Michaelmas Term 2023

CUWS will be present at the Freshers Fair on October 3rd and 4th. We hope to enter the CQ WW SSB Contest at the end of October and we plan to use the special callsign GB23YOTA from 1200-1800 on Dec 1st and 2nd. Trips to Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing may be arranged, Information on other future activities will be sent to the email list later in the term.

CUWS Activity in the Michaelmas Term

* Will Vinnicombe M0VWA arranged a short Jamboree on the Air session at the shack for a local scout group in early October. Greetings messages were exchanged with other Jamboree stations.

* Half a dozen potential new members visited the shack in October and borrowed copies of the licence exam books.

* Dan McGraw M0WUT ran a couple of technical sessions at Caius College covering the remote controlled radio station project and the use of oscilloscopes, signal generators, and vector network analysers for RF measurements.

* Temporary LF antennas have been erected near the shack. We have a 4 element steerable phased array for 7MHz and a single quarter wave vertical antenna for 3.6MHz. These will be removed by the end of March so the University Farm can cut hay for their cattle.

* We entered the CQWW SSB contest using our special callsign M4A at the end of October and made 3743 contacts. The claimed score was 4,689,314 and it looks like we probably won our Multi-op 2-Transmitter category for England.

* Past Chair, William M0WJE, entered the CQWW CW (morse code) contest in November with his own call and claimed just over 400,000 points.

* The special youth callsign GB22YOTA was used from the shack on December 2nd and 3rd and over 800 contacts were made around the world. The call is still available at various times until the end of the month if any member (or guest) under the age of 26 wishes to use it. Detailed availability is shown on qrz.com against the GB22YOTA callsign.

* Various special 1920s callsigns are available for all RSGB+CUWS members to book and use from the shack to commemorate the first 2-way trans-Atlantic contacts on HF. One also marks the first use of radio from a moving train! See https://rsgb.org/main/activity/transatlantic-tests/

* Finally the shack has been used recently for a number of 3-4hr short contests including:

– 70MHz AFS (6th out of 19)

– 50MHz AFS (3rd out of 16)

– 1.8MHz AFS (6th out of 65) Congratulations to club member Rob M0VFC who went out portable and won this event.

– Sadly the shack location is not very competitive on VHF/UHF because of screening by Madingley Hill to the south-west but we can still get out well to Scotland and continental Europe. The 50MHz contest performance was boosted by some sudden Sporadic E propagation to the south-east.

“Shacktivity” Oct 15th/16th

It was a busy weekend at the G6UW shack. Firstly we had a visit from Greg MD0IGD a few years after graduating.

 

 

 

On Saturday afternoon Will Vinnicombe prepared for a visit by Bourn Scouts for Jamboree on the AIr. Greetings messages were exchanged with stations in Ontario, Chicago, and Oporto – including with another scout team.

On Sunday morning Dan M0WUT and Martin G3ZAY operated G6UW in the 50MHz AFS contest. For most of the time there was just a little tropospheric propagation up to about 400kms but 30 minutes from the end there was some Sporadic E which yielded about a dozen contacts into central and southern Italy.

Finally on Sunday afternoon a team of 8 members erected a 40m 4-square phased array and a single 80m quarter wave vertical in the adjacent field.

Michaelmas Term 2022

Welcome back to Cambridge for the new term. The CUWS website calendar page has been updated to show a range of planned events coming up. For most of them please contact Martin via g3zay@btinternet.com for more information. For the technical/construction evenings on Oct 18th and 27th please contact Dan via dan.m0wut@gmail,com. There will be more information via our email lists in due course. To be added to a list you can either apply online through the university system or just email chair@g6uw.org. We have soc-cuws-active for those with a confirmed interest and soc-cuws-interested for those who would simply like more information.

 

CUWS 100th Anniversary Dinner

The delayed (by Covid) 100th anniversary Dinner was held at Gonville and Caius College on Friday April 1st and was attended by 29 members and partners. Unfortunately several had to drop out at the last minute due to positive Covid tests. Covid lockdowns and delays meant that this was in effect the 101.5th anniversary of the formation of the Society at Caius College in 1920.

As so many people were unable to make the 2022 event we will be holding another Dinner on Friday March 10th 2023 – also at Gonville and Caius. 

Pictures below by G7VJR (blurring due to very low light levels):

View of dining table at CUWS DInner at Caius

 

CUWS Enters 1st 2022 YOTA Contest

The team made 316 QSOs in the 1st round of the 2022 YOTA Contest. Conditions weren’t great during the day and there were very few contest stations on 40m. Most QSOs were made on 20m.

The first shift was Dan M0WUT and Daniel M0TKU.

Then Edwin M0RNN:

Then Charlie M0ZCJ and Nicholas M0NHC.

Mark M0UBS.

And guest op Henry-James M7HJR.

CUWS Activates GB21YOTA for Youngsters On The Air Month

Seven CUWS operators: M0IPY M0RNN M0ZCJ M0TKU M0WUT M0UXP and M7BBR made 800 SSB QSOs using the special callsign GB21YOTA on December 3rd and 4th. One operating position was dedicated to 20m using the SteppIR and the other to 40/80 using verticals.

CUWS Chair Nikolas M0IPY was one of the first ops:

 

 

 

 

 

He was joined by Edwin M0RNN:

Day Two saw the arrival of Charlie M0ZCJ Anna M7BBR and DanielM0TKU:

And the final shift was Dan M0WUT and Stephen M0UXP:

M4A in CQWW SSB Contest

A team of 15 operators including 2 undergraduates, 11 alumni of various vintages, and 2 guests operated M4A in the multi-op single-transmitter category over the last weekend in October. Conditions were excellent with worldwide propagation up to 10m. Approximately 3500 contacts were made for a score of just under 4M points.

Aerials at M4A

Welcome Back for Michaelmas 2021

Welcome back for Michaelmas Term 2021. If you would like to receive more information about CUWS please email Chair@g6uw.org and ask to be added to our email list. Activities have been at a low level for the last 18 months due to Covid but we hope to reintroduce some meetings later this term. The radio shack remains fully available 24/7 and we will be doing a number of contests there during the term. Some are weekday evenings and others at weekends. Check the online calendar for more information. If you are interested in the radio licensing exams please email g3zay@btinternet.com. All exams are available online with remote invigilation and CUWS can lend you the exam manuals.

CUWS Members in YOTA Contests

The first two YOTA Contests took place in May and July. During the first event 5 members used the club’s short contest call M4A. Ops included Anna M7BBR, William M0WJE, Dan M0WUT, Daniel M0TKU and Charlie M0ZCJ.

Dan and Charlie operating.

William and Daniel operating.

For the second contest Nikolas M0IPY, Daniel M0TKU, Edwin M0RNN and Vasily M0VMA used their own callsigns sequentially.

Nikolas M0IPY

Daniel M0TKU

Edwin M0RNN

Vasily M0VMA

The final event will be December 30th if anyone is around. CUWS also plans to participate in YOTA month with the GB21YOTA callsign in early December.