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 - Send your record claim to zssixnk@gmail.com
Focus on VHF and Above
31 January 2021
Audio version
Last Sunday while I was listening to AR Today Danie ZR6AGB let me know that the 6m band was open to Cape Town.
Naz ZS1NAZ who acted as the net controller had his hands full trying to record some of the activity and sent me some of the recordings that he made. While the band faded at times you can hear that there were some really strong signal reports. Longest distances were Cape Town to Polokwane.
ZS1NAZ 6m Recording
That was just a short extract of more than 10 minutes of recording that Naz sent me. Some of the callsigns I picked up was ZS1NAZ, ZS1F, ZS1TAF, ZS6CBQ, ZS6OB, ZR6AGB, ZS6WN and ZS6NK.
I asked Naz how did he know that the band was open? Did he monitor any beacons and which beacons did he hear?
Naz ZS1NAZ
Thanks for the great information Naz and I am sure everyone had loads of fun with you on the band.
On Saturday morning there was a good FT8 6m contact between Derek ZS5Y in Scottburgh and Derek V51DM in Swakopmund as well.
ZS5Y V51DM FT8 20210130
The VHF Work Group met again on Thursday evening on their usual Skype channel. It was a full house with Derek ZS5Y joining the meeting as well.
Brian ZS6YZ provided feedback on the progress of the Next Generation Beacon hardware that will replace the current radio at the Bethlehem site. Brian showed a photo of the proposed layout of the boards in the old Storno repeater cabinet that Rassie ZS1YT had made available for the project. There is some work to be done on power supplies for the various boards as they do not all run on 12 V. A power amplifier module also needs a board for with some components for biasing of the gate and source voltages of the Mitsubishi RF module that is going to be used as well as a low pass filter to reduce the harmonics on the output of the PA. Danie, ZR6AGB has offered to assist with any hardware challenges that may arise with mounting the boards in the cabinet. Brian said that he aimed to have the beacon up and running by 20 February which is the date of the next virtual VHF Workshop.
Proposed layout of the NGN Beacon hardware.
Carl ZS6CBQ also reported that Charl ZS3K has possibly found a site for the Karoo Beacon. The farmer who has an existing tower has agreed in principal to accommodate our beacon on his tower. Charl will visit the site and see if it will be suitable. This beacon will need to be solar powered, so the necessary power budgets would need to be calculated.
There was also a discussion around the beacons that are on the air currently in South Africa and the need for the beacons to conform to the IARU bandplans and recommendations as per the IARU Region 1 VHF Manual. The Work Group will be drafting a document which will be released via the SARL in the near future to help the beacon owners / operators understand what the current requirements are.
The VHF Work Group meets on the last Thursday of the month on Skype and any one who would like to join are welcome to send their contact details and Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and you will be added to the call.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to
make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above
24 January 2021
Audio version
The exiting news this week is that a 2m beacon has arrived on St Helena Island and Garry ZD7GWM was very excited to take delivery of the beacon. Here is the story sent to me by Dee ZR1DEE. Dee is the XYL of Nazri ZS1NAZ.
Dee says “Kobus ZS3JPY was instrumental in starting the idea of having a beacon for St Helena Island. Well, the time has come, and it is happening as history is being made!
Now, let’s follow the journey of the beacon and more....
The Beacon frequencies:-
Channel 1: 144.435 MHz
Channel 2: 144.325 MHz
Channel 3: 144.375 MHz
Channel 4: 144.385 MHz
Garry ZD7GWM received the three boxes today, 21 January 2021. He is smiling!
Sponsors that made this possible were :
- Sam ZS6BRZ sponsored a X700H Diamond antenna with transport costs to Cape Town.
- Leon ZS6LMG and Linda ZS6LML sponsored a 20 Amp power supply and 25m of LMR400 coax and connectors.
- Marcos PY7MHZ from Brazil sponsored the CW Beacon.
- Another Marcos, from Mcom Electronica in Brazil being the designer and programmer of the beacon, was instrumental in working with Naz ZS1NAZ to re programme the beacon that he designed and built.
- Pieter V51PJ sponsored a VHF radio and fitted the CW beacon into the radio.
- Johan V51JH on holiday in South Africa transported the equipment to Naz ZS1NAZ.
- Pieter ZS3PV donated another VHF radio as a spare for back up.
- Deon ZS6DEB also donated a VHF radio for back up.
- A golf shirt was made for Garry ZD7GWM with all the amateurs call signs that he has already worked in ZS1 and ZS3. The golf shirt was sponsored by Charles ZS1CF and XYL Hannelie.
All of the equipment arrived at Naz’s QTH and Kobus ZS3JPY asked Naz ZS1NAZ to test the beacon and it worked fine, and while on test, DISASTER struck! The beacon started transmitting gibberish and the radio stopped putting out power. The race was now on to find spare parts and get the beacon sorted ASAP. Naz ZS1NAZ contacted Kobus ZS3JPY to explain to him what had happened. Kobus said: “Don’t worry I will make a plan’’.
