QNews for June 22nd 2025

Peter Stevens VK4BT passed away last May 15th. He would have made it to 73 years in November. We had a memorial service for him June 11th which was packed to the rafters. Pete was in a wheel chair after an accident in his early 20's, but talking to him on the radio you'd never really know it. Possibly the best eulogy as far as Pete's amateur radio activities was given by old mate Reg VK2MNM who started with one of Pete's normal tongue in cheek wisecracks given to him almost every day ... "so Reg, what colour M&M are you today?"

Members of the 7125 KHz AM fraternity are deeply saddened by the news that one of their long standing operators of vintage AM equipment, Ken Buckley VK4KB, succumbed to cancer at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane on Tuesday 27 May 2025. Ken was an A-grade automotive mechanic who lived and worked in various locations on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane. In 1978, Ken qualified for his open amateur-radio licence and was granted callsign VK4KB. He was based on the Sunshine Coast.

Hi - I’m John, VK4JPM, Secretary of the Darling Downs Radio Club, and welcome to QNEWS for Sunday 22nd of June. Yes, it’s the winter solstice, and from here the days get longer - good news for you if you’re running your station on solar.

Now turning to Queensland, Muhammad Kapadi, one of the volunteer coordinators for the Queensland PCYC Emergency Services Cadets Program, has reached out for assistance. The Queensland Police Service Academy unit were donated 9 Motorola XTS 2500 radio and will be used as training radios for their cadets. The radios have seen better days. The 9 radios only have 2 hand/speaker mics with them. Those two have deteriorated and the organisation that donated the radios no longer have any compatible shoulder mics for the XTS2500. If you can help and are able to donate any spare xts 2500 shoulder mics (working conditions with clips) please send an email to Mohammad. His email address is in the text edition of this news article. This donation will help the Queensland Police Service Academy continue to train the youth of today to be the emergency services of tomorrow. For QNEWS in VK4, I am Alan VK2COD in Sydney.