VK2KFJ Blog

VHF/UHF Field Day Contest 14/15 Jan 2012

2012-01-16T09:36:00.004+11:00

I didnt operate the contest, but I certainly had a listen, on 144.150 SSB, 146.500 Fm, 439.000 FM, 1294.000 FM, 52.525 FM, certainly plenty on 144.150 actiivity compared to the contest last November, I heard VK1BG in Canberra, and VK2ABP/p near Shooters Hill, not bad, considering I was listening to 2m SSB using a 1/2 wave dipole on 25m of RG58. Quite a few portable stations out, particularly up the Blue Mtns.

Heard four stations on 1294.000 FM making contacts, pretty good since I only had a Double-Quad sitting on the window sill beaming south across Sydney.

Dave VK2JDS worked VK1BG on 1296.150 which is a good haul.

I must make the effort to get organised this time next year to go up the farm and work the contest, maybe even the Spring Field Day contest in Nov.

6metre FM over Xmas break

2012-01-16T09:07:00.003+11:00

Some good E's about over the Xmas/New Year period, I was active across 27,29 & 31st Dec.

On 27th worked VK4NT who was mobile near Ipswich via VK2RMP 53.650, VK4JV in Gold Coast via VK4RGO 53.800

On 28th worked only worked Jack VK2XQ on 52.525

On 29th receiving jack VK2XQ via the Auckland rptr 53.725, Jack was receiving it at s8 via a 1/2 wave vertical ringo with 3m of rg8, I was only receiving the rptr at s1 with 1/4 wave and 22m of rg213, at this point, I knew something wrong. This wasn't the first time, as a few weeks abck, Jack was working oen of the VK7 rptrs and I couldnt even hear it.

on 31st, started off speaking to Jack VK2XQ, he was working the Christchurch rptr 53.850, I couldnt hear it, then I was able to activate 53.700 VK4RSN, then 53.725 somewhere in VK4 (no ident), then 53.775 somewhere in VK4, (no ident), again, gave calls but no replies, then VK4RGO 53.800 , then found VK3RHV 53.625 Melbourne, but nobody around.
Then worked VK2HC and VK5RO via the Brisbane 53.725 rptr , then VK4UT via the Gold Coast VK4RGO 53.800 rptr. then found the VK4RBX rptr at the Knobby 53.925, but nobody around.

During that time, I kept hearing VK4HJS (I think it was) out at GinGin west of Bunderberg on 52.525, he was there for a couple hrs, working one after the other, 60/9 signal, whereas all the other rprts were in & out, his signal did not stray for a moment and he was working people all over VK2. I remember the same for a VK4LMB last year, up in in far north Qld being on 52.525 for a couple hrs and rock solid.

Jack was speaking to ZL's to find out that the Otago rptr should be on air, but he didnt find it, also Wellington 6m rptr should go back on air when the low band VHF TV transmitter goes off air for the digital switchover.

Also, Jack noted that 52.100 is also a good place to check out, when it gets too heavy on 50 MHz, switch to 52.100 to work the ZL's who are not permitted on 50 MHz due to restrictions against local NZ TV. Plenty ZL's sitting there looking for contacts, but who are not permitted below 52 MHz.

Noted on vlogger some good DX hitting VK & ZL for 50 Mhz, people working the U.S. and Mexico, A35 as well as E51EME was in almost all day everyday. 2013 looks promising.

Mountain top portable

2011-12-11T19:50:00.005+11:00

Here is a photo of the new shed for the top of the mountain, the TH3 yagi is at top, mostly out of view, with 2metre horizontal yagi for 144 MHz weak signal DX. 70cm horizontal array still attach to the old garden shed. [ Grid square QF46 ]

The shed is approximately 3m x 3.5m, includes a bunk bed, desk, chairs, and rack for the radio equipment, battery cabinet at rear, plus 800mAHr solar panel on the roof.

APRS digi to go in soon on 145.175 MHz, maybe 70cm FM voice repeater too.

6metre FM activity 30th November

2011-12-11T18:42:00.004+11:00

a good afternoon for 6metres, found a few FM repeaters open late afternoon, after Jack VK2XQ tipped me off that the band was open, found 53.550, 53.600, 53.625, 53.750 all strong and open, gave some calls but nil responses. Later that evening found 53.775 and 53.875 open.

Seemed to be VK3, 5 & 7. The unknown was the 53.550 it was not Lismore, so must be a new repeater.

Mountaintop portable - Oct 2011

2011-10-13T10:52:00.003+11:00

We went to QF46 from 2nd to 6th Oct, operated on 23cm EME WSJT, my first 23cm EME contact with Bruce PY2BS in Brazil. This is the 5m dish down at the house. Tim VK4TIM came down from Brisbane.

Also did some AE contacts on 144.200 morning sked, working VK1, VK3 and VK4 over a couple days, using the 8el 2m yagi, FT-221 with Tono amp, giving approx 60w PEP, need to get some more drive from the FT-221 to get 300w PEP for next time. Contacts included VK1BG, VK1KW, VK3BJM, VK4OX, VK3DUT & VK3VFO on 144.200

And made contacts on 40m, 10m, plus worked Tim VK4TIM mobile2 on 52.525, as he approached from Dubbo to Orange, prior to that on the Coonabarabran rptr (146.800) whilst he mobile up past Gilgandra.
On 40m, worked club members VK2HL, VK2XE & VK3BQ/7on the 80m Loop antenna.
On 10m, worked T32C, I0KNQ plus others, 10m FM was useless, with wall-to-wall Indonesian fishing boats blocking most of that band, did hear a BY station on 29.600 a few times.

