Blogospheric Refraction

Well, I really didn’t think I’d be writing a post like this.

This is following on from, and indirectly in reply to, an operator who decided to call in on the Australia-Wide Night-Owl and Insomnia net which is held every Friday night at 3595kHz.

Now, this net is pretty laid back… all are welcome. There are however, some things that just are not done on radio. Just as much as they are not done here on the internet. One of them, is to air dirty laundry on air.

Without going into detail… we had an operator call in from Victoria (a VK3V.. call, standard licensee) who then proceeded to make allegations about the off-air activities of another operator (VK2.., advanced licensee), in particular, the allegations involved claims of abusive phone calls and threats. The VK2 station responded pointing out some other misdemeanors allegedly purpotrated by the VK3 station, before (thankfully) moving on with the net. Thank heavens both had the decency to leave it there rather than tie up net time arguing.

Now, undoubtedly, the vast majority (me included) are not privy to all the information. They may be completely false, or there may be some truth to them. That isn’t for me to decide and does not concirn me. What I object to, is the usage of the amateur bands, as the platform for this kind of debate. It does not help any of the participants, or bystanders at all… and perhaps what both sides should realise here, is that by airing this material on-air, they are opening themselves up for a potential defamation case.

It is no different to me for instance, making similar allegations on this site… I could be sued for defamation. This is one of the reasons why I did not reveal the callsigns, or even the names of the guilty culprits. In the past, I recorded the net and provided it as a podcast (and had I done this, the recording would have been up for the world to hear)… but sadly the computer that I used for this is not operational at the moment. In any case, those who were listening, know to whom I refer.

I would ask that all people, who make use of radiocommunications services, whether it be amateur, citizen’s band, marine, airband or any other service out there… please bear this in mind. Your personal squabbles have no place on the air, as I for one (and likely countless others) am not interested in hearing them.

Well… three bits of news to share… I can’t be stuffed doing three separate posts however, so I’ll stuff all three into the one, it puts less load on the servers involved.

X.org working on Yeeloong

I managed to get X going on the Yeeloong within Gentoo… I’m currently battling problems with Python 2.6 not building, but at least X runs.  I hope to get the necessary patches into my overlay shortly.

• latest xorg-server ebuild works… you just need to add the loongson patch for version 1.6.0.  This is already in my overlay, just needs updating.
• xf86-video-siliconmotion needs a patch to detect the video RAM.  This is due to the driver relying on some magic BIOS trickery which naturally doesn’t work on a BIOS-less RISC machine like the Yeeloong.
• xorg.conf needs the LCD panel resolution specified … that is: Options “PanelSize” “1024×600″ in the options for the siliconmotion driver.

VK4MSL contactable via IRLP

I recently put my homebrew 2m vertical back up … this time, using the mounting brackets from my old 2.4GHz vertical, and mounting the thing up as high on the antenna mast as I can push it. The choke balun on the antenna is level with the TV antenna yagi, so most of the radiated power is well above the TV antenna.

With this, I am now not only kinda able to work previously impossible repeaters such as VK4RBS (Bayside/Alex Hills), but also VK4RSS at Ocean View. What’s so good about VK4RSS? Well, I’m tripping it with 500mW of power (therefore good access when using 5W)… and it happens to be accessible via IRLP as node 6215.

I can also be sporadically reached on EchoLink node 37 37 40.

Graduated at last

I did say there were three items in this bulletin. I finally received my academic transcript, confirming that I have formally completed my studies at QUT, graduating with the following qualifications…

• Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics)
• Bachelor of Information Technology (Software Engineering)

This is timely, right at the bottom of the employment market… but I can’t help that.  Now begins the task of finding work in the Brisbane area.  I’m still running to/from Laidley doing some work out there… which may turn into paid employment (I hope so anyway… costs me almost $8 a day with a student discount in transport… That’ll double to about $15 when that card expires).

If anyone’s looking for someone to assist, particularly in the telecommunications field (I have a soft spot for radio and embedded systems)… feel free to get in touch directly.

It has been a while, but I can safely say I have returned.  Not sure what the next step is… looking for paid employment I guess, but I have passed all subjects this semester, which should mean that I am now qualified in IT and Electrical Engineering as a graduate.

