CRARC Committee update – July 2023 edition #Committee_update
The CRARC committee meets on-line on the second Wednesday of the month, to discuss the running of CRARC. This email is an outline of items covered and other topics potentially of interest to CRARC members and is intended to keep members aware of what is going on.
Tech Night – 19th July
General discussion on all Amateur Radio related matters. You can talk about your latest shack rebuild (bring some piccies), your antenna setup and how you isolate them (again more pics), basically anything that is best discussed with some visuals and in person instead of in an email. Bring your questions / thoughts / ideas or latest project (that has not progressed for months)….that is a range of people there on tech night to talk to, even if it’s to discuss a subject which you should know. Everyone that comes on tech night comes for a coffee or tea, is there to help each other, not judge….we all have skills and experiences in different areas.
If you have built a flower pot or hanging 2m antenna and you have not got around to testing, or did not finish at the meeting, then come along on Tech Night with your HT and let’s do some testing, before the On Air night comes up next week. Nothing worse than trying to resolve your antenna issues whilst everyone else is racing ahead and enjoying themselves
Our next CRARC Monthly meeting on the 26th July is going to be an On Air night. Use that flowerpot or hanging 2m antenna you built a couple of meetings ago and see how it goes or try out that new rig, antenna etc.
Our primary frequency will be 146.500 Mhz FM, however someone will be listening on the 146.950 Mhz Mt Ginini repeater in case 6500 is not working for some people. We will kick off at 7:30pm. Call in and tell us what you are using and what you would like to test.
Membership
Club membership is running well, with 158 financial members and another 51 who have yet to renew. Even though CRARC now has a rolling membership period, the majority of our members were members before this change and their memberships expire on the 30th June. If you are unsure if your membership is current then you can check via https://secure.hamclubonline.com/payment.php.
Repeaters and Beacons
|
Repeater |
Status |
Comment |
|
Isaacs 2m Analogue |
Non-operational |
Long term U/S due QRM from adjacent site |
|
Isaacs 2m D-Star |
Operational |
Ongoing packet loss issues due link issues |
|
Isaacs 2m Beacon |
Operational |
|
|
Isaacs 70cm Analogue |
Operational |
Includes IRLP and Echolink |
|
Isaacs 70cm DMR |
Operational |
Monitoring modem temperature |
|
Bulls Head 2m Analogue |
Operational |
|
|
Ginini 2m Analogue |
Operational |
|
|
Ginini 2m APRS |
Operational |
|
|
Ginini 70cm Analogue |
Operational |
|
|
Ginini 23cm Beacon |
Operational |
|
The DMR repeater SDCard corruption issues seem to have been resolved thanks to Phil, VK1PL placing the mmdvm modem and pi into a better metal case. This has, however, caused some cooling issues which will be addressed in a future update. Until then we are monitoring the device temperature.
The Isaacs Ridge 2m analogue repeater has been offline for a while as it is badly affected by interference from an adjacent site. What happens to this repeater is currently under discussion.
All other repeaters and beacons are operational.
Education
At our May Foundation Course all seven of our candidates passed with very good marks.
The two Candidates who sat for their licence upgrades were also successful.
Our next Foundation course is scheduled for July 15/16. Five candidates have enrolled so far and we have a full team of presenters and assessors.
On 21 June ACMA held a “Teams” meeting for all AMC approved AR Assessors regarding proposed changes to assessments.
Simply it is a case of watch this space.
Apparently no major changes are proposed from the AMC system at this time.
• ACMA intend to use currently registered assessors to provide assessments.
• Papers will be supplied on line with the answer sheets, to enable assessors to mark papers.
• It is proposed that papers and results will be returned on line, to be finalised
• Costs are being worked out as is the payment system to be used.
• questions on how the question bank will be managed & edited is being considered.
A further consultation package will be released in August for comment.
Carl Makin
vk1kcm
A CRARC Vice President
for the CRARC Committee