Broadcast - 17 Sept 2023
First off, it was great to see Ian VK7IG at the club rooms, having recently returned from a fairly extensive mainland campervan trip with XYL Shirley. With the limited time we only managed a few pictures and stories of their adventures. Hopefully more will be revealed next club technical night.
Now back to the technical side of the night.
Colin VK7ZCF has been putting his recently constructed spot welder to good use. He has been able to attach tags and join new cells together so he can manufacture spare battery packs for his cordless tools. With a bit of online shopping he sourced copies of the battery pack case that was suitable for his brand. The finished product is very professional and has the added bonus of being cost effective as he already had the spot welder.
Stuart VK7FEAT recently mounted a Terlin HF antenna on his vehicle. It is multi band with the desired band being selected by a movable banana plug patch lead. He has been having a few inconsistencies with performance and SWR, so he brought it in for some preliminary checks. He has cleaned the patch sockets and installed a new gold plated banana plug just for good measure. Physically checking the fiberglass outer casing for any damage or problems and then a DC continuity resistance check from antenna base through all the taps to the top that provides an adjustable stainless steel end piece. Everything appeared to be in good order. The next part is check the vehicle’s co-axial cable feed and then dynamically check the complete setup using his RigExpert analyser with the antenna mounted on the vehicle. This will be a job for another day and I mean day as it was dark outside and quite cold by then. Much easier to stay inside with the warmth of the club room wood fire.
Peter VK7KPC had a couple of plugin crystal oscillator modules from his recently purchased 1970 Traeger Type-SSB50 Transceiver. Peter has managed to acquire a couple of possibly usable crystals and was working on board modifications to hopefully pull the oscillator frequency enough for his use. The unit has been on air, just not quite where he wants it to be.
Peter also demonstrated an excellent example of a precision Roller Inductor that incorporated a numerical wiper position indicator. It was in excellent condition with a very smooth operation and was fully functional, just needs some “Spit and Polish” then it’s good to go.
Remember the Centenary “Cent” 1 Watt CW transmitter that was designed and published by Nic VK7WW, in celebration of 100 years of amateur radio in Tasmania? Well I have a feeling that there may be another addition or variation in the pipeline. Recently there have been some interesting pictures posted on Discord by Nic, one of which looks like a small working prototype RF Power Amplifier that has a stated 9 watt output from 1Watt input and uses an IRF510 MOSFET. The other picture is what must be the collateral damage from development! A pile of Chinese MOSFET “equivalent” devices. I use the term equivalent very loosely here but they were fine for sacrificial devices until the genuine ones arrive from the actual manufacturer. Looking at the picture they certainly were sacrificed and to quote Discord – “$3 of China’s finest down the drain”. HiHi. We await the next instalment from Nic.
Now over to Roger VK7ARN to fill us in on a combined club event that was certainly the biggest for some time.
“Although scribed prior, by the time this is broadcast it will be over, except for the clean-up and pack away.
NorWestTARC and NorTARC combined resources to provide safety communications for the latest equine endurance event. At a new venue near Bakers Beach, extending into the Dazzler Range and south to Frankford Rd. The field was the biggest for some time, with over 100 entries, spread roughly equally over 80km, 40km and 12 km rides.
Being new tracks in a new area, more than the usual preparation was prudent. Once the tracks were confirmed and desirable checkpoint sites identified, Radio Mobile software was applied to find communications should be readily achieved without the need for a repeater. A sites visit with the track setter indicated access to be reasonable, though the road was badly pot-holed.
The NTARC comms trailer was put into position at Ride Base on Friday, ready for an 06:00 gathering on Saturday before heading off to stations ready for the 80km ride start at 06:30.
A crew consisting of VK7s Roger ARN, Stuart FEAT, Rick RI, Ross WP, Andre’ ZAB, Idris ZIR, Stefan ZSB passed around 300 messages to Base, from the eight checkpoints at the three locations. Climatic conditions were less than favourable with forecast wind gusts of 70km/h and showers.
More interesting snippets and a wrap up will be included in next week’s broadcast.”
Thanks Roger, I hope it all went well.
Now for the observant club room visitors amongst us, have you notice the new adornment on the wall above the toilet door, a new large clock. This has been donated to the club by Brendan VK7VIP, after the previous wall occupant kamikazed onto the floor for the umpteenth time and now only displays the correct time twice a day. Hihi. Thanks Brendan.
It’s that time of year again and very soon we will be hosting JOTA/JOTI for 2023. With this comes the need for volunteers to assist in activities and that is where you come into the equation!
The Venue is the NTARC Club rooms, which is the Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer St, Rocherlea.
The sessions will be on Saturday the 21st of October from noon to 6pm and Sunday the 22nd of October from 10am till 3pm. Groups are planned to arrive in two hour blocks, split up and rotate through four activities.
At the Club Rooms we will need volunteers to assistance with:
The operation of each of the transceivers set up for voice chat by the participants.
Oversee the assembly of Morse code trainer kits, (no soldering required only a screw driver).
Sending and receiving each other’s names by Morse code on the practice keys. (No, not live to air)
Plus external to the Club Rooms:
We need local contacts to chat with the participants in case we can’t link up to other Scout venues. If you are able to assist for any length of time over the two days please let Peter, VK7KPC or the club Secretary know of your availability or by e-mailing secretary@ntarc.net
Let us finish off with something to think about......
It has been suggested that NTARC host another club “Shack Clear-out” auction.
This one could be open to all amateurs’ not just NTARC members! So have a think, do you have items that are no longer needed, are you trying to claw back some of your space, do you just want to down size and consolidate your equipment setup? If there is enough interest then we will set a date and if all goes well we may even be able to obtain the services of our previous master auctioneer Nic VK7WW to oversee the proceedings.
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 20th 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 27th 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.
