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VK7AX > NEWS 19.04.09 06:08l 638 Lines 22154 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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To : NEWS@WW
VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 19TH APRIL 2009
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MORE Repeater MilestoneS
VK4 up with VK7 and Achieves Two Repeater Honour
As heard on the National WIA news last week VK7RAA was the second
repeater in VK7 to clock over 1000 call backs in a WIA broadcast year
and for a moment VK7 had the honour of being the only state to have
two repeater over 1000 callbacks.
Moments after VK7RAA gained this honour so did VK4RBU with 1012 callbacks
in the rum country of Bundaberg. This repeater joins VK4RSC on the
Sunshine Coast which is currently sitting at 1630 callbacks.
VK7RAA reached 1023 with last week's callbacks and joins the linked
repeater of VK7RAD/RHT with 1479 callbacks.
Congratulations to all amateurs in VK4 and VK7 it's great to hear that
there are so many amateurs listening to the WIA National News each week.
We also welcome Gary VK7JGD to the merry band of re-broadcasters.
Gary has put his hand up to help with the 40m re-broadcast and his
QTH is in Snug.
So, why not take a listen on 7.090MHZ and let Gary know what you are
hearing at the end of this broadcast.
http://reast.asn.au/news.php#roster
(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 22 & 29th – ATV Experimenter's Nights – 7:30pm Queens
Domain Club rooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
NWRESG – April 25th - Fuchsia Fantasy Tea Rooms - 10.15 to 10.30 Start.
TARGA TASMANIA – April 28th to May 3rd.
http://targatasmania.com.au/
NWTARIG – May 2nd – General Meeting - Penguin Lions club rooms
REAST – May 6th – Presentation on Landline Telegraphy – 8pm Queen's
Domain Clubrooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#duplexlandline
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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NORTHERN NEWS
Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club
Alf Traeger pioneered the use of cheap to produce, rugged and reliable
HF transmitters for use with the Royal Flying Doctor Service… and if
you come along to the next NTARC meeting at the special time of 6.30pm
at Launceston Airports RFDS depot on Wednesday night 13th of May, you'll
get to see one of these historic and life-saving one-watt wonders.
There will be a sandwich and cake light dinner available for a donation
of $2, courtesy of Ann VK7FYBG.
Speaking of food, in the near future we plan a dinner meeting if you've
got any ideas on where you'd like to go for this, let us know.
And another meeting will have a very special guest talking about his
adventure walking the Kokoda Trail, which will be very subject close to
many people's hearts with ANZAC day coming up shortly.
Joe VK7JG has come back safely from Canberra in his luxury home on
wheels, and apparently he got to `road test' one of the much-vaunted
squid-pole HF multiband antennae. Hope you remembered to pull the
squid pole down before taking off in the camper Joe, not too sure that
mobile inverted-vee squid poles would be all that convenient to use….HIHI
Cliff, VK7CD may well hold claim to Tasmania's most senior active amateur,
with Cliff about to turn 97 years young. Congratulations Cliff,
hope to hear you active for many more years yet.
Lastly, Al VK7AN tells us that Flinders Island will be active for
IOTA (OC195) on the 20th of May, so if you need this one, keep an ear
out on the HF bands.
Thanks from
(Jason VK7ZJA, NTARC Secretary)
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NORTH WEST News
North West Tasmania Amateur Television Group
Propagation testing for proposed ATV Repeater.
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
Testing will be undertaken during coming weeks to establish possible
paths for ATV signals from the Club's repeater site at Gawler to
individual amateur's QTHs.
The bands used for these tests will be 70cm, 23cm and 13cm.
Club members wishing to be included in these tests should advise the
Club Secretary, ensuring you will not be left out.
Note it will not be necessary for those interested, to have any ATV
equipment for the testing, this being provided by those performing
the tests.
The idea is to establish a list of potential paths to individual QTH's.
Again, members interested in these tests, please advise the Secretary
Steve VK7EQ or Tony VK7AX.
People 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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Radio Experimenters and Social Group
Venue Change
As a result of the Blue Wren Tea Garden Cafe at Ulverstone being closed
on
Saturday the 25th April, it has been decided to have our morning coffee
meeting at the Fuchsia Fantasy Tea Rooms which is located at 75 Lillico
Road Lillico for a 10.15 to 10.30 Start.
We look forward to seeing you there.
From
(Vernon French VK7VF)
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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
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#FoundationLicenceCourse
(Reg, VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor)
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ATV Experimenters Night
We had another fantastic roll-up last Wednesday night even though we
had a blast from the South and a reminder that Winter is not that far
away!
There were more new faces and it was great to see Damien VK7LDS and his
brother at the night.
We went out on both analog 70cm and digital 23cm ATV and started with
a presentation about the Gnat transceiver that VK7RO, VK7OO and VK7TW
are building. 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.
VK7TW went through the circuit on air and we utilised the close up camera
to show the homebrewed item. Steven VK7OO is already making some great
improvements by mounting all the frequency dependent components onto a
DIL socket that can be unplugged and the frequency changed quickly,
great stuff! There will be more on this project over coming weeks.
We then had a special guest in the studio – Corey VK7FCJC who has recently
got his F-call licence and frequents the VK7SMS station down at Sorell.
Corey is in grade 7 at Newtown High.
Corey took our watchers and listeners through a recent project he made.
A very impressive and professionally made LED sign featuring his callsign.
Another great project!
Our main presentation came via again from Mike VK7MJ and was a fascinating
look at Edwardian England through the eyes of two early film-makers called
Mitchell and Kenyon.
These two would film anything and everything of their time and then that
night play it to a fascinated audience in the local hall!
What these two managed to capture was everyday life and times of Edwardian
England and it makes for great viewing.
All in all another great night of experimenting.
Next week we have some more fascinating material – I recently purchased
a 1924 "Boy's Wireless Book" and it has some great material relating
to radio in the 1920s.
We will also be playing the presentation given by Gavin VK7HGO on the
communications behind Targa Tasmania that was given a few week's ago.
If we have time we will play some more of Mitchell and Kenyon as well.
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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ACMA News
More on the VK4-VK7 Collaboration
As heard on the WIA National News the ITU Monitoring Station at Quoin
Ridge was pressed into service to help detect interference on 20m that
was causing grief to the SES in VK4 during the recent floods.
It was Dave Long and Dave Hay who are now based up at Quoin Ridge who
appear in the impressive photo of the control desk at the facility.
The following is a little more detail on the successful operation.
The Queensland SES contacted the Brisbane office of ACMA's Field
Operations Section, lodging a complaint of radiocommunications
interference to their main HF (14MHz) state disaster coordination frequency.
The frequency 14.745 MHz was being used for daytime communications
throughout Queensland for coordinating relief efforts during the floods.
Staff in the Brisbane office started investigating the complaint by
monitoring the frequency to confirm the interference and try to identify
the source. The Brisbane office then asked for assistance from ACMA's HF
Monitoring and Investigation facility located at Quoin Ridge,
approximately thirty-five kilometres north of Hobart, Tasmania.
At Quoin Ridge, field staff were able to monitor, measure and decode
the interfering signal and trace its source to an emission originating
in the vicinity of Fukushima, Japan. After confirming that this particular
frequency was both registered with the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU) and not assigned to any other country, in particular Japan,
ACMA contacted the Japanese Administration (Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications), advising the details of the harmful interference and
asking for their assistance in eliminating its source.
Within just a few days and with further assistance from the Quoin Ridge
facility, the Japanese Administration had located and eliminated the source
of the interfering signal. The Quoin Ridge HF Monitoring and Investigation
facility, which also comprises the Field Operations Hobart office, is
accredited by the ITU and also operates ACMA's HF radio direction–finding
network of sites located throughout Australia.
The quiet conditions at Quoin Ridge are ideal for HF monitoring: Tasmania
has very low-density radiocommunications traffic and background noise
levels due to its relatively small technology industry base and low
population. This facility is one of only three such stations in the
world—the others are in Baldock in the UK and Maryland in the US—making
it a key linchpin internationally for tracking HF interference.
Radiocommunications interference to HF radiocommunications users within
Australia can involve numerous ACMA resources and field staff time in the
work of identifying and locating the source of the interfering signal,
which, due to the nature of HF radiocommunications, may be emanating
from any part of the globe. In the majority of HF interference complaints,
the investigation process will involve the use of the Quoin Ridge
HF Monitoring and Investigation facility to help identify, locate and
ultimately eliminate the interfering signal.
http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310833/acmasphere_issue_40.pdf
(ACMA Website via Ben VK7BEN)
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Satellite News
KiwiSat Status Update
In a gesture of support for KiwiSAT the Auckland VHF Group
(NZART Branch 66) have donated $1000 for the purchase of the special
Aluminium blocks from which the very structure of KiwiSAT will be milled.
For maximum stability, light weight and overall integrity, the frame
of our satellite will be milled from solid blocks of Aluminium.
Over the next few weeks KiwiSAT will finally start to take shape.
There is much work to be done but we now making "solid" progress.
Mike Jack of Stanier Engineering, a small specialist precision
engineering company based in Auckland, is now milling the main frame
from those solid blocks. The first tray is to hand and looking great.
Strength and precision are two major factors as this first plate,
the foundation stone for the final structure, will carry the whole
load at launch.
We are most grateful to Mike for the use of his costly machinery and
for donating his very valuable time to this project.
Many more details and video of the milling process are available on
the KiwiSat web site and the address can be found on the email and
internet editions of this broadcast.
http://kiwisat.org/index.html
(Sourced from the AMSAT Mailing List)
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RF Research
Wind Farm QRM
The UK regulator, Ofcom, has published a document about the effects
of interference to UHF & SHF communications by Wind Farms.
The report, by ERA Technology Ltd and Aegis Systems Ltd, describes a
technical study in which a series of measurements were carried out
with regard to the presence of wind turbines near to wireless services.
The purpose of the study was to enhance understanding of the effects
of wind turbines near to wireless services.
Some of their findings include:
A single turbine can produce measured fades as large as 3 dB for UHF
scanning telemetry links and 2 dB for fixed links operating between 1.5
and 18 GHz, when the turbine is lying on the transmitter-receiver path.
A wind farm (with seventeen turbines) can produce measured fades as large
as 10 to 15 dB for 1% of the time when the wind farm is lying on the
transmitter-receiver path.
The full report in PDF Format is available at the address on the email
and internet editions of this broadcast.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/fixed/
Windfarms/rf_measurement/windfarm_report.pdf
(Sourced from Trevor, M5AKA via the AMSAT Mailing list)
[Ed – Hmmmm….there goes the UHF & SHF Field Trips to the West Coast…HIHI.]
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Technology News
New atomic clock claims title of world's most accurate
Donald Melanson on the Engadget website reports on what is claimed to be
the worlds most accurate clock.
You may have thought that the previous world's most accurate clock
was good at keeping time, but it's apparently nothing compared to this
new strontium atomic clock developed by scientists at the University of
Colorado, which is supposedly more than twice as accurate and just as atomic.
To achieve that impressive feat, the scientists made use of the same
so-called "pendulum effect" of atoms as before, but took things one
step further by holding the atoms in a laser beam and freezing them to
almost -273 degrees Celsius, or the temperature at which all matter
stops resonating.
In clock terms, that translates to about one second lost every
300 million years. Of course, that's still one second too many for the
researchers, and they say they "dream of getting an atomic clock with
perfect precision." You just know you never want to be late for a meeting
with these guys.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/16/
new-atomic-clock-claims-title-of-worlds-most-accurate/
(Sourced from the Engadget Website)
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Space News
Cloud – White Fluffy Clouds or……. Tranquillity
Spacetoday.net website reports that after a recent poll, NASA announced
last Tuesday night that the new node for the International Space Station
will be named "Tranquillity".
NASA said it selected Tranquillity to honour the 40th anniversary of
Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon's Sea of Tranquillity.
The name was not one of the four finalist names for the Node 3 module
announced by NASA in February, and finished far down the list of
write-in names in an online poll administered by NASA that ended
last month.
The top vote-getter was Colbert, after late-night show host Stephen Colbert
asked his viewers to write in his name. NASA announced that, rather than
name the node after Colbert, it would name a treadmill that will be
located in the module the Combined Operational Load Bearing External
Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT. NASA astronaut Suni Williams announced
the names on Colbert's show.
http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/4551
(Spacetoday.net website)
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Web & Email Edition Extra Bits!!
Soundcard Interfacing for AR:
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/interface.html
All you ever needed to know about HF Fax
http://www.hffax.de/
Connecting Mics to Soundcards:
http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/us_pro_ea_connectingmics
Microphone Preamps
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/sbmicamp.html
Wonderful Circuit Resource:
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/index.html#audiocir
Mark VK5EME's Minikit Resource Page – Check out the toroid
(mini-core calculator software):
http://www.minikits.com.au/data.html
ACMA (AT) Quoin Ridge Help out the VK4 Floods (Thanks to Ben VK7BEN
for the link)
http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310833/acmasphere_issue_40.pdf
The Gnat Designers Web Pages – Cluey Guy!!
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/
Electronics Calculators:
http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/electroniccalculatorcomp.htm
http://www.bcae1.com/
http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/semi_en/index.html
All you ever will want to know about lights lamps & strobes:
http://members.misty.com/don/
Crystal Tester Circuit (Thanks to Steve VK7OO)
http://www.qsl.net/g3pto/xtest.html
Noise Bridge Design:
http://users.monash.edu.au/~ralphk/noise-bridge.html
Comparison Chart of Ferrite Material:
http://users.catchnet.com.au/~rjandusimports/ft_mat_1.html
Great Site for the Homebrewer:
http://www.midnightscience.com/
Almost All Digital Electronics Store
http://www.aade.com/
Nuts and Volts Magazine
http://www.nutsvolts.com/
That Infinite Frog Photo:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10221086-2.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
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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: VK7IR
160m: VK7DM
80m: VK7EM
40m: VK7RO
20m: VK7IL
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7ZCR
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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