WIANEWS - JULY 15 - 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 15 2012. WIA ACCOUNTS HIT BY SPAM WIA AFFILIATED CLUB REPEATER HIT BY UNLICENSED OPERATOR WIA TRASH N TREASURE TO BE FOUND IN VK2 WIA AFFILIATED CLUB HAMFEST IN VK4 THIS WEEKEND THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING JULY 15 2012. DO NOT RESPOND. If you receive an email supposedly from wia about upgrades DO NOT RESPOND The mail reads something like "This is to inform you that we are upgrading the (wia.org.au) webmail system for an increase in storage quota. To re-validate and increase your webmail account please click the link below." IT IS SPAM. If need be in the future we do need an upgrade it will be announced in the AUDIO news service or on the WIA FRONTPAGE NEWS. Last Monday night, several Redcliffe (VK4) club members were addressed by a pirate station on their local Redcliffe repeater. The station was using the call sign, VK4NFL. If you hear this station or any other pirate station or man-made noise on the Redcliffe repeater, could you record as many of the exchanges as possible either on paper or using a smart phone or MP3 recording software on a PC and send the information to either VK4YJV or VK4EA via the Redcliffe club’s web site, so they can provide further information to the ACMA. If the pirate station who was on the air last Monday night is listening to this broadcast, be aware Redcliffe club members are already know the suburb you live in and will soon will know your address! That information has already been passed to the ACMA. It just goes to prove that the club’s regular foxhunts can not only find the fox but in this case are close to finding a pirate! (cec kenny) HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm VKG Roundup http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news Email Address : r_demkiw@yahoo.com.au Bi-monthly Trash & Treasure at VK2WI / Assessments. The regular Trash & Treasure event will be held at VK2WI, 63 Quarry Rd. Dural Sunday 29 th July starting around 0930. Major items on offer on ARNSW web site under Disposals. Also this day assessments for all license levels. Candidates bring passport photo and identification. Arrive by 1000 hours. www.arnsw.org.au SARCFEST 12 August, LISMORE CLUBROOM. All are invited to attend and make their preparation for SARCFEST, 12 August. To be held at the Clubroom grounds, 414 Richmond Hill Rd, Richmond Hill, from 8.00 am. Parking off Livotto Drive. Goods for sale, purchase or exchange. Radios, Computers, Electronics. Radio, Telegraph & Other Displays. Canteen / BBQ food and refreshments. Prizes to be won !! Traders / Dealers / Swappers Welcome. Tables / Sites – NO FEE – Donation Requested. VK4 - QNEWS Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to qnews@wia.org.au 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 qnews-vk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com TARC Social Meeting this Tuesday This Tuesday July 17th the TARC Social Evening will be happening at the Club Rooms atop SES HQ Green Street West End from 7-30pm. Get along and lend a helping hand to put the magazine of renown, Back-scatter together and socialise with fellow hams. There will be a special visit by John Barrett, President of the Townsville Open Water Swim Association. JB will be bringing all up to speed about this years Magnetic Island to Townsville Swim. All are welcome ! (TARCinc) VK7 vk7 local news, email vk7regionalnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vk7regionalnews/ REAST Training, Education & Assessment There will be an examination session on Tuesday 17 July at 7 pm at the REAST Clubrooms. Anyone who wishes to join in are welcome. Contact learning organiser Reg VK7KK on 0417 391 607. or via email on regemm@ozemail.com.au (73, Reg VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor) What use is an f-call? (Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au under F-troop.) Recently I witnessed something quite amazing. I was at an Amateur Radio club relaxing and chatting with other amateurs. We were scattered throughout the clubhouse, several little groups of interest scattered around. People moving between groups as their interest changed and a whole dynamic ecology of knowledge was being distributed. There were radios set-up all over the place, an Oscilloscope was plugged into a kit to check its operation while the local club shop was open for business with connectors and adapters. It was a real hive of activity, BBQ going in the background and all. While all this was happening, a few amateurs gathered around a set and stopped talking. The radio was tuned to a station that was directing a pile-up. If you're unfamiliar, a pile-up is what happens when one station calls CQ and several stations respond. Then others hear the commotion and they join in, then more hear it and before you know it, there are 20 or 30 stations all on the same frequency, scattered all over the globe chiming in and exchanging signal reports. Now I've heard a few pile-ups like that. I had the joy of being the source of one of them during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend when the station I was operating seemed to be getting calls from all over the place for a solid 80 minutes or so. Back to the pile-up I was describing earlier, the one at the clubhouse. The thing that set this pile-up apart for me was that it was all done in Morse or in the vernacular, CW. It was the first time I'd heard Morse clustered like that. Until then I've heard the local repeater beep out its call, I've contributed my own in the form of pre-recorded audio at the top of What use is an F-call?, but this was quite something. You could hear differences in tonality, speed, how someone tapped their key, their difference in signal strength. Each signal had their own personal characteristic, unlike a voice pile-up where you can make out the odd call-sign, this seemed to be a whole lot more crisp affair. I'd already decided that I was going to spend some effort learning Morse, but this just made my day. If you get the chance to hear a CW pile-up, have a listen. You might not yet speak the lingo, but you'll hear more than you thought you would. 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. AO, AM, AN: Spain celebrates Euro2012 You will be hearing these prefixes on the bands until July 31st, because the Spanish PTT has authorized all radio amateurs in Spain to use them, to celebrate their Soccer Win, at the request of EA Digital Federation. We hope you enjoy the contacts in the same way you enjoyed the soccer show of late! www.fediea.org Ham radio from the Eiffel Tower Operators Philippe/F5SKW, Dimitri/F5SWB, Freddy/F5IRO/J28RO, David/F8CRS, Yves-Michel/F5PRU, and possibly some other hams and French Servicemen are active as TM70TRS or TM70TE from the 3rd floor of the Eiffel Tower, approximately 300 meters above the ground, until today Sunday July 15. Activity is to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the French Army Signal Corps and activity is on CW, SSB and RTTY, and on the HF and VHF (JN18du) bands 24 hours each day. QSL via the REF QSL Bureau. North Korea 'CW Only' and IOTA AS-197 Project Rick, K6VVA, states: This is a 'Work-In-Progress and warns it is not a money grabbing DX scheme at all contrary to many ill-informed blogs. This P5 'CW ONLY' & IOTA AS-197 PROJECT is being planned, does seem to be gaining momentum towards a positive outcome and we suggest you visit Rick K6VVA 's web page and make your own mind up. http://www.k6vva.com/p5/p5interest.html Amateur radio features in the European Communications Office annual report. The report says: The ECO has taken the lead role in the activities of the regulatory affairs working group (WG RA PT2) on amateur radio issues. We are working closely with the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 1. We also work with non-CEPT countries which have inconsistent entries in CEPT deliverables on amateur radio and those non-CEPT members who have expressed an interest in joining the CEPT regulatory framework. Following the closure of WG RA PT2 in the second part of 2011, the Office is now leading this activity and reporting directly to WG FM. cept.org/files/1050/ECO/About%20ECO/ECO%20Annual%20Report/ECO%20Annual%20Report%202011_WEB.pdf ============================================================================= NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA NEW BROADCAST CENTRE PROPOSED FOR ONE WORLD TRADE CENTRE The new spire built to replace the fallen twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City will also become an antenna site. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Jim Davis, W2JKD, has the details on this emerging story: The Durst Organization that controls New York City’s One World Trade Centre in a partnership with The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to add an installation for FM radio and television transmission antennas in the building’s 408-foot spire. One that will ultimately bring the new building’s height to 1,776 feet and make it the tallest building in North America. The Empire State Building, 1,250 feet tall with its 204 foot antenna tower is currently the home to 19 FM stations and most of the city’s digital television transmitters. Many radio and television broadcasters migrated to the Empire site after terrorist attacks of 911 caused the collapse of the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in lower Manhattan. Yet to be determined is whether any of the city’s FM broadcasters will leave their current primary sites at Empire State Building for the new location at One World Trade Centre or if they will treat the new building spire primarily as a backup site. I’m Jim Davis, W2JKD. One thing that’s pretty obvious is that at the prices being quoted for site rental income by Durst, it’s unlikely that any ham radio repeaters will find a home at the new broadcast antenna site. Then again, once should never doubt the resourcefulness of New York City area hams. SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST THE FCC IN WARDROBE MALFUNCTION CASE The so-called Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” indecency case which led to increased profanity delay equipment installations for both TV and radio stations has come to the end of the legal road. This after the United States Supreme Court says that it will not review a lower court’s ruling that overturned the FCC’s $550,000 fine against CBS Corporation for televising a fleeting view of Janet Jackson’s breast during the live 2004 Super Bowl half time show. A federal appeals court had ruled the fine was arbitrary and capricious because it was much larger than indecency fines had been previously, before the commission began issuing large fines for so-called fleeting indecent utterances. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with the other justices not to hear the FCC’s appeal. In a concurring opinion, he noted the FCC had changed its indecency policy to include fleeting utterances, supporting the arbitrary and capricious arguments, but he also warned that any future wardrobe malfunctions will not be protected going forward. The Supreme Court last month tossed out FCC indecency fines against Fox and ABC on narrow procedural grounds. At that time it told the regulatory agency that it is free to update its broadcast indecency guidelines. For their part broadcasters have insisted for years that the FCC’s indecency guidelines are vague and chill free speech. G3PSM AWARDED THE DARC GOLDEN BADGE OF HONOUR UK radio amateur Colin Thomas, G3PSM, has been awarded Germany’s Deutscher Amateur Radio Club Golden Badge of Honour. This, for his work in achieving an amateur radio allocation at 472 kHz. According to the German national amateur radio society, G3PSM was involved in the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations or CEPT preparatory process meetings and at the WRC-12 conference itself. As a result of his skilful lobbying at many meetings, the CEPT proposal for an amateur radio allocation near 600 meters was fully supported and eventually granted. G3SPM received his award from the DARC Chairman Steffen Schoppe, DL7ATE, at a recent society hosted dinner. SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012 VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21 VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12 WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19 WW ALARA August 25-26 WW Oceania Dx Contest SSB October 6 ww Oceania Dx Contest CW oceaniadxcontest.com Oct 13 VK Spring VHF / UHF Field Day November 24-25 Trans-Tasman 80m phone results Results for the Trans-Tasman 80m phone contest held in May. Congratulations to Ron, ZL4R, for achieving First ZL. Bill, QRP as ZL3VZ, achieved second ZL, and Alastair and Quentin operating ZL3YOK, achieved third ZL. Congratulations to Ash VK3SSB, from Horsham Victoria, who took out the overall First place. The full results have now been published on the WIA website. Follow the link from the NZART web site "Rules" page. The next Trans-Tasman contest Saturday, the 21st of July, from 8pm. This is the new Multi-Mode contest which includes separate categories for 160m phone, as well as CW and Digital modes on both 80m, and 160m. There's also an overall "multi-mode" category for any combination of these modes or bands. The "multi-mode" category is well suited to multiple operators, clubs, and anyone wanting more activity than any one mode can offer. This is the first year that this contest has been fully managed in ZL, and the contest manager, Rob, ZL3AKM, wishes to thank everyone who participated. (Sourced from the NZART News via vk7news) ALARA CONTEST 25th and 26th August 2012 All licensed operators throughout the world are invited to participate. Also open to SWLs. YL works everyone, OMs & Clubs work YLs only. One contest (combined phone and CW) run over 20 hours. Saturday 25th August 2012 ………… 0400 hours UTC to 1359 hours UTC Sunday 26th August 2012…………… 0400 hours UTC to 1359 hours UTC Bands to be used are 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz only. The following are suggested frequencies for easier location of contacts: 28.38 to 28.41 21.17 to 21.2 and 21.38 to 21.41 14.25 to 14.28 7.07 to 7.1 3.56 to 3.59 (Jean Fisher VK3VIP President & State rep ( VK3) for A.L.A.R.A.) [IARU-R2-News 205] IARU HF World Championships 2012-07-NOW The IARU HF World Championships, http://www.arrl.org/iaru-hf-championship This is the list of HQ and IARU official's stations from Region 2 that will be active during the contest. 8P - 8P6AW - ARSB 9Y - 9Y4HQ -TTARS 9Y - 9Y4X ? R2 CE - XR3HQ - RCC CX - CX1AA - RCU HC - HC2GRC - GRC HK - HK3LR -LCRA HR - HR2RCH - RCH K - K0QB - R2 K - NU1AW/9 - IARU K - W1AW/7 - ARRL LU - LR5F - RCA OA - OA4O - RCP PY - PT2ADM - R2 PY - ZZ7HQ - LABRE TG - TG0AA - CRAG TG - TG9AGD ? R2 TI - TI0RC - RCCR VE - VE6SH - AC VE - VY2RAC - RAC XE - 6D0LM - FMRE XE - XE1KK - AC YS - YS1YS - CRAS YV - YV5AM - R2 ZF - ZF1A - CARS Joaquín Solana, XE1R News Editor - IARU R2 news@iaru-r2.org (There was still no news at going to press of a WIA HQ station operating R3) SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE VK 100 WIQ - Celebrating 100 Years of Organised Amateur Radio in Queensland to July 30th 2012, various clubs about Queensland in 3 day blocks are still activating. Moroccan stations are permitted to use the prefix 5 C 13 instead of their usual CN prefix until 27 July. This is to celebrate the 13th anniversary of the crowning of King Mohammed VI. (irts) LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD NOW SUPPORTS CQ'S WPX AWARD After weeks of beta testing, the ARRL has launched the integration of Logbook of The World (LoTW), its electronic confirmation system, with CQ Magazine's Worked All Prefixes (WPX) Award. The WPX Award is the first of the CQ-sponsored awards that LoTW will support. More than 51,000 radio amateurs worldwide use