On the 9th of November WICEN supported the annual Cave Rescue exercise held at Jenolan. Participants included teams from VRA squads Cave Rescue, BWRS, and WICEN, along with Ambulance Special Operations and the Police Rescue Squad, plus some Jenolan guides. Jenolan is a far more extensive system than the typical tourist will see. This exercise took place within the Mammoth Cave complex, north of the Grand Arch, which contains 11 km of the 40 km of mapped passages and caves in the area, and involved extracting a simulated victim from deep within the system on a stretcher. WICEN's VHF and UHF surface communications were found to provide effective coverage of the area. Members learnt a great deal about the complexity of such an extraction, along with the Caves Rescue radio procedures. Members will have received a full report via email.

Those with a limited news service would have read of the "mini tornado" which went through Hornsby, just 4 kilometres from Dural. There is no such thing as a "mini tornado". A tornado is a tornado, but thankfully the "Hornado" was near the bottom of the Fujita intensity scale. Damage was confined to a relatively narrow track, and there were no fatalities. While most fallen trees have been cleaned up, one street light, and associated signs, remains standing at 90 degrees to its original orientation.

WICEN Victoria will be providing communications for the 2013 Murray Marathon. Operators will arrive at Cobram on 26 December, with the event starting the next morning at Yarrawonga, a little downstream. After 5 days of paddling down the Murray, which forms the VK2 - VK3 border, the event concludes at Swan Hill on the 31st. Details can be found using the Events drop-down menu in WICEN Victoria's site at: www.vic.wicen.org.au/

WICEN ACT, part of the Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club has one event left this year, a car rally planned for December. Their website at www.crarc.ampr.org includes details of both WICEN and general events.

Coming WICEN events include:

BMSC's Rallye de Femme to be conducted within the ACT, pencilled for Saturday 8th December
WICEN Victoria's Murray Marathon canoe event from Friday 27th to Tuesday 31st December
WICEN's display at the CCARC Field Day on Sunday 23 February

Submitted by Julian Sortland VK2YJS on behalf of the WICEN State Management Committee.