WIANEWS - JULY 06 - 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 JULY 06 2014. HEADING TOWARDS OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING JUL 6 2014. TRENDING ON VK1WIA TWITTER ACCOUNT http://twitter.com/VK1WIA #WIA ACMA FEE INCREASE Omega tower to come down Gippsland Times are reporting that the decommissioned Omega tower navigation facility at Darriman will be dismantled, subject to heritage restrictions. Gippsland MHR and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Darren Chester said the tower, Australia's tallest, was now surplus to Defence requirements. The tower was one of a set of nine other navigation towers located around the world, including the United States, Trinidad, Argentina and Japan. The Omega navigation system was shut down in 2000 and used as a transmitter for unidirectional communications to submarines until 2008. Transmission equipment from the system is now on display at Port Albert's Maritime Museum. The tower is said to be the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere attracting BASE jumpers. Australia’s medium wave beacon reaches a century. Regular listeners to this broadcast will know that most of this year a home-built test beacon on 473 kHz has operated at Mildura in the north-west of Victoria. The beacon has been heard throughout Australia and into New Zealand. With the latest on that activity, here is Noel Ferguson VK3FI. "The aim of that test has been to create interest in the 630 metre band - and it certainly has done that very successfully as I’ve just turned over the 100th report. And I know many who have reported continue to check the signal. So a big thank you for those who have taken the time to look for the beacon and provide reports. Also while I’m on thank you’s, – thanks must go to Jim VK3PC for ongoing publicity. And also thanks to Owen VK2OMD for prodding me into trying the QRSS mode and for also supplying the keying board for that mode. At this point I intend to continue with the beacon, well at least for the next several weeks - but after that I’ll take a break in transmission as I’m planning some antenna re-arrangements. The plan is to improve the 473 kHz beacon antenna and also to instal a replacement HF beam. At the same time I intend to move the 473 kHz transmitter off the workbench into the rack where it belongs. And that work will take me to a cross roads – should I continue the beacon in the nightly operational mode? Or should I change to a beacon on demand? Your ideas, comments to vk3fi@wia.org.au appreciated. This is VK3 Foxtrot India and you’re listening to VK1WIA. ANZAC 100 To commemorate ANZAC 100 a series of articles is to appear in Amateur Radio magazine by the WIA Historian, Peter Wolfenden VK3RV. Here's a summary of one of them. An inspired experimenter & leader Walter Hannam - his part of the jigsaw The Wireless Institute of Australia began on the 11th March 1910, primarily to pressure the Federal Government to make the radio spectrum available to individual experimenters. Walter Hannam was at that inaugural meeting of private wireless people in Sydney. A practical, inventive man, possibly gaining knowledge about electricity and telegraphy from books held at the Manly Institute, established by his father. While some background has been written on him in 2010 and 2012, this article puts events involving Walter and others, into chronological order. The Adelaide Advertiser on the 10th of March 1910, details a number of aspects of wireless telegraphy and provides an insight to the frustrations of experimenters. It reported that: A young electrician, Mr W Hannam, it is alleged, after spending three years in equipping a comprehensive plant ... applied for a licence. Although a year and a half had passed since his first application, he had received no final answer. The secretary of the Postal Administration replied that the only condition was a royalty of three guineas a year. He further said Mr Hannam had not paid the royalty. Walter must have been well aware of the solution, so what was really going on? There is little doubt that the three Guinea licence fee was extravagant. It was excessive and would have contributed to the number of 'school-boy pirates', let alone offend others such as Walter Hannam. With other developments by the Postal Administration, this all made good 'rallying material' for the forthcoming public meeting and signs were that Wally knew very well this was the case. Hannam and George Taylor shared an interest in flying. It was at an exhibition that high radio licence fees and the numbers of people interested were discussed, that Taylor arranged the meeting which started the WIA. (Jim Linton VK3PC) The