July 19 - VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING JULY 19 2015. IN OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA looks at draft 2-metre and 70-centimetre band plans WIA annual general meeting May the 27th to 29th on Norfolk Island WIA comments on new LCD THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA 2015 AND FOR WEEK OF JULY 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Elettra Marconi visits Australia Italian inventor, electrical engineer, long-distance radio transmission pioneer and entrepreneur, Guglielmo Marconi, illuminated the Sydney Town Hall from the other side of the world. For that feat in 1930 he was described as a hero. Marconi had earlier involvements with Australia - these included the first direct wireless signal from England to Australia in 1918. His daughter, Princess Elettra Marconi, will be in Sydney on Monday. The event marks her 85th birthday, and the day her father died in 1937. An aim of her visit includes the dedication of the Marconi Radio Rover that honours the work of her father. (Oh this is not a typo Elettra NOT Electra is correct..Ed.) (Jim Linton VK3PC) ANZAC 100 To commemorate ANZAC 100 a series of articles appear in Amateur Radio magazine. Lloyd Butler VK5BR has written on one of our pioneers, and this is a summary of that article. Thomas Robbins VK5DK/VK5AQ was born in Unley, an Adelaide suburb. In 1933 he was dux at the Adelaide Technical School. His studies included engineering subjects, an obvious career influence that began as an assistant draftsman at the Adelaide Electric Supply Company, while he studied further to obtain the Engineering Degree. Tom was also fascinated by Amateur Radio. At the age of 17 was VK5DK. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in about 1942 as an Engineer Sub-Lieutenant, and after further naval training was posted to HMAS Perth. Following a number of actions the ship met its match to be torpedoed in the Java Sea in February 1942. He was a prisoner of war at the Zentsuji camp in Japan for three years until the war ended in September 1945. Tom worked in poor conditions among others mainly those captured in the Guam and Wake Island conflicts. After the war at Port Torrens Port Adelaide he was demobilised in 1946, to return as an Engineer to the Adelaide Electric Supply Company. Then he moved to the generation of electricity of coal at Leigh Creek. He also resumed Amateur Radio as VK5AQ including earth-moon-earth work, and trained many new radio amateurs including his son Peter VK5NAQ. On his return to Tokyo years later, Tom bought a locally made hand-held and struggled with the instructions trying to make it work. He was be-friended by a young Japanese radio amateur. The pair kept in contact during the years. Tom Robbins later developed lung cancer and died in 1987. He was aged 67. A contributor of the engineering development in South Australia, displayed a fine war effort, and helped many prospective radio amateurs. ANZAC 100 remembers our history in battle The Kokoda Track campaign is remembered for how our diggers fought the enemy in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Through VK100ANZAC on Monday July 27, Vince Henderson VK7VH of Hobart will commemorate the battle that claimed the lives of 625 Australians and wounded over 1,000 people. The campaign defended Port Moresby, on our northern doorstep, and a proposed launching place for enemy attacks on Australia. VK100ANZAC will commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Kokoda Track Battle. Listen on 21.250MHz, 14.250MHz, 7.095MHz and 3.585MHz +/- QRM. In addition, VK100ANZAC will play short Kokoda Track veterans’ interviews - in their own words - some are very moving accounts. These extracts will be on 40-metres between 3.30pm and 4pm, and 80-metres from 7.30pm and 8pm, local VK7 time. Meantime, the Eastern and Mountain District Radio Club will use VI3ANZAC to also commemorate the Kokoda Track Battle, from tomorrow Monday July 20, for a week. The EMDRC will be portable at the Kokoda Memorial Track in the Dandenong Ranges National Park, and then the activity moves to its club rooms On Friday July 24, VK100ANZAC in a 3-day event called ‘Lest We Forget’ by John McRae VK5PO, will be on RTTY, looking to make many worldwide contacts in that mode. Full details on them and other ANZAC 100 events can be found at the WIA website. (Jim Linton VK3PC) WIA BOARD TALK President Phil Wait VK2ASD vk2asd@wia.org.au V President Fred Swainston VK3DAC vk3dac@wia.org.au Secretary David Williams VK3RU vk3ru@wia.org.au Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ vk3pz@wia.org.au The wide consultation on the draft 2-metre and 70-centimetre band plans attracted some very useful comments when it