Weekly Report

Hi Bill

A pity that propagation did not allow us to hear your dulcet tones.

When I got to the frequency, Henk (VK2GWK) and Peter (VK3KCD) were attempting to communicate with each other and
I could barely hear Peter. Henk was peaking 5/8. I eventually turned my antenna south and addressed Peter.
He came back to me at 5/9 +10 (gave me 5/9 +80). Peter and I ended up having a great chat.
Diane (VK4KYL) also chatted with Peter. Klaus called in late in the hour but was unable to hear us q5 due to contest qrm.
He briefly peaked 5/7 with me. This last weekend was our district 9630 conference.
One of our keynote speakers was Tom Henderson of Shelter Box fame. As a result of his presentation, over 40 shelter boxes
were immediately purchased by clubs (including Gatton & Lockyer) in our district. A number of clubs also purchased shipping
containers for our Donations in Kind facility near Brisbane.

Please take a look at our club newsletter this week at http://216.234.172.23/rotary/9630/gatton-lockyer/bulletins/gat-36.pdf

73's de Bill, VK4ZD

And from Peter VK3KCD

Dear Bill
Had excellent propagation to Bill VK4ZD last Sunday and fair propagation to Henk VK2GWK . Heard Klaus HB9CQS at
around 0830z and he peaked at 5&9 but due to the QRM in Europe we were unable to have a good contact and he gave me 3&4.
It seems the band is still opening after 0800 from here to Europe and it may be wise not to go onto the summer/winter schedule just yet.
Apart from the lack of good rain all is well in Flinders

73   YIR   Peter VK3KCD

Agreed:- We shall have to keep this sked on 0730z - 0830z until the ions decide to wake up a bit earlier. (Bill g4yze.)

......There were 12 on the net including a visitor who thought we were the
RAOTA net! He did stay for a short while.
Conditions were rather poor .....signals were much weaker than usual with a lot of
fading. So much so that some members fell out of the net! (Pun intended)
We were sorry to learn from Derek (G0SQH) that Marie had been taken
into hospital with more cardiac trouble although he was not more specific.
In addition she has considerable psoriasis and when her present stay in one
hospital ends she is to be transferred to another hospital for four weeks.
Derek was asked to convey the very best of wishes for a speedy recovery from
all of us.
Gordon (G3HMG) has also been hospitalised with a respiratory
infection. He too was transferred to a second one and his daughter is
awaiting their opinion on whether he can be allowed home to fend for
himself, (Report from Alan G4BFM)
On the credit side Tony has had a satisfactory report from hospital
until his next appointment.
73, John, G3JJR (QTHR)

Dear Bill,

With Patience and perseverance we overcame heavy QSB and noise. Special thanks to F/G4HMG, John, portable from central
France with consistent 5x4 signal starting at 12:20 UTC. John and Diana expected at home QTH Wed., March 21- first day of spring.

Signal levels reported here represent best readings of the day.

12:25 PA2X Cees, 5x9 Strong and steady signal.

12:30 EA7GSU Pertti 5x7 Warm greetings.

12:31 GW4KVJ John, 4x4 Just got through the noise bursts.

12:36 LA5HE Rags, 5x8 Great to hear from Norway.

12:42 OH1TG Pasi, 5x8 On top of the noise.

12:52 OH6SM Martti, 5x8/9 I remember Helsinki and Lapland.

12:57 SM4CSF Nils, 4x6 Thanks for your patience.

13:01 SM0DMJ Karl, 4x4 Was very glad to hear you again.

13:14 PA0SDZ Les, 5x8 Tulips in spring time.

13:24 HB9CQS Klaus, 5x9 Solid signal, warm greetings.

13:27 G8LES Mike, 5x9 Great report on Rotary district activity.

13:35 KF5BD Jack, 5x4 Congratulations on getting up so early.

13:45 KG4VOE Albert, 4x6 Sunny Florida.

Second and third round transmissions continued until closing QRT 13:54.

73 All de Jim, W1QUO

Sorry to hear about your tummy bug, Bill. I had the family here this week-end, so I made only a brief appearance on the 80m net
and missed the lunchtime net altogether. I did listen on the Australian net earlier, but heard nothing. I ran the 80m Evening Net
and we had good conditions with F/G4HMG/P, G4WRU and GW4KVJ. Both Johns confirmed that the VK net was a non-event
this morning, but HMG in Poitiers says that he will ring you from home on Wednesday to give you the details of the lunchtime net.

Again wishing you a speedy recovery 73 Brian

I have been in communication with our point man in Salt Lake City. He is Brett Sutherland, N7KG, a member of the host club,
the RC of Salt Lake City. He told me that he has secured a special call sign for the convention activities, “W7R”.
He continues to work on getting the station assembled and has several great prospects for its accomplishment.
In preparation of the event and getting the word out, he and I were wondering what would be the best “calling frequency”.
In Chicago we used 14,293 as that seemed to be a very popular ROAR calling frequency. Should we use that frequency in SLC?
Just for your information Salt Lake City is in the Mountain Time Zone, two hours later than the US east coast.