Broadcast - 31 July 2022
Congratulations once again to Peter VK7KPC, this time in the VK Trans-Tasman Contest held earlier in July. He obtained 9th place in the Single Operator QRP section. Scoring is national and not state based. The aim of the contest is to encourage Low Band activity between VK and ZL Prefixes on the 160, 80 and 40M bands, using SSB, CW and Digital modes. The intent is a short six hour evening contest. Well done Peter. Looking at the WIA Contest Championship List, there are five VK7s in the top thirty national contestants. Two are NTARC members, well done to Peter VK7KPC and Andrew VK7DW. Worth noting is Catherine VK7GH who is currently sitting at number two on the ranking table, good going Catherine! Congratulations to all VK7s on the list, we do seem to be performing well considering our population density and location. Well done to all who are engaging in the contests.
Wednesdays Technical Night saw a presentation by Lionel VK7ZLB on batteries. Those things you probably don’t give much thought to unless you are trying to get an obscure numbered version for a car door remote or that vintage portable radio.
His presentation concentrated on dry cells, not at a chemical level, but at a combination of the 1.5 Volt cells and their convoluted evolution.
The manufacturer that first comes to your mind is probably “Eveready”, spelt as one word. The United Kingdom used the two word spelling of “Ever Ready”. Also UK didn’t take up the use of a cat jumping through a number 9, “The Cat Of Nine Lives” logo on their batteries or advertising. An ingenious advertising campaign implying that their batteries lasted nine times longer.
The evolution of battery versions was intertwined with what they could potentially be used for. An example is valve radio manufacturers wanting portability, so if the battery manufacturer designed a battery for them it would be mutually beneficial. Because of this symbiotic relationship Australia was able to set up a larger manufacturing plant and cater for consumer electronics and specialised equipment manufactured by companies like AWA.
Lionel walked us through the maze of battery types and their individual variations and anomalies and yes they generally are manufacturing area specific. The same battery model number can have variations depending on which country or continent you reside in. This can include anything from internal cell construction of the battery to variations in external contacts and connectors.
From the first batteries being manufactured in Australia about 1901 through the growth years to finally the closure of the Australian manufacturing plant and with it the requirement for India to tool up to provide Australian specific batteries! Yet another local manufacturing industry lost!
There is absolutely no way I can do this presentation justice, it went for an hour and a half of riveting information covering areas you probably would not have related to batteries and it just can’t be compressed into a few hundred lines. In a “Nut Shell” there is a 1.5 Volt Cell and more than one cell combined is then a “Battery”.
If you weren’t there, sorry but you missed out!
In the same vein, Peter VK7KPC also brought in some military portable transceiver clip on battery packs, mostly of the rechargeable type. One large dry cell unit for valve equipment, and one designed specifically to take “D” cells to make up the “Battery” unit.
Ross VK7ALH brought in one of his original Yaesu FT101, still in excellent condition. Ross also had a couple of the internal plug in boards from later versions of the FT101, this showed how some of the adjustable calibration pre-set names have changed over the years for the exact same function, no wonder people get confused. Between Ross and Peter it is quite amazing what equipment and objects continue to surface.
Stuart VK7FEAT brought in an excellent condition collectors Bakelite construction moving coil meter made by E.T.E.I. Ltd. High Wycombe England, Model 909. From the serial number on the meter face this seems to be pre 1945, about WW2. One of the interesting things is that it was specifically a “Tropicalised” version of the unit and found popularity in military equipment destined to be used outside of England and Europe. Certainly one worth hanging onto Stuart.
SSTV Net - Thursday night was once again an enthusiastic night, however we certainly did experience a lot of interference on the South to North repeater RF link. This can be seen on the images contained under “Blogs” on the NTARC Website,
https://www.ntarc.net/blogs/1u6lzeqdjj85rnz66jnkqkvi7nr6i9-txhff-8x8gj-n8l6n-yxenf-sl5cc-acd9p
Virtually all images originating from South were not up to the usual standard and were generally suffering from some form of interference, even when off air viewed from different locations up North. However the ability to view the local southern originated images on Ken VK7KRJ’s SSTV Webcam site showed all to be close to perfect. Indeed northern originated images on Ken’s Web site were also very good. This could indicate a problem in the overall South - North Link direction between the repeaters or atmospherics on the night? Something to keep an eye on. Having a baseline record of images and the ability to look at images in near “real-time” are excellent diagnostic tools.
For those of us also interested in the world of SSTV on HF this site also shows activity on multiple bands including the popular 40metre band.
Thanks go to Ken for making and maintaining this type of site. Link to Ken’s SSTV Webcam site is available in the email edition of the broadcast.
https://sstv.vk7krj.com/2m.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet – Wednesday 3rd August. 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 again be Nic VK7WW.
SSTV Net - held every Thursday night on the 70cm repeater, VK7RJG and linked to the South via repeater VK7RAF. Conducted from 7.30pm till about 9.30pm, at the moment. These SSTV images will be available on the NTARC website under ‘Blogs’.
Club Technical night – Wednesday 10th August. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until late.
Club General Meeting – Saturday 13th August. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea. Meeting commences at 2pm.
Club Social Night - Wednesday evening the 14th of September. To be held at the family friendly Mowbray Hotel. Those who wish to attend please register the number of places required to the Secretary or on the registration sheet at the club rooms.
Coffee Morning – held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Get warm while you catch up, time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. These coffee events represent a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards and recently delivered mugs. We currently have cards awaiting collection, so why not pop in and check the QSL box and join us for a cuppa and chat.
The club is following the Covid 19 recommendation to continue wearing face masks when gathering.
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.
