Monday, June 01, 2020

Settling in to Melbourne and Joining MERC

Moving back to Melbourne after 30 years in Sydney means that I was keen to make contact with ham radio people here much as the group from the ARNSW Radio Experimenters group has become a circle of good friends in recent years in Sydney.

I joined the Melbourne Electronics and Radio Club (MERC) and was quickly and kindly welcomed by President Stuart, VK3SH and treasurer John, VK3ZX.


The club has four regular nets each week and I've joined the Wednesday & Friday nets at 8pm which are FM via the VK3RML repeater on 146.700. That repeater was down and so the net moved to a repeater on 438.225. This is good as I have much better reception of this one anyhow.

Stuart kindly sent me five recent editions of the excellent "MERC Almost Regular News Letter" which has a good sprinkling of home brew radio construction including antennas, filters, audio amplifiers, antenna switches, and also some wonderful shack photos.

I look forward to pandemic restrictions being eased so we can meet in person.

For now, I have a minimal shack set up.


I look forward to the day when all transceivers have a single USB socket with both audio and control over USB. It will make computer connection much less messy.

3 comments:

Paul Anslow said...

Good to see you settling in. 73 VK2APA.

Unknown said...

Welcome back to Melbourne Peter. Most of the regular clubs and activities have gone online. Would be good to see you at QRP By The Bay. It is outdoors, so we should be able to maintain social distancing. Maybe shoot Peter an email and suggest a winter date. Paul VK3HN.

Peter Marks said...

Thanks Paul, yes I'm looking forward to the next QRP by the bay. I've been once before.
A bit cold at the moment but hopefully I'll get more acclimatised over time.