� QNEWS FEBRUARY 23 2025 - VK4 ON AIR --------------------------------------------------------------------* DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK? DALING DOWNS and BRISBANE AREA WICEN DID. --------------------------------------------------------------------* THE FOLLOWING NEWS CAN BE HEARD FROM OUR AUDIO SERVICE Available in Audio RIGHT NOW QNEWS thanks to Tony VK7AX can be found on www.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/ 180.150.53.59/wianews/ QNEWS audio ready to download thanks to Brendan VK4BLP from www.wiaq.org.au Also search QNEWS (make sure it IS the Ham Radio QNEWS) in your podcast. --------------------------------------------------------------------* VK4 SILENT KEYS @ WIA YEAR FROM MAY 6 2024 SK CALL SK NAME DATE ADVISED BY VK4PS ALAN STEPHENSON 23/05/24 (vk4zz) VK4FANG ROGER HARNDEN 22/07/24 (vk4zz) X/VK4TC Terry Harding Cain 30/07/24 (vk4zz) VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp) VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz) VK4TE ALEX McDONALD 27/09/24 (vk4ra) VK4NL NOEL DESJARDINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp) VK4RG RON GRANDISON 22/12/24 (vk4hit) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk4/DarlingDownsRadioClub/ vk4wid@gmail.com I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club, and it’s Sunday 23rd of February. Here's what's coming up for the club over the next few weeks - and it's a packed program. On Saturday the 8th of March The Brisbane WICEN group is assisting with the Toowoomba Endurance Horse Riders Association's Hip Pocket Challenge. That's being held in Southbrook, south west of Toowoomba and WICEN is providing checkpoint assistance. The event runs from 1400-midnight on the 8th, and club members and guests are invited to come along on the day and find out what running a WICEN event is all about. We'll give you more information next week, but the brisbanewicen.org.au site has a bit of info. And while you're there you can read all about last year's event. We’ll continue the theme on 10 March with our monthly member meeting. Simon Chantrill VK4TSC from Brisbane Area WICEN group is joining us, hot off the heels of the weekend event. Station readiness is vitally important, and amateur radio operators have so much to offer when there's a real emergency. Simon will give us background to WICEN and what it is - and, indeed, what WICEN is not. For those who didn't make it to the Hip Pocket event, he'll do a bit of a debrief, and talk about some of the upcoming events in our region - and tell you how you could get involved. Finally, on 15 March the club is going bush for the John Moyle Field Day. Actually, we'll be in the relatively comfy confines of the Danish Flower Market complex just outside Highfields, but we'll be fully compliant with the John Moyle Field Day rules: the aim is to operate fully portable and literally in the field, which is training for emergency situations - as well as the opportunity to get an award for the club. Plan to come along and help us: we'll be doing the six hour option, and there will be plenty for all comers to do. Did you know that the club has a portable radio trailer? No? Come and find out what's in it. Saturday 15 March. And just ensure that Saturday 10 May is in your diary before there's a clash with something much less important. More info to come, but it's the date of our first annual Club Fox Hunt and BBQ. Fox Hunt will start from a secret location, and finish at another secret location with - you guessed it: a barbecue. As always, all this info is on our website at ddrci.org.au, and the WICEN info is on brisbanewicen.org.au. If you can't find what you're looking for, use the clubs website contact page to get in touch. And membership is half price right now, so what better time to renew or become a member for the first time. Until next week, 73s from John, VK4JPM for the DDRCi. Redcliffe and Districts radio club. http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk4/RedcliffeAndDistrictRadioClub/ Greetings from the Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club VK4RC. Robert Thomson VK4TFN here. REDFEST 25 "Adventures on HF" will be held on the 12th April 2025. Gates open at 9:00AM. Our new venue will be The Deception Bay North State School, Old Bay Road, Deception Bay. We will raffle a very nice ICOM IC-7300. Tickets $5. Buy as many tickets as you want. Go to: redclifferadioclub.org.au/redfest Scroll down, order your tickets, follow the instructions for completing your purchase and the best of luck to you. Make sure we know you're not a robot. Bye for now and 73's from The Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club VK4RC. Thank you and 73's Robert Thomson VK4TFN 0428 044 992 VK4 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- WICEN http://www.wia.org.au/clubs/vk4/WICENBrisbane/ WICEN News for Sunday 23 February. If you're in SE Queensland and use the UHF repeaters that support WICEN comms, including VK4RZA, VK4RZB, VK4RZC and VK4RTQ, here's some important news. These repeaters are being reworked, improved and reconnected and are performing much better. As part of the rework, these repeaters also have been linked. After a long time of operation with increasing amounts of interference on the inputs, the SEQ WICEN UHF repeater network has been given an upgrade. Part of the upgrade is a universal shift to a -7MHz split, so your old offset will no longer work. But everything else is the same, so all you need to do is reprogram the offset. The CTCSS access tone remains at 91.5Hz, so no change needed there. By the time you hear this bulletin on Sunday 23 Feb, all of the following will be operating and linked permanently. VK4RZA Springbrook (Gold Coast) transmitting on 431.100 MHz VK4RZB Mt Coot-tha (Brisbane) transmitting on 431.200 MHz and VK4RTQ Mt Kynoch (Toowoomba) transmitting on 431.025 MHz all listening with a minus 7MHz offset, and requiring a 91.5Hz CTCSS tone. These repeaters on air now and work completed, and should be correctly identified in Repeaterbook by the time QNEWS is broadcast. In early March the team will be upgrading VK4RZC Wilkes Knob (Sunshine Coast) which is transmitting on 431.125 MHz. No offset change has yet been made to that repeater. All repeaters have a 3 minute time out and all are permanently linked That information from Andrew VK4QF, and we thank the repeater team for a great job. ==================== From the Brisbane WICEN Group comes news of an activity in just over two weeks. The Southbrook horse endurance ride runs on 8/9th March 2025, and the event is run by TEHRA (Toowoomba Endurance Heritage Riders Association) Southbrook Cricket Club is the venue for the ride. Place is packed with horse floats, tents, trucks and of course, horses. Ride usually has a 20km, 40km & 80km event. This