Profiles Of Australian CB Clubs
OMEGA RADIO CLUB INCORPORATED
......affiliated with
PO Box 803 Mulgrave VIC 3170
Certainly, one of the longest running CB Radio Clubs is the Ornega Radio Club.
It was established in May of 1979 although the Club existed prior to this
in its infancy of being developed. The name of the Club was settled by one of
the members wives on the basis that it implied an open invitation that anyone
that was interested in radio of any description, whether it be 27Mhz., UHF,
shortwave listening or amateur, would be welcomed to join. The Club membership
is spread throughout Victoria, primarily.
The Omega Radio Club's aims and objectives are:
Upon joining, members receive a range of
benefits including the Club's monthly magazine called "The Spectrum."
The Club is very active in a social manner with various functions organized to
further promote unity among its members, such as barbecues, fox hunts, meetings.
A spare parts-store shop also provides for cheap items for members. The Club
also assists other associations with help and technical knowledge to further the
cause of other radio groups.
Membership fees are structured in three categories; Family, Single, and
Pensioner. These can be obtained from the club at time of enquiry as
they. are subject to change as may be expected. Enquiries may be made to
JOHN, YCA 211 who is the Hon. Secretary, at the above address.
The Club's late foundation member, Les- VBW395, wrote
the article following. As far as the Club can ascertain, it has not been
published before 1985. (Other than in the membership handbook recently). The
Club have no idea why it was originally written, or whether it was originally
intended to be included in the Club's magazine, "THE SPECTRUM." It was
found included in a file of the Club's deliberations on Incorporation. It
provides an insight into how the Omega Radio Club began.
Les has been remembered via an annual award called the; "VBW395 Les Paget
Award"
The Omega Radio Club has a long history which started somewhere back in May
1979.
The Early Years
Someone asked the other day, "How did the club start?" Like
everything, it had a simple beginning and begun just by people talking to one
another on the "new fangled" UHF frequencies recently instituted by
the then DOC- (Department of Communications). They talked about everything from
their ¼ wave sitting on top of the fridge to trying to guess what the others
looked like.
While most were home based, there were one or two who were mobile only and used
to be perched on top of the highest hill in the neighbourhood and consequently,
were able to reach both side of the big hill, which proved handy at times. Our
biggest thrill of the night was when there was an unknown "breaker",
or when one person came in with- "Good evening squad".
Someone got the nice idea of having a news session to fill us all in on the
latest events radio- wise and, while we were all for it, someone said, "It
couldn't be done!" We went ahead anyway. Snippets of news were put on tape
and then played the tape on a Sunday night.
Eventually, someone suggested a BBQ somewhere so that we all could meet one
another. Some had already met the hard way- like a flat battery and a plaintive
call at 2-30AM for help! The curiosity of one got the better of him and he
arrived on the hill one day. It was always the aim to find an even bigger hill.
You must also remember that due to the bad old days of HF/SSB of 27MHz, names,
telephone numbers, and your true locality was taboo over the air.
Well, that BBQ happened on a wet Sunday and what a great time it was! So much so
that we decided on another in a few weeks time. At a latter BBQ, someone
suggested starting up a club, and called for volunteers. Every one took a step
backward, not forward, but eventually a 'Steering Committee' was formed and with
some arms up their backs, we got a nucleus together.
After much deliberation, we had what looked like a workable constitution, and
arranged to meet at one of the chaps' house on a certain day. That very day, two
of the chap's family contracted the Mumps, so his wife, being on the Mothers'
Club at the local school, hastily sought permission of the school Principal to
have the meeting there. And so, of all the nine callsigns there, one was unknown
to us, but not for long. We painstakingly worked through every clause of the
constitution, finally giving it the nod. Some of the originals were not
available that night, because of the flu and other reasons so the Treasurer went
after them.
So, we finally had a club with no name and 11 members. At the time of the first
committee meeting, ideas were sought and one chaps' wife came up with the name
of "Omega" out of the blue. There was lengthy discussions before
finally settling on the name; OMEGA RADIO CLUB. The reason being that we
decided we would bring anyone into the Club that was interested in radio of any
description, whether 27MHz or UHF, or short wave listener or amateur.
One of the first rules of the Omega Radio Club was that under no circumstances
would anyone's arm be broken again in trying to get them to join. They join of
their own free will. That rule was never put in writing, but still applies today
as a 'gentleman's agreement.
At the second committee meeting, we decided to start a magazine to keep everyone
informed of events and eventually came up with the name "THE SPECTRUM"
and why not- our field of endeavour covered it. Of course, we had the same
trouble getting an Editor, but our first edition did come out 3 months later.
With $110 we couldn't do that much, and struggled along the best we could until
other people joined us. Unfortunately, of the original 11 founding members,
there are some six members still around. We have lost touch with some others.
Despite these traumas, we still have our chat sessions most nights, and someone
asked a question about tyres on his car. This started a learned session, with
other coming in on the conversation, asking questions, and so begun our first
broadcast! The idea kept going as there was always someone wanting to know
something and someone who could expand on the subject. If there weren’t, we
would get someone to come along as a guest speaker who was versed in that
particular subject. This took time, and our broadcast then became a weekly
event.
Happily, all this time saw other people joining us and we can well remember
talking to our 22nd member one night, and telling him that a place would be
reserved for him, because that was his callsign number. We were also lucky with
many people who did things for us, but for a variety of reasons, did not want to
join the club. Mostly at the time was due to some disenchantment with some older
27Mhz clubs at the time. We today are fortunate in that regard.
Although many members have come and gone, there are many whom still keep in
touch, and bob up occasionally. If you consider the family involvement and the
ones who were with us, but did not join, there have been many hundreds of people
whom we have known, and in many cases, still in touch with. We at times, have
our sadness’s too in the untimely death of people we have known, but we go on,
remembering them as they were.
It was one of our broadcasts many years ago, that put us in touch with the
people that were eventually able through a Government Grant, to purchase and
erect, the channel 5/35 emergency repeater, but at the time were unable to get
the installation and servicing done. Our non-member and good friends did this
for them, and we (the club) volunteered to pay for the licence fee and any spare
parts necessary as part of our pledge to help the community wherever possible.
Further to this, we use to hold chat session with people in homes to help them
get use to radio.
Word travels fast, and it wasn't long before we had our first "Car
Rally" which started in the city, and ended up in Bairnsdale, with many
relay points along the way! We did not always have a club repeater, or other
repeaters to use along the way.
A non-member who had been to a "Ham" foxhunt, got our club interested
in doing the same thing with many using the old 320's of the day. (That's all
there was in those days!) After a lot of difficulty because of too much power up
really close, another group of non-member friends, donated to us a low powered,
battery operated, specially designed and approved with DOC, "Fox"
These same people hearing of our difficulty with a couple of car rallies,
decided that perhaps we could use a repeater to advantage, and to our great
surprise, at an Annual General Meeting, came forward, and handed us our very own
repeater! Work then begun to get a trailer and other equipment so we could make
this repeater, truly mobile. Eventually, with some extraordinary donations from
both members, and non-members, our repeater was housed in a secure trailer with
a pump up mast and all the auxiliary equipment we could use.
The day I am writing this is the 2nd of May, 1985, and as it happens, it is the
club's 6th birthday today- six years after we had our inaugural meeting in the
school room because someone got the mumps. It is wonderful how much could happen
in such a short space of time.
Les- VBW395
"The Grey Ghost"
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