4 A3 A2 A1 AO70.3 0 I 0 0 0 I I 0 0 I o o I 0 0 070.3125 0 I 0 0 0 I I o o I o o 1 0 t 070.325 0 r 0 0 0 I I 0 0 I 0 0 I I O 070.3373 0 r 0 0 0 I I o 0 I 0 0 I I I 070.35 0 l 0 0 0 r I 0 0 I 0 I 0 0 0 070.3525 0 r 0 0 0 I I 0 0 I o I 0 0 t o70.375 0 r 0 0 0 I I o o I 0 1 0 I 0 070.3875 0 I 0 o 0 I 1 0 0 1 0 I 0 I I 070.4 0 I 0 0 0 I I o o I o I I O 0 070.4125 0 I O 0 0 I 1 0 0 I o I t o I 07A.423 0 I 0 0 0 I I o o I 0 I r I 0 070.4375 0 l O 0 0 I I O 0 I 0 I I I I 070.45 0 I O 0 0 I I O O I I 0 0 0 0 070.462s O I 0 0 0 I I O 0 , , ,1 I O 0 0 I 070.475 0 I 0 0 0 I 1 0 0 I I o o I 0 070.4875 0 I 0 0 0 I I O O 1 1 0 0 I I 070.5 0 I 0 0 0 I I o t o 0 0 0 0 0 0

RX I{ATRIX CODES for 12.5 /25 KHz Spacing

FREA H9 lt8 l{7 l{6 ils l{4 H3 t{2 t{l H0 A5 A4 A3 A2 Al AO70.3 0 I 0 I 0 0 0 I o 0 0 0 0 0 0 070.3125 0 I O I 0 0 0 I O 0 0 0 0 0 I 070.325 0 1 0 I O 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 0 I o 070.337s 0 I O I O 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 I I 070.35 0 I O I O O 0 1 0 0 0 0 I O O 070.3625 0 I 0 I 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 I 0 I 070.375 0 I O I O O O I O O 0 0 I 1 0 070.3875 0 I O I O O 0 I O 0 0 0 I 1 I 07A.4010100010001000070.4L25 0 I 0 I O 0 0 I 0 0 0 I 0 0 I 070.425 0 I 0 I O 0 0 I O 0 0 I 0 I 0 07A.4375 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 I 0 1 I 070.45 0 I 0 I o o o t 0 0 0 1 t o 0 070.4625 0 t O I O 0 0 I 0 0 0 I I 0 I 07A.475 0 I O I O O 0 I O O 0 I I t O 070.4875 0 I 0 I 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 1 I t I 070.5 0 I O I 0 0 0 I 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 0

**** l******* FOR SAtE **** l* l+****

DOT IIATRIX PRIHTERS --- l ' lodel HEC Pinrr i ter

---- EPSOH

There arts a few For SaIe aLl coni .ng c i th a box of paper.There may be a copy of the operat lng manual i f you are preparedto get the relevent bi ts copied,

Cost : l2O eacir

Contact : Alex 6l't0l{5N / 6lt6VIU Direct or via DX Cluster or GBTED}I