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Est. 1938 Club Call G4HRS

Sponsored by: Affiliated to:

The Journal of

Horsham Amateur Radio Club

August 2017

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Contents

In this issue

3. Notes from the Editor Short reading

4. West side A HARC tour

5. 160 metres A nostalgic look back

7. Listen here A northern tale and a report of broadcasts

12. London experience G4JHI goes to the capital

14. Diary of events Full listings for the month

Member Score The latest results in the Club Championships

Cover picture: Pay attention ‘M’ this is a radio amateur!

Published by Horsham Amateur Radio ClubHARCNEWS is produced at home by G4JHI

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I had a few comments regarding last month’s newsletter being a bit thin. This was due to being unable to bring you a write up of the previous club meeting. This month we have the same situation again, however in due course it is hoped to be able to rectify the problem.

Editorial

Following on from last month regarding the local fete and broadcasts on 863 MHz; yes, we did have that again! The MC could be heard very clearly at my QTH on my wireless speaker system! I would like to encourage more writers to send in articles for HARCNEWS for the stockpile. If you require publication in a particular edition please specify and make sure that it has been sent by the deadline date.

David G4JHI

Copy deadline for emailed items for September edition 17th August - For written items the deadline is 12th August.

For items sent by email please send to this address:

harc.news@g4jhi.co.uk

Note! Due to holidays the above dates are a little bit earlier than usual.

Please make sure your items for the next edition arrive by then!

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HARC Trip to North Wales 22nd-24th SeptemberThe late summer/early autumn HARC trip this year is to North Wales. There is plenty to see in this part of Wales to suit all tastes, Llangollen and the River Dee, several National Trust sites and of course some excellent steam railways!

The rough plan so far is to travel to Wrexham on Friday 22nd to the Wrexham North Premier Inn. The hotel is situated on B5445 Chester Road Gresford. Exit A483(J6) Nantwich/Wrexham Industrial Estate. At roundabout take exit B5445 Gresford. Hotel is on left next to The Beeches Table Table.

To book your rooms please go the Premier Inn website:

http://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/wales/clwyd/wrexham/wrexham-north-a483.html

The hotel is close to two National Trust sites Erddig House, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/erddigand Chirk Castle https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chirk-castle

Spend the day on Saturday exploring the area, finishing the evening with a meal in a local pub (TBA).

Sunday - Visit to Llangollen, walk along the canal side or river Dee. Visit Valle Crucis Abbey, drive over the Horseshoe Pass. Then drive home after Sunday lunch.

For those with a railway obsession:

http://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/

http://bala-lake-railway.co.uk/default.html

http://www.festrail.co.uk/index.htm

https://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/

For those who are a bit more adventurous

https://www.zipworld.co.uk/adventure/detail/velocity

http://www.electricmountain.co.uk/Tours

We can adjust plans accordingly to suit the weather… it is Wales after all!

Please confirm with Adrian G4LRP if you are interested in coming along.

Topband: Over There, Back Then

Back in the sixties in the UK we had 1800 - 2000 kilocycles (!) but big chunks of it were unusable, especially at night. Loran sat centered at 1950kc/s, and spread from about 1925 to 1975kc/s, day and night. There were (at least) two chains operating there, since we could hear their pulse-trains overlapping and phasing over a 30-second period or so - it sounded reminiscent of the phasing effect used extensively on ‘60’s pop records.

At night other chains centered at 1850kHz became audible, and we fancied that these were US or Canadian chains, but deep in our hearts knew they were just coming from the top end of Scotland or somewhere equally prosaic. (Just recently I found out they actually were from the other side of the Atlantic!) And then of course there were the coastal stations, many of which had base channels in the band. We could hear the southerners during the day: Lands End Radio (Cornwall), North Foreland Radio (Kent), but especially the closest - Niton Radio (on the Isle of Wight).

The job description for a Post Office coastal station operator must have had something in it along the lines of “Must exude boredom for untold hours”. Scheveningen Radio in Holland thundered in continually, too. (I later had reason to bless them dearly from the bottom of a very wet and terrified heart, but that’s a whole other story). Interspersed were their calling channels, where the “fish-fone” folks (trawlers and such) would call in, or just set up shop and gossip with each other.

Unwittingly calling “CQ” on one of these channels (or worse yet, one of the coastals’ base channels) could result in a very stiff talking-to; my cheeks still flush thinking about the dressing-down I got from Niton once. On the cheery side, at least it meant one was getting out OK! Clustered around 1900kc/s were “The Bells”. These were the rythmic “bee-boo-boo-boop” “mas-terslave-slave” chiming of Decca “Hi-Fix” chains, pretty accurate hyperbolic navigation systems.

It was being used extensively in the North Sea then in the early days of the oil and gas-field exploitation, estuaries, and elsewhere. So as is becoming clear, choices of useful operating frequencies were quite limited. The daftly low 10W input power level didn’t help, and it was obvious that we hambones were intended to be kept 20dB-odd below the ‘real’ occupants, lest we forgot what ‘Secondary User’ meant.

At night, as well as the second rash of Loran, coastals such as Cullercoats Radio (Newcastle), Humber Radio and even Wick Radio way up at the top of Scotland added to the minefield. But our fleapower AM could easily roll up and down the entire country - man, that was living large! (OK - so it’s a small country...) Pleasantly, quite a few of The Big Signals of note at the time are still around: Mike G3SED down in Portsmouth used to have an astoundingly (suspiciously?) huge signal; I can still remember the plum tones of “G3JMJ, Edenbridge, Kent”, and of course G3FPQ.

We peons merely bobbed around in their wakes. Weekend mornings local roundtable chats were the norm; Tony G3WRF was the loudest local, with a 70’ high cage dipole (*really* big-time for England), Eric G3PGM - a super-nice guy with a surprising history, Norman (“The Colonel, OBE”) G5HZ, for whose TVI I often got blamed, Dave Morgan G3MEM (a trombonist jazz-band leader), Pete G3PWU, G3XOW, and G8KG over in Sonning.

Peppard, my home village, was intertwined with hundreds of acres of picturesque ‘common land’ - think wild park - which to us local kids’ bemusement overran with frolicking townies of a nice weekend. ‘Top Common’, home to a couple of the local pubs, crested a ridge of the Chiltern Hills, and on reflection it wasn’t to be unexpected that topband mobileers would deem it a great place toplay, too.

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Hearing them on-air, I'd bike frantically over there up and down a couple of not inconsiderable hills, and so gaspingly met Bob, G3EJA/M, and G3TRY/M, and a couple of others. Yes, indeed - 'TRY was using an AT5...

My first topband AM transmitter had at heart an astonishingly Heath-Robinson-esque RF chain given me by Pete, G3NBU, one of my amazingly friendly and generous locals. The VFO (which dated to pre-war!) came from Stan Cook G5XB who lived just up the road in Gallowstree Common, and the lethal lash-up was modulated by a Leak TL12+ hifi amplifier 'liberated' from my Dad.

It worked just fine, better than many. But, like other kid hams at the time, my spotty visage was turned by the promised wonders of a for-real shiny commercial transmitter: The Codar AT5, advertised on the back page of "Practical Wireless" for the princely (and as-good-as-million-dollar remotely) sum of Nineteen Pounds, Nineteen Shillings and Sixpence. Paper-round money being what it was I never did get one.

Source G3JKV with permission from W3EEE

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Broadcast Listener’s Cover Blown

Monday July 18th, 2017 by Julian Thompson, G1ODN

What we saw during our holidays is often a topical subject. But when on holiday I like to find amusing people, objects or scenes to photograph; without picking on natural or man-made disasters.

Let me elucidate. Last year in Finland, my tour guide stopped me outside a door in Helsinki, displaying a KGB poster (See photo below left).

I wasn’t impressed. Why would the Russian KGB want to recruit Finnish students at a disco? OK It was kind of funny.

What was funny was overhearing earlier this year, an argument in French at Chateau de la Roche-Guyon. The castle’s museum curator decided to confront her furniture-shifting labourers who were arranging a collection of chairs. Centre-stage sat Napoleon’s throne. (See photo below).

It went something like:-

‘Why has that throne been moved when I told no one to touch it?’

‘Isn’t that chair part of the exhibition?’

‘Certainly not. Can’t you see that’s Napoleon’s throne?’

‘Wasn’t ‘that’ chair already in this room?’

‘Yes, but ‘that’s’ not the point!‘

Moving to Austria, I’d photographed a secret radio shack on the Hofburg Imperial Palace roof in Innsbruck (see photo below).

I asked the tourist board by e-mail, if anyone had been broadcasting or listening inside. But as I’d heard nothing since, it wouldn’t be funny the Broadcast Listener’s cover was blown.

Finally, I found a laughable sign outside Rome’s Colosseum that said: ‘Violetors will be persecuted.’ I guess the sign was produced in a hurry as the literal translation is nonsense. For this photo (plus 100 holiday snaps I’ve posted on the internet, with amusing narrative) See website

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187791-d192285-r493798597-Colosseum-Rome_Lazio.html#REVIEWS

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Monthly Roundup

by David Ansell 2E0NKC

All times BST

Pirate Radio

Following Mick’s (G4EFO) excellent talk at the July club meeting a HARC member has asked me to supply the frequencies used. Most stations operate at weekends but some weekday evenings. On MF try 1610 to 1700 kHz. On SW try 6200 to 6400, 3400 to 3500; 4000 to 4030 kHz. Most play pop music but polka music such as Radio Polkawelle heard at 21:30 on 6400 kHz. “Underground Radio” heard one evening on 6284.5 kHz.

