WIANEWS - MARCH 10 - 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. When you upload audio email us the txt version. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING MARCH 10 2013. THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA IS FOR WEEK COMMENCING MAR 10 2013. The year 2013 is Canberra's centenary year and the month of March marks 100 years since Lady Denman, wife of the then Governor General Lord Denman, named the federal capital "Canberra" at Capital Hill, now the site of Parliament House. The Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club has been granted a special event callsign vi100ACT (V I one hundred A C T) in recognition of this event. Look out for "VI 100 ACT" on the bands during March and possibly the rest of the year 2013. VK2 school gets ARISS contact this week The Illawarra Amateur Radio Society, in conjunction with ARISS – Amateur Radio on the International Space Station – is organising for students at Mt Ousley Public School in Wollongong NSW, to talk to astronaut Kevin Ford KF 5 GPP while he is on board the International Space Station. The International Space Station is in orbit above Earth at a height of over 380 kilometres and is travelling at a speed of 27,000 kilometres per hour. The Amateur Radio connection to the Space Station will be provided by Claudio IK 1 SLD located in Italy and then connected to the Mt Ousley Primary School via the worldwide NASA conferencing system. Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 have had to vote for two questions from each Year to be read aloud to Astronaut Kevin Ford, with the student who thought-up the question having the honour of talking to the astronaut while in outer space. The event is planned for Tuesday the 12th of March at 6:35pm local time or 07:35 UTC. For listeners in the Wollongong and Sydney area, the historic event will be relayed onto the VK 2 RMP repeater on 6850 at Maddens Plains. For interstate or overseas listeners, the event will be relayed onto IRLP Node 9010 and on Echolink via the AMSAT Conference Bridge. Why not have a listen and hear what sort of challenging questions our younger generation might ask an astronaut and be aware that their questions are far more interesting than the usual “how do you go to the toilet while in space?”. (Rob VK2MT President - Illawarra Amateur Radio Society) Mobile phone jammer at Lithgow Jail In a trial sanctioned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the jamming of mobile phones is to be permitted by the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services. It is already a crime for an inmate to have a mobile phone, and they are prohibited to be taken in by visitors. The Lithgow Correctional Centre, in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, has been selected as an appropriate site to trial mobile phone jammers. Tenders have been called to use CJAM jammers in the prison, due to their ability to stop signals in a precise perimeter. The tender covers the equipment, installation, materials and antenna system. The Department is working closely with mobile phone carriers and the ACMA, to ensure that the trial does not affect other mobile phone services in the area. The ACMA granted an exemption to its over-all ban on mobile phone jammers, by allowing the restricted trial under a 12-month licence valid from July the 1st this year. (Jim Linton VK3PC) GlobalSET to be held twice There will be Global Simulated Emergency Tests on Saturdays, April the 13th and the 20th. And why on two days? Both straddle World Amateur Radio Day on Thursday April the 18th, which this year is themed, 'Amateur Radio: Entering Its Second Century of Disaster Communications'. International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Emergency Coordinator, Greg Mossop G0DUB says the first Saturday will repeat the format of 2011 using 'local time? for each station.' This will give a good chance of messages moving towards the regional Headquarters Stations. The second Saturday will answer the messages, starting from the Headquarters Stations, being sent back to the countries that originated them. All of those who register for the GlobalSETs have access to the full set of rules. GlobalSET is open to all three IARU regions, on or near about the the emergency centre of activity frequencies on the 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 metre bands. The Amateur Service continues to play an important asset in emergency and disaster response, as shown by many natural disasters. GlobalSET is an opportunity to increase the common interest in emergency communications, create practices for international emergency communications and the relaying of messages. (Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee) The cause of "tin whiskers" explained Peter Ellis VK1PE says that reports are being published in various places about award-winning research at the University of South Carolina that explains "tin whiskers". These strands of tin grow out of solder, and can bridge the gap between components and cause circuit failures. PhD student, Yong Sun, used a process called digital image correlation to track the de-formation of the surfaces around solder, and was able to prove the growth of whiskers are caused by high-strain gradient built up inside the device. SOURCE: "USC doctoral student unravels ‘tin whisker’ mystery", www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=5371 WIA BOARD TALK President Phil Wait VK2ASD vk2asd@wia.org.au Vice President Chris Platt VK5CP vk5cp@wia.org.au Secretary David Williams VK3RU vk3ru@wia.org.au Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ vk3pz@wia.org.au For Information to all Affiliated Clubs, Margaret Williams has retired from her position in the WIA office. She has been a friendly and helpful contact for all. I believe that her email may work for some time if you wish to send a personal message it's margaretw@wia.org.au Future WIA enquiries should be directed to the office manager Mal Brooks malb@wia.org.au Planning - 10 March 2013, 0'38" Have you prepared for the last weekend in May; the 2013 WIA AGM and Conference? If you need help in preparing for your journey to Western Australia, we've created a page with information that will help your planning and budgeting. You can find that online together with up to date information, programmes, calendar of events, expressions of interest for workshops and other information about what's happening with the Conference. The 2013 WIA AGM and Conference, it's all about Engaging, Learning, Appreciating, Socializing and Discovering. You'll find all the information online at the VK6 conference site, conference.vk6.net HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK1 At the recently held CRARC AGM new Committee Members were elected including President Phil Longworth VK 1 PL Senior Vice President Ian McCleary VK 1 FMAC Treasurer Bob Howie VK 1 MRH Secretary Murray de Plater VK 1 MDP VK3 web service:- http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/ Standard theory training available soon Enrolments are being taken by Amateur Radio Victoria for the Standard Licence bridging theory course, held weekly on Wednesday nights at centrally located Ashburton. To enrol you must have a Foundation Licence. The instructor, Kevin Luxford VK3DAP / ZL2DAP, covers the additional Standard Licence syllabus knowledge. It does require some self-study in between the classes, but those who have attended can attest that it has a very high pass rate. For full details contact the Education Team Leader, Barry Robinson VK3PV vk3pv@amateurradio.com.au or 0428 516 001. (Jim Linton VK3PC) 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 Brisbane Amateur Radio Club will be holding its 30th BARCFEST on 11th May at Mt.Gravatt Showgrounds from 9:30 am. Anyone interested in booking a table can obtain the necessary paper work from the VK4BA website which is www.qsl.net/vk4ba or easier just go to wia.org.au and look up the vk4 clubs section. INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA. Technology Convention, Easter, Auckland 2013 If you are visiting the 'shaky isles Easter timer, register for the Technology Convention, to be held in Auckland over March 30 and 31. The programme includes presentations on a Loop antenna design and experimental tuning tool; Using the maritime AIS system as a propagation indicator; Digital ATV – the Wellington and Auckland experiences to date; Oscillators and their design; Weaver method of SSB generation; Digital mobile radio technology update; forum – your opportunity to discuss current issues; a mobile rally and much more. Day only registration is $30.00. Further information and a registration form is available at www.qsl.net/zl1bq SOLAR CYCLE 24 MAY HAVE A DOUBLE PEAK Something unexpected is happening on the sun. 2013 is supposed to be the year of Solar Max, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values in 2011,and strong solar flares have been infrequent for many months. The quiet has led some observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark. Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Centre has a different explanation: "This is solar maximum," he suggests. "But it looks different from what we expected because it is double peaked." Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum. At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares. At the other end, Solar Max brings high sunspot numbers and solar storms. It's a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years. Sunspot counts jumped in 2011, dipped in 2012, and Pesnell expects them to rebound again in 2013: "I am comfortable in saying that another peak will happen in 2013 and possibly last into 2014," he predicts. Watch a 4 minutes NASA video on www.sarl.org.za SA AMATEUR RADIO DEVELOPMENT TRUST AWARDED THREE RAE BURSARIES The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust has awarded three bursaries for young people to study for the RAE to be written in May. The bursaries are each valued of R1 000. were awarded to Sisters Michelle, who is in grade 9, and Nicole, in grade 11. The third bursary was awarded to Karel, ZU6KB. He achieved the best results in the 2011 Class B examination with a 98% pass. He loves contesting and won the SARL youth sprint last year and came 22nd in the CW WW SSB 10 Metre assisted class 3 contest in Africa. ARREST MADE IN UK UNLICENSED RADIO STATION RAID A United Kingdom man has been arrested in a raid on an unlicensed radio station in Wolverhampton. Police and officials from communications regulator Ofcom raided the premises and seized microphones, a mixer, a computer and associated cabling. The 33 year old man was arrested on suspicion of offences under the UK's Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. WIND UP RADIO DEVELOPER SEEKING UK GOVERNMENT PROTECTION FOR ALL INVENTORS The developer of the famed Free-Play wind-up radio is calling on the British government to step-in to protect the interests of inventors. The Daily Telegraph reports that inventor Trevor Baylis says he faces having to sell his house after failing to make money from his wind-up radio that many say helped to revolutionize public emergency notifications and there-by save lives in emerging nations. ============================================================================= NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA UNLICENSED OPERATOR ARRESTED FOR THREATS AGAINST TEXAS RADIO CLUB A man arrested on allegations he used amateur radio to threaten to kill members of a local amateur radio club has been released on bail from the Bexar County Texas Jail. Twenty-nine year old John David Watkins III, posted a $4,000 bond and was freed before noon Sunday February 17th. This after his having been taken into custody the previous night on two counts of making terroristic threats. An arrest affidavit states Watkins, known on radio frequencies as “White Noise,” was creating interference and illegally transmitting without having the required radio operator license. A member of a radio club met with Watkins in January and told him to stop or the group would report him to the Federal Communications Commission. Officials said that the next day Watkins allegedly made threats against the person who visited him and against other members of the club, saying he would kill them with an AK-47 rifle. These threats were reported to the police who provided security at the club's next meeting. At airtime, what motivated Watkins to make the alleged threats or if the matter will go to trial is unknown. ============================================================================= OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2013 RSGB COMMONWEALTH CW CONTEST This Weekend 9 -10 March MAR 15-17 VK JOHN MOYLE FIELD DAY WEEKEND WW International Museums Weekends June 15/16 and 22/23 Win a Centenary morse key The Commonwealth Contest takes place on 9th and 10th March and the RSGB have donated one of the Centenary Keys for the prize draw. All stations that enter the contest and make at least 75 good QSOs after adjudication are entered into the free prize draw. This is a 24hour CW contest on the 10 to 80m bands. The exchange is simply a report and serial number and there is free software to make the logging, sending and entry very easy. Only QSOs between call areas in the Commonwealth count, so have a look at the call area list in the rules. Check out the website www.beru.org.uk. SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE Southgate news in the UK say that Banjo Patterson vk4mik is running his AM and CW for ANZAC DAY again this year, 2013. Suggested CW freqs during April 25 are 7020, 7025, 14038 and 14051 from 0300Z to 0700Z. 4S7DXG and 8Q7VR approved for DXCC credit The Sri Lanka 4S7DXG and Maldives 8Q7VR operations in 2008 and 2011 have been approved for DXCC credit. If you had a request rejected for contacts with these dates only, send an e-mail to dxccrules@arrl.org to be put on the list for an update. HAM RADIO CLUB TO CELEBRATE LEGION BIRTHDAY The American Legion Amateur Radio Club will operate special event station N 9 L March 15, and March 16 to commemorate the 94th birthday of The American Legion. (Similar objects as the Ussie RSL). The primary frequency to look for N 9 L will be 14.270 MHz on 20 meters. A multi-national team will activate the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea from 10 – 18 March. The callsign will be 9 M 4 SLL. They will operate all bands 160 – 10m on