The AREG is happy to report that the recent issues with D-Star DVAP and Dongles accessing and using VK5RWN has been resolved.
The issue turned out to be the Internet router config, which was blocking some necessary ports that weren’t identified at the time of cut over.
Thanks to Bob, Michael & Ben from the AREG D-Star team for resolving the issue.
73, Matthew VK5ZM
Happy new year and welcome to 2015.
This post is just a reminder to members and visitors that the next AREG general meeting will be this coming Friday the 16th of January starting at 7:45pm. Details of where the AREG meet can be found in the “contact us” section of the website.
This month we have the first business meeting of 2015. As is usual of this time of year at the first meeting we will have a lot to discuss and plan for the coming months, especially since there was no December meeting.
The business meeting will be followed by coffee and cake.
We hope to see you there.
73, Matthew VK5ZM
Now that the bush fires in Adelaide are over and vehicular access to the repeater site has recommenced, the VK5RWN D-Star services have been restored. All ports are operational and the wireless internet link re-established. Further changes to the internet configuration are planned in coming months. We thank the D-Star users for their patience while services were disrupted.
73, Matthew VK5ZM
Due to the bush fires in the Adelaide hills mains power to the VK5RWN repeater has been lost. As of Tuesday the 6th of January the repeater sites 300Ah backup battery system has run out of power.
The bush fire has passed within 2kms to the north of the repeater site, for which we are thankful. Access to the repeater site is currently restricted due to road closures and the proximity of the fire ground.
Until the damage to the power infrastructure can be restored and road closures removed the VK5RWN D-Star system will be unavailable.
We thank you for your patience as we wait for the VK5RWN service to be restored. Our thoughts and best wishes go to those people who have lost property and homes in these recent fires.
73, Matthew VK5ZM
UPDATE: The slides from Mark VK5QI’s talk can be found here.
Just a reminder that the next AREG general meeting will be this coming Friday the 21st of November starting at 7:45pm.
This month we have a short business meeting, guest speaker followed by coffee and cake.
You can find out more details here
Hope to see you there.
73, Matthew VK5ZM
On Sunday the 9th of November the AREG members assisted Project Horus and Launchbox with a double balloon launch from Mt Barker.
Filling 2kg Balloon with 5.5m^3 of Helium
These two Balloon launches contained nine High School science experiments along with an experimental satellite payload from the University of South Australia. They also carried the usual Project Horus cutdown and telemetry payloads to ensure recovery.
Thankfully the first payload was recovered from near Harogate and was relatively intact, after a freefall from 33kms sans chute.
The second payload made a miraculous landing into a farmers field just outside of Palmer, thanks to Andy VK5AKH for sharing the footage.
More specific details about the flights, altitudes and flight paths can be found on the Project Horus website.
Telemetry & Cutdown ready to go
First Balloon Train ready for Launch !
A big thanks has to go to our volunteer ground crew Gary VK5FGRY, Dennis VK5FDEN and his wife Irene, for cooking us a brilliant breakfast. They also put up and took down the Marquee and made sure the oval was nice and clean while we’d all taken off to go and chase the Balloons… Gary also made sure we had plenty of photos of the event, so it stands to reason why we’ve no photo of him to put on the blog (*grin*).
Breakfast of Legends !
I’m confident that everyone enjoyed the day and can’t wait for the next adventure in the coming months !
73 Matt, VK5ZM
The next AREG General Meeting is on Friday the 21st of November, at the Reedbeds Community Hall doors open 7:45pm.
This month there will be a short 30 minute business meeting held starting at 8:00pm sharp. This month we will try a new format for the meeting in an effort to streamline proceedings.
This month we have arranged Mark VK5QI to present a technical talk entitled “<Insert Radio Name Here> – A open source teaching SDR for Linux Conf 2015”, starting at 8:45pm.
In this talk Mark will discuss the Softrock-based SDR he is developing for the Open Radio Mini conference, to be held at “Linux Conf 2015” in Auckland, New Zealand. Some basic SDR theory will be covered, along with some demo’s of the prototype kit.
We’re certainly fingers crossed that by the time our meeting comes around that this radio has a project name !
After the presentation there will be the usual “rag chew” over coffee, tea and cake until stumps.
We look forward to seeing you there.
73, Matt VK5ZM
On October 18th the AREG installed a new 5.8GHz wireless link into the VK5RWN repeater system.
The system is on test for the next couple of weeks, the results have been very promising with the link providing in excess of 30Mbit throughput (full duplex). Certainly many times faster than the current 512kbit symmetrical ADSL connection.
Once the wireless link has been finally commissioned and cut over the AREG will be able to close the current ADSL and Telephone internet connection which will significantly reduce the on-going running costs of this site.
I’d like to thank Bob VK5FO, Ray VK5RR, Andy VK5AKH and Mark VK5QI for assisting me with the installation and setup of both ends of the link.
73 Matt, VK5ZM