“Reflections Europe” can be heard Sundays on 6295 kHz with religious programmes. This is thought to come from Ireland. Most stations are from the Netherlands and some must run some good number of watts!

Radio Caroline

As reported last month this station has been granted a licence from Ofcom for 648 kHz. It will be land based. QTH is a famous field at Stonham Aspal just east of Stowmarket, Suffolk with 1Kw. Should be audible in Horsham with a loop or longwire antenna. Start date mid-August. Legal station Pirate BBC Essex will be on the air 12 – 14th August from the lightship LV18 at Harwich. There will be disc jockeys from the 60’s. This can be heard on all BBC Radio Essex frequencies 1530, 765 and 729 kHz. In Horsham 765 kHz from Chelmsford is best but you will need a good antenna.

Utility

“Trinton Military” heard with wx reports on 15035 kHz USB. This is located in Ontario, Canada. A station “Military Information Broadcast” heard with wx reports some evenings on 11254 kHz USB.

Long-wave

RTE Ireland back on 252 kHz after a break QRT to allow a new plate to be billed to the mast at Tullamore. The French Tx at Allouis on 162 kHz is just a carrier only to control French clocks. Power has a “silent period” for maintenance now Tuesdays 09:00 to 12:00 when it is QRT. Noted QRT 09:50 July 11th.

Medium-wave

BBC Radio Surrey 1368 kHz and Talk Sport 1107 kHz both from Duxhurst noted missing June 20th no doubt for maintenance. Back on that evening.

Short-wave

Radio WHRI Cypress Creek, South Carolina heard 21:30 on 15530 kHz. This is Sundays only. Voice of Hope, Zambia heard evenings on 6065 kHz. This can suffer from adjacent QRM. Radio End Times Coming is back on short-wave at 19:01 on 9400 kHz via Kostinbrod, Bulgaria. Radio Channel Africa from Meyerton, South Africa heard at 07:00 with morning program “Africa rise and shine”. Adventist World Radio heard in English at 17:00 on 11975 kHz via Trimcomalee, Sri Lanka.

In Argentina RAE Al Mundo (Argentina to the world) went QRT when their Tx blew up. Now back vie relay in Germany heard at 22:00 on 3985 kHz. Also heard relay via WRMI, Florida, USA start at 08:00 on out of band 7780 kHz. I had a phone call from Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran to ask why they had not received any receptions reports lately. I replied because their audio was so low it was almost impossible to follow. The signal was 5-9 but audio was no good. Other SWL-s say the same.

Next day their audio improved! You will notice that SWL-s and DX-ers do not discriminate against any station because of any religious or political view that a station may have. This contributes to international peace, friendship and understanding. BBC Atlantic Relay Ascension Island can be heard 18:00 to 21:00 on 15400 kHz and from 21:00 on 12095 kHz (See separate article). Radio Kuwait on 15540 kHz noted in DRM mode on July 14th. Next day in AM for 5 minutes then in DRM!

Going over to DRM mode will lose them most of their listeners. China Tibet Broadcasting Service back after QRT for a while on 6050 kHz signing on in Chinese at 21:00 with lovely Chinese melodies. Total eclipse of the sun in USA, August 21st. It will be interesting to see how radio propagation from the USA behaves. An amateur radio QSO party is planned for that day. See August RADCOM to read all about this.

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A short vacation to London

by David Miller, G4JHI

The evening of July 13th I headed by train to Cricklewood in North London staying a for few nights at the Travelodge. The purpose of the visit was to meet up with friends of mine from Denmark who were also staying in London but in a much more central location right in the heart of the city. Why choose a hotel in North London? One it’s quieter, generally cheaper, located on the main Thameslink railway line and easy to get into town. There are even trains at least once an hour all night every day of the week!

An alternative route which can sometimes save time is to use the Jubilee tube line to Willesden Green and take the bus which I did on two occasions. On a vacation such as this what is the best cost for travel from Horsham? Get a period return to London (Currently £34.10) and travel within the zones by contactless card (debit or credit). Upon checking my credit card statement the daily cap for travel within zones 1-3 was £7.70 which was quite reasonable. We met up on the first main day at Madam Tussards for the obligatory tour!

The Royal Family at Madam Tussards

Road closed at Tower Bridge Inside Tower Bridge engine room

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During the weekend right up to Monday we went to several well-known attractions which included London Eye, London Dungeon, Shard, Tower Bridge and a river cruise. We also did plenty of walking along by the river and also found a Danish café with great imported cakes from Denmark.

