Spring 2022 VHF/UHF Field Day - Manly-Warringah Radio Society - YouTube 6minute video summary, 26th-27th November, 2022
Monday, November 28, 2022
Friday, November 18, 2022
6 metre FM update - 18 Novermber, 2022
Since fixing my old AWA RT85 transceivers up, since they failed several years ago, the usual pin diode failurein the Tx PA stage, I ripped out the pin diodes and added a small RF relay that came from scrapped Philips FM828's Now I back on 6 metre FM.
Repeaters I can hit and have been able to hit in the past,
VK2RAG, Somersby, 53.725 MHz requires 91.5 Hz CTCSS tone - hearing activity here after Sunday WIA b'cast.
VK2RWI, Dural, 53.850 MHz - working
VK2RBM, Blue Mtns, 53.875 MHz - working, 123Hz ctcss required
VK2RMP, Maddens Plains, 53.650 MHz - working, 123Hz ctcss required
VK2RSN, Mt Sugarloaf, Newcastle, 53.625 MHz I not sure, as I can't hear it from home, I need to go mobile to check this one.
VK2RGN, 53.700 MHz, Goulburn, I believe it is off air according to the Goulburn ARC website.
and
VK2RWI, 52.525 WIA b'cast, last Sunday 18 people called in. Good turn out
Flood Mitigation Dams
On the news for past year, all we hear about is the floods in Lismore and western Sydney and Forbes and Deniliquin, etc etc, lots of whingers , complaining about flooding and damage time and time again. Constantly asking what is the Govt going to do about compensating them because Insurance companies don't want to pay, etc, etc. Then we get the Greens whinging about climate change and giving their crap about "this is the worst flood ever!" blah blah, typical rhetoric from dope smoking, lentil eating, Greenies and hippies.
All this flooding can be stopped, or to be more precise, it can be greatly reduced. Nothing difficult about the problem. The Egyptians built mammoth projects like pyramids, so in this modern age it can't be too difficult to reduce flooding when we get lots of heavy rain. Surprisingly, I not heard anyone suggest it in the media about this.
All the Govts should be doing is building Flood Mitigation Dams. These are not like the typical storage dams like Warragamba, FMD's are much smaller and only temporarily hold the water, we can control the flow from the dam to mitigate flooding. a FMD's are temporary storage, unlike a storage dam where you try to keep it full all the time, particularly in a drought period. Also FMD's could be used for partial storage, but the idea is that the bulk of the storage in a FMD is purely temporary storage during heavy rain periods. FMD's are situated upstream from floodplains or storage dams. In a place like Lismore, there are many tributaries in the high country that eventually all congregate at Lismore, the idea is have multiple small Flood Mitigation Dams across all tributaries and there maybe more than one FMD on a single tributary.
The advantage of FMD's is they don't all need to be built on the same day, the cost can be spread over 30 years, by building one at a time, I say 30 years, as the next big floods will probably be in another 30 years. Unlike a storage dam, where a decision is made to build one, then you need to build one now, plus it hard to find the large basin/valley to build one, whereas FMD's are smaller, you have more choice on where to put them and have lesser impact on the environment than big storage dams. Another advantage of FMD's is reduction of land erosion, slowing the flow reduces the soil and crap ending up in the ocean.
At Warragamba they talking about building a higher wall, which is great for extra storage, but when it rains, they are just going to open the flood gates again and flood the Hawkesbury, realistically Warragamba needs FMD's or FMD's with partial storage further up the catchment area to slow the flow of heavy rains. Then add FMD's on the Colo River, as the flood bottleneck is where the Colo River meets the Hawkesbury. We don't need massive valleys dammed up as storage, but smaller dams to slow the flow.
Paying for it ? the Govt. should ask the Insurance Companies to chip in some money to help pay, because, in the long term, the Insurance companies would benefit from not having to pay massive claims when there are big floods. In the long term, the Govt saves on taxpayer money, as they won't need to keep paying compensation to flood victims who can't afford insurance.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Mobile trek to VK3 and VK5 - November 2022
We did a recent mobile trip to VK3 and VK5, Sydney > Albury > Benalla > Shepparton > Bendigo > Daylesford > Ballarat. Did some gold mining history research at Haddon, Smythesdale, Scarsdale and Gordon, including visiting some historic cemeteries.
Then onto Geelong > Portarlington > St.Leonards > Queenscliff >Point Lonsdale , along ocean road to Barwon Heads > Torquay > Jan Juc > Bells Beach > Anglesea > Aireys Inlet > Lorne >
Then from Lorne > along Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay > Cape Otway lighthouse > Glenaire > Lavers Hill > Yuulong > Princetown > Tweleve Apostles > Loch Ard Gorge and other cliff spots > Port Campbell.
Then to London Bridge > Peterborough > Bay of Islands > Allansford > Warrnambool > Port Fairy >Portland > Cape Nelson Lighthouse > Nelson > Mount Gambier > Millicent > Robe.
Then from Robe > Kingston > Meningie > Tailem Bend > Murray Bridge > Hahndorf.
From Handorf to Port Elliot > Victor Harbour > Capre Jervis > Normanville > Glenelg > Tanaunda.
Then from Tanunda > Kapunda > Hamilton > Waterloo > Black Springs > Burra > Hallet > Oodle Wirra and through to Broken Hill.
From Broken Hill onto Wilcania > Cobar > Nyngan > Narromine > Dubbo.
Last Day, was Dubbo > Dunedoo > Merriwa > Denman > Jerrys Plains > Warkworth > Mount Thorley and back onto the motorway to Sydney.
All up about 5100km
Note: big gaps of no Optus mobile coverage either side of Broken Hill. Telstra mobile coverage MUCH better out there.
Big gaps of 2metre APRS found in VK3 and VK5, plus my HF APRS stopped near Shepparton, HF antenna base failure. Then moved HF antenna to different base, but then TT3 didnt want to TX anymore for rest of the trip. TT3 for HF worked when I arrived home. Didnt hear much 2m or 70cm FM traffic whilst travelling, when arrived home I investigated to find both Diamond SG-M507 antennas are stuffed, with high VSWR. Replaced them with the more expensive Diamond SG-7500, now I hear distant repeaters again. Then I checked my 2metre APRS antenna, high vswr, it is also stuffed, it was just a 1/4 wave, I fitted new 1/4 wave, now APRS working better.
Lessons learnt: check your antennas are actually working before heading to outback or major road trips.
The screenshot is my VK2KFJ APRS last 7 days tracking, the pink lines are where there is nil Optus coverage
Friday, October 7, 2022
Improving receiver performance for Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots
Since on the subject of my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots, here is a tip for improving the receiver performance if you running multiple hotspots of even a single hotspot in a high RF environment.
Remember these MMDVM hotspots and even the other hotspots like OpenSpot have a simple wide-band receiver which can be easily overloaded, one thing I noticed when running my MMDVM in P25 mode was that I was getting a lot of artifacts on my transmissions from my Motorola handheld when I operated in the same room or nearby rooms to my hotspot, it was much better when I operated from outside my house or other end of the house. First I thought don't use the little attached external antenna, but even when using just the onboard cct board antenna I could still overload the receiver up close and I also noticed that when my DMR hotspot was transmitting I was getting errors on P25 receiver, even though the two hotspots operate almost 20MHz apart, I had all my hotpots running off the same USB power adaptor and I could get different behaviour by moving them around.
I decided to try some ferrite core clipons on the USB cables, this was because I realised I could hear the USB power adapter noise getting into my HF receiver and it varied as I moved the hotspot position around, so I added some big clip-on ferrite cores and wrapped the USB cable through the hole a few times and experimented for best and minimum effect on HF, I cleaned up all the noise. I was not quite sure who was the main culprit, so I added the multi-turned ferrite end of the cable closest to the hotspot.
Later and purely by accident, I was playing on P25 and noticed I not getting the errors I was previously getting, as normally I could not run my Motorola handheld in close proximity without getting artifacts on my transmissions, I also noticed the DMR hotspot now not de-sensing the P25 hotspot. This proved the hotspot receiver was picking up RF via the USB power connector, from this I made sure all my hotspots had a either toroid or big chunky ferrite clipon (14mm ID) with several turns of USB cable and fitted as close to the hotspot power connector as possible, Now I can operate ether either DMR handheld or P25 handheld in reasonably close proximity to the hotspot without interfering (desensing) with the reception of opposing hotspots. I also added smaller 3.5mm clipon ferrites at the power adaptor end of the USB cables.
