QNews for March 8th 2026

Hello, and welcome to Sunday and QNEWS. I'm John VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club, where lots is happening, starting at lunchtime today when we're heading to Picnic Point to do some more practical work on antennas. And you're invited. We heard a rumour that some of us are a bit scared of HF operation, and haven't had enough experience tuning random long wires. So... we figured that now is as good a time as any to go and learn a bit. Check out the website at ddrci.org.au and look for the calendar entry on the home page for 8 March - that's today. All the details for how to find us is in that article, but essentially, we'll be just over the hill from the Picnic Point cafe. Between 1200 and 1630, we're going to be lobbing wires, tuning, testing transmitters, talking a bit, testing some more... lot of "t" words, apparently. Between tests and QSOs, we'll have some coffee and a bit of BYO picnic lunch. Also, Picnic Point is a POTA location, so you can get on air and rack up a few contacts. If you let us know in advance, we might be able to run a licence assessment because everything will be in place. Send an email right now to [email protected] so that we know you're interested. This is all in aid of preparation for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day, which is the major topic for our monthly club meeting tomorrow night. This is a natter and prep night, so we don't have a guest speaker. Just come along at 1900 at the Scout Hall in Newtown, find out what the club is doing, and have a relaxing cuppa and some timtams. Then we'll discuss our plans for the John Moyle field day, which is in only two weeks. The Zoom will be available online from 1900, so look for the link on the website and join us even if you can't be in the room. The John Moyle Memorial Field Day itself runs over a whole weekend, but traditionally our club enters for the first six-hour block on Saturday 22 March from 1100-1700. It's a whole-of-club activity, and we need your help and participation. Last year was fun, relaxing, educational, and successful. We need to defend our honour for this one, and you can read all about that on the home page too. So did you get all those dates down? Today at Picnic Point for a practical field antenna setup session; tomorrow, Monday 9 March, for the monthly Club Meeting where we'll talk about what we learned and do some planning for the John Moyle Field day, and Saturday 21 March for the actual field day exercise. Two other quick items. The club will be represented with a table at Redfest on 11 April, now only a month away. We're taking down some gear to sell, and if you can't attend but would like us to sell some gear on your behalf, send a note to [email protected] and over the next few weeks, we'll work out how to get the gear transported. Lastly, have you checked out the 52-week Ham Radio Challenge at hamchallenge.org? This week's entry is simple and delightful: it's what the Germans call "Großreinemachen", which literally translates into English as "great magic cleaning"... Großreinemachen is the week 11 challenge, where you are tasked to tidy up all the cables in the shack - what a lovely idea. It's optional to unscramble the collection behind your desk, and the fearful spaghetti behind the TV. So much easier than whistling CW. Check the club website at ddrci.org.au for links, and send an email to [email protected] if you have questions. Until next week, thanks for listening - for the Darling Downs Radio Club, I'm John VK4JPM. If it's Sunday morning, the club 2m net follows at 1000 AEST. 73s!