Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club goes Digital

On Valentines Day Thursday 14th February 2008, love wasn't the only thing that was in the air.

It was Melbourne’s ever active Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club that went on air with the first Australian D-Star net at 8.00pm that day with VK3DLR transmitting from a portable location.

After putting out a call for stations to check in, a few
nervous moments of silence followed. Then the first station to check in, VK3UR was heard and the rest, as they say, is history.

A total of 12 stations checked in on that day, including VK3TQ Peter Willmott from Icom and VK3JFK Richard Hoskin, the resident D-Star expert.

There was great discussion on the settings required to get the D-Star capable radios to work the repeater. This discussion resulted in the number of stations that checked in. The first D-star net kept the net controller busy for the next one and a half hours and even after the net was closed, and the repeater was active for quite some time. The D-star bug has definitely caught on!!

In recognition of this event and to commemorate this occasion, the EMDRC have presented a certificate to the
stations that joined this inaugural net, possibly the first in the world.

As a sign of things to come, since the inaugural net there have been an average of 13 callers each week making it a very successful net indeed.

To top this, on Thursday 6th March 2008, DL4FDL from Germany and IR3UQ from Italy joined the ever-increasing group.

To join in to the net, tune to VK3RWN on 146.9125 every Thursday at 8pm.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia