QNews for February 15th 2026

Wherever you are, welcome to QNEWS for Sunday 15 Feb. I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club. Firstly, what's coming up. Seriously, you should check the website because everything you need to know is there and it's the most accurate source of dates and information. But... OK, you can twist my arm a bit and we'll fill you in on-air also. Following the morning national news at 1000, please join us for the weekly gathering on VK4RDD at 146.750 with no tones. Net control is VK4WID and if you can hear us, why not join in? Dates for the diary: our next club lunch, which is open to all (because we're just so social) and is a DIY BBQ on Sunday 22 Feb at Peacehaven Park - that's just south of Highfields and really easy to find. Yum. the next club meeting, which is also open to all and will be on Monday 9 March. Details on the website. on Saturday 21 March you can join our team for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day. Not only will you help the club defend our honour, but it's a great way for foundation and inexperienced operators to build skills really quickly... just like a mega-training event we'll be at RedFest selling gear and representing the club on Saturday 11th April. * and can you help us on Sunday 7 June? it's mid-year, which might seem like a long way off, but it will leap up sooner than you think. Bunnings was so impressed with us last year that they've invited us back, and we had sucha good time that we've decided we're up for the challenge. There's a forward-events item on the sliding calendar right now if you go to our home page at ddrci.org.au Speaking of which: we've been doing some work on the website under the hood. You can help us by checking it out and feel free to go through ALL the pages if you like. Then let us know what's old, wrong or broken so that we can fix it. ddrci.org.au - you can enter the https:// and/or dubdubdub but it's not necessary. Then send what you find to the contact page or directly to [email protected] At last Monday's club tech meeting we had a truly interesting night focusing on antennas. Much thanks to Sam, Geoff, Bruce, and Bob for stellar contributions. If you attended, can you tell us what you thought by sending a quick email? If you missed it, there won't be a recording but we will be putting some reference material on the website for Ron. That's later ron. Finally this week's ham challenge is both easy and delightful: it's "Thank a fellow ham radio operator". So easy, but so important. We all like to know that those around us appreciate our work, so tell someone today. Details at hamchallenge.org If you missed anything I've just mentioned check the website, and if you're still confused then email to [email protected] might help. Or it might not, but give it a go anyway. For the Darling Downs Radio Club, I'm John VK4JPM. Do the ham challenge, and tell another operator that you appreciate their work.