2021 MAY 2 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA ------------------------------------------------------------* THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK THIS LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos ------------------------------------------------------------* NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING MAY 2 2021 IN OUR 26th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS ( 1937 in a mention we've come across relating to weekly broadcasts of information prepared by VK4 was a plea to restart the weekly news service which was on air in the late 1920's ) AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PORTAL Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest news, key facts and figures, contacts and answers to your questions. www.health.gov.au/ WIA AGM. - WIA BOARD TALK - DIRECTOR PHIL SHIELDS VK2CPR LOOKS AT ACMA'S 5 YEAR SPECTRUM OUTLOOK. THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA ACMA have been busy and sending out updates, not only on their recent close to $650 Million winfall from spectrum sales but also with ICT Day. Hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), ICT day aims to encourage more girls and young women to pursue STEM education and work in STEM careers, engage the community and promote collaboration through partnerships. This year, ACMA celebrated their colleagues who are inspiring the next generation of young women to pursue education and careers in ICT. tinyurl.com/4pwjxzkp In the other media release from ACMA regarding the sales of the 5G or the 5th generation mobile telecommunications 26GHz spectrum. And Remember 5G will now be on both 3GHz & 26GHz. 3GHz will give you mobile and wider area coverage where the 26GHz will cover Uni campuses, shopping centres etc, small area footprints but will give you mind blowing download speeds. It reeled in $648 Million! Doug VK2XLJ who also sent mationalnews@wia.com.au a copy of the ACMA release notes that licences won at auction will come into force later this year, for a 15-year term ending in 2036. https://acma.cmail20.com/t/d-l-qtidte-qkhwtydd-t/ WIA JOIN THE WIA tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y WIA BOARD MINUTES www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/minutes/ WIA BOARD NEWSLETTERS (older) Giving members to have a better awareness of Board activities. www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/newsletters/ Many members have been enquiring about the WIA AGM. The Board met Tuesday 20th of April and it was at the top of The AGM date and venue are being finalized and once confirmed, we will inform our members via the website, social media and memnet. The Covid issues are still at the forefront of venue decisions as boarder closures can happen quickly putting our AGM plans in jeopardy. We plan to have a physical venue and members can also join in as was done last year via an online zoom session. Location, date and time to be announced in the up coming weeks. (VK8ZZ WIA SECRETARY WIANEWS APRIL 25) WIA BOARD TALK - DIRECTOR PHIL SHIELDS VK2CPR Following is a report on the ACMA Five Year Spectrum Outlook from our excellent spectrum committee. One of the ways that ACMA determines its work priorities and items is through its rolling 5 year program. This program is the called the Five Year Spectrum Outlook or FYSO for short. Updated every year, the FYSO provides the radiocommunication industry with a view about areas ACMA intends working on for the next 12 months, but also, what future issues ACMA is watching. ACMA in March 2021 asked the industry for comments about its proposed 2021-22 workplan and the WIA made a submission. WIA made a significant response to the ACMA on the licencing review and we look forward to working with ACMA on further developing this area. We also look forward to working with ACMA to address their concerns relating to high power operation. This will be a significant body of work and the WIA is up the challenge. The WIA was very pleased to see the following activities in the FYSO, that are significant changes affecting the amateur service. That is, continuing work on the non-assigned amateur service licensing review and a review of arrangements for amateur stations, operating at increased transmitter power levels. The other areas of consideration that the WIA is seeking ACMA to put resources toward include: * Finding a new way for the amateur service to collaborate with ACMA on relevant revisions to the amateur syllabus. * Seeking a review the effectiveness of the amateur service examination system in light of the lack of growth of newly licenced operators in Australia, particularly through 2020 under COVID when compared to other countries. * Extension of operating privileges for Standard licensees to include access to the 50-52 MHz band. * Review of the defined usage of 7100-7200 kHz to move it to primary status for amateur radio operators in VK noting this is the case around the world and * Consideration of increased frequency agility by amateur operators when dealing with over the horizon radar system interference from foreign sources, especially in the high frequency spectrum. The continued development of a vibrant and relevant amateur service in Australia is what the WIA is all about and complements and supports the national STEM agenda. Amateur Radio is an area of activity that directly contributes to the development of citizen science, technology, IT development and engineering self education. Cheers and 73 for now, de Phil VK2CPR EDUCATION Training and Assessments REASTs next Foundation Training and all licence assessment day is Saturday 29th May. Let Reg VK7KK REAST Learning Organiser know ASAP that you will be attending. email assessor@reast.asn.au (VK7WI News) DISCUSSION POINT WIA NATIONAL NEWS AND YOUR 3 W's. WASH YOUR HANDS WEAR YOUR MASK WATCH YOUR DISTANCE (1.5 metres) www.health.gov.au/ ------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, NZART, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of the WIA. Amateur Radio has a New Census Colin Butler writing in the icqpodast notes "As the amateur radio community grows and evolves, the need to better understand the preferences and expectations of amateur radio operators worldwide becomes increasingly important. Inspired by the new licensees joining amateur radios ranks, and the seasoned ones who continue to believe in its value, hamcensus.org has invited all hams to take part in a unique survey. The projects founders are looking forward to responses from both the United States and the rest of the globe, including VK/ZL. Questions deal with operating preferences, gear, the shack, views on regulations, clubs and associations, and the future of amateur radio. K 3 MRI, co-admin of both Ham Census and Ham Community, said We wanted to give operators a louder voice to better inform club leaders, associations, manufacturers and also regulators. He continued, we all want the amateur radio community to grow organically and collaboratively, and for that we need to know what operators are thinking. K3MRI and his team are counting on operators, clubs, organizations and even ham-related businesses, to spread the word ensuring there is a large sample of respondents of all ages, all interests, and all nationalities. Ham Census, is in six parts, runs year-round, delivering constantly updated results. The only caveat is that, though it is absolutely free for all to take and use, only those who complete all six parts of the Census have access to the full results. REGION ONE At the recent RSGB AGM they awarded the Louis Varney Cup for advances in space communications to Dave Crump G8GKQ who accepted as Chair of the British Amateur Television Club His leadership of the BATC community, both in the UK and overseas, has been instrumental in enabling the QO-100 satellite wideband transponder to be fully utilized with many new DATV systems being developed since the launch of the spacecraft. This award acknowledges the exciting and significant contributions made by many members of the BATC, both in terms of software and hardware. The Cup is named in honour of R. Louis Varney, G5RV, who invented the world-famous G5RV antenna. He passed away at age 89 in the year 2000. RSGB 2021 Awards and Trophies rsgb.org/main/agm-2021/2021-trophies-and-awards/ Electronic voting for the 2021 South African RL AGM Motions has been successfully implemented. Very easy instructions where members were electronically able to vote for each motion with a simple "Yes" or "No" or "Abstain." South African amateur radio beacon ZS 6 WAB on 40.675 MHz has been received in Greece Like some other countries 40 MHz is an amateur radio band in South Africa. "In a report by email, Leonidas SV2DCD informs he first heard the beacon on the 19th of April 2021 at 14:00 UTC and it peaked around 15:40 UTC. Leonidas was using an 8-element Yagi for 50 MHz to listen to the beacon on 8m [40 MHz]." Read the report and see the video on tinyurl.com/3vza2z9u World Radiosport Team Championship 2022 has been postponed for 1 year. At the WRTC 2022 Association Assembly April 23, the events Organizing Committee decided to put off WRTC until 2023 after consulting with the WRTC Sanctioning Committee. WRTC 2022 Organizing Committee President Carlo de Mari, IK 1 HJS said In consideration of the worldwide public health challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe our decision is reasonable. REGION THREE China and Huawei's dystopian 'New IP' plan for 6G Huawei's plans for 6G and beyond make U.S. concerns over 5G look paltry: Huawei is proposing a fundamental internet redesign, which it calls 'New IP,' designed to build 'intrinsic security' into the web. Intrinsic security means that individuals must register to use the internet, and authorities can shut off an individual user's internet access at any time. In short, Huawei is looking to integrate China's "social credit," surveillance, and censorship regimes into the internet's architecture... To avoid scrutiny of New IP's shortcomings, Huawei has circumvented international standards bodies where experts might challenge the technical shortcomings of the proposal. Instead, Huawei has worked through the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU), where Beijing holds more political sway... tinyurl.com/4u59ehnk In Japan, Panasonic is currently planning a breakthrough in large-scale applications and in private customer business. As Heise Online reports, Panasonic wants to manufacture chips for street lamps and household appliances that can be networked via power lines. The range of the power line data network should be able to be extended to up to 10 kilometres. According to the Japanese plan, one BILLION chips are to be produced by 2030. Elevators, offices and apartments as well as new sensors could then be networked without additional cabling. Electricity companies could also use the technology to efficiently read smart electricity meters remotely. From Kurt Meerktter, DL8DMA, and the Heise report via SouthGate. ------------------------------------------------------------* WEIRD AND WONDERFUL San Francisco sound engineer accidentally dosed with LSD while cleaning 1960s radio equipment. The synthesizer Eliot Curtis was cleaning was quite popular in the 1960s when LSD-friendly musicians were looking for new sounds. Unbeknownst to him, they left a few remnants behind. When the great wave of 1960s optimism finally broke and hippiedom gave way to Vietnam and Richard Nixon, the end of an era had never been clearer. Nonetheless, counterculture remnants are still alive and well, as a radio operator found out after accidentally getting dosed with 50-year-old LSD. According to Daily Mail, KPIX Channel 5 Broadcast Operations Manager Eliot Curtis was merely trying to fix an old synthesizer he found in a cold dark closet in San Francisco Cal State University when he started feeling.. WELL.. ER DIFFERENT. There had been rumours that 1960s radio operators would dip their fingers in liquid LSD and touch their devices for inspiration, but this had been just that rumours. That is until Curtis started to tinker with a Buchla Model 100 literally covered in the drug. After he removed a module to clean a crust or a crystalline residue that bothered him, the substance seemed to dissolve in his hand and began to alter his perspective. It wasfelt like I was tripping on LSD, said Curtis, who began noticing a weird tingling sensation 45 minutes later. Little did Curtis know that the damp, lightless, conditions had provided the perfect environment for the lysergic acid to retain its potency, even half a century later. He then tripped for nine straight hours. Coincidentally, Albert Hoffman, who first synthesized the substance in 1943, accidentally dosed himself with the drug in this manner as well. Whether the psychoactive substance was secretly stashed under the machines module on purpose or merely forgotten there is unclear. tinyurl.com/43937c87 ------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT -------------- ON THE AIR - EVERYWHERE. This weekend "10" is alive with the 10-10 International CW Spring Contest May 1 and 2. 10-10 Members will give name plus 10-10 number and state, province or country. Non-members give name plus zero plus state, province or country. Pretty obvious that THIS contest is on 10 metres only. (irts) -------------- the CQ World Wide CW WPX Contest May 29-30 -------------- The VK SHIRES June 12-13 -------------- WINTER VHF-UHF Field Days - June 26 - 27 -------------- IARU HF World Championship July 10-11 -------------- TRANS TASMAN LOWBAND CONTEST Next contest - JUL 17 - 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 14-15. -------------- ALARA CONTEST A Combined phone and CW run over 24 hours starting on Saturday 28th August at 0600 hours UTC finishing Sunday 29th August at 0559 hours UTC -------------- OCEANA CONTEST VOICE from 0800 UTC Saturday 2 October to 0800 UTC Sunday October 3 CW from 0800 UTC Saturday 9 October to 0800 UTC Sunday October 10 -------------- SPRING VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS November 27-28 -------------- December 4-5 160 Meter WW -------------- DECEMBER 11 - 12 10 Mtr World Wide -------------- -------------- DX WINDOW -------------- -------------- Pride Radio Group are on air with special event callsign VI 2021 PRIDE during Midsumma, ending Wednesday May 5. -------------- THE RAAF is flying high to celebrate it's 100 years which took place back on March 31.. The Royal Australian Airforce call signs to 'target' are VI 100 AF March 1 - 29 May VK 100 AF March 1 - 31 August (vk8nsb) -------------- GB5LIB Guernsey Amateur Radio Special Event Members of the society, G.A.R.S. will activate the special event station GB 5 LIB between 8th May and 14th May 2021 on all bands and modes from 160-10 meters. Some satellite operation is likely too, including QO100. The station will be on air to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the Liberation of the islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. (ICQPODCAST) -------------- JW 1 I is the club callsign for the Meteorological Station on Bear Island, EU-027, Svalbard. The operator is Erling, JW/LB2PG, who is expected to stay there until the 15 of May. QSL via the bureau. (rsgb) -------------- Members of the Association of Radio Amateur of the Mexican Republic will activate three special callsigns to celebrate their club's 61st anniversary. Look for 6D 1 A, 6D 2 A and 6D 3 A to be active until May 16th. Activity will be on 160-6 meters on all modes and the satellites. (SouthGate) -------------- Radio Club to Honour Crew of Lost Submarine Colin Butler, writing in the ICQPodcast tells how a submarine, USS Squalus, sank in the Gulf of Maine on 23rd May 1939. Twenty-six of its crew were lost, but, miraculously, 33 others were saved. The Maine Ham Radio Society will be honouring the Squalus and its crew with a special Remember the Squalus event on the amateur radio airwaves on the 82nd anniversary of the tragic accident. That is Sunday May 23. Using the special FCC-issued call sign W 1 S, club members will take to the airwaves and make contacts nationally and around the globe, making other hams aware of the Squalus. Special certificates will be awarded to hams who successfully make contact with W1S that day, upon request. mainehamradiosociety.com -------------- Antarctica operation Alexei is active as RI 01 ANT from Antarctica until months end (May 30) from Russian Progress and Vostok Base stations on 40 meters and higher using CW and FT8. QSL via RX6A. -------------- Mark, W5MED is stationed at McMurdo Station on Ross Island in Antarctica, AN-011, until October. Look for him on 14243 kHz SSB and 14070 kHz FT8. QSL direct to K7MT and Logbook of The World. (rsgb) -------------- Belgian special prefix The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications has announced that Belgian radio amateurs and Belgian radio clubs may replace the normal prefix 'ON' in their call-sign by the special prefix OS until December 12. This to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first transatlantic radio transmission, on December 12 when Guglielmo MARCONI first succeeded in bridging the Atlantic with radio signals. -------------- CROATIA, 9A. Members of the Croatian Flora Fauna ARC are QRV