WIANEWS - OCTOBER 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 OCTOBER 12 2014. HEADING TOWARDS OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA ANZAC 100 - VK3MR HISTORY VI6ANZAC OPERATION JOTA - FOUNDER SILENT KEY, VK7 JOTA OPERATION THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING OCTOBER 12 2014. FOR the first time ever there are more gadgets in the world than there are people, including a growing number that only communicate with other machines, according to data from digital analysts at GSMA Intelligence. The number of active mobile devices and human beings crossed over somewhere around the 7.19 billion mark. GSMA's real-time tracker put the number of mobile devices at 7.22 billion whilst the US Census Bureau says the number of people is still somewhere between 7.19 and 7.2 billion. Gadgets like tablets, smartphones and not-so-smart phones are multiplying five times faster than we are, with our population growing at a rate of about two people per second, or 1.2% annually. (Northern Rivers Echo) Endangered tree snails stop broadcasts Recent storms hit a radio facility perched on highly elevated Mount Ka'ala on Hawaii's Waianae mountain range, but a population of tree snails is thwarting its restoration. The facility beams public radio signals and also transmits on a microwave relay to send signals to KIPL 89.9 in Lihue. Mountain-top standby generators are now out of fuel. The electrical line repair crew has come across a habitat of endangered tree snails, currently in their mating season. Meantime the public broadcaster has told its listeners to tune in via live streaming, use a free mobile app or cable broadcasts. (Jim Linton VK3PC) Anywhere the wind blows. Victorian Pico balloon lands in New South Wales. The PS-22 Pico balloon launched on Saturday October the 4th from Victoria by Andy VK3YT was tracked during its flight. The solar powered small metalised party-type balloon VK3YT-9 had a 10mW transmitter on board and gave a good signal throughout the flight. One tracker followed it through Victoria and then into New South Wales hearing it close to Wollongong only at 2000 metres high and travelling at 14km per hour. Andy VK3YT says PS-22 came down near Exeter in the Southern Highland area, short of its intended path to Queensland. A similar balloon in the series left Victoria earlier this year was heard over Brazil in South America. The next Pico balloon PS-23 with its payload could be launched next weekend, and promises to give a very interesting flight. Still to come in this bulletin the fanciful flight of B-64, yes she is STILL up the air! 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. As we reflect on World War II and its prisoners of war, the name of Mervyn 'Snow' Campbell VK3MR comes to mind. In the early stages of WWII he enlisted in the RAAF with his various training including Point Cook where the Wireless Reserve met. Snow knew most local reserve members and it's suggested that was a factor in his joining the RAAF. He left Sydney in 1941 and after serving in Egypt and with the RAF in Palestine, he then went back to Egypt, where he was captured by the Germans in 1941. At the RAOTC December 1976 Dinner, Snow related the story of his amateur radio club, its teaching and listening to shortwave behind enemy lines. Snow recalled a big store of telephone equipment, and by trickery liberated meters. With make-shift parts from food containers and toothbrushes, listening sets were made. How this was done is explained by Snow in the article. The chimes of Big Ben brought tears to many eyes of the Englishmen. The Germans searched for aerials and radios. However the POWs got away with it. During a march across Germany, they scrounged churches and other public buildings to pick up coils, wire, crystals and headphones and built another radio that was most valuable. Amateur Radio magazine for April 1945 mentions that parcels and books had been sent to Snow, and in the May 1945 issue, a report came that he was safe in Britain. Snow Campbell VK3MR has left us all with an insight into his radio experiences as a prisoner of war. (Jim Linton VK3PC) DISCUSSION POINT What use is an f-call? Over the past two years I've talked about amateur radio resources on the Internet, sometimes referring to one or other web-site in passing, encouraging you to find information that is pertinent to your situation. Last week I talked about logging and discussed some of the issues you'll come across. One of the things you'll likely want to do, is to actually put your logs online to make it possible for others to do the same and in doing so, matching up your contact with theirs and thus validating the contact. When you start investigating this, you'll find that there are many different sites that offer this service, from Logbook Of the World, or LoTW which is maintained by the ARRL, through QRZ.com, eqsl.cc and many others. Before I start talking about one specific site today, I thought I'd point out that you'll quickly find out that your chosen online log isn't going to be the same as the station you just contacted 15,000 km away, so in this case, at least at the moment, the more you register with, the higher your chances of having your contacts confirmed. One such service is Club Log, located at clublog.org It has a very clean interface, offers log matching, a DX cluster that indicates stations in countries that you don't yet have, league tables and other amazing tools. One such tool deals with Propagation. It uses actual contacts from all the logs submitted to determine the best time to be on air to get contacts between two stations, what band, what directions, etc. All built-in with the aim to help you make the next contact. It's the best tool I've found so far that helps you get actual results, rather than propagation forecasts, it was the tool I used to let you know recently that the best chance of making a contact is on the weekend, Saturday, Sunday, then Friday, in order of decreasing amounts of traffic. Of course, that's not to say you won't get amazing contacts on other days, I spoke with Marion Island on a Monday afternoon one day, so you really can't beat being on-air. The service is free, though donations are encouraged and every time you upload a log file, the upload is brought to you by another donating amateur, so good will all round. I know that there are other aspects to Club Log that I've not discussed, or am even aware of, but if you're going to start somewhere, you won't do worse than starting there. clublog.org check it out. I'm Onno VK6FLAB Father of JOTA a silent key The founding father of the Jamboree On The Air (JOTA), Leslie Mitchell G3BHK has died. Next week we will bring you more of the JOTA life of G3BHK. As many Scouts, Guides and radio amateurs around the world prepare for JOTA on 18-19 October this year, they will remember how the global event began. It involves half a million Scouts and Guides in over 100 countries JOTA is the largest international event on the calendar and it's on NEXT weekend. (sourced to VK3PC) INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA. AMSAT Annual Meeting Remote Participation via EchoLink The 2014 AMSAT Symposium being held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Oct 10-12 in Baltimore. This Annual Meeting will be broadcast via EchoLink on the *AMSAT* channel. The Annual Meeting includes a report to the membership by the President and Senior Officers and includes a question and answer session where members may ask senior officers questions. EchoLink participants may send questions using the text messaging feature of EchoLink. See amsat.org for the Symposium schedule and the titles and times of the presentations. I've mentioned this before BUT Silverstone B-64 balloon is STILL flying The B-64 balloon launched July 12, 2014 from the UK is still in the air transmitting on 434.500 MHz using Contestia 64/1000 and APRS Saturday, October 3 Phil Heron MI 0 VIM reported decoding data while it was over the North Atlantic ocean, coming up to the 6th time it would pass the United Kingdom on its continuing journeys around the world. B-64 was built by radio amateur Leo Bodnar M 0 XER, he made both the plastic foil envelope and the solar powered transmitter payload which weighs just 11 grams. See the B-64 track at http://habhub.org/mt/?focus=B-64 Fishy business bro. Recently Christchurch (New Zealand) radio inspectors were involved with a commercial interference case affecting a major microwave link in the upper South Island. The microwave operator was able to identify that the link was only being affected when the SAME fishing vessel crossed its path in the Cook Strait. Using a microwave dish and sufficient gain they were able to see the interfering signals radiating from the fishing boat. By utilising the AIS vessel tracking website their position was verified. It was obvious that the fishing boat was the cause of the interference. The fishing company was called and the S Band radar turned off. Immediately the noise ceased and it was obvious that this was the cause of the interference. A subsequent letter was sent to the fishing company and the S Band radar’s magnetron was replaced. New Zealand's RSM advises that the General User Licence allowing radio microphones to operate in the 174 – 230 MHz frequency range will be extended until 30 September 2019. But it's recommended that NZ users do not make new investments in equipment that uses these frequencies, instead UHF 502 – 606 and 622 – 698 MHz ranges are available for long term radio microphone use. The Cleveland (USA) Daily Banner reports that the Ratcliff sisters are among the youngest radio amateurs in the U.S. Estee KK 4 MVS is 11 and Rebecca KK 4 OAU is 9, their mother Jennifer Ratcliff is KK 4 KDZ. The sisters passed their Technician exam in 2013 and recently took and passed their General exam at the first attempt. Rebecca said her