VK5RWN DMR 70cm Digital Voice Repeater NOW ON AIR!

AREG is pleased to announce that our new DMR repeater commenced operation on Saturday 14th August at ~3pm ACST! The service operates on 438.900MHz  TX -7MHz RX from the VK5RWN D*STAR site and is operating in parallel with DSTAR through common TX/RX antennas.

This has been a 12 month project funded and developed by the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group to restore DMR service to the Adelaide metropolitan area.

The project has been made possible thanks to the generous donation of a DR3000 Motorola repeater by Andrew VK4QF. It also required a new cavity diplexer and antenna setup which combined VK5RWN DSTAR on 438.4 with the DMR on 438.9 onto common antennas, developed by Paul VK5BX. In addition, a new IP Router was installed to expand our available ports to accommodate the new service. All up a core team of 6 members were involved in the installation and commissioning of the system – thanks everyone for your contributions!

The repeater would not have been possible if it wasn’t for VK5RWN’s core infrastructure already developed at the site, including internet connectivity by Adelaide based ISP KernWi-Fi, who is also a sponsor of other AREG projects.

There will be an introductory presentation on DMR at the AREG September meeting. More details closer to the date!

AREG Car Boot Sale: Saturday 3rd Sept – UPDATE

Preparations have been proceeding well for the Inaugural AREG Radio & Electronics Car Boot Sale on Saturday 3rd September. We are pleased to announce that we will have a number of commercial vendors represented, including Connect VK, QSL Communications (from Brisbane) and DX Radio Systems (from Perth). (DX Radio systems is the Flex Radio dealer in VK).


How to take part?

Buyers will be allowed onto the site from 9:00am to purchase entry tickets. Tickets are $5.00 (cash only on the day). The early check in time will give you a chance to avail yourselves of the sausage sizzle and coffee van prior to the buying frenzy getting under way.

The gates to the buying area will

open promptly at 10:00am. 

I want to sell something at the event – how do I book?

Amateur interest in the event is very high too with over 2/3rds of the seller spaces already allocated. If you want to book a car park, do not delay! Email: vk5arg@areg.org.au with your request ($10/car or $15/car+trailer).

Sellers can arrive from 8:30am and will be directed to the sellers car park on arrival. Sellers will this weekend receive further details about the event.

Door Prizes on offer!

We have also received support from TET-Emtron, Altronics and Skope-IT with donations of door prizes for the event.

This is shaping up as a great event on the SA Amateur Radio calendar – we look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday September 3rd!


Where is it being held?

AREG AGM 19th August: 3Y0J Expedition – Preparing to visit the most remote place on earth

AREG will be hosting a Zoom presentation by Adrian KO8SCA on the plans for the 3Y0J DXpedition to Bouvet Island planned for January 2023 as part of our Annual General Meeting. The presentation will be held at 8:00pm ACST (1030z) Friday August 19th and will be Simulcast live-streamed via the HRDX Youtube channel. We hope to see you there!

REMINDER: Next Adelaide 2m/70cm Foxhunt TONIGHT @ 6:30pm

The next AREG Adelaide 2m and 70cm Fox-hunt event will be held on Friday August 12th. It will once again commence from  the car-park of the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, off Jeffcott Road, North Adelaide. Hounds can assemble from 6.00pm with departure at 6.30pm. Three fox transmitters will again be active on 144.390 MHz, 145.300 MHz, and 439.4 MHz.

The event is open to anyone to enter. Inter-team liaison occurs via the VK5RSB 439.900MHz  (-5MHz with 91.5Hz CTCSS tone access) Adelaide Metro area repeater. Hounds are asked to announce their presence on the repeater if they are late and are joining from other locations.

We hope to see you there!

AREG August 19th AGM Meeting: 3Y0J Bouvet Island Expedition

The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group will be the our Annual General Meeting, to be held on Friday August 19th. Proceedings will start at 8:00pm ACST (8:30pm AEST, 6:30pm AWST, 1030UTC).

Our guest speaker for the evening is Adrian KO8SCA, one of the team members of the 3Y0J Bouvet Island DXpedition, who will join us via Zoom from his home in New York. Adrian will take us through the challenges facing the 3Y0J team and preparatory work that has been completed so far for this epic adventure.

Continue reading

AREG July Meeting – Lightning Talks: AREG members in the VHF/UHF Field Day

Hopefully you have noticed by now that AREG is currently heavily promoting VHF and UHF activity within the Amateur Service. Many of our members took the hint and got up on the air for the WIA’s Winter VHF/UHF field day this year!

Now that the event is over, we thought it would be great to review the events of the day and have each of those who participated give a short 5 minute summary of their experiences on VHF/UHF in the contest this year. So the next meeting will be a series of member “Lightning Talks” – 5 minutes each on how you went, what you did, what worked and what didn’t – so that we can share the experiences and learning ready for the next event in Spring.


To hear how everyone went, come along to the AREG meeting this Friday night, starting at 7.30pm. AREG meets at the Fulham Community Centre, off Phelps Court, Fulham. Visitors are most welcome.

For those members interstate or locally who cant attend in person, the meeting will as usual also be conducted in parallel online via Zoom. Visitors who would like to attend our meeting via Zoom can email our secretary – Mark via secretary@areg.org.au to request guest access to the Zoom conference for the night.


After the presentations, there will be a short business meeting. This is our last business meeting for 2021/22 as the AREG Annual General Meeting will take place next month, on the 19th of August.

We also hope to have a special guest speaker at the AGM – stay tuned for more details!

VK5RWN D*STAR Site July 2nd – Service RESTORED

AREG Services from the VK5RWN D*STAR repeater site  on 147.0375MHz & 438.400MHz will be offline for much of the afternoon while we undertake maintenance and preparation works for a planned upgrade.

UPDATE: July 2nd 5:45pm – The work has now been completed and the DSTAR repeaters have been returned to service.


DMR repeater preparations now well advanced

Today the works included preparing the site for the commissioning of the new AREG DMR repeater. VK5RWN DMR will soon be operating on 438.900MHz -7.0MHz, in parallel with the DSTAR repeater on 438.400 -5.4MHz.

The work today included preparing the VK5RWN antennas for the new combining arrangements. The antennas were taken down, refurbished, rearranged and re-installed on the tower and the DMR repeater was installed in the rack. There are, however, a few more things still to do on site to complete its commissioning. Those activities are planned for later this month. Stay tuned for more updates!