2022 MAY 29 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 ------------------------------------------------------------* WIA 2022 Conference News WIA Virtual Conference - Antarctic Gateway Presentations The afternoon of presentations with an Antarctic Gateway theme are now available on the Ham Radio DX YouTube Channel. The first presentation was by Professor Elle Leane was titled - Mixed Signals: The Impact of Wireless on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14). youtube.com/watch?v=VYd9iYuyLuY>Our second presenter was our very own Rex Moncur VK7MO was Director Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) between 1988-1999 and his presentation covered many aspects of Antarctica including the geopolitics, history, amateur radio connections, the move to the ANARESAT satellite system, the rebuilding program and finishing with some examples of Murphys law! youtube.com/watch?v=x5UQNI3N_MY Our third presenter was Dr Andrew Klekociuk from the Atmospheric Studies in the Australian Antarctic Program at the Australian Antarctic Division. youtube.com/watch?v=2s7fEazEI0A The fourth and fifth presenters were Peter Yates VK7PY and Kim Briggs VK7KB and was titled Antarctic Communications Challenges and Review. The presentation covered a review of communications from the 1960s through to the present day and the challenges of providing communications in Antarctica. youtube.com/watch?v=oXEh_WdwXi4 Thanks to all involved in making this happen and supporting our national representative body, the WIA. 73 WIA Virtual Conference Organising Committee Hello from WIA Vice President, Lee Moyle VK3GK. Last weekend New WIA Director Chris Dimitrejivic VK3FY and myself, attended Dayton Hamvention in Ohio USA. Dayton Hamvention is renowned to be one of the big three hamfests in the world. The other two are Friedrichshafen in Germany being held in late June and Tokyo Hamfair which is to be held in August this year. For those local VK HamFest attendees, here is a size comparison. Wyong Field Day, or MayHam which is VKs biggest HamFest I understand gets about 500-600 attendees. Local VK3 hamfests attract about 250-350 attendees with often having 40-70 vendor tables booked is not uncommon. Dayton Hamvention usually attracts about 35,000 attendees from all over the world, although most are from the USA. This is over 100 times bigger than our local hamfests. Its hard to comprehend unless you have experienced the event first hand. Rough statistics this year suggest about 29,000 to 30,000 attendees. Down a little this year but Covid is still quite prevalent in most parts of the USA. Also many countries boarders are still restricted or closed to tourist travel. There are 6 main buildings that cater for over 460 vendor booths. The outside flea market or car boot sales area, which is the whole inside arena at the Green County Fairgrounds has just over 2700 spaces available. This year most spots were taken up by sellers. The weather in Dayton is quite predictably unpredictable but you can guarantee hot and humid days of around 28 to 30C with a humidity in the 70-80% range. Along with the usual thunderstorm and Tornado warnings, which we had in both cases. The HamFest Program is comprehensive and starts early on Thursday morning with Contest University or CTU. Registrations from 7am, with CTU starting at 9am till 5pm finish. This year it was live streamed on YouTube and will be available for viewing after the event. Evenings are taken up by specialist dinners. The DX Dinner and Contest dinners are the favourites of many and this is where DXers and Contesters are recognized for their contributions to Amateur Radio and inducted into the respective halls of fame. Afterwards the Hospitality Suites take over, which are social get togethers with tall stories and tales of that ATNO that got away. Hamvention runs 9am till 5pm Friday, Saturday and the first half of Sunday 9am until 1pm close. First prize giveaway this year was an ICOM IC7851, with many consolation prizes. Director Chris and myself Lee took the opportunity to meet with other International peak body representatives such as ARRL, RSGB, DARC and IARU. We discussed the potential changes to our VK licencing structure, high power proposals, examination processes amongst many other things. It was great to meet ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR and ARRL FCC Council David Siddall, K3ZJ. Early discussions were had about reciprocal licencing processes along with CEPT and HAREC compliance. The WIA will be following up with ongoing zoom meetings to solidify the relationships. Although this trip was partly official WIA business, it was totally self-funded by both Chris and Lee and as such, no WIA members funds were used. Thats it for this week. 73 from Lee VK3GK ------------------------------------------------------------* MEDIA WATCH Florida broadcasts Ukraine war news on shortwave CBS News reports a farm in central Florida has become one of the largest shortwave radio operations in the world Using Cold War era radio technology, Jeff White and his WRMI team are broadcasting unbiased information on the status of the Russian war on Ukraine to listeners in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Watch the CBS news report at cbsnews.com/video/florida-residents-broadcast-ukraine-war-news-to-russian-citizens/ (SouthGate) ------------------------------------------------------------* INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC, Southgate AR Club, ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of the WIA. REGION ONE I'm sure avid fans of this the WIA national news service will recall our report mid last year about the UK fire at Bilsdale. BBC News have now reported that fire which destroyed a TV and radio transmitter was caused by water getting into electrics at the site. The Bilsdale transmitter caught fire on 10 August, leaving more than 600,000 homes across Teesside, County Durham and North Yorkshire without signals. Arqiva, which operated the mast on the North York Moors, said the water damage was connected to third-party equipment and again has apologised to customers who lost services because of the fire. You can read more at: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-61526371 New hams in the UK have a whole array of new reasons to get involved, get on the air and get even more enjoyment out of amateur radio. A series of award certificates will be issued to help them mark each achievement they make in their new journey. Jeremy Boot G4NJH reporting on Amateur Radio NewsLine has said foundation licence holders are being encouraged to move forward in their on-air activities and progress toward Intermediate and Full licence level. The Radio Society of Great Britain is calling the incentive program "Brickworks," because its goal is to build on the Foundation. Its national release two years ago was slowed by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown so the Society is breathing new life into it by actively encouraging clubs and individuals to sign up. With the assistance of local clubs, newcomers can mark their achievements by attending club meetings, writing software, undertaking construction projects, logging QSOs and getting involved in contests. EVEN making a cup of tea for the next club meeting counts toward points. Certificates are available at the silver, gold, platinum and diamond level. REGION TWO The 13th annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet, always a highlight of the AMSAT and Tucson Amateur Packet Radio activities during the Dayton Hamvention was dedicated to honouring the life and accomplishments of long-time amateur satellite and amateur packet pioneer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, who passed away in February. Reminiscences of Bob and his career as a professor of engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy were offered by Bob McGwier, N4HY, and by Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. Following these presentations, a number of attendees offered anecdotes about Bob's work -- often behind the scenes -- to facilitate amateur satellites and to develop enhanced modes of digital communication. Cuban radio amateurs have always distinguished themselves by their expressions of solidarity and their manifestations of help in the face of any disaster situation, going promptly wherever the presence of a helping hand or the deployment of their means of communication has been needed, all of which has contributed to the safeguarding of thousands of human lives and large material resources. This happened with the presence of a group of 30 colleagues who from the provinces of Havana, Artemisa, Villa Clara and Pinar del Ro, participated in the general actions of Logistics and rescue and rescue in the capital Hotel Saratoga, after the unfortunate accident destroyed much of the structure of this legendary tourist facility, and will also affect other nearby buildings. They exhibited the vast experience accumulated throughout country, where they have given their support in the mobilizations of the Defence, the Civil Defence, in the presence of cyclones, various meteorological events, natural disasters and in as many opportunities as they have been summoned by the authorities of the country, integrating into the formations of the Emergency Network in all the municipalities of the nation of Cuba. ------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT NOW CONTEST WISE:- -------------- 2022 -------------- This weekend see's the running of the WPX CW Contest The WPX Contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes, drawing