Cheers
Tony Stone
VK2TS – IARS Inc Club President

100 Years of Amateur Radio in Australia

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society is pleased to announce a fantastic opportunity to set up a live Amateur Radio station at the world renowned – Wollongong Science Centre. This will be held on Sunday August 15th 2010 between 10am and 4pm. Wollongong Science Centre is located on Squires Way at Fairy Meadow. Ph 42865000

The Institute of Wireless Telegraphy of Australia, was established at a meeting in Sydney on 11 March 1910, Later to become the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) making it the world’s oldest continuing organization of its kind.

During World War I and World War 2 those who had gained experience as amateur wireless experimenters were called to duty as radio operators in the Australian Armed forces. Many brave amateur radio operators provided vital communications and many lost their lives in these wars.

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society is honoured to have received permission to air the special event call sign VK100WIA. This call sign commemorates 100 Years of organised amateur radio operation in Australia.

This practical demonstration day will be held to celebrate 100 Years of Amateur Radio in Australia. Amateur radio is also commonly known as Ham Radio. Ham radio has been used for emergency communications on many occasions such as the Cyclone Tracy disaster in Darwin, The Indonesian Tsunami, the Earthquake in China and Haiti and the Victorian Bush Fires to name a few.

So come along to the Science Centre Sunday 15th August and listen to the big wide world of Amateur Radio. Better still, pick up a microphone and with some simple coaching, and have a radio conversation aided by our experienced Licensed Radio Operators. Unlike CB Radio, Amateur Radio provides world wide communications so who knows you may end up in conversation with Antarctica or some other exotic location.

The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society would like to thank the Wollongong Science Centre for their valued support in celebrating this momentous event and providing a prime location in the Centre for Science excellence in Australia.

We look forward to seeing you all there for a fun day.

Regards,
Tony Stone VK2TS
President – Illawarra Amateur Radio Society

Nomination forms are available on the website on the top right hand side of the home page or by calling Tony on 0404 839465.

See you all there.

Cheers

Tony Stone

VK2TS – President IARS Inc.

Look forward to seeing you all there,

Cheers

Tony VK2TS – President IARS inc.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Cheers

Tony Stone

VK2TS – President

Illawarra Amateur Radio Society inc.

The next club meeting and Annual Monster Auction will be held on Tuesday the 10th of November 2009 at Industry World Coniston at 7.30pm

The Auction Rules of engagement:

• Please no junk. If you bring it, and it doesn’t get sold, you take it home. Anything found left at the end of the night will be disposed of at our discretion. Please don’t complain you didn’t know.
• All goods for auction to be booked in by 7.00pm, no exceptions to this rule. The meeting will begin at 7.30pm sharp.

• 10% of all sales to go to the IARS to help keep our club going, unless kindly donated to the club which will then attract 100% of the takings. John 2KEJ will organize settling this after the auction has closed and things have settled down. It does take time to work the totals out. Rest assured Simon knows what he is doing and he knows the rough value of all goods.

• Status of equipment to be the seller’s responsibility. If it doesn’t work make it known as any argument’s after the sale will be between yourself and the buyer, it has nothing to do with the IARS.

• All transmitting equipment should only be sold to those known to, or can prove that they have an amateur license, or they can convince us they are studying for it and their license issue, is inevitable. This of course does not apply to non transmitting items such as cable, components, accessories, receivers etc.

• Remember this is a fun night and we all should get a bargain. Let’s finish the night off with a well deserved cuppa and rag chew.

The next meeting of the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society is our Annual General Meeting for the year and will begin at 7.30pm Tuesday the 11th of August 2009 at Industry World Coniston. Please consider nominating for a position on the club committee. We really do need a publicity officer and some more general committee members to assist with the very important job of running and maintaining the club. For those that have never been in the club committee we are all eager to assist.

Here is the IARS Nomination form as a PDF file.

These can be given to the secretary Maeva VK2HUG before the meeting. Maeva email address is vk2aal if you’d like to complete the form and scan and email it thru. Don’t forget one has to be a financial member to be a committee member.

Not a member? Please give serious consideration to joining, any additional donations are also greatly appreciated. Now is also the time for renewals. As you could imagine in this day and age site rentals and other fees are increasing all the time. We have been considering decommissining some repeaters due to increasing costs. The only way we can avoid this is to raise more money for the club and attract more members. Unfortunately too few are currently doing too much and require assistance. Please think about joining, renewing and nominating.

Look forward to seeing you all at the next Annual General Meeting

Cheers

Tony Stone VK2TS

President – Illawarra Amateur Radio Society Inc.

Ph 0404 839465

The next club meeting of the IARS will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 14th of July 2009 at Industry World Coniston.

Our Annual General Meeting is also coming up on the 11th of August 2009. Financial members please consider nominating for the committee at the AGM. It has become increasingly difficult to keep the club financially rosie as there are too few doing too much. For those that are considering getting involved we are only too pleased to assist with mentoring new committee members. I remember only a few years ago being nervous about not knowing what to do. Fortunately at that time some of the club members assisted with the process. The additional committee members also ensure important decisions are made by a greater majority of members.

Not a club member? Please seriously consider joining. Club membership is still only $25 and $20 for concessional members. Membership fees have not risen for many many years. We expect a direct deposit system to be available soon. Stay tuned for account number and BSB information to be listed on the website shortly.

Please support the club that now has Eleven, thats right, Eleven repeaters! Unfortunately now with the Department of Lands tax for all our sites have become even more expensive. If we cant attract more members and raise more funds some of our sites may have to be abandoned. I am sure you will all agree this is the last thing anyone wants to do. Current Members and those regularly utilising our repeaters should receive a letter soon asking that they renew their membership or join the club to show their support.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your valued support.

Cheers

Tony Stone VK2TS

Club President – Illawarra Amateur Radio Society Inc.

The VK2RMP 6 Metre Repeater is back up on air at Maddens Plane on 53.650MHz  with the usual 1MHz negative offset. A 123Hz CTCSS tone is required for access. John VK2AAL has built in an interesting feature. 5 ptt keys of carrier will put the repeater in to temporary Carrier mode to allow those without CTCSS to access the system. After a set time the repeater automatically reverts to CTCSS mode to prevent the ongoing interference problems which made the use of CTCSS necessary.

Thanks to John VK2AAL for his great work modifying and installing the repeater back on site.

Have a play, its lots of fun.

Cheers 

Tony Stone VK2TS – IARS President