REAST Virtual Club Gathering

Posted on April 15, 2020 by VK7TW

Wednesday night – 15th April saw the REAST club hold its first virtual club gathering using the marvels of the Zoom meeting and collaboration software.

The night attracted 16 members and comments about the gathering were good.

We kicked off with a run down from the members of the REAST Committee on what we planning with the zoom trial from Richard VK7ZBX and Larry VK7WLH and then moved to a “What has the REAST Committee been up to” segment with Tony VK7VKT and Hayden 7HH.

There was then a broad discussion on the various virtual gatherings that take place that included:

  • The 4:30pm Net on the 6m repeater (TX 53.825MHz RX 52.825) each day
  • There are a group of people who monitor the 1296.15MHz during the day and so you will most likely get someone come back for a chat.
  • There is the 1296.15 QSO Party each Sunday after the Broadcast that you heard about earlier.
  • There is the Sewing Circle Net that us now on 3.64MHz from 5:00-6:00pm each day – http://meetthevoice.org/meet-the-voice
  • There is Dave VK7OB’s Trout Net on 7.115MHz from around 5:00 pm each day.
  • There is a 10m on 28.680MHz and 20m 14.230MHz Slow Scan Television cam hosted here in Southern Tasmania and this is monitored by Steve VK7OO’s and Rob VK7MAG’s SSTV Cams at:
  • There are many Talk Groups on DMR at Global, National (TG-5) and Local (3807) that there is usually someone you can talk with.

We also discussed having short presentations on subjects of interest for our virtual audience and some ideas were floated.

The members of group who usually attend the Wednesday afternoon group were particularly excited about being able to meet face-to-face again via the zoom facility.

We then opened it up for attendees to put in comments and there was some great feedback, ideas and comments.

We thank Hayden VK7HH and the University of Tasmania for allowing us to host the meeting using the Zoom platform.

We look forward to seeing you there next time.

(73, REAST Committee)

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REAST Now Much More Energy Efficient

Posted on March 22, 2020 by VK7TW

On Monday 16th March 2020 two Heat Pumps were installed at the REAST Clubrooms.

We thank the Tasmanian Community Fund for their generous grant donation of over $5,000 that enabled this to happen. 

We thank Scott Hutchins VK7HVK and his dedicated team who installed these units following the successful TCF grant application to make the REAST clubrooms much more energy efficient.

We also thank the heritage team from the Hobart City Council for their assistance on the placement of the external units to maintain the heritage value of this historic building.

There is a large unit in the main clubroom and a smaller unit for the operating room and DATV Studio.

Main Clubrooms Heat Pump

Operating Room Heat Pump

These units will greatly increase the energy efficiency of the clubrooms and lower our power bill. They replace the three 3kW resistive fan heaters. They will also provide cooling in summer as well as heating in winter.

A huge thank you to the Tasmanian Community Fund, Scott Hutchins and Team, and the Heritage and Asset Management Teams at the Hobart City Council.

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REAST Clubrooms Closed – COVID-19

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Ben Short

Given the recent advice from the Australian Government and Health Authorities about indoor events need 4 square metres per person, the committee has taken the regretful step of closing the clubrooms until further notice.

This affects the Wednesday afternoon group and the DATV Experimenter’s Night.

As things develop we will keep members in the loop through regular email and broadcast updates.

(73, REAST Committee)

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23cm on the 23rd

Posted on February 29, 2020 by VK7TW

Last Sunday (23/02/2020) we welcomed Anthony VK7ZTA as a new participant. In all, 12 stations participated from Hobart and one from Launceston to equal our previous record of 13.

In addition, Richard VK7ZBX completed his first QSO up to Launceston with Peter VK7PD. Congratulations Richard and Peter.

The 23 cm QSO party is held each Sunday morning at 10:00 am immediately after the broadcast on 1296.150 FM. At 10:30 am we beam north to Launceston on 1296.2 MHz with the digital mode QRA64-C. Hobart stations transmit first period.

73 Rex VK7MO

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23cm QSO Party Report 3-11-19

Posted on November 3, 2019 by Ben Short
VK7BEN 23cm Station

VK7BEN’s 23cm Station with new Yagi

Participants: VK7’s MO, BEN, MA, WLH, TU, ZBX, OO, DM, HRS, KRJ

A great turnout on 23cm today with 10 participants! Many of the people were using their newly constructed yagi antennas built at the workshop at VK7MO’s last week. There was much interest in comparing signals with the new antennas.

By all reports, everyone has seen definite improvements in the receive and transmit signals, with many commenting on being able to hear people they couldn’t before and reports of the strongest signals from people in many months. VK7TU commented that is may also be due to the heavy rain yesterday causing the hills to be wetter and therefore more reflective of the signals.

 

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1296Mhz Antenna Builds with VK7MO

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Ben Short
The Build Group

From L-R VK7’s OO, BEN, ZBX, HRS and HH with their antennas. Photo: VK7MO

While many people enjoyed southern Tasmania’s Hobart Show public holiday, Rex VK7MO played host to a group of amateurs building antennas for 1296Mhz (23cm).

VK7s OO, BEN, ZBX, HRS and HH all attended from early in the morning to build Yagi’s suitable for 23cm. While most were content to built antennas with 18-21 elements, Richard VK7ZBX set himself a challenge in building a 70 (yes 70) element yagi, with a boom length of 6 metres!

