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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
CUWS was formed on October 13th 1920 so we are now 100 years old. We had planned a birthday dinner at Caius (our place of birth) in a couple of weeks time but Covid-19 put paid to that. Tentatively we hope to have a 101st birthday dinner on Saturday November 6th 2021. Please let Martin G3ZAY know if you are interested in attending – g3zay@btinternet.com.
Trevor Gill G8IBO found an interesting academic article about the early days of CUWS written by Jeff Hughes from Manchester University. You can read it online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv550d3p.17?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Trevor has also prepared a shorter history of CUWS based on Jeff’s and other material. 100 years of CUWS
Martin G3ZAY 22/10/2020
The CUWS Team achieved first place for England (and the UK) in the multi-op single transmitter category. Normal antennas at the shack were supplemented with a 40m 4-square, 80m vertical, and 15m monobander on a SCAM 12 tower (Tnx M0LCM).
Six members of the Society and one guest were active from the western Sovereign Base Area on Cyprus from 2-8 January 2020. A record (for CUWS) 26,000 QSOs were made from 160-15 metres (including a handful on 12/10/6). Modes used were CW, SSB, and RTTY. The team used 4 Elecraft K3/KPA500 stations and one KX3/Juma combination. The antennas were: 160m inverted L, 80m quarter wave, 40m quarter wave, 30m ground plane, 20m ground plane, 17m vertical dipole, 15m vertical dipole. For 60m either the 160 or 80 metre antenna was used. The QTH was a beach cafe that had closed for the winter. The team picture is below. Ops from left to right were: Michael G7VJR, Rob M0VFC, Simon G7SOZ, Martin G3ZAY, Stavros 5B4AFM / M0BBB, Dan M0WUT and Dom M0BLF.
CUWS hosted two 8 hour slots in the December activation of GB19YOTA for Youngsters on the Air. 1000 QSOs were made, mainly on 40 and 20 metres CW and SSB.
Dan M0WUT kicked things off on 20m CW:
He was joined shortly afterwards by Charlie M0ZCJ on 40 SSB:
Next up was Nikolas M0IPY on 20m SSB:
And William M0WJE on 40m SSB (20m CW later):
William introduced Jared KC1LZJ to the sound of the bands from this side of the pond:
And Aly M0WSE finished off on 20m SSB:
Cambridge University Engineering Dept, LR6, 1900 on 28/11/19
Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, of the Cavendish Laboratory, will address the Society on his research.
Image credit SKA Organisation/Swinburne Astronomy Productions
One of the missing pieces in the puzzle of the history of the Universe is the transition from the Dark Ages after the Big Bang, when the Universe was an empty vast volume, to the complex realm of galaxies, starts, etc. that we can observe from Earth today. In this lecture, Dr de Lera Acedo will give an overview of the current efforts (some of them led from Cambridge) to observe and study the very early lights of our cosmos. Low-frequency radio telescopes, aiming at observing the signature signal from Hydrogen in the early Universe, are widely considered the prime tool to unveil the remaining mysteries around the formation and early evolution of the first luminous objects in the sky. Dr de Lera Acedo will talk about the science case named 21-cm radio cosmology and the different current (eg. REACH, HERA) and future (eg. SKA) experiments and observatories dedicated to this mission.