2021 DECEMBER 12 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 DECEMBER 12 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/
Todays news we'll look at the WIA's Amateur Radio Magazine with both Roger VK2ZRH and Lee VK3GK. Speaking of Lee, let's head straight to Melbourne in VK3.
THIS & MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE
WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
PROGRAM RECORDED IN BRISBANE, OLYMPIC CITY 2032.
WIA
JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y
This is WIA Vice President, Lee Moyle VK3GK.
Just a quick update on the ACMAs proposed changes to amateur licencing arrangements released on the 26th November.
Out of the three options offered,
Option A; being the status quo.
Option B; to simplify the existing licencing conditions and
Option C; to transition non-assigned amateur stations to class licencing arrangements, while retaining existing beacon and repeater arrangements, ACMAs preferred pathway tabled is Option C.
Implementation of Option C may have some dramatic effects on the Amateur licence conditions. One of WIAs main concerns was the potential for interference and resolution of any interference. ACMA has in discussions suggested that nothing would change from the existing situation and the Amateur Service would still be afforded protection.
However one important aspect to note is the removal of licence fees for normal Amateur operators licences. Callsigns would be administered by a third party provider. The LCD would be revoked and replaced by a simplified and streamlined class licence regulation. To develop an Amateur operating procedures document to reflect non mandatory conditions being removed from the Amateur LCD and a simplification of the overseas class licence. The intent is that the Amateur service would be self-regulatory an interesting concept indeed.
The WIAs recent beta release of Hamads online has had both members and non-members signing up for the classifieds. The uptake has been excellent and recent feedback has praised the webmaster for a modern mobile friendly site. If you havent already, head over to www.hamads.com.au and register. Browse the adverts and maybe even post your own up.
Election of Directors, a call for nominations.
We have 3 directors retiring at the next AGM by rotation and the sitting directors can re-nominate. Have you ever considered to nominate to the board of the WIA, your WIA? More information is available on page 17 of this current issue of AR magazine.
Speaking of AR magazine, which should be in most members letter boxes by now, I can say what a magnificent cover layout. Kudos to the WIA professional publications team. A peek inside should find excellent articles, including a 40m half square antenna, a DIY Digital VSWR meter, propagation tools, part one of the magnificent VK3AQZ ATU project, the great VI3RA Radio Australia site activation roundup, Contesting and more.
Dont forget the ARRL 10m Contest is on this weekend. The 10m band has been open from VK3 to USA most mornings, to JA, Asia and Europe most evenings.
73 from Lee VK3GK.
This is Editor-in-Chief of Amateur Radio magazine, Roger Harrison VK2ZRH.
As listeners may or may not know, our magazine is sold through newsagents across Australia.
The general idea is to use the channel to promote amateur radio to a wider audience and to reach amateurs who are not members of the WIA.
Not all newsagents stock our magazine, however.
I had a chat with our client manager at newsagency distributor recently, with a view to seeing if AR magazine could be better distributed to put it out there in front of more amateurs and potential readers, if possible.
I proposed that, if we identified for them the postcodes of where we knew licensed amateurs lived, it would be better to have AR magazine delivered to newsagencies in those postcodes, or the nearest adjacent postcodes.
My contact at the distributor agreed to give it a try. So, from Issue 1 next year which goes on-sale in the first week of February that will happen and continue over following issues and then well see how newsagency sales go.
To prepare for this, I enlisted the help of Marc Hillman VK3-O-H-M. He was able extract a list of postcodes of licensed amateurs from the ACMAs public database of radiocommunications licensees. With a few iterations, he produced a simple database which I shared with our distributor's client manager.
Note I did NOT provide a list of radio amateurs addresses! Only postcodes.
During the course of this exercise, I learned that, from Issue 4 last year through Issue 4 this year, newsagent sales of AR have improved at a rate of 3.2% on average across that period.
Not world-breaking, but at least going in the right direction after the disastrous 5-month hiatus last year followed by monthly publication between August and December 2020 after I came on-board and got things back on-track.
Now, on a different note for amateur radio club committees and publicity officers Id like to remind you that, if your club is affiliated with the WIA, you can have one free advertisement of up to half a page in size published in Amateur Radio magazine once per calendar year.
This is an ideal medium for clubs to promote an events calendar, a HamFest, or a technical symposium.
Where two or more affiliated Clubs are acting jointly in organising an event, one larger advertisement may be published in AR without charge up to a maximum of one Full Page.
