Broadcast - 19 Jan 2025
With the changing of the calendar from 2024 into 2025 came quite a surprise with the dawning of the first day of the New Year! Let me explain:
Prior to Christmas and the New Year, Nic VK7WW and Andre’ VK7ZAB, had been intermittently testing various setups and antenna types on the 915 to 928MHz part of the spectrum for a usable transmission path link between their two sites. This is the LIPID or Low Interference Potential Devices Class of Licence area used for such things as LoRa and LoRa Wan for the internet of things etc.
On New Year’s Eve they were using Yagis and were very much QRP.
They were experimenting with some Meshtastic Nodes, specifically the Heltastic V3 modules. All went well with Nic’s node meshing in well with the Launceston nodes, with text messages being sent and received reliably. They were called back to family activities and didn’t return.
However after the clock ticked over midnight and the year flipped over to 2025 that’s when the fun started. Well actually the fun started around 4 am and continued until about 5.30 am. Progressively twenty four new Meshtastic Nodes in the Adelaide area started to appear in the Node list as the number of “Hops” increased.
Wasn’t there a lot of Aurora activity around that day?
Unfortunately it had happened when all of the Launceston mesh fraternity were asleep and by the time I awoke at 7 am the propagation link had disappeared. Well we “Missed it by THAT Much” …… as a Smart Secret Agent used to say.
It was quite a shock to see the number of nodes had skyrocketed overnight. Checking the transmission “Hop” information on Andre’s Meshtastic the most likely scenario was his “Nor-Nor-West” facing Yagi was connecting to a possible Node on Mt. Barker or Mount Bonython in South Australia.
Because we no longer had connection to South Australia we weren’t able to perform a “Trace Route”, which possibly would have given us the Node ID of Mt. Barker or Mount Bonython. From memory Mt. Bonython hosts a rather large Telecommunications complex and tower similar to Juliana St. in Launceston, would be a nice location for a node.
From the nodes with their location turned on there were: Seven Client nodes from suburbs around Adelaide including the CBD, two Clients at Mt. Barker and one at Mt. Bonython.
One without a location was Dave VK5DR, sounds like an amateur call-sign, does anyone know him and maybe have an e-mail address, just to let him know?
Needless to say every day for the next week, in the wee small hours of the morning, the Node list has been conscientiously checked for a re-occurrence, but alas it has not occurred…..
Regardless though this is still an approximately 1000 km hop from Launceston to Adelaide. Because of the mesh bi-directional data exchange this is as verification of the connections. I think this is pretty cool, considering the power of a Meshtastic module might only be 100mW or so, very definitely QRP.
Node information pictures of the Meshtastic event 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, 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 first session will be Wednesday the 22nd January, 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.
Annual General Meeting & General Meeting - Wednesday the 12th February 2025 at the NTARC Club Rooms, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street Rocherlea commencing at 19:30 hours (7.30 pm). Information to be e-mailed to club members soon.
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.
