The IARU Contest will be conducted this weekend on HF (non-WARC) bands from 10pm EST Saturday 9 July to 10pm EST Sunday 10 July 2016.
This is a good opportunity to test out the bands (particularly the lower ones) and get more more DX into your log. The contest details can be found at http://www.arrl.org/iaru-hf-championship
The exchange is 59 and your ITU zone (e.g. VK6=58, VK8 and VK4 = 55 and VK2, VK3, VK5 and VK7 are in zone 59
The Wireless Institute of Australia will run a HQ station using the callsign VK5WIA.
The SSB station (80-10M) will be operated by members of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group using Chris VK5CP’s station near Mannum South Australia. We also expect to have a separate CW station coordinated by Chris VK3QB.
QSL via Chris VK5CP
VK5WIA 40m ready and waiting for the IARU contest 2016
Sunset near the end of the 2016 IARU contest – Photo by Mark VK5QI
RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRY
CQ SPDX TEST DE VK5ARG VK5ARG KK
The AREG team tried something new on Sunday April 24th 2016, operating portable from the Morialta Conservation Park just east of Adelaide in the Polish Radiovideography Club’s SPDX RTTY contest . A lot of fun was had by those members who operated and visited us during the activation. 29 valid contacts were made including 5 out of 17 Polish provinces. Andy VK5AKH provided the bulk of the station equipment and was assisted by Grant VK5GR, Dennis VK5FDEN, Gary VK5FGRY and Mark VK5QI in setting up the station in the early afternoon.
By the time we were ready to go, long path Europe was already open, and the first station we called answered on the first try. We were running an IC7600 at about 90W FSK power with the HexBeam and the Fl-Digi software for RTTY. We also experimented with the GRITTY software which has some advanced decoding capabilities.
40m Loop Antenna
Steve VK5SFA also brought along his new 40m magnetic loop antenna for us to experiment with. We were very impressed with it’s noise performance and efficiency for such a small antenna. While we were working 20m RTTY long path EU, Matt VK5ZM, Gary VK5FGRY and Mark VK5QI experimented with the loop. Contacts on it were had across SE Australia, including 10W to 10W to Chris VK5CP who was portable in Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges.
(Stay tuned – a talk is planned at the next AREG meeting on these very unique antennas).
Contest Progressed
As the RTTY contest progressed, the team attempted 15m as well with limited success before returning to 20m to close out the EU LP opening.
We were then treated to the “AREG Catering Service” in the form of Sharon VK5FSAW who brought up baked potatoes and condiments, which were very welcome considering it was getting quite cold as the sun went down.
Finally we dropped down to 40m and put the loop to use on RTTY. We picked up a contact with the USA – after spending a while learning how to tune it! (It is only ~3-4kHz wide).
Who we worked
While we were not competitive we had a lot of fun working RTTY stations in Europe, and we are sure we helped a few polish stations with a continental multiplier. The stations we worked were:
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This has certainly whetted our appetite to try another attempt at RTTY later in the year (perhaps the CQ WW or CQ WPX RTTY contests).
A big thank you to everyone who participated and in particular to Andy VK5AKH who brought his portable HF station.
Several keen members have asked to activate the club callsign, VK5ARG in this weekend’s Polish RTTY DX Contest. Andy VK5AKH and Grant VK5GR will be setting up portable from the Morialta conservation park, at the end of Moores Rd.
The plan is to arrive around 1pm and have the station operating before the EU Long Path opening around 3pm on Sunday April 24th. The contest finishes at 9.30pm ACST Sunday night.
This is Andy and Grant’s first attempt at a RTTY contest so mayhem and pandemonium will most likely eschew, but we will have a lot of fun trying! If you would like to come and pay us a visit, give us a call on 439.900 (VK5RSB).
A number of AREG members have headed to the 2nd QTH of Chris VK5CP to activate the club callsign VK5ARG in the CQ WPX SSB Contest this weekend!
The WPX Contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.
For details of the contest, the rules, background and other information, go to the CQWPX Website.
The MonstIR Yagi
VK5ARG Results
Now that the contest has concluded, VK5ARG can report that they have worked 957 contacts for a total of 1,660,662 points. By band the results are:
[table “” not found /]
The following members were involved in the event:
[table “” not found /]
All up a worthy effort from VK5ARG. Best of luck in the rankings guys, but most of all we hope you had a lot of fun!
Theo VK5MTM: Operating the AREG Club Callsign like a boss in the WPX
AREG members fielded 5 stations in the contest this year. This was a change of direction for the club’s participation which had revolved around building a single mega-station the past couple of years. The plan was to put more stations on air, thus providing more contact opportunities! VK5AKH, VK5MTM, VK5KX, VK5CP and VK5GR took up the challenge, and a challenge it turned out to be.
While the “atmospheric” weather was ideal in South Australia, the ionospheric weather was anything but. As the event unfolded, HF conditions deteriorated and contacts became challenging with a solar Coronal Mass Ejection around 0900UTC making things difficult.
T-Index Map courtesy Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Services Showing conditions during the JMMFD 2016
None the less, contacts were still there to be had, just not on the higher bands.
The following are some of the notes from the various member stations that were active over the weekend! General comments are that it has been loads of fun.
VK5AKH’s Efforts
From Andy: Thanks to all stations that were on the other end of my 320QSOs across 40,20 &15m while portable for the JMMFD. It was the first time in 6 months+ I have had some quality HF time since moving from a house with a tribander and antenna farm into a inner city townhouse with no ham radio. Was a great feeling to be back on the bands and a reminder that having to go portable to play HF is not a bad thing. 73 catch you in the next contest”
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VK5MTM’s Efforts
Theo entered the 6 hour section today running on battery power from Morialta conservation park. One of his comments about his station was that “I got 5 hours, 20 minutes from my little LifePo battery today (with lots of TXing and calling CQ contest) running at 50 watts all day until my battery alarm went spastic as soon as it hit 11.7 volts, then I called it quits, packed up and went home. The 857D performed incredibly well. Even in crowded condx, the bandpass filter once narrowed down a bit surprised me how effective it was.”
Theo made 92 QSO’s. His observations were that the bands were very quiet in his opinion compared to other years and conditions were not fantastic but none the less he had a great day and really enjoyed it.
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Theo has also made a video of his activity!
VK5GR’s Efforts
Grant went portable under (almost) his own steam for the first time in a HF contest this year, operating from Tickera on the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf. Here is Grant’s report:
“Activity was also a bit slow, but I was also still evaluating my Buxcomm TF2D broadband antenna, trying to decide if it is the right antenna for the job or not. On 40m it appeared to work well, but not so good on the other bands (although the disturbed ionosphere may have impacted that impression this weekend). On 80m, however, it was clear that while on receive it seemed pretty good, transmit is definitely compromised.
Fortunately I had borrowed some wire and a balun from Chris VK5SA very late Friday night. So, in the face of virtually no contacts being made on 80m, I pulled down the TF2D and constructed a resonant 80m dipole at 9pm on Saturday mid contest. The decision was, either do this or go to bed because no one could hear me!
The gamble paid off handsomely! 80m sprung to life with all VK call areas except VK8/9/0 being worked. For almost 4 hours there was a continuous stream of stations, to the point that 80m was on the verge of having a higher contact tally than all of the other bands combined for a while! In the early morning (5.30am), 40m elements were added which helped the transmit performance on that band as well. All up, I managed 217 contacts over the 24hrs.
I also wish to say a big thank-you to Peter VK5KX who loaned me a generator so that I could enter the portable section of the contest, and to Andy VK5AKH who loaned me the portable tower – without which I would have been just throwing things in trees and hoping for the best!
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VK5KX’s efforts
Peter VK5KX also hit the field and relayed the following photos of his location on the ranges east of Balaklava.
From Peter: “We were intending to operate from ‘The Rocks’ just south of Balaklava, we got there and where I had intended to operate from had a nice new gate installed across the access track and it was locked, the other place has been blocked by big boulders, so The Rocks was a bust.
Drove into Balaklava and had a hamburger for lunch (huge), left there heading for the hills in the direction of Auburn, went thru a town called Halbury then saw a likely looking track on the right heading to the crest of a hill, went up this goat track for a few kms and settled on a place in the middle of nowhere (S34º 08.27′, E138º 34.06’).
