Postings

IOTA 2024

This year’s IOTA team on St. John’s Island: 9V1AZ, Gopal; 9V1AD, Chuck; 9V1AV, JT; 9V1GH, Sanjeev with son Kush; 9V1JO, Johari; 9V1KG, Klaus; 9V1RT, Roland; and Sanjeev. 9V1RB with friend joined as day visitors. Station call sign was 9V1IO.

Meeting @ Marina South Pier
On the way …
Arrival at St. John’s Isl.
Our lodge
Rehearsal for NDP
Vertical for 20 m
End fed for 40 m and 10 m, vertical for 15 m
The team
Kitchen area
Sleeping hall
Roland and Chuck
9V1IO station

Thanks to Gopal for the whole organisation; to Haoyuan for letting us use his 7300 with PSU and PAC-12 antenna, Klaus for the Computer, Buddistick, endfed and Keyer, and Roland for the pole and camping trolley.

Recommended Books, Webinars and Articles

Here are some books, webinars and long-form articles that our members have found useful. They are in no particular order at present but perhaps if they list grows we can brings some sense to it. All suggestions welcome to 9V1SA @ qsl.net

Recommended ItemRecommenderComments
Andrew D. Barron ZL3DW (2018) Amsats and Hamsats: Amateur Radio and Other Small Satellites9V1YPAnyone interested in amateur radio satellite, this is a great book to read.
Robert R. Brown NM7M (1992) Long-Path Propagation: A Study of Long-Path Propagation in Solar Cycle 229V1SAI was intrigued to understand why the paths change from Singapore through the year
Robert R. Brown NM7M (2002) On Ion Chemistry and Propagation9V1SAWhat is actually going on up there to make our signals heard worldwide
Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA (2014) A Long Overdue Review of Gray Line Propagation on the Low Bands9V1YCK9LA is a world-renowned expert on ionospheric propagation, and he knows the physics behind it.  His webinar is really the best I’ve seen on how to describe low-band “gray line” propagation.

SARTS entry to IOTA Contest 2024

This year’s IOTA Contest takes place on Saturday 27th – Sunday 28th July 2024 from 1200 – 1200 UTC. Haoyuan 9V1HY is coordinating the Singapore entry, which will likely happen from Pulau Ubin or St John’s Island, likely travelling out on the Saturday morning, getting set up ready to start our time afternoon, then operating through the night before wrapping up on Sunday morning.

Anyone interested contact 9V1HY via telegram. For background on the contest, check the RSGB as it coordinates the event. There is more information about IOTA’s long term year round role and activities on that organization’s website.

Getting Started with Meshtastic

At the May 2024 SARTS quarterly meeting, Andrew Young kindly shared the wealth of information he has collated for SARTS members and a wider community of local people interested in building a vibrant LoRa based Meshtastic network in Singapore. This document is updated regularly as Meshtastic is evolving fast, so anyone interested is invited to join the 9V1 Meshtastic telegram group, which holds regular meetups and is coordinated through the LPWAN & IOT Interest Group Singapore, a community aligned with but independent to SARTS.

https://www.sarts.org.sg/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Getting-Started-with-Meshtastic-in-Singapore.pdf

SARTS and Singapore Scouts

For decades SARTS and Singapore Scouts have run successful JOTA (Jamboree on the Air) and, more recently, also JOTI (Jamboree on the Internet) events. Samuel Lau 9V1BX, working with 9V1FH, 9V1ST and others, set out to explore if there could be a way to deepen the relationship by empowering scout leaders to build Amateur Radio related activities into what the scouts already do. At the May 2024 SARTS Quarterly meeting Sam shared this presentation he used to introduce a series of activities at a joint activity session held on 11 May 2024.

SARTS-Scouts Intro DayDownload

Bear-10 Flight Announcement

  • Date/Time 19 May 2024 (Sunday) 06:45 SGT lift off.
  • Duration: a few hours
  • Call sign: 9V1WP-11
  • APRS: on 144.390 MHz
  • SSTV on 145.550 MHz

…weather permitting and with positive clearance by air-force controllers at time of planned launch. Flight plan has been approved by RSAF and CAAS, and payload approved by IMDA.

The weather Balloon Experiments with Amateur Radio (BEAR) is expected to reach an altitude of 25 km or FL820.