Category Archives: Contesting

Club Contesting Activities

John Moyle Field Day Station 2015: Multi-Club VK5WIA Activation

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The John Moyle Field Day contest is just around the corner, and the members of the AREG wia-logo-image_1_hiresand Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club (EARC) have been busy putting the finishing touches on plans for the joint multi-club activity in this event. The clubs made a joint request to the Wireless Institute of Australia to activate VK5WIA as a multi-club activity station this year with the goal of using the field day contest in part as a publicity exercise for contesting and for the hobby in general.

Para Wirra Park MapThe event starts with the setup of the station, which will commence at 10:30am on Friday March 20th. VK5ARG and VK5LZ will be active testing the station on the Friday night. The contest itself begins at 0100hrs UTC Saturday 21st March and lasts for 24 hours.

The location is the Para Wirra Recreation Park in the north eastern Adelaide Hills. Entry to the park will cost $10 / vehicle for a one time fee for the weekend.

While the park closes at dusk, the radio clubs have 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.

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If you are coming as an operator or just as a visitor, please make sure you have registered with Andy VK5AKH. Visitor information and contact packs will be emailed on Thursday and will contain information on where to find us.

Registration: Operators and Visitors Please fill in this form..

The station will consist of QRO on the 5 primary HF bands (160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m) with at least 4 stations active around the clock. The station will be entering the voice category of the contest.

If you would like to come and pay us a visit, even just a social call don’t be shy! We are more than happy to have visitors come and see what is going on, and perhaps do some operating too if you are so inspired.

Looking forward to a great Amateur Radio weekend! 2014-DSC_5089

John Moyle Field Day 2015 – Joint Club Effort

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Our keen “contest master” Andrew VK5AKH is again marshaling the troops for a tilt at the 2015 John Moyle Field Day contest. We have been planning the JMMFD effort for some time with lots of discussions happening over the summer months over a few beers, at at various portable operations and AREG and EARC club meetings.  With each year, our plans have seen incremental improvements being made with experiences learnt and the station has expanded into a top class contest station.

Last year the VK5LZ team was off DSC_5082
operating microwave at other locations while VK5ARG took up the mantle of participating on HF in the contest (as microwave is not everyone’s cup of tea). Several  HF minded EARC operators as a result teamed up with members of AREG to operate under the VK5ARG club call-sign at Parra Wirra conservation park with much success.It was so much of a success that the guys who operated at Parra Wirra last year want to come back and do it again!

So, this year, It has been agreed by both EARC and AREG, with the support of the WIA, to put in a combined team effort from Para Wirra. As it is a multi club effort we have united the teams under the state WIA call-sign, VK5WIA. The use of the WIA call sign also gives us a good opportunity to invite some hams from other clubs along who approached Andy after his contesting talk at the AHARS symposium. This will give new-comers an introduction to the art of contesting and HF portable operation (be it on an extreme level).

If you wish to participate, here are the details:

When: 21st-22nd March
Where: Para Wirra Recreation Park
Registration: Operators and Visitors Please fill in this form..

There is a Google group at the end of the form that you can join to be kept abreast of all of the preparatory developments for the contest over the next few weeks too! Details are available at the end of the registration form.

Oceania DX Contest

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Members of the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) will be activating the club call VK5ARG this weekend (4-5th October) for the Oceania DX SSB Contest. We will be operating from Younghusband, approx. 80km east of Adelaide, SA.

AREG will be entering the contest as a MULTI-ONE team, and the main operators will be Matt VK5ZM, Mark VK5QI, Josh VK5JO and Theo VK5MTM. We will mainly be focusing on the 20m band, but hope to work a few VKs on 40m also.

Hope to hear you on the bands!

VK5 Conservation/National Parks Award 1 year Anniversary

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The weekend of the 5th and 6th of April was the one year anniversary of the VK5 Parks award, which encourages portable operation from South Australia’s National & Conservation parks. ‘Activators’ operate portable from within parks, while ‘Hunters’ make contacts with activators. Awards are available for both activators and hunters, and also for making park-to-park contacts.

Andy VK5AKH and Mark VK5QI decided to give the AREG club callsign (VK5ARG) a workout by activating as many parks as possible in a single day. They set off Sunday morning at 7:30AM, and by 8PM had activated 20 parks. Emphasis was placed on fast activations, with about 5 contacts made per park.

The parks activated were:

  1. Morialta Conservation Park
  2. Black Hill Conservation Park
  3. Montacute Conservation Park
  4. Giles Conservation Park
  5. Horsnell Gully Conservation Park
  6. Ferguson Conservation Park
  7. Clealand Conservation Park
  8. Mount George Conservation Park
  9. Kenneth Stirling Conservation Park
  10. Mylor Conservation Park
  11. Mark Oliphant Conservation Park
  12. “The Knoll” Conservation Park
  13. Belair National Park
  14. Marino Conservation Park
  15. Hallett Cove Conservation Park
  16. Onkaparinga River Conservation Park
  17. Moana Sands Conservation Park
  18. Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park
  19. Kyeema Conservation Park
  20. Mount Magnificent Conservation Park

Some pictures from the day are shown below:

John Moyle Memorial Field Day 2014 – VK5ARG

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This year for the John Moyle Memorial field day 10 members from the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) and 3 Members from the Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club (EARC) decided to combine efforts under the AREG club call-sign VK5ARG.
The Para-Wirra recreation pack, 30km north-east of Adelaide, was chosen for its low noise floor and relatively close location to the city. Theo, VK5MTM has produced a video showing the events of the weekend:

A great weekend was had by all, and we totalled 927 contacts across the HF bands.Thank you to those who attended, lent us gear and to all those stations we worked. Please submit your log and we hope to see you next year.