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Est. 1938 Club Call G4HRS

The Journal of

Horsham Amateur Radio Club

November 2019

Sponsored by: Affiliated to:

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Contents

In this issue

3. Notes from the Editor Operating, natter and on tour

4. A load of junk! Yes it’s a review of our latest auction

5. No RF Bryn tells the story of the club Autumn club vacation

7. CQ CQ Freddy Hunt the fox

8. The News WW1 and a rally

10. Listen here Broadcast round up

13. VHF John’s long distance ventures

18. Diary of events

Full listings for the month

Cover photo: Mike G8CKT auctioneering an AVO

Published by Horsham Amateur Radio ClubHARCNEWS is produced at home by G4JHI

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We have a bumper edition this month, in fact the most material all at once for some time! Myself I have been keeping busy on the air operating on some Tuesday and Saturday evenings on the 2 metre club channel, also on most Sunday morning’s on 80 metres. One week I come up on the BAD Net 3722 kHz and the following week on the Maidstone Net 3680 kHz which seems to work well.

Editorial

I am getting very good reports on NVIS from Kent using a doublet antenna. For those wondering why I partake in a Kent based net it’s because I used to operate on 3675 kHz Sunday morning’s and some of those operators have migrated slightly HF to this alternative net. I have actually have some disruption to my schedules as one weekend in early October I spent in Eastbourne with one of my friends from Kent and we did a bit of operating on 2 metres and some HF listening.

During the listening session which was on 80 metres a homebrew coat hanger anti-QRN antenna was used to feed a small scanner. It consisted on a ferrite rod and a couple of capacitors and much of the racquet coming from within the hotel could be nulled out, very effective! Also midweek in the middle of the same month I went to France over 2 days on a works outing via the Eurotunnel. There was no time to play amateur radio and the proceedings involved a whole day of sitting in lectures.

David G4JHI

The coat hanger anti-QRN antenna

Copy deadline for emailed items for December edition 20th November - For written items the deadline is 12th November.

For items sent by email please send to this address:

harc.news@g4jhi.co.uk

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October 2019 Meeting

Junk Sale

The Autumn Junk Sale started with Robin doing the auctioneering for a while. First up arrived a handful of scanners very useful for radio enthusiasts! Then we had a noise source, 2.4 GHz Yagi, hand drill and a signal generator made by Avo. The next set of items brought us a 2019 RSGB Handbook (this didn’t go for £1 this time!), GDO, oscilloscope, satellite meter that beeps at you and a selection of monitors.

The next item was the bargain of the evening an HTC mobile phone which went for 50p! A device that can make your television into a Smart TV then came up for auction and your Editor eventuallymade a good enough offer to take it away. This was a Google Chromecast unit complete with original box and power supply. Other items of interest were an FM mobile rig and Icom PMR both high band transmitters and an ex taxi unit which could be used on 2 metres.

The event was reasonably well attended and at the end of the evening the Treasurer reported a good sale. Thanks as always to auctioneers Mike G8CKT and Robin G3OGP, Richard 2E0XRT and Adrian G4LRP hander outers, Steve G4TPO, Paul G4TMC, Alistair G3ZBU on finance, Mick G4EFO on catering and David G4JHI on door duty.

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Report on HARC trip to South Devon – Sept 19

By Bryn - G3SWC

A group of twelve travelled to Dartmouth, south Devon over the long weekend of 20-23rd September, staying at the Best Western Dartmouth Hotel.The hotel is surrounded by its own golf course – photo left.

Our individual choice of local daytime activities included visits to –

Dartmouth town & river Dart, NT Greenway NT Coleton FishacreNT Overbeck’sPaignton via steam railwaySalcombeTotnesBuckfast Abbey & Buckfast steam railwayDartmoor

Buckfast Abbey

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We all met for our evening meal which included Dartmouth restaurants “Bushell’s Riverside” and “Kendrick’s” – we can recommend both if you are thinking of going to Dartmouth. The Sunday evening was spent in the hotel enjoying a few pre-dinner drinks followed by a most enjoyable meal – photo below

View from NT Overbeck’s River Dart looking towards Kingswear fromNT Greenway

L to R: Jon M0TWM & Lucy, Eva & Bryn G3SWC, Yvonne & Mike G8CKT, Pat & Robin G3OGP, Trish & Richard G4ANN, Dorry & Alister G3ZBU

In summary - a grand social occasion without radio! Where next year – I have some ideas!

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Calling all Fox Hunters - HARC Fox Hunt Sunday 17th November

Freddy Fox (aided and abetted by Mike, G8CKT, and Yvonne, G6CKT) has managed to escape again and will be going to ground on the morning of Sunday 17th November at a secret location somewhere in West Sussex.

Start pointThe start point will be at the QTH of Robin, G3OGP, Garlands Farm, The Haven, TQ 083313.

Start timeThe start time will be 10:00 local with transmissions every 10 minutes, each lasting for a period of two minutes. The very last transmission will be at mid-day.

EnvelopesJust in case you need it, a sealed envelope will be provided at the start point with full details of Freddy’s Lair, his mobile number, and directions to the watering hole.

Freddy’s channel and the maps you will needTransmissions will be on the Horsham “club channel” 144.725 MHz FM. The maps you will need are Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 Landranger series: 186 (Aldershot and Guildford) and 187 (Dorking, Reigate and Crawley). Not taken part before?Regular participants will already know that our HARC Fox Hunts are not only easy but also great fun. We don’t take them too seriously and they provide a great opportunity to get together for a chat, drink and even lunch afterwards. All you need is a set of wheels (essential), a 2m handy-talkie with a signal strength indicator, and a directional antenna such as an HB9CV, ZL-special, or a small Yagi (a three or four element beam works very well). You also need a couple of maps (see the earlier list) and a compass. If you want to take part but don’t know what to do, there will be plenty of us to point you in the right direction!

Likely to be feeling hungry?We will reserve tables for anyone requiring lunch after the Fox Hunt but please let Mike, G8CKT, have numbers and names by Friday 8th November at the latest so we can make the reservation for you. We can offer you an excellent lunch with main courses from £14 to £18 with a choice of three roasts, vegetarian options and a selection of pub classics such as burgers or fish and chips. Starters and/or puddings are available for around £7. Please contact me by e-mail to miketooley<at>aol.com or by ‘phone on 01403 783127.

AMATEUR RADIO AT BROOKLANDS MUSEUM

The volunteers of the Brooklands Wireless Communications Collection are planning to operate the Museum’s special Amateur Radio Callsign (GB1BM) to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the ending of hostilities of the First World War.

Date - Saturday 9th November 2019.

Location - the “Finishing Straight”, Brooklands Museum, Brooklands Road, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 0SL.

Operation - we will aim at contacting 101 other radio stations using a single frequency/channel.

The reason for 101 is that it is 101 years since 11/11/1918. And operating on a single frequency is because most radio equipment in use in 1918 was only capable of operating on a single frequency or channel.

Radio Amateurs can assist in two ways - work the station on the air (GB1BM will probably be working in the 40m band and the actual operating frequency will be shown live on “hrdlog.net”).

The second way is come and see the station at the Museum between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (normal entry fees apply).

73 de Timothy Dabbs, G7JYQ

(Hon. Sec. – Guildford & District Radio Society)

News from HARC

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Broadcast Listener

By David 2E0NKC and Richard G3ZIY

All times UTC and frequencies in MHz or kHz

David starts us off with the usual roundup.

Glen Hausers World of Radio – This media show reached its 2000th edition in September. Well done Glen! This can be heard Saturdays at 17:00 on Sky 0122. Well worth a listen.

Medium-waveHospital Radio Crawley has closed its 1 watt transmitter on 1287. Mid Downs Radio (Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath) on 1350 continues as does Radio Redhill (East Surrey Hospital) on 1431. Both of these audible in Horsham with a good receiver and antenna. Radio Panj is a Punjabi station for Coventry has had a power increase to 100 watts and can be heard on 1521 if you null out co-channel Saudi Arabia! Carillion Wellbeing Radio on 1476 from Coalville Football Club, Leicestershire now relays Radio Seagull in the evenings.

The MF DX season is underway. All India Radio, Rajkot was heard mixing with Czech Radio on 1071 with Urdu Indian songs. This was in parallel with 6140 Short-wave and is a good signal so by listening to both frequencies using two receivers you are sure you are hearing India on 1071. Talk Sport on 1071 also had to be nulled out. India was heard at 19:20. Dutch station Radio Seabreeze from Grou has an English programme at 21:30 and then Dutch at 22:00. Power is 100 watts. Several Dutch stations legally use 1395.

Short-waveBy the time that you read this the B-19 HF schedules will be in operation. Some stations will have moved to lower frequencies. Voice of the People, Seoul, heard broadcasting to North Korea evenings on 3910, 3930 and 6520. Jamming from the North was detected. Domestic CNR 2 from Bejing heard signing on in Chinese at 21:00 on 9775. Radio WRMI, Okeechobee, Florida, USA continues to relay sound from Surpreme Master Television afternoons and evenings until the band closes on 15770.

Hurricane Dorian was heading straight for the WRMI transmitter site in September but changed course at the last moment. Fears were for severe damage to WRMI. Radio Rebelled, Cuba, a domestic station heard on an early morning, listen at 06:00 on 5025 with Latin American music. Radio Taiwan conducted test transmissions direct from Taiwan in German on 7th September on 9540 at 18:00. This was well heard here.

