WIANEWS - July 03 - 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 nationalnews@wia.org.au 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING July 03 2011 FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING JULY 3 2011. Sometimes when news arrives we check the date, in case it's meant for April One! This story is one of those! It's about a DXpedition requiring the services of polar bear guards, electrically charged bear fences and "Polar Bear Spray". This is the first-time IOTA activation of Point Lay Barrier Island IOTA NA-242. July 22 - 26 July (2011) CALLSIGN: K6VVA/KL7 QSL ROUTE: ONLY via N6AWD (Direct or Bureau) NA-242 is primarily CW on 40/30/20/17m. Due to the possibility of polar bears at NA-242, they have purchased electric bear fences, bear spray, and will hire one or more local "Bear Guards" with heavy firepower for 24/7 protection. WEBSITE: http://www.k6vva.com/iota/na242 (Rick, K6VVA The Locust via Southgate) South Australian newspaper "Border Watch" is reporting on what they say is a "Remarkable rescue". Two men have been lucky to survive nearly four hours in icy waters after their boat capsized off the coast of Port MacDonnell on Saturday afternoon. The two Geelong men, both aged in their 50s, were rescued 14km off the coast of Port MacDonnell after a wave swamped their five-metre vessel. Miraculously, the men managed to dive under the capsized boat and recover an emergency beacon before clinging to the vessel. The pair were able to transmit an emergency message to Australia Search and Rescue (AusSar) services in Canberra, which in turn alerted emergency services in South Australia. However, the vessel sank shortly after the signal was sent, leaving both men clutching to an esky in the freezing water as it became dark. The rescuing craft's captain said "the men were in a poor state when they were pulled aboard. They were suffering very badly from hypothermia”. Are you interested in any way with VHF, UHF or microwave bands? Then perhaps you should consider attending the annual GippsTech technical conference, held each year in July at Churchill. This year, it looks like they have a very full program across the 2 days. Saturday lunch will be a spit roast, with vegetarian options (if pre-booked). Sunday lunch will be pizza, with vegetarian and gluten free options (if pre-booked). The Saturday evening Conference Dinner will again be at the Morwell Club, with a smorgasbord main course and buy your own drinks at the bar. Register NOW! Download the form from http://www.vk3bez.org/ and follow the links to GippsTech. Registrations need to be in TODAY - No guarantee of food for those who register after Today Sunday 3 July. (sourced to a release by Peter VK3PF) This is Jack VK3WWW with an update for the 8th IARU Region 3 ARDF Championships. I expect you are all aware by now of the date but if you are not they will be on from 23rd through to the 28th of September. Things are really hotting up now with many of the International teams busy organising entry visas and air transport. One of the interesting things is the popularity of the event in China. Recently I received a request from the Chinese Radio Sports Association CRSA if they could send extra competitors not just a couple but 40 extra competitors. In places like China, ARDF has been very popular for a long time. It is even an elective sport in some schools. When I first started out in ARDF financial backing and selection for a Chinese team was done at a government level. Later on the Government only subsidised a little bit of the costs and now I expect they all pay there own way like we do. How things change. The 8th IARU Region 3 ARDF Championships will be in the Maldon, Bendigo and Castlemaine region so competitors will get to really see some of our natural bush. Our Australian team is not confirmed yet as most of the usual VK competitors are busy organising the event. If you are interested in Competing, Spectating or even better Volunteering I would love to hear from you. For more information about the event check out the event website www.r3.ardf.org.au WIA President Michael Owen VK3KI president@wia.org.au Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD vk2asd@wia.org.au Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD secretary@wia.org.au Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ vk3pz@wia.org.au The Remembrance Day Contest for 2011, is on the weekend 13-14 August. The RD will commence at the same time as in previous years, that is 0800 and run until to 0759 UTC the following day. Although an overwhelming majority of people at the AGM open forum in Darwin supported a revision of the starting time, it was not possible to have a discussion with the contest manager before the rules had to be placed with the publications team in time for inclusion in July Amateur Radio magazine. With the establishment of the proposed Contest Committee, all contest rules will be reviewed and where practical will be standardised. " cheers and thanks Bob