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VK7AX > BCAST 08.09.19 10:50z 620 Lines 26027 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Text edition: VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 8th September 2019
(Note.. please remove spaces in email addresses before using)
VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 8th SEPTEMBER 2019
-------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 8th of September 2019. This
broadcast is brought to you by VK7WI, and read today by Rick, VK7RI.
This broadcast utilises repeaters around VK7 and the following HF rebroadcast
stations:
On 3.670 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
On 7.140 MHz by Mike, VK7FB
On 14.130 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH
On 28.525 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE
On DMR Talk Group 5 by Clayton, VK7ZCR
On D-Star Reflector 091 by Roger VK7HRW
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RTC in
the South and VK7RAA in the North.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Silent Key
RIEGER, Gerhard Karl (Gerry) VK7GK
Became silent key at the age of 79 on the 30 August 2019 in the Whittle Ward.
Gerry was first licenced in 1965 and kept licenced up to becoming Silent Key.
His large tower with his 40m Quad could be see as you passed through Granton.
In later years he set up a contest station on a hill at Dromedary. Gerry worked
for the Hydro at Moonah.
Loved brother of Helga. Devoted friend of David and Christine Oliver. A
respected neighbour, work colleague and friend to all who knew him. Private
cremation.
Vale Gerry.
(Richard, VK7RO)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Silent Key
George Christie, VK7MCA
It is with great sadness we advise that our much-loved senior member, indeed
NTARCs oldest member at 93, George Christie, VK7MCA passed away peacefully
at the Deloraine District Hospital on Friday August 16.
George and his wife Ali were very well regarded by the members of NTARC. It was
always a delight to see them at our BBQs and meetings. He missed very few
between the day he joined and before he became too unwell to attend.
George was a thorough gentleman but also had a wicked sense of humour. He
entered amateur radio at a fairly advanced age, having been encouraged to
become an amateur by his best friend, fellow long-term Deloraine resident Bill
Carter VK7AK (SK). George could not have wished for a more qualified Elmer than
Bill, just a few years older than George and at the time, until his passing,
himself the oldest member of NTARC. Bill took George under his wing and
mentored him through his studies. They were a formidable pair, both with
sparkling wit and humour. Sadly Bill passed away before George obtained his
licence.
When George applied for his call sign VK7MCA he was asked whether it had any
special meaning. His answer was typical George. “My cuddly Alice”, he
explained. George couldnt wait to see his name and callsign listed in the
WIA call book but when he got his licence it was too late in the year and so he
missed that years Call Book print run. George then frequently joked that
hopefully he would still be around to see it in print the following year. Well,
he did that comfortably and also saw it in print for still several more years.
To Ali and family from the NTARC family we extend our deepest heartfelt
condolences. We all feel honoured and blessed to have known George and number
him among our closest friends.
VALE George, 1926 – 2019
(NTARC Secretary)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Records News
New Digital Modes Record for 3.4 GHz from VK7
John Martin VK3KM - WIA keeper of the records lets us know that there is a new
3.4GHz Digital Record that has been set in VK7.
The record was set between Hayden VK7HH on Mt Wellington in Southern Tasmania
and Peter VK7PD and Andre' VK7ZAB on Mt Barrow in Northern Tasmania over a
distance of 168.7km.
The digital record was used the WSJT mode - FT8 and was set on the 2nd of
September 2019.
There is more detail about this contact in the NTARC news.
(John VK3JM via the WIA website)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Records News
First VK7 to VK7 EME Contacts
On 31 August Richard VK7ZBX and Rex VK7MO completed the first VK7 to VK7 EME
contact over a distance of 720,000 km even though their stations were only 22
km apart on the Earth. Operations are at 10 GHz using the QRA64 digital
mode. Richard was running a 75 cm dish and 60 watts to Rex running a 113 cm
dish and 90 watts. At the time the Moon was nearly as close as it can get but
even so this resulted in a propagation loss of 289 dB. However spreading was
around 35 Hz producing an additional loss of around 3.4 dB. Signals were
solid and a degradation test with added noise showed there was 5 dB in
reserve.
