2020 JUNE 21 - 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 wia.org.au click news in member area & submit your audio 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. Click the links below to download the most recent edition of National News, BUT this is ONLY the backup site! wiaq.org.au/ftp/wianews_128.mp3 (28 megs) wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/ (This is the link to the original text version and original audio on wia site) THIS LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos ---------------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING JUNE 21 - 2020 IN OUR 25th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS WIA DIRECTOR / VP AIDAN VK4APM 60 M POLL. - WIA DIRECTOR / DECRETARY PETER CLEE VK8ZZ AND AR MAGAZINE. - WIA DIRECTOR LEE MOYLE VK3GKWIA Special Event Callsign Online Roster and Logging System. - WIA DIRECTOR LEE MOYLE VK3GK COVID-19 RADIO COMMUNICATION EVENT. - WIA DIRECTOR LEE MOYLE VK3GKFACE TO FACE AMC Amateur Radio Examinations to resume shortly. THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA The Wireless Broadband Alliance has invited all organisations in the Wi-Fi ecosystem to join WBA OpenRoaming and become part of a globally available Wi-Fi federation that offers an automatic and secure connection of billions of devices to millions of Wi-Fi networks. WBA OpenRoaming provides a new, global, standards-led approach, removing public-guest Wi-Fi connectivity barriers and bringing greater convenience and security to the wireless ecosystem. It also removes the need to search for Wi-Fi networks, to repeatedly enter or create login credentials, or to constantly reconnect or re-register to public Wi-Fi. Wireless Broadband Alliance is an industry association formed to promote interoperability between operators in the Wi-Fi industry, with the stated aim of providing an excellent user experience. To achieve this, the WBA promotes interoperability. criticalcomms.com.au/content/industry/article/wba-openroaming-aims-for-one-global-network-1525211199#ixzz6OufG6hX2 wballiance.com/ 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 regular broadcast roster Jun 14 = Greg VK2GPK (President), Jun 21 = Peter VK8ZZ (Secretary), Jun 28 = Aidan VK4APN (VP Retires July 25) Jul 5 = Lee Moyle VK3GK Jul 12 = Philip Shields VK2CPR Jul 19 = Oscar Reyes VK3TX The Annual General Meeting for 2020 will be a hybrid meeting to be held on 25th July 2020 at the National Office in BAYSWATER VIC with due restraint as to the COVID-19 restrictions. (WIA Sec) WIA DIRECTOR / VP AIDAN VK4APM Howdy, I'm here with results of WIA's poll number 3 in response to the ACMAs consultation paper on making 60 m available to Amateurs. I would like to thank the approximately 1200 people who responded to the survey. Clearly this topic is not as exciting as some of the previous polls. First, the numbers... In 4th place, with 3% of the vote, option #4 - which for those of you who don’t remember, was in summary "Don’t give amateurs access". I can hear the booing from you all now but to the credit of those who responded in this way, the is significant thought as evidenced by comments like " ... Based on experience garnered when the WIA prepared the submission for the expansion of the 80 mx DX window in the mid 1990's, it is clear that the ONLY means of ensuring non-interference is to remove the commercial allocations from the proposed band ..." In 3rd place, with 12% of the vote, was option #1 - to remind you - this was, in effect "Let all hams in Australia have the whole band. unless you are in Queensland" Being a Queenslander myself I was disappointed that anyone voted for this - but that’s how a democracy works.... A few respondents recognised the issue with this and offered suggestions like "... Perhaps suggest a program with a long term goal to bring all emergency services frequency's standard in all states this would make cross border operations much simpler." In 2nd place, with 15% of the vote was option #3 - which was to channelize the band. At least these people gave we Queenslanders a fair go with it, the option 3 responded had little good to say .. One responded stating "... So small it’s useless ... " while another stated "... " I can’t see much use of this band, most of [the] HF bands are underutilised". and another still, "... The proposed EIRP limit is patently absurd and should be bought into line with normal power limits " Finally in 1st place, with a staggering 70% of the vote, was option #2 but with this came some suggestions with one responded stating ".. I would actually prefer a combination of 1 & 2. Full Australia wide