Cockenzie & Port Seton

Amateur Radio Club Elements

Cockenzie & Port Seton

Amateur Radio Club is

affiliated to the Radio So-

ciety of Great Britain and

holds the call signs

MM0CPS and GM2T which

are used for our special

event and contest entries.

The Club was formed by

Bob Glasgow GM4UYZ in

1984, to help the local am-

ateurs get to know each

other.

Far from being just a local

club we have members

regularly attending from

the Borders, Dumfries,

Strathclyde, Fife and New-

castle.

The Club meets on the first

Friday of every month

(Second Friday of January)

in the lounge of the

Thorntree Inn on the old

Cockenzie High Street from

7pm till late.

Editorial I am writing this editorial with still a couple of weeks away from the deadline, to be honest I am trying to get on top of all my outstanding issues before the Tiree trip which by the time you read this will be well and truly over and a part of history. I am also praying that the weather will have been kind to us as well on the trip same as it was for VHF Field Day this year.

Several of the club members managed to go to Innes GM4VJV’s funeral which happened on July 1st to pay our respects to a very good friend and fellow radio amateur. The church was absolutely full with also an extremely large turnout at the cemetery of Innes friends, family and work colleagues paying their respects to Innes. He will certainly be missed by many people. Our sympathies go out to Margaret and the family at this time.

Ok then what have we been doing this month? We had our normal club night although it was a week earlier than normal due to the VHF Field Day event, but regard numbers attending it was about the same as we have had all year. It is nice to see a consistency of numbers plus still pulling in some new faces as well. The dream is that everyone will turn up one club night, now that would be something… Right we have taken part in the RSGB VHF Field Day from the same site we have used for the last four years down near Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway. As we have found, it is a fantastic site and worth the travel. Lastly this month is the IOTA contest from TIREE but by the time the newsletter is read it will once again be

history. No doubt there will be many tales to tell.

To the future, well the major event is our Junk Night on the 12th August. I am again looking for raffle and food donations so if you can help I really would appreciate it. Let’s hope is once again a resounding success as it has been in previous years.

Also we have Lighthouses Weekend on the 20th & 21st August once again down at Barns Ness so I hope you will all come along and take part and have what is a real fun weekend. This weekend is open to those who are eligible for the VIC GM4GGF Trophy competition so why not pop along and up your QSO count. I am starting my winter training sessions of Foundation, Intermediate and the Advanced Training by kicking of on the 24th September with a Foundation Course. If you know of anyone interested in any of these courses can you now start to get back in touch with me so I can get the Community Centre bookings confirmed?

The Club June 20M activity night was one of the best we have had with regard to numbers so many thanks for all those who took part. Yes the night was a bit of a struggle with regard conditions but it was good fun never the less.

Enjoy club night, and come along to Junk Night and Lighthouses Weekend.

See you all then.

Bob GM4UYZ

In this issue Club Activity Night P.2

VHF Field Day 2011 P.4

VHF FD Report P.6

The Skye Ridge P.8

PSK Corner P.9

CPSARC Clublog P.10

18th Annual Mini Rally P.11

Website P.12

Test Your Knowledge P.13

Events Column P.12

V o l u m e 1 9

Au g u s t 2 0 11

08

CLUB ACTIVITY NIGHT

22nd June 2011

The club’s activity night took place on the Wednesday evening be-tween 19:00 and 22:00 BST on 20M with the aim for club members to get on the air and operate and have a bit of fun, we are radio ama-teurs you know!!!!

There was certainly one or two on which was fantastic to see alt-hough the band conditions were very poor indeed. It was nice to see Foundation and Intermediate Licence holders taking part, well done to you all on your efforts as it was certainly harder for you.

Thanks to everyone who came on and sent me their logs and some reports.

The logs either contained SSB contacts, CW contacts or data. The following stations were worked by more than 1 person:

403A == wkd by 4stns: 3xSSB, 1xCW

DL0YLU == wkd by 2stns: 1xCW, 1xData

EE5KB == wkd by 4stns: 4xSSB

IZ3IYK == wkd by 2stns: 2xCW

PD4WIM == wkd by 2stns: 2xData

RV6ANF/M == wkd by 2stns: 2xData

S520SV == wkd by 3stns: 2xSSB, 1xCW

YU1DW == wkd by 3stns: 3xSSB

Bob GM4UYZ: My report

Managed only 24 QSO’s all on SSB. Best DX was USA and he called me. I didn’t find the Band to great. Made contacts with Belgium, Cro-atia, European Russia, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and USA. It was nice to contact 3 club mem-bers as well over the evening. Ended up stopping at 22:00

Brian MM0WZB: His report

Didn't get in until after 9pm last night but had a go and got a mighty THREE contacts!

Tried to get the attention of ...UYZ without success!

YU1DW (I followed you in on that one if I remember!)

I could hear a lot of stuff including Brazil, Jordan and South India but no joy and a number of stations were only after DX and I didn't quali-fy. Good to be on the air though. Have just finally finished my amp so should have 40W soon if it works OK. Brian managed to contact Mon-tenegro, Serbia and Spain with his QRP rig....well Done Brian

Duncan MM0GZZ: His report

No report from Duncan. Apart from 2 QSO’s the rest were made by PSK31.

