from AR Magazine 1986 July page 52 -

A group of 14 members and three visitors attended
the last meeting of the Branch, where all
routine matters were attended to.
During General Business, the meeting was told
that a new Broadcast List would be prepared
shortly by the Southern Co-ordinator.
VK7s OW; KH; SF; EG and ZBT were thanked
by Rob VK7KAB, for their assistance with the
Rotary Display Auction which was held during
May. Rob also suggested that planning work
should begin now lor TARK 87, and members
should begin collecting surplus equipment for the
TARK auction.
Planning for Camp Quality is proceeding very
well.
On the first Sunday in May, the VK7WI Weekly
Broadcast began at 0900 EST and resulted in
Andrew VK7ZHA being awarded the Gong Award
for the month — he forgot the change of time and
slept inl
The club now has its own QSL card for station
VK7NW, which coincides very well with the
setting-up of the station in another part of the
Penguin High School. Recent Activity Nights have
been taken up with the move as the new room is
on the opposite side of the building. As the new
room is much larger for the permanent set-up of
VK7NW, regular operation from the station should
be much better.
Greg VK7ZBT, has been given the job of
procuring a Great Circle Map and Bill VK7WL, is
to get a large map of Australia for the station wall.
There is still much work to be done with the
aerials and Greg has volunteered to make a 70 cm
antenna.
There has been very little RTTY operation of
late, but with the new location it is anticipated that
regular broadcasts will resume. (Just now soon
this happens of course will depend on how many
volunteers volunteer when needed).
One of the Branch members, Owen VK70L and
his wife Nancy, are doing an extensive trip of the
mainland, visiting their children in South Australia
and Darwin. They also intend to visit many
amateurs along the way. Owen and Nancy are
expected home next month.
Meetings of the Branch are held at the Penguin
High School, on the second Tuesday of each
month, commencing at 7.30pm. Visitors are most
welcome and are directed to the venue via the two
metre repeater — Repeater 3.
On 20th April, the North West ATV Group
commissioned its second Amateur Television Repeater.
It is operational under the call sign of
VK7RAE.
The repeater is located on Kelseys Tier, near
Devonport on the property of Ron VK7RN. Ron
has kindly made his properly available as a site for
the repeater and thanks are extended to him.
The prime role of this repeater is to allow
amateurs in the Devonport area to transmit and
receive noise-free pictures in Devonport and the
surrounding area.
Uplink vision carrier frequency is 444.250 MHz
and downlink 579.250 MHz (Horizontal Polarisation).
Persons interested in viewing the output
channel are reminded that the downlink frequency
falls In Band 4 allocation of the UHF Television
Spectrum (put simply, this appears at Channel
34V4 on a standard UHF television tuner). However,
the proverbial piece of wet string will prove
insufficient for noise-free reception o f the device
as its power output is relatively low. A good quality
high gain antenna cut for UHF will guarantee good
pictures.
The radiation pattern is omnl-directional with a
full 360 degrees in the horizontal plane.
Known amateurs to be transmitting good quality
pictures through the repeater are Jack VK7WJ
and Andrew VK7ZAR
It may be timely to point out to listeners that we
often hear and read that the majority of amateurs
are Black Box and appliance operators these
days, and where are the true amateurs ???This
repeater and the other ATV repeater, (VK7RTV,
which is Installed on Mount Duncan), with the
exception of the receiver IF systems, are completely
home-brew. This includes the receive
converters, control systems, transmitters and all
antennas.
To date, much experimental work has been
carried out by the ATVers with antenna and
propagation on the UHF bands.
Thanks to Tony VK7AX for supply of the ATV
notes.
Contributed by Max Hardstatt VK7KY   AR