WIANEWS - DECEMBER 7 - 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 DECEMBER 7 2014. HEADING TOWARDS OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA submits comments on the Government’s Potential Reform Directions paper, story by WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH 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 and don't JUST send url's links but take the time to pen YOUR contibution. 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. WIA submits comments on the Government’s Potential Reform Directions paper This is WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH On 11 November last, the Minister for Communications, the Honorable Malcolm Turnbull MP, announced the release of the Spectrum Review – Potential Reform Directions paper for public comment. The deadline for submissions was 2 December. Despite the short timeframe, the WIA compiled a submission of more than 3000 words, addressing seven of the 11 proposals put forward in the Directions paper. These proposals were judged to be of most interest to, and likely to have particular impact on, the Australian radio amateur community. Of particular interest was the proposal to establish a single licensing framework – known around the industry as “parameter-based” licensing. Naturally, the WIA welcomes this proposal having first advocated it 20 years ago. The WIA’s submission advocates that “Having all the conditions, or parameters, pertaining to an Amateur licence in one document would greatly improve transparency, certainty and simplicity in licensing matters for the radio amateur community”. The Directions paper highlighted the issue of reviewing licence tenure and renewal. The WIA argued for security of tenure for amateur licenses, highlighting that many amateurs hold a licence for considerable periods and the Institute would be concerned if this custom were at all affected. In addition, the submission said that a significant administrative efficiency could be achieved – and a lowering of costs – through a minimum 5-year licence term for radio amateurs, compared with retaining the 1-year minimum term now prevailing, requiring annual renewal. That said, the WIA put it that there’s also a role for short-term – less than 12 months – amateur licensing to meet a variety of possible needs, ranging from special events, to emergency incidents, or for educational or particular experimental purposes. Amateurs visiting from overseas, and having appropriate reciprocal or equivalent qualifications, can operate for short periods in Australia, but this is through a Class licence, which would not carry over under the proposed single licensing framework. Another issue of importance raised in the Directions paper is greater user involvement in spectrum management, whereby the ACMA could delegate functions to third parties. The WIA amateur examination service is a prime example of such user involvement, and we’ve been doing it for 10 years. The WIA submission promotes the implementation of an online register of licences, one that is much more extensive and sophisticated than that which the ACMA has maintained for some 20 years. Such a system would be essential to achieve what the Government proposes regarding greater user involvement in spectrum management. The Directions paper raised the spectre of licence fees and payment schedules. The WIA submitted that it is “. . . hoped that introducing administrative efficiencies in relation to licensing, particularly in relation to tenure, would lead to a reduction in fees and taxes attached to amateur licences from what now prevails. Don’t hold your breath. The WIA submission also spends some time supporting extended enforcement measures for the ACMA and developing better regulation of the supply of electrical, electronic and radiocommunications devices. The relentless raising of the radio noise floor is an issue that needs to be tackled. The noise floor affects all spectrum users to one extent or another. Implementing effective, enforceable regulation, coupled with improved equipment standards, will go a long way towards mitigating or reversing this trend. The foregoing covered just a few highlights from the WIA’s submission to the latest stage of the Government Spectrum Review. . You can download the submission by following the links on the WIA website home page under “Latest News From the WIA”, or under Hot Issues. The responses to the latest consultation paper are being reviewed by the Department of Communications and the ACMA. They will report to the Minister early next year This is WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for VK1WIA News. Analogue TV closed. Analogue television in Australia has now totally ceased as of the 20th of November, when the Telstra Tower on Canberra's Black Mountain switched its signals to digital TV and 4G. WHY-FLY NBN Co plans to make its satellites available to Qantas and Virgin Australia to offer in-flight internet access for passengers. The company was in discussions with the airlines to share use of satellites bought to deliver broadband to remote and rural Australia. They will be operated by Optus under a five-year agreement and are due in orbit in 2015. And an aside, in-flight Wi-Fi is notoriously expensive. OnAir, a Geneva-based company that provides mobile phone and Wi-Fi services for airlines and cruise ships, recently presented a bill of more than $1300 to a Singapore Airlines passenger! The full story on:- smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/nbn-satellites-to-allow-for-inflight-wifi-on-qantas-and-virgin-20141127-11vvse.html MEN ARE FROM ANDROID, WOMEN ARE FROM iOS The YL's of Australia will surely be pleased to discover that they are the more tech-savvy online shoppers, having ‘adopted to mobile devices faster than men’, according to Kogan. It is probably because men are traditionally slower to change, although Kogan doesn’t make any ‘comment’ in this regard. 