Duncan managed to contact: SSB: Brazil and Montenegro PSK31Ger-

many, Spain, Italy, Czech Rep, Netherlands, Slovenia, Greece,, Euro-pean Russia, Ukraine and Romania:

Bob GM4IKT: His report

Log from last night. Mostly PSK. Found SSB hard going tried to call a few stations but pile up was horrendous and they were not really very strong. Worked only 3 on SSB you, Jim and Brazil. Best DX on PSK Asiatic Russia, USA and Tenerife. 18 contacts in all

Andy MM0GYG: His report

I spent a couple of hours operating on 20m in CW last night before I was too tired to key. (The killer was the last callsign - EA5HEH - all those dots defeated me!). Hope you had some fun too. I found the QRN really loud and I don't have a good antenna for 20m so I was using an end-fed and I had to reduce power to avoid RFI in the shack. However, everybody I called replied so I was using enough power (50W). About 1900Z quite a few USA stations appeared, but the rest of the time all I heard was Europeans.

I was actually operating most of the time as the QSOs were about 15mins long each (using 18wpm at the moment). I'm cheating at that speed by using an old PIC-based CW decoder (ERA MicroReader, if you remember it). I can only read 12wpm by myself and then only if I'm hearing one signal -- I get thrown even if there's a station pump-ing the AGC.

An enjoyable evening, let's hope the current solar activity settles down.

Andy managed to contact: Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine and USA

Ron GM0NTL: His report

Here is my log for tonight. Did the first 2 hours then got fed up and needed a cuppa. RTTY was quite good tonight, but earlier worked ZS and TF on PSK31!

Ron managed to contact: All on RTTY—Germany, England, Romania, Turkey, Tajikistan, Cyprus, European Russia, Italy, France, Corsica, Belgium, Spain, Ukraine, Armenia,, Slovenia, Lithuania, Asiatic Russia

Nial MM6KLZ: His report

Here's my log, not breaking any records but not too bad for 10W output and the limited time I had with picking up from Brownies etc. (Karen was working tonight *she doesn't work _all_ the time BTW+).

I heard you weakly on this side of on a couple of contacts, OT2R and IZ0SPA. I made fairly clear contact with OT2R immediately after you but conditions changed and the QSO didn't complete. IZ0SPA heard me then it all died...

I need a better antenna and 100W (and some decent gear)!

Nial managed to contact: Italy, Croatia, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Ser-bia and Slovenia

Colwyn MM6YCJ: His report

Could faintly hear you last night 14.263MHz (RST 4 & 2) but not able to raise you despite a few attempts. One helpful individual (Italian???) did report my attempts to you and I was able to hear your whole conversation; very frustrating, I thought you might have been able to hear me shouting without the aid of the radio!

Initially I was getting reasonable contacts, helped by being spotted on the SOTA website and the DX Cluster, but then continentals (Italians?) drowned out 14.285MHz. All later attempts to make contact on 20m were unsuccessful and after about 45 minutes with no contacts, I packed up at 21:15 (20:15 UTC).

FT817 on 2.5 watts with a 20m inverted dipole up a 6m fishing pole. I also had a quarter wave ground plane set up, but didn't raise anyone using it. Helped with a SLAB to maintain battery power for 2 hours.

Interesting wee hill just above Bathgate, just over a 1000ft high. If I could have opened the locked gate I might have been able to drive to the summit and activate from the front seat. However, I sat com-fortably in a small tent and even tried to get my laptop working.

A few medium showers in the 2 hours I was up there, remained overcast and the cloud was down, but great fun.

Log of the evening appended, doesn't feel like I am in contention for the left hand capacitor trophy, but I did manage to activate the hill?!!

Colwyn managed to contact: Scotland, Spain, Hun-gary, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Bosnia

Well done Colwyn your efforts are to be ad-mired!!!!

Sandy MM0CJT: His report

No report from Sandy although he did work me.

Jim 2M0EAC: His report

I had 4 contacts yourself and Bob 4X4FR in Israel and ££5KB in Spain

Bob 2M0KLL: His report

First attempt Bob, could have got more; but just had to watch The Apprentice!

Bob managed to contact: Hungary, Italy, European

Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, Portu-gal,

Croatia, France, Germany, Slovenia

The results are as follows:

That’s it then for another year maybe more will take part next year.

Bob GM4UYZ

Pos Callsign QSO’s DX QSO’s

1 GM0NTL 34 18

2 GM4UYZ 24 12

3 2M0KLL 19 12

4 MM0GZZ 19 12

5 GM4IKT 18 12

6 MM6YCJ 11 8

7 MM6KLZ 9 7

8 MM0GYG 6 5

9 2M0EAC 4 3

10 MM0WZB 3 3

11 MM0CJT 1 1

Club Attire

The club has a design for

Club Tee-shirts, Polo-

shirts, Sweat-Shirts, Fleec-

es and Jackets and all of

these can be obtained

from the address below.

When making an order

please quote ‘Cockenzie &

Port Seton Amateur Radio

Club’ as this will ensure

that the Club Logo will be

placed on the required

ordered garments.

If you wish to add your call

-sign to the logo then

please ask at the time of

the order.

Cost will depend on gar-

ment and should cover the

garment and logo, call-sign

addition will be extra.

