After activating the Devonport silo (28th October 2022), Marija and I headed t the Quoiba silo VK-QBA7 for another silo activation for the Silos On The Air (SiOTA) program.

The Quoiba silo can be located on Devonport Road at Quoiba. Quoiba is a suburb of Devonport, about 5km south of the Devonport CBD. The suburb contains an industrial area. Quoiba is believed to be an aboriginal word for ‘wombat’.

We operated from near the racecourse for this activation, as it was extremely noisy on the bands from immediately adjacent to the silo. We operated from the vehicle using the Icom IC7000, 100 watts, and the Codan 9350 antenna.

Above:- Map showing the location of the Quoiba silos. Image c/o SiOTA website.

The Quoiba silos is part of Joe White Maltings Limited who have seven plants across five States in Australia. The Quoiba plant in Devonport is Tasmania’s sole malthouse and serves world class distilleries. The company sources barley which is harvested from barley belts around Australia and then passed the kernels into the hands of expert maltsters.

The company can trace its roots back to Alexander White, the father of Joe White. He was a trained maltster and from 1858 had been malting in Ballarat in Victoria with Henry Cane. The Australian brewing industry boomed in tandem with the Victorian gold rush during the 1850s.

In 1892, at aged just 23 years, Joe White took over control of his father’s business. By 1894 a new malthouse had been constructed in Gregory Street, Ballarat. In 1926 the company’s first roaster was installed in Collingwood.

Marija made the following QSOs on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3PF
2. VK2MET
3. VK1AO
4. VK2IO

Marija made the following QSOs on 20m SSB:-

1. VK4CZ
2. VK4MGL
3. VK4NH
4. VK4DXA

Marija made the following QSO on 80m SSB:-

1. VK3PF

I made the following QSOs on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3PF
2. VK2MET
3. VK1AO
4. VK2IO
5. VK3CM
6. VK3GJG
7. VK5FANA
8. VK3OHM

I made the following QSOs on 20m SSB:-

1. VK4MGL
2. VK4CZ
3. VK4NH
4. VK4DXA

I made the following QSO on 80m SSB:-

1. VK3PF

References.

1. Joe White Maltings catalogue, 2021
2. Joe White Maltings, 2022, <https://joewhitemaltings.com.au/our-history/>, viewed 6th December 2022
3. Wikipedia, 2022, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoiba,_Tasmania>, viewed 6th December 2022.