Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2014-08-31.mp3 Text edition:
WIANEWS - AUGUST 31 - VK NATIONAL NEWS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK
Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!
Email
http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news
TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA
Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's. When you upload audio email us the txt version.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING AUGUST 31 2014.
HEADING TOWARDS OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS
Take your tablet with Qantas and Virgin Australia.
Foundation Course and Assessments in Sydney
Li-FI - the future of digital communications is Bright at EMDRC
THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING AUGUST 31 2014.
Take your tablet with Qantas and Virgin Australia.
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority this week declared that both
airlines can allow passengers to use tablets, e-book readers, MP3 players
and smartphones (set to 'flight mode') during a flight's taxi, take-off and
landing stages.
However, of all these devices, it's the use of tablets that is the most
significant win for business travellers, enabling you to get on with real
work from the moment you sit down - except paying attention to the safety
briefing - whereas laptop computers still need to be securely stashed in the
overhead lockers during take-off and landing.
It's what's called 'gate-to-gate' usage of 'personal electronic devices',
and Qantas and Virgin Australia were quick off the mark to declare that the
days of the great switch-off for inflight gadgets are over.
Travellers can now use their personal tech for the entire duration of the
flight.
Telstra has expanded its commercial trial of next generation 4G services on
the 700MHz spectrum to selected areas of Sydney and Adelaide.
Once switched on, customers using compatible devices in these trial locations
will experience the fastest mobile data speeds in Australia, according to a
company statement.
The commercial trials will start in mid-September
Services on 700MHz spectrum will also be rolled out in more cities and
regional centres as spectrum becomes available in January 2015.
This extends the number of commercial trial cities to eight, with commercial
services already being tested in Perth, Fremantle, Esperance, Mildura,
Mt Isa and Griffith.
In addition to faster download speeds, the use of low band spectrum like
700 MHz allows for the signal to travel further and reach deeper into
buildings, improving the depth of coverage for customers.
Optus, the second-biggest Telco in Australia, will launch its Optus 10
satellite on Sept 12.
It is being transported to the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
Once launched, it will operate in the Ku-band FSS and BSS bands across
Australia, New Zealand and Antarctic regions. Its lifespan is estimated to
last for over 15 years.
Electro-Optic Systems and aerospace firm Lockheed Martin are developing
a new network to track space junk.
With a global system of sensors, initially at Mount Stromlo, Canberra,
and a new facility in Western Australia, operators can be informed of the
risk of damage from space debris so they can move satellites.
After half a century of space travel, there are some 300,000 bits of space
junk one-centimetre or larger, regarded as big enough to destroy the function
of a satellite.
Over the next five to six years, the idea is to track the debris with
EOS technology in combination with other systems such as the US Air Force
Space Fence Radar.
Step two will be an orbital clean-up, involving space missions to remove dead
satellites.
New technology likely in five to seven years would use ground-based lasers
to nudge smaller objects into lower orbits so they burn up in the atmosphere.
WIA BOARD TALK
President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Vice President Chris Platt VK5CP
Secretary David Williams VK3RU
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ
Next week hopefully we will be joined by WIA Secretary David Williams who
will have the latest news in regards to progress of the Dstar Repeaters and
the WIA's arrangements with the Clubs looking after the repeaters going
forward.
HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.
VK1
The local VK1/VK2 SOTA participants are meeting at the Ainslie Football Club
Tuesday, 2 September, for dinner, 6:30 for 7pm.
If you are interested in SOTA or QRP field operations please join them at
the AFC.
Oh and you are welcome to bring your latest piece of QRP kit for a "show and
tell".
(Andrew, VK1NAM )
VK2
web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm
Foundation Course and Assessments
The next ARNSW Foundation course weekend in the greater Sydney area will
be next month, September on Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st.
Licence upgrade assessments are also held on the Sunday.
Bookings are essential and can be made for either the Foundation course or
the assessments by sending off an email addressed to
Westlake's field day is scheduled for Sunday the 14th of September, in the
club grounds at Teralba.
There is no cost to set up a stall, but take your own table.
Ring and leave a message on 02 49581 588, to book a spot.
The next gathering of The St George Amateur Radio Society will be held on
Wednesday, the 3rd of September.
Every amateurs wants to know how well their radios are working. Are they on
frequency? Are they putting out the correct power? How well are they
receiving?
These and many other tests can be performed with the aid of a
communications test set.
Many of these items are coming on the amateur market and can be of great
benefit to a ham but only if you know how to use them.
