Broadcast - 10 Nov 2024
At last week’s Club Room Technical night session there was much discussion about the Tassie Ham-E-Con held in Hobart the previous weekend. All attendees found the weekend jaunt well worth the effort, with a few lucky club members even being success in the raffle prize draws. Funnily, I have been asked not to mention the early morning coffee, so I won’t, Hi-Hi. Because of family commitments I was unable to physically attend but found the ability to sign up for the live streaming of the event for both days to be brilliant. Still being able to be part of the excellent line-up of presentations while also keeping the home front happy! The Tassie Ham-E-Con committee certainly deserve congratulation on such a smooth running event, well done.
Now back to Wednesday night, Ross VK7ALH arrived with two Yaesu FT-757 HF transceivers. At first glance they visually seemed to be identical. So when is a Yaesu FT-757 not a Yaesu FT-757 as we know it? When one is specifically a version for the Japanese only market! On much closer visual inspection there was a difference. Yaesu had replaced the standard rotary switch, used for mode changing, to a group of push buttons for selection on the Japanese only market version. According to Ross, the first thing that really seemed different internally was the lack of a cooling fan! After some research he also ascertained that it had 10W RF output as opposed to our 100 watt version, this could explain the lack of a cooling fan. Ross has already started to set up the main printed circuit board solder-able link pads for Australian Amateur band programming only. It will be interesting to see if he comes across any other variations.
Colin VK7ZCF brought in his recently acquired larger than usual hand held Vector Network Analyser or VNA for short. This not so little gem is manufactured in China under the name SYSJOINT. It is the 7 inch capacitive screen version, model SV4401A and covers from 50kHz to 4.4GHz. It is fully enclosed and device interface connections are via “N” type connectors. The unit comes standard with an internal rechargeable battery, which makes it a very portable device and ideal for measurements being conducted outside. One nice touch with this purchase is that it comes complete with a padded carry pouch as well as an assortment of RF adaptors and patch leads. Compared to the now quite common and small NanoVNA this big sister is much easier to navigate the menu system when operating. Like any piece of test equipment, it has a setup and operational learning curve to fully appreciate all aspects of its ability and limitations, have fun experimenting Colin.
Peter VK7KPC disappeared into the radio room to test his Xiegu CS108G transceiver with a new microphone, speaker and push to talk all in one handset. This handset is very reminiscent of those used on a portable military radio back pack. As Peter was part of Nic’s Wednesday night TechNet session he could get instant feedback from Net members as to its on air performance. Club room attendees were able to check quality via the off air audio streaming provided by Phil VK7ZPD, on the club Discord channel. Nic’s Net Nights certainly have proven to be very handy, time and time again. Peter is now off constructing an interface box so the handset can be tried on different rigs. Don’t forget to visit the NTARC website and check out the pictures of Peter’s self-contained, portable, field station for phone and CW use.
Now back to housekeeping and NTARC QSL Cards - Andrew VK7DW, our QSL manager has advised me that “another recent delivery of QSL cards has arrived”. VK7’s AT, AU, BO, DON, GC, HBR, JFD, KW, MAT, MX, RH, YY, ZPE and ZR. If you just heard your call-sign then there are cards waiting at the NTARC club rooms for collection on the next Coffee morning or Technical Night. Thank you Herman for your continued support regarding QSL deliveries and thank you Andrew for the update.
As always, pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast. NTARC Blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7 pm till 7.30 pm, then a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30 pm till 8.30 pm. Your host for the evening is Nic VK7WW.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 20th November and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm at the Club Room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in check the QSL cards and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
End of year NTARC celebration – locked in for Wednesday the 4th of December.
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 5 pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
