| Online
Magazine for May 2002 |
President’s Message - May 2002
Well here we go into a new club year. Our greatful
thanks to Andrew and his crew for all the work the committee put
into last years events. On Monday the 29th the old and
new committee met to enable a smooth hand over of information as
possible. For the new dcommittee the next meeting will be 7:30pm
June 3rd at Graham VK3KCS’s QTH.
We are this year celebrating the 25th Anniversary of
the formation of our club and it has been decided to combine our
annual mid winter dinner with a special dinner to mark the event.
The date is to July 27th and the venue is the Cardinia
Park Hotel, Beaconsfield. This will be a ticket only function. We
have exclusive use a room that can seat up to 80 people so please
set aside the date and pass it on ot any members or ex-members you
meet. We will be taking names at our May meeting and tickets and
money will change hands in June.
We have also applied to the ACA for a VI prefix to commence on
the night of the dinner which will be available to members until
the end of the year.
As you are aware only two of last years committee have continued
this year so there will be a settling in time before we really get
this years program on the road and I am appealing to all members
to consider ideas for speakers and outings. Don’t keep your knowledge
to yourself – pass it on to a committee member. Remember the club
is yours and what you put in is what you get out (zero volts in
= zero volts out).
In the same vain it is not easy to produce a magazine month after
month without input from you the members so please email or post
those ideas you have or see in other publications that would be
of interest to Phil – QTHR. I doubt you would like to be responsible
for his premature baldness caused by much head scratching on magazine
production days.
That just leaves me to remind you all that subs are now due and
our treasurer will be looking for cheerful dontations at our next
meeting on the 17th of May. I am looking forward to seeing
you there and at the various events being planed for the coming
year. I can be reached on 03 59983533 or 146.225 simplex, 438.850
simplex and the club 6 metre repeater 53.575 Mhz (and thanks to
the guys who keep the repeater working in spite of all the ants).
73 Peter VK3VB
Link to top
of Page
The Ultimate DF Hunt?????
Mailbox bomb suspect Luke Helder made a crucial mistake
while on the run: he turned on his cell phone.
As soon as he activated it, FBI agents quickly triangulated his
position between two rural towns and had him in handcuffs within
an hour.
The fact that another motorist spotted Helder in passing helped
authorities, but the cell phone signal - like a locator beacon -
was a dead giveaway.
"We got a call from the FBI at approximately 3:20pm that the cell
phone that Helder had been known to have had been activated somewhere
between Battle Mountain and Golconda," said Maj. Rick Bradley of
the Nevada Highway Patrol. "We started hitting Interstate 80."
The Highway Patrol flooded the area with officers and quickly had
Helder in custody, Bradley said Wednesday.
Helder also placed a call to his parents' Minnesota home, and spoke
with an FBI agent they handed the phone to. But the technology trick
used by the FBI helped seal Helder's fate.
Gayle Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Las Vegas office, refused
to go into detail about how the bureau did it, or even to acknowledge
what it did.
Cell phone triangulation is a well-known tracking method within
the wireless industry, said Michael Barker, an equipment sales manager
for Cell-Loc, based in Calgary, Alberta. His company provides tracking
services to help people who are incapacitated and unable to dial
for help.
Federal agents then easily can get in contact with the cell phone
service company and get the location of the nearest cell tower in
contact with the activated phone, Barker said.
Law enforcement then can equip agents with devices designed to
triangulate the signal and determine its location within about a
third of a mile and the direction it was travelling in, Barker said.
Handheld equipment for such a search is not sold to the general
public, he said.
Robin Gross, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned
that the technology could be abused. She said cell phone tracking
could be used to follow the movements of political dissenters or
politicians and other people in power.
"I think it's inappropriate to be tracking people under some kind
of assumption that they might do something illegal," Gross said.
"I just think it's ripe for abuse by law enforcement and by government."
Link
to top of Page
Connecting
Dc Power To A Yaesu Ft470 Handheld.
By John L Wickham VK3ZK
If you want to run a handheld of the same type as the
Yaesu FT-470 as a home base affair, and you are sick and tired of
the restrictions imposed by the charge capacity of the NiCd battery
pack, there is a way out if you have a dry-cell battery holder that
you are not using.
Observing the diagram , with a screwdriver open the dry-cell holder
and drill a hole in each half near the power connector tab. Place
a screw into both holes, mount an eye terminal onto each screw and
fasten with a suitable nut. Rotate the eye terminals so that their
tabs place sufficient pressure on the power connector tab and fully
tighten each nut. The object is to get a good electrical connection
as possible.
The power connector tabs appear to be made of aluminium, which
you cannot solder too, unless you have a special kind of solder.
Another eye terminal on the other side of the screw will permit
the connection of a lead to a power supply.
(Editors Comment. As with any installation incorrect operation
can damage your transceiver. Ensure you check the operating voltage
of your handheld and, if necessary install the appropriate regulator.
To save that sinking feeling fuses and a reverse protection diode
are also a very good idea. Proceed with caution – it is easier to
get the smoke out of the radio then to put it back in!)
