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VK7AX > BCAST 04.02.24 07:01l 399 Lines 22919 Bytes #203 (0) @ WW
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VK7 Amateur Radio News 04Feb24
Text edition:
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VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 4th February 2024
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Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News and this was first broadcast on Sunday the 4th February 2024. At the mike of VK7WI this week is Mike, VK7FB.
On Sunday this broadcast goes out on repeaters all over VK7 and on digital radio - DMR Talk Group 5 and D-Star Reflector 91C by Clayton, VK7ZCR.
We go out on medium and high frequency courtesy of the following rebroadcast stations:
On 1.862 MHz by Justin, VK7TW,
On 3.670 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE,
On 7.140 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH,
On 14.130 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD,
On 28.525 MHz by Dale, VK7DG.
UHF CB Channel 24 in the Hobart area - Mark VK7FMAC.
You can hear this broadcast again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in Northern VK7 and VK7RHT in Southern VK7.
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RAOTC News
Monthly Broadcast - February 2024
Further to that mentioned on the WIA National News, this is another reminder about the RAOTC broadcast for Monday the 5th of February 2024 at 8 pm local time; thatâ€Ös tomorrow night for those listening on Sunday.
The first item is an announcement that the OTN newsletter is available, free of charge, for the sight impaired as an audio disc. Each edition is read and recorded by Ian, VK3JS.
A complete set of OTN is also available in original text form on disc; these can both be obtained via contact details on the RAOTC website.
‘Making the connectionâ€Ö. This is the name of a history about how the map of the London Underground came to be made in its current format, with stations evenly spaced. Prior to 1933, the rail map was in geographic format showing stations near the centre crowded together and lines following the actual route; this made the map very difficult to read. The ‘schematic mapâ€Ö was the invention of Harry Beck; his map was first distributed in 1933 and
has since been adopted worldwide.
The series continues on ‘History of the Transistorâ€Ö. Some of the early problems in its development are investigated including development of the point contact transistor.
Discovery of minority carrier injection made transistors a reality.
The date again is February 5th. Call backs will follow on both networks. Please call in if you are able; this provides the RAOTC broadcast committee with an idea of how many are listening to these broadcasts.
If you miss the off-air broadcasts you can listen to the audio file on the RAOTC website.
https://www.raotc.org.au/
73, Peter VK7PD
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Statewide News
Thursday Night SSTV Nets
Another busy net night that saw the following participants, VK7s – FGGT, KT, EV, ZAB and ZIR all sharing over thirty photos. Again there was a lot of noise on the link in the South to North direction.
The theme was “Home radio shacksâ€:
A very impressive arc of receivers and transceivers
A simple vintage transceiver setup
A computer driven CAT controlled “shack-in-a-boxâ€
A VHF/UHF setup supervised by a cat.
A clock warning of “Beware of the Ham Radio Operatorâ€
Another clock that explains that “The cow jumped over the moonâ€
One of the Internal Space Stationâ€Ös SSTV images send last December for the “Forty year Celebration of the Positive Impact of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflightâ€
Also a plethora of articulated trucks, cars, birds and cartoon animal characters
Remember Ken VK7KRJâ€Ös and Steve VK7OOâ€Ös fully automatic 24/7 monitoring sites that allows anyone who has sent an SSTV picture the ability to check them on their pages almost immediately, any time, both South and North Tasmania.
Also if you missed the net there are archives of all SSTV nights. These photos can be seen on Kenâ€Ös and Steveâ€Ös SSTV websites or on NTARCâ€Ös website under blogs and arranged as weekly nets.
An idea for a theme for next weekâ€Ös net is “timeâ€
https://vk7oo.tasme.com/vhfsstv
https://sstv.vk7krj.com/scrolling%20web%20gallery.html
https://www.ntarc.net/blogs
73 from Andreâ€Ö VK7ZAB
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Contest news
Ross Hull Memorial VHF/UHF Contest.
