August September 2018 - Commco

1 August September 2018 PEARS Pizza evening on the 27th of July 2018 at the Italian Sporting Club. Photo by Beavan ZS2RL This Newsletter is published by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society Box 10402, LINTON GRANGE, 6015 Editing by Eric ZS2 ECH QSX-PE - Newsletter for the discerning Radio Ham Download QSX-PE from or PE-QSX page 2 PEARS Monthly Meeting 7:30 pm at the Italian Sporting Club, 17 Harold Road, Charlo. Tuesday 21st of August 2018 Tuesday 18th of September 2018 DIARY OF EVENTS 1 August October RAE classes start 5 August SARL SSB Contest 9 August SARL YL Sprint 11 12 August Trans Baviaans - First Weekend 18 19 August International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend 18 19 August Trans Baviaans - Second Weekend 19 August SARL Digital Contest 21 August PEARS monthly meeting 26 August SARL CW Contest 1 2 Sept Ironman World Champs 9 September SARL National Field Day 15 September SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest 15-16 September Africa All Mode International DX

2 Contest 18 September PEARS monthly meeting 4 October SARL 80 m QSO Party 6 October Antique Wireless Association Valve AM QSO Party 7 October Antique Wireless Association Valve SSB QSO Party 13 October SARK Spring QRP Contest 16 October PEARS monthly meeting 19 21 Oct Jamboree-on-the-Air/CQ Hou Koers 28 October The Pears HF DX Contest 25 Nov 5150 Triathlon Louis Jordaan ZS2EN was admitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke. He s currently at the Aurora Hospital for rehabilitation. We wish him a speedy recovery. PE-QSX page 3 SHORT RANGE VHF ANTENNAS - PART 3 BY AL AKERS ZS2U One way of Impedance matching is by using a quarter wave parallel line.

3 With the bottom end shorted, the top end will exhibit an impedance of several thousand ohms which will match the high impedance at the bottom of the antenna. The feedline is connected a short way up from the bottom of the line where it has an impedance of 50 Ohms. At the top of the line, one leg is connected to the antenna and the other leg is open-circuit. This antenna is known as the J antenna. Connection of one leg only to the antenna results, unfortunately, in an unbalance on the line and some radiation from it, and combined with radiation from the antenna, causes uplifting of the radiation pattern.

4 Where a half wave antenna would normally provide 1,8 DB over a quarter wave, it is effectively cancelled out by this unbalance. In April 1978 the Late FC Judd, C2 BCX published an article on the Slim Jim antenna in a magazine called Out of thin air , and the antenna became quite popular. Some amateurs believed that it had a 3DB gain over a dipole. In Judd s article there are some questionable statements made. The Slim Jim is simply a folded dipole version of the J antenna and suffers from the same problem of uplifting. Tests I conducted confirmed this.

5 In an article which appeared in the November 2001 issue of the RSGB Radcom Publication, Ian White, G3 SEK did a computer analysis of the Slim Jim which proved that it is no better than the J antenna, in fact it is slightly worse. ** There are five transmitters all identical in appearance. It was known that three of them had very rough tones and that two of them has pure tones, but no-one knew which was which. Three hams took one transmitter each at random, leaving two behind. In due course, they had a three-way QSO, but tone reports were very carefully omitted.

6 Furthermore, none of them had any means of monitoring his own transmission so that each had heard only the other two. They all met back at the store where they got the transmitters. The storekeeper asked ZS1 what was the tone of your own transmission? He replied from the information available to me it is impossible for me to know . So the storekeeper asked ZS2 the same question and ZS2 gave a similar reply to ZS1. Then he asked ZS3 who gave the correct answer. What was the tone of ZS3 s transmission and what was his logical process of deduction? PE-QSX page 4 Winston churchill loved paraprosdokians, figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected.

7 Where there's a will, I want to be in it. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on my list. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. War does not determine who is right - only who is left. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. They begin the evening news with 'Good Evening,' then proceed to tell you why it isn't. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. I thought I wanted a career.

8 Turns out, I just wanted pay checks. In filling out an application, where it says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put "DOCTOR." I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

9 There's a fine line between cuddling someone down so they can't get away. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure. You're never too old to learn something stupid. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. I'm supposed to respect my elders, but now it s getting harder and harder for me to find one. PE-QSX page 5 ZS2 SPRINT Results (22 July 2018) 1.

10 ZS5 MAX 73 POINTS 2. ZS5 DCF 67 POINTS 3. ZS4 JAN 60 POINTS 4. ZS3WL 59 POINTS 5. ZS2 MAC 57 POINTS 6. ZS2PE 51 POINTS 7. ZS1DK 49 POINTS 8. ZS1LL 38 POINTS 9. V51PJ 36 POINTS 10. ZS2 AAR 32 POINTS 11. ZS6 ARQ 31 POINTS 12. ZS5X 30 POINTS 13. ZS6 AKU 19 POINTS 14. ZS6 MMA 19 POINTS 15. ZS5 GMW 18 POINTS 16. ZS6 ANT 12 POINTS South African Radio League YL Sprint SOUTH AFRICA WOMEN'S DAY 9th August 2018 1. Aim This is a fun activity to celebrate Women s Day between radio amateurs in South Africa.