EDITORIAL:
Welcome to our jam-packed July Newsletter!
More news, and a bit more about that amazing VK4 and his yachting adventures.

• Food for thought from Chuck and his electric car offerings.

• During May and June, three of our committee members (President Jim McLachlan, Secretary David Clegg, and lady committee member Christine Taylor) headed towards distant warmer climes, leaving just a skeleton committee. The remaining four managed to rattle on and keep the ship afloat.

• *Warning: I am now very short of technical articles: I’m happy for some short missives – eg “Handy tips”, or somewhat longer ones, preferably no more than three pages.

• I am at the moment organising a training session for Assessors (examiners). This will be run at the end of the month by professional gent Fred Swainston. We have 14 applicants, which is very promising. Thanks to those who have helped me along with this project.

• Thanks to Kolm for the DPart-on Antenna diagram.

• 2008: The committee is now looking towards next year. We already have some offers for talks for next year

John, VK5EMI, Editor.

1. CLUB PROGRAM

2. ODDS AND SODS

WIA NEWS
WIA meets with ACMA
Sent: Friday, 29 June 2007 1:34 PM
On 25 June 2007 WIA President Michael Owen VK3KI and WIA Director Peter Young VK3MV met with Mark Loney, Executive Manager Pricing and Policy, Alan Jordan and John Kington at the ACMA Central Office in Canberra.
  The meeting was initiated at the request of the WIA for a briefing on the delays in dealing with a number of matters, particularly arising out of the Amateur Service Review Outcomes Paper. The ACMA acknowledged the delays and sought to work with the WIA in addressing its concerns.
  Of particular concern to the WIA was the delay in the making of the further amending Determination to give effect to the balance of the matters identified in the Outcomes paper, now a delay of 3 years. The WIA also raised the delay in finalising the arrangements with CEPT to allow Australian amateurs travelling overseas the privilege of operating in other countries without the need to obtain an individual authorisation in those countries, and the delay in the issue of a Class Licence to enable amateurs visiting Australia to operate here without the need for an individual licence.

Another concern was the delay in the finalisation of the issue or re-issue of 2 letter callsigns.

The WIA is also concerned at the continuing uncertainty about the future of the management of the amateur examination and the related certificate issue, as well as the callsign management function.

The WIA pointed out that the delay in the LCD meant that uncertainty prevailed over the power Foundation licensees permitted, the privileges of Foundation licensees and also that the WIA’s publication "The Foundation Licence Manual" was running short and it could not be reprinted until the regulations could be up dated.
  While the WIA accepted that the current delay in the LCD was beyond the direct control of ACMA, Mr Loney offered to do all he could to achieve a speedy finalisation of that, and that other immediate solutions would be investigated to address a number of the other problems faced by the WIA and its members. Mr Loney indicated that more resources would commence next week to address these outstanding issues with the view to finalisation as soon as possible.
  In particular, work on the visiting/visitor licence issues has commenced and will be completed as soon as the enabling legislation is drafted.
  The ACMA advised that a statement on the allocation process for the issue of two-letter callsigns would be made shortly, and the announcement may be made within a statement addressing the broader issues surrounding callsign management.
  In relation to the outsourcing arrangements, the WIA was given a briefing on the process the ACMA intends to follow.

The WIA representatives felt that the meeting was positive and conducted in a constructive manner with a commitment to explore a range of options to meet the concerns expressed by the WIA on behalf of its members.

ELECTRIC CARS:

At our May meeting, Chuck, VK5CQ, gave us an insight into what is being done, and can be done, to find better ways to transport ourselves around.

His talk included TREV, a current project by UniSA, and some history – Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, and Chris Paine’s “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

Aspects to consider in relation to electric cars include:

• Charging the batteries. Charging from electric main (unless in off-peak) just shifts the source of pollution and energy use to the local Power Station,
• safety,
• performance requirements, etc.

Hybrid cars are also proving to be quite effective (with at least 2 members owning one, and getting excellent economy).

Finally, he laid the challenge to amateurs to consider converting an existing car to – or even making -  a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle).
 

Two websites that may be of interest to on-line members are:

•       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_conversion

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LINUX:

For our June meeting, our speaker was Steph Daniels, VK5HSX, and the topic was “Linux”.

Steph explained the origins and concepts of Linux.

Linux is basically an alternative to Microsoft Windows. It’s licence free, and mostly free to all users (depending on the distributor). It's certainly always much cheaper!

In many ways it’s superior to Windows, though with some limitations, of course.
Being open platform, users may create their own versions of it and distribute them.

