Amateur Radio July 2010
Delivery expected from July 2
Editorial
AGM weekend of activities
As many have experienced over the past few years, the WIA Annual General Meeting weekend of activities was once again an action packed program with plenty to take in.
The weekend formally kicked off with a tour of the communications side of the Black Mountain tower, followed by dinner at the Alto Restaurant.
Saturday morning commenced with brief formal AGM proceedings followed by the informal Open Forum. At the commencement of the Open Forum, many WIA awards were announced, with several recipients being very surprised! Whilst our President attempted to move quickly through the many reports to be considered, some lively discussion occurred at times. After lunch, we had presentations which reflected upon various aspects of radio communications to date, with the focus upon amateur radio activities with VK over the last 100 years.
For many, the highlight of the weekend was the Centenary Dinner, which included a live ARISS contact involving local secondary school students. With representatives from a number of sister amateur radio societies and the IARU, the ACMA, key industry players involved in the amateur market, and of course many WIA members and family members, around 200 watched and listened with interest as the students passed their questions to the ISS and listened to the replies from astronaut Tracy KF5DBF on board the ISS.
In addition, there were many presentations made during the evening, with the international representatives formally recognising the centenary of the foundation of organised amateur radio in Australia.
One particularly significant presentation was that of Marilyn VK3DMS, who passed her large, award winning, philatelic collection with its communications theme on to the WIA.
The activities planned for Sunday morning were a washout – literally. Whilst we had been spending all of Saturday inside the meeting venue, the Canberra weather had been bleak – cold and wet. The activities planned for a local park on Sunday morning were therefore cancelled, and the live broadcast of the weekend’s news broadcast conducted from within the meeting venue, utilising the radio equipment loaned to the WIA by Icom Australia for the VK100WIA station.
Later on Sunday morning, most attending the AGM made their way about 30 minutes north of Canberra, to the property of Dick Smith, VK2DIK, the Centenary Patron near Gundaroo. The decidedly damp and dreary weather conditions did not stop all from enjoying themselves After lunch, attendees started their trip home.
It was terrific to catch up with many people over the weekend, but given the packed program, many of the eyeball contacts were far too brief.
But you will be able to read accounts of many of the activities from the weekend in this issue of AR. With one hundred years behind us, this issue features the AGM weekend of activities as its primary theme.
My personal trip home involved a small detour towards Sydney to visit a friend in the southern highlands for the night. The real trip home commenced late on Monday morning, following a detailed review of progress on my host’s next antenna project. A long drive followed before returning to the usual work tasks, after an enjoyable long weekend.
June and July activities
Since returning home much of my spare time has been spent on preparations for GippsTech 2010, to occur over the weekend of 10 and 11 July. The printed Proceedings document had been sent to the printer prior to the AGM weekend, but I still needed to organise the electronic (colour) version, which was finally finished (I hope) over the Queen’s Birthday weekend (even though I had to work today – the “holiday” Monday in several states).I look forward to catching up with all attending GippsTech, and perhaps a few others at the Gippsland Gate ARC hamfest the following weekend.
Remember – keep your ears alert for an opportunity to work the VK100WIA station and to work towards the Centenary Award. And plan for the RD and ALARA Contests and the ILLW event in August.
Cheers, Peter VK3PF
Cover photo
Centenary Patron Dick Smith VK2DIK and WIA President Michael Owen VK3KI at Bowylie. Photo by Robert Broomhead VK3DN.
Table Of Contents
Centenary Year AGM and Convention Canberra 28-30 May
Centenary Year AGM and Convention
Awards announced at WIA AGM & Open Forum
Saturday Afternoon
ACMA praises WIA on its Centenary
A look right inside Black Mountain tower
A true blue character - the WIA Centenary Patron, Dick Smith VK2DIK Jim Linton VK3PC
Sundee arvo barbie at Dick and Pip’s Place Jim Linton VK3PC
NASA and ISS crew send centenary greetings Jim Linton VK3PC
Meanwhile, not in the convention room Marilyn Williams VK2JJW (XYL)
GENERAL
We were there, too. Early YLs Christine Taylor VK5CTY
Highly successful special callsign
Who were the Radio Inspectors? What did they do? Rob Gurr VK5RG
35 great years of ALARA Margaret Blight VK3FMAB
Travelling tales Jenny Wardrop VK5ANW
The First State of ALARA Christine Taylor VK5CTY
2010 WIA Grants Scheme
The WIA Centenary Committee Call for Articles
National Field Day
TECHNICAL
A hidden 40 metre X beam and other unusual antennas Ron Holmes VK5VH
A simple, effective RF speech processor Chas Gnaccarini VK3PY
Centenary Year AGM and Convention Canberra 28-30 May
In this issue we have a series of reports of activities held in Canberra in conjunction with the Centenary Annual General Meeting.
ALARA Birthday
July marks the birthday of the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association. Several contributors tell us about recent activities as well giving as an overview of some ALARA history, linking to our overall theme of the history of amateur radio for this year.
A hidden 40 metre X beam and other unusual antennas
Ron Holmes VK5VH
Many amateurs have a problem in getting enough ‘antenna’ hardware in the air, given both the typical allotment size in general suburbia, and the difficulty in convincing authorities that ‘more’ antenna in the air is actually better, or even necessary.
The author had an additional issue to overcome, living in a unit where the rules generally prohibited any type of antenna structure and which, at the very least, promoted some lateral thinking in creating a workable, and effectively performing, hidden 40 metre antenna.
How this was achieved makes interesting reading.
A simple, effective RF speech processor
Chas Gnaccarini VK3PY
This is a short, to the point article on how to improve speech audio quality from many current transceivers, notably those operational in the VHF and UHF range, by the application of ‘some’ speech processing – the exercise carried out in this article, on two particular VHF radios, resulted in markedly improved audio out – and the theory is, essentially, applicable to a great many similar radios that may have a similar audio problem (or perhaps deficiency is a better word).
Advertisers Index
 55 Av-com
14 AWARC
14 BMARC
Fly Bookshop
31 Com-an-tena
54 Cookson (Jackson Bros)
55 Hamak Electrical Industries
OBC Icom
46 ILLW
34 Jaycar
55 Ludatronics
54 Radiowave Therapy Clinic
55 RF Tools
47 TET-Emtron
55 Tower
29, 55 TTS
IFC, 16 Vertex Standard (Yaesu)
55 VKHam
35 WARS
Page Last Updated: Friday 2 July 2010 at 13:54 hours
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