(Coming events can be viewed on the Coming Events page)
Wed 17-Sep-2025 – Resurrecting Vintage Computers with Mal VK2TMF
Mal will show how to bring an old computer back from the dead, and get that command line cursor blinking again! Mal will have a couple of Microbee computers line up to power on after 35+ years. The Microbee announcement triggered nostalgic conversations on the reflector, so this is a lecture not to missed.
Sat 6-Sep-2025 – Pre-JOTA working bee – FREE RADIOS*
Some of the club’s antennas are in need of maintenance, namely the 40m and 80m dipoles. We also need to prepare the site for JOTA in October.
* when you’re done cleaning, you’ll be free to play with the club’s radios!
Wed 27-Aug-2025 – JOTA kit packaging
As we approach JOTA again, we need to package up the kits that are being provided to the youth. This will add to the freebee evening entertainment, any help tonight would be really appreciated. We will set up some tables in the middle of the hall to make a production line.
Wed 20-Aug-2025 – Lecture: two-way radio from the 1960s in Australia
Norm Champion, formerly VK2ZND personally had a lot to do with the development of two-way radio from the 1960s in Australia, particularly CB radio. There is a lot of fascinating “behind the scenes” in the story.Mon 18-Aug-2025 – Sydney Uni Cleanroom Tour
Sat 16-Aug-2025 – Pi-PicoRx Buildathon
The buildathon event for the Pi-PicoRx will take place on Saturday morning 16th August in order to remain clear of other events, followed by a BBQ lunch.
Tue 12-Aug-2025 – Cubs’ visit
Available members to host the following stations: hf, build a station, morse, encryption. Members will also support from home to call back on our 2m repeater and HF.
Wed 30-Jul-2025 – 5th Wed Show & Tell – Calculators
Be there or be square root! Abacus or fingers, mechanical or electronic, nixies, paper, LCDs or LEDs, how do you add up? Best display by token votes, best story as selected by the nominated judge.
Wed 23-Jul-2025 – NTP Clock Buildathon
Come to the club house to build and configure your NTP Clock.
Sat 19-Jul-2025 – Trans Tasman Low-Band Contest
Held on the 3rd weekend in July, the contest encourages Low Band activity between VK and ZL. Only contest bands 160m, 80m, and 40m are allowed, using SSB, CW and Digital (RTTY OR PSK).
Details: wia.org.au/members/contests/transtasman/
Wed 16-Jul-2025 – Lecture: Weather Balloon Tracking and Recovery, presented by Tim VK2TIJ
Will include a live demonstration of SondeHub Tracker presented by Tim VK2TIJ
Wed 9-Jul-2025: AGM
Make sure you pay your membership prior to the meeting to vote and be elected.
Sat-Sun 21-22-Jun-2025 – VHF/UHF Field Day
On Saturday 21 June is the planned day for the club’s participation in the VHF/UHF Winter Field day. The contest starts at 0100UTC which I make to be an 11am local. The location will be the Pony Club/BMX track however we will need to be at the club to pick up aerials and the gazebo at about 09:00am to give us time to transport everything to the contest site and set up the masts/aerials/equipment. As usual we will aim to set up stations for 6m/2m/70cm and 23cm.
At the last VHF/UHF field day we had great weather and “Barista Tommy” kept us all in plentiful supplies of hot drinks – don’t miss out.
Realistically we need a minimum of about 5 people to get everything set up in a reasonable time so please let everyone know if you are interested in coming.
Details at https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/vhfuhf/
Wed 18-Jun-2025 – Lecture: Build Projects for the Shack
Broad topics featuring NTP Clock (UTC and Local Time) and the HF SDR PicoRx, presented by
Richard VK2ARH and Simon VK2YU. Check the preview.
Wed 21-May-2025 – Lecture: Spy Radio, the Special Operations Executive, and Deception
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 crucial role in coordinating these efforts, training agents in espionage, sabotage, and the use of encrypted communication. The presentation will also explore the deceptive tactics employed to mislead the enemy, including misinformation campaigns and fake radio transmissions, which helped confuse and disorient German forces.
Wed 23-Apr-2025 – Lecture: Dom Bragge VK2JNA 4WD Trip to Cape York 2023
Wed 16-Apr-2025 – Lecture: moved to 23-Apr-2025
Sat/Sun 15/16-Mar-2025 – John Moyle Memorial Field day
Wed 26-Feb-2025 – HamClock Configurathon
Following the interests raised from last week’s lecture on the HamClock, many members purchased the required hardware to configure the HamClock and Simon VK2YU & Richard VK2ARH will be helping them to configure the ready product. As always, everyone’s welcome!
Wed 19-Feb-2025 – Lecture – HamClock by Elwood Downey WB0OEW – by Richard ARH and Simon VK2YU
An introduction to setting up and using HamClock. HamClock is an application that provides real time space weather, radio propagation, and many other points of information for use in the shack. The lecture will include a live demo of the application and brief explanations for setting display options as well as preferred hardware and build options. Based on interest we may follow up later with a night to assist anyone interested in building their own.
Sat 1-Feb-2025 – 2025 New Year kick off Working Bees
Impromtu working bee. There has also been multiple mini-working bees following the January storms to restore some of the services.
Wed 29-Jan-2025 – 5th Wed Show&Tell – Data Storage
Who remembers punched cards and magnetic core memory? Tape in all formats, USB sticks, chips, floppy disks, laser etc. ROM … à la read only memory … how does it get there in the first place??? Best display by vote, best story selected by the judge in charge!
Wed 15-Jan-2025 – Lecture – HMAS Diamantina and HMS Teviot , WW2 River-class Frigates
To kick off the new year Mike VK2MDP will be doing a non-technical lecture tonight entitled: “HMAS Diamantina and HMS Teviot , WW2 River-class Frigates”. Discovering historical connections from family history research.
Xmas & New Year
NOTE: The weekly gatherings at the club house will be moved to Thursday 26-Dec-2024 and Thursday 2-Jan-2025 as they would otherwise clash with Xmas day and New Year.
Wed 25-Dec-2024 9am (Sydney Time) – Xmas Net 7085 KHz and 2m VK2RMB
This Xmas Net is usually over in 15mins as people typically want to spend time with their family, be there on the dot!
Sun 15-Dec-2024 – BYOE xmas BBQ
At the hall, from mid-day, Bring Your Own Everything! Gas BBQ to be used in case of total fire ban. A week earlier this year as the following Sunday is too close to xmas and many people couldn’t attend.
Sat 7-Dec-2024 – Summer working bee
Required to get the site ready for the fire season and for the xmas BBQ. Rainy day but attendance was sufficient to get the site ready and tidy up inside the hall. Thanks to Geoff VK2TGO, Sean VK2THT, Phil VK2XPL, Andy VK2EAH, Russell VK2BYN, Mike VK2MDP. Way too busy to take pictures, come to see for yourselves!
Fri 29-Nov-2024 – Xmas Dinner
Belrose Hotel – 7pm
Wed 27-Nov-2024 – Lecture – ADS-B Support
Through Geoff Osborne’s contacts, we will have a November 27 lecture from Mogens Bradley Andersen of ADS-B Support from the ADS-B receiver we’ve installed at the Club House. This is the 4th Wednesday (not 3rd as usual) to suit the timing of his visit to Australia.
Sat 23-Nov-2024 – VHF/UHF Field Day
On Saturday 23 November 2024 is the planned day for the club’s participation in the VHF/UHF Field day. The contest starts at 0100UTC which I make to be midday. The location will be the Pony Club/BMX track however we will need to be at the club house to pick up aerials and the gazebo at about 09:30am to give us time to transport everything to the contest site and set up the masts/aerials/equipment. As usual we will aim to set up stations for 6m/2m/70cm and 23cm and at this time of year, propagation conditions can be good.
The last two VHF/UHF contests that we have tried to run have been met with bad rain so let’s hope that we have better weather for this contest.
Realistically we need a minimum of about 5 people to get everything set up in a reasonable time.
Wed 20-Nov-2024 – Lecture will be held on the 27-Nov-2024
Wed 30-Oct-2024 – 5th Wednesday – 100% recycled
Suggested by Colin VK2JCC. These days we all like to buy new stuff, but can you create something new out of completely recycled materials, including electronic components scavenged from other gear? Best display by vote, best story by nominated judge.
Sat/Sun 19/20 Oct-2024 – JOTA/JOTI
Note that Richard VK2SKY will be operating a portable station at the JOTA camp site at Terrey Hills Public School in Cooyong Ave 17:00-22:00 ish! Welcome to visit … or monitor the bands for calls.
Wed 16-Oct-2024 – No lecture this month
Sat 12-Oct-2024 – Pre-JOTA working bee
From 13:00, to ensure the place is ready to received our JOTA/JOTI guests the following week.
Wed 17-Sep-2024 – Lecture – Warren Lang on Fiskville
You can read about the “Fiskville” Country Fire Authority Training College on Wikipedia.
Sat 31-Aug-2024 – University of Sydney Open Day
Our stand will be outside the “School of Electrical Engineering Building USyd” (you can find it with Google maps) and will be running from 9am to about 3:30pm and it is right in front of the building.
Wed 31-Jul-2024 – 5th Wednesday – Mechanical Controls
Prior to the microchip and controller era, most controls were by means of mechanical interfaces. Even today mechanical potentiometers have been replaced by digital encoders, and on/off switches by logic switches. This evening is dedicated to the displays of simple and very complex controls that have been used in the past to adjust and/or vary electrical or electronic parameters. See list below, check the links to get some ideas:
– Car-radio mechanical push buttons;
– TV rotary crystal selector;
– cord and gear driven controls and displays;
– clutches;
– potentiometers & verniers;
– 1960’s mechanical answer machine when you were not allowed to connect equipments to the telephone line;
– inductor mechanical tuning like the Collins R-390A/URR tuning units;
– feedback controls;
– governor limited speed control;
– cassette player door controls;
– Nakamichi auto-reverse cassette deck;
– mechanical safety devices;
– spring reverb box;
– tape echo box;
– motor driven tremolo organ speakers;
– flight computers;
– slide rules.
Best display by vote, best story selected by the nominated judge.
Fri/Sat/Sun 19-21 Jul-2024 – Trans Tasman 160m Contest – Berrima
Wed 17-Jul-2024 – Lecture – Introducing the KiwiSDR
If you haven’t yet tried the Society’s KiwiSDR receiver, you’re in for a treat. We’ve “customised ours for local conditions” so you’ll find features there that you won’t find on other web SDR receivers. This lecture by Richard VK2SKY will explore everything from basic use to some of the lesser-known functions, and discover many handy shortcuts to make the most of the Kiwi experience.
Wed 26-Jun, Sat 29-Jun-2024 – ADX Build-a-thon
Sat 21-Jun-2024 – Winter VHF/UHF Field Day – CANCELLED DUE WEATHER
Wed 19-Jun-2024 – Journey to the Red Centre and WA
Brian and Sue Bailey spoke about their road trip from Sydney to Western Australia via the Red Centre. This lecture was of particular interest to Amateurs who are keen on Four Wheel Driving. The trip was marred by their Prado’s engine blowing up on the border of WA and SA. They recounted how that had to get the engine replaced. All drivers of Toyota Landcruisers in the club should find it particularly interesting and a bit scary.
Tue 18-Jun-2024 – Frenchs Forest Cubs’ Visit
Wed 29-May-2024 – 5th Wednesday Show ‘n’ Tell: Enclosures, Cabinets, and Carry Cases
Having the best radio and test equipment enclosure requires a combination of ingenuity and art. Appearance and practicality are as important as the actual function performed by the equipment. We are looking for big & small, artwork, robustness, embedded functions, old, modern, classic, generic, jiffy, portability and more. There are prizes for the Best Display by popular vote, and best story, as determined by the nominated judge.
Wed 15-May-2024 – Lecture: Rich Rademacher, “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 keys (or certificates) get into the system?
Our speaker, Rich Rademacher, is an embedded systems engineer with a background in quantum computing, aerospace, and Digital Signal Processing. In this talk, he will discuss Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a new way of getting the encryption key to remote devices where human Out of Band Key Distribution (OOB-KD) is not possible: Ku band satellites in low-earth orbit.
You may have heard of the related field of Quantum Computing (QC), which has algorithms that specifically try to break the encryption itself—particularly public-key systems like RSA. Unlike QC, QKD uses unique properties of light to create a communications channel that cannot be intercepted or faked. Also, unlike QC, QKD is practical right now. Experiments using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites have demonstrated this actually works as a way of re-securing satellites both during initial unkeyed state, and even when compromised.
Sat 13-Apr-2024 – Working bee
Primary objectives were to install ADS-B and KiwiSDR.
Wed 31-Jan-2024 – 5th Wed – Solar powered
Mon 25-Dec-2023 – xmas net 9am – 7085 kHz
Sun 17-Dec-2023 – MWRS Christmas BBQ
At the Club Hall, from noon. BYO everything.
Wed 29-Nov-2023 – 5th Wednesday Show ‘n’ Tell – Computer based gear or projects
Bring out your Raspberry Pi’s, computer or microcontroller based projects that are related to our fine hobby. There is a special prize for the people’s choice award this month, kindly donated by our member The book “Raspberry Pi for radio amateurs” published by Elektor Electronics. https://www.elektor.com/raspberry-pi-for-radio-amateurs
As usual you will present your project to compete for the prize. There will also be a bottle of wine for the best story about your creation, to be decided by the previous winner.
Fri 24-Nov-2023 – Xmas Dinner 19:00, Belrose Hotel
Sat 25-Nov-2023 – VHF/UHF Field Day – Pony Club – CANCELLED due weather
Planned day for the club’s participation in the VHF/UHF Field day. The contest starts at 0100UTC which makes to be midday. The location will be the Pony Club/BMX track however we will need to be at the club to pick up aerials and the gazebo at about 10am to give us time to transport everything to the contest site and set up the masts/aerials/equipment. As usual we will aim to set up stations for 6m/2m/70cm and 23cm and at this time of year, propagation conditions can be good.
Sat 18-Nov-2023 – Pre-summer Working Bee, followed up by BBQ.
Wed 15-Nov-2023 – Lecture – Underwater Explosions or How to Sink a Submarine
The talk will be given by Dr Michael du Plessis – VK2MDP, MWRS member. He has over 30 years’ experience in R&D and technology development in the commercial (mining) industry. Michael will be talking about how underwater testing is used to measure the energy output of explosives. The science upon which this is based, comes from military research on how to sink a submarine.