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VK7AX > NEWS 27.07.08 04:42l 595 Lines 22055 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: VK7 Regional News Broadcast for 27 July 2008
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Sent: 080727/0343Z @:VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC #:49887 [Ulverstone] FBB7.00g $:VK7A
From: VK7AX@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : NEWS@WW
From: "VK7 Regional News Coordinator" <vk7tw(AT)wia.org.au>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:52:40 -0000
To: vk7regionalnews(AT)yahoogroups.com
VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 27TH JULY 2008
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NATIONAL ALARA MEET 2008
Ulverstone – 13 & 14 September 2008
The 9th A.L.A.R.A. Meet is happening in September in Ulverstone and
this is a National Amateur Radio event happening right here in
Tasmania. This event also celebrates 33 years of ALARA.
ALARAmeet is a wonderful way to meet other YLs of our organisation
and their off course OMs and families are welcome too.
There are already 70-80 people booked from all over the place with a
large contingent from the main land and further afield.
Susan Brain VK7LUV is the coordinator of the Meet and can be
contacted on the email address that can be found on the email and
internet editions of this broadcast.
vk7luv_susan(AT)yahoo.com.au
For those who arrive on the Friday night there is an optional dinner
in Ulverstone. The Saturday morning sees the Meet kick off at the
Bass & Flinders Motor Inn Conference Room, there is lunch then off
the Axeman's hall of fame in Latrobe and finishing off the day with a
Dinner in Ulverstone.
Sunday morning is a visit to the Trowunna Wildlife Park with lunch at
Sheffield and viewing of the murals in the afternoon. The meet
finishes up with dinner Sunday night at the Blue Wren Tea Gardens in
Ulverstone. There are also some optional tours in the North and North
West on Monday for those staying on.
There are a wide range of options to get to Tasmania and for
accommodation and these are outlined on the ALARA Meet website and
Susan will be happy to fill in the details for you. Just contact her.
See you there.
http://au.geocities.com/vk7luv_susan/index.html
http://www.alara.org.au/
(Susan, VK7LUV)
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VK7 EVENTS CALENDAR
And a quick reminder of the events and broadcasts across VK7:
REAST – August 6 – Amateur Radio Digital Style Presentation – Queen's
Domain Clubrooms 8pm
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ARDigitalStyle
NTARC – August 13 - Tranquillity Gardens, West Tamar Highway -
special guest speaker will be Professor Nigel Forteath.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ntarc/
ALARA – September 13&14 – National ALARA Meet in Ulverstone Tasmania.
http://au.geocities.com/vk7luv_susan/index.html
VK7 HAMFEST – December 6th – Central Highlands of Tasmania Hamfest –
Miena – starts 10am.
http://www.qsl.net/charct/
Sewing Circle Net – Every day from 5pm on 3.59MHz
http://reast.asn.au/awards.php#sewingnet
CHARCT Quiz Net – Every Thursday night from 8:30pm on 3.585MHz.
http://www.qsl.net/charct/
NWTARIG broadcasts in the South, North and NW during the week. Check
the website for details.
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/spectrum/
REAST – Every Wednesday evening from 7:30pm is the ATV Experimenter's
Night, so, why not come up and see what we get up to. Check the
website for details.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
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NORTH WEST NEWS
North West Tasmania Amateur Radio Interest Group
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/nwtarig/
The meeting yesterday of NWTARIG was very well attended with many
faces we had not seen for a while gracing us with their presence.
It was good to see Bob VK7FRMO and Kirby VK7KC along following their
extended treatment for health problems over recent months. Also some
of our members we had not seen for a while, along with visitor Brian
Poke.
Business of the meeting was dealt with ASAP with Peter VK2IY bringing
those present up to date with the 2 Letter Call position.
Tony VK7AX advised that a new broadcast `Practical Amateur Radio
Podcast' would be commencing this Tuesday night and would be
alternating with `Solder Smoke' each Tuesday night.
Undoubtedly the attraction to the meeting was the presentation by Rex
VK7MO and Justin VK7TW on the project `Optical Communications Over
The Horizon'. It was evident very early in the presentation, the
enthusiasm both these amateurs have with respect to this activity.
Their progress with improving and experimenting with this medium was
very evident. They stated that in conjunction with their trip
North that they were using the occasion to seek possible sites
suitable for future `across Bass Strait' tests with optical
communications.
The Club was honoured by the presence of Rex and Justin and would
like to acknowledge our gratitude for them to share with us their
experiences with this fascinating medium, not to forget the
contribution by Ken VK7DY.
Thanks to Rex, Justin, Ken and others involved with these optical
experiments. You certainly are a credit to this great hobby of
ours `Amateur Radio'.
73's until next time...
(Tony VK7AX, President, NWTARIG)
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NORTHERN NEWS
Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club News
http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk7/NorthernTasmaniaAmateurRadioClub/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ntarc/
Peter, VK7PD, would like to know if anyone would be interested in
attending classes to upgrade their licence to Advanced, or maybe
Standard level. We already have a few attending some classes, and if
you'd like to come along, you are more than welcome to contact Peter
to register your interest. Of course if you're new and wanting to
get in `on the ground floor' with a Foundation Licence, then NTARC is
only too pleased to hear from you and we can point you in the right
direction for books to read, classes to attend, and sitting the
actual assessment, even making the application for your licence. If
you go to the WIA home page, then Radio Clubs, then VK7 Tasmania,
then select Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club, you will find
contact details to get in touch with the club.
http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk7/NorthernTasmaniaAmateurRadioClub/
Bill, VK7AK, bought along a hand-crafted `bug keyer' to show a few
local hams during the week. Having seen it first hand, I can tell
you its an absolute work of art, something that goes beyond being
just well engineered. Bill tells us that they're made by a ham in
the Blue Mountains near Sydney, so if you have an interest, give Bill
a call and he'll be glad to tell you more about it.
For those who have ordered their custom mugs, they're ready to be
picked up at Hunga Munga café.
The August meeting for NTARC will be another dinner meeting at
Tranquillity Gardens, West Tamar Highway, just north of the Tamar
Island reserve. The special guest speaker will be Professor Nigel
Forteath. The evening promises to be a fascinating one. If you
would like to attend, let Al VK7AN know as we will need to get some
attendance numbers together for the night. $20 will get you a choice
of two soups, plus either a vegetarian or normal lasagne, and a
choice of two desserts.
And lastly don't forget to listen to the Q5 broadcasts on VK7RAA at
8pm Monday nights, and Tech Talk also on VK7RAA on Friday nights,
also 8pm. If you like the broadcasts, give us a call back afterward
to let us know you enjoyed it.
Thanks from Jason VK7ZJA
NTARC Secretary
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SOUTHERN NEWS
VK7RTC Back On Deck
Brian VK7RR lets us know that VK7RTC has been updated.
It was in July 1983 that I commissioned VK7RTC a UHF repeater, at Mt.
Nelson in Hobart. Initially, the first repeater was an ex police
department unit, much modified so as to work in the amateur band. It
had an output on a good day of 10 watts and a receiver which even by
the standards of those days, was pretty ordinary.
In 1990 I came across a Motorola commercial base station, a Motrac,
which was designed as a heavy duty repeater for use in the United
States railways. It was capable of running 100 watts out, due to
having a rugged valve final. Otherwise it was all solid state. It was
mounted in a 19 inch rack which was nearly 6 feet high.
That repeater has been in use from then until last weekend, when it
was presented with its gold card and permitted to retire. In its 18
years of service, it failed once only, although several times it
locked on and remained in that state until I could reset the
microprocessor which was its brain.
Well now we have another repeater, again, a commercial radio which is
running 50 watts out for now, soon to be increased to 100 watts, when
I am able to replace the antenna. That antenna by they way has been
above the highest part of Mt. Nelson for 25 years. The fact that it
is still in one piece is remarkable, not to mention that it still
works. I don't say it works as well as when new, but it does work.
The new repeater also sits in the same rack panel but is only the
size of a VCR although it weighs over 20 kg.
The new repeater has been on air for most of the week. It has a
couple of minor hiccups which I am in the process of resolving, as it
did not take too kindly to the installation of the same
microprocessor board that had run its predecessor.
I hope that users will appreciate the crisp audio, the half second
squelch tail and the low level ident.
I listened to the constructive comments made and took notice of them.
Please feel free to use this repeater as that is what it is there for.
I would like to thank REAST for taking over the responsibility for
paying the licence fee for this. Now that REAST members have a vested
interest in it, you might feel that it is worth greater patronage
than previously.
My thanks to Richard, VK7ZBX for assisting me to install this new
repeater.
(73 Brian VK7RR.)
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Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
REAST August Presentation
August 6th at 8pm will be a fascinating presentation of the system
that Danny VK7HDM maintains. It includes many of the amateur radio
packet and networking applications like TNOS, Xrouter, DXSpider and
of course packet BBS' and packet radio.
Dxspider is a Dx spotter system that people can log into and share DX
information, TNOS is a tcpip over radio and internet and it allows
AX25, Telnet, FTP, WWW, Converse, SMTP and POP3 connections using the
ampr.org addresses. Xrouter is along the same lines but has a nice
chat server you can use and the packet BBS store and forward mail
system.
There will be a discussion about how to connect from the internet and
how to connect via the AX25 RF side, what you can do on my wormhole
gateway system to and from the Internet and where it can take you.
See you there.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ARDigitalStyle
(73, Danny, VK7HDM)
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ATV Experimenters Night
Last week's ATV night saw a great roll-up of people including Andrew
from VK4 and Chris who professionally look after the SEAFM and HOFM
transmitters and equipment and dropped in to see what Wednesday ATV
night are all about.
We installed and rewired the ATV transmitter which is now in a new
19" rack mount box with vastly improved heatsinking. The reports on
the video were encouraging and we are working on the improving the
sound quality. A shotgun mike is being prepared for the desk mike
which will improve the sound quality and reduce the background noise
from the studio.
We played amateurlogic.tv episode 11 which had some good reports.
And a reminder that the ATV nights are on a Wednesday night and get
underway around 7:30pm and ATV goes out on 444.25MHz – just below SBS
on the UHF TV Band.
If you have an antenna pointed somewhere toward the Domain why not
try tuning down the low end of the UHF TV band on a Wednesday night
and give us a call on what you are seeing and hearing.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
(Justin, VK7TW)
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GIPPSTECH FOLLOW-UP
RigLock Presentations
David VK3HZ reports he has put a number of documents up on his
website in relation to the rig lock presentations.
If anyone is wanting to follow up on Rig Locking from the recent
GippsTech Conference, I've placed a number of documents and copies of
presentations on my web site and the address is available on the
email and internet editions of this broadcast.
http://home.exetel.com.au/dwsmith/
For info of those who didn't attend (!), the docs describe
modification of the FT-847, TS-2000, FT-817, FT-736 and IC-910H to
lock them to a GPS reference.
(Regards, Dave, VK3HZ via the VK-VHF Mailing list)
Closer to home in VK7 if you require any info specifically on locking
the IC-910H then have a chat with Rex VK7MO who did this part of the
presentation at GippsTech.
https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/vk-vhf
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TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Stress Vest
The following story is a summary of an article that appeared in
GizMag on July 23, 2008.
The term "stress " was first used in a biological sense in the 1930s
and as the world has increased in complexity and pace, is fast
reaching epidemic proportions in most societies. Ironically, when
biomedical scientists set out to develop new ways of studying stress,
they needed an inconspicuous measuring tool so they could monitor the
stress levels of their subjects during the course of their day-to-day
environment. The idea of a "stress sensor" originated, and while
they're still studying stress, the vest has emerged as a viable and
marketable product in its own right.
People's muscle tension changes with their stress level – the greater
the stress, the more likely the muscles are to produce a synchronous
twitching effect. Though this is barely perceptible, the electrodes
register the change.
The "stress sensor vest" registers the electrical excitation of the
wearer's muscles at any given time and determines the level of
physical stress. The vest has sensors woven into the fabric that
register the electrical excitation of the muscle fibers, and thin
conducting metallic fibers then pass the signals to an electronic
analysis system.
The idea of the sensor vest originated with biomedical scientists at
the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, who needed an
inconspicuous measuring tool for stress studies. Until then, they had
affixed electrodes directly to their test subjects' chests. But this
itself induced stress, with the result that the tests delivered very
little useful information. The new vest is designed to ensure a more
relaxed test environment.
The project members are exploring further potential applications such
as a special vest for computer games. The vest could also contribute
to safety at the workplace – perhaps ensuring that workers do not
lift loads that are too heavy for them. And sports coaches could tell
from the electronic vest whether athletes have reached their
performance limits or still possess energy reserves.
http://www.gizmag.com/the-stress-sensor-vest/9677/
(Sourced from the GizMag Website)
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SPACE NEWS
Descending Space Junk
Almost exactly one year ago, on July 23, 2007, International Space
Station astronauts threw an obsolete, refrigerator-sized ammonia
reservoir overboard. The 1400-lb piece of space junk has been
circling Earth ever since and now, in July 2008, its orbit has
decayed so much that it has become an easy naked-eye target for
backyard sky watchers. The "Early Ammonia Servicer" (EAS for short)
is almost as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper and growing
brighter as it descends. The July 23rd edition of spaceweather.com
displays photos of the EAS, which is expected to burn up in Earth's
atmosphere in late 2008 or early 2009.
http://spaceweather.com
(Sourced from the Space Weather News Mailing List)
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HUMOUR TO FINISH
Silent Key
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he
was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red
tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable
lessons as:
1. Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets
the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault, and
2. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't
spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not
children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old
boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens
suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher
fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their
unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but
could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to
have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live, as the churches became
businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their
victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend
yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue
you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed
to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a
little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust;
his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; his son, Reason.
His four stepbrothers survive him; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now,
Someone Else Is To Blame, I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If
you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and
do nothing.
http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/Lists/index.html
(Sourced from the NZART Info Line Newsletter)
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WEB & EMAIL EDITION EXTRA BITS!!
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon
transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the space-craft's
point of view 31 million miles (50 million kilometers away).
Quick Time version is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/epoxi_transit.html
YouTube version is available at:
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/17/an-alien-view-of-the-moon-
transiting-earth
On-line video from the Dayton 2008 SDR Forum can be found at:
http://www.hamsdr.com/dnld.aspx. Scroll down the list to the links
labeled "Dayton_2008_Video".
If you like some ideas about what Satellites were like in the past,
here is a link to a great publication. I remember always having it
around my shack to show people about various types and operating of
satellites.
http://www.amsat-dl.org/pic/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=7527
British Amateur Television Club (BATC): http://www.batc.tv/
(the above links sourced from the AMSAT News Service)
Improving Low Current (femtoamp) Measurements
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?
PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000100&ISSUE=0303&RELTYPE=PR&ORIGRELTYPE=FE&PRODC
ODE=00000000&PRODLETT=Q&CommonCount=0
Free E-Book of Electronic Design
http://electronicdesign.com/Ebook/analogtodigital/Index.cfm?AD=1&
Low Level DC Measuring Instruments
http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~acb/Mecaf/USB/Low%20Level%20DC%20Measuring%
20Instruments.pdf
Service/Operating Manuals
http://www.vk3ukf.com/vk3ukf_files/HAM/HamDownloads.htm
ABC Weather Photo Uploads
http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/upload.htm
Reaction Test (warning this can be addictive – Source: CG
Communicator)
http://tinyurl.com/45ddg
WWV – The Tick ;-)
http://www.lownoiserecords.com/wwv_the_tick.html
Do you have some interesting amateur related sites you have some
across in the last week – send them in to justingc(AT)ozemail.com.au
VK7 Virtual BPL Tours Update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdcY0Eetvsw - Mt Nelson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gsxpya3CnQ - North Hobart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DfdxjRkpU - RU ready for BPL?
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If you are interested in becoming an amateur radio operator or
upgrading your licence then we suggest you contact your local club
for details and/or take a look at what the Radio and Electronics
School has to offer. They have a range of courses that can be
delivered through a variety of methods.
They can be found at: www.radioelectronicschool.com
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Finally today, a reminder to those people rostered for next week's
broadcasts:
Newsreader: VK7FB
160m: VK7DM
80m: VK7EM
40m: VK7TW
20m: VK7AR
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7HGO
HF CB: VK7FTAZ
Thanks to all people and organisations who assisted with this
broadcast.
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THAT CONCLUDES OUR VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST FOR THIS WEEK.
YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO OR JUST MISSED VK7WI. NEXT WEEK THE
NATIONAL WIA NEWS CAN BE HEARD AT 0900 FOLLOWED BY THE VK7 REGIONAL
NEWS AT 0930 HOURS.
DETAILS TO SEND NEWS FOR THIS BROADCAST CAN BE FOUND AT REAST.ASN.AU
AND THE DEADLINE FOR ITEMS IS 21:00 ON FRIDAY PRIOR TO THE SUNDAY OF
THE BROADCAST.
------------------------------------
**************************************************
- NEWS POSTING TO PACKET -
Courtesy Tony VK7AX VK7AX(AT)VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
**************************************************
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