Mount Watalgan Repeater

Club President Rusty McGrath led the Mayor Lorraine Pyefinch and Councillors Lynne Forgan, David Batt and Wayne Honor up Mt Watalgan to officially open the club's newest repeater.
The 70cm UHF repeater was switched on by the Mayor who declared “ VK4RBW is now in operation”.

Queensland council amalgamations resulted in Bundaberg Regional Council area being substantially increased and the club needed to repond to ensure we could provide repeater coverage over the entire new area. This new UHF repeater closed the gap in this Northern region with coverage up to Miriam Vale.

In his opening address, the president mentioned that Mt Watalgan was a $6500 project which was partially funded by the Council through their Community Grants Program. He thanked the Mayor and Councillors for their foresight in supporting this venture which will come back to aid all residents of the community in times of need.

The club has a core group of WICEN (Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network) volunteers who handle emergency radio operations when required. They take up a position behind the emergency service organisations and pass radio traffic freeing the professionally trained teams to work on the frontlines.

Since the formation of the club in 1961 it has a 50 year history of building and maintaining repeaters on Mt Goonaneman and on The Humock in Bundaberg.
This new Mt Watalgan site will strengthen the communications backbone and ensure that the Club and the WICEN volunteers can provide emergency comms in times of natural disaster.