Sail-World.com is streaming the 1705 Sydney Hobart Radio sked and Radio relay traffic on 6516kHz courtesy of Peter Bye, who operates VK2MPJ from North Nowra, on the NSW south coast.
Daily position reports (skeds) will be conducted on the race frequency (6516 kHz)
The last radio sked was at 0735 this morning (AEST) They are in fact at 0735 and 1705 hours each day and as at other times as may be advised by the Radio Relay Vessel JBW.
During the race, boats retiring will report to JBW on this frequency as did the boats making their Mandatory Green Cape declaration *** (details below) and emergency race traffic will also be directed to JBW who will maintain a listening watch 24 hours per day.
Boats will report wind strength over 40 knots. (although that is unlikely to happen today, as the fleet sails into softening conditions in Bass Strait.
The main voice you will hear on JBW, the relay vessell is David Kellett, ISAF Treasurer and former Commodore of the CYCA.
Peter is a volunteer member of the NSW Rural Fire Service and at this time of the year could normally expect to be on bush fire fighting standby, but with ex-cyclone Lawrence heavy dumping rain across NSW, there is no immediate bushfire threat, but the rain has caused another problem
Peter explains ‘I hope you are enjoying the streaming feed.
‘I apologise for the less than perfect reception, but I have done all that I can to clean it up. I have tracked some of the noise down to the High Voltage power lines at the rear of my property, they have never been an issue in the past, but then again, it has not rained on me during the Sydney to Hobart before.
‘The insulators are quite old and with all the moisture there is some arcing between the elements, not only is it causing noise on HF, but you can stand outside and hear it. So aside from cutting down the power lines, I cannot do anything about it sorry.
Peter comments ‘By the way everyone, the NSW Rural Fire Service is constantly looking for volunteers, so if you feel you might have the time to help look after the community go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au '
Providing more detail on his equipment, he explains
‘The joys (or pitfalls) of HF are that it relies heavily on atmospheric conditions, so perhaps there has been some improvement that has worked in my favour. I am also led to believe that marine HF is 'interesting' at the best of times.
‘Certainly interference from foreign broadcast stations on a nearby frequency after 2000 hrs doesn't help.
'I am using an Icom IC-7000 Transceiver connected to a home built antenna.
‘I did set-up a commercially made centre fed wire di-pole in an inverted 'v' configuration running East - West yesterday, to see if that improved anything at all.
‘Unfortunately it did not; in fact the home made antenna is working better, which surprised me as the commercial unit has worked well for me in other settings.
‘I have also set up my old faithful Yaesu FRG-7 Shortwave Receiver. This radio is possibly older than I am, and uses old school analogue tuning technology, unlike the Icom which is fully digital and only 12mths old.
‘The FRG-7 (or Frog 7 as they are known) requires a different approach and 'touch' to operating, but the results are very rewarding.
‘To myself and many other radio enthusiasts, the old technology simply sounds better.
’The main reason I stuck with using the Icom as the main radio though, is it has the ability to 'filter' out some of the interference in order to hear the desired signal, whilst sometimes this does not work as well as we would like, it is far better than having to listen to ear piercing squeals and the like!’
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