Monthly Archives: December 2016

Saying Adieu to DATV Studio

Posted on by Ben Short

Last Wednesday evening a small group of members gathered at the REAST club rooms to disassemble the DATV studio, in preparation for the rear shed being redeveloped by Tasmanian Maritime Radio (TMR) to move their operations hub into.

Amateur Television has played a large part of REAST, with the first broadcasts occurring from VK7OTC in 2005, in a makeshift studio, before moving to it’s own studio in 2010. Broadcasts started out as analogue before moving to DVB-S then DVB-T transmissions.

Digital Amateur Television broadcasts are planned to make a return in 2017 with the studio relocating into space currently used by TMR after they move to the redeveloped rear building. It will be an exciting time with the opportunity to rebuild the studio.

REAST club rooms will continue to open on Wednesday evening with other activities including satellite communications, software defined radio and homebrewing, along with all the regular show-and-tell and discussions you know and love!

AMSAT-VK National Net December 2016

Posted on by Ben Short

The last AMSAT-VK national radio net was held tonight with VK7LXX and VK7BEN participating via Echolink. They were greeted by regulars Judy VK2TJU, Bob VK2AOR and George VK2WEL.

Tonight’s net saw discussion about the new Chinese satellite being launched on December 26 with the designation BY70-1. The 2U Cubesat will have a V/U FM transponder with an uplink frequency of 145.920 MHz and a downlink frequency of 436.200 MHz. Further information can be found on the AMSAT NA Website.

Additional activity discussion centred around SO-50 operation and techniques to access it. Scott filled the group in with his progress in making a SatNOG base station and Ben discussing the recent attempts being made at the REAST clubrooms by Justin VK7TW and Danny VK7HDM.

Thanks to Judy for hosting the national net, and we will do it all again in February 2017!