47% of men use Android while 50% use iOS. With women, 33% use Android while a massive 64% use iOS. http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/home-it/66305-men-are-from-android-women-are-from-ios-windows-phone-users-are-from-pluto HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA. VK2 web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm HF RADIO PROPAGATION COURSE The annual HF Radio Propagation Course being conducted in Sydney is scheduled for next Thursday the 11 th December. Registration and / or details by 9 th December to Lianne Grant on email training@ips.gov.au These courses are conducted in other Capital cities throughout the year, keep an eye on ips.gov.au Feb 22nd, 2015 (a Sunday) is the WYONG FIELD DAY put on by the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club in VK2. Flea market opens from 6.30am. Traders and exhibitions 9.00am. Lectures from 10.00am. And a bus operates from the Wyong Rail station. (www.fieldday.org.au via wia events calendar) VK3 web service:- http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/ Victorian D-Star Users Group & The Macedon Ranges ARC D-Star Educational Day. 21st March 2015, 9:00am till 4:30pm Vic D-Star invites all amateurs to come and learn hands on about D-Star. What is D-Star, how it works and what you can expect with Demo's Why D-Star has grown to the biggest thing since SSB & FM Why experimentation and SDR has taken D-Star to an unprecedented level Bring your gear for programming & setup. Get assistance with Registration at the Woodend RSL Anslow St 9:00am $6 entry BBQ available at lunch Call in VK3RMM B or VK3RMM 2m 147.250 In place of the regular NERG meeting the traditional NERG end of year BBQ will be held at Greg VK3VT’s place on Thursday night, 11th December. Put this date in your calendar now - Greg always holds a great BBQ that shouldn't be missed! (NERG news) VK4 - QNEWS Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to qnews@wia.org.au send audio to http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/ get local audio news www.wiaq.org.au/ftp/vk4_qnews_64.mp3 get local news emailed qnews-vk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com AM - CW on ANZAC DAY An Aussie wide event organised by the VK4 Tablelands Radio Group. This is a call to swap modes! Change to the old radio modes as our defence forces used during world war 1 and 2, Korea, Malaya and early Vietnam. It also serves as an Amateur Radio salute to those who served. This event is a way that we, as radio amateurs, can recognise those who served and experience the difficulties of those modes. It is simply a case of changing to the old modes for nets on Anzac Day 2015, 100 years on. Mike Patterson VK4MIK says "The RSL likes the idea of this event." ( vk4mike@yahoo.com.au via the WIA events calendar ) Whilst in the north of VK4, news from the Party Front. It's the time of year that Radio Clubs in the North are having parties. Tablelands Radio and Electronics Club Inc. Saturday 6th December at Tolga Hotel. The Townsville Amateur Radio Club Sunday 14th at the VK4FNQT DX Hub Mount Louisa from 2-30pm. Maybe the biggest, it's over 2 days this weekend is the Mackay and District Amateur Radio Association rocking at at Kinchant Holiday Park. (TheTARCinc) What use is an F-call? I recently talked about making contact with a station on HF. Getting a feel for the other station is very important because it will make you understand when the other person is listening and when they're not. It will let you know to what kind of station they're responding to, and when they do respond, how they respond. I recently made a contact with T33A. I used 5 Watts on a rotatable dipole, 15m. I listened to the station for a good 10 minutes before I made my first call. That gave me lots of information about the contact long before I opened my mouth. It was one of the last days they were operating and it was bedlam on the frequency, lots of stations wanting to make this contact. The station told me that they were listening 10 up, so I configured my radio to deal with that. Then I worked out what the rhythm of the operator was, got a feel for how they replied and when I was ready, I called my callsign. I was floored that they came back with "the VK6 QRP station" on my first call. It took two goes to get my callsign across, but the contact was made there and then. Making such a contact is as much about the ability of the remote station to pick you out, as it is about improving your chances of success. It's about picking your moment, getting it just