2020 MARCH 8 - VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA ---------------------------------------------------------------------* THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK 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. Again this week no Directors spot BUT again this and every week you can SEE the news, A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS IS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN and the link to his "RadioActive" youtube channel is in "the written word" this week, best read at wia.org.au youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVYaqjM0J64B7W_FUGfpkzNF0O_21cu__ ---------------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING MARCH 08 - 2020 IN OUR 25th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA 2020 Annual Conference Organising Committee's Ben VK7BEN with what's on next. 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. Again this week no WIA Directors spot BUT again this and every week you can SEE the news, A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS IS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN and the link to his "RadioActive" youtube channel is in "the written word" this week, best read at wia.org.au Tim VK2ZTM from ARNSWdid contact the national news desk this week to say next Wednesday, March 11 will be the 110 anniversary of the meeting in Sydney of the Experimenters of the day who were trying to get a better deal from the authorities. From that meeting grew the Wireless Institute of New South Wales' later the NSW Division. Over time the other Divisions and the W I A developed. The date of 11 th March 1910 - through the W I A makes it the oldest National Amateur Radio Society in the world. Amateur Radio New South Wales is the name adopted by the former NSW Division to avoid confusion with the WIA and is proud to be able to trace its origin back to that first meeting. ARNSW will be holding a small celebration at the March Trash & Treasure being held at Dural on Sunday the 29 th of March Tim VK2ZTM Next Wednesday, the 11th March will be the 110 anniversary of the meeting in Sydney of the Experimenters of the day who were trying to get a better deal from the authorities. From that meeting grew the Wireless Institute of New South Wales' later the NSW Division. Over time the other Divisions and the W I A developed. The date of 11 th March 1910 - through the W I A makes it the oldest National Amateur Radio Society in the world. Amateur Radio New South Wales is the name adopted by the former NSW Division to avoid confusion with the WIA and is proud to be able to trace its origin back to that first meeting. ARNSW will be holding a small celebration at the March Trash & Treasure being held at Dural on Sunday the 29 th of March ?WIA Broadcast – 8 March 2020 WIA Annual Conference 2020 wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/2020agm/ Hello this is Ben VK7BEN from the WIA 2020 Annual Conference Organising Committee. We continue this week with information about some of the other Sunday activities… We have covered in previous weeks the trip out to the Grote Reber Museum and Radio Telescope and the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum. There are another two great options available on the Sunday. These include the Tasmanian Maritime Museum and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The Maritime Museum is housed in the beautiful Carnegie building and features many maritime themed displays from convict times through to modern day. They will even have displayed especially for the conference weekend the original letter that Roald Amundsen wrote to the Norwegian King following his trip to Antarctica. maritimetas.org/ The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has a permanent exhibition called Island to Ice. This exhibition examines the definitions, perceptions and mythology of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It explores the places, the people, the creatures and the phenomena that make the great southern wilderness a world of its own. It is an invitation to journey south from Hobart across the oceans to the frozen continent of Antarctica. tmag.tas.gov.au/whats_on/exhibitions/permanent/islands_to_ice And now a Stop Press of sorts - The Mawsons Hut’s Replica Museum has just announced that it is now exhibiting a unique piece of Antarctic aviation history for the first time. Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson was the first person to fly a plane in Antarctica and the tail section of the aircraft is now an exhibit at the Mawson's Huts Replica Museum. Mawson had planned to use a Vickers monoplane but it crashed in Adelaide before departure for Antarctica so, he decided to use the fuselage of the damaged aircraft to fashion the air tractor he used to tow sledges in Antarctica. The modified aircraft only made one trip, towing a sledge for 19km before the engine seized, but it remains the first plane to fly in Antarctica. It was affectionately known as “The Grasshopper” mawsons-huts.org.au/ I finish with a quick reminder about the discounts at the venue, Best Western – just remind them it’s for the “WIA conference” and that there are also discounts on Spirit of Tasmania ferries for fares and accommodation. discovertasmania.com.au/about/climate-and-weather https://bestwesternhotelhobart.com.au/ https://www.spiritoftasmania.com.au/offers/wia-annual-conference-2020 See you in Hobart. 73, from Ben VK7BEN and the WIA Annual Conference Organising Committee ---------------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of Global Shortwave Coordination The A20 Global Shortwave Coordination Conference was held in KL (Kuala Lumpur), at the end of last month and was the conference providing an important forum to resolve or minimize instances of mutual interference among shortwave transmissions for the Summer (A20) season. The A20 season runs from 29 March to 25 October in the calendar year 2020. Delegates from Short Wave Broadcasters and Frequency Management Organizations had a valuable opportunity to coordinate their frequencies directly with the frequency managers of other broadcasters in this regard. Thirty-one frequency managers from 18 countries representing 21 frequency management organizations took part part. The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union hosted the A20 Conference. NEW ZEALAND Whanganui Amateur Radio Society is looking for newcomers to take their HamCram course to get their 1 kW CEPT Class 1 equivalent license in just 2 days! New Zealand has a single class of license that permits 1 kW output and requires passing a single 60 question multiple choice exam, the pass mark is 40. HamCram courses have grown in popularity in recent years. People starting from scratch can get licensed with just two-days of study. Pass rates for many courses are 100% New UHF Radio Microphone Devices General User Spectrum Licences are required in ZL. The current licences will expire Wednesday 11 March 2020. New Radio Microphone Devices GUSL licences (666 MHz) commence on 12 March and will be in force until March 2025 GERMANY The Institute for Broadcasting Technology, an important radio resource, is closing its doors at the end of the year - though some are trying to save it with an on line petition. Broadcasting Technology, which is headquartered in Munich-Freimann, serves public broadcasting companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland with its research. Much of its work has focused on radio, TV and internet technology but it has also addressed amateur radio concerns with its study of RFI from LED lamps. rundfunk.verdi.de/++file++5e43c54cadbc719bab5ad993/download/Petition%20IRT%20English%20version.pdf] UNITED KINGDOM Guidance for limiting exposure to EMF Following the launch of an Ofcom Consultation on EM Field exposure, the RSGB has released a briefing paper for all UK amateurs. This gives more details as the proposals involve a change to licence conditions for any station operating with greater than 10W EIRP. The Society has formed a team to prepare a considered response to Ofcom's Consultation and will be offering further guidance ahead of the 15th of May deadline. The briefing paper is available on rsgb.org/emc-papers UNITED STATES US amateurs respond to 3.4GHz threat A proposal by the FCC in the USA to remove the entire amateur 3.4 GHz allocation without compensation has seen strong opposition as ARRL, AMSAT and hundreds of individual amateurs have filed comments in response to a current consultation. The ARRL highlighted decades of active usage and experimentation including mesh networks, amateur television, weak signal long- distance communication, EME communication, propagation research and emerging amateur satellite developments. In its comments, ARRL argued that it would therefore be premature to remove the current secondary amateur radio allocation in the US --------------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT -------------- WIA John Moyle Field Day 2020 Weekend 21-22 March from UTC 0100 on the Saturday to 0059 Sunday 22. -------------- March 28-29 the CQ World Wide WPX Contest for amateurs world-wide to contact as many amateurs and prefixes as possible during the contest using SSB. -------------- The date for the next Harry Angel Sprint will be Saturday May 2nd 2020. 