QNEWS for this week (260920)
QNEWS DDRCI 260920
It’s Sunday 20 September and spring is springing, especially in Toowoomba where the Carnival of Flowers is now in full swing. I’m John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club and welcome to an update for club members and listeners.
Last Monday we visited radio station 4DDB and really did learn a heap of stuff about broadcasting. The big message is that broadcast technology IS incredibly broad, and you can have a heap of fun applying skills that you already have, and you get to work with all kinds of gear that is bigger than anything we play with in amateur radio. There are 460 community broadcasting stations in Australia and all of them are looking for tech support. So if you’re listening to this broadcast, you’re already pre-qualified, and there are people who would love to hear from you. And we can help you make the connection to a station near you. If you’d like to know more or get an introduction, drop me a line via
Our next club meeting will be on Monday 12 October, in the Hut at 18A Memory Street Harristown. The topic is very timely: Mesh. There are many people who have started with LoRa, moved to Meshtastic, and then discovered MeshCore – by which time it was all too much fun to stop. Mesh is an incredibly useful technology and with lots of opportunity to do something that hams are good at: experiment and see what happens. At our meeting you’ll discover why mesh technology has so much potential, and how to get involved. We won’t be going into every nut and bolt, and you won’t learn everything about mesh, but you’ll leave knowing what you don’t know, and where to go next.
That’s our Mesh overview meeting, on Monday 12 October, and details are on the club website at ddrci.org.au
Over at VK4RDD the club’s repeater, Echolink has settled in nicely, and got a reasonably good workout on last Sunday morning’s 2m net. At least one participant joined the net from a phone in his car, and the audio was super-clean and clear. It’s really easy to get started with Echolink, and there’s a heap of good information on how to get going. Check out the club website for that initial leg-up.
During September we’re going to keep reminding you that qualifying for the Club’s Garden City Award is both fun and easy, and if you apply before end of Carnival on 5 October we’ll even recognise your effort with a special annotation: the **during** the Carnival of Flowers connection. Check the website at ddrci.org.au and click the awards tab at the top of the page for all the detail.
Now an ask: how about sparing a few hours to help the club with our JOTA/JOTI efforts over 16/17/18 October. As a licensed ham, you’re just the person we need to inspire the next generation of enthusiastic operators – in this case through scouts and guides, and on a worldwide stage. Can you let us know when on those dates you’d be available to help a bit, and we’ll do the rest. is the email address for that.
The 52 week Ham Challenge is at week 39, along with the rest of the world. And it’s a simple request that would terrify many people: get up early and make some QSOs. But at least they allow you to decide what “early” means to you. And yes, for many people midday is way too early. But equally you could have a lot of fun and find some interesting band behaviours in those minutes from before sunrise until early morning. Give it a go and see what happens. The full list of things to do is at hamchallenge.org
That’s all for this week. Instant replay of both words and audio can be found on our website at ddrci.org.au. If you have a thought for a meeting, or an article of interest, or a burning question, please send a note to and we’ll help. Promise.
The DDRCI Club 2m net follows at 1000 on Sundays on VK4RDD or Echolink – feel free to join us, and with EchoLink in place you really can join the net from anywhere at all.
I’m John VK4JPM, for the Darling Downs Radio Club. Until next week 73s and thanks for listening.
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Renew your membership: https://www.trybooking.com/DMSZB will take you directly to the form
GreyLine propagation: check out https://www.onallbands.com/gray-line-the-twilight-zone-of-radio-propagation/
Everything you want to know about the club starts at https://ddrci.org.au/ or your favourite search engine.
The 52 Week Ham Challenge is at https://hamchallenge.org/
ADSB Support: https://adsbsupport.com/ for information or applications to host a receiver, which is free if you’re approved! And you’ll get free access to some really interesting online stuff as a result.
Additional info about FreeDV:
Info: https://freedv.org/
Download: https://freedv.org/download/
Getting started:
or https://evoham.com/freedv-for-beginners/
Joe, VK3SRC, has a good getting started here: https://www.sarcnet.org/page-21.html
Peter VK3TPM has a blog post about RADE with some video demos: https://blog.marxy.org/2024/11/machine-learning-comes-to-amateur-radio.html
Good demo of RADE over a long path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6mWgxaNT0s
You can get support from the community and developers by joining: https://groups.google.com/g/digitalvoice
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VK4RDD is located southeast of Toowoomba on a high spot. Output frequency 146.750 with -600kHz transmit offset and 91.5Hz CTCSS tone
Great training materials at Jules Workshop: https://www.julesworkshop.net/Amateur%20Radio%20Group/3%20Foundation%20licence%20page.html
Club nets: weekly on 80m and 2m. Details on the home page at https://ddrci.org.au – scroll down and you’ll find all the frequencies and times.
Stuff for sale locally
https://vkclassifieds.net.au/vk2ri/#listings