The plan was such that Kobus spoke to Deon ZS6DEB who sent a radio to Kobus.
The next operation was to get the equipment to St Helena Island.
Kobus ZS3JPY and Naz ZS1NAZ made many phone calls and eventually found the ship leaving to St Helena Island the first week in January 2021. Garry ZD7GWM received the equipment from Customs today (21 January 2021) He even took a day off work to go and collect, so you can only imagine his excitement! He was so overjoyed today that he said: “Finally, it’s here!” with a big smile in his voice.
A hearty thank you to all the sponsors, and everybody else who contributed unselfishly, in making the St Helena Beacon Project a success.
A special note of thanks goes to Kobus ZS3JPY and his wife, Michelle ZS3TO. Through all this, Kobus ZS3JPY had his leg amputated, was in great pain most of the time, and still managed to pull off the Beacon Project.”
What a great story and many thanks to all the fellow amateurs who contributed to this successful project. This was a big team effort.
Thanks Dee for sending in this report.
We now eagerly await the first reception reports for this new beacon on St Helena Island.
On Friday tropoducting was great along the Southern Cape coast.
This resulted in a remarkable contact via the Riversdale repeater between Trevor ZS1TR in Agulhas and Andre ZS2ZA in Port Elizabeth.
ZS1TR_ZS2ZA_via_Riversdale_Repeater.mp3
This is a distance of just over 400km from Port Elizabeth to the Riversdale repeater and I have had confirmation that there is no repeater link between George and Port Elizabeth. Only tropoducting. Well done guys.
For the SSTV enthusiasts, there will again be an opportunity to download SSTV images from the International Space Station on 28 – 29 January 2021. Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are planning to transmit Slow Scan TV images on 145.800 MHz FM using the SSTV mode PD-120. The transmissions are part of the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment (MAI-75).
Jan 28 - Starts after 12:10 UTC and ends at 17:15 GMT*
Jan 29 - Start about 13:10 UTC and ends at 18:05 GMT*
*Dates and times subject to change.
ARISS SSTV Blog https://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/
Useful SSTV info and links https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/
The IARU has formed a committee to address world wide demands on the amateur spectrum above 144 MHz. They have requested information regarding amateur activity on the following bands:
13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz
6 cm 5.65 – 5.85 GHz
3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz
Any information about activities and experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands.
This past Monday evening a group of amateurs who have interests in the above mentioned bands met with me online and we had a very fruitful and informative discussion about the activity on these bands and how they can generate more activity on these bands. Thanks to HAMNET Gauteng taking the initiative to set up the online discussion and inviting the other interested clubs to share with us. I gained a lot of knowledge about what is currently happening on these bands and what is planned for the future. I have also received information to follow up on about some more activity on these bands of interest to us.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
17 January 2021
Audio version
Today, I’m opening with the following story that I picked up on Southgate Amateur Radio News.
Radio amateurs in Israel have lost much of their spectrum between 1 and 6 GHz and suffered a draconian power reduction on 10 GHz
Israel has three classes of amateur license:
Class A (Advanced) up to 1500 watts
Class B (General) up to 250 watts
Class C (Novice) 100 watts on 4 HF bands, lower power on some higher bands
Israel's Ministry of Communications amateur allocations document produced on November 17, 2020, shows these changes to amateur allocations between 1 and 10.5 GHz:
The 23cm band (formerly 1240-1300 MHz) has been reduced to just 1260-1270 MHz and can only be used by Class A holders for Satellite uplink with a maximum power of 25 watts.
The 13 cm band appears to have remained the same, Class A and Class B have:
2320-2340 MHz 15 watts
2400-2402 MHz 100 watts
2402-2450 MHz 100 milliwatts
9 cm band which used to be 3400-3475 MHz has been entirely lost
6 cm band was 5650-5850 MHz now only the satellite segments remain 5650-5670 MHz 50 watts and 5830-5850 MHz 200 milliwatts. Only Class A can use them and it appears to be satellite only operation.
3 cm band has suffered a dramatic power reduction. 10.00-10.45 GHz maximum power is now just 100 milliwatts and is Class A only (it was 100w Class A, 25w Class B). 10.45-10.50 is satellite only, Class A 100 watts, Class B 25 watts.
This is now the third country where radio amateurs have lost or are about to lose access to parts of the bands previously allocated to them. All of them within IARU Region 1.
The threat to our VHF and above bands is becoming very real and it is only a matter of time before we start getting reports of changes closer to home.
The IARU has formed a committee to address world wide demands on the amateur spectrum above 144 MHz. They have requested information regarding amateur activity on the following bands:
13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz
6 cm 5.65 – 5.85 GHz
3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz
Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands.
Carl ZS6CBQ has taken the initiative to try and get more activity on the 23cm band and posted the following on the SARL VHF and UHF Forum.
“I started a thread on the Forum on 1296 MHz activity in 2016.
There were lots guys interested in this band and some of the guys started building antennas and sourcing equipment. Stations like ZS4A and ZS4PF got their stations working and soon distances of 236 km and more was achieved on a regular basis.
A few of us made regular use of 1296 MHz but no new stations were joining us. I know of quite a few ICOM IC9700's that were bought and I was wondering why we don't hear these stations on 23cm. It does not make sense to buy an expensive radio and not utilize it fully?
We reactivated our 23 cm WhatsApp group and 15 guys are in the group so far. We want to assist and get more stations on the band and so far Hennie ZS6EY has gotten his station on the air and I logged my first QSO on SSB on Saturday morning with him.
Please join us if you are interested, I can add you in our WhatsApp group or we can share information here on the forum.
The following stations are active on 1296.200 MHz on a regular basis
ZS6CBQ, ZS4PF, ZS4A, ZS6KSG, ZS6EY AND ZS6AIG”
Great initiative Carl, let us hope that more stations join the group and become active.
The PEARS National VHF and UHF contest is on this weekend and watching the VHF/UHF WhatsApp groups there was a fair amount of activity on Saturday morning on the bands. Earlier in the morning the most popular band was 6m MS and some nice long distance contacts were made.
Around mid morning Dick ZS6BUN and Mike ZS1TAF reported 6m opening to Cape Town and Mike ZS1TAF reported a contact on 6m with Paul ZS6NK.
Here is a video posted by Mike ZS1TAF of the 6m beacons he received in Cape Town.
ZS1TAF_Beacons_2021-01-16_at_08.46.15.mp4
More 6m contacts were reported between ZS1 and ZS6.
A while later Koos ZS3JPY reported a 10m FM contact with Leon ZS6LMG via the 10 repeater on the East Rand.
10m_between_GP_and_West_Coast 2021-01-16_at_09.25.10.mp3
While 10m is not strictly VHF it shows that when the bands do open then some amazing contacts can be made.
Just after midday Leon ZS6LMG posted a recording of a conversation on the 438.700 MHz repeater also on the East Rand.
4387000_20210116_112358.mp3
I have no words to describe what we have just heard.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
10 January 2021
Audio version
There was some very good 6m activity last Sunday 3 January. Some of the stations that were on the air from around 03:15 until 06:15 local time were Derek V51DM, Andre ZS2ACP, Willie ZS2CC, Tom ZS1TA, Mike ZS1TAF, Christi ZS4CGR and Dick ZS6BUN. Modes used were MSK144 and FSK441. It sounds as if the group had a lot of fun, with some contacts being completed and others just not getting there. Well done to everyone who was on the air from really early on a Sunday morning and had the patience to keep trying. Mike ZS1TAF made the comment “VHF is a game of patience” and it truly is.
Dick, ZS6BUN celebrated 50 years of holding an amateur radio licence on Wednesday 6th January. Dick was first licensed as G3ZXQ in 1971 when 2m activity was virtually 100% AM until the advent of the infamous ”Liner 2” which put out an SSB signal so bad which Dick says “should have been banned from the airwaves”.
Dick posted a photo on the WhatsApp group showing his first adventures with digital modes working RTTY with a teleprinter.
Dick also posted a photo of a tuning fork with the comment “If you were working RTTY in the 1960’s and 70’s you simply HAD to have one of these ........”
TeleprinterTuning Fork
Dick came to South Africa in 1974 “in search of adventure” and operated on 2m as ZS5ZX in Amanzimtoti. He travelled up and down the coast and as far inland as Nottingham Road with a transverter stuck on the end of a TS520. Dick transferred to Johannesburg in 1980 and became ZS6BUN. A brief love affair with the 2m repeaters ensued using a homebrew Wood and Douglas synthesised FM transceiver.
Wood Douglas
Business and family commitments limited amateur radio activity until the early 2000’s when PSK31, WSJT and an Icom 706 saw Dick working meteor scatter on 2m and 6m across the region. Marginally EME capable, Dick now runs on all bands from 160m to 23cm from the farm Vrisgewaag, SE of Nigel. Dick is semi-retired from the plastics industry. Dick also takes a keen interest in the benefits this great hobby has on the lives of amateurs as they transition from full time employment into their “Golden Years”.
Dick is a serious VHF enthusiast
Dick, well done on this great achievement and may you enjoy many, many more years of this great hobby. We also still have so much to learn from you as well.
Your photo of you with the teleprinter brought back fond memories for me and my experiences with radio telegraphy as late as ‘85 when I was stationed at the research station on Marion Island and radio telegraphy was the mode that we used to send weather data back to the Weather Bureau in Pretoria via the Derdepoort Radio station just off Zambezi Drive. The tuning fork was what you used to adjust the speed of the teleprinter’s motor so that you could successfully transmit and receive the data. If the speed of the motor was out then you would either receive nothing or Gobeldy Gook.