access but with the top 1.5kHz excluded within 200km of commercial operators. The 60 m band is ideal for daytime NVIS use during sunspot minimum. It is also likely to be useful for mobile stations with low radiation efficiency antennas given the eirp limits imposed. ..." Clearly everyone has a different opinion, but what is clear, Amateur operators in Australia are thinkers, and the deep consideration given to these poll topics is appreciated. That’s all from me, 73, vk4apm WIA DIRECTOR / DECRETARY PETER CLEE VK8ZZ Late last year the WIA Editor in Chief Harry VK6YBZ resigned due to ill health. At that time the WIA advertised for three editors to replace Harry but there were no resulting volunteers coming forward. President Greg VK2GPK took over the reins of the AR Publications Group and did an excellent job in production of the subsequent editions of AR Magazine including the January / February edition 2020. The Board of the WIA will provide members with a weekly progress report on this news broadcast service until editions 2 and 3 of 2020 are in the hands of our members. Moving forward we have now appointed a new AR Publications Group secretary and the board are still seeking three editors to work on the AR magazine. Please forward your expressions of interest to the secretary Stay safe in this time of crisis and remember #2MetresMatters This has been WIA Director and Secretary Peter VK8ZZ WIA DIRECTOR LEE MOYLE VK3GK WIA Special Event Callsign Online Roster and Logging System A very special thanks goes to both Marc Hillman VK3OHM and Robert Broomhead VK3DN for their tireless efforts over the last couple of weeks in bringing to reality the new “ WIA Special Event Callsign Online Roster and Logging System. ” The WIA has several Special Callsigns active currently which are available for all WIA affiliated Clubs and their members to use for on air activations. Previously to coordinate this was quite a painstaking manual process, however not any more as the complete online system is live an fully operational. Callsigns available to use at the moment are VK1WIA to VK8WIA, VI110WIA and VK20HOME. To book you operating time slots, which are currently in 3 day blocks, just go to the WIA website, wia.org.au select “members” and from the drop down box select “online logbook”. There you will be greeted with simple instructions to select your Affiliated Club and to request your password to enable to book your time slots for activation of your chosen special event callsign. There are some simple operational criteria for logging that must be met to comply with ACMA regulations. You can use the WIA live realtime online log from your PC browser or you can use a 3rd party logger like N1MM, VKCL, DXLab, HRD etc, in fact any logger that will allow an ADIF file output to enable direct log file uploads to the website logger portal. Once registered, it will be a simple task to share the times amongst your club members. All WIA affiliated clubs and their members qualify to operate. Just remember to operate at your level of proficiency when using the special callsigns. All WIA special event callsigns have been registered with LOTW, eQSL and Clublog, so they are available for use with the WIA awards Program and for general confirmations for other world wide awards like DXCC, Worked all Zones etc. Go to wia.org.au/members/onlinelogbook/about/ to see the online logger and book you operating times. All callsigns are currently available for activation until December 31st 2020 COVID-19 RADIO COMMUNICATION EVENT On the weekend of June 6th and 7th VK20HOME was activated during the Covid-19 Activity Day Event. FT8, SSB and CW was used and a few hundred contacts globally were had. Although the HF Band conditions were a little down the operators managed some good long path openings to Europe and Short path to North America. As VK20HOME was a special callsign during the event, it offered the stations who made the contacts happy as it provided some extra points in their quest and a confirmation with Australia. VK20HOME is available to any WIA affiliated club to activate until December 31st 2020. Just go the the WIA website online logger and register your time slots. FACE TO FACE AMC Amateur Radio Examinations to resume shortly. This is excellent news received earlier this week from the AMC office that Assessors will be moving back to restricted face to face exams subject to some strict guidelines. In summary: 1. All exam locations must have a COVID Safe Plan in place and you must, for your own safety, follow that Plan; as well as 2. Comply with the University Guidelines which have been developed for your