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1 First published 1980 President’s Report PRESIDENT: Henry Lundell VK2ZHE 6582 0534 VICE PRES: Bruce Walker VK2HOT 6583 8360 TREASURER: Keith Anderson VK2FKJA 6586.3988 SECRETARY: John McLean VK2KC 6584 6220 Newsletter of the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Inc. PO Box 712 Port Macquarie 2444 Club e-mail address: [email protected] Club Website: www.orarc.org March 2012 Compiled by VK2TT & VK2AYQ In This Issue : Item. Page No. President’s Report Front Cover Down the Coax 2 Meeting Dates 2 E-Mail Directory 2 Net Controllers’ Roster 2 APRS Packet Reporting Systems 5 Antenna Analyser 6 60 seconds voice recorder 10 Membership Register Rear Cover March 2012 All members will be pleased to learn that ORARC has received the $1,500 cheque from the WIA in pay- ment of the Club Grant awarded to the club for the fitting of new wheels and axle to, and for signwriting of the club’s Communications Caravan. This is the culmination of the hard work done by John McLean VK2KC and Keith Anderson VK2FKJA in preparing the club’s application for the grant. Thank you to John McLean VK2KC and his helpers in fitting the caravan with a new axle and wheels. At the time of writing all the work is complete except for the signwriting and the applica- tion of the final coats of the under chassis rustproofing. Thank you to the large contingent of club members who attended the Central Coast Field Day at Wyong on Sunday the 26 th of February. A special thank to those who wore their ORARC polo shirts during the day. As always, the shirts stood out well which publicized our club and it certainly made it easy to spot ORARC members in the crowd. The Wyong Field Day marked the start of a busy series of Amateur Radio activities for club members. The next event is the John Moyle Memorial Field Day which commences at noon on Saturday the 17 th of March and finishes at one minute to noon on Sunday the 18 th of March 2012. This year the club will take its newly refurbished communications caravan to the park at the end of Clearwater Cres- cent, Port Macquarie. Clearwater Crescent (Continued Page 3)

President’s Report - Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club · BARRY VK2FBRG [email protected] LYLE VK2FCVI [email protected] e-mail Directory continued JOSH VK2FJDH [email protected]

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Page 1: President’s Report - Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club · BARRY VK2FBRG bgilson11@hotmail.com LYLE VK2FCVI vk2fcvi@cv27.net e-mail Directory continued JOSH VK2FJDH holmesj91@gmail.com

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First published 1980

President’s Report

PRESIDENT: Henry Lundell VK2ZHE 6582 0534VICE PRES: Bruce Walker VK2HOT 6583 8360TREASURER: Keith Anderson VK2FKJA 6586.3988SECRETARY: John McLean VK2KC 6584 6220

Newsletter of the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Inc.PO Box 712 Port Macquarie 2444

Club e-mail address: [email protected] Website: www.orarc.org

March 2012Compiled by VK2TT & VK2AYQ

In This Issue :

Item. Page No.President’s Report Front CoverDown the Coax 2Meeting Dates 2E-Mail Directory 2Net Controllers’ Roster 2APRS Packet Reporting Systems 5Antenna Analyser 660 seconds voice recorder 10

Membership Register Rear Cover

March 2012All members will bepleased to learn thatORARC has receivedthe $1,500 chequefrom the WIA in pay-ment of the ClubGrant awarded to theclub for the fitting ofnew wheels and axle to, and for signwritingof the club’s Communications Caravan.This is the culmination of the hard workdone by John McLean VK2KC and KeithAnderson VK2FKJA in preparing the club’sapplication for the grant. Thank you to JohnMcLean VK2KC and his helpers in fittingthe caravan with a new axle and wheels. Atthe time of writing all the work is completeexcept for the signwriting and the applica-tion of the final coats of the under chassisrustproofing.

Thank you to the large contingent of clubmembers who attended the Central CoastField Day at Wyong on Sunday the 26th ofFebruary. A special thank to those whowore their ORARC polo shirts during the

day. As always, the shirts stood out wellwhich publicized our club and it certainlymade it easy to spot ORARC members inthe crowd.

The Wyong Field Day marked the start of abusy series of Amateur Radio activities forclub members.

The next event is the John Moyle MemorialField Day which commences at noon onSaturday the 17th of March and finishes atone minute to noon on Sunday the 18th ofMarch 2012. This year the club will take itsnewly refurbished communications caravanto the park at the end of Clearwater Cres-cent, Port Macquarie. Clearwater Crescent(Continued Page 3)

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Down The CoaxFriday Night Get-TogetherFriday 16 March 7.00 pm

John Moyle Memorial Field DaySaturday March 17 Noon toNoon Sunday 18 March 2012

Car Rally Saturday 24 March 2012

Monthly Meeting in April will be held onSaturday 31 March 2012 2 pm

Urunga Convention Saturday 7 and Sunday8 April 2012

Friday Night Get-TogetherFriday 20 April 7.00 pm

e-mail DirectoryLEWIS VK2AG [email protected] VK2EI [email protected] VK2EJ [email protected] VK2EM [email protected] VK2KC [email protected] VK2RR [email protected] VK2TT [email protected] VK2VV [email protected] VK5DK [email protected] VK5JL [email protected] VK5NC [email protected] VK2ATM [email protected] VK2AYD [email protected] VK2AYQ [email protected] VK2BEL [email protected] VK2BST [email protected] VK2CHC [email protected] VK2CLL [email protected] VK2CRF [email protected] VK2DDL [email protected] VK2DFN [email protected] VK2EJK [email protected] VK2HOT [email protected] VK2HPF [email protected] VK2KCE [email protected] VK2KSM stuartmelville@bigpond,comLEONIE VK2LPN [email protected] VK2UPR [email protected] VK2VIV [email protected] VK2XOF [email protected] VK2YOR [email protected] VK2ZCF [email protected] VK2ZCM [email protected] VK2ZCV [email protected] VK2ZCW [email protected] VK2ZHE [email protected] VK2ZIS [email protected] VK2ZTM [email protected] VK2FABJ [email protected] VK2FBRG [email protected] VK2FCVI [email protected]

e-mail Directory continuedJOSH VK2FJDH [email protected] VK2FGAA [email protected] VK2FJKD [email protected] VK2FKJA [email protected] VK9FLHI [email protected] VK2FMDW [email protected] VK2FMJT [email protected]

Editors Note

Thank you to the members who submitted thetechnical articles information and photographsfor this months Oxtales.

The editors would like to compile a pool oftechnical articles or photographs for inclusioninto future editions of Oxtales.

Members who attended the Wyong field dayand took photographs are invited to send theirpictures with a description to either TrevorVK2TT or John VK2AYQ for inclusion intofuture editions of Oxtales.

Net Controllers’ RosterNets on Voice Repeater VK2RPM 146.700 MHz

Sundays Thursdays(0830 Local) (1930 Local)

Apr 2012

May 2012

VK2VIV Apr - 01 VK2ATM Apr - 05

VK2TT Apr - 08 VK2ZHE Apr - 12VK2OA Apr - 15 VK2EM Apr - 19

VK2VIV Apr - 22 VK2ATM Apr - 26

VK2TT Apr - 29

VK2OA May - 06 VK2ZHE May - 03VK2VIV May - 13 VK2EM May - 10VK2TT May - 20 VK2ATM May - 17VK2OA May - 27 VK2ZHE May - 24

VK2EM May - 31

Mar 2012

VK2OA Mar - 04 VK2ZHE Mar - 01VK2VIV Mar - 11 VK2EM Mar - 08VK2TT Mar - 18 VK2ATM Mar - 15VK2OA Mar - 25 VK2ZHE Mar - 22

VK2EM Mar - 29

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(Continued from Page 1)is the road which runs East towards the wa-ter storage dam off Ocean Drive South ofthe Greenmeadows traffic lights on OceanDrive. The park overlooks the RosendahlReservoir. It is proposed to operate on bothHF and VHF on the Saturday afternoon.Bring your family and friends and enjoy apleasant afternoon. As usual hot dogs forlunch and tea, coffee and soft drinks will beavailable all afternoon from the caravan.For more information on the John MoyleMemorial Field Day visithttp://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/johnmoyle/

On the following weekend ORARC clubmembers will be providing safety communi-cations for the Hastings Valley Sporting CarClub Bago Rally car rally on Saturday the24th of March 2012. Bruce WalkerVK2HOT is co-ordinating the Amateur Ra-dio communications. A briefing will be heldat the ORARC Friday night get together onthe evening of Friday the 16th of March. Ifyou are able to assist and have not yet ad-vised Bruce that you are available please lethim know as soon as possible. Visithttp://www.hvscc.com.au/ for more infor-mation on this rally.

