RSGB Data Breach - ICO Response

The following has just been received from the ICO, in response to this incident:

"Thank you for raising your concerns regarding the way the Radio Society of Great Britain handles personal information.

Your concern relates to the email of 18/19 October 2016 where the sender failed to use the Blind carbon copy ‘Bcc’ function, when sending the email, resulting in the disclosure of personal email addresses to all recipients.

Our aim is to improve information rights practices. We do this by taking an overview of all concerns that are raised about an organisation with a view to improving its compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘the DPA’).

We do not investigate every concern we receive. We will put most of our effort into dealing with matters we think give us the best opportunity to make a significant difference to an organisation’s information rights practices.

Depending on the circumstances, for example, we may give an organisation advice about handling personal information, provide guidance, or ask it to review its procedures.

Please see our website for further information:

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-information/service-standards/

Our decision

From the information you have provide to us it is likely that the Radio Society of Great Britain has breached the seventh data protection principle of the DPA as, whilst it did not disclose any sensitive information, it disclosed individuals personal email addresses by failing to use the ‘Bcc’ function when sending those emails.

The seventh principle states that:

‘Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.’

This is a breach of the seventh principle of the DPA, because it appears the Radio Society of Great Britain failed to take appropriate measures to ensure the security of the personal data.

Next Steps

As a result of this breach, we have written to the Radio Society of Great Britain informing them that they have breached the DPA by failing to take appropriate measures to ensure the security of the personal data, and giving them some advice for the future in this area to ensure a repeat of this incident does not occur.

Although at this stage we are not taking any further action we will keep the concerns raised on file. This will help us over time to build up a picture of the Radio Society of Great Britain’s information rights practices.

If you are dissatisfied with the way your case has been handled, you can ask to have it reviewed. Please note that we do not usually accept a request for a case review more than three months after the closure of a case. For more information please see our website.

Yours sincerely

Karla Bailey

Case Officer

Information Commissioner’s Office"

More LCD Monitor RFI Developments (and a sort-of fix!)

Someone sent a letter to the EMC section of the RSGB's RadCom magazine this week.

In it, the author explained how he had replaced a cheap VGA connector cable with a heavy-cored, multi-screened version that, he claimed, eliminated his RFI issues.  All three signal cables, and then the whole cable assembly, were screened.

As earlier reported, I bought a new LG monitor recently, only to find I couldn't use it due to very high levels of broadband RFI.

After trying a lot of the usual solutions - ferrites, chassis grounding, etc - I could only reduce the RFI by a very modest amount, and certainly not to levels that were remotely acceptable in this quiet rural radio situation.

I thought I'd have a go at the VGA cable solution.  Having forked-out £25 for a new unit from RS Components, I found it made absolutely no difference whatsoever over a cheap cable.

Somewhat belatedly, I then had the idea of coiling up the VGA cable to form an air-cored choke.  This instantly led to a huge drop in RFI, to the extent that all bands were clear of it, except for now very low RFI on a few spot freqeuencies on 12m.  I later found 6m was still very badly affected, looking like a loud Russian woodpecker signal across the entire band!

The choke I made was about 5 inches in diameter (I also tried a smaller sized choke, but it wasn't effective), and the RFI began to fall quickly on about the fourth turn, and quite a lot again on the final, fifth turn that I could manage with a thick 3m cable. It's probably a case of diminishing returns, but more windings will probably deal with the residual RFI.  Consequently, I've ordered a 10m VGA cable of the cheapest variety, to yield a much larger number of turns.  None of the standard split ferrites I have made a jot of difference in any number of installation configurations, and no matter how many I added!

What was interesting to note with this choke was the way in which the RFI changed with slight changes to the physical arrangement of the choke. Holding the choke together with cable ties was OK-ish, but because the windings can't be held neatly in sequence, but tend to run over one another, the choking effect is less than if it is wound around some larger diameter PVC drainage tube.  There is, of course, a lesson there for those of us who don't make our antenna chokes very neatly, where the lowered efficiency of the choke isn't so readily apparent!

I did also find that the RFI could be reduced further by winding the DC supply cable many (8-10) times around a large ferrite near the monitor's input socket.  I don't think there is any problem from the power supply, but that the choke is stopping RFI that's made it down the VGA cable and into the monitor from travelling down the additional 'antenna' of the power cable.  It's probably still worth keeping in place, but the main problem is that VGA cable.

UPDATE (and final word on this!)

The 10m VGA cable duly arrived, and a roughly 22-turn air wound choke made from it, wrapped around a 4.5 inch OD drainage pipe.  As expected, this did reduce the RFI considerably.

