WIANEWS - NOVEMBER 30 - 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 NOVEMBER 30 2014. HEADING TOWARDS OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA and NZART ANZAC 100 actions THIS STORY AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING NOVEMBER 30 2014. WIA and NZART ANZAC 100 actions The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) plans for the ANZAC century in 2015 have been joined by the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART). Both will have commemorative callsigns and awards. The major commemoration will start on April 25, 2015, which is when Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) troops landed at Gallipoli 100 years ago. The WIA and the NZART are to be heard on air with ANZAC callsigns. Both will have specially designed QSL cards and Award certificates. They will join Telsiz ve Radyo Amat?rleri Cemiyeti (TRAC) of Turkey in the commemorations, with interest also shown in the United Kingdom, Philippines and Malaysia. The WIA invites club registrations for the callsign use in 2015 between ANZAC Day April 25, when the landing occurred at Gallipoli Cove, and December 20, the day ANZAC troops left Gallipoli. The NZART has ZL100ANZAC available for a month to clubs, as well as ZL1, ZL2, ZL3, ZL4 ANZAC callsigns. It invites its branches and interested individuals to register. A special pre-recorded opening 30 minute VK100ANZAC broadcast is to happen for ANZAC Day (April 24, 1300 UTC), with cooperation of the WIA, NZART and TRAC. The WIA hopes to broadcast from a significant place in the Australian capital of Canberra. At each of Australia's three time zones on the day the pre-recorded broadcast will be repeated by the WIA on a rostered basis. There will be plenty of occasions to hear it. The WIA has already listed some club events on its website, including the 75th Anniversary of RAAF Secret Mission, Battle of the Somme, Battle of Kokoda Track, the WIA Remembrance Day, and the Evacuation of Gallipoli. To commemorate ANZAC 100 a series of articles appear in Amateur Radio magazine. Here is a summary of one of them - Amateur Radio Activity During WWII - whish was written by Jim Linton VK3PC. Some three days before the official declaration of WWII on the 3rd of September 1939, an urgent telegram to all Australian radio amateurs ordered Amateur Radio immediately stop. Many radio amateurs subsequently enlisted in the armed services with campaigns in Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Pacific. This included those at the forefront of communications and its development. After the war Amateur Radio resumed with many radio-related stories. One was that Father Maximilian Kolbe SP3RN was arrested in Poland by the Germans, who believed Amateur Radio was somehow involved in espionage. Fr Kolbe volunteered in 1941 to take the place of a condemned man chosen in retribution for an escape of 10 from Auschwitz prison camp. His action resulted in the canonisation by Pope John Paul II on October 10, 1982, and was considered to be the saint of radio amateurs. Research of the WIA Archive also found a letter that in early 1941, as a war measure, an Emergency Communications network began in Central Sydney. The idea was that if the phone system were disabled, a radio system would take over. Other research found an Amateur Radio magazine column in November 1942 containing a little about Civil Defence preparations in Western Australia. However, a newspaper report entitled ADELAIDE HAMS DID GREAT WORK IN WAR, was then followed by a second part headed CIVIL DEFENCE, and it read: When Australia was threatened by invasion, the civil defence network of radio operators was organised. The headquarters station worked on 1775 kilocycles and sub-controls on 3605 kilocycles. Regular exercises and surprise tests proved its efficiency. The Emergency Communications Network was disbanded in late 1945. An editorial in Amateur Radio in April 1946 foreshadowed the establishment of the WIA Emergency Communication. The activity of helping the community in times of disaster had been traced back to the relaying vital messages when a severe tropical cyclone struck north of Cairns Queensland in February 1927. Today, emergency communication still occurs throughout the world in times of disaster. Read the full article, Amateur Radio Activity During WWII - in an edition of Amateur Radio magazine. (Jim Linton VK3PC) HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS OF AUSTRALIA - LISTEN UP! Hallo everyone, this is Clive VK6CSW with the usual reminder that as tomorrow is the first Monday of the month it’s time once again for the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club of Australia’s December bulletin to go to air. This month our feature is about Heathkits – and if you’ve ever built a Heathkit then this story should resonate with you. Everyone, RAOTC members and non-members alike, is most welcome to tune in and join the call backs afterwards. The principal HF broadcasts are on 20 metres on 14.150 MHz. The first at 0100 UTC, is beamed north from Melbourne for eastern states listeners. The second, an hour later at 0200 UTC, is beamed westward for WA, also on 14.150 MHz. Also at 0200 UTC, Chris VK6JI will be transmitting on 40 metres on 7060 kHz LSB mainly for WA country listeners, simultaneously with the extensive NewsWest VHF/UHF repeater coverage. Additionally, throughout the day there are other local HF, VHF and UHF relays, details of which can be found on our website at www.raotc.org.au This is our last bulletin until February next year, so I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported these broadcasts throughout the year, especially the relay and call back operators, and wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. 73 de Clive VK6CSW. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm The December meeting of the Albury Wodonga amateur radio club (AWARC) will be one not to be missed. The club will be having Mr Mark Tell of the Australian Communications and Media Authority along to give a talk on how ACMA deals with complaints and to answer any questions regarding the regulations or other aspects of amateur radio that the ACMA become involved in. The December meeting will be held at the 1st Lavington Scout Hall in Mutsch Street, Lavington at 7 30 pm. All amateurs and short wave listeners in the region are invited to come along and hear what will surely be a most informative evening. More information can be found on our website at www.awarc.org That's Tuesday December 2nd at the 1st Lavington Scout Hall in Mutsch Street, Lavington. This is frank VK2HFS for the Albury Wodonga Amateur Radio Club VK2BWI morse in recess. The Thursday evening operator provided morse session on 3550 KHz is in recess until the 5th of February 2015 - advises the provider - Ross VK2ER. VK3 web service:- http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/ Build your own gear The practice of making accessories, antennas, or whole receivers and transmitters is what we call 'homebrew'. It is very much how wireless experimenters began. The Homebrew Constructors Group continues that tradition. Rob Whitmore VK3MQ will talk this Saturday about "Making Aluminium Enclosures for Homebrew Projects". The speech is at 2pm on Saturday December the 6th in the Amateur Radio Victoria rooms at 40g Victory Boulevard, Ashburton. Email inquiries to homebrew@amateurradio.com.au (Jim Linton VK3PC) Hello, This is John VK3BJR President of the Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. I’m here to remind you that the Rosebud RadioFest is on today, Sunday 30 November at the Eastbourne Primary School at Allambi Avenue, Rosebud. It’s not too late to attend as new and used sales in the main auditorium will run from 9.30 am until 2 pm while technical forums will be held at 10.15 am, 11 am and 11.45 am with the ever popular ACMA update timed to start at 12.45 pm. The event has full catering, there is plenty of off street parking, there are great door prizes to be drawn at 12.15 pm and the entry fee is only $6 with under 12’s free. If you need help to find the venue, talk in will be conducted on VK3RSP 146.675 MHz and VK3RPU 439.850 Mhz. Come and enjoy the Rosebud RadioFest today. This is John VK3BJR. DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? Recently I talked about making contacts on HF. Picking the band, the time of day, the right location on the band and looking for a nice loud station are part of the equation, but there are other considerations to be had. If you consider a station transmitting with 1.5 kilowatt on a 5 element Yagi and you're at home with your radio, you tune around and you find this station to be the loudest on the band, you're likely to try to talk to them. Sometimes this even works. However, many times, in fact, most of the time, this is pretty hard to do for a number of reasons. The first reason that this is hard is because their strength is a combination of lots of power and lots of antenna gain. If you transmit back, the only thing going for you is their antenna gain, but their power will likely distort your perception of how well they'll hear you. If you find a station that tells someone else that they're running high power, then make sure that their signal to you is banging the S-meter against the wall, that is 10 or 20 dB. over 9, before you spend hours trying to get their attention. I should point out that there are plenty of amazing operators who will pick out your tiny signal among the hash and call you back but there are many more who to put it kindly are deaf as a post, who expect HF to sound like a 2m FM repeater and set up their kit to make it so. You're unlikely to ever succeed in making contact with