Month: July 2019

Congratulations to our five prospective amateur radio licencees. Following the exams held Sunday 21st July they have all learned of their success. A job well done over three Sundays and their homework completed with the Foundation Manual.

Well done, and a special thanks to Tim VK5AV for his leadership in the program and ably assisted by Tom VK5NFT, Peter VK5BE and John VK5DJ.

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Callsigns have now been confirmed as shown below each photograph. The photos are passport style as submitted to the Australian Marine College, I’m sure we’ll get some better ones later. We know all our members will welcome our new Hams when heard on air.

Deanna and Kate have both been active and it’s great to hear their voices on air. Now we’re waiting for our other new amateurs to get some equipment and aerials up so we can say “G’day”

The repeater problem has been tracked down. Would never have found it on site. We won’t mention how many hours this has taken.

Solution – the audio input transformer had been burnt out. Originally I thought it had just failed but on replacing the transformer the next one also died. The problem was a blob of solder on the socket for the exciter that was shorting the +12V supply to a bridge connection for the input of the audio. Unfortunately it was intermittent. After putting a third transformer in (supplies getting thin) and resoldering the joint to get rid of the surplus solder there was no longer 12V finding its way onto the audio transformer and burning it out

I have rechecked all levels and adjusted powers on the units. The repeater was re-installed on Tuesday 16 July 2019. Audio working fine.

You’ll note that the map is missing. I’ve been experimenting so that it would become interactive. Unfortunately Google now charges for use of an interactive map although the first $200 worth is free.

I’m looking into it but reluctant to put my credit card to the test. I’m looking at alternatives but as we all know the Google Maps is the best.

Hang in there I’ll see what I can do over the next few weeks. I’m a beginner at WordPress.

John