The work is not over though, with building to continue on Saturday.

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REAST Learns About Milk!

Posted on October 18, 2019 by VK7TW

Wednesday the 16th October saw 14 people visited the Lion Drinks & Milk Company at Lenah Valley.

Firstly a huge thank you to Dale Barnes VK7DG who is the chief engineer and David Goodrick VK7FABE who is a Dairy Technologist at the factory.

We all assembled in the lunch room and kitted up with personal protective equipment including glasses, dust coats hair and beard nets and shoe covers. A wash of the hands and we entered one of the cleanest factories you will ever see! The maze of food grade stainless steel pipe work is a wonder to behold!

We started at the loading dock where the B-Double milk trucks back in and unload into the refrigerated holding tanks. We then went into the valve matrix room where the milk is routed from the tanks into the various pasteurises. The valve matrix is fully PLC controlled and Dale explained the Profibus system and how it is used to control valve, motors, etc.

We then headed into the pasteurising area where the milk is heat to 76 degrees for a certain period of time then chilled back down through heat exchangers. This was also the room that contained the Central Processing Unit for all the process control throughout the factory. Many screens showed the processes going on throughout the factory.

It was then into the carton and bottle filling lines. These are highly automated processes where bottles are flying in from conveyor systems into the fillers and capping processes and then moved out into milk crates where they are automatically packed and sent to the cold stores ready to be shipped out. The milk carton folding, filling and sealing machine was fascinating.

It was then up to the pasteurising room where there are 10 tanks and a valve matrix switching arrangement that takes four input and 10 tanks or outputs and can switch any input to any output based on what the PLC is telling it via the touch screen – operator control panels. The array of sensors in use is mind boggling, these all tell the PLC when different parts of the process are starting and finishing, radar units telling depth of liquid, interrupt sensors and many others.

We finished in the power and motors control room with an array of switch gear and PLC control panels for the various motors used within the plant.

We looked at our watches and wondered where that two hours went! We thanked Dale and David and headed home and I am sure we will not look at that litre of milk the same way again!

(73, Justin, VK7TW)

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REAST Members visit the ABC Hobart Studios

Posted on September 29, 2019 by VK7TW
REAST Members at ABC Hobart

A huge thank you to Damien VK7SD and Alan VK7KAD who were our fantastic hosts for the tour. Both Damien and Alan are technical support staff at the ABC and welcomed and showed us around.

We started in the live music recording studio which was being upgraded and then moved to radio studio 703 and were shown the control surfaces and control screens that make up an ABC radio studio. Everything is configurable and can be personalised for any presenter in the studio. Next door the ABC Radio Hobart presenter and producers were busy with the evening program.

Continue reading →

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REAST Members learn about Virtual Reality

Posted on August 11, 2019 by VK7TW
Ian Mackintosh Explaining Virtual Reality (Photo VK7TW)

It was standing room only and we had a visitor in VK2 Bob VK7BS who has moved down here and is about to become a member of REAST.

The room was setup in a theatre of the round configuration with a big table in the middle with three different Oculus Rift headsets (DK1, DK2 and CE1), computers, high power video cards, controllers and cameras.

Ian then took the audience through the video games that pioneered 3D and VR with Doom and Quake. We started to see standardised 3D gaming engines that most manufacturers adopted.

Ian Mackintosh started with a presentation on Virtual Reality (VR) Archeology. Starting in 1965 with Ivan Sutherland and Ian took the audience through the development of computer graphics and specifically three dimensional computer graphics. The VR boom took off in 1970-80s with Atari with arcade games which overtook the military applications and development. The game that took Atari to another level was Star Wars with vector graphics and Ian bought along service manual for this game. The 1990 saw NASA put resource toward VR along with Nintendo Virtual Boy and SEGA cockpit arcade game. But unfortunately each manufacturer would custom build and develop the hardware and software. Most of these were commercial failures. Ian then went through the VR Recipe including 3D hardware, multi-thread multi core processors, six degrees of freedom, 3D audio, etc.

Continue reading →
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Some TLC for REAST Antennas

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Ben Short
VK7ZMS attaching new repeater Antenna

Over the last couple of months there has been a noticeable degradation of the VK7RAD 2m Analogue FM repeater, with increased noise and crackling on the audio, and people requiring more power to get in to the repeater.

Additionally the club had been loaning a Bushcomm SWC-100S Antenna from VK7FAZE for 3 years, but it’s power limitations for non-SSB transmissions meant it was also time for a more permanent antenna to be procured and the loan returned.

A TET Emtron ED-52c was purchased as a replacement multi-band HF antenna and a Diamond X50N and these were installed last weekend, where it was discovered that the Heliax feed line to the repeater antenna was damaged, and it too has been replaced.

The New Antennas
VK7ZBX Adjusts 6m Antenna

All up, a good 3 hours was completing the necessary maintenance and has been well worth it, with many users of the repeater mentioning the improved quality of the signal and Dave VK7DM is also reporting that where he used to need 40 Watts to get into the repeater with a clean signal, he now needs only 1 Watt!.

Thanks to VK7s SD, ZMS, ZBX, ZCR, FPCL and BEN for their assistance on the day with the maintenance work!

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