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VK7AX > NEWS 30.12.07 23:12l 604 Lines 20369 Bytes #999 (0) @ VKNET
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Subj: VK7 Regional News Broadcast for 9 December 2007
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Sent: 071209/1229Z @:VK7NW.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC #:31853 [NWTARIG] FBB7.00g $:VK7AX-0
From: VK7AX@VK7NW.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : NEWS@VKNET
VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER 2007
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VK7 EVENTS DIARY
The VK7 events diary provides a quick summary of VK7 club happenings
over the next month:
REAST – TODAY - Sunday 9th December 11am Domain – End of Year BBQ
with Special Antenna Draw.
NTARC – 12th December – Myrtle Park BBQ & Slippery Trout Award
December 25th – the fat man in the red suit brings you that IC7800
you have always dreamt about….HIHI
And a quick reminder of the weekly club events and broadcasts:
NWTARIG broadcasts in the NW with a different program on Monday, and
Wednesday on VK7RMD. Check the website for details.
http://www.vk7ax.ausport.net/
REAST – Every Wednesday evening from 7:30pm is the ATV Experimenter's
Night. Check the website for details.
http://reast.asn.au/
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MEET THE VOICE BBQ 2008
The "Meet the Voice" BBQ is happening again in 2008 at Ross on Sunday
April 6th. 2008.
The Sewing Circle Net will again sponsor the event at the same venue,
the Ross Caravan Park.
It will be similar to the BBQ of last March, and will include a group
discussion on a subject yet to be finalised, but certainly will be of
interest to all Radio Amateurs and their guests.
The timing of the event has been put on a few weeks because of
Easter falling in March 2008 and so with the long week end holiday
plus the Easter break March will be a busy time for most people.
Mark your diaries with the date Sunday 6 April 2008. We look forward
to seeing you again.
Do you have an idea for an interesting subject for the group
discussion? Then come on the Sewing Circle Net on 3.590MHz. Held
Daily from 5PM and let us know.
(Don Cripps, VK7AY)
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VK7 NON-COMMERCIAL GIVE AWAY, FOR SALES AND WANTED
Allen VK7AN has one Quangsheng 2-meter hand held as new hardly used
with only one owner, in original box for $75-00 posted.
Phone Allen on 0417 354 410
(Allen, VK7AN)
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Wanted a PM 5390 User Manual
Vernon VK7TVF is looking for an Operator/User Manual for a Philips PM
5390 RF Synthesizer 0.1MHz to 1GHz Signal Generator.
If you can help with a copy of this manual please contact Vernon
VK7TVF at email: Vernon.irene@clearmail.com.au or Tony VK7AX email:
nwtarig@vk7ax.id.au Telephone 64 252923.
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Toby, VK7FTML is selling a Yaesu FT-840 in excellent condition and
good working order and comes with a MH-31 hand microphone.
Asking price is $700. If interested then you can contact Toby on
email: vk7ftml@tasmail.com
http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft840.htm
(Toby, VK7FTML)
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NORTH WEST NEWS
North West Tasmanian Amateur Radio Interest Group
Report NWTARIG General Meeting.
The Club Meeting on Saturday 1st. December was very well attended.
We were pleased to welcome Bill VK7MX and partner to the meeting.
Another welcome was also extended to our most recent Foundation
Licence member in Mark Rapley.
Business from the meeting was quickly dispensed with in very short
time, thus allowing for the prime attraction for the meeting, in the
demo from Jim VK7JH on the subject of Packet Radio.
Jim gave a very detailed description of all aspects of AX25 Packet
Radio to a practical demonstration of on air contact and activity
with the VK7NW BBS and VK7AX-8 Gateway.
Thanks Jim, from all at the meeting
--------------------------------
Foundation Licence Assessment.
A big thank you to the Club's Assessor Peter VK2IYand Learning
Facilitator Keith VK7YBP for conducting an assessment on Saturday
1st. December.
We are pleased to report that Mark Rapley has passed his Foundation
Assessment and is currently awaiting his Licence Certificate and Call
Sign from ACMA.
Congratulations to Mark from NWTARIG and we will pass on mark's Call
Sign as soon as we are advised.
73's until next time
(Tony, VK7AX, President NWTARIG)
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NORTHERN NEWS
Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club News
Only a few more sleeps to the Myrtle Park extravaganza. Don't forget
to bring your own - everything - including sleeping place if your
really going to make a night of it HIHI. Rumours are rife of lots of
fly fishing practice taking place to wrestle the Slippery Trout Award
away from Joe, who won't give it up easily. BBQ facilities are
available at the park, plenty of parking for the campers. Starts at -
well - probably early afternoon but roll up one and all for the night
of nights.
Not to be missed.
The north-south link is still broken, Joe is building a new radio and
hopes to have it installed shortly, other commitments permitting.
Lastly, a special item on the Lone Ranger of BPL – Greg Todd – VK7YAD
Thanks Greg for your unselfish consistency in lobbying many
government departments, Both Federal and state at all levels as
regards to BPL.
Your tenacious attitude has been noted by the amateur fraternity
Australia wide.
Without your lone support the whole scenario would have been a
disaster for many modes of communications nationally.
Greg was representing himself as an individual operator, not the
NTARC or WIA
See you at Myrtle Park!
Until next week,
(73, David VK7YUM, NTARC Secretary)
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SOUTHERN NEWS
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
New Callsigns In Southern Tasmania
The ACMA has really excelled with the assignment of the new callsigns
over the past few weeks.
We welcome the following foundation licensees:
John VK7FJGM
Scott VK7FSCO; and,
Ben Smith VK7FBGS
We also welcome the following standard licensee to the air-waves:
Tom VK7NML
Derek VK7MAX
Robert VK7MAG
Roger VK7HMH
Chris VK7HCH; and,
Len VK7HAJ
And we welcome the following advanced licesees who have upgraded:
Graeme, VK7GAJ; and
Brian VK7BDW.
Welcome aboard and we look forward to contacting you on the air.
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ATV Experimenter's Group
We had a great roll-up of about 12 people last Wednesday night and
the focus was on socialising….it is the silly season….HIHI. We also
continued with the reconditioning of the Moonraker antennas.
We welcomed again Victor from WA who has been a guest of Graham
VK7GAJ over the last couple of weeks. Victor is a familiar face to
some as he was based in Tassie for a while including some time with
TVT6.
The ATV Studio is now sporting two new cameras thanks again to Tony
VK7YBG and Mike VK7MJ for these donations. These are being installed
and video quality is already improving.
Thanks also to Ian VK7ZIF for taking a look at our ATV transmitter
and raising it from 0.5Watts to about 15Watts with some tweaking and
TLC. It would be worth taking a look at 444.25MHz which is the low
end of the UHF TV Band for a signal down below SBS eminating from the
Domain on a Wednesday night.
Our signals are improving all the time so, it's worth trying to tune
in every so often and seeing what is on offer from the Amateur TV
Group.
(Justin, VK7TW)
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REAST Education & Assessments
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#TrainingCourses
A new Learning Facilitator in the South is Alan Jeffries VK7KAJ ,
thanks Alan.
There are no more courses or assessments planned for 2007 however, if
you are interested in participating in a course and/or assessment in
2008 then please let our Education Officer, Reg Emmett VK7KK know. He
can be contacted at email: assessor@reast.asn.au or by calling 0417
391 607.
And remember Foundation Licence Manuals and CD's are available for
purchase at McCann's Model World in Elizabeth St. Hobart at $20.
(Reg, VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor)
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REAST Callbook Orders
Callbooks are available from the Secretary today at the Domain.
Cost is $22 for a REAST member and $30 for a non-REAST or unfinancial
REAST member.
(Danny, VK7HDM, REAST Secretary)
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REAST NEWS
REAST Meetings and Events
http://reast.asn.au/events.php
Today is our end of year BBQ and it will be a celebration of a great
year for Club REAST.
We invite you along starting after the broadcast around 11am for a
great social BBQ and family gathering.
BYO your BBQ goodies, hotplates, tea, coffee and softdrinks will be
available.
During the day there will be a special draw of Moonraker AT318
Autotune mobile vertical antennas.
