On Thursday 31st March members gathered at the club to take part in an event that has now become one of our clubs traditions, the presentation of the Fred Lees Memorial Trophy.

For the benefit of our many new members here is a short description of the reasoning and the conception of the award.

The Fred Lees Memorial Trophy was donated to our club by John Lees G3PD. He did this in honour of his father, Fred, who was a founder member of Oldham Amateur Radio Club in the mid 1930’s. Fred was one of those people who was very active and determined and who carried out his ideas rather than passing them on and expecting other people to do them. Many of our current membership still have happy memories of Fred and are also grateful to him for teaching them the Morse Code which was so important in those days in gaining a Class A (now Advanced) licence. So when he died the trophy presentation idea was conceived to both perpetuate Fred’s memory and to show recognition to a club member who, in the great tradition of Fred, gave exceptional service to our club.

As Morse Code transmissions were a particular favourite of Fred’s, the trophy itself takes the form of a gold plated Morse Key mounted on a special base and covered by a glass case. The names of previous holders of the trophy are engraved on gold plates mounted on the base of the key. The timing of the ceremony is also appropriate as Fred’s birthday was at the end of March and so we present the award on the last Thursday of March each year.

This year’s presentation evening began after the normal announcements given by our Chairman, with a general knowledge quiz created and presented by Steve Crane G0KUY who was an old friend of Fred and was privileged to have been one of his Morse Code students.

The member who managed to strain his/her brain enough to win this year’s quiz was Sue Burgess G0RKE. The photo shows her receiving the much coveted Quiz Trophy from Steve G0KUY along with a bottle of plonk to help sooth her overstressed grey cells.

Then the main event took place. Mike Crossley M1CVL the then present holder made a short speech giving the reasons for his choice of recipient based upon the nominations from members.

The member chosen had been involved in many and varied activities throughout the preceding 12 months. But mainly he had taken on the organisation of our rally and despite all the obstacles placed in his way made the event a success for the club, the traders and our guests.

Therefore the person to receive the Trophy was Steve Crane G0KUY. This is a notable presentation as Steve is the first club member to have been awarded the trophy for the second time. John Lees G3PD then presented Steve with the Trophy

Congratulations Steve.

John then presented Mike Crossley with a Certificate as a permanent reminder that he had been awarded the trophy.

Geoff Oliver G0BJR provided the photographs.

Congratulations are due to the following members who have been successful in upgrading from Foundation to Intermediate Licence holders.

Paul Haydon formerly M3PHA is now 2E0RGY
Helen Haydon formerly M3IPH is now 2E0ZEN
Roy Sandiford formerly M3HLW is now 2E0HLW

Congratulations are due to the following members who were successful in becoming Foundation Licence holders.

Mark Coward M3PZM         Paul Hinchliffe
        Paul Cotton M3KAQ        Simon Roche

Maybe you're impulsive enough to not even worry about these things, but some of us agonise over it. The average person can afford to spend a few hundred pounds on a new toy, either outright or by saving, the only problem being whether it's justified or not. There are, after all, so many other things to be saving for. Just how much does it really set back other projects to divert funds to this new radio? How exactly can you convince yourself that the toy is worth it, and that it is money well spent?

I deserve it! Of course. Try your luck with "I'm a lovely person, I should get a prize. A radio, perhaps." Everyone's allowed a hobby! Yes. You could waste more money on sport etc., or drinking, smoking...

It's not wasted money, you're converting cash into a fixed asset. The radio will still have a value. In any line of thought, consider how much the radio will raise when sold second hand - you only need to justify the difference. For the morbid, consider that after your passing, your family can still recover value from a sale of the radio. If you really fall on hard times, you can always sell the radio.

It's good for the economy! Accumulating savings doesn't really do much for anyone, but buying a radio helps a whole chain of people to earn a living (outside of the banking industry that is, but they're all perfectly rich enough). The radio dealer will stay in business just that little bit longer, the manufacturer still makes radios and develops new models, etc. It's good for the hobby. And one day someone will get on the air cheaply with your second-hand radio - how marvellous!

Will I ever miss the money? How much money do you aim to have when the sadly inevitable day comes when you pass on? Will you ever have less money than the price of this toy in your account, at any moment in the meantime? If not, you'll never miss it. Who ever says "I wish I'd saved more" on their deathbed? Imagine when oblivion is but an inch away from you and your life is flashing before your eyes - you've always had $££$ in the bank that you never enjoyed!

