NOVEMBER 24 2019 - 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 NOVEMBER 24 2019 IN OUR 24th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA AND FOR WEEK OF NOVEMBER 24 2019 WRC-19 Great result for our Region One Brethren, Bryan Rawlings, VE3QN, Radio Amateurs of Canada Special Advisor at World Radiocommunication Conferences says Thursday November 21, 2019 WRC-19 being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, a new allocation to the Amateur Radio Service for Region 1 was approved. The allocation, as it will appear in the International Table of Frequency Allocations, will be for a two-megahertz secondary allocation in 50 to 52 MHz. Through footnotes there will be explicit references to protecting analogue television broadcasters, wind-profiler radar systems and fixed and mobile systems in 50 to 54 MHz. (rac) PREFIX HUNTERS - THIS ONES FOR YOU B1Z, B4T and B7P active for CQWW CW CRAC says the temporary amateur radio callsigns B1Z, B4T and B7P are be on the air this weekend during the CQWW CW event, November 23-24. After the event is over, these 'busy 'B's' temporary call signs will be terminated. tinyurl.com/BeijingCRAC LOCAL AA Radio Services, Zetron to provide Antarctic consoles Zetron’s ACOM Command & Control system has been selected to provide communications solutions to and between Australia’s research stations in Antarctica. The contract for integrated radio console systems, equipment and support services was awarded to AA Radio Services, a Melbourne-based Zetron partner and reseller, following a competitive bid process. Australia operates three stations on the Antarctic continent as well as a station on Macquarie Island, with responsibility for managing more than 3300 assets. The contract entails a 12-position ACOM Command & Control system, with consoles at the three Antarctic locations, the station on Macquarie Island and the head office base in VK7. In addition, Zetron and AA Radio will provide implementation, configuration, training and ongoing support services to ensure the system is maintained, upgraded and scaled as needed to meet current and future needs. Read more: criticalcomms.com.au/content/radio-systems/news/ WIA Directors heard usually as follows Greg VK2GPK (President), Peter VK8ZZ (Secretary), Mike VK8MA, Aidan VK4APN, John VK4JJW Good Morning everyone, he World Radio Conference WRC-19 is currently being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. This weekend marks the end of its fourth and final week. Weekly updates have been provided on the WIA news web page and on this broadcast. The previous World Radio Conference was held in November 2015 in Switzerland. One of the outcomes from WRC-15 was an agreement on a secondary allocation of 5351.5-5366.5 kHz for the Amateur Service. Regional power limits agreed were for 15 watts to 25 Watts measured in effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). That outcome proposed to give the amateur service its first new HF allocation since 1979. The WRC-79 allocated three HF bands worldwide for use by Radio Amateurs, the so-called WARC bands on 10, 18 and 24Mhz. It is most unfortunate that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are yet to implement the 5Mhz amateur allocation here in Australia. So what is or was the WRC-19? Australia is a member state of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised United Nations agency responsible for international cooperation in the use of telecommunications and the radiofrequency spectrum. Australian organisations, including government, military, commercial and private, participate in many of the specialist ITU meetings. The ITU Radio Regulations is an international treaty which determines the use of the radiofrequency spectrum, including the regional and global harmonisation of spectrum. Harmonising spectrum promotes the worldwide efficient use of that radio spectrum. Every three to four years, a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) meets to consider and resolve any changes to the ITU Radio Regulations. WRC is the penultimate decision maker in relation to spectrum use around the world. Not only for the amateur service, but also for telecommunications providers, military, space and commercial users. The WRC-19 conference, like most previous conferences, includes a delegation from Australia. The Australian delegation is led by the Department of Communications and Arts and also includes representatives from the telecommunications providers, related industry, space and the military. The WIA was invited by the Australian Government to be part of the delegation, as the peak body for Amateur Radio in Australia. The WIA sent 2 delegates to WRC-19. WRC-19 included several important issues for the Amateur service including issues relating to 50Mhz, space communications and Wireless Power Transfer. The International Amateur Radio Union, the peak body for Amateur Radio in the World, was also represented at