A reminder that the ORARC April MonthlyGeneral Meeting which would normallyhave been on Saturday the 7th of Aprilwhich is Easter Saturday this year has beenbrought forward to Saturday the 31st ofMarch 2012. We will have two MonthlyGeneral Meetings in March this year!

The Urunga Convention runs over the East-er Weekend on Saturday the 7th and Sundaythe 8th of April 2012 at the Senior Citizens’Hall in Bowra Street. ORARC club mem-bers are always well represented at thisevent. If you are staying overnight don’tforget the Field Day dinner at the UrungaBowling Club on the Saturday evening. Thefox hunting is always keenly contested but

there is always plenty of opportunity for a qui-et eyeball in the comfort of the hall and sur-rounds. Regardless of whether you are inUrunga or not, please come on air between 9am and 9:30 am on Sunday morning to partici-pate in the famous Urunga Scramble – anypower, any frequency, any location – highestnumber of contacts in the 30 minutes wins!Visit http://users.tpg.com.au/goldy2/ for thefield day program and information.

The 2012 WIA National Field Day will beheld on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15thof April 2012. The Club Communications Car-avan will be set up on the Port MacquarieTown Green at the northern end of HortonStreet on Sunday morning from 10am to midafternoon. For more information on the WIANational Field Day visithttp://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/nfd/Please make some time available to assist inmaking this opportunity to showcase AmateurRadio to the public a success. A call for volun-teers will be made at the ORARC AprilMonthly General Meeting.

The ORARC 2012 Field Day takes place onSaturday the 9th and Sunday the 10th of Juneduring the Queen’s Birthday Weekend. Thevenue will be the Tacking Point Surf Life Sav-ing Club hall in Matthew Flinders Drive,Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie. Pleasemake yourself available when calls are madefor assistance. It is important to make the fieldday a success as it is the major fund raisingactivity for the year. Without the income fromthe annual Field Day it would be necessary tosignificantly increase ORARC membershipsubscriptions.

Those who listen to the two metre band willhave noticed a great deal of activity on the na-tional APRS (Automatic Position ReportingSystem) frequency of 145.175 MHz. This ac-tivity is increasing on an almost daily basis.To learn more about APRS visithttp://www.aprs.net.au/

(Continued Page 4)

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The RCN mast still standing after the winds

The site clearance work carried out prior toChristmas ensured that no timber fell on themast guy wires. Thank you to everyone whoparticipated in those working bees. Had thatwork not been done the aftermath of thestorm might have revealed a very differentsituation.

Henry Lundell VK2ZHEPresident

RCN repeater building Telegraph Point

(Continued from Page 3)APRS is definitely the club activity of themoment with 25 trackers being built. At thetime of writing more than half of them arealready up and running so there are manylocal tracks to view on the APRS Googlemap at http://aprs.fi/

Thank you to Arthur Monck VK2ATM andJohn McLean VK2KC for their initiatives insourcing the hardware.

The club’s 145.175 MHz VK2RPM-1 APRSdigipeater is now working well on test andwill soon be installed at the VK2RPM re-peater site at Middle Brother Mountain.Work has commenced to construct a secondAPRS digipeater which will be installed atthe VK2RCN repeater site at TelegraphPoint in order to provide reliable coveragein the Port Macquarie and Wauchope areas.