This contest ran for the month of January and donâ€Öt forget you can even use your Summer VHF and Above Field Day log for the Contest!
For the benefit of VK7WN - logs are due by 14th FEBRUARY 23:59 UTC. Logs can be emailed as an attachment to: rosshull(at)wia.org.au
https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rosshull/
73, VK7 News Team
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH
SOTA/WWFF PARKS GROUP
The Summits On The Air/World Wide Flora and Fauna parks group meets twice weekly – Mondays and Fridays 10.30AM till 12.00 at the Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry Street, Launceston.
For more information contact Al on 0417 354 410.
73, Al, VK7AN
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Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club Incorporated
www.ntarc.net
This weekâ€Ös Club Technical night was started off by Peter VK7KPC. He had recently received a commercially made HF amplifier that he purchased from E-bay. It did not sport a manufacturerâ€Ös name, but the model was OGS-50W, suitable for 3 to 21 MHz and most likely 50 W output. The external extruded die-cast case and overall finish was that of a very neat unit. It comes with its own plastic transport case that is clip fastened on all sides and would be at least “shower†rated for water resistance. This was a nice addition to be included with the purchase.
The design is based around a pair of IRF530 N-Channel power MOSFETs for the output devices. It certainly isnâ€Öt a complex design but probably a good building block with suitable output filtering added.
Even with the lid off, your first glance was of a nice printed circuit board. However once your eyes start to wander around the board taking in the construction, thatâ€Ös where the illusion is shattered! I fully understand that we all have to learn to solder sometime in our life……but this is commercial equipment and they really shouldnâ€Öt have used a 120 Watt Birko iron to flick solder onto the circuit board from across the room to make the joints. Peter came prepared with a series of close up photographs for those of us with less than perfect vision. The soldering to say the least was interesting! Thank you for bringing it in before you started the clean-up. All you need now Peter is time, de-solder wick, flux and solder to redo every single joint to make it usable.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Maybe we should have been warned when it was noted that even the name had a missing letter. There was no “R†in Amplifier.
Peter also had a handful of small Directional Couplers from Satellite Systems for our perusal, some of which have been taken by Tony VK7ZTT and Lionel VK7ZLB. They are taking them home for a bit of “Test and Measurement†to ascertain some of the devices characteristics, we will be interested in the results.
Peter also brought to our attention that during his regular checks of WSPR and particularly the 10 Metre band he had become intrigued by one particular call sign. Initially emanating from south of Western Australia and slowly changing its grid square location over the last few weeks. Evidently it was a Research vessel that had been working around Antarctica and was heading to Hobart before continuing on.
For those using FT8 and WSPR you may know of or even have worked the Antarctic Research station with the call sign DP0POL (Delta Papa Zero Papa Oscar Lima). The equipment operated by Andreas DL3LRM (Delta Lima 3 Lima Romeo Mike) is on board the German research ice breaker “R V Polarstern†, docked in Hobart on Wednesday. This ship regularly visits the Antarctic and this trip left Cape Town on 25th of November 2023. A link to the ship and expeditions can be found in the text version.
Antarctica 2023/2024 – AWI Polarstern Expeditionen
The web site is well worth the visit and the daily log is not limited to research postings. They even covered the “Open Heart Surgery†that had to be performed…….. granted, it was on one of their four diesel engines to replace a faulty head gasket but it was accomplished with the ship riding 3 metres of swell!
If you are near the Hobart area you will be lucky enough to see the ship in the flesh. Hopefully they will be able to collect their “Fresh Green Saladâ€, as stated in their blog, while in Hobart.