WRC-19. The WIA is a member of the IARU and is recognised by that body as the peak representative body for Radio Amateurs in Australia. The full agenda and weekly update details of the items included in WRC-19 are detailed on the ITU web site1. Items of particular interest to the amateur service are details in an October 24th news item on the WIA web page2. WRC-23 is next planned event and may include discussions on the 144-146 MHz allocation as well as the 23cm band. The agenda for WRC-23 will be determined in the last few days of WRC-19. A full report on WRC-19 will be posted to the WIA web site as soon as it is finalised. Member surveys conducted over the past few years have indicated that our members overwhelmingly believe that both National and International representation by the WIA is the institutes highest priority. This intern provides both short term and long term security for the amateur radio service here in Australia. The WIA has been very pleased to receive a number of donations towards the very high cost of attending WRC-19. Donations can be made to the WRC-19 costs by contacting the national office3. This has been WIA Director Peter VK8ZZ 1. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/conferences/wrc/2019/Pages/default.aspx 2. https://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2019/20191024-2/index.php 3. nationaloffice@wia.org.au GATHER HERE The WIA Annual Conference is only six months away and it will be held in Hobart Tasmania over the 8th to 10th May 2020. The Conference Theme is Antarctic Gateway and the weekend is setup to showcase the Antarctic past, present and future for those attending the weekend. We have been able to secure a fantastic deal from the Spirit of Tasmania with discounted fares and accommodation on the ship for the two weeks before and after the conference weekend. So, if you are thinking of making a holiday of it and seeing the holiday isle, this is your chance. Bring the car, caravan, motorhome or motorbike. To take advantage of the special Spirit of Tasmania deal book early to ensure they have a space for your vehicle and caravan! Follow the link on the WIA website page to the Spirit of Tasmania booking site. spiritoftasmania.com.au/offers/wia-annual-conference-2020 If the name (WIA Annual Conference 2020) is not included in the fare type name, this indicates you may have left the Exclusive Members Page booking platform and may need to re-check before proceeding. We have also negotiated a great deal from the Conference venue – Best Western Hobart with $149 per night rooms. To book all you need to do is call the hotel on (03) 623 262 43 or email them on reservations97434@bestwestern.com.au and quote WIA to receive the $149 discounted room rate. For more details about the activities, presenter’s and a bunch of other information go to the WIA website and click on the Annual Conference link on the home page. wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/2020agm/ The conference booking site will be available within the week. For WIA National News this is Justin VK7TW on behalf of the conference ---------------------------------------------------------------------* 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 ICASA responds to SARL request on type approval relief SARL News reports the CEO of ICASA, their communications regulator, has responded to the SARL's request for relief on the type approval requirements for commercial amateur radio equipment. BUT in the letter SARL received the CEO states, "Unfortunately the authority is bound by the prescripts of the Electronic Communications Act and cannot operate beyond these legislative and regulatory prescripts until such time as the prescripts are amended." He also said the Authority is cognisant of the significant work that the SARL does and it is important to note the appreciation that the Authority has of the new and advanced technology which the SARL wants to introduce. sarl.org.za/public/_news/read_arch.asp?file=../../bulletins/sarlnews%2020191116.txt FRANCE 60m band a step closer French regulator ARCEP has issued a decision that will lead to radio amateurs getting secondary access to the 60m band 5351.50-5366.50 kHz as agreed at during WRC-15 This decision must now be sent to the minister for approval and publication in the Official Journal. It is only then that the band will be open to traffic, under the conditions provided by the text of the ARCEP. Source REF in English at https://tinyurl.com/FranceREF USA EXCLUSIVE HAM CLUB SEEKS NEW MEMBERS Licensed amateur radio operators who belong to American Mensa or any other national Mensa organization have a club to call their own: It's the Mensa Ham Radio Special Interest Group, or HAMSIG. It's believed that perhaps as many as 30,000 hams in the United States alone would qualify for Mensa membership, meaning they test at or above the 98th percentile on any number of approved intelligence tests. Mensa is said