10:00 - 11:46 UTC. -------------- May 30-31 the CQ World Wide WPX Contest for amateurs worldwide to contact as many amateurs and prefixes as possible during the contest using CW. -------------- The VK SHIRES the June long weekend, which is the weekend prior to the second Monday of June each year.. making it June 6 - 7 in 2020 -------------- IARU HF World Championship July 13-14 -------------- TRANS TASMAN LOWBAND CONTEST Next contest - 17 JUL 2020 - and has the aim of encouraging Low Band activity between VK and ZL on 160 80 and 40M using SSB, CW and RTTY OR PSK -------------- RD or Remembrance Day Contest will be August 15 - 16 -------------- OCEANA CONTEST VOICE from 0800 UTC Saturday October 3 to 0800 UTC Sunday October 4 CW from 0800 UTC Saturday October 10 to 0800 UTC Sunday October 11 -------------- CQ WW DX SSB OCTOBER 24-25 -------------- CQ WW DX CW NOVEMBER 28-29 -------------- December 6 - 8 160 Meter WW -------------- DECEMBER 14 - 15 10 Mtr World Wide -------------- TED POWELL MEMORIAL DX CHALLENGE 4 award periods, each of 3 months starting in January of each calendar year and 2 categories in the contest, MOST WANTED and TOP 5. Top 5 you try and work the 5 most wanted DXCC entity's Most Wanted you work the most wanted dxcc entity. The dx entity's in play are those most wanted DURING those 3 month windows. Complete details can be found at contest.fgarc.org.au/ -------------- All major AUSTRALIAN contests, rules and results, are on the Contest Section of the WIA website. wia.org.au/members/contests/about *********************** -------------- THROUGH THE DX WINDOW -------------- The 'DXCC Most Wanted' entities list has been updated on ClubLog and contains 340 entities. The following are the top 5 entities: 1. P5 DPRK (North Korea) 2. 3Y/B Bouvet Island 3. FT5/W Crozet Island 4. BS7H Scarborough Reef 5. CE0X San Felix Islands The 340th or least needed is Italy AND Australia ranks 298th -------------- A multi-national DXpedition led by Rune LA7THA are in Zambia until 15th March, callsign 9 J 2 LA and on 160 – 6m CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. (irts) -------------- Royal Netherlands Army's Belize operation Look for the 11 Airmobile Brigade from the Royal Netherlands Army and Radiosquad to be active as V 31 FX. This station will be operating and jungle training in Belize from different locations with different antennas on 20m phone using military equipment. As soon as they are able to make DX-contacts, they will update their QRZ.com page. Main focus is to make contacts with Dutch amateur radio stations, but all contacts are welcome. Please use NATO phonetic alphabet when calling. QSL via PI4CC (SouthGate) -------------- Sigi DL7DF and friends travel to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. TO7DL until 16th March on 160 – 10m including 60m, on CW, SSB and digital. QSL via DL7DF. (irts) -------------- Three Russian amateurs will operate as EX 0 QR from Kyrgystan until 17th March. Look for them on 160 – 10m on CW, SSB and Digital. (irts) -------------- Harald DF2WO has returned to Rwanda for another visit unti 22nd March and has reactivated his 9X2AW callsign. He plans to be on 160, 20, 17, 15 and 10m on CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. (irts) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report – Measure Twice cut Once. SCALEXTRIC A model with a difference which actually works in real time A working scale model of an HF curtain array antenna is on display at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in Ohio. The model, which operates on 70 centimeters, is a 4 × 2 design with a screen reflector, and is the same style of antenna the VOA Bethany Relay Station used until its final transmission in November 1994. West Chester Amateur Radio Association members Richard WC8RK, and Joe WA8OGS, designed and constructed this curtain array. EZNEC Pro 4 antenna modeling software indicates the antenna has a gain of 21.35 dBi at 8° at a half-wavelength above ground. The museum will open for extended hours during Dayton Hamvention for those interested in seeing the model. (Southgate) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVYaqjM0J64B7W_FUGfpkzNF0O_21cu__ THAT LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FEMALES IN RADIO. Female a first for Mastercom Jonathan Nally writing for Criticalcoms says Australian two-way radio communications firm Mastercom has appointed Ms Dale Doyle as its first female general manager. She began her employment with Mastercom 13 years ago as the company’s financial controller and upon this new appointment said" “I am absolutely thrilled to take on the role of general manager and look forward to making a positive impact on this ever-growing, well-established business.” Ms Dale has also played a critical role in assisting Mastercom’s