Category Archives: Club News

Club News Summary

AREG April 17th Meeting – Software Defined Radio for Radio Amateurs

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Modern amateur radio is changing rapidly, and Software Defined Radio (SDR) is at the centre of that change. Many amateurs already own an SDR — or use one indirectly — but few have had the chance to understand how it actually works or why it feels so different from traditional radios.

This upcoming lecture will provide a plain‑language introduction to SDR, aimed specifically at amateur radio operators, not engineers or programmers.

Rather than focusing on mathematics or theory, the talk will explain SDR concepts using familiar radio ideas: receivers, mixers, filters, IF stages, and transmitters — and show how these functions are now being done in software instead of hardware.

Topics will include:

  • What “software defined” really means in a radio
  • Why SDRs can see so much spectrum at once
  • The role of analogue‑to‑digital converters and why bit‑depth matters
  • Why some SDRs are better at weak‑signal work than others
  • How modern SDRs replace IF strips with digital processing
  • What limits SDR transmit power and why filtering still matters
  • How SDRs are used by amateurs, researchers, and modern networks

The lecture will also touch on GNU Radio, the most widely used SDR software framework, explaining what it does and why it has become so important — without requiring any programming knowledge.

Whether you are:

  • Curious about SDR but unsure where to start
  • Using an SDR “black box” and want to understand what’s inside
  • Interested in digital modes, weak‑signal work, or experimentation
  • Wondering how modern radios differ from classic superhets

…this session is designed to demystify SDR and connect it back to the radio principles amateurs already know.

No prior SDR experience is required — just an interest in radio.

So when are where is this event? AREG meets at the Fulham Community Centre, off Phelps Court, in Fulham, Adelaide. Doors open at 7.00pm, Friday 17th April.

This month the meeting will begin with a short Special General Meeting to address a minor change to the group’s constitution, followed by the presentation which will likely start around 7.45pm.

For our regional members, the meeting will, as usual, also be interactively streamed via Zoom. If you are a regional amateur and are interested in finding out a little more about AREG, guest passes are available to our Zoom meetings on request. Please contact our secretary – via vk5arg@areg.org.au

 

AREG March Special Meeting – WSPRDaemon Wideband SDR Radio

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March General Meeting – Change of Time and Venue

Firstly, AREG wishes to advise that we will not be holding our normal March Friday night meeting on the 20th of March, as our meeting venue is not available this month due to it being used as a polling booth for this year’s state election. Instead, AREG is pleased to announce that we have a special guest presenter, Rob Robinett AI6VN, who will join us online from California via Zoom at a special meeting time of Saturday March 7th at 10AM Australian Central Summer Time.

WsprDaemon: A low cost, high performance, all band WSPR decoding system

Rob Robinett, AI6VN, will present an in-depth overview of WSPRDaemon, a low-cost, wideband software-defined radio (SDR) system designed for continuous monitoring of the MF and HF spectrum. WSPRDaemon uses the 16 bit / 128 Msps  RX-888 SDR receiver to digitize the entire 0-64 MHz spectrum which enables the simultaneous recording and reporting of 51 signals: all 11 of the WWV, WWVH and CHU time signals, all 18 of the 2200m – 6 meter WSPR bands, and all 22 of the FT4 and FT8 bands.

When the RX-888 is clocked by a GPS-Disciplined Oscillator, WSPRDaemon records WWV with sub-microhertz accuracy while WSPR ‘spots’ are reported with 0.01 Hz accuracy. That accuracy results in Doppler shift measurements like those shown in the above spectrogram, and from which radio scientists are gaining insights into previously poorly understood ionospheric dynamics, Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs), and space-weather-driven propagation effects.

The system operates continuously 24/7 and automatically uploads WWV/CHU recordings to HamSCI servers where they are archived and made available for scientific research and collaborative analysis.

The presentation will cover system architecture, SDR hardware considerations, time and frequency accuracy requirements, software processing chains, and examples of real-world data products, including observations captured during geomagnetic storm events. Rob will also discuss how WSPRDaemon integrates into the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) framework and how amateur radio operators can deploy stations that contribute meaningful, research-grade data.

