BARSCOMDUNMOW STEBBING

NOTLEY

RAYNE HALSTEAD

WITHAMBRAINTREE

COLCHESTER

COGGESHALL

Monthly Communication of theBraintree and District Amateur Radio Society

G3XG GX3XG G6BRH

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October2015

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September 2015

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On Saturday 19th SeptemberI visited Earls ColneAirfield where Essex Ham

were operating the Special EventStation GB2EAA.

The aims of Essex Ham are to helppeople in Essex (and beyond)discover what amateur radio has tooffer, and to support the variouslocal clubs and groups. They wantto see amateur radio grow in Essex,and their three guiding aims are to:

Essex Ham - GB2EAAGeoff, G1WRH

Cont.d P4

Contents Essex Ham - GB2EAA.............. 2

Antenna Costs - 2...................... 5

Summercamp & ROTA 2015 .............................. 6

Silent Key Shack Clearances.................................. 8

Club Meetings and Nets .................................... 10

Contests .................................... 10

Meeting Reports........................ 11

Rallies ....................................... 13

Any contributions forthe “How I started…”feature are welcomed.Photos optional. Noneed to be formatted text- it can even be handwritten. Please contactme.

Ed

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1. Explain amateur radio andencourage people to get involved

2. Offer help and advice to newradio amateurs.

3. Support the various amateurradio activities in Essex

I heard that they were running thisevent to raise awareness duringNational Air Ambulance Week2015 (NAAW - the last week ofSeptember) and took myself alongto the airfield where the Essex AirAmbulance is based. They were afriendly bunch and I was soonbehind the microphone on 40m withsome contacts in Northern Irelandand Scotland. By the way, that’s notmy handbag in the picture - mine’sa Gucci!

The station comprised a YaesuFT857 all mode transceiverpowered by a leisure battery underthe table, into a 40m inverted vee

antenna on top of a five metrefibreglass fishing pole fixed to afence post. 2m & 70cm contactswere achieved through a custombuilt roll up ladder line ‘Slim Jim’attached to a separate fibreglasspole. Instructions as to how toconstruct this are on the Essex Hamwebsite.

I spoke about this event at the clubmeeting on the following Mondayand advised that the station wouldbe working the next day. However,it was an outdoor event at the endof the training school runway andjust 50m from the helicopter pad.Unfortunately, bad weather stoppedradio play on the Tuesday, soapologies to anyone who listened orturned out.

If you’re on the internet and have aspare minute it’s well worthchecking out the Essex Ham site.

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This month concludes my look atVHF/UHF antennae and their feedercables. The table below shows 70cm

beams in order of claimed isotropic gain.

Manufacturer

70cmDiamondDiamondEantennaEantennaEantennaTonna

ID

A430S10RA430S15R432LFA11432LFA12432LFA15220919

El

101511121519

GaindBi

13.1014.8015.2415.3515.6916.40

Wt(kg)

0.640.972.1 02.603.801.90

Boomm

1.192.202.062.353.222.82

Power W

5050

5000500050001000

Cost £

£52.96£69.95

£100.80£79.19

£123.60£94.96

Antenna Costs - 2Ian, G8MKN

Cable ID

50 OhmEcoflex 15BroadPro50Ultraflex10RG 8/UEcoflex 10RG 214RGW787#RG213Westflex 103Ultraflex7RG 213B/URG214/UAircell7RG213/UURM67RG MINI 8

Dia

14.612.410.310.310.210.8

10.1610.310.3

7.310.310.8

7.310.310.36.15

Atten/100m

6dB@400MHz8.dB@400MHz

8.31dB@400MHz8.5dB@400MHz8.7dB@400MHz

40 dB@ 2500 MHz22 dB@ 1900 MHz

21.3dB@700MHz11dB@400MHz

11.8dB@400MHz15dB@500MHz13dB@400MHz

13.5dB@400MHz14.5dB@400MHz

20dB@600MHz22.2dB@400MHz

Cost/m

£5.99£2.19£1.69£5.80£2.89£6.42£1.26£0.65£1.40£1.19£1.69£6.19£1.99£1.16£1.67£0.60

The RGW787 has a Copper Clad Aluminium conductor which I cannotrecommend as the only time I’ve used CCA cable was for an electricalring-main installation and every time I tightened the screws the aluminium

just cut through.How it solders Ihave no idea.

The cables arelisted in order ofa p p r o x i m a t eattenuation at400  MHz. Wherethe manufacturersgive figures atother frequencies Ihave approximatedtheir position in thetable. I have notincluded any cablewhose attenuation> 40dB/100m@400MHz.

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Once again wehave got to thattime of year

when we enjoy SummerCamp, or should I say"SUMMER DAMP".Yes folks, this year theGods threw it at us.

