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VK7AX > BCAST 26.05.19 13:22z 391 Lines 23278 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: VK7 Amateur Radio News 26May19
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Sent: 190526/1315Z @:VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC #:12206 [Ulverstone] $:12206_VK7AX
From: VK7AX@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : BCAST@WW
Text edition: VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 26 May 2019
(Note.. please remove spaces in email addresses before using)
VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST FOR SUNDAY 26 May 2019
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Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 26th of May 2019. This broadcast is brought to you by VK7WI, and read today by Peter, VK7PD.
This broadcast utilises repeaters around VK7 and the following HF rebroadcast stations:
On 3.670 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH
On 7.140 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE
On 14.130 MHz by not known at the time of writing/reading
On 28.525 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
On DMR Talk Group 3809, Clayton, VK7ZCR.
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RTC in the South and VK7RAA in the North.
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GENERAL NEWS
QSL BUREAU
Herman reports that several cards have already been delivered to SOTA Group, mailed out or, on an opportunity basis, delivered to various QTH as Herman happened to be in the vicinity. Some more cards will be mailed out during the next week or so where prior arrangements have been made. Herman says that unless requested otherwise, 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.
Herman would like to thank the Amateurs who assist in distributing QSL cards on a regular basis in the Burnie, Ulverstone, Launceston and Hobart areas.
If you have any questions about QSL Cards being held, Herman can be contacted by
email vk7bureau @ wia.org.au
73 from Herman, VK7HW, Manager WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
AB, ABY, AD, AG, AP
DG, DX (for E7/VK4DX), DZ
EE, EFA
FG, FLAR, FRJG
GK, GM, GZ
HAH, HCK, HDM, HRS, HVK
JJ, JJJ
LC, LH, LLJ
MBD, MHZ, MO
NC, NF, NRF, NSE, NWQ
RN
TCE, TS (for VK9LS), TZ
VH (VI7ANZAC), VR, VZ
WC, WLH
ZA, ZGK
VI7COW, VI70HI, VI7JIS, VI7KCD, VI7LER, VI70MI
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VKFF New Park Additions for Tasmania
During April, a number of new parks were added to the WWFF (World Wide Flora & Fauna) parks program throughout Tasmania. There's never been a better time to get started with park activations. In total, 43 new parks were added including conservation areas, recreation areas and nature reserves.
There are now 142 parks to activate throughout the state, so no matter where you live, there is likely to be something in your local area.
To find out more, please visit the WWFF Australia website at
www.wwffaustralia.com
To make an enquiry, please contact Jonathan VK7JON the Tasmania Representative. Jonathan's email address appears on the VKFF Team page of the website.
73, Jonathan, VK7JON
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH WEST
Special Meeting And General Meeting
Prior to the general meeting on June 1st at 2pm there is to be a special meeting in relation to membership rules. If not received, the notice of special meeting will be in your email shortly. Please take the time to read it and print it if you need to bring it to the meeting.
The general meeting of our club will follow on June 1st at the Scout Hall at Ulverstone immediately after. As usual we ask for a small plate for afternoon tea please. Friends are welcome to attend our meeting if they would like to.
I will be providing tea and coffee as usual.
Please remember June 1st at the Scout Hall Ulverstone at 2pm.
Looking forward to seeing everyone.
73 Shirl VK7HSC, President, NWTR&TVG
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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 Indian Summer has continued here on the Gippsland Lakes this past week, with temperatures hovering around 26 most days. Notably warmer than the conditions back at home QTH, according to the weather reports. That might not last long though, given the sequence of cold fronts marching towards South East Australia. Meanwhile, we are stretching our shorts wearing for as long as possible.
The undoubted highlight this week was a visit by a pod of dolphins, obviously on a well organised fishing sweep of this relatively narrow and shallow portion of Lake Victoria. They seemed to be enjoying themselves while at that task, swimming around between the moored boats. We were treated to the sight of a mother and her calf arching out of the water in perfect step, a matter of mere meters off our starboard bow. As we discovered, the Gippsland Lakes are inhabited by a species, the bottle nosed dolphin that occurs only here and in one other place – good old Tasmania. Its nice to know that both of these paradises share another common link.
