It's always wonderful to welcome a new ham to the hobby. Richard has been preparing for the exam for 40 years (from when he first purchased an ARRL Handbook). Having recently scored 100% in the test you'd have to say he over-prepared. Located at Drummond, Richard has plenty of space for an HF antenna so to get him started I suggested an Off Centre Fed Dipole (OCFD) cut for 80m as this also gives him 40 and 20m on a single antenna. OCFD high in the trees He used a home made bow and arro...

A few hardy members made the trip to the Rosebud Radio Fest this year and it was well worth while. A fantastic range of older gear was on display and there was a stand from Icom there as well. The hall was full of interesting people and radio gear The talks were excellent with Robert, VK3XP on QRM; Peter, VK3YE, on portable operation; and Tony VK3JED (from Bendigo) on the M17 digital mode for VHF and above. VK3XP finding power line noise VK3YE pedestrian mobile VK3JED on M17

Saturday's meeting primarily discussed the ramifications of the proposal by ACMA to change the way Amateur radio operators are licensed from next year. The ACMA proposal combines a relatively minor change regarding higher power operation along with a fundamental change to licensing. We urge you to read the proposal and the draft response being prepared by the WIA. https://youtu.be/kEFLPiaCNpA Also if you're a member of the WIA, please complete the survey you should have been sent ...

The widespread rain this week in Victoria led to the club's planned JOTA activities being cancelled for this year. Not damp at all There were many stories of local flooding and road damage or closures. Joe, VK3MAB presented his Arduino based morse code device that can decode hand keyed morse and shows the characters both on an LCD display and via the serial port. Joe, VK3MAB, with a mix of new and old technology