Dec 9 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 TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, NEVER send just links & url's but write your story as you would expect to hear it being read back and then when you upload audio also email us the txt version. ---------------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING DEC 09 2018. IN OUR 23rd YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WHO WOULD YOU MAKE NEWS WITH THIS WEEK? To Hamsters young and old... Were you around to feel the Y2K bug bite (byte) Or to see that magnificent (tongue in cheek) flyby of Halley’s Comet and tail? Well, be afraid, VERY afraid because now comes 46P/Wirtanen - a comet as big as the FULL MOON. Hyperactive comet 46P/Wirtanen is approaching mother earth for one of the closest Earth-comet encounters of the Space Age. Observers report that the comet's gaseous green atmosphere now covers a patch of sky as large as the full Moon--and it is growing larger. Sky maps and expert observing tips are featured in the 'link we like' on Spaceweather.com Bushfire season here in Australia brings the prospects of runaway, deadly destruction. That time is happening now - cue, VK4JJW and VK3KKP TONY: Our bushfire are wildfires that are a danger everywhere from spring to autumn and the season like everywhere else is getting longer. JOHN: That's Tony Falla VK3KKP, who is about to help conduct a training project in the Shire of Mount Alexander in Victoria, Australia. The effort is designed to provide a greater safety net against the deadly fires, also known as fire tornadoes. Tony said that while the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network works on a grand scale, this effort is designed to be very community-based, expanding on small radio networks that already exist in communities within the shire where hams regularly check in with one another anyway. TONY: Most of the time everyone has got this things covered. They have radio systems all in place between the emergency networks. What they haven’t got – what I think is the missing link -- is the person in the bush who needs to call for help and can’t get through and that’s what I would hope we could provide. JOHN: Most particularly that means disabled residents of the shire, individuals who would have difficulty if evacuation is needed or simply getting the message out that they’re in trouble. Starting on the 12th of December, Tony, who is a member of the Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club, will be working with committee members of the Mount Alexander Shire Disability Advocacy Group who have expressed an interest in getting a Foundation Licence to help build this critical community-based network. TONY: This is basically friends training friends to become eligible to communicate using licenced equipment and that’s all. It is a bit like the Air BnB of communication really. Just a friendship ostensibly that develops into a network of people who listen out for one another. JOHN: The new hams will then go on to help other candidates, establishing regular nets, health-and-welfare checks and of course being ready for those emergencies when they happen. TONY: We’ll be acting as an intermediary between the person calling and 000 -- but if someone is in dire danger we will be able to tell the police the fire brigade and so on that that’s the case. JOHN: That’s life-saving communication for the people in the shire of Mount Alexander. For Amateur Radio Newsline and the WIA, I’m John Williams VK4JJW WIA What is immediately facing the WIA? The ‘Current WIA Hot Issues’ section on the website gives you a view into some of the major pressure points that the WIA stays across on your behalf. This is all part of the service that the WIA provides to Amateur Radio. You can find the list easily: just click the burning flame icon on the home page. Some of the items are on the list because they need further action or submissions. Some are there to invite input from members. Others are tracking long term activities or have an indefinite time-frame. All these items are things that are identified and watched by the WIA board. To be informed and become aware, check out the ‘Current WIA Hot Issues’ section at www.wia.org.au via the icon on the home page or type “hot issues” into the search bar. ---------------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of the WIA. SOUTH AFRICA South Africa's ICASA/SARL Liaison committee met last week to discuss various regulatory issues affecting Amateur Radio. One issue, which we in VK don't have to contend with is the reception of weather satellite pictures and the licensing of equipment in South Africa has been a grey area. Their licensing body, the ICASA, has the rule that Radio Amateurs wishing to set-up and own equipment to receive signals in the 137 MHz band must apply for a separate satellite receiving licence as it is not covered under their amateur radio license. Non-licenced persons must in addition also apply for a radio receiving license. TURKEY GETS TWO CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! Turkey’s telecom regulator, BTK, in a government gazette notice of 29th November 2018, released two new Amateur Radio allocations. They are: The new WRC-15 60m Secondary allocation of 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz with a power limit of 15W EIRP. All modes are allowed. A 6m allocation of 50 – 52 MHz, all modes allowed, with a power limit of 75W. BTK National Frequency Allocation Table (p.11,27) https://www.btk.gov.tr/uploads/pages/milli-frekans-plani.pdf (Tnx: TA4ED, BTK, W8GEX) 73 Paul Gaskell G4MWO, Editor, The 5 MHz Newsletter https://www.dropbox.com/s/koz6msf74mtk76t/5%20MHz%20Newsletter.pdf?dl=0 and its archive https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9si2gq8dnz73uy9/AACCZty4t4wQaF1mot3cA3d9a?dl=0 AUSTRIA SPY V SPY In an interview with the Austrian state broadcaster ORF, Erich OE3EMB described intercepting shortwave communications between the German Federal Intelligence Service and the UK's GCHQ The interview was for Radio FM4 and the transmission Erich describes intercepting back in the 1970's was between Norddeich Radio used by Germany's BND and Cable & Wireless, London which was apparently being used by GCHQ. Having intercept the transmissions Erich then wrote to each station to get a QSL card to confirm his reception. Evidently the recipients were not happy their "secret" transmissions had been intercepted and a formal complaint was made to the appropriate Ministry in Austria who in turn contacted Erich's parents. Read the ORF story (use Google Translate) https://fm4.orf.at/stories/2836084/ CANADA Limited edition RAC 25th Anniversary Challenge Coin: May 2018, Radio Amateurs of Canada introduced the special RAC 25th Anniversary Challenge Coin as part of its year-long celebrations. The coin was designed by Mike Hutchison. Its design depicts the commitment to a strong 25 years of Amateur Radio with a large maple leaf acknowledging a true sense of Canadian pride. The back design is the classic RAC logo with a gold crest and accents. It is a unique collectable and is a great collectors piece. In his Message in the November-December 2018 issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine, RAC President Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA, indicated: “There has been a good response to the RAC Challenge Coin Program in which a limited number of collectible coins were created in honour of RAC’s first 25 years. These are available to anyone donating $100 or more to RAC. BRAZIL At approximately 0030 UTC on December 4, several stations in Brazil, including PS8MT, PT9BM, and PT2AP — reported hearing the voice beacon “Fox-1Cliff Safe Mode.” This as SpaceX announced that the SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission carrying AMSAT’s Fox-1Cliff CubeSat has been deployed into orbit. A SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle carried Fox-1Cliff and several other satellites into space on December 3 at approximately 1334 UTC from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, following a launch delay. Four microsatellites including ESEO carrying an AMSAT-UK FUNcube-4 transponder were deployed about 2 hours and 13 minutes after launch, the ESEO beacon has been received by Surrey Space Centre 60 CubeSats including Jordan's JY1SAT carrying a FUNcube-6 transponder and capable of transmitting Slow Scan digital Video images were deployed about 2 hours after that. According to AMSAT, the Brazilian stations reception of Fox-1Cliff has confirmed that that the satellite is also 'alive.' Tecsun Radios Australia, who say they're a bunch of amateur radio enthusiasts, also say AMSAT’s satellite launch of Fox1-Clif” has inspired them to join forces with the volunteers at AMSAT who build and launch Amateur Radio Satellites for space research and communication. USA HAMS PROVIDE MESH CAMERA VIDEO AT CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES Public service and innovation are the backbone of amateur radio and nowhere was this more evident than during the recent deadly wildfires that swept through California. Hams responded, as always, with the help of repeaters – but one amateur-built high-speed data network stretching nearly 200 miles became the picture – quite literally – of the peril faced throughout the state. Andy Morrison K9AWM told our good friends at Amateur Radio Newsline how hams used mesh camera video to put people on the scene in real-time - and he spoke to one ham who was part of the process. BEN: “If you are in the middle of a wildfire, people only hear evacuation notices. They don’t know where the fire is, how far it is from their house. The public only hears evacuation notices, they don’t know where the fire is, is it a block away? A mile away? And people make a lot of life and death decisions based on that. By having the video you can actually say “here” and you can share that by social media or describe it…… A video, a picture can tell a thousand words, a picture does tell you a lot.” ANDY: That was Ben Kuo AI6YR of the Pleasant Valley Amateur Radio Club which helps manage the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, operating on amateur radio allocations on the microwave bands at 900MHz, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Ben says the system behaves just like the internet and uses similar protocols to compress video and send it over the packet network. To transmit, hams use commercial radios adapted for amateur frequencies. In one instance, he said, the AREDN even “out-Internetted” the Internet itself during the crisis. BEN: “One of the big Internet providers here is Spectrum Communications and they went down. Due to the fire they lost all phone, they lost TV, and they lost internet, broadband connections. We were able to provide the people who were on our network with access to some of the key info they couldn’t get. They had no internet, but they did have us -- and we could actually forward information to them digitally that they couldn’t get anywhere else.” ANDY: The ham-built network