RADIO STATION - G3WXH
Welcome to this web site. If you have ever wondered what the
G3WXH amateur radio station QTH looks like, the following photograph shows its
west-facing facet.
The trees you see in the foreground are both a hindrance (to
radio propagation) and an asset (for suspending aerials).
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CHAT
Some of you may remember me as a
morse-only operator. I got my amateur 'A' license in 1967. The QTH was then
near the village of Edith Weston in Rutland, England's smallest county.
Until very recently my transmitter rig
was a homebrew Heathkit DX60B a.m. valve monster, built in 1968, and you would
have been 'hard pushed' to find a microphone to go with it. A couple of 'Kent'
morse keys, yes, but no mike.
Recently though, I have come to accept
that morse has had its day and am now saving up for a new rig. (Time was when
we used to build them for ourselves!)
Saying that morse has had its day won't
go down well with a lot of older 'hams', like me, nor with a lot of younger
ones who have just struggled hard to pass their morse tests; but if you're
reading from a monitor screen, you must be doing it on this much more
interesting, visual means of communication, and maybe agreeing with me.
That's not to say that I won't be keeping
my hand in from time-to-time until either I become a 'silent key', pushing up
the daisies, or the last 'di-dah di-dah-dit' is sounded on the h.f. bands, and
ALL keys go silent.
Listening to the activity still going on
at the bottom ends of the amateur h.f. bands these days, I suspect and sincerely
hope that, for a lot of other amateur operators, morse has NOT had its day, and
won't 'go silent' for a very, very long time; even though it appears to have
done so in the commercial world.
Amateur Radio in any mode is still a
fascinating hobby for all ages and for lots of different reasons. Let's hope it
continues, eh?
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REQUEST 1
The Heathkit DX60B
transmitter still works, after 31 years. However, I lost its maintenance manual
and need one to keep it serviceable, even though it doesn't often get used. If
any of you have one gathering dust amongst all that stuff you can't let
yourself throw away, I'd be pleased to be able to copy or purchase it. What
about all you American amateurs? After all, was not Heathkit an American firm?
(Their UK branch at Gloucester became Daystrom, as I recall.)
As you see, I can't throw
things away either; especially when they have given me such grand service. So far, after about two years, it’s now 10
th March 2001, there has been no e-mail response to this request. However
I am still hopeful. But
see the latest update (30
November 02).
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If you ever wish to communicate via e-mail rather than radio
propagation, my address is:-
E-mails will be welcome from all friends, in particular
those in South Africa and Australia.
73's to all
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For some time now this line has read ‘To
be continued later’. Well, it’s high time some of the continuation started
showing itself.
12 April 00
I’ve recently acquired a new rig. No, not
a radio rig but yes, you’ve guessed it, a computer. Already I hear many of my
fellow radio amateurs moaning and groaning – another traitor in their midst –
etc., etc. All I can say to them is, go forth, computerize and enjoy both; even
if the computer’s only used to maintain your radio station log! With a bit of
luck you’ll catch the computer ‘disease’ (I won’t say ‘virus’) like a lot of us
out here, and you won’t rest ‘till you ‘get connected’.
If you have read and remember the
preceding text, there was mention of a ‘Kent morse key’. For the benefit of any
reader not fortunate enough yet to be a licensed amateur, and who doesn’t know
what this marvellous bit of Kent engineering looks like, read on.
Supplied with my new digital electronic
wonder was a little digital camera – one of those you have to connect to the
computer. So, you can realise straight away that you’re limited in what you can
photograph by the length of its cable. Nevertheless they are quite useful. I
was pleasantly surprised to discover the quality of picture it was capable of
producing. After all, I’ve seen better-looking toy cameras being kicked around
the garden by the grandchildren. Anyway, I’m still experimenting with it and by
coincidence took the following snap (they call it ‘capturing’). Looking at it
makes you think.
‘KENT’
MORSE KEY AND COMPUTER KEYBOARD (THE OLD AND THE NEW)
The object in front of the keyboard is
the famous Kent Morse key. “So what?” you might say. Well think about it this
way; the fact that you’re able to look at this photograph is due to the actions
of a gigantic number of microscopic sized switches all working in accordance
with software programmes.
The Kent key
is actually just a single switch, operated to perform a software programme.
