2023 JANUARY 15 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 JANUARY 15 2023 IN OUR 28th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS THIS WEEK:- WIA DIRECTOR CHRIS DIMITRIJEVIC VK3FY WIA RETURNING OFFICER JOHN MARSHALL PLUS MUCH MUCH MORE IN THIS 30 MINUTE EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA I'M NEWS EDITOR GRAHAM VK4BB WIA JOIN THE WIA tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y DECLARATION of ELECTION OF WIA DIRECTORS Clause 14 of the Constitution of the WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA specifies the way in which Directors of the WIA are to be elected to that position. Four directors retire at the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting which will be held in May 2023, namely Scott Williams VK3KJ, Peter Clee VK8ZZ, Greg Kelly VK2GPK and Peter Schrader VK4EA. Each retiring director was eligible for re-nomination. A call for nominations for the position of Director of the WIA was made in the WIA National News Broadcast and in Amateur Radio Magazine in accordance with the Election Regulations. I advise that I have received Four (4) valid nominations from WIA members for the position as director of the WIA by the advertised closing date for nominations, as follows:- Scott Williams VK3KJ Peter Schrader VK4EA Peter Clee VK8ZZ Giles Kirby VK5GK As advised in the Call for Nominations there will be four vacancies at the conclusion of the AGM to be held in May 2023 and therefore no election will be necessary. I therefore formally declare these 4 nominees as having been elected to the position of Director of the Wireless Institute of Australia. These Directors elect will take up their role at the conclusion of the Annual General meeting in May 2023. They will remain in that role for a period of two (2) years. Continuing Directors are:- Lee Moyle VK3GK Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY Steve Green VK2TSG These continuing directors will retire at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting in 2024. I John Marshall, the duly appointed returning Officer of the Wireless Institute of Australia confirm that these results are valid and in accordance with the Constitution of the Wireless Institute of Australia and the Election Regulations. This is notice is authorised by John Marshall, WIA Returning Officer 1st January 2023 Good morning, everyone this is WIA Board Director Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY with this weeks WIA Board report for VK1WIA News Broadcast for 15th January 2023. As we have just heard/seen, John Marshal the WIA Returning Officer has now declared results of who will make up the next Board. Congratulations all and your WIA Board welcome them and thank the retiring board member and past president of the WIA Greg Kelly VK2GPK for his services to the WIA. Greg will be retiring his position on the conclusion of the 2023 Annual General Meeting. The Annual General Meeting of the Wireless Institute of Australia will be held on Saturday 13th of May in Canberra. The venue has yet to be confirmed. Keep this date clear and see you all in our nations capital for the 2023 AGM. Keep an eye on the WIA website and the VK1WIA Weekly news for further updates on the AGM. The Contest Committee has advised there is a current vacancy for the Russ Hull Contest and they are seeking a volunteer who will be able to take up the role as RUSS HULL CONTEST MANAGER. Should you be interested in taking up this role please contact the WIA head-office via nationaloffice@wia.org.au This has been WIA Director Chris VK3FY wishing you a great weekend on behalf of your WIA Board for the VK1WIA weekly news broadcast ------------------------------------------------------------* HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT W.R.T.C. 2023 AWARD : January 2023 headset on! WRTC Organizing Committee is running a 2023 edition of WRTC 2023 AWARD! This is NOT the WRTC 2022 Contest that will be held in Bologna in July this year but is a WRTC 2023 AWARD for anybody who wants to have fun in radio chasing and looking for WRTC Special event stations all over the world and promoting the real WRTC 2022 event (to be held as I said in July 2023) Here in region 3 listen out for event station 8 B 0 RARI QRV during the January 2023 WRTC 2023 special event that one from Indonesia and ZL 6 WRTC is QRV during the January 2023 WRTC 2023 special event from New Zealand. From up in China listen for BY 1 CRA / WRTC wrtc2022.it/en/news-11.asp?idnews=52 -------------- NOW CONTEST WISE:- -------------- 2023 -------------- 1 - 31 January Ross Hull Memorial VHF/UHF DX Contest ( Marathon ) The contest was established in 1950 to honour the memory of the late Ross A. Hull and his pioneering achievements in the study of tropospheric propagation and the development of new equipment techniques for the higher bands. Entrants may operate on every contest day, but the final score is based on the best seven days nominated by the entrant. For amateurs with limited operating time, there is also a "Best 2 Days" section. LOGS DUE IN 14th FEBRUARY (wia.org.au) ------------- 14 - 15 January Summer VHF-UHF Field Day. 0100 UTC Saturday to 0059 UTC Sunday BUT in VK6 add 3 hours onto start and end times. (wia.org.au) -------------- 26th of January Australia Day Contest After last years successful running of the Australia Day contest, comments were in favour of making the contest a global event. There was a strong indication for distance-based scoring and the inclusion of FT8/4. A suggested rule set was forwarded to the contest committee for their input. On agreement with the new rules, we now have the following outcome. 