has been so successful that the hams hope to help the state build a wide-reaching network of its own to make their own videos available to public safety agencies throughout California. Meanwhile, Ben said, there is always fine-tuning to be done by the hams themselves. BEN: “We are now working on lessons we learned from this fire and enhancing some of the capabilities we have so it is even better next time.” For Amateur Radio Newsline and the WIA I’m Andy Morrison K9AWM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------* 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. and.. be it a Contest you are running or a HamFest or anything at all DON'T forget not ONLY send it here to nationalnews@wia.org.au BUT enter it on the WIA CALENDER OF EVENTS! ARRL 10M Contest The ARRL ten meter contest is described as an event “for Amateurs worldwide to exchange QSO information with as many stations as possible on the 10 meter band”. This year it is taking place THIS weekend. In terms of modes, only CW and SSB are permitted. Now although in the news we steer away from giving out URL's as a bit like hearing a phone number on some radio advert, who can remember them. BUT in this case it's an easy URL for the terms of the 10 mtr contest arrl.org (irts) Listen for amateur radio clubs at NASA facilities as they participate in the NASA On The Air activity to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission that spanned launch December 21, 1968, to splashdown on December 27, 1968. The 50th anniversary event will start on 0000 UTC December 21, 2018 through 2359 UTC December 27, 2018. 14.271 MHz and other bands depending on conditions with spotting announcements on DX clusters, FaceBook, and twitter. QSL and a certificate with information available on QRZ.com This marks the concluding event of the year-long NASA On the Air celebration of 60th anniversary of NASA. See https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/ 2019 Inaugural “Green Keys Night” Set for New Year’s Day, January 1 NZART Portable Activity Day - New Year’s Day ARRL RTTY Roundup January 5 – 6 This contest will, for the first time, permit the use of FT8 as well as traditional RTTY. Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 January, the Summer VHF /UHF Field Day. March 17 - 18 John Moyle Field Day May Four the 20th Harry Angel Memorial Sprint. July 20 Trans-Tasman Low-Band Contest Aug 17-18 VK Remembrance Day Contest. -------------- THROUGH THE DX WINDOW DECEMBER The Radio Amateur Association of Greece is using special callsign SX 60 RAAG to the 31st of December to mark its 60th anniversary. (ARNewsLine) CYPRUS, 5B. Special event station C 4 XMAS is QRV during the festive season, throughout the month of December. Activity on 160 to 6 meters using CW, SSB and various digital modes. (Southgate) Last Chance to hear and work EI 100 MCV As we approach December 31 the National Maritime Museum of Ireland Radio Club would like to remind licence holders to work Special Event Call Sign EI100MCV before the licence expires. This commemorates the centenary of the sinking, by torpedo, of RMS Leinster in the final days of World War 1, resulting in the largest loss of life in the Irish Sea. RMS Leinsters own radio call sign was MCV, hence the special call EI 100 MCV. (sourced to irts) Steff, HB9FXL is using the call sign XU 7 AKB across Cambodia through the 14th of December. Listen for him on 40 through 10 meters operating SSB and FT8. Send QSLs via HB9FXL. (ARNewsLine) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. Software defined Doppler radar with LimeSDR Mini Dan Maloney KC1DJT writes on Hackaday about the work of Luigi Freitas PU2SPY who shows how even beginners can experiment in the spectrum above 1 GHz with the LimeSDR-Mini transceiver Dan writes: Want to explore the world of radar but feel daunted by the mysteries of radio frequency electronics? Be daunted no more and abstract the RF complexities away with this tutorial on software-defined radar. Taking inspiration from Greg Charvat N8ZRY, Luigi's plunge into radar is spare on the budgetary side but rich in learning opportunities. The front end of the radar set is almost entirely contained in a LimeSDR Mini, a software-defined radio that can both transmit and receive. The only additional components are a pair of soup can antennas and a cheap LNA for the receive side. The rest of the system runs on GNU Radio Companion running on a Raspberry Pi; the whole thing is powered by a USB battery pack and lives in a plastic tote. Luigi has the radar set up for the 2.4 GHz band, and was calibrated with vehicles passing by at known speeds. Read Dan's Hackaday post https://hackaday.com/2018/11/29/sdr-is-at-the-heart-of-this-soup-can-doppler-radar-set/ (SouthGate) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS THE FINAL FRONTIER https://ariss.batc.tv/ (under test) India launched a PSLV flight on Thursday, November 29 that included four CubeSats which are using 70cm downlink frequencies coordinated by the IARU: FacSat-1 - 9k6 GMSK downlink 3CAT1 - 9k6 FSK downlink InnoSat-2 - 50kHz wide telemetry using AX25 packet format Hello World - 9k6 packet 2GFSK for telemetry & 1Mbps MSK downlink on S Band http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished.php https://amsat-uk.org/2018/11/27/ham-radio-satellites-launch-from-india/ [ANS] Happy 20th Anniversary to the International Space Station The largest and most complex international construction project in space began on the steppes of Kazakhstan 20 years ago this month. Atop its Proton rocket, on