Robyne VK2CAB will be demonstrating what can be done on with a Motorola
R-2001 test set. As well as demonstrating the various tests that can be
carried out, there will also be the opportunity for members and visitors to
put their radios on the bench to see how good they are.
Again the next gathering will be held at the club's meeting rooms, Donnelly
Park, Kyle Parade, Connells Point, on Wednesday the 3rd of September,
commencing at 7.30 PM.
VK3
web service:- http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/
Shepparton and District Amateur Radio Club's Hamfest takes place 14 Sept.
Just 2 1/2 hours it kicks off at 10am and wraps at 12:30pm
Great bargains to be had, commercial dealers in attendance as well as lots of
pre loved goodies. Door prize, raffle prizes and more.
Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group Hamfest 2014 Sunday 9th November 10AM.
Doors open to buyers at 10am in the Gary Cooper Pavilion, Anzac Ave,
Yarra Glen with ample parking, free tea & coffee and still only $5 entry.
Portable in Victorian National Parks
The 4th annual weekend of activity under the Keith Roget National Parks Award
takes place in November and already 13 individual registrations have been
received.
VK5 operators will again be active in VK3 in the western national parks on
the weekend of November the 14th to the 17th.
We hear that a few from last month's Master Class - Portable held by Amateur
Radio Victoria, may be getting their transceivers, batteries and antennas
ready. Don't be shy, give it a go and bite the bullet.
Anyone is able to join the portable operations in the field either by activating
their own VK3 national park, or make arrangements to join someone else. Perhaps
you might like to work the national parks from home?
The November dates again are from Friday the 14th through to Monday the 17th.
(Jim Linton VVK3PC)
Li-FI - the future of digital communications is Bright.
The Eastern and Mountain District Radio Club Main monthly meeting this coming
Friday night September 5th will see a talk from Professor Jean Armstrong from
Monash university.
Professor Armstrong is an expert in OFDM transmission methods and Li-fi
Technology to transmit high speed data using light, a rapidly developing and
cutting edge technology!
More information can be found at the EMDRC club website www.emdrc.com.au,
everyone welcome. It should be (dare I say it) an "enlightening evening!
Oh and Sunday November 9th will be the 3rd Annual VK3 VHF / UHF and Microwave
experimenters Test and Tune day at EMDRC Clubrooms Burwood.
(Andrew Scott VK3BQ)
VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
send audio to http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/
get local audio news www.wiaq.org.au/ftp/vk4_qnews_64.mp3
get local news emailed
The Townsville Amateur Radio Club are holding the "Cardwell Gathering" October
the third over 4 days.
This RadioAmateur Gathering in Paradise will be based at the Cardwell
Beachcomber Motel and Tourist Park, with lots of things happening during
the event for the whole family.
Check out more information at the Cardwell Gathering website
http://www.tarc.org.au/Activities/Ca...9/Default.aspx
(Gavin Reibelt : via the WIA Calendar)
DISCUSSION POINT
What use is an F-call? (Episode 20130929)
When I started this caper over two years ago, my very first edition of
"What use is an F-call?" discussed the idea that it's not power that
determines your ability to make a contact, it's your antenna - that and
propagation.
Of course there are situations where having a high power station will get you
places that a low power station won't.
I've often made the observation that
having a Foundation License is like being a QRP operator, a station that runs
on low power. If you have an Advanced license and decide to operate with
5 Watts and you make contacts, you get accolades from the community, where as
a Foundation Licensee, you're doing that by law.
It's quite amazing to hear new operators continue to have the perception that
they need more power and that's why they should upgrade their license. This
view is perpetuated by many amateurs in our community and I don't think it's
helpful, nor is it accurate.
I'm not adverse to upgrading a license at all, but power should not be your
first reason. You should think of a higher license as more bands, more modes,
more skill and more knowledge. You will have the ability to build equipment
that you can't as a Foundation Class License holder and you'll have choice of
a wider selection of callsigns.
If you are a Foundation Class amateur, and you want to talk to people who
use low power as a matter of pride, get in touch with the QRP community,
there's clubs and websites galore, newsletters, social outings, activities
and more.
You'll fit right in!
I'm Onno VK6FLAB
INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA.
Set to celebrate its silver anniversary next year, LUSAT-1 -- which
is also known as OSCAR 19 or LO-19 -- appears once again to be
functioning, sort of, when not in sunlight. At this point, OSCAR 19
is only transmitting telemetry; its digital transponder has not been
reported to be operational.
