March Meeting Report

The annual Constructors’ Exhibition, held on Thursday 17th March, was well attended considering it was race week in Cheltenham and the consequential heavy traffic.

Ten exhibits were on display, ranging from the large to the small, from the complex to the simple. It was pleasing to see such a wide range of excellent exhibits showing that home construction is still alive and well among CARA members.

The Bill Brown G5BK Memorial Cup for “Best in Show” went to Keith G3XGW for his recently built 1930s 0-V-1 TRF(Tuned Radio Frequency) receiver using components from that era. 0-V-1 indicates that the receiver had no RF stage, a detector (V) and one AF stage. It was a fine piece of home construction which looked looked very authentic and so it well merited the Best in Show award.

The Pat Moore G3IKR Memorial Cup for “Innovative Construction” went to John G8CQX for his stereo code processor using a home constructed and built PCB. The processor feeds left and right signals to stereo earphones which gives the impression that the signal is moving from left to right, or from right to left, as the receiver is tuned across the signal. A very useful technique for separating closely spaced CW signals. An excellent adaption of a technique first developed many years ago.

The Roger Kendall G0UPU Memorial Cup for best software and computer related project went to Rich M0XRB for his remote controlled station set-up. Rich demonstrated how he could control and operate his remote station using an iPad and a DJ console. The station consisted of a Flex-6400 SDR transceiver with a Palstar auto-ATU and a 122m wire loop above a metal roof; the station being controlled by a Raspberry Pi. A very impressive set-up well worthy of the award.

Congrats to the three winners and many thanks to all the exhibitors for helping to put on such a good show,