Melbourne Amateur Radio Technology Group will be holding their first Hamfest on Sunday Sept 28th Located just 15 minutes from the Melbourne CBD the Hamfest will be held at the IKCA Social Club Rooms at Keilor East just off the Western Ring Road. Plenty of parking is available so go and grab that bargain radio you been looking for with 30 plus tables made available to sellers including dealer section. There will be emergency services on display with door prizes every hour. Food will be the delicious egg and bacon Barbeque sandwiches for breakfast and Free tea and coffee thought out the day. For Bookings and full details please visit www.martg.net Sellers book your table early ! Peter Scodia VK3XCO says he "Hopes to see you there." (The MARTG group) Well the internet was all a twitter, last weekend. Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, and last weekend saw the first official release of the e-edition of Amateur Radio magazine. In fact I had to wait until Wednesday to retrieve mine from the letter box. Reading the Editorial from Peter Freeman, it was a hope of the Publications Committee that July would be the month for this to happen and happen it did. WIA members need to register on the MEMNET system and log in to down load the PDF file. With a selection of thumb nail photos on the inside back cover, there is a wrap up of the Institute AGM and Open Forum by Roger Harrison. The WIA broadcast manager gets a special mention on receipt of WIA Life Membership and another page is devoted to recipients of special awards. For people who follow Robin Harwood’s Spotlight on SWLing column, there is another story from John Clark. HCJB, “the Voice of the Andes”, is an historic broadcaster and now transmits from the Ord River region of Australia. Learn some of the tricks of setting up a monster shortwave broadcast station in our own backyard. Just for the adventurous or wishful there is the story of the Mellish Reef 2014 expedition. If you always wanted to visit a coral cay in the middle of the ocean and sleep 2 metres above high tide level, then this story is for you. Did you know our guide book, the LCD’s is due to expire next year; I didn’t but WIA President, Phil Wait goes into some of the background thinking of our regulator and the possible ways amateur radio might develop. A little weighty but an important read. With all the regular columns, the July issue of Amateur Radio should have something for all listeners. For WIA National News, this is Geoff, VK4ZPP. DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? Amateur Radio has been around for over a century, in that time it has evolved considerably. From humble beginnings with the field being discovered and covered by inventors, to today where we enjoy the fruits of over 100 years of development. That's not to say that we don't have inventors among us today, just that they build on the shoulders of giants with information and knowledge passed down through the generations. Today we celebrate the existence of new Amateurs on a regular basis. We welcome new F-calls to our bands daily and we see a massive influx of new puppy dogs with wagging tails, keen as mustard and hungry to learn. Only we don't do anything with that. We have a few stalwarts, brave souls who spend their time encouraging new Amateurs; we see them teach, guide and mentor, train and develop, help and grow the skills and do the things that you'd expect from a hobby. Unfortunately there are some among us who take a different, darker view. They bemoan "the coming of the illiterate hordes", they berate and chastise, doggedly fighting the inflow of new ideas, rekindling a past where boys were boys and amateurs were men. They take the view that an F-call is not a real licence, can't really know anything and that one holding such a license is less of an Amateur than they. It's amusing to think that a crusty Amateur, say 70 years old or so, was once 14, half a century after their predecessors started the hobby, but they seem to have forgotten that time. Now I'm not going to name names, or make examples of those experiences I've had or those I've been told about, but if you're listening to this and your blood pressure is rising, perhaps it would be a great idea to have a think about if you're encouraging new comers, or not. Fortunately negativity isn't all encompassing, but it's too prevalent, too dominant to be comfortable. Get a life, encourage an F-call will ya - they're in it for the hobby too you know! In case you're wondering, Sour Grapes - No. Disappointed - Yes. 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. 