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Inward QSL cards received

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Today, the Waverley Amateur Radio Society received its first batch of QSL cards since 2009!  This is the 1 kg stack of cards, 8 cm high of incoming QSL cards for VK2BV and VI2BV90, some of which date back to 1999!

The tragic loss of our former QSL manager Lynn VK2FLTJ (SK) meant that this aspect of club activities has been largely neglected for a number of years, but this has now changed, and we will ensure the club stays on top of our QSLs in the future.  We will even ensure that the 1999 inward QSLs are replied to before the 20 year mark!

The club’s log keeper Tony VK2KZ and QSL manager Ed VK2VEL have been working towards getting both the club’s logs and QSLs sorted into proper order.  Sadly, most of the logs and QSL cards from 1922 to 1988, such vital aspects of a radio club’s history, are probably lost forever.

Apart from a few treasured logs from the 1920s to 1970s, most of the club’s logs date from 1988 with sporadic loggings until a sharp increase in logging activity from 2008.  This reflects the rise in club membership and general activity with the arrival of new operators into the hobby via the Foundation license, and the club hasn’t looked back since.

A quick scan of the logs shows that 2009, the club’s 90th anniversary year, was probably the peak year of activity.  This was the year of the special event callsign VI2BV90, entry into multiple contests, and the year of ‘three lighthouses in one weekend’ during the International Lighthouse and Lightships Weekend, when the club activated Hornby Light (AU0041), Endeavour Light (AU0052) and our traditional activation of Macquarie Light (AU0022).

To ensure that the clubs logs and QSLs are never lost again as the club moves towards its 100th anniversary in 2019, in addition to recording the traditional paper QSLs, the  club’s logs are now uploaded into the ARRL Logbook of the World, eQSL, Clublog and QRZ.com.  The club now has multiple, searchable online logging systems for the service of the hobby, and is also now participating in a number of operating award programmes.  A report on the club’s progress in these award programmes and some more statistics will be made when we have caught up with the sorting out the logs and QSLs.

Members who activate the VK2BV callsign are reminded that they should send their logs are sent to Tony VK2KZ for recording and processing.

Members who want to know more about QSLing, either paper or electronic, award programmes and using the QSL bureau can contact Ed VK2VEL.

 

 

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Trans Tasman Low Bands Challenge 18 July 2015

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The Trans-Tasman Low Band Challenge is on Saturday 18 July  0800 – 1400 UTC  (1800-0000 local).  Bands are 160m, 80m and 40m, and modes are SSB CW and Digital (RTTY and PSK ).  Multi-operator/Multi-transmitter entries are permitted.  This intense but short duration contest, is an ideal contest for a club entry and an excellent introduction to contesting.

The first 80m Trans-Tasman Contest was organised by the Waverley Amateur Radio Society in 1922.

http://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/transtasman/

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Waverley Receives ARNSW Grant

At the monthly meeting of the Waverley Amateur Radio Society, held on the 17th June Tim VK2ZTM, the Secretary of Amateur Radio NSW, presented a cheque for $600 to our President (John VK2LJ) as part of the recent ARNSW initiative supporting clubs within the State. The club had applied for a grant, to assist with a project to replace the failed data projector and upgrade the Audio-Visual equipment in the club rooms. This equipment is an essential part of club meetings and our Foundation course teaching.

A motion of thanks to ARNSW and to acknowledge its assistance was passed by acclamation.

The club has previously received a significant ARNSW grant to assist with the establishment of the D-Star repeater VK2RBV.

We would encourage all amateurs within VK2 to look at the services and benefits of joining ARNSW as well as the national WIA and, of course, your local club.

Doug VK2DCR

Secretary Waverley ARS

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First part cut on the New CNC (Roland mdx-20)

I spent a little time today calibrating the desktop CNC mill I’m refurbishing.   A little writeup is available on my site if people are interested.   This CNC will be mainly used to make PCB’s for radio projects 😉

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I spent a little time today in between IT Tasks at work tuning the little desktop CNC I acquired recently. One of the first objectives is to replace the spindle which has an unusual collect design with a more generic ER11 collet so I can use all the small PCB and milling bits I have rather than searching for bits with a 6mm shaft. As part of this upgrade I’ll be moving from the standard 10W DC motor to a brushless RC motor with a little more torque and a lot more speed which is essential when working with small bits.

First up was calibratiIMG_20150612_200817ng the axes, and it turns out the web site I found earlier with the gearing ratio’s on the roland was either incorrect or the one I have is different as all measurements were out by approximately 25%.

A lot of tuning later I have the following (recorded for prosperity):

Step Angle: 3.75 degrees/step
Travel per revolution: 2.36mm (a resolution of 0.02mm)

So the resolution isn’t as good as I’m used to, but sufficient for everything I’ll be using this mill for. There was a little backlash on both the X&Y Axis, which I’ve managed to resolve by tightening the draw wires. I’m really happy I could fix this as the TinyG controller doesn’t actually support backlash compensation.

 

The tuning took a lot longer than it should have as I kept trying to fix the 0.02mm backlash I was seeing without realising that was the resolution of the cnc… Doh!

With the mill all tuned and adjusted, it was time to follow the age old tradition where the first part cut on the CNC should be a part ‘for’ the CNC. In this case in Wax rather than Delrin so I can verify the sizesIMG_20150613_164822 and offsets, good thing too as one of the mounting holes is off by 1.75mm.

This also lead to a little bit of Yak shaving where I needed to render the slab of machine wax down to sizes suitable for this mill. I have a nice little pile of wax ingots now, and still have another batch of wIMG_20150613_164440ax to render down tomorrow.

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VK100ANZAC Activation by WARS.

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The Waverley Amateur Radio Society activation of VK100ANZAC will begin at 0000z (1000 AEST) 01 August 2015, with a commemorative ceremony at 0200z (1200 AEST), and continue until 2359z 05 August 2015 (0950 AEST 06AUG15).

As a part of the WIA’s ANZAC Centenary commemorations, the Waverley Amateur Radio Society will be commemorating the centenary of the raising of the 2nd Australian Division Signals Company on 04 August 1915 at Heliopolis, Cairo.  The company landed at Anzac on 20 August 1915 to establish communications between 5th Brigade (NSW) and 2nd Division HQ, and first saw action in support of the Battle of Hill 60 on 21 August 1915.

The company saw service in France and Belgium from 1916-1918. Today, the 2nd Division, an Army Reserve formation, is served in the signals role by the 8th Signals Regiment, the descendant of the 2nd Australian Division Signals Company.  Both the 2nd Division and the 8th Signals Regiment have their headquarters at Randwick.

Club members have been emailed detailed information about the activation via the club email list.

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Mooshimeter (May meeting show-and-tell)

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At the May meeting I gave a brief show-and-tell of one of my recent acquisitions.

It is a Mooshimeter, which is a bluetooth multimeter. As I demonstrated, it is a wireless multimeter that uses a smartphone as the user interface. Battery lifetime is something between 6 months and 1 year, and it doesn’t have an on-off switch – the smartphone just connects to it and it works.

Two simultaneous measurements are possible, so things like real-time power consumption can be measured and graphed. It also has a micro-sd slot so it can log measurements for months at a time. One of the more interesting Kickstarter’s I’ve backed!

Ben

 

Australia's oldest continuously licenced amateur radio club

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