Good evening all, the organisers of the Brookvale Horse Endurance Ride have advised us today that they have unfortunately had to make the decision to cancel the ride due to difficulties in managing numbers for safety reasons.  It is disappointing that this has had to occur, but safety of people, both volunteers and participants must come first and the organisers are to be commended for making what would have been a very difficult decision.

Thanks to those who put their hand up for the event – having people willing to help out so readily makes it so much easier to organise our participation in these type of activities. Unfortunately we don’t get to go out to play in the bush and watch horses, but at least you have your weekend back to be able to do something else (maybe go out bush and play radios instead 😊).

Cheers and again, thanks.

Matt

VK1MA

WICEN ACT Coordinator

From: WICEN-Members <wicen-members-bounces@crarc.org.au> On Behalf Of Matt
Sent: Friday, 18 September 2020 9:19 PM
To: wicen-members@crarc.org.au
Subject: [WICEN-Members] Call for volunteers for WICEN support to the Brookvale Horse Endurance Ride (Sunday 11 October 2020)

Good evening all, as things currently stand the Brookvale horse endurance ride is going ahead as planned on Sunday 11 October. The event organisers have secured government approval for the event and have their covid plans in place to deal with any covid issues including appropriate spacing, no physical contact, hand sanitizers, etc. Of course with this cursed pandemic, anything could happen to result in the event being cancelled, but at the moment, the event is on with a lot of work being done in the background by the organisers. Copies of the event maps (two separate legs) are as per links below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GA9deE4RwV74yWqOJt5937gHgVonnyAj/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Apt52vYJVj81H3RYdAZZq4Cem3rl32OE/view?usp=sharing

Of the 8 listed checkpoints, we are planning on there being a total of 7 operators (checkpoint 1 and 3 are at the same location and will be manned by the same operator) and splitting HQ operations into at least 2 or preferably 3 shifts to cover it from approximately 0430 through to 1630 or probably a little later, so in total approximately 13 operators are needed. Some of the checkpoints are easily reached with 2WD vehicles and others are better serviced by 4WD – hence the request for information on your vehicle and your radio situation on the google form linked below.

We will be setting up a 2m repeater that will provide excellent coverage over pretty much the whole course, although some areas may be a little terrain shaded – handhelds should be OK for most of it, but we do recommend that you have a minimum 10W and an external ¼ wave or better antenna to ensure that you can get into the repeater without problems.

Can I ask that you respond to this request for volunteers using the google form at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhPZvl1_nKM0PmVzsIfuno-JDaML4ZZSPPVWmujh2W6kApZw/viewform

Please use this form for your responses rather than emailing us (as we need answers to the questions asked on the form), but of course if you do have questions or cannot access the link, please email us on the WICEN-Members@crarc.org.au address.

Matt

VK1MA

WICEN ACT Coordinator