Broadcast - 4 June 2023
NTARC News for Sunday Broadcast – 4th June 2023
Despite the extremely inclement weather, we received a REAST visitor from the South in the form of Steven VK7SME. He was in the North for work related activities, staying with his father at Beaconsfield and decided to visit our Club Rooms for the Tech Night to see what we got up to. Much discussion ensued covering a diverse range of topics from radios to Tasmanian traffic regulations. Hopefully we will see him a couple more times before returning south.
A quick update on Peter VK7KPC’s, latest “built from scratch” project. This is his PIXIE transceiver mentioned last month, a 300 milliwatt QRP Transceiver, designed by W1FB (SK). The primary design difference is there is no on board crystal but a DB9 socket that accepts a suitable plug containing the crystal. This makes changing the operational frequency as easy as changing a plug. The original printed circuit board has now found a home mounted on a nice timber backing board. This provided extra space for the addition of an external variable capacitor incorporating a reduction drive and the Anderson DC connectors are now securely mounted. Peter has used a section of 0.1 pitch Vero board to construct a socketed docking board to accept two commercial sized plug in filters. This allows for full break out of the filter board connections while allowing them to be easily unplugged and swapped over depending on the band in use. Nice and easy like the crystal plug swap. This sub board also includes SMA connectors for easy RF patching, which makes thing very simple to insert something like a Vector Network Analyser or VNA when conducting filter alignments. The filter boards are used in pairs, one bandpass for receive and the other low pass for transmit. These filters can be manually switched in or out as required or physically changed between 80 or 40 Metre bands. Peter demonstrated the frequency response curves of the filters he has set up with the aid of his VNA. He also showed off his WM2 kit built wattmeter which is ideal for QRP and features three ranges, up to 100 mW, 1 W and 10 W respectively. Peters little rig was outputting just over 400 mW when tested.
The other Peter attending was VK7PD, who brought in his just received latest edition of DUBUS, the international amateur radio magazine intended for the serious VHF and above operator. Published in Germany, it is fully bilingual (English/German). There are four issues a year, published quarterly and available every three months. ‘Sorry about that Chief’, apologies to Maxwell Smart, but I couldn’t resist.
Of particular interest in this edition were three articles;
A Transverter Interface for Multiband IF Radios - like IC-705, FT-817/818 and Elecraft K2/3 by Goran Popovic, AD6IW.
A binary-phase-modulated Transmitter for the 30 THz infrared Band by Barry Chambers, G8AGN and of course Auroral Openings on 2 meters with Q65-15C by our very own Rex Moncur, VK7MO.
As reading time was a premium on the night I hope Peter will bring the edition back in, after he has had a chance to read it, so we can also finish off a couple of articles.
In between deluges of rain Stuart VK7FEAT managed to retrieve his latest project from his vehicle. He has been working on an engineering solution for a Squid Pole antenna mount for his four wheel drive. This version relies on using the standard 50mm square section Hayman Reece towbar receptacle. The horizontal bar fits snuggly into the receptacle and is pinned. The vertical socket arm has movement from horizontal to the vertical position using an over centre hinged locking action. It has a very solid design with a smooth action and should have no trouble supporting his squid pole. Can’t wait to see the finished product Stuart.
Bernie VK7BR was back to basics, he was reverse engineering the circuit board of a 240VAC switching power supply and multi led light combination. With the aid of a multimeter the circuit diagram of the part under scrutiny soon appeared on paper and with it the ability to test and illuminate some of the led strings. What better way to spend an absolutely drenching night.
Equipment pictures are available on the NTARC website under “Blogs” for this broadcast. Now back to the house keeping.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 7th of June. TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7pm till 7.30pm…. and a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm. Your host for the evening will be Nic VK7WW.
Club General Meeting - Saturday the 10th of June at 2.00pm. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea. If you have items you would like added to the agenda please email the secretary at: secretary@ntarc.net no later than Friday the 9th of June.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. Why not pop in and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
The Club Technical night - The next session will be on Wednesday the 14th of June and will commence at the usual time of 7.30 pm, running through to about 10.30 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
FINALLY - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73 from Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC.