Order from:

PATRICIA BEWSEY DESIGNS,

UNIT 11,

FENTON BARNS RETAIL

VILLAGE,

FENTON BARNS,

NORTH BERWICK,

EAST LOTHIAN

EH39 5BW

Tel/Fax: 01620 850788

Mobile: 07970 920431

VHF Field Day 2011

MM0CPS/P from IO84BT

Well that is another VHF Field Day over and I must admit it for me comes in as one of the best that I have been involved in. I have been doing them since 1993 which I cannot believe is 18 years ago, oh how time flies. The com-pany was fantastic with great team work and lots of fun and laughs to go along with it. For a change we never had any technical hitches at all which is absolutely amazing. It certainly helps leaving home on the Friday dinnertime to arrive onsite around about 16:00 and starting the building of the site. This year the concentration was on getting all the anten-nas built for all the bands on the Friday even-ing which we achieved before we settled down to having a “beer or two”. The Satur-day morning the concentration was now getting the shack up an operational again it came together with ease. On the Sunday we had to drop the 6M tower and install the 4M beam then in the shack remove the 6M sta-tion and build the 4M station and again no problems.

For the technically minded this is what we put on each station:

6M:

Transmitter IC756 Pro III + Acom1000 Line-ar

Power 400W

Receiver IC756 Pro III

Antennas 7 Element DK7ZB Yagi

4M:

Transmitter FT847 + Linear Amp 4M Ampli-fier

Power 160W

Receiver FT847

Antenna 8 Element G0KSC Yagi

2M:

Transmitter Yaesu FT847+LinearAmp2M Amplifier

Power 400W

Receiver Yaesu FT847 +Landweher Gasfet Preamplifier

Antennas 4 x 7 Element DK7ZB Yagi's

70cms:

Transmitter Kenwood TS2000 + Discovery 70cms Amplifier

Power 50W

Receiver Kenwood TS2000 + Landweher Gasfet Preamplifier

Antenna 2 x 23 Element DK7ZB Yagi's

So how did we do? Well the following are the square maps worked for each of the bands and finally what score was submitted for the contest. I must admit it looks really impres-sive this year. Well done everyone involved.

6M Squares Worked

4M Squares Worked

2M Squares Worked

70CM squares Worked

Score submitted…

BAND QSO DUP LOC POINTS AVG PTS AVG DIS

--------------------------------------------

50 145 3 39 68676 473.6 478.9

70 112 0 25 33182 296.3 296.3

144 363 2 39 106572 293.6 294.7

432 82 1 22 21759 265.4 268.7

--------------------------------------------

TOTAL 702 6 125 230189 327.9 330.0

============================================

TOTAL SCORE : 230 189

Dupes are not included in QSO counts neither avg calculations

How we have fared over the years since we starting going to IO84BT

In 2010 we had to abandon the contest on the Sunday morning due to adverse weather conditions.

All QSO’s shown were what was submitted before adjudication.

Red Boxes show the most ever QSO’s made for that Band and on what year.

Year 50MHz

QSO 50MHz

Points 70MHz

QSO 70MHz

Points 144MHz

QSO 144MHz

Points 432MHz

QSO 432MHz

Points 2005 237 223567 85 22305 324 117339 115 36210

2006 170 127763 88 28312 414 134698 92 23778

2007 211 195389 64 22676 295 94731 74 20736

2008 132 83573 68 18964 213 62491 65 17152

2009 218 190166 75 22027 400 164165 67 17745

2010 174 123245 0 0 252 75804 70 18104

2011 145 68676 112 33182 363 1066572 82 21759

The Club

The Club is run in a very

informal way, just a group

of like minded people

doing something they

enjoy!

This does not mean that

we don’t do anything, we

enter (and win!) contests,

train newcomers, hold

talks and video nights and

run a popular annual Junk

Sale. Our newsletter has

won the Practical Wireless

‘Spotlight’ competition on

several occasions.

The Club supports the

British Heart Foundation

in memory of a member

who died from heart dis-

ease by donating the

profits from some of the

events we hold, we have

raised over £14,795 since

1994.

Supported by BT Community

Champions

Every year in early July a CPSARS crew organise to activate a multiband VHF portable station in the RSGBs VHF National Field Day Contest.

Contesting isn’t for everyone, but they do fulfil two important functions.

One is to provide a radio related exercise for the very competitive minded, where beating the others is an aim. The other, possibly less considered function of this type of contest is the practice of civil defence procedures. Raynet and similar exercises are perhaps a more structured method of practice, but in an emergency situation what people need is a system of communications and survival set up without infrastructure (power, buildings etc) and with ability to communicate across dis-tances. Disasters such as Tsunami in Japan, and Indonesia, Major storms in Louisiana have all had Amateur communications as the first ones to be set up and operational. Field day con-tests are good practice for setting up a com-plex station with multiple transmitters and antennae, with computer networks integrated.

So the CPSARC contest team went this year to the same place as the last few years, a farm south of Castle Douglas where a field is availa-ble about 200m from the sea, but at 150m above sea level, and with a view of the sea covering 180 degrees from east through south to west.

Contest rules state that the station cannot be set up long before the start, so arrival on Fri-day afternoon and some initial setup is the norm, followed by the rest of the setting up on Saturday morning, and starting operations at 3pm (BST) on Saturday for a 24 hour contest run.

MM0CPS/p was pretty much set up by lunchtime on Saturday. In some years there has been a mad rush to solve some technical issue at the last minute.

The team.

The team comprised John MM0CCC, Bob GM4UYZ, Robin MM0VIV, Stevie MM0GZA, Sandy MM0CJT, Paul MM0VPR, Cambell MM0DXC, Gordon MM0GPZ, Phil GM4LIR and Geoff MM5AHO, and these were joined part time by Iain, GM0OQV, and Bob GM4IKT and others.