The content of all such advertisements is restricted to club activities related to amateur radio and shall not include any material of a commercial or personal nature.
Get all the Club advertising policy details from the WIA website search for club advertising policy and download the PDF, or use the U-R-L in the text edition of this broadcast. https://tinyurl.com/yckvesu2
Contact emails can be found on Page 1 of each issue of AR magazine.
Check the policy and book your advertising by the direct route. Dont try some back door way and then complain up and down social media and on-air that your advertising was censored or rejected unfairly as did one non-affiliated organisation earlier no names, no pack drill.
OK. Time to remind listeners that the theme for the first issue in 2022 is Contesting!
This has been Amateur Radio magazine Editor-in-Chief 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
Hoovers and Handhelds
The German Bundesnetz Agentur has banned the sale of TESVOR model6 robotic vacuum cleaners, because it not only used lasers to chase your cat or dog, it also sported a wireless link, complete with a networked remote control.
It came into circulation without CE mark or any appropriate paperwork regards the wireless parts, so the TESVOR model S6 does no longer makes its rounds. While we could smile about that, the same Bundesnetz Agentur struck closer to home, and also banned the import, sale and use of the popular Baofeng UV5R dual band handhelds. Several Amateur Radio news outlets reported speculations that this may lead to a ban across Europe.
Informed postings on the Ei7Gl BlogSpot confirmed what Polish authorities found out in tests conducted on imported UV5R radios: Their transmitted spectrum is not clean enough, so the Polish authorities informed their German colleagues, who in turn quickly announced this ban.
Ham radio exams in Austria cancelled
The pandemic has forced cancellation of amateur radio exams in Austria as well as the popular Christmas Electronics and Radio Flea Market planned for Dec 11
Exams planned for Vienna and Graz are among those that have been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
Amateur radio exams in Austria are oral with amateurs asking candidates questions about the hobby. There is NO capability to take the exam online.
tinyurl.com/IARU-Austria
REGION TWO
Northrop Grumman Corporation, headquarter in Virginia, USA
has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA under the
Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development program for $125.6 million to design a safe, reliable and cost-effective commercial free-flying space station in low Earth orbit.
Northrop Grumman's commercial space station design will use current flight systems and advanced crew-focused technology under development that allows for rapid deployment with modular expansion to meet the growing needs of the space economy.
bit.ly/3DkhOg7
REGION THREE
An important tool used by amateur radio operators may have helped locate a commercial airliner that was tragically lost nearly eight years ago. Graham Kemp VK4BB filed this story to
Amateur Radio NewsLine. that story.
"A British aeronautical engineer who has employed Weak Signal Propagation Reporting, or WSPR, in attempts to find remnants of a doomed Boeing 777 that crashed in March of 2014 is claiming to have located the missing aircraft.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared into the south Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, when it should have been en route to Beijing and although debris has washed up, wreckage of the plane itself has not yet been found. The engineer, Richard Godfrey, told the BBC recently that his finding, which he believes has at last located the crash site, came through using a combination of Boeing performance data, Inmarsat satellite data, oceanographic floating debris drift data and WSPRnet data. German engineer Robert Westphal, DJ4FF, was an early proponent of aiding in the search for the plane using WSPR, or Weak Signal Propagation Reporting.
Although there remain other WSPR experts in the amateur radio community who have shed doubts on the success of this method, Robert Westphal publicly reaffirmed his confidence in it."
Japan to recruit first new astronauts in 13 years to support Artemis program.
Japans space agency is set to recruit astronaut candidates for the first time in 13 years as part of efforts to support the NASA-led Artemis lunar exploration program saying successful candidates would be assigned to work long-term at the International Space Station, the Japanese experiment module Kibo attached to ISS, or NASAs lunar orbit outpost Gateway.
JAXA, under an agreement with NASA, is set to provide several capabilities for the Gateways International Habitation
module (I-Hab), which will provide the heart of Gateway life support capabilities and additional space where crew will live, work, and conduct research during Artemis missions.
bit.ly/3EmNKl2
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HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT
We start radio sport and operational news with a trip to the Crimean
and, as Trevor VK4BAT said, I'm Felix.
Annexed
The Russian Amateur Radio Society issued the following statement regards the occupied Crimean, internationally recognized as part of the Ukraine.
A translated statement on their website reads: "In accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Sports of the Republic of Crimea dated November 15, 2021 in the Republic of Crimea, it is accredited as a regional sports federation for the sport "radio sports" for four years. We congratulate our colleagues from the Republic of Crimea and wish them success in the development of radio sports in the region!"
