BYLARA

Bylara is 25 years old this year and although there was little response to our question of how should we celebrate, the committee though it would be nice to have some mementos so this newsletter has some of the milestones from the last 24 years.

Bylara started in April 1979 with Subs at £1.50   Mary Adams G4GAJ as Chairman and Editor, Diana Hughes G4EZI Secretary and Judith Brookes G4IAQ Treasurer.

The 1st newsletter was printed in June 1979. There were 123 members including OMs and overseas, the newsletter was being sent to America, Australia, Africa, India and Europe.

These were some of the YL clubs at that time,

YLRL                   Young Ladies Radio League (America)

JLRS                   Japanese Ladies Radio Society

YLRC                  Elettra Marconi (Italian Ladies)

CLARA                Canadian Ladies Amateur Radio Association

ALARA                Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association

PARKA                Polar Amateur Radio Klub of Alaska (mixed club)

WARO                Women Amateur Radio Operators (New Zealand)

DLYL                  German Young Ladies

SAWRC               South African Women's Radio Club.

January 1980 we were affiliated to the RSGB and the DXYL net the 14.222 also started.

1981 we had associate members in Germany, America, Luxemburg, Denmark, Holland, Libya, Poland, Canada, Australia, Bermuda, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Alaska and Indonesia.

September 1982 Subs were £2.00 members were taking part in Special events, Contests, DXpeditions, Overseas Yl meets and Visits to friends made over the air.

February 1983 Angelika Voss became Newsletter Editor

March 1984 Subs £2.50.    The 1st Bylara Contest started and it continued until 1998 when it ceased due to lack of support. The 5th Birthday Party was held at Elvaston Castle.

1987 Subs £3.00   Maureen Fellows G8GKR and Edward fellows G8ENA took over the printing and distribution of the newsletter.

1988 At the AGM a new constitution was presented and approved to allow for postal voting because of the decline in attendance at rallies.

May 1989 the 10th Birthday party was held at Drayton Manor this appears to have been the last large gathering.

1990 Subs £3.50 Kay Ayres GØKTC became newsletter Editor.

August 1998 we had our own callsign MØBYL.

2000 Bylara 21st birthday. The special call GB2YL was used by Jan GWØKPD and Maureen GØVRT.

Maureen GØVRT and several other members activated Les Minqueries off the coast of Jersey for Islands On The Air with the Special call GJ4L.

2003 Daphne Neal G7ENA became newsletter Editor.

The Chairman were Mary Adams G4GAJ, Angelika Voss G5CCI/GØCCI, Ann Skinner G4BIR, Florence Nichol GØCVD,Janice James GWØKPD, Maureen Ritson G7FYV/GØVRT, with Ann G2BHY, Val GØBVL and Dawn G4YOS as acting Chairman.

Diana Hughes G4EZI and Hazel G7RGI Producing graphics for the newsletters inside and out.

The following members helped with the running of Bylara:  Daisy G4JOX, Kate G4JAI, Pat G4HKB. Sheena G4HYL, Sheila G3HCQ, Shirley GM4LUS, Helen GM4KNQ, Kath G4KWK, Denise GM4COO, Margaret GW4GSH, Jasmine G4KFP, Lynn G4FNC, Kay GM6KAY, Joy G4OUZ, Fiona G4ZFI, Alison GØALI, Joy GMØGUU, Deirdre GW4XES, Christine GM4YMM, Iris GØFIW, Valerie GWØEVE, Sylvia GØETD, Sandi G1LYM, Yvonne G7DMN, Janice GM1FAF, Mary G6BID/GØPPZ, Alice GMØAQG, Ella GØFIP, Mabel GI8SXN, Esde GØAEC, Lynn GØFNZ, Pam G7IKY Margaret GØBMQ, Cilla G4KVR   Lillian GØWYX, Lesa G7UTF/MØBQD, Linda GØYLM, Jackie G7MZI/MØCUR, Anne MJØBJU, Gill GØWAU, Lorraine GMØBCR, Irene GMØFTX. Apologies if any one has been missed out.

I Know members have made lots of friends over the years and it is nice to see we still have original members both here and overseas. In the past there have been the same problems we are experiencing today  i.e. lack of Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary ,and Committee members but they were overcome and I hope we will do the same and go on from strength to strength and continue for many more years

Jackie MØ CUR.

INDIAN OCEAN DXPEDITIONS, VK9XYL & VK9CYL

Christmas Island, the peak of an ancient volcano 360 km south of Indonesia and 1400 km n-w of mainland Australia, was the first stop for the all- YL DXpedition consisting of Gwen/VK3DYI., June/VK4SJ and Elizabeth/VE7YL last October. It is an island born 60 million years ago from a volcanic eruption, is shaped like a Scott) Terrier and is approx. 135 sq. km. in area. The interior which has been designated a National Park is covered by rainforest while phosphate mining operation is carried out elsewhere.

The Island is known as the "Kingdom of the Crabs" due to the annual migration of millions of red land crabs which march from the rain forested slopes down to the ocean to breed at the beginning of the wet season, generally late November, then return to their burrows for the rest of the year. I believe that at those times it is very difficult to walk anywhere without stepping on a crab, let alone drive on the roads or play golf- Special tunnels have been constructed under some roads to enable the crabs to cross safely. We managed to see quite a few red crabs in the forest plus the larger robber crabs and the pretty blue fresh water crabs but were too early for the migration.

There was also a lot of bird life as well as great scenery - in fact the only thing the island lacked for us YLs was good propagation to other parts of the world! I'm not sure why it is that whenever we 3 go on a DXpedition we either break the local drought or cause propagation to dive into a black hole. It was very hot and humid - thank goodness for air-conditioned rooms, shops and cars. At: that time there were 51, "boat people" still on the island while the Australian Navy, in the form of HMS Stuart, hovered offshore watching over us like a mother lien. Our balcony at The Sunset provided us with glorious views of the setting sun while small fishing boats returned to shore each night with their day's catch. We even saw a large pod of dolphins swim past and we met up with quite a few divers, mainly overseas guys who had come to the island to enjoy the world-famous reef and cave diving. We confined our swimming to the motel's own pool - hi!

We didn't make as many contacts as we'd hoped for (only 4,400) and more than half of those were into Japan; North America and Europe were hidden behind the high hump in the centre of the island. After 2 weeks we packed up our gear (a TS50, an FT100D, Elizabeth's Morse key and a set of the VK3GKK dipoles) and flew off to Cocos (Keeling) Islands with high hopes for better propagation - however, Murphy came with us.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands, one of Australia's most remote external Territories are 900 km west of Christmas Island-just an hour's flight away. The islands (a group of 27 coral atolls) were discovered by Captain William Keeling in 1609 but were not settled for a further 200 years. In 1827 Captain John Clunies Ross arrived with his family and turned his attention to planting out coconut palms and trading in coconuts, coconut oil and copra. In 1978 the Australian Government purchased the Clunies-Ross interests and in 1984 the Cocos community chose to integrate with Australia.

The first group of settlers brought to the islands was predominately Malay Muslim and today, after eight generations, the existing society (most of whom live on Home Island) is deeply committed to the Islamic religion with their own mosques, leaders and ceremonies.

Of course WE arrived on the first day of Ramadan; hence all the Muslim-run restaurants were closed.

Other historical facts are that in 1836 Charles Darwin visited the islands aboard HMS Beagle and formed his theory on atoll formation; in 1914 the German light-cruiser SMS Emden was scuttled on North Keeling following its encounter with HMAS Sydney, and in 1944 West Island was home to more than 7,000 troops from Britain, Canada, Australia and India while an airstrip was built. This airstrip (which runs down the centre of the golf course!) is still in use today - when the twice weekly plane is due, the runway lights come on, a man in a jeep drives madly up and down the strip to make sure there are no obstructions, sirens sound and the local population lines the perimeter fence to welcome visitors and returning friends and family.

We had three nice units, Cocas Cottages, facing the runway/golf course, with suitable coconut palms for attaching dipoles to. Unfortunately we hadn't allowed for a coconut falling on June's Buddypole antenna nor for the largest explosion ever recorded in our solar system which shut down propagation for a few days. In our 2 weeks' stay and after a lot of hard work calling on dead bands we were lucky to make 3,500 contacts - a sad contrast to the German group who had proceeded us making 19,000 contacts. Still, they had good conditions, beams and amplifiers. However, one Stateside guy seemed a little flabbergasted when lie told Elizabeth he was running 1500 watts into a 6 element 10m beam and she answered we were running 100 watts into a dipole strung between a coconut palm and our unit!

It was nice to live in shorts, T-shirts, sunscreen and insect repellent for a couple of weeks. Daytime temps were around 30C but the southeast trade winds cooled things down morning and night. The coral atolls offer world-class snorkelling and diving whilst a few beaches are great for family swimming and barbecues. The sunsets aren't bad either! The roads are well maintained but driving hazards consist of dodging fallen coconuts, crabs (brown ones this time) and the many feral chooks which roam the island.

Some photos of our trip can be seen on my web page under the icons for 2003 (well, when my son finishes putting them on!). http://www.qsl.net/vk3dyl

De Gwen, VK3DYL