"We knew that our LUSAT started transmitting again a couple of years
ago, but only when illuminated by sunlight and was not heard during
the night," Pedro Converso, LU7ABF, reported to the AMSAT-BB. During
a recent night-time pass, though, he was surprised to hear "the usual
strong 900 mW continuous carrier on 437.125 MHz," 22 minutes after LO-
19 had emerged from Earth's shadow.
"It's almost a miracle that after almost 25 years, LUSAT's vintage
Ni-Cd batteries can receive and hold [a] charge," he said.
Launched in 1990 from Kourou, French Guyana, on an Ariane 4 vehicle,
the satellite -- Argentina's first -- has completed more than 128,000
orbits, and is one of the oldest active Amateur Radio satellites.
10 GHz under threat from broadband links
The OK 2 KKW contest club report on interference to the amateur radio
10 GHz band from commercial internet links in Prague, Czech Republic
On YouTube you can hear an example of strong noise and interference from
commercial point to point internet links on 10GHz in Prague. As you can see,
any weaker amateur radio sigs are almost not receivable now.
Czech republic Radiocommunication authority CTU allocated significant part of
10 GHz band (across our 10368MHz DX band) for free use of Wi-Fi internet
providers. However it breaches CEPT recommendations.
HAM RADIO EMCOMM MESSAGE FROM GOUGH ISLAND
It was ham radio to the rescue on when an important message
from remote Gough Island to the South Africa's Department of
Environmental Affairs could not be sent as the normal lines
of communications were down.
The story really began this past February when Pierre
Tromp, ZS1HF, volunteered to go to Gough Island after a
member of the Gough Team had passed away on the island.
Tromp was then transported to Gough Island where he was
assigned the call sign ZD9M.
Over the weekend of August 9th, a serious incident occurred
on the island. As the Satellite Phone connection to the
African continent had been poor since the first week of
August, ZD9M decided to use ham radio to contact Trevor
Brinch, ZS1TR for relay of the information back to Cape Town.
While the text was not made public, the message contained
836 words and was sent a few at a time and repeated back for
confirmation. The entire process took about 1 hour 45
minutes to transfer via High Frequency radio. During this
time the two stations were forced to alternate between 20
and 30 meters as conditions were fading in and out on both
bands. After confirmation of the content of the message it
was retyped into e-mail format and successfully sent to the
listed recipients.
Another example of amateur radio being able to get the
message delivered when all others methods fail.
FCC says "open the door.'
The US communications regulator, the FCC, continued this month to demonstrate
that it's serious about enforcing its rules and regulations
The ARRL report the FCC is proposing to fine a Florida Citizens Band operator
$14,000 for failing to allow FCC agents to inspect his station. The
Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture to
Tommie Salter of Jacksonville August 22.
Pirate Radio in China
The South China Morning Post reports on the growing number of pirate radio
stations in the country
The Hong Kong newspaper quoted the authorities as saying they had found
high-powered radio transmitters in private hands, among them was a 2,000-watt
transmitter which provided coverage of most of the capital.
Pirate radio equipment can apparently be bought easily on online shopping
sites.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/artic...uipment-seized
================================================== ===========================
ARNEWSLINE
RETIREMENT COMMUNITY ADOPTS HAM RADIO
More than a dozen residents of a Redlands, California, retirement community
have become amateur radio operators and are working to familiarize themselves
with a local disaster relief plan. This in the event that emergency personnel
were unable to reach their Plymouth Valley retirement community should a
disaster situation arise.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has more:
According to the Redlands Daily Facts on-line newspaper,
Keith Kasin, AI6BX, is the Plymouth Village executive
director who is leading the group. In the article Kasin
explained Plymouth Village is required to have an emergency
response plan as part of its day-to-day operations. Also that
the program provides those involved with a chance to be pro-active.
The group is made up of Plymouth Village volunteers that
meet regularly and also hold practice drills using amateur
radio. Each volunteer is responsible for a portion of the
retirement community. Kasin says that once training and
exams are complete, Plymouth Village will see around 30
certified operators working to keep residents safe.
According to Kasen, Plymouth Village is a 37-acre campus
with a population of 300.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK,
reporting.
The complete story about this unique community self help
disaster planning is on the web at tinyurl.com/plymouth-village-ready
HAM IN INDIA RARE TYPE BLOOD DONOR
Some names in the news. First up is Shaikh Sadaqathullah,
VU2SDU, who was recently featured in the August 11th edition
of India's Trinity Mirror Evening English language
newspaper. According to the article, VU2SDU, who has a rare
blood group, started donating blood in 1993 at the
suggestion of VU2HMN. She told him one of her relatives
with the same rare blood group was to undergo heart surgery.
