September 2023 - WICEN-Members - mailman.crarc.org.au

WICEN ACT Call for Volunteers - ACT Endurance Riders Association (ACTERA) National Capital "Brookvale" Ride - October 15th 2023
by Phil Longworth 24 Sep '23

24 Sep '23

cid:image006.jpg@01D9EE2C.869B0BA0 Call for Volunteers ACTERA National Capital "Brookvale" Ride - October 15th 2023 Good afternoon all, The ACT Endurance Riders Association (ACTERA) has once again requested assistance with their National Capital Brookvale Ride being conducted over the weekend of Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of October 2023. From their promotional materiel we gain the following information: The ACT Endurance Riders Association Inc. will host an 80km endurance Ride, 53km elevator and 40km, 22km and 13km rides, all on Sunday 15 October 2023, at Brookvale on the outskirts of Canberra. All 80km, 53km and 40km riders must enter and vet on Saturday. Participants in the 22km and 13km rides can enter and vet on Saturday (preferable) or EARLY on Sunday but must be ready to ride 30 minutes before their ride starting times to attend the mandatory pre-ride talks. Ride information, including the opening date for entries and the starting time for each ride, will be provided on the ACTERA website and the ACTERA Facebook page. All necessary horse and human health regulations will be enforced throughout the weekend. Ride Distance Challenge and fitness Starts 80km (2 x 40km) Challenging course, especially the first leg. Horses must be fit. 5 am 53km Intermediate (40+13km Elevator) No big hills but some moderate climbs in the first leg. Reasonable level of fitness needed. 7 am 40km Intermediate No big hills but some moderate climbs. Reasonable fitness 7 am 22km Introductory Undulating, with some gradual climbs. Some fitness needed. 8 am 13km Introductory Undulating, with some gradual climbs. Most horses are able. 9 am Ride base: Brookvale is a no-frills campsite in a picturesque valley with a creek running through it. Facilities are basic, with bush and hire toilets and horse water (creek) available. You will need to bring your own drinking water. If you must bring a dog, please keep it on a lead at all times. No dogs in or near the vetting area or office. No fires. Patchy phone coverage. Snax on Trax Café will provide the canteen service. Directions: The Brookvale property is at 372 Mountain Creek Road, about 30 minutes from Canberra. The ride base is 1.5km off Mountain Creek Road along Doctors Flat Road: signage from Uriarra Road. DO NOT approach from the Wee Jasper/Brindabella National Park direction as Doctors Flat Road has locked gates. The WICEN effort will be to provide operators in the field at 7 checkpoints plus the manning of the HQ radio at the ride base. WICEN Operations will be on one of the VHF Portable repeater (147.125 MHz +600 offset) and there will also be the use of one of the WICEN Commercial Mid-Band VHF services for the ride officials. This exercise only requires operators to have a VHF 2 metre radio capable of 10 Watts and at least a ¼ wave vertical antenna and be able to operate for a few hours so some battery calculations may be required. If you dont have a suitable radio then we can arrange the loan of equipment from Club and personal stores, just let us know early. For those who have recently obtained their licences or have not done a WICEN exercise before, dont hold back as its an excellent way of getting out and building up your experience, its also great to take the family to. Most of the checkpoints are reasonably easy to access using dirt roads in the Uriarra forest area however some places will need 4WD. Operators with early starts are welcome to camp out at the Ride Base on the Saturday night and take part in the evenings entertainment activities, you will need to be self-sufficient in this regard To enable us to create a roster we need to collect some information from you so if you can assist on the 15th October, even if only for a few hours, please use the below Google Forms link that will take you to our WICEN Volunteer Registration form (make sure the whole link is selected). We are happy for people to email any queries, please send them to <mailto:wicen@crarc.org.au> wicen(a)crarc.org.au, not a Reply to me and especially not a Reply All please. The link.. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHwqJfDkPSZLfyybdVGeD5-VXPryUSU270 uN4WUfMuNhU-wg/viewform?usp=pp_url Cheers all, Phil Longworth VK1PL Deputy State Coordinator, WICEN ACT Life Member, Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software. www.avg.com

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Call for Volunteers - Subaru Canberra RALLY OF CANBERRA - November 18th & 19th 2023
by Phil Longworth 23 Sep '23

