The Pinnacles Classic was held on June 16th with Greg VK4GJW and Mark VK4SMA on the base. About 86 runners started the event. From a communications standpoint everything went well. The Guzzler Ultra Marathon is on July 20 and 21. Mark VK4SMA said he now has enough operators to run the event. If you have time to help put your name on the reserve list via [email protected]. The Lake Manchester Trail is coming up August 18 and the Mount Glorious Trail November 10.

Redcliffe Club Car Boot Sale & Wamuran Repeater Relocation Project. The Redcliffe Club Annual Car Boot Sale is on Saturday 24th August 2024 at MacFarlane Park, Kippa Ring in the City of Redcliffe. redclifferadioclub.org.au for more information. Wamuran Repeater Relocation Project. Following the closure of our Wamuran repeater site, the Club’s repeaters have recently been relocated to a temporary site. Robert VK4TFN

Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking. We are fortunate to be enjoying the playfulness of the shortwave bands when the sunspot cycle is at maximum. Radio conditions can be both frustrating when old Sol manages to eject a shower over the Earth or they can be exhilarating when the sunspots create the conditions for worldwide contacts with minimal power. We have been seeing the other side of the earthly behaviour with large parts of the Northern Hemisphere suffering terrible heatwaves. In the Southern Hemisphere we have just breathed the metaphorical sigh of relief as the cyclone season passed most of us by without great drama. However, in this past week we have seen the countries of the Caribbean savaged by a very unseasonal early category 5 typhoon or cyclone to we antipodeans call them. Parts of Italy and Switzerland have been deluged with also fatal results. Whether we accept the theory of climate change or not is irrelevant to the situation that weather patterns are varying and becoming more intense in the effects. Although we are not hearing or reading a lot about the various emergency and storm watch nets that are conducted in different IARU zones, we should all take care to ensure that we do not operate on the frequencies designated for such traffic around the world. These days we can play on the internet and ferret out the necessary information but in years gone by we had a compendium of useful facts contained in our callbook. There has been interest shown in reviving this very useful tool and the ease with which appropriate amateur radio information can be retrieved from such a publication should not be overlooked. Familiarity with various band plans may come from frequent operations where the knowledge imprints itself but for many who meander around the bands on an occasional basis, ready access to the necessary facts is a great operating boon. In many ways, it can be argued that in recent years there has been a lessening of supports to the amateur fraternity. (Should I add the word sorority to that as well?) The ACMA has decided to ditch certain features which many consider necessary such as the database of call signs and their holders and I don’t believe we can buy a copy of the “regs” but must have access to the net, a computer and printer if you want a hard copy. Don’t even ask about having a printed licence document, these days as this has been put in the bathwater with the baby and discarded. Fortunately there is a petition submitted to parliament seeking to remedy this oversight. Some have suggested that the callbook material should be made available in a digital form. Experience shows that the least easy to pirate is still the hard copy, the printed book and if a book is to be compiled there are the necessary copyright requirements to be met and just like the government the item needs to meet a minimum cost recovery standard. I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think….how about you?