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  ODDS AND SODS

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REPORTS:

2008 Buy  and  Sell.
About 400 eager amateurs crammed through the doors of the Goodwood Community Centre on Sunday November the 9th , to take part in our most ambitious ever club event.
The hard work of the committee and other club members came to a most pleasing fruition on that day.
The presence of a good number of commercial vendors lent an air of excitement to the event, loosening many purse strings (including the editor’s!)
The committee acknowledges the efforts of those club members who helped set up and clean up; AREG; the visitors from interstate, including WIA representatives, and the various interstate and local commercial vendors too. We hope that all who attended had a good time on the day, and we welcome any constructive suggestions for next year.

Barry Williams (VK5ZBQ) and Denis Haseldine (VK5FHHH) at one of the bargain tables.

Dave Symonds, of Altronics (Aztronics, Adelaide) in a spin. (Photo fluked by the Editor).


D-STAR LAUNCH.  Icom guru, Peter Willmott explaining the workings of the system to the large audience.

Richard Hoskin, VK3JFK, the WIA expert on the D-STAR system, presenting the WIA’s involvement in the project.

 

 

AHARS committee members John (VK5EMI), Christine (VK5CTY), and Leigh (VK5KLT) at the first raffle draw.
(Prize donated by Christine).

Note the special Officials' jackets!

Kristy from Bushcomm presenting Paul VK5FPAU with his antenna prize.
(Photo David, VK5KC)
Crazed bargain-hunters in the Main Hall.
(Photo David, VK5KC)		 Our fine concierge group at the entrance: Bryan, Joy and Shirley.
(Photo David, VK5KC)

 

 

GENERAL NOTICES:
 

FOUNDATION LICENCE TRAINING

December 13 and 14th. Please contact Sasi Nayar or Barry Williams (Back Page) for further details.

 

SAFETY ISSUES

Next year we will have a Safety Night.
All those aspiring to live to a good age are urged to come along!

 

 

NOTICE OF  ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Inc

will be held on Thursday 19th of February, 2009.

Start time: 7:30 pm. Venue: Belair Community Centre, Belair.
 

For Nomination forms, Minutes of the 2008 AGM, and the Agenda for the 2009 AGM,  
 click here

PICNIC:

DATE: Saturday January 17.

VENUE: Bridgewater Lion's Park
UBD Map 146.  15E

START TIME: About 12 noon.

Please bring salads or dessert,  drinks,
chairs, and tables.

 AHARS will provide bread, butter and meat.

Please let Barry Williams know if you intend to come.
 Phone 8339 5683 or email [email protected]

 

Whyatt by kind permission of Allison Curnow,
Licensing Manager, Whyatt Cartoons.

 

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OUR FINNISH SISTER CLUB: OH3NE.

Our much-travelled  Vice President, Leigh Turner (VK5KLT), as you will remember, has been busy forging links with the Tampere Radio Club in Finland.
Last month I reported that they had adopted AHARS as their sister club in Australia, and we have now similarly adopted them as ours.
On a recent trip to Finland in October, Leigh had the honour of being made an Honorary member of that club.
 On the night Leigh also entertained OH3NE club members with an impromptu guest lecture / interactive technical discussion on the subject of small but efficacious magnetic HF loop antennas and gave an overview of amateur radio in Australia and a little history about AHARS. ”

 
Leigh with his Member of Honour plaque, presented by Hannu, (OH3KW), the President of OH3NE (at left). Some of the club members present at the presentation.
Note the well-equipped clubroom.

Pictures about the presentation of Leigh Turner,VK5KLT about magnetic loops 9th October 2008 in OH3NE club Tampere, Finland.

Leigh is a member of the Adelaide Radio Amateur Club and a honoured member of OH3NE club.

(From the OH3NE website. It's worth a look at!)

Where our sister club is located.
 

More photos of this event are on their website:
 http://oh3ne.ham.fi/wiki/index.php/OH3NE_ENGLISH#Home_page
 

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RECENT MEETINGS:

September 18. TALK - Sea Rescue Squadron Operations
Club member, Sasi, VK5SN, took us on an illustrated adventure upon the seas, explaining the workings of the Sea Rescue Squadron, and its importance in creating a safe environment for small boat users, and also as an organisation which people can belong to and contribute to.

The importance of radio in maintaining the safety of those who go down to the sea in ships was well shown.
See below for further information on this important activity.

 

September 27. VISIT - SA Sea Rescue Squadron

About 22 AHARS members attended a most interesting and educational visit to the SA Sea Rescue Squadron.

