Fred White VK4NOE became a silent Key on 29th January 2025. Fred was a member of the Mount Isa and Districts Amateur Radio Group when it was formed in 1979. He was known around Australia as an active member of the Royal Navel Amateur Radio Society. He was a regular participant of the RNARS net held on 15 meters on Sunday mornings in the early 80's.

REDFEST 25 "Adventures on HF" will be held on the 12th April 2025. Gates open at 9:00 AM. Our new venue will be the Deception Bay North State School, Old Bay Road, Deception Bay.

I'm John, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club and what a week it's been. And who expected such a confluence of events demonstrating how useful Amateur Radio could be in a time of stress and emergency? As this segment goes to air, the John Moyle Memorial Field Day will be in its final block. The field day celebrates readiness and willingness to operate portable, without connection to mains power, and to provide training for emergency conditions. And like the universe playing a massive prank, ex-tropical-cyclone Alfred showed us all how exactly ready we would be to deal with an actual natural event, a week before the competition and at least one WICEN training exercise had to be cancelled while we dealt with the civil emergency.

News from the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club, this is Gordon VK4VP for those who may have missed this last week due to TC Alfred. SCARC is having a car boot sale on March 22nd at the clubrooms 85 Godfreys Rd. Bli Bli. Entry and traders tables are free but we do require bookings to secure a traders spot. It will be located in the grounds of the clubroom so if you need shade apart from the few large trees, you will have to organise something yourself.

Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking.

For so many of us, it is good riddance to Alfred, the cyclone that was. For many more, it is the harrowing task of saving what is left disposing of the too badly damaged and finding the path back to normality.

We were fortunate that the drama that unfolded as the low-pressure system deluged the coast was kept away by the forces of nature or the whim of the gods, I don’t know which. What I did know is that whilst Hervey Bay coastal suburbs were swamped we, only some 30 kilometres away, had sunshine and blue sky.

Domestically, we had obtained another larger capacity generator for those times when the mains drop out and I had been preparing it for service prior to the entrance of Cyclone Albert. As it turned out, the engine needed some replacement parts which I had sourced from online vendors as I couldn’t track down a local dealership for the brand.

As the people of south-east Queensland honed their listening skills trying to get a sense of the forecast track and possible destination, I waited and watched the tracking information on my parts delivery.

It was ironic that my preparedness ended up being arrested when the delivery services seemed to halt processing on Wednesday with Albert still expected to create havoc somewhere between Bribie Island and the Gold Coast. Now having dodged the proverbial bullet the parts have been delivered and our new but secondhand generator is finally commissioned into service.

I suppose the point is that when we see the need to prepare for potential emergencies, we should press on and complete the jobs as delay could spell disaster. We were lucky this time but always there will be next time to deal with some drama and probably it will be weather-related.

People in the radio community can now re-erect their sky-hooks without fear of galeforce winds and the lucky ones can enjoy the John Moyle activities of this weekend with hopefully more welcoming weather than most of us have had.

I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think…. how about you?