June 28 - VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA
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THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK
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NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING JUNE 28 2015.
IN OUR 20TH YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS
WIA looking to protect Amateur Radio, A SPECIAL REWIND SEGMENT ON "THE ACT" this week.
Sparks arrested on VK3 mast.
PS-46 taht Aussie balloon continues to make history.
The ZL Memorial Contest will be on air first weekend of July.
THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA 2015 AND FOR WEEK OF JUNE 28
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VK3 radio mast
A Ringwood North amateur radio mast is to go ahead because the structure will
be used for recreational purposes, which means it does not need a permit.
The Herald Sun reports a neighbour, Fiona Jenkins, was concerned about the
value of her property and had complained to Maroondah Council.
Maroondah Council mayor Tony Dib said the installation of the radio mast did
not require a permit because it was being used for a hobby, not commercial
use.
Councillor Dib said the street was within a neighbourhood residential zone
and the planning scheme allowed for this activity without a permit.
The newspaper says the radio amateur involved supported the State Emergency
Services (SES) during the "Black Saturday" bushfires in 2009 when as many as
400 individual fires were recorded in the State of Victoria.
www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/outer-east/an-8m-amateur-radio-mast-has-some-ringwood-north-residents-worried-about-health-concerns-and-property-values/story-fnrwkhlp-1227405828713
Tasmania emergency dispatch.
The Tasmanian Government (vk7) will spend $15.3 million over the next two years
to deliver an integrated emergency services computer aided dispatch (ESCAD)
system.
To deliver an integrated emergency services computer aided dispatch
system the ESCAD system will replace the three non-integrated CAD systems used by
Tasmania Police, the Tasmania Fire Service and Ambulance Tasmania, and the
manual process used by the State Emergency Service.
An integrated emergency dispatch system was a key recommendation of the
2013 Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry.
In a statement, the Minister for Police and Emergency Management said,
"The initiative will enable our emergency services' communications centres
to better communicate with each other to improve the management of incidents
requiring a multiagency response."
The system will record information about emergency incidents such as brief
details, taskings, attending officers and comments.
ESCAD is due to be fully delivered in 2017.
radiocomms.com.au/content/public-safety/news/-15-3m-for-new-tasmanian-emergency-dispatch-system-1303607237
(Sourced from the RadioComms Web E-zine)
Aussie balloon continues to make history
The launching of pico balloon PS-46 carrying an Amateur Radio payload more than
a month ago has achieved a place in the record books, by having gone around the
southern hemisphere twice.
The party-type foil balloon put up by Andy Nguyen VK3YT in Victoria on May 23
has been tracked by its solar powered 25mW transmitter using WSPR and JT9
on the 30m and 20m bands.
The high altitude balloon moved east across the Pacific to South America, then
floated slowly off Africa, before going inland over several countries to exit
on the east coast of that continent.
South African trackers had it move ever so slowly up the east coast off
Tanzania, then to come back before heading again inland over Mozambique
for an arc, and out through the middle of Madagascar.
Andy VK3YT says "The weather plays a big part for these party balloons. There
hasn't been any cyclones or large storms in the last few weeks in the path of
PS-46.
"It appears that after going around for a while at this time of year, the
balloon is consistently moving up north, bypassing the much faster jet stream
down south."
Earlier attempts in the series ended in adverse weather. However this time,
tracked by VK and ZL stations, the balloon floated in a jet stream across the
Indian Ocean near Western Australia.
At last report it was 3,000 kms from its starting point at Longitude
144.894 Degrees East. Hopefully, PS-46 can begin a third trip around the
southern hemisphere.
(Jim Linton VK3PC)
WIA BOARD TALK
President Phil Wait VK2ASD vk2asd@wia.org.au
V President Fred Swainston VK3DAC vk3dac@wia.org.au
Secretary David Williams VK3RU vk3ru@wia.org.au
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ vk3pz@wia.org.au
ANZAC 100 events on air
The VK100ANZAC commemoration of the RAAF Secret Mission was held on June 17
and 18 at the ghost town of Farina in South Australia's far north.
