Winlink hut coming together
Site preparations well under way
Toyota loaded to the gills with gravel,
about 1.5t. Decided to put 100kg of concrete powder on bonnet to help
hold front wheels down for traversing steep road
Mick VK4NHX fitting new hoses to machine
Mick up and running building a new piece of road to negate the existing steep sections on the access road
The crew digging the foundation holes.
From left, Les VK4FLES on shovel, Chris VK4FGKO also on shovel, Bob
VK4FRC on the water tank hose, Ray VK4XXX on the Dingo digger, arguing
with the tough digging work. Ground is harder than concrete!
When the digging gets tough, add more weight :-) from left, Mick VK4NHX, Trevor Bell, Chris VK4FGKO and Ray VK4XXX
Mixing starts, from left is Les VK4FLES (our resident concreter) and Chris VK4FGKO on shovel!
From left, Jack VK4JRC and trusty Dingo
pouring in the mix, Chris VK4FGKO observing, Les VK4FLES guiding the mix
into the hole and Mick VK4NHX (our resident foreman) supervising!
Les VK4FLES finishing off troweling around the foundations.
VK4LM Jack Picasso handy work :)
At left, Mick VK4NHX, Les VK4FLES and Trevor cutting out insulation on tray of Landcruiser.
Chris VK4FGKO and Ray VK4XXX installing insulation.
It’s up and bolted down :-) Now to start the fitout.
From left Chris VK4FGKO, Mick VK4NHX, Jack VK4JRC and Les VK4FLES.
Winlink site from the air.
Winlink site from the air.
View of winlink shed and what appears to be an abandoned vehicle :)
Ray VK4XXX chief solar engineer at work!
From left, Les VK4FLES, Mick VK4NHX (Project Works Foreman) Ray VK4XXX laying out panels on mounting hardware.
Solar panel brace installed by VK4LM and VK4NJR
From left Mick VK4NHX, Merv VK4DV, Ray
VK4XXX, Les VK4FLES (Concrete engineer) Neil VK4NJR. Taking advantage of
cooler weather to get some more site works completed. Installation of
the antenna feed point pole, for the sky loop antenna. Coax to shed has
been laid underground in conduit. The RT-600 antenna tuner will be
mounted on the pole and supplied with 12volts via a bias-t from the
solar system.
Chris VK4FGKO holding ladder for Ray VK4XXX as he slides the remote ATU enclosure up the pole.
The enclosure final mount point at top of pole.
Concreting Wireless Internet and VHF beam mounting pole and conduit into trench.
Neil VK4NJR slaving over a hot shovel!
Ray VK4XXX on shovel
Jack VK4LM and Chris VK4FGKO working out 4G panel antenna mount.
Les VK4FLES checking 4G panel antenna mounting.
Jack VK4LM feeding cable into conduit.
Kay VK4FKJW supervising work, Ray VK4XXX sorting cable into conduit
Chris VK4FGKO and Les VK4FLES taking a break.
Today’s finished job! Battery installed,
solar charger installed wired and working great. 19in cabinet in place
awaiting equipment install. Loop antenna up and ready for some RF
You can see the 4G patch antenna
installed on the pole to the left, at this stage the yagi top left of
shed is in use. We are modifying, updating and testing a number of
things to make this gateway the best it can be.
A view from a bit higher up. You can just pick out the VHF (vara fm) yagi atop the pole
Ver 1
Ver 2
VK4LM Winlink node is online and installed in it's final site.
System is scanning dial frequencies 3590
7057 10130 14100 modes Ardop Pactor and VARA HF with a IC7200 connected
to a Chameleon CHA SKYLOOP antenna. FT8800 on 144.075FM mode VARA FM on a
home brew 3E horizontally polarized yagi. The PC stick has been getting
a work out with concurrent connections on Pactor HF and VARA FM VHF
with out a problem.
We have been getting connections from ZL1
ZL2 ZL4 VA VK1 VK2 VK3 VK4 VK5 VK8 JA K7 SA6 as well as our local test
team VK4JRC and VK4FLR on most bands and modes with good reports. Jack
has been giving 160M a work out mobile also with great results (160M
currently offline). Been able to maintain connections mobile on Mt
Morgan range as well as Mt Morgan CBD. Capricorn Highway Burnett Highway
and Gracemere CBD also work fine. Rockhampton CBD noise floor is a bit
much. I have also used the gateway from the mobile on 30M in the CBD
during the Emergency Services Day 2019. Watch this space for more mobile
and field deployment testing.
Please Note: VK4LM is running VARA HF 4.3.2 and VARA FM 4.0.5
We
have dropped support for Winmor. Over the last month (10 - 11/2020)
winmor has been locking up VK4LM and has required a restart to release
the TNC. Because of this we have been forced to remove it as a supported
soundcard mode. Sorry of any inconvenience.
The below from www.winlink.org website.
10
July 2020 -- The Board of Directors of the Amateur Radio Safety
Foundation voted in a recent virtual meeting to deprecate the WINMOR HF
mode in the Winlink system. We request all HF RMS gateway sysops still
offering WINMOR to remove it in favor of ARDOP, VARA HF and Pactor 3 or
4, where permitted by local rules.
The system will fill a big hole in the coverage of VKs East coast and the Pacific Ocean.
It is a hybrid gateway so if the internet is down emails will be
forwarded via HF radio to a node with internet it will then forward
emails to the CMS.