The BDARS AGM will be held on 4 March. We are calling for club members who are interested in being part of the leadership to submit a nomination form

The Nomination Form can be downloaded here.

The FM VHF repeater frequency has changed to 146.875MHz. The offset is -600KHz and it requires a 91.5Hz CTCSS tone to enable its use.

The UHF repeater on 438.450MHz has been upgraded and now has mixed mode capability. It will automatically switch between FM and Digital voice Yaesu System Fusion (Wires-X). It emits a 91.5Hz tone on FM voice which can be used  to stop the digital C4FM noise when only listening in FM.

On 22 December, BDARS held a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Capalaba. It was perfect timing with Xmas shoppers anxious for a tasty snack!

Funds raised will go towards running BDARS growing activities, especially the new Mt Cotton multi-radio site, scheduled for furher development in 2019.

A big thanks to all the BDARS volunteers!

sdr

BDARS’ latest Foundation Licence course was held over the weekend of 8 and 9 December at Alexandra Hills High School.  Both our candidates, Bill and Branton were pleased with the depth of knowledge imparted by instructors Russell VK4DCM and BobVK4YA.

Our examiner Eddie VK4TJE ran the theory and practical exam on Sunday with both candidates passing.

BDARS’ next training course is scheduled for 16/17 February 2019.

The experimental MMDVM digital repeater has moved to frequency to 438.825MHz (it was 438.700)

The same 7MHz negative offset as before still applies. It is currently operating in DMR and Yaesu Fusion digital modes.

There has been solid progress with the Mt Cotton Repeater site development.

The frequencies have been allocated as follows:

146.675 /146.075 MHz      25 kHz bandwidth
438.450 / 431.450 MHz    25 kHz
438.700 / 431.700 MHz    12.5 kHz
145.175 MHz                         25 kHz (potential APRS)

Russell VK4DCM has established test repeaters on the two UHF frequencies, and these are available for use.

At our BDARS club meeting on 4 June, Phil VK4PG gave an introductory talk on the use of circuit simulation.’The slides are reproduced below…

Circuit simulation for homebrewers 4 June 2018

WSPR Kit Tech Nite #3 on 16 April.

We moved into the more intricate part of assembling the cables – for connection between the boards, power, GPS antenna and RF.

Dave VK4ZF and Mark VK4MDH gave us a great hands-on lesson in terminating teeny SMA connectors on small coax, as well as fabricating the smaller cables.

A very useful learning experience!

The BDARS March social/technical night on 19 March continued with the practical construction of our WSPR transmitter kits.  Under the guidance of Dave VK4ZF and Mark VK4MDH, our members continued with the assembly of the various boards.

Members brought their own soldering equipment, lamps and tools allowing mini electronics workshops to be set up on the benches.

It was a great help to be able to see a fully assembled kit, a guide to component placement.

Dave’s spectrum analyser allowed us to check the performance of the low pass filters.

A 40 metre low pass filter under test, showing the sharp cut-off over about 7.5 MHz

BDARS member Dave VK4ZF is an active participant in of one of the more exotic aspects of amateur radio – satellite communication.

Since 1961, amateur groups worldwide have collaborated to design, build and arrange launch of a large number of satellites for amateur use. Launching is typically achieved by “piggy-backing” on a commercial satellite launch. More information is available on the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation’s website www.amsat.org.

Dave has built his own satellite station , including a VHF/UHF antenna system capable of tracking satellites in azimuth and elevation.

Our photo shows Dave carrying out some maintenance on his antenna in Brisbane last month.

Dave can also use his station for downloading images from NOAA weather satellites, with an example opposite showing weather over eastern Australia.