IARS

It’s International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend this weekend the 16th -17th August 2008.

As in past years, the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society and the Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club, will again be manning the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse at Jervis Bay to celebrate this historic event.    The unmanned solar light will be switched off and the ‘old’ original light will again be lit by our friends from Lighthouses of Australia, 

From it’s 93 metre vantage point atop the cliff face at Jervis Bay, the 1,200,000 candle power beam of the Point Perpendicular light will again be seen for 42 kilometres.  This is only the third time the light has been lit since it’s decommissioning 1993 when the new smaller solar powered light was commissioned.  The volunteers from Lighthouses of Australia work tirelessly throughout the year in the preservation of the historic lights dotting the Australian coastline. 

The IARS will be manning all bands from 160 through to 23cm.  Listen for us around the call channels or use the Coast Link Repeater System for liaison, we’ll be using and listening out for the club callsign, VK2AMW on:-  146.650 MHz south to Bateman’s Bay, 146.975 MHz in the Nowra /Southern Highlands area, and 146.850 MHz in the Wollongong / Sydney area.   IRLP node 6018 and Echolink Node 325276 will also be in operation onsite.   The station will be manned around the clock for the event.

If you would like to visit the historic lighthouse and take up the very rare opportunity to actually see the light in operation, or visit the IARS station and see how radio communications are carried out around the world, follow these directions to the lighthouse .   Day trip visitors are very welcome, bring the family and have a good day out.   If you would like to register to stay overnight at the station you need to attend the IARS meeting on Tuesday evening at 7.30pm at Industry World Visitors Centre, Springhill Road, Coniston to register or contact the Secretary or Assistant Secretary.  There are strictly limited places overnight.  Remember this meeting is also our AGM, support your club attend the AGM.  

Further information:- secretary

To register your club or station for the ILLW event, or to see what other lighthouses are involved this year, follow this link to the Official International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend web site.

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society sincerley thanks the Department of Defence for the use of the Point Perpendicular facilities for this important international event. The Royal Australian Navy are the custodians of the Point Perpendicular Light and do a sterling job in the preservation of this important historic building.

I’ve moved the last of the content — photo galleries — from the old IARS Yahoo! group to this web site.  Check out the photo galleries using the link in the sidebar at the right of this page.

As a result of this, I have completely closed the old Yahoo! group, and will be deleting it from Yahoo! soon.

Regards,

Neil VK2VNJ, IARS Webmaster

The next meeting of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society is the Annual General Meeting and will be held at Industry World Coniston on Tuesday the 12th of August 2008. All executive and committee positions will be available for nominations. Please ensure all nominations are received by the secretary no later than the 3rd of August 2008. Please click here for a copy of the nomination form.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Cheers, Tony VK2TS

Directions for the anniversary fox hunt and BBQ to be held at Blackbutt Reserve today Sunday 29th June 2008.    All welcome. 

To find Blackbutt Reserve, Blackbutt (a Wollongong southern suburb) follow the directions below.

 Travel along Shellharbour Road to Woodlands Drive, then travel along Woodlands Drive to the T intersection and turn left into Blackbutt Way.  Follow the road into the reserve to the right past the water reservoir to the car parking area.   Follow the IARS signs that are sign posted on power poles along the way.  See Link below for Map to location.

 Start time 09:30 Hrs, Lunch 12 Midday, Mini Auction starting at 1pm.

Map to Blackbutt Reserve for IARS

Technical Workshop No. 2  Sunday 15th June 2008.

The workshop will again be held in the premises of Rivers Solar Pty Ltd at 4 Mineral Road, Oak Flats, NSW.  We thank VK2TSB for the use of his facilities once again.  The start time for the workshop will be 10am.  

The project this week is the “Differential Time of Arrival - Radio Direction Finding Fox Hunt Unit”.  All amateur’s and prospective amateurs are welcome.   You don’t need to be a member of the IAR’s club to attend this workshop.   The workshop will be tailored for both experienced kit builders and those that have never picked up a soldering iron before.  

The workshop has been prepared by our inhouse project expert Paul, VK2FE.

There will be a sausage sizzle for lunch at a friend of the family price, as well as soft drinks.

