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 […]
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Author: Richard Murnane VK2SKY
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 Andersen 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 […]
Radio by Candlelight
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”, goes the motto of the United States Postal Service. The same could be said of the Manly-Warringah Radio Society. Well, we don’t deliver mail , but last night (27-Nov-2024) we did experience some minor […]
July 2024 lecture: VK2MB KiwiSDR
If you haven’t yet tried the Society’s KiwiSDR receiver, you’re in for a treat. We’ve “customised ours for Australian conditions” so you’ll find features there that you won’t find on other web SDR receivers. This lecture by Richard VK2SKY explores everything from basic use to some of the lesser-known functions, and reveals many handy shortcuts to […]
18-Jun-2024 Frenchs Forest Cubs’ visit
In between JOTA events, the club hosts visits from local Scouting groups. This evening, we had a visit from Frenchs Forest Cubs. 13 Cubs in all descended on the clubhouse, and were treated to some radio activities. Des VK2TGJ ran the “build a station” activity (one of our JOTA staples). The challenge is to put […]
May 2024 lecture – Quantum Key Distribution
In secure encrypted communications, one of the most important ideas is that the encryption key contains all the protection of the whole system. But what happens if the system isn’t already secure…if it is brand new (unkeyed), or the key is already compromised? Even public-key cryptosystems like RSA encryption suffer from this problem: how do the initial […]
Club members support CREST at 2024 Convict 100 event in St Albans
This weekend, 4-5 May 2024, St Albans just north of the Hawkesbury River is again hosting the Convict 100 mountain biking event. Our friends at CREST are again providing safety communications, and spent last weekend and yesterday (Friday 3 May 2024) setting up repeaters and other gear along the course. Of course, the multi-talented Manly-Warringah […]
April 2024 lecture – ADX Transceiver
Watch the video at https://youtu.be/cG4vHLs39iU. For our April lecture, Richard Hinsley VK2ARH/W5ARH talked about the ADX (the Arduino Digital Transceiver) and the buildathon program he ran in 2023 for the Cowtown Amateur Radio Club in Forth Worth, Texas. His presentation includes a live demonstration of the transceiver. Update, March 2025: Richard has updated the Constuction […]
March 2024 lecture – Views of the Past
The March 2024 lecture, Views of the Past, is now up on the VK2MB-TV YouTube channel. Rod Miller VK2ZZM delves into history, how it sometimes gets manipulated for political reasons, and how evidence can be misinterpreted due to cognitive biases. Rod is the author of the book, “Lost Women of Rabaul”, which was adapted into […]
13-Apr-2024 Working Bee
Saturday was a perfect day for doing some antenna work and other maintenance: sunny, not too warm, and with the predicted rain showers choosing to fall elsewhere. Just as well, as we had a lot of jobs to get through! The team managed to get through nearly all of the work items, but a couple […]