On the following day the Moon had moved a further 1562 km away due to its
elliptical orbit but this cost only an additional 0.1 dB. But the spreading was
now down to 3 Hz reducing the overall loss by around 3.3 dB compared to the day
earlier. With this extra 3.3 dB in hand Richard tried out a 60 cm dish and
just 30 watts and again a QSO was completed. This time degradation tests
showed there was nothing to spare. This second QSO is believed to be between
the smallest dishes ever to complete an EME QSO with power of just 30 watts at
one end.
Critics might ask how we are sure the signal got to the Moon and back rather
than direct between us. The answer is that the signal took 2.5 seconds to
arrive which relates directly to the time it takes at the speed of light to get
to the Moon and back. In addition Doppler shift calculated at around 20 KHz
proved to be within about 5 Hz once it was automatically compensated - again
confirming the signal was being reflected from the Moon.
(73, Rex, VK7MO)
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
QSL NEWS
Report - from Herman VK7HW Manager of the WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
Herman has advised that the recently arrived QSL cards have been sorted, some
mailed or delivered and the list in the email version of the broadcast updated.
As usual, Herman will deliver cards to Clubs and or QTH's on an opportunity
basis. Also, unless requested otherwise by those who have mail out
arrangements, If there are only 1 or 2 cards for a station, Herman intends to
hold those cards until there are enough to make a mail out more cost effective.
If you have any questions about QSL Cards being held, Herman can be contacted
by email vk7bureau(at)wia.org.au
(73 from Herman)
---------------EMAIL EDITION ONLY ----------------------
AB, ABY, AC, ACN(FOR RT0C), AD, AG, AN(9N), AP
BBB, BC, BH, BO, BX
CC, CH, CW
DD, DG, DW, DX (for E7/VK4DX), DZ
EE, EFA
FG, FLAR, FRJG
GK, GM, GR, GZ
HAH, HRS
JB, JJ , JJJ, JON
KPB, KRJ
LC, LH, LLJ
MAG, MBD, MHZ
NC, NET, NF, NRF, NSE, NWQ
PRN, PSJ
QP
RN, ROY
TCE, TS (for VK9LS), TU
VIP, VR, VZ
WC, WLH, WX
XDM, XX
YUM
ZA, ZE, ZX
VI17AC, VI7COW, VI70HI, VI7JIS, VI7KCD, VI7LER, VI70MI
---------------EMAIL EDITION ONLY ----------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
YOU ARE LISTENING TO VK7WI AND THIS IS THE VK7
AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club Incorporated
www.ntarc.net
Equine Endurance Event.
As this news goes to air, many NTARC members will be recovering from the Equine
event held yesterday Saturday 7th at Mersey Lea. This is a new equine endurance
group and has been established by some younger members of the fraternity. NTARC
assisted at this initial event by providing safety comms at two checkpoints as
well as at Base. The event was an 80, 40 and 20 km ride with the 80 kms ride
starting at 6.00am, a relatively early start, with the other rides following at
a more respectable time.
This event was being held in new country for our safety comms team. A survey of
the area had been carried out some 2 weeks ago but lets hope all went well,
not only the safety comms team but especially for the horses and riders. We may
be able to provide you with further information in next weeks news.
The following item is courtesy of Peter VK7PD who tells us
Digital Distance Record by NTARC Members - Hayden VK7HH noticed that the VK
distance record for digital contacts on the 9cm band stood at a modest 161.6km;
he calculated that if a digital contact could be made between Mounts Barrow and
Wellington it would exceed this distance.
But this story really began some years ago with the Geelong Amateur Radio Club
(GARC).
Nine centimetres had become a ‘Cinderella band. Just a small number of VK
amateurs had means of using it. That was destined to change when members of
GARC discovered a quantity of redundant WIFI panel transceivers in Shepparton
Victoria that operated on 3.4GHz. Thanks to the wizardry of certain GARC
members, methods were devised for converting these units into transverters for
the amateur portion of this spectrum.
In September 2015 Peter VK7PD acquired 3 of these units while travelling
through the Geelong area. Following modification, this led to the previously
reported Mt Wellington-to-White Hills voice contact between VK7JG (SK) and
VK7PD in 2017.
