I’m a member of a fairly active group – the Bunbury Radio Club. The club’s history stretches back to the 1970’s boom in CB radio and we are open to all radio enthusiasts, not just amateur radio operators – although almost all current members are licensed. As the club has experienced some growth in the last couple of years, we are increasingly conscious of the need to project a positive image for the club and amateur radio in general.
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Monthly Archives: September 2015
Diamond in the Sky
I’ve been meaning to write a follow up to my earlier post about the Feature Tech antenna analyser. The short summary of that post was that when I hooked up the antenna analyser to a mobile whip on a magnetic base, I saw all sorts of SWR values which were often not repeatable and changed even as I was taking my hand away from the meter. I was disappointed with the device.
Fast forward a few weeks, in a QSO with Martin VK6ZMS and he was strongly of the opinion that I was doing myself a disservice by running a mag mount without grounding the antenna to my vehicle close to the base of the antenna. Another clue was one idle afternoon at home, I threw the analyser on my WARG Pogo Stick 2m antenna and it had none of the problems I had seen. The SWR readings were reliable (you could read of a value for a frequency, change the frequency then change it back and get the same SWR value) and did not alter as I handled the coax or moved away from the meter. One of the features of this antenna is that it has an coax choke at the base.
RTS-SDR Sleuthing
Yesterday on the way back from a BRC meeting, I stopped in at Harvey to try and track down some interference we are getting on the 70cm repeater VK6RBY that is located on the scarp just east of the town. Listening on the input frequency 433.650 MHz the squelch was breaking as I entered the town limits. Within a few minutes of driving I’d tracked it down to a particular town block.
I hopped out of my ute and tried to use the scanner to try and narrow it down further – without much luck. I’ll have to come back with a yagi to do any better. Since there seems to be a constant carrier with the occasional burst of pulsing, it’s probably a telemetry device of some sort. Continue reading
The Download
I’ve been drawn away from time playing with radio for a couple of months, working away in another town to backfill someone else’s (harder) job. In addition to the time involved in getting my head around the new job, it means starting from scratch again with antennas etc, and I haven’t brought all my gear so whenever I do have an hour to play, I’ve often not got the tools or equipment I’d like. As a result I’ve been keeping in touch by catching up on a number of podcasts and I thought it might be interesting to talk about a couple of them plus some other ham news sources.