Q-News AR News from Queensland

Ian McCosker VK4PF passed away on Thursday 17th of September 2026 at the age of 95. Ian was first licensed in NSW as VK2AXI. Ian and his wife Gilian (Gil) ran a very successful sales and servicing home electronics business in Moree NSW for a number of years. They then moved to the Gold Coast in 1972 with their 2 daughters, and, after arrival Ian joined the Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society where he was an active member for many years and had been very well known on the HF and VHF bands. He attended the HamFests regularly, even attending last year. Ian VK4PF worked for Laser Electronics for some time and was very involved with Laser technology in those early days. He remained a member of the Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society until his passing. Our thoughts are with his family Vale Ian VK4PF

Long time radio operator Eldon Bryant VK4GUN has gone Silent Key Eldon passed away during the morning of Thursday 29th October following complications which added to ongoing health issues that finally vanquished Matman. Eldon, member and past Secretary of The Townsville Amateur Radio Club Inc., was a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia and long before attaining callsign VK4FNQA (which he converted to VK4GUN) was a very prolific DXer on the 11metre CB Band. Eldon was also active for a long time on the online system CQ100 which he used to maintain contact with radio friends when the HF band conditions were poor. How did he get the handle Matman? Eldon commenced a career in textiles, at one stage being the regional sales co-ordinator for large carpet companies. Eventually he and XYL Roslyn went it alone and set up a trimming business in Aitkenvale called 'Matman and Roslyn'. The Matman moniker stuck from then on. VK4GUN was a remembrance for the time he served in National Service in gunnery, for that service he contracted industrial deafness which he coped with for the rest of his days. Thumping the drum on Amateur Radio Eldon was active as long as health would allow with communication support events, was a founding supporter of the AM and CW on ANZAC Day operation, tried many new things on-air (remember the Isotron antennas at Cranbrook), supported the on-air nets locally and regionally. We have lost a radio amateur who personified the have a go outlook on life and we will miss his friendship and support in the years to come. Vale Eldon (Matman) Bryant VK4GUN, Silent Key

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.