A local War Memorial ceremony remembered how John Bell, born in Farina, joined
the RAAF in July 1939, was in the UK with others to get some new aircraft, when
WWII broke out in that September. In 1940 he volunteered to rescue Madame
de Gaulle in France.
The amphibious plane crashed killing all four crewmen.
Their heroic actions are remembered.
Paul VK5PAS and others activated VK100ANZAC making about 220 contacts, mostly
VK and ZL, plus into Europe, USA, Mexico and Hawaii.
Meantime starting on June 27 for three days, the Yarra Valley Amateur Radio
Group has VK100ANZAC to commemorate Lieutenant George Ingram, the only local
and the final Victoria Cross recipient in WWI.
On July 1, Vincent Henderson VK7VH will be on air as VK100WIA for the Battle of
the Somme in France 1916, one of the largest battles that used air power and
the first tank in battle.
The ANZAC 100 program is on the WIA website.
To register an appropriative event please contact the WIA Director Fred
Swainston VK3DAC at trainsafe@silvertrain.com.au
(Jim Linton VK3PC)
HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.
VK3
web service:- http://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/
From Morse to Magnetron, that's the title of an Exhibition assembled by the
Geelong Amateur Radio Club, to be held in Geelong during July this year.
More with Bryan VK3GR in Special Interest Group news later in this bulletin.
The Homebrew Construction Group will have a 'Tune and Test Day' at its
July meeting with test equipment being supplied by group members on Saturday,
July the 4th at 2pm, in the Amateur Radio Victoria rooms 40g Victory Boulevard,
Ashburton.
All are welcome.
As well as a 'Tune and Test Day' the group will also talk about the latest
project in the 'Show and Tell' segment, and some firm performance figures
can be established as well.
The latest newsletter compiled by Ian VK3LA, will be emailed to subscribers in
the week before the meeting. Inquiries and comments can be sent to
homebrew@amateurradio.com.au
(Jim Linton VK3PC)
VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to qnews@wia.org.au
send audio to http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/
get local audio news www.wiaq.org.au/ftp/vk4_qnews_64.mp3
get local news emailed qnews-vk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
TARC Clubrooms Working Bee and Social doo
Want to help keep some radio heritage sorted and terrific?
TARCadians and support crew will be helping out at the TARC Clubrooms to fix,
sort out and tidy the many items used, stored and displayed at the heritage
listed site and many hands make light work SO come along and help sort
historical documents and equipment, fix antennas, decide what will be released
to the next few Monster Auctions and socialise.
The Working Bee runs 1pm to 5pm Saturday July 11th and 11am to 2pm Sunday
July 12th.
VK5
GOOD MORNING.
THIS IS Col, VK5HCF with a report on the South East Radio Groups' 51st annual
convention.
The weekend was again a success for the club with the main focus being the
Australian fox hunting championship.
Here is a condensed report from Andrew, VK5KET our foxhunt organiser.
"The Queen's Birthday Weekend saw the running of the Australian Fox Hunting
Championship in and around Mount Gambier, South Australia. Six teams from VK3
and 3 teams from VK5 competed over the Saturday and Sunday in a number of
different events for championship honours.
Events included 2, foot based "sniffer" hunts and road events on various bands,
including 80m, 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23 cm. There was an ARDF style road event
where there are 4 transmitters transmitting on the same frequency in sequence.
This event has been tried the last 2 years and has proven to be challenging.
At the end of the weekend it came down to the last event with the VK3BLN team
coming away triumphant. VK3FAST was a close second with VK3OW rounding out the
top 3.
The VK% teams are improving each year and it won't be long and the VK# teams
will have to watch out.
Congratulations to all the competitors who are already looking forward to next
year.
A big thank you to all the SERG and Naracoorte club members who played fox over
the weekend".
Another highlight of the weekend is the homebrew competition.
Here is a brief report on that and the weekend generally from John, VK5DJ who is
one of the homebrew judges.
