Welcome to the Lothians Radio Society

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Photo courtesy WoSARS

Congratulations to LRS Past-President Andy Sinclair MM0FMF (L) for jointly winning the RSGB Jock Kyle Trophy with Jack Hood GM4COX (R) of the West of Scotland Amateur Radio Society. This trophy is awarded to the Scottish club, society or RSGB member thought to have done the most in Scotland in the field of VHF, in this case for 13cm operations. Andy adds: "and recognition for trying to keep people using the bands which are under threat is what matters".

See write-up on WoSARS website (click).

The trophy was presented on 6th April 2019 at the GMDX Convention at Bannockburn by GMDX Chairman Rob Ferguson GM3YTS (C).

 

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Some of the starters.

The annual LRS Direction-Finding Contest (D/F Hunt) took place on 22nd May 2019, starting from the Tardis on Braid Hills Road.

The fox station GM3HAM/P was operated by Peter GM4DTH from a location on Wester Craiglockhart Hill.

Results: 1st: Melvyn GM4HYR in 1h 2m (not again!); 2nd: Mike GM8KCS in 1h 43m; non-finishers: Pete GM4BYF, James GM4WZP, Brian GM8BJF. Also a number of helpers including French visitor Sebastien - bienvenu!

After the Hunt, the participants adjourned to "Wee Bennet's" Bar at Morningside Station for the traditional diet lemonades.

Pete GM4BYF taking his first bearing, supported by XYL Kay GM6KAY and David GM3YMX.

Click for Full Report with more photos.

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On 8th May, James Gentles GM4WZP hosted a meeting titled: “WHAT I BROUGHT TONIGHT”, an evening where members and visitors brought along "the smallest radio-related object they have, with the biggest story" and made a short presentation about it.  

 

We were very pleased to have a visiting amateur from the USA - Tom Novey W7TAN from Illinois - who was persuaded to act as the judge of the entries. The winner was Alan Masson GM3PSP who brought a plaque for NFD 1961 which was held at George Watson's College. The plaque was signed by all who participated, including himself.  

Click for Full Report with more photos.

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At the meeting of the LRS on 27th March 2019 Prof Win Rampen, the Chair of Energy Storage at Edinburgh University and the former MD of Artemis Intelligent Power Ltd, talked about Energy Storage. He wrote:

"For the past 100 years or so, the world has been misusing fossil fuels from the Carboniferous period about 300 million years ago by digging them up and burning them. We have been using them at a rate of 1 million years to 1 year, which is scary. What we should be doing is using the sun's energy in the year that it is provided to us, and we have a long way to go to achieve that.

So the talk will be about renewables in general but more specifically about solving the mismatch between the uncontrolled delivery of power and the equally uncontrolled user demand. I shall be talking about how we can integrate renewable energy into the grid to displace fossil fuels - which Is where energy storage comes in!"

Click for Full Report with link to youtube video.

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Norrie GM1CNH and Peter GM4DTH operated on 70cm in the RSGB UHF / Microwave contest on Sunday 5th May (only) from an elevated site on Lauder Common, a few miles west of Lauder in the Scottish Borders. Conditions were probably about average but activity was very low. QSOs were made with East Anglia and one German station was heard on CW.

Norrie operating the rig from inside his car:

IC-706 Mk!!g, Gemini 70-1K 400W, 25 ele yagi @ 6m. 

Visitors were Bob MM0XRI (R), and Alan GM3PSP + Clyde GM3PSP/K9 (not in photo).

Click for full report with more photos.

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At the meeting on 24th April 2019 Terry Martini-Yates of Ferrograph World, based in Rosyth, talked about "Writing in Iron" - magnetic sound recording - demonstrating several recorders and playing a number of historical recordings, including John Clarricoats G6CL during a visit to Edinburgh in 1961.

Terry writes: "A potted history of the development of the magnetic audio recorder from Valdemar Poulson’s invention of the magnetic wire recorder, the steel tape based Blattenerphone, its further development at AEG in Germany and its use by the 3rd Reich in Nazi Germany for war propaganda, to the overnight sensation it created in post-war America, when an enterprising soldier liberated two of the secret German Magnetophon reel to reel tape machines and 50 reels of recording tape. 

Terry is the author of 'Built Like a Battleship!, A History of the Ferrograph Company'.   

See also his website Ferrograph World (click)

Full report (click).

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The LRS Spring Surplus Equipment Sale was held on 10th April 2019 at St. Fillan's Church, Buckstone. This sale included the remainder of the many Silent Key items from John Buchanan GM8BYF-SK.  

After the sale there was a raffle for non-vacuum 'bottles' run by LRS treasurer, Peter Dick GM4DTH.

Click for Full Report

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At the meeting on 13th February 2019 LRS member James Gentles GM4WZP talked about "Munros on the Air". 

"Long before SOTA (Summits on the Air), Amateurs were out on the Scottish hills activating them. Whilst James Gentles GM4WZP wasn't first, his story is of the first Amateur to systematically activate every Munro in the 1980s, making at least one QSO from each of them, using repeaters if necessary.

Full report now posted with 65 of James's beautiful slides. Click.

  1. 13th March 2019 - Phantasmagoria - traditional magic lantern show - Winnie Stevenson, MoC.
  2. 27th Feb 2019 - Amateur Radio Operating in Colombia - Norrie Stewart GM1CNH / HK3/MM0BMG
  3. More on AMSAT Es'hail-2 geostationary satellite - now called Quatar OSCAR-100 or QO-100
  4. 23rd Jan 2019 - (1) Modern Roll-Your-Own PCBs - (2) The AMSAT Es'hail2 Geostationary Satellite - Brian Flynn GM8BJF