CLUB CALL AFFILIATED

GXØOWX R.S.G.B.

Last Month’s meeting !!! The following explains why, after hours of preparation of the Newsletter by Oli and much hair pulling by Bob, information about the Club meeting failed to reach members.

The meeting turned out to be a ‘natter night’ and was most enjoyable. It was quite a change as the Committee does normally something specific for the meeting.

Next month’s meeting (March) will ! be Activity on the Air. (With the meeting room that we now have, it is very easy to erect some smallish aerials on the grass immediately outside. Come and watch how Bob breaks a log jam.

A record is claimed by Angus Young, MOIKB, worked EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) 'Big Gun' KB8RQ on 2m moonbounce using just 25 watts to an indoor, homebrew 7 element beam.

Malta is changing to the Euro and the Maltese Lire (also known as the Maltese Pound) will be taken out of use at the end of January 2008. The cost of a Maltese reciprocal licence is currently _ 11.63.

You have heard of Mills on the air, lighthouses on the air and so on. G3XYF is co-ordinating Churches and Chapels on the air (CHOTA). The event is on Saturday 13 September. Contact John G3XYF by email to g3xyf@btconnect.com for details. (Oli will be looking for sponsored contacts)

Fatal fall from antenna mast

Alan Wright, 9H1AW/GW3LDH, originally from Wrexham, died after a fall from a ladder, while apparently working on an aerial mast at his retirement home in Malta. The 71-year old is reported to have fallen three storeys down a shaft onto the roof of another residence on 22nd January. Before Mr Wright retired to Malta five years ago he was a member of the Wrexham ARS. He was one of the original holders of a UK experimental permit for 6m. This sad story serves as a reminder that one must always be very careful when working at height and use all appropriate safety equipment. (Oli take note!)

WELCOME TO THE NET

From David Matthews, G3ZZP

It must be very discouraging for newly licensed amateurs to tune across the bands looking for contacts, only to find that many nets are closed to outsiders. Therefore I would like to let members know that the "Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed" net is open to everyone and has plenty of M3s taking part. We run the net on 3772 kHz +/- QRM) seven days a week from 7am local time (or when the band opens if later) and our "welcome mat" is always out. Perhaps other nets willing to welcome our newest members would also like to put their "welcome mat" out via the Last Word.

Note. Oli is currently tutoring two students for the Foundation exam. One will be sitting the exam next Tuesday and he will pass. The other student is progressing equally well. Both want to progress to the Intermediate licence. I will keep you all in touch with progress and would ask you to contact them over the air once I have their call signs.

BLOOD, SWEAT AND VOLTS.

Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in America have developed a new nanoengineered battery that is as thin as paper, lightweight and extremely flexible. It can be printed like paper (90% of it is cellulose anyway) and is geared toward meeting the energy requirements of tomorrow's gadgets. Another key feature is the capability of using human blood or sweat as the electrolyte (so the battery could be placed within the human body and never need recharging), although the researchers actually used an ionic liquid, which is essentially a liquid salt, as the battery's electrolyte. With ionic liquid electrolyte there is nothing in the battery to freeze, which would explain why it can be used over an extremely wide temperature range (-70° C to +150° C).

At the heart of the new battery are carbon nanotubes. The paper can be cut, rolled up or formed into any required shape and, if higher voltage is required, layers of it can be stacked up. Although the materials required to create the paper batteries are inexpensive, the team has not yet developed an inexpensive mass production technique. The end goal is to manufacture batteries in a similar way to printing newspapers.

In California, Nanosolar have developed and brought to market a photovoltaic cell that is printable. It is like a foil. These are lightweight, non fragile, efficient and don't need soldered connections. Apparently they can't make it fast enough to satisfy demand. If you think cheap, paper-thin, printable solar cells are remarkable, how about solar cells that also work at night? The Idaho National Laboratory reports that research conducted in conjunction with partners at Microcontinuum Inc and Patrick Pinhero of the University of Missouri is also promising a method for developing cheap, flexible solar energy technology that can still gather energy after the sun has set. Tiny square spirals, or 'nanoantennas' are stamped onto a sheet of plastic. The team estimate that individual nanoantennas can absorb close to 80% of the available energy, in comparison to current commercial solar panels that are about 20% efficient. Each interlocking nanoantenna is 1/25 the diameter of a human hair and absorbs energy from the infrared part of the spectrum. Since the sun radiates a lot of infrared, some of which is absorbed by the earth and released for hours after sunset, the nanoantennas can gather energy from both sunlight and the ground. The new approach was made possible by the current boom in nanotechnology, although finding an efficient way of produce the arrays of nano-scale spirals took years. So far the INL team have demonstrated the imprinting process with six-inch circular stamps, each holding more than 10 million antennas, but hope that the antennas might one day be produced like foil or plastic wrap on roll-to-roll machinery.

There follows an extra page which has a chart for easily finding a non-preferred value resistance by parelling up two preferred value components. (Wireless World Jul/Aug 1959)