Broadcast - 3 April 2022
Winter is definitely coming our way, Friday morning at the club rooms was not necessarily cold outside but it was good to see Luke Sky Warmer slowly burning away in the background, having successfully taking the overnight chill of the club rooms. Many thanks to Ros who turns up early every Friday to set up the club room and make the place welcoming and inviting to all.
As I put pen to paper or rather finger to keyboard, I am at St Helens with the NTARC Safety Communications crew, on an Equine Endurance Ride setup. We travelled down this morning and have established our Ride Base, set up a 2 meter and 70cm repeater for voice and data communications and trialled communications to each field check point. Rides start early Saturday morning. If it is Sunday when you hear this then hopefully we are packing up and making our way back to Launceston after “fingers crossed” a successful Equine Endurance Ride. An update to follow next week, but a big thankyou to those that travelled from the North West and Southern areas to provide assistance on this event.
NTARC Safety Communications Team has also been requested to provide safety communications for an upcoming Equine Endurance Event to be held at Wattlewood Park Sassafras on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th of April. The rides will be 160 km, 80 km and 40 km spread over the two day event. We will be providing Base Communications, checkpoints and RFID tracking of rider progress. As this is one of the closer events, only a pleasant 1 hour or so drive from Launceston and if you are at a “loose end” over the weekend, why not drop in, have a chat and drink and see how the Safety Communications Team utilise voice and data skills to provide this type of safety support.
And now for something completely different, an interesting quote heard around the bands.
“QRP CW operation is like fly fishing. It takes skill and patience and very little equipment.”
Sounds like a pretty accurate description of this addictive activity in a nutshell. Thanks Nic, VK7WW.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Club Tech night – Wednesday 6th April. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until whenever.
Club General Meeting – Wednesday 13th April. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Club Tech night – Wednesday 20th April. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until whenever.
TestNet and TechNet – Wednesday 27th April. TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7pm till 7.30pm….and a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm. Your host for the evening will again be Nic VK7WW.
Coffee Morning – held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Catch up time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there.
These coffee events represent a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards. We currently have cards awaiting collection, so why not pop in and check the QSL box and join us for a cuppa and chat.
Just a friendly reminder, please demonstrate your appreciation of all the effort that goes into operating the club, its facilities and the other services we provide, especially in these harder times, enjoying the company, coffee, biscuits and cake, by leaving a gold coin or two, or even a small bank note, in the jar to assist in our on-going operations.
Again a reminder that masks are optional, but encouraged to be worn at these sessions.
FINALLY – A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks from,
Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC inc.