After several years together the core of this team have a relaxed but slightly organised method of site assembly. We’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that safety is im-portant, and that erecting antennas on towers needs risks managed properly, and tasks co-ordinated well. Using a Gin pole to erect a set of 4 stacked 2m yagis on a set of scaffold poles to about 20m high, and making it suitable for the high winds that can sometimes appear at this site, is not to be tackled haphazardly. Similarly, setting up the shack must be done methodically and carefully if the three oper-ating stations are to work together. And all this activity also requires sustenance and at least a few home comforts. We’re expecting to be there for two and a half days, sleeping 2 nights, eating 6 meals, and having many cups of coffee and tea, and perhaps a beer or two, so that side of the operation also needs some attention and setting up.

This year a 9x3m tent was deployed. Fortu-nately there was little wind all weekend, unlike the previous year when the whole camp was pretty much blown away in a storm! A series of smaller sleeping tents positioned suitably where no antenna can fall if something went wrong, and other kit placed in positions that suit the operation mean a campsite that on first glimpse, looks like a Roma camp, but one with a difference.

The trusty generator Genevieve (from Barns Ness lighthouse originally) was placed at a greater distance than the previous year, and the lower noise was appreciated. Paul, (camp electrician) wired up a low volt loss cable to power the shack, and Genevieve supplied pow-er all weekend, consuming about 50 litres of diesel, with plenty of power to spare (12.5 kVA available), her ammeter hardly flicking off the bottom stop, and voltmeter sitting pretty solid-ly on 240V. Of course the dining tent con-sumed some power too, with kettle, TV and an HF transceiver for those off duty during the contest.

(Continued on page 7)

VHF NFD

The site.

The farm we use (with permission) is on a latitude south of Newcastle, but about due south of Castle Douglas. At 150m asl and with the 180 degree view mentioned above, this site is a VHF dream. But its an exposed site, and last year we found out just how exposed. Winds of about 60-70mph gusted in from the south west, and blew everything away. Tents were ripped, antennas hastily wound down, and the contest aban-doned on Sunday morning.

This year made up for that. Hardly enough wind to fly the flags properly, and sunny for nearly 100% of the time, we all got a little sunburnt. Views of the Lake District are spectacular, and a huge offshore windfarm between us and Workington.

St Bees head is a noticeable landmark, but further south is visible when its clear, as far as about Barrow. Most noticeable to the south though is the Isle of Man. On Saturday night the lights of Ramsey were visible. Further to the west, Ireland is visible, with Downpatrick area showing on the horizon be-tween Isle of Man and Burrow Head, southern end of Scot-land.

From a radio viewpoint, especially VHF, the sea path to most parts of England is great. The nearest hills, (Lake District) are only a few degrees above the horizon, so in theory, anywhere south is workable.

Equipment The club has accumulated a nice set up kit for contests. Sup-plemented by various personal gear brought by participants, and very respectable VHF/UHF station can be erected. The shack was set up in the back of John’s van, and while a little tight for space, this setup allows for a warm, low noise envi-ronment that suits the type of contest.

On 2m, a stack of 4x7 element yagis were fed from an amplifi-er and all driven by a Yaesu FT847. On receive a preamp was in line at the antenna stack. On 6m, this year a single 7 ele-ment yagi was tried this year, and this proved very effective, even though the Sporadic E propagation was poor. An IC756 Pro3 drove an Acom 1000 linear for this station. On 4m and other FT847, amplifier and an 8 element yagi was employed. On 70cm, a stack of two 23 element yagis was driven by a Kenwood TS2000 and amplifier. Each of these stations ran a computer in a network using Wintest. The network allows keyboard communications between operators, and this allows passing a station from one band to another. Working another station on say 2m, our operator asks the other end if they are also on 70cm, and enables a QSO on that band also, and so on.

Comforts.

In the “dining Marquee”, the creature comforts were laid out. This year a fridge kept food and liquids cool, supplemented by two coolie bins of ice surrounding a couple of bottles of beer. (or maybe several couples?). Two 2 burner gas stoves provid-

ed the cook with capacity to turn out about 60 meals over the weekend, either satisfying hungry appetites, or adding weight to those not used to a cooked breakfast. A TV wasn’t much watched, though the Wimbledon contest did cause some comment. There was some debate whether British player Andy Murray would win, or if Scottish player Andy Murray would loose.

For those that can’t sepend a day away from HF, an FT1000 was setup with a W3DZZ antenna between the tower and a car, and provided a little off shift entertainment. At one stage someone moved the band to 11m to check from Es propaga-tion, only to hear an English CBer calling CQ. Someone with a Kiwi accent managed to fool this poor guy into believing that he was in qso with New Zealand, his best DX ever he said. He’s probably even now still assuring his sceptical CB mates that it really was NZ he was working. Meantime the observers of this charade were rolling round the tent laughing their heads off, while the on-duty contest team continued racking up points blissfully unaware of the shenanigans in the big tent.

Results.

In many ways this was perhaps the best result of recent years, with no major equipment failures, and good solid qso rates. Unfortunately the propagation on 6m and 4m didn’t favour us. We’ve seen since that some English stations worked the Carribean on 6m, while we had to be pleased with EA6 as best DX. The contest scoring is a point per km distance worked, so while our Scottish location meant more km per tropo qso, the lack of Es qsos was a disappointment.

