Rabu, 22 Oktober 2008

World JOTA 2008 at Johor Bahru (17th - 19th OCT)

This year the World JOTA was held at the Datatran Johor Bahru (a.k.a. Johore Bahru City Square) which is located beside the General Hospital & opposite of Hyatt Regency Hotel. The station callsign : 9M1CSJ

The event started on 17th OCT 2008 and end on 19th OCT 2008, total of 3 days and it was the second time held at Johor Bahru. You can visit the First Johore Bahru JOTA here. This time the event being supported by many others societies and communities, SKMM (formerly known as MCMC) was one of it. Commercial tents, food and drinks were provided during the events.


The World Scout Jamboree (French: Jamboree Scout Mondial) is a Scoutingjamboree of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, typically attended by several tens of thousands of Scouts from around the world, aged 14 to 17.

The first World Scout Jamboree was organized by The Boy Scout Association in London. With exceptions for the war years, it has been organized approximately every four years, in the more recent years by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), in different locations over the world. The 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 was held in Hylands Park, Essex, United Kingdom, and celebrated the Centenary of Scouting. For more information, please click here.

On the first day, all the helpful HAM members were there to setting up the antennas and the equipments. Yes, a lot of fun during the process....

9W2TSK on the left

Discussion within 9W2JOC and gang

As usual, the VHF and HF stations were setup, and this is the first time the Satellite Communication Station was setup also to communicate with ISS (International Space Station). And it's also the first time we put up a Helium Balloon (a.k.a. Hot Air Balloon) to setup the G5RV Dipole Antenna as Inverted-V resonant.

"The G5RV antenna, with its special feeder arrangement, is a multi-band center-fed antenna capable of efficient operation on all HF bands from 3.5 to 28 MHz. Its dimensions are specifically designed so it can be installed in areas of limited space, but which can accommodate a reasonably straight run of 102 ft for the flat-top."

The balloon and the G5RV in the small picture

Pictures above & below shows - The "Rise" of the Ballon

Second day was great with many visitors, Scouts and Girl Guides. Fellow HAMs were there for support and help....
The event was officially open by the VIP - 9M2TJO around 3pm.


VIP visiting the booth....


Johor Bahru on The Air - The slogan

The mineral water bottle and 9W2JOC decoration...

The HAMs relax before the Scouts arrive.....9W2ALM with cap

MCMC in action

9W2VAC complaining there's no coverage of P1 WiMax

9W2JOC, 9W2BDX & 9M2NP

9W2BDX & 9W2JJR guiding the scouts for radio communications
(pictures above & below)


That was also the time 9W2JOH with fellows setting the Satellite Tracking System.


Yaesu G-5500 Rotor

The Controller and the GS-232A Computer Interface

The Tracking Software

9W2JOH - Feroz during the setup


The YAESU G-5500 SATELLITE AZIMUTH/ELEVATION ROTOR come with the controller to lets you keep track of all aspects of the antenna system's positioning. The rotor rotate at max. 450° for azimuth and 180° for elevation.
The GS-232A Computer Controlled Interface package with the NOVA satellite tracking software which contains many powerful features for not only pointing antennas but also display options that are invaluable to instructing orbital fundamentals.

BU-50 Diamond 50 Ohm Balun
The BU-50 is a 1:1 50 Ohm HF balun covering 1.7 to 40MHz. It will handle 1.2kW PEP and helps reduce feed line radiation and radiation pattern distortion.



That was about close to 4:40pm local time, everyone were anxiously waiting for the ISS passing by on top of us.....

As you can see the "Communication Cyborg" standing on the left


The Satellite Tracker will park at the direction of south, and it will start to track the position of the ISS 3 minutes before the vision and follow it in 7 minutes then after the ISS out of vision, it will go back to the 'park' position. 9W2BUG holding the mic and CQ!

The respond was good with 107 participants of Scouts & G. Guides (7 from Singapore Rovers) and 50 visitors. And 25 of station master to help and make the event happen!

Singapore Rovers

Some others pictures for sharing......

The Public Washroom

The popular booth, serves food & drink....

The Portable VHF Antenna for Local Transmission

The Communication Cyborg - Main Attraction Of the Day

There were 10 total contacts collected from other country through HF and total of 5 QSL card from SSTV.

The event was end with Thunder Storm and heavy rain on the last day evening.
(Thanks and see you guys next year again!)






Kamis, 16 Oktober 2008

D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World, Malacca

The D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World, Malacca
(N2°24.982' E102°07.808')


It's located about 15KM from the Simpang Ampat/Alor Gajah Exit (North South Expressway). Took us about 30 minutes to reach from Tampin 'Long-Jiang Noodle' stall. Surprisingly, it's not packed with peoples!

