The Adelaide part of the Meet will include a Conference with photo session, a tour of Adelaide City, a tour of Port Adelaide with a dolphin cruise, a visit to the National Railway Museum or SA Maritime Museum and we will have a progressive lunch tour of the Barossa Valley.

Then there is the 7 day or 9 day trip on the Ghan with a Central Australia Tour Adventure. This includes sight seeing trips in Alice Springs and seeing the historic Telegraph Station and the Royal Flying Doctor Service then out further to Uluru, Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta and many of the inland places of beauty and interest.

The 7 day trip will end at Alice Springs and the 9 day trip will finish in Darwin.

There is an expression of interest form at http://www.ylinternational2012.com or send an email to Tina VK5TMC.

ELIGIBILITY

All licensed operators throughout the world are invited to participate. Also open to SWLs.

OBJECT

Participation: YL works everyone, OMs & Clubs work YLs only.

One contest (combined phone and CW) run over 20 hours.

TIMES:

Saturday 27th August 2011 ………… 0400 hours UTC to 1359 hours UTC

Sunday 28th August 2011……………. 0400 hours UTC to 1359 hours UTC

SUGGESTED FREQUENCIES

Bands to be used are 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 mHz only.
The following are suggested frequencies for easier location of contacts:

• 28.380 to 28.410
• 21.170 to 21.200 and 21.380 to 21.410
• 14.250 to 14.280
• 7.070 to 7.100
• 3.560 to 3.590

OPERATION

• Single operator only (1 operator per call sign)

N.B. If YL is operating as a 2nd operator her husband/partner CANNOT participate in the contest.

• Every individual phone or CW contact may be counted

• There must be an interval of greater than 1 hour between contacts with any one station on any one band and in the same mode.

• No net or list operations.

• No crossmode operations.

• No crossband operations.

• All contacts must be made in accordance with operator and station licence regulations.

PROCEDURE:

• Phone:
  • Call “CQ ALARA CONTEST”
• CW:
  • YLs call “CQ TEST ALARA”
  • OMs call “CQ YL”

EXCHANGES

ALARA member: RS or RST, serial no. starting at 001, ALARA member, name.
YL non-member,OM or Club: RS or RST, serial no. starting at 001, name, and whether Club station.
OMs, Clubs & SWLs work YLs only.

SCORING

• Phone:
  • 5 points for ALARA member contacted
  • 4 points for YL non-member contacted
  • 3 points for OM or Club station contacted

• CW:
  • All contacts made on CW count for double points
• OM, SWL, & CLUB;
  • 5 points for ALARA member contacted
  • 4 points for YL non-member contacted

LOGS

Single log entry. Logs must show date/time UTC, band, mode, callsign worked, report and serial no. sent, report and serial no. received,

name of operator of station worked whether it is a Club station and points claimed.

Sample Log

LOGS MUST BE SIGNED. Logs also to show full name, callsign and address of operator, and show final score (points claimed). Logs must be legible. No carbon copies. No logs will be returned. Decision of the Contest Manager will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Logs MUST be received by the Contest Manager by: 30th September, 2011

CONTEST MANAGER

Mrs Lesley Smit VK5LOL
4 Perry Barr Road
HALLETT COVE  SA 5158
AUSTRALIA
OR: alaracontest@wia.org.au

CERTIFICATES

will be awarded for the following:

• Top score YL overall
• Top score YL phone only
• Top score Australian YL CW
• Top score DX YL
• Top score ALARA member in each country and VK call area
• Top score OM in each continent
• Top score SWL in each continent
• Top score, VK YL Foundation Licence holder
• Top score overseas YL CW
• Top score VK Club station

TROPHIES

will be awarded to the following:

• Top scoring Australian YL
• Top scoring Foundation Licence Alara member

The Top scoring VK non-Alara member will be awarded 1 year’s membership to ALARA.

CLUB STATIONS

Operators of Club stations may use the Club call only for contacts, and MUST identify each contact as with a Club station. Use of personal callsigns while operating as a Club member is not permitted. A Club station will be recognized as such whether operators are YL or OM. If the Club call is used, the score will be as a Club station.

Please listen out for the special VK100WIA callsign with our President Tina at the mike.

Birthday luncheon celebrations will be held, so if you can attend you will be warmly welcomed.

