Practical Wireless №11 2020.pdf

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Contents
7
News
November 2020 Vol. 96 No 11
On sale: 8 October 2020
Next issue on sale: 12 November 2020
ISSN 0141-0857
Practical Wireless
Warners Group Publications plc
The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Tel 01778 391000
Editor
Don Field G3XTT
practicalwireless@warnersgroup.co.uk
Designer
Mike Edwards
mike.edwards@warnersgroup.co.uk
Advertisement Manager
Kristina Green
01778 392096
kristina.green@warnersgroup.co.uk
Production Manager
Nicola Lock
nicola.lock@warnersgroup.co.uk
Production Assistant
Charlotte Bamford
Charlotte.bamford@warnersgroup.co.uk
Marketing Manager
Katherine Brown
katherine.brown@warnersgroup.co.uk
Marketing Executive
Luke Hider
luke.hider@warnersgroup.co.uk
Publisher
Rob McDonnell
robm@warnersgroup.co.uk
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are available as little as £11.
Turn to our subscriptions page for full details.
Subscription Administration
Practical Wireless Subscriptions,
Warners Group Publications plc
The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
Tel: 01778 395 161
subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk
PW’s
monthly roundup of news from the UK and
internationally, including new products, club news
and recent events.
10
Starting on Microwaves
Bernard Nock G4BXD
explains how to operate while
cooking your tea, or a beginner’s guide to micro-
waves.
14
Carrying on the Practical Way
Tony Jones G7ETW
presents several solutions to the
need for a Morse practice oscillator.
18
World of VHF
Tim Kirby GW4VXE
has a full column, with news of
some excellent 2m transatlantic QSOs and the new
repeater on the ISS.
54
42
HF Highlights
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX
reports on the Islands
on the Air contest and on the International Light-
house and Lightship Weekend.
22
Data Modes
Mike Richards G4WNC
reports on a new approach to
SDR and starts a tutorial on FT8 operation.
26
Doing it by Design
Eric Edwards GW8LJJ
describes an easy way to
match crystals for ladder filters.
45
Radio Bookstore
Your one-stop shop for hobby-related titles, biogra-
phies, reference titles, historical accounts, technical
advice and successful building projects.
28
News
More radio-related news of interest.
32
What Next
Colin Redwood G6MXL
explains Logbook of The
World.
46
A Simplified Directional 40m
Antenna (Part 1)
Bob Whelan G3PJT
describes a gain antenna for 40m
that can be put up in many gardens.
38
Making Waves
Steve White G3ZVW
takes a look at radio systems
that require extremely accurate timing.
52
Notes from a Small Station
Joe Chester M1MWD
experiments with a fan vertical
as a possible solution to his antenna constraints.
Components for PW projects
In general, all components used in constructing
PW
projects are available from a variety of
component suppliers. Where special, or difficult
to obtain, components are specified a supplier will
be quoted in the article.
Photocopies & Back Issues
We can supply back issues, but we only keep
them for one year. If you are looking for an article
or review that you missed first time around, we
can still help. If we don’t have the actual issue
we can always supply a photocopy or PDF file of
the article.
Technical Help
We regret that due to Editorial timescales, replies
to technical queries cannot be given over the
telephone. Any technical queries are unlikely to
receive immediate attention so, if you require
help with problems relating to topics covered in
PW, please either contact the author of the article
directly or write or send an email to the Editor and
we’ll do our best to reply as soon as we can.
62
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4
PRACTICAL WIRELESS
November 2020
Keylines
M
52
54
Fibre Mast Vertical Antenna and
π-Network ATU
Jonathan Hare G1EXG
describes a fibre mast vertical
antenna and π-network ATU for the 20, 18, 15, 12 and
10m bands (and 40 & 80m band helical antennas).
58
Valve & Vintage
A short tale of the rise and fall and rise of Drake
Radio.
62
Feature − Radio at Depth (Part 2)
Mike Bedford G4AEE
continues his examination of
sub-surface communication by looking at alterna-
tives to LF for cave radio, and at methods of com-
municating between underground locations.
68
Readers’ Letters
Topics this month include the Foundation licence,
wartime receivers and bonding to earth.
y only on-air activity recently
has been an effort in the
RSGB Autumn Series
contests on 80m but I did
enjoy that, having linked up with the Bristol
Contest Group so that at least my score is
helping out a local club, something I had
missed since leaving Reading.
The ‘fun’ activity recently, though, was
being interviewed by BBC Radio Somerset
and BBC Points West (TV) with my 10-
year old granddaughter, as we report in
this month’s
News
pages. I do hope that
we were able to give a good impression of
the hobby. Even if it doesn’t result in new
recruits, at least we may have gone some
way to showing that amateur radio isn’t
all a bunch of oldies! The interviews were
organised by the RSGB under the ‘Get on
the air to care’ banner, an initiative that
seems to have been pretty successful and
is still going strong.
It’s great, of course, that so many
newcomers have joined the hobby in
recent months, giving them an interest
during lockdown and beyond. I see,
though, that OFCOM are disappointed
at the take-up by women – just 9.9% of
the total. I guess that UK amateur radio
remains, largely, the preserve of white,
middle class middle-aged (and beyond)
men, which is a great pity. I know that the
RSGB and others do their best to spread
the word and try to bring in a more eclectic
mix of enthusiasts but it does seem to
be tough. Is it the clubs that are putting
people off? Is it the folk that they hear on
the air? Or is it simply that hobbies don’t
appeal so much to other age groups, to
ladies, to ethnic minorities?
DXpeditions?
International travel is still a lottery
unfortunately. A number of DXpeditions
scheduled for earlier this year promptly
issued press releases to the effect that,
as a result of lockdown, they would
delay until autumn. That, of course, has
proved illusory in most cases. The big
international contests (CQ WW Phone
at the end of October and CQ WW CW at
the end of November) are going to feel
quite different this year, with far fewer DX
entities active, although some (HH and
PJ4 are a couple of examples) are host
to stations that can be operated remotely
(usually from the USA).
It does seem that planning for DX trips
will have to wait – just today I saw that
one UK amateur, wanting to travel to
the Caribbean for the Commonwealth
Contest next March, has been sent a long
list of ‘dos and don’ts’ regarding his travel
and accommodation, enough to make
him think twice.
On the other hand, I feel sure that
amateurs who do live in the more remote
parts of the world are appreciating the
link that their hobby offers to the outside
world. I personally find it frustrating
because I have been a regular traveller for
amateur radio purposes, so the current
situation feels distinctly odd. But it’s
strange times indeed when even a major
airline such as QANTAS (Australia) isn’t
operating international flights (other than
for repatriation purposes) until at least
next March. I guess we will just have to
content ourselves with some SOTA or
other domestic activity, which, indeed, can
be just as much fun.
144MHz Contest Results
Finally, I must apologise to any of you
who were expecting the 144MHz Contest
Results in this issue, as we usually do.
Colin G6MXL, has indeed prepared the
results and sent them to me but space
was at a premium and I wanted to run
some of the feature articles that I have
been sitting on. Rest assured, the Contest
Results article will appear next month.
58
Don Field
Editor,
Practical Wireless Magazine
Read more radio news and reviews at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/news
November 2020
PRACTICAL WIRELESS
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