VHF, UHF and Microwave Record Table - the latest table of records is available from the VHF SA Record page. Click here to get a copy. Compiled and updated by Paul, ZS6NK - latest version 11 May 2019. Updates to zssixnk@gmail.com
Focus on VHF and Above 19 May 2019
Audio version
There is no tutorial this week, but again some exiting news from the West Coast. Well not our West Coast but the West Coast of Namibia.
Last week we reported that the Hepburn charts have been showing favourable conditions for the West Coast and this week it is great to report on two accomplishments that have taken place.
On Wednesday 15 May, the charts predicted great conditions between the West Coast of Namibia and St Helena Island.
Firstly well done to Johann V51JH from Swakopmund on managing to make contact with Garry ZD7GWM on St Helena Island. Johann had only just completed installing his antennas on his mast at his QTH and announced on the WhatsApp group that he was on the air at around 16:28.
V51JH Antenna X700H up at 15m half inch low loss coax and Telegartner connectors.
At 17:19 Dawid ZS1DK who is a long distance truck driver sent a voicemail saying that Johann was on the air with Garry on St Helena Island.
Dawid, also has the callsign V51DK and regularly travels the route from Cape Town to Swakopmund and back.
Just listen to Dawid’s excitement in the next couple of voice mails as well the recording of the contact between Johan V51JH and Garry ZD7GWM.
Audio 1
And not long after that at about 18:10 Dawid using his V51DK callsign made the contact.
Audio 2
Well I think those last couple of kilometres to Swakopmund flew by unnoticed. Would have loved to have been in that truck with Dawid.
Fantastic guys, great achievement.
VHF News also received an email from Sid ZS5SID regarding some activity along the South East Coast.
Sid says “ I have made contact with Dave ZS5DJ a few times Monday and Tuesday nights, but of late I have not heard his CW or CQ call. With regards to Peter ZS2ABF I have heard his CW but never had a QSO with him. Very quiet here on 144.300 Mhz. My radio is always on hoping for a contact.” Sid also adds that he has a 12 element Yagi pointing towards Gauteng and hopes to make contact sometime.
In one weeks time the VHF workshop will be taking place on 25 May at the National Amateur Radio Centre. There is still place, so please complete the registration form so that we know that you will be coming and to help with the catering.
The main topic will be: Which is better, Vertical or Horizontal polarisation?
Come to the VHF workshop and listen to what Dick ZS6BUN has to say about Vertical vs Horizontal propagation. There will also be feedback on the progress of the two new beacons, a discussion on the West Coast propagation phenomenon and some quick fire sessions on the Reverse Beacon Project, a growing concern regarding the HF noise levels and why VHF and UHF has an important future in Amateur Radio.
The registration fee is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA Members and R100 for non-members. For registration and the agenda go to either the AMSAT SA website at http://amsatsa.org.za/ or the SARL website www.sarl.org.za
Hope to see you at the VHF Workshop.
The next meeting of the VHF Work Group will be via Skype on 30 May 2019. If you want to join the VHF Work Group, send us your Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and we will add you to the call.
Please send your news snippets and information about activities on VHF and Above to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Focus on VHF and above 12 May 2019
Audio Version listen here
Firstly, I would like to apologise for last week’s program not being available for broadcast despite it being completed. It is now available on the SARL home page as well as the audio version along with this week’s program that will be on the web shortly after this Amateur Radio Today transmission.
This week I want to talk about Band Plans.
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) (iaru.org) represents the interests of amateur radio world wide. It has 155 member societies covering most territories. In South Africa, the member society is the South African Radio League (SARL).
Apart from advocacy at the ITU’s rule making World Radio Conferences, the IARU also establishes voluntary band plans for amateur use. These band plans normally extend across an ITU region. South Africa would therefore adhere to Region 1 band plans.
These band plans are carefully formulated to take all interests of amateurs into account, and represent a compromise that hurts everyone equally. The considerations that went into making the band plan may not be obvious to you, and you may cause unanticipated interference if you decide to act contrary to the band plan.
The bands allocated to amateurs are divided into segments for different uses according to the band plan. Typically each band has different segments set aside for CW, digital modes and phone. Some frequencies may be reserved for beacons, on which no other stations should transmit. Others may be reserved for particular purposes, such as satellite use or
inter-continental DX. Although in most cases it is not a legal requirement to observe the band plans, courtesy to other operators should be sufficient reason to do so.
In South Africa we have some additional bands allocated for our use that are not allocated in the rest of the region. An example of this the 8m band or the frequencies between 40.675 – 40.685 MHz which has been allocated for amateur use for the study of propagation.
For a full list of the band plans go to http://www.sarl.org.za/public/licences/bandplan.asp
Likewise beacons are coordinated as well. Some beacons on the HF and lower VHF bands are coordinated at a regional level and an international level while the beacons operating on the higher VHF bands are coordinated on a national level by the member society which in our case is the SARL.
There are SARL appointees and work groups who are responsible for managing these band plans and beacons to ensure that there is fair play on the usage of the bands and that the beacons are operating in the band segments allocated to beacons. The two new beacons that are currently being worked on by the VHF Work Group will be owned by the SARL and are being funded by the SARL. You and I are able to join these work groups and share our expertise, knowledge and know how and to help with the development of the hobby. So why not become active and make a difference by joining the various work groups that the SARL has.
We have not received news on VHF and above activities, but this does not mean that nothing is happening on the VHF and above bands.
Congratulations to Rickus ZS4A with his first EME contact on 23cm last Sunday afternoon.
The Hepbrun charts are still predicting very favourable conditions along the West Coast and amateurs on the West Coast and in Brazil are pointing their antennas across the Atlantic to see if they can make contact with each other. Using the weak signal modes on VHF could well make comms possible across the Atlantic.
The Hepburn charts are looking good for the South East Coast as well. Are there any amateurs who operate up and down the South East Coast apart from Peter ZS2ABF and Dave ZS5DJ? It has been a while since Peter posted anything on the SARL Forum as well.
In two weeks time the VHF workshop will be taking place on 25 May at the National Amateur Radio Centre.
The main topic will be which is better, Vertical or Horizontal polarisation?
This has been debated at length by the long distance VHF and above enthusiasts and depending where you are, your opinion and experience will differ. You will passionately defend your point of view with audio and video recordings of tests that you have done to prove that the one is better than the other.
Which side are you on? Vertical or Horizontal?
Come to the VHF workshop on 25 May and listen to what Dick ZS6BUN has to say. There will be plenty of time for a lively discussion as well after Dick’s presentation.
The registration fee is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA Members and R100 for non-members. For registration and the agenda go to the AMSAT SA website at http://amsatsa.org.za/. Put 25 May 2019 in your diaries and plan to be there.
The next meeting of the VHF Work Group will be via Skype on 30 May 2019. If you want to join the VHF Work Group, send us your Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and we will add you to the call.
Please send your news snippets and information about activities on VHF and Above to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Focus on VHF and above 6 May 2019
Audio version listen here
In three weeks time the VHF workshop will be taking place on 25 May at the National Amateur Radio Centre.
The main topic will be which is better, Vertical or Horizontal polarisation?
This has been debated at length by the long distance VHF and above enthusiasts and depending where you are, your opinion and experience will differ. You will passionately defend your point of view with audio and video recordings of tests that you have done to prove that the one is better than the other.
Listen to what Onno VK6FLAB has to say.
Foundations of Amateur Radio
I have found a reference that there were studies done by the television broadcast industry way back in 1939 and then it was already determined that horizontal antennas performed better for tropospheric propagation.
I have also found another reference from 1986 that the BBC did tests to compare horizontal, vertical and mixed polarisations on their VHF-FM broadcasts and determined that for new networks the optimum polarisation would be vertical.
Which side are you on? Vertical or Horizontal?
Come to the VHF workshop and listen to what Dick ZS6BUN has to say. There will be plenty of time for a lively discussion as well after Dick’s presentation.
We have not received news on VHF and above activities, but this does not mean that nothing is happening on the VHF and above bands.
The Hepbrun charts predicted very favourable conditions along the West Coast this past week and amateurs on the West Coast and in Brazil are pointing their antennas across the Atlantic to see if they can make contact with each other. Using the weak signal modes on VHF could well make comms possible across the Atlantic.
Dick ZS6BUN posted on the 46 Long Distance VHF/UHF group that when he worked Nasri ZS1NAZ on Meteor Scatter last weekend the best signals that they recorded was +24 dB. Dick made the assumption that if both of them were running 1 kW and you do the maths, then if they were running only 10 W then their signals would have been around +4 dB which is a very good signal and could easily be decoded at that level. Dick says “Just shows you don’t need high power for MS - just patience and a bottomless coffee pot !”
That is so true Dick. Everyone seems to be fixated on high power, while with a little extra effort and patience you can get those contacts with power levels well within the capabilities of most of the standard rigs available to us.
This brings the thought to mind we are so eager and impatient and tend to want everything now and will throw money at a problem to achieve instant gratification, and that we miss out on the really great experience of making a fantastic contact on low power which is actually an even greater accomplishment.
Now something for the more technical minded folk who love playing with their SDR Dongles and Raspberry Pi’s.
Nexmon SDR is code that you can use to turn a Broadcom BCM4339 802.11ac WiFi chip into a TX capable SDR that is capable of transmitting any arbitrary signal from IQ data within the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands. In commercial devices the BCM4339 was most commonly found in the Nexus 5 smartphones.
Recently Nexmon have tweeted that their code now supports the BCM43455c0 which is the WiFi chip used in the recently released Raspberry Pi 3B+. They write that the previous Raspberry Pi 3B (non-plus) cannot be used with Nexmon as it only has 802.11n, but since the 3B+ has 802.11ac Nexmon is compatible.
Combined with RPiTX which is a Raspberry Pi tool for transmitting arbitrary RF signals using a GPIO pin between 5 kHz to 1500 MHz, the Raspberry Pi 3B+ may end up becoming a versatile low cost TX SDR just on it's own.
For more information about this software go to https://github.com/seemoo-lab/mobisys2018_nexmon_software_defined_radio
The next meeting of the VHF Work Group will be via Skype on 30 May 2019. If you want to join the VHF Work Group, send us your Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and we will add you to the call.
The next VHF/UHF workshop is being planned for 25 May 2019 at the National Amateur Radio Centre.
The registration fee is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA Members and R100 for non-members. For registration and the agenda go to the AMSAT SA website at http://amsatsa.org.za/. Put 25 May 2019 in your diaries and plan to be there.
Please send your news snippets and information about activities on VHF and Above to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Examination
home or while mobile in cars, boats or on foot.
Worked
All ZS award
SA
Maritime Net