JUNE 2003

Introducing the new committee

I can't believe its 7 months since we left our motorhome in Mareeba. Everything has been so busy. We were on the list of homeless for some time after selling the family home until late last year. We bought a unit which now has had a major refit; this took a few months interrupted by a stay at our daughter's guest house in Berrima where we spent Xmas with the grand kids. We had a wonderful time and then become the reluctant managers while they went on holidays.

Back to Sydney to finish renovating the unit and help our son and his family landscape their new home. In amongst all this were the usual HF club committee meetings and of course our annual general meeting. I would like to personally thank Jim and Shirley for their dedicated service to the HF club since it's inception and wish them all the best. By this time it was the end of April so while Kay had some quality time with herself I took to Casino for the month as I had committed myself a few years ago to be a volunteer for this rally. Casino was a great rally for the CMCA and its members although it meant long hours and hard work for all the volunteers. 

While this was going on the Casino airport (the future village site) was surging ahead with the club house and landscaping which was almost completed for the opening after the rally finished. I am sure in a in the years to come when this village is completed the HF club will benefit. In many ways especially the HF radio towers built for the DCA that one day will house a base station for our club. Ken Conley and I updated a couple of rooms to make a kitchen, bunk room, shower etc. for volunteers to use when the time comes to paint, plant trees and shrubs etc. It was very pleasing to see so many people turn up for the general meeting after the rally especially being joined by the 4 wheel drive their trailers and caravans, a number who came up from Sydney. I believed we catered at the barbeque lunch for 100+ people. The meeting that followed had very constructive input from many members. I will leave the details of this meeting to our secretary of the day Vince Moran as unfortunately Phil and Helen couldn't be with us.

Kay and I fly out of Sydney on the 11th June 14, 2003 and after a few days Rand R Robin and Allen Tesch in Brisbane we will be back in our motorhome at Mareeba on the radio and on our way around the gulf via the many national parks to Darwin.
We intend to leave our motor home in Darwin and fly home when the weather heats up.
Looking forward to a havachat at 4pm on the 18th or 19th.

Keep it turned on - Terry and Kay. 

MEMBERS RESIGNED

CW. & PA. BAILEY - A. & J. JENKINS - J & A CRIDLAND

NEW MEMBERS

The committee and members welcome you all and look forward to chatting on the radios or phone, call the bases when you are on the move as they like keeping in touch.

NOTICE TO ALL

The ACA require two (2) addresses for the licensees: The postal address (publicly available i.e. internet, call signs books etc.) these can be a PO Box, Locked Bag RMB Street etc. The residential/ Business address (which is not publicly available) this is usually a physical location such as a street address. In certain instances, when the physical location is a vessel or vehicle, then the location can be a "on board yacht*****" or "vehicle ABC - 123" For example.
Please note the ACA requires this residential address for its internal records only (so we can do a station inspection as required) Privacy laws prohibit our making available this information (citizens Have rights to privacy)
Taken from an email sent to me available if required.

MEMBERS GETTING TOGETHER

After a quick phone call a group of die hard members got together for a barbeque and a chat. If you wish to do this get together and do the same use the selcall list and find the members near to you set up a day giving a few weeks notice. You never know you may see friends that you haven't meet yet, or put a face to a voice. Great idea Ray, Peg, Glenn & Ruth.

PEG-RAY'S REPORT

Doesn't the year go quickly when you are having fun, when I think back I was in Western Australia when I put pen to paper for the last news letter and now the year is half over we are now at Midge Point Travelers Rest Caravan Park for the winter should any HF RADIO CLUB members are going north keep in touch or if you have the time drop in and have a chat.

It was very pleasing to see the large numbers of club members who turned up for the general meeting at Casino and I am sure they enjoyed the day with morning tea and BBQ lunch. I thank our committee on behalf of you (all our members) for a job well done. May I suggest that when you are out on your travels please let our base operator know what you have planed foe your destination. This will help them to know where to start looking for you if it is urgent that you have to be contacted because of the club growth with new members I believe it is very important for our base to be able to contact you quickly.

Our Telephone Interconnect is working well and it seems we sorted all the problems, should anyone have trouble in using it please contact me on 0428191454 or Bob Locking 0249584355 or 0427789173 and we will be able to get you on air. We would like to tell our members that 6609 Garry & 2021 Glen has started up at 4.30pm to 5.00pm every day a chat and contact with members no selcall only put in a breaker and using channel 56 7899 we find it is a great idea to teach you how to use your radio.

Should you want to know more I am always on the side listening and if I am in CDMA area on 0428191454 or email pegray1@bigpond.com

Kind regards Ray Lawson 9724.

REQUESTS FOR INPUT

• Camp sites: (pictures and grid locations if possible)
• Camp oven cooking
• Birthdays, anniversary's etc
• Embarrassing moments
• Tall stories
• Tips and new ideas on different things. (computers, home brews, photography, getting stains out off)
• News letter by email (need addresses and if you down load by mobile phone or not)
• Jokes (clean or not) Will clean if needed. Trust me.
• Where are you going to be in the next few months

WITH THE NEW UPDATED NEW FORMS

Application for membership form.
Application for frequencies form
Please do not use the old forms, photo copy these if needed. ed

After the change over I have found this to create INNER PEACE

I am passing this on to you because it has definitely worked for me.
By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace..
The article read.
" The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started."
I looked around to see all the things I started and hadn't finished..
So, today I finished one bottle of Vodka, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of Jack Daniel's, my Prozac, a small box of chocolates and a 6 pack of beer... 
You have no idea how good I feel.

Thought of the day.

I would like to start off by reminding all that their Membership Fees for 2003/2004 are now due. You may have noticed there was no Treasurer's Report in the last magazine. The reason being is that I was not allowed or given the opportunity to do so. We now have possession of the books and are in the process of transferring all the records over to a Money Computer Program which is proving to be a little difficult at the moment as the hand over to the new committee hasn't been as smooth as we would have liked.

We had a good attendance at the meeting held at Casino on the 26th May with several new members joining (12 in total), 7 new members also signed up for the interconnect and renewals of previous membership. The interconnect is working OK and if there are any concerns or questions re interconnect accounts don't hesitate to ring Bob Locking (2284). Members who are on the phone interconnect but haven't paid the $25.00 to be connected to Cooladdi Base will be removed from this base in the near future.

BBQ lunch held at the Casino meeting raised $156.30 profit. The raffle held at the same time raised $180, thanks to all who donated the prizes. At the moment Herman Vasic and I are working on getting the books up to date and hope to be able to give you a full report in the next magazine.

Regards - Kimbo (4928)
PS. For all those on the internet a good site for Codan owners http://groups.yahoo.com/group/codan_outback_radio

Thanks for your report Kim. ed

MEMBERS CAMP SITES

Des Terry - des948@ozemail.com.au

The May River off the Gibb river road about 45klm from Derby GPS is S17.22.514: E124.01.840*
Just west of Carnigy station on the Gunnbarell Hwy GPS S 25.54.604: E122.21.365 plenty of wood and billabong water and a historical site.
Between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek GPS S 18.43.319 E126.52.120 plenty of shade and grassed area.

Anne and Ray Corbin (1035) - thecorbins@bigpond.com

Are traveling in WA and have dropped us a line with some sites they have visited please make a note of them.
Ellendale Pool, good council free camp and is reported to be something like 1km deep. On the Greenough river near Walkaway.
Mt Robinson this is a good site with toilets and shade tables, plenty of room and well used and maintained.
Port Headland (check with ranger)
A very busy port both trains and ships for BHP.
Eighty Mile Beach CP at $16.50 unpowered $22.00 with.
Nice clean well run CP good walking along the beach.

Hope to hear more of the Corbin's trip, Safe travels. ed

We all ask the question. " If the purchase of the radio is worth the amount of money we spend" If we are able to do as was the next person able to give service as he was, we all would be happy.