Enough of the travelogue and onto our real news content, although as we head into the colder months, things tend to quieten down, so much of this weeks segment must be reminders of coming events.
As this segment is necessarily prepared each Friday, we will need to wait until next week before being able to bring you a report on happenings on NTARCs first equine endurance event for the season, held at Lebrina yesterday.
Meanwhile, we will now pass over to NTARC President Idris VK7ZIR, for his report on the clubs technical session held at the clubrooms at Rocherlea this past Wednesday evening.
Technical session roundup for Wednesday 22nd May 2019
“As mentioned last week, our visitor from VK2, Peter VK2MPK, who is a driver for the logistics company involved, gave us a fascinating slide show and commentary of the process by which the components of the wind generators for the Cattle Hill installation made their way from the Bell Bay terminal to Cattle Hill via Bothwell. The logistics of transporting the huge tower sections and other components on steep winding unmade roads was mind boggling! High power prime movers towed multiple wheeled trailers, with front and rear sections steerable by remote control, from a following vehicle. On the steeper sections, ex-military all-wheel drive trucks were used to pull, and sometimes push the entire train up the hills. Careful planning was needed to ensure these trucks were at their designated positions when needed. Thanks Peter for a very interesting and informative presentation.
Peter VK7PD then showed us a presentation from Rex VK7MO describing the 1296 MHz Yagi antennas which will be the subject of an up and coming antenna building workshop. The signal Rex used for his antenna gain comparisons came from VK7RAE, the NTARC beacons at Don Heads near Devonport.
I suppose the technical theme for the evening would have to be “Reference Frequency”.
Trevor VK7TB had, at an earlier session, given us a talk on his efforts years ago to derive a reference frequency of 10MHz from the off air TV signal. He constructed a tuner module and accompanying converter to strip the vision and sound components from the waveform, leaving the synch pulses of the 15.625 kHz line rate, which was generated by the Rubidium standard at the TV station, to up-convert to 10MHz and other frequencies. Of course, being Trevor, the hand drawn schematics and construction standards were on an exemplary standard. On a lighter note, Trevor had explained his project to a manager from the local TV station, whose response was that they wouldnt charge him for the use of the resource!
Back to the evening session, and Peter VK7KPC had set up his frequency counter with a GPS disciplined oscillator supplying 10MHz. The GPS antenna worked quite well dangling out of the window! He could then adjust the accuracy on several of his projects. One was a combined signal generator and frequency counter, while another was a 10MHz DDS module. He is currently still waiting for some circuit boards for his OCXO module the accuracy of which should be comparable to the GPS source.
Kevin VK7HKN set up his Buddipole portable antenna, and tuned it using his recently acquired SARK antenna analyser. A very nice piece of kit. Kevin then connected the antenna to his home brew QRP transceiver and battery, thus demonstrating a complete QRP station. Thanks Kevin.
Peter VK7PD had his home built 2.4 GHZ amplifier to show us, with many recycled materials used in its construction.
James VK7JAM brought along his new Ukrainian HF antenna analyser board which is designed to be used with an Arduino, or, using an accompanying USB interface, with a computer.
Another very full and interesting night enjoyed by all.
73 Idris VK7ZIR”
Thanks Idris for that update.
Coming events
Technical sessions
Next session, Wednesday 29 May 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 is fair game. Endless tea and coffee along with biscuits is available for a small gold coin donation.
Equine event
Jill Sheehan Memorial Ride Sunday 9th June being held at Sassafras, Smith & Others Road. This is the long weekend but NTARC will commence setting up on the Friday. If you would like to assist at this event our Safety Communications Coordinator Norm VK7KTN would appreciate hearing from you. Norm can be contacted by email safetycomms.ntarc@gmail.com As the location is a pleasant 1 hour drive from Launceston why not consider coming along and put your radio skills to good use assisting a community event. If this is your first event then you will be paired with an experienced operator so that you can quickly grasp the procedures involved and NTARCs regular general approach to these events.
June general meeting
Wednesday evening 12 June. The meeting will commence at 19:30 hours and we are planning a Show and Tell session to follow it, so why not bring something along for all to view, comment etc. Of course, supper will follow.
Mug Order
Yes, we are talking about the white mugs for drinking out of, those that have our club logo on one side, personalised with your name and call sign on the other. We are definitely placing another order so if you would like one then please see André at coffee mornings or at the technical night. Alternatively, email him at treasurer@ntarc.net
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 I dont think we have any 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, while I am absent on holiday, 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 insertion into the NTARC segment. There are very real difficulties in compiling the weekly news contribution when away from home QTH, not that there arent when at home. In the field though, they are much more demanding. During my absence therefore, the reality must be that if I do not receive contributions by 17:00, I will be obliged to simply insert a note that no report has been received on that particular item before the cut off. I trust that this will be understood.
As always, I look forward to seeing you at Rocherlea but still not for a couple of weeks.
73, Yvonne, VK7FYMX
Secretary NTARC Inc
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
www.reast.asn.au
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
June Presentation
Radio Control Technology Update
The presentation for June will be given by our resident radio control experimenter Ron Cullen. It is a follow up from his previous presentation that was done back in June 2017.
Ron will be covering improvements that he has made to do with remote control aircraft, First Person View (FPV) including a head tracking system which complements the FPV experience.
He will also be presenting a new modern aircraft which is capable of reaching speeds of 100+km/h.
Ron also now builds his own 5.8GHz AV antennas with the aid of a handy jig he created making the job a lot easier.
All this and more from Ron on the second Wednesday night, the 12th of June 2019 from 7:30pm.
See you there.
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Reast Antenna Build Day
REAST is planning an antenna build day in the not too distant future (more on that in the next couple of weeks). We're hoping that the day will be a great opportunity for members and non-members to get together in a shared learning environment and be able to walk away with an antenna they can go home and plug in and start using. With test equipment available you'll be able to dabble with a dipole, fidget with a fractal or alter an end fed!
Speaking of end feds there will be a limited number of ready-to-assemble antenna kits for sale for those who would like a project to walk away with.
An end-fed half wave antenna that can be used on 40-20-15m will cost $35
A VHF/UHF handheld Moxon antenna for working LEO Satellites will cost $25
If you are interested in pre-ordering a kit, and guaranteeing availability please contact Ben VK7BEN by email at
vk7ben @ wia.org.au
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TECHNICAL ARTICLES
Sepura radios selected by Aurizon Rail
Aurizon Rail has contracted Sepuras partner, Radlink Communications, to supply radios for its rail network.
Aurizon moves coal, iron ore, agricultural freight and more across Australia daily and needed to improve the communications across its vast rail system.
It has purchased 1200 Sepura SC20 hand-portable radios and 1800 SRG3900 mobile terminals to be used across its network. The SRGs will be installed across the train fleet to maintain communications along the entire network.
The new radio network is due to be operational this year and will use TETRA technology, encompassing 79 sites across rails stretching a total of 2670 kilometres. The network will link 50 coalmines and four major ports throughout central Queensland.
Aurizons previous radio system was more than 20 years old, so an overhaul of the facility was needed to ensure reliable, secure communications to meet their current and future operational requirements. The new system will consolidate four analogue systems encompassing train control, shunting, maintenance and wayside operations into a singular cohesive TETRA network, providing the highest level of reliability and availability with no single point of failure. The new network will also deliver improved monitoring, remote diagnostics, overlapping radio coverage, GPS tracking and distress signal capabilities, enhancing control room oversight of operations and improving staff safety.
The addition of Sepuras Short Data Application (SDA) capability is enabling the use of applications developed by Radlink for Aurizon which include geofenced automatic voice channel selection, extreme weather alerts, heat maps of radios showing identity and location, excessive speed warnings, signal strength tracking and a mobile phone client providing two-way radio access and functionality on smartphones.
