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Yolume XXXVIII

THE SHORT W A V E MAGAZ1NE

41

BANDS

NORMAN FITCH, G3FPK

Awards

JACK Mitchell, G3KEQ, becomes the eighth reader to win a QTH Sąuares Century Club Certificate. His award is for 2m. operation from Sanderstead, about 1.4 kms. from your scribe’s QTH. An interesting feature of the submission was that all the cards were for contracts outside England and via tropospheric propaga-tion only. The present station com-prises a Trio TS-700G driving a Nag amplifier, the aerials being two, stacked 9-ele. Tonna*s. Jack has an enviable QTH 160m. a.s.l. on the North Downs with a fine “take-off” all around so it is no surprise that his list included cards from BC square to the south, CW to the north and KM to theeast.

Three morę VHF Century Club certificates for 2m. operation have been awarded. No. 313 goes to Fred Barnes-Rickers, G8JKN, from Kenil-worth (Warks.). He has been interested in radio sińce the 1920’s starting his 5. w./, career with a crystal set in a matchbox, later building many different straight and superhet receivers. 52 years after leaving school, he decided it was time to get an amateur licence so took a day course at Salisbury College, continuing with evening classes after moving to Warwickshire. Fred passed the R.A.E. in 1974.

Norman Barnacle, G80MI, from Shirley (W. Midlands) receives VHFCC award no. 314. His interest in the hobby dat es back to 1932 and the pre-war 5m. days using home built Rx*s. S.w.ł. activity continued up to 1956 using ex-services gear. In 1977, he started up again and has been on 2m. SSB exclusively sińce December of that year. The present station consists of a Yaesu FT-221R with S.E.M. pre-amplifier and 40 watts linear. The aerial is a 4-eIe. Quad at 28 ft., the QTH being 470 ft. a.s.l.

George Gullis, G8MFJ, from Avebury (Wilts.) took two years to accumulate the cards for award no. 315. His collection includes QSL’s from HB9AMO/P, I4XCC, YU2CKL and YU4VIP. George’s present station is an Icom IC-202 driving the popular Nag amplifier with a 9-ele. Yagi.

Beacon News

The January gales took their toll of the Isle of Wight beacon, GB3IOW, destroying the aerial system and the PA. It will likely be some time before the service is resumed. The finał aerial system has now been installed at GB3BTO (AM77j) on 1296.83 MHz. It comprises two, 17 ft. long slotted waveguides with a gain of 16 dB. and pointing east and west. The beam widths at —3 dB. and —10 dB. points are 90° and 190° respectively. Each aerial is fed with 10 watts.

The Belgian 2m. beacon, ON4VHF, (CK23e) which used to be right at the top end of the band, is now operating on 144.985 MHz in accordance with the Region 1 plan. Further afield, ZS6NN in Bloomfontein is operating on 50.029 MHz with 200 watts to four 13-ele. Yagis beaming north as from Feb. 1.

Contests

Results: — The results of the 144 MHz Fixed Contest on Dec. 2 are to hand via GB2RS. In the Single operator section, G3BDQ (Hastings) was the winner with 3697 pts. from 257 QSO’s. G8KMW (Cambs.) was second with 3014 pts. from 328 exchanges. The Multi-operator part was convincingly won by G3ZIG/A whose 360 contacts earned 4470 pts. G4IJE (Essex) was second with 3350 pts. from 354 QSO’s. Corning events; — The AGCW DL UHF CW Contest is scheduled for March 15, 1900-2300 GMT. As previously there are three classes; A being less than 3.5 watts RF; B less than 25 watts and C morę than 25 watts. Exchanges to consist of usual RST and serial number plus class and QTH locator; e.g. 579001/ B/EL25a. Scoring is dependent upon class, viz; — A/A 9 pts; A/B 7; A/C 5; B/B 4; B/C 3 and C/C 2. There is a multiplier madę up of one point for each square and 5 pts. for each DXCC country. Finał score would be the QSO points total times the sum of all the multiplier points. Entries to be mailed by March 31 to Edmund

Ramm, DK3UZ, P.O. Box 38, D-2358 Kaltenkirchen, Fed. Rep. of Germany.

The Barking Radio & Electronics Society’s 144 MHz event is scheduled for Mar. 30 at 1300-1700 GMT. There are three sections. 1 is all siations in the postał county of Essex and 2 is for all operators residing outside Essex. Section 3 is s.w.l. Scoring is 1 pt. per contact but QSO’s with G3XBF/P will be worth 10 pts. The multiplier is the total number of U.K. postał counties worked with countries outside the U.K. classed as counties. Exchanges are to consist of RS(T), serial number and postał county. Entries within 15 days to G8IZN, 80 Lyndhurst Gdns., Barking, Essex, IGI 1 9XZ.

Repeater News

The licences have been issued for eleven morę UHF repeaters; — GB3’s GF, Guildford; HN, Hitchin; HO, Horsham; HW, Romford; LC, Louth; MW, Leamington Spa; ND, Ilfra-combe; SH, Honiton; TH, Tamworth; WN, Wolverhampton and ZI, Stafford. Operational dates will be published if and when advised. The Anglo-Scottish repeater at Caldbeck in Cumbria was due to commence relaying on VHF channel R1 on Feb. 16. For details contact G4HMA (QTHR). During a blizzard on Jan. 21, the aerial and mast of the Ulster repeater GB3WT in West TyFone were blown down. A temporary vertical dipole has been installed but coverage is restricted. A new mast and aerial is promised for March sometime.

The suggestion that repeaters be switched off during major VHF lifts is supported by David Brooks, G4IAR, from Leicestershire. However, he asks, “Who decides that it is a major lift?” Perhaps members of the numerous repeater groups should discuss this at meetings and in the columns of their newsletters so that a sensible solution to the problem of co-channel chaos during lifts can be agreed.

Six Metres

Declining m.u.f.*s have curtailed the hectic cross-band 6/1 Om. activity of recent months. John Baker, GW8MHW (Dyfed) reports the 6m. band as “normal” up to Jan. 9, but on the lOth and llth only a very weak signal from VE1AVX was heard. John madę 413 cross-band