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.

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.

Here we are in December at the end of another club year. Has it been a good year yes I certainly think so and in next month’s editorial I will do a recap on what has happened over the 2014 year? Personally it has been another busy year both on the radio club and personal front to the extent I have not played as much radio as I would have liked to having said that the Monthly Activity Days have spurred me on to do at least something, plus I still have lots of outstanding things I should have done so maybe next year I will end up with a nice clean sheet, some hopes knowing my luck…….

It is with great sadness I report that Bob Wilson GM4FIB passed away last month. A few of the club members managed to attend the funeral, sadly I was unable to do so as I was working up in Inverness. Bob was a regular club attendee up until his health deteriorated to the extent he could no longer drive. For me Bob was my nemesis with regard to my getting back into CW. We used to have a regular CW sked where he pushed and pushed me back to the level I am at now. Bob was liked by us all and will be greatly missed. At times like this our deepest sympathies and thoughts go out to Bob’s family as they come to terms with what has happened. RIP Bob....

So what else has happened since our last club night? The club “30 Year Challenge” has finished and all the entries are in. I have completed the adjudication as I write this and the results are in this month’s newsletter.

There was a talk on “Mobile Phone Networks” by Gavin Taylor GM0GAV which was absolutely fascinating taking us through from the very early days of mobile phone networks right up to the present time. Sadly the talk was very poorly supported to the extent I felt very embarrassed especially as Gavin had made the trip down from Dundee...

Regarding the teaching front, sadly not all the pupils passed the Foundation course at the beginning of November so congratulations to those who did and commiserations to those who were unsuccessful. An Intermediate class is now in progress with the exam planned for the Saturday 13th December. I will be starting a Full (Advanced) Course on the 24th January aiming for the March 2015 exam. I am sure you will join with me and wish them all good luck.

To the future: Next Saturday 13th December a few of us are going out for our Christmas Meal which I am really looking forward too, it is an occasion where we get a chance to go out along with our partners and have a meal and a good laugh.

Remember our Winter Solstice Activity Day on the 17th December. Why not come on and do a bit of operating. It is the last of this year’s Activity Days which I have planned to continue next year.

(Continued on page 2)

The Club

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 dis-

ease by donating the

profits from some of the

events we hold, we have

raised over £15,832 since

1994.

2

Supported by BT Community

Champions

For me I am taking a sabbatical for the rest of December and January to try and recharge the batteries ready for the “February Off” on the club events calendar.

I have been working on the Club’s 2015 events. The events will carry the normal DF Nights, Radio Check Night, or Special Events GB2MOF & GB2LBN and our regular contests so if you would like to see something added then please get in touch and I will do my best to add it in.

My wish for 2015 is that some of the “old faces” will return to the club and that

everyone will support ALL our club events. LET US ALL SUPPORT THE CLUB because if you don’t it will just die and that is something I would hate to see happen.

Right, that is about it again for another year so all that is left to say to you all is to WISH YOU ALL AND YOUR FAMILIES A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPOROUS NEW YEAR. I should add I hope you get what you want as well from Santa, assuming you posted your letter!

Bob GM4UYZ

PS: Remember January club night is the second Friday in January, the 9th January.

(Continued from page 1)

The idea of a club library in some sort of form

or another has been raised before although it

was many years ago. The idea I think is great

but it raises all sorts of questions.

We have no club premises so where do we

store the books/magazines?

How do we know what is in the library?

Who is going to maintain and run the library

(a huge task)? Etc, etc?

Where do we store the books/magazines?

Does each individual keeps their own?

How do we know what is in the library?

A database could be created and put on the

Club’s WEB for anyone to access and find

what they want and who actually has the

book/magazine.

Who is good at writing the database?

Who is going to maintain and run the library?

A good enthusiastic volunteer!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure that there are ways and means that

it could be achieved.

