Judy Robertson - Honorary TARCadian Sad news has been relayed by TARCadian Roslyn Bryant that Judy Robertson went Silent Key on Wednesday Morning 17th September at home at Carlyle Gardens Townsville.

Hello and welcome to the 21 September edition of QNEWS, and this segment comes to you from Toowoomba - home of the Carnival of Flowers. I'm John, VK4JPM secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club. We've all been focused this week on the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers parade, and the club's first-time appearance in the parade itself. Look for some photos on the homepage at ddrci.org.au, which will tell the story more eloquently than I can now - for the simple reason that QNEWS is recorded earlier in the week and at this very moment in radioland we haven't left yet. Even in advance of leaving the shed, we should all send a big shout-out to the team of lead co-ords who made the float happen, especially Sam, Bruce, Liz, and Dave, and all the folk who pitched in to dress it up.

Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking. One of the qualities of the amateur has been the ability to adapt. From the early days of radio, items have been repurposed to meet the needs of home construction. When the market was awash with disposals gear, many items became modified to meet the needs of the amateur radio pursuit. When the solid state items came, home experimenters took the left overs from computers and made items which improved the functionality of the shack and allowed self-learning of this new technology. In more recent times, rigs have become smaller and lighter whilst the world has become a dumping ground for non-certified electronics which create noise and gross interference on many amateur radio bands. The introduction of the home personal computer saw many discussions and articles on how to suppress electronic trash from the switch mode power supplies. The issue has grown out of bounds in the years since. An outcome of this latter problem, at least indirectly, has been people taking gear into the field, to parks, hills, beaches and all sorts of locations where operations can be conducted. The delight in operating in an electrically quiet place can’t be underestimated. To take these thoughts in another direction. We can look at major features of our community. In towns and cities, the grocery store has grown into the supermarket and most of these are operated as part of a chain. Economy of sourcing stock, logistics and efficiency in back room operations all contribute to the massive success of our grocery/retail industry. With all their resources, the science of marketing is constantly being refined. It is no glitch or aberration that Easter hot cross buns appear just after Christmas. The run up to in-store promotions is carried out many days or weeks prior to the start of the campaign. And that annoying practice of rotating shelf items to different aisles to ensure the paying customer has more to view and thus increase the number of spontaneous purchases should be banned. For people running club activities, we have a major example of success in these stores. The organisation, positioning of outlets and the range of items for sale all offer us lessons in streamlining our own club activities. Clubs depend on volunteers and thus, you can say, their time is more precious that paid staff within a store. The amateur aims to live balanced life and this should always be kept in mind. What I am trying to do is point our thoughts towards examining areas which may benefit our clubs and ultimately our recreation. If we can have a closer look at something that at first glance seems remote to amateur radio and take a lesson or too, then the whole community gets the benefit. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and that's what I think, how about you?