Ham Hum January 2016 The official newsletter of The Hamilton Amateur Radio Club (Inc.) Branch 12 of NZART - ZL1UX Active in Hamilton since 1923
Hamilton Amateur Radio Club Inc. Serving the Hamilton Community for over 90 Years
ZL1UX
Next Meeting 20th January Combined Business/General/Social Gathering Disclaimer: The Hamilton Amateur Radio Club (Inc) accepts no responsibility for opinions expressed in this publication. Where possible, the articles source details will be published. Copyright remains with the author or HARC. All rights reserved.
Contact Details Patron: Russell Richardson ZL1RWR President: “Jono” Jonassen ZL1UPJ zl1ux@nzart.org.nz Vice Presidents: Gary Lodge ZL1GA Gavin Petrie ZL1GWP 843 0326 zl1gwp@nzart.org.nz Secretary: Phil King ZL1PK 847 1320 zl1pk@nzart.org.nz AREC Section Leader: “Jono” Jonassen ZL1UPJ zl1upj@nzart.org.nz Deputy Section Leader: Phil King ZL1PK 847 1320 zl1pk@nzart.org.nz Treasurer: Tom Powell ZL1TJA zl1tja@nzart.org.nz Committee: Brett Pascoe ZL1FPG zl2mgs@nzart.org.nz Mike Sanders ZL2MGS 855 1612 Robin Holdsworth ZL1IC 855 4786 Sam Birch ZL1OBI Terry O’Loan ZL1TNO Ham Hum Editor: David King ZL1DGK 579 9930 zl1dgk@nzart.org.nz Ham Hum Printer: John Nicholson ZL1AUB 855 5435 ATV Co-ordinators: zl1pk@nzart.org.nz Phil King ZL1PK 847 1320 Robin Holdsworth ZL1IC 855 4786 Market Day Co-ordinator: harcmday@nzart.org.nz Robin Holdsworth ZL1IC 855 4786 Webmaster: Gavin Petrie ZL1GWP 843 0326 zl1gwp@nzart.org.nz Club Custodian: Currently vacant QSL Manager: Gary Lodge ZL1GA Net Controllers: zl1pk@nzart.org.nz 80m net—Phil King ZL1PK 847 1320 2m net—Phil King ZL1PK 847 1320 zl1pk@nzart.org.nz NZART Examiners: ZL1IC, ZL1PK & ZL1TJA
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From the Editor The Annual DX Weekend Contest on VHF/UHF 6m and up on 6th/7th Feb has a special “newcomers” section. This year, we have a special “newcomers” section, and our focus has been to make it very easy for anyone at all to join in, no matter what their abilities or equipment. The basics are; No requirement to register Log-keeping done for you Just one FM frequency to monitor on 6/2/70cm Less emphasis on competing - more on involvement National System Support during the event All the hard work will be done for you. Simply check in with the National System special-event station on the Friday evening and/or the Saturday morning and advise your location, and get on the air and we’ll get you started. After you make a contact, check in on the National System and we’ll log it for you. Participants may wish to use their home station, or else drive their mobile or portable station to a nearby lofty site to make the most of the event. Height is might on these bands. Repeater DX is allowed in the “newcomers” section, providing EITHER yourself or the other station is further than 100km from that repeater. The Special Event Station on the National System will have maps and can advise. Operate with what you have! Handheld and homebrew wood 5 element yagi? Mobile whip and 25 watts? Let’s hear it on the air! You’ll get contacts - we’ll make sure! Use SSB if you have it, but there’ll be plenty of activity on FM. Participation is more important than competition for the newcomers category, so the normal VHF Contest rules will not be applied stringently. Chit-chat on your local 2M repeater will not qualify, but most other things will! ;) Another circularNext will follow, or feel free to join in on the email-list Committee Meetings zlvhfcontest@yahoogroups.com nd th
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September and 7 October Page 2
