http://www.g4foc.org/

FOCUS 100

The First Class CW Operators’ Club

President & Treasurer Don Field, G3XTT 105 Shiplake Bottom Peppard Common Henley on Thames, Oxon RG9 5HJ, UK Tel: +44 (0) 118 972 4192 E-mail: don.field@gmail.com

Committee Roger Western, G3SXW

7 Field Close, Chessington,

Surrey KT9 2QD, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 208 397 3319

E-mail: g3sxw@btinternet.com

Chairman

Rob Ferguson, GM3YTS

19 Leighton Avenue, Dunblane,

Perthshire FK15 0EB, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1786 824 199

E-mail: gm3yts@btinternet.com

Internet Services

Ray Goff, G4FON

2 St. Leonard’s Road,

Headington, Oxford OX3 8AA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 788 418 3580

E-mail: ray@g4fon.net

Committee Secretary Nick Henwood, G3RWF

Confers House Church Road, Littlebourne Canterbury, CT3 1UA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1227 721791

E-mail: nick@henwood.demon.co.uk

Webmaster

Ed Tobias, KR3E

13110 Costal Highway

Ocean City, MD 21842, USA

Tel: +1 410 250 7357

E-mail: kr3e@arrl.net

Membership Secretary

Tyler Barnett, N4TY

213 Camelot Court

Georgetown, KY 40324, USA

Tel: +1 859 221 9266

E-mail: n4ty@me.com

Committee Wes Spence, AC5K 465 Creekwood Street Lumberton, TX 77657, USA Tel: +1 409 755 4753

E-mail: ac5k@sbcglobal.net

Committee Fred Handscombe, G4BWP (A65BD) P.O. Box 52831 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 50 687 5731 E-mail: fredch@homeshack.freeserve.co.uk

Committee Iain Kelly, MØPCB 261 Bodiam Avenue Tuffley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL4 0XW, UK Tel: +44 (0) 7949 383 194 E-mail: iain@m0pcb.co.uk

Non Committee Members

• Accounts Examiner G4HZV • Subscriptions (non-web)

• WAFOC Award Manager G4HZV UK & Overseas G3XTT

• Windle Award W4PM N. & S. America K2VUI

• FOC WAS Award W4CK • Activity Co-Ordinator G3VTT

• Webmasters N4TY • Marathon F5VHY

G7VJR • FOC QSO Party KZ5D

• FOCUS Editor S57WJ • FOCUS Mailing G3LHJ

• News Sheet Editor V31JP • FOCUS Mailing NA WB2YQH

• Call Book Editor N4TY

FOCUS 100

Contents From Your President Don Field, G3XTT 4 From Your Editor Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ 4 A History of Focus - The First 100 Editions Christopher J Page, G4BUE 5 25 Years of Focus in Numbers Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ 13 Focus, the Transition Year Joe Pontek, V31JP 14 Editing Focus - My Story Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ 16 The 2014 FOC Dinner Rob Ferguson, GM3YTS 17 A Northwest FOC Dinner Computer Reunion Vic Abell, W9RGB 20 There’s No Excuse to be Inactive! Colin Turner, G3VTT and Ted

Trowell, G2HKU 23

Letter to the Editor John Shwartz, WA9AQN 25 Orbituary of Philip Hunt, G3LPN Andrew Kersey, GØIBN 26 Obituary of Dave Newton, G3JJZ Ron Lindsay, G3KTZ 27 Obituary of Bob Elridge, VE7BS Ed Frazer, VE7EF 28 Why HBØ again and again and again...? Tina Ockert, DL5YL 30 A DX-Pedition to Grand Turk Island Phil Whitchurch, G3SWH 31 Anticipation, Communication John Ellerton, G3NCN 35 Voyage of the Vikings Al Rousseau, W1FJ 36 2SZ at Mill Hill School Dave Lawley, G4BUO 38 Welcome to the New Members Tyler Barnett, N4TY 40 Contesting Pat Barkey, N9RV 45 FOC QSO Party Results-13 September 2014 Art Suberbielle, KZ5D 48

Front cover: A brief history of Focus: Focus 1-the first issue; Focus 19- the first issue with new two-colour cover; Focus 25, 50 in 75 as milestones; Focus 42- the first one with full colour cover; Focus 88- V31JP’s first edition; Focus 92-S57WJ’s first edition; FOCUS75 the special issue for FOC 75

th

Anniversary.

Inside Back Cover: Focals from Annual Dinner

Back Cover-top: The FOC members present at the IARU Region 1 conference in Albena, Bulgaria, October 2014: Dave, K1ZZ; Don, G3BJ (newly elected IARU Region 1 President); Jorma, OH2KI; Fabian, DJ1YFK and Anders, SM6CNN. ( photo TF3KB)

Back Cover-bottom: Bill, W7GKF was a Postdoc Chemistry researcher at University of California Irvine in 1966 and 1967, when Jim, K6AR was a lower-division undergraduate engineering student. They made friends. At the NW FOC Weekend, Bill and Jim saw each other for the first time in 47 years. The picture documented the occasion. (photo K6AR)

FOCUS is the quarterly magazine of FOC which is published four times annually in January, April, July and October. It is distributed to all members. Articles and contributions for FOCUS are always welcome and should be submitted to the Editor by mail or email <gabor.s57wj@gmail.com>, CD, disk, typed or hand written.

Drawings can be re-drawn if necessary and original photographs returned after scanning.

© First Class CW Operators’ Club

Articles may be re-published from FOCUS with permission from the Editor

and with the usual credit given.

FOCUS 100 4

From Your

President, G3XTT

The recent UK dinner was a great success and I was especially pleased to be able to welcome our hard-working volunteers Gabor, S57WJ and Tyler, N4TY. There is a write-up elsewhere in these pages but I do want to thank all those who helped to make it a success.

One of the topics that came up at the AGM was how we should use the substantial funds that we have accumulated over the years. It’s a nice problem to have. We could, of course, reduce the membership fee or hand out some goodies to members. However, my personal view, on reflection, is that we should be using at least some of those funds for outreach. As an organisation we exist to promote good operating practice, especially on CW. I rather feel that if we could have some sort of programme for the wider amateur radio community, whether in terms of training, awards, videos or whatever, it would not only be beneficial to the hobby but would improve the profile and perception of our club. If you have any suggestions, your Committee would love to hear them.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all well for the festive season and hope that you have a successful and prosperous 2015. Try to make time to get on the air, not just in 80m but the higher bands too in order to find the more distant members. Finally, I hope to see many of you in the Marathon when I will have the privilege of signing G4FOC.

161! Don, G3XTT

From Your

Editor, S57WJ

I am so happy that I could attend the FOC Annual Dinner in Milton Keynes. It was a last minute decision to make trip. Roger, G3SXW was very persuasive and I am thankful to him for convincing me to go. I did not have an easy trip back since I had to leave early on Sunday 01.00am to catch a bus to Stansted airport on my early flight. I was on my feet all Saturday and I did not dare to fall in sleep on the bus since I had to change the coach at Luton airport. There was not much sleep on the airplane either because turbulence woke me up time to time. Was it worth all this effort? Sure it was! I met a lot of members for the first time in person and absolutely had a great time.

Focus has made its first quarter century. This issue is dedicated to our magazine with feature articles describing the past 25 years. It went through a lot of technical changes over these years. The number of published pages, various authors and articles are astonishing if we bear in mind that it is a club magazine and the articles are written mainly by its members.

I used up all my stock of articles after publishing Focus 99 except a very few and of course I was worried about this anniversary edition. My call for articles resulted in a huge pile up. I received a lot of articles in a very short time. That is the spirit of FOC members that surprises me over and over!

161! Gabor, S57WJ

5 FOCUS 100

A History of Focus - The First 100 Editions

By Christopher J Page, G4BUE

When I joined FOC in August 1976 there was only a monthly News Sheet, produced by Bill Windle, G8VG, in much the same format as it is today. However, the method of production was a lot different then; those were the days before computers and desk top publishing. Bill typed the News Sheet, took it to a local printer who typeset and printed it using letterpress printing, and then took the finished copies to G6VC for mailing. This took time, causing Bill’s lead time to be over a week and making the content of the News Sheet even more dated by the time it reached members through the mail, especially those living overseas.

About that time Bill produced a picture brochure of the Annual Dinner at Lords Cricket Ground in London as a supplement to the News Sheet. The brochure consisted of a folded double page (four sides) containing photographs of the majority of members, wives and guests who had attended the Dinner, and enabled those members unable to attend the Dinner, for the first time, to see what other members looked like. This proved very popular and a similar brochure was produced by W1HZ and W1HX, the organisers of the North American Dinner at Danbury, CT.

At that time Bill Windle virtually ran FOC single-handed combining the present day jobs of Secretary, Membership Secretary, News Sheet Editor, Call Book Editor, Awards Manager, Subscriptions and organising the Annual Dinner. Near the end of 1980 Bill started having health problems and in 1981 he very reluctantly agreed to delegate most of these duties to other Committee members, including Secretary and the editing of the News Sheet to Al Slater, G3FXB. I joined the FOC Committee in 1986 and in August 1988 took over the editing of the News Sheet from Al.

At the same time I changed the production of the News Sheet from the (old fashioned) type-setting/letterpress method to desktop publishing/off-set litho printing. I had been ‘playing’ with computers virtually since they had been invented and had learnt about word processing while writing a regular Members’ News column for SPRAT, the magazine of the G-QRP-Club. Whilst on a training course through my work, I saw desk top publishing for the first time and quickly realised how I could use it to improve the production of the News Sheet, not just in its appearance but also the speed of its production. This was done using a local printer at Shoreham who was able to print the News Sheet by making a plate from the ‘camera ready’ artwork I provided for off-set litho printing.

The idea is born All the other radio clubs I was a member of at that time (and non-radio clubs) had

some form of regular magazine except FOC, and so early in 1989 I asked G3FXB if he thought it a good idea if FOC had its own magazine? Al thought it was and encouraged me to go ahead with a proposal to the Committee, which I did at the following meeting, also offering to be the editor. I suggested the funding for the magazine could be achieved without any increase in subscriptions by reducing the size of the News Sheet from four to two pages and discontinuing the picture brochures, the material left out of the News Sheet and the picture brochures to be published in the new magazine.

FOCUS 100 6

The Committee agreed and after it was announced in the News Sheet, the membership was asked to suggest a name for the new magazine and the name Focus was decided after it was suggested by G2YS, G3CFG, GM3KPD, W4VQ and W9GW, who all received a small prize. It was decided to publish Focus at the end of every quarter so it could be mailed with the January, April, July and October News Sheets, and Focus 1 was published in the Winter of 1989 with the January 1990 News Sheet.

The Committee at that time consisted of G3FXB, G3KDB (now GW3KDB), G3KTZ, G3MXJ (now F5VHY), G3SXW, G3VTT and myself who, apart from G3FXB, are all still with us as active members of FOC. So if you have enjoyed reading Focus since then, why not thank them for their decision making and foresight the next time you QSO them?

When considering their decision about the new magazine, the Committee discussed the question of having advertisements in it. Many club magazines at that time, and many today, have advertising to help finance them, but the Committee decided they wanted all of the pages in our magazine to be devoted to FOC, a policy that I am pleased to say subsequent Committees have followed.

Ealier that year, whilst attending the Dayton Hamvention in the USA, I had spoken to K5ZD about my plans for FOC’s new magazine. In addition to being an FOC member (1341) Randy was the Editor of the ARRL’s National Contest Journal (NCJ) and I asked if he could give me any advice. He told me two things: try and include something mildly controversial in each issue because that will cause members to respond and provide you with more articles, and secondly, get a few members to write a regular column to save having to find all the articles in each issue myself.

I adopted the first piece of advice for the News Sheet as well as Focus and found it worked! Members responded with their thoughts and opinions on what had been written forming the basis for further contributions and articles. I also adopted the second piece of advice and persuaded N4AR to write a regular column on propagation, G3SXW a column on contesting, a regular crossword from VE3DXR (later VA3CH) as well as From Your President and later, Computing in the Shack by G3WGV and New Member Profiles from the Membership Secretary of the day.

There was also a number of regular articles: reports of the annual Marathon and the Bill Windle Award (and later the bi-annual Bill Windle QSO Parties), the announcement and report of the Annual Dinner and the many other FOC social functions held every year, more recently the annual WAFOC and WAFOCC Honour Rolls and, sadly, the Obituaries of members.

Each edition of Focus varied in size depending on the number of articles and the state of the Club’s finances, but was usually 52 pages (in fact 72 of the first 100 editions

The front cover of Focus 1 published in the winter of 1989

7 FOCUS 100

have been 52 pages). Focus 1 was 48 pages (as was Focus 14), Focus 2 was only 40 pages (the smallest edition) and Focus 3, 4 and 5 were 44 pages. It was often larger; there have eight editions of 56 pages, five editions of 60 pages, four editions of 64 pages and one of 68 pages. The largest Focus were 35, 51, 63 and 82 all with 76 pages, which is about the maximum number that can be used with saddle stitching binding.

The first improvements As computer and printing technology improved,

experiments were made to improve the quality of the magazine, usually without adding to the cost and often reducing it. It was the increases in mailing costs that pushed the overall cost of producing Focus up every year.

I have often been asked me about the origin of the key that has appeared on the front cover of every edition of Focus. It was drawn by James Turner, G3VTT’s eldest son, when he was 12 years old. I was at Colin’s QTH one day during the planning stage for Focus and mentioned I wanted to include a drawing of a Morse key in the design for the front cover. Colin said James was quite artistic and had drawn one after seeing his Vibroplex bug and I was welcome to use it. James is now 38 and a successful CEO in market research.

Focus 1 was printed by the printer at Shoreham who printed the News Sheet but afterwards he suggested I could obtain better quality by going to a printer who specialised in that type of printing. By coincidence at that time, a new neighbour, John, who worked for a printing company at Crawley, had just moved next door to G3FXB. Al showed Focus 1 to him with the result that the next 17 editions were printed by John’s company. In those days I produced the ‘camera ready’ artwork leaving spaces where the photographs were to go. I then physically cut (cropped) the original photographs and gave them to John with the artwork. He made half-tones of them and pasted them into the spaces on my artwork for the printing plate to be made.

Focus 3 contained photographs of 70 members in keeping with the original idea that Focus would replace the former picture brochures. Starting with Focus 5, Focals were introduced as a heading for those small items and snippets that filled the bottom of a page. Again, like Focus, the name Focals was suggested from a member, W1PL after the News Sheet asked for suggestions, and I am pleased to see the name still survives.

Focus 16 in the autumn of 1993 was the last to be printed by Al’s neighbour John because he moved and left the Crawley printing company. I had retired in September 1993 and had started a small printing business working from home, Adur Village Press, primarily printing QSL cards and other stationary for the amateur radio market.

Although I had become quite skilful at creating artwork I knew little about the printing process. The Shoreham printer, also named John, who had printed Focus 1, was still printing the News Sheet and we had become good friends. Whilst John knew about printing, he knew little about creating artwork and so we decided to teach each other our respective skills. It wasn’t long before I started using John’s printing press to print my own work, including the News Sheet. I had purchased my own finishing

The straight key drawn by James Turner, son of G3VTT, that has appeared on the front cover of every edition of Focus

FOCUS 100 8

equipment and made almost daily trips to Shoreham to do my printing and then took it home to do the finishing.

Changes of printer

Because we had to find a new printer for Focus I offered the Committee to produce it for FOC through Adur Village Press, using my trade connection to obtain a lower price than what John at Crawley had been charging, and because I didn’t have the overheads that John’s company had and was going to try and make the half-tones myself. In any case I had a personal interest in Focus continuing. The Committee agreed a trial and I looked for a company to sub-contract the printing to.

I found a company in the Midlands, who were supposed to be a specialist magazine printer, and after visiting them with previous editions of Focus and discussing artwork and printing methods, I gave them the job of printing Focus 17 (Winter 1993). It was a printing disaster! Although the average reader may not describe it as that bad, to even a basic printer, there were a number of quite bad errors in it, including several instances of set-off (the undesirable transfer of wet ink from the top of one sheet to the underside of another as they lie in the delivery stack of the press). The printer made excuses that the errors were a one-off and asked for a second chance. I agreed but Focus 18, although better, was not anywhere close to the printing standard I wanted, and so I looked for another printer. After visiting another specialist magazine printer in Lincolnshire, a relationship started that was to last for the next 15 years (and 60 editions of Focus and 15 editions of the Call Book).

Computer technology had by this time moved on, and with a good quality scanner and laser printer I was able to produce the half-tones for the photographs as part of the artwork, thus saving the cost that John’s company had made for making them. I used this saving to redesign the front cover to have two colour printing (black and blue) on a white glossy cover that enabled the front cover photograph(s) to be produced better.

This front cover format remained until the spring of 2000 when a full colour front and back cover was used for Focus 42, featuring 4X1FC on the front standing in front of one of his MFJ small loop antennas outside his QTH in Natanya. The additional cost of the colour was, once again, provided by improvements in computer and printing technology, and remained the standard for future editions.

At the bottom of page 30 of Focus 29 (Winter 1996) is a photograph of W1FJ taken by WA1G that represented another yardstick in the development of Focus. The photograph was the first to be published in Focus that had never been in my possession! That’s nothing special by what we do today, but back in 1996 that was a technical breakthrough! Up until then all photographs had to be sent to me through the

The front cover of Focus 42, the first with the full colour front and back cover

9 FOCUS 100

mail to be made into half-tones. By using the Internet and new desktop publishing software, I was able to cut out the scanning stage and create the half-tone without the photograph coming into my possession. This process did, however, rely on a good quality high resolution photograph and some members couldn’t understand why a low resolution photograph they had sent me, which looked great on their computer screen, wouldn’t look the same when it was published in Focus. As digital photography got better, and the resolution size of photographs increased, this problem became less.

Focus 35 started a Letters to the Editor column and Focus 36 a Technical and

Operating Tips column, although not appearing in every issue, the latter having been

suggested to me by W1OT at the previous Dayton Hamvention. Tony gave me about

eight small items to get the column started and since then hundreds of useful ideas and

tips have been published.

Operating remotely

Although I left the FOC Committee in 2002, the year after June and I started spending our winters in Florida, and I was unable to attend all the meetings, I continued producing Focus (and the News Sheet and Call Book). At that time I was still producing ‘camera ready’ artwork and mailing it to the printer in Lincolnshire, but with new equipment the printer had just purchased, I was able to produce the artwork on my computer, send it to the printer through the Internet for them to create the printing plates direct from my artwork. I was able to do this, of course, whether I was in the UK or Florida and Focus 50 was the first edition produced in this way from Florida in the spring of 2002.

A new front inside cover was introduced for Focus 77 in the winter of 2008 showing photographs of the President and the Committee and recognising those other members who, although not being Committee members, carried out important tasks in the management and running of the Club. A re-designed page three was also introduced and the From Your President and From Your Editor columns moved to page four.

Focus 81 in Winter of 2009 was the first edition to have a theme having ‘Antenna Special’ on the front cover. It contained seven articles and one Focal all about antennas. This was followed by further themed editions, the 76 page Focus 82 in the spring of 2010 ‘On-Air Operating Special’, Focus 83 ‘Keys, Keyers and Morse Special’ and Focus 84 ‘Social and Topical Special’. Focus 84 had a slightly smaller typeface and smaller leading (the distance between the lines) resulting in a content increase of 14% (or seven extra pages) without any additional cost!

Farewell

The Committee then asked me to keep Focus to 44 pages in the future to reduce costs, and so the advantage of using the smaller type and leading in Focus 84 was immediately lost! At that time the News Sheet started being distributed over the Internet and so the need to publish Focus to coincide with the mailing of the News Sheet was no longer necessary.

At that time I was forced to use a different printer for Focus, thus ending my relationship with the Lincolnshire printer (who had also been printing the annual Call

FOCUS 100 10

Book). The Committee found another printer and Focus 85 was produced, but with inferior quality photographs. This was below the standard I wanted and was because cheaper digital printing had been used instead of the better off-set litho printing used by the Lincolnshire printer.

The same printer produced Focus 86 which also contained inferior photographs, but this time had extra blank pages added to it! Instead of being the 52 pages my artwork had provided for, it was 56 pages as the printer had inserted an extra blank page for the front inside cover (moving the Committee photographs to page three) and three extra blank pages at the end. This increased its weight and therefore its mailing cost.

Focus 87 in the summer of 2011 was the last edition I produced as I had resigned as editor at the end of May (and as Editor of the News Sheet and Call Book). I wrote in my editorial: “This is the saddest edition of Focus I have published. Sad because it will be my last one! I explained my reasons for resigning as Editor in the June News Sheet and will not repeat them here. I have continually produced Focus since number 1 in the winter of 1989 and was mentally looking ahead to the autumn of 2014 when Focus 100 is due to be published and how the Club might celebrate that milestone”. That edition contained the last improvement I made to Focus, the full colour inside front and back covers.

The V31JP editions V31JP volunteered to take over as editor of the

News Sheet and Focus and there followed a long exchange of emails between us as Joe tried to catch up with Pagemaker, the software I had been using to create the artwork. Joe has used an early version of Pagemaker many years ago but was now trying to learn the latest version.

Joe produced his first edition, Focus 88 in the autumn of 2011, and although it was obvious the quality of the printing hadn’t improved (in fact the photographs were even more inferior), he did a great job with the artwork in the short time he had to learn it. Joe produced four editions of Focus (88 - 91) and redesigned the front cover for Focus 90. The photographs in Focus 90 and 91 were better, suggesting a change in printer and/or printing method. Focus 91 announced Joe’s resignation as editor due to health issues and the need to spend more time with his business, but he continued as editor of the News Sheet which he is still doing.

The present time

S57WJ volunteered to take over as editor and produced his first edition in the winter of 2012, Focus 92, returning to the previous style of front cover that had been used since Focus 42. Gabor changed the style of the text and said in his first Editorial, “....the content will be according to the tradition of the previous issues of Focus.”

The front cover of Focus 88, the first produced by V31JP

11 FOCUS 100

Gabor’s editorial in Focus 94 announced the publication of a special edition, FOCUS75 (as opposed to Focus 75) to commemorate and report on the special FOC prefixes that had been used during May 2013 for FOC’s 75th anniversary. This 48 page special edition was published in the summer of 2013 instead of the usual Focus and contained a separate four page full colour supplement of photographs of members who had used the special FOC callsigns.

Near the end of 2013 members were given the option of paying a lower subscription for 2014 and receive a digital form of Focus instead of a hard copy, and Focus 96 was the first to be produced in this form. The big advantage of the digital Focus was that all the photographs in it could be produced in full colour instead of just those on the front and inside covers of the hard copy.

I had started doing this with Focus 60 in the autumn of 2004, ahead of becoming President for 2004/05, because I had decided to produce a FOC CD during my presidency. The CD contained pdf files of every edition of Focus and an index to the articles, as well as News Sheets since 1995, the FOC 2005 Call Book, the FOC history book Sixty years of FOC and photographs of most members and many ex-members. The CD proved popular and was produced annually up to 2010.

Looking back

I am proud that only five of the 87 editions of Focus I produced were late (three in

1996: Focus 25 in the spring when I simply ran out of time and Focus 26 and 27 when

we had long holidays in New Zealand and USA, Focus 70 in the spring of 2007 when we

stayed at our Florida QTH longer than usual and Focus 85 because the Committee

delayed the publication of the FOC 2011 Call Book which was mailed at the same time).

There had been some close calls with those editions before I had retired in 1993 when I

had been working long hours with my work. The first 100 editions of Focus contained a

total of 5384 pages, plus 48 pages for the special edition FOCUS75, and I am also proud

that I have produced 4712 of them.

This brings us to Focus 100. I wonder who will be writing The History of Focus - The

Second 100 Editions, probably in 2039, and what they will be writing about it? I

congratulate the Club on its achievement with Focus, and am proud that it has become

a well respected magazine within the amateur radio community. Testimony to this is

the number of requests I received for articles to be re-published in other magazines. I

always encouraged this, subject to the views of the original author, as I felt it raised

FOC’s profile within the amateur radio community. It is also fitting that when looking at

the history of Focus we remember G3FXB, who encouraged me when I first put the idea

to him back in 1989.

The front cover of Focus 92, the first edition produced by S57WJ

FOCUS 100 12

I also congratulate V31JP for having the courage to take over from me as editor and to our present editor S57WJ for the job he is doing. Considering English is not Gabor’s native language, editing a magazine in English must be a much more difficult job for him to do than what it was for Joe and me. Long may Focus stay part of FOC.

In April 2013 N2KW published Out of Focus, a 108 page booklet containing a collection of feature articles and Contesting columns from Focus. Allen wrote the regular Contesting column in Focus for editions 83 to 95 and dedicated his book to the memory of G3FXB. The centre of the front cover features the Morse key drawn by James Tuner (G3VTT’s son) and Allen also used it frequently throughout the book. He intended launching the book at the Dayton Hamvention that year and as he only finished writing it just before, he had it printed straight away and took the copies to Dayton with the ink almost still wet!

Finally, a Focus trivia question - although there have been 100 editions of Focus, what four editions showed the same season and year on the front cover as another edition, although the edition numbers were different? For the answer, first see Focus 69 and 70 - they both show Spring 1997! Focus 69 should have shown Winter 1996. I never mentioned it at the time and nobody ever pointed out the error to me, but now you know! Secondly, look at Focus 98 and 99, they both show Summer 2014 instead of Focus 99 showing Autumn 2014. Gabor made the same mistake as me, but only on the printed version. He was able to correct the PDF version and again, like me in 1997, nobody noticed what he had done!

FOCAL During the September 2014

FOC QSO party Lloyd, KH6LC won the Two Brothers Award #2 by consecutively working both brothers Vic, W9RGB and Dave, K6XG. Dave, K6XG (left) presented Lloyd, KH6LC (right) his certificate during Lloyd’s motorcycle jaunt up the California coast just a few weeks after the QSO party.

The front cover of Out of Focus published by N2KW in April 2013

13 FOCUS 100

25 Years of Focus in Numbers

By Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ

Editors: Edited issues: Chris, G4BUE 1-87 Joe, V31JP 88-91

Gabor, S57WJ 92 till present

Contesting columnists:

Columns in issues:

Roger, G3SXW 1-17 Dave, G4BUO 18-57

1)

Tom, K5RC 59-82 Allen, N2KW 83-95

Pat, N9RV 96 till present 1)

The Focus 58 had a Contesting column dedicated to Jim, K4OJ. He was to take over

the task from Dave, G4BUO when he became a silent key.

The most productive authors in 100 Focus issues:

UK members US members Members from rest of the

world

G3SWH-35 articles KZ5D-24 articles 3)

VA3CH (SK)-19 articles

G3SXW-28 articles 2)

K8MFO-19 articles LA3FL-13 articles

G3LIK-26 articles N2KW-16 articles 2)

VK2AYD-12 articles

2) The Contesting columns of G3SXW and N2KW are not included in these numbers

3) Art, KZ5D is the FOC QP manager and most of his articles are results from this event

The first 100 issues of Focus contain 1272 articles by 438 different authors. The articles came from five continents.

Focus has had a wide variety of topics since its introduction, including antennas and propagation, computing and software, technical articles (including construction), equipment reviews, contesting, DXpeditioning and travel, historical, FOC operating events (Marathon, QSO Party), announcements and reports of FOC social events, obituaries, new members and of course CW (keyers, paddles, keying and Morse). The content is entirely devoted to our hobby with the accent on CW. From time to time a poem has been included but even those have had some connection with amateur radio.

Although a few of the articles in Focus have been re-published from other amateur radio publications (usually when written by a FOC member), the vast majority have been original articles written by FOC members especially for Focus. The wide variety of these articles described in the previous paragraph illustrates the huge depth of knowledge and experience of members and is, most probably, unequalled in any other amateur radio club.

FOCUS 100 14

Focus, the Transition Year

By Joe Pontek, V31JP

First, I believe that the biggest congratulations are due to Chris, G4BUE, for conceiving and implementing Focus for our club. I have enjoyed each and every issue, past and present, from Chris and Gabor, S57WJ. And thank you, Gabor, for taking on the task and doing a fabulous job. I was moving my PDF copies about, carefully, to another memory stick. Many a cover brings back great memories.

When I volunteered for the Editorship, my main concern was for the News Sheet’s continuation. Focus I knew would be a challenge for me as I came from a back ground of a long time ago of ‘real’ cut and paste. You know, with scissors, razor blades, white out and Exacto knives using real paste. Shoot a master offset plate and print. Moving into the newer current graphic publication was somewhat painful, but rewarding in the end. My ten years with Xerox Corporation ended just as they were moving into their graphic duplicators from just copiers and duplicators. I could have used more of that newer knowledge. To say that I was impressed with Chris’ work before would be a gross understatement, but after my short tenor, I was even more impressed.

Editor is a little limiting in its title as you are, also, the publisher. You draw in the materials to assemble a magazine. Then, after assembly, you present it to the printer and it is not your in-house printer like some magazines have. And, you are the layout artist. Take a jumble of words and pictures and then assemble them into a graphically pleasing article while still being cohesive with the stories’ content and intent. Some of my past experiences were to send an article to an editor for publication and I was always impressed with “their” results with my sometimes meagre offerings. And, then there are the times when you qualify to be a master packer at a sardine packing plant. I only wore out two shoe horns and three keyboards with Focus. The News Sheet has worn out three of each, so far. You work with the type’s font size, its lead and tracking to make it all fit. Mostly un-noticeable when you do it correctly, but when you go from one story to another mid-page or on facing pages, you might forget. One ends with the adjusted settings and the next one starts with the standard and un-adjusted type, it shows. Page breaks are a God sent helper that gives you a way to make these adjustments, mostly unnoticed.

We had a change of printers at this time as well. A new printer and a new editor at the same time presented us all with a few challenges. Mostly, it was finding the correct adjustments to the graphics to give a good hard printed copy. And, colour was new to me as I had printed black and white way back then. As we had changed printers as I took over Focus, that transition had a few bumps, particularly with the graphics. I was used to having a printer that took my information and made appropriate adjustments. Not quite that way these days.

A very large “Thank you” is due to all of our contributors submitting articles, Focals and photographs. Without these folks taking the time to write, taking the pictures and then sending them in, an editor would have no job to do and the readers nothing to enjoy reading and seeing.

15 FOCUS 100

The News Sheet is quite steady in its format and structure, i.e. the schedule of the months event, the membership information, the “Fives and Fifties,” the committee’s report, the Windle Ladder, social event announcements, etc. Sometimes the extra ordinary requires a little more creative ‘typesetting’ to squeeze in all the “Members’ News” information. I am getting to where my eyes dislike small print, so I really try to keep it as large as I can. With Focus, you can spread out adjustments over 52 to 56 pages, but the News Sheet with just four pages limits the adjustments you can make.

There are three major differences between the News Sheet and Focus. The first is,

the News Sheet addresses current and timely information and Focus handles the less

time urgent information. The News Sheet does not do graphics, i.e. pictures, graphs

and the like, while Focus does. The News Sheet is four pages monthly and Focus is,

typically, between 48 to 56 pages, quarterly.

I use Adobe Page Maker 7 for the publishing software, though older software, it has a lot of flexibility for manoeuvring text and graphics about. I had to buy the latest and last version when I started and then renew my acquaintance with it. There were many changes from my previously used version, but in time, all fell back into place as well as learning newer tricks, with Chris helping me. Thank you for putting up with that relearning period, both in Focus and the News Sheet.

I often go back and read old Focus and News Sheets. They bring back many memories from even before I became an FOC member. You might enjoy a member in skirts picture or the crossword puzzles of Chas, VA3CH (SK). Of course, there are the pictures of old friends now gone before me, but the memories they bring up puts a many a smile on my face. Who could not smile at the fellows with dark hair or some with hair, way back when! Focus has made a great diary of our club.

One real hard duty for me at the very start was the Silent Key member’s obituaries. Some hit real hard as some had been long time friends’, way before my FOC membership.

As I am getting older, read that as more mileage on my body, I was held back to deal with a thyroid issue by the US Veterans Administration Health Care in April. I was actually packed ahead of time, pre-checked in and get the call, my biopsy report was in and the best course required surgery. Decision was made to stay in Texas and get it done. Three weeks later, I could barely get out of bed one morning and it was my back again. Again, more surgery required. It became complicated by an adhesion to my spinal cord membrane and I spent the better part of a July in a wheelchair at the VA hospital and sometimes restricted to lying flat on my back. Neither easy nor fun typing on a laptop held up to see what I am typing while on my back. In time, the VA had me fixed up after three surgeries and good physical therapy. I can’t remember if it was me chasing or the nurses chasing.

I am happy I could bridge between Chris’ start and long tenure to Gabor’s great start and I hope long tenure with Focus. Doing club publications is fun and challenging at the same time with, hopefully, the reward being the enjoyment and enlightenment for the club’s members. For me, personally, it is a small pay back for what I have received from my membership in the FOC family.

FOCUS 100 16

Editing Focus - My Story

By Gabor Szekeres, S57WJ

When I was asked to take over the editorship of Focus at the end of October 2012 I

accepted it under two conditions.

The first one was that I would do all the technical preparation. It could be difficult to synchronise the page, font and other settings with someone else. Luckily I had taken a MS Word course at my work just two weeks before I said “Yes”. The knowledge was still fresh and I had an opportunity to apply it right away in practice. So I use MS Word to edit the magazine. Many competent people say that it is ‘household software’ and not a professional text editor and they are surprised with the result. I must admit that Focus 92 was a bit messy and I still had a couple of issues to get to grips with.

English is not my first language and that is my weakest point for this job. Therefore my second condition was to have help with proof-reading. Roger, G3SXW volunteered right away and he was the only proof-reader between October 2012 and February 2014 when John, G3WGV also offered his help. The cooperation with John started when he sent me his article about the history of FOC Northern Get-Together for the Spring issue (Focus 97). When I sent him back the edited article he suggested that I make the paragraphs more distinguished by either making a bigger gap between them or by moving the first sentence in each paragraph to the right. He had a good point. The only problem was that the Spring issue 2014 was about 80% already edited. There was nothing else to do but to re-edit the articles. It did not take as long as I thought at first. Now you know that Focus is not exclusively my work. I have two helpers to whom I am thankful.

Since the Winter issue 2012 (Focus 92) Focus has been printed by Hertfordshire Display plc in Ware, Hartfordshire, UK <http://www.hdprint.co.uk>. It was a change of both editor and printer two years ago. The magazine is printed within seven to ten days after I have uploaded the finished magazine to their website. Since the printer is not mentioned in any Focus issue this is our opportunity to thank them for the good and quick job they do.

If I were asked what was the highlight during these two years then I would answer without hesitation the special issue FOCUS75 for the club’s 75

th Anniversary in May

2013. When it became obvious that the activity reports would be very large we needed to publish it in an extra edition. The special issue had 48 pages and there were still four pages to fill. I came up with the idea to make a picture-poster of those who operated with the special *FOC suffix call-signs. That poster was later the inspiration for the FOC calendar 2014.

Last, but certainly not least I would thank Chris, G4BUE and Joe, V31JP for their work. The magazine continued during these 25 years and hopefully will continue for many years to come. There is no present without a past and then there would be no future either.

Oh, and I almost forgot… Keep sending me your articles and Focal pictures!

17 FOCUS 100

The 2014 FOC Dinner

By Rob Ferguson, GM3YTS

Attending the annual FOC Dinner is always a bit of an adventure for Sheree and I. Milton Keynes is 350 miles from our QTH so we always try to plan a few visits to family and friends who live close to Milton Keynes. We set off on the Wednesday before the dinner to visit Sheree’s brother in Northampton and on the Friday morning left for a visit to somewhere interesting before going Jury’s Inn. We were hoping to visit Woburn Abbey but unfortunately it was closed from 1 November. On a previous trip we had visited Blenheim Palace.

After a bit of discussion Sheree suggested we visit the Shuttleworth Collection. I must confess I had never heard of it! However once we found it in Old Warden a little village 30 miles South of Milton Keynes it proved to be a fascinating visit. The Shuttleworth collection is a large museum of vintage aircraft including a still air worthy Bleriot XI dating from 1909. There are several hangers of amazing vintage aircraft and some vintage cars. There is a workshop hanger where you can see a lot of restoration going on. I can recommend this place as being well worth a visit. In addition to this attached to the collection there is the Swiss Garden a world renowned garden which I believe is well worth a visit, on this occasion we did not visit the garden but plan to do so in the future.

We then proceeded to Jury’s Inn at Milton Keynes and the first people we saw were Roger, G3SXW and Gabor, S57WJ who were in deep conversation over coffee. After we checked in we then met several others in the lounge and by the time we agreed on where to go to dinner we had a party of about 25 including Tyler, N4TY; Joe, DL4CF; Tof, DJ6ZM and several other worthies. The Friday night informal dinner was held at a pleasant Italian restaurant in the plaza just a short stroll behind the Hotel.

On Saturday shortly after breakfast I walked down to the railway station to catch a train to Bletchley Park. We had been warned that the queue for tickets was a long one and so it proved to be, in fact I spent more time in the queue for a ticket than I did on the train! The trip to Bletchley Park is just one stop down the line and only a 6 minute journey.

At Bletchley I met up with the rest of the FOC party and we were shown round by Ray, G4FON. It has been several years since I visited Bletchley Park and it certainly has been much improved as a visitor attraction. I think you could spend a whole day going round and still not see everything. However with Ray’s expert guidance we saw the main attractions including a working rebuilt Bombe machine and the Colossus computer which is housed in the National computer museum. I took a side trip to see the RSGB National Radio Centre and saw GB3RS on the air. All too quickly I had to be back at Milton Keynes for the AGM and was lucky enough to be given a lift there by Nigel, G3TXF.

Meanwhile back at the Hotel Colin, G3VTT hosted a showing of two DVD's about the Secret Listeners of WW2, provided by John, WA9AQN, and a video about the Medway

FOCUS 100 18

Radio Club National Field Day station in 1938 from Colin's collection. The latter gave a fascinating insight into our heritage and equipment. He also hosted a display of working keys brought in by members and non members.

Miles, PA3CVV answered questions on remote operation of his station in

Amsterdam. It was pleasing to see many non FOC members there who took a great

interest in both the club and its activities.

The AGM in the late afternoon proved to be quite straightforward and the business

end will no doubt it will be

reported elsewhere. Later we

had a good natured informal

discussion of the clubs affairs

when the formal business of

the club had been taken care

of. The annual dinner is

always a fun affair and it starts with pre dinner drinks where we meet old and new friends. My first dinner was over 30 years ago and I have enjoyed everyone one of those that I have attended. Some of us are a bit greyer and rounder but the camaraderie and fellowship is always good.

We were privileged to have John, G3WKL the RSGB President with us as our guest and I think he had an enjoyable time. The dinner was first class, with good food and excellent service. A very convivial time was had by all. As usual it was all pretty informal although one or two presentations and prizes were presented. The Al Slater award was presented to Michael, G7VJR and his club log team for their excellent work in producing one of the finest operating tools available in amateur radio. The Unsung Hero Award was announced by Tyler, N4TY and it goes to Art, KZ5D for his BW QSO party idea and his unstinting work in support of FOC. The award was a Bencher Mercury Magnetic paddle donated by Bob, W9KNI. Tyler has, since the dinner sent the paddle to Art and I

believe he is now using it with great pride. Tom, G3HGE kindly donated his last ever handmade single paddle key and this was won by Gabor, S57WJ. Tof, DJ6ZM very generously donated a Schurr paddle and this was won by Phil, G3SWH.

The Committee members and Focus editor: back row: MØPCB, G4FON, G3XTT, S57WJ and N4TY;

front row G3RWF, GM3YTS and G3SXW

Don, G3XTT presenting the Al Slater Award to Michael, G7VJR

19 FOCUS 100

We also thank Joe, DL4CF for handing out HSC bottle openers and Paolo, I1HJP who had produced and sent us a large quantity of FOC sugar sachets for use at our dinners.

After the “official” event everyone QSYed to the bar to continue the many learned discussions that had been started during the course of the weekend.

I believe some hardy souls stayed up until the wee small hours but I am obviously getting old as I retired early at 00.30. However my excuse is we had a 5 hour drive to Cornwall the next day.

Special mention must be made of Gabor, S57WJ our illustrious editor. He had to catch a very early plane back to Ljubljana on Sunday so

he stayed up in the bar until 1.30 am before catching his bus to Stansted Airport ...now that is what I call dedication to FOC.

So that’s it for another year it was a great weekend. The committee are already thinking about next year and Roger, G3SXW has undertaken to organize the dinner in 2015. If you have any suitable suggestions whether it be timing, venue or interesting places to visit please let us know. Your ideas would be very welcome.

Annual Dinner Photos on Inside Back Cover

Top row left: John, G3WKL (RSGB President), Don, G3BJ (IARU Region 1 President), Hilary, G4JKS (former RSGB President) and Don, G3XTT (FOC President)

Top top right: Lionel, G5LP and Jan

Second row left: Marielle and Frank, PA4N

Second row right: Sarah and David, G4HMC

Third row left: Tof, DJ6ZM and Christine

Third row right: Becki and Riki, K7NJ

Bottom row left: Derrick, G3LHJ took loads of photos during the event

Bottom row middle: Nigel, G3TXF, the Annual Dinner photographer caught on duty by Georg, DK7LX

Bottom row right: Joe, DL4CF

The photos from Annual Dinner were taken by Nigel, G3TXF unless otherwise specified-S57WJ, Ed.

The FOC sugar sachets courtesy of Paolo, I1HJP (photo S57WJ)

Art, KZ5D with Bencher Mercury Magnetic paddle in his shack (photo KZ5D)

FOCUS 100 20

A Northwest FOC Dinner Computer Reunion

By Vic Abell, W9RGB

During my recent trip to Seattle for the Northwest FOC Dinner, our gracious hosts (AC2K, W7GKF and W7QC) made it possible for me to visit the Living Computer Museum, founded and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Among the computers in the museum is the first CDC 6500 at the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC), serial 1025, a mainframe computing system on which I worked about 15 years. The computer was housed in the Mathematical Sciences building, under construction when the system was ordered. The 6500’s main cabinets were too large to fit in the building’s elevators, so a hole was cut in the foundation’s 26 inch thick concrete foundation wall and a pit was built outside through which the cabinets could be lowered by crane. (Rumor had it that the construction workers begged for any assignment other than the job of cutting that hole with a jackhammer.)

The 6500 (and its bigger brother the 6600) came from a startup computer manufacturer in Minneapolis called Control Data Corporation (CDC). Design genius and one of its founders was a man named Seymour Cray. His early designs set new trends in what was then just beginning to be called supercomputing. Later he broke with CDC and founded another company called Cray Research. Cray supercomputers were renowned.

The 6500 was a scaled down version of Cray’s 6600 system. It had two central processors for numeric computation and ten peripheral processors that handled input, output and various system tasks. Purdue’s 6500 had 65,536 sixty bit words of central memory and each peripheral processor had 4,096 twelve bit words of private memory.

It used Cray’s double-board PC units called cordwood modules.

A single one served as a peripheral processor’s memory. This is core memory, strung in an X/Y grid, and it was subject to frequent failures, which explains why I have one in my collection.

Cordwood modules generated a lot of heat, so the cabinets where they were mounted surrounded them with hollow aluminum frames through which chilled Freon was circulated. The modules failed often enough that I was able to add one to my personal collection.

The museum sign

The modules

21 FOCUS 100

The 6500 was delivered through the pit in late 1967 and did a yeoman’s work well

into the 1980s. When it was decommissioned we believed it was headed for scrap. It

was a great surprise to learn it was still intact (well, mostly intact) and was under

restoration in the Living Computer Museum. The “mostly intact” refers to the fact that

the cables connecting the frames were cut before the 6500 was removed. That did not

stop the museum folks from attempting the restoration -- they had new cables and new

connector taper pins manufactured.

This 6500 was the system that ran a very early time-sharing system, a PUCC

development, unusual for its time on this computer. Later the computer was connected

via Extended Core Storage to two other CDC computers. The combined systems,

running PUCC’s Dual MACE operating system set a record one day job completion count

of more than 25,000. I was fortunate to be given a free rein to develop Dual MACE by

the Computing Center’s director, the late Dr. Saul Rosen, and I am forever grateful for

his confidence.

The operating system was started by a process called dead-start, begun by toggling

a switch that caused a set of instructions to be entered into peripheral processor zero

from a panel of switches at the end of one cabinet. The switch array is called the dead-

start panel. It had a list of the disk dead-start instructions for Dual MACE that could be

entered in the panel’s switches.

I was wearing my official PUCC badge which I have clipped it to the dead-start instructions. I left it behind to add a personal and PUCC touch to the 6500.

In front of the dead-start panel

FOCUS 100 22

The progress on the restoration is amazing. Engineer Keith Perez told me that a great deal of scaling had to be removed from the pipes of the chilled water loop that cools the Freon compressors, supplying Freon to cool the cordwood modules. They are still considering how to cool the water that cools the Freon compressors. At Purdue the chilled water loop was cooled by chilled water from Purdue’s campus-wide tunnel distribution of chilled water for cooling buildings.

Keith said they also had elevator problems. While they knew the cabinets would fit in their elevator, they needed to have the elevator tested and adjusted for the weight of the cabinets. Keith also gave a grand tour of their restoration lab and their accumulation of pieces from many manufacturers that don’t yet constitute any full system.

The 6500 is not yet connected to its unique DD60 twin CRT displays. In fact, the display positioned in front of the 6500 cabinets is from a CDC 6600 computer. The PUCC 6500’s display is stored elsewhere in the museum with its Purdue telephone still attached. We at Purdue had a good laugh when we saw its picture.

The talents and knowledge of the folks at the museum are amazing. If you have a chance to visit Seattle, be sure to stop by the museum to see many pieces of computer history, including this big one from Purdue’s past.

FOCAL After missing NW FOC weekends in 2012 and 2014, due to his XYL's health

problems, Ed, K8RD and his wife Cathy finally made it to Seattle in October, and visited with the local FOCers.

Steve, W7QC; Ed, K8RD; Bill, W7GKF; Cathy and Alan, AC2K (photo W7GKF)

23 FOCUS 100

There’s No Excuse to be Inactive!

By Colin Turner, G3VTT and Ted Trowell, G2HKU

Ted, G2HKU and I have known each other for over forty years. I first met Ted in a

television factory in the late 1960’s as a young G3 and with our mutual involvement in

FOC and CW we have remained largely in contact since then. Ted is 91 and it became

obvious that after a spell in hospital a few months ago that Ted was not able to fully

look after himself and, after a period of restoration in a Sheppey care home, he was

moved by his family into a plush rest home not a stones throw from his former home at

Minster on the Isle of Sheppey. The care home is owned by Teresa and is staffed by a

bevy of attentive and attractive nurses providing care for the residents of which there

are ten plus. I’ve mentally booked my

place there already. Teresa is one of the kindest people

I have ever met who takes a genuine interest in the wellbeing of her guests and as is fully aware of their needs. Although Ted has recognised the need to downsize his equipment it was apparent that a major factor of his wellbeing required him to still be on the bands as radio has continued to be a major part of his life despite his ongoing infirmity. I can understand that as I need two CW contacts a day without feeling jumpy and suffering the onset of withdrawal symptoms. What was it PA3CVV said about CW improving ‘brain plasticity’?

I had already spent a number of sessions with Ted going over the names and call

signs of Sheppey amateurs and tried to place them in both time and location prior to

and after WW2 which provided me with a fascinating insight into the history of our

hobby and Ted’s own history.

I’ve also learnt quite a bit about amateur radio life in North Kent around WW2 with trawlers sinking, Voluntary Interceptors, RCA ET4336 transmitters being dumped in the sea off Sheerness Docks and the equipment of the day powered from accumulators and dry cells. We are both indebted to Fred, A65BD and John, G4ZTF for providing call books or access to call books to work out the location of Ted’s contacts during the time period to 1930 - 1960. One fact we discovered was that Ted’s first contact was with ‘6BA’ who lived at 1 Century Road Rainham Kent - and I now live at number 17 in the same street! Weird huh? John, G4ZTF confirmed ‘6BA’ owned a cycle and electrical shop in Gillingham at that time. John is our local radio and town historian in this part of North Kent.

The lovely Theresa and Ted, G2HKU

FOCUS 100 24

Trying to get Ted back on the air from his new surroundings would present quite a

challenge we decided. He had purchased an MP1 whip antenna which tuned perfectly

but had to be installed inside his room close to the metal framework within the double

glazing structure, surrounded by all sorts of wiring, and a computer in the main office

producing S8 noise from the home’s router. Luckily Teresa the owner quickly realised

the problem and suggested she switched the router system off at night which brought

the noise level down to S2 or 3 enabling the moderate and stronger strength signals to

be heard. Contacts were still not possible using the 10 watts from an IC-703 and we did

a few experiments together with odd bits of wire in the room to try and improve

matters but there was still no luck apart from the odd ‘QRZ?’ and cries of ‘he must be

deaf’. Although a 33 foot counterpoise wire was installed around the room, ending up

under the bed, communication with the outside world remained elusive to say the

least.

I had a meeting with Lynne, Ted’s daughter, and her husband Colin, (very

confusing!), and we met with Teresa who, quite rightly, was concerned with the safety

aspect of installing a wire out in the breeze. Ted’s room is on the ground floor at the

front of the house and is surrounded by television distribution cables, incoming

telephone lines and the main overhead power feed plus the added problem of

emergency access from a side gate. I groaned inwardly realising there was no chance of

an antenna outside in free space until Ted could be moved to another room. This could

take a considerable length of time until a room became free. A couple of times I must

admit I went home quite depressed. If I was in Ted’s position I would be feeling

inconsolable, I need those two CW contacts a day - or more!

Thinking about this problem

whilst driving back home and after

having a discussion with Ted I

decided a compromise might be to

run a wire outside through a window

and then along the wall against the

bricks of the house.

A simple trial run brought the

signals up in strength and there was

no breakthrough into the computer,

telephone or television distribution

systems which was a great relief.

There was no chance of running 100 watts but with 10 watts communication was

possible at least around Europe with the chance of something further afield in

prospect. One Monday afternoon, with Teresa’s permission, I threaded the antenna up

from the window to the plastic gutter, putting a drip loop in along the way, then fed it

along the gutter to a hook on the corner, pretending not to see the myriad of

What wire?

25 FOCUS 100

distribution cables, around the wall and attached it to a vent pipe further along the

wall. These pipes are quaintly named ‘stink poles’ down our way! This seemed to work

and I went home leaving Ted to it.

Going back a couple of days later I asked Ted rather tentatively if he had worked

anything. “Sure” he said, “I’ve worked seven contacts. If they’re strong and I can hear

them can I can work them”. A few days later he told me he had worked seven countries

including OK on 40m. I looked at his log book and blinked. The list was a testimony to

operator skill and perseverance and we both fell about laughing. A few days later he

told me he had worked W1AW/8 in Ohio and with 7 watts output. I never cease to be

amazed with low power and the wonders of radio. Since then his country score has

increased to a mighty 15.

Ted is active most days on 7030 to 7040 kHz, single band at present, and asks to be

forgiven if he has to go QRT suddenly as it means the nurses have come in to

administer to him and will be back on air as soon as possible. A couple of times now we

have had a QSO on 7030 with my transmitter being the little 12A6 crystal oscillator I’m

currently fiddling with and a valve receiver – just like ‘6BA’ in 1939. If I stand on tip toes

and look out of my loft shack window I can see Minster on Sheppey quite clearly.

Unfortunately the waters of the Rivers Swale and Medway tend to suck up the ground

wave but contact is possible even with low powers at each end and a little ‘G2HKU’

rising above the noise floor surely makes your day.

What can we all learn from this? It’s simple - you can get on the band or bands with

some sort of signal if you try. Don’t give up. Put a wire or whip up as best you can in the

clear and some form of counterpoise wire. Keep trying and use good operating skills.

You won’t win CQ WW or Marathon but you will still be alive and kicking – and on the

bands!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Teresa and the wonderful staff at

Bromfield Care Home on behalf of Ted’s family and friends for their understanding,

support, compromise in a difficult situation and affection given to Ted, G2HKU.

Letter to the Editor

From John Shwartz, WA9AQN, 12 November 2014

My apologies to Ted, G2HKU, for the conspicuous omission from our listing of FOC

members who served as Voluntary Interceptors in World War II in Focus 99, on page

15. Additionally, I want to thank all the members who responded with information

about other amateurs who had served. Pete, G8VG, and I are continuing to seek

information for a memorial listing of all who served, not only those who were, or

became, FOC members. If any of our members have information that can assist, we

would appreciate hearing from you. Thank you!

FOCUS 100 26

Orbituary of Philip Hunt, G3LPN By Andrew Kersey, GØIBN

About 30 years ago, as a radio amateur, I was talking on the Morse key to a radio amateur, his callsign was G3LPN. I eventually found out his name was Phil Hunt. Phil's Morse was getting faster and faster until I had to ask him to slow down a little. Phil asked me where I had first learnt Morse code? I replied it was as a small boy of 13 years on a Training Ship called Arethusa in Upnor in Kent. His reply was that he was also an Arethusa Boy!! (around 1938/9). That year I invited Phil to the annual Old Boys day and we had an interesting chat.

He had joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Telegraphist at HMS Ganges at Shotley, near Ipswich, serving on both ships and shore Wireless stations around the world. Most notable ship being HMS Achilles during the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. (aged 16) He survived two sinkings. One from HMS Berkeley during the Dieppe Raid, and the other from HMS Dielette in the Channel off Ushant.

During the late 1940's Philip served aboard HMS Bulolo during the re-entry to Singapore and later at Kranji W/T(Wireless Telegraphy) Station, Singapore, later at Ceylon North radio station, Trincomalee and for a short period at Portishead Coastal Radio Station (Burnham Radio).

After leaving the Service and a spell at Manchester University, Philip subsequently became a Controller at Jodrell Bank Radio Research Station and later joined the Mullard Company in London.

His hobbies included amateur radio: member of the First Class Operators Club, Life Member of the Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society, also RNCA and HMS Highflyer (Ceylon) Association. (Preference for Morse code.); freelance writing: member of the Society of Authors and private flying: PPL. Instrument and Twin rated, Gliding, (Gold C. and Category 1. Gliding Instructor).

Philip had two sons who served in the Falklands war as pilots, but they were both killed in a tragic flying accident - a maintenance spanner had jammed the mechanics. He leaves his wife, Patricia.

Phil was a great supporter of the FOC club and tried to get me to join. At the time I had a mortgage, two young children and bills to pay for so could only spend a limited time on the bands. He would have been delighted to hear that I was now an FOC member.

Andy, GØIBN

27 FOCUS 100

Obituary of Dave Newton, G3JJZ

By Ron Lindsay, G3KTZ

Dave Newton, G3JJZ was a member of FOC (449) from 1955 until his sad passing on 19th August this year. He was a very well known member of the amateur radio fraternity both nationally and in his home area of South East London. Born in 1937 he had an early interest in amateur radio. Called up for National Service he applied unsuccessfully to be a pilot. That was probably a good decision for the Communication Branch in which he then served. On leaving the service, he worked in a senior communications role for the press industry.

Amateur radio was always very important to Dave, especially CW on the HF bands. His expertise led to him becoming an FOC member. He enjoyed the social aspects and I first met him at a dinner at "Lords" many years ago with his loving wife Pat. Throughout his hobby Dave was supported by Pat, who is also licensed (GØBRV). Our friendship extended over the years to the present time, although I never had the opportunity to visit his home. Dave lived in a suburban area with all the usual problems of antenna space and potential interference from and to neighbours. However he was very successful in getting out a good signal, as his many FOC friends know well. He was an advocate of the W3EDP antenna and concentrated on early morning DX hunting.

He was a member of many clubs, and served as a Vice Chairman for the Cray Valley Radio Society until 2006. He strongly supported special events and he was an active member of the M2ØØØA team at Rangers House, Greenwich, which was operational for 2 months in 2000. He was also involved in the GB5Ø station at Windsor Castle as well as GB2ØØT at the Maritime Museum.

He was a Field Day enthusiast and acted as an RSGB site inspector. I well remember he walked for miles climbing over fences and ditches to come and inspect one of my CW Field Day events.

Dave had always longed to fly. After retirement he put his RAF ambitions behind him and set out to obtain a pilot’s licence. He made good progress but unfortunately did not quite achieve his ambition. Sadly his health began to fail but not many people knew that Dave had been suffering from cancer for some time.

His funeral service was very well attended by his family and many friends. The amateur radio world was well represented, including the FOC.

Dave was a real gentleman, RIP old friend. Ron, G3KTZ

FOCUS 100 28

Obituary of Bob Elridge, VE7BS

By Ed Frazer, VE7EF

On July 15, 2014, Robert (Bob) C. Eldridge, VE7BS became a Silent Key. He was 93. Bob Eldridge was born in 1921 in Southampton,

England and was brought up surrounded by wireless sets, radio valves and radio parts. His father was building four-valve receivers in the 1930s, and Bob often helped with the work.

In 1940, Bob joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as

a wireless operator and by D-Day was in charge of a

mobile signals unit. He went ashore during the Normandy landings to establish an RAF fighter

control station on the beachhead. He stayed in Germany for two years after the war ended. As soon as Amateur operations were permitted, he went on the air as G3AGQ and as D2GQ while in Germany.

In 1953, Bob, with XYL Claire and two young children, emigrated to Canada via

Halifax and settled in Vancouver. The first thing he did upon arrival was to visit the

Department of Transport office at 739 West Hastings Street to apply for an Amateur

Radio licence. The examining radio inspector, W. A. Caton, quickly determined that Bob

was very skilled in theory and Morse Code and offered Bob several choices of two-

letter call signs.

Typical of the irreverent Bob, he picked VE7BS. The inspector also said that a local

company was seeking experienced technicians, and soon after, Bob became the

western service manager for a television set manufacturer, Fleetwood Industries. In 1958 he joined the North West Telephone Company as a Mobile Craftsman.

North West Tel was later absorbed into the BC Telephone Company where Bob became the company’s expert on radio spectrum and regulatory issues.

He represented the Canadian telephone industry at many industry, governmental

and international meetings – in Geneva at the United Nations (UN) Study Groups, in

Ottawa with the Canadian Radio Technical Planning Board (serving as President in

1997), and with the Western Canada Telecommunications Council (WCTC).

In honour of Bob’s years of contribution to the Council, the WCTC sponsored a

scholarship at the BC Institute of Technology to be awarded to an electronics student

demonstrating strong writing skills. In 1978, on the 50th anniversary of the UN’s

International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR), Bob was honoured for

“Contributions to CCIR studies in maritime and land mobile communications since

1960”.

29 FOCUS 100

It is not known when Bob was first licensed in England, but it was likely just before

or after WW II, since all Amateur operations were suspended during the war. His first

call sign was G3AGQ, and it is clear from his many operating awards that he was active

and a keen contester.

He preferred CW, worked most HF bands, but favoured 160 metres, the Top Band.

His awards include highest score in British Columbia for the 1958 Radio Society of

Great Britain’s British Empire Radio Union Contest, numerous awards for the CQ’s

160m DX Contest, the Canadian Amateur Radio Federation’s Winter Contest, the

Telephone Pioneers QSO Party and also CQ’s WorldWide DX Contest.

Upon retirement in 1983, he left Vancouver and moved to several acres near

Pemberton, British Columbia, where he used numerous high cottonwood trees to

install wire antennas for his favourite band, 160 metres.

He was a prolific writer for several Amateur Radio magazines and provided reviews

for new books on radio communications and testing methods. He would receive

dozens of books each year for review, which he added to his extensive library. He was a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain, the Canadian Radio Relay

League and Canadian Amateur Radio Federation (which merged to become Radio Amateurs of Canada), the Society of Wireless Pioneers, the American Radio Relay League, the Telephone Pioneers of America, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers (which merged to become the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the Radio Club of America, the Wireless Institute of Australia and the First Class CW Operators’ Club (FOC).

Bob was predeceased by his wife Claire and son Tony. He is survived by daughter

Anne (of Pemberton, British Columbia and Brazil), granddaughter Taomi and great

grandsons Gabriel and Bernardo (in Brazil) and two sisters Brenda and Olive (in

England).

The article was written by Ed Frazer, VE7EF, and was published in the November-December 2014 issue of The Canadian Amateur and is being used with their permission.

FOCUS 100 30

Why HBØ again and again and again...?

By Tina Ockert, DL5YL

We just returned from our recent trip to Liechtenstein (HBØ), and someone may ask

why we are going to HBØ so frequently?

We made our first stay there few years ago, and the destination was selected more

or less “by accident.” In fact, I was searching for a birthday present for my husband

Fred, DL5YM. It should be something on what I am sure that he will enjoy and

remember it. Even if we not taking the rig with us into holidays normally, I thought that

could be a nice option to combine holidays and radio at a location which is not on air

every day.

Liechtenstein is about 850 km away from our home. That is a distance we can manage by car easily.

When we arrived there first time, we got a WOW! A beautiful landscape, impressing walking trails lined up with mountain flowers and silence. The perfect place for relaxing! Once we putted a long wire in place and fired up the 100 W, we easily discovered that there is also another kind of relaxing... “doing radio from HBØ”.

Our rental house is located at around

1300 m a.s.l., with an open view into the

Rhine valley, in direction to west and

northwest (Caribbean and North

America). For all other directions, it is

easy to describe: Mountains, much

higher than our place.

However, we always enjoying the nice

light at morning hours, and around

sunset, the famous alpenglow. The great

view to the Mount Säntis (2500 m, at the

Switzerland side of the Alps) is impossible

to describe. All that nice impressions

from the first stay remaining valid for any

further visit. Believe me, you would love

it too.

Chalet Wanni

Fred, HBØ/DL5YM

31 FOCUS 100

This year, we spent our time by hiking under sunshine and blue sky, meeting hams from HB9, HBØ and DL, and – of course – operating the radio.

Since I am an “early bird” I used to

be on air every local morning, and

enjoyed all the contacts on the low

bands. It was especially nice to have so

many callers from the US West Coast.

Later the day we used to exchange the

radio unscheduled. 10m and 12m faced very poor propagation and were producing

random noise most of the time. Even having several other stations visiting HBØ at the

same time, we were fully busy as soon as we came on the bands. For us as Europeans it

is still surprising to hear in some contacts, that we made the first HBØ QSO for them.

One OM from Florida wrote me later: “It is my first HBØ in 54 years of operating”. But if

we think that i.e., due to topography, Asian stations will need to go long path only to

work an average station from here, it becomes understandable. Maybe we managed to

make some of you FOC members happy with a new band point too?

Great, that we had so many QSOs with you. I counted 118 FOC members in my log.

A DX-Pedition to Grand Turk Island

By Phil Whitchurch, G3SWH

I hadn’t really planned to make a DX-pedition in 2014, primarily because Jim, G3RTE had been fitted with a new hip and didn’t want to travel far. However, in the early spring I started to get itchy feet and started to look round for somewhere to go. I approached John, EA5ARC/G3OLU, who had been with us in Swaziland as 3DA0PW, with a view to activating Les Iles Salut in the SA-020 IOTA group off French Guiana but John indicated that as he was in the throes of moving house, he didn’t feel able to commit himself.

By chance I had started to exchange e-mails with Georg, DK7LX, who is an experienced DX-peditioner in his own right and we quickly agreed to go “somewhere” together. The only question was “where”. Coincidentally, I’d been checking off some of my missing IOTA credits and found that I did not have a card for the Turks Islands (NA-003), which counts as a separate group to the more common Caicos Islands (NA-002). I downloaded a list of the valid operations from this IOTA group and when I checked it against my log, I found two QSOs with NA-003 counters for which I hadn’t applied for cards. E-mails to the operators established that their operations had actually been from the Caicos Islands, which I took up with Roger, G3KMA. Unfortunately, this resulted in the operations being discounted with consequent loss of credit for a number of stations.

Tina, HBØ/DL5YL

FOCUS 100 32

It therefore seemed appropriate to activate NA-003. Georg agreed and we started planning in earnest. The IOTA web site stated it was needed by 60% of IOTA participants, which I found strange considering it is only about 600 miles from Miami.

Coincidentally, my non-amateur friend Bill Vincent had visited Grand Turk on business in 2004 and was very keen to join us. Bill has been on three of my other DX-peditions and, apart from being excellent company and a very good cook, usually has a lot of space in his suitcase.

The TCI Tourist Board’s web site quickly identified the self-catering Crabtree Apartments on Grand Turk as being an excellent place from which to operate, being right on the beach on the west side of the island. The owners were quite happy for us to put up antennas and we had no near neighbours during our stay.

Licencing The OH2MCN web site quickly established that Jody, VP5JM, secretary of the

TACARS, was the person to contact regarding licensing, although she required payment of the US $35 fee to be made by a banker’s draft or money order in US dollars sent by Fedex/DHL as the postal service in VP5 is allegedly non-existent. This could have been something of a problem as it would cost disproportionately more than the actual fee. An e-mail to Jody revealed that she would be visiting her house in Florida in April/May and I could send the cash together with the necessary copy of my licence, passport information and HAREC certificate to her there. The licence for VP5/G3SWH was issued on 17 May and was be valid until the end of the year.

Getting there There are no direct, international flights to Grand Turk. British Airways fly from

London to Providenciales in the Caicos Islands once a week but, unfortunately their flight is on a Sunday and we wanted to be on the air over the weekend. We therefore booked flights from London to Nassau, Bahamas, an overnight stay at the Sandyport Beaches Resort and connecting flights the following day to Grand Turk via Providenciales with Inter-Caribbean Airways. Georg even managed to get a connecting flight from Frankfurt to London so we were able to travel together.

We met Georg in the departure lounge of Terminal 5 at Heathrow on the morning of 30 September and, apart from being charged excess baggage by Inter-Caribbean Airways, our travel plans went smoothly until it was time to leave Providenciales. The 15-passenger Beechcraft 99 had just taxied out on to the runway when the captain announced that Grand Turk airport was closed as the fire truck had broken down on the runway. After a couple of hours delay, we managed to leave and arrived at JAGS McCartney International Airport after a 30 minute flight.

Georg, DK7LX and Phil, G3SWH on Crabtree beach

33 FOCUS 100

On the air

It was a short taxi ride to the very comfortable Crabtree Apartments and we

immediately started to unpack and consider the antenna possibilities. There were no

suitable trees to use as antenna supports but Georg had brought three ten-metre long

telescopic fibreglass poles. He fixed two to a fence at the back of the beach and I fixed

one to the end of a breakwater right on the edge of the sea. We both used simple,

coax-fed, wire vertical antennas. We had not planned to interconnect our laptops but

agreed that Georg would use the traditional bands and I would use the WARC bands.

There was a nasty moment when Georg realised that the local mains voltage was 110V

and his power supply was designed only for 220V. An excellent Wi-Fi connection meant

were able to track down a schematic diagram of unit on the Internet. Making a simple

modification saved the day. I made the first QSO on 12 metres with HC2AO at 2151z on

1 October whereas Georg made his first QSO on 40 metres with LY7M at 2233z.

The apartment was very comfortable and well appointed, comprising two air-

conditioned bedrooms, a fully fitted kitchen, bathroom/shower, a large living area with

ceiling fans and a covered patio on the edge of the beach. We set up and operated our

two 100 watt stations on adjacent tables in the living area.

Operations

The pileups were fast and furious and we managed to maintain our target of 1,000

QSOs per operator per day for the first couple of days. Although we had chosen our

dates to avoid as far as possible any major contests, operation on the traditional bands

was heavily restricted by contest traffic over the weekend and Georg got very

frustrated, particularly as I was managing a decent run rate. In addition, we noticed a

phenomenon that I previously observed during the H44KW trip, and that was that the

demand for QSOs appeared to be greater on the WARC bands than on the traditional

bands, and this is reflected in the QSO totals. For example, I was often able to run nice

pileups on 17 or 12 metres when Georg was calling CQ on 20, 15 or 10 metres and

getting little or no response.

Duplicate QSOs

I absolutely deplore dupes and the number of stations attempting to make

duplicate QSOs during this DX-pedition was quite astounding. This included at least two

longstanding FOC members, who really should have known better. Had they all been

logged, I am sure that our QSO total would have approached 13,000! In these days of

LoTW, ClubLog and on-line log searches, I really do not understand why anybody should

feel the need to make an “insurance” QSO. Such stations were met with a very firm

“QSO B4” before moving on. It was not uncommon for there to be 2 or 3 stations in a

row to be attempting dupes, which I personally found very frustrating as this practice

prevents a first time QSO with another station. On the last morning before we packed

up I got so annoyed with these stations that I actually went QRT about 2 hours before I

needed to.

FOCUS 100 34

Logs and QSLs

We uploaded the log to LoTW, ClubLog and my web site <www.g3swh.org.uk/vp5-g3swh.html> on a daily basis. Proper QSLs are available via the OQRS facility at <www.g3swh,org.uk/decision.html> (preferred), direct via snail mail with adequate return postage to G3SWH or via the RSGB bureau. Please note that IRCs are not accepted.

An analysis of the log is shown in the table below. You will notice that Georg sneaked a crafty 31 QSOs on 17 metres when I wasn’t looking! We made QSOs with 6,704 unique callsigns and 118 DXCC entities.

80m 40m 30m 20m 17m 15m 12m 10m Total DK7LX 31 736 742 31 1,833 2,238 5,611

G3SWH 1,287 2,514 2,882 6,683 % 0.25% 5.99% 10.47% 6.04% 20.45% 14.91% 23.44% 18.20% 12,294

Getting back

Georg had not been able to get on the same flight from Grand Turk to

Providenciales as Bill and I and had to leave several hours before us. However, he was

waiting in the bar at the airport when we arrived and the flight back to Nassau was in a

larger Embraer 120 aircraft that even boasted a flight attendant. We had over 24 hours

in Nassau and I’d planned to activate my C6AYS call, but the Sandyport location was not

terribly antenna-friendly and

both Georg and I had had

enough amateur radio for a

few days, so we just relaxed

and had a few beers. The

flight back to London was

uneventful and we said our

goodbyes at Heathrow.

Acknowledgements

Our particular thanks to

our XYLs, Jan, Sabine and

Shirley for letting us go; to

Bill Vincent for looking after

our gastronomic needs so

well, to Jim, G3RTE for the

loan of equipment; and to Jessalyn Zaykoski of the Crabtree Apartments

<www.grandturkvacationrental.com> for making this DX-pedition possible.

The three of us doing what we do best: Georg, DK7LX; Bill, and Phil, G3SWH

The QSL card

35 FOCUS 100

John Ellerton, G3NCN: Anticipation, Communication

Early awake

I creep from my bed before the sunrise,

for daytime prepared

Power on, dials awake!

The softest of crackles entices my ear.

New friends or old, who will be here?

Carefully, Slowly, tune!

Listen for whispers down in the noise,

Signals from far away - barely-heard morse

Americas, Asia,

India, Japan, Australia, new Zealand,

Pacific islands.

Or sounds from nearby, strident and strong -

Britain, Ireland, Europe’s near lands.

Pleasure to hear

a familiar cry, Every day’s different,

a new mystery.

Thrilled to discover what there will be -

And all with the touch of a little morse key!

FOCUS 100 36

Voyage of the Vikings

By Al Rousseau, W1FJ

As many of you know Ruth and I love to cruise. In the last 16 years we have logged over 400 days at sea. In July of 2013, on a short cruise from Montreal to Boston we received a flyer of various 2014 departures. The “Voyage of the Vikings” caught our eye. The trip was transatlantic, talking a Northerly route from Copenhagen to New York City, stopping several ports that would be new foot-countries for us both. As we often plan well in advance, we put down a deposit on the trip which did not depart until late August of 2014. We always try to combine a bit of ham radio sociability with our trips when possible and since we would be in Copenhagen, The Faeroes, Greenland and Iceland I shot of a few E-mails to FOC colleagues mentioning our schedule. As time drew closer to departure I had firmed up meeting with Paul, OZ4UN; Caen, OY1CT and Oskar, TF3DC. As our two port calls were in southern Greenland, the lack of roads in OX prevented us from seeing OX3XR.

We scheduled an extra day in Copenhagen and on 24 August we departed Boston via Frankfort. After a smooth trip and a day of recovery we were met by Paul, OZ4UN on the 26

th and spent a delightful

day driving up the coast taking in both the Danish and Swedish scenery. Along the way, Paul gave us a demo of one of his many ways of remoting his station and we listened to 20meters from a parking lot. Upon arrival at Paul’s QTH one does not see any of the usual signs of radio thanks to a large tree in his side yard which shelters his 80m loop from prying eyes. Paul’s wife Connie greeted us at the door and after getting acquainted the girls chatted while Paul and I paid homage to his FB setup of the “K” line. Connie prepared a delightful lunch of local dishes which was most enjoyable. After a long after lunch chat, it was time to head back to our hotel with many more pleasant memories of FOC hospitality.

When we left the states, hurricane Crystobal was on its way up the coast, it was now headed for the North Atlantic. After a stop in Bergen, Norway the Captain decided, for safety sake, that we would skip the port of Lerwick in the Shetlands and stop in Torshavn, Faeroe Islands a day early then head quickly to the shelter of Reykjavik harbor. Unfortunately my Cell phone did not work as planned on the OY carrier and I was unable to let Caen know of the change in plan. We did have a pleasant visit to the town, but missed the good FOC hospitality.

Paul, OZ4UN; Al, W1FJ and Ruth, N1DJU

37 FOCUS 100

On our second day in Reykjavik we were met at the very modern opera house by Oskar, TF3DC, who took us on a great tour of the city. We had a great lunch at the University and after a bit more site seeing we returned to the ship with more great memories stored in our memory banks. On our third day in TF land we took a tour to see more of the beautiful scenery. This is truly a place that I could return to for a longer stay. After a day at sea we arrived in Greenland and spent most of the day slowly cruising Prince Christian sound. WOW; that was some of the most spectacular scenery that we have ever seen. The ship stopped for an hour or so at a small village of 130 souls, put over a tender and the crew delivered pizza and gifts to the locals, a nice jester on the part of Holland America Cruise Lines. I now understood why we could not visit with OX3XR as I was really

unaware of the topography of OX land, a truly rugged, but beautiful, land.

Seven days later, after stops in St. Anthony and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Halifax, NS and a few sea days we arrived in New York City with more great memories of FOC camaraderie and 3 new foot countries, bringing my total to 99 and Ruth’s to 96. If all goes well we will continue the FOC social scene in Florida and Louisiana.

FOCAL John, N3AM is on the air via remote control of his MD station from their winter home in Boynton Beach, FL since mid-October. For this season, he has full control of the K3/100 and Green Heron rotator control box. Next year he plans to add remote control of his Alpha 87A using a second USConverters XS1000 server module.

Oskar, TF3DC and Al, W1FJ

The shack in MD

FOCUS 100 38

2SZ at Mill Hill School

By Dave Lawley, G4BUO

For eight days in October 2014, the very special callsign 2SZ was active on CW and phone on the HF bands, and FOC members played a significant role in the planning and running of the station.

2SZ was the callsign issued to the radio club at Mill Hill School in north London in the early 1920s, at the time when the first DX contacts were being made. November 1923 saw the first transatlantic QSO between 8AB in France and 1MO in Connecticut. In the UK, Ernest Simmonds 2OD established a number of firsts, but he was beaten to the ultimate prize of a round-the-world QSO by an 18 year old pupil at Mill Hill called Cecil Goyder.

On 18 October 1924 contact was made on a wavelength of 90 metres between 2SZ and station Z4AA on a sheep farm in Otago District, New Zealand. Frank Bell Z4AA heard the ‘test’ call from 2SZ -CQ was not permitted in those days - and replied. They established contact though Goyder hardly believed the contact could be real. However, a telegram arrived the following day from New Zealand saying “Congratulations on first transworld message – Bell”.

In October 2013, New Zealand amateurs set up ZM9ØDX for a year-long celebration of this historical event, and in response G3SJJ and G3BJ set up GB2NZ to operate the UK end of the link. Don, G3BJ then approached Mill Hill School and suggested that a station might be set up there for the 90

th anniversary of this historic contact. The Science

School building at Mill Hill was only completed in 1924, and the school was at the forefront in encouraging scientific learning. In the foyer of the Science School there is a very nice plaque recording Goyder’s achievement, and next to it a plaque commemorating a more famous alumnus of Mill Hill, Francis Crick.

I got involved at Don’s invitation, because of my background with my club, Cray Valley Radio Society, in organising the previous high-profile stations M2ØØØA, GB5Ø, GB2Ø0ØT and finally 2O12L two years ago for the London Olympics. This time Don liaised with Ofcom and was able to get Ofcom to agree to re-issue the original Mill Hill School club callsign 2SZ.

Don and I had a number of meetings with the School authorities in the months leading up to the planned operation which was to be 11-18 October. This would be an unusual special station in that it would not be open to the public, because of the safeguarding needs of the School. We had to draw up a list of operators in advance, and those who would be

TH5 on 80ft telescopic tower

39 FOCUS 100

on-site for more than two days had to go through the School’s full procedures including a criminal check and interview.

FOC members on the operating team were Tony, G2NF (formerly GØOPB), Don G3BJ; Don, G3XTT; Dave, G4BUO; Ray, G4FON and Iain, MØPCB. We are especially grateful to Ray for making his complete Elecraft station available for our use – K3+P3+KPA500, however this meant he was not able to work us from home on any of his days off!

The station was open 06.30am to 7pm local time for eight days, and in that time 13,248 QSOs were made. The logs have been uploaded to Clublog and with the callsign check feature in Clublog it is possible to hover your mouse over a particular contact and determine who the operator was at 2SZ at the time. Most but not all CW QSOs were made by FOC members.

As its name suggests, the school is on a hill and it proved to be a very good HF location, with especially good take-off to the west and south-west, which is the long path direction to ZL and VK. Plenty of ZLs were worked, and at least one ZL got his first ever QSO with the UK. At the same time, ZL4AA was set up by a group of Otago hams on the original sheep station which is still in the Bell family, and we planned to work the station on 80m which is the nearest allocation that we have to the frequency originally used by Goyder and Bell. Unfortunately the location was rather noisy on 80m, and no long path QSOs were made on the first morning. Things improved on the second day and we worked ZL4AA, and Gary, ZL2iFB.

In total, ten different ZLs were worked on 80m long path and on the morning of Saturday 18 October, a reporter from the flagship BBC Radio 4 Today programme was on hand to broadcast an item live marking the occasion. I gave an interview to the BBC, while Tony, G2NF was on the key working first ZL4AA and then ZL2iFB. This was great publicity for the hobby and I was able to explain on-air the benefit of CW, getting through when phone cannot.

Don and I are grateful to all the operators and helpers at 2SZ, and to the School authorities for embracing the project. During the school week a large number of pupils visited the station and most of them sat down and passed greetings messages. We are hopeful that the School may once again set up a radio club to continue the tradition established by Goyder.

For more information and downloads of the BBC and other broadcasts please visit the project web site <www.2sz.org>.

Iain, MØPCB helping a pupil to send a message on 20m to ZL4AA and being filmed by a cameraman from New Zealand TV

FOCUS 100 40

Welcome to New Members

By Tyler Barnett, N4TY

Georg Knoess, DK7LX (2044) My XYL Sabine and I live in a rural village just north of

Frankfurt/Main. I was 43 years of age in June and work as an Aircraft Controller for a large German Airline at Frankfurt Airport. This is also why I do have to touch a microphone every now and then as we do communicate with the aircrafts on VHF.

I started with this fantastic hobby in early 1984 when a friend of mine and I were invited to visit a local ham. In those days it wasn’t too difficult to attract us youngsters to ham radio since there were no such things like Internet etc. I was still 12 years old and when this ham showed us a couple of QSO in both, CW and SSB the die had been cast.

Since I was too young to apply for a ticket I convinced my parents to buy me a second hand receiver and so step by step I got into the scene. When I had finally reached the right age, I had to work hard in a local supermarket after school in order to finance radios and antennas. Very nice memories indeed.

My first attempt to learn CW was in 1986 when I started to use the typical records and tapes that were widely available in the radio clubs. I have had several different calls ever since: DK7LX, DH3GK and much earlier DG7KMA.

Since this year I also hold a US extra-class ticket and the call K7LXX. In recent years I have discovered my love of combining travel and radio and have

been on the air from a number of different places all over the world. As I am usually traveling with my XYL, radio is not a major activity during our trips. For me, the combination of both is excellent and Sabine is by far my biggest supporter.

I am very pleased to have been invited to join FOC in what certainly is the climax in my hobby so far. I do enjoy the great camaraderie as well as every single QSO with every one of you.

Mik Katsuro, EW8O (2045) I got on the air in school days at age of 14 in 1976. I studied

the Morse code and I became the operator of club station UK2OAM. At this time I received my SWL call UC2ØØ7155. I was active on the air, participated in many competitions. In 1977 I passed the 2

nd class exam and I received my first

personal callsign UC2OCL. My first transceiver was a home made transceiver UW3DI with tubes and I had a 2 el. Quad. I was able to make DX QSO’s with this equipment. In 1979 I went to university and later came the army service, getting a job and found a family.

41 FOCUS 100

In 1994 I passed the exam for first class and EW8AO calsign. In the beginning of 2002 I bought an Icom 756 Pro2 transceiver and set up an RQ-53 antenna. Later I added a 2.el Quad for 30m. In 2009 received my present callsign EW8O. DX are the main interest in this hobby. My QSL card album contains 328 cards from different countries and territories.

Mark Stennett, NA6M (2046) I am 51 years old and have been licensed since April 1976.

My wife of 29 years is Renee'. She holds N5BW. Son Matt is K5RYN and Daughter Heather is KG5BKF. I am originally from Sacramento, CA and have been living in the Austin, TX area for the past 16 years. My home station consists of Flex Radio 6700 and 6300 transceivers and a couple of Elecraft K3 radios. Antennas include a 100 foot self supporting Rohn SSV steel tower with a 12 element Tennadyne 30-10 meter Log Periodic on top. There is a 7 element 6 meter beam above that and wire antennas for 160 throough 30 metres. Another 30 foot Rohn 35 tower will soon be outfitted with cross polarized 2 meter and

70 centimeter antennas for satellite operations. I am very fond of CW and have made many wonderful friends on the radio over the

years. As a kid I lived on a sail boat with my parents and brother so amateur radio was a wonderful way for me to bring all of my friends with me as we travelled through the Caribbean and Central America. While we were in the Canal Zone in 1977 I passed my General and chose my call sign suffix from a dog eared piece of paper that had two character groups printed on it, many of which had been crossed out by hand. I walked away with KZ5CC. Some time in 1980 in San Francisco I passed my Advanced and Extra Class exams in front of the FCC and was issued NA6M.

I've led a couple of Dxpeditions to the Bahamas as C6AMS and was a participant on the Swains Island NH8S DXPedition in 2012 and the Wake Island K9W DXPedition in 2013.

I spent the last 30 years working in the broadcast radio business doing engineering work with 20 of those years in a corporate role. These days I am working at Flex Radio, helping to improve their 6000 Series Software Defined Radios.

Russ Woirhaye, KØVXU (2047) For me it all began as 13 year-old boy sitting before a Philco

console radio that covered two short wave bands. The weird buzzes and thumps were intriguing but the actual radio transmission from London or Rome was absolutely astonishing. Then one day I heard this person speaking to someone else. I just had to know what that was all about. As it turns out one of my classmates in school happened to have a father who was a ham. His father had given his this booklet, “How to Become a Radio Amateur”. He was kind enough to lend it to me and I devoured it, ultimately leading to building a one-tube super

FOCUS 100 42

regen receiver. The building exercise was less than successful so I enlisted the aid of WØGBY, the father of another of my classmates. By the end of summer 1959 I had taken the Novice exam and was issued KNØVXU in August 1959. During the summer working odd jobs I had saved enough to purchase a transmitter and I bought a Globe Scout 65A. I hit the air in late August 1959 and have never stopped since. My first completed QSO was with Bill, KNØVBU now KØVBU (#1979) and we have been friends ever since. In my early days as a ham shortly after acquiring the General class license, I came to know Tom, KØRPH, who later changed his call to NØSS. Tom, who had a CW proficiency certificate for 55 WPM, was instrumental in helping me get my code speed beyond 20 WPM in order to sit for the Extra class exam. At the time I was home in Independence, Missouri on leave from the US Air Force and he sent me code practice on 40 metres every day for a month from his home in Jefferson City, Missouri. Finally, I got the courage to face the FCC exam. As the FCC examiner looked over my copy, he didn’t say a word for nearly two or three minutes. My heart sank as I thought he couldn’t find a string of 100 correct characters. Finally, he looked up and said, “Well, I’ve never seen that before…a perfect copy for five minutes!” I passed the Extra exam and four days later was on my way to Okinawa where I was KR6VX for 14 months. After returning to the States and completing military service I returned to college and earned a BS in electrical engineering in 1971. Along the way I courted and married Victoria in 1972 with which I have been blessed to have three children. They have presented us with four grandchildren, ages two months to eight years. In 2010 I retired and have been active daily from 160 through 6 metres. Now it has been nearly 55 years and the magic is still there. My main interests are DXing and contesting, especially on CW. Being invited into FOC is to me a great honour.

Andrew Kersey, GØIBN (2048)

As a young boy of 13 I left home and finished my schooling on the Training Ship Arethusa, a four masted steel barque, ex Peking, now moored in New York. There were 240 boys, sleeping in hammocks, running about in bare feet in all weathers, up and over the mast before breakfast! Six cuts with a cane on your backside if you were caught smoking! It certainly made one appreciate your parents when you went home on leave! Seamanship and learning Morse code was part of the curriculum. With this knowledge, at the age of 16, I joined the Royal Navy as a telegraphist and was sent to Singapore on a destroyer - yes, 16, and let loose in Singapore!

My last posting was carrying out communications with our nuclear submarines. On leaving the Royal Navy I had a break from Morse code for 10 years but was encouraged to get back on the key by an ex Merchant Navy Radio Officer, G3GLL. CW has been my main interest ever since. Teaching CW has given me a great deal of pleasure - watching the expression of relief on the face of the new operator who has just completed his first QSO! I carry out weekly slow Morse transmissions on behalf of the RSGB using the call GB2CW. Contesting really tests ones CW skills but having a CW chat is a nice way to meet and appreciate the skills of your fellow

43 FOCUS 100

operators - there are some very good operators on the bands who I try to emulate. The pinnacle of my CW career was being sponsored as an FOC member, a special thank you to Colin, G3VTT; Gerald, G3MCK; Tony, G3ZRJ; Rich, G4FAD; Mike, W3MC and Jim, K9WA. I spent 20 years in Essex Fire and Rescue Services, an enjoyable period of my life; the highlight was being promoted to the Office in Charge of the station. Lastly, but more importantly, is my wife Isobel, two daughters and four grandchildren, without them it would be a dull world!

Glen Hinkley, NN6T (2049) I am active (QRV) on 160-10 metres (CW of course) My

current station is a Yaesu FT-1000 Field. My grandfather, a ham radio operator, first introduced me to ham radio and he taught me Morse code when I was age 13. My novice call in the 1970’s was WN6BMT, and my General and Advanced call was WB6BMT. When I upgraded in the 1980"s to Extra I was given my current call NN6T. I worked in the telecom field as a cable splicer and worked for GTE in Portland, Oregon for several years. I have two sons: my oldest is 37 years old and has been in the U.S Air force for 11 years and is married and has twin boys.

David Mueller, N2NL (2050) My exposure to CW and Amateur Radio started as a young

teenager in the mid 1980s when my father gave me an old tube HF broadcast receiver. My first Ham exposure occurred while listening for broadcast stations when one night and tuning across a cacophony of beeping noises which turned out to be 40m during a CW contest. After “discovering” ham radio, I met my elmer AA2F through Scouting. He taught me code over the course of a summer while sitting at his back yard picnic table with a code oscillator. I was first licensed in 1986 as KB2BNS, and I spent my first year as a Ham checking into the Maryland Slow Net, a CW message traffic training net,

exchanging sample message traffic which really helped boost my code speed. My first radio was a Hallicrafters HT32 – SX101 combo which I found in my neighbors barn and I received in exchange for mowing their lawn for a summer. From that time, I quickly upgraded to KE2PF and eventually to N2NL. I introduced myself to the guy around the corner who had multiple towers and stacked antennas, and learned he was W2REH, who would become my contesting elmer. Eventually, he made his shack available to me 24/7. He helped me discover and refine my interests in contesting and DXing. Today I enjoy many aspects of the hobby, but what I enjoy most is CW, experimentation with antennas, and a fascination of propagation. Since I relocate every 3-4 years, I have lots of opportunities for experimentation as I try to manipulate my surroundings to put up the most effective antennas possible from somewhat temporary locations. In 1992 I joined the United States Coast Guard as an enlisted member and remain on active duty

FOCUS 100 44

today as a Chief Warrant Officer in the Naval Engineering specialty. I currently serve as the Hawaii Port Engineer for five Coast Guard ships home ported in Honolulu and a sixth in Hilo, scheduling and executing their high level maintenance needs such as dry dock availabilities.

Thanks to my career in the Coast Guard, I have had the opportunity to operate from various locations around the world, including KH2, KHØ, PJ2, and KG4 in addition to competing at WRTC events in Finland, Brasil, and most recently Boston. This past summer I was transferred from Guam to Hawaii, where I will be stationed until 2018. In May 2013, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer, something that was completely unexpected. Following two major surgeries and eight rounds of chemotherapy, I have been cancer free since and am back in excellent health. I wanted to close by thanking Al WP3C for offering to nominate me, as well as all the others who added their support through the nomination process. I’ve always looked up to FOC members since I learned of this group’s existence, and am overjoyed to now have the opportunity to be a member myself.

Eduard Eysmond, RX6CB (2051)

My father Serge, RV6ARS had opened to me a wonderful world of amateur radio when I was seven or eight years old. I heard his conversations with other hams in SSB, but at that time I was unable to understand what for he did this. Later on, when we settled in a new apartment he asked me to assist him in a simple 40m band dipole antenna installation. The voices and strange tone signals (that was CW of course) were mysteriously interesting for me. My father explained me all the benefits and opportunities of the radio. From that time every afternoon upon completion of a school day I listened radio (a tough time - how to split it between the homework and the

radio? Needless to say that my marks in school came from highest to lowest. I wondered about Morse code - how interesting to send and to receive any information without decoding machines, modems or any other devices and at the same time this was not a human voice. In 1995 or 1996 my father took me to the local club station RK6AWJ managed by Victor, R6AF (UA6AF at that time). He had shown me the great example of CW skills on the air. I received my first callsign RZ6AEZ in 1997. Since 2000 I am RX6CB. I have been studying in the Novorossiysk state marine academy for almost 6 years and at that time I was not so active on the air. Presently my occupation is merchant marine officer. I work on board of crude oil tankers and half of my life belongs to the seas. My main interest is QRQ CW. I wish to be able to operate freely with speeds greater than 60 WPM. My other hobby is civil aviation aircrafts. I like to listen civil aviation VHF communications. Among my favorite aircrafts are Airbus (A318/319/320/321 series) and Boeing (B737-800 B737-NG). I collect all the information, particularly flight manuals and structural drawings (which are possible to be shared).

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Contesting

By Pat Barkey, N9RV

The Technical Challenge of Contesting

Ham radio is old, but ham radio contesting, like a lot of special parts of our hobby, is amazingly modern. Paper and pencil are gone. Contesters stare at a bewildering array of flat screens, digital displays and buttons and switches that help them not just work people, but to make decisions and control all their hardware. And the task of getting it all working, as any big station owner can tell you, is never really over.

Of all the big contest stations, none are bigger than the multi operator/multi-transmitter – multi/multi, or just MM – stations. Behind the single call sign like W3LPL, K3LR, JA3YBK or DR1A that you hear on the air are an armies of operators and good-sized compounds filled with antennas and equipment. They are working people on the air, just like you and me. But the nature of their competition – with each other, of course – is subtly different. Because in order to prevail they can tolerate no weak spots – no bands, no directions and no times of day where their signals and their results are second-rate.

As a result, these stations are constantly innovating and re-inventing themselves to get the edge on their opponents. What you see when you walk into one of them is the product of years of constant experimentation and improvement. Which we could all learn something from, of course, even if we’ll never host a dozen hams in chairs smacking paddles and picking out callsigns at our own QTH.

So let’s take a moment and open the hood on one of these stations to get an idea of what they’re doing. Maybe just for fun. Or maybe to learn a few of their tricks.

The K3LR Superstation

I’m going to talk a bit about K3LR because it is a station I know well. Tim has 10 acres of land in western Pennsylvania right next to Interstate 80 (a major highway) with four towers filled with yagis as well as vertical arrays for 80 and 160. His radios and amplifiers sit in a medium sized basement room in a 150 year old farmhouse. He started hosting MM’s in the 1990’s, and after almost a decade of trailing the leaders, he is now usually fighting for the top spots in the major DX contests.

Like every other contest station, good engineering pays dividends, and Tim’s is one of the best in that respect. In a MM environment, your worst QRM can come from your teammates, firing away on an adjacent band with their KW’s and high ERP antennas systems right next to you as you’re trying to dig out weak signals.

Solving that problem is clearly essential, but the modern MM must do more than that. To be competitive MM’s have multiple stations on the same band, interlocked to prevent simultaneous transmission. In fact European multis have had as many as three or even four operators on the same band – three on the run station picking calls out of the pile, and one roving to look for CQing stations. Some operations run on two

FOCUS 100 46

different frequencies (interlocked) on the same band, but the ethics of this are dubious and some contests do not allow it.

Let’s take a look at K3LR from the perspective of just one of the operating positions – the 40 metre station. What does the operator see in front of him at a typical operating position?

Here’s a picture of well-known contester John Golomb, N2NC, sitting at the run radio position of K3LR on 40 metres. You can see quite a few toys and boxes in the picture, both on his run position as well as on the adjacent multiplier position immediately to his right.

Let’s start with the RF stuff. Right in front of John is an Icom

IC-7800, powering a homebrew single band 8877 amplifier (the Drake wattmeter is on top of it) to the left. With just a couple of exceptions, all of K3LR’s amplifiers are homebrew single band amps using the 8877 tube.

You might see the stack of Green Heron rotor controllers just to the left of the computer screen. The bottom three boxes rotate the three 4 element OWA Yagis that are part of Tim’s big stack. The antenna heights are 110, 190 and 260 feet -- each separately rotatable. There is a box with push buttons (not visible) that selects any combination, with hot switch protection that disables the DC control voltage in the presence of RF. The top Green Heron box just has a switch that gives control of the top rotor to the 10 metre station during the day (there is a 10 metre Yagi on top of the top 40).

The run station’s job is pretty simple. Call CQ and work people. The contest software used by Tim is Win-Test, and all of the computers are networked (more on computers below).

To the right of where John is sitting is the operator position for the multiplier station, with another IC-7800 radio and amplifier (out of view). This station has its own dedicated transmitting antennas, a pair of 2 element Moxon-style Yagis at 140 and 70 feet. You can see the rotor controllers for these antennas just to the left of the right computer screen. We often joke that K3LR’s multiplier antennas are bigger than anything any of us have from home. It’s not a joke, it’s true!

In order to cut down the signal strength of the run station calling CQ on the same band, Tim has installed 4-square arrays of verticals for receive at the furthest edges of his property. The vertical polarization seems to help. You can see the controller, as well as the switch for the 2 element stack, both made by Comtek systems. Above the Comtek box is a switchable Sherwood bandpass filter, dividing the CW band into 20 kHz segments, providing additional attenuation of the run station signal.

John, N2NC in operating position at K3LR

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Both stations can transmit, but there is a keying interlock that disables the mult radio CW key, microphone and paddles whenever the run station is transmitting. The mult radio operator quickly learns how and when to dump their call into a pile.

Again, compared to some of the winning European multi-op efforts, the setup at

K3LR is quite primitive. Stations with more than two operators on the same band have

complex voting systems that determine which station has priority to transmit. They

may even have a human “maestro” that literally orchestrates the separate operators.

Getting the Information

The amount of real-time information arriving every moment at a modern MM

operation is incredible. First you have all those ears on the radios themselves, finding

people and assessing conditions. You have all the information of who you have worked,

and where they are needed in the log. And, of course, you have the data stream from

the spotting networks and, in recent years, from the CW skimmers.

That makes having a fast and reliable computer network between the operating

positions absolutely vital. This has become so specialized and technical that many MM

stations have computer “gurus” who manage all of the IT hardware. Tim has been ably

assisted over the years by Dave Zeph, W9PA (formerly W9ZRX). Tim has his own set of

CW skimmers, owing to the use of Perseus SDR radios, connected to all the Win-Test

logging PC’s via an Ethernet switch. The Win-Test contest software used by K3LR allows

any of the dozen or more computers in the network to quickly re-synch its log with the

others should it go off line.

What you can do with that information is quite amazing. With point and click QSY

from a band map you can clearly jump on pileups fast. (And that is one thing that has

helped create pileups with dozens of zero-beat stations in recent years – creating a

need for new skills by all of us to meet this new challenge). Thanks to the network, in

an MM you always know where your fellow stations are CQing, so when a rare mult

calls in that you need on other bands you can give them the frequency to look for you

there.

And chatting and joking with your teammates over the network during the 48-hour

ordeal is also just plain fun. That’s what can become so addictive about the MM

category – the fact that it is a shared experience, a chance to make memories and

friendships with your contesting friends as you go to battle that will last long after the

contest is over.

You might visit a W3LPL or a K3LR someday and wonder if you are even in the same

hobby. Frank and Tim have certainly taken things to a level – some might say an

extreme – that few of the rest of us will ever achieve. But the fact is that these people

are simply having fun. They’re solving the challenges presented to them and going to

battle each year with something new to try. Their stations are the fruit of hundreds of

changes and improvements that have taken them to a level we can certainly admire,

and perhaps even emulate.

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FOC QSO Party Results-13 September 2014

By Art Suberbielle, KZ5D

The FOC QSO Party continues to grow in popularity. One of the reasons may well be how the event was planned as a “casual” operating event, designed to encourage members to work each other and non-members. Many of the comments received along with activity reports indicated that this is precisely why that person enjoys participating in the FOC QP. It really is whatever you want it to be. Some enjoy the event as an occasion to find FOC friends and engage in mini-chats. Others like to get to know the non-members who participate, having a chance to evaluate their CW skills and consider them for future membership. And there is another group that likes the contest-like environment, making a high number of contacts with short, snappy exchanges. And by far, the most commonly received comments pertained to the fact that a station could drop in and operate for a while, and then go about other tasks, and later on drop in again and make some more contacts. Whichever one of these categories best describes how you participate in the FOC QPs makes no difference. It’s designed to be a fun-filled operating event and it seems to be meeting that goal.

Many stations commented that conditions were not as good as the previous event, but that obviously did not dampen enthusiasm as we set a new record of reports received from members. A total of 143 reports were received and interestingly, the highest score reported came from Europe. Joska, HA9RT, with 450 QSOs and of that, 342 with members. Second was Dennis, WØJX, with the highest report from North America 395/341. Both of these operators are relatively new FOC members, both joined in January of this year. K4LTA, Bill, came in third world-wide with 389/299. West Coast honours go to Dick, K4XU, placing 6

th world-wide with 367/326. DL5YM, Fred,

reported the second highest score from Europe with 351/250. Joe, 7Q7BP, made the most of a terrific 10 meter opening from Africa to boost the high score from there with 295 QSOs. Harry, 7Z1HL, reported that he had a half day of power outage, but still posted 211/132, the highest total from Asia. KH6LC, Lloyd, missed most of the event due to another commitment, but did earn a certificate for Oceania with 79/57.

A lot of activity reported by non-members who were led by Larry, K5OT (on the nomination list) with 352 QSOs with members. Asia honours won by another station on the nomination list – JA1GZV with 26 QSOs. The highest report from a non-member in Europe was received from G3SJJ with 263. And PY4ARS won the South America certificate with 19 QSOs.

Our next FOC QSO Party is set for 29 March, 2015.

Members result

Call QSO’s FOC Call QSO’s FOC Call QSO’s FOC

HA9RT 450 342 K4XU 367 326 GØORH 343 268

WØJX 395 341 N5AN 362 225 6Y5WJ 333 218

K4LTA 389 299 K5KV 356 288 GMØGAV 327 255

W8FJ 372 293 WØUCE 354 297 SP4R 323 261

W9RGB 371 307 DL5YM 351 250 AC5K 321 271

49 FOCUS 100

Call QSO’s FOC Call QSO’s FOC Call QSO’s FOC

K5TF 320 258 WØVX 176 163 WP3C 87 72 SM5CCE 318 266 AC2K 173 159 W7GKF 85 60 N9RV 317 K4BAI 170 124 IK6BAK 84 70

N6XI 301 235 KØVBU 162 130 G3LHJ 84 68 W1AO 301 225 PA4N 158 122 G3ZGC 83 7Q7BP 295 N5RR 158 111 DJ4KW 83 70 DL1VDL 292 241 W2VT 155 128 WB6BEE 83 82

OK1RR 288 224 N3BB 154 118 G3SXW 81 63 K9QVB/9 288 208 G4BUE 153 121 KH6LC 79 57 KM4FOC 286 232 VE3USP 153 123 G3LKZ 76 70 op. K2SX W4VQ 149 120 VE2AEJ 74 70

KZ5D 284 218 W1DV 149 op. VE3HX

DL5YL 275 220 WA1FCN 148 116 G4FON 70 43 GW3KDB 275 223 N5AW 146 106 GM4SID 67 50 SM3/EA8CN 274 233 YO3FRI 144 G8VG 66 63

KØVXU 274 205 KR3E 143 119 HSØZLM 64 55 NA5G 274 254 DK9HE 142 DJ6ZM 64 SM6CUK 272 220 PA7RA 127 111 GI4CFQ 63 62 G4RCG 259 192 G3RWF 127 114 G3IAF 62 59 W3YY 259 176 TF3DC 123 118 SV5/G2JL 61 40

9J2BO 255 187 DK2GZ 122 100 G3HEJ 61 59 N4AF 253 197 K9FN 121 94 W1AAX 59 38 WA9AQN 238 198 PAØVDV 119 92 W1UU 58 50 W5ZR 235 186 G4HZV 118 110 K2SG 56 48 G4FOC 232 181 WØVTT 117 W1RM 55 51

op. MØPCB W1HL 116 109 G3NKS 51 47 DL4CF 230 190 K4OSO 115 90 JA1NUT 51 43

G4BYG 225 170 OH2EA 111 104 G3XTT 42 34 DL6LBI 218 208 W1RAN 108 103 US9PA 41 37 7Z1HL 211 132 K2UFT 107 78 VK4TT 41 31 DK5AD 209 171 K2NV/VE3 105 90 PA5V 40 39

G3RVM 207 186 WG4FOC 103 73 PAØDIN 40 37

K6AR 202 159 op. K3TW IKØYGJ 35 35

OK1WF 202 172 F3AT 103 86 W1EBI 33 25 WB2YQH 200 173 IKØIXI 101 81 W1JR 30 28 G3LIK 199 151 DK7LX 100 OZ4FF 14 13 K2UV 196 161 SM5COP 100 86 WH7AA 12 10 F5VCT 192 153 G4FAD 97 92 op. N2NL

N5CW 186 144 W5PEH 95 82 PA5TT 10 10 G3ZRJ 186 136 OK1AVG 94 84 VU2PTT 10 5 G3PJT 185 82 K1SA 93 71 N8DE 7 7 DL3AZ 182 148 K1AJ 93 86 DJ1YFK 4 4 K6RB 180 144 NN6T 90 75 V31JP 3 2

DL8PG 180 157 W4PM 88 68 W1EBM 2 2 W4YE 179 159

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Non-Members Result

Call FOC Call FOC Call FOC Call FOC

K5OT 352 SF3A 117 OK2BMA 43 G6GLP 25

VE3KI 277 K1SM 115 DL7LPH 39 RW3AI 25

G3SJJ 263 W5ASP 100 DH3MG 38 G8DX 19

W4II 240 GM4EVS 87 GØEML 38 PY4ARS 19

FG8NY 220 KCØURL 79 YL3FW 37 SE4E 18

K5LY 183 F5MNK 78 EW8OF 33 CR7AJL 11

GØEFO 165 KØZR 73 KU7Y 33 IW2MXE 9

DK9HE 142 K7WP 60 EW8OF 33 UAØSBQ 7

I1HJP 135 IK1WNO 56 JA1GZV 26 VU2CDP 5

K2YWE 133 SI5Y 54 OH2BN 25

K1BG 127 SP7QO 43 I5SKK 25

Coming up in Focus 101:

• Ham Radio & the unauthorised use of a Police Vehicle by G3XNG

• Restoring a MacKey Deluxe by G3HGE

• Begali Sculpture Swing: The ultimate Side Swiper by IKØIXI

• The nanoKeyer, Professional Contest Keying for Anyone by G4AFU

• Chinese Iambic Paddle by G4BWP/A65BD

FOC QP statistics