Newsletter of the Framingham Amateur Radio Association May 1999, Vol. 66, No. 5

In This Issue

President's Message
What I saw on my Spring Vacation
Page 2-

Field Day Planning Meetings
Flag Day
Page 3-

License in a Weekend - Test Results
FARA Horizons
and more...

President's Message

Is it me, or did this month seem short?  What a great Flea Market!  Thanks to Bev for doing such a great job as Flea Market czar. We have a couple of upgraded members, and all those from License in a Weekend have received calls.  My congratulations to all those who took exams, and my thanks to all those who taught and gave exams.
The two HF antennas at the shack are down for repair.  The parts for the beam have arrived, and, weather permitting, we'll have that back up by the time you read this.  Time, wind and rain had taken their toll in missing hardware and enlarged holes, so some new parts were needed.  The vertical, although I haven't looked at it too closely, will probably need the same kind of treatment.  We got away for under $100 on the beam, and the vertical will probably cost less.  Jim, W1EQW, has suggested we look at a better quality beam that might be in the back corridor.
I got to visit a ham club while I was on vacation in the UK.  I have a couple of pictures of their setup, which gave me some ideas.  They have it much nicer than we do, as they have two rooms and better antennas.  They have a nice operating bench that we might want to copy.
That's all for now, but please remember the Field Day planning meetings on alternate Wednesday nights.
Come and listen.  You might find something you'd like to work on. 
73,

Peter, KA1AXY


What I saw on my Spring Vacation

by Peter, KA1AXY

Cathy and I just returned from a week in London and Paris.  We had a great time, visiting all the tourist traps, and one place that I especially wanted to see.  It's called Bletchley Park, and it isn't in any tourist brochures.  Bletchley Park is an old estate, about an hour northwest of London by train.  Its importance lies in what was accomplished on the grounds of this old manor house during the Second World War.
Bletchley Park was the center of the British effort to break the German encrypted radio traffic.  There are several good books about what they did and how they did it. The Germans used a electro-mechanical cipher machine which was "reverse engineered", first by three Polish cryptanalysts and then by the British.  Having

Thursday, May 6
This Month's Meeting

It's that time again.  Mario and Guido (I8PZA and I8MOR) will again give us their bi-annual update on DX doings from the isle of Pepperoni!  Come and enjoy them.  They've never failed to give a feast of an evening!

Submitting Material to the Circuit


Material may be submitted for publication by sending it directly to the editor.  This can be done by phone, by US Mail, or via the Internet (preferred).  The deadline
for each issue is the Wednesday, one week before the monthly meeting.


by phone
Home:
(508) 435-2055 (before 9:00PM please!)
College:
(508) 910-5296


by mail

Robert Hess, N1UVA
1 Cold Spring Brook Road
Hopkinton, MA  01748


by internet

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detailed knowledge of how the machine worked, the British discovered its weaknesses, and, by detecting and exploiting sloppy German procedures, managed to read a large portion of German radio traffic throughout the war.  Their efforts were aided by the Germans, who were so sure that their cipher machine was impregnable, that they continued to use it all through the war.  Since the entire German military used the same machine, the British could read almost every message.
The whole estate has been turned

KA1AXY in front of the mansion at Bletchley Park

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