As I said previous it could be achieved but it

would take a huge amount of time and effort

to put together. Club Members would have to

agree to loan out their books/magazines. We

could even put a small charge on the loan

with the money going to the Club Funds or

the British Heart Foundation. The question

what do you all think about the idea, would

someone be prepared to take on the task? Is

there any other points/ideas on the subject

or is it just a no go from the start. The bene-

fits are that information “for that project” or

“that query” would now be available.

What do you think then? Please give it

thoughts with some feedback instead of the

normal “apathy reigns” approach. I look for-

ward to hearing from you all.

Bob GM4UYZ

3

19th November 2014 00:00 to 23:59

This is our eleventh activity day of the year... so report below on who and who didn’t take part Apologies first: Duncan MM0GZZ

Sorry I have had a high SWR problem for a couple of days it's just been too wet to investigate outside so no log this time around. Yup my fears have been founded water in the antenna system looks like a strip down and rebuild don't suppose it's bad after 4 years not been touched now to see how long it's going to be dry for do the job that's unpredictable

Colwyn MM0YCJ

Sadly, was working out of town, too late by time I got home. Maybe next month, although I maybe said that last month!

Cephas MM0INS

Nil return from me I'm afraid...

Ron GM0NTL

Sri Bob, have now gone QRT until next year sometime.

Geoff MM5AHO

I wasn't able for any activity that day.

Alex GM3GKJ

Sorry, but I have not been active for quite a while due to an-tenna problems.

Reports: Bob GM4UYZ (08:09)

I could only manage one QSO before I had to head north to Inverness for work. I suppose one is better than nothing

Martin MM0XXW (07:16 to 19:43)

Again the activity day fell on my day off which is great for me and not so great for the housework!!!!

Anyhow 4 bands worked mostly digital with a wee bit of SSB thrown in on 40m .

Nothing of any great interest with the exception of Brian-GA4XQJ out Falkirk way and Sean-MM0SRY from Gods own toon (hi) and great to get some local lads into the log!

The best DX I could muster was UR5ZEK at 2598, bagged a couple of IOTAs with LI5TFA on EU-046 (Kvaloy Island), SM6JQZ on EU-043 (Hono Island) from the east and I got noth-ing from the west at all!

Sean MM0SRY

hi bob I’ve reinstalled my pc and lost the program to edit the

club log but I was on and got 3 contacts Ukraine Serbia and Scotland all on psk31 couldn't manage any on voice as there wasn't much happening condition's seemed quite bad

It is great to see that there is still interest in the Activity Days but to honest I thought more would take part. I know condi-tions are variable but unless you go on and give it a try you will never know. Overall the 24 hour time is certainly helping in the sense that it is not restricted to a few hours as it is allow-ing people to come on and take part when time is available to them. Let’s keep this up as this in my opinion is what the hob-by is all about.

With regard to modes being worked then out of the 30 QSO’s made: SSB = 2 and Data = 28. Data Modes seem to be winning hands down at the moment. Best DX was on 30 watts using PSK31 working UR5ZEK at a distance of 2598kms on 15M. Made by Martyn MM0XXW...well done Duncan. With regard the rest of the QSO’s they were predominantly the normal European contacts.. It will be interesting to see how the Activi-ty Days progress over the rest of the year and all being well it might show some statistics of how propagation varies. Hope everyone will at least take part and submit their logs or even if they don’t make any contacts tell us about what it was like. After the year hopefully it will show us propagation trends, etc. Good DXing in 2014.

Summary of who did what:

Total QSO’s = 27 2 = SSB, 28 = DATA

Martyn MM0XXW Data: 4 x 12M, 8 x 15M, 6 x 20M, 6 x 40M, SSB: 2 x 40M

Bob GM4UYZ Data: 1 x 20M

Sean MM0SRY Data: 3 x 40M

Thanks to those who came on it was much appreciated.

