RadCom April 2024, Vol. 100, No. 4

Around Your Region radcom@rsgb.org.uk April 2024 83 REGION 13: EAST MIDLANDS It has been a happy and sad month for the Lincoln Shortwave Club. On 28 January, the Club held its annual rally at Market Rasen (pictured). This was very well attended and many positive comments were made – especially regarding the bacon and sausage butties. There was a good mix of tables with businesses such as Canny Components, Mirfield Electronics, Allan Clegg and various individuals, Raynet, York Radio Club and of course the Lincoln Shortwave Club and Repeater stands. The Rally began at 9am and it was nice to see a healthy queue forming. The rally finished at 12.30pm and then the Club held a surplus equipment auction. The next rally is due to take place in July. It was with sadness that the Club said goodbye to Dave Davy, 6EWP. Dave had been a member of the Club in the 1980s and re-joined in 2017 after retiring. Although very rarely heard on the air, Dave was always in the background helping with activities and making club members laugh with his tall stories. At RAF Waddington ARC , some activities slow down during the winter months, so having two interesting talks on club nights in January and February was all the more welcome. Club members who attended the January talk by Andy, 2E0VPX were treated to an interesting and detailed account of the late Sir Clive Sinclair’s life and many inventions. A follow-up talk in February, given by Steve, M3FKH, entitled ‘The Speccy Geek’, gave attendees a fascinating account of the hardware evolution of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, driven by the constraints of the electronics of the day and the need to control cost. As a practising software engineer, Steve was able to highlight the quirks of the Spectrum and how that affected programming it. Quite a few Club members had, at one time, owned this computer and enjoyed a walk down memory lane. Now that spring is here, the Club’s program of special event stations will commence with Airfields on the Air, at former RAF Binbrook, using the callsign GB5BK. The team is looking forward to making as many contacts as possible on the HF bands (CW, SSB and FT8) and the 2m band, depending on equipment and operator availability. South Normanton, Alfreton and District ARC checked and PAT tested all its kit for the new season on the first technical night in February. All 12V power connectors were converted to Powerpole so there will be no excuses for not having the correct adaptor cable. This proved valuable as the next Saturday turned out to be bright enough for the first field day of the year. Using the Powerpoles with the new high-power lightweight batteries, and sheltered by the blow-up tent, enabled rapid deployment. Then, as it cooled, equipment was rapidly packed away. The connectors are very worthwhile investments that are recommended to all. REGION 12: EAST & EAST ANGLIA Members of Braintree and District ARS were saddened to be notified that the Society’s most senior member, Brian, G3TGB passed away peacefully at home on Sunday 4 February aged 94. Over the many years that he was a member, he contributed much to the Society. He took a keen interest in the social, technical and operating aspects of our hobby. In his early days, he constructed much of his own equipment, including transmitters and receivers and, famously, a vertical antenna made from empty baby food tins! He was an antenna experimenter, frequently making changes to his back garden layout at his Braintree QTH and reporting to club members about his DX contacts and ragchews with friends around the world. Brian supported club events and nets. For many years he was a friendly voice on the 2m band for those calling CQ, and only over the last few months found it too much for himself. His dogged perseverance, and sheer enjoyment of amateur radio, was typified in one of his favourite photos, showing him carrying on operating the Bocking Mills on the Air station in 2001 as the tent and everything else was being packed away around him! 73 Brian and may you rest in peace. REGION 11: SOUTH WEST & CHANNEL ISLES Riviera ARC was pleased to participate in the 145 Alive event in January, as a net controller, using the callsign G3AH. This provided an ideal club activity with members actively involved in both the organisation, arrangement and operation of the station. Club member Chris, M7WLL is pictured here undertaking some final preparation before the event. The day proved to be a great success with calls from a wide area across south Devon and beyond. It was also the inaugural use of the Club’s custom software logging program developed by Chris, M7WLL for club events and special event stations. Congratulations to the organisers for another successful event. Harlow and District ARS is back in full swing after the Christmas break for a bumper packed year of activity. The Society’s recent AGM demonstrated an increase in membership across a broad age range including licence holders of all levels. Friday evenings have always been an informal social affair, welcoming new members, visitors and regulars but recently the club has seen heightened interest in its Technical Tuesdays attracting on average 12 to 15 attendees members each week. An overview of the activity Tuesday 30 January is below. The Society’s Chairman Bob, G3SZF brought in a broken 1940s radio in which he had already fitted a new valve in a socket where one was missing. After some group investigation, the addition of some crocodile clip leads on the loudspeaker, and the linking out of a light bulb socket, it started to come back to life. Although not a complete refurbishment, this was a great opportunity for the club’s Foundation licensees to get hands-on inside a radio. Malcolm, M6OBH brought in his MFJ antenna analyser which was giving incorrect impedance measurements at home. Peter, G4ADG assisted by downloading the circuits and demonstrated how the setup could be adjusted. The device was then connected to a VHF antenna and tested to give the same readings as the Club’s MFJ analyser. Malcolm also brought in an un-un to try out with a long-wire antenna. It was set up with a length of wire hung in the trees outside the front of the club. With his fixed antenna analyser, a resonant frequency could not be found, even with a counterpoise wire connected. Following further investigation using a dummy load on the un-un input connector and the MFJ analyser on the output terminals, it was discovered that the device was in fact a 1:1 choke that would be used as part of a dipole antenna. Members calculated the lengths for a 20m loft dipole antenna for Malcolm to try out at home. Colin, G0MGU, bought in a PSU to fix and an Icom rig to test it on. After tightening up some of the internal connections in the PSU, the rig was connected for testing. Unfortunately, there was still a problem with voltage drop when the rig was turned on. The PSU’s current limiting circuitry was suspected to be the issue and will become another project for another Tuesday. Alan, M0TEC brought in a new low-power SDR transceiver to demonstrate using the club’s HF beam. The performance of this very compact transceiver was very impressive. Next on the agenda for Technical Tuesdays is a faulty antenna rotator and some CHIRP programming. If you are interested in finding out more about Harlow and District ARS and its events calendar for 2024, visit g6ut.com for details