January 2012

COMMENT

I have been amazed at the HF propagation over the last few weeks and have been monitoring the bands now that I am retired. I am determined to work as many countries as possible over this sunspot maximum with my rather simple setup from a disused quarry in Abingdon. I am proud to say I worked my first station on 10m – Ralph, K0IR in Minnesota. Why don’t you make this your 2012 challenge to do the same and, of course, send in your logs to the QAV Editor?

I hope you have all experienced the good propagation on the HF bands in recent weeks and that you will all enjoy listening to, and hopefully working, some exotic stations. Please remember you don’t need a megawatt linear and a multi-element antenna to work the rarely heard countries – just a little patience and perseverance.

Malcolm, G8NRP

ANOTHER OVER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and maybe you managed to work some interesting DX during the holidays. If so, do write it up for QAV.

We had a good turnout at the AGM last month where you elected new committee officers and ordinary members. I hope you also enjoyed the mulled wine and seasonal delicacies!

The January meeting will be the usual Rally preparation and another of John, G6LNU’s quizzes. Maybe I should read ‘Hello’ Magazine before the quiz!

Despite the Christmas and New Year festivities, contesting still continues with the first 2m UKAC of 2012 having already taken place, preceded by the 2011 Christmas Cumulatives on 4 bands on 4 consecutive days, making 16 contests in total. You really need to keep your wits about you when doing them!

More about contests elsewhere in this QAV.

As has become traditional, we held a Chairman’s New Year DF hunt on 2 January when we had the biggest turnout that I can remember with 31 members/guests taking part. Luckily it was a bright sunny, albeit windy day and a number of people found us hiding in the car park behind the church in Chilton village. The food in the pub afterwards was also good despite the chef being a bit overloaded with all the orders! I hope that those of you who took part enjoyed the event and congratulations go to Bob, G0ADH and Pat for finding us first – after only 15 minutes! The next to arrive were our 3 sons and Tom’s fiancée Laura. Although they have been on many DF hunts in the past, they had never done one ‘on their own’ before so it was really pleasing to see them arrive without opening the envelope.

Bob was awarded the ‘Fox’ trophy that was kindly given to us a few years ago by Alan, G3RTM.

Since last month there has been the conclusion of another Intermediate RCE course and exam where I was very pleased to be able to give out pass certificates to all the five candidates. Sadly, neither of the 2 re-takes for the Advanced exam passed in December, but they are planning to try again in March – with some more tuition beforehand!

2012 will see a number of courses for both Foundation and Intermediate but the RCE team don’t plan to hold another Advanced until January 2013 – it just wouldn’t fit into the 2012 calendar! Information on these courses and their dates can be found on the club website.

The annual dinner will be held on 21 January in Faringdon. Your last chance to get your form for the annual dinner to Colin, G3NNG is the meeting this month. Please also either pay him by cheque or you can pay direct to the HARS account electronically – see Angus, G0UGO for details.

73,

Mike, G8CUL

CHAIRMANS REPORT FROM THE 2011 AGM

Here we are again at the club AGM. Thank you all for coming. As has become the norm recently, I will list some of the things that we have done this year – month by month.

January

We had the Chairman’s New Year DF hunt on the 1st. This year we ‘hid’ in Wantage by the church at the Charlton Heights end of town, (I can’t remember the church’s proper name!). All was going well until a wedding party arrived, filling the car park! At that point we rapidly de-camped and moved to the Lord Nelson where we were going to finish up anyway. Mike, G0MJW was the first to find us and I was pleased to be able to give him the ‘fox’ award.

The meeting this month was the usual Rally Preparation followed by one of John’s quizzes. Later in the month we held the annual club dinner where the high standard meal was enjoyed by some of our club members and guests.

Thanks go to Colin, G3NNG for organising the event, but of course we really know that it is Valerie who does all the work with Colin taking the kudos!

February

This month we had the annual construction contest, this year won by Mike, G0MJW.

Second was Martin, M6CFO (now M0HAH)

and in joint 3rd place Ron, G0BNC and Dave, M0NUT.

