WIANEWS - JANUARY 12 - 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 JAN 12 2014. WIA Summer VHF-UHF Field Day On This WEEKEND! ( 11/12 January ) THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING JAN 12 2014. There have been some remarkable and memorable special event call signs issued over the years by various authorities but to me this one takes the case. The callsign EI 3Ø T (Echo India Three Zero Tango) has been issued to Justin EI 3 CTB as a special callsign to use during 2Ø14 to commemorate the 3Øth Anniversary of his amateur radio licence issued in 1984!! This is the first time the prefix EI3Ø has been issued. Wondering if Justin has friends in high places! Whatever full marks for letting the world know how proud he is of his Ham Radio Licence. (sourced to irts) International Air-ambulance Week 2014 An Amateur Radio 9-day Special Event - taking place on the weekend commencing 28th September, 2014 to help support the many donation-funded flying medical services around the world. Operating your special event station during at least some of the 9 days during which the event takes place. Nine days include two weekends, so everyone can get an opportunity to take part. The primary rule is that no radio amateur should accept any donations - donations and offers of funding should be made directly to which ever service you nominate when you complete the registration form to take part in the event. Registration will be mandatory and all stations taking part will be issued a registration number The event is intended to commence on the fourth weekend of September annually World Wide and is to be run by the same team which operates the well established International Museum Weekends. (Jon M0HEM http://www.qrz.com/db/m0hem) VK3, and scientists there are working with the US Air Force to develop light-bending technology to camouflage military hardware in war zones. Light-bending technology could be used to help make planes, tanks and even soldiers effectively 'invisible' on the battlefield. The Victorian scientists are using modelling based on mother-of-pearl to work out how to control the direction of light. The theory is that light could be bent around objects, making them disappear. (sourced to ABC) HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm The CCARC are very proud to announce that after a few years away from the event, ICOM Australia will be exhibiting at this year's Wyong Field Day on Sunday February the 23rd. Please also remember that the CCARC will be running a full day foundation class licence training course on Saturday the 22nd. and licence assessments for all classes of licence on the Field Day itself. For full details about registering for either the course or an assesment, or both, as well as all information about the field day, please go to the club website at CCARC.ORG.AU Whether it's seeking that bargain from the flea market, grabbing that discounted new item from the traders stands, educating yourself at the seminars and exhibitors stalls or even taking that licence upgrade assessment. The place to be on February twenty three is undoubtably - The CCARC Field Day at Wyong! 73 'til next week, this is Ed VK2JI, Publicity Officer of the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club. Next weekend ARNSW will have the first Foundation course for the year with assessments for all license grades on Sunday at the VK2WI Dural site. Bookings are required by an email to education@arnsw.org.au The first Trash and Treasure will be at the VK2WI site on Sunday morning, the 26th January. 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 RADIO CALLS OUT FOR HELP The Gladstone Observer newspaper this week say that the Local Amateur Radio Club knew after flooding last year that communications in the Boyne Valley were less than adequate during natural disasters. Approaching its first anniversary, this non-profit, community organisation is operating from the summit of Kroombit Tops to ensure residents can access alerts and assistance in the event of a repeat. "The government pledged to improve communications, but nothing has happened," president Paul Beales said. "We need assistance to have permanent hope of maintaining our licence and this service." (Gladstone Observer) DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? Using a Foundation Call in Amateur Radio puts a number of restrictions on your on-air activities. The most bemoaned of those restrictions is the limit of 10 Watts output power. There is nothing like the experience of almost having completed a contact when a deaf lead foot stomps all over your signal and drowns you out. In the past I've pointed out that a group of Amateurs shares that experience and power restriction and more. The community I'm referring to is the QRP fraternity, who restrict their power to half that available