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BARSCOMDUNMOW

STEBBING

NOTLEY

RAYNE HALSTEAD

WITHAM

COLCHESTER

COGGESHALL

Monthly Communication of theBraintree and District Amateur Radio Society

GX3XG

G3XG G6BRH

BRAINTREE

July2016

Winners of theFounders’ Award& the ConstructionContest

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Jun 16

We all had a nice surprise at thestart of the first meeting this month,we welcomed back an old memberDerek Mayes G3MMA.

Derek moved to Thailand a fewyears ago, but after a spell of badhealth, had to return to England. Afew more years of poor healthcontinued. I am now pleased to sayDerek has recovered , and felt wellenough to visit us once again. Thishappened to be the ConstructionContest evening. Still being amember he asked can I putsomething in the contest, theoutcome he won the contest thatevening. Well done Derek, andwelcome back.

July 4th Is an operating evening, socome along and operate the clubrigs and make some eveningcontacts. Neville will be startingthe check over off the RegionalManagers receiver.

Don’t forget the BBQ on July 6th.

Well that’s all for now 73’s John.

Chairman’s ChatJohn, M5AJB

The first Monday of June saw thewelcome return of Derek G3MMAafter a long period of absence.

At the beginning of the evening’sproceedings, Edwin was presentedwith the Founder’s Award for hisdedication and hard work behindthe scenes for the benefit of theclub. The meeting then moved onto the Construction Contest.

Anticipation was high as theentries, seven in all, were set outalong the front table for themembers’ inspection. The entriesranged from scratch built to kits,

Meeting ReportsGeoff, G1WRH

Contents Chairman’s Chat ………..….. 2 Meeting Reports ..…..………. 2 Antenna Review ….……….. 9 Other News ………………… 11 Club Meetings and Nets ….… 12 Rallies ………………………. 13 Contests …………………….. 14 Committee Info ……..…… .... 14 Club Info …………………… 15

. . . . . 6

41

Jun 16all tried tested and working. First was John M5AJB’s G-QRP Cub ‘LimerickSudden’ 40m Transmitter and Receiver pairing as designed by GeorgeDobbs. A number of members obtained these kits at the beginning of theconstruction season but have not yet completed them…fair warning for nextyear!

John alsoshowed ab a t t e r ym o n i t o r i n gunit includingmetering, acigar lightersocket and aUSB outlet,the housingb e i n gf a b r i c a t e dfrom copperclad board.The barebonesunit wasobtained fromEBAY forabout £10. A

very useful item in the armoury of any RAYNET volunteer.

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Jun 16Next was Mike G8DJO’s ongoing labour of love, EI9GQ’s 10m transmitterand receiver as serialised over many months in RADCOM for homebrew.Mike has been constructing all of the modules as the articles haveprogressed (but sometimes a little behind!) and has had them working inboth transmit and receive mode on the bench.

Edwin’s first submission was another well constructed example of theG-QRP Cub Limerick Sudden 40m Transmitter and Receiver, but with thefurther addition of the matching tuning unit.

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Jun 16Thanks must be given to Neville G8CDG for obtaining these handsome kitsfor the interested club members.

This was followed by Derek G3MMA’s scratch built (in two hours!) easilydeployed vertical folded dipole.

The 50 ohm antenna is end fed through a balun wound on a length ofrainwater down-pipe. The verticals are 14 feet in length, and the horizontals32 inches across. As its stands the antenna functions on 20/40 metres, butwith a tuner would operate down to 10 and up to 80 metres. Based looselyon an American design, Derek had used a very similar construction on aDXpedition in Taiwan with successful contacts of up to 3000 miles.

Edwin GØLPO then displayed his version of the battery monitoring unit,this time adapted with a mounting board beneath to fit snugly onto thedashboard of his car, and with a Yaesu dual band VHF/UHF transceivermounted above. Additional provision was made to attach this to analternative battery, and the unit differed slightly in that it had two differentcurrent USB outlets

71

Jun 16

Geoff G1WRH presented a solution to reducing the 16.6 volts from a fullycharged LiPo battery down to a safe 15 volts to operate an Elecrafttransceiver.

81

Jun 16In brief, when the reducer (in effect a pair of IN5401’s in series) is inoperation the LED shows. The circuit follows a design by the prolific PhilSalas AD5X, and the prototype PCB was obtained from him.

The opportunity was given for each entrant to be quizzed about theirhandiwork and the theory behind them and the knowledge in each instancewas clearly apparent. Scoring slips were given to all members present, butwith the strict proviso that they could not award points for their own entries!After very close scrutiny of the items in front of them, members returnedthe slips to the Chairman and Treasurer for totting up.

In once again a closely run competitionfourth place was awarded to Mike forhis 10 m transceiver; in joint third wereEdwin and John for their G-QRP Clubofferings, and the Club’s ConstructionShield was awarded to Derek for hisscratch built antenna.

The second club meeting of themonth was the annual DF hunt, thisyear on 2m (145.325).

Melvin hid up and four teams set offat 1950 hrs after his firsttransmission at 30 Watts. Melvingradually reduced his power outputto 10 Watts over ten minuteintervals.