"The Rescue"

Glynn Sellars (2021)
On Sunday 27th April 2003 whilst talking on frequency 7899 with Dan (1226) we had a breaker break in and request to use this frequency for a medical emergency telephone interconnect, I found out latter that the breaker was another member of our club Tony (9105). Tony went through our phone system but the six minutes weren't long enough to explain the situation and adequate directions to the ambulance dispatch officer.

A 17year old motor bike rider participating in an off road fun ride had fallen from his bike, throwing him into the dead limbs of a tree. These penetrated the opening of his helmet knocking him unconscious, slashing his cheek, breaking his jaw and causing three major puncture wounds to the neck and head.

I am not sure if Tony requested assistance, or if I offered to help. But he gave me a phone number to ring the ambulance dispatch that he had been speaking to before the link dropped out. I rang them on my mobile phone. Through the use of the mobile phone and the HF radio I was able to relay to them the situation. During the phone conversation I gave the ambulance dispatch my phone number so they could call me back for updated information. I kept in radio contact with Tony and a registered nurse as they raced to reach the patient. They in turn were in UHF radio contact with people already at the scene. Continuous showers made the 18 km of black soil tracks, through rough hill scape riddled with washouts, impassable for an ambulance, accessible only by 4WD or motorcycle.

A helicopter was requested by Tony via the phone link. The two nearest helicopters were tied up on Fraser Island so a helicopter had to come from Bundaberg. When dispatch had the helicopter ready to go they rang me and I relayed the GPS readings that Tony had given me. The location of the incident was in the hills of a 10000 acre property in a district called Booubyan situated between Goomeri and Gayndah.
During the ordeal the ambulance dispatch kept ringing me back for updates on the patient, which Tony and the nurse were giving me over the radio. He was still unconscious, not responding, and his vital signs were deteriorating. Oxygen was being administered in
order to maintain his condition and available supply was quickly running out.
Ambulance dispatch called me on the mobile phone as the rescue helicopter approached the area, as it had become a little lost. The pilot then called me direct.

I made contact with Tony on the radio to give out the GPS readings again. As I held the mobile phone up to the speaker he read the bearings and the pilot updated his co-ordinates. At this stage it was about 10klms north of the site. The pilot told me to keep the phone line open until they approached the scene.

I had to asked Tony to inform me when he could hear and see the helicopter, so I could notify the pilot which direction he was coming from. I asked Tony when he could see them, to wave his hands in the air so the pilot could see him. Within minutes the helicopter was overhead and landing in the space already cleared and marked.

About an hour passed, the ambulance dispatch rang to let me know that due to the critical nature of the injuries they were sending a helicopter from Brisbane to pick up a doctor from the Murgon hospital. The Murgon hospital was on standby to stabilize the patient if had to be winched out before sent to Brisbane. He was able to be stabilized at the accident site. After picking up the doctor from hospital I had help direct the second helicopter to the scene. Tony informed me that there were nine medical people working on the patient over a 3 ½ hour period to keep him alive, stabilize and prepare for the flight to the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

If Tony 9105 wasn't on the scene with his radio, things could have been much worse. Later that night Tony and I had a long talk on the phone about what had taken place that day from his side as well as mine. Using the radio for this type of situation, bringing the gap in a remote area where no phone system works and knowing that I played a vital part to save the life of a seriously injured person, gave me a great deal of satisfaction.

This letter can be faxed or emailed to you if you want to show a reason for the purchase of a radio system. ed.

I Quit again and again.

SECRETARY'S REPORT

"About time I can hear some people say". Thanks for your patience with the change over. All has not gone smoothly, with no assistance or cooperation from the old president and secretary, it has been very hard. But let me tell you there is a light at the end of that tunnel.
Nearly all the clubs equipment was broken, parts missing leads etc. then the programs," well" it was great fun trying to work them out and change the info on them to suit the new addresses and phone numbers for the change over, but all is coming along and most has been done.
With an external drive unit now all this info can be and will be down loaded on to it so can be handed to the next committee and plugged into the USB2 port in any computer. 

Members that have email addresses would you like the news letters sent to you via the email (with photos removed for the mobile phone connecters.) Please tell me my address is phil.bell10@bigpond.com.au. We need adds for the club mag so if you know any business that might benefit from advertising please pass the information to a committee member to follow up with your help.

Thanks for your support in the past and also in the future, I'm always interested in input for the mag. All this work done since the annual general meeting has been difficult but with the help of Helen (My wife) has given me has been great and unselfish with no thought to her self just at the job at hand. She has proven to me that anyone can do this job when you have a great partner beside you.

Thanks. Tinker (Phil) 2164

COOKS' COLUMN

Meatloaf:
Ingredients:
1 500g beef mince
2 1 roll sausage mince
3 1 cup mixed veggies
4 1 egg
5 ¾ cup bread crumbs
6 2 teaspoons mixed herbs
7 sprinkle with all-seasons salt
Method:
Combine all ingredients together and mix well. Grease meatloaf tin. Empty mixture into tin and sprinkle with all-seasons salt on top.
Bake for 1 hour in 150 deg C oven or until cooked. Drain excess oils after 1 hour. Top with favourite gravy when serving.

Salmon loaf:
Method:
Take a large tin of salmon remove bones and break into flake with a fork empty into a saucepan; add 4 tablespoons melted butter; 1 cup breadcrumbs; 1 teaspoon salt and 4 well beaten eggs.
Put into a well greased pudding dish and steam for 1 hour. It is delicious served hot with rice and potatoes and cream gravy, sliced cold with a garnish or lettuce or parsley and lemon.

WASTE NOT WANT NOT:
In the kitchen:
Use the remains of cold mashed potato by rubbing into it equal quantity of flour, a quarter as much butter, pinch of salt and baking powder. Mix this to a rather stiff paste with 1 or 2 beaten eggs.
Roll out to one inch thick, cut into rounds or triangles, brush over with egg and milk and bake in a not too hot oven.


Do you have any more tips or tricks that you use when away or at home? What do you use that container for when it's finished with?
Input required: ed

A WORD OF THANKS TO A COUPLE OF MEMBERS

FROM NOEL & JEAN OUTTEN: 
It started when our clutch burnt out miles from no where and of cause the mobile phone didn't work; we called Ross at the base. He rang around and got help from R.A.C.Q. who had us on the Warrego H/way instead of the Brisbane valley H/way, Ross sorted that out. Next it was Noel's to be put in hospital for a couple of weeks, (he's ok now).

After we were home again the first job was to get the Nissan lined up with the ramps and using block and tackle the job was made even easier with the help of another couple Stan & Helen Ashlin (1077). Working together this job was done in seconds. The job of clutch removal was completed in two (2) days and all is OK now. Spending time with the granddaughter and son on a farm near Mackay.

Thanks to Stan & Helen for staying to helping with the mobile home and to Ross for the assistance he gave us.
Noel & Jean Outten Selcall 7322

NOTES FROM THE COMMITTEE

When members require a change either in addresses, phone numbers, monies to be put into different accounts. Please put it in writing to the office and we will attend to your request, as verbal request sometimes can get confused.

All members with unpaid fees will become unfinancial by the end of August and will have to rejoin the club. Membership fees are due now. All members resigning from the HF Radio Club inc. and joining the Bush Telegraph Club will not be given the HF Radio Club frequencies as per agreement with Allan Salisbury and printed on their authorisation

Members using the phone interconnect system. Would you please log all calls you make so you can check all calls when your account comes in. If there are any calls on your invoice that aren't yours inform the office quickly so we can find out who made the call, checking the phone number etc.


Group meeting:

Date - 2nd / 3rd August 2003
Venue - Ross's place BOORAL
Meeting time - Sunday 1030 hrs.
Agenda 
General club internal business
Secretary's, Treasures reports.
Welcome the new members.
Talk about the phone interconnect.
Report from the base operator.
Question time for members.
(Not too hard ones) ed.

All welcome to come for the day or the weekend. Call Ross if you are turning up earlier.

PHONE NUMBERS YOU MAY NEED