www.warc.org.uk

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JOURNAL JANUARY 2009 ISSUE 68

WARRINGTON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

G3NFB-50th Anniversary

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of receiving my G3NFB licence on 8thDecember 1958 I have been thinking about how it all started and what I

learned in the early years.

My interest in radio started in my early teens in Barrow when there was a craze atschool for building crystal sets. I built a couple with no success until I learned thatin addition to a long wire as an aerial (as we called them in those days); it was

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advisable to have a good earth system as well. By this time I had learned enoughto know that it was not sufficient to stick a piece of wire into a plant pot and expectthat to provide a good earth – even if you kept it well watered. Having neithergarden nor even a window box I connected the earth wire to the springs of my bedinstead. That did the trick but I was disappointed not to be able to receive AMbroadcasts. All I could receive were transmissions from trawlers in the Irish Sea.Interesting but not what I expected. I have often wondered how I would have faredin a thunder storm.The scout troop of which I was a member held annual jumble sales to raise fundsand I used to collect jumble from the area where I lived. This was a good source ofold pre-war radios which I was able to buy for pennies at the sales. Our house wasa large Victorian terraced house which had a defunct bell system for communicat-ing between the previous occupants and their servants. Those days had long goneby that time. We did not have servants I hasten to add. We could not even afford apet mouse. When I was old enough to explore the roof space of the house on myown I discovered two large Leclanché cells and several feet of cotton covered wire.I recognized the cells for what they were from similar ones we had at school in thePhysics Lab and found out how they worked from the Physics teacher. The wire, Isalvaged for further use. Eventually, I salvaged the solenoids from the systemannunciator box. To cut a long story short I never did get the cells to work againbut I made an important discovery, after several shocks and burns, that cottoncovered wire was not very safe at mains voltages.The jumble radios were a good source of components. One of the radios had abattery eliminator which enabled me to use the radio on the mains, together with a2volt accumulator which I bought from a local chemist for 12/6d. The chemist wasvery good to me and used to recharge the accumulator for me gratis. He also usedto sell me chemicals to make water gardens using ‘Waterglass’ (an egg preserva-tive), and for making my own fireworks – but that is another story which endedpromptly when I shot myself in the leg with a home-made cannon.One of my fondest memories of those days was lying in bed listening to mysalvaged radio which was playing the “Elizabethan Serenade” – a popular tunecomposed to commemorate the Coronation in 1953.The signals were coming over the ether from Radio Luxemburg which due to thedistance between me and the TX suffered greatly from deep fast QSB. Of course Iknew all about, and believed in, the ‘Ether’ as I had by this time read Scroggie. Idid not find out how QSB by selective fading works until much later.When I was about 15 a new radio repair shop was opened just round the corner fromwhere I lived. It turned out that it was owned by G3HQU (Gerry) who knew anuncle of mine. Gerry became my mentor and taught me a lot about radio. I wasintroduced to other hams in Barrow and was always welcome in their shacks.

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Club ProgrammeDate Title Speaker06 Jan Annual General Meeting13 Jan CQWW - CW Re-Visited Mike G4VSS

K2 Capers Albert G3ZHE15 Jan Christmas Dinner20 Jan Speaker Required27 Jan My Part in 1940s Communications John Mak G7SF

Speakers Required for 2009!

Offers or ideas for talks to the programme coordinator Roger Spensley M0DWQ

Club ContactsChairman Paul Middlehurst, G1DVA ptm@middlehurst.org.ukSecretary Paul Carter G7ODJ carterpaul7@sky.comPresident Mike Isherwood G4VSS g4vss@btinternet.comMembership fees toTreasurer Bill Rabbitt G0PZP williamg0pzp@btinternet.com

ContentsPage Title Author Call Sign1 G3NFB-50th Anniversary Jim G3NFB

4 Deborah Mansfield G1HUX Mike M0AWD6 Ernie Gouldsborough M0GEM Albert G3ZHE10 My Big IR George G3NFB12 A letter From a Country Member Ken M0AKR13 Suggestions For Aerials Chris 4LDS14 WARC Members and the RSGB Ron G0WJX14 Predicted Sunspot Numbers and Radio Flux Jim G3NFB16 Mullard Norbits Albert G3ZHE

Anyone wishing to contribute to the magazine should send or give their copy to theeditor Ron, G0WJX preferably in MS Word, .txt format or e-mail.

