WORKING BEE – Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society Inc.

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, VK4MSA, Ethan and Ken, VK2KEN. Ashleigh, VK4DRA worked on the bigger shrubs and stumps. Glenn, VK4GCS, inspected the facility for future work. Aidan, VK4APM and Robert, VK4ANY installed lights in the kitchen. Matt, VK4TRK cooked up some delicious snags. Mark, VK4DMH, Graham, VK2FA and Sholto, VK4CSB showed up later and gave great support. Thank you everyone who showed up and helped to make it another great day at the club!

PACIFIC AIRSHOW 2026

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 [...]

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. [...]

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, [...]