Last week I mentioned Claude Shannon and a documentary about him called “The Bit Player”. I watched the documentary and certainly recommend that you watch it if you can. It is available on Amazon Prime Video. More information about the documentary can be found at https://thebitplayer.com/
Looking ahead for the next week, at the Hepburn charts, it seems as if there will be good tropoducting on the West Coast again this coming week. There is also fair conditions predicted all along the South and East Coasts from Cape Agulhas to Richards Bay.
We are still urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands:
13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz
6 cm 5.65 – 5.85 GHz
3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz
Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
3 January 2021
Audio version
The bands seem to have been quiet the last week with very little activity being reported on the various groups that I monitor.
Looking ahead for the next week, the Hepburn charts do not show much chance of good long distance propagation either, but these are all predictions, and we know that predictions and conditions do change.
There is a new digital protocol being developed by the WSJT-X team that will be very interesting for VHF and above called Q65. The quick start user guide available on the web mentions that “Q65 is particularly effective for tropospheric scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME on VHF and higher bands, as well as other types of fast-fading signals.” The document also mentions “An excellent example of targeted uses is ionospheric scatter on the 6 m band. Extensive tests on the 1150 km path between K1JT and K9AN have shown that with 300 W output power, nearly every Q65-30A transmission is copied correctly by the other station. Q65 will enable stations with a modest Yagi and 100 W or more to work one another on 6 m at distances up to ~1600 km at most times, in dead band conditions. Ionospheric scatter is best near midday and in summer months, but is present at all times.” This sounds interesting!
Q65 will be introduced in WSJT-X 2.4.0. I did not find a timeline for the release. The current version is 2.2.2 and version 2.3.0-rc2 is already available for beta testers. The user guide can be found at https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Q65_Quick_Start.pdf
Scanning the Southgate ARC news site, an interesting title caught my eye.
How Claude Shannon invented the future
More than 70 years ago, in a single ground breaking paper, Claude Shannon laid the foundation for the entire communication infrastructure underlying the modern information age.
The first thought that came to mind was the Shannon-Hartley theorem that I had learned in communications theory in my college days. This is directly related to digital communications and weak signal communications, which a large number of us play with. I just needed to dig deeper and it again highlighted something that is very important to us amateurs.
During 1928, Hartley formulated a way to quantify information and its line rate (also known as data signalling rate R bits per second). This method, later known as Hartley's law, became an important precursor for Shannon's more sophisticated notion of channel capacity.
Claude Shannon's development of information theory during World War II provided the next big step in understanding how much information could be reliably communicated through noisy channels. Building on Hartley's foundation, Shannon's noisy channel coding theorem (1948) describes the maximum possible efficiency of error-correcting methods versus levels of noise interference and data corruption.
Shannon’s theory was published in 1948, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.”
The heart of his theory is a simple but very general model of communication: A transmitter encodes information into a signal, which is corrupted by noise and then decoded by the receiver. Despite its simplicity, Shannon’s model incorporates two key insights: isolating the information and noise sources from the communication system to be designed, and modelling both of these sources probabilistically. He imagined the information source generating one of many possible messages to communicate, each of which had a certain probability. The probabilistic noise added further randomness for the receiver to disentangle.
Now all of this may seem like Greek to most of you, but the bottom line why this is important and there are some of you who would have realised it already is that the more noise there is the less reliably the message can be received correctly. Noise, is our greatest enemy and the more noise that we experience the less reliably we can communicate. Weak signal modes or not. Weak signal modes are there to assist with the encoding, error correcting and decoding of the message, but noise is the one thing that we all experience in varying degrees and that is fundamentally the reason why some of us can receive a known station better than others. It is all about the noise levels that we experience in our particular locations. This is why the noise measurement campaign that the SARL is participating in is so important. Noise affects each and every one of us.
One can read more about Shannon’s theory at https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/. On this site you will also find a link to Shannon’s paper.
There is also a documentary about Claude Shannon called “The Bit Player” that is available on Amazon Prime Video. More information about the documentary can be found at https://thebitplayer.com/
Just a reminder from last week’s program which is on the SARL website and has been published in the the January 2021 Radio ZS as well. We are urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands:
13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz
6 cm 5.65 – 5.85 GHz
3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz
Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. Both Hans ZS6AKV and myself are involved with the IARU Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee and get all emails sent to VHF News at this address. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
27 December 2020
Audio version
We are starting off with two reports found on the Southgate ARC news website.
14 December 2020, Spain: Authorization to use 2,400 MHz extended.
Spain's Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure has extended the authorization for Radio Amateurs to use 2,400.050 to 2,410.0 MHz for QO-100 communications until Dec 26, 2021
15 December 2020 Finland's radio hams ask for 1240-1300 MHz replacement.
Finland lost the important 1240-1300 MHz amateur radio band on April 24, 2020. National society SRAL now asking for 220-225 MHz as a replacement, their initial request for 902-928 MHz having been rejected
The request is to provide spectrum for Amateur Television operation. It seems that currently operation in 1240-1300 MHz is still possible but only by applying for a Special Permit. These Special Permits will cease when the Galileo GNSS constellation becomes fully operational.