70 MHz in Italy for 2014 On the IARU Region 1 site Alessandro, IV 3 KKW reports Italian radio amateurs have access to 70 MHz until December 19 2014 All Italian stations are authorized except those 30 km or less from Italian borders with Austria, Switzerland and France. FLYING UNMANNED AIRCRAFT PROHIBITED IN USA NATIONAL PARKS National Parks has signed a policy memorandum that prohibits launching, landing, or operating unmanned aircraft including drones on lands and waters administered by the USA National Park Service. The National Park Service itself can continue to use unmanned aircraft for administrative purposes such as search and rescue, fire operations and scientific. Sweeping cuts to Voice of America shortwave services The US Broadcasting Board of Governors' proposed shortwave cuts for FY2014 have been approved by Congress. Cuts will affect many shortwave radio services into Asia and elsewhere: http://wp.me/pn3uc-2CB NEW ZEALAND ANNOUNCES BROADCAST LICENCE AUCTION Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams has announced that available AM and FM licences for sound broadcasting will be auctioned later this year. The auction will include commercial licences, both unallocated and those currently allocated temporarily. It will also include a number of licences that were reserved for non-commercial use but are no longer needed for the purposes they were reserved for. All licences will be auctioned as commercial licences with tenure up to 2031. Work is currently underway to determine the auction details, including the exact content, reserve prices and auction process ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE NEW SERVICES INTRODUCED AT QRZ.COM Some very positive changes have come to QRZ.com. The first is that the websites callsign database now fully supports secondary callsigns. A secondary callsign is one which includes a slash plus a modifier as either a prefix or a suffix to the primary call. This feature is available to all QRZ users and can be accessed by simply editing your callsign, or by using the My Account choice from the main QRZ menu, located under your callsign at the top right of the page. Also, unlike primary calls, secondary callsigns may be deleted by their owners at any time. Another major change at QRZ concerns its online logbook. Many users had asked for Logbook of the World integration and this is now available to all Logbook subscribers. It means that if you're a Logbook of the World user you can push your QRZ logs directly to Logbook of the World with just a couple of clicks of your mouse. Once uploaded, your QSOs in the QRZ logbook will be shaded with a green background, indicating that they have been sent. A Quick Start Guide for QRZ LoTW operations available at files.qrz.com/static/qrz/lotw_cert_guide.pdf) ============================================================================= RSGB's G4NJH WRC-15 Consultation In the UK Ofcom has just started a consultation on the key issues to be considered at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015, or WRC-15. These conferences are held approximately every four years and take key decisions concerning the identification and international harmonisation of spectrum bands. The UK is represented by Ofcom. The next conference takes place in Geneva from 2nd to 27th November 2015. It will consider a wide range of issues across a number of sector interests, including amateur radio use of parts of the spectrum. Ofcom's consultation sets out the main issues to be discussed at the conference and the emerging UK position. Full details can be found at tinyurl.com/ofcom-wrc15 . ============================================================================= WEIRD AND WONDERFUL In VK4 A group at University of Queensland physicists have used light particles to simulate a key process that indicates how time travel might be possible despite well-known clashing theories. Led by PhD student Martin Ringbauer, the research will add to the study of how time travel could be possible and how core scientific theory quantum mechanics might change in new environments. The team was able to send single particles of light, known as photons, along a path in space-time that returns the travelling object to the same point at an earlier time, known as a closed timelike curve. The team used mathematical equivalence to map the journey. The first photon travelled trough a wormhole into the past. It then interacted with a photon simulated to stand in as the first's older version. A second photon was sent through normal space-time and interacted with a photon that was forever trapped in the closed timelike curve. (JOURNAL NATURE) OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2014 SGARS 80 METRE TROPHY CONTEST July 26 10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 2 - 3 WIA REMEMBRANCE DAY (THE RD) CONTEST Aug 16 - 17 ALARA CONTEST Aug 30 - 31 Manly-Warringah Radio Society's Flagpole contest September 20. Amateur Radios International Air-ambulance Week, 9 days from Sep 28. Lesley, VK5LOL Alara Contest manager:- "Just want to let you know that the 34th Alara Contest is coming up in August, Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st; the last weekend of August. Details can be found on the Alara website. It would be wonderful if more YLs would participate particularly some of our newer F calls. We are very friendly and don't take contesting too seriously. Paper logs are welcome and there is also an Echolink section. Looking forward to speaking with lots of YLs on the 30th and 31st August. 33, Lesley VK5LOL" SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE JERSEY A group of hams from the Czech Republic will be active as MJ 0 ICD from the Island of Jersey between July 21st and the 27th on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and the Digital modes. QSL MJ 0 ICD via OK 1 BIL (ARNewsLine) OM 3 RM will be operational portable 9A from Vis Island during the RSGB Islands on the Air contest on July 26th and 27th. This as a Single-Operator All-Band Mixed entry. QSL via OM 3 RM. YO 2 MSB will be active stroke 3A from Monte Carlo, Monaco between September 5th and the 12th. QSL via the bureau or electronically using eQSL. VK 3 VTH will be active stroke 7 from King Island between August 14th to the 17th. His operation will be on 40 and 20 meters using SSB only. QSL VK 3 VTH via the bureau. LI for LA and LJ for LB Celebrates 200 years of the Norwegian Constitution during 2014. In addition, special event station LM1814 will be active as part of the celebration. NAURU SEPTEMBER 29 TO OCTOBER 19 LZ 1 GC is planning to be operational as C 21 GC from the Republic of Nauru between September 29th and October 19th on 160 through10 meters using CW, SSB and some RTTY. VK 3 ATX will be operational stroke P from Gabo Island on August 16th and 17th. Activity will be on the High Frequency bands. QSL via VK 3 ATX home callsign. Panama Canal Special Event Next month, Panama is celebrating its 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal. On August 15th, the Panamanians will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the inaugural transit through the Panama Canal. This activity is organized by amateurs of the Republic of Panama. A special event station is operating as HO 100 CANAL until August 15. Activity will be on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB, PSK and RTTY. The QSL Manager for the operation is HP 1 AVS. http://www.qrz.com/db/HO100CANAL HS 50 RAST Special Event Callsign Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) have been issued with the special callsign HS 50 RAST which celebrates the 50th anniversary of RAST and can be used until the end of 2014. THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. World's tiniest FM transmitter made from Graphene A team at Columbia University in New York has demonstrated a device built from a strip of graphene that can transmit FM radio signals. To build the graphene transmitter, the team suspended a 2-4 micrometer-long strip of graphene above a metal electrode. By applying a voltage to the electrode, they could draw the strip of graphene down. The resulting strain altered the strip's resonant frequency, tuning it up much as you might tighten a guitar string. By altering the voltage on the gate, the team found they could use the graphene device to generate a frequency-modulated electromagnetic signal at 100 MHz, right in the center of the FM band. http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/devices/worlds-tiniest-fm-transmitter-made-from-graphene (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FEMALES IN RADIO ALARA - AUSTRALIAN LADIES AR ASSOCIATION http://alara.org.au Net is held each Mondays on 3.570± MHz, commencing at 1030 UTC. (1000utc during daylight saving) geencee@picknowl.com.au COOEE ALARA Why ‘Cooee!’ ? Well Wikipedia lists Cooee! as a shout used in Australia, usually in the Bush, to attract attention, find missing people, or indicate one’s own location. When done correctly - loudly and shrilly - a call of “cooee” can carry over a considerable distance. It is also known as a call of help. Cooee! is Australian, and is all about communication over distance. Now COOEE comes to ALARA and the ladies from ALARA (and in particular Bambi VK4AYL ) need to be congratulated on their BRIGHT BOLD LOOK of their newsletter and newsletter is hardly the word to describe their new look magazine! VK4AYL Bambi Page cooee.alara@gmail.com WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER ARISS SEEKS SWL REPORTS ON SCHOOL CONTACTS ARISS is requesting listener reports for its school contact due to issues with the Kenwood radio that are not fully understood. An Ericsson lower power transceiver is going to be used for these contacts in the foreseeable future. Please send your reports to aj9n@amsat.org ARISS managers add that they thank everyone in advance for their assistance. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA http://rsgbiota.org IOTA 50th Anniversary Convention The RSGB’s IOTA programme is celebrating its 50th anniversary at a conference at Beaumont House, Windsor all across this weekend 4th to 6th July. It will be opened by RSGB President, John Gould, G3WKL. (rsgb) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW VK is gearing up for the ILLW With more than 53 Australia registrations already in International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend that is only six weeks away, this fun-event is certainl y headed for another very successful year. This includes an unusual four virgin lighthouses so far - two in Victoria and one each in New South Wales, Tasmania. The latest is Whaler's Bluff Lighthouse designed to guide ships past a treacherous reef into the Portland Harbour in southwest Victoria. It will be put on air by Johnno VK3FMPB. No doubt he will be looking for Griffiths Island Lighthouse further up the coast at Port Fairy, activated by Peter Fraser VK3ZPF at the mouth of the Moyne River. On one of the eastern most parts of Australia is the Fingal Head Lighthouse activated by Grant VK2GEL. The tower is accessible through remnant coastal rainforest and has plenty of deep water offshore. In Eastern Tasmania at Cape Tourville Lighthouse will be Ken VK7HKN and his wife Lyn VK7FROG. The pair at first puzzled a meeting of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club who had not heard of the lighthouse. In the lead is VK3 with 15 registered, followed by VK2 and VK7 on 8, in VK4 and VK5 there's 7, VK6 has 6, and in Alice Springs the false lighthouse of Greg VK8GM is part of the Henley-on-Todd Regatta. To register and join the 17th International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on August the 16th and 17th, along with others in 38 countries, see the website www.illw.net (Jim Linton VK3PC) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS http://www.raotc.org.au Hallo everyone, this is Clive VK6CSW with the usual reminder that tomorrow, Monday July 7th, is the first Monday in the month and time once again for the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club of Australia's monthly News and Information bulletin. This month, in addition to the regular Club news, we learn how Herman, VK2IXV, saved his career as a Merchant Marine radio operator by learning to use a semi-automatic Morse key. I think you'll enjoy it. Everyone, RAOTC members and non-members alike, is cordially invited to listen in to the bulletin. The main HF transmission takes place on 20m on 14.150 MHz USB. At 0100 UTC, 9 am Eastern Standard Time, the bulletin is beamed northwards from Melbourne for Eastern states listeners, while an hour later at 0200 UTC it is beamed westward for WA listeners. Also at 0200 UTC, 10 am Western Standard Time, the bulletin is transmitted via the NewsWest linked repeater system simultaneously with a 40m transmission on 7060 kHz LSB from Perth by Chris VK6JI. In addition, local HF, VHF and UHF transmissions also take place tomorrow on various frequencies and at various times. To find one for your local area please visit the RAOTC website at www.raotc.org.au Call backs are taken after each transmission and we look forward to hearing from you. Once again, the July RAOTC bulletin can be heard tomorrow, Monday July 7th. 73 from Clive VK6CSW. SOCIAL SCENE 2014 Jul 12-13 VK3 GippsTech Conference Jul 19 VK3 GGREC 2014 HAMFEST Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club. Jul 19 VK4 Caboolture Radio Club HAMFEST at Scout Ground, 169 Smiths Rd. Jul 27 VK4 GOLD COAST AR SOCIETY 11am Social at Logan Central Gardens Aug 3 VK6 Northern Corridor Radio Group Hamfest. Sep 13 VK4 Sunshine Coast AR Club's SUNFest, Woombye School of Arts Sep 28 VK3 Melbourne Amateur Radio Technology Group Hamfest Keilor East. Oct 25 VK4 HAMFEST on the Gold Coast. Nov 2 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Nov 15 VK7 Miena Hamfest (My-enah) Nov 30 VK3 SPARC HamFest at Rosebud ( howardjones155@gmail.com ) 2015 June, Queens Birthday weekend 40th annual Oxley Region Field Day Tacking Point Surf Life Saving Hall. 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. . -------------