Date

Event

December 17, 2008 1730 (5:30pm)

End of Year BYO BBQ

There was an end of year BYO barbeque at the Queen's Domain clubrooms.

December 6, 2008 Starts 10am

Central Highlands of Tasmania HAMFEST

The biannual  Central  Highlands  of  Tasmania  Ham Fest was held from 10am on Saturday the 6^th of December at the community centre at Miena alongside the Great Lake in central Tasmania. 

The Hamfest is hosted and organised by the Central Highlands Amateur Radio Club of Tasmania (CHARCT).

Ticket sales were 89 in number so allowing for families and wives we had about 150 attendees, considering the distance involved and the economic gloom out there I think it was an excellent turn up.

Our lucky door prize a Yaesu 70cm hand held donated by Vertex Standard was taken of by a mainland visitor Garry VK2UTC the brother of John VK1CJ who is well known to many of us and was also was in attendance. Congratulations Garry.

With the weak Australian dollar and the imminent price hikes on amateur gear expected to be in the vicinity of 25%, Dave comments that all traders expressed to him that it was a most satisfactory day with many unable to provide the merchandise on the day and taking back orders and honouring the ham fest special price deals.

The return of second hand sales saw much pre-loved gear moving to a new shack and once again providing faithful service. It was a shame that the initiative for a bus did not eventuate however when next we work towards our biannual event we should revisit the idea and I am sure if commenced earlier enough the idea in some form should work.

I would like to thank all those who assisted on the day they were too many name individually and also those who attended and supported those traders both local and from interstate who supported our ham fest. The cost to come here is substantial and you don’t need to be Einstein to figure out if the traders are not supported they will not support us.

An unlikely recruitment happened on the day with one of the ladies who are on the hall committee asking a lot of questions and was intrigued by our hobby, information was provided, and I am sure we will hear in the not to distant future a new XYL call sign from the Great Lake.

Dave also sent through a great email from Kiyoshi Fukushima from Vertex Standard…

Thank you very much for the opportunity for us to attend Tasmanian Ham Fest, it was a great day in both fun and trading we have had on the day.

A great experience we have had, my wife and I would also like to say thanks for your kind hospitality during our stay at your property in Penstock Lagoon. It was a quite unique for us which we enjoyed, particularly such a relaxing and friendly atmosphere.

We very much enjoyed the traditional Aussie style BBQ of steak with the “Pinkeye Potatoes” and also Chicken on the first day for dinner. In fact, we bought some pinkeye potatoes from the supermarket on our way back to Devonport for our son and his girl friend waiting at home.

Thanks once again for your warm hospitality and please pass our regard to your club members.

I look forward to attending the next one coming in two years time.

Regards

Kiyoshi Fukushima

73 Dave VK7KDO 
Ham Fest coordinator 

December 3, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Digital and DX ATV Presentation

Jack VK2TRF gave a fascinating talk both live and out via ATV on his vast exploits with DX ATV and his Digital ATV experimentation on 23cm.

Jack showed a great DVD that he has put together with the video footage that was shot for each of his ATV DX records.

These were mainly done over what Jack referred to as his ATV weekend “grand slam” in Sept 2007 between VK2GG and himself and these include:

• 1250MHz ATV 216.5km

• 2300MHz ATV 241.2km

• 3500MHZ ATV 216.5km

• 5700MHZ ATV 216.5km

• 10GHz ATV 216.5km

• 24GHz ATV 119.7km

Many of these records were set with very low power levels into high gain dishes and gridpacks.

Jack then went on to demonstrate Digital ATV using the DVB-S MPEG encoder from SR-Systems in Germany. This unit operates in the 1250MHz band and puts out one milliwatt. This was enough to be picked up by the satellite receiver in the ATV studio and rebroadcast out over 70cm ATV for the night. It was interesting experiencing the approximate one second delay created by the encoding/decoding on the digital signal. Jack went through and explained the digital boards and operation to the group assembled.

Jack VK2TRF has only been an active amateur radio operator for about 4 years and has done an amazing amount of work and is incredibly enthusiastic about his hobby and especially DX ATV.

Congratulations to Jack and the team in VK2 for these outstanding records.

We recorded Jack’s talk for our ATV viewers and this talk will be edited and transferred to DVD in the near future.

(Justin VK7TW)

November 12, 2008, 2000  (7pm)

Tour of Heart 107.3 FM Studios

Brett Marley VK7FMMM has organised a tour through the Heart 107.3 FM Radio Station with Technician Chris Morrison.

The Talent - Brett Marley VK7FMMM 

Thanks for organising the tour.

