WIANEWS - MARCH 09 - 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 MAR 09 2014. OUR 19TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA JOHN MOYLE CONTEST MANAGER re MARCH 23 CONTEST. THIS STORY AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING MARCH 9 2014. TRENDING ON VK1WIA TWITTER ACCOUNT http://twitter.com/VK1WIA #PR4AmateurRadio EXPO April 11-13 #JohnMoyle Memorial Field Day 2014 #NASA FREE ON LINE ENGINEERING COURSE WELCOME TO OZ NL8F AGAIN PLANNING DOWN-UNDER OZ TOUR NL8F told the Ohio Penn DX Newsletter he is heading down-under to VK4, and was due here last Thursday, March 6th. Frasier Island for a few days active as NL8/VK4. He will then go to Norfolk Island to be active as VK9NF if the paper work done on time. If not he will sign VK9N stroke NL8F between March 15th through to the 22nd. Next he will head to Christmas Island and be active as T32TM March 25th thru April 2nd, which will include his participation in the CQ World Wide WPX SSB Contest from March 29th to the 30th. After his T32TM operation is completed he plans on heading to Visalia, California, for the International DX Convention before heading back to Alaska on April 6th. QSL via K8NA for all of the listed NL8F operations. (OPDX via ARNewsLine) ACMA in the fast lane The Australian Communications and Media Authority field staff are now at Albert Park Lake for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Planning begins many months in advance when applications start to arrive for hundreds of extra frequency allocations from organisers, media and logistics support. The ACMA has the job of ensuring that everything runs smoothly throughout the week. More than 150 technical staff are employed at the Grand Prix to set up kilometres of optic fibre cable, fixed and mobile TV cameras, computer racks, timing equipment and monitors combined with multiple radio and telemetry links. Many are many test sessions held leading up to the big event - the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday March the 16th. (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 Will you be part of the Expo? The PR4AmateurRadio Expo, supported by the Wireless Institute of Australia, is just a month away in early April. This Expo is backed by the WIA and an excellent opportunity for participating radio clubs, to promote modern Amateur Radio and how it fits into the community. Time is running out for clubs and organisations to register for this big promotional event. Regular reminders have been emailed directly to the clubs, put on the WIA website and included on this weekly VK1WIA broadcast. How will it to work? Well, the clubs arrange an open event to showcase what modern Amateur Radio has to offer. Joining these Expo stations on air is any radio amateur, who can engage with the display station. The aims are to showcase Amateur Radio, make the community aware we exist, recruit a few or revive a lapsed radio amateur. What can you do? Immediately check with your club to see if it's involved, and join the PR4AmateurRadio Expo as an individual. Held on April 11, 12 & 13, it gives flexibility for clubs to hold their event on the Friday, Saturday or Sunday. For more details please check out the WIA website. HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm Divisional Elections The Annual General Meeting of the Wireless Institute of Australia New South Wales Division (trading as Amateur Radio New South Wales), will be held on Saturday, the 3rd of May 2014. At the AGM a new Council is to be appointed. Nominations are now open for those members who wish to be on the Council for the year 2014 and 2015. Nomination forms are now available from the Divisional office and/or download from arnsw.org.au Nominations close at midday on Saturday, the 22nd of March 2014. (Kevin VK2CKD, Divisional Returning Officer via VK2WI) Urunga Convention. This long running annual event is scheduled to again be held over Easter on the Mid North Coast of VK2 in Urunga. VK7 vk7 local news, email vk7regionalnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vk7regionalnews/ ICOM Field Day – Save the Date http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ICOMFD http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ICOMFD The REAST committee are excited to announce that ICOM, along with REAST will be conducting a field day on the 15th of March. The company will be bringing with them a wide and varied range of amateur communications gear for what will be a very "hands on" field day of their wares. The REAST committee on behalf of its members invites its members, friends of REAST, all amateurs and radio enthusiasts far and wide to descend on the Domain from 10AM for what will be a fun filled event. What’s a field day without a BBQ I hear you say? Well you are in luck. REAST will be providing a free sausage sizzle throughout the day. If you are not from the south of the state, why not pop down and enjoy our hospitality with the knowledge that you will be well fed and watered for your return journey. If you are interested in test driving a piece of ICOM kit, let REAST President Tony VK7VKT know and he will arrange for that item to be specifically available for a play