Date

Event

Dec 19, 2004

Carols in the Bay 2004 - ATV

Sunday, 19 December 2004 some of the ATV group were asked to provide a video and audio link to a Big screen in the overflow park at Nut Grove beach at Sandy bay for the Hobart Carols by the Bay.

We were told that an OB (outside broadcast) van would be providing us with the feed so we could transmit it.  Little did we know that the OB van had been dispatched from the Gladesville Amateur Radio ATV Club.

Gladesville Van next to the 125KVa Genset.

The van was driven down and belong to Keith, VK2ZZO who was a great help to Reg, VK7KK and I, helping us to set up and provided us with technical information for doing outside broadcasts and linking.

Keith, VK2ZZO in the van at the video control desk

While this was all going on, a quick call on the repeater  regarding ATV,  a number of local amateurs drop bye to inspect the equipment and see how it all worked. They we very impressed with the unit.

This year we saw many ATV experiments conducted, transmissions from Mt Wellington, on 1250MHz and 10 GHz voice, 444.25 by Justin VK7TW and Ian, VK7ZIF.  Transmissions from the club site around Hobart metro area on 1250 MHz from the repeater site on Guy Fawkes Hill as well as a Full duplex contact between Ken, VK7DY to Reg VK7KK at Acton.

We will be continuing the ATV broadcasts next year and hopefully make it more regular covering the greater Hobart area.

If you would like to be involved with ATV, then please contact REAST  or Ken VK7DY.

Thanks to those who helped with the ATV project and to those who attend the Monday Night Play group.

Best wishes from Ken VK7DY

Dec 4, 2004

TASMANIAN HAMFEST 2004

Dec 4 saw the number one gathering of Tasmanian amateurs in a long time!

It was estimated that about 120 people from all over Tasmania and the mainland made the trip to Miena to the very well equipped Community Hall.

The displays from vendors were very enticing. TTS Systems with a wide range of equipment and accessories including Ten-Tec, SGC, Diamond, Autek & Buddipoles. 

David Benchoam & XYL were there from Benelec with Yaesu, Revex and Comet equipment including an FT1000 that I believe was sold! 

The crew from Marcom Watson had a comprehensive display of ICOM equipment including the IC-7800 with a price tag of $17,000! Apparently there have already been three sold in Australia! 

TET Emtron & Bushcom antennas had a great display of antennas and accessories all the way from VK6 and were doing a brisk trade. 

Solar Tasmania and VK Electronics had a great display of solar equipment including solar cells, batteries and chargers.

Susan, VK7LUV who is the current president of the Australia Ladies Amateur Radio Association and family manned or should I say ladied the ALARA stand and was deep in conversation with Hamfest attendees each time I went past!

The CHARCT stand was doing a brisk trade in the $12 Hamfest CD-ROMS containing 650megabytes of amateur related software!

There were a number of buy and sell stands that seemed to be doing a very brisk trade all the time.

Rex, VK7MO had a stand with his meteorscatter/troposcatter station and was demonstrating his weak signal digital techniques. Rex commented that he didn’t have too much luck with meteorscatter however, had at least 10 contacts via the troposcatter mode.

Dick, VK7KVB had a very impressive HF/computer station setup and Brian, VK7KBE had his van setup outside with a HF station and was demonstrating the very portable Buddipole system.

The Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania was demonstrating 70cm amateur television and had a number of videos showing about the hobby of amateur radio and quite a few new members were signed up.

The raffle of the DSP speaker donated by TTS System was won by Dave.

The resonant circuit LC network turned out to be 7.983MHz and the Bushcom antenna prize went to Alan, VK7ZAR.

It was great to see many from the CB fraternity and we hope you found that bargain you were looking, stuck up a few friendships or found out a little more about what amateur radio can offer.

Many thanks has to go the CHARCT crew especially those people manning the kitchen, lunch was great. Thanks to all for a fantastic day.

Dec 1, 2004 

Moonraker Antennas

On Wednesday Dec 1, a group of about 35 people attended the Moonraker antenna manufacturing facility at Technopark. It was great to see so many from the CB fraternity come along for the visit. You were most welcome.

Our host for the evening was Chris Edwards, Managing Director, who is the son of Len Edwards who started the company back in 1960s. many people in the group remembered Len and his converted service station in Lindisfarne.

Chris Edwards next to some of Moonraker's products.

Len started the company from a request from the fledgling Codan radio manufacturing company in South Australia mainly for 2/4/8MHz antennas. The company rapidly developed and outgrew the service station!

Chris outlined that it was his prompting of the Gray liberal government that setup the Technopark complex and Moonraker were the first occupants.

Moonraker has about 20 staff and undertakes all their own design and research and development and export 50% of their products in to over 30 countries. They also have a store in Singapore. They aim for niche markets with a high value product. Including military and naval antenna systems.

From LtoR Peter, VK7TPE, Peter, VE7PMR/VK7, Rod, VK7TRF, Jack, VK7IL, Graham, VK7ZGK and Dale, VK7DG checking out another Moonraker product outside.

Chris went on to show the group a sample of some of their products that included: active TV antenna, a near vertical incidence skywave antenna system, wire loop antenna used by the Russian Army, portable surveillance antenna that were used by the British Army in Afghanistan, collinear stripline verticals, a prototype of a new computer designed antenna currently being trialled on the Anzac frigate, NOAA eggbeater satellite antennas, HF antenna simulators, and a very interesting auto tunable HF vertical from 2-30MHz using tunable ferrite slugs for ICOM who have just gone back into the land mobile market.

