Category Archives: Club News

Club News Summary

Next Project Horus Launch – LaunchBox 2025 (with Fleet Space & Robinson Aerospace) – Sunday 2nd November

Posted on by

🚀 Introducing LaunchBox: Australia's Launchpad for Future Space Leaders🚀 At Fleet Space, we believe the power of STEM education and hands-on experience with advanced technologies are the launchpad for the next generation

The next Project Horus launch will be on Sunday the 2nd of November, as part of Fleet Space’s LaunchBox ‘Summit to the Stratosphere‘ STEM event, which is the culmination of this year’s LaunchBox program.

LaunchBox is a reimagining of a STEM program that AREG was a part of back in the 2010s, where we flew student-built payloads on high altitude balloon launches. Fleet Space has re-started the program and expanded it Australia-wide, with hundreds of year 7-8 students involved. Two lucky teams will have their payloads flown on a high-altitude balloon launch into the stratosphere!

Adelaide as seen from Horus 66

This launch will be held at the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park, with a launch time expected to be 10AM, though this is very much subject to change on the day. Please note that the launch site will be closed to the public until after the launch time – see below for how you can get involved with the launch through receiving our tracking and imagery payloads!

A full-scale launch will include our regular tracking payloads, a Wenet imagery payload, and 2 of the student payloads. If the weather on the day is poor, we have the following backup options:

  • Mid-size launch: Horus Binary tracker + Wenet (similar to Horus 66)
  • Small launch: Horus Binary tracker only.
  • No launch at all (only if flight path predictions are completely unsuitable)

Which option we go with will depend on the launch site weather on the day.

TRACKING LINKS

Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:

  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Backup Horus Binary telemetry on 434.210 MHz
  • Wenet v2 Imagery on 443.5 MHz.

On this flight we encourage new listeners to try out our new web-browser-based decoding software for Horus Binary and Wenet – find out more about this further below!

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

Reprogrammed RS41The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode. Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are also encouraged to get involved with the flight through receiving and uploading flight telemetry from our 70cm band tracking beacons. Every piece of telemetry data is valuable to the flight tracking and recovery teams so if you can help join the distributed receiver network to collect that data you will be making an important contribution to the project!

If you try receiving the telemetry from this flight, you’ll need a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (or a SDR), and the Horus-GUI telemetry decoder software. A brief guide on setting this up is available here: https://github.com/projecthorus/horusdemodlib/wiki/1.1-Horus-GUI-Reception-Guide-(Windows-Linux-OSX)

Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.199 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.

Horus Binary telemetry can now also be received using your web browser, using either a SSB receiver or even a RTLSDR!

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

WebHorus – 434.200 MHz

We’ve also got a guide on how to use this here: https://youtu.be/VrgqF7ly-mU

Backup Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

A backup tracking payload will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode, and can be received in the same way as the primary tracking payload, with information above. For this payload you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.209 MHz.

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

WebHorus – 434.210 MHz

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz – USING NEW v2 MODE!

Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 96 kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).

We will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as used successfully on Horus 64B and Horus 66. There is information on updating existing Wenet receive setups available here.

Wenet can now be received on almost any modern computer, and even some newer android devices, using the new WebWenet software! This operates entirely within a web browser. Information on how to get setup to use this is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euo4BGB6wUU

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

Wenet Web Receiver – 443.5 MHz

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

We encourage new listeners to try out the WebWenet software for decoding signals on this flight – however you can also still receive the signal using the Linux-based decoder, with details on this available here:

https://github.com/projecthorus/wenet/wiki/Wenet-RX-Instructions-(Linux-using-Docker)

During the flight, the live imagery will be available at this link: http://ssdv.habhub.org/

SA Repeater Network News Update – October 19th

Posted on by

Substantial progress has been made in reconnecting all of the repeaters in the SA Repeater Network back together. As of October 19th, the Adelaide (Summertown) hub has been reconnected to most of the network. There are a few more sites still to come, however, which should be relinked in the next couple of weeks (VK5RSA Adelaide CBD, VK5RLH Lochiel/Central North) and VK5RVH (Victor Harbor).

One of the key changes is that we have now elected to make 439.900 the Adelaide network access repeater rather than 147.175. This was due to the amount of traffic being carried on 147.175 that was local to Adelaide. As a result, the AREG IRLP node is temporarily off air while we rebuild it to operate on 2m 147.175. 147.175 MHz will now remain a stand alone repeater.

For those missing the WIA broadcast on the old Crafers repeater (147.000), also note that AREG is currently providing a temporary WIA Broadcast service at 9.00am Sunday via the 147.175 MHz repeater. This will revert to 147.000 once AHARS restores that repeater to service.

 

Next Meeting Friday Oct 17th – Digital Amateur Television

Posted on by

The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group Inc will be held on Friday October 17th at 7.30pm. Doors will open at 7.00pm. The venue will be the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham.

Introducing Digital Amateur Television

The topic this evening will be an introduction to 445 MHz (70 cm band) Digital Amateur Television, presented by Steve VK5SFA. Steve will present his journey to establishing an ATV transmission capability, including the various challenges encountered along the way.

