CCARC Wyong Field Day
The Central Coast Amateur Radio Club is having it’s annual Field Day on 26th February 2012. It is Amateur Radio’s Big Day Out.
Located at Wyong Racecourse, it is Australia’s largest gathering of Amateur Radio Enthusiasts.
Details can be found on their website www.fieldday.org.au
Rotarians of Amateur Radio (ROAR)
Rotarians of Amateur Radio is one of the oldest fellow- ships of Rotary International. It was organized in 1966 by the late Byron C. Sharpe, W9BE, whose Rotary club in Glencoe, Illinois, USA, sponsored the new fellowship.
Visit their website at http://www.ifroar.org.
There is an Australian net at 06:00 UTC 7.118MHz.
CCARC WIA Field Day
Please note the WIA Field Day is on this Saturday the 23rd October, and the CCARC will be at the Mangrove Mountain Country Fair, at the Mangrove Mountain Community Hall, cnr Waratah Rd and Wisemans Ferry Rd Mangrove Mountain
It starts at 10AM and goes all day. This is to celebrate 100years activity of the WIA and Amateur Radio in Australia.
12v Power
For 12v power, I have adopted the WICEN standard of Anderson Powerpole connectors. I will be using this for all 12v power as I slowly rewire all 12v power in the shack and my campertrailer.
Central Coast Amateur Radio Club
I am a member of Central Coast Amateur Radio Club, which hosts the Central Coast field day each February at Wyong.
I am and currently studying for my advanced licence.
Current
Although I haven’t been active since the mid eighties, I have now (Jan 2007) renewed my call (standard licence) and getting active on 2m and HF.
I have purchased a second hand Yaesu FRG-7 receiver, which is now set up using an old vertical antenna I had. The vertical is still not at full extension, so there is still some experimenting to be done. I may put up a long wire at some time.
I also have a Camnis HSC-010 scanner, which I mainly use for VHF listening.
For transmitting, I picked up a second hand Yaesu FT-209RH 2m handheld transceiver. It needed a new set of batteries, but otherwise runs OK. The FT209RH is setup in the car using a 900mm 2m/70cm dual band antenna mounted on the front guard.
The Barrett 950 (which I had in the 4WD for VKS-737 & Radtel) has been reprogrammed to cover the HF amateur bands, in addition to VKS-737 & Radtel.
I have a Yaesu FT-897D for home. It is driving a Bushcomm VA-71 vertical antenna through an LDG Z11 pro antenna tuner and 4:1 balun. I am also trying to drive the Barrett 910 antenna on the car with the FT-897 for portable use.
After my visit to the Wyong field day in 2008 year, I now have an FT-7800 dual band transciver, which will go in the car.
The Mid North Coast Amateur Radio Group have put together a kit for a portable dipole antenna (Ozi-pole) which covers 80m to 6m. I purchased the kit at the field day, and will put it together when a get some time. I intend to take it with me when I go camping, to use with the FT-897.
History
Back in 1978, I obtained my Novice Operators Certificate and Novice licence (VK2NDA). I ran an Yaesu FT-7B transceiver in the car, and a Yaesu FRG-7 receiver at home.
For a short time, I ran a Yaesu FT-200, with a 4 element 3 band yagi. I only have the one photo of my old gear, the antenna lowered without the rotator. My old yagi has been pulled out of mothballs, and sometime in the future, will look for a tower and rotator to install it on.