The control room

The all important modulation/ deviation meters

Graham VK7ZGK spotting his signature on the QA Tag

The Charles Woolley Studio

The HeartFM Studio

The SEAFM Studio with (left) Steve VK7OO (past Station Technician) and (right) Graham VK7ZGK who worked for Poal Kirke Electronics in Perth and worked on and tested these mixing desks.

Graham spots his signature again (see below)!!

The News Studio

Where the signal heads to the mountain and the 6kW transmitters

A big thank you to Station Technician - Chris Morrison.

November 5, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Special General Meeting

The Committee wish to advise that on  Wednesday November 5th @ 8pm, a Special General Meeting will be held.

The purpose for the SGM is to change the rules of REAST to create a new Membership Category of "Life Membership" and the procedure as to how a life membership is granted. 

The proposal is:

Adding a new rule 5(13) of:

The Committee may in consideration of special services rendered to the Association or Amateur Radio by a member nominate that member as an Honorary Life Member of the Association. If the nomination is approved by a majority of the members at a general meeting entitled to vote at that meeting the nominated member shall be elected an Honorary Life Member and shall not be required to pay any further annual subscriptions but notwithstanding such exemption enjoy all  rights and privileges and be bound by the rules of the Association as from time to time in force.

And renumber the existing 5(13) to 5(14) and add the following words in red:

5(14) A former member or Honorary Life Member is not liable to contribute under subrule (11) in respect of
any debt or liability of the Association contracted after he or she ceased to be a member or Honorary Life Member.

All Financial members of REAST are encouraged to attend this meeting to make their vote count.

(REAST Committee)

October 18-19, 2008

Jamboree On The Air/Jamboree On The Internet

JOTA Reports

Our first JOTA report comes from the North and the NTARC crew and Tony VK7YBG.

JOTA 2008 started out much like any other with a heavy day of setting up tents, food and camping facilities, antennas and radios – Ann and myself I completed all this on the Friday though and it made for a much easier event with radio operation and enjoying the weekend being the prime concerns. All went well for the whole weekend with SSTV, IRLP and FM simplex being the preferred modes with the crew on "Barnards Peak" (In truth known as the Fingerpost Hill on the other side of town) keeping all manner of conversations and SSTV pictures ready for the scouts at a moments notice.

Phil's idea (VK7JJ) of running a show and guess game using SSTV and the many and varied pictures of his Australia wide travels proved to be something everyone enjoyed including myself as it was my first time operating this mode.

Special thanks go to all volunteers involved, especially Phil (JJ), Lyn (FLYN) and the crew on "Barnards Peak" running the remote station, Ann (FYBG) for all her hard work during the whole exercise providing food, drinks and all her work setting up and packing up and to Peter (KPC) for liaising with the scouts, providing great ideas and equipment for the event and his hard work over the course of the weekend.

(Regards, Tony, VK7YBG)

--------------------------------

The next JOTA report comes from the New Norfolk Scout Group and from Ray VK7VKV and Brian VK7BDW:

18 members of the New Norfolk Scout Group attended a camp at Curringa Farm at Hamilton. Apart from the usual JOTA activities, the scouts were given plenty of practice at lashing and guying as all of the masts used were constructed by the youth members. A Moxon rectangle on 20m was erected on 4 lashed poles in the paddock.

Contact were made with many other JOTA stations with the highlight being a contact with HB9S the station at the International Scouting Bureau in Switzerland.

Looking forward to next year with plans already being made of a series of long wires across the paddocks.

Brian VK7BDW takes up the story…Curringa Farm in Hamilton is a working sheep farm and scouts were given a demonstration of sheep shearing. I was really impressed that the previous week was spent in designing antenna's and the supports for the JOTA weekend. With Grou leader Ray VK7VKV supervising and giving technical advice ably supported by son Ben who is VK7FGBS. Operators on the Sat and Sunday were Ray and Ben and Brian set up his Icom 706 as another station VK7BDW.

We operated on 20,40 and 80 meters and some interesting contacts resulted from NZ,  Switzerland and USA plus local Scouts were heard. One of interest was a group in Canberra who were operating from Honeysuckle Creek where their Scouts talked with Astronauts in the ISS.

Although all the bands were not too kind it was a great weekend. Scout Leader Gerald Parsons thanked all involved and it is hoped an even better JOTA will happen next year.

(73 Brian VK7BDW)

--------------------------------

Our next JOTA report is from The Lea Scout Camp overlooking Hobart and is from Gavin VK7HGO:

Gavin was the sole operator at The Lea and reports it went very well with VHF contact via IRLP and repeaters from VK2,VK7GGA,VK7HDM.

