The next monthly AREG meeting is coming up on Friday April 15th, starting at 8.00pm.
Our presenters for the evening are Chris VK5SA and Andrew VK5AKH. They will jointly be talking about HF communications, giving insights into how the HF bands work, and how to get the most out of them from your everyday station.
Africa in 1997 – Chris will talk to this
Chris VK5SA’s segment is primarily targeted at for Foundation members who are struggling to understand HF propagation, and also Z-calls who have finally embraced these frequencies 🙂 He originally gave it in Kenya nearly 20 years ago for native African NGO radio operators who needed to be shown what frequencies and antennas did what.
Grant VK5GR (ex VK5ZWI’s) new shiny HF Antenna (now how to I talk to someone on these bands?)
Chris will explaining what you need to do to reliable HF communications and relate how this was explained for an operator sitting by his ‘phone in Cape Town.
Andy VK5AKH will follow that with a practical guide to getting started with HF operation. Topics covered will include what band, what mode, what time and for those lucky enough to be putting up a new hex beams what azimuth!
Andy will also discuss some tools to make life easier with identifying band/Dx activity, so that you can make the most of your work/ham radio/life balance.
Meeting Location
Our meetings are held at the:
Reedbeds Community Hall,
Phelps Crt
Fulham
Doors open at 7.45pm with the meeting starting at 8.00pm
Visitors are always welcome, so this month, in particular if you are one of the newly licensed foundation calls, why not drop in and meet the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group!
The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group, one of Adelaide’s leading Amateur Radio groups is pleased to advise that after months of research and experiments at a secret location, it has developed and perfected a process whereby the radiation pattern of any HF antenna can be displayed visually, full size in real time.
The kit includes a canister of particles which are sensitive to E and H field radiation. The particles are suspended in harmless nitrogen gas which, once released near an antenna will align to show you the radiation pattern of that antenna whilst it is transmitting. When the particles are charged by the E and H field radiation they become opaque, arranging themselves along the lines of maximum intensity of the emitted electromagnetic field. The end result is a real time ‘Smith Chart’ like representation of the Antenna radiation pattern.
The deluxe version of the kit uses a laser, guided by a PC controlled mirror arrangement, to display a grid pattern for calibration purposes, which will allow you to take a photograph for storage and future analysis.
A patent application has been prepared for lodgement, after which time the proposal will be presented at the April Monthly meeting. Kits will be funded through the “StartKicking” process in due course.
Dateline: April 1st 2016
Contributors: VK5CP, VK5ZM, VK5FGRY, VK5GR
A number of AREG members have headed to the 2nd QTH of Chris VK5CP to activate the club callsign VK5ARG in the CQ WPX SSB Contest this weekend!
The WPX Contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.
For details of the contest, the rules, background and other information, go to the CQWPX Website.
The MonstIR Yagi
VK5ARG Results
Now that the contest has concluded, VK5ARG can report that they have worked 957 contacts for a total of 1,660,662 points. By band the results are:
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The following members were involved in the event:
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All up a worthy effort from VK5ARG. Best of luck in the rankings guys, but most of all we hope you had a lot of fun!
Theo VK5MTM: Operating the AREG Club Callsign like a boss in the WPX
AREG members fielded 5 stations in the contest this year. This was a change of direction for the club’s participation which had revolved around building a single mega-station the past couple of years. The plan was to put more stations on air, thus providing more contact opportunities! VK5AKH, VK5MTM, VK5KX, VK5CP and VK5GR took up the challenge, and a challenge it turned out to be.
While the “atmospheric” weather was ideal in South Australia, the ionospheric weather was anything but. As the event unfolded, HF conditions deteriorated and contacts became challenging with a solar Coronal Mass Ejection around 0900UTC making things difficult.
T-Index Map courtesy Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Services Showing conditions during the JMMFD 2016
None the less, contacts were still there to be had, just not on the higher bands.
The following are some of the notes from the various member stations that were active over the weekend! General comments are that it has been loads of fun.
VK5AKH’s Efforts
From Andy: Thanks to all stations that were on the other end of my 320QSOs across 40,20 &15m while portable for the JMMFD. It was the first time in 6 months+ I have had some quality HF time since moving from a house with a tribander and antenna farm into a inner city townhouse with no ham radio. Was a great feeling to be back on the bands and a reminder that having to go portable to play HF is not a bad thing. 73 catch you in the next contest”
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VK5MTM’s Efforts
Theo entered the 6 hour section today running on battery power from Morialta conservation park. One of his comments about his station was that “I got 5 hours, 20 minutes from my little LifePo battery today (with lots of TXing and calling CQ contest) running at 50 watts all day until my battery alarm went spastic as soon as it hit 11.7 volts, then I called it quits, packed up and went home. The 857D performed incredibly well. Even in crowded condx, the bandpass filter once narrowed down a bit surprised me how effective it was.”
Theo made 92 QSO’s. His observations were that the bands were very quiet in his opinion compared to other years and conditions were not fantastic but none the less he had a great day and really enjoyed it.
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Theo has also made a video of his activity!
VK5GR’s Efforts
Grant went portable under (almost) his own steam for the first time in a HF contest this year, operating from Tickera on the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf. Here is Grant’s report:
“Activity was also a bit slow, but I was also still evaluating my Buxcomm TF2D broadband antenna, trying to decide if it is the right antenna for the job or not. On 40m it appeared to work well, but not so good on the other bands (although the disturbed ionosphere may have impacted that impression this weekend). On 80m, however, it was clear that while on receive it seemed pretty good, transmit is definitely compromised.
Fortunately I had borrowed some wire and a balun from Chris VK5SA very late Friday night. So, in the face of virtually no contacts being made on 80m, I pulled down the TF2D and constructed a resonant 80m dipole at 9pm on Saturday mid contest. The decision was, either do this or go to bed because no one could hear me!
The gamble paid off handsomely! 80m sprung to life with all VK call areas except VK8/9/0 being worked. For almost 4 hours there was a continuous stream of stations, to the point that 80m was on the verge of having a higher contact tally than all of the other bands combined for a while! In the early morning (5.30am), 40m elements were added which helped the transmit performance on that band as well. All up, I managed 217 contacts over the 24hrs.
I also wish to say a big thank-you to Peter VK5KX who loaned me a generator so that I could enter the portable section of the contest, and to Andy VK5AKH who loaned me the portable tower – without which I would have been just throwing things in trees and hoping for the best!
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VK5KX’s efforts
Peter VK5KX also hit the field and relayed the following photos of his location on the ranges east of Balaklava.
From Peter: “We were intending to operate from ‘The Rocks’ just south of Balaklava, we got there and where I had intended to operate from had a nice new gate installed across the access track and it was locked, the other place has been blocked by big boulders, so The Rocks was a bust.
Drove into Balaklava and had a hamburger for lunch (huge), left there heading for the hills in the direction of Auburn, went thru a town called Halbury then saw a likely looking track on the right heading to the crest of a hill, went up this goat track for a few kms and settled on a place in the middle of nowhere (S34º 08.27′, E138º 34.06’).
Set the operating point in the bus up, then out to the antenna, erected the 8m pole with a 23m delta loop tuned thru an SGC-230, this would give me multi-band operation, alas something was not quite right with this arrangement (hadn’t been tested at home) so down with the delta and up with an inverted V for 40m, this worked well.
I only did the 6 hours, all on 40m apart from one 15m contact with VK4QD, all up I did 78 contacts of which 77 counted for the contest, we stayed the night and negotiated the further goat tracks in a pear shaped voyage back to Balaklava then onto Mallala race circuit for a look-see at some V8’s circulating.”
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VK5CP on the air.
Chris also participated for a while from his shack at Younghusband in the Murray Mallee. From Chris: “I got about 65 QSO on 40m in an hour – MonstIR was working well and noise floor was low (much to QI’s surprise)”
Conclusion
All up a great deal of fun was had by everyone involved. I’m sure plans are already being drawn up to have another go next year! See you then!
It’s that time of year again! Break out your portable masts, tents and generators it’s time for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day! Unlike the past couple of years, the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group has this year encouraged it’s members to scatter and run their own stations.
A number of portable operations are planned including VK5AKH in Sedan, VK5MTM in Morialta and VK5GR in Tickera. VK5CP is going to operate from Younghusband in the Riverland and VK5FO is going to operate from his shack near Waikerie. VK1KRM (a long distance AREG member) has also been bitten by the bug and may get up on the air! You may also hear VK5SA (home station) and rumor has it that even VK5IX might sling up a dipole and have a go! We are also hoping to hear from VK5FDEN and perhaps even VK5FGRY over the course of the weekend. So, plenty of stations to work every 3 hours, not to mention the other clubs and operators around the states who are hitting the trail and taking their radios out into the bush for some exercise.
CONTEST TIMES: 0100 UTC Saturday to 0059 UTC Sunday, 19-20 March 2016
All of the members of AREG look forward to making as many contacts as they can with stations across Australia and the world during the contest. Good luck everyone and may the ionosphere be with you!
The next general meeting of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be held on Friday 18th March at 7.45pm. The presentation for the evening will be given by Wayne VK5APN. Wayne will give us a practical guide for how to get started in 2m Moonbounce operation (EME), taking you through the basics of what you need in terms of equipment and also the operating techniques you need to use to complete successful EME contacts.
VK5APN Portable EME 2m Array
Visitors are also most welcome! You will find our clubrooms at the Reedbeds Community Hall, via Phelps Crt, Fulham. Talk in is available via the club’s 70cm repeater VK5RSB on 439.900 (-5MHz 91.5Hz CTCSS).
The Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group wishes to advise that the 1299.700MHz 128kbit/s port of the VK5RWN D*STAR node has been placed into “hibernation”. In the entire life of the repeater this port has been accessed 3 times, and so rather than continuing to pay to keep it active it has been switched off. The equipment remains installed however so if you do desire to experiment with this aspect of D*STAR it will be a simple matter of contacting the club, and we can go and re-enable it for you. (This is to help further combat the $1000+ power bill the club foots to run this site each year).
QSL cards come in to the VK5 QSL Manager from the WIA National QSL Bureau around every 3 months. Upon arrival, they require some sorting and then forwarding out to the various VK5 clubs. Stephan VK5RZ has been admirably performing this role for a number of years. He has, however, had to resign from the position due to commitments he has with study. AREG commends Stephan on the effort he has put into the bureau and wishes to express our appreciation for the work he has put into the role.
AREG Accepts the Challenge!
The members of AREG, many of whom have an active interest in HF DX operating and QSL cards, decided that this was a function that the club ought to take on as a service to the VK5 amateur radio community. As a result of a motion at the last AREG general meeting, AREG has indicated it’s willingness to accept the task to the WIA board.
Please note: as soon as the administrative tasks are completed to effect the transfer, new details for the bureau will be announced here and in all relevant amateur media. Until then, please hold off making inquiries as we are not yet in a position to respond.
AREG QSL Gallery
As VK5ARG itself gathers more cards, the club is maintaining a QSL gallery of cards it has received on it’s website for members to see the results of their handywork! Why not go and check out the AREG QSL Gallery while you are here?
