Hi - you're listening to QNEWS for week of Sunday 16 November 2025 and I'm John VK4JPM with some info from the Darlin Downs Radio Club. But first a shout-out to all club officers and committees in Queensland. QNEWS is a great way to get club info to a wide audience, and it's surprised me that so few other clubs use it. It's one of the things that we might address at a meeting of club officers in the future, but how about an offer? If your club has meetings coming up, or if you have activities regularly scheduled - for instance, if everyone turns up on Saturdays for a natter, or if you are planning something for end-of-year: why not tell everyone. People will travel from all over the state and beyond if the invitation is interesting enough. And don't forget that a listener might opportunistically be in your area and would love to join you... but only if they knew what you're doing. And through QNEWS, our club now has members from all over the state and we have lots of distant members attending our meetings via telepresence. That's good for everyone, and a big help to gaining attention and focus on our hobby. If I can help you get on-board with the QNEWS process, drop me a line to [email protected] and let's talk about how to get started. Truly, it's not hard. ==== Last week John VK4JBE did a really good session on EMR. It was well attended - probably thanks to QNEWS - and generated lots of questions. There are two areas that you really do need to be across: If you can't see the info you want, just wait and it will rotate past. And while you're there, check out all the other activities that our club has coming up! Speaking of which: our next in person club member meeting and tech natter will be on Monday 8 December at 1900. Details on the website, but expect a bit of discussion about Chinese 2m (and 70cm) handhelds, and some show and tell. For those of you joining remotely: this is another of those round-table sessions where we all learn from each other. What hand-helds are you using now? When you paid $300 for an old-school device, does it work better than the $30 cheapy? We'd all like to know. That's on Monday 8 December at 1900 in person and online. Also stay tuned for our end-of-year gathering, which we'll unfold next week. Finally, we've had some offers of gear and particularly towers and masts. Members and those on our mailing list will receive an email in the coming week. If you're not on the list, send an email to [email protected] and we will add you. If you're not a member don't forget that it's now only $30 to join, with significant discounts for students, young people and pensioners. All at the website ddrci.org.au and press the big red JOIN button. Until next week thanks for listening. I'm John VK4JPM secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club. 73s all.

The Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club will be holding Redfest 2026 on the 11th of April 2026 at the Deception Bay North State School, 49 Old Bay Road, Deception Bay starting at 9am. For further information contact the Club Secretary