PACIFIC AIRSHOW 2026 – Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society Inc.

The Pacific Airshow held on the weekend of 14-16 August was a great success!

GCARS involvement was similar to previous years. GCARS had volunteers at the Southport airport: Chris, VK4CBX, Ed, VK4JEN and Matt, VK4MGM. Coolangatta airport: Mark, VK4DMH, George, VK4GUM, Geoff, VK4DLA and Jamie, VK4XD. At the tower was Aidan, VK4APM and Ken, VK2KEN. Our responsibility was to the Air Boss team who is responsible for the entire show’s demonstration of aircraft and ground displays. GCARS provided vital information from the respective airports as to when a particular aircraft was warming up, taxiing, take off and safe return to the airport. Using a 70cm repeater located at Springbrook allowed all parties to communicate these movements and the tower would report movements to the Air Boss team to ensure that the programme was on time according to the schedule.

“Well done” and “Much appreciated ” was the word from the Air Boss at the end of the show on Sunday. He followed by saying, “We couldn’t have done it without you”.

A big pat on the back for the GCARS volunteers!

SDR PRESENTATION

There were 12 members at the SDR presentation by Glenn, VK4GCS today. Glenn explained the equipment needed to have the kind of setup he had. SDR (Software Defined Radio), in this case a transceiver was connected to a computer and other components which shows a visual representation of a communication. [...]

WORKING BEE

There were 13 members in attendance today and lots of progress was made to the beautification of our club house facility. George, VK4GUM brought along his ride-on lawnmower and made quick work of the lawn areas. After that he joined the whipper-snipper group which included Jeremy, VK2JHA, Jeremy, VK4JKR, Mike, [...]

KAKODA Challenge

A long day for GCARS members today as we supported with radio comms at the Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge. Mark, VK4DMH, Ashleigh, VK4DRA and Ed, VK4JEN relayed status, logistics and medical incidents messages for the 630 participants. The two track areas on Austinville Rd that were manned by us are [...]

Mike's Coil Workshop

Mike's Coil Workshop On Saturday, 23rd of May, Mike (VK4MCF) conducted his antenna coil workshop. Nine participants built their own coils. With a long whip antenna attached to the coil and both placed on a tripod, you have the perfect POTA antenna setup. A sausage sizzle followed the workshop plus [...]

POTA was here!

Mark Perry with POTA delivered a presentation of how POTA (parks on the air) works and how to interface with the various websites for logging a POTA contact. First, you need to register, be a licensed amateur radio operator and have equipment to go portable. As an activator you set [...]

Major Facelift in Progress

Lots happening at the clubhouse lately. The roof repairs have been completed which means the solar panels can be re-installed on the roof. Major clean out and clean up both inside and out of the club house. Exterior painting is in progress. The painting crew today included Ashleigh, Ken, Jeremy, [...]