2021 NOVEMBER 21 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA
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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
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NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING NOVEMBER 21 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/
THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE
WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
PROGRAM RECORDED IN BRISBANE, OLYMPIC CITY 2032.
When is a tower deemed illegal?
Amateur radio organisations promoting youth activities and leadership around the world.
I'm just burning doin' the neutron dance - VK4JJW bops in with yet
another weird n wonderful
Peel AR Groups 80m Slow CW Corroboree is up coming and so is Mark
Do you have a spare $113,000 Aussie dollars? In rewind an item well worth every Shekel!
But before that, an interesting item "bobbed up" on the newsroom waterfall this week a note in from the WWV/WWVH Scientific Modulation Working Group
WWV/WWVH of course being the what is commonly referred to as the "time stations".
NIST is participating in a new project to study the ionosphere and its effects on high frequency (HF) radio propagation. As part of the WWV/WWVH Scientific Modulation Working Group, radio stations WWV and WWVH will each broadcast test signals once per hour that will allow operators using a type of software defined receiver (SDR) to record the signal data at their location and upload it to a central server for analysis.
The test signals will initially consist of several seconds each of Gaussian white noise, chirps varying up and down in frequency, and tones varying in amplitude, frequency and length. This initial test will help characterize transmitting and receiver equipment and configurations, and may be useful in determining time of flight measurements of the transmitted signal. The signals will be sent at 8 minutes past each hour on WWV, and 48 minutes past each hour on WWVH.
The project is coordinated by HamSCI, the Ham Radio Citizen Science Investigation and includes representatives from the University of Scranton, Case Western Reserve University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory, University of Alabama, New Jersey Institute of Technology, TAPR, the WWV Amateur Radio Club, interested amateur radio operators and others interested in citizen science.
WIA
JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y
Amateur radio organisations promoting youth activities and leadership around the world.
Contests are a good way to promote amateur radio with newcomers and young people. If your club has young operators, please consider inviting them to participate in contesting activities carried out by your team or club station, help them get on air individually or from a club station as a multi-operator entry.
The most recent strategy for encouraging young operators to be engaged in contesting comes from the CQ World-Wide, which just in its last version in 2021, was very special for young operators because of the new Youth category for anyone 25 years old or younger. Im pretty sure Australia and Oceania will promote similar strategies within the local and regional context.
Within IARU regional organisations some changes are now evident with the election of younger directors who are now sharing leadership roles in an evident generational succession; amateur radio around the world is facing challenges and needs greater engagement through promoting interest in science and technology subjects where amateur radio organisations play a key role.
Amateur radio is traditionally seen as a socially and technically conservative hobby, that is a weakness for a sustainable future of our community.
If you have a leadership role within your club or organisation, try to develop strategies to attract the interest of any significant number of women, younger people, or ethnic minorities in taking part of amateur radio activities.
This is Oscar, VK3TX, for WIA national news.
This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH. This week, I take off my hat that says Editor-in-Chief of Amateur Radio magazine and put on one that says your rights as a ham at home.
The subject of my talk this morning involves aerials, dishes, masts and neighbours.
On a Facebook group, recently Facebook . . thats social media, supposedly the scourge of modern society . . but, like the Curates egg . . good in parts . . so, back to my story, I was on this amateur radio Facebook group that concentrates on amateur radio in Australia, and one plaintive group member otherwise a happy ham recounted how hed had a visit from local council officers who turned up on his doorstep following a neighbours complaint to council about his amateur radio antennas.
Said council officers began reciting chapter and verse about the New South Wales State Environmental Planning Policy (known as a SEPP) essentially telling him that he could not have any antenna more than 900 millimetres wide or 1.8 metres above the roof.
His heart sank, and no wonder, because, as he said and I quote that basically rules out anything from HF to VHF.
Our now unhappy ham was not sure what to do next and, hence, was seeking input from others in the Facebook group who might have also experienced this issue.
He had, done some homework by searching on the WIA website and found a news item from 2013 authored by your truly that covered the subject. But, as he said, he was not sure it went anywhere.
Our unhappy hams plight was drawn to my attention in the usual way such things are done on social media I was tagged in another group members posting and I received a notification that Id been mentioned in despatches. Accordingly, I looked up our unhappy hams posting and read his story.