Set the operating point in the bus up, then out to the antenna, erected the 8m pole with a 23m delta loop tuned thru an SGC-230, this would give me multi-band operation, alas something was not quite right with this arrangement (hadn’t been tested at home) so down with the delta and up with an inverted V for 40m, this worked well.
I only did the 6 hours, all on 40m apart from one 15m contact with VK4QD, all up I did 78 contacts of which 77 counted for the contest, we stayed the night and negotiated the further goat tracks in a pear shaped voyage back to Balaklava then onto Mallala race circuit for a look-see at some V8’s circulating.”
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VK5CP on the air.
Chris also participated for a while from his shack at Younghusband in the Murray Mallee. From Chris: “I got about 65 QSO on 40m in an hour – MonstIR was working well and noise floor was low (much to QI’s surprise)”
Conclusion
All up a great deal of fun was had by everyone involved. I’m sure plans are already being drawn up to have another go next year! See you then!
It’s that time of year again! Break out your portable masts, tents and generators it’s time for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day! Unlike the past couple of years, the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group has this year encouraged it’s members to scatter and run their own stations.
A number of portable operations are planned including VK5AKH in Sedan, VK5MTM in Morialta and VK5GR in Tickera. VK5CP is going to operate from Younghusband in the Riverland and VK5FO is going to operate from his shack near Waikerie. VK1KRM (a long distance AREG member) has also been bitten by the bug and may get up on the air! You may also hear VK5SA (home station) and rumor has it that even VK5IX might sling up a dipole and have a go! We are also hoping to hear from VK5FDEN and perhaps even VK5FGRY over the course of the weekend. So, plenty of stations to work every 3 hours, not to mention the other clubs and operators around the states who are hitting the trail and taking their radios out into the bush for some exercise.
CONTEST TIMES: 0100 UTC Saturday to 0059 UTC Sunday, 19-20 March 2016
All of the members of AREG look forward to making as many contacts as they can with stations across Australia and the world during the contest. Good luck everyone and may the ionosphere be with you!
The WIA Summer VHF/UHF field day is about encouraging amateur radio operators to get out in the field to make contact with as many stations as possible over the greatest distance possible on all amateur frequencies above 50MHz. This makes it a very diverse and interesting contest as you have a variety of stations participating, including:
home stations operating any or all VHF / UHF and Microwave bands
portable stations running stations on bands between 50-1296MHz
portable stations specializing in microwave (usually bands between 1296-10368MHz) usually operating distant mountain tops.
roving stations which change location constantly throughout the contest
Distances are calculated using the Maidenhead grid locator system and contest contacts consist of exchanging signal strength, a contact sequence number and which grid square you are operating from.
This year, the AREG decided to mount a portable station using the Club call-sign, VK5ARG, which operated in the 8 hour division.
Bob, VK5FO and Ray, VK5RR arrived onsite just after 10am and after meeting Paul from the Salvation Army commenced the set-up of the station. Andy VK5AKH arrived and assisted with the station set-up.
Ray VK5RR and Bob VK5FO setting up
The station was very similar to the Team VK5FI station that Bob and Ray set up for the Spring Field Day, with the addition of 23cm.
A few small changes were made to the station from the lessons learnt during the Spring FD – and that was ensuring that each band had a dedicated logging laptop and adding some headphones!
The addition of the club marquee was most welcome with temperatures in the mid 30’s – we were able to operate in relative comfort!
The station was set-up and ready to go a few minutes to go before the start time of the contest.
During the course of the day we had a few visitors drop in to take a look at the station, and Ben VK5BB, popped in for an hour or so and operated the 6m station for part of his time.
Everyone present had a great time, and the highlight of the day was Bob VK5FO making a few DX contacts on 6m – working 3x ZL stations an a VK4 station.
At the end of the 8 hours, the station was pulled down and packed up in about 45 minutes.
We would like to extend a special thank you to the Salvation Army Wynn Vale for allowing AREG access to their land behind the Hall. The site proved to be quite good for this type of station with excellent take-off in all directions for VHF and UHF.
Photo Gallery from the Day!
AREG Members Roving during the Contest too!
While the club members were having fun manning the station in Adelaide, Matt VK5ZM and Grant VK5GR took a different slant on the contest and entered the Roving section operating as VK5GR.