Propagation de K7RA 29 December, 2015 ARLP052 This is the last propagation bulletin for 2015, and the next bulletin will be released next Friday on January 1, 2016. Over the past week, average daily sunspot numbers rose just 1.6 points to 49.6 compared to the previous seven days, December 10-16. Average daily solar flux rose from 102.2 to 122.3 for the December 17-23 reporting period. A big geomagnetic storm on Sunday, December 20 drove our geomagnetic averages way up this week. On that day the mid-latitude A index (recorded in Virginia) reached 33, the planetary A index (recorded at a number of northern hemisphere sites) was 66, and the college A index (recorded near Fairbanks, Alaska) was 89. The day before, at 2323 UTC on December 19, the Australian Space Forecast Centre issued a geomagnetic warning: "Geomagnetic disturbance in progress following a CME impact after 1500 UTC December 19. Expect Active geomagnetic conditions December 20. Increased geomagnetic activity expected due to coronal mass ejection from 20-21 December 2015." Then on December 23, Spaceweather.com sent out this bulletin "A new sunspot (AR2473) is growing rapidly in the Sun's southern hemisphere, more than quadrupling in size in the past 24 hours. Crackling with M-class solar flares, the sunspot has already caused several minor shortwave radio blackouts, mainly south of our planet's equator. More flares and radio blackouts are in the offing as the growing sunspot turns toward Earth. Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information." Over this reporting week (December 17-23) average planetary A index rose from 9.9 to 21.7 and average mid-latitude A index rose from 6.6 to 12.6. Predicted solar flux for the near term is 130 on December 25, 125 on December 26 -31, then 115, 110 and 105 on January 1-3, 110 on January 4-6, 115 on January 79, 120 on January 10-13, 118 on January 14-15, 115 on January 16, 120 on January 17-18, then 115, 105 and 100 on January 19-21, 98 on January 22-23, 95 on January 24-25, 98 on January 26-27, and 100 on January 28-29. Predicted planetary A index is 12, 10, 8 and 6 on December 25-28, 5 on December 29-31, then 15, 20, 18 and 10 on January 1-4, then 8, 20, 18 and 12 on January 58, then 10, 20, 18, 10 and 8 on January 9-13, and 5 on January 14-16.
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OK1MGW from the Czech Propagation Interest Group sends us his geomagnetic prediction this week, and it says to expect the geomagnetic field to be quiet to active December 25-28, quiet to unsettled December 29, mostly quiet December 3031, active to disturbed January 1-2, quiet to active January 3, quiet to unsettled January 4, quiet to active January 5, active to disturbed January 6, quiet to active January 7, quiet to unsettled January 8-9, active to disturbed January 10, quiet to active January 11, quiet to unsettled January 12-14, mostly quiet January 15-17, quiet on January 18-19, and quiet to unsettled January 20. OK1MGW expects increased solar wind on December 25-28, January 1-3, 5-6, and 10-11. The Winter Solstice was three days ago, on Tuesday, December 22, 2015. Now the days will get longer for the next six months, until the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, June 20, 2016. Spring begins at the Vernal Equinox, March 19-20, 2015. As the days get longer, HF conditions will generally improve in the Northern Hemisphere. We can test some paths with a simple free program, W6ELprop. Testing from Dallas, Texas to Germany, a path of 8,222 km (5,109 miles) on the shortest day of 2015 we can see that 15 meters has the best possibility of propagation from 1500-1630 UTC with an A rating (75-100% chance of communication) at 23 dB above .5 microvolt at the receiving end) and a B rating (50-74% probability) 1430-1700 UTC. At the end of January 2016, the opening runs from 1430-1730 UTC for the B rating, (A rating 1500-1700 UTC), with signals about 2 dB lower. At the Vernal Equinox, on March 20, 2016 the 15 meter opening stretches from 1400-2100 UTC. All of these tests were done with a solar flux of 127, to look at seasonal variation only. Over the same path on 17 meters on December 22, 2015 it is open from 14001730 UTC, on January 31 1400-1830 UTC and on March 20, 2016, 1300-2200 UTC. But for lower frequencies, such as 75 meters, conditions are better during long periods of darkness, such as late December. On December 22, over the same path 75 meters looks best 2330-0830 UTC, but on January 31 the best conditions are from 0030-0730 UTC and on March 20 conditions look best at 0200-0530 UTC. If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net For more information concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical Information Service at http://arrl.org/propagation-of-rf-signals.
