QRM
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Registered for Pos
as a Publication,
Category B.
Bulletin issued by the North, North West and
Southern Branches of the Wireless Institute
of Australia, Tasmanian Division.
P.O. BOX 275
ATGUST 1980 VOLULE 10 No 7 LAUNCEST
TAS. ON
- 7250
Meetings -: Somth 6th North &th North West 12th COUNCIL To be advised, listen to B/C.
EDETORLAL
R,D.,Contest
Two things still seem to be bugging some people and preventing a
100% effort in VK7. They are:
(1) Non allowance of repeater contacts
(<, Inclusion of only full calls in the participation factor,
The second factor represents a misunderstanding of the Contest
Managers' intensions, His idea was to compensate N and Z calls for their
inability to use all bhands., It prevents non-participating licencees from
“being a disadvantage to the total scores, Novice and limited stations
participating are a BONUS, Please help.
While it would be good to be able to use repeaters, they still can,
and should, be used as a calling frequency. Remember VHF working is a
boost as
(1) You can work the same station each two hours,
(2) Points exchanged stay in the state,
Remember
(1) Honour the memory of those who participated in active service,
(2) Help Tassie to get a win = it can happen,
(3) Put in two logs: one for CW, one for phone,
(4) Make contacts efficiently - see which give the most effective
scores,
Best of luck
Reg Emmett VK7KK
State President,
QRM Page 2
'SOUTHERN BRANCH NOTES.
Approximately forty people attended the July Southern Branch
meeting, at which the Treasurer gave his Annual Report. A very interesting
lecture was then given by a member of the Southern Tasmanian Ambulance
Services; which was followed by a demonstration of Resuscitation
Techniques for those interested in knowing what to do when forming a
6rt. long, 240 volt fuse,
The next S,B, meeting will be held on Wed,, Aug. 6th,, at SES
Headquarters in Melville St. at 8p.m, Following the now usual abbreviated
meeting will be a raffle (20c per ticket) with the prize being a 5 dollar
voucher on the store; to be held during the coffee break, It is intended
that there will be no lecture after this meeting, rather a chance for an
extended eyeball QSO, The following meeting (September) there will be
an auction so start getting your bits and pieces together,
The Bingo/Housewarming night was very enjoyable, with about 4O
people attending, and a small profit was made, The next WAGS meeting will
be held on Tuesday, the 5th of August at Liz Ruthvens house., All interested
persons are welcome,
News from the S,B, executive meeting (Thursday Sept. 17th):
Sunday Broadcast; Graham reported that there will be no Sunday broadcast
on the 17th and 24th, August unless there are some volunteers, Please
contact Graham VK7GD,
Contest Sheets; for the RD contest hopefully will be available at the
next meeting, The contest weekend is on the 9/10th August so please
everyone participate - see if we can win that coveted award. The scoring
system as it is, the only way Tas, could possibly win is by a substantial
increase in the number of logs submitted, and a similar increase in the
average no, of entries per log, )
Devil Award; There have been three new awards issued - VK72JG, G8SR
and GLDFE, Congratulations John!
New members; In future new members joining the Southern Branch will be
presented their certificates at Southern Branch meetings rather than
having them posted, .
Field Day; This get together for all Tasmanian amateurs has had a
probable date set - Sat, October Lth at the Lagoon of Islands; subject
to clashes with any other WIA activities (The trout season is open, and
flies and tiger snakes will not be present in large numbers in the spring)
Ian VK7ZZ won the last raffle - his prize being an agfamatic camera,
Due to health problems, Ian has decided to take a breather from WIA
activities, and has resigned from the Vice president's position, and
from the SB executive., It is hoped that he will soon be on the road to
recovery and be able to attend meetings regularly.
An update for the SB store will be published again soon in QRM,
That is all for now, 73's from VK7ZSU/NSU,
TOPICAL TOPICS
On July 15th while working a 'W'S friend on 28mhz, the 'W' said he
could not copy my transmission because of very heavy QRM, However, another
W5 several miles away, was listening on frequency, and he relayed my
transmission on 2 metres to the other station, The QSO then continued
without a hitch in this manner, I guess that's what it is all about!
