Next fox hunt: Friday 10/09/2021

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Our September fox hunt is scheduled for the evening of Friday the 10th of September, kicking off at 6:30pm from the southern end of the car park at the Adelaide Aquatic centre.

As usual, this event is open to all participants and you don’t need to be a member to join us.

This hunt will again see our usual two 2m foxes in use as well the 70cm fox. Our little biscuit tin fox has had an upgrade to a green army ammo tin and SLA battery, donated by Kim VK5FJ. This has increased the Baofeng/Arduino powered fox run time from 3.5 hours to 11+ hours.

Last month’s hunt saw eight of us join in to locate the three foxes. The biscuit tin, deployed by AREG members Chris VK5CP and Gary VK5GRY, was clevery hidden under a witches hat/street cone on Halifax St in the city. Hunters knew they were close when they spotted Chris and Gary seated outside a nearby hotel enjoying a beverage whilst watching the hunters drive up and down trying to locate the transmitter.

The 70cm fox stuck was to the back of a street sign off Greenhill Road, in the Adelaide Parklands whilst the second 2m fox was hidden by the banks of the Torrens River at Grange.

Mark VK5QI’s newly designed TDOA doppler system with car Head Up Display worked extremely well. A video of it in action can be seen here.

Once again, hunters are encourgaed to liaise on the night on the club’s VK5RSB 70cm repeater.

We look forward to seeing you on the night.

 

August Meeting: Amateur Radio Contesting with VK5ARG

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VK5ARG: Tarlee Contest Site – Remembrance Day Contest 2021

The next meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group will be held this coming Friday, 20th August. The topic will be Amateur Radio Contesting with VK5ARG. During the meeting we will explain the basics of Amateur Radio Contesting and how we apply them during “Contest Month” up at our remote site west of Tarlee.

The aim will be to demystify how to get involved with contesting and explain the basics. We will also talk a bit about contest strategy, band awareness and operating styles, so you can get a feel for how to make contacts in a contest environment. After the initial presentation, there will be time for Q&A.

For anyone who would like to get involved in Contest Month during September/October for the first time, know that we will be working to introduce newbies at the event with each new operator having a mentor to help them get into the swing of things!

Michael VK5ZRN – First time contester – Remembrance Day Contest 2021 @ VK5ARG

The presentation this Friday night will start at 7.45pm. Doors open at 7.15pm and the venue will be the Fulham Community Hall, Phelps Court, Fulham! Visitors are welcome – see you there!

AREG Members note: the meeting will be simulcast on Zoom for members who cant be there in person, but there will be no YouTube stream this month. We will be observing the current COVID restrictions at the hall as well and will ask everyone in attendance to wear a mask in accordance with current health guidelines. Check in at the door will be mandatory. If you are unwell, please stay home and join the proceedings via Zoom!

Medium Wave Digital Radio Mondiale Broadcasting Trial: AREG Members Listening

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There is a very un-publicised Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) trial on air in Australia at the moment. The trial is on 747kHz from a transmitter site in Wangaratta, Victoria and the program is ABC Radio National.

Youtube video from “digitalmediafan” 

The signal does become decodable at times during the early evening however; there is co-channel interference coming in from MW AM transmitters on 747kHz in Toowoomba, Hobart and Esperance to contend with along with selective fading in the pass-band.

More information on the DRM format can be found here: https://www.drm.org/

Steve VK5SFA has been experimenting with decoding the signal and has had some success using the following information and links:

  • How to install the decoding software. (HERE)
  • Source of the required Dream V2.2.x software (HERE)
  • And the missing dll file here:  (HERE)

He also suggests a directional antenna such as a magnetic loop might be of some benefit. Steve has used his Flex Radio as well as an Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR receiver with some success. Experimenters should also remember to use a digital USB mode (no audio EQ) and make the RX filter wide enough to fit the whole digital spectrum when trying to decode the signal.  (Note the centre carrier frequency is 747kHz +/- the signal BW)

Have FUN experimenting!

August Fox Hunt: Friday August 6th @ 18:30

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Our next monthly fox hunt is scheduled for the evening of Friday the 6th of August, commencing at 6:30pm.