So with a digital contact beckoning, Hayden began an investigation. The panels
are not frequency locked to an external reference so the challenge was to see
if they would be stable enough for an FT8 contact. Hayden and Richard VK7ZBX
did a test contact between their home QTHs and achieved reliable decodes in
both directions. The next challenge was to find a suitable day when 2 parties
would be available to setup on both the above mountains.
Come Monday September 2nd such a day arrived so Hayden set off for Mt
Wellington and Peter for Mt Barrow ably assisted by André VK7ZAB. Both
stations were equipped with panel transceivers, 20W linear amplifiers, receiver
preamps and laptop computers with appropriate interfacing, WSJT software and
means of synchronising the computers internal clocks.
Setup communications were maintained via VK7RBH and a scratchy voice contact
was first achieved on the designated frequency of 3398.15MHz. Then came the
hard part: when FT8 was attempted considerable frequency drift was observed and
no decodes. QRA64 was then tried without success. When a 1 kHz test tone was
sent, it was observed that the frequency stabilised somewhat after 1 or 2
minutes. This called for longer perseverance with FT8. Screen shots on
VK7HH-Ham Radio DX Facebook page show the FT8 excursions across the waterfall
before relative stability and yes! Success – decodes in both directions for
all 3 call signs.
It should be mentioned that a very cold wind was blowing in from the south on
Mt Barrow and cloud gradually blocked the sun; this would explain the
difference in frequency drift between the home QTH and field tests.
Replies have already been received from VK3KM of the WIA Technical Advisory
Committee that 168.7km is a new digital record for this band.
Frequencies between 3.3 and 3.4GHz are not affected by the recent ACMA
announcement which withdrew the top section of this band. Although the source
of the above panels has dried up, the availability of equipment for this band
is assured with transverter kits available in Australia and GPS lockable
transverters becoming available from a well-known Bulgarian supplier.
Now investigations are underway for GPS locking the panels and a tune-up day
for several bands is planned to be held in the REAST clubrooms at a date to be
announced prior to the Spring Field Day in November. All are invited.
73, Peter VK7PD
JOTA/JOTI 2019 – this event is fast looming so time to give it some air time.
This year JOTA/JOTI is celebrating 62 years of connecting scouts and guides by
radio and 23 years of Internet connection.
NTARC will be hosting the event at the NTARC Club Rooms, formerly known as the
Rocherlea Scout Hall. Activities will start on Saturday 19 October at noon to
8.00 pm and on Sunday from 10.0am to 3.00 pm. As usual it will be split over
the two halls with JOTI being set up in the big hall.
As in past years we will be offering a BBQ, with the usual sausages and onion
in bread available at a donation of $2.00 and drinks, either hot or cold for a
similar $2.00 donation.
If you are able to assist on either or both days, could you please contact
NTARCs JOTA Coordinator Peter VK7KPC by
email dodd.pc @ bigpond.com or by mobile 0408 805 086.
We now hand over to NTARC President Idris VK7ZIR for his report on the clubs
latest technical session, held at the clubrooms at Rocherlea this past
Wednesday evening.
Technical night report – Wednesday 4 September Spring has sprung and this was
reflected in a very good attendance to this weeks technical session. The
night was still quite chilly, and Skywarmer was needed to give some background
warmth.
The evenings proceedings started with Trevor VK7TB preparing to give a
presentation on the testing of a homebrew antenna matcher. You may recall that
components for this unit were sourced by Trevor and presented at a previous
session with directions on how to connect the components and work out
impedances using freely available software. Those components were taken by Ross
VK7ALH and assembled into a repurposed aluminium case, which, by the way, was
made in Australia. Ross has done a magnificent job and even found glazed
porcelain insulators for the aerial and earth terminals. Using his VNA, Trevor
was able to show the impedance plots for the various HF bands covered by the
matcher. A very informative presentation and a true Club project to benefit one
of our members. We also welcomed a visitor, David, who had contributed to the
construction of the antenna. We thank Trevor, Ross, David and all other
contributors to the success of the project in true Amateur Radio tradition.