Damn!

I could be dead next year! Still dealing with an unpleasant theme, but it's no use trying to avoid it. I know people who have had life-changing experiences who have changed their spending habits because you "can't take it with you". And it's a valid point of view too, especially when you've just missed death by a whisker. Live a little, enjoy yourself, you never know what tomorrow may bring!

I might as well enjoy myself now! There's a fair chance you're in for a fair amount of suffering in years to come. Yes I know, pessimistic and all that, but let's be realistic - those teeth don't last for ever. Toothache sucks! Are you really confident you're never going to be ill again? Spend a spell or five in a hospital bed? Catch something nasty that makes you pray for your normal life back? Lose somebody you love? Right then. All the more reason to make the most of life right now!

How much will I use it? This, for me, is the clincher. If you're going to enjoy this new radio for at least half an hour a day for many years to come, it's worth it automatically. That's 1500 hours of enjoyment at least, over ten years, and in reality most likely a whole lot more. But let's examine this, just to pass the time. How much do other things cost versus how long they last? The simplest example is a newspaper that might cost 50p and last less than half an hour. One pound per hour, we'll call it, as a basic cost for occupying the mind and diverting yourself from the grim realities of the world. Compare with cinema tickets and white-knuckle rides for a higher enjoyment factor per pounds per hour. Driving for pleasure can cost a fortune for example, considering purchase and sale price of the car, repair bills, insurance, parking, fuel costs etc, versus mileage/time in the vehicle - work it out and weep! But enough of this depressing analysis, just ask yourself "How much would I pay for an hour using this radio, somewhere?" and consider how often you'll use it. You'd be silly NOT to, wouldn't you?!

I'll get one eventually, so why not now? If you intend to take up amateur radio more seriously in your later years, you will eventually buy a radio. So, why delay the inevitable and miss out in the meantime? Buy it now and you'll get even more value from it!

It's my money, my life! Stuff the partner, all the agro I get from them, I'll do as I please! This one's up to your own conscience, but if you genuinely feel there's a one-way street of cr** coming your way on balance, then by all means you deserve a toy or three to make up for it. Especially if they are forever wasting good money on pathetic things that do nothing but clutter up the place.

Saving: Ease the conscience by saving for it. Have a "Toy Fund". Any money that comes your way as a present or unexpected windfall can go towards your eventual radio purchase, surely? Save your dosh but in the meantime add up how much you've got in your fund. If you have the willpower, use this as a slimming aid - if you're buying cakes or ice cream ask the partner if they'd mind if you put the pound into your toy fund instead of into your waistline. How can they refuse?! (this can backfire though, "I'm not having one if you're not" – but then at least you've saved some money and kept them a little slimmer too, haha)

So go ahead, buy that new radio, and enjoy it guilt-free.

Now you've convinced yourself, good luck convincing the partner!

by David Worboy M0ZLB/KG4ZLB.

Submitted by Trevor Hawkins M5AKA

The following events are in the club diary for the next 3 months. All members are invited to take part and/or attend.

Saturday & Sunday 23^rd & 24^th July
"Royton Lives"
Special Event Station at the Archaeological Dig of the former Royton Hall,
Hall St. Royton.

Sunday 14^th August
Special Event Station at Clayton Playing Fields
Broadway, Royton.

Thursday 25^th August at 20:30
OARC Annual General Meeting.
(Paid up members only)

Thursday 29^th September at 20:30
Talk – "The Magic of X-Rays" by Geoff Oliver G0BJR
A talk illustrated by a PowerPoint display describing the discovery, development, and technology behind this invaluable medical tool.

Please be aware that this list is subject to augmentation, alteration and cancellation without written notification. For the latest information please keep a check on your email messages and listen out for our Chairman’s announcements on Club nights.

The Annual General Meeting of the Oldham Amateur Radio Club for 2005 will take place at Royton ATC, Park Lane, Royton, on Thursday 25^th August 2005 commencing at 20:30. This article is a formal invitation to all members to attend the meeting to elect club members as officers and ordinary committee members who will run our club for the next 12 months.

