INDEX AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ISSUE No.14 JUNE 1985 Page 1................Index Page 2................From the Chair Page 3................Library ................Club Equipment+Video? Page 4................News and Views Page 5................Last Bit Page 6................Learning Pascal Page 7................HF Aerial Programme Page 8................Listing cont' Page 9................For Sale and Wanted ................Oman! Page 10...............Tech-Ed's Notes Page 11...............Diary of Events Page 12...............Membership List Page 13...............Membership Form Editor................Dave Chislett G4XDU Technical Editor......Dave Lomas G4XOW Printer...............Dave Ayres G6GBC Computer Editor.......Mike Brown G4RAA **************************************************************** B.B.R.C. COMMITTEE Chairperson...........David Ayres G6GBC Secretary.............Paul Robinson G6DVC Treasurer.............Lynas Newton G6LYN Member................Dave Bentley G6LKZ Member................Bruce Gilson G4WVX Library...............Stored at Haymill Club Equipment........Stored at Haymill For details see elsewhere in issue To borrow any item see a member of the committee. **************************************************************** New Club Rooms...........Haymill Community Centre 112 Burnham Lane Slough. SL1 6LZ There is no telephone available at the Centre FROM THE CHAIR Well now, would you 'adam and eve' it ? Guess who has now held every position on the committee ? (Answers on a postcard please - to the Ed). Still, perhaps one day I'll get it right. I must first thank all those members who didn't vote for me, people with taste one must assume. To those who did vote for me you must have got the name wrong - now look what you've done ! I trust that I have just been unlucky with the first meetings as Chairman but I am somewhat concerned to say the least. The Foxhunt was a washout due to the weather (Beyond even my control, I'm afraid ) and the first meeting in May had to be cancelled at short notice - my fault for not checking with the Haymill Centre earlier. Whilst on the subject of Haymill there are a few things I wish to draw your attention to. First of all, the August Bank Holiday will not affect our normal meeting. Secondly, perhaps YOU would prefer a different day or maybe just an alternative for one of the Two meetings ? Let me know your thoughts and ideas. Thirdly the bar. Aha ! you cry, now the idiot is talking about something interesting. If you did not already know, the bar is now operational during specified times, (see notices in Haymill - alright I don't know yet !). To use the services of the bar you have to be a Haymill member or be signed in by one, )If they've got the book yet !). Membership of the B.B.R.C. includes Haymill membership: (What absolutely terrific value ay ?). Full rules for the bar use and times will be displayed shortly. If it has not already been arranged, please let me know if you can donate either time, advice or parts towards the club station. We have had a generous offer of an aerial and rotator from John G4XJN and obviously hands will be needed to help erect these along with the existing Club equipment - let me know if you can help. Something a little more positive is our involvement with the McMichael Rally on the 21st July. We will need all the volunteers we can find to do the Rally justice. As it is a significant source of income as well as good fun we do expect a special effort from everyone who is able. Let either Dave G6LKZ or myself know if you are available to help, BEFORE or during the Rally, (e.g. Operate talk-in; put up road signs). FROM THE CHAIR CONT' We will be holding more foxhunts and wish to be advised of your preference of time and day - again let me have your (repeatable) thoughts. Any requests for future meetings or events are most welcome. Well I think that will do for the time being, so Ta Ta, 73's, 10-4, all them golden numbers to ya' and see you soon. Chairperson David G6GBC ----------------------------------------------------------------- CLUB LIBRARY HF Antennas for all Locations Moxon 1981 Call Book RSGB 1984 Call Book RSGB Radio communications Handbook RSGB R.S Components Cataloque Confidential Frequency List +Supplement ----------------------------------------------------------------- CLUB EQUIPMENT 1. 25ft Telescopic Mast/base/guys & pegs (Haymill) 2. J-Beam 2mtr+70cms Beam/cables (Haymill) 3. 