Steve will also discuss how to get involved in receiving ATV on the 70cm band, and if you bring along your DVB-T set top box he will help you leave with it programmed ready to receive the local Adelaide ATV operators. The usual retailers are still selling the Laser STB-9000 for about $40.00 which will directly receive 70cm ATV if you want to get on board.

Update: a copy of the Youtube presentation is now available here:

Homework

Below is a list of terms used in DVB-t2 television broadcasting.  I will not be going into any great detail about how DVB-t2 actually works.  It is a mature technology and there is plenty of information on the Internet.
Feel free to conduct your own research if interested.
  • DVB-t (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial)
  • Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM)
  • QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) 
  • QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)
  • MER (Modulation Error Ratio)
  • FEC (Forward Error Correction)
  • Guard Interval
  • Carriers (2K & 8K)
  • PID (Packet Identifier)
  • LCN (Logical Channel Numbers)

AREG Amateur Radio & Electronics Car Boot Sale Sunday 26th October!

Posted on by

ATTENTION

We have a Wet Weather Plan!
The show will go on (indoors) this Sunday!

AREG is proud to announce that the 2025 Car Boot Sale
will be held on Sunday October 26th
at David Roche Park, Cromwell Rd, Kilburn

DOORS OPEN 10.00AM
(9.30AM for sellers)

Seller Registrations are still open! To book a site please email vk5arg@areg.org.au .

Car sites: $10 , Trailer Sites $15

Sites include entry for one person. Any additional people need to register on the day at the ticket counter.

We also are pleased to announce our retail partners for this year! VK Radio, the Australian Yaesu dealer is coming from Melbourne.

We also have a $5 raffle planned for the day – with the draw occuring at 12.30pm

1st Prize – A Codan 9350 HF mobile ATU from HF Radio Solutions
2nd Prize – a $150 GIFT Voucher to use at Comtek

We are also offering Door prizes sponsored by TET-Emtron
and the new SA Repeater Group!

 

Next Meeting Friday 19th September 7.30pm: Foxhunting at the National Championships

Posted on by

The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held on Friday 19th September 2025. The venue is the Fulham Community Centre, off Phelps Court, Fulham. Doors open at 6.30pm and the meeting starts at 7.30pm.

The presentation this month will be given by Mark, VK5QI and Grant VK5GR who will take everyone through what happens at the National Amateur Radio Foxhunting Championships, held in Mt Gambier over the June long weekend each year.

Tea/Coffee and refreshments will be available. After the presentation a short business meeting will be held.

We hope to see you there (at the ex Reedbeds Community Centre – now Fulham Community Centre).

VK5 Central Repeater Network – News Update 29th August

Posted on by

VK5RAD gets a temporary lifeline – relocation to be completed by Sept 30th

Work has been progressing on getting the link equipment installed into AREG’s site at Summertown (VK5RSB) to take over the network hub duties from VK5RAD 70cm, however we are currently a little behind schedule. Fortunately, after negotiations with the site owner at Crafers, the 439.925 70cm repeater has been granted a 1 month service extension before it must be removed from site. The same extension has been also granted to the AHARS for the 147.000 2m repeater.

For now, the repeater network connectivity will continue as usual, until we start re-directing links to the new hub mid September. We will let everyone know when each link is going to be relocated and when to start using 147.175 TX / 147.775 RX to access the link network.

 

 

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 65 – Cross-band Repeater & Wenet – NO LAUNCH

Posted on by

UPDATE: Unfortunately we had a launch failure due to high wind gusts at the launch site. No payloads will be flown today. We’ll re-group and look at flying the repeaters again later in the year.

We’re giving it another go! AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 14th of September, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACST. If we have to scrub due to poor weather, the backup launch date will be the 21st of September.

This will be a re-flight of the Horus 63 payloads, which will include our cross-band repeater payload and Wenet imagery payload. This time we hope to achieve a burst altitude of >35km, which will enable repeater coverage between Adelaide and Melbourne! We are looking for stations in Victoria and South-West NSW to listen out for balloon telemetry, and give us a call on the repeater!

The launch site for this flight will be the Mt Barker Summit Sport & Recreation Park oval, located just to the east of Mt Barker, and accessible off Springs Road and Heysen Boulevard. We will be setting up near the main oval Grandstand area. There is ample parking all around the oval.

TRACKING LINKS

Details of the frequencies in use on this flight are:

  • FM Crossband Repeater: 145.075 MHz Input (91.5 Hz CTCSS), 438.975 MHz output.
  • Wenet Imagery on 443.5 MHz. (Now receivable using a web browser! See below!)
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Backup Horus Binary payload, on 434.210 MHz

On this flight we encourage new listeners to try out our new web-browser-based decoding software for Horus Binary and Wenet – find out more about this further below!

During the flight, all the payloads can be tracked lived on the SondeHub-Amateur tracker here!

FM Cross-band Repeater Payload

This will be a re-flight of our cross band voice repeater, which performed very well on Horus 63. This is based around a Yaesu FT-530 handheld transceiver. The balloon repeater should be heard on:

  • INPUT: 145.075MHz with 91.5Hz CTCSS
  • OUTPUT: 438.975MHz  – 0.5W into 1/2-wave omni

Please note that this repeater is experimental, and may have performance issues or even fail completely during the flight!

