VK2ABP callsign

 In September, I organised an additional callsign,  I picked up VK2ABP, which was Bob Paton's callsign  prior to him becoming SK in 2012.  it is now  registered  at address for QF46pu, (locality Gowan) for which Bob often operated field portable from, for many HF Contests on the mountain top. 

As I also frequent the same site for contests I thought it only fitting to get another callsign for when I am operating from there and the obvious choice was to get Bob's old callsign and operate it in his memory as he was absolutely fanatical about contesting and DXing.  Bob would often spend the entire nights on the mountain top working the HF Contests.    Bob also operated at Davis Base in Antartica as VK0BP (1nov2008 to7mar2009) and his first callsign was VK2FBOB.

Looking up the history of the callsign VK2ABP, it was first licensed to the Broken Hill ARC prior to and post World War 2, then later to a RG Dunford of Coonabarabran in 1950's.

 

IARS 23cm simplex repeater update

  IARS 23cm Active beacon information and instructions

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society Inc. (IARS)
is pleased to announce the testing of a Simplex Repeater operating on the 23cm band.
What
- FM Simplex Repeater operating on 1296.850MHz
- RF Power 25 Watts.
- Vertical Omnidirectional Antenna of 11dB gain.
- Input stage has a LNA with approximately +10dB Gain
Where
- Maddens Plains, Grid Reference QF55LR.
- Latitude: 34.27Deg South Longitude: 150.94Deg East
- Height: 371 Metres above sea level. (Not including the height of the tower).
Purpose
The purpose for the development of this particular repeater is;
To encourage interest and experimental development in the higher bands such as 23cm.
It can be used to assist amateur radio operators to develop their own station transmitters, receivers, RF amplifiers, pre-amplifiers and antenna design.
Test the operators experimenting with various modes.
It is a beacon which can be used to monitor propagation on the 23cm band.
Basic Description
The general principle of the repeater is that it is simple.
The transmitter stages consist of a 2 Metre exciter, followed by a transverter.
The transverter has an IF input of 144.850 MHz, up to, but no greater than 1.0W or else it may be over driven. The RF output is of the order of 2.0W. The next stage is the RF PA of 25W.
The memory of the controller chip has been programmed to function for a period of 150 seconds (2 ½  minutes) more than ample time to conduct any form of experimental test.
The antenna is a vertical omnidirectional antenna with approximately 11dB gain.
The control card was developed and built specifically by the IARS for this purpose with the microcontroller used to generate the Morse code and all the control for the simplex repeater.
The unique program code has been written inhouse and developed by IARS to suit this application.
This is all installed into a 19” rack 2U enclosure mounted in the equipment rack at Maddens Plains.
Operation of the Beacon
Approximately every 10 minutes a string of Morse Code will be transmitted from the beacon.
The interesting part of this Morse code is that it is part dynamic.
There are two values which are actively monitoring the unit on site.
The first is the Temperature inside the cabinet in degree Celsius
The second is the system voltage currently at the repeater site.
The Morse code message is structured as follows:
VK2RMP experimental beacon test QF55LR TEMP XX.X Deg. SYSTEM VOLTS XX.X
During the Beacon operation the Simplex section will not operate.
The beacon will not transmit whilst the simplex repeater operation is in progress and will wait until the simplex process is complete.
Operation Procedure of Repeater
It is a simple process after selecting the Repeater frequency.
It is recommended you wait for at least 10 seconds or press your PTT once for a short test, if a tail and beep comes back to you, you good to go.
If not, it may be that your signal is not getting in OR someone is using it on the input that you cannot hear.
Pressing the PTT quickly to see if it responds (similar to a duplex repeater tail) will not interfere with someone else’s transmission, as long as the PTT is quick, and not multiple times, this could be annoying for someone trying to record.
Summary : Onequick one second PTT should give you a Tail and a roger beep. If not someone is using the repeater OR your signal is not been received by the beacon.
If there was no response it may be good to wait for at least 30 seconds to see if the unit was in use before attempting the PTT again.
Once roger beep is received and you are ready to commence your transmission, it is best to operate the PTT button for about 1 second before speaking or transmitting data of pictures.
The reason for this is to stop any clipping at the start of the transmission. The repeater has a 0.5 second noise suppression timer to avoid false triggering.
CTCSS was not used to do this as many experimenters don’t have encoders fitted to the 23cm gear.
Once you release the PTT there is a one second delay before the recording stops and the current reception cycle is terminated, this is to allow for short signal drop off’s during your over.
Without this timer, a signal drop off may prematurely terminate your over and begin re-transmitting what you have just transmitted, whilst you are still recording, rather messy.
After this one second delay the repeater will commence to re-transmit your over. When the repeater has concluded your transmission you will hear an audible ‘Rodger Beep’ of approximately 750Hz.
It is after this Roger beep that a respondent or yourself may commence the next transmission. If you do not hear the ‘Rodger Beep” wait until you do.
Please make the transmission long enough to finish the job and short enough not to cause any others to be impatient.
Remember to be patient - including hearing the “Roger beep” - and avoid any difficulties.
When transmitting data modes such as RTTY or SSTV, ensure the transmission DOESN’T exceed the 150 second time window, because if you do, the signal will be unintelligible and fail.
Keep to the simple operating procedure and you will be able to enjoy our hobby that much more.

Wagga Amateur Radio Club repeaters (WARC)

 Did a trip down to Tumut last weekend,   stayed out east of Tumut at Elm Cottages, Little River  Road,  beautiful countryside, and currently it is green all the way from Sydney to Tumut,  which is different than a couple years ago, or even less, where it is brown hills all the way.

Anyway, repeaters, I made sure I had the frequencies added in memory  for the trip, VK1RGI 146.950 MHz,  VK2RYG 146.875 MHz,  VK2RBE 146.775 MHz, VK2RWG 146.650, VK2RTD 146.800 MHz, I heard activity driving down the Hume Highway,  but strength of the repeaters on the Hume Highway not all the great,   Ginini  was there along the Goulburn-Yass-Browning section, but surprisingly there are a few shadows along the highway to Gundagai.  I couldnt find 146.800 in Tumut, as explained below

Also drove up to Kiandra, everything was burnt from fire last summer.  Could not get Mt Ginini 146.950  that was a big surprise, not get picked up on APRS from there either.

 I did a search on WARC and here are the details, does not seem to be any 70cm repeaters:

VK2RWG – 146.750 MHz – located at Wheel of Fortune Hill, East of Wagga Wagga. 

VK2RBE – 146.775 MHz – located at Mt Bethungra, North of Junee. 

VK2RTD – 146.800 MHz – (currently off air) located at Mt Tumorrama, Tumut 

VK2RGA – 146.825 MHz – (currently off air) (Lockhart)

P25 Repeaters, VK1 and VK2

extract from latest WIA Repeater Database

I appending YES to ones tested in last few days

A.C.T. and New South Wales
438.1375 432.7375 VK2RHP Horsley Park Sydney (L) O - - - NME -        YES, LINKED TG10400
438.175 433.175 VK2RMB Terrey Hills Sydney O 5 150 3 2MB 91.5 1     YES, soon to be linked
438.200 432.800 VK2RCG Sydney Sydney City O - - - NME -                   YES, LINKED TG10400
438.275 432.875 VK2RWS Berowra North Sydney O - - - NWN 91.5 80
438.425 433.425 VK2RLE Engadine Sydney O 50 110 3 2LE -                   YES
438.450 433.450 VK2RCF Carlingford Sydney O - - - NME 91.5                YES
438.575 433.575 VK2ROT Paddington Sydney O 50 90 3 2BV 91.5 23       YES
438.675 433.675 VK2RPL Mt Nardi Lismore O 50 850 3 2SRC 123
439.600 434.600 VK2RRR Razorback SW Sydney 1/19 U - - - 2VVV 91.5
439.825 434.825 VK2RWK Kurrajong NW Sydney O - - - NWN 91.5 80
439.950 434.950 VK2RAG Somersby Central Coast O - 300 3 2EH 91.5     YES, LINKED TG10400
439.975 434.975 VK2RNS Hornsby Northern Sydney O 50 225 3.5 2MA - YES, LINKED TG10400

You can see they predominantly in and around Sydney

TG10400 Pacific P25 Reflector activity - 9th August 2020

another busy day for activity on TG10400, I now have a third  MMDVM hotspot setup just for P25,  this is much better than trying to monitor VK2RCG, as it has dropout issues from the network side, as when people talk directly on that repeater it is clear of dropouts, but people  coming in from network do have dropouts.

Anyway, here is  users from on TG10400 for Sunday 9th August 2020

WD6AWP, VA3POQ, KB9LCL, K6JPS, WB6ZSU, KG6DTL, VK4VTK, VK2FJAY, VK2PCH, VK3AS, VK3FKEN, VK3JMA, VK2FAEU, K5TRA, VK4CWL, VK2DEK, DK6PX, VK3FJAW, VK3FJBM - 19 users.

