Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania Awards and Contest Page

TASMANIA, the beautiful island state of Australia exhibits many unique features, one of which is the Tasmanian Devil. This "Award" is named after it.

To qualify for the award it is necessary to make contact with a certain number of Tasmanian amateurs, dependant upon your own location as indicated below.

Contact to be made with 20 VK7 stations with at least one contact made in each of the Southern, Northern and North Western Branch areas.

Satellite contacts via amateur satellites with cross band to HF allowed if licence conditions allow.

Contact to be made with 30 VK7 stations by any amateur using the IRLP system whether within Australia or overseas.

The Award measures 205 mm by 230 mm, printed on pale light blue card with a map of Tasmania in green in the centre. The head of a Tasmanian Devil, in black with a red nose and mouth is printed within the map of Tasmania.

Amateurs holding the "TASMANIAN DEVIL AWARD" are reminded that upgrades are available for the award. Presently held are 150, 200, 250 and 300 upgrades. If you qualify for any of the these upgrades, please forward a copy of your logs as outlined above and an upgrade sticker will be forwarded.

John Bates
Awards Manager

Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania

Ben VK7BEN is pleased to advise of the winners of the Athol Johnson Memorial Contest, and the John Grace perpetual Trophy that was run as part of the contest. The Overall winner of the Contest was Steve VK7XOR with a total of 641 points, and the winner of the inaugural John Grace Perpetual Trophy was Tony VK7FACC.

Tony VK7FACC, John Grace Trophy winner with the son (Rick) of John Grace who presented the trophy in foreground.

Rick is the son of John Grace and Rick described his Father's love of the hobby and amusing child-hood experiences of amateur radio, camping and traipsing up mountains and hills "to get better signals". Thanks Rick.

Mug-shot of Steve VK7XOR winner of the Athol Johnson Trophy and Tony VK7FACC - John Grace Trophy Winner.

Congratulations Guys.

(Ben, VK7BEN, AJ Contest Manager)

After an absence of some 25 years, the Athol Johnson Contest took place on the third weekend in February 2008 and was held between the hours of 10am and 6pm Tassie Time!

Tom VK7NML, Ben VK7BEN and Tony VK7FACC on Mt Wellington during the contest.

Attention all foundation licensees - There's a trophy that only you can win! The inaugural John Grace Perpetual Trophy will be awarded to the foundation licensee with the highest accumulated score!

John Grace Perpetual Trophy

This is a great time to learn about how much fun contesting can be. Being a F Call, experience the thrill of pileups as people desperately clamor for your contact to get the special F Call multiplier!

AJ Memorial Plaque

Points or "kilograms of trout" are awarded for contacts made with Central Highlands Amateur Radio Club of Tasmania members. The Club callsign gains you 3kg of trout, the President, 2kg, etc. Once you have 14kg of trout you can claim the basic award, 25kg – gold award and 50kg – platinum award.

At 17:00 (local Tasmanian time) each day on 3.589MHz there is a friendly gathering of amateurs from a number of States that have a general rag-chew session about anything and everything. All amateurs are welcome. The Sewing Circle get together each year near Christmas for a social gathering.

On Thursday nights at 20:00-20:30 (local Tasmanian time) on 3.585MHz CHARCT gather before their quiz net to enable contacts with Tasmanian amateurs to be made to gather points toward the Tassie Devil and Tassie Trout award. All amateurs are welcome.

The Central Highlands Amateur Radio Club of Tasmania run a quiz net on Thursday night on 3.585MHz at 20:30 (local Tasmanian time). This quiz net involves a quizmaster asking a range of questions and each person contributing an answer and then a tally of correct answers determines the winner who runs the quiz for the next week. All amateurs are welcome.