with special event call 9A10FF during all of 2021 to celebrate the club's 10th anniversary. QSL via 9A2MF. (ARRL) -------------- PORTUGAL, CT. CQ 750 RSI throughout 2021 commemorates the 750th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth of Aragon, the queen consort of Portugal and patron saint of their city of Coimbra. QSL to home call CT 7 AQD. -------------- ARGENTINA, LU. Special event station L 21 RCA is QRV during all of 2021 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of IARU member society Radio Club Argentino. QSL via LU 4 AA. (arrl) -------------- POLAND. Special event stations SN 0 ZOSP and SN 100 ZOSP are QRV until February 5, 2022 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Association of the Voluntary Fire Brigades of the Republic of Poland. (SouthGate) ------------------------------------------------------------* WIRELESS WEATHER Writing in May QST, Frank Donovan, W3LPL, says the long anticipated significant increase in Solar Cycle 25 activity may have begun on April 19. BOOKS WORTH TAKING DOWN FROM THE SHELF. The Board of Directors of the Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce the release of "Danny Weil - A Dreamer of Distant Lands Who Took Amateur Radio on the Trip of a Lifetime" by Martti Laine, OH2BH, AH3D, and VP2VB. The 21-page article is published on www.yasme.org click on the "Danny Weil: DXer & Dreamer" menu entry. The page also contains a list of Danny Weil expeditions, a collection of Danny's QSLs, and an interview with Danny at age 80, with OE1WHC of Dokufunk. Along with OH2BH's article, the book Yasme: The Danny Weil and Colvin Radio Expeditions by James D. Cain, K1TN, is also now available for the first time as a free downloadable PDF. (SouthGate) ------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos THAT LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS POLICE To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the International Police Association Radio Club (IPARC) of Switzerland, look for special event station HB 40 POLICE to be active until December 31st on 160 - 6 meters WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org Goodbyes aren't always easy but when you're an astronaut on the International Space Station, having one or two more QSOs with students at schools around the world makes the Earthbound journey seem that much more real. WIA News Editor Graham Kemp VK4BB brings us the story he has filed for Amateur Radio NewsLine. "As ISS astronaut Shannon Walker KD5DXB prepared for her return to Earth with her crewmates aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, she still had some unfinished business: QSOs with students in here Australia on Monday April 26th, aided by the ARISS relay amateur radio ground station IK 1 SLD in Italy. Just hours after her crewmate Victor Glover KI5BKC had an earlier QSO with students at St. Scholastica's College in VK2, Shannon was using the callsign OR4ISS as she took the mic. to chat to youngsters at St. Margaret's School and Berwick Grammar School in Melbourne. There were the usual questions about food, gravity, temperature, space junk and science experiments on board but one question in particular reflected the global excitement over recent space exploration and future flights to Mars. Even as Shannon was preparing for her return to planet Earth, she was already being questioned about whether she might like to return to space and this time, make it all the way to Mars as part of a flight crew. Shannon said that her heart was certainly in it but that trip is still a long way off. She replied [quote] "I wouldn't mind doing it but I'm afraid by the time we get to Mars, I will already be a retired astronaut." [endquote] For Amateur Radio NewsLine I'm Graham Kemp VK4BB. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP --- MILITARY The US Department of Defence will again host this years Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test in the USA, Friday and Saturday, May 7 8, in recognition of Armed Forces Day on May 15. The event is open to all radio amateurs. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this exercise, designed to include amateur radio and government radio operators alike. The AFD Cross-Band Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military and amateur radio stations, as authorized under FCC Part 97 rules. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise in which military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific amateur radio frequencies being monitored. The schedule of military/government stations taking part in the Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test and information on the AFD message is available on the MARS website. www.dodmars.org/home/armed-forces-day-2021 (ARRL) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS raotc.org.au Hallo everyone, this is Clive VK6CSW reminding you that tomorrow, Monday, is also the first Monday of month and time for the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club of Australias May bulletin to go to air. As usual, well have all the latest Club news, followed by three interesting items, namely: * An Australian-built electric utility vehicle * An article from Ken Morgan VK3CEK on Resonance * A science history article on Joan Elleanor, the woman who never was. Everyone, RAOTC members and non-Members alike, is most welcome to listen to the program and join in the call backs afterwards. The monthly RAOTC bulletin is transmitted on a wide range of frequencies and modes including UHF and VHF FM, HF ssb, D-STAR, Digital Mobile Radio and EchoLink. Regular listeners will of course have their favourite time and frequency to tune in, but full details of all transmissions times and modes can be found on the RAOTC website www.raotc.org.au