There will be kits of parts available for sale at cost price of $30.00.  The IARS will subsidise the cost of kits for financial club members.  The price to Financial club members will be $22.00.   No thongs or open footwear will be allowed.  All tools will be provided, bring you own along if you wish. 

You will need to book for the workshop, please call or text your details to 0405 444 644 or email the following address.  technical_workshop

Come along and have a fun time, and go home with a working project.  Courtesy of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society, the progressive amateur radio club.

VI2AMW60. 

The Special events call sign has been issued by the ACMA to the IARS for use from the 10^th of June 2008 until the 30^th of June 2008. This callsign is to celebrate 60 years of Amateur Radio in the Illawarra and also of the Wollongong Amateur Radio Club which evolved into the now Illawarra Amateur Radio Society.

This club call sign can be used by any qualified, financial IARS Club member who has been made part of the official roster. The only restriction is that all special event operators must use the license conditions suitable to their own personal license grade. This excerpt below was taken from the ACMA web page.  

‘This Amateur station is a club station and must be operated in accordance with the Radio communications License Conditions (Amateur License) Determination No. 1 of 1997 that equates to the qualifications held by the operator of the station.’

‘The licensee of a club station must keep a mandatory log book in which the following must be entered in

• Chronological record of all transmissions made.  Including times of contacts, and this must be in UTC. If you are unsure of how to calculate UTC then ask for help. UTC is the time at
  Greenwich England, and is Ten hours behind Australian Eastern Standard time.
• Frequency and type of emission used;
• The Station(s) communicated with; (Call and Signal Report)
• The Name and Call sign of the qualified person operating the station. This will assist if an error occurs.

Of course we also need logs for QSLing. Logs can be kept electronically or on paper, it’s up to the operator to supply extra copies if needed. If electronic logs are used then the program must be able to export the details in ADIF format.  

Logs must be returned to Tony VK2TS before the July 2008 meeting. No later —Please! 

QSL Information -

QSL is upon receipt only. Postal Address is: Po Box 108 Oak Flats NSW Australia 2529.

This address has been kindly provided by the IARS Club Secretary Steve VK2TSB for use for the Special event callsign.

Club Operators please suggest on air that stations worked look up details on www.qrz.com or www.iars.org.au.

VK’s - A Stamped Self Addressed Envelope must be received for a card to be dispatched within
Australia.

Overseas stations must provide a self addressed envelope along with One ($1) IRC or Two ($2)US for a card to be returned.

No QSL’s will be accepted via the Bureau. Club members can work VI2AMW60 on air and receive their QSL card at a club meeting. 

Operators please provide QSL information after approximately 5 contacts. All incoming QSL’s are to be received by the 31/12/08. To maintain the historical integrity of the celebration, contacts must only be on Simplex. No contacts which occur or be confirmed via Repeaters, IRLP or Echolink.

Operators Roster:This roster must be adhered to so that the special event call is not heard on the same mode on the same band at the same time.

It is with deep regret that the I.A.R.S. President Tony Stone has reported to the club membership of the passing of Howard Booth, VK2AMD. 

The following is an extract of the notification release by the club.

Valê

 Howard Booth, VK2AMD.

Howard Booth, VK2AMD, passed away last Sunday afternoon 25th May 2008, at the age of 100.  Howard was the Inaugural President of the first radio club in Wollongong, in those days known as “The Wollongong Amateur Radio Club”.

Howard received his Australian licence, under the callsign VK2AMD, in September 1948. Being born in
Leeds, England he was also licenced as U.K. callsign G2AS, Howard held both licences until his passing.   Howard and his family lived in Ocean St Windang.  Howard turned 100 years old on the 6th  March this year making him one of the oldest amateur operator’s on the bands in Australia.

During the formation of the amateur radio club, Howard told of building the clubs transmitter and receiver at his place of work, which was HG Palmer’s Electrical and Radio Store.  Here, Howard was able to obtain the parts required for the transmitter.  It consisted of two 807 valves, in push-pull configuration in the final. The transmitter was built over a period of about 24 hours.  It was of course, crystal controlled with the crystals being ground from watch glasses.   Howard said “the parts of the original transmitter cost us about ten bob”! ($­­­1.00).  When asked about the crystal being ground from watch glasses, he replied, “That’s just how it was done in those days”.

