CcoM&Pwx3ffiffiGlnE

gg&fo&gA,e &Q8 G*J#gVg

Well folks this must have been about the busiest month that Ihave encountered for a long time not just with radio club ac-tivities but my work as well.

From the club point of view we have once again had anothersuccessful Junk Night and I must thank everyone whomhelped" donated refreshments and any raffle prizes. We alsotook part in a demonstration station at Haddington and the 4Metre Trophy and still to come as I write this, LighthouseWeekend and a visit to the Quarry at Blue Circle Dunbar. Afuller report can be found later in the newsletter on some ofthese items. Lastly from a personal point of view I will havestarted another Novice Course.

This month is a relatively quiet month with the planned activ-rty being the First Aid day. For those who are attending re-member it is on the 30 September, a Saturday and running

between 10:00 and 14:00. There are also a few club membersattending the Leicester rally on Friday 21't September and ifyou havan't been before it is definitely a rally worth attendhg.

My hobbyhorse this mofih is lack of Reponses from membersto requ€sts that are put out. It is difficult enough trying tokeep the club running at fulltilt but is made harder by the lackof responses. What I mean is that I look for ideas, requirefeedback on issues, etc and what do I get. The answer virtu-ally nothing. All that I ask is if I put out a query, no matterwhat, you at least respond, even if it a simple Yes or No thenat least I know that you have looked at it.

Enjoy this month's newsletter.

Bob GM4UYZ

support that we give them over the year) a grand total of f,766, which has nowand to every one else for their donations been donated to the British Heart Foun-

once again we were blessed with a beau- 1o 91r name' dation' Thanks goes to everyone for all

tiful night for our no* ,rr" seventr, *- l:" before the rafile the Presentation of the efiicrt put in to raise the money as it

mral Junk Night. - the Tennamast (Frank Hall Memorial) really is going to a tremendous cause.

The numbers that came via the door this Tt:ply presented to the Leading Scot- For your information since we started we

year saw a small increase rro'n isssl, tish,,Station in the Practical wireless havenowraisedagrandtotalof J5310,

Junk Night where a lt ;;; ,hr""gb eW) QRP contest which took place in not bad for a "wee" radio club.

to r57 this yea*o top"ttty-ril;ifi; June of this year. Glad to say that once Lastly I would like to say a personal

will continue to stay i, t[. ,p*"rJ alrlc- again the Club managed to retain the tro- thanks to everyone who helped put the

tion. I must admit roor.ine'uroun6 6" nhv, although not won by the usual Junk Night together. To sylvia

hall this year it did ,."* u g?"ur o"ur uur- group. but won this year again by David 2M1F1\D( ensuring that no one will pass

ierthanitdidlasty.ur,r-alonitno;iiit GM4WLL.Davidisaveryworthywin- at the door and also selling the raffie

was because people *ruv"J rong"i o, ioi ner as he puts in a tremendous effort to tickets. To Yvonne, Tracy, Liz and Mar-

but what ever the "ur*

.,"u" ii".", *r""i :lp,t"rt and promote many of the \{HF/ garet who worked hard behind the re-

ro see. " UIIF contests from Scotland. Congratu- freshments counter and lastly to every-

once again Bill & Betty of Jaycee una llt1?nt David from everyone at the club. one who handed Food or rafle prizes in.

Rose & Norrie of fenn'amas;;*ril; Beth Hall, Frank's widow, then pre- Without this sort of help this type of

to give us thei*uppo* on i6";;;* senled the trophy, to David' event would never happen' So again

although this year fo, Ror" & N;#; Before the raffle was drawn Iain Lowis thanks.

their drive was greatly extended due to a of the British Heart Foundation thanked WELL DONE EVERYONE FoR A

serious accident on the Ciw fv p; I u,s for our continuing support for them. VERY SUCCESSFUL JTINK NIGHT

am most grateful rron, tt"rr,, til d;;_ lh;.actual figure that we raised on the ANDFLrNDRATSINGYEAR.

tree rnn (arso kindry Jonut"a ro. tr'" ;:i:Xffi,:tT"ff;1h*ffi l?"XT: Bob GM4uyZ

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C. Page 2

&gN&gGg&A BW4S0gg9(or What a difference a yagi makes.) Report by Jim Martin, MMOBQI.

To go or not to go that was the question up until four hours before departing to Skye for the ferry. With so manyother things happening it was touch and go but after four hours sleep on Thursday night I set offat 04.00 for Uig and the He-bridean Isles ferry to Lochmaddy. Colin had found a suitable site for me to use this year during his travels with Bob the previ-ous weelg and this turned out to be a greatlocation.

After last years success I have worked on improving the station. The major purchase was an FTI000MP but I feel theIcom746 can hold its own when it comes to dealing with QRM of which there is a lot in any contest ! A minor purchase (atthe Lothiars junk sale) was an old triband yagi which looked as though it had spent all its life indoors. Purchase of a secondhand trapped antenna is always a risk but at ten pounds it was worth it for the stainless steel clamps alone ! The new MFJvoice recorder and a Heil head set completed the upgrades. Logging was again with SuperDuper by EI5DI which is a fantas-tic set of programs for the single operator. Have a look at www.eiSdi.com for moreinformation.

