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VK7AX > BCAST 23.01.24 11:22z 454 Lines 23670 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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VK7 Amateur Radio News 21Jan24
Text edition:
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VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 21st January 2024
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Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News and this was first broadcast on Sunday the 21st January 2024. At the mike of VK7WI this week is Idris VK7ZIR.
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 Any Takers,
On 3.670 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD,
On 7.140 MHz by Dale, VK7DG,
On 14.130 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE,
On 28.525 MHz by Tony, VK7VKT.
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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Contest news
WIA Summer VHF/UHF Field Day 2024.
Last weekend was the Summer session of the VHF/UHF field day and thanks to all who went out portable and the many home stations.
It is now time to finalise and upload your logs. For the benefit of Warren VK7WN logs are due by midnight EDST, Monday 29 January 2024.
73 Richard VK7ZBX
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Contest news
Ross Hull Memorial VHF/UHF Contest.
The contest was established in 1950 to honour the memory of the late Ross A. Hull and his pioneering achievements in the study of tropospheric propagation and the development of new equipment techniques for the higher bands.
It runs for the month of January and entrants may operate on every contest day, but the final score is based on the best seven days nominated by the entrant.
For amateurs with limited operating time, there is also a "Best 2 Days" section.
Each contact scores one point for each 100 km of distance worked. This score is then multiplied by the band multiplier. The total score is the sum of the scores on all bands.
The distance calculation is based on your maidenhead 6 digit locator.
VKCL 4.15 still works for logging this contest and for the benefit of VK7WN - logs are due in by 14th FEBRUARY 23:59 UTC. Logs can be emailed as an attachment to: rosshull(at)wia.org.au
I am sure we will have some logging sessions as part of the various 23cm QSO parties that go on after the broadcast.
https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rosshull/
73, VK7 News Team
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Statewide News
Thursday Night SSTV Nets
A very enthusiastic net night that saw the following participants, VK7s – ZGK, EV, ZAB, EKA, TW, FGGT, DMH, OO, ZMS and ZSB all sharing over sixty photos. There was some noise during the evening on the north - south link.
The theme was “aircraft and flight”, the highlights were:
An “arm strong” powered paper plane
A man powered feathered wing contraption
Biplanes including a radio controlled model
Propeller and jet aircraft
The Hindenburg disaster
A kite
Various experimental aircraft including a US Navy near vertical take-off design
Helicopters galore!
G for George the Lancaster in the Australian War Memorial
A Radio Operators equipment setup in a Lancaster bomber
Australian Air Force C17 cargo transporter
The one and only Dick Smith!
A Flight Attendant for British Airways posing on a car
How may Flight Attendants can sit on a plane wing?
A tip on “how to fly” by Douglas Adams
Biggles and his number 266 plane
An Emu and Kangaroo on the Australian Coat of Arms
Pre-historic winged reptile (for text version – called a Pterosaurs)
Space 1999, Thunderbirds, a Millennium Falcon and a UFO
Essendon airport and control tower
Also a radio setups for the Summer VHF/UHF field day on Mount Wellington
And how not to cook eggs.
Remember Ken VK7KRJs and Steve VK7OOs 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 Kens and Steves SSTV websites or on NTARCs website under blogs and arranged as weekly nets.
An idea for a theme for next weeks net is “Towers”
https://vk7oo.tasme.com/vhfsstv
https://sstv.vk7krj.com/scrolling%20web%20gallery.html
https://www.ntarc.net/blogs
73 from Andre VK7ZAB
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH WEST
North West Tasmania Amateur Radio Club
NWTARC Annual General meeting,
The Annual General Meeting of NWTARC will take place at 1330 hrs on Saturday 3rd February 2023, at our usual venue, the Scout hall, 73 Alexandra Road, Ulverstone.
The ordinary business of an annual general meeting will be to:
Confirm the minutes of the last preceding annual general meeting.
To receive from the committee, auditor, employees and other persons acting on behalf of the Association, reports on the transactions of the Association during the last preceding financial year of the Association.
To elect the officers of the Association and the ordinary committee members.
To appoint the auditor and determine his or her remuneration.
To determine the remuneration of employees and other persons acting on behalf of the Association.
To appoint the Public Officer either from the committee or general membership.
All current office holder, committee, auditor and the Public Officer positions fall vacant at the AGM.
Nominations for each office bearer and the Committee members are invited, and should be made in writing to the Secretary, and delivered to the Secretary, at least 10 days before the day on which the annual general meeting is to be held.
The nomination is to be on the NWTARC nomination form, along with the signatures of the Nominator, Seconder and that of the member nominated.
Appointments will also be required for the positions of Auditor and Public Officer.
