----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AWA The Historical Radio Society of Australia (HRSA) will hold its Melbourne auction under the theme of 'AWA Centenary' - as the Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) celebrates its 100th birthday. The HRSA invites you to bring along AWA radios, particularly early ones, and other AWA related things such as brochures and pictures. The auction will be held at Churches of Christ Theological College, 44-60 Jacksons Road, Mulgrave, on Saturday 27 July, at 12pm, with viewing from 11am. Join the net Sunday nights at 8.30pm AEST on 3.575 MHz plus or minus QRM, or for more information and a downloadable auction entry form, pricing and other information visit the website www.hrsa.asn.au Then a little further north the following day it's the AWA Centenary Celebration Reunion in Sydney The AWA Veterans’ Association Incorporated will be holding a Centenary reunion of AWA at the Burwood RSL Sunday July 28. There will be a number of product exhibits and memorabilia from AWA departments for viewing on the day, together with guest speakers to spark some reminiscences in your memory bank of your time with, or your association with AWA. For details on payment and further information, please email: awaveterans@gmail.com (Jim Linton VK3PC and Ted VK2FLB via vk2wi news) CALLING HOME Prepare for a wave of astronomical revelations with the $51 million Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope in Western Australia now in full swing. The MWA is part of the growing Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in a remote part of the Western Australia (VK6) where radio frequency interference is virtually non-existent. it is a precursor to the $2 billion international Square Kilometre Array project and comprises 2048 antennas that capture low frequency radio waves. It will step up observations of the sun to detect and monitor massive solar storms and will also investigate a unique concept - seeing if stray FM radio signals can be used to track dangerous space debris. A little further east, astronomers just have detected the first population of radio bursts known to originate from galaxies beyond our own Milky Way. The sources of the light bursts are unknown, but cataclysmic events, such as merging or exploding stars, are likely the triggers. A single radio burst was detected about six years ago, but researchers were unclear about whether it came from within or beyond our galaxy. The new radio-burst detections -- four in total -- are from billions of light-years away, erasing any doubt that the phenomenon is real. The discovery, described in the July 4 issue of the journal Science, comes from an international team that used the Parkes Observatory in Australia (VK2). Exactly what is triggering the release of the radio waves is unknown. Further scans for radio bursts using the Parkes Observatory are ongoing. (PRESS REPORTS) The dangers of lithium batteries Lithium batteries are undoubtedly popular going by their wide use in consumer products, and even higher powered models in electric vehicles. However they have been linked to fires, illicit drug makers and medical problems. The recent death of a toddler in Queensland, Australia and others injured after swallowing them, has again focused attention on the common power source. From January 2013 stricter regulations for the carriage of Lithium batteries by air travellers were introduced best check with your airline for the rules. A battery can also be a convenient source of lithium metal used in illegal methamphetamine laboratories. Sales of larger quantities are restricted for this reason in some areas. International industry standards for button batteries are soon to be introduced as an urgent safety measure. These are likely to include strengthened consumer education about the dangers and child-restraint packaging for the cell batteries. (Jim Linton VK3PC) 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 HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm VKG Roundup http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news SMPTE Exhibition. Those with an interest in current media technology might like to check out the SMPTE (The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), bi-annual exhibition which will be at Darling Harbour between Tuesday the 23rd and Friday the 26th of July. (vk2wi news) Next weekend ARNSW will be conducting its regular Foundation course at the VK2WI site. There will also be assessments available for all license grades Sunday 21st. Bookings are required which may be made by an email to:- membership@arnsw.org.au The regular bi monthly Trash and Treasure will be held at VK2WI on Sunday the 28 th July. 