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Text edition: VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR MARCH 15 2020
(Note.. please remove spaces in email addresses before using)
VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 15th MARCH 2020
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 15th March 2020. This broadcast is brought to you by VK7WI, and read today by Ric
k, VK7RI.
This broadcast utilises repeaters around VK7 and the following HF rebroadcast stations:
On 3.670 MHz by Justin, VK7TW
On 7.140 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH
On 14.130 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE
On 28.525 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
On DMR Talk Group 5 and D-Star Reflector 091 by Clayton, VK7ZCR
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on
repeaters VK7RAA in the North and VK7RTC in the South.
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SILENT KEY
It is with sadness that we announce the passing of John Ward VK7NJW, also fondly known as "Whirlybird".
He was not a well-known operator, but was very active in the 80s and 90s and had been inactive until about a year ago. With so
me valued help from some old timers, he returned to the airwaves with new antennas and a DMR Radio. He renewed some old contact
s and faces with great enthusiasm. With his failing health old mates rallied to help out.
Ever friendly, he was a great operator well in to his eighties.
73's mate from VK7DY, VK7ZCR, VK7HGO, VK7LKB and VK7FRIC, to name a few.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE - Meet the Voice 2020 CANCELLED!
On 12th March, the World Health Organisation classified Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic. With this in mind, Meet the Voice organi
ser Dani VK7FREQ has made the decision to cancel the upcoming Meet the Voice gathering.
This decision wasn't made lightly, but in the interests of the VK7 radio community's health, it has been deemed prudent and nec
essary.
Of course, the annual Sewing Circle Award must carry on, and discussions will be held with the 2019 winner Cedric regarding how
he would like this to occur.
No firm plans have been made regarding the two other big events on the Tasmanian radio calendar this year, the WIA National con
ference scheduled in May, and Hamfest scheduled in November, but all updates will be shared through the Sunday broadcast.
Wishing you all the best of health, from Dani VK7FREQ
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QSL NEWS
Report - from Herman VK7HW, Manager of the WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
The current list of Cards held, including the latest delivery on 12 March, is in the email version of the broadcast.
Please contact Herman if you can assist in delivery of any of the cards in your area.
If you have any questions re QSL cards, please contact Herman by email vk7bureau @ wia.org.au
73, Herman, VK7HW, WIA Manager VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
-----------------------------------------------
AA, AAA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AL, AM, AN, AO, AP, AS, ATH, AV
BA, BB, BBB, BBW, BM, BO, BP
CC, CH, CJ, CV, CX
DD, DG, DK, DO, DQ, DW, DX, DZ
EK
FALX, FAZZ, FG, FGGT, FJFJ, FLAR, FOTR, FRJG, FTAS
GA, GC, GH, GL, GM, GW, GZ
HCH, HDX, HPD, HRS, HRW, HVK, HZ
IK, IS
JA, JB, JJ, JJJ, JON, JP, JW
KBA, KD, KH, KJ, KRJ, KL, KR, KT, KX
LAZ, LCW, LDH, LF, LH, LM, LW
MAG, MBD, MBP, MC, MD(dm), ME, MHZ, MI, ML
NA, NC, NET, NMH, NRF, NSB, NSE, NTE, NWQ, NWT
OK, OR, OT
PAL, PBD, PSJ, PW
RB, RG, RN, ROY
SM, SN, SV
TCE, TED, TK, TR, TS, TU, TX
VAC, VAZ, VH, VKV, VR, VZ
WA, WC, WH, WT, WX
XDM, XX
YAD, YUM
ZA, ZCK, ZE, ZJJ, ZM, ZMS, ZT, ZX, ZZ
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH
SOTA and WWFF Parks and Reserves Group
Meeting times are from 10:30am on Monday and Friday At Glebe Gardens Cafe, 166 Henry St, Launceston.
For more details contact Al on Mobile: 0417 354 410.
(73, Al, VK7AN)
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Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club Incorporated
www.ntarc.net
The rain in thumping down whilst writing this week's news, which is good as the farm does need it. There is still significant d
aytime temperatures though, so the grass growth will reflect the current rain in a day or two, so once again, once the surface
dries out a tad, mowing will be in full swing again. Do you detect something of a pattern in all this?
As the news is written up on a Friday I will have to give you a run down on our March lunch and meeting, held yesterday, in nex
t week's news.
So this week it will be short and sweet from NTARC, the only saving grace is the update from Idris VK7ZIR in relation to our we
ekly technical sessions and an item of interest by Rosco VK7RC.
So without further ado, I will now hand over to Idris to give you a rundown of happenings on last Wednesday 11th March;
“We start off this report with Peter VK7KPC assembling his NanoVNA test gear with a laptop to display performance plots of hi
s bandpass filters. The filters under test came from the last NTARC auction. Two of them are from the Bird Company in the USA,
renowned for its precision engineering. And thus it was shown when the VNA was connected and the filters swept, the plot of the
characteristics exhibited nice steep slopes at the band edge frequencies, and good attenuation outside of them. The VNA applic
ation was very comprehensive and intuitive. A number of members have obtained these excellent and reasonably priced NanoVNAs so
this was of particular interest to many there. Thanks Peter for an informative and instructive session.
Ross VK7ALH brought in another auction purchase. It is a Yaesu FRG7 communications receiver, well known amongst the Amateur Fra
ternity for its excellent Barlow-Wadley tuning system. It is in a truly pristine condition and was sold as wired for 115 Volts
AC 60Hz. A quick perusal of the manual on auction day, showed transformer tappings available to re-strap to 240 Volts AC. Alas,
when Ross got home and got the covers off, it revealed a power transformer suitable for the US domestic market only, with no o
ther tappings. Never one to be thwarted, Ross cast around and found a transformer with correct secondary windings and the all-i
mportant 240Volt primary. He showed us the installation of the transformer and some modifications to the power circuit for sa
fety reasons. He had brought the FRG7 into the 21st century by changing the hard-wired power lead to an IEC power socket with i
nbuilt filter and 3AG fuse holder on the back panel. Very workmanlike job Ross, you would think that's how it was originally ma
nufactured.
Kevin VK7KJL was kept busy with another two Foundation licence hopefuls, giving them some practical instruction in the Radio Sh
ack.
Just when we thought that we had run out of birthdays to celebrate, it was our Entertainment Officer Ebenezer VK7AT's coming up
. Ebenezer is about to leave our shores and venture to Clogistan (Ebenezer-speak for The Netherlands). When his birthday actual
ly occurs, he will be well on his way, so we had an advance celebration. A cake was produced, and decorated with the "regimenta
l" candle (which is getting rather short HI HI) and the NTARC Male Voice Choir did their rendition of the traditional song, wit
h the usual discordancy! The wish was made and the cake was ceremonially cut by the birthday boy. We wish you many more Ebeneze
r. Concern was expressed over the potential lack of mirth and merriment in his absence, but he reassured us that he will contac
t us on Tech nights via IRLP and give us some fruity Dutch jokes!
And now for next week, we are intending to have an APRS workshop with demonstrations and APRS equipment. So think up any questi
ons for discussion and dust off any radios you might want to use for APRS in your vehicle and let us in on your installation st
ories. Anything to do with APRS is fair game, so let's have a good night of it.
73
Idris VK7ZIR
Item of Interest - as I mentioned in my intro here it is:
A very interesting website has appeared called QRM.GURU
This website is very valuable to all Hams in resolving interference for Amateur Radio.
Put together by Oz Hams last March, I recommend you all visit this site. I have found it very informative and great recommendat
ions.
http://www.qrm.guru
Rosco, VK7RC
Coming events
Technical session - The next session will be on Wednesday 18th March and will commence at the usual time of 7.30 pm, running th
rough to 10.30 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea. Pop in catch up with fellow amateurs, bring along something that
you are currently building or just ask questions. You might also be able to answer some from other attendees. That is what the
evenings are all about, anything of a technical or near-technical nature, however defined, is fair game. Endless tea and coffee
along with biscuits is available for a small gold coin donation.
Coffee mornings - are normally held every Monday and Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Catch up time is from 10.00 am to noon and
we look forward to seeing you all.
Sorry to say there will be no funny stories by our Entertainment Officer Ebenezer VK7AT as he will be overseas for a few weeks.
The rest of us will have to pick up the slack on his behalf, but please tuck into the genuinely good fare on offer, these coff
ee events are normally a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards. Currently though we have no cards awaiting collection.
