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29th Mar 2017 |
Added Classic Computing talk |
January Meeting
Tue 3-Jan-2017, 7.30-10pm
Oaklands Museum, Moulsham Street |
"Riding the Radio Waves"
By Jane Humphreys OBE |
For our first meeting of the new year we welcomed Jane Humphreys OBE.
Jane will talk about the part radio spectrum played in her career as a Civil Servant,
and some of the challenges we face today for making the best use of the radio spectrum.
Jane was former head of Spectrum Policy at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, during the period
that included the multi-billion pound 3G Auction in 2000 and 2012 Digital TV switchover.
Janes background includes being the daughter of a Marconi Engineer and a member of
Friends of Chelmsford Museum.
You can see more in a video interview
at the time of the 2016 Hall Street exhibition
Jane introduced radio spectrum from LF to UHF and beyond indicating typical ranges and applications.
Whilst her early career had been completely different, her time in government coincided with being in the key place
at the time of the 3G Phone auction, and then later for the Digital TV switchover which
released 800 MHz (UHF Channels 60-69) for 4G LTE. Most of the demand in the main UHF bands is from mobile broadband
as smartphones etc have grown in numbers and data traffic.
In 2000, the 3G Auction raised £22bn and vividly demonstrated that spectum was worth money,
although the crazy sums it raised were not to be repeated. The more
recent 4G auction in 2013 for ex 800 MHz ex-TV frequencies and 2.6GHz raised a more modest £2.4bn.
3G Auction - at the end of Round-150
A TIW £4,384,700,000
B VODAFONE £5,964,000,000
C BT3G £4,030,100,000
D ONE2ONE £4,003,600,000
E ORANGE £4,095,000,000
Total £22,477,400,000
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4G Auction
EE 800+2.6 £588,876,000
3UK 800 £225,000,000
Niche Spectrum 2.6 £201,537,179
Telefonica O2 800 £550,000,000
Vodafone 800+2.6 £802,860,143
Total receipts £2,368,273,322
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The implementation of DSO to free up the 800 MHz channels for phones and
also upgrade the power of the Digital TV multiplexes
was the topic of a lot of detailed planning. This eventually saw BBC2 going
digital early to flag up swithover in a given area (as the BBC would not be worried about a dip in advertsing revenue)
followed a few weeks later by the other channels.
In total 80 main TV transmitters and ~1100 relays were converted.
The 800 MHz frequencies that were released are the basis of long range 4G-LTE
(complementing some of the higher frequency bands)
An imminent prospect is a second Digital Switchover as the 700 MHz TV band
(used at Winter Hill, BlueBell Hill and a few other regions) is cleared
ready for sale in 2020 for 5G. This will require further modification to all the TV tranmitters
and a few areas will need new aerials.
Jane also had slides on DAB toolout and the improvements to battery life that DAB chipsets had
made (and over 2 million cars were sold in the UK last in 2016 with DAB Radios).
It was clear that spectrum was a finite and valued rsource with much of the demand crammed in the UHF/microwave
range below 6GHz.
At the end of a very well presented and insightful talk, Jane was presented
with the traditional speakers prize of a CARS mug...
The famous CARS Raffle also had a good selection of prizes - as Dorothy M0LMR was pleased to find..
Some older tech was also on display - wartime BC-611 walkie talkies - from well before 1G-5G!
February Meeting
Tue 7-Feb-2017, 7.30-10pm
Oaklands Museum, Moulsham Street |
"Diplomatic Wireless Service"
By Peter Scrimshaw M0HSG |
For the February meeting CARS were pleased to have Peter Scrimshaw visit us from Verulam (St Albans) ARC
to give a talk on the former Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS) of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).
An audience of around 40 including several visitors heard a wonderful and little known tale of
this 'Secret' wireless service, whose work covered FCO-Embasssy Communciations, Broadcasting
and Wireless Security (inc cypher machines and sweeping for bugs).
Photos of the audience by Colin G0TRM and speaker by John G8DET
The DWS evolved from its WW2 origins to set up at Hanslope Park as a semi-autonomous part
of the Foreign Office, and was quite distinct from
its bretheren such as GCHQ and MI6. Led by Richard Gambier-Parry it built its staff up
from wireless operators and a number of Philco staff.
During WW2 the MI6 radio network included a receiving station at Whaddon Hall, and a transmitting site to its south.
Afterwards, the FCO took over, Whaddon was closed, and some staff retained relocated to
Hanslope Park (which was a former WW2 Radio Security Service base) which also acted as a receiving station).
Whilst the DWS name has gone, the park is now home to HMGCC.
Richard Gambier-Parry who was a sales manager at Philco in the 1930s (and an amateur) worked
for MI6 during WW2 at Whaddon Hall. He became the first director of Communciations at DWS until 1955.
(He retired to run a Casino in Malta and died in 1965). At DWS he was joined by another
Philco man Harold Robin who was Chief Engineer until 1971.
Part of DWS was a production unit (formerly at Borehamwood until 1965) for cypher machines (such as Rockex)
and radio bugs. The diplomatic radio network served embassies in communist countries
(whereas US and Western Europe could use Telex etc). Morse and teletype were used
but by 1975 CW had declined and the circuits were being converted to Piccolo.
DWS developed Piccolo which uses 32 Murray code digits each 10 Hz wide (and a sync tone)
and was transmitted as SSB in an audio range of 320-660 Hz and sent at 100wpm.
As such, Piccolo was a pioneer of modern multitone data modes (MGM) that are superior to CW.
Eventually satellite communciations and other technological changes came along as did the
end of the Cold War in Europe.
Consequently HF usage and much of the foreign broadcasting declined.
The last HF communciation was on 4th July 1993 to the Tehran embassy.
Peter also included some detail on MI6 comms (inc the Gawcott-Tx and Poundon-Rx sites) which were separate from DWS, though there was some cooperation.
This used 5 digit codes to agents in the field and other overseas centres. The famous 'Lincolnshire Poacher' numbers
station from the MI6 site Cyprus continued until 2008. MI6 abandoned HF and other sites
when it moved to its new Vauxhall Cross HQ in London 1994.
Another item was the little known story of William Marshall, a 24 year old DWS radio operator
at the British Embassy in Moscow. He was passing info to the KGB until spotted by MI5 (see article below).
At rather higher power was the Broadcast section of DWS based at Crowborough East Sussex.
They operated large MW and SW transmitters in the UK and overseas in liaison with the BBC World Service.
The Crowborough Tx was replaced in 1982 by one at the Orford Ness site. The latter
ran BBC-WS on 648 kHz until 27-Mar-2011. Other sites included Cyprus (MW+SW), Francistown in Africa and Masirah in Oman.
The remaining sites were taken over by BBC Engineering in 1986, which subsequently was privatised
and became Babcock in 1997.
After the talk, the break had some homemade goodies to eat by Ann Salmon, followed by the raffle.
Chris then presented a CARS speakers mug to Peter.
Useful Links:-
Hanslope Park is now HMGCC, Map
William Marshall - Article, Text
Book: 'The Secret Wireless War'
March Meeting
Tue 7-Mar-2017, 7.30-10pm
Oaklands Museum, Moulsham Street |
"Classic British Computers"
By Andy Chapman G7TKK |
Andy Chapman G7TKK, famed for his innovative antennas, returned to give a talk on another of his specialties -
Classic British Computers.
In the 1970s and early 80s pioneering work led to a wide
variety of kits and models and a whole hobbyist movement.
Andy has an unprecedented collection including some of the original prototypes...
The Chapmans - Chris & Andy - with Andy G7TKK starting his talk
Ferrite core memory board and a prototype of the Sinclair Mk14
Nascom-2 and a collection of Sinclairs (ZX81, QL & Spectrum)
Amstrads - PPC640 Portable and a NC100 Notepad
Microsoft Windows 2.1 - the early days...
Our thanks to Andy (and Chris) for the unprecedented collection coming out for public view
PS - Do you have an Apple-1 - it is worth a fortune!)
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