I have previously mentioned with the build up to WRC-19 that our bands are in demand and stressed the importance of creating activity on the VHF and above bands especially the microwave bands and that if we do not use the bands we will loose them.
You will also recall prior to WRC-19 there was a lot of petitions on the internet amongst radio amateurs regarding the 144 MHz band after the French administration wanted to reallocate it for aeronautical use.
We have also spoken about the threat to the 23cm band due to the perceived interference with the GNSS GPS system when it goes into full operation. This is agenda item 9.1.b for WRC-23 and goes about the coexistence between the Galileo/GLONASS system and the amateur service.
There are a number of resolutions on the table for WRC-23 with the following wording:
Agenda Item 1.2 says “IMT identification in the frequency bands 3 300-3 400 MHz, 3 600-3 800 MHz, 6 425-7 025 MHz, 7 025-7 125 MHz and 10.0-10.5 GHz to conduct and complete in time for WRC-23 the sharing and compatibility studies”. We, amateurs have a secondary allocation in the 10.0 – 10.5 GHz band.
Agenda Item 1.12 says “Possible secondary allocation to the Earth exploration-satellite service (active) for space borne radar sounders in the range of frequencies around 45 MHz to conduct studies on spectrum needs and sharing studies between the Earth exploration-satellite (active) service and the radiolocation, fixed, mobile, broadcasting, amateur and space research services in the frequency range 40-50 MHz and in adjacent bands”.
We, amateurs have primary and secondary allocations on the 50 MHz to 54 MHz band.
These are only some of the Agenda Items for WRC-23 that mentions studies on spectrum needs and sharing. Right now it seems as if it is only the microwave bands that are on the radar of the administrations. Unfortunately in most of these bands we are only secondary users which means that we are already sharing these bands with primary users on these bands. It is vitally important that we try and protect these secondary allocations.
These are all very real threats and there is a world wide team of dedicated IARU volunteers who are working tirelessly trying to mitigate these threats at a very high level.
So how can we assist?
One of the best ways, is to show that we are actively using these bands, but this is also where one of the biggest challenges are. We do not actually know what activity there is on these microwave bands.
Some activities that we are aware of are Mesh Networks that have been set up and experimented with for disaster communications. The folk in Gauteng, Secunda and the Southern Cape have been active on the 6 cm band with Mesh Networks. We all also know that the uplink toQO-100 is on the 13 cm band and the downlink is on the 3 cm band.
So we know a little, but is it enough? We need more detail on these activities, such as how often are these systems in use? How much bandwidth is required or used? What other activities are there?
We are urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands:
13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz
6 cm 5.65 – 5.85 GHz
3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz
Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. Both Hans ZS6AKV and myself are involved with the IARU Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee and get all emails sent to VHF News at this address.
The Next Generation Beacon hardware is now on my bench, but this week I have been wrestling with getting the MSHV software installed and operational on a Raspberry Pi. The MSHV software can decode the Pi4 mode that the next generation beacon generates in it’s MGM message that it transmits. The software also runs on Linux, but cannot run on the native Raspberry Pi operating system and therefore one needs to install Ubuntu onto the Pi. This has its challenges as the documentation is not clear nor up to date and so it has taken a lot of experimentation to find the right combination of Ubuntu and desktop applications that runs on a Pi and is functional and usable, in other words, not stressing the resources available on the Pi. I believe I have found the right combination and once I have completed some basic testing, I can get on with figuring out the hardware and getting some of the boards up and running. There are still some cables and GPS antenna that needs to be acquired locally, which will only happen in the new year as most suppliers are closed this week.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
20 December 2020
Audio version
Over the last weeks there has been a lot of VHF activity, however locally very little it seems.
The Geminids meteor shower has come and gone with the peak being last weekend. A number of VHF enthusiasts were listening and transmitting, but the conditions were not as expected. I asked Dick ZS6BUN how it went and he had the following to say “Well, it wasn’t as if a waterfall of rocks was falling out of the sky ! On the Saturday morning Andre, ZS2ACP and I worked on 6m using FSK441 and completed quite quickly - in about 10 minutes which is not bad for 6m. Tom, ZS1TA and I then completed in 10 minutes on 2m using MSK144. That’s quick. On the Sunday morning Andre and I settled down on 2m with FSK441 again and a bottomless coffee pot. 50 minutes and we were done. That’s about average for 2m. This small burst helped though.”
Dick_ZS6BUN_Geminids_decode.jpeg
I also mentioned last week that I was collecting data for a HAMSCI measurement initiative around the total eclipse of the sun over South America on 14 December. Well it turns out that there was also a Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun that was due to hit us on 13 December and the scientists hoped to find information on our data that we were collecting about the effects of the solar storm. I wonder if that solar storm perhaps had some influence on the meteor shower as well.
