Category Archives: Club News

Club News Summary

REPORT: AREG’s Oceania DX Contest Event 2025 – VL5X on the air! + Winner Multi-Multi OC division

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2025 marked the year that the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group returned to the Oceania DX Contest after taking several years break. The aim was to put VL5X, the club contest call sign back on the air, and give our newer members a chance to participate in a world class contest. As the group does not have current access to a permanent contest grade station, our efforts revolved around building a portable station that was as competitive as possible yet achievable with only a small window for construction.

Planning & Site Selection

The event planning began back in March, when we started looking for suitable sites. Multiple factors played a part, including accessibility, weather destruction risks, operating environment and HF propagation performance. The weather featured highly in these considerations, given the destruction of the station that occurred back in 2022 when a severe storm front blew over the site mid contest, destroying several antennas in the process. The ability to operate multiple 400W transmitting stations in close proximity was also critical to the success, as we were planning a MULTI-MULTI entry – the aim of which being to give as many operating opportunities to as many members as we could during the contest.

We considered various sites and how they would perform from a terrain and antenna height perspective.

We also studied propagation charts so we could plan which bands we should be looking at and when. We aimed to enter the contest as well equipped as we could.

Final Location

Our final location was chosen because it could achieve our propagation objectives, as well as comfortably housing the contest crew. One of our members owns a home atop Willunga Hill, which in the end is where we chose to play!

Equipment Plan

Antennas & Filters/Combiners

80m Band 1/4 wave vertical DK9IP Design – mounted on an 18m Spiderbeam pole

40m Band 4-square Phased Array – designed by Oly VK5XDX

20-10m Portable HexBeam – MW0JZE design on a 10m Spiderbeam Aluminium Tower

20-10m Spiderbeam (3el on 20/15m and 4el on 10m) on a 10m Spiderbeam HD Aluminium Mast

Our secret weapon was our set of VA6AM Filter Combiners for 20-10m which allowed us to run 3 stations on the one antenna.

VA6AM High Power Bandpass Filter / Combiner set

The Team

None of this gear achieves much without an operator team. We had a great turnout from the membership, with 13 operators taking turns running the station for the 24hrs of the contest. A huge thanks to VK5AKH, VK5CIA, VK5EDY, VK5FR, VK5GLD, VK5GR, VK5IR, VK5KT, VK5MN, VK5QI, VK5XDX, VK5ZM and VK5ZQV. We also had construction help additionally from VK5SFA, and site support thanks to VK5ABG.

VK5GLD
VK5XDX
VK5KT & VK5EDY
VK5GR & VK5MN
VK5FR
VK5QI
VK5GR & VK5ZM
VK5CIA & VK5QI
VK5KT & VK5AKH

The Result

So what did we achieve? From AREG’s perspective, we achieved our best ever score in the OCDX contest since we first participated in  2012. Our raw score was over 1.9 million points. This was despite what turned into some of the worst SSB contesting ionospheric conditions we have ever encountered. Much of Sunday’s daylight hours were lost due to extremely high absorption, leaving us calling often into dead bands for only 1-2 QSOs an hour. Its a credit to the team’s determination and perseverance to have scored so well.

In the end, the effort was worthwhile, with VL5X victorious in the Multi-Multi category for 2025. We just managed to hold off  the team from T32AZ on Kiribati to retain first place in our category this year even after count-backs for scoring errors. A very happy outcome for our return to this event after a 3 year hiatus.

Thanks must go to the entire team who was involved in this activity. It was great to see so many AREG members get involved in what was a really great fun weekend!

AREG February Meeting: Operating on 241 GHz

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At our next general meeting, AREG is pleased to present a talk/demo by David VK5KK and Iain VK5ZD who will discuss their experiments on the 241 GHz microwave amateur band. This band is really the final fronteir in microwave amateur radio experimentation, given this is the highest frequency band allocated to the Amateur Service. David and Iain will take you through the gear they developed and also their efforts to set a VK distance record on this band.

To hear and see more, come along to the next general meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group, which will be held on Friday 20th February, starting at 7.30pm. AREG meets at the Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham. Doors open at 7.00pm. We hope to see you there!

AREG Adelaide Foxhunt Events: Saturday Jan 31st at 2pm

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UPDATE: The next AREG foxhunt event will now be held on Saturday January 31st starting at 2.00pm. The date change is due to the weather forecast predicting 40+ deg Celcius on the original date of Saturday 24th.

Fox hunting, or Amateur Radio Direction Finding as it is more properly known, is an event where radio amateurs gather together to track down the location of a hidden transmitter using radio direction finding techniques. Foxhunts can take several forms, including on foot and from a vehicle over a wider area.

For this event, we will cater for both kinds of activity – with a 5 transmitter foot based hunt firstly held around the wetlands in the Adelaide South Parklands, followed by a three stage vehicle hunt across metropolitan Adelaide.

The event is open to everyone. For those without vehicle based equipment, you can still come and try some on foot hunting around the Adelaide South Park Lands before the multi-leg metropolitan hunt gets underway (we will have some equipment available to borrow for this part of the event).

While the activity is running, we will be listening and liaising on the linked repeater system via either the CBD 438.025 MHz or Summertown 439.900 MHz repeaters. It is intended to wrap up hunting activities by ~5.30pm and then pick somewhere close to the final fox locations to gather for dinner.

For more information email vk5arg@areg.org.au.

River Paddling Marathon 200 – 2026 members planning workshop – Friday January 16th

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To all members who participate with AREG in the yearly River Paddling Marathon 200 event held each June long weekend, please be advised that we are holding a planning workshop to kick off 2026 this coming Friday, January 16th, starting from 7.30pm at the club rooms located at Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham.

Canoe’s ready to start the 100km version of the Marathon

This workshop is open to AREG members who have participated in the past, or who are interested in taking part in 2026. This will be an interactive discussion session where we will be reviewing what happened in past years, and where we will discuss ways of improving the event and how AREG executes the communications requirements that go with it.

AREG November Meeting – SA Repeater Network and the VK5RSB Repeater Rebuild

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held this coming Friday, November 21st . The presentation this month is by Dean VK5HQ who will take people through the work that the AREG Repeater sub-group has undertaken at Summertown to rebuild it and prepare it to become the SA Repeater network hub repeater. He will also take you though the rest of the linked repeater network sites to give you an understanding of the reach and operation of the central SA network.The meeting was held at the Fulham Community Centre.

A copy of the presentation is available here

 

 

 

 

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

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🚀 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

UPDATE: Even with the wild weather, we were able to successfully get a launch in the air! Thanks to everyone that helped out with launch, promoting AREG and recovering the payloads. A writeup will be posted at some point. We expect our next launch to be sometime early-mid December.

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

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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.