Bob GM4UYZ

Club Attire

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 required

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 VILLAGE, FENTON BARNS, NORTH BERWICK, EAST LOTHIAN EH39 5BW Tel/Fax: 01620 850788

Mobile: 07970 920431

“This article was written three years ago and it

is still relevant today so I thought I would re-

submit it especially for any of the new licence

holders”

What aerial will I use and what radio will I get

are what I class the thousand dollar questions.

I get asked time and time again from all the

students who go through their various licenc-

es. To be truthful they are not easy to answer

as each one of us has different circumstances.

Why you may ask? Well it comes down to cost

and it also comes down to what space you

have at home. The dream is what we put to-

gether when the club takes part in HF events

like the RSGB IOTA and CQWW SSB contests

and VHF Field Day on the VHF/UHF side. What

you see there is what has been put together

over a number of years where each set-up has

gradually been improved.

What Aerial?

Some say it might not be a topic that I can re-

ally talk about as I am classed as being the

“Shack Pansy” in the team and I am forbidden

to go anywhere near an aerial...wonder why?

Anyway I can still tell what I think the answer

is to the question.

At GM4UYZ’s location my garden is what I

class the standard “postage stamp” garden yet

I have managed to erect aerials that allow me

to operate from 80M (3.5MHz) up to 10M

(28MHz). It is not the best by any means but at

least I can get on the air. My aerial set-up in-

cludes a Cushcraft R5 Vertical and one half of

an 80M Trap Dipole. The Cushcraft gives me

access from 20M (14MHz) up to 10M (28MHz)

as it is a 5 Band Vertical. The Trap aerial work-

ing as an Inverted “L” against Ground gives me

both 80M (3.5MHz) and 40M (7MHz). My RF

Ground consists of an old galvanised water

tank buried in the ground and also some cop-

per wire that I laid down in my back garden.

Amongst club members there are quite a few

different aerials in use from 3 Element Yagi’s

on a Tower, Verticals either Monoband or

Multiband, W3DZZ Trapped Dipoles, Inverted

“L’s”, G5RV’s, etc. The point I am trying to

make is that when it comes to aerials it is what

you can fit into the space that you have. It may

not be the best antenna but it allows you to

get on the air. If you want the ideal situation

then come along to our club events and use

the large mono band antenna array we set-up.

What Radio?

Like aerials it is the thousand dollar question.

Amongst the club members there is such a

variation from the Kenwood TS2000, Yaesu

FT1000D. Yaesu FT1000MP, Yaesu FT2000,

Icom 756 Pro III, etc. It really depends on what

interests you whether you buy a VHF radio or

a HF radio. Personally, I use the Kenwood

TS2000 which allows both HF and VHF alt-

hough I will say that I am really a HF person.

We tend to use my radio during VHF Field Day

as the 70cms (432MHz) radio so that is about

the only time it gets used on the higher fre-

quencies. The advantage of this radio is that it

is what we class as a “shack in a box” other-

wise there is no need for multiple radios. The

radios that I have quoted are all expensive

radios. My Kenwood was purchased after trad-

ing in various radios that I had plus adding

some money towards it. I am happy with my

radio and have no plans to change it as it suits

my requirements. So what do you do... the

real question is how much money do you have

to spend? If you can afford the all singing all

dancing radio then I would say go for it as

overall it will give you years of sterling service.

If money is an issue then look for example on

the club website as radios come up for sale

every now and again, visit JAYCEE’s at Glen-

rothes and see what they have to offer, look in

the magazines i.e. RADCOM and PW and see

(Continued on page 5)

4

5

the other radio suppliers offers and there is also the WEB as

well although I might be rather tentative on buying something

that way. I am not saying it is wrong but just me being me.

Talk to other amateurs and get their opinions on specific radi-

os but at the end of the day it is you that has to make up your

own mind..... So happy hunting!!!

What I have tried to do is give my opinion on both the aerial

and radio front so I hope it is worthwhile...

Bob GM4UYZ

(Continued from page 4)

The club was formed in 1984 so it is 30 years old this year

therefore to mark the 30th anniversary another challenge was

set around the 30 figure i.e. Number of QSOs per entry 30,

Number of Countries per entry 30, etc, etc. There were a few

ideas submitted so many thanks for each and every one of

them they were greatly appreciated. The idea that I thought

offered a great challenge is the one to contact 30 different

countries per entry on a single band. You could submit as

many entries as you wished over the designated time period,

see below.

The challenge was open to all radio amateurs who wished to

take part.

The reason behind using QSO’s as the challenge is that we are

radio amateurs, and our main function at the end of the day is

to use our radios and make contacts with other amateurs.

Hopefully it did encourage quite a few to have a bit of fun and

gave them something to aim for whilst “playing radio”.

Using the Maidenhead Locator system as part of the exchange

gives the ability to score correctly but also offers the challenge

to obtain the remote contacts Maidenhead Locator. I have

certainly noticed that over 98% of all QSL cards that I receive

have the stations locator written on the card so obtaining one

should, hopefully be quite easy.

Two club activities that could benefit from this challenge and

they were

Monthly Club Activity Days

I extracted every one’s log during the period and entered

them into the challenge

Club Log – by uploading your logs into Club Log.

This doesn’t appear to have happened which I am quite sad

about to see as what it offered was the points below.

Helps to promote the club’s activity using Club Log

Chance to see how well you are doing with regard to working

countries.

As in any competition there were a certain number of rules of

which the important ones are listed below.

Country Contacted (Must be a different country for each QSO)

The QSOs can be made from either your home QTH, Portable,

Mobile or a mixture of all three.

Final Score = Sum of all the QSO Totals on the specific entry

form.

Winner The person with the highest Final Score for a 30 (or

Less) QSO Log. (Adjudicators decision is final on who is the

winner). The winner will be announced on the club website

ASAP after the last entry date of the 8th November 2014.

Overall winner = Certificate

Winner – Full Licence Entrant: With the most distant QSO to

be awarded a Certificate

Scoring: QSO Total = (Distance between the two stations) +

(Band Equaliser x Distance) + (Power Multiplier x Distance) +

(Antenna Multiplier x Distance)

Thanks to the sterling

work by M0RNR, our club

has been added to the

excellent Clublog system

developed by Michael

Wells G7VJR.

www.clublog.org

The system allows mem-

bers to upload their logs

in ADIF format and have

them displayed in a table

with all the other club

members.

Clublog also has great

facilities for tracking your

DXCC status etc so is well

worth taking the time to

register and get your log

uploaded.

To update your log with

the next set of contacts

(SSB, CW or Data) you can

simply upload your whole

log again and the system

will take care of the dupli-

cates. Alternatively you

can export the bits you

want from your own log

and just upload that.

The tables we’ll publish

here will be the club, fil-

tered by the current year,

so everyone starts a new

year at 0 contacts.

Winner – Intermediate Licence Entrant: With

the most distant QSO to be awarded a Certifi-

cate

Scoring: QSO Total = (Distance between the

two stations) + (Band Equaliser x Distance) +

(Power Multiplier x Distance) + (Antenna Mul-

tiplier x Distance)

Winner -- Foundation Entrant: With the most

distant QSO to be awarded a Certificate

Scoring: QSO Total = (Distance between the

two stations) + (Band Equaliser x Distance) +

(Power Multiplier x Distance) + (Antenna Mul-

tiplier x Distance)

Overall Winner - Certificate Winner

Alisdair Lark MM0XAB with his submitted 10M

entry consisting of 30 countries giving him a

total of 4513540 “QSO Final Total Points”. His

best DX was with VP8LP in the Falkland Islands

on the 12/5/2014 @ 11:15 using 25W on

PSK31

Winner – Full Licence Entrant – Certificate

Winner

Ron Fraser GM0NTL with his submitted 20M

entry and the longest distance QSO of 617474

kilometres (Long Path) working VK5KGP. The

QSO took place on 17/9/2014 @ 06:33 using

the JT9 data mode running 4 watts.