VK6POP WIA Director Good Morning fellow amateurs and short wave listeners. This short report was submitted by Chris VK5CP, unfortunately he was unable to prepare an audio file in preparation for this weeks broadcast and has asked me to present the report on his behalf. As this is Chris's first report he wanted me to tell you a little about himself. Chris became interested in radio during the CB craze in the 1970's. At that time Chris was finishing High School and mobile phones had not been invented yet. Radio was a fun way to communicate and talk to people on the other side of the globe. Chris passed his Novice exam in 1978 but had to wait until 1993 in order to find John Kelleher VK3DP to assist him conquer the code. With the help of Rob Charmicheal and Jim Linton, Chris got his combined call in 1993. Chris's practical radio knowledge has been acquired using the trial and error method which has involved letting the smoke out a number of components. With the assistance of his colleagues at the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group in Adelaide his skills are slowly expanding. Chris has been a WIA Board Member just over a year. On the Queens Birthday long weekend Chris travelled to Mount Gambier to brave the cold damp world of fox hunting with the South East Radio Group. A record number of 11 teams from VK3 and VK5 participated in a weekend of fox hunts including the inaugural Wayne Kilpatrick Memorial Night Fox Hunt. Much fun was had walking around Crater Lake waving 3 element 2 metre yagis, receivers squealing away searching for 10 tiny hidden transmitters as a confused public looked on. Then the car based hunts commenced, the first fox was a 80W 70cm signal emanating from a 10 element yagi in a Victorian Forest! Some took a direct route and got bogged, our team got bogged trying to rescue the bogged competitors. The night hunt was a long distance affair which finished near midnight. I felt for the poor foxes freezing in the forest waiting to be found. On Sunday we had some sunshine and attended a nice Hamfest with a good variety of stalls and saw a homebrew competition of a very high standard. After another day of hunts, the SERG team put on a fantastic BBQ and handed out certificates to the successful competitors with VK3 scoring strongly. The weekend was a good opportunity to catch up with the VK3 and VK5 foxhunting fraternity and meet the SERG members who are doing their bit to encourage new entrants to our hobby. It was a well managed event, keep up the great work SERG! 73 de Chris VK5CP (presently portable Olympic Dam) HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK1 There is currently an unknown signal interfering with the 2m Ginini repeater which historically occurs to this repeater (and sometimes the Bulls Head repeater) around this time of year. This is causing the repeater to time out - periodically coming back up when the interfering signal drops beneath the receiver threshold, but effectively making the repeater unusable. As there is nothing CRARC can do at this point, I am afraid it is a case of hurry up and wait! ( Glenn vk1nut) VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm VKG Roundup http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news Waverley Amateur Radio Society will be holding its annual auction and table sale of small items on Saturday, July 9th at the clubhouse in Vickery Avenue, Rose Bay, Sydney. Gates open 8:30 and the main sale starts at 10:30. Goods consist of useful ham radio and electronic gear and the auction is open to all wishing to buy or sell. Full details, including descriptions and pictures of some of the items to be sold, are available on the club's web site at www.vk2bv.org (wia events) ORARC AGM Saturday, 30th July The next ORARC Meeting will be Saturday, 30th July at 2:30pm, their annual general meeting. Venue will be the Veterans Centre Cnr of High and Palmer Streets, South Dubbo (Jon) VK4 - QNEWS web service local audio news:- www.wiaq.com/ftp/vk4_qnews_64.mp3 local news email qnews-vk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com VKR Roundup http://www.police.qld.gov.au/News+and+Alerts/Media+Releases/ Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP and I've been thinking. Just to restate a point that I have made before; it has been the capacity of the radio amateurs that I have known, over the years, to share their interest in this hobby. This is the point that I have made that we will grow our membership more by the enthusiasm of individuals than by any other means. To step back a little - it is the skills and experience of many people that bring the web pages, the magazines and news broadcasts to us. It is the capacity of individuals to work together that builds our clubs and interest groups. It is the enjoyment of the activities that stimulate our grey cells that enables us all to tell the story which will engage a budding enthusiast to join the hobby. Just remember that many of us manage to do some jobs well but each of us is