“The system we are implementing for Aurizon is truly groundbreaking in terms of its sheer scale, functionality and capability. The new TETRA network will be fully integrated to operate over the Aurizon Central Queensland MPLS network and will provide greater radio coverage, increased reliability and advanced monitoring for what will be a critical communications network,” said Radlink Communications Project Director, Scott Manson.
The project is progressing well with construction currently ahead of schedule. Radlink successfully designed and installed 79 TETRA base stations (including two control rooms, disaster recovery trailers and 15 new tower structures) in a 14-month installation program across the remote Central Queensland landscape. Sepura has now delivered all 3000 terminals to the project with the next phase of programming and vehicle installation well underway.
“Through the experience and expertise of our partners such as Radlink, we continue to provide secure, reliable critical voice and data communication solutions for some of the worlds harshest environments,” said Doug Bowden, Senior Business Development Manager for Sepura in Australia.
Read more: http://criticalcomms.com.au/content/radio-systems/news/sepura-radios-selected-by-aurizon-rail-837779416#ixzz5opmVYRND
Sourced from Critical Comms
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Designs for Square Kilometre Arrays supercomputer completed
Science Data Processor to be world's fastest.
The international consortium behind the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) have completed the five-year process of designing one of two supercomputers that will crunch its way through the mountains of celestial data collected by the fields of radio telescopes.
Almost 40 institutions from 11 countries, including Australias CSIRO, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, and the Perth-based Internationational Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) participated in the design of the Science Data Processor (SDP).
The SDP functions will be split across two supercomputers, one in Perth and one in Cape Town, to be close to the SKA-low frequency and SKA-mid frequency sites in each respective country.
When fully functional, the combined power of the SDP is expected to produce the worlds fastest supercomputer, SKA Organisations SDP project manager Maurizio Miccolis said.
“We estimate SDPs total compute power to be around 250 PFlops – that's 25 percent faster than IBMs Summit, the current fastest supercomputer in the world.".
“In total, up to 600 PB of data will be distributed around the world every year from SDP – thats enough to fill more than a million average laptops," he said
Doing that will require the SDP to ingest data and move it through data reduction pipelines to then form packages that will be copied and distributed to a global network of regional centres to be studied.
Designing the process of ingesting and sorting the data was handled by ICRAR in Perth.
“Our job has been to create something called the ‘execution framework, which will run up to
100 million tasks every few hours as it ingests and processes data flowing from the telescope at enormous speeds,” ICRARs head of Data Intensive Astronomy Andreas Wicenec said.
“Because of the sheer quantity of data flowing into SDP - some 5 Tb/s, or 100,000 times faster than the projected global average broadband speed in 2022 - it will need to make decisions on its own in almost real-time about what is noise and what is worthwhile data to keep.”
The CSIRO, meanwhile, contributed to the software architecture design and imaging algorithm development.
Pawseys existing high performance computing capabilities came in handy, with the organisation developing the local infrastructure interface specification between SDP and the hosting data centres.
It also ported and tested automated scaling test frameworks on its Cray supercomputers.
Rosie Bolton, data centre scientist at the SKA Organisation, added that all of these systems behind the SDP have been designed to evolve with the SKA project over its 50-year lifespan.
“We have to design a system thats highly scalable and highly extensible so that we can add on modules and change the size of it as time goes by.”
Construction of the systems will begin in Australia and South Africa from 2021.
Sourced from "itnews"
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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 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:
NWTR&TVG - Special and General Meeting June 1 at 1400 Ulverstone Scout Hall
NTARC – Jill Sheehan Memorial Ride Sunday the 9th of June at Sassafras
REAST – June 12 Presentation - Radio Control Technology Update
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A reminder to those people rostered for next weeks broadcast and please note the changes to the roster:
Newsreader: VK7TW
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and NWTR&TVG
80m: VK7FB
40m: VK7TPE
20m: VK7JGD
10m: VK7VKT
DMR: Talk Group 3809 VK7ZCR
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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.
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That concludes our VK7 Amateur Radio News Broadcast for this week.
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 Peter, VK7PD.
(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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