This week’s club meeting was devoted to a group of visiting Scouts, who had come to construct radio direction-finding (RDF) antennas for an upcoming fox hunting event. The two metre band portable yagis were constructed from plastic tubing with steel tape measures re-purposed as antenna elements. A bit of wire for tuning stubs, some coaxial […]
Easter 2011 mini-DXpedition to Coolah Tops
The Easter/ANZAC Day long weekend was an ideal opportunity for a club mini-DXpedition. This report from Tim VK2BT: We had a great break camping at Coolah Tops over the break. The weather and the HF propagation were perfect! Many skeds on 7045 on 5W and even down 2.5W. Spoke with Andrew as he drove across […]
March 2011 – 5th Wed – Morse Key display night
The club’s Morse Code enthusiasts were out in force on Wednesday night. Yves VK2AUJ had declared the evening a competition to see who had the best Morse Key display. All manner of keys were produced from an antique light-signaling device, to a paddle keyer built mainly from LEGO bricks (and a few microswitches), to one […]
The first grant awarded to Lachlan VK2FBAH
The first winner of the Society’s First Amateur Radio Licence Youth Grant (FARLYG) is Lachlan Boyle, who now sports the callsign VK2FBAH. We don’t expect Lachlan to hold the callsign for too long, as he is already studying Swainston’s tome in order to upgrade his licence! Lachlan’s dad, Jim, is also a licensed Amateur, holding […]
Column 8 awards PhD to club member
Most Sydneysiders will be aware that the Sydney Morning Herald’s popular feature, Column 8, is a kind of clearing house for matters both trivial and of great import regarding comings and goings around this great city. Club publicity officer/attention whore, Richard VK2SKY (with the help of several club members) was recently awarded a rare and […]
VK2MB 2010 Christmas net
The club Christmas 2010 net on 40 metres had the following checkins: VK2PN Patrick (net control) VK2NRA Richard VK2ZZM Bruce VK2BT Tim VK3XAS Andrew, portable in Thredbo VK2SKY Richard VK2HU Noel VK2AGS Gerry VK2BYN Russell VK2MP Mark VK2HL Horst VK2SX Dom VK6TSK/2 Stefan There were probably others, but we couldn’t hear them. Sorry! Propagation was […]
Working bee report: the tower is UP!
Today’s working bee saw a number of routine maintenance jobs completed, like clearing the leaves from the guttering before the bushfire season cuts in, cutting up old tree branches for the BBQ and bonfire (for use outside of Total Fire Ban periods, of course), general cleanup in the clubhouse, etc. BUT… the big one was […]