So were the council officers correct, or was their approach not the whole story?
Well as people are inclined to say on Facebook when explaining whether or not theyre in a relationship its complicated!
Long story short in New South Wales, the State Environmental Planning Policy covering aerials, antennas, masts and communication dishes, includes details on Exempt and Complying Development Codes.
For an antenna or mast up to ten metres in height including whatever may be mounted on the top and set back from the property boundary by half its height, it is an exempt development. That is, you dont need to get a development application approved by the local council. It is your right to have it there.
Back over 2011 through 2013, I orchestrated a campaign to have amateur antennas, aerials, dishes, masts and towers included in exempt development codes in New South Wales. It was successful and remains today.
Details of the planning policy can be found on the New South Wales Department of Planning website and the text edition of this broadcast on the WIA website.
tinyurl.com/3kx3ksm9
Perhaps Ill have more to say on this subject in a future broadcast. This is Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for VK1WIA News.
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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
The Norwegian Radio Relay League, Norway's national amateur radio organization, is working with a research institute there to help introduce an entry-level amateur radio category that would become available to operators as young as 12 or 13. Operators would be
permitted a maximum transmitting power of 10 watts. The goal is to
encourage the newest amateurs to build their own simple transmitters and receivers and spur interest in technology and science to complement their schoolwork. NRRL is working to move this certificate forward with funds provided for the study by the Norwegian Research Council. Norway presently has only one class of radio operators.
France: Ham radio exam and operator certificate are now free
National Frequency Agency, ANFR, site carries the announcement that the amateur radio exam and the operator certificate will now be free of charge
Participation in the examination for the operator certificate of amateur services as well as the issuance of this certificate are now free of charge. This free of charge is applicable from 2021. The terms and conditions of reimbursement of candidates enrolled in a 2021 examination session will soon be specified on the Agency's portal.
The Agency has also said:
If you have paid your examination fee for the amateur radio certificate to ANFR and you are eligible for reimbursement, you will soon receive a letter detailing the documents to be provided in order to regularize your situation.
ANFR Amateur Radio page
www.anfr.fr/licences-et-autorisations/radioamateurs/actualites/
Space Physics Professor Seeks Radio Amateurs' Help in Making Space Physics Data Audible
Professor Martin Archer of Imperial College London wants to know the best approach to making space physics data audible. Archer is the
UK Research and Innovation Stephen Hawking Fellow in Space Physics and Public Engagement and is working in the fields of citizen science and data sonification. Sonificationof course is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data
He is seeking individuals to complete a survey, the results of which may help him to determine the best way to give space physics data a voice.
imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_295iuL4yxfaQ0Qu
REGION TWO
The York Region Amateur Radio Club, YRARC celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first transatlantic Amateur Radio transmission by a Canadian Amateur.
On the evening of the 9th of December 1921 Edward Rogers Senior transmitted from the grounds of Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario with the callsign 3BP. Paul Godley, 2ZE, and other members of the Radio Club of America received his transmission, along with those of several US Amateurs, in Ardrossan, Scotland on a 9-tube superheterodyne receiver on frequencies in the vicinity of 1300 kHz, now part of the AM broadcast band.
Rogers used a spark-gap transmitter, a type which at the time was being phased out in favour of vacuum tube oscillators. The January 1922 issue of QST noted in the article Transatlantic Test Succeed! that Rogers was the only spark man to be successful.
Felix will have more on this story in a moment here on VK1WIA
REGION THREE
John Grant, a Lecturer in Soil Science, Southern Cross University in Lismore, here in VK, has calculated that the Moon's surface "regolith" is made up of approximately 45% oxygen -- enough oxygen to support all eight billion people on Earth for somewhere around 100,000 years.
BUT
That oxygen is tightly bound into the minerals that can only be released by electrolysis, which requires a great deal of energy.
This process is commonly used in manufacturing, such as to produce
aluminium. In this case, the oxygen is produced as a by-product. On the Moon, the oxygen would be the main product and the aluminium (or other metal) extracted would be a potentially useful by product.
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WEIRD AND WONDERFUL -
John VK4JJW with a look at the Weird and Wonderful
Throughout history, people have devised ways to send information across long distances.
For centuries we relied on smoke signals, semaphores, and similar physical devices.
Electricity changed everything.
First the telegraph and then radio transformed communications.
Now researchers at the University of Lancaster have demonstrated another way to send wireless data without using electromagnetic radiation. They've harnessed fast neutrons from californium-252 and
modulated them with information with 100 percent success.
The setup was interesting.
The radioactive material was encased in a cubic meter steel tank filled with water. A pneumatic system can move the material to one edge of the tank which allows fast neutrons to escape.
A scintillating detector can pick up the increased neutron activity. It seems like it is akin to using what hams call CW and
college professors call OOK (on off keying). You can do that with just about anything you can detect.
A flashlight, knocking on wood, or -- we suppose -- neutrons.
hackaday.com/2021/11/14/forget-radio-transmitting-with-neutrons/
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HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT
Firstly a big thank you to everyone who entered the 2021 Oceania DX
Contests. We broke our record for the number of logs that have been received this year with 1174 SSB logs and 725 CW logs being received by the deadline of October 31st 2021! That's a fantastic result.
The Oceania DX Contest committee is also pleased to announce that the raw scores (before adjudication and log checking) are now available.
The 2021 SSB Raw scores can be accessed
www.oceaniadxcontest.com/ssb-raw-scores-2021
The 2021 CW Raw scores can be accessed
www.oceaniadxcontest.com/cw-raw-scores-2021
The full and final results will be available once the log cross checking and validation work is complete. Thank you all for your participation and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2022!
Grant VK5GR on behalf of the Oceania DX Contest Committee
www.oceaniadxcontest.com
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SPRING VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS NEXT WEEKEND November 27-28
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CQ World-Wide CW contest Nov 27-28
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Peel AR Groups 80m Slow CW Corroboree on Sunday morning December 4th.
Gday - this is Mark VK2KI and VK6QI with news about the up-coming Slow CW Corroboree.
The Peel Amateur Radio Group continues to promote CW for both newcomers to the art and oldies like me whove let the skill wither on the vine somewhat.
The event will be open to all amateurs and Short Wave Listeners, irrespective of where they call home. So the Group will run the three hour 80m Slow CW Corroboree on Sunday morning December 4th. Times are 2300z on December 3rd 2021 to 0200z on December 4th (i.e. 0700 1000 WA time and 1000 1300 Eastern daylight time on December 4th).
This event is designated as a Corroboree, reflecting its nature as a friendly opportunity to get together and have fun, rather than trying to crack any records. So its a great opportunity for anyone whos thinking about exploring the art of CW to have a go in a safe, simple and mainly fun environment. SOTA and VKFF folks whod like to get the best bang for their QRP buck for instance might find this useful,
and itll also be great fun for CW oldies as well.
And, you wont have to try to stretch your Near-Vertical Incidence 80m propagation to reach WA at that time all contacts anywhere will score points providing you exchange call signs, RSTs and serial numbers.
For details, see www.parg.org.au and click on the Whats New page to
find the link to SCW Dec 21
www.parg.org.au/club-activities-and-events/slow-cw-contest/scw-dec21
Here youll find the event guidelines and even a handy-dandy hints page on simple CW QSOs.
And by the way, thank you to all who participated in the third PARG Slow CW Pow-Wow in September. Congratulations to both Andrew VK1DA for taking out the event and to runner-up John VK3BSE.
So note it in your diary - three hour 80m Slow CW Corroboree December 4th starting at 10 am Eastern and 7am WA time.
Cheers - hope to catch you on Saturday morning, Dec 4.
Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI
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December 4-5 160 Meter WW
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DECEMBER 11 - 12 10 Mtr World Wide
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2022
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January, the entire month every year is the
WIA ROSS HULL VHF - UHF MARATHON CONTEST
00:00 UTC 1 January to 23:59 UTC 31 January
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WIA VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS
Summer 2022 - 0100 UTC Saturday 15 January
through 0059 UTC Sunday 16 January (differs in VK6).
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John Moyle Memorial Field Day
March 2022
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Harry Angel Memorial 80m Sprint
Saturday May 7th 2022
10:00 UTC - 11:46 UTC
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VK SHIRES CONTEST 11th JUNE 2022
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WIA VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS
Winter 2022 - 0200 UTC Saturday 25 June
through 0159 UTC Sunday 26 June (differs in VK6).