4x23 ele JVL 23cms Beams (G4XDU) 4. Tent+Awning pegs (G4XOW) 5. G5RV HF Aerial/cable (Haymill) 6. AM. HF Transceiver 'valves req' (Haymill) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The club has started to make a Video of the club activities starting with the DX Picnic. During the next foxhunt there will be a roving camera about, and at one of the forthcoming club meetings. We hope to compile a video to show at the McMichael Rally. If you have any suggestion for items to be included please let the editor know. NEWS AND VIEWS Firstly in this issue, I think everyone has heard about the change to the editor of Beechlog. Well, if you haven't, it seems that the DTI gave me the wrong call-sign on the changeover to the G4. It only came to light when the renewal came through from the Post Office with the wrong Call-sign on it. On asking for the corrected validation document i.e with old call-sign, I was informed that it was wrong and there had been a mix up. Well I now have a nice new licence and a photo-copy of the old to prove they made the mistake. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Talking of call-signs, some time ago Mark and Sue G8ZRT/G8YKU popped in while in the area. Both have passed the morse test and have changed their G8's to G4's. Sue is taking a Degree in electronics and Mark is still with IBM jetting around the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue sees a new committee elected at the AGM. This year saw two candidates standing for Chairperson quite unknown in recent years. Our new Chairperson David has asked for your ideas and suggestions for things to do. PLEASE give this a lot of thought and pass the suggestion on. Normally we work on the principal that if we hear nothing then you must be happy, but the attendance at meetings and other events has been falling off and there must be a reason. PLEASE PLEASE tell someone? ------------------------------------------------------------------- The spring DX Picnic is now behind us and for once the weather was kind on the Saturday. Several members got sunburnt and one person missed the event because he couldn't find us! Unfortunately, the generator we normally borrowed was not available, but an old friend of the club, G8ZWS Ray, came to the rescue with a 1200Watt generator, which unusually was easy to start and bring to the site. I would like to thank Ray who has said we may make use of the generator as often as we wish. We were in a different field from last time, but all there agreed it was by far the best to date. Radio took up a fair amount of time with contacts around the world. However 2Mtr operation took a back seat due a contest over the weekend. Stations we think only a mile or two away flattened both 2 and 70cms, however, later on Saturday evening, calling CQ on SSB a number of stations from Wales came back desperate for anyone to have a ragchew with. ------------------------------------------------------------------- While at the DX Picnic I was handed an article from one of the national newspapers. The headline read 'Radio Ham Cancer Risk'. The article went on to say that Hams and TV repair men run the risk of developing blood cancer. It appears that researchers in, where else, the USA reckon that almost twice as many Hams die of leukaemia than the national average. The cause is said to be and I quote, ' electromagnate fields generated by the equipment'. So be warned, like eating, drinking, and having sex, radio is bad for you!! ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Last Bit IN THE COLUMN THIS QUARTER : Results of the computer questionnaire, review of two books on Pascal and an HF antenna design programme. QUESTIONNAIRE I have now had time to look at the computer/morse questionnaires and here are some of the statistics:- There were 11 replies out of 32 magazines distributed, which by club standards is quite a good response. 3 of the 11 did not own a computer, the remaining 8 own a wide selection of computers. In all there are 8 different types in use, although some people owned more than one micro. The obvious conclusion from this is that any listings I include had better be in plain and simple Basic, rather than in anything too machine specific! Most of the computer owners (6/8) have printers, with a significant number owning monitors, disk drives and RTTY terminal units. The most wanted peripheral (3/8) was a monitor, although several wanted a modem, T.U. or printer. When it came to software, Amateur Radio applications programmes were (predictably!) most popular. Half the computer owners had more than three of the program types on the list. The most popular being a morse tutor (6/8) followed by RTTY (5/8) and logbook (4/8). There were few 'wants' when it came to software -a sign of waning interest? Generally the 'communication' type programmes (like RTTY, CW, ASCII) were the most sought after. Moving on to the Morse section of the questionnaire, the most popular method of learning was from cassettes. Due no doubt to the BBRC morse class tapes. Slow morse transmissions were also very popular (they're free!). 60% of those learning morse used a computer whilst 30% used records or a morse tutor. Most of those learning morse used multiple aids. I must say that I found this to be the best approach. Using several different aids gave some variety to what could be a very boring slog. LEARNING PASCAL? I have just finished reading two interesting books on Pascal. The first is called BASIC & PASCAL IN PARALLEL, by S.J.Wainwright. It is one of the slim Babani volumes, and is a brief 60 page guide to the differences between the languages. I have to admit that I don't generally like the Babani books, because they seem to skim over all but the most major details. That said, the book does give a better idea of the way Pascal works than, say, a magazine article, without going into the masses of detail found in a full textbook. All in all it is a useful and cheap (#1.50) introduction to Pascal. MASTERING PASCAL PROGRAMMING by E.Huggins is one of the Macmillan Master series. At #2.95 for 269 pages it rates as even better value for money than the Babani book, or most other computing books for that matter. The Master series is a sort of 'teach yourself' range of books, covering topics from data processing to hairdressing, hence the low price. I spent a long time in Foyles bookshop in London, looking through about twenty different Pascal textbooks only to give up in disgust, as most of them seemed aimed at either the data processing professional or computer student using a mainframe. The prices were all in the #10 to #20 range too. Fortunately I came across this book in the Maidenhead branch of Hammicks, and I must say that I think that it is both better and cheaper than the others. Eric Huggins is pretty good at explaining the way Pascal operates. In 18 chapters he takes the reader through the ins and outs of the language in a very readable way. He somehow manages to tread the thin line between over-simplification and the more usual sin of failing to explain something vital because the author thinks that the reader must already understand something which is so blindingly obvious to him. In conclusion, this is a much better book than the Babani volume, giving a good grounding in all the aspects of using Pascal. It is however definitely for those who have already decided that Pascal is the language for them. H.F. ANTENNA DESIGN I have included a listing this time so please let me know if you think the programme is useful. It is pretty well REMmed so I won't explain it here, suffice it to say that it should run on almost any Basic, even Commodore. 10REM HALF-SIZE DIPOLE DESIGN 20REM USING LOADING COILS 24REM 25REM (C) M.P.B.BROWN 1985 26REM 30CLS 40PRINTTAB(1)"** LOADED DIPOLE DESIGN PROGRAM **" 50PRINTTAB(1)'"THIS PROGRAM REDUCES A DIPOLE TO HALF " 60PRINTTAB(1)'"SIZE AND PUTS A LOADING COIL IN THE"' 70PRINTTAB(9)"CENTRE OF EACH SIDE"' 75PRINTTAB(3)'"N.B. FEEDPOINT IMPEDANCE IS 22 OHMS"'' 80D=0:Z=0:I=0:B=0 90@%=&20207 100INPUT"HOW MANY FREQUENCIES ARE YOU GOING TO"'" ENTER (MAX 10) ",Z 110DIM F(Z) 120FOR I=1 TO Z 130INPUT'"FREQ (MHz) ",F(I) 140NEXT 150FOR I=1 TO Z 160F=F(I) 170A=234/F 180B=58.5/F 190X=A-B 200Y=((A/2)-B) 210IF D>0 THEN 280 220CLS 230INPUTTAB(0,17)"DO YOU WANT TO USE THE WIRE TABLE Y/N",Y$ 240IF Y$="Y" THEN PROCwiretable 250IF Y$="N" THEN PROCdiameter 260IF Y$<>"Y" AND Y$<>"N" THEN 230 270CLS 280S1=1E6/(68*3.1415^2*F^2) 290S2=1/X*(LN(24*X/D)-1) 300S3=(1-F*B/234)^2-1 310S4=1/Y*(LN(24*Y/D)-1) 320S5=(Y*F/234)^2-1 330S6=S1*(S2*S3-S4*S5) 340IF I<>1 THEN 380 350PRINT'''" FREQ "," TOTAL"," CENTRE"," COIL"," WIRE" 360PRINT" MHz "," LENGTH"," TO "," IND"," DIA." 370PRINT" "," FEET "," COIL "," uH "," INCHES" 380PRINT'F,A,B,S6,D 390NEXT I 400END 410DEFPROCwiretable 420INPUT"WIRE SWG (10 TO 28)",D 430IF D=10 THEN D=.128:ENDPROC 440IF D=11 THEN D=.116:ENDPROC 450IF D=12 THEN D=.104:ENDPROC 460IF D=13 THEN D=.092:ENDPROC 470IF D=14 THEN D=.080:ENDPROC 480IF D=15 THEN D=.072:ENDPROC 490IF D=16 THEN D=.064:ENDPROC 500IF D=17 THEN D=.056:ENDPROC 510IF D=18 THEN D=.048:ENDPROC 520IF D=19 THEN D=.040:ENDPROC 530IF D=20 THEN D=.036:ENDPROC 540IF D=21 THEN D=.032:ENDPROC 550IF D=22 THEN D=.028:ENDPROC 560IF D=23 THEN D=.024:ENDPROC 570IF D=24 THEN D=.022:ENDPROC 580IF D=25 THEN D=.020:ENDPROC 590IF D=26 THEN D=.018:ENDPROC 600IF D=27 THEN D=.0164:ENDPROC 610IF D=28 THEN D=.0148:ENDPROC 620PRINTTAB(1)"WIRE GAUGES MUST BE A NUMBER" 630PRINTTAB(1)"IN THE RANGE 10-28" 640GOTO420 650ENDPROC 660DEFPROCdiameter 670INPUT"WHAT IS THE ELEMENT DIAMETER IN INCHES",D 680ENDPROC 700REM TO CONVERT THIS PROGRAM TO RUN ON COMPUTERS OTHER THAN THE BBC 710REM 1) LINE 90 IS JUST TO ALTER THE NUMBER FORMAT, DELETE IT 720REM - THE PROGRAM WILL STILL RUN 730REM 740REM 2) REPLACE PROC WITH GOSUB i.e. PROCdiameter BECOMES GOSUB660 750REM 760REM 3) REPLACE DEFPROC WITH REM i.e. 660DEFPROCdiameter 770REM BECOMES 660 REM diameter 780REM 790REM 4) REPLACE ENDPROC WITH RETURN 800REM 810REM REPLACE LN WITH LOG - LOG TO BASE e IS LN ON THE BBC FOR SALE OR WANTED UPDATE YOUR QSL'S WITH YOUR NEW LOCATOR. Simply send your new locator (your National Grid Reference will do). Locator rubber stamp #3.49. "Please QSL" stamp #3.49. Pad #1.39. Mike Brown, 4 Roebuck Green, Slough, SL1 5QY. Tel. Burnham 4262 NB These prices include 12.5% discount ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 5.25" BIB DISC HEAD CLEANING KITS #4.49 EACH Mike Brown 4 Roebuck Green, Slough, SL1 5QY. Tel. Burnham 4262 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: WANTED:Ceramic wafer switches suitable for ATU. Dave G4XDU Sl.21896 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: WANTED: Information on AMTOR. G4XDU is trying to write a programme for AMTOR on the Acorn Atom, however there seems to be a general lack of information around about the mode. If you have any information I would be pleased to hear about it. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: GETTING A LICENCE IN OMAN Just as this Beechlog was being compiled, a friend G4CMG, rang to say he was back on leave from Oman. Tom has been out there for four months. He expected to have a reciprocal licence quickly but when I asked what the call was he said things were a little slow and difficult out there. If you have ever tried to get a reciprocal licence for France and thought that difficult read on. Getting a licence in Oman requires firstly belonging to the national society. No you don't go along to the local Rally and sign on at the RSGB stand. Joining the national society is like trying to become a member of Wentworth golf club and equally as expensive! Firstly, you must be resident in Oman for three months; then you need a sponsor in a position of importance i.e. your employer, plus the recommendation of two Society members, i.e. licenced amateurs not easy when there are only a few in the country. The annual fee must be enclosed with the application #50! plus six copies of your passport photograph. Enough, I hear you say but they also, if you are basically acceptable, call you for an interview. By the way they only interview once a month! They also require at least two Omanies to each foreigner so it could be a long wait. Given up yet? Well you have only got into the national society, you have still to apply for the licence........ TECH - ED'S NOTES Time has leapt on since the last magazine, and yours truly has left this contribution till the last moment.(Way past the last moment ED!) My comment last time on my 10 metre interference was answered about a week later when the DTI telephoned to say they were sorry for taking so long in having a filter fitted to the nearby telephone system, but they were having trouble getting co-operation from B.T. Well filters were fitted, but nothing happened so I shall get the RSGB involved and let them try and sort it out. There have been a number of good lectures at the club. I remember after the one on Aerial Matching, I was all keen to make up a an ATU to his ideas, but somehow the patio in the back garden seems to be progressing faster. One interesting point that I read recently, is that whilst for transmitter matching, it should have a low-pass characteristic to reduce harmonics, for receive purposes a high-pass is preferred, this helps compensate the increase in atmospheric noise which occurs at lower frequency. I was looking forward to the D.X Picnic that Dave G4XDU (must change all those W's to U's in the log book) organised. It was for me the best one to date. We were nearly caught out for lack of H.F equipment, but fortunately my FT7 for which we had no A.T.U performed suprisingly well. The match on the half-size G5RV was adequate for direct running on 40,20 and 10 meters. A number of interesting contacts were made and we did hook up an Acorn Atom based RTTY machine to the FT7, this took some time due to the stupid connection differences between Yausu and FDK on the 4 pin mic socket. For some time I have been using the computer (BBC), with the radio equipment for RTTY, SSTV and morse. The problem is that most of the currently available machines have made no attempt to reduce radiation of interference. G4XDU has solved this by repackaging in a metal case. Mike G4RAA found details of an acrylic copper loaded paint, which we have subsequently purchased and applied to the inside cases of both our machines. We sprayed using a set up for car spraying, but a small aerasol dispenser and hand painting were also successful. We found that it is necessary to thoroughly clean the surface as substances used during manufacture can prevent good adhesion. The results on VHF are good, We shall have more details of the results in the next magazine. We have a quantity left so if anyone wishes to purchase some then contact Mike or myself. The Mc.Michael Rally is not too far away, so please mention it over the air. We would like to put on a good display this year. In particular homebrew equipment so do bring them along. Must get back to that patio. 