
VK9NI Nolfolk Island DXpedition Team

VK9NI Norfolk Isl DXpedition 2009
All details will be posted on the VK9NI website at http://www.vk9ni.com
HARAOA CLUB MEETING PICTURES
HARAOA FIRST NSW CLUB MEETING
Venue: St George Sailing Club
2 Riverside Drive
Sans Souci NSW 2219
Date: Tuesday 7th April 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Downstairs Boardroom
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Hams and prospective hams are invited to attend our new club rooms. Information will be given on the night about future Amateur Radio Licence Examinations, Foundation Licence Courses, Upgrade Licencing Courses, Club Activities etc.
Also the club will have a portable station on the air that night, the Club Callsign is VK2CL. For more information Contact Tommy Horozakis VK2IR on 0413005511 or via email president@haraoa.com
What is Amateur Radio?
The wonderful world of Amateur Radio
Welcome to the wonderful world of Amateur Radio. It is many different things to the individual three million plus people throughout the world who enjoy this multi-faceted communications hobby. Amateurs communicate with each other by transmitting voice, Morse code, digital modes, pictures and even video signals. Below is a summary of how it began and has kept with the times to remain an enjoyable leisure time activity.
The image of Amateur radio has long since transcended the ‘older’ bearded individual who sits in a room filled with big black boxes full of glass tubes glowing in the dark while talking to people in a strange language. The sound of strange beeps from a brass key used to complete this picture. While this can still be seen, a brave new world of Amateur Radio has now emerged.
New Amateur Radio
Experimentation
It is the only hobby in the world which allows its participants to communicate and experiment and learn new skills in the process, while learning the “art” of Radio Communications. Many advanced Amateurs experiment with Digital Communication, Using Computers & Radio to complement each other by harnessing the power of the internet and almost all Amateurs are involved in some kind of “Home Brew” projects. Most Amateurs are involved in their local clubs and keep themselves busy with club activities. They organize and take part in field events and “sporting” activities. Most Amateurs are involved in something that interest them and find endless rewards from being part of an inexpensive hobby which has no age barriers.
Increase Your Knowledge
Who are Radio Amateurs?
They are at first sight, just ordinary citizens, including some of your neighbours or work colleagues, and people in more than 100 countries. They are radio amateurs - also known as ham operators, or amateur radio operators. They are people who are interested in communicating and interested in experimenting and learning about modern technologies involved in the burgeoning fields of information and communications they are ordinary people with more than ordinary interests. They are people who see themselves as part of an international community of more than 3 million amateurs around the world, and part of the Australian national community of some 20 000 licenced amateur operators. They are people who are willing to devote their hearts and minds to community service when the need for communications can best be met by the amateur radio service. They are people who lend their knowledge to the training and education of others…they are indeed ordinary Australians with more than ordinary interests and more than ordinary skills developed through amateur radio
The widening range of interests followed by Radio Amateurs
It has always been a feature of Amateur Radio that people from all walks of life have followed the hobby. It is another case of “not who you are but what you are” that matters. Many years ago it was common to hear the description "From newspaper boys to Kings" in reference to Amateur Radio - and it simply meant that radio amateurs range from newspaper boys (street sellers of daily newspapers) to Kings, with royalty being among the ranks of ham operators. The history of Amateur Radio in Australia commenced a century ago and from the beginnings has engaged the minds of many people young and old in discovering how to engage in radio communication. Very often the amateurs of those times had to build every part of their radio station whereas today often the radio station is based on a wide range of black boxes purchased off the shelf. The common characteristic of radio amateurs from the earliest of days to this time is knowledge. Amateur radio is a knowledge-based hobby and amateur operators must demonstrate levels of Knowledge to be allowed to operate their radio stations.
Today’s Radio Amateur
Today Amateur Radio is enjoyed by people from all walks of life, the young and not so young, and the able and disabled, who meet on the airwaves for a chat or engage in other interesting activities especially experimentation in its many forms. Whereas in previous times radio was a hobby based mainly on a narrow range of components and knowledge, today radio draws on every aspect of information technology and electronics. Today’s amateur can draw on a vast storehouse of knowledge and a very wide range of equipment. The range of means of communications and the frequencies available are very great indeed.




