Regular users of the VK5RSB 23cm repeater may have noticed a deterioration in audio quality when the repeater is in use for an extended period. As of the 15th of June, the repeater has been removed from service so repairs can be affected.
Many thanks go to Colin VK5ACE for building and continuing to maintain the best coverage 23cm repeater in VK5!
Meanwhile, the VK5RSB 6m is now back on the air thanks to the efforts of Rod VK5UDX and Adrian VK5ZBR. The new antenna has been installed and the repeater has been repaired. Thanks guys for your efforts!
The 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 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.
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!
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.
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:
Morialta Conservation Park
Black Hill Conservation Park
Montacute Conservation Park
Giles Conservation Park
Horsnell Gully Conservation Park
Ferguson Conservation Park
Clealand Conservation Park
Mount George Conservation Park
Kenneth Stirling Conservation Park
Mylor Conservation Park
Mark Oliphant Conservation Park
“The Knoll” Conservation Park
Belair National Park
Marino Conservation Park
Hallett Cove Conservation Park
Onkaparinga River Conservation Park
Moana Sands Conservation Park
Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park
Kyeema Conservation Park
Mount Magnificent Conservation Park
Some pictures from the day are shown below:
Antenna, Radio, Andy, FUIC.
Minimalistic operation from Black Hill CP.
Park signs make really good antenna mounts.
Once again, the trusty park sign is used to hold up the antenna.
In Horsnells Gully we set up on a small bridge.
We got a few odd looks from the local “Friends of the Ferguson CP” group while we made a few contacts.
“So many contacts!!”
Everything you need to work portable HF: Parks sign (antenna mount), Squidpole + inverted vee, Elecraft KX3, ham radio operator.
Parks signs also make handy seats.
Andy making some contacts.
Mark hiding in the shade at Marino.
Andy working Ben VK5BB at the southern boundary of Onkaparinga River NP
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.
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!
Due to interference issues, the VK5RSB repeater (Summertown), now requires a 91.5Hz CTCSS Input tone. Please update your radio memory channels accordingly!
23cm repeater may have noticed a deterioration in audio quality when the repeater is in use for an extended period. As of the 15th of June, the repeater has been removed from service so repairs can be affected.