VK2: Saturday 24 July at Winston Hills Guide Hall at 1 pm.

VK3: 12 noon Saturday 31st July at 105 Spavin Drive, Sunbury.

VK5: Sunday 26th July at the Morphett Arms Hotel.

VK6: Wednesday 28th July at the Bayswater Hotel.

The VK4s lead the way with Catherine VK4VCH being the top overall winner followed by Diane VK4YL the top VK non-member and Pam VK4PTO with a mighty score of 1526 points.

Jean VK3VIP was the only one close to them with her sterling effort of 1384. Congratulations ladies!

Pat VK3OZ is our top VK CW YL again. I really appreciated Pat’s letter which said how much she enjoyed the contest. I would like to think that this is what the Alara Contest is about: a lot of friendliness and opportunities for ladies to come up on the air.

Gerald VK2HBG is the Top VK OM for the 4th year in a row. Come on OMs he needs a bit of competition!

Next year we are hoping to issue a certificate for the top OM in each VK area. We really do appreciate the OMs coming up and giving the girls lots of contacts.

The Alara Contest is a great opportunity to try out Mike VK3AVV’s computer logging program. It certainly makes my life easier as contest manager.

I would also like to see Club Stations come up in each VK area so that our Foundation Licencees can have the opportunity to gain some confidence on the air. Leonie VK2FHRK has taken out our Top Foundation Licencee trophy for the 2nd year in a row and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if there was some serious competition.

We had a few DX contestants: Sharron ZL3AE, Celia ZL1ALK, Mary WX4MM and Elizabeth VE7YL. Thanks ladies for making the effort to participate. Hopefully more DXers will come on board with the improvement in the solar cycle.

Next year we are hoping to use the VK100WIA special callsign during the contest. There probably will be some extra points to be gained if you contact the call. We will all be celebrating the fact that the WIA is 100 years old. Quite an achievement.

33, Lesley VK5LOL, Alara Contest Manager

Thank you to all the 41 YL’s who attended with their 43 OM’s and family members. 84 – what a wonderfully even number.

Where do I even begin with our whirlwind weekend? Friday evening saw 78 of us enjoy a lovely meal at the Beachway Motel Restaurant – although we did dine a little later than anticipated because the staff couldn’t figure out how to get the highly mobile socialites to sit in one seat long enough to take our orders.

On Saturday morning we had an eager team of assistants ready for Registration time – Kirralee collected pet photos, Natali handed out the showbags, Tina set up displays for the History, craft work and special effort, and I believe it may have been Meg VK5YG who worked out who was who to give name tags to. The morning passed much too quickly as we managed to squeeze in morning tea before posing for photographs galore! We YL’s were beginning to feel like royalty with all the paparazzi after us “just one more girls”.

After all the frivolity we managed to settle down long enough for our President, Marilyn VK3DMS, to officially open the Meet – which she managed with her usual calm and efficiency – thank you Marilyn. Presentations were made to Mavis VK3KS, Mavis (ex – 3BIR), Heather VK2HD and Norma VK2YL to celebrate ‘33′ (love sealed by friendship between one YL and another) – a gift from all of our members to these four YL’s who not only are founding members but have retained continuous membership of ALARA for all of it’s 33 years. Unfortunately none of these YLs were able to attend, however the messages sent to share on their behalf were lovely and we thank all of you for your contribution to ALARAMeet ‘08.

We were delivered from Ulverstone to the Axeman’s Hall of Fame & Timberworks at Latrobe in two comfy Redline Coaches, one of which was quite special – “Miss Barbie” who was pink, especially for the YL’s, pretty clever I thought, although we did let some of our OM’s share her.

At dinner that evening we were joined by Tony VK7AX, President of NWTARIG (North West Tasmania Amateur Radio Interest Group) with his wife Rosemarie. Tony was our special guest who shared some of his memories of becoming involved in amateur radio, the WIA, the formation of NWTARIG and the clubs contributions to amateur radio in Tasmania.

We asked Marilyn VK3DMS to cut our official cake. Due to the emerging younger membership division of ALARA, we also had a chocolate mudcake that was decorated with a lovely gold crocheted doily with ‘33′ worked in the centre (this provided for us by Margaret VK4AOE), so we asked Lynette ZL1LL as President of WARO (and birthday girl of the day) to cut this cake for us.
The Saturday evening Mars Bar Awards were a bit difficult – people didn’t seem to do quite so many strange things trying to get to Ulverstone as they did on their way to Mildura 3 years ago!

I know that what everyone is really waiting to hear about is “Who won the lucky door prizes?” Well, congratulations go to Susan VK3FXXX who won a fabulous wallhanging made by Marilyn VK3DMS. It really is a lovely item and I am certain that Susan was delighted with her win.

The ‘other’ lucky door prize was of course the radio donated by Icom (Australia) Pty Ltd – the ICP7A. Well, I may be mistaken, but I actually thought this item was won by Hans VK5YX – however bright and early on Sunday morning Lesley VK5HLS was heard calling for a radio check on our local repeater and when boarding the coach Lesley showed us what a ‘neat little handbag item’ the ICP7A is. I think huge congratulations should go to Hans VK5YX – firstly for winning this little beauty, but also for having the commonsense to ’share’ his prize!

On Sunday morning I believe most of the group got to cuddle a wombat – in particular Christine VK5CTY who is well known for her wombat fetish! Also there was an opportunity to pat a Tasmanian Devil. Another big highlight for many was at the Platypus House where we enjoyed several echidna’s waddling about around our feet, one nearly climbed into Pat VK3OZ’s backpack!

The train section at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Inveresk was particularly interesting to all, but then the whole museum was interesting.

Once back at the Bass & Flinders in Ulverstone, we had our closing afternoon tea. During this time we had the drawing of the special effort, where the most coveted gift was a beautiful “Mabe” pearl donated by Bev VK6DE. Bev advised that different shapes form on the shell of the black-lipped oyster and it is a beautiful pendant, with bail and chain of sterling silver – this now has a new home with Pam VK4PTO and I am sure Pam will remember ALARA Meet ‘08 every time she wears this lovely pendant. We had many other wonderful gifts – including a door harp! I had never head of this item before, however it was made and donated by Pam VK3NK and is a rather unique and lovely item. Another item that I thought was particularly worth mentioning is the pair of miniature handcarved Huon Pine cowboy boots donated by Shirley VK7HSC made by her OM Max VK7KY.

The Special Effort items were really absolutely fantastic. Thank you to all those who donated items, particularly the handmade items – we have so many talented members! Thank you also to everyone who assisted during the Meet – from handing out nametags to collecting stragglers during our coach tours – every little bit of assistance was hugely appreciated.
The other official business conducted at our closing afternoon tea was the announcement of our destination for the 2014 ALARA Meet – Gold Coast here we come!

ELIGIBILITY

All licensed operators throughout the world are invited to participate. Also open to SWLs.

OBJECT

Participation: YL works everyone, OMs & Clubs work YLs only.

One contest (combined phone and CW) run over 30 hours.

STARTS: Saturday 29th August 2009 at 0600 hours UTC (4pm EST)

ENDS: Sunday 30th August 2009 at 1159 hours UTC (9.59pm EST)

SUGGESTED FREQUENCIES

Bands to be used are 3.5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 MHz only. The following are suggested frequencies for easier location of contacts:

• 3.560 to 3.590
• 7.070 to 7.100
• 14.250 to 14.280
• 21.380 to 21.410
• 21.170 to 21.200
• 28.380 to 28.410

OPERATION

• Every individual phone or CW contact may be counted.
• There must be an interval of greater than 1 hour between contacts with any one station on any one band and in the same mode.
• No net or list operations.
• No crossmode operations.
• No crossband operations.
• All contacts must be made in accordance with operator and station licence regulations.

PROCEDURE

• Phone:
  • call “CQ ALARA CONTEST”
• CW:
  • YLs call “CQ TEST ALARA”
  • OMs call “CQ YL”

EXCHANGES

ALARA member: RS or RST, serial no. starting at 001, ALARA member, name.

YL non-member, OM or Club: RS or RST, serial no.starting at 001, name, and whether Club station.

OMs, Clubs & SWLs work YLs only.

SCORING

• Phone:
  • 5 points for ALARA member contacted
  • 4 points for YL non-member contacted
  • 3 points for OM or Club station contacted
• CW:
  • All contacts made on CW count for double points
• OM, SWL, & CLUB:
  • 5 points for ALARA member logged
  • 4 points for YL non-member logged

LOGS

Single log entry. Logs must show date/time UTC, band, mode, callsign worked, report & serial no. sent,

report & serial no. received, name of operator of station worked, whether it is a Club station, and points claimed.