On HF there were many contacts which included: VK3s, VK7GGA, VK5s, VK7ABB, VK2s and VK7ZJJ.

Unfortunately, Murphy struck and when the kids were not around the band was open, ie. Saturday on 7MHz was there all the time, but on Sunday it was in and out. Gavin reports he heard all states on 7MHz.

(Cheers, Gavin, VK7HGO)

--------------------------------

Thomas VK7NML manned the station out at the Brighton Girl Guides and reports:

The Girl Guides were very excited to get on air, having never used a transceiver before.

They made many contacts with scouts and guides in Snug via VK7GGA and a couple with VK3SBG.

The station was based at the Brighton Primary School, and even attracted the interest of other passing locals too.

(73, Thomas, VK7NML)

--------------------------------

Our final JOTA report today is from DannyVK7HDM from the Glenorchy Scout Hall Camp Out:

Saturday afternoon saw Mark, VK7FMAC, Graham, VK7ZGK and Danny, VK7HDM Danny turn up at the Glenorchy Scout hall to set up a radio station that would be run from 5pm Saturday till 1pm Sunday.

With a lot of work from Graham, Mark and Noel and Danny we set up a 2MHz to 30MHz Dipole for all HF work and a ½ wave vertical for 2m.

Radios on hand were a Kenwood TS 430, Kenwood TS-2000X and for VHF and Icom IC-910H.

With Graham departing late afternoon to spend some time with his family it was Mark and Danny who camped with the Glenorchy Group.

Saturday afternoon saw 7MHz wide open and we worked many stations well into the night stations from VK3 and VK4.

80m was not good from the location however, 40mtrs was very good till we gave up and went to bed Saturday night.

We also worked VK7FGGT Greg on 146.500 for about an hour Saturday afternoon talking to lots of the kids.

Most of the other VHF time was spent talking with VK7SAA at The Lea.

The Glenorchy Group Looked after us very well, supplied food and drinks all night.

Sunday Morning was a late rise out of bed for everybody but we soon got into the activities again.

All VHF work was between us and VK7SAA stationed at The Lea.

HF was very quiet and we had a chat with VK3SAW for about an hour also worked ZL2AMI Bob from Wellington New Zealand for half an hour.

Bob used to do JOTA in NZ for many years so was glad to chat with the scouts.

Bob also used to build electronics equipment and some has ended up on our Mt Wellington so all the group thought that was cool.

1pm came around very quick and VK7ZGK arrived to help us pack up so with the help of Mark, Noel, Graham and myself we had our station packed up in no time.

The highlight was working Bob ZL2AMI who new a lot about Hobart and Mt Wellington.

Another highlight was having most of the Scout Group wanting to talk on the radio.

Danny would like to thank Mark VK7FMAC, Graham VK7ZGK and Noel Gadd for their efforts this weekend to make it all happen.

Looking forward to next year

(Best Regards, Danny, VK7HDM)

October 1, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

'Designing and 'home brewing' a modular RF linear amplifier system for all amateur bands up to 70cm' .

Wednesday night was a great talk from Dave VK7DM on his over his more then 20 year journey building a modular linear amplifier system for 160m through to 70cm.

Dave started with the common power supply unit and the process he went through to provide the plate voltages, grid, bias and filament voltages from that would power all the modules.

The case is has a large slot in the front to allow the amplifier modules to slide in and make contact with the PSU through a standard English 6 pin Paiton/Jones connector. This proved a challenge with the 70cm module.

Dave then went on to the 160m amplifier which was made with two paralleled 6146 tubes for about 120watts and the process he went through to get these working, matched and coupled to the input and output.

Then Dave described the 80, 40, 20 & 15m amplifier that uses 6KD6 tubes in parallel providing about 200watts and a tapped inductor for tuned circuit for each band.

Dave emphasised the limits that you need to have in mind like standing current and plate dissipation in the various circuit configurations to maintain linearity.

The 12 & 10m amplifier was then described using 6146s in push pull providing about 120watts.

The 6m amplifier is very similar and parasitics were a problem which was overcome with stopper resistors. This amplifier provides about 100watts.

The 2m amplifier was an experiment. It uses a 6/40 valve and the grid match was a problem which was solved with a planetary drive on the tuned circuit capacitor.

The 70cm amplifier uses a ceramic 2C39 “lighthouse” tube which is force cooled and provides about 60watts. This tube needs a 6 volt filament and all the other modules use a 12volt filament and the module also uses a 23v fan! Some electrickery and a rewound transformer supplied the required voltages.