For those present at the club rooms, Lionel VK7ZLB gave us a mini presentation on his recent Summer VHF/UHF Field Day escapades, including photos. He took us through his temporary portable set up that he established on the Northern side of Mt. Arthur. He used a small non-guyed mast that would have been suitable for balcony mounting to attach his antennas. On this, was attached his array of Yagi antennas for the 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm amateur bands. The 6m Yagi was connected to his IC7300 with the remaining three Yagis connected to the IC 9700. Lionel remotely located his 23cm preamplifier and Power Amplifier directly below the 23cm Yagi to minimise signal loss. A rechargeable battery bank and solar panels completed the set up as well as some creature comforts from home.
Lionelâ€Ös location was very close to the site of the original PMG/Telecom tower that was the Tasmanian end of the Victorian-Mainland radio link. So he was at least pointing in the right direction for some contacts. He had a very busy week end. Apart from local contacts Lionel had success working club groups VK3ER/P at “Wombat State Forest and VK3KQ/P at “Field Day Hill†both approximately 495km by grid square path as well as club group VK3III/P at “West Ararat†approximately 590km. There is going to be some interesting results when all the log sheets are processed.
Lionel finished off the evening with a discussion on losses within coaxial cables, covering foam and solid insulators and the advantages of remotely mounting the preamplifier and Power Amplifiers close to your 23cm Yagi antenna.
We will leave the remainder of the Technical night including Trevorâ€Ös baking dish, Peters weather satellite testing and Rossâ€Ö “Hello Sailor†till next weekâ€Ös broadcast.
Errata on News item
Before we go I must make a QRP correction. Unfortunately itâ€Ös not the correction thatâ€Ös small, half a statement this scribe made last broadcast was wrong!
Nic VK7WW did indeed make a QRP contact earlier but it was with Jordan VK3ACU and not Keiran VK3BTV!! Sorry fellows, but at least the QRP contact was successfully made on 80 metres CW both only running 100mW transmit power. The contact was still made between their home states, well done fellows!
As always, but this time if you have a strong stomach and wish to see how not to solder, pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs†for this broadcast.
https://www.ntarc.net/blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7pm till 7.30pm…. and a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm. Your host for the evening will be Nic VK7WW.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
Annual General Meeting & General Meeting - Wednesday the 14th February 2024 at the NTARC Club Rooms, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street Rocherlea commencing at 19:30 hours (7.30 pm).
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 28th of February and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm, running through to about 10 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Finally - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news(at)ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
Thatâ€Ös all folks,
73 from Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Repeater Update
VK7RCR/VK7RAK
VK7RCR 438.525 DMR repeater no longer being hosted at Clayton's VK7ZCR Lenah Valley QTH, he has reconfigured his VK7RCR 146.96125 - 1.6MHz repeater to now serve on the VKDMR Network and Dstar on REF-091C.
So for those who have a GD77 programmed with this repeater will need to update the timeslots for the talk groups available.
For more details on the timeslot can be found on DMR website. https://vkdmr.com/
The Motorola DR3000 that was at Clayton's is now being used on VK7RAK on 438.700 - 5MHz at Danny VK7HDM Gagebrook QTH
73, Scott, VK7HSE
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Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
https://www.reast.asn.au/
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
https://www.youtube.com/reasthobart/
February Presentation Night
Tas Surf Life Saving Radio Network
This Wednesday night, Greg Bird from Surf Life Saving Tasmania has agreed to give us a presentation on the Surf Life Saving Tasmania radio network.
This should be a fascinating presentation about the extensive statewide radio network used by Surf Life Savers in Tasmania.
It will be held on Wednesday night the 7th February 2024 from 7:30pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms and it will also go out on DVB/T RF and via the REAST YouTube Channel streaming service.
https://www.youtube.com/@ReastHobart/streams
See you there.
73, REAST Committee
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REAST AGM & SGM
Annual General and Special General Meetings
Will be held in the Queens Domain clubrooms from 1pm and will be preceded by a free sausage sizzle from 12 noon.
Emails are currently being sent to all members with details of the meetings.
If you do not receive an email then please contact the secretary on secretary(at)reast.asn.au.
