Broadcast - 20 Nov 2022
On Wednesday, the NTARC Safety Communications crew, travelled to Scottsdale in readiness for the Equine Endurance Ride State Championships at Santarena Park. This is a twenty four hour event that starts at midnight Friday We established our Radio Base with the communications trailer, set up a 2 meter and 70cm repeater for voice and data communications and trialled communications to Rodeo Road check point in readiness for Friday. If it is Sunday when you hear this then hopefully we are packing up and making our way back to Launceston. A round up to follow in a future broadcast. A thank you for the assistance goes to VK7s, Rosco RC, Tony ZTT, Idris ZIR, Andre ZAB and Stefan ZSB.
We arrived back in Launceston in plenty of time to attend Wednesdays Club night.
The Technical Night had another good roll up and nice to see yet another new face fronting up to see what we get up to, good to see you there Douglas and hope you enjoyed the evening. New faces are always welcome to drop in and check us out.
There were plenty of goodies brought in to investigate.
Peter VK7KPC, brought in a WW2 Australian Army Wireless Set No 22 Spare Valves set. This is a field maintenance spares kit of valves. All the valves are housed within a metal ammunitions style case. Each valve is individually secured from moving around by a spring loaded “halo type ring” that pulls the valve top down onto its base. This obviously has proven to be a reliable method of carrying valves to help with field maintenance of the Wireless Set No 22. Only a couple more valves are needed and Peter will have a complete compliment of ten spare valves and four spare 6 volt indicator lamps. A very rugged little package.
Stuart VK7FEAT presented an interesting cross section of ferrite cores, even some of the Australian made Neosid Ferrite cores from the 60s or 70s, the ones with the yellow dot. He also had some ceramic open air dual gang variable capacitors suitable for push pull valve circuits.
Stuart also setup an assortment of electronic and radio paraphernalia in the main hall. This is from a deceased estate and is available for viewing, most are marked with prices or club donation.
Trevor VK7TB, has entered the next stage with his current “99 year project”, which is a specialist linear amplifier to drive a magnetic loop antenna. He has passed the design, bread boarding, prototyping and printed circuit board design stages. He just received the production run of printed circuit boards back. They have just been populated and are themselves entering the test and measurement phase. Trevor had the circuits and modules for the various functional blocks on display and was generating a considerable amount of interest and discussion. The finished product is of exemplary quality, and is truly a work of art.
Bernie VK7BR, with his recently received FM crystal set, sent North by Richard VK7RO, was the centre of much discussion on detection methods. I believe the crystal set has been taken home for further investigation and testing.
Thank you also Bernie for your excellent sandwiches, and to Kay for her quickly vanishing lemon cake.
End of Year Celebration will be on Tuesday the 13th of December. 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 soon to be provided 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 at 6pm for a 6:30 meal.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet – Wednesday 23rd November. 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 be Nic VK7WW.
Club Technical night - Wednesday 30th November. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until late.
SSTV Net - Held every Thursday night on the 70cm repeater, VK7RJG and linked to the South via repeater VK7RAF. Conducted from about 7.30pm. These SSTV images will be available on the NTARC website under ‘Blogs’ soon after the event.
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. We currently have a couple of QSL cards awaiting collection, so why not pop in, check the QSL box and join us for a cuppa and chat.
End of Year Celebration - will be held on Tuesday the 13th 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 5pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
Remember equipment photos and radio propagation maps are available on the NTARC web site under “Blogs” for this week’s broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73 from Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC.