an individual who has strengths that we can share. It can be as important to exhibit proper operating procedure as it is knowing how to mark out the lines that allow cutting material for a home brew project. It can be as important to bring some-one into a working shack and demonstrating how to do certain things as it is to take a photo for the club newsletter. In other words, each of us have the opportunity to do what those who preceded us did for us, share our hobby. Have you told some one about amateur radio, this week? I'm Geoff Emery and that is what I think......how about you? CENTRAL QUEENSLAND AR CLUB Rockhampton cqar.com.au The Central Queensland Amateur Radio Association Inc is going from strength to strength with our membership growing. Jack VK4JRC has organized a digital training day at the Rockhampton Heritage Village on how to use the SignaLink external USB soundcard on digital mode's for member's and interested parties, Jack has also been running hf test's on the Mount Morgan Dam with his plastic titanic. The plastic titanic is a plastic canoe with an electric motor fitted and it incorporates a HF radio and a HF and 6 metre antenna. Plan's are well underway for the light house weekend at Seahill Lighthouse and we have a foundation licence weekend coming up in July. Plan's are also underway for an annual event for the club to be held in October. Jack VK4JRC gave us a very interesting presentation at our last meeting on his trip to Lord Howe island. It is amazing what you can do with little equipment and how you can utilise the environment without harm to you or the environment. The club meets the second Sunday of each month at the French Sport's Club at 6pm for a meal and chat prior to the meeting starting at 7pm. Ray VK4HOT will be giving us a presentation at the July meeting on the subject of making hydrogen for his car. This text was written by Dave, VK4DJC and spoken by Adam, VK4MTJ on behalf of the Central Queensland Amateur Radio Association Inc. Redcliffe and District Radio Club www.redclifferadioclub.org.au/ I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club. After a few weeks of illness and work commitments, I am back to tell you of the goings-on at the Redcliffe club. One of our club members Reverend John, VK4BZ, has left to be with his battalion in Afghanistan and should be back early next year. John decided not to take any ham gear with him and currently trying to find a friendly American ham in the location who could assist but as yet no luck. Last Monday night the AGM was held with some 47 members present. Peter VK4TAA retired as secretary after some 7 years in the job and the new secretary is Roger, VK4ZLQ. Peter VK4EA also retired as treasurer and Chris, VK4ANI is the new treasurer. David VK4DC remains as club president. Two welcomed visors to the meeting were VK3XPD, VK5DK who were visiting the area and were most welcomed by club members. About 2 weeks ago the club participated in an fund raiser at Bunning’s which ended early in the afternoon with heavy rain and a washout of the crowds but the club was able to raise some $900. The club hopes to get another booking later in the year to do it all again but this time without the rain. The next club technical talk is on the 3rd Monday in July and it will be John, VK4YJV, and the topic will be basic Metallurgy. In August it will be James, VK4TJF, on RFI, In September, Kevin, VK4UH, Norfolk Island Expedition and in October, Bob, VK4ZB, on PIC controls and software. Training continues at the club with a second foundation course to be held before the end of the year, a Standard License course with 7 candidates has started and is progressing well and an advanced course is running and is scheduled to be completed about September with 7 candidates. The club will be holding its first working bee at the club house on July 16 and the plan is to replace the guttering on the road side of the club house. The club was been advised that the convener of the competition can no longer carry out this function after this year. Accordingly he had asked for expressions of interest to carry on this position. The Executive committee considered that as this club had regularly participated in the competition that we should volunteer our services. Kevin VK4UH advised that he with the assistance of the club, would volunteer to be the convenor. So now it’s back to the rest of QNEWS and it’s 73 until next time from Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club. TABLELANDS RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CLUB vk4wat@wia.org.au www.treclub.org.au G’Day again from the chilly north this is Dale VK4DMC for the Tablelands Radio and Electronics Club, TREC, in Far North Queensland. During the past week TREC members have been providing communications support and check point manning for the Far North Equestrian Riders Association on the Atherton Tablelands. This was a 5 day horse endurance event with over 50 riders taking part. They traverse a variety of terrains, mainly savannah scrub, with some very steep ascents and descents. 146.500 (CH.50) is the primary frequency used with the VK4RTA repeater being used as a secondary frequency. It gives members experience in setting up field antennas and relaying traffic back to the base station VK4WAT/p. Some check points were only accessible by 4WD vehicles. The weather was wet and cold necessitating warm clothing and lots of cups of hot soup. The event finished on Saturday and was completed successfully with no casualties both to the riders and the radio operators. TREC held a well attended meeting last Saturday with many interesting topics being discussed. Chris VK4YCG bought along his brand new Spectrum Analyser for Show and Tell. Well that’s your lot for this week. Visit the TREC website at www.treclub.org.au for club information and you can also download the latest monthly club news in TREC-NEWS. Past issues are also available on the site. This has been Dale VK4DMC and you are listening to the WIA news. Travel Well! Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP from MERG is inviting us all to the Wide Bay Ham Fest on 16th July. This is the third year the Maryborough Electronics and Radio Group has held the Ham Fest. We have a range of tables available both inside and outside the hall. Both new and pre-loved equipment will be available on the day and the food is being prepared and sold by the local Scout Group. If you wish to book a table for Saturday 16th July, please contact MERG, Inc via http://www.wia.org.au affiliated clubs or directly to Ray Stockdale, VK4TPT, QTHR. The hall will be open to exhibitors from 7a.m. on the morning. If you want to come and have a cuppa and a chat, catch up on friends and score a bargain - then find your way to the Maryborough West Scout Hall. There is ample parking and the hall is wheel chair accessible. So if you are in the area, we would love to see you at the Wide Bay Ham Fest, Maryborough West Scout Hall, Ariadne Street, Maryborough at 9.00 o'clock Saturday 16th July next. EDUCATION YOUTH AND ADVANCEMENT OF AMATEUR RADIO www.hamcollege.com.au Jon VK2JDB from the ORANA region Amateur Radio Club says their club has been invited us to attend a Scouts meeting on Monday 1st August. This to enable the radio club to give the entire meeting, from 7-9pm a full demonstration of the wonderful world of amateur radio. The propose a brief PowerPoint Display on amateur radio with particular emphasis on safety and a few rigs set up for use. Luckily there is a tower right next to the Scout hall. This will be great practice prior to JOTA in October. Details: 1st Dubbo Scout Group Cnr Talbragar & Fitzroy Sts., Dubbo Monday 1st August 7pm - 9pm Please reply if you can attend and if you can supply any equipment. Since our next meeting (AGM) is the Saturday prior to the Scouts meeting, it doesn't give us any time to prepare. Is it possible for the members wanting to attend the Scouts meeting to get together mid July to organise ourselves? Cheers, Jon (orana region ar club) INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to RSGB, Southgate AR Club, the ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA. BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Live Sports Extra are conducting an experiment for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, user-customizable audio feeds where the ratio of crowd noise to commentary can be tweaked to suit the individual listener’s preference. Those who want to hear more analysis and description can move the slider on the online NetMix Player in one direction, or in the opposite direction to add more court-side atmosphere. The NetMix Player feeds, available in Windows and Macintosh versions, are only available during live coverage of matches Centre Court. One year of the Moon in 2.5 minutes A time lapsed video from the Goddard Space Flight Centre Scientific Visualization Studio, uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and compresses one month into 12 seconds and one year into 2.5 minutes. You'll see how the Moon "wobbles" in its orbit, the changes in libration, and axis tilt and the Moon's phases NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA NEW EMERGENCY SERVICES DX GROUP ON FACEBOOK A new amateur radio group has been formed for hams who are also members of one of the various emergency services. Based in the United Kingdom, the group will initially be coordinated via the Facebook social networking site with membership open to retired or serving members of any of the emergency services. The group is free to join. Simply search for Emergency Services Amateur Radio DX Group on Facebook and sign up, or contact GM0GMN directly at his call book address. ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR NEW HAMSAT Students at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey are working on a CubeSat ham radio satellite that will host a linear transponder for SSB and CW amateur radio communications. Dubbed TURKSAT-3USAT the bird will carry a 50 kHz bandwidth 2 meter to 70 centimetre linear transponder, a beacon and telemetry downlink. Planners hope to launch this new bird into a Sun Synchronous orbit of around 680 kilometres sometime in early 2012. This will be the Istanbul Technical University's first ever communication satellite. More on the project is in cyberspace at tinyurl.com/6hyxh7h FRANCE BANS NEWSCASTS FROM PROMOTING FACEBOOK AND TWITTER In a move that will hinder news organizations ability to reach their audiences via social media, France has banned the use of the words Twitter and Facebook from radio and TV newscasts. This, unless they are directly a part of a news story. News reports out of Europe say that broadcasting news anchors and other on-air talent are now forbidden to refer to popular social networking sites and the micro-blogging phenomenon, unless it is pivotal and relevant to a news item. As such, French radio and television stations will no longer be able to ask their audiences to follow or friend them on these services during newscasts. Ryan Murphy, is the Digital Media Editor for the Radio and Television News Directors Association. He is quoted as saying that this controversial move is the result of a 1992 French government decree. One that states commercial enterprises should not be promoted on news programs. SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2011 July 9 WIA 160m CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest Aug 13-14 WIA Remembrance Day Contest Aug 20-21 WW I.L.L.W. Oct 22 WIA Jack Files Contest 2012 January VK Ross Hull Memorial VHF UHF Contest March 17-18 VK JOHN MOYLE MEMORIAL FIELD DAY June Long Weekend (vk4 time) VK Shires Contest. Registrations up for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend It began in 1998 with 40 countries represented by 158 registrations. Around 50 countries will join this annual fun event when it occurs on August 20 and 21 this year. With the 14th annual ILLW less than two months away entries are up 10% up on last year, with top numbers being Australia in the lead on 44, followed by the USA with 41 and Germany at 37. From the beginning and still running strong are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Sweden, USA and Wales. New countries this year are Azerbaijan and Thailand. Other smaller countries such as the Isle of Man, Lebanon, Namibia and St Lucia are in the mix. Organiser Kevin Mulcahy VK2CE says he’s hoping to have close to 500 entries this year as the unique event continues to grow in popularity. It is not a contest, runs for one weekend only and there are no strict rules just guidelines. Check out the website ILLW.NET for more information (Jim Linton VK3PC) Illawarra Amateur Radio Society in VK2. They will be manning the Point Perpendicular lighthouse at Jervis Bay. The solar lighthouse installed in 1993 will be turned off for the weekend and the grand old light built in 1899 will be relit. Once again, this icon will guide ships safely along the NSW south coast shipping lanes. The club station VK2AMW will be in the lighthouse keepers’ cottage for the duration of the event. (vk2wi) SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia out to Lord Howe Island VK9HR. 24th July to 2nd August 2011. Morse celebrations Members of the Japan A1 Club will activate the following special callsign until December 31st: 8J1MORSE, 8J1MORSE/2, 8J1MORSE/3 etc, according to the district from which they are active from. Activity is to celebrate 220th anniversary of Samuel Morse's birthday. Operations will be mainly CW, with some SSB (to explain the novices how to join the CW community). Some special awards are also available too. QSL by the Bureau Logs will be uploaded to LoTW as well. For more details, the English rules and information are available at: http://8j1morse.a1tokai.net DL0YLWM Women's Football World Cup The Deutsche Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring an award to celebrate the 2011 Women's Football World Cup. Between 1st June and 31st July, the special station DL0YLWM and YL district stations will be on the air. The first two weeks of Amateur Radio Special Event activity for the Women's Soccer World Cup in Germany, produced more than 51,000 QSOs with the YL-specific stations in the online log. Full details at www.darc.ce, search on the website for DL0YLWM. In DX, the Intrepid-DX Group and the DX Friends plan to activate the Southern Sudan as a new country on or after July 9th. At airtime members of the two groups report that they are in consultation with representatives of the new Southern Sudan Government, the International Telecommunications Union and the International Amateur Radio Union working on making arrangements. More on this proposed operation will be posted on-line at www.dxfriends.com/SouthernSudan2011 Text message alerts boost 'ham' radio contacts Radio amateurs now have a helping hand in their quest for contacting rare or distant radio stations. Although it "goes against the grain" promoting a service that