To transmit to the balloon at the maximum range of 800km (once the balloon reaches 100,000ft ++) you should only need approximately 10-20W and an 2-4dB gain antenna.

Receiving the balloon at 400km range in a handheld environment should be achievable, but to hear the repeater at the maximum range of 800km you should expect to need a 10dB gain Yagi for a 0.4uV capable receiver and 2dB feeder loss

This setup is much the same as the LEO satellites but without the doppler shift.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CAN HEAR IT BEFORE YOU TRANSMIT!

This repeater will be operated as a controlled net, with the net control callsign VK5ARG – please listen out for net control before calling!

Primary Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.200 MHz – HORUS-V2

Reprogrammed RS41The primary tracking telemetry will be transmitted on 434.200 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode. Amateurs in the Adelaide and Central SA region are also encouraged to get involved with the flight through receiving and uploading flight telemetry from our 70cm band tracking beacons. Every piece of telemetry data is valuable to the flight tracking and recovery teams so if you can help join the distributed receiver network to collect that data you will be making an important contribution to the project!

If you try receiving the telemetry from this flight, you’ll need a SSB-capable 70cm receiver (or a SDR), and the Horus-GUI telemetry decoder software. A brief guide on setting this up is available here: https://github.com/projecthorus/horusdemodlib/wiki/1.1-Horus-GUI-Reception-Guide-(Windows-Linux-OSX)

Note that you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.199 MHz for the 4FSK signal to be centred in your receiver passband and hence be decodable.

Horus Binary telemetry can now also be received using your web browser, using either a SSB receiver or even a RTLSDR!

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

WebHorus – 434.200 MHz

We’ve also got a guide on how to use this here: https://youtu.be/VrgqF7ly-mU

Backup Telemetry – Horus Binary 434.210 MHz – VK5ARG

A backup tracking payload will be transmitting on 434.210 MHz using the Horus Binary 4FSK data mode, and can be received in the same way as the primary tracking payload, with information above. For this payload you will need to use a USB ‘dial’ frequency of 434.209 MHz.

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

WebHorus – 434.210 MHz

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz – USING NEW v2 MODE!

Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 96 kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).

We will be using the new ‘Wenet v2’ mode, as trialed on Horus 64B. There is information on updating existing Wenet receive setups available here.

Wenet can now be received on almost any modern computer, and even some newer android devices, using the new WebWenet software! This operates entirely within a web browser. Information on how to get setup to use this is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euo4BGB6wUU

Click this link to start up a browser-based receiver:

Wenet Web Receiver – 443.5 MHz

This payload will be reverting to a PiCam v2, so we don’t hit the de-focusing issues encountered with the PiCam v3.

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

We encourage new listeners to try out the WebWenet software for decoding signals on this flight – however you can also still receive the signal using the Linux-based decoder, with details on this available here:

https://github.com/projecthorus/wenet/wiki/Wenet-RX-Instructions-(Linux-using-Docker)

During the flight, the live imagery will be available at this link: http://ssdv.habhub.org/

VK5 Central Repeater Network – Major Upgrade Underway

Posted on by

Many amateurs in central SA today make use of the central state 2m/70cm band repeater network that covers from Victor Harbor to the Riverland, and Adelaide to the Central North. Unfortunately, due to the loss of the central VK5RAD repeater hub site, a major rearrangement of the repeater network needs to be undertaken. The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group has offered to host the 70cm network hub (formerly operating at VK5RAD) at their Summertown repeater site to keep the network operational. However, to establish VK5RSB as the new hub, there will be some disruption to operations as link frequencies are changed and equipment is relocated.

Final hub equipment installation work is planned to take place starting August 23rd. That will include deploying a new repeater control system & hub repeater at the AREG VK5RSB repeater site.

What does this mean for users?

The key change Adelaide amateur  radio operators will see is that, rather than accessing the network via the old 439.925 MHz 70cm repeater at VK5RAD, they instead will need to use the recently commissioned 147.175 MHz (+600 kHz)  (91.5 Hz CTCSS) repeater at Summertown (VK5RSB).

For those still looking for 70cm band access, the AREG VK5RSA Adelaide CBD repeater, (sponsored by Kern Wi-Fi) on 438.025 MHz (-7 MHz) or the VK5RKW Adelaide NE repeater on 438.050 MHz will continue to be available.

How long will the full migration take?

Once the new central hub is installed, one by one, each of the network links will be migrated. This will result in the network being fragmented (part working on the new backbone, part working on the old one) for 1-2 weeks, while we travel all of the linked sites to make the necessary frequency and control changes. We hope to have all of the network migrated to the new hub no later than the 6th of September.

As you can appreciate, this move will take time. The affected repeaters in the network are VK5RSA, VK5RKW, VK5RAH, VK5RMB, VK5RVH, VK5RBV, VK5RWR, VK5RLD, VK5RLX, VK5RMK, VK5RLH as well as VK5RSB which will be introduced into the system.

We will post updates as each of the links is moved. Meanwhile, thank you for your patience.