june spectrum 2015 - qsl.net spectrum 2015-348.pdfspectrum is the official journal of the auckland...

SPECTRUM h p://www.qsl.net/zl1bq 1 Vol 52 June 2015

SPECTRUM June 2015 Vol. 52 No. 6

The Official Newsletter of the

Auckland VHF Group Inc.

Spectrum

Theo Kalkandis, VK3AP ICOM Australia and Sharon Dawson ICOM New Zea-land at NZART Conference Hamilton 2015

SPECTRUM is the official journal of the Auckland VHF Group Inc. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect club points of view.

The closing date for SPECTRUM articles is by the 1st of each month. Articles to be submit-ted to the editor Steve ZL1TPH [email protected]

Office Name Call sign Home Work / Mobile E‐mail

President Peter Loveridge ZL1UKG 377 3398 [email protected]

Vice President Grant Taylor ZL1WTT 021 02 340 270 zl1w [email protected]

Secretary Adam Cumberlege ZL1CCA 410 8923 [email protected]

Treasurer Doug Cooke ZL1TTE 846 6075 0274 978 121 d‐[email protected]

Commi ee Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH 418 1071 021 844 804 [email protected]

Merv Thomas ZL1SK 828‐7174 27‐499‐0262 [email protected] John Dunn ZL1JD 473 9514 021 731 907 [email protected]

George Marr ZL1TUJ 524 6075 [email protected] Ross Hannah ZL1UGZ 832 2655 [email protected] AREC Sec on Leader Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU 634 5130 0274 817 463 [email protected] Deputy Sec on George Raffles ZL1TUX 626 6944 021 735 361 [email protected] ZL1BQ Trustee John Dunn ZL1JD 473 9514 021 731 907 [email protected] Repeater Trustee John Dunn ZL1JD 473 9514 021 731 907 [email protected] Klondyke Managers ZL1VH / ZL1BK 690 Manager Dennis Seymour ZL1UET 532 8666

850/670 Manager Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH 418 1071 021 844 804 [email protected]

ATV/Beacons Grant Taylor ZL1WTT 021 234 0270 zl1w [email protected]

Spectrum Editor Stephen Hayman ZL1TPH 0274 732663 [email protected]

Trading Table Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH [email protected] Hon Auditor Raequel Probine 630 8044

Webmaster Terry Corin ZL1BPA [email protected] Club Web Page h p://www.qsl.net/zl1bq ATV Interest Group h p://www.qsl.net/zl1qf/atvug/ATVusers.html ZL1VHD Dstar gateway administrator; Laurie ZL1ICU 634 5130 0274 [email protected] Dstar gateway registra on URL: h p://zl1vhd.dstar.org.nz

SPECTRUM h p://www.qsl.net/zl1bq 2 Vol 52 May 2015

Auckland VHF Group Inc. Branch 66 NZART

PO Box 10138, Dominion Rd, Auckland 1446 Clubrooms: Hazel Ave, Mt Roskil

Club News and Net:

The combined Auckland VHF Group and Auckland Regional Branch News and Net are held on 146.625 MHz and 439.875 MHz at 8.15 pm each Sunday or after the ZL6A National Broadcast on the last Sunday of the month. Club meetings are held at the Clubrooms at Hazel Avenue, on the second Monday of each month at 7.30 pm. For other details, listen to the News and Net each Sunday evening.


From the President

The June meeting will bring a summary of the NZART Conference in Hamilton. This will be followed by a presentation from Robert Moody on the development of a Data Mesh Network. With a possibility of a node being established in the Hunua Ranges it is taking a step closer to implementation.

The Committee has decided to enter negotiations with the current operator of this site to see what our obligations and ongoing costs will be if it goes ahead. The final decision will be brought to a General Meeting for approval by members.

At the May Meeting a “Show & Tell” was held, see report elsewhere in this issue. During the evening the members were asked what sort of topics they might like for future meetings. One suggestion was a measurement night. Another was VHF Antennas from Dave ZL1TIA. Dennis ZL1TAY offered access to a Vector Network Analyser. If any member has an interest that

might be shared with others please let me know so that arrangements and publicity can be made.

The Committee has received a letter discuss-ing the possibility of setting up a Digital Mo-bile Radio repeater in Auckland. The Com-mittee is in favour of going ahead with this proposal and will request further information about our involvement. A Form 10 will need to be created and submitted to a General Meeting when this has been done.

The Unitary Plan Mediation meeting has tak-en place. A meeting has been held with a Council Planner and Legal Representative where NZART requirements were explained to them. A summary of the planner’s recom-mendations shows little progress with Per-

mitted status only allowed in Rural and Coastal “Large Lot” parcels of land where the visual effects will not be as noticeable. All other Zones still have “Restricted Discretion” status. The conditions governing Permitted Status were those of North Shore City which were more restric-tive than the NZART Submission requested. The NZART submission to have Permitted Anten-na Configurations will now go to a hearing in front of a panel headed by a Judge and up to 7 additional Commissioners. Our lawyer has recommended that there be two presenters who are Douglas Birt for HF and myself for VHF and higher frequencies. Written evidence for the Hearing is required by 03 June for distribution to interested parties. The written evidence will be read by all parties before the Hearing. The Hearing will begin on 25 June with 20 minutes of legal submission followed by 10 minutes each on HF and VHF. During this period questions may be asked of the presenters for clarification.


Enough people volunteered to take stock to the REG Market Day at the Glenview Club, 211 Peacockes Road, Hamilton. Just over $200 was raised from the sales. The turnover is brisk for about 1.5 hours before tailing off. We were able to start packing up after 12:30pm to return to Auckland. I saw a few people walk away happy with bargains.

In preparation for the REG sale yet more of our recent donations were deemed to be unsaleable as we were choosing what to take. We have taken scrap metal to a dealer after removing the electronics but it is not a high earner. There are operations that accept old electronics but do not pay for it. There are costs in labour and mileage for the VHF Group to dispose of this material. The committee has decided to make a change to the policy of “Accept Anything”. People in-tending to have a clean out should approach a committee member and be prepared to describe what it is that they wish to donate. If it appears unlikely that the material can be sold they may be invited to wait for an Inorganic Rubbish Collection to visit their area and place it on the berm. It usually won’t be there for long. From the streets in my area it looks like Mt Eden is next. The Council web site will show you what is coming up. <http://aucklandcouncil.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1260>.

I have been told that visitors to the clubrooms are now remarking on the appearance of the clubrooms. In the background two members have been volunteering to do some cleaning before meetings. This is the sort of activity that should be shared amongst members. I will bring it up at Meetings to see who else would like to help.

After a short discussion it has been decided to reinstate a report that used to appear in Spectrum outlining the current status of Repeaters. I expect that the first issue of the new series will be in this edition of Spectrum.

A date has not been set yet for a pre-Winter Working Bee at Klondyke. The intention was to use 2-3 tower climbers to address the worst of the rust areas with wire brushes and protective paint. It appears that Winter has formally begun with it now being June. It may be that only electronic/RF issues can be dealt with.

After raising the idea of a North Fest and approaching a few people to provide presentations there has not been enough response from speakers to go ahead with planning for mid-winter date this year. The idea of a social gathering at that time seems appealing but more lead time will be required to get a program in place.

Peter Loveridge 01 June 2015


Auckland VHF Group (Inc) Branch 66

Meeting notice

08th June 2015 7.30pm, Hazel Avenue Club Rooms

(Located on left at the end of Hazel Avenue)

The Evenings Subject:

Report on the NZART Conference in Hamilton

This will be followed by a presentation on the development of the Data Mesh Network by Rob-ert ZL1FLY and Hannes ZL1LW.

With the possibility of a Node in the Hunuas and another in the Waitakeres a good coverage of Auckland appears possible. This presentation has been doing the rounds of Auckland and was presented at the Hamilton Conference. Come and see how you can take part in this new tech-nology.

Another meeting not to be missed!