All you need to be is a financial member of REAST to have your name
put into the hat and if your name is drawn then one of these beauties
is yours for a meager $200.
These antennas and the controller were original priced around $1700
new and we will be selling them for $200.
These antennas are fully tested an come with extensive documentation.
Make sure you are financial and a listing is available at the
clubrooms and on the members page of the REAST website.
http://reast.asn.au/members/
Bring along your partners and families, they will be most welcome and
there will be fines for too much technical talk...HIHI.
The broadcast is coming from the Domain that day and going out on
ATV. So come along and see what it's all about or watch the broadcast
on 444.250MHz which is the low end of the UHF TV Band.
See you there.
(REAST Committee)
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HAM RADIO TRENDS
The March of the 'Virtual Interface'
The following article comes from the eHam website in the forums
section and was posted by Mike WA4D back in October.
Arguably among the most significant technological advances in amateur
radio equipment has been the software upgradeable device. Be it
firmware for a transceiver or new operating system features or the
programming of routine operational menus. This "Software Defined"
functionality has in turn led to the full on Software Defined Radio
or SDR.
The proponents of the SDR concept are enthusiastic in their zeal to
promote this radical new model. The specifications of these RF
devices are world class and comparable to the best commercial grade
ham gear available.
So why does the SDR model not excite more hams? I suggest that the
virtual interface of the SDR via a screen is just too sterile for
most.
Hams like knobs! (and keys and mics). They like tactile functions.
They like rotating, depressing, and flipping switches. And on that
(flip/press or turn) they instantly hear or see the result of their
manipulation. It is part of the "toy" factor of radio gear, part of
the fun, part of the mystique.
Manual interaction with technology is heavily embedded in our culture.
On the big or small screen the operation of a communication devices
meant the actor had to manually engage the unit. From the cool
wrist "Flip" action Captain Kirk of Star Trek would display when
opening the "Communicator" to Spock's serious expression when turning
knobs on the "Tricorder" analyzer. On Stargate SG-1 there are a
plethora of "manually" operated devices. From the Star Gate itself,
to the handy talkies the crew uses when "off world."
The physical instrument is integral to the story. Or in the World War
II drama "A Bridge too Far"… the British Brigadier played by Sean
Connery laments that the radios were sent with the wrong crystals! As
his commo people manually troubleshoot (unsuccessfully) to make the
radios work!
These examples and many more are ingrained in our visual culture and
define our perception of what it is to "use" technology.
There is an area of ergonomic study called human factors psychology.
It is concerned with the optimal design of human—machine interfaces,
including the design and placement of instrument panels and controls.
Usability studies abound. And while not yet fully accepted, the
virtual interface becomes more efficient with each new design. From
avionics (where the consequences of poor usability are far more
perilous than in Ham radio) to setting the temperature on a kitchen
oven. "Virtual or Speech based interfaces" will evolve and make our
fondness for physical interaction seem quaint in the future.
The trend is clear. The march of the "Virtual Interface" has begun.
Icom and Yaesu's highest end radios have sophisticated and dare I
say "dazzling" visual information displays. Standalone software
applications that control or program radios are also abundant.
The SDR and it's attendant screen based interface will eventually
prevail. "Resistance is futile" - But I predict that for at least
another couple of decades, many Hams will fight the "Borg" like
assimilation of the virtual interface and stick with real knobs and
even analog meters. If only for the "fun"!
http://www.eham.net/articles/17604
(Mike Whatley, WA4D via the eHam website)
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SATELLITE NEWS
Competition of a different Sort!!
The ANDE-MAA satellite (Nav Oscar - 61) will de-orbit in the next few
weeks but is fully operational. We encourage activity, because while
it is in use (2m packet up/down), then it is awake and sending
telemetry. We want to capture the most telemetry to see if we can
catch the thermal changes as re-entry approaches.
Who can capture the last telemetry frame?
The most important telemetry is that which is fed live by Igate into
the APRS-IS system. Because that is automatically logged and time
stamped.
You can verify your data got in by looking at the
http://pcsat.aprs.org web page after each pass.
