General Information

One quarter of the year gone already! Things have been busy, but it is always somewhat surprising how quickly the months slip past. The year is certainly into the “hamfest” / “Field Day” season, with events occurring regularly.

I personally try to attend several such events each year, if only for the chance to catch up with others in person. Of course, one may also be tempted by some of the “goodies” on offer.

From all reports, the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club event at Wyong is probably the largest that we have in Australia. It will be interesting to see how the forthcoming Centre Victoria RadioFest at Kyneton later this month compares. This event is very interesting, as it see three clubs cooperating to hold a single event, rather than running one each.

This event, if successful, may see a change in the way these events are organised, with perhaps some rationalisation of the number of events being held. Time will tell the story.

WIA Annual General Meeting

Early May will see many amateurs gathering at Parkes for the WIA Annual General Meeting. By the time that issue reaches readers, the voting for ofﬁce bearers will have closed, so some decisions will have been made before we get to Parkes.

The organising committee has an interesting program scheduled, with the highlight being the technical tours of the Parkes Radio Telescope. I do hope that those planning to attend primarily for the tours will participate in the AGM. I am planning to attend the event, so I look forward to meeting many readers.

Additional details can be found on our cover story commencing on page 9, or via the WIA web site.

Publications Committee activities

This magazine is published regularly because of two key groups of people: those who contribute articles for publication, and the members of the Publications Committee.

The combined efforts of the members of the committee ensures that we have content ready to publish, that it has been reviewed to ensure that the material makes sense, that any diagrams are clear, and that we have hopefully removed any typographical and grammatical errors that may have slipped through the review process.

The committee has several ideas and issues that are under discussion. One process that we have commenced is to increase the number of review articles that appear in the magazine. For example, I expect that we will publish a review of the Yaesu-Vertex FT-2000 in the May issue. This month we have a review of the bhi ANEM DSP processor.

We will attempt to review a mixture of items, both transceivers and ancillary equipment. Of course, a review process requires some time to be spent exploring the item before the drafting of the review article. Our other requirement is cooperation from the equipment suppliers. I am happy to report that most suppliers that we have approached have been very willing to assist through loaning us equipment.

This issue

In our DX News column, we see that the DX hunters will be busy this month, with both Swains Island (a new entity) and Scarborough Reef being activated. Good hunting!

In addition to the normal range of news columns from our contributors, we also have a slight tendency this month towards antenna related articles. Lloyd Butler VK5BR tells us of his experiments in deliberately attempting to create an out-of-balance antenna feed. Felix VK4FUQ reports on his fault-ﬁnding activities with an antenna and feed line.

Michael VK3CH reports on a different style of amateur radio retail activity. Bill VK3BR reviews the bhi ANEM DSP processor, whilst Hank VK5JAZ reviews a book about emergency communications. Dale VK2DSH describes a useful function generator.

I trust that you all enjoy this month’s reading.

73

Peter VK3KAI

ar

General

Page 5 - New Antenna for VK5ROC Keith Gooley VK5OQ
Page 9 - Parkes – the radio telescope and the WIA AGM Robert Broomhead VK3KRB
Page 11 - Beware of unrecognised and undetected loss! Felix Scerri VK4FUQ
Page 20 - Sexy Socks -Amateur radio, retail style Michael Ampt VK3CH
Page 24 - Book review — Communications for Survival and Self-Reliance Dr Hank Prunckun VK5JAZ
Page 40 - QSLs from the WIA National QSL collection Ken Matchett VK3TL, Hon. Curator
Page 46 - Scarborough Reef — The expedition to the rarest DX entity April 2007 Kan Mizoguchi JA1BK
Page 51 - WICEN Tasmania (south) activated for bushfires Roger Nichols VK7ARN
Page 52 - Wanted — A Magic Wand David Bell VK3FGE
Page 53 - Quick HF antennas Trevor Quick VK5ATQ

Technical

Page 6 - Top loading by reverse feed Lloyd Butler VK5BR
Page 12 - A DRM down-converter for 455 kHz IF receivers John Titmuss VK4JWT
Page 14 - 160 metre noise cancelling Mick Hort VK2BZE
Page 18 - A function generator Dale Hughes VK2DSH
Page 25 - Equipment Review — The bhi ANEM (amplified noise eliminating module) Bill Roper VK3BR

Quick HF antennas

Author: Trevor Quick VK5ATQ

Trevor describes a variety of antenna ideas to allow one to get on air on the HF bands.

You can read the entire article by downloading the file from below.

Scarborough Reef — The expedition to the rarest DX entity April 2007

Author: Kan Mizoguchi JA1BK

Kan describes the 1997 DXpedition to Scarborough Reef and outline plans for the second activation of this rare DX entity in April 2007.

A DRM down-converter for 455 kHz IF receivers

Author: John Titmuss VK4JWT

DRM, which stands for Digital Radio Mondial, is the only universal, open standard, digital AM radio system with near-FM quality sound available to markets worldwide.

John Titmuss describes an easily built downcoverter for radios with a 455 kHz IF. The circuit produces a signal centred on 12 kHz that can be decoded using software and your computer sound card.

You can read the entire article by downloading the file from bottom of this page.

Equipment Review — The bhi ANEM (amplified noise eliminating module)

Author: Bill Roper VK3BR

As well as the inclusion of DSP noise reduction in several modern transceivers, there has been a number of outboard DSP noise reduction units available over recent years. Some have been included with speakers and some have been stand-alone units to connect between your receiver or transceiver and your speaker or headphones.

The performance of these DSP noise reduction units has also improved noticeably over the years as new digital chips and software have come along.

Bill Roper reports on one unit from the latest generation of DSP noise reduction modules and concludes that it appears to perform better than anything that he has previously experienced.

Advertisers Index

Australian Enterprise Industrial (One Man Tower)
Andrews Communications Systems
ATN Antennas
Av-com
Com-an-tena
G & C Communications
Hamak Electrical Industries (RM Products Italy)
Icom
Jackson Brothers (Components)
Jenlex - filters
KVK Antennas
Newtek Electronics (Amidon Ferromagnetic Cores)
TET-Emtron antennas
TTS Systems Communications Equipment
Vertex Standard - Yaesu