April 29 2018 - 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 APRIL 29 2018. IN OUR 23rd YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA Board has concerns in managing communications with you. THIS STORY AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA 2018 AND FOR WEEK OF APRIL 29 First, there was Mills On The Air, then Summits on The Air, Museums, Scouters, even train riders. Now, just when you thought it was safe to come out, comes.. wait for it - WMPLOTA WMPLOTA? Walmart Parking Lots On The Air WMPLOTA is a special event and award scheme for amateur radio satellite operators that encourages the practice of portable operation in the ubiquitous and easily accessible location of Walmart parking lots. Maybe here in VK it will be known as ' Westfield' ? just make sure you pay the parking fee if you intend n long QSO's! WMPLOTA 2018 takes place April 28 and April 29 http://wmplota.org/ (SouthGate) The VK4RDS Dstar repeater sited at Maleny around 60 km north of Brisbane near the Sunshine coast has been converted to MMDVM on VHF repeater TX is 147.7375 MHz and RX is 146.1375 mhz. Details a little further down the log and I'd suggest you read the text edition of WIA National News for Mark VK4KZK's very detailed explanation of the linking. The Darwin Amateur Radio Club held its annual general meeting recently. In his Annual Report the President Brian VK8BL advised that the club would try to increase participation in contests, including John Moyle, International Lighthouse and Lightships as well as participation in some special events. The report noted that NT based clubs are starting well behind southern counterparts, but participation is the key element. At its AGM meeting the president was re-elected but we also saw a couple of new faces that have been elected to the club executive. The committee for the next 12 months will be: - Chair: VK8BL Brian Bates Vice Chair: VK8BN Gary Gibson Secretary: VK8ZI Paula Chappel Treasurer: VK8RW Ray West Public Officer: VK8VWA Phil Brennan Station Manager: VK8RR Richie Chappel, and Committee: VK8AL John Matthews, VK8NTF Tom Fitzgerald, VK8RD Rowan Dollar. In his Annual Report the President encouraged the incoming committee to be active and to promote club activities to members in 2018. The Darwin Amateur Radio Club meets on the first Wednesday of each month. Details on the club web site VK8DA.com The club re-broadcasts the WIA broadcast on Sunday mornings and call backs are taken after the broadcast. There is a new 80 metre net on Tuesday evenings at 1030UTC on 3602Khz contact Phil VK8VWA who hosts the net. There is also a regular club activity meet on Thursday mornings at 10.00am at the club house. Visitors are always welcome. This is Peter VK8ZZ for the Darwin Amateur Radio Club WIA Hello folks, Brian, VK2GCE here. I want to share some concerns the Board has in managing communications with you. You may be: an old-time radio amateur a middle-aged volunteer who want to help the WIA a newly licensed amateur or you’re just interested to learn what amateur radio is all about and possibly want to find out how to become a licensed operator. On the one hand there are many young, potential radio amateurs who use computers and digital media quite fluently for their daily sustenance. US radio amateurs have telephone patch devices available, so that a phone subscriber can chat with a ham who has such a patch, and then join in an on-air conversation, without the benefit of an amateur licence. And there are many digital products exploding onto the radio scene, possibly starting with the modems we use to connect our computers to the Internet - and Software-defined Radio. These three streams – patching, modems and SDR - have developed and begun to converge. As we discovered with the Product Market survey, there was almost no response from people under 30 years of age. These are the people for whom the present content of the linear, monolithic syllabus has little of interest or value and yet who consume social media like it was mother’s milk – it can’t harm you can it? On the other hand, there are older folk who have many connections via email and Internet interest groups, who would dearly like to be sure their personal details, like credit card numbers, bank account details, extra-curricular dalliances, stay private. My credit card provider is in the process of reimbursing me for over $1000 of charges made by so-called service providers from all over the world, to whom I gave no permission. This is the 3rd time in 2 years I’ve had to change credit cards to get around further fraud and theft. And I’ve just suffered a Ransomware attack whose decryption, after paying the ransom, still left considerable damage. Am I concerned about IT security? When the new Board started last May, we directors faced a tsunami of requests for instantaneous clarification of all manner of things. Because amateur radio is such a multi-faceted hobby, at first it was difficult for us to see the wood for the trees that, like the flu virus, kept self-replicating while continuously mutating. So, we started writing Policies, Terms of Reference, Rules and Procedures. These, together with the Ticketing system we are prototyping at Head Office, have started to clear the air. However, as any good cyber security expert will tell you, Policies, Terms of Reference and so on, are no defence against people determined to get your data. Presently the Board is working on documentation for the WIA’s management of IT and security. But with all the push to use social media like Facebook, and the recent scare over Cambridge Analytica’s alleged non-breach of member privacy and security I wonder just how far we need to go. Should we set up systems that are impregnable, fool-proof and last forever? Or should we, like governments in Australia and overseas, take a Risk Management approach? This will be the basis of the WIA’s IT Security Policy. If you want to assist, let us know, but please, no tsunamis. 