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QNEWS DECEMBER 22 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

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DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


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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/
203.31.7.19/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.



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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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)

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DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club
update for Sunday 22nd of December.

Wow - hasn't the year gone quickly. We're already thinking ahead to next
year's technical sessions, and we have an interesting list of topics lined
up - look out for presentations on Fox Hunting, Overvoltage protection,
how to get the best from Chinese handhelds, clever antennas, and more.

If there's a topic that you'd like us to cover, why not make the
suggestion? And even better, if there's a topic you could present, we'd
like to know - and if you're listening to this from out of region, don't
be put off. We love to host out-of-towners. Either way, drop a line to
secretary@...

In the something different department, a couple of us have been thinking
about whether we could get a group to Dayton Hamvention. Hamvention - the
world's biggest hamfest - will be held from 16-18 May next year, and next
year is only ten days away!

We'd like to know if Hamvention might be on your bucket list and if you'd
like to be part of a smallish group for - say - a two week tour with
organised side trips to see some tech and transmission that you wouldn't
otherwise get to experience. And you'd always be free to travel before
and/or afterwards under your own steam if you felt like a longer stay.

Right now it's just an idea that we're testing but if you have any
interest at all, let us know so we can get an idea of potential numbers.
If enough people are willing, we'll put a trip together. More about this
in early January.

National News and QNews will keep running over the summer festive season,
and we will too.

Check out our website at www.ddrci.org.au, and watch for our updates
across the break. Have a happy holiday season, whatever that brings. And
that's it for this week -

73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling Downs Radio Club.




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

We are in that frantic time before the great days of celebration and
feasting.
Whether you mark the occasion by attending church or enjoying a secular
holiday,
Christmas is a time of bustle and activity.

The traditions that people bring to this time of year tend to reinforce
family and
friendship bonds and unhappily for some, refresh painful memories of
people and
places. It can be hoped that everyone can find comfort, support and a
rewarding
fellowship to mark this time. Whether we share the days with others or
relax alone
we can be certain that millions of other people are taking part in similar
traditions as we are.

Funnily, over the years of listening for the sounds of new presents being
put on
air, there seems to be a habit that people do share the celebration of
Christmas Day
and so much so that I have normally got no incentive to hit the airwaves
as the
bands usually appear deserted.

As this holiday has embraced new traditions over time, such as the giving
of cards
and then presents and having a festive and decorated tree it is like our
own pursuit
of amateur radio. Over time the radio hobby has embraced the terms of
trades that
are its foundations and used the science and technology of the time to
expand. From
the marine radio comes the “shack” to be one’s operating position and from
the
land-line telegraphy we have the Q Code and so on it goes.

There is the unity amongst amateur radio operators that brings people
together in
activities such as contests and aids in humanitarian work in times of
trouble. The
boundaries of war can be overlooked as people conduct “contacts” with others
regardless of politics or religion.

So what I see is a sameness in the activities of festivals that unifies
humanity and
that same spirit underlies the practice of amateur radio.

So for everyone who reads or listens to this broadcast I can say without
giving
offence and with sincerity, may we all have a very Happy Christmas!

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



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Social Scene


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@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS DECEMBER 15 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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.



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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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
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DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club
update for Sunday 15th of December.

Nice and quick this week, and as we move towards the end of the year our
scheduled regular club activities take a break until the beginning of
February. But don't lose track of the dates: Saturday 8 February for our
next club lunch social, and Monday 10 February for the members meeting and
tech topic. More details on those in coming weeks.

Speaking of tech topics, we had a great session with John VK4JBE
discussing Software Defined Radios. John gave us a cheatsheet to help
with SDR selection, and has kindly provided some followup materials to
help get started. That info will be on the website in a bit, and was sent
round to everyone who is a member or who is registered with us for emails.

If that's not you, drop a line to Secretary@... and we'll add you
to the list so that you don't miss out.

Not taking a break: the weekly club nets will continue: 2m on VK4RDD at
1000 local on Sundays, and 80m on Saturday evenings. You might also be
interested in a new 80m net that's coming out of Warwick, where Mark VK4OY
will host the Boundary Rider net every Monday to Friday on 3.675MHz at
2000 local time.

Check out our website at www.ddrci.org.au, and watch for additional news
as we do some updates over the break. But that's it for this week -

73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling Downs Radio Club.






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Only ten more days and children and the not so young will be
enjoying the festivities of Christmas.

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

Many of the things that I remember from my childhood are still part of
the items
that are still common today. The events are still followed but the things
that are
used have been modernised. I can remember a genuine tree being cut and
mounted in
the house and then adorned with suitable decorations. These days there is the
convenience of store bought manufactured trees and trinkets which aren’t
necessarily
valuable enough to wrap in tissue paper and store until the next year.

When I first caught the bug of radio, I made my first logbook.
It was nothing more than a school exercise book that I ruled up and
labelled the
columns for the date, time and call signs etcetera. These days, a quick
internet
search will bring you many styles of logging from apps to printable
styles, from
records you can save on your electronic device to creating a permanent paper
memento.

That brought me to thinking about how we can make available stored
information for
use both within the shack, out in the field portable of course, and in our
club
activities too. Certainly a printed form of reference is preferred by many
of us but
the convenience of electronic memory has a lot to recommend it.
The amount of storage that is now cheaply available on memory cards and
USB sticks
is growing each year.

When we think back to the now lost WIA Callbook, there was so much
material to guide
operating in its pages; from frequencies of band segments to QSL bureau
details and
so much more made the pages. With more precise division of bands as new
modes are
introduced, having a reference which can specify the correct details to
use for a
particular mode is handy both at home or portable.

For clubs, a drive containing details of the club as well as linking to
regulations,
band plans awards, could be a great tool for new as well experienced
amateurs. With
PDF apps for free download, compiling and collating so much of the
information can
be done straight from the internet. Just be aware that a lot of material
is subject
to copyright ownership and permission must be obtained to publish it. This
would
apply to material from the ACMA and WIA, for instance.

There will be those who don’t like the idea of electronic resources
preferring paper
based material. However, the portability of a small drive overcomes the
problems of
poor internet services in an area and if designed properly it could be
updated by
the user or through a central data service. There have been problems
previously when
material was distributed on disks and pen drives when piracy was a common
practice
for many and ownership of material was viewed as a commercial necessity.

These days we don’t have a simple handbook or a callbook to help and it is
sensible
to remember that “when all else fails, there is amateur radio.” We just
need to make
it more convenient, at times.

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



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Social Scene


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@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS DECEMBER 8 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
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CLUBBING

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Ipswich & District Radio Club

Web – www.vk4wip.org.au
Email - vk4wip@...
For a full list of repeaters - www.vk4wip.org.au

(audio: Ron calling in stations)

And that’s the familiar sound of Ron VK4RG recorded in 2012 calling in the
Ipswich morning net.

This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club.

Ron has been calling in the Ipswich morning net since July 1986.

That is an incredible 38 years and must be some kind of record for hosting
a daily net anywhere in the world. Put another way it’s almost 13,800
morning nets – give or take holidays here and there.

Here’s Ron, again in 2012, recalling when and how the net started with a
former workmate at Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plant.

(audio: Ron recalling start of morning net)

For Ron it has been a labour of love and for the rest of us listening or
taking part in the net, he has been a constant – the voice of reassurance
in a world of change.

Sadly, Monday November 25 was the last time Ron made the regular call for
stations owing to a change of home address which doesn’t permit a base
station setup.

VK4RG was first licensed in 1956, and is hopeful his trusty handheld will
enable him to call in from time to time.

VK4RG, we salute you and thank you for your service to the club and
amateur radio.

Reporting from Ipswich this is Allan, VK4HIT.





DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club
update for Sunday 8th of December.

Before I remind you about the tech meeting tomorrow night - yes, tomorrow
night - a bit more detail on the club's end-of-year BBQ on Saturday
14th... that's next Saturday if you're listening to this as part of the
broadcast.

The BBQ social will be held at Webb Park in Toowoomba. If you've never
heard of that location - Webb Park that is; we're pretty sure you know
where Toowoomba is - it's easy to find on the map applications, and just
as easy to find in reality. We can't promise that we'll be alone, or that
the weather will be perfect, but we can tell you that there are four
hotplates under cover, more than one picnic bench, reasonably good
parking, a gentle walk down the hill to the main area, and an absolutely
spectacular view.

You'd be looking east towards Brisbane, and FM propagation will be
excellent. It's not a POTA park, but there will be plenty of opportunity
to test out anything that will run on batteries, and there are lots of
trees to hang the long wire. All welcome, families and young people
particularly, and it's the standard deal for this type of gathering: BYO
everything. Maybe even a spare chair in case others grab the tables first.

We kick off at 1130, and the day will run until the last person leaves.
Full details can be found on the club website at www.ddrci.org.au.
Talk-in probably via the club repeater VK4RDD on 146.750 with a 91.5Hz
tone. And speaking of which, the regular club net will kick off at 1000
Sunday on that very repeater. Join us!

Now to the next the tech meeting, which is tomorrow night. John VK4JBE
is coming up from Brisbane to give us all the good stuff about Software
Defined Radios. If you're just catching up to the topic, check out the
Wikipedia article online, because that's a good introduction to the
introduction.

All the info on the meeting is on the website at www.ddrci.org.au - look
for "coming events" on the homepage, and click through the 9 December
entry. You'll see there's a picture of John in his shack, and over his
left shoulder there's laptop displaying a DMR signal from 2m using the SDR
Console with SDRplay RSPdx. There's also a picture on the website showing
an Airspy Mini SDR attached to a Raspberry Pi

Those are just a few of the configurations that John will talk about and
demonstrate at the session, along with practical discussion on how to
integrate SDRs into your shack, and how SDRs

That's all happening tomorrow, Monday 9 December at the Toowoomba Library,
level 3, and tons of free secure parking under the building.



Finally, don't forget the 2M club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at 1000, and
the 80M net on 3.650 ± QRM every Saturday at 1930.

If you missed any of the detail in this bulletin, don't panic. It's all
on the website. www.ddrci.org.au, and you can drop a note to
Secretary@... if you want to get on the mailing list.

But once again: Monday 9 December for the SDR tech session, and Saturday
14 December for the BBQ.

That's it for this week - 73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling
Downs Radio Club.


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


During the past week the postman handed me the latest edition of Amateur
Radio
magazine and it prompted me to think about what we used to have. Once
there was a
state based newsletter aptly called QTC. This was a great addition to the
shack in
that reminders of events were in tangible form rather than just committed
to memory.

When the weekly news went out on packet radio, it was an easy task to
print it out
and these days we are very likely to have a printer on our home network
which can do
the same job with the news bulletins. You see, QTC went into a column in
AR magazine
before it went SK. Largely club notes have been lost to the printed medium
and this
makes our broadcast news all the more important in getting the messages
out to
fellow amateur operators. This is especially true with the magazine now
bi-monthly
having gone from monthly to 11 issues a year and now every 2 months.

I don’t know how many clubs are running nets these days as there isn’t a
quickly
accessible list for me to check. I know that not a lot is able to be heard
from my
location and without receiving reminders or newsletters I would bet the
most of us
are just a much in the dark as I am.

So here we are engaged in a communications activity and we seem to be
confounded by
poor communications. I don’t know how many missives are sent via the WIA
Memnet
service but I receive an advice of the release of the digital issue of the
magazine
so that amounts to only 1 every 2 months. Periodically the text edition of
the
national news drops off until I send a plea for help and that makes me
wonder how
effective our IT systems are working for the WIA.

To place a little context on the subject, I live in a house with people
not only
getting older but also living with chronic health issues. There are many
times that
I think of things that I would like to see done by me or others but
circumstances
don’t give the luxury of acting on those thoughts. For me, getting updates
in my
email is welcome piece of assistance as I don’t have to devote time to
searching
them out. It also provides a point of connection to the wider community in
a way
that is accessed at convenient times.

You see these ways of sharing are important on a personal level as much as
they
support club activity and growth. Once it was the cartoonist’s jibe that
you had to
lick the tip of a pencil or bash the heck from a typewriter to get the
news out.
These days we can achieve things much more sedately and just as
effectively with our
mobile devices or shack computers.
I look forward to getting your news in electronic or broadcast.


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



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Social Scene


Brisbane VHF Group Showcase Day December 8 at Redcliffe and District
Radio Club. YES TODAY (VK2ZRH)



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@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS DECEMBER 1 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
--------------------------------------------------------------------*
---------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club
update for Sunday 1st of December.

We'd like to know if these updates are useful. Drop us a line to
secretary@... to give us good or bad news.

There's been a lot of interest in the next tech meeting, to be held on
Monday 9 December at the Toowoomba Library, starting from 1900 local time.


John VK4JBE will be our expert guide into the exciting topic of Software
Defined Radios. As mentioned, this is where the traditional circuitry of
LCR front ends in mixers, filters, amplifiers, mod/demods, detectors, and
all manner of RF signal handling is replaced by software and some embedded
electronics. There are a couple of good online articles about how SDR
started, and the information in Wikipedia is worth a review.

This will be a practical session in which John will show and demonstrate
real hardware and available online solutions to help you understand what
you can and can't do. Did you even know that there are SDRs available
online? Yep, you can control or interrogate hardware remotely through a
browser session. That gives you access to online SDR sites all over the
world. Most of us will be using either SDR hardware built into
off-the-shelf HF and higher-band radios, or you might have your own dongle
like the RTL SDR. John will talk about how you can control such hardware
in the shack, and what you can and can't achieve. If you have your own
dongle or hardware, feel free to bring it along. If you're thinking of
buying one, then you're in luck: John has some good comparative
information to help you make a choice.

That's all happening on Monday 9 December at the Toowoomba Library, level
3, and tons of free secure parking under the building.

Now to social activities, and the end-of-year BBQ/picnic/live ragchew and
family day will be held on Saturday 14 December. Location is up now on the
website: we're meeting at a park in Toowoomba that has great facilities,
and - weather permitting, because all parks are outdoors - will provide a
neato setting for some actual ham activity should you feel inclined.
Check the club website at ddrci.org.au for details of location and how to
register. I'll give you more information next week, but it's the standard
deal: no charge, BYO everything. Starting from 1130, and running until
people leave. Should be tons of room, but you might want to bring a chair
in case all the tables have gone.

Finally, don't forget the 2M club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at 1000, and
the 80M net on 3.650 ± QRM every Saturday at 1930.

If you missed any of the detail in this bulletin, don't panic. It's all
on the website. www.ddrci.org.au, and you can drop a note to
Secretary@... if you want to get on the mailing list.

But once again: Monday 9 December for the SDR tech session, and Saturday
14 December for the BBQ.

That's it for this week - 73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling
Downs Radio Club.





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

I ventured into the field of prompting clubs to think about letting us all
know what they are up to. It is one of those things that seems to have
been partly left behind as the various platforms on the internet have
increased and access to community media has reduced at the same time.

We have seen the newspaper industry in the suburbs and regions get gobbled
into large conglomerate ownership and just sprouts of regrowth show as
people recognise they are missing the local news. We have seen the
broadcast networks reduce staff and close local offices and local news has
been reduced in time and scope. These are the commercial big brothers and
my question is, do we have to follow them?

Some years back, there were media packs made available by the WIA to
assist amateurs prepare and present news of events that would interest the
general community to the capital “M”
media. They were a good starting point because they used standard formats
and suggested processes for successful press releases to be generated by
we amateurs.

Now, I think we could do with this assistance once again as all to often
what the amateur radio community does is more like a secret society than a
community movement. Similarly we have access to attracting people who are
attracted to electronic technology by using the knowledge at our finger
tips.

Not only a press package but a sample of pro forma items to assist people
in getting their thoughts together for electronic distribution, whether it
is by radio internet, audio or video streaming. In my area, at least one
TV channel seeks video and still images from viewers, so I know that a
little bit of effort can have a big result in putting your group at the
front of the stage.

I rather gather that the number of club newsletters has fallen and the
printed material has been reduced and only partly replaced by posts
on-line. What we are doing seems to be ensuring that less and less people
are hearing the stories that we have to share.

So what have we got that we can use? We have local club nets, internet
platforms and newsletters whilst not forgetting the regular club meetings.
If we want more people at our meetings, then we have to invite them in
ways that they know they are invited and welcome. Then there are the
weekly news broadcasts.

I have mentioned the fact that I started learning about what was happening
in the amateur world by listening, each Sunday morning, to the weekly
news. World wide, country wide and local all found a place and it made a
schoolboy feel he was sharing and learning. I still look forward to the
weekly news but maybe the mind is playing tricks or maybe we aren’t
getting the stories to air that draws our listeners in. We are the
newsmakers and the reporters so how about putting your audio to air with
us?

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


Brisbane VHF Group Showcase Day December 8 at Redcliffe and District
Radio Club. (VK2ZRH)




TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS NOVEMBER 24 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...


Hi - John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Publicity Officer with the club
update for Sunday 24th of November.

Before we start with next meeting, pop Saturday 14 December in your diary.
That's the planned date for our annual outdoor club lunch and barbecue,
which will be held in the Toowoomba area. Details coming, but weather
permitting it will be a day for everyone: hams, YLs, YOTAs and most
likely with a few actual activities to show what our hobby is about. And
a certain amount of eating and social activity will take place.

Our next club meeting tech session on Monday 9 December will take us into
the exciting and very accessible topic of Software Defined Radios. This
is where the traditional circuitry of LCR front ends in mixers, filters,
amplifiers, mod/demods, detectors, and all manner of RF signal handling is
replaced by software and some embedded electronics. As a result you can
do amazing things in very small packages.

John VK4JBE will be our expert guide into the SDR world to help you
understand what you can and can't do. This could be as simple as browser
access to online SDR sites all over the world, or you could use your own
dongle with Windows, Mac, Linux or Raspberry Pi front-end. John is
bringing a heap of hardware to demonstrate, and we're going to allow extra
time if you bring your own hardware along. Speaking of which, if you want
to buy an SDR dongle, check the websites for the well known online
outlets. For under $100 you'd have just enough time to get one delivered
ahead of the meeting if you order today - and if that's the sort of thing
you might do, look on the web for RTL SDR V4. Many of the Chinese sites
and local suppliers are comfortably able to deliver to Darling Downs in
under two weeks.

By the way, Dave VK4DN's talk on balloons was fascinating, and has
resonated with a number of members. Are you interested in doing something
yourself or getting the club involved with such a project? Talk to us!
Secretary@... will find us.

Don't forget the 2M club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at 1000, and the 80M
net on Saturdays at 1930.

If you didn't write down any of that, check the website. It's all there,
and you can click through the calendar entries for more detail. Plus you
can read this month's newsletter, and get access to all our other good
info.

Finally: if you haven't renewed your membership, now would be a good
time... think of it as your Santa's gift to the club. Membership is only
$30 per year, and less for concessions. Your membership helps fund
activities, and lets us know you care. The membership form (for joining
and renewals) is on the website. And if you just want to get on our
mailing list, that's fine too. Drop a note to Secretary@... and
we'll make things happen to keep you informed.

Once again: Monday 9 December for the SDR tech session, and Saturday 14
December for the BBQ.

That's it for this week - 73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling
Downs Radio Club.





VK4 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- VHF
BRISBANE VHF GROUP


To paraphrase an old song – remember, remember, the 8th of December!

This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for QNEWS.

I kept my VK2 call sign when I retired to the Gold Coast in 2021 and
promptly joined the Brisbane VHF Group, with whom I had enjoyed much
correspondence over some decades. Besides, my firm friends from yonks
ago, those major microwavers Doug VK4OE and Kevin VK4UH, are prominent
member and my not joining would have been to my utter shame!

I’m here to remind you, patient listeners, that the Brisbane VHF Group
is having a Showcase Day on everything about those mysterious upper
bands, from VHF to microwaves, on the 8th of December! This Showcase
day is happening at the well-appointed Redcliffe and District Radio
Club facilities.

The Showcase is also open to other groups and amateurs, too. Maybe
you’re a deep-space SWL!

There’ll be demonstrations of stuff you’ve never seen, along with a
shed-load of show-and-tell, and to keep you there for longer, we
promise to lay on a BBQ lunch and drinks! What better way to spend
your Sunday.

Remember, remember, the 8th of December!

As our Group President, Kevin VK4UH says – the success or failure of
the venture depends on members’ participation. Get there. I’ll be
walking, and I’ll be there!

This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for QNEWS on behalf of the Brisbane VHF
Group



--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

There are lessons to be learned from activities on the internet and it is
not only
the phishing and other scams that we need to be aware of.

In the last month or so, I have received bogus friend requests from at
least three
supposed amateurs. After checking the bona fides of the requests, I have
done the
appropriate thing and reported these actions. I am not surprised that the
practical
hypocrisy of the social media platform when they declined to remove the
cloned
accounts as they didn’t breach their amorphous community standards.

The gargantuan video repository that provides a reasonable income to
regular content
creators has similar issues when it comes to ethics and standards. Anyone
who has
fallen foul of the anonymous and perhaps fictional “fact checkers” must
ask what are
the standards of behaviour that these platforms supposedly uphold?

If we look back to the recent US elections and the posts that appeared on our
screens, it was apparent that there were at least two worlds at war and
the truth of
what was proposed could not be reconciled between them on so many times.

This is something that we have been seeing debated in our own Australian
parliament
with a bill presented to make media companies adhere to the truth. The
question that
many have is who decides what is true? When we think back to the COVID
pandemic and
what we were advised as matters of public health and compare that with the
scientific studies that are being published now, it seems obvious that
what we were
told is being confronted by different outcomes today.

So it it is that we electronics nerds use the tools at hand to improve our
understanding of our subjects of interest. We turn to recognised
authorities such as
published handbooks and reliable internet resources to clarify points and
settle
points of confusion. This brings us back to the popular platforms which
increase
their bases of knowledge by unimaginable amounts each day.

Years ago a new word was introduced to us, that is “wiki”. Here is a tool
that is
maintained by volunteers and which aims to provide correct and accurate
detail on
subjects which interest at least enough people to prepare and maintain
posts on
them. I see that these on-line sources of “fact” have largely replaced the
weighty
books called encyclopedias and their successors on digital media. Still
errors occur
in wiki posts and it depends on the knowledge of the editor to get
corrections
posted.

Fortunately for most of us, amateur radio is a practical occupation where
frequent
debates as to theory can be left to the chemists, physicists and engineers
and the
benefits of their debates can inform us what best to do. All that I am
suggesting is
that we need to exercise the same amount of caution when using the
internet for our
learning as we do when we use the internet for sensitive things such as
maintaining
personal records and activities like banking.

With words of caution in my ears, I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I
think….how about you?



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene

Brisbane VHF Group Showcase Day December 8 at Redcliffe and District
Radio Club. (VK2ZRH)




TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS NOVEMBER 17 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)

--------------------------------------------------------------------*



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

We like to be able to identify and put a face to bodies with which we
associate. At
times the face is that of a person who has power to influence outcomes and
at other
times it is a willing spokesperson, a media face.

Within our club structures, the group that forms the executive is usually
supporting
the leader or chair person in public statements. Unlike politicians we
don’t and
can’t justify having a media spokesperson in a not-for-profit body. But at
times the
very important role of publicity officer is the unsung hero who gets the
message out
to the membership, the TV and print and broadcast media and, of course, to
other
clubs and enthusiasts.

Normally we don’t get to see or hear much of publicity officers except for
perhaps
their name on the bottom of a post or news release. Yet it is this person
who can
provide a wide range of support to our body not only with the necessary
dispersal of
information but making sure that the name of our club is “out there”.

These days there are many platforms which people use for sourcing news and
information. Once we depended on books, libraries and newspapers but these
days the
internet gives us instant access to many opportunities. To this end, do
you know
what your membership turns to for entertainment, news and messaging? Once
it was web
pages that carried the traffic but these days we have numerous social media
platforms and they tend to be used by different segments of the community.

Has anyone gone to the trouble of finding out what club members are using
regularly
or what family members are chatting with from school ages through to
grandparents? I
bet you will find that many households are represented on several of these
apps.

Then naturally we have to include our specific avenues which are dedicated to
supporting amateur radio. We have club pages on net platforms, the bi-monthly
Amateur Radio magazine and of course our weekly news service provided by
the WIA. As
a regular listener have you taken the time to count the number of clubs
who provide
material to QNews? The regular number would probably amount to the fingers
of one
hand with maybe two or three appearing more than a couple of times each year.

This is why I believe the publicity officer is the unsung hero because
they take the
time to answer those questions I have asked and they endeavour to get
their messages
out on all the appropriate platforms. It was whilst I was at school that I
started
listening to the weekly news broadcast and I continued doing so as I became a
shortwave listener and then a licensed amateur. If my experience stands for
anything, it is that we never know who is listening and with the world
wide spread
of amateur radio and the internet we never should be surprised where these
listeners
are. We are a community of enthusiasts and we should know how to speak to
each other
and include those we don’t know as well.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*


TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS NOVEMBER 10 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
--------------------------------------------------------------------*


DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - John VK4JPM with the Darling Downs Radio Club update for Sunday 10th
of November.

Let's start with the reminder for tomorrow's member meeting. These run on
the second Monday of every month at the Toowoomba Library starting from
1900 local time. You'll find us on level three: enter from Victoria
Street; tons of free parking underneath; take the lift up and keep
turning right after the doors open. You can't miss us.

This month the topic is balloons, and specifically those that go half way
to outer space - maybe even three times as high as jet planes.

Dave Nebe, VK4DN was part of a team from Bundaberg Amateur Radio Club when
they did two High Altitude Balloon Experiment launches and he'll be along
tomorrow to tell us the full story. There are so many parts to an
experiment like this, and it's what hams do best: we come up with ideas
and make them work. Dave will be able to talk about the preparation,
payloads, the launch, recovery, and what the experimenters learned - from
both successes and failures.

Bring your questions and your experiences. And who knows - maybe this is
an opportunity for the Darling Downs club to do something similar.

Speaking of the Club, over the last month we supported JOTA in Goombungee,
and soldering training in Bundaberg. It might seem like small activities,
but this is butterfly wings stuff. You just don't know who is going to be
influenced and how.

Coming up: in December our meeting topic is Software Defined Radios, and
what you can do with some pretty cheap and easily available hardware.

Plus we want to talk to you about ideas for club development and where we
might head in the next five years. The committee has a few ideas floating
around and we'd like your input and thoughts. It's YOUR club!

All this is on the website at www.ddrci.org.au, and if you're a member you
should have received an email with the latest news and reminders. If you
can't find info or you have a question, drop a line to
secretary@..., and if you didn't get to write that down just use
your favourite search engine for darling downs radio club. You'll find
us.

But mostly we'd like to find you so here's a final reminder: tomorrow
night, Toowoomba Library, 1900 Eastern time, and join us for the meeting,
a cuppa, a natter, and a bit of brain food.

And don't forget club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at 1000.

That's it for this week - 73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling
Downs Radio Club.







--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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


This past week has seen some notable happenings. The Melbourne Cup was run
and won
by a Queensland trained horse. The Reserve Bank held the interest rate
constant. An
inland town was evacuated because of strong fire activity and the Sun has
assailed
us with solar flare action once more. However, the thing that has captured
the media
attention has been the electoral joust in the USA.

It would appear that the candidate most likely to be declared President is
the one
with the most disruptive policies, as far as our country is concerned. Mr.
Trump has
promised tariff barriers to protect US manufacturing and according to the
commentators a raft of other changes in trade and economic activities.
That would be
fine but for the fact that the country he is anxious to lead is so
enmeshed in the
world trade, diplomatic and military pacts that it is the classic case
that if
America sneezes, Australia catches cold.

Even as TV stations, on air and on line, presented the election
commentaries reports
were going to air that governments and no doubt international businesses,
were
attempting to work out the ramifications of the changes that Mr Trump has
mooted.
Based on his rhetoric, economists are forecasting large increases in monetary
inflation and the cost of living in the US with flow on effects to
countries such as
ours.

We have had the media impress the messages from the Reserve Bank, the
Government and
the man in the street that the cost of borrowed money is crippling people
financially with repayments beyond their capacity to pay and the general
cost of
living is placing stress on food bank type charities as more people try to
survive
without enough money.

It is hard to predict what effects we will see long term but with so much
manufacturing being done in China, everything from keyrings to smart phones,
electric vehicles to underwear will be suddenly effected if a newly minted
leader
imposes a 60% tariff on goods made there. For us who enjoy the thrill of
recreational electronics, just think of where so much of our gear comes
from. It may
bear the logo of a famous brand but it has, in smaller writing, a message
“Made in
颁丑颈苍补”.

If we try and think this through, it becomes mind boggling as the
implications of
what Mr. Trump’s policies can have on our small country down under.

As much as it is Christmas shopping time when we gather up and squirrel
away goodies
for the festive season, it might also be prudent to consider purchases
which might
become more expensive just after New Year and a Presidential inauguration.


It is not our place to discuss or debate the politics of what is occurring
but
sensibly we should take account of the outcome when the world wobbles on
it’s axis.


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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS NOVEMBER 3 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)

--------------------------------------------------------------------*


DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - John VK4JPM with the Darling Downs Radio Club update for Sunday 3rd
of November.

I'd like to start with a question. Are you a member of a radio club - ANY
CLUB - and why would you join us?

Let's look at a few good reasons for being involved:

* you get to meet like minded people who can help you when it counts, and
you can always get great advice and guidance. We're a community.
* we run activities, club meetings, and social events - don't forget how
important it is to connect to chat and have a good time
* we focus on education and training, and we can help you develop tech
skills that will be highly useful in your day job and home life. Trust
me, that's a promise!

So think about your club as putting you in touch with a broader
involvement - no matter who you know, the group will connect you with more
knowledge and helpful people when it counts.

There are active ham radio clubs all across the country. Check the WIA
website to find one near you, or drop a line to Secretary@... and
we'll help you find one locally to you.

The Darling Downs Radio Club serves the entire region from the plains
right through the granite belt.

If you're listening to this and not currently a member, what does it cost
to join Darling Downs Radio Club? Only $30 a year, and less for
concessions. Six cups of coffee for the whole year. Plus if you're just
getting started or young: we can and will help you get going because
that's what clubs do.

Our next regular meeting on 11 November covers a really great piece of
experimentation, which is what amateurs do best. Put 11 November in your
diary and come along to here the story about the Bundaberg Amateur Radio
Club's High Altitude Balloon Experiment. David VK4DN is coming up from
Brisbane to tell us how it went down - and up. You'll learn a bit more
about ham radio, and some useful stuff about atmospherics and driving.
Never know when that would come in handy. Monday 11 November at the
Toowoomba Library starting from 1900 local time.

But you don't have to remember all that, because it's all on our calendar
of events on the website at ddrci.org.au

Repeating the important stuff: the club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at
1000, ddrci.org.au for the website, and 11 November at 1900 for the next
meeting. Ok, I think that's enough repeats.

Until next week,
73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling Downs Radio Club.



--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

As we rush through Spring the rising temperatures and the more frequent
storms are a
reminder that we have entered the official cyclone season. As I prepare this
segment, the ceiling fan is valiantly chasing the warmth out of the room and
allowing the body to feel closer to comfortable.

November is really the start of the Summer season for buying presents for the
Christmas celebrations. I have been noting that overseas events are having
the
inevitable effects on monetary conversion rates and the US election, later
this
week, could have a dramatic result as the US dollar shifts against other
currencies
as well as our own.

As time goes on and more and more advances are made in technology, it is
obvious
that mankind is more aware of events around the globe and more influenced
quickly by
changes in other countries. It has been position that radio amateurs have
sought
demonstrate that we live in a large community and using our equipment,
skill and
enthusiasm we can bring more people from distance into our lives.

When the conflict in Central Europe broke out with the invasion of
Ukraine, many
amateur were faced with moral choices as to whether they could still
interact with
people living within the boundaries of the invading regime. This was an
issue in the
world of sports and commerce as the good nature of acceptance of others was
challenged by the actions of the government. On a person to person level,
it was
equivocal to say the least.

I am old enough to have known people who were engaged in the Second World
War. The
atrocities that happened to both service personnel and civilians were
fresh in their
minds and acceptance of people born in the countries which were our
nation’s enemies
was impossible for many who had been through the hell that happened. Since
then we
have seen military engagements in many parts of the world and today we
greet people
from so many ethnic and cultural groups just walking down our streets.