David VK7YY was able to complete his antenna traps with the addition of some
high voltage capacitors, similar to those found in Collins equipment, located
in Trevors storehouse.
Colin VK7ZCF had brought along his RTL-SDR dongle, laptop and portable antenna
to demonstrate the use of the RTL-SDR as a band scope. The laptop was running
SDRSharp software and gave a good display of RF activity in the area. The
portable antenna had been built by Colin out of a beautifully turned solid
aluminium base which had then been drilled and milled to accept an plastic
electrical gland which held the telescopic element. Nice job Colin.
Ross had two radios he was currently restoring, a Trio 9R-59D and a TenTec
Model 544. The Trio is a single-conversion four-band superhet receiver, while
the model 544 (also known as a Triton 4) is a SSB transceiver with digital
readout. Both radios are of 1970s vintage. Ross still has a good deal of
work to do, but we will look forward to their completed restoration.
Peter VK2MPK was there and advised us that we would probably only see him for
one more Tech Session, as he was returning to VK2 for a holiday and to catch up
with family. Then it is back to Tassie to start the transportation of
components to the Trial Harbour windfarm project. He may be based in Burnie so
we may not see him as often.
Thats all folks for now.
73, Idris VK7ZIR
Coming events
Technical sessions – The next session will be on Wednesday 11 September and
will commence at the usual time of 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm 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.
September general meeting – Saturday 14 September. Please note there will be
no BBQ this month, the meeting will commence at 14:00 hours and this will be
followed by a Show and Tell. Suggest you dig out something of interest to bring
along. Afternoon tea will follow and as always donations of goodies to share
would be appreciated. Please note the meeting will be held in the small meeting
room and Skywarmer will be burning brightly.
Coffee mornings – A reminder that our twice-weekly coffee sessions are
normally held every Monday and Friday commencing at 10.00 am and running
through till about noon or longer if members want to linger longer.
Please remember that aside from the good company, freely offered philosophical
views, maybe less than expert political analysis, tall tales and genuinely good
fare on offer, these coffee events are normally a good opportunity to collect
your QSL cards but currently we have no cards awaiting collection.
Please demonstrate your appreciation of all the effort that goes into operating
the club and its facilities and other services we provide by joining us at
these sessions, enjoying the company, coffee and the cake and leaving a gold
coin or two, or even a small bank note, in the jar to assist in our on-going
operations. I dont know of any other venue in Launceston where you can get
endless coffee, tea and eats for a donation of this miniscule amount.
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 the following address
ntarc.emails @ gmail.com
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, including frantically arranging
other connections when our NBN fails, which is quite often. Your continued
cooperation in this regard will be gratefully appreciated and do much to lower
my blood pressure.
As always, I look forward to seeing you at Rocherlea.
73 Yvonne VK7FYMX, Secretary NTARC Inc
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YOU ARE LISTENING TO VK7WI AND THIS IS THE VK7
AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
www.reast.asn.au
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
23CM QSO Party Report
We had nine participants at last weeks 23cm QSO Party on 1296.15Mhz FM.
There were VK7s – MA, DM, OO, TU, KAJ, HRS, TW, WLH and HSE.
The 23CM QSO Party welcomes new participants, Dave VK7DM and Trent VK7HRS.
Generally good signals but some QSB. Better antennas needed!
Rex and Richard were there is spirit as they were away working on their 10GHz
EME effort.
All are welcome to 23cm, Sunday morning at 10:00AM on 1296.150 MHz FM!
(73, Larry, VK7WLH)
--------------------------
REAST September Visit
Behind the Scenes - ABC TV & Radio
A huge thank you to Damien VK7SD and Alan VK7KAD who have agreed to give us a
Behind the Scenes tour into the ABC TV and Radio Studios in Hobart.
This is be a fascinating tour by the some of the Technical Staff who have been
doing a huge program of work to improve the studios.
This will be happening on the 25th September 2019 from 7:30pm sharp.
Please meet at the front the ABC studios. There is limited parking at the
studios however there is plenty of parking along Aberdeen St next to the
Aquatics Centre. Please be careful crossing the road to get to the studios.
See you there.