1. The contest is open to all amateurs worldwide on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. 2. Scoring is based on distance, calculated on 4-character grid squares exchange. 3. Phone, CW and Mixed categories with a separate digital category for FT8/FT4. a. A log can contain all modes and on submission, digital contacts will be pulled from the log and put into the digital category while also keeping an operator in the phone and CW sections. 4. WSJT-X users can operate as normal as the .adi file can be imported into N1MM logger for scoring and log creation. Make sure a new .adi file is used for the contest. As no serial number is needed, the standard 4 character grid square used during normal operation is all that'?''?'s required. 5. VKCL will not cater for this contest, so make sure N1MM logger is ready to go. 6. The User Defined Contest required to be loaded with N1MM is available from vk4sn.com under contests. 7. It is evident that a lot of operators are migrating over to N1MM. For new users a N1MM help file for this contest is available at the end of the rules. Download it from the WIA contest pages. tinyurl.com/5n88j3fn The contest is the first Australian distance based scored and digital contest. Best 73 Alan VK4SN (TEXT EDITION ONLY) -------------- MARCH 18 - 19 (the 3rd Weekend) John Moyle Field Day UTC 0100 Saturday to 0059 Sunday. (wia.org.au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC, ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, Radioworld.com and the World Wide sources of the WIA. ITU WRC-23 Booklet The International Telecommunication Union WRC-23 booklet can now be downloaded in all six languages of the ITU from itu.int The booklet provides easy access to the WRC-23 agenda as well as to the pertinent resolutions referenced therein. NEW SMARTPHONE MODELS GAIN SATELLITE ACCESS In this new year, sat-phone users and amateur radio operators won't be the only ones who can bounce radio signals off satellites. ARNewsLine say some smartphones are gaining a new capability this year: direct satellite access. Text-messaging that uses satellite communications will be possible for some consumers using Huawei and Apple devices. While Apple and Huawei expect to use older satellites that are already in orbit by putting new chips in their flagship handsets, new low-Earth-orbit satellite networks are also being built. Those are in the works from start-up companies Lynk Global and AST SpaceMobile, which hope to provide service to 5G phones in areas without terrestrial coverage. Observers note that this satellite functionality on smartphones will not include the ability to make phone calls or to stream data but its added capacity of texting will provide another means of calling for help in an emergency in regions where the caller has a clear view to the sky. Working in partnership with Globalstar, Apple devices have offered a service called Emergency SOS via satellite since last November. Huawei however has not yet announced the date of its rollout. REGION ONE ITALY Marconi Was Here! is an international amateur radio award organised by ARI Fidenza Radio Club with the main objective of the award being to commemorate, historically, some of the most important and significant Italian cities where Marconi performed scientific experiments in radio engineering, long distance communications, radio direction-finding and others; experiments that, in the following periods, revealed themselves to be crucial for technical and scientific advancement and the progress of wireless communications. The award period lasts the whole of this year. Each month is being dedicated to a specific Italian city connected to the story of Guglielmo Marconi and is paired to a different special callsign. January II 4 TRN is the station call, from the city of TURIN and celebrates Marconis air ground radio communication experiments of 1915. Further details, special callsigns and award rules can be found on the ARI Fidenza Radio Club website. arifidenza.it/ REGION TWO HOLLYWOOD USA Audio Engineering Society to Receive Technical GRAMMY Award. The Recording Academy, announcing its Special Merit Awards recipients has said the Audio Engineering Society is to receive a Technical Grammy Award during its Grammy Week celebration this February. Special Merit Awards are presented to individuals and/or companies, organizations and institutions who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. In receiving this award, AES joins an elite list of previous recipients, which includes well-known names such as Apple Computer, JBL Professional, Shure, Sony/Philips, among others. The Audio Engineering Society is the only professional society devoted exclusively to advancing audio technology. Founded in 1948 with the key goals of collecting, collating and disseminating knowledge of audio science and its application, AES facilitates communication and collaboration that unites audio engineers, creative artists, scientists, and students, with hundreds of local sections worldwide. Seventy-five years on, AESs members continue to set precedents and standards wherever sound and technology meet, from recording and entertainment to scientific research in emerging fields such as Spatial and Game Audio, Networking and Streaming, and Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality. CUBA Cuban radio broadcaster, journalist and DX-er Arnaldo de Jess Coro Antich, known to listeners as Arnie Coro, passed away early Jan. 8 aged 80. He was well-known for his twice-weekly program DXers Unlimited on Radio Havana Cuba, Cubas English-language shortwave service. His amateur callsign was CO 2 KK. Arnie became interested in radio at the age of 12, and joined the Radio Club de Cuba amateur radio association. In 1957, he began working as a journalist at CMBF-TV. During the Cuban Revolution, he was one of the founders of Radio Havana Cuba in 1961, working to help set up the stations first transmitter ahead of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 2017, Coro was honoured with the National Radio Award by state broadcaster Radio Cubana. Over the years, Coro produced a number of science and technology radio programs. He also authored the 1984 book " The United States Radio War Against Cuba. tinyurl.com/2fhjz5sc REGION THREE THAILAND ICOM Inc. presents letter of appreciation to the Department of Special Investigation in Thailand. Now astute readers/listeners will recall this story on counterfeit ICOMS some 2 years or so ago but it's still a work in progress It was January 2021, and the Department of Special Investigation had carried out the clampdown to counterfeit suppliers for Icom products and other radio manufacturers, seizing 37,694 pieces of counterfeit products valued at over 50 million Thai Baht (about AUD 2.2 million). At this time, the judgement on the lawsuit against these counterfeit suppliers was made and ICOM Inc. expressed deep appreciation for efforts of the Department of Special Investigation and presented the letter of appreciation on 2 months ago, Nov 2022. ICOM will continue to work on countermeasures against counterfeit products and suppliers and try to supply high-quality and safe products. ------------------------------------------------------------* WIRELESS WEATHER X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.9-class solar flare last Monday, it's source? hyperactive sunspot AR3184, now emerging over the sun's south-eastern limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash: Radiation ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave radio blackout cantered on the Pacific side of South America: Mariners, aviators and ham radio operators have noticed fadeouts and other unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 25 MHz. This was an impulsive solar flare -- intense but probably too brief to lift a coronal mass ejection out of the sun's atmosphere. It is too soon, however, to rule out the possibility of debris heading our way. (spaceweather.com) ------------------------------------------------------------* WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS - AND - SUMMITS ON THE AIR, WORLD WIDE FLORA, FAUNA PROGRAM, PARKS ON THE AIR and other ADVENTURE GROUPS. hema.org.uk/index.jsp minesontheair.com/about-mota parksontheair.com/ sota.org.uk sotawatch.sota.org.uk/en/ wwffaustralia.com/ Now we do have to start this segment with a call to VK1 Amateurs. In news from Amateur Radio NewsLine we see a story relating to our very own call area VK1 yet no one from the SOTA community or local ham thought it news worthy enough to pass onto you via WIA National News, so -- with thanks to ARNewsLine here are the details they have received. "In the World of DX, be listening for VI10SOTA (VEE EYE TEN SOTA) which is on the air in Australia to celebrate the 10th year of Summits on the Air in the VK1 region. The station will be active through to the end of the year and any amateur with an Australian licence who is activating a VK1 SOTA peak may use it." WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org Three of the four new astronauts on February's planned launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station are amateur radio operators. Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, KB 3 HTZ Commander Stephen Bowen, KI 5 BKB Mission Specialist Sultan Al Neyadi, KI 5 VTV, will join Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. The earliest date would be mid-February. All crew members have learned about Amateur Radio on the International Space Station ariss.org/ Have received guidance on studying and testing, and learned how to operate the ARISS radios and the basics of on-the-air protocol from ARISS team members at NASA's Johnson Space Centre. The crew will be able to participate in ARISS, using the ham radio station on the ISS to contact schools and other educational institutions. (eHam) China's 1st Mars rover and Tianwen 1 orbiter may have gone silent: Something may have gone very wrong for China's first-ever Mars mission. China launched Tianwen 1 in July 2020 and the mission's rover, named Zhurong, touched down on the Red Planet in May 2021. The duo explored Mars smoothly until May 2022, when Zhurong was put into hibernation, hunkering down for the harsh winter. But the rover may not have exited hibernation as expected, according to reports from Space News, which cite reporting from the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, that Zhurong was expected to wake up in December and hasn't called home yet. And simultaneously, the Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter appears to be experiencing a communications glitch. It's unknown what the issues might be, but "most likely the sandstorms have seriously weakened Zhurong's capacity to use its solar panels to generate power" Tianwen 1 orbiter serves as a communications relay for the rover. "A Beijing-based source said ground control had encountered difficulty when downloading the latest data from the orbiting probe, Amateur radio operators have even observed that Tianwen 1 ground stations appear to have stopped attempting to make contact with the orbiter. China's space agency has yet to comment on the issues with Zhurong and Tianwen 1. (space.com) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FIVE MHz rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/ The 5 MHz