With huge thanks to the team of Berri Betta Home Living our local JAYCAR Authorised Stockist, we can announce a new incentive program for Riverland Radio Club Regular Members.
Regular Members can enjoy a 15% discount on JAYCAR lines, excluding already discounted items.
Head to the “Membership” page and find out more about our membership.
The answer will be revealed in these pages! There’s not much to reveal actually, around every 6-9 months or so, the ALDI supermarket stores sell a 5 legged “Bicycle Repair Stand” for $39.99.
It’s a sturdy stand for elevating your push bike to waist level or better to effect repairs and or maintenance to said bike. However, they also double as a brilliant stand for various Ham Radio activities, as I’ll demonstrate here.
In detail, it features a large footprint so that it’s difficult to tip over, either accidentally or by other means, is made of steel, and boasts a height adjustment and a quick release Antenn…I mean “bike” mount, that allows stuff to be held horizontally…other bells and whistles include a chintzy tool tray and handlebar stay bar.
You get the stand itself, the centre support with the T adapter, the horizontal clamp bar, the chintzy tool tray, and the handle bar stay. The two straps are for use with the handle bar stay, and the plastic bag contains the bolts and allen key for attaching said chintz. The allen key fits all bolts on the stand.
It comes with a set of instructions and a 1 year warranty. For something ALDI, it actually is quite well made!
Assembly is very straightforward
just clamp it up tight or as loose as you like…
But for a park activation with a squid pole, I remove the T head and just use the pole out the top to slip the squid pole over…
For a Satellite pass, I attach the Bike head and use the clamp to hold the X-Yagi. It’s easy to turn the Yagi to adjust the AZ EL to suit the pass…The clamp is plastic and I can’t measure any increase in SWR or pattern distortion in use…
For Microwave Field Day work, the Bike Stand is a cheap way of getting a sturdy stand for Ex Sat. dishes and Gridpacks.
The stand would also do well as a sturdy portable Satellite dish mount for Caravan users and RVers.
A nice touch is the holes in the feet, ready for tent pegs as tie-downs…
So there you have it. These bike stands are a cheap way to get a sturdy stand for Amateur radio related activities, use your imagination! Keep an eye out in your local ALDI catalogue for the next sale date, and grab yourself a bargain!
*Disclaimer* – I have no affiliation with ALDI stores whatsoever!
On Friday, 16/11/18 I planned to activate the Swan Reach Conservation Park VKFF-0832 for the Murray River Parks Award that is administered under the umbrella of the World Wide Flora & Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF) Program, so popular with Amateur Radio operators world wide now days.
My Chauffeur (my affable 16yo son Riley) and I left our home location at approximately 8:15 am for the journey to Swan Reach. We followed the conventional route from home via the Sturt Highway, and stopped to stretch our legs at the look-out above the town, just before you ascend into the town itself from the Blanchetown Rd cliffs. It was then the chauffeur’s first go at navigating us across the Ferry, over the mighty River Murray, and onwards to the park,
The Parks is located about 15km from Swan Reach heading west on the Stott Highway towards Sedan and Adelaide. We accessed the park after turning off the the Stott Hwy onto the Old Punyelroo Rd and into the Park entrance itself. It is all clearly signposted. The blue dot on the satellite image was our operating spot, in a nice clearing, a short drive into the Park under some trees.
It was a beautiful day, wall to wall blue sky and a slight, cool southerly breeze, the temperature about 22 deg C. The Chauffeur expertly parked our Millennium Falcon under the nearest shade shrub, and I wasted no time in setting up the portable antenna. For drive-in activations I have settled on my trusty ALDI bike stand tripod, 8M squid pole and 40-30-20 M inked dipole. It goes up in minutes, and radiates my signal very well. I have opted for the tripod instead of tying to a tree or support, as I have usually found that the available centre antenna supports like posts and tress don’t suit where I want to set up. The tripod takes that unknown out of the equation, and allows me to have my squid pole supporting the antenna, right next to the operating position. I have a couple of heavy sandbags to stop the lot tipping in strong winds, but its not often needed. certainly not today in the perfect weather! Coupled with my Icom IC-7300 Transceiver, this setup is a pleasure to use on the air.
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I was soon on the air and calling CQ Parks on 7.144Mhz, the 40 Meter band. First in the Log was Gerard, VK2IO with a lovely 55 signal into Swan Reach, followed by numerous stations in VK2 and 3, including Peter VK3TKK/M and Brad VK2BY/M who were both very readable from the mobile, Paul, VK5PAS/3 and his wife Marija VK5FMAZ/3who were enroute to Bendigo, also called in. They were easily worked 56 and It was nice to get them both in the log. After about an hour I decided to change bands by removing the 1st link on either side of the dipole (quick and easy when the antenna is supported by the bike stand) and started calling CQ again, but now on 14.244, the 20 Meter band. This only resulted in 3 contacts, including Geoff, VK3SQ, who had a massive 59++ signal into my location. I was equally strong at Geoff’s end. There weren’t any other takers so I headed back to 7.144 on 40 Meters after about 10 minutes to finish up my activation. This time John, VK4TJ, was obliging along with Marija and Paul, who had found a park to operate from and popped up for a park to park from the Barrett Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2264. Thanks Guys!