Teams comprising Edwin, Jenny,Neville and John, and another ofJim and Geoff failed to find the fox,although they both passed close by,

more by chance in the case of thelatter as their radio had lost its ears.

Runners up were Colin and Joe, agreat achievement on their first DFhunt using only a handheld radio.Congratulations to Howard andMike In first place with Howard’sdirectional antenna and set of 30and 20 dB attenuators which theyhad to use as they closed in on theirtarget.

Thanks to Melvin for setting up andsitting out in Hall Road, Panfield allevening, and also for having had the

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Jun 16

I had finally decided on an antennafor my back garden. I didn't wantanything too large as I live in anarea that is predominantlybungalows and a massive arraywould be out of order. Havinglooked at numerous ads in RadComand searching for furtherinformation on the web I chose adual band 2/70 antenna fromMoonraker - the YG27-35 a 3/5element short beam.

The advert in RadCom gave thegains as 3.5/12.5 dBd but onlooking at their web-page the gainswere 9.9/12.5 dBd, so I sent ane-mail to them for clarification. Ireceived a quick, courteous, replystating that the higher figures werecorrect. I placed an order andawaited its delivery.

The parcel promptly arrived and Istarted to lay out the parts to check

against the accompanying leafletthat everything was there and that Iknew what each piece was, andwhere it fitted. The sheet showedthe assembly with screws, washers,elements and boom, etc., and theelements and boom holes werecolour-coded to ensure eachelement was fitted in the correctorder.

The first issue was that there wereno spring or flat washers for theelement fixings and the cable clampwas missing, although there weretwo superfluous plain washers thatI could see no use for, being toosmall (unless they were supposed tobe used with the power feedmounting screws – however these

YG27-35 AntennaReview

Ian, G8MKN

previously awarded club trophiesengraved which were given out onour return to the clubhouse.

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Jun 16were not shown on the drawing).Also, comparing the elementlengths they were at variance to thefigures given in the accompanyingleaflet with some showing asignificant length difference and/oroffset from the boom.

The element lengths did not matchthe figures given in their table andall were offset from the centre-line,some by significant amounts.

The offset could be corrected as theelements were held in place withhex-socket head set screws, so justneeded loosening, re-centring andre-tightening, and the over-longelements could be cut down to thatin the table, but half of them weretoo short. Even assuming theelements should be resonant at thelower part of the band (in which Iam most interested), being tooshort put them resonant at a higherfrequency; if designed for mid, or

higher, parts of the band it couldreduce its effectiveness atestablishing contacts with weakstations on SSB.

I felt that the quality of productionwas abysmal for the cost (almost£89) and decided to return it. Howcould a company that regularlyadvertises and has been around forsome time produce something sowrong. Any good DIYer could

make a jig for cuttingthe elements and getthem correct with betterthan a 1 mm error.Similarly another jig, orperhaps even the sameone, could be used tolocate the boom fixingto centralise theelements either side ofthe boom.

As I felt this was ofunmerchantable quality I contactedMoonraker again to arrange thereturn. There were no problems indoing this and a courier quicklycame to pick it up. My refund cameshortly after. I have no issues withthe customer service but thecompany was certainly let down bythe quality of its product. I havejust received a parcel from MLSthat at first sight contains a betterproduct.

Spec. Actual Diff Left Right l/r diff 932 935 +3 457 463 6 310 308 -2 146 148 2 312 308 -4 123 171 48 316 312 -4 150 147 3 330 337 +7 162 158 4 952 955 +3 442 496 54 380 383 +3 185 183 21044 1001 -43 475 511 36

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Jun 16The amateur radio Training andAssessment Guide is now availableon the RSGB website. This series ofdocuments describes the proceduresthat are to be followed for theprovision of training and assessment

as part of the RSGB scheme for people to become eligible for a UK amateurradio licence.

American amateurs will have to continue renewing their licenses on aregular basis, after a petition for ‘lifetime’ licenses was denied. LastNovember Mark Krotz, N7MK, requested a change of the rules and thedecision was announced on the 21st of June.

A campaign is under wayin the UK to save theLightship Planet from aone-way voyage to thescrap yard. The Planet ishome to club stationGB2LBL which entersthe lighthouses andlightships yearly event,and last year hosted theOfficers AssociationLusitania centenary event,using the call signGB1ØØMFA.. According

to John Hudson, MØCMW, GB2LBL was set up on board the Planet about7 or 8 years ago, and a group of Marine Radio Museum Society (MRMS)volunteers operate the Amateur Radio station each week.

The Planet used to mark the bar at the entrance to the River Mersey inLiverpool and is part of the history and heritage of the Port of Liverpool.

