WIANEWS - March 25 - 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 MARCH 25 2012. ACMA makes new Commercial Radio Standards wHO PLAYS HAM RADIO It's to the Holyland Contest THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING MAR 25 2012. ACMA makes new Commercial Radio Standards The ACMA has made new Commercial Radio Standards that strengthen the rules on advertising and the disclosure of commercial influence on commercial radio programs. ‘The new standards begin 1 May and reflect the ACMA’s recent decision to continue regulating both commercial influence in current affairs programs and advertising on commercial radio,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman. The standards were developed following the ACMA’s review and extensive consultation with industry and the public seeking comment on the proposed reforms. ‘This reform package strengthens protections for listeners while at the same time reducing the regulatory burden on industry,’ Mr Chapman said. (Emma Rossi, Media Manager, ACMA) It's to the Holyland Contest 21st time in a row, yes its the annual Holyland Contest. Each year, more radio amateurs from all continents and countries world wide, participate in this extraordinary contest. Each one hopes to add some new squares to his existing collection in order to obtain the most exquisite Award. Therefore, it is with the greatest pleasure that, we announce the Holyland Contest 2012, and invite all Radio Amateurs and Short Wave Listeners to participate. This year's contest will start on Friday 20 and end on Saturday 21 April 2012 from 21.00 UTC until 21.00 UTC. Special Trophies and New certificates will be issued to participating Radio Amateurs and SWL’s for different classes and modes of operation. Mark 4ZOX contest manager says " We are happy to announce that last years, digital modes were a huge success as well, and will continue with this mode in the present contest. As usual, we invite, the entire Amateur Radio Community to be on the bands, knowing full well, that propagation at times is not in our favor, nevertheless we will demonstrate and exercise, the spirit of friendship between all Radio Amateurs. Thanking you for your cooperation, see you in the “contest”. Speaking of contests... The Trans Tasman. Don't believe all you read on our front page news this week. NO the date was NOT incorrect, BUT it had has changed. SO YES it has been wrong of late on this news and even AR Magazine had a different date again. BUT thae date we had been broadcasting had been supplied prior to a new contest manager taking over from Bruce Renn. Felix will have more on this, plus the NEW date and much changed rules later. wHO PLAYS HAM RADIO tHE DXCC Country/Entity Report ISSUED THIS WEEK shows that acccording to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network, for the week of Sunday, 11 through Sunday, 18 March there were 226 countries active! Not a bad roll up!!! Were you on RF? IF NOT WHY NOT! What use is an F-call? Recently I had the opportunity to setup my radio in the bush. Having been around the metropolitan area for most of my Amateur Life to-date, that was a whole new, and I might say, very positive experience. Laying out radials across the landscape was a challenge and having set-up against the corner of the veranda of the house where I was staying meant that I could only put them out in 270 degrees, the owner frowning on the notion of running 12 meter radials through the house for some reason. The silence was amazing, no man-made noise, no clicking or buzzing from nearby appliances, overall worth the effort! Honesty requires me to point out that the local atmospherics conspired to actually making contacts on 80 and 40 meters nigh-on impossible. At the time I was unable to determine what caused the problem and research since then indicated all manner of possible causes, ranging from background cosmic noise to the LCD TV in the next room with several other options in between. Armed with that knowledge I'll spend some effort hunting next time around. I can recommend that you pick up your radio once in a while, put it in your preferred mode of transport and place yourself in another location to experience other conditions. It's a learning opportunity every time. I'm Onno VK6FLAB INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA. Birthplace of radio becomes a city Chelmsford, acknowledged as the birthplace of radio and home to the Marconi Company for many years, is one of three new cities created to mark our Queen's Diamond Jubilee. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment by Marconi of the first purpose built radio factory in New Street, Chelmsford in 1912. New Street is marked with a blue plaque noting the historic significance. AMSAT-NA RECEIVES OKJ TO RE-DISTRIBUTE KEPS AMSAT's Ray Hoad, WA5QGD has announced that the organizations request to re-distribute US Air Force Space Command Keplerian elements from SpaceTrack has been approved for the period April 1, 2012 to April 1, 2013. EXTRA-GALACTIC MILESTONE FOR SOUTH AFRICA'S KAT-7 TELESCOPE South Africa's KAT-7 telescope, a seven-dish array which is a precursor to the much larger MeerKAT telescope in the Karoo and to the Square Kilometre Array, has reached another major milestone by observing the radio emission from the neutral hydrogen gas (HI) in a nearby galaxy. Hydrogen gas emits radio emission in a spectral line at a very specific frequency of 1420 MHz. The astronomers pointed the telescope towards a galaxy called NGC 3 109 - a small spiral galaxy, about 4,3 million light-years away from Earth, located in the constellation of Hydra. The observation allowed them to see the HI radio emission of this galaxy, as well as to see how this galaxy is moving. Where the gas is moving towards us, the frequency of the spectral line is Doppler-shifted upwards; where the gas is moving away, the frequency is shifted down. In this way, astronomers can map the way in which all of the gas in the galaxy is moving. International effort at sea gets UT1FG/MM back on satellites John, K8YSE shared an international amateur radio goodwill success story in getting Captain Yuri Bodrov, UT1FG/MM back on the air after a power supply failure at sea. UT1FG/MM was enroute aboard his cargo ship from a Pacific port in Nicaragua bound for Montreal Canada via the Panama Canal and into the Gulf of Mexico. Yuri, an avid 6 meter and satellite operator, reported that his 12 volt power supply had failed shortly after leaving port. John wrote, "The bad news was relayed amongst those of us who had been following Yuri and working him in wet grids as he traveled. Brainstorming started with ideas tossed around via emails. One idea was to buy a power supply and ship it Fedex to Yuri's agent in Panama and hope it got there in time but Yuri felt that there would not be enough time for that to happen. We only had a few days." Searching with Google and QRZ achieved contact with Captain Manolis Joannou, HP1CQ, also a sea captain and president of the Panama Canal Amateur Radio Association. Manolis was able to find a power supply that could operate off the 220 VAC ship mains and provide 12 volts to Yuri's IC-706 radio. Captain Manolis made his way via a motor launch to Yuri's ship and hand delivered the new power supply. The two Captains spent an hour together before parting. Yuri was back on the air, working satellites from the Gulf of Mexico. For a full story, complete with photos visit: http://www.papays.com/sat/power/ut1fgpanama.html ============================================================================= NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA HAM RADIO AND SOCIAL NETWORKS RESPOND TO MEXICO EARTHQUAKE Amateur radio operators and the social media have responded in the wake of an earthquake that hit Southwest Mexico on March 20th. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with what we know so far: What has been described as a powerful and prolonged earthquake rocked parts of Mexico on Tuesday, March 20th. The 7.6 magnitude temblor near the Pacific Coast resort town of Acapulco. According to news reports, some homes were toppled near the quakes epicenter. Electricity and telephone communications was lost for a time. But despite the quake's power, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and officials across the country said that there were no reports of serious injuries. While there was some damage to the nation's internal communications infrastructure, Mexico's connection with the outside world for the most part remained unscathed. So far nothing has been heard about activation of any domestic Mexican ham radio emergency group. As we go to air, Sunday 25, the only international ham radio operation we have heard about is a group called the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition. IRESC President, Urcun Canel, TA0U, in Istanbul, Turkey worked with about 8 or 9 hams in Mexico passing early damage assessment reports to the European continent. Some of this communications audio was posted to Facebook: Actuality audio communications. Hear it by downloading the MP3 audio file of this newscast at www.wia.org.au You can hear the entire communications session at tinyurl.com/iresc-mexico-quake. But the real story in this case is the response by the people in the affected areas. While telephone and cellphone service was jammed as is the case after events like this, broadband connections were still open and quite useful. Anyone watching or listening to broadcast news reports often heard tweets from residents of the quake hit area being quoted as news sources and giving short eye-witness assessments via Twitter. Also, broadcast news organizations world-wide were asking people with relatives in the quake zone to call in or post to the stations website the latest news they might have. In other words, news organizations were literally handling health and welfare traffic that until a year or two ago was primarily the domain of radio amateurs involved in emergency communications. Quite a change from day's gone bye. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the newsroom in Los Angeles. BAD BATTERIES MAY HAVE CAUSED BLT-28 FAILURE Failure of the batteries that powered the ham radio payload of a high altitude balloon that was designed to float from Texas to China seems the likely cause of a total communications failure with the near space project. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Heather Butera-Howell, K-B-3-T-Zed-D, is here with the rest of the story: The South Texas Balloon Launch Team lofted the high altitude scientific balloon experiment known as BLT-28 on February 11th from near Katy, Texas. The balloon was supposed to rise to over 100,000 feet and float for several days and hopefully reach its target of Nanjing, China. But as reported here on Newsline, contact was lost with the balloons APRS tracker just south of the Louisiana coast at an altitude of 45,763 feet. Andrew MacAllister, W5ACM, is part of the group that launched BLT-28. W5ACM notes that the power supply was made up of commercial 1.5 volt lithium cells. According to post flight experiments, MacAllister says that several of the same type of batteries were put directly on some dry ice where they went from 1.5 volts down to two tenths of a volt. And when warmed up, they did not return to normal output. For the amateur Radio Newsline, Im Heather Butera-Howell, KB3TZD,near Pittsburg, PA. BILL BEFORE CONGRESS TO LET ASTRONAUTS KEEP SPACE SOUVENIRS A dispute between NASA and some former astronauts over ownership of space artifacts has led to a bill in Congress that would give the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts "full ownership rights." This, to items such as checklists and personal logs from their missions. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has the rest of the story: Known as H.R. 4158 the proposed legislation grows out of an effort last year by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell to sell the lunar module activation checklist that had been used to convert the moon lander into a space lifeboat on the periled 1970 Apollo 13 mission. The sale brought record-setting $388,375 but it was put on hold after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration demanded proof that the former astronaut owned the item. Now comes H.R. 4158 that was introduced by Representative Ralph Hall of Texas. Hall is the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. He measures co-sponsor was Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, also of Texas. It has since amassed an additional fifteen co-sponsors. In a letter to heir congressional colleagues the two key sponsors wrote that the legislation would allow the first generation of astronauts to retain spaceflight artifacts that have been in their possession. In many cases for more than 40 years. Under the proposed measure, astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs would be allowed to keep items such as personal logs and checklists. The only thing off limits would be rock samples gathered on those early lunar missions. The so-called “Moon Rocks.” After meeting with Lovell and several other former astronauts last month, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that these are American heroes. He called them fellow astronauts and personal friends who have acted in good faith. As such, Bolden says that they are committed to working together to find the right policy and legal paths forward to address outstanding ownership questions. H.R. 4158 has bi-partisan support and is expected to make it all the way through the Congressional rule making process. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in New Orleans. This was not the first time that NASA has challenged the sale by an astronaut of a piece of space memorabilia. In 2010, NASA challenged Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell's attempt to sell a camera he took to the moon. Mitchell eventually agreed to donate the camera to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012 WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15 VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25 VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12 VK Shires Contest June 9-10 ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21 VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12 WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19 The VK-trans/Tasman contest will run this year as two contest: The 80m Phone contest on 12 May, and The 80m and 160m Combined contest on 21 July. The Combined contest includes categories for: - 160m phone, - 80m CW, - CW on both bands, - Digital modes on both bands, and - various combinations of these, including - an overall category for both bands and all modes except 80m phone. Rules can be found on the VK/Trans-Tasman contest page on WIA.ORG.AU This is now the primary website for both of the 2012 contests. The ever popular 80m phone contest remains much the same, with the most significant changes being a simplification of the group bonus rule, where groups can now be made from any SIX call areas of VK and ZL combined. See the rules for details. Combining 160m phone and the two CW and digital contests on the one night should provide plenty of activity for all interests, and allow clubs to set up multi-multi stations for that big effort! SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE HERE WE GO AGAIN - OR NOT PLANNED MALI DXPEDITION ON HOLD DUE TO POLITICAL UNREST Some news in the world of DX. This with word that YET ANOTHER planned DX operation being put on indefinite hold. Two weeks ago members of the "Italian Dxpedition Team" announced that they were planning to be active as TZ5T from Mali between April 12th to the 27th. However, their Pilot station Art Lorenzo, IK7JWY, has now issued a statement that the situation of civil war in Mali between the government and Tuareg insurgents is worsening. Because of this and other concerns Mali authorities will not issue licenses to radio amateurs who may be targeted because of radio equipment. For this reason the DXpedition has been postponed until a yet to be determined later date. For updates please check in regularly at www (dot) i2ysb (dot) com on the World-Wide-Web. (SOURCED IN PART TO ARNEWSLINE) The current XW1A and XWŘZJZ operations from Laos have been approved for DXCC credit. Bill Moore, NC1L, who heads up the DXCC Desk at ARRL headquarters made the approval official on Tuesday, March 13th. Down the road a bit comes word that DK9FN will once again return to Temotu Province, active as H40FN between this December 22nd and January 7th of 2013. QSL H40FN via HA8DD. F4CYZ iS operational from Morocco as CN2YZ through years end. His activity will be from the city of Tangier especially on the weekends. The Mediterraneo DX Club is supporting his activities and is also providing a Web site with a log-check. Its in cyberspace at www.mdxc.org/cn2yz San Francisco Amateur Radio Club will be holding a Special Event Station - W6G - to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge on May 26, 2012 at 2000z to May 27, 