Broadcast - 21 January 2024
The first Tech night for the new year finally rolled around and was very enthusiastically attended. We were lucky enough to have a couple of new faces in the mix, welcome to Jamie and Carl. Hopefully you enjoyed the evening at the club and I believe you departed carrying a copy of “Your Entry Into Amateur Radio” intent in pursuing a course towards a Foundation License, remember you are always welcome to drop in.
Jamie also brought along a couple of radios he inherited from his father. One was a Kenwood 120 HF SSB transceivers but the other unit did not sport a branded name! It may have been non-branded but it certainly conveyed what it thought it was meant to be, that was a “Two Meter Amateur Transceiver” going by the name of “Twoer” and a model number of HW-30. This caused some initial discussion until the arrival of Ros VK7ALH who quickly identified the unit’s origin as a Heathkit that had been home assembled and looked of a commercial quality.
This Heathkit transceiver kit was Circa 1960s. It was intended for the 2 Metre amateur band with only a mode choice of AM. It incorporated a Super-regenerative detector with continuous tuning on receive and came with one crystal socket mounted inside the case that set the transmit frequency. Output power was under 5 Watts and the unit was fully valve. There is a front panel mounted speaker grill and only three other basic controls: On/Off /Volume; Tuning; and originally a Transmit/Receive switch. However this unit had been modified with the inclusion of an externally mounted relay to allow the use of a “Push-To-Talk” microphone. One additional switch has also been added, its function is still to be ascertained. Early versions, like this one, also came standard with a Belling Lee antenna connector. The kit would have originally come with a 45 page construction and testing manual as well as a ceramic microphone.
Just for historical interest along with the Twoer, Heathkit sold other transceivers with similar features including the “Sixer” for 6 meters and the “Tener” for….. you guessed it…. 10 meters.
Evidently the Twoer was nicknamed the “Benton Harbor Lunchbox” because Heath Company was located in Benton Harbor, Michigan and the transceiver case looked like a lunch box! I must admit it does look a lot like an old metal lunchbox, especially with its carry handle mounted on top.
It seems the season break had certainly stirred the “lets complete a project” urge in a group of our members.
Lionel VK7ZLB brought along some of the gear he had just used for the “Summer VHF/UHF Field Day”, a couple of 23cm band Yagis and an enclosure of equipment.
One of the antennas was a newly made 21 element Yagi. Constructed using 12mm aluminium “C” section for the 1.5 Metre boom and 4.6mm tubing for the elements, friction fitted and riveted into position. Elements cut and positioned with an accuracy of 0.1mm. Using the “Yagi Design tool” by DL6WU the antenna should have about 17.6dBi gain. The Yagi has a 2 metre long flying lead of 7mm low loss foam coax cable attached. This allows the antenna to be plugged into the power amplifier that is mounted directly below.
The second Yagi Lionel had was a 10 element eBay special and its performance on the day was described by Lionel as “rubbish”. Need I say more?
Continuing in the 23cm equipment vein, Lionel also had a sg-lab.com 25W PA module with integrated receiver pre-amp and a 2 way latching RF relay to switch between antennas. These devices including patching requirements are all enclosed very neatly in a die-cast aluminium enclosure.
With a bit of luck Lionel may have a few pictures for a slide show of what most likely was an impressive setup used for the field day.
The second busy beaver was Peter VK7KPC who was in the radio room participating in the TechNet session using his ex-military Racal Squadcal TRA-906 transceiver. Over the break Peter had constructed an external interface, battery charger and switching unit for the Racal. He can apply 12 Volt DC from home or field battery, it is stepped up to 24 Volt and goes into the controller to monitor and charge his 18 Volt battery box located on the back of the Racal. The battery box contains three 6 Volt SLA rechargeable batteries each in the original required shape of the square-ish “Lantern Batteries”. Peter showed us a pre-recorded video demonstration and the controller / charger functioned flawlessly, it’s nice when a design concept comes together so well.
Peter also had a successful Tech Net night using the Racal, making contacts on 80 metres CW with Keiran VK3BTV and Jordan VK3ACU both located on the mainland.
As always equipment pictures are available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 24th of January. 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.
The Club Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 31st of January and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm, running through to about 10 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
No Coffee Morning – Please note there will not be a coffee morning on Friday the 26th January. The club rooms will be closed for the Australia Day holiday.
Annual General Meeting & General Meeting - Wednesday the 14th February 2024 at the NTARC Club Rooms, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street Rocherlea commencing at 19:30 hours (7.30 pm).
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.