Charleston Radio International on 5140 which plays dance music from the 1920’s and 1930’s has been “on and off”. Sometimes “missing” for several days. A station announcing itself as Abu Dhabi Radio from The Netherlands (!!) heard in English and Dutch at 20:00 on 6285. Not a serious station and not heard since. Radio Fana, Geja, Addis Ababa a domestic station heard on 6110 at 20:30 with local talk and songs. KBS World radio, Gimje, South Korea heard signing on in English and Korean at 16:00 on 7275.

Trans World Radio, India heard in English at 15:35 via relay in Yerevan, Armenia. Number stations are rare these days. On August 23rd at 19:00 on 7601 USB there was one saying “643 Hobbit 00 - 643 Hobbit 00” over and over again. Radio Mali, Bamako has English news 18:50 approximately on 5995. The rest of the time it is in French.

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FMA further ‘lift’ occurred at the end of August. BBC Somerset, Mendip heard at 11:00 on 95.5 and then France Inter, Brest on 95.4 by re-positioning my telescopic antenna. BBC Radio Cymru on 96.8 from Wenvoe (Cardiff) made a brief appearance with Welsh programming.

Late NewsA special broadcast for the Mini Transit Sailing Race Transit 650 a solo transatlantic yacht race which starts in LA Rochelle, France and ends in Martinique was broadcast on October 6th to 13th at 15:00 on 5970 via Issoudun, France. Reception was excellent. Weather reports and forecasts in French and English were broadcast. Weather synopsis for the Atlantic ocean were given.

QSL’s receivedAdventist World Radio, Nauen, 15670 – card received from AWR Asia HQ in Thailand

Czech Radio – Cro Plus, 1071 (two sites) – card showing picture of the Dancing House in Prague

China Radio International, via new relay in Bamako, Mali, 13630 – card / China Radio International, Bejing Doudian, 9600 - card

BBC Atlantic Relay, Ascension Island, 12095 – QSL information folder

Voice of Vietnam, Son Tay, 7280 – QSL showing terraced fields in Sapa Vietnam. Also received schedules, a badge and Vietnamese postage stamps

Radio Taiwan International, Tamsui, 9540 – QSL card in German for test transmission. Card shows picture of National Radio Museum, Minxiong, Yumei Wang

Radio Romania, Tiganesti, 13650 – card showing Romanian womens celebration costume

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Richard was using a Web SDR on 10th September and spotted The Voice of Turkey badly off frequency.

The station should have been on 9765!

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Amateur Radio DX Report

An occasional series devoted to amateur radio !

My last input for the May edition of HARC News presented a piece based on the activity at G3WZT over the winter months. This activity was mainly on 80M and 160M CW as the VHF bands have much less interest and activity over the winter period. The arrival of spring and summer often brings with it more interesting propagation on the VHF/UHF bands. I present here some of the more interesting contacts, propagation and DX worked over the summer and autumn this year.

On 14th and 15th September there was an exceptional extended tropo opening on 144 and 432MHz. In fact, one of the best that I have witnessed for very many years. It was possibly one of the best I have ever heard, but only extended to the East and South East from this part of the UK.

432MHz provided CW and SSB contacts into OK (Czech Republic) OE (Austria) and DL (Germany)

144MHz CW and SSB gave OM (Slovakia) HA (Hungary) OE (Austria) along with numerous DL’s.

Best 144MHz DX (SSB) was with HA5MV/P in KN06HT at just under 1600km.

On 432MHz (CW) best DX was OK2PE in JN99 at 1325km.

Below is a short summary from a few of the most interesting Tropo QSO’s on 432MHz.

70cms SSB OE5XBL 08.08Z 15/09/19 JN68PC 70cms SSB OK1KZE 08.11Z 15/09/19 JN79FX 70cms CW OK3PE 08.55Z 15/09/19 JN99CJ 1325km 70cms SSB OK1IBB 09.12Z 15/09/19 JN69MJ 70cms CW OK6TW 09.17Z 15/01/19 JN89JM 70cms CW OK7GU 09.24Z 15/01/19 JN69QT

For the 432MHz band I have a single 23 element yagi and 175 watts from a modified Nokia Dolphin FET amplifier. Look here:- https://www.qsl.net/g3wzt/Nokia%20Dolphin%20modsV2.html

On 144MHz I have 2 x 12 element Msquared yagis in a bayed configuration, 400 Watts at the feed-point with a low noise PHEMPT pre-amp at the masthead. https://www.qsl.net/g3wzt/

Below is a summary from a few of the most interesting Tropo QSO’s on 144MHz.