73 de Brian, VK2GCE. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, Local News Services VK2, 7 and the WW sources of the WIA including VK2FKND Beijing authorizes 60m from July 1 CRAC report the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing has announced that on July 1 radio amateurs will have access to the 5 MHz (60m) WRC-15 band Thanks to SouthGate Amateur Radio Club a Google translation of the CRAC website reads: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the latest version of the “PRC Radio Frequency Division Regulations” in the form of Decree 46. This revision was made in accordance with the Radio Regulations of the People's Republic of China, the 2016 edition of the Radio Regulations adopted by the ITU World Radio Conference 2015, and the development of our radio service. According to the newly promulgated "Regulations of the People's Republic of China for Radio Frequency Division," since July 1 this year, amateur radio amateurs in China will be able to set up amateur radio stations in the frequency band of 5351.5-5366.5 kHz, which will be used as a secondary service conditionally. Source http://www.crac.org.cn/?p=4790 Changes also in the wind for Norwegian Hams Norway's communications regulator Nkom is consulting on changes to the amateur radio regulations and among the planned changes is allowing 1 kW output at VHF/UHF for EME or Meteor Scatter operation. The ARRL reports Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, in Virginia, has completed contacts on all 29 US amateur radio bands On April 11, he completed a CW contact on the new 2200-meter band with K3MF in Pennsylvania, wrapping up a sweep of completed contacts on all 29 Amateur Radio bands. Justin is a bit of an old school guy — he worked K3MF on CW, and now he’s awaiting a QSL card. A paper QSL card. Justin said he started working his way through the bands at the high end of the spectrum, those allocations above 24 GHz. “By the time 2002 came around, I had managed to have built enough millimetre-wave gear to complete formal QSOs, with QSL cards, on all the bands at the time,” he told ARRL. “On the bands above 24 GHz I had to build two stations and pass one off to K2AD, W4WWQ, or WA4RTS to be on the other ends of these VUCCs and QSOs.” To consider it a valid contact, Justin said he used the New England Weak Signal Group (NEWS) guideline of at least a 1-kilometer distance on each band. “While at first this seems very easy, very few hams have even had a QSO across a benchtop on bands like 134 GHz, much less over 1 kilometre,” he said. By 2003, Justin had confirmed contacts (and paper QSLs) on each band from 1.8 MHz to 300 GHz. He submitted his cards to NEWS, which presented him with a framed award and plaque — the very first “Worked All Bands Award.” Since then, a few ham bands have changed. For example, the 2.5-millimeter band shifted from 120 GHz to 122 GHz, and the 2-millimeter band moved down from 145 GHz to 134 GHz. “In order to stay current with the award, I built gear for those new allocations as well and made QSOs, VUCCs, and more DX,” he said. NOAA 'TAPS' the KEG The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has named Kenneth Graham, WX 4 KEG, as head of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. WX4KEG picked up the reins from Deputy/Acting Director Ed Rappaport. Preparations at the NHC continue ahead of the 2018 hurricane season, which begins on June 1, following 2017's historic tropical weather season. Just last Thursday, April 26, saw International Girls in Information and Telecommunication Technologies Day. "Girls Can Do ICT!" was the theme of International Girls in Information and Telecommunication Technologies Day, an initiative of the International Telecommunication Union and aimed to "create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing ICT field, " the ITU said. International Girls in ICT Day will be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April. HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT All major Australian contests, rules and results, are on the Contest Section of the WIA website. wia.org.au/members/contests/about April 21 - WW - INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY April 25 - VK/ZL AM CW for ANZAC DAY April 28-29 - VK - AMRO Weekend May 12-13 - WW - Mills On The Air June 2- 3 - WW - MUSEUM SHIPS WEEKEND This will run from 00 Zulu Saturday, June 2 to 2359 Zulu June 3. This event is hosted by the battleship New Jersey amateur radio club and involves over 