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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
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WIA RD or Remembrance Day Contest
Weekend closest to the 15th August each year.
2022 its Sat Sun August 13 and 14
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WIA - NZART OCEANIA CONTEST
PHONE - First full weekend in October 2022 0600 UTC Saturday
to 0600 UTC Sunday
CW - Second full weekend in October 2022 0600 UTC Saturday
to 0600 UTC Sunday
Log deadline for ALL logs - 31 October.
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WIA VHF - UHF FIELD DAYS
SPRING 2022
NOVEMBER
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DX WINDOW
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C9, MOZAMBIQUE.
YL Elvira, IV 3 FSG, is once again active as C 92 R from Mozambique until November 30th. Usually, her activity will be limited to her spare time on 80-10 meters using SSB, RTTY and PSK31.
She is there working on a project for the Informatici Senza
Frontiere ONLUS.
QSL via IK2DUW, direct, by the Bureau or ClubLog.
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Remo, HB9SHD, is using the callsign 8Q7RM from the Maldives, IOTA
AS-013, throughout November. Listen for him on FT8. He will also be
using slow CW and SSB on the bands from 6m to 40m. Send QSLs to his home call, either direct or via the bureau, Club Logs OQRS and Logbook of the World.
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SOMALIA.
Ali, EP3CQ, is once again active as 6 O 1OO from Mogadishu until sometime during the first week in December. Activity has been on
30 meters FT8/FT4. As always, his activity will be limited to his spare time because he works for the UN Department of Safety and Security in Mogadishu.
He informed our source, OPDX, that his activity will be on all bands
80 up depending on the propagation FT8, CW and SSB.
6 O 1 OO station is currently the only active and licensed Amateur Radio Station in Somalia. Ali mentioned that he will be leaving for Christmas, but will be back again during the second week of
January.
If you are after this one it's suggested to watch QRZ.com
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CF 3 BP is operating from the York region near Toronto until 12 December marking the anniversary of the first transatlantic amateur radio transmission from Canada by Edward Rogers Senior using the call 3BP.
He was one of the few amateurs to successfully transmit across the Atlantic in an ARRL-sponsored test and the only Canadian to succeed, using a 500W spark gap transmitter.
York Region Amateur Radio Club is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first transatlantic Amateur Radio transmission by a Canadian Amateur. This took place on the evening of December 9, 1921 by Edward Rogers Senior using the call sign 3BP from the grounds of Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario, in the heart of York Region.
At the time the Pickering College was still shut down following World War I when it was used as a hospital. By 1927 it was again operating as a boys-only school. Edward Rogers accomplishment was part of the first successful transatlantic test from North America, sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).
Operated by members of the York Region ARC, a schedule is available, where you can also read more about the historical event.
www.yrarc.org/cf3bp
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Listen out for the RSGB arranged call sign GB 21 YOTA. They have
set this call for allocation to youngsters to operate throughout December.
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BEACONS
Denmark's 40.071 MHz beacon back on the air
At the end of August, the OZ 7 IGY 8m beacon on 40.071 MHz was turned
off because of a faulty trimmer in the power amplifier stage. At the end of October 2021, after replacing the faulty part it was turned back on.
OZ7IGY Beacons
www.oz7igy.dk/
MEDIA WATCH
On Saturday, 13 November 2021, Barry Amateur Radio Society was featured in a programme on Channel 4 at 8pm called Britain by Beach.
The club was shown doing a recreation of Marconi and Kemps CW transmissions from Lavernock Point in South Wales.
You can watch the episode on the Channel 4 website.
www.channel4.com/programmes/britain-by-beach
(rsgb)
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WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org
satellite Z-Sat was launched November 8 and is a 50 kg class infrared observation microsatellite, part of an 8 mission payload that included
RAISE-2, DRUMS- a unique debris removal satellite, and four CubeSats that also included Nanodragon and KOSEN-1. The Z-Sat CW beacon signal 145.875MHz contains information such as satellite battery voltage.
In light of the successful launch of the Z-Sat, all S.A.T. device users need auto update their devices in order to acquire the new TLE.
nagoya.so-net.jp
(Amsat NA)
The International Space Station has performed a short engine burn
to avoid potentially hitting a chunk of space junk.