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 - with Monster Auction. Tuesday July 16th 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. As an added bonus, a Monster Auction will be happening to see who can claim a night for two at "The Venue" on Friday 26th July. All are welcome - be there ! (vk4zz) VK5 Between Friday afternoon 16th August 2013, and Monday morning 19th August, 8 amateurs from the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society, will be operational from Kangaroo Island, OC-139, off the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. The special call sign of VK5CWL, VK5 Cape Willoughby lighthouse, will be used to coincide with the 16th International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend. The call of VK5BAR, Bravo Alpha Romeo, will also be active from the island during the Remembrance Day Contest. VK5CWL & VK5BAR will be operating on all bands 160m-2m, depending of course on band conditions on a variety of modes including SSB, CW, PSK, and FreeDV. A special certificate is available to those amateurs who make contact with either VK5CWL or VK5BAR during this period. QSL cards are also available for both stations. More information can be found on the VK5CWL website at www.vk5cwl.weebly.com We look forward to contacting as many amateurs as possible during our 4 days on the island. 73 from Paul, VK5PAS, on behalf of the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society. EDUCATION YOUTH AND ADVANCEMENT OF AMATEUR RADIO www.hamcollege.com.au What use is an f-call? I've spent the past couple of weeks investigating Magnetic Loop Antennas and during that process got distracted by propagation. I've talked about propagation before, but in talking with an Amateur with many years of experience, so much so, that they have had their licence longer than I've been alive, it transpired that there were still things that I was able to share that were new. The Australian Government, that is, the Bureau of Meteorology has a Department called the Radio and Space Services, which is their space weather branch. The more common name of this section is the Ionospheric Prediction Service or IPS and their website can be found at www.ips.gov.au When you get there, you'll find a vast treasure trove of information, both historic and current, even live. Of particular interest to us as Amateurs is the section which innocuously is titled "HF Systems". Within that you'll find hourly area prediction charts, the current and past T-index with future predictions, Minimum and Maximum Usable Frequency charts and the list goes on. In the Online Tools section, you can generate your own HAP and other charts for your location and your preferred frequencies and you can see what 24 hours of data looks like for that. You can subscribe to alerts, daily, weekly and monthly reports, book propagation training courses and I've only just scratched the surface. All in all, there is much more information than I can share with you at short notice, but I recommend that you go and have a look. The location again, is www.ips.gov.au Propagation, it's what makes your contacts possible. 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. Douglas Engelbart, whose invention of the mouse transformed the way people interact with computers, has died. Engelbart died at his home in California. He was 88. Engelbart arrived at his crowning moment relatively early in his career, it was 1968, when he delivered a presentation containing so many far-reaching ideas that it would be referred to decades later as the "mother of all demos." Speaking before leading technologists in San Francisco, Engelbart, a computer scientist at the Stanford Research Institute showed off a cubic device with two rolling discs called an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." It was the mouse's public debut. Engelbart then summoned, in real-time, the image and voice of a colleague 48 km away. That was the first videoconference. And he explained a theory of how pages of information could be tied together using text-based links, an idea that would later form the bedrock of the web's architecture (cnn and others) New Zealand DX Hall of Fame 2012 ZL1HY Mike Edwards. Mike was first licensed in 1973. He worked more than 100 countries on phone before gaining his “HF license” in 1975. Mike was the first New Zealand amateur to be awarded the “CQ WAZ” on 80m in 1981, 11th in the World. Following that remarkable achievement, Mike went on to gain CQ WAZ on 5 bands (5BWAZ) all in SSB. Mike gained 5BDXCC as early as mid-1981. With more than 100 entities on 160m Mike has demonstrated his prowess in both DXing and contesting over the last 40 years. Mike Edwards with the honour of the New Zealand Hall of Fame. ZL3TY Bob McQuarrie. Bob was first licensed in 1963 and operated mostly on VHF. His dedication to VHF became apparent when Bob became the first New Zealand amateur to gain DXCC in VHF mixed (6m and 2m). Bob is the first New Zealand amateur to be awarded DXCC on the 2m band with 102 countries confirmed. Bob joined the ZL7C DXpedition in October 2002 and was able to make the first ever moon bounce contacts from the Chatham Islands. As a consequence his name and call sign are inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame. ZL2AWJ Ted Thorpe (Silent key) Ted (Edward Max) Thorpe was first licenced 14th October 1949 as ZL1ADX while he was still a student at Mt. Albert Grammar School in Auckland. On January 27-1966, the 38 foot Ketch "Marinero" sailed from Wallis Island en route to Western and American Samoa . Aboard were five individuals, including Ted Thorpe, ZL2AWJ who had just completed a successful operation as FW8ZZ on Wallis Island , the 15th such operation during the World Radio Propagation Study Association's 1965-1966 S.E. Asia-Pacific DXpedition. This DXpedition was received with enthusiasm by the DX fellows in the USA and throughout the world. During the preceding six months, over 75,000 QSO's had been logged on CW and SSB. On 29 and 30 of January, a hurricane struck the Wallis Island - Samoa area, the eye of the storm passing directly over Wallis Island with winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and waves 50 to 75' in height. The "Marinero", with Ted aboard never reached port. The "Marinero" is now considered to have sunk and the five on board, including Ted, missing assumed dead. Congratulations Mike zl1hy, Bob zl3ty and Ted zl2awj. (Graham Hunter ZL3GQ New Zealand HOF Convenor nzart.org.nz) A $40 Software-Defined Radio An IEEE article describes how, with some cheap hardware and free software, you can listen-in on digital and analogue signals across a wide range of radio spectrum. The author, radio amateur Stephen Cass KB1WNR, used a Freeview P250 dongle and a Model B Raspberry Pi microcontroller. Watch the video and read the article at http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/a-40-softwaredefined-radio JARL Hamfair 2013 The Amateur Radio Festival, also known as JARL Hamfair will be held in Tokyo 24 and 25 August 2013. Displays of Industry and Club booths, Guest Speakers, Special Event Station and many other activities to satisfy the inquisitive needs of the amateur will be available. IARU Region 3 Directors will be visiting the Amateur Radio Festival as on the Monday & Tuesday following the Hamfair Directors will meet to discuss and action items relevant to the Region now and in the future. Three SA Radio Amateurs receive the MTN Radio Amateur of the Year Awards The annual event is hosted by MTN to encourage radio amateurs to give back to their community and amateur radio. The MTN Radio Amateur of the Year Award was presented to Dawie Conradie for his contribution to the promotion of amateur radio both in the amateur radio community and the community at large. He produces the weekly 30 minute programme "Amateur Radio in Aksie "and every alternate week Amateur Radio Today. The MTN Garth Milne Technology Award was presented to Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE, for his support of the SA AMSAT KLETSkous CubeSat project. The MTN Amateur Radio Community Service Award was presented to Glynn Chamberlain, ZS6GLN, for his staunch support of SARL HAMNET and in particular for his effort in a mission to find an aircraft that crashed in Mozambique. You can see more on www.amateurradio.org.za ICASA CLARIFIES SOUTH AFRICAN LICENSING PAYMENTS The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has informed the South African Radio League that it has now analysed all payments for that nations amateur service licenses. It says that in 2012 some 209 radio amateurs paid the proper fee for a five year license but failed to notify the regulatory service of that fact when payment was made. This year there were an additional 34. To rectify the situation the regulatory agency says that it plans on mailing five year licenses to these hams which will be valid until 2017 and 2018 respectively. On a more negative note, ICASA says that the same inquiry revealed that 823 South African radio amateurs did not renew their licenses. As such, these licenses will be cancelled and the regulatory agency says that it will make arrangements for the urgent sealing or confiscation of the equipment if payment is not made immediately. The South African Radio League in urging hams in that nation to check their payment records to make certain that they have renewed their licenses. If not that they should do so without any further delay. EMCOMMWEST 2013 CANCELLED There will be no EMCOMMWEST ham radio convention in 2013. So says the Board of Directors in a front page posting to the events website. According to the post, the board has been discussing the options for and fate of EMCOMMWEST 2013. It says that there have been many changes in the volunteer workforce during the past 12 months. This coupled with the small period of time between now and the traditional date of the event has led the Board to decide to forgo 2013. The Board goes on to say that circumstances leading to this decision include the loss of several key volunteers; the continued inability to draw the major vendors and manufacturers to the show and the fact that little has been accomplished to make measurable progress toward event production for this year. It goes on to say that if there is to be an EMCOMMWEST in 2014 it may require a local club to take the helm and provide the much-needed volunteer base for the event. EMCOMMWEST began in 1999 when a group of Northern Nevada amateur radio operators interested in improving emergency communications hosted the very first symposium that lead to the convention as it is today. More is on-line at emcommwest.org HAM RADIO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN VIDEO NOW ON LINE Ron Moorefield, W8ILC, who just returned from this years European Ham Radio Convention in Friedrichshafen, Germany estimates that around 14,000 or so hams attended this year’s offering. Moorefield was there with a contingent representing the Dayton Amateur Radio Association which of course sponsors the annual Dayton Hamvention. While at Ham Radio, the Dayton group live streamed the three day event back to the United States and also recorded it for anyone to watch at a later date. The files have now been posted and you can see this year’s European amateur radio highlight at www.ustream.tv/recorded/35112685. But one suggestion. If you plan to watch all the video at once that the folks from Dayton sent back, you might want to make a big bowl of popcorn and have some cold drinks handy. That's because there is a lot there to see. Ham Radio 2013 was held June 28th to the 30th at the convention facility not far from the picturesque shores on Lake Constance in southern Germany not far from the borders with Switzerland and Austria. NEW SUN-WATCHING SATELLITE LAUNCHED Turning to space related news, word that NASA has launched a satellite on a two year mission to explore a little-studied region of the sun. The new bird will help to better understand and forecast space weather that can disrupt communications systems on Earth. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reports: -- Unlike a traditional lift-off, the Iris sun-observing satellite rode into Earth orbit late Thursday, June 27th on board an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus rocket. This is a booster that is released from a modified Lockheed L- 1011 jet aircraft that carries it to a launch altitude. In this case the launch carrier took off around sunset from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's central coast. At an altitude of 39,000 feet it released the Pegasus booster which ignited its engine for the 13-minute climb to space. Shortly thereafter NASA confirmed that Iris had successfully reached its intended orbit and that it had received confirmation that the satellite deployed its solar panels and was generating power. The 7-foot-long Iris, weighing 400 pounds, carries an ultraviolet telescope that can take high-resolution images every few seconds. Unlike NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which observes the entire sun, Iris will focus on a little-explored region that lies between the surface and the corona. That's the glowing white ring that's visible during eclipses. Iris is being managed by the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. Its ultimate goal is to learn more about how this region of the sun drives solar wind and to better predict how space weather can cause disruptions to communications here on Earth. The latter is something very near and dear to ham radio operators, world-wide. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick, Pennsylvania. -- As a historical note the first successful Pegasus launch occurred on April 5, 1990 with NASA test pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton in command of the carrier aircraft. Video coverage of the June 27th Iris launch is online at tinyurl.com/iris-watches-sun ============================================================================= OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2013 13-14 July - IARU HF Championships 160M PHONE & 80/160M CW & DIGITAL TRANS-TASMAN CONTEST: 20 JULY, 8PM-2AM Remembrance Day Contest August 17th and 18th Again this year the RD falls on the same weekend as the International Lighthouse weekend. Alan VK4SN says " Unfortunately the RD cannot be moved. Lighthouse stations are welcome and encouraged to submit logs for the RD while having enjoyed both activities. " You have heard this morning of that VK5 club who will be doing both activities together. BUT there are changes to the RD so "listen up". Remember that the new start and finish times are 0300z or 1PM eastern states This time will let you have half a day free on both days of the weekend. Teams were very successful last year, so please notify vk4sn@wia.org.au of your team members prior to the start of the contest. (73. de Alan VK4SN.) 2014 VK Harry Angel Memorial Sprint May 3 SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE The Chilean island of San Felix is activated by Mike WU2D until around15 July. He has been issued with the callsign CE0X/WU2D by the Chilean authorities. This island counts as a separate entity for DXCC purposes. TU 5 DF is on the air from the Ivory Coast until October. TU 5 DF operations are 40 through 6 meters using CW with some SSB and PSK31. QSL to his home call F 5 SWB V G 6 Yap Island September 8th to 15th on 40 through 10 meters using CW only. QSL via PG 5 M. CP 1 XRM from Bolivia until July 19th. What makes this operation unique is that CP 1 XRM will be on the HF bands using a 100 watt solar powered station to a vertical antenna. QSL via EA 5 RM his home call. 6 V 7 S (No not a vacuum tube but a call sign from Senegal.) 