wellbeing; 3. All exam sessions must be approved by AMC Amateur Radio Office in advance. Examination papers will not be issued and you will understand that we will not accept exam papers which may have been exposed to an unsafe environment. We appreciate that there is extra work involved, however, this is a first step to a return to a near normal as we can reasonably manage and we have sought special approval from the University of Tasmania to do this. Currently the only option of sitting your Amateur radio exams is via remote assessment which can only be administered by approved level 3 AMC assessors. If ready to be assessed then please go to the AMC, Australian Maritime College website to register you interest and have an assessor appointed to you for the remote exam. To register or contact the AMC office go to: amc.edu.au/industry/amateur-radio 73 from Lee VK3GK ---------------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of the WIA. IARU Paper on Increasing Noise from Digital Devices International Amateur Radio Union electromagnetic compatibility specialists Tore Worren and Martin Sach have submitted a paper to the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) concerning the increasing impact of multiple digital devices on noise levels in the radio spectrum. “IARU hopes that the result of this will be amendments to the way in which standards are developed to recognize the need to properly consider the cumulative impact of multiple devices,” said IARU Region 1 President Don Beattie. I just heard this from the border And what I saw made me know for sure We're out of order ( apologies to LRB but those lyrics kinda ring true for this item ) Russian-Ukrainian Border Radio War Continues:- The International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Monitoring System reports the Russian-Ukrainian radio war, which had been raging for years at 7 055 kHz LSB ( as well as on 7 050 or 7 060 kHz ) has reached a new escalation level. “Almost every day, one hears the most massive mutual insults and aggressive, provocative hate rap music in Russian,” IARU newsletter editor and IARUMS Region 1 Coordinator Peter Jost said. Furthermore, from time to time, we saw insulting symbols ( e.g., skulls) in the waterfall.” It’s believed the perpetrators are located in the border region of eastern Ukraine with the Russian Federation. In May, a digital jammer appeared, with interference temporarily up to about 12 – 15 kHz. “[IARUMS] has no means to stop this radio war,” Peter Jost wrote. “Only national authorities can do something with international complaints.” The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club intruder watch has submitted an official report on the interference to the German telecommunications regulator. UNITED KINGDOM The team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with European Space Agency Education, have announced that all 6,558 of this year’s successful Astro Pi programs have now run aboard the International Space Station. That's right, the ISS ran 6558 Astro Pi Youth Programs in 2019/20 This year, a record 6350 teams of students and young people from all 25 eligible countries successfully entered Mission Zero, and had their programs run on the Astro Pi computers on board the ISS for 30 seconds each. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity that works to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world. tinyurl.com/ANS-166-RaspberryPi USA JAMMING PLAGUES CHICAGO POLICE RADIOS In one U.S. city, the challenge of keeping life orderly during troubled times has been amplified and complicated for police because of one issue that is well-known to radio amateurs: jamming. Kent KC 0 DGY has that story. "Jamming is perhaps one of the most adversarial forces out there for ham radio operators. Now one Midwestern city's police department is afflicted with the same problem - in the middle of the kind of explosive riots, looting and protests that are rocking many of the cities around the United States. As Chicago police officers struggled to respond to dispatchers' emergency radio calls in the troubled city, jammers were filling the frequencies with music and slogans that interrupted communications, according to a report in the Chicago Sun Times newspaper. Dan Casey, deputy director of public safety information technology in the Office of Emergency Management and Communications said that although some police frequencies are encrypted, most officers' radios aren't protected from hacking, although the move in cities across the U.S. is to employ more secure digital radio systems. Casey told the newspaper that local and federal authorities were being given recordings of the transmissions. Jamming is illegal and an accused jammer can face a substantial prison term if convicted. So now to the GOOD news from the USA this week where we see that Volunteer Monitor Program Coordinator Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, said the program has recognized numerous radio amateurs with Good Operator Notices. “One facet of the ARRL and FCC agreement that set up the Volunteer Monitor Program calls for ARRL to recognize especially good amateur radio behaviour, in order to encourage compliance with FCC rules and further the efficiency of the Amateur Radio Service,” Riley said. Seventeen operators in 15 states received Good Operator Notices in the first quarter of 2020. The Good Operator Notices went to veteran operators as well as newcomers, including a 13-year-old in North Carolina for CW operation during the Youth on the Air Special Event, and a 14-year-old in Wyoming for SSB operation.” A repeater operator received a Good Operator Report for establishing and managing a COVID-19 net in Pennsylvania. Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH had served as Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau in the early start of this century and had been a Disk Jockey WRHI, an AM station in South Carolina. DOMINICANO Radio Club Dominicano's 94th anniversary June 12 marked the 94th anniversary of the founding of the Radio Club Dominicano, Inc. by Dir. Carlos Regus HI8CR In 1908 three young men were captivated by the new communication methods of the time. In 1921 Dr. Regus and two friends and classmates who shared a love and passion for Amateur Radio met to establish what is now Radio Club Dominicano. On June 12, 1926, they decided to launch the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD), which has been active ever since carrying on the principals of its founder and President Emeritus, promoting and developing Amateur Radio service and collaborating with relief institutions when they need its services, offering support for communications in emergency situations. Their motto? You have to support, maintain and grow what you want to see exist. --------------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT On air right now this weekend you'll hear many wireless sets in operation taking part in the All Asian DX contest running from 0000 UTC on the 20th to 2359 UTC on the 21st. It's CW only on the 1.8 to 28MHz contest bands, with the exchange being signal report and operators age. -------------- NZART Memorial Contest July 4 and 5 -------------- IARU HF World Championship July 13-14 -------------- TRANS TASMAN LOWBAND CONTEST Next contest - 17 JUL - 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 0600 UTC Saturday October 3 to 0600 UTC Sunday October 4 CW from 0600 UTC Saturday October 10 to 0600 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 *********************** AUSTRALIA. Members of the Wireless Institute of Australia are QRV with special call VI 110 WIA until the end of 2020 to celebrate our 110th anniversary, in fact the world's oldest Amateur Radio Society. Activity is on the HF bands and QSL is via LoTW. -------------- CUBA, CO. Special event station CO 200 SMP is QRV until June 30 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of San Miguel del Padron, one of the fifteen municipalities that make up the city of Havana. Activity is on the HF bands using CW, SSB and FT8. QSL direct to CO 2 AME. (SouthGate) -------------- The 28th of June is the Centenary of the Royal Corps of Signals. The Royal Signals Museum has a permanent special event callsign, GB 100 RSM, and activity will be until the end of June on the 40, 20 and 17m bands, using SSB and CW. (sourced to RSGB) -------------- PERU, OA. Daniel, OA9DVK, is a missionary who is QRV from the Amazon Rain Forest in Peru. Activity is in his spare time is on 160 to 6 meters. QSL via LoTW. -------------- CANADA. Special event station VX3X is QRV until June 30 to commemorate the Apollo 13 space mission. -------------- Nicaragua Active will be YN 5 AO from Casa Guacalito, Guacalito de la Isla (WW Loc. EK61xi), Rivas, Nicaragua, between November 21st and December 5th. Activity on 160-10 meters mainly during the local evening and night hours. Focus will be on the low bands CW. Also YN5AO will be active in the CQWW DX CW Contest (November 28-29th). QSL via DL 7 VOA (SouthGate) ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WIRELESS WEATHER Well, we've finally got a good Solar Cycle 25 sunspot to talk about! Region 2765 was a big one with a number of spots appearing, taking the sunspot number to 17 at one point. But by the time it had rotated into the centre of the Sun, the spot had started to decline a little. While the sunspot had little effect on HF propagation, it is a good sign that we are moving in the right direction. New Sun Clock Quantifies Extreme Space Weather Switch On/Off Extreme space weather events can significantly impact systems such as satellites, communications systems, power distribution and aviation. The clock will help scientists to determine more precisely when the risk for solar storms is highest and help to plan the impacts of space weather on our space infrastructure, important since the next switch on of activity may be imminent as solar activity moves from its current minimum. Complete information at: preview.tinyurl.com/ANS-166-Clock [ANS] ---------------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - arvideonews.com hamradiotube.com youtube.com qdg.org.au tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos THAT LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- BALLOONING The first of a series from the Australian Department of Defence of high-altitude balloon launch trials has commenced, with the first balloon being successfully launched from West Wyalong in VK2. The trials aim to test Defence’s ability to quickly send sensors and communications equipment into the stratosphere… the under-utilised altitudes between where aircraft generally fly and where spacecraft orbit. “The trial aims to demonstrate Australian designed and developed launch capabilities that can deliver and maintain sensor payloads to an altitude that significantly improves situational awareness over a wide area,” said the Minister for Defence. “Having these high-altitude balloons as part of Australia’s sovereign capability means that we could deploy advanced sensors into the atmosphere quickly and cost-effectively, giving our forces comprehensive data in the air, on the ground or at sea.” criticalcomms.com.au/content/industry/news/high-altitude-balloon-carries-sensors-comms-1196643254#ixzz6P97hhdwB (sourced from the Critical Comms Web-e-zine via vk7wi news) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org 15 Canadian CubeSats to launch from 2021 Radio Amateurs of Canada report 15 CubeSat satellites are being built by students in Canada, all are expected to carry amateur radio payloads: Suspension of university classes due to the global pandemic could affect the teams’ progress, but all of the teams have chosen to use Amateur Radio communications and RAC continue to receive requests from them, although at a slower rate than in the past. About half of the teams have now received endorsements for their projects from RAC and have sent their proposals to the IARU for frequency coordination. rac.ca/the-rac-report-june-2020/ asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/cubesat/selected-teams-map.asp (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FT4 and FT8 FT 8 DMC Anniversary Activity Days 2020 To commemorate the 3rd anniversary, several special event stations will be on air during the "FT8DMC Activity Days" between July 1-31st. All stations will bear the FT DMC or FT DM suffix, referring to the anniversary of the 'FT8 Digital Mode Club'. Here 'downunder' listen for ZL 6 FTDMC ( Kiwi operator ZL1MV ) (SouthGate) --------------------------------------------------------------------* 2020 Social Scene KEEP ONE WAVELENGTH AWAY AT 144 Megacycles #2MetersMatters Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information. 2020 VK7 - VK7 biennial HamFest Nov 20-22 Miena Community Hall (vk7tw) VK4 - Rockhampton Amateur Radio Annual Dinner Sat Nov 21 (tarc) VK4 - TARC Xmas Party - Sun 13th December from 2pm (tarc) VK4 - TARC Xmas Lights Tour - Fri 18th December from 7pm (tarc) 2021 VK4 - TARC Australia Day Long Week Family Radio Camp Thursday afternoon 21st to Tuesday afternoon 26th January at Girl Guides Association of Queensland Campsite and Training Centre Bluewater. (vk4zz) VK2 - WYONG FIELD DAY (tentative) February 28 ( vk4zz) VK - ALARAMEET 2021 Bendigo October 1 - 4 (vk5yl) SOCIAL DISTANCING KEEP ONE WAVELENGTH AWAY AT 144 Megacycles FINAL FINAL Reception Reports WIA News rebroadcasters often give Short Wave Listeners a welcome to the broadcast as they commence call-backs straight after the Local News. Local news follows the National news in all states. It would be great if those SWL's would email their reception reports and location to callbacks@wia.org.au 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 would like to see the call-backs reported each broadcast, OR 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------*