on that day. Contact president@reast.asn.au (73, Tony VK7VKT, President REAST) DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? As I've said in the past, a Foundation License is an introduction into Amateur Radio, the first step on a path to a hobby that can take you places you never knew about. Your newly minted license opens the door to exploration, curiosity and education. It's a license to learn. For some reason, I don't recall what prompted it, I became interested in finding out a little more about how Voyager communicates with us here on Earth. That lead me down a rabbit hole filled with amateurs aiming to replicate the feat and on the way I bumped into something called Unified S-Band, the communications system developed for the Apollo program by NASA and the JPL. It consists of carriers, sub-carriers and a whole lot of interesting stuff, including being able to determine the distance to the space craft within 15 meters. I'm not going into the detail of it here, look it up on the 'net at Wikipedia, it's a fascinating read and serves as a jump off point to even more reading, phase locked loops, Quindar tones, voice and data bandwidth and much more. Today we're pushing bits around across the airwaves, locally and internationally. We experiment with weak signal propagation or WSPR. At home we have access to GPS and Wi-Fi. All these things are related to radio in more or lesser degrees. Your F-call is just lifting the curtain on the potential. Next time you consider the limitations of your F-call, think about the possibilities instead. I'm Onno VK6FLAB (ep 20130414.f-call.txt for used March 2) INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA. Sackville, N.B. residents to lose landmark radio transmission towers The skyline at the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is losing some of its height. The international radio transmission towers that have been a fixture on the Tantramar Marsh for decades are being demolished – a lost landmark to people who live in the area. “When they’re gone, there will be a blank spot on our marsh,” says Sackville Mayor Robert Berry. “I know when I come from either direction, especially from the Nova Scotia side and over the hill, and I see them I’m saying ‘I’m home.’” Radio Canada International erected the towers in Sackville during the Second World War due to the location, which is far enough from the earth’s magnetic pole and a former salt marsh, which means nothing interferes with the signal. Service ended in October 12 and offers to buy the towers were sent out, but none were received. “The little transmitter huts are gone. The antennas that stretch from tower top to tower top have all been removed,” says Sackville resident Allan Smith. “Now, they’ll systematically take down the towers.” Some of the towers have been at the site since the late 1930s but recent budget cuts and a shift toward the internet have made the towers and shortwave transmission technology unsustainable. “It’s an old, old technology in radio, and it’s not really used very much anymore,” says Smith. “But still, in places like the Canadian north and Africa, there are still people that use shortwave systems.” The teardown is expected to take a few months (Sarah Plowman CTV Atlantic) Radio Today dot Com dot au say Apple have revealed CarPlay: an inbuilt system designed to allow drivers to use their iPhones more effectively while driving. CarPlay will be built into the car dash, with Siri activated by pushing and holding a button on the steering vehicle, allowing the user to control maps, make calls, and to access music collections. CarPlay will also support third-party streaming services, and digital radio. See more at http://radiotoday.com.au/news/whats-new/4278-apple-reveals-carplay.html#sthash.huAs9Vte.dpuf Space Systems Engineering 101 This is a new massive open online course from NASA and the Saylor Foundation, launched March 3. The six-week general-audience course is free to the public and provides a unique opportunity to learn from and alongside NASA's engineers. Students who participate can earn a free certificate. The course will feature lectures from NASA scientists and engineers and Google Plus Hangouts with NASA personnel. Winners of an optional project competition will receive a chance to tour NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. For more information and to register for the course, visit http://www.saylor.org/2014/02/blog-announcement-space-systems-engineering-course-starts-march-3rd/. DOD RELEASES ENTIRE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM STRATEGY The United States Department of Defence has released its complete 2013 Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy. This to increase available spectrum in order to meet growing demand from the commercial wireless industry. The release follows the release of a memorandum issued in 2010 by President Obama titled Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution. In it the Department of Defence is required to make available 500 MHz of spectrum for commercial use by 2020. It should be noted that a good number of amateur UHF and Microwave spectrum allocations are shared with the Department of Defence but at this point in time it’s not known what impact, if any, the release of the required 500 MHz could have on future ham radio operations. http://www.defense.gov/news/dodspectrumstrategy.pdf ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE RADIO AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE MAKE POSSIBLE WEATHER FORECAST FOR ALIEN PLANET And finally this week, radio communications and an orbiting telescope have made it possible for astronomers to provide a kind of weather forecast for an alien planet. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Cheryl Lasik, K9B-IK, is here with the details: -- Astronomers from the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago have actually been able to characterize the atmosphere of an Earth class planet orbiting another star. The team of researchers led by Laura Kreidberg and Jacob Bean detected clear evidence of clouds in the atmosphere of planet GJ1214b from data collected with the Hubble Space Telescope and radioed back to Earth. The Hubble observations used 96 hours of telescope time spread over 11 months. This was the largest Hubble program ever devoted to studying a single exoplanet. The researchers describe their work as an important milestone on the road to identifying potentially habitable, earth-like planets beyond our solar system. The scrutinized exoplanet is called a super-earth or water world because its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. It was found orbiting a red dwarf star some 40 light-years from Earth. An exoplanet, or extra solar planet, is a world outside the Solar System. To date, over a thousand such planets have been found. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, not far from Chicago in Zion, Illinois. -- More on this amazing discovery is on the web at tinyurl.com/new-waterworld-discovered. A NASA artists rendition of the planet and its home star is at tinyurl.com/kb5y4kf ============================================================================= WEIRD AND WONDERFUL DO SALMON TRAVEL MAGNETIC LINES OF FORCE And finally from me this week a possible answer to the question of how young salmon with no migratory experience somehow voyage through ocean waters to wind up at specific feeding grounds that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away from where they were hatched? and all without using APRS! It turns out that they may be following magnetic lines of force. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, may have the answer: -- Researchers have long suspected that many animals that travel great distances to wind up at particular spots visited by their ancestors may be able to sense the Earth's magnetic fields. The ability has since been found in a variety of creatures including certain migratory birds. Even more remarkable is that many animals seem to use it to navigate with no previous experience, like the Chinook salmon. To figure out whether this species of salmon are also born with this ability, a research team lead by Oregon State University tested the abilities of young Chinook salmon that were less than 1 year old and hadn't yet started their seaward journey. To accomplish this, the researchers placed young fish in barrels surrounded with coils of wire and exposed them to a simulation of the northern magnetic field. In response, the salmon turned south-southwest. Conversely, when they exposed them to a simulation of the southern magnetic field, the salmon turned north-northeast. So as to make certain their results were correct, the researchers then subjected the salmon to a northern intensity with a southern inclination field and a southern intensity with the northern inclination field. In both cases the salmon chose no particular direction. The scientists theorize that this was the result of the latter aspect of the experiment not fitting anywhere in the salmon's internal magnetic map. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick, Pennsylvania. -- The researcher's findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal Current Biology. More is on line at tinyurl.com/salmon-follow-magnetic-fields OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2014 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. JOHN MOYLE MEMORIAL FIELD DAY ANNOUNCEMENT Good Morning This Denis, VK4AE, WIA coordinator for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day 2014. This year the contest will occur over the weekend of Saturday the 15th to Sunday the 16th March, the duration of the contest will be from UTC 0100 on the Saturday to 0059 UTC on Sunday. Now is the time to complete your planning for the field day contest as there is only one week to go before the event. During the remaining days before the field day, you might like to finish checking that all of the equipment you have planned to use during the field day actually works when set up. Not a bad idea is to plan to have backup equipment available for the main items of equipment if this is at all possible. Further, have you checked that all of those batteries you have planned to use are actually holding the charge they are supposed to hold for long enough for the duration of the