You can read the entire story at trinitymirror.net/news by
using the search argument VU2SDU.
OSWEGO COUNTY NY HAM HONOURED
Back in the United States, Dave Anthony, AC2CM, a member of
the Oswego County New York Emergency Communicators and Radio
Amateur Civil Emergency Service has been honoured with the
2014 Service Award. This, for his dedication to the amateur
radio group that helps government agencies with emergency
communications needs.
More about Dave Anthony, AC2CM, and his volunteer efforts is on the web
tinyurl.com/races-volunteer-honored
OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2014
ALARA CONTEST Aug 30 - 31
Manly-Warringah Radio Society's Flagpole contest September 20.
Amateur Radios International Air-ambulance Week, 9 days from Sep 28.
2015
Tablelands Radio Group will again hold AM and CW on ANZA Day 25 April
10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 1 - 2
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE
PA70OMG COMMEMORATES WW2 OPERATION MARKET BASKET
On the air, keep an ear open for special event station
PA70OMG, to be operational from the Netherlands from
September 12th to the 21st. This to commemorate the 70th
anniversary of the World War 2 Operation Market Garden by
paratroopers and allied forces which began on September 17th
1944 to help liberate the region after four years of German
occupation. If you make contact QSLs go direct or via the
bureau to PB0AEZ.
More information on Operation Market
Basket and this ham radio special event operation can be
found on-line at pa2p.nl/pa70omg
(ARNewsLine)
Members of the Romanian Radio Club Association is activating
Fericirii Island for the first time until September 30th.
Operations will be on the High Frequency bands only.
QSL via YO9FNP.
EA7FTR will be active between September 5th and October 10th
as D44KS from Boa Vista which is the Eastern most island of
Cape Verde. Due to work commitments his hours of operation
will be limited to his spare time. Listen for him on 40
through 6 meters using SSB and RTTY and QSL via EB7DX.
Rolls-Royce Special Event
On the 11th and 12th of October for forty eight hours, the Hucknall
Rolls-Royce Amateur Radio Club are running a special event station GB 1 RR,
celebrating the centenary of the Eagle aero engine.
Rolls-Royce was asked by the UK Government to develop an aero engine of which
entered service in the Great War 1914-1918.
HRRARC will put on up to four stations simultaneously, these will comprise
two HF stations, one HF data station and a VHF station.
SSB/PSK31 on HF from 160 metres to 10 metres
www.hrrarc.com
(Neil M0NJJ via SouthGate)
No matter WHAT you have heard the address remains the same.
In operation for over 30 years the address for the QSL Bureau
Luxembourg (LX) remains the same.
The President and Secretary ask that you TOTALLY ignore and requests to
use a different address.
(sourced to Mich Friederich LX1KQ President & Dan Jungels LX1JU Secretary)
Radioamateurs du Luxembourg (RL)
P.O. Box 1352
L-1013 Luxembourg
Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg / Europe
AWARDS
Paul Stoetzer N8HM has announced a new award for contacts made via
the AO-73 (FUNcube-1) amateur radio satellite
"I am pleased to announce that I will be sponsoring a new award to
promote activity on AO-73 (FUNcube-1). The requirements for this
award are simple:
Work 73 unique stations on AO-73.
Contacts must be made on or after September 1, 2014.
There are no geographic restrictions on your operating location.
There will be no cost for this award (donations to AMSAT-UK and
AMSAT-NA's Fox program are encouraged though). No QSLs are required.
When you complete the requirements, email your log extract including
the callsign of each station worked, time GMT, and date to
as well as the address where you'd like the award
certificate sent.
(AMSAT NA)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FEMALES IN RADIO
ALARA - AUSTRALIAN LADIES AR ASSOCIATION
http://alara.org.au
Net is held each Mondays on 3.570± MHz, commencing at 1030 UTC.
(1000utc during daylight saving)
YL Activity Week
As this was such a great success last year the gals in ZL land have decided
to do it again this year.
Dates will be September 21st to the 27th inclusive running from 8pm to 9pm
each night.
Frequencies 80m 3695, 20m , New Zealand's National system, 2m repeaters.
All WARO members are invited to participate and they would like all other
YL's to come up on air and chat with other ladies. So why not come and join
them and have a contact and conversation with some amazing women in and
around New Zealand.
(sourced to zl info line)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER
Amateur Satellites- become involved
Amateur Satellite operating is one of the most interesting and rewarding
modes in our hobby.