Link
to top of Page
Event Queue
|
Date / Time
|
Event
|
Details
|
|
Friday 17th May
|
General Meeting
|
|
|
Saturday 18th may
|
BBQ
|
QTH of VK3NDI, VK3BUF, Hal & Ross
|
|
1st / 2nd June
|
Fishing Weekend!?
|
Port Welshpool – more details as they happen
|
|
Friday 7th June
|
Prac Night
|
|
|
8th, 9th 10th
June
|
Queens Birthday weekend
|
Monday 10th being the holiday
|
|
Friday 21st June
|
General Meeting
|
|
|
Friday 5th July
|
Prac Night
|
|
|
Sat 6th / Sun 7th July
|
Gippstech
|
VHF / UHF seminar at Churchill
|
|
Saturday 13th July
|
Exam
|
Contact Peter Pavey VK3VB 03 59983533
|
| Friday 19th
July |
General
Meeting |
|
|
Saturday 20th July
|
GGREC Hamfest
|
|
|
Saturday 27th July
|
25th Anniversay Dinner
|
PARTY TIME!!!!
Cardinia Hotel – 6pm for 6:30pm meal
|
|
Friday 2nd August
|
Prac Night
|
|
|
Friday 16th August
|
General Meeting
|
|
|
Friday 6th September
|
Prac Night
|
|
|
Saturday 14th September
|
Pub Night
|
Highway Club, Nobel Park
|
|
Friday 20th September
|
General Meeting
|
|
|
Friday 4th October
|
Prac Night
|
|
|
Friday 18 October
|
General Meeting
|
|
| |
|
|
Donation
Thanks goes to Graham VK3KCS for supplying the club with
two 2m metre FM radio’s for the retail price of one! This has enabled
the club to update the radio in the club station as well as offer
the other unit as a raffle. Thanks Graham!
Link
to top of Page
For Sale
NALLY Tower, complete with heavy duty mast, Emotator Rotator
(model L103MSAX), control box, seven core cable, instruction manual.
HF Vertical coverin 10, 15 & 20 metres. Five element HF antenna,
8.5db gain, good for 2KW PEP
Eleven Element Werner Wulf Beam 144-148 Mhz
2m Ringo Vertical
80m Inverted V – complete plus all fitings.
21 metres Coax.
$1250 ono
Kenwood TS-43X, as new. Instruction manual, service manual &
original packaging. SP430 speaker, regulated DC Power Supply, MB-430
mobile mount, microphone and calibration cable. DC power cable and
optional filter. FM-430 board fitted and drake low pass filter
$1000 ono
Kenwood TS-711A, 144-148 Mhz All mode transceiver, instruction
maqnual, seervice manual and original MC425 up/down microphone.
As new Condition.
$800 ono
Antenna Tuner – AT-230. 1.8Mhz – 30Mhz, 20W-200W power meter.
Instruction Manual and original packaging. As new.
$300 ono
Station Monitor. Model SM220. BS-8 pan display fitted. Instruction
manual & service manual.
$400 ono
Power Meter. Kenwood SWR & Power meter – SW-2000. 1.8Mhz
– 450Mhz instruction and service manual.
$350 ono
Kenwood TR-2600A 2m handheld. Includes ST-2 base stand. Quick
charger, charge indicator, operatwhile chanrging and has a drop
in connectio. DC-26 cigarette adaptor, SC-9 soft case with belt
hook. ¼ wave telescopinc ant, spare PB36 battery back. VB-2530 RF
power amplifier with 25 watts out. ¼ wave & 5/8 wave vertical
gutter mount antenna and fittings.
$650 ono
Desk Microphone. Kenwood MC-85 Microphone for 3 transmitters.
Instruction manual and Service Manual
$300 ono
For all of the above items contact Gunter VK3OR on 9791 1917
Link to top
of Page
Gipps Tech 2002
Topics likely from current
indications include:
Using JT44 VK2FLR
WSJT meteor scatter experiences (are you offering Rex, VK7MO???)
Integration of a 1W 10GHz PA with a 650mm offset fed dish (VK2EI)
System integration with the Milliwave power amplifier at 24GHz (VK2EI)
Experiences of use of a 10m dish (VK3UM)
Trials & tribulations of obtaining a high power permit (VK3UM)
Transmission line fault finding using a simple homebrew TDR (VK3ZRX)
GippsTech 2002 Call for Papers
The Gippsland Technical Conference (GippsTech) has its focus on all
topics of relevance to amateurs interested in amateur VHF, UHF and
Microwave communications. The 2002 event will be held at the Gippsland
Campus of Monash University, located in Churchill. The conference
location is about 2 hours drive east of Melbourne. The event will
be
held on the weekend of July 6 & 7.
The Organizing Committee welcomes Expressions of Interest from anyone
willing to make a presentation at the 2002 event.
Further details can be found at the Eastern Zone ARC website at
http:\\www.qsl.net\vk3bez\index.htm
or from Peter VK3KAI (QTHR).
Link to top
of Page
How Does A G5rv Work /
Not Work??
For those who haven’t heard a G5RV consists of a 102
ft "dipole" fed with 300 ohm feeder (28 feet). Operation
is possible on 80metres through to 10 meters with an ATU – but you
can also squeeze 160m and 6m out if you try hard enough.