contest? Of course if you intend to use a solar panel to charge your batteries, remember that much of the contest is in the night and so the batteries have to last long enough for that reason. If you are planning on using a small generator to power your station it might be a great time to give it a service and clean out all of the dust, spider webs and wasp nests that may have built up over time. Do not forget the fuel for the generator and the long lead to allow it to be placed a bit further away this time to cut down on the noise. You must make sure that everything is in order and operating and all of the many little pieces that are needed to put your station onto the airwaves are all in the required place. Nothing worse than to arrive at your chosen spot, only to find you have forgotten to pack the piece of cable that is installed between the set and some other piece of gear, or some other equally essential accessory. Make sure that the location you have chosen is still accessible after this summer’s onslaught from flood and bushfire, the roads into the place have not been closed – in the interests of public safety – and that the trees that were so useful for string aerials and tent ropes in the past are still in good condition and safe to be around. It just might be a good idea to make a short visit to your selected site and ensure the all will be well on the day. So much with that aspect of preparation, there is still time to download the latest version of free program contest logging VKCL (VK Contest Log) available from Mike (VK3AVV)’s website where you can check you have the latest version. A number of people last year used an older version of the program and deprived themselves of a significant number of points that were allowed under later rule changes. The contest log checking system used noted the error, so it was possible for the error to be easily rectified by the operators concerned. So it is well worth the effort to make sure you have the latest version. Submitting the field day log this year is not optional – If you work any station more than 5 times during the field day you must submit a log to verify those contacts. This applies if you intend to operate either as a portable or as a home station. Best of luck to all in the field day and I look forward to working a few of you on the day and most of all receiving your log entry after the event. The "Amateur Union of Serbia" has written to us and I quote "To: Wireless Institute of Australia Dear Sirs, We invite members of your Society to participate in "Tesla Memorial HF Contest" which will be held THIS weekend, March, 8/9 2014, 18:00 UTC and ending at 08:00 UTC. The competition is open to operators all over the Globe. General rules are: Everyone works everyone on 80m band only CW; Points are: distance between stations. Full rules read the text edition of your own WIA news this week." Exchange: RST + QSO NR + QTH Locator (first four elements of grid square); Exchange examples: 599 043 JO54, 599 065 FN12. Categories: Multi Op.-Single TX HP; Single Op. HP, LP and QRP - full or limited time. WEB service software for receiving logs will be on and is one of ways for updating logs. Claimed scores will be published right after log submission deadline. Check our website for rules, awarding and more details: http://www.radiosport.org.rs/HFTeslaMemorial/ Thank you in advance for supporting this contest. Amateur Union of Serbia Secretary Zvonko Colja YT1WA www.yu1srs.org.rs SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE Maritime Radio Day 2014 April 14th to April 15th The Maritime Radio Day is held annually to remember the nearly 90 years of wireless service for seafarers. Since its beginning in 1900, Maritime Radio was in use mainly until the end of 1998. The MRD is open to all Amateur Radio Stations. Special stations (like Coastal radios and ship callsigns) can participate to the MRD only if operated by former Commercial or Navy operators, or by radio technicians who worked in the installation and/or maintenance of naval equipment. If you are a former merchant marine Wireless Operator (or former technician) please register to this event by communicating your certificate type/year and the details about your MRD activation to R/O Rolf Marschner at: dl9cm@t-online.de Rules: 1 Bands: 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m & 10m & WARC 2 Mode: CW only 3 Power: not limited 4 QSO – Exchange: QSA, QRK, name, callsign of last or favourite ship / aircraft / maintance company (DEBEG, SAIT, SIRM) 5 Silence periods do not have to be observed 6 Deadline of MRD-NC is 1st of May. 7 Certificate of participation (CoP) is available via e-mail only (see notes) 8 Results of MRD-NC will be published on MRD homepage 9 QSL cards: Each participant manages their own QSL card. There is no QSL manager. Notes: - QSA (1 to 5) is the strength of the received signal - QRK (1 to 5) is the readability and additional a : tr, msg and/or a QTC if you like - Certificate of Participation (CoP): SWLs have to send a complete log entry. Licensed operators can send their contact list with naval, coastal, special stations to dl9cm@t-online.de Moroccan mobile op Operators Leo PD 0 HFP and Frans