Dave then took many questions and concluded with a switch-on demonstration of the 70cm module.

Thanks to Dave for a fascinating talk on some excellent home brewing.

http://reast.asn.au/events.php#linearamps

(Justin, VK7TW)

September 13 & 14, 2008

National ALARA Meet 2008

September 3, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

GPS Disciplined Oscillators & Aircraft Enhancement - the easy way!!

Firstly is was great to see Peter VK7KPC at the presentation. Peter was down in the South doing some installation work for his employer Air Services Australia and he was able to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge about the technology and what is running at Hobart Airport. Thanks Peter.

Rex VK7MO gave two impressive illustrated talks firstly on GPS Disciplined Oscillators and then on Aircraft Enhancement using the Kenetic Avionics ADSB Receiver.

The first talk was from one of Rex’s GippsTech talks and outlined how he has GPS locked his ICOM IC-910H using GPS unit, phase locked loop and what he is able to use the now very stable transceiver for.

Many of the weak signal modes use very low bandwidth modes in the order of 1mHz that need the transmitter and receiver to be very stable and accurate in relation to frequency.

A GPS disciplined oscillator provides a very stable and accurate frequency source to lock your oscillator and get an accuracy of 1Hz at 1296MHz.

Rex then went onto his second presentation which was about aircraft enhancement. When you are head on with a aircraft you get diffraction past the aircraft and due to the diffraction patter more energy becomes available behind the aircraft which can enhance the signal. It turns out that 2m is about the ideal frequency and you can experience gains in the order of 20-30dB. Optimal distance is about the 500-700km range.

Rex then went on the demonstrate the Kenetics Avionics ADS-B virtual aircraft radar receiver that picks up the 1090MHz GPS transponder that most commercial aircraft now have installed.

On queue an aircraft flying between Melbourne and Hobart came into view at about the 180nm distance and the doppler shift pattern of the accurate 1kHz tone being transmitted by VK3II was evident.

Even the Doppler zigzag was evident when the plane did its autopilot correction around Devonport for it’s run into Hobart.

Rex went to a great deal of trouble to setup his portable yagi and equipment for the live demonstration so, many thanks to Rex it was a fascinating talk, thanks Rex.

Kenetic Avionics Receivers

PlanePlotter

(REAST Committee)

August 16-17, 2008

Remembrance Day Contest 

The RD Contest is not all that far away, and this year it is planned to activate the VK7OTC Station again, this time from the domain itself. VK7BEN is keen to hear from anyone who is interested in assisting with this, even if you can only man the station for a couple of hours. The Club will run both HF and VHF Sections of the contest, with BBQs and other Activities during the weekend. If you are interested, please contact Ben Via R2, or leave your name on the whiteboard at the club.

Cheers,

(Ben VK7BEN for REAST Committee)

This weekend also hosts the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend and information can be found at: ILLW

August 6, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Amateur Radio - Digital Style

Wednesday night saw a great presentation by Danny on the packet radio systems that he runs from his home QTH. This is a comprehensive and complex system combining packet radio (AX-25) and internet technology and providing services that include TNOS, Xrouter, DXSpider, packet BBS’, Netrom nodes, ROSE nodes, Telnet, AXIP, AXUPD, WWW, FTP, Chat, Converse, SMTP/POP3 Mail services and off course packet radio!

And if that’s not enough all these systems are linked together and hav dual ampr.org and standard Internet IP addresses with some tricky routing and access control that makes the system all compliant and secure for Amateur Radio operators.

Danny described that Dxspider is a Dx spotter system that people can log into and share DX information and even talked about the Kenwood TS2000 transceiver having a DXSpider compatible TNC built in that can listen on 2m for DXspider traffic and auto tune the radio when it hears a particular activity. Very impressive!!

Scott VK7HSE then demonstrated the TinyTrack4 packet modem that he has been helping the developer to debug as a beta tester. Scott described it’s capabilities and how it can be used for many packet based applications including APRS.

The presentation was videoed and will be played at Wednesday night’s ATV night for those who missed it. 

Presentation notes can be found here.

(73, Danny, VK7HDM)

June 4, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Antennae and the art of compromise or transmitting a signal using a pair of free steak knives!!

Our resident Physicist Mike Groth VK7MJ gave a very comprehensive presentation on aerials.

Titled - Radio Antenna Systems and the art of compromise - Mike started with a grass roots look at radio propagation reminding everyone it's the current that radiates not the voltage and outlined the best modes for HF, VHF and above.

