Microwave activity 18th October, 2025

my activity is from Buff Point, near Budgewoi on NSW Central Coast, aiming across Lake Budgewoi, it proved the point that can definitely get back into Sydney from here on 23cm FM, so would be easy on SSB and WSPR

 

VK2XB/m on the Kandos 40metre Net

 whilst listening to the Kandos 40metre Net on 7.093 this afternoon,  heard Indy VK2XB call in, nice to see him mobile, checked the APRS and sure enough, we can see him mobile in the truck taking some freight to Melbourne. 

23cm contacts with VK2KYP portable 29th July 2024

 tee'd up and made contacts on 23cm, 1296.100 USB and 1294.000 FM simplex, on Monday 29th July 2024 at approx 10.30am AEST, 

Gary VK2KYP was portable at Somersby, on Central Coast NSW  QF56po, using a gridpack

and I was portable at Porcupine Hill, up the back of Jenolan Caves, in Western Blue Mtns of NSW, QF46xe, using a bi-quad antenna,

 distance was 130km,  signal strength was s5 on 1296.100 and s6 on 1294.000 FM.

logged the contacts on vkspotter.com

Brandmeister DMR Network Update for VK & ZL as of 14 Feb 2023

 Brandmeister DMR Network  Update for VK(Australia) & ZL(New Zealand) as of 14 Feb 2023

Talkgroups:

95 VK-ZL Chat

98 Echo Test

505 VK Call Channel

530 ZL National Call Channel

5050 XLX500G Reflector

5051 VK1 Chat

5052 VK2 Chat

5053 VK3 Chat

5054 VK4 Chat

5055 VK5 Chat

5056 VK6 Chat

5057 VK7 Chat

5058 VK8 Chat

50510 XLX510-D Reflector

50521 Illawarra ARS chat

50525 P25 Bridge & VK3 Allstar Repeater Network

50526 CCARC VK2RAG

50531 VK3 chat1

50533 Southern Peninsula ARC (vk3)

50539 Next-Gen 

50566 WICEN

50590  VK2HK-2-ROOM Wires-X

50591  VK2GP-ND Wires-X

50592  VK3KAY-ROOM Wires-X

50593  XRF740-C Reflector

50594  VK2RFG-ROOM

5059742  XRF740-C Reflector

5301 ZL1 Chat

5302 ZL2 Chat

5303 ZL3 Chat

5304 ZL4 Chat

53020  ZL XLX626A Reflector

53021  ZL  IFROAR Reflector

53029  ZL XLX299X Reflector

53050  ZL  XLX751 Reflector

53060  ZL  Taupo ARC

53099  ZL XLX750 Reflector

and the official Brandmeister TalkGroup list  Talkgroups | BrandMeister

and the Pi-Star Brandmeister TG List  BrandMeister Talkgroup List - pistar.uk

Timeslots ? BM repeaters run with Slot1 and Slot2 Linked, Hotspots run in DMO (Direct Mode Operation)

meaning  that you do not need to specify a TimeSlot number (1 or 2) for use with the Brandmeister Network TalkGroups.

updated my VK-DMR handheld and hotspot today 12th Feb 2023

 I finally got around to updating my  VK-DMR Pi-Star hotspot and my TYT MD380 handheld, these are the ones I use for VK-DMR. This  reconfig and re-programming is keeping in line with the changes made by the VK-DMR network on 9th February, 2023.  I fixed up the hotspot to remove old static TG's I used to monitor and shifted the TG's on TS2 over to TS1, leaving only TG505 and ECHO in TS2. TG505 is the only static TG now, all the rest of the TG's in TS1 are UA (dynamic).

Out of the UA based TG's I only interested in TG's 5,9,530, 1910, 3801-3809, WICEN 3810, VK-JOTA 30

VK-DMR Network updates - January 2023

 Begin forwarded message:

From: "VK3TE via groups.io" <vk3te=bigpond.com@groups.io>

Subject: Re: [VK-DMR] Changes to the VK-DMR Network

Date: 29 January 2023 at 10:11:55 am AEDT

To: <VK-DMR@groups.io>

Reply-To: VK-DMR@groups.io

Good Morning All

For Hotspots this will have NO Impact to you as you set your TG’s that you want to listen to.

The Link from the Repeater Server to the Hotspot server to pass the TG’s will NOT change

So what ever is on the IPSC2 Repeater server will still pass the TG’s to the Hotspot Server

 

The Phase 2 all you will have to do is move the TG 380x to TS 1 Now and the same to reprogram your Radio for TG 380x to now use TS 1 (Time Slot 1)

 

Now for your Promiscuous Mode, we keep telling you that your Hotspot could hear another TG, and with your Radio is programmed to Promiscuous Mode it will jump to this TG, and if your Hotspot hears another different TG it will jump to this TG and your radio will follow and you do not know what you could be listening too, this happens a lot when listening to the TG 5 Broadcasts, and you then try to talk back to the person and you are now on a different TG.

 

This has been reported many times and even watching the VK-DMR IPSC2 Hotspot and Repeater Dashboards many of these promiscuous mode users are on the wrong TG when trying to talk back

 

As this is your choice we keep telling Amateurs that Promiscuous mode is not a good practice

 

You should be setting the TG for RX and TX for each channel you have programmed to your Radio, as the Hotspot just listens to what it is set to, and will follow what your Radio is sending to your Hotspot.

 

Anyway the Phase 2 of Changers will be coming to make it easier for all to use moving forward and the TG 8 for each Region will be removed and replaced with a New Set of Fixed TG’s and the TG 10008 to 90008 that is TG 8/1 to 8/9 will be replaced with a all New Set of TG’s you will need to check on the VK-DMR Network Web Site at https://vkdmr.com/

 

Peter Brennan

VK3TE & VK4SPB

Australia Day 26th January, 2023 - AX prefix

 AX prefix can be used instead of VK prefix today.

Australia Day represents 26th January, 1949, also simultaneously celebrated  in India as Republic Day,

unlike the Australian media pushing 26th January as the day the First Fleet arrived in Australia, which is incorrect. 

2metre enhanced propagation 26th January, 2023

 vkspotter showing a few path openings this morning , as  we had some low lying fog here in Sydney and others reported fog down Wollongong area.  I found 146.750 VK2RFS was open at s5, normally not accessible from here. Heard VK2BHO and VK2STG chatting. 

Noted that VK2RFS Mt.Mumbulla 146.750 is linked to VK2RWP Cooma 146.825 and VK3RDH Mt.Delegate 146.625 Mhz. That is handy to know when I next mobile down that way.

APRS and some big trucks

 I often looking at APRS map to see what vehicles or balloon experiments are active on APRS, or following friends who are travelling and using APRS, but also spotting a few regulars, these are truck drivers who I see traversing big distances for their daily work. These are VK2XB and VK2LPC. 

Both use DMR and other modes. I have heard Ian VK2XB call on DMR, but not for a while now. At the times when I did hear Ian calling, I was too busy doing work at my desk to answer him.  I used to work Ian occasionally on our local 2metre rptr when he driving petrol tankers in Sydney many years ago. I think from seeing his APRS path, he might be doing grain haulage and other freight. In recent months I been trying to pay more attention to checking where he is on APRS and listen for him on DMR.

I passed Ian a few months back near Goulburn when I was mobile from Sydney to Albury, I wasn't paying attention to the APRS heard list at time I passed him, I didnt realise until an hour or so later, otherwise I would have flagged him down, or got his attention somehow. 

Similar thing happened earlier last year, we had stopped in at Young, then headed south to Junee and  VK2LPC-14 was returning home, again I wasn't regularly checking APRS Heard list and I think I passed him as he heading home.

Google Maps APRS for VK2XB mobile

Google Maps APRS for VK2LPC-14 mobile

2metre enhanced propagation

 We have had some enhanced propagation the last few days since 25th December, on Xmas night, we could see sea-fog rolling in from ocean, from nth east after a warm day, I checked repeaters near midnight, noting Mt.Bindo VK2RDX which is normally s-1 at my house was now 60/9, so I checked around other rptrs, 6675 from sth coast was 60/9, I could key 146.900 but no ident,  it could be either VK2RKG in Bathurst or the Newcastle rptr. At 4.30am on 26th December I had briefly got up and noticed it was solid fog outside,  visibility 150metres in all directions, the two streetlights I could see looked like cones of light. by 9am the sun starting to burn off the fog, still Bindo was 10/9.

27th December, the sea fog starting again after dark, by near midnight I could key rptrs, Bindo VK2RDX again at 60/9, found VK2RAB 146.825 Mt. Crawney s-5, VKRTM 146.750 Tamworth s1, and 146.900 was able to be keyed, but no ident, possibly VK2RKG in Bathurst. Checked 6metre rptrs, still the same.

13cm relocation

 news from The Western Sydney Microwave Users group,

they  have all moved to 2301.1 MHz.  (from 2400 MHz)

We have VK2BRM, VK2AZ ,VK2YOC, VK2KQ VK2XAX all QRV on 2301.1.

Others are re-tuning to make the move.

VK2YOC is also running a 10mW CW beacon on 2301.1 for people to test against.

Come join us on a very quiet segment of 13cm :)

Liason frequency is on 146.450 MHz

DMR radio nets

 here are some DMR radio nets in VK :

RAOTC - 11am first Monday each month, on VK-DMR TG5

Sean VK3KK's King Arthur Round Table net - from 8pm each Wednesday night, on Brandmeister TG50525, P25 TG50525, NXDN TG50525 and VK3 AllStar network.

Simon VK3XEM's  covid welfare net - 10am, Mon-Fri ,  on Brandmeister TG50525, P25 TG50525, NXDN TG50525 and VK3 AllStar network.

Peter VK4NBL's VK-DMR net -  7.30pm,  Tuesday nights  on VK-DMR TG5

80metre nets

 having a listen  on 80 metre band,  on a Thursday night,  came across two club nets,  Ballarat ARC on approx 3.608 MHz LSB   and   Bendigo ARC on 3.655 MHz LSB   around the 8.30pm local time  (which is 10.30UTC)  good signals from both nets.