73's DAVE G4XOW DIARY OF EVENTS 4th Feb..................G3CWI Slide Show Antarctic 18th Feb.................G3JKV Aurora's 4th March................A.G.M. 18th March...............G3RZP ATU's & SWR 23rd March...............RSGB VHF convention Sandown Park (Saturday) 1st April................FoxHunt (Please note usual start Upton Park car park) 13/14th April............RSGB National Convention Birmingham 15th April...............G8DPH Demo A.T.V 6th May..................G4CGS H.F. propagation 18/19th May..............Spring Picnic (Sat/Sunday) 20th May.................G4END Slow scan T.V & colour 3rd June.................G3CWI Slide show ? 17th June................G4PHS R.F. filter design 30th June................Longleat Mobile Rally 21st July................McMichael ARS Mobile Rally ***************************************************************** Further evenings planned but not confirmed.......... Moon-bounce 6Mtr operation PMR equipment ***************************************************************** MEMBERSHIP LIST 001 Eileen Chislett G6EIL Sl.21896 002 Dave Chislett (Editor) G4XDU Sl.21896 003 Tony Alderman G4LQD Fc.3286 004 David Ayres (Chairperson) G6GBC Md.28108 006 Paul Shayler G6TSF Sl.41396 007 Bill Perkins SWL Sl.32171 008 Lynas Newton (Treasurer) G6LYN Bn.66759 009 Mike Brown (Computer Ed) G4RAA Bn.4262 011 Dave Lomas (Tech-Ed) G4XOW Lt.Grn.2847 012 Ann Lomas SWL Lt.Grn.2847 021 Peter Harman G4XGD Sl.28826 025 Dave Bentley (Committee) G6LKZ Sl.25101 026 Kevin Hadley G4HDK 0734 731026 027 Graeme Platts G4XOF Sl.78495 030 Richard Ashberry G6RTM Sl.46012 031 Ted Swaby G4XOE Sl.75099 033 Dave Hemmins G6DRP Bn.64436 034 John Williamson G4XJN Sl.24008 038 Paul Robinson (Secretary) G6DVC Rslp.72125 043 Bruce Gilson (Committee) G4WVX Bn.64415 047 Peter Melling G1LHU Sl.29025 048 Mike Gathergood G4KFK 0895 834167 049 B. Mockett G1DSI ******** 050 T.Kay G4ZTK Bn.4255 ******************************************************************* Please note if your details are not correct please the form on the back of the magazine and hand to a committee member. This will help us to keep the records up to date. ******************************************************************* THE BURNHAM BEECHES RADIO CLUB G3WIR G6WIR The Burnham Beeches Radio Club, affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain, serves the Slough/Windsor area, although it got its name from its original meeting place - or that vicinity. We meet twice a month, and our activities cover a wide range of topics related to radio communications, such as lectures, demonstrations, and club operating nights; there is also a keen interest in home computing among our members. We welcome members of any age and sex, who have an interest in Amateur Radio, whether they be licenced amateurs or 'Short Wave Listeners'. Meetings: 1st & 3rd Mondays of each Month at 8.00pm Haymill Community Centre 112 Burnham Lane Slough. SL1 6LZ Secretary: Paul Robinson G6DVC. Telephone. Ruslp72125. ******************************************************************* MEMBERSHIP DATA FILE NAME:.................................... CALLSIGN:................ ADDRESS:................................. DATE:.................... ................................. TELEPHONE:............... ................................. POSTCODE:................ BANDS WORKED: HF( ) VHF( ) UHF( ) MODES USED: CW [ ] SSB [ ] FM [ ] RTTY [ ] ATV [ ] MAIN INTERESTS: (Building, contests, ATV, RTTY etc;) ................................................................... ................................................................... ................................................................... SUGGESTIONS FOR CLUB ACTIVITIES: ................................................................... ................................................................... ................................................................... COMPUTER INTEREST:...................... MODEL:................... [All details held in confidence by the committee] *******************************************************************