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REMINDER! VERY IMPORTANT!! Thanks to John VK3JDD who brought this to my attention. Rather than attempt to explain this on this blog, Hayden VK7HH has produced a video. In brief, if you do not setup an account with the ACMA Assist portal and do not Reconfirm your Amateur Radio callsign/license, after five years, your callsign will be surrender AUTOMATICALLY. ACMA ASSIST PORTAL HERE. I advise you to watch this video, and !! setup an account via the ACMA ASSIST PORTAL, and reconfirm your callsign. I have completed all of this and reconfirmed my callsign, which now needs to be done again in April 2030. Thanks to online calendars and reminders, my Apple Calendar will notify me in early April 2030 to reconfirm my callsign. So, start this now. If you haven't done it yet, you have 2 years to complete it. A big shoutout to Hayden for making this video! Craig, vk3ncr

On Saturday, July 4 the Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club will be hosting a Hamfest sale. The venue is at the Longwarry Community Hall at 14 Kennedy St. Longwarry, approx 60km East of Dandenong, Vic. The venue is easy to find. It is just 3 km South of the freeway interchange, 150 metres South of the Longwarry train station and level crossing. When: Saturday July 4th 2026 Where: Longwarry Community Hall at 14 Kennedy St. Longwarry Click Here for Google Map Location.

Famparc Contest GROUP testing Details: The Famparc Contest Group will conduct tests to educate and refine the hardware and other components this Saturday at the club rooms. Please be aware that the Contesting Group will need to utilise the Radio Shack and other club facilities. When: Saturday 16th May 2026. Time 10am. Where: Famparc Club Rooms. Agenda: 1. Review the Campaign Plan. - Discuss the plan - Answer team questions - Decide on our approach to the open questions. (~45 mins) 2. Practice using N1MM software with headset and foot switch in the shack. - Setup an external field station - Record a set of simulated contacts with a second local field station - Test the network functionality of N1MM (~45 mins) I would like to commend Ian VK3KO for his ideas and efforts in further engaging members and enhancing our club.

Inside the Volunteer Team Building the Future of Parks on the Air James VE7UVL Activating CA-3948 Peace Arch Provincial Park, British Columbia Just after sunrise, a portable antenna rises beside a picnic table somewhere in America. A coax connector tightens. A radio face lights up. A callsign cuts through the noise floor. Within seconds, operators from across the country, and increasingly across the world, begin calling back. For many amateur radio operators, this ritual has become as familiar as morning coffee. A folding table. A wire in a tree. A radio powered by a lithium battery. Sometimes snow on the ground. Sometimes blistering summer heat. Sometimes a rare national park. Sometimes a small state wildlife area miles from the nearest town. Read More Here! With thanks to Q5 Magazine. Details here at Q5 Magazine. Parks On The Air

Anderson's Mill, Elizabeth Street, Smeaton, Victoria, 3364 WHAT: Mills on the Air - Anderson's Mill WHEN: May 9th & 10th 2026. WHERE: Anderson's Mill, Elizabeth Street, Smeaton, Victoria, 3364 DETAILS: The annual 'Mills on the Air' weekend is on again, Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th! This coincides with the National Trust Anderson’s Mill Heritage Weekend. The atmospheric Anderson's Mill comes alive with displays of heritage crafts, machinery and historical exhibitions. The free event runs from 10 am to 4 pm on both days. BAREC will have an amateur radio station at the Mill, and radio club members will be setting up from 8 am on the Saturday. More information about the heritage weekend, including location, can be found at: https://www.visitvictoria.com/regions/daylesford-and-the-macedon-ranges/whats-on/history-and-heritage/national-trust-andersons-mill-heritage-weekend https://www.facebook.com/AndersonsMillSmeaton https://www.qrz.com/db/VI3MILLS Special event callsign VI3MILLS - Mills on the Air. From the QRZ.com page: Anderson's Mill, Smeaton, Victoria, Australia. Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th 2026. Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club will be operating from Anderson's Mill on May 9th and 10th. The Mills on the Air event is held annually in May. It coincides with the National Mills Weekend, run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (UK). See the following sites for more information: https://www.facebook.com/AndersonsMillSmeaton https://www.nharg.org.uk/content/about-mills-air-mota https://www.visitvictoria.com/regions/daylesford-and-the-macedon-ranges/whats-on/history-and-heritage/national-trust-andersons-mill-heritage-weekend This is not a contest, but rather an opportunity to promote the hobby of amateur radio and at the same time promote the preservation of heritage. The VI3MILLS callsign is available for BAREC from May 7th to May 11th. Stations that have worked the BAREC VI3MILLS callsign during that period will automatically receive an emailed QSL card. Make sure your QRZ.COM details are correct including your email address. If you do not use QRZ.COM, or your email address is not in QRZ.COM, email the QSO details toVI3MILLS@barec.net.au, including your callsign, to receive an emailed QSL card. You do not need to send a QSL card, however we will be happy to display any QSL cards received in our club room. VI3MILLS frequencies and nodes for the Saturday and Sunday from Anderson's Mill. SSB and FT8. HF: 80 metres on 3.655 MHz + - and 40 metres on 7.115 MHz + -. VK3RCU No. 2 Mt Moliagul [VK Repeater Linked System], 438.350 -7 MHz offset, CTCSS 91.5. IRLP Node 9503, AllStar Node 50522. VK3RWA Ben Nevis repeater, 147.100 MHz + offset, CTCSS 91.5. Listen out during the Saturday and Sunday on 80 and 40 metres, VK3RCU and VK3RWA, or call in via IRLP Node 9503, as well as AllStar Node 50522. FT8 may be used at times on the Saturday and Sunday. We may have an operator at the Mill using our remote Gredgwin site working DX - look out for the callsign on other HF bands. Regards, Graeme VK3GRK. Bendigo Amateur Radio & Electronics Club Inc. Media and Communications Graeme Knight Phone: 03 5441 5461 0417 389 357 media@barec.net.au www.barec.net.au https://www.facebook.com/Bendigo-Amateur-Radio-and-Electronics-Club-996152083728736

This Saturday we will acknowledge ANZAC Day at the club with a short presentation of a significant Australian wartime radio story. In 1942, the 2/2 Independent Company built a radio from scraps after they were trapped in Portugese Timor with 3,000 Japanese. Australia thought they were all captured, but 300 of them regrouped in the jungle and then tied up the Japanese for about a year by running a guerrilla campaign. The radio they built was nicknamed 'Winnie the War Winner', and is now an exhibit in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Ian (VK3KO) will outline the campaign and describe the famous 'first contact' made between Sparrow Force and Darwin. Date: This Saturday, 25 April Time: 1030 Winnie the War Winner (Australian War Memorial RELAWM20434)

Our good friend and member Ian VK3KO, will be presenting at the April Monthly meeting, Famparc Contest Team. Ian will have a short Powerpoint style presentation looking at the formation of a Club Contesting Team.. For more details, come along to the meeting and join in. When: Saturday 4th April 2026. around 11:30am. Where: Famparc Club Rooms. Basic Details: Re-discover contesting and competitions at FAMPARC Expose new members and operators to the enjoyment of amateur radio contests Develop a pool of contesters to regularly put VK3FRC into events Have some fun PDF of Presentation:

2026 MDRC Hamfest Information The MDRC Annual Hamfest is held in May on a Saturday. The 2026 MDRC Hamfest will be held on Saturday 9 May.  The MDRC Hamfest is widely renowned as the Biggest Hamfest in Victoria, with a huge turnout each year. Many attendees travel great distances to attend the MDRC Annual Hamfest from Interstate and overseas. The 2026 MDRC Hamfest will be held at  The Patterson Lakes Community Centre 54-70 Thomson Road, Patterson Lakes Ticket sales from 9.00am. Doors open at 10.00am General Information WHEN: Date: 9 May 2026Time: Door opens at 10am. Ticket sales from 9.00am . WHERE: The Patterson Lakes Community Centre  54-70 Thomson Road, Patterson Lakes.   View Map DETAILS: Entry Cost: $10 includes 2 free raffle tickets – Free Parking Repeater Communications : Contact other patrons attending the MDRC Hamfest via VK3RKM, 147.075Mhz, 91.5Hz tone. Traders information Doors open at 8:00 am for traders Tables are still $20 for a 1.8M table Traders get one (1) entry included in their table fee. ( Per Table ) BOOK TABLES NOW! MDRC retains the right to refuse bookings and determine the location of your table(s). Please provide your callsign and any requirements or requests for your space in the notes section of your order. We will endeavour to meet all requests, but cannot guarantee.If you wish to cancel your table booking, 7 days notice is required for a refund. If you cancel within 7 days of the Hamfest Event Date, you may not be eligible for a refund.

From Ian, VK3BUF Thank you to Ian for his report. I returned this evening from 2 days at the Sandown Park Train & Hobby show.    Robert VK3LOL was present, as was Dianne VK3JDI and Wendy VK3WEN There was plenty of interest in Amateur radio with lots of brochures linked to FAMPARC taken by visitors.  We had a working RTTY station on both a laptop and the Siemens 100. There was plenty of interest from visitors and we were busy the entire weekend Peter Parker VK3YE was also present Overnight Wayne VK3XF left his WSPR station running and despite the high noise level, it logged several countries on a small end fed wire antenna Lots of retro computers there, including lots of Tandy TRS80 and other early 80's hardware. There was perhaps 60 large train sets on display Here is a familiar recreation of Warragul station, complete with Aldi and Burson's auto and V-line trains There was also model aircraft and ships. Once more, gratitude goes to Ian and others for providing this update and for representing our club and Amateur Radio so well. Cheers, Ian VK3BUF