If you manually capture any packets, Please take special care to
accurately LOG the TIME of any packets received especially in the
final day prior to re-entry. See the contest page that is available
on the email and internet edition of this broadcast to submit entries.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html
http://www.ande-deorbit.com
http://www.billdiaz.dynip.com/ASatLogger.htm
ANDE is coming over the northern latitudes in the afternoons and
evenings local sun time, but this pattern moves earlier by 14 minutes
per day.
Just monitor 145.825 MHz.
http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com
(Amsat News Service via Bob, WB4APR.
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ELECTRONICS NEWS
Ultra Caps
The following summarised article was sourced from the Electronic
Design website and these components have some interesting amateur
radio applications.
Call them ultracapacitors. Or supercapacitors. Whatever the name,
they exhibit vastly greater capacitance than conventional caps.
Singly, you can buy radiallead board-mount devices rated for 5 to 10
F at 2.5 V, flashlight-battery size units rated for 120 to 150 F at 5
V, and larger single-capacitor cans good for 650 to 3000 F at 2.7 V.
Note that all of those capacitance values are in farads. You can even
buy off-the-shelf modules spec'd for 20 to 500 F, with voltage
ratings from 15 to 390 V.
What has made this possible?
In developing ultracaps, nobody discovered new laws of physics. In
fact, the theory behind them goes back to Helmholtz. Like all
capacitors, ultracaps are still about storing power in the form of an
electrical charge between two "plates." The capacitance is directly
related to the area of the plates and the permittivity of the
material between the plates, and it's inversely related to the
distance between them. After that, the story gets interesting.
Before we had ultracaps to provide astonishingly high values of
capacitance, we had electrolytics. Ultracapacitors aren't
electrolytics, but understanding the older tech is helpful in
understanding the new tech.
To understand ultracaps, stop thinking about flat plates (or flat
plates rolled up into tubes) with a dielectric between them, much
like peanut butter in a sandwich. In an ultracap,
charging/discharging takes place on the interfaces between porous
carbon materials or porous oxides of certain metals in an electrolyte.
The Helmholtz-region capacitance depends on the area of those porous
carbon electrodes and the size of the ions in solution. The
capacitance per square centimeter of electrode double layers is on
the order of 10,000 times larger than those of ordinary dielectric
capacitors. There's a catch to this "double-layer" characteristic,
though. The ultracap achieves one quarter of the theoretical
capacitance based on electrode area and ion size.
Applications vary greatly – transient suppressors, absorption and
discharge of energy in areas like regenerative braking and energy
supplementing in hybrid powered trams, bus and forklift systems. The
caps store energy and then release when extra power is required. The
other advantage is UltraCaps require very little maintenance –
battery systems do.
With some smart design work combinations can be found that combine ,
solar, wind, kenetic and a range of other energy sources in switch
mode configurations along with UltraCaps to produce highly efficient
and servicable energy solutions.
Microchip has been working with AMSAT-NA, the not-for-profit private
organization that develops amateur-radio satellites. AMSAT's next big
project, the Eagle satellite, is slated for launch in March 2009. To
make Eagle function for decades, it will have a power system based on
this work that combines solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, and
ultracaps in an integrated power system that will optimize the use of
each of those components.
http://electrochem.cwru.edu/ed/encycl/artc03-elchem-cap.htm
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/17465/17465.html
(Sourced from the Electronics Design Website via the AMSAT News
Service)
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WEB & EMAIL EDITION EXTRA BITS!!
Nixie Tubes Data Sheets:
http://wps.com/archives/tube-datasheets/Datasheets/Burroughs-catalog-
918A/index.html
Valve Data Sheets:
http://wps.com/archives/tube-datasheets/index.html Valves
Fascinating Stuff:
http://wps.com/archives/
Off Topic
Radical base jumping:
http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262
A celebration of machines that do not work:
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm
History: Build the "Cyclops," a one tube magic eye receiver:
http://www.oldradios.co.nz/projects/cyclops/index.htm
Snowball fight, great fun, but DO NOT hit Santa:
http://www.elfmovie.com/swf/snowball_fight/index.html
(Off Topic Sites Sourced from CG Communicator #821)
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 - R U 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 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: VK7TW
40m: 40M Group
20m: 20M Group
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7GO
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 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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