As many members will be aware, on the af-ternoon of Saturday the 11th of February2012 a fierce electrical storm with violentwinds unleashed its fury on the area imme-diately to the north of Telegraph Point. Thewind brought down a very large number oflarge trees which blocked roads and broughtdown power lines. Some 7 SES teams, Has-tings Council and Essential Energy spent thenext two days making the roads trafficableand restoring power. Only after the roadswere trafficable and the power lines weremade safe was SES able to attend to thelarge number of individual calls for assis-tance. Red Hill where the club’s VK2RCNrepeaters are located was one of the worstaffected areas. It was with great relief thatthe VK2RCN 147.0 MHz and 438.425 MHzrepeaters were found to be working after thestorm. Henry Lundell VK2ZHE inspectedthe site on the Sunday morning and con-firmed that damage to the site was relativelyminor and that the batteries were holding upwell in the absence of mains power. Howev-er work is required to reattach some of thedetached coaxial cables to the antenna mast.

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APRSDave VK2AYD

As most of you that attend monthly meetingsknow, the current theme for the year isAPRS. So what is APRS and how is our clubinvolving itself with this digital communica-tion ?

APRS system kit

APRS stands for Automatic Position Report-ing System. It’s been in use by Amateursaround the world for over 10 years and wasoriginally developed by Bob BruningsWB4APR. It is a system used by mobile sta-tions to advise their location to others. Invery simple language it is a system that trans-mits your position at designated intervals(say every 5 or 10 minutes) to a receiving sta-tion that passes it along to a master stationthat inputs it into the internet through iGatesand using a specific programme that interfac-es with Google Maps, will show everyoneexactly where you are.

APRS is used all around the Earth. If I wantto find the current location of a friend in hisvehicle in the USA I just type in his i.d. andbingo, up comes a map of the area he is trav-elling in with his actual location indicated.All sounds very simple. Now your XYL cankeep track of you – or you of her!!

Without going into the technical details tooheavily it is an upgraded (or modified) Packet

Radio module that has been programmed forthis specific purpose. Some of you thatare new to Amateur Radio may not be awareof Packet Radio. Twenty five years ago it wasall the rage and it was the fore-runner ofemails and the internet. The difference wasthat it was sent by radio. PR is still in use to-day.

Here in Australia, APRS is starting to becomepopular with Amateurs, especially with trav-elers with caravans, mobile homes, boats, etc.Go to www.aprs.fi and type in Sydney. Youwill soon be frantically pushing the zoom-incontrol. It just doesn’t show Radio Amateurswith APRS fitted, it also shows ships and oth-er vehicles. Now you know just where theManly Ferry is! It can also be installed inyour home station if you wanted to transmitweather details say every half hour.

What frequencies do these stations use? In theAmateur world we use UHF/VHF and alsoHF although the latter is unreliable. On VHFwe use 145.175 MHz so for the sake of thisarticle we will assume this is the commonAmateur APRS frequency throughout Aus-tralia.

Take a listen on the frequency. Here in theHastings you won’t hear much as the specialreceiving station for this is still in the Betastage at Henry’s VK2ZHE. It will eventuallybe at Middle Brother where it can monitor thePackets and send them down south to themaster station for insertion into the internet.

Interested? So what do I need?

Front Panel of unit.

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Three items are essential:

A 2m transmitter. (A transceiver is pre-ferred as it can monitor the input anddelay sending packet if the frequency isoccupied).

A GPS receiver (no screen needed)

An inter-face unit

Internal view showing 2m transmitter, and interfaceunit with GPS receiver.Under the guidance of Henry VK2ZHE, JohnVK2KC and Arthur VK2ATM the last twoitems have been group purchased. Their inter-est is just not amateur but the possible use bythe SES for vehicle location during emergen-cy operations. (No. They will not be usingAmateur frequencies)!

If you would like to learn more, talk to one ofthese 3 gentlemen.de VK2AYD

Back of the APRS unit

Submitted by Bill VK2ZCV

SOME USES FOR an

ANTENNA ANALYSERTHE HANDIEST INSTRUMENTS IN

DECADES!When you put up an antenna in the olddays, it could be a real struggle. The onlyway to tell if it was tuned to the right fre-quency was to fire up your transmitterand check the SWR over the band you'retrying to hit. But if the antenna was notresonant in the band your transmittercovered, about all you might be able totell is that it is resonant above or belowthe band. With an Analyst, which goesoutside the ham bands, you can tell ex-actly how much adjustment to make with-out taking the antenna up or down orrunning back and forth to your ground-mounted antenna. And it can do so muchmore!

