Q-News AR News from Queensland

It's Sunday 20 September and spring is springing, especially in Toowoomba where the Carnival of Flowers is now in full swing. I'm John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club and welcome to an update for club members and listeners. Last Monday we visited radio station 4DDB and really did learn a heap of stuff about broadcasting. The big message is that broadcast technology IS incredibly broad, and you can have a heap of fun applying skills that you already have, and you get to work with all kinds of gear that is bigger than anything we play with in amateur radio. There are 460 community broadcasting stations in Australia and all of them are looking for tech support. So if you're listening to this broadcast, you're already pre-qualified, and there are people who would love to hear from you. And we can help you make the connection to a station near you. If you'd like to know more or get an introduction, drop me a line via [email protected] Our next club meeting will be on Monday 12 October, in the Hut at 18A Memory Street Harristown. The topic is very timely: Mesh. There are many people who have started with LoRa, moved to Meshtastic, and then discovered MeshCore - by which time it was all too much fun to stop. Mesh is an incredibly useful technology and with lots of opportunity to do something that hams are good at: experiment and see what happens. At our meeting you'll discover why mesh technology has so much potential, and how to get involved. We won't be going into every nut and bolt, and you won't learn everything about mesh, but you'll leave knowing what you don't know, and where to go next. That's our Mesh overview meeting, on Monday 12 October, and details are on the club website at ddrci.org.au Over at VK4RDD the club's repeater, EchoLink has settled in nicely, and got a reasonably good workout on last Sunday morning's 2m net. At least one participant joined the net from a phone in his car, and the audio was super-clean and clear. It's really easy to get started with EchoLink, and there's a heap of good information on how to get going. Check out the club website for that initial leg-up. During September we're going to keep reminding you that qualifying for the Club's Garden City Award is both fun and easy, and if you apply before end of Carnival on 5 October we'll even recognise your effort with a special annotation: the during the Carnival of Flowers connection. Check the website at ddrci.org.au and click the awards tab at the top of the page for all the detail. Now an ask: how about sparing a few hours to help the club with our JOTA/JOTI efforts over 16/17/18 October. As a licensed ham, you're just the person we need to inspire the next generation of enthusiastic operators - in this case through scouts and guides, and on a worldwide stage. Can you let us know when on those dates you'd be available to help a bit, and we'll do the rest. [email protected] is the email address for that. That's all for this week. Instant replay of both words and audio can be found on our website at ddrci.org.au. If you have a thought for a meeting, or an article of interest, or a burning question, please send a note to [email protected] and we'll help. Promise. The DDRCI Club 2m net follows at 1000 on Sundays on VK4RDD or EchoLink - feel free to join us, and with EchoLink in place you really can join the net from anywhere at all. I'm John VK4JPM, for the Darling Downs Radio Club. Until next week 73s and thanks for listening.

Hi and welcome to Sunday 13th of September, or whatever date it is where and when you're listening. We try to keep things uncomplicated. You're listening to QNEWS across Queensland, and I'm John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club with a bit of a splash for members, guests and travellers. OK, and anyone else who happens to be listening. If it is indeed Sunday, then tomorrow night from 1900 you'll find us all at Community Radio Station 4DDB. Our club is being handed the red carpet treatment, with the question: does treating red carpet make it a better sound absorber? We're all set to learn about acoustics, balanced audio lines, microphone patterns, analogue consoles, digital links, high power FM transmission, and the most important thing of all: how critical air conditioning is to a radio station. These are just some of the skill areas that are involved in tech for broadcasting, and so many of those technologies are useful to know when you dabble with amateur radio. And how valuable is this knowledge? The best thing you can do is come along and find out for yourself. It's all relevant: hams invented broadcasting, and most broadcast engineers have a ham ticket even today. The World Famous Toowoomba Carnival Of Flowers starts next Thursday and one of the first feature events is the Grand parade next Saturday, the prediction is for good weather. Why not have a go at qualifying for the club's Garden City Award during the Carnival of Flowers? Details on the website at ddrci.org.au/awards, or look for the link on the homepage. JOTA and JOTI are coming up, and we're planning to help aspiring scouts and guides get on the air and discover that ham radio is fun, and even though everyone has a mobile phone and can call overseas for free, there's nothing quite as exciting as starting an over-the-air conversation with someone you've never met. And that's how so many friendships start. If you're involved with Scouts or Guides, and you'd like to join our party or get us involved, why not send an email to [email protected] and we'll help. A 10 year old cub just out of Brisbane recently qualified for a licence, and we'd love to help get more people of that age into the hobby. [email protected] is the email address to make contact. And if you've got some time over the 16th-18th of October and can help with the club's JOTA/JOTI activity, could you put the dates in your diary, and then let us know that you're available? An email to [email protected] would do that. Last week we invited you to work as many bands as you could in one sitting as part of the 52-week ham challenge. This week is similar but different: how many modes can you work in one operation? AM? FM? SSB? Digital? Double-cross-carrier-orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplex-suppressed-intelligence? There are so many modes from which you can choose. The important thing is: have a go, and see what happens. Details at hamchallenge.org, or check out our website where there are pointers to so many things of interest. That's it for this week. The words and music from this segment are available for replay and download on our website at ddrci.org.au, and contributions are welcome. Questions, musings, articles, and grand final tickets can all be sent to [email protected] Our 2m net follows at 1000 on Sundays on VK4RDD or Echolink - feel free to join us. Thanks for listening. I'm John VK4JPM, secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club. 73s until next week.

