<\/p>\nSent: Sunday, 19 January 2003 9:07 PM<\/p>\n
\nTo: TAPR Board of Directors<\/p>\n
\nSubject: [tapr-board] A not so successful Ham meeting in Oz…<\/p>\n
\nPeople<\/p>\n
John and I went down to the Australian Capital this weekend… For those
\nthat have not heard, this coincided with a STATE OF EMERGENCY with bushfires
\nburining out of control in the city causing extensive devistation.<\/p>\n
On Friday John and I went down to Mt Stromlow observatory, but we got there
\njust before closing so we did not go inside. We just looked arround outside
\nwithout getting out of the car… John decided not to take any photos…
\nPity… They would have been the last before the place was devistated by the
\nfire on Saturday… Story on SlashDot <\/p>\n
Following that we visited the Tidbinbilla NASA tracking station which I
\nthink still exists, but we cannot be sure since the police have closed the
\nroads. The station has been unmanned since Midnight Saturday. If anything I
\nwould expect grass fires only.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Saturday was more interesting with temperatures up to 35c (100f) and high
\nwinds. Things were fine until after we had visited the war memorial and came
\nout about 3:00 PM.<\/p>\n
I have attached the proto of what we saw. That is looking towards parliment
\nhouse from the war memorial. After that we had lunch and heard the emergency
\nalerts on the FM radio. After lunch we went to the national archives and
\nthen back to the hotel.<\/p>\n
Before dinner we decided to grab a look at the fires from a tall mountain…
\nBlack mountain was a hassle since the roads to it seemed to be closed. After
\nthe 2nd abortive loop we found the back way, but there was a barricade when
\nwe got to the entrance road [well, the road from there is straight up for 2
\nmiles in bushland – and a single road only]. Thanks to other road closures,
\nwe were actually funnelled to drive towards the fires… Seems they forgot to
\nblock a road… We turned around when the smoke started getting in the
\nvehicle and we could see the smoke rising from about 1\/2 mile away…<\/p>\n
We then attempted to visit Mt Ainsle and had no success, with the first
\nmanned road block – all the other were just barricades placed there. Dinner
\nin the center of canberra was eerie, with almost no people. There were so
\nmany burnt leaves on the ground, and even bits of bark… After tea things
\nwere a bit cooler thanks to a change. The VISA systems were down in the city
\nthanks to the fires.<\/p>\n
Going back to the motel we were passed by six fire vehicles heading to a new
\nfire north – towards our escape route… Not good. When I got back to the
\nhotel I found that the DNS for Australia APRS was down, thanks to a
\nCoLocation center being out of power, and the US$500,000 in servers being in
\na hams lounge room away from the fire front. They had emailed the AU, VK2,
\nVK1, ZL mailing lists with the IP addresses of the servers…<\/p>\n
Sunday (today) was just as interesting… After checking out we visited the
\nMint after checking the devistation from one of the mountains… not much
\nwas visible. Many people were at the mint because it was open.. Many other
\nplaces were not – but there was an alarm going off, probably caused by the
\npower going off at some stage.<\/p>\n
After the mint we visited the local trash and treasure… It was fun…
\nDriving through a number of traffic lights where there was no power at all.
\nAt the site there were only about 10 hams present… many of the people
\nplanning to attend were unable to get there thanks to having to protect
\ntheir homes. Others decided to stay since they were amongst the 250,000
\nwithout power. This was going to be a chance for the people of canberra to
\nhear more about TAPR and just get to talk to us… In the end both john and
\nI picked up bargains, and between us doubled the sales at the event.<\/p>\n
Darryl<\/p>\n
I can assure you I am glad to be home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sent: Sunday, 19 January 2003 9:07 PM To: TAPR Board of Directors Subject: [tapr-board] A not so successful Ham meeting in Oz… People John and I went down to the Australian Capital this weekend… For those that have not heard, …<\/p>\n