CCARC NEWS 12-45

CCARC Club News 16/12/2012 | 0

CCARC NEWS 12-45

THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

ISSUE No 12-45 16th. December 2012

In this Issue:

Mini Contest university part of Wyong field day weekend.
Last minute presents for the Ham in your life.
Antenna related calculators from the RAC.
Useful resources on Contests + DX page.

1. Mini Contest university part of Wyong field day weekend.

The CCARC are running contest procedure classes in the form of a mini contest university at Wyong on Saturday the 23rd. of February (the day before the field day itself).

The room is booked, I have already received three Australian based presentations as well as all of the material from Dayton 2012. Registrations have started to come in and given we have limited space if you are interested in attending (and are not helping with the site set-up for Sunday) you should also register as soon as possible.

Publicity has started to be distributed to broadcasts, podcasts & web sites. The text below which was read today (Sunday 16th. December) on the WIA news bulletin was also featured in the UK’s Southgate News and the US Amateur Radio Newline. More publicity releases will follow;

Trent VK4TS (WIA Director for Awards and Contests) is locked in as keynote speaker to introduce the day. As well as material from the Dayton Contest University, kindly supplied by Tim K3LR, some local content has been offered to be presented by members of the VKCC group.

One aim of the “MCU” is to help people understand what contesting is all about. It’s hoped that people who are sitting on the contest sidelines, not knowing how to move forward can gain from attending this (free) event.

As well as the educational content it is hoped that the networking component – the chance to meet the people you have heard (or heard of) will also form a major part of the day. The day will run from 10 am to 4pm on Saturday 23rd. February with an hour break for lunch and if there is sufficient interest extend to a get together and meal in the evening at a local pub or restaurant joining up with others coming to the Field day on the Sunday.

Information and details on how to register can be found under the mini contest university link in the sidebar of www.fieldday.org.au or directly from the link on the Dayton Contest University page at www.contestuniversity.com .

Ed VK2JI.

2. Last minute presents for the Ham in your life.

In case this is being read by a friend / partner of a Radio Amateur (Ham) over his/her shoulder or perhaps Google has led you here – here’s a few brief suggestions for last minute non-equipment-specific presents that should go down well with most amateurs that wont need you to take out a bank loan to buy them!

Coaxial cable stripper to simplify the making of cables ready for plugs (thanks to Jason VK2WAR for this suggestion) – try looking on eBAY to find this but check which co-ax size is being used first (it’s written on the cables in his/her “shack”). (Here is one example: ebay-link )
The 2013 call book – this gives an up-to-date listing of all licensed amateurs in the country and the Australian one comes with a CD in case your Ham likes to read this data on the computer rather than off paper.
The latest version of any Amateur Radio handbook, such as the ones from the RSGB or the ARRL, these are always well received but have the problem that shipping costs are often very high as these are heavy books! (RSGB, ARRL, WIA online shops)
Similar to above, only rather than a general handbook on the hobby, one specifically on Antennas, these are cheaper and smaller, hence lighter for postage. (RSGB, ARRL, WIA online shops)
If your friend has now got the permission to run high power (1KW), how about getting him or her a paper log book as all high power contacts should be documented for when the radio inspector comes around. (RSGB, ARRL, WIA online shops)
If your friend collects “QSL Cards” for contact he/she makes, a nice (the larger the better) photo album to store and display them in is a good present and should be available at a local shopping centre.

Ed VK2JI.

3. Antenna related calculators from the RAC.

As the summer period and the vacation period is now upon us, several members will start to think about antennas. After all this is one area of the station that can improve both received and transmitted signal strength. In the case of HF wire antennas often at low cost. If you are following my series of “Smoke Signal” articles you will know I am experimenting with “different” HF wire antennas to get a better signal out of my small garden.

Before construction starts calculations are needed and I have just happened upon a series of calculators that the Radio Amateurs of Canada have put together that I thought might be of interest to those looking at changing or adding a HF wire antenna. This list of these calculators can be found on the web, here: https://www.rac.ca/tca/tcacalculators.htm

Ed VK2JI with thanks to the RAC.

4. Useful resources on Contests + DX Website page.

As well as details of contests that the CCARC have taken part in or are planning to take part in our Contests+DX page on this site also contains some useful tools at the top of the page.

Propagation predictions
Real time Grey Line diagram
UTC time clock
At the bottom of the page we carry the latest Amateur radio new headlines from the Southgate News site.

To access the page you simply need to click on the “Contests + DX” label at the top of any page on this website.

Ed VK2JI.

Anyone reading this on the website who is not yet a member of the CCARC, please consider joining by emailing ccarc @ ccarc.org.au for full details. We currently have no joining fee and the annual membership fee is A$30.00.