Here is another story of a 144 MHz signal from the Faroe Islands that was heard 3000 km away in Bulgaria during the Geminid Meteor Shower.
During this year's Geminid meteor shower, many radio amateurs worldwide were busy making contacts on the VHF bands by bouncing signals off the many meteor trails. One of the big surprises however was when the 144 MHz signal from Jon, OY9JD in the Faroe Islands was heard 3075 km away in Bulgaria by LZ1KU!
Normally the maximum range of meteor scatter contacts is similar to Sporadic-E i.e. in the region of 2300 km. One hop meteor scatter alone certainly couldn't account for the 3075 km distance.
To put this distance into context, 3075 km is about the same as the distance across the North Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.
At first, it was thought that the signal might have bounced off two meteors that just so happened to burn up at just the right place and at just the right time. This is certainly not impossible even though it's an unlikely scenario.
After some investigative work, it now seems likely that the signal from OY9JD actually reflected off the International Space Station as it was passing over Europe! It seems that the 73 x 109 metre spacecraft is large enough to reflect amateur radio signals when it's in the right spot.
Take a look at the whole story on the blog spot of John EI7GL at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/12/144-mhz-signal-from-faroe-islands-heard.html. It is very interesting to read how this contact was analysed by John.
Also on John’s blogspot there is a report of a remarkable 144 MHz contact made on 15 December between the West Coast and the East Coast of Australia.
During an extensive Sporadic-E opening in Australia on the 15th of December 2020, WSPR signals from John VK2IJM and David VK2DVM in Sydney were heard by Peter VK6KXW near Perth in Western Australia.
The path was in the region of 3200 km which is way beyond the usual 2300 km or so one hop distance from Sporadic-E. It seems likely that on this occasion, the most likely propagation mode was double hop Sporadic-E which is very rare at 144 MHz.
It looks as if just one WSPR transmission from each of the VK2 stations was decoded at 10:16 and 10:36 UTC. This was about an hour after sunset in Sydney which is 11 hours ahead of UTC.
It's also worth pointing out that the reports from the WSPRnet website say that the VK2 stations were running just 10 watts.
VK6CPU in Perth was also heard by VK5AYD in Adelaide at around the same time over a distance of 2149 km which was likely to be via Sporadic-E.
It would seem as if double hop Sporadic-E was the most likely mode of propagation for the VK2 stations.
Dropping down in frequency to the 6m band there was a remarkable 13,000 km opening on 50 MHz between Australia and South America on 12th December 2020.
With the Summer Sporadic-E season in the southern hemisphere now in full swing, there was a remarkable opening on the 50 MHz band on the 12th of December between Australia and South America.
The opening which is believed to have been multi-hop Sporadic-E was remarkable because of the distances involved which were in the region of 13,000kms and the fact that some of the signals crossed over part of Antarctica.
One of the longest distances reported was between VK5BC near Adelaide and PT9FD in the south of Brazil, a distance of 13,530 kms.
Stations in New Zealand were also able to get through to South America with distances in the region of 11,000 km being achieved.
Again more information can be found on https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/12/remarkable-13000-km-opening-on-6-metres.html.
Staying on 6m, Dennis ZS4BS alerted me to a free e-book about the 6m band.
Have you ever wondered about the “Magic” of Six Meters?
It really doesn’t take much on six meters — your existing HF+6 meter rig along with a simple antenna, even a dipole, will work. In this book you’ll find out how I know that dipoles work, along with how to build one of your own.
This book will also provide plenty of insight into how you, too, can “Capture the Magic of Six Meters.” It covers propagation, equipment, software, antennas, awards and contesting, as well as assistance in finding the magic.
The e-book Capture the MAGIC of Six Meters by Jim Wilson K5ND is available for free download in PDF format from
https://www.k5nd.net/2020/08/capture-the-magic-of-six-meters-ebook/.
On the SARL VHF/UHF Forum Andy VK6OX wrote the following “I'm a VK ham with many years of 6m operation. I did try with a few ZS stations several years back to organise scheds between Western VK and ZS. For various reasons, things didn't really eventuate.
Here we are now in late 2020 and I'd like to revisit the possibility of making 6m contacts happen between VK and ZS.
The advent of digital transmission methods has meant that even marginal propagation conditions has resulted in successful 2-way contacts.
Those of you that follow 6m activities globally will know that there have been several successful contacts between eastern VK and South America in the last few days. These contacts have taken place around 2200UTC onward. That's morning time in VK, evening in Brazil/Argentina/Peru etc. The current popular mode of digital transmission is JT65 for the long haul efforts. FT8 can also work but is several dB worse off in the long haul.
I still believe there is the possibility of making contact with ZS et al in a similar time frame i.e. evening in VK, early morning ZS.
