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MONTHLY MEETINGS 1st and 3rd MONDAYS, 7.45 for 8 pm.

AT THE T.S. TERRA NOVA, 34 THE WALDRONS, S. CROYDON.

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"A" MEETING: 5th JANUARY HISTORY OF SSB - G6LX + SHORT TALKS

"B" MEETING: 19th JANUARY INFORMAL GATHERING AND TECHNICAL CHINWAG.

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Dear Members,

One of the many problems the editor has while compiling a newsletter is that many of the items are of things that will happen or will have happened in the future. I am starting this at the beginning of December but Blanca and I can still hope that you and your families will have had a very happy and pleasant Christmas, and are invigorated for the New Year.

Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, we are not able to have the talk on Digital Video by G8JXV. At late notice Ron G6LX is to give a talk about the history of SSB, together with a selection of other short talks. These have proved quite popular in the past and it’s also an opportunity for you to suggest a topic of interest to yourself. Please contact me with your ideas - thanks.

LAST MEETING. ELECTRONIC WARFARE.

What can I say about this?? We have come to know Derek Atter G3GRO over the years when he has given us many talks of interest and this one did not disappoint us. He started with one of the very first intelligence gathering enterprises by radio when a station was set up in Cornwall by the GPO (then) to discover what Mr. Marconi was up to. He then went on to treat a very complex subject in a way that put across the complexities of modern electronics in warfare, and these were mind boggling to most amateurs. We suffer in contests with interference from very strong signals a few miles away, but imagine the poor front ends when. two ships are alongside and radar is pumping umpteen kilowatts into each others antennas. Most of the talk was centred on the Navy. The amount of information gathered is displayed on CRTs and one wonders how the operator is able to pick out the relevant bits from so much detail. Thanks Derek for a most enjoyable and instructive evening.

5th. JANUARY. HISTORY OF SSB: G6LX + SHORT TALKS

12th. JANUARY. VHF NFD INQUEST. QTH G3ZPB.

2nd. FEBRUARY. WHATS NEW IN AVIONICS. G1OEQ

21st. FEBRUARY. CLUB DINNER. WINDMILL WALLINGTON.

2nd. MARCH. SURPLUS SALE.

11th MARCH. BAIRD - THE MAN. FAIRFIELD HALLS.

6th. APRIL. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

11th. MAY. CONSTRUCTIONAL CONTEST.

COULSDON CATS BAZAAR.

This went off the other weekend and as usual there was a very good turnout, perhaps a few more than last year. A fair profit was made by CATS and also on our table Maurice and Graham did quite well and cleared quite a bit of surplus gear, they are to be thanked for their efforts on behalf of the club. Hope some gear is left for our sale in March! Robin Sykes always supports these events and was there and did a fair trade.

VISIT TO THE ROCKET MUSEUM AT LA COUPOLE.

One Saturday lunch time fifty-two years ago, Ron was walking between New Cross and New Cross Gate stations. At the time he was part of a RAF team responsible for overseeing the production of prototype specialist aircraft radar and he had just visited RAF Kidbrook which were producing a modified H2S radar. Just before New Cross Gate station outside Woolworth he was asked the way to some street or other. The next thing he remembers was waking up in the Miller Hospital Greenwich, where he had been taken for emergency surgery to remove part of a tile from his head and treatment for other injuries. What he did not know at the time was that a V2 had landed on Woolworth and he was only one of three that had been picked up alive within a large area of the base of the explosion. It seems that part of the roof was dislodged as the V2 landed and knocked him out so he was flat on his face when the 1 ton warhead exploded. Over 250 people were killed in this incident and the blast lifted a double-decker bus over a nearby railway bridge dropping it 40ft onto the rails below. Ron was certainly very lucky, but even so he spent 9 months in various RAF and civilian hospitals, and has been partially deaf ever since.

You are probably wondering what on earth this has to do with a Radio Club Newsletter. On 18th November a number of CATS members visited the recently opened La Coupole Rocket Museum at Wisernes near St. Omer in Northern France and we went along. The museum has over 4 miles of tunnels and chambers which have been cut into the side of a hill and a chalk quarry. The tunnels and chambers were build with slave labour and were used for the assembly of Hitler's Revenge Weapons, the Vl doodlebug and the V2 rocket. The quarry was a V2 launching site which had been designed to fire over 50 V2 rockets a day aimed at London. Fortunately the allied invaders reached La Couple just in time and no rockets were actually fired from the site, although a number that were made in the tunnels were launched from elsewhere.

The French have done a wonderful job in creating the museum with displays, film shows, hardware including a complete Vl and V2 together with stripped down sections, including the doodlebug ram jet and the rocket engine of the V2. There were also examples of the numerous experimental rockets used by the Germans during the development of the V2 at Peenamunde on the Baltic coast. Neither the Vl or V2 were guided after launch and relied on the alignment of the launch pad and ramps to aim them at their targets, London and Antwerp. Once the V1’s were in the air a simple gyroscope kept them on a straight course until they ran out of fuel and dived on their target. The Vl was of course, the unsophisticated predecessor of today's cruise missile. The V2's took of f vertically and then tilted over at a preset angle to climb into space. The rocket engine was only active for a few minutes, but this was enough to give the V2 a range of several hundred miles.

There are numerous panorama showing how the VI was set up ready for firing and how the engine worked. Although initially a large number of Vl flying bombs hit the London area and Croydon, a move of the AA guns to the South Coast proved significant letting only a small number through the barrage. It was said that over 500 doodlebugs were destroyed by the guns. The RAF and Allied Air Forces also had a great time tipping them into the sea using a wingtip touch technique.

Two cinemas in the complex are in operation both showing continuous films, one on the Nazi occupation of France and the building of the Vl and V2 sites using slave labour from almost every country that had been occupied. The other film showed man's journey into space starting with the early Peenamunde experiments, the work of von Braun in developing the Vl engine and the V2 rocket, his capture by the US and his subsequent work leading up to the US moon project. The Russians also captured a number of the rocket engineers and used them to initiate their own space programme.

The entrance fee to the museum is 55 francs which includes the loan of a multi-lingual headset for the AV displays and a padded jacket to keep you warm in the tunnels. Although some of the diorama is very sad and morbid, the technicalities are very well displayed and documented. The museum is certainly well worth a visit. Ron now knows what hit him 52 years ago and where it probably came from!

Near to La Coupole are two sites that are open to the public during the summer months. The first a blockhouse at Eperleques, the largest concrete bunker ever built. Despite its 3 acre site and 72ft tall casements, it was well hidden in the forest. Eperleques was a main V2 site where most of the missiles were launched. The site was severely damaged first by Allied bombers and later by the US equivalent of a flying bomb, a radio controlled unmanned Flying Fort loaded with high explosives and then crashed onto the target. Nearby is another blockhouse where V1’s were launched and the ramps targeted on London are still on view. Unfortunately, both blockhouses were closed for the winter. It is significant to note that the total tonnage of explosive in the warheads of the Vl and V2's aimed at London during the whole of the campaign was less that that dropped by the RAF in a single nights operation over Germany.

Also near the Eperleques site is a Commonwealth cemetery where many RAF and Allied airman are buried. A large number of these were killed attacking the Vl and V2 sites. We also noticed one group of graves where several complete Lancaster crews were buried, having been shot down on their way back from the night bombing of Germany. Surprisingly a number of Chinese are also buried in the same war cemetery.

We were told of another site that is worth visiting and this is near Cap Gris Nez in yet another quarry. This is the fortress of Mimoyecques where the German Super Gun, the V3 was being set up when the Allies over-ran the site. Three of the 400ft long barrels angled at 50 degrees are still there ready to fire 10ft long V3 shells at London. The Germans had planned to build 25 of these super-gun monsters which would fire over 30,000 shells a day. If they had been able to finish the job, London might well have been decimated. The museum at Mimoyecques is closed for the winter but will reopen in April 1998. The CATS group travelled via the Channel Tunnel and there seemed to be a mix up in the rendezvous times and radio frequencies as we missed them at the museum and later at Calais. Following the visit to St. Omer we made our way to Cite Europe near the Channel Tunnel Terminal where we had a late lunch and visited the Tesco wine store and a hypermarket. We then headed for the ferry terminal and the 18.30 departure of the 'Pride of Calais'.

