WICEN News

We  trust that all WICEN members are writing letters to the vari-
ous politicians, objecting to the proposed massive fee  increase.
Please  point  out how you willingly give up your time and equip-
ment to benefit the community, and that WICEN is one of  the  few
accredited  squads  permitted to enter a disaster area; untrained
volunteers, although useful when supervised, can be  a  liability
when  "the  balloon goes up".  Incidentally, it seems one or more
media reports have appeared purporting to  link  WICEN  with  the
WIA;  whilst this was true at one time, in NSW at least this con-
nection had to be severed when we became an incorporated body, so
it  would  be  appreciated  if these authors would first do their
homework.

It is time to refresh the information we hold on the regular nets
and  meetings around the State, so it would be appreciated if all
regions would advise the Publicity Officer, Dave VK2KFU, of these
events,  in  case inaccuracies have crept in; so far only two re-
gions have responded.

There are no events this month, but two new events for the calen-
dar  are  the Bathurst Car Rally on the weekend of 25-26th Febru-
ary, and the Eugowra Car Rally on 8th  April;  the  organiser  is
Alan  VK2YYJ,  and please note that both events are merely tenta-
tive at this stage.  Alan advises  that  a  major  event  is  the
Oberon  Car Rally on 29th April, and many people are required; he
can be contacted on packet radio as VK2YYJ  at  VK2CZR.   In  the
meantime, regular events for March include the RTA Car Rally over
the week of 4-11th, and the annual Bungonia Cave  Rescue  on  the
weekend of 18-19th.

WICEN is always looking for members to provide the community with
communications assistance.  Write to WICEN (NSW) Inc, PO Box 123,
St  Leonards  2065  for further information, or come up on one of
the WICEN nets: Blue Mountains on the first Monday of each  month
at  8.30pm  on  channel  7175  simplex,  Hunter each Wednesday at
7.30pm on channel 6900, Northern Rivers  each  Wednesday  at  8pm
around 3610 kHz, Central Coast each Thursday at 8.30pm on channel
7125, and Sydney each Thursday at 9.30pm on  channels  7150/8275.
If  there are any other regular nets then we'd like to hear about
them.

-- Dave VK2KFU, WICEN (NSW) Inc. Publicity Officer