The RFI initially seemed to vanish entirely, including on 6m, where it was absolutely horrendous, when I connected the choke at the monitor end; previously, the choke was near the computer.  A very short lead to the choke prevents any radiating.  The image below shows the simple arrangement (ignore the yellow spade connector and wire, it is a redundant test wire.  Later, I added a couple of snap-on ferrites between monitor and choke, though they probably achieve very little.

After a day of testing, I did, sadly, find RFI traces on 12m and 6m, which remain too high for my liking, even with a less noisy HP monitor that I have.  The RFI, for example, sat on the OY6BEC 6m beacon frequency, which I love to listen out for during aurora events.

So, in the end, whilst I seem to have a very bad monitor for RFI, and did reduce it dramatically, the screen has been removed and won't be coming back into service!

Reverse Beacon Network

I'm one of those hams that loves an SSB QSO when the going is good, but also with a keen interest in propagation and beacon-like modes.

There are three beacon-esque modes like this I know of.  Sim-31 is an automated PSK-31 piece of software that is less like a beacon (but can be used as such), and more like a thing that collects QSOs entirely without operator input. 

As a result, SIM-31 has not caught on in popularity at all, and I have not heard any signals from this mode for a couple of years.  It's a bit odd in some ways, because all those SSB '59, thanks' QSOs you hear every day of the week are simply that: gathering as many DX entities as possible, with as little input as possible!  But humans like to have a purpose, however futile, hence SIM-31's failure to get a foot in the door.

The remaining two modes are much better known.  The Reverse Beacon Network, which is CW-based, automatically detects CW-sent 'CQ' calls, and plots them, together with the SNR, on a web-base map and reports to an associated database. 

Whilst well thought-out and of definite use (unlike Sim-31!), the RBN suffers from a lack of listening stations.  The software works fine, but does hark back to an earlier era of computing and, relative to modern digital modes, is less attractive and user-friendly.

For example, early this morning, across all HF bands, there were just 30 or so stations popping up on the RBN map.  So the idea that propagation can be seen in real time is thwarted by the lack of stations taking part.  This is made worse, for any ham mode, because there is a high density of ham stations in the Western world, whilst Africa, Latin America and other large swathes of the planet have very few, or no stations.

The remaining mode is WSPR.  This has extremely good coverage, although it, too, is hamstrung by the unequal distribution of wealth and so ham stations across the globe. 

Even on 12m now, on the approach to the lowest point in the solar cycle, there are a good number of active WSPR stations present, such that a basic picture of propagation can be seen.  On the bread-and-butter bands of 20m and below, the coverage on WSPR is extremely good, with a few stations active from remote places like Antarctica on occasion. 

On reflection, then, I think that the RBN is unlikely to grow very much further, if it has grown much at all. WSPR, on the other hand, seems to have established itself in the consciousness of most hams. 

WSPR does suffer regularly from RTTY QRM on weekends, where the RBN might be more flexible in QSYing, if one is receiving a wide range of frequencies.  WSPR, away from busy bands and weekends, is focused on a fixed QRG, and hence there is no hit-or-miss as to whether or not you will hear the signals.

Venturing onto MF - With a Barbed Wire Fence!

Last night, I had one of those 'let's try this!' moments, having started to think about WSPR at MF frequencies.

Now, an effective antenna at MF is something that awaits another lifetime and a property with tens, if not hundreds of acres of land.  A ground dipole is also out of the question, due to very high mineralisation and ground conductivity (in excess of any results I've seen from anywhere in the world.)

For this lifetime, I have to make the most of what's available.

Out came the soldering torch and, within minutes, I had the flying lead connections from a 4:1 balun to...wait for it...a 90m-long barbed wire fence that runs E-W down a 5 degree slope on hugely conductive soil, and an earth stake.  The wire might be 50% longer than this, as it probably continues at 90 degrees at the bottom of the hill.

The fence antenna runs along the stone wall, down slope.

Modelling this arrangement on MMANA-GAL is not easy.  Using modified dipole and sloper files yields low gain values of about -25dBi.  I've no idea whether, in fact, this software works reliably below 1.8MHz.

In any case, here is how my trusty SARK-110 analyser measured things:

A roughly 90m-long fence antenna's curves.

The SARK's output is very interesting!  The SWR remains at low levels throughout the HF, and even the MF spectrum, with many points along the way that yield very good matches.  For example, one of the cursors (M1) lies at 10MHz, with a 1:1.1 match there.  Coax losses are minimal at lower frequencies, but a twin wire feed would probably improve matters.

I would guess that there are quite high losses in this 'antenna' system, and its low height must mean it is a cloud-warmer.


But, listening on WSPR (I have no transmit ability as yet), I was hearing, for example, LA1TN at least 5dB more strongly than any other UK station, which suggests that, whilst it may not be ideal, it is certainly worthwhile experimenting some more.

Running on 10MHz WSPR for a couple of hours shows that the hearing ability is very good, being the only one, or with the only two hearing the US during late morning hours today, and with a signal report between 5dB better and 1dB worse than the other receiving station (both in Scotland.)

On the transmit side, in keeping with its Beverage-type set-up, it's not so good into Europe, being well down by over 10dB on other UK stations.  I'll see what it can do across the Atlantic when the grey line comes over tonight...

WSPRing a Transient Geomagnetic Disturbance

Last night, I was a bit busy with other things in the house, so I left WSPR running at 2W on 20m into my vertical delta loop.

At the moment, on a quiet geomagnetic day, 20m dies around 19:30UT.  This was happening as usual last night.

But, at about 21:00UT, 20m opened up again, with US stations coming in quite strongly for a while.  My 2W signal was also getting across again at the same time.

Looking at the Kiruna magentogram, there was a pronounced but short-lived disturbance about the same time, which would appear to explain why the band came alive again for a while.

The three RX stations were W3CSW (blue), W4MO (orange) and KK1D (brown).  Because of the way line plotting works on my spreadsheet, I've entered a 'filler' data point of -35dB for W3CSW and W4MO, as they lost reception from me for an hour or so before the field changed.

Add caption

VK6XT on 12m WSPR!

It's not unheard of, but it has recently been quite rare to get openings on 12m to VK.

This morning, whilst chancing a go on 12m WSPR, VK6XT came in rather weakly at first, but over the next hour, built up to -2dB!  VK6XT himself was not reporting any spots from anywhere.

VK6XT vanished from the WSPR map at this point, presumably to try and make some standard QSOs.  Unfortunately, I couldn't hear anybody calling CQ.

That's strong, man!

RI1ANR

A nice surprise last evening (17:00-17:14UT) was to have a two-way WSPR exchange with the Russian Antarctic station, RI1ANR.  Quite a distance for 2W from a simple vertical delta loop to travel, helped along by the grey line enhancement on 20m.

Both sides were hearing each other at about -23dB.

RI1ANR

WSPRing The Terminator

At the moment (early November), the terminator runs almost identically at MW and easternmost EA8, providing ideal conditions to test propagation along the 'grey line'.

Luckily, EA8/LA3JJ is often on the island of Fuerteventura, running a good WSPR suite on many frequencies, including 5MHz.

Terminator 'grey line' at 06:15UT November 05.  Screen grab from DX Atlas, with permission.

Here are the results, together with some annotations on the main features and how they relate to the changing time of day (click to enlargen image).  For once, the geomagnetic conditions were very quiet (Kp 1-2)!

WSPR on 60m.

Here are the results from 18:28UT 03/11/16 to 10:30UT 04/11/16 on 60m WSPR between myself and DK8FTA, a path of 1235km (click for larger version).

Interesting to see a clear effect of the advancing terminator in the morning.  The maximum signal isn't very pronounced, and occurs about an hour before DK8FTA's local midnight.  Other than auroral effects, I can't readily explain that - yet!

It needs much more data, but there superficially seems to be a roughly 2-hour periodicity in the data.  That needs figuring out if it's seen repeatedly!

Here also is the result of WSPR on the same, 60m band, between myself and GM8DOR, who is directly north of me.

The result is very different over this short, 'D'-layer dominated 362km path, starting from an essentially unchanging value of about -22dB during the night, and shooting up as sunrise approaches, to settle at its daytime value, also flat, at about +15dB.

OFCOM Lose Amateur Radio Abuse Cases.

Organisations like OFCOM like to publicise successes, but not often failures.


Word has recently reached me as follows:

"Ofcom have recently had a failed prosecution as the defendant claimed “aggravation” and “exacerbation” by repeater users had lead [sic] him to his actions. 

The result of this ruling is that any on-air discussions or other acknowledgement of any form of abuse can be used as a successful defence for the behaviour. It is more important than ever that we never acknowledge or discuss abuse on air and definitely never respond to an abuser. 

Ofcom have been monitoring repeater traffic in the two ongoing cases we discussed but in each case had heard amateur users of the repeaters responding to the abuse, this has resulted in their resources being diverted elsewhere as the evidence they are collating will not be able to support any formal action."

So now you know!  If you hear someone messing about, don't respond, seems to be the right legal response.

Giving up on the magnetic looop antenna.

For years, I've been building and experimenting with magnetic loop antennas, all of which have been made of 15mm - 28mm copper plumbing pipe.

If you're wondering whether a magloop is worth having, I can say that it is - provided you don't spend too much money on a commerical unit.

Magloops.  I've built a few...

I say this because, if you can solder and build an antenna carefully, then there is nothing a commercial maker can provide that will be any better in terms of performance.  Indeed, with homebrew, you can knock-up multi-loop arrays that will probably be better than a commercial unit, and use wider bores to maximise efficiency at lower frequencies.

The only advantage you get with a commercial magloop is the remote tuning mechanism which, of course, is quite a big advantage over manual tuning, especially if the antenna is outdoors!  Many of you will be able to make stepper motor drives and so on, which is not that difficult, but was a challenge for me.  

This week, I decided I would clear out my magloop constructions.  All of them 'worked' in as much as they matched up nicely to 1:1 (and quite easily, using vacuum capacitors).  But none of them make you feel they are worth the effort and money put in - unless your situation leaves you with no alternative.

The reality is that, whilst a magloop will indeed give a dipole a run for its money, and the likes of G3JKF's three loop arrays might even beat a dipole sometimes (the environment makes a huge difference), they are a complex and expensive alternative to a simple arrangement of an end-fed wire or dipole.  At the moment, no worthwhile permanent installation magnetic loop is available commercially for less than about £500.  The most expensive is over £1000.  Neither will 'work' any better than some copper tube bought at your local DIY shop.

Once, when I started my ham career, a small antenna for a wildly windy location was very desirable and, in winter, almost essential.  But, with a small tower to which I can attach a half sloper, this requirement has now passed; the simple wire covers 80-30m, no matter what the weather.  In the absence of a tower, a strong timber pole or tree could have provided an alternative in the shape of an inverted-L (WSPR shows the performance of the two to be almost identical.)  For almost all paths, the wire usually beats the magnetic loop quite easily.  And I speak of a QTH which is undeveloped, open, and elevated.  It has a copper mine for ground!

From Russia (via Ukraine), with love. 

So, whilst I regret the passing of the magloop era here, I at least know how to make and match one up if I ever feel the need again, and which capacitors are best (Russian vacuums.)

If you are stuck up on the 35th floor of an apartment building, or have a postage stamp front yard, then a magloop is a very good compromise that gives you near-dipole performance across several bands, allows access, without too much scaling up, to the lower bands, and lets you work the world whilst avoiding planning controls - at least in the UK.

Here are my findings from the years of soldering:

(1) A three loop array, as used by G3JKF and replicated here, works very well and, when installed at about 2-3m high can match or beat a low-ish wire dipole (almost all 80m dipoles are low, relative to the wavelength.)  Your environment is critical to how well - or not - your particular antenna will work.

(2) A Russian vacuum capacitor of about 7.5-350pF and a roughly 1.2m square loop will yield coverage from 60-20m, perhaps also taking in 17m.  If you can only afford one capacitor, buy a 7.5 (or 10) - 1000pF, which should cater for all loop designs and ham bands.  You need at least 2.5m square to cover 80m.  Ukrainian sellers are usually very reliable and offer caps for about £100, sometimes a bit less.

(3) Efficiency is helped by wider bore tubing.  It's uneconomical to go beyond 28mm, which is also about the largest commonly found tube in DIY stores, and where 90-degree elbow joints cost over £5 each!  At 20m and above, 15mm pipe is much cheaper, and has high efficiency of about 95% or more.

(4) I've never noticed any meaningful difference, when connecting the loop to the capacitor, between using Flexweave wire, braided copper strap, or solid copper strap in the performance (using WSPR) of a magloop.  My final arrangement was solid copper strap clamped with stainless hose clips to the vacuum capacitor.  Some aluminium conductive grease (used to preserve Yagi joints), was added between the strap, clamp and cap, to ensure a corrosion-free connection.

(5) Air capacitors are fine, and need less torque to tune. But, except for spot frequency (e.g. WSPR) use, you will definitely need gearing to achieve fine tuning, even when using a stepper motor.  A vacuum capacitor can be tuned accurately by hand and ear, and is much more stable than an air capacitor.  Vacuums also, of course, take very much more power than an air spaced cap in most cases.

(6) Performance indoors can be surprisingly good.  But watch the power, as the field intensity can reach high levels.  Not much of a worry for many photon-hardened hams, but worth considering (and avoiding) when there are kids about.

(7) I quickly moved away from using Faraday primary loops.  These are mechanically unstable in many homebrew cases.  Much better stability and consistency is found by using a 4:1 balun, with one side of the output connected by a short, stout wire to the centre of the lower tube section (not the top - this is less efficient), and the other to a gamma wire or rod (a 10 sq. mm earth cable is good for this), connected to roughly 2/3 the way up one side. You can also ditch the balun, which may or may not extend your loop's tuning range slightly.

(8) For 'spot' frequency use, which is useful with a high-Q, narrow bandwidth antenna like a magloop, you can use an antenna analyser to accurately tune up outside or away from the rig.  Spot frequency use is now much less of a problem with the JT modes, which you may never in fact need to stray from!


Here's to the coming of the next 'magloop moment'!