the latter, but you'll be thrilled when you deal with the former. Another aspect making it hard to talk to such a loud station is that everyone else also hears it very loud and will also call in. This will completely drown your signal at their end, so you're unlikely to cut through. There are some amateurs who swear by changing their microphone response to "cut through" or to fiddle with other aspects of their transmission, but I've got to say that this lacks finesse and that's what really is required. Imagine that you're at the other end. Your aim is to make as many contacts as possible with weird and wonderful stations. Living in Australia makes your callsign pretty sought after, so use that to your advantage. When you're on a roll, you don't want to break the rhythm, so, listen for a few overs to see what is going on. Does the station always end their QSO in the same way, or is it different each time? Write down the information that you pick up from the station, where they are, who the operator is, lots of little details will make the contact go smoothly. Make sure that you have their callsign correct, check it again before you call. Also, write down the frequency on which the station is operating. If they spend a little while talking to each station, you can go hunting for another station and come back to check their progress. When you do call, try to speak in the rhythm of the other station. If they're fast, speak fast. If they're slow, speak slow. Figure out when they're likely to key their mike and when they'll release it. Find breaks in the pauses and use those to put your callsign out. Only call once per over, many stations will ignore you if you don't. Make sure that you just say your callsign, not theirs, not while you're getting their attention. There is more on this topic to share, but listen to the other station and get a feel for the person at the other end. 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. IARU urges national society support The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) President Tim Ellam VE6SH says we face challenges ahead and needed is the assistance of member societies to meet the IARU goals. The IARU is working to establish rapport with the new leaders of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), so they fully understand the benefits of the Amateur Radio Service. In the 5MHz Newsletter, Tim VE6SH says all IARU member societies will be asked to seek support from their administration in relation to the proposed new band. He says some temporary access has been already been given, but it will be discussed by the ITU delegates at World Radiocommunication Conference in November 2015 as Agenda Item 1.4. What is proposed is an Amateur Radio Service secondary allocation at 5250 to 5450 kHz. A spectrum sharing study has been carried out, but the new band is not a fait accompli. The 5 MHZ newsletter reports some delegates who may opt for 'No Overall Change' in the spectrum, but suggests the proposal has sufficient flexibility to accommodate them. The newsletter also features stories on Dominica, South African beacon changes, Near Vertical Incidence Skywave, 5 MHz being plotted noisier, and new Software Defined Radio receivers that allow listeners via the Internet. Want a copy of the latest 5 MHz Newsletter? Then it's freely downloadable. The address is in the text edition of this broadcast. http://tinyurl.com/jvjrtn6 Electronic Coins via Ham Radio ? Not content with BitCoin? well enter "The HamRadioCoin Project." This aims to enable amateur radio operators to send and receive HamRadioCoins via radio. In order to send crypto currency protocol data via radio instead of the internet, developers are extending the HamRadioCoin protocol to use SSTV or PSK63 as the carrier. In the Spring of 2015 HamRadioCoin say they will attempt an Earth-Moon-Earth communication over Ham radio which will make HamRadioCoin the first crypto currency in space. Read the full story at cryptocoinsnews.com/hamradiocoin-crypto-via-radio-alternative-blockchain-channel/ Your Name in Morse at Raspberry Jam At the Southend Raspberry Jam event on Nov 22, Essex Ham member Nick 2E0DVX ran a 'Your Name in Morse Code' demo, helping to spread the word about amateur radio. There is an element of crossover between amateur radio and technology like the Raspberry Pi, and this event provided a good opportunity to introduce amateur radio to others interested in technology, communications and electronics. There wasn't a live amateur radio station at the Raspberry Jam, instead amateurs from across Essex concentrated on talking to visitors about the amateur radio hobby along with showing videos and hardware. ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE MALAYSIA INCLUDES HAM RADIO IN FLOOD PLANNING Malaysia is including ham radio in its emergency preparedness for the upcoming monsoon season. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has details: -- Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia will ensure that all communication towers including those used by radio amateurs will be fully functioning even though they are inundated during the flood season. According to the Ministry, several communication towers that were inundated during the flood season last year, especially in the Kemaman area. To prevent this happening again, many had already been upgraded so that they were located on higher ground and would not be submerged by the rising waters. A Ministry spokesperson noted that there are several areas which could not receive normal communication coverage but can be contacted using the amateur radio. The ministry went on to say that it would cooperate with several amateur radio associations under the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to assist in terms of information sharing in any flood-affected areas. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in New Orleans. -- In its statement Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia indicated that amateur radio has the ability to provide communications into and out of areas that no other quick response radio service can. ILLEGAL DEFENDER TAKES ON RUSSIAN MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS An unidentified German amateur station has tried to disturb military transmissions from Russia taking place in the 80 meter band. Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has what's known so far: -- The action happened on 3 dot 733 MHz on October 22nd at 2000 hours UTC. The Russian Frequency Shift or FSK transmission is believed to have come from a transmitting site in Kaliningrad. A screenshot photograph taken by International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring Service observer Wolfgang Hadel, DK2OM, shows a station trying to insert Morse code dashes on the space breaks of the Russian transmission. It also shows the interfering station putting out spurious emissions at least 2 kilohertz wide. According to the Monitoring Service, the same unidentified operator is believed responsible for similar transmissions against Russian based communications in the 40 meter band but this has yet to be proven. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, reporting. OPERATIONAL NEWS - AWARDS ARRL INVITES NOMINATIONS FOR 2014 INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN AWARD The award is conferred upon an amateur or amateurs who demonstrate devotion to human welfare, peace and international understanding through Amateur Radio. The League established the annual prize to recognize Amateur Radio operators who have used ham radio to provide extraordinary service to others in times of crisis or disaster. All nominations and supporting materials for the 2014 ARRL International Humanitarian Award must be submitted in writing in English to ARRL International Humanitarian Award, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 USA. Nomination submissions are due by December 31, 2014. In the event that no nominations are received, the committee itself may determine a recipient or decide to make no award. The winner of the ARRL International Humanitarian Award receives an engraved plaque and a profile in QST and other ARRL venues. (Chuck Skolaut KØBOG Field & Regulatory Correspondent ARRL via nzart infoline) OPERATIONAL NEWS - SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE December 3 International Day of Persons with Disabilities will be celebrated in several countries by special amateur radio call signs The Kuwait Amateur Radio Society 9K2WDD Liberia Radio Amateur Association 6Z2RL Egyptian Radio Amateurs Society for Development SU0ERA. ERASD are planning a workshop with the Egyptian Scouts. The Asocijacija Radioamatera Bosne I Hercegovine E71AVW and they will be active on 14 MHz SSB from 12:00 until 20:00 UTC. Vereniging voor Experimenteel Radio Onderzoek in Nederland PI4CGR It is hoped that many radio amateurs will join this event. Rizkallah Azrak OD5RI IARU Region 1 IPHA Coordinator IARU Region 1 http://iarU-r1.org/ Celebrating the ARRL's centennial year Until 2nd December look for the following stations to be active to celebrate ARRL's centennial year: W1AW/3 will be operated by Karl N8NA, State of Delaware. W1AW/5 will be operated by Scott W5WZ, Louisiana. W1AW/KP4 will be operated by Felipe NP4Z, located Puerto Rico. BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS websdr.org The end of an era - BBC Relay Station site handed back to Seychelles Tuesday November 18 marked the closure of an iconic chapter of Seychelles’ history, signalling the end of an era when information was much more difficult to come by. With much of Africa joining the internet and mobile phone revolution, the times of trying to glean information about happenings in the rest of the world on a crackly AM radio station have now passed by. Over 25 years after its establishment, the site of the BBC’s former Indian Ocean Relay Station, located on the western side of the largest inhabited island in the Seychelles archipelago, was handed back to the government by the country’s British High Commissioner, Lindsay Skoll. The station transmitted BBC World Service programmes since 1988 via shortwave to listeners across East Africa in a range of languages. The handing over of the site also included the station’s buildings and equipment, all of which are still in working order. Detailed article with photos here: seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/1792/The+end+of+an+era+-+BBC+Relay+Station+site+handed+back+to+Seychelles 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 Teenager wins prize with Morse code The Google Science Fair 2014 Voter's Choice Award has been won by 16-year old Arsh Dilbagi of India His winning device called 'Talk' converts short and long breaths of air into electrical signals, that enables people to communicate in Morse code. Arsh, who trialled the cheap device on a hospital patient in New Delhi, now has $10,000 from Google to further develop the product. (vk3pc) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER Happy Birthday FUNcube-1 FUNcube-1, otherwise known as AO73, has celebrated its first birthday, having been launched at 07.10 GMT on 21st Nov 2013. The satellite has been performing very satisfactorily with the battery voltage keeping above 8 volts and is fully charged within about 7 to 10 minutes after re-entering sunlight from eclipse. AMSAT-UK would like to thank all those who download telemetry and forwarding it to the warehouse and who use the transponder. This telemetry data is invaluable, both as an educational resource and to see how the spacecraft systems are performing and surviving. So far almost 400MB of unique data via stations from all around the world has been collected. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR YOUNG TIMERS A Youth Net meets Saturdays at 0100 UTC on IRLP Reflector #2. Young Hams Net 3.590 - 7:30pm Victorian time. Youngsters On The Air, YOTA http://www.ham-yota.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/youngstersontheair During the entire month of December, stations in several countries will be on air seeking contacts using "YOTA" as their call sign suffix. Youth on the Air (YOTA) is growing fast and every week more youngsters are asking to participate By making YOTA popular, we can all help to get youngsters active in amateur radio. YOTA stations will be trying to make many contacts, so take this opportunity to connect young amateurs in their teens and 20s with their peers on the air The South African Radio League has been granted a special call sign, ZS9YOTA, to be used by young amateurs during YOTA month from 1 to 31 December 2014. It will be the first worldwide YOTA event. REWIND a look back at history In was in 1974 that Tropical Cyclone Tracy destroyed Darwin on Christmas Eve. The death toll was 66, but may be higher because of unrecorded people living in Darwin. Back then there were many single-storey flimsy houses. Some 12,500 homes were lost, only 400 survived as habitable, 25 ships sunk, dozens of planes destroyed and all normal communications cut. When news filtered out, under a state of emergency Major General Alan Stretton was put in charge to lead the disaster recovery. The WIA journal, Amateur Radio magazine, in a December 1984 article "Cyclone Tracy 10th Anniversary", interviewed four who were involved. It tells of Slim Jones VK8JT in Darwin making contact with Ken McLachlan VK3AH at Mooroolbark in Melbourne’s east, and their incredible 78 hour on-air stint. As the first relief plane neared Darwin when darkness began to fall, it had clearance to land due to a three-way contact that involved Ken VK3AH, Mal 9M2ML and Slim VK8JT. WICEN later helped the Red Cross and Salvation Army with their traffic. That work detailed in Amateur Radio magazine on June 1985 in an article "The Christmas of '74", by Ted Gabriel VK4YG. Eventually under a new building code Darwin was reconstructed and is now a vibrant city. A series of 40 year anniversary events are being held in Darwin including historic photos, concerts, an upgrade of the Cyclone Tracy exhibition, and an all-faith church service. The ABC also has a filmed documentary to be shown on December the 20th that interviews about 19 people who were involved. (Jim Linton VK3PC) SOCIAL SCENE 2014 Nov 30 VK3 SPARC HamFest at Rosebud ( howardjones155@gmail.com ) 2015 Feb 22 VK2 Central Coast Amateur Radio Club Wyong Field Day. March 29 VK3 EMDRC Hamfest Sunday June Queens Birthday 40th annual Oxley Region Field Day VK2 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. . -------------