VK5ARG entering Oceania DX Contest: Oct 3rd/4th PORTABLE

Posted on 2015-09-25 by Grant

Next Weekend is the Oceania DX Contest, SSB section. Members of the AREG will be activating the Club Call sign VK5ARG for this event from the Para Wirra Recreation Park, north east of Adelaide. The OceaniaDX contest provides a great opportunity for Oceania stations to get on the air as there is lots of activity in our region. Whats more, the DX chasers from around the world will be actively looking for Oceania! Hopefully the propagation will favour VK5. More information on the OCDX contest can be found via the WIA website.

Contest Times: 08:00 UTC (17:30hrs ACST) Saturday 3 October to 08:00 UTC (18:30hrs ACST) Sunday 4 October 2015 (Yes Daylight savings starts this weekend too!)

AREG welcomes all amateurs with an interest in portable field stations and contesting to come on up to the park and visit us over the weekend. Entry to the park will cost $10 / vehicle for a one time fee for the weekend.

While the park closes at dusk, the radio club has sought and obtained special permission from the park rangers to remain in the park overnight. To find our operating location, enter the park from the main gate off Humbug Scrub Road, proceed past the the park office then past North Oval until you reach the toilet blocks, picnic shelters and open paddock at the end of the bitumen. OCDX-StationLocationMap-2015

More than just contesting!

Saturday Afternoon prior to the contest AREG will be having a HF activity afternoon with a mixture of SSB and FreeDV operation on both 20m and 40m. This will be another great opportunity to test FreeDV. The VK5ARG team will be monitoring the FreeDV QSO finder, and posting regular blog updates as the afternoon evolves. Activity is planed from 1500-1700 Local time but may start earlier depending on interest.

Theo VK5MTM operating 20m

Update: Friday 2nd October – Construction Begins….

The crew have arrived and are studying their blank canvas. Hmmm how to decorate this paddock with antennas? Lets put up the 40m antenna over here!

AREG activates VK100ANZAC as the WIA National HQ station in IARU Contest

Posted on 2015-07-02 by Grant

On the weekend of July 11th and 12th, the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group will be activating the WIA special event callsign VK100ANZAC as part of this year’s IARU HF Contest as the official WIA Headquarters station.

The IARU HF Championships encourage amateurs to contact as many other amateurs, especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world as possible using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands. Operation will begin at 1200 UTC Saturday and ending 1200 UTC Sunday (July 11-12, 2015).

Look for VK100ANZAC / WIA during this weekend and give us a call! Better still, why not give the IARU Championships a go yourself. Details are available on the ARRL website

John Moyle Field Day Results In: VK5WIA placed first in it’s division!

Posted on 2015-04-25 by Grant

The results are now in for the 2015 John Moyle Memorial Field Day. As published on the WIA website, the multi club operation undertaken by AREG, EARC and members from NERC under the callsign VK5WIA has taken out first place in this year’s Multi Operator Portable HF Phone only division.

VK5WIA scored: 1141 contacts and achieved a score of 2,282 points

Well done team! Congratulations to everyone who took part!

CQ WPX & VK5 Parks Award activity underway!

Posted on 2015-03-28 by Grant

The VK5ARG activation during the CQ WPX Contest and the VK5 Parks award activation by VK5QI and VK5AKH are underway now from the Coorong National Park. The bands are jumping and the team is having lots of fun camping out under the stars.

iOE1VKA 20m is alive with activity during the contest, as can be seen from Mark’s SDR screen capture here. Not a lot of room on 20m when this was captured!

All the best boys and enjoy yourselves.

VK5ARG Active in VK5 Parks Award and CQ WPX Contest this weekend

Posted on 2015-03-26 by Grant

This weekend will see VK5ARG portable on the airwaves again with several intrepid members including Andy VK5AKH and Mark VK5QI planning on operating portable from the Coorong National Park, 175km SE of Adelaide.

CQ WPX Contest Activation VK5ARG

VK5ARG will be active in the the CQ WPX SSB Contest, which is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working as many prefixes as possible during the contest period.. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.

VK5 Parks Award Simultaneous Activation

This is also the second anniversary of the VK5 Parks Activation Weekend event organised by the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society. Paul VK5PAS who has driven the VK5 Parks Award has done a sterling job and promoting HF and VHF/UHF portable operation through this initiative giving amateurs a great incentive to get out and about and see the natural wonders of our state while playing Amateur Radio.

Operators of VK5ARG this weekend will also be making contatcs under their own callsigns during the VK5 Parks Activation, so look out for Mark VK5QI/P and Andy VK5AKH/P (and others) on the bands. For more information about the VK5 Parks Award visit their website.

Antennas will be 16m tall vertical on 160-30m, inverted Vee on 40m and 2 element hex beam 20-10m. Operating Low Power as generators are not allowed in the park. Good luck in the contest and hope to see you in the log.

John Moyle Memorial Field Day over for another year

Posted on 2015-03-22 by Grant

Journey’s End

The joint EARC, NERC and AREG activation of the Para Wirra Recreation Park for the 2015 John Moyle Memorial Field Day contest has been a roaring success. It was great to see so many people from all of the participating clubs come along and pitch in with manpower and equipment. Most of all it was clear that everyone who came along had a lot of fun and got to play a LOT of radio…

Thanks must also go to the Wireless Institute of Australia who granted access to the state WIA callsign VK5WIA for the event. It was great to unite all three clubs under the state banner.

At the end of the event, VK5WIA/P had worked a total of 1141 stations in 24 hours with the breakdown band by band standing at:

160m: 5
80m: 92
40m: 564
20m: 319
15m: 148
10m: 13

We now look forward to submitting our logs and seeing how we went.

Thanks Everyone

A big thank you to the contest “master”, Andrew VK5AKH, who rallied all of the equipment and man power from many sources across both clubs into a cohesive station, along with help from many others. Thanks also to all of the band captains, operators, support crew and catering crew for making the event special. A special thanks also to the rangers from the Parra Wirra Recreation Park who gave us special permission to remain in the park after hours to operate the station.

More Images

Finally, here are some more images from VK5WIA. We have created a photo gallery of the event on the AREG website. Check it out here!

Grant VK5GR has also created one last time lapse sequence to inspire us for next year!

Final Reminder

If you worked us more than 5 times, please make sure you also submit a log to the contest manager. This is a new rule for this year and it will help verify our repeat contacts.

John Moyle Field Day Station VK5WIA – ON THE AIR!

Posted on 2015-03-21 by Grant

The AREG/EARC/NERC portable activation of VK5WIA for the John Moyle Field Day Contest is now well and truly up and running. We have had over 20 operators so far driving the 4 stations and at the 11 hour mark we are over 500 contacts already.

VK5WIA Construction Crew

VK5WIA 20/40m Station

20/40m Operators hard at work

Hex Beam meets the stars

VK5QI operating VK5WIA on 20m

Louis VK5FLY operating 40m

Andrew VK5AKH operating 20m

VK5WIA Generator Fleet

Spiderbeam at night looking at the Southern Cross

Theo VK5MTM Operating 20m

Theo VK5MTM operating 20m

Nigel VK5NIG operating 40m

Nigel VK5NIG Operating 40m

Matt VK5ZM operating 15 & 10m

20 & 40m Station

80 & 160m Station

15m Station

More images to follow!

VK5WIA John Moyle Field Day: Station Nearly Ready!

Posted on 2015-03-20 by Grant

The combined AREG/EARC crew arrived this morning at Para Wirra Recreation Park at around 10.30am and began setting up their station for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day Contest this weekend.

As at 7.00pm tonight we are happy to report that most of the antennas are in the air for 160 through 10m and at least the build of the 10/15m station was now complete; 20m may well be complete as well with 40/80/160 not far behind.

Here is a time lapse of the action today: