BMARC Annual WINTER HAMFEST
Sunday 31st August 2025 @ 0830am
The BLUE MOUNTAINS AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, INC
is holding its annual Trash and Treasure Day
(Winter Hamfest) at our Clubrooms;
The Old Scout Hall, 4 Moore Street, GLENBROOK.
Gates open at 0830am
There will be all types of radio-related gear for sale.
Sellers may also participate – 10ドル per table or car-boot
Payable in cash or EFTPOS on the day
For details contact the
Secretary, Irene VK2VAN on
secretary@bmarc.org or phone on 0438 606 740
A sausage sizzle will be available for lunch
Above: Pip VK2SJ, Jan VK2FEB, and Club President Steven VK2TSG at Springfest 2023
Photo by Daniel VK2DC
John Moyle Field Day 2024
The contest was held on the weekend of Sat 16/3/24 to Sunday 17/3/24.
End of contest photo, from left to right;
Derek Webster VK2VTM, Pip Gardner VK2SJ, Chris Kyte VK2CEK, Stephen Weston VK2YE, Steven Green VK2TSG, Irene van Ekris VK2VAN, Roger Mangraviti VK2HDR, Peter Wilson VK2STP, Ron Beckett VK2OTC, Jan van Ekris VK2FEB
The club entered a 6 hour multiple operator category.
Initially we were going to do 16:00 to 22:00 on the Saturday but as we were all set up and hearing plenty of contest transmissions well before 15:00 a decision was made to bring our 6 hour slot forward one hour to 15:00 to 21:00.
Club members started arriving at the Bulls Camp Reserve in the Blue Mountains off the Great Western Highway between Woodford and Linden by 09:00 a.m. on the Saturday morning to cool overcast skies and light wind.
The first antenna erected was the club’s 10 meter push pole mast. It has 3 lengths of 3 meters with 12 guy ropes. At the top of the mast was the club’s rotator and the club’s 2m, 3 element Yagi , fed by RG213 coax. Below the rotator was a 80/40 fan dipole with a current mode choke, that was erected as a flat Inverted "v" fed by RG58 coax.
The rain began as the mast was erected and stopped when it was all finished. But it was not too wet or cold, so we just pushed on through.
The second antenna was Jan’s military mast that had the club’s vertical HF antenna at the top and a 20m inverted "v" that had its legs extended to 40m after dark. The vertical HF did not have its radials and could not be tuned well but the 20/40 dipole worked well.
3 gazebos were erected and chairs sufficient for all were brought. Extra tarps helped keep the weather off the electrical equipment.
A 2.4 KVA petrol generator was run from about 10:00 am until about 21:45.
12 volt batteries were used at 3 of the 4 radio tables. The generator was a little RF noisy and was OK on 40m but was replaced by batteries after dark for the 80m slot.
Table 1 was run by Pip VK2SJ using a TS-2000 for vhf, using generator power.
Table 2 was run initially by Steve VK2YE using an IC-7300 for 40 m during daylight hours and 80m after dark, on generator and battery.
Table 3 was run by Peter VK2STP also using an IC-7300 for 20m during the day and 40m after dark. This was run on battery power alone.
The generator supplied power for lap-tops, lighting, USB charging etc.
Catering was supplied by Irene and many others with morning tea, lunch and pizza for dinner.
Every attempt was made to get as many operators as possible to participate in making and logging contacts. Many operators were doing this for the first time and performed admirably.
After lunch Steve VK2CVD set up a 3rd antenna, gazebo, 4th table and chairs and joined in the fun.
Many contacts were made on 40m and we tried both the sit and send CQ and the search and pounce techniques. There were 3 hour blocks during which you could not log another contact with the same station on the same band and mode. So sitting on a fixed frequency within the contest band and sending CQ worked at the beginning of the 3 hour block after contacts dropped away we would switch to searching through the band to find contest stations calling CQ.
Contacts were made almost constantly and there were very few periods of more than 5 mins without a contact.
We stopped transmitting at 21:00 and started packing up.
Of course it started raining again as we did, but as everyone stayed to help, the whole lot was packed up (wet) within the hour.
A celebratory and traditional small glass of port was enjoyed by all.
Attendees included:
Core group of 9 (operators and support)-
Stephen Weston VK2YE – Contest Operator
Pip Gardner VK2SJ – Contest Operator
Peter Wilson VK2STP – Contest Operator
Jodie Wilson – Support
Chris Kyte VK2CEK – Support
Jan van Ekris VK2FEB – Support
Irene van Ekris VK2VAN – Contest Operator
Derek Webster VK2VTM – Contest Operator
Roger Mangraviti VK2HDR – Contest Operator
Additional members who attended for part of the day-
Gianni Valente VK2BRO – Contest Operator
Stephen Ford VK2CVD – individual operator
Ron Beckett VK2OTC – support/photography
Ben Sharif VK2AFK – photography
Spiro Tsaoucis VK2SME – visitor
Steve Green VK2TSG – pizza delivery!
Scott VK2PWT.
Results were collated by John VK2QN
There were 129 contacts confirmed which gave us 262 points
Not a bad score.
The results can be seen on-line at the WIA web page.
Only 2 contacts were made on VHF which was similar to last year as the Bulls Camp Reserve is not a good spot for 2m.
Education
Training for the Standard and Advanced licence is still underway on each Wednesday evening commencing at 6:00 pm (18:00) on
Zoom. Contact the secretary for a link, secretary@bmarc.org
Foundation level amateur radio licence training weekends are conducted on the second weekend of even numbered months. The dates for 2023 are as follows.
April 15th and 16th (delayed one week owing to Easter)
June 10th and 11th
August 12th and 13th
October 7th and 8th
December 9th and 10th
For more information, please email the Education Team
Recent & Upcoming Meetings
The next club meeting will be held Friday, 3rd May
4 Moore Street, Glenbrook, NSW at 7:30pm
Upcoming Events
The Wireless Institute of Australia (wia.org.au)
Friday 7th July 4 Moore Street, GLENBROOK– the Club will the Annual General Meeting. Nominations for the following positions are open: president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and ordinary committee members. The sub-committee positions of repeater manager, publicity officer, education officer and Projects manager are also open as well. The night will also involve a Christmas In July dinner as well.
OTHER EVENTS
Foundation Licence Training – Saturday 15th April to Sunday 16th April
Club Open House Day – first and third Sundays of each month
Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club Facebook Page
Last updated 26/07/2025