Nov. 20, 1998, the Zarya Functional Cargo Block (FGB) thundered off its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome into cold wintry skies. Zarya was built by the Khrunichev in Moscow and served as a temporary control module for the nascent ISS. On Dec. 4, Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-88 mission roared off Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the Unity Node 1 module in its cargo bay. Built by The Boeing Corporation at a facility at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, Unity was the first American component of the ISS. A collection of interesting ISS historical articles begins at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/20-years-ago-iss-construction-begins [ANS] NASA astronaut Nick Hague set for new space station mission after abort. Nick, KG 5 TMV who was forced to abort his recent mission to the International Space Station, is scheduled to launch again on the 28th of Feb., 2019, from Kazakhstan. He will launch with Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who was his commander and crewmate on the aborted mission in October, and NASA astronaut Christina Koch aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. The trio will join the station’s Expedition 59 crew and return to Earth in October 2019 as members of Expedition 60. KG5TMV and Koch will serve as flight engineers for Expeditions 59 and 60. Crew members will participate in a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston. The news conference will air live on NASA TV and the agency’s website. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA www.iota-world.org Two rare French Polynesian islands are available to IOTA chasers until the 18th December. Firstly there will be TX 0 A on Maria Est Atoll (IOTA OC-113) Secondly TX 0 M on Morane Atoll (IOTA OC-297). (IRTS) Hunter, KK 4 AOS is at present stationed at the Palmer Research Station on Anvers Island in Antarctica. He has been logged as active from the KC4AAC club station on 17 an 20m SSB. The IOTA reference is AN-012. (IRTS) 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. http://www.ham-yota.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/youngstersontheair http://www.arrl.org/youth-nets The Board of Trustees of the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame is pleased to announce that Neil Carleton, VE3NCE, of Ontario has been named to the Hall of Fame. Amateur Radio played an important role during Neil’s career as a School Teacher. He was a key advisor in the development of the RAC Youth Education Program which has as its objective “to provide youth and their leaders with an innovative way of learning by introducing them to the wonderful world of Amateur Radio”. The Program provides financial and personal support to Teachers in schools and Leaders in community youth groups in all regions of the country. Through his articles in The Canadian Amateur magazine, RAC members and friends learned that Amateur Radio was a great way to make classroom connections by youth across the curriculum. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO SCOUTING http://www.scouts.com.au http://www.scout.org/jota http://www.international.scouts.com.au http://jotajoti.info/ Brett Nicholas VK2BNN Scouts Australia National co-ordinator for JOTA. Lorraine O’Hare VK2FICQ is Girl Guides Australia National JOTA-JOTI Co-ordinator. 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 Scouting’s Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) 2018 reports that total Scout participation in the USA in the annual event jumped by 36% from 2017. Each year more than 1 million Scouts and Guides get together over the airwaves for JOTA, which takes place on the third weekend of October. Since the first JOTA in 1958, millions of Scouts have become acquainted via Amateur Radio, and contacts sometimes result in relationships that extend for many years. This year, 10,703 Scouts took part in the event, compared with 7,872 last year. Participating Amateur Radio operators topped 1,000 for the first time since 2016. At 610, the number of registered JOTA locations was way up, as was the number of JOTA stations registered, with 314. Participating JOTA stations reported contacts with stations in 99 countries, also up over 2017. JOTA Coordinator in the US Jim Wilson, K5ND, said he was pleased with this year’s numbers and hopes that 2019’s event will show a continued increase, despite a lack of sunspots. World JOTA-JOTI numbers are not expected until early 2019, as each country reports its results by mid-December followed by number crunching and compiling of the report. (sourced to the ARRL) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* 2019 Social Scene January 24-28 VK4 TARC Australia Day Long Week Family Radio Camp (tarc) February 24 VK2 - Wyong Field Day (vk2kfu) March 23-24 VK7 - Meet the Voice event at Ross (vk7news) February 13 VK4 - Redfest 2019 (vk4tfn) April 6 VK5 - BRL Radio Group Annual Gathering, (vk5la) Overland Corner, S.A May 3 - 6 VK4 - Claireview Gathering (tarc) Sept 2019 - Scandinavian YL Radio Operators Convention will be in Norway LA8FOA is your contact Ingrid lullen55@gmail.com Oct 27 VK3 Ballarat Amateur Radio Group, BARG Hamvention 2019 3kqt 2020 Social Scene ALARAMEET 2020 Bendigo (vk5yl) October 2020 in Bendigo Victoria. Heidi VK3FHID and Jenny VK3WQ are leading the team who are planning an eventful weekend. This team is meeting regularly and are looking forward to seeing you in Bendigo. 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