At the August 2026 lecture, Mal gave a short talk and live demo coding with Claude Code. Claude, and specifically Claude Code, is an AI agent that can assist with coding. Claude Code is a command-line tool that can also integrate directly into IDEs like Visual Studio Code or JetBrains IDEs (e.g. Android Studio, PyCharm). […]
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Category: Lectures
Presentations usually held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month
June 2026 lecture: 2026 Buildathon Preview
The June 2026 lecture is now available on the club YouTube channel VK2MB-TV. Richard VK2ARH talks about the new projects for the club’s 2026 Buildathon Program, which starts in July. The lecture has been split into two parts, one for each project. Part 1 features the main project this year, an implementation of Jon Dawson’s […]
February 2026 Lecture: Field Programmable Gate Arrays: Zero to Blinki...
The February lecture presented by Clifford VK2CLF is now up on our YouTube channel, VK2MB-TV. Software Defined Radios rely heavily on digital signal processing. The high data rates require specialised hardware, usually a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Programmed in Verilog or VHDL, these chips run complex computations in parallel synchronous logic, unlike the sequential processing of conventional computer […]
April 2026 lecture: Helical Travelling Wave VHF Antennas
The April lecture presented by Carmel VK2NO is now up on our YouTube channel, VK2MB-TV. Carmel VK2NO talks about the discovery she made when researching traveling wave helix antennas, while building her own axial mode antenna. Normally used for satellite operation in the higher bands, these antennas are cumbersome and too large for the lower […]
March 2026 Lecture: Colin VK2JCC’s AI Adventure!
In this mini-lecture in March 2026, Colin VK2JCC (aka Professor Portable) tells of his recent experiments with Artificial Intelligence, and how he used it to make a short video about the Amateur Radio.See it here.
March 2026 Lecture: New Life for HamClock!
If you run HamClock in your shack, you may be aware that the back-end services that power HamClock will be ending in June 2026. Some enterprising Amateurs have stepped up to provide replacement services to the Amateur community. In this March 2026 mini-lecture, Simon VK2YU explains what’s going on under the hood, runs a quick […]
November 2025 Lecture: My Family in World War II
(or, as Spike Milligan might have put it: “Adolf Hitler: My Family’s Part in His Downfall”) In this lecture, Zara VK2ZYP talks about her great-uncle, who was involved in the crucial development of radar; her Grandpop, who fought on D-Day at Juno Beach, and became the youngest major in the Royal Marines; and her Nanna, […]
Sep 2025 Lecture: Resurrecting Vintage Computers with Mal VK2TMF
You can view Mal’s lecture on our YouTube channel, VK2MB-TV. During the lecture, Mal demonstrated using an XGecu T48 Universal Programmer to identify unknown logic ICs. You can find out more about it (and sibling models) at http://xgecu.com/EN/index.html. Days leading to the lecture In the few days leading to Mal’s lecture, the society’s email reflector […]
August 2025 Lecture: Two-way Radio in Australia from the 1960s
Norm Champion, formerly VK2ZND, returns to the club with a presentation on the development of two-way radio in Australia from the 1960s, and his role in it – particularly in the introduction of Citizens Band radio. You’ll learn a lot of “behind the scenes” information from Norm’s story. Watch it on VK2MB-TV.
July 2025 Lecture: Weather Balloon Tracking and Recovery
Tim Jensen VK2TIJ gave the July lecture on the topic of Weather Balloon Tracking and Recovery, which included an account of the early history of ballooning. He also details the ionosonde technology that provides telemetry of the balloon’s flight, how you can track them and decode their telemetry, and what you can do with if […]
June 2025 Lecture: Build Projects for the Shack
The June lecture, Build Projects for the Shack by Richard VK2ARH and Simon VK2YU, introduced two new club projects: an NTP (Network Time Protocol) Clock for the shack, and Pi-PicoRX, a software-defined radio receiver based in the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. You can watch the lecture on VK2MB-TV. The lecture proved very popular, and another […]
May 2025 Lecture: Spy Radio, the Special Operations Executive, and Dec...
Held 21-May-2025, presented by Colin Christie VK2JCC Covert communications played a crucial role during World War II. Colin’s lecture will focus on the use of spy radios by the French Resistance. These radios were essential for transmitting critical information to Allied forces, often under life-threatening conditions. The Special Operations Executive, a secret British organisation, played a […]
June 2025 Lecture: Build Projects for the Shack (preview)
Lecture will be held Wednesday 18-Jun-2025, here is what to expect. NTP Clock and Pi-Pico Rx – 2025 Build Projects for the Shack? By Richard VK2ARH and Simon VK2YU Richard VK2ARH and Simon VK2YU will present a couple of projects for consideration for a 2025 build project which they have been working on in recent […]
April 2025 Lecture: Dom VK2JNA trip to the tip
This April lecture was an impromptu one by Dominic, so actually happened on the fourth Wednesday (23-Apr-2025). Dom reports on adventure and the trials and tribulations that invariably come with a 3500km drive from Sydney to “The Tip”, i.e. Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland (https://maps.app.goo.gl/CQaxeqhsh4956…. If you’re into travel, 4WD adventures, and of […]
February 2025 Lecture: HamClock
For the February 2025 lecture, Richard Hinsley VK2ARH/W5ARH and Simon Mitchell VK2YU presented an introduction to setting up and using HamClock, an application that provides real time space weather, radio propagation, and many other points of information for use in the shack. The lecture includes a live demo of the application and brief explanations for […]