Colin VK2JCC admiring Carmel VK2CAR’s homebrew 40m rig (Mar-2023)

The Hornsby and District Amateur Radio Club holds its weekly Morning Tea with HADARC net on 7106kHz every Friday morning from 9am. MWRS members Carmel VK2CAR, Colin VK2JCC, Stuart VK2BMX and others call into the net from different parks around northern Sydney each week. This morning Richard VK2SKY came along to do a photo essay…

Colin VK2JCC setting up his antenna (pic tnx to Carmel VK2CAR)
Colin VK2JCC showing off his Xiegu X6100 – a bit easier to carry around than his Clansman!

Portable operations like this prompt interest from other park users, and as a result, many club business cards get handed out each week! Well done for “raising awareness” (to use a popular term) of the hobby of Amateur Radio and the Manly-Warringah Radio Society.

Colin VK2JCC with his 40m homebrew vertical antenna

Not content with having a single station on air, everyone who came along had their own station going, making it difficult for everyone else not to notice the Amateur Radio operation going on!

Detail of Carmel’s homebrew transceiver

The antennas were all verticals, so they didn’t take up too much real estate, but they were still effective in getting the signals out there.

Carmel’s neat antenna had a telescopic vertical radiator, as well as telescopic radials
Alan VK2AMC, operating an FT-817, and John VK2ATT
“Chris VK2YMW using a modified el cheapo Aldi clothes rack turned into a collapsable counterpoise, using Colin’s famous coil into an MFJ 1979 telescopic antenna” (description tnx Carmel VK2CAR!)

Next “Walk/Net in the Park“: 17 March on 7115kHz at 9.30am in Rofe Park, Hornsby. The group will join the Westlakes Amateur Radio Club‘s Morning Tea Net, talk to curious passersby, hand out club business cards, and have fun! Bring along your portable HF kit, or just yourself!

So, who’s up for an MWRS park operation on the peninsula?