EVERYBODY WELCOME


Members’ Show and Tell

General Meeting May 2015

There were 5 offerings from members for projects they were undertaking or had completed. This provided a variety of areas on interest for the members for the evening. In alphabetical or-der:

Michael Sheffield ZL1ABS

Michael has mislaid a 23 cm Converter project originally published in CQ-TV from the UK in one of his pack and moves. He described the design that he was going to build again. It uses “Manhattan” design with squares of PCB material for soldering leaded components and slab lines for matching also cut from PCB material. It uses 3 * BFR91 and a BF245 free running os-cillator at 560 MHz. He intended to modify the design to run the oscillator at 384 MHz with a tripler.

Feedback from the floor was that a synthesiser chip could be used such as the VK5EME kit but this was relatively expensive.

Ian Ashleigh ZL1AOX

Ian has purchased a 3D printer and has been using it to make the mechanical components of a portable satellite tracking controller. It will have an Arduino micro+ LCD display and stepper motor driver. The mechanical components are a worm drive and larger cog gear plus all fram-ing and mounting. The completed design will be mounted in a standard box. The raw material for the printer costs $30 per kg.

Dennis Thornton ZL1TAY

Dennis described a 25 year old project to build and use a DF antenna with a cardioid pattern. The cardioid is achieved by having antennas a ¼ wave apart connected to a junction by ¼ wavelength and ½ wavelength cables. Pointing one way there will be a null and the other way a maximum.

The situation was that linked repeaters which were solar powered were receiving an interfering signal which triggered them and flattened the batteries. The interference disappeared over win-ter and reappeared next summer. The repeaters were de-linked to find out which one was being triggered. Driving around to find the strongest signal eventually lead to the Dick Smith build-ing. The source was a PIR motion detector with a regulator oscillating as the bypasses around it had failed. The frequency was temperature dependant.

Peter Loveridge ZL1UKG

A donation of marine helically wound whip antennas has been made to the VHF Group. The Trading Table manager asked what frequency they were on. There was a wire with high voltage insulation coming out at the bottom of the whip. It was clearly intended to be operated via a


tuner against the metal hull of a ship as ground. Since I didn’t have a good ground the answer was to take two whips and drive them as a dipole. There didn’t appear to be any usable reso-nance when driven with a 1:1 trifilar balun. The radiation resistance of the electrically short di-pole was much less than 50 ohms. The balun was reconfigured as a 2:1 transformer with the centre wire of the three as secondary to reduce leakage inductance. Resonance occurred at 9.9 MHz. A project in the 1988 ARRL Antenna Handbook looked a bit like this. I decided to make an arbitrary capacity hat for each end of the dipole from enamelled wire about 0.5 m in diame-ter supported by 4 wires soldered to brass shim and secured with hose clamps. This reduced res-onance to 7.8 MHz and increased the bandwidth about 3x to 120 kHz. A little more playing should create a 40 m dipole only about 5.5 m overall length. It would even fit on my CBD sec-tion.

Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH

Vaughan presented an obese marine use gel cell. The charging system was built by Toyama which has a good reputation. It is capable of managing 880 AHr @ 12 V for the accommoda-tion plus 120 AHr @ 12 V for engine starting. The interest was in what happened when a cell developed a short circuit with such a high power supply and how to deal with it in the confined carpentry of a boat. They are not a sealed system when they get hot enough to bulge in this manner.

By acclamation the most popular presentation was from Ian Ashleigh for 3D printing.

Peter Loveridge 01 June 2015

____________________________________________________________________________

For Sale

Alternator, portable, - Blackridge. 2400.

Four stroke - petrol powered, 2400 watts

Never used in anger.

Price by negotiation.

Contact: Dennis ZL1TAY ph. (09) 413-8382

____________________________________________________________________________


HQ Info-Line Special Conference Edition

Special 49S

This issue of HQ Info-line is brought to you direct from the Annual Conference in Hamilton. Council, having re-solved to dispense with the usual official broadcast, felt it better to let all members know of the main points of the weekend.

1) Friday meeting of Council Key Points

Subscriptions for 2016 remain the same, with the rebate applicable if paid by 30 November. However we currently have 200+ who have yet to renew for 2015. If membership continues to decline an increase will be necessary in 2017.

A mini Call Book will be produced again this year

Council has approved the 3400.275 MHz beacon application submitted by Wellington VHF Group. This allocation is not compliant with the current 9cm New Zealand band plan which is out of date and needs updating. The Band Planning Group now needs to be established (full details were in the March-April Break-In). Please contact NZART President Stuart Watchman ZL2TW if you are interested in joining this group.

Don Wallace ZL2TLL will attend the WRC 2015 conference in Geneva, furthermore thanks to your generosity, and a resolution passed at the AGM money is available from your donations to finance one delegate (Don ZL2TLL) and Terry Carrell ZL3QL as an observer to the IARU Region 3 conference in Bali in September.

The new Vice President is Phil Holliday ZL3PAH.

New Councilors Phill Dodds ZL4XYZ (Central), Don MacDonald ZL3DMC (Midland) and Alex Gordon ZL4ARG (Southern) were welcomed and presented their council badges.

Remit one was carried on voices

Remit two was carried on voices

Remit three was carried on vote count 62.75% of transmitting members.

The following were awarded to:

ZL1HV Jumbo Godfrey award:

Lee Jennings ZL2AL, Alan Dale ZL1ABL, Colin Rowe ZL3COL

The Rothschild Cup

Otago Branch 30 for 10 successful passes in 2014.

Best Examination Result in under 18 Years of Age Category:


Daniel J Wilden ZL4DU being the youngest person (17 years old) to pass the amateur exam in 2014. Daniel re-ceived a certificate and a VHF/UHF FM Transceiver hand held radio, sponsored by Nelson Sound.

Stirrers Award

Presented to Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH for not heeding advice from the Business Manager regarding meeting procedures to ensure there was a quorum, before passing a motion from the floor.

The usual AGM’s were held

OTC – The Grand Old Man (Ivan Horn ZL2ATU), and all other positions remain unchanged.

An informal SPAM meeting was held.

WARO – Chairperson Cathy Purdie ZL2ADK (unable to attend). Marlene Matthews ZL1MYL - Vice President and Heather Scott ZL2TYF - Treasurer.

Thelma Souper Award, 1st place Bev Osborne ZL3OV, 2nd Jeanette Croker ZL3DYL, Ngaire Jury 3rd ZL2UJT. 1ST OM Wayne Fisher ZL2AYB.

The following forums were held on Sunday:

· Auckland Mesh Net – Robert Moody ZL1FLY

· Amateur Digital Mobile Radio – John Yaldwyn ZL4JY

· Red Cross IT – Don Wallace ZL2TLL

· Kiwisat Update – Ian Ashley ZL1AOX

· Antennas Myths & Legends – John Richards

· Fast Simple QSO (FSQ) – Murray Greenman ZL1BPU

· Summits on the Air (SOTA) – Warren Harris ZL2AJ

· How to get Youth into Amateur Radio – Vaughan Henderson ZL1VH

The weekend events were attended by approximately 120 registrants.

This concludes the weekend highlights

For further information on the AGM or any of the forums, please contact me.

Debby - ZL2DL


NZART Conference 2015 pictures


ICOM New Zealand stand at Conference


Amateur Radio Emergency Communication. Volunteers in radio communications.

Using our resources to help the community.

INFORMATION

The Auckland VHF Group has an active AREC section that works closely with Auckland City Civil Defence. They provide advice, resources and manpower to assist in times of need. The

Auckland VHF Group clubrooms provide a backup system to complement the existing systems maintained by Auckland City Council Civil Defence.

The AREC section is headed by Section Leader Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU.

From time to time the VHF Group has training sessions and exercises. Members also assist with

sports events, parades and Rally NZ.

For further information about AREC please see the NZART web site.

JOIN BRANCH 66 AREC

All members of the Auckland VHF Group are encouraged to join the AREC section. Your con-tribution, large or small is appreciated by all involved.

For further information about joining branch 66 AREC contact the Section Leader or his Deputy.

AREC: Section Leader; Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU 634 5130 0274 817 463 [email protected]

Deputy Section; George Raffles ZL1TUX 626 6944 021 735 361 [email protected]

*****

AUCKLAND VHF GROUP (INC)

SUPPORT THE EFFORTS OF THE VHF GROUP THROUGH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 2015

THE SUBS GO TOWARDS;

Maintenance and on-going improvements to beacons, repeaters and linking systems for the national system, including the Klondyke repeater site.

