G3NPF and M1AIM    

FACTS AND FIGURES

In 1999, Tony and Anne moved to a location within the parish of Washington, close to the small town of Storrington.   There are many radio amateurs in this area and there is a photo of our house in the Picture Gallery.

This area is part of Horsham District and, until April 2003, was covered by the parishes of Storrington, Sullington, Washington, Thakeham and Ashington.   However, the parish boundaries have been changed, such that the area including our house and the other properties in the vicinity, are now part of the new Heath Common Ward of Washington Parish.   All these towns and villages are located in the county of West Sussex.

Our house is located in QTH Locator Square IO90TW and Great Britain is located in CQ Magazine's European Region, Zone 14 and ITU Region 1, Zone 27.   Select Locator and Zone Maps to view how these worldwide location systems compare.   All three are currently in use by the Amateur Radio Service, with the last of the three also applying to all other Radio Broadcasting and Communication Services.   Unfortunately there is no real compatibility between these systems.

A regularly updated map showing the QTH locator squares and countries worked by G3NPF on 50MHz is available by selecting the squares and countries worked map.   This map shows the squares and countries worked since moving to the present QTH in July 1999.

So you think you know the Q-Codes?   Then take a look at the list compiled by Jim, G4RGA, which gives the meanings of the 254 codes, out of a possible 676, that have been officially assigned meanings.   We have also included the 27 that have been assigned unofficial meanings by the ARRL, together with alternative meanings for 5 others defined by Robert Harris in his book "Enigma" and some groups used by the Russian Military and by the German Police.   There are three other "four-letter Q-Codes" that are not recognised in official lists but are used by the Amateur Radio Service and these are also included.   Some of the official codes have quite bizarre meanings, see QUQ, for example.

If you are interested in the codes used over commercial RTTY, facsimile and automatic high speed telegraphy links, have a look at the list of Z-Codes, compiled by Ralf, DL4TA.   This list includes the meanings of both the original Cable and Wireless codes, and the modern NATO codes.

There is also a full Morse Code listing.   The Amateur Radio Service is now the only officially recognised radio service still using the Morse code for communication on an every-day basis.   Although telephony and digital data modes are used by most amateurs, it is good that the "art" of using the Morse code is also being kept alive by many of them.   This listing includes the International Morse Code, the original American land-line telegraph Morse code, the old American Navy code, the codes for the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, the codes for accented letters used in European languages and in Esperanto, and various procedural signals. There is also a brief note on the types of Morse keys that exist.

We have also included a section dealing with the Baudot (Murray) Code used by teleprinters.

If you want to know the meanings of the many abbreviations and expressions used on the Amateur Radio bands, there is a comprehensive, although not exhaustive, list of abbreviations and jargon, together with their meanings.   The list also includes details of phonetic alphabets, reporting systems, and emission designations.   There is also a list of the international Amateur Radio callsign prefixes.

If you would like to know how long a particular UK radio amateur has been licensed, and what the various UK callsign formats signify, go to the Licence Issue Date list.

We have now added a technical section to our web-site.   There are sub-sections relating to resistors, capacitors, inductors, transformers, antennas, feeders, matching circuits and standing wave ratio and we hope to add other sub-sections in the future.

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Prior to 1.5.99, this Home Page was hosted by CompuServe, where it was visited over 850 times.   Currently, it is hosted by Tesco.net, who counted over 2800 visitors up to May 2002 but then discontinued their hit counter.   The hits are now counted by

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Anne has a rain gauge and a max-min thermometer and we thought it might be of interest if we published the readings.   Beginning in March 2004, at the request of the Sandgate Conservation Society, we have also been recording the atmospheric pressure.   Charts show the previous month's data and we will try to update them at the beginning of each subsequent month.   Compilations of all the charts for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 are also available.

Select the appropriate year for compilation charts for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010

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We are always scanning the ether for     interesting items to add to this page!

A.C.Wadsworth C.Eng. MIET G3NPF

 I am a Chartered Engineer and was employed by Thales Defence Limited (formerly, in reverse order, Thomson-CSF, Racal, Thorn-EMI, MEL-a division of Philips and EKCO Avionics) in Crawley, until I took early retirement at the end of March 2001.  I retired as a Senior Engineer / Project Leader, responsible for the design of navigation equipment for the Royal Navy and for some of the documentation relating to a project for the Royal Air Force.

I obtained my amateur radio licence in 1959 following eight years as a Short Wave Listener.   I have receive and transmit capabilities on all bands from 160 metres through to 23 cms, including the 60metre (5MHz) experimental band, using most analogue and digital modes except fast-scan television and the more esoteric types of communications.   The main antenna for 160m through to 10m, including 60m, 30m, 17m and 12m, is a Carolina Windom, matched by a homebrew "Picatune" remote auto ATU designed by G3XJP and described in a series of Radcom articles beginning in September 2000.   The standby HF antenna is an 18AVT-WB vertical, but this does not cover 160m, 60m or the WARC Bands.   I also have horizontal beams for 6m, 2m, 70cms and 23cms, together with outdoor verticals for 2m and 70cms and a halo for 4m in the loft.

Until recently, my packet station was operational 24 hours a day, on a frequency of 144.900MHz, using a dedicated quarter-wave vertical antenna but e-mails and the Internet have all but killed off the use of packet, except for DX Clusters and Bulletin Boards.   Consequently, I no longer run the packet equipment continuously, although it is still available if required.   Having now replaced dial-up with broadband, I now connect to the local packet cluster via the Internet.

When I was working, my main activities were confined to local working on 2 metres and 80 metres with occasional DX chasing on other bands, especially 6 metres.   However, now that I have retired, I am more active on the bands, using a variety of modes.   I still enjoy operating in HF contests with the local Amateur Radio Club.   I am currently "Station Master" of the Billingshurst and District Net (the BADNET), which meets at 10.00 hours local time, every Sunday morning and Christmas morning, on 3722kHz +/- the QRM.   This net has been in existence for over 50 years, but I have been Station Master for only the last 34 years.   Although now effectively the Horsham Club Net, any station is welcome to join in.

In the early days, when I lived in Southend -on-Sea and belonged to the Southend and District Radio Society, all my equipment was home-brew, but I must admit that my main rigs are now Japanese black boxes.   However, I still use home-brew linear amplifiers on the HF bands (400W PEP), 6 metres (120W PEP), 4 metres (10W PEP), 2 metres (350W PEP), 70cms (250W PEP) and 23cms (10W PEP).   There is no need for a linear amplifier on 60 metres as the legal limit is 200W on that band.   I was a Committee member of SDRS for over 12 years and subsequently served on the HARC Committee for 18 years.

My other main interests are computing, building model coal fired locomotives, visiting preserved railways, ancient buildings and industrial archeology sites and going to the pub.    Both Anne and I share an interest in full size steam railways such as the Bluebell Railway and we both belong to English Heritage and enjoy visiting their historical sites.   Although a ten minute car ride away, we have adopted the Rising Sun pub in the hamlet of Nutbourne as our "local".   I also belong to the Mid-Sussex Model Engineering Club, which meets in Haywards Heath.   I am afraid they do not yet have a web presence, hence no link.   I am currently building a 3 1/2 inch gauge Britannia Class locomotive.   Regrettably, this project has not progressed very far over the last few years due to pressure from other activities and interests.   However, I have recently completed the building of a small Stuart Turner single cylinder vertical steam engine, photos of which are to be found in the "pictures" section of this web-site.  

I met Anne in 1991 when she knew nothing about Amateur Radio.   Fortunately, she found it interesting enough to study for her RAE and finally got her Class B licence in June 1996 with the callsign M1AIM.   She was trying to learn Morse but changes to the regulations have made this unnecessary and she now holds a Full Licence.   We are both members of the Horsham Amateur Radio Club and I am also a member of the Radio Society of Great Britain.   Anne and I live near to the small town of Storrington in West Sussex.

I was born in December 1939, in London, and subsequently attended Normanhurst School in Chingford and then Southend-on-Sea High School for Boys, having moved to Southend in 1951 with my parents.   I am a member of the Old Southendian Association.   After leaving school in 1956, I began work as an apprentice electronics engineer with E.K.Cole Ltd. and attended Southend College of Technology, now the South East Essex College, where I obtained my qualifications.   I left Ekco Radio and Television in 1966 to work at the Marconi Company in Chelmsford, but returned to Ekco Avionics in 1967 and had nearly thirty four years continuous service until I retired, although the company name has changed many times over the years due to numerous mergers and take-overs.   I have a son and a daughter and three grand-children.

