A good turn out for the AGM, lots of discussions and questions.
Funds are fine and now the main problem is people to give presentations. Numerous ideas were suggested. The meeting closed with a vote for the member who gave the best presentation.
That was won by Brian Farey with a talk about calculators, Tabulators and even slide rules.
The vote for club officers and committee members returned the entire 2025 team.
Brian began by stating he used mechanical calculators at school and the slide rule at university so he decided to do a talk about Adding Machines and Mechanical Calculators in his collection.
Before we got to numbers we first learned to count. The Mayans, Aztecs and Celts used their hands and feet to arrive at a total with a base 20, The Sumerians and Babylonians chose a base of 60, although we don’t know why, which is where our present divisions of the hour into 60 seconds and 60 minutes, along with 360 degrees in a circle come from. Counting using hands and feet was widely used, but the earliest counting tool was a bone marked with notches, this was around 30,000 BC. Counting pebbles have been found dated to around 4000BC in Iran. With the invention of an alphabet, writing by the Phoenicians around 2000 BC, letters were devised to denote numbers, then actual numbers came along. Moving forward in time, there was the Abacus or counting frame.The earliest form came from Mesopotamia around 2000 BC .Developed over time it was used in Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome and China.
Arabic numerals were introduced in England gradually from the 15th century, becoming widely used in the 17th century replacing Roman Numerals. The Scottish mathematician John Napier published an article in 1614 introducing logarithm tables, used to make complex calculations possible. The slide rule, invented by William Oughtred came along in 1620. With Log Tables they were used for the next 300 years.
Many Calculators and Tabulators were on display along with various slide rules.from Brian’s collection.
Don, G4LOO began by announcing Stotfold Mills On The Air, Sat. 9th of May & Sunday 10 May. including set up on Friday and pack up on Monday. As there were several members willing to help, he proceeded to the main subject for the evening.
Don said in a effort to get more members doing construction projects, he will explain the modules available at very low cost from China. These are indeed low cost, from pence to a pound or so for many items. Each come in a proper wrapper and although about the size of a thumb nail, are fully finished and working. Don showed dozens of items.
These modules are available on line from ALIEXPRESS. Don pointed out that the low prices are only when a number of items are chosen as then the postage is free.
David gave a very comprehensive talk about radio and how he became interested.
He said during the 1950s and 60s he listened to entertainment programmes but that all changed in 1953 with the Coronation and the advent of TV, although during the 60s his sister continued listening to pop music on the radio.
During the 1950s he would spend the evening in bed listening to short wave numbers stations and Morse code, although he didn’t understand it. Also during this time he was paid 3 pounds a week to repair caravans. Shortly he moved on to train as a butcher and continued in that field for seven and a half years. 1964 saw an interest in Radio Caroline. During1969 he got married, and set about finding a flat, making a home and looking to the future. His first family radio was in 1971, a Teleton TF181.
All changed in 1971 when David gave up cutting meat and moved to telephones.
He studied at evening classes three nights a week where he learned how the telephone worked. During the day he worked outdoors climbing high telegraph poles and also working on cabinets and joint boxes, David‘s first proper receiver was an Eddystone EC10 in 1973, a new baby also came along!
In1979 he passed the City and Guilds test and received his Amateur radio licence. The family moved to Luton and bought their first home. That required travelling to London and back every day.
He carried on studying CGLI and achieved BTEC.
He, made the change from London to Luton.
David finally got on the air in 1979 using a TR2300 2M transceiver with 1 watt. He also moved from B licence to an A licence after passing the Morse test.
All changed again in 1986 to 2001. First he moved into BT management and in 1991 moved to Visual and Broadcasting. 1993 saw a stint abroad and 1998 a move back to London. Retirement came to David in 2001 as did planning for a new shack and permission for a new mast and antenna. At this time he also bought a new HF transceiver, and joined The Stevenage Radio Club, in 2002 David joined the Shefford Club and was made Club Secretary in 2003. He has been involved with club Contests, programme planning and more.
Lately, David has removed his mast and moved to wire aerials for HF and planning on a IC 7300 for a shack update.
We closed our summer season, in preparation for our break over August, with a Summer Supper in the clubroom.
Some brought their own food, some chose to sample the Fish & Chips from next door.
Our Summer Supper to close the season together.
We had erected a 20m inverted vee outside and Dave G4FKI and Owen G0PHY operated G3FJE on 20m SSB.
They had a most unusual voice contact with a Robot identifying as Anton at EA8BW in La Palma, who ominously stated in a typically monotonic robot voice at the end of the QSO “The Robots will Win”. Dave reminded Anton that he is human and can switch robots off 🙂
That was fun Anton, thank you!
Owen talking to a robot on 20m SSB
We wish everyone a happy summer holiday and look forward to hearing about your activities on our return on Thursday 11th September.
David’s talk covered an introduction and demonstration of both APRS and EchoLink.
David G4FKI presenting his talk
He explained APRS’s origin lay in Packet Radio. Its versatility was improved by the advent of affordable and compact GNSS or GPS receivers, which could be readily embedded within a VHF or UHF radio. This allows the radio to report its position to anyone tuning into it.
APRS can also sent text messages, weather information and other data.
In most cases, a network of DigiPeaters or iGates (internet gateways) are used, to extend the range of the radio, and present the data over the internet, so that anyone can track the position of a registered receiver.
David demonstrated how he used APRS to track his journey whilst on holiday in Italy and Switzerland, viewing the data on the APRS reporting web page www.aprs.fi
David’s tour of Italy was tracked when he took an APRS radio with him
David then went on to introduce EchoLink as a novel extension to analogue FM repeaters. EchoLink connects the soundcard of a repeater’s computer to the internet, allowing 2 way simplex speech to be passed through the repeater using your mobile phone or PC. This means you don’t even need a radio to make contacts with amateurs anywhere in the world, so long as the distant user has an internet connection and the EchoLink app
David demonstrated this to great effect, by putting out a CQ on 2m via his home EchoLink node, and instantly received a reply from Phil, W9PMA/MM in Indiana, who was floating on a lilo in his swimming pool, using his mobile phone as a link to EchoLink. Take a look at W9PMA’s QRZ.com page and you will see the very pool he was floating in during ther contact.
Geoff, G4CEP also demonstrated the ease of making an EchoLink contact with his phone and called David via 2m with instant success..
Amazingly easy and a great means of making contacts if you are travelling or unable to erect an antenna at home!
David’s talk closed with a busy Q&A session – thank you David for a most interesting talk!
We ended the evening with a belated presentation by Paul G1GSN (L) to Brian, G8GHR (R), who deservedly received the prize for the best talk given to the Club during 2024 – very well done Brian!
Briian G8GHR receiving his trophy for best talk of 2024
Bruce began by telling of his grandfather giving him a
wonderful AR88 for his 7 th birthday! They followed that
up by buying him a Philips Electronics Engineer kit for
his 8 th birthday.
Within a week he had constructed every
project in the kit- and he was hooked! He soon realised
what his career was going to be.
Club members enjoying a video on QRP
Bruce’s first QRP rig was the Heathkit ‘Twoer’ Super
regen, RX wide as a ‘barn door’, a few watts crystal
controlled TX. Built from a kit which began his love
affair with Heathkit.
Bruce then went on through the years and described the
many rigs he had built and used and the stations around
the world he had worked! All with a simple aerial and a
few watts of power.
The video can be found on YouTube at RSGB 2004
Convention: QRP- fun or folly?
A good turnout, mostly for the Live radio, saw Graham, G4JBD and David, G4FKI using the club’s callsign G3FJE and CW (and SSB) contacting stations in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Italy and UK on 40M to an inverted dipole at 10M. All accomplished in a short time period when 40M band conditions were listed as POOR.
G4FKI at the key on 40M
The 40m V dipole