Your nominations for Officers and Ordinary Committee members’ posts are required.

If you wish to nominate a member(s) for an officers or committee position please make certain that he/she is willing to accept the post before submitting the nomination slip. This will prevent any unnecessary embarrassment on the night.

Please be aware that our present Treasurer, Geoff (The Clutching Hand) Ashton M0AUG will be standing down at the meeting after 13 years service in the position and will be declining any nominations. Many thanks are due to Geoff for his hard work on our behalf and his outstanding service to the club.

Consider this, you have just started working 144MHz ssb or cw and you are not sure if you want to stay on this mode or you do not have the space to put up a beam. A co- linear antenna will not work very well on these modes and your range will not be very far. A simple dipole antenna mounted horizontal is your answer. The gain is not a great deal but there are a lot of good points to consider. The antenna has near omni-directional coverage, in other words, no rotator is needed. It is simple to build and easy to erect. It’s unobtrusive (no complaints from the neighbours) and little or no maintenance is required. What more could you ask for?

In essence, the antenna is a centre fed dipole, three half-waves long constructed from two aluminium poles and a commercial dipole centre. When cutting the elements to length care must be taken to measure from the dipole centre and not the end of the tube as there is a small gap in the middle of the dipole centre for the coax. The dimensions that I have given are accurate but if you want to cut the lengths longer then you can trim it down to achieve the best SWR yourself.

With the antenna being three half-wavelengths on 144MHz, it is also a half-wave dipole at one third of that frequency. So with a little trimming the antenna could also be used on 50MHz.

The antenna is made of three components. The centre connector is made from a dipole centre, these can be obtained from any radio stockist at a small price. The elements themselves are made from 15mm diameter copper pipe as used by plumbers. Cut two lengths of pipe 1500mm long and drill two holes in the end to secure them to the centrepiece. Now measure from the centre of the coupling to the top of the element a distance of 1467mm and mark with a felt marker and cut the surplus off. All that is left to do is connect the coax.

This antenna will give around 3db of gain which does not sound like much but on ssb and cw but it will give quite a lot of coverage. While testing one that I made I managed a few contacts into the continent and had worked many stations just over 350km away.

Once you have positioned your antenna on a mast the only setting up is to check the SWR and to trim the coax. An SWR of 1:1 can be expected at the centre frequency with very little fall off even at the band edges. It took no longer than a couple of hours to build and cost less than £10. It was great fun to build and is a good project for a Sunday afternoon. Why not have a go and try it for yourself?

By Chris Cunliffe G7OOD

Following on from the detailed article about this project in the April edition of Old Hams News here is the latest information on the SSETI Express Satellite.

The SSETI Express spacecraft that will be carrying an Amateur Radio U/S FM transponder and a 2.4GHz transmitter built by UK Radio Amateurs is scheduled for launch on August 25th.

The preliminary pre-launch Keplerian elements for the Cosmos launch have now been released:

    SSETI1

    1 33001U 05066C 05237.44790000 -.00000001 00000-0 10000-4 0 16
    2 33001 98.1900 134.5000 0000001 0.0000 0.0000 14.60830000 00013

These are only provisional and maybe refined nearer the launch date!

This satellite is sponsored by the Education Office of the European Space Agency and is the first in a series of student built satellite projects that are underway. Their next project "ESEO" is scheduled for 2007/8 launch into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

For the SSETI Express programme ESA are very keen to have as many amateurs contributing received downlinked telemetry on 437MHz and 2.4GHz to a central database. They recognise that our "worldwide" network is a unique facility that is not otherwise available to them

A new website giving full details of the telemetry, how to decode it and how to forward it to the SSETI database is being currently being developed and initial information should be made available within the next four weeks.

In the meantime we can further report that the launch is expected to be broadcast live on this "free to air" satellite downlink.

Astra 1 G at 19.2 degrees east:
Transponder: 1.108
Reception Frequency: 12551.50 MHz
Polarization: Vertical
Symbol Rate: 22Msymb/s
FEC: 5/6
TS_ID: 1108
ON_ID: 1
Service Name: ESA
Service provider: ASTRA
Service_ID: 12140
TXT: none

As this only covers Europe it is hoped to be able to stream the sound and video over the internet.