After the last exam, I could not run out of the building fast enough.  6.5 years of studies has certainly taken its toll on my mental state.  Anyway… I wound up traveling northern and central NSW with my father and his girlfriend for the last fortnight — got back home yesterday.  I am currently putting together some photos, and I’ll have a slide show ready for the next BOSQ meeting.  I’ll put a link up to the photos when they’re done processing (the aging PIII 550MHz webserver here takes a while to resize over 500 photos, most 10Mpixel in size).

Where did we go?  We camped at:

• Dalmorton (abandoned settlement on the old Grafton-Glen Innes road) — overnight
• Glen Innes — overnight
• Bingara — overnight
• Waa Gorge (pronounced “war”, part of Mt. Kaputar National Park… you’re not supposed to camp here, but it was late in the day, and the road in/out passes through private property with many gates) — overnight
• Mt. Kaputar National Park — 3 nights
• Coonabarabran — 2 nights
• Port Macquarie — 3 nights
• Dorrigo — overnight
• Grafton — overnight
• Brooms Head — overnight

In that time:

• We explored a number of walking tracks at Mt. Kaputar, Dorrigo and Brooms Head.
• Did some sight seeing at Port Macquarie and Coonabarabran.
• Checked out the sandstone caves in the Pilliga State Reserve
• Got bogged on a forestry road in state forest just north of Coffs Harbour (thanks go to the Clarence Valley State Emergency Service for pulling us out of that muddy mess)
• HanoiCalc got a bit of work done — it works now.
• I checked into three nets:
  • Ipswich & District 80m Net (3.585MHz LSB) from Waa Gorge
  • AWNOI Net (3.595MHz LSB) from Mt. Kaputar
  • Coffs Harbour & District 2m Net (146.650MHz FM) whilst waiting for the SES to arrive

We learned:

• Setting up the annex and awning on a hard-floor camper trailer for an overnight stay is a pain in the bum.
• My camp stretcher doesn’t fit in the camper itself, and only barely fits in the annex.
• Holden (or Zupps) decided to put a really low tow hitch on the back of my father’s car… meaning we had to either find rocks/blocks of wood/bricks to back the car’s back wheels on to, or dig a hole just near the jockey wheel in order to unhitch from the trailer
• Just because a road is marked on a GPS or paper based map, does not mean that it is in drivable condition, nor does it necessarily mean the road’s actual route bares any resemblence to the marked route.
• The NRMA do not assist people who are bogged, they refer you to the SES instead.  (I hope some of the fees we’re paying are helping fund the SES for their troubles!)
• My HF radio, which is normally very touchy on 10m… works fine on that band up in the higher altitudes — I suspect a temperature-related issue.

What now?  Well… as I say, I’ve got to find some employment somewhere.  I now officially become “unemployed” according to the damn lies^W^Wstatistics.  Potential employers in the Brisbane area, should contact me directly.

This also means I should have some time to dedicate towards Gentoo.  My last attempt at stage builds got sidetracked by a need to study and also hit technical issues (something in glibc’s build kept hard-locking boxes).

Also on the agenda here is a proper port of Gentoo to the Lemote Yeeloong.  The little netbook has been running well under Debian, with Gentoo sitting in a chroot environment… now that I’m no longer using the machine for daily studies, I think the time is ripe to start looking into reloading the machine.  Zhang Le did a great job incorporating Lemote’s patches into a mirror of the Linux/MIPS git tree, which I’ve been using to build my kernels… 2.6.30-rc4 has been quite stable.

I’ve also been looking at the ARRL handbook, with the view of upgrading my license to the Advanced level.  Then I’ll be paying for a 5-year license before the ACMA/WIA decide to up the fees again.

So, much to do, and a mountain of bugs in Bugzilla with my name on them… Ohh joy.

At university, I’m currently studying a subject entitled “RF & Applied Electromagnetics”, and at the moment, we’re looking at the issue of electromagnetic compatibility.

One thing that has come up both here, and browsing through the ARRL Amateur Radio handbook (I have the 1975 edition) is that above all, circuit layout has some of the most profound effects on how a circuit behaves.

What I did not realise, is just how low in frequency these issues show up.  The physical construction of many electronic components often means that, far from being a “pure” component, they in fact exhibit both resistive and reactive components.  I understood this occurred a lot in the VHF and UHF… which is a good reason why many homebrew radios stop in the lower HF.  These effects in fact, start to become visible as low as 14MHz.