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Deborah Mansfield G1HUX27th August 1957 – 27th December 2008

Debby was born on 27th August 1957at Lytham St Annes of parents Anne

and George Faux. Her parents separatedearly in her life and she was brought upmostly by her mother Anne and stepfatherJack Bell at a beautiful thatched cottage ina village called Newton Regis, havingmoved from Sheffield in her early years.She still remained in contact with her fatherGeorge Faux, throughout her life. She hada totally devoted older brother Michael anda half-sister Georgina.

Debby became a computer programmerafter leaving college, having been encour-aged to take an aptitude test by stepfather Jack who wanted her to keep anothercandidate company during a test. Unfortunately the candidate failed the test andDebby proved to be the more able programmer.Some time later, despite some parental reservations Debby left home and shared aflat with two other girls at Burton on Trent and started work at Pirelli tyres as acomputer programmer. Debby met her husband Michael at Pirelli where he was acomputer operator and they married at Newton Regis after 2 years with a wonderfulvillage wedding reception provided by all her friends in the village. Debby had avery strong bond with her stepfather as well as her own father and found it the mostdifficult choice to make of her life as to who should take her up the aisle. Therewere in any case two very proud fathers on that day. Debbie and Michael have beenmarried for 27 years.After leaving Pirelli at Burton on Trent they moved to Thelwall where Michaelworked as a communications controller at TSB Bank. Debby continued to programfor a while longer but began to have problems with concentration and so gave upher job. She never worked again.Debby and Michael finally moved to Lower Whitley and lived there for some 14years, being extremely happy with their two dogs and the wonderful surroundingcountryside.Debby was identified as having cerebella ataxia which would slowly destroy herbody and mind. Every one who knew her was devastated by the news but strangely

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Debby dealt with the issue calmly and pragmatically and never once complained.The only complaint ever made was that she hated peas which Michael had beenfeeding to her in total ignorance for over 15 years, which finally explained why thedogs always sat by her at the table, obviously picking the peas off the floor.In her remaining years at Lower Whitley she created the most intricate ornatepewter work until her hands could no longer hold the tools and took lessons inartistic artificial flower arranging. She had a love of coin collecting and collectingplace names for a silver bracelet. She loved gardening and walking the dogs andtrying to cook despite her problems. She won a modest cash prize from her brother(finally and after some reluctance to pay) for never smoking a cigarette.Despite the progressive illness Debby had a gritty determination to continue in allaspects of life and undertook her amateur radio qualification, which she refused totake in one year of study as she wanted a better grade than her husband. She tookan active part in amateur radio and became a very much liked and respectedmember of Warrington Amateur Radio Club. Despite slowly losing her ability totalk she was often heard in the daytime on the local amateur radio channels. Theclub members always asked after her and made every effort to accommodate herneeds.Debby and Michael travelled around the world four times visiting Hong Kong,Singapore, Bali, Kuala Lumpar, New Zealand and most of Australia many times.She has seen the Great Barrier Reef from a submarine, drunk cocktails at Rafflesand visited most of Europe many times. Michael built a specially adapted villa inSpain where she spent many holidays in the sunshine until it became impossible totravel.Despite an ever increasing inability to communicate she fought the illness for over20 years, never once giving in to the illness until she finally lost the battle on 27thDecember 2008. The wonderful caring staff at Westwood Court Nursing Homewere totally devoted to Debby and looked after her ever increasing demands to thehighest possible standards, for which the family are eternally grateful.Her amazing courage and determination, generosity and gentle kind nature willhave touched many who knew her.

