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VK2XB > PACKET 10.05.08 15:31l 101 Lines 4498 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 3793_VK2XB
Read: GUEST
Subj: What Am I Doing?
Path: IZ3LSV<IQ0LT<IK2XDE<DB0RES<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<F6CDD<F6BVP<VK2TV<VK2XB
Sent: 080510/1331Z @:VK2XB.#RIV.NSW.AUS.OC #:3793 [Hay, QF25KL] $:3793_VK2XB
From: VK2XB@VK2XB.#RIV.NSW.AUS.OC
To : PACKET@WW
GerDay All,
Following on from Scott's suggestion and Ray's lead, here are my
activities, such as they are.
For the entire time since I first gained my ham licence as a Novice in
1984, my primary activity has been mobile operation. This is to the
extent that the STATION address for VK2XB with the Australian Regulatory
Authority is "on board Kenworth Registration ******, Highways of
Australia". I have to contact them and give them the registration
(licence plate for you people across the big pond) of the new truck. And,
yes, I am in the new truck.
As I am away with my job 6 days and nights a week, activities with regard
to Amateur Radio at home are pretty limited. I run an Echolink/IRLP
combined station, largely for people travelling through the district,
rather than myself (as I am never in the darned area). I also have a very
rudimentary 80 Metre horizontal V wire antenna and a butchered HF whip for
40 Metres, so that I may have some limited voice activities at home. The
call sign of the Echo/IRLP node is VK2PUP (my old Novice call sign which I
re-activated for this sole purpose).
Of course, with Ray's help (actually, he did ALL the work), I now have
this BBS running in this quite remote, outback town. It has a sole 2
Metre port which will be fully operational the next time I have time off
to do the necessary antenna work.
In conjunction with my mates in the Australian Amateur Radio Truck Drivers
Club, (and with a little help from some very generous individuals) we are
establishing IRLP nodes in other, remote or otherwise unserviced parts of
Australia. There is a node going in around Geelong, shortly (courtesy of
Bruiser, VK2FABK who supplied ALL equipment from whoa to go), one around
Swan Hill and we are working on a couple more.
We are also working on establishing repeaters. The first one will be at
Carrathool (population 120), with the next nearest town being Hay (where I
live 3000 people and 60 Kms away) or Griffith (20,000 people and 120 Kms
away). On the agenda is also Rankin Springs (population 130 people).
With Ray's advice and some assistance, we will be working on adding APRS
to Carrathool and, maybe, The Springs as well. They are more a wish list
at this stage as all of these works are being funded out of our own
pockets - no outside fund raising at all at this stage, so budgets are
tight, but we will get there.
Now, the new truck has arrived and I have installed the radios on board.
I now have 80, 75, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6, 2 Metres and 70
Centimetres on board. Noise reduction has been successful (which will be
the subject of a further bulletin, one day) and it is producing a very
substantial signals all over the country - to the extent that I have been
accused, already, of running a KW or more mobile. Like, yeah - right. I
don't own the truck and I am sure the boss would like me K/Oing the engine
management system!
In my spare time I run a number of (voice) scheds on air for Ham Truckies.
When time permits I will write an article for AR (Aussie equivalent of QST
or whatever) regarding the installation of the gear on a Kenworth T408
SAR, complete with photos and description and detailing some peculiarities
specific to the Kenworth marque, as well as encode it into HTML for
publication on one of my web sites.
Oh! I nearly forgot. I try and publicise our hobby to the world at large,
using my rather ..... different ..... "style" at http://www.vk2xb.net web
site. Those of you who are of a mind to may contribute anything that you
feel may help to broaden the appeal of Amateur Radio to the masses that
could be added to the site.
So whilst my methods and experiences are different to Scott's and Ray's,
they are still strongly involved with radio, both from a technical or semi
technical perspective as well as live and very active "on air"! Without
"on air", pretty soon there would be no Amateur Radio as Gov'ts all over
the world hungrily eye off the $$$$ that can be earnt by selling off our
spectrum!
Kindest Regards
Indy
Kindest Regards
Indy, VK2XB @ VK2XB.#RIV.NSW.AUS.OC
Message timed: 23:29 on 2008-May-10
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.80
Mobile Tel: (0428)295545
or (0418)201441
Email Address 1: indy@six.net.au
Email Address 2: vk2xb@vk2xb.net
Personal Web Site: http://www.indy-rosser.name/indy
Ozhamtruckies Web Site: http://www.ozhamtruckies.net
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