Did some work on antennas, added a few more basic antennas to the shed, e.g 2m 5/8th, 2m 1/4 wave, 70cm 1/4 wave for rptr usage. Fixed the 13.8v power distribution, for easier connection of xcvrs when working in the shed. New larger shed is planned.

More pics on the Flickr site. I still need to add the screenshots of the EME contact here.

Mountain top portable

2011-09-20T13:09:00.000+10:00

planning to go mountain top portable across the October long weekend, Oct 2nd to Oct 6th, hope to be active on most bands from HF up to 23cm, at QF46 at 900m ASL, near Gowan, n.w. of Bathurst. Probably use vklogger.com to report our activities, in between doing some work activities.

Android for Echolink

2011-05-27T13:07:00.002+10:00

One thing I noticed about this HTC (Android based) Aria phone, is that when used for Echolink using the headphones, that the audio from the Echolink side does not come out of the headphones, but comes from the speaker on the rear, although the warning tones, etc do come out the headphones.
I kept checking the settings of the phone and Echolink app to see if it was something I did wrong,
but no, after some Googling, I found another ham in UK reporting the same issue and same phone
on one of the Echolink forums, but of course nobody replied, so I contacted him, but nil reply from him, shame, as I hoping there was a fix.

so the downside is, I have android phone and a headset, but can't run Echolink when I am out
pedestrian mobile.

I looking to borrow an iPhone4, just to download the Echolink app and try it with its headphone.

Well, at least everything else works great on the HTC Android. Time to email Terry VK2KTJ as he is a Android fan.

6metre FM operation in Japan (JA)

2011-05-12T14:18:00.000+10:00

here's a little snippet of information that's hard to find:

In Japan, the FM segment is 51.000 to 53.999 MHz in 20 KHz steps. There are no 6m FM repeaters. The 6metre FM calling frequency is 51.000 and most FM activity is from JA to HL. I think the JA's use 52.525 (or the equivalent channel) for data use.

Easter/Anzac holiday weekend Photos

2011-05-11T14:31:00.000+10:00

some recent photos from the Easter/Anzac long weekend 2011:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33440868@N06/5708536553/in/set-72157612214659210/

you will see these are labelled as Easter 2011

Easter Weekend wrap-up

2011-04-29T09:25:00.004+10:00

EME, only did some pings of the moon with Dave as the moon was too far south, therefore nil opportunities for working norhtern hemisphere ie. Nth America and Europe where the majority of EME'rs are found. This would only leave Africa , Pacific and Sth America and very few EME'rs in those regions.

HF, poked around on 20metres, Bob VK2ABP was primarily on 20m working DX, uisng the TS-50s and TH3.

I tried making contact with rest of the club members on 40m & 80m sked freqs, as they were camping & 4WDing up at Coolah Tops National Park, no joy, one thing was they didnt get on 80m, so it was 40m only and they just weren't around at the time I called.

I also poked around on 2m SSB using FT817 and 8el 2m yagi, very quiet on 144.1

Did some tests on 80m, 40m & 20m with Tim VK4TIM, was heard by Tim on the 80m loop antenna on 80m & 40m, Time was very QRP so could only just make out his voice. For 20m we used the TH3 with 300w, but no contact made, although there was a T31 station in Kirrabati with solid, strongs signals on 20m for several hours.

Spent most of the time away working on clearing the scrub surrounding the mountain top, burning off a lot of chopped down trees in the direction of Sydney, next the trees on the n.e. direction need thinning too to give better takeoff to VK4 and VK2 north coast.

A new larger shed planned for the mountain top with bunk beds and more operating space, as opposed to the small garden shed, which will become a equipment shed for APRS digi, repeaters, etc.

Good wx the whole weekend, unlike Sydney where it rained.

Easter/Anzac holiday weekend

2011-04-18T12:25:00.003+10:00

counting down the days until go portable DX'ing, location QF46pu (896mASL) and QF46pv, or known as Gowan which is n.w. of Bathurst NSW, across 22nd to 26th April.

Operating bands: HF, VHF, UHF, SHF
modes: FM, SSB and maybe digital modes,

Planning to make some contacts with other local MWRS club members, some of which will be also portable at Coolah Tops National Park (grid QF58) on 40m (daytime) and 80m (nightime)

check www.vklogger.com for operations.

Easter/Anzac holiday weekend

2011-04-13T10:33:00.003+10:00

planning to go portable, QF46. HF, VHF, UHF & SHF activity on the drawing board.
see vklogger.

another great photo

2011-04-13T10:28:00.005+10:00

another great photo with 23cm EME dish in foreground and what looks like a 70cm yagi and 2m yagi possibly for terrestrial DX. This is 10 min timelapse looking to the southern polar centre.

great photo

2011-04-13T10:17:00.004+10:00

Amazing pics of 3m dishes (for 23cm operation) by Bob VK2ABP, with TH-3 for HF in the background.
One dish for EME and one for terrestrial DXing.
The red glow is from the campfire.

Mobile operation

2011-03-21T10:23:00.003+11:00

sorted out the mobile bracket, after 3 attempts, finally came up with a bracket that suited me, made one for the 6/2/70 antenna, then thought, while I at it, make another identical bracket as a spare antenna mount, useful for 10metre operation when travelling.

Anyway, I'm back on drivetime for 6/2/70 FM

23cm operating

2011-03-04T11:44:00.001+11:00

also thanks to Dave, I now have a 80cm satellite dish and mount that I can use for 23cm, I will now attempt to mount the double-quad antenna on the feed point and then go portable and poke it around at a few places on 23cm. I have a tri-pod to mount the dish on for portable operation.

29 MHz FM

2011-03-04T11:40:00.003+11:00

thanks to a long time loan from Dave, I now have a TS-430s which has FM for working 29 MHz FM simplex and repeaters. Whoo-hoo 29.600 here we come, unfortuantely summer over, so not likely to get anything until next summer, when I can work the 29 Mhz FM simplex and repeaters.

What I did notice tuning around was a heap of commercial RTTY sitting outside the band above 29.700, I will have to try decoding them.

Philips PRM-80 on 70cm

2011-03-04T11:34:00.004+11:00

Tim VK4TIM brought me some goodies, a few PRM-80's a 8010 (10channel) for my Echolink node 70cm port and a couple PRM-8020 (64 channel) for general 70cm FM usage in the shack.
Nice little slim-line xcvrs, had not seen these in person before, only from photos. Now, I'll be more active on my local 70cm rptrs.

Tim now trying to make a couple of E-bander PRM-80's work on 6m FM.

Wyong Field Day 2011

2011-03-04T11:28:00.003+11:00

Went to Wyong last Sunday, had missed the last few due to work committments, glad to catch up with many old friends, some I hadn't seen for 5 or more years.

It was hot & sticky as usual, probably quieter in the afternoon, I think most came before 9am
and left at lunchtime.

Tim Vk4TIM came flew down to Sydney on friday night and stayed over, just so he could go and checkout Wyong FD. Tim was also able to meet up with people he had met on-air.

We went to the VK9NA Expedition post-mortem seminar, thanks Andrew and Kevin for the presentation.

Then caught up at the MWRS meeting, seeing many ex-patriot club members who were in Wyong for the field day.

Solar Cycle 24 & 25

2011-01-27T12:07:00.003+11:00

a couple good articles to read on how Cycle 24 and 25 will proceed, basically the peaks have now been downgraded, so neither Cycle 24 or 25 peaks will be good.

The solar peaks are expected in May 2013 for Cycle 24 peak and somewhere in 2024 for Solar Cycle 25 peak.
What this means for working HF & 50 MHz DX, is that you will be working harder and require a bigger, better station to make good contacts.

As for the weather, expect even more worse droughts in the cycle lulls (e.g.. around 2018 and 2030).

Here are the various article to read up on:

S-Meter website's Past Cycles and Predictions for Cycle 24 page
http://www.smeter.net/propagation/sunspots/sunspot-cycle-forecasts.php

Current Solar Cycle predictions for Cycle 24 from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Service
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/

Solar Cycle Prediction - NASA Marshall Space Centre for Solar Physics.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml

Solar Cycle Progression from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Service
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/

Solar Cycle Grand Minima and Solar Cycle Modulation article, some heavy theory about the effect of planetary movements within the Solar System and the inter-modulation effects on solar cycles
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1005/1005.5303.pdf

What's Rangoon to you, is Grafton to me

2011-01-18T14:35:00.003+11:00

an old radio play from 2JJ Am in 1978 , (before it became 2JJJ FM),
listened to it again today after many years, very enjoyable.
It even has a reference to Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy.

6metre, 2metre and 70cm FM DX

2011-01-06T12:46:00.004+11:00

plenty 6metre activity over Christmas/New year period, with only FM gear, it was restricted to just FM section above 52.500, worked into the Lismore VK2RSC rptr 53.550, that was good, as it quite short E skip and not found that often. Next contacts both via rptrs and simplex into VK4,
including a long qso with VK4XMC up central Qld via VK4RGA 53.725 and vk4NW in Sunshine coast via the Sunshine Coast rptr VK4RSN 53.700, also worked VK3ELV via the VK4RGA rptr.

And worked VK4XMC direct on 52.525 and 53.000 FM simplex. Could hear VK3ELB on 52.525 from Rockhampton in for quite some time working all states.

Even worked a local VK2BOW who I think was portable at Braidwood via the VK4RGA rptr at one stage

I think there were plenty others on 52.525, and the Brisbane rptrs, but most were quite weak when I tried them.

Next couple days, VK5 opened up, worked VK8RR/5 via one of the Adelaide 6m rptrs and VK5NLI on 52.525 for a chat, who was in & out for a good hour working many stations.

Been too busy working to be monitoring 6m FM most of the time.

Have heard the VK5VF beacon a few times, even on FM and off frequency for a 25kHz channelled radio.

All this on just a 6metre 1/4 wave, can only get better if build a 6metre 1/2 wave J-pole vertical.

-------------------------------------------

as for 2metres, the usual 147.100 Buladelah, 146.700 Ulladulla, 146.900 Newcastle, 146.950 Mt Ginini coming through on and off a regular basis, predominantly coastal ducting.
Heard Dave VK2AWZ on 146.500 simplex from Vincentia (near Nowra), which is a a good haul for FM simplex.

