26/7/10 - UHF CB Australia Northern Tour
Members of UHF CB Australia spent last week in Northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland assisting small rural communities to set up UHF CB radio based communications networks.
Many of the communities UHF CB Australia worked with towns that had very limited means of communication especially in times of emergency. UHF CB radio will insure these communities have a stand alone communications networks that will operate when other services like mobile phone and power networks fail.
Hosting information and training sessions UHF CB Australia advised locals on the different kinds of radios available, How to set up home and mobile radios, Basic radio procedures and much more. As well as touching on upcoming changes to UHF CB radio from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
All information sessions were fully booked out insuring the tours success as well as allowing our members to get a better understanding of the pressures on rural Australia
UHF CB Australia looks forward to running similar events later this year.
17/6/10 - Vandals Shut Down Another Repeater
MEL03 in Melbourne's east was shut down this week after vandals damaged it and approximately thirty other radio services, which included equipment owned and operated by Moorabbin & District Radio Club, Casey City Council and Local Community Radio Station 3SER
This is yet another blow to Melbourne operators, with MEL03 being the last repeater in the metropolitan area that regularly provided Melbourne with reliable coverage. The committee spokeswoman from the group responsible for MEL03 and other repeaters across Victoria said today "This is another sad day for our group and UHF CB users in Melbourne, It is unlikely we will spend the money to bring any repeaters back to service in the metropolitan area anytime soon" she went on to say "How long can the ACMA (Australian Communications & Media Authority) go on ignoring these issues, They were advised about the problems in Melbourne and opted to do nothing about it"
A spokesman from Moorabbin
& District Radio Club
said the club will be out of pocket approximately $3000, but the inconvenience of the their equipment being unavailable far outweighs the monetary loss, He went on to say that "He believes the poor funding the ACMA receives contributes to the lack of interest the ACMA has in policing 'in band' issues"
Power games were responsible for shutting down MEL07 (Pentland Hills, Victoria) and VHC8 (Blackwood, Victoria) earlier this year
The ACMA were unavailable for comment when this article was published
29/5/10 - Mountain Radio Challenge 2010
The annual Mountain Radio Challenge (MRC) is
now only 6 months away, and planning is well underway because we all
know how time flies.
We have several keen groups already
committed, as listed on the website at www.mrc.cat.net.au As this is our
20th Anniversary we are hoping to make it our best year ever, and we're
w...orking hard on extending our path north from
ACT.We have interested stations near Orange, Bathurst, Gulgong/Mudgee,
& Barrington Tops, but are still interested in more groups in NSW,
to further expand the event.Victoria and
Tasmania have key
groups already committed, with a new alternative link from Vic to
Tasmania via eQSO this year.There are also interested groups in Brisbane
and SE Qld; it would be great to link up 5 states / territories.
The
MRC provides a great opportunity to participate in, and encourage the
activity of, CB Radio. Many people have said they find it a great
opportunity for other related interests such as camping, 4wding and
bush walking We have found interest from many people who haven't used a CB
for many years, and see this as a great chance to get back on the air
and remember the “old times”. The event provides a known time, with
great chance of many contacts, for people who don't get to talk on CB
very often. We also welcome people who cannot commit to the event but
wish to make a call to the MRC stations throughout the day. We
encourage casual participation in the hope they may be in a position for
greater commitment in following years, or just to keep the interest of
CB radio going.
The objective, as you may know, is to relay a
message and answer from the first to last station, and back again.We
appreciate the early commitment and involvement of previous
participants, who realise that the relay chain is only as strong as its
weakest link, and that the successful activities of each group are key
to the success of the event. There have been other events in the past
similar to the MRC, which are no longer continued, and there are similar
events for amateur operators, but the MRC is one of a very few regular
CB-centric events. It's great to see that the MRC is growing in
strength as the years progress, and to see many people who have spoken
on CB during previous years, or previous MRC events, catch up with each
other.
The MRC website is the hub of all information, and is
updated as new stations are added. I encourage people to use the Yahoo
group or the facebook page to communicate with each other, and share
ideas and suggestions about locations, equipment, times etc.There are
regular chats between MRC participants on Skype, MSN/Windows Live, eQSO
& PalTalk, and I encourage people to discuss the MRC on these
mediums. Friday nights, around 8.30pm, seem to be a popular time for
these activities. Feel free to discuss other contact methods between
yourself and other MRC groups, especially stations near you in the chain
of the MRC message. I'd be keen to hear of MRC people arranging chats
on 27MHz/UHF either local or skip.
Please let me know if you’re
interested in participating in the MRC this year, so I can plan the
route, and advise others of group locations via the website. Please feel
free to forward this email to other people or groups, that you think
may be interested.
NB: If you're no longer interested in the MRC,
or have a more appropriate email address, please advise.
Tony
355
MRC 2010 27th November
www.mrc.cat.net.au
30/4/10 - UHF CB Changes Announced
