Broadcast - 13 Nov 2022
Even though this has been a very quiet week, as far as absolutely no new news arriving on the reporter’s desk, time wise it seems to have vanished. This time last Friday as the broadcast notes were being penned we were in the midst of trying to finish the load up of two vehicles with electronic equipment, which hopefully once it was re-assembled would be a working Equine RFID tracking system to be displayed at the Hobart Expo. We managed to head of South allowing as much time as possible to crawl through all the Midland Highway road works and managed to make the “get to know you” BBQ held at the REAST club rooms. The organisers should be very pleased with the VK and ZL turn out for this event. There were times when we wondered whether there were more non VK7’s there than us!
We were lucky enough to receive a guided tour of the maritime monitoring facility located next to the REAST club rooms. This was an amazingly informative visit covering historic radio equipment through to the current network of remotely connected sites throughout Tasmania. To augment the radio side of things some remote sites had the ability to return live high resolution video via remotely controlled cameras.
This tour really was the icing on the cake, or probably more accurately the icing on the hamburger seeing it was a BBQ.
A thank you to the NTARC members who helped with the clubs working Equine Endurance Ride monitoring and logging equipment setup and display. The equipment load in on Saturday night and back on deck again at 07:00am on Sunday morning. With the assembling, staffing and pull down again on Sunday afternoon going seamlessly.
Well done VK7’s Idris ZIR, Andre’ ZAB, Peter KPC, Colin ZCF, Lionel ZLB, Tony ZTT, Ian IG and Stefan ZSB. Sorry if I missed anybody but it was a bit of a blur in spots.
It certainly was a fun day at the Expo with the interchange of tracking and logging ideas and information with many areas of VK and even ZL. We will definitely stay in touch with one group to see how they end up tracking their Kayaking entrants over a two hundred kilometre course, this one should prove an interesting one.
The overall Northern VK7 representation was down on what one would have hoped for but unfortunately sometimes you don’t have a say in when you get sick or even literally can get back on your feet, let alone travel. It’s a shame after all the excitement and anticipation that you build up over time for an event like this. Hopefully videos of some of Saturdays presentations may be available, as well as the Expo on Sunday, if available these will be well worth the watch.
Yours truly was lucky enough to be drawn in the raffle and received a prize, which ironically is a year’s membership to REAST. I will fill the paperwork in, send it off, cross my fingers and hope that they will accept another Northerner. hihi
If it hasn’t been covered in this broadcast yet, it soon will be, but from our perspective the Conference and Expo was an outstanding success, the organising committee must be congratulated for an excellently executed event.
Now back to the usual round up.
Equine Endurance event - The State Championships at Santarena Park, Scottsdale on the 18th & 19th of November is coming up rapidly. This is a request for additional crew members to help us handle this twenty four hour event starting at midnight. Please advise if you are able to assist for any length of time during daylight hours by emailing Roger, VK7ARN or catch up with the Secretary at a Coffee Morning or Tech Session.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Club Technical night - Wednesday 16th November. Held at the NTARC Club rooms, 7.30pm until late.
TestNet and TechNet – Wednesday 23rd November. 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 be Nic VK7WW.
SSTV Net - Held every Thursday night on the 70cm repeater, VK7RJG and linked to the South via repeater VK7RAF. Conducted from about 7.30pm. These SSTV images will be available on the NTARC website under ‘Blogs’ soon after the event.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Get warm while you catch up, time is from 10am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. We currently have a couple of QSL cards awaiting collection, so why not pop in, check the QSL box and join us for a cuppa and chat.
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.
Remember equipment photos and radio propagation maps are available on the NTARC web site under “Blogs” for this week’s broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73 from Stefan, VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC
