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VK7AX > NEWS 10.05.09 13:31l 615 Lines 20335 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: VK7 Regional News Broadcast for 10 May 2009
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To : NEWS@WW
VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 10TH MAy 2009
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Special 73 & 88 greeting and thank you to all those Mums out there
on this Mother's Day.
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VK7 EVENTS CALENDAR
A summary of the events across VK7 over the coming months:
NTARC – May 13th - Royal Flying Doctor Service depot
– Launceston Airport at 7:30pm with Ian VK7KIH.
REAST – May 13, 20 & 27th – ATV Experimenter's Nights
– 7:30pm Queens Domain Club rooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
SMS – June 6 & 7th - Great Southern Winter Ham fest - Sorell Men's
Shed, Station Lane, Sorell.
http://www.sorellmensshed.org/
NWT-ATVG – June 6th - General Meeting and discussion on radio history.
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
REAST – June 16th – Advanced/Standard Assessment Session.
http://reast.asn.au/amateurradio.php#exams
REAST – June 23rd – Foundation Licence Course and Assessments Session.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#FoundationLicenceCourse
WMBD – June 27th – World Moon Bounce Day celebrating the Echoes of
Apollo 40th Anniversary of the first Moon landing.
http://echoesofapollo.com/
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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.
Jason VK7ZJA found out the hard way that extreme cold air and stainless
steel mobile antennae do not mix. Jason was recently driving through
the central highlands where snowfalls had resulted in some very cold
outside air temperatures. Adding to this effect was some low cloud
depositing moisture on my dual band mobile antenna, and of course as
the car was moving through the air, evaporation of said moisture caused
the temperature of the stainless steel to be further reduced. The final
ingredient to this tale of woe was one small branch overhanging the road.
Normally the antenna would have taken the impact of such a small branch
quite OK – but with the steel chilled to a very cold temperature,
it had become somewhat brittle. The end result was one dual band antenna
had shattered into at least 8 small pieces. Jason recommends that you
drive with care under any overhead obstruction, but especially when it
is cold outside.
There is to be a ham fest in Hobart in early June, and if there are
enough interested members, we may be able to arrange for a mini bus to
take a group from Launceston to Hobart and return for the day.
If you'd like to register your interest for this, get in touch with
Ann VK7FYBG, and we'll see if this is a feasible idea.
And lastly, don't forget to spoil your Mum today…
Thanks from
(Jason VK7ZJA, NTARC Secretary)
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NORTH WEST News
North West Tasmania Amateur Television Group
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
The N/West ATV Group conducted a Foundation Lic. Assessment on Saturday
2nd. May. Congratulations to James (Hamish) Curran who passed his Theory,
Regulations and Practical with flying colours.
Hamish (now retired) is a past engineer with merchant shipping in the
British Isles.
He is of Scottish decent and now lives in Devonport, mainly interested
in HF but is keen to become involved with VHF and UHF.
Hamish expects to receive his call and licence shortly, so please keep
an ear out for Hamish on the HF bands with his requested call of VK7FHCL.
Congratulations again Hamish from the Club, well done.
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 and News Officer NWT-ATV Gp)
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Southern News
Great Southern Winter Hamfest – A Sorell Men's Shed Event
"Community Project"
A Great Southern winter Ham fest will be held at the Sorell Men's Shed,
Station Lane, Sorell.
It will be on the first weekend in June which will be June 6th and
7th and will be a 2 day event.
Saturday starting at 9am there will be workshops including, bookings
are now being taken for the special work shop activities.
Antenna Construction, winding baluns, making dipoles and yagis,
field strength, satellite dishes and optical communication.
These are just some of the activities planed
Saturday Night the Men's Shed station - VK7SMS will be conducting an
on air award from 6pm till 12pm on HF,VHF and UHF.
Sunday will be a show and tell day with trade and pre-loved tables,
home brew competition and awards for first, second and third.
There will be a BBQ lunch and a few raffles.
All proceeds will go to the Men's Shed.
There will be camping and toilet facilities on site for those who want
to bring their campers and trucks down for the weekend.
More info as time draws near so, start making your plans to be in the
South for this great event.
If you are interest in being involved and/or helping out.
Please email or contact Ken VK7DY for more details or express your
interest in being involved.
windmill(AT)southcom.com.au
http://www.sorellmensshed.org/
(Ken, VK7DY, SMS Coordinator)
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Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
Over the Horizon Optical Communications
REAST's May presentation was given by Rex VK7MO and Justin VK7TW last
Wednesday night who presented the latest and greatest on their
experimentation with over the horizon optical communications.
This was the presentation they gave at Gippstech Special Edition/WIA AGM
on the weekend of May 2, 2009.
The hour long presentation covered the history and experimentation over
the last few years to get to the distance of 209km using the
cloud-bounce techniques.
The presentation was videoed and will be presented at a future ATV night.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#cloudbounce
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
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REAST Education and Training
There will be on Tuesday 16th June an examination session for the Advanced
and Standard licenses at 7:30 pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms.
There will also be a foundation training and practical assessment
session on Saturday June 20th starting at 9 am.
Anyone interested in participating in a Standard training course for
about 10 weeks starting around the end of June please let me know.
It could be on a Tuesday or Friday night. Please indicate if either
of these nights is unsuitable.
Reg VK7KK can be contacted 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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REAST ATV Experimenters Night
We get back under way this Wednesday night with a cram-packed night
of experimentation.
The show and tell will include a recently constructed L/C meter and
how to use it. More on Grid Dip Oscillators and their uses. We take a
look at the Yaesu VX-170 handheld which comes equipped with the WIRES
and a bunch of other functionality. Hopefully there will be a fully
operational GNAT one transistor transceiver to show and a whole bunch
of other stuff.
We will also have some historic video from back in July 1969 prior to
the moon walk from the Prime Minister John Gorton at Honeysuckle Creek
to celebrate the soon to be celebrated 40th anniversary of the moon
landing.
We will be going out on both analog 70cm and digital 23cm ATV.
It should be another great night of experimenting and ATV.
See you there.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
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Satellite News
National Satellite Net in VK
The next National Satellite net takes place on Tuesday 12 May 2009
from 20:30 - 21:30 and repeats every month on the second Tuesday.
Operators may join the net via Echolink by connecting to either the
Amsat or VK3JED conferences. Past experience has shown that the VK3JED
server offers clearer audio.
The net is also available via IRLP reflector numbers 9509 and 9500.
In addition to the Echolink conferences, the net will also be
available via RF on the following repeaters and links
73's
(AMSAT-Australia via the AMSAT VK Mailing List)
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SPACE/EME News
Echoes of Apollo – Honeysuckle Creek
The follow message appeared on the VK-VHF mailing list and was posted
by one of the original Apollo 11 Mission Staff based at Honeysuckle creek.
There is going to be a very big 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 in Canberra,
in July, celebrating the arrival of the first pictures from the Moon at
Honeysuckle Creek tracking station south of Canberra.
Anyone, even remotely connected with the Apollo 11 mission, including
staff from Honeysuckle Creek tracking station, the PMG Dept Radio
Section, the PMG Dept in general, AWA OB's and others that I can't
remember should have a look at the site that can be found on the email
and internet editions of this broadcast and make contact with any of
the organisers mentioned.
http://honeysucklecreek.net/news/
Also, the original dish from Honeysuckle Creek, which is now at
Tidbinbilla Deep Space centre, will be decommissioned on 1st August, 2009,
10 days after the 40th anniversary of its moment of glory in history.
Maybe there will be another dish available for EME experiments…HIHI
Posted with the thought that ..."the truth is out there ... somewhere"
From one of the original Apollo 11 Mission staff.
http://honeysucklecreek.net/news/
http://echoesofapollo.com/
(Bruce, VK2EM via the VK-VHK Mailing List)
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Technology News
Cognitive radio allows spectrum sharing
In the event of a disaster, the emergency services have to be able
to trust communication networks. But what happens if the network is
overloaded or even off the air as a result of the disaster?
Soon it may be possible to borrow free space in other frequency bands
or to organise an ad hoc communication network on the spot thanks to
`cognitive radio'. This means that the scarce space available may be
put to better use.
While special emergency channels are allocated to prevent the emergency
services from being too dependent on the public network, these
channels often have a limited bandwidth. This means that if emergency
services also want to communicate via video in the future, or want to
send data on a patient to the hospital, more bandwidth will be needed.
Cognitive radio can identify and use all transmitting and receiving
possibilities in the vicinity. It is even possible to construct an
ad hoc network without the basic infrastructure being present.
Mobile users in the area will jointly form the nodes of a temporary
network. The information flow will jump from node to node.
This will require a new approach to the radio spectrum: instead of
the current highly channelled approach, cognitive radio borrows
bandwidth in other bands, without disturbing the users of these bands.
Qiwei Zhang, PhD student at the University of Twente (UT), the
Netherlands, has been developing techniques for finding available
spectrum.
Because cognitive radio must be highly flexible and capitalises on
local circumstances, it requires a lot of calculating power.
To do this Zhang uses a reconfigurable processor and has developed
algorithms to adapt the transmitting signal to the local conditions
and to prevent interference with other users.
Cognitive radio is not restricted to applications in emergency
situations. This approach will work at any spot where wireless network
jams occur.
The challenges are not only technical. Due to the totally different
approach, a lot will also have to change in the legislation.
Watch this space for more developments in the area of cognitive radio.
http://www.radiocomms.com.au/
(Sourced from the Radio Comms Website)
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CONTEST NEWS
Jock White Field Day 2009 Report
This popular NZ contest saw 6 more stations participate in 2009
including a number of VK stations.
There were no reports of splatter this year, and positive comments
in general about operating standards.
Eighty metre conditions seemed very good this year, in contrast we
have had another pretty average year on forty.
Whangarei have finally edged out Papakura and Auckland to win the
Montgomery cup while Hastings Havelock North made over 700 contacts
on 80 metre phone.
There were 190 operators at 34 field stations, up from 28 last year.
There were seven home stations with three overseas entrants.
For more details take a look at the web address that can be found
on the email and internet editions of this broadcast.
http://www.nzart.org.nz/contests/index.html)
(From Stuart Watchman ZL2TW via the NZART Mailing List)
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Technology News
Storing A Lightning Bolt In Glass For Portable Power
The Science Daily website on May 2nd reported that researchers at Penn
State University in the US reported the highest known breakdown strength
for a bulk glass ever measured.
Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much
energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins
to conduct electricity.
A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant
would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high energy
density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles,
as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.
The highest dielectric breakdown strengths for bulk glasses are typically
in the 4-9MV/cm range. The breakdown strength for the tested samples were
in the 12MV/cm range.
The etched glass was placed in a polymer fluid for testing and up to
30,000 volts were applied. When the breakdown point was reached,
electricity began to flow through the glass suddenly, with a flash and
a bang that resembles a lightning bolt conducting through air. The
polymer fluid was used to contain the lightning. In each case,
failure occurred within 40 to 80 seconds.
The bulk glass tested is an alkali-free barium boroaluminosilicate glass
produced in large quantities for flat panel displays and microelectronics
packaging. It is so thin coming in at 30 Microns that it is flexible.
For more information take a look at the website on the email and
internet editions of this website.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090501204039.htm
10.1016/j.matlet.2009.02.047
(Sourced from ScienceDaily website)
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Hombrewers News
Attenuators Using Only 33R
Ever tried to find appropriate resistors to build a 50 ohm attenuator?
Glen comments that
"My junkbox isn't usually extensive enough. With just ONE resistor
value, you can make fairly decent attenuators (for 50 ohm system).
Not for EXACTLY the attenuation you'd like. but still a fairly
comprehensive range from -3dB to -23dB.
Many computer motherboards use 33 ohm resistors to help terminate
longer data or address lines. They use many surface-mount networks
of four independent resistors for this purpose.
Glen has added a PDF describing both "T" and "PI" attenuators using
these 33 ohm networks, on the EMRFD yahoo group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emrfd/
(Written by Glen Leinwebe on the EMRFD Mailing List)
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Humour to Finish
Mark and Mary
The following story is sourced to the FIST UK club newsletter from a
budding CW operator.
Just after I passed my CW test I was working a very experienced G station
on 40 mtrs. who sent impeccable Morse and after sending my name 3 times he
called me Mark for the rest of the QSO.
Unsure what to do, and being very respecting of the station's status I
decided to end the QSO in the normal way and sent 73 and 88, whereupon
there was a large pause and "88?" sent, to which I replied "yes I am a
YL", what a difference a dah makes!
(Sourced from Keynote Magazine Spring Edition 2009)
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Web & Email Edition Extra Bits!!
Paddle Rescue!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XJHXzchBg
John Drew's GPS Checker
http://vk5dj.mountgambier.org/GPSchecker/GPSchecker.html
Igniting a Star with Multiple Lasers
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/05/gallery_nif
AR/ATV Videos
http://www.arvideonews.com/index.html
The Rap Amateur Radio Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DKusmesapw&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div
It's only an Amateur Radio Set!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_LrOAbtZjI
What the ISPs don't tell you!!!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/
isps-costs-revenues-dont-support-data-cap-argument.ars
For the Queen Fans out there – (Thanks Ben VK7BEN)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4
Extreme Bike Riding with great soundtrack!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o
Greenification of your home
http://gizmodo.com/5233176/
green-tech-upgrades-that-boost-home-values-and-reduce-bills
Liquid Crystal Lasers
http://www.elektor.com/news/liquid-crystal-lasers.938257.
lynkx?utm_source=UK&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news
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: VK7FB
160m: VK7DM
80m: VK7EM
40m: VK7TW
20m: VK7IL
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7FTAZ
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
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- NEWS POSTING TO PACKET -
Courtesy Tony VK7AX VK7AX(AT)VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
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