Every year we update this post to assist clubs and Amateurs who are looking for ideas for the JOTA weekend. This event is one of the important ways we introduce youngsters to the great hobby of Amateur Radio, so we encourage all Amateurs to get involved. We also invite you to share your successful JOTA […]
You are browsing archives for
Author: Richard Murnane VK2SKY
2026 Winter VHF/UHF Field Day
A team of hardy souls took the club station VK2MB portable to participate in the Winter VHF/UHF Field Day 20-Jun-2026 at the JJ Melbourne Hills Memorial Reserve, just north of the Forest Hills Pony Club at Terrey Hills. The goal of the Field Days is to contact contest operators on 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]