SWR Measurement

As shown above, any Analyst can beused to measure at the far end of thefeedline or directly at the antenna. Ofcourse, any type of antenna can bemeasured--not just verticals. Also, theunits can measure balanced line as wellas coax, since the unit is so small that itessentially "floats" from ground.

Making SWR plots and determining reso-nant frequency is the main use for anyAnalyst. Simply connect as shownabove, vary the Analyst frequency andmeasure SWR. The antenna is resonant

at the frequency where SWR is lowest.

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If you've never used an Analyst before,you're in for a treat. Previously, the nor-mal procedure for adjusting an antennawas to transmit using your main transmit-ter and measure SWR. If the SWR washigh, it was often difficult to tell what cor-rection to make, since the transmitter islimited to the ham bands.

Using an Analyst you can now tell theresonant frequency exactly and deter-mine exactly how much to shorten orlengthen your antenna after only onemeasurement. For example, if you'reshooting for a 14 MHz resonance, andthe SWR is lowest at 14.56 MHz, this isexactly 4% higher than desired. So youknow to lengthen the antenna by exactly4%. There's no need to keep cutting theantenna and raising and lowering it manytimes. This is explained in more detail inthe instructions.

Furthermore, the frequency of lowestSWR for random length antennas welloutside Ham bands can tell you whetherto add a coil or capacitor. (For example,maybe you can "tune up" your housegutter!)

The other advantage is that you can takethe Analyst outside or up a tower sinceit's completely self-contained. So youcan adjust the antenna on the spot with-out having to go back to the main trans-mitter each time you make a change.

TRANSMISSION LINE

MEASUREMENT

By measuring an isolated transmissionline you can determine:1. The loss in the line2. The electrical length of the line, e.g.1/2 wavelength

How lossy is your transmission line?Has weathering or burial ruined it? Inthe old days, this was very hard to de-termine. With an Analyst, it is simple:

To measure line loss, simply measurethe impedance (Z) of the open or short-ed line vs. frequency until you find mini-mum value. This minimum value reoc-curs periodically in frequency. The mini-mum impedance yields the line loss indB. For example, if you measure an 8ohm minimum impedance with 50 ohmline, the loss is about 1.4 dB.( A losslessline would read zero ohms.) Loss in lineother than 50 ohms, e.g. 300 ohms, canalso be measured. All Analysts are ac-curate at low impedance with digitalreadout. The instructions explain thissimple procedure further.

The electrical length of the line is alsoeasily found by looking at impedance vsfrequency. So it is easy to cut 1/2 waveand 1/4 wave lines. And do it with an ac-curacy that is better than 1%.

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RESONANT FREQUENCYMEASUREMENT

Changing the Analyst frequency until youfind the minimum impedance for theabove circuit gives the resonant frequen-cy of the circuit.

TRAP FREQUENCY

MEASUREMENT(It also acts like a "grid-dip" meter, but

easier to read, and with digital frequencyreadout !)

Bonus: Not in all Analyst Instructions.A simpler way to measure the resonantfrequency of a trap, or any tuned circuit,is to connect a piece of wire between theAnalyst output and the Analyst ground(the ground screw next to the coax con-nector, or the outside of the coax con-nector.) The wire can be a few inches tomany feet long. (Note: You must discon-nect at least one end of the trap from anyantenna to measure its resonant fre-quency.)

Put the Analyst in the Z mode. You willread a small Z which simply representsthe inductance of the wire. Now put thewire near the trap. As you tune the Ana-lyst frequency, Z will increase dramatical-ly at the trap resonant frequency! Thefrequency of peak Z is the trap resonantfrequency.

If the trap has high Q and is large youcan probably see the jump in Z with thewire several inches from the coil. For a

small coil, you might need to wrap thewire into a small loop at the end andbring it near the coil. No fancy plug-incoils are needed such as a grid-dip me-ter requires...just a few inches of wire!And the Analyst's digital frequency and Zreadout pinpoint the resonant frequencyexactly.

