The purpose of the Net is to overcome the lack of member contact
since General Meetings of the VK6 division were discontinued.
As with the General Meetings of the past, visitors (non-members) are welcome to attend.

Call Sign VK6WIA 146.750 MHz Lesmurdie Repeater
and 80 Metre Gateway on 3.564 Mhz controlled by Will VK6UU.

Net Control Tony VK6TS - Meeting Opened at 1930 Hours.

No formal check-in called for except 80 Metres.
VK6BH Bill (Allanson) VK6CF Chuck  (City)

A roll call of Divisional Council produced the following check ins:
VK6LZ Cliff President VK6NE Neil Vice President VK6HK Don Council Minute Secretary
VK6TS Tony Broadcast/Net Control VK6UU Will Federal Councillor VK6ZLZ Christine Secretary
Apologies from VK6ZSE Eddie VK6IW Dave Membership

Those participating (17) were:
VK6BH Bill  Allanson VK6CF Chuck  Perth VK6CSW Clive  Perth VK6HAO Peter  Perth
VK6HK Don  Perth VK6 Councillor & Minute Secretary VK6JP Jim  Perth
VK6LZ Cliff  Perth VK6 Councillor & VK6 President
VK6NE Neil  Perth  VK6 Councillor & Vice President/QSL Bureau
VK6NK Cliff  Lancelin VK6RF Ron  Perth
VK6TS Tony  Perth VK6 Councillor & Broadcast Officer/Net Control
VK6UU Will  Perth VK6 Councillor & Federal Councillor
VK6YJ Trevor  Perth VK6YIG Allan  Perth VK6YII Teresa  Perth VK6ZKO Phil  Perth
VK6ZLZ Christine Perth VK6 Councillor & Secretary

VK6TS Tony opened the net  and again  commented
that the number of country call backs were disappointing.

The VK6 Morse survey was going well, of the > 200 respondents so far,
45% had voted YES to keeping morse as an exam requirement, whilst 55% had voted NO.

As no business was brought forward, he invited participants to raise points of interest for discussion.

Cataby Repeater VK6RCT

VK6NK Cliff, Thanked Will VK6UU and his team for getting the repeater back on air
it was running very well at present although  not linked to the network, therefore no Sunday news relay.
It had been the link that had caused past problems.

Article in September Amateur Radio Magazine.

On participant  commented on the article by VK5XE Ian entitled
"I'm in Ham Radio because I love it"
he agreed with the statement if it was not for the WIA we would no longer have
Amateur Radio in Australia - we are still in danger of losing it.

Secretaries Report

VK6ZLZ Christine reported that she had received five new membership applications
which would go forward to the next council meeting.
There was a cheque from the book sales officer, and
the first QSL cards had been received at box 10.

CW as an exam requirement

One participant commented that those who vote NO don't know CW.
VK6NE replied that this was not bourne out by the statistics.
VK6HK commented that if morse were no longer a requirement for an AR License,
then the amateur fraternity would no doubt continue to offer morse training
in what was no doubt a very useful mode - morse would not disappear.

Commercial Interests are Monitoring

One participant drew the net's attention to an article in this weeks Q-News
which stated that Amateur bands are being monitored by satellite
for occupancy and content, by vested interests.

VHF Usage

On participant recounted his experience on a recent four week trip to Port Hedland
He was able to call back on the News on 40 Metres and 80 Metres,
but his two metre transceiver was unusable due to distance and lack of populated areas
once he left the Perth metropolitan area, however he was able to have a few QSOs
in the Exmouth and Karratha areas.

This contrasted with a trip to ZS eighteen months ago when he was able to call back on their news
(using a reciprocal licence) on the linked repeater network which had check ins
over a distance of >500 Kms. (Capetown to East London).

Another likened this to ZL where the terrain favoured distant linking of repeaters
with one repeater located at 7000 ft.

Fitting a Rig to a modern Car

VK6LZ recounted the problems he had with fitting a transceiver to a Proton Wira car.
The transceiver itself was not a problem as it fitted in the console below the broadcast receiver,
the quarter wave antenna had previously been fitted to a bracket mounted through the radiator grill
some considerable time previously with temporary wiring through the bonnet and passenger door jam.

However it took nearly four hours of investigation just to decide where to drill holes in the firewall
for power and coax. It was considered essential not to damage  wiring cables, fuel and brake lines.
Having removed much plastic, carpets, glove box etc. only to find the way blocked for one reason or another.

Even putting the car on stands to investigate the underside drew a blank,
too much in the way. Bolts on one side could not be seen on the other,
eventually the only clue was the position of the airconditioner drain tube,
so after protecting water pipes on the engine side with a sheet of metal the holes were drilled next to this.
After eight hours  the transceiver is installed but still needs securing properly.

VK6JP thought this was par for the course, better to hesitate than hit something critical.

Amateur Radio Magazine

One participant reported that his AR finally appears to be arriving on time
after five months and seven phone calls.
Another complained that the issue carrying the RD contest rules
only arrived the day before the contest.
Another reported that his has been arriving on time for years,
in addition since the change the colour was good, articles were very good,
but there was a lack of advertising.
Tony said that it was difficult to attract advertisers with a print run of only 4000 or so.

WICEN

It was mentioned that a WICEN membership application form
was available via the internet on the VK6 Divisional home page.

Net closed at 2013 hours.

Notes prepared by VK6LZ apologies for Errors and Omissions if any.

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