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For an explanation of the numbers used in this bulletin, see http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere. An archive of past propagation bulletins is at http://arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-propagation. More good information and tutorials on propagation are at http://k9la.us/ My own archives of the NOAA/USAF daily 45 day forecast for solar flux and planetary A index are in downloadable spreadsheet format at http://bit.ly/1VOqf9B and http://bit.ly/1DcpaC5 . Click on "Download this file" to download the archive and ignore the security warning about file format. Pop-up blockers may suppress download. I've had better luck with Firefox than IE. Monthly propagation charts between four USA regions and twelve overseas locations are at http://arrl.org/propagation. Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of ARRL bulletins are at http:// arrl.org/bulletins. Sunspot numbers for December 17 through 23 were 52, 49, 44, 33, 38, 68, and 63, with a mean of 49.6. 10.7 cm flux was 117.8, 117.1, 119, 116.6, 121.7, 130.1, and 133.9, with a mean of 122.3. Estimated planetary A indices were 7, 5, 12, 66, 38, 13, and 11, with a mean of 21.7. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 6, 4, 8, 33, 22, 8, and 7, with a mean of 12.6
ANZAC Gallipoli Centenary callsigns end Author : Jim Linton - VK3PC What a respectful conclusion reached by the ANZAC-suffixed callsigns on December 20 - the day in 1915 that ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) left Gallipoli. The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) began its 8-month ANZAC 100 program on ANZAC Day April 25, when troops first landed at Gallipoli to do battle with the Turks, part of the then Ottoman Empire. ANZAC 100 was joined by similar commemorations held by the NZART New Zealand, TRAC in Turkey and UBA in Belgium. All VK2-7, the territories VK1, VK8 twice at Casey Base VK0 in the Antarctic plus VK100ANZAC the national callsign. Each event was to submit electronic logs and
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QSL via the eQSL service. The ‘last hurrah’ campaign had VI3ANZAC, VI4ANZAC, VI6ANZAC and VI8ANZAC on air December 12-20 which took in two weekends. Each station submitted electronic logs and will QSL via the eQSL service. The VI3ANZAC station was on various modes throughout the final period including AM, CW, SSB, Digital and Digital ATV.
The final day, December 20, had VI3ANZAC near the cannons at Fort Gellibrand in the inner-west of Melbourne. An historical military site that was part of the Port Phillip Bay protection, the gateway to Melbourne. Not forgotten were the contributions made by the Royal Australian Navy that holds the honour of being the First into the Dardanelles, with crew on the Australian Submarine HMAS AE2. That action of breaching the Dardanelles was the catalyst for the rest of the ANZAC force in that battle. VI4ANZAC commemorated the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train that helped troops to enter and leave Gallipoli. A team of up to 10 radio amateurs used all bands, AM, CW and SSB, to put VI4ANZAC on air, VI6ANZAC has its first closing weekend from a Huey helicopter amid a display at the RAAF Museum in Bull Creek. For December 19-20 the Ham College’s new shack was used. It had a heavy satellite focus, with activations via OSCARs 50, 85 29 and the Chinese FM bird, LilacSat. VI6ANZAC then hit the HF bands, but was not put off by some poor
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propagation, using SSB and sometimes CW. VI8ANZAC proved very popular on air, particularly on December 20, when Stuie VK8NSB and Rowan VK8RD set up in the Charles Darwin National Park VKFF0095. It worked 10 DXCC countries, as well as all of Australia. Adding to its attraction was the activation of VKFF-0095 under the World Wide Flora & Fauna program. All four ANZAC-prefixed callsigns in the 'last hurrah' are writing their stories to be sent to Amateur Radio magazine. The WIA thanks all of the radio amateurs involved in the 50 separate events in ANZAC 100, and the many thousands worldwide who through making contact were part of the commemoration.
Results of the 2015 VHF Field Day – 5/6 December VHF-UHF-SHF-EHF Contests, as administered by the Auckland VHF Group Inc; on behalf of all VHF groups, including all New Zealand radio amateurs and supported by NZART.
