Category Archives: Club Activities

Club Activities or Events

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

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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

coorongnp-mapVK5ARG 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.

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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.
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John Moyle Memorial Field Day over for another year

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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:

And some photos of today’s events so far! (Thanks to Theo VK5MTM and Mark VK5QI)

40m Dipole Erection
20m Folding Hex Beam assembly
20m Beam being tested
10/15m Station Ready to go!
10/15m Spider Beam in the air

We will give you updates on how we are going throughout the weekend!

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

RPM200 Community Event – 2015 Planning Begins

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The AREG committee members have already begun the planning work for our club’s participation in the Marathon Canoe Club of SA’s RPM200 paddling event which will again be held over the June long weekend.

As always, the event will require AREG to cover the River Murray with communications from Berri to Morgan. Like we did last year, we are partnering with the Riverland Radio Club in order to achieve this for the 3 days.

Final details of the course for this year are expected shortly from the MCC. Lock 4 has reopened for this year but we are unsure about Lock 3. Once those details are known we will lock down the checkpoint requirements, prepare the operator registration forms and start planning the rosters.

Accommodation this year has been booked at the Kingston Caravan park, so the home base will be a little closer to the start of Day 1 and 2. Details of the accommodation and catering planning will be circulated at future club meetings leading up to the event.

Members are also advised that several working bees will also required between now and the event. One will focus on refreshing the VHF commercial network equipment, one will involve a field trip to the Riverland to replace the feeder at VK5RLD for the commercial repeater and one will most likely focus on assembling the APRS equipment we are looking to operate as part of this years event.

As always we look forward to the eager support from our members in this endeavor. If last year is anything to go by it should again be a load of fun for all involved!

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.

Project Horus Launch 9th November 2014

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On Sunday the 9th of November the AREG members assisted Project Horus and Launchbox with a double balloon launch from Mt Barker.

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Filling 2kg Balloon with 5.5m^3 of Helium

These two Balloon launches contained nine High School science experiments along with an experimental satellite payload from the University of South Australia.  They also carried the usual Project Horus cutdown and telemetry payloads to ensure recovery.

Thankfully the first payload was recovered from near Harogate and was relatively intact, after a freefall from 33kms sans chute.

The second payload made a miraculous landing into a farmers field just outside of Palmer, thanks to Andy VK5AKH for sharing the footage.

More specific details about the flights, altitudes and flight paths can be found on the Project Horus website.

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Telemetry & Cutdown ready to go

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First Balloon Train ready for Launch !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big thanks has to go to our volunteer ground crew Gary VK5FGRY, Dennis VK5FDEN and his wife Irene, for cooking us a brilliant breakfast.  They also put up and took down the Marquee and made sure the oval was nice and clean while we’d all taken off to go and chase the Balloons…  Gary also made sure we had plenty of photos of the event, so it stands to reason why we’ve no photo of him to put on the blog (*grin*).

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Breakfast of Legends !

I’m confident that everyone enjoyed the day and can’t wait for the next adventure in the coming months !

73 Matt, VK5ZM