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VK7AX > BCAST 24.07.21 03:37z 426 Lines 18906 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: VK7 Amateur Radio News 25Jul21
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Sent: 210724/0330Z @:VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC #:219 [Ulverstone] $:219_VK7AX
From: VK7AX@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : BCAST@WW
VK7 Amateur Radio News 25Jul21
Text edition:
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VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 25th JULY 2021
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Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 25th July 2021. At the mike of VK7WI this week is Peter, VK7PD.
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 also go out on medium and high frequency courtesy of the following rebroadcast stations:
On 1.865 MHz by Graham VK7GS
On 3.670 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
On 7.140 MHz by Dale, VK7DG
On 14.130 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE and
On 28.525 MHz by Tony, VK7VKT
You can hear this broadcast again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in Northern VK7 and VK7RTC in Southern VK7.
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Home of the Good Guys
Assistance for VK7DX
A few weeks ago Murray VK7ZMS and Richard VK7ZBX headed to the Arthurs Lake area to assist Frank VK7DX with some long overdue antenna repairs. Setting out from Hobart at 8:00am on a quite chilly morning, first stop was Mood Food for a coffee and supplies for the day. It was cold in the Kempton area as many of the trees were covered in frost. The road however, was for the most part frost free.
Supplies on board we proceeded through Bothwell and Ouse and onwards to Arthurs Lake and Franks QTH. A couple of quite icy sections on the way had us slowed down to around 40 km/h but all arrived safely.
A plan was formulated with Frank as it was his huge 6M antenna that needed some TLC. One of the elements had broken in half and the feedline had come adrift. The antenna is a bit of a monster being a YU7EF design with 9 elements and a boom length of just shy of 13M long.
After warming up the excavator and shaking loose much ice, we had the sling on the tower, and it was effortlessly lowered to a suitable working position.
The tower structure and rotating mechanism is a great piece of engineering from Frank using an old excavator slew drive turntable and a modified 12v winch to provide the drive that rotates the entire tower!
Some new feedline was found, terminated, and sealed up well, securely attached to the boom, then down the tower to the base to meet with the tail heading to the shack.
Once all done the other elements were checked for tightness, the antenna was raised to its final position. With feedline hooked up, Frank was able to rotate the beam and hear some CW on the low end of 6M.
We left Frank to have a listen round 6M, and I am sure we will be hearing about its performance soon.
Cheers and 73
Richard VK7ZBX
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QSL NEWS
Report - from Herman VK7HW Manager of the WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
The current list of QSL Cards held as at 23 July 2021, is in the email version of the broadcast.
If you have any questions re QSL cards, please contact Herman by email vk7bureau(at)wia.org.au
REAST members can collect their cards from the Domain Club rooms if they let Herman know to deliver them there. He can drop them off most Wednesdays at lunch time.
Also Herman has heard that some amateurs have recently changed call signs. Would those who have changed recently please contact Herman with old and new callsigns and date changed so that Herman can steer cards received in the right direction.
Thank you to those amateurs who have already been in touch.
73, Herman, VK7HW, WIA Manager VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
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VK7 Inwards QSL Cards held as at 16 July 2021
AAA, AB, ACN, AD, AG, AIR, AL, AM, AO, AP, APZ, AS, ATH, AV
BA, BB, BPV
CJ, CL, CMV, CV, CX
DD, DN, DO, DQ, DT, DZ
EG
FALX, FAZZ, FCIA, FEDT, FG, FGGT, FJFJ, FLAR, FOTR, FTAS
GA, GC, GG, GM, GZ
HCH, HDM, HRS, HRW, HSJ, HVK, HZ
IK, IS
JA, JB, JGD, JJ, JOK, JON, JP, JW
KBA, KD, KI, KJ, KL, KO, KR, KRJ, KX
LAZ, LDH, LLL, LM, LVH
MAG, MAT, MBD, MBP, MC, ME, MHZ, MI, MK, ML,MS
NA, NC, NET, NRF, NSB, NSE, NTE, NWQ
OR
PBD, PRN, PSJ, PW
QK
RG, ROY
SN, SV
TAS, TCE, TED, TK, TL, TS
VAC, VAZ, VH, VKV, VR, VZ
WA, WC, WIA, WT, WX
XDM
YN
ZA, ZM, ZT, ZZ
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH
SOTA/WWFF PARKS GROUP
The Summits On The Air/World Wide Flora and Fauna parks group is now meeting 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 cold and wet weather continues as we slog through winter, with a general dampening effect on most activities, including it seems the generation of news items. On a possibly brighter note though, as of today it is only 5 months to Christmas Day. In the meantime, most of this segment today must consist of repeating previous information on coming Club events. I will totally understand if you wish to paddle off and make a fresh pot of tea or coffee.
Just a reminder to all attending the club rooms that we have the Check in TAS app at our club rooms. By registering and using the Check in TAS app we are complying with the Public Health Directions by enabling our members to self check-in at the club room.