Overall Winner
Station ZL1BQ ZL1GSG ZL4AA ZL2WA ZL4OL ZL3RC ZL2TC ZL2DX ZL2ACG ZL1KNI
Points 2901 * 1741 1313 985 468 215 215 204 180 20
Check log: ZL1TBG Band winner 6 m (50 MHz)
Station ZL1BQ
Points 462 *
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ZL4AA ZL4OL ZL2DX ZL1KNI ZL3RC ZL2WA
100 93 69 4 4 2
Band winner 2 m (144 MHz)
Station ZL1BQ ZL4AA ZL2WA ZL4OL ZL3RC ZL1GSG ZL2TC ZL2ACG ZL2DX ZL1KNI
Points 863 * 613 566 327 215 174 131 108 68 16
Band winner 70 cm (432 MHz)
Station ZL4AA ZL2WA ZL1GSG ZL1BQ ZL2TC ZL2ACG ZL2DX ZL4OL
Points 410 * 250 122 110 84 72 67 24
Band winner 32 cm (925 MHz)
Station ZL1GSG ZL1BQ
Points 108 * 108 *
Band winner 23 cm (1296 MHz)
Station ZL1GSG ZL1BQ ZL2WA ZL4AA ZL4OL
Points 527 * 338 51 28 24
Band winner
Station
Points
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13 cm (2399 MHz)
ZL1BQ
12
*
Band winner 9 cm (3400 MHz)
Station ZL1BQ
Points 156 *
Band winner 6 cm (5760 MHz)
Station ZL1GSG ZL1BQ ZL4AA
Points 450 * 450 162
Band winner Station 10 cm (10368 MHz) ZL1GSG ZL1BQ ZL2WA
Points 360 * 360 * 116
Band winner Station 1.2 cm (24048 MHz) ZL1BQ
Points 42 *
Greatest DX 6 m (External) 6 m (Internal) 2m 70 cm 32 cm 23 cm 13 cm 9 cm 3 cm 1.2 cm Certificate
Station ZL1BQ-3D2AG ZL1RS-ZL4OL ZL2IT-ZL4OL ZL3ADT-ZL4AA ZL1BQ-ZL1GSG ZL1BQ-ZL1AKW ZL1BQ-ZL1TPH ZL1BQ-ZL1TPH ZL1BQ-ZL1GSG ZL1BQ-ZL1TPH
Distance 2670 km 1201 km 867 km 323 km 50 km 198 km 13 km 25 km 50 km 13 km
*
Active Stations (59 in total)
•
•
•
ZL1AKW ZL1AVZ ZL1BK ZL1BQ ZL1GSG ZL1GSM ZL1HD ZL1HI ZL1KNI ZL1NX ZL1PO ZL1RCC ZL1RS ZL1TPH ZL1TWR ZL1WTT ZL1X ZL2ACG ZL2ADU ZL2ASF ZL2BRG ZL2CMC ZL2DX ZL2FAE ZL2IT ZL2IY ZL2OK ZL2TAL ZL2TC ZL2TDA ZL2TLF ZL2WA ZL2WHO ZL3ADT ZL3CU ZL3MH ZL3NW ZL3RC ZL3OZ ZL3PX ZL3TJ ZL3TKI ZL3TY
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•
ZL4AA ZL4BC ZL4IV ZL4KX ZL4LV ZL4NR ZL4OL ZL4SA ZL4TH
•
3D2AG VK2EVB VK2FAD VK2YOC VK3WE VK4RF VK7DX
Active team members •
ZL1VH ZL1UKG ZL1SWW ZL1EME ZL2BKC ZL2REES ZL3FJ ZL4DK ZL4KX ZL4TAE ZL4ASC
Station equipment 23 cm Down-East Microwave transverter board and xtal multiplier, with a 20W Mitsubishi PA block and a Down-East PHEMT pre-amp 6M FT920 to 2 x 4-400As 8 element HB yagi at 13 m 2M IC746Pro @100w to 12 x 12el crossed yagi at 8 m 70 cm FT847 @ 50w to 20 x 20 crossed yagi at 8m Equipment: Elecraft K3 - Diamond X50 Omnidirectional. Power: 5W 23 cm 150 watts, 45 element loop yagi, on 2 metres 16 element yagi 925 MHz, home brew transverter 3 watts 11 element 1296 MHz, HB TRV, 130 watts 27 element Yagi 3400 MHz, converted ex DXR100 boards, 3 watt 10 GHz, converted DXR710 5 watt 24 GHz (24048 MHz) Kuhne LO, Milliwave 500 m/w PA, 300 m/W PA used as preamp Wellington VHF group waveguide relays 6 m, TS60, 100 watt, 3 elements yagi
ICOM 910 11 element Yagi on 2 metres 432, TS811A, 25 watt, to TE systems 4412G linear into 4*10 element horizontal 2 metres, FT-847 to 7 element LFA yagi 70 cm, Icom IC-290 to 70 cm Transverter 50 W and 10 element yagi 23 cm HB transceiver + 3.3 metre dish (and used dual dipole feed after dish blew down) 6 cm HB TRV + Horn antennas 5 watts Homebrew 6 cm TRV with 20 m/W output 70 cm IC402 + PA 20 W 13 element Flexa Yagi 32 cm 1m dish with Multiband feed for 925, 1296, 5760 and 10368 MHz
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2 m Yaesu 847 to HB LDMOS amp 1 kW 9 element G4CQM at 5 meters
The rules for VHF-UHF-SHFEHF Contests, as administered by the Auckland VHF Group; on behalf of all VHF groups are available on the NZART website: http://www.nzart.org.nz/activities/contest-rules/rules-vhf-and-above/
All contest logs should be sent, to arrive within two weeks, to: VHFcon-
test@nzart.org.nz Or by mail to: Contest Manager, PO Box 10138, Dominion Road, Auckland 1446.
Stephen Hayman - ZL1TPH---- (20 December 2015)
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New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands Team Antipodes is scheduled to set sail less than two weeks from now. Cezar is already in New Zealand, and confirms that two full sets of equipment (rigs and antennas) are already with the Department of Conservation office in Invercargill, where the quarantine is scheduled for January 3. All team members will meet in Invercargill on January 2, and in preparation for the quarantine need to treat all clothing and footwear in a trigene solution, a powerful antibacterial. We of us are a little apprehensive that the trigene will affect long term at least some of the materials and metal bits, but there is no way around it. Most of all, we are concerned of all electronic components, including photo/video cameras and laptops, as they will have to be wiped with a cloth soaked in trigene solution too‌ If everything goes according to plan and weather cooperates, the team will board Evohe by noon local time on January 4, and attempt landing by mid-afternoon on January 7. It will likely take a few hours before they will be QRV, since landing will require some serious hiking back and forth between the shore and camp. One of their stations will be located inside the Castaway Depot, while the other a few tens of meters away, in a small tent. While the landing and operating permit is very strict in terms of where the radio equipment should be located, the tent allows for some mobility to reduce interference between stations. To reduce it even further, the team will have at their disposal a full set of Dunestar filters. The list of group and individual donors continues to be updated on a daily basis, and we wish to express our gratitude to everyone who is able to contribute financially to reduce our personal costs. The original budget had to be increased by almost 7%, due to unforeseen costs, to which we had to add another 8% due to the strengthening of the NZD versus the USD during the last few months. Please keep support coming, we do need it dearly! This operation will count under the new DXCC entity name "New Zealand Subantarctic Islands" (the old name - Auckland and Campbell Islands [ZL9]) for DXCC purposes. A Web page has been activated to provide more details and help collect funds for this operation at: http://iotahunter.org OPDX
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Upcoming Happenings & Events Date
Happenings & Events
4th January
HF Net, 3.575 MHz, 19:30
5th January
VHF Net, 146.525 MHz, 20:00
11th January
HF Net, 3.575 MHz, 19:30
12th January
VHF Net, 146.525 MHz, 20:00
18th January
HF Net, 3.575 MHz, 19:30
19th January
VHF Net, 146.525 MHz, 20:00
20th January
Combined Executive/General meeting.
25th January
HF Net, 3.575 MHz, 19:30
26th January
VHF Net, 146.525 MHz, 20:00
31st January
NO Official Broadcast in January
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5th February– NZART HQ Infoline 6-7 February—NZART DX Weekend Contest 17th February—Monthly Club General Meeting 19th February—NZART HQ Infoline 27-28 February—NZART Jock White Memorial Field Days Contest 28th February—NZART Official Broadcast 2-3 April—NZART Low Band Contest 21-22 May—NZART Sangster Shield Contest 4-5 June—NZART AGM/Conference 11-12 June—NZART Hibernation Contest 2-3 July—NZART Memorial Contest 16th July—WIA VK/ZL Trans-Tasman Low-Band Contest 6-7 August—NZART Brass Monkey Contest 1-2 October—NZART Microwave Contest 5th November—NZART Straight Key Night 3-4 December—NZART Field Day Contest
For more information on any of the above please contact myself or any committee member.
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Club Information Contacts :Business Meeting:
1930 First Wednesday of each month except January 88 Seddon Road, Hamilton
General Meeting:
1930 Third Wednesday of each month (except Jan) 88 Seddon Road, Hamilton
Homepage: eMail:
http://www.zl1ux.org.nz branch.12@nzart.org.nz
HF Net: VHF Net:
3.575MHz LSB 1930 Mondays 146.525MHz simplex 2000 Tuesdays
2m Repeater: STSP Repeaters: ATV Repeater:
145.325MHz -600kHz split 146.675MHz -600kHz split 438.725MHz -5 MHz split Off air pending channel changes
Cover Photo: http://zl-sota.org/
Sender
Hamilton Amateur Radio Club (Inc) PO Box 606 Hamilton 3240