After listening to experienced contesters it was clear that the area most likely to give the greatest improvement was inthe antenna systems. The 4 band vertical was raised to a height of 16 feet agl, insulated from the mast and 16 radials addedsloping down to the ground. The 80m dipole was dropped to 18 feet above ground for working into the IIK and a 40m slop-ing dipole added to give some gain into Europe.

The shinny new (about 12 years old) tribander was put up at 16 feet using a short gin pole. The yagi had a slight ad-vantage on receive but not too much over the vertical. I was starting to wonder if the extra work was worthwhile. On trans-mit the reports were amazing, a minimum of 3 S points of a difference and often much more ! Once the contest started I usedthe front to back and the side of the beam to cut down the heavy QRM and that was where the great difference in receive wasnoticed. With no rotator and a mad dash of about 25 yards to turn the yagi the full benefits were not felt. It was not really util-ised for working DX, but set up and 1eft pointing in the same general direction for long periods. There will be a rotator on theyagi for the next outing.Facts and figures.

BandQSOsIOTARefS

80 40 2A94 342 60023 49 61

15 l0129 45 Total49 8 Total

L2lAt70

(Last years total 650 QSOs, 135 Refs and 650,000 points)I worked the club twice, at 20.38I was on serial number 542 and the club on762, at 09.30I was on 1103 and the club

on 1319.A few failures and problems to overcome, the most worrying was 40watts maximum out from the FT for an hour or so.

The vertical had to be radically retuned on site possibly because it was previously tuned next to the beach on the SummerIsles. I was on air for a total of twenty hours, three hours sleep between 05.00 - 08.00 and I had to pack up an hour beforethe end of the contest to catch the ferry home. It was a hard trip with no time to stop for breath but well worth the effort.Next year will be more of the same and lots of experiments with antennas over the winter and also hopefully a change of loca-tion to take advantage ofa rarer IOTA reference.

Thanks to Cary for making it possible to drop everything at the last minute and go, to Colin and Bob Smith for findingthe site, to Derek, GM0EEY, for helping me to dismantle the station and to everyone who worked me.73 and hope to work you from the next Island trip.

JIM

AtthetailendoflastyearthewifeofDA\{DMMlATyast- Tful.aside, I feel we should keep on doing them, ok they

ing if the radio club would put on a Demonstration Station u, might in the future say to themselves "I saw some people

their local Gala. Seeing it once again as an opportunirv to pro- demonstrating radio, I wonder how I can contact them?" [I

mote our hobby I duly accepteJ. The Gala- day rtut rt.td o" FII I am dreaming)' we still have to make the hobby visible

S;tday tZft iugusiin thi Nungate efea oi Huddiogtott '? th: outside world otherwise they will know less and less

what we put on was a FIF station doing general operatini and about Amateur Radio' so that is my reason for wanting to

Landles GM4YZZ doing Slow Scan Television. Along with conTtnue'

that we displayed posters and provided pamplets on th; uari- APart from all that I did enjoy the day, not many contacts

ous aspectJofAmateur Radio. were made as the band conditions were terrible but I later

Sadly to say not many people came to look and even ask found out that an aurora had occurred at the same time'

questions alihough theie was a very large crowd. plenty peo- Thanks,to all who turned up on the day to set up the station

ple looked as they walked past but getting them interest"o in *d to the club visitors for coming along'

N%NGATS GAM EAEDOOH6fl9N

coming in was the problem. It does make you wonder if theeffort is worthwhile but I think the real answer is that some-thing is required to make them come to "you". What that

something is I just do not know. Does anyone have an an-swer?

Bob GM4UYZ

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C, Page 3

GApSMg and the contest site. evening in the hotel made all tlte better

o&psoernow fo ffie,ss 1""ffi:f:"'1",331i''o'[l*'"##,:'T: ;|ilJff3#,'"f"TtrT}made ,554Fg$ fiCIfA 89gg *or:d to the contest site that lies ap- contacts with 219 IOTA multipliers. The

proximately 100 yards from the hotel. At contacts varied from as local as Ben-

This year was the third Dxpedition by this point the Contest Station consisting becula too as far itway as New Zealand.

the iockenzie & port Seton Amateur of 2 tents, (operating tent and the How well we have done in the contest

Radio club to take part in the Radio gs- kitchen tent), and the antennas (a Mosley that we have to wait and see. The logs

ciety of Great Britain (RSGB) Island on and cushcraft 3 element Yagi Beams on have to be submitted and adjudicated

the Air (IOTA) contest. The IOTA separate poles, a Butternut Vertical and with the results non4ally published

award scheme was started a number 6f 2 W3DZZ wire antennas) was erected. around the November, December time.

years ago with islands around the wodd The radio station consisted of 2 Yaesu Comparing on how well we have done

Leing gi-oen a reference number, for ex- FT1000MP's,2 hnear amplifiers and 2 with the previous years definitely shows

ampl*e*Tiree is EU00g, New Zealand computers networked together for log- a vast improvement in our score so we

OC036 and the aim is for Radio Ama- gmg purposes. One FTI000MP and Lin- hope it is enough to beat our 25ft placing

teurs around the world to try to contact ear was employed as the Main Station that we achieved last year.