So in short, if anyone in ZS is at all interested in giving this a go, please get in contact with me. (vk6ox@iinet.net.au) or via various social media platforms!”
There are some ZS hams who remember 6m CW contacts in the early 90’s between South Africa and Western Australia.
The 6m band is very under utilised and lack of equipment is not an excuse as every HF radio now days has 6m functionality as well. How about reading the e-book mentioned just now and capturing the magic of 6m for yourself.
You will also remember that I mentioned in last week’s Focus on VHF that I was going to monitor for the Bethlehem beacon using a similar measurement technique that was used for the HamSCI data collection. Well, I set up my 857D with an AMSAT SA Yagi and started collecting data from just before 18:00 on Wednesday 16 December. Analysing the signals received, I did not find any traces of the beacon signal, however I will keep recording the output of the 857D and hopefully will find the beacon popping up in the recordings. The nice thing about this measurement technique is that you do not need to be in front of the radio and if the beacon is heard with a fairly strong signal then it will definitely be recorded. Once a day I save the recording and then start a new recording, allowing me to go through the recording at my leisure.
As you have heard on the SARL news the Next Generation Beacon hardware is already on the ground and cleared customs. We are eagerly awaiting the delivery of the shipment and getting to play with the new beacon hardware. Bo Hansen OZ2M, the Danish OZ7IGY beacon project manager and his team has done a superb job of getting the hardware built, tested and shipped after the initial challenges to find some of the components needed.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and Above
6 December 2020
Audio version
My apologies for not having a programme last week. A lightning storm took out my ADSL line on the Friday evening. On Saturday morning I discovered that the cellular service was barely alive as well. No data services and a GSM signal that was almost non existent allowing only the odd phone call and SMS to be transmitted. So without anyway of being able to research the program, or sending the program to Hans ZS6AKV who compiles Amateur Radio Today resulted in me having the day off and thinking about the situation that arose. There is no real solution to the problem, but one thing is certain. The more we become reliant on technology in our everyday lives, the harder it hits us when the technology fails.
At least we radio amateurs have access to “older” technologies and we understand how it works and this allows us to be able to still communicate with the outside world when all else fails. We need to make sure that we brush up our skills and know how to use the radios, software and systems that are available to us because we never know when we are really going to need it. It is only a matter of time.
In the last program, I mentioned reports of 10m openings and Jose PY4AQA reported 6m Trans-Equatorial Propagation or TEP between PY4 and EA8 and I said that it was time to dust off those 6m antennas.
This week there were two reports of TEP openings between Argentina and the Caribbean Islands.
Etienne P41E on Aruba, managed to complete 33 contacts with Argentinian stations on 144 MHz using a combination of SSB, FM and FT8 modes. The most impressive being the contact with LU2EPO near Buenos Aires in Argentina, a distance of just over 5400 km. One of the TEP contacts on 2m SSB was with LU3FCI who was using a vintage Yaesu FT-780R which is almost 40 years old!
P41E-TEP-Nov-2020.jpg
Ettiene P41E also has a very modest station and it just shows what can be done.
P41E-Nov-2020-VHF-antenna.jpg
P41E-Nov-2020-radios.jpg
The second contact was between Buenos Aires and the Dominican Republic when David Lama, HI8DL reports that on the night of the 29th of November 2020, both he and Edgar, HI8PLE contacted LU2EPO on 144.300 MHz at 23:57 UTC. The mode used for the contacts was SSB and the distance was 6 102km
HI8DL-TEP-Nov-2020-map.jpg
Thanks to John EI7GL for the information posted on his blogspot at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/
It is time to dust off those 6m and 2m antennas and point them North.
We also spoke previously about the Geminids meteor shower that is expected in December. Dick ZS6BUN posted the following on the VHF, UHF / SHF West Coast WhatsApp group.
Dick says “Geminids meteor shower is the best of the year. We should see a pick-up of meteor activity from 4th to 17th December with a peak the night of the 13th and 14th.
I would like to suggest we get everyone able to get on 2m digital, to meet on the 2m MS freq of 144.360 MHz at say 05h00 on the mornings of Sunday the 13th and Monday the 14th.
We agree before hand:
- Who will tx 1st or 2nd
- MSK144 or FSK441
- 15 or 30 sec periods
- Skeds or free for all
Suggest we could also have a 6m gathering on 50.280 MHz at 05h00 on Saturday morning the 12 of December.
According to information on the NASA site regarding the Geminids, during the peak of the activity, approximately 120 meteors per hour can be seen. Not only should this be interesting to experience RF wise, but visually as well if we have clear skies.
Looking ahead at the Hepburn charts for the South Atlantic there is certainly opportunities for contacts between St Helena Island and Brazil.