What I have seen is some localised enhancement affecting VK2RDX Mt Bindo 146.650, normally it is about s3, but seeing several days where it maybe s9 or even 60db/9, then a couple hrs later it drops off again, I guessing a local inversion.

---------------------------------------------

for 70cm rptrs, 438.325 Goulburn was in a couple days, that's quite rare, 438.050 Mt Ginini the same, also heard 438.025 from Newcastle which is also rare.

Android for APRS and Echolink

2010-12-14T10:22:00.004+11:00

I been testing the Android phone with Echolink, works great, can make Echolink calls to other Links and Repeaters just fine, so easy to install, configure and operate. All the preference settings are simple and just what you need, very un-complicated.

And the APRS tracker is great too, the choice of doing single position reports, or full tracking (send & receive). again, settings a very simple, easy to understand and use.

Comparing the hands on operation of my daughter's iPhone4 versus my Android, I gotta say I prefer the menu system of Android, much easier, my Android has a 'Back' (touch) button, it always gets you back up a level, whereas the iPhone4 do have a screen button, but not for all menu levels, so sometimes you have to press the physical home button, which takes you back to home.

6metre FM

2010-12-10T12:47:00.002+11:00

things are picking up on the DX front for 6metre band, particularly more for the FM segment up on 52.500 and above. I haven't heard anything for the FM repeaters, but definitely some activity on 52.525 FM simplex, Sydney to VK5 and Sydney to VK7 over past week, looks promising.

Android & amateur radio

2010-12-09T08:35:00.003+11:00

this is fun, a little searching on the web and you find a whole swag of amateur radio related apps for iPhone and Android, even a couple found for Symbian.

but w.r.t. Android there are lots of goodies, as for the apps that interested me at this time,
some on sources such as Android Market and Android Zoom, here they are:

EchoLink Node Finder - using Google maps, will show EchoLink nodes in your vicinity or any specified location. You can select a tag on the map and it provides the info about that node.

EchoLink - an Echolink client, for making connections to Echolink Repeater and Link nodes. You can operate from your phone, just like a desktop operator do.

IRLP Node Finder - using Google maps, will show IRLP nodes in your vicinity or any specified location. You can select a tag on the map and it provides the info about that node

APRS Viewer - using Google maps you can show APRS nodes near you location or other specified locations.

APRSdroid - an APRS tracker for sending position reports, with basic receive of local stations.
(visit www.aprsdroid.org)

And several apps like logbook, satellite tracker, etc.

Android

2010-12-07T09:57:00.002+11:00

speak of the devil, my new new HTC Aria arrived yesterday, much better browsing than my previous Nokia, I can now monitor vklogger.com when mobile. Functionality appears great. With time I can compare it against the likes of the iPhone4.

smartphones and apps

2010-12-06T09:49:00.003+11:00

I was just reading Terry VK2KTJ's blog, apart from the discussions about podcasts for science, I noted Terry is using an Android based mobile device, note that I used the term 'mobile device'
instead of smartphone, as describing them as "phones" is a very loose terminology, as it is a really a micro notebook computer, usually with touch screen interface AND it has a phone as part of it functionality.

Anyway, I have been reading up on these 'mobile devices' since my daughter just HAD to go buy an Apple iPhone4, because that's what Gen-Y have to do !! Don't take me wrong, Apple make good stuff, but I like flexibility and being able to fiddle with things and it was my fellow work colleagues talking about which "smartphone" we need to use, that started me thinking, so I did some googling on the subject over the last 2 weeks and finding an abundance of good info on the subject of mobile devide operating systems, I now know Apple have iOS for iPhone and Nokia and some others use Symbian, HTC have both Windows 7 and Android based mobile devices. I myself have been using a Symbian based Nokia, which due to hardware reasons, is going to get replaced by something different, hopefully a HTC with Android.

Android is an open o/s based on Linux which is great, you can still have a fancy brick, but with a base o/s that allows some fiddling. I even see people doing some hacking to get iPhones to dual boot Android and iOS o/s's which is exciting stuff, that just instantly opens up your choice of apps that you may wish to run.
That's what I like about open systems like Linux and Android, it just pushes the big guys like Apple and Microsoft to innovate and to try and stay ahead on the ensuing pack.

I feel it will be an exciting period for these new mobile devices (smartphones) its already has me
thinking about apps that can assist my hobby, apart from the existing amateur radio apps such as echolink, dstar, aprs.

VK9NA Norfolk Island DXpedition 2011

2010-12-03T12:27:00.002+11:00

the VK9NA team heading to Norfolk again and will be operating from 9th to 20th Jan 2011
on band 50MHz to 10GHz. Modes operated will include SSB, CW, FSK441 and JT65.

Need to find out if they can do 23CM FM simplex

Echolink Node 1494 update

2010-12-03T11:58:00.003+11:00

finally fixed the damned DTMF decoder for the node, its been broken since I changed PC's a year or two ago.

Did some testing in the last couple days, tweaked the audio levels, spoke to Dave VK2JDS viaVk2BLO node on Orange repeater 146.700 and Terry VK2JTP via his node.

in summary, my node is looking in better shape now, so I can use it.

