March 2009

Editor: Malcolm Andrew G8NRP

COMMENT

Are you feeling old?  John Noakes from Blue Peter was 75 last Friday.  Hard to believe really!  If you look around the members that regularly attend our club meetings it is not difficult to see that we are all getting older.  In order for this hobby to survive we need to attract young new blood and that is why we are holding an Open Day on Saturday 2 May.  We all need to do our bit to make this day a success and not leave it all to the few regular volunteers.  We are making sure all the local secondary schools and youth organisations are invited as well as those licenced amateurs that do not belong to our club. 

So what are you doing to help?  Please come along and help make this day a really great success.  Every little helps!

I suspect we all know someone who has problems with a neighbour by causing their latest gadget to malfunction because of some poor circuit design or lack of screening.  You may have read that one major telephone provider has a device that is called a hub.  Some of us have terrible problems from the radiated noise from such a device completely blocking out reception of several HF bands. 
Some of us also suffer from the noise generated by some energy saving compact fluorescent lights that are set to become the only source of lighting in our homes.  You will also have read that they contain small amounts of mercury. 

New research by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has shown that some energy saving compact fluorescent lights can emit ultraviolet radiation (UVR) at levels that, under certain conditions of use, can result in exposures higher than guideline levels.
At close proximity (2 cm or ¾ inch), the exposure limit would be exceeded in less than 10 minutes by about 20% of the CFLs tested.  About half of the CFLs exceeded the exposure limit at this distance after 30 minutes.  At a larger distance (20 cm or 8 inches) only 8% of those tested exceeded the ICNIRP guidelines after 8 hrs.  Hence the advice given here is primarily aimed at avoiding very close exposures to CFLs.

Open (or single envelope) CFLs should not be used where people are in close proximity - closer than 30 cm or one foot - with the bare light bulb for over one hour a day.  For such situations open CFLs should be replaced by the doubly encapsulated type.  Alternatively, the lamp should be moved so that it is at least 30 cm or one foot away.

People who suffer from Lupus and other light-sensitive conditions may be specifically affected by the emissions from compact fluorescent lights.  They have to be very careful about exposure to sunlight, so also need to be cautious about their use of compact fluorescent lights.  No other groups have been identified as being particularly susceptible.  Encapsulated compact fluorescent light bulbs, which look similar to traditional domestic light bulbs, do not emit significant amounts of UVR.  The larger long tube “strip lighting” design fluorescent lights, commonly used in offices and workplaces for many years, can also be used without any special precautionary measures on ceilings. See: http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1223445517429

Malcolm, G8NRP

FEBRUARY MEETING

The February meeting was our ever-popular Annual Construction Contest.  This was hosted once again by Bob, G0ADH.  This year we had eight entries.  Each entrant was given the opportunity to say a few words about their project.  One person even pleaded that we should all vote for his project as he has never won the contest!  All those present were then asked to vote for up to three projects in a secret ballot.  The results were as follows:  First place and winner of the G2HIF Trophy was David, M0NUT with his 4m Transverter.  In second place was Robin, G3LBA with his Directional Coupler and in third place Howard, M0CIW with his 2m Feed Line Dipole.

ANOTHER OVER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

This month we are lucky to have Robin, G3LBA giving us a talk on Surface Mount Techniques.  This may be a new topic for many of you and I am sure that it will be an interesting talk.  I don’t know what Robin is going to say, but I expect that he will be assuring you that working with surface mount components is not as difficult as some may think.  It wasn’t many years ago that I was of the same opinion, trying to avoid that technology even at ‘the day job’.  Now, however, I am of the opposite opinion, being quite happy to use surface mount components at home as well as at work, and even finding them easier to use than conventional ones.

Many of you will have already had - and filled in - an associate membership form for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Recreational Association.  As you know, we have been in ‘negotiation’ with them for a while to try to arrange a way forward for us to be able to use their facilities, including the clubroom there.  Many of you will have seen the clubroom last summer at the Barbeque.  If you haven’t already completed the form and returned it to me, please try to do so soon.  I will need to get them all to the relevant bodies to get it all moving!

To be able to use the Recreational Association facilities, including their clubroom, we must all be members or associate members.  Some of HARS members already are, but for most of the others who are not, the HARS committee have decided that HARS itself will pay these membership fees.  Please note that I said “for most of the others”.  The reason for becoming members is so we can use the social club there for our regular monthly meetings.  To be able to do that, we have to be members.  However, we can sign in non-members up to a maximum of 3 times per year.  The committee have decided that HARS will pay for the membership for those that come to club meetings more that about 3 times per year, and the others we will sign in.  By no means are we creating a two-tier membership - all members (and anyone else!) is very welcome to each and every meeting and we will always be pleased to see them there.  An added advantage of being an Associate Member is that of being able to use the other facilities of the Social Club, including joining other clubs there.

I have mentioned above that we plan to move our monthly meetings to the social club at the RAL site.  We expect this to happen starting with the May meeting.  Don’t worry, we will make sure everyone knows and we will also put up some signs!  The Social Club has recently been refurbished to a high standard with modern décor and AV aids with a PC and projector system installed.  There is also a bar, but as yet we have not arranged to have that opened for our monthly meetings - but it is in hand!

Before the first meeting at the RAL Social Club, we will be having our open day on the 2 May.  This is an event where we are hoping to be able to demonstrate some of what we do to newcomers, hopefully to encourage them into the hobby.  We will need a lot of help from all HARS members to put on stations demonstrating as many different aspects of the hobby as we can and of course talking to the visitors too.  Roger, G0AOZ, has arranged the use of a special event callsign for the day and Ray, G3LQC has designed a special QSL card for the event.  Please do come along to help, or even demonstrate some aspect of the hobby that is of interest to you.  All the more the merrier!