year there will be 3 checkpoint locations. These locations may or may not be used as multiple checkpoints. Event usually starts at 1400hrs local and finishes at midnight. Those still on course after cut-off at midnight are automatically disqualified. The 20km event is not usually in our sphere of influence but depends on how the course has been organised. The 40km is one loop around the circuit though our manned checkpoints, the 80km is a second loop. It sometimes reverses direction to keep everyone on their toes. The base at Southbrook Cricket Club is operated by WICEN from start to finish of the event. This is all computerised (using software designed by John Edwards VK4IE) with a paper based backup. Field stations have paper sheets designed to facilitate number taking and check off reported details, and may use computer programs of their own in addition. Besides the field stations reporting competitor numbers, the WICEN checkpoints also provide a way for the competitor to ask for assistance, whether that be the rescue float, farrier, medical assistance or search & rescue. It is all about safety. WICEN is a strong contributor the success of the event: some of the events we have been involved in were not going to happen if we were not used. The ride organisers serve a couple of web pages noting starter numbers, finish numbers and vet out/withdrawals. Overall a very well organised event that doesn't leave operators in the field waiting for no shows. For more details, check the Brisbane WICEN groups website at www.brisbanewicen.org.au � Simon VK4TSC --------------------------------------------------------------------* Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking. The apocryphal saying that stalks the internet, “May you live in interesting times� certainly seems to be the situation for us now. We amateurs often point the finger at ourselves for not being good communicators in that we can really get messages stacked and waiting when it comes to our own pursuit. Overseas we see the efforts of a new government flailing and stumbling to rapidly achieve promises made in election campaigns. For us who are outside the USA, it is an amazing spectacle and at times a frightening one to watch the reports and analyses of the actions befalling Uncle Sam. Whilst we think of sovereign countries as governing for the good of their own people, when one nation achieves superiority in many spheres of activity which interact with other nations through treaties and international law we can have many dilemmas facing us when the 1000 pound gorilla in the room no longer accepts the benefits of consistent behaviours. We can take heart that as our country moves towards an impending election that we will have a consistency of behaviour and conduct established by our constitution and law. We radio amateurs will still be able to operate and know that our ACMA will still operate in ways that are familiar. Barring war or similar cataclysm we will not be taken off the air waves. Whilst this country does have certain media outlets with stated political affiliations or biases, we are still able with relative ease to get news reports which provide clarity to happenings here at home and overseas. Trying to judge what is happening from reports emanating from within the USA is looking almost impossible until you can recognise the filters that the story has gone through and then compared to other sources. We have seen, over many years, divisions occur within the structure of national amateur radio bodies from Europe to north American countries. At times hams seem to take themselves very seriously and find splitting national bodies a better solution than struggling to repair apparent failings. Recent history has demonstrated this here, too. What I am driving at is that rebellion can have useful outcomes if it is conducted for the benefits of all the people. When ideas are out front or transparent, as the politicians call it, we can better get our minds around the issues. We have our own election within the WIA running and we are facing a Federal parliamentary election before tax return time. We are fortunate that the systems which establish the rules for the elections and any possible change in controls are well understood and we can expect things to continue without the heartache and angst we are seeing festering in our Pacific neighbour. It has been the policy of amateur radio from its inception in this country that it should be free of partisan politics. I hope and trust that we can see this attitude passed along as part of our heritage. I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think�.how about you? (vk4zpp@wia.org.au) -------------------------------------------------------------------* Social Scene VK4 - Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club REDFEST April 12 at Deception Bay North State School. (wiacal) VK - WIA AGM May 3 - 4. Hosted by Bendigo Amateur Radio & Electronics Club and their Technology Expo (vk3gtv/wiacal) VK - Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association 50th anniversary Glen Waverly July 26 president@alara.org (vk2ayl) VK4 - GOLD COAST AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY � 2025 HAMFEST NOV 9 (vk4dmh) Country Paradise Parklands 231 Beaudesert Nerang Road. TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:- Send SCRIPT to qnews@wia.org.au send audio to http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/ QNEWS Tips to get MORE out of your weekly newscast on VK4WIA If you would like to submit club news items for inclusion in QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to:- qnews@wia.org.au THEN submit audio:- To submit audio email qnews@wia.org.au and ask for the current password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ Remember the sooner you submit audio material the more the likelihood of it being broadcast in the very next edition QNEWS. Each item will only be broadcast once, if you want a couple of mentions, please submit different slants to keep your event 'fresh .� A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug DEALS from commercial traders "on air", but we at the WIA will put your supporters 'goods' in this text edition "no worries." We will not give blatant 'plugs' to raffles, be it raffles at the event or "on-line". Subscribe: QNEWS-VK+subscribe@groups.io Group Owner: QNEWS-VK+owner@groups.io Help: QNEWS-VK+help@groups.io TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:- Unsubscribe: QNEWS-VK+unsubscribe@groups.io WHO LISTENS TO RADIO? WHEN IS NEWS READY TO DOWNLOAD? Join the REBROADCASTERS List? (subscribe for an automatic feed.) Email to vk1wia-broadcasters-join@lists.wia.org.au from the email account that you wish the emails to go to. -----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*