CCARC NEWS 13-40

THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

ISSUE No 13-40 15th. November 2013

URGENT REQUIREMENT:

Wanted for Somersby Repeater Site, a monitoring receiver to cover 25 – 1300 Mhz for 10 M, 6 M, 2 M, 70 cm and 23 cm repeaters. A Uniden Bearcat UBC 9000 XLT or UBC-780  would be ideal but it MUST include 23 cm (1240-1300 MHz.)

Must be a desktop model (not hand held) and preferably 12 volt operated direct or via plug pack.

Please contact Don VK2ZCZ if you know where such a unit can be sourced.

STOP PRESS: Bar-B-Que at club rooms tomorrow (16th. November) at 12 noon before the Wyong Field Day planning meeting at 13:00.

In this Issue:

1. Hong Kong Repeater history help from VK.
   
2. Informal visit from ROAR regional manager to CCARC.
3. Satellite “Cluster” Launch Set for November 21.
4. Google introduces new feature for Android phones – . –
5. Broke & fixed.
6. Reminders.

1. Hong Kong Repeater history help from VK.

Hi Ed , this my be of interest to our members illustrating the co operation and mutual support between Hams and the State in a British Colony ( Hong Kong ).

Cheers, Phil

[Editors Comment – a nice story with a happy ending]

Correspondence on the history of HAM repeaters in HK

Dear OM Marc,

I have learnt about you from surfing ex-VS6GW’s page about HAM activities in Hong Kong back to 70’s and 80’s. 

http://www.qsl.net/ve3rgw/chinvs6.html

I am glad to share with you that HARTS is now operating 5 repeater sites in Hong Kong including, VR2KP (Tate’s Cairn), VR2HKA (Victoria Peak), VR2UTM (Tin Shui Wai), VR2R (Tai Mo Shan) as well as VR2HAC (High Island, Sai Kung).  HARTS is now developed as a charitable organization incorporated as a Limited company by Guarantee.  Through the repeaters network, we serve the community by providing radio communication support to various charity events of different organizations, such as hiking, running, staircase running  and so on.

Unfortunately, we may soon lose a site “VR2KP” from the Hong Kong Observatory(HKO)!  When our committee members went up VR2KP for maintenance last Monday, staff of HKO told us that the Radar Station of Observatory is going to have maintenance and renovation work.  After the renovation of the Radar Station, there will be no more space for HARTS to place our VR2KP repeater.  Staff of HKO also told us that they cannot find any supporting document showing that HKO allows HARTS to place the repeater there.

Therefore, I would like to seek your advice regarding the “birth” and History of VR2KP/ other repeaters and deal between Observatory / Government and HARTS.  Any photo or document that may help giving such proof is welcome, too!  Thanks so much in advance!

VY73 de VR2YDR Albert FUNG
Hon. Secretary, HARTS

Hello Albert,

 What a great piece of detective work You have found one of those responsible for the HARTS VHF Repeater at Tate’s Cain. I will relate all I can remember of the matter.

 During my several short term contracts as Consultant Technical Officer to the RHKAAF from 1976 to 1979, one of my tasks was to improve ground/air communications from the new “AuxAir” KaiTak Headquarters to helicopters operating low level MediVac flights throughout Hong Kong. Numerous sites were viewed and after several visits and meetings, Mr. Bell, Director of the Observatory, agreed to house a Lowband VHF FM to Airband UHF AM Repeater at Tate’s Cairn for the RHKAAF. At this time there were several licensed Amateur Radio Operators serving in the RHKAAF, including myself. It is my belief that Mr.Bell agreed to a Hamband VHF FM repeater being co-sighted with the RHKAAF Repeater,provided no mutual interference occurred. I can’t remember whether the Ham repeater was initially licensed by HARTS or the RHKAAF, or the licence issue date. However, I do remember making up suitable antennas and conducting interference tests.

I hope this information is useful.  I doubt you will glean much from the RHKAAF records since disbandment but do let me know if you do.

Regards,Marc Robinson VK2BUA (Ex. VS6GV)

Phil VK2WPC.

2. Informal visit from ROAR regional manager to CCARC.

December 7th. at the club rooms will be a busy day with Ticket making and planning for the Field Day in the morning and the December business meeting in the afternoon. Bob VK2PEP has kindly agreed to put on a BBQ at lunch time and we’ll have a special guest Peter Lowe VK3KCD who is the A/NZ + Oceania regional manager or Rotarians of Amateur Radio (ROAR) will be joining us for lunch and telling us about the upcoming major event in Sydney that ROAR are involved in. The World conference of the Rotarians happens June 2014 in Sydney. An estimated attendance of 17,000 to 20,000 Rotarians, their families and friends are expected to pour into Sydney Olympic Park from June 1 – 4 for what is predicted to be one of the largest indoor conventions in Sydney’s history! ROAR will be taking the opportunity to try to get some of them interested in our great hobby. Peter will also have a special call sign for the event and is looking for club and private stations to put the call on the air to publicise the conference and the good work that Rotary do.