I had been curious about this place long time ago is just because the high entrance fees! So we took this holiday season to visit this Fruit Farm.

I asked the lady at the information counter about the area and activities in the farm, and found out that the fruits season had just passed. It's between June - August every year. But we still insist to visit it after a long journey.....

The D-Paradise Fruit Farm
* Entrance fee is MYR49.90 for adult and MYR29.90 for children (Age 4-11) without time limits.
* Total 168 acres of the farm with 9KM of total journey.
* Discover 800 type of species in the farm with took more than 5 years of preparation.
* Native Village - 20 acres area
* Cactus Park and many more......

There's no tram to bring you around, you need to choose from these three choices :-
1)By walking
2)By renting a mountain bike
3)By renting a Buggy.

We decide to take the buggy (MYR50.00 per day). The total cost come to MYR149.80, the lady so kind that give us an offer for 20% off!

Once paid, we head on our adventure tour in this Tropical Fruit Farm.

The buggy area

The Buggy for four


We took this buggy for 2 - with the number "112"

Drive at our own Risk!

The entrance of the track

The D-CEO Village house just right after you drive in.....
It cost MYR1,100++ for one chalet or MYR550++ for one room, not cheap eh?

The track condition....and the shades are not really cover us from the hot sun...

The shades are actually trees of this - Passion Fruit

Our first stop - Cactus Park
We spend about 20 minutes over here.....

Along the way you can see many signage explaining about the fruits....and there are few washroom beside the track.
There's also many fruits that we never see it before......
Just like the pictures below....



After the Cactus Park, you'll reach the Water Lily Pond.

It's almost empty over here....



Crocodile Farm - it's just four crocs down there...1.5 meter long only, but it's enough to kill!


Ostrich Farm


Then we reach a roundabout, and just simply drive in one of the lane....and discovered this beautiful place - Camp David Island (The Private Resort)

The entrance of the Resort

It's a island in the small lake, the cabin cost MYR1,125++ per night !

Suddenly we feel little hungry and wanted to bite for food. According to the map, there's a Waikiki restaurant nearby. But after we found it, the restaurant seems like close long time already. So we have to drive back to the main complex without choices for packed food.
While on the way to the complex, we saw this Arena for Aborigine's Show. But we gonna miss it because of Hungry! :)

The stage for the Show - the rabbit farm just beside it

We bought some fried mee-hoon & drinks from the restaurant (It's good!) and searching for some nice place to enjoy it!



The Aborigine's Village - We didn't go in here because.....my daughter scare! Hmm....
It's covered about 20 acres of the area.

We found this pond for water activity after our break, it's calm without any activity....
This area a bit run down, but I saw the maintenance guys are doing their restoring job.

Beautiful area!


The tracks inside are not flat! Up & down, feels like driving a 4WD in the jungle! It's quite fun!!

Due to the not accurate map, we still haven't find the 'Robber Crab' after 4 hours in this farm.....
We started carefully round every corner in the park without giving up! Finally we found a Big 'Cage'! Looking at the signage, YES! That's the Crab!

The Robber Crab

The crab that climb and eat 'Coconut'?! Huh?? Yes, sure! This crab also known as 'Coconut Crab'. They live almost exclusively on land. This is a 'gift' from Christmas Island, Australia.


In the day time, all the crabs are hiding under this stone and so call - home. I manage to zoom in and snap some of the photos.
They really look like a Alien to me!
Their activities only start during night time. When they start to hunt for foods, they climb. Too bad, we can't stay here till night, so we miss their 'Rock N' Roll' session! :)




You can get more information about this Robber / Coconut Crab from here.

Deer Farm

Goat

After the Robber Crabs, Deers & Goats....it's getting dark, we spend total 5 hours in the Tropical Fruit World. It's time to say goodbye, and we continue our journey to Malacca town for dinner......

It's a Good Experience for us in this Tropical Fruit Farm!


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MY TRIPS - Home

Rabu, 15 Oktober 2008

Long Jiang Mee (Noodle), Tampin

FINALLY!!!
I manage to visit this shop and tasted my long waiting "Long-Jiang-Mian"!
Because I miss it on my last visit, after so many months later......I finally have it!
Hmm......none of my friends tell me that, it looks like Wanton Noodle, so I expect something different. But, anyway.....it's taste slightly different from Wanton mee, it's smoother and feel more 'Q'!
My descriptions might not accurate, you have to try it yourself! Haha!

It has a long history behind, the are many interviews & reviews from the major newspaper are stuck over the wall of the shop.

At least, I fulfilled my mouth for the noodle! :)
After this, we continue our journey to "The D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World"......

If you want to get more information, please click here.





MY TRIPS - Home