Category Archives: General Article

DIY Satellite Rotators

August 7, 2016

Stuart VK2FSTU has found an interesting article on a cheap home-brew satellite tracker. Stuart writes:

Grabbed this article from Flipboard as it may interest a few people. When I retire and have time to fiddle I’ll be able to do these sort of things myself, as it interests me I thought it may interest a few others as well.

Read the article here along with loads of construction images.

The satellite tracker is being used in this instance to track US Weather Satellites and there are some issues with this design for Ham use – most glaringly that the servos stop working from RF interference when you’re transmitting. I’d also be unsure of servo’s ability to survive for any length of time with a typical amateur satellite Yagi mounted on top – I’d think the windage and weight would kill those servos quite quickly.

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Nevertheless, this is an excellent example of what can be achieved these days with a little ingenuity, some cheap eBay parts and an Arduino. The designer puts the parts cost at $25 USD!

Those of you who get the WIA’s Amateur Radio magazine may have seen a similar, more costly but significantly more rugged satellite rotator feature on the cover of the May 2016 issue:

AR Rotator This design is from Julie VK3FOWL and Joe VK3YSP of the School Amateur Radio Club Network and uses beefier stepper motors in place of servos and a Gyro & Compass sensor to orient itself. You can read the AR article here and construction info is here. I have all of the parts ready to go shy of the Arrow Satellite Antenna – now to find the time to build it!

Parts for this design, excluding some sundry items (and the antenna) cost around $105 AUD. Pretty amazing for such a rugged design with fully automated tracking! A big thank you to Julie and Joe of SARC for sharing their fantastic design!

Museum Ship ‘Notorious’ Now in Port Macquarie

July 30, 2016

If you missed Notorious at Laurieton last weekend, you’ll be pleased to know that she’s now at the Lady Nelson Wharf in Port Macquarie. From the Notorious facebook page:

Notorious plans to Open for Onboard and Below Deck Inspection,
at Lady Nelson Wharf, Port Macquarie
on Saturday 30th / Sunday 31st July,
10am – 4pm daily.
Admission Adults $5 / Children $2 ( 2 years – 15 years )
Children must be Accompanied by a Supervising Adult

Photo excerpt by Wayne Hunt, Freeze Frame Imaging: "Notorious in Cape Hawke Harbour" — Photo excerpt by Wayne Hunt, Freeze Frame Imaging: “Notorious in Cape Hawke Harbour”

Museum Ship ‘Notorious’ Open Days at Laurieton United Services Club Jetty

July 18, 2016

Stuart VK2FSTU says:

Do yourselves a favour and take a gander at the Notorious, maybe not as big or well-known as the Bounty, but one of a kind up this neck of the woods.

23rd and 24th at the Laurieton United Services Club Jetty from 10am till 4pm.

Cheers
VK2FSTU

Notorious at Ulladulla July 2013 - Photo by Lisa Hardwick — Notorious at Ulladulla July 2013 – Photo by Lisa Hardwick

‘NOTORIOUS’ is a recreation of a 1480’s caravel, researched, designed and constructed by Graeme Wylie. The ten year project used 300 tons of reclaimed timber. ‘NOTORIOUS’ was launched in February 2011 at Port Fairy.

Admission is $5 for Adults, $2 for Children (2-15 years old). Onboard and below deck, all are welcome. Children must be supervised by an accompanying adult.

Read the Camden Haven Courier story about its visit, visit the Ship’s Facebook page and invite other Facebook users to see the ship during its LUSC Jetty visit at the Facebook event page.

VDSL Interference – A Guidance Leaflet

July 13, 2016

Caution, many TAFLA’s (Three and Four Letter Acronyms) ahead! 🙂

VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line) is a technology used by Australia’s NBNCo in the rollout of the National Broadband Network. FTTN (Fibre-to-the-Node) Broadband rollouts see internet carrying optical fibre cable laid from the telephone exchange to cabinets located strategically around a neighbourhood (the cabinet being the ‘node’), and distribution from the cabinet to subscriber’s homes is then handled by VDSL technology over the existing Telstra copper phone lines.

FTTN Graphic VDSL is, simply put, a faster version of ADSL which Australia has used for internet access for many years. ADSL2+ speeds topped out at 24Mbp/s, whereas VDSL technology currently tops out at 100Mbp/s. This amazing performance comes at a price – VDSL only operates over short distances of around 1200 meters (hence the need for many localised nodes about the neighbourhood).

NBN Node — Fun fact: In the UK ‘Fibre to the Node’ (FTTN) is arguably more correctly referred to as ‘Fibre to the Cabinet” (FTTC). Pictured: FTTN Cabinet / FTTC Node. 🙂

Unfortunately, VDSL also appears to cause HF interference. Don Beattie G3BJ reports the number of instances of interference from VDSL has increased over the last couple of years in the UK – on the IARU Region 1 website he says:

The number of instances of interference from VDSL has increased over the last couple of years in the UK. To help amateurs to detect interference from VDSL the RSGB has drawn up a leaflet, the 15th in a series of EMC leaflets which the RSGB EMCC has produced.

The leaflet has been uploaded to this site by G4JKS in response to an action agreed at the first EMC Committee meeting at the Interim Meeting or Permanent Committees in Vienna on 16th to 17th April 2016.

Click here to download the leaflet

More YouTube!

June 22, 2016

VK0EK Heard Island Expedition

Vadym UT6UD was one of the ‘dynamic duo’ on Top Band (along with Dave, K3EL), and a major reason why VK0EK broke Top Band records from Heard Island. Here’s a 13 minute video on the Heard Island Expedition he’s posted:

Yaesu System Fusion Introduction

It’s very Marketing-ey (I made up a word!), but here’s an introduction from Yaesu to their System Fusion (C4FM) digital mode and some of the equipment that supports it:

The Transistor, a new member of the Electronics family!

From the days of ‘Duck and Cover’ (1953) comes this documentary designed to give the public of that era their first understanding of what a transistor was and why it mattered so much: