Category Archives: Club News

Club News Summary

Next AREG Meeting: May 15th – FreeDV introducing the SM1000

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The next AREG Meeting on Friday May 15th will aregmapagain be held at the Reedbeds Community Hall, 19 Fitch Rd, Fulham SA 5024 starting at 7.45pm.

The presentation for the evening will be given by David Rowe, VK5DGR who will speak about the FreeDV project and the SM1000 digital interface unit that he has been involved with developing.

FreeDV – What’s it about?

vk5zm_testing_freeDV

Matt VK5ZM testing FreeDV on an IC706

The SM1000, is an embedded hardware product that allows you to run FreeDV without a PC. Just plug it into your SSB or FM radio, and you now have Digital Voice (DV).

It’s based on a STM32F4 micro-controller, has a built in microphone, speaker amplifier, and transformer isolated interfaces to your radio. It’s just 80 x 100mm, and can be held in you hand and used like a regular PTT microphone, or sit near your radio in a small box form factor.

In this presentation David will discuss the SM1000, and how it was developed by 2 Hams and a Chinese entrepreneur over the last 14 months.

David Rowe’s Background

David Rowe is a part time open source software and hardware developer and full time Dad.  He has worked on projects in VOIP, developing world communications, echo cancellation, speech compression, and digital voice over HF radio.

Prior to becoming an open source developer David worked as an engineering manager and has 25 years experience in the development of DSP-based telephony and sat-com hardware/software.   Somewhere along the way he picked up a wide mix of skills including software, hardware, project and business management, and a PhD in DSP theory.

David’s other interests include his popular blog (http://rowetel.com), bike riding, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, amateur radio (since 1981), and swanning around Adelaide drinking lattes.

AREG assists AHARS with VK5RAD 70cm Repeater Restoration

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repeater tower clipartIn the last week, AREG members have teamed up with the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society (AHARS) to help bring the Crafers VK5RAD 70cm 439.925MHz repeater back to life. Temporary equipment has been loaned to the site while repairs continue on the original repeater.

VK5RAD 70cm Repeater Access Details:

  • Repeater Transmit: 439.925MHz
  • Repeater Receive: 434.925MHz (-5MHz offset)

Thanks to everyone at AHARS and AREG for restoring this valuable service to amateurs in the greater Adelaide area.

NOTE Regarding IRLP Node 6214

The 6214-IRLP node currently is still on  the VK5RSB 70cm repeater on 439.900 (contrary to what was broadcast on the WIA Sunday News this week). AREG is discussing the plans for its move currently with AHARS and the AREG membership. We will advise when the IRLP gateway does move.

VI5ANZAC AREG Operation – Activity Summary

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AREG has now reviewed all of the activity we were able to undertake as part of the commemorative activation of VI5ANZAC, remembering 100 years since the ANZAC force landed on the shores of Gallipoli in World War One. In total, the AREG team worked a total 1290 QSOs over 10 Bands, 48 DXCC entities, 43 US States, 21 CQ Zones, and 40 IOTA in the spirit of fostering international friendship and peace.

Band QSOs
160m 2
80m 12
40m 412
20m 364
17m 44
15m 235
12m 16
10m 194
2m 6
70cm
5

You can see here how far our signals reached.

[wpgmza id=”3″]

The highlights of the activation for us were working a number of the Turkish special event stations! It was great to make these contacts.

Turkey Stations Worked 2We also made contact with many of the Australian VIxANZAC stations during the weekend.

VI$ANZAC

Detailed information on the locations we worked is available from the following links:

AREG would like to thank the Wireless Institute of Australia for all of the efforts they have made to arrange for and coordinate the state based commemorative callsigns. This event remembering  the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War One is certainly one of international significance. Through the global friendship of amateur radio and our communications with stations across the globe, we hope that by putting these stations on air that we have strengthened global peace through remembering the impact and abomination of war.

image_1_hiresFinally, look out for more activations of VI5ANZAC from other clubs across South Australia throughout the rest of the year..

Details are available on the WIA Website.

