A word from your scribe before I give you the last Newsletter I will personally be responsible for, many of you will be aware of the reason, I hope to be moving house during the next few months and taking up my abode in Norfolk, I hope that in due time I shall be able to talk to many of you by radio, telephone or computer, but, as you will all be aware setting up one’s radio after so many years here in the Medway Towns is bound to generate some problems.

I have enjoyed all the contacts I have made with you all and the various venues we have occupied from time to time, I wish the Society well in the coming years, it has endured over the last 80 years so there is no reason it will not continue.

M.A.R.T.S. Committee 2003/04.

President. Dr Colin Sumner. G0POS.

Vice President. Ken Bowes. G3YWV.

Chairman. John Burton. G6IVP.

Vice: Chairman George Morris. G4INO.

Hon: Secretary. Kevin Earl. G8VJU

Hon: Treasurer. John Hale. G3FTH

Ordinary Members. Ken Gibbens. G1JYT

Ted Wiles. M0TED

At the 2003 Annual General meeting of the MARTS the following annual meritorious awards were made:

John Hale G3FTH.

Awarded the Plugge Trophy as Clubman of the Year for his unfailing dedication to keeping the club’s finances in order over many years.

Len Lockyer G4VRI.

Awarded the G4LHV Memorial Cup for his steadfast work in preparing and publishing the MARTS newsletter.

Dr Colin Sumner G0POS.

Awarded the Observer Cup for winning the MARTS 2003 construction contest.

Kevin Earl G8VJU.

Awarded the Founders Cup for his work with the hall committee relating to hall security.

Introductory foreword by the new Chairman.

John G6IVP.

I am pleased to take on the mantle of MARTS chairman and will endeavour to keep up the society’s traditions and continue to foster the good spirit of amateur radio within our bounds. During my term of office, with the help of the new committee, I hope that I shall be able to lead the club in providing an interesting programme of meetings that can be enjoyed by everyone. For success, the Committee and I will need the support and encouragement of the society membership and I trust that you will all play your part in this.

You will see later in this newsletter, the programme of meetings scheduled up to the end of September 2003. Please support the meetings and let me know your views on the programme and any suggestions you may have. Particularly, if you can offer to lead an activity or meeting of any kind, I would like to know.

Don’t forget that MARTS is always eager to welcome guests and new or prospective members with an interest related to radio, so spread the word amongst your friends and colleagues.

Finally, on behalf of the society, I should like to thank the previous officers and committee for their efforts during their term of office.

M.A.R.T.S. Construction Contest 2003

Reported by John G6IVP.

This year I was asked to judge the entries for the construction contest. All of the entries were interesting and of a high standard.

My report is mostly about the three most notable entries from which, in my view, a clear winner emerged, more about this later. The following comments are NOT in order of merit.

One entry was a rather interesting reconstruction of a Gecophone crystal set. The only original part of this item was the case, which had been nicely preserved and renovated. The rest was reconstructed using parts reclaimed from other similar old crystal sets.

I was impressed with the care taken to use parts that closely matched the originals. Where this had not been possible, the parts used looked as if they belonged and certainly were not out of place. Overall, close examination was required to see that the set was a reconstruction and not original. Thanks go to Norman Spary (M0CGJ for a nice entry.

Another entry was a dc to ac to dc switched mode power converter delivering 90 volts dc from three AA size alkaline cells. This item was built mostly from a kit of parts and some of the interest was its use to power the HT for an Osram Music Maker vintage radio (circa 1929).

The standard of construction of this item was good, as was the quality of the pcb solder joints. Care had been taken over the packaging of item into a 90 V Ever Ready battery case. (I forget the battery number but it’s the smaller one). Colin Sumner (G0POS) provided this item.

The winning entry was an “open construction” item designed to enable comparison of the properties and performance of various types of crystal detector material. Included were a number of different crystal and mineral ore materials with notes about each. The intended use of this item is mainly in the training of novices to radio. The construction also included an amplified crystal receiver (with replaceable detector) so that the detector performance could be adjudged. In my view this item wins because of the originality in purpose as well as the presentation in demonstration form.

So who provided that winning entry?

The winner is Dr Colin Sumner (G0POS) for the crystal demonstration “breadboard”. Well done Colin, and thank you.

Finally, a note for next year’s construction contest. Your entry does not have to be ’super ambitious’ to stand a chance of winning, so get constructing now.