"The homebrew competition was well supported with 14 excellent entries.
For those looking for radio gear or parts there was a good selection of new and
pre-loved gear.
The finale dinner was a great evening and followed a talk by Brian, VK3YNG on
surface mount techniques and a video of the 2014 foxhunt highlights"
I would suggest that if this sounds interesting you had better mark your
calendars for next year's long weekend on the 11th, 12th, and 13th. of
June 2016.
We would love to see you there.
Good Morning, this is Bob, VK5FO for the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group.
Wednesday the 15th of July 2015 is the 100 year anniversary of the proclamation
of
Morialta Falls as a National Pleasure Resort, and is now known as the
Morialta
Conservation Park.
Members of AREG will be operating a Special event
station - VI5MCP Between
the 11th and the 26th July.
The Aim of this special
event station is to celebrate the 100th anniversary and to
further promote
awareness of portable operations and awards.
Activation of the Morialta
Conservation Park qualify for both the South
Australian National Parks
& Conservation Parks award and the World-Wide
Flora and Fauna Award.
There will
be multiple Activities from Morialta over the 2 weeks with the main
event
planned for the weekend of the 18th and 19th July
Please keep an eye on
the AREG website at http://www.areg.org.au/ for
details on the planned
activation times and frequencies.
We hope to get you in the logs of VI5MCP
Special Event Station.
This is Bob, VK5FO
DISCUSSION POINT
WHAT USE IS AN F CALL
On previous occasions I've spoken about contesting and what it might add to your
amateur experience. I know that there are amateurs who are convinced that
contesting isn't for them, you'll never hear them on air, they don't think it's
worth while, it's too complicated, it's not fun, it's not them.
I beg to differ.
In my opinion, contesting is among the most fun you can have with amateur radio
and it's the most challenging, rewarding and fundamental test of your amateur
abilities.
I know that you might be thinking that your station isn't up to the task, but I
learnt at an early age that if you don't try, you're guaranteed to fail. Of
course there are contests that are high profile, attract the bulk of the world
wide amateur community and flood the band with their noise, but there are also
smaller and even tiny contests where you can practice and get your feet wet.
There is at least one contest every weekend of the year, that's 52 contests
right there, but the reality is that there are many, many more contests than
that.
In essence a contest is the process of sending unique information to another
station, and receiving unique information from then, logging the exchange and
moving on to the next station. What the exchange is differs for each contest,
for some it's a number that keeps incrementing each time you make a contact,
for others it's your state, or your years in amateur radio, or your location,
or any number of other forms of exchange.
A contest is of course not just sending and receiving information, it's a test
of your equipment, your radio, antenna, microphone, logging software and any
number of other aspects of the hobby that will challenge you. You'll learn about
propagation, you'll use your phonetic alphabet more than you thought possible
and you'll learn that different countries have different preferences for their
phonetics.
Some contests run for a short time, an hour, others run for two or more days.
In each contest, preparation is a big part of the experience, not just
preparation of your gear, but also of yourself, your diet, sleep, fitness and
the like. Depending on how seriously you take your contesting, you might find
yourself in training before a big one and exchanging ideas and lessons with
some of your friends. Perhaps you'll join together and run a contest station
with multiple radios going at the same time, at which point you'll be learning
about interference first hand.
Getting started on a contest is simple, go on-line, do a search for amateur
radio contests, you'll find calendars, rules, logging software, educational
material, videos, documents and much more.
Before you start a contest, read the rules and make sure you understand them,
have a listen around the bands to get a feel for the tempo of the contest and
dive in.
Some terms you're going to come across are HP, or High Power, SO2R or
Single Operator - 2 radios. You'll come across a concept of a multiplier,
which is a scoring mechanism that often doubles your score every time you get
a multiplier. For example, you might get a multiplier for each zone you work,
or for each country, or for a contact on a different band. Sometimes the scores
differ depending on whom you talk to on which band, sometimes it's a different
score for a different distance, or more points for talking to a QRP station, so
it pays to understand the rules.
