Sunday, August 28, 2005

Celebration Net

Few days ago, our tiredless net Controller Pak Dollah, 9M2DS
was in control again on 25Aug05.
The day in question was Hari Wanita Sedunia.

Pak Dollah was on the mike again calling all Amateur Stations
to check in from 2100 hrs that night to wish all "wanita"
tha had contributed to each members reaching where they are
today.

A total of 30 stations checked in that night.

1. 9W2MZ
2. 9W2BAD
3. 9W2BGL
4. 9W2SMJ
5. 9W2YJ
6. 9W2GC
7. 9W2TOO
8. 9W2SSJ
9. 9W2PAT
10. 9W2XI
11. 9W2CCT
12. 9W2JBJ
13. 9W2TWO
14. 9W2HHL
15. 9M2CJ
16. 9W2CCH
17. 9W2ALQ
18. 9W2LAR
19. 9W2RY
20. 9W2MCT
21. 9M2RT
22. 9W2AXN
23. 9W2SAI
24. 9W2MEJ
25. 9W2KDN
26. 9W2XZ
27. 9W2LAW
28. 9W2SAL
29. 9M2MO
30. 9W2DDL

Net COntroller Pak Dollah closed the Celebration Net at 2230 that nite.
Syabas to all who checked in.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Read all abt it !!

A ‘Big’ thank you to all who help make this pretty picture above come true in our local daily – The Utusan Malaysia . Syabas! to 9w2SAI for his allegiance to HAM Radio and sharing his enthusiasm with us that this is made possible.

Special thanks to Ms. Mariatul for taking time to spend the evening with all of us here at 40 Thieves.. and for all those who have lend a hand to make 40 Thieves a success , Thank you.

73’s

MARES Field Day Celebration

Hi all,

MERDEKA AMATEUR RADIO FIELD DAY- 31 AUGUST 2005 MARES Field Day for the public and ham operators. Details are as follows:

Venue: Jalan Tinggi off Jalan Gasing
Date: 31 August 2005
Time: 2.30 pm

All are welcome

A QSP msg from Mares member. See you there guys, have fun.

73s

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

RUK (9M2RUK) . . . The Story...

In the 70's (can't remember exactly when) , the 2 Metre Band was made available to Amateurs in Malaysia. Unfortunately, Singapore did not, and HAMS there could not enjoy the same band spectrum as we did.
It was a period of great activity, enthusiasm and fun. But shortly after, we began to discover the properties of VHF. 9M2CM used the word "window" to describe channel effectsin VHF.

What is a window?...simply this; when you have a window in your house, you look through it and see the view. Move yourself away and the view dissapears. In VHF, if you move your handheld to a certain position, you hear the signal; move away from that position and the signal is gone. 9M2CM coined it the window effect! And so it was a limitation to contacts through the hand held or home station.
Very quickly he (then MARTS President) decided they should solve the problem with a Repeater. He wrote to his HAM friend in the United States for advice and at the same time discussed BANDPLAN with the Telecoms Department (Jabatan Telekom, Malaysia)
Within one week the equipment arrived at the Old Subang Airport (now Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Subang) and 9M2AV-Avatar Singh, along with 'Congoman-9M2CM' went to 'tussle' with customs. Nevertheless, the equipment was released. We then knew RUK consists of a transmitter and receiver (as one unit) plus an 8 element co-linear and 3 cavity resonators.
9M2CO-Adrian, immediately started assembly of the co-linear antenna (which turned out to be approx. 20ft tall) the 1/2 elements were positioned NSEW (directional) concentrically.
Again , within 1 week, the Repeater 9M2RUK found its home at Ulu Kali. A great big thank you to JTM, and all involved in getting 9M2RUK going.
With 9M2RUK now 'alive', a period of great activity followed ! The lonely HAM would trigger 9M2RUK and felt accompanied when the sweet response in Morse code . . dah dah dah dah dit . . . .dah dit dah . . Those who did not know wheter their rig was working triggered 9M2RUK and when RUK's response in Morse code was heard, the Rig was OK!
Ships passing throught the Straits of Malacca triggered 9M2RUK; perhaps 9M2FK, should be given the credit for installing a yagi high up his tower and triggered 9M2RUK from Penang !!
In those days you could only get through the repeater as far North as Ipoh and South up to Malacca.

**NOTE** 9M2RUK was given to MARTS by 9M2CM-CongoMan ;
The co-linear antenna mounted on the left hand side leg of Telecoms Tower Ulu Kali (View from Hotel Genting HIghlands) ; IARU and JTM secured 2 Metre Band for Malaysia.

THIS ARTICLE WAS REPRINTED WORD FOR WORD, as contributed by 9M2CM.
Syabas, and thank you to all involved; and particularly to CongoMan for narrating this story.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Johor 2mNet Via Echolink-9M2RGP

Even though the supposed to have been RF/Voip via Echolink connection have not been 'live' yet, and thanks to our friends down south in Johore, with their undying interest, (thanks for being patient guys), it did not deter them from running their 2mNet via Echolink.

Evident from that, here is the exceprt from 9W2PAT, email to me. Keep on D'Xing guys....On On!

"Dear Tony,

It's indeed my greatest pleasure to advise of our Johor 2 meter net happening yesterday.

At 8:45 pm i called (Francis) for his opinion to go ahead for my link to Gunung Pulai repeater for our Johor 2Meter net and was given the green light to go ahead thus giving me the impromptu decision to allow my echolink 9W2PAT-L to UPGRADE to 9W2PAT-R status. Since the net was an impromptu decision in linking, therefore our local ham community wasn't informed by me and they had a "BIG" surprise that the net was able to receive overseas hammers checking in. Suddenly our local hammers are very very busy listening to their Rig for once....hahaha. There's even one 9M holder (hardly comes on air) who checked in from our local community , eagerly awaiting his turn to check in and being the first checker whilst I was still in the midst of announcing the beginning part of the net.... hahahhaa.

At 9:30 pm I hosted the Johor 2Meter net (being the net controller) with our 9M8SL (Sly) assistance in echolinking and pulling stations from Malaysian conference (he's the moderator) .......land linking to other links over the net while I was busy controlling the net shooting away like bullets in the air.

It was very very successful with total 39 participants from worldwide checking in (MALAYSIA, USA, UK, Trinidad & Tobago, Thai, Brunei, Sabah & Sarawak, Pulau Karimon (Indonesia) and others.

The nett started at 9:30 pm and ended at 12:00 mid-night with a change in net controller, 9W2PAT- DR Patrick Chin (9:30PM till 11:00pm) -break for dinner & drinks.............to 9W2JO - James Tay (11:00 PM TO 12:00 midnight).

It's has to be put on record, Our Johor 2 Meter net that's 'marathoning' from local to overseas. Normally our net would start at 9:30 pm and ends around 10:15 pm with only our local JB hammer's checking only, and at times very monotonous. NOW we have added rainbow colours and a new era to the Johor 2 Meter Net, which hopefully, is gonna change forever. After the net closed, our Pulau Karimon hammers continue to use our repeater linking till 2:00 am before I totally disable the link to 9M2RGP repeater. Our hammer from Pulau Karimon for once was "jumping" over the air for able to QSO with other hammers in other part of the world as he had never believe this thing could happened at all. Nevertheless, he gave the link for a rest and would continue again next week on Every Thursday 9:30 pm for his next adventure with us. Please share this piece of good news on your blog website.

With Best Regards

73's....

With Best RegardsDR Patrick Chin"

Good luck to 9W2PAT and our firends in Johor, and looking forward to linking up permanently.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Aug 16 - 9M2RKK & 9M2RKL Downtime


Early morning QSO's was interupted again on August 16, due to both 9M2RKK & 9M2RKL repeater experiencing power interruption. A visit to Bukit Lanjan, by KL Regional Repreentative, 9W2XL - Bear, indicated that the Alinco Power supply (loaner from 9W2XL) experienced some connectivity problems (the Negative connector has come loose and have interrupted power connectivity intermittently).
A Quick decision was made to attempt fixing the problem later. At about 1630 hrs, 9W2XL, and yours truly, 9W2MCT, ascended Bukit Lanjan equipped with soldering tools and all.
A thorough check on the connectors confirmed 9W2XL's initial assessment, and rectification works commenced. A short while later , with some minor adjustments and both repeaters 'kechunked' to live!

(Picture illustrates 9W2XL's delicate hands at work!! - Pix courtesy of T630 Mobile phone camera of 9W2MCT - pardon the clarity......)

AUG 5 - FRIDAY Regular Eyeballat Ali Baba


Twas the time again, Friday, 5th August was no different...
No Haze, all in a daze, . . . indeed it was, last count probably 18 stations.....
I lost count after catching sight of one YL..... Hi Hi...
Keep it coming guys.....Big welcome to 9M2CO, Adrain, First timer to Ali Baba for dropping in, with the help from 9M2CM, Tommy, 9M2KK Chan, and 9M2CF - Chow.

(picture shows 9W2SSJ - Suchart and gang, testing out Echolink Box - with minor adjustments)

Also, a further blogspot Big hello to SWL Dexter & Raffiq,
welcome to the HAM Community...

Monday, August 15, 2005

Association with Echolink software


9M2DS - Pak Dollah takes on Echolink talking to stations down south at Johore Baru thru 9W2PAT-L link on the 12th August 2005.

Once again , Thank you to 9W2PAT and fellow hams down south for having the permanent link.
73's

Thursday, August 11, 2005

SEPT 6 & 7 , MARTS FIELD DAY, Universiti Malaya

Map to Location
CQ CQ CQ... MARTS with the help from the KL Regional Office, will be spearheading a Field Day on the invitation of ANGKASA - National Space Agency of Malaysia. This is in conjunction with ANGKASA's National Competition for Water Jet Propulsion 2005, to be held on Sep 5 & 6 in the Gronds of Universiti Malaya. MARTSNEWS.BLOGSPOT is taking the liberty to provide this information to all AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS irrespective of allegiance, through this site to call for volunteers. The event and agenda will be discussed once the core team is identified. Do call 9W2MCT- Tony Yew or place in the comment section of this post, your willingness to participate in this event for the good of the younger generation.

Our focus is to provide, information and demonstration of Amateur Radio related activities for the two days in mention. The current event as arranged by ANGKASA is as follows;

5 Sept 2005
8.00am Commencement of Competition
9.30am Arrival of Invited guest and Media
10.00am VVIP Arrival
Welcoming Speech by Vice Chancellor Universiti Malaya
Speech by Director General, ANGKASA
Launch Gimic
Press Conference
12.30pm Lunch
5.00pm Close of Day's event

6 Sept 2005
8.00am Commencement of Day 2 competition
1.00pm Lunch
3.00pm Arrival of Hon. Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation
Dato.Dr Jamaludin Jarjis
Closing Ceremony and Prize giving by Hon.Minister
Press Conference
8.00pm Video Presentation of Weeks event, and Barbeque for Participants / Exhibitors

footnote: This event is the milestone for the National Space Agency of Malaysia, in making inroads to the school and university scene. This final is a culmination of a year's effort in conducting regional and state level competition, and where, the winning team will represent our country in the world finals in Japan.
The invitation to MARTS to host a booth, completely sponsored by ANGKASA, will see MARTS increase its level of publicity, especially to the younger audience. Your effort, and willingness to share your experience, and knowledge with this young audience, will hopefully see a better pick up rate of Amateur Radio as a key hobby in the coming years. So, please put all your differences aside (if any) to help!

Friday, August 05, 2005

MCMC wants to know what you want - no joke.

Calling all Hams - Transmitting or not.

Many of us are used to lamenting about practically everything under the sun. Not that it actually does any good. The only thing it does is that it gathers like minded people in small groups nodding to each other. A wiseman once said, 'Great minds think alike...' However, without constructive channels, it is just gossip and teh tarik fodder.

Many of you already know that Bear 9W2XL has been appointted State Liaison Officer for MARTS by the Penang Council. While as expected, he is charged with maintaining the repeaters and associated areas; he has been summoned by MCMC to present ideas from the general populace of our fraternity.

Remember, MCMC is moving into the self-governance sector and is INVITING responses from its member constituents. Let it not be said that you did not have the opportunity to speak your mind or contribute.

If you have the skill sets and/or the inclination to contribute to this effort, please send your details to wisan@yahoo.com (selaku net controller utama webpage ini) with the following details.

Name . Callsign. Email. Contact Number. QTH. Areas of Expertise or Contribution. Time availability.

We are looking especially for those with a flair for writing, research, argumentative logic, editing, discussion, filing and collating. MCMC has indicated that it would like to open a dialogue with a working committee on areas of Development, Technical, Education/Syllabus, Operations, Policy Issues & Review AND Enforcement.

The first meeting is scheduled this Thursday, for which Bear will present. Following that, there will be other meetings to fine tune and put our recommendations into place for action and discussion. This is your chance to be heard.

In general, we support band plan expansion, unification, common access, CW abolishment, reduced redtape, best practise from other regions, et cetera.
We are opposed to factionalism, improper use of radio and non-compliance to procedure, commercial intrusion into ham bands and the like.

Those already identified as contributors are 9W2CBO, 9W2XI, 9W2MCT, 9W2AXN and 9W2XI. The workload is quite punishing, so we are appealing for others to join the team. Please help us make our hobby much more fulfilling.



9W2XYZ

Universiti Malaya - Science Fest Sept 6&7

Timing....that is important! Such, after 9W2JAR's thoughts on 'Wish we have more room', an invitation to MARTS from the Science Centre was received, requesting, participation from MARTS to promote Amateur Radio and its contents at an upcoming event to be held at Universiti Malaya, o the 6 & 7th September, 2005. Being a weekday, Martnews.Blogspot, is equesting interested parties to volunteer their time by registering by way of comment to this posting.

The Booth space and agenda will be discussed by this core group with help from MARTS.
An outline of the programme will further be posted on this posting.
The objective of this booth is to promote Amateur Radio and other related matters.

So, please raise up your hands, yet again, to help out in favour.