Broadcast - 12 Mar 2023
We start this week’s happenings with the Wattlewood Park Equine Endurance Ride update as promised in last week’s broadcast, luckily I didn’t jinx it after saying “hopefully it will have been a successful ride”. It was indeed successful from the providing of communications point of view and mainly because no emergency assistance was required for any of the horses or riders participating in the event.
A quick word from the NTARC safety co-ordinator Roger VK7ARN on the event. “NTARC provided the usual support at Sassafras for the Wattlewood Park endurance ride. VK7s Roger ARN, Stuart ES, Peter KPC, Peter SP, Andre’ ZAB, Idris ZIR, Stefan ZSB, Tony ZTT attended on one or more days transporting equipment to and from, setting up and on the day. The weather was fine, so much so that the horses were kicking up dust to the extent that one ‘operator’ took to wearing a ‘COVID mask’ for a while.” Thank you Roger and I agree that the sandy dust at one of the check points found its way onto anything that moved or stood still for too long. In contrast Peter VK7KPC’s check point problem was completely different.
As you may have heard Peter on the northern call back after the broadcast, where his comment went something like this, “a note to self”, in future I may not pitch my tent quite so close to a busy highway, even if it is in a picturesque orchard, well at least if you intend to camp the night with the vague idea of getting any sleep! Sorry Peter but what can one say!
Event pictures of the club’s weekend outing are available on the NTARC website, under Blogs.
Winter is definitely thinking about coming our way, Wednesday Tech Night at the club rooms was not necessarily cold outside but it was good to see Luke Sky Warmer slowly burning away in the background, having successfully taken the overnight chill off the club rooms. Many thanks to Stuart VK7FEAT, for kick starting Luke for the first time since summer.
Stuart also brought along a solid-state Codan Marine Radio, Type 6801 Mk2 SSB Transceiver, Circa 1980. It had been converted, or should I just say it had been gutted as anything to do with receiving had been removed, the only original board left was the 100Watt PEP final Output board. Four switchable RF transmit band pass filters had been added along with many RF switching relays. Apart from the original channel changer that now functions as a band select switch for 10, 20 40 and 80 Metres and the on/off switch everything else on the front panel is now redundant. Hopefully, next tech night we will plug a dummy load in and put it through its paces.
Also in Stuart’s box of goodies was a “Key Telegraph” which certainly looked like an ex-armed forces style Morse Key. According to the MorseMad.com site, it was an impressive key incorporating the classic Scandinavian long tapered lever following the Ericsson Swedish Pump Key design. Evidently, it was designed for use by NATO forces. Made by Pryce Edwards Ltd. and Marconi S. & R. Systems Ltd, it was manufactured throughout the 1960's/70's & 80's. The cover of this key is not surprising painted in battleship grey and like the rest of the unit made of brass.
Are the Morse key and Stuart possible future recruits for Nic VK7WW’s, Wednesday nights TestNet and CW course? If so, I hope he remembers his steel capped boots as this Morse Key comes in at a hefty 2.2kg! It certainly is one you would not want to accidentally drop on your toes!
Andre’ VK7ZAB also brought along a Yaesu FT-991 that seemed to suffering an intermittent “High SWR” warning problem, this warning situation was only when using the internal Antenna Tuning Unit or ATU. This occurred initially on an external antenna and during further testing also into a Dummy Load! That certainly ruled out the antenna having an intermittent. When the “High SWR” warning comes up, if you push the bypass button for the ATU then the alarm clears and the SWR shows as back in normal range. When ATU is switched back in the warning may or may not come back on. After hitting the Yaesu forums Andre’ came across an article by George Tuck G4RNI, on the mods.dk web site. (Text edition link mods.dk - Modifications for radioamateur) It looks like some of these transceivers manufactured about 2016 left the factory with lacquer covering the tinned earthing pads on the ATU unit, this would certainly upset the board performance. This, in George’s situation was causing the “High SWR” warning to intermittently come up. His solution was to carefully remove the lacquer back to the solder with an abrasive fibre pen. It will be interesting to see if this rig’s problems was caused by the same factory “hic-up”. It didn’t take long for the covers to be removed and its innards revealed, the ATU module has been removed for further investigation.
As usual, pictures of items from the evening are available on the NTARC website under “Blogs” for this broadcast.
Now for one of many things I don’t know, the NTARC club Software Defined Radio SDR has a recording function as I am sure most other SDR software probably do have as well but I didn’t know this! I gave it a try on Wednesday night from 19:00 to record Nic VK7WW’s slow Morse course. Normally I am unable to listen due to other commitments or am helping set up the club rooms for the Technical Night. This time with the downloaded file I was able to sit back at leisure and listen to the Morse evening unfolding. I took Nic’s advice, printed a Morse code sheet, and followed along in my beginner’s mode. Nic sends at a good pace and there was enough time to look up the character before the next during the “new characters for the day” portion of the net. Playing the file also gave me the ability to pause or go back to figure out the previously sent characters. This particular night certainly had a high number and level of static crashes to contend with. Nic, with his excellent signal strength was not a problem, although towards the end the mainland contacts were really taking a battering from the lightning. Now I am not saying I will take up CW but it’s one less excuse I can now use. HiHi. Certainly an enjoyable nights CW Net even though it was time shifted.
For all of you John Moyle Memorial Field Day-ers here is some important information.
Peter VK7KPC is intending participating in the John Moyle Memorial Field Day from the Ross Caravan Park this coming weekend 18-19 March.
He should be on air on 70cm, 2m, 6m and HF.
FM and SSB on the VHF bands and SSB, fairly slow CW and maybe RTTY on the HF bands.
Hoping to be operational for the entire duration, but with a mid-afternoon start due to a conflicting scout leaders meeting, fortunately also at Ross. He will be monitoring usual VHF contest frequencies, hoping to make more than the 82 points scored last year.
And that was from Peter VK7KPC.
Good luck Peter and hopefully we will catch you on air from Ross.
Mug Order - yes, we are talking about the white mugs for drinking out of, those that have our club logo on one side, personalised with your name and call sign on the other. We are placing another order so if you would like one then please see André at the Friday coffee mornings or at the Wednesday bi-weekly club Technical Nights. Those members who have already requested a mug, please email secretary@ntarc.net to confirm order, and anyone else who wants one please specify what name is to be printed above the call sign. The final price will be about $12 depending on eventual quantity ordered.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 15th of March. 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.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. Why not pop in and join us for a cuppa there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits are available for a donation.
The Club Technical night - The next session will be on Wednesday 22nd of March and will commence at the usual time of 7.30 pm, running through to about 10.30 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Club General Meeting - Saturday 1st of April at 2.00pm. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea. At this point it will be the standard agenda. If you have items you would like added to the agenda please email the secretary at: secretary@ntarc.net no later than Friday the 31st of March. The meeting will follow a midday BBQ lunch, this is the clubs first BBQ since Covid 19 reared its ugly head. Donations of cakes, slices etc. would be appreciated. I know it’s on the 1st of April, but it is after midday, so trust us, it is a “for real” BBQ and meeting. Funnily enough this April does hold a special place and meaning for the club, information to follow.
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.
