News 26.01.2020
Central Coast Amateur Radio Club
Preparations are well underway for the Club’s Wyong Field Day, Sunday the 23rd of February. Fox hunts return to the weekend by popular demand, with the club hosting not 1, but 2 Fox Hunts, on Saturday the 22nd February, starting from the race course. If you are interested in taking part, please complete the EOI so that planning and catering can be arranged; the form is on the club’s website and social media pages.
At the Field Day, both Lecture rooms have been filled and in a Field Day first, there will be a special guest attending live via Web Conference. There is a fully air conditioned marquee available for commercial traders, and word is that some traders are planning field-day only specials…
Gates open for traders between 6am and 8:30am, and general public at 8:30am. As always, there’s the Field Day raffle with some great prizes up for grabs including a lucky door prize; so make sure you keep your wrist band on you.
There will be both VK and US licence examination and upgrade facilities on the day. To register for VK examinations, please email the club’s education officer at education@ccarc.org.au no later than Thursday, the 20th of February.
For more details on all Field Day activities, head over to www.fieldday.org.au.
The Clubrooms recently had a data cabling infrastructure upgrade, future-proofing them for years ahead. A big thanks to Lindsay VK2FD and Brad VK2NMZ for the works involved. The club has also received a donation from Graham VK2GRA of some refurbished desktop computers which is a welcome upgrade and will be implemented for club member use soon.
The club’s Thursday evening net starts at 8pm, on the VK2RAG 2 Metre. On Thursday evenings, the repeater is connected to Echolink conference server “CCARCNSW”; and to the HAM server, with thanks to John VK3HQ – which also relays VK2WI Evening News. You can also watch the net by checking into the live Facebook video stream. The Club thanks Alan VK2MG for jumping in to run this.
If you are a packet radio operator, the CCARC has a packet radio BBS on 147.6 MHz, as VK2EHQ; it can also be accessed via the digipeater VK2RAG-1.
The Club’s D-star repeater is making progress; with a replacement computer is now up and running, the repeater is available locally and will soon be configured to restore full operation.
The CCARC is seeking interest from surrounding clubs for a collaboration workshop on ideas and concepts surrounding the overall Amateur Radio Hobby. If your club is interested, please email the club at ccarc@ccarc.org.au.
You can find out more about the CCARC on the web at ccarc.org.au. The club is also active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Simply search for “Central Coast Amateur Radio Club” and remember to give them a like and follow to keep up to date on the latest happenings. Club related news is happily accepted at publicity@ccarc.org.au.
Brad VK2NMZ
Vice-President, Central Coast Amateur Radio Club.