Mike then moved on to the basics of dipoles and many of the variations and what these variations provide the radio amateur.

Then logically the next section was about connecting the antenna to the transmitter via an ATU and transmission line. The basics of standing wave ratios and transmission line were covered along with the requirements of the BalUn.

Ground reflections and radiating patterns where then demonstrated with the variations in dipoles, verticals, Marconi or short verticals, elevated ground planes, Zepps, loops and short verticals.
Mike then outlined practical HF aerials including phased arrays and beams with a detailed description of the effect and reasons for parasitic elements. We then moved to long dipoles, rhombics and V-beams.

Mike then summarised the presentation with the following words of wisdom:

• There Is No Magic Aerial.

• Any dipole aerial below 14 MHz is going to produce high angle radiation over most soils.

• Vertical aerials produce low angle radiation but need a good earth system.

• Unbalanced aerials receive more noise and local QRM than a balanced aerial.

• Short vertical aerials have a very low radiation resistance and low radiation efficiencies

• KISS principle - Keep It Short & Simple
  

Mike finished with transmitting a signal using a pair of free steak knives.

Thanks a million Mike.

Mike's Presentation can be found here (2Mb).

May 7, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

BS7H Scarborough Reef DXPedition Presentation

In 2007 an intrepid multi-national group of DXPeditioners finally got the go ahead to go to Scarborough Reef in the South China sea.

The presentation is professional produced by James Brooks 9V1YC and is the official DXpedition video. For those who don’t know, Scarborough Reef is a bunch of rocks that occasionally stick out of the ocean located in the South China sea just West of the Philippines. It is a sunken volcanic atoll and it is the rarest and most controversial entity on the DXCC list.

The presentation goes through the diplomatic disputes over this reef between China and the Philippines and the minefield that the group navigated through to even get back to reef.

The presentation goes through the four platforms constructed on the rocks and the 16 person multi-national team that operated the multi-station for 24 hours a day for a week.

April 6, 2008

Meet the Voice 2008 Report

The Location

The Sewing Circle Net again sponsored a BBQ for ALL amateurs at Ross on Sunday April 6th, at the Ross Caravan Park.

Don VK7AY Kicking off Proceedings

What a wonderful time it was for all, bright sunshine, nice and warm and wonderful company, 62 Amateurs registered so I guess we had a total in excess of 100 persons all up.

Most of the Group

 

Some of the discussion group

My thanks to the members of the panel who conducted the group discussion, to Steve VK3JY for his report on the Island of Simbo, and for those who missed his talk, the features that struck me most were the fact that the monies we provided went so far and helped establish an ongoing  future for the Islanders, who less than 3 generations ago were head hunters, but today live a happy peaceful life. Their problems may not be yet over with Steve reporting that their Island has sunk some 2 feet into the sea since the tsunami but an adjoining Island has risen a similar amount.

Steve VK3JY

The revitalised Sewing Machine award was presented to Jerry VK7EE.

Don 7AY presenting the award to Jerry 7EE

The new and old awards

The Recipients

Many of you requested that we do similar again next year and  I go as far as suggesting that we make it for Sunday March 22nd 2009, in the mean time how about some ideas on activities for the day.

 

VK7DIK Dick from Rosebery won the registration prize donated by Claureen VK3KMB and David VK3JKY, and we thank them very much for their generosity, and we look forward to seeing them again next year.

249 years of amateur radio experience - LtoR John VK7JK, Baden VK7BRY and Frank VK7CK.

On behalf of  "SEWING CIRCLE DAILY NET" thanks for participating, and please come and join us on the net between 5 and 6 PM daily on 3.590 mhz.

(Don, VK7AY for the "Sewing Circle Daily Net.

April 2, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Technology behind Weather Forecasting

March 5, 2008, 2000  (8pm)

Multi-Multi on a Low Budget

February 16, 2008
1000-1800 (10am to 6pm)

ATHOL JOHNSON Contest

Annual General Meeting 2008

Queen's Domain Clubrooms starting at 11am.

All position are open.

The business of the AGM will be:

(a) to confirm the minutes of the last preceding annual general meeting and of any general meeting held since that meeting;

(b) to receive from the committee, auditor and servants of the Association reports on the transactions of the Association during the last preceding financial year;

(c) to elect the officers of the Association and the ordinary committee members;

(d) to appoint the auditor;

Nominations forms can be found here and they need to be with the Secretary by 31 January 2008.

The AGM will be followed by a BYO BBQ - Hot plates, tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available.

See you there.

VK7TW