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.
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Author: Richard Murnane
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 […]
2025 Trans Tasman Low-Band Contest
Following the success of the 2025 John Moyle Memorial Field Day operations at the Watagans, the VK2MB/p contest contingent decided to use this site again the for this year’s Trans Tasman Low-Band Contest instead of the usual Berrima site. Some members decided to travel in convoy after meeting on the Telegraph Road Turramurra at 10am. […]
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 […]
MWRS Assists CREST for 2025 Convict 100 Setup
CREST NSW is providing safety communication support for next weekend’s Convict 100 mountain bike marathon. On Saturday 26 April 2025, as yet another excuse to get out portable and play radio, several MWRS members assisted setting up fixed and mobile repeater sites to provide reliable coverage for the 100km event. Teams were deployed to several […]
VK2AXC’s Visit to Army Museum of WA
In March 2025, our Membership & Training Coordinator, Brian VK2AXC was out west. While he was there, he dropped into the Army Museum of Western Australia. Here’s his report… I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Fremantle Army Barracks Museum. I met up with a friend’s cousin who is a volunteer. He arranged for Igor VK6ZFG, […]
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 […]
2025 New Year kick off Working Bees
2025 started with some storms, flooding some equipment, bringing down trees and creating some power outages, typically accompanied with power surges. Our resident Godzilla was also very busy in taking down a couple of our security cameras. Few impromptu working bees were organised. In January, a power surge destroyed a “vintage” Cisco switch and a […]
January 2025 lecture: HMAS Diamantina
For the January lecture at the Society, Mike VK2MDP spoke about a combination of family and naval history, centred around the World War 2 frigate, HMAS Diamantina, which now lives at the Queensland Maritime Museum. Mike discovered historical connections between the ship and HMS Teviot, while he was researching his father’s service in the Royal […]
Pilgrimage to the Victorian High Country
Over the Christmas 2025 / New Year 2026 break, a group of MWRS members are on their annual Victoria High Country outing. First few days are held at the Native Dog Flat Campground, accessible by 2WD. During the stay, some participants venture on daily 4WD expeditions, or worst, climb mountains to tryout their rigs! Apart […]
MWRS Christmas Net 2024
MWRS members met up at 9am on Christmas morning for the traditional HF and VHF net. Conditions on 40m (7085kHz) were pretty reasonable though with a bit of fading. Dom VK2JNA took on net control. You can see a short video clip of Dom in action here. The rollout this year was pretty large compared […]
November 2024 lecture: Precision ADS-B
In November, we had a special visit from Mogens Bradley Anderson of ADSB Support in Billund, Denmark, home of another well-known company that makes plastic bricks or something… Mogens and his Australian wife were here on holiday, and he took some time out to give us a presentation about his company’s work in Automatic Dependent […]
Father and Son Team up for the Foundation License
Congratulations to father and son team, Shaun VK2DWS and Charlie VK2TDC who both recently (Nov-2024) qualified for their Foundation License. Charlie is also undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE), and chose to study for the Foundation License under the skills category for the award. Within the first few weeks of Charlie commencing his studies, Shaun […]
September 2024 lecture: Fiskville
In the club’s September lecture, Warren Lang spoke about Fiskville, a site once owned and managed by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd. It was used as a long-distance radio communications station, part of the Imperial Wireless Chain. The name Fiskville of course came from AWA’s chairman, radio pioneer Ernest Fisk. You can also read about the […]
31-Aug-2024 University Sydney Open Day
The University of Sydney held its annual open day on the 31 August, and members of the Society came along to operate the club station VK2MB/p. Professor Philip Leong is the Director of the University’s Computer Engineering Laboratory. He’s also VK2APL, and a member of the Society, so VK2MB was there to help him tempt some of […]