There are many tricks to learn, people to talk to and things to do, but the
first step is to get over the mindset that contesting isn't your thing.
If you have questions about contesting, drop me a line via email:
vk6flab@wia.org.au
I hope I've given you some food for thought.
I'm Onno VK6FLAB
INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee, the
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART and the WW sources of the WIA.
Flooding in ZL Land
Steady rain fell over Dunedin early June with 175mm falling across the city
over a 20 hour period and a record for Dunedin.
Storm water drains were overloaded and many homes and businesses on the flat
were flooded.
The regular Amateur Radio weekly meeting of Branch 30 was cancelled as many had
water issues at home.
Ross ZL4RC said floodwater extended all the way across the road with the path
to the clubhouse totally submerged. A few calls on 690 and troops arrived with
bins, bags and pumps and tall gumboots
The clubrooms floor had been under 200 mm of probably contaminated water.
Much new and old equipment was submerged, including a new F7000 HF radio,
a Wacom duplexer and a set of LMR VHF and UHF radios for use portable for
AREC work, seems the building is insured but unfortunately not contents.
The Branch bought the property in 1969 and in 1974, Ron Kingston with many
helpers re-built the main section of the building into its present form with
a rented flat attached.
AND STILL THE RAINS COME DOWN.
Following recent heavy monsoon rain in the sprawling and densely populated
Mumbai on India's west coast, HAMS were involved in response preparedness.
Jayu Bhide VU2JAU, the National Coordinator for Disaster Communication in
India, tells us that when Mumbai was hit by rains, HAMS were deployed at
various vital locations.
Through the Disaster Amateur Radio Emergency Services (DARES) based at Mumbai,
HAM stations were set up for the Police Commissioner, Disaster Management for
Maharashtra State, and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Jayu VU2JAU
said, "HAM stations are included in the Standard Operating Procedures in
preparedness to handle any emergency communications if required."
Mumbai had disastrous floods in 2005 that cut all mobile and landlines.
At least 10 HAMS are involved this time, and through DARES train should there
be another disaster with the loss or overloading of communications.
Jayu VU2JAU said the situation was now under control, rain water had receded
and people have started moving on the streets. He noted that Mumbai HAMS have
again shown they can work alongside agencies that have the overall
responsible for disaster planning and response. Such an example could be
followed by other cities and local administrations.
Read more at
iamin.in/en/mumbai-south/news/ham-radio-operators-standby-emergency-communications
NASA, UN Photo Competition Highlights Why Space Matters on Earth
NASA and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
have launched a global photography competition to highlight how the
vantage point of space helps us better understand our home planet,
improve lives, and safeguard our future by aiding sustainable
development on Earth.
To highlight the role of space-based science and technologies and
their applications on Earth, NASA and UNOOSA are inviting the public
to submit photos depicting why space matters to us all in our daily
lives. To participate, post a picture and description on Instagram
using the hashtag #whyspacematters and tagging @UNOOSA.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is three months into a one-year
mission aboard the International Space Station, will announce the
winning photo each month by posting it from his Instagram account
@StationCDRKelly.
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about the #whyspacematters competition, visit:
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/contests/whyspacematters/index.html
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WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
Technology History News
The Forgotten History of How Bird Poop Cripples Power Lines
Bird poop once crippled the most wide-ranging power grid in the world, a new
historical study reveals.
In 1913, two 386-kilometer-long electric lines, the longest in the world at the
time, began carrying power from the Big Creek hydroelectric dams in the
Sierra Nevada mountains southward to customers in Los Angeles. In 1923, the
lines were upgraded to carry 220,000 volts, making them among the world's
highest voltage lines at the time and pushing the limits of what was thought to
be possible with the technology of the day.
However, unexplained short circuits that cropped up in the months after the
expensive upgrade threatened to turn this marvel of engineering into a failure.
The rate of disruptive flashoversarcs of electric current that sometimes leapt
from the wires to the steel towers and into the earthjumped dramatically,
leading to power interruptions seconds to minutes long every two or three days
on average.