This information is stored with the Tasmanian Government for contract tracing if required. The QR code is up and running for members to utilize, with the QR code poster at the sign in table. Members are still able to register their attendance at the club by signing in manually in the attendance book if you choose not to register using the Check in TAS app. Please note though that signing in either by QR code or manually is now a mandated Government requirement. If you fail to do so you expose yourself and your club to heavy penalties.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TECH NIGHT – Wednesday 28th July at the NTARC Club rooms, 19:30 hours until whenever.
SLOW MORSE COURSE – Wednesday 28th July. Your host and teacher is Nic VK7WW. Frequencies and times are the same as were used by Nic for the previous TestNet and TechNet. And if you have forgotten what they were, here they are, 1900 hrs to 1930 hrs on 3.580 MHz and then at 1930hours through to about 2030 on 3.567MHz.
So why not tune in and give it a try. For those who may want some extra help, this website is reported as being very good. www.morsecodeclassnet.com/
FUTURE EVENTS
TECH NIGHT – Wednesday 11th August at the NTARC Club rooms, 19:30 hours until whenever. Special event on the night will be, topics and demonstrations on how to use the VKCL program to log the RD Contest, the Contest Rules, and future field days.
August General meeting – Saturday 14th. Meeting will commence at 14:00 hours (2.00pm). The meeting will be followed by afternoon tea so donations of cakes, slices etc would be appreciated.
Equine event – Saturday 28th August, North East Equine Endurance Club, Jolly Lette Memorial ride, Santarena Park, Scottsdale. Plenty of warning to help out on this ride. NTARC will be providing support for 80, 40 and 20 rides. As further information comes to hand I will update this news entry with further details.
COFFEE MORNINGS – currently held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Catch up time is from 10.00 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all.
These coffee events in the past have been normally a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards. We currently have no cards awaiting collection.
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 me at the following address news(at)ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 17:00 on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
Your continued cooperation in this regard will be greatly appreciated.
We will bring you all such contributions next Sunday morning.
73, Yvonne VK7FYMX, Secretary NTARC Inc
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
WICEN Tasmania (Sth)
Annual General Meeting & General Meeting
Last Sunday 18th July WICEN members and friends gathered at the REAST clubrooms for a sumptuous three course meal of soup, roast, baked vegetables, salads and cheese cake and a huge thank you to Tony VK7VKT and XYL Christina who put together this feast on behalf of the REAST for WICEN.
The meal was followed by the Annual General Meeting at which reports were received and the following office bearers were elected:
President Cedric VK7CL
Secretary/Public Officer Anthony VK7LAG
Treasurer David VK7DMG
Operations Officer Rod VK7TRF
Equipment Officer Garry VK7JGD
Committee Member One Justin VK7TW
Committee Member Two Jackson VK7FJAX
Website Lee VK7LEE
A huge thank you was given to Roger VK7ARN for his many years of service for WICEN as Secretary/Treasurer and Website person.
The AGM was followed by a general meeting where a number of matters were discussed.
Thanks to all involved and especially our new WICEN members who have all taken up offices in the 2021 WICEN Committee.
https://wicentas.org/
73, WICEN Committee
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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/
August Presentation Night
Contesting on HF, VHF and above
REAST's August presentation night is all about contesting on HF and VHF and above.
With the Remembrance Day contest just around the corner (14/15 August 2021) we want to equip everyone with contesting skills to ensure they get the most out of their RD Contest experience.
Martin VK7GN will be giving us the High Frequency (HF) contesting low down and Richard VK7ZBX will be covering contesting on VHF and above frequencies.
A huge thank you to Martin and Richard.
See you there.
https://www.facebook.com/events/329823411883355/
73, REAST Committee
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Training and Assessments
REASTs next Foundation Licence course and all licence assessment day is on next Saturday the 31st July 2021 from 9am to 3pm.
If you are thinking of coming along then please let Reg Emmett VK7KK REAST Learning Organiser know ASAP that you will be coming along by phoning 0417 391 607 or email assessor(at)reast.asn.au.
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
Checkout the REAST Facebook page events for further details.
https://www.facebook.com/events/718404075716863/
73, Reg, VK7KK
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DATV Experimenter's Night
Last Wednesday night we started the night with Richard VK7ZBX and Justin VK7TW doing a wrap-up of the Trans-Tasman contest over the last weekend. Richard went through his equipment, antennas and challenges he had of many stations with a noise floor much higher than his. Justin went through his equipment and antennas which he changed about 20m into the contest. Both contesters used the tuning and hunt method and then discussed that the way to get high scores is to seek out different stations in each two hour block.
We tried to show some great drone footage from Tony VK7VKT however the encoding was preventing it being played smoothly so we decided to abandon that and it will be re-encoded and played next week.
Justin then read out an interesting Microwave Links story that was posted by Jason VK7ZJA on the Transmitter Sites of Australia Facebook page about an 18GHz link in Tasmania's NE. “We had a microwave shot from St Marys to South Sister to Scamander, and the South Sister to Scamander hop would always get rained out, but the design budget said we should have loads of margin. After going to both ends multiple times to realign the dishes we just couldn't squeeze another dB out of the link, and yet it still got rained out. Or so we thought - it became apparent that *during* the rain the link was fine, it was only *after* the rain passed that the link would fade, then come back some hours later. The cause was eventually traced to the Scamander end dish & ODU being mounted on a wooden telephone pole, which would absorb the rain water and swell & twist slightly, just enough to affect alignment. Steel pole was sunk, and no more problems.”
Justin then did a WICEN Tas (Sth) AGM Wrap-up that included a wonderful three course meal beforehand for $10! Thanks to Tony VK7VKT.
Justin VK7TW then ran through the latest AR Magazine No.4 of 2021 and then went dumpster diving again with 12v 200A HP Blade server power supplies.
We finished with a reminder of future presentations and videos for our RF viewers and then headed out to finish off the VHF/UHF Moxon antenna kit from VK7BEN for Satellite work. See the finished product in the picture accompanying the video with Xavier VK7XHT and Harry VK7HXT.
https://youtu.be/Q-eoU6THy8Y
This week at the DATV Experimenters night we will have more interesting electronics, magazine reviews, dumpster diving and some more experiments with GNU Radio Companion. See you then.
We get underway from 7:30pm in the Queens Domain clubrooms.
Keep an eye on the REAST Facebook Events for more details. Why not come up to the Queens Domain COVID-safe clubrooms and see what we get up to.
And a reminder that 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 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 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/
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Amateur Radio on the Small Screen
Halt and Catch Fire
Halt and Catch Fire is a 2014-17 produced TV series about Texas and Silicon Valley technology start-ups in the 1980s.
The name comes from the computer processor opcodes that would put the processor into an endless loop requiring a power down or hard reset to release the processor.
In the first series the company Cardiff Electric started by selling ham radios and they move into IBM Compatible PCs.
In the second series episode one, the main character Gordon Clark is seen in a closet operating a FT101B Transceiver as KC4L in what can best be described as an agony aunt scene!
In series 3 episode 6, Gordon and programmer Cameron Howe crack a level in super Mario and he says want see something really cool?
He demonstrates the FT101B ham radio and she says "pretty rad" as he calls CQ CQ.
The story progresses and Cameron and Gordon are then seen talking over the ham radio and Cameron tells Gordon she got married over the radio.
The series is currently available on SBS On Demand.
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/halt-and-catch-fire
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Space News
AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) Open For Amateur Use
The AMSAT Engineering and Operations Teams are pleased to announce that AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) is now open for amateur use. Users are advised to use efficient modes such as CW or FT4 for making contacts, since issues with the satellite make SSB voice contacts challenging at best.
Please see the May/June 2021 issue (Vol. 44, No. 3) of The AMSAT Journal for an article by Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, detailing the various attempts to characterize AO-109 and its apparent problems.
AO-109 Frequencies
Inverting Linear Transponder
Uplink 145.860 MHz - 145.890 MHz
Downlink 435.760 MHz - 435.790 MHz
1k2 BPSK Telemetry 435.750 MHz (non-operational)
https://www.amsat.org/ao-109-radfxsat-2-amsat-fox-1e-open-for-amateur-use/
Sourced from the AMSAT News Service and Jerry, N0JY and Drew, KO4MA
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Regular VK7 gatherings and events over the coming months:
Regular gatherings:
SOTA/WWFF Group – Meeting Mondays and Fridays 10.30-12.00 midday at Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry St, Launceston.
NTARC – Friday coffee session – Rocherlea clubrooms Launceston from 10:00am
NTARC - Tech Night sessions Wednesday 11 August - Rocherlea clubrooms Launceston
NTARC - Slow Morse Training Wednesday 28th July on Tech Net Frequencies
NW VK7 – Wednesday from 2000 local – NW Tassie Amateur Repeater Group Net on VK7RMD
NW VK7 - Thursday commencing at 10:30 UTC (20:30 local) - N.W. Tassie 2m DX Net 144.190 USB (upper sideband).
REAST – MICROWAVE QSO Party – following after the Sunday broadcast on 1296.15 MHz FM.
REAST – WAGS – Wednesday Afternoon Group meet in the Queens Domain Clubrooms from 12 noon.
REAST – DATV Experimenters Nights from 7:30pm live in the club rooms also on DVBT RF and YouTube Streaming
Sewing Circle Net – Daily on 3.640 MHz commences at 5:00pm.
Events:
REAST - 4 August - Contesting HF & VHF with VK7GN & VK7ZBX - Queens Domain clubrooms from 7:30pm
NTARC - 14 August - Meeting and presentation - Rocherlea Clubrooms from 2:00pm
REAST - 1 September - P25 Emergency Services Network with Andrew VK7AJ from 7:30pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms.
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A reminder to those people rostered for next weeks broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7RI
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and in the NW thanks to NWTARC, West Coast Radio Group, Cradle Coast Radio Amateur Radio Club, VK7AX, and VK7DC
160m: VK7GS
80m: VK7DG
40m: VK7TPE
20m: VK7ALH
10m: VK7JGD
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 VK7RTC in Southern VK7.
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(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.
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.
On behalf of the VK7 Amateur Radio News Team its 73 from Peter, VK7PD.
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(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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