Mike M0AWDMike M0AWD provided the details of Debby’s life above. Those of us who met herand witnessed her deteriorating condition know how distressing it was but remem-ber how Mike helped and cared for her which allowed her to attend the club andclub events long after she ceased to be mobile under her own steam. Janet and Ihave an abiding memory of Mike and Debby rolling on the ground laughing whenDebby fell and Mike for once failed to save her.Ron G0WJX

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Ernie Gouldsborough M0GEM

The picture is of Ernie at home looking at a wind speed instrument. He did allthe lath and milling work. I did the electronics. It was a prototype for a GCSE

school project.

Ernie died on Sunday December 7th 2008. He wasborn in Castleford in 1919 and was 89 years old.After a toolmaking apprenticeship he signed onwith the RAF before WW2.He was an engine specialist working on every typeof British plane and several German and Italianplanes at the end of WW2. Before D Day he was ona night fighter squadron withBlenheim/Beaufighters and Mosquitoes,they beingour only planes big enough to carry early Radar. Heworked for Cat's Eyes Cunningham, Guy Gibsonand many other air aces of the day  . One day hetaxied out a Mosquito to see if it could fly off amarked out carrier deck. In the crowd was Winstonhimself. Ernie gave him a nice V sign as he taxiedpast and Winston raised his top hat to him. After D Day Ernie was senior NCO witha large repair outfit. They moved up to airfields close to the line as they were taken.He found out he had a son when a stores document came in from Britain with thepre arranged line - "Teapot arrived with spout".After WW2 he worked for a Doncaster firm doing Rolls Royce Merlin engineoverhauls ready to fit into Lancasters as they were converted to LancastrianAirliners for civilian use.The British Rail Doncaster works was next. Ernie was responsible for all the mainline passenger locos He has had the Scotsman, Mallard and others in bits on hisbench. Later he was employed as a sub contract   toolmaker on presses forFords. After being taken over by Fords and working at Halewood he got out andbought a fish and chip shop called the Golden Fryer in Warrington.His hobbies covered model steam engine building, CB radio and eventually Ama-teur radio. I helped him with Morse and we both went to Harrogate Ladies Collegefor a weekend of 12 wpm CW. He passed and we know the rest. Ernie becamea good member of the club and always wanted to help.RIP Ernie.      ...-.-

Albert G3ZHE

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Shortly afterwards, the locals restarted the Barrow Radio Club and I became theSecretary. Most of the locals had been in radio and radar in the war and had gainedtheir licences based on their service experience without the need to pass the RAEor, in some cases, the Morse test.A couple of years before I got my licence, a colleague at work gave me a Hallicraft-ers ‘Skyrider’ HF receiver. It did not work and the cord had come off the tuningmechanism. I found that the audio output valve (6F6 if I remember correctly) wasmissing so I spent a week’s wages on a new valve, re-stringed the tuning controland found that it worked. It even had a bandspread control. Such luxury! I spentmany hours listening to hams and broadcast stations all over the world untileventually I splashed out on an ex-navy CR100 receiver.1958 was the best of times to have been doing radio as it was the peak year of thebest ever solar cycle. The Sunspot Number peaked at 220 in December 1957 andfell gradually during 1958 to about 170 in December 1958. It was on the other handunfortunate that I was inexperienced as I was not able to take full advantage of it.Another of the locals was Walt G3JCQ a keen DXer who taught me to listen in theevenings to the broadcast band above the ham band that I wanted to work the nextday to assess the possibility of DX occurring.I studied each Saturday morning at the local Technical College for my RAE whichI took in May 1958. After I received my pass results a couple of months later Istarted to learn Morse code. Arthur G3MVD successfully taught me Morse and Itook the test, and passed it, in the Liver Buildings in Liverpool. This was thenearest test station to Barrow and I had to be sure of passing before I went. In thosedays a Morse test pass was only valid for 12 months so it was advisable to have aconfirmed RAE pass before taking the Morse test as the RAE was only availablefor sitting in May each year. The RAE itself was in two parts – licence conditions/operating procedure and technical. A pass in both parts was necessary to gain apass. The technical part required written descriptions of how circuits and equip-ment worked, and working with radio formulae. I had good RAE and Morsetuition. The RAE tutor was a lecturer at the Tech and very interested in radioalthough not licensed. G3MVD worked only 40m CW with about 30 w and a longwire. I have always been grateful for the help given to me by the Barrow lads asthey encouraged me in a great enduring hobby which lead also to a very interestingprofessional career.At the start I got on the air with my CR100 and a huge, heavy CW/AM TXconsisting of an Italian Geloso exciter (oscillator/buffer) unit driving 2 x 807 beamtetrode PA valves giving about 75 watts output, screen grid modulated by anElizabethan audio amplifier with 2 x 807 valves in the output. The microphonewas a crystal insert mounted on a piece of brass rod fixed to a base which was thechrome dome of a bicycle bell. This was pretty standard equipment in those days.

