ARG London Operational Stations
I suspect publication of these details are long overdue, all our stations are
seeing very little use if we are to keep them then it's time to make some use of
them ! Please have a go and use some of the stations, BH, Kendal Avenue and
Bush are all easily reachable by public transport. Keys should be obtainable on
the production of a group membership card, should you have any difficulties
gaining access please contact the station manager or any committee member.
A trip to the BH shack is particularly useful as an Oxford Street shopping
escape route !!
Kendal Avenue
The station is located in room 1085 and has equipment for HF, 6M, 2M and 70cms and
packet. Users must be prepared to accept quite a bit of interference from
gb7bbc which is located in the same room. At the moment the 70cms beam is in use
for a packet link but a new (my old 19ele tonna) fixed antenna will be put up to replace
this very soon. Calls available for use are G3AYC and G7BBC. The station manager
is Gareth Rowlands G4HIP.
Broadcasting House
The station is located on the 10th floor of the extension and has facilities for 2M
70cms and possibly packet, the call in use is G8BBC, which will generally
generate plenty of calls from this very popular location. Station manager is
Chris Chambers G1AYU.
Bush House
The station is located in room ????,
following the great noise saga the station is still only usable on the upper HF
bands and there are no facilities for VHF. G3BBC is the call in use. If you are
interested in using this station I would suggest you contact Richard Davies
for further info.
Kingswood Warren
The station is located in a garden shed in the grounds of Kingswood Warren in
Surrey !! G0ARG is the call in use. Further info can be obtained from Tom
Ellinor.
Committee Post Available
For some time now your committee has been feeling a little short of members, at one point last month I was newsletter editor, membership secretary, Internet web site manager and sysop of GB7BBC ! If anyone feels they have some time and new ideas to spare, and would like to join us as a "minister without portfolio" we would very much like to hear from you. Meetings are usually held about every two months at Woodlands, access to packet / internet would be beneficial but is not essential. Please contact George G3NOH for further details if interested.
Membership Renewals
Unfortunately a change was made to the membership forms at the last minute,
this lead (due to yours truly suffering from jet lag at the time) to an error in the
form with two different subscription rates being shown. The correct subscription
rates for 1997-8 are BBC Club members £6.50 and Guest members £13.00. I
apologise for the confusion this has caused. Renewals have been coming in
steadily and at this time we have 52 members and 5 guests. As a result of
changes in the club guest members as we know them are now renamed
"Section Affiliate Members". I have heard of a couple of people not receiving
membership forms, if you still need one let me know and I will pop one in the
post to you. One interesting thing that has come out of the forms returned is
that many people are interested is operating HF contests on behalf of the
group from home, surely we can manage an AFS (or similar) entry with all
these people located all over the UK ? Anyone fancy co-ordinating an entry ?
ARG 1997 Summer Social
The other thing to come out of the forms was quite a few people were
interested in another social event, we have decided to hold this at the Black
Horse in Greenford on Friday 15th August from 19:30hrs, the pub is located on
Oldfield Lane North, just off the A40 at the Greenford roundabout. The pub is a
very short walk from Greenford station (Central Line / Thames Trains from
Paddington (beware this service is not very frequent in the evening)), the 105
and 92 buses pass nearby also. There may also be a trip to "The Greenford
Tandoori" afterwards !
M0BBC and M1BBC
M0BBC and M1BBC have been acquired for a possible station at Motspur
Park.
A mini review of the Ten-Tec 9208 2M to 6M Transverter Kit
Recently whilst at the Dayton Hamfest I purchased one of these kits for
building on return to the UK. On opening the box you are faced with many well
packed good quality parts, a very strong case with all the holes pre punched
and a very comprehensive construction manual. The construction instructions
are of the Heathkit / PacCom type making this kit ideal for the beginner or
newcomer to electronic construction.
Construction takes place in small steps after which an operating test can be performed and any problems resolved before continuing, no special tools or test gear are needed. The components supplied fit the PCB holes well and no difficulties were encountered during construction, the only rather odd thing is the order which the instructions tell you to solder the components into the board in, they tend to put the semiconductors in first !! There are two rather fiddly transformers to be wound in the PA stage but the construction manual describes how to do this in every detail so even a beginner should be OK. Final alignment is very simple and my completed example delivers about 10W out from 5W of 2M drive (this can be changed by altering resistor values in the input attenuator).
On the air good results have been obtained using just a home made dipole as an antenna, the transverter appears to have slightly too much gain at 144Mhz so should work well with even the deafest 2M TXCVRs ! So far with just the 10W into a dipole I have managed to work G, GW, GD, OZ, LA, OH0, OK, OM, 9A5, OE, YU, SP, I and S53. The best news of all is the price, I paid just $100 for it !!! (£65 !! at current exchange rates). A version also exists for 28Mhz drive, if you are not already QRV on 6M then this kit is well worth investigating, more details can be obtained from the Ten-Tec web site at http://www.ten-tec.com/
News from S79MAD
Due to a failure of the home PC, I'm now QRT on datamodes. Please do
not send any e-mail to 9K2EC for me!! I will be going QRT on all modes
soon; I leave S7 on 8th Aug. All QSLs are via GW4WVO. Thanks to all
who I worked on RTTY; never quite made the DXCC though. I will re-
appear as GW4MAD; soon. Paddy also now has a page on the web at:-
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GW4MOG/
TV60 QSO Party Certificates
I finally got around to producing these a couple of weeks ago, they should
have now all been sent out, there are a few spares available if anyone still
wants one, contact George G3NOH. The QSL cards for the Alexandra
Palace operation should also follow soon, a rough design was produced
some time ago and is now being finished off.
The Watson-Peat Shield 1997
This will be awarded to the member of the Group who has achieved the
most number of contacts (QSOs) during the period from Jan 1st 1997 to
31st July 1997. All contacts count including duplicates. Contacts made
during a contest not using one's own call are to be included as well as last
year. How about sending in an entry ? Entries to George G3NOH (QTHR)
From the Archives
1959-60 A new club section was set up for staff in the West London TV
premises, the callsign G3NTS was obtained and a station set up at
Woodstock Grove, it was later transferred to Hammersmith Grove and
then to Lime Grove, where it remained until about 1983. Latterly the call
has been used at Kendal Avenue but is currently not on the active list.
June 1962 The first National Field Day entry by the then Ariel Radio Club
was made, the name changed later that month to the one we know now.
1963 Subscriptions were 5/- per year ! 1964 The first Annual Dinner was
held. 1965 The group made its first VHF NFD entry from Brookmans Park.
ARG QSL Cards
Dennis Booty G3KKQ has a quantity of ARG QSL cards of the old BH
design for sale, they work out at £2.50 per 100. Dennis also has a source
for overprinting at about £15.00 per 1000 cards. Dennis can be contacted
on 01784-451636.
Group Nets
Take place every Tuesday and Thursday mornings on 3685 Khz at 08:45
local time and on the first Sunday of each month on 3675 Khz at 11:00
local time, but there is an informal net most Sundays.
That's about it for this time, next newsletter probably early September, as always all submissions gratefully received ! See you at the group social ?
73 Chris G6XDI
Last updated 3/11/2006