Mike, G8CUL

NO MORE QAV

Sadly this is the last edition of QAV you will receive if you have not paid your membership subscription for 2009.  If you receive a membership form with this newsletter then we believe you have not paid.  Please complete the form and return it together with your payment as soon as possible to the address at the bottom of the form.

HARS OPEN DAY

See the diary entry.

THE PETER JONES AWARD

Once again, it’s that time of year when I carry out the task of calculating the scores to find the winner of the Peter Jones Award.
The way I calculate them is quite straight forward and simple but each year it still seems to mystify certain of our members.  Bearing this in mind, and the fact that the rules were slightly amended when our licence conditions altered, allowing access to the HF bands for everyone, I have decided that it might be a good idea to include the present rules in this piece for QAV.

But first – the results of the Peter Jones Award 2008/09.

I’m very pleased to announce that the winner this time is John (G3VPW).  It’s only quite recently that John has been persuaded to start contesting again and he has become a considerable asset to our team in both the AFS and the CC contests.

Unfortunately, our rally this year coincided with the 70cm AFS, therefore there were no entries for that particular contest.

Bob, G0ADH – Adjudicator for ‘The Peter Jones Award’

RULES FOR HARWELL AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY – ‘PETER JONES AWARD’.

Certificate to be awarded for contribution to the Harwell ARS entry to the annual RSGB AFS contests.  Calculations will be made at the time of entering each contest

Contests to decide the award are the 144MHz, 432MHz, HF CW and HF SSB AFS contests.

 The certificate will be awarded as soon as possible after the last of the above contests have taken place.

Every qualifying member will be awarded points according to their score, expressed as a percentage of the score claimed by the leading qualifying club operator. These points will then be multiplied by ten to give the final points for each of the four contests.  The winner of the award will be the member gaining the largest total of points from the four contests.

Entrants must be fully paid up members of the Harwell ARS at the time of the contest entered, but need not be a member of the RSGB.

Single operators only will qualify for points.

A member may either enter one or more of the contests as part of a multi operator team but will qualify for award points only in those contests entered as a single operator.

The same member will not be eligible to win the award more than once in three years.  During that period, a previous winning member’s score will not be used as part of the awards calculations in any way.

The committee’s decision on any matter regarding this award will be final.

February 2009

CONTEST NEWS

The 2m Club Championship is again being well supported by club members and after February’s event we had moved from 4th to 3rd place behind Cray Valley and Trowbridge.  The overall scoring is very different from last year but is not necessarily affecting how teams are performing overall.  Apart from points/km and multipliers the overall score is now just the sum of a team’s entrants normalised score instead of normalisation of the sum of individual scores.
We are also doing well in the 80m Club championship moving up to 23rd place out of 67.
The results for the 80m AFS CW and SSB events have been published and we came 29/86 in CW and 18/90 (A team) and 85/90 (B team).  Top scorers were John G3VPW 83/236 for CW and Colin M0DDT 35/242 for SSB.
It has been confirmed that we are going to enter the CQ WW WPX contest which will be held over the weekend of 28-29 March (the weekend the clocks change!).  The plan is to enter the Multi-Operator category and operate for about 12 hours on the Saturday at RAL.  We are going to operate from 1200 to 2400 hrs or until we feel it is time to stop.  We plan to operate on HF bands 80-10m with the prospect of working John G3VPW who will be operating as VP8KF in the Falkland Islands.  If you are interested in taking part please let Ann,G8NVI know so that security arrangements can be made.

Angus, G0UGO

ALAN - NOW G3RTM (AGAIN)

I passed my City & Guilds Radio Amateur Exam in 1960.  My first licence was as G3RTM/T in 1965, and I experimented with 405 lines B/W TV on 70cm for a while, but then allowed this licence to lapse.

I became re-licensed as G6GNW in 1981.  After the licence liberalisation in 2003, I tested the water with a request to the then RA to see if I could get G3RTM back.  Their response was ‘Those old G3+3/T licenses are locked away somewhere in a filing cabinet, gathering dust.  It’s much too much trouble to get them out and put them back onto our system.  So no, you can’t have it back.’  (paraphrased slightly)

I met Alison, G8ROG, the RSGB Thames Valley regional rep. at the recent rally and in passing mentioned this history.  She advised that Ofcom were now much more amenable to such requests, provided that I had some back up documentation.  I sent exactly the same documents to Ofcom as I had offered to RA back in 2003, with a very different response.

Alan, G3RTM (G6GNW/M3APC/M0GNW)

REVISED CONSTITUTION

The HARS revised constitution is now available at www.g3pia.org.uk or request a copy from the Secretary.

NEW HARS EMAIL ADDRESSES

We have recently introduced new email addresses for the Officers in HARS.
Please use them rather than the personal addresses. They are as follows:

In addition, if any member would like a new email address, (anything-decent@g3pia.org.uk) with excellent automatic spam rejection, please send your request to editor@g3pia.org.uk. There is no charge for this service, all you need is an Internet connection.

HARFORD NET

Did you know there is a regular net on 2m? It is called Harford as it is used by both HARS and Oxford members. Please come and join in. 145.325MHz FM every Sunday and Wednesday 20.00 - 21.00hrs.

CLASSIFIED ADS

KENWOOD TS-520 SE which needs a home rather than the bin.  It has been stored for a number of years but was functioning well prior to being stored.  If it is of interest to any member it can be collected from Wantage.  Harry Epps, M0ADN.

YOUR AD - can appear here - free of charge - contact the Editor - ads@g3pia.org.uk

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