| The Crawley Microwave Round Table is the "Friendly
One" among the several such meetings held elsewhere in the UK each year.
Held at the Crawley Amateur Radio Club in Sussex,
South East England,it has a very welcoming atmosphere, more like a club
meeting than what we have known at other venues.
The photo on the left shows the extensive antenna
system with the club hut to the left of the mast. The hut is one of over
30 in a recreational area on the edge of town. |
|
|
The club is well endowed with equipment and catering
facilities as thos photo shows. Activities stretch from 136kHz to well
into the microwave spectrum and includes participation in major amateur
radio contests each year.
Each year the club hosts a microwave meeting and
this is attended by amateurs mainly from the south and south eastern area
of the country. |
| This year I decided to attend as, sadly, I had
a van load of "Silent Key" radio gear belonging to the late G3KEU to dispose
of. What you see here is just a small proportion of what I brought down
to the meeting and only about 10% of G3KEU's total amount of equipment!
Tim was a prolific home constructor and had "tons" of components and surplus
items of equipment. |
|
Seen here are: Mike, G3LYP(seated)
Jack, G3JMB(checked shirt)and Chris, G0FDZ(on
right) |
Jack,G3JMB, now over 80 years of age, is a regular
portable operator in the UK 10GHz Cumulative Contests. His wife Margaret
often goes along and helps with the 2m antenna rotation!
Chris, G0FDZ, is a beacon keeper for several microwave
beacons as well as the well-known GB3VHF 144.430MHz beacon. He is a keen
contest operator and makes an annual summer expedition to various parts
of the UK, such as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man to give others
the opportunity of making microwave contacts with those rare locations
pn all bands from 1296MHz up to 24GHz. |
| With his back to us in the photo on the right
is Ron, G2DSP, another Old Timer who has a long history of microwave opering
and construction. Not able to go out portable these days he neverthless
retains a keen interest and listens from home whenever possible. |
|
|
To the left we see Ted, G4ELM chatting microwaves
with Mike, G3LYP |
| Grant, G8UBN, brought along some of the microwave
items he markets through his business G.H. Engineering. he is well known
for an series of excellent solid state amplifiers for 1296MHz.
He also gave a most interesting lecture on some
of the most recent microwave devices, such as Hittite mixers, that are
now available and showed the design of a 24GHz transverter using double
conversion techniques with the minimum of components and only one filter! |
|
| Another lecture, on digital communications, was
given by Andy Talbot, G4JNT. He was preceded by David Bowman,G0MRF, who
presented the Gemini 2.4GHz downconverter, developed by himself and Sam,
G4DDK.
The meeting ended with a review of UK microwave
activity during the past year. |
MANY THANKS CRAWLEY!
|