right, so that when you call, it all happens in the blink of an eye. Picking your moment is also about understanding that some people just don't want to talk to you. Two people who are talking to each other might do that every day and are really not interested in talking to you. Picking the group or the 'net where to call-in is crucial to your success on HF. Look at the 7130 DX net. It runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:30 UTC. Its aim is to facilitate making DX contacts between amateurs. When you tune to 7.130, get out a piece of paper and write down all the stations you hear, write down what signal strength they are and what the operators name is. The net hosts will call for new stations for the 'net on a regular basis. They'll acknowledge you and continue seeking other stations. Once they have a bunch, they'll ask which stations want to make a call. Hold off for a couple of rounds and listen. Stations will announce their callsign and the host will take a list. Each station is called in turn and invited to make a QSO or two with another station. If it's busy, they might do one QSO per station. Once they're done, the next station gets a chance and so on. It's a fantastic way to meet other DX-stations and make your first overseas call. Making contacts on HF is hard work, fun and amazingly rewarding. Have a go! 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. The ARRL reports that the latest United States Department of Homeland Security's 2014 National Emergency Communications Plan or NECP, formally incorporates Amateur Radio. This, in its blend of media outlets that could support and sustain communications in a disaster or emergency situation. According to the new plan, amateur radio operators can be important conduits for relaying information to response agencies and personnel when other forms of communications have failed or have been severely disrupted. A Dutch company has a radio-based detection system that can alert drivers if a police officer or other emergency services official is using a two-way radio nearby. At least it can in Europe. According to a United Kingdom's Sunday Times article the unit called Blu Eye monitors frequencies, but doesn't allow the user to listen in to the actual transmissions, but can detect a radio in operation up to one kilometre away. Even if a message isn't being sent, the enforces TETRA radios transmit pulses out to the network every four seconds that the Blu Eye unit can also receive. A dashboard-mounted monitor uses lights and sounds to alert the driver to the proximity of the source, similar to a radar detector. Needless to say the device is causing quite a stir over in Europe! tinyurl.com/europe-blu-eye Travelling to the worst affected areas of Typhoon Haiyan that hit in November last year, Pope Francis plans to inspect progress and talk to local people about the disaster. On November 8, 2013, the super typhoon killed at least 6,300 people in the Philippines, destroyed crops and left many homeless. The Philippines Amateur Radio Association (PARA) is preparing for the visit on January the 15th to the 19th that will include the City of Tacloban, described as being the worst hit area. PARA and its HERO (Ham Emergency Radio Operations) Network provided emergency communications for many weeks as a result of the typhoon. The HERO network was able to support government and aid organisations across 36 affected provinces. Now PARA, November 30 celebrated its 82nd year with many events in Manila, is preparing for the upcoming papal tour. (Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee) South African Radio League celebrates 90 years From 1 January 2015, the special call sign ZS90SARL will be celebrating the 90th anniversary of the South African Radio League. From January until the culminations of the celebration at the annual Convention in Bloemfontein in April, Amateur Radio Today will transmit a weekly highlights of their amazing events of the past 90 years. Special QSL card are being designed and soon be available. Hello Sailor! Private messages sent between staff on two Swedish navy boats who are alleged to been having an affair have been published in Russia, after a group of radio enthusiast intercepted the signal used to transmit the texts. The Swedish military has admitted naval staff working on HMS Vinga and HMS Ulvön abused the radio system to send private messages and announced that it is holding a meeting to discuss the "inappropriate behaviour" with the ship's crews. The messages were sent during an exercise in the Baltic Sea earlier last month. In a tribute to NASA's first successful mission to Mars 50 years ago, the space funding corporation Uwingu sent nearly 90,000 personal messages by radio into space. As part of the "Beam Me to Mars" project, participants were charged $4.95 to send just their names and $99 for an image and long message. The entire set of messages were repeated as a tribute to Mariner 4. Images sent from that pioneering space vehicle were sent twice, to correct for missing or corrupted data. The old Mariner 4 mission was successfully launched on Nov 28, 1964, it flew past Mars July 15, 1965, sending back the first images ever taken beyond the Earth-Moon system. In what is a first for the radio industry, Alpha Media in Portland has launched a partnership with a local drone company. The deal with Aerial Technology International will include the use of drones for breaking news coverage in the Pacific Northwest for FM NEWS 101 KXL. VP of Programming said, "KXL continues to innovate by launching the world's first radio news drone! Check out the drones aerialtechnology.com ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE DMR EXPERIMENTS TAKING PLACE DOWN-UNDER Hams down under are doing some interesting experimentation using the Digital Mobile Radio or DMR voice mode. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, has the details: -- On September 7th at 12:45pm local time here in New Zealand, Steve Jepson, ZL2KG, who was situated at the Stratford Plateau car park on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki worked John Yaldwyn, ZL4JY at his home in Waikanae over a distance of over 191.7 km. This, using the nation’s 70 Centimetre Digital Mobile Radio simplex frequency on 432.7625 MHz. A Connect Systems CS700 handheld connected to a dual-band mobile antenna was used at Mt. Taranaki and a Motorola MOTOTRBO XPR 5550 mobile tied to an 8-element Yagi was used in Waikanae for contact with perfect signals in both direction To test the usable range for DMR relay operation, ZL1KG also tried working through the ZL2DMR repeater, which is located on Colonial Knob at a distance of 213 km from his location on Mt. Taranaki. What was found was that ZL2KG could receive without any problem, however he could not transmit through the machine. While the repeater was triggered, however a voice QSO could not be made through it. By moving closer to the repeater to the top of Waitotara Hill, which is located 149 km from the ZL2DMR repeater, voice contact was possible and a two-way QSO made. For the Amateur Radio Newsline. I'm Jim Meachen. ZL2BHF, in Nelson, New Zealand. -- While not trying to set a record the distances of these contacts is quite impressive. It also shows the ongoing interest in DMR by the experimenters within the ham radio community. More information on DMR is at VA3XPR.net REAL-TIME BAND CONDITIONS WEBSITE bandconditions.com is a newly created website that supplies real time band condition information to operators wanting to get this up to the minute information. The data provided is based on what the developers call a new Ionospheric Sounding method called "H F Ionospheric Interferometry" which operates very similarly to the PolSAR system used by NASA. Reports are generated and uploaded to the web server every 30 seconds. Header information includes a Date, Time in GMT and a report number in sequential order. A web browser refresh command is also sent so the user does not have to hit the refresh button for the latest report. The web browser does it automatically for them. The display shows the Meter Band in red and the Band Quality Index as blue coloured number at the bottom of the band scale. To sample it for yourself go to bandconditions.com and take a look. ============================================================================= WEIRD AND WONDERFUL Physicist's brain acts like ‘radio transmitter,’ helps unlock car Physicist Roger Bowley shows in a YouTube video that holding a key remote up to his head can unlock his car from farther away than the key on its own. He says the interaction between the key's electromagnetic waves and the brain's water extends the key's range. An unusual trick but it could help you find your car more easily in that parking station. Just use your brainpower and hold the key remote up to your head. Water can extend the range of electromagnetic waves — and your brain is full of water. The water in your head carries an electromagnetic wave that acts on the same frequency as the remote's wave. The waves then add together and extend the range of your car keys. No doubt a jug of water can further boost the remote's range. So you 'don't believe it?' "The only way of finding out if something is true is to do the experiment." nydailynews.com/life-style/brain-radio-transmitter-helps-unlock-cars-physicist-article-1.2020983 OPERATIONAL NEWS - SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club invite all Radio Amateurs to join them on their weekly 80 metre HF Net. A variety of topics are discussed, such as HF equipment, antennas, electronics, computers, SOTA, contesting, radio astronomy, operating bicycle mobile, and much more. Networking with fellow Radio Amateurs is a great way to learn and share knowledge, and what better way to do it than via our favourite hobby Amateur Radio! Perhaps you would like to share and promote your club's activities, or tell others about that exciting project you're working on! BAREC members look forward to hearing about your interests and activities, Thursday evenings, 8 pm AEST on 3.655 MHz. ( VK3GRK@wia.org.au ) 7 P 8 NH G 3 RWF is heading back to Southern Africa for a 5 week holiday. He will begin operation in Lesotho as 7 P 8 NH between December 11th through the 14th. Listen for him on the higher bands on CW only. QSL via G 3 RWF. VIETNAM BY KM 0 O TO DECEMBER 24 3 W 3 O from Vietnam started November 25th and runs until December 24th. His main activity was the CQ World Wide