Wellington Land SAR held a night SAREX in the Belmont Regional Park. Attending were:
Sil Graham ZL2CIA (Branch 50 Observer)
Dave Walker ZL2BHE
Brain Fearnley ZL2BRF
Rick Smith ZL2TVY
John Yaldwyn ZL4JY and XYL Bev
VHF operation was established on ESB60 using a Police portable repeater deployed by quad bike and an AREC Icom F110 base. Special thanks to regional park ranger Jason Barclay who assisted with the repeater placement. HF operation on 3023kHz used an Icom F7000 (type approved land mobile set). A bit of 'on the spot' dipole construction was done thanks to Brian and Bev! A Police Hantel 027 base telephone provided a phone 'line' but an 8 element Yagi was required to get a signal from Telecom there being no cellular phone coverage at ground level from either network.
Rick and Brian look busy here: http://spin.co.nz/gallery/album10/aby
More than 40 Police, WLSAR and AREC volunteers took part in the exercise, locating the ‘missing party’ and completing a difficult stretcher carry with operations ending at 2230.
- ZL4JY, Section Leader