It was a win-win situation, I reduced noise affecting my HF receiver radiating from hotspots and USB power adaptor and improvement of receiver performance of my hotspots by reducing receiver desense from other hotspots RF entering via USB power cables and localised RF from handheld transceivers. In terms of the MMDVM boards, if operating in a high RF environment, you are better not to use the external antenna, just use the on-board cct antenna. Only use the external antenna if operating out on low noise floor environment like a farm. Also if you running multiple hotspots, try to separate them from each other, the further the better, remember even with mW transmissions, the signals are still flattening each other's receiver front end at close proximity.
Pi-Star for MMDVM Update - October 2022
here is the latest on updates for Pi-Star for MMDVM, as of 7th October, 2022,
we still on Pi-Star 4.1.6 and Dashboard is 20220926 (26th Sept 2022)
on my nodes running Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1 with Kernel 5.10.11+
Unfortunately, still no P25 to DMR gateway yet. Fingers crossed it comes one day.
But still, my P25 node works fine and my DMR node on VKDRM network works fine as separate entities.
NOTE: to run P25, you have to use old Kernel 4.19.97+ as the P25 don't like the later 5.10.11+ kernel
RFI/EMI from solar panel inverters
Well, it had to happen, the increase of people installing f%$#ing solar panels on their roof, because they "think" they are saving the world, has wiped out my HF reception. There are a couple houses across road from me, but I haven't had an issue with them, even the Tesla driver with his whole roof covered. But a couple weeks ago I noticed noise level on 40m jumped to s6 and pretty consistent each day, it can seen on the spectrum display on my HF, it is inverter noise,
I spent a day turning off and unplugging everything in the my house to see if I was the source, nope. Got up on roof, spotted a house diagonally over back fence with a brand new set of f#$%ing solar panels, they weren't there, when I last up on the roof a few months back. Here's hoping the inverter isolation safety switch malfunctions and burns their house down.
Now I understand why the big push from ACMA to introduce a Class license system for Amateur Radio operators, the ACMA knows what is going to happen, lots of RFI/EMI complaints from faulty or cheap solar panel installations, once we are a Class license, then we can't complain about interference, it becomes "your problem, you deal with it!"
Another problem the Greens have inflicted on society. Having done work for govt corruption bodies, I know what the Greens do and how they operate. It's a shame nobody will take steps to shut them down and put them in prison for their criminal activity. I can assure you The Greens are not the smiley faced do-gooders they make themselves out to be.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
23cm / 1296Mhz Update - October 2022
a recap on 23cm repeater systems centered around Sydney as of October, 2022
Here are the operational 23cm FM Analogue repeaters I can work:
OUTPUT / INPUT Callsign Location
1273.100 / 1293.100 VK2RTZ Mt. Sugarloaf
1273.200 / 1293.200 VK2RWC Chatswood
1273.400 / 1293.400 VK2RAG Somersby
1273.500 / 1293.500 VK2RWI Dural - currently off-air due to antenna problem
1296.850 VK2RMP FM Simplex analogue parrot repeater at Maddens Plains
There are other known 23cm Repeaters, i.e VK2RRR Razorback and others at Blue Mtns, Walcha, Muswellbrook, Lismore and Jervis bay, all these have been unfortunately cancelled, scrapped or never completed.
VK2MB - Manly Warringah Radio Society - historic web pages
I had forgotten about these, but they archived away for prosperity.
https://www.qsl.net/vk2mb/old/pages/ drill down from here
The Manly-Warringah Radio Society - Interference Reports (qsl.net)
The Manly-Warringah Radio Society - VK2RMB Repeater Update (qsl.net)
The Manly-Warringah Radio Society - Special Events (qsl.net)
David VK2CZ has conducted numerous DXpeditions, including:
https://www.qsl.net/vk2mb/old/pages/SpecialEvents/ContestStations/vk9aa/vk9aa.html
https://www.qsl.net/vk2mb/old/pages/SpecialEvents/ContestStations/vk8aa/vk8aa.html
https://www.qsl.net/vk2mb/old/pages/SpecialEvents/ContestStations/vk9xd/vk9xd.html
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
23cm updates for 2nd August, 2022
I had 23cm transceiver scanning, I kept hearing a very weak female voice, looks to be a automated ident, kept trying to catch which frequency but eventually got it, so this good news, confirmed VK2RTZ is alive and still working. This is Peter VK2ZTV's baby.
VK2RTZ in QF57SC 1273.100000 REP 51
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