By Dom VK2JNA After the fun 7 weeks ago of the Australian based RD contest I thought I’d have a crack at the Oceania DX contest (phone). AntennasLots of dreaming & a little last minute 2nd antenna building happened to complement my main endfed 40/20/10 dipole. I again used the 12m spiderbeam popup mast, this […]
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Category: On the Air
APRS iGates 6 months on (Sep 2021)
It has now been 6 months since we had the internet installed at the hall. HF (VK2MB-6) and 2m VKF (VK2MB-2) APRS IGates were also commissioned at the hall to support the APRS traffic. Note that the club has also been running a 2m APRS IGate (VK2MB-1) at the repeater site since April 2013. The […]
14/15 Aug-2021 Remembrance Day Contest
2021 RD Contest in a Covid lockdownby Dom Bragge, VK2JNA.21aug2021 We’re all trying to be good citizens & staying at home as much as possible. When not at home, we’re masked up or exercising alone or just in family groups of one household. This has become a bit tiresome 7 weeks in with no end […]
June 2021 VHF/UHF Winter Field Day
Nick VK2FS reports… We met at the club website to collect antennas, the gazebo and the club’s IC7300. A quick drive up to the Pony Club/BMX Track by the Terrey Hills weather station was followed by two masts being erected. Mast 1 at 8m with the 6m yagi. The second mast had the combined 2m/70cm […]
1-May-2021 – The Convict 100 race & radios
My weekend radio adventure at the Convict 100 by Dom VK2JNA A successful event. Some incidents but nothing major: broken thumbs, collar bone, many scrapes & scratches & broken bikes. Didn’t have to evac by helicopter anyone (this time). I took out a few people by road from CP18 with roof rack stuffed with bikes. […]
John Moyle Field Day 2021
(Update, 20 April: Rod VK2ZZM has uploaded a video of the event.) The worst rainstorm weekend of the century was not going to put a damper on the MWRS attempt at the John Moyle Memorial Field day 2021 the 20-21 March 2021 Thanks to Rod (and his magnificent shed) for hosting us! We could operate […]
New 30m HF APRS Igate
Good news for HF APRS users: a new receive-only Igate (Internet Gateway) is being tested at the clubhouse. Using the callsign VK2MB-6, the gateway is currently connected to the main club HF rig and TH-6 antenna, beaming west, but will eventually be coupled to a CODAN 7004 crystal locked receiver with its own single band […]
WICEN FEBEX2 exercise at VK2MB, 9-10 Jan 2021
The weekend of the 9th and 10th of January was WICEN’s FEBEX-2 communications exercise. A year since the catastrophic NSW bushfires, and with COVID locking down everything since, WICEN felt the need to get members active in sharpening their message passing skills, trying out any new portable gear, and experimenting with new modes. It was […]
40m in lockdown for Christmas net
The Australian government’s Space Weather Services said that HF conditions were about “normal”, but 40m proved to be in lockdown (just like parts of the Sydney’s Northern Beaches) for the club’s Christmas net at 9am on 7045 kHz. Even JS8Call signals struggled to reach outside the Sydney metropolitan area! Jeff VK2MZZ reported the following stations […]
VHF/UHF Spring Field Day Contest 2020-11-28/29
Here are a few shots of our recent Field day operation at Mount Allyn. Fantastic views from this location! And being at this altitude, the weather was (mercifully) much cooler than down on the flat. Participants were: Nick VK2FS and Zara VK2FZYP Greg VK2XE Andy VK2EAH Steve VK2KFJ Tim VK2BT Although we weren’t favoured with […]
JOTA 2020 (17 October)
Like just about every other human activity taking place this year, the 63rd Scouts and Guides Jamboree on the Air (JOTA63) and the 24th Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI24) were influenced by this pesky coronavirus. As far as VK2MB was concerned, because the clubhouse has been shut down due to physical distancing limitations, we couldn’t […]
2m member RF survey
Since all meetings at the club house had to be cancelled for few months, members decided to meet on the air with a weekly net ran on our club’s 2m repeater. This has opened the opportunity to perform a 2m RF survey between the member’s QTHs by having each members listen on the repeater input […]
John Moyle Field Day 2020
Over the 21-22 March 2020 weekend, the MWRS activated a “portable” station at the Polblue Campground in the Barrington Tops National Park. Where present: Andrew VK2EAH Connie VK2CON Greg VK2XE, Declan & Cara Nick VK2FS Phil VK2APL Rod VK2ZZM Ross VK2FRET Tim VK2BT Yves VK2AUJ Zara FZYP We piled up 229 contacts thanks to Ross […]
2019 Christmas Net
Well, it looks like nobody wished for a functioning 40m band this Christmas. Local band conditions were noisy with relatively few stations heard. 40m checkins VK2WPJ Peter VK2EAH Andrew VK2SKY Richard VK2NRA Richard VK2CAR/QRP Carmel VK4MQ Bruce came in late at 0930 for a QSO with VK2EAH 2m repeater checkins VK2MZZ Jeff VK2LEO Leo VK2BDF […]
23-Nov-2019 VHF/UHF Spring Field Day
The Spring VHF/UHF Field day ran over the 23/24 November weekend. Although this is a 24 hour contest, traditionally we have entered into the 8 hour section either on the Saturday from midday or on the Sunday from early morning. This year MWRS ran on the Saturday afternoon covering 6m/2m/70cm/23cm. For the last couple of […]