This talk will be of particular interest to members involved in SDR, weak-signal modes, propagation research, frequency metrology, and advanced amateur experimentation.

 

VK5RWN D*STAR Repeater News – Adelaide

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AREG has been working on upgrading the VK5RWN DSTAR repeater to the new G3 gateway software for several months now. In December last year, we also began training a new administrative team, comprising Charlie VK5VC, Darren VK5ADL, Grant VK5GR and David VK5MDF to continue the work that Ben VK5BB used to do managing the D-Star repeater, and preparing the team for the installation of the new computer.

In early January, Grant, Darren and Charlie made a start on installing the new software. This went smoothly, however as the hot weather arrived, it was decided to leave the old computer in place until the weather cooled down.

Today (Sunday 1st February) Darren and Charlie went to the site and installed the new computer and worked on finishing the configuration. We were able to get the system synchronising with the main trust server with no errors reported. The gateway computer  is now fully operational, allowing remote Hotspot users to log in, as well as supporting connectivity to remote reflectors.

UPDATE: 3rd Feb – the connection with the repeater RP2C controller to the RF side of the site is now working!

The final stage of the upgrade will be the installation of the software to allow it to connect to the XLX reflectors. Once we are happy it is stable to this stage, we will then add this module, which will complete the repeater’s brain transplant.

This has been a substantial learning curve for the team and we are very pleased with our progress. Thanks to all out volunteers for the work they do managing AREG’s digital D*STAR voice repeater site serving the Adelaide metropolitan area.

VK5RWN DSTAR Repeaters

AREG January Foxhunt – a great day out!

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The AREG January saturday foxhunt event was a great success with 4 groups participating in the foot hunt around the south Adelaide parkland wetlands . We had a couple of family teams out there as well. 6 low power 2m (144 MHz) beacons were scattered through the wetlands. All teams managed to find these within about 45 minutes which was a great effort.

One of the groups checking in that they found a fox transmitter

After the foot hunt, we took on the vehicle hunt challenge. Tony VK5AH and company took on the task of hiding the transmitters for this event across the NW suburbs of Adelaide. Three teams set out to find the foxes, two of which were on the 144 MHz band and one on the 439 MHz band. Tony set quite the challenge for us as we couldn’t hear any of the transmitters from the start.

After heading to high ground in North Adelaide, several of the teams caught a weak signal from one of the 144MHz beacons and we were then off north. That beacon was ultimately located near the Dry Creek rail yards. Next was 439 MHz, which took us across to the Port Adelaide Canoe club and finally, we caught a signal from the 2nd 144MHz beacon which lead us to the eastern boundary of the Adelaide Airport.

Fox Beacon 1 – 144 MHz

Fox 2 – 439 MHz hidden inside the polypipe

Fox 3 – buried under brush in a reserve on the east side of Adelaide Airport

The equipment used varies by team. Mark VK5QI has developed a system based around a Kraken Synchronous SDR Time of arrival system which allows his team to track while driving. Most of the others need to stop and take bearings along the way.

VK5QI team with a Kraken TOA Direction Finding System

Here you can see the route taken by the VK5QI time finding these three rather low powered fox transmitters spreadout across Adelaide.

Thanks to everyone who took part. This new Saturday format is something we will consider going forward for foxhunting throughout 2026!

Horus 69 Flight Report

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Project Horus’s 69’th flight was held on the 18th of January 2026, launching from our usual launch site, the Mt Barker High School oval. This flight was a test of a few new and experimental payloads, including our first flight of the new ‘Horus Binary v3’ tracking telemetry mode.

The launch was an easy one, with only light winds at the launch site. It was great to see a few new faces along to see what a high-altitude balloon launch is all about!

