Congratulations to Tony VK5ZAI on receiving the President’s Commendation Award at this year’s WIA AGM.
It was for his excellent contribution to Amateur Radio through his involvement in the ARISS Program. The members of SERG are proud to have Tony as one of our members and join with the President of the WIA in congratulating Tony.
On Sunday 5 July 2020 The Bluff repeater was upgraded with an improved power distribution system and the link to Mt Eckersley near Heywood was installed.
The working bee was attended by Norbert VK5MQ (the new power distribution system), Peter VK5BE (temporary antenna and spanner operator) and John VK5DJ (installation of the new link system).
A temporary antenna on 449.875MHz was installed on a fence post but it is anticipated that the yagi will be installed in a week or two about half way up the Gambier Electronics tower. Testing through 449.875MHz simplex is invited. If you operate on the simplex frequency you’ll be heard on the 2M repeater, Mt Benson, Naracoorte and Willalooka. You’ll be able to hear the action come back on 449.875MHz.
A big thanks to Brian VK5VI who did the TAIT chassis build and preparation of the transmitters and his help with the design of the sub controller.
The Mt Eckersley end is held up by weather and general conditions at the Heywood end. The hill is quite steep and wet so work is restricted to preparing the hut. Spring will bring better weather and drier hillside for the move to the top of the hill, construction of a fence and installation of the tower.
The second cabinet has the new power distribution system at the top and the battery at the bottom. The 70cm repeater is temporarily moved to the VK5DJ shack for new wiring and controller.
Congratulations to Tony VK5ZAI on his becoming a Member of the Order of Australia. His AM was announced today on the list of Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients.
Tony is recognised for his twenty year involvement with ARISS and NASA. In this time he has done much to promote Amateur Radio to many young people who had their first experience with Amateur Radio during his many, many school ARISS contacts to the Space Station.
All of this happened at significant cost to Tony and Jill, but that was never a factor in his dedication. Jill was always there alongside Tony and I’m sure Tony would credit much to her support.
Tony has always represented our hobby in a professional manner and no doubt has prompted young people to further careers in electronics and communication and maybe even an upcoming astronaut or two.
Well done Tony, our club salutes you.
I’ve used the old Naracoorte Mk1 controller and installed it on a face plate to be used for VK5ROH. It will make it easier to see what is going on in future. One day Peter and I will install it at The Bluff. It may require some re-wiring of the plug but at least it will be ready for the IRLP/Echolink when we get our WIFI connection from the clubrooms.
John
Peter VK5BE, Andrew VK5VKC, Colin VK5DK and Leith VK5FLAR installed the UHF repeater (439.825/434.825) at The Bluff on Sunday 24/5/20. The unit is now running off mains power.
The antennas are temporarily placed at this time until tower issues are resolved. In the meantime there are much improved signals, especially to the NW. Well done fellas. There was quite a lot of activity testing the repeater this afternoon. Not as good in Mt Gambier as expected – it’s a long way away, but still usable mobile. David VK5HDW had usable signals mobile in Millicent.
The LVD for the Mt Eckersley repeater is now finished and working ready for installation in the VK3RSW cabinet.
The device makes use of a solid state relay. A microprocessor looks after the management of voltages. If the battery voltage falls below 11.9 volts the relay turns off and does not turn on again until the battery voltage exceeds 12.7V (80% charge) for 100 minutes. The timer ensures the battery is in good condition before the repeater is used.
The normal on range is from 13.8V (fully charged) to 11.9V (20% charge).
The device was home brewed and software program written in the VK5DJ shack.
On Sunday, May 17th, a team comprising of Peter VK5BE, Colin VK5DK, Andrew VK5VKC, and Andrew VK5MAS fully dismantled the 70cm repeater from the Crouch Street North water tower site in Mount Gambier.
This included the repeater and link equipment rack, all coax feeders and power cables, antennas, and solar panels.
As a result, the VK5ROH repeater will be off the air until further notice, for hopefully only a week or so.
The 70cm repeater will now be re-built using mains power in lieu of solar power, plus will no longer be linked to the 2m repeater VK5RSE at Mount Graham, once it is re-installed in our new facility at The Bluff.
Improved IRLP and Echo-Link facilities will also be added later.
Initially we’ll retain the off air feed from the clubrooms but a wifi link is highly likely. WiFi will be a significant upgrade by allowing us to put the IRLP/Echolink node at The Bluff. We await some work to be done at the Gambier Electronics site.
VK5RSE at Mount Graham still remains on air as a stand alone 2m repeater.
Report by Peter VK5BE on behalf of the repeater committee
We have received notification from ACMA that our frequencies for the new Mt Eckersley repeater will be 146.875 MHz TX (user receive) and 146.275 MHz RX (user TX).
The link frequency will be 449.875 MHz but users won’t need to worry about that.
John VK5DJ
Repeater coordinator
The Naracoorte fence has been removed, not only does this tidy up the site but it also means that the Council people who tidy the whole site can also mow closer to the the repeater site – with the exception around the tower. I guess we’ll look to the NARC to poison regularly.
This will be great for the repeater maintenance team as they will no longer have to wear pith helmets when entering the area.
Thanks to Brian VK5VI for arranging the cabinet and President Peter for getting it from the VK5RHO site.
The solar charger will be mounted at the top on the non removable back of the cabinet. Below this will be the repeater for Mt Eckersley which will be on 19″ mounting holes. The cabinet is quite wide so the right hand side of the 19″ mount is on a bar that is fastened from top to the horizontal bar. This leaves about 200mm gap at the right for limited access.
Peter plans to cut an access port in the rear of the cabinet behind the repeater. Normally this will have a covering plate attached by bolts with captive nuts. The cover will maintain the vermin proofing. Rear access to plugs, antenna connections etc is necessary as Tait equipment is quite heavy and difficult to remove from the cabinet if only one person is present.
In the lower section will be placed the 4-6 cavities (until we have tested we won’t know how many we’ll need) and the battery.
We are still waiting on the allocation of frequencies although the callsign VK3RSW has been confirmed.