3.5Mhz – Each half of the dipole is used and around 17ft
of the feeder, functioning as a slightly folded up ½ wave dipole
7Mhz – Flat top is used along with 16 ft of the feeder –
this time as a partially folded "2 ½ waves in phase"
10 Mhz – two half waves in phase
14 Mhz – This is the band for which the antenna is truly
resonant as a three-half-wave long centre fed antenna
18 Mhz - Two full waves fed in phase
21 Mhz – long wire of five half-waves
24 Mhz – again a long wire of five-half-waves
28 Mhz – two "long wire" antenna, each of three
half-waves fed in phase.
So there you have it. Some people hate the G5RV, others swear by
it. You can read technical articles saying that any wire fed with
300 ohm ribbon will tune with an atu and the G5RV is not a multi-band
antenna at all, and just has 20 metre coverage. Personally I have
used many G5RV antenna’s and had lots of fun – so who cares what
the experts say! An antenna that radiates on all bands, tuning easily
with an ATU, costing less then $20 to build and taking minimal time
to construct has to be worth a try. 73 Phil vk3yb
Link
to top of Page
Ggrec ‘Halfway There’ Club Bbq On May 18
At Ian & Dianne Jacksons
Half-Finished Qth At 408
Old Sale Road, Drouin West
How to get there:
Follow the Princes Freeway due East, through Officer, Pakenham
etc. until you see the Drouin / Mt BawBaw exit. Take this exit and
keep following the signs to Nerrim Sth. Along the Old Sale road
(Don’t go to Drouin itself as that’s not where we are) We are 4.08
km along this road from the start of Old Sale Road at the Robin
Hood Hotel. When you get to Drouin West (don’t blink) you will see
a fire station on your right, turn right into the next leg of Old
Sale road and we are the second driveway on the right, about 200
metres further East along the same side. A call-in will be operating
on 146.225.
What To Bring:
All that you intend to eat or drink… a chair perhaps. We have
lots of sheltered space so it doesn’t matter if the weather is crappy.
When:
Start at around 12:00 midday
Link
to top of Page
April General Meeting Minutes
Date: 19th April 2002 Start time: 8:00
pm.
Location: Guide Hall Cranbourne
Chairperson: Andrew Clinkaberry Minute Taker:
Bruno Tonizzo
Present: As per Attendance Sheet.
Visitors and Guests: Deane Mundy VK3IL, Damien Bubeck VK3MNU,
Peter Slee
Apologies: Ivan Blezard VK3ARV, Dave Campbell, VK3XMF,
Jim Francis VK3UFO.
Correspondence Received:
As per committee meeting Minutes plus:
Licence from ACA for VK3BJA
Email from WIA re: Sandown formula Bike and Scout Expo.
Treasurer’s Report:
Read by: Ian Benson Moved by: Ian Benson Seconded
by: Helmut Inhoven VK3DHI Carried: Yes.
Copies available to members on request.
Previous Minutes: Read by: Andrew Clinkaberry Moved
by: Keith Sadler Seconded by: Colin Bishop Carried:
Yes.
New Callsigns: Jim Francis VK3UFO
Business Arising from Previous Minutes:
The following items were discussed.
- Rent detailed in March 2002 financial statement is for Feb,
Mar, Apr, not Jan, Feb, Mar.
- IRLP – project is progressing, application for repeater licence
required next.
- Public Liability Insurance – Ian Jackson sourced information
from EMDRC and subsequently WIA NSW for details of Public Liability
Insurance for GGREC.
Andrew Clinkaberry moved a motion that the Club proceed to accept
this offer of insurance, as quotes from other brokers have either
been unaffordable or have not been able to supply a quote before
the GM.
Seconded by Ron VK3EXJ and carried.
- Bruno read the letter that Peter had written to the committee
in relation to entry level licence for amateur radio.
- Kidney foundation leaflets were received by Andrew Clinkaberry
and made available to the Club members present.
- 25th Anniversary dinner, $10:00 deposit required.
New Business:
Ian Jackson discussed the application that was to be made to
the City of Casey for another grant. Naree said that she had been
advised that we should not apply for the full $10,000.00 grant.
The Club will need an Australian Business Number (ABN) or the council
will withhold 50% of the grant as GST.
Hamfest to be held on the 20th July. Entry fee has been
set as $5.00, but tea and coffee will be free. Food will be sold
as per last year.
Shack Visit to Ian Jackson’s place on the 18th may 2002
Next exam will be held at the QTH of Peter Pavey on the 4th
May 2002.
Andrew proposed that the Club fees increase by $2.00 to cover costs.
Seconded by Colin Bishop and Carried.
Bruno detailed a proposal to go to Port Welshpool for a radio/fishing
weekend. Six people said that they would like to come along. Details
to go into the magazine.
Club Events: – As per Event Queue
Guest Speaker: Nil
Next Meeting: General Meeting Friday the 17th
May 2002.
Meeting Closed: at approx 9:15 pm. The AGM followed.
Link
to top of Page
|
Please
make any suggestions or comments on any of this by email:-