The main event in February is of course the annual Rally held at the Didcot Leisure Centre. This was the usual long, busy and stressful day for the organisers but we had a good turn out from club members to help and visitors to come and spend their money on the ‘bargains’.

March

This month we had a fascinating talk by one of our own members, Ron, G7DOE on Smiths Charts. Ron gave this with his usual flair and was able to make what is a difficult subject nearly understandable. I have seen this talk by Ron twice now and I did understand more the second time!

April

This month we had a brilliant talk by Bryn, G4DEZ on contesting and DXing. Bryn was a member of the club many years ago and it was good to see him again. Bryn operates in nearly all of the VHF contests and wins a very high percentage of those too. Because Bryn was an active HARS member in the past and had done a lot for the club then and also is nearly always there to give us points on VHF contests, we presented him with honorary membership of HARS.

Also this month saw the Microwave Round Table meeting at Martlesham where some HARS members saw a number of superb talks about microwave and other disciplines. This was a very good event and one well worth going to. We hold a similar event at RAL each year, organised by Mike, G0MJW.

May

This month Ray, G4FON came and gave us a talk about Bletchley Park and some of the work that went on there during the Second World War. It was most interesting, helped no doubt by the fact that Ray is an official guide there!

June

And we are half way through the year (and this report!). Instead of a visiting speaker this month, we showed a DVD of a talk given by Peter Chadwick, G3RZP on linear amplifiers. This was heavily biased towards valve technology but was given with Peter’s usual flair and expertise. There was a lot of useful information there too!

July

Conventionally, the meeting this month is usually replaced by a DF hunt, and this year was no exception.

Ron, G0BNC as usual did the honours and a large number of club members had an enjoyable evening trying to find him.

We all ended up at a pleasant hostelry in Witney for a nice meal in good company.

The winners this time were Mike, G0MJW and John, G3VPW.

August

We have no club meeting during August, but as usual during the end of July and beginning of August our family take the usual holiday in Normandie, joined by John, G6LNU and Marian, 2E0LNU and we run ‘Le tatty piece de papier award’ on both 80m and VHF during our stay. For 80m we use a fairly simple dipole supported by 2 Clansman masts.

This year we used ribbon feeder

from the feedpoint to the ATU

and this seemed to work much better than before with reports of the best signals we’ve ever had. We also operated on both 6m and 2m during the UKAC contests and managed to work a number of club members. 6m is particularly challenging as only 10W ERP is allowed in the Department where we were staying. On our way home we visited the portable site of the Caen Radio Club (F6KCZ/P).

It doesn’t just rain in the UK!

We held our summer club bbq this month where we had an outside caterer who came and did us proud with the food. a good number of club members attended and enjoyed the evening.

This month also saw the RAL Microwave Round Table meeting where some club members came to hear a number of interesting talks on Microwaves and other topics.

September

The Autumn season started with a talk on BBC ‘OB’ (Outside Broadcasts). What I found fascinating was the definitely ‘home-brew’ characteristic of the equipment in use until recently.

We held another open day this month where we invited the public along to see what we are all about.

Sadly this was not the success that we hoped for with very few visitors coming. Some already licensed Amateurs did come along and I hope they liked what we had on show. I think they must have done as some subsequently joined the club.

October

We were lucky this month to have Tim, G4VXE come and give us a talk on ‘My world of VHF’. As usual Tim gave an entertaining and thought provoking talk.

We were very lucky to have a week in France at the end of the month and I was reminded of Tim’s comment about ‘never let a CQ go unanswered’ when I was listening to a call by a French amateur through a French repeater. Sadly my French is not up to that – yet!

where we were made very welcome and also visited a local Amateur, Gerard, F8BRK.

His shack puts mine to shame!

While we were in France we only put up a simple 40m vertical and Ann did quite a bit of operating on that band, In fact during the week she filled about 3 pages in my logbook.

We did put the radio equipment next to the heating system though!