Hepburn_Chart_South Atlantic_0000UTC9DEC2020.png
Inland there are a number of days where the conditions may be promising in the early hours of Monday 7 December
Hepburn_Chart_South Africa_0600UTC7Dec2020.png
and Wednesday 9 December
Hepburn_Chart_South Atlantic_0000UTC9DEC2020.png
The VHF Work Group next generation beacon project is making progress and the next generation beacon hardware for the test beacon that will replace the current ZS0BET beacon radio in Bethlehem has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery that should take place in the next couple of weeks.
The VHF Work Group is planning to replace the Bethlehem ZS0BET beacon’s radio and the Cape Town ZS1TWO beacon’s radio with Next Generation Beacon hardware. In parallel we are going ahead to complete a third Next Generation Beacon that will be deployed at a suitable site in the Karoo.
AMSAT SA has not only provided a generous donation towards the beacon project, but they have also started a crowd funding project on their website at http://amsatsa.org.za/ in support of the beacon project. The VHF Work Group would like to thank the Trustees of AMSAT SA for their support of the Beacon Project.
Donations can also be made by EFT. The account is SARL, ABSA Account No 407 158 8849, Branch code 632 005. The reference must be Beacon and your call sign and surname. Please send a copy of the EFT to admin@sarl.org.za
An article on the Next Generation Beacon programme has also been published in the November issue of the trade magazine Engineer IT.(www.engineerit.co.za)
Thanks to Hans ZS6AKV for publishing the article. Hans is the Executive Editor of the magazine and regularly posts articles about amateur radio activities in the magazine.
A copy of the November edition of Engineer IT can be downloaded at https://www.engineerit.co.za/magazine/engineerit-november-2020/
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 15 November 2020
Audio version
It seems as if this week has been very quiet regarding VHF and above activities.
Along the East Coast Phil, FR5DN was hoping for a contact with Dave ZS5DJ, but the conditions just did not allow it to happen.
Along the West Coast, the tropoducting stretched inland for some distance, but at the time of preparing this week’s Focus on VHF, I had not seem any reports of good long distance contacts up the West Coast.
The VHF/UHF analogue contest has also been on the go from 12:00 UTC on Saturday afternoon. The Cape Radio Group ZS1CRG has set up a field station on Piketberg mountain where they are hoping to get a lot of contacts from St Helena all the way down to Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs.
The Inland 46 Group was also on the air. Trying to make as many contacts as possible. Inland, VHF propagation seems to be more favourable late at night and in the early mornings.
Jose PA4AQA also posted two images showing possible Sporadic E conditions between Africa and Brazil.
I attended a HAMNET Gauteng training exercise that took place in the form of a Fox Hunt or Amateur Radio Direction Finding on Saturday morning. Being able to locate transmitters whether it is a Fox that has been hidden, or an ELB which is an emergency locator beacon of a downed aircraft or a missing hiker, or a rogue interferer causing problems on the amateur frequencies, is a skill all amateurs should master. You never know when you will need to use these skills. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning practising to locate the hidden transmitters and honing those skills again.
Apart from that it was a great morning spent outside with my fellow amateurs enjoying the hobby.
ARDF is a very popular radio sport in both Europe and the US. There is even an IARU ARDF Working Group and these guys are passionate about it.
For some reason ARDF has not been popular in South Africa for a while. Maybe it is time for the more senior amateurs, or the elmers as they like to call us, to teach the younger crowd how it is done. A great activity for a club afternoon and you do not even need anything fancy to hunt for a fox. Just a hand held radio, a hat and some sun block. Just a word of warning. The cheap Chinese radios like the Baofeng radios which are SDR based cannot be successfully used for a fox hunt. A hand held from the big three and some of the Chinese radios like Wouxun that have a proper RF front end will do the job. Once you have mastered some of the basic skills then you can maybe add a tape measure Yagi and an offset attenuator to your fox hunting toolbox.
I have seen that Charles ZS1CF has already proposed a date for the West Coast fox hunt again in early December.
What other groups have a regular fox hunt? Let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
The VHF Work Group are planning to replace the Bethlehem ZS0BET beacon’s radio and the Cape Town ZS1TWO beacon’s radio with Next Generation Beacon hardware. In parallel we are going ahead to complete a third Next Generation Beacon that will be deployed at a suitable site in the Karoo.
We have been given the go ahead to find sponsors for the project and require in the region of R60 000.00 for the hardware for the project. We already have in the region of R26 500 available for the beacon project, thanks to the SARL, AMSAT SA, Brian ZS6YZ and Dennis ZS4BS.
Donations can be made by EFT. The account is SARL, ABSA Account No 407 158 8849, Branch code 632 005. The reference must be Beacon and your call sign and surname. Please send a copy of the EFT to admin@sarl.org.za
The RF modules have arrived on my workbench and I have already tested all of them to ensure that they are fully functional. I am still waiting to hear when we can place the order for the NGN beacon hardware. The availability of the VCO modules are currently a challenge.
The new power supply for the Bethlehem Beacon will be sent to Rickus ZS4A early next week to replace the one that was mistreated by the lightning.
That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.
Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
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