DX CW Contest but expect him to be on 160 and 80 meters until December 24. QSL via the bureau PD 17 MH The 19th to 26 December A special call sign in memory of flight MH17. The loss of 298 lives, when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed on July the 17th in eastern Ukraine, will be remembered this month by Memorial Amateur Radio Station:- PD 17 MH Inquiries continue into this Malaysian airliner crash with the loss of its passengers and crew from 12 nations. PD17MH from the Netherlands, will be on-air from December the 19th to the 26th, on 14.200 MHz, 7.080 MHz and 28.400 MHz. The Memorial Amateur Radio Station has a special QSL card. More details on the event including a silence period to remember those who lost their lives, can be read on the website qrz.com www.qrz.com/db/pd17mh (PDØMV) PA0VDV/PJ2 PA0VDV will be on the air from stroke PJ2 from Curacao until December 26. Activity will be on 80 through 10 meters using only CW only. QSL to PA0VDV via the bureau. IY 1 IEY On the air till December 31st to commemorate the experiments conducted by Guglielmo Marconi from his yacht Elettra between 1919 and 1936. Operations will be on all of the High Frequency bands including 30, 17 and 12 meters. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ARDF WIA ARDF COORDINATOR VK3WWW Jack vk3www@wia.org.au http://users.mackay.net.au/~ron/ http://www.homingin.com http://www.ardf.org.au David Latour VE4DLA, President of the Winnipeg AR Club, wrote us to say "I've had a communiqué from friends inside NORAD that once more they are planning to track Santa's sleigh ride live from the radar ops room in its secret bunker." Find the feed at www.noradsanta.org or on Facebook at /noradsanta. Merry Christmas! 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 News via Morse Code Internet Streaming Radio Station joseph cotton W3TTT has announced a new radio station that gives you the days news in CW. You can type this URL into your browser: http://w3ttt.listen2myradio.com The purpose of the site is for Morse training, you're copying Morse code at 12 words per minute. If you like Morse Code, you will like W3TTT's internet radio station stream. (Joe Cotton, W3TTT via eHam.com) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- DIGITAL BROADBAND HAMNET RELEASES NEW SOFTWARE Broadband-Hamnet has announced a new firmware release titled 3 dot zero dot zero. This latest version includes the Ubiquiti M9-series airMAX devices, giving Hams use of the 900 MHz band for mesh networking. This latest release builds on a series of advancements that build on the Ubiquiti firmware released for the 2.4GHz and 5.8 GHz Ham bands earlier this year. More is on the web at broadband-hamnet.org WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER NASA ANNOUNCES $5 MILLION CUBESAT QUEST CHALLENGE NASA has announced a mini-satellite or Cube Sat design contest that will see participants competing for $5 million in prize money and a chance to have their winning satellite flown to the moon by the space agency. Called the Cube Quest Challenge, the objective of the competition is to design, build and deliver to NASA a flight- qualified small satellite, or CubeSat capable of advanced research in the vicinity of our moon and beyond. Full information about the completion including entry requirements are at tinyurl.com/nasa-cubesat-challenge W7O Wraps Up 10 Day AO-7 Commemoration The W7O activity wrapped up on Monday afternoon November 24. Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK/VA7EWK thanks the 24 operators who put W7O on the air from locations all over the continental USA, on both HF and the satellites. These operators logged almost 2500 QSOs as W7O on several HF bands, all of our current amateur satellites supporting voice and CW (AO-7, AO-73, FO-29, SO-50), and even one QSO using the ISS packet/APRS digipeater. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - VHF AND ABOVE (The plumbers delight) Get ready to BOUNCE Geminid meteor shower gets an early start and a great opportunity to do some meter bouncing. Earth is entering a stream of debris from "'rock comet' 3200 Phaethon," source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. The shower is not expected to peak until Dec 14 but NASA meteor cameras are detecting Geminid fireballs two weeks early. Visit http://spaceweather.com for images and updates. SOCIAL SCENE 2015 Feb 22 VK2 Central Coast Amateur Radio Club Wyong Field Day. March 21 VK3 Dstar Users Group 9am Woodend RSL Anslow St. vk3tq@bigpond.com March 29 VK3 EMDRC Hamfest May 9 VK4 BARCFEST Brisbane June 6-7 VK2 Queens Birthday 40th annual Oxley Region Field Day July 1 VK4 Caboolture Hamfest July 11-12 VK3 GippsTech 2015 August 9 VK2 SARC-FEST Lismore Sept 12 VK4 SUNFEST Woombye Oct 25 VK4 Gold Coast Hamfest Broadbeach ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don’t forget to turn your Gun Safes to Plus One Day only Christmas Eve – Wednesday 24th December 2014 or there will not be any hunting Boxing Day! ============================================================================= WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide. 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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. . -------------