January to June 2008

SERG Visits USA and Canada

The big event this year was the visit by 6 SERG members to the USA and Canada. A very special part of the trip was to visit NASA installations and meet some very good friends of Tony VK5ZAI in the ARIS network. To say that the group was looked after well is an understatement. The generosity of our new friends was outstanding and it will take a while to go through the photos and present these on this site in a way that will do the visit justice.

The group meets at Mount Gambier Airport on Sunday 4th May 2008
From left: Col ('Who me snore?' VK5DK), John ('I didn't think anyone would notice.' VK5JA), John ('Has anyone seen my haversack?' VK5DJ), David ('Anyone for dessert?' VK5HDW) and Tony ('It's my digestive system at work' VK5ZAI). Missing from this photo is Kevin ('Why run 100 watts when a 1000 will do' VK5KJ) who joined the group in New Zealand.

Itinerary

Los Angeles: Monday 5th May 2008 to Wednesday 7 May (leave very early)

Houston: Wednesday 7 May to Sunday 11 May with Nick KC5KBO & Renee, KC5VMA

Washington/Baltimore 11 May to Thursday 15 May with Frank KA3HDO and XYL Janet

Chicago/Dayton 15 May to May 18th for Dayton Ham Convention

Travel with Robin (VE3FRH) to his and Diana's home in Burlington, Canada from 18 May to 23 May..

Calgary/Banff 23 May to 27 May 2008

Vancouver from 27 May to 28 May

Honolulu from Wed 28th to 30th May

Home again 4 weeks later on 30th May after 4 terrific weeks.

Our first port of call after a quick trip from Mt Gambier to Melbourne to Auckland was Los Angeles. Of course we had to see the sights, and this included Hollywood where we kept our eyes peeled for movie stars.

Here we all are on Venice Beach in Los Angeles looking for movie stars

While taking a walk around the back streets near the motel in Los Angeles we spotted a nice HF beam so we knocked on the door and found a very friendly husband and wife HAM team, Bob K6CUK & Norma WA6MIK. They made us welcome with a cup of coffee and tea and showed us their radio gear. The nice Collins amplifier missed the photo.

While waiting for our table to be prepared we checked out our boats in the harbour.

Try not to look at the prices DJ, and HDW will you prod Col and wake him up again?

"It's not true what they say KJ, you're just cuddly." says HDW

Arrived in Houston and our hosts were Renee and Nick

One evening Nick took us to the local pistol club and there we learned to correctly handle a handgun. Two of our members seem to take it more seriously.

Col VK5DK faces up to ---

John VK5JA with his extensive experience

The next evening we had a great barbeque with a friendly group of Nick and Renee's friends. One of the guests was astronaut Barbara Morgan

Nick, Tony and Barbara Morgan KD5VNP. Barbara flew mission ST118.

A number of young people were at the BBQ and John took the chance to talk Physics.

The group attending the welcome BBQ at Nick and Renee's home. Photo by VK5KJ.

The SERG group in the old Apollo control room

Anyone for a spin? The giant centrifuge at Houston

Above: The entrance to Houston's neutral buoyancy laboratory where we witnessed astronauts practising their duties ready for the next space walk.
Watching them prepare helped us all appreciate the complexity of the tasks, including getting into a space suit.

An amazing sight. The photo of the neutral buoyancy laboratory in operation. In the top left an astronaut is being assisted into a space suit. A mock up of a section of the space station is in the water.

Mission control for the space station at work

DJ lives his boyhood dream of flying the Space Shuttle (Clear prop)

Tony in the shuttle's copilot seat steering us into a smooth landing

Astronaut Bill McArthur (right) explains some fine details about life on board the space station (we are standing inside a full size mockup of one module).
Mockups are created for design and training purposes.

This is a Soyez capsule - in case you think astronauts get it easy! Two people fit inside here with all the gear. It would be less than 2 m across.

Tony (right) presents Bill McArthur KC5ACR with a memento of Mount Gambier. Bill flew a number of missions 1993 STS58, 1995 STS74, 2000 STS92 and by Soyez to the space station in 2005. He was very active with schools via ARISS.

Astronaut Bill McArthur (centre) and the SERG members at Johnson Space Centre

Time for a quiet break from space. A pleasant meal at Renee (left) and Nick's (right) favourite Mexican Restaurant.

 

Jill, this is especially for you. Tony keeping to his diet.
He couldn't say "No" to the pretty waitress in the CN Tower (Toronto).

A $1M spanner used at the space station for repairs, now replaced by lighter model.

Kevin blows out the candles on his birthday cake (thanks Renee) while David looks on

The group at the White House in Washington

Summer in Canada

David and Colin enjoy the warmth of a Canadian summer at Niagara Falls

Look, no teeth for John (DJ) and a healthy appetite for David (HDW) in Wendys, Burlington

Our host Robin Haighton (left) and Diana (home) provided us with wonderful hospitality in Burlington Canada. His friend David Lord (third from left) took us all for a yacht ride on Lake Ontario - a great adventure and a well rugged one too.

The Canadian section of Niagara Falls from our helicopter

Col wishes we could put this water at Banff into the Murray

While at Banff the two John's caught economy class tickets to the top of the mountain.

Tony was given permission to play at the Calgary Airport

David checks out the totem poles in the park near Vancouver

The museum at Pearl Harbour was well worth the visit. Here Captain Col checks out the girl in the red dress while Tony and David get frisky.

Col (I'm just checking the back of my eyelids) and John VK5JA relax at Waikiki Beach Honolulu

A section of the radio room in the Battleship Missouri in Pearl Harbour.

The group had a lot of trouble with jetlag. Here is a record of our most lively moments.

One of the pictures (no secrets given away) may be clicked to reveal the cause of the group's woes at Washington.

		He who must be admired
	A quiet dignity here		Dreaming of a good ARISS contact
Dreaming of a nut sundae		Now just a few more turns on the Tesla		Heck that wallet's uncomfortable

 

More photos to come... work in progress.

Winter Field Day

On Saturday 21 June 2008 four members of the club travelled to The Bluff to air the club call sign. A cold winter's day meant only a small number particpated but hardy souls VK5DK, VK5NC, VK5KET, VK5MC got things active. Well done. A total of 8 contacts on 144MHz, 2.4GHz, 5.7GHz, 10GHz.

Andrew VK5KET, Trevor VK5NC, Col VK5DK with Chris VK5MC behind the camera.

Naracoorte Working Bee (late April 2008)

Stever VK5SKS and Charles VK5XCP work on the wiring for the light at the top of the new Naracoorte tower.

NARC members Alan VK5ZLT, Simon VK5VST, Phil VK5PCL, Warren VK5FSCH assemble the tower

Trevor VK5NC and David VK5HDW inspect the new Naracoorte repeater
UHF links to The Bluff and Willalooka, black audio bridge at bottom, 2M repeater to right

Colin VK5DK our esteemed master technician supervises the workers with a steely eye.

Visit to ABC site at Mt Burr on 1st February 2008

Peter Becker (ex VK5KBF) our host for the visit. He did a great job of explaining the site in language we all understood, well done Peter.
Approximately 12 members attended the site and after an excellent barbeque cooked by Tom VK5EE and Mathew VK5HMW

Norbert VK5MQ and Andrew VK5LAC inspect their proposed new 2M output stage!

John VK5JA, Eion VK5KEE, Peter, Andrew VK5LAC, Steve (awaiting Advanced Callsign)

John VK5DJ repeater coordinator lusted over these cavities used to bring the UHF transmitters into one antenna

Coax sockets, unfortunately the photo gives no idea of scale. Those sockets are about 150 mm across (that's six inches).

A 1 KW module, one of 20 that run a 20KW ABC transmitter

Andrew VK5KET and Trevor VK5NC confiscate a 500MHz antenna

Mathew VK5HMW and Chris VK5MC inspect the monitoring panel

Summer field Day 12/13 January 2008

The following amateurs participated in the SERG Summer field Day event at The Bluff located half way between Millicent and Mt Gambier. They were VKs 5DK, 5NC, 5HMW, 5KET, 5HDW, 5XCP, 5FRED, 3FNBL, 5DJ, 5DG, 5JFK, 5FJIM, 5AV+son Daniel

Numbers in brackets after call area are contact numbers to that area

50MHz (6 Metres) 60 contact VK2 (10) VK3 (5) VK4 (37) VK5 (8)

144MHz (2 Metres) 68 contacts VK2 (3) VK3 (30) VK4 (11) VK5 (24)

432MHz (70cm) 31 contacts VK3 (15) VK5 (16) VK3BJM was portable VK2

1296MHz (23cm) 6 contacts VK3 (4) VK5 (2)

2.403GHz (13cm) 8 contacts VK3 (5) VK5 (3) VK5DG was portable VK3

3.400GHz (9cm) 4 contacts VK3 (4)

5.760GHz (6cm) 5 contacts VK3 (5)

10.368GHz (3cm) 8 contacts VK3 (6) VK5 (2) VK5DG was portable VK3

Total of 190 contacts. Points not known at this time.

Col VK5DK and Mathew VK5HMW 2M, 70cm, 23cm operation	President David VK5HDW checking logger
Charles VK5XCP at 6m operation centre	Mathew VK5HMW sawing wood
Day dawns at The Bluff	The SERG portable site

David VK5DG using his 10GHz equipment to VK3UHF.
Left to right: VK5DG, VK5DK, VK5JFK, VK5DJ

TV experiments

Andrew VK5KET began the fun and since then Colin VK5DK and David VK5HDW have joined in. Using old satellite IFs and VK5EME transmitter boards they have succcessfully transmitted a picture from Millicent to Mt Gambier on 1250MHz. The distance from Col's to David's is about 45km with a low range of hills in between.

Here is a photo of David's signal in Colin's shack on 24/01/08.

Below are some TV pictures received at David's place on 9/01/08 before Col's TX blew up.

Col's test pattern

Col's shack.