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

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

Dear Members,

As I feed newsletters into their envelopes each month it is sometimes difficult to fit the face to the name. There are many of you who have moved out of the district, but thankfully still keep up your membership to keep in touch with your old friends. I always endeavour to print as much news of members as I can that will be of interest to others. So this is a plea to those of you we don't see regularly to drop me a note of how life is treating you so that I can pass it on in the newsletters.

NEXT MEETING. 6th JULY. DIGITAL VIDEO.

We are fortunate in having arranged for Tim Drew G8JXV to give us a talk on DIGITAL VIDEO. In many ways the use of digital techniques have advantages over analogue systems, and are more and more being found in all walks of life. So it will be very interesting to learn of the advantages in quality, bandwidth etc. of this use. This talk was to have been given earlier this year but unfortunately a clash of dates prevented it. We always have something to learn and I am looking forward to adding to my knowledge.

LAST MEETING.

Richard Walker, G4PRI, came along and talked to us on WORLD WAR 2 GERMAN RADIO which I certainly found very interesting. Richard explained how he had become interested in this subject, as a lad living in Guernsey when the Germans capitulated he scrounged their radios and other equipment left behind. Later on in life he realised that there was little documentation so he became a collector and also he was able to contact Dutch and German hams who had the same idea, and he was able to obtain circuits and even some units from them. He had brought along a very large assortment of units which he went on to describe in detail. The requirements of the services and the dictates of component availability played a big part in the designs. Fearing they would not have access to quartz crystal markets they spent a lot of effort in developing very stable local oscillators. At the outbreak of war they had developed plastic wire insulation, bakerlite and iron dust cores as good materials in their own right rather than as a poor substitute that "ersatz" came to imply. Towards the end of the war it was possible to see the deterioration in workmanship and the quality of equipment suffered from the lack of first class components such as ball-bearings and also facilities such as monitoring of voltages were missing. A very good evening and Richard, accompanied by his XYL, is to be congratulated on the large number of pieces unloaded from his car, part of his historical collection. We must apologise to Richard that it appears that the pubs in Croydon do not serve food before 7PM!!!

VHF NATIONAL FIELD DAY.

This weekend sees this annual contest which to many is the radio event of the year. We cannot emphasise too much how important it is to have as many members of the SRCC partaking in this event. For those of you who have not attended in the past please have a word with myself or any other committee member who will soon put you in the picture. We need OPERATORS, CHECK OPERATORS AND HELPERS. The start of the contest is from 1400 on Saturday to 1400 on Sunday 4/5th July, But we commence setting up the four stations early on Saturday morning, when we welcome help in erecting the antennas, the tents, fitting up gear, running cables etc. Some people do not like contests and operating on the 2 meter station certainly is hectic, but the 4 meter, the 70 cm and the 23 cms stations operate in a much more leisurely manner. We still need more operators and check operators. We came second in our group last year....lets see if we can do better this year! It's a fun weekend and you do not have to remain on site for the whole time, an hour, or two or three would be very welcome. The site is on the West side of the B269 about one mile South of Slines Oak Road. The entrance gate is next to an isolated house with a rough lay-by. A nice time out in the fresh air, do make an effort to put in an appearance.

SUBSCRIPTIONS.

THESE ARE NOW DUE BUT I am glad to say that about half of you have renewed. On your envelope you will see a year which tells you if you are up to date. However if, due to printing and to processing delays, the old date appears on your envelope do not despair and tear out the last remaining bit of your hair, it will be put right quite soon. You can renew at a club meeting or send it in with the slip included at the end of this newsletter. And PLEASE do not try for the wooden spoon for the last one to pay up!!!!!

This is the last reminder of this event which will take place on Monday the 13th July at St. Swithans Church Hall, Grovelands Road, Purley. This is your invitation so just turn up at 19.45. Teams of four from each club are made up on the spot. Several of us have participated in the past and it is always a very amusing evening. As in all these quizzes it is a question of luck as to what questions you happen to know, I never do very well but can always rely on the rest of your team!! JUST TURN UP AND ENJOY YOURSELF.

It is with regret that I have just heard that Hilton became a silent key in March at the age of 92. He was a founder member of the SRCC and in fact you will see in the Magazine that he gave the first lecture to the club on operating with 56 MHz equipment and over the years he has been very active. I hope to give many more details in the next newsletter.