to us and often make contacts with even less power. What I didn't think of at the time was that this community is also an excellent source of information and knowledge. Their drive is to do more with less and as a Foundation licensee, you cannot help but be in the same boat. So, look around you, search the web, find projects, bands, frequencies, antennas, radios, power supplies and activities that the QRP community engages in and you'll find common ground. I know that there is a slice of the Amateur Radio community who have the slogan, "life is too short for QRP", but as a Foundation licensee, perhaps it's time to wear your low power budget on your sleeve. I'm Onno VK6FLAB INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA. WORLD-WIDE Wi-Fi’s popular but has its techno-detractors The applications for wireless technology continue to grow with industries like automotive, healthcare and retail embracing it as they chase market share. Already we see people on free Wi-Fi communicating via laptops, tablets and smartphones, using it like the air they breathe. As can be expected with Wi-Fi being open to anyone there are fears that hackers will cause mayhem, and the old argument of electromagnetic radiation is again raising its head. The power industry has efficient smart meters to provide consumption feedback every 30 seconds from a consumer, and there's no more the need for manual readers. Although they revolutionise energy distribution the fear is the wireless devices gives hackers a way to cause havoc on power grids. The same fear exists over traffic control signals in VK4 when it hosts the Commonwealth Games and the G20 Leaders Summit. In New Zealand it's claimed to cause nausea, headaches, digestive problems and even cancer. Only last week I made mention here of the ZL School 'ditching' Wi-Fi and over in Canada at least one case there has been a call for the technology that links student computers to be banned. In Denmark, some students found cress growing near Wi-Fi routers went brown. The experiment was dismissed by most as unscientific, but it got picked up by a tabloid newspaper. Despite the doomsayers, Wi-Fi as an enabling technology is making our modern lives easier and the transformation continues. WORLD WIDE SOUNDS 2013 DX Sound Bites! Tom, K8CX, has done it again. He has provided DXers with 156 memorable rare DX sound clips from 2013. Visit Tom's famous "HAM GALLERY" Web at: http://hamgallery.com/dx2013 While there also check out some of the other features on his Web page, such as: 16 years of "Rare DX Sound Clips" of the past (as well as some clips from the 1960's and 1970's), QSL Card Museum, Dayton Photo Galleries and his Tribute to Silent Key Ham Operators. Tom states, "If anyone has any old HF recordings, I would be interested in hearing from them." His E-mail address is: k8cx@hamgallery.com CANADA CQ-QC IARU President and RAC member appointed Queen Counsel. The province of Alberta has announced, that Mr Timothy S. Ellam, VE6SH was one of the lawyers appointed to the province's Queen Council status. Mr Ellam is the current IARU President and has been a member of Radio Amateurs Canada for several years. POLAND:- Ham Radio Kids Day in Poland SP3POW for Amateur Radio Kids Day took place last weekend, January 5 The Amateur Radio Kids Day is an event initiated by the ARRL that unites radio amateurs in the USA. The concept of this event has been followed in the other countries as well. In Poland, the Amateur Radio Kids Day was celebrated with students from primary and junior high schools who were mostly members of the ARISS group and who are preparing this group for the school radio contact with an astronaut at the ISS Station. Besides providing the radio station they also organized for children an ARDF competition. It's said the Polish children very liked taking part in those kind of events it is an unforgettable experience for them every time. And it is like that all over the world where the Amateur Radio Kids Day is celebrated. ============================================================================= SARL CLOSE TO THIRTEEN THOUSAND RADIO AMATEURS HAVE MADE CONTACT WITH ZS9MADIBA ZS9MADIBA obtained a WAS (Worked All States) award within the first 2 weeks of being on the air which is a remarkable achievement and is close to achieving a DXCC in all the modes of operation, SSB, CW and Digital. At the time of writing SARLNEWS, ZS9MADIBA had achieved the following number of contacts and confirmations 12 846 QSO records and 4 370 QSL records. The DXCC mode status is as follows: Mixed 93, CW 80, Phone 65 and Digital 65. The WAS mode status is as follows:- Basic 50, CW 49, Phone 45, Digital 39. SARL Vice President, and Contest Manager, Geoff Levey, ZS6GRL, thanks the 12 local amateurs who have given their time and effort to make this event an success. The radio amateurs who operated ZS9MADIBA are as follows:- ZS6RJ, ZS2EC, ZS1AU, ZS1SA, ZS1VV, ZS1ZC, ZS6A, ZS6WN, ZR6K, ZR6O, ZS6OB, ZR6DX, ZS6C, ZS6APT, ZS1S, ZS6AKU, ZS5MAX and ZS6GRL. The radio amateurs who have achieved over a 1 000 contacts are as follows:-Roger Jones (ZS6RJ) 6 628 contacts, Theunis Potgieter (ZS2EC) 1 367 contacts, Dennis Wells (ZS1AU) 1 092 contacts, Karel Bezuidenhout (ZS6WM) 1 059 contacts. Including ZR6K and ZR6O. If there was an award for the most enthusiastic radio amateur it would go to Theunis, ZS2EC. Theunis just keeps on going day and night. Well done Theunis. A special word of thanks to Roger, ZS6RJ. His tally of contacts says it all. ZS9MADIBA is still needing 8 ZS6 stations to obtain a WAZS 100. Thank you for your support. ZS9MADIBA will be active till today only, 11 January 2014. More on www.sarl.org.za ============================================================================= Amateur Radio Newsline NZART ISSUES A CORRECTION ON 6 METER OPERATION The New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters or NZART which is that nation’s national ham radio society has issued a correction to its recent news release regarding the availability of 6 meters. It says that that a small error was made in its bulletin number 286 that stated the nations six meter allocation was 50 to 54 MHz. This says the NZART is not correct. Rather the 6 meter band for operational use is from 50 to 53 MHz for all modes at up to the full legal power limit. It notes that New Zealand does have limited use of the band from 53 to 54 MHz but only for approved individually licensed 6 meter repeater outputs. 53 to 54 MHz is not available for general amateur operation. 2014 WRTC REFEREES APPOINTED The World Radiosport Team Championship committee has announced the list of those who will serve as referees for the 2014 competition. According to an announcement from the games coordinating committee a referee will be on site at each of the 59 competing stations to verify compliance with the rules and make decisions on any rule questions by the teams. All of the referees will be top level contesters because they must simultaneously listen to the audio from both operators for the entire 24 hours of the competition, which takes place in July 2014 in the North-Eastern United States. A complete list of those selected to act as referees is on the web, wrtc2014.org Also, a short video explaining the upcoming World Radiosport Team Championship is on YouTube at tinyurl.com/wrtc-2014-usa CANADA RETIRED ASTRONAUT CHRIS HADFIELD VA3OOG PREDICTS MOON BASE WITHIN 70 YEARS Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, VA 3OO G has predicted that humans will have a colony on the moon within the next 30 to 40 years and establish a base on Mars within the next 70. In a recent interview with the Telegraph newspaper, Hadfield said that this is a pattern we have been following for the last 70,000 years. He noted mankind gradually made its way around the world. In the last 100 years we have gotten to Antarctica and now there are people who live there for months at a time. VA3OOG went on to say that he thinks that within his lifetime we will see a permanent lunar base. Also that the setting up of a permanent habitation on the Moon will help to improve space exploration. Hadfield gained fame for tweeting pictures of space and performing his own version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" during his command of the International Space Station this past year. He retired from the Canadian Space Agency last June and is currently on tour promoting his new book "An Astronaut's Guide To Life on Earth." You can read the entire interview with Chris Hadfield, VA3OOG on the web tinyurl.com/Hadfield-Moon-Future MORE ELECTRONICS BUT LOWER POWER USE The average amount of electricity consumed in U.S. homes has fallen to levels not seen in more than a decade. This is likely due to the introduction of more energy efficient appliances and other consumer electronics leading to overall power usage being on track to decline by the end of 2013 for the third year in a row. According to the Energy Information Administration the end of 2013 level expected is around 10,819 kilowatt-hours per household. That is the lowest level since 2001, when households averaged 10,535 kilowatt-hour. And even more interesting is that this decline has occurred even though we now use more electric and electronic devices in our daily lives. You can read one of several in-depth reports on this phenomenon at tinyurl.com/less-electric-use STUDYING HOW A RECHARGEABLE BATTERY WORKS And finally this week, have you ever wondered what happens inside a rechargeable battery? If so you are not alone as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline’s Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK: -- Scientists are still searching