4.
7. Some Interesting Press Cuttings.
Here is the long awaited news from your committee. We have been very busy since the A.G.M. At our first committee meeting the following was decided:-
Kevin Earl G8VJU President
Ken Gibbons G1JYT Vice President
Cyril Atkins G7MPZ Chairperson
John Hale G3FTH Treasurer
Pauline Odle 2E1HRY Secretary
Brian Moran M1ALD Committee Member
George Morris G4INO Committee Member
Norman Speary M0CGJ Committee Member
Since then, we have investigated items of concern mentioned
at the A.G.M. The main item was the security of the car park. We have
investigated the concerns of members have concerning the weekly meetings at the
Tunbury Hall. We have also investigated and visited other halls in the Medway
area. Due to there location, costs, or facilities were found unsuitable for our
needs. We have also been informed that the problems we have at Tunbury Hall
seem to generally found at most locations. Unfortunately, it is a sad sign of
the times we live in. We are therefore looking into what can be done with
regard to the Tunbury Hall car park. Kevin Earl G8VJU (President) is currently
discussing this issue with the Hall committee on our committee’s behalf.
Thank you to all the members who have completed the
questionnaire. It has been very useful and the results will be advised shortly.
A notice board will continue to be displayed weekly at the Hall. Please read
items on this to keep up with current news. The first few items to watch for is
our meeting at Duxford on Sunday 23rd September, and there are also
details of a CQ Competition, a possible visit to Harpenden Antique Radio, and
details of Dover Radio Fair on Sunday 7th October 2001.
We are currently getting a weekly programme together again.
Watch the notice board for details. If you know of anyone who can give a
half-hour talk on a subject that might interest members please let Pauline
2E1HRY know.
If you are interested
in the visits to places of interest, please read carefully the items on the
notice board and put your name down on the lists. Should you have any questions
speak to
Many members were keen
to go on occasional trips to places of interest. The most popular destination
was
If you do not have
your own transport, the Committee will try to arrange for another member to
take you. A charge of £6.00 will be made for those needing a lift to contribute
towards fuel costs. (This transport fee will be payable before September 21st).
Please note your entrance fee would be in addition to this. We hope there will
be enough members interested to get a discount group rate.
If you are interested
in joining us at this event please sign the list on the notice board in the
Hall. If you have any questions regarding this event speak to
The item in RSGB Matters in July perhaps did not make clear the full situation on the £81 licence fee issue. Some months ago, the RSGB was informed that the RA was undertaking a survey of radio spectrum users. This survey, conducted by the economists in the RA, gave the rsgb great concern, and we expressed our concerns to the RA at the time. We received assurances that we should not be concerned.
When the survey
results were published, we were as surprised as anyone to see the £81 figure
mentioned. The Society immediately wrote to the RA, registering in strong terms
our concern about the implications of the report. We were particularly
concerned about the coincident timing of a Treasury-led further review of spectrum
pricing, and the publication of this RA report. The Society has received
assurances from the Agency Chief Executive that the £81 does not represent
Agency policy.
Let me reassure all
members that the RSGB will continue to resist any attempts by the RA to
escalate the costs of an amateur licence.
With reference to the
above, I note that in the current issue of Radcom ’Board Highlights’, July, and
I quote.
The board noted the
progress of discussions with the RA on a new structure of licensing, and the
possible improvements to the privileges of existing licence categories. It is
hoped that there will be an early announcement.
On the question of an announcement it would appear that included in the information about the Society’s new amateur radio demonstration vehicle, that this vehicle will be the star attraction at the Leicester Show and will figure as the focal point at mid-day on the 21st September, when the RA will announce important changes to the UK amateur radio licensing structure.
With apparent loss of the two Kent Radio Rallies the two
We have realised that
the structure of rallies leave something to be desired. The organisers seem to
have lost sight of the fact that the most important people are the ‘traders’
and not profit. We hope to go some way in rectifying that state of affairs.
The cost of organising
a ‘rally’ is not cheap. And funding has to come from somewhere. We are
proposing that table hire is set at £6.00, which will include admission for two
people, however you may get that back in ’ kind’!! That all depends on how well we are supported. Entry fee to
the hall will £1.00 per person.
The idea is that when
all the accounting is done the profits are split. The two radio clubs will take
a third each for their effort and the remaining third will be divided per table
hired. This will be held and deducted from your table hire at the next
We hope this will
become a yearly event, but if the demand is such we may well hold one every six
months. The venue will be Whitfield Village Hall, which can easily accommodate
22 tables, it is very easy to find and has excellent parking facilities
alongside. The date
Please support us and
have a table or two, if not
“Gypsy Moth Circles the World”
I wonder how much more speed I should have made, if I had
not got the high-powered radiotelephone on board and did not have to use it.
