Convention results 2010

Special thanks go to the following people for their financial support through the donation of money or goods:
Yaesu/Vertex, WIA, our anonymous home brew benefactor, Alan VK3XPD, ICOM.

Thanks too go to the support of our commercial traders and second hand dealers/ amateur sellers as without them there would be no incentive to hang around for a protracted time at the convention centre and we buyers would miss out on all those goodies.

President Charles thanked all club members for their terrific support in all apects of the convention and hoped that the hounds enjoyed themselves as much as the foxes did in hiding the TXs. Total registrations were 140 plus partners and harmonics.

The Australian Fox Hunting Championships run in Mount Gambier of the June long weekend by SERG were very successful. Numbers were a little up on last year which is good to see and for some that couldn't make it, others popped up. We hope they can all come back next year.

The events over the weekend were very competitive but it was nice to see the friendly rivalry and the loaning of equipment between teams. There was a little bit of mischief with attempts to lead other teams astray but it was all in good fun. Feedback from the competitors was good with the only complaint being that some events weren't challenging enough. We will take that all on board and welcome feedback from any of the competitors at any time. A new method of recording scores was tried and was a great success. It took the pressure of the foxes and there was no issues for the competitors either. They were very accepting of the changes. Similar changes to the Sniffer hunts where also well received and made it easy for the scorer to tally after the event.

This year was kind of special as it was the 40th year that VK5TV Bevin has competed. SERG was very proud to be able to present Bevin with a certificate of acheivement and appreciation for all the years of competing in the Championship. Stories of Bevin's past glories were recalled and some of us who weren't there are still trying to picture the generator running on a trailer behind the car to power the equipment while Fox Hunting. We are already planning his 50th year speech. Special thanks to his wife Barbara who has supported him in all these events.

Many of the 2010 foxhunters

Col VK5HCF mans the VK100WIA station from SERG emergency trailer

This year the club held the VK100WIA callsign for the three days from Thursday am to Sunday at 9.30am local. A total of over 400 contacts was made to celebrate the 100 years of the WIA. During the Saturday and early Sunday the club operated from the front of the building with our emergency trailer station. A roster of operators gained many good contacts from both the trailer and the clubrooms. Some excellent publicity was gained with two whole pages of photos and articles about the event.

Results 2010

Overall Championship Points
Team AFHC Points
VK3BLN 48
VK3FAST 43
VK3BLI 38
VK3YQN 35
VK5ZBR 33
VK5ZT 23
VK5TV 19
VK5KB 10

Home brew competition

This event is sponsored by an anonymous VK3 amateur. We thank this person for his/her generous support for home brew constructors. The intent of the generous support is to encourage home brewing.

Good participation was again the norm in the homebrew competition for 2010.

Judges Chris VK5MC and John VK5DJ in action	Softrock Radio, Renovated radio out of a Japanese ZERO aircraft
Bob VK3ZL shows his 160M amp and the Iceland QSL on 160	1296 amp by Alan VK3XPD

The winner of the homebrew competition was Bob VK3ZL's 160m amp. An exemplary demonstration of how to work with high voltages and high power. Second prize went to Brian VK3YNG for his control unit for fox hunting. Brian really knows how to make a quality piece of gear. The unit ties together all the various units of a fox hunting system. Further prizes went to Alan for his 1296MHz high power amplifier, Chris VK5MC for his Softrock 9.0 kit build, John VK5JA renovated one valve transceiver from a WW11 fighter, while John VK5DJ entered a simple adapter system to show that projects can also be simple ones. There were 7 entries this year. Bob also showed a 40/20M amplifier.

Some photos from this year's foxhunts

It pays to be young and healthy in the sniffer hunt.

Great to see some younger people involved again this year.

One of our most determined and the cheeriest of our hounds, VK5TV is the only participant who hasn't missed since 1970.

A youthful audience checks things out

Tim VK5AV, John VK5DJ, Tom VK5EE check out the clothes at the WIA stall

Some serious foxhunting equipment

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