23 Sep '23

Call for Volunteers - Subaru Canberra RALLY OF CANBERRA - November 18th & 19th 2023 Good afternoon all, This year's major WICEN Event, the Subaru Canberra RALLY OF CANBERRA (note the name change, it's been the National Capital Rally for the last 12 years, but it's back to being Rally of Canberra again) will be undertaken on the weekend of Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th of November 2023. This year, the Service Park will be at Exhibition Park utilising both hardstand and grassed areas near the Summernats Burnout strip. Rally HQ and the WICEN Net Control Station will also be at Exhibition Park. As in previous years, the Saturday competitive stages will be conducted in the Pierces, Tidbinbilla and Uriarra forests. · Special Stage 1 and 4 (Oakey Creek) is a competitive stage of 24.54 KM's and starts at Vanities Crossing Road (just up the hill from Cotter Reserve) and finishes at Tidbinbilla Lane (which is down near the entrance to Tidbinbilla Tracking station). This stage will have a Start, SOS A, SOS B, SOS C, SOS D and Stop. Meet times haven't been set in concrete as yet but it is anticipated that the meet time will be 6:00 AM at the Old Cotter Pub carpark or on Paddys River Road at Pierces East. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 7:53 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 3:00 PM. · Special Stage 2 and 5 (Kingfisher) is a competitive stage of 10.10 KM's and starts at Mineshaft Road (just up the hill from Murrays Corner Picnic Area) and finishes at Big Johns Road (AKA "Cottage 5" which is a few hundred yards further down Paddy's River Road from the Vanity's / Oakey Creek Roads corner). This stage will have a Start, SOS A and Stop. Meet time is anticipated to be 6:30 AM at the Murrays Corner Picnic Area carpark. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 8:41 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 4:00 PM. · Special Stage 3 and 6 (Blue Range) is a competitive stage of 18.67 KM's and starts at East West Road (about 2 KM's towards the Brindabella's from the Uriarra / Brindabella Roads intersection) ) and finishes in the forest at the top of Sherwood Road (Off Mountain Creek Road). This stage will have a Start, SOS A, SOS B, SOS C and Stop. Meet time is anticipated to be 6:30 AM at the East West / Brindabella Roads intersection. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 9:14 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 5:30 PM. The Sunday competitive stages will be conducted in the Kowen forest area, the order of the stages will be slightly different to previous years however. · Special Stage 7 (Wamboin Jack) is a competitive stage of 8.82 KM's and starts in the forest off Seven Mile Road (not far from the Kowen Homestead Picnic Area) and finishes at an intersection near the Kowen "Jump". This stage will have a Start, SOS A, and Stop. Meet time is anticipated to be 7:00 AM at the old Kowen Forestry Compound at the top of Kowen Road. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 8:58 AM. NOTE This stage in this configuration is only run once, however The Start and Stop teams will relocate and set-up to become SS12 (Settlement Power Stage) and the running of that stage should finish around 4:00 PM. · Special Stage 8 & 10 (Charcoal Kiln) is a competitive stage of 18.67 KM's and starts on Seven Mile Road (not far from the Kowen Homestead Picnic Area) and finishes at Orchard Road / Old Kings Highway intersection AKA "Sparrows". This stage will have a Start, SOS A, SOS B, SOS C and Stop. Meet time is anticipated to be 6:30 AM at the old Kowen Forestry Compound at the top of Kowen Road. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 9:11 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 3:00 PM. · Special Stage 9 & 11 (Bald Hill) is a competitive stage of 11.28 KM's and starts on Gumnut Road and finishes at Hibernian Road (Both of these are near the big HQJOC Roundabout on the Kings Hwy). This stage will have a Start, SOS A and Stop. Meet time is anticipated to be 7:30 AM at the Gumnut Road / Kings Why intersection. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 9:49 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 3:30 PM. · Special Stage 12 (Settlement Power Stage) is a competitive stage of 6.34 KM's and starts on Welch's Road at the Major Kowen Forest Spectator point and progresses through the jump tunnel and follows basically the same route as SS7 (Wamboin Jack) and returns over the jump to finish on the old water tank track on the western side of the Spectator point where competitor will park and the Rally of Canberra AND The Australian Rally Championship podium presentations will take place. This stage will have a Start, SOS A and Stop. The Start and Stop teams from SS7 will be relocated, SOS A is already in place. First Competitive car is scheduled to start the stage at 14:46 AM and the second running of the stage should finish around 4:00PM. NOTE, this stage will be live televised and there will be many spectators in the Start / Stop area. So, to save you doing the maths, we need to have people to undertake Field Station tasks with 14 Field Stations on Saturday and 11 Field Stations on Sunday, plus 5-6 people in the HQ Net Control Station each day also. As in the last couple of years, we are not required to radio in scoring traffic and hence the exercise is a lot less stressful than in earlier years. We will however still need to track vehicles and radio that information back into HQ. This exercise only requires operators to have a VHF 2 metre and/or 70 cm UHF radio capable of 10 Watts and at least a ¼ wave vertical antenna and be able to operate for the indicated periods listed above so some battery calculations may be required. If you don't have a suitable radio then we can arrange the loan of equipment from Club and personal stores, just let us know early. For those who have recently obtained their licences or have not done a WICEN exercise before, don't hold back as it's an excellent way of getting out and building up your experience. So, onto the Begging and Pleading part.... To enable us to create a roster we need to collect some information from you, so PLEASE, if you can assist on the weekend of 18/19 November, even if only for a few hours, please use the below Google Docs link that will take you to our WICEN Volunteer Registration form (Note there is also a Generic Rally Volunteer rego form out there on the RALLYOFCANBERRA.com.au website but we don't need to register there this year as our form now contains all the required fields including T-Shirt Size, Emergency Contacts and Allergies information). You are welcome to bring Family and/or friends with you, just make sure that a registration form for them is completed and submitted as well as your own. ALSO, I'm hoping there may be some people out there who can do some of the admin and technical set-up tasks this year as I am finding it to be difficult for me to do all the various things in an efficient and timely manner. Things like updating the Operators Manual for this year, preparing and distributing the rosters, getting gear together for loan, etc, are where assistance is needed. For some early planning also, the 2024 Rally of Canberra will be conducted at the start of the Rally Championship season and is scheduled for the 5-7th of April (the weekend after Easter next year) We are happy for people to email and queries, please send them to wicen(a)crarc.org.au please, not a reply to me and especially not a Reply All please. The link..... https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduAYFHRkvyUkQwpKQ50rWnC4G18mXFEeJg igykBaPq89sQdA/viewform?usp=pp_url Cheers all, Phil Longworth VK1PL Deputy State Coordinator, WICEN ACT Life Member, Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club Communications Manager, Subaru Canberra RALLY OF CANBERRA 2023 -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software. www.avg.com

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Up Coming WICEN activities, October to December 2023.....
by plongwor＠bigpond.net.au 17 Sep '23

17 Sep '23

Good afternoon everyone, We have a few activities on the horizon and so we thought we'd better let people know so they can make notes in their Diaries. October is quite busy with 3 events only now, there were 4 but we were told during the week that Fitz's Challenge that was scheduled for 29 October will not be proceeding this year. 7th / 8th October is the ANU Inward Bound adventure footrace. This event utilises the WICEN Commercial licences in VHF Mid-Band and is used by the WICEN Committee to configure, transport and operate our portable repeaters and mobile equipment and is not a 'traditional' WICEN Exercise utilising Amateur bands and operators. 14th / 15th October is the ACTERA Brookvale Endurance ride in the Uriarra area. At this point we don't have any definite details on requirements and timings but it is assumed it will be an early start on the Sunday and be following similar courses as previous years. According to the ACTERA Website, the 80 KM ride starts at 5:00 AM, the 53 KM & 40 KM Intermediate rides start at 7:00 AM with the 22 KM introductory at 8:00 AM and the 13 KM Introductory at 9:00 AM. 28th / 29th October is the Bega Valley Rally and this is one where we use our fleet of Mid-Band VHF mobile radio's on the NSW Forestry network and so again not a traditional WICEN Exercise. Now here we do need some help as whilst I (Phil VK1PL) normally take the gear down and set-up HQ, this year I can't attend so am looking for a small number of people to do the jobs this year which includes issuing radios and assisting installation at Bega on the Saturday morning, someone else doing the same at Boydtown (a few KM's south of Eden), setting up 2 radio's at HQ at Boydtown and doing the general Net Control Station radio operators job in conjunction with the Rally Clerk of Course. The Sapphire Coast Sporting Car Club (SCSSC) would also love anyone who wants to do a Manned Road closure / SOS Point (using the Forestry radio network) to volunteer as they are always short of people. Moving to November now, we have one exercise , and it's our big Car Rally. The Subaru Canberra RALLY OF CANBERRA (yes, ROC is back !) will be conducted on 18th / 19th November. Saturday 18th will have 3 stages (each run twice) out in the Tidbinbilla, Pierces and Uriarra forest areas to the east of Canberra where we will need 14 Field Stations and Sunday 19th will have 3 stages (each run twice) in the Kowen Forest area where we will need 11 Field Stations. I'll be sending out a separate email for this in the coming days that will include a link to the WICEN registration form for the event. Cheers all, Phil Longworth VK1PL Deputy State Coordinator, WICEN ACT Life Member, Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club

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