Category Archives: Club News

Club News Summary

Next AREG Meeting: March 23rd – Introducing FT8 Mode

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held  1 week later than usual this month, on Friday March 23rd. The date has been delayed as the SA State Election is being held on the 17th and the hall is being setup as a polling booth the night before (our usual meeting night).

The presentation for the evening will be “Introducing FT8 Mode, what is all the hype about?” by Grant VK5GR.

Grant has closely followed the development of FT8 since it’s inception and was an early user of it in DXpedition environments during his activation of Niue last year.

Areas to be covered will include:

  • a brief description of the FT8 protocol
  • the basic hardware and software requirements to get on air
  • how to get that little bit more out of FT8 – add on packages like JTAlert
  • a look at FT8 operating practices
  • how to chase rare DX using FT8 – a practical tips guide
  • a discussion about the new Expedition mode that has been developed

Currently a live demonstration is also being planned. Grant will be available for questions after the presentation during supper.

The meeting  will be held at the Fulham Community Centre (previously known as the ReedBeds) with parking accessed from Phelps Court, Fulham. The venue will be open from 7.45pm with the meeting starting at 8.00pm. Following the technical presentation there will also be the usual club business meeting.

Visitors are always welcome! So come along and meet the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group!

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REMINDER: Horus 48 Telemetry Test from Mt Lofty TOMORROW

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THOR Receiver Tune & Test Day – Sunday 4th March ~10:30AM CDST

To help stations adapt to the new THOR16 signal, this coming Sunday there will be the opportunity for stations in the Adelaide metropolitan area to set up dl-fldigi as per the linked guide below and have a go receiving a higher-power version of the THOR16 signal. This will be broadcast from Mt Lofty Summit by Mark VK5QI. Mark will be on the VK5RSB 70cm repeater (439.900 -5MHz / 91.5Hz CTCSS) as ‘technical support’, to help assist setting up the software. The signal should be easily receivable from the Adelaide Metro area and some surrounds.

Look for the test signal on 434.640MHz

DL-FLDIgi Setup for THOR16

As usual, use dl-fldigi to decode telemetry, but in the case of the THOR16 payload, you will have to manually select the operating mode from the drop-down list as follows:

 

AREG IRLP Node 6214 Off Air

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The following news comes from Ben VK5BB, the custodian of the 6214 IRLP node that is connected to the VK5RSB 70cm repeater

Due to a failure of IRLP node 6214’s computer hardware,
it is off line until further notice!

History:

I took on the management of the IRLP node 6214 sometime around 2012. Prior to this it was managed by Adrian VK5ZSN. Under his management it was all OK until the HDD died.

I volunteered to take on the project and rebuilt the computer using an IDE to SATA adapter and a solid state HDD. A bit of jiggling but it worked and to date has been very reliable with minimum of hands on support to keep it on air. 

Current Status:

I am not sure what is going on but it appears that the computer that manages the IRLP node 6214 is having severe problems. It seems that the computer is unstable and keeps shutting itself down and rebooting. The machine running the system is now over 10 years old, which is a contributing factor.

Right now, the ultimate fate of the IRLP node is undecided. The club members have been asked if they wish to see the service continued. That discussion is ongoing. If the service is to continue, it could be some time before it is restored as new hardware will likely need to be obtained.

If you would like to see it rebuilt and placed back on the air, why not consider becoming a member of AREG and showing your support for the project? Details of how to join are available on our membership page .

AREG News now available via EMAIL

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The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group is pleased to announce that we have a new news outlet. All amateurs can now be kept informed via email of AREGs activities including:

  • High Altitude Balloon Launches
  • Meeting Nights and Topics
  • Club events such as field days and contests

and much much more….

For general information about the mailing list or to subscribe, please visit:

http://mail.areg.org.au/mailman/listinfo/announce_areg.org.au

If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (eg, switch to or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your Subscription Management page.

This new service is a one way information service and only official announcements from AREG will be available. Traffic is typically only 3-4 messages a month.

We hope you find this new way of keeping non members up to date with the activities of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group helpful. (Members already have an active mailing list that they can can send and receive through. Announce list bulletins are already relayed to the members only list too).

 

February Meeting: Chasing Radiosondes for Fun and (no) Profit

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held next Friday, February 16th at the Fulham Community Centre (formerly known as the Reedbeds) off Phelps Court, in Fulham. Doors will open at 7.45pm for an 8.00pm start.

The evenings presentation about weather balloons and RadioSondes will be given by Mark VK5QI.

“Every day, from over a thousand sites around the world, weather balloons are launched to capture atmospheric data. Under each of these is a Radiosonde, a small electronics package containing sensors and a radio transmitter. In this presentation, Mark VK5QI, will explain how these devices help contribute to global weather forecast models (used by the Project Horus team!), and how you can decode, track, and (if you are crazy enough), recover these devices from where they fall over the country.”

Everyone is welcome, visitors in particular. If you have ever wanted to know more about weather balloons this will be a great chance to hear from one of the very active balloon chasers in the state.

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ADVANCED NOTICE for the MARCH meeting

The March meeting of the AREG will be delayed by 1 week this year as our meeting hall has been booked out for the state election. So in March, the date will be March 23rd (the week before Easter). We hope to see you then! (A topic for the March meeting will be finalised shortly).

 

Next Meeting: Chasing DX (or how to work 3Y0Z)

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Welcome to 2018!

The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group Monthly Meetings are starting up again with one of our Beginners Series  of talks, but this one will have a twist. We will be running it as a panel discussion with the topic “HF Operating Etiquette – How to Work 3Y0Z”, and wish to invite all of the active DX chasers and HF operators in the room to share their collective thoughts on what to do and what not to do when chasing HF DX in general.

The aim is to spread the collective knowledge about how to get through those piles for that special ATNO (All Time New One) like the Bouvet Island DXPedition (#2 on the most wanted list). Topics will be guided by moderators and will include HF operating etiquette, how to work HF split, how, when and where to call in a pileup, what to consider propagation wise and much more.

We will have a live scribe taking down all of the best ideas and will post them here after the meeting for future reference.

Where and when is the meeting?

Friday January 19th – 7.45pm (for an 8.00pm start)
Fulham Community Centre, Phelps Court, Fulham.

Visitors are most welcome to come and participate in the evening. We hope to see you there!

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AREG Christmas Dinner Meeting – Friday 15th December

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The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group will be held on Friday December 15th. This is our Christmas Dinner meeting which will be held at the club meeting hall in the Fulham Community Centre, 1 Phelps Court, Fulham. Doors will open from 5.30pm with dinner planned for 6.30pm.

All are welcome to attend, AREG members, their families as well as our regular meeting visitors! To participate in dinner all you need to do is to indicate your attendance and the number of people (so we can get the catering right) on the form below. The cost will be less than $20/head (exact price TBA). The money will be collected at the door. The dinner will be Roast Chicken and Summer Salads, condiments and Desert arranged by our (almost) famous catering division.(Special dietary requirements can be catered for on request)

We would love to see you all for Christmas! 73 from the AREG Committee…

Clubrooms location

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November Meeting – Off Site Visit Planned

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The November meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be a technology site visit. This means that the normal meeting at the Fulham Community Centre will not be run this month.

Members will be in for an eye opening time looking and learning about some modern communications technology used among our community every day. Members who wish to attend the site visit will find the details on the internal club email reflector.

Unfortunately for our regular visitors, due to the security restrictions required by our hosts, this meeting has to be closed to financial members only.

We will return to our regular program in December with the AREG Christmas Party!