PA 5 CA will be traveling through the Morocco Desert and the Atlas mountain range in a 4×4 Jeep Wrangler next month between April 5-20th. They plan to be active as CN 2 CA using 80-6 meters. QSL via PA 9 M by the Bureau. For more details and updates, watch QRZ.com or visit: http://pa5ca.com/wp/?page_id=170 International Marconi Day is listed as April 26. Hornsby And District Amateur Radio Club (HADARC) will operate VK 2 IMD on that day. AWARDS New St Patricks Day Award Many radio amateurs celebrate St Patricks Day on the air. This year, a new St Patricks Day award will be starting, which a group of Northern Ireland radio amateurs are hoping to organise annually on the 17th March from 12am to 12pm. If you wish to participate as an award station or for more information on how to can gain the award, go to stpatrickaward.webs.com (Bobby Wadey MI0RYL via SouthGate) Australian Travellers Net - Reminder Don't forget that the Australian Travellers Net provides a great service for Amateurs travelling around our nation. But it won’t last if everything is left up to a few die hards that provide net control and relay operator functions to pass traffic. Please help this great net by contacting Noel VK4NL and offering to get involved, Noels email address is VK4NLnoel@gmail.com For net times and frequencies and contact details go to wia.org.au click on For Members scroll down to Reference Info then Amateur Radio Nets and finally click The Travellers Net. Well until next time, this is Gordon VK4VP. INTRUDER WATCH Radio interference with a twist The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helps alert the New York area to severe weather, natural disasters or even a terrorist attack - by broadcasting warnings. But the regular messages are blocking the international maritime distress frequency used by the US Coast Guard. The trouble began when a tornado warning interrupted chatter on Channel 16 VHF. No one has been harmed so far, but the worrying potential of a tragedy has government agencies trying to find a fix (Jim Linton VK3PC) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video arvideonews.com hamradiotube.com youtube.com qdg.org.au WE TOLD YOU TO EXPECT IT - NOW IT'S HERE - TX FACTOR COMES TO THE WEB The United Kingdom's first television show dedicated entirely to amateur radio has been launched on the Internet. The half-hour show is produced by a group of broadcast professionals who are themselves radio amateurs. TX Factor is shot in full High Definition. Over the coming months and years the show hopes to explore all aspects of our fascinating hobby and is free to watch at txfactor.co.uk (GB2RS, TX Factor via ARNewsLine) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- DIGITAL D-Star’s “D-Tip” Of The Month By, Glen VE4GWN writing in "The Newscaster", The Official Publication of the Winnipeg Amateur Radio Club in Canada Although simply Keying up on D-Star transmits our call signs please remember to Voice your Call Sign and intentions when controlling the D-Star system such as when linking or unlinking repeaters/reflectors as you would on an analogue system. This will let those monitoring and not looking directly at their screens know which Call Sign is controlling the D-Star system and which reflector or repeater is being linked to or unlinked from. Also, please remember to ask if the system is in use before unlinking from a reflector or repeater. http://www.WinnipegARC.org IC-7700 Firmware upgrade ICOM has announced a firmware upgrade for the IC-7700 HF/50MHz base station transceiver. The upgrade will provide the same additional features as made available to its big brother transceiver, the IC-7800. The new firmware will be available for download from the ICOM website during March. (RSGB) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER Launch of two hundred 437MHz satellites The largest ever launch of 437 MHz satellites is planned for March 16 at 0841 UT when 200 Sprite satellites will be launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS 3 mission Sprite is a tiny, 3.5 by 3.5 cm, single-board spacecraft that was developed by Zac Manchester KD2BHC. It has a microcontroller, radio, and solar cells and is capable of carrying single-chip sensors, such as thermometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. The 200 Sprites are carried in a 3U CubeSat called KickSat. They are stacked atop a spring-loaded pusher and secured by a nichrome burn wire system. On reaching orbit KickSat will perform a de-tumble manoeuvre and establish communication with Cornell University’s ground station. After check-out, the spacecraft will be put in a sun-pointing attitude and spun up to maintain that attitude. A command signal from the ground station will then trigger the deployment and the Sprites will be released as free-flying spacecraft. All Sprites operate on a single frequency of 437.240 MHz and use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The KickSat CubeSat has downlinks on 437.505 MHz and 2401-2436.2 MHz. (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW Set for International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend Australia on course for another very successful weekend in August with 35 registrations so far, including a lightship moored at Brisbane. Around the coast VK3 is in the lead with 11 registrations, VK4 has eight, VK7 on five, VK2 and VK6 tied on three, and in VK5 there’s two registered. Cape Todd Lighthouse, popular last year as VK8GM at Alice Springs, is also ready for the Todd River Regatta. In Queensland, the Bunya Mountains and District Amateur Club has registered the Carpentaria Number 2 light-vessel at the Queensland Maritime Museum. The club will issue a special QSL card. Identical riveted steel acetylene powered barge-mounted lights were built in Sydney in 1917. They served as ship navigation in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The label of 'Carpentaria' stuck, even when later stationed in Victoria's Bass Strait oilfields. The sister Carpentaria Number 4 lightship at Sydney's Darling Harbour was in last year's event. Plan now to join in and register a marine beacon on-line for August the 16th and 17th weekend, by visiting 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 WICEN (NSW) has been asked to provide communications support for the Bushwalker's Wilderness Rescue Squad's Operational Exercise, or OPEX, at Winburndale Nature Reserve, 35kms north-east of Bathurst, on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of March. (vk2wi news) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- SUMMITS ON THE AIR www.sotawatch.org www.sota.org.uk Guy Hamblen N7UN has been recognised for his work in helping to establish the popular Summits on the Air (SOTA) award scheme in the USA. He was selected by the SOTA Management Team for his outstanding work in helping make the scheme available to US hams. (SouthGate) SOCIAL SCENE 2014 Mar 23 VK3 EMDRC White Elephant Sale 10am ( 03 9005 9251 ) Mar 28-30 VK4 Bunya Mts&District AmCom camp Somerset dam (vk4bad@wia.org.au) 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 ( 0429 632 815 ) May 10 VK4 BARCFEST: Salvation Army Hall Calamvale. May 16-18 VK4 WIA Conference presented by SCARC ( vk4ts@wia.org.au ) Nov 2 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Nov 30 VK3 SPARC HamFest at Rosebud ( howardjones155@gmail.com ) ============================== NEW WIA NEWS BROADCAST FEEDBACK =============================== "Good morning, this is Peter, VK4EA, President of the Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club. A follow up from a news item from last week's news. Rick (VK4HF), President of the Armidale & Districts Radio Club, and myself, wish to clarify the situation with the Armidale 2m and 70cm repeaters. The VK2RAD repeaters were donated by Danny (VK4KI), being the former VK4REG repeater system originally constructed by the now defunct Radio Experimenters Group. Credit is due to Arnold (VK4SU) and Rick for founding the REG and to Arnold for building the REG repeater system which was subsequently taken over by Danny when the REG closed. Danny kindly responded to Rick's enquiries, where were passed on by myself when Rick started casting about for a repeater system to help reinvirgorate the Armidale Club. And as a result Danny and myself travelled to Armidale in August 2013, to deliver the rack and assist with the installation. A short video of the install was taken, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm2PiyTMaTI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUcMCGkZGQkP8AExb8W34F9Q The 2 metre repeater was switched on August 3rd 2013 and has given uninterrupted service to the Amateur community ever since. Then, in early 2014, I assisted Rick with the installation of technical upgrades to the 2 metre repeater for Echo Link, which has increased the repeater usage and effectiveness many fold. Rick is now hosting the Echo Link computer interface and internet connection at his motel in Armidale. The repeaters were donated to the Armidale Club so let's be clear that the repeaters are 100% owned by the Armidale Club and were never the property of the Redcliffe Club. And more credit to Rick for building the Amridale Club up, due to Rick's membership drive efforts in 12 short months, the Club now has 23 paid up members, which is not bad going at all considering there there are 51 licenses in a 100 km radius of Armidale. The Redcliffe Club's connection is, Rick served as President for a number of years, and is a life member and is still a regular visitor to the Redcliffe Clubhouse when he is taking a break from his motel in Armidale. In the late 80's, early 90's Rick, as President, took the membership of RDRC from to 30 to 120 members, and it's still as strong as ever. Rick also sited the Redcliffe & District Radio Club 2 metre & 70 Centimetre repeaters at his Wamuran property some 23 years ago where they are still sited to this day. Rick has never asked for site rental or payment contribution for power to run the repeaters over that time. In 1993, Rick VK4HF was presented with a Distinguished Service Award by the WIAQ for his Contribution to Amateur Radio. We hope that clears up the situation, and we do apologise for any confusion. You all have a great day now, Cheers from Peter, VK4EA and Rick, VK4HF." 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. . -------------