Amateur Radio, 10 Metre Band, VK Tech Net, Portable Operation, and Summits On The Air.
Participants:
VK3UA - Mark
VK3DFL - Jim
VK3ZPG - Steve
VK3DJC - Dave
Steve was testing a Yaesu FT-101E he has been working on. The tx frequency was still slightly out of align with the rx freq, so a bit more to do.
Dave worked China on 15m and Oman on 10m this week. Some good DX.
Jim's been working on the shack cabling. "it's a bit messy" . .
Well, it's October tomorrow.
I see I haven't list a Tech Net since March. I guess I am not so much a blogger, as a radio buff. I spend most of my time playing radio, not blogging.
While there has pretty much been a Net every week, I think there may have been a couple missed, so there have been roughly 24 weeks - 2 or 3 missed ones, so lets call it 21 Nets since March. Add the 5 already blogged and round it out at 26 VK Tech Nets to date.
That's not bad considering I didn't think it would last more than a month or two.
There have been the net mainstays of course, most notably Jim - VK3DFL. Jim has only missed 1 VK Tech Net and has run the net for me a number of times that I have been unavailable. A Big Thanks, Jim.
Participants tonight:
VK3UA - Mark
VK3HEW - Peter
VK3HJV - Paul
Had a chat about the Artemis 1 moon mission and the payload from JAXA and also full wave loop antennas. SDR receivers were also mentioned.
This weeks net was about shack and tower grounding, or earthing.
It was discussed about using house (metal) water pipe as your shack ground. It was general consensus that this is a bad idea. There can actually be leakage voltage on the pipes from the electric hot water system, if that's what you have. VK3DFL, who is a retired plumber, wasn't on the net, but discussing it with him later confirmed that it was definitely a bad idea to use metal water pipes as a ground.
It was agreed that a reasonable system is 2 ground rods, about 1.5 to 2 metres apart, connected by decent earth wire and fed to some sort of metal bus-bar in the shack, that the ground terminal on radios and equipment can be connected to.
A lot of towers are mounted ion concrete blocks and are thus not grounded. A heavy wire can be clamped to a leg of the mast and connected to a ground stake.
Ian, VK3DNQ, explained how his hazer type tower was grounded by 4 rods that are connected to the tower in the concrete base and protruding into the surrounding soil to spread any lightning strike out.
Recording to come . . .
Call-in:
Thank-you to all who participated.
We talked about random wire end fed antennas and matching, as well as open wire feed line.
L-Match's were agreed to be a good tuning option for random wire end fed antennas and for half wave end fed it appeared to be a fixed wound toroid as the impedance match.
Open wire feed was a mix of commercial and home brew feeder. A few different methods of construction were used for the home brew feed. Spacing was variable depending on application.
Call-in:
Summary: Jim's recommendation was to make sure there is nothing on or around the radio that is blocking airflow. If the radio is still running hot, an external fan can be employed to blow air across the radio's heatsink to provide further cooling. Need to note that when running digital modes the radio's amplifier is working much harder than when running SSB.
Audio of VK3UFO - managing transceiver temperature in a hot operating environment
Summary: Steve said that the best practice with valve transmitters is to use a fan to suck heat out, rather than blow cooler air in as it tends to go to spots that can be damaged.
The VK Tech Net is run a bit differently to the usual net operation of ham radio operators calling in and going onto a list, to then be called in order to have a say.
Read about the ideas behind the VK Tech Net
This net is run in segments.
Generally like this:
Net Control (NC) will open the net. There will not be a call in.
NC will announce the topic of the Learning Section, and then continue with it.
Learning Section - about some aspect of radio operation or setup. Possibly in response to questions on previous nets. These Learning Sections will also be posted on this website for later reference. Where possible they may be interactive. This section may be run by NC, or there may be another operator that will be announced to run it.
Q+A Section - Technical. Anyone with a technical question they would like answered (eg. my radio doesn't work. What's wrong?) can call in to ask for help. Others on the net will then be asked if they can offer assistance. NC may also make a suggestion to help resolve the issue. At times, for longer responses, the involved parties will be asked to QSY to continue their "thread". They can then return to the net when finished if they like.
Q+A Section - Antennas. As above.
Info Section. This is the more general section of the net and will work more like a normal net. NC will ask if anyone wants to contribute information about something they are working on, involved in, or planning, about radio that will be useful to other participants.
The net will be closed when NC decides they have had enough. At this time, NC will conduct a call in, ala WIA broadcast style, of anyone who would like to announce their involvement, whether it be active, or just listening in. There will be no judgement of SWLing. I am sick of snide comments on other nets about those who just want to listen in.
Let me be clear about the running of this net:
NC WILL decide what is RELEVANT to the ideals of the net, and will MANAGE the nets content. That may mean informing you that your topic is not relevant to the current activity on the net.
If you don't agree with the NC's decision, remember, you are not obliged to participate in the net.
73
Cambo
I had been thinking about starting a net on 80 Metres for a long time.
Not that there aren't enough nets around, but on the whole they are pretty bland. Just "g'day, nice weather, my sciatica is playing up, 73".
While I am not against chat or welfare nets, they just don't get my interest.
I want to talk about Ham Radio. You know, electronics, transmitters, receivers, components, accessories, mobile set-ups, portable operating gear and "go bags", field day how to, modes of operation, and of course, antennas.
Basically anything and everything technical about ham radio, in the broader sense of the word.
I believe there is just not enough of this information being disseminated (look it up) on the air regularly.
Anyway, a conversation with local ham Steve, VK3ZPG, and subsequent conversations with some recently licensed hams at the club, prompted me to make a decision and kick things off. The net is not a club activity. This is open to all licensed hams that can hear us and want to participate.
I have had a lot of thoughts about the format and how to run it, but ultimately, it's going to be suck it and see. The net will evolve in it's own way.
Will it work? Is the interest there?
My hope is that it will be useful.
Time will tell.
73
Cambo