The original transceiver operated on 40 metres, and later, when a doubler stage was added it could operate on 20 metres.  Latter further modifications were made to allow access to the 80 metre band.

It’s a sad time for the present Illawarra Amateur Radio Club, with their sixtieth birthday celebrations only a month away.   Without the strong guidance of Howard in the early days the present prosperous club would no doubt be a very different organisation than it is today.

The Executive Committee, and the membership of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society express their deepest sympathy to the members of Howards’ surviving family.

Farewell friend.

Valê

Howard Booth, VK2AMD, Silent Key.

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society’s technical workshop number one, will be held this Sunday at Oak Flats. We will be building tape measure antennas for use at the foxhunt on the 29th of June.

This workshop is open to all amateurs and interested persons.  You don’t need to be a member of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society to attend.

The workshop will commence at 10am and finish around 2pm.  It will be held at Unit 2 / 4 Mineral Road, Oak Flats.   This is the workshop of Rivers Solar.   We thank Steve VK2TSB for the use of his workshop facilities.

The workshop will include a tutorial on soldering techniques, electronic component identification, kit construction, and the practical construction of a tape measure antenna for fox hunting.

There will be a sausage sizzle for lunch, at a “friend of the family” price.

All parts required for the workshop will be provided on the day.   All tools required will be provided.   Please wear shoes,  no thongs or open style footwear will be allowed.

The cost of the kit of parts is still being worked out, but it should be less than $10

People must register for the workshop.  there are a number of ways to register:

• Use this email address
• Email, phone or contact the Secretary Steve VK2TSB or Assistant Secretary Ross VK2VVV
• Phone VK2VVV (02) 9605 5555

The Special event Callsign VI2AMW60 has been issued by the ACMA to the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society for use from the 10th of June 2008 until the 30th of June 2008. The special event Callsign is to commemorate 60 Years of Amateur Radio in the Illawarra via the Wollongong Radio Club which later evolved into the present day Illawarra Amateur Radio Society and the 60th birthday of the IARS Callsign VK2AMW.

Information on using the call sign is available in this document. If you wish to take advantage of the call sign you will need to make sure you are on the roster, as described.

In addition, here is a Excel-based call log spreadsheet to use with VI2AMW60.

Have fun!

The Technical Workshops are finally here.  You may have heard about this initiative on the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society’s weekly broadcast each Tuesday evening, or maybe from the WIA or Amateur Radio NSW news broadcasts.  In a nut shell what we’ve done, is assembled several short amateur radio projects into a technical workshop for amateurs.  Our workshop project manager is Paul VK2FE a very experienced kit and project builder.

The workshops will be held on a Sunday over the next month or two.  The workshop will start with a safety briefing, a description of the project, a study of the circuit so we all understand what we are about to construct, a tutorial on correct soldering techniques, a tutorial on electronic component identification, and then the construction of the project.  At the end of the day you will be able to walk away from the session with a working project.  The workshops will be tailored for both entry level participants and seasoned constructors alike.   The first project will be a ‘tape measure antenna’.  The Second project a ‘differential time of arrival radio direction finding unit’ and the third will be a CTCSS tone decoder to fit into an amateur rig to allow access to repeaters using sub tones.  Further projects will be announced at the conclusion of these workshops.

The cost of attending the workshop is free.  There will be kits of parts to buy at the workshops so you don’t have to bring any parts.  The kits will be very economical.  All tools will be provided, or you can bring your own.  We will also have a sausage sizzle for lunch on the day, with the sausage sanga’s and cold drinks available for a ‘friend of the family price’.  Support the club by buying your lunch here.  The exact date and price of the first kit is be published after the May club meeting.  

You will have to register to attend the workshop.  You can do this by sending an email to technical_workshop or attending the IARS club meeting on Tuesday May 13^th.    The workshops are open to all amateurs whether you are a member of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society or not.  

Please direct any enquiries to the email address above.