January - February 2025
January - February 2025
 WIA Member Digital Edition Download
Editorial
The Covid-19 pandemic of the early-2020s, aside from its clear and widespread impacts, disrupted quite a few things we took as ever-present, if not almost ever-lasting, in the world of amateur radio. This included the abandonment of such common activities as face-to-face club meetings, regular portable outings by individuals and small groups, on-air field days involving groups setting-up multi-operator stations, hamfests, club coffee chats, and so on.
Fortunately, these sorts of activities appear to have returned more or less as they were before the pandemic, albeit some have taken an unexpectedly long time to recover. This story is evident from the statistics gathered by Marty Nelson VK4KC on Parks on the Air activities, which he sets out in his article in this issue – page 31.
One response to the isolation enforced by the pandemic response was to hold online club meetings exploiting the facilities provided by Zoom and MS Teams.
This development has proved to be a benefit in many amateur radio activities and has sparked new ways of doing things, indisputably influenced by the working-from-home phenomenon incited by the isolation initiated by the pandemic response.
There were some standout casualties of certain amateur activities that arose from the pandemic, however.
“The Wyong Field Day,” organised by the NSW Central Coast Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) each February is gauged to be the top of that list. It was unchallenged as the biggest and longest-running hamfest in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Wyong event missed 2020 and returned briefly in May 2021 as “Mayham,” but, having faltered, it has not returned for whatever reason. Some have observed that it was in a slow decline and would have closed eventually, perhaps with the onset of the ‘cost of living crisis’ we’re all currently experiencing.
Another of the casualties has been the annual Gippsland Technical Conference, aka Gippstech. Organised by the Victorian Eastern Zone Amateur Radio Club (EZARC), Gippstech was held annually around mid-year (to avoid clashes with contests, apparently). For at least a decade, or more, it was the sole or primary technically focused annual amateur radio conference-style event. West Australia’s PerthTech was styled after it. Perhaps the very isolation of Western Australia ensured PerthTech survived the depredations of the pandemic.
It is said that nature abhors a vacuum, an aphorism attributed to Aristotle. And so, in 2022, into the void leapt the Tassie Ham Conference and Expo, conceived and organised by the Radio and Electronics Association of Tasmania (REAST), first mounted in November 2022. It was unashamedly inspired by Gippstech, admitted REAST President Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW, a frequent visitor and presenter at Gippstech. Not all the presentations made in Tassie were given ‘live’ – some came online.
In 2024, the Tasmanian event morphed into Tassie Ham-E-Con, a rather less-clumsy title.
To fill the inter-annual void, the Brisbane VHF Group will, this coming November, organise and host Qtech2025. Principal organiser, club President Kevin Johnston VK4UH, said while the event’s parentage arises with both Gippstech and Ham-E-Con, it will be different.
See you in November.
Table Of Contents
General
 Election of directors to WIA Board - WIA
AO-7 is the oldest man-made space object still working! - Rick Matthews VK5BGN, with Jan King VK4GEY, W3GEY
The Ham-E-Con Amateur Radio Conference 2024 - Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW
The VK5FIL radio expedition to Flinders Island, South Australia - Grant Willis VK5GR
Parks on the Air activities go from strength to strength - Marty Nelson VK4KC
Far from the urban noise, but with urban comforts - Glenn Alford VK3CAM
Go portable, go public and promote amateur radio - Richard Murnane VK2SKY
Technical
Of lobes and dishes - Dr George Galanis VK3EIP
Versatile DIY valve tester vaults un-retired old units - Jim Tregellas VK5JST, VK5TR
Page Last Updated: Friday, 07 Feb 2025 at 11:14 hours by Webmaster
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