A group of antenna builders travelled to Robertson on Saturday to finish off the installation of the donated cubical quad antenna.
These hams were Barrie VK2IBE, Skip VK2ALR, Stephen VK2RH, Raffy VK2RF, Bob VK2NRC and Fred VK2WS.

On a previous visit to build and erect this antenna we were forced to stop work as the mating of the boom to the spiders holding the spreaders appeared to be a mis-match. It was subsequently ascertained that the aluminium boom was out of round causing the issue.
For this visit we took the boom down and with a little ‘bush panel beating’ re circularised the boom end. With everything on the ground we were able to adjust and test fit things so we were sure that things would go back together when it was all up in the air for assembly.

We then fitted the reflector element and the radiating element to the boom, rigged the feedline and we were ready to extend the telescopic mast for testing.

This whole process sounds like a 5 minute task but all this took us about 5 hours.

The reflector of the cubical quad is a closed loop. We had initially not closed the loop as the length of the shorting wire was where the adjustment of front/back ratio was done.

Anyway, we measured the SWR, then lowered the whole antenna assembly, closed the reflector loops with some shorting wire and re-raised the antenna – and measured again.

The results were surprisingly good!

The SWR was quite flat across all three 10m, 15m and 20m ham bands. The lowest SWR (just below 1.5) was right in the low part of the SSB section (and so not that far from the CW section of the band) and even at the band edges the SWR was not higher than 1.5.

We tried rotating the antenna but quickly came across an issue where the wire termination on the reflecting element fouled the guy ropes. We lowered the antenna again and lifted the wire termination block as much as we could. Plus, we re-positioned two of the guy anchor points in closer to the mast to improve the angles. And then re-raised the telescopic mast.

We then hooked the antenna to a radio equipped with a pan-adapter and observed the signal strength of beacon signals. This was compromised a little by the fact that the beacons were DX and the ionosphere was causing some QSB. However, over an extended period of observation we feel that the antenna has a front/back ration somewhere in the region of 15-20dB. Which a very useful characteristic for our contesting operations.

As a parallel activity, we completed the replacement of the old kerb find laptop computers, with different operating systems, with three small form factor desktop machines all running the Windows 10 operating system. The desktop machines also have 10 USB ports which we need many of due to all the peripherals that are connected during contests. We also installed two 24″ monitors for each operator position and an external keyboard and mouse. This was done to improve the ergonomics and provide larger, brighter monitors with more screen real estate for the multiple windows we open up during contesting.

Raffy went through the process of cloning the HDDs the computers came equipped to SSD drives (for faster, crisper responses) and swapping the drives over.

So, in summary, we completed the tasks we set out to do and the contest site has been upgraded with a new steerable antenna and the operating environment has been upgraded too.

We are ready for some contesting.

73 Fred VK2WS

We were a little under gunned for 2021 (or so we thought) with a significantly smaller group and without our usual “high ground” on top of the hill. We set up next to the shearing shed with three antennas on 120-degree radius about a centre point adjacent to shed.

Our old genset on the opposite side of the shed so as to satisfy the portable infrastructure requirements and away we went, for our chosen 6 hour block. We operated phone, CW and digital with a small dedicated group of operators – Raffy, Skip, Tony, Jason and John.

It is worth the trip to operate in quiet conditions with significant elevation, as well as taking the win for the category. JMFD tests our capacity to operate in portable conditions as a part of community resilience in times of disaster.  

A link to the results and logs submitted is here: https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/johnmoyle/

Plans are afoot for the expedition to Tooraweenah this year after being frustrated by the COVID19 pandemic in 2020.

Notwithstanding change in public heath advise we are going. For the JMFD 2021 and we will compete in the 6hr All Modes Section. The start time will be decided by the competition manger to give us a chance at another category win.

Stand by for emails and other correspondence and put 19 – 21 March in the diary.  

If you have not been on the big field trip it is great fun!

The club has been successful in gaining an additional 2 letter callsign. – VK2YV

It may be familiar to you.  It was Rob Bellamy’s (SK) call sign for a number of years. We were able to secure the callsign after a recommendation from the AMC when the call became available.

This additional call sign will enable us to operate from 2 locations as “the club” which will be useful for expeditions and away trips as well as competition. For example, it would be great to use for it the now annual trip to Tooraweenah as a commemoration of Rob. As well as maybe an additional anchor station for the ferry contest. Maybe at Circular Quay or even Manly.

We could also consider it for use during competition where the club might operate from say Robertson as well as another place.

To an extent we can make this up as we go along. Personally, I am incredibly pleased that we have been able to secure another 2 letter callsign, but more so because it was the callsign of our benefactor. 

Rob was one of a kind, a rare soul in these days of immediate gratitude and self-interest, he was a gentleman, a member of the bar, (ask any barrister, who will tell you it is an honourable pursuit, excepting for the following; the person on the bench, my learned colleague, and the defendant, unless of course you are appearing for the poor hard done by defendant)

We never saw Bellamy at the Bar it would add another dimension. Members of the bench say he was pretty-good; Had we need of a barrister we would hope for one with the integrity and skill of Robert Bellamy.

He was a commissioned officer in the RAAF, we can forgive him being a member of the junior service but apparently the Airforce uniform is prettier, and you get more girls! Also, the toys are better in the Airforce.

There is a pattern, he liked things involving costumes!

Rob lived life on the edge, the criteria, went something like this…

• Will it be fun?
• Will I learn something?
• How close to the edge?
• Do I get to play with clever stuff?
• Does it have me understand the physical world more?