Broadcast - 19 Mar 2023
We will begin this week on a historical note. It is ten years this month since NTARC obtained the keys to the current club rooms located at the Rocherlea Scout Hall! This time ten years ago, dedicated club members were cleaning and making it presentable, even to the point of constructing walls so the place would at least have a separate kitchen.
It was the foresight of the committee at the time, to take the opportunity and some risk, to give the club an actual place to call its “club rooms”, one that did not have to be set up and taken down every time there was a gathering. Prior to this we had morning tea gatherings at coffee shops around Launceston and Monthly meetings were held at Launceston TAFE.
With permanency came the ability to install antennas, construct a radio room with member-usable equipment, the infrastructure to hold meetings, general gatherings, technical nights and the ability to hold training sessions in a dedicated training room set up for that purpose along with a pretty well-equipped electronics workshop for repair work or project construction.
With this also came the ability to stock pile heritage electronic equipment and some not so heritage equipment bordering on junk. Hihi
Thanks go to the committee of the time to think of the future; President Lewis - VK7FLPL, Vice-President - Idris VK7ZIR, Secretary - Yvonne VK7FYMX, Treasurer - Norm VK7KTN, Committee Member - Kevin VK7HKN. Thank you to all the club members that, through working bees, donations of time and equipment over the years has made a home for our club.
Thank you to our lady members, because let’s face it, they are in the majority when it comes to baking cakes and making goodies that were happily consumed at every morning tea, and the mandatory after meeting get-togethers. Just as a very rough calculation, that equates to about 800 baked cakes alone, not to mention the slices and scones etc. It is little wonder the coffee mornings have proven to be very popular as a weekly social and technical gathering.
P.S. not forgetting Hearth Vader and Luke Sky Warmer for their untiring dedication to keeping us warm during the winter months.
The very first “new clubrooms” morning tea was held at 10:00 am on the 2nd April 2013. That is certainly close enough to the next club general meeting on the 1st of April. I know we have had ten years to plan for it but to be honest we only recently realised that the club rooms 10 anniversary was rapidly approaching.
So prior to the meeting next month we will have a “low key” get together to celebrate in the form of a BBQ.
Free for club members that register prior to the BBQ or otherwise a donation of $10 on the day would be appreciated. Register at the club rooms or by e-mail to the Secretary, these attendance numbers will assist with catering requirements. The BBQ commences at 12:00 (midday) and should you decide to stay, the meeting will commence at 14:00 (2pm) which will then be followed by light refreshments.
I know it’s on April the 1st, but it is after midday, so trust us, it is a “for real” BBQ and meeting.
As a follow on from last week’s Wednesday’s Technical Night where Andre’ VK7ZAB brought along a Yaesu FT-991. It seemed to be suffering an intermittent “High SWR” warning problem when the Antenna Tuning Unit or ATU was switched in for use. One Yaesu forum that Andre’ came across was an article by George Tuck G4RNI, on the mods.dk web site. (Text edition link mods.dk - Modifications for radioamateur) In it he postulated that some of these transceivers manufactured about 2016 left the factory with lacquer covering the tinned earthing pads on the ATU unit. As mentioned the ATU board was removed for further inspection. Using a multimeter, if the Earth mounting pads were tested to the board earth there was an almost zero resistance, this was using the probes pointy end for contact as normal. If the probe was places flat on the earth mounting pad then it was a very high resistance reading, even with the probe under quite considerable pressure. This implies that the pointy probe end could indeed be piercing through some disruptive layer, whereas with the probe side on it didn’t have the force to penetrate the layer. Long story short all earthing pads were cleaned, all solder joints inspected and general look for anything suspicious. The ATU board was then returned to the rig, this time with the inclusion of a “star washer” between the board and support when bolting it back in. The rig has had a week of being played with and as yet no further spurious SWR alarms. However I may have just spoken too soon, hihi. I hope not, but time will tell and at the moment it is looking promising. Just for interest there have also been reports in some forums of the Yaesu FT-DX101D having similar ATU problems.
For all of you John Moyle Memorial Field Day-ers, if you are reading this in the text version of this broadcast on Friday, great, you still have the weekend to make contacts. If this is the on air version then you still have a bit more than two hours to use the following information.
Peter VK7KPC is still intending to participate in the John Moyle Memorial Field Day from the Ross Caravan Park and intends to still be there on Sunday the 19th of 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.
He will be monitoring usual VHF contest frequencies and hoping to make more than the 82 points scored last year. Good luck Peter and hopefully we will catch you on air from Ross.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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.
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 available for a donation.
The TestNet and TechNet session - Wednesday the 29th 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.
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. Attendance registration is required prior to the BBQ, donations of side salads, cakes, slices etc. would be appreciated.
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.
