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VK7AX > NEWS 12.04.09 08:49l 693 Lines 27358 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 12TH APRIL 2009
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Repeater News
Barren Tier Upgrade
Brian VK7RR provides an update on the recent work undertaken on the
Barren Tier repeater VK7RIN.
The other Tuesday, Joe VK7JG, Paul, VK5BX who many met at Ross,
and myself, finally got to replace the antenna on the Barren Tier
Repeater VK7RIN. The task was not without its difficulties, but at
least on this occasion there was little wind, which made things
somewhat easier.
The new antenna is now in place outside the top of the tower, rather
than several metres down, as it had been since the wind prevented its
erection some months ago.
Even sitting at the top of the tower, it is difficult to hold a three
metre long stainless steel antenna whilst at the same time, trying to
secure it to the top of the tower.
Joe and I would like to thank Paul who is a highly experienced
communications engineer, for his help whilst he was here on holidays.
The new antenna gives greater access to the North of the State than it
did previously.
Joe is now able to access it from his home in Launceston, as can Norm,
VK7AC and several others.
Whilst at the site, we also replaced the antenna used to receive the
broadcast from the South. The original, had been designed for use above
the amateur band but the new one is resonant at 146.7 MHz.
Our intention was to further improve performance of the link and to
further reduce interference from a nearby pager transmitter.
It appears that we have been successful in this respect.
The UHF repeater is now running better than ever.
It has a battery backup system again, the old one having bitten the dust
with age, it has new, extremely low-loss heliax feeding it and the new
antenna so far is performing better than the previous two.
As a matter of interest, we have had a repeater on this site since early
1984 and in that time, Joe and I have had to visit it on 28 occasions.
The licence fee is now being paid for by NTARC to whom we provide our
thanks as all other costs are met by ourselves.
Several years ago the original repeater was destroyed by vandals and until
now we have had reliability problems, necessitating an unreasonable number
of return trips.
The site is quiet inhospitable and we have often been unable to complete
tasks due to inclement weather.
This repeater serves a vital communications role in the event of
emergencies in the central highlands, as it is able to be accessed from
most of the lakes. We have been called on at short notice, to provide
communications for motor vehicle accidents, drownings, searches for lost
people and medical emergencies.
A picture of the newly upgraded antennas is available on the REAST website.
http://reast.asn.au/repeaters.php#vk7rinupgrade
(Brian, VK7RR)
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Repeater Milestone
VK7RAA reaches 1000
As heard on the National WIA news there is now a second repeater in VK7
to reach over 1000 call backs in a WIA broadcast year.
VK7RAA reached 1023 with last week's callbacks and this makes VK7 the
only state to have two repeaters that have over 1000 call backs.
Congratulations to all amateurs who call in on VK7RAA and a special
thank you to Tony VK7YBG who religiously reports the callback numbers
each week.
The WIA broadcast year goes from one AGM to the next and the current
year started with the WIA AGM which was on 26th May 2008 and will run
until the 2nd May 2009.
In 2007-08 there were a total of 98434 call backs recorded for the WIA
National News year, here's hoping we can crack the 100K mark!
(73, Justin, VK7TW, VK7 Broadcast and News Coordinator)
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VK7 EVENTS CALENDAR
A summary of the events across VK7 in the next month:
REAST – April 15, 22 & 29th – ATV Experimenter's Nights – 7:30pm Queens
Domain Club rooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
TARGA TASMANIA – April 28th to May 3rd.
NWTARIG – May 2nd – General Meeting - Penguin Lions club rooms
REAST – May 6th – Presentation on Landline Telegraphy – 8pm Queen's
Domain Clubrooms.
NTARC – May 13th - Royal Flying Doctor Service depot – Launceston Airport
at 7:30pm with Ian VK7KIH.
NWT-ATVG – June 6th - General Meeting and discussion on radio history.
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Non-Commercial FOr Sale & Wanted
Wanted
Mike VK7KMH is after two mobile antennas. The first is a fibreglass 2m 5/8th
whip with scalar base and the second is a fibreglass 2m/70cm whip again
with a scalar base.
If you have either or both of these antennas and would like to part with them,
Mike will be happy to buy them from you.
Mike can be contacted on 6425 6380.
These will end up being mounted on Mike's motorised scooter to enable him to
operate mobile/portable.
(Mike, VK7KMH)
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NORTH WEST News
North West Tasmania Amateur Television Group
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
The General Meeting of the Club held Saturday 4 April was very well attended.
Amongst the important business dealt with at the meeting being the Final
Adoption of the Club Rules, discussion on the Amateur Radio Promotional Kits
and the formation of the Club Repeater Committee comprising Tony VK7AX,
Ivan VK7XL, Jim VK7JH and Graeme VK7AQ.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a break for coffee, tea and biscuits
was taken.
Whilst enjoying the cuppa, those present were treated to a talk and
discussion by Ron VK7RN on the subject of the history of both Amateur
Experimental and Broadcasting Stations in the North West during the
period from 1921 – 1937.
Of particular interest was the Radio Broadcasting Station 7UV located
on "Radio Hill" Gawler, just south of Ulverstone which was the prime
Broadcast station during this period and was ultimately transferred to
Devonport to become 7AD. Several photos were passed around depicting
the studio, transmitter buildings, the large mercury vapour rectifiers
and transmitting tubes used at 7UV.
Of course other amateur experimental stations in the North West area were
also active during this period from time to time.
The main point noted was the relatively low transmitter power levels used
in comparison to the much higher power outputs used on the current
transmitters in use today.
The next General Meeting of the Club is scheduled for Saturday 6th. June 2009,
when it is planned to have another discussion in radio history, this time
presented by Barry VK7FR, discussing his experiences as an ABC Announcer for
many years while working at both Broadcasting and TV Stations within
Australia and Papua New Guinea.
We will certainly be looking forward to this one.
Those interested in general information about The North West Tasmania
Amateur Television Group, are invited to visit the Club's WIA web Page
under VK7 Clubs.
http://www.wia.org/clubs/vk7/NorthWestTasmaniaAmateurTelevisionGroup
73's until next time
(Tony VK7AX, President & News Officer NWT-ATV Group)
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North West Tasmanian Amateur Radio Interest Group
General Meeting
The next general meeting of NWTARIG has been brought forward to the 2nd
of May 2009 to consider proposals on a possible name change, and to make
the club an incorporated body. This allow members time to consider the
options before voting at a Special General meeting called for 30th
May 2009. The meeting venue is at the Penguin Lions club rooms.
(David Cleland, VK7DC, Secretary, NWTARIG)
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Southern News
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
REAST's May Presentation
On May 6th our historian Richard VK7RO will be presenting a talk on -
Landline Telegraphy or "How to Send Signals Both Ways At Once"!
Richard VK7RO will give a presentation using his vast historical
knowledge and skill on how Landline Telegraphy work and how they
send signals both ways at once.
This should be a fascinating and humorous talk by our leading
historian and avid CW operator.
As Richard commented …it will be a "A little bit of technical history".
See you there.
(REAST Committee)
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#duplexlandline
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Education and Training
If you would like to participate in a future training and/or assessment
and the assessment could be for any licence (foundation, standard,
advanced or practical) then let Reg VK7KK know on mobile: 0417 391 607
or email: regemm(AT)ozemail.com.au
(Reg, VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor)
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ATV Experimenters Night
We had a fantastic roll-up last Wednesday night with about 15 people
rolling up. It was great to see some new faces too.
We went out on both analog 70cm and digital 23cm ATV and started with
a presentation about a Taiyo Musen VHF Adcock Direction Finding antenna
that Justin VK7TW picked up from the local resource tip shop. There
was much discussion about how it worked and specifically the mathematics
to workout how to get a direction of the incoming signal. There will
certainly be more in future about this interesting antenna.
Thanks especially to Tom VK7TL who has since sent through some great
material on these antennas.
Our main presentation came via Mike VK7MJ and was a very interesting
program about electronic TV during WWII under the German regime.
There was a remarkable amount of R&D into electronic TV and it's use
during the War under Hitler. They could not record what they were
broadcasting so much of the footage was from film that was taken during
the events and show the equipment being used. Much of it was used for
propaganda and there is footage of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin.
We then played some more of the episodes of the "Secret Life of Machines".
Ian VK7ZIF has built and brought along a new double 70cm bowtie antenna
that we will try over the next few weeks to see if we can improve the
70cm ATV signal.
During the playing of these features Ken VK7DY and Rob VK7MAG did some
digital ATV field testing on the Eastern Shore and these results showed
good correlation with the predictive propagation map. We will be
continuing the field tests over the next few weeks.
There are a group of experimenters including VK7RO, VK7OO and VK7TW who
are constructing 80/40m one transistor QRP transceivers which is called
"The Gnat". It is designed by Chris Trask / N7ZWY and the design was
recently released to the EMRFD mailing list. It is an interesting
design that makes use of the transistor as a crystal locked power
oscillator in transmit mode and a regenerative detector in
receive mode.
The interesting feature of this design is the key it what switches
from transmit to receive mode.
There will be more on this project over coming weeks.
All in all another great night of experimenting.
How do you receive analogue ATV on an ATV night well, ATV goes out
on 444.25MHz (Channel 16) – just below SBS on the UHF TV Band.
You will need an antenna with some gain pointed toward the Domain
to receive our signal so, why not try tuning down the low end of
the UHF TV band and give us a call on what you are seeing and hearing.
See you there this week.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
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Spectrum/Technology News
Averting Radio Spectrum Saturation, Opportunistically
The following summary is sourced to Science Daily news about
a week ago.
Mobile users want better video calls, streaming television and faster
downloads, placing more demands on the limited radio spectrum
available to operators. Could handsets that intelligently sense
their radio environment and opportunistically grab free bandwidth be
a solution?
A team of European researchers believe they could be. Whereas most
recent initiatives aimed at making more efficient use of the radio
spectrum have looked at spectrum management from the network end,
the team behind the ORACLE (Opportunistic Radio Communications in
unLicensed Environments) project focused instead on making handsets
actively manage how and when they use the network.
ORACLE's pioneering approach promises to minimise bandwidth saturation
in both licensed bands of the radio spectrum, such as that used to
carry mobile phone signals, and unlicensed industrial, scientific and
medical (ISM) bands – the kind used by WiFi networks and RFID chips.
The key this project is to have the mobile handsets finding available
bandwidth and using it in the best way possible. The core technology
relies on highly sensitive sensors in the handset that monitor radio
spectrum usage by other devices and base stations in their immediate
vicinity, combined with software that opportunistically decides when
and what bandwidth to use when it becomes available. The approach is
known as Opportunistic Radio.
The technology could, for example, allow handsets to create ad hoc
networks with other mobile devices in their immediate vicinity to
share data, reducing the amount of traffic passing through base
stations and the wider mobile network.
However, as with many technologies in the telecommunications field,
and despite widespread interest from operators, it may be some time
before the system developed in the ORACLE project starts being
implemented commercially.
ORACLE received funding under the ICT strand of the EU's Sixth
Framework Programme.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090403114925.htm
(Sourced from the Science Daily Mailing List)
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Random Antenna Arrays Boost Emergency Communications
In a similar story about opportunistic use of the spectrum, come s a
story that first responders could boost their radio communications
quickly at a disaster site by setting out just four extra transmitters
in a random arrangement to significantly increase the signal power at
the receiver, according to theoretical analyses, simulations and
proof-of-concept experiments performed at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The NIST work may provide a practical solution to a common problem in
emergency communications. The vast amount of metal and
steel-reinforced concrete in buildings and rubble often interferes
with or blocks radio signals. This was one factor in the many
emergency communications difficulties during the response to the
attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Antenna arrays have been studied and used for years, but the latest
NIST work provides several new twists. Unlike the typical case in
which antenna arrays boost signals to or from a distant target,
a first responder's radio would be relatively close to the
portable transmitters, ideally within the perimeter of the array.
More importantly, since disaster sites rarely allow for niceties of
design, NIST studied the benefits of a fast and imprecise
technique—randomly placed antennas combined with coarse signal
matching. The signals produced by the radio and portable
transmitters need to operate at the same frequency and roughly
in phase, such that the radio waves are fairly well synchronized
and thus build on each other. Phase-matching was performed manually
in the experiments but might eventually be possible remotely.
The NIST experiments covered a range of communications scenarios,
using up to eight transmitters at different locations as well as
objects such as concrete blocks that scatter radio waves. Across all
experimental scenarios, researchers observed at least a 7 decibel
median power gain—roughly a five-fold increase in the median received
power—when splitting the power among four in-phase transmitting
antennas, compared to using just a single transmitter. More important,
researchers observed a 2.5 to 4-fold increase in the median signal
at the radio receiver when using four in-phase transmitters instead
of four randomly phased transmitters. More than four extra
transmitters offered diminishing returns. (Unlike conventional
repeaters, which re-send signals to maintain transmission strength
across long-distance networks, the antennas in the NIST scenarios
transmit the same signal at the same time to multiply its strength.)
Project leader Chris Holloway envisions portable transmitter devices
shaped like hockey pucks, incorporating a small antenna and
phase-shifting electronics, which could be thrown on the ground or
stuck on a wall with the antenna always upright. "The idea is that
someone, or even a robot, would have a bag of these things and would
drop them off as they go through a building," Holloway says.
Other authors include a guest researcher from Sandia National
Laboratories and a collaborator from the University of Colorado
at Boulder.
The work was funded in part by the Office of Community-oriented
Policing Services of the U.S. Department of Justice.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225151337.htm
(Sourced from the Science Daily mailing list)
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Space Weather
More on that Spotless Sun!
In a report from the Science (AT) NASA website a comparison has been made
between the sunspot cycle and the stock market. Just when you think it
has hit bottom, it goes even lower.
2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's
366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go
all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/images/deepsolarminimum/centuryplot_gif2.gif
As reported last week - 2009 have dropped even lower.
However there are some other records being set along with the lack
of sunspots:
A 50-year low in solar wind pressure: Measurements by the Ulysses
spacecraft reveal a 20% drop in solar wind pressure since the
mid-1990s—the lowest point since such measurements began in the 1960s.
The solar wind helps keep galactic cosmic rays out of the inner solar system.
With the solar wind flagging, more cosmic rays are permitted to enter,
resulting in increased health hazards for astronauts. Weaker solar wind
also means fewer geomagnetic storms and auroras on Earth.
A 12-year low in solar "irradiance": Careful measurements by several
NASA spacecraft show that the sun's brightness has dropped by 0.02%
at visible wavelengths and 6% at extreme UV wavelengths since the
solar minimum of 1996. The changes so far are not enough to reverse the
course of global warming, but there are some other significant side-effects:
Earth's upper atmosphere is heated less by the sun and it is therefore
less "puffed up." Satellites in low Earth orbit experience less atmospheric
drag, extending their operational lifetimes.
Unfortunately, space junk also remains longer in Earth orbit, increasing
hazards to spacecraft and satellites.
A 55-year low in solar radio emissions: After World War II, astronomers
began keeping records of the sun's brightness at radio wavelengths.
Records of 10.7 cm flux extend back all the way to the early 1950s.
Radio telescopes are now recording the dimmest "radio sun" since 1955:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/images/deepsolarminimum/radioflux.jpg
Some researchers believe that the lessening of radio emissions is an
indication of weakness in the sun's global magnetic field. No one is
certain, however, because the source of these long-monitored radio emissions
is not fully understood.
All these lows have sparked a debate about whether the ongoing minimum
is "weird", "extreme" or just an overdue "market correction" following
a string of unusually intense solar maxima.
"Since the Space Age began in the 1950s, solar activity has been
generally high," notes David Hathaway from NASA MFSC. "Five of the
ten most intense solar cycles on record have occurred in the last
50 years. We're just not used to this kind of deep calm."
Deep calm was fairly common a hundred years ago.
The solar minima of 1901 and 1913, for instance, were even longer
than the one we're experiencing now. To match those minima in terms
of depth and longevity, the current minimum will have to last at
least another year.
But like other forecasters, he knows he could be wrong.
Bull or bear? Stay tuned for updates.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm?list178401
(Written by Dr. Tony Phillips for the Science (AT) NASA Mailing List)
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Technology News
USB 3 - 10 times the speed USB 2.0.
