Broadcast - 28 August 2022
As Winter is finally closing its door, I hope, yet another Wednesday Tech Night rolled by and was a bit of a mixed bag, as usual. To start things off Ross VK7ALH/LH brought along a rig from the renowned TEN-TEC stable. TEN-TEC started off in Tennessee, USA and has been designing and manufacturing communications equipment since 1968. This particular model started its production run in 2003 and is known as the Argonaut V QRP Transceiver. Strangely this item was not being repaired or from some dark corner of his workshop abyss, but a transceiver that was actually earning its keep. Because it is a compact HF rig, Ross recently pressed it into service while participating in the recent Light House and Lightship competition. With the help of photos he took us through his site setup and installation of the temporary antenna system he used.
For interest, the Light House and Lightship competition usually takes place on the 3rd full weekend in August each year and attracts over 500 lighthouse entries located in over 40 countries. Evidently it is one of the most popular international amateur radio events in existence. As I am told, this is probably because there are very few rules and it is not the usual contest type event.
Ross’s latest project is a faulty “Marine Grade”, SEA 1630, 200W Antenna Tuning Unit (ATU), made by Stevens Engineering in the USA. He brought in the faulty main PCB. He had located the fault to the RF input transformer and is currently working on a replacement part.
Peter VK7KPC, in the radio room continued on with the next step of setting up WSPR with the HF transceiver and new horizontal antenna. He enabled the “band hopping” function and schedule list of the desired bands to test. The software also has the ability to enable the rigs ATU to follow band switching. The ongoing propagation result can be viewed on WSPRnet.org under the database tab with the club call sign of VK7TAZ.
With all the talk of portable operation and “linked” dipoles Peter brought along an antenna from his military collection, a model AT-101 / GRC-9. This was a long wire with eight settable links to continuously cover the range from 4.3 to 12 MHz. It was wound onto a hand held metal frame former. Each link was constructed from a 4mm plug and socket combination that bridged across an insulator to make the effective radiating element longer with link in or shorter with link out. This antenna dates from World War 2 and proves that current trends may not be a new idea, but a proven solution from past history!
After the first cup of coffee we watched, on the large monitor, the latest offering from Ham Radio DX. This YouTube episode from Hayden VK7HH, was titled “Everything I knew about coax cable was Wrong!”.
A very enjoyable video that generated much discussion on coaxial cables and how to terminate their connectors.
NTARC’s shipment of the just released, “Your Entry into Amateur Radio” manuals has arrived. This is the Fourth Edition of the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) Foundation License Manual. From the Editor Phil Wait, VK2ASD: “There is more information in this manual than you need to know to obtain your Foundation Licence.” “It also is a useful reference manual well after you have gained your licence.”
A portion of the back cover synopsis covers it all:
“This manual contains all the information necessary to gain an entry level Foundation Licence, in an easy to use and understand format. It provides insight into the technical basics such as: receivers, transmitters, how radio waves travel, antennas, digital station safety and with the correct on-air procedure.”
The manual is available for collection from the club rooms on Wednesday Technical Nights or any Friday coffee mornings. The cost is $35. For any information or queries please use the “Contact Us” option on the NTARC web site.
While we are on the subject of the club web site, pictures of any equipment from show and tell or mystery items are now included at the end of the NTARC extract from these VK7 broadcasts under “Blogs”.
This is the result of requests from some people that have been unable to make it to the Tech Night.
A special thanks to Phil VK7ZPD, for his work on Discord. Not only does he set the platform up every Wednesday for the TestNet and TechNet sessions talk channel, he is now setting up a channel every Thursday night for the clubs part of the state wide SSTV link-up on repeater VK7RJG. As well as maintaining his SSTV live updated web gallery, which we will have an update on soon.
So many things go on in the background of a club situation that members are not aware of, but are very much appreciated and don’t go un-noticed. Very much appreciated Phil. In case you were wondering, Discord is a messaging platform allowing like-minded people to communicate and share information, in this case via text messaging, while the repeater is tied up sending SSTV images.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet – Wednesday 31st 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 7th September. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until late.
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. 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.