Treasurer’s Balance Sheet 2002/03

BALANCE B/FWD £1309.60 CURENT A/C £388.79

EXCESS OF INCOME DEPOSIT A/C £1241.35

OVER EXPENDATURE £327.58 CASH IN HAND £7.04

TOTAL £1637.18 TOTAL £1637.18

THE ABOVE IS A STATEMENT OF INCOME, EXPENDATURE AND BALANCE SHEET DRAWN UP IN RESPECT OF BOOKS AND STATEMENTS KEPT BY THE TREASURER.

AUDITOR Kevin Earl G8VJU 09/05/2003 TREASURER John Hale G3FT

“HAARP”

By Larry Hawes, KA4GZQ, by kind permission of R A D I A L.

Some of the membership of “TARK” have commented on the paper that I offered on the above subject. To say the least, after reading about that information tickled my curiosity to no end. So I have started to research this important project which pertains to the original “star wars’ concept that was mentioned and approved by then President “Ronald Reagan” when he was in office.

If you remember, the ‘Russians’ made a big protest to the U.S. and the rest of the world when this concept of protecting the United States from inter continental ballistic missiles was first revealed.

For background on this subject here are some known facts readily available in any free library.

1886-8: Nikola Tesla invents system of a/c current power source and transmission lines at 60 hertz.

1900-05: Tesla applies for a patent on a device to “transmit electrical energy through “natural mediums” and is issued patent #787.412.

1924: Confirmation that radio waves can bounce off ionosphere, and electrical-charged layer starts at an altitude of approximately 50 kilometres.

1938: Scientist propose to light up the sky by electromagnetic gyrotron heating from a powerful transmitter.

1940: Tesla announces “death ray” invention.

1945: Atomic bomb tests begin-40.000 electromagnetic pulses to follow.

1952:W.O.Schumann identifies 7.83 hertz resonant frequency of the earth.

1958: Van Allen radiation belt discovered. Zone of charged particles trapped in earth’s magnetic field 2000 miles above the earth. Violently disrupted that same year.

1958:Project Argus, US Navy explodes 3 nuclear bombs in Van Allen belt.

1958:White house adviser on weather modification says defence department studying ways to manipulate charges “of earth and sky, and so effect the weather”.

1960: Series of weather disasters begin. No explanation given for these sudden changes.

1960: Dumping of chemicals (barium powder etc.) from satellites and rockets, begins for artificial ton cloud experiments.

1960:Start of U.S. Navy project in Wisconsin. “Sanguine”. Laying of ‘elf’ antennae.

1961: Copper needles dumped into ionosphere as ‘telecommunications shield’.

1961-62:Soviets and USA blast many “EMP” in atmosphere; 300 megatons of nuclear devices deplete the ozone layer by about 4%.

1962: Launch of Canadian satellites and start of stimulating plasma resonance’s by antennas within the space plasma.

1966: Gordon J.F. Mac Donald publishes ‘Military Ideas of Environmental Engineering’.

1968: Moscow scientists tell the west that Soviets pinpointed which pulsed magnetic field frequencies help mental and physiological functions and which do harm.

1972: First reports of “ionospheric” experiments with high frequency radio waves.

100-megawatt heater in Norway built later in decade, which can change conductivity of ionosphere for three hours”, by rocket exhaust gases.

1973: Documentation that launches of Skylab “halved the total electron content of the ionosphere for three hours”, by rocket exhaust gases.

1973: Recommendation for study of “project sanguine’s”. biological effects dented by the U.S. Navy.

1974: United Nations General Assembly bans environmental warfare.

1974: High-frequency experiments at Platteville, Colorado; Arecibo, Puerto Rico; and Armidale, New South Wales heat “bottom side of ionosphere”.

1974: Experiments-airglow brightened by hitting oxygen atoms in ionosphere with accelerated electrons.

1975: Stanford professor Robert Helliwell reports that “VLF” from power lines is altering ionosphere.

1975: U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson forces U.S. Navy to release research showing that “elf” transmissions can alter human blood chemistry.

1975: Pell Senate subcommittee urges that weather and climate modification work be overseen by civilian agency answerable to U.S. Congress.

1975: Soviets begin pulsing “woodpecker” “elf” waves at key brain wave rhythms, in Eugene, Oregon, one of the locations where people were particularly affected.

1976:Dr’s Susan Bawin and W. Ros Adey show nerve cells effected by “elf” fields.

