29-01-2022, 04:50 PM
Amateur Radio magazine - Issue 1, 2022
The latest edition of Amateur Radio magazine – the first for 2022 – Volume 90, Number 1 – will be with you from this coming week. As I’ve said in the past, the good folk at Australia Post will work hard to get it to you.
The theme for this issue is contesting: a 16-page section with its own "section cover" - shown here - and featuring a pull-out contest calendar.
Two innovations in the one issue!
The middle pair of pages in the issue – 34 and 35 – are the centre sheet of the magazine, which you can easily lift out and post to the noticeboard in your shack, on the door of your fridge, or elsewhere at-hand.
The contest calendar is based on the one developed by Alan Shannon VK4SN, which he posts to his website annually – after all, why re-invent the wheel! – we’re grateful for Alan’s cooperation. Alan, by the way, is the WIA’s Contest Committee Chairman.
The section includes an article on how to enjoy contesting – written by veteran contester, Martin Luther VK7GN – and another article on Ten Tips for Tyro contesters, which lists those topics that you need to keep in mind! A dozen, in fact. Twenty percent more! AR magazine always strives to give readers a bit extra.
You’ll find rules for this year’s John Moyle Memorial National Field Day coming up in late March, as well as how to strategise participating in the VHF-UHF Field Days, along with a full report on the 2021 Remembrance Day Contest.
So, what else is in the issue?
With the annual Ross Hull Memorial VHF-UHF Marathon contest concluding in 31 January, it was apposite to highlight just who was Ross Hull? That question is largely answered by an article titled “Ross Hull and the Selden Hill Gang,” written by Charles Dubé, callsign W1LCD.
Ross was one of Australia’s early radio experimenters who worked for a forerunner magazine to Electronics Australia. He held the callsigns 3JU and VK3JU. He was lured to work for the American Radio Relay League – the ARRL – and its journal, QST – where he pioneered use of the amateur bands above 30 MHz and famously demonstrated that atmospheric conditions extended the frequencies beyond the line of sight horizon. The article sets out his exploits and those of his colleagues staying in a house at Selden Hill in Connecticut, near ARRL headquarters.
The article includes a number of historic photographs, altogether fleshing-out the life and times of ". . . a man who packed so much life and legacy into his few but kinetic years as the sage of the Selden Hill Gang, along with the others who, in their unique ways, contributed to make radio what it is today."
We have waited more than a year to bring you this story. Back in late 2020, we were approached by the author through the ARRL and finally gained permission late last year to bring it to you.
Also in Issue Number 1, we have a Rig Review of the Lab599 TX-500 transceiver, a Russian manufactured HF-plus-50 MHz rig designed to appeal to the portable operator.
For the do-it-yourself brigade, we have an intriguing article on a digital dooverlackie described as a Swiss Army Knife for Engineers. The author, Greg Mew VK4GRM, sets out how this dooverlackie may be used to add pre-distortion to an RF signal to improve the linearity of a power amplifier. And it can do lots more.
So what’s a dooverlackie? It’s an object or machine, that is not understood; OR something you can’t recall the name of.
For the constructors and designer-developers, Lou Destefano VK3AQZ continues his closely-followed HF antenna tuner project. On the subject of getting your signals out and back, the series on Unravelling the mysteries of connecting radios to antennas, by Dr Brian Clarke VK2GCE, continues with Part 4.
Jules Perrin VK3JFP continues his Newcomer's Notebook stand-alone articles for learner-licensees, this issue covering The power and the glory of Ohm’s Law, and the wonder of components in series and parallel. Plain language explanations without the complex mathematics.
Continuing with our recently introduced policy of disclosing the focus of the next issue, we reveal that the topical theme for Issue 2 is Test & Measurement.
Issue 1: look out for it in your letterbox from 3 February. The online issue will be available for download around the same time.
Roger Harrison VK2ZRH, Editor in Chief, AR magazine.
The latest edition of Amateur Radio magazine – the first for 2022 – Volume 90, Number 1 – will be with you from this coming week. As I’ve said in the past, the good folk at Australia Post will work hard to get it to you.
The theme for this issue is contesting: a 16-page section with its own "section cover" - shown here - and featuring a pull-out contest calendar.
Two innovations in the one issue!
The middle pair of pages in the issue – 34 and 35 – are the centre sheet of the magazine, which you can easily lift out and post to the noticeboard in your shack, on the door of your fridge, or elsewhere at-hand.
The contest calendar is based on the one developed by Alan Shannon VK4SN, which he posts to his website annually – after all, why re-invent the wheel! – we’re grateful for Alan’s cooperation. Alan, by the way, is the WIA’s Contest Committee Chairman.
The section includes an article on how to enjoy contesting – written by veteran contester, Martin Luther VK7GN – and another article on Ten Tips for Tyro contesters, which lists those topics that you need to keep in mind! A dozen, in fact. Twenty percent more! AR magazine always strives to give readers a bit extra.
You’ll find rules for this year’s John Moyle Memorial National Field Day coming up in late March, as well as how to strategise participating in the VHF-UHF Field Days, along with a full report on the 2021 Remembrance Day Contest.
So, what else is in the issue?
With the annual Ross Hull Memorial VHF-UHF Marathon contest concluding in 31 January, it was apposite to highlight just who was Ross Hull? That question is largely answered by an article titled “Ross Hull and the Selden Hill Gang,” written by Charles Dubé, callsign W1LCD.
Ross was one of Australia’s early radio experimenters who worked for a forerunner magazine to Electronics Australia. He held the callsigns 3JU and VK3JU. He was lured to work for the American Radio Relay League – the ARRL – and its journal, QST – where he pioneered use of the amateur bands above 30 MHz and famously demonstrated that atmospheric conditions extended the frequencies beyond the line of sight horizon. The article sets out his exploits and those of his colleagues staying in a house at Selden Hill in Connecticut, near ARRL headquarters.
The article includes a number of historic photographs, altogether fleshing-out the life and times of ". . . a man who packed so much life and legacy into his few but kinetic years as the sage of the Selden Hill Gang, along with the others who, in their unique ways, contributed to make radio what it is today."
We have waited more than a year to bring you this story. Back in late 2020, we were approached by the author through the ARRL and finally gained permission late last year to bring it to you.
Also in Issue Number 1, we have a Rig Review of the Lab599 TX-500 transceiver, a Russian manufactured HF-plus-50 MHz rig designed to appeal to the portable operator.
For the do-it-yourself brigade, we have an intriguing article on a digital dooverlackie described as a Swiss Army Knife for Engineers. The author, Greg Mew VK4GRM, sets out how this dooverlackie may be used to add pre-distortion to an RF signal to improve the linearity of a power amplifier. And it can do lots more.
So what’s a dooverlackie? It’s an object or machine, that is not understood; OR something you can’t recall the name of.
For the constructors and designer-developers, Lou Destefano VK3AQZ continues his closely-followed HF antenna tuner project. On the subject of getting your signals out and back, the series on Unravelling the mysteries of connecting radios to antennas, by Dr Brian Clarke VK2GCE, continues with Part 4.
Jules Perrin VK3JFP continues his Newcomer's Notebook stand-alone articles for learner-licensees, this issue covering The power and the glory of Ohm’s Law, and the wonder of components in series and parallel. Plain language explanations without the complex mathematics.
Continuing with our recently introduced policy of disclosing the focus of the next issue, we reveal that the topical theme for Issue 2 is Test & Measurement.
Issue 1: look out for it in your letterbox from 3 February. The online issue will be available for download around the same time.
Roger Harrison VK2ZRH, Editor in Chief, AR magazine.