each and everyone on the ist. Awards andtheotherFTl000MPandlinearwas This was my fust trip to Tiree and the

are available for contacting specific num- employed as the multiplier station. Eve- IOTA contest which tumed out a tre-

bers of these is- *ttri#i.{l+,1tll,,eli*;ii :,;,,:.,;. : r ' ': mendous week-

lHhiH"f ;11i ' ' ' ; .1. ' ' ' . . : ' . . ' . i . . ! ' . . . . ' . . . ' . . ' ' . . ' ] .I will definitely

i "u*"L;d. i . ' . . ' . . .tuJty to

'ro*

ili rTv :l,T 'rke 'urseves

,s; q 't %_rm;''%'.*,-', [fu";*_-,iiare occupied by . l

:t-: . ̂ '.i1: *."r;;;

,* u" left bJ to Elaine at the

EUO*r'i.r' *iiT",3' ' ,; _::ffirereekend. Spe-

mountingoxpe-'.' ' '.,.j..]Fffis!W.J'' 'wsLJwwL...ry.{.T.:..*#.l.|ars1.orsmallasamateurs . : ' i : * .G. l f . -* , ; p5f t r , .e:- f f iEiEl ' l f t fum+.t , f f i -

the local radio amateur, who transported Oban and eventually home. Before thatus in a minibus around to the Tiree Hotel we had a very enjoyable relaxing Sunday

hind. our planning for this year started in rything was checked and left ready for Tiree Lodge Hotel for the superb hospi

earnest Arnlng eaxty January and I am tle contest starting on the SaturOay ut t?li? that was provided' Lastly thanks to

glad to say everything wenf to plan for 13:00 (12:00 UlClbefore retiring to tne ail the.people on Tiree for their hospital-

-ur

trip. hotel for something to eat and soire light ity and.friendliness it certainly has left a

Our trip started off about midnight on refreshments. lasting impression with me

the Thursday, July 284 as we needed to On the Saturday the contest eventually Tonextyearthen""

be in Oban to catch the 05:30 Friday got under way and continued like thatmorning ferry. The van containing all the Intil 13:00 (1i:00 UTC) on the Sunday. 9ptt{ottj"d Helpers who took part:

required equipment plus a convoy of 3 A shift system of 3 hours on t hours or IgtI |!1Ewan GM3PGY, Iain Mcleary

"** utt arrived safelyin oban, where the was used with a minimum of 3 operatorr MMICPP,- Bob Glasgow GM UYZ,

cars were parked upfor the weekend and at any one time operating. This system 1g9 lqth GMOBWU, Colin smith

the van put on the ferry. Here we met up worked very well -indeed

as it aliowed GM0CLN, Jim Keddie GMTLUN' Ron

with Colin GMOCLN and his father Bob maximum rlst periods between operat- lt:::t- - -GMONTL, John Maclean

GM0BWU who had been on holiday ing. MM0CCC, John Innes GMTOLQ,

travelling around the islands the previous \fren the contest finished on the Sunday Ggrdon $tchie GMOBYE, Robert Veal

week. the sailing to Tiree was very the Contest Station was dismantled ani MM0ANT, Cambell MM1AVA Landles

pleasant with us uitiuing at Tiree just af- packed away once again in the van ready Fairbain -.GM4XZZ"

Judith Thomson

ter 10:00 to be met by Tony GM3PGY, ior ttre uonday -J-ing

ferry back to SW, Callum williams SWL

Bob GM4UYZ

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C. Page 4

r i , ' '

" ' t

Ti ree # fi ree2000

This year we once again attempted the above contest on Sun- | "or"man

Weathermaster six man tent.day l3s August from our normal site at Mainslaughter Law. | ^---,The doubt with this particular contest is "what rr t""rt t" * |

Green ripstop , 15 ft x7 ft x 7ft 'with two bed-

wrong this year?". Why do we say that? The t"a'son-i* ttiat I rooms, fly screens etc, and built in gfoundsheet.over the past few years we have encoutered various technical I Six months old and half price at f,165.00problems like, the transverter going faulty and producing less Ithan I watt, the transverter going faulty again and the back I Coleman twin burner cooker.up radio being left at home. This year we had no technical I

- _^ :.^ .:;^;:^::,1 ^ , a ,faults only weather problems. wtrai t mean by,h"r il;;1; I

Runs on unleaded petrol, or Coleman fuel'

heavy rain earlier the ground was so soft that John MMOCCC I Six months old, f40.00first then Cambell MMIAVA got stuck trying to move the ltower. After a lot of effort both cars were eventuatly freed I Three shelf portable camp kitchen, used twice.which once again meant that we were late in starting the oon- I f20.00test. Thankfirlly we had borrowed Iain MMICPP's caravan las the weather turned out to be absolutely auroshish with Iover tAinch falling. Forrunately by the end of the contest the I POrtable safe gas lire for camping.rain had stopped so we managed to dismantle everything I 1 Kw output nrns on internal gas canisters.without getting wet. I Complete with spare canisters.How did we fare? we managed the following.:

I Also six months old , f,30.00

rlumber of QSOs made 1

)laimed points r5927

vlultiplier {8

)verall score 764496

lest DX station catlsign 33TCUIP

)istance 566

.ocator ro7OFD

Bob GM4UYZ

Ti ree ffi# Ti ree

Two inflatable airbeds with inbuilt pumpf20.00 the pair

Or the lot for 9250.00

Nissan Micrao 3 door R registration, 16000 miles,purple/silver coded bodywork and bumpers/trim.Mag alloys. Full years MOT, and immaculate.f,3900.00

Interested ????Call Wallace MM0Alivf\i on 01875 810207 or mail to

wallace@hamradioscotland.co.u k

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C.

Summer Isles (EtT-092)

l't to 3rd September 2000

By the time you read this the followingexpedition will be under way and hope-fully we will already have many QSOs inthe log. From the 1st to the 3rd ofSep-tember 2000 Jim MMOBQI, DavidGM4WLL and Colin GMOCLN (me)will be on the island of Tanera Mor inthe Summer Isles on a radio expedition.The island is one of the rarest UK IO-TAs and is in great demand throughoutthe world. Also, on VHF, activity fromthat part of the UK is very rare whichonce again means that demand will behigh if conditions are favourable. Foryour information the various referencesfor our site on Tanera Mor are IOTA :FU092, IOSA: SCIO, WAB :N890,Maidenhead : IO78HA.

It is hoped that both I{F and VHF opera-tion (hopefully all bands from 160m to2m) will begin by approximately lunch-time on Friday lst September and willcease at approximately 1700UTC onSunday 3rd September. During theweekend we plan to be active during

both the Ftr ssB Field Day and| 44\frlz Trophy contests.

HF' OPERATION, CALLSIGNS ANDEQUIPMENT

r.813.517 lr4/21l28MHz SSB byMM0BQVP on or near usual IOTA,/IOSA frequencies. Atl IIF CW and SSBon the WARC bands by GM0CLN/P andSSB Field Day Contest using MMOBQVP. Focus will be on IOTA/IOSA ac-tivities outwith the contest and we hopeto give many people EU-092/SC-10 as anew one! We plaa to be able to run twohighpower stations almost continually duringour stay. We will have a FT1000MP, aTS850SAT and two amps. Antennaswill include various wires, a vertical anda 3 ele tribander. F# QSLs should bevia MM0BQI and GM0CLN as appro-priate (see above).

Yfl F OPERATION, CALLSIGNSAND EQUIPMENT

50.200MII2 GB4XS : 100W, 3 ele Yagi70.030MII2 GB4XS : Personal Beacon,160W, 6 ele Yagi70.1901\frIz GB4XS : Skeds/Tropo etc144.385MH2 GB4XS : All Operation,400W, 2 x l{ele

144MHz Trophy Contest GM4WLL/P

The special callsign GB4XS has been ap-plied for. Iffor any reason this callsignis not available we will use GM4WLL/P.Can anyone interested in a 4m QSOpleaseE-mail GM4WLL at :gm4wll@talisman.u-net. com

We hope to be able to give as many peo-ple as possible IO78 for a new squareand EU-092 for a new VHF IOTA! A1-though we will take some tropo skedswe regret that Meteor Scatter operationis very unlikely. We also pray for goodtropo or a big aurora! All VHF QSLsshould be via GM4WLL.

Our mobile telephone number (ONLYDITRING TI{E TRIP PLEASE!!) will beA7946283449. Ifyou hearus and needthe QSO don't hesitate to call at anytime. (We know this phone works as ithas previously been used from the site!)

We look forward to hearing you on thebands.

RegardsColin Smith (GM0CLN)On Behalf Of The EU-092 Team

vfltF FJ&AO gAV g/3 JseV &gOg

This year we once again took part in the above contest working on four separate bands, 50MHz, 7AWIz, 144MlIz and432\ttrIz. The changes this year was the inclusion of 50MHz and the ability to select four out of five bands to operate on. Wetook the opportunity to drop 23cms which first of all we have no equipment for, and also the possibility of making many con-tacts is near on negligible. The bottom line it is very hard work to try and operate 23cms for 24 hours.50 MHz band, oh what a difference that made particularly with Sporadic "E' on the go. What made it special was working astation in Zimbabwe after he gave us a call On the Sunday about noon suddenly we were hit with Sporadic "E' on 144 MlIzwhich continued solidly for about 2 hours. Colin GM0CLN just about choked on his Scotch egg when the first "LZ" called.Maybe that is the secret Colin every time we want Sporadic "E" I give you a small Scotch egg!7}MLlz was not as great as we expected but having said that we still achieved working Slovenia so it couldn't have been tobad. 70cms, well that was really just a total waste of time to say the least. I sometimes wonder if it is worth the effort to acti-vate the band.At the end of the day even though we had lots of concern about the possibility of interference from the Lothian's Group only 6KMS away, it did happen but not to the extent we had been afraid of. Maybe the chat prior to us doing the contest helped whoknows! Anyway the band conditions out weighed any problems and I can honestly say it was one of the best VHF Field Daysthat I have attended.

See the table below for some of the contest details. Bob GM4UYZ

44MHz

umber of QSO's made

l r imad nain] .c A)10tr ,1356s

veral l score

st DX stat ion ca] ls iqn :

cator TO90JO

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C Page 6

w#i$ 6$tg&,@ &ev &,@)@@JOnce again this year we put in an entryfor VHF NFD from Mainslaughter Law.Iain MMICPP had gone to the site onFriday evening, with poles and antennasin his caravan as he was acting as a mar-shall at the Jim Clark Memorial (car)Rally in nearby Duns that night. Every-one else was due to meet at the holdingfacil i ty (i.e, MMIAVAs QTH) inTranent at about 9am on the Saturdaymorning to make sure we had everythingbefore setting off for the contest site.lJpon arrival I was greeted by the news

the newly introduced 50MHz section.This meant that we were QRV on50MHz (Saturday |4-22UTC only),70MHz (Sunday 08-I4UTC Only),144WIz and 432MI[2. With only threestations to be assembled for the start thisyear we were ready early for a changeand had time to get a quick bite to eatbefore battle commenced.The 50MHz station was in the caravanand we had a tent to house the l44lvfrIzarfi 432MI1z stations. This was to al-low us to pass stations from 144MHz to432MI1z easily and hopefully help boostthe 432\[LIz score a bit!

that BobGM4UYZ was inSunderland andthat he wouldn'tbe w-ith us untilsometime muchlater that day!He had beencalled out on theFriday night andfortunately tookall his contestbits to the hold-ing faci l i tystraight away sothat everythingwas still availableon Saturdaymorning. Be-fore setting offfor Mainslaugh-ter Law, all ofBobs bits wereduly distributedamongst theheavily laden vehicles which were pres- After last year with few operators andent. I went straight to the site whiie VERY heavy QRM from Lothians RS,Cambell MM1AVA and John MM0CCC only l lkm away, moral prior to the con-went to pick up Johns tower. test was quite low and most people went

along expecting problems again. How-Iain's van and caravan were on the site ever, we were all more than willing towhen I arrived but all was quiet. Upon give it a go. Just before the start of thecloser inspection this was because Iain contest Bob GM4UYZ eventually ar-was sound asleep in the caravan. He rived, tired but still awake, after his drivehad been at the car rally until the wee to and from Sunderland. Needless tosmall hours and was catching up on his say he wasn't a very happy bunny afterbeauty sleepl In tum, everyone else ar- getting up so early for his trip south andrived, we woke Iain up, and began set- having missed all the setting up. Any-ting up the equipment. Unfortunately way, the contest began and for the firstAlex, who kindly provided the 70cm ra- while was pretty quiet. There was nodio, couldn't stay for the contest due to sporadic-E on 50MHz and the rate on"dodgy nibbles and beer" the previous 1.44MI12 was positively pedestrian, ornightl He popped up to give us the ra- should I say elderly pedestrian! Ondio and then left for home again. This 432MHz I think the eiderly pedestrianyear the contest rules had changed so we was in intensive care at the local hospi-decided to drop 1296Mllz in favour of tall Suffices to say the bands weren't

ti , ,'14; ,,. ':: !' :, l f , i; ' l,."dii

tX l't:i.t . . , i ' i

exactly jumping. We began doubtingthe 144WIz radio and there began asaga which went on for several hours...

144MHz SummaryVarious problems saw us use 4 differentradios during the course of the contest.After about half an hour our IC275E wasfound to have very poor receive and waschanged for a TR9130. The TR9l30subsequently, within the next half hour,developed a PTT fault so we used theFT1000MP and Mutek transverter fromthen until Sunday morning. However,the FT1000MP was required for 7OMlIz

so first thingon Sundaymorning weswapped tothe 1C746which hadbeen used for50MHz onSaturdaylMusical radioswithout themusic I'd saylDespite a lei-surely QSOrate on Satur-day things li-vened up a biton Sundaymorning. Wewere able towork into Ger-many, theNether lands,Belgium andFrance on sev-

eral occasions. At lunch time on Sun-day we were having a bite to eat andBob, being the kind soul he is. gave me amini scotch egg. Just as I put it in mymouth and the voice recorder stoppedcalling CQ we were answeredby LZIJYin KNI2PR! The scotch egg almost hitthe side of the tent as I tried to over-come the shock and get my mouth intogearl This was the first of48 Sporadic-E QSOs on 144MHz with Bulgaria, Ro-mania, Hungary and Yugoslavia in thespace of I hour 35 minutes. It certainlyspiced things up a bitl On the down side,we suffered interference fromGM3HAM/P throughout the contest. Itwas mostly manageable as they stayed atabovt 144.210MH2 +/- l}kJlz and westayed up around 144.330MH2-144.345MH2 (except during the spo-radic-e and while picking up a few sta-

ltwA on 2 Mtrs

h

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C, Page 7

tions we hadn't worked). However, at IO9OJO on the Isle of Wight at 590km.times (probably when they beamed ourway) the whole SSB section was unus- 7OMlIz Summaryable due to broadband noise. Despite Propagation seemed pretty average,this our final QSO tally was 194 and our other than a single Slovenian station be-best 144MHz DX was LZIKWT, ing worked on sporadic-e. However, it2503kmawayinKN32As. was often difficult to tell how the band