 

Next Meeting 17th April: Using Pan-adapters in your HF Station

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The next meeting of the Amateur aregmapRadio Experimenters group will be held on Friday 17th April. The venue as always will be the Reedbeds Community Hall, 19 Fitch Rd, Fulham SA 5024.

The meeting will start at 7.45pm with a short business meeting, and will be followed by a technical presentation by Andy VK5AKH on installing and using SDR radios as pan-adapters on your HF station. Andy will also give some insight on the benefits of using this technology when working HF.

iOE1VKA

HF Pan-adapter display captured from the 20m HF band

After the meeting there will be cake and coffee available as well as many members ready for a chat.

If you want directions to get to the meeting give VK5ARG a call on the Summertown 439.900MHz repeater (91.5Hz CTCSS).

River Paddling Marathon: AREG Communications Update

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rpm15

Attention all club members – the radio operator registrations are now open for this year’s event. Please access the registration form link e-mailed to all members via the mailing list and complete your details for 2015 as soon as possible so that checkpoint planning, accommodation and catering can all be finalized. Note: the AREG home base this year will be the Kingston on Murray Caravan Park.

AREG activation of VI5ANZAC 25th – 30th April 2015

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The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be participating in the WIA organised special event callsign activation of VI5ANZAC. The major commemoration is on the 25th April 2015, which is when Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli, marking 100 years since our nation’s involvement in WWI.

The club has secured the window from 0000UTC (9:30am CST) Friday 24th April through to 2359UTC 30th April (9:30am CST Friday 1st May) to activate the callsign. After interest was also expressed from the Elizabeth Amateur Radio club to operate portable from an RSL hall on ANZAC day, AREG has cooperated and agreed to EARC operating the callsign up until 12.00pm CST on April 25th, so that operators from both clubs can share in the experience.

The principle goal of AREG with the callsign is to contact Turkey on HF after 12:00pm CST (0230UTC) on the 25th of April (Anzac Day) as well as provide an easily reachable signal across VK/ZL (and all points in between). A large construction project is underway at one of the club members stations aimed at installing a 3 element 40m beam and 4 element 20m beam in time for the event. The AREG also intends for it’s members to activate it as often as possible from AREG members stations thereafter within the club’s operating window on HF and VHF/UHF as far as possible.

More details of AREG’s exact plans will be released closer to the event. At this stage, members are asked to contact the committee to place their details on the club roster for activating VI5ANZAC between Sunday 26th April and Friday 1st May 9:30am.

VK5ARG Active in VK5 Parks Award and CQ WPX Contest this weekend

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This weekend will see VK5ARG portable on the airwaves again with several intrepid members including Andy VK5AKH and Mark VK5QI planning on operating portable from the Coorong National Park, 175km SE of Adelaide.

CQ WPX Contest Activation VK5ARG

coorongnp-mapVK5ARG will be active in the the CQ WPX SSB Contest, which  is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working as many prefixes as possible during the contest period.. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.

coorongmap2

VK5 Parks Award Simultaneous Activation

This is also the second anniversary of the VK5 Parks Activation Weekend  event organised by the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society. Paul VK5PAS who has driven the VK5 Parks Award has done a sterling job and promoting HF and VHF/UHF portable operation through this initiative giving amateurs a great incentive to get out and about and see the natural wonders of our state while playing Amateur Radio.

Operators of VK5ARG this weekend will also be making contatcs under their own callsigns during the VK5 Parks Activation, so look out for Mark VK5QI/P and Andy VK5AKH/P (and others) on the bands. For more information about the VK5 Parks Award visit their website.

Antennas will be 16m tall vertical on 160-30m, inverted Vee on 40m and 2 element hex beam 20-10m. Operating Low Power as generators are not allowed in the park. Good luck in the contest and hope to see you in the log.
coorongvk5arg

Website back up !

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LcK75XpcaThe AREG website is back up after a short outage over the weekend.

In recent weeks there have been numerous security updates and advisories released for Apache Web Servers.  These had been backing up for a while and were batched process in one large go Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately one of the updates broke the website and it wasn’t picked up before the club meeting.

Our apologies for the website being down, there should be a flurry of activity as a result of the Club Meeting Friday night, stay tuned !

73, Matthew VK5ZM