for clues to the processes that takes place inside rechargeable batteries. This as part of the ongoing quest to create more powerful, longer-lasting and cheaper energy storage devices. Now a team of researchers with the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in cooperation with other research centres have discovered how to unlock some of the secrets hidden within rechargeable batteries. So far most of the research into batteries has focused on studying the electrolyte interphase layer. This is a coating that accumulates on an electrode's surface and dramatically influences battery performance. But until recently the research has been limited because most high-powered microscope work is done under dry conditions while most batteries contain liquids. As such the liquid has slowed the ability to conduct this type of research. To overcome this, researchers have created a special dry battery for their tests. The battery contains one dime size silicon electrode and one lithium electrode sandwiching a bath of solid electrolyte. This configuration permits the flow of ions but still allow microscopic study which in turn has allowed the team to study the electrodes behaviour. The researchers say this new study could be the next step in the ongoing quest to create longer lasting rechargeable batteries. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion, Illinois. -- The work was published in a recent issue of The Journal Nano Letters, could eventually lead to better rechargeable batteries. More is on line at tinyurl.com/new-battery-research ============================================================================= WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WHITE TEETH - BLUE TOOTH How do you improve the humble electric toothbrush? By adding Bluetooth and an app of course! The Kolibree toothbrush has an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer inside which it uses to record how long you brush your teeth for, and how you brush them. It can show you live information on how you're doing so you can adjust your brushing technique, or simply brush for longer. Or it can sync that information with a phone app to give you a running total of how well you've brushed. You end up looking at a screen that gives you a score out of five that's based on how long and well you've cleaned your teeth. Jason Jenkins, of CNET says 'It sounds silly and gimmicky, and of course it mostly is, but there is one way I could see this being useful: for kids. You have the ability to set up different family members in one app and track them separately, with the app generating a graph showing how well you brush compared to everyone else.' It's coming from a French company with the same name as the product, and will start at $99 from the third quarter of 2014. (Credit: Jason Jenkins/ CNET) OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2014 WIA Summer VHF-UHF Field Day 11/12 January WIA John Moyle Field Day weekend March 15-16 WIA VK Harry Angel Memorial Sprint May 3 10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 2 - 3 WIA REMEMBRANCE DAY (THE RD) CONTEST Aug 16 - 17 Manly-Warringah Radio Society's Flagpole contest September. Amateur Radios International Air-ambulance Week, 9 days from Sep 28. SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE In DX, word that the only two stations in the South Sudan are off the air due to the current internal political strife. These are Z81B and Z81D and indications are that there will not be any further ham radio signals from that new nation until conditions stabilize. More on this as information becomes available. DX-World.net reports that WA5A will be on the air stroke 5Z4 from Kenya until about January 28th. His operation will be holiday style on the High Frequency bands. QSL via his home callsign. W100AW active for ARRL's Centennial Year A reminder that the FCC has authorized the Maxim Memorial Station W 1 AW to also use the call sign W 100 AW during 2014, the ARRL's centennial year. Contacts made from the Maxim Memorial Station in Newington, from regional Centennial conventions, and during the IARU HF Championship will use W 100 AW, with portable designators as appropriate. The "W1AW WAS" operations throughout 2014 from each of the 50 states will use W1AW, not W100AW. Bulletins and code practice transmissions during 2014 also will still use W1AW. Contacts with W 100 AW are worth 100 points in the ARRL Centennial QSO Party. Information on the ARRL Centennial QSO Party may be found on the web, http://www.arrl.org/centennial-qso-party (SouthGate) Hunting Lions-in-the-Air The event takes place this weekend, always the weekend closest to 13 January, the birth date of Melvin Jones, the founder of the Lions organisation. It will not be a contest but merely a means for Lions to exchange greetings with other Lions and Lions Clubs. Radio amateurs and members of the various Lions Clubs get together and the Lions are allowed to exchange greetings with other Lions under supervision of the radio amateur. Normally the name and number of the Lions Club is the exchange. AWARDS Portable trek to Western Victoria Travelling by road for seven days recently husband and wife team Joe VK3YSP and Julie Gonzales VK3FOWL made the very best of their portable Amateur Radio trip. The pair activated 19 Victorian National Parks for the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award and the World Wide Flora and Fauna Award. They also made their debut for the Summits On The Air program by activating three SOTA peaks along the way - making a total of over 300 QSOs each. Combining touring, camping and bushwalking with portable operation is definitely the best way to experience National Parks. Another round trip is planned by them to cover the rest of Victoria. They extend thanks to all who made contact with about a dozen popping up regularly at nearly every stop. During the 2500 kms trip VK3YSP-1 was tracked by the Automatic Packet Reporting System APRS. Acknowledgement is also made to the Parks Victoria staff and the Aboriginal traditional owners of the land. (Jim Linton VK3PC) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ARDF WIA ARDF COORDINATOR VK3WWW Jack vk3www@wia.org.au http://users.mackay.net.au/~ron/ http://www.homingin.com http://www.ardf.org.au The Indian National Institute of Amateur Radio reports that 550 people have just participated in an Amateur Radio Direction Finding event. NIAR say: The “FOX HUNT” (DF) event was a grand success, around 550+ participants with nearly 140 on-spot registrations and 64 online registrations which contributed around 200 teams. National Institute of Amateur Radio http://www.niar.org/ (SouthGate) 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 News from Austravel-Safetynet The Frank Sleep Memorial HF Base needs your help. Roy Watkins VK6XV from Austravel-Safetynet has asked for help in finding a new site to house the fully automated Frank Sleep Memorial HF Base as the current location at Rasmussen North Queensland is about to change hands. The Frank Sleep Memorial HF Base is part of a network of HF Bases run primarily by Radio Amateurs involved with Austravel-Safetynet to provide reliable communications and skeds for those travellers who are equipped with a HF Outpost Mobile transceiver. Roy is hoping that someone within North Queensland can help with a site to rehouse the facility, named in memory of Frank Sleep VK4CAU, to a more permanent location. If you can help please contact Roy/VK6XV on email vk6xv@bigpond.com (tarc news) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - LOW DOWN LOWBANDS AND WARC BANDS FROM NORTHERN EUROPE Capitalizing on the current season of almost total darkness in northern Europe, a sub-group of the Z81X and OF9X teams are in the Aland Islands to activate OG0A on low bands and WARC bands and you can try until tomorrow, January 13th. The OH0X contest site is being used as the base camp with 160 Meter slopers and a 2 element 80 meter beam atop a 140 foot rotating tower. Main activity will be on CW, but there may be some SSB and RTTY used occasionally. QSL OG0A via OH2BH. And as a side note, planners say that this operation is dedicated to the next Youth on the Air summer camp due to be held in Finland next July 15th through the 22nd. (Southgate via ARNewsLine) SAQ transmission heard in Connecticut The 17.2 kHz transmission from Sweden on Christmas Eve 2013 was picked up in Connecticut USA. They were using thee Alexanderson alternator on VLF 17.2 kHz. This time they received 50 more reports than before. This transmission was one of the best received ever. Also listen to a recording from Connecticut in USA. An up-dated version of the Summary Report can be seen on website http://www.alexander.n.se/ later on (SM6NM/Lars) SOCIAL SCENE 2014 Jan 24-27 VK4 TARC Australia Day Long Weekend Family Radio Camp at Girl Guides Campsite Bluewater. (vk4zz@wia.org.au) Feb 01 VK4 Redcliffe Radio Club "Car Boot Sale" 9 am. ( secretary@redclifferadioclub.org.au ) Feb 23 VK2 Wyong Field Day and it is on come rain hail or shine. Apr 13-15 VK PR4AmateurRadio Expo. Apr 18 WW Amateur Radio Day: Your Gateway to Wireless Communications. Apr 25 vk3 ANZAC Day event Ballarat Showgrounds johnkarr@bigpond.net.au May 2- 4 VK4 Clairview Gathering Clive VK4ACC 0429 632 815 Nov 2 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Nov 30 VK3 SPARC HamFest at Rosebud (howardjones155@gmail.com) ============================== NEW WIA NEWS BROADCAST FEEDBACK =============================== 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. 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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. . -------------