In the city 80m is a very noisy band but here in regional Victoria the situation is much better. The club's regular Wednesday night 80m net on 3685kHz attracts a good group of stations mostly running 100W or perhaps more. Signals are generally very good (except when our wires come down due to strong wind or bird attack). At the start of February I saw and ordered an amazingly small 10 band 5W transceiver from QRPver called the Minion. I am sympathetic to the wartime disruption in Ukraine but...

The June club meeting at Woodend was very well attended. Ralph, VK3ZZC, gave a passionate presentation on successful metalwork for the radio amateur. He gave tips on improving precision and showed a great collection of tools he uses including many he's made himself. Ralph made the case that a precision of +- 0.1mm is required for even amateur construction if nuts and bolts are to be used effectively. He talked about only drilling after "bluing" the metal surface, marking with a scribe an...

At the next club meeting at 10am, Saturday, June 17, we are delighted to welcome prolific home brew builder Ralph, VK3ZZC who will share lessons from his long experience of metalworking at home. If you have the urge to construct your own ham equipment then at some stage you will be required to perform some simple metalworking operations. In the old days this activity was called "chassis bashing" when all things radio were mounted on an aluminium or tin plate steel chassis. Making the lar...

Ross Gairn with The Queen Saturday's MRARC meeting was a memorable one as we had a guest speaker, Ross Gairn, who worked in the Royal Household. You might well ask how does an Aussie get to work for the Queen? Ross explained the rigorous interview process. In light of the recent coronation celebrations in London, with the precision timing, immaculately attired participants and amazing procedures, our speaker gave us his account of the years he worked for both the late Queen and Prince Phi...

At this month's meeting, Barry Theodore, VK3BRT, gave a fascinating talk about his experiences building systems to automatically time laps of cars in races and also horse races. As a young teenager, Barry used to enjoy going to car races. Later, when he was working with computers, and watching drag racing at Calder, the race stopped due to computer problems. This led to an opportunity to help with the timing system and the start of a long association with this sort of technology. Cars...

At this month's meeting, guest presenter Andrew Martin spoke about railway signalling. Andrew Martin It was a fascinating romp through the history of technologies used to make it safe for trains to navigate complex track networks without banging in to each other. A Relay used for signalling There were many questions and we all learned a lot about the focus on reliability and safety that underpins a rail network. The VK3TPM "Bush 40" was on display Some members do home co...

Several members of the Macedon Ranges Amateur Radio Club were in attendance at the WARC hamfest. VK3TPM, VK3LRJ, & VK3HUG There was an excellent range of older gear on sale as well as all sorts of useful parts for the junk box. Several commercial vendors were in attendance. The day was well organised and the sausages, with onion and white bread, were well prepared by the talented chefs.

A well attended auction of mostly donated equipment was held at this month's meeting. A wide variety of gear was on sale, ranging from modern transceivers to what can only be described as "collector's items". Peter, VK3RV, did an excellent job as auctioneer. VK3RV explaining the value of an antenna switch with "UHF" connectors assisted by VK3NE While most items sold quickly and at good value prices, some items were passed in and there were negotiations to take place. VK3GX in t...

This Sunday the Ballarat Radio Fest returned and was bigger than ever. Lots of gear was on sale and prices seemed quite reasonable. Beautiful older equipment was also on offer. Many components and connectors were available. Warm congratulations to the organisers for a very professionally run day. We think that at least nine Macedon Ranges Amateur Radio club members were present and took away gifts presumably for Valentine's day (that's right isn't it?).

Beautiful weather for a well attended club family day. Starting at 10am and extending into the afternoon, members, partners and friends enjoyed a very friendly outing where we chatted and mingled in a lovely environment. Despite recent cool weather, the sun was intense and some of us chased the shade from nearby trees (which would make fine supports for antennas). It was great to meet some of the women in our lives and new member Richard, VK3LRJ, met people he's only ever talked t...