THE COLD WAR.

The other day G3BFP, myself and XYLs paid a visit to England's Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelverdon Hatch, 4 miles North of Brentwood on the A128, there is a large signpost on the right hand side of the road but the entrance is on the left side. It is difficult to realise now the emotions that were felt in 1952 when there was the very worrying feeling that there was the possibility of war with a certain other country so it was felt that bomb proof shelters should be produced to at least give a few people a chance to survive. It was built 100 feet below the Essex countryside and needed 40,000 tons of concrete to complete. The Kelverdon Hatch Regional Government Command Centre was designed to hold 600 personnel and has all facilities, power, filtration plant, Government admin. rooms, dormitories, BBC room, sick bay, communication rooms, stocks of food water and fuel and so on to keep some part the country carrying on in the event of an Atomic War. It had been full maintained and serviced right up to when it was decommissioned in 1992. It was quite interesting to see what the government had been spending your money on!! A large car park, admission £5 adults, £3 for children or £12 for two adults and two children. There are free audio trail headsets. We found it very interesting and well worth the l½ hours spent there. I can thoroughly recommend a visit. P.S. You will pass a very pleasant pub "The Eagle" on the way... remember it for after your visit.

ECO WARRIOR.

I wonder how many of you saw on the television recently the 70 (?) year old, father of six(?), local activist talking and climbing in and out of tunnels. Apparently the authorities wish to build a road in Epsom, and he had experience of tunnelling in Eastern Europe so his expertise was very useful in the efforts to hamper the road building. And who was this activist? None other than Phil Pardy! We wish him well, but feel his activities would be better employed in his radio hobby!!!

I recently made a rare appearance on 80m on the air when I worked GB150PRU. When I finished I heard "Down 5" and on going down I worked Harry G3SBV and had a very pleasant QSO. Harry told me that his legs had pretty well healed and he has thrown away his sticks. He plans to keep both feet solidly on the ground in future. We wish him well and he send regards to all members.

Maurice earlier this year had a heart attack, brought on by too much work perhaps. Anyway he has now recovered and is back at work but is trying to take things more easily. If he now has more time perhaps he might like to rejoin the club!!

NEW MEMBER.

James Clark G4FMU of Woodstock Avenue Sutton has recently joined the club. We wish him luck and hope he will be able to attend regularly, and will be able to take advantage of the facilities of the club.

BLANK SPACE.

1 am leaving this space blank so that you lose nothing when you sent in the renewal slip overleaf!!!

BITS AND BOBS.

The number of members calling in on the Sunday Morning net on 29.111 seems to be reducing in numbers. It is a pity more of you don't take advantage of this, as it helps me to write this newsletter. You do not have to stay long, just an over to let us know what you are doing and how you are!!

At the last meeting we had a good crowd for a very interesting talk, but from the club register it would appear that some of you are not making an effort to sign the book. Please do so that our records are correct.

I understand that Gareth Evans G4XAT is adding another "pursuit" to his already very crowded life. I don't know how he has the time. Later this month he doing a sponsored run to Brighton by bicycle in aid of the Heart Foundation. Good luck Gareth.

You will of course have noticed that the September talk has been postponed until December.

And I respectfully redraw your attention to the FAIR at Brighton on 12th July, to the CATS quiz night on 13th July and I hope that you are having a "spring clean" finding gear for the SALE on 2nd October.

Maurice G4DDY had a letter recently from Alf and sends greetings to all SRCC members. He is our oldest member in his 99th year and beats Gav G2OS !! I wonder what the average of the club now is?? However I feel all members send you both their very best wishes.

SIGNING OFF.

That’s the lot for this month but a final reminder for you to participate in the VHF NATIONAL FIELD DAY on 4th/5th July. If you didn’t go you will have missed a VHF meeting last Friday 19th June at QTH G3ZPB where we had a final check on equipment, personnel etc. Anyway hope to see you all on Monday at the Digital Video evening, should be good.

88 es 73, Bernard G8TB

.....................................................................................................................................................................

SRCC SUBSCRIPTIONS. These are now due. Note Membership still only £8.00

Family Membership £12.50

I enclose herewith cheque/PO for my 1998/99 subscription.

Date Call/BRS

Send to Hon. Treasurer. Maurice Fagg, G4DDY, 113 Bute Road, WALLINGTON, Surrey, SM6 8AE