October 2025 Newsletter

Hi, everyone.  Important updates about some things happening in the coming two weeks, including

• Lunch this Saturday 4 October at the Drayton Bowlo/Rink 46
• Member meeting on Monday 13 at Newtown Scouts
• JOTA weekend

There is so much happening with the club that we’ve been struggling to do a proper update and decent newsletter.  But when you see all the exciting news you’ll most likely forgive us.  However, fair to point out is that at the top of the list of help needed: we’re looking for a newsletter editor.  If that’s a skill area of yours, and you can help even a little bit, please give me a call to discuss.

So: here is the Club Update for which you have been waiting.  

Announcements/Reminders:

Bimonthly lunch is this Saturday 4 October starting at 1130 for 1200.   All the detail is on the website in the calendar scroller.  If you’re impatient, click left or right when the webpage comes up, or go here if you want to click straight through.

By the way, the Committee has thought about lunch dates and concluded that we need to separate lunch from a member meeting by at least a week, and also give some flexibility to run lunches on different days.   So expect the lunch to be at the start of an even numbered month (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec), and that we will announce the actual detail closer to the day.  Social meets will always be announced on the web and QNews, and then by an email as soon as we can.

October Monthly Member Meeting is scheduled for Monday 13 October at 1900 AEST, and this month the topics will include the two recent ACMA determinations.   The meeting will be in person at Victory Street Scouts Hall and by telepresence.   And, as we learn more about this, we’re trying different tools.  For the next meeting we will use Google Meet to see how it compares to Zoom.   Watch for the link when the calendar entry launches on the website later this week.

QNews:  is broadcast each week on HF and other outlets, and definitely on Sunday morning following the National News.  It’s strategically run before the callbacks, so that people do listen.   Your club has been well featured for the last year, often as the only participant.  We get great feedback – particularly from other clubs, and QNews has been very successful at getting DDRCi better known.   Two things that we’d like from you:

• did you know that the website and QNews are updated together so that important info in one is repeated in the other, and
• is it helpful or should we do something more/different?
• Did you know that the QNews script can be sent to you each week as a direct email to your inbox?   Check the website now, because there’s a bit of a story there about that, with some tips.

Please renew your membership (or join!):   it’s a huge help to the club when you show that you appreciate the work that the Club is doing – by being a member.  If you haven’t yet renewed, or you haven’t got around to joining, then give the new system a go.  In less than five minutes you can do the complete thing.  In fact, we’re running a book to see if anyone can complete the form in under 120 seconds.   We think it’s possible.  And once you’ve completed the form and pressed the pay button:  nothing more required.  No emails, no postage, no additional bank logons.  Done!   If you’re sitting on the fence, give it a go right now.

Daylight Saving Time starts in eastern Oz this weekend.   From Sunday morning, places that aren’t Queensland, NT or WA will have one-hour offsets, and annoying things may happen to diaries.   All club event times, whether explicitly stated or not, can be assumed to be Toowoomba local/AEST.   If a time relates to some other zone, especially NSW, we’ll tell you!

VK4AIS SK:  did you have any on-air or direct contact with Chris?  In July, Chris Lyon, late of Cairns and Tara, became silent key.   We are looking for anyone who might have had a contact with Chris on-air or in person.  You would have recognised a solid northern-England accent.   If you did talk with Chris on-air, could you please drop a line to or give me a call?

18/19 October:  is only a little over two weeks away.  In conjunction with the regional Scouts people we are preparing a couple of special JOTA/JOTI engagements for which detail will be completed this week.    The Club has engaged strongly with Scouts to build tech skills and we recently completed an extremely successful training exercise which has delivered 15 new Foundation Licensees.  We are planning to repeat the exercise during JOTA, and demonstrate the value of both being a licensed amateur radio operator, and the very strong value that amateur radio can bring in training for STEM skills.   How can you help?  By being available and involved.  We’ll talk about this on Saturday at lunch, but hey – if you’re an ex-scout (so you understand what the organisation does) then we’d really appreciate if you could pitch in and help.  Offers and questions to

November Monthly Member Meeting:  will be on Monday 10th at 1900 at the Victory Street Scout Hall (and telepresence) and will feature John VK4JBE returning to join us to cover the essential topic: “EMR Safety for Radio Amateurs“.   Don’t just jot that in your diary: lock it in.   EMR understanding is not just about staying safe:  knowing the detail on EMR might save you from an erroneous assertion that you caused a health problem.   Stay tuned!

Quick stuff:

• The latest issue of New Zealand and Australian Amateur Radio Magazine is now available, and it’s an interesting read from an independent source.  You can link to a copy here.   Or to subscribe and receive it directly click here
• The backstory and video of the club’s appearance in TCOF is here.  When there’s a few more moments, we will get some more photos up to view online
• Have you been thinking about estate planning?   This has recently become a topic for the club.   I’d like to know if you have an experience or have done some planning and you’d be willing to provide some advice.  Give me a call or drop me a line please?
• QTech 2025 at Kedron Wavell – looks like a good gig.  If you’re thinking of going, let’s discuss over lunch or at the club meetings, in case it’s possible to combine travel.

And that’s it for this issue.   As always, the contact point is and all messages get answered – so if you don’t hear back, send the message again because something has gone wrong.

73s

John