Best dx on 6m was EA8EY at 3113km, and on 4m GU6EFB at 605km. 2m band fared a little better with a surprising contact to 9A1N @ 1810km, while 70cm racked up only 82 qsos aver-aging 280km each and best of 528km.

While our scores will not be enough to beat off all competi-tion, we seem likely to be in the top 10 or so for UK, and per-haps the best Scottish station. But its too early to say that. The RSGBs website only shows claimed scores at this stage, and only for those that submit their score publically. The adjudi-cated scores will come out later in the year.

We agreed it was really time for a coffee break, 11.00 hours on Saturday 2

nd July 2011 when we (Ann, Bill and

me) dragged our loaded rucksacks onto the summit of Gars Bheinn (895m) on the south end of the Black Cuillin ridge on the Isle of Skye.

The weather was glorious, sweat soaked my shirt; re-minding me to mention that dehydration might be a prob-lem later, but the views to the Isle of Rum, Western Isles, Eigg, the mainland and beyond were superb. To the north the jagged, impossible line of peaks stretched out to finally reach Sgurr nan Gillean (GM/SI-004) a mere 7km away as the sea eagle flies.

My two companions looked at me expectantly as we sat drinking in the views, and started drinking the meagre rations of water we would need to eek out over the next 26 hours. Eventually one asked, ―well, are you going to start transmitting?‖ ―No,‖ I replied, ―this isn‘t a Summits on the Air (SOTA) summit. We still have a long way to go before we reach the first one.‖

Looking southeast the 10.45 hours tourist boat from Elgol was nearly half way to Coruisk. We had chartered it for the 08.30 morning departure and left on a flat calm sea, to a precarious drop off by treacherous rocks. There the colony of common seals and their new born pups basked in the sunshine and watched as we clumsily jumped from prow to rock, to get safely ashore.

The Cuillin Ridge Traverse on the Isle of Skye is Britain‘s finest mountaineering challenge. Twenty-two peaks of rough gabbro and basalt lie in a continuous chain stretch-ing over 12 sinuous kilometres. They create the Cuillin Ridge Traverse, without doubt the finest and longest Al-pine-style rock climbing route in the UK, arguably in Eu-rope with over 4000 metres (13,000 feet) of ascent and descent. Today I had the added burden of portable radio gear and 4 liters of water.

With no coffee on sale, fair trade or otherwise, we set off along the ridge to the first Munro (a summit above 3000ft), Sgurr nan Eag (924m). After the steep ascent, plus the clear views north, we were inspired and moved quickly and confidently along the undulating ridge, ticking the first summits to be halted by the first rock climbing; the Thearlaich-Dubh gap. A deep gash across the ridge with vertical walls. We could see a guided party ahead struggle up the north side, thankfully the man hauling was over by the time we arrived. The south wall we effi-ciently descended with a 30 metre abseil down into the cold, sunless gap. As the more experienced climber I set off up the north side, but soon had to retreat as my ruck-sack was too wide for the narrow chimney. Neither of the others seemed keen to deputise but without the sack my second attempt was more successful. Committing to a ‗thrutch‘ up the chimney, brings one in reach of a big, perfect hold and though awkward, the remainder of the

chimney eases.

The precedent of climbing without a rucksack meant we hauled the three sacks up the rock face; mine with my FT817 inside bashing off the rock or perhaps being acci-dently switched on as it came up.

All safely through the first major obstacle, I left the other two coiling the rope, and raced up to the busy summit of the highest Island peak in Scotland; Sgurr Alasdair (993m) GM/SI-001.

I started calling just before 15.00 hours, making a first contact at 14.58; GM7PKT/P (Robin) as a summit–2–summit contact. Robin is always on a summit and he was out again on GM/CS-044 Beinn Teallach. With a 5.9 report both ways. The qualifying 4 contacts were quickly made, my total was eight. Preserving battery life was my major concern dictating somewhat curt responses.

I had been on Sgurr Alasdair almost 13 months earlier when MM0DHY had activated it for the first time. Since then, I had passed my foundation licence and started SOTA myself; clearly a contagious condition!

I quickly packed, leaving behind a few bemused hill walk-ers, and followed my two companions who had already left without me! Despite their best attempts, we were reunited by the time we reached Sgurr Mhic Choinnich (948m) and from there we continued above the screes of An Stac to reach the most striking and dangerous of the Skye Cuillin; The Inaccessible Pinnacle (986m) GM/SI-002. I started calling just after 17.00 hours, making first contact at 17.09; MM3WJZ/P (Ian) as a summit–2–summit contact. He was on GM/WS-001 Ben Nevis. With 4000ft of antenna each, the signal report was way over 5.9 both ways, perfect audio.

All contacts from the first activation of these two peaks had been on 145MHz, so to minimise weight, I took only the 2m antennae; a 2 element YAGI; nothing like limiting your options! In reality the peaks are so steep deploying an inverted V dipole is problematic. I spoke with 5 others making 6 in total and the second summit activated.

I do have to say that SI-002 attracts only 6 SOTA points, but needs ropes and serious rock climbing to get to the summit. Surely this is the one SOTA summit worthy of summer bonus points?

After the Inn Pin, traversing the next Munro; Sgurr na Banachdich (965m), seemed a dawdle. We were weary and the long sections over Sgurr a‘ Ghreadaidh (973m) and then Sgurr a‘ Mhadaidh (918m) were endured know-ing we would stop soon.

We arrived at one of the few grassy areas on the ridge at the Bealch na Glaic Moire just before 21.00 hours on

(Continued on page 9)

The Skye Ridge—on the air

Saturday night to bivouac below the towering south ridge of Bidean Druim Nam Ramh. It was glorious, sitting in this meadow, eating supper as the sun set in the big skies over the distant Western Isles.

Although some of the higher tops were cloudy next morn-ing we slept well and were up and off at 06.00, and had completed two abseil descents before 07.30, a fine way to start the day.

The next summit was the lofty Bruiche na Frithe with it‘s solid triangulation station. We barely paused and contin-ued along the screes to traverse Am Basteir. This brought us to the vertical face taken by Naysmiths route on the Basteir tooth. We set up the belay for the final rock climb. The short but exposed traverse to the foot of the crack, then up the obvious line to pull over onto a flat area. We coiled the ropes then scrambled onto the sum-mit. The ridge led down to the final bealach, where we sat looking at the final ascent. Maybe we would finish the traverse after all!

Shortly, we reached the summit of Sgurr nan Gillean (965m) GM/SI-004 and shook hands. The climbing was over for the day. I started calling at about 10.20 hours. Nothing! I checked the time. Surely those lazy radio hams would be out of bed by 10.30 hours. Still nothing. My long suffering companions started pulling on jackets, hats and gloves. My CQ calls were becoming more stri-dent and the timbre of my voice was rising. Still 145.500 remained quiet. I checked and rechecked that I was transmitting. Although the 817 battery was flat, my spare battery was showing 10.8v. Call after call with no re-sponse. Despair was threatening to engulf me when GM8RBR, came in at 10:33, nearly knocking me off the summit block; volume was way too high!

Bill, down in Portree. Blessed relief, we exchanged re-ports then he said, ―sorry to cut you off but GM3JIJ is giving his report and I want to get back to it. He‘s on 145.525 and everyone will be listening to him. I‘d wait until John has finished if I were you.‖

Sure enough, I listened to news about museums on the air in Pontefract and beyond. On calling CQ again, GM7PKT/M replied. Robin was nearly at the top of Cre-ag Meaghaidh (GM/CS-002). He would be there within a few minutes so I agreed to stay on the summit until he arrived. GM3JIJ finished his newsletter and on calling to see who was listening, I made the third contact. There were nearly half a dozen stations and I looked forward to activating the hill, but only John stayed on air. I still needed that fourth contact. Happily, it arrived a shortly afterwards. GM0DRU, Ian in Stornoway, then Robin; GM7PKT/P summit-2-summit on CS-002 and GM4COX/P Jack, also summit-2-summit.

Success, I had activated the Skye ridge. We happily scrambled down the south ridge, passing more exasper-ated hillwalkers and eventually arrived at our destination; the Sligachan Hotel just before 14.00 hours. Total time, sea level to sea level was 29 hours. We had bivouacked for 9 hours (21:00 to 06:00) so 20 hours in total, and from first to last top 15.5 hours (including radio time).

The Skye Ridge is a worthy objective for any moun-taineer; but by combining this with Summits on the Air, I had achieved the first activation of the Black Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye, and I still had a litre of water left!

Colwyn Jones, MM6YCJ/P

I have had round about 150 digital qsos since the begin-ning of June. Mostly PSK31 with a few PSK63, 2 on PSK 125 and one on RTTY. I have tried a few different pro-grams, Digipan, Airlink express, MixW and HRD/DM780. I prefer the HRD option by far, it is a bit tricky to set up but I think it is well worth the effort. It auto fills a lot of the box-es in the log which none of the others do and it is simple to upload logs to eQSL and LOTW from HRD. The log is also automatically backed up to HRDlog.net should there be a PC failure. Most of my contacts have been round about Europe on 20m with a few on 15, 17 and 10m. Good ones include USA, Cuba, Canary Isles, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Iceland and Canada mostly 15 & 20m. A nice surprise was Hong Kong on 17m one afternoon. I work mostly mornings and afternoons. I am enjoying working digital modes as a wee change from the zoo on ssb. Ta ta for noo Bob GM4IKT

Some psk dx i have been working last month 20mtr KP4PBX Jim 15mtr RU6UR Yuri 10mtr IN3RSV Sergio 30mtr 9K2YM Yasef, HI8CAQ Cesar, UT4CE Peter HB9MXY Rudolf W2gm Mark, IR2ITA Franco, HA2EBO Rudi, F6IRG Bruno, SP9DTE Lukas UA6CET Gennady, 5C12M, SQ4OJD Andrzej, PY1ME. so many more to add, a few on ssb as well with J79XB Mike on 20 and GB1HI holy island on 40mtrs see you next month regards Duncan MM0GZZ

PSK Corner

Thanks to the sterling

work by M0RNR, our club

has been added to the

excellent Clublog system

developed by Michael

Wells G7VJR.

www.clublog.org

The system allows mem-

bers to upload their logs

in ADIF format and have

them displayed in a table

with all the other club

members.

Clublog also has great

facilities for tracking your

DXCC status etc so is well

worth taking the time to

register and get your log

uploaded.

To update your log with

the next set of contacts

(SSB, CW or Data) you can

simply upload your whole

log again and the system

will take care of the dupli-

cates. Alternatively you

can export the bits you

want from your own log

and just upload that.

The tables we’ll publish

here will be the club, fil-

tered by the current year,

so everyone starts a new

year at 0 contacts.