The same wire can usually be used overthe entire frequency range of the Ana-lyst, so you can also forget about themany plug-in coils that a grid-dip meterrequires.

TUNING AN ANTENNA TUNERWITHOUT TRANSMITTING

If you construct a simple switch asshown above, you can use an Analyst totune your antenna tuner without trans-mitting. Simply set the Analyst at the de-sired frequency and set the tuner for low-est SWR.

MEASURING COILS AND CA-PACITORS

The RF1 and VA1 both measure coilsand capacitors at the RF frequency ofyour choice. Simply connect the coil orcapacitor across the units coax connect-or; directly, or using clipleads (supplied.)Both units subtract the stray output ca-pacitance of the connector, etc., so C isusually read directly without any correc-tion required. The VA1 , which measuresthe sign of X, will show a negative L if acapacitor is measured. This is oftenhandy since this is the L value which res-onates with the capacitor at the meas-urement frequency. The RF1 does notmeasure the sign of X, but will also show

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the equivalent L value.

Please note that the L and C functions ofthe RF1 are only for measuring pure Land C, whereas the VA1 shows the L orC component of any load (R + jX), in-cluding the sign.

COILS ARE MEASURED AT RFFREQUENCY

Please note that one can buy other me-ters which measure L and C, which areusually intended for TV repair people.These meters usually operate at 1 kHz to100 kHz and so are essentially uselessfor RF measurements of coils ! . Theinductance of a coil varies considerablyat high frequencies because of stray ca-pacitance and other factors. In addition, ifthe coil is wound on a ferrite core (e.g.toroid), the core material causes the in-ductance to vary even more with fre-quency. So, an L/C meter which oper-ates at 1 kHz or 100 kHz will not read RFinductance correctly. In contrast, Ana-lysts can be set to the frequency of inter-est when measuring L.

MEASURING LINE IMPEDANCE

By connecting a known resistor value tothe far end of a transmission line and ob-serving how Z varies with frequency, theline impedance can be determined. Thissimple procedure is discussed further inthe instructions.

MEASURING BALUNS AND

RF TRANSFORMERS

If you have a 1:1 balun, simply connect asmall 50 ohm resistor across its output,and verify that Z at the input is also 50ohms. Similarly, if it is a 1:4 balun, con-nect 12.5 ohms at the output and verifythat 50 ohms is measured at the input.Or, for a 4:1 balun, connect 200 ohms atthe output, etc. (Don't expect "perfect"

results, and especially expect some deg-radation at the low and high frequencylimits of the balun specs.)

MEASURING "CHOKE" BALUN IM-PEDANCE

Bonus: Not in Analyst Instructions."Current" baluns are often used to keepcurrent from flowing on the outside of thecable when coaxial cable feeds a bal-anced antenna such as a dipole or in-verted V. Also, vertical groundplanes(verticals that don't use an "earth"ground) should have one, especially ifonly one or two groundplanes are used,as is becoming more popular. However,compact baluns are easy to burn out athigh SWR. So, if weight and size are nota problem, a "choke balun" is often used.This can be made by coiling 4 to 10 turnsof the coax feedline in a loop (very sim-ple and cheap), or, similarly, by slippingmany ferrite cores over the outside of thecoax (not so cheap, but lighter.) See theARRL Antenna Book for details...sorry,we cannot supply details.

The impedance of the "choke" is easilyfound by measuring the Z of the coaxshield between the input and the outputof the "choke." That is, connect the Ana-lyst ground to the coax braid on one sideof the "choke," and connect the "hot" endof the Analyst (inside of Analyst coaxconnector) to the coax braid on the otherside of the "choke." You can stick a hair-pin through the coax insulation to reachthe braid without cutting the coax. Varyfrequency, and verify that Z is high overthe frequency range of interest. You maymeasure Z greater than 1000 ohms overpart of the range.

ADVANCED USES

The R and X components of the load areoften desired. It turns out that R and X

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can be calculated from SWR and Z,which are read out by the RF1 and RF5.The equation to do this is in the instruc-tions. So, if you occasionally need R andX components, this is adequate. Note,however, that this does not yield the signof X, and the results are not nearly as ac-curate as using a VA1. Also, this methoddoes not work above 150 to 200 MHz be-cause of stray inductance and capaci-tance which can cause large errors in Z.

