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Bulletin issued by the Northern P.O. Box 1010
Branches of the Wireless Institute Launceston
of Australia, Tasmanian Division Tas. 7250
July 1977
Vol.7 No.3
Registered at GPO Hobart
for transmission by post Price 40¢
as a periodical. Category B.
MEETINGS
July 8th Northern Branch, S.E.S. rooms, Charles St. 8 p.m.
July 12th North West Branch, Lakins Hall Ulverstone. 8 p.m.
A.0.C.P. CLASSES
July 11lth Transmitting Systems Kings Meadows
July 18th Modulation Systems, A.M. High School
July 25th ! " S.S.B. Block B, room 35
Aug. lst " " F.M.
b
Aug. 8th Interference
Y.R.C.S. CLASSES
YRCS classes are held every Tuesday (during scool terms)
from 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. at
Kings Meadows High School, Block B, room 33.
CONTESTS
July 9/10 IARU Radiosport Championship
July 9/10 RAST SEANET WW DX CW Contest
Aug. 13/14 REMEMBRANCE DAY CONTEST
Aug. 13/14 ATHOL JOHNSON MEMORIAL CONTEST
July 20th Deadline for the August issue of QORM
Page 2 O R M July 1977
Minutes of the Northern Branch June meeting at SES rooms
The meeting was opened by the chairman VK7HE, 22 members and
2 visitors were present.
Apologies were received from VK7ZWW, VK7KW and VK7LZ.
The minutes of the May meeting were circulated and confirmed.
Outward mail was discussed but not confirmed. Inward corresp-
ondance was confirmed.
The treasurer reported Sales $231, Income $48, Expenses $29,
Purchases $1058 and a total bank balance of $758.
The lecture officer advised that for the July meeting a movie
would be shown entitled '"Day the world went mad" and for the
August meeting a lecture by John VK7NJD "Buying a used car"
The broadcast officer offered congratulations to all those
who passed the recent Novice exam, including John Doolan VK7NJD
and Mark Nightingale VK7NAM,
The federal officer discussed some aspects of the recently
legalised CB radio.
General Business; after some discussion it was decided to
reintroduce "a silver coin" contribution towards the cost
of tea and biscuits.
The Jaycees '"Careers Night" was discussed, this is to be held
at the end of August.
The Launceston LT club have requested a lecture on the Novice
license. Reg VK7KK is making arrangements for this.
A letter from the Division on "policy guidelines for equipment
store operation" was discussed, a reply is to be dispatched.
A discussion was held on the $2.50 subs.
The matter of silent keys was raised and the difficulties
in ascertaining who had passed away. The only ones that can
be confirmed apart from personal notification by friends,
are those actual members of the W.I.A.
A junk sale is to be held shortly at the QTH of Ed VK7HE,.
There being no further discussion the meeting closed with
a lecture by Mr Bill Rowe of the Dept. of Meteorology about
Temperature Inversions.
khkkkhkkhkkkhkkkkhkkk
Congratulations to Daniel VK7DA and Tony VK7TP for
making theit call signs a little lighter by dropping the Z,
they are now able to move about more freely. For anyone
interested in doing the same, the Monday evening AOCP classes
held at Kings Meadows High School are preceded by a half
hour of Morse code and there are always the 80 metre C.W.
sessions every night on 3.550 MHz.
July 1977 QO R M Page 3
HF and DX notes by Col VK7LZ,
These notes are of necessity very limited due to my
being restricted to daylight listening times and lack of
information from other DX'ers, however undoubtably the story
of the month is the DXpedition by a group of Americans to
Palmyra Island and Market Reef, Both are accepted as "Countries"
for DXCC although by all accounts the latter is a low tide
country only. Operation was on all bands 3.5 to 28 MHz however
most of the operations were in either the American phone bands
or where VK's and ZL's were competing against the W's for
contacts, consedquently during my listening times very few VK's
and ZL's were QSO'ed. Call signs used were, for Palmyra KP6AL
and for Market Reef KP6BD. VK7BC was very fortunate to QSO
KP6BD on 7 MHz C.W. before the rat-pack got to him, congratu-
lations Frank.
In my opinion conditions were generally down on May,
although no listening was done here on 3.5 MHz, VK7HL advised
that W's and VE's were being QSO'ed by VK's on SSB working
split frequency, KP6BD was heard working W's and ZL's on
3.795 MHz, VK's could do with a small band segment here.
7 MHz, my only listening here was between 0600 and
08002 and nothing even remotely interesting was heard.