We have been fortunate to share not only the growth of radio and electronics
generally but live through and enjoy the establishment of the internet. We
have
devices that give us almost instantaneous communications and access to
news, music
and culture as the world has never known.

So what I feel is that we hams have been a small but significant group who
have
fostered the breakdown of geographical and cultural boundaries and brought
a level
of acceptance and friendship a bit closer to our families and communities
in a
specific way. I like to reflect on how we can continue to engage with the
world from
my home. It is something that can be enjoyed when other things prevent
travel.

I would like to think that radio amateurs have a meaning in life which
benefits us all.











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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene




TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

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-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS OCTOBER 27 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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 DES JADINS 16/10/24 (vk4vp)
--------------------------------------------------------------------*

Gordon VK4VP Secretary of the Sunshine Coast
Amateur Radio Club with some very sad news.

One of SCARC's former members and Presidents has sadly passed away -
Noel Des Jardins VK4NL passed away last Thursday October 16th.

Noel made his first appearance at SCARC in 2003 when he was VK4ADJ,
I met him at JOTA and he was in his element showing the Scouts and
Guides just what radio was about with so much enthusiasm it was
contagious.

He also donated some copper tube to be used in making cavities for a
6m repeater which unbeknownst to us he was a real fan of the 6m
repeater and he used to run the 6m net AKA the backblocks net every
Friday night until he left for greener pastures in Hervey Bay.

Noel was a committee member in 2004, Vice President in 2005 and 2006
and then President of SCARC from 2007 to 2011. He was always happy to
help out and push things along. A lot of SCARC's activities during
his reign were solely due to his encouragement and his ever smiling
cheerful nature. SCARC had its highest recorded membership numbers
when Noel was President.

Who can forget Noels Nutty Campers where he organised a group of
radio amateurs to go caravanning for short weekend trips to various
places around SEQ. He knew by leading the way and organising things
the people would follow, such was his magnetic personality.

He put in a huge effort maintaining SCARC's big yellow comms caravan
at his house and making sure it got noticed.

We mustn't forget the Noosa Cycle rides where we provided comms
support, there were so many activities that the club became involved
due to his desire to help out and support the community.
He was also part of Noosa Councils Local Disaster Management Committee
providing advice and carrying out regular communications checks
with all of the associated Emergency Services

Noel was also an operator for the 20m travellers net for quite some
time and it was always comforting to hear his voice on the radio
when you were far from home.

One of his favourite sayings was "You can never have enough aluminium
and wire in the sky"

Mate, you be sadly missed but never forgotten.

Vale Noelly, Poppy Noel, Noel Des Jardins VK4NL




---------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM with the Darling Downs Radio Club update for
QNEWS Sunday 27th of October.

Last Sunday saw the end of the POTA Coast-to-Coast week with the band
opening up nicely on Sunday Afternoon. On 20m contacts were made into the
Canary Islands, Germany and Austria. Even if you're not registered with
the POTA Website, if you had a contact with a POTA operator this weekend
it's possible that there's an Award waiting for you when you do set up an
account. Why not come along to the next club meeting, and find out from
Dave VK4JPS how to set up an account?

The Club's regular tech meetings are on the second Monday of every month
in the Toowoomba Library at 1900 local time. Looking right forward, in
December on Monday 9th, John VK4JBE will present a session on Software
Defined Radios, and how to get them humming. Well, receiving at least.
And further forward, at the February meeting we're going to introduce Fox
Hunting as a topic with a view to running a few hunts next year.

Coming back to the present, our next meeting in November is about what
hams do: experimenting, and in this case with high altitude balloons.
The Bundaberg Amateur Radio Club's very aptly named High Altitude Balloon
Experiment showed what we do best. The outcome was a combination of
excitement, fun and learnings. David VK4DN is coming up from Brisbane to
share some personal insights on how the project went and what came out of
the launches.

You don't have to remember all that, because all you need to do is visit
our calendar of events on the website at ddrci.org.au

And if you missed any of this you can register to get QNEWS by email -
send a note to qnews@... and all will be revealed.

The important stuff again: the club net on VK4RDD every Sunday at 1000,
ddrci.org.au for the website, and 11 November at 1900 for the next
meeting.

Until next week,
73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling Downs Radio Club.







--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

I trust all we Queensland amateurs are recovering from the contest. I
don’t mean the
one running from the USA but the political blood sport we know as an
election.
Thankfully the remaining execution is in the USA and the amount of
publicity and
spruiking we are receiving will diminish next month and we hams can turn our
thoughts to the serious matters of amateur radio.

I was pleased to see the amount of posts appearing on social media during the
JOTA/JOTI weekend with some clubs obviously enjoying the time spent with
the members
of the Scouting and Guiding communities. It seems that the coordination of
announcements and publicity fell away, this year with NO opening address
supplied
for broadcast as has happened for many, many years.

Like so many things that happen in life, this is an example that provides
lessons
for the future. Hopefully band conditions will still be very favourable on
short
wave in 12 months’ time and the over 70 years of engagement between the
scouts and
radio amateurs can be a massive demonstration of what we find so engaging
in our
activities.

It would seem that the gods of weather are reminding us of the seasonal
changes with
more storm activity reminding us that summer is almost upon us. You have
probably
noticed the adverts, put out by the Government, reminding us to have a bad
weather
plan. The meteorologists are positing that we will probably have the
warmest nights
on record, in the run up to Christmas. They are also projecting that we
could have
about 11 cyclones around the coast of Australia with maybe 4 of those
crossing the
coast somewhere.

This may seem like a low number of tropical storms, this season, but the
scientists
are saying that the trends they are measuring are for more intense
behaviours from
these events.
The word is that we need to prepare, as I have been reminding us all, for
the worst
and pray for the best outcomes.

One thing that I seem to have been missing in the broadcast news is the
amount of
trouble that various parts of the world are experiencing with particularly
storms
and flooding. The small Caribbean nation of Cuba has been devastated by the
breakdown of its electricity grid. Even in NSW there has been damage in
the mining
city of Broken Hill which has caused extensive blackouts and which is the
result of
storm damage.

Knowing that there are these catastrophes around us, it is worthwhile
ensuring we
have the various emergency net frequencies available before we fire up on
HF. At the
height of the sunspot cycle and with various modes of propagation, we
should not
take the risk of disrupting welfare traffic which may be on those
frequencies.

As the fun of summer approaches I hope we can all remain safe and prepared
and enjoy
the thrill of radio.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene




TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

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qnews@...

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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 .‘

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-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS OCTOBER 20 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)

--------------------------------------------------------------------*


DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM with the Darling Downs Radio Club update for Sunday
20th of October. In a sec I'll let you know what's coming up, but wow -
what a week we just had.

The bimonthly lunch was excellent and well attended - watch out for a
special lunch event in December on Saturday the 7th.
It was great to see so many DDRCi members make the trip down to Nerang for
the HamFest - thanks to GCARS for a wonderful day of information,
HAM-appropriate bargains, and yummy stuff from the hotplate. Well done
for the event. And it's worth a big raspberry if you missed Steph Piper
talking about 3D printing - lots of very useful information about plastic
types, how the slicer works, and some useful tips about what to expect
from different printers. And

Now, coming up we have a packed schedule of Local and travelling expert
presenters for the Club's regular tech meetings - that's second Monday of
every month in the Toowoomba Library at 1900 local time.


On Monday 11th November Dave Nebe VK4DN is travelling up from Brisbane to
talk about a High Altitude Balloon Launch - from which was received some
amazing imagery.

In December on Monday 9th John Bews VK4JBE is also making the trip to talk
SDR's - software defined radios - and how to get the most out of them.

And in February we'll be talking Fox Hunting.

If you have some time today, it's not too late to jump in to the "AU/NZ
Coast to Coast POTA" - it's Support your Parks Weekend. And also it's the
last day of Jamboree on the air, and our club is supporting a group to
help them get the best out of the experience. Finally, the Sunday 2M net
will be on the club repeater - VK4DDR 146.750 at 1000 local time -
everyone is welcome.

If that's all a bit overwhelming, don't forget that we have an updated
calendar of events on our website at ddrci.org.au

Got it? Hope so! If you missed it, read the end of QNNEWS where you'll
get the drum on how to download the audio or text versions of this
segment.

Catch you next week
73 from John VK4JPM for the team at the Darling Downs Radio Club.






GOLD COAST AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY

IRLP Node 6702

And that's a wrap,

For another year at the Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society's annual HamFest.

It was a cracker ..

* over 50 tables of goodies
* over half of these were commercial providers with all the major brands
represented
* 7 dozen bacon and egg muffins
* 150 sausages
and more people snapping up bargains than we have seen for years.

I would like to send a thank you to our committee who arrange the event,
and we look
forward to seeing you all next year at the Gold Coast Amateur Radio
Society annual
HamFest.

In the meantime, if you are up this way, drop into 85 harper st Nerang on
Saturdays
at 1:30pm and say hi!

So until next time, for GCARS, that all from me, Aidan VK4APM.






--------------------------------------------------------------------*

Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking.
.
I recently watched an interesting segment from the German broadcaster, DW.

We manage to adjust and adopt to the changes of technology
that come into our lives. Maybe forty years ago we were telling children
to turn off
the lights when they left the room. This was to save electricity and
reduce the
bill. Maybe, 20 odd years ago the compact fluorescent lamp was gaining
traction as a
more efficient method of lighting than the Edison/Swan incandescent
devices that had
lit the world for roughly a century.

Time has marched on and technology has brought us the more efficient LED,
light
emitting diode which has become the ubiquitous illumination source of the
21st
century.

More recently the world has been given access to a “holy grail”
of the digital age, that of artificial intelligence.
We are seeing AI incorporated into operating systems and search engines and
multitudinous other forms of software and firmware and yet the underlying
ethics of
its use has not been
decided and tabloid journalists and talking heads are speculating on
science fiction
like outcomes for this morally ill-defined tool.

To digress a little but we have been told for many years that the
tools of industry, mainly the chemistry which is used to progress our
civilisation,
is effecting calamitous changes to
the environment which we inhabit. The outcome of this is believed to be
producing
devastating climate shifts that will alter all our lives.

I note that whilst we are encouraged to not do anything that will damage
the planet
I have not heard the cries of pain that the conflicts in various parts of
the globe
are inflicting on our climate. Surely in some research units there must be
people
trying to work out whether the explosions from the wars are negating the
benefits of
changing our form of lighting let alone our substitution of non-polluting
electricity generation for
for petrochemical and fossil fuels.

And this brings me back to the program that I watched. Apparently three of
the major
internet colossus have joined the
move to use nuclear technology to power the expected stupendous increase in
electricity consumption brought about
by using AI. If the facts are correct, each major effort of AI to train
itself for
proper human interaction uses significantly more power than the course of
living
does now. What the multiple is I don’t know but the boffins and number
crunchers at
these
behemoths of cyber business have concluded is that without adopting
nuclear power
generation, they will not have the power to meet the expected growth of AI.

It seems to be the height of ironic progress to self-destruction to be
adopting
technology which conflicts with the current results of massive scientific
research.
We as a species have been able to find alternatives and solutions to
problems but if
the straws in the wind are correct, can mankind survive its own creative
urges?

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene




TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
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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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS OCTOBER 13 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)

---------------------------------------------------------------------*
CLUBBING
---------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB
wia.org.au/clubs/vk4/DarlingDownsRadioClub/
vk4wid@...

Hi. I'm John, VK4JPM with an update from the Darling Downs Radio Club.

Our monthly member meeting makes moments tomorrow night, Monday 14 October
- at 1900 in the Toowoomba Library. The topic is 3D printing, and in one
hour we'll do a bit of an overview for those of us who have only seen one
once, in the presence of a master who can answer the curliest of
questions.

Toowoomba's Maker Queen Steph Piper, Head of the UniSQ Maker Space, a
leader in Australia's wearable electronics maker community is joining us
for the evening, and it promises to be a real springboard for the
Do-It-Yourself experience.

It's amazing both how cheap 3D printing can be, and also what a range of
templates already exist for download from the interweb. From brackets,
to knobs, to clips, to complete cases to... well, all kinds of parts that
might be broken in your favourite transceiver or antenna mount. Some
replacement parts can even be created to be stronger or better than the
original.

The meeting will be preceded by an update from the club, and we're setting
time aside to get your input about upcoming activities. It's a good
opportunity to help the club's committee engage in the way you need as a
current or potential member.

While I'm here, a couple of future dates: social/tech meetings are second
Monday of the month. In November on the 11th, Dave Nebe VK4DN from the
Bundaberg Club will join us to update us on the Club's High Altitude
Balloon Experiment, and in December on the 9th the topic is Software
Defined Radios. More about those in upcoming segments.

If you have questions, or want to have a natter: the club 2 metre net
will start on VK4RDD at 10 this morning... in about 25 minutes. Details
of the net, and tomorrow night's meeting will all be found on the website
at ddrci.org.au, or just search on darling downs radio club. You can't
miss us.

I'm John VK4JPM, and you can drop me a line by sending a note to
Secretary@... - we're here to help.

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Solar flares and thunderstorms seem to be the marker of the past week.
Contesters,
over the long weekend, seemed to suffer the vagaries of space weather with
contacts
in some areas being significantly poorer than last year and others
attaining record
scores. On the other hand parts of the Sunshine State have been decidedly
less that
sunny with both acoustic and atmospheric noise reaching new highs for this
season.

Overseas we have seen parts of the southern USA suffer the effects of not
one but
two weather events, namely Hurricane Helene and then Milton. One effect
which in its
way is a bizarre beneficial outcome has been the attention the services of
amateur
operators has been receiving from, particularly, the TV news. Making the
public
aware that there are means of contacting authorities and families outside the
commercial services of internet and telephone is itself a public service.

Sometimes we need to raise our heads above the parapet and take a chance
that we in
Radio Amateur World aren’t just old boys playing in their sheds but are
people with
a capacity to help. It has been, it seems, a lonesome cry of mine, to
renew the
strong public service ethic that was once found amongst hams. As people
step through
life, the things that are important change and there is a changing roll
call in our
active membership.

Some areas in VK-land still have strong bodies guiding the amateur
community and
some like Queensland seem to have lost the incentive or personnel to carry
the torch
for our pursuit.
Sadly I don’t see active promotion from our peak organisation which seems
to roll on
with things as they are.

This is not a condemnation but an observation that we are in need of a
guiding star
to put us back in a position which gives the activity of radio the respect
and
recognition it once had in the community.

As we see innovation happening in so many areas of AR, we also seem to
observe more
antipathy amongst our members. One thing that most volunteer staffed
bodies have is
sustaining the numbers of people to carry out the core objectives. I have
noted
several not-for-profits in my area that have been appealing for new blood
to keep
their doors open. So it is not simply an issue that besets our clubs and
other
bodies, it is becoming universal.

I know from experience that family commitments, health and age all
contribute to the
amount of time that I can devote to external activities. So it must be for
many of
us and here is the nub, we need to recruit and to skill our membership to
see the
social recognition continue. We need to consider the options available to
us as a
community of like minded people.

I still think amateur radio is a fine and enjoyable pursuit but I too
wonder how I
can best contribute to its growth.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene

GOLD COAST HAMFEST TODAY OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS OCTOBER 6 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

Alex McDonald VK4TE passed away on 27th September

Alex's radio interest as a boy came from the humble crystal set,
this was followed by six years in the RAAF as a radio technician,
during this period he gained his amateur limited licence followed
by the unrestricted licence about four years later.

Alex was secretary of the Queensland branch of the WIA for many years
until it was absorbed into the current national WIA, also during this
period he was instrumental in the recording of morse practice tapes
and sending hundreds of them to Queensland radio amateurs who wished
to upgrade their limited licence.

In his early years Alex was mainly interested in the competition side
of the hobby, he achieved his DXCC and loved radio field trips with
his family.

After a 45 year period of not using CW he regained proficiency and
focused on CW contacts until his passing.

Amateur radio was a significant part of Alex's life, it gave him great
entertainment and created many friendships.


---------------------------------------------------------------------*

CLUBBING

---------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi. I'm John, VK4JPM with this week's update from the Darling Downs Radio
Club. Check your diary now for the two upcoming club events in October:

It's social lunch month, and next Saturday the 12th we meet at the
Southern Hotel in Ruthven Street Timing is 1130 for a 1200 o'clock start.
Everyone is welcome including YLs and YOTA types. You'll find us at
tables around to the right as you come in from the carpark.

The next club meeting is on Monday 14 October in the Toowoomba Library at
1900, and we're all about 3D printing this month, with Steph Piper from
USQ's Maker Space and 3D printing lab. And, I hear you ask, how is that
relevant to ham radio? OK, use a search engine to look for "3D print ham
radio" and you'll find over 10000 3D models on the Yeggi site alone.
Remember that pesky Baofeng belt clip that broke? Yep, it's there, and
Steph will show you how you could print a replacement quick smart.

Our website at ddrci.org.au has everything you need to know: on the home
page click through the View Detail buttons under "upcoming events". And
check out the newsletter and other club info while you're there.

That URL again: ddrci.org.au Catch us on 12 and 14 October, and if
you're listening to this on Sunday morning, the club Sunday 2M net starts
in about 30 minutes.

I'm John VK4JPM. You can drop me a line by sending a note to
Secretary@... and I'd love to help you get your Garden City
award.




--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

The images of destruction from various parts of the world seem to have been
proliferating in the past few weeks. Sadly the news doesn’t seem to be
improving
with wars and natural disasters claiming headlines.

It has been a feature of the amateur community to offer assistance to the
community
in times of distress and following the devastation that Hurricane Helene
has wrought
through parts of the south eastern US, we have seen mainstream media
picking up on
some hams using their stations to pass welfare messages. There is a long
history of
this in the United States and even in this Land Down Under many man hours
have gone
into community support with amateurs using their equipment and skills during
cyclones, floods and fires and also working in volunteer bodies in their home
communities.

Most of the OTs are familiar with the WICEN acronym and there are several
bodies
operating under the WICEN name scattered around the country.

Seventy years or so ago, Australia had a strong volunteer body known as
the Civil
Defence. This body performed multiple functions but it had a strong
government
supported ethos of looking after the civilians which was shaped by the
lessons of
World War 2. Today there is much less emphasis on civil defence with
bodies such as
Salvation Army, Red Cross and SES performing many of those functions.

You will find amateur operators working quietly within these bodies and
many other
groups. However, just because there are formal structures doesn’t mean
that we as
individuals cannot help if the situation demands. Certainly the training
which these
bodies and professions such as the military provide can smooth the way
messages are
handled but really, if we think about what our regulations exams covered,
we all
have the basics of being effective message handlers.

With more and more equipment being available for camping and other
recreations, most
of us can have things like back up power to run rigs and computers. The
thing is
that amateurs have the option to be versatile in what they do and what
bands that
they use. That versatility can link low and high power, DX and NVIS,
simplex and
repeater operations into very effective communication networks.

I certainly would like to see promotion of activities like WICEN and
things such as
message handling tools and operating manuals as it would improve the flow of
information to those who need it and it would also make operations
consistent and
better able to be logged. It seems that much effort has been put into
promoting
other areas of the hobby when community support could be more valuable.

As we head into daylight saving in other parts of the country, we on the
east of the
country especially along with the north and north west are welcoming the
start of
cyclone season.
It is also the time when bush fires are at the most damaging in the run up
to the
great mid-summer season.

I reckon we can all be ready to do a bit if needed as in times of
emergency every
little bit helps.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS SEPTEMBER 29 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*



---------------------------------------------------------------------*




CLUBBING






---------------------------------------------------------------------*





GOLD COAST AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY

IRLP Node 6702

GOLD COAST AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY – 2024 HAMFEST

Hi there!

It’s HamFest season, and have we got a HamFest for you!

Not all hamfests are the same.

The Gold Coast HamFest is renowned for the variety of businesses and
other suppliers attending, not to mention the eclectic range of fellow
amateurs with great gear to show and sell, plus other ham radio clubs.

You know what they say about real estate?
Location! Location! Location!

This HamFest is on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the hub of ham activity in
this part of the world.

Sunday, October 13 is the date. I repeat – Sunday, October 13.

Location is – Country Paradise Parklands at 231 Beaudesert Nerang
Road, Nerang.

If you’ve been before, you’ll know that location.

If the Gold Coast HamFest is a new one for you, just google the
location. Too easy!

Entry tickets are five dollars, the same as it has been for years.
Doors open to the public from 08:30am.
There is on-site parking and everything is under cover.
Coming early, or coming late, you’ll need a snack.
Once again we are having the very popular bacon and egg muffins, as
well other items from the BBQ.

To book a table, and for other info, go to gcars.com.au and look for
the HamFest tab, or email hamfest@...

See you at Nerang on Sunday October 13.

This is Aidan VK4APM for the Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society.









DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi. I'm John, VK4JPM with an update from the Darling Downs Radio Club.

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is still in full swing until 7 October,
so it's a perfect time to try for your Garden City award. Check out the
rules on the club website at ddrci.org.au, and you'll see it's pretty easy
to get - especially if you come up on the club's VK4WID Sunday net at
1000. That's the biggest hint I can give you, so what are you waiting
for?

You can also make personal contact with club members at our October lunch,
coming up on Saturday 12th at the Southern Hotel. We kick off at 1130,
and it's open to everyone whether you're a member or not.

At our regular monthly member's meeting on 14 October - at 1900 in the
Toowoomba Library - we'll find out how to get the best from 3D printing.
If you've never met one of these devices, be prepared to be both impressed
with what they can do, and be surprised at how easy they are to use. Most
amazingly, you'll find that many objects thought to be made of unobtanium
can be printed from freely downloadable templates, and might even be
stronger and more usable than the original part. Is it time to finally
replace that cracked knob on your favourite rig?