The thrusters on Russia's Progress MS-18 transport cargo vehicle which
is docked to the ISS, fired for 361 seconds to perform the small nudge. It's now been confirmed that the ISS is safe from a fragment of Chinas Fengyun-1C weather satellite that was whizzing by.
Amateurs using the ARISS repeater will want to update their keps following this change in orbit.
(Amsat NA)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP --- MILITARY
Project E.L.F.
The history of communicating with submarines underwater
Nestled deep in a National Forest in Northwest Wisconsin is the small town of Clam Lake. Clam Lake is best known for the excellent hunting and fishing in the area, and of course the herd of elk that roam the countryside. BUT the elk population is more of a side effect of a story.
At one time this area was home to a military base and in fact, world war three could have been signalled from its location.
Im talking about Project ELF, the Navys program to send messages to submarines deep under water. Project ELF, a cold war relic that still has an impact today
It's worth a visit to the website we have in the text edition to
get this story we saw mentioned in qrznow.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC1cqwGkOwY
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOTA
(Youngsters On The Air)
youtube.com/channel/UClAapljf0VQ751sOgu2IzaA
twitter.com/hamyota
Norwegian Research Council Provides for Recruitment of Young Radio Amateurs
Within the framework of its program "Strengthening children and young people's digital competence and understanding of digital technology", the Research Council of Norway has allocated 1 MNKR, thats just over 150,000 Aussie Dollars to the project called:-
"Radio and communication technology for young people".
The project is carried out by NRRL in collaboration with the University of Oslo and project leader is Torbjrn Skauli, LA4ZCA.
The project aims to increase interest in technology and science in schools. The idea is to introduce amateur radio as a kind of "freely chosen work" in the high school. The project also includes producing an entry-level certificate, a "beginner's license" that makes it possible for 12-13 year olds to get started with amateur radio. The proposal for an entry certificate has received broad support in education and public administration in Norway
tinyurl.com/35724szn
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I'M JOHN KNOX VK4FJRK AND THIS IS REWIND REWINDING TO THE STARTING LINE OF THE 'SPACE RACE.'
Colin Butler, writing in the icqpodacst has found an interesting item for sale, but it IS rather expensive.
For Sale: 1:1 scale test model of the satellite 'Sputnik-1', serial no. '0K6-1/004/1957', with built-in transmitter (including modern 12-volt power supply), polished stainless-steel sphere, consisting of two threaded hemispheres of approx. 23 in. diameter with two pairs of antennae of 95 in. and 105 in. at an angle of 35 degrees to the axis, on stand with O-ring, stand approx. 59 in. high, stand and model together approx. 79 in. high, accompanied by a Tesla Maj 620A radio receiver, manufactured in Prague c. 1956, restored working condition, including replacement of the silver-zinc battery with a modern alternative and a new metal casing for the electronic transmitter.
This was built at the Experimental Design Bureau-1 factory, also known as S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Koroljow, Soviet Union, in 1957, shortly before the launch of Sputnik-1. -
An impressive artefact from the dawn of the space age, of which few models are known.
Opening bid Price: EUR 85,000 thats close to $133,000 AUD
My time is up With REWIND I'm John Knox, VK4FJRK
https://tinyurl.com/2j7b9hh3
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2021 Social Scene
Gold Coast Amateur Radio Society HamFest is on today,
Sunday 21st November at Country Paradise Parklands 231 Beaudesert Nerang Road, Nerang.
(Paul VK4PY)
VK3 SPARC Rosebud RadioFest February 13, 2022 9:30AM (3VK3PDG)
The Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club will stage its Rosebud RadioFest on Sunday, February 13, at the Eastbourne Primary Schools Auditorium, Allambi Avenue, Rosebud, Victoria.
The RadioFest is open to the public from 9:30 am through to 1:30pm.
Outdoor displays, Full catering, and Entry ticket sales from 8.00 am.
Technical Forums commence at 10.30 am and the mystery major door prizes will be drawn at 12 pm sharp.
Entry is $6.00 and under-12s are free.
Tables may be booked online for $10.00 each at www.rosebudradiofest.com
All enquiries to Mark VK3PDG on 0407-844-063
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