14 MHz had its moments, W stations were coming in
practically all day local time with the odd goody occasionally
bobbing up. Europeans come through some evenings long path but
cannot be relied on, South Americans have been practically
non existent but Central America produces some of their rarer
countries if you listen from 0230 Z. Strangely enough the
African Continent has been the most prolific producer of
countries heard but working them is an entirely different
proposition.
A look at stations copied is possibly the best method
of analizing the month on the air.
3.5 MHz. W's, VE's, JA's, KP6AL, KP6BD,.
7 MHz, only KP6AL, KP6BD, JA's, W's all on C.W.
14 MHz. EUROPE, DL8NC, EA3ADW, EAS5ZU, EA7ZR, EA6BG (Balearic
Island), F6DCQ, F8US, G's and GE's (the special
Jubilee call sign), I@LLZ, I@RKK, I@TBA, IL7KUT,
LX1AJ, LZ1KTD, OH2TM, OH@NJ (Aaland Island), ON6MN,
ON7FF, OX3EA, SV1IO, SP3DOI, UA3QAQ, UA6LAV, UF6FE,
UF50AK, UF6VAG, UP2NV, UQ2GW, YU1BCD.
ASIA, EP2RL, JA's, JY25HH, UKO9AAN, UK9CAE, UA9FU,
NORTH AMERICA, CO2HZ, HIBGAR, KzZ5KB, TG9TV, VE2AQS/TG9,
TI2CF, VE's, VPIDK, VP5SL, VP9IF, W's, XF3B, ZF1AK,
ZF1MA, 6YS5EI, 6YS5MC.
SOUTH AMERICA, OA4AX, PJ2FR.
ANTARCTICA, KC4AAA, VK@CC, VP8NN, ZLSAC.
OCEANIA, A35WL, A35DG, FK8KAA, KH6's, KP6AL, KP6BD,
VK9ZM, VR3AK, VR4DX, 5W1BD,
Page 4 QR M July 1977
DX notes continued.
AFRICA, EA8LS, EA8FF, EL3A, TT8TM, TU2GA, TU2GH, ZS1lJ,
7ZS20M, 2ZS2PZ, ZS2ND, ZS2ER, ZS4PB, 2S5JY, ZS5NV,
ZS6AK, ZS6ABO, ZS6AND, ZS6KD, ZS6MG, ZS6IW, ZS6éDJ,
ZS3BL (South West Africa), 5U7AG, 7X4MD, 9J2BO,
9J2GJ.
21 MHz, EA7ZR, JA's, KP6BD, W's, ZL5AL.
28 MHz W's.,
This list of predicted sunspot numbers for 1977
supplied by Bill VK7AK may encourage non-active DX'ers to
become active again.
May 18.4 , June 19.7 , July 21.7 , Aug. 24.1 , Sept. 27.2 ,
Oct. 30.8 , Nov. 33.9 , Dec. 36.0
QTH INFORMATION:
KC4AAA C/o WEMAB, 2305 -:Panorama Dr. La Cresenta, Cal. 91214
CO2HZ P.0O. Box 1 Havana, Cuba.
6YS5EI Box 1, Meadow Bridge, St.Andrew, Jamaica.
EP2RL P.O. Box 496, Teheran, Iran.
A35DG P.O. Box 147, Nukualofa, Western Samoa.
VP5SL PMB 1, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands, Central America.
5W1BD wvia WAS0CN TT8TM via WB50O0E
VK@CC wvia VK2BCC KP6BD via KO9ECE
73 Col VK7LZ
kokkkk ko hkhkdk kkkhkvd ok kokkkkkk
VHF notes by Joe VK7JG.
As predicted, 6 metres opened but not for long. Early
in the month ZL TV on 50.75 sound carrier was very strong, on .
several occasions pictures were watchable in colour with QSB.
On checking the band from 50 MHz up no other signals were heard.
During the weekend of the VK2 field day, several short
bursts of audio were heard and I did hear a VK2 exchanging a
report but no stations were worked.
At long last on the 12th June Ch@ from Brisbane was
watchable, I went down stairs and gave a short call on 52.050
and immediately Rod VK4ZRQ replied with a 5/9 report, Allan
VK4ZRF was also worked about 10 minutes later. It was a short
opening lasting about 10 minutes.
The following day Albert VK2ZFB, who now also holds an
"N" call, was worked by John VK7JV and myself, signals were .
steady but very weak. Phil VK2YDY in Moree was also worked.
This opening was even shorter than the previous day it lasted
about 10 minutes. The next day John VK7JV worked Phil VK2YDY :
but again signals were very weak and the signal faded out after
2 minutes. Nothing has been heard since.
Dont forget the Athol Johnson contest held in conjunction with
the R.D. contest, rules appear elsewhere in this issue.
73 Joe VKT7JG
July 1977 QR M Page 5
ATHOL JOHNSON MEMORIAL CONTEST
The Athol Johnson Memorial contest will be run in
conjunction with the R.D. contest on the 13th and 1l4th of
August 1977,
Object, To promote VHF activity in VK7
Rules:
1) There is only one section, transmitting open.
2) The contest is open to all members of the W.I.A.
) Cross mode contacts are allowed but not cross band.
) Repeaters are allowed.
) A scoring contact may be made every 2 hours.
) Entrants must operate within the terms of their license.
Cyphers; Before points may be claimed for a contact, a 5 figure
serial number must be exchanged.
Scoring: An FM contact counts as one (1) point.
Any other mode counts as two (2) points
Entries must show, date and time in GMT, band, callsign of
stations contacted, number sent, number received, score claimed.
In addition a front sheet showing the following information;
name, callsign, address, score claimed (total).
Declaration; I hereby certify that I have operated in accordance
with the rules and spirit of the contest.
slgned ..z eeis
s date .....c000000
All logs to be sent to the,
VHF Officer
P.O. Box 1311
Launceston 7250
not later than 20th September 1977.
W K kK kR K Kk Kk Kk ko ok kR % koo ko Kk
Enhanced meteor shower activity for the Southern Hemisphere.
This information was taken from the "International Geophysical
Calender for 1977" and supplied to us by Allan Downie VK4ZRF.
May 4, 5. June 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 23, 24.
July 28, 29, 30, 31. August 1, 2.
October 20, 21, 22. November 16, 17.
December 4, 5, 13, 14,
Page © QR M July 1977
reprint from "Break-In" the NZART journal.
Hidetsugu Yagi, the man who did pioneering work on
antennas in the early 1920s, died in January in Japan.
He was 89. Besides the antenna that bears his name, Yagi did
the first work in UHF., In 1926 he had equipment working on
2.5 GHz.
reprint from "Vicom News"
88 and 73. The numerals 88 and 73 have been a tradition in
communications language for almost 120 years. The older of
the two, 73, appeared in 1853 meaning 'my love to you'.
In 1857, the first official definition made it a fraternal
greeting between operators. Two years later, 1859, Western
Union in the USA made "73" a part of their "92 code" to
indicate accept my compliments. The final change came in
1895 when "73" meant "best regards'" for the telegraph and
later for radio operators.
"88" never received the formality of an official
listing until it was adopted as one of the amateur
abbreviations. It had been one of the telegraph operators
traditional terms since well before the turn of the century.
During the first world war 88 was used, although unofficially,
At the close of world war 1, "88" achieved official status
as a part of amateur radio terminology, '"love and kisses'.
Amateur radio certainly aint what it used to be !
CHANGE IN EXAMINATION DATE,
The customary November Novice Licence examination
has been put forward to, Tuesday 25th October, 1977
Applications must be made to the office of the Superintendent
Regulatory and Licensing Section, Knopwood House, 38 Montpelier
Retreat, Battery Point, Tasmania, 7000. Closing date for
applications is Friday 16th September 1977. Late applications
may not be accepted.
WANTED WANTED WANTED WANTED WANTED
50 foot telescoping tower, Hills or similar.
2- transistor car radios, Kevin Henricks VK7ZAH
Ringo Ranger ARX2, (2 metre Ringo) Daniel Apted VK7DA
455 KHz mechanical filter, price and condition to
Bill Carter VK7AK
July 1977 QR M Page 7
A shack clearing auction will be held at the QTH of Ed Bovis
VK7ED on the 16th of July starting at 10.30 a.m.
Ed lives in McEwans Rd Legana, to make it easier for you to
find it (and to stop the excuse "I didn't know where he lived)
here is a map.
ples ana
,! |
/
N
Ed's place L
McEwans Rd
West
Tamar
{ Hwy
FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE
As a result of the request,by Joe VK7JG, for 2 metre
equipment, we have the following offers.
2 - 1674's, one in going order fitted with xtals for repeater 8
and ch 40 . Price negotiable, contact Graeme VK7ZGG
IGL, 1 watt output fitted with xtals for repeater 8 and Ch 40
$85.00 contact Don Brooks VK7DB
2 - ex Army H.F. wireless sets with accessories, type W.S5.62
$50.00 for the pair or $30.00 each.
P.E. Stott, 18 Highfield Crescent, Ulverstone
FT101B all band transceiver, complete with C.W. filter and
spare finals, also an optional G3LLL R.F. speech clipper.
What offer ? see Bill Carter VK7AK
Philips PM2513 digital multimeter, as new condition $180.00
Jim Oliver VK7J0, C/o J.B.L. Electronics, Charles St.
Page 8 QR M July 1977
ROLL YOUR OWN. by Trevor VK7TB.
How often have you come across a circuit and the values
of inductance have been quoted in so many uH or used a coil
Miller No3816 etc. This situation often occurs in modern
circuits and can tend to discourage one from building that
particular project because of the unavailability of such
components. WHY NOT ROLL YOUR OWN, its simple.
To find the value of inductance of an RF coil (uH variety)
all you need is a grid dip oscillator of resonable calibration
(it is not essential that it be highly accurate) and a small
range of (preferably 5%) ceramic capacitors.
Step 1; solder a capacitor across your unknown inductor
(parallel resonate it).
inductor L C capacitor
Step 2; move the grid dip oscillator into close proximity of
the inductor and find the resonant frequency of the
LC combination (this is noted by the dip on the grid
dip oscillator).
Step 3:; note the frequency of the dip and the value of the
resonating capacitor.
Step 4; calculate the value of inductance L from the formula
below.
1 .
f = —— f = frequency in Hertz ‘
2T
YV LC 97 = 3.142 (constant)
vog2l 1 L = inductance in Henries
22TT2LC C = capacitance in Farads
. 1
2°q7%s%C
L L = AA A
One important thing to remember when calculating your
inductance from this formula is that the units L, C and £ must
be transformed to their original units e.g.
6 uH = 6 x 10°°H or 0.000006 Henry
3 MHz = 3 x 10°Hz or 3000000 Hertz :
50 pF = 50 x lO—12 or 0.000000000050 Farad
July 1977 QRM Page 9
Lets take an example, your grid dipper showed a
distinct dip at 3.0MHz and your coil had a 100pF (100 pguF)
capacitor across it. Therefore,
£ =3.0x 10%z (10"® is 1 million)
C =100 x 10°'%F (107'%is 12 decimal places to the left)
Using the transformed formula L = 1
T2 2.2
= 2" T£°C
L
.
(Henries) =
1 s
4x(3 142x3.142)x(3. ox10" x3.Ox10+6)x(1OOx10'12)
Some points to remember, when multlplylng always add the indices
€.9. 10+6x10+6= 10+12 ’ +6/}6+6%/Q/12 cancel out
The equation now looks like,
1
L (Henries) =
4x(3.142x3.142)x(3x3)x(100)
Now multiply out the bottom line.
1
L = 35539.79
It can be seen that if you divide 35539.79 into 1.0 your answer
will be a small fraction of a Henry (0.00002813) radio circuits
use small values of inductance, hence mpH (1 million uH = 1 Henry)
By multiplying the top line by 10+6 your answer will
be in uH,
1
LuH=—§-5—§§9—'—7——9——— L=28.l3}1H
Conclusion, if a 100pF capacitor is placed across a 28.13 muH
inductor it will resonate at 3.0 MHz.
As the inductor becomes smaller (therefore to be used
at a higher frequency) a greater inaccuracy will develop
(due
to distributed C of the coil etc.). However it is usually close
enough to get you within slug tuning range.
A value of capacitance can be approximated by this
method also.
C = 1
224722
It is often handy to know the values of L's you have
on hand. Estimating the value by the sniff method is often
hopelessly inaccurate.
e
If you use a different value of C the dip will occur
at a different frequency, however this will still give you the
same value of inductance. Inductance is a physical component
“
and its value does change with changes of C or f.
If a high ratio of L. and C is selected a higher Q value
will result giving a sharper (more narrow) dip on the grid dip
oscillator. Under these conditions your calculated L will be
closer to the actual L., This is the reason for the selection
of ceramic capacitors. WHY CERAMIC ? I hope to answer that in
another article.
J& T GUNN PTY.LTD.
#
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" " e -
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SEE US FOR A BETTER DEAL, WE SERVICE ALL WE SELL.