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
--------------------------
DATV Experimenter's Night Report
What a huge night last Wednesday night. Arriving at the clubrooms there was
already two very nice 3.4GHz systems from Hayden VK7HH and Richard VK7ZBX who
have moved the 3.4GHz transverter PCBs into a 3 RU case and included a
sequencer, preamps and power amplifiers. These were added to by Justin VK7TW
with his 3.4GHz system. We welcomed Phil VK2JPK who came along to see what we
get up to. John VK7FPCL bought along his very nice 3D printed case for his
NanoVNA and showed it off.
Hayden who runs a very successful streaming Youtube channel called Ham Radio DX
bought along his streaming rig with camera, notebook and radio mic and setup in
the DATV studio and we dual streamed the Channels.
REAST DATV Night - https://youtu.be/1PiZHJikNWg
Ham Radio DX - https://youtu.be/LXKHjM4h8io
We started by covering the RD contest logs and moved to 3.4GHz panel
transverters, the new ICOM 705, new SG-Labs 3.4GHz tranverters and then got Ron
Cullen into the studio to show some of the arduino projects he is starting to
play with. These included a little ESP32 board that has a 18650 3.7V LiPo
battery, OLED screen, WIFI and Bluetooth all built onto the one board. Ron is
looking to use this to build a web radio streaming service for around his home.
Ron also has a Bluetooth audio board and Arduino board with larger OLED screen
and Bluetooth and a Blu-nano which is an Arduino Nano clone with blue tooth
built into the board. This unit is going to one of Ron's first person view
Bluetooth connected headsets.
Rex VK7MO then talked about a record set between himself and Richard VK7ZBX
both using 600mm 10GHz dishes and 30 watt systems to work each other via the
moon. This is a first on a whole range of levels - VK7 to VK7 and using small,
medium power system to work using the WSJT QRA64 mode when lunar degradation
was low and spreading was down to 3HZ . Congratulations to Rex and Richard!
There were many questions on the dual streaming channels and thanks to Ben
VK7BEN for handling the REAST chat channel and Hayden for handling the Ham
Radio DX chat.
We then moved into the clubrooms as an outside broadcast and started on the
modifications on the 3.4GHz panels. This involved by-passing the receive cavity
filter that can attenuate the incoming signal by upto 30dB if not tuned
correctly. In the original use of these panel this provide much needed
selectivity which is not required for this application. This certainly improved
the receiver performance on Justin's panel and we tested by going portable into
the Queens Domain compound. Richard was our test station and was reporting a
thumping 5/9 plus signal however Justin was receiving but not as well and this
was even with Richard transmitting over 10 watts.
Hayden was able to locate a number of articles on deaf panels and Justin will
work through these fixes and see if he can improve his receiver sensitivity.
We get back underway next Wednesday night with a DATV Experimenter's night from
7:30pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms.
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 tune to 445.5MHz and do a scan
for a DVB-T signal, 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 YouTube channel and Facebook.
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/amateur-tv/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64To_tq1E7PfK1pqtX_vRw/
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
See you there.
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
-------------------------------------------------------------
REAST Training
The next training session is scheduled for Saturday September 14th. If you wish
to participate please contact Reg ASAP on assessor@reast.asn.au
(73 Reg VK7KK)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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 Afternoon Group meets from Noon and the Experimenters
Nights from 1930 in the Queens Domain clubrooms.
REAST – MICROWAVE QSO Party – following after the Sunday broadcast on
1296.15 MHz FM.
Events:
NTARC September 14 - General Meeting
REAST September 25 – Behind the Scenes tour of ABC TV & Radio Hobart from
7:30pm
-------------------------------------------------------------
A reminder to those people rostered for next weeks broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7TW
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and NWTR&TVG
80m: VK7ALH
40m: VK7TW
20m: Any Takers?
10m: VK7VKT
DMR: Talk Group 5 VK7ZCR
D-Star: Reflector 091 VK7HRW
-------------------------------------------------------------
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RTC in
the South and VK7RAA in the North.
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 VK7WI. Next week the National WIA news can be heard at
0900 followed by the VK7 Amateur Radio News at 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 Rick, VK7RI.
(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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