2m & 70cm FM activity

2010-11-13T14:17:00.004+11:00

the sticky weather of summer has started, with the N.E. breezes hitting Sydney yesterday, creating coastal ducting, some rptrs that were enhanced last night, to the north we had 147.100 Buladelah, 146.900 Newcastle, 146.775 Watigans up to s7 normally s1, 438.025 Newcastle, 438.075 Somersby was up to s7 normally s1, the south 146.700 Ulladulla, 146.975 Robertson up to s9 from s1, then from south west 146.950 Mt Ginini was less than s1, nothing found inland, so looked confined to coastal ducting. Noted that 146.650 Mt Bindo was s1 instead of its usual s9, maybe an inversion, as I noted the Dural 23cm beacon was missing, but re-appeared this morning.

Nothing this morning from any of the distant rptrs, but did hear Dave VK2AWZ talking to Brian (VK2BX) on 146.500 FM simplex from Vincentia (near Nowra) approx 10am. Just checked again for 2 & 70 rptr at 2pm, but nothing. 30deg with 80% humid with thunderstorms approaching from west. Will go see if anything on 52.525 FM simplex.

23cm operating

2010-10-05T08:49:00.002+11:00

Last Friday, 1st October, operated stationary mobile from Seaforth Oval, took the 23cm FM and the Double Quad antenna and 3m coax,

we been trying to do some tests out to Dave VK2JDS, on previous attempts to use this site, there has always been some sporting event on, the reason for this site, is it is high, but has a clear, unobstructed view to the west, from the carpark, the land dips away acrossd the playing field and there are nil trees to block the path, you can see clearly the Blue Mtns, there are other nearby locations that might be higher, but usually they obstructed by large trees.

For this test, Dave using his all mode for 23cm into a 3m dish, located on his mountain top at 890 m ASL, aimed at Sydney. We used 1270.000 MHz simplex, Dave first tried sending a carrier and I opened the mute on my FM rcvr to try and detect, it was hard to tell if the noise floor changed or not, so I ran 10w FM, Dave tried detecting it in SSB mode and he was successfully able to detect my carrier, so we proved it was possible over the 190km path.

23cm operating

2010-08-19T09:13:00.002+10:00

I noticed a good turn out of 23cm FM ops for the WIA broadcast on VK2WI on recent Sunday mornings, one day there were at least 5 or 6 people.

Field Portable locations

2010-08-06T11:27:00.003+10:00

After visiting the Jenolan Caves/Edith, Oberon region in July, I finally sorted and uploaded the photos to Flickr and updated the Field Portable web page on my website. I went back through and added some more information relating to some good RF locations to use, unfortunately, some of the places I wished to visit in 2009, which I thought would now be cleared of forest, are still in the process of being cleared, so, will have to wait until 2011 to do some tests from those sites.

Next trip, hoping to get to the DX Farm in October for some DXing.

Field Portable

2010-06-09T11:26:00.002+10:00

did some more work on the Field Portable page on my website, updated some more places that I surveyed for portable DXing. Need to add some more photos soon.

linux update

2010-05-18T15:44:00.003+10:00

Attempted installs for Slackware, Gentoo and OpenSuse versions of Linux, the Gentoo I couldnt get past the basic search & load drivers, the Slackware installed ok, but failed when booting. The OpenSuse works well, a very nice gui based installer and equally good looking gui when running.
I installed the KDE 4.3 desktop with my OpenSuse. There was the option to install either Gnome or KDE. Nil amateur packages on OpenSuse, but still a good easy to install and use package, for those new to Linux and just wish to experiment.

Next, I wish to give Fedora 12 a test run, maybe Debian 5.04 too. I have been holding off upgrading my two Ubuntu boxes from 9.10 to 10.4, as I deciding whether to reallocate one of these boxes to another project.

In summary, for amateur radio related activities, still best to use either Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora bundles. For a ham that is new to Linux, probably Ubuntu is best choice, as it is just so easy to install and use.

Echolink Node 1494

2010-05-18T15:39:00.002+10:00

the APRS connection is working with the node now, using UI-View32 as the APRS interface.

Also still trying to get reliable DTMF decoding by my current node, I tried different radios, so finally I tried a notebook computer, now it decodes DTMF commands (via thew radio port) just fine, so this confirms the audio from the radio is fine.
The notebook is an old Compaq P3-500 with ESS Maestro audio interface, so this certainly works
better than the audio interface in the Compaq Deskpro P3-1GHZ
currently, its still work in progress.

91.5 Hz CTCSS standard

2010-04-19T13:48:00.003+10:00

well, so much for the new 91.5 Hz CTCSS standard adopted by the WIA,
after recently hearing a local 70cm rptr being keyed up by a LIPD.
The funny thing is that particular rptr switched to 91.5 Hz decoding to avoid LIPDs.

What we need to do is find another CTCSS pair to use and make that the next "new" standard.

I still can't fathom why we (in VK2) are moving from the standard of 123 Hz to a new standard of 91.5 Hz, when places like VK7 use a different standard and also in VK5 they use a different
standard again.

What do we have in Sydney now? half the rptrs use 91.5 Hz and the other half still using 123 Hz,
what do we get from this ? a whole heap of unused 70cm rptrs.

