CCARC NEWS 13-42
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 13-42 30th. November 2013
In this Issue:
- 37 new Amateur Radio Satellites.
- International Museums weekend 2014.
- Amateur Radio Transmits 1000 Miles On Voice Power.
- Broke & fixed.
- Reminders.
1. 37 new Amateur Radio Satellites.
This month has seen 37 new satellites launched with data downlinks to be received and with two of the satellites also provide 435/145 MHz linear transponders for SSB/CW communications.
This presents a considerable challenge to correctly identify all satellites and match them to the NORAD Two-Line Element data.
The rocket launches were:
• November 19 Minotaur-1 launch
• November 21 Yasny Dnepr launch
• November 25 ISS CubeSat deployment
Mineo Wakita JE9PEL has produced a list of frequencies of the satellites carrying amateur radio payloads that are planned to launched which can be found here:
http://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/13/three-amateur-radio-satellite-deployments-in-november/
Thanks to AMSAT-UK for this story
2. International Museums Weekend 2014.
For well over a decade now the International Museums Weekend (IMW) has been growing with keen interest particularly in the United Kingdom, but with only a few radio amateurs taking part from the rest of the world.
The members of the IMW administration team are hoping to make the 2014 IMW a truly international event.
Special event stations can be set up from absolutely any type of location which might be broadly classified as a museum, including castles, preserved WW2 warships, air museums, railway museums, radio museums, preserved jails, agricultural museums and even doll museums. To date over 270 different museums have been activated.
The 2014 IMW will take place on the two weekends of the 14th/15th and 21st/22nd June.
More details about the event, its history and how to register to take part can be found at http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw/
There is absolutely no cost involved for taking part, nor is there any cost for the range of IMW Awards.
John M0HEM
Publicity Officer
International Museums Weekends
3. Amateur Radio Transmits 1000 Miles On Voice Power.
Many of us tried the old “Two tin cans connected by a string” experiment as kids. [Michael Rainey, AA1TJ] never quite forgot it. Back in 2009, he built “El Silbo”, a ham radio transmitter powered entirely by his voice. El Silbo is a Double Side Band (DSB) transmitter for 75 meters. While voice is used to excite the transmitter, it doesn’t actually transmit voice. El Silbo is a CW affair, so you should bone up on your Morse Code a bit before building one. Like many QRP transmitters El Silbo’s circuit is rather simple. A junk box loudspeaker is installed at the bottom of the can to convert voice power to electrical power. The signal is passed through a step up transformer, and used to excite a 75m crystal. Two NPN transistors (in this case MPS6521) pass the signal on through a second transformer. The signal is then routed through an LC network to the antenna.
Back in 2009, [Michael] brought El Silbo to the Maine coast in an attempt to make a transatlantic contact. This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds – [Michael] has “crossed the pond” on less power. While the attempt wasn’t successful, [Michael] has made connections as far as 1486km, or 923 miles. That’s quite a distance for simply yelling into a tin can! One of [Michael’s] favorite El Silbo stories is a 109KM conversation (QSO) he had with W1PID. [Michael] found that the signal was so good, he didn’t have to yell at all. He reduced power by dropping to his normal speaking voice for the “dits and dahs”. The two were able to converse for 17 minutes with [Michael] only using his speaking voice for power. We think this is an amazing achievement, and once more proof that you don’t need a multi-thousand dollar shack to make contacts as a ham.
Thanks to Graham VK2GRA and hackaday.com for this item.
4. Broke & fixed.
Nothing to report this week, everything running smoothly.
5. Reminders.
This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:
Combined CCARC and WICEN Christmas Lunch
14TH December at the club house 12.00
$10.00 p.p.
Need to book in with Karen for numbers to be catered.
email: Karen Boskos VK2AKB
Informal visit from ROAR regional manager to CCARC December 7th.
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.
Club member donation boxes
Over the last few weeks there have been more items added to our “freebies” boxes at the back of the lecture room. we now are up to three boxes with content. While we often see new items picked out within the first weeks that they are donated, there are still several items there, that I would prefer not to throw out. For those who attended Brian VK2GCE’s lecture on the 23rd. of November, you will know how important it is to screen your home construction work in metal boxes. There are a few such fabricated boxes available in freebies boxes. There were a few other surprises in there as well, so why not take a look through the next time you are up at the club rooms? Be quick though as I will be filtering out and throwing away the items that I don’t think are going to be taken and remember “one man’s trash is another mans treasure!”
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.
