News
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- Written by: Ken Gibson
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From The President's Corner
Those of you with long memories may remember that this used to be a monthly column appearing in the MSARS Newsletter but I find that the last time it appeared was on the 10/09/2020 when I wrote about the emerging threat of Covid which had made it impossible for us to continue meeting at Cyprus Hall.
I reminded members that the MSARS HF, VHF and UHF nets were the way we should keep in touch and I am pleased to note that all these nets are still flourishing and new technology has added Zoom and other digital methods to enable members to continue to contact each other.
The Newsletter has been replaced by our own website under Berni M0XYF and this includes not only notes on current matters and our Programme for 2022 but is a repository for old articles, photos and videos going back years.
Berni has spent countless hours developing the site and it’s now one of the best websites I’ve seen anywhere and members should make it a habit to refer to it regularly. If you are reading this article you’ve already logged on but if you don’t do so you will not become aware of what MSARS are planning.
To all readers I send my best wishes for a Healthy and Peaceful Christmas and 2022. I will continue to run the HF nets as long as I can and urge all members to regularly participate in one or more MSARS nets until we are allowed to meet at Cyprus Hall once again free of all restrictions.
As I’ve said many times before MSARS is our Radio Club. Let’s all enjoy it!
73 es 88
Ken G3WYN
President MSARS
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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Everyone's understandably fed up hearing about it by now, but yes, from today (Friday 10th December) all meetings at Cyprus Hall will mean the wearing of face coverings once again - including in the toilets and kitchen area. So just to be clear, if you encounter masked people in the toilets, there's probably no cause for alarm.
Next Friday (17th) is the last meeting of 2021. The dates for 2022 are already on the website events calendar (well, those for the first quarter at least, I'll be adding the rest soon) so feel free to take a look. You need to click the 'Following Year' button to view them right now.
There was no GB3HY net this week. Not sure why, but quite a few of us spent an amusing evening on Zoom putting the world to rights, and I will endeavour to continue the Zoom nets throughout the festive period. Join us if your relatives are getting a bit too much and you need some anarchic radio chat in your life.
73
Berni M0XYF
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All in the title. +/- QRM, the net is trying out the conditions on the 15m band as solar cycle 25 progresses. The net will return to its normal frequency of 14.345MHz +/- QRM on Monday.
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All good members of the Society, and prospective new members for 2022.
I would like to make a direct appeal to you all to use the new online membership application system that I've produced.
Yes, the tried and tested paper form method is still available because the club simply cannot afford to have members not joining because the form has gone digital, but here's the thing. We need to electronically capture your details for several reasons, the most obvious of which for me is that I'll need to have a database with everyone's email address on if I'm going to stand a chance of fixing the less than ideal communication situation the club has found itself in over the past two or three years.
I haven't had a chance to research all the potential solutions to this issue yet, but I can guarantee that it's not going to revolve around dog-eared bits of paper.
What that means is that for everyone that goes down the paper form route, muggins here is going to have to get hold of them all from Mike and type them into the form myself. That's kind of adding insult to injury when I've just spent over 40 hours of my time building a robust and safe system for collecting your data.
Both our President and Vice President have already filled in the online form with no problem, so please, use the new form and feel free to leave me any feedback on how you found the process. I've trawled through loads of other UK clubs and societies looking at membership processes, and I'm totally convinced that ours is now the best system that I've come across and it doesn't cost the Society a penny.
OK, so I've begged and I've ranted, now it's over to you.
I will be sending out an email communication to all existing members reminding them of membership renewals in the near future.
Stay safe, and have a good Christmas 
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Ken Gibson
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Most of you will know that the HF antenna at Cyprus Hall needs the 300Ω feedline repairing again following yet another break at gutter level and whilst this can be done it seemed sensible to consider if a different antenna might be more suitable and prove more long lasting.
After discussion amongst those members used to HF operations and with the help and assistance of Phil G4UDU it was decided that an end fed ½ wave antenna could be constructed that avoided the use of 300Ω feedline entirely and would fit between the existing poles on the roof of Cyprus hall.
Such an antenna could be matched on all HF bands using the MFJ tuner we already possess. The feedpoint would be at the end of the building nearest to the car park and would incorporate a matching unit which would act as the junction between the antenna wire and a coaxial cable (possibly mini 8) which would then be routed along with the VHF and UHF coaxial feeders into the shack. There would also be a small loading coil at the far end of the antenna near to the entrance in Cyprus Hall.
No more 300Ω feedline getting caught in the gutters, no more junctions between 300Ω line and coax subject to wind and rain. This proposition has been agreed with your Committee and a robust version of the antenna has now been constructed and will be tested on all HF bands at all power levels up to 400 watts before being installed hopefully in the very near future.
The installation of this new antenna will enable the HF transceivers at Cyprus Hall to put out a much better signal than the present arrangement. Much work has been done on this project but it does need MSARS members to use the new antenna or we shall have wasted our time. Remember, as I’ve said before MSARS is a radio club so let’s hear it on the air every time we have a meeting at Cyprus hall.
Ken Gibson
G3WYN
President, MSARS
