Here”s a pic from the other night. Jonathan 2E0CTW and Phil M0PBZ on the balcony area working 20m and 40m stations SSB, and listening to Bob VP8LP on 10m and trying, in vain to muscle in on the pile up.

Dear Club Member,

In view of the weather forecast for the remainder of the week, it has been decided to cancel the BBQ at Coate Water Country Park. Instead, on Thursday 16th August it has been suggested that club members meet at the Sun Inn at Coate for a social evening.

73

Deryck G3YKC

I had a go at the IOTA contest although in the shack the heat was incredible for some of the time. I also had an willing “helper” who wanted me to play with her toys too!

First proper time out with the K3 – I love it! I also gave the club linear workout although spend most of the contest at around 80-100w. I must say the linear is very easy to tune up. The modern Linear Amp design works very well.

Not sure of stats without looking but made 120 contacts, 12 hours sleep (wow!), watched F1 qualifying too. Plus someone tampered with my tower!?! It now has a padlock on it and the intention is to change the winch for an electric one so there is no chance of that happening again.

 

Background:
My shack had been stripped down and packed into filing cabinet drawers nearly a year ago due to ‘local circumstances’, but with the encouragement of the Station Manager (from her generally horizontally polarised position!), I scrabbled together a temporary station upstairs at home and spent some time just having fun playing a bit of radio – interleaved within our daily routine.

The Station:
The station comprised an IC7000 (with grab ‘n gab mic!) and a small SMPSU providing the ‘juice’. The IC7000 fed a Z11 Pro ATU and from there, by coax swapping, either to a dog-leg wire dipole, resonant on 80 metres (but just 20 feet high!) or to my Fritzel tri-bander at about 30 feet.

Power from the rig was just under 100 watts, but my location in the house was about as far as you can get from the aerials, so I had to set up new cabling, strung around the house to where they were needed. I think my cables were as long as in one of our ‘real’ IOTA setups at the farm!!  Though fed with 213, there will have been losses !!!!!!  I really should repair my linear !!

Aim:
I had two targets – apart from having fun –

i)  …to set up a workable station from scratch in an unfamiliar location (sounds rather like a real IOTA!)

ii) …to see how many island stations I could work just using “hunt & pounce”  – no calling ‘CQ’.

Results:
I worked exactly 80 island stations over the weekend.

Most were worked on 15 metres, just a few less on 20 and very few on 10 metres (-Sunday morning and Saturday tea-time). 

I worked just six stations on 80 metres (all were local Europe!) – at about 1 am on Sunday, and finally just LA, EF and SP on 40 metres using the 80m dogleg and the Z11 – during the same late night session.

Points are not important but here is the list of countries/islands worked…

Oceania:

• Indonesia OC21

Asia:

• Cyprus AS4
• Japan AS7
• Turkey AS159

South America:

• Argentina SA8
• Aruba SA36
• Brazil SA46

North America:

• Cuba NA15
• Guadeloupe NA102
• Martinique NA107
• Nova Scotia NA81        
• Prince Edward Isl NA29
• St Barthelemy NA146
• St Kitts & Nevis NA104
• St Paul Island NA 94                 
• St Pierre & Miquelon NA32
• USA NA31, 110, 137

Africa:

• Canaries AF4
• Madeira AF14 

Europe:

• Azores EU175
• Corsica EU14
• Croatia EU16, 126, 170
• Dodecanese EU1
• Eire EU115, 121
• England EU5  (Tnx Tony LDL!)
• Estonia EU34
• European Russia EU182
• Finland EU2, 96, 140
• France EU70
• Germany EU57, 129
• Guernsey EU114
• Holland EU38, 146
• Italy EU31, 144
• Norway EU36
• Poland EU132
• Portugal EU40
• Sardinia EU24
• Scotland EU9, 123
• Sicily EU25                              
• Ukraine EU179

Evaluation:
Not a huge haul (-several stations with 2000+ in the log on Sunday were double checking my serial when I gave them 70-something!) – but the low QSO total was more to do with the amount of time I spent rattling the ether and with my insistence on only working Island stations on S&P.

However, I was pleasantly surprised that almost everything worked.

I was particularly pleased with the IC7000. It certainly punched above its weight on TX, blasting through some pile ups when I hadn’t expected an early reply.  

The RX filtering was also impressive compared to my FT920.

The only disappointment was my own memory… I had to set up a new laptop installation of DXLAB for logging, but I ended up logging on paper (!!!!!!) because I couldn’t recollect on which screen the tick box was that told DXKeeper to increment QSO serial numbers !!!!

However, the main outcome was: “I had fun”!

It also has to be said that this was the fastest ever clear-up after an IOTA contest… Two switches to ‘off’, disconnect the aerial & take my coffee cup downstairs !!! 

When’s the next contest? !! 

73 es gud dx

Den

Dave Akerman has used a Raspberry Pi computer board as the flight computer on a High Altitude Balloon (HAB) and sent back live images from near space at an altitude of almost 40 km

The balloon, appropriately called PIE1, was launched from Brightwalton, in Berkshire on July 14, 2012. The images were transmitted on 434.650 MHz (300 bps, 600 Hz shift) in the amateur radio 70cm band using the Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) standard.

PIE1 reached an altitude of 39,994 metres and images were received as far away as Northern Ireland (that’s over 500km, not bad for just 10mW on 434.650 MHz!).

The full story and pictures are on Dave Akerman’s website http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

UPDATE: None of these items are any longer for sale.

Dennis, LLZ is helping to manager a silent key sale.  The following items are available.  Please contact LLZ for more information.

• Yaesu FTV901R Transverter
• Yaesu FV901DM vfo
• Yaesu YR901 cw/rtty reader
• Yaesu YVM-1 Monitor
• Yaesu YP150 Dummy load/wattmeter
• Yaesu FC-10 Automatic tuner, for use withFT840. 13.5VDC
• Yaesu FP-4 Power supply
• Yaesu FT840. Transceiver, 10— 160M + WARC bands, with general coverage receiver.
• Yeasu FT902DM. Transceiver, 10 — 160m + WARC bands. 13.5VDC and Mains
• Yaesu FC902 Tuner, for use with FT902
• Yaesu Y0901 Multiscope
• Yaesu FRG 9600, receiver/scanner, 60 905MHz, 12 — 15VDC
• Yaesu FT480R, transceiver, 2m,FM/SSB/CW,13.8VDC
• Yaesu FP80A Power supply
• Yaesu FP4 Power supply
• Yaesu FT-11R VHF handheld transceiver
• Kenwood TR-751E transceiver, 2m,FM/SSB/CW
• Icom IC-781 transceiver, HF with built-in 51n. CRT display
• Icom IC-737 transceiver, HF with general coverage receiver
• Trio TR7800 transceiver, 2m, FM, 13.8VDC
• Lake Electronics DTR3-5 receiver
• TONO 2M-100W Linear amplifier
• Scorn AH3 Automatic long wire tuner
• KW Electronics EZ Match aerial tuner
• SEC 1223 Power supply
• Daiwa PS-304 power supply, 14V adjustable @ 30A and 6A
• Commant Power supply, 13.6V @ 3A
• Daiwa DK-210 Electronic keyer
• MFJ Econo keyer 2
• AEA Pk232MBX terminal units, 2 off
• ICS AMTOR terminal unit
• RAF type D morse key, cover damaged
• Swedish key
• Hi mound HK-707 morse key
• Junkers morse key
• Hi mound paddle
• Davis Electronics Frequency meter
• Lowe FX-1 GDO, boxed as new
• Sinclair DM350 Digital multimeter
• TMK 500 Multimeter
• Datong FL3 Filter
• Daiwa rotator controller for rotator on tower
• Rotator KR-500, lightweight unit, appears to be unused.
• Elevation indicator KR-500
• Wooden cased centre zero meter, unknown origin, approx. 3 inches dia.
• Wooden cased moving iron AC voltmeter, 150V @ 400Hz and low KHz
• Star DP8480 printer, used for R’lTY print out
• Hand portable cassette tape recorder
• Philips “Philetta” broadcast band radio
• TONO communications terminal
• RAF transmitter T21C, 10A/5221, 1922 vintage
• “OSCAR” whip aerial
• Colinear VHF aerial, unknown manufacture
• Epson “Stylus Photo R300” copier
• Photo scanner
• 2 off desk top computers
• Flat screen monitor
• Minicraft multitool kit
• 6146B valves, GEC manufacture
• Crank up tower with TH33?? Beam. Beam needs repair but appears to be minor fault.
• Large amount of misc. Items inc. tools, spares and components, books etc.

Dear Club Member,

Due to the recent wet weather and the weather forecast for the remainder of the week, it has been decided to cancel the BBQ at Coate Water Country Park and hold it at a later date. Instead, on Thursday 7th June it has been suggested that club members meet at the Sun Inn at Coate for a social evening.

73

Deryck G3YKC

Waters & Stanton are pleased to announce that they have been appointed exclusive resellers of Elecraft in the UK.

Elecraft products are famous around the world for their performance and value for money. They shall be stocking a wide range of their finished products and some kits, and of course can offer some great part exchange prices.

Stock is due to arrive during the month of June and they expect a great deal of interest in the K3, now widely used by DXpeditions and contesters.

This coming Thursday (19th April) there will be a talk from current SDARC chairman James, M1DST where he will explain the challenge for club members during 2012.

All welcome – Starts at 8pm!