London Eye

London Eye pier

Was there any radio on this trip? You could say there was a little in the fact that I tuned into radio on the hotel TV! Yes each morning as well as listening to a couple of music channels depending on whether it was the weekend or not I checked out the latest news, weather and travel information on BBC Radio London. Even Joanne Good was on there who is known in my family and originates from Horsham.

On the final day (Monday) after checking out I was able to leave my suitcase at the Travelodge (no charge) and return to pick it up on the way home in the evening which was very handy. The journey home via Thameslink and Southern Railways was very straight forward and connections worked well with a travel time of 1 hour and 43 minutes.

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Diary

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August 3rd, Club Night: Communications Systems on the new Aircraft Carriers - Duncan Brooker

August 10th, Committee Meeting - G3ZBU

August 13th, Flight Refuelling ARS Hamfest - Cobham Sports and Social Club Ground, Merely 10:00www.frars.org.uk

August 17th, Social Evening: The Bricklayers Arms - Shamley Greenwww.bricklayersarmspub.co.uk

August 27th, The Milton Keynes Rally - MK Irish Centre 10:00https://www.mkars.org.uk/mkars/rally

September 2nd-3rd, SSB Field Day

September 7th, Club Night: DXing from Africa

For details on the above contests use this link and follow to the appropriate sectionhttp://rsgb.org/main/radio-sport

All above times are BST

RSGB Club Champs 2017 - Horsham Club Scores Issue: 20th July 2017 Rev A

TOTAL

SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW SSB Data CW POINTS SSB DATA CW

G3LET/M5O Pete 947 328 1275 3.3 328 0 947

G3OGP Robin 659 748 744 2151 5.5 0 0 2151

G3SWC Bryn 1000 805 850 818 854 741 919 888 683 769 808 927 10062 25.8 3550 3047 3465

G3ZBU Alister 444 325 897 130 683 494 528 576 585 675 567 821 737 582 709 8753 22.4 3749 2225 2779

G4LRP Adrian 481 342 823 2.1 823 0 0

G4TPO Steve 435 388 584 114 604 276 668 756 162 614 705 246 651 245 6448 16.5 3360 2045 1043

G7DFV Gavin 85 85 0.2 85 0 0

G8CKT Mike 306 545 293 468 585 410 2607 6.7 306 2008 293

M0TWM Jon 259 519 128 325 532 358 852 106 344 659 68 433 872 184 436 6075 15.6 2155 3434 486

2E0WEK Keith 324 393 717 1.8 717 0 0

Mode totals 3249 2194 2218 2430 2402 903 2499 2087 2577 2804 3268 2418 2422 2808 1167 1669 0 1881 15073 12759 11164

Month totals to date 7661 5735 7163 8490 6397 3550 39% 33% 29%

Contest dates/times 6th 15th 23rd 23rd 6th 15th 12th 27th 3rd 1st 10th 25th 22nd 5th 14th 12th 27th 3rd - Start times are all 2000 clock time, ending 2130 local

2/27 3/28 2/31 3/37 2/32 3/32 3/37 3/37 3/37 3/37 3/37 3/37 3/38 3/37 3/38 3/38 3/38

Latest robot entries may be viewed at:-

Contest rules may be viewed at:-

Pos Total SSB DATA CW

1 Cambridge & DARC 50,679 22,793 14,474 13,412

2 Torbay ARS 44,895 22,773 12,416 9,706

3 Horsham ARC 38,996 15,073 12,759 11,164

4 Sheffield & DWS 36,958 20,330 7,253 9,375

5 RAF Waddington ARC 32,985 12,372 8,886 11,727

6 Scunthorpe Steel ARC 26,880 7,705 9,688 9,487

7 Stevenage & DARS 20,916 9567 2,819 8,530

8 Reading & DARC 20,490 7305 2,645 10,540

(all results data courtesy of RSGB website) prep by: Bryn Tinton G3SWC

http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/

This update: - added: July SSB & CW results.

Our last month and only DATA results to follow, leaving us remaining in third position. Full results will be given

next month.

Cambridge are now well in the lead and are this year's winners!

PARTICIPANTSMARCH

All entries to be uploaded

with the

Contest Robot at:-

JULY

Club Name

HARC overall position after above

results announced

Contest results may be

viewed at:-

www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfenter.pl

APRIL JUNEMAYFEBRUARY

38996

http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2017/r80mcc.shtml

THE TOP EIGHT CLUBS - LOCAL CLUB SECTION

out of approx 38 participating in this section

(83 total all club participation)

HARC POSITION

Maintaining 3rd place

MODE TOTALS%

www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfposted.pl