to be waiving its customary exam fee through December 31 for applicants who use the voucher code BigSky19 - and the code can be used at us.mensa.org/join Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, now a University of Scranton physics and electrical engineering professor, has won a $1.3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study weather effects in the ionosphere by leveraging a network of amateur radio stations. Frissell is perhaps best known within our amateur radio community as the founder of HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation initiative. The Distributed Arrays of Small Instruments (DASI) project will be implemented over 3 years. As principal investigator, Frissell — a space physicist — will head a collaborative team that will develop ground-based space science observation instruments and software. His research effort will recruit multiple universities and radio amateurs to operate a network of personal space weather stations. Mike Baxter Kay Ay Zero Ex Tee Tee (KA0XTT) returns to US living room screens in January as the American TV sitcom "Last Man Standing" with Season 8. Until then, however, how have TV fans in the U.S. been getting their ham radio fix? They've turned to Netflix and the popular sci-fi horror web TV series "Stranger Things" which made its debut in 2016. For hams, the show's real stars haven't been the teenage characters growing up in the American Midwest but the vintage radios like the Realistic TRC-214 and Heathkit DX-60. Most recently in an episode called "Suzie Do You Copy?" there's been a sort of homebrew but very advanced handheld radio created by one of the young characters. The teenager built it - and named it Cerebro - to talk to a girl he met summer camp. As that episode winds down however he begins to notice he's copying signals coming from Russia. Not bad DX for a handheld. Just remember however that in our own time period of low sunspots this is less science and a lot more fiction. --------------------------------------------------------------------* 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 Spring has sprung and so too has our WIA VHF/UHF/Microwave Spring Field Day Spring Field Day is now 23/11 01:00 UTC – 24/11 01:00 UTC. Frequencies are not set in stone but a good start:- 6M 50.150 USB or 52.525 FM, 2M 144.150 USB or 146.500 FM, 70cm 432.150 USB or 439.000 FM, 23cm 1296.150 USB or FM, 13cm 2403.150 USB, 9cm 3398.150 USB, 3cm 10,368.150 USB VHF-UHF Spring Aim Of The Contest The overriding aim is to get away for the weekend and have fun! But next after that, the aims are: to encourage more activity on VHF and microwave bands; to encourage people to work greater distances than usual by operating portable, and to provide opportunities for people to activate or work into new grid squares. Stations may elect to enter either a 24-hour section or an 8-hour section, but not both. Those stations entering the 8-hour sections may operate for more than eight hours, and nominate which 8-hour period they wish to claim for scoring purposes, but the 8-hour, or lesser period submitted, has to be contiguous. http://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/vhfuhf/ More than 1 Million Contacts Logged during ARRL Field Day 2019 ARRL Contest Program Manager, N1SFE, reports that nearly 1.1 million contacts were made during the 2019 ARRL Field Day — the most popular operating event in North America. Of the nearly 1.1 million contacts, approximately 46% were made on phone, and 456,000 (42%) of contacts were made on CW. The remaining 138,000+ (12%) of the contacts were made on digital modes, such as FT8 and RTTY. The biggest contest this month is CQWW DX CW, which runs for 48 hours over this weekend 23rd to the 24th. Starting at 0000UTC on Saturday and ending at 2359 on Sunday, this CW-only event uses all the contest bands from 1.8 to 28MHz. The exchange is signal report and Zone, NZ SKN Summer Edition Summer Straight Key Night will be held on Sunday 1 December, 9-10pm New Zealand time, on 80 metres. No keyboards No electronic keyers No bugs. Just good old-fashioned straight keys. You don't have to be fast - accuracy is the key (pardon the pun) to success. But, most of all, aim to have fun. Exchange is RST / Location / Name / Key / Transmitter / Power You must correctly log the entire exchange shown above in order for a contact to be valid, except for contacts with non-ZL stations, where exchange is RST / Location / Name. We recommend calling “CQ SKN” (or just “SKN”) rather than “CQ TEST” for clarity and to help promote the event. We recommend exchanging meaningful RST, not automatic “599”. For details, please visit maritimeradio.org/skn (Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ New Zealand Straight Key Night via infoline) -------------- In the World of DX, listen for special event station 3E1FP through to November 30th. Operators are celebrating the 116th anniversary of the Republic