December Meeting – An introduction to FDM 3D Printing by Bob VK5FO

Update: The talk was recorded and is available below!

The next AREG meeting will be held on Friday the 20th of December at the Fulham Community Centre – Phelps Court, Fulham, with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and the presentation kicking off at 7:30 PM. Everyone is welcome!

This month’s presentation will be by Bob VK5FO, giving us an introduction to Fused Deposition Modelling (filament-based) 3D printing. Bob will cover some of the entry-level printers available, different filament types, and how to get started using designs you can find online.

If you’ve never come along to one of our meetings, we’d love to see you there, all guests are welcome. For our remote members, the meeting will be broadcast via Zoom.

We won’t be holding a general business meeting this month – instead there’ll be time after the presentation for a catch-up before we break for the holiday season.

We’ll be back in January with a lightning talks session, on all of our holiday amateur radio projects!

73, Mark VK5QI

Next Project Horus Launch – Horus 63 – 1st December 2024 – Cross-band Repeater – Mt Barker Launch!

AREG’s High-Altitude Ballooning sub-group, Project Horus, is planning their next launch for Sunday the 1st of December, with a planned launch time of 10 AM ACDST. If we have to scrub due to poor weather, the backup launch date will be the 8th of December.

UPDATE 27th Nov: This launch is currently planned to be performed from the Mt Barker High School Oval with the launch team arriving on site from around 9:15 AM. Note that access to the oval is via Stephenson street, and parking near the oval is extremely limited. 

TRACKING LINKS

This flight will feature a new cross-band repeater payload, enabling amateur radio operators around the state to communicate via the balloon! Along with this will be a newly built Wenet Imagery payload, using a PiCam v3 in autofocus mode.

  • FM Crossband Repeater: 145.075 MHz Input (91.5 Hz CTCSS), 438.975 MHz output.
  • Wenet Imagery on 443.5 MHz.
  • Primary Horus Binary telemetry on 434.200 MHz
  • Backup Horus Binary payload, on 434.210 MHz
  • TheThingsNetwork tracking payload, using the AU915 band-plan.

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

FM Cross-band Repeater Payload

This is the first test flight of a new experimental FM cross band voice repeater 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!

We will be offering QSL cards to stations that make a contact with net control during the flight, so get your stations setup and give it a go!

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)

Listeners that already have Horus-GUI installed are encouraged to update to the latest version, which is available at this link.

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.

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.

Wenet Imagery – 443.500 MHz

Imagery on this flight will be transmitted via the Wenet downlink system, which uses 115kbit/s Frequency-Shift-Keying to send HD snapshots. Reception of the Wenet imagery requires a Linux computer, a RTLSDR, and a 70cm antenna with some gain (a 5-element Yagi is usually enough).

This payload will be experimenting with a PiCam v, which we previously flew with only partial success on Horus 59. This time around many software updates have been written, hopefully allowing the PiCam v3’s autofocus to work on a balloon launch. This flight aims to test out these software changes, and gather data to help improve performance on future launches.

Wenet imagery from Horus 62

A guide on how to get set up to receive the Wenet signal is available here: https://github.com/projecthorus/wenet/wiki/Wenet-RX-Instructions-(Linux-using-Docker)

Please note the transmit frequency of 443.5 MHz, which may require listeners to re-configure their Wenet setup. 

Note: Stations that are already ready to receive Wenet are advised to update to the latest testing version for this flight. See here for instructions: https://gist.github.com/darksidelemm/cdc36a90ca96b87d148fdd7d68d5d5fe

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

TheThingsNetwork Payload – 915 MHz LIPD Band

This flight will also fly a LoRaWAN payload built by Liam VK5ALG, relaying positions via TheThingsNetwork (TTN), a global Internet-of-Things network with hundreds of receiver gateways across Australia. You can find out more about how TheThingsNetwork works here.

The aim of this payload is to test a new antenna, and try and beat our previous range records on the 915 MHz band.

November Meeting – The new M17 digital voice mode!

This talk was recorded, and is available here: 

The next AREG meeting will be held on Friday the 15th of November at the Fulham Community Centre – Phelps Court, Fulham, with doors opening at 7:00 PM, and the presentation kicking off at 7:30 PM. Everyone is welcome!

This month’s presentation will be by Tony VK3JED, giving us an introduction to the M17 digital voice mode. Tony will discuss the history of this mode, how it differs from other existing digital voice modes, and how you can get on air using this mode. Tony will also demonstrate the first commercial radio with M17 included, the CS7000!

If you’ve never come along to one of our meetings, we’d love to see you there, all guests are welcome. For our remote members, the meeting will be broadcast via Zoom.