By this time, my Chauffeur was starting to eye off the Falcon’s upholstery he was that hungry! Likewise, I was also keen for a feed as well. We packed up, left nothing but footprints, and headed straight for the Swan Reach Hotel.
The Swan Reach Hotel wasn’t actually purpose built to be a hotel , but morphed from original Swan Reach Station homestead built circa 1865.
Beginning 1861 the original Swan Reach Station was just of a couple of huts, workers’ and shearers’ quarters, some shedding and ramps. You can still see the remnants of some of the buildings located in the beer garden. On the other side of the fence are the remains of the loading ramp, where wool bales from the shearing shed were loaded on to the small tramway that sent the bales down to the river’s edge via wooden slides, and on to the waiting barges that made their way to Goolwa.
In 1896, a Mr Paul Hasse from Lobethal purchased 520 acres of land which included the Homestead. His wife, Emma, applied and was given a licence on the 12th September, 1899. Unfortunately Emma passed away the following year, then Paul continued to run the hotel until 1909.
There have been many major additions to the Swan Reach Hotel over the years of its operation. The stone, single room public front bar was built after 1907, and the second storey added in 1912. Around in 1940s the block form of the hotel evolved with its rendered finish. The grand dining room was added in 1996. The hotel boasts a spectacular view overlooking the Ferry as it completes its never ending to and fro crossing across a lazy river.
Most importantly , the food, drinks, service and view were first class, and my chauffeur pronounced his Chicken Parmy ( we’re from South Australia, so deal with it) one of the better ones he’s had. My rump steak was delightful, and cooked to perfection! We bid Swan Reach farewell, we’ll be back!
The Riverland Radio Club Inc.
Ok Folks, come one come all, it’s on again, the BRL Gathering for 2019 is on Saturday, the 6th of April, at the same sensational location, famous for its picturesque setting, Fantastic Hospitality, Great Food and Cold Beer.
Breakfast – Bacon and egg Sandwich and coffee will be available from 7:30am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Lunch – Lunch at the Hotel is a must! Check 
out the menu and get your taste buds excited for April. The Hotel’s food is renowned for its quality and value!
*Dogs are welcome at the Overland corner Hotel*
Dinner – Will be at the award-winning Mallee Fowl Restaurant for those wishing to catch up with friends old and new! Please let us know if you wish to attend. Check out their Menu here.
The Gathering is in the Beautiful Riverland in South Australia.We have more sunshine than the Sunshine Coast!
Accommodation – The Riverland has many accommodation options catering for all budgets. See here for some ideas. Got an RV, Motor Home or Van? The Overland Corner Hotel has an RV staging area “out back” that is a stones throw close to the Gathering action. There are 4 powered sites. (Bring your power leads) and room for many self sufficient vehicles. Many BRL-ites stay here, and enjoy the added camaraderie!
VK5BRL has planned a fun day of Activities, Awards and guest Speakers. There’s also a
Have you made something for your shack? Then enter it in the BRL Home Brew competition. There will be two prizes awarded, a “People’s Choice” award, judged by the BRL gathering attendees, and the prestigious BRL “Constructors Award” for the best piece of Ham Radio related gear presented for Judging by our panel. It can be anything radio related, from something simple like a Balun, to a complex microwave transverter!
If you need any help with any aspect of getting to the venue, accommodation, special dietary requirements or other issues, feel free to Phone the Secretary Andy, VK5LA on 0488778154 or email him.
The 2019 Riverland Radio Club BRL Gathering – The Friendly Gathering!!!
We thought we might try and make entering into the world of Amateur Radio and radio experimentation a bit simpler, so we have added a new page to our site.
The new page provides all (we think) the information an interested person might need to understand how to go about getting into radio.
The page talks about the process, how much everything costs, where to get the learning material, how you can be supported. As I said we think we’ve got it covered.
If your interested have a look by clicking on the book image or click HERE. Or you can hunt it down under the ‘Callsigns and Licencing’ menu heading above.
Peter VK5PE and Ivan VK5HS monitored the Horus 50 launch today. We concentrated on the cross band repeater and Slow scan TV modes. Normally we would track the flight, but as there was a good number of stations setup to track the flight and 5 chase cars we decided our input was not required. There is strong interference in the Riverland area on 434.640MHz which affected our receive stations on the new telemetry mode. Peter and I set up our tracking gear on Saturday and found one of the irrigation, moisture monitoring transmitter stations, now to try and resolve that problem before the next launch!
We traveled out into the scrub to get away from the interference just west of Renmark to monitor the flight. soon we were hearing the cross band repeater and we both made 
contact with the net control station VK5ARG operated by Grant VK5GR. Ivan had a contact with VK5IX mobile, thanks Grant and Darrin. We used an Icom dual band radio running 50 watts and a diamond dual band vertical for access into the repeater.
The SSTV station consisted of a laptop running MMSSTV, coupled to a Icom R10 scanner. The antenna was a dual band crossed Yagi, constructed at a earlier Club practical night (the build details can be found on our web site)
Both Peter and I enjoyed our time today, we would like to thank the Horus team for all their efforts in planning and running the Horus 50 flight.
Regards Ivan VK5HS
Riverland Radio Club Inc. 