The VA1 measures R and X, includingthe sign of X directly and instantly, anddoes everything else that the RF1 does,of course. The VA1 also shows SWR forlines other than 50 ohms, and shows theR and X components of an antenna inthe air. If you're an advanced user, youshould consider the VA1. However, theless-expensive RF1 is also extremely ac-curate and adequate for most tasks.

Submitted by Bill VK2ZCV

WINTER PROJECT 2de David Pilley #013 [email protected]

Last time I told you all about Project 1 andmy headphone solution. This was shortly fol-lowed by another challenge with ergonomics.

As I mentioned in Project 1 I’m a very keenCW person. However sometimes I like tojoin in the SSB HF Contests like the IARU orour own Oceania DX Contest. Calling CQ onCW is easy, my el-keyer is programmed todo it for me, but I don’t have a “.wav” file inthe computer for voice and after a few hoursoperation I am speechless.

I needed a voice recorder. The idea of tapeseemed a little old hat and I started to searchthrough old magazines and journals lookingfor an alternative, eventually discovering in

August 2000 EA magazine there was an ex-cellent voice recorder described using aAPR9600. This is a complete digital voicerecording system on a single 28 pin DILpackage. The APR9600 is designed to storeup to 60 second of voice recording, evenwhen the power is turned off. It can be pro-grammed for two, four or eight messages. Itis designed to take signals directly from anelectret microphone and deliver the replayedaudio directly to a loudspeaker. However theoutput is very low and using a secondLM386 audio amp chip to deliver a moresatisfying output is recommended.

Oatley Electronics, an Australian electronicsupplier, was offering a complete kit of parts(K162) at $A30. This included the pcb andcase. A quick call and 3 days later it was onmy work-bench. The assembly of the kit onthe 63x39cm pcb took about 4 hours howev-er the drilling of the 125x65mm jiffy boxtook me a little longer. Whatever, it onlytook a day which was well spent.

This you’ve got to try! The result was fan-tastic and I was really surprised. Program-ming was just simple links and program-ming 4 channels of recording was easy. Isoon had it hooked into the system with 4selective messages. Auto “CQ Contest” etc..It was so impressive,

My Grandson talked me into building him aunit for use in his car which now says“Please close the door”, “Please fasten yourseat-belt”, etc.. All very polite and it reallyimpresses his friends!

The diagrams for this project are reproducedon the following page.

Editors note: Thanks very much to DaveVK2AYD for the project. I hope that thiswill inspire others to submit other projects.

Page 11: President’s Report - Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club · BARRY VK2FBRG bgilson11@hotmail.com LYLE VK2FCVI vk2fcvi@cv27.net e-mail Directory continued JOSH VK2FJDH holmesj91@gmail.com

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Page 12: President’s Report - Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club · BARRY VK2FBRG bgilson11@hotmail.com LYLE VK2FCVI vk2fcvi@cv27.net e-mail Directory continued JOSH VK2FJDH holmesj91@gmail.com

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OXLEY REGION AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Inc.MEMBERSHIP REGISTER as of 28 February 2012

No. Cat.Surname Given Spouse Call Locaon Tph1 O ANDERSON KEITH VK2FKJA LAKE CATHIE 02 6586.39882 O BAILEY JOHN (FLORENCE) VK2KHB PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582.21923 D BELL ALAN VK2BEL COOLONGOLOOK 02 6554.16894 D BLACKMORE MARK VK2XOF BAULKHAM HILLS 02 9639 06635 L BLYTH BOB VK2XIQ TELEGRAPH POINT -6 O BOYD ROSS ` VK2RR LAKE CATHIE 02 6585 49037 D BRICE GRAHAM (CYNTHIA) VK2VV SCONE 02 6545.04118 L BRODIE BOB VK2EJK PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582.05929 F BROOKE AILSA (BILL) VK2FABJ PORT MACQUARIE 02 6581.054710 F BROOKE BILL (AILSA) VK2ZCW PORT MACQUARIE 02 6581.054711 O BURGES ROY (JUNE) VK2YOR PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.880112 O COURT RICHARD (LINDA) VK2CHC PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.687213 O DANIEL JIM VK2FJKD PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.193314 O EDMONDSON CHARLES (PAT) VK2KCE PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.049515 D EKERT BRUCE (YULIA) VK2EM FORSTER Mob 041453249616 D ELLIS STAN (BETTY) VK2DDL TUNCURRY 02 6554.799617 F FLETCHER PETER (CAROLINE) VK2HPE PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584 519118 F FLETCHER CAROLINE (PETER) VK2CZF PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.519119 O FROST ROBERT (SUSAN) VK2CRF PAPPINBARRA 02 6587.612920 O GILSON BARRY (FAY) VK2FBRG PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.881421 L GREEN LEWIS (PAMELA) VK2AG PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.916222 O GREENWOOD GRAEME VK2ZIS McMAHONS POINT -23 L HANLON KEITH - PORT MACQUARIE -24 O HANSEN JOHN VK2AYQ PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582.793225 O HARDING DAVID (ISABELLA) VK2AIF WAUCHOPE 02 6586.498026 O HOLMES JOSH VK2FJDH BONNY HILLS 02 6585.514827 D HUTCHESSON COLIN (PAULINE) VK5DK MT. GAMBIER 08 8725.552728 D JANES LES (BEVERLY) VK5JL SALISBURY HEIGHTS 08 8281.387829 O JONES PAUL (SANDRA) VK2DEL PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584 377230 O KOPPEL HORST VK2FHKO LAKE CATHIE 02 6585.599231 L LINDSAY LARRY VK2CLL WAUCHOPE 02 6587.115532 L LUNDELL HENRY VK2ZHE PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582.053433 O MADIGAN ALLAN (DAWN) VK2OA WAUCHOPE 02 6585.204334 O MARTIN CRAIG (JENNY) VK2ZCM SANCROX 02 6585.345235 O McGUIRE MARK VK2FMGM PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.887536 O MCLEAN JOHN (CORRINE) VK2KC PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.622037 O MEEHAN TERRY VK2KL PORT MACQUARIE 02 6584.299738 O MELVILLE STUART VK2KSM BONNY HILLS Mob 041904331639 D MILLS TIM VK2ZTM BEECROFT 02 9868.143440 D MINAHAN CHRIS VK2EJ HALLIDAYS POINT 02 6559.351641 L MONCK ARTHUR VK2ATM PORT MACQUARIE 02 6581.096042 O NEIL JIM (CAROL) VK2VIV PORT MACQUARIE 02 6581.248143 O NEWEY DAVID (LEONIE) VK2DEN PORT MACQUARIE Mob 043992506544 O NEWEY LEONIE (DAVID) VK2LPN PORT MACQUARIE Mob 040101522045 O NEWHAM LAURIE (ROBIN) VK2ELN PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.538746 D NIVEN TREVOR (BETH) VK5NC MT. GAMBIER 08 8723.243247 O PILLEY DAVID (DEE) VK2AYD KING CREEK 02 6585.264748 O ROMAINE PAUL VK2UPR PORT MACQUARIE49 O SANDFORD NEIL (VERENA) VK2EI PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582.583050 L SINCLAIR BILL (CORALIE) VK2ZCV PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.930251 O SMITH LYLE (JEANNINE) VK2FCVI WAUCHOPE 02 6585.249752 O STOFMEEL BILL (TONI) VK2BST PORT MACQUARIE 02 6582 561253 D TARRANT DAVID (AILEEN) VK2TBC ILUKA -54 O TRAYNOR JOHN VK2FMJT PORT MACQUARIE Mob 048774833855 O THATCHER TREVOR VK2TT WAUCHOPE 02 6585.227856 O THOMPSON DES (BETTY) VK9FLHI LORD HOWE ISLAND 02 6563 215257 O WALKER BRUCE (GWEN) VK2HOT PORT MACQUARIE 02 6583.836058 O WARD MICHAEL (RUTH) VK2FMDW PORT MACQUARIE Mob 042729127659 O WINCHESTER JOHN (PAULINE) VK2FGAA PORT MACQUARIE 02 6580 3031

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