Ham Radio Ireland

Ham Radio Ireland

spotted comments from Richard VK2SKY, 

what caught my attention was mention of the Galway VHF Group, some of my ancestors came from Loughrea, Galway,  Michael Connolly and wife Maria Griffin, emigrated with their family to Australia, settling in Terranora, south of Sydney, during the potato famine.

so here is blog for the group back in Ireland

Galway VHF Group

access to their online newsletters

Ham Radio Ireland ~ Galway VHF Group

and their Facebook page

(20+) Ham Radio Ireland | Facebook

QTech 2025 Conference - Brisbane VHF Group - 1st-2nd November, 2025

 

qtech – Nov 1/2, 2025

23cm portable QF43xe90 Porcupine Hill/Mount Trickett/Jenolan Caves/Kanangra-Boyd National Park

 Spent last week at Jenolan Cabins (QF46xe90) near Mount Trickett and Porcupine Hill in western Blue Mountains, whilst relaxing, I   worked 23cm stations  on FM and USB, using ic910 and a 23cm Bi-quad  antenna.

Noting working these 23cm repeaters:
VK2RWC Chatswood 1273.200MHz was 60/9 at 110km east
VK2RWI Dural 1273.500 was s9  at 99.1km east
VK2RAG Somersby 1273.400 was s7 at 131km nth east
VK2RMP Maddens Plains 1296.850MHz simplex parrot repeater was s3 at 100.5km sth east

Contacts:

Gary VK2KYP portable at Somersby via 1296.100 USB and FM, 10w signal 10/9,  and also qrp  both ways at with a few mW

worked Ivan VK2FUR, Ron VK2GO, Mick VK2CMP & Alex VK2KQ via Chatswood Repeater

and also called in on the ARNSW Broadcast on Sunday night on Dural 23cm repeater.

If looking for a good RF location to operate from, or operate nearby, then book a holiday at  Jenolan Cabins

WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest 2025

 WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest 2025, 

here is a snapshot from the Contest Radar site on 21st June, 2025

Contest Radar

WIA VHF/UHF Field Day Contest - Winter 2025

 two weeks away to the  2025 WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest  over weekend 21st-22nd June, 2025

The Wireless Institute of Australia

Some new VHF & Above DX locations

 on trip out to Mudgee and return, I looking out for good locations to operate VHF, UHF  and above, two good accessible, clear locations found are :
1. intersection of  Aarons Pass Road, Castlereagh Highway and Perrams Road,  a few kilometres north of Ilford, the two side roads are on the crest of a hill, clear of trees, good place for microwave portable.
2. Cherry Tree Hill, on Castlereagh Highway, place called Running Stream, south of Ilford, north of Capertee, it was sign posted as being 1100m ASL, north of Razorback Road.  That is a significant height, as Mt Canobolis near Orange is 1250m ASL

APRS tracking on 14-15-16 Feb 2025

 my APRS track on the weekend 14-15-16 Feb 2025
Just some casual looking at possible future places for an antenna farm

VHF and above portable site Cape Hawke, Forster, NSW, QF67gs

 

I recently visited Cape Hawke (QF67gs)  lookout near Forster on the NSW Mid Coast, I had not been out to the lookout on previous visits to Forster, but after visiting the lookout I realised it is a great spot for VHF,UHF and SHF portable DXing, you can drive most of the way to the lookout, it has a 15minute walk to reach the summit, it is a National Park, so it is covered in dense vegetation and trees, but there is a large 20metre high lookout tower, stairs and platform at top, solid structure with metal posts for temporary connecting antennas too. Ground level is dense bushland, you want to do microwave you have to go up the lookout tower. It is a triangular platform  approx 3m x 3m

this photo is looking north west towards Forster.

this photo looking south west towards Newcastle, Sydney etc, it just catches the tops of trees.

looking west

looking north east up the coast 

latest multimode transceivers for VHF and above

I can never remember the latest model numbers as they are similiar and easily confused

