2020 MARCH 22 - 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! THIS LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVYaqjM0J64B7W_FUGfpkzNF0O_21cu__ ---------------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING MARCH 15 - 2020 IN OUR 25th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS Due to concerns raised over the Covoid-19 virus, many events in the forthcoming weeks are being cancelled or postponed. Please check before travelling to any event. THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA Due to concerns raised over the Covoid-19 virus, many events in the forthcoming weeks are being cancelled or postponed. Please check before travelling to any event. Tasmania has closed its borders, so what of our WIA AGM? WIA Vice President Aidan joins us shortly One event that would have gone over the 100 'guest rule' as to take place just north of Brisbane in VK4 so REDFEST 2020 has been cancelled. "Greetings from the Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club VK4RC, right here in south East QLD. Robert Thomson VK4TFN here, with a REDFEST 2020 update. This is indeed a sad turn of events. However, the Executive has had no choice but to cancel REDFEST 2020, due to the current public health concerns. Next year, there will be a REDFEST 2021, circumstances permitting. We will be participating in the John Moyle contest as individual operators. We wish to extend our gratitude to the broader Amateur Radio community for your support. We hope we can depend upon your support in the future. Go to: Triple w dot redcliffe radio club dot org dot au. We're also on Facebook. Bye for now and 73s from the Redcliffe and Districts Radio Club VK4RC. Thank you Robert Thomson " Along with the many other cancellations of events throughout the country where there are a number of people likely to attend them Amateur Radio New South Wales has done likewise and cancelled the scheduled Sunday March the 29 th Trash and Treasure event along with the Experimenters Group lecture which would have been held later in the day ..Other ARNSW activities of members at the Dural site are under review. Interested parties are reminded to listen to the Sunday VK2WI News sessions for updates. Notice of cancellation of The Urunga Radio Convention The Urunga Radio Convention Committee advises that the Field Days to be held at Easter weekend, 11 and 12 of April 2020 has been cancelled due to the restrictions and conditions placed upon the Convention by the various government authorities in the light of COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first Urunga Convention that has failed in 72 years and it is a personal blow to the organising committee. We wish to thank all our supporters and we will return at Easter in 2021. (Ken Golden, President - TEXT EDTION) VK3 - EMDRC Committee after due consideration, have decided to cancel/postpone 2020 EMDRC HamFest on Sunday 29 March. VK3 - GippsTech 2020 has been cancelled VK6 - Bob VK6POP in a phone hookup has told how PerthTech at Bassendean is to be cancelled, more of that in the local NewsWest VK7 - Meet the Voice organiser Dani VK7FREQ also has made the decision to cancel the Meet the Voice gathering. ZL - For our Kiwi friends your Conference 2020 is cancelled. NZART Council has made the decision to cancel the Conference in Shantytown this year. This is due to the COVID-19 situation and taking on board all the advice for doing so. NZART Council expresses its thanks to the Conference 2020 Organising Committee for all the hard work put in to run this event, and the preparations done to date. Those who have registered to attend in Shantytown, contact Debby at HQ advising a bank account for registration payments to be refunded to. The world’s MAJOR Ham gathering has of course been cancelled, Dayton Hamvention Executive Committee advised their patrons late Sunday. Due to concerns raised over the Covoid-19 virus, many events in the forthcoming weeks are being cancelled or postponed. Please check before travelling to any event. WIA Not a WIA Member? details email nationaloffice@wia.org.au OR the link on bottom right of wia.org.au wia.memnet.com.au/MemberSelfService/NewMemberForm/WIA/NewMemberForm.aspx WIA board minutes can be found on wia.org.au click WIA Information. Directors heard usually as follows Greg VK2GPK (President), Peter VK8ZZ (Secretary), Mike VK8MA, Aidan VK4APN, John VK4JJW Arguably one of the most important Special Board Meetings in our 110 years took place, electonically, Wednesday night. Our Vice President chaired, and is here with us now on one of the issues:- This is Aidan, VK4APM with this weeks board comment. No news presentation seem complete these days without some mention of the COVID-19, the Novel Coronavirus that has driven panic and fear into the worlds economic and social engines. And this broadcast is no exception The health and well being of the Amateur cohort and our members is of the highest priority. Out of an abundance of caution, consideration for the health and wellbeing of our members, and in an effort to deliver certainty to the Amateur community (not to mention a federal government mandate), the board of the WIA met last Wednesday and endorsed the recommendation of the 2020 WIA Conference Organising committee to cancel this event. The 2021 WIA Conference will take place in Hobart. The organising committee has recommended, and the board has agreed, that the 2021 conference be arranged at a date and time such that those who receive credits for flights and accommodation are in a position to use them within the 12 month time frame that has been announced by all Australian airline carriers. The organising committee will make information regarding the 2021 WIA conference available in the near future. We would like to thank the organising committee for the enormous amount of work put into the 2020 WIA Conference and the large number of people who have already subscribed. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. These are extraordinary times and they require extraordinary measures. All those who have paid registrations will receive a full refund over the coming days. The Annual General Meeting is a legal requirement stipulated by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The board has sought advice from Australian Securities and Investment Commission and will provide an update to members in due course. The WIA board would like to encourage all operators to practice social separation, wash and dry your hands regularly and promptly seek advice if you feel you are affected by COVID-19. Stay safe, Thats all from me VK4APM Thanks Aidan, I did ask the board again about when we will be given the result of the WIA Poll on callsign makeup and Aidan has said " Poll for inclusion next week, I didnt want to have 2 messages in the market (ie: corona virus and the poll)) Hopefully also next week the result of our January call for new Directors. WIA Director John VK4JJW here with some info on the Amateur Radio Exam Service conducted by the Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania. AMC Exams are OFF, as from Monday 23rd of March. The AMC has contacted all registered assessors and advised that it will TEMPORARILY suspend the Exam service with no further face to face examinations to be conducted, and to monitor the AMC Website for updates as the situation progresses. Of course, this is because of that pesky COVID-19 virus problem again Under direction from the University of Tasmania policy, all face to face teaching and related activities are to cease, and this will include the AMC Amateur Radio assessors. Furthermore, no examination papers will be issued from the office. New developments, including the 2x1 Callsigns will be on hold until the situation has resolved. You can check on the detail of this as posted by our WIA President Greg VK2GPK, on the WIA Website under the News Releases section. I'm John VK4JJW. ---------------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of Although, as previously announced, DAYTON will not go ahead due to COVID-19, the Dayton Hamvention has named the recipients of its 2020 awards. Steve Franke, K9AN, Bill Somerville, G4WJS and Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT have been awarded the Technical Achievement Award. This next international story has its roots right here in VK. Unfortunately due the our newsrooms browser attack on Editor Grahams PC it did not make it to the Aussie news BUT here's the story as I filed to ARNewsLine:- AUSTRALIA CHANGING TERMS OF RECIPROCAL LICENSES The Newswest broadcast team in Western Australia have alerted that Amateurs holding a licence in Australia, which was obtained under a reciprocal licencing arrangement, have now had their licence term shortened to one year and they are no longer automatically renewable. The ACMA, Australia's national regulator's action impacts the apparatus licence for Hams wishing to operate in Australia for more than 3 months but has no impact on the 3-month allowance given to operators on holiday in Australia operating under the CEPT agreement. ACMA states on their website that they now require holders of any licence issued under a reciprocal agreement to sit the Amateur Operator's Certificate of Proficiency examination before their licences can become annually renewable. The examination is taken through the Australian Maritime College at a cost of 90 Australian dollars. I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. PLEASE NOTE:- The ACMA has since updated its position on "grand-fathering-in" of existing licensees. Those in Australia who obtained their Australian license based on a foreign qualification before 19th September 2019 will be able to continue renewing their license each year. The 12-month limit only applies to reciprocal licenses issued since September 2019. NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE FORCE GETTING NEW HF RADIOS In New Zealand, the military is relying more than ever before on HF radio. Underscoring his faith in the reliability of HF radio communications, Ron Mark, the Defence Minister of New Zealand, has announced that the engineering company Babcock NZ Ltd. will be replacing the HF radio capability of the New Zealand Defence Force. The official's announcement was an acknowledgement of HF radio's ability to provide coverage when conventional communications do not work and in areas unreachable by satellites. The infrastructure to be replaced was installed in the 1980s and is now outdated, he said. He expects it to be in place by August of 2023. In the USA their Army is rethinking its use of radios and has asked Congress to approve $3 billion to pay for tactical network radios that will enable more secure battlefield communications. The radios are expected to be a combination of handhelds and Manpack radios and they would be acquired during the next four years and include a 2-channel Leader radio and a Rifleman radio. According to budget documents quoted, the Army plans a test of two-channel radio technologies but will also evaluate use of single-channel radios that make use of advanced networking waveforms. AMSAT-Brazil QO-100 FT8 QRPp experiment AMSAT-BR is organizing a reverse beacon FT8 QRPp experiment / contest via the QO-100 geostationary amateur radio transponder The first 10 spotted stations with lower SNR will receive a Certificate of Accomplishment. The dead line will be May 1st 2020. To qualify, the Signal to Noise Ratio must be lower than -18 dB as measured by the ft8 decoder. The receiver will be active on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 UTC to 24:00 UTC and will be tuned to 10.489540 GHz with a 3.5 kHz bandwidth. All stations calling CQ will be logged. The objective for the project is to raise low power experimentation through the QO-100 narrow band transponder. Stations participating in the experiment are welcome to send a brief description of their setup, including information about RF power output, hardware and software setups, antenna type and gain, photos, etc. to the email address in this weeks WIA text edition. py2sdr@gmail.com You can listen to the QO-100 transponder downlink online at eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ QO-100 information amsat-uk.org/satel --------------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT This is Denis VK4AE WIA Contest Manager for the John Moyle Memorial Field Day 2020. This year’s contest is nearing completion as you hear this message, so to all who have taken part or are taking part, thank you for taking the extra time and effort to participate. The weather this year has been far less than fair, with many perfect operating sites destroyed by fire or flood. With the added complexity of the virus pandemic, this contest has added complexities undreamed of previously. As the aim of the field day contest is to encourage familiarisation with portable operation and to provide training for operations in emergency situations. Simply setting up and operating a station is the ideal of the contest. Previously, we had a number of club statins wanting to claim portable operation from their clubrooms as they were not keen to operate portable. In addition, there were club stations who felt that operating in the local caravan park, using mains power was also ‘portable’ operation. Of course, none of these club stations were operated according to the rules or to the spirit of the contest. No matter how you took part in the contest, after the activity is all over and the radio equipment has been packed away, there is one task that must be completed by all stations. They must submit their log for the contest for the validation of those contacts for the other stations. There is sufficient time allowed after the contest to actually complete and submit their log to the WIA. However, because of the altered publishing lead time of AR Magazine, Logs must be postmarked no later than 5th April 2020, and as the post is now so slow and unreliable, logs despatched even on the last day may not arrive in time. Electronic versions of the log will only be received until midnight 12th April 2020. Any logs received after this date will be returned as ineligible. So, there are not many excuses today for not sending in your log as it can be kept electronically while the contest is under way using one of the many logging programs such as VK Contest Log (VKCL) by our own Mike VK3AVV. Then you simply have to submit the print file from this program to me via one of the e-mail addresses shown on the contest page on the WIA website. Of course, submitting your log you automatically enter the contest and you never know you might even get a certificate? Best of luck to you all in the field day, for those still working in the contest and I look forward to receiving your log entry after the event Thanks for listening This is Denis VK4AE -------------- AM and CW on ANZAC Day, 25th April 2020 While news is coming in about ANZAC Day Ceremonies in 2020 sensibly being cancelled to restrict the spread of COVID-19 and to protect veterans health, one event will be going ahead regardless as it meets all the requirements for social distancing whilst still honouring all who have served both fallen and alive. The AM and CW on ANZAC Day event will again take to the air for the 9th year to honour those modes used by service personnel in earlier wars. -------------- 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. -------------- Harry Angel Sprint 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 and due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these expeditions with a quick 'google' for up-to-date status information. -------------- Mike VE7ACN from Easter Island till 30th March. He will use mainly CW on 80 – 10m and the callsign will be CE 0 Y / VE 7 ACN. QSL via Club Log OQRS. -------------- VU 4 R on Neil Island in the Andaman Islands until 31st March. They plan to be active on all bands 160 – 10m using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. QSL manager is M 0 OXO. -------------- AK 4 JK has been reported as active from Somalia using the callsign 6 O 0 /AK 4 JK on 40 and 20m CW around 1700z. QSL to the home call. -------------- YI / IU 5 HWS Iraq from 20th March for four months. He is with the Italian army and will not be able to QSL until he when he returns home. -------------- G3TXF is in Mauritius until the 27th of March using callsign 3 B 8 XF. concentrating on 80 and 160m. QSLs go via Club Log OQRS and logs will be uploaded to Logbook of The World. JUST REPEATING For those with an interest in the VHF and UHF beacons - please note that the 23 cm VK2RSY at Dural - normally on 1296.420 MHz is off air pending a relocation to a new mounting - , as yet to be determined. Some of the VK2WI News HF frequencies have also been off air while their antennas were relocated. All this has been brought about when the former repeater tower was demolished. The VK2RWI - 6 - 2 and 70 - repeaters now operate from the new mono-pole. The 23 cm repeater will follow after some antenna mounting adjustments. . ( ARNSW by Tim VK2ZTM ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org A CUBESAT WITH DREAMS OF MEMES It's still a work-in-progress but there's a first for everything, even in the now-familiar realm of CubeSats. Meet MEMESAT-one, designed to be the world's first CubeSat to transmit memes. That's right - no scientific data, no Morse Code message - but memes, those addictively appealing, infinitely shareable bits of content that young people typically enjoy most especially on social media. MEMESat-one, however, plans to do it from space, something its developers at the non-profit letsgo2space.com have said could probably happen next year. The MEME-Sat will transmit the images stored in flash memory via the 70cm band for those waiting on earth below. We hams, by the way, are also part of this scenario: The CubeSat will also be available for traditional amateur radio use with an FM repeater on UHF and VHF. (ARNewsLine) IARU R2 Emergency Communication and Satellite Workshops to be online With the travel restrictions and self-isolation requirements of many countries due to COVID-19, the May 30 and 31 workshops will be online and the format will be 3 hours for each workshop to be held on the same dates starting at 1400 local time AST/ET, 1800 UT. Access will be via Zoom, an easy to use online conference tool available on a number of platforms. Attendees will get an agenda for each workshop and information on how to participate in mid-May. Please continue to sign up at iaru-r2.org/workshop-2020 (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- MILITARY WWII VETS HONORED DURING FLORIDA SPECIAL EVENT The nearly 48,000 World War II veterans who got their training at the Buckingham Army Airfield in Florida are being honoured by hams operating a special event station from March 24 through March 26. The Fort Myers Amateur Radio Club will be on the air from the former airfield from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on those three days, marking the site's importance. Today it is privately owned and is known as Buckingham Field. It has a proud history as a flexible gunnery training base for United States soldiers who defended against bombers during the Second World War. QSL cards and a commemorative certificate will be available for successful contacts. (ARNewsLine) --------------------------------------------------------------------* This is Peter VK8ZZ, the secretary of the WIA. As advised elsewhere in this broadcast by vice president Aiden VK4APM, the 2020 AGM has been cancelled. This is because of the issue with CoVID-19. The Board has also decided to postpone the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING to a date to be determined later this year I will advise more details in the next few weeks This has been Peter VK8ZZ 2020 Social Scene Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information. Outdoor events of LESS than 500 attendees can proceed if these proceedures are followed. Consider the size of the space, the number of people in it, and how much room people have to move around safely — as a general rule, people should be able to keep 1.5 metres apart Make hand hygiene products and suitable rubbish bins readily available. Conduct frequent cleaning and waste disposal AND we would ask all clubs who have posted details of their events on the wia calendar to make any alterations NOW EVENTS NOT NOTIFYING NATIONAL NEWS THEY ARE CANCELLED:- VK6 - HARGFest Sunday the 19th of April at Lesmurdie (wia) VK3 - Moorabbin & District Radio Club HamFest (vk3gl) 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 6-7 (vk5hcf) VK3 - Gippsland Gate Radio and Electronics Club HamFest Sat July 11 Cranbourne Public Hall (vk3qx) 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) SO Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------*