As I remind all every week, please demonstrate your appreciation of all the effort that goes into operating the club and its fa
cilities and the other services we provide, by joining us at these sessions, enjoying the company, coffee and the cake and leav
ing a gold coin or two, or even a small bank note, in the jar to assist in our on-going operations.
Finally
A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, then please email them
to either of the following addresses
ntarc.emails @ gmail.com or ypmaxwell @ bigpond.com
as once again I am having problems with the Internet. However, it would be appreciated if any news could be sent no later than
17:00 hours on the Friday prior to broadcast, to allow its timely insertion into the NTARC segment.
That gives all a chance to get the NTARC segment together and off to Hobart in time for collation into the VK7 Broadcast. Your
continued cooperation in this regard will be gratefully appreciated.
As always I look forward to seeing you at Rocherlea.
73, Yvonne, VK7FYMX, Secretary NTARC Inc.
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
Clubrooms Reno - Help Wanted
Over the next month there will be much work undertaken on the Queen's Domain Clubrooms to improve them.
On the 16th March two new heat pumps will be installed thanks to a Tasmania Community Fund Grant and Scott Hutchins VK7HVK. The
se heat pumps will replace the power-hungry resistive heaters.
On Wednesday the 18th March the equipment in the main room will be sorted to identify the equipment we wish to keep for the mus
eum. This will be a joint lunchtime and DATV Experimenter's night task. This will no doubt result in a range of equipment becom
ing available for members!
Then on the 19th and 20th March the main room and toilet will be prepped (and we don't mean buying more toilet paper...HIHI) fo
r painting and this is where we are asking for some helpers.
On the 21st March the Main room and toilet will be painted and we are looking for some helpers.
So, we need go-fers, general assistants, dab hands on the brush that feel confident in painting the odd door or two on both the
prep and painting days.
If you would like to volunteer for an hour, hours or days, then please contact Tony VK7VKT on secretary @ reast.asn.au.
73, REAST Committee
(PS a huge thank you to Tony for taking the lead on this initiative)
-----------------------------------------
DATV Experimenter's Night Wrap-Up
We started in the studio with Justin VK7TW showing his latest GPS Disciplined Oscillator project with a Trimble Thunderbolt, a
TAPR Distribution Board and the KJ6OWL Thunderbolt LCD Display.
Richard, VK7ZBX, then brought into the studio his latest project, a very nice 1296MHz power amplifier from Russia. Richard has
mounted it into a rack-mount box which also includes a 28volt 40Amp power supply, Coaxial relay, power amplifier and the contro
l box, including an LCD status screen. Thanks Richard.
Justin then showed the StarLink satellite application on the iPhone and there was a predication on an excellent pass at around
8:46pm. A number of people went outside and saw a trail of about 20 StarLink 4-5 Satellites.
We then did a promo of the Meet the Voice event on the 22 March and the John Moyle Memorial Field Day on the 21-22 March 2020.
Warren VK7WN than gave a description of his recent trip to Womadelaide - the world music festival. Thanks Warren.
For our RF audience, we then had a series of amateur radio related videos including IC-705, Antenna Tuners, receiving pics from
NOAA satellites and finishing with an amusing video about how to reduce your use of toilet paper!
Out in the clubrooms, Jet VK7FJET was showing his very impressive scratch built GPS disciplined oscillators and phase mixer whi
ch he is experimenting with. He is training the oscillators to compensate for the Oscillator drift and building this into his p
rogramming. Very impressive Jet. Thanks for bringing it along and showing us.
Next week we will have a Special Guest in Julia Drouhin from Sisters Akousmatica. She will be in the studio to describe her lat
est collaboration with WebSynRadio France and their March 5th to 18th project called Fukushima - 9 Years Old.
http://synradio.fr/fukushima-2020-9-ans-apres/
http://fukushima-open-sounds.net/
We go out on RF on 445.5MHz DVB-T 7MHz Standard Definition. So, if you have a TV, Set-top box or USB DTV Dongle that you can tu
ne and scan 445.5MHz and you can see the Queens Domain, then you have a good chance of receiving the DATV Experimenter's Night
Signal. Look out for VK7OTC. We also stream the nights on the REAST website and YouTube channel.
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/amateur-tv/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64To_tq1E7PfK1pqtX_vRw/
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
We get underway with the DATV Experimenter's Night from 7:30pm.
We look forward to seeing you there.
73, Justin, VK7TW
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Babcock to upgrade NZ Defence HF
The New Zealand Defence Force's high-frequency radio system is about to be overhauled under a new deal with Babcock Internation
al.
The NZ$30.6 million system - expected to be operational by August 2023 - will help strengthen [NZ's] national resilience and pr
ovide communications coverage in places that satellites cannot reach and where ordinary radio communications will not work", N
Z Defence Minister Ron Mark said.
It will also act as a backup system if satellite communications fail, are disrupted or are unavailable.
"The current HF radio infrastructure was installed in the 1980s and has reached the end of its life," Mark said.
"Our service women and men rely on communications to undertake the tasks required of them, whether it be humanitarian, constabu
lary or military operations. In undertaking these tasks, they operate in some of the most remote regions on the planet, from de
ep in the Southern Ocean to the vastness of the Pacific.
"This is an investment in our communities. Defence's HF radio system will support emergency services, enabling them to maintain
communications during crises," Mark concluded.
The contract will also see Babcock supply a "through-life support program", the aerospace and defence company said in a news i
tem on its website.
Babcock Australasia CEO David Ruff said, "This contract leverages our longstanding, 18-year track record in the UK, where Babco
ck has been providing a Defence High Frequency Communications Service to the UK Ministry of Defence” and sets its position as
a "key Five Eyes Partner".
It also builds on the company's role supporting the Royal NZ Navy and managing Air NZ's ground assets, Ruff added.
NZ and the UK are both part of the Five Eyes alliance, allowing data and information sharing between the two countries, along w
ith Australia, Canada and the US.
Read more: http://criticalcomms.com.au/content/public-safety/news/babcock-to-upgrade-nz-defence-hf-266392156#ixzz6GZ0GEnUM
-------------------------------------------------
PS-75 HF PICO balloon
This balloon is about to make it all the way around the world and back to Australia
The solar powered party balloon runs 10mW TX on WSPR, JT9 on 30m
Dial frequency is 10.138700Mhz (standard WSPR dial frequency) for WSPR, JT9.
JT9 is at 1755Hz on the waterfall.
See HF decoding info at http://picospace.net/?p=552
New WSJTX version 2.1.2 can be downloaded from the link.
Tracking as PS-75 on SNUS http://tracker.habhub.org/#!mt=roadmap&mz=6&qm=All&f=PS-75&q=PS-75
WSPR call sign is VK3YT http://wsprnet.org/olddb?findcall=vk3yt
Assistance with tracking is appreciated.
Andy, VK3YT
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Regular VK7 gatherings and events over the coming months:
Regular gatherings:
SOTA Group - Monday and Friday Coffee Sessions from 10:30am at Glebe Gardens Cafe 166 Henry St, Launceston
NTARC - Monday and Friday Coffee Sessions from 10am, Technical Sessions on Wednesdays from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm in the clubrooms
Archer Street, Rocherlea, Launceston.
REAST - Wednesday Night Experimenters Group from 1930 in the Queens Domain clubrooms.
REAST - MICROWAVE QSO Party - following after the Sunday broadcast on 1296.15 MHz FM.
Events:
Meet the Voice - Cancelled!!
http://meetthevoice.org/meet-the-voice
WIA - Annual Conference weekend of 8-10 May 2020.
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A reminder to those people rostered for next week's broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7TW
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and Spectrum Tasmania
80m: VK7JGD
40m: VK7FB
20m: VK7ALH
10m: VK7TPE
DMR: Talk Group 5 and
D-Star: Reflector 091 VK7ZCR
-------------------------------------------------------------
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in the North and VK7RTC in the South.
Thanks 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 VK7WI. Next week the National WIA news can be heard at 0900 followed by the VK7 Amateur Radio News a
t 0930 hours.
Items for the broadcast can be emailed to vk7arnews @ 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.
VK7WI is now closing but will reopen shortly for callbacks and relay reports. Callbacks will be taken on the frequency to which
you are listening. Relay stations will use their own callsigns during the callback.
>From the VK7 Amateur Radio News, it is 73 from Mike, VK7FB.
------------------------------------------------------------
(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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