100 museum ships registered for the event from around the world. This is not a contest but rather an event to highlight the work done in preserving these historic vessels and the Amateur clubs who will be operating these stations. On some, the original radio equipment will be used, some requiring AM mode. GOOGLE; “MUSEUM SHIPS WEEKEND” Bands and frequencies are mentioned on the site, including for PSK 31 users. If you’re lucky enough to contact 15 of the registered vessels and it is confirmed by cross checking logbook entries you are eligible to apply for a certificate. A visit to the site will provide the latest list of ships and call signs registered for the event. The RADAR club of Rockhampton and District will be activating Museum Ship HMAS Gladstone for the first time for this event and invites all operators in the Gladstone and Central Queensland area on the weekend to make contact and get involved. VK4FRAL is coordinating HMAS Gladstone operations and more operators are required. The HMAS Gladstone, A Fremantle Class Patrol Boat launched in 1984 and retired in 2007 is likely to be the only museum ship in Australia involved in the event. (Ray Mulder VK4FRAL via Clive VK4ACC) June 17 – IARU R3 – 2018 QRP Day Region 3 August 11-12 – VK - Remembrance Day Contest  August 18-19 – WW - Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend October 6 – WW - Oceania DX contest THE DX EDGE VI 4 GAMES Yes whilst the Commonwealth games have drawn to a close, making contact with the special event station VI 4 GAMES is still possible right up until the 31st of May when the licence issued by the ACMA expires. VI 50 IARU 3 IARU Region 3 has 39-member countries and to help celebrate the formation 50 years ago, the WIA has been able to secure a special call sign VI50IARU3 which will be on air until 31st August. (sourced to memnet) Royal Wedding - Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle Something special for our loyal Royalists listening in, it's the first use of the 'GR9' prefix in the United Kingdom GR9RW 19th – 23rd May 2018 Ofcom has issued this unique ‘Special Event Call sign’ to be used from 19th to 23rd May inclusive, and we believe it may be the first time that the ‘GR9’ prefix has ever been active. The special callusing GR9RW will be active for five days in May to mark the occasion of the Royal Wedding between HRH. Prince Harry and Ms. Megan Markle due to take place on 19th May 2018 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in England. GR9RW will primarily use SSB and CW, and additionally FM on the VHF and UHF bands. Two HF stations and one VHF station will be active and will cover all bands from 80m to 70cm. A very special QSL card will be sent on request. (Sourced to SouthGate) Japanese Special Event Look for special event station, 8 J 1 ITU, to be on the air from Japan between 1500z, on April 30th, and 1459z, on May 31st. Activity is to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the ITU (World Telecommunication and Information Society Day - May 17th). 8 J 1 ITU is operated by the Japan ITU Amateur Radio Club during the month of May every year. This activity counts for Japan Honshu Island (AS-007, JIIA AS-007-001, WLOTA 2376), as well as Kasumigaura City (Japan JCC# 1430). QSL via the Bureau (JARL) or eQSL. THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. The VK4RDS Dstar repeater sited at Maleny around 60 km north of Brisbane near the Sunshine coast has been converted to MMDVM on VHF repeater TX is 147.7375 MHz and RX is 146.1375 mhz. This means the one repeater can accept inputs on Dstar, P25, DMR and Yaesu Fusion and NXDN is coming soon. There are dedicated links out to DMR, Fusion and P25 and Dstar can be linked and unlinked to various Dstar repeaters or reflectors. Dstar is linked to DCS028 Q, APCO 25 is connected to talk group 10400 with NAC of 293. The DMR is linked to connected XLX 389 Master and on the BrandMeister BM_Australia_5051 network. Yaesu Fusion is connected to 04201-AU YSF001-1st WW YSF The UHF is in the process of becoming a MMDVM repeater as well and hopefully will be operational in another couple of weeks. Some antenna modifications will also be taking place in the very near future Mark Kyle VK4KZK WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video arvideonews.com hamradiotube.com youtube.com qdg.org.au Thousands of slow-scan television enthusiasts around the globe enthusiastically tracked the International Space Station to download commemorative SSTV images transmitted as part of the ARISS-Russia Cosmonautics Day (International Day of Human Space Flight) celebration April 11 - 15. Stations who received SSTV images from the Cosmonautics Day event can apply for a special certificate and upward of 9,000 images relating to the 40th anniversary of the Interkosmos Project period of the Soviet space program have been posted for viewing Another ARISS-Russia SSTV event is planned for May. (sourced to arrl letter) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- BIKER RADIO Amateur Radio is on a roll here in Australia, well certainly in VK3. Now when we say "roll" we do mean roll. Hams are rolling out their bicycles, their trikes and even their velomobiles and going places. Of course they're not