Southern Electronics Group – VK6SR

December 2022 and another year has almost raced past – I’m not sure where all these years are going quite honestly!

It is also time to hopefully renew your SEG Membership for 2023.  Achievements in 2022 included the inaugural Ham-Camption at Mayanup/Boyup Brook in September and Ham Feasts at Katanning in June and Quinninup/Manjimup in November.  A working bee weekend was held at the Manjimup repeater site in February to bring the repeater and APRS online.

SEG became an Affiliated Club with the WIA, which now gives us coverage under their public liability insurance.  Additional 2M and 70cm Allstar nodes were added to the VK6 South West Hub linked repeater network, putting more amateurs and those travelling the countryside in contact.  

Upgrades and maintenance visits were also made to the club’s remote stations at Perth, Carnarvon and Albany.  Most notable contacts are the 1296MHz/23cm National Digital Record by Nigel VK6CPU/p (via Albany RemoteHams) to VK3ZAZ at a distance of 2168kms on 18 Feb 2022 and a bunch of 6M FT8 & SSB contacts into Middle East and Europe from the VK6CRO Carnarvon RemoteHams station.   Regularly daily nets & skeds are held on the remote stations and they are missed when the internet or power goes down at the remote sites.  

The club also has on offer, a couple of potential sites for an additional remote station in the south-west that both have power & internet available.  I need to check these sites for potential HF noise & QRM and the reliability of the power and internet.  Neither of these sites has a tower or mast, so those logistics will also require investigation.

Thank you to our generous donors, who have made large, in-kind donations to the club throughout the years, by way covering our power & internet bills, rent-free building and tower space, donating food & drinks at club events, donating equipment and items for raffle prizes and auctions and the generous financial donations to the club during the year.   Finally, thank you to everyone who is a financial member of SEG and participates in club activities.  

In 2022, SEG had 70 financial members in the club, including a number of members interstate & overseas, who enjoy using the RemoteHams systems and have joined the club to be part of our community.  I asked several new members during the year, what attracted or caused them to join SEG and the common answer I got, was they saw SEG as club that was active and getting to work doing things in the hobby, such as holding amateur radio related events, helping out in the amateur community, building Allstar nodes, building club remote stations and encouraging activity.  

Activity creates more activity and I think this is something that we can definitely build on.  If you have an idea for a club event or project, please don’t be afraid to put it forward.  The Ham Feasts and Ham Camp started as ideas over a couple of drinks and grew from there. 

With the start of a new year, comes Southern Electronics Group (SEG) membership renewals. Everyone is encouraged to join SEG and being a member is a great way to get started in the hobby, meet new friends and help out others. Licensed amateur, shortwave listeners and radio hobbyists alike are all welcome to join us.

Membership remains at $30.00 per year and the membership year runs from 1 January to 31 December each year. This gives you access to all the SEG facilities, systems & services.

SEG continues to invest and upgrade its network of repeaters, Allstar links and nodes, the RemoteHams internet-controlled HF/VHF/UHF club stations, APRS digipeater & I-Gate services and club callsigns VK6SR & VK6CRO.  These all cost the club considerable time & money to licence, maintain, upgrade and operate. Importantly, being a member of SEG helps us to share the cost of funding new projects and repairs.  And if club memberships aren’t your cup of tea, SEG are also happy to accept donations.

SEG is able to accept membership renewals and new applications securely online with credit card & Paypal payments through the RegisterNow company.  (Good news is there’s no additional fees for using credit card or Paypal)

The link to the 2023 Membership renewals is:

https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=48639

The RegisterNow system will automatically email you a receipt and deposit the funds to the SEG account.

For those who wish to pay by EFT/internet banking or by cheque, Membership Forms can be downloaded in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF formats from the Membership page and sent via e-mail or by Australia Post to the Treasurer at PO Box 435 Mt Barker WA 6324.

Thanks again to everyone for 2022 and your ongoing support of SEG is greatly appreciated.

73,

Rob…
VK6LD