Devil News AR Magazine June

Recognised text

Text below was produced by optical character recognition and may contain errors. Check it against the original.

from AR Magazine 1986 June page 52 -

DEVIL NEWS from the NW Branch
The April meeting saw an attendance of 20,
including one new member, Malcolm VK7NCA.
Welcome Malcolm. The minutes of the previous
meeting were read and accepted, and out of them
it was decided that the 10th June should be a
special meeting that the ladies could attend. At
this meeting, Camp Quality will be spoken about,
and as some members will have to attend the
Camp for one-week to provide the communications,
it is thought the ladies should know in
advance the time it will take up and the details
involved.
The Club Roster for the Sunday Broadcasts was
discussed and a good response was received
from the membership to continue doing the relays
for all bands. The Club appreciates the willing
effort and hard work done by these dedicated
members.
The Gong Award was to have been awarded to
Max VK7KY. Max was attempting to explain to a
visitor how the repeater operates and explained
that if an operator spoke for more than threeminutes
the repeater would GONG-out. On trying
to stress this point, that is exactly what happened
� it gonged out. This provided an excellent
demonstration. If Frank VK7ZFH had not
forgotten to take the award to the meeting it would
have been presented to Max, however Frank
received It again for another month for his bad
memoryl
The President, Bob VK7KAB, thanked
members for being on 80 metres to speak to a
group of high school students at his QTH, thus
making a good night for the students. Bob is
attempting to get a station operational at Savage
River High School and even the teachers were
impressed with the contacts he made during the
night. He is also trying to get a station operational
at Wynyard High School and would like to hear
from anybody who would be willing to assist.
One of the members now has a new operator in
his shack � or should It be a second operator?
Jack VK7WJ received a small Easter present � a
kitten. It was wrapped In Easter paper and
presented to him by a charming young lady, his
adopted grand-daughter. Jack has had to cover
quite a few things in the house and the shack but
he will not be parting with the present for quite a
long time to come.
We have been told that when we do the
communications for the horse trials next year, we
will have to be on our best behaviour as HRH
Princess Ann will be competing. (We may have to
wear a collar and tie for the occasion!).
The horse trials, held at Wynyard, proved to be
a successful day. The operators provided
emergency communications and score transfer for
the event and was the biggest event covered by
the Club to this date.
The course has 31 fences for the senior
competitors to jump and the novice competitors
had 26 fences to jump. There were 12 operators
used, 11 at field stations with one at a central base
station receiving messages from the field stations.
Members who participated were VK7s ZPT;
ZHA; ZBT; EG; AX; WL; ZAP; OL; DC; WJ; KDR
and ZRD.
Thanks to John VK7ZPT, WICEN Co-ordinator,
for this report.
The Billycart Derby, that was held at Lillico
Straight was also a great success, with plenty of
spills and thrills for the competitors. Thanks to the
operators who participated at both events.
The General Meeting concluded at 9pm,
allowing time for the guest speaker to complete
the evening. Shane Cathcart gave an interesting
talk about the State Library. It has 420 000 books,
seven mobile units, and a staff of 600. This Is one
of the best systems in Australia, with 14 branches
in the Hellyer region alone.
There is more to this library than meets the eye.
A very good example was given to Florien who
asked for the name of a certain book and was
surprised to know that he could obtain it. Also,
Syd VK7SF had a problem repairing taperecorders
and used to borrow a book from the
library until it disappeared from the shelf. He
asked if It would be possible to see if they still had
it and in a very short time Shane found that It was
in Hobart and promised to have it returned for
Syd.
Many other facilities available to the public were
discussed, concluding with a very good item
about cars. 
Contributed by MaX Hardstaff VK7KY   AR