By Trevor Hawkins M5AKA

I have been an X-Ray Engineer for nearly forty years, thirty of them being for Siemens. During that time I have experienced many strange, unusual, humorous and wonderful events. Many of these occurrences have been filed in the darkest recesses of my mind never to emerge again but one particular event will always maintain a prominent position in the list of things to remember and stories to tell.

It was a beautiful late autumn morning. A large red sun hanging low in a cloudless deep blue sky, the frost was slowly melting, the remaining leaves were precariously grasping their branches and my breath was expelled as steam. My job for that morning was to carry out a routine service on a mobile X-Ray unit at Florence Nightingale Hospital near the town of Bury, Lancashire.

The hospital was originally constructed as an isolation unit to treat Tuberculosis and consisted of several separate buildings spread over a large area. Originally it would have been located in the glorious Lancashire countryside, some distance from normal habitation to prevent the spread of the disease and to give the patients good clean air to breathe. But due to the eradication of TB and the urban spread the hospital was now part of the environs of Bury and used for Geriatric patients. Even so access to the site was down a narrow lane and over a picturesque stone bridge spanning a wide stream.

One of the biggest problems with servicing mobile X-Ray units is actually finding them. Because they are mobile they can never be found in the same place twice despite the number of previous visits made to the hospital. Florence Nightingale was particularly bad in this respect as there was no fixed X-Ray department so the X-Ray unit, being the only one in the hospital, was trundled from building to building and left in the one where it was last used. On entering the site the main administration block was first seen and discounted as a location for the unit so I drove past it into the main area of ward buildings constructed in a seemingly haphazard layout with large lawns separating them and narrow roads connecting them. I parked at the first ward block I came to and went inside to make enquiries about the location of the unit.

The ward blocks were all identical in construction and layout. A single story structure approximately fifty metres in length and ten metres wide. The main entrance was in the centre of one of the longer sides with emergency exits at each end. Beds were positioned along each long wall between windows extending from the central area that was the nurses’ station, toilets, admin office, and stores. At the far ends were more toilets, sluices, and a cleaner’s room. Each bed position had the usual accoutrements of call button, anglepoise lamp screwed to the wall, and radio comprising station selection box coupled to a tube with earpieces that if worn for a long period resulted in chronic earache.

On entry to the ward it seemed hot and stuffy after the cool sharp air outside and I unfastened my jacket. It was all hustle and bustle and I had a job to find the ward sister and deflect her from her duties to ask where the unit might be and would I be lucky enough to have visited the right ward first time. Unfortunately not, she had not seen the unit for weeks and had no idea where it was. But being a typical warm-hearted Lancashire Lass she asked her ward clerk to ring round the other wards to see which one it might be on. While the clerk set about her task the sister rammed a mug of hot steaming tea into my hands and invited me to take a seat until the unit was located. I complied, as she didn’t seem to be the type of person I should argue with being as she was twice my width and hadn’t shaved that morning.

The ward clerk came up with the goods. A permanent location had been found for the unit in a now disused ward that was being utilised as a storage facility. She had even discovered that the key for this building could be found in the building adjacent to the one I was presently in so as the last dregs of tea passed my lips I expressed my thanks to everyone and made to set off to the next building. As I opened the door to the outside the sister shouted across to me, "You’ll be ok over there! It’s still heated and you can spread out as much as you like, the ghost won’t mind. And when you’ve finished bring the key back to me cos this is where it should be being as I’m top girl here". I nodded in acknowledgement and hastily exited to the refrigerated exterior.

I walked across to the next building and entered. Another ward clerk was awaiting my arrival with the key and directions to the building I needed. As I walked back to the car it seemed to be going colder, perhaps it was because I’d been in warm airless buildings and was sloshing in scalding tea. The building was at the furthest southernmost point of the site and I travelled boustrophedon style along the narrow roads towards it. It backed onto the boundary fence and a line of trees beyond which was a farmer’s field. As I parked by the central entrance door the low sun was streaming through the windows from behind the building producing an eerie silhouette.