of Panama. Be listening on 80/60/40/30/20/17/15/10 meters where they will be using CW, SSB and possibly other modes. QSL to HP1DAV. -------------- Hiro JF1OCQ and Kuni JA8VE will be on the air as 5R8VX and 5R8KU, respectively, from Nosy Be Island until tomorrow 25 of November. Listen on various HF bands where they will be using CW, SSB, FT4 and FT8. -------------- Be listening for Roly, ZL1BQD using the call sign 8Q7XR from the Maldives until the 30th of December. He will be on 80-10 meters using CW, SSB and FT8. Send QSLs to his home callsign. THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. Keep an eye on the neighbourhood with this passive radar! If your neighbourhood is anything like ours, walking across the street is like taking your life in your own hands. Drivers are increasingly unconcerned by such trivialities as speed limits or staying under control, and anything goes when they need to connect Point A to Point B in the least amount of time possible. Monitoring traffic with this passive radar will not do a thing to slow drivers down, but it’s a pretty cool hack that will at least yield some insights into traffic patterns. The principle behind active radar – the kind police use to catch speeders in every neighbourhood but yours – is simple: Send a microwave signal towards a moving object, measure the frequency shift in the reflected signal, and do a little math to calculate the relative velocity. BUT a passive radar, like the one described in the RTL-SDR.com article is quite different. Rather than painting a target with an RF signal, it relies on signals from other transmitters, such as terrestrial TV or radio outlets in the area. Two different receivers are used, both with directional antennas. One points to the area to be monitored, while the other points directly to the transmitter. By comparing signals reflected off moving objects received by the former against the reference signal from the latter, information about the distance and velocity of objects in the target area can be obtained. Building a passive radar might not save the neighbourhood, but it could be a lot of fun to try. https://hackaday.com/2019/11/08/keep-an-eye-on-the-neighborhood-with-this-passive-radar/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS CW FISTS Club - East Asia www.feacw.net FISTS Club - Australasia www.fdu.org.au FISTS Club - UK & Europe www.fists.co.uk FISTS Club - Americas www.fists.org Recommended FISTS calling frequencies (MHz): 1.808 3.528 7.028 10.118 14.058 18.085 21.058 24.908 28.058 CWops is pleased to announce that it is now accepting nominations for this prestigious award for the year 2020. The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals, groups, or organizations that have made the greatest contribution(s) toward advancing the art or practice of radio communications by Morse code. Candidates for the award may be one or more of the following: · Authors of publications related to CW · CW recruiters, trainers, mentors, coaches and instructors · Public advocates of CW · Organizers of CW activities · Designers and inventors who advance the art or practice of CW · Other contributors to the art or practice of CW for more info I’d suggest an email to secretary@cwops.org Oh, and a plaque will be presented at the Dayton Hamvention. (NZART INFO-LINE) WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- DIGITAL Hams like free stuff! So here's a free PDF download of issue #87 of the MagPi magazine Available at the link we like when you read the text edition of this news on wia.org.au ( https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/issues/87 ) Instead of searching many manufacturer sites or calling on companies to find and compare designs, now you can search for designs based on the circuit's performance, - using, Digi-Key's Reference Design Library. New designs are being added weekly and improvements made based on user feedback: https://www.digikey.com/reference-designs/en WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FEMALES IN RADIO. ALARA offers a limited number of grants to any female applying for a Foundation Licence or upgrading to a Standard or Advanced Amateur Radio Licence. The grant is equal to approximately half the cost of the fees for assessment, licence and callsign. In addition, we would provide a complimentary membership to ALARA for one year. For more details please go to alara.org.au WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- MILITARY OL 75 CARBON is on air until the end of November from the Czech Republic. The station celebrates the 75th anniversary of WWII Operation Carbon, which dropped British-trained Czech paratroopers in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Station details and a wealth of fascinating detail on Operation Carbon can be found on the QRZ.com page for OL75CARBON. (RSGB) 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 IARU Region 1 3760 7110 14300 18160 21360 kHz IARU