Hello… from WARG… The next meeting… will be Anthony’s Talk on Repeater Cavities.
Also… of note for WARG Members, we’ve had a request from the 1st Amelia Heights Scout Group… who have done JOTI for a number of years… to see if we (WARG) can be of assistance in helping them to do JOTA as well…
JOTA/JOTI (Jamboree on the Air / Jamboree on the Internet) is an annual world-wide Scout and Guide event, and the JOTA part started in 1958 making this year the 67th one…
It is held annually the third full weekend in October. Making this the 18th-20th. (Well we would be asked to do Sat and Sun… so… 19th and 20th for us)
Here’s a link to learn more about JOTA, from the World Scouting website.
What would WARG be asked to do… well… provide, the shebang… ops, rigs and antennas… come to the meeting and let’s talk about who and what WARG can do for them. Also… listen to the WARG News link below, where I talk a little on the request.
Here is the link to this weeks recording of WARG NEWS… but yeah, nope… email is still failing (I’ve asked for help from M$ – yeah not holding my breath) and I couldn’t make the mid-day Friday deadline to get it down to Clinton… So… please click on this link “http://www.ucc.asn.au/~bastin_mp/2024-10-06-wargnews.mp3” to listen.
The next meeting of WARG is Monday the 7th, next Monday… 1st Pelican Point Sea Scouts Hall, Camp Cornwell, 12 Australia II Drive… Doors open 7pm for a 7:30pm start..
Tea, Coffee and Refreshments available and plenty of time to eyeball both before and after the meeting.
The NEXT meeting of the West Australian Repeater Group will be on Monday the 7th of October… and will be held at the 1st Pelican Point Sea Scout Hall located at 12 Australia II Drive in Crawley. Just around the corner from MATILDA BAY & just a stone’s throw away from The University of Western Australia.
With Doors Opening around 1900H for a meeting Start Time of approx. 1930H.
Tea, Coffee, and Refreshments are available for the usual Gold Coin Donation.
At the meeting Anthony VK6AXB has put up his hand to give a talk and practical demonstration.
The topic, is roughly… Repeater Cavities: The Who, What, Where, Why, & When – (With particular note of fact that we need to convert a stock pile of VHF commercial cavities that we have, for use on 2m Repeaters – a great learning opportunity for any amateurs wanting to gain some new experiences) .
The meeting was held on Sept 2nd and was reasonably attended with several apologies and some missing folk probably experiencing “life happening”. The meeting was held, it had its usual parts, correspon-dence, treasurer’s report, promotions and socials report, and the Technical discussion and report. The meeting closed at 21:20 and we then had a little thing we called the Cables and Connectors Activity…
Whilst the number of folk who stayed after the meeting did dwindle over time, this is clearly only to be expected.
First up was a bit of Hi-End tech on the measuring of return loss on coax. There was a show and tell on how to use the equipment and how to get the return on unknown coax… with a second bit in and out of line… and then do the math in you head. Ray VK6ZRW and Anthony VK6AXB both had different bits of tech and then afterwards… the connectors section was done…
I only have a couple of shots from the night, and it is from the tail end with Anthony taking Adam VK6XR through how to connect a BNC (or did Adam have the N type?) to some thick double shielded coax. Two patch cables were needed by Colin VK6ACT for use soon…
Anthony spent some time showing us all how to get fiddly with the coax and some of his tips on how to use the tools and how not to cut all the way through, Adam took the opportunity to get some hands-on experience.
Adam was later heard afterwards thanking Anthony for the opportunity and that he had learned a lot and part of that was that he still in regards to connectors, has a lot to learn.
Yes… getting fiddly with the stuff and making it yourself, as opposed to just buying finished product off the shelf or from the net… (actually –not– accusing anyone of any thing here.) is to begin with not 100% so easy… it’s a learning thing.
So much information was exchanged in the activity… much learned and many tips shared… but you had to be there.
I locked up, at a couple of minutes to midnight.
WARG will continue to do Lectures and Activity nights in forthcoming months. Like they say… Be there, or be square!
The NEXT meeting of WARG, is on Monday the 2nd September.
