Wow… special thanks to all the visitors to our Riverland Radio Club website.
With your help we have just blasted previous monthly records completely out of the water.
We have doubled our previous best monthly views, had an increase of 60% visitors, and also a 60% increase in followers. We are really happy with those figures but more importantly that you are checking out what we’re up too and what we’ve been doing.
We’ve also got an interesting April coming up with the BRL Gathering at Overland Corner kicking things off on Saturday 7th. So we are hoping for more good results on our website, I wonder if we can top the March results.
VK5MRE Ron has been busy at home since the Tech Night working on his Cross Yagi antenna. When he left the Tech Night he had a heap of cut up bits of aluminium, now look. Check out his great work… WELL DONE Ron it’s looking really good. You will be up among the birds soon… and with radio not your model airplanes this time. HI HI.
70cm elements and Boom all complete, just the 2m elements, connector mounts/Gamma Matches, and tuning to go. Ron should be able to knock that out next Tech Night, but with the confidence and expertise he’s displaying he’ll probably finish it at home… and why not?!?
Look out home brewers, Ron’s looking at taking out the big prize at the BRL Gathering Home Brew Competition!
Monday night, March 26th, was our club tech night where VK5DW Danny facilitated the first session in members building a collapsible cross yagi dual band, 2m and 70cm, for operating on the amatuer satellites.
A few of our regular members couldn’t make it but VK5TRM Rob and VK5MRE Ron were in a building mood. They bought their materials along and with the help and tools of VK5HS Ivan and VK5DW Danny the games began.
We didn’t have a lot of members this meeting but boy did we have fun. We are looking forward to finishing the project off at the next tech night. We will likely help others that couldn’t make it this time to make a start on theirs.
This design, a variation to Rob Greaves VK2GOM design, is constructed in such a way that each element unscrew into two pieces and removes from the boom. The boom is a 2 piece boom that had a sleeve to slip the 2 parts together and are held together by a couple of the elements. This makes the antenna collapse down to about 600mm. This makes it really easy to transport, a common problem with cross yagi antennas. The build instructions are here for those that are interested. Plead note this is the DRAFT of the instructions so E&OE apply: VK5DW Cross Yagi Build Instructions
We hope you enjoy or blog and if you do build one of these antennas we would love to hear about it or at the very least please leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
Cheers and 73,
VK5DW Danny
Addendum – 28 March ’18:
VK5MRE Ron has been busy at home working on his Cross Yagi antenna. Check out his great work… WELL DONE Ron it’s looking really good. You will be up among the birds soon… and this time with radio not your model airplanes this time.
We’ll have it completed, tuned and all rigged up by next Tech Night. Can’t wait to hear you using it.
If your at the BRL Gathering on Saturday come and have a look and play with some satellite kit that a number of the RRC members have been making and using.
There are a couple different takes on the common theme and we plan to have a three or so outfits set up to play with… ALL welcome subject to available time and how many want to have a go of course.
Working the birds is quite rapid fire when there is a few on, everyone wants that little fix of available pass time. Combine that with Doppler Shift and tracking the thing it can get a bit interesting.
Saturday is the best day with 5 passes (2 on AO-92 and 3 on AO-91). A couple RRC members will be about to talk about their receptive setups.
Saturday, April 7th
Time (Local)
Satellite
Duration (mins)
0834
AO-92
10.6
1008
AO-92
10.6
1219
AO-91
13.7
1354
AO-91
15.1
1513
AO-91
7.6
For those still around on the Sunday wanting to have a go the passes aren’t bad. If a satellite a setup is available please have a go.
Be sure to bring along anything you may have home brewed for the Home Brew Comp’ and all those odds and ends cluttering up your shack. You might make a bob or two and let someone love your pre-loved!!!
We at the Riverland Radio Club all hope to see you at the BRL Gathering.
March 10 and 11 marked the 5th anniversary of the VK5 Parks Awards.
Riverland Radio Club HAMS VK5HS Ivan, VK5PE Peter, VK5LA Andy, and VK5DW Danny, me, all braved the mighty Murray River and headed out to activate 3 never before activated island parks.