This will be a very informal meet-up to which all members are very welcome.

Ed VK2JI

3. Satellite “Cluster” Launch Set for November 21

A Dnepr launcher set to lift off from Dombarovsky, near Yasny, Russia,on November 21 will carry more than two dozen satellites from 13 countries. Individual satellite teams are now in Yasny preparing their payloads for launch. Several of the satellites will carry Amateur Radio payloads, marking this as the largest single deployment of ham radio satellites. Paving the way for this month’s event was the August 22 Dnepr launch of the KOMPSAT-5 satellite from Korea — the first Dnepr launch in 2 years. This month’s launch had been postponed for more than a year to work the wrinkles out of the Dnepr program. The DubaiSat-2 Earth-imaging satellite will be the principal payload of this cluster mission.

Some of the satellites headed into orbit will be contained within the Italian UniSat-5 microsat package. UniSat-5 will include a pair of UHF transceivers operating 9k6 GMSK AX25 protocol. From “PocketQube” launchers, UniSat-5 will deploy several smaller satellites, and one of the smaller satellites will release yet another satellite, reminiscent of decorative Ukrainian eggs within eggs. UniSat-5 will deploy Eagle-1 (BeakerSat-1), Eagle-2 ($50Sat), QubeScout S1, estar-2 (CW and 1k2 AFSK UHF downlink), Wren, and PUCP-Sat-1, which in turn will disgorge Pocket-PUCP, a tiny spacecraft built by students in Peru that will carry four temperature sensors and transmit the data using a 10 mW CW UHF transmitter using 30 kHz FSK.

A model of the FUNcube-1 satellite [J.D. Heck, G3WGM, photo]

Scheduled to be among the other Amateur Radio-payload carrying satellites is FUNcube-1, a 1U CubeSat that is a collaboration between AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL. It will carry an “educational beacon” (1200 baud BPK — daytime operation) and a 20 kHz wide U/V inverting SSB/CW transponder running 300 mW PEP (nighttime operation). A project begun in 2009, FUNcube-1 will provide a signal directly to schools, with the “target audience” students at the primary and secondary levels.

FUNcube-1 is the middle 1U CubeSat of three sharing a 3U launch vehicle pod. The other two are ZACUBE-1 — the first South African satellite — and HiNCube from Norway, which will identify and transmit housekeeping data in the 70 centimeter band in CCSDS protocol. ZACUBE-1, in addition to carrying VHF and UHF communication equipment, has a 20 meter beacon that will transmit on 14.099 MHz.

Another Amateur Radio satellite, Delfi-n3Xt, is a 3U CubeSat developed by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. It will feature a 40 kHz wide U/V transponder that will be activated after other experiments are completed, as well as a high-speed S-band downlink.

Triton-1 and Triton-2 are 3U CubeSats each carrying a science mission and an Amateur Radio payload. Triton-1 includes two single-channel U/V FM-to-DSB transponders. Triton-2 will a single-channel U/V FM-to-DSB transponder and a single-channel U/S FM-to-FM transponder. The science mission is expected to last 3 months, after which the Amateur Radio payloads will be activated.

Thanks to the ARRL newsletter and AMSAT-UK&NA for this article.

4. Google introduces new feature for Android phones – . –

Originally planned for availability at the start of Q2, only now can select users get “Google Tap”.

5. Broke & fixed.

Nothing to report this week, everything running smoothly.

6. Reminders.

This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:

  November’s lecture – Electromagnetic compatibility – Saturday November 23rd at 1pm.

Brian, VK2GCE will map out the EMI / EMC / EMR field and then focus on a few things we as radio amateurs can do to reduce EMI, to achieve a modicum of EMC and live more happily. With plumbing, it is always a good plan to fix the source of the leak. With EMR, it is not so easy to fix the source of EMI; so, we need to build good defences. Brian’s presentation will address: bonding, filtering, grounding, phasing, shielding and spacing.

November 23rd & 24th – VK2EH/P will be active in the Spring WIA VHF/UHF field day contest from the Watagans- contact Doug VK2MDC for details.

Members sales page

Have you checked the sales page recently? Several items have been sold, but there’s still a bargain or two to be had, including several items from a business clear-out.

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.

For what’s coming up in the next few months at the CCARC, please check the club calendar, accessible from the header on any page on the website.

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