LLAIS Y DDRAIG
THE
DRAGON’S VOICE
GW4TTA / GC4TTA
CYLCHLYTHYR CLWB
RADIO AMATUR Y DDRAIG
NEWSLETTER OF THE DRAGON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
http://www.gw3prl.toucansurf.com
GWANWYN 2006
SPRING Rhif /No. 77
*****************************************
Cynhelir cyfarfodydd y clwb
yn Neuadd Ebeneser, Lon Foel y Graig,
Pentre Uchaf, Llanfairpwll ar Nos Lun y cyntaf a’r trydydd yn y mis am 7.30 ar
gyfer 8.0 o’r gloch.
Croeso i ymwelwyr ac aelodau
newydd.
Club meetings are held at
Ebenezer Hall, Foel Y Graig Lane, Higher
Village, Llanfairpwll on the first and third Monday evenings in the month at
7.30 for 8 .0 o’clock.
Visitors and new members are
welcome.
OS GWELWCH YN DDA, pob
gohebiaeth at yr ysgrifennydd. PLEASE ADDRESS
all communications to the Secretary; Les Hayward MW0SEC, Cefn Cribbin, Carmel, Llanerchymedd, Ynys
Mon, LL71 7BU, 01248 470606 .
<Les at corfe-castle dot
demon.co.uk>
PWYLLGOR/COMMITTEE
Cadeirydd – Geoff Spencer GW4DRR – Chairman.
Is- gadeirydd- John E.ParryGW3VVC - Vice Chairman.
Ysgrifennydd- Les Hayward
MW0SEC - Secretary
Trysorydd – John Brimecombe GW3GUX - Treasurer .
Aelodau/Members – Billy
Williams, GW0IQZ,
Gwilym V Williams,
GW2DLK, Stewart Rolf GW0ETF.
J.Dafydd Williams, GW4WLZ.
*****************************************
Golygydd/Editor, Dewi E.
Roberts GW0ABL, 23 Lon Hedydd, Llanfairpwll, Ynys Mon LL61 5JY 01248 713647
RHAGLEN/PROGRAMME
Mawrth/March
20th
Mr Clive Brisco “Light gauge local railways”
Ebrill/April
3rd
Film Night
17th Club Night ( Bank Holiday)
22nd Special Event International Marconi Day
GB4MD ( Waunfawr) GB4HMD ( Holyhead)
Mai/May
1st Club Night (Bank Holiday)
15th Sale of Surplus equipment
Mehefin/June
5th
Mr James Thompson “Radio Astronomy”
19th To be arranged
Gorffenaf/July
3rd To be arranged
17th Mr Mark Francis of WATERS &
STANTON.
Awst/August
7th To be arranged
21st To be arranged.
The Club’s programme for
2006 is being planned and there are still a few dates to be filled either by a
demonstration, talk etc.
If you can fill a date
either yourself or with a speaker that you can arrange, please let the Chairman
know.
Also, do not wait to be asked
to help at special events but let the station managers know that you are
available and what you can do to assist either in setting up or operating.
One volunteer is worth a
multitude of recruits.
TRAINING
One Foundation class has just finished and two more
classes are due to start, one in Holyhead and the other in Llanfairpwll. It is
also possible that another class will be held in the near future at Carmel,
Ynys Mon.
An Intermediate class of 6 candidates is nearing the
date of examination and have completed their practical assessments. Once this
class has finished it’s course, the team of Instructors will be planning the
first Full Licence Course to start in the near future.
If you know of anyone who wishes to become a Radio
Amateur, please tell them to contact GW0ABL or the club’s secretary.
SWEARING
ON THE AIR.
by GW0ABL
This subject was brought up in a recent club meeting, when concern was felt about the deterioration in behaviour on the Amateur Bands especially locally on VHF and UHF. This refers to the amount of swearing that is now heard on the air, not only mild expletives but extreme words which are offensive to most people. This can be heard in both Welsh and English and is becoming quite common usage. This comes as quite a surprise in that up to a few months ago, locally, the use of foul language was very rare.
It also comes as a surprise that those using such
language do not seem to realise that it
can be heard by everyone who listens in, either other amateurs or those using
scanners etc. This can include young
children, their parents, friends and very often members of various
organisations and societies who can help and foster our hobby of Amateur Radio
(it is surprising who has a scanner). What a person does in the privacy of his
own home is a matter for him or her, but that does not extend to the Amateur
bands which is a very public place. Each time we talk on the air, we are both
the face and character of Amateur Radio and how one operator behaves reflects
on us all.
Thankfully I have never had to suffer foul language
at home or at work nor did I during my service days in the RAF (once my
feelings on the matter were known). Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to
vent my feelings but not by using offensive words in the normal course of
conversation.
There is a problem which has to be addressed and the
Dragon Amateur Radio Club feels that swearing or any form of bad behaviour on
the Amateur Bands must be stopped, whether it be caused by members or
non-members. Various suggestions have been put forward as to how to tackle this
and will be discussed. Have you any suggestions how to tackle the problem? What
are your views on the matter?
Let us clean up our act and see that Amateur Radio
is presented to the public (including parents and the authorities) as a worth-while hobby for the coming generations.
REFORM OF AMATEUR RADIO LICENSING.
At last Ofcom has decided to
implement the following reforms as from the 1st October 2006;
To Issue lifetime amateur radio licences which will
remain valid for as long as the licence details remain correct or until such
time as the licence is either revoked by Ofcom or surrendered by the licensee.
There shall be no end date on the amateur radio licence. Such licences will be
personal to the licensee and will not be transferable.
To provide an online, web-based, self-service
licensing service as an alternative to the postal service
To issue electronic licences (probably PDF (-1-)
documents) to users of the online, web-based, self-service licensing service. Users of this service would print a
hard copy of the licence which must be kept at the main station address.
To continue to make paper licences available (but
subject to a small administrative charge).
To modify the original proposal by requiring
licensees to validate their licence details at least once every five years in
order to maintain their lifetime licence.
Ofcom’s full policy decision is set out in their
policy statement at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/aradio/statement/
It is intended that as from the 1st
October 2006 amateur radio licences will be issued by Ofcom and not the Radio
Licensing Centre. But be aware that if your licence expires before that date
you must renew it with the RLC and pay the appropriate fee if applicable (over
21 and under 75 years of age). Failure to do so will cause difficulties in
obtaining a free licence for life on the anniversary of your licence. In the
meantime you will not be able to operate your licence, it will be deemed to
have elapsed and you will have to apply anew for a licence.
Make sure that you understand what happens every 5
years so that you can continue to hold a licence.
QSL MANAGER’S CORNER.
The last batch of cards processed was on 7th
March 2005. The following cards were replied to;-GB2TD – 46, GB4HMM – 2, GB4HMD
– 6,GB4HLB –5, GB4MD – 19. The following cards were received on 10th
Jan 2006;- GB2TD – 62, GB2ANG – 51, GB4MD – 24, GB4HLB – 4, GB100HD – 2 a total
of 143 cards. Cards are being processed at the present time and will be on
their way before this is published. All cards old and new are designed and
produced by myself and Paddy MW0PAD who also assists me in writing out the
replies. My thanks to him for his
valuable assistance.
I have had a request from Mike MW0CNA of Swansea,
our Special Events QSL Manager if the club would consider putting on special event stations for the following ;-
(1) GB2SDD (ST DAVID’S DAY) in
March this year.
(2) International Air Ambulance
Day in July for North Wales as they will be doing one for South Wales.
(3) His website details are
:-http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mw0cna/.
[We are out of time for St David’s day this year but
I think is worthy of note for future years GW2DGD (Dydd Gwyl Dewi) perhaps.
Also the Air Ambulance is a worthy cause, like lifeboats is run on voluntary
contributions. Committee please note
GW0ABL]
I do store our incoming QSL Cards, if any one wants
to see any of them, contact me on <gw4wlz at
tiscali dot co.uk> or (01407) 762589
I have in my garage about 10 multi draw cabinets full
of electronic components. There are resistors, capacitors, various chips and
sockets, switches etc etc, far to numerous to mention
I rescued them from a house/shed demolition!! Don’t
be stuck, give me a ring. Cost with a small contribution to club funds.
Dafydd GW4WLZ, QSL Manager DARC
[Many thanks to Dafydd for his very welcome report
on what must be a very arduous job on behalf of the club. Diolch yn fawr iawn
Dafydd]
CQ World Wide.
Contesting is not every ones idea of fun, and I must
say that I didn’t have any interest in contesting until some years ago when I
entered my first 3hr. AFS event, largely ‘for the club’. Since then my appetite has been whetted by
the shear enthusiasm shown by several of our local contesters.
Although to be completely truthful, I did
attend my first NFD when I was in my ‘teens about 1957 when I was first a
member of the Wirral ARS. What really impressed me, as a youngster, was
watching science master, Norman Kendrick G3CSG, (ex Navy) operating during the
24hrs. of NFD. Rolling a fag, holding a conversation, drinking a cuppa, and
making a contest return - which he’d been listening to !
