Australian Outback Comms – Ian Hill G8MWK

Following a popular and fun presentation back in April this year, BARC and RADARC Member, Ian Hill G8MWK, Kindly offered our members another presentation. This time based on a huge Digital Radio Communications project that Ian had been involved in.

It was yet another very warm Wednesday evening, so the fans in the Priestwood Community Centre were on full speed. Our Treasurer, Martin 2E0XBZ had brought along a range of cold cans left from our recent BBQ and Club Social to help keep us cool.

The meeting kicked-off with our usual club activity and admin announcements, which are growing quite lengthy as our activity continues to increase.

Thanks to our club members Tony G8TEE, Kevin G4HDK and Malcolm G3TUY who had brought along a lot of radio related items for club members to take away.

Ian G8MWK’s presentations and slides are always full of information and detail, but also always expertly delivered with fun and great humour.

The project to design, install and implement a network of TETRA Radios to support the rollout of a huge gas extraction project was a massive project in itself. As Ian explained, the rules and regulations are very different (when compared to the UK) in the remote locations where the gas was to be extracted. Many times these differences worked in his favour, but also often against too.

The remoteness of the installations and therefore the installation of the radio masts and equipment was staggering. To provide the RF access and coverage needed at so many sites, the power, cooling, radio and mast installations had to provide high performance and reliability.

Yet again, Ian kept us all engrossed in his presentation and before we knew it nearly two hours had passed.

On behalf of everyone at the meeting I would like to thank Ian for another entertaining and enjoyable talk.