It's rare to have radios announced by two of the major commercial transceiver companies. Yaesu has announced the FTX-1F which looks to be a competitor to the IC-705. Covers HF, 6m, 2m & 70cm. It is portable and has a Lithium-ion battery pack that will power it for 9 hours of reception on HF. More specifications here. The IC-7760 is an HF basestation in two parts. The control head can be connected with a cable or via ethernet. It comes with a 3m cable but is compatible with st...

A beautiful day was arranged by the talented organisers of the BAREC Hamfest. Many MRARC club members were on hand to sift though the wide range of pre-loved and new gear on sale on the many tables. Warm congratulations to the organisers for this wonderfully run event.

The annual general meeting was well attended despite some wet weather. Joe, VK3MAB, gave the committee's report and all positions were declared vacant. It's been a good year for the club with a series of interesting presentations, numerous coffee meetings, membership is growing and the finances are in a good position including some money in a term deposit earning interest. During the meeting, Barry, VK3BRT, our treasurer called in from Las Vegas to assure us that the books are in goo...

Wireless in the Sky, a presentation by club member Peter Wolfenden traced a number of aspects of early amateur radio involving early civilian aviation, leading up to and including Australia’s first major air race in 1929. It also looked at some key people involved with amateur activities at the time including mention of the embryonic Wireless Reserve and the WIA (Vic. Div.) Aero Section. Some of the amateur leaders then, included Howard K. Love OA3BM (later Kingsley Radio), Ross Hull OA3...

At today's meeting, Graeme VK3CDO, gave a fascinating talk about military medals and ribbons. Graeme, VK3CDO, first got interested in the subject of medals and ribbons when he was fairly young and served in the Air Training Corps in the Air Force. When he did his NCOs course he had to do organisations, administrations, drill and many other subjects. Part of this was about rank and the badges that go with it. Also medals were covered. In talks to school kids, Graeme finds that they lis...

Last night we were pleased to see club member Lindsay, VK3GX's photographic work and callsign on the ABC TV news weather introduction. Members may not be aware that popular ABC star Paul Higgins is VK3EN.

At the Woodend meeting this month we were pleased to welcome Guy DeSimone, VK3GUY, who runs VK Radio Repairs and is our local authorised Yaesu Dealer and repair centre. Guy demonstrated an FT-710 transceiver working in to a remote tuned screwdriver antenna outside on the lawn. There was some discussion of the Australian dealer network and some common repairs that Guy deals with. At the time of our meeting the Dayton hamfest has just begun and only a few announcements of gear up...

A few club members made the trip to the Moorabbin Hamfest which was a terrific show this year. Loads of interesting radios, test equipment, connectors and books were on sale. As well as beautifully restored older gear there was a display of modern Yaesu equipment. Towards the end of the morning's show prices started to come down and some tables were giving away what was left. It's worth staying to the end. Thanks to the organisers for a well run Hamfest, we look forward to next yea...

If you haven't seen the movie Frequency it's worth a look. The plot involves some amateur radio equipment which is used to communicate across time. The movie is available for free on ABC iview.

John, VK3JCB, showed his home-brew coil winder at the last show and tell meeting and we asked him for some more details on the project. Earlier this year I was given a cardboard box containing several hundred reed switches of varying sizes. Included in collection were a number of Comus GC-1513 switches. Just after receiving these switches, the February 2024 edition of Practical Wireless included an article detailing the construction of an antenna switching unit based around the use of...