I unloaded the tools and test equipment I thought would be necessary to do the work from the car boot and unlocked the door to the ward. The lock and door opened easily and I entered. I looked from side to side trying to find the machine but couldn’t see it. The ward was indeed a storeroom. To my right were a number of tables and chairs stacked up along with several television sets. To my left was a huge mound of wooden crutches, approximately one metre high and almost filling the whole width of the building. The anglepoise lamps and radio boxes were still mounted on the walls at what would have been the bed positions but all the beds had been removed. The sister was mistaken when she said the place was heated, maybe there was just enough to prevent the freezing of pipes but it could not be classed as warm. I left my tools and moved to my left around the mound of crutches down to the far end of the ward. There was no sound other than my footsteps echoing around the room. I checked the few empty rooms at the end and found no mobile X-Ray machine. I renegotiated the crutches back to the central area and continued to the other end. There in a small room I found what I was looking for and returned to the central area for my tools.

As I was alone in this building I decided to lock myself in. The last thing I needed was someone creeping in and stealing something whilst I was in possession of the key. So with the door securely locked I moved my equipment to the room at the end of the ward. There was quite enough room to work so I left the machine where it was, unpacked my tools and started work.

After about half an hour the cold and the tea was taking it’s toll so I left my little enclave and went down to a toilet I’d noticed at the other end of the ward. I negotiated the crutches again and inspected the plumbing. As I was returning I stumbled on an errant crutch and after cursing roundly went back to my task. Shortly after resuming work I heard footsteps. They were the light rapid footsteps of a child running or skipping along. I looked out from my room and saw nothing so I carried on. A few moments later I heard the footsteps again. Once again I looked down the ward and saw nothing and no one. I looked out of a window; the place seemed deserted and went back to my work. After a few minutes I heard the footsteps once again. This time I shot into the ward to catch this person out but as soon as I appeared in the ward the footsteps stopped and no one was there. I looked up and noticed that the building had no ceiling. The underside of the roof had simply been boarded and painted and the supporting beams were clearly on view so I decided that what I’d heard was a bird scampering about on the roof and when it heard my movements below, it either flew off or stood still until I went quiet again.

Therefore the next time I heard the footsteps I ignored them. But they persisted. I was content with my reasoning that it was a bird on the roof and continued with my work. The footsteps suddenly stopped and another noise took their place. Terry Wogan, I could hear Terry Wogan. I looked out of the window thinking that maybe a gardener had turned up, scared the bird off, and turned on his tranny to accompany his weeding. Not a soul could be seen. Terry was replaced by some music, its tinny strains echoing through the ward. I emerged from my room to investigate. The sounds were traced to a nearby wall mounted patient radio box that had suddenly burst into life. These boxes have a small loudspeaker inside and the patient normally hears the sound from the speaker via the little tube plugged into his ears. There was no tube so the speaker sounded quite loud compared with the silent surroundings. I decided it must have a dodgy switch and clicked the station selector switch round to the off position to silence the thing.

As I returned to my room I heard a loud bang that reverberated off the walls. I spun round to see some crutches sliding off the pile onto the floor. This was in the general area of where I’d previously stumbled on them and decided that I must have loosened them and they would eventually settle into a rest position and returned to my little room.

By this time my work was almost complete. I refitted the unit’s covers, plugged it into the wall socket and carried out a final operational test. All was well. Just the paperwork to complete and I’ll be off. I was glad that I had finished, as the cold seemed to be eating into me. I packed up my tools and moved into the main ward where I set up shop on one of the tables and scribbled out my service report. Nothing to report really, only 6 exposures had been made since the last service visit so it was an easy report to write. I closed the report pad, fastened my jacket, picked up the tool case and headed for the main entrance.

As I neared the door the mound of crutches was directly ahead, beyond the door and as I felt in my pocket for the key I saw one of the crutches detach itself from the mound and fly some distance sideways across the room. It clattered noisily on to the floor. I stopped in my tracks briefly but then moved across to the crutch and examined it. It was nothing special, just a perfectly ordinary old-fashioned wooden crutch. I shrugged my shoulders and muttered "nice one". I moved to the door, unlocked it, and left the building locking the door once again.

As it was such a wonderful day I decided to walk back to the first ward to return the key and ask sister to sign my service report. The sun felt warm on my back and I walked directly over the lawns and across the roads. I was musing on the morning’s events and it occurred to me that the sister wasn’t joking when she said the ghost would not mind that I was in the building. If the happenings had been down to him he’d enjoyed some fine sport at my expense.