No further details, apart from a facsimile of an official looking decree was published in that article. In light of the paramilitary associations of Russian amateur radio clubs, as with other sports, this move ties in with the de-facto integration of Crimea into Russia.
(irts)
NOW CONTEST WISE:- CHECK OUT:-
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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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IARU HF World Championship
NEXT contest is July 9 and 10, 2022.
(ref)
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DX WINDOW
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On the air is Z 22 O and Z 21 A, respectively, from Harare (ha rar eh), Zimbabwe, until the 15th of December. Listen for them on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB and FT8/FT4.
Send QSLs for both callsigns to DJ6TF.
(arnewsline)
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BAHRAIN
Members of the Bahrain Amateur Radio Society are QRV as A 950 ND until December 16 to celebrate Bahrain's 50th National Day. QSL via EC6DX.
(arrl)
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BHUTAN.
QRV is A 52 CC from Phodrang until December 21 while on work assignment and activity is on the HF bands using SSB and FT8.
QSL via N 4 GNR.
(arrl)
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TRANSATLANTIC TESTS
SCOTLAND.
Special call signs GB 100 2 ZE and GB 2 ZE are QRV until December 26 to mark the centennial of Paul Godley's DXpedition to Ardrossan in 1921 when he managed the first reception of a transatlantic shortwave transmission from Greenwich, Connecticut. QSL via GM0SEI.
Also
SWITZERLAND.
Special event station HB 1 BCG is QRV until December 31 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the historic Transatlantic Tests of December 1921. QSL via HB 9 ACA.
(arrl)
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NETHERLANDS.
Special event stations PA 21 XMAS, PD 21 SANT and PD 2 2HNY
are QRV during December. QSL via operators' instructions.
(arrl)
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BBC centenary special event GB 100 BBC
Members of the BBCs radio club, The London BBC Radio Group, have been granted an exceptional all-year Special Event callsign to help celebrate the BBCs centenary year in 2022.
Ofcom will permit GB100BBC to operate throughout the year, starting at midnight on New Years Day, from the headquarters station in Broadcasting House, London.
(southgatearc.org)
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WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS ATV (Every pixel tells a story) -
tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos
THAT LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD
BEVAN
Using the Pluto and RPi4 for Amateur TV and narrowband
Following on from his 'Advances in Amateur Television' talk at the 2017 RSGB Convention, Noel Matthews, G8GTZ shares the latest developments in the ever-evolving world of Amateur TV
Noel gives an overview of ATV activity in the UK and in particular how the use of Reduced bandwidth (RBTV) signals has enabled ATV QSOs on the lower VHF bands. He gives an introduction to the QO100 geostationary satellite which has enabled QSOs with fellow DATV operators as far away as Brazil, India and South Africa.
Noel also describes how the development of Software Defined Radio
based hardware and powerful single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi has revolutionised the development and capabilities of amateur radio dedicated products.
He explains how it is possible for radio amateurs to build an advanced touch screen multimode narrowband and Digital ATV transceiver covering 50 MHz to 10GHz for under 350, THATS UNDER $700 Aussie Dollars
Watch Using the Pluto and RPi4 for Amateur TV and narrowband, by Noel Matthews, G8GTZ
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org
Space Lacuna, a U.K. space start-up, for the first time has bounced a long range (LoRa) message off the Moon using a Dwingeloo, Netherlands, radio telescope.
LoRa is a low power wide-area network that is based on spread spectrum technology and is being used to connect devices for the internet of things (IoT). While the technology is typically used for connecting devices at long distances, going to the Moon and back is something of the extreme. The signal travelled about 453,824 miles, which the company claims is the furthest distance a LoRa modulated message has ever travelled.
Space Lacuna transmitted the signal with a Semtech LR1110 radiofrequency (RF) transceiver chip, amplified to 350 W using a 25-m dish of the telescope. The signal lasted 2.44 seconds before being received by the same chip. The Dwingeloo radio telescope has been used frequently in amateur radio experiments and often used for Moon bounces but this is the first time it was bounced using a small RF chip. Originally the telescope was used to study the structure of the Milky Way galaxy.
(eham.net)
The United States 18th Space Control Squadron has identified a close approach to PCSAT which showed a Probability of Collision (Pc) having an overall miss distance of just 338m
Bob Bruninga, WB4APR reported:
"For what it's worth, since the Russian space littering event, I am getting almost daily Close approach alerts on PCSAT, alert miss-distances seem to be on the order of 200 to 500 meters.
