Noel was also known as VK2HU to the MWRS, a very active member for many years and responsible for the construction of many of the heavy iron structures, grids and brackets required for tower support and securing the radio sites. He was a grey nomad and followed many of the club members in the great Australian Outback. Noel was also member of the unofficial “aviator arm” of the MWRS. He will be greatly missed. (12-Dec-1941 – 7-Jun-2023)
I was at uni in the 80’s at UTS doing Elec Eng. We were made to do one “arty” subject with an engineering angle, named Engineering Communication. I was warned:
“No-one ever passes this subject”
“Oh no, what do you mean?!?”
“Everyone gets a credit”
Yeah, one of those subjects to deal with.
Anyway, the culmination of this subject was a 5000 word essay of which we could choose one of three topics – I chose the loosely reigned “Satellite Communication & the State of the Art”.
I threw myself into this & since I was a bit of a satellite nerd I went & asked Aussat & they let me use their internal library for research. I had a great time & ripped into it. Taking my notes home I typed & formatted it all on my trusty 8088 desktop using WordStar.
As I completed I thought I’d better check the wordcount – ACK!!!
I went to the head on E.Engineering & said:
“Sir, I have a problem”
“What is that Dominic?”
“My 5000 word essay went a bit over & I can’t really trim it enough”
“Why, how many words did you do”
“25000.”
!!!!!
Crickets chirping…
Eventually a sly grin &
“Oh well, I think we can accept your 25000 word essay this time without penalty, because I can assure you you’ll be the only Engineering student who goes over!”
“Thank you Mr Carmody.”
It was so great getting to know Noel personally after that when he joined MWRS.