I entered the hot stuffy ward again, found sister and whilst she was signing my report I said, "You weren’t joking about the ghost then!" She stopped and looked at me with a shocked expression. "Why?" she asked, "What happened?"

I told her of the morning’s events. As I moved through the story more staff members came to listen standing in absolute silence some with gaping mouths. As I came to the end of my description my hands began to shake uncontrollably and I felt very hot. Sister gripped my arms and guided me to a chair. I could not stop shaking. A mug of tea was pushed through the circle of people towards me. I took it but I was shaking so much that it slopped everywhere. Sister relieved me of it so that she didn’t have to treat me for scalded hands.

I eventually composed myself and drank the tea. Sister sat with me and explained that I was not the first to have seen the flying crutch trick, "he resorts to that when footsteps and the radio don’t work". She went on to say that ‘Bill’ was an old man who had passed away on that ward many years ago and occasionally made his presence felt. I replied that the footsteps I heard were not those of an old man, they were light, rapid, and lively, more like a child. This puzzled her. No one had ever reported hearing light rapid footsteps before, always slow, ponderous ones. She added that there was a presence of some sort on each ward in the hospital. "In fact," she said, "in this very ward during quiet periods at night it was quite common to hear a baby crying and there haven’t been babies in the ward for many years."

I thanked her for the tea, bid her farewell and emerged into the cool outside air. My breath once again expelled as steam. I then realised that I had left the car back at the ghostly ward and immediately regretted my action. I turned and walked rapidly toward the car. The orb of the sun was in my eyes, causing me to squint and use my hand as an eyeshade. As I moved closer to the building I felt I had to force my legs to keep moving. My hand was scrabbling around in my pocket feeling for the car keys. I kept my eyes focussed on the car. I could not bring myself to look up at the windows of the building.

Thankfully my initial fumblings with the key opened the car door and I fell inside, started the engine started and reversed away. I negotiated the narrow roads as quickly as I could, through the entrance and over the bridge. I never looked back.

Some years later, due to reorganisation in the NHS, Florence Nightingale Hospital was partially demolished. Part of the site was sold to a developer and now executive homes have taken the place of the isolation blocks. A smart perimeter wall with large ornamental gates protects the estate. The picturesque stone bridge still spans the stream and is the main access to the estate.

In idle moments I often wonder what happened to ‘Bill’ after the redevelopment. Perhaps some householder has returned his hi-fi system to Currys a few times because it switches itself on in the night. Has an odd ornament suddenly fallen from the mantelpiece and smashed in the hearth?

Good Luck Bill, have fun.

By Geoff Oliver G0BJR

Geoff will be giving a talk on the discovery, development and technology involved in producing X-Rays on Thursday 29^th September at 20:30. You never know, there might be some other little stories highlighting the talk.

The editor would like to thank all contributors to this edition of Old Hams News. The next edition is due to be issued in October 2005. Any contributions for this edition should be forwarded to the editor, Geoff Oliver G0BJR on or before Thursday 15^th September 2005 to ensure inclusion.

Articles will be accepted on many formats, by email to "news@oarc.org.uk", by word of mouth, hand or type written notes, or as a .txt file on a CD ROM or 3½-inch floppy disc. Photographs, drawings, circuit diagrams and other graphics to enhance your article will also be most welcome.

If you submit an article for inclusion in Old Hams News and you do not wish it to be included in the Internet edition you must state your wishes at the time of submission. Otherwise the editor reserves the right to include/exclude your article as he sees fit.

For reference the officers and committee members are listed below and will be happy to help with any enquiries you may have.

Chairman – Geoff Oliver G0BJR
Secretary – Mike Crossley M1CVL         Treasurer – Geoff Ashton M0AUG

Craig Taylor G7MCT     Chris Cunliffe G7OOD
Stuart Wilson G7MFK     Jeff Hollowood G7LMI
Sue Burgess G0RKE

N.B. Old Hams News is the official journal of the Oldham Amateur Radio Club. It is distributed free of charge to all fully paid up members of the club. Articles appearing herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, the Officers and Committee, or the membership of Oldham Amateur Radio Club. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of articles included, the editor is not responsible for any inaccuracy that may occur.

Written, edited and produced by Geoff Oliver G0BJR
© Oldham Amateur Radio Club 2005