Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network

BUNDABERG

Established in September 1961
and still going strong
FIVE decades on

WHAT's New? WICEN NEWS

“Professional Volunteer Communicators linking the Community in time of need.”

Keep an eye on the What's new, WICEN NEWS pages

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Queensland WICEN has been around for a very long time and prior to the creation of the State Emergency Services, it was Amateur Radio Operators who formed a large percentage of the Civil Defence Signals Section.

Today our members still volunteer their time so that they can be of service to the community during times of natural disaster or emergency.

Often when an emergency occurs normal communications such as telephones, mobile phone towers & the internet can be destroyed or networks become so congested that they fail. When that happens radios, powered by 12volt batteries, are often the only form of communication until normal services can be restored.

WICEN Bundaberg is sponsored by the Bundaberg Amateur Radio Club which is an affiliate of the Wireless Institute of Australia and we are grateful to receive some financial and in-kind support from the Bundaberg Regional Council. Our radio operators are registered with SES and the Club is proud to have 11 club members actively serving as volunteers.

Our aim is to be prepared so that if we should be activated as part of the Bundaberg Regional Council Disaster Management Plan we can place trained radio operators into any situation to assist those welfare agencies working within the plan.

WICEN operators are not expected to be the rescue or emergency response personnel but we may find ourselves forwarding radio messages between Emergency Operations Centres, Welfare Centres, SES and Red Cross for example.

Our primary role is to meet the welfare needs of our own local residents and by simply using our communications expertise passing messages we can assist these volunteer agencies caught up in an emergency.

With a full calendar of training in radio operations and message handling we sit quietly behind the highly trained SES personnel and those other welfare agencies who undertake the emergency and life saving work.

During the Victorian bushfire crisis in early 2009 Amateur Radio operators were activated as part of the Victorian emergency plan and served for many weeks in the disaster area.

This is a link to the WIA news item on the Victorian bushfires and the WICEN response.

Following the Bundaberg Floods during Christmas/New Year 2010 the club has been very busy with construction of new Portable Emergency Amateur Radio Stations. The project involved constructing 3 portable stations including field antennas and upgrading the Base station at a cost of just over $9000. The club received some funding from the Queensland Government Gambling Community Benefit Fund toward the project.

The WICEN Volunteers are now training with the new Portable Emergency Amateur Radio Stations and antennas so that they become accredited on the new equipment and can be relied on in an emergency.

Field trials are also underway so that we know the coverage area of our equipment around this large and geographically diverse region.

Three Portable Emergency Amateur Radio Stations made from timber and coated with marine varnish. Now we're ready for floodboat or rain operations	Lift the lid and there's a shelf with the radio equipment permanently affixed so nothing will move during transportation
The shelf is removable so the operator can work wherever they're needed. Station comprises (L-R) LDG Antenna Tuner, Yaesu FT-857D transceiver and Jetstream Power supply.	Under the shelf, everything the operator needs to be self sufficient
ENVIS Dipole antenna for HF operation	HF Antenna fits into denim pack and is easy to sling over a shoulder

Further Links:

Keep an eye on the What's New in WICEN pages.

A 2007 field exercise which was fun and as we tried out skills at map reading and field work.

Queensland Government - EMQ communications information.

2011 a combined training session as 6 Hervey Bay amateurs joined the Bundaberg members. It was some theory then onto the practical stuff of sending and receiving messages using the new Portable Cases and the Base station as well as erecting the ENVIS Dipole