Press the black knob down and two contacts meet to complete a circuit that
switches the transmitter on. Release the knob and it springs up, causing the
two contacts to separate, thus switching the transmitter off. Press it for a
short period and you transmit a dot. Press it for a slightly longer period and
you transmit a dash. Send a dot followed by a dash and you transmit a letter A
in Morse code. The sentence you’re sending is the software programme. So
nothing’s changed except the complexity – some change, some complexity!
(Incidentally, if you’re interested, the
little brass screws are just for adjustment of the spring tension and the size
of the contact gap. Different operators work with the settings that suite them
best – all very simple.)
So now, looking at the keyboard in the
background of the photograph, the keys are a set of switches that toggle the
huge quantity of microscopic switches within the computer. Each of the keyboard
and computer microscopic switches acts in the same way as a Kent Morse switch. So WHAT’S NEW?
MORE LATER FOLKS
6 March 01
At the time (12 April last year)
when typing MORE LATER FOLKS, I intended writing much earlier than this, so
apologies. A lot of things have happened in the meantime, but I am not about to
offer or relate these as excuses you’ll be pleased to know! One thing I will
tell you about sometime soon though is that I’ve recently joined an association
comprising some old Royal Air Force friends dating back fifty two years. If any
of them are reading this page – hope you enjoyed your leave? and where’s your
295?
Getting back to the rest of you folks,
you’ll have seen my callsign and QTH photo (of which more later) at the top of
this web page; so those radio amateurs amongst you in possession of an Amateur
Radio Call Book will be able to look-up the town where it’s located. For the
benefit of those without such a mighty tome, the town is the seaside resort of
Weston-super-Mare (meaning Weston upon sea). Reading that statement again, I
need not have written it as the scrolling banner tells you it’s
Weston-super-Mare. Ah well, must be my age!
(I keep forgetting that anybody in the
whole wide world could be reading this. South African and Australian friends
should get their atlas out, or surf the Internet, to find out where it is in
England. Look in the southwest area, near Bristol.)
Now a lot of people who can be excused for not
knowing any better look on Weston as being a rather boring little town – even
sometimes referring to it as Weston-super-Mud! There is no denying that it does
have its share of mud, especially when the tide is out (and some people may wonder whether the tide
ever comes in) but for lots of reasons when you get to know it, you’ll feel
unable to described this town as boring (and may even discover that the tide
indeed does come in, sometimes with a fearful vengeance). In future
mini-epistles I hope that there will be enough evidence to persuade those of
you who are still not convinced of this to change your minds. Consider for
instance this little bit of Weston-super-Mare history.
PLAQUE MOUNTED ON A WALL NEAR THE ITALIAN GARDENS, WESTON-SUPER-MARE
So those radio amateurs and CB operators
happily propagating electromagnetic transmissions across the Bristol Channel
perhaps to some other far-off land may like to pause and consider who were the first
to do it. By the way, they used six 2-volt accumulators for power and kites
trailing up to 300 feet ( 91 m) of 4-strand wire for aerials.
Radio operators may also like to reflect
on who in particular provided the main source of inspiration. Mind you,
Guglielmo didn’t stay long round Weston-super-Mare. It was in May and the
weather wasn’t the ideal holidaying kind by all accounts. For instance it was
too rough for them to cross from Wales to Weston by steamer on the first day
that they attempted to set up their ‘rig’ on Brean Down. Also, Guglielmo was
anxious to set up a company. So, at the end of May as soon as the trials were
complete, he returned to London from Cardiff and a few weeks later registered
the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.
Getting back to the tree you can see in
the photograph of the G3WXH QTH - but for that tree and a few others in an
adjacent spinney, we would be able to see Brean Down with the Welsh coastline
in the background from our back window. Thus, it is almost certain that way
back in May 1897 some of the first ever radio wave transmissions passed
over the little piece of land which in May seventy five years later became this
G3WXH radio amateur station site. It may be faint remnant energy in ghosts of
these transmissions that gives me a warm kind of feeling every time I think of
this. SENTIMENTAL? – WELL, MAYBE.
TO BE CONTINUED
30 November 02
Some good news. My request for a copy of the maintenance manual for my Heathkit DX-60B transmitter (built 30-odd years ago) was at last fulfilled. See REQUEST 1 above. My thanks go to Kevin Luxford (callsign VK3DAP) who very kindly e-mailed all relevant pages of the manual to me. Sorry I’ve been so long thanking you Kevin, but the two weeks I believe I told you that I’d be away for turned out to be several