John and Rosemary hosted the eventat Southey Green in their paddock.I turned up on Wednesday afternoonand between showers John, Edwin,Jenny , Ann and I, we managed toerect my tent and the whitemarquee. On Thursday we put upthe club tent, once again, betweenheavy showers.  On Friday Nevillecane in with his Motor Home,Edwin was already there as he hasleft his caravan at Johns while hiswaterworks were sorted; andMelvin turned up and the clubantennas were erected, which weretested and we were operational.

The club IC 746 was attached to aMelvin type home brew Windomwhich worked very well. A VHFbeam and a 2/70 co-linear toppedthe pump up mast which is fitted tothe club’s comms trailer. Those

antennas were fed by the club FT897, another set up that worked well.

Over the "very wet" bank holiday

weekend we had visits from severalclub members, namely, GeoffG8WRH, Jim GØDCR, NeilMØNAS Geoff GØBYH andMartin MØFAQ (I think thatwas all of them). Iexperimented with different

mobile antennas with my TS 590sin the car. Edwin tested differentwire antennas on a Clansman PCR320, and Neville tested and workedon some of his kits. With visitorsand residents all involved in various

Summercamp & ROTA 2015Tony, GØIAG

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ways it was an enjoyable andcheerful weekend, in spite of therain.

We started to break down thestations on Monday afternoon, butwith the foul weather decided to

leave antennas and tents untilTuesday. Even with that delay mytent did not come down until theWednesday, thanks to John and

Edwin for that.

Over the weekend we were wellsupplied with tea and coffee byJohn and Rosemary - my thanksto them. on behalf of us all forthat. I also would like to thankthem both for their hospitalitytowards Ann and me during ourstay.

Finally, of course, thanks to themfor allowing us to hold SummerCamp in their garden.

We activated GBØCVRagain at the ColneValley Railway, Castle

Hedingham for the ROTA weekend.

A group of us arrived at the railwaystation on Friday Sept 25th to setup. The aerials were erected, TrapDipole for HF 2/70 Co-linear forVHF atop the 10 m fibre glass mast.As usual we were housed in the oldMotorail carriage on Platform 2, inwhich we set up the club's IC745 forHF and FT 897 for VHF.

Saturday and Sunday were theoperating days and we were at CVRonce again on a Thomas the TankEngine weekend which meant therewere plenty of people about. Theradio contacts were plentiful overthe weekend with main operatorsMelvin GØEMK, John M5AJBGeoff G1WRH and Edwin GØLPOworking most of them. 92 HFcontacts were made on the 40 mband  22 of which were other ROTAstations and 1 on VHF, (CVR is nota good location for VHF). Edwinalso brought along his Clansman

Cont.d overleaf

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Not mine - at least, not yet awhile, I hope! However, Ido want to discuss the state

of affairs that the average radioamateur can leave behind, when hedeparts this life.

I am sure we all know of someamateur who routinely tells hisbetter half rather large "Porky Pies"about the cost of some item he hasjust bought from a rally or shop.Others just smuggle the item intothe shack via the back door or gate,so its existence is not even known.I personally have had to advise anew widow of the real value of allthe gear in her husband's shack,

when she thought it was only wortha few hundred pounds, but in realityit was worth several thousand! Thissort of behaviour can lead to aserious financial loss to thedependant(s) of the deceased

amateur, with some craftyshark mopping up the goodiesat a small fraction of their trueworth. This happens - I haveseen it and heard of it in anumber of cases.

The first, and probably best,approach to this problem is verysimple, if a trifle laborious. Keep abooklet of all the main items in theshack, with a clear identificationthat a non-radio person willunderstand, plus (if possible) arecord of the price paid and when,and your estimate of the reasonablecurrent selling price, which is where

Silent Key Shack Clearances Dave, G3PEN

320 and worked Pennsylvania USAand the Canary islands on a whipaerial and just 30 watts on 18 MHz.

Other club members present were,Jim GØDCR Neville G8CDG, Annand me. We also had visits fromOwen M3OIL, Colin M6NCU andJoe M6YEL.

We had the Morse testing stationrunning for young people which

provoked interest from 2 differentex Royal Signals operators, whohad interesting stories to tell. Thewhole event was, as usual, veryenjoyable and we were blessed withgreat weather.

Thanks to all who helped, took partand visited and, of course, specialthanks must go to the staff andvolunteers of Colne Valley Railwaywho made us feel so welcome.

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it gets laborious, as this should beup-dated every year or so.

This evaluation can be done bylooking at current new prices for thesame item, if available, plus aregular scan through the "For Sale"section of RadCom, and any othersuitable magazines. E-Bay may alsogive a guidance. If you know of anyfaults or dodgy aspects to the gear,or any special attributes (add-onssuch as extra filters in a receiver, ora high-stability VFO, for instance),this is where this can be recorded.

Such a record and its whereaboutsshould be made known to thefamily, as it will be useless if hiddeninside an old PW or RadCom. It willalso be useful if you decide to sellan item, as it will help you makesuitable evaluation, without havingto rely on a failing memory. (Makesure you erase the listing if you dosell it, else the family will spendfruitless hours looking for it!)

Getting the family together to seeyour listing, and understand whatthe major items are worth, may beuseful as well, although they mayfind this a bit of a bore - & it maylead to nasty questions like "whyhave you got 3 HF transmitters, 14Morse keys, 7 microphones, 2Morse readers, and so on".

Another helpful move is to getagreement from a good amateurfriend that you can trust in suchmatters, to assist your widow witha final up-date of values and theeventual sale aspects. (You may beable to reciprocate in this matter,depending on who goes first.)Advice as to trustworthy dealers inradio amateur gear would be veryvaluable, as it may be necessary tounload most of the gear in onemove, rather than in dribs and drabsover weeks or months. The packingand transport of individual itemscan be very time-consuming, andexpensive in transport & insurance.

And finally, if you really know youaren't going to use the gear in thefuture, or the boxes of componentsobtained for that all-singing super-duper rig that will never get built arestill lying on a shelf, get rid of it atrallies or club junk sales, at knock-down prices if needed, to slim downthe shack, and reduce the futureproblems for "her indoors". Best ofall, give some to the newest andyoungest club members, so they canstart their own junk boxes, and havethis problem in 30 years or so!

Have a thought about this - anddon't leave it till next New Year doit now.

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October5 JOTA planning /‘Tx factor’12 Club Net19 Surplus equipment sale26 Club Net

November2 Construction evening and natter night9 Club Net16 TX factor evening and natter night

23 Club Net30 Club Net

December7 Christmas party with food and entertainment14 Club Net21 Christmas natter night28 Club Net

HF

Oct4 0700-1900 21/28MHz Contest HF Championship14 1900-2000 80m Club Sprint CW29 2000-2100 80m Club Sprint SSB

Nov11 2000-2100 80m Club Sprint SSB14 2000-2300 Club Calls (1.8MHz AFS)21-22 2100-0100 2nd 1.8MHz Contest26 2000-2100 80m Club Sprint CW

VHF

Oct3 1400-2200 1.2GHz Trophy / 2.3GHz Trophy

VHF Championship3-4 432MHz-248GHz Contest18 50MHz AFS Contest

AFS Super League

Nov7-8 1400-1400 144MHz CW Marconi VHF CW Championship

Club Meetings and Nets

Contests

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Remove master pages from penultimate page for public edition

In the meeting of 7th Sept wehad a film from the RSGBcalled “Understanding

Propagation”.

With a mixture of slides, filmand narration, the filmexplained a lot aboutpropagation and how to understandit's its effects on your radio usage atdifferent times. Every one enjoyedit end learned  something. After thefilm members had a good discussionabout the subject.

A visitor and prospective member,Neil 2EØNPX joined us for theevening and was made welcome.

The Sept 21st meeting withthe usual formalitiesfollowed by a short time

spent planning for Railways On TheAir. Then it was over to mefor the main part of theevening.

My  talk was mostly aboutSignalling lamps with a backupcovering Field Telephones. Myinterest in signalling lamps waskindled as a result of being askedby a youngster at Duxford "can yousend Morse code with a torch"?

Having answered the question Ithought I would get hold of asignalling lamp to show juniors ifasked again. This led to mystudying the history of and thedifferent types of signalling lamps.

As I explained to those present,"Aldis" lamps as they are knownwere originally conceived in the

Meeting ReportsTony, GØIAG

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1860s by Arthur Cyril Webb Aldis,at the request of the Royal Navy.The Navy had realised that lightcould be seen from a lot further thansignal flags. The first lamps hadmoving shutters to allow forrecognised signal patterns to bepassed. As time went on the lampswere more sophisticated and withthe use of a mechanically operatedconcave mirror with an inbuilt lightsource, the Aldis Lamp as we nowknow it was created. Combinedwith the use of Morse code thesignalling lamp has been used bynavy's of the world ever since tomaintain radio silence and passmessages line of sight.

The RAF and the Army had theirown versions of lamp. The RAFversions were of a similar style tothe Navy, and a derivation of AirMinistry Type B can be found inmost airport control towers now.

The Army wartime "trench daylightsignalling lamp" was first used inWW1 then again in WW2. This wasmore an advanced self illuminatedheliograph, activated by a Morsekey.

I had a selection of these lamps forall to see and examine includingworking examples of a WW2 USAFGrimes lamp and a nearly new (still

being manufactured) Francissignalling lamp.

After Q & As, I moved on to talkingabout my collection of militaryWW2 Field Telephones. Myinterest it these was kindled by oneof the RSGB films we saw when theFuller Phone was mentioned. Guesswhat? I wanted one, so I managedto find one in a very poor statewhich I have done my best toconserve. It then followed that fieldtelephones in general areinteresting, so am collecting themas well.

After my presentation the membersenjoyed examining lamps andtelephones alike. I really enjoyedgiving the talk about the subjectswhich, although not radio, are aboutcommunication Thanks to thosewho listened.

"Thinks" I wonder if Ann will letme have another shed for more toys?

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4 OCTOBERBRITISH VINTAGE WIRELESSSOCIETY AUTO JUMBLE – TheAngel Leisure Centre, Tonbridge,Kent Bookings/enquiries 01892 540022 (8pm to 9pm only).[www.audiojumble.co.uk].

BLACKWOOD ARS RALLY –Rougemount School, NewportAndy, 01495 220 687,andy@mw0mwz.co.uk.

HORNSEA AMATEUR RADIOCLUB RALLY – East Yorks Rick,M0CZR, 01964 533 712,R 1 0 6 2 2 1 @ a o l . c o m .[www.hornseaarc.co.uk].

9-11 OCTOBERRSGB CONVENTION – Theconvention programme of lecturesfor all interests is available on thewebsite. Principal sponsor MartinLynch & Sons[www.rsgbevents.org].

11 OCTOBERHACK GREEN BUNKER RALLY– Nantwich, Cheshire Lucy, 01270623 353, Lucy@hackgreen.co.uk.[www.hackgreen.co.uk].

17 OCTOBERNORTH WAKEFIELD RADIO

CLUB RALLY – LeedsTony, G0JVI, 07740 003 159,tonymawson@btinternet.com.

18 OCTOBERGALASHIELS AND DISTRICTARS RADIO RALLY – Jim,GM7LUN, 01896 850 245,gm7lun@qsl.net.

HOLSWORTHY AMATEURRADIO RALLY[www.radioclubs.net/harc/].

24 OCTOBER6th FOG ON THE TYNE RALLY –Nancy Bone, G7UUR, 01914 770036 (eves),nancybone2001@yahoo.co.uk.[www.anarc.net].

25 OCTOBER26th GREAT NORTHERNHAMFEST Ernie, G4LUE, 07984191 873. [www.gnhf.co.uk].

8 NOVEMBERWEST LONDON RADIO &ELECTRONICS SHOW (KemptonRally) – Kempton Park Racecourse,Staines Road East, Sunbury onThames, TW16 5AQ. OT 9.50/10am.Paul, MØCJX, 08451 650 351,i n f o @ r a d i o f a i r s . c o . u k .[www.radiofairs.co.uk].

Rallies

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CommitteeChairman:Tony King GØIAG 07972 850232 01733 718276

Tony.g0iag@hotmail.com

Secretary/Membership Secretary:John M5AJB 01787 460947 1 Ross Cottage, Southey Green

Treasurer:Neville G8CDG

Ordinary Members:Geoff G1WRH 01376 323223 07745 569564Melvin GØEMK

BADARS Club LibraryWe hold a collection of books and DVDs that feature electronicconstruction, operation, the history of radio, shortwave listening and otherforms of technology to do with radio, including the ‘Secret’ workcarried-out by amateurs during the war years.

Most hires are 20p per session.

Club Equipment

You can borrow the club’s Aerial Analyser foronly £1/day and the Morse Tutor (Less Battery)

for 50p/2-week session.Ask one of the Committee for information

. . 3

Braintree and District Amateur Radio SocietyThe club meets every 1st and 3rd

Monday of the month at BraintreeHockey Club, Church Street,Bocking. Doors open at 7.30 pm,meetings run from 8 pm to 10 pm.

Membership is £16 annually;Senior members (State Retirementage) and Junior members, under18, pay £10. A door fee of £1 isalso payable at each meeting bymembers and visitors.

BARSCOM is sent to members bye-mail on the first of the month;paper copies are available at thefirst meeting of the month (pluspostage if appropriate). The usual

deadline for copy is the 28th of eachmonth. Members may sell orexchange equipment etc. before thestart of each meeting, during thetea/coffee break and may advertisein BARSCOM free of charge.

Some members have had problemswith UHF and BZ access, and as aresult the Club Net will nowoperate on 2  metres only. Thisshould make it easier for allmembers to remember thefrequency, and for non-membersto find the net. The net will useV30 (S15) 145.375 MHz, starting20.00 hrs local time on the 2nd, 4th,and 5th Mondays of each month.

The deadline for submissions for the next edition is 25th of the month. Items will be published in the first

available edition subject to space availability.

For more information and pictures of events and projects seeour Web Site at www.badars.co.uk

Please contact our Chairman for details about commercialadverts.

BARSCOM Editor (Ian, G8MKN)) © BADARS 2015 - E.& O.E.

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