Nomination forms for all committee positions are available and are due back with the Secretary by 8th February 2024.
73, REAST Committee
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March Presentation
Space Junk and Amateur Radio
REASTâ€Ös March presentation night will be a fascinating presentation from Mars Buttfield-Addison who is a pHd candidate with UTAS and CSIRO.
Marsâ€Ö speciality is tracking Space Junk and Tasmania has a special role in this endeavour and amateur radio can play a part in this too.
It will be held on Wednesday night the 6th March 2024 from 7:30pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms and it will also go out on DVB/T RF and via the REAST YouTube Channel streaming service.
This should be a great night, see you there.
73, REAST Committee
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DATV Experimenter's Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTq1_R9eiDA
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=135301
http://www.richardsradios.co.uk/cambhistory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_cell
We started the night with some history of the Cambridge Instrument Company which existed between 1881 to 1988. Founded in 1881 as The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company by Horace Darwin [1851-1928] who was Charles Darwin's ninth and youngest son and the company supplied laboratories at Cambridge University. There were a number of company sales resulted in the latter merged with the Swedish firm ASEA in 1988 to form ABB Group.
Many ex-company employees of the Cambridge Instrument Company either founded other well known companies or gained important positions in them. William T. Pye, who had joined as foreman in 1880 left in 1898 to form the W.G. Pye Instrument Company with his son, ultimately to branch out into Pye Radio Ltd.
Robert William Paul (1869-1943) who had previously worked for Elliott Bros (the early computer people) trained as a scientific instrument maker at City and Guilds College in London. In 1903 he introduced the 'Unipivot' galvanometer. The 'Unipivot' galvanometer proved to be very successful and within a few years a large number of variants and accessories for a wide range of electrical measurement were being made. Robert Paul continued to work within the enlarged organisation for the rest of his life. He also became a cinematic pioneer in the 1890s.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk
http://www.thecinetourist.net/my-local-filmmaker.html
Eric Balliol Moullin, [1893-1963] was a Cambridge Professor of Electrical Engineering and President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers [IEE]. He invented the first vacuum-tube voltmeter which he described in a paper to the IEE in December 1922.
We then went through the schematic of an earlier potentiometer including sensitive galvanometer, precision switched potentiometer, rheostat, inbuild 2 x 1.5V batteries and Weston standard cell. The Cambridge Potentiometer was originally created to check the accuracy of thermocouples (to 100mV) and with a Volt/Ratio box for voltages up to 500 Volts and with a variety of shunts - Current up to 1000Amps.
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/319072
Issue with Rheostat and possibly the standard cell - Weston 1.018XX Volts - waiting on the manual for this one then will take apart and see if we can repair.
We then demonstrated the measurement of a very low voltage to 5-6 decimal places providing parts in a 1000 accuracy. These days it has been replaced with accurate digital multimeters
We measured 0.010648V ! The 6th decimal point is an estimate! but not bad for a 1950's device!
Next showed two Morse Keys - the first key was an AWA Ship's Key that is a fully insulated key that is beautifully made with roller bearings and made by the Marconi company MIMC.
The second key was a Dept of Civil Aviation - Western Region key on a cast iron base.
We then had a taster for a future DATV Night where we will feature a RADIACODE Radiation Detector - which includes a radiation detector, dosimeter and spectrometer.
We take a fortnight break as next Wednesday night is our presentation night. See you in a fortnight.
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Training and Assessments
Our next REAST training and assessment day will be on the 24th February 2024.
The training schedule for 2024 has been set and so foundation licence training and all licence assessment days will be held on the following Saturdays:
24th February, 27th April, 29 June, 24 August and 26 October.
Other sessions can be organised if there is enough interest and people wanting assessments and training.