closed last Wednesday. Thank you to those who read the drafts, and made comments on them. All recommendations are now being carefully considered. The WIA board, which meets on Tuesday, intends to do a final review and approve the new band plans Earlier this year all other band plans were reviewed. The final band plans will be put on the WIA website and published in the 2016 Australian Callbook. The program and booking form for the WIA annual general meeting and open forum, May the 27th to the 29th on Norfolk Island, is now available on the WIA website. The WIA has been able to negotiate some good prices for flights from Sydney and Brisbane, and a range of accommodation, in this tourist destination that has many interesting attractions and duty free shopping. Among the weekend program will be the use of both the VK100ANZAC and VI9ANZAC call signs, visits to SOTA sites, and a lot more. Further information on the new band plans and the 2006 Norfolk Island WIA AGM, is to be on next week’s broadcast. This is WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH The Amateur Licence Conditions Determination has been re-made – long live the new LCD ! Well – hopefully – not too long. This “new” LCD replaces the previous LCD, which was to expire on the first of October this year, and enables amateur radio in Australia to continue uninterrupted. The ACMA’s intention was to 'tidy up' the expiring LCD, so no significant changes have been made. In the tidying-up process, we have gained a few small concessions, lost a few things we already knew were going, and had some things clarified. I’ll get the bad news out of the way first. The loss of 420-430 MHz in the former 70 centimetre band is confirmed, and the foreshadowed geographic restrictions on segments of the 3.4 GHz band are included. Restriction of the use of 472 kHz to avoid interference with a non-directional beacon on Timor extends well south into VK8, affecting Alice Springs, unfortunately. We’ve known about those issues for some time, now. The good news is that the restrictions on 50 to 52 MHz for eastern states operators have been lifted, albeit amateurs remain a secondary service. And – geographic restrictions on the use of 472 kHz near Exmouth in Western Australia have been lifted. The new LCD clarifies the wording in a number of places. More in-depth analysis will be published on the WIA website in due course. All licensees are encouraged to read and familiarize themselves with the new LCD. Prospective amateurs are made aware of the LCD and asked questions about it by WIA assessors at the time of the practical assessment. This is WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for VK1WIA News. EDUCATION YOUTH AND ADVANCEMENT OF AMATEUR RADIO www.hamcollege.com.au www.enjoyhamradio.com Listening in VK3 and want to become a radio amateur, or know someone who does? The next Foundation Licence training and assessments by Amateur Radio Victoria are on August 22-24, at 40G Victory Boulevard, Ashburton. To obtain more information or enrol please contact Barry Robinson VK3PV foundation@amateurradio.com.au or 0428 516 00l. DISCUSSION POINT What use is an F-call? In a previous discussion I talked about decibels. The take home from that was that a decibel represents a ratio between two things. The gain of an antenna over the gain of a standard reference antenna, or the power loss between the start of a coax cable and it's end. I also mentioned that there are several other things with dB in them. Today I'd like to introduce the dBm, or Decibel milliwatt. It's a unit used to compare and contrast different levels of output. Unlike the Decibel, which is a ratio, the dBm is an absolute unit. It is referenced to a Watt. In audio and telephony, it's relative to a 600 ohm impedance, but in our RF patch, it's relative to a 50 ohm impedance. So, how do you use it, what does it mean and why is it useful? Let's look at some large and small numbers. If you look at an FM broadcast radio station, it typically uses 100 kilowatt, a 1 with 5 zeros. If you look at the received signal power of a GPS satellite, you might get 0.2 femtowatt, or 0.000 and 12 more 0's followed by a 2. Using those kinds of numbers side-by-side is a hand-full, prone to mistakes, and there are better ways. Instead of using Watts, we could also express the output power of an FM station as 80 dBm, and the GPS satellite signal strength as -127.5 dBm. Those numbers are much easier to work with. Think of it as 80 dB gain over 1 milliwatt. When you're dealing with ratio's, to string them together, to look at say the loss of the output coming out of your radio, through a connector, through the coax, through another connector into an antenna with a certain gain, using decibels, you can simply add the losses and gains up and get a number at the end that represents the total loss or gain of power leaving your radio and making it into your antenna and being emitted as a radio signal. Why is this useful? Let's say a connector has .04 dB loss at 28 MHz 20m of RG58 has a loss of 1.6 dB. A 10m loop antenna has a gain of 2.1 dB over a simple dipole. How would this perform? Simply add and subtract. 