CCARC NEWS 12-42

CCARC Club News 25/11/2012 | 0

CCARC NEWS 12-42

THE PERIODIC NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

ISSUE No 12-42 25th. November 2012

In this Issue:

New electrics installed at the club rooms.
CCARC VK2AFY mention in December AR.
Spring VHF-UHF Field Day Contest – activity disappointing.
Reminder – next Saturday 1st. December – “Boat Anchor” day and December business meeting.

1. New electrics installed at the club rooms.

This past week saw the upgrade of the electrical fuse board at the club rooms. Gone is the old fuse-based set-up replaced with the more modern circuit breaker systems. The electrician will be installing the new smoke sensors in the club room to replace the old one this coming week. It’s good to see these somewhat overdue tasks, getting organised and executed – thanks to our property officer Bob VK2PEP for managing these tasks.

Under the principal a picture is better that a thousand words, here are some pictures of the new electrical board as it was installed:

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Ed VK2JI.

2. CCARC VK2AFY mention in December AR.

If you look in the Contests section of the December WIA Amateur Radio (AR) magazine on page 48, you will see a very short mention in the OCDX piece, that the Central Coast ARC took part as VK2AFY. The score wasn’t great but then we weren’t really “in it to win it” rather to give some contest experience to members that haven’t operated in contests before and to get a mention of the club in the results. What the piece doesn’t mention is how enjoyable participation in this contest was. It’s nice to be the station others are seeking, rather than being the hunter and the contest was also very friendly, a pleasure to be part of. Having the CCARC name mentioned in publications whether in news articles or contest results means that people know we exist and hopefully this can attract more members to the club.

Ed VK2JI.

3. Spring VHF-UHF Field Day Contest – activity disappointing.

As planned VK2EH/P was active on 6m, 2m & 70cm from the start of the contest at noon on Saturday 24th. November. We were spoiled for equipment to be used, especially on the accommodation side with Graham VK2GRA bringing his horse trailer which makes a great radio shack. The clubs new portable HF rig, the ICOM IC-7200 was used for 6m and worked flawlessly. Some very enthusiastic members were present for the site set-up at Staples Lookout on Woy Woy road at 10:15am. This is a site that we have used before and has a reasonable take off in most directions. All stations were on the air at midday through to 5pm. We had planned to be active for a full 8 hours but activity was very disappointing. Conditions were average but apart from a few stations on 2m there were almost no stations on 6m and 70cm. I even took down one mast to check antenna connectivity on 70cm it was so quiet. When we found the odd one or two stations on 6m & 70cm we exchanged strong signal reports but all said the same – where are the stations this year?

I will be putting together a slide show of pictures, which will appear in the contests section of the web site once they are collected from those who took them, but for now I thank the many operators and visitors (a total of 12) that we had at the station (two being from the general public, who were duly explained what was going on and supplied with WIA flyers). Operators were as follows:

Christine VK2FCHT, Bob VK2PEP, Doug VK2MDC, Geoff VK2ZC, Glen VK2GEM, Graham VK2GRA, Rod VK2LAX, Jim VK2LC and myself Ed VK2JI.

Ed VK2JI.

4. Reminder – next Saturday 1st. December – “Boat Anchor” day and December business meeting.

Next Saturday sees the CCARCs first “Boat Anchor Show and Tell” event from 10:30am at the club rooms in Kariong. Please bring along your classic radios, amplifiers, tuners etc. for all to see. In the afternoon, it is the monthly business meeting for December from 1pm.