Author Archives: AREGNews

17th July Meeting: Designing and Fabricating Printed Circuit Boards

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held on Friday 17th of July, starting at 7.30pm. This month, we have Ivan VK5RS coming to show us how he got started designing and then getting fabricated professional looking printed circuit boards for his personal amateur radio projects.

He will take you through the process from end to end, including what software he was using to design and lay out boards and then how he gets them fabricated so that he can bring his projects to life. He will bring along some samples of his work and  will be able to answer your questions if you are interested in starting a similar journey. This is particularly useful for those in Amateur Radio who want to continue home brewing their own projects.

The meeting will take place at the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, in Fulham. Doors will open at 7.00pm. Visitors are most welcome. A short business meeting will follow the presentation. We hope to see you there!

VHF UHF Field Day Contest June 2026 – Report

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AREG members made the effort to head out into the field for the 2026 WIA WInter VHF/UHF Field Day contest, setting up a portable VHF/UHF station at the club’s HF receive site west of Tarlee. The hill that the site is located on is very well placed for VHF/UHF activity with at least a 100km path back into Adelaide for many stations.

The Station

The station operated as VL5X for the day, and consisted of a tri-band 2m/70cm/23cm colinear on a roughly 5m pole strapped to the fence, plus a 6m end fed half wave vertical also strapped to the fence.

The eqiupment used was an Elecraft K3 running 100W on 6m and an Icom IC-9700 operating across the 2m, 70cm and 23cm bands.

On Air Activity

The majority of activity was on FM, although several contacts were achieved with SSB on 2m and 23cm as well. 6m was almost exclusively an SSB operation, although there were a couple of contacts on 6m FM as well on 52.525 MHz.

VL5X (Green) and where we worked during the event

Other AREG On Air Activity

Members participated in various ways in the event. On site we had visits from Nathan VK5OG, Mark VK5QI and Dean VK5HQ, whilst out and about we had Michael VK5MN operating from Yorke Peninsula and Steve VK5AG operating from Stirling. We also had several members activate from their home QTHs including Steve VK5SFA (VL5L) and Charlie VK5VC.

All up, combined with the other amateurs across Adelaide also participating we were provided with a steady flow of QSOs across the day. Thanks to everyone who took part and we wait with interest to see how we placed!

 

Next Foxhunt: Saturday 4th July 2.00pm – North Park lands (New venue)

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The next AREG foxhunt will be held on Saturday 4th July at 2.00pm, starting from a new location in the north park lands, on Lefevre Road, North Adelaide.

We will start with a 2m foot based 6 transmitter foxhunt around the parklands area. Visitors are welcome and we do have loan equipment and training available for people to use who have never hunted before.

At 3.00pm those with vehicle based hunting gear will set off looking for a collection of 2m and 70cm hidden transmitters. Liaison during the day will be via the Summertown 70cm repeater on 439.900 MHz (-5 MHz input with 91.5 Hz CTCSS access tone).

Next Meeting Friday Oct 17th – Digital Amateur Television

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group Inc will be held on Friday October 17th at 7.30pm. Doors will open at 7.00pm. The venue will be the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham.

Introducing Digital Amateur Television

The topic this evening will be an introduction to 445 MHz (70 cm band) Digital Amateur Television, presented by Steve VK5SFA. Steve will present his journey to establishing an ATV transmission capability, including the various challenges encountered along the way.

Steve will also discuss how to get involved in receiving ATV on the 70cm band, and if you bring along your DVB-T set top box he will help you leave with it programmed ready to receive the local Adelaide ATV operators. The usual retailers are still selling the Laser STB-9000 for about $40.00 which will directly receive 70cm ATV if you want to get on board.

Update: a copy of the Youtube presentation is now available here:

Homework

Below is a list of terms used in DVB-t2 television broadcasting.  I will not be going into any great detail about how DVB-t2 actually works.  It is a mature technology and there is plenty of information on the Internet.
Feel free to conduct your own research if interested.
  • DVB-t (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial)
  • Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM)
  • QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) 
  • QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)
  • MER (Modulation Error Ratio)
  • FEC (Forward Error Correction)
  • Guard Interval
  • Carriers (2K & 8K)
  • PID (Packet Identifier)
  • LCN (Logical Channel Numbers)

AREG Amateur Radio & Electronics Car Boot Sale Sunday 26th October!

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ATTENTION

We have a Wet Weather Plan!
The show will go on (indoors) this Sunday!

AREG is proud to announce that the 2025 Car Boot Sale
will be held on Sunday October 26th
at David Roche Park, Cromwell Rd, Kilburn

DOORS OPEN 10.00AM
(9.30AM for sellers)

Seller Registrations are still open! To book a site please email vk5arg@areg.org.au .

Car sites: $10 , Trailer Sites $15

Sites include entry for one person. Any additional people need to register on the day at the ticket counter.

We also are pleased to announce our retail partners for this year! VK Radio, the Australian Yaesu dealer is coming from Melbourne.

We also have a $5 raffle planned for the day – with the draw occuring at 12.30pm

1st Prize – A Codan 9350 HF mobile ATU from HF Radio Solutions
2nd Prize – a $150 GIFT Voucher to use at Comtek

We are also offering Door prizes sponsored by TET-Emtron
and the new SA Repeater Group!

 

Next Meeting Friday 19th September 7.30pm: Foxhunting at the National Championships

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held on Friday 19th September 2025. The venue is the Fulham Community Centre, off Phelps Court, Fulham. Doors open at 6.30pm and the meeting starts at 7.30pm.

The presentation this month will be given by Mark, VK5QI and Grant VK5GR who will take everyone through what happens at the National Amateur Radio Foxhunting Championships, held in Mt Gambier over the June long weekend each year.

Tea/Coffee and refreshments will be available. After the presentation a short business meeting will be held.

We hope to see you there (at the ex Reedbeds Community Centre – now Fulham Community Centre).

VK5 Central Repeater Network – Major Upgrade Underway

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Many amateurs in central SA today make use of the central state 2m/70cm band repeater network that covers from Victor Harbor to the Riverland, and Adelaide to the Central North. Unfortunately, due to the loss of the central VK5RAD repeater hub site, a major rearrangement of the repeater network needs to be undertaken. The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group has offered to host the 70cm network hub (formerly operating at VK5RAD) at their Summertown repeater site to keep the network operational. However, to establish VK5RSB as the new hub, there will be some disruption to operations as link frequencies are changed and equipment is relocated.

Final hub equipment installation work is planned to take place starting August 23rd. That will include deploying a new repeater control system & hub repeater at the AREG VK5RSB repeater site.

What does this mean for users?

The key change Adelaide amateur  radio operators will see is that, rather than accessing the network via the old 439.925 MHz 70cm repeater at VK5RAD, they instead will need to use the recently commissioned 147.175 MHz (+600 kHz)  (91.5 Hz CTCSS) repeater at Summertown (VK5RSB).

For those still looking for 70cm band access, the AREG VK5RSA Adelaide CBD repeater, (sponsored by Kern Wi-Fi) on 438.025 MHz (-7 MHz) or the VK5RKW Adelaide NE repeater on 438.050 MHz will continue to be available.

How long will the full migration take?

Once the new central hub is installed, one by one, each of the network links will be migrated. This will result in the network being fragmented (part working on the new backbone, part working on the old one) for 1-2 weeks, while we travel all of the linked sites to make the necessary frequency and control changes. We hope to have all of the network migrated to the new hub no later than the 6th of September.

As you can appreciate, this move will take time. The affected repeaters in the network are VK5RSA, VK5RKW, VK5RAH, VK5RMB, VK5RVH, VK5RBV, VK5RWR, VK5RLD, VK5RLX, VK5RMK, VK5RLH as well as VK5RSB which will be introduced into the system.

We will post updates as each of the links is moved. Meanwhile, thank you for your patience.

 

New 2m repeater added to VK5RSB Adelaide

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AREG is pleased to announce that we have finally completed the long planned 2m repeater project at our Summertown repeater site. This now completes the full set of repeaters for all amateur bands from 6 m (53 MHz) to 23 cm(1273MHz).

The new repeater, which operates on 147.175 MHz (+600 kHz) and has been on test for a number of weeks, received its final antenna over the weekend. The antenna was also relocated to the top of the tower. So far, signal reports have been excellent right across Adelaide and the greater central South Australian region. We are getting great signal reports  from mobiles and hand held operators alike all over Adelaide, including the southern suburbs (Christies Beach), Eastern foothills (Rostrevor/Newton) and the Northern hills face suburbs (like Hillbank) as well as further afield from Murray Bridge, Normanville, Renmark and Port Lincoln.

Operating via VK5RSB 2m

Stations using the repeater should be aware that the system is set up a little differently to other Adelaide repeaters. When you access the repeater, you will hear a courtesy beep 1 second after the end of your transmission, (which signals that the 5 minute time out timer has been reset), followed by the repeater tail transmitting for a further 4 seconds. During the remaining 4 seconds, you are free to key your transmitter and continue your conversation without waiting for the repeater transmitter to shut down. This reduces the “crash bang” squelch break noise you might be used to on other systems.

To access the system you do need CTCSS transmit capability. The repeater responds to a 91.5 Hz sub-tone for activation.

VK5RSB 2m Predicted Coverage

If you would like to send us a signal report, please email vk5arg @ areg.org.au. We would love to hear from you!

Our other repeaters at VK5RSB

If you would like to try some of the other bands, you will also find VK5RSB on:

  • 53.750 MHz (-1 MHz  offset)
  • 439.900 MHz (-5 MHz offset) (with 91.5 Hz CTCSS)
  • 1273.500 MHz (+20 MHz offset)

Future Plans

Future plans also include adding an APRS repeater on 145.175 MHz (AX.25) and connecting the VK5RSB 70cm repeater to the central SA repeater network as the replacement Adelaide network hub (given that the VK5RAD 70cm and APRS repeaters at Crafers are expected to cease operation when that site is closed in August 2025).