CCARC NEWS 16-18
THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ISSUE No 16-18 14th October 2016
In this Issue:
- VK2RAG Digital Progress
- Parts Wanted
- JOTA at the weekend
- Who had the first radio communication
- Broke & fixed
- Reminders
1. VK2RAG Digital Progress
This is from Ian VK2HK:
We have P25 going on VK2RAG, 438.325 -7, this repeater is a MultiMode repeater and so is shared with DMR and System Fusion, first in will hold that mode until a silent period of 10 seconds for local repeater use, but needs a silent period incoming from the internet for only 2 seconds before a new mode can be used.
There is currently only one Worlwide Reflector setup, with other coming next week. Users will need to setup TalkGroups in their P25 radios to allow them to connect to the reflectors.
All these TalkGroups should be available by mid next week
10100 Worldwide (currently active and hosted in the UK)
10200 North America
10300 Europe
10400 Pacific (will be hosted in Australia)
10404 WICEN Australia Wide ( will be there for use if required
Work is being done to connect this system to the P25NX system and so the reason for using these TalkGroup numbers.
There are other multimode repeaters and Hotspots being setup in Australia and I will update this information within the next couple of months as soon as all the data is collated.
We will also be able to setup “private” reflectors for P25 if required and I will update information as it is available.
Any further information that is required, I will be happy to try and answer so I can be emailed directly at the following email address.
mmdvm at vk2hk.com
Regards
Ian (VK2HK)
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2. Parts Wanted
This is from Sam VK2ZZ:
I am restoring a bit of gear and require a couple of these if anyone has any laying around. They used to be used on microphones in the old days.
Sam
VK2ZZ
3. JOTA at the weekend
The largest scouting event, the Jamboree On The Air held annually in more than 150 countries, with the 59th JOTA on October 14-16. It uses Amateur Radio to link Scouts and Guides around the world, the nation or just locally. This year there will also be a special link up to the International Space Stations, expected to be monitored by many JOTA groups in eastern Australia.
Among the many JOTA events is the Melbourne Region Scouts and the School Amateur Radio Club Network (SARCNET) at Victoria’s Churchill National Park in Lysterfield. The VK3SRC station for the 100 years of Cub Scouts will be on air both on the Saturday and Sunday. Organiser Joe Gonzales VK3YSP explains there will be plenty of activity for all. This includes the VK3SRC station, a short Amateur Radio-assisted Nature walk, a VHF/UHF Communications activity, chasing Summits On The Air and WWFF Parks, emergency communication, fox hunting, satellite demonstration, and more. Any radio amateur interested in seeing the SARCNET kids and Cub Scouts in action, including a sausage sizzle lunch, must register first by emailing the organisers at event@sarcnet.org
From Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project, Shane Lynd VK4KHZ tell us of a JOTA telebridge contact involving an ISS pass over Queensland and its voice download of 145.800 FM that should be audible over much of eastern Australia. This is a great opportunity to introduce those at JOTA events to another unique dimension of our hobby. An ARISS telebridge is ready for the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute, Omaha NE, with the ISS callsign NA1SS to be used by Astronaut is Kate Rubins KG5FY. VK4KHZ advises that the contact is set for Saturday 15 October, at 14:00:08 UTC.
Jim Linton – VK3PC
Source: WIA News
4. Who had the first radio communication
Hertz, Marconi and Fessenden are among the names that come to mind when you think of early radio experimenters, but Loomis is also in the mix of inventors. Exactly 150 years ago, Dr Mahlon Loomis, a dentist, used his wireless telegraphy on Bear’s Den Mountain in Virginia USA.
In October 1866, he claimed to have transmitted signals between two mountaintops using kites as antennas, but without having named independent witnesses. He actively promoted his idea of charging a layer of the atmosphere for telegraph communication, and in 1872, received a US Patent for a wireless telegraph, although it’s only words and no diagram.
In 1868 he showed some US Congressmen and scientists his wireless communication system. In January 1873, he addressed the US Congress, stating that his proposal caused electrical vibrations or waves to pass around the world, with one wave circlet following another, from the point of the disturbance. Sounds like basic theory of radio propagation?
The Congress declined to use the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company. Working a generation before Marconi, some historians consider him to be the first wireless telegrapher.
However, one view is that rather than using the atmosphere to carry continuous waves, the kites used were of the same height, and the antennas the same length, resulting in conduction and not radiation.
Now to mark the 150th anniversary of that experiment will be two special event stations K6L and K1T. They will be on the summit of Bear’s Den Mountain in Virginia from October 14 to 16, where Loomis demonstrated his ‘Aerial Telegraph’ or wireless telegraphy. More details on that activity can be found on qrz.com
Source: Amateur Radio Victoria
BROKE & FIXED
Nothing to report.
REMINDERS
This section lists important announcements and possibly items from previous CCARC NEWS editions that are still current and may need your input:
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 …