Broadcast - 3 Sept 2023
To start on a light note, it is Father’s Day, so happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, grandfathers and possibly some great grandfathers listening this morning. Enjoy your day and I hope you get spoiled by the family.
A brief update from the Safety Communications Team for the Equine Endurance Ride held at Santarena Park, Scottsdale last weekend. The one day event went well with some of our club members starting off from Launceston before five o’clock on Saturday morning to head to Scottsdale! At least there were magnificent egg and bacon rolls plus coffee available from 6 am at the kiosk to kick start everybody. The first riders departing base at 07:00 were in the 80 km section, followed by the 40 and 20 km groups starting later in the morning. We provided the usual safety communications and rider tracking for two checkpoints. Thanks to VK7’s Roger ARN, Peter KPC, Idris ZIR and Stefan ZSB at the checkpoints, with Stuart FEAT providing a welcome extra hand and voice at Ride Base with Andre’ ZAB. The day also saw Peter SP remotely logging in from Switzerland to see how things were going. Compared to the last month’s event held at Lebrina this was a walk in the park or more accurately a walk in the forest. Good weather all the way with no “deluginous” outpouring from the heavens above or awning lifting wind gusts from below. A very pleasant day was had by all.
Now for a few quick items from the last Club Technical Night.
Lionel VK7ZLB had with him a selection of Coaxial Low Noise Pre-Amplifiers. Initially a Mini-Circuits ZF-1000 that covers from 0.1 to 1,000 MHz with a Noise Floor of 2.9dB. This unit has been in Lionel’s arsenal for over twenty years and is still functioning perfectly.
Followed by his latest acquisitions from e-bay, a Mini-Circuits ZX60 covering from 50 to 3,000 MHz. This $160 unit appears to be identical to the America version advertised at $500.
Lastly a generically labelled LNA-V1.0 module that covers from 50 to 4,000 MHz with a Noise Floor of 1.3dB. All units were constructed to a high standard and in metal enclosures. According to Lionel they all seem to out-perform his Icom IC-9700, with regards to Noise Floor!
Peter VK7ZPE had an MFJ manufactured 64 to 1 Balun that he was modifying. Evidently it was playing up during a Parks activation at Gravely Beach. The unit has a plastic case and the through panel SO239 connector was screwed into a thread tapped into the plastic case without the use of a securing nut. It also had a fairly flimsy and dodgy looking earth lug. Peter rectified the earth problem by soldering a heavy copper wire externally onto the socket and passing it through a hole he drilled into the case to make a substantial earth terminating point within the enclosure. It will be interesting to see if this gets thing going again.
Peter VK7KPC was delving into the circuit diagrams of his recently acquired 1970 Traeger Type-SSB50 Transceiver that was mentioned in a broadcast last month. He was busy testing components using his LCR meter and is confident that he will soon have it functioning and hopefully on air.
Just as a follow up, after Tuesday night’s re-broadcast during call back, did any one hear Peter asking for anyone available for a test on 80 metres? Well it turned out he was going to test his Treagar. I had no problems receiving his transmissions in Launceston, which I know isn’t far from Evandale but Peter was putting out a clean, readable signal at my noisy location. But even better, three operators also joined in the QSO from South Tasmania. Garry VK7JGD located at Snug, Richard VK7ZBX at Tea Tree and Justin VK7TW from the Hobart area. All returning a good signal report of 5+9 from his power output of 12.5 Watts. The QSO was conducted on 3543.5 kHz as that’s the only suitable crystal Peter has at the moment for the Treagar. Good to see Peter making excellent restoration progress.
It was great to see two new faces at Friday coffee morning this week. Josh VK3ZB and Peter VK3CMA are over from the mainland on a whirlwind visit to northern Tasmania. They are probably recognisable to anyone following the TestNet and TechNet sessions on Wednesday nights, either on air or via the Discord channel as regular Net patrons. Great to put a face to a name and we all wish you good weather for your island visit. I believe you have a 12 metre squid pole in the boot of your car, along with a rig and were heard asking about the locations of parks nearby! Josh and Peter were last seen disappearing with TechNet controller Nic, VK7WW after morning tea. At least they are in good hands and hopefully will also make a few contacts before heading back on Sunday.
As always equipment pictures are available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast. Now back to the house keeping.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Club Technical night - The next session will be on Wednesday the 6th of September and will commence at the winter time of 6.30 pm through to about 10.00 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
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 TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 13th of September. 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.
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 Inc.