Engineers at power company Southern California Edison proposed a variety of
causes for this mysterious problem, including lightning storms, moisture on
spider webs, and "rivers of ions" in the air, but none could fully solve the
puzzle. After a few desperate months of investigation, researchers finally
discovered the culpritvast amounts of bird excrement, historian of science
Etienne Benson at the University of Pennsylvania explains in a new study in the
journal Environmental Humanities.
The solution emerged once a worker saw what appeared to be an eagle perched on
top of a transmission tower. As the bird took to flight, it emptied its bowels,
letting loose a long jet of droppings onto the power lines.
Hawks and eagles were apparently attracted to the transmission towers as
high lookout points from which to hunt in the largely treeless but prey-rich
landscape in the area. They gave off streams of highly electrically conductive
excrement as they launched from towers, presumably to lighten their load during
flight. Lab tests later confirmed such "bird streamers" could have caused
flashovers by carrying current from the power lines to the steel towers even
without touching either. The poop trails themselves were destroyed by the
concentrated energy of the resulting electric arc, leaving no observable
evidence.
In response, Southern California Edison installed barriers, spikes and
excrement-catching pans on the towersat considerable expense. And the number
of short circuits soon dropped significantly. As the power grid became more
sophisticated, it was segmented and automatic relays were installed so that
power could be more easily restored, as well.
Still, bird streamers continue to be a problem even in the 21st century, with
research on them continuing across the globe in areas such as Florida, China,
Estonia, and South Africa.
And it's not just birds, of course, IEEE released a revised standard
(IEEE 1264) on how to prevent disruption from animal incursions into
substations. According to a survey cited in the standard: 90 percent of
utilities had experienced squirrel related substation issues, 86 percent had
bird trouble, and raccoons came in third at 57 percent. Snakes, which would
seem to be ideal conductors, rang in at 46 percent.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/environment/bird-poop-can-cripple-power-grids
(Written by Charles Q. Choi and sourced from the IEEE Spectrum Web E-zine)
Who and Where are our broadcast stations?
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/
OPERATIONAL NEWS 2015
Trans-Tasman contest 18th July from 0800utc
10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 1 - 2
Remembrance Day Contest August 15 and 16
Oceania DX contest Voice First full weekend in October
Oceania DX contest Continuous Wave Second full weekend in October.
2016
Harry Angel 80 mtr sprint (WIA) provisional date Saturday 7th May.
10-10 INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONTEST Aug 6 - 7
The Fisher's Ghost Amateur Radio Club have a new contest commencing July ONE!
They have been running a trial of this contest in-house since October 2014
with great results. They advise that the contest has proved to be fun,
challenging and rewarding for the DX chaser.
The contest was developed in memory of their friend and fellow Club member
Ted Powell VK2AU (SK), who passed away in April 2014. Ted's passion was working
rare DX and at the time of his passing, Ted had worked 301 entities and
confirmed 300 by QSL cards.
The objective of this contest is to work the most wanted DXCC entity during an
award period. The winner will be the station who works the most wanted DXCC
entity based on its ranking in "Club Log's" "Most Wanted" list current at the
start of the particular award period.
There are also awards for 2nd and 3rd place. There are 4 award periods per
year, each running for 3 months.
For more information, contest rules and entry submission details, see the
contest website, Www.vk2au.org
The ZL Memorial Contest will be held first weekend of July.
This annual event is held to commemorate those New Zealand amateur radio
operators who lost their lives in World War 2.
It is an easy short duration contest and an ideal starter for someone new to
amateur radio and contesting.
Rules are unchanged from 2014 (except for dates of course) and together with
Summary and Log sheet templates are available at:
http://www.nzart.org.nz/activities/contest-rules/
(Frank ZL2BR)
SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX, BEACON REPEATER AND NET ADVICE
20th 73 on 73 Award Issued
Congratulations to Davide D'Aliesio, IW0HLG, for working 73 different
stations on AO-73 since September 1, 2014 and becoming the 20th
recipient of the 73 on 73 Award.
For more information on the award see
http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/73-on-73-award/
[ANS thanks Paul, N8HM, for the above information]
The ZS90SARL call sign is active until 31 December 2015.
To date, 12,00 plus contacts have been made with 4,500 confirmations according
to Logbook of the World. ZS90SARL has already achieved a mixed mode DXCC and is
six more confirmations away from a CW DXCC.
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- CW
FISTS Club - East Asia www.feacw.net
FISTS Club - Australasia www.fistsdownunder.org
FISTS Club - UK & Europe www.fists.co.uk
FISTS Club - Americas www.fists.org
From Morse to Magnetron, that's the title of an
Exhibition assembled by the Geelong Amateur Radio
Club, to be held in Geelong during July this year.
The exhibition is of Military Communications,
Signalling and Navigation technology from World
War One, approximately, to the Vietnam era, and
is part of our nations' centenary commemoration of Gallipoli.
Free to the public, the Exhibition includes
interactive displays and Educational areas for
students, as well as the Real Hardware which
chronicles the rapid development in communications over the years.
All are welcome to come and see this unique
collection of Equipment, spanning from the
Trenches through Early Airborne Radar to the Space age.
The collection includes A Spy and Coastwatch
section as well as some Australian Designed and built Equipment.
A reminder of when we had an Electronics Industry.
The Exhibition is at Osborne House, Swinburne
Street North Geelong, it is open from 10am to 4pm
each Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday commencing July 2.
Want to know more? Go to the GARC Website at WWW.VK3ATL.ORG
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER
QB50p2 FM Transponder Tested
AMSAT-Francophone report that the FM transponder on QB50p2 (EO-80) has been
tested. A Google English translation of the post on their website reads:
On June 19, 2014, two 2U CubeSats QB50p1 and QB50p2 were launched as
part of the QB50 precursor program into a polar orbit at an altitude of 680 km.
The satellite QB50p2 (object 40032) is equipped with a secondary FM
transponder payload developed by AMSAT-F.
On Tuesday, June 16, 2015 almost 1 year after launch the AMSAT-F FM
transponder on QB50p2 was activated by the main control station in
The Netherlands for the duration of an orbit.
A very strong signal was received back on earth. The transponder was turned off
at the end of the orbit.
In a few weeks, the transponder should be activated permanently.
(Grard - F6FAO)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
http://rsgbiota.org
South Solitary Island NSW Australia IOTA activation
The Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia will activate
South Solitary Island NSW Australia OC-194 between July 26 to 28, 2015.
As a first time activation of South Solitary Island, it will be sought after
by many DXers and IOTA chasers.
More information: http://www.vk2ssi.com
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
From the 11th to the 14th of June, 13 Members of WICEN NSW participated in
the State Rescue Board sponsored Multi-Agency Search and Rescue Exercise
(SAREX 2015).
The exercise was based in the Deua National Park inland from Moruya.
Led by the Police Force, approximately 180 personnel from many agencies
including the Volunteer Rescue Association, (in particular the Bushwalkers
and Wilderness Rescue Squad and WICEN)
Ambulance
Rural Fire Service
State Emergency Service
National Parks and Wildlife Service
and the Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter
Operationally, WICEN managed, in an area with no mobile telephone coverage,
three search networks, a fleet of 18 APRS trackers, a WINLINK HF system for
incoming and outgoing email including regular SITREPS to agency command centres
in Sydney. Thanks to VK2SYD for supporting with this link.
More details of the event will be available on nsw.wicen.org.au
(Doug VK2DCR, on behalf of WICEN NSW Incorporated)
Now to VK4 and Bundaberg and Gail VK4ION.
The Club has recently purchased new equipment for our WICEN group and they're
been looking for field experience and community events to improve their skills.
We certainly found one, at Clarkey's Petrol-head Paradise. This is a cattle
property near Lowmead, halfway between Bundy and Gladstone, which opens its
gates to a Gladstone Motorcycle Club for a 2 day cross country challenge.