With the use of Ivan’s boat Peter and Andy were dropped off at Kapunda Island, VKFF-1040 (5CP-098), in QF05GN where they set up a portable station and proceeded to work their magic. Ivan and I proceeded upstream about 4kms to Media Island, VKFF-1058 (5CP-132), in QF05HN where the major challenge was just getting on the thing, it was so thickly overgrown with reeds it wasn’t looking good for a while till Ivan and I headed down the back of the island and found a couple different openings. After a couple attempts, running aground mostly, we managed to get kinda close to the bank where I made the leap of faith and ultimately got my feet wet! And my boots were meant to be waterproof!?!
Within what seemed to be not a lot of time, about an hour or so, we had our contact quota for the activation and Ivan headed back to Kapunda Island to pick up Andy and Peter, returning them to Media Island a short while later. In the mean time I had gone on and made a few extra contacts while waiting for the three Amegos.
Now with we four misfits on the same turf, Peter and Andy proceeded to activate Media Island, and who should come up making a fair noise… VK5PAS Paul and VK5FMAZ Maria, they were activating Little Dip park and needless to say with our collective immaturity a bit of fun was shared. The six of us all had a little on air party for a bit before Paul and Maria headed off to another frequency for their park activation. Thanks to Paul and Maria for the contacts and mostly the fun.
I gotta say I’m not sure Ivan’s XYL Cheryl wanted Ivan to return home, the snacks and nibbles (roast chicken, metwurst, cheeses, crackers, lamingtons…) she prepared for us was crazy, I was waiting for the wine to come out… we were well catered for there is no doubt. I felt bad all I took along was a couple boxes of ‘Shapes’. Thanks Cheryl.
With Media Island activated it was time to continue our escapades to Rilli Island, about 7kms further upstream. No big challenges here, just getting Ivan’s tiny up on plain with 4 blokes on board that lets just say have been in good paddocks, some for longer than others. A bit of patience and load distribution/manipulation (no we didn’t throw anyone or anything overboard) we got up on plain and off we went… Rilli Island here we come!
OK we made it. Rilli Island, VKFF-1087 (5CP-198), in QF05GO is located about 11kms upstream of Loxton main boat ramp between Loxton and Berri in the Loxton irrigation area. A fairly easy island to get onto we found a nice little spot and set up out station. Andy was the first to grab his contacts followed by Peter then myself. Ivan didn’t activate this one just being so happy with the great time we were all having he wasn’t fussed at all.
After a stint on Rilli it was time to head for Loxton boat ramp. We had grand ideas of activating Katarapko Island as well, which is part of the Murray River National Park but we thought better of it. We had a great time thus far after all and perhaps we can do that one another day.
Back at the ramp now all unloaded and before we break up I a little shop I knew that did a great espresso thick shake. We sat, chewed the fat about our day declaring we must do it again, and soon!
Anyway, that was our outing. Check the blog pages for the pic’s.
VK5PE Peter and VK5LA Andy activates Kapunda Island C/P for the first time during the VK5 Parks Award Anniversary Weekend.
They even got a number of Park to Park contacts including with VK5DW Danny and VK5HS Ivan while they where activating Media Island C/P for its first time.
What a great day had buy VK5DW Danny, VK5HS Ivan, VK5LA Andy, and VK5PE Peter.
We activated 3 never before activated island parks just out of Loxton. Andy and Pete both activated Kapunda Island C/P while Danny and Ivan activated Media Island C/P. Ivan headed back to Kapunda Island to pick up Andy and Pete leaving Danny on Media Island to make a couple more contacts. Pete and Andy then also activated Media Island C/P before we loaded up Ivan’s boat and heading further up stream to Rill Island.
After a short put up steam we set up a station on Rilli Island C/P where Andy grabbed the mic and made his quota in no time. Pete made his contacts then followed by Danny. At an early rough quick count we made over 100 contacts.
All in all a very enjoyable day out playing radio in some beautiful surroundings topped off by a couple terrific espresso thick shakes. All agreed we need to do this again soon.
Riverland Radio Club Inc. 