I had intended to retire in January or February 2000 but that was delayed due to one of the many company takeovers, which made it financially advantageous to stay on a little longer, although I did go "part-time" and only worked a four day week for the final year before eventually retiring in March 2001.   I had hoped that this would bring more time to indulge my many interests but I still seemed to run out of time to do everything.   Nothing has changed now that I have taken early retirement.   I still do not have enough time to do everything and now wonder how I ever managed to find time to go to work.   Anne and I have a half-acre garden, which takes some looking after and there is always something to do around the house.   I recently heard a very good definition of "retirement": you get up in the morning with nothing to do and go to bed at night having only done half of it!

A. Moore M1AIM

 I retired in 2000, a year before Tony.   Prior to retirement, I was employed as the Domestic Supervisor at the Rikkyo School in England, a Japanese boarding school located between Horsham and Guildford.   I became interested in amateur radio after meeting Tony, G3NPF, and obtained my Class B licence in 1996.   I was intending to master the Morse Code and get a full licence, but changes in the licensing regulations have made learning Morse unnecessary.   My existing licence is now a Full Licence with the same privileges as Tony's.   In the 60s and 70s, I worked in Nigeria, Kenya and Saudi Arabia and have visited Australia and New Zealand.   I wish I had "discovered" amateur radio during that period as it would have been very interesting to have been able to use some rather exotic call-signs.

I was born in 1938, in Manchester, but spent most of my childhood and adolescent years in Edinburgh.   I attended James Gillespie's High School and Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, now Queen Margaret College.   I have two sons and a daughter and, so far, two grand-children and two step-grand-children.

I am a member of the Horsham Amateur Radio Club, and have assisted in contests by acting as a log-keeper but have never done any actual contest operating.   I am also a member of BYLARA and often join their 80m and 40m nets.   In the past, my operating was mainly confined to 2 metres, usually on FM but occasionally on SSB.   I have my own 2m multimode rig, which can be connected to either a vertical 5/8 wave ground-plane or a four element horizontally polarized beam.   However, now that I have a Full Licence, I am able to use Tony's high power gear and the main antennas on any Amateur Radio band.

My other interests are cross-stitch needlework, gardening, cooking, visiting preserved railways, ancient buildings and industrial archeology sites and going to the pub with Tony.   There is a photo of one of my cross-stitch samplers in the "pictures" section of this web-site.   Tony and I share an interest in full size steam railways such as the Bluebell Railway and we belong to English Heritage and enjoy visiting their historical sites.   Although a ten minute car ride away, we have adopted the Rising Sun pub in the hamlet of Nutbourne as our "local".

Tony and I live near to the small town of Storrington in West Sussex.   Now that we have both retired, we thought we would have more time to enjoy mutual interests, although less money to spend on them.   The latter is unfortunately true but the former has not proved to be the case as we still find that there are not enough hours in the day.   Tony and I have a half-acre garden, which takes some looking after and there is always something to do around the house.   How did we find time to go to work?

LINKS TO A FEW AMATEUR RADIO AND OTHER SITES

Select e-mail addresses for details of HARC members e-mail addresses.

If you would like your Web site included in this list, please send the details via .   Please note that in order to reduce the amount of "spam", we have reluctantly been forced to block all e-mails with addresses at msn, aol, hotmail, bigfoot, yahoo, lycos, compuserve and hundreds of other less well known domains, except those belonging to known "friends".   We apologise for any inconvenience.

LINKS TO HARC MEMBERS E-MAIL ADDRESSES 

Please note that e-mail addresses on this site are Java encoded to prevent the possibility of detection by "spy-bots" and similar "spiders".   However, they will appear as normal to a legitimate user.

Select other sites for details of links to related web-sites.

If you are a member of HARC and would like your e-mail address included in this list, please send the details via .   Please note that in order to reduce the amount of "spam", we have reluctantly been forced to block all e-mails with addresses at msn, aol, hotmail, bigfoot, yahoo, lycos, compuserve and hundreds of other less well known domains, except those belonging to known "friends".   We apologise for any inconvenience.