It was planned to run JOTA this year with Steve, M0SXH taking the leading role, running it from a school in n Didcot. Sadly, Steve had some illness in the family at the last minute and the local event had to be cancelled. Maybe this shows us that we should not be relying on one person to run these things and should have an active team ready so the event can continue if that one person becomes unavailable.

November

We were due to have a talk by Tom, G4TPH on his loop antennas but unfortunately he wasn’t able to attend so we had another of John, G6LNU’s quizzes. We are planning to get Tom back at a later date in the New Year.

December

The 2m Affiliated Society 2m contest is held at the start of December and a number of club members took part. We should be able to enter a team this year. The year is nearly finished and again it is time for the AGM and you having to listen to my report.

Thanks….

We have had another busy year. Unlike last year when we had only just started the RCE courses, this year I have not specifically mentioned them in my report. This does not in any way belittle the enormous amount of work put in by trainers and of course the candidates themselves. This year we have provided courses at all three RCE levels, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. These courses have ‘created’ about 30 new amateurs – all down to the hard work by all concerned and the foresight of the committee.

Our club – any club – is not an entity in its own right, but a collection of similarly interested parties – the members. The ‘club’ therefore only does what the members want to do and as usual there are the busy few who determine what the ‘club’ actually does. If the club is not doing what you want to do, then step forward, join in and try to organise a new and different club activity. I think you will be surprised at the interest and support that you will get.

There are of course many people to thank. The committee who work hard at running the club who come along to meetings each month, the bar staff (Mike, G0MJW and Ann, G8NVI) who ‘person’ the bar each month at the club meetings so we can all enjoy some beverage or other and of course you, the members who make the club what it is.

If I have forgotten to thank anyone, then it is due to forgetfulness on my part!

Mike, G8CUL/M0CUL

HARWELL RADIO AND ELECTRONICS RALLY

Sunday 12 February 2012, Didcot Leisure Centre

The organisation of our annual rally is advancing well and we can look forward to a really good weekend.

I should be circulating copies of the Rally Rota shortly. If you missed the January meeting and would like to help in some way, please email me or give me a ring.

At the time of writing we have 74 tables booked with more coming in every day.

The Rally Refreshments will be prepared, as usual, by Sarah and the girls. Please give them your support by buying your lunch from them and drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee!

If you are new to the club and haven’t attended or helped at a Rally before, please don’t be shy. Come and offer to help or, if you don’t feel up to that, please come along on Sunday and see what is happening. I’m sure you will enjoy it!

Ann, G8NVI

ann.stevens@btinternet.com or 01235 816379

RALLY JUNK STALLALL

The season of goodwill is upon us, not the one that we have just had but the real one, the Harwell Radio Club Rally Junk Stall.

I hope you have spent the last couple of weeks productively thinning out your radio shack, your spare room, the loft and perhaps even the garden shed and are now stepping around the piles of valuable junk wherever you walk.

For some, getting things to the rally poses a problem and, as the stall is in the main hall this year, I would like the stall to have a reasonable collection item for when the doors open.

So on the Saturday afternoon I will make a collection run and pick any items for the stall that you have. All you have to do is send me an email or call me on my mobile with your postcode and first line of your address. (Your phone number would be useful as well)

My trusty satnav should navigate me around and I will end up at the rally to set up the stall so you could also bring items there from approximately 4.30 p.m.

Derek, G0MGZ

email: derek.chaloner@hotmail.co.uk

tel: 07941044622

ANNUAL CLUB DINNER

The Club Annual Dinner will be held at Sudbury House Hotel, Faringdon on Saturday 21 January 2012.

The menu choices are available to download at www.g3pia.org.uk and your selection must be returned to G3NNG at or before the January meeting. The cost of the dinner is £20 for 2 courses and £25 for 3 courses including coffee, which is the same as last year.

If you wish to stay overnight after the dinner, a special rate of £50 for a single room or £60 for a double room including full English breakfast has been agreed.

Further details also available from Colin, G3NNG.