SSB, CW and RTTY. This counts as a separate entity for DXCC purposes and also for the IOTA Award AS-051. QSL manager is M 0 URX (irts) MEDIA WATCH www.cq-amateur-radio.com/WorldRadio.html VK Club Bulletins http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aarnie/ VK2 CCARC news ccarc.org.au/wp/2012/09/ccarc-news-12-31/ CQ launches online photo gallery CQ magazine has announced the launch of the online CQ Photo Gallery to supplement photos published in the magazine. "We shoot photos at many events, and receive many photos from readers, that we don't have space to put in the magazine," said CQ Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU. "But we still want to share them with our readers. The new CQ Photo Gallery allows us to do that." The photo gallery resides on the flickr.com web site and is organized into albums called "sets." www.flickr.com/photos/cqphotogallery/sets THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. STUDIO: Peter Ellis VK1PE has found an interesting article that explains 1/f noise in electronics. vk1pe: For around 90 years the phenomenon of "1/f noise", or "pink noise", has been observed in electronics, and studied and debated. 1/f noise is 'louder' at lower frequencies and decreases with increased frequency, unlike white noise that is constant with frequency. Pink noise has emerged as one limiting factor in electronic circuits using very small conductor diameters. The debate has been whether 1/f noise comes from the surface of the conductor or the 'volume' of the underlying material. The debate may be over, following research using graphene sandwiches down to one layer thick of carbon atoms. The paper is: Direct Probing of 1/f Noise Origin with Graphene Multilayers: Surface vs. Volume, by Guanxiong Liu, Alexander A. Balandin, et al, http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.5155. (Also see: "Graphene sheds light on ubiquitous phenomenon", MaterialsToday.com, 4 March 2013, http://www.materialstoday.com/view/31025/the-mystery-of-the-1-f-noise/) Increasingly, electronics manufacturers are moving to thin 'wires' of dielectric of around 1 nanometer in ICs. Graphene layers, and carbon nanotubes, are also beginning to be used in ICs. 1/f surface noise is thus becoming a dominant issue, especially as it can be often amplified in later circuits. The research shows that both surface conduction and volume effects contribute to 1/f noise. The team showed that surface noise dominates for fewer than 7 layers of graphene, and above that 'volume' noise takes over. So, viable counter measures for 1/f noise will now be sought. For National Radio News, Peter Ellis VK1PE " Prospective: Apart from the fundamental science importance of testing directly the origin of 1/f-noise, the obtained results are very important for electronics applications. The progress in information technologies and communications crucially depends on the continuing downscaling of the conventional devices, such as main stream silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. As the feature size of CMOS devices is scaled down to achieve higher speed and packing density, the 1/f noise level strongly increases and becomes the crucial factor limiting the ultimate device performance and downsizing. The increase in 1/f noise is detrimental not only for transistors and interconnects in digital circuits but also for the high-frequency circuits such as mixers and oscillators, where 1/f noise upconverts into the phase noise and deteriorates the signal-to-noise ratio in the operational amplifiers and analogue-digital – digital-analogue converters. With typical dielectric thicknesses in modern transistors of the order of a nanometer, it is important to understand when 1/f noise is becoming a pure surface noise. Although the exact thickness may vary from material to material, the length scale at which the transistor channel or barrier layer becomes the surface from the noise prospective is valuable for design of the next generation electronics. The obtained results are also crucial for the graphene applications. Graphene does not have a band-gap, which seriously impedes its prospects for digital electronics. However, graphene revealed potential for the high-frequency analog communications, interconnects and sensors. These applications require low level of 1/f noise, which is up-converted via unavoidable device and circuit non-linearity. Therefore, the knowledge of the scaling law for the 1/f noise in graphene multilayers is very important for most of realistic graphene applications in electronics." DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? Recently I went looking for a place to set-up my radio during lunch time. The location I've been looking for needs a couple of things. Most importantly, it needs to be reachable within my lunch break - being self-employed, that's