thousands of entries from around the world. This major CW contest takes place THIS weekend, 28 and 29 of May, from 00:00 UTC on Saturday until 23:59 UTC on Sunday. Info and Rules at cqwpx.com -------------- International CQ Pride contest June 4-6 -------------- New World Wide Digital Contest also June 4-6 arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-new-world-wide-digital-contest (SouthGate) -------------- VK SHIRES CONTEST 11th JUNE 2022 -------------- WIA VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS Winter 2022 - 0200 UTC Saturday 25 June through 0159 UTC Sunday 26 June (differs in VK6). -------------- IARU HF World Championship NEXT contest is July 9 and 10. (ref) -------------- WIA Trans-Tasman Low-Band Contest 16 JUL 2022 The Trans-Tasman contest, held on the 3rd weekend in July aims to encourage Low Band activity between VK and ZL -------------- RSGB IOTA Contest is July 30 - 31st (SouthGate) -------------- WIA RD or Remembrance Day Contest Weekend closest to the 15th August each year. 2022 its Sat Sun August 13 and 14 ---RESULTS----------- On the weekend of 14th and 15th May, the St. George Amateur Radio Society held the Don Edwards Memorial Slow Morse contest. Several dozen amateurs took part, many of whom were using Morse for the first time in years or even decades and at times it was more of a chat than a contest. Those who took part are encouraged to submit their logs, even if they only made only a couple of contacts. Logs can be emailed to contest@sgars.org by midnight Tuesday, 31st May. Rules are available on the website participants are encouraged to carefully read the rules as bonus points are available. Congratulations to all those who took the effort to take part. (Peter O'Connell VK2EMU for the St. George Amateur Radio Society) -------------- DX WINDOW -------------- -------------- CQ DX Hall of Fame There will be no inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame for 2022, as the judging committee determined that none of the nominees met the high standard required for selection. (OPDX) -------------- Listen for Rafael, EA5XV, who hopes to be on the air from Panama as EA5XV/HP1 THIS WEEKEND, June 28th until September 12th. Listen for him on SSB. Send QSLs to his home call EA 5 XV (sourced to ARNewsLine) -------------- RSGB Commonwealth Games activities The Commonwealth Games will be held in Birmingham later this summer. It will see around 4,500 athletes from 72 nations and territories, compete in 19 sports across 14 competition venues. The RSGB has just published news of the various activities it is planning to link with the Games. Find out more on the Societys website rsgb.org/cwg (SouthGate) -------------- Fabian, DF 3XY, is active as 3B8/DF 3XY from Mauritius, AF-049, until June 2nd on 40, 30 and 20 meters where Fabian will be using mostly FT8. QSL via DF 3XY, direct, by the Bureau or eQSL. Best of all Fabian also welcomes cards from shortwave listeners. (sourced to ARNewsLine) -------------- 4U, ITU Geneva The sporadic operating from 4 U 1 ITU will continue until June 3. The station was closed for about 2 years, which took its toll on the antennas. Currently, only a WARC-band dipole and a SteppIR for 40, 20, 15, and 10m are available. This may be the last operating window before the building's refurbishment, which is due to begin at the end of 2022 and last for several years. Another 4U station, this from Italy is operating until Tuesday. Members of the United Nations Global Service Centre ARC in Brindisi are QRV as 4 U 29 MAY until May 31. QSL via 9A2AA. (SouthGate and ARRL) -------------- Koh, JA1ADT, will be on the air as JD 1 AJD from Ogasawara, AS-031, between June 24th and July 2nd. on 20-6 meters where he will be using CW and FT8. QSLs to home call, again that is JA 1 ADT. (sourced to ARNewsLine) -------------- MARSHALL ISLANDS, V 73 MS V 73 MS is on Kwajalein Atoll on 20, 17, and 15 meters between 0600 to 0900z. QSL via LoTW. (sourced to ARRL) -------------- WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ARDF WIA ARDF COORDINATOR VK3WWW Jack vk3www@wia.org.au users.mackay.net.au/~ron/ homingin.com ardf.org.au NEW SLANT ON OLD STYLE EVENT In South Africa the Sandton ARC is hosting an open social picnic braai (B-B-Q) and a family-friendly Fox hunting event at the Field and Study Centre in Sandton. The park is BOTH family and pet friendly. All you must bring along is your family, friends, food, drinks and utensils and oh yes, a hand held with antenna if you will participate in the rescue of Fred and Fiona, the clubs two radio foxes who we understand from their last garbled mobile phone contact have gotten themselves horribly lost in the park and need rescuing. Lucky for them they are equipped with VHF emergency rescue beacons that will be active on the day. All