The method of ‘dupe’ checking was comparatively
archaic, but common at that time. A large board painted black, had rows of cup
hooks screwed into it, and tags with the c/s of stations required, hung on the
hooks. The c/s was on both sides of the tags, one side of which was black, the
other white. At the beginning, all the tags were white side out, by the end all
the tags should have been turned over to show that that station had been
‘worked’. Logging was on paper, and all the equipment was either ex-services or
homebuilt.
That event was ‘under canvas’, XYLs ran the mess tent,
we had an automatic telephone exchange between the ‘A’ stn, the ‘B’ stn and the
mess tent, and the whole event took place on the top of an enclosed and
elevated reservoir. Considered to be an advantage as it was possible to erect
all the aerials on top of the water in the reservoir.
All that was to be in complete contrast to my latest
bit of contesting. To help Steve GW0GEI, enter the CQWW contest, as a multi -
two entrant (up to two transmitted signals simultaneously across six bands,
160m to 10m), from his new purpose built shack, in the roof space of his
garage, at his home QTH in Rhostrehwfa.
This international contest ran from midnight on Friday 25/11 to midnight
on Sunday 27/11, a full 48hr. marathon
On the Friday morning we had some weather damage repairs to make, on
Steve’s ‘antenna farm’, we needed to replace a length of waterlogged coax, and
refit a part of an element that had become separated and dropped to the ground,
during recent appalling weather. With
these tasks completed, I left Steve to re configure the N1MM contest software installation with a
backup broadband modem connection, after the broadband router failed the night
before. A last minute connection and
tune up of the 40/80m vertical was also completed in a sleet shower just before
it got dark, after several hours of trying to trace a fault on the 80m dipole
and/or coax! A problematic HF amplifier,
and a shortage of the original planned 5 or 6 CW operators, meant the contest
would be undertaken with less than competitive power levels on both stations,
and with a stretched small team of 3.
I returned to the warmth of the shack about, an hour
before the start, Stewart GW0ETF, who had arrived earlier, had been helping to
organise Steve’s 200w FT1000 into one operating position, with the 20m 4 ele
monobander and the 160m dipole @ 80ft, switchable, and Stewart’s own FT990 with
the 80 / 40m vertical, and the 8 ele log-periodic beam, switchable, into the
other operating position. Each position had a networked laptop with the N1MM
contest software bandmaps showing DX
cluster info in individual vfo windows, each side of the screen. The centre of
each screen was taken up with more mini windows, these might show QSO rates,
scores, ‘dupes’, or a multitude of other info selectable by the individual
operator manning that position.
Steve & Stewart kicked off at midnight, and I ‘sat
in’ for a while to try to get some idea how the N1MM logging programme, I would
have to contend with myself next day, is operated. It certainly seems to be a good programme,
but like all computerised things, the operation seems only to mystify, at the
beginning of the learning curve. I
believe, both ops took to their beds during the small hours, Steve going
‘home’, while Stewart slept on the floor in his sleeping bag. Operations were
resumed in the early morning, so as to gain the advantages of greyline
propagation on 160m and 80m.
My
‘shift’ was from midnight to about 06.00 on the second night. When I returned
at about 23.00 on the Saturday, they both seemed in quite good spirits, and a
goodly number of contacts had been logged. Steve went off ‘home’, Stewart
stayed for a while to answer my questions about N1MM. However, after about an hour I had got the
idea, having fumbled and poked the wrong buttons for a while (always remember
to press enter to log the contact, Snowy!). Stewart went off to his
sleeping bag and I pressed on through the night single handed. I must admit to
being a bit overawed – with two high quality rigs to choose from and four good
antennas too! All that was missing was a competent op - hi! The DX cluster showed up the mults, of which
I tried to work as many as possible, in between numerous cups of tea and
butties. The CW speed was mostly way
above my ability, but if you listen hard, you can pick out the c/s even if it
is letter by letter, at 28 – 30 wpm, which is how the fast boys go, though
there are quite a few operating at 22-24 at which I would probably get it in
two goes. CQWW is one of the major
annual international contests and I was struck by the number of ‘contest
callsigns’ on parade. I have to admit
that my concentration started to flag after about four& a half hours, and
my head was ringing with CW! But I think
I got to understand the N1MM logger a bit better, and wouldn’t have missed it
for the world!
John
MW0BER (complete with flu!) joined the team briefly during the early afternoon
of Sunday, making Steve and Stewart a welcome brew prior to Steve’s XYL serving
up a mound of scrambled eggs, laid by the hens at the bottom of the antenna
field that morning! Steve and Stewart
carried on through the afternoon and evening until the contest closed at 12
midnight. On completion, the final draft score was 1963 qsos with 350 countries
worked across the 6 bands, in 91 different CQ zones, for a total draft score of
1,461,033. The breakdown of qsos, points, countries, and zones worked per band
is shown below:
Band
QSOs Pts Cty
ZN
1.8 318 455 51 11
3.5 306 443
68 14
7 451 662 90 24
14 747 1515 89 25
21 138 232 50 15
28 3 6 2 2
Total 1963 3313 350 91
Final Draft Score: 1,461,033 points
Overall
an enjoyable weekend of contesting, which made up for the last minute router
and antenna/coax problems and snow storms!
Future plans include entering a multi operator team in the 2006 ARRL DX SSB
and CW contests, CQ 160m contests, and
2006 WAE and CQWW contests. In the meantime,
plenty of practice will be undertaken in the shorter RSGB and other
contests in order to prepare antennas and operators for AFS CW and SSB and the
2006 RSGB Club Championship series of contests, to try to get the Dragon ARC
further up the results tables. Steve
GW0GEI is interested in training up any new operators who fancy helping out in
future multi op contests, or who wish to develop their contest skills to take
part as single ops in AFS or other RSGB contests – contact Steve at any club
night, or via <steve at rjtraining dot fsnet.co.uk>
[Thank
you Martin for this excellent report and to Steve and his XYL as the host and
hostess making this event possible. And , of course to all who took part. Do
not forget Steve GW0GEI’s very kind offer of training]
WANTED –
A two needle SWR meter1.8 -
150 MHz.
Please contact Rick
MW3RWZ 01407 810794
Tombie’s
Travels - 2005
After a very enjoyable drive down, with friends Bob
& Lin from Liverpool, we have worked in the yard for over three weeks, Well
say worked – but a fair amount of the time was spent recovering from over
indulgence (only in work, food and ‘pop’, I hasten to add!) as others in the
yard organised birthday parties, BBQs and ‘boat-jumbles’. All very nice, at the time, but after a while
you get ‘Yard Fever’, work slower & slower, until eventually you get your
boat in the water, late. It’s good to meet new friends, one lives as close as
Colwyn Bay! But we have found many of
our old friends have moved on. Friends
Karen and Andy, fellow Vancouver owners, stopped by on their way to Turkey, it
was lovely to be on a moving boat again, we had to feel a bit envious. Of course, as usual, Anne has ‘adopted’ many
four legged friends, who will miss their extra food after we leave the yard.
We are now in the water 6 days and have been enjoying
some good sailing. This year the weather seems to be different, providing us
with a little more wind than we have experienced at the same time of year
previously. We now have Tombie rigged as
a cutter, that means she carries two smaller sails forward of the mast, rather
than the (massive) 450 square foot Genoa we used the last three years. She now
feels very much more comfortable in a good breeze (F5+) and is much easier to
manage, so much so, that I can stay below and laze in my bunk, enjoying an
extra tot of Rum while Anne tends our good ship! Anne – “that’s what you think”!
Since we launched, we’ve returned to places we
know, (beating to windward in F7) and to new and beautiful, and very quiet bays
– loverly! The forecast is for W-SW, so
we’ll try to make Paxos again, an Island just south of Corfu, which we both
love.
Lakka was surprisingly
quiet, for the middle of May. We went
for a meal in a taverna that is usually packed, due to the scrumptious roast
leg of lamb on the spit, and we were the only people in there. The weather was also very unsettled during
our first few weeks afloat, with quite a few showers and thunder -storms,
fortunately they did not last very long.
From Paxos, we ventured over to
the mainland, to a village called Ammoudia, which is at the mouth of the river
Acheron. The river is navigable by boat,
so we decided we would go by dinghy and armed with the outboard we proceeded up
the river, there was a lot of water and a very strong, current against us, but
was very pretty and lots of beautiful turquoise blue damsel flies about. We also saw an otter, a very rare sight. We were hoping to reach the ancient village of Nekromanteion, which
is near the Mycenean settlement of Ephyra, 13th century B.C. This is where the ancients thought was the
entrance to the kingdom of Hades, according to myth, Hermes leading the way for
the dead through the waters of Acherousia, guided the souls to Hades. Unfortunately, when we went, the river was
blocked by fallen trees, and we could not get up far enough, however, we turned
back, and the current just took us gently downstream, It was so peaceful, just
the song of birds – one of those occasions, when I wish I was a little more
knowledgeable on birdsong. We shall
visit the ancient city later either by car or go back again by boat. Next day we motored down to Lefkas and when
passing Prevesa, and about two miles offshore, we managed to pick up a lot of
rubbish on the prop. So in the middle of the sea, as it was such a calm day,
Martin donned his fins and snorkel, and had his first swim of the season, to go
down under the boat and clear the propeller.
It was a bundle of plastic string, fishing twine, and any other
imaginable rubbish you can think of.
However, good job done, we proceeded down to Lefkas and through the
canal, anchoring for the night off a village called Nikiana.
Next day we sailed to
Nidri, a real centre for yachties, and met up with lots of old friends,
including Bob and Lin, with their Son and his fiancé on board. They are also on
their way to Turkey, so we will have plenty of contacts there when we
arrive. Caught up with washing ,
shopping and e-mails, and had my hair cut.
I have been lucky to find this hairdresser, she is an Austrailian Greek,
so speaks good English, which is helpful, unless you want to look like Yul Brynner. Passed an interesting evening in a taverna
listening to Greek Music, and chatting to a couple from the Chech Republic,
very interesting to hear different lifestyles.
It was then up to Vliho, another yachties haunt, but also such a huge
anchorage, it is ideal if you want some peace and quiet, we spent two or three
days there just lazing around enjoying the sunshine and doing a few jobs. Went ashore on Saturday night and joined
friends in a taverna, this developed into a real good singsong, as one Irishman
had a guitar, and there were people from all over the U.K. so each area had to
render their songs, and it was a really lovely impromptu evening.
We then made our way
leisurely back to Preveza, as I felt I needed to get a doctor to have a look at
my thumb. This injury I had sustained before Easter in U.K., which my G.P. had
told me would clear up in 6-8 weeks, had not.
I was experiencing great difficulty bending my thumb, and then it would
go with a click, and an amount of pain, it was therefore rendering me rather
useless on the boat, (or more useless than usual). Managed to book an appointment with the
Orthopaedic surgeon for two days forward (unbelievable). He diagnosed, I had torn the tendon and would
need an operation to repair it, “when would you like it done” he asked! However, as my Aunt was arriving on the
Sunday, we decided to leave it until she had returned home in two weeks
time. Went back to Aktio Yard the next
day, as a lot of our German friends were launching their boats and there was to
be a party. What a really enjoyable
evening, the Germans really know how to enjoy themselves, we sang (one of the
Germans has a keyboard which he brings with him in his camper van), all sorts
of drinking songs. With many ups and downs and swaying from side to side, and
then plenty of dancing, it was a really fun evening, we were the only English
couple there. Later that week, friends
of ours Lars and Orla, who now live in Sweden, were coming out to their boat,
unfortunately, to get her ready to sell.
We are very sad to see this, as they are a young couple who sold their
house to buy the boat, but find now they have to keep steadier jobs and
therefore have not the time to spend on the boat, hopefully we will either see
them in Wales sometime or they will come and visit us in Turkey. They came aboard for a meal, visiting in the
Dinghy, arriving with very wet trousers, but a really fun evening we spent with
them.
Next day my Aunt was
arriving for a two week visit from Portugal, she is 75 years of age, and has
never been on a boat in her life before, we were a little concerned how she
would fair, but we needn’t have worried, she was absolutely amazing, and
settled to life on our little boat naturally.
We have had a really lovely time with her, showing her most of the
Ionian Islands and the mainland, within the fortnight, it was a real holiday
for us all. I hope she will be able to
come again.
Back to reality, catching
up with washing, shopping etc., and also a visit to the hospital (on my
birthday!!), I am to go on Wednesday night to have tests etc., and then have
the operation on Thursday, but only a ‘Local’.
I am a little concerned, as the Dr. has no English at all and the Nurse
only has a little, so just hope they attend to the correct limb (one good thing
about being awake!). We then find out my E lll has expired due to me putting a
date on it, so there is a mad panic to get it renewed, another visit to the
equivalent Social Services, who are as unhelpful as ours, and also do not speak
English. However finally we get the
necessary forms on the internet from Martin’s son, and all is in order. The Greek hospitals are very very basic and
archaic, and no general nursing care is given at all, therefore Martin had to
be taught how to bed bath (only joking).
However, I can say that the standard of care I received was really good,
I had a private room to myself, and the food was reasonably good. Roast lamb and pasta first day with a Greek
salad, and 1 peach, second day 1 whole fresh fish, with potatoes mixed in a
little oil (I think) tossed in raw carrot, onion and parsley – it was really
tasty. The staff were lovely, especially
one young nurse who could speak a little English, she came and kept me company
when she was able. The Dr. although he
could not speak English, was full of fun, everything was very laid back,
nothing was any problem, I certainly would not hesitate to go there again. After a few days I had to go and have the
dressing removed, to see it was healing OK, then another visit to have the
stitches out, and hey-presto, everything back to normal.
We decided that this
would probably be the last visit to the Hospital, so, as it was pointless
taking the boat back to Prevesa, a journey of approx. 17 miles, but by sea 3
hours in the wrong direction, we hired a car, and took the opportunity of doing
a mammoth shop at Lidls and a Greek Supermarket called Dia, clearing them out
of Gin &Tonic, beers, and all the important bottles that one needs. We then went on up to Ammoudia, to the
Acheron Nekromanteion, to the Palace of Hades, where we had earlier attempted
to go by dinghy, but had to turn back.
This is the sacred room where the ghosts of the dead appeared to
communicate with those consulting the oracle.
Fortunately they were not there when we called. Later that day, when back in Nidri, we met up
with friends Bob and Ann who have ‘Seamogs’.
They took us to a taverna up in the mountains overlooking Nidri. The views from this taverna were really
spectacular, overlooking Nidri Bay, Skorpios, and way out to sea to the
mainland mountains in the distance.
They’re returning to England on Sunday, so it was goodbye to them for
the present.
We have felt that we have
been kicking our heels a bit over the last few weeks, and are eager to get on
our way to Turkey, but it has given us the chance to say goodbye to our many
friends and the places we love, at least for a while, as it is really time to
move on, in more ways than one, the weather is getting very hot we are
recording temperatures of 35C in the boat, and the place is filling up with
Italians and Charter Boats. It is the 10th July, so it’s definitely
time to move on. We will take the
journey very slowly, it’s not the optimum time of year to cross the Aegean Sea,
as the renowned Meltemi blows in the summer months, but there should be plenty
of shelter available on the Islands. (I sincerely hope so) But it will be
interesting to see new ground, which after all, is why we have the boat.
[
Many thanks are due once again to Martin and Ann for their fascinating account
of life “afloat” and I am sure you will all look forwards to part 2 in the next
issue.]
[The following article
appeared in the Nov 2005 Journal of the Royal Signals Amateur Radio Soc and
submitted by the author]
THE BEST LAID SCHEMES OF ……….
GW4WLZ
To celebrate the arrival of our new lifeboat in
Holyhead in 2004 we ran a Special Event station GB4HLB (Holyhead Life Boat)
which was a huge success. The RNLB “
Christopher Pearce” No 17-41 was named by HRH Duke of Kent KG on
This year (2005) we decided to repeat the event. The
NoV was duly obtained and arrangements were made with the Hon. Sec and the
Cox’n. As Station Manager I needed permission of the sailing club next door to
use one of their halyards to support one end of the dipole. The date was set
for 9th and
On Friday the 9th, Paddy MW0PAD, Ross
MW0BYT and I gathered at the lifeboat station to erect the antennas, it was
lashing down with rain and we got thoroughly soaked in the process. We set up
station using Ross’s Ten Tec transceiver with my trusty Trio TS530SP as a
standby. On Saturday morning at o900hrs
we opened up GB4HLB. Our first contact after an hour’s trying was one of our
local operators – Bill MW0BLU!!. We could get no joy on any band, so one
started to imagine many possible reasons. We changed rigs to my 530 SP with no
avail. BY now a steady stream of amateurs were arriving- all keen to have a
go.. We checked all interconnecting leads, PSUs, receivers etc. I decided to
apply the golden rule of an ex-TG-op Crew Commander “CHECK THE COAX FEEDER”, so
the antenna was duly hauled down, meter in hand! All the usual checks were made
but no fault was found .
It became apparent that sun spot/sunburst activity
was afoot ! It transpired that on that particular weekend the fourth biggest
solar flare and electromagnetic storm recorded in the last 15 years had
occurred. Over the two days we made 14
contacts, surprisingly (or not) one of them being in
My thanks go to the staff of the Holyhead Lifeboat
Station , Holyhead Sailing Club and all my pals from the Dragon ARC
who helped in the event ( 8 or 9at least).
I suppose the moral of the story is to check out
Solar Activity beforehand!
The next event planned is GB4TBL ( Treaddur Bay
Lifeboat) some time in October, Station Manager
MW0AQZ (RNARS). So watch this space – we are optimistic that sunspots do
not strike twice.
POSTSCRIPT
But then came…….. The next Special Event Station – call sign GB4TBL.
The station was duly set up on the October Saturday
morning and was opened at 900hrs by the Station Manager Wyn MW0AQZ(RNARS) and
Paddy MW0PAD. I joined them at 951 hrs in the Trearddur Bay Lifeboat Station
proper. The antenna was a 133ft dipole with 1:1 balun centrepiece, fed by 75
ohm co-ax. I took my new rig, a Kenwood TS570D which worked extremely well.
Owing to the exigencies of the service we could only operate on one day. Hf
conditions were surprisingly favourable, in fact much better than when we tried
GB4HLB. We made about 60 contacts in the
The postscript moral of the story , lads, is to keep
on trying and success will follow. A good day for all, our thanks to Officers Cox’n and Crew of the
Trearddur Bay Lifeboat for their kind hospitality and help.
DON’T FORGET THE RSGB HF CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Stewart GW0ETF is still working hard on the club’s
behalf on these HF club championships held on 80m between 2000 to 2130 hrs
LOCAL TIME once a month separately on each of three modes SSB, CW and data. Unfortunately some clash with our club
meetings ( but not always) and I know that when possible Stewart would like to
see other members join in.. Submitting the logs is in the Cabrillo format
preferred by the RSGB. If you are not certain of this, other members who take
part can possibly help.
2006
March 6th Data – 15th
CW – 23rd SSB
April 3rdCW – 12th
SSB – 20th Data
May 1st SSB – 10th
Data – 18th CW
June 5thData – 14th
CW – 22nd- SSB
July 3rd CW - 12th SSB – 20th Data
TOPAZ
Everything for the radio enthusiast PMR- AMATEUR- MARINE- CB. Servicing and repairs. Plus Radio Scanners.
Now Joined by
Skyline I.T Services
Used PC’s components, Accessories. PC Repairs and upgrades.
Printer Ink and more.
Russell 2W0AWN Both at 01248 714251
MEMBERSHIP LIST. This is enclosed in the newsletter, but will not be printed on the club’s website.
Any changes or corrections should be addressed to the Treasurer or Secretary.
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
LLAIS Y DDRAIG
THE
DRAGON’S VOICE
GW4TTA / GC4TTA
CYLCHLYTHYR CLWB
RADIO AMATUR Y DDRAIG
NEWSLETTER OF THE DRAGON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
http://www.gw3prl.toucansurf.com
HAF 2006
SUMMER Rhif /No. 78
*****************************************
Cynhelir cyfarfodydd y clwb
yn Neuadd Ebeneser, Lon Foel y Graig,
Pentre Uchaf, Llanfairpwll ar Nos Lun y cyntaf a’r trydydd yn y mis am 7.30 ar
gyfer 8.0 o’r gloch.
Croeso i ymwelwyr ac aelodau
newydd.
Club meetings are held at
Ebenezer Hall, Foel Y Graig Lane, Higher
Village, Llanfairpwll on the first and third Monday evenings in the month at
7.30 for 8 .0 o’clock.
Visitors and new members are welcome.
OS GWELWCH YN DDA, pob
gohebiaeth at yr ysgrifennydd. PLEASE ADDRESS
all communications to the Secretary; Les Hayward MW0SEC, Cefn Cribbin,
Ynys Mon, LL71 7BU, 01248
470606. <Les at corfe-castle dot
demon.co.uk>
PWYLLGOR/COMMITTEE
Cadeirydd – Geoff Spencer GW4DRR – Chairman.
Is- gadeirydd- John E.ParryGW3VVC - Vice Chairman.
Ysgrifennydd- Les Hayward
MW0SEC - Secretary.
Trysorydd – John Brimecombe GW3GUX - Treasurer.
Aelodau/Members – Billy
Williams GW0IQZ,
Gwilym V Williams
GW2DLK,Stewart Rolf GW0ETF.
J.Dafydd Williams GW4WLZ
*****************************************
Golygydd/Editor,
Dewi E. Roberts GW0ABL, 23 Lon Hedydd, Llanfairpwll, Ynys Mon LL61 5JY 01248
713647
NEWSLETTER ARTICLES
Have you any article or contribution for the club’s newsletter, these would be very gratefully received.
Do not forget that this is your newsletter and the more varied it is, the better and more interesting it will be.
A couple of articles, this time, have been kept over for the next issue.
RHAGLEN/PROGRAMME
July
17th Mr Mark Francis of WATERS &
STANTON.
Awst/August
7th To be arranged
12th/13th Party in the Park (see below)
19th/20th GB2TD (Lighthouse and Lightships)
21st
To be arranged.
Medi/September
4th Mr Les Hayward MW0SEC on Computers.
18th Film Night
Tachwedd/October
2nd Dr Gwyn Roberts –GPS in Mountain
Rescue
16th
GB2TD contact John GW3GUX to
help out at this special event
Lifeboat special events.
Look out for the dates of
these annual events at Holyhead and
Has anyone thought of doing
the same at either Moelfre or Beaumaris. Lifeboat Stations?
The Club’s programme still has a few dates to be
filled either by a demonstration, talk etc. If you can fill a date either
yourself or with a speaker that you can arrange, please let the Chairman and or
Secretary know.
Also, do not wait to be asked to help at special
events but let the station managers know that you are available and what you
can do to assist either in setting up or operating
One volunteer is worth a multitude of recruits.
DATABASE OF CLUB TALKERS, DEMONSTRATORS ETC.
Lis Cabban GW0ETU ( our RSGB Regional Manager) is
anxious to set up a database listing members who are prepared to give talks to
other clubs. She feels that this will be a great help to clubs trying to work
out their programme for the year. All that is required is the basic info,
whether you are prepared to travel to other clubs, distance of travel and availability. And ,of course,
the subjects you talk on. You could name
some one who is not a club member, but check with that person before sending in
his name. <lizandthecats@teleco4u.net>
PARTY IN THE PARK at
This has been arranged by the North Wales Radio Club
and Liz Cabban and will be a fun week-end with a chance to experiment with
aerials, a radio car boot sale, BBQ and home brew equipment competitions etc.
Could the club consider taking the caravan there and
gain some publicity. Look out for more information on this
TECHNICAL TOPICS. by Dafydd GW4WLZ
SHACK SAFETY
In
this article I shall be discussing two aspects of shack safety, firstly the
mains electrical supply, secondly shack earthing and the use of an earth bar.
1.
MAINS
ELECTRICAL SUPPLY
We
all have to use 13A sockets for our Radio kit, soldering irons, etc. If your
shack is inside the house the domestic sockets will normally be on a ring main.
Remember that the 16th edition of the IEE Regulations demands that
the downstairs ring main be on a RCD with a tripping current of 30 mA. The
upstairs ring can be on an MCB (miniature circuit breaker). Check your Consumer
Unit and determine whether or not it is equipped with RCD and mcbs. Old Wylex,
MEM units with re-wireable fuses are no longer compliant with today’s Regs.
That does not mean that they are unsafe, but as stated, no longer in compliance
and should be updated ASAP. There are two methods of making the shack
electrically safe.
The
first one is to isolate your shack sockets and have them controlled by an RCD(
Residual Current Device) and just have a separate ring main in your shack. An
RCD rated at 63amps and a tripping current of 30 mA will trip in approx. 0.04
seconds and being double pole devices will completely isolate the supply in a
very short time and give a high degree of protection to the user.
The
second method would also involve separating the shack sockets from the ring
main and controlled by an RCD. However, one should then install a single phase
contactor at the shack end controlling only the shack ring main. One can then wire the remote stop button and
install a large red panic button at a handy position which can be operated by
hand or knee/foot maybe on the leg of your bench. Your can then operate it if
your hands are stuck!! The contactor is also double pole so will isolate the
Live and Neutral very quickly. The button breaks the coil supply which drops
out instantly. The earth should never be broken by either an RCD or Contactor.
2. SHACK EARTHING
Devices
with 3 core mains lead should be connected as normal to the plug top. Check the
fuse rating. Portable appliances regs. call for anything of 700watts or above
should have a 13A fuse fitted. One should now consider the Shack Earth which is
completely separate from the mains earth. Dangerous high voltages exist in
modern transceivers, 1200V is quite common.
One
requires a shack earth which consists of an earth bar on the bench behind your
equipment and an earth rod driven into earthy ground in the garden and
connected by 10mm singles earth wire ( 90p a metre inc.VAT) and Earth Rods
(£6.99 inc. VAT) at good wholesalers. I made my earth bar using a piece of
lightning conductor copper tape approx 25mm wide and 2mm thick . I made the
earth bar 6” long and drilled it with 6mm holes, 6 in total horizontally. The
two outside holes were used to fix it to the wall with rawlplugs and 2”
woodscrews, using two pieces of 15mm pipe as standoff spacers. Incidentally,
have the bar “tinned” by a plumber, which improves conductivity and stops
verdigris. I then connected my equipment individually using 2.5 mm earth wire
and crimped lugs at either end.
Do
not connect the mains earth to
this shack earth system.
[
Many thanks to Dafydd for starting Technical Topics which I hope he will
continue to contribute. If you have any thing you wish to comment on or
contribute as a topic, please let Dafydd know and he can include, if
appropriate, in future issues GW0ABL]
GB4HMD
(Holyhead Marconi Day)
By Station Manager Dafydd,
GW4WLZ.