Other NewsRSGB\ARRL

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Jun 16

Jul4 DRM Radio check over Pt 2 Operating evening HF, 2m & 70cms11 Club 2m Net18 Club BBQ25 Club 2m Net

Aug1 TX factor 108 Club 2m Net15 Talk - Mark Haynes MØDXR, Kenwood & DXpeditions22 Club 2m Net29 Club 2m Net

Sep5 Railways on the Air planning, Natter night12 Club 2m Net19 Operating evening HF, 2m & 70cms

Club Net - 08.00 pm local time2 Meters (S15) (145.375 MHz)

Club Meetings and Nets

26 Club 2m Net

Oct3 JOTA Planning,

DRM Radio check over Pt 310 Club 2m Net17 TBA24 Club 2m Net

Nov7 Surplus equipment sale.14 Club 2m Net21 TBA28 Club 2m Net

Dec5 Christmas social.12 Club 2m Net19 Natter evening.26 Club 2m Net

BADARS Club LibraryWe hold a collection of books and DVDs that feature electronicconstruction, operation, the history of radio, shortwave listening and otherforms of technology to do with radio, including the ‘Secret’ workcarried-out by amateurs during the war years.

Most hires are 20p per session.

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Jun 16

2 JULYBANGOR & DISTRICTAMATEUR RADIO SOCIETYRALLYDetails from Harry 0289 142 2762email norman.newell@yahoo.com.

17 JULYMcMICHAEL RADIO RALLYReadingDetails Pete, G8FRC 0118 969 5697.[www.mcmichaelrally.org.uk].

24 JULYFINNINGLEY ARS ANNUALRALLYMore information from Kevin,G3AAF on 0783 161 4640.

29-31 JULYAMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUMGuildford [www.amsat-uk.org].

31 JULYHORNCASTLE SUMMER RALLYHorncastle, Lincolshire. Details fromTony Nightingale, G3ZPU, on 01507527835, or emailtony.nightingale@yahoo.co.uk.

7 AUGUST27th KING’S LYNN ARC GREATEASTERN RADIO RALLY

Details from Ted, G4OZG on01553 768701. [www.klarc.org.uk]

14 AUGUSTFLIGHT REFUELLING ARSHAMFEST Wimborne, Dorset.More details from Tony Baker,G3PFM on 0774 3475018 or byemail to hamfest@frars.org.uk.[www.frars.org.uk].

21 AUGUSTRUGBY ATS ANNUAL RADIORALLYRugby. More details from Tony,GØOLS on 07759 684411.[www.rugbyats.co.uk].

28 AUGUSTMILTON KEYNES ARS RALLYMore details from Roy, G8RCK on0786 6673192 [www.mkars.org.uk/mkars/rally]

29 AUGUSTHUNTINGDONSHIRE ARSANNUAL RALLYFurther info from rally organiserMalcolm Hirst on 01480 214282 orby email tohenry_hirst@hotmail.com

Rallies

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Jun 16

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CommitteeChairman: John, M5AJB 01787 460947 1 Ross Cottage, Southey Green

Secretary/Membership Secretary: Edwin, GØLPO 01376 324031 42 Panfield Lane, Braintree,

Treasurer: Neville, G8CDG

Ordinary Members: Geoff, G1WRH 01376 323223 07745 569564 Melvin, GØEMK

HF

Jul4 1900-2030 80m CC CW13 1900-2030 80m CC SSB17 0900-1600 Low Power Contest21 1900-2030 80m CC DATA30-31 1200-1200 IOTA Contest

Aug10 1900-2000 80m Club Sprint CW25 1900-2000 80m Club Sprint SSB

Sep3-4 1300-1300 SSB Field Day14 1900-2000 80m Club Sprint SSB

VHF

Jul2/3 1400-1400* VHF NFD3 1100-1500 3rd 144MHz Backpackers17 1000-1600 70MHz Trophy Contest VHF Championship

Aug6 1400-2000 144MHz Low Power Contest VHF Championship6 1300-1700 4th 144MHz Backpackers7 0800-1200 432MHz Low Power Contest VHF Championship14 1400-1600 70MHz Cumulatives #5

Contests

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Braintree and District Amateur Radio SocietyThe club meets every 1st and 3rd

Monday of the month at BraintreeHockey Club, Church Street,Bocking. Doors open at 7.30 pm,meetings run from 8 pm to 10 pm.

Membership is £16 annually;Senior members (State Retirementage) and Junior members, under18, pay £10. A door fee of £1 isalso payable at each meeting bymembers and visitors.

BARSCOM is sent to members bye-mail on the first of the month;paper copies are available at thefirst meeting of the month (pluspostage if appropriate).

Members may sell or exchangeequipment etc. before the start ofeach meeting, during the tea/coffeebreak and may advertise inBARSCOM free of charge.

Some members have had problemswith UHF and BZ access, and as aresult the Club Net will nowoperate on 2  metres only. Thisshould make it easier for allmembers to remember thefrequency, and for non-membersto find the net. The net will useV30 (S15) 145.375 MHz, starting20.00 hrs local time on the 2nd, 4th,and 5th Mondays of each month.

Please send articles for publication to i.wager@kaladel.net.

The deadline for submissions for the next edition is 25th of the month. Items will be published in the first

available edition subject to space availability.

For more information and pictures of events and projects seeour Web Site at www.badars.co.uk

Please contact our Chairman for details about commercialadverts.

BARSCOM Editor (Ian, G8MKN) © BADARS 2016 - E.& O.E.

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Jun 16

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