Author Archives: VK5QI

VI5ANZAC Activation Saturday 25th/Sunday 26th April – Wrapup

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11148551_10152850687341188_1061654771402084287_nThe Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) had the pleasure of co-operating the VI5ANZAC special event callsign on ANZAC day 2015 commemorating the 100th anniversary since the landing at ANZAC cove at Gallipoli in World War One. The AREG crew for these two days was based at a location ~100km east of Adelaide on the banks of the River Murray.

The operators of this activation were:

Chris VK5CP
Mark VK5QI
Matt VK5ZM
Andrew VK5AKH
Gary VK5FGRY
Grant VK5GR
Theo VK5MTM

Bob VK5FO

Ray VK5RR

AREG operated two stations at this location covering most HF bands. The primary station setup was as follows:

  • Rig: Icom IC-7700 (200W)
  • Antenna: SteppIR MonstIR – 4 element beam (3 full-size elements on 40m)

There is a webcam setup on the MonstIR boom, giving us a wonderful view of wherever the antenna is pointing! A live view is available here.

The view from the MonstIR Yagi!

The view from the MonstIR Yagi!

The MonstIR Yagi

The MonstIR Yagi, with the (tiny!) HB35 in the background.

The second station consisted of a:

  • Rig: Elecraft K3
  • Antenna: Werner Wulf HB35 Yagi

Over 1000 contacts were made including to many of the other VI%ANZAC stations, plus VI100ANZAC, ZL100ANZAC and also to the special event stations operated by the Turkish Radio Amateur Club.

Theo even managed to film some of the action while working Europe on Sunday morning!

Not to mention the pileups he encountered on 10m!

Full details, log extracts and graphic visualisations of where we worked will be added as soon as they can be post processed.

– Mark VK5QI & Grant VK5GR

VK5RSB 6M Repeater off-air!

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VK5RSB 6M Antenna

As you can see, the VK5RSB 6m repeater antenna is not looking too good! A combination of recent lightning strikes and high winds has caused the radome to fail, and the antenna to effectively snap in two. As a result, the 6m repeater is offline until a new antenna can be sourced.

VK5RSB 6m is in a prime location on the Summertown ridge line, and is the best coverage 6m repeater in VK5. Donations to help fund the new antenna would be greatly appreciated – use the donation button to the left of this post, and use a reference of “RSB6M” and your callsign. Any amount will help!

 

Oceania DX Contest

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Members of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) will be activating the club call VK5ARG this weekend (4-5th October) for the Oceania DX SSB Contest. We will be operating from Younghusband, approx. 80km east of Adelaide, SA.

AREG will be entering the contest as a MULTI-ONE team, and the main operators will be Matt VK5ZM, Mark VK5QI, Josh VK5JO and Theo VK5MTM. We will mainly be focusing on the 20m band, but hope to work a few VKs on 40m also.

Hope to hear you on the bands!

VK5 Conservation/National Parks Award 1 year Anniversary

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The weekend of the 5th and 6th of April was the one year anniversary of the VK5 Parks award, which encourages portable operation from South Australia’s National & Conservation parks. ‘Activators’ operate portable from within parks, while ‘Hunters’ make contacts with activators. Awards are available for both activators and hunters, and also for making park-to-park contacts.

Andy VK5AKH and Mark VK5QI decided to give the AREG club callsign (VK5ARG) a workout by activating as many parks as possible in a single day. They set off Sunday morning at 7:30AM, and by 8PM had activated 20 parks. Emphasis was placed on fast activations, with about 5 contacts made per park.

The parks activated were:

  1. Morialta Conservation Park
  2. Black Hill Conservation Park
  3. Montacute Conservation Park
  4. Giles Conservation Park
  5. Horsnell Gully Conservation Park
  6. Ferguson Conservation Park
  7. Clealand Conservation Park
  8. Mount George Conservation Park
  9. Kenneth Stirling Conservation Park
  10. Mylor Conservation Park
  11. Mark Oliphant Conservation Park
  12. “The Knoll” Conservation Park
  13. Belair National Park
  14. Marino Conservation Park
  15. Hallett Cove Conservation Park
  16. Onkaparinga River Conservation Park
  17. Moana Sands Conservation Park
  18. Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park
  19. Kyeema Conservation Park
  20. Mount Magnificent Conservation Park

Some pictures from the day are shown below:

John Moyle Memorial Field Day 2014 – VK5ARG

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This year for the John Moyle Memorial field day 10 members from the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) and 3 Members from the Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club (EARC) decided to combine efforts under the AREG club call-sign VK5ARG.
The Para-Wirra recreation pack, 30km north-east of Adelaide, was chosen for its low noise floor and relatively close location to the city. Theo, VK5MTM has produced a video showing the events of the weekend:

A great weekend was had by all, and we totalled 927 contacts across the HF bands.Thank you to those who attended, lent us gear and to all those stations we worked. Please submit your log and we hope to see you next year.

IRLP Updates

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Thanks to the hard work of Ben, VK5BB, our IRLP node is back up and running on VK5RSB 70cm. The usual access conventions apply, and currently no access code is required (though this will change shortly).

To accommodate the (often quite busy!) drive-time nets, the IRLP node is automatically disabled between 7AM to 9AM, and 4PM to 6PM. Enjoy the node, and please make sure you identify before using it, even if just checking the node status!

73s, Mark VK5QI
AREG Secretary

AREG General Meeting – Friday 16th Mar 8PM

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A reminder for you all. The next AREG Meeting is Friday, 16 March 2012, at 8:00pm and it will be at the Reedbeds Community Hall, Phelps Court, Fulham.

This coming meeting will be a general meeting, minimum business. So members and visitors are encouraged to bring along a show and tell item.  Give a 3 minute talk on your item of interest.

We will also be following up on outstanding “Action” items from previous meetings.

So come along and visit at an AREG meeting, find out what AREG is up to and participate in an evening with other amateur radio operators. Coffee, tea, cake will be on for supper along with general rag chewing.

73, Ben VK5BB