There are about 350 versions of the Linux Operating System known, with the best known being Ubuntu, Red Hat, Puppy, etc.

Desktops include Gnome, KDE, xfce, Light Windows, etc.

Amateur Radio applications include: AFU – Knoppix; Debian – Ham; Zip Ham; Harv’s Hamshack - Hack.

Most of Linux versions and applications are available free from the Internet, or with the purchase of a PC magazine.

A YL IN THE UK AND EUROPE:

Committee Member Christine Taylor (VK5CTY) sent this short note re her recent sojourn to ensure our envy. Thanks Christine, despite the envy! Ed.

            I have just returned from two months overseas.  I had a great time.  I met, and spent time with three ALARA YLs and saw some of Munich and Stockholm with two of them.  I was also shown around by several other amateurs There is nothing like local knowledge to know where to take visitors.

            I also visited the Technological Museums in both Munich and Stockholm in both of which there were working radio stations.  I met the operators and signed the book on our behalf and was persuaded to sit in the operator’s chair. I didn’t actually make a contact, but never mind.  Both my YL guides have taken their turn as operator for the day.

            Despite taking my 2-metre and 70cm handhelds with me I must confess I simply did not have time to try to contact any local amateurs though I met a few face to face.

            In two months I took about 2000 photos so there is much to show anyone interested enough.  Digital cameras do spoil us!

            I also took a GPS tracker with me with which I hope to be able to retrace my steps in detail.  So far it is not downloaded into the computer but it soon will be!  Using a GPS is a new experience but it created quite a bit of interest not only from technical people.       

            The Museum in Munich (“Munchen”) is a must for everyone visiting that city.  They call it the Deutsher Museum.  It has a marvellous display of cars, planes, ships and things mechanical.  Another section is devoted to space with models of AMSAT and OSCAR alongside Hubble and an excellent section on plasma physics.

There is a display of old radios with even some circuits for those interested.

            In another part you can go down a mine where you see, coal mining, gold mining and mining for salt, both the way it used to be done and the way it is done today.

            Similarly there was an excellent display of old and new metal machining tools, including robotic machining. Lots to see and many buttons to push to make the models move!

            I also visited the Technological museum in Stockholm which is smaller but equally interesting because much of the technology it displays began with the Vikings.  More emphasis on Shipping and boats in general as would be expected in a country that has hundreds of lakes as well as a very long and indented coastline.

Stockholm Museum. (Must be at several kilocycles here - Ed.)

           
 It also had an enormous collection of bicycles of every shape and size!

            The radio station in this museum was also manned every day.  Here, as I had in Munich, I signed the visitors book and left greetings from ALARA and from AHARS.

3. TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Please see request for material on page 1.

QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Who coined the term “heterodyne”?

Clue: He soon after designed and made a radio that made use of heterodynes.

Historical Note re the heterodyne: Soon after the invention of this concept, another enterprising soul invented the homodyne, but his invention was banned for reasons that you can probably guess.
 

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4.  FEATURE ARTICLE

KAHIBA – PART 4.

Continuation of the stories from VK4ZEG/MM via Amateur Radio HF email (winlink).

 Via Greece, Spain, and an unexpected route towards Sweden.

Recap from our March Newsletter: Turkey:  Gunnar and Eva cruised the Turkish coast and now head west through the Greek archipelago heading for Malta and Tunisia.

KAHIBA

"Monday, 1 August 2005 23:57 GREECE

As planned we are now at the end of our Greek odyssey almost exactly a month after arriving in Simi, near Turkey. We are now at a place called Katakola on the NW coast of Peloponnesos , only 25 miles from Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
Otherwise what we'll remember most from these enchanted islands will be the wonderful pastel colours of blue sky and sea with the brilliant whites of houses perched high on top of islands and the reds of the bouganvilleas and soft greens of olive trees. Also the incredible clarity of the water, sometimes we are sure we are about to hit the bottom when the sounder is still recording 12-15 meter depths!
We are now preparing for the next hop across the Ionian Sea to Malta with a possible stop in Sicily depending on the wind.

Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:04 MEDITERRANEAN.