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It required the operator to tune the TX to the RX frequency before transmitting - aprocedure known as ‘netting’. Then one had to tune the two Pi tank capacitors togive the right conditions of antenna loading on the PA, indicated by a distinct dipin PA current while maintaining it at an appropriate level for the intended poweroutput. It sounds complicated but was not too difficult to learn. The 807s were veryforgiving and tolerant of high SWR (before you burned out your PA)10 meters was wide open when I first was licensed and you could work the worldon a piece of wet string with low power. Unfortunately for me I was located, inBarrow, on the fringe of TV reception from Winter Hill and even though I had alow pass filter my transmission interfered with the TVs in the area and I was verymuch restricted to operating out of TV hours. This was not the imposition it mightseem as TV was not available 24/7 as it is these days. Generally the morning andlate evening hours were TV free so a good deal of operating was possible. Most ofmy operating was on 10m AM and we had a Sunday morning net each week on10m. The antenna I used was a 10m ground plane I built using 5 ex-WD tankaerials fed with 75 ohm TV coax – a complete mismatch but it worked. I am nevertoo bothered about SWR not being 1:1 as long as it does not go much over 2:1. Thecentre boss for the fixing of the 4 ground plane rods was a valve hole outcut fromthe hull of a submarine. The whole antenna was mounted at a height of about 10 ftabove ground on a derrick arm I bought from a ship breakers yard.I also had a random length of long wire which I used on 40m. That also workedfine - probably more by luck than by design because I did not have a tuner.Sometimes I could hear the capacitors in the TX Pi tank arcing over, but the 807swere very forgiving. From where I lived I could almost see Wales acrossMorecambe Bay and the Wirral but for some reason it took me a long time to worka GW.A couple of years later I learned about the benefits of an ATU and built myself aZ-Match tuner. My QSO rate fell sharply much to my surprise. Now, the capaci-tors in the tuner used to arc over sometimes. Again I soldiered on for a long timenot working very much on the long wire. Then I built an SWR meter and all wasrevealed. I found it was possible to get false PA tuning indications using theZ-Match. Only particular settings of the Z-Match controls would ensure that powerwas being delivered to the antenna. At the false settings, presumably the power wasbeing dissipated in the Z-Match. Another thing I discovered was that the capacitorsin my low pass filter had all been damaged. also that it is useless trying to put a lowpass filter into an unmatched transmission line e.g. an end fed antenna . The filterhas to be matched properly in order to function.Did you know that you can use twin lighting flex as a feeder instead of coax? HerbG4QB, a real pre-war oldtimer gave me this tip when I was a member of the