1979: Launch of “NASA’s” third high-energy astrophysical observatory causes large scale artificially induced depletion in the ionosphere.

Plasma hole caused by “rapid chemical processes” between rocket exhaust and Ozone layer.

Ionosphere was significantly depleted over a horizontal distance of 300km for some hours.

1980’s In the later part of the decade the U.S. begins network of “Ground Wave Emergency Network” (GWEN) towers, each to generate Very Low Frequency (VLF) for defence purposes.

1985: Bernard J. Eastlund applies for a patent “method and apparatus for altering a regeon in the earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and/or magnetosphere”.

First of 3 Eastland patents assigned to “Arco power technologies Inc.”

1986: U.S. Navy project “hen-house” duplicates Delgado (Madrid) experiment-very low level frequency pulsed magnetic fields harm chick embryos.

1987-92:Other “APTI” scientists build on Eastland patents for development of new weapon capabilities.

1994: Military contractor “e-systems” purchases “APTI” holder of Eastland patents, and contract to build largest ionospheric heater in world. (HAARP)

1994:Congress freezes funding of “HAARP” until planners increase emphasis on earth penetrating topography uses for nuclear counter-proliferation efforts.

1995:Raytheon purchases ‘e-systems’ and old ‘APTI’. The technology is now hidden among thousands of patents within one of the largest defence contractor portfolios.

1995:Congress budgets $10 million for 1996 under “nuclear counter-proliferation” for “HAARP” project.

1995: HAARP planners to test patent number 5.041.834 in September.

1994-96:Testing of first stage of “HAARP, (euphemistically named ‘High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program’), equipment continues, although funding was frozen.

1996:HAARP planners to test earth penetrating topography applications by modulating the electroject at extremely low frequencies (elf).

1998:Project date for fully operating HAARP’ system.

Origins of “The Music Hall”

Friday 4th April 2003 by Mrs Marie Sumner.

If you weren’t there then you missed something! Ask any of the thirty or so members of MARTS, their XYL’s, or the guests from BRATS!

Marie waived her professional fee to give this serious talk as being a substitute for a performance at the Annual Dinner which she’d been asked to do but she considered as being unsuitable at such an event where people who haven’t seen each other for a year simply want to talk. Also it was intended to fill a void in MARTS weekly calendar, where there seemed to be no prospect of any talks for the foreseeable future.

Billed for 8pm she started late to accommodate a few late comers. Marie was attired for the occasion in a two-piece red Victorian costume of a fitted bodice with Leg o’ Mutton shoulders. Full length skirt to the ground, decorated with glistening jewels, black accessories; a feather plumage hat and genuine ostrich feather Boa and an original lace fan, a Victorian ’Choker’ necklace.

The talk was given from a lectern giving the history, which started with the singing of songs in the local tavern. A special room was built on so as to avoid the singing from reducing the beer sales where, in fact, the very opposite occurred! Its popularity grew so that the number of such halls in London alone at the end of the century was about 480. Famous characters included Lady ’Vesta’ Tilley, and the Queen of them all; Marie Lloyd, and many others. Marie Lloyd eventually became so famous that her audiences excelled King Edward’s Command performances and her eventual funeral was said to have been on the scale of the late Lady Di.

These Music Halls developed at a time of the Industrial Revolution, of the great expansion of the Railways (Marie had prepared a print-out for Ken ’The Rail’, G3YWV), and an exodus from the country to the towns, the latter becoming the site of great poverty and deprivation as described by our local hero Charles Dickens. Some of this drunkenness was relieved by the Music Halls, who formed Temperance Societies, e.g. at ’The Old Vic’. They invented songs to indicate the horror of Drink, one of which was ’Father’s a Drunkard and Mother is Dead’, for which we were taught the chorus words to sing as Marie went through it. You can’t have a talk on music, after all, without some illustrations, can you!?. Several other illustrative songs were given to great applause interspersed with stories and jokes of the sort you’ve never heard and, for those who’ve never seen an entertainer ‘in the flesh’, or at close range the intriguing song; ”I was a Good Little Girl till I met you”, where, for carefully selected males, Marie sat on their lap as the song progressed or sought a kiss on the cheek, or crept up from behind and wrapped her (tickly) Boa round their neck, surprising them, to the delight of others, before retreating to the safety of the ’Stage’.

The talk concluded with an evocative song; ’Painting the Clouds with Sunshine’. The Thanks speech by Cyril G7MPZ, was drowned by the overwhelming applause and cries of ’Encore’ as he presented a beautiful bouquet.

