Re: Batten down the hatches Vic

[Bird]

Outside mates place..
The tree scored 1 car under it.

Snapped up fairly high on that tree... looked like a solid bit of timber

[OldPaj]

Have had power out since about 1700hrs. Powercorp (provider) says expected to be back on at about 0030 tomorrow. Watching online news seems to indicate that likely to take much, much longer to get power back to 0.5M homes across Vic. 39C and no aircon - damn.

Have the genny powered up running fridge, freezer, a couple of fans (still 30C here), Starlink and the computer.

Went up to the shed and fired up the HF, VHF/UHF (batteries) gear and nothing but static. Local VHF (VK3RCV) and UHF (VK3RGV - Linked system) repeaters are both down, so I suspect power is out on them as well.

Being in an all electric house sucks at times, and the Vic gov is demonising gas. Made up a cold chicken salad for dinner and bought the butane burner down to the house for a cuppa.

Hopefully mains will come back on in their predicted time frame, if not I suppose I will have to fire up a the other genny to power the tank pumps for water to the house.

[Bad Scott]

Carnage in the Hills. Couldn't even drive a 100mtrs before encountering a tree or fallen power line.
Had to drive a 60km round loop to get petrol.
Running generator powering the essentials, including the septic system.
If we have power by the weekend, it'll be a miracle

Sent from the roads less travelled

[Pottsy]

Images on the telly this morning showing major transmission lines down, could be weeks before some back on the grid. Sadly looks like you may be in for a long haul.

[Bird]

As many as 30 homes have been destroyed by the blaze burning in the Grampians National Park. 

Images on the telly this morning showing major transmission lines down, could be weeks before some back on the grid. Sadly looks like you may be in for a long haul.

I thought they'd be stronger

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/massive-storm-could-zap-power-from-375000-home-for-days-if-not-weeks/news-story/aebb6050afc28afe42e0aef599fff09c

[Bad Scott]

We have total blackout. No comms, power. Just dropped the fridges and freezers off the the parents

Sent from the roads less travelled

[GeoffA]

We have total blackout. No comms, power. Just dropped the fridges and freezers off the the parents

Has the situation improved Scott??

[OldPaj]

We had power returned at about 1500hrs today.

No real evident tree damage or anything at our place.
A friend who lives approx 6Km due north of us had windows blown out of the house, tree branches through other windows and the roof removed from on site business office. Power was out for her the same times as ours.
I noted lots of limbs down and quite a few reasonably large tree trunks (30 -35cm) snapped off about 3 - 5M up while driving into and around Bendigo.

[Bad Scott]

Has the situation improved Scott??

No. Still a total blackout. Seeing eta 17th. All we need is some sort of communication restored. Power we can use generator. Local business White wolf Cafe was on aca last night. They make awesome coffee. We have shifted all fridge and freezer produce to my parents place yesterday. I videod the storm when it hit us at home. Will show on weekend

Edit. We have NBN working now. Still no eta for mobile network. Shops open but CASH only. Off to the local grog shop 

Edit of the Edit. We got power and mobile services restored. A lot of homes around us ie next street, still have no power. Slowly working out exactly which line our power comes from, as it's definitely not the line out the front from previous times

[Harbourmaster]

Now’s the time to go out in an EV. At least I always keep some fuel at home in J/cans,

[Fizzie]

All we need is some sort of communication restored ... Still no eta for mobile network

2-way

Have a mate who's a 2-way radio tech in NNSW (he's in Murwillumbah but covers a decent area). Says that for several years people have been telling him to give it away as 2-ways are a thing of the past, nobody uses them anymore as everybody now has a mobile which is so much better etc etc etc.

But then over the last 2-3 years he reckons he's been busier than the last 10-15!

That's an amazing thing people have "found" about 2-ways - all they need to run is a little bit of 12V power! You're not relying on 240V supply, external comms towers having power & so on!

