Welcome to the Lothians Radio Society

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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.  

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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!"

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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).

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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.

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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.

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Archer Magic Lantern

At the meeting of the LRS on 13th March 2019 our good friend Winnie Stevenson from the Museum of Communication presented "Phantasmagoria, a traditional magic lantern show". 

 A most enjoyable evening! Many thanks to Winnie.

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On 27th Feb 2019 Norrie Stewart GM1CNH gave an illustrated talk on Amateur Radio Operating in Colombia as HK3/MM0BMG. Having travelled to Colombia many times since 2010, in 2018 he decided to take radio gear with him. This is how he got on...

Self-taught in Amateur Radio while at school and first licenced in 1983 with a class B licence GM1CNH. In 1997 passed the 12 wpm Morse test and gained a class A licence MM0BMG. Worked in the aerospace and defence industry since 1986 on airborne fire control and surveillance radar systems for various fixed wing and rotary wing platforms.

Norrie with his portable vertical aerial, which he used mostly on 20m during his trip to Colombia.

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  1. More on AMSAT Es'hail-2 geostationary satellite - now called Quatar OSCAR-100 or QO-100
  2. 23rd Jan 2019 - (1) Modern Roll-Your-Own PCBs - (2) The AMSAT Es'hail2 Geostationary Satellite - Brian Flynn GM8BJF
  3. 12th Dec 2018 - LRS Christmas Curry
  4. 9th Jan 2019 - Video Evening - "The Dish on the Dish" - by Peter Dick GM4DTH - at the Edinburgh Cine & Video Soc.