6 V 7 S is transmitting from Senegal through July 16 on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via RK 4 FF his call. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER Ham Radio CubeSat FITSAT-1 becomes a 'Shooting Star' The amateur radio CubeSat FITSAT-1, also known as NIWAKA, burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere in the early hours of Thursday, July 4, 2013 The last signal was received by JA0CAW at 03:07(UTC). FITSAT-1, built by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology, was one of five CubeSats launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21, 2012. (SOUTHGATE) Send Your Own Spacecraft to the Moon A new project to give thousands of people the opportunity to design, build and launch personalised spacecraft and send them to the moon has begun. Now anyone can become a citizen space explorer at a cost of USD159, explorers who back the project will be able to personalise their own spacecraft by adding a picture or message direct from their favourite social media or game profile or create their own unique design. Pocket Spacecraft are disks with flexible electronics, smaller than a CD and as thin as a piece of paper, that will be loaded into an Interplanetary CubeSat mothership to hitch a ride into space on a commercial rocket. The mothership will then set off to the moon and when it arrives many months later, the fleet of Pocket Spacecraft will be photographed as they are released to land on the moon to complete their mission. Anyone can take part in the mission via the crowd-funding site PocketSpacecraft.com The campaign ends on August 26, 2013. Detailed information regarding the campaign is available on the KickStarter website: http://tinyurl.com/q8nbj6j (nasa) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW A milestone for ILLW registrations The 300th registration for next month's International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend comes from Rainer Arndt DL9OE, who will activate the Luehe Lower Lighthouse in Germany's Saxony region. That lighthouse, built in 1900, is a cylindrical tower painted with red and white horizontal bands, sits on the south bank of the Elbe River. So far the fun-event event on August the 17th and 18th has 325 registrations from more than 30 countries. Australia and Germany are leading with 50 each. Then follows the USA on 40, England has 30, Argentina 20 and Sweden 15. Canada, Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland have about 10 each. The new countries joining the growing list are Chile, Taiwan and Turkey. Now in the 16th year, the annual event promotes public awareness of old marine navigation methods, amateur radio and foster international goodwill. For the guidelines and online registration visit the dedicated website www.illw.net (Jim Linton VK3PC) 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 NSW Police Search and Rescue are looking at all of the details of the original search for Cessna 210 VH-MDX lost in the Barrington Tops in 1981, to assist in planning for this year's SAREX in October. They would be assisted by any listener who has knowledge of WICEN's involvement in this original search. The WICEN New South Wales website can be found at: www.nsw.wicen.org.au (vk2wi news) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- SUMMITS ON THE AIR www.sotawatch.org www.sota.org.uk Andrew VK1NAM has news of an upcoming celebration of 6 months of SOTA in VK1. He says "VK1 SOTA participants are planning to celebrate 6 months of SOTA in VK1 on Sunday 11 August 2013 with simultaneous activations of multiple VK1 summits commencing at 09:15 local 2315 UTC. VK1NAM is coordinating the register of operator/summits. Andrew can be contacted on vk1namaus@gmail.com (vk1news) SOCIAL SCENE JUL 12-14 VK3 GippsTech will be held at Churchill. Information vk3bez.org JUL 20 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club HamFest JUL 20 VK4 Caboolture HamFest 9am JUL 28 VK2 Albury Wodonga Amateur Radio Club HamFest 10AM AUG 4 VK6 Northern Corridor Radio Group HamFest Cyril Jackson Rec Centre Fisher st Ashfield Bassendean 9am. AUG 11 VK2 SARCFEST 414 Richmond Hill Rd near Lismore AUG 17-18 WW ILLW SEP 14 VK4 Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio's Sunfest 9am. Oct 3- 7 VK4 North Queensland Amateur Radio Convention Charters Towers Oct 5 vk4 REDFest by Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club St Michael's College, Caboolture, 9am 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 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. -------------