John Roberts VK4TL Left us on Monday 24th August in his 97th year. John had what some would describe as an absolute passion for Radio and was always experimenting and building transceivers and amplifiers with many fine examples still in use today. In his earlier years he was an engineer on the infamous Radio Caroline ship and was also an operator of the RAF Gibraltar Club station ZB2A. With many callsigns over the years from places he was deployed with the RAF he ended up in Australia where he went on to become the long time broadcast engineer for Commercial Radio group NQ radio which seen him to retirement. John was President of TREC with multiple stints between 2003 and 2019 and was very dedicated to helping out with horse endurance rides and manned the base station many many times over the years. Over the years John experimented with 6 metres, Satellite Work, and Earth Moon Earth on 1296 before downsizing to move to Cairns from the Atherton Tablelands. Vale John Roberts VK4TL, Silent Key

Hi, and welcome to the QNEWS segment from the Darling Downs Radio Club, and this is the week beginning from Sunday 6 September. I'm John VK4JPM and from this week we are officially in spring. If you want a bit of fun, don't forget that Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers starts on 18 September and runs through to 8 October, with the big parade on Saturday 19 September. Our next club meeting is in a little over a week on Monday 14 September, and from 1900 we'll be onsite at Toowoomba's radio station 4DDB. Did you know that broadcasting came from work done by early ham radio experimenters, and sometimes WAS the experiment? It's time to find out how broadcast radio works these days, and visit the newly re-roofed 4DDB studios. The station's transmitter links had to come down and be re-erected, so there's going to be a good story about how to do that work and keep program running 24x7. All the usual club hospitality plus more as we tour the studios, look at racks, discuss servers, and see how radio is made. All the details are on our website at ddrci.org.au, and look for the calendar entry on the home page. Jamboree of the air is coming up on the weekend of 16-18 October, and the club has been reaching out to our local Scouts and Guides. Last weekend was definitely bit special for a local Scout Troop in Withcott. Dave VK4JPS, along with Perry VK4PER, responded to a call from pack leader Baloo to bring a group of scouts up to speed with what we do as hams. Dave prepared a three part evening, with some simple Morse Code flashing using Arduinos, a sample Fox Hunt with gear from Bruce VK4MQ, and there was a live HF Demo on 40m under the Callsign VK4SAA, kindly made available with permission from Bunda (Chris the QLD JOTA Lead for Scouts). Big thanks to our two contacts: VK4WSG from Townsville and Harry VK2HKE from Wagga Wagga. It was great to have Dave and Perry work with two freshly minted calls (Dan VK4SPN and Andy VK4ODN who made their first QSOs under their own calls). This further inspired two potential hams, Tim and Angus, who were treated to some theory and practical exercises, and Vector Network analyser demos all around. The Week 37 ham challenge is to get on air and work every band you can in one operation. Grab a cup of something, and hit the airwaves on whatever your gear will allow. For double plus points, get some gear you don't normally use and expand the count of bands you cover. Why not try some crossbanding? Get a bit more familiarity with how other bands work. It's all in good fun, and adds to your store of experience. if you missed any of this information, it's all on the website at ddrci.org.au, including the text of this bulletin and online audio replay - just have a look over to the right side. On Sunday morning our 2m net follows at 1000 on VK4RDD or Echolink - feel free to join us. Thanks for listening - I'm John VK4JPM for the Darling Downs Radio Club.

