Welcome to the Lothians Radio Society

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LRS members Brian Flynn GM8BJF and Briain Wilson GM8PKL made an expedition to Telegraph Hill near St Abbs in Scottish Borders on March 19th to check reception there of the GM8FFX/B 10GHz beacon at 126km near Aberdeen which Brian built and installed last year. They found the signal strength was excellent on this clear sea-path.

They also found a very old but largely-complete wooden radar- or radio tower on the site. Later investigations unearthed interesting theories about its history.

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The LRS Spring Surplus Equipment Sale was held on 6th April 2016 at St Fillan's Church, Buckstone. There was an excellent turn-out of 33 for what proved to be an entertaining evening with lots of quality items for sale at very reasonable prices. (We never use the word 'cheap')! There was also the usual raffle for interesting "bottles".

 Full report with many more photographs.

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 At the meeting of the LRS on 23rd March, Malcolm Hamilton GM3TAL ran the first quiz we have had for a long time, on the broad theme of communication. He achieved his aim to have an evening of fun with an opportunity to quench our thirst, as well as to show how much we knew, (or how good we were at guessing!). We formed teams of about four and enjoyed the questions which included trying to identify various digital modes and the locations of radio events. Sadly, though, there were no laser display boards, and Samantha was not available to keep the score! The prizes were interesting "bottles", presented at the end of this enjoyable evening.

Team 1, consisting of Andy MM0FMF, Pete GM4BYF and Mike MM0MLB were the winners, closely followed by Team 2 - Brian GM8BJF, Bernie GM4WZG, Tommy GM0GEC and Alan GM3PSP.

Report with more photos.

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At very short notice, Pete Bates GM4BYF jumped in  on Wednesday 9th March to replace the scheduled talk which had to be cancelled. Pete presented his talk "A Programmable Sequencer / Control Unit for £20", originally scheduled for the next meeting on 23rd March. Synopsis:

-  Design specification for a QRO 23cm setup; the program; demonstration.

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Photo by Peter GM4DTH

At the meeting of the Lothians Radio Society on 24th February 2016 Brian Flynn GM8BJF talked on "3cm Personal Beacons" He wrote: "This talk looked the construction, installation and operation of the 3cm personal beacons at the QTHs of Chris Tran GM3WOJ near Tain and Graham Knight GM8FFX near Aberdeen. Both stations are quite famously well-sited and the beacons have been received at distances in excess of 500 km".  

GM8FFX 3cm Beacon Spots

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Crawford GM8HBY & Allister GM7RYR

The meeting of the Lothians Radio Society on 10th February 2016 included two talks about repeater facilities in the area. There was a talk on Central Scotland Repeaters by Crawford Ross GM8HBY, Chairman of the Central Scotland FM Group which administers most of the repeaters in the area. He described recent developments, the current deployment of repeaters and plans for the next year or so. He showed several items of repeater hardware.

In the second part of the meeting we had an informal presentation on the GB3ED 70cm FM repeater and the GB7EE digital repeater, both in Edinburgh, by Allister Watson GM7RYR. He showed a number of hand-helds and made connections with them to international digital networks.

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Our good friend Geoff Crowley MM5AHO returned on 27th January 2016 to talk about his exploits sailing and activating lighthouses around Orkney during International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August 2015. This was one of his best: well-illustrated with a lot of slides and video footage.

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Thirteen brave souls defied the wet, sleety Wx  to get to the  first LRS meeting of 2016, the annual Video Night, arranged and presented by Peter Dick GM4DTH on 13th January 2016 at the Edinburgh Cine & Video Society in Fettes Row.

The theme for the evening was "The Use of Bombing in WWII".

1. The supporting film was an episode from BBC "The Secret War" - "The Battle of the Beams" (50m, 1976). In it, Dr. R.V. Jones described how the German Knickebein beams were prevented from guiding bombers to their targets in the UK.  

Rare interview with 'Bomber' Harris

2. Main feature: Sir Edward 'Bomber' Harris defends WWII Bomber Command in rare BBC film with remarkable recall of the details more than 30 years later. (44m, 1977).

  1. 9 Dec 2015 - LRS Christmas Curry
  2. 25 Nov 2015 - Practical Cats on 60 metres? - Malcolm Hamilton GM3TAL
  3. 11 Nov 2015 - APRS - Automatic Packet Reporting System - Marcus Hazel-McGown MM0ZIF
  4. 17 Oct 2015 - GB0BSS - JOTA - Jamboree on the Air - Bonaly Scout Camp