This got me thinking… the typical circuit design workflow is some variant of this:

1. Draw up the schematic in a schematic capture frontend
2. Feed this into the circuit analysis package, inspect the simulation results.
3. If unsatisfied, tweak schematic then go back to step 2.  Else feed into PCB layout package.
4. Lay out the PCB
5. Get PCB manufactured and build circuit.
6. Do testing, tweaking component values… maybe go back to step 3.

It seems to me… the workflow should be more like the following:

1. Draw up the schematic
2. Lay out the PCB
3. Feed the PCB layout and circuit schematic into the simulator, inspect results.
4. If results are unsatisfactory, tweak layout and schematic, else get PCB manufactured and build the circut.
5. Test & tweak

One criticism I have of gEDA, it seems to treat the schematic and the PCB as being two different things.  I find it awkward to move from gschem to PCB and back again when designing a circuit.  I also haven’t figured out simulation as yet.

I’d say the behaviour of the circuit has more to do with the way the board is layed out, than with just the components alone, and as such, I feel a modern EDA system should reflect this.  Qucs does seem to be approaching what is going on, in that you can simulate a stripline or similar PCB object in your circut.  I think it has possibly the greatest promise, but alas, it can’t yet do PCB layouts itself.  Time will tell I guess.

The commercial suites… well, I’ve used Electronics Workbench for years… I really must say I find the simulation in that much more intuitive than working with SPICE or Qucs… there is perhaps something worth looking into with its interface.  Multisim is more like traditional SPICE… but still retains some of the old feel of EWB.  However, all of them seem to simulate the schematic… which is fine… but you do miss out on a lot of what goes on in the circuit.

I’ve been getting used to Qucs… and so far, I quite like it.  Once again though, we’re looking at a simulation of an ideal circuit, under ideal conditions.  That is… pass a 100MHz sinusoid through a circuit: the resistors remain resistive, the capacitors store charge as they should and the inductors continue to add inertia.  In the real world, many resistors and capacitors become inductive in nature, and inductors look more like capacitors, depending on the physical construction of the component.  Mutual inductance, and capacitive coupling are also problems in the real world.

With today’s modern hardware, I figure the computing overheads to model how a physical circuit would behave based on the layout, is certainly a lot more feasible than it was when SPICE was first conceived.  SPICE was good for its time… but with the modern world requiring a higher level of engineering for its electronics, I think it has had its day now.

Did anyone happen to visit Google today? Those who haven’t… if it isn’t too late, have a squiz now.  Update: Google have reverted back to their old logo… the one they had up is pictured below.

Yeah… I saw it and said… WTF… then it hit me what I was looking at. You’d think with the number of times I’ve heard CW on the air, I’d have recognised it straight off.

Anyway… happy birthday to you Samuel, and thank-you for providing us with this wonderful low-bandwidth mode that still sees use today. One of these days, I’ll actually get around to having a QSO on this mode.

- – • • •   • • • – -      • • – •   • – •   – - -   – -      • • • –   – • -   • • • • –   – -   • • •   • – • •

Lately I’ve been looking around at microcontrollers.

With my work with Eze Corp, I’ve gotten quite accustomed to the MSP430. It’s a nice little MCU, with a very low power drain, gcc port and is in general, quite easy to drive. At my workplace, I use a Windows XP machine to do development under MSYS, using a MSP FET-430UIF JTAG device for programming and debugging. This is not my preferred mode of development, I’d much rather be doing it on a Linux host (or at least something that properly understands POSIX)… but it’s tolerable.

For my home projects though… this isn’t an option. I do not own a Windows computer any more, and in any case, I dislike working with it at my workplace — to hell with using it in my recreation! (The reasons why are best saved for another rant at some other time. No, I’m not a free-software hippie, I have other reasons.)

There are a number of MCUs available that I’m aware of. The biggest hurdle with many of them is the requirement of some piece of hardware which is either proprietary, expensive and/or unavailable. I like the MCUs that provide a JTAG interface, since it’s a well defined protocol that allows real-time debugging of the device as well as programming. JTAG for what its worth is little more than an SPI bus at the hardware level, it’s what’s layered on top of this that differs between devices.