was due to interference from GM3HAI\4/sOMlIz Summary P down the road a bit! Thev could. al-We had very good conditions with Spo- most constantly, be heard every few kl{zradic-E for most of the event. Only the up and down the band. The one savingfirst 45 minutes or so seemed to have no grace was that they seemed to stay on aE's. This definitely helped make a very single frequency towards the bottom ofenjoyable VHF NFD. The highlight was the band this year which allowed us todefinitely being called by Z22IE in Zkn- work the top end of the band with rela-babwe and this brought an even bigger tive ease. One point of concern duringsmile to our faces when he gave us serial the contest was our antenna whichnumber 001! We heard one or two sta- seemed to hit resonance with the wind attions on the South Coast of England the top of the mast^ The antenna did acalling stateside in the evening but could very good impersonation of a bird withhear nothing up here. I'm not sure if either end flapping up and down quitethey worked any VE/VV stations. Other- violently. Fortunately it held togetherwise, 23 countries and 72 locator and we had no failures to report. Bestsquares is a haul we are more than DXonTOMHzwasS5iDIinJNT6Watpleased with! Final QSO tally was 171 a distance of 164lkm and our final QSOand the Best DX was Z22IE at a dis- total was 38.tance of 8775km in locator squareKH52NF. On subjects other than just operating, we

had a couple ofvisitors this year. Chris4321fr12 Summary GM3WOJ from Lamington near Inver-Seemed flat throughout with nothing out gordon called in for half an hour just af-of the ordinary to report. Even making ter the start of the contest to say hello.a conscious effort to try and pass sta- He was on his way to join Lothians RStionsfrom I44NI}Izto 432MHz we still for a while (boo! hiss!) as he had beenonly managed 13 QSOs. We are seri- invited to operate with them. Also, anously wondering rf 432WIz is worth the old friend of mine, Mike GM0BQMef[ort and are glad we had the chance to from Closeburn near Thornhill joined usdrop l296MHz this year! Thank good- for a while. Mike and I contested to-ness for the other bands to help keep us gether many times in the mid to late 80'soccupied. Best DX GIDNY/P in and having been away from radio for a

while he is now getting back into thegroove! He was so impressed at thesimplicity and benefits of logging on alaptop that, by the time you read this, hewill probably have bought one himself'!

The addition of 50MHz and the reduc-tion in the Restricted Section PowerLimit to 100W definitely made VHFNFD more fun, and easier to enter com-petitively. Despite the fact that, thistime, Lothians RS entered the Open Sec-tioq with more power and bigger anten-nas, the level of interference actuallyturned out to be no worse than last yearand in some cases even less. On thewhole VHF NFD was enjoyed by all whotook part. The definite highlights werethe DX worked on SOMIIz and the Spo-radic-E on 144MIIz. There were prob-lems with interference from GM3HANf/P but these were fortunately very muchovershadowed by the highlights men-tioned above. As we were packing upBobs phone rang again and guess wherehe was going on the Monday morning.Yes, that's right, Sundedand! To makethings even worse, it turned out to beequipment belonging to another com-pany which caused the problem in Sun-derland so Bob really shouldn't haveneeded to go in the first place...that'slife I suppose!

Here's hoping for a quieter \fHF NFDnext year for Bob, just so long as wemanage to book some more sporadic-Eto keep us busy. Roll on next year!

73 Colin GM0CLN

Cockenzfe {Fort Seton ARC Annqal VHF/UHLTable As Of l6!h Auguat 2000

Csl|3hoLaet

UDdabSOtltlz TOMH: .titzMHz Grand

Totalqtrv Sqr ctrv Sof Clry $or Ctn Sdr Total fotal

17Jul-00 o 4B t16 64

GMOCLN 1z-Aus-ot 10 ?? 0 0 0 0 25 95 1201 3'Auq-oc 0 o I ?1 OE 09

M4tJYZ 07-Jul-00 0 0 5 2 5 to 15

MMOAMV 06-Mi 0 1 1 I

SMOELV 10-n av-O{ 1 0 0 0 0 n 0 1 1 2

VHF/LHF Scored ere the total number of DXCC countries and Maiderfiead locator squares worked on each band.

Cockenale & Port.Seton AFC Annual HF Tablg Ae Of l6th Ausuet 2O00

HF Scores are he total number ot DXCC countries worked sn each bandHI{TlIIq,rIl * Band Leading score For Eaqh Band

For ReportSee Page

86dlsi{n

LastUBdat€

Eand {MHz CrandTot l

TotslDXCCl8 7 ,to {rl ta 2l 21 2A

lTJul-00 t3 ;. :l r40M.OBEXSMOELV

12-Jur|..00 0 b 42 0 89 48 s2 29tt 12rlO-Mr u 7 59 43 12 40 224 E6

N 12-Auo-0( 4 q 225 84dMOAMV tF-Me\ts 0 0 0 43 re 28 J o 109 55GM4UYZ 07-Jul-00 0 2 7 0 26 39 30GM4WLL 13-Auo{( 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 1 1

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C. Page I

g&PS AAg MN%A,& ffA* David's new ones are"' 7OMFIz : N.

ouss spomtrs As oF ltllll5i?f,i}d'J??"1il"J*d,',",?flffi AgGgSt gQgQ five squares and one country (GI) giving

an extra 6 on VHF.Yet another good aurora on VHF andotherwise a very busy month for the club The pressures of the surnmer busy sea-with contests and many other events. son, work, and life in general have takenThis is sadly reflected in the number 6g their toll on Bob GM4UYZ who e-updates received this month! I do ap- mailed me again to say that there was nopreciate that this IS a very busy time 61 update this month.year. However, we could really do withsome more support for the annual tablesif it is to continue to be worthwhilelPlease try to help if you can. In themean time here is the input I receivedthis month....

Here at GM0CLN it has been an inter-estinE month. I have been off activatins

TltttrIz : Isle Of Man(GD), N.Ireland(cI) , Wales(GW), Norway(LA);l4MHz : Ceuta & Melilla(EA9), N.Ireland(Gl), Scotland(GM), Wales(GW),Austria(OE), Belgium(ON), Denmark(OZ), Netherlands(PA), Crete(SV9);?ll,|l4}lz: Germany(Dl); 50MHz : Por-tugal(IN60), France(IN86, JN04, JN06),144MIIz : Germany(JO43), England(IO70, IP81), France(IN87, IN97), Scot-land(IO75, IO88, IO89), Norway(JP30),Sweden(JO89) That makes an increaseof 14 on IIF and 15 on VHF.

islands in the Outer Hebrides with my fa- Could you please make sure that I re-ther, have been on Tiree with the other ceive your next updates by Wednesdayguys for IOTA and managed to catch yet 20fr September at the latest. Thanks inanother good aurora on 126 August. advance for your help. Good DX and

ColinGM0CLNThe only additions for David GM4WLL This event gave me another All-Time 73 until next month.this month came from the 70Mt{z Tro- new square on 144}{'}lz thanks tophy Contest on l3e August. The levels G0KZGIIIM in IP81 square. My addi-of activity seemed to be very good and tions for the tables this month are...

EVgNf$ egeseeMThe "busy season" is almost over now but there is still plenty for you to do. Here is the latest list...

SEPTEMBtrRlst Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton, 7pm till late2nd/3rd IARU Reg I IIF SSB Field Day l3-l3UTC *t'See Note:**Zndl3rd RSGB l44MHz Trophy Contest l4-l4UTC {'xseeNote*x

3rd RSGB 5thl{4l\,tftIzBackpackersContest **SeeNote**

sth RSGB 3.5MHz Slow Speed CW Cumulatives 1900-2030UTC, Max CW Speed l2wpm **See Note**13th RSGB 3.5MHz Slow Speed CW Cumulatives 1900-2030UTC, Max CW Speed l2wpm **See Note{'.*13th RSGB l44l\filz UK Cumulatives20:00-22:30(Local Time) *xSee Note**l6th GMDX Convention. The speakers will include G3SXW on his trip to FH - Mayotte, G3VMW on his XZOA

experiences and possibly G4ZVJ who recently operated at ET3AA' and who has been operating from S21,XU and XW, to name but a few countries, during the last few months.

21st RSGB 3.5MHz Slow Speed CW Cumulatives 1900-2030UTC, Max CW Speed l2wpm **See Note**24th RSGB ZndT0MllzContest **SeeNote**

28th RSGB l44WIzIlK Cumulatives20:00-22:30(Local Time) **See Note**zgs. RSGB 3.sMHz Slow Speed CW Cumulatives 1900-2030UTC, Max CW Speed l2wpm rc*$ss hJ61sx*

OCTOBERl* RSGB 2ll28l\&lz SSB Contest from 07-19UTC **See Note**6th Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton, 7pm till latel5n' RSGB zll}L\\tftlzCW Contest from 07-I9UTC **SeeNote,'*<

20th C&PS ARC Video Night in the upstairs meeting room at Cockenzie & Port Seton Community Centre from7.30pm to 9.30pm. The videos ordered are "SECRET WAR - Still Secret "Enigma Code Breaking" " and"SKYWATCHING'. The normal one pound entry fee will apply.

z0th RSGB l44IvIIlz IIK Cumulatives20:0A-22:30(Local Time) **See Note**22'd RSGB 50MHz Contest 09-l3u-IC x*See Note**281291& CQWW SSB Contest from 00UTC Saturday until 24UTC Sunday (a8hrs) xt(See Notet(*2gs Gahshiels & DARS Annual Radio and Computer Rally. The Volunteer Hall, St John's Street, Galashiels.

Contact Jim GMTLUN on Te1.01896 85A245 or e-mail jimk@gm7lun.freeserve.co.uk

NOVEMBER3'd Chb night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Setorl 7pm till late4l5n RSGB l44MHz CW Marconi Contest & European Marconi Memorial Contest 14-I4UTC **SeeNote*:F

5'h RSGB 6hr l44]ljfrlz CW Contest 08-14UTC *{'See Note**I ld' RSGB Club Calls Contest (1.8MHz SSB) from 20-23IJTC 'rxSee Note**lTth Talk by Landles GM XZZ on "Working with Explosives in a Quarry Environment" at Port Seton Community

Centre. Usual f,1 per person entry fee applies.

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C. Page I

Events (Continued)

18/l9d' RSGB 2'd 1.8MHz CW Contest from 21UTC Saturday until OIUTC Sunday. *rr$ss Llsls{'*25th Christmas Night Out at the Woodside Inn, Musselburgh from 7pm until lam. The cost is f,19 per person for a

disco and a meal. Contact Bob GM4UYZ as soon as possible to bookyour place and pay your money.25n6f" CQWW DX CW Contest from 00UTC Sat until 24UTC Sun **See Note**261h Bishop Auckland RAC Rally, Spenqrmoor Leisure Centre. Opens l lam, entry f,l, Talk-In on S22.