After the talks we’ll all be given an opportunity to have an eyeball QSO among ourselves whilst enjoying a tea or coffee and a biscuit.

73, Mark VK5QI

AREG 2024 Radio & Electronics Sale – Thank you!

A huge thanks to everyone that supported the AREG 2024 Radio & Electronics Sale!

We will be back in 2025 on Sunday the 26th of October!

In no particular order, we’d like to thank:

  • All of our volunteers helping setup, pack up, and run the event throughout the day
  • Our door prize sponsor, TET-Emtron
  • Our raffle prize sponsors, HF Radio Solutions, and VK Radio
  • Our commercial retailers VK Radio, KernWi-Fi, and (at the last minute) QSL Comms
  • Nik VK3BA, Iain VK5ZD and David VK5KK for organising and running microwave and EME demos
  • Dogs SA, for providing a great venue, and also running the canteen, BBQ and bar throughout the day
  • All the sellers that supported the event by turning up and selling their wares
  • …. and everyone that attended!

Congratulations to Andrew VK5ARP, the winner of our raffle 1st prize, which was a Codan 9350 Auto-Tuner antenna provided by HF Radio Solutions.

We’ll be back again next year, on Sunday the 26th of October 2025!

73

Mark VK5QI

Next Fox-Hunt – Friday 1st November

AREGs next car-based fox hunt will be held this coming Friday the 1st of November. We arrive at the start location around 6pm, and depart at 6:30 PM.

We are also looking for volunteers to hide the foxes each month. If you would like to give this a go, please contact Mark at vk5qi@rfhead.net

A fox on top of a fox

Our start location is the Beaumont Road carpark, off South Terrace in the southern CBD Parklands. 

We’ll have three foxes deployed around the Adelaide area, on both the 2m and 70cm bands, so come along and have a go!

Area where the foxes might be hidden.

The frequencies will be:

  • 145.300 MHz (1W transmit power)
  • 144.390 MHz (100mW transmit power)
  • 439.400 MHz (50mW transmit power)

As usual, liaison will be on the VK5RSB Summertown 70cm repeater which operates on 439.900 (-5MHz) 91.5 CTCSS. Please come up on the repeater so we know who is out hunting, and how you are faring throughout the evening! If we don’t hear from your, we may recover the foxes before you find them!

We also have a mailing list, and a Facebook Messenger group – please contact Mark VK5QI (vk5qi@rfhead.net) if you would like to be added to this!

The event is open to anyone with radio direction finding equipment, with the foxes hidden within the bounds shown on the above map. We would love to see you there!

73

Mark VK5QI

AREG’s Radio & Electronics Sale – Saturday October 26th – Door Prizes!

AREG’s Amateur Radio & Electronics Sale will be held on Saturday the 26th of October, at the DogsSA Training Facility in Kilburn as a car boot sale format. Gates will open at 9:30AM for sellers, and 10AM for buyers.

The entry fee will be $5 for buyers, $10 for a seller car park spot, with an extra $5 for a trailer spot. We’ve still got some car spots available, so email vk5arg@areg.org.au to reserve your spot!

AREG are happy to announce that our door prizes this year will be $150 & $100 vouchers from TET-Emtron

We will also be holding a raffle for a Codan 9350 HF Auto-tuner antenna, courtesy of Dean from HF Radio Solutions! Tickets will be $5 each, available at the entry ticket table, and also at the AREG table.

 

 

 

AREG’s Radio & Electronics Sale – Saturday October 26th 2024 – VKRadio, Microwave & EME Demos!

AREG’s Amateur Radio & Electronics Sale will be held on Saturday the 26th of October, at the DogsSA Training Facility in Kilburn as a car boot sale format. Gates will open at 9:30AM for sellers, and 10AM for buyers.

AREG are happy to announce that VKRadio are joining our lineup of commercial retailers at our upcoming Radio & Electronics Sale!

VK Radio is your local Yaesu and SDRPlay dealer, and has also been providing reliable repair services for commercial and amateur radios since 1989!

The entry fee will be $5 for buyers, $10 for a seller car park spot, with an extra $5 for a trailer spot. Car and Trailer registrations are filling up fast, so email vk5arg@areg.org.au to reserve your spot!

Microwave Band and EME Demonstrations!

Our outdoor sales area will also be host to microwave band demonstrations from Nik VK3BA, Iain VK5ZD and David VK5KK! Come along and find out how you can get active in the GHz bands! David will also be bringing his 10 GHz Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) setup, and will be attempting to make some contacts throughout the day.