Author Archives: VK6AXB

AGM and Equipment Auction!

A reminder that WARG’s next meeting on Monday May 2nd is our AGM – and will feature an equipment auction at the close of proceedings.

As usual, the main business of the AGM is to elect a new Committee for the coming year. Whilst many of WARG’s office holders intend to re-nominate – including myself as Secretary – this is an opportunity for others who are financial members of WARG and want to contribute more to the running of the group.

WARG’s committee aims to always operate in a collaborative fashion, and not to take over discussions or make decisions which should be the property of the wider group. The AGM is an important night and we look forward to seeing you there, at WARG’s usual meeting venue, the Peter Hughes Scout Communications Centre, corner of Gibbs St and Welshpool Rd, East Cannington.

All are welcome to attend. Doors will be open at 7, for a 7:30 start. Treasurer John will be on hand to take payments from any members who haven’t yet renewed. A short General meeting will also take place, alongside the AGM. Tea & coffee are available, and there’s usually time for socialising before and after the meeting.

WARG Treasurer John VK6JAH advises that the auction is on behalf of the estate of Syd VK6SMH (SK) who sadly passed away last year, his family have asked WARG to assist in disposing of remaining equipment. All the gear is said to be in working order, but the WARG Committee has had no opportunity to fully test any item. As such no warranty can be given regarding the working condition or otherwise of any item offered.

All procedes from the sale of the equipment will go to WARG funds.

Below is a list of the donated equipment and attached are photographs of the same.

Kenwood TS-680S tranceiver with handbook, MC-43S microphone and accessory DIN plugs.

Hi Mound HK-704 morse key

Kenwood LF-30A low pass filter

Kenwood AT-230 antenna tuner with handbook.

Digitor D2510 2m power amplifier.

Yaesu FT-530 dual band handheld with handbook, MH-12 speaker/microphone and DC power cord. Dead battery pack. No charger.

Arista stereo headphones.

Loudspeaker in box.

1981 edition of ARRL handbook.

D-5200 two way PL 259 coax switch.

Micronata swr/power meter.

Asahi Antenna swr/power meter.

Cobra swr/power meter.

Pearce-Simpson Super Cheetah 27MHz AM/SSB CB radio with microphone and handbook.

Benelec 7-706 power microphone.

HF two section tapped helical mobile whip 80-40-20-15-10m in cloth bag. No spring base.

Mast – two section crank up/tilt over. Bottom section triangular lattice, upper galvanised pipe. Probably 14 meters fully extended. With all guy wires and extra section of triangular mast. Includes Alinco EMR-400 rotator and control box with handbook and 3 element tri-band 20-15-10m trapped beam. Two winches, one for tilt over, one for crank up. These items to be sold as a single lot. Removal needed from rear garden of a house in Manning. WARG can assist in removal. (No photos of these unfortunately, rotator controller pic only).

As usual, the best way to bid for an item is to turn up in person. If for some pressing reason a WARG member cannot attend the AGM in person but are interested in bidding, please contact Anthony VK6AXB (via ‘Secretary AT warg etc’ email address) for more information on submitting an absentee bid.

73, and Best Regards,

Anthony VK6AXB

CB-and-Mics HH-Amp Key-Tuner Phones-Filter-Switch Rotator Speaker-Book SWR-Meters TS-680S Whip

 

 

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Site visit to Kellerberrin VK6RKN

Monday April 18th happened to be World Amateur Radio Day – and a group of WARG members decided to celebrate the day by travelling to Kellerberrin, about 200km east of Perth, for a day’s work on the VK6RKN repeater site. Trevor VK6MS and myself travelled up from Perth, Peter VK6PK joined us along the way from Wooroloo, and we met Bruce VK6LAW and Pete VK6FUN on site at the repeater.

This site had previously suffered a lightning strike, which did significant damage and put the 2m repeater off air. Whilst partial work had been done to restore the service, it hadn’t been previously possible to climb the mast and replace damaged antennas and feedlines. This was the main aim of the working party, and thanks to our combined effort – and particularly the work of Trevor VK6MS – we had great success on the day.

WARG recently was fortunate to obtain a donation of high quality low-loss antenna cable (LDF4-50 equivalent) from David, ex-VK6NFH. Prior to the working bee this was prepared and checked ready for transport to site and installation. Ray VK6ZRW had previously retuned the cavities, and a replacement antenna and the repaired repeater/cavities had already been transported to site and installed on test, thanks to the previous efforts of VK6PK, VK6FUN and Colin VK6ACT. A new UHF CB antenna was already on site courtesy of the shire, who had asked if we could investigate the CB repeater performance in consideration of WARG’s site access for the 2m repeater.

On the day, Trevor VK6MS scaled the 45m mast, and with the rest of us as ground crew, we removed and lowered the faulty 2m and UHF CB antennas, hoisted the new feedline aloft, and fitted replacement antennas, including a stacked phased-array dipole for the UHF CB, and a dual-band X-300 Diamond for WARG usage. The CB phased-array is all stainless-steel welded construction, and sits atop the mast, offering a greater degree of lightning protection in future. The WARG dual-band sits on an outrigger about a metre or so below the mast top, hopefully out of the firing line, whilst still achieving good height for coverage. The new feedline is secured with stainless cable ties and earthed top and bottom to the mast. At ground level the feedline entry point to the hut was improved with a new gland plate being fabricated and installed, along with a lightning arrestor at the entry point, and new internal cabling to the repeater and APRS equipment.

Due to the fading daylight, there was not time for a full spec-check and investigation of the repeater and APRS functions, but on a quick test, all was working to a reasonable standard. Mobile tests on the homeward journey showed the repeater coverage now extending westwards to Cunderdin and north to Baandee, with base stations in Merredin also being able to work VK6RKN. (On the down side, the coverage in the Perth Hills seems to have dropped off…but I would say that is outweighed by the local improvements…)

A big thank you to VK6MS for the climbing, and to Bruce VK6LAW, who used his local contacts to solve a number of problems on the day. Thanks are also due to VK6FUN, VK6PK and all others who donated time, effort or materials to make the day a success.

There is still work to be done – the APRS antenna (Diamond 2m colinear at about 15m level) is showing high SWR, which needs investigation, although the APRS is still working OK by all reports. The repeater’s RX mute setting is a bit high, and it still seems to be de-sensing on weaker signals at the fringes – plus the internal hut cabling could do with a bit of tidying up. All tasks for a future working bee…to be scheduled.

Reports on the coverage and performance of the repeater,  and APRS service would be appreciated, either on-air during WARG’s Sunday net;  via email, to secretary AT whisky alpha romeo golf DOT org DOT au – or come along to a WARG meeting and tell us about it!

73, and Best Regards,

Anthony VK6AXB
Secretary, WARG

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