The Feilding Radio Club and it's members note with great sadness the passing of ZL2JC - Formerly ZL2TXT on 28th january 2011.

John was one who kept the local repeater busy and was always there to greet visitors to our region.

He helped many amateurs and other people interested in radio over the years.

John will be greatly missed both on a personal level and within the community.

Rest in Peace John!
[Submitted by jdeburgh]

The 54th JOTA 2011
The 54th Jamboree On The Air will take place on 15 and 16 October 2011.
This year's theme is: Peace, Environment and Natural Disasters.
An exciting activity that focuses on the strength of Scouting: to act and support in unforeseen circumstances. Scouts are prepared.

[Submitted by Stuart Anderson]

Consultation paper: Changes to citizen band radio services
Changes proposed to the General User Licence for Citizen Band (CB) Radio are still open for consultation. Submissions close on Friday, 11 February 2011.

The proposed changes, released for consultation in December, include:

•the doubling of the number of channels available in UHF public radio services by reducing the PRS channel bandwidth from 25 kHz to 12.5 kHz
•reducing the spacing permitted between PRS repeaters from 20 kilometre to five kilometre to allow greater use of repeater facilities
•introducing additional spectrum for CB services in the 27 MHz band that is harmonised with the frequencies allocated for CB in Australia.
The proposals make no changes to the existing provisions for the 26 MHz CB band or the use of 25 kHz UHF equipment in the UHF personal radio service band.

The proposed changes will be of particular interest to CB operators and equipment suppliers, and the users of local area paging services in the 26.95 MHz to 27.3 MHz band.

If you would like clarification on draft proposals please email RSM.

Please read the consultation paper.

A WebSDR is a Software-Defined Radio receiver connected to the internet, allowing many listeners to listen and tune it simultaneously. SDR technology makes it possible that all listeners tune independently, and thus listen to different signals; this is in contrast to the many classical receivers that are already available via the internet.

Go to : http://www.websdr.org/ for more information. Or use the Links page on this site.

Welcome to ZL2AMR -The Feilding Radio Club!
"Why should a person join a radio club like The Feilding Radio Club? What are the benefits of joining an amateur radio club? The answers may surprise you.

The key benefit of joining an amateur radio club is to join up with other people who have the same interests and have a good time exchanging information and experiences relating to amateur radio. And, it's not only amateur radio, per se, but also an open door to many related and non related activities.

At meetings you will find people interested in many different aspects of the hobby. The usual people with the very popular 2m handie and mobile enthusiasts. In addition, there are HF'ers, satellite, packet, APRS, repeater and other enthusiasts who may be present. Those who've built their own radios, feedlines and antennae to those who seemed to have bought just about every radio around.

There are chances to try out and expand your radio horizons at the gatherings. Including at our periodic outdoor gatherings, one gets to see and operate a no-fuss HF, VHF and UHF station that's powered by deep-cycle batteries.

Keep in mind that the greatest benefit of joining an amateur radio club is a regular and ready mutual access to experienced technical information, references and learning experiences. The more you pursue and interact, the more you get out of your membership. And that translates to a chance to nurture and grow your knowledge and radio horizon -- whether it's amateur, commercial or personal.

So if you are interested in getting started or a seasoned 'Ham' then contact us!

Now retired, and restricted for workshop space following relocation, I am now more occupied operating rather than constructing, and even more active on the Internet than on air.
Lately I have stumbled over two Ham-related 'net activities: SDR and News.

Firstly, SDR - Software-Defined Radio - using computers to interface to the ether. This is mostly receivers, but there is some activity in the transmit/transceive area too.
There are several relatively cheap kit receivers available, and some professional product on the market. The best I have seen is the Softrock kit - a small circuit board with mostly conventional components (one or two 'surface-mount') that results in a 'dongle' between antenna and sound card.
These devices can be used as an in-Shack receiver, or shared. There are a number of these interfaced to the Internet, which can be accessed by anyone (Ham or not) with multiple users per shack! All you need to use them is your computer's web browser with Java (most have this anyway).
The most popular site I have found is http://www.websdr.org - some of the sites listed here have multiple receivers - mostly optimised per Ham band, but not exclusively so. I would not be surprised to find a SWL or two appearing here - the site's owner has a DC-to-20MHz unit (!), though this seems to be an expert-only venture.
The rig-control program 'Ham Radio Deluxe' has passed into new ownership, and its original owner has moved on to SDR development. Look at SDR-Radio.com. It will control a range of in-shack SDR gear, and also selected web-interfaced SDRs.
There is also a pseudo-radio 'net-only environment giving a Transceiver-like interface and operation approximating DX-like conditions - Hamsphere. 5-day trial, then pay-per-month. Probably useful for those unable to erect antennas or house a real rig.

Then, News - the face of Ham Radio. On the Internet, this is multi-media, audio and video. I stumbled into this world via Amateurlogic.tv - a few Hams in southern USA 'newsreeling' their shack and community activities. To date 33 episodes, 40-60 minutes each. I have kept both high-and low-resolution Windows Media files, and can distribute locally by DVD or CD for those on low-speed connections (50-100 or 150-300MB per ep!) - or visit with laptop and link in - virus-free I promise!
From here I found Ham Nation, a weekly show on TWiT.tv - a west USA multi Tech-topic site. Host for Ham Nation is Bob Heil, K9EID (think microphones), and for TWiT itself Leo Laporte. As I started 'tuning in', Leo had just got bitten/smitten by Ham Radio and was studying for his license. He is now W6TWT and getting more and more active and confident/competent as a ham.
Leo, an experienced Broadcaster, brings both enthusiasm and polish to the face of Ham Radio, and this seems to be enthusing others as well. Recently George W5JDX from Amateurlogic.tv has become a regular contributor to Ham Nation.
From here I found SolderSmoke - an audio series detailing the exploits in Ham Radio of a US QRP enthusiast, with overseas history, also getting into DSB homebrewing. He also has a blogspot page with occasional video clips.

With these, I also found RSS as a means of reducing the 'chasing around' in keeping up with the latest. As its name implies, it's "Really Simple Syndication"!

...from the desk of Dex, ZL2DEX



[Submitted by ZL2DEX]

What is APRS?

Automatic Position Reporting System, or APRSTM is a system for use with packet radio by Hams, it allows the monitoring of real time geographical information such as the position of vehicles, the status of weather, radio direction finding and much much more. It involves mapping, GPS tracking, packet radio, etc. It is a VERY interesting facet of packet radio and has much to offer most everyone including non-hams that just want to watch over the internet.

See the Links area for a link to local users.

New amateur radio digital mode - ROS
ROS is a brand-new Amateur Radio digital spread spectrum mode with the first HF contact taking place on Thursday February 18.

The first contact with ROS took place on February 18, 2010, at 20:56 UTC from Vitoria in Spain to the University of Twente in the Netherlands covering a distance of 1265 Km on 7.065 MHz.

The HF frequencies currently used for ROS are USB 3.600, 7.053, 14.101, 28.300 MHz

To use ROS you just need your HF radio, a PC and a basic PC sound card interface, see link below.

The software for ROS is free and you can download it along with the User Guide and Introduction to ROS Spread Spectrum at http://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

The University of Twente has a Software Defined Radio you can use via the Internet, see
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Soundcard Interfacing
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2007/psk31_soundcard_interface.htm