Neville Campbell VK7NC bio
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VK7NC 3 Willowdene Ave. Sandy Bay, TAS. 7005 24 January 1994 Dear Om In the December issue of A.R., you made reference to the possibility of finding the Ist contact on 5 meires (56-60 mc). Well perhaps I can give you a short account of my work on this band. Gaining my tickct in 1932 the high frequencies always had a strong appeal to me. Then in 1935 Crosby Walch VK76W (now SK ) and I found ourselves on Smx. I was using battery operated gear with a '19 tube as a self excited oscillator & a'33 tube as modulator - then by a switching arrangement the same tubes were used as a super Regen receiver (119) & the amplifier using, the '33. In 1936 we olfered our services to the Hobart Regatta Association to maintain communication on the river between the starting point of the rowing races & the finishing line some tile or so down the river. This proved very successful and replaced the flag and signal system that had been carried out by visiting Naval personnel ( almost the entire Australian Navy visited Hobart for the Regatta cach year). We supplied this service cach year up until, and including 1940, yes 19401. For the 1940 operation in February of that year we obtained special permission from the Naval Control Board in Melbourne to operate on the understanding that the transmission would be strictly controlled between 8am & noon on the day of the Regatta, after which time the gear was to be dismantled. A few weeks after this I joined the R.A.A.F., so what happened during the war years | cannot say, but in 1946 VK7CW & myself started up again at the request of the Regatta officials, this time using American "Walkie Talkie" sets. We continued this for a couple of years then others took over. Other Sms work - In 1937 Gil Miles (ex VK3K]), now 8.K., came to Hobart to install & operate commercial radio station 7HT. A real V.H.F butf - Gil and I had many contacts, a lot of them portable & on 2 or 3 occasions we operated from the top of Mount Wellington trying by pre-arranged skeds to contact amateurs on Mt. Macedon in VK3, but without success. Gil & I were both members of the Gliding & Soaring Club of Tasmania and in 1938/39 we were finalising the fitting of 2 way Sinx gear into the gliders for instruction & contact during flight. However, ‘E@ine the Army commandeered our flying fields and to this day still owns them ( now Brighton’ Military Camp). 6mx (50 megacycles) - My log book shows that I had contact with VK2WJ on 20th January 1947, which I believe could have been the first contact between VK7 & the mainland. On the same date I worked VK2AZ & VK2LZ. These contacts predate the one shown in your list, VK2BZ & VK7LZ, by almost two years. The transmitter was a 6LOXTAL Oscillator, 6L6 Multiplier & 807 final. Hoping, these few notes will be of intcrest to you. 73 Neville Campbell VK7NC