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 cannot believe we are moving into October and that we are now into the last quarter of the year. The dark nights are well and truly here so it is once again time to sit back and reflect what you have done over the summer months. The jobs that you did and more than likely you will remember the ones that you didn’t. I myself had intended to do more operating from home but many factors have not allowed me to do so.

Sad news to report and if there is anything that I hate doing it is this part.

For those of us who have gone to Tiree especially since 2008 will have met and know Jim Barlow G3VOU. Jim was an ex-Chief Radio Operator on the QE2 and he brought to the Tiree team CW experience which as a club we sadly do not have. I first met Jim when I delivered the Tiree Presentation to the Stockport Radio Club when I was down working in Manchester and soon after that he asked if it was possible to go to Tiree with us. The initial question was “What can you offer?” well CW at 30+ and we didn’t need to ask again....

Jim contracted bladder cancer which eventually spread and sadly Jim passed away in August this year.

Other sad news which I recently received was that Ron Brown GM4IKU sadly passed away. Ron I have known for many, many years not just as a Radio Amateur but as a friend. Ron over the years played a large part in the Club from being very active in its activities, producing the newsletter before John MM0JXI took over and also heavily involved in how the club has evolved over

the years. Unfortunately Ron was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and has lost his fight.

In both cases at these times words are difficult to say on how to express how one feels so on behalf of us all I would like to pass on our Deepest Sympathies to both families at this time.

Tomorrow, Saturday my 3 September candidates sit their Foundation Exam so I would like to wish them all the very best when they sit their exam The Intermediate Course starts on the 15th October with only 3 candidates signed up as I write this but hopefully I can recruit a few more from the October Foundation course. I am sure you will go along with me and wish them all the best with their studies and exam in November. The Advanced Course starts on the 3rd December and if you are interested or know of someone who might be interested can they get in touch with me ASAP, thanks.

September was very quiet with only one activity taking place and that was our second DF hunt night of the year, which I am sure again will have thrown up a few topics of conversation. As I write this the event is still to happen.

To this coming month as always consult the Events Diary but a reminder that our video/DVD night has been changed to a Morse Night. The objective of the evening is to gauge the level of interest of learning Morse code to the level it can successfully be used to make a CW contact, whether it is a standard QSO or Contest QSO.

(Continued on page 2)

In this issue

Clublog Tables P.2

CQWW SSB Contest plans P.3

CQWW SSB Contest 2010 UBN P.4

Registering on cpsarc.com P.6

Changes to Club Events P.8

Test Your Knowledge P.9

Events Column P.10

V o l u m e 1 9

Octo b e r 2 0 11

10

I shall be delivering a small Presentation first on Morse code then after that open it to the “Floor” for feedback.

How this becomes established as an event will be decided on the evening…If you are Interested then please come along on the evening or you can email me with your thoughts beforehand.

On the contesting front there is a great demand for operators to take part in the HF Contest CQWW, which runs for 48 hours over the weekend of the 29/30th October. The CQWW contest is being run from Barns Ness so why not come along and either take part or support those who are operating, believe you me seeing a few people turn up and giving support really helps. If you can spare some time to operate please let Cambell and I know so we can arrange some sort of operating rota.

To the future I can say that the Christmas Night Out at present I haven’t done anything yet but will be very soon when time allows.

Lastly, this month I am once again looking for your input as I am now starting to look at putting next years monthly calendar together, so what you would you like to see done. I would appreciate a quick response, as I would like to get it completed quickly so that I can submit it to the radio magazines. Thanks for your help.

Enjoy the newsletter and see you all at Morse night and the HF Contests.

Bob GM4UYZ

(Continued from page 1)

Clublog Tables

Here are the ClubLog tables up to September we really need

more members to be uploading their logs to ClubLog to make

more use of this great facility. Now that the contest season is

well under way we will be uploading the logs from our contest

and special event stations but the activity from individual logs

(and comments sent to Bob GM4IKT) always make interesting

reading.

You can upload your logs at http://www.clublog.org

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

1 GM4IKT 0 0 0 7 0 128 17 100 0 41 0 0 0 0 163 293

2 MM0KTC 0 0 0 18 0 90 39 35 4 11 2 0 0 0 123 199

4 MM0XXW 0 1 0 38 31 64 20 53 7 14 2 0 0 0 82 230

5 M0RNR 0 9 0 41 0 52 0 19 0 1 0 0 0 0 70 122

6 MM5AHO 0 18 5 28 1 30 0 0 0 14 25 0 0 0 66 121

9 GM4UYZ 0 4 0 2 0 34 0 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 62

11 MM0WZB 0 1 0 12 0 25 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 32 44

3 GM2T 0 50 0 59 0 82 0 68 0 32 0 0 0 0 94 291

7 GB2MOF 0 0 0 13 0 52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52 65

8 MM0CPS 0 3 0 26 0 17 0 5 0 0 17 7 11 5 50 91

10 GB2LBN 0 0 0 15 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42 55

CQWW SSB CONTEST

29th & 30th OCTOBER

ARE YOU AVAILABLE?

The club has taken part in this contest for a good number of years, in fact since 1997 and from our current site Barns Ness Lighthouse, Dunbar location since 1999. It is fantastic site for radio as the “noise floor” is at an absolute minimum. In the 14 years of doing the contest we have entered one of two sections, either the MULTI-MULTI or the MULT-2 with 7 times in the Multi-2 and 7 times in the Multi-Multi.

No matter what section you enter it is a long arduous contest as it runs for a full 48 hours. What makes it even harder is that we need to arrive at the site by no later than 08:00 on the Friday so that we can make use of what day-light hours that are available to get all the aerials and equipment set-up. This means that we are all up early and already tired before the contest actually starts at 01:00 on the Saturday morning.

For those wondering what the Multi-2 and Multi-Multi sections are then below is an ex-tract from the 2011 CQWW rules:

Two Transmitter (M2): A maximum of two transmitted signals at any time on different bands. Both transmitters may work any and all stations. A station may only be worked once per band regardless of which transmitter is used. Each of the two transmitters used must keep a separate chronological log for the entire contest period, or if electronic logging is used, the electronic log submittal (Cabrillo) must indicate which transmitter made each QSO. Each transmitter may make a maximum of 8 band changes in any clock hour (00 through 59 minutes). Multi-Transmitter (MM): No limit to transmitters, but only one signal and running station allowed per band. When running as a Multi-Multi we have 4 sta-tions set up all running at the same time...hopefully, but to sustain this over the 48 hours takes a lot of manpower. What we are finding is that we do not have enough people to keep this going flat out so the decision has already been made this year that we will enter the Multi-2 Section. This

only requires two operators at any one time as only two stations can be transmitting. This will allow a better use of the manpower that is normally available. This is where my plea comes in. Can you help out and do some operating? If you can give us 2 or 3 hours of your time and take a stint of operating then it would allow those who are staying for the whole 48 hours a chance to catch up with some “beauty sleep” or just even rest. Also if you could give us even an idea off when you would be able to come then we can build you into part of the rota we nor-mally put together. If you are worried about the logging we can try and get a night set-up and give some tui-tion so that on the day you are not overawed. Is it the pile-up that you are worried about? Well there are ways to deal with that as well which maintains that you are fully in control, you just need to learn the technique which is quite simple. Is it the keyboard skills, well we have all been there and the more you use the keyboard the more familiar it becomes but again as part of the pile-up technique there is a way to deal with it. You never know the contest bug may catch you and you will want to do this all the time.... fingers crossed says I!!!!! Bob GM4UYZ

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED CAN YOU GET BACK TO ME ASAP WITH THE FOLLOWING: AVAILABILITY – when? Will you be operating, YES or NO, hopefully YES? HOW MANY HOURS The whole time including setting up and dismantling. 48 Hours 24 Hours – What Times? HOW MANY -- What Time? FOOD – Someone normally does a COSTCO run and buys food for the weekend? It is important we know as at Lighthouses Weekend food was bought for people who said they were attending and then didn’t so it was wasted and plus it still had to be paid for by those who did turn up… DO YOU WANT TO BE INCLUDED? If you say YES and don’t turn up you will be included in the cost reimbursement

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

2010 CQWW SSB CONTEST UBN

2010 CQWW SSB UBN (Unique, Broken, Not in Log) File

Contest: 2010 CQ WW DX SSB CONTEST Call: GM2T Category: Multi-Two Summary of log submitted for the Contest BAND QSO CQ DXC DUP POINTS AVG --------------------------------------

160 434 10 52 6 463 1.07

80 726 18 75 4 974 1.34

40 571 25 87 10 867 1.52

20 1280 35 105 22 2710 2.12

15 921 32 105 11 1903 2.07

10 154 15 51 0 228 1.48

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

TOTAL 4086 135 475 53 7145 1.75

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

TOTAL SCORE : 4 358 450

UBN INFORMATION The advantage of this feedback is that it can help identify problem areas with the oper-ating, not that it is finger pointing as that is not the intention but as an aid to aim for ZERO errors. This year we lost 9.9% of our submitted score so the aim for 2011 will be 0% although in practice it will probably never be done. ************* Summary ************** 4085 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates) 3994 Final QSO after checking reductions 7146 Claimed QSO points 6502 Final QSO points 475 Claimed countries 471 Final countries 135 Claimed zones 133 Final zones 610 Claimed mults 604 Final mults 4359060 Claimed score 3927208 Final score -9.9% Score reduction

Areas where there were errors... 52 (1.3%) duplicates 66 (1.6%) calls copied incorrectly 0 (0.0%) band change violations 25 (0.6%) not in other stations log 27 (0.7%) calls unique to this log only (not removed) Duplicates: These are not a real error as often stations will be worked again as they may say not in their log or even not in our log. It just easier for both stations to work each other rather than argue over the air for 5 minutes!!! Calls Copied Incorrectly: These can be caused by mishearing and log-ging the misheard call, QRM not making the Callsign clear and thus making the assump-tion you have it correct. RESOLUTION: If not sure get the station to confirm the call again and at the same time check you’re typ-ing on the keyboard!! Not in Other Stations Log: This is a difficult one as we think we have worked a station when in fact we haven’t. I put this down to a very busy band and more than one station is so close to you it gives the impression you have worked him. RESOLUTION: If possible listen very closely to what is being said i.e. Call Sign being returned... Calls Unique to this Log ONLY: These calls are not an error and so no points will be lost for any of these calls. These are where stations will come on and work some-one then don’t work anyone else. I some-times do this as it could be a rare station and all I want to do is work it and it alone. Lost Multipliers: In total we lost 6 Multipliers where 5 of them we were not in the other stations log and the other was due to logging incorrect Call Sign. The target is always to make no errors at all as losing multipliers can be very costly to your final score.

(Continued on page 5)

Stations copying GM2T Incorrectly: There were 42 incidents of this. We must ensure that when we listen to the call sign being returned that it is correct. If it is wrong ensure that it is corrected. Issue again is that we lose points and multipliers... and hence our score, it is not what we want.......... For information we were logged as: M2T – 8 times, G4T – 1 time, AM2T – 1 time, TM2T – 1 time, GM3T – 26 times, GM4T – 2 times, GM23T – 1 time, GM2J – 1 time, G5KT – 1 time

I Hope you find the above interesting and help you under-stand why listening to exchanges during the contest is so im-portant and also after the event making sure that ay “typo” errors have been picked up before submission. Remember you are entering a contest to have fun and also to submit the best score that you can achieve. Happy Contesting... Bob GM4UYZ

(Continued from page 4)

****************** Results By Band *****************

Band QSO QPts Zone Cty Mult

Claimed 160M 433 463 10 52 62

Final 160M 425 423 10 52 62

Claimed 80M 727 975 18 74 92

Final 80M 701 823 18 73 91

Claimed 40M 571 867 25 87 112

Final 40M 556 743 23 84 107

Claimed 20M 1280 2710 35 105 140

Final 20M 1256 2510 35 105 140

Claimed 15M 920 1903 32 106 138

Final 15M 902 1775 32 106 138

Claimed 10M 154 228 15 51 66

Final 10M 154 228 15 51 66

Claimed All 4085 7146 135 475 610 Score 4359060

Final All 3994 6502 133 471 604 Score 3927208

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

Since we had so many problems with the old website due to it getting hacked, we took the decision to build a new one using Wordpress. One consequence of this is that all the user registrations for the website were discarded and anyone wanting to join in with the discus-sion on the new site will have to register again

With the new website the plan in the future is use it as the club’s focal point for information, forum activity, news, general emails that get sent out., etc, etc. John MM0JXI is gradually getting the site back to its original successful format but he still has a lot of work to do. I must admit it is something that I forget about and that is the amount of time and effort it takes to maintain a successful website and I do really appreciate what John is doing in the background. I know from conversations that I have had with many people which include non-radio amateurs is that they praise the quality of the site, basically without John we wouldn’t have that.

REGISTRATION

To contribute to the site then, which includes adding News Items and Forum Posts you need to be logged onto the Website. To be able to log-on you must first register.

Navigate to the website by entering cpsarc.com in your browser.

On the site’s front page which contains all the latest club news you will find the following on the Right Hand Side of the screen.

Click on the REGISTER link

This will take you to the following screen where you can enter a username (use some-thing like your callsign which is unique and

easy to remember) and a valid email address.

You can choose to opt in to the club mailing list by ticking the box.

Finally enter the Captcha letters to prove you’re a human being…

Then click the REGISTER button

The website will respond with a message say-ing you’ll be emailed a password once you’ve been approved.

Then just wait for the email, it might take a few hours depending on when you apply and how busy the webmaster is.

Any problems, send an email to webmas-ter@cpsarc.com and he’ll help you out.

(Continued on page 7)

REGISTERING ON CPSARC.COM

RECEIVING CLUB EMAILS

At present Bob runs several distribution lists and when there are club reminders, events and news I normally send out the-se using these lists. The aim is to save him a bit of work but more to use the power of the website for distributing these emails.

One of the advantages of this method is that if you do not want to receive club emails then you can UNSUBSCRIBE from the list.

At present you have to send Bob an email and when time per-mits he will personally remove you from the distribution lists. Also an advantage is that if you change your email address you can log onto the website and change your profile details. The bottom line is that you have control if you want or do not want to receive club emails.

There are several methods of subscribing to the mailing list

1. Tick the box when registering

2. Fill in the form at the bottom of the website

3. Use the same form once logged in to manage your sub-scription

The mailing list requires you to activate your subscription by clicking on the link in the email you get sent.

We don’t plan to bombard you with email, just hopefully in-teresting stuff that needs highlighting. If you decide you don’t want the emails, even for a little while, just unsubscribe and re-join later if you want.

During September we did a one time bulk upload of email addresses from Bob’s distribution lists and we’re currently sending emails to 270 people.

We won’t share this list with anyone and we respect your choice to remove yourself from the list.

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.

CHANGES TO CLUB EVENTS

MORSE NIGHT (Original Night was listed as a Video/DVD Night on 21st October) I have changed the October night in the Com-munity Centre from the 21st October to the 14th October. The reason being is that I am not available on the 21st and I had promised that I would put a night together for taking further the learning of Morse code. I am well into the preparation work plus I don’t want to let you down. I hope a few of you will turn up as you have all been mentioning it needs to be done..... I hope this is acceptable to all.... Summary: OCTOBER COMMUNITY CENTRE NIGHT IS NOW 14th OCTOBER RESOURCES ROOM 1: 19:30 to 21:30

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

NEW EVENT 2011 Lighthouse Weekend Maritime Mobile Talk by Geoff MM5AHO 11th NOVEMBER 2011 RESOURCES ROOM 1: 19:30 to 21:30

After the success of Geoff’s 2010 Lighthouse Weekend event from his yacht sailing around Oban and the Inner Hebridean Islands he de-cided to do the same again this year but tar-geting very rare and hard to reach lighthouses i.e. Skerryvore which lies to the West of the Island of Tiree. He has produced another talk which he will be delivering to the Club on the above date. I hope you can all make an effort to attend which I know will be an absolutely fasci-nating….