Winner – Intermediate Licence Entrant

Bob Bertram 2M0KLL with his submitted 20M

entry and the “Best QSO Total” of 130568

kilometres working VE2WU. The QSO took

place on 28/8/2014 @ 22:33 using the CW

running 10 watts.

Winner – Foundation Licence Entrant

No entrants in this category

All winners will have their certificate emailed

to them.

(Continued from page 5)

(Continued on page 7)

6

BAND ENTRANT STN CONTACTED MODE DISTANCE (Kms)

160 None

80 GM4UYZ G3ZVW SSB 580

40 MM5AHO VK7AC SSB 17355

30 MM0GZZ PZ5RA PSK31 7250

20 GM0NTL VK5KGP JT9 23678

17 MM0GZZ XU7TZG PSK31 10003

15 MM0INS P29FR SSB 13313

12 MM0XAB BV1EK PSK31 9581

10 MM0XAB VP8LP PSK31 13024

For general information on who achieved the best distance without taking into consideration

aerials, power, etc.

FULL LICENCE – BEST CONTACTS/BAND without Multipliers

7

The Adjudication file and Countries worked by the contestants

can be downloaded from the club’s website

http://cpsarc.com/downloads/

Files are:

14CLUB 30 YEAR CHALLENGE AJUDICATION SHEET

30yr Challenge - Entrants Countries List

Many thanks to all those who took part I hope you enjoyed the

challenge and congratulations to all the winners.

Bob GM4UYZ

(Continued from page 6)

INTERMEDIATE LICENCE – BEST CONTACTS/BAND without Multipliers

BAND

ENTRANT STN CONTACTED

MODE DISTANCE (Kms)

160 None

80 None

40 2M0KLL LI2HQ CW 990

30 2M0KLL OZ1JSM CW 1092

20 2M0KLL VE2WU CW 4818

17 2M0KLL UA9WMY CW 3620

15 2M0KLL W6AEA CW 6997

12 2M0KLL UA4HBW SSB 5358

10 2M0KLL W3EP CW 5086

One of the most common topics that are discussed during the

Licence Training sessions is on Traps The following was found

on the internet, thanks to Cambell MM0DXC and will be of

some use if you want to make a set of traps.

Would there be any interest to put a night on at the Commu-

nity Centre as a “Trap Building Night”? If you think so let me

know and I can get a room booked.

http://hamradio.online.ru/ftp2/coaxtrap.zip

The Coax trap program from the above URL computes design

parameters for the construction of coaxial traps for HF usage.

Typically these are constructed from PVC tube and RG58/59

coax.

Only 4 parameters need to be known: the design operating

frequency, the coil form diameter, the coax diameter and the

coax capacitance per foot. Coax characteristics are provided

for various Belden cables.

8

Coax Traps

9

1. The digital voltmeter will read

27.0V

30.0V

33.0V

60.0V

2. A high voltage power supply for a valve transmitter pro-

duces about 1500V. The smoothing capacitor is 100μF and the

bleeder resistor is 600KR. After 1 minute the P.D. across the

capacitor will be approximately

50V

500V

1000V

1500V

3. Three inductors, each having an inductance of 6mH, are

connected in series, with no mutual coupling. The combined

value of inductance is

2mH

6mH

12mH

18mH

4. Which arrow line on the graph indicates the RMS value

of the voltage?

Arrow A

Arrow B

Arrow C

Arrow D

5. A 3R resistor is connected in series with an inductor. At

the frequency in use, the reactance of the inductor is 4R. What

is the impedance of combined resistor and inductor?

3.5R

5R

7R

9.4R

6. The circuit shown is the equivalent circuit of a

crystal

parallel tuned circuit

frequency multiplier diode

PA output stage

7. The reason the core of a transformer is laminated is to

reduce

Transformer weight

Hysteresis loss

Eddy currents

The turns ratio required

8. The crystal shown is forming part of

A local oscillator

An RF amplifier

A BFO

An IF filter

9. A crystal is used inside a temperature controlled oven.

The purpose of the oven is to

Cause the crystal to operate on a harmonic frequency.