JTAG can be implemented via GPIO. Since a computer parallel port is merely a specialised form of GPIO port, this enables people to wire up a JTAG port to a parallel port, and bit-bang the signals. There’s a couple of issues with this approach:

• Parallel ports (I mean real ones) are getting harder to come by, especially on portable computers (understandable on netbooks, but I don’t see why full-size laptops don’t have them…anyway)
• Most USB Parallel cables only have the smarts to drive a printer, they don’t allow arbitrary bit-banging of data. (e.g. the PL2305. And try explaining the difference to a salesperson…)
• USB introduces a 1~2msec latency… which stuffs up timing at high speed.

I’ve seen some programmers (for PIC and AVR chips) that use RS-232. Now these are usually specialised devices for a given range of MCUs… that’s fine… but they suffer the same problem as the parallel-port JTAG cables… that is, most modern computers don’t have RS-232 anymore for some silly reason (as I say, understandable on netbooks… but are they saying they can’t cram a mini-din8 somewhere on a 15″ laptop?!)… and the USB latency screws timing up (I suspect this is the issue with the PL2303-based adapters we have here).

That leaves me with native USB devices.

A lot of the ones used by ARM devs are based on a FTDI chip which offers UART (RS-232) and SPI… so you get a serial console and a JTAG in one unit. Nice… In addition, there’s a open framework for debugging with them, OpenOCD. I don’t have the knowledge necessary to port this across to other MCUs… I guess one hope is that a MSP430 guru might contribute an OpenOCD port, but in the short term this isn’t an option.

For many ARM devices, there’s the J-link developed by Segger.  I’ve mentioned this one in past posts.  For MSP430, TI provide their MSP FET430UIF.  Both of these devices are on the nose from a usability point of view.  Both require you to use proprietary software in order to access their device.  This is fine if you’re on a supported platform, and the tool is well maintained.

For the J-link… well, if you’re not on Windows… forget it, that’s all they support.  The advice from them is to just run a Windows computer purely to run their GDB proxy software (which costs too I might add).

TI’s tool is theoretically a little better for support… the userspace drivers are proprietary freeware… but again, if you’re not using Windows or Linux on an i386 PC, forget it.  More to the point, the Linux version doesn’t seem to get updated as often — so the only real option is Windows.  Bad luck for me and my Yeeloong.

For what it’s worth, I do not understand why these things need to be proprietary… it’s a flipping programming cable.  Just moves data from one end to the other.  If they need to load firmware into the RAM of the chip being programmed, fine… but why can’t this be an ELF binary or something that just gets picked up by OpenOCD (or equivalent) and stuffed down the wire?

Devices like the Rabbit Semiconductor series of microcontrollers drive me insane with their non-standard nonsense… they decided to chuck many years of C history down the gurgler and invent their own “wannabe C”. #include <foo.h>? Nah… don’t be silly, we’ll just stuff everything into .lib files and #use them. Urgh!

I’d love to know what low-end microcontrollers exist that don’t exhibit the proprietary nonsense that is outlined above. 8 or 16 bits wide… I like ARM, but I’m not needing something that flashy. I like the low current drain of MSP430, and the fact they use gcc… which I guess pushes me in the direction of AVR and maybe PIC, but I’d be interested in other options. Cheap is important too, I don’t have a lot of cash for expensive tools or chips.

The other thing in the favour of AVR/PIC MCUs, is that there’s a local shop that I can buy them from — no need to order on-line. Farnell and RS have a wide variety, but I have to purchase from their website, which is awkward for me.

The applications I’d have in mind? Well, one idea is a more modern version of my headlamp… some of these MCUs draw less power than the 74HC14 chip used in that project (a few mA in standby mode) and would offer more functionality. Other applications include small controllers for amateur radio projects (not SDR though).

I’m really interested to know what controllers are out there, which are open-source friendly. Once I have a clear picture of what’s on offer, I can look more closely at my applications.

I just stumbled across this article, discussing the issues behind digital voice encoding at low bitrates.  The use of AMBE in the D-Star protocol really does get up my nose, at best it’s distasteful, at worst, harmful.

I’ve been doing some experimentation with Speex… so far my experimentations have been with bitrates above 12Kbps.  Above this, it is quite intelligible.  This is helped with pre and post filtering with the following filter:

It’s not ideal… it means things do sound rather flat, but it’s similar to existing filters employed on existing SSB and FM transmission systems. On SSB, around 2.2kHz is the maximum upper frequency… and it tends to drop out around 300Hz, give or take a little bit. That filter could do with some fine tuning, but I find for low-bitrate Speex, using it to filter the audio before encoding, and after decoding, helps to reduce the distortion of the codec. Some fine-tuning could allow for better fidelity.

It is interesting to hear though, that DVSI even cuts corners though in an effort to lift perceived clarity by trying to reproduce the bottom end.

A good low-bitrate encoder benefits everyone… VoIP becomes even cheaper when you can send the same quality audio in fewer bits, and the benefits for HF radio communications would be immeasurable.

I guess though, it comes back to the old saying:

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell. — Confucius

The AWNOI net is a weekly evening net that starts at 10:00PM UTC+10 (or 9:30PM UTC+10 when daylight savings time is in effect) and continues until the last station falls asleep.
This recording is produced by myself using my HF set (Kenwood TS-120S), Yaesu FC-700 tuner and G5RV-like outdoor antenna.
My QTH is at The Gap, Brisbane, QLD.
Most of the stations participating, bar 3, are VK4 stations (two VK2s and one VK1).

If you’re a licensed amateur with equipment for 80m communications, feel free to join us at any time.

This recording was made 2009-01-30 and is available as Ogg/Speex, Ogg/Vorbis or MPEG4/AAC codecs.
A short highlights recording is also available, in MP3, Ogg/Vorbis or Speex.
(more…)

Well, lately I’ve been tinkering around with antennas again for use whilst mobile.  By mobile, I mean public transport mobile, and pedestrian mobile… I don’t own a car.

Most handheld radios come with rubber ducky antennas.  My Kenwood TH-F7E is no exception.  Rubber ducky “dummy loads” as I call them, are quite dismal performers against an efficient and resonant dipole — however they are usually much more convenient size-wise than a resonant antenna.  It’s a similar story for mobile HF antennas… they’re a negative gain antenna.

Naturally, the way I’ve improved it, is to construct my own.  So far, I’ve built a number of these antennas.  The first version was a bit of stainless steel fencing wire with a SMA connector soldered to the botto and a few turns of a coil.  It was about 50cm long… roughly cut, so possibly not that well tuned… but it performed quite well… allowing me to reach repeaters up to 80km away on 2m with minimal line-of-sight.  The SMA->antenna interface proved to be a fragile component however.

A later version attempted to be a half-wave 2m, and could extend (fold out) to become a full-wave 70cm antenna.  This again, had similar mechanical issues to its predicessor, but performed excellent otherwise.

It was pointed out to me that trying to match a full-wave antenna is asking a bit much of the power-amp in my radio, and that an odd multiple of 1/4 wavelength was better.

Thus, the third revision, I made using some surplus solid core electrical copper cable, and a BNC connector, was constructed at a length of 52cm.  52cm was calculated according to the rule v=f?… the frequencies I had in mind were 146.500MHz (2m FM calling frequency)  and 439MHz (near to the input frequency of most 70cm repeaters).  52cm was calculated approximately as being 1/4 wavelength on 2m, and 3/4 wavelength on 70cm.

This antenna performed exceptionally well, and with the BNC connector, showed less mechanical problems than its predicessors.  It did however, put a lot of strain on the BNC->SMA adaptors I was using, and I had to be extra careful with the antennas length.

Using MMANA-GAL, I tried modelling this antenna, just to see how well it infact should work in theory.  Well I was right… about 6dBi gain on 70cm… it wasn’t bad at all! However, SWR was through the roof, 1:several hundred thousand.

I’ve since found a long forgotten RC car remote that operated on 40MHz, which had a 40cm long antenna.  I’ve stretched the base coil out a bit to make it 42cm and added a SMA connector to the bottom of it… I may have to extend it a bit, but this seems like a closer match to what I’m looking for… but my modelling of it is just as dismal in terms of SWR.

Now, as far as improving SWR… the ways I know of to fix this problem are:

• To make the antenna a dipole, effectively doubling its length
• Adding a ground plane or counterpoise radial
• Adding a matching section (like a J-pole)
• Using some sort of matching network

The thing that has me curious, is the rubber ducky antenna.  Now granted, I know those things do not radiate well.  They must however be doing something to keep the finals from blowing.  My understanding is that they’re little more than a spring in a plastic jacket… I can’t see how that is meant to match to the 50? source impedance.