VK5GR operating from Port Giles next to the silos
They started out the day by driving to Port Giles on Yorke Peninsula. This was significant as it allowed them to activate major grid square PF84. 6m was the surprise here working VK7DD on 52.525 FM. Good contacts were also had with many Adelaide stations on 144 and 432MHz.
After about an hour they packed up and hit the road, contesting along the way. At each new 6 letter grid they came to they stopped for 5-10 minutes and made a set of contacts on both 2m and 70cm using just the mobile antennas on the car. The tropospheric ducting was strong across the gulf as all of the signals were S9++ – not bad for an average 70-100km path!
After Port Vincent it was decided that things needed to be sped up a little or the objective of at least 4 major grid squares in 8 hours wasnt going to be met. So they started contesting while mobile on the highway (at 100kph). This proved challenging as they now were working a new grid square about every 3-4 minutes! Usually there was time for 2-3 contacts per square on one or two bands before they had to stop, update their locator in the logging software and go again. They kept this routine up for about 8 squares before reaching the slag heap lookout at Ardrossan.
At Ardrossan they came across Tim VK5ZT who was participating in the microwave section of the contest. It was great to see the microwave guys in full swing! Matt and Grant then also broke out the 6m antenna and gave some calls on both 50.2 SSB and 52.525 FM so that they could claim 6m for grid square PF85.
As time was then running short, they then decided to drop an attempt to work from PF86 (which was going to be a very difficult path to Adelaide) and instead focus on distance contacts from the northern edge of PF95 and southern edge of PF96. To do this they headed for Kulpara, where they also found Iain VK5ZD operating also in the microwave section. Some more 2m and 70cm contacts were had just from the mobile whips on the car (but with the advantage of ~200m elevation on top of the Hummocks range) before then packing up and heading for their last site of the day on Middle Range Hill near Nantawarra. This allowed them to activate grid square PF96ca.
Here they broke out the big guns and put up the 2m beam. A couple of contacts were made on SSB including to Port Pirie and the Riverland, plus multiple contacts back down into Adelaide. 6m and 70cm were also activated, with every contact on average exceeding 120-140km. Finally they dropped back into PF95cx for a 20 minute closing flurry before the 8 hours was up.
Conclusion
Everyone in the club who participated had a great day, be it on the road, operating from home or portable in Wynn Vale. It has certainly stirred up some enthusiasm so look out for VK5ARG operating in the Winter Field day in 2016! To hear more about the activities over the weekend come along to the club on Friday the 15th of January!
Bob, VK5FO and Ray, VK5RR will lead a Portable field day station running as VK5ARG for the Summer VHF/UHF field day on Saturday 9th January/
The Plan is to set up and run a portable 3 band station from Wynn Vale for the First 8 hours of the Contest, and will be onsite and setting up from around 10am
We will be setting up the station on the grassed area behind the Wynn Vale Salvation Army Hall (with permission) near the Corner of Endeavour Drive and Wynn Vale Drive, with Plenty of parking available.
This site is a reasonable VHF/UHF site with an elevation of around 200m and excellent take-off with minimal obstructions providing great coverage of the whole Adelaide Metro area (and beyond) whilst allowing easy access for visitors.
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AREG members and other interested Amateurs who would like to take a look at a field day station are invited to come along and take a look, jump in and operate one of the stations that will be set up for some of the contest.
The Spring field day was a lot of fun and we are setting up this station to do it all again and hopefully encourage a few more people to get out and participate. If you are not planning on setting up your own Station for the Field day, or think it is too hard, then come along, see how we set up, and do a see how easy it is to participate and join in the fun.
The station for the filed day will be substantially the same as what Bob and Ray set up for the spring field day, using a trailer to support the poles for the Antennas.
The 6M station will be either an IC 706 or a KX3 and HR-50 Amplifier.and a 2 Element Beam
The 2M station will be an IC-7100 for SSB with a 6 Element Yagi and an FT-2800M into a Slim Jim on FM.
The 70cm Station will be a TS-2000 into a 17 Element Yagi.
Each station will run a Laptop for logging and the whole lot will be powered via a generator and a 160aH Battery.
The IARU Contest will be conducted this weekend on HF (non-WARC) bands from 10pm EST Saturday 9 July to 10pm EST Sunday 10 July 2016.