This was their 10th anniversary and with over 500 riders attending it was a sea
of campers and caravaners at this fun family outing.
The SES Rosedale Branch supplies the Marshals and Drink Stations and our duty
was to sit behind SES and provide comms in the identified black spots.
As they continually change the 18km course to make it more challenging this
means that more dips, hollows, creek crossings and rough mountain tracks are
included each year.
There is some serious high country up behind Lowmead and UHF just wouldn't make
the distance so Ross VK4JRO built a temporary 2 metre repeater with a 1.7MHz
split and placed it on a high ridge. This gave us perfect comms over the
2 days.
We ran 4 portable stations scattered around the course and the organisers said
they'd never had such reliable comms.
We've been invited back next year and were even asked if we'd travel to do
their Biloela Event.
REWIND a look back at history
For decades Australia had the Wireless Telegraphy Act that began in 1905
and was amended along the way.
What that Act had was a somewhat archaic provision that made it unlawful
basically to have a receiver or transmitter, without Ministerial approval.
It said: "If a justice of the peace is satisfied that any appliance is
established, erected, maintained, or used in contravention of this Act or the
regulations, for the purpose of transmitting or receiving messages by means of
wireless telegraphy he may grant a search warrant to any person."
Some radio inspectors used the possession of equipment, not the use of it just
having it in your possession - as enough evidence of potential wrong-doing.
This led to raids on likely targets. When a ham bought radio transmitting
equipment the retailer then often asked if an amateur licence was held.
It was replaced by the Radiocommunications Act, a modern look at spectrum
management. Gone was the W&T Act possession law. The emphasis in the new Act
was on the use of transmitting equipment.
The Radiocommunications Act received a lot of input, including that from the
Wireless Institute of Australia. It introduced Class Licences for devices
without the need of an individual licence fee. Among many other measures it
addressed were the emissions of devices, even those not intended to emit but
can cause interference.
The Department of Communications now wants to replace the Radiocommunications
Act with new legislation.
In its Spectrum Review it suggests a single licensing system, user spectrum
management, improved compliance and enforcement, and other changes.
Announced is a review of the ACMA itself.
It manages the radio spectrum, broadcasting and telecommunications. The era of
review is on accord with the government wanting to be more efficient and
removing unnecessary red-tape.
Again, closely involved in these processes is the WIA looking to protect
Amateur Radio. It will be making a submission on the Spectrum Review
recommendations, and is looking at the ACMA review too.
(Jim Linton VK3PC)
SOCIAL SCENE 2015
Jul ?? VK4 Caboolture HamFest (contact club as date may have changed
and it is not shown on their club webpage.)
Jul 11-12 VK3 GippsTech 2015
Jul 18 VK3 Gippsland gate Radio & Electronics Club HamFest @ Cranbourne
Jul 25 VK3 ALARA 40th Bday Lunch, Novotel Glen Waverley vk3vip@wia.org.au
Sep 12 VK4 SUNFEST Woombye
Sep 25-27 VK4 CHARC AGM Weekend Camp Fairbairn near Emerald
Oct 2-5 VK4 Cardwell Gathering, Beachcomber Motel and Tourist Park
Oct 25 VK3 Ballarat Amateur Radio Group Hamvention Greyhound Track
Oct 25 VK4 Gold Coast HamFest Broadbeach
Nov VK3 QRP By the Bay details from VK3YE held 2nd Saturday
2016
Feb 13 VK3 MERC Hamfest 10am at Werribee Masonic Centre
Feb 28 VK3 EMDRC HamFest Great Ryrie Primary School Heathmont.
Ap-May 29- 2 VK4 Clairview Gathering check Mackay ARS website. (theTARCinc)
June 11-13 VK5 VK Foxhunting Championship & SERG convention Mt Gambier (VK5HCF)
FINAL FINAL
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NEW WIA NEWS BROADCAST FEEDBACK
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National News compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.
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