YOUNG rescuers will receive a goodie bag from Fred and Fiona as a thank you. This looks like being a social and picnic or braai (braai coals will be available), and a super outing with fellow amateurs, and perhaps also Fred and Fiona - if they are rescued in time for lunch. (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org An additional amateur radio system has been delivered to the International Space Station and it is expected that astronauts will install it in the next few weeks. The installation will mean that the Amateur Radio on the ISS will no longer have to switch periodically between FM voice cross band repeater mode and APRS packet mode. Rather, both operating modes will be able to be activated simultaneously. NASAs InSight Mars lander mission will likely conclude by the end of the year as power levels for the spacecraft continue to decline, project officials have confirmed. They said SCIENCE operations will likely end in July as the output of the spacecrafts two solar panels, coated with Martian dust, drops below critical levels. Rumours are flying that after satellite operator Globalstar announced an agreement with a large, global customer to build out a new communications network, just months after announcing that an unidentified potential customer wink wink had put up more than $300 million to finance the purchase of 13 new satellites. The scuttlebutt from Region 2 is that Apple is behind these deals, with the goal of using Globalstar to provide satellite connectivity to a future iPhone. 2 military satellites recently exchanged more than 200 gigabits of data over a distance of about 100 kilometres using laser communication in space. Satellites generally do not communicate directly with each other. Instead, they use radio signals to transfer data down to a ground station on Earth, which then relays this data to another satellite. Optical terminals between satellites are considered to be faster and more secure. The two satellites, named Able and Baker, were launched last summer by the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. (irts) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP --- MILITARY Recordings of military transmissions can be found on the Signal Identification Guide Wiki at sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military HF radio in the spotlight. The US military is exploring ways to expand its use of the HF bands in one region of the world. Amateur Radio NewsLine Kevin Trotman N5PRE has that report. "HF radio is making a comeback for the United States military, which has been struggling with reliable means of over-the-horizon communication in the Indo-Pacific. That massive region's communications needs are served largely by undersea fibre cables and satellites, both of which are deemed vulnerable to both deliberate and accidental damage. The U.S. Defence Information Systems Agency is eyeing HF as a reliable backup should an interruption occur in either of the other two delivery modes. Officials acknowledge that HF's slower data transmission rate and the military's use of a smaller bandwidth would not make HF ideal for fulltime connectivity but it is nonetheless a viable alternative when no other option exists. According to an article in Signal, a publication of the non-profit AFCEA, testing is already underway in the part of the Pacific that includes Malaysia, Australia, Fiji and Singapore. The Indo-Pacific Command's relief network has been testing HF out as part of its humanitarian assistance and disaster relief work, using a transmitter in Oahu. Meanwhile, a combat communications squadron of the United States Air Force, based in Guam, is working with the single sideband shortwave transmitters of the Air Force High Frequency Global Communications System for voice communications. Elsewhere, modes used in the annual Pacific Endeavour interoperability exercise are being widened to include newer HF technologies for basic data communications. One official told the Signal website that these actions are being taken to expand the mode's reliability. Beyond compensating for satellite and fibre optic vulnerability, officials say they also look forward to the next generation of HF technology which will allow higher speeds and wideband transmission, making full-motion video possible for surveillance, airborne intelligence and related activities from the air. For Amateur Radio NewsLine I'm Kevin Trotman N5PRE. WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- INTERNET, THE HAMS DOMAIN. Faster internet speeds on offer to millions of UK households Gigabit broadband is available to 66%, that's 19.3 million of all UK homes up from 37% a year ago according to Occams Connected Nations Spring update. The snapshot of broadband and mobile availability across the UK and its nations, as of January