The weekend of September 17th and 18th was a busy one for Amateur Radio, we had the Manly Warringah Radio Society Flag Pole Contest, the Westlakes ARC Annual Field Day and the WICEN (among others) SAREX Event at the Barrington Tops (who are looking for the lost light aircraft VH-MDX).

While all events were a success, the clear standout of the weekend has to be Bob, VK2ZRE, who made the Channel 7 news.  Bob writes:

Hi all,

This is what we got up to on our weekend away in the Barrington and
Gloucester Tops area in NSW over the weekend of 15-18 September 2016.

WICEN is a group of radio amateurs who provide emergency communications
to various emergency agencies.  We are a specialist squad of the NSW
Volunteer Rescue Association (VRA).

It was a camping experience complete with cold, wind and (a little) rain.
Spectacular views from some of the radio repeater points made it well
worth the effort.  The ground search teams had a pretty tough time in the
dense rainforest understory.

It was a multi-agency search and rescue exercise with a real target,
missing aircraft VH-MDX, albeit 35 years old.  Unfortunately, we did not
find the missing plane this year either.

Cheers…Bob

Watch the Channel 7 news item (as aired September 18th) here.  Whilst this was certainly a large exercise with many involved parties it’s fantastic to see it (and by extension our hobby and affiliated organisations) getting the publicity it deserves.

Bob has been working hard to re-establish a WICEN branch on the Mid North Coast and has called for expressions of interest from ORARC members who’d like to participate.  If you were absent from the monthly meetings where this has been discussed and are interested please let Bob VK2ZRE know at your earliest convenience.

The Westlake’s Field Day was most enjoyable from both a social and shopping standpoint!  The turnout was excellent and there were many quality bargains to be had despite the soggy weather.  I ran out of money way too early but am very happy with my purchases!  I highly recommend the trip!  Here’s a few snapshots from the day: