CCARC NEWS 14-13
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 14-13 11th April 2014
In this Issue:
- Saturday Meetings, new meeting time for Projects Team.
- Assessment & Education days in April & May
- CCARC Lectures
- Repeater Enhancements
- Discussion about Ham Radio on ABC Sydney 702
- Missing Malaysian Aircraft and Ham Software
- RTL SDR dongle performance information
- Broke & fixed
- Reminders
1. SATURDAY MEETINGS
The Projects Team Meeting will now be held on Saturday mornings 1000-1200 instead of Friday nights. There will still be the normal Saturday morning get together.
Saturday 12th April at 1000 will be the new time for the Projects Team Meeting followed at 1300 by the Wicen Meeting and at 1400 the Wicen AGM.
2. ASSESSMENT & EDUCATION DAYS
Our Education Officer Chris Lobb VK2YY has organized a license assessment day on Saturday 12th April at CCARC club-rooms and an education day on 10th May at Manly-Warringah Radio Society.
This is an ideal time to study for your Foundation license, or the next level of your license, the upgrade from Foundation to Standard or Standard to Advanced. Anything worth having needs to be worked for, but you don’t have to do it alone. Chris, VK2YY is willing to give us his time to run training courses and examinations to help you. Why not contact Chris via email VK2YYChris at gmail.com
Chris tells me that currently we have a couple for advanced license and maybe 1 or 2 for standard license. We wish the candidates all the best for their upgrade.
Congratulations to Shane who now has his callsign VK2FAFD.
3. CCARC LECTURES
This months lectures is:
Saturday 19th April 2014 “Antenna Construction” by Col Hodgson VK2ZCO
4. REPEATER ENHANCEMENTS
Ian VK2HK has been continuing to work on the DSTAR capability and is currently working on a group link in the USA, when connected this will give linkage to many users on both analogue and digital, the USA link has IRLP, Echolink, MotoTrbo, P25 and Allstarlink connections. Ian will give us more information as the project advances.
Don VK2ZCZ and Bob VK2ZAR have been continuing to upgrade our repeater system, currently working on the UHF systems, upgrading coax cabling and installing a 4 port UHF combiner and making improvements in the general installations.
5. DISCUSSION ABOUT HAM RADIO ON ABC SYDNEY 702
There was a discussion on HAM RADIO on 702 Sydney’s ABC radio station, formally known as 2BL. The segment was on at 0940 Thursday 10th April 2014, which is during the Mornings program hosted by Linda Mottram.
Did anyone manage to record this session, please let me know, as a number of us missed it.
Thanks to Leigh VK2XY for this item.
6. MISSING MALAYSIAN AIRCRAFT AND HAM SOFTWARE
US Navy personnel helping to look for missing Malaysia Air Flight MH370 are using the signal-processing and analysis package Spectrum Laboratory by Wolf Buescher, DL4YHF, to analyze recently detected 37.5 kHz “pings” that may be from the missing plane’s “black box.” Some Spectrum Laboratory screen shots as seen aboard the Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield were shown on TV. The US Navy personnel are guests aboard the Australian ship. VLF experimenter Warren Ziegler, K2ORS, said the software is the same package Amateur Radio experimenters used recently to detect transatlantic signals on 29 kHz.
See the full article at ARRL News
Thanks to Peter VK2EHQ for this item.
7. RTL SDR DONGLE PERFORMANCE
We have seen and used these little USB SDR dongles and they are ultra cheap, but what is their performance really like? Follow this link and find out.
Some Measurements on DVB-T Dongles with E4000 and R820T Tuners
Thanks to Shane VK2FAFD for this item.
BROKE & FIXED
The ADSL at the club rooms had failed last week but is now working again. Thanks to Ian VK2HK for following it up.
REMINDERS
This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:
CCARC has a 23 cm repeater on trial. Output 1273.400 MHz offset plus 20 MHz. We invite you to use it as much as possible and send Don VK2ZCZ your written (or typed) signal reports.
Our Smoke Signals Editor, Leonie VK2LCP is preparing for the next issue (May) and is asking nicely for articles, photos (any from Field Day would be appreciated). New items are to be sent to: smokesignalseditor at fsparker.com.au please.
Jaycar Tuggerah & Erina will give CCARC members a trade discount – approx 10% on purchases over $25. Make sure you ask for it. Thanks Rod VK2LAX and Col VK2ZCO.
Anyone reading this on the website who is not yet a member of the CCARC, please consider joining by emailing ccarc at ccarc dot org dot au for full details.
For submissions to this newsletter from CCARC club members please email the editor news-editor at ccarc dot org dot au
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.
Dave VK2DLS … News & Publicity Officer …
