IARS

G’day one and all

Well things have been happening behind the scenes with the IARS D-Star project. As usual we don’t do things by halves, and the system promises to be of a world class standard. I thought it was about time we let you all know about our progress.

The two 2Metre/70Centimetre/23Centimetre Triband Hi-Gain Diamond Collinear Antenna Arrays were put in place on the Easter Weekend at a D-Star working bee at the Maddens Plane site. This was a very successful day and also an opportunity for a think tank with all the IARS members involved. I can’t remember how many times our guys aloft disappeared behind the thick cumulous clouds at the end of a 100 metre length of Nylon rope used to hoist everything including their barbecued lunch and drinks that they whole heartedly enjoyed after about four hours in the clouds.

Thanks must go to Steve VK2TSB (IARS Secretary), Ross VK2VVV (IARS Assistant Secretary), Rob VK2MT (IARS Vice President), Neil VK2VNJ (IARS D-Star Administrator and Unix/Linux Guru), Simon VK2XQX (IARS Club legend and damn good Barbecuer) and of course Tony VK2TS (IARS Club President – Me).

Since that day Steve 2TSB and Rob 2MT have worked until darkness and Ross VK2VVV has also been to site numerous times (Waiting on broken Telstra appointments) and he has also performed extensive tidying up of the Communications cabinet and installation of cable tray to provide a much more professional and serviceable system to be realised.

Today, Wednesday the 2/4/08, Ross VK2VVV has once again travelled to the site and has advised that the telephone line has been finally connected following a 5week debacle and 5 visits by Telstra technicians! Ross on one occasion spent 10 hours on site awaiting a visit to site by a Telstra Tech only to be told the visit had been cancelled!!! A big thanks must go to Ross for his patience and vision that the D-Star project must reach completion no matter what!

Our next step is the application for the 512K/512K SDSL Line – Fingers crossed.We are currently awaiting the licence application that is being processed by the WIA via the ACMA and also delivery of the 4 x Repeaters and the repeater controller.

Once again the IARS is well ahead of others and hope that we can soon put some RF into the antennas.

Will keep you all posted on the latest developments.

Cheers

TonyVK2TS – IARS Club President