Q-News AR News from Queensland

Hi at whatever time you're listening to QNEWS: this is the edition for week commencing Sunday 27 September, and 2026 is fast running past. I'm John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club with this update. In two weeks and one day it will be Monday 12th of October, the second Monday of the month and the date for our regular Club Meeting. The October topic is Mesh communications. A quick web check will tell you that Meshtastic and MeshCore both use LoRa radios for off-grid mesh messaging; but what does that actually mean, and how do the systems work. ...

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...

Hi and welcome to Sunday 13th of September, or whatever date it is where and when you're listening. We try to keep things uncomplicated. You're listening to QNEWS across Queensland, and I'm John VK4JPM Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club with a bit of a splash for members, guests and travellers. OK, and anyone else who happens to be listening. If it is indeed Sunday, then tomorrow night from 1900 you'll find us all at Community Radio Station 4DDB. Our club is being handed the red carpet treatment, with the question: does treating red carpet make it a...

John Roberts VK4TL Left us on Monday 24th August in his 97th year. John had what some would describe as an absolute passion for Radio and was always experimenting and building transceivers and amplifiers with many fine examples still in use today. In his earlier years he was an engineer on the infamous Radio Caroline ship and was also an operator of the RAF Gibraltar Club station ZB2A. With many callsigns over the years from places he was deployed with the RAF he ended up in Australia where he went on to become the long time broadcast...

From Darling Downs and the World comes this week's grab-bag of news from the Darling Downs Radio Club. Hi, I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of theClub.

Coming up after QNEWS, starting at 1000 if this is the morning edition,you're invited to join our Club Net either via VK4RDD repeater on 146.750 (and don't forget the 91.5Hz CTCSS tone), OR - if you're brave - join via Echolink. Look for VK4DAK-L or node 6925. And on our website there will be link to the easy-peasy instructions for using Echolink. For those who went looking on the site last...

Hi, this is Bob, VK4BOB up in the tropical paradise of Cairns.

Ten hams from Cairns Amateur Radio Club travelled up to Cooktown in Far
North Queensland on 14 August 2026  to operate the next day, Saturday,
from the carpark by the Grassy Hill Lighthouse using the club’s call
VK4GrassyHillLighthouse. But first, on Friday evening many of us enjoyed a
sunset cheese and bikkies cruise on the river and into the mangrove
swamps. On Saturday a few of us also activated POTA locations including
the Grassy Hill Lighthouse State Heritage Are...

Ken Fuller VK4KF left us on 5th August aged 98 years. He met his wife Pat when she was still a teenager on the range west of Sydney. Ken worked in the Queensland Rail Workshops in Ipswich, and went on to be a draftsman while studying Engineering part time. He was part of the crew monitoring rocket launches at Woomera, before becoming Science advisor to Federal Ministers in Canberra. He and Pat enjoyed sailing and after retiring they spent some years on their yacht along the Queensland coast. There he discovered Amateur Radio and received his full call with...

This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club. We’re into August already which means its annual general meeting time for the club. This will be held on Saturday August 22 at 10am. This month’s business meeting is once again on the same day as the AGM. A reminder that annual dues need to be up to date to vote at the AGM. July’s business meeting noted in the WICEN report that the Lake Manchester event has been cancelled by the organisers. The next WICEN event is the Mt Glorious Trail on November 8. There...

CQ CQ this is VK4KSS Victor Kilo Four Kilo Sierra Sierra calling CQ and
standing by, Over.

On Thursday the 30th of July, The Kairi State School Radio Club, Using the
callsign VK4KSS, had an on-air practical session as part of their ham
radio studies for their grade 5 and 6 enrichment class.

Under the guidance of Stu VK4SDD the students made contact with many
stations across VK4 on 40 Metres under trying conditions. This time on air
aids them in achieving a foundation licence and is good practice for...

I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club and this is QNEWS for week following Sunday 26 July. And... I can hardly contain myself with excitement: only four sleeps to go until our Annual General Meeting on Thursday 30 July. The AGM is important for a heap of reasons. We've proposed some amendments to the constitution to streamline our further registration as a not-for-profit association. And we're going to talk about what it might take to settle in to a permanent clubhouse, possibly the first time in the club's history. And we have some fundraising exercises to discuss...

From Toowoomba, centre of the universe, comes the Darling Downs Radio Club's contribution to QNEWS for Sunday 19 July. I'm John VK4JPM, and I've just reconfirmed why it's a bad idea to eat chocolate before you record the news. Thanks to all the people who sent positive feedback after last week's piece in National News. We now know what caused the Telstra outage: a clock that went backwards to the wrong epoch, and then told all the downstream servers they were wrong. Even though things can't possibly fail with networks, they do. That's why being a well-prepared amateur radio...

I'm Gareth VK4GED, and for QNEWS I'm standing outside the Disaster Coordination Centre in Atherton here in far north Queensland. This is where disaster specialists from Tablelands Regional Council meet when there are significant weather or other disruptive events; And it's from here that Radio Amateurs will be called to help in times of community need and where they'll be setting up a radio base at short notice. It's also where the Tablelands Radio & Electronics Club meet every month to discuss and train on matters of communications resilience. I've singled out the Tablelands Club and Council because they...