Region 2 3750 3985 7060 7240 7275 14300 18160 21360 kHz KEEPING COMMUNICATIONS OPEN DURING INDIA'S CYCLONE With bushfires still ravishing VK, amateurs in India have mobilised to help emergency operations as a cyclone overran the coast. As parts of Bangladesh and the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal were slammed by Cyclone Bulbul, a team of amateurs from the West Bengal Radio Club set up emergency operations in the largest, most populated district of West Bengal. From there they connected with police, the state disaster management team and the National Disaster Response Force. Outside, people throughout the region were evacuated under the threat of the deadly storm's winds of as much as 120 kilometres per hour Authorities credited lower death tolls to the presence of additional coastal shelters and more efficient evacuations. (ARNewsLine) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOTA (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.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/youngstersontheair http://www.arrl.org/youth-nets Taking a cue from IARU Region 1’s Youngsters On The Air annual summer camp, the Youth on the Air committee in IARU Region 2 has announced the first camp for young radio amateurs in the Americas next June This inaugural IARU Region 2 summer camp will take place June 21 – 26 at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in Ohio. WC 8 VOA will host the event. Operating the camp will be Electronic Applications Radio Service, a charitable organization dedicated to wireless technologies and activities. According to the announcement, the camp will focus on building peer and mentor relationships and taking amateur radio “to the next level.” Campers will attend workshops and activities in multiple STEM-related subjects, such as radio contesting, electronic kit building, D-Star, APRS, satellite communication, antenna building, and radio direction finding and orienteering. arrl.org/news/youth-on-the-air-camp-coming-to-iaru-region-2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------* REWIND - I'M JOHN KNOW VK4FJRK When the world got its news from shortwave radio Article on the golden age of shortwave broadcaster Swiss Radio International (SRI) From the mid-1930s to 2004, Switzerland’s international service was Swiss Radio International (SRI). The first few decades of SRI’s existence were the heyday of shortwave – it was often the only way of getting news directly from other countries. What began as the Swiss Short Wave Service in 1935, would grow from broadcasting programmes in German, French, Italian and English to include other European languages and Arabic, and eventually change its name to Swiss Radio International. The international service was considered a voice of neutrality during times of war, first during World War II, followed by the decades of the Cold War and up to and including the first war in the Gulf in the early 1990s. WITH REWIND - I'M JOHN KNOW VK4FJRK Read the full story at swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/the-sounds-of---_when-the-world-got-its-news-from-shortwave-radio/45290852 ---------------------------------------------------------------------* 2020 Social Scene VK2 - WYONG FIELD DAY 23rd February 2020 (dd5lp) VK4 - SEQ Amateur Radio Field Day March 10, 10am at Landsborough Sports Complex 15 Tunnel Ridge Rd. (vk4an) VK4 - REDFEST 2020 18th April. St. Michael's College Old Toorbul Point Rd from 8am (vk4tfn) VK - WIA Annual Conference, Hobart 8-10 May. (vk7tw) ALARAMEET 2020 Bendigo October 2 - 5 (vk5yl) Submitting news items If you would like to submit news items for possible inclusion in the VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to nationalnews@wia.org.au and don't JUST send url's links or posters, but take the time to pen YOUR contribution. To submit audio email nationalnews@wia.org.au and ask for the current password then read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 2 minutes in length as we only have a half hour. 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 it in the 3rd person. A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug DEALS from commercial traders "on air", but we at the WIA will put your supporters 'goods' in this text edition "no worries." We cannot give blatant 'plugs' to raffles. (new Jan 2019) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* ===================================================================== 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 WIA affiliated clubs and 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 IF broadcast, are done so 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... If you have call-backs to contribute to the National News call back tally then please send through your call-backs to callbacks@wia.org.au 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 from. Send unsubscribe 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------*