2.1 dB antenna gain, less .04 dB connector loss, less 1.6 dB coax loss, less .04 dB connector loss, leaves you with .42 dB gain over connecting a dipole directly to your radio. If you have radio that transmits with 5 Watts, it puts out 37 dBm. If you connect it to the system we just invented, the total output of your radio is 37 dBm plus .42 dB gain, or 37.42 dBm. The effective radiated output of your radio is now 5.5 Watts. If you replace the RG58 with RG8, your antenna system changes from .42 dB gain to 1.95 dB gain, just by removing the 1.6 dB loss from the RG58 and replacing it with 0.7 dB loss from the RG8. The radio, again at 5 Watts, would effectively radiate 37dBm plus 1.95 dB gain, making 38.95 dBm, or 7.9 Watt ERP. Again, doing maths with loss and gain expressed in dB's and dBm's are simple addition and subtraction. If you do this for a 100 Watt or 50 dBm radio, the RG58 based antenna would be 50.42 dBm or 110 Watt vs, 51.95 dBm or 157 Watts ERP. Remember, all we're doing is adding and subtracting dB losses and gain to our transmitter output. If that blows your mind, you could now simply add the gains and losses between your radio, the coax, the antenna, the free-air path loss, the receiving antenna, their coax and their radio and actually calculate what an S5 report might mean when you get it for a DX contact. Or you could calculate how much antenna gain you needed for a QRP moon bounce. That's why it's useful. dB and dBm, they're your friends. I'm Onno VK6FLAB SILENT KEY http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/about/ Silent Keys are best sent to AR Magazine and your local state or club news rather than this WIA National News Service. INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA. CAMSAT Launch Postponement A launch postponement has been announced for Beijing’s new CZ-6 rocket which is planned to carry a constellation of amateur radio satellites. Soon to be launched six CAMSAT satellites CAS-3A to F have now been named as XW-2 (Hope-2) amateur satellite system, and correspond to the XW-2A to F. All the satellites have completed environmental testing, currently being burn-in tests, everything is underway. The satellites will be moved to the launch centre mid-August and launch date now is early September. Burundi joins IARU Burundi has joined the International Amateur Radio Union, IARU, after a recent vote. Their national society, ABART, was approved following a 67 vote acceptance. European Common Allocation Table The annual update of the European Common Allocation Table includes an upgrade of the status of their 70 MHz amateur radio band The 70 MHz band has been upgraded from a mere information note to something a bit more substantial (for other European countries). Previously there was an informational only note which read: Now, after a lot of hard work by David Court, EI3IO in IARU Region 1 and supported by RSGB and other member societies, the revised EU9 reads: “CEPT administrations may authorise all or parts of the band 69.9-70.5 MHz to the amateur service on a secondary basis.” Please note 69.9 MHz is a special allocation for Germany. Download the European Common Allocation Table at http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/ERCREP025.PDF And to celebrate the band as a secondary amateur allocation in the European Common Allocation Frequency Table and Ireland’s significant involvement in the process, IRTS (Irish Radio Transmitters Society) is pleased to launch two new 4m awards. The purpose of the awards is to recognise and promote DX achievements by amateur radio operators interested in the range 69 – 74 MHz In-band and Cross-band awards are available. Full details are available on IRTS website As a special treat for space buffs, on Saturday July 18 UTC the ISS Cosmonauts will take time out to conduct an ARISS contact with students attending the Moon Day/Frontiers of Flight Museum event in Dallas Texas. This Russian Cosmonaut-USA Student contact is planned to start around 16:55 UTC through the W6SRJ ground station located in Santa Rosa California. ARISS will use the 145.80 MHz voice frequency downlink (same as the SSTV downlink) for the Moon Day contact. The Radio Society of Botswana and the South African Radio League have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. RSB President, Leon, A25SL, and League President, Fritz, ZS6SF, signed the MoU, with the agreement of Mrs Cynthia Phase, CEO of Botswana's Bureau of Communication Regulation Authority. The MoU allows the RSB to register as an examination centre and it enables Botswana citizens to study and write the South African RAE in Botswana. ============================================================================= ARNEWSLINE I am happy to announce that Amateur Radio Newsline is back and it feels good!! We're hoping to come in around 18 minutes each week in 2 segments instead of nearly 30 minutes in 3 segments. We're a little shorter than that this week at around12 minutes, Bill, Skeeter and Don talked about making ARNewsLine a bit shorter and more modern sounding in a conversation before Bill passed, Bill was in agreement. The entire newsline team would like to remind you that there are many ways to listen and/or read the weekly news reports, you can go straight to the ducks mouth and visit www.arnewsline.org where you can get the Text, RSS, iTunes and the MP3 version of the weekly newscasts. Another way is to become a member of the Facebook Group at www.facebook.com/groups/ARNewsline/ Not only do you get the weekly newscasts but you get up to date, current, breaking news along with many other amateur radio news bulletins that may be time sensitive. The ARNewsLine Facebook page is "all the news all the time". Member posts are moderated for a specific criteria. Another great way is to subscribe to the weekly ARNewsLine Yahoo Groups E-Mail list at arnewsline-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The weekly ARNewsLine reports will be sent to your email or you can read it on the Yahoo Groups page. The email group posting is closed for members, the email list is for "the reports, only the reports and nothing but the reports". Don't forget the "Old Skool Way"!! Do a search within your area to listen to the ARNewsLine reports on your local repeater. There are many, many repeaters out there that play the weekly ARNewsLine audio reports, ask around and/or tune around! From all of the ARNewsLine team, thank you all for your patients thru these difficult times, the ARNewsLine reports are back and that was a "BIG" wish from Bill before we lost him... Spread the word, share this post/email and help keep Bills vision, dreams and memory alive. Who and Where are our WIA broadcast stations? http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/ HI, this is Alan VK4SN, the RD contest manager. This is a quick reminder that the RD is only 4 weeks away. August 15 and 16th will mark 70 years since the end of the war in the south pacific. In this special year of celebration and remembrance it is expected to be one of the best RD's for many years. In this special year I would like to acknowledge a long time participant. Submitting 61 consecutive logs so far, David Scott, VK3DY, has NEVER missed submitting a log since 1954. David never entered with �winning� in mind, rather I think his attitude towards the RD Contest is truly reflective of the spirit and meaning of the contest. Thank you David for your outstanding support. I hope to work most of you during the RD weekend. 73, this is Alan, VK4SN RD contest manager. OPERATIONAL NEWS DATELINE 2015 Trans-Tasman contest 18th July from 0800utc 10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 1 - 2 Remembrance Day Contest August 15 and 16 Oceania DX contest Voice First full weekend in October Oceania DX contest Continuous Wave Second full weekend in October. 2016 Harry Angel 80 mtr sprint (WIA) provisional date Saturday 7th May. 10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 6 - 7 IOTA CONTEST JULY 25-27 The IOTA Contest is based on the RSGB Islands on the Air awards programme which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The IOTA idea was conceived in 1964 by British short wave listener Geoff Watts (SK), who imagined that those of us who live in crowded cities would love to set up a station on a sunny beach among palm trees. This prospect is appealing to Radio Amateurs, even if the island in question might not be further away from the mainland than Coochie Mudlow in Moreton Bay. Geoff realised that there were too many islands in the world to enumerate, so he grouped together islands, particularly when they were small. In the IOTA programme, numbers are allocated to each group using a continental prefix -- for example, Ireland is EU115 and the Galapagos Islands are SA004. This contest brings together those who like to put islands on the air, those who enjoy contesting, as well as those chasing islands for awards. Please join in for a great weekend! The date is always the last full weekend in July (in 2015, 25-26 July), from 1200–1200 UTC. SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE Welsh Youth DXpedition soon The RSGB's Youth Committee will be running a Youth DXpedition, DX- 15, from the Brecon Beacons in Wales from 23rd to 30th July. You can support them by following their progress on Twitter at theRSGByouth, working the Youth DXpedition, or listening for the call sign MC 0 RYC during the IOTA Contest over the weekend of 25th and 26th July. Speaking of island's:- FROM 26 TO 28 JULY, THE HELLENIC RADIO ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA (HARAOA) WILL ACTIVATE SOUTH SOLITARY ISLAND OC-194 AND AS A ‘FIRST TIME’ ACTIVATION IT WILL BE SOUGHT BY MANY DX’ERS AND IOTA CHASERS SOUTH SOLITARY ISLAND IS 18 KILOMETRES NORTH EAST OF COFFS HARBOUR AND THE SPECIAL CALL SIGN VK 2SSI HAS BEEN ASSIGNED. INTERESTINGLY THE ONLY ACCESS TO THE ISLAND IS BY HELICOPTER, WHICH WILL CARRYING 6 OPERATORS AND 2 NATIONAL PARKS OFFICERS. THEYE EXPECT TO HAVE 3 STATIONS ACTIVATED BY LATE SUNDAY 26 JULY AND OPERATE UNTIL TUESDAY 29 JULY AT 1400 HOURS www.vk2ssi.com NOW HARAOA IS LOOKING FOR A STANDBY OPERATOR IN CASE ONE OF THE TEAM CAN’T MAKE IT, IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN AN ADVENTURE COMBINING A HELICOPTER RIDE WITH OCEAN VIEWS AND THE WIND IN YOUR HAIR CONTACT TEAM LEADER, TOMMY VK2IR. president@haraoa.com (AL HIRSCHEL VK2KAM HELLENIC AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA) AWARDS Going portable, or working stations who do? While we shiver in the colder winter months, even up here in Ingham, warmth can be available to some by thinking about spring, and planning for the 5th Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award activity period. This is when many National Parks in Victoria are activated. It will be November 15 to 19. For the first time it involves a free participation certificate. To qualify, operate within a VK3 National Park and make five contacts. How simple is that! A list of planned activations in the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award are now on the Amateur Radio Victoria website Award section. More than one activation of a park is allowed. The KRMNPA 2014 activity period had 34 National Parks. There are 20 so far listed for this November. Among them is the French Island National Park OC-136, where wife and husband team Julie VK3FOWL and Joe VK3YSP will also tackle the Island On The Air or IOTA program. Please read the Award Rules on the Amateur Radio Victoria website, whether going portable or working from home. All inquiries to Tony VK3VTH at vk3vth@amateurradio.com.au (Jim Linton VK3PC) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER The CubeSat "DeorbitSail" built by researchers and radio amateurs at the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford carries a 1200 bps BPSK beacon on 145.975 MHz The satellite was successfully launched on Friday, July 10. DeorbitSail is a 3U CubeSat sized satellite with a deployable sail that will demonstrate rapid deorbiting. (AMSAT-NA) ARISS SSTV Images to Commemorate 40th Anniversary of Apollo-Soyuz 40 years ago, the first joint USA-Soviet mission set the stage for follow-on Russia-USA space collaboration on the Space Shuttle, Mir Space Station and the International Space Station. Apollo-Soyuz was the final mission of the Apollo program and the last USA human spaceflight mission until the first space shuttle mission in 1981. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of this historic international event, the ARISS team has developed a series of 12 Slow Scan Television images that will be sent down for reception by schools, educational organizations and ham radio operators worldwide. The SSTV images are planned to start sometime Saturday morning, July 18 and run through Sunday July 19 on 145.80 MHz and displayed using several different SSTV computer programs that are available on the internet. http://spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ILLW This premier annual fun event began in 1995 when the Ayr Radio Group had the Scottish Northern Lighthouse Weekend. The concept proved so popular that it was renamed and opened up to the world. Always held on the third weekend of August, it has steadily grown to now attract more than 500 lighthouses and lightship from about 50 countries. The main reason for its popularity is that the weekend is a fun event, held under simple guidelines, and in the spirit of international goodwill. With four weeks to go 350 registrations have been received. In 2014 there were 544, making it an average 20 a year increase over the last eight years. In the lead so far is Germany on 64, followed by Australia 58, USA 45 and England 33. Among the newest are Belgium ON4OS at Lange Nelle, Cuba CO9FAA Los Colorados, Malaysia 9M4LHX St Paul's Church, Spain EG1LWC Corrubedo and Switzerland HB9FVR at Romanshorn. If you want to register a marine navigation beacon for August 15-16, then please see the guidelines and online registration on the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend website at www.illw.net (Jim Linton VK3PC) 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 Jamboree On The Air 2015 Did you know that guides and scout leaders plan activities for their groups, 1 to 2 school terms in advance? That is why at The St George Amateur Radio Society, planning is well underway for Jamboree On The Air for 2015 radio station as part of the 50th Boree Regatta. With about 1000 guides and scouts attending, this is easily the largest JOTA station in Australia, and the 20th anniversary of a JOTA station at the Boree Regatta. With such a large attendance, there are plenty of things to organise, including making sure all amateur operators have completed their Working With Children checks. All volunteers participating in scout activities must have a WWC letter and number. WWC applications can be made on line, take about 4 to 6 weeks to process, and are issued free for volunteers. If you or your local radio club are thinking about setting up a JOTA station this year, then now is the time to put those thoughts into action. Never operated at a JOTA station before? Not a problem, your local scouts and guides will understand and appreciate all your time and effort, over the weekend 17th & 18th October. Paul VK2GX, the St George Amateur Radio Society JOTA coordinator suggests you make contact NOW with your local amateur radio club, guide or scout group, or the JOTA scout and guide coordinator in your state. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOUNGSTERS ON THE AIR A Youth Net meets Saturdays at 0100 UTC on IRLP Reflector #2. Young Hams Net 3.590 - 7:30pm Victorian time. http://www.ham-yota.com/ https://twitter.com/hamyota https://www.facebook.com/groups/youngstersontheair Koos Fick, ZR6KF, the South African Radio League Youth Coordinator flew to Rome July 16 to participate in the 5th Youngsters On The Air summer event during this week of July 18-25. YOTA 2015 is organised by the Italian Amateur Radio Association. The event is held every year in a different European Union country under European Union and International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 sponsorship. This is the first time that South Africa participated. Youngsters On The Air (YOTA) SOCIAL SCENE 2015 Jul 25 VK3 ALARA 40th Bday Lunch Novotel Glen Waverley vk3vip@wia.org.au Sep 12 VK4 SUNFEST Woombye Sep 25-27 VK4 CHARC AGM Weekend Camp Fairbairn near Emerald (theTARCinc) Oct 2-5 VK4 Cardwell Gathering, Beachcomber Motel and Tourist Park Oct 25 VK3 Ballarat Amateur Radio Group Hamvention Greyhound Track Oct 25 VK4 Gold Coast HamFest Broadbeach Nov VK3 QRP By the Bay details from VK3YE held 2nd Saturday 2016 Feb 13 VK3 MERC HamFest 10am at Werribee Masonic Centre Feb 28 VK3 EMDRC HamFest Great Ryrie Primary School Heathmont. Ap-May 29- 2 VK4 Clairview Gathering check Mackay ARS website. (theTARCinc) June 11-13 VK5 VK Foxhunting Championship & SERG convention Mt Gambier (VK5HCF) Submitting news items A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug commercial traders "on air", but we at the WIA will put your supporters in this text edition "no worries." 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 contribution. To submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ 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. Who and where are they? http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/ 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... Who listens to radio? A weekly 'tally sheet' is sent to all rebroadcasters and interested listeners, to get your free copy send a blank email to:- wiabroadcasters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au Put the word subscribe in the title or subject field How do I join this National News List? (subscribe for an automatic weekly feed.) Email to vk1wia-news-join@lists.wia.org.au from the email account that you wish the emails to go to. How do I leave this National News List? (unsubscribe your weekly feed) Open mail program which sends mail from the address you want to unsubscribe. Send mail to the list unsubscribe address vk1wia-news-leave@lists.wia.org.au You will be sent a confirmation mail and must follow the instructions given in that mail to complete the unsubscription. Once your unsubscription has been processed, you will probably receive another message confirming your unsubscription from the list, and at that point you should stop receiving messages. National News compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA. . -------------