Logbook of The World, and there are currently almost 432 million QSOs in the LoTW system. arrl.org/news/arrl-launches-logbook-of-the-world-wpx-award-integration (arrl) LY 54 SOP On air until July 31st, to celebrate the 54th anniversary of SOP (Sea of Peace), Baltic Sea. Every year in July the local radio amateurs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern district accomplish special activities supporting the application of the SOP. The SOP is awarded for contacts with different countries/areas bordering the Baltic Sea and Norway each year during the month of July. (TARCinc) The team at the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia are pleased to announce that the landing permit for the ZL9HR DXpedition to Campbell Island has been issued by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. The DXpedition will take place between the 28 November and December 9. An international team is being assembled for this event on the sub-Antarctic Campbell Island. This will be the biggest DXpedition by an Australian club in 25 years and the biggest one in 2012 worldwide. For all information please go to the DXpedition website at ZL9HR.com 73 From ED VK2ARE, Australian Publicity Officer for ZL9HR and member of the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia. THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. LiPo is the abbreviation for Lithium Polymer, one of the more recent rechargeable battery technologies. These rechargeable batteries are gaining popularity as prices fall and capacities improve. NERG news suggest a great plain English introduction to these batteries can be found at the RC Helicopters web site. See the “Understanding RC LiPo Batteries” page at: chelicopterfun.com/rc-lipo-batteries.html WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER STUDENTS DESIGN SUPERCAPICITOR BATTERY FOR ARISSAT Students at Penn State university have designed and built a state-of-the-art super-capacitor type battery for the next amateur radio ARISSat satellite. The battery was built to handle 16 charge cycles in a given 24-hour period. That will power the satellite in dark orbits, when the solar panels are not in sunlight. Dakshina Murthy Bellur, is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State. According to Bellhur, the unit is a simple design. They flip a switch, and they throw it out into space. Bellhur supervised the battery work, which counted as the students’ senior project. More can be found in cyberspace at live.psu.edu/story/60125 (ARNewsLine) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- INTERNET --- THE HAMS DOMAIN TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA www.HamRadioNation.com A D I F 2 K M L is an application that plots your ham radio QSOs as pins on Google Earth. You can see where your QSOs or QSLs came from as the Earth spins slowly on your PC screen. Hams that use digi-modes like PSK usually record the Maidenhead Grid of the stations they work. ADIF2KML uses those grids to calculate LAT and LON, then creates a KML file. The data shown includes notes like the ham's name, callsign, QSL received etc. This is version 2 of this program. The new version eliminates the need for Excel and does the whole conversion in Visual Basic. But you still have the option of creating a .csv file so that you can run your own analysis of your log in a spread sheet. Download free from www.qsl.net/zl3dw (sourced to southgate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO SCOUTING http://www.scouts.com.au http://www.scout.org/jota http://www.international.scouts.com.au JOTA/JOTI Still some time off but JOTA co-ordinator in VK7 Peter VK7KPC advises that the plan to run the NTARC JOTA effort at the Carnacoo camp site at Paper Beach, as part of a Northern Districts camp, remains current. Operation will be from marquees with mains power available. 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 ITU interview with Hans Zimmermann HB9AQS The International Telecommunication Union have released an interview with Hans, IARU International Coordinator for Emergency Communications The opinions expressed in ITU interviews are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily represent those of the ITU. Watch ITU INTERVIEWS @ TDAG: Hans Zimmermann, International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) (southgate) SOCIAL SCENE 2012 JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club JULY 29 VK2/3 Albury Wodonga ARC HamFest @ Lavington Scout Hall AUG 5 VK6 NCRG HAMFEST Cyril Jackson Rec Centre Ashfield. AUG 12 VK2 SARCFEST at Summerland ARC Clubrooms, Lismore. SEP 28-30 VK4 Central Highlands ARC AGM at Camp Fairbairn, Emerald. NOV 4 VK5 Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society HAMFEST @ Goodwood NOV 11 VK3 Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group Hamfest NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD 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. Each item will only be broadcast once, if you want a couple of mentions, please submit different slants to keep your event 'fresh'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ============================================================================= WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide. 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