Click Here !! When - Wednesday March 4th from 7:30pm - QD Clubrooms and Streamed Heath VK3TWO/VK6TWO will be taking us on a tour of Meshcore. Remember Packet Radio in the 80’s well Meshcore is a modern equivalent on the 900MHz ISM band so, you don’t have to be a licenced amateur. MeshCore is developed by HAM’s, but available to all and is a decentralised text-based communications platform. It is designed to run on commodity, affordable development boards and uses LoRa radios to create a meshed network. MeshCore works well over long distances and sub-optimal RF conditions due to the underlying LoRa radios. It uses flea power and has a small physical footprint. It is ideal for out-of-band communications that don’t rely on traditional telecommunications or electrical infrastructure to support it. Great for the Preppers out there! Messages are sent from a Companion device, which are then relayed through Repeaters to reach the destination node. Guess what – there are even Bulletin Boards (BBS’) out there…LOL! Many of the Meshcore repeaters are stand alone solar powered so, look Mum no internet required – when all else fails the Meshcore nodes (like the cockroaches) will survive! Oh and for those hard-core packet radio users – you can run APRS over LORA on Meshcore! There are many different meshcore setups available and prolific documentation so, Heath will be decoding where and what information is available. When - Wednesday March 4th from 7:30pm - QD Clubrooms and Streamed https://wiki.meshcoreaus.org/ https://www.reast.asn.au/event/march- ... Huge thank you to Heath VK3TWO/VK6TWO 73, REAST Committee

I'm sure you have heard that modern radios will automatically backoff their power output stage if the SWR gets "too high", due to a poor antenna match. I have occasionally wondered what a "too high" SWR actually is and by how much would the radio drop its output power? In this video I share my accidental discovery that at 2:1 SWR the Icom 7300 drops to less than half its maximum power! This is a much greater backoff than I imagined, so it caught me by surprise. High SWR backoff effect

Hello Famparc Family, As many of you are aware, we had our yearly AGM for 2026. The meeting all went well as expected and a new Administration and Committee has been installed for 2026. This is a overview of the latest and 2026 AGM: See details here. From the Chairpersons notes and comments: Craig vk3ncr Mick vk3vh also assisted me in the running of the AGM 2026 The AGM began at 10:30am at the Famparc Club rooms. Chairperson welcomes all members to the meeting. Apologies on behalf of members who were unable to attend. Michael (VK3UUU), Peter (VK3TQ) and John (VK3JCO) Reading of the minutes from the 2025 AGM, read by Mick vk3vh No business or comments were raised from the said minutes. Chairpersons Yearly Report: For the past year we have moved forward with many areas of our hobby. Example: Coffee and cake mornings Camping trips to the Poplars and Flinders ranges New 2M repeater and Allstar Node 66111 Continuation of the club’s remote HF station Continuation of the ever-expanding club website Our club Baluns and Ununs Club guest speakers Approval of the Chairpersons report were by: Terry vk3bmx John vk3xm Chairpersons Future endeavours for the club: New 70cm repeater to also be connected to the Allstar system. More club trips and camp outs Club POTA/SOTA event Day trips Continuing the Coffee and Cake Mornings New project with Meshcore Club guest speakers Ian (VK3KO) mentioned about club DX contests Treasurer's Financial Report: Colin vk3cr being our previous Treasurer provided the report for all. The report was read by Colin vk3cr Since this is Colin's final year as Club Treasurer, we expressed our gratitude for his outstanding efforts. No comments were submitted from the floor concerning the report. Accepted By: Terry vk3bmx Roy vk3gb Officer Bearers: The chairperson declared that the administration and committee members are now vacant. Election of new Office Bearers and Committee. . Subject to section 43, 44 and 53 of these rules, the committee shall consist of: the Officers of the Club, and 4 Ordinary Members for Committee The Officers of the Club shall all be licensed Radio Amateurs and shall consist of: President; Craig VK3NR Vice-President; Ken VK3MJF Treasurer; Ian VK3KO Secretary; Mick VK3VH Ordinary Members: Colin VK3CR Peter VK3IJ Rakshit VK3DHR Paul VK3BV As the chairperson I wish to congratulate the members and the roles they have accepted. General Business: No General Business Close of General Business. 11:02am Note(s) : Additional notes and comments is available on the website Click Here . The suggested date of the 2027 AGM is Sat. 27th February 2027. Chairpersons comments: Hello fellow Famparc Members, My goal was to conduct the AGM in strict accordance with the rules (these are my thoughts). I appreciate the members for their feedback and corrections regarding the management of the AGM 2026. It was noted to all in attendance that I was open to any comments concerning the AGM proceedures. This I made clear at the start and during the entire AGM. Based on several comments from the attendees, which I greatly appreciated, I believe the AGM was conducted properly. This was my intention, and it was also supported by the members. I appreciate all your kind words, assistance, and support both during this AGM and throughout my previous role as an admin. Thank you ! Craig vk3ncr Famparc President 2026.