Hunters are invited to meet from 6:15pm at the starting location, being the southern end of the car park at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, Jeffcott Road, North Adelaide.

This hunt will again see us hunting a couple of 2 meter hidden transmitters throughout the Adelaide metropolitan area and one 70cm fox.

As usual, we will liaise to discuss our progress throughout the night on the club’s VK5RSB 70cm repeater.

This event is open to all interested parties, members and non-members so we hope to see you all there.

If you don’t have any fox hunting equipment but would like to get a taste of what it’s all about, feel free to send us an email as sometimes out hunters have a spare seat in the cars for others to tag along.

Project Horus LIVE: Pico-Balloon Flight in progress – heading for VK3!

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UPDATE: This balloon has now burst and landed 60k to the east of Bendigo. Thanks to everyone for tracking! The following callsigns were recorded as contributing telemetry:
VK2PNH, VK3AH, VK3BQ, VK3DA, VK3DNS, VK3EEK, VK3FUR, VK3IK, VK3JED, VK3JL, VK3JUG, VK3MB, VK3OF, VK3OHM, VK3TNU, VK3UKW, VK3YD, VK5BRL, VK5HS, VK5IS, VK5LJG, VK5PE, VK5QI, VK5TRM
Here’s some entertainment for the VK3s & Southern VK2s/VK1s this weekend – I’ve sent another pico balloon (30 grams) careening towards the east, currently doing >280 kph!
If it ends up floating as intended (and it might not, these things are finicky…) then it should keep heading past Melbourne and off towards the east coast.
Tracking of the flight is available here: https://tracker.habhub.org/…
It’s transmitting the Project Horus ‘Horus Binary’ 4FSK mode on 434.200 MHz (tune to 434.199 MHz USB), and can be decoded using the Horus-GUI software: https://github.com/…/1.1-Horus-GUI-Reception-Guide…

AREG Foxhunting Activity in June/July – Get Involved!

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AREG members are having their interest in Fox-Hunting rekindled thanks to the efforts of Theo VK5IR. Anyone can participate and you can use some fairly simple equipment too. The hunts are conducted on both 2m and 70cm at present and are usually held on the 2nd Friday of the month.

Keep watching the AREG Website for details!

AREG Considering adding DMR to VK5RWN – Interested?

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AREG is always looking to promote new and varied areas of experimentation in Amateur Radio. As the custodian and operators of the first digital VHF/UHF voice repeater system in South Australia (the VK5RWN D*STAR system), the group has now looked at what other digital modes are not yet available in Adelaide.

Image courtesy vkdmr.com

With the recent demise of the VK5RSF and temporary VK3RWW DMR repeaters that were serving Adelaide, AREG members interested in DMR started investigating what would be involved in hosting a replacement DMR system at one of the club’s existing sites.

After considering our options, filtering solutions, internet connections etc a proposal is in it’s final stages of development to add a DMR repeater to the VK5RWN site on 438.900 (-7MHz) overlooking the Adelaide metropolitan area.

What’s left to do you might ask? Funding the DMR repeater controller purchase and the last of the build costs. The ongoing operating costs also need to be addressed (namely the power bill) which will be considered against the number of members actively interested in DMR.

How can you help? If you are interested at all in DMR, why not consider becoming a member of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group? If you have an interest in DMR or even skills to help maintain and operate a DMR repeater then we would love to hear from you. The more people interested in DMR that get involved with the group, the more likely it is that we will be able to bring this project to fruition!

Over to you!

Posted in DMR

AREG AGM: New Committee for 2021/22

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The Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group Inc held its Annual General Meeting on Friday July 16th. Our new office bearers for FY21/22 are as follows:

PositionName
President:Gerard VK5ZQV
SecretaryMark VK5QI
TreasurerChris VK5FR
Committee:Michael VK5MN
Committee: Scott VK2JAX
CommitteeBob VK5FO

2020/21 was a big year for AREG. The following highlights will give you a sense of what was achieved this past year!

2021/22 looks to be bigger and brighter than ever too! We hope to see you there.

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