From IT Wire:

The Government has announced its response to the Spectrum Review undertaken by the Department of Communications, in conjunction with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The Government says it will implement the recommendations of its review of the way Australia’s spectrum is managed.

The review is now complete and is available here.

From the ARRL newsletter
A Virginia Tech undergraduate researcher and radio amateur has used Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) and Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) data to study how solar flares impact HF radio propagation over the entire dayside — the time Earth is in sunlight — with communication loss related to both flare intensity and distribution. Carson Squibb, KM4MBQ, recently summarized his findings in a poster presentation, “Dayside Ionospheric Response to X-Class Solar Flare Events Observed with Reverse Beacon Network High Frequency Communication Links.” As most HF operators understand, higher-intensity flare events can cause complete signal loss on HF, while weaker flares may only partly inhibit radio propagation.

According to Squibb’s poster, a solar flare is an event in which the Sun emits high levels of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, resulting in increased photoionization in the ionosphere, primarily in the D-layer, which is largely responsible for absorption of HF radio waves. So, as ionization increases during flare events, communication can be diminished or lost completely. Such fadeouts can occur in minutes, while subsequent recovery can take hours, “which is why understanding these flare effects is of critical importance,” Squibb said.

According to Squibb, the rate of communication loss is related to the increase in X-ray intensity, and the period of recovery is influenced by both flare intensity and the rate of decline in X-ray flux after peaking. Squibb determined that lower frequencies experience fades in propagation prior to the flare peak, with recovery taking longer, while the degree of loss is more severe as frequency decreases.

Squibb’s poster explains that SuperDARN detects a ground-scatter band that results from waves reflecting from the ionosphere and ground, and that this band is degraded during solar flare events. To determine the spatial distribution of flare effects, Squibb used data from four radars across North America. He used the RBN — an array of passive receivers which detects Amateur Radio signals and posts identifiable call signs on the Internet — to measure HF communication. Squibb chose 3.5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 MHz for study. X‐ray flux data within the 0.05-0.4 nm and 0.1-0.8 nm ranges were taken from the GOES-15 geostationary weather satellite.

Squibb said future research should focus on quantifying the relationship between flare characteristics and HF signal fadeout.

Squibb conducted his research under the guidance of graduate student Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, and SuperDARN group supervisors Jo Baker and Mike Ruohoniemi, as part of his participation in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research (Space@VT). His co-authors included Magda Moses, KM4EGE, of Virginia Tech, and Robyn Fiori of the Canadian Space Weather Forecast Center.

http://www.vk2vjb.net/2015/08/19/gpsdo-display-in-the-works/

As part of the GPSDO project I’ve been working on using a graphical display I picked up from Futurlec several years ago, a 128×64 Blue GLCD (CM12864-2) which uses the KS0108 chipset.

As I want to drive this from a Beaglebone Black I’ve opted to use a GLCD Backpack from Sparkfun to simplify the hookup and interfacing, sending serial commands should be far easier than sorting though GPIO… at least it _should_ have been.

The first issue is the backpack pinouts don’t match the pin layout on the LCD I have, so I’ll have to make up an adapter board.  Some breadboard does the job while developing so not a huge issue there.

The standard firmware comes with a number of simple operations for displaying text and some basic geometry operations, functional but nothing flash.

Unfortunately I found the standard firmware to be a little slow on the refresh rate and came with two standard fonts, big and bigger.

A little research found an updated set of firmware listed at the bottom of the page.

I modified this to include a small 3*5 font reminiscent of 80’s era computer games in place of the standard ‘large’ font, and quickly put together a nice summary page for the state of the GPSDO.

There are some minor dislikes for the font, for example the ‘H’ and ‘N’ characters are identical, but it works well enough that I may live with it.

The software was written in perl and may be shared later, its all very straight forward decoding of the GPS messages and sending serial data to the display so nothing complex in there.   I have included a ‘deltacache’ which detects data changes so only updates are posted to the LCD to conserve the limited serial bandwidth and avoid buffer overflows as I don’t have any flow control at this stage as the ‘TX’ pin isn’t connected to the BBB to avoid damaging the 3v IO pin.

All in all I’m happy with the results so far.   I still have a lot of work to do but this is a promising result.

J.

More fun and games at

http://www.m0pzt.com/morse-mouse/

Doug VK2DCR

Register now for our next Amateur Radio Foundation Licence Course & upgrade licence Assessments. Continue reading Next WARS Foundation Course is on 12&13 Septmber →

http://www.vk2vjb.net/2015/08/12/gpsdo-hardware-designblock-diagram/

Continue reading “Indoor” GPS Antenna Amplifier. →

This very special activation of the ANZAC callsign is expected to happen over this weekend. There will be a level of uncertainty in being able to operate mostly due to the Antarctic weather. Currently there is a blizzard occurring with 100 knot winds. I will keep sending information via email and WIA web site www.wia.org.au

Fred Swainston VK3DAC WIA ANZAC Event Co-ordinator

The activation of VI0ANZAC on Casey Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory is due to start operation, as part of the Wireless Institute of Australia ANZAC 100 program.

Doug VK0DMV is working at Casey Station and has great pleasure in activating the VI0ANZAC callsign. His role keeps him extremely busy and can only operate when his duties allow. This will mean that some published operation time may not occur due to operational requirements and the weather conditions.

VI0ANZAC will use the commercial Qmac HF90 transceiver with an output power of 50 watts into a dipole antenna.

Doug thanks both the WIA and the Australian Antarctic Division for this opportunity in this the 100th Anniversary year of the Gallipoli campaign in WWI. QSL in strictly eQSL.

Fred VK3DAC, the ANZAC 100 coordinator will be on air as a control station. Potential operating dates are the 8th and 9th of August, start time at 0000UTC which is 10am AEST,8am at Casey Station and operate for 2 hours, and then stop.

Doug is and experienced radio man but has had little experience in amateur radio, Patience is required

To set up a contact you can email trainsafe@silvertrain.com.au

Proposed schedule for Saturday the 9th August and Sunday 10th August the UTC times proposed are: are:

0000 to 0200

0400 to 0600

0900 to 1100

The frequencies are:

0000 to 0030 on 7.095MHz

0030 to 0130 on 14.250MHz

0130 to 0200 on 21.250MHz

0400 to 0430 on 7.095MHz

0430 to 0530 on 14.250MHz

0530 to 0600 on 21.250MHz

0900 to 1030 on 14.250MHz

1030 to 1100 on 3.585MHz