The Shahzada is the world famous 400 km horse endurance event held
around St Albans to the north-west of Sydney. It runs from Monday,
August 27th, to Friday 31st.
How does playing with radios in the bush, while helping run an event
which raises fund to help some of the world's poorest people receive
potentially life changing training sound? And not just any bit of
scrub, but the World Heritage Blue Mountains Wilderness. Trek for
Timor will be in the Mountains this year, on Saturday 15th September,
and WICEN is seeking several more operators. "But I am only an
F-call" or "I have never done a WICEN event before", I hear you say.
Neither of these are a problem, as you can be signed up as a temporary
member if necessary, and paired with an experienced member. You can
also read more about the event at: http://www.trekfortimorbm.org.au/
SAREX, the Search And Rescue EXercise is a remote area search and
rescue training exercise, built around the search for VH-MDX, the only
aircraft which remains outstanding on the Australian mainland. This
year it is on on October 20 and 21.
WICEN ACT, part of the Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club, also
supports a range of events. See: http://www.crarc.ampr.org
WICEN NSW Inc is planning to hold its AGM on Saturday September 8th.
Formal notification is currently beinng sent to financial members. As
this is also Local Government elections, and there is no absentee
voting for those elections, those travelling from regional areas may
need to arrange a pre-poll or postal vote.
Coming VK2 events include:
* The Shahzada in the week commencing Monday, August 27th
* Tentative date for the AGM is Saturday September 8th
* Trek for Timor in the Blue Mountains on Saturday, September 15th
* VH-MDX SAREX on October 20 and 21
* Hawkesbury Canoe Classic on Saturday, October 27th and Sunday 28th
More information, including a contact form where you can ask about
volunteering for Trek for Timor can be found at: www.nsw.wicen.org.au
State Management Committee Meeting Report
At a recent meeting the SMC :
- Resolved that all WICEN funds should be held with an Approved Deposit taking Institution and thus be covered by the Australian Governments Financial Claims Scheme
- Approved 3 new members. Welcome to David VK2DWS, Jason VK2VJB, and Matt VK2TVK
- Reviewed operations at the Navshield survey and at Navshield.
- Set a tentative date for the AGM pending return of accounts from the auditor
- Nominated Mal Alexander as the WICEN representative on the new VRA Radio Sub-committee
- Approved purchase of trial quantity of uniform fluro jackets to be subsidised from VRA uniform grant.
- Approved purchase of 2 x 80MHz repeater base units
- Discussed difficulties with the new VRA training database
- Discussed progress with VRA competency based training.