If you are thinking of booking for training or assessment this year please let Reg Emmett VK7KK REAST Learning Organiser know by phoning 0417 391 607 or via the REAST Website Contact Form.
https://www.reast.asn.au/contact/online-contact-form/
Check out the REAST Foundation Licence Training Videos that can be found on the REAST YouTube Training and Assessment playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsnsP_zjw831mdC6sY4XqavRUY-53ZWUn
73, Reg, VK7KK
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Regular VK7 gatherings and events over the coming months:
Regular gatherings:
Sewing Circle Net – Daily on 3.640MHz commences at 6:30pm ADST.
Statewide SSTV Net - held every Thursday night via the North/South Link on VK7RAF/VK7RJG from 7:30pm. In the North and North West - VK7RJG on 438.55 -7MHz and in the South - VK7RAF (146.650 -600kHz) CTCSS tone 141.3Hz to link RAF North-South.
State-wide – MICROWAVE QSO Party – following the Sunday broadcast call-back on 1296.15 MHz FM. One group in the greater Hobart area and another in the greater Launceston area.
Then North-south digital contacts on 1296.2MHz using Q65-60B.
Stations in the Launceston area transmitting on the odd minute. Southern stations on the even minute.
SOTA/WWFF Group – Meeting Mondays and Fridays 10.30-12.00 midday at Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry St, Launceston.
NTARC - TestNet and TechNet sessions every Wednesday night. TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7pm till 7.30pm…. and a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm
NTARC Coffee Mornings held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10am to noon in the Rocherlea Clubrooms.
NTARC - Club Technical nights - Wednesday the 28th February and will commence at 6.30 pm through to about 10.00 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
NW VK7 – Wednesday from 8:00pm local – NW Tassie Amateur Repeater Group Net on VK7RMD
NW VK7 - Thursday commencing at 8:30pm local - N.W. Tassie 2m DX Net 144.190 USB
NW SSTV Nights - Monday 26th February - hosted by Eric VK7EV from 7:30pm using VK7RMD 70cm repeater on Mt Duncan on the 4th Monday in the Month.
Events:
REAST - February 7, 2024 - Presentation on the Surf Life Saving Tasmania Radio Network with Greg Bird - 7:30pm Queens Domain Clubrooms
NTARC - February 14, 2024 - Annual General Meeting and General Meeting - NTARC Club Rooms, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street Rocherlea from 7.30 pm.
REAST - February 18, 2024 - Annual General and Special General Meeting preceded with a free sausage sizzle from noon and meetings start 1pm at Queens Domain Clubrooms
REAST - March 6, 2024 - Space Junk and Amateur Radio with Mars Buttfield-Addison - from 7:30pm in Queens Domain clubrooms.
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A reminder to those people rostered for next weekâ€Ös broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7RI
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and in the NW thanks to N W T A R C, West Coast Radio Group, Cradle Coast Radio Amateur Radio Club, VK7AX, VK7JH and VK7DC
160m: VK7GS
80m: VK7ALH
40m: VK7JGD
20m: VK7DG
10m: VK7VKT
UHFCB24: VK7FMAC
DMR: Talk Group 5 and D-Star: Reflector 91C VK7ZCR
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You can hear this broadcast again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in Northern VK7 and VK7RHT in the South.
A huge thank you to all people and organisations that assisted with this broadcast.
--------------------------------
That concludes our VK7 Amateur Radio News Broadcast for this week.
You have been listening to or have just missed VK7WI. Next week the National WIA news can be heard at 0900 followed by the VK7 Amateur Radio News around 0930 hours.
Items for the broadcast can be emailed to vk7arnews(at)gmail.com
Further information about the broadcast can be found at the VK7 Amateur Radio News Groups.IO Group.
https://groups.io/g/vk7arnews
The deadline for items is 21:00 on Friday prior to the Sunday of the broadcast.
Callbacks will be taken on the frequency to which you are listening. Relay stations will use their own callsigns during the callback.
On behalf of the VK7 Amateur Radio News Team, 73, seasonâ€Ös greetings and stay safe from Mike, VK7FB.
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(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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