Members will need to have paid their 2024 membership subscription before the meeting commences at 1.30pm to be able to vote at the Annual General meeting. they will need to have paid their 2024 membership before they can be nominated or nominate or second someone for office, as only financial members can nominate or be nominated.
February General meeting,
After the AGM afternoon tea will also be held, and members are encouraged to bring items for show & tell, and club rooms are open until 6pm for members to socialise.
A small plate of afternoon tea would be appreciated, and we have single packaged Tea, Coffee and Sugar and disposable cups for members and guests. Visitors are most welcome to attend.
If you have any cold or flu symptoms, or are unwell, or been in contact with a confirmed COVID case, then please do not attend the meeting.
73, Eric VK7EV, News Officer NWTARC
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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
The first Tech night for the new year finally rolled around and was very enthusiastically attended. We were lucky enough to have a couple of new faces in the mix, welcome to Jamie and Carl. Hopefully you enjoyed the evening at the club and I believe you departed carrying a copy of “Your Entry Into Amateur Radio” intent in pursuing a course towards a Foundation License, remember you are always welcome to drop in.
Jamie also brought along a couple of radios he inherited from his father. One was a Kenwood 120 HF SSB transceivers but the other unit did not sport a branded name! It may have been non-branded but it certainly conveyed what it thought it was meant to be, that was a “Two Meter Amateur Transceiver” going by the name of “Twoer” and a model number of HW-30. This caused some initial discussion until the arrival of Ros VK7ALH who quickly identified the units origin as a Heathkit that had been home assembled and looked of a commercial quality.
This Heathkit transceiver kit was Circa 1960s. It was intended for the 2 Metre amateur band with only a mode choice of AM. It incorporated a Super-regenerative detector with continuous tuning on receive and came with one crystal socket mounted inside the case that set the transmit frequency. Output power was under 5 Watts and the unit was fully valve. There is a front panel mounted speaker grill and only three other basic controls: On/Off /Volume; Tuning; and originally a Transmit/Receive switch. However this unit had been modified with the inclusion of an externally mounted relay to allow the use of a “Push-To-Talk” microphone. One additional switch has also been added, its function is still to be ascertained. Early versions, like this one, also came standard with a Belling Lee antenna connector. The kit would have originally come with a 45 page construction and testing manual as well as a ceramic microphone.
Just for historical interest along with the Twoer, Heathkit sold other transceivers with similar features including the “Sixer” for 6 meters and the “Tener” for….. you guessed it…. 10 meters.
Evidently the Twoer was nicknamed the “Benton Harbor Lunchbox” because Heath Company was located in Benton Harbor, Michigan and the transceiver case looked like a lunch box! I must admit it does look a lot like an old metal lunchbox, especially with its carry handle mounted on top.
It seems the season break had certainly stirred the “lets complete a project” urge in a group of our members.
Lionel VK7ZLB brought along some of the gear he had just used for the “Summer VHF/UHF Field Day”, a couple of 23cm band Yagis and an enclosure of equipment.
One of the antennas was a newly made 21 element Yagi. Constructed using 12mm aluminium “C” section for the 1.5 Metre boom and 4.6mm tubing for the elements, friction fitted and riveted into position. Elements cut and positioned with an accuracy of 0.1mm. Using the “Yagi Design tool” by DL6WU the antenna should have about 17.6dBi gain. The Yagi has a 2 metre long flying lead of 7mm low loss foam coax cable attached. This allows the antenna to be plugged into the power amplifier that is mounted directly below.
The second Yagi Lionel had was a 10 element eBay special and its performance on the day was described by Lionel as “rubbish”. Need I say more?
Continuing in the 23cm equipment vein, Lionel also had a sg-lab.com 25W PA module with integrated receiver pre-amp and a 2 way latching RF relay to switch between antennas. These devices including patching requirements are all enclosed very neatly in a die-cast aluminium enclosure.
With a bit of luck Lionel may have a few pictures for a slide show of what most likely was an impressive setup used for the field day.
The second busy beaver was Peter VK7KPC who was in the radio room participating in the TechNet session using his ex-military Racal Squadcal TRA-906 transceiver. Over the break Peter had constructed an external interface, battery charger and switching unit for the Racal. He can apply 12 Volt DC from home or field battery, it is stepped up to 24 Volt and goes into the controller to monitor and charge his 18 Volt battery box located on the back of the Racal. The battery box contains three 6 Volt SLA rechargeable batteries each in the original required shape of the square-ish “Lantern Batteries”. Peter showed us a pre-recorded video demonstration and the controller / charger functioned flawlessly, its nice when a design concept comes together so well.
Peter also had a successful Tech Net night using the Racal, making contacts on 80 metres CW with Keiran VK3BTV and Jordan VK3ACU both located on the mainland.