ICOM IC-905   144, 430, 1200, 2400, 5600 MHz +10 GHz   All Mode Transceiver approx $4k8

ICOM IC-705   HF, 50, 144, 430 MHz    All Mode Transceiver    approx $2k

ICOM IC-9700   144, 430, 1200 MHz   All Mode Transceiver   approx $2k5      -  replacement to IC-910

YAESU FT-991A    HF, 50, 144, 430 MHz  All Mode Transceiver    approx $2k1

QF46xe VHF/UHF/SHF location for portable operation/contest operation as of 1st August, 2024

 if you looking for a good high spot, with cleared of trees and good all round direction, then this location is currently ideal. It is approximately 600m north of Mt.Trickett (NSW),(SOTA site) is 1362m ASL and currently cleared of forestry pine trees.

Ideal for VHF/UHF/SHF location for portable operation/contest operation.  I just visited it recently whilst up that area. This area is very bare after recent forestry logging. Grid Square QF46xe.

You can see high rise buildings of Chatswood, North Sydney and Sydney city from here.

The VK2RCH repeaters are full scale here 60/9.

To get to this location, head for Oberon and across to Edith on road to Jenolan and Kanangra Walls. 
I pretty much given up on using Kanangra Boyd NP for portable operation, as everything is locked up.

On the subject of the VK2RCH repeaters, I could hear them fine from within Oberon. They were the only Sydney repeaters I could hear on a handheld from Oberon.

St.George Amateur Rado Society - VHF 2metre Summer Contest

 

SGARS VHF 2m Summer Contest

The SGARS VHF 2m Summer Contest is open now until 29th February 2024. This is a great oppurtunity to get out in great Aussie outdoors and catch that one winning contact.   The SGARS 2m Summer contest is open all licence classes, including foundation. Analogue and digital modes can be used. Just one contact can win this contest, so please refer to the contest rules at the web site.    For more information about SGARS activities go to www.sgars.org

RFI radiating from our local hospital

 

FYI to any others in the Frenchs Forest area (or near a large hospital) as I am seeing interference across 6metres and beyond being emitted from the Northern Beaches Hospital  

This is something I noticed over 12months ago, it was not always there  but became more prevalent 6 months ago, I presumed it was someone's rogue solar panel inverter as it only seemed to appear during the day, but then I started noticing it at night, which led me to do more sniffing, so I used the spectrum display on my ic756 to see that it was blobs of noise about 25khz wide, spaced approximately 100khz apart, spreading from about 45 MHz to 60MHz, and it has some drift in it. It could be radiating across a wider range than 45-60MHz, that just happened to be the limit of my radio's receiver.  I could NOT detect the RFI below 30MHz, and could NOT detect the RFI at 144MHz and above.

I decided to go mobile in the local area, to find that the strongest signal strength is coming from the new hospital, then doing sweeps driving around the hospital, the strongest signal was found to be from the western side (60/9) and weakest point is on the eastern side (s1). It not like a data signal, it just blobs of noise.

I think it probably some sort of medical equipment up on the upper floors on the western  side radiating RFI. It seems to start up around 9am in the morning and may stop  as late as 10-11pm

I was discussing this with Mike VK2EK, he said he seen similiar type of signal out at Windsor, then noted he can see the hospital out there. He is going to go mobile to further investigate his RFI source. 

At this point in time it is probably a common piece of equipment used in hospitals, and I know it won't be a Diathermy machine, this RFI is from something else that radiates nicely on VHF Low band.

Next step is try to take something portable to the hospital to do some sniffing internally without getting arrested. Then once I am satisfied of where it is located in the building I can report it to ACMA.

Dave VK0DS / VK2JDS arriving at Davis Station (Antartica) on Saturday, 11th November, 2023

 Some Antartic photos from Dave VK0DS / VK2JDS arriving at Davis Station on Saturday, 11th Nov 2023 after cutting through much ice. Dave will operate on 2m EME, 23cm EME and HF as time permits between work duties over the next 14 or so months.

