General Information

Last night at the AGM a change of Membership fees was proposed and passed.

This year all fees will be increasing by $5 on top of the current fee structure.

Full Membership $35

Concession and Student Membership $25

As before, if you pay before September there will be a $5 discount reducing the figures above.

It had been discussed at committee level and was decided:

We are no longer going to charge the $3 door fees for our meetings, so if you are a regular attendee you will be saving a considerable amount.

It was also a way to reduce the work load on our beloved Treasurer, not having to count and balance and bank all the change.

The door fees have been suspended for 12 months and will be evaluated for club impact prior to the next AGM.

For those who can’t get to evening events, we have potential plans to overcome this so stay tuned.

Regards

Graham Kimber

VK5GM

President

Last night was the 2025 AGM.

A special thankyou for Tony Green VK5FBIC for organising and hosting the event, also for the effort Tony has put into the North East Radio Club Committee in the role of Treasurer and then President for the last 2 years. He will remain a valuable resource for the club.

Announcing the new Committee:

President Graham Kimber VK5GM

Vice President Mick Hope VK5MCH

Secretary Brian Roberts VK5VI

Treasurer David Fisk VK5MDF

Committee:

Les Dicker VK5KLD

Trevor Quick VK5ATQ

Bob Wake VK5AK

Gary Nichols VK5SIX

David Sienniak VK5KFC

I want to thank Brian and David for their executive roles and years of continued service to the club and how could I forget the beloved characters Trevor and Les for their years of service in the background.

It is Bob’s second year on the committee, he has quietly been there supporting the club in the background for many years.

Now for our new committee members, I am thankful I could talk them into coming on board and look forward to their contribution and with working with them.

Brian Roberts VK5VI received a Life Time Membership award for his service to the Club and Amateur Radio. He has presented many technical lectures, involved in the linked repeater system as well as the club repeater VK5RHO 2m and 70cm. He has been a great mentor to myself. 

David VK5KFC recently upgraded to a Standard Licence so big congratulation.

Also the Perpetual Trophy was awarded to Paul VK5PH for his contribution to Amateur Radio, well done Paul.

After quite an extended time offline the club UHF 70cm repeater has been brought back to life utilising Yaesu DR2 C4FM equipment kindly donated by Graham VK5GM. Output frequency is 439.875 MHz with a minus 5MHz offset, power level of 25w

Antenna is a pair of phased folded dipoles fed via a duplexer and mounted approx 25m on the mast pointing west. Coverage reports so far are quite encouraging.

Although capable of operating both C4FM digital and FM analog modes at present it is locked to C4FM and FM input with straight analog FM output. No tone is required at this stage but you are encouraged to have your radio ready with a 91.5Hz tone in case it is required down the track.

Thanks go to the team for all the effort required to get the whole repeater project off the ground and operational.

The Club held it’s annual Buy & Sell Sunday 18th May and was another successful club event. It was a little later this year because of Easter and Anzac day falling so close together.

Although quite cool the weather was kind to us and any threat of rain to dampen the spirit of the day held off. Quite a lot of treasures changed hands inside the hall while a dedicated team of chefs managed the usual NERC barbeque outside.

This is always an annual gathering place for radio amateurs/enthusiasts from far and wide and this year was no exception and we look forward to having you back next year.

The repeater team has finally overcome some teething problems with transmitters and we are ready to go. Our first segment is set in the diary for the last Sunday of each month with the inaugural transmission being Sunday the 27th April at 3.30pm. We are talking about the achievements of Guglielmo Marconi and his contributions to radio communication.

We are please to announce the we can now order our merchandise online. There are 2 options to pay, Direct Deposit and in person at the Club.

When you submit the form the Treasurer will receive a copy (if you select Direct Deposit he will forward the bank details) and a copy will go the the Ordering Officer (VK5GM).

We look forward to seeing more people wearing the Club Logo