charges other hams in this predominantly volunteer service, DX Station is an innovative SMS text message service that alerts radio amateurs when the sought-after radio station's signal is spotted on the radio dial. The use of real-time text messages gives paid up subscribers to DX Station a competitive advantage, since they can hopefully contact the distant radio station before their colleagues join the fray. A reduced fee trial is offered for just the first month of subscription. (sourced to southgate) MEDIA WATCH www.cq-amateur-radio.com/WorldRadio.html VK Club Bulletins http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aarnie/ Radio Foxtrot 100 There's a new radio station on the web, and this one is aimed at amateur radio enthusiasts. With a mixture of music, chat and ham radio items, Radio Foxtrot 100 is the brainchild of Anthony, EI9GMB, from Dundalk in Co.Louth, Ireland. Tony says the station is aimed at amateur radio operators and listeners alike, and is on-the-air 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, click the link and give it a try - Radio Foxtrot 100 http://foxtrot100.weebly.com/ BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS Thousands sign petitions of support for RNW More than 11,000 people have signed a petition to preserve Radio Netherlands World wide’s Dutch-language broadcasts. Iede de Vries, Chairman of the Action Committee, says that in addition there are about 7000 signatures from listeners who depend on programmes in one of the other nine languages. There are also separate petitions from former ambassadors, business and journalistic organizations. Mr De Vries will lead a delegation from RNW who will hand the petitions to the Dutch parliament on Monday, prior to the debate about the substantial cuts in public broadcasting, including RNW. Mr De Vries says several hundred people from around the world have also sent a personal letter to the Lower House. He says a lot of support has been received from the more than 3,000 partner stations worldwide that carry RNW programmes. He says he suspects that many MPs don’t know about many of the things that RNW does, and advocates a postponement of the decision, allowing the broadcaster to inform MPs about the consequences of the cuts. On Friday, the government announced that the current budget of 46 million euros would be reduced to just 14 million euros, a cut of 70 percent which will mean the loss of up to 250 jobs. A reminder that a special live programme in Dutch will be on the air from The Hague today (27 June) at 0600-1200 UTC on the following outlets: 107.5 FM (In and around the Plein in The Hague next to the Dutch parliament building) 1296 AM medium wave (For the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) Shortwave 5955 and 9895 kHz (West, Central and SW Europe) Shortwave 13700 kHz from 1000 UTC (SW and SE Europe) BBC World Service receives millions to increase Arabic broadcasts. The BBC World Service is getting a funding increase to the tune of £2.2 million per year over the next three years. This comes after the government broadcaster's funds were slashed last year, forcing it to announce the cancellation of 5 of its 32 language broadcasts and reduced service on others. The money will go to boost the Arabic language programs. An additional £9 million is being reallocated to save the Hindi shortwave service, which was slated to be shut down. The Arabic language service is getting more attention both from the UK government and people in the region because of the ongoing unrest there. The Hindi service also has a huge number of listeners. The BBC World Service broadcasts on TV, mobile, and online, but in many regions its shortwave broadcasts are still crucial. While listening to shortwave may seem old fashioned, in many Middle Eastern countries the Internet is censored or gets shut off completely during times of unrest. Also, many people in the developing world have a shortwave radio, but little access to the Internet. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ARDF WIA ARDF COORDINATOR VK3WWW Jack vk3www@wia.org.au http://users.mackay.net.au/~ron/ http://www.homingin.com http://www.ardf.org.au Sep 23-28 R3 Region 3 ARDF Championship Bendigo VK3 http://r3.ardf.org.au/ WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FAITH. Pope posts first Twitter message VATICAN CITY - Using an iPope er iPad POPE Benedict XVI wrote a message on Twitter Tuesday announcing the launch of a new Vatican website in the first 'tweet' by a leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican has embraced social media in recent months, launching popular Facebook and YouTube pages and courting bloggers as it tries to get the Church's message out to a wider and more youthful audience. The news.va web portal is also set to be formally launched. It will provide news and pictures from the Vatican's radio and television stations WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK UNOFFICIAL HF Net. 2nd Sunday each month. April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz The six crew of the International Space Station had to scramble for cover this week when a piece of space debris bore down on the orbiting station. They temporarily took shelter in the Russian spacecraft, Soyuz, when the lump of space junk zoomed in on the station, the Russian Interfax news agency said. It missed them by 250 metres - a hairsbreadth in space terms. The team returned to the station after the debris junk passed by. The station was not able to adjust the orbit to avert a possible collision because it detected the space junk too late, the agency said. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- INTERNET --- THE HAMS DOMAIN TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA www.HamRadioNation.com QSLogBook goes live! The Social Networking site for Amateur Radio Enthusiasts QSLogBook is the next niche social network, geared towards the Amateur Radio World. While QSLogbook does allow users to post news and information it is a site that is mainly set up to allow users from around the world to communicate and to send each other frequencies and call sign information. There are a number of tools that make social networking easier when using QSLogBook. Not only can users view their contacts (called “friends”), they can also see contacts that are linked to their friends. In this way, it is possible for users to see their entire extended social network. British Library makes Google search deal Thousands of pages from one of the world's biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals are to be made available on the internet. The British Library has reached a deal with search engine Google about 250,000 texts dating back to the 18th Century. It will allow readers to view, search and copy the out-of-copyright works at no charge on both the library and Google books websites. CBS says there are a million free tracks available today on its site MP3.com Its Interactive Music Group has embarked on a campaign to promote the newly redesigned 14-year-old site. The campaign will run into late July. . CBS took over MP3.com as part of its 2008 purchase of CNET. The announcement of the relaunch of MP3.com came from CBS Interactive Music Group head David Goodman. It calls MP3.com “the original online source for free legal music downloads” and said its emphasis would remain on emerging and indy artists. Features on MP3.com include a free MP3 of the day, label of the week, “On the Scene” editorial feature and dedicated artist radio stations from sister CBS service Last.fm REWIND Meccano Magazine now online Editions of Meccano Magazine from 1916 until 1981 are now available online. The Internet enables classic magazines such as this to be read by a new generation. Among the many articles available are: November 1957 - Jodrell Bank http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/html/1957/5711/57110532.htm March 1962 - Space Notes - Introducing the 'Cosmic Butterfly' http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/html/1962/6203/62030096.htm January 1978 - Picture of Meccano model of Space Shuttle http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/html/1978/7801/78010021.htm Read the Meccano Magazine archive at http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/ (southgate) SOCIAL SCENE 2011 Jul 9 VK2e Waverley A R S annual auction at Rose Bay club rooms Jul 16 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest Cranbourne Community Hall 10am ( secretary@ggrec.org.au ) Jul 16 VK4 Maryborough Electronics and Radio Group "Wide Bay Hamfest" West Scout Hall, Ariadne St, Maryborough 8:30am. secretary@merg.org.au Jul 31 VK2/3 Riverina Field Day 10am at Lavington Scout Group Hall. Aug 7 VK2 Lismore region - SARCFEST Aug 28 VK2 Blue Mountains amateur radio club's annual WINTERFEST Sep 11 VK3 SADARC Comms Day at St Augustine's Hall Shepparton 10am. Sep 16-18 VK4 NQ Amateur Radio Convention Date Set Townsville Sep 23-28 R3 Region 3 ARDF Championship Bendigo VK3 http://r3.ardf.org.au/ Sep 30-Oct 2 VK4 Central Highlands Amateur Radio Club AGM at Camp Fairbairn CONTACT Secretary Gordon, (vk4kal@wia.org.au) Nov 20 vk5 Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Hamfest Goodwood Community Centre, Rosa St Goodwood at 0930. Visit www.ahars.com.au for contact details 2012 15TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE hosted by V.A.R.C. in Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam. JAN 23-FEB 17 YEAR 2012 World Radio Conference WRC-11 Geneva 23rd January TO 17th February 2012 FEB 26 VK2 CCARC WYONG FIELD DAY MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia (vk5tmc@bigpond.com) Submitting news items If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to nationalnews@wia.org.au 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ============================================================================= WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide. 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