a little more flexible for me than for some, but it shouldn't be a 30 minute drive there and another 30 minutes back. For me, the location needs to be near water, accessible by car; I should be able to park next to the water, so my antenna ground-plane can reach the water and it needs to be away from houses with plasma screens. In case you're wondering how my antenna system has been constructed, it's quite simple. I use a 12m squid-pole, think fishing rod on steroids, it's called a Spider-Beam. A local manufacturer made me a steel-plate with a pipe welded to it. I park a wheel of my car on the steel plate, put the squid-pole over the welded pipe and run a piece of wire to the top. At the bottom I have an SGC tuner, an SG-237, which plugs into the wire going up the pole and plugs the other end of the antenna into a ground-plane. Depending on where I am, the ground plane is a single wire running into a body of water, or it's a construction of 16 wires laid out in a ground mat. The Tuner plugs into my radio, the radio plugs into a battery pack and I can be on-air in less than 10 minutes. It's clearly not a mobile set-up, and I don't use it at home where my radio is really only used on 2m and 70cm. In order for me to use this contraption during lunch, I need to be able to get to the location, set up in short order and get on air and listen to stations around the bands. I did in fact find such a location and plan to set-up there to start some listening tests. I found that Google Maps was very helpful in having a look-see before going physically to the actual site and the photographic data provided by Nearmap was helpful in determining how busy the location might be. Looking for locations to set-up can be challenging. My current hit-list contains boat-ramps as a preference. Perhaps this might help you locate a place to get some QSO's during your lunch break too. I'm Onno VK6FLAB WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER METEOR THAT HIT RUSSIA TRAJECTORY IDENTIFIED Scientists from Colombia believe they have pinpointed the origin of the giant meteor that smashed into a remote region of Russia last month. Using some of the dozens, if not hundreds, of videos that captured the once-in-a-century event, the scientists have calculated the trajectory, tracing it back to a group of Earth-crossing objects known as Apollo asteroids. They then used trigonometry to calculate the height, speed and position of the rock as it fell to Earth. To reconstruct the meteor's original orbit around the sun, they used six different properties of its trajectory through Earth's atmosphere. They then plugged all of that data into specialized astronomy software developed by the U.S. Naval Observatory. The computers then confirmed that it was from the Apollo group. SCIENTISTS OFFER SUPPORT FOR NASA'S NEXT MARS ROVER Scientists have applauded a NASA decision to send another rover to Mars in 2020. At the same time they are stressing that the mission should pave the way to return Martian rocks to Earth. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Heather Embee, KB3TZD, said that the Planetary Society and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences applauded the announcement. At the same time both strongly suggested that the mission should have the capability to collect and store Martian rock samples. NASA has released very few details on the proposed new rover plan. Because of this it's still unclear whether the robot WILL be able to collect Martian rock samples intended to be brought back to Earth. It should be noted that most plans for returning Mars samples are multi-phase, with an initial mission to collect and store the rocks. Later missions would rendezvous with the collector and return the samples to Earth. 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 Saturday March 16th 2013 Rally Bonnie Doon Mansfield Contact: Peter Weeks VK3YZP phone: 03 5772 1454 Email: weeksradio@virtual.net.au Saturday April 6th 2013 Pajero Challenge Woods point area Contact: Dirk Versluys VK3FPAJ phone: 03 9879 8384 Email: versluys@optusnet.com.au RESCUE RADIO: FOLLOW-UP – NPR LABS EMERGENCY ALERT FOR THE DEAF EXPERIMENT TO GO FORWARD A follow up to our recent report on an Emergency Alerting system being proposed for the deaf and hard of hearing using radio. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW has said that a pilot system is intended to demonstrate that all individuals, including those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, can rely on battery-powered radios to stay informed in emergencies when electricity, Internet and other communications channels are unavailable. NPR Labs is the technology research and development group of National Public Radio. It will work with DHS and FEMA to identify 25 public radio outlets in the USA to participate in the pilot. In the demonstration project, FEMA will transmit emergency alert messages using the Common Alerting Protocol. The Public Radio Satellite System network operations centre will re-transmit the warning via the Radio Broadcast Data System on the participating 25 public radio stations on a dedicated digital alerting channel. The stations will broadcast the emergency alert to receivers capable of displaying text messages. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - LOW DOWN Distance challenge is out on new band Following the World Radio Conference held in 2012, the band 472 kHz to 479 kHz or a wavelength of 630 Metres, became available to radio amateurs in many countries. Jim Linton VK3PC told us that the International Amateur Radio Union won the new secondary allocation on the basis it used ground wave propagation resulting in reliable communication over medium and large ranges, and is not dependent upon the ionosphere. According to research by Nick Hacko VK2DX only 19 Australian stations are capable of receiving the band, just seven can also transmit and out of those only five have made two-way contacts. The current two-way distance record is just under 290 km. Those who have already tried it find the band to be most challenging. Nick VK2DX is looking for a bunch of enthusiastic VK, ZL and Pacific radio amateurs to be active on the new band, and of course tilt the distance record books. If you are serious about the band subscribe to the Yahoo mailing list ( 600m-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ) or visit the website http://groups.yahoo.com/group/600m/ (Jim Linton VK3PC) About The WIA Email Address What Is The WIA Email Address http://www.wia.org.au/members/email/about/ The WIA though it's email server allows you to establish "yourcallsign@wia.org.au" with all emails sent to this address automatically forwarded to either your home or work email account.. This provides YOU with ONE consistent email address. And should you ever change ISP, then having a WIA address means your friends and colleagues will still be able to email you without the need for individually providing them with your new address. All YOU need to do is to simply advise us of your new address, through form on our website and we do the rest. It couldn't be easier !! A further benefit of having a WIA address, is in receiving informative Amateur Radio news as it breaks, sent directly to YOUR inbox.. How Does it Work? The WIA Email server simply forwards all emails addressed to your WIA email address to you own ISP email account of your choice. If you ever change ISP's then simply click on Apply For Your WIA Email Address in the menu bar on http://www.wia.org.au/members/email/about/ and fill out the online form. All requests for new or changed email address's are generally completed within 48 hours. http://www.wia.org.au/members/email/about/ SOCIAL SCENE 2013 MAR 10 VK3 SPARC joins in The 2013 Rosebud KiteFest MAR 24 VK3 EMDRC White Elephant Sale: Great Ryrie Primary School MAR 24 VK7 "Meet the Voice" barbecue at Ross. APR 18 WW IARU World Amateur Radio day MAY 3- 5 VK4 Clairview AR Weekend details 04 296 32815 MAY 11 VK3 Moorabbin & District Radio Club Hamfest MAY 11 VK4 BARCFEST Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9:30am MAY 11 VK6 Hills Amateur Radio Group - HARGfest - 1pm. MAY 24-26 VK6 WIA AGM AND CONFERENCE IN PERTH JUL 20 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest AUG 11 VK2 SARCFEST 414 Richmond Hill Rd near Lismore AUG 17-18 WW ILLW Oct 3- 7 VK4 North Queensland Amateur Radio Convention Charters Towers NOV 2 VK4 Gold Coast ARS HamFest at Albert Waterways Hall. NOV 3 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Goodwood. NOV 15-17 VK3 Victorian National Parks Weekend Nov 24 VK3 Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club: Rosebud RadioFest FEEDBACK I have a problem with the broadcast content over the last 6 months or so and that is the negativity of the American additions. There is a lot irrelevant, non amateur information included such as arrests, killings, and general bad behaviour of the public in America. We already have too much of this pushed on to us via public TV and radio so why do we also have to listen to it over the amateur radio? The WIA subjects are amateur based and of good quality content relative to the hobby, bad American behaviour is not. I have heard other local amateurs with similar concerns. If the added input from the States is to be included, can it be edited to cut out the nasty bits to make it more relevant? Thanks Phil. The week before last (24/2/13) the added content was good. 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 ‘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 nationalnews@wia.org.au 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. ***************************