23cm operating

2010-04-19T13:41:00.003+10:00

Scanning across 23cm, found a couple people chatting on 1294.000 FM simplex freq, a VK3HDX/p2 in Neutral Bay and Vk2HGX at Hurstville, what a surprise, some more people on 23cm FM, made contact with VK3HDX/p2 good Q5 signal both ways. Not bad for an antenna sitting on my downstairs window sill.

I think I heard them or someone else on the Dural rptr 1273.500 yesterday.

I must build a phased stack of Double-Quads as an array, much better proposition to a stack of yagis on 23cm.

John Moyle Field Day 2010

2010-03-25T14:50:00.003+11:00

had a listen last weekend (19th & 20th March) heard a few people active, on 439.000 FM and 146.500 FM , but didn't hear anyone on 1294.000 MHz FM, even though I gave a few calls. Nothing heard on 52.525 FM that I noticed either.

mobile activity

2010-03-12T14:22:00.001+11:00

I switched cars in January, still haven't moved gear to new car,
therefore not mobile, meaning either voice of APRS
Maybe back on air soon.

VHF & above + Field Day contests

2009-12-31T09:37:00.002+11:00

Here are some links to upcoming contests for 2010:

WIA VHF/UHF Field Day (Jan 16/17)

http://www.wia. org.au/members/ contests/ vhfuhf/

Ross Hull VHF-UHF Contest (entire month of January)

http://www.wia. org.au/members/ contests/ rosshull/

John Moyle Memorial Field Day (March 20/21)
http://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/johnmoyle/

23cm operating

2009-12-30T10:48:00.004+11:00

As of 20th December, I now have 23cm FM gear, an FT-223R with 10w and a Double-Quad antenna, did some testing against VK2RWI Dural beacon (1296.420) and repeater (1273.500 o/p and 1293.500 i/p) after wasting a couple days trying & monitoring the rptr on the wrong freq.[note: this rptr has been listed incorrectly in past callbooks as 1273.750]

The Double-Quad antenna works well, you can really tell the difference of both the beacon and rptr signal and their respective polarisations when switching between horizontal and vertical for each device.

Playing with the 23cm is interesting, totally different to 2m & 70cm, I found trying the antenna in different places around the house that the best signal from the beacon & rptr was by aiming at the city, which is at a beam heading of 180 deg, whereas the Dural site it is a beam heading of around 280 deg, which appears to indicate that a large lump of steel, glass & concrete is providing a better path than aiming through trees and over a ridge.

Made my first 23cm contact with Keith VK2ZZO on Sunday 27th Dec at 12.20pm local EDST to Lane Cove direct & via the Dural rptr. I heard a few people call back on the WIA broadcast.

Dave VK2JDS reported he could hear the Dural beacon (1296.420) from out near Hill End (QF46), but the rptr was way down, but still interesting, as he couldn't hear the 2m or 70cm from Dural rptrs, which is about 180kms, but over the Great Dividing Range.

Dave VK2JDS (QF46pv) worked Bob VK2MRP/p operating at Mt Ginini (sth of ACT) using the same radio and antenna with 1w on FM.

In summary, I am monitoring either 1294.000 FM simplex call freq or 1273.500 VK2RWI Dural rptr. Hope to try some coastal ducting soon.

EchoLink node 1494

2009-10-13T08:39:00.003+11:00

The Ubuntu 9.04/LXDE/WineHQ build for my Echolink just was not cutting it,
the audio channel is still flakey, sometimes TX & RX audio is fine, sometime just one path is ok, sometimes no audio at all, so I have switched to a Win XP Pro machine yesterday to run the Echolink node and had it running in just a few minutes, but spent an hour just fine tuning the DTMF decoding. Maybe this relates to the audio interface of the PC and its driver.

As of last night it is back on air. I will see how it performs, as the last time I ran it on MS Windows, I kept finding it crashed & corrupted and having to reinstall the Echolink program several times over a 12 month period.

I also want to try installing the Echolink Proxy as I eventually want to run a second Echolink node, probably on 70cm. I also want to interface my Echolink with UIview32 for APRS, currently running APRS with Xastir on Linux at home.

Alinco DR-590 2/70 mobile

2009-10-09T09:00:00.004+11:00

I finally sorted my problems with my Alinco DR590,
fixed the UHF PA, the radios that were imported into Australia are T model for 440-450 and the 70cm PA is guaranteed to cook itself, hence you could never get more than 30w at 433-434 Mhz, now I put the correct E model components into UHF the PA it can do 42w at 13.8v, (the actual RF block is rated at 45w at 15.2v) but I wound it back to 30w and she runs cool now on high pwr, the way it should be. The basic change is a couple of caps and an inductor, L4 goes from 1.25T on 3mm diam, to 1.25T on 4.0mm diam. It makes a big difference for such a small change.

Then I fixed the freq stability, it kept wandering off freq, it drifted about 4kHz from cold to warmed up, if give it a quick squirt of freezer spray, the TX freq would wander 10 kHz, found the soldering in the osc cct on the VHF main board was looking dry, so retouched the solder joints for all the components associated with the Xtal and it is now stable again.

Only one issue is the mic for the Alinco is crap, so I working on a better mic with DTMF, in fact, I am updating an old Philips FM-900 DTMF mic, a solid mic, with a much better DTMF operation, just replacing the old carbon mic insert with an electret plus resistor divider to supply the DC volts. The reason for this is the Alinco mic was so sensitive it picked up the echo inside the plastic casing, which overides the actual speech audio, plus the DTMF operation is garbled, as the DTMF tones are partially clobbered by the induced sound of pressing the DTMF buttons, so the DTMF tones were not clean.

Anyway, it is back in the car as of yesterday and I can get on 2m & 70cm mobile again. This compliments my mobile operation on 6m FM using the AWA RT85.

EchoLink node 1494

2009-09-18T10:02:00.003+10:00

well, I have been doing some more with this over the last few weeks, although time has been scarse, I have managed to install LXDE ontop of the standard Gnome based Ubuntu, and run Echolink (via WINEHQ) to prove that I have more resources on the Echolink Node PC using LXDE, so outgoing audio (from radio to IP side) is now being processed. This proves that Gnome is more resource hungry and not suitable on a dedicated server based applic like Echolink when implemented on older hardware. I definitely recommend Xfce or LXDE for your dedicated applics, but Gnome and KDE are still perfect replacements for a desktop 'workstation' replacement for a Wintel box.

However, having said that, running LXDE created a new problem, incoming Echolink (from IP side to radio) is now non-existant, but this is a soundcard output issues with LXDE which I will have a look at time permitting, so at this point in time, my Echlolink node is running, but not functioning. Realistically, running Echolink via WINEHQ on Linux is not really desirable, but a short gap solution.

Long term, I would like to do some work with 'The Bridge' and 'TheLinkBox' which are Linux based packages, available of SourceForge to provide a Echolink conference bridge (TheBridge) and a conference bridge/radio gateway (TheLinkBox), but looking at the documentation, these
are not simple click, install, run, as compared to the original Echolink package for Wintel, but anyway, it's still a work-in-progress project.

portable testing - Kanangra - Oberon area

2009-08-10T14:53:00.003+10:00

mid July

was up around Jenolan Caves area, apart from some bush walking, did some driving around looking at various portable locations good for VHF/UHF/SHF from Kanangra Walls to Edith and to Oberon. Found some good high spots, but hard top find locations that give full 360 degree clear coverage. Some locations you really need to have 4WD vehicle, as most of the roads were dirt and very slippery with some moisture. The idea was to look for some places where you can drag a portable mast and a 2m or 70cm yagi up for some portable terrestrial DXing from. I found some great locations above 1300m ASL, but each favoured a particular direction, nothing seemed to provide a good clear omni-directional location.

Some locations:

33deg 49' 02"S, 149deg 57' 33"E (QF46xe) - the intersection, of the old Edith Road and HorseshoeBend Rd, not bad, but much better travelling north from here along HorseshoeBend Road.

33deg 48' 59"S, 149deg 57' 34"E (QF46xe) - 1300m ASL - along HorseshoeBend Road heading north from the old section of the Edith Road, farmland on western side, state pine forests on eastern side.
Gave good vhf/uhf in a Sth-West-Nth direction. Good if you want shielding from the east.

33deg 48' 13"S, 149deg 57' 40"E (QF46xe) - 1300m ASL - further along HorseshoeBend Road, the next high spot. Near Radiata Ridge. Again this shielded to the east by the pine forest. This would have been great 25 years ago for working into VK5 & VK6 on 2m SSB, would have given a clear shot, whereas "The Rock" was obscured by trees.

33deg 49' 38"S, 149deg 57' 48"E (QF46xe) - 1340m ASL - part of the State Pine forest of Edith Road, now cleared. Nice and high and flat, but close to the main road.

33deg 50' 18"S, 149deg 57' 25"E (QF46xd) - 1340m ASL - part ofthe State Pine Forest, off Bicentennial National Trail, between Ginkin Road and Edith Road. The forest has now been cleared. good takeoff to the Sth & West.

33deg 49' 50"S, 149deg 59' 36"E (QF46xe) - 1320m ASL - off Edith Road, - good takeoff to the Nth East - East - Sth East (Sydney), but nothing west.

Looked at some locations out in Kanangra Boyd National Park, Thurat Tops has good high spots, accessible by fire trails only using 4WD. Did not get there, but probably too heavily wooded. But a good location that is open and clear is on the Kanangra Road about 5kms back from "The Walls" (see photos on Flickr) at 33deg 59' 22"S, 150deg4'13"E (QF56AA) (almost 1220m ASL) excellent takeoff to the nth east, east & sth eas direction. Not as high as "The Rock", but it is clear of high trees.

33deg 48' 58"S, 149deg 58' 50"E- 1320m ASL - this is a ridge north of the Edith Road in the State Pine forest, this spot is currently covered in forest, but is also currently being logged, being a ridge it should have excellent coverage both east & west, I think by this time next year, it will have been cleared to be able to perform some tests. I think this location is most promising in the future (or at least until the next generation of pine trees grow).

The actual highest point is at 33deg 49'56"S, 149deg59'1"E (QF46ex, above 1360m ASL) just west of the CAA tower on Edith Road, but even though it is the highest point, it is heavily covered with forest and is quite useless. Just have to wait until the section of pine forest is cleared. This is about the same height as Mt Bindo.

40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 landing

2009-07-14T10:55:00.002+10:00

21st July marks the 40th Anniversary of the first lunar landing by Apollo 11. Fantastic stuff.

Shame the later missions were cancelled, we almost had an amateur repeater sitting on the moon.