CPSARC Clublog

A bit short on info from members I’m afraid.

As you can see from the tables Keith MM0KTC

has entered the league tables in second place

with a very creditable total.

The bands tend to be fairly quiet but there is

dx there as I found out during the IARU con-

test 9 & 10th July.

The only lists of DX worked have come from

Bob Glasgow from his own operating,

MM0CPS/P at Port Seton Gala and GB2MOF

at Museum of Flight.

MM0CPS ... All worked during Gala Day

28/5/2011

Total of 30 QSO’s

Band 40M:

Mode SSB:

New Countries: 8

Belgium, England, Denmark, Scotland, Germa-

ny, Eire, Wales and France

GM4UYZ

The ARI DX Contest. The bands were not great

or they didn’t appear that here... Made 35

QSO’s (16 SSB, 19 CW) ... Single Band en-

try ....20M

Managed some new countries though...

SSB: Greece

CW Italy, Latvia, and Switzerland

Worked as part of CQ-WPX-CW (28 & 29th

June 2011)

Band 20M

Mode CW:

New Countries: 13

Belarus, Czech Rep, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Roma-

nia, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, USA, Bosnia,

Slovakia, Scotland, France, Spain, Bosnia,

Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, Portugal

GB2MOF

40M – All QSO’s SSB

New Countries: 13

Belgium, Denmark, Eire, England, France, Ger-

many, Iceland, Luxembourg, N.Ireland, Neth-

erlands, Norway, Scotland, Wales

20M – All QSO’s SSB

New Countries: 52

A. Russia, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium.

Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, Ceu-

ta & Mililla, Corsica, Croatia, Czech Rep, Den-

mark, E. Russia, Eire, England, Estonia, Fin-

land, France, French Polynesia, Germany,

Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Israel,

Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanan, Lithuania,

Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, N. Ireland,

Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Ro-

mania, Sardinia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia,

Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,

Ukraine, USA, Wales

GM4IKT

Made about 20 contacts in IARU contest

mostly on 20m with a few on 15m. Notable

countries

VK6 ( Australia ), TF8 ( Iceland ), XP1 ( Green-

land ), JX0 (Jan Mayen ), Hong Kong and Tai-

wan.

I would like other members to email me at bobpurves@btinternet.com please to tell me what they have worked as I would very much like to make this a regular feature in the news letter without it becoming a note of what I have worked so please let me have some in-put.

Bob GM4IKT

18th ANNUAL

MINI RALLY/JUNK NIGHT FRIDAY 12th AUGUST 2011

Bring along your own “junk” and sell it yourself. Tables on a First Come, First Served Basis

Time: 1830 till 2200

Location: Cockenzie & Port Seton Community Centre (Main Hall) Disabled access available

Entry: £2 ALL PERSONS

Raffle @ 21:00, Food & Drink Available

If any one would like to donate any prizes for the raffle or food towards the catering it will be more than appreciated.

Rank Callsign 160 80 60 40 30 20 17 15 12 10 6 4 2 70 DXCCs Slots Range

1 GM4IKT 0 0 0 7 0 116 16 87 0 32 0 0 0 0 154 258 7 yrs

2 MM0KTC 0 0 0 17 0 85 24 28 2 11 1 0 0 0 112 168 3 yrs

3 MM0XXW 0 1 0 36 18 58 20 36 2 12 2 0 0 0 71 185 5 yrs

4 M0RNR+2 0 9 0 41 0 52 0 19 0 1 0 0 0 0 70 122 12 yrs

5 MM5AHO 0 18 5 27 1 26 0 0 0 5 23 0 0 0 61 105 16 yrs

6 GB2MOF 0 0 0 13 0 52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52 65 10 yrs

7 GM4UYZ 0 4 0 2 0 34 0 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 62 31 yrs

8 MM0WZB 0 1 0 12 0 25 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 32 44 1 yrs

9 MM0CPS 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 7 11 5 23 48 13 yrs

Club Website

You may be aware that the club website was subjected to a

concerted attack last month which resulted in cpsarc.com be-

ing listed as a malware provider and several club members

getting their computers infected with viruses and Trojans.

This was due to someone injecting malicious javascript code

onto the site which I wasn’t able to defend against.

I took the very hard decision to abandon five years of work

and take down the e107 site and find a new system which

wasn’t being attacked so aggressively. I’ve chosen the Word-

press system and installed that on the site.

A new start

I now have the task of reloading several thousand photos, the

newsletter archive and trying to recover the news and forum

posts.

I have made a start on the photo gallery, the new system uses

a nice flyout feature called lightbox and is capable of inte-

grating slideshows from photobucket, picassa and flikr.

A forum system has now been installed and looks promising, it

also gives us private messaging. There is little prospect of re-

storing all the forum traffic from the past few years which is a

shame.

Mailing List

The new system also allows us to move away from the manual

mailing list Bob Glasgow has been using for many years to a

system hosted on the website which allows us to send out

letters to those who subscribe to the mailing list and it’s easy

to sign up and/or remove yourself from the list. Once the mail-

ing list is ready, there will be one mass mailing to everyone on

the old list when you will have the opportunity to opt out if

you want.

I’m also grateful to Geoff MM5AHO for producing the banner

for the new website which is collage of images from the past

20 years of club activity.

Forum

With the installation of the forum system, I’ve decided to use

that as the primary repository for information, all news, an-

nouncements and discussion will go there and it will form the

front page of the site.

Avatars

Club members who sign up for the site will see a delay of a day

or so while I approve their registration (to weed out

spammers), then they will be able to post in the forums and

contribute to the rest of the site.

If you want to display an avatar, you can to sign up to grava-

tar.com and upload your image there, once that’s done your

chosen image will be displayed on cpsarc.com and any other

sites that support the service.

Newsletter Archive

I’ve also been busy uploading the newsletter archive to is-

suu.com (the service which produces the fantastic animated

web view of the newsletter), all 230 newsletters are now avail-

able there. Issuu.com now has a feature which allows me to

have a menu item on the website which always contains the

latest version of the newsletter, all I’ve got to do is upload it.

Problems…

As I write this article the site has slowed down to an almost

unusable state, I’ve opened a ticket with our hosting provider

but I’m also looking for a new host with better performance.

I’ve signed up with one but the process of moving the site will

take some time. At some point over the next month there will

be an outage while I transfer the DNS records to the new pro-

vider, then hopefully we can get back to normal.

Please bear with me while we create a new site and attempt

to recover five years of content, we will get there and hopeful-

ly the new system will be better than before.

John MM0JXi

webmaster

Test Your Knowledge

1. A station is using Packet Radio, with the help of digi-peaters. This describes a system were

a. The internet is used as necessary to pass messages from

station to station. b. Voice repeaters are accessed with a special tone, ena-

bling them to pass digital messages c. Messages are stored in a local mailbox or passed as

necessary to a remote mailbox d. Messages are passed in short hops via other stations

that are in range of each other 2. The purpose of an amateur repeater is to a. Send digital messages to other BBS’s b. Provide DX capability on 2M c. Receive 2M signals via the ionosphere d. Extend the coverage of mobile stations 3. The Callsign GB0BSM would indicate that the station

is a Special Event Station located a. In England b. In Scotland c. In Wales d. Anywhere in the United Kingdom 4. When using single sideband on the 1.950-2.000MHz

frequency band, the mode switch would normally be set to

a. AM b. FM c. LSB d. USB 5. A Packet radio mailbox is used to a. Store packet radio signals for access later b. Post messages for reception by anyone who logs on c. Retransmit packet radio messages as soon as they are

received d. Circulate e-mails to anyone interested in the operation

and development of the international packet radio net-work

6. A repeater is heard transmitting on 433.100MHz. To access this repeater, transmission should be on

a. 431.500MHz b. 432.500MHz c. 433.100MHz d. 434.700MHz 7. A special Event Station should be open to the public

in order to a. Show that radio amateurs comply with international

radio regulations b. Allow non-licence holders to operate the station c. Generate funds for the local club from entrance fees d. Promote amateur radio as a hobby 8. Contests are a regular feature of amateur activities

but the band plans advise that contests should not occur in the

a. 10, 12 and 15M bands b. 12, 15 and 17M bands c. 12, 17 and 30M bands d. 15, 20 and 40M bands 9. Packet radio differs from other data modes in that it a. Occupies a narrow bandwidth b. Cannot be transmitted through satellites c. Uses automatic error detection protocols d. Uses a network of VHF/UHF stations to achieve long

distance contacts 10. A 2m repeater transmits on 145.600MHz. To which

frequency should you tune your transmitter to in order use this repeater?

a. 145.000MHz b. 145.600MHz c. 146.200MHz d. 144.000MHz

Contacts

General correspondence,

training and contest en-

tries

Bob Glasgow

7 Castle Terrace

Port Seton

East Lothian

EH32 0EE

Phone: 01875 811723

E-mail:

gm4uyz@cpsarc.com

HF Contests

Cambell Stevenson

mm0dxc@aol.com

VHF Contests

John MacLean

mm0ccc@cpsarc.com

Club Tables

Bob Purves

gm4ikt@cpsarc.com

Contest Reports

Robin Farrer

mm0vtv@cpsarc.com

Newsletter, website,

event calendar

John Innes

newsletter@cpsarc.com

5 August 2011 Club Night

5 August 2011 Advanced License Exam

12 August 2011 18th Annual Mini Rally Night

20/21 August 2011 Lighthouses Weekend GB2LBN

2 September 2011 Club Night

23 September 2011 2nd 144MHz DF Hunt

24 September 2011 Foundation License Course (fees to be paid by 27 August)

8 October 2011 Foundation License Course (pt2)

7 October 2011 Club Night

9 October 2011 Advanced License Exam (at RSGB Convention)

15 October 2011 Intermediate License Course begins

(fees to be paid by 30 September)

21 October 2011 Video Night

29/30 October 2011 CQWW SSB Contest GM2T

4 November 2011 Club Night

18 November 2011 Talk by Len Paget GM0ONX ‘Planning Permission’

27 November 2011 Intermediate License Exam

2 December 2011 Club Night

3 December 2011 Advanced License Course starts (fees to be paid by 3 November)

5 December 2011 Advanced License Exam (for self studiers)

10 December 2011 Club Christmas Night Out

31 January 2012 Advanced License exam

11 February 2012 Foundation License Course (fees to be paid by 18 January)

18 February 2012 Foundation License Course (pt2)

3 March 2012 Intermediate License Course begins

(fees to be paid by 4 December)

7 April 2012 Intermediate License Exam

Events Column Answers from August 2011 newsletter “Test Your Knowledge”.

1D, 2A, 3A, 4D, 5D, 6D, 7C, 8A, 9B, 10C