It was an interesting day trip albeit a long one. Thanks to CATS f or suggesting it.

That report was from Ron G6LX and Pru G4RWW. Thanks to you both for that interesting account. Worth a club outing next year?????

This will take place on SATURDAY 21st FEBRUARY. The WINDMILL is in STAFFORD ROAD, WALLINGTON. 100yds from the Manor Rd. traffic lights and on the south side. We used this venue several time some years ago and it was very cosy and convivial. We are limited to 35 so book early. Your chairman Ray G4FFY is again looking after the cash, so £5 deposits to him please, and get in quick.

Pay in full, or the deposit, at the club or send to Ray Howells G4FFY, 9 Aultone Way, Sutton SM1 3LD. 644 7589. The cost will be £13.50 each and the menu will be available in the next newsletter we are planning that you will be able to order your courses in advance. The date may seem a long way ahead but there will be only one more newsletter so please do not delay in booking. These dinners have in the past been very good and not one to be missed.

GOOD HOMES WANTED.

TONNA ANTENNA. 11 element crossed Yagis for 2 meters. Assembled. Full working order, could be modified for vertical and horizontal radiation. Users installation details included. Absolutely NO CHARGE, enquirer collects. TONY G3GHI 0181 660 4068.

MAINS LOW VOLTAGE TRANSFORMER. Input 200-230, Secondaries 6.3 v 4 A, 2.5v 5 A, 7.5v 4A, 7.5v 4A, 7.5v 8A. I understand that for this high output it is not unduly large! Also HT4 Power unit for 1154 1200v 200 ma. NO CHARGE. Charles Lawson 0181 647 7373.

FAIRFIELD HALLS, CROYDON.

On Wednesday March 11th, Ralph Barrett will present, BAIRD - THE MAN AND HIS TELEVISION at the Maple Room, Fairfield Halls, Croydon, at 7.30 pm. This is an IEE meeting. Coffee and sandwiches at 7.00pm. AND NO CHARGE. Non-members are welcome, no tickets, just turn up. Details were from Ray Herbert G2KU who most of you will know was associated with J.L. Baird. Should be a good evening. Thanks Ray.

HARRY BELLFIELD G3SBV.

I understand that Harry is now out of hospital, his leg is in plaster, and he is hobbling around on crutches. He is back on the air on 6 meters and other ,bands. Hope things go well with you Harry and you soon get better.

USED STAMPS FOR THE DIAMOND RIDING SCHOOL.

I have had a letter from Pat G8LZA in Somerset who sends her seasonal wishes to all SRCC members. Thanks Pat f or that and also for the stamps included. And on the subject of stamps these are for a worthwhile cause for the Diamond handicapped people. This time of year you should be receiving hundreds so I hope you are busy collecting and that I will be snowed under!!!

TO FAX OR NOT TO FAX.

I had an amusing letter from my constant correspondent Ted Jones G3EUE (for which many thanks Ted). However it is too long for this Newsletter so it will keep 'till next month, nice to have a reserve!

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VHF NATIONAL FIELDDAY INQUEST.

This is being held on MONDAY 12th February at the QTH of Peter Burton G3ZPB at Pound Cottage, 202 Coulsdon Road, Old Coulsdon. 01737 551413. 7.30 for 8pm. This will be to review the 1997 results and to plan our entry for 1998. All members who have participated in the past or any other members who would like to take part are welcome. This is a very important meeting to gauge the support and to whip up enthusiasm. VHF NFD is the main contest that the club enters and all who have partaken in the past have found it a very pleasant and rewarding weekend. It is worth mentioning that it is not necessary to spend the whole weekend on the site and there is plenty of opportunities to operate, check operate, help set up the four stations or generally lend support and I urge all members to try and partake. The contest will be on the first weekend in July, so keep that time free!!! We look forward to many of you turning up, but if you cannot, please speak to me or Peter to register your interest.

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Well, that's the lot for this month. Get cracking booking your place for the dinner. A reminder for you to be polishing items you are providing for the construction contest in May. And hope to see many of you at the Video meeting and also at the VHF inquest meeting. Blanca and I hope you have had a good Christmas and may the New Year be peaceful and illness free.

88 es 73, Bernard G8TB