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

Website back up !

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LcK75XpcaThe AREG website is back up after a short outage over the weekend.

In recent weeks there have been numerous security updates and advisories released for Apache Web Servers.  These had been backing up for a while and were batched process in one large go Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately one of the updates broke the website and it wasn’t picked up before the club meeting.

Our apologies for the website being down, there should be a flurry of activity as a result of the Club Meeting Friday night, stay tuned !

73, Matthew VK5ZM

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.

VK5RSB 6m Repeater Replacement Antenna Ordered!

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The repair of the 53.750 MHz VK5RSB 6m FM repeater is one step closer with the order finally being placed for the replacement antenna.

Members will recall; that the site suffered what appears to be a lightning strike before Christmas. The temporary antenna that was installed shortly after the strike hasn’t worked out so well. Due to excessive VSWR, it has damaged the transmitter PA which Adrian VK5ZBR will lovingly reconstruct (again) as part of the repairs.

A big thank you to all the members who made donations towards it’s purchase. We have been advised that the antenna is only 1-2 weeks away from delivery into Adelaide. Once it has arrived, plans will be set for the repair to take place.

Next AREG Meeting now 13th March!

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The Amateur Radio Experimenter’s Group is going to hold it’s monthly meeting a week early in March on Friday March 13th. This is to avoid clashing with preparations for the John Moyle Field Day. The main topic for the evening will be discussing the arrangements for the John Moyle Field Day contest.

The venue will be the Reedbeds Community Centre, Fulham Gardens.

See you there from 7.45pm!