OPEN UNIVERSITY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
NEWS LETTER no:7
G0OUR Affiliated to the OU Club and the Radio Society of Great Britain
Firstly a reminder regarding subscriptions. If there is a red cross at the top of this news letter your sub. for 1994 has not yet been received. If this is the case please send a cheque for 6 pounds to OUARC at Walton Hall.
For those who weren't able to attend the AGM I can report that it went smoothly. The existing officers were re elected and in addition Ian G0TLB is the new "Packet Officer". Copies of the minutes can be obtained from Ted Fountaine G0CGC.
The Yaesu G-1000SDX rotator was delivered just before Christmas. We have decided to purchase a new HF beam if possible as a suitable second hand aerial has not been forthcoming. To this end a bid has been made to the O.U. Club to top up our "beam fund". We have also asked for financial help towards improving the packet node, more on this later. We should have a decision from the O.U. Club later this month (March).
Will any members who are able to help out with operating GB25OU on Open Day please contact Fraser on 0908 655158, so that we can draw up a rota. Ideally the shack will be manned by at least two people at a time. Tom G0PSU is having QSL cards designed for GB25OU. The design is now being finalised and we propose to have 1000 cards printed. GPFC have agreed to pay 150 pounds towards printing costs. A card will be sent to each club member when we receive them.
I had a phone call from Tony G3ZRJ who is an OUSA rep in Cheltenham. He asked about the possibility of "borrowing" the GB25OU callsign to run a special event station in their area. We have the callsign for the month commencing 24th. June, which is the Friday before Open Day. We will obviously be very active during Open Day, but will not have the resources to do full justice to the callsign for 28 days. So, it seems a good idea to farm the callsign out, perhaps to Tony on the weekend following Open Day. If any other members in the regions are interested in doing likewise let us know as soon as possible. I will speak to the RSGB/RA as necessary to clarify the licence conditions.
The OU Packet node continues to provide a good service. We are presently experimenting with a second 70cm port. Ian G0TLB has built a USCC card which will be installed in the near future. Crystals are on order for a 2m port on 144.625 MHz for future TCP/IP operation. We have made a bid for funds to upgrade the PC. If successful this will enable us to speed up the mail routes to 9600 baud. We would also be able to offer conferencing and mail drop facilities under TCP/IP. We have been investigating a fast data link on 10 GHz to GB7BEN, possibly via the local GB3TG amateur television repeater. This will only be possible if we have a line of sight path and this has yet to be established. The 4m Cluster link has been suffering intermittent desense on receive. The culprit appears to be on campus but we have not managed to trace it yet.
Jim G1HUE reports that he is making good progress with the 2m aerial and we look forward to having it installed adjacent to the shack. A second hand Jones paddle key has been bought and the borrowed Kent paddle returned to its owner. Tom G3LMX has obtained some of the equipment needed for our 10 GHz TV link. Some good contacts were made from GX0OUR during a short spell in the CQ WW 160m SSB contest. Two more batches of QSL cards have arrived from the bureau. Some interesting experiments have been carried out using a temporary Vee Beam on HF and a 5/8 wave (almost) vertical on 7 MHz. The mast is due to be lowered for maintenance as the LF doublet feeder is damaged and the 4m vertical is bent (again!). Now the weather is getting warmer we will be spending a Sunday replacing the top section/cable, and fitting the rotator. The shack XT now links to the OU node using Baycom via a borrowed 4m radio. At a meeting of the Field Site Users Group recently a proposal to erect a second mast met with unanimous approval - all we need is the money!
Len Killip G0APZ (also VK2ELK) was the first 'remote' member to send in a member profile, so here goes: Len is a relatively new member of the club having joined in October 1993. Len graduated on 9/12/85 having passed M101, AM289, M203, MST204, T283, SM352, T326, S101, and TM222. As for radio, Len is active on HF using a TS930S and FL2000B into a 3ele Altron minibeam, driven by a KR-400RC rotator on an Altron mast. For LF he has a horizontal triangular loop with sides roughly 41, 31 and 21m. Len is also active on 2m with a TS711E to an 8ele Jaybeam quad with a Mutek masthead preamp. On packet he uses an old TH21E handie with 1W into a loft mounted Slim Jim. His BBS is GB7ZZZ, and he also runs a 24 hour PMS on his PK232MBX, callsign G0APZ-2. Len says he is still learning to drive his Acorn A5000 computer, on which he runs G4FRO packet software. He is a member of the Mid Sussex ARS and of RAFARS.
That's the lot for this time, please send any items for the next news letter to Fraser.
73...
Contact: Adrian Rawlings adrianrawlings@googlemail.com