Whitton Amateur Radio Group

The Middlesex DX Group are getting ready to Embark on their trip to The Isle Of Arran EU-123. The group will be active from the 4th Of October till the 10th of October.

The Isle of Arran, Scotland is one of the most southerly Scottish island and sits in the Firth of Clyde between Ayrshire and Kintyre. Arran is 19 miles long by 10 miles wide but has a remarkable diversity of landscapes and seascapes. (www.visitarran.net)

Members going are Simon 2E0VAG, Kevin G1KAW, John G0KLX, Carl 2E1IDC & Jason M1PRO.

The group will be active from 160m to 70cms and will be doing some FSK on 2 metre’s and EME and will be activating some SOTA summits with the call MS0MDG/P. It is also hoped that they will have Echolink operational which will enable contact back to West London.

The station will consist of the Icom IC-746Pro HF/6/2m Radio from the Whitton Amateur Radio Group and for antennas they have planned the following;

• 5BTV and Dipoles for 40 and 80m, on 6m a 5 element tonna
• 2 metre a 2 x 17 elements tonna Stacked
• 70cms they are hoping to have 2 x 21 element tonna’s

“Hopefully weather permitting we will work you while we are away.”

Please qsl via Buro or Direct to Simon 2E0VAG…

The Whitton Amateur Radio Group wishes the DXpedition the Best of Luck and hope they have a safe journey to and from the Island.

Club Members:- Remember there is Garo’s prize for most contacts
(1 contact max per Band & per mode)

“We are back, but I have been a bit ill the last couple of days. RF Poisioning???.
I’ve uploaded some photo’s. Hope you like and see you down the club…
73’s Simon de 2E0VAG
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86971542@N00/“

GX0MIN

On the 5 May 2008 our club together with all the other organisation which meet at the Centre participated in a public ‘Open Day’ to show to the residents of Whitton what we get up to.

The variety of clubs which meet at the Centre can be seen on the Centres web page www.whitton.ca.freeuk.com

The day was a great success for the Centre with a considerable number of locals signing up for membership.

Our demonstration stations included the club’s HF set up using the Windom dipole together with a second HF station using ‘digi modes and connected to our 3 element HF beam. This station was setup to attract those who like using computers and how they can be mixed in with our hobby.

However, what stole the show for us was the 2m station set up by Kevin G1KAW who at the last moment confirmed an ‘Earth-Moon-Earth’ contact with the USA.

To those who contacted the station by radio ‘a big thank to all of you who called in us al as the demo station is only as good as the quality of the contacts made.

The photographs attached where taken by Nigel Mearing who is a member of the Whitton photographic club. (Photos to follow)

You will see that we where visited by our local Councilor Cranfield-Adams who was in his last week of being Mayor of the Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

If you look into our old Club web page you will see that over the years our local events have attracted the Mayor. However, on this occassion it was a pleasure to introduce Councilor Cranfield-Adams and his companions to our club members and to demonstrate our hobby.

During the day and with the Mayor present we showed the RSGB video which was of great interest to visitors. The RSGB video in question is a few years old but enjoyed by us as a club as it shows our club and members during the GQ0MIN demonstration.

It was a great success and everyone who attended had a great time.

The talk we had on the last DXpedition to Africa the VooDoo Contest Group we had the privilege of not one, but two VooDudes:-

• Roger Western, G3SXW
• John Warburton, G4IRN

The talk was on how the group travels to Africa, how the setup was acheived, and of course operating in the contest.

The 7 man team used Elecraft K2/100 radios and Alpha linear rigs. There was stations setup on 160m (doubled as 10m during day), 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, & a multiplier station.

Antennas consisted of Verticals on 160m & 80m, an 80m sloper antenna, HF yagis on 40m, 20m, 15m & 10m. There was also 2 flag antennas for the LF bands.

By the end on the contest the team had a claimed score of 39million points and had worked every zone except Alaska.

A few even stayed on a few days after the contest ended to work 125 stations on EME.

Logging for the team was done by the Win-Test contest logging software

It was a great talk by the two speakers and it was just shy of 1am by the time I got home, but I didn’t care, by Paul MØTZO.