Reduce the reverse bias current

Stabilise the turn-on voltage

Maintain the frequency stability

10. The graph shows the characteristic curve of a

FET transistor

Zener Diode

NPN transistor

Germanium diode

General correspondence,

training and contest

entries

Bob Glasgow

7 Castle Terrace

Port Seton

East Lothian

EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723

E-mail:

gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

HF Contests

Cambell Stevenson

mm0dxc@aol.com

VHF Contests

John MacLean

mm0ccc@cpsarc.com

Club Tables

Bob Purves

gm4ikt@cpsarc.com

Contest Reports

Robin Farrer

mm0vtv@cpsarc.com

Newsletter, website,

event calendar

John Innes

newsletter@cpsarc.com

5 December 2014 Club Night

13 December 2014 Xmas Night out

3 January 2015 Newsletter Deadline

9 January 2015 Club Night (2nd Friday in January)

31 January 2015 Newsletter Deadline

6 February 2015 Club Night

28 February 2015 Newsletter Deadline

6 March 2015 Club Night

28 March 2015 Newsletter Deadline

3 April 2015 Club Night

11 April 2015 GMDX Convention

18 April 2015 International Amateur Radio Day

1 May 2015 Club Night

8 May 2015 1st 144MHz DF Night

Answers from December 2014 newsletter “Test Your Knowledge”.

1C, 2B, 3D, 4A, 5B, 6A, 7C, 8D, 9D, 10B

Table extracted 30 Nov 2014

I’ll publish the final table for 2014 in the Janu-

ary 2015 newsletter, there’s still time to up-

load your logs for the whole year to Clublog

and get yourself on the table for a bit of

friendly rivalry and see if you can get close to

the current leader Gordon MM0GPZ.

The club contest and special event stations

are highlighted in yellow.

I’ll be extracting the final 2014 table on 5 Jan-

uary 2015 so make sure your uploads are

done by then.

John MM0JXI

Rank Callsign 160 80 60 40 30 20 17 15 12 10 6 DXCC Slots Range

1 MM0GPZ 0 47 0 24 5 95 50 96 33 93 35 200 478 9 yrs

2 GM2T 49 71 0 91 0 127 0 125 0 124 36 158 623 15 yrs

3 MA0DXH 0 10 0 75 0 105 17 91 1 56 0 151 355 11 yrs

4 MM0GZZ 0 6 0 49 42 74 80 38 1 71 24 135 385 4 yrs

5 M0RNR 0 0 0 0 0 19 16 28 8 111 4 133 186 15 yrs

6 MM0INS 0 8 0 61 0 56 41 80 0 13 10 107 269 2 yrs

7 2M0BEC 0 5 0 33 0 67 19 41 17 51 0 105 233 8 yrs

8 MM2N 0 35 0 7 0 50 0 71 0 59 0 95 222 2 yrs

9 GM4IKT 0 0 0 0 0 32 9 45 0 41 0 88 127 10 yrs

10 MM0XXW 0 0 0 43 31 59 38 50 43 57 2 87 323 8 yrs

11 GB2LBN 0 0 0 23 0 45 0 29 0 0 0 63 97 19 yrs

12 GB2MOF 0 0 0 12 0 49 0 18 0 0 0 58 79 13 yrs

13 GM4UYZ 0 6 0 1 0 33 1 35 0 0 0 52 76 34 yrs

14 MM5AHO 0 14 0 44 0 21 0 1 1 7 0 47 88 19 yrs

15 MM0WXT 0 0 0 7 0 19 4 21 0 6 0 35 57 0 yrs

16 MM0CPS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 9 12 12 16 yrs

17 MM0SNK 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 yrs