Her response, out of the blue, was to give ’A Drama Lesson’:- ’I love it when I’m happy but I hate it when I’m sad’ with appropriate gestures, first slowly then she surprised them by saying it too quickly to follow and the audience dissolved in a laughing shambles. The audience then broke up for tea into separate cheerful groups, lingering longer that usual and needed turning out! A rare talk indeed!.

C.S.

For those who want to try it:

(1) “I LOVE IT- (hands on the heart)

(2) “WHEN I’M HAPPY---(arms in the air)

(3) “BUT I HATE IT ---(shake fists in the air)

(4) “WHEN I’M SAD---(look dejected with arms drooping

and held out pleading)

Now have a go and see if you can do it quickly! No/ They couldn’t either!

Radio Events

VINTAGE

NVC 28th September Birmingham Exhibition Centre.

Harpenden 8th June British Vintage Wireless Society

7th Sept: “ “

23rd Nov: “ “

Southborough 26th Oct: “ “

Martello Tower, Seaford, Eastbourne. (01323 89822)

Minster Abbey, c/o Mr Brian Slade, Curator and Author (01795 660077)

Other whole days out, suitable for the whole family.

Amberley (Chalk Pits) Museum, near Arundel (where there is a Castle and good shopping) are having an ‘All Electric Show’ Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th June - suitable for a day out with the children. Apart from all the other items of interest which are Blacksmith’s forge- Pottery - Printing works - Claypipe-maker’s shop - Southdown bus garage - Narrow gauge railway - Road makers’ exhibition - Village garage - Ironmonger’s shop - Estate pump house - Stationary engines - Engineering machine shop - Steam road vehicles - Brickyard drying shed - Lime kilns - Nature trail - Picnic areas - cafe - Gift shop.

There is also an Amateur Radio presence in the form of Vintage, but more mouth-watering, and HF Station where, with permission, and if you take your licence, you can operate it from the wireless operators position in a mock-up of a hybrid \Lancaster/Halifax. It has a full size beam aerial and a Tennamast. (01798 831370 for pamphlets)

Herstmonceux is a site of the former observatory, but now a science park, with six telescopes still useable. With hands-on experiments in science and another Amateur Radio Club who are will, by arrangement, to offer us similar hospitality to Amberley - plus a possible B.B.Q. Internet for extensive details and (01323 832731 for pamphlets and map). Colin - G0POS - 01634 370140 for contact for the radio details at Herstmonceux.

Some interesting facts to make you smile.

If you yelled for 8 years and 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

If you pass wind consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

TIME

Friday 21st February 2003 John G3FTH

Following the lead of my good friend Colin G0POS with his “Talk of a sort” in the recent issue of the Newsletter I give below details of my own talk.

The evening started informally with my reason for giving this talk on ’Time’, the three meanings of time, firstly time, which we work for and get paid for during our working life, secondly the time of ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ and thirdly ‘Doing Time’.

As an opener I said that Colin and I had briefly discussed time zones and this gave me the idea for a talk. I then mentioned the International Date Line and as what happens when crossing the line. It appears that if you are going in a westerly direction the date must be advanced by one day and when going in an easterly direction, the date must be repeated. At this point there was some discussion and eventually I began my real talk.

The earliest type of timekeeper goes back as far as 3500BC and consisted of a vertical stick or an obelisk which cast a shadow and an Egyptian shadow clock of the 8th century BC is still in existence. This was the forerunner of the sundial, which existed, in the 3rd century BC. Other ancient methods of measuring hours in the absence of sunlight included the Chinese practice of burning a knotted rope and noting the length of time required for the fire to travel from one knot to the next.

Devices nearly as old as the shadow clock included the hourglass and the water clock or clepsydra. A flow of water indicated the passage of time and a complicated version was developed with gearing around 270BC by a Greek inventor named Ctesibius. Eventually a weight falling under the force of gravity was substituted for a flow of water, this led in time to a mechanical clocks.

The historical origin of mechanical clocks is obscure, the first recorded examples date from the 13th century. The accuracy of these clocks was no better than half an hour a day. At that time the dial had only one hand which indicated the nearest quarter of an hour. A clock dating from 1386 has been fully restored and is in Salisbury Cathedral.

For navigation an accurate measurement of time was required and when Magellan made the first circumnavigation of the world crossing the Pacific Ocean he did not know his position within a 1000 miles.

On the 4th March 1675 King Charles II appointed a John Flamsteed to be the first Astronomer Royal and later that year the Royal Observatory was established at Greenwich. It was Flamsteed who brought to the King’s notice that errors on astronomical tables could lead to errors in determining longitude of up to 500 miles. So serious was the situation that Parliament offered an award of £20,000 to any manufacturer who could build a satisfactory timepiece. It was another 50 years, when in 1761 John Harrison developed the chronometer, and his 4th prototype was tested on a voyage from Plymouth to Madeira and Jamaica where the error was only 5 seconds, corresponding to an error of 1 mile. Some of these early chronometers are on show at Greenwich.

By the end of the 18th century fairly accurate timepieces were being built. The next event was the coming of the railways in the early part of the 19th century. Up until then towns and villages across the country kept their own local time based on astronomical observations.

With the opening of the Great Western Railway from London to the west country and west Wales they had a particular problem as Penzance and Fishguard were about 5 degrees west of London with a time difference of 20 minutes. This led to the introduction of Railway Time based on London time and before the introduction of the electric telegraph the train guards were issued with accurate watches so all stations down the line could synchronize the station clocks. After the introduction of the electric telegraph time signals were sent at specific times. A similar arrangement was used using undersea cables to other countries. The question of synchronising chronometers on board ship was not solved until 1908 when the U.S. government started transmitting time signals by radio. Other countries followed suit over the years.

Radio research had developed electronic methods of time measurement and with the event of radar in WW2 accuracies of one tenth of microsecond were achieved.

The first Atomic Clock was built at the National Physical Laboratory in 1950 and development has continued to the present day with an accuracy of the order of 1 second in 300,000 years. Atomic time is more consistent than Greenwich Mean Time as G.M.T. is linked to irregularities in the earth’s rotation.

The discrepancy between time generated by atomic standards and G.M.T. required a new timescale to be introduced, this is known as U.T.C. (Co-ordinated Universal Time) U.T.C. uses the length of seconds measured by atomic clocks around the world, then adds or subtracts leap seconds to keep it in synchronism with the earth’s natural time.

There are approximately 40 laboratories around the world with several atomic clocks, these in turn control radio stations which transmit time signals. The one in the U.K. is Rugby which is the primary standard of time and frequency and is monitored by the N.P.L. Rugby has an estimated radiated power of 27KW and the carrier frequency of 60 KHZ is maintained to an accuracy of 2 parts in 10 (to the power of 12).

The quest for accurate measurement of time came about with the need for accurate navigation and with the advances in technology and the atomic clock the Global Positioning System (G.P.S.) has been developed to a degree not possible 50 years ago. G.P.S. uses 24 satellites, each of which continuously transmit their position and time, the user’s receiver notes the arrival time of the signal and from the delay of the transit time is able to compute the distance between satellite and receiver, and by comparing several signal from various satellites is able to determine the position of the user’s receiver. For this kind of accuracy the satellites use atomic clocks which are checked by monitoring stations and corrected as necessary. The accuracy of the G.P.S. system is in the order of one ten millionth of a second and even the cheapest receivers work to accuracy of 50 metres.

Some Valuable Lessons

Dave G7MFW

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs down stairs. When she opens the door, their stands Bob, the next doors neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says," I'll give you 800 dollars to drop that towel that you have on.” After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her 800 dollars and leaves. Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back up stairs. When she gets back to the bathroom, her husband asks from the shower “Who was that?” “It was Bob the next door neighbour,” she replies. “Great,” the husband says, “did he say anything about 800 dollars he owes me?” MORAL OF THE STORY: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk in time with your stakeholders, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

There was a man who had worked all his life and had saved all of his money and was a real miser when it came to his money. he loved money more than just about anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife, “Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with it in the casket with me.” And so he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died, she would put all of the money in the casket with him. Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said, “Wait just a minute!” She had a box with her, she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down, and they rolled away. So her friend said, “Girl, I know you weren’t fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband.” She said, “Listen, I’m a GOOD Woman, I can’t go back on my word. I promised him that I was gonna put that money in that casket with him.” “You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him!!!!?” “ I sure did, “ said the wife. “I wrote him a cheque.” MORAL OF THE STORY: Never Underestimate A Woman.

Diet and Health

For those of you who watch what you eat...... Here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth after those conflicting medical studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks that the British or American.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or American.

3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks that the British or

Americans.

4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks that the

British or Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of sausages and the fats and suffer fewer heart

attacks than the British or Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

The Indispensable Man

By kind permission of Norman M0CGJ

Some item when you’re feeling important,

Some time when your ego’s in bloom,

Some time when you take it for granted,

You’re the best-qualified man in the room,

Some time when you feel that you’re going

Would fill an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions

A see how they humble your soul,

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hands in it up to your wrists,

Pull them out - and the hole that remains

Is the measure of how you’ll be missed?

You may splash all you please when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore

But stop! - And you’ll find in a minute,

That it looks just the same as before.

The moral of this is quite simple:

Do the best that you can:

Be proud of yourself, but remember -

There is no Indispensable Man!

Puzzle Corner

This is not new but can you solve it. Twelve Balls, one is lighter or heavier than the

others. With only a Balance |_________| Which one is it.

Chairman’s Notices.

John G6IVP.

Re: Len Lockyer.

You will already be aware of the news that Len and Marie Lockyer have decided to move and join their family in Norfolk.

Len, G4VRI, has been a member of MARTS for some 20 years or more and during that time has been active in many significant roles. Most notably, Len is a past President of the Society, an office that he filled admirably.

It should not have escaped your notice that it is due to Len’s effort and dedication, over recent years, that the MARTS newsletter has been regularly provided. Many thanks go to Len, for all his hard work as editor and publisher.

Always keen to encourage, help and inspire others, Len’s approach to amateur radio is to enjoy it as both a technical and an entertaining activity. Without doubt, MARTS has been the better because of Len’s presence and whilst we shall miss, we will not forget his friendly contribution to our radio amateur lives.

Re: Gloria Ackerley.

You may also be aware of the news that Gloria and Robin Ackerley are moving away to Cheshire.

Gloria, G3VUN, has been a member of MARTS for many years and is famous as having served a period as the first lady President of the Society. Gloria was also noted for being the regular ‘voice of MARTS’, particularly on Wednesday evening 2 metres MARTS net.

One of Gloria’s special interests is the encouragement and novice training of newcomers to amateur radio, particularly regarding young people, where she has had notable success. She is also a keen morse code enthusiast. That is, when she can find the key or rig! (Gloria is renowned within MARTS for her ready ability to mislay things and that is one of the many things that endear her to us). Teasing apart, all of us at MARTS will miss Gloria’s cheerful and pleasant manner, which we will not forget.

To Len and Marie, and to Gloria and Robin,

As Chairman and on behalf of the whole of MARTS and our associates, I wish you all farewell and much future happiness wherever you go. I hope that through amateur radio we will be able to keep you posted on events at MARTS.

73 and 88 as appropriate, from us all.

Bereavement.

On behalf of the whole MARTS membership I would like to extend our sincere condolences to Cyril Atkins, following the recent bereavement of his wife, Patience.

Several MARTS members attended the funeral and chapel service. Also a card of condolence and floral tribute was sent on the Society’s behalf.

Cyril, I hope you will take some comfort in knowing that your friends at MARTS are here for you at this difficult time. We hope to see you again soon.

MARTS programme of up to end of Sept: 2003

June.

13 Computers with radio amateurs in mind (Part 1) presentation and demo by Kevin

G8VJU.

20 Activity - Audit and checkout of club rigs and equipment.

27 How well do you know BR68? General discussion.

July.

04 Audio and video compression for radio/TV - an introductory talk by John G6IVP

11 Tips on operating HF transceivers - talk and demo by John G3FTH.

18 General and open activities - operate the club rigs.

25 Computers with radio amateurs in mind (Part 2) - presentation and demo by Kevin

G8VJU.

August.

01 The IARU locator system explained and find your own locator reference - presented

John G6IVP

08 Characteristics of Class A, AB and C amplifiers _ explained by George G4INO

15 General and open activities - operate the club rigs.

22 Computers with radio amateurs in mind (Part 3) - presentation and demo by Kevin

G8VJU.

29 Self help if your equipment stops working properly - introduced by John G6IVP and

Alan G1OMH.

September.

05 Auroras - how they occur and what they do - an explanation by Lars Harstad.

12 General and open activities - operate the club rigs.

19 Binary and digital arithmetic for radio amateurs - an instructional talk by Ted M0TED.

26 Computer controlled motor vehicles - an introductory talk by Alan G1OMH.