Newcastle 23cm repeater

drove up north of Terrey Hills to a high lookout  overlooking Cottage Point & Akuna Bay ,  ( 33deg 38.06min S, 151deg 12.56min E, QF56OI  alt.177m)  using the Double-Quad antenna I could key up the Newcastle repeater VK2RTZ 1273.100 / 1293.100 it came back with a signal strength of 10/9.

In comparison to Somersby repeater VK2RAG 1273.400 / 1293.400 which came back with 60/0 signal. Both repeaters have voice ident.  Gave some calls, but nobody around.

Tried to key Dural repeater VK2RWI  1273.500 / 1293.500, no luck, it is deaf.  But switched  the Double-Quad antenna to horizontal polarisation, I could hear the VK2RWI beacon on 1296.420 ok

Chatswood repeater VK2RWC 1273.200 / 1293.200  was a no show,  but this was to be expected, as I was in its shadow.

23cm repeater update

operational 23cm FM Analogue repeaters:
1273.100 / 1293.100 VK2RZL  at Cardiff Heights, Newcastle
1273.200 / 1293.200 VK2RWC  at Chatswood
1273.200 / 1293.200 VK2RPW at Walcha area.
1273.500 / 1293.500 VK2RWI  at  Dural

Other 23cm repeaters, that are planned or under construction in NSW:
1273.300 / 1293.300 VK2RBM  for  Blue Mountains ARC , west of Sydney
1273.300 / 1293.300 VK2RPL Mt Nardi, Lismore area
1273.450 / 1293.450 VK2RRR at Razorback in Sydney's south west (Camden/Picton area)
1273.700 / 1293.700 VK1RJB in Jervis Bay on the South Coast

23cm FM activity

I been trying to hit the Somersby VK2RAG 23cm rptr on 1293.400  over the past month or so,  first I tried it  stationary mobile at Terrey Hills about a month ago just after it went live, I could just key it up occasionally, but it was noisy.

Last Saturday  I took a Double Quad antenna with me and tried it portable from Dobroyd Head / Tania Park at Balgowlah Heights, as this location is high and void of trees and other objects,  this time I could hear it  S0-Q5 and could key it and gave some calls, I heard Doug VK2MDC come back to my calls, but I was too noisy to be understood.   Same afternoon, I worked Dave VK2TDN and Ron VK2GO on the Chatswood 23cm rptr. 1293.200.  Also tried some calls on 1294.000 FM simplex to see if anyone was listening, but nothing.

On Wednesday I drove up past Terrey Hills out towards Cottage Point where there are a few high spots along the road and tried again, I found a good spot where I could key the VK2RAG 23cm reliabley, but made no contacts. I'll have to do a trip all the way to West Head and try again.

WSPR & WSJT on Linux

after messing around for several weeks trying to get WSJT and WSPR compiled on various flavours of Linux, I finally discovered that most discussion forums and blogs on the subject missed an important dependancy, being python-dev.

Moving on,  I have now succesfully compiled WSPR 4.0 r3051 (svn3571) on Ubuntu 12.04 x86, Ubuntu 13.04 x86, Debian 6.02 (Gnome) x86,  Debian 7.1 (Gnome) x86  and Debian 7.1 (KDE) x86.   I have been running the two Debian 7.1 instances with WSPR 4.0 back to back to prove they can decode each other correctly, so that is looking good.  I have now have my confidence back in WSPR/WSJT on Linux again.

for the WSJT, successfully compiled  some old and latest version of WSJT on Ubuntu 13.04 x86, Debian 7.1 (Gnome) x86 and Debian (KDE) x86.   I was not expecting different behaviour from the Gnome based and KDE instances, but it did confirm consistency in the  build procedure, which is satisfying to know.
I downloaded and compiled WSJT 9.3 r2589  and WSJT 9.5 r3281 (svn 3564) for the Ubuntu 13.04 x86   and WSJT 9.5 r3281 (svn3571) on the two Debian 7.1 x86 instances.  I had picked the older versions based on what I had seen other people using, as a known stable release, once I confirmed it worked, then went and tried the latest version. That's using the source from the svn.berlios.de site.

Will do some more testing on the other combinations, followed by some RF testing. Then I will document my experiences on my web page to encourage more hams to switch to a Linux based WSPR / WSJT station.

And I also hope to do some 64 bit Linux compiles on a 64 bit server sometime.

What would be really nice to do in the future is get a Rasperry Pi board, get WSPR running on that, take it and a 2m radio portable up a mountain top.

Flag Pole Contest

my local club  (Manly Warringah Radio Society) VK2MB ran their inaugural Flag Pole Contest last weekend, where you go setup a portable station with something like a flag pole and make contacts with it.

I think they planning to make it coincide with 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' each year.

see   http://mwrs.org.au

ILLW - International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend - newspaper article for this weekend

Newspaper article: 

http://tinyurl.com/pkxk7am

The Manly Warringah Radio Society (VK2MB) operating ILLW this weekend from Barrenjoey Lighthouse, at Palm Beach, northern beaches of Sydney.

WSPR on 144 MHz

a dissertation from Andrew VK3BQ on  using WSPR on 144 MHz

http://www.vk3bq.com/2013/07/15/idiots-guide-to-144mhz-wspr/

23cm FM activity

the Chatswood 23cm FM repeater on 1273.200 / 1293.200 has had a facelift last week with addition of a 20dB gain receive pre-amp, and has it made a huge difference, I can now get into it with just 1w and same for many other people across Sydney basin.  I heard a comment that 40+ people have been heard using this repeater recently, so this mkaes it very promising for increased microwave activity in the Sydney, well done to the guys that did this project.

Also noted listening to the VK2AWX re-broadcast of the WIA news from Hunter  region that they are now doing a test re-broadcast on 1294.000 FM simplex on Monday nights starting at 7.30pm.   I need to take the gear mobile to find a location with northerly aspect to see if I can hear the 1294.000 signal.  Presumably, places like Dobroyd Park (Balgowlah Heights)  or North Head (east Manly), or Queenscliff headland, or Dee Why headland  and Long Reef headland  to provide clear path up the coast to Newcastle.

I need to finish the 90cm dish with tripod and Double-Quad feed antenna, make it so it can be easily assembled and disassembled for relocation using a car to portable locations.

WSPR and WSJT

currently playing with WSPR and WSJT,  just getting the hang of setting it up and trying to decode some signals,  joined the WSPR 2m group on Facebook, as my primary interest is weak signal activity on 2metre band. Need to make up the TX interface. Also dabbling with the Linux version of WSJT, have not compiled up a Linux version of WSPR yet, so presently running WSPR 2.0 on an old Win XP PC.

The idea is to run WSPR from home at times when I can't spend time in front of the radios, and WSJT for the times I can and when there is other WSJT activity, which would most likely be in summer E's and trop season. The idea of 6metre WSPR also interests me, but this will be low on the priority list for now.

VK2XAT maritime mobile on APRS

I been following  Alan VK2XAT's track on Winlink via APRS,

http://aprs.fi/info/a/VK2XAT

his yacht was due to leave Finike in May 2013, no new position reports yet.