Danny, VK7HDM who is an employee of Moonraker gave us an demonstration of the new tunable verticals in the test shed.

Danny, VK7HDM and Ken, VK7KRJ and the auto tune HF vertical in the test shed.

We were then treated to refreshments and from the comments from those who attended I think everyone was very impressed.

Thanks have to go to Chris, Danny, VK7HDM and staff for allowing us to visit and for putting on a very informative night. It’s great to see a Tasmanian technology company successfully competing on the world stage.

November 14, 2004 

Sewing Circle BBQ

On the 14th of November about 60 people enjoyed the hospitality of Ken, VK7DY and family on their property at Orielton for the Premier Social event of the VK7 amateur calendar, the Sewing Circle BBQ. The weather held up and the BBQ’s were going flat chat at lunchtime to keep up with demand. There was a WLAN demonstration, steam engines, model boats and planes and even how to put a chook to sleep! 

The homebrew competition was fierce with a good number of entries and a show and tell that was capped off with Gwynne (that’s Hayden, VK7HAY’s grandfather) talking about making a very impressive fly fishing set including reel.

Now on to the awards!

The Sewing Circle Trophy went to Franck, VK7CK from Deloraine, unfortunately Franck was not able to be at the BBQ.

The homebrew competition was won by Dan, VK7DAN for his power supply and Jpole antenna, second prize went to Ken, VK7KRJ for his APRS experimenting and an encouragement award was presented to Hayden, VK7HAY for his Jpole antenna.

The crowd listening to the homebrewer describing their projects.

VK7DAN 1st prize winner - Homebrew competition.

VK7KRJ describing his APRS experimenting.

VK7HAY received an encouragement award for his JPole.

The Terry Wilson, VK7HTW, SK award went to Nick, VK7HAF (in absenteum) for services to Amateur Radio. Bill, VK7AAW presented his first morse key to Nick with a great story about how he was a Novice in 1983 and at 5wpm made a contact with a VK3 who became a great friend.

VK7KV (raffle winner), VK7DY and Chris (US Army Chief Engineer & raffle scrutineer).

Peter Rathbone receives mystery prize of a dozen fresh eggs!

Many positive comments were heard from people finally meeting and putting a face to a name, and hopefully many friendships were fostered. This is what the hobby is all about!

A great big thank you has to go to Ken, VK7DY, Wendy and his family for making the day a fantastic success.

November 3, 2004 

International Catamarans - HSV-X1

Wednesday, November 3, was a night members from REAST and friends about 27 in total were privileged to have a guided tour by Skipper Chuck and Chief Engineer, Chris of the US Army Joint Venture Catamaran HSV-X1 which stands for High Speed Vessel – Experimental One. This is a 96 metre Evolution 10 wave piercing catamaran that has been used by the US Army as a fast logistics, troop transport and command/ communications platform.

In the forward hold area, Skipper Chuck explaining the intricacies of loading a vessel of this nature. 

Some mind boggling stats to start with - its top speed is around 40 knots, that’s 74km/h! It can do about 800-1000km/day. At the high speed the four 10,000HP turbo diesel engines use 5,500litres of fuel per hour. It has 30 crew and can carry 300 passengers and freight in relative comfort.

On the helideck.

The communications room was an very impressive array of a wall of plasma TV screen, LCD command stations all fed by 18 PCs running, yes you guessed it, Windows 2000. These PCs are fed via encrypted satellite links. Yes there was some actual radio links however most communications is via satellite. If you think about it, its an interesting proposition trying to maintain satellite communications from a moving vessel! That’s a real electronics and mechanical challenge not to forget a costly one with changing the satellite footprint in a regular basis as the vessel moves around the globe.

In the main hold looking astern.

Chuck, the skipper joked about the logistical problems that they came across on a vessel of this nature. Remembering that a vessel like this is VERY different to what the army or navy was used to. Number one it was made from light aluminium and number two it was a high speed catamaran! Chuck joked that they had to supply the passengers (US Marines) with barf bags as they were not used to speed and the way the cat handled! Then came the problem of getting rid of the barf bags and some amusing stories of how not to use trash compactors!

On the bridge from LtoR - Mike, VK7FB, Skipper Chuck, Bill, VK7WR and Les, VK7LS.

The pilots room or bridge was an interesting array of electronic equipment used to control the vessel. There are 850 sensors that sense almost everything throughout the vessel and Chuck made the comment that one of the issues the crew had to come to grips with was when the various alarms went off and the procedure for dealing with these!

Chris took his group down into the engine bays were there were four dissembled turbo diesel motors that were currently being serviced. There are four of these caterpillar engines each delivering about 10,000hp, that’s all up 40,000hp that’s available to move the ship!

Thanks a million to Chuck and Chris for taking the time to show us around the vessel and amusing us with many stories.

Rod Goss then took the group past a catamaran that was currently being built. This gave the group a feel for the enormous manufacturing task that is undertaken to put one of these vessels together.

Thanks must go to Rod Goss from Incat for organizing this visit, on behalf of REAST thanks a million Rod.