| Australian Amateur Radio |
|
| Australian Amateur Radio |
|
News about this site or generally what's going on around the
place of interest! Updated hourly.....well
pretty often anyway :-) If you find something interesting that you think should be
known by everyone.......please email
This list will grow fairly quickly...so check back regularly.
The date listed reflects the day that I posted the item to the list. It is not intended to reflect exactly how current the item is.
23rd Dec 2011 - VK Classifieds has been upgraded! A new version of the software which gives a new look with a lot of new features and more importantly compatability with all the latest browsers! This also meant a relocation of the actual domain to a hosted version of the classifieds with the company that writes it. This means future upgrades automatically and full support of not only the hosting but the application itself. A more expensive option but I hope better in the long run. Hopefully no more moves :-)
Again my great thanks to Peter VK2US for the previous hosting of the classifieds for many years and for the help he provided along the way.
13th June 2011 - Yaesu FT-ONE resources page created. Lots of pictures of this great old radio and links to manuals etc.
2nd Feb 2011 - VK Classifieds returned to JBO's Australian based servers as the US site was very slow and a lot more restrictive that they led me to believe! Live and learn. Anyway back on the JBO server and the site is flying again. Now the site is on its own domain at vkclassifieds.com.au Many thanks once more to Peter VK2US for allowing the site back on to his server.
12th July 2010 - VK Classifieds back online. Unfortunately my new host had issues with the way it handled subdomains. Consequently until we managed to sort out our "differences" things did not go as planned. Hopefully from now on things will go more smoothly. Thanks to everyone for your patience and apologies to anyone inconvenienced during this transition.
10th July 2010 - Change of hosting site for VKHam.com. This will hopefully give me scope for further expansion options and new functions. Watch this space.
I would like to acknowledge my previous hosting (for over 7 years) supplied by Peter Vernon VK2US. Peter supplied this hosting for me just when the traffic demands became too large at my first host and really saved the day. I will always be grateful for this and also for Peters support at all the odd hours to fix whatever was broken (normally me causing it!) Maybe now he can stop worrying when the phone rings :-) Many thank Peter!
3rd July 2010 - QSL Gallery added. Over 6000 images viewable! All QSL's received by me over the years - constantly updated as they arrive. Thanks to all who have QSLed over the years. Please keep them coming in.
19th December 2009 - VK Classifieds registration process changed. Registration now has to be approved before users can place adverts. Implemented to try to negate (if and where possible) attempts to submit bogus registrations.
25th August 2008 - VK Classifieds 10th Year online. Many thanks to all the supporters of the site. Too many supporters to name but thank you all!
11th May 2008 - added an online QSL request form. You can request a QSO confirmation online and for a QSL card to be placed in the Bureau for the contact.
11th April 2008 - added an online log search to my QSOLog page You can check if you are in my log (complete) and also tell if I have received your QSL card yet.
13th August 2007 - 1,000,000th visitor to the homepage today! Thanks again to all for the continued support.
4th October 2007 - 50,000th advert posted on VK Classifieds Thanks again to all who support the site.
1st September 2007 - VKHam relocated to an Australian host server. Thanks to Peter VK2US for his help and support with the move to his server. VK Classifieds has been there for quite sometime and has always proved fast and reliable. VKHam.com should also benefit in these regards, as well as with the increased traffic and storage available.
10th July 2007 - VK Classifieds updated. A software version upgrade (involving a few more late nights J) which enables some security features like user registrations, email verification and more. Unfortunately needed more and more these days. Nothing is foolproof but I'll keep trying..... If you find something that appears to not be functioning correctly please let me know. Enjoy.
14th April 2007 - VKHam is 10 years old today! (14/4/07) Time flies... 10 years is a long time in Amateur radio but in net time it is a couple of eternities and sometimes if feels like it. A huge thankyou to all who have encouraged and supported me over the years. Special thanks to Steve VK2SRN for the many, many hours of development help from the very beginning - which continues to this day. A big thankyou also to Peter Vernon VK2US for the hosting of the VK Classifieds section for the last few years as the traffic this generated (and still does) was enormous and would have, without major changes, brought down VKHam.
The first iteration of what was to become VKHam.com received 3 "hits" to its homepage on 14/4/1997 and two of them were me (I suspect that the third was Steve but he wouldn't say J ). Now it averages around the 400 per day mark and currently has just over 863,000 total hits to the homepage. VK Classifieds, which started just over a year later, is by far the busiest section of VKham and has so far had over 2.2 million visits just to the homepage! All of this equates currently to around 15-20gb of traffic per month!!
I started the site with the goal of providing useful content to VK's amateur radio operators on a site that was not bogged down with fancy stuff but was as fast as I could make it. This meant being very sparing on the pretty stuff but I believe it all contributed to a site that did what I wanted - delivered useful content in an efficient way. This is still my aim today.
Again thankyou to all my supporters over the years. To my detractors - IM STILL HERE J
Cheers....Allan VK2CA
24th December 2006 - 2,000,000th visitor to the VK Classifieds was recorded by Nedstat today! Only a number but significant to me as a sign that people still want this service to continue. Thanks to all who support VKHam, VK Classifieds and me personally. I appreciate it all.
13th August 2006 - 750,000th visitor to the homepage today! Still going strong after 9 years! Thanks again to all for the continued support.
24th March 2006 - VK Auctions launched today. A new radio related FREE online auction service. Square eyes and RSI in the mouse hand have been blamed on this but I hope everyone finds it a useful addition to VKHam.com. Please let me know what you think and especially if there is a problem with its operation.
11th February 2006 - Replaced the VK's on the Internet submission form to one based securely on VKham.com instead of an advert riddled web version. No adverts to confuse and annoy you when submitting your info now!
19th October 2005 - As of this date the Australian Amateur Radio licence structure has been revised to just three classes: Advanced, Standard and for the first time in Australia the Foundation licence class. The VK's on the Internet database has been modified to reflect these important changes
17th October 2005 - Complete reload of site after server failure. Please let me know if you find something that does not work :-)
5th April 2005 - 1,000,000th visitor to the VK Classifieds and still going strong. Thanks to all who have supported me over the last 6.5 years with this. It has been your help, good wishes and support that has prevented me from giving in to the detractors! Again many thanks for keeping intact, not only my belief that the majority of VK hams are genuinely nice people, but also my sanity :-)
19th March 2005 - Added a listing of older Dick Smith kit instructions and an assortment of CB service manuals and diagrams that can be supplied, on request, via email.
14th January 2005 - 500,000th visitor to the homepage today! Still going strong after 7.5 years! Thanks again to all for the continued support.
8th October 2004 - Added more data fields to the VK's on the Internet database. Another milestone also for the VK Classifieds in the last few weeks by passing the 750,000 hits mark!
6th June 2004 - Archived / finalised some results of poll questions that had been going for quite some time regarding licensing and the WIA structure etc. Very interesting reading. Added new poll asking if you will join or rejoin the new national WIA? The ACA response to their restructure of the amateur service was released on the 31st of May and also makes very interesting reading. The concept of a Govt. dept. listening to the people is a little scary but it does seem to have happened this time :-) Some very good outcomes and changes ahead.
19th September 2003 - Added an "EVENTS" category to the VK Classifieds to advertise Field Days, Club meetings and other radio related happenings and activities.
13th September 2003 - 300,000th visitor to the homepage today and also had the first day with over 1000 (in a day) visits to the VK Classifieds as well! Thanks again to all for the continued support.
15th July 2003 - Added listing of repeaters in Papua New Guinea
3rd June 2003 - Relocated VK Classifieds section of this site to Oz-Hams.org to alleviate bandwidth restrictions that the popularity of this service was causing. Many thanks to Peter Vernon, VK2JPJ, at Oz-hams.org for this invaluable help with the continued operation of this service.
3rd February 2003 - Completed 2002 results in the "thoughts" area. Any more ideas? Let me know.
1st February 2003 - 200,000th hit to the homepage. (Less than 6 months for the last 50,000!!) Thanks to all for your continued support!
1st January 2003 - Happy New Year! Added a Commercial section to the VK Classifieds. In a separate category to the rest of the adverts but hopefully will give a bit of exposure to some of our smaller distributors.
18th August 2002 - 150,000th hit to the homepage and still going strong. (Only 8 months for the last 50,000!!) I have said it before but would like to say it again....."Thanks to all for your support!"
16th June 2002 - added a Bulletin Board and Live Chat sections on trial (from Main Index page) Also photo's from trip added (see below or from QTH page)
15th June 2002 - Well back from Dayton trip (my credit card was VERY nervous!) and it was fantastic. Caught up with lots of guys in the US. A large thanks to all the guys who put us up and put up with us :-) (Especially N3SJL, K9JJR, KU4UC, AF4MI & KD4NKW) Photo's
Even called in on the special event station GB50 operating from Windsor Castle while we were in the UK as well! (special thanks to Mel G4WMP & Barb for again putting up with us & Dushan for picking us up etc.) Photo's
21st April 2002 - Added Mudgee information page - my new QTH!
14 April 2002 - VKham.com reaches it's 5th year! Thanks to all for their support.
20 January 2002 - Added modified VK Contest pages incorporating information supplied by Ian Godsil (VK3VP), the WIA Federal Contest Coordinator.
26th December 2001 - Added 2002 DXCC Most Wanted survey form to find out who is needed most by Australian amateur operators.
18th December 2001 - 100,000th hit to the main page!
Another cool milestone and took less than one year to get from 50 thousand - thanks to all for your support. Merry Xmas and have a safe and happy New Year 2002.
29 October 2001 - Added log search for CQWW DX SSB contest.
15th June 2001 - WHAT HAPPENED? Well a very long frustrating story but suffice to say that due to unforseen problems my domain name of vk2ca.com got released and a cyber squatting company in Russia registered the name as soon as it became available - they don't need the name - its just a web kinda thing - unscrupulous, but not much I can do about it now! It would have taken almost A$2500 just to lodge a complaint about the situation and would have taken up to two months to resolve. Although I am sure it would have been settled in my favour I elected instead to change domain names and carry on rather that let the service disappear for two months or more. So here we are with a new domain name www.vkham.com !
Please bear with me while I iron out the bugs and PLEASE let everyone know about the change. If you notice any errors please let me know. A special word of thanks to all the people who emailed with offers of support, both moral and material!. Your support is very much appreciated and is the reason the site continues.
19th March 2001 - some scenes from in and around Broken Hill added to the Local section - taken by VK2CA & VK1TX
2nd March 2001 - Due to a server upgrade that my hosting company surprised me with, which changed more things than I care to remember, the site has had a range of problems over the last couple of days! Oh well that's what spare time was invented for, wasn't it? All should be functioning normally again, my apologies if this inconvenienced anybody during this time, but as they say "Sh.. happens" and regularly when running a website :-)
3rd February 2001 - Added statistics and counter to VK Classifieds page to give some idea (though not 100% accurate as it only measures the performance of this page) of how popular this section is.
31st January 2001 - 50,000th hit to main page today. While not properly indicating the real "hits" of the entire site (currently averaging around 305 sessions per day), it was still a cool milestone none the less :-)
14th January 2001 - Added new Poll asking should eQSLing be made valid for DXCC etc. Also added a page with VK5GN's open letter on the future of the WIA.
9th January 2001 - Happy New Year to all. Update some links, software and added VK2CA's 2000 contest logs to eQSL.cc
30th October 2000 - Changed the AAR Webring over to RingSurf as it offered more than the Yahoo alternative!
13th October 2000 - Added log search for Oceania DX 2000 contest.
05th August 2000 - Added location maps for Australian Repeaters. Comments welcome as these pages can list almost any information supplied for each site.
18th June 2000 - Added log search for the VK Novice 2000 contest.
5th June 2000 - Upgrade of callsign.....so time to upgrade Domain Name :-) Changed to vk2ca.com (Hopefully the last time I move......?) If you notice anything that does not work as it should....please let me know. If you notice a link somewhere on some ones site pointing to vk2nnn.com please advise them of the change. Thanks.
27th March 2000 - Added searchable log for VK2CA CQWW SSB WPX contest log.
24th February 2000 - Added AltaVista's Babel Fish language translation utility to each page of the site.
9th January 2000 - Upgraded Search facility and some other minor enhancements while changing servers. Happy New Year to all. OOPS.....forgot to mention a callsign upgrade in November 99....Im now VK2CA also!!
26th November 1999 - Added Online logs, pictures etc. from the VK8ML & VK8CI IOTA DXpedition.
20th October 1999 - 100th site added to the Australian Amateur Webring!
18th October 1999 - Added National CW Survey - have your say on Morse Code's future as a licensing requirement.
29th September 1999 - Upgraded VK Classifieds software. Many new features including being able to add a photo to your advert!
17th September 1999 - Added software download page. Let me know if there is a newer version of any of the software on offer or anything you would like to see on this page.
10th September 1999 - Added All Asia 99 contest log to Contest Log Search page.
21st August 1999 - Added P29 & ZL sections to the VK Classifieds section.
4th August 1999 - VK's on the Internet now a FULLY searchable online database! Extra fields have been added to record Packet Email addresses, License Class, Date Entered, Interests & QSL Manager. Update your info or add it now.
3rd August 1999 - VK Classifieds is now FULLY automated. You can add or delete you own adverts online - instantly updated!
28th July 1999 - SITE RELOCATED - Changed the Name to Australian Amateur Radio - vk2nnn.com. and moved to my own domain which will give me a huge increase in space and previously unavailable facilities and capabilities! Watch this space. Again please remember to update your bookmarks and let me know if you find something that's not working as it should. Im sure I must have missed something :-) Thanks.
17th July 1999 - Added Site Search & VK's on the Internet Search engines.
14th July 1999 - Added search for 1999 HF log. Changed yearly log pages to just reflect QSL received status for those years.
12th July 1999 - Added separate Contest & HF Log search pages. Added IARU 99 log to Contest search page..
9th July 1999 - Added Callsign Prefix Maps for all regions of the world. (including AH8)
21st June 1999 - Added searchable log for my 1999 WIA VK Novice contest.