Sample Log

LOGS MUST BE SIGNED. Logs also to show full name, callsign and address of operator, and show final score (points claimed). Logs must be legible. No carbon copies. No logs will be returned. Decision of the Contest Manager will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Logs must be received by the Contest Manager by: 30th September, 2009

CONTEST MANAGER

Mrs. Lesley Smit VK5HLS
PO Box 271,
ASHTON 5137 S.A.
AUSTRALIA

Contest email: alaracontest@wia.org.au

CERTIFICATES

Will be awarded for the following:

• Top score overall
• Top score OM in each continent
• Top score phone only
• Top score SWL in each continent
• Top score Australian YL CW
• Top score VK YL Foundation Licence holder
• Top score DX YL
• Top score overseas YL CW
• Top score ALARA member in each country and VK call area
• Top score VK Club station
• Top score YL non-member in each continent

TROPHIES

Will be awarded to the following:

• Top scoring Australian YL
• Top scoring Foundation Licence ALARA Member

CLUB STATIONS

Operators of Club stations may use the Club call only for contacts, and MUST identify each contact as with a Club station. Use of personal callsigns while operating as a Club member is not permitted. A Club station will be recognized as such whether operators are YL or OM. If the Club call is used, the score will be as a Club station.

IMPORTANT

This Contest is always held on the last complete weekend of August.

Lesley    VK5HLS    1033    Top overall, Top phone, Top VK5 Alara member
Rosanne    VK7NAW    831    Top VK7 Alara member
Catherine    VK4VCH    460    Top VK4 Alara member
Muriel    VK3KNM/2nd op.    414    Top VK3 Alara member
Gerald    VK2HBG    333    Top VK OM
Sharron    ZL3AE    326    Top DX YL, Top DX CW, Top ZL Alara member
Leonie    VK2FHRK    291    Top VK2 Alara member, Top Foundation Licencee
Pat    VK3OZ    221    Top VK YL CW  (CW score 94)
Chris    VK2LCD    203
Alan    VK8AV    188
Gwen    VK3DYL    179
Marisa    VK3FMAR    171
Marilyn    VK3DMS    163    (Check log)
Christine    VK5CTY    154
Jenny    VK5ANW/3    129
Peter    VK4FABC    108
Celia    ZL1ALK    103
Kingsley    VK5FKDT    79
Ann    VK6FAVB    70    Top VK non-member
Mavis    VK3KS    70    (worked CW only)
Michael    VK1XYZ    49
Richard    VK2KRM    49
Dot    VK2DB    31
Graeme    VK2MGM    10

SUMMARY:
Alara members    15 (inc. 2 DX members)
non-member Yls    1
OMs     8
TOTAL LOGS    24

A very disappointing year even though the bands were reasonable. I suspect that the impending Alarameet (which was held just two weeks later) meant that many were already on the road, or in the middle of preparations for travel.
As usual there were those heard on air with good numbers who failed to send in a log.
Most of the logs arrived by email which made my job easy, as I also went to Tasmania for Alarameet.
Congratulations to Lesley VK5HLS who made such a wonderful score and to Rosanne VK7NAW who also was not far behind. I think there was some friendly rivalry between them. It probably came down to whoever had the least sleep, hi! I believe that Lesley’s OM Hans VK5YX was housemaid for the weekend.Congratulations also to Leonie VK2FHRK who is our top Foundation licencee for 2008. Another Foundation licencee, Ann VK6FAVB, though not an Alara member, ably represented VK6. Gerald VK2HGB has taken out the top OM for the 3rd year in a row.
Mention must also be made of Sharron ZL3AE who not only had a great score but also worked a creditable CW score of 52. Well done Sharron!  Our top score in VK3 goes to Muriel, who worked the contest under the supervision of her OM Niel VK3KNM. Muriel has not got her licence as she has health problems, but is willing to take part.
So now we must look forward to 2009 and another contest. Thanks to those Oms who supported the girls – we hope you will all be there again next year. So mark the last full weekend of August – 29/30 – for the 29th Alara Contest.
See you there!
33 Marilyn VK3DMS