The satellites are relatively easy to access and require very little hardware
investment to get started.
You can gain access to the FM 'repeaters in the sky' with just a dual band
hand held operating on 2M. and 70cm.
These easy-to-use and popular FM satellites will give amateurs national
communications and handheld access into New Zealand at various times through
the day and night.
Should you wish to join AMSAT-VK, sign-up at the group site.
http://group.amsat-vk.org
(Tony VK7AX via vk7wi news)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RESCUE RADIO
IARU REGION 3
Emergency Centre of Activity (CoA) frequencies
3.600, 7.110, 14.300, 18.160 and 21.360 MHz
AUGUST AND HAMS IN HAWAII RESPOND TO TROPICAL STORM ISELLE
Hams in Hawaii were once again ready as Tropical Storm
Iselle made landfall on the Big Island.
As soon as hams on Hawaii were informed that Hurricane
Iselle was headed toward them, preparations for its arrival began:
As the storm approached the Big Island it approached as a category 1
Hurricane and then just off-shore it fizzled out a little bit to a
very, very high end tropical storm. It hung off shore for 5 hours
and in the process the brutal winds and the punishing rains ground down
on the South-East coast of the Big Island and they took
quite a beating.
As a result of the storm, some 21,900 residents were without
electric power. And landline and cellular service was down
in some area. But ham radio kept the emergency responders
in communications with one another:
It took about 10 days for things to settle back to normal
with all power and telephone service only now restored.
(ARNewsLine)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS
http://www.raotc.org.au
Do you know the connection between 17th Century Holland and the Yaesu Radio
Company?
Hallo everyone, this is Clive VK6CSW.
You can find the answer to that question by listening to the Radio Amateurs
Old Timers Club of Australia's September bulletin due to go to air tomorrow.
Throughout the day there are a number of local broadcasts on HF, VHF and UHF
but the primary HF transmissions are on 20 metres on 14.150 MHz USB. AT
0100 UTC the signal is beamed north from Melbourne for Eastern states
listeners. An hour later, at 0200 UTC, the programme is beamed westward for
WA listeners.
Also at 0200 UTC, Barry VK6WF will be transmitting on 40 metres on 7060 kHz
mainly for WA country listeners, while also at 0200 UTC the bulletin goes out
on all linked NewsWest repeaters.
To find a frequency and time for your particular area, or to download the
bulletin audio file at any time after next Tuesday, please visit the RAOTC
website at www.raotc.org.au
Everyone, RAOTC Members and non-members alike, is most welcome to listen to
the bulletin and to join in the call-backs afterwards.
Once again, the September RAOTC bulletin goes to air tomorrow, Monday
September 1st, and we look forward to hearing from you afterwards.
73 from Clive VK6CSW.
SOCIAL SCENE 2014
Sep 13 VK4 Sunshine Coast AR Club's SUNFest, Woombye School of Arts
Sept 14 VK2 Westlake's field day, club grounds at Teralba.
Sept 14 VK3 Shepparton and District AR Club Hamfest kicks off at 10am.
Sep 28 VK3 Melbourne Amateur Radio Technology Group Hamfest Keilor East.
Sep 28 VK4 Central Highlands ARC Weekend at Camp Fairbairn.
Oct 3 VK4 Townsville Amateur Radio Club's Cardwell Gathering 4 day event.
Oct 25 VK4 HAMFEST on the Gold Coast. ( )
Nov 2 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society
Nov 9 VK3 Yarra Valley AR Group Hamfest 10am Gary Cooper Pavilion.
Nov 9 vk3 VHF / UHF and Microwave experimenters
Nov 15 VK7 Miena Hamfest (My-enah)
Nov 30 VK3 SPARC HamFest at Rosebud ( )
2015
June, Queens Birthday weekend 40th annual Oxley Region Field Day
Tacking Point Surf Life Saving Hall.
July 11-12 VK3 GippsTech 2015
Submitting news items
If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to
to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au
Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being
broadcast in the very next edition of WIA National News. Each item will only
be broadcast once, if you want a couple of mentions, please submit different
slants to keep your event 'fresh 'and always if the news room is to read your
item write in the 3rd person.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
================================================== ===========================
WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.
TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA
Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail
Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".
Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.
The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.
We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs. Opinions expressed in
"WIANews" are those of the writers who submit material and do not necessarily
reflect those of the rebroadcasters, nor the National WIA, but are broadcast
in the spirit in which they were submitted."
Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...
Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.
..
-------------
_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news