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Three of our Members have spent nearly eight hours up at the Clubrooms this week replacing and tuning the eighty and forty metre dipoles for the Club Station.

 

A fault in the co-axial cable proved very elusive but was finally tracked to a lack of contact between the earth braid and the little metal collar that bears up against the connector to complete the earth contact. Once located it was fixed by removing a little of the outer sheath and soldering the braid to the collar. This made it behave properly.

The team then started on the laborious process of analysing the antennas, lowering them to adjust the length, raise them again to full height and retest the s.w.r.

This took quite a while to get right and accounted for most of the time spent.

Because of the location of the tie off points for the support ropes this was a very tedious job as the mounting points must be kept at a height where passing children, (and others), who may have a streak of sabotage in them can drop our antennas as the Club is located next to a Primary School and alongside the Mt. Gambier Community Garden. Barbed wire also presents a hazard as the tie off points at one end are on top of a security fence surrounding the Community Garden which is part of the Old Gaol Complex.

A very big “Thank you” goes out to Tom, VK5EE, Owen, VK5HOS and Trevor, VK5NC for their patience and persistence.

Naracoorte repeater
The repeater is now up and running again, thanks to Peter VK5BE for making two trips to Naracoorte.
On arriving at site on Sunday, Peter found that the battery and charger were operating as they should. The various receivers and transmitters also seemed to be working well.
The problem was traced to the controller. Recently the Naracoorte repeater was locked for two days, so to save the TX I decided to turn it off by remote control to save wear and tear. Well that turned out to be the wrong thing. Unfortunately there was a bug in the software (nope, not the 6 legged variety) which resulted in once a transmitter was turned off it was not possible to turn it back on from the same receiver. It would have been possible to do it through the links but we didn’t know that until later.

So Peter brought the controller to my QTH where I had a spare ready to go but in the meantime I was able to identify the problem on the spare and use the plug in  keypad to recover repeater control if it was turned off. So when Peter arrived here it was just a matter of telling the controller that it was OK to work the repeater and it could be returned to site with the warning to me not to turn off the repeater by remote control until I had killed the bug. When we install the antenna which is now ready to go (just waiting on personnel and the crane), I will reload a corrected version of the software.

So Peter then drove back to Naracoorte, re-installed the controller and all was well again. While he was there he has turned the mute off a little harder as it was on the edge of noise. That should sort the noise problem.

Thanks Peter. I have disciplined myself accordingly, a couple of quick slaps on the wrist.

Update:

Problem in software found and fixed. Will update both Naracoorte and Bluff when next on site.
Cheers
John

At present Naracoorte is not responding. A few days around Christmas time it was locked on with receiver noise and this is usually either interference or low volts. As it went on for a couple of days I think the unit was losing power. Probably the battery charger.

At present no-one is going that way with a key so it will be off until further notice. I think the links are down too.

John

Repeater coordinator
2/1/20

CLUB PATRON BREAKS AUSTRALIAN 3.4 Ghz DISTANCE RECORD.

South East Radio Group Club former President and Club Patron Kevin, VK4UH, has broken the Australian 3.4 Ghz distance record.
On Saturday 23rd. November 2019 Kevin completed a two way qso with Stephen, ZL1TPH, portable who was in Cape Reinga in New Zealand which set a new Australian 3.4 Ghz record.
We understand that Kevin was operating from his front verandah.

A video of the event can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJqzjWOlXM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1R1VHLv12REJK03AQRDzUwx-9O-xbxsSucs5DW7spKaNNGKy0sHynP7wI


Our congratulations to Kevin.
An outstanding effort.
We wish he was still here but appreciate that he would probably not have been able to do this from Mt. Gambier.

Once again we were extremely lucky.

The weather turned out perfectly.

The site was excellent. (Thank you John, VK5DJ)

The company was, as usual, fabulous.

A great time was had by all.

Many thanks to Chris, VK5MC, and the Millicent Rotary Club for providing an extra BBQ and the transporting of it to and from.

A number of our VK3 Members made the effort and travelled quite a distance to join us – namely Ian, VK3DNQ and wife Helen, (Coddrington. Vic), John, VK3FJSN, (Hamilton side of Casterton, Vic.) John, VK3FJET, (Portland).

It was also great to see Millicent Member Gilbert, VK5FGIL, as we rarely catch up with him.

Tom, VK5EE, set up his portable station and a few contacts were made on 40 metres much to the interest of all present.

John, VK3FJET, had a problem with his two metre rig in the car. It appeared to be stone deaf. A number of Club Members had a crack at finding the problem until Tom, VK5EE, suddenly realised that it was the power supply for John’s reversing camera that was obliterating all signals. He unplugged it from the cigarette lighter and the problem disappeared. Well done Tom,

Here are a few pictures from the very enjoyable day.

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I have to apologise, as I was supposed to have taken a Group photo but, you guessed it, I forgot. (However, no one reminded me either.)

Whoops, Col and I were both preparing a note at the same time. So here’s some extra info but see Col’s post for the fine detail.

We are booked in. Bring your own everything. Be prepared for a nice walk around the Lake, plenty of wild birds to be seen and maybe even a wallaby or two.

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Here’s a map of the location, use + or – to zoom or mouse to shift map around.

See map on other post “Christmas Barbeque”

A HUGE “Thank you” to Andrew, VK5KET Representative for SERG for the Hill Climb Event, for another well organised and run event from SERG Members.

Well what a weekend three days Friday Saturday and Sunday of racing and another well done job by SERG members assisting SEAC (South East Automobile Club) in this years event. 140 approximately competing competitor’s this year in very ordinary weather conditions.

Prior to the race day there is a lot of work involved setting up leading up to this event from dedicated Serg members, about 5 days in getting cables out and testing many things from red lights to cameras. Serg has been involved with this event since it started 14 years ago and our primary role is providing communication along the course back to race control. The other service that the club provides is live video footage to various large monitors located around the course for the spectators.

The course is 1.45 kilometers of up hill and winding bends and speed reached of up to on some sections of 180 kilometers Hour plus.
Start line at top of the image and finishing at the bottom

To see what is it like to run up the hill well then take a ride with these drivers to experience the thrill.

Here are a few pic’s from the weekend.

And to show you what people from out of town think of this event well check this out, Well Done SERG and SEAC Volunteers.

Anyone building yagis would find this source of clamps very handy. Especially if you need to insulate the elements.

John

https://www.pirtek.com.au/-/media/feature/products/sect-e-tube-section-rev-h-hyperlinked.pdf

Please note that, by popular consent, the 2019 South East Radio Group Annual Christmas BBQ will take place at Lake McIntyre on the outskirts of Millicent on SUNDAY 8th. of December commencing at 11.30 a.m.

Toilets, undercover shelter, a gas fired BBQ, and attractive surroundings supplied.

Please B.Y.O. food and drink, chairs etc.

This is always a very pleasant gathering and we invite ALL Amateurs and their families to attend.

PLEASE NOTE:

It has been agreed that we will arrange another family style get together to be held over the border in Victoria sometime early in the New Year so that we can share some time with our, (now), significant VK3 Membership. All VK3 Amateurs are welcome to attend regardless of S.E.R.G. Membership status.