144MHz CW OK1TEH 07.25Z 14/09/19 JO70FD 144MHz CW OE2UKL 22.49Z 14/09/19 JN67LX 144MHz SSB OE3FVU 06.48Z 15/09/19 JN78VE 144MHz SSB OE5TOP 06.51Z 15/09/19 JN68XC 144MHz SSB HA8MV/P 06.57Z 15/09/19 KN06HT 1600km 144MHz SSB OE3REC 07.16Z 15/09/19 JN77TX 144MHz SSB OK1VDJ 07.19Z 15/09/19 JN79US 144MHz SSB OM3RM 07.26Z 15/09/19 JN88QA 144MHz SSB OM3CQF 07.28Z 15/09/19 JN88RT 144MHz SSB OE2CAL 07.36Z 15/09/19 JN67NT 144MHz SSB OK1KKI 08.00Z 15/09/19 JN79NF

That was a few of the best from this rather exceptional V/UHF Tropo opening but I include below a few other QSO’s from the 50, 70 and 144MHz bands worked via sporadic E (Es) over the summer.

50MHz CW NP2J 16.55Z 09/06/19 US VIRGIN ISL FK77 50MHz CW 7X2ARA 09.35Z 12/06/19 ALGERIA JM16MS 50MHz SSB VO1KVT 21.58Z 13/06/19 CANADA GN29LF 50MHz SSB OD5YA 09.31Z 18/06/19 LEBANON PM01HD 50MHz SSB KP4EIT 15.40Z 19/06/19 PUERTO RICA FK68 50MHz SSB KB3RHR 14.48Z 20/06/19 USA EN90 50MHz SSB VO1FOG 15.00Z 20/06/19 CANADA GN37 70MHz CW S57LM 09.38Z 26/05/19 SLOVENIA JN76 70MHz CW LZ1AG 14.11Z 26/05/19 BULGARIA KN22ID 70MHz CW S57TW 14.15Z 26/05/19 SLOVENIA JN75IE 70MHz CW LZ2NW 08.46Z 27/05/19 BULGARIA KN23TB 70MHz SSB LZ1ZP 16.46Z 27/05/19 BULGARIA KN22ID 70MHz SSB 9A1Z 10.18Z 20/06/19 CROATIA JN86FJ 70MHz SSB CT1DIZ 16.32Z 23/07/19 PORTUGAL IM58KP

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Just 2 QSO’s shown below are via Sporadic E (Es) propagation on 2M. Managing to catch these openings is somewhat “sporadic” but often signals are genuinely at S9 or S9+ levels.

144MHz SSB EU4AG 17.31Z 19/06/19 BELARUS KO23IO 144MHz SSB LY2SA 17.40Z 19/06/19 LITHUANIA KO14UG

Not much activity on EME but a couple of 2 metre QSO’s below using JT65b.

144MHz EME VK3AXH 07.08Z 07/04/19 AUSTRALIA QF12WI 144MHz EME S54AC 16.30Z 30/09/19 SLOVENIA JN86FN

I continue with frequent FSK441 skeds in the mornings on 144MHz meteor scatter with S51AT and IW4ARD, these never seem to fail even in periods of low meteor activity.

With the coming of autumn the 80M band is starting to show sign of life on long path to the Pacific and several ZL stations have been worked in the second week of October on 80 CW.Fortunately they do not all seem to have deserted the bottom end of 80M for FT8.

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QSL CARDS: Some loath them some love them. I still enjoy colourful pictures from around the world.

Included below are some QSL’s received recently from the Bureau. A mixture of bands and modes with the usual delays incurred by this method which does not always reflect up to date contacts!

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73 and good DXing..

John G3WZT

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Diary

Nov 7th, Club Night: The World at my fingertips - David Ansell 2E0NKC

A history of broadcast radio

Nov 9th, 160m Club Calls Contest 20:00 - 23:00

Nov 14th, Social Evening: The Hare and Hounds - Cowfold

https://whatpub.com/pubs/NSX/028/hare-hounds-cowfold

Nov 17th, Sunday Morning Fox Hunt 10:00 Start QTH G3OGP

Nevada Open Day 10:00 - 16:00

https://www.nevadaradio.co.uk

Nov 24th, CATS Radio & Electronics Bazaar - Oasis Academy, Coulsdon 10:00 - 14:00

http://catsradio.org/

Dec 5th, Club Night: AGM

Dec 7th, HARC Christmas Bash - Details TBC

For details on the above contests use this link and follow to the appropriate section

https://rsgb.org/main/radio-sport/what-is-radio-sport

All above times are UTC

Committee/Club Meetings and Socials start at 20:00