favourite part of amateur radio has been “making contacts around the world.” Estee and Rebecca are both members of Amateur Radio Emergency Services. Read the article at clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/25868135/article-Ham-radio-license-holders ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE DIP IN STRATOSPHERIC RADIATION DURING SOLAR STORM A rather surprising outcome to a scientific experiment. On September 12th, student scientists from Earth to Sky Calculus in California launched a weather balloon during the most intense solar storm so far this year. They expected to measure an increase in the radiation count. Instead they measured a sharp drop. The reason for this phenomena is thought to be something called the Forbush Decrease named after physicist Scott Ellsworth Forbush who first described it in the 20th century. Simply said, when the Suns Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME sped past Earth, it swept aside many of the cosmic rays that normally surround our planet. More on the unexpected outcome to this experiment can be found by searching for "students measure Forbush decrease" on Spaceweather.com MEASURING TRANSMITTER NOISE An interesting web page that measures the transmitter performance of noise element production by a number of popular amateur radio transceivers has been created by Jim Brown, K9YC. In his research, Brown measured such areas as key clicks, intermodulation distortion, and phase noise. You can see the results of his study on the web at k9yc.com/TXNoise.pdf ASTRONAUT COMPLETES ISS EXPEDITION 42 POSTER Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, has completed the official crew poster for the International Space Station Expedition 42. The poster parodies the popular The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the late author Douglas Adams and is being called the best crew poster yet released. There is no cost to download the poster but we must warn you that it is a high resolution file and will require some 57 Megabytes of storage space. It is in PDF format at tinyurl.com/expedition-42-poster Currently, Expedition 42 is slated to launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on November 23rd. In addition to Samantha Cristoforetti also flying with her to the ISS will be Anton Shkaplerov and Terry Virts. Cristoforetti is expected to return to Earth in May 2015. NEW CHALLENGE COIN PREMIUM FOR AMSAT FOX DONATIONS AMSAT has announced that a new premium collectable is now available for qualifying donations to the Fox satellite program. This in the form of a unique challenge coin for donors who have contributed at the $100 level or higher. AMSAT says that the coin is shaped as an isometric view of a Fox-1 CubeSat, complete with details such as the stowed UHF antenna, solar cells, and camera lens viewport. It is struck in 3mm thick brass, plated with antique silver, and finished in bright enamel. The coins are scheduled for delivery just prior to the 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium, and will be first distributed to donors attending that gathering. The design may be seen at tinyurl.com/amsat-fox-coin NEW SPACE EXPLORATION ROBOT BEING TESTED BY NASA Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida have begun testing small robots and navigation software. This to see if it is possible for an autonomous machine to mimic the process that ants use to scout for and then collect resources. The robots which are being referred to as Swarmies resemble a stripped down, radio controlled truck. They feature an on-board camera and direction finding gear programmed to work on their own to survey an area, then call the other robots to assist in digging should something valuable is found. The current testing is to determine whether the software that will control the robots will work, and if the overall Swarmie concept is worthwhile. The theory behind their development is to equip operational robots working in space missions to scan the soil of an alien world for water, ice or other resources that can be turned into fuel or breathable air for astronauts explorers. During the evaluation, the NASA engineers will use a simulator that will enable them to test the Swarmies networking ability with additional robots without actually having to build them. As testing proceeds, the team plans to include an experimental mining robot also designed at the Kennedy Space Centre to try out different techniques for digging into the lunar or Martian surfaces to gather useful materials. ============================================================================= RSGB's G4NJH G3USF wins IARU Award The RSGB extends its congratulations to Martin Harrison, G3USF who has been awarded the prestigious IARU Region 1 Medal for services to Region 1. Martin has been Region 1 Beacon Coordinator for many years and has done much to encourage development of the effectiveness of beacons in order to assist day-to-day band usage as well as propagation study. Historic Callsign to mark UK-NZ contact On 18th October 1924, two-way communication was established between Frank Bell, 4AA in New Zealand and Cecil Goyder, 2SZ, operating from Mill Hill School in North London. To commemorate the 90th anniversary of this historic contact, radio amateurs at stations in Mill Hill School and New Zealand will recreate the first Goyder/Bell contact, hopefully on a wavelength close to that used in 1924. The callsign 2SZ will be aired from 11th to 18th October from Mill Hill School. Pupils will be able to visit the radio station, speak to the operators, and even speak over the air. Whilst the station won't be open to the public, on 18th October there will be a live webcam at the School covering the communications and celebrations. In New Zealand, a special station, using the callsign ZL4AA, will be operating from Shag Valley in South Island during the same week. OPERATIONAL NEWS - DATELINE 2014 OCEANIA DX Contest CW 0800 UTC Sat 11th Oct to 0800 UTC Sun Oct. 12 2015 Tablelands Radio Group will again hold AM and CW on ANZA Day 25 April 10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 1 - 2 SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE A number of commemorative events will be taking place in Albany, WA from the 31 October to 2 November to mark the 100th anniversary of the departure of the first convoy of ships carrying ANZAC troops as well as the significant role Albany has played in Australia’s ANZAC history. Graham VK4BB brought you the initial details of this event last week, now a follow up by Rob VK6LD Albany was the assembly point for many ships setting sail for Gallipoli and the Western Front. The town was the last place for many soldiers that they saw Australian soil. Albany was also the place where the first recorded Dawn Service took place on 25 April 1930 by Padre Ernest White, a war chaplain who spent two years on the Western Front in World War I. Southern Electronics Group (SEG) has been granted permission to use a special event call sign VI 6 ANZAC over the weekend of the Albany commemorative events. Southern Electronics Group will be using the VI6ANZAC call sign on Saturday 1 November 2014 from 0001hrs to 2359hrs WST. A number of local amateurs and amateurs from Perth & Manjimup will take part in the event. The special event call sign and QSL Card is expected to be highly sought after by VK and overseas amateurs alike. Depending on propagation, VI6ANZAC will be active on all the HF bands (160M - 10M), including the WARC bands. There will also be some digital operations on the day. There will be updates on VK Logger & DX Cluster on the day on frequencies In the lead up to the event we will be posting updates to the VI6ANZAC QRZ page http://qrz.com/db/vi6anzac 73's from Albany and the Southern Electronics Group. This is Rob VK6LD. P 29 NO Nao, (JA2VQP) is in East Sepic Province Papua New Guinea and has been on air since way back in February 2013 BUT his tour of duty means January 2015 his operation will cease so "hop to it". CW SSB and RTTY. and RTTY plus might try other modes. II 4 CDN will be on the air until 31st December with different operators, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the radio telescope Croce Del Nord. QSL via the bureau or direct to the QSL manager IZ 4 FUE. And finally a bit of housekeeping 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. And NEVER just send us a link to a story, write it out the way you'd expect to hear it being read, or better still read it and submit the audio. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- CW FISTS Club - East Asia www.feacw.net FISTS Club - Australasia www.fistsdownunder.org FISTS Club - UK & Europe www.fists.co.uk FISTS Club - Americas www.fists.org FISTS Down Under responds with a display The heritage festival in Ballarat, Victoria, next May has the theme of "A Century of Service 1914 - 2014", looking at our service at home and abroad during war and peacekeeping engagements. FISTS Down Under has responded to an invitation to be part of the two-day festival. A team is now developing activities for the event, depicting the integral role CW played. More details on what FISTS Down Under has planned will be released when finalised. The heritage festival will be held at several Ballarat sites on Saturday and Sunday May the 9th and 10th 2015. (Jim Linton VK3PC) WHAT’S UP DOC! Morse Carrot Keyer Michael Samson G 0 POT has released a video of his Morse code carrot keyer Quick bit of fun in preparation for JOTA this is a Morse CW Keyer using two carrots!!!! Video links are on the text edition of this news, best read at our only official web site, wia.org.au http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBzs6FgL1Zc RSGB Inspire Forum http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/october/rsgb_inspire_forum.htm (Southgate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER From November 10 to December 7, there will be no US Operational hams on board the ISS. All schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. (Sourced to AMSAT NA) The increasing number of small 'CubeSat' satellites being launched combined with a relaxed attitude to debris mitigation could lead to hazards for all space users unless preventative measures are taken, warns a leading space debris expert from the University of Southampton. Despite many CubeSats not having any manoeuvring capability they are still perceived to have a low impact on the space debris environment. Despite guidelines requiring the satellites to deorbit within 25 years, some are being launched into high Earth orbits, which means their orbital lifetime could be much greater. More than a third of all CubeSats launched to-date (around 160 between 2003 and 2013) are predicted to remain on-orbit for more than 25 years. Since 2005, CubeSats have been involved in more than 360,000 close approaches of less than 5 km with other orbiting objects. (Sourced to AMSAT NA) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- INTERNET --- THE HAMS DOMAIN TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA www.HamRadioNation.com websdr.org FREE SOFTWARE Simon Brown, G4ELI has released a simple Windows program which displays Gray-line, Geomagnetic Indices, Solar Data as well as Sunrise and Sunset times. The program is free of cost and can be downloaded at tinyurl.com/G4ELI-gray-line (G4ELI, Southgate via ARNewsLine) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO SCOUTING http://www.scouts.com.au http://www.scout.org/jota http://www.international.scouts.com.au CALLING FREQUENCIES Please QSY off the calling frequency after establishing communication. Australian voice calling frequencies: 3.650, 7.090, 14.190, 21.190, 28.590, 52.160 World CW calling frequencies: 3.570, 7.030, 14.060, 18.080, 21.140, 24.910, 28.180, 50.160 World voice calling frequencies: 3.690 & 3.940 MHz, 7.090 & 7.190, 14.290, 18.140, 21.360, 24.960, 28.390, 50.160 Calling frequencies for Slow Scan TV (SSTV): 3.630, 7.033, 14.227 Calling Frequencies for PSK31 14.070 VK7 JOTA Are you involved with JOTA or maybe would just like to make contact with a JOTA station on the weekend of 18th & 19th of October? WICEN South in VK7 will again be assisting the Huonville Scout group. This year will see the JOTA station being moved from the usual land based camp, to a maritime camp aboard the vessel Cartela, currently moored in Franklin just south of Huonville. The MV Cartela is the country’s oldest continuously licensed passenger ferry and the only vessel still afloat that was called into service in World War I. She was 100 years old in 2012. The Cartela has a very long & colourful history in Tasmania. However, we’re not aware of it ever being used for a JOTA station. Hence the plan. We will be operating maritime from 1200hrs Saturday till 1200hrs Sunday on the 80, 40 & 20 metre bands as well as via IRLP & EchoLink. Five of our Scouts are currently undergoing their “F-call” course and will no-doubt be eager to make contact with you or your JOTA station. We would encourage everyone to “Jump on board” Hi Hi, and make contact with VK7WCN Maritime as well as all other JOTA stations around the bands. Your participation will be greatly appreciated by all. Look forward to making the contact. Further information can be obtain via email vk7fmrs@gmail.com (Nicole VK7FNJS) 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 SES Townsville/Thuringowa Division Joint Exercise. A golden opportunity to gain experience in operating with Counter-Disaster organisations in preparation for the support role that Radio Amateurs provide during times of disaster. The exercise will involve some operators on foot in forested, rocky, grassy, sandy areas, mobile in vehicles and operating out of at least two base stations that will be set up for the event. Possibility of an overnight camp-out. Sat 25 to Sun 26 Oct - SES Joint Exercise somewhere in the Townsville Region. Operators so far - VK4ZZ, VK4ZM, VK4MDX, VK4HSV, VK4ME, VK4FMAR, many more are needed ! (VK4ZZ) WICEN(SA) have received a request from the South Australian Endurance Riders Association who would like radio coverage assistance at Kuitpo Forest on the Sunday of 19 October. The ride will be based near the Kuitpo airstrip. If you can assist, then please contact Andrew VK5FMAC 0403 791488. (Andrew Macmichael Secretary, WICEN SA) SOCIAL SCENE 2014 Oct 11 VK4 REDFEST Oct 17-19 WW JOTA Oct 23 VK5 Adelaide RAOTC Luncheon Marion Hotel, Mitchell Park. Oct 25 VK4 HAMFEST on the Gold Coast. ( hamfest@gcars.com.au ) Nov 2 VK5 HamFest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Nov 9 VK3 Yarra Valley AR Group Hamfest 10am Gary Cooper Pavilion. Nov 9 vk3 VHF / UHF and Microwave experimenters 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 T July 11-12 VK3 GippsTech 2015 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. . -------------