COMMUNICATION,
73 JIM
QRM Page 3
NORTH WEST BRANCH NOTES
The usual monthly meeting was held at the Club rooms with
another good attendance - 27 in all,
In the absense of Peter VK7BQ, the meeting was ably chaired
by Steve, VK7Z SILVER MAKE, - )
MINUTES of the last meeting were read and adopted,
CORRESPONDENCE INWARDS., A letter was read from Mr, Tony Staley,
Minister for P, & T,, advising regretfully, of his inability to
attend TARC 1980,
A letter was received from VICOM, stating that they will be
putting on a display of equipment,
COUNCIL A full report was given by IVAN VK7XL,
UNFINANCIAL MEMBERS, A discussion was held on 2 unfinancial members,
who have given wonderful service to the Branch in the past,
VISIT BY ZL2AGU, At a special meeting GRAHAM, who was the guest of
JIM, VK7NOW, gave an interesting talk on Power Distribution in
ZL, and also radio topics in general, Many members present, have
had the pleasure of working with Graham,
FILM AFTERNOCN Several parents - members of the Branch and children,
spent an interesting afternoon at the QTH of JIM VK7NOW, on 28th
June, Ably assisted by Projectionist, JOHN REISZ of Latrobe, an
enjoyable program was screened,
SUNDAY MORNING ATV B'CASTS. It is understood that verbal permission
has been received from P, & T, regarding this matter, It is expected
official information will be received shortly.
ATV GROUP, Tony VK7AX, brought the meeting up to date on this
section, Council is to be advised of some dis-satifaction on some
aspects relating to this segment of the N,W, BRANCH,
.BROADCAST OFFICERS. 2 members kindly offered their services for the
next BROADCAST PERIOD, IVAN VK7XL and VK7NW will be active, as well
as the "old reliables'" SYD VK7SF and TERRY VK7TT, We would like
perhaps one or two "Z" Calls to offer their services, A relay on 4O
and 80 metres would present no problem,
LECTURE At the conclusion of the meeting a most interesting,
illustrated lecture was given by BOB VK7ZAA on QUARTZ XTALS and
the cutting techniques required.
Samples were shown to members, and the actual technique in
cutting the various types was ably demonstrated. A hearty round of
applause was given,
A tasty supper, served by the DEVONPORT members, concluded yet
another successful meeting,
See you again next month,
73 JIM,
QRM Page 4
NORTHERN BRANCH NOTES
NORTHERN BRANCH GENERAL MEETING: was held at the Bourke St.,, clubrooms
on the 11th July. About 22 members and 3 visitors were present,
In inward correspondence, a letter from VK3QQ was tabled, asking
for information from any VK7 who had experienced power line noise
problems both past and existing.
There was no financial report, as Alan 7NAC [is down with the
flu, In general business the meeting elected Ken 7ZKT as clubroom
manager, ‘
Permission has been granted from P, & T, for the Northern branch
to provide a Sunday evening broadcast, This will include information
from the morning, plus any news applicable to the Branch, The
broadcast will be on repeater 8 commencing at 7,30 p.m. lasting for 20
minutes or so with the 10m, 80m and 2m scramble following.
In general business, it was resolved to donate the historical type*
items that are in the back shed, to the Hobart museum for public
display.
The equipment and Jjunk auction to follow, was quite well
supported, although most members were looking for bargains only,
Thanks to Lindsay 7ZLD for stepping in as auctioneer,
The supper, provided by David 7YY, was definitely appreciated
as was the warmth that the open fire provided.
Next General Meeting on 8th August.
NORTH BRANCH EXECUTIVE MEETING 18th July.
REPEATER _FUND RAFFLE
The first item discussed was the coming repeater fund raffle. A
number of prizes have been offered and as soon as tickets are
printed, they will be available, The Northern Branch asks all VK7
members to support this raffle, especially those that use the
repeater,
SOCIAL EVENING 13th September: After some discussion it was
decided to hold a social gathering, at the Riverside community hall
on the 13th of September, Light dancing and entertainment, with
drinks and supper provided, for a nominal cover charge, Tickets
for this, available soon, The raffle will be drawn at this venue
as well, Friends of members welcone,
AMATEUR GET-TOGETHER 22nd August:
On Friday night, about 7.30 p.m, on the 22nd August, at the
Great Northern Hotel, main bar area, The Northern Branch invites all
members and prospective members to attend. For new amateurs, this
would be a good opportunity to break the ice, Come for five minutes
or five hours as you may wish,
R, D, CCNTEST 9th - 10th August:
The Northern branch clubrooms, will be open and VK/NB will
be used through-out the weekend. Anyone who can spare time to operate
7NB please attend. Those amateurs and listeners without stations are
especially encouraged. Contact Reg, 7KK if able to help.
QRM Page 5
Northern Branch Notes Con't.
PROJECT BUILDING NIGHT FRIDAY 15th August:
David 7YY, will be co-ordinating a project, involving the
construction of a continuity tester, based on an E,A, article, All
parts supplied for a few dollars cost, This tester would be invaluable
for checking coax connections, etec, and the project would be syitable
for those wishing to start with electronics construction,
If you have your own project on the go, then come along, use the
tools provided and perhaps some help or advice, )
ALBERT HALL HOBBIES DISPLAY 12 -~ 14th September:
A co-ordinator is required for the North branch display at the
hall, The Job involves overseeing the setting up and allocation of
space, Any offers for this or displays, contact Reg 7KK,
Next Executive meeting at the Clubrooms on 15th August,
73 KEN
AMATEUR ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The last meeting of the Committee was held on 28th June, The
minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed, Minutes from
meetings held in VK4 and VK6 were read with interest. Apparently no
meetings are being held in VK5 or VK2,
The VK6 committee has agreed to release notes of their meeting
under similar conditions as these notes are published, The VK4
committee has been asked by the W,I,A, to release the number of
breaches brought up at meetings. Also they reported that some
stations were doing Broadcast relays without approval, Remember
the relaying of another station is not permitted now, unless for
approved Broadcasts or tests relating to these broadcasts, During
such tests, the purpose should be stated.
Of a local nature, an unofficial report was tabled of CB type
operation just inside the bottom edge of 10M, Committee members
to watch for this. A report was made of the use of unofficial
phonetics a bit close to the wind, We agreed that other phonetics
than the official ones are used, especially on the DX bands, but there
is a limit,
Some discussion took place about on air inguiries about equipment
availability etc., especially if one of the Amateurs is known to be
in business, It was agreed that if the discussion was only of an
Amateur nature, it would not be possible to determine whether it was
of a business nature or not,
The next meeting is set for the 23rd August,
73 VKT7PF
Page ©
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QRM Page 7
WICEN NOTES FROM VKT7AW
TRAINING COURSE
The WICEN training weekend mentioned in last month's QRM
(originally on the first weekend in August) has been re-scheduled ,...
the new date is Saturday September 13th 1980, beginning at 0900K, at
§.E.S, Headquarters, 38 Melville St., Hobart, Lectures and. films will
be presented by WICEN Co-ordinators and S.E,S., Instructors, and an
exercise will be held on Sunday afternoon, the 1i4th, to consolidate
what is learned,
All Southern WICEN members, i,e, those who have returned a
questionaire, will receive a copy of the course programme, along
with other details of the course and pre-reading requirements. As
mentioned last month, the course includes formal message-handling
procedures, message writing, map reading, VHF repeater coverage,
regulations, insurance arrangements and call-out procedures, The
State Emergency Service, as well as providing instructors for part
of the course, have also kindly offered to supply morning and
afternoon tea, It is anticipated that most participants will partake
of a counter lunch at a nearby hotel, I am deeply indebted to Mr,
Brian Brand, the Southern Regional Officer of the S,E,S,, for
assistance in organizing the course.
If anyone from the North or North-West is interested in attending
the course, they should contact me and I will send full details, The
same applies to anyone in the South who has not registered with WICEN,
PORTABLE REPEATERS
Advice has been received from the Postal and Telecommunications
Department that the portable repeaters will be exempt from many
of the provisions of the new "Amateur Operators Handbook" when used
in emergency situations and on WICEN exercises, The Dept. has
asked for details of equipment types and frequencies in order to
estimate any potential interference problems, especially to or from :
users of the State Disaster Spectrum (in the vicinity of 77MHz)
The full description of the portable repeaters was to have
-appeared in "Amateur Radio" magazine in May or June (advice from
the Editor in April) - hopefully the article will appear in the
near future,
CAVE EXERCISE,
An exercise is to be held in the Mole Creek area over the weekend
of September 20th = 21st, Police and Caving Society members will be
taking part, and Southern WICEN members are taking the opportunity
to test out a prototype 1.8 MHz hand-held transceiver, There is plenty
of camping space in a convenient paddock, and I'm told that Saturday
night in the local pub is generally most entertaining, For further
details contact Ron Mann, VK7RM,
73 ANDREW,
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€RM Page 9
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Heathkit 100Mhzto I Ghz in line directional Wattmeter $200,00
Radio equipment EX DCA going extra CHEAP mske us an offer,
Equipment available on request,
JIL SX=200 26-180Mhz 380-514Mhz AM/FM 24,0/12v Receiver $479,00
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VHF Notes,
Activity in the Launceston area should be on the increase with the
arrival of new equipment and active callsigns on the VHF bands,
Tony VK7TP is obtaining a I296Mhz Transverter and hopes to go
mountain hopping this summer, Allan VK7AT at St. Helens also has
big ideas in mind for working across the Tasman, all the best Allan,
Phil VK7ZEN is now the proud owner of a 2M SSb/FM transceiver feeding
a pair of 8 element Yagis. So by next Christmas after the AOCP exam
we should hear a lot of Amateurs active on our VHF bands,
Nothing startling has happened on 6 over the Mid-Winter season the
only openings being on several occasions to ZL the last being
Saturday 19th when VK7AE and VK7ZGG worked two stations,
Two metres has been just as quiet although Daniel VK7DA has managed
to work into VK3 on several occasions.
Don't forget VK9 is now active on 6M and if you require this QSL
for your WAVKCA (as I do) have a good listen next time the band
is open for this "rare'" one as he may be lost in the middle of
of a dog=-pile,
Last but not least REMEMBER the R,D, CONTEST as all VHF contacts
count as double points as the score remains in the State.
Till next month
73
Joe Gelston
VK7JG
QRM Page 10
DX NOTES
Having had to supply a weekly DX news bulletin for our Sunday
broadcasts has made it extremely difficult to find anything new to
write about , however, since our lastnotes were published several
events have taken place which made July quite an exciting month
for the DX'er., - First OH2BH and OH2MM operated from Sudan and
Southern Sudan as 6T1YP and ST2FF/St0O using all bands on both 8SB
and C.W, .
LF2BN operated from the Cayman islands and gave the C,W, boys
plenty of QSO's on 7, 14 and 2im/hz.
KL4MGN operated as C5ACC from Gambia, 6W8DY Senegal, TYQER
Mali and 5V7HL togo, and 3A2EE and FOUW/3A were both active on
14 M/hz SSB,
OH2AP/030 on Market Reef certainly caused a stir but was not
an easy catch for VK's, Here again SSB and CW were both used,
The Dominican boys eventually got to Catalina Island
(wherever that is) and were QSO'ed by VK7's and the Revilla
Gigedo operation went off on schedule using all bands SSB and
CW under the call-signs JALUMDX and L4B4MDX,
The official ARRL DX bulletin number 27 broadcast by WIAW
on the 18th July advised that the newly created African homelands -
Transkei (88) Vendaland (T4) and Bophicthatswana (H5) together
with any other homelands created in the future would only count
as South Africa for DXCC purposes also that 7J1 Okino Tori-shima would
be deleted from the DXCC official countries list as from 1st
December 1980,
Although there are rumours of other operations from Red
sea 1slands, another Indian ocean jaunt, and the visit of an American
to West African countries this year, nothing definate is known, as
its Jjust a matter of more listening for the time being,
QSL Information.
A35ANM via WEPYV ST2FF/STO via OH2MM
A35YY " K5YY (after 15-8-80) VQ9CT " weIMX
A35SM " WB70VA ZB2YY " K5YY
C5ACC " KB4GQ ZF2BN " WLHET
FOUW/3A" FOUW LALMDX " XEIOX
HH2VP " NLXR LBLNDX " XEIOX
HV2vVO " IOGPY 5V7HL " WB2KXA
G3JKI/5A" F6CYL 6T1YP " OH2BH
ODS5HQ " DJ9ZB
Con't...
QRM Page 11
DX NOTES CON't,
XT2AW via W2HAZ (for the KYMGN operation only)
TZ?%? for the KLUMGN operation via K2UQ.
HC2's, All Hc2 QSL's to go to P,0, Box 2191
Santa Domingo
Dominican Republic
OH2AP/0J0 Box 90. SFO4L00,
JARVENPAA. FINLAND,
73 Col VK7LZ
FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE
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If your interested then contact:-
VK7ZAL Mr, ROBERT MILNE
11 Clifford Street,
MOONAH...7009.
Tel., 727844
MT, WELLINGTON REPEATER VK7RHT RADIATION PATTERN MEASUREMENTS
It is proposed to measure the radiation patterns of both
transmit and receive aerials of VK7RHT, by placing a transmitter
in an aircraft flying sround the Mountain, and recording the
received signal level and bearing of the aircraft, This will enable
polar plots to be made of the radiation patterns, and may help to
explain rumoured poor performance in particular directions.
It has been estimated that $50 will be required to enable
two circuits of the aerials to be made ('plane costs), and after a
call for donations at the July Southern Branch meeting, exactly
$50 was collected, The Repeater Committee, consisting of VK7's
ZDF, SS, RR, and AW, is arranging test equipment and carrying out
Preliminary measurements, and it is anticipated that the final
'fly-pass" will occur before the middle of September,
It is planned to make the results, and the method of obtaining
these, the subject of a future "Amateur Radio" article,
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QRM Page 13
"SCENE_& HEARD." by "EARWIG"
This past month of July has been an interesting one as far as
SWL DX is concerned, I have observed several low powered stations
from South America,, on the tropical bands. Radio Populares in
Riobamba, Ecuador was logged on 3985 Khz at 1047 GMT, The programme
was in Spanish with slight interference from American hams on
lower sideband, This 1 KW station is a Catholic missionary
broadcasting station and signals were good, Another Ecuadorian
signal heard is & Time signal station - HC210A in Guayagil
operated by the Ministry of Oceanic Research on 3810 Khz, The
pulses were heard at 1109z and it is supposed to have an
identification on c/w and voice (Spanish) but there was strong
interference, Other SWLs have heard this station as early as 0700z
with better signal strength and readability and it is also rated at
2 KW, Radio America in Lima, Peru was heard at 1145Z on 6010 Khz
with music and frequent commercials in Spanish, However, signals
were not strong and adjacent QRM from Radio Australia wiped out this 10
KW station,
Two new countries for me were logged this month., The BRT in
Bruxelles, Belgium was heard in Dutch on 15190 Khz at O4L45z, Signals
were very good, The International Service of Radio Portugal was
heard with English language programmes to North America at 0520z on
11925 Khz with fair signals, I believe it is rarely heard in
Australia as the VOA relay in Greece usually nullifies the signals
on this frequency.
On medium wave this month, the following stations were heard,
Vliadivostock on 1251 Khz was heard in Japanese with poor to fair
signals at 1410z, Radio Malaysia on 735 Khz was heard with news in
Bahasa Malay at 1436z with good signals, However, the easiest to
copy on MW lately has been Radio Noumea on 666 Khz, I have heard
this French language station as early as 0730z until sign-off
at 1030-14100z even on a portable tranny handheld., The reason
being that no Australasian stations have been allocated this
frequency yet, Noumea is also on 7170 KHZ and 3345 Khz. One snag
is that they prefer reports to be in French!