VK Microwave groups

 some VK Microwave SHF groups :

VK3-Microwave@groups.io

https://groups.io/g/VK2-Microwave-Users-Group/topics

Winter Weak Signal DX Update - 28th June 2023

 here are some very impressive DX contacts,  from VKSpotter Propagation Reporter,
specifically the microwave activity on 23cm and 9cm, this represents  the path of Gladstone to Brisbane.

Note : 9cm via Aircraft Enhancement using Q65 digital.

That is equivalent path of Sydney to Albury,  or Sydney to Coffs Harbour

WIA VHF/UHF Contest 24th/25th June 2023

 Manly Warringah Radio Society will be operating the WIA VHF/UHF Field Day contest this weekend from Terrey Hills QF56oh , 6,2,70,23 on Saturday afternoon under callsign VI100MB

WIA Winter VHF/UHF Contest - 24th-25th June 2023

 The Rules are posted at: https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/vhfuhf/

Since the untimely passing of Mike Subocz VK3AVV in January 2022, developer of the popular VKCL contest logger, who also wrote a log-checker, we've lost the facility to properly prepare results while awaiting probate on his estate.

As everyone is aware, we have been working on catching up with manually preparing results of the 2022 contests and this year’s Summer event, last January.

A number of people have made valiant efforts over recent months to find or to write suitable log-checking software to suit these unique contests that have been developed by the stakeholders over time.

It’s proven to be a herculean task and I am truly grateful to those volunteers who have taken it on. Let them rest for the moment – or so – and I urge you just get out there, enjoy the outdoors, or the indoors at home, and have fun.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not yet up to the task.

Best wishes to all for the contest.

Roger Harrison VK2ZRH

Manager, WIA VHF/UHF Field Days

_______________________________________________

VK-VHF mailing list

VK-VHF@lists.ozlabs.org

https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/vk-vhf

Road Trip 12th - 14th May 2023

 Sydney - Orange - Gowan - Sydney

return trip late Sunday night, with low temperatures 6 to 10deg C yielded fuel consumption of 9L/100km from my Jackaroo. Only used a tank of 95 octane, usually it consumes 3/4 of a tank in warm weather.

3.5Hrs via Katoomba  return trip, compared to 4hrs via Bells Line Rd for previous similiar late night returns

APRS VK2KFJ-9 is RF  145.175 MHz  and VK2KFJ is TCPIP

Whilst at Gowan QF46pu, did some RF testing, accessing VK2RYL 147.225 MHz requiring 91.5Hz ctcss, VK2RCD 146.725 at Dubbo, VK2RYG 146.875 MHz requiring 91.5Hz ctcss at Young, VK2RKG 146.900 MHz Bathurst, VK2RCW 146.900 MHz at Gowan, VK2RCC 146.800 MHz at Coonabarabran, VK1RGI 146.950 MHz Mt. Ginini, plus contacts on 146.500 FM simplex.  I could hear WIA broadcast  via VK2RAG 146.725 MHz, VK2RMP 146.850 MHz Maddens Plains, VK2RWI 147.000 at Dural.

Also heard on Sunday morning at 7.30am, two U.S. stations talking on their local 29.680 MHz 10m repeater for 30mins.  Later that day could hear the WIA broadcast on a 29.680 repeater.either in vk7 or vk6, plus activity on 29.600 MHz including Murray ZL3MH,  plus Indonesians on 29.120 MHz

WIA VHF UHF SHF Field Day Contest 2023

 

Upcoming WIA  VHF UHF SHF Contest Date & Time for 2023

  Summer 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 14 through 0059 UTC Sunday 15 January(0400 / 0359 in VK6). - COMPLETED

  Winter 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 24 June through 0059 UTC Sunday 25 June (0300 / 0259 in VK6).

The Wireless Institute of Australia (wia.org.au)

Repeaters VK2RCW 147.200MHz and VK2RKG 146.900 now linked

 Repeaters VK2RCW 147.200MHz at Gowan and VK2RKG 146.900 in Bathurst are now linked. No access tones required to use them.