Provides on-time and free access to spectrum magazine as soon as it is available.

Provides facilities for good speakers and lecturers at our general meetings

Discounted access to our trading table goodies

Access to test equipment and technical help when needed

FULL MEMBERSHIP $30.00

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP $26.00

FAMILY MEMBERSHIP ADDITIONAL $4.00

SEE ATTACHED MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL FORM (next page)

REMEMBER TO KEEP US INFORMED OF YOUR INTERNET ADDRESS! OTHER-WISE WE CANNOT SEND YOU SPECTRUM!



NAME Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Christian or given Surname

Mr

Address

Phone: (home)

Phone: (work)

Phone (Cell)

Email

Occupation: Callsign

NZART Member Branch assigned

AREC Member Branch assigned

Category To pay

Membership Full $30.00 $

New/Renewal/Change Associate $26.00 $

Receipt # Family Add $4.00 $

Donations Auckland ATV $

Auckland/Klondyke $

Brynderwyn $

Data/D-Star $

IRLP $

Beacon/Repeater/Links/ATV Licences $

Other $

Total $

Payment

Circle one --> Cash Cheque Internet deposit

Invoice/Statement re-quired Please Advise Treasurer

Internet To account ASB 12-3020-0473626-00. Account name is: Auckland VHF Group Inc. Include your Name/Callsign for us to track. Note: this form needs to be returned to update records. FAX to 028 25544801 or Email [email protected]

Post The Treasurer, Auckland VHF Group Inc., PO Box 10138, Dominion Road, Auckland 1446.

In Person Bring this form and payment to the next club meeting, 2nd Monday of the month or to the Committee meeting last Monday of the month.


The Auckland VHF Group Inc Branch 66 NZART grate-fully acknowledges the sponsorship of Branch 66 Beacons, Repeaters and Fixed

Links license fees and the Group’s repeater operations by the following radio am-ateurs and NZART Branches for 2015:

Repeater frequency Repeater Sponsorship Amou

nt

and name location advised for 2015 paid

53.725 Repeater Klondyke Road Gwynne Rowe ZL1AAR $50.00

144.253 Beacon Nihotupu Under repair

145.625 Data Rptr Klondyke Road NON-operational

145.650 Dstar repeater Klondyke Road Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU $50.00

146.625 Repeater Klondyke Road Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU $50.00

146.700 Repeater Ruaotuwhenua Dennis Thornton ZL1TAY $50.00

146.900 Repeater Mt Puketutu Radio Franklin Branch ZL1SA $50.00

432.253 Beacon Nihotupu Under repair

438.175 Dstar repeater Klondyke Road Laurie Mathews ZL1ICU $50.00

438.500 Repeater North Head Franklin Branch ZL1SA $50.00

439.850 Link Tx to Kaimai Klondyke Road Franklin Branch ZL1SA $50.00

439.875 Ak Nat Sys Rptr Klondyke Road David probine ZL1TND $50.00

439.900 Link Tx to Egmont Klondyke Road Adam Cumberlege

ZL1CCA $50.00

439.950 Link Tx to Brynderwyn Klondyke Road John Dunn ZL1JD $50.00

1291.9 Repeater 217 Glenfield Rd

Total Sponsorship $550

NZART Inc: Branch dona-tions

Franklin Radio Club. Br: 10 $50.00

Papakura Radio Club. Br: 65 $300.00

Auckland Radio Club. Br: 02 $100.00

Manukau Radio Club. Br: 21 $100.00

Donations $550.00

Prepared by Merv Thomas ZL1SK and current as at 31/03/2015


TRADING TABLE

Currently our Trading Table is only open on meeting nights. Opening on Saturdays may re-sume later in the year so keep an eye out for announcements in Spectrum.

NEW – NEW - NEW

We have heaps of parts from dismantled commercial analog TV gear – transmitters, filters, cir-culators, patch panels, power supplies, cabinets. Too much to list individually, so come along to the clubrooms and have a look

And there’s

more….


Motorola Oncore VP GPS Receivers

The VP Oncore is Motorola’s original credit card-sized 8-channel GPS receiver. It

measures just 2” x 3 1/4” x 1/2”, has very low power requirements, and is well suited

for embedded applications. The VP Oncore has the capability of acting as a DGPS reference station for greater position accuracy.

The units on offer have been in storage for some time, and the tinplate screen covers show some signs of corrosion – see photo. Most of the units have a sticker attached saying “Prog NMEA” and are likely to output data in NMEA V2.0 serial format.

Interface is via a 10-pin board header – see reference below for pinout details. Power supply is 5.0v +/-0.25V. Module requires an external active GPS antenna (5V power supplied by receiv-er module). GPS connector is a snap-on type OSX. Output data includes a 1PPS (one pulse per second) output and TTL level Tx and Rx data lines.

More details can be found at : ftp://ftp.tapr.org/gps/motorola/oncore.eng.notes.pdf

$20.00 each – limited quantity.


Other coaxial connectors available from the Trading Table:

Please note we have sold out of TNC connectors – these are no longer available.

BNC plugs 50 ohm for RG58 coax (solder/clamp type) $2.50 each

BNC plugs 50 ohm for RG58 coax (crimp on type) $2.50 each

BNC sockets 75 ohm – single hole mounting $1.50 each

N Type male solder on suit RG213 coax $4.00 each

N Type male right angle, suit RG213 coax $4.00 each

N Type male crimp on suit RG213 coax ** $3.00 each

N Type socket crimp on suit RG213 coax ** $3.00 each

N Type male right angle, solder on suit RG213 coax $4.00 each

N Type male sliver plated solder/clamp on suit RG58 coax $3.00 each

N Type male crimp on suit RG58 coax ** $2.50 each

N-Type adaptor Male to Male $3.00 each Adaptor TNC Male to UHF Female $3.00 each ** Crimping service available for these at club meetings. Heatsinks for TO-220 transistors: These are Thermalloy THM-6071 top hat type with cutout.

20c each

N-Type connectors for LMR-400

Crimp-on only. $5.00 each


DATA MODES & UTILITIES CD

Version 12.09 has even more updates and new programmes on this latest release. This is an ex-cellent selection of software, notes, links to web sites compiled by the late Doug ZL1AVY and this latest edition has over 300 applications, references and notes. These cover all digital modes, useful software applications for your pc, contest logging and e-qso programmes, radio interfaces, software defined radio information, slow scan tv software, test equipment utilities, satellite tracking software, and much, much more. Still only $10.00

SMD Quartz Crystals: In addition to our selection of leaded holders, now have 6MHz and 20MHz crystals in SMD style housings:

6.0000 MHz HC49S SMD package 20pF load capacitance $1.00 each

20.0000 MHz HC49S SMD package P/No. 7D20000183BSAF25Q3 1.00 each

Capacitors, Surface Mount – most are 1206 size. Packed in bags of 10 for 50c

NPO 50V working: 0.68pF, 1.2pF, 1.8pF, 2.2pF, 5.6pF, 6.8pF, 8.2pF, 10pF, 15pF,

22pF, 33pF, 68pF, 82pF, 270pF, 470pF, 100nF.

63V working: 10pF, 47pF, 100pF, 270pF, 330pF, 470pF, 1nF, 1.2nF, 2.2nF, 4.7nF, 10nF 10uF 25V electrolytic

Capacitors, Metal Clad Mica (Unelco, Semco) $2.20 each

Values (in pF): Or 10 up for $2.00 each

3.9, 4.7, 6.8, 10, 12,15, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33, 34, 47, 51, 62, 82, 100, 120, 130, 150, 220, 240, 300, 360, 680pF Most are rated 350V working ±5% tolerance. Similar to illustration, tab does not have hole:

Mixers:

Mini-Circuits Model TFM-2-408-1: 5 – 1000MHz 6dB insertion loss, +17dBm LO drive, 40dB isolation $25.00 each

Note: some of these mixers are labeled TFM-2-408-2. They are identical to the TFM-2-408-1.

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