The Yarra Valley Hamfest was well attended and had plenty of good gear available for purchase (and some for free). As well as looking at all the radios, components and books it was great to catch up old friends from around the hobby.

This week a home made double sideband transmitter by VK3TPM, joined the weekly net. Reports were that the station was strong, very clear but also very wide. The audio bandwidth extends up to about 10KHz (an audio low pass filter is under consideration). The simple transmitter is based on circuits published by VK3YE and VK3XU. The mic amp and mixer was from VK3YE. The three stage power chain is based on one described in Drew Diamond's first book. Other components include a terminat...

Today's meeting at Woodend was an auction of equipment donated from a deceased estate. Now that Joe, VK3MAB, has cast of the shackles of employment he has clearly started a new career as a professional auctioneer. The auction was well attended and fair prices were paid for some very nice gear. There were also some bargains to be had. Treasurer Barry said he missed Lindsay, VK3GX, who was a feature of our last auction.

The Ballarat Hamfest attracted a small but dedicated set of members of the Macedon club. The car park was full and it wasn't hard to spot the ham radio enthusiasts. The day was very warm and quite windy. I picked up a book and some useful components but equipment prices were a little high for me. All up it was an entertaining day and wonderful to catch up with friends for a chat and a sausage on bread. Congratulations to the organisers for a very smooth event.

Absolutely perfect weather for the well attended annual club family picnic day on Mount Macedon. A great turnout, wonderful, friendly conversation and we're already looking forward to next year's event. Thanks to VK3NE for arriving early and holding our prime position.

This week's club meeting was our traditional social event featuring a quiz from Quizmaster Joe who put a wide variety of question to the competing table. Topics included physics, computing, art, geography and astronomy. Once again, the ladies table won hands down. Table 6 was more puzzled than most. This year we had a BBQ which was a great success. This year's event was the best turnout in living memory.

At this month's meeting at Woodend we were honoured to have a presentation from popular ABC TV weather presenter, Paul Higgins, VK3EN. Paul took us on a journey through the history of weather prediction in Australia. The technology used to predict the weather and portray it graphically has changed dramatically over the time Paul has been involved. Starting with simple maps with velcro'd temperature in the days of standard definition TVs through to the era of computer graphics with the...

A bottler of a show and tell meeting at the club this month. Craig Norris, VK3CDN, from Icom gave us one of the first demonstrations of the new 24GHz features of the IC-905 (with transverter). Graeme, VK3CDO, showed a Vietnam era portable military radio set called an A510 which was in beautiful condition. Put beside an IC-905, I think we could tell which radio he'd rather have in damp jungle conditions. Peter, VK3TPM, showed a home brew antenna hoisting drone and a home brew AM tr...

Saturday's meeting will be a "show n tell". You are encouraged to bring along items of interest, projects complete or not, interesting equipment or accessories. Here's a few previews. Graeme VK3CDO will bring an AWA made military radio A510. "The A510 wireless set was a crystal controlled, low power light-weight transmitter-receiver, designed primarily for use by long range infantry patrols. It could be used as a man packed station on the move, in a vehicle, or as a ground station...

Followers of informative radio web sites QRPer and SWLing will be familiar with the prolific Thomas, K4SWL. He lives in North Carolina in the US and has just come through hurricane Helene. The reason I think it's useful to spread his story is that in the midst of widespread damage, amateur radio kept working (of course) and proved to be incredibly valuable. Throughout the storm, our normally quiet repeater systems were buzzing with activity. The traffic became very organized, with hourly...