[Bad Scott]

2-way

Have a mate who's a 2-way radio tech in NNSW (he's in Murwillumbah but covers a decent area). Says that for several years people have been telling him to give it away as 2-ways are a thing of the past, nobody uses them anymore as everybody now has a mobile which is so much better etc etc etc.

But then over the last 2-3 years he reckons he's been busier than the last 10-15!

That's an amazing thing people have "found" about 2-ways - all they need to run is a little bit of 12V power! You're not relying on 240V supply, external comms towers having power & so on!

Don't forget cash is still king. Grog payments also works in them troubled times.

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[GGV8Cruza]

30mm in 30 mins, crazy rain, lots of lightning and thunder

GG

[Bird]

30mm in 30 mins, crazy rain, lots of lightning and thunder

GG

Mate was driving to Taralgon and said it was insane on the road

I was in sydney lunchtime yesterday and got smashed there... some low lying roads were nearly wheel depth in cars.

[Bird]

Insanely windy here... kids screamin at the bus stop over road ...
https://www.windy.com/?-37.816,144.967,5


FFS hope theres no fires starting
https://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

[moeite]

2-way

Have a mate who's a 2-way radio tech in NNSW (he's in Murwillumbah but covers a decent area). Says that for several years people have been telling him to give it away as 2-ways are a thing of the past, nobody uses them anymore as everybody now has a mobile which is so much better etc etc etc.

But then over the last 2-3 years he reckons he's been busier than the last 10-15!

That's an amazing thing people have "found" about 2-ways - all they need to run is a little bit of 12V power! You're not relying on 240V supply, external comms towers having power & so on!

Many years ago the Wireless Institute of Australia tried to warn governments around the country that communications systems that relied on ground based infrastructure wasn't the way to go as in the case of floods, fires, etc. the first thing to be destroyed was said ground based infrastructure. Of course the WIA wasn't listened to....

[GGV8Cruza]

Many years ago the Wireless Institute of Australia tried to warn governments around the country that communications systems that relied on ground based infrastructure wasn't the way to go as in the case of floods, fires, etc. the first thing to be destroyed was said ground based infrastructure. Of course the WIA wasn't listened to....

My set up lets me talk all around the world via 12v, just prepping away  . 73's

GG

[GGV8Cruza]

Insanely windy here... kids screamin at the bus stop over road ...
https://www.windy.com/?-37.816,144.967,5


FFS hope theres no fires starting
https://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

Bad night last night, lost power at 8pm and got it back at 1pm today. Trees down in the bottom paddock and moved the camper at 10pm as the 10 tonnes of Eucalypt above it was looking suspect.

GG

[Bad Scott]

Bad night last night, lost power at 8pm and got it back at 1pm today. Trees down in the bottom paddock and moved the camper at 10pm as the 10 tonnes of Eucalypt above it was looking suspect.

GG

Did the eucalypt suddenly fall down from the pruning Some of my trees needed that wind

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[Bird]

My set up lets me talk all around the world via 12v, just prepping away  . 73's

Was wondering how Pete's setup withstood the blast...

[Bird]

Your house and tree still in Victoria?

Phuk me that blast around 4am woke me up...

[Champin]

Got a fire happening nne of Licola. Hasn't been updated in a couple of days. Must be a bastard to deal with in this wind. Not much hope for air support either. Meanwhile down here in the lowlands, I reckon I must have done an extra 5kms on the way to work this morning dodging trees.

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[Bad Scott]

Your house and tree still in Victoria?

Phuk me that blast around 4am woke me up...

4am. Try 3am here. 1st coffee at 3.07am

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[moeite]

We live up the top end of Moe and yesterday we were greeted by my properly guyed vertical Cushcraft R9 antenna laying twisted and broken up against the fence. As if that wasn't bad enough my wife's vege garden has been decimated completely. Heartbreaking after the  weeks and weeks of work, care and attention she has put into it.