LATEST NEWS

About G3NPF and M1AIM 

The picture of us both on the opening page of this web site was taken on the summit of Mount Snowdon during a recent holiday to North Wales.   We felt it was a more appropriate image than the one taken sixteen years ago, as we have now both retired and look somewhat older, or should we say more mature.   The old photo was taken in more formal circumstances at a party to celebrate Tony's completion of 25 years service with Thorn-EMI.   The photos on the personal profile pages are still the originals of sixteen years ago.

Tony occasionally operates on the HF and VHF bands and Anne sometimes joins the various BYLARA nets on 40m.   Tony has the necessary NoV for experimental operation on 5MHz, but finds the activity very low.   Next year, Tony will have been licensed for 50 years and will be 70 years old and Anne will have held her licence for 13 years and will be 71 years old, so it is not surprising that the enthusiasm is not as great as it was!

Model and other engineering projects continue spasmodically.

In the garden, Tony planted 20 kilos of seed potatoes in the Spring, which may seem a large quantity but the soil is very poor and shaded from the sun for most of the day so the yield per plant is quite low, although the quality of the potatoes is very good.   We have harvested most of the potatoes and all of the gooseberries, strawberries, radishes and runner beans.   This year's crop of Victoria Plums was excellent.

There are currently about fifty fish in the garden pond.   There was a little breeding activity earlier in the year and a few small fish have been seen.   The frogs produced spawn in the Spring but it fell prey to frost.   We saw many young newts earlier in the year.

About Horsham Amateur Radio Club

Visit the HARC Home Page for details of club meetings, local events, club members, etc.   There are histories of HARC and the BADNET (the de facto Club Net) in the "Odds and Ends" section of this web-site.

HARC achieved 11th position out of a total of 64 participating clubs in the 2008 RSGB Club Championship Contest, with Worthing achieving 28th place.   Our other local rivals, Crawley, finished in 48th place.

HARC won the 2005 Club Calls Contest, as we had hoped to do.   In 2006, HARC again entered nine stations and achieved second place.   HARC has won the RSGB's David Hill Memorial Trophy, twice but only managed 3rd place in 2007.   The leading Club Station in the contest was the Worthing and District Amateur Radio Club GX3WOR who therefore won the Ariel Trophy, with the Hadley Wood Contest Group again winning the David Hill Memorial Trophy.   The HARC 2007 entry is shown below:-

The Club Station G4HRS was not on the air in 2007.   G4LRP and G3NPF submitted error free logs.

HARC achieved 29th place in the CW Section of the 2008 AFS contest, out of a total entry of 89 club teams.   The HARC team comprised only two stations, G3LET and G3SWC, whereas a maximum of four are allowed.   Their position is all the more creditable as all but three of the entries above them comprised four stations and they were the leading two station entry.   G3LET achieved an individual placing of 18th and G3SWC came 78th, out of a total entry of 241 individual stations.

HARC "A" achieved 14th place and HARC "B" achieved 49th place in the SSB section of the 2008 AFS contest, out of a total entry of 89 club teams.   The HARC "A" team comprised G4TPO, G3SWC, G3NPF and G3ZBU.   The HARC "B" team comprised G3OGP, G4LRP and M0FRH.   The individual placings were G4TPO 31st, G3SWC 62nd, G3NPF 64th, G3ZBU 111th, G3OGP 122nd, G4LRP 139th and M0FRH 176th out of a total entry of 254 individual stations.

HARC only managed 11th place in the unrestricted section of the 2006 HF SSB Field Day and did not enter a station in 2007.   Unfortunately, HARC did not take part in the 2008 event either, as it was not possible to find enough club members willing to act as operators, which only goes to show that once a club misses a contest it is extremely difficult to re-kindle any interest.   This state of affairs is not helped by the fact that none of the potential good contest operators is getting any younger, the average age being around 65.   Where are all the keen youngsters?

About Amateur Radio in General

Visit the RSGB Home Page for weekly news bulletins, and everything you need to know about Amateur Radio in the UK.

PICTURE GALLERY

To view all the pictures, select all, and then scroll through until you find the one you want.   Alternatively, you can select one from the index below.   You can then scroll from the selected picture to any other.   As there are many pictures in the Gallery, they may take a little time to load, especially over a slow Internet link.   Please be patient.   When you have finished looking at the photos, press the "Pictures" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.

PICTURES INDEX

TECHNICAL ITEMS

To view a particular technical item, please select it from the index below.   Please note that there are a large number of small images, which may take a few minutes to load over a slow, dial-up Internet connection.   Consequently, the Technical Section has been divided into five separate sub-sections to avoid having to load the images relating to other unselected sub-sections.   When you have finished, press the "Technical" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.

TECHNICAL INDEX

SOUND STUDIO

Enter the Sound Studio to see what sound-bites are available.   When you have entered the Sound Studio, you should hear a very brief introduction by G3NPF.   You can then scroll through the available sound-bites and select the one you want to hear.   Note that you can select a wanted sound-bite before, during, or after the introduction.   These files are available in either ".WAV" or ".MP3" format.   Some are fairly large and could take a while to download, particularly if your Internet link is slow.

When you have finished, press the "Sound-Bites" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.

HUMOUR

To view all the humourous articles, select all, and then scroll through until you find the one you want to read.   Alternatively, you can select one from the index below.   You can then scroll from the selected article to any other.   When you have finished smiling, press the "Humour" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.

HUMOUR INDEX

ODDS AND ENDS

To view all the items in this section, select all, and then scroll through until you find the one you want.   Alternatively, you can select one from the index below.   You can then scroll from the selected item to any other.   This section is devoted to all the bits and pieces that do not really fit into any of the other main sections.   When you have finished, press the "Odds and Ends" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.

ODDS AND ENDS INDEX

CODES

When you have finished, press the "Codes" button on the left to come back here, or press an appropriate button to go to a different section of the main page.   Links are provided on these code pages to permit jumping from one page to another, without the need to return here.

CODES INDEX

SOFTWARE LIBRARY

If any of the links below do not work, please inform Tony, G3NPF via .   Please note that in order to reduce the amount of "spam", we have reluctantly been forced to block all e-mails with addresses at msn, aol, hotmail, bigfoot, yahoo, lycos, compuserve and hundreds of other less well known domains, except those belonging to known "friends".   We apologise for any inconvenience.

As there is such a vast range of Amateur Radio related software about these days, we have decided to only include links to programs that we have used and can recommend.   See "Legal Small Print" regarding copyright, trademarks and disclaimers etc.

There are hundreds of other freeware, shareware and normal commercial  programs to be had.   Try entering "amateur radio software" into a search engine to see the variety of programs that are available.   They range in quality from very poor to superb and in price from free to very expensive.   There are even more general interest, technical and engineering programs available for download from the Internet and they also range from excellent to dreadful and from free to expensive.   We have included the following links to a few programs that we have used and can recommend.   See "Legal Small Print" regarding copyright, trademarks and disclaimers etc.

As a bit of nostalgia, we have included a few very simple programs, written by G3NPF back in the Commodore Plus-4/Amstrad 1640 days.   These programs are freeware, but G3NPF retains the copyright.   You are free to use, copy and redistribute them, provided no charge is made.   They were originally intended to run on MS-DOS machines using VGA displays, but they will run OK on computers using Windows 95/98/2000 and possibly on Windows XP and Vista but they have not been tested on these systems.   All the programs are compiled from originals written in QuickBasic 4.5.   G3NPF does not profess to be a writer of good code, but if you are interested in the BASIC versions, select the ".bas" filenames.   These must be run in the QuickBasic environment.   Select the ".txt" option to obtain a zipped text version of the basic code.   It is not elegant programming, but it works!!

Some time ago, I started teaching myself to use Visual Basic 3.0.   My first attempt at using it was to write a Windows version of easter.exe.   I have not done any more for some time and I think I have now forgotten all I had learned!!   You must have VBRUN300.DLL, or a later version, in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory to run this program.   It is probably already there, but if not, you can download it from here.

Perhaps, one day I will write a really useful program.   If and when that happens, it will be included on this site, but don't hold your breath!!

LEGAL "SMALL PRINT"

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G3NPF and M1AIM do not accept responsibility for any occurrences arising from the use of information obtained from this Internet Home Page or from any other site linked to it, nor do they have any pecuniary or other interest in any of the companies or commercial organisations linked to, or mentioned on, this site.   You are strongly advised to virus check any file downloaded from the Internet.

The copyright of all material created by G3NPF and M1AIM remains the property of the originators, but you are free to use, copy or distribute it, provided the content is not modified in any way, the authorship and source are acknowledged and no charge, apart from postage and media costs, is made.

 ©  2000    G3NPF & M1AIM     E&OE

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