REAST will be holding a Foundation Training and Assessment Day. Foundation Licence training commences at 9AM and Assessments commence around 1PM. If you would like to participate in this session then please contact Reg Emmett VK7KK – REAST Learning Organiser on email: reast.assessor@gmail.com or mobile: 0417 391 607 at least a fortnight prior to the session. Foundation License Handbooks are stocked at the Queen’s Domain Clubrooms which is open on Wednesday from 12Noon-2pm and 6-10PM. There are credit card facilities available and the price is $35 or they can be ordered through the WIA, see the Foundation Manual Page. Courses available There are a range of options available to study for amateur radio examinations: A Self Study Manual is available for the Foundation Licence REAST Foundation Licence Training Videos – 10 REAST YouTube videos WIA Foundation Licence practice examinations Other self study options – self study – there are many courses of study available through books, the Internet and CD-ROM; or, By completing correspondence courses; or, Study in a radio class. Please contact us for more information Happy Studying

April is REAST 3D Printing and Amateur Radio Month. Praj VK4MPB/7MPB has been building 3D printers since 2011, back when you didn’t “print a file,” you nervously injected raw G-code into what was essentially a heated toaster that had ambitions of becoming a Replicator. Slicers were cryptic and confrontational bits of software, firmware updates required emotional resilience, and bed levelling was practically a sacred ritual involving tiny hex keys, deep breathing, and intense philosophical debates about 0.2 millimetres of Z-offset. A good first layer wasn’t expected, it was negotiated - sometimes aggressively. My printers still live in the garage, where they’ve evolved from temperamental science experiments that occasionally produced abstract art - or spectacular nests of plastic spaghetti - into surprisingly competent little manufacturing units. While I was chasing the mythical perfect first layer (and cleaning lumps of molten filament off nozzles), additive manufacturing quietly matured. The same core principles behind those early DIY machines now produce surgical implants with bone-growth lattices, aerospace components with internal cooling channels that can’t be machined, advanced engineering parts and some spectacular art - all in a mind boggling array of materials. And yes, it turns out the same technology responsible for heroic prints and catastrophic spaghetti is also brilliant for us radio amateurs. From portable HF and SOTA/POTA gear, to clever shack fixes, to RF experiments that genuinely move a NanoVNA trace in ways that only makes me more curious, 3D printing has become a real engineering tool. Praj will be sharing some of the practical, creative and genuinely cool things you can do with it today - in everyday life, in serious engineering, and in amateur radio - along with a few demonstrations to prove it’s not just enthusiasm for melting plastic. Expect nostalgia, curiosity, a bit of garage-born instability… and the unshakeable belief that if I just level the print bed one more time, this time it’ll absolutely be perfect. Truth! When: 8th April 2026 from 7:30pm in the clubroom and streamed See you there REAST Committee

April is 3D Printing and Amateur Radio Month at REAST. We’re flipping the usual order and swapping Presentation and Forum nights so members can actually show off their creations. Yes, this is your cue. Bring the brackets. Bring the enclosures. Bring the antenna mounts that only just survived the last SOTA activation. Bring the clever shack fix that solved a problem nobody else noticed but you absolutely could not ignore or live without! And before you start getting suspicious, no, this is not an April Fool’s prank. We genuinely want to see your Amateur Radio-related 3D printing projects. From humble lumps of filament to beautifully engineered pieces of RF-adjacent brilliance, take us on the journey. Show us the experiments, the failures, the “I’ll just tweak the Z-offset one more time” moments, and the final masterpiece that somehow works better than it has any right to. Wednesday 1st April 2026, from 7:30pm In the clubrooms and streamed. See you there. REAST Committee  

REAST will be holding a Standard, Advanced Licence & Regulations Assessment Day. Assessments commence at 10AM. If you would like to participate in this session then please contact Reg Emmett VK7KK – REAST Learning Organiser on email: reast.assessor@gmail.com or mobile: 0417 391 607 at least a week prior to the session. Courses available There are a range of options available to study for amateur radio examinations. We recommend the Silvertrain for Advanced and Standard Training material and courses. More information can be found at: https://www.silvertrain.com.au/ An alternative is the Radio and Electronics School courses for Standard and Advanced training material. More information can be found at: www.res.net.au Happy Studying

Something a little different is happening at REAST this month. On Wednesday March 18 from around 7pm, we’re combining good food with good radio for a relaxed evening of conversation, tinkering and experimenters’ chat. Thanks to our Chef Extraordinaire Tony VK7VKT, we’ll have hot roast rolls and vegetarian options available on the night. It’s a simple idea – grab a roll, catch up with fellow amateurs, talk radio projects, swap ideas, and see what everyone has been experimenting with lately. At just $5 a roll, it’s an easy and affordable dinner with friends while enjoying our favourite topic… amateur radio. Softdrinks are also available for discounted rates. So come along, bring your stories, your projects, and your appetite. Good food, good company, and plenty of radio talk. That sounds like a pretty solid Wednesday night. We have closed off orders however, there will be some spare so, come along and try your luck and you can pay via the Square in the clubrooms. See you there REAST Committee

