Hello All!  Following yesterday’s monthly meeting, here are a few quick (unofficial) notes:

Bill VK2ZCV would like to bring everyone’s attention to the excellent Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Amateur Radio Club (FAMPARC) Webpage that was mentioned during the meeting.

Richard VK2CHC is calling for volunteers for the annual Beechwood Billycart Classic on October 25th – over 10 people of 13 needed confirmed at the meeting with several others tentative (pending consultation with their social directors).  If you’re available for the morning of the 25th please let Richard know – it’s a fun morning out.

Wednesday Working Bees are cancelled for the next couple of weeks following Henry VK2ZHE’s surgery.  Get well soon Henry!

Stuart VK2FSTU will be participating in the Great Cycle Challenge fundraiser to raise money to fight kid’s cancer – Stuart writes:

I am taking part in the Great Cycle Challenge this October to fight kids’ cancer!

Because right now, cancer is the largest killer of children from disease in Australia – over 600 children are diagnosed with cancer every year and sadly, 3 die every week.

Kids should be living life, not fighting for it.

So I am raising funds to help these kids and support Children’s Medical Research Institute to continue its work in developing treatments and finding a cure for childhood cancer.

Please support my challenge by making a donation through my fundraising page to give these kids the brighter futures they deserve.

Thank you for your support.

Stuart

Please visit Stuart’s Great Cycle Challenge Webpage and give what you can to this very worthy cause.

Please remember you can comment on articles and news items!  Feel free to leave a comment if I’ve forgotten something or you have something to add!

Henry VK2ZHE would like to remind you that the ORARC September monthly general meeting is at 2pm this Saturday, the 5^th of September 2015 in the SES Building, Central Road, Port Macquarie.

It’s 21:30AEST and we’re hours into the ILLW & RD Contest Event.  The club caravan Is positioned backside into the wind this year following the lessons learnt in the early hours of 2014 (by VK2SMI and yours truly).  The weather has, unfortunately, turned a little sour in the late hours of the day, but the wind is down and rain is not excessively heavy.  Our intrepid President’s dedication knows no bounds as he’s been here since 1500 hours on Friday to secure the site for the club (and he’s still going!), and Stuart VK2FSTU is currently manning the desk.

The RD Contest has been in effect now for 8 and half hours and the team has run up 28 QSOs for a total of 28 points to date, and the ILLW event is currently running at 31 QSOs.  The RD contest has 15 and half hours to run and we’re very much looking forward to the double points of the early morning, assuming we’re still able to operate the radio and log the data out of one bloodshot eye.  🙂

All work to date has been on the club’s trusty IC738 hooked up to the caravan’s HF vertical, and the FT991 has been devoid of any contacts on either 6m, 2m or 70cm – no one wants to talk to us on the upper bands!  Perhaps the new day will be kinder to us on the higher frequencies…

Paul Simmonds VK5PAS writes:

I am the co-ordinator of the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program in Australia.
WWFF encourages portable operation from designated nature parks and protected nature
areas all around the world.  There are numerous award certificates on offer in the program, but many amateurs are involved for a variety of other reasons, including (but not limited to):-

• Home Brew TX
• Home Brew Antennas
• Bushwalking
• Photography
• 4WDing
• or just enjoying the great outdoors.

Click here to view a ‘flyer’ which explains the WWFF program.  We would love to see some more park activators and hunters join in.

The ‘global’ or ‘international’ WWFF website is located here.
The ‘Australian’ (referred to as VKFF) website can be located here.

Best wishes,
Paul.

Paul’s website is here, and click here to view his blog.