After 507 days and 12912 miles we are now getting close to France and the end of our Mediterranean cruise. We had a fairly good crossing from Greece to Malta. Spent 12 days in Malta, the first week in the main harbour of Valetta and then a few days at a small island to the north. The highlight of our stay there was the arrival of Eva's daughter from London. I had never met her before, a lovely girl looking very much like a younger copy of her mother. We had a rented car and toured the island, very interesting place steeped in history.
Left Malta for Tunisia on 25 Aug sailing close-hauled into a 15kn NW but, as usual, the wind died after 1 day and we had to motor the last 200 miles to Kelibia in Tunisia. Back in Africa and a Moslem country, felt a bit like being in Egypt but with a strong French influence after being colonized by France for many years. Took the opportunity to fill up with cheap diesel, only US$ 0.40 per litre, and could also fill our water tanks with the tap water for the first time since Israel; in most countries so far the tap water is not of drinkable quality.
After Kelibia we anchored on the W side of Cape Bon, the NE point of Tunisia. From Kelibia, we decided to head for La Goulette, the port for Tunis, not knowing that this is now a prohibited area for visiting yachts. According to our pilot it is a good, well lit port to enter at night so arrived at 2 am in thunder and pouring rain and dropped our anchor outside the local yacht club as per instructions in the pilot, very relieved to be in a safe harbour. The relief did not last very long; after 5 min and just getting into bed we had a navy vessel alongside with their search lights on us telling me to launch our dinghy and come ashore. Once ashore 6 of these very unfriendly officials marched me off to the local police station to be confronted by another lot of unfriendly police none of who could speak a word of English. Anyway, they made it clear I had to leave the harbour immediately and my pleading to be allowed to at least stay till daylight and until the storm was gone fell on deaf ears. So back to Kahiba, wake up poor exhausted Eva and head back out to sea in pouring rain, no visibility and choppy seas.
Luckily our next encounter with Tunisia in the old city of Bizerte was much more positive. Lovely yacht club, friendly people and a very charming and interesting city.
We left Tunisia on 2 Sep and pushed on towards mainland Spain. Big mistake as it turned out; when about 50 miles off the coast we noticed increasing lightning on the horizon ahead. Changed course to parallel to the coast to keep clear of it but the whole system was moving our way and by 10 pm we were right in the thick of it. For 10 hours we were bombarded by continuous lightning and confused seas, some strikes were so close that I saw flashes going down the rigging and across the windows, very scary. We put most of our electronics in the oven and Eva spent hours on the floor praying that it would go away but it was not till 8 in the morning and after some very heavy rain it finally moved further out to sea. The joys of cruising! Right then I really wondered why we were doing this.
Anyway, we made it through without any damage and got to the Marina Palamos on the Costa Brava coast of Spain last night, after 5 days from Tunisia and no sleep during the last 48 hours, such a relief. Nice marina but so it should be at 58 Euros per day! We'll day-hop our way north to Sete in France where we will enter the canals for the next leg to Holland. Better try to get there before it gets too cold. The plan is to spend Nov - May in Holland before pushing on towards Sweden in June next year when it starts to thaw out up there.
So much to look forward to and we are both in great shape. For those of you who follow our voyage on Winlink.org/position reporter/shiptrak; don't get alarmed when you see Kahiba way up on dry land, we are not aground, only cruising on rivers and canals!
Tuesday, 11 October 2005 01:13 FRANCE

5.   BACK   PAGE

== GENERAL INFORMATION ==

CLUB PROJECTS:

Plenty happening here!

1.      2 – tone oscillator. Continuing under development by Jim, VK5JST.

2.      2 metre Yagi. c/- Steve, VK5AIM.

3.      SWR bridge (1.8 to 500 MHz): Currently under design.

WEBSITE:
Newsletter On-Line:  Log into http://www.qsl.net/vk5bar/      and navigate to Newsletters.

   The on-line Newsletter is much more comprehensive than the hard copy version.
Note also our Resources pages, History, and Club Program, and new Software Downloads sections.

VK5RAD:

The Repeater Controller is Barry Williams. All enquiries, including requests for access, etc, are to be made through him. Phone 8339 5683 or email vk5zbq@bigpond.com
Club weekly Net on VK5RAD. Listen in or join in on Monday nights, from 8 pm to about 9:30 pm. Receive frequency is 147.00 MHz, with -600 KHz offset. Master of Ceremonies is Jim, VK5JST.

CLUB  CONTACTS:

WICEN  

 ( http://www.sa.wicen.org.au  )

Secretary, John Dawes. Email  bravo521004@yahoo.com   Phone 8388 2297.

President,  Ian Clayton. Email   Iclayton@chariot.com.au     Phone 8524 5029.

Articles For The Club Newsletter: 

Projects, anecdotes, experiences, ideas, advice, etc, all make interesting and useful reading, and will be much appreciated.  Please forward to the Editor, John Elliott, VK5EMI, phone 8278 1269, or by email dellio2@bigpond.net.au

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