4th June 1999 - One year at Ozemail today!....and still growing. Thanks to all for your support. Added web-based forms to VK's on the Internet list and VK Classifieds to simplify additions/corrections/deletions to these lists.
25th May 1999 - Added Digital section to Radio links page. Also a few other assorted links
15th May 1999 - Updated World Amateur Prefix map to include previously omitted Pacific region (thanks to AH8I for the reminder)
14th May 1999 - Added pictures of the VK2RBH repeater site to the Local information page.
10th May 1999 - Added weather information to World Clocks page.
1st May 1999 - Added search capability to my CQWW WPX & Australian Post Code contest logs.
2nd February 1999 - Palestine added to the DXCC list. Prefix E4. See here for details.
4th January 1999 - Added Search engine to HF QSO Log for years 1997 & 1998. Added page for 1999 log.
8th December 1998 - "Your Thoughts" page added. What is your position on the question asked? Do you have a suggestion for a question?
9th November 1998 - Added new sections to the Radiolinks page eg. QSL Managers/Log Searches etc. Updated links.
4th November 1998 - Added complete (and growing!) HF QSO logbook. Years 1997 & 1998 Have you QSL'ed yet? If you have....many thanks :-)
31st October 1998 - Added a mirror of K1DWU's 3600+ links page. This listing will continue to be updated weekly and also a Zip copy of this page will also be available.
23rd October 1998 - Added the Australian DXCC countries listings - sorted by callsign & country and showing countries with active QSL bureau's!
18th September 1998 - Added Australian QSL bureau information page
4th September 1998 - Complete update of Ham repeater listings.
26th August 1998 - Added "VK Classifieds" pages to the site. Buy & Sell ham equipment - advertised online!
11th August 1998 - New H/H receiver from AOR. AR8200, 500kHz - 2040MHz no gaps!
10th August 1998 - Kenwood VC-H1 Visual Communicator - SSTV interface w/screen & mic! While your there check out the TM541A 23cm mobile. Other new ones here as well (these guys have been busy!)
7th August 1998 - Changed background to a watermark ie: background stays put....pages scroll!
24th July 1998 - Added a few more links to the Radio links page.
19th June 1998 - Added Log Book. Please sign and let me know that you dropped by. Any comments welcome....so let me know what you think, or maybe suggest something?
17th June 1998 - Have Daycom closed there doors for good?? Apparently so.....:-(
14th June 1998 - added Drop down navigation menu to all pages.
13th June 1998 - Separated Radio & Computer links into separate pages and added some more links to "essential' sites :-)
11th June 1998 - Added World Time page & links. Upgraded speed of VK email pages :-)
8th June 1998 - Added the ICQ "online indicator" and ICQ contact page. Also added the Internet Suffixes info page and a couple more links in the Radio & Computer links page. Thanks to everyone who responded favourably to the move :-) (big thanks to all that had to change links...and did!)...........now for some sleep :-)
4th June 1998 - MOVED! Not a fun thing to do :-) But it should improve the speed condsiderably over the previous site. Also a lot more disk space....so more ideas can be tested :-) Any comments about the performance etc. would be welcomed. Also anything you find that is not quite right, please let me know (with over 900 links anything could happen..Hi)
21st May 1998 - Finally! Yaesu is about to release a new mobile with everything! Check out the spec's on the FT-100. HF, 6m, 2m & 70 cm all in a very small mobile rig.
11th May 1998 - Check out the new credit card size dual bander from Alinco DJ-C5T
8th May 1998 - Added Quick Index home page. (A lot faster, if you know what you want!)
30th April 1998
ADI
soon to release the new "twin" amateur radios: a new 6 metre
handheld and a new 1.25 metre HT! The 6 metre unit is model number PR-52 and the 1.25
metre radio is the PR-222.
29th April 1998 WIA Morse code practise trasmissions schedule added to Tables page
26th April 1998 WinPac 6.4 (upgrade & full) available on the web
6th April 1998
Icom IC Q 7 coming soon. It is nearly same size as VX1, covers 30-1300 MHz in receive and 144 and 430 as TX. The output is 350 mW and it works with 2*AA battery. (Try the Japan site if you can read Japanese!)
1st April 1998
Kenwood have an upgraded TS-570 HF called the "G" model coming out soon - stay tuned! or check out Kenwoods site to see if there talking about it yet?
15th March 1998
C-568A - Standard have a new Triband HT out. Check this out! 2m/70cm/23cm
13th March 1998
TM-G707A/E - New 2m/70cm Dual Bander from Kenwood
6th March 1998
FT-847 - New "Do-All" radio from Yaesu! (HF-6m-2m-70cm)
TH-G71A - New Dual-Bander HT from Kenwood
IC-T8A -Worlds smallest tri-band HT (6m-2m-70cm) from Icom
IC-746 - New Base station (100W on HF-6m-2m)
This page was born :-)
