The Martlesham Round Table, held on the 8th November, was a huge success with well over 80 microwavers in attendance, some from far and wide ..... USA, Germany, France, Belgium as well as the UK.
You had to be there early to get the bargains at the Bring & Buy stand! G3PHO arrived at 0945, after a 200 mile drive, only to find he had left all of his money on the shack bench back home in Sheffield! By the time the cash machine at a nearby supermarket had provided some “readies”, a 250mW 10GHz PA had gone to a pal for only £5. Maybe an all-night camp on the doorstep is called for next year!
Overseas visitors included F4FAY and his wife, Freddie ON6UG, Paul N6TX,
Dave WW2R(aka G4FRE), and Michael Kuhne DB6NT.
Michael displayed some of the excellent modules for which he is known
world wide. Of particular interest was his new 10GHz transverter,
self contained in a small tinplate box and producing 200mW output.
The test bench was heavily used and some “traffic congestion” ensued,
such that a few people did not get all the testing they wanted. Perhaps
we need a separate test event?
A high standard of talks was arranged by the organisers: After a welcome by Graham Murchie, G4FSG, President of the Martlesham Amateur Radio Society, G8EMX gave an excellent talk on amateur microwave TV.
This was followed by an update on 24 and 47GHz by Steve, G4KNZ.
John,
G8ACE then described his experiments and results with 24GHz RF amplifiers.
John’s work is quite outstanding as he does not admit to being a technical
boffin! He has developed a series of PA stages for the 24GHz band using
cheap (under £3 each) NEC 325 series devices. Modules has been designed
around Wilkinson dividers/combiners to produce 125mW, 250mW and 500mW,
the half watt one using no less than eight transistors! These amplifiers
created much interest at the Round Table test bench... 500mW on 24GHz is
QRO these days! John will be putting an article together for the RSGB Microwave
Newsletter so please be patient!
A lively discussion on the 1999 microwave contests took place, led by G3PHO. As a result of the majority agreement for the proposed schedule and rules, he was able to make a final draft ready for Committee approval in late November. Full contest information will be published in the December '98 RSGB Microwave Newsletter and on this website..
In the afternoon we were once again treated to a fine lecture by Freddie,
ON6UG, on the subject of the P3D satellite.
Dave Robinson, G4FRE/WW2R, gave us an interesting talk, in his own inimitable style, about microwaving in the USA. This young man has certainly gone a long way in the past few years!
With
no disrespect to the aforementioned speakers, the highlight of the day,
for me at any rate, was the fascinating talk (and folksongs!) on the
Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, given by Paul Shuch,
N6TX. He explained how the world wide network of SETI observers has
developed and how they use receiving equipment on the “hydrogen line” frequency,
1420MHz, to listen for any unusual and unidentifiable signals from space.
Many of us already have antennas and other equipment to do this! Some unusual
signals have been heard and there is at least one that cannot be explained!
The truth is out there, somewhere.......
An innovation at Martlesham this year were the "door prizes". Visitors' names were pulled out of a hat and you could then go up to the table to choose any prize displayed. Charlie Suckling, G3WDG, seemed to know something the rest of us did not, as he and his family won a total of five prizes... one each! (We wonder if he could win the National Lottery for us!)
If you want more information on SETI, The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence just click on this icon.
Thanks to all concerned for a great event....
Peter, G3PHO