this year, also shows that 33% of homes can now get full-fibre broadband. (SouthGate) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOTA (Youngsters On The Air) youtube.com/channel/UClAapljf0VQ751sOgu2IzaA twitter.com/hamyota YOTA Contest 2022 Youth On The Air (ham-yota.com) Now Alec,VK2APC. MAY 29 18-year-old exploring the depths of space with radio Interesting Engineering have published an article about 18-year-old radio amateur Dhruv Rebba KC9ZJX who hopes to develop a program that will enable youth to build and program microsatellites When Rebba was nine, he received his ham radio technician license becoming the youngest person of Indian origin, until then, to receive the same. That earned him a spot in the Limca Book of Records. The same year, he attained the General Class License. A senior specializing in Computer Science at Normal Community High School in Bloomington, Rebba firmly believes that getting into amateur radio was a stepping stone to various other fields. The space industry, for example. In 2017, Rebba was part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project. It involves we amateur radio operators across the world speaking directly to astronauts/cosmonauts through their handheld, mobile, or home radio stations. Two years later, in 2019, he was named Young Ham of the Year. "Currently, I'm the lead of a state-wide program called 4-H in Space Mission Command. I have been working with Illinois 4-H, and the University of Illinois Dept. of Aerospace to develop a program that will enable youth to build and program microsatellites that will be launched into orbit," he says. Read the full article at interestingengineering.com/18-year-old-explores-space-radio (sourced via 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 Region 1 3760 7110 14300 18160 21360 kHz Region 2 3750 3985 7060 7240 7275 14300 18160 21360kHz Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain And some wind it's been this month, (May). ARES Activated in Oklahoma for Tornado Clean-Up Communications. To help with emergency communications support following an outbreak of tornadoes that have hit, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency of Management and Homeland Security requested support from the Oklahoma Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). At least a DOZEN tornadoes have touched down in the central and eastern parts of Oklahoma. A tornado that struck Seminole, Oklahoma, left plenty of damage, according to the National Weather Service. That tornado was a mile wide, and its path totalled 31 miles. As an old John Anderson tune once rang out "So blow, blow Seminole wind, Blow like you're never gonna blow again." The request for amateur radio emergency communications support saw amateur radio operators active providing voice communications between chainsaw and debris removal teams from their base at Seminole State College's volunteer centre. ------------------------------------------------------------* 2022 Social Scene Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information and even without Covid dates have an uncanny knack of being changed at last moment. 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/ VK2 - Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Field Day June 11/12 (VK2ZHE) VK5 - Australian Fox Hunting Championship and SERG Convention Mt Gambier Queens Birthday weekend June (vk5dj) VK6 - PerthTech October 21-23 (vk6pop) VK7 - Miena HamFest Saturday 19th November. (vk7wi news) 2023 VK - ALARAMeet2023 Sat 4 / Sun 5 November HOBART (luther8@bigpond.com) 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 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 send BOTH the audio and the text We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 mts 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 recorded 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 will not give blatant 'plugs' to raffles, be it raffles at the event or "on-line". ------------------------------------------------------------* Oh... and to contact us with your news because If It Matters To You It Matters To Us! Click the links below to download the most recent edition of National News, BUT this is ONLY the backup site! WIANEWS backup thanks to Brendan VK4BLP can be found on wiaq.org.au BACKUPS OF THE BACKUP!! thanks to Tony VK7AX www.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/ wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/ (This is the link to the original text version and original audio on wia site) ------------------------------------------------------------* 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 a message confirming your unsubscription from the list and at that point you should stop receiving messages. ------------------------------------------------------------*