Broadcast - 4 Sept 2022
If you looked on your calendar and read that today is Father’s Day, your calendar has not been formatted with the appropriate political correctness filter. Or as it would have been corrected by one American Lawyer, Ben Shapiro. Happy Second Legal Guardian of Unspecified Gender Day! However, I think we might just stick with saying, NTARC would like to commence this week by wishing all our Dads and Grandad’s a Happy Father’s Day.
Also for this week congratulations go to NTARC member Peter VK7KPC, for being one of only two VK amateurs to obtain a place in the “ZL Winter Sprints Contest”, the other being VK3AUQ. Peter achieved a third place in the “CW only QRP” section and should be more than happy with his achievement, considering he was heard saying that when he submitted his initial log, that it looked more like a twig than a log, HiHi. The twig must have certainly sprouted for the remaining logs to obtain a place.
For those of you interested, the aim of this contest is "For amateur radio stations to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible within the 1 hour time limit", "To improve operator skills" and "To have fun!"
This year it was conducted on each Tuesday for the duration of August at 08:00 UTC that equated to five Tuesdays. Conducted on the 80 metre band and split into two half hour sessions, the first for CW followed immediately by SSB. One rule that caught my eye was that both parties have to exchange "Outside Temperature to the nearest degree" or "Failing all that, your best estimate", nothing like being accurate. Your “star” CW pupil is at it again Nic!
In last week’s Tech Night section of the broadcast I mentioned the latest “Ham Radio DX” YouTube offering from Hayden VK7HH, entitled “Everything I knew about coax cable was Wrong!” Well the next day in my “Inbox” was my weekly newsletter from Jason KM4ACK, from Tennessee in the United States. And you guessed it, one of the feature items was “Everything I knew about coax cable was Wrong!” It still is incredible how information can reach out across the globe so quickly. Keep those YouTube’s coming Hayden!
NTARC’s shipment of the just released, “Your Entry into Amateur Radio” manuals are available for collection from the club rooms on Wednesday Technical Nights or any Friday coffee mornings. The cost is $35. For any information or enquiries please use the “Contact Us” option on the NTARC web site.
The Club’s newest antenna is still being tested via WSPR. Some propagation maps are available at the end of the NTARC extract from these VK7 broadcasts, under “Blogs” on the club web site. Current data is available on the wsprnet.org website under call-sign VK7TAZ.
As mentioned in last week’s broadcast we gave a special thank you to Phil VK7ZPD, for his weekly setting up of the Discord texting channels every Wednesday night for the Test and TechNet and Thursday night for the clubs part of the state wide SSTV link-up. This week he also stood in as Net Host for Nic VK7WW, who was unavailable. Thanks to Phil the TestNet and TechNet sessions went ahead as planned. I must say Phil made an excellent stand-in for Nic, thank you Phil. The general theme of the evening ended up encompassing two extremes. One about grounding systems for your Radio shack using copper straps and rods. And the other extreme of non-grounded objects called NOAA weather satellites and the ability to receive and decode weather maps from their transmitted data streams.
JOTA/JOTI for 2022 is the next big item to bring to your attention. This is Celebrating 65 years of connecting scouts and guides by radio. The Venue is the NTARC Club rooms, which is the Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer St, Rocherlea.
The sessions will be on Saturday the 15th of October from noon to 6pm and Sunday the 16th October from 10am till 3pm. Groups are planned to arrive in two hour blocks, split up and rotate through four activities
At the Club Rooms we will need volunteers to assistance with:
The operation of each of the transceivers set up for voice chat by the participants.
Assembly of Morse code trainer kits, (no soldering required only a screw driver).
Sending and receiving each other’s names by Morse code on the practice keys. (No, not live to air)
External to the Club Rooms:
We need local contacts to chat with the kids in case we can’t link up to other Scout venues. If you are able to assist for any length of time over the two days please let Peter, VK7KPC or the club Secretary know of your availability by e-mailing secretary@ntarc.net
UPCOMING EVENTS
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. Registration is imperative as there will not be the ability to cater for “Late Walk-ins” on the night. It will be a 6pm meet for a 6:30 meal.
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’.
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.