CONTEST CORNER

Here are some of the contests that might interest you, that take place over the next 2 months.

All times are CLOCKTIME

Saturday 14 January - 1400-1800 - RSGB Affiliated Societies Contests 2012, 80m SSB

Tuesday 17 January - 2000-2230 - 1.3GHz UKAC

Tuesday 24 January - 2000-2230 - 50MHz and SHF UKAC

Tuesday 31 January - 2000-2230 - 70MHz UKAC

Sunday 5 February - 0900-1300 - 432MHz Affiliated Societies

Monday 6 February - 2000-2130 - 80m CC SSB

Tuesday 7 February - 2000-2230 - 144MHz UKAC

VHF/UHF UKAC

The VHF/UHF UKAC (UK Activity Contests) have already started for 2012. I will comment on our successes in 2011 in the February Contest Corner as the final results have not yet been published for all bands. It is, however, worth remembering that we are one of the leading Clubs in the UKAC series of contests and this is only because individual club members take to the air month after month to see what they can work and make valuable points for the club.

HF Contests

The 80m CC (Club Contests) start again in early February. If you are new to the bands and haven’t tried contesting before, have a listen to the SSB Contests, take a deep breath and call someone. You won’t regret it.

Christmas Cumulatives

As mentioned last month, the Christmas Cumulative Contests took place on the 26-29 December for 2 hours every afternoon. They take place on 4 bands (70cm, 2m, 4m and 6m) simultaneously and several club members took part over the 4 days. Amongst the more ‘serious’ contenders were G8CUL and G8NVI (using G8NVI/P) who operated from the RAL shack, and G0MJW/P who took part from his Christmas QTH in IO83.

The G8NVI/P station used the 2m, 70cm and 6m beams normally found on the club towers with the addition of a 4 element 4m beam that replaced the HF beam usually found on the versatower. The 4m beam worked extremely well thanks to Mike (G0MJW) who built it.

Mike himself used 9 and 19 element antennas on 2m and 70cm respectively, a halo on 6m and an FM handheld on 4m. His QTH is 240m ASL on the southern side of a hill overlooking the Cheshire plain so is equivalent to a mast of 200m to the South (but useless to the North), so he achieved some good scores despite what he considers the disadvantage of being in IO83 and also upsetting the Contest Gods at one point! The 6m halo worked as badly as expected but Mike managed to work 300km in 3 of the 4 contests on that band. The 4m handheld was less successful but I’m sure Mike has plans for an improved station on 4m for Christmas 2012.

G8NVI/P made some good contacts on all 4 bands over the 4 days and finished the week appreciating what a good VHF/UHF site RAL is and how fortunate we are, as a club, to have the use of it. We too have plans to be more competitive next Christmas. It was a good 4 days, and great fun dealing with sometimes challenging conditions and equipment.

Forthcoming Contests

If you are interested in taking part/watching/making coffee/eating takeaways etc. at some of the weekend contests coming up during 2012, please let me have your email address and I will keep you updated on what the club is doing. There are about a dozen contests (both VHF and HF) that it would be feasible to do from the clubroom - feasible but not practical as we all have many other commitments! I propose forwarding a list of these contests with dates to you and seeing what interest there is in the individual contests before choosing ones that we would like to do as a club.

Ann, G8NVI

(with contributions from Mike, G0MJW)

IN PRAISE OF YAESU

On 2 January I carefully put my old FT-290 Mk 1 in my car to have a go at the New Year DF Hunt. This is the model with telescopic aerial. I bought this radio from Alan and I use it a fair bit. The aerial (old and bit loose now, but basically still working) was partially extended and the radio was on, very carefully propped up and as secured as much as it could be on the passenger seat of an MG. On the way I drove through a puddle that turned out to be a deep pothole. MG's have hard suspension and the car reacted somewhat. Faster than I could reach out, the radio fell down, resulting in a 4 inch section of my aerial being bent through 90 degrees.

I stopped and very gently tried to bend it back. This was not clever, and the top bit broke off in my hand. No fox hunt for me then!

On January 3rd, at about 10 am I rang Yaesu Vertex. Not only were they open, but there were people in Spares. Without much hope I asked if you can still buy FT 290 MK1 aerials as spares. To my surprise, I was told a) yes you can, b) they are only £14, and c) they have them in stock! So I ordered two: you never know, I could be unlucky again.

On January 4th, the post came, with a thin parcel from Yaesu. Five minutes work and my radio was fixed again!

All praise to Yaesu, I say .......

Tony, G7ETW

GB2CW MORSE TRANSMISSIONS

I have been asked by those who joined in the GB2CW Morse transmissions last year if I would run course again. So I am planning to restart on Sunday 22 January on 3.640MHz and 70.425MHz (FM) at 20.00Hrs local time. It will also go out via internet stream (Url to be confirmed shortly – most likely to be the same I use for GB2RS). Course length is 16 weeks. Speeds 5wpm, 10wpm, 15 wpm and 20wpm. Those interested in joining the group should let me know by e-mail to g8rog@apj1.co.uk or calling 0118 954 5368 (eve). Participants may also opt-in to the GB2CW Southern e-mail group as there is more response from listeners than those joining the RF Nets on-air (No need for learners to be shy).

Alison, G8ROG

JT65A

Do you JT65A? I imagine most of you will wonder what on earth I am talking about. But if you are trying this mode out please get in touch with me. editor@g3pia.org.uk

CLUB MEMBERS PHOTOGRAPHS

There are still one or two members who have evaded having their photo taken for the club Internet pages. It is quite painless and there is no flash used and to date the camera still works. I would like to have all the photos with the same background and so I will not accept photos from other sources. It will also be possible to add, via a link, some information about you and your interest in the hobby and almost anything else you would like to add. THIS EXERCISE IS PURELY VOLUNTARY and I am anxious not to have a series of silhouettes used for those who do not wish to have their photo added so this method will not be used.

Malcolm, G8NRP

FOURTH TUESDAY

The next Shack Night will be on Tuesday 24 January 2012. So please come and operate our equipment and perhaps even work a few stations if the 6m CC contest happens to be on. We may also be able to operate a rig clinic.

The shack will be open from 2000hrs clock time and acess is via the back gate as per the club meeting nights.

It is the place to be - and be seen! See you there!

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

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

SOME HELPFUL TIPS ON USING THE HARS REFLECTOR

Do you subscribe to the HARS reflector? If not why not join and get all the latest club news, views and gossip when it happens. Simply visit www.g3pia.org.uk and select ‘email list’ from the main menu and complete the simple form.

The HARS reflector is available to anyone who wishes to subscribe to it. In fact about half of the subscribers are not members of the club. The HARS committee reserves the right to remove the subscription of anyone who abuses the reflector. The reflector is moderated by a member of the club and by default the size of any posting including attachments such as photos is restricted. It also has a very efficient spam filter and to date no spam has been sent via the reflector to subscribers.

Please remember when replying to a message sent by the reflector that you should only use the ‘reply’ function on your email system if it is important that all subscribers see your reply. If you just wish to ‘send’ your reply to the author or a limited number of subscribers then just use the ‘forward’ function on your email system and enter individual email addresses.

Please remember that there are two types of subscription to the reflector. You can either receive each message as they are sent or your can receive a daily digest that contains all messages sent. You should bear in mind that not everyone will see your message or comments straight away.

Don’t use the ‘reply’ function to send a message that is a change of subject from the original message - send a new message.

If there is anything you need help with or clarification, please contact me direct at:
secretary@g3pia.org.uk.

REVISED CONSTITUTION

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

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:

Chairman:	chairman@g3pia.org.uk
Vice-Chairman:	vicechairman@g3pia.org.uk
Secretary:	secretary@g3pia.org.uk
Treasurer:	treasurer@g3pia.org.uk
Contest Manager:	contestmanager@g3pia.org.uk
Editor:	editor@g3pia.org.uk
Rally Organiser:	rally@g3pia.org.uk

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