One bit of excitement this month was provided by New Hebrides
Radio on 7260 Khz, On June 30th., about 0500z a bomb was planted within
the control room and exploded. The programme went dead and only
the carrier was there, The station was off air for two to three hours
and when they resumed they produced a special news bulletin in
Pidgin, French and English about the occurence., With the possibility
of independence on July 31st, being delayed owing to the situation,
it would pay to monitor Vila on 7260 Khz at 0830z for the English
news, The Solomon Islands, according to Andrew Pye of Apollo Bay (Viec),
have been heard at 0700z on 9545 Khz, The programmes were alternatively
in Pidgin and English and signals were very readable until sign-off
at 0815z,
Paraguay has been heard and worked here in Tasmania, Andre
Vk7AE and Ellis VK7WA were heard working ZP5PX at 0640z on 7055
LSB in Asuncion, He was peaking at S7-8,
160 metres has been quite good lately according to Frank VK7BC
with all states except VK8 being heard, as well as ZL, W6, W8JK and
plenty of Pacific Island LORAN pulses.
COn't ce oo
QRM Page 14
"SCENE & HEARD" Con't.
Well that is all for this month, My thanks go to Andrew Pye,
VK3VOL of apollo Bay (Vic) and Gary Jones, Brian Beardwood, Frank
VK7BC for providing me with some loggings. If you would like to
forward your listings to me to include in this column,. please send
them via P.,0. Box 275 Launceston TAS, 7250 by August 13th,
7%3's DE "Earwig" )
HISTORICAL SECTION
The Condenser, (Capacitor) who invented it? CUNEAS at LEYDEN
(the LEYDEN JAR) Right? Wrong: The condenser is one of the oldest
pieces of apparatus, being discovered 2 years ago by a German
named VON KLEIST. Today, the condenser (capacitor) has reached
such importance in the electrical industry, and has so many uses,
that if it were immediately removed from its millions of circuits,
TELEGRAPH service in this country would be almost at a standstill;
TELEPHONE, CABLE, RADIO COMMUNICATION, and BROADCASTING would cease
entirely, and not an AUTOMOBILE WHEEL nor an AEROPLANE operate,
So you see that little (sometimes quite large) capacitor has
more bearing on our lives than most people would think,
Next month, I will tell you how VON KLEIST discovered the
Condenser, and the Crude form that it took,
JIM VK7NOW,
SATELLITE NEWS.
I'm sorry to say that as yet the tracking tables I'd hoped
for this month are not yet ready., I'm glad to see the increase in
activity and for those interested and can work it out for themselves
I will give the latest orbit data,
The periods are AQ7 11&.9521618-23.811X1O_7x_6orbit nr)
A08 103,2407098-(3,1017 X 10 X orbit nr,)
ANG INCper orbit AO7 28,7374 degrees -7
AO8 25,810364- (6,502 x 10" 'X orbit nr,) degrees
Reference orbits for August 1 st.
AO7 orbit nr, 26 125 at 0107Z 89,0 degrees west,
AO8 orbit nr, 12 267 at 0047Z 65,0 degrees west,
News AO7 has been having battery problems but this may have resolved
itself., It appears that the battery may be open circuit as the
satellite appears to operate when in daylight only. The mode B
(432 to 145) is still operating nevertheless and a recent contact
was made between VK3 and JR6, For the new RS Satellites there will
be three transponders, 145.,86-145,9 in to 29,36-29.40 out. 145.910-950
for 29,410-500 out. 145.960-146,00 in to 29,460-500 out. All are
designed with the Russian 2M, power limit of five Watts in mind,
There will also be Three RCBOTS, These will listen for signals on
rreguencies 145,820, 145.830 and 145.840 and reply on 29,320,29,330, and
29,340, If you call them on CW "RSOA de (your call) AR K" the response
will be "(your call) de RSO QSO Nr 001 (your call) de RSO QSO Nr 001 OP
ROBLT,T.ULFR,QS0 73 SK", A launch is expected around the end of the year,
This information, with guite a bit more, is in the JUNE/JULY issue of
ORBIT the new magazine published by AMSAT -why not Jjoin and get further
issues as well as helping those who make it possible,
73 VK7PF
VK ELECTRONICS =] ,,,™"
57 WEST PARK GROVE BURNIE 7320
PHONE
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