WESTLAKES AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Inc.
Weekly Broadcast 21st March 2010.
This is a summary of news and events for Amateur Radio Operators on behalf of Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc.
The Broadcast can be heard at 09.00 hrs Each Sunday on 146.775 MHz and is followed by the VK1WIA news. There is a replay on 80 metres Sunday morning and again at 19.00 hrs courtesy Warren VK2UWP. Tune to 3.565 +-.

Those who attended the club yesterday had to eat humble pie. Gloria was away leaving the catering duties to Barry VK2BZ, who I must admit serves up a reasonable pie and sausage roll. Mushrooms as well as peas were an option to go with the pies. But fear not Gloria they just could not compete.
Barry had to run solo yesterday as his back up Dave VK2RD is away touring.
During the afternoon the club played host to past member Alan Forster VK1AL. After a nostalgic tour of the premises Alan promptly filled out a membership application form. This will be presented at the April 10 General meeting. Alan anticipates residing in the Rathmines area in the near future

Barry VK2BZ drew this weeks meat tray allowing Alex VK2ZM to take it home.
The draw however, was not without incident as I inadvertently emptied the barrel prior to the draw, to the best of our knowledge all the tickets were returned allowing the draw to continue.
As next Saturday is the Easter weekend and the possibility of a very reduced attendance there will not be a meat tray on offer.
Mark your calendar for the following Westlakes events..
April 17. Video presentation of the 1996 Dx-pedition to Peter1 Island
Antartica. Courtesy Oscar K1 IYD

Project days Activity Room:-
Unfortunately yesterdays introduction to making a signal generator was a non event. Our lecturer failed to arrive. At this stage it is not known when Les will be available but it appears that the series will be put back one month making April 24 the introduction to a signal generator and May 22 The assembly of the above project.
We apologies to those who waited in vain yesterday.

Another event which it is hoped will gain a good response is the CQ repeater contest 1st to 7th May. Open to all VK’s, all you need is the ability to access UHF/VHF repeaters. The rules can be found on the club’s website.

Westlakes Mini field day will be held Sunday May 30. Gates open 9am.
As in the past quality items are welcome for the auction.

Last Tuesday The Norah Head Lighthouse Trust held their monthly meeting and as the Lighthouse weekend was on the agenda I was invited to attend representing Westlakes ARC
It was pleasing to note the amount of enthusiasm shown by this group who intend campaigning via the various chamber of commerce in the area to promote the event. Suggestions will be sought on means to attract public interest in our hobby over the August weekend so put on your thinking caps.

Accommodation is still available for the Lighthouse weekend August 22/21, persons wishing to book for the weekend are asked to contact Barrie VK2CXA 0402 332830

Classes for the Standard licence will start Saturday afternoons at Westlakes ARC’s classroom commencing April 10 at 13.00 hrs.
Classes run for approximately 2 hours.
Although this initial class has been oversubscribed John VK2BAR has agreed to go ahead. I believe 12 persons have nominated. Initially 10 was the cut off point.
Persons wishing to study for a future Standard or Advanced class licence are asked to contact the Club Secretary.
Our oldest member, Bill Hall VK2XT is at present in Toronto hospital. Fortunately the reason is not life threatening and Bill expects to be discharged tomorrow.
Thanks to Norm Stanley VK2BNS for passing along the information
International News.
New format of hard drive storage coming in 2011
Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP reports.
Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years.
By early 2011 all magnetic hard drives will use an advanced format that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.
The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable. However, it might also mean problems for Windows XP users who swap an old drive for one using the changed format.
According to Science On-Line, since the days of the original DOS operating system, the space on a hard drive has been formatted into blocks 512 bytes in size based on the floppy disks of that era. Each 512 byte sector has a marker showing where it begins and an area dedicated to storing error correction codes. In addition a tiny gap has to be left between each sector.
While 512 bytes made sense hard drives were only a few megabytes in size, its of less significance when drives can hold a terabyte or more of data. As a result, in large drives this wasted space where data cannot be stored can take up a significant proportion of the drive.
Drive makers say that moving to an advanced format of 4 kilobyte sectors means about eight times less wasted space. This will allow drives to devote twice as much space per block to error correction technology.
That concluded Westlakes segment of this week news

If you want to learn what is happening at your club in the coming week join the group each Saturday at 8am for the EZB net on 146.775 MHz
Early risers are reminded to tune to 3.588MHz each Saturday mornings at 6am for the Stone the Crows Net.
To find out more about Westlakes Amateur Radio Club, or Amateur Radio in
general, leave a message on our 24 hour voice mail box on 02 49-581588. Please
wait for instructions before leaving your message. All correspondence should be
addressed to The Secretary, Box 3001, Teralba, NSW, 2284 or email: secretary@westlakesarc.org.au

Further information is available on our website at www.westlakesarc.org.au

Westlakes Amateur Radio Club is located in York Street, Teralba and is open for business on Saturday from 12:00 midday and from approximately 6.00pm Tuesdays Call in and say Hello.....Tea and Coffee are always on!
Amateur Radio is a great hobby become active and enjoy it.
De VK2FJL