CRARC Committee June update email #Committee_update

The CRARC committee meets on-line on the second Wednesday of the month, to discuss the running of CRARC. This email is an outline of items covered and other topics potentially of interest to CRARC members and is promulgated to keep members aware of what is going on.

On Wednesday 26th June 2024, the CRARC monthly general meeting was held at the club rooms, with discussions on how to utilise the tape measure yagi’s constructed at the last tech night. We will re-run this in the very near future, with a focus on Fox Hunting, and also show some professional equipment, as well as the normal receivers being used as well as techniques for Fox hunting and attenuation. 

As at the June Committee meeting, Club membership remained at 205 financial members, although with the 30^th of June having just passed us by, a number of members will have lapsed. An annoying glitch in the TidyHQ membership management system resulted in some members receiving multiple email reminders on 1 July but fortunately it appears to have since been rectified.  To date about 75 members have renewed their membership successfully (with some encouraging feedback received) and the renewal process in TidyHQ remains fully operational.  As always, if you have any membership queries, contact Graham on membership@crarc.org.auCRARC maintains a number of Beacons and Repeaters.

We continue to experience intermittent QRM to the Bulls Head2m and Ginini 70cm repeaters. The Bulls Head QRM is expected to be resolved when we get the permanent repeater back onto site, hopefully within a couple of weeks to a month. Investigation indicates that the Ginini 70cm repeater is probably experiencing LIPD generated interference (yes, allegedly low interference potential devices, the gift that keeps on giving). It appears that the best solution is to move to a 7MHz split, but this will not be a quick change given licence change and retuning requirements at site (both the filters and repeater RX). Repeaters appear to be running correctly at all other sites, but if you notice any issues with repeater performance, please advise the committee by email.

On the education front, the next Foundation course is scheduled July 20/21 and is presently open for registration via Eventbrite. Note that the education team may also conduct upgrade assessments on the Saturday of the course (pending assessor availability and sufficient lead time to order exams) in addition to out of sessions examinations by arrangement with the education team via education@crarc.org.au

For WICEN, we are in the winter doldrums with nothing on the books for the local area until Spring time and only a couple of rally’s down the coast that we have a small number of rally addicts who venture down to assist the organisers. If you are interested in participating in these events, please contact Phil VK1PL for further information.

The CRARC Merchandise shop is now available with a wide selection of T-Shirts, Hoodies, Caps, Polos and Sweaters in both male and female styles. Each T-Shirt, Hoodie, Polo and Sweater can be ordered with the CRARC Logo, your callsign and your name digitally printed over the left breast.  Caps can be ordered with the CRARC Logo and your callsign digitally printed on the front.  A small commission for each item is paid to CRARC so all purchases support your club. https://merch.crarc.org.au/

Matt VK1MA

For the CRARC Committee