This meeting will be BACK at the home of 1st Pelican Point Sea Scouts. Camp Cornwall all the way down the end of Australia II Drv. Then take a Sharp left into the car park instantly before the dead end.
For your GPS: #12 Australia II Drive, Crawley.
Doors Open around 7pm for a 7:30pm Start. There will be Tea, Coffee and refreshments, usually but not always limited to biscuits, for a gold coin donation to keep the supplies of things coming…
There is always plenty of time both before and after the meeting to meet in person with your radio buddies and make an Audio Frequency contact… 😉 [ See what I did there :p ]
The 1st Monday of July approaches – it’s the 1st July.
The next monthly meeting of the West Australian Repeater Group is on Monday the 1st of July and will be held at the 1st Midland Scout hall at #10 Helen Street in Bellevue.
Doors open around 7pm for a 7:30pm start; Tea Coffee and Refreshments are available at a Gold Coin Donation as always.
Following are some Unpolished, QUICK and DIRTY Graphics.
The hall is accessible via Perth’s Arterial Roads with reasonable speed…
Once in Bellevue… there’s 12 bays out front, roadside parking and a couple of bays out back. Parking didn’t seem to be an issue for the March meeting and sale.
Leaving the Roe heading North is easy, Southbound, not quite so simple – but choose a way and it won’t take long.
As you possibly know the June 2024 meeting of WARG happened on Monday June 10th. It was a Monthly Meeting preceded by a Pre-loved Equipment and Junk Sale.
I just wanted to update you’ll about the event which was held at the Bellevue Institute of Engineers Building home of the 1st Midland Scout Group, 10 Helen St. Bellevue. We opened up to let committee begin the set up at 5pm, before long we had tables set up in the greater hall and our Sellers were setting up. There was Colin with his sales and we also had Anthony with the gear from the deceased estates of Don VK6UT (SK) and from Jim VK6JP (SK). Buyers were welcomed in at 6:30pm, with a gold coin donation, and this was well attended.
During the Night, Mitch was aided capably — correction, Christine Mitch’s XYL was capably aided by Mitch 6XB in the Kitchen where they provided a Sausage Sizzle with or without onion and/or condiment; soft drinks, and cup cakes. Tea Coffee and biscuits were also as usual on offer…
There was a ‘chook’ raffle with a set of reasonable prizes including 1st prize of an ICOM HT. Clearly we want to thank ICOM Australia for their support for WARG.
The Raffle saw just shy of 70 tickets sold… and this, along with the other various income streams on the night has seen a reasonable addition to club coffers – Members may recall that we have recently paid the Repeater Licences for in most cases the next 5 years. A cost that we continually budget for and need to replenish from afterwards.
So we would like to congratulate to Dylan 6DYL on taking out first prize with the IC-T10, and also to the runner up Trevor 6MS taking out 2nd prize.
Starting a little late, the June meeting got underway with X folk still left in the room, while not the peak of participation for the night, still a number more folk than usually are at the 1PP hall. The meeting ran quickly, and was finished before 9pm, not too shy of 9pm but we were late starting so… that was a fast flowing meeting. The hall was then emptied and cleaned.
Of note, comments from those who attended were taken from Matt 6ML who asked about the hall and the travel time there as well as comparison timing to 1PP from their QTHR, and well… many found that a longer drive was still quicker; Trevor 6MS found it much of a muchness but also blamed this equal time on catching just about every set of lights on Canning Hwy. At the end of the meeting the meeting was asked for a decision on if WARG should seek to have one more meeting a standard WARG meeting without the extra incentive of a Junk Sale to see if people like the Bellevue option moving forward, this proposal was carried unanimously. That is to trial 1st Midland once more.
Another thing raised in the meeting was to look at the availability of 1PP for some contests that the club might set up a club station such as the VHF/UHF field day and the John Moyle. An option for the RD was knocked back as it is felt that the RD is a time for each operator to be on air sending in their own log. We will never rest the crown back for VK6 if we only put in a few logs… Ray 6ZRW was eloquent in his argument that since THEY changed the rules… every operator stolen by a club station’s single log from putting in their own personal log is a burning of resources better spent in the personal log space than the club log space.
Well that’s about it for the June wrap up… heads up that the July meeting is on the 1st of July. More on that coming up soon.
The June meeting & pre-loved equipment junk sale… is happening…
THIS Coming Monday!
WHERE: 10 Helen Street, Bellevue. The 1st Midland Scout Hall.
WHEN: 6:30pm for Buyers (6pm for Sellers to set-up) and 7:30pm for the June Meeting.
$5 a table for Sellers; Gold Coin Donation for Buyers… and the meeting is as always Free.
( Just a quick note: as it is our 1st time at this location. We don’t know how we will go with getting an online presence this month; so maybe you shouldn’t COUNT on it – but we will try and we will just have to see how it goes. So if you’re not at the meeting, we can only try to Do Our Best. )
Also…
Sellers are asked to let us know beforehand, as there is a limit to the number of tables – Tables have already begun to be booked – although there are plenty available right now.
Please Text an SMS to our President MATT VK6ML on Telephone: # 0 4 3 6 0 2 2 8 6 0. So we can lock you in!
Mitch (6XB) and his XYL Christine, will be doing catering for the night… Hotdogs and Cup Cakes as well as Soft Drinks; and our regular Tea Coffee and Biscuits will be available. The former for a small consideration and the usual latter for the regular GCD. 🙂
And…. lastly but not leastly… (Is that even a word? <shrug>)
At the meeting we will have a Chook Raffle… $5 per ticket! Prize(s) will be Drawn on the night. All funds raised will go to… Maintaining and Expanding The WA Repeater Network.
Download a Printable Flyer to remind yourself of offline of the details.
Yes Folks, the June meeting is soon to be upon us. The main activity for this coming month is a WARG Junk Sale… Pre-Loved Equipment Sale… Not an Everyday Sale… You get the point. 😉
What: Bring’n’Buy: From 6:30pm (Pre-loved radio equipment, parts…) WARG meeting: From 7:30pm. Finish by 9pm Latest. (To allow time for everybody to pack up, and SWEEP the HALL!)
WHERE? Now this is Important, for this meeting, we’re not at the usual location. This monthly meeting and the Pre-Loved Equipment Junk sale will be happening at the 1st Midland Scout Hall in BELLEVUE the Address for your GPS is at #10 Helen St., Bellevue. Here is a Google Maps Link and a speccy piccy of the hall…
Doors open at 6pm for sellers to set up, at $5 per table. & at 6:30pm for buyers. Buyers gold coin donation for entry.
***Sellers are asked to let us know beforehand, as there is a limit to the number of tables – Tables have already begun to be booked – although there are plenty available right now.
Please Text an SMS to our President MATT VK6ML on Telephone: # 0 4 3 6 0 2 2 8 6 0. So we can lock you in!
Tea, Coffee & Biscuits etc. are available (for a small donation, as always) AND also… We are hopeful of having a sausage sizzle and soft drinks available, for a small fund-raising cost like at a certain national chain of hardware stores. So if you’re hungry…
WARG is going to be running a small Chook Raffle on the night… While the prize(s) are yet to be confirmed at publication time. There is sure to be something that’s worth winning. ALL tickets are to be sold during the meeting, the prize(s) will be drawn on the night. All funds raised will be used for keeping the repeater network running.
Tickets will be $5 each, and if you can not be at the meeting… arrange to send a proxy with your ‘dollarbucks’.
However, of course, we strongly encourage everyone to attend… else you’ll never-never know what of someone else’s trash would have become your treasure!
(NB: We also hope to be announcing a more substantial raffle in coming months, but for that we will need to go to the Lotteries Commission and get a permit etc.)
The June WARG meeting will begin at 7:30, and all those in attendance are encouraged to be a part of the meeting, both members and visitors alike.
There will also be information available about upcoming WARG events and how to Get Involved, for those interested…
For more information: Check out the Facebook Group for any updates; Listen to the VK6ARN Weekly NEWSWEST; and of course, WARG’s own Sunday on-air Tech&Gen Net 1030AM (local) on Perth Repeater Ch.3 that’s VK6RLM 146.750MHz. (We *MAY* even to be found on WAHAMS.)