With more than 2 billion legacy wired USB connections in the world
today, Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the de facto standard in the
personal computing industry. On the horizon is the next revision of
the USB has been released – and it's 10 times as fast as the last one.
Specifications for the 'SuperSpeed' USB 3.0 were published shortly
before the first of this year, allowing manufacturers to start bringing
next generation USB devices to market. Consumer products are likely to
hit shelves by 2010.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) claimed the third edition of the
data transfer system would be 10 times as fast as version 2.0, and
feature improved power efficiency. It will also be backwards compatible
with USB 2.0 and 1.1 devices.
So what's next? Wireless USB
Soon, these same, fast, interoperable connections will become available
in the wireless world, with the introduction of Wireless USB from the
USB-IF. Wireless USB is the new wireless extension to USB that combines
the speed and security of wired technology with the ease-of-use of
wireless technology.
Wireless connectivity has enabled a mobile lifestyle filled with
conveniences for mobile computing users.
Wireless USB will support robust high-speed wireless connectivity
by utilizing the common WiMedia MB-OFDM Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio
platform as developed by the WiMedia Alliance.
UWB technology offers a solution for high bandwidth, low cost,
low power consumption, and physical size requirements of next-generation
consumer electronic devices. Wireless USB is the first high-speed
wireless personal interconnect technology to meet the needs of
multimedia consumer electronics, PC peripherals, and mobile devices.
Wireless USB will preserve the functionality of wired USB while also
unwiring the cable connection and providing enhanced support for
streaming media CE devices and peripherals. Wireless USB performance
is targeted at 480Mbps at 3 meters and 110Mbps at 10 meters.
http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_143.pdf
(Sourced from the TV Tech Notes Newsletter)
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BPL News
Withering on the Vine
Our final word this week comes from Roger Harrison VK2ZRH who wrote
the following on the Spectrum Issues Mailing list….
With the federal Government's announcement that they will establish a
government-owned company to build a fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP)
network to reach 90% of Australian homes and businesses, broadband over
powerline will surely 'wither on the line' like wine grapes in a drought.
(Roger Harrison, VK2ZRH via the Spectrum Issues Mailing List)
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Web & Email Edition Extra Bits!!
Optics Links
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/optics/ophom.htm
http://www.learnoptics.com/
http://www.spocc.com/main_compo.htm
(Following Links courtesy of CG Communicator)
Pictures of a pirate Radio Station:
http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/San_Diego_Pirate.htm
An astonishing model railroad in Germany: (5-minute video):
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/astonishing_mos.php
Canada decommissions another AM and demolishes, this one on 1090 kHz.Video
by Dave Garbe of CFCA-FM/CKKW-FM Ontario, Canada courtesy of Fred Vobbe.
Note how each tower top tends to land close to the base, like in the
KFI case: http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Images/AM_1090_Demolition.wmv
The most powerful air raid siren ever built (it is claimed): 30 kW,
powered by a Chrysler Industrial V-8 HEMI gasoline engine:
http://www.victorysiren.com/x/index.htm
How the bad guys can tap into your cell phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCyKcoDaofg
Radioactive RFID Technology Being Deployed:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090324151951.htm
(Following links Courtesy of TV Technotes)
If you are having too good a time and for those who are in need of
a reality check, check out this video on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd4tugPM83c
World TV Standards - For anyone that's interested, here's a link for
TV standards used throughout the world: http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm
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
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VK7 Regional News Group Email Addresses
Post message: vk7regionalnews(AT)yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: vk7regionalnews-subscribe(AT)yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: vk7regionalnews-unsubscribe(AT)yahoogroups.com
List owner: vk7regionalnews-owner(AT)yahoogroups.com
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: VK7RS
160m: VK7DM
80m: VK7EM
40m: VK7TW
20m: VK7AR
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7HGO
HF CB: VK7TED
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.
VK7 Regional Broadcast & News Coordinator
Justin Giles-Clark, VK7TW
****************************************************
- NEWS POSTING TO PACKET -
Courtesy Tony VK7AX VK7AX(AT)VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
****************************************************
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