Good morning all, with the uncertainties of covid and the various lockdowns and other restrictions, WICEN activities have not surprisingly been effected, so I thought I should provide an update on where we are at.

We have been advised that the Brookvale event has been cancelled, which really just only leaves us with one remaining event for the year – that being the Fitz’s challenge bike ride that has been rescheduled several times, and is now planned for 12 December. The Fitz’s organisers are hopeful and planning for the event to go ahead, although a delay to December improves their prospects, there is no certainty that it will with the current covid situation. All I can say is that once we know what is going on, we will let you all know.

Although from the WICEN perspective it is a far quieter spring than usual, this does not mean you have to do nothing. Take this time (particularly whilst in lockdown) to better prepare yourself and your equipment for events and exercises that may pop up at short notice. I have been making up some additional portable antennas and planning out some portable stations for use not just with WICEN activities but also for other radio activities like Summits On The Air and the VKFF/WWFF park activations.

If you are bored and wanting something to do, how about constructing some portable antennas. A great resource for this is on one our own local amateurs website. Andrew VK1AD has a large number of antenna construction articles on his site that are easy to build with minimal equipment or material – my personal favourite is the so called flowerpot antenna - https://vk1nam.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/portable-2m-144-mhz-coaxial-dipole-antenna/

This antenna can be made in a couple of formats – the first being inside a PVC pipe to allow it to be easily mounted or without the PVC pipe to make it really compact and portable – it can either be tied to a squid pole or alternatively strung up on a rope thrown over a tree branch for that extra bit of height. These antennas are extremely simple to build and offer major performance improvements over HT antennas – so having one of these antennas in your bag of tricks can be a great help when you are having problems getting comms. I will usually have a couple with me for WICEN exercises – one of the coiled up versions is almost always in the back of my car as a just in case antenna –I highly recommend the construction of these simple but very effective antennas.

On the go-box front, even if you are not going to make one, at least have a look and laugh at all the variations on youtube – definitely a way to fill several hours of your time if you are bored and if you do make one up, it gives you an easy pick up and go-box with all the radios you need!

Matt

VK1MA