We'll be guided by Toowoomba's Maker Queen Steph Piper, Head of the UniSQ
Maker Space, a leader in Australia's wearable electronics maker community.
This is not only a session for established players, but you can bring
along some younger players and help them get enthused about another aspect
of our hobby.

Our website at ddrci.org.au has everything you need to know: on the home
page click through the View Detail buttons under "upcoming events". And
check out the newsletter with articles about ACMA, transistors, buck
converters, and the club Nets

That URL again: ddrci.org.au and write down 12 and 14 October.

I'm John VK4JPM. You can drop me a line by sending a note to
Secretary@... and I'd love to help you get your Garden City
award.


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

The end of the first month of Spring has almost caught us by surprise with
some
pleasant weather being interrupted by a cold and wet change. The long
range weather
is for warmer and generally wetter conditions over the next three months
so for the
gardeners amongst us it looks promising for some nice fruit, vegetables
and flowers.

Of course we all try and get ahead of the weather and plan for future
events with
the hope that all will go well. Thus we usually go through the Spring
cleaning
routine to set us up for the next few months of warm and pleasant weather.
What we
must also factor in is that we are approaching the annual cyclone and bush
fire
seasons, so being ready to meet the challenges of these “natural” events
have to be
taken into account as well.

Being as well prepared as we can be is always part of the amateur radio
practice and
this runs to following the guidelines of the various bodies that look out for
natural events and their consequences. A stock pile of things such as food
and
water,
medicines, broadcast radio and spare batteries, fuel for the generator and
so on
should all be in the ready to go state. No one wants to be isolated, without
electricity or to have to evacuate their home but as various authority
figures tell
us, the inclement weather is expected to be more severe.

Having taken care of the emergency things, we should take time in the good
weather
to sort out what is on the agenda for the next few months. Rural people
will be
planning for the seasonal changes which govern their life and others will
be marking
off the calendar as to when their leave falls, when they can put the tools
away for
a few weeks and so it goes according to circumstances.

Clubs, I would expect, have their calendars marked with the events that
are coming
and making plans for meetings, field days and contests, for instance.
Whilst the
school holidays have come to an end, it is really a good time to think if
activities
can be arranged for students in the coming holidays and making preparation
for the
necessary publicity and stores to be on hand.

Along with the outings and meetings, perhaps as we also have a large ageing
population, a plan for making home visits to local amateurs to provide
some of the
companionship that hams espouse.

Flying the flag is always a good way to attract publicity so maybe a
barbeque in a
local park with some portable operations could provide an invitation to
other locals
to see what we get up to. There are so many ideas that can be successfully
adopted
and with band conditions and the weather being favourable why not give
some of them
a go?

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS SEPTEMBER 22 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?
DARLING DOWNS AND IPSWICH DID

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

THE FOLLOWING QNEWS 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/
203.31.7.19/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)
eX/VK4TC Terry Harding Cain 30/07/24 (vk4zz)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)



---------------------------------------------------------------------*

CLUBBING

---------------------------------------------------------------------*



DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi. I'm John, VK4JPM with an update from the Darling Downs Radio Club.

The 14 October meeting from DDRCi will feature another "how to do it"
session. We're talking "Makers".

A Maker is Defined as "a person who experiments with creating,
constructing, modifying, or repairing objects especially as a hobby" -
which makes ham radio operators amongst the very original Makers!

This meeting we look at the world of 3D printing, and ask: how can that
help with our hobby?

To answer that question, we've invited Toowoomba's Maker Queen, Steph
Piper - Head of the UniSQ Maker Space, and a leader in Australia's
wearable electronics maker community. Steph will show us how 3D printing
works, and what we can do with it.

Steph Piper is one of an emerging breed of technologists. Steph is
focused on how to merge creative arts and electronics, and she's
passionate about passing important skills to kids.

She designs multicolour circuit boards, teaches 3D printing and modelling,
is a wiz with Arduino, and has lit the Storey Bridge. Steph also creates
Soldering kits that help introduce people to the world of electronics.
You might just take away an inspirational idea for a birthday or Christmas
present for the younger people in your family.

Come along to the Darling Downs Radio Club's next monthly meeting at 1900
on 14 October at the Toowoomba Library - everyone is welcome. You can get
all the details on the club website at www.ddrci.org.au, where you'll also
find the open invitation to join us for our next very social lunch on
Saturday 12 October at the Southern Hotel.

That URL again: ddrci.org.au and all the detail is on the home page under
Coming Events.

I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club, and I'd love
to say hi to you at the meeting.






(inputs)
Ipswich & District Radio Club

Web – www.vk4wip.org.au
Email - vk4wip@...
For a full list of repeaters - www.vk4wip.org.au

This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club.

The club’s annual general meeting was held Saturday August 24 with 24
members in attendance including one online.

In a part refresh of the executive committee members welcomed Alan VK4AJG
as secretary and John VK4JBX as vice-president alongside president Peter
VK4SIR and treasurer Ian VK4LIP.

Before the AGM former long-serving secretary and WICEN coordinator Greg
VK4GJW indicated he would step down from both rolls after eight years.
Mark VK4SMA also stepped down as vice president.

From the annual WICEN report it was noted these events are a big part in
keep the club afloat. A sincere thank you to all members who gave up
their time to provide communications services and support the club.

Your efforts provide a safety net for the competitors in areas where no
other communications coverage is reliable.

There’s now more members trained on the various functions of these
operations. This includes
checkpoints, base operations, and operating the portable repeater. In
addition to that some
members have taken on an organising role for some events, this is much
appreciated as it
spreads the load across the member base.

The next WICEN event is the Mount Gloriious Trail on November 10. At least
15 operators are needed. If you can help please contact Paul VK4PMC email
ipswichwicen@...

And finally, at the August monthly meeting the club welcomed its new
member – Ian VK4HIB.


Reporting from Ipswich this is Allan, VK4HIT.

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

I had an event in the past week that made me consider the importance of
diversity.
What I mean is that for my video watching I basically depend on YouTube
which is a
subsidiary of the megalith we remember as Google.

I had accumulated a number of amateur radio videos that I kept for
reference on
various subjects and it was handy to have this library of a few dozen
items when I
wanted to review my understanding of different subject. Then I turned on
the TV,
pressed the button on the remote to be greeted by a message that I was no
longer
signed in. Don’t you love the power of the tech giants to control our
activities?

I left the matter ride for a few hours and the following day had the same
result so
I concluded it wasn’t an issue with the TV firmware or the router of the NBN
service. I located the correct password and logged in to find that my
library had
been removed as well as my favourite channels. Thus became a period of
wasted time
finding and restoring as much of the lost material as I could find.

The whims and fancies of many of these services that people use on the
internet are
often fraught with issues. Remember the famous actor who wanted to will his
streaming music collection to his offspring? He found out that despite all
the
subscription fees that he had paid and the belief that he was paying to
own the
material he was in fact only buying the rights to play that music during his
lifetime. Similar stories exist concerning operating systems for
computers. It is
really a Catch 22 situation that you need the OS to run your computer but the
developers claim ownership.

If they decide that they will not provide backward compatibility you can
find that
your gear is vulnerable to cyber attacks or obsolescence in the future. I
have some
gear that uses Windows 10 and doesn’t meet the requirements for the next
iteration
of the future one that is on the drawing boards. Sadly some of my needs
won’t be met
by reverting to a Windows 7 commercial version so like many others, I have
the
choice to make of upgrading or risking the viability of those systems.

There are no doubt numerous examples of similar plans of big business to
extract
more of the folding stuff from us. It is important to the private user and
possibly
more important to clubs who have to maintain records and keep access for
defined
times. There have been attacks on cloud services and magnetic media has a
certain
period that it remains viable.
We older people can remember the entry of the personal computer into our
lives and
its adoption into the field of amateur radio. The cussedness of those early
machines, particularly the IBM clones was something that people said would
drive a
teetotaller to drink. The reliability of our systems is so much better but
our
dependency on monopolistic supply chains can still prevent total security
for the
user.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS SEPTEMBER 15 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*


CLUBBING


---------------------------------------------------------------------*


DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...


Hi - I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club.

Toowoomba is known for many things, and one of the most famous is the
Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. The 75th Carnival kicked off last
Friday and it runs through to 7 October. You can check out what's on
the program at the website, tcof.com.au. There's something for
everyone, and much of the program is no-charge and open to all comers.

If you're coming into town, let us know by coming up on the club NET
held every Sunday at 1000 local on our VHF Repeater VK4RDD, or give a
call on the repeater when you get here. We're a friendly lot in the
Darling Downs, and very proud of the Carnival which is at least as
good as Floriade and much closer!

While you're thinking about Carnival, have you checked out the Club's
"Garden City Award"? It's very attractive, and not hard to achieve -
so just perfect as one to aim for if you've just got your licence or
you are getting started with our hobby. And it's open to both
transmitters and SWLs. All the details are on the website at
ddrci.org.au and click on "awards" at the top of the page.

One for the diary: our next club meeting and presentation is on
Monday 14 October. Also for the diary is our bi-monthly lunch, on
Saturday 12 October - come along and meet the gang. We'll give you
more details in a forthcoming bulletin and on the club
website: www.ddrci.org.au

Dates again: Monday 14 October for the meeting; Saturday 12 October
for lunch; Carnival on right now; Garden City award at any time,
and details at ddrci.org.au

I'm John VK4JPM, and thanks for listening.



--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

As the northern hemisphere prepares for winter and all that it can bring,
we in the
south are finding the Spring weather is consolidating with the promise of
what
Summer will bring. The long range weather forecasts paint picture of
warmer weather
and variable rain fall so in one perspective, outdoor activities seem
promising
until the end of the year. We can hope this is true as the Wet Season is
projected
to start early in the top end. It will be interesting if the crocodile
nesting
season coincides with the computer modelling this year.

For the avid tourists to the various major gatherings around the world,
the climax
has been the Tokyo Hamvention which saw a number of Aussie amateurs
attending. The
major news has been the release of new radio models from the three largest
Japanese
manufacturers and the prospect that samples will be appearing around the
world at
smaller events. There has been some tentative pricing information on a
flagship
model but with Australia suffering an economic sickness, I suspect very
few sales
can be expected here.

What is interesting is that the radio from Yaesu, apart from its
innovative design
features, is that it fits the pattern of the shack in a box. Of course,
this is not
a new segment for this manufacturer but it is a slot that many smaller
manufacturers
have been enjoying some fierce competition in promoting. The low power
multi-mode
radio has been well used in various pursuits such as parks, hill tops and
other
venues where an outdoors participation is necessary. The development of
alternative
battery technology has reduced the weight of a station which can be
comfortably
carried in a backpack and conveyed to places not normally accessed by radio
hobbiests.

Combine these various features with the peak of a sunspot cycle and it is
like manna
from heaven to the enthusiastic HF QRP operator.

Add into the mix the various rigs coming from Asian countries, other than
Japan and
the accessories for portable operating that are on the market, it is quite
opportune
to upgrade one’s station and expand the operating geography we can use.
Traditionally the warmer months, are when many contest happen and with good
equipment, good weather and good band conditions, what more could a happy
camper
that plays radio be looking for?

For me, I think it is in my genes to be frugal so finding ways to save comes
naturally. Building a station tends to be be a progressive enterprise with
tools,
accessories and equipment added when time and funds allow. Building, or
home brewing
as we call it, tends to be the most economical way to get items for the
station and
it is undoubtedly the most instructive as we tend to read the manual and
research
the gear before, during and after completing a project. Combining retail
or swap
meet purchases with some time spent at the workbench seems to be a good
way to go.

Keeping an eye open for bargains on your favourite sales and auction sites
can often
grab a winner. Whatever we do, enjoy it.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


SUNFEST Saturday September 14 at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)



GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS SEPTEMBER 08 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?
DARLING DOWNS DID.


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

THE FOLLOWING QNEWS 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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...



Hi. I'm John VK4JPM with a reminder from the Darling Downs Radio
Club about tomorrow night's tech meeting.

Monday 9 September is the second Monday of the month, and that means
we gather at the Toowoomba Library. The theme of this month's
session is "How to get control of EVERYTHING in your shack", which
you can do using easily available home automation technology.

We'll get you across some of the very powerful apps and extremely
cheap technology that can help you run your shack, control your
antenna farm, and manage your ham-cave and workshop. You can turn
things on and off, monitor power consumption and atmospherics,
integrate arbitrary bits of gear, and instrument signal and
operational flows. All it takes is a bit of imagination, and a
leg-up - which is the aim of this session.

If I say "home automation" you've probably thought we mean Google and
Alexa, but you don't have to use those. In fact, you don't even have
to use the cloud. What we will do is introduce Tuya ecosystem -
that's the one of the most common technologies, and one that sits
behind Matter, Grid Connect, Deta, and a lot of smart home devices from Aldi.

To make life interesting, we'll set up a complete system from scratch
at the meeting, and if you bring a smart device you'll be able to
join in and test it for yourself. If you're like me, it won't take
long before you're hooked and working out how to make your home
lighting and electronics do all kinds of useful and interesting things.

A warning: we're not up to streaming or recording yet, so if you
miss it - you've missed it.

OK, the details again: we meet tomorrow night, Monday 9 September at
the Toowoomba Library from 1900 - that's 7PM. Tons of free
well-lit, secure under-cover parking. The meeting is open to members
and guests; there's no charge, and we'd love you to join us for a
natter and a cuppa.

Check out all the detail, and upcoming club events, at the
website: www.ddrci.org.au. www.ddrci.org.au. You can also find us
via the WIA website, or just search for Darling Downs Radio Club from
your favorite search engine.

73 from John VK4JPM and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the
meeting tomorrow.


--------------------------------------------------------------------*


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

It was distracting hearing the squelch breaking on the 2m repeater on
146.800Mhz and
then faintly came a female voice.
It was obvious that ducting was having it’s fun with us, along the S.E.
coast of
Queensland but it wasn’t until I read a post that the full impact became
obvious.
From the Gold Coast to various parts of the coast signals from New
Caledonia were
being received. It is over 25years since I heard this and made a
successful contact
so I live in hopes that this summer season we can experience international
VHF
contacts with better results.

Sadly, I had a poor experience on social media during the past week. A
group popped
up in the “you may be interested category” and as I have been seeking to
finish
putting together a small set-up for camping and portable radio operation,
I thought
it worth joining. This group is obviously an eclectic one of lay and
tradie types
devoted to low voltage use and it suited me to join to observe what others
had found
worked for them.

After approval by the administrators, I had the opportunity to post an
introduction
as to why I had joined. Sadly this is when the first response was a very
generous
put down and questioned my knowledge and why I would want to join this
group. OK, we
have all had experience of keyboard warrior types on the internet but it
was plainly
obvious from the tenor of this post that the writer was also a radio amateur.

I tried a couple of times to correct some of the falsehoods that were
directed at me
and the insulting tenor of the replies continued. As I had just joined
this group,
the rules were fresh in my mind and I pointed out to this person that they
had
breached the group rules and left to go about my other business.

The next day, I went back to this site to check if there had been more
responses
only to find that the administrators had obviously monitored or been
alerted to this
incident. The attacking comments had been deleted from my post and there
remained
some courteous and considered replies from other group members.

My concern is not for the insults directed at me but the very serious
effects that
this behaviour could have on members of that group when considering
amateur radio
and its participants.
I don’t want to sound precious or prissy but how we present as hams in public
naturally reflects on our whole community. This group is enjoying learning
about 12V
use and installations so they already have an affinity with electricity.
Perhaps
some of them may want to take that interest into wider fields of interest
and I
would hate for them to be influenced away from amateur radio by one person
acting
badly.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*
Social Scene


SUNFEST Saturday September 14 at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)



GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)










TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
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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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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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 .‘

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-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS SEPTEMBER 01 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

CLUBBING

---------------------------------------------------------------------*



DARLING DOWNS RADIO CLUB

vk4wid@...

Hi - I'm John, VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio
Club.

We thought we should remind you about our regular meetings.
On the second Monday of each month we gather at the Toowoomba library
for a committee meeting, followed by a social and technical meeting on
a special topic. I'll tell you about the September meeting in a
sec.

And on the second Saturday of even months, we meet for lunch and an
in-person chinwag.

You can find all the info about the club and our activities at
ddrci.org.au along with how to become a member of the club, details
on club repeaters and nets, how to contact us, and how to qualify
for the Club's Garden City Award, available to hams and swls
worldwide.

The September tech and social meeting is at 1900 on Monday 9
September, and the topic is "How to get control of EVERYTHING" in your
shack and beyond using home automation tools. The session will
introduce you to how the TUYA system actually works, tell you where
you can get cheap hardware from online to Bunnings, and introduce some
REALLY clever devices you can use to make your hobby more interesting.

To make the session even more exciting, I'm planning to bring a
bucket of toys and set up a complete remote controlled lighting and
power switching system in front of your eyes.

Details on the session, location and times are on the website:
ddrci.org.au

There's no charge; you don't have to register; and we'll have a
cuppa and bikkies available.

Those details again: the Darling Downs Radio Club, meeting Monday
9 September in Toowoomba, and go to ddrci.org.au for all the info
you need.

I'm John VK4JPM and I'm looking forward to meeting you at the session.



--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Well this year, Spring didn’t just peek over the windowsill but it
blustered in
stealing part of Winter with above average temperatures in the Sunshine
State.
Welcome to the blooming of all the various native plants that perfume the
bush-land
and bring us the misery of hay-fever. Welcome to the beginnings of all
those lovely
outdoor operating opportunities and the smell of campfires and insect
repellent.

I was a little surprised, a few days ago, whilst watching a video to have the
presenter reference other video material on a particular antenna and state
his
presentation would just be about the use in the particular location with
whatever
band conditions were present that day. Why should I be surprised, you may
ask?

There seems to be a bevy of ham radio influencers, many of whom derive
income from
their activities, who have created personalities to draw the viewer into
their web.
This is fair enough when the purpose is to simply entertain but so many of
these
people are contriving scenarios where they are promoting items which have
been
supplied by manufacturers, wholesalers or retailers to ostensibly provide
unbiased,
independent reviews but in fact if you stop and think they are giving a
promotion of
the product not a critique of the pros and cons of the item.

What I find more frustrating is that you can do a search and come up with
numerous
presentations on the subject matter and find that many are just promotions
and
others are simply put downs without real reference to the operating
conditions and
band conditions at the time of shooting the video. Having contradictory
information
presented as factual, to my mind, is just misleading.

It would seem that often the depth of knowledge of these video stars is
not as good
as it needs to be to make fair comparisons and comments. Misnaming of
components is
a put off for me. Sorry but a toroidal transformer is not an antenna but
it may be
part of an antenna system, for instance.

So these are the reasons I felt pleased to have seen a presentation that
didn’t try
to be an audition for a broadcast reality TV show and ended up saying this
is what I
found today but you may find things different tomorrow.

When we set out to learn about a subject, we look for facts and reports
that we can
rely upon. We really don’t depend on “advertorials” and promotions with a
discount
code attatched. What we need is enough information to build our knowledge
in the
light of experience and unfortunately the internet is a trap for the
unwary. It
isn’t simply the person phishing for your banking details or the seemingly
honest
vendor of dodgy equipment but also the publicity officers who are looking
for the
cents to mount into dollars at the expense of honest reporting.

What I think is that we need to keep our wits about us on-line and be
prepared to
question things and cross check with recognised reference material such as
the
notable handbooks produced by large AR bodies.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Social Scene


SUNFEST Saturday September 14 at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)


GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS AUGUST 25 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*


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


One of the treats of amateur radio is to take part in the recognition of
special
interest groups. Sometimes it is a contest with certificate as a memento and
sometimes it is just knowing you were there on a special day. This weekend
has been
one of these events and the special interest group is a small one which
aims to
unite others in promoting and enjoying the spirit of amateur radio. Of
course, I
refer to the Ladies Amateur Radio Association.

After the broadcast you still have the opportunity to log a few contacts
in the 44th
ALARA Contest. Pop over to the website and look at the rules under the
contest
heading. Remember you can use contacts on Echolink if you are unable to
get on air.

Amongst the general community, there is a perception that radio amateurs
are sweaty
older men playing with strange things in their man caves. ALARA is a group
that
proves that this pursuit is one that all people who can hold licence can
get joy out
of being a ham. Its great to show the flag, so to speak, and we can
certainly show
our support for the members of ALARA dot ORG by joining in the contest.

It is almost frightening to think that it is the cusp of Spring and that
heralds a
new period of operations on shortwave with the increased temperature comes
different
modes of radio propagation. Although reports at the moment are showing
various bands
are alive and kicking and giving good global contacts, particularly with
the grey
line. There are suggestions that the estimated peak in solar activity for
this Cycle
25 was reached earlier this month.

If we have reached the peak, according to the observations, going by past
experience
we should still have another 2 to 3 years of good radio conditions ahead
of us. So
with Christmas not too far in the offing, it might be time to look at some
of the
interesting gear coming on the market. The Christmas elves are very
inventive and
you could find a nice surprise under the tree, this year.

I would like to remind listeners that a great addition to the WIA News
Service is
the video adaption by Bevan, VK5BD. You can watch on YouTube and get the full
broadcast quality audio with graphics to play at your convenience.
Recently there
have been issues in my locality with no rebroadcasts on 2M so having this
as a
further alternative has been a boon. This is not to forget that the text
and audio
is available for download from the WIA dot ORG dot AU website.

I have been subscribed to the news in text for many years, even back in
the heyday
of packet radio. Being able to listen can bring out things that might be
missed if
you a reading when rushed, distracted or tired.

So it is Good luck in the Contest and 73.