Interesting, just spotted activity on TG10401 I thought with WICEN  rampup last night, they might be using it,   but just  KB5XE, VK3JMA, BG2JHD

WICEN P25 Reflector TG10401

TG4 P25 Reflector activity 8th August 2020

checking activity for the TG4 (VK4) P25 Reflector :

VK4TUX, VK4VTK, VK4UN, VK4GRB, VK3MET, VK2GP, ZL3DMH, VK3FAJH

TG4 P25 Reflector

TG10400 Pacific P25 Reflector activity - 8th August 2020

Big day of activity here on TG10400 P25 Pacific Reflector, 21 users  today

VK2PZ, VK2FAEU, VK2ERG, VK3VLA, VK2NMZ, VK3FKEN, VK3FJAY, VK7HSE, VK2FOX, VK3FXBR, VK3JMA, VK2MRC, VK3UT, VK2FPAR, VE7IOX, VK2PCH, K5TRA, VK2GP, VK4CWL, KD2EWE, VK3AS,
I noted VK2RAG has appeared as a gateway,  possibly on their P25 repeater 439.950 MHz

Also, VK2RMB 438.175 MHz P25 repeater, soon to also be linked into TG10400,  it is work in progress.

Noting some of the gateway repeaters :
VK2RAG, VK2RCG, VK2RGP, VK2RHK, VK2RHP, VK2RNS, VK3RBD, VK3RHD, VK4RDS, VK4RHG.

Pacific TG10400 P25 - NXDN Reflector

updating NXDN Talk Groups

adding corrections for NXDN Talk Groups

NXDN / NXREF / NXCORE  Talk Groups 

Service	TalkGroup	Dashboard
Canada	TG 302	p25canada.hopto.org/nxdn/
VK 505	TG 505	43.229.63.42/db/      linked to XLX389D
50599	TG 50599	nxdn.duckdns.org/9b/
CQ-UK	TG 10922	www.mb6er.com/nxdn
Deutsch	TG 20000	srv08.oevsv.at/nxdn/
31088	TG 31088	54.191.50.212
50525	TG 50525	50525.nxref.org
65000	TG 65000	nxdn.n18.de/

Deprecated :

ZL 530			TG 530		101.98.22.194:85
1200		TG 1200					1200.mmdvmvk.org
Pacific	TG 10400					nxdn.mmdvmvk.org
25000			TG 25000	45.62.211.216

NXDN info

updating P25 Talk Groups

Updating the P25 list, a few groups now deprecated.

 P25  Talk Groups

Service	TalkGroup	Dashboard
World Wide	TG 10100	m1geo.com/p25
North America	TG 10200	dvswitch.org/P25_NA
North America TAC 1	TG 10201	dvswitch.org/P25_NA_TAC1
Europe	TG 10300	p25-eu.n18.de
Espana	TG 10301	ea5gvk.duckdns.org:84/P25
Pacific	TG 10400	pacificp25.repeaters.info
WICEN / Pacific TAC1	TG 10401	pacifictac1.repeaters.info
Pacific TAC2 (China)	TG 10402	hamclub.net/mmdvm/p25/
VK4P25	TG 4	p25.duckdns.org/4/
Canada	TG 302	p25canada.hopto.org/p25canada/
Wisconsin	TG 31555	mmdvm-p25.v24bridge.net
50525 (BM DMR Bridge)	TG 50525	tg50525.repeaters.info      VK
53099   XLX750  ZL	TG 53099	http://www.xlx750.nz/

Unlink = TG 9999

Deprecated :

31665 (BM DMR Bridge)	TG 31665	74.91.127.166/p25reflector/
31672  Pi-Star Chat	TG 31672	18.221.87.9/
CQ-UK	TG 10120	www/mb6er.com/p25/
Texas Tech	TG 31648	p25.alecwasserman.com/p25reflector/
San Diego	TG 858	nx6d.dx40.com/p25/

updated C4FM / YSF / Wires-X Talk Group Summary

corrections for :  AU NSW VK2 Chat  and   AU TAS VK7 Chat entries

C4FM  / YSF  Talk Group Summary

YSF001 Reflector  - YSF001   >   XLX389D

AU CQ-VK  Reflector  - YSF24117  >  VK-Wires-GW

50525  Bridge  - YSF06015  >   BM 50525, VK3GWY, P25

CQ-VK Wires-X – YSF38900 > AU YSF001

AU Albury Chat – YSF73082

AU NSW VK2 Chat – YSF43110

AU TAS VK7 Chat – YSF05057 > BM TG5057

XLX389 – YSF22381

XLX500 – YSF49716
XLX505 – YSF85857 > VK7HSE gateway.

XLX750 – YSF32748     (ZL Reflector)

XLX751 – YSF41007     (ZL Reflector)

FCS00114  - Repeater Australia

YSF00001 - Echo Test