From Darling Downs and the World comes this week's grab-bag of news from the Darling Downs Radio Club. Hi, I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of theClub.

Coming up after QNEWS, starting at 1000 if this is the morning edition,you're invited to join our Club Net either via VK4RDD repeater on 146.750 (and don't forget the 91.5Hz CTCSS tone), OR - if you're brave - join via Echolink. Look for VK4DAK-L or node 6925. And on our website there will be link to the easy-peasy instructions for using Echolink. For those who went looking on the site last week and didn't find anything: it wasn't your fault. Despite being highly technical people, sometimes murphy wins.

So... check it out. ddrci.org.au and if you can't find a mention on the home page directly, check that we might have hidden it as a calendar entry... that's the scrolly thing that is at the top of the home page. While you're there, check the detail on the next club meeting, coming up on Monday 14 September. We're visiting community radio station 4DDB-FM, where they are literally raising the roof as you hear this. That's in turn meant taking down the transmitter link, and changes in technology, so there will be much to discuss and learn. As hams we can experiment with microwaves, but if you're a 24x7 radio station everything has to be rock solid. We'll discuss 10GHz, 5Ghz and lots of digital stuff, like how much. forward error correction does it take to change a light bulb? The studio itself is good old analogue audio, so much to learn there. If you've never seen a broadcast station: here's a place to start. Details in the calendar entry on the home page and EVERYONE is welcome whether you're a club member, a licensed ham, or none -of-the-above. Just pretend to be interested and we'll let you in.

The 52 Week Ham Radio Operator Challenge is now at week 36 because... it's week 36. And in week 36 you're invited to push the homebrew envelope. The first part of the challenge is to use a piece of homebrew gear to make the contact. It doesn't matter if you have to dust off that heathkit; build a tuned van-der-graaf generator, or construct a special antenna... although to be fair, EVERYONE makes their own antennas so it's an easy target. Then comes part two: to claim the prize in week 36 the person at the other end should be using home brew too. Here's a chance to phone a friend, or just get on air and see what happens. You could be really surprised.

Next week we're going to report on some of our outreach work with scouts and guides, and don't forget that JOTA/JOTI is coming up in October.

That's in our calendar too. But if you'd like something not in the calendar, ask about our tailored education and training. What would it take to update your skills from nothing to Foundation, or from a lower to a higher class licence? Let us help. Drop a line to [email protected] and let us help you to kick a few goals.

That's it for this week: 2m net follows, and if you missed anything or you can't find an answer on the website, email [email protected] and someone who looks a lot like me will get back to you pretty quickly.

Until next week, I'm John VK4JPM for the Darling Downs Radio Club.

Hi, this is Bob, VK4BOB up in the tropical paradise of Cairns.

Ken Fuller VK4KF left us on 5th August aged 98 years. He met his wife Pat when she was still a teenager on the range west of Sydney. Ken worked in the Queensland Rail Workshops in Ipswich, and went on to be a draftsman while studying Engineering part time. He was part of the crew monitoring rocket launches at Woomera, before becoming Science advisor to Federal Ministers in Canberra. He and Pat enjoyed sailing and after retiring they spent some years on their yacht along the Queensland coast. There he discovered Amateur Radio and received his full call with help of Amateurs on the Sunshine Coast. He gave up sailing in his 90s and went into care recently. This restricted his Amateur activity. There will be a service for him at Saint Lukes church Wooloongabba on 21st August at 11 am. Vale Ken Fuller VK4KF SK

It's 16 August on the Darling Downs and most other places in Queensland. I'm John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club, and we're celebrating the last day of Ekka by wondering what we might have put into our high-value showbags. You know the deal with sample bags: for $25 you get three candy bars, a plastic toy, a puzzle, a pack of crisps, and a comic that's been out of date for years. We can do better than that: for the $3 hamfest price, our pack contains 20 resistors in a value you can't use, half an Elektor kit from a british supplier, a compact fluoro tube, and a three-year back issue of an electronics magazine with part two of a thing you want to build - and no way to get the other issues. And if none of that made sense, we can help you upgrade your electronics knowledge through club meetings, radio training and our regular updates. Drop a line to [email protected] and we'll help. Closer to home, we spent this month's club meeting looking at repeaters, and how they really work. Turned out that cavity filters and stacked folded dipoles are more of a black art than we thought, so the session was very well received, just like our updated repeater. Echolink and IRLP have been enabled on VK4RDD, and you can check those out now - the downloadable Echolink app will help you find the repeater pretty easily. VK4RDD also has some new idents, reminding users of the CTCSS access tone, and pointing to the website for further contact. It was great to see so many new faces at the meeting, and a lot of gear was sold at insane prices. Next month's club meeting will be offsite: on 14 September we're going to visit community radio station 4DDB in Toowoomba to see how broadcast audio works. Broadcasting and Amateur Radio share a lot of skills and background, and it's amazing how much fun you can have with both - sometimes even combining the two. From a radio studio you might not get as many distance records, but you could definitely get a few long playing records. There are many hams who have had careers in radio, and many people in radio and TV have become hams... in all senses of the word. The date again for the visit to Radio 4DDB: 14 September; if you can hear or read this you'll be welcome, and details will be appearing on the club website at ddrci.org.au

Coming up soon on the website will be some feature articles, pointers to a some e-magazines that have been e-mailed to us, and the article by Warren VK4FJ describing how to clean back and replate a 100-year-old morse key.

The club VK4RDD net is up following the callbacks, and we'd like to hear from stations who can help us test echolink. I'm John VK4JPM for the Darling Downs Radio Club. Until next week, thanks for listening.

This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club. We’re into August already which means its annual general meeting time for the club. This will be held on Saturday August 22 at 10am. This month’s business meeting is once again on the same day as the AGM. A reminder that annual dues need to be up to date to vote at the AGM. July’s business meeting noted in the WICEN report that the Lake Manchester event has been cancelled by the organisers. The next WICEN event is the Mt Glorious Trail on November 8. There was plenty to talk about in general business, so members are urged to check their emails for the minutes. The next contest is the Remembrance Day contest on August 15 – At July’s meeting Di VK4DI explained it was a good opportunity for all clubs to engage in a social activity and play radio. The club now has a new online dashboard, providing one central location for viewing the status of our digitally linked repeaters. The dashboard includes access to information for the club’s DMR, P25, D-STAR, YSF and newer AllStarLink repeaters. Greg VK4GJW has started yet another Foundation course with six candidates in what is a busy year of training for the club’s training officer. And two new members were welcomed last month – Matilda Walker and Craig Burnett.

Hi from the Darling Downs Radio Club for week beginning Sunday 9 August, and lots of stuff happening this week. I'm John VK4JPM Club Secretary. The AGM was wonderful; we easily made quorum and had lots of people attending remotely. Good on you! The important motions were carried unanimously after vigorous discussion. Our new rules are on the website for you to check, and all the reporting has been submitted to Fair Trading. So now we wait for a bit. Tomorrow night is the club's monthly meeting, and lots of stuff happening. Firstly, we're encouraging a bit more social stuff so come along for the natter and we'll be providing tea, coffee and tim-tams.. and maybe a bit more. We had cheese and bikkies at the AGM, and that went pretty well. The meeting detail is on the website right now at ddrci.org.au, but here's a taste of what we're doing: with the updated repeater and controller now in service, come and see some of the backup hardware and learn what it takes to make a repeater work. there will be a bit of experimenting and guidance for IRLP and Echolink so that you can see how that works if you've got something interesting - either old or new - bring it along for show-and-tell there will be further update on how we're doing with the clubhouse project and * we have a massive amount of gear for sale on-site, and it's a good chance to come and peruse before the good stuff goes. Well, it's all good stuff, but that item you really want - the reverse-threaded low-impedance high-current medium-voltage twelve-pin Z-FET might be snaffled up by the time you get back. Don't say we didn't warn you. The WIA has offered a $50 subsidy for club members to join the WIA or renew your subscription. If you're under the pump financially, or maybe retired and on a tight budget, please drop us a line. Don't be bashful: your WIA membership allows the club to get a good rate on insurance, which is massively important to the club. Application is through the club, not to the WIA directly. If you'd like to follow up, send a note to [email protected]. And speaking of membership, if you haven't renewed your club membership now would be a good time. The AGM kept the rates at the same level for the coming year, so we're still one of the best-value clubs in Australia. Go to the website and click the big red join/renew button to make things happen.