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Shefford Club. He was a keen 10m operator and had never bought coax. I havetried twisted and flat twin and find they work OK.Since the early years I have had a variety of equipment as the technology of thehobby has advanced. After the CR100 I used a couple of HROs and a BC348then in the mid 60s I went SSB with FR50 RX and Sphinx TX (mainly on TopBand and 20m). My interest at the time was loaded antennas, of which I designedand built a few different configurations. By then I no longer believed in the Etherand had learned a bit about antennas and propagation.In Germany in the 1970s, I entered the world of transceivers and operated for 5years as DJ0AO using a FT150 transceiver and a G-Whip mobile antenna from myfirst floor flat balcony using chicken wire as a ground plane fixed to the balconyrailing. This worked OK but played havoc with the neighbours’ stereo systems. Ibelonged to the firm’s radio club and the local radio club, both of which had farbetter set-ups than mine for base station and field days so I got plenty of operatingfrom decent locations.Soon after coming to live in Warrington and joining the Warrington club in 1976 Ibought an FT101E which I used for many years. With plenty of space for antennasand within sight of Winter Hill I have enjoyed a lot of relatively trouble freeoperating, until the advent of intruder alarms that is. Apart from a couple of QSOson 2m with a borrowed portable rig using a single acorn valve, when I first gotstarted, my only VHF operating has been in the last 20 years since I bought anICOM “Electric Handbag” and joined CARES along with Guy G8NRF, BillSparkes G8FBX and other club members. That rig was 3w FM only but I also laterbought the companion SSB/CW rig. That rig was used mainly for talkback whenout with my homebrew 10GHz equipment.In recent years I have upgraded my equipment and now run an IC 756 PROII as abase station for HF and 50 MHz. I also have an IC 706 MKIIG which covers HF,6m, 2m, and 70cms. For travelling and QRP working I use an FT817, which is atthe radio hospital at present after I made a stupid mistake and fed it with 24v!!!Several relatively newly licensed lads have commiserated with me and told me thatthey are pleased that even experienced oldtimers make mistakes. Some comfort.HI HI.I have always tried to keep up with current technology, even if lagging behind it bya couple of years. Unfortunately, it is sadly getting away from me. My forays intosurface mount technology have not been an unqualified success and I do not havetoo much interest in the latest data techniques such as D-Star and some of thecomputerised operating facilities. I am very interested though in the use of mycomputer attached to my radio for QSO logging, for instrumentation measurementsand for running design programs.

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Since retiring 10 years ago I have had plenty of opportunities to operate from home,out portable, and from different countries abroad and thoroughly enjoyed it. All theyears I was working most of my operating took place at weekends. During theweekdays the bands were relatively quiet and I always thought it would be great tobe retired and to be able to get on to the quiet bands in the week. The reality issomewhat different to my expectations. There seems to be more activity on thebands during the week now than there ever was including contesting which used tobe a weekend activity. So not much has changed for me in terms of band occupancyduring the times I want to operate. I also enjoy contesting so am able to enjoy someweekend operating. The other problem of course is that when you are retired younever seem to have any time to do anything.There is a lot more I could write about. For example, I have been a member of andofficer of several radio clubs as I have lived in various places, and met all sorts ofpeople and had experiences which would be worth a mention. But I think that ifyou have reached this point then that is probably enough for now. Here’s to the next50 years!

Jim G3NFB

My Big IR

When I downsized my home three and a half years ago, the first thing to go wasmy 45 ft (13.5 metres I think) tower with its TH7DX HF beam.

The new house has quite a small garden at the rear (about 22 ft x 45 ft) and no waycould I contemplate a tower in any case due to being surrounded by other houses.I therefore tried numerous wire antennae (note my classical education!), none ofwhich came anywhere near to satisfying my wish to emulate the performance of myprevious antenna. I therefore decided that the best idea might be a vertical despitethe problem of a small area of garden for the necessary radials.My answer was to buy a SteppIR vertical and I plumped for the BigIR covering 40to 6m. This works just like the Club’s SteppIR in that a tape runs up and down thefibreglass tube to tune to a full size quarter wave vertical.It arrived in a 5 ft long box and took about 15 minutes to assemble. A much longertime was spent digging a hole about 2 ft deep, filling it with dry mix concrete fittedwith an aluminium tube to take the antenna. The concrete was then sprayed withwater and eventually set very successfully with the result that the BigIR when fittedwas, near as dammit, vertical.The radials (20 of them) were then fitted by slitting the lawn and pushing them inabout 2”. They were about 0.1 wavelengths long at 7 MHz. I also drove in four 4 ftlong earth rods.

