QNews for 6th September 2026

John Roberts VK4TL Left us on Monday 24th August in his 97th year. John had what some would describe as an absolute passion for Radio and was always experimenting and building transceivers and amplifiers with many fine examples still in use today. In his earlier years he was an engineer on the infamous Radio Caroline ship and was also an operator of the RAF Gibraltar Club station ZB2A. With many callsigns over the years from places he was deployed with the RAF he ended up in Australia where he went on to become the long time broadcast engineer for Commercial Radio group NQ radio which seen him to retirement. John was President of TREC with multiple stints between 2003 and 2019 and was very dedicated to helping out with horse endurance rides and manned the base station many many times over the years. Over the years John experimented with 6 metres, Satellite Work, and Earth Moon Earth on 1296 before downsizing to move to Cairns from the Atherton Tablelands. Vale John Roberts VK4TL, Silent Key Hi, and welcome to the QNEWS segment from the Darling Downs Radio Club, and this is the week beginning from Sunday 6 September. I'm John VK4JPM and from this week we are officially in spring. If you want a bit of fun, don't forget that Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers starts on 18 September and runs through to 8 October, with the big parade on Saturday 19 September. Our next club meeting is in a little over a week on Monday 14 September, and from 1900 we'll be onsite at Toowoomba's radio station 4DDB. Did you know that broadcasting came from work done by early ham radio experimenters, and sometimes WAS the experiment? It's time to find out how broadcast radio works these days, and visit the newly re-roofed 4DDB studios. The station's transmitter links had to come down and be re-erected, so there's going to be a good story about how to do that work and keep program running 24x7. All the usual club hospitality plus more as we tour the studios, look at racks, discuss servers, and see how radio is made. All the details are on our website at ddrci.org.au, and look for the calendar entry on the home page. Jamboree of the air is coming up on the weekend of 16-18 October, and the club has been reaching out to our local Scouts and Guides. Last weekend was definitely bit special for a local Scout Troop in Withcott. Dave VK4JPS, along with Perry VK4PER, responded to a call from pack leader Baloo to bring a group of scouts up to speed with what we do as hams. Dave prepared a three part evening, with some simple Morse Code flashing using Arduinos, a sample Fox Hunt with gear from Bruce VK4MQ, and there was a live HF Demo on 40m under the Callsign VK4SAA, kindly made available with permission from Bunda (Chris the QLD JOTA Lead for Scouts). Big thanks to our two contacts: VK4WSG from Townsville and Harry VK2HKE from Wagga Wagga. It was great to have Dave and Perry work with two freshly minted calls (Dan VK4SPN and Andy VK4ODN who made their first QSOs under their own calls). This further inspired two potential hams, Tim and Angus, who were treated to some theory and practical exercises, and Vector Network analyser demos all around. The Week 37 ham challenge is to get on air and work every band you can in one operation. Grab a cup of something, and hit the airwaves on whatever your gear will allow. For double plus points, get some gear you don't normally use and expand the count of bands you cover. Why not try some crossbanding? Get a bit more familiarity with how other bands work. It's all in good fun, and adds to your store of experience. if you missed any of this information, it's all on the website at ddrci.org.au, including the text of this bulletin and online audio replay - just have a look over to the right side. On Sunday morning our 2m net follows at 1000 on VK4RDD or Echolink - feel free to join us. Thanks for listening - I'm John VK4JPM for the Darling Downs Radio Club.