YB Land DX Club DX-ing Is Our Life
Season’s Greetings from the WIA Conference Organising Committee.
The WIA Annual Conference will be held in Hobart Tasmania over the 8th to 10th May 2020 and registrations are open and selling fast.
The conference theme is “Antarctic Gateway” and the weekend is setup to showcase the Antarctic past, present and future for those attending the weekend.
We have been able to secure a fantastic deal from the Spirit of Tasmania with discounted fares and accommodation on the ship for the two weeks before and after the conference weekend. So, if you are thinking of making a holiday of it and seeing the Apple Isle, this is your chance. Bring the car, caravan, motorhome or motorbike. To take advantage of the special Spirit of Tasmania deal book early to ensure they have a space for your vehicle and caravan!
Follow this link or the one on the WIA website page to the Spirit of Tasmania booking site.
We have also been given permission to operate 6m, 2m and 70cm handhelds maritime mobile on the Spirit for this period. This is a unique opportunity to operate Maritime Mobile on your travels.
The conference begins on Friday 8th May at lunchtime with 30 lucky people getting a tour of the Australian Antarctic Division headquarters South of Hobart. There will be buses to and from the conference venue. These bookings are open to all call areas except VK7 on a first come first served basis so get in quick to reserve a booking as it is limited to 30 people.
On the Sunday we have a range of fascinating tours organised. These include Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum, either the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery with their Islands to Ice exhibition or the Tasmanian Maritime Museum and the wonderful and very unique Grote Reber Museum and Radio Telescope dish.
Grote Reber was the father of radio astronomy, being the first person to build a “big dish” antenna for the purpose of mapping the sky at radio frequencies. He discovered many discrete radio sources, and he mapped the band of bright radio emission from our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Reber came to Tasmania in the late 1950s because of its unique location at high magnetic latitude in the southern hemisphere. He spent 40 years studying low frequency emissions with telescopes he built himself, first in partnership with the University of Tasmania School of Physics, and later on his own at Bothwell.
We finish off today with a reminder that we have negotiated a great deal from the Conference venue – Best Western Hobart with $149 per night rooms. Check out the WIA website to see what to do to take advantage of this discounted rate. https://www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/2020agm/
We hope you have a safe and happy holiday season.
73, Justin VK7TW
on behalf of the WIA2020 Conference organising committee.