============================== NEW EVENT Discussion on “WINTER PROJECT” 11th NOVEMBER 2011 RESOURCES ROOM 1: 19:30 to 21:30 Geoff MM5AHO is first delivering his talk on the 2011 Lighthouse Adventures and when he is finished we are going to use the time to get your feedback and input on the Winter Pro-ject that Geoff has already posted in the FO-RUM. Please read the Forum and update it with any comments before the evening so

that a general feel can be obtained on the idea. The aim of the discussion is to decide if we think it is a feasible project and if so where do we go from there. Remember it is your club so feedback is im-portant.

============================== PLANNING PERMISSION Talk by Len Paget GM0ONX 18th NOVEMBER 2011 RESOURCES ROOM 1: 19:30 to 21:30 Len is the Regional Manager for the RSGB District 1 area which covers the Lothians. Len also deals with the questions and prob-lems on behalf of the RSGB arising from trying to obtain Planning permission for towers, etc. His talk offers the opportunity to ask all those awkward questions that could possibly arise. I am sure it will be a very informative talk so I hope you will all come along and support the evening. Bob GM4UYZ

1. It is a requirement that the holder of an Amateur Radio

Foundation Licence must NOT use the station for

a. experimenting

b. learning about the radio

c. business or advertising

d. Contacting overseas radio amateurs.

2. How often MUST you identify your station, by giving

your callsign, whilst in contact with another station for a period of 25 minutes?

a. At the beginning and end of each "over".

b. At the beginning and end of the contact.

c. As often as you like.

d. At the beginning and after 15 minutes.

3. An Amateur Radio Licence holder may

a. not send messages in a secret code

b. not send messages in a secret unless asked to by another

amateur

c. send messages using a secret code provided the key to

the code has been sent to the RSGB

d. Send messages using a secret code provided the key to

the code has been sent to an official of Ofcom.

4. When should a radio amateur notify Ofcom of a change

of mailing address?

a. Within 7 days of moving to the new address.

b. Immediately on moving.

c. After the Station is set up at the new address.

d. When the licence is next renewed.

5. The screen of a coaxial cable must be properly connect-

ed to the body of a PL259 plug in order to

a. prevent water getting in

b. confine the signal within the cable

c. stop the cable coming apart

d. make a neat appearance.

6. Which one of the following antenna can focus the radio

signal in a particular direction?

a. Dipole.

b. End fed.

c. Ground plane.

d. Yagi.

7. One reason for matching the output of a transmitter to

an antenna is to

a. improve the frequency drift characteristic

b. improve frequency stability

c. save d.c. input power

d. ensure maximum power is transferred to the antenna.

8. One feature of radio waves spreading out from an an-

tenna is that they

a. remain equally strong however far they travel

b. travel in straight lines unless reflected

c. travel slightly slower as they get weaker

d. remain one wavelength apart in free space.

9. The ionosphere is the

a. region close to a high power transmitting antenna

b. layers of conductive gases just above the ground

c. layers of conductive gases above 70km in height

d. region that reflects VHF and UHF waves back down.

10. Which item below is NOT likely to pick up signals from a

nearby amateur transmission?

a. Overhead telephone wiring.

b. Indoor telephone wiring.

c. A plastic water pipe.

d. A coaxial feeder.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

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

8 October 2011 Foundation License Course (pt2)

7 October 2011 Club Night

9 October 2011 Advanced License Exam (at RSGB Convention)

21 October 2011 Morse Night

Community Centre Resources Room 1 19:30

15 October 2011 Intermediate License Course begins

(fees to be paid by 30 September)

29/30 October 2011 CQWW SSB Contest GM2T

4 November 2011 Club Night

11 November 2011

2011 Lighthouse Weekend Maritime Mobile

by Geoff MM5AHO

Community Centre: Resources Room 1 19:30

11 November 2011 Discussion on Winter Project (After Lighthouse Talk)

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 October 2011 newsletter “Test Your Knowledge”.

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

Cambell MM0DXC and Paul MM0VPR with their trophy

for winning the 2nd 144MHz DF Hunt