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Fitting the coax and control cable from the second floor shack to the antenna tookthe best part of a day but apart from a short length externally on the wall cannot beseen due to passing the coax behind a built in wardrobe on the first floor.Tests showed a superb SWR on 30m to 6m with unfortunately a very high SWR on40m.I tried fitting a further four radials 0.25 wavelength long at 7 MHz without muchimprovement. I took the antenna down and checked that the tape really did extendto a quarter wave (about 32 ft) on 7 MHz which it did.I decided to ring Vine Antennas (note their lack of a classical education) and had along chat – this led to little improvement, even after they had contacted SteppIRwho wrote to me about lengths of verticals etc etc as if I were a newly licensedamateur – so no help there.In the end I was forced to use an ATU – for me the A stands for anathema. I havealways considered that it should not be beyond the wit of any licensed amateurworth his salt to have an antenna in a permanent installation that didn’t present 50Ohm impedance to the transmitter.And that’s the situation today! It does work well on all bands 40 to 10 (I have nevertried 6) but the dratted ATU is needed on 40.After a week or two of the erection, I got a visit from the MD of the builders whocomplained about the “CB aerial” I had in the garden, which, he said, was puttingoff people from buying the other houses on the development (mine was the onlyone occupied at this stage). I told him that I was a radio amateur and unless I hadcomplaints from neighbours the antenna was staying where it was.A few days later I got a letter from his solicitor telling me that such an antennaneeded planning approval which (they had checked) I did not have and that if I didapply they would strenuously object. I replied that their description of the antennawas greatly exaggerated and that, in any case, I did not need planning approval asit was at the rear of the building and did not exceed the building height . Since thenI have heard nothing further and my neighbours who have since moved in have notmentioned it.In spite of the fact that the antenna is surrounded by buildings, it performs exactlyas a full size quarter wave vertical should – a low angle of radiation gives good DXcoverage and, band conditions helping, I have little difficulty in getting world wideQSOs with 300 Watts from my CDG2000 which, I must admit, is the main reasonfor its success.On reflection, I am sure that the reason for the poor SWR on 40m is the groundconductivity which is very poor. My Jerry builder laid turf on top of the demolitionrubble and I am sure that with better soil conductivity the SWR would be vastlyimproved.

George G3OGQ

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A letter From a Country MemberWith an invitation to join an HF net.Hello Ron,

Many thanks for e-mailing the club Mag each time. I received it yesterday. Ithought it was time I put pen to paper, and sent you something in return.

It seems a long time since I used to sit between George (G0APY) and Maurice(M0CMJ) at the radio club when it was in the old room.Now Maurice has left us. Such a kind, gentle, man he was.We spent 10yrs in Somerset, in a little village called Blagdon Hill, 4 miles south ofTaunton, on the Blackdown hills, close to the top of the Blackdowns actually.We moved to Plymouth 3yrs ago to be close to our younger son James.It did not seem right for us to stay in that very lovely spot in Somerset, if I died andleft Penny up in the Blackdowns alone, James in Plymouth and Christopher inReading, she would have been quite isolated. The time to move is when we are able,not when one of us might have to.By the way, did you know that George Flood was one of my old teachers at school?I join a mini "net" most days on 80, 3.610 plus or minus, at 10-00am sharp. JackG3HEL lives quite near to me, but is from the Leigh/Astley area, Ted G3JJA is inCrewe or near to. We are sometimes joined by another northern lad now living inTruro, Les G0KSF.It would be very nice if one or two of the Warrington lads could join us somemornings, you would, I am sure be very welcome.I have a very good friend now living near Bodmin, who I think, was one of thefounder members of the Warrington club. He is Mike Wyse G3IWE, and is also anold friend of George G0APY. Mike and I chat on the 'phone most weeks, and wouldyou believe, sometimes on the air. HI.I did visit George when my wife and I were in the Warrington area earlier in theyear, I spent a very enjoyable 3 or 4 hours chatting with my old friend.  He gave mehis old IC 746!!  He would not take any payment for it whatsoever!  I do not thinkit had been used for about 5 years or so.A few days after arriving home, I fired it up, it gave a few coughs and wheezes, andoff we went.  I try to use it as often as time permits, to keep the dielectric reformedin the capacitors for one thing.Well Ron, if you have recovered from the shock of hearing from me, get yourself acup of tea and sit down.Perhaps I could send you some input for the mag at some time in the future.Best regards.

Ken Daniels M0AKR in Plymouthm0akr@talktalk.net Locator IO70WI

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Suggestions For AerialsHaving recently moved into the Warrington area I looked round for low profileaerials and thought I could share my ideas and findings with the club.W3EPDThis simple aerial I used in Essex on 5 MHz to good effect. This is a simple end fedof 85 feet and a counterpoise of 17 feet.What I found very useful was that the aerial does not need to go out in a straightline, it can have bends, kinks etc. The counterpoise does not need to be used on 80meters but is needed on all other bands above. This aerial is also useful for portableuse.

The down side is that it should be fed via a balanced ATU. A good balanced ATUis the Zee match which you can buy on E-bay for around £35. Most commercialATUs you buy these days have a 4:1 balun transformer built in. You can of coursebuild a 4:1 balun transformer very easily and, even better, cheaply yourself.My version in Great Sankey went up from the ATU along the bedroom wall to thewindow, 90 degree turn for around 3 feet to the corner of the house and another 90degree bend to run along the outside wall along the gutter and then down into thegarden to the garage so that the free end was around 6 feet from the ground! Itseemed to work as I heard Australia and New Zealand on 40m and Stateside on80m. I also got good reports on 40/20m on QRP SSB!

Chris Baker G4LDS

ATU17 ft

85 ft

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Predicted Sunspot Numbers andRadio Flux

I have derived the following table from information available from the latestSolar-Geophysical Data reports and summaries in the "Spaceweather Now"

website.

The table shows predicted values every three months from January 2009 to October2015 for sunspot cycle 24 and shows a very fast rise over three years to a sunspotmaximum in December 2011. Compare with June 2008 - in the first data line.So, not too long to wait for some good HF propagation conditions if the predictionsare correct.(You may remember that Ken G0AKF talked to us last year about Penticton inCanada)Predicted_Sunspot_Numbers_and_Radio_FluxCreated: 2008 Dec 06 2200 UTCPrepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center(SWPC).Sunspot Number: S.I.D.C. Brussels International Sunspot Number.

WARC Members and the RSGB

Elsewhere in this issue Jim G3NFB reflects on his 50 years as a licensed amateurand RSGB member. What Jim also draws our attention to is the way that

members of our club are mentioned in RadCom, for example in the April issue(page 89) that carried the congratulatory message about Jim’s 50 years there was asupplement about Technical Topics that acknowledged the contributions made byColin Horrabin G3SBI and Jack Hardcastle G3JIR and we are all aware of thedesign and construction articles by George Fare G3OGQ in past years and morerecently the CDG2000 transceiver project in which he was joined by Colin andDave Roberts G8KBB - all WARC members. You will also have found a mentionand photo of our President Mike Isherwood on page 11 of the April RadCom. Sadlythis issue also recorded John Finnie M0KGF as a silent key. Now this is an entrywe should all try to avoid for as long as possible!