Our own AHARS member, Sasi, VK5SN, is the radio guru for the organisation.
Our party was split into two, with Sasi taking one group, and Skipper Craig Wilson the other.
We were shown Sea Rescue 1, a fine, modern boat, with all the conveniences of modern technology, including a bevy of marine radios, a Master-Slave GPS unit, depth sounder, and the like.
We noted the proximity to each other of the various aerials on the boat, but were assured that they all worked well.
A look over the command radio van left us WICEN people drooling. Now – if only we had one of those!
 This roomy (cavernous?) vehicle has its own generator, sink, and multiplicity of radios (including GRN).

 The Sea Rescue organisation has about 6 0 0 members, with about  150 operational members. The SA SRS is looking for volunteers  to do  radio  shifts or become sea going operational members. The squadron also offers accredited courses in radio voice procedure (Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency, 27 MHz marine radio awareness session and SA-GRN user training), seamanship (SA boat operators licence), coastal navigation and first aid.

 If you are interested, please contact  the radio base at 8295 5062 or visit their website http://www.sasearescue.org.au/ for more information 

 Many thanks to Sasi, Craig and the squadron for a most interesting and educational excursion.

October: 16:TALK – Airstream
 Air-Stream devotees Kim Hawtin and Karl Goetz gave an illustrated lecture on their other interest, the Air-Stream community area network (CAN or WAN).

Air-Stream provides a network to its members and associated clubs, utilising

4 watts EIRP on the 2.4 and 5 GHz ISM bands, and consumer and commercial WiFi equipment, to its 80 active members.

The network is made up of a backbone network run by the network team - built from funds provided by membership and other funds raising activities - and members maintain parts of the network and provide access to all the members services and content on the network.

Air-Stream is looking to extend the network to the North, East and South into the Adelaide Hills. Anyone who can help with a suitable site would be greatly appreciated!

For more information, please visit the web site; http://www.air-stream.org or contact via email; [email protected]

 

NOVEMBER 20 - CONSTRUCTION NIGHT.


Construction guru Graham Dicker (aided by the Master’s Apprentice, Cameron), guided the club in the making of something very interesting but different, this year – a Van Der Graaf generator.

 

Two of our brightest sparks with their creations: Cameron (VK5FCMD) right, and John (VK5UX), left.

 

  

Rumours that the Dickers chose this particular project to clean out their recycling bins have been hotly denied.

 

WICEN

 

CLASSIC ADELAIDE.
Our second rally for the year was held from Wednesday November 18 until Sunday 23.
A total of 55 WICEN people turned up to staff the headquarters and the rally stages. There were 34 stages, covering from Gumeracha to Inman Valley.

The rally has grown over the years, and its current size is stretching WICEN to its limit.
WICEN experts (Ian Clayton, VK5AIC, and others) spent many days setting up and testing 8 temporary repeaters and translators, to ensure that our “scoring” (provision of car numbers and timing) was received by Rally Control (in the City) in a timely and accurate manner.

 

Thanks to those 17 AHARS members who turned out to ensure the success of the event, and to keep the flag flying for Amateur Radio.
PS: It's a lot of fun (ed.)
 

TRAINING DAY:

WICEN will be holding a training, discussion and BBQ day on Saturday February 21st. Please keep an eye on the website, or contact the Secretary, John Dawes (ph 8388 2297 or email [email protected]  for updates on this.

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

ALARA MEETS
There were two major ALARA MEETS this year.
The first in September, in Tasmania (attended by a goodly number of our AHARS ladies), and another in October, in South Africa. Our globe-trotting committee member, Christine, (VK5CTY) had the good fortune to attend them both.
Brief Report from Christine Taylor on her YL Meet in South Africa:

"It was amazing to find myself greeted time after time by "You were in New Zealand weren't you?"

The New Zealand YL International was in 2000, but people remembered me from then. It was a great feeling. I felt that I belonged to a special group.

This Meet lasted over a fortnight. Most YL Internationals are only four or five days, like Hamilton in ZL Land. The attendees usually arrange to do a tour either before or after the Meet to see more of the country they are in, but in South Africa very few extra tours were planned because Vee ZS6ZEN and Janet ZS5JAN had made it possible for us to see so much of the country.

We stayed in a Zulu village (in tourist type accommodation), in a game park, sleeping in tents, and we stayed in good class hotels. We had tours of the game parks to see the elephants, rhinos, and lions in their natural habitats, and we had visits to the Cullinan Diamond mine, a radio telescope site, and a magnetic observatory. And there was lots of time for the "shop till you drop" people as well."

 See November AR for more.

 

The Tasmania Meet. I count six AHARS ladies (plus one virtual member!), and a few OM's, too. Good to see such good representation. (ed.)
(Click on photos for an enlargement).

Table Mountain, South Africa.
Christine (VK5CTY); with (L to R) Nori (7K3EOP), Gwen (VK3DYL), Christine, Lars (ZM5CAI).
(Photos from Christine).

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