Newsletter A map of 'The World of 5 MHz' shows that 85 countries now have 60m band allocations, a success story chronicled by the 5 MHz Newsletter since its first publication in Autumn 2011. The latest newsletter has articles about activities on the 60m band in Malaysia, South Africa, United States, Samoa and a new allocation in Ireland. The archived and the latest issue of the '5 MHz Newsletter' can be found on wikipedia.org/wiki/60-meter_band (irts) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA iota-world.org AF-008 CROZET ISLAND Thierry, F6CUK has start his activity as FT 8 WW from Crozet Islands, IOTA AF - 008 and is heard on 80 - 6m and possibly 160m also on QO - 100 Satellite. And Great News : FT 8 WW has been validated for DXCC credit ( dxnews.com ) AN-016 ANTARCTICA George KJ 4 CHT is the overwintering doctor at AmundsenScott South Pole Station, Antarctica AN-016. Hes a newcomer to the ham radio hobby, however is becoming familiar with remote set up, using Ham Radio Deluxe logbook, and is looking forward to trying HF bands soon. QSL manager, Bill K7MT, suggests George will be on air soon if not soonest and most likely 20 SSB. Callsign to listen look out for KC 4 AAA ( dx-world.net/kc4aaa-south-pole-antarctica/ ) WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP --- MILITARY Recordings of military transmissions can be found on the Signal Identification Guide Wiki at sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military The Service Academies Radio Group (SARG) was recently formed for alumni and amateur radio operators who are interested in the five U.S.A. military academies. William Curry, W5CQ, founder and net control operator for the SARG Net, said two months ago there was a new interest in forming a group and net. He noticed that only one military academy, West Point, W 2 KGY, was still operating a club station. At one time, every military academy in the United States had an operating club station. The SARG net meets every Thursday at 2200 UTC on 7.280 MHz, and every Saturday at 1600 UTC on 14.338 MHz. All amateur radio operators whether they are veterans, or just have an interest in the military or history of the academies, are invited. (arrl) I will wrap up this weeks edition of special interest group news with a thought - yes not everyone involved in ham radio has one particular interest , so strong, they have joined a club or forum delving into its cause. Some of us just like a good old fashioned rag chew. This story, which involves a VK5, like the first story of SOTA I brought you today only came to light because it was passed to ARNewsLine.. so we'll cross to ARNEWSLINE who in turn swing over to John VK4JJW with the story to "tie (thai/.. ) the ribbons. Here is Paul Brown WD 9 GCO SAYING 73 TO THE OLD YEAR AROUND THE WORLD PAUL/ANCHOR: Our final story has a little bit of magic in it. Some of it is amateur radio magic and the rest is simply New Year's magic -- because we can't put a final ribbon on the holiday season without this story of a QSO that happened in two countries across the change of the year. John Williams VK4JJW explains. JOHN: With poor conditions on the bands, the 10-minute QSO between one ham in Australia and another in Thailand might have felt more like it lasted for a year. Well....in a way, it actually did. Supoj E25JRP was on 20 metres at 2130 local time in Bangkok in the final hours of the old year, but very few CW operators responded to his call in that first half-hour. At 2200 local time, someone more distant came back to him - like the others, his call began with a V - perhaps it was VR, from Hong Kong, or VU, from India. Battling serious QSB, Supoj asked for a repeat - and then another. He told NewsLine: [quote] "After a couple of question marks and 'again,' I got all of his callsign." [endquote] It was VK5PL, Dave, a colleague from the Long Island CW Club in the United States. Dave was at home in Australia and recognised Supoj's callsign when he heard it on the air. Two thousand twenty-three was already well underway at his QTH. The year-change had started two hours earlier. Riding the fickle QSB, the two had just enough time to exchange new year's wishes - and for Dave to log his first QSO of the new year and Supoj to log one of his final ones of the old year. Dave wrote on the club's forum on groups.io: [quote] "I had a great start to the year." [endquote] Supoj told NewsLine: [quote] "I turned off my rig with a big smile." [endquote] Now, of course, with everyone properly settled into 2023, the only thing that needs to get in sync are those band conditions. This is John Williams VK4JJW. ------------------------------------------------------------* 2023 Social Scene Clubs are welcome to submit text with audio for this section and just in case we or someone makes an error in dates times events etc. we will NOT pass on 3rd hand information, ONLY what you, your WIA affiliated club sends National news. We have seen a date for a HamFest in WERRIBE and have asked that club, via email, for their audio and text so we can let all know.. VK3 - BARG HamFest 5th of February BARG clubrooms barg.org.au/ (vk3kqt) VK - ALARAMeet2023 4/5 November in HOBART (luther8@bigpond.com) 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) Promote your local rebroadcast; details on wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ 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/ Promote your local rebroadcast; details on wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/ 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." 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. ------------------------------------------------------------*