Ron G0WJX

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Sunspot Numbers 10.7 cm Radio FluxYear Month Predicted High Low Predicted High Low2008 06 3.5 3.8 3.2 66.5 69.4 63.52009 01 14.5 18.6 10.4 72.0 78.4 65.52009 04 24.5 31.9 17.2 79.3 88.8 69.82009 07 35.2 46.2 24.2 91.0 101.1 80.92009 10 47.1 62.3 31.9 102.0 115.9 88.02010 01 59.3 78.6 40.0 113.1 130.8 95.42010 04 71.0 94.0 48.1 124.0 145.0 102.92010 07 81.9 107.8 56.0 133.9 157.6 110.12010 10 91.4 119.4 63.4 142.6 168.3 116.92011 01 99.4 128.6 70.1 149.8 176.7 123.02011 04 105.5 135.1 75.9 155.5 182.7 128.42011 07 109.8 138.8 80.8 159.5 186.2 132.92011 10 112.3 139.9 84.7 161.8 187.2 136.42012 01 113.1 138.6 87.5 162.4 185.9 139.02012 04 112.0 134.9 89.2 161.6 182.5 140.62012 07 109.6 129.3 89.9 159.3 177.4 141.32012 10 105.8 122.0 89.7 155.8 170.7 141.02013 01 101.0 113.5 88.5 151.4 162.9 139.92013 04 95.2 104.0 86.4 146.2 154.2 138.12013 07 88.8 94.0 83.7 140.2 145.0 135.52013 10 82.0 83.8 80.2 134.0 135.6 132.32014 01 74.9 76.2 73.7 127.5 128.7 126.32014 04 67.9 71.8 63.9 121.0 124.6 117.42014 07 60.9 67.0 54.7 114.5 120.2 108.92014 10 54.1 62.1 46.1 108.3 115.7 101.02015 01 47.7 57.0 38.4 102.5 111.0 93.92015 04 41.7 51.9 31.5 97.0 106.3 87.72015 07 36.3 46.9 25.6 91.9 101.7 82.22015 10 31.2 42.0 20.5 87.3 97.2 77.5

10.7cm Radio Flux value: Penticton, B.C. Canada.Prediction values are based on an average of the ISES panel cycle 24 forecastsof 13-month running smoothed valuesPredicted Sunspot Number And Radio Flux Values With Expected Ranges

Jim G3NFB

Mullard Norbits

I suppose you could call them the first integrated circuits. They were developedby Phillips and Mullard in the 1950s. I came across them in 1962 after the Bold

Power Station A2 30 megawatt generator explosion. I was asked to design and buildan alarm system that would cover several items of the plant that should have beenalarmed. We chose to use Norbits.

Although I was not a radio amateur until 1970 I still liked to look inside things (justnosey). They were easy to split open being 2 plastic mouldings glued together. Themouldings had recesses on the  inside to take transistors and resistors as Norbitswere RTL(resistor transistor logic). They required positive and negative 24v powersupplies. I had to insulate the smoothing caps for the negative supply to stop them

shorting to Earth. Each unit contained two circuits with two inputs to each switchand one output. Today we can equate them to the TTL 7400 or the Cmos 4001chips. On the web  I have recently read that they would switch at 100kHz. TheMullard information I had in 1962 said ONE kHz.Bold had a B station with three 60 megawatt generators. They spent most of theirtime flat out on the grid as Base Load Generators. Bold B ran in the top 20UK power stations based on cost per unit generated at the time so outage time costlots of money (The winter outage cost for one 500 megawatt unit at Fiddlers Ferrywas £25,000 per hour).  B2 developed a tripping fault and the experts could not pinthe reason down as it was one of four things that could trigger the trip. At theirrequest I built a four way first up alarm system using Norbits. The next time B2tripped we had the reason for the trip and put it right after which there was no moretrouble. The simple first up alarm and the money saved more than paid for all theNorbit alarm systems we put into the A station.STRIKE ONE FOR NEW TECH EH!!!

Albert G3ZHE      73 ...-.-