This forum night will be a little different - we will have some HP & IFR Communication  Service Monitors and Power Supplies available for testing your 2m/70cm radios and Allstar/DMR nodes. We are looking to cover the following tests (these may be subject to change): Frequency Power output Deviation SINAD distortion Receiver sensitivity DTMF Level (if available) Audio level Have a suggestion for some other tests - let us know. Due to time constraints - we will only be testing and letting you know where things might need some attention and it is the responsibility of the owner to make these adjustments. We hope to see you along with your radios. 73, REAST Committee

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. MeshCore 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 (running on Meshcore)! There are many different meshcore setups available and prolific documentation so, Heath will be decoding where and what information is available. https://wiki.meshcoreaus.org/

REAST will be holding a Foundation Training and Assessment Day. Foundation Licence training commences at 9AM and Assessments commence around 1PM. If you would like to participate in this session then please contact Reg Emmett VK7KK – REAST Learning Organiser on email: reast.assessor@gmail.com or mobile: 0417 391 607 at least a fortnight prior to the session. Foundation License Handbooks are stocked at the Queen’s Domain Clubrooms which is open on Wednesday from 12Noon-2pm and 6-10PM. There are credit card facilities available and the price is $35 or they can be ordered through the WIA, see the Foundation Manual Page. Courses available There are a range of options available to study for amateur radio examinations: A Self Study Manual is available for the Foundation Licence REAST Foundation Licence Training Videos – 10 REAST YouTube videos WIA Foundation Licence practice examinations Other self study options – self study – there are many courses of study available through books, the Internet and CD-ROM; or, By completing correspondence courses; or, Study in a radio class. Please contact us for more information Happy Studying

The Annual General Meeting of the Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania Inc. will be held at 11am on 15th February 2026 in the Queens Domain clubrooms. The AGM will be followed by a free BBQ for members. Nominations closed on 7th February 2026. Nomination form. The ordinary business of the annual general meeting is to be as follows: to confirm the minutes of the last preceding annual general meeting and of any general meeting held since that meeting; to receive from the committee, auditor and servants of the Association reports on the transactions of the Association during the last preceding financial year; to elect the officers of the Association and the ordinary committee members; to vote on an amendment to the REAST Rules; to appoint the auditor; REAST Committee.

Is space weather and propagation a bit of a mystery to you? Our February 2026 presentation night brings us Roger Harrison VK2ZRH who promises to enlighten us about Fe, f, foE, MUF – all that ionospheric stuff. With decades of experience, including his time at the Ionospheric Prediction Service (IPS), now Space Weather Services, Roger brings significant expertise in this space (pun intended). This presentation will unpack the mysteries behind ionograms, TEC maps, Es, GRAFEX, PCAs, solar indices and more, plus online tools and data sources you can use. Whether you’re chasing DX, planning portable operations, experimenting with digital modes or trying to understand why your favourite band just vanished, this session may give you the skills to read the sky like a geek bro. This session will be in person and streamed from 7:30pm in Queens Domain clubrooms. 73, REAST Committee

REAST will be holding a huge amateur radio carboot sale in the Queens Domain compound from 11am on Sunday 18th January 2025. Want to sell something – it will cost you $10 to setup your carboot then you can sell as much as you want – all profit goes to you. There will be a Sausage Sizzle on the day with Snags and Bread at $3 and Burgers and Bread at $5 – Soft drinks available $2 per can. No need to book – just turn up. 73, REAST Committee

On 7 December we reach a VK7 microwave milestone with the 10th Anniversary of the 23 cm QSO party. We are trying to get as many stations as possible on to celebrate this milestone with hopefully record numbers. It is proposed that we write up an item for AR to record the history of the QSO party and the results of the 7 December event. The QSO Party is conducted at 10 am each Sunday after the broadcast on 1296.15 MHz using FM, with one group in the greater Hobart area and a second group in the greater Launceston area. After this Hobart to Launceston contacts take place 1296.2 MHz using the digital mode Q65-60B. Hobart stations first period and Launceston stations second. A brief History: Nearly ten years ago, a few Hobart stations started dusting off rigs and pointing quirky 23cm homebrew antennas toward Mt Wellington, just to see what might happen. At a REAST BBQ, between sausages and signal reports, someone tossed out a simple idea: run a 23 cm QSO party straight after the Sunday broadcast. Use it to test coverage, compare notes, and nudge everyone to lift their game on antennas and systems. Challenge accepted! On Sunday 6 December 2015, Murray, VK7ZMS, hauled gear up to Kunanyi/Mt Wellington and took the helm as the first control station. Three days later at the DATV night on 9 December, the debrief was clear: it worked, it was fun, and it deserved to keep going. The plan formed: aim beams at the mountain each Sunday and make it a habit. Stations with 23 cm gear dragged it out of cupboards, warmed it up, and joined the net. That inaugural report reads like a rollcall of early adopters: VK7ZMS, VK7MO, VK7BEN, VK7KAJ, VK7ZL, VK7OO, with a surprise cameo from the north, VK7JG. RX-only at first were VK7TW and VK7HRS. By the very next week there were nine stations up, plus a new voice, Danny VK7HDM. The only hiccup? Our control op, Murray, was off on essential duties: his daughter’s birthday took priority. Quite right too. Fast-forward to today and the little post-broadcast experiment has grown into a community, with around 15 stations operating each Sunday. We now count forty-seven, 23 cm capable operators in the South, with more in the North. The QSO party has mapped paths, sparked antenna builds, and quietly raised the bar for what’s possible on 23cm in VK7. 73, Rex, VK7MO