Managing Director, Hamish Duff, in founding the Orion national network that links two-way radio communications across Australia, and in establishing Queensland company, Queensland Radio Services. Mastercom has recently undergone a considerable growth in operations and has more than doubled its staff numbers. criticalcomms.com.au/content/industry/news/mastercom-appoints-dale-doyle-as-general-manager-1153766817#ixzz6FEkohpj4 WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org New QO-100 Band Plan announced Just in time for the 1-year anniversary of the successful commissioning of the two transponders of Qatar-OSCAR 100, an encore is pending: The capacity of the NB transponder will be expanded to almost 500 KHz. In addition to extended areas for the various operating modes, more space is also being created in particular for "mixed mode" and other special operating cases. In addition to frequencies reserved for emergency radio operations, more experiments are to be made possible here. But all this only with a maximum bandwidth of 2.7 kHz. To take account of user behavior, AMSAT-DL has almost doubled the SSB range in particular. Detailed information is available when you read the text edition of this WIA National News cast amsat-dl.org/en/neuer-qo-100-bandplan/ (SouthGate) 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 Dept of Health Communications Test in Utah Lynden, KG7SXQ, tells how a covey of volunteers showed up in person and "on-the-air" to assist Hospitals and the Department of Health with a communications test across the US state. Some 30 volunteers (some from the DIXIE Amateur Radio club) across Southern Utah participated. VHF Net Control 2 meters and in Cedar City, digital, using 80 meters At Dixie Regional Medical Center and other hospitals, messages (preformatted) were sent. The radios also were at the Department of Health and from the Veterans Care Center with some volunteers checking in from their home QTH. It was a good day for Amateur Radio some community service (dixie newsletter) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - VHF AND ABOVE (The Plumbers Delight) The 23cm band is under scrutiny IARU Region One is actively participating in the regulatory work taking place in CEPT to consider coexistence between their secondary amateur (and amateur satellite) service and the primary radio navigation satellite service, principally the Galileo system. The Galileo services are delivered in a number of bands and one occupies the 1260-1300 MHz band. The Galileo team has witnessed interference from amateur TV transmissions which resulted in station shut down and has experienced interference from high power EME operations too. Work is at an early stage and the latest IARU Region 1 newsletter says they will continue to try and minimise the impact on amateur operations however it is likely that some changes will be necessary to the way the band is utilised. (iaru) --------------------------------------------------------------------* 2020 Social Scene VK4 - Tannum Sands Gathering March 14 (wia) VK7 - Meet the Voice event, Ross Recreation Centre Sun 22 March (vk7tw) VK3 - EMDRC HamFest Sunday March 29 ( A Scott) VK4 - REDFEST 2020 18th April. St. Michael's College Old Toorbul Point Rd from 8am (vk4tfn) VK6 - PerthTech May 2 at Bassendean (vk6pop) VK - WIA Annual Conference, Hobart 8-10 May. (vk7tw) VK4 - CHARC Theresa Creek Campout Friday 29 til Sunday 31 May (wia) VK5 - South East Radio Group Annual Convention and Australian Fox Hunting Championships. June 6-8 (vk5hcf) VK3 - Gippsland Gate Radio and Electronics Club HamFest Sat July 11 Cranbourne Public Hall (vk3qx) VK3 - GippsTech 2020 July 11 (vk3wre) VK4 - Caboolture Radio Club HamFest July 11 (vk7jea) VK6 - NCRG HamFest Sunday 30th August (vk6ya) VK4 - CHARC Inc. AGM Weekend Sept 25-27 at Fairbairn Dam (wia events) VK - ALARAMEET 2020 Bendigo October 2 - 5 (vk5yl) VK7 - VK7 biennial HamFest November (vk7tw) 2021 VK4 - TARC Australia Day Long Week Family Radio Camp 2021 Thursday afternoon 21st to Tuesday afternoon 26th January 2021 Girl Guides Association of Queensland Campsite and Training Centre, 46-56 Toolakea Beach Road, Bluewater. AX4WIT will be on-air from the camp. (vk4zz) 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 wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 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. (First if YOU are reading your own item) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------* ===================================================================== WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide. TWITTER 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? 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------*