going anywhere without their trusty rigs. Members of a month-old online group called Pedal Radio have been promoting the combination of push power and foot power with the idea that fitness leads to fellowship - and probably more than a few good QSOs. There is even a homebrew aspect to the group, as some members share their tips for building your own trike. Most of the members right now are in VK3. If you want to try talking coast-to-coast while you're....coasting.....this group wouldn't mind if you rolled on in. Send a post to group's address pedalradio at groups dot io. (pedalradio@groups.io via ARNewsLine) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- DIGITAL A lot of hams tend to discount the newer digital modes, mainly for the reasoning that they depend on the Internet to link to reflectors, or master servers in the case of DMR, somehow making them not ham radio. That argument usually extends to the contingency scenario of a loss of infrastructure, such as telephone, Internet, cell phones, etc. Those same hams seem to think that a DMR repeater becomes a paper weight; nothing can be further from the truth. Writing in a recent edition of the ARES newsletter, Greg Horine, N9PBD, Trustee, KD9JNB Multi-Mode Digital Repeater Southwestern Illinois Digital Group says 'DMR (as we use it) is a Time Domain Multiple-Access (TDMA) protocol that provides two voice/data channels in the same spectrum space as a narrowband analogue voice channel. A DMR repeater will continue to function as a conventional (non-Internet linked) repeater if the Internet is not available, repeating both timeslots the same way it would with the network up. DMR provides emergency communicators with twice the number of channels in the same bandwidth (actually less) as an analogue repeater. It also allows emergency coordinators and communicators to segment their traffic by talkgroups, providing even more capability YLs Around the World When in Doubt Blame the Women, introducing Peggy Whitson, formerly KC5ZTD. Peggy was commander of an all women flight crew aboard the International Space Station. In 2017, Whitson became the first female astronaut to command the International Space Station, twice. On April 24, 2017, Whitson broke the record for most total days spent in space by any NASA astronaut, at more than 534 days. Her all female flight crew were famously blamed by the Russian space agency chief Anatoly Perminov when their Soyez craft suffered a ballistic re-entry and landed 400 kilometres off-course. It was later established that the re-entry was caused by a problem that had occurred with Soyuz craft on previous flights. http://www.parabolicarc.com/2008/04/20/when-in-doubt-blame-the-women/ I’m Kimberly Olsen VK2KMI 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 FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency has invited the whole USA community to participate in a national level Exercise. FEMA is an ARRL Partner. FEMA is conducting its 2018 National Level Exercise for the whole community and invites other government agencies, representatives and organizations in the private sector, communities, and individuals to participate in this historic exercise. The 2018 National Level Exercise (NLE), based on a mid-Atlantic hurricane scenario, represents one key step towards implementing FEMA's recently released 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. The ARRL has had a longstanding relationship with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, formalized in its most recent memorandum of understanding. The 2018 National Level Exercise, which takes place April 30-May 11, is the first major exercise following the release of the plan. The exercise will test lessons learned from the 2017 hurricane season. (ARES) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - WORLD WIDE FLOA AND FAUNA (parks) PROGRAM https://www.wwffaustralia.com/ Keep an ear out May 12 for lots of VK7 activity as they hold their special VK7 day in association with this program. To get involved and find out more, please visit Jon VK7JON's website that can be found on the email edition of this broadcast. www.vk7jon.com. (sourced to vk7wi news) Social Scene 2018 May 4 - 7 - VK4 Clairview Gathering ( between Rockhampton/Mackay ) May 12 - VK3 Moorabbin & District Radio Club HamFest (VK3GL) May 18 - 20 – VK WIA Radio & Electronics Convention & AGM Gold Coast June 2 - VK4 Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club's REDFEST 8.30AM (VK4TFN) June 9 & 10 - VK5 2018 South East Radio Group's Convention and Australian Fox Hunting Championship – Mt Gambier June 9 & 10 –VK2 Oxley Region ARC Field Weekend – Oxley Radio ARC July 7 & 8 – VK3 GippsTech 2018 The 21st annual Gippsland Technical Conference vk3bez.org August 4 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club HamFest (vk3bft) Nov   11     VK5 - Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society HamFest Nov 17 VK7 - VK7Hamfest Miena Community Centre (vk7wi) 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/ We would appreciate items no longer than 2 minutes in length as we only have a half hour time slot window. 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. 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