2012 at 2200z Details on www.sfarc.org. INTRUDER WATCH - ENFORCEMENT ZONE Region III IARUMS Coordinator Peter Young VK3MV VK IARUMS reflector email to subscribe intruders@wia.org.au BUOYS ON 10 METERS The source of some mysterious weak signals on 29.684 MHz with an 81.9 Baud and 130 Hz shift have been located. According to the February IARU Region One newsletter, the signals came from the Spanish coastal area and were audible across all of Europe but only during band openings and only by directional antennas. It turns out the source of transmissions by Datawell buoys. These buoys, produced in the Netherlands are used for measuring water temperatures and wave heights. They are designed to transmit with 75 milliwatts on frequencies between 27 and 40 MHz. Dick Van Empelen, PA2GRU, of Heemstede in the Netherlands has since visited the Datawell Company and has informed them that the buoy transmissions on the amateur service 10 meter band are illegal. The operations chief promised to inform all Datawell offices about the situation. MEDIA WATCH www.cq-amateur-radio.com/WorldRadio.html VK Club Bulletins http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aarnie/ GREECE TURNS OFF 11 MEDIUM WAVE TRANSMITTERS The Administrative Board of the Greek Public Broadcaster has ordered the switch-off of eleven medium wave transmitters. This as a result of new austerity measures due to the financial situation being faced by that European nation. This leaves only nine medium wave transmitters with their respective Greek Public Radio programs in operation. (GreekRadio.com) DON'T BE FOOLED: CHECK OUT THE APRIL ISSUE OF QST This April issue of QST remembers the wireless heroes of the RMS Titanic and the SS Carpathia 100 years ago, and also takes readers on a voyage to the South Orkney Islands for the VP8ORK DXpedition -- and more. So set aside a couple of hours, grab a beverage and get ready to have some radio fun with the April issue of QST. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video arvideonews.com hamradiotube.com youtube.com qdg.org.au K9EID UK AUDIO TALK POSTED TO YOUTUBE A talk about improving audio on the ham radio bands given by Bob Heil, K9EID, has been posted on-line by M3XYP. Recorded at the United Kingdom 2011 National Hamfest, the video is in five parts and can be found at www.youtube.com/user/m3xypsar/videos WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- CW FISTS Club - East Asia www.feacw.net FISTS Club - Australasia www.fistsdownunder.org FISTS Club - UK & Europe www.fists.co.uk FISTS Club - Americas www.fists.org CELEBRATING MORSE CODE New York’s QSY Society Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a special event station at the Samuel F. B. Morse Estate at Locust Grove in the city of Poughkeepsie. This in celebration of his creation of the Morse Code in 1832. The operation will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday April 14th using the special event callsign K2QS. Transmissions will be centered on 7.034 on 40 meters and 14.034 MHz on 20. Hams making contact with K2QS will be eligible for a special commutative QSL card. QSL requests go to David Ruth at 48 Hoof Print Road, Millbrook, New York, 12545. (KB2VJP VIA ARNEWSLINE) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- Internet Linking of Repeaters IRLP TOPIC CHANNELS INAUGURATED The long-awaited Internet Radio Linking Project or IRLP Topic Channels have now gone live. IRLP- users are now able to log onto reflector channels allocated for interests ranging from DX'ing to music, media, history and many others. For those not aware, the Internet Radio Linking Project was the result of research and development by Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, back in 1998. This as a way of using the Internet to interconnect repeaters world-wide. With the advent of IRLP Topic Channels the concept has developed into a global discussion real-time forum on almost any topic of interest to those signed on. For up-to-date information on the IRLP Topic Channels please visit www.irlptopics.net To locate an IRLP node near you go to status.irlp.net on the world-wide-web. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW ILLW registrations ahead of time The entries to this year?s International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August are slightly ahead of expectation, although only 160 have registered and half the countries are so so far represented. Australia remains in the lead with 35 registrations just ahead of Germany on 33, followed by the USA on 21 and England 14. Others come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Curacao, Denmark, Finland, France, Honduras, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Polland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden and Wales. The next months are expected to see a lot more seafearing nations added to this fun event. To enter do visit the website at illw.net for the 15th annual International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend held on August the 18th and 19th. (Jim Linton VK3PC) SOCIAL SCENE 2012 APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day. MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia (vk5tmc@bigpond.com) MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier. JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD WIA Annual Conference Mildura May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012 Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on wia.org.au Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and Noel Ferguson VK3FI. WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a range of fascinating and memorable activities. 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