The predicted flight path allowed for a fairly relaxed chase, so the chase teams headed off to Tailem Bend for some lunch while waiting for the balloon rise closer to its expected burst altitude. Chasing the flight were Mark VK5QI. Will VK5AHV, Autumn VK5CLD, and Peter VK5APR. We also had Peter VK5KX and Matt VK5ZM set up near Palmer tracking the flight.

The balloon ended up bursting at 33.831km altitude, a good 3 km higher than expected! The payloads descended to a landing approximately 20km north-east of Tailem Bend, just off the Karoonda highway. A quick chat to the landowner, and the chase teams were able to drive right up to the landing spot! A big thanks to Wayne Gregory for being so helpful!

Payloads, recovered!

Horus 69 Flight Statistics

Launch Date:2026-01-17T23:26:31Z
Landing Date:2026-01-18T02:04:16Z
Launch Site:-35.07579, 138.85710
Landing Site:-35.13652, 139.62709
Distance Travelled:70 km
Maximum Altitude:33831 m

Horus 69 Flight Path

Horus v3 Payload – HORUS-V3

This was the first Australian flight of the Horus Binary v3 telemetry mode, the latest version of the Horus Binary high-altitude balloon flight tracking system.

The following stations received the Horus v3 telemetry on this flight: BARC_4, VK3APJ, VK5ARG, VK5GA, VK5GA-2, VK5GY, VK5KX-9, VK5KX-i5, VK5QI-1, VK5QI-9, VK5SFA/R, VK5ST-5, VK5ZM

A dashboard showing reception statistics for this payload are here: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/BBkF1dIvR?orgId=1

Thanks to everyone that updated their decoding software and had a go at decoding this new format! Based on the success of this flight (and many other flights overseas), Horus v3 will become the primary tracking mode used on future Project Horus flights.

Horus v2 Payload – HORUS-V2

While we will be switching to Horus v3 in the future, this flight still used a Horus v2 payload as the primary tracking payload, and we thank everyone that helped out with tracking on this flight:

BARC_4, VK3APJ, VK3BQ, VK5AKK, VK5AKK-1, VK5ARG, VK5BL, VK5BRL, VK5BTN, VK5CLD-9, VK5CV, VK5DJ, VK5GA, VK5HW, VK5KX-9, VK5LN, VK5MAS, VK5NEX, VK5OCD, VK5QI-9, VK5RA, VK5RM, VK5ST-5, VK5TRM, VK5ZAR, VK5ZM, VK5ZMD, VK5ZRL, VK5ZRL-2, VK5ZRL/2, vk5is

A dashboard for the Horus v2 payload is available here: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/szhKJOSvR?orgId=1

Wenet Imagery Payload

The imagery payload on this flight was another experiment with the PiCam v3 autofocus camera, using information gained from flights in the United States that were successful in taking good quality (and importantly, in focus!) imagery. Thanks to the following stations that received imagery from this payload:

  • VK3APJ: 8410 packets (2.05 MB)
  • VK5QI-9: 186131 packets (45.44 MB)
  • VK5KX-9: 238707 packets (58.28 MB)
  • VK5CLD-9: 64276 packets (15.69 MB)
  • VK5IS: 51247 packets (12.51 MB)

A dashboard for the Wenet payload is available here: https://grafana.v2.sondehub.org/goto/A80OJOIvg?orgId=1

Sadly, the dynamics of the payloads on this flight (swinging + spinning) meant that the autofocus algorithm just couldn’t keep up, again resulting in blurry imagery. This is likely the final nail in the coffin for this camera unless we can work out a way of stabilising the payload without adding lots of extra mass. Work has now started on updating the ‘PiCam HQ’ payload (which last flew on Horus 60) up to the Wenet v2 standard, and this will likely fly on the next full launch.

A selection of photos from the payload are shown below:

Next Launch

Our next ‘full size’ launch will likely not be until the weather cools down again in March, and hopefully we’ll be able to finally get the Cross-band repeater in the air. Before then there may be some small launches with just Horus Binary v3 payloads, to assist receiving stations in getting their software updated and tested.

Again, thanks to everyone that participated in the launch, and we hope to see you on the map on our next flight!