(75W.Marconi Kestrel) My log is full of entries such as this; “Long RT contact
with
Apart from the effort of transmitting and writing out
reports, there was the matter of the great weight which was carried to operate
the telephone.
There was the weight of the radiotelephone itself, which
was four feet above the water line and therefore badly placed for stability.
Then there was the very heavy batteries, the alternator for charging the
batteries at high amperage, fuel for the charging motor, earthing plates down
to the keel of the boat, two backstays rigged with large insulators top and
bottom for transmitting aerials. On top of all this was the negative effect of
transmitting.
Time after time I would delay sail settings because a
radiotelephone schedule was coming up during the next hour.
Altogether the effect on the performance of the boat was
considerable. I was fagged out and I grew worried by fits of intense
depression. Often I could not stand up without holding something and wondering
if there was something wrong with my balancing nerves.
I felt weak, thin and somehow wasted and I had a sense of
immense space, empty of any spiritual-----what? I didn’t know. I only knew that
it made for intense loneliness and a feeling of hopelessness, as if faced with
imminent doom.
When I got up next morning, I found that I could not stand
on my legs without support, just as if I had emerged from hospital after three
months in bed. I was exhausted after a long struggle with the radio on the
previous evening, and a long drawn out battle with the main sale during the
night finished me off.
On November 9th I was transmitting to Cape Town
for The Guardian and got half way through my message when the lead came off the
aerial. I was still able to hear the operator and he could hear a few words
from me, which I think was amazing with no aerial at all, and a 2,500-mile
transmission.
The writer of
this extract, Jim Nolan, G0HHQ, has this comment.
Francis Chichester arrived in Sidney, Australia on December
12th 1996, after 107 days at sea, His single-handed non-stop voyage
from Plymouth to Sydney must be accepted as an amazing feat of skill and
endurance in mountainous seas in the Southern Ocean. He received a tumultuous
welcome in Sydney and was given all necessary help and assistance in preparing
Gypsy Moth IV for the continuation of his voyage around the dreaded Cape Horn,
against the advice of ‘Experts’.
En-route to the Horn he suffered a capsize and estimated
from marks on the cabin deck-head (ceiling) made by flying bottles, that the
mast had dipped 41 degrees below the horizontal.
His circumnavigation is now history but is emulated by
others. Some have recently sailed the wrong way round, against the westerly
wind, but in much larger boats with crews of sixteen, who pay for the
punishment.
For his brave or foolhardy action, Her Majesty knighted him
at Greenwich. He was fully aware of the prevailing conditions en-route to the
Horn and was brave enough to risk the voyage.
I met him several times at Baden Powell House in London when
I retired with several Arethusa boys each year, for tea and cake after lectures
at the Institute of Navigation. He was a very ordinary person and was quite
modest about his adventures both at sea and in the air.
His wife was very concerned about his health, which
suffered during each voyage. His cumbersome Marconi Kestrel 75 W radiotelephone
equipment, together with his financial press contract to transmit reports,
caused more frustration than he had estimated. The general design of the boat
and it’s self-steering equipment caused many sleepless nights and strenuous
days.
The Japanese black-box industry, if active in the early
sixties, missed a golden opportunity to advertise its wares.
It would be interesting to know what rigs the modern Cape
Horner’s use and how they perform
. Some interesting Press Cutting
From
your Editors collection.
Taken
from the menu at a Restaurant in London E15:
“Fried
calamities on a bed of salad with tartar dressing.”
Cop out
From
East End Life:
“Toby
Harris welcomed the fall in total offences in London,
but
said more needed to be done to reduce robbery, violence
and
detection rates.”
Tongue and groove
From
the Leamington Observer:
“Access
to the loft via a sliding adder.”
Downpage filler
Spotted
on a billboard for the Hastings and St Leonards Observer:
“Boy
found in Sandwich”
Vital feature
From
an ad in the Birmingham Post:
“This
development offers secure parking, life access...”
Only Yew
From the Rhyl Prestatyn Visitor.
“Llangernyw is home to the oldest yew tree in the world.
The
tree is aged over 4000 years and only younger than a
Similar
specimen in Scotland”.
Blooming lodgers
From
the Henley Standard:
“Mr
Haughton tends the tree-acre garden himself, but admits
he never
has to dig the boarders.”
From
the Macclesfield Express:
“The group
have launched a service under which volunteers
visit
homes to help with tail cutting and basic footcare for
elderly
people.”
Full-bodied
From
the Farnham Herald:
“With the
summer months still with us, more aluminium drink
cans are
consumed.”
Editors Comment
I am sorry this issue is not quite so large as usual; I think that many other things have occupied member’s time during the last two months, holidays, home improvements, sickness, attention to family matters.
Perhaps the next two months will prove more beneficial to
the content of your ‘Newsletter’. I hope so, I do bring to the notice of
members items, which have had an airing in other mediums, because, I think that
they seem to be items, which have a bearing on the future of the hobby.