As always equipment pictures are available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast.
https://www.ntarc.net/blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
The TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 24th of January. 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.
The Club Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 31st of January and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm, running through to about 10 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
No Coffee Morning – Please note there will not be a coffee morning on Friday the 26th January. The club rooms will be closed for the Australia Day holiday.
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).
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.
Thats all folks,
73 from Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
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
A big thank you to Greg Bird who 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.
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 also attached to the member emails currently being sent.
73, REAST Committee
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SAVE THE DATE
Space Junk and Amateur Radio
REASTs March presentation night will be a fascinating presentation from Mars Buttfield-Addison who is a pHd candidate with UTAS and CSIRO.
Mars speciality is tracking Space Junk and Tasmania has a special role in this endeavour and amateur radio can play a part in this too.
This should be a great night, see you there.
73, REAST Committee
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SAVE THE DATE
Tassie Ham Conference
The REAST Committee is currently planning the next Tassie Ham Conference and it will most likely be on the first weekend in November 2024.
This will again take place in fantastic UTAS facilities.
Tentatively mark out your diary and start thinking about coming down to the best ham convention in VK!
Details are currently being worked through and will be made public on the Conference Web Pages.
73, REAST Committee
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DATV Experimenter's Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0te_uQ-WJJE&t=3033s
Last Wednesday night we focused on the 2024 Summer VHF and above Field Day.
https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/vhfuhf/
Justin VK7TW started by discussing the field day with Tony VK7XTC who went to Goats Bluff Lookout on South Arm. Highlights were the opening on 6m and with Tony's upgrade he was running full power. Tony was using a 8 element beam on 70cm, 7 element for 2m and extended double Zepp for 6m. Tony operated mainly on 6m FM and made many contacts. All 2m & 70cm contacts were local and Tony is looking to go vertical on these bands for future field days.
Tony took the audience through his operating position during the field day. Tony made 52 contacts and was happy with that.
Thanks to Tony for coming along and telling us about his Field Day experiences.
Justin then showed his Lithium Ion 50AH battery and high current power distribution box he made for the field day and this greatly simplified the power management for the field day. Justin discussed the charging and the use during the field day.
Justin then outlined the use of thin gloves during the field day which saved his hands and enabled him to turn the aluminium mast that his beams are bolted to.
We then discussed the Field Day with Murray VK7ZMS and Richard VK7ZBX who went up to Mt Wellington. Murray outlined breaking the Field Day van on the Friday night prior to the weekend. This facilitated making some makeshift arrangements.
Justin outlined his time challenge which saw him setup at the location about an hour before the start of the Field Day!
Some VK5 contacts were made but no VK6 or VK8 contacts. There were many contacts with VK2, 3, 4 and ZL. Murray and Richard operated all frequencies from 6m to 10 GHZ except for 5.7GHz. Richard outlined the Northern Stations locations. Richard outlined that the 2.4 and 3.4GHz signals were really strong.
Highlights were a contact with 3D2AG from Fiji and 6m openings to many places around Australia.
Murray and Richard outlined there were many people on top of Mt Wellington and we then went through their learnings including a redesign of the brackets for the mast. Upgrading the coax will be a further improvement and there are preamps and power amplifiers in the mix. Richard also talked about getting his 24GHz system up and going.
Thanks to Murray and Richard for coming along and telling us about their Field Day experiences.
We finished off the night with a short Class Licence Q&A.
This week's show will be another block-buster blow your head off blast from the past show-case of all things amateur radio and much more. See you there or on the stream.
We are holding the DATV Experimenters nights through the holiday period and therefore we will be streaming the nights on the REAST YouTube channel.
https://www.reast.asn.au/news-events/live-stream/
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/amateur-tv/
https://www.youtube.com/c/ReastHobart/
We also go out on RF - DVB-T 7MHz Standard Definition on 445.5MHz. So, if you have a TV, Set-top box or USB DTV Dongle that you can tune 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.
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 session - Wednesday the 24th of January. 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 please note no coffee morning on 26th January 2024.
NTARC - Club Technical nights - Wednesday the 31st of January 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 22nd of January 2024 - hosted by Eric VK7EV from 7:30pm using VK7RMD 70cm repeater on Mt Duncan on the 4th Monday in the Month.
Events:
NWTARC - February 3, 2024 - Annual General Meeting from 1:30pm at Scout hall, 73 Alexandra Road, Ulverstone followed by afternoon tea and show and tell.
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 - 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
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A reminder to those people rostered for next weeks broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7FB
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: Any Takers
80m: VK7DG
40m: VK7TPE
20m: VK7ALH
10m: VK7JGD
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.
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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@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, seasons greetings and stay safe from Idris, VK7ZIR.
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(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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