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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*


Social Scene


SUNFEST Saturday September 14 at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)



GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS AUGUST 18 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


--------------------------------------------------------------------*



---------------------------------------------------------------------*




CLUBBING






---------------------------------------------------------------------*

Ipswich & District Radio Club

Web – www.vk4wip.org.au
Email - vk4wip@...
For a full list of repeaters - www.vk4wip.org.au


This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club.

Club members are reminded the annual general meeting will be held Saturday
August 24 from 10am. To be eligible to vote at the AGM members must by
financial prior to the start of the meeting. Please check your emails for
payment details in the July minutes.

Current secretary and WICEN coordinator Greg VK4GJW indicated he will be
stepping down from both rolls after eight years. Nominations are open for
all positions with Greg also encouraging new eyes and new blood on the
executive.

From the WICEN report – the Guzzler Ultra marathon was held on July 20 and
21. Communications went well with the 50 km and 100 km events covered.
This is the biggest event of the year with 731 runners. A total of 23
volunteers (operators, helpers and feet on the ground from other clubs)
made it happen and funds raised contribute to the running costs of the
clubhouse.

And commencing Tuesday night September 3 will be another Foundation
course. There’s room for four candidates, and so far one person has
registered. So it’s first in best dressed. Register your interest with the
club’s training officer Greg VK4GJW. (VK4GJW@...)

Reporting from Ipswich this is Allan, VK4HIT.






Redcliffe and Districts radio club.


Redcliffe Club Carboot Sale Quick Reminder

Greetings from the Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club VK4RC
Robert Thomson VK4TFN here.

The Redcliffe Club Carboot Sale is on Saturday 24th August at 9:00 AM
at our club house in MacFarlane Park in Klingner Road, Kippa Ring in
the City of Redcliffe.

Go to redclifferadioclub.org.au for more information.

Thank you and 73 from the Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club VK4RC.





--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

As the last hurrahs have died down and the athletes have made their way
home, the
next major calendar event is, of course, the Paralympics. It is
significant that we
celebrate this band of sports people because they exemplify what can
happen if you
deal with what is real and follow your dreams as to what is possible.

Just as the Invictus Games provide meaning to military veterans in
redefining their
sense of self and gain confidence in achievements in a new facet of life,
so other
bodies with positive outlooks can give support.

Perhaps, I can take the ethos of these movements and apply it to our own
pursuit of
Amateur Radio. As life’s events overtake us, we can find ourselves in
circumstances
that we never dreamed of in our younger years.

Many of us will have explored the “self help” industry in its various
marketing
forms but I am not equating a positive outlook with unrealistic
expectations for
people.

Various studies, of real world situations, have shown that a positive
outlook is
very beneficial to health and longevity. This is not some “airy-fairy”
form of
academic research but the outcomes amongst people such as you and me. So
if the
outcomes for cancer patients can be better amongst people with a good
outlook and
military retirees suffering high levels of condition such as PTSD it seems we
already have the evidence of how beneficial these informal supports can be.

I remember how, in the CB boom years there were clubs formed that provided a
community for people not only interested in citizens band but also came
from similar
backgrounds and life experience. There was much benefit amongst club
members because
people became engaged in activities outside their normal life.

We do have a few organisations where amateur radio is a prime focus for
members of
certain professions, faith bodies and service organisations. If we look at
the
groups that have been succeeding over time, they all seem, to my eye, to
have an
outlook which is driven by positive outcomes.

In recent times we have seen videos, web and social media posts hanging on
gaining
the maximum viewing by suggesting the death of amateur radio. This form of
click
bait is also what causes the mental health professions to warn of the bad
effects
the negative news and propaganda has on young peoples’ outlook. Continuing
a diet of
bad news has been shown to contribute to suicidal thoughts for people
suffering
stress and depression.

So here we have an activity that links us around the world and encourages
everyone
to be part of the action in ways that suit our own circumstance. Here we
have a
structure that supports clubs where people can physically meet and share
social
activities. Here we have an opportunity to look in the mirror and if we
have a poor
image we have the chance to change and look at what we can do and
disregard what we
肠补苍’迟.

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



-------------------------------------------------------------------*
Social Scene

The Redcliffe Club will hold their Car Boot Sale Saturday 24 August
at the club house, MacFarlane Park, Kippa Ring. (vk4tn)



GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:-

Send SCRIPT to qnews@...
send audio to

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@...

THEN submit audio:-

To submit audio email qnews@... and ask for the current
password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on




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 .‘

Subscribe: [email protected]
Group Owner: [email protected]
Help: [email protected]

TO CEASE GETTING THIS EMAILED SERVICE:-
Unsubscribe: [email protected]

-----------------------------ENDS------------------------------------*

QNEWS AUGUST 11 2024 - VK4 ON AIR

--------------------------------------------------------------------*

DID YOUR CLUB TELL ANYONE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK?


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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/
203.31.7.19/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)
VK4CWJ GORDON WEBSTER July 2024 (vk4vp)
VK4SWR JOE SEBAST5IANI 03/07/24 (vk4zz)


Silent Key - Joe Sebastiani VK4SWR

A big shock to the Amateur Radio Community and most Radio Nets, sad news
has been
received via Ray/VK4OIL that long time

member of The Townsville Amateur Radio Club Inc, antenna experimenter and
avid radio
net participant Joe Sebastiani VK4SWR

went Silent Key after a horrific domestic accident. Joe had slipped on wet
tiles at
his home at Burdell North Queensland a couple of weeks

previously and rushed to Townsville University Hospital with injuries to
his skull
and brain so severe that doctors put Joe into an induced coma

in an attempt to help his body heal.

A week later Joe was taken out of the induced coma but soon lapsed into
another coma
from which he did not recover.

Joe passed away in hospital around 5pm Saturday 3rd August.

Joe grew up in Mount Isa, worked for a long time for Mount Isa Mines and
attained
Amateur Radio Callsign VK4LED thanks to training

provided by members of the Mount Isa and District Amateur Radio Club. Joe
was a keen
DXer on the 27MHz CB Band and soon had prolific

contacts on the Ham Bands but found the power limits of the Novice Licence
restrictive.

He was persuaded to upgrade to Advanced and was successful in attaining
VK4SWL, then
converted to VK4SWR while still in Mount Isa.

More DX ensued, not only on HF but also on VHF and UHF. With work
prospects in the
Isa starting to shrink Joe moved to Townsville

and proceeded to set up an even better DX setup than he had in the Isa.
Joe also
found he had a talent in fault finding and fixing power supplies,

those fault finding skills extending into fixing transceivers that had a
discrete
component build.

Joe was also an accomplished clay target shotgun marksman with regular
participation
as a member of the Townsville Gun Club in regional and state-wide
tournaments.

We pass on sincere condolences to wife Imelda, son Joe Jnr. and surviving
family.
Joe's sudden passing is as much a shock to us as

it is to you.

Vale Joe Sebastiani VK4SWR, Silent Key.

With thanks to Iain/VK4IGM and Ray/VK4OIL for assistance in getting this
incomplete
but heartfelt tribute to Joe together.

Gavin Reibelt/VK4ZZ, Secretary, The Townsville Amateur Radio Club Inc.




Now for some more sad news.

One of the Sunshine Coasts Amateur Radio Club's members has sadly
passed away - Gordon Webster VK4CWJ passed away last week and the
funeral was held last Thursday August One.

Gordon worked for the OTC in Martin Place Sydney and the DCA in
Port Moresby during the 60's and 70's and he also travelled many
times to Thursday Island.

He was a keen operator in many HF competitions around the world.
Gordon also had some issues with interference at his QTH in Pacific
Paradise that caused him no end of grief to his HF activities.

Vale Gordon VK4CWJ


I'll be back in a moment here on QNEWS with news of our clubs HamFest.


--------------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Great things are happening in the world of sports as our fellow Aussies
strive for
medals in the Olympic Games in Paris. Regardless of the purity or
otherwise of the
waters of the Seine through the city of lights, there appear to have been no
fatalities as a result of playing in the possibly polluted stream.

As a nation of successful arm chair sports people, we here in VK have a great
tradition to uphold and no doubt there have been many traditional meals of
sporting
fare scoffed in the dark and wee hours of the night. I will be interested
to see the
figures of the increase in meat pie and home delivered meals during this
period.

It is fitting that we radio amateurs enjoy the spectacle vicariously
through our
monitors and TVs. What better use is there for modern electronics than
participating
in a world event where so many nations are represented from the comfort of
one’s own
home with the support of the modern conveniences of refrigeration and
microwave
oven?

Maybe to top the medal tally in Paris will be the entry in the Guinness
Book of
Records with a count of bodies focused on sporting immortality that
exceeds the
records set by tennis and football competitions.

This is all to show that we as a race of people and a sub-set of this are
superbly
positioned to enjoy the indulgences of amateur radio. In a suitable space,
all the
paraphernalia of our favoured activity can be gathered. The multiple
monitors and
the comfortable operating chair, the earphones with the comfortable gel
cushions and
even special lighting and quick access to refreshment during breaks in
activity can
all be arranged for the champion amateur operator.

Of course for the more frugally or Spartan minded ham there are a variety
of options
for outdoor activities which can include enjoying bushland, beaches
mountains and
even hill tops to show how fearless and strong we can be in enjoying
amateur radio.

For the multifaceted amateur who can multitask, they can always have
various video
features showing on the monitors and by engaging the computer or two, run
digital
modes whilst keeping an eye on one’s favourite sport and even have a rag
chew whilst
the scanner brings in the latest news of local drama to the shack.

Yes my friends we are so lucky to belong to a cohort of versatile and
engaged people
who can sustain good levels of activity and a healthy life style whilst
mainly
remaining seated.
It is a lesson to show the world and our fellow Aussies just how good life
can be
when we join the ranks of amateur radio.

On that note, I hope we remember there are activities coming hard upon us
that may
shake us into more feverish activity. As they say, “Good luck in the
肠辞苍迟别蝉迟”.

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


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CLUBBING
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SUNSHINE COAST

Maleny VK4RSC 146.850 and 438.075 VK4RSN 53.7
Noosa Heads VK4RSL 146.825 and 438.175

News from the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club

This is Gordon VK4VP

SunFest 2024 is Here

Saturday September 14th at the Coolum Civic Centre.
This is a new location as our previous venue is booked out.
The address is 2-4 Park St Coolum Beach

Here is your chance to grab a bargain, catch-up with folks you
haven’t seen for a while for an off air rag chew, or just enjoy
the atmosphere. Tickets this year are cheaper than last year at
just under $7 for general entry and $10 for a traders ticket
that includes 1 general admission.

Open for trader entry from 8AM, while doors for general admission
open strictly at 10AM.

Just go to vk4wis.org for details of ticket purchasing.







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Social Scene

The Redcliffe Club will hold their Car Boot Sale Saturday 24 August
at the club house, MacFarlane Park, Kippa Ring. (vk4tn)


SUNFEST Saturday September 14 at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)


GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)





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