Contact Marh GOGFG on Te1.01388 745353 or Brian, GTOCK on Tel.0l388 762678 &r info

DECEMBERlst Club nigtrt in the Thorntree Inq Port Seton, 7pm till late3'd RSGB l$4Mflz,Affiliated Societies Contest (5 stations per teaml) 09-1ruTC **See Note**26-29ft RSGB 50fiA1I44/432MHz Christmas Cumulatives 14-16UTC each dav **See Note**

JANUARY7'h RSGB l44Iv{IIz CW Contest l0-l6UTC **See Note**lath Club night in the Thorntree Inn, Port Seton, 7pm till late28th Lancastrian Rally. Info from G0GVA Tel.0l772 621954

"* NOTE *** T}IE CONTESTS ABOVE WHICH REFER TO THIS NOTE ARE THOSE WHICHTI{E CLUB UMAYU TAKE PART IN. THOSE WfTgMO REFERENCE TO THISNOTE ARE ALREADY DEFIMTES,

Have a good month.73 de Colin (GMOCLN)

eES

Who Joined us at Barns Ness!Full Report Next Month

une uT lnTELETUBBI

Cockenzie & Port Seton A.R.C.

&s*Tge f8 pe^GffigAe w&s&e&ss

Page 10

Below is a copy ofthe letter that I wrote to Rob Mannion G3)GD for inclusion in the Letters page of Practical Wireless and itwas published in the September issue. For those who do not get the magazine then this is what I said.

Dear Rob,

CLUB CLOSURES

After reading your editorial on the subject of club closures I decided that I would put "fingers to keyboard" and add my small"tuppence" worth. First of all I am really disappointed to see that club's are closing as I whole heartily agree with you that theyare the future of Amateur Radio. Yes it does take commitment to run a club, that I certainly know about, but no matter how"down " you get you must be positive and look on the good that can be achieved. I really do ask people that they do not giveup but look at other ways of running the club i.e. no committees, no subscriptions or just have a general meeting and keep ittotally informal.

I feel I can justify any of the above as that is how the club that I started back in 1984 is run. I will say that it works for us andit has been successful to say the least in fact far more than I ever anticipated but that really is down to everyone concerned.Our structure from day one has been that there is absolutely no commitiee structure, definitely no annual subscriptions and to-tally informal meetings. rffhat we have is that we meet once per month in the local lounge bar of our local pub and if you tumup to this evening then you are classed as a club member, easy isn't it. We average tkoughout the year 30 people attendingeach club night so we must be doing something right. Also on club nights our monthly newsletter is also distributed which isproduced free of charge. We also through the winter months try and organise another event like a talk, radio check night, etc,which we hold in our local Community Centre. Everyone pays f I when they come to these nights, this pays the hire of theroom and any excess money goes towards our adopted charity the British Heart Foundation. I know that there will be com-ments about holding meetings in a public house, as it is difficult for youngsters to attend. This definitely applies to us hence thereason that we try and organise the Community Centre events. As mentioned earlier we have adopted the British Heart Foun-dation as our adopted charity and have successfully raised over f4500 for them^ The majority comes from our now AnnualJunk Night. This is run that when you turn up, tables are provided on first come first served basis and at no charge. Pay yourf,l entrance fee to come in the door and as well as that hopefully you will buy a raffle ticket and have a cup of tea or coffeewith some of the donated home baking and maybe a filled roll. The niglt is aimed at just being a very social night and raisingsome money for charity..

The club runs an annual Novice Class, puts on demonstration stations, very active in both VHF and I:[F contests, and lots, lotsmore. So see even though we run it very informally we are very very active.

How is this all achieved, you may ask, well I would tell a lie if I didn't say that I possibly do 90% of the club organisatioq butthat is by choice alone. There are members who produce the newsletter, organise the YHF contests, organise the IIF contestsparticularly the trip to Tiree for the IOTA contest, and others do bits aad pieces as and when required. If anything needs doneit is only a matter of asking and it will be done and I can honestly say since 1984 nobody has ever said "No" to any request.We are a &iendly group and since 1984 we have had only one real disagreement but this was not kept in and allowed to festeras we promptly hired a room and had an open chat about the problem aniving at a very amicable solution.

The above has worked for us and we have been successful with it but it shows that a club can be run without the normal struc-ture. I honestly believe with regards to ourselves that if we introduced the formal structure and subscriptions the club wouldcollapse, it is the informality that is its success. You always as well need to remember that there are what I class three levels ofclub member. (l) The very active member who wants to get things done and organised (2) The member that will do whenasked and lastly (3) the member who just wants to turn up to club night and just attend. We are all not the same and we wantdifferent things and the club is just the same but it is accepting all these levels that makes the difference. Running a club is hardwork, there is no thanks and you cannot please everyone but such is life, so my plea to those giving up just don't, keep thechin up and look for the right direction to go in. It will not be easy that I know.

A huge thank you goes out from me to those that run clubs, you do a great job so keep it up.

That's my say Rob but whether you publish this or not it is how I feel. If anyone wants to chat with me about our club and theway we run it then just put them in touch we are more than glad to help.

All the best,Bob Glasgow G!I4. UYZCockenzie & Port Seton Amateur Radio Club