The antenna design I use is apparently very similar to one used by Motorola for some of their professional radio antennas, according to this post.  Now I’m not sure how 19.5″ is arrived at — it doesn’t fit with the maths I used above, there is something I’ve missed.  Surely though, an antenna of this type would have the same impedance matching issues as the ones I’ve designed.  Either there’s other magic involved, or the finals in many handheld radios are more hardy than I thought.

At some stage I might borrow a SWR meter or antenna analyser for VHF/UHF… it’d be interesting to see just how far off the mark I am.  I haven’t blown my finals…yet.  The radio seems to still have plenty of life in it.  I’d be interested to know however, some of the background on this topic.  There is something I am missing, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Hi all,

I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve been absent from my usual online presence since Sunday afternoon.

Sunday we were at Montville (near the Glasshouse Mountains) doing a bushwalk through Kondalilla National Park on part of the Sunshine Coast Great Walk. On the way back home after stopping with the group for a drink at Landsborough, we drive along the Bruce Highway towards Brisbane when we noticed the huge storm front.

This storm front looked like it had tinges of green in it — which suggested mother nature might make lots of ice cubes and drop them on my father’s 18-month old car. The rain started pelting down as we got in to Carseldine, and eventually we decided to take refuge at Chermside shopping centre and have dinner while the storm passed.

Everything was uneventful on the trip home for the most part, one set of lights were on the flash… also some localised flooding… until we got through to Keperra. We had planned that evening to drop in on some friends (former next door neighbours, husband & wife, the husband dying of terminal cancer). As we drove passed the Mitchelton State School (I think that’s it), we saw that Dawson Parade was blocked off by a fallen tree, and the traffic was crawling. We inched our way towards home along Samford Road to see trees uprooted (not small ones either), massive flooding in parts. The horror story got worse as we headed over the hill from Keperra to our home suburb of The Gap.

Power lines down, trees over the road… we had to park the car some 400m away and walk the remaining distance due to blocked roads. It was about 20 minutes before we could get it home. Apparently our street had about 1m of water down it when the storm was at its peak.

Our house was undamaged, although a couple of trees copped a battering in the storm and had to be pulled down, and the G5RV antenna I had set up for my HF radio was damaged (still is… I’ll get around to it eventually).

We had no power (except for a 2.5kW petrol generator we own that we ran for a few hours yesterday) from when that storm hit, through to about 5PM Tuesday Evening. One UPS is a write-off on the count of knackered batteries, but otherwise, we’re okay. During the outage, mobile phone services were up and down like a yo-yo… my handheld dual-band transceiver, tuned to the Mt. Cotton (VK4RAX 147.075MHz) and Mt. Coot-tha (VK4RBC 438.525MHz) prooved to be more reliable. (Unfortunately though, I was one of the few amateurs in my street).

A few houses copped about 40cm water through their house, destroying carpets and ruining furniture. One house, that was for sale, wound up with a tree landing on its roof, piercing the awning and the roof in a couple of places. A number of fences also were written off.

Damage was worse around Payne Road. I suspect this is where most of the pictures of damage were taken. It appears the storm first came over Mt. Coot-Tha, hit Payne Road, bounced, hit Waterworks Road, rolled down the hill ploughing through The Gap State School and St. Peter Chanel School (this is where I began my schooling) and up Fish Creek (including the bottom end of our street). From there it continued up Settlement road, ploughing through trees along the road, and decimating the tree-line along the ridge between Keperra and The Gap.

Thanks to the help of everyone in our street and the numerous volunteers, we’ve now mostly got our street back into reasonable shape. The following is not an exhaustive list, I’ve possibly overlooked numerous groups and organisations that have helped in some manner. Some of the organisations that have assisted those in The Gap and therefore I’d like to thank (in no particular order):

• State Emergency Services (some units came from as far away as North Queensland)
• Queensland Police
• RoadTek (Department of Main Roads)
• Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service
• Skilled Engineering
• Energex, Ergon Energy, numerous other companies, some from interstate
• Rural Fire Brigade (some from as far away as Gatton and beyond)
• Brisbance City Council

… any other organisations who assisted… and of course the neighbours who pitched in and helped clean up.

I uploaded my pictures here (taken the morning after). Some more pictures of the storm are available from the Triple M Cage (Brisbane) website.