AWA RT85 modifications

2009-07-01T12:05:00.005+10:00

I have been making some mods to my RT85 transceivers, most recently was adding a fan to the PA heatsink, using some old Intel Pentium2 fans, simply glued them to the heatsink, added a thermal switch to the internal heatsink, a BC-547 NPN, a couple resistors, so the thermal switch drives the BC-547 which supplies 12v to the fan, radio gets hot on long overs, fan cools it now.
(The thermal switch was a PEPI 46deg from WES Components)

Did this to both my 6metre versions (E-band), one for car and the other in the shack. The third RT85 is a A-band for monitoring on 2metres.

Added a Repeater Reverse switch, for the Repeater Reverse switch, I had already converted the RT85 from 2716 eprom to 2732 eprom, which provided two banks of 80 channels, the 2nd bank has all the rptrs in reverse, so when monitoring a repeater channel, just flick the switch to go to Reverse mode.

Added a Tx Power Hi/Lo switch to the remote head, the Hi/Lo power mode is already available, via a link on the remote head, just added the switch to bring it out to the remote head front panel.

Added LED backlighting to the remote head, this was simply adding a small green led & a resistor and soldering to the front cct board in the remote head, this now backlights the key buttons, so they I can identify the buttons when driving the car at night, instead of guessing which button is which.

Replaced the rubber contact switches in the front panel of the Remote head, used some tactile microswitches ( Jaycar p/n SP-0603 ) Just unsolder the old switches, cut off a pair of diagonal legs of the microswitch, bend in the remaining two legs carefully and push in and solder to the board, get the switch base as close to the cct board as possible.

Added a 3.5mm mono socket for the speaker connection from the remote head., unsoldered the tow spade tags, glued the socket (DSE p/n P-1231) and soldered it in. So can now use a speaker with the standard 3.5mm plug

Added a RJ-11 socket for a microphone connection on the Remote head, used a RJ-11 (Jaycar p/n PS-1470 ) as it had the required 4 pins and was the smallest compared to RJ-12 and RJ-45 sockets., glued the socket on the back of the Remote head, next to the 3.5mm speaker socket, and solder wires around to the pins where the old microphone cable fed to. On the microphone lead, simply cut and spliced a 4 pin RJ11 plug cable to the existing microphone curly cord and heatshrinked it.

So finished all this off last week, put one 6metre in the car, the other in the shack, and the 2metre unit in the shack too.

Will add photos, etc, to the website page at some stage.

APRS update

2009-06-30T16:24:00.001+10:00

now running Xastir APRS Client Node on Ubuntu 9.04 at home

now running UIView32 Node on W2K3 at work.

also did a test run of Xastir on Debian 5.0 at home, it works fine.
plus I did a test run of Xastir on Xubuntu 8.10, it works fine as well.

The TT3 is working well in the car, but noticed some dead spots along northern beaches not covered by VK2US-1 and VK2RAG-1. hopefully will get an iGate running at the clubsite to fill those missing spots along the beaches.

EchoLink node 1494

2009-06-30T16:04:00.001+10:00

Node 1494 is off air at the moment, having issues with Ubuntu 9.04, WINE and Echolink with the TX Audio dropping out most of the time. Rx Audio is fine.

Trying to determine if it is the PC at fault, as this particular Dell GX240 PC was erratic with Win Xp and is slow & randomly freezes using Ubuntu 9.04 and same when it was Ubuntu 8.10

Suspect the Dell PC, as my older IBM PC works fine with Ubuntu 9.04 and runs faster.

new VK2KFJ blog on Blogspot

2009-06-30T15:21:00.000+10:00

this is a relocation of my blog on Yahoo 360, which is being scrapped on 13-July-2009 and my website at www.geocities.com/vk2kfj which is being scrapped at end of 2009.

my other website www.qsl.net/vk2kfj is still operational

below is blog entries from my Yahoo Blogs:

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Entry for 14 June 2009

relocating my blog from Yahoo 360deg Blog over to here today, as Yahoo 360 is getting the axe. A bit of a shame.

This was the new BLOG site http://au.360.yahoo.com/vk2kfj

the new Blog here has no new "nice" URL like the Yahoo 360 Blog had.

(from Yahoo7! Blog)

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VK2KFJ back on APRS

I now back on APRS as of 23rd May 2009, after a lengthy absence,(since 2005) where I had the TinyTrak3 and played with UIView on Wintel platforms.

Now running the TinyTrak3 with Garmin HVS-16 and Kenwood 2m h/h for mobile op.
This time I wish to configure the TT3's 2nd config area for HF APRS for country mobile activity.

Since I been active on Linux again, I now re-visiting the X based APRS software for Linux, ie XASTIR and X-APRS clients.

Eager to try these clients out on either (or maybe all) Ubuntu 9.04, Debian 5.0 and Fedora 10

Friday 29 May 2009 - 11:40AM (EST) (from Yahoo 360 Blog)

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demise of Geocities.com: Found out recently about the demise of Geocities.com

in other words Geocities.com/vk2kfj/ will be turning off at end of 2009.

New BLOG site is http://au.360.yahoo.com/vk2kfj

So, I am relocating from there to here and running it as a Blog instead of a static website,
which is probably better in terms of dynamic content and providing a timeline of my activities.

Friday 29 May 2009 - 11:25AM (EST) (from Yahoo 360 Blog)