PCSAT is unique in that is has no CPU or Operating system. It is just two off-the-shelf KPC-9612 TNC's (chips in sockets, etc.) and uses their built-in sysop features for telemetry, command and control.
aprs.org/pcsat.html
www1.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi
(NA)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
iota-world.org
AS-104.
Igor, UA9KDF, reports on Twitter that the RT9K team is planning to activate Rykacheva Island (RRA-06-100; New One) in the Kara Sea as R150WS sometime between March 1st and April 30th, 2022.
Specific dates are not known yet.
Activity is to celebrate the 150th anniversary Russia Weather Service on the island. QSL via UA9KDF.
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- YOTA
(Youngsters On The Air)
youtube.com/channel/UClAapljf0VQ751sOgu2IzaA
twitter.com/hamyota
Hungarian initiative
The presidency of the Hungarian Amateur Radio Association announces a tender for the lease of radio equipment.
The aim of the tender is to provide young beginners who do not have an independent income with radio equipment. To bridge the period until they have their own equipment for HF and VHF and associated equipment, for a period of half a year, which can be extended by a maximum of two and a half years, taking into account the activities carried out in the previous period.
To be eligible, young operators must be members of the Hungarian MRASZ, hold a valid license and be able to install antennas. Supported applicants are expected to participate in club events and contests, and also report on their activities.
(southgatearc.org)
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THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report
Measure Twice cut Once.
FINDING POWER WITHOUT RELYING ON BATTERIES
Imagine a world in which your various internet-linked
devices didn't have to rely on batteries. Well, researchers in Spain can already see that day coming. Kent Peterson KC0DGY reporting for ARNewsLine said.
"They've been on the wish list for lots of us but now battery-free devices have made the leap to the list of possibilities for some researchers in Spain. Scientists at the IMDEA Networks Institute in Madrid are using LiFi and Radio Frequency backscatter technologies to make it happen. After three years of research, they've created a sustainable wireless communication system that they call PassiveLiFi and
say it could be deployed for systems in smart agriculture, smart cities and even smart homes. A November 26th article on the Hackster website describes how LiFi happens.
The article says: [quote] "Internet of Things, (IoT) devices would transmit data by reflecting and modulating the incoming RF signals present in the environment, a passive transmission technique known as RF backscattering that consumes very little power." [endquote].
One of the researchers notes that when the scientists began their work, LiFi technology and RF backscattering were viewed as independent from one another.
Will they now make a winning and workable combination? With an estimated 64 billion or more users of battery-powered IoT devices in the world, there'll be plenty of people watching to find out.
(Amateur Radio NewsLine)
2021 Social Scene
REMINDER TARCADIANS:-
Today Sunday 12th December - Townsville Amateur Radio Club
Monster Auction, Mystery Pressie Auction, BBQ Lunch from 10am at
Girl Guides Training Centre Bluewater
Hi, this is Stephen, vk3vlf, just wanting to inform you of a new event on the Amateur Radio calendar, the inaugural Warrnambool HamFest.
It's being jointly run by the Warrnambool District Amateur Radio Group and the Portland and South West Radio Group on Monday 27th December, 2021.
Open to traders at 8am, with entry to public at 10am.
The event came about from the desire of the local hams to have a meet and greet post lockdown, and what better way than a HamFest.
With active operator numbers growing in the district, it's an ideal opportunity for new hams to meet experienced operators, exchange information, and buy or sell radio gear.
We hope to provide everyone a good fun radio day so come along and catch up with everyone.
So once again, the HamFest is on Monday, 27th December, 2021, the Christmas long weekend.
For more information, go to our website at www.qsl.net/vk3way and join us for a great day of Amateur Radio fun.
73 Stephen VK3VLF
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/
VK7 - REAST Open Day Sunday January 30th 11am to 3pm (vk7wi)
VK3 - SPARC Rosebud RadioFest Feb 13 9:30AM ( VK3PDG)
VK5 - Australian Fox Hunting Championship and SERG Convention
Mt Gambier Queens Birthday weekend June (vk5dj)
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welcome to the broadcast as they commence call-backs
straight after the Local News. Local news follows National
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callbacks@wia.org.au
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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
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We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 mts in
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Remember the sooner you submit material the more the
likelihood of it being broadcast in the very next edition of
WIA National News.
Each 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
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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 cannot give blatant 'plugs' to raffles.
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Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!
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to the original text version and original audio on wia site)
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Who and where are they?
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The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of
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We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of
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