2023 MARCH 19 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 MARCH 19 2023
IN OUR 28th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS
THIS WEEK:-
WIA President and Director, Scott Williams VK3KJ - Insurance.
PLUS MUCH MUCH MORE IN THIS EDITION OF
NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
I'M EDITOR GRAHAM VK4BB
WIA
JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y
Welcome to all that have tuned into the WIA Broadcast this week.
This is WIA President and Director, Scott Williams VK3KJ.
This week, the WIA wrote to all Affiliated Clubs, and we were
delighted to announce that the WIA has formally entered into a
new insurance arrangement with our preferred insurance partner,
GippsInsure, to provide insurance products and services to Clubs.
GippsInsure is a Victorian based insurance Broker and is part of
the large Steadfast insurance network throughout Australia.
Over the past 3 months, the WIA has reviewed the insurance needs of
clubs and the way the arrangement has been previously administered
through the WIA. What became clear is WIA Affiliated Clubs had a
broad range of insurance needs that extended from Public & Product
Liability insurance, Association Liability insurance incorporating
Professional Indemnity, Management Liability insurance, Volunteer
Workers insurance, General Property insurance also covering
equipment taken away from club rooms and a range of other insurance
requirements.
Overall, the new arrangement that has been put in place is price
attractive and enables clubs to consolidate their insurance needs,
making the administration of insurance far simpler.
Affiliated Clubs will now to be able to liaise directly with
GippsInsure and under our group buying arrangement, supported
by our 136 Affiliated Clubs, have access to a comprehensive range
of insurance products and services.
All WIA Affiliated Clubs who have previously pursued insurance
through the old arrangement, will find generally their policy
expires at the end of this month, so clubs will need to act promptly
if you wish to ensure continuity of insurance.
All Clubs are encouraged to carefully consider your insurance
requirements and ensure adequate insurance is in place commensurate
with your activities.
The contact details for GippsInsure, is published on the WIA website
at wia.org.au under a recent posted news article.
I will now pass you back to Graham to continue with this weeks
broadcast.
Stay safe and well.
Best Regards
Scott VK3KJ
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC,
ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, eHam,
Radioworld.com and the World Wide sources of the WIA.
REGION ONE
Hams in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Northern Asia are being
asked to take the challenge of seeing into the future.
Region 1 of the International Amateur Radio Union is inviting teams
and individuals to engage in two types of brainstorming as part of
the region's HamChallenge competition. Both challenges are designed
to inspire projects that increase awareness of amateur radio's
vitality and relevance today.
The first challenge asks hams to create projects that reach out to
people who do not have a radio licence. The project could be a
social media campaign, a video, a storyboard or some other creative
venture that showcases the power ham radio has in building
friendships and expanding scientific knowledge.
The second challenge focuses on a project that reaches out to other
hams showing the way amateur radio might look in 10 years.
Entries in this part of the challenge can be a technology project,
an experiment or something else.
All ideas should be sent to the IARU Region 1 by July.
Hackers Disrupt Russian Radio
Writing in the ICQPODACST, Colin Butler says radio stations in
several Russian cities were disrupted on 22nd February by the
sound of air raid sirens and a warning of imminent missile strikes.
Recordings of the broadcast were shared on the social media network
'Telegram' and reported on by Meduza. Meduza, an independent news
agency now based in Latvia, was forced to move its operations out of
Russia during the media crackdown that followed Russias February
22 invasion of Ukraine.
EMERCOM, the Russian Ministry for Civil Defence, Emergency
Situations and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters,
confirmed the broadcasts in a statement on its Telegram channel,
blaming an unspecified hacker attack on servers of a number of
commercial radio stations in some regions of the country.
According to a post by AvtoRadio, the hack was focused on the
satellite signals used to distribute programming.
IMD at the Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth
It is twenty years since the late Pat Herbert founded Ye Olde Hurdy
Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth. EI 0 MAR was established
there that same year.
In conjunction with IMD, International Marconi Day, which takes
place on the 22nd of April, Pat's son Simon plans a day of
celebration at the museum. The Mayor of Howth will be also be in
attendance. EI0MAR has always taken part in IMD.
Martello tower, in which the museum is located, is where Lee
De Forest, the inventor of the triode valve, demonstrated his
wireless telegraphy system to engineers of the British Post Office
in 1903. Two years later The Marconi Company set up an experimental
wireless receiving station in the tower to monitor transmissions
from a vessel sailing to different locations in the Irish Sea.
REGION TWO
Automakers have replied to U.S. Sen. Ed Markeys letter urging them
to maintain broadcast AM radio as a feature in electric vehicles and
other future vehicles. But the auto industrys response by no means
offers any guarantees that the senior band will remain in the
dashboard going forward.
Senator Markey wrote in December to all the big automakers: Ford,
General Motors, BMW and Kia among them. He asked for a thorough
accounting of where AM radio receivers stand in the view of
automakers and to inform him of any plans to discontinue access to
AM in new cars.
The auto industry response comes from the Alliance for Automotive
Innovation and appears to be a resounding NON-endorsement of
AM radio. In fact, the letter makes no mention of the industrys
intentions of keeping AM radio intact in the dashboard.
March 13th, 2023, astronomers around the world marked the 10th
anniversary of the inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter /
submillimeter Array (ALMA), the worlds largest radio telescope.
Over the past decade, ALMA has revolutionized our understanding
of the Universe and unveiled its secrets, from the formation of
planets, stars, and galaxies to deciphering the chemistry of the
cosmos, and even taking part in capturing the first images of
black holes.
ALMA consists of 66 antennas, spread over up to 16 kilometres
on a plateau of the Chilean Andes at 5,000 meters above sea level.
The technology that makes the telescope special is borne of an
international collaboration of 21 countries from across
North America, Europe, and East Asia.
public.nrao.edu/news/alma-10-year-anniversary-inauguration/
REGION THREE
A very quiet month for intruders observed in our region 3 last
December, just 61 observations. Still, that is a couple per day.
Reports for December 2022 were contributed by ARSI, NZART and JARL
with 45 observations from ARSI, 12 Observations from NZART and 4
from Japan, the JARL.
The most prominent intruder in the 40 meter band was a broadcast
radio station from Ethiopia and in our 15 meter band the over the
horizon radar setups in China and Cyprus.
A link in our text edition of WIA National News will take you
directly to the IARU Monitory Service reports this week.
tinyurl.com/v73z2v6y
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HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT
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NOW CONTEST WISE:-
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2023
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While you are at plugging along with the John Moyle Field Day contest
this weekend many stations to our west are active in the Africa All
Mode International DX Contest.
Their Activity is on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 metres with CW, RTTY
and SSB all wrapped up in the one 'test'.
BUT
joining me again this week is Denis VK4AE contest Manager for the John Moyle Field Day 2023.
"Yes As this news goes to air the contest is nearing completion, and as many stations will still be active I wish them well in the remainder of the contest,
Logs have been arriving steadily. There does not seem to be not as many as the number received at this point after the contest last year.
It is highly recommended that once you have submitted your log you should check a bit later that your callsign has been added to the list of logs received. If your call is not on the list, then it might not have been received.
A couple of logs have been submitted as a PDF which is just a picture and contains no more useful information to the contest than a picture of a flower as the data is not accessible electronically and hence usable to me.
In the same way a couple of logs were submitted using a Cabrillo format that does not contain all of the information required by the JMMFD VHF/UHF rules and requires much extra work for the Contest Manager to attempt to fix those logs.
It is timely to remind you all that while there is not a lot of time left to submit the log and it will pass quickly and the final date is the 7th April 2023. This is required by the very long lead times now for the AR Magazine.
Following this date all of the logs will be processed and the results prepared and made available soon after. The results will be shown on the WIA contest page as soon as they are ready.
So, check that your call is on the list, resend the log if it isnt. It might also be a good idea to submit your log now as you never know what can happen to delay you in the next few days".
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YOTA CONTEST
Youngsters On The Air
1st round 22nd April 0800 1959 UTC
ham-yota.com/contest/
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MAY SIX Saturday Harry Angel Memorial Sprint 106 mts an annual 80m
contest event, first established in 1999, to commemorate the life of
Harry Angel VK4HA who at the time of his becoming a Silent Key was
the oldest licensed amateur in Australia. (106)
The duration of the contest is 106 minutes one minute for each year
of Harry's life.
The Harry Angel Memorial Sprint has been run annually since 1999
It is usually held on the first Saturday in May each year
10:00 UTC - 11:46 UTC (wia.org.au)
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MAY 20-21 Don Edwards Memorial Slow Morse Contest
begins the weekend after Mother's Day.
80m section Saturday 20th May 6 to 9pm Sydney time.
40m section afternoon of Sunday 21st of May, 1 to 4
Sydney time. (vk2wi)
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JUNE 24-25 WINTER VHF-UHF Field Day.
0100 UTC Saturday 24 to 0059 UTC Sunday 25
BUT in VK6 add 3 hours onto start and end times. (wia.org.au)
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JUNE Weekend prior to 2nd Monday of June VK SHIRES
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Also make a mental note that the 2023 QRP Day happens June 17
(sourced to iaru r3)
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IARU HF World Championship Contest takes place the second full
weekend of July beginning 1200 UTC Saturday and ending 1200 UTC
Sunday July 8-9 July.
All licensed amateurs worldwide are eligible to participate in this
contest as the objective is to contact as many other amateurs as
possible, especially IARU member society HQ stations around the
world using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands.
(sourced to iaru r3)
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NOW LET'S OPEN THE DX WINDOW
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GB1PAT and GB2PAT are the special callsigns for members of the
Bush valley Amateur Radio Club in use all of March as they
celebrate Saint Patricks Day.
Three certificates are available for making contact with both
callsigns on different bands.
QSL via Logbook of the World only.
(rsgb)
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Luca, HB9OBD is active holiday style as D44KIT from Sal Island, IOTA number AF-086, Cape Verde until the 5th of April. Listen for him on SSB and FT8 on 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. QSL via LoTW, eQSL, or via EB7DX.
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Hiro, JF1OCQ, is in the Comoro Islands, IOTA number AF-007, where he is on the air as D67AA until the 22nd of March. He is using CW, SSB, and the digital modes on 160 - 10 metres. QSL via LoTW or direct to his home call. He will upload his log to Club Log and other platforms.
(DX-WORLD.NET)
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INDIA
Special event station AT2 G20 is QRV until June 2 to promote greater
international cooperation through amateur radio in conjunction with
the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi September 9 and 10.
QSL via operator's instructions.
(arrl)
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QNEWS WORK BENCH
Measure twice cut once.
Balun Buildathon
After a long absence, they are coming back Sunday the 11th of
June at VK2WI Quarry Road Dural. Youll have your choice of
constructing a 1:1 or a 4:1 balun from a kit. You can also order
high quality Kevlar antenna wire.
All items must be preordered and paid for on the day.
For enquiries or bookings, you can email balun@arnsw.org.au or
leave a phone message on 02 9444 0123.
(vk2wi news)
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JUST AHEAD OF SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS - WIRELESS WEATHER
The current solar cycle 25 far exceeds the predictions of the
international panel convened for this purpose in 2019.
The solar cycle is important in determining the lifetime of
satellites in low-Earth orbit because satellite drag correlates
with the solar cycle. In addition, the forecast gives a rough idea
of the frequency of space weather storms of all kinds, from radio
blackouts to geomagnetic storms to radiation storms, and is
used by many to estimate the expected impact of space weather in
the coming years. Including we radio amateurs.
(iaru region 1)
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WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS
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/
facebook.com/SotaAustralia/
wwffaustralia.com/
There are adventures and ADVENTURES !
In Locator Square IO37DO, Rockall, IOTA EU-189 has been visited by
110 people only during the past two centuries, and only 5 of them
are known to have spent the night on the rock.
Led by Cam Cameron, using the call-sign MM 0 UKI intrepid serial
activators Nobby Styles G0VJG on SSB, and Emil Bergmann DL8JJ/LZ2EN
on CW will take a pair of FT857's, a spare KX2, Spiderbeams,
verticals and a generator atop the 784 square meter rock, barely
17 meters above the water at its highest point.
Nobby and Emil will leave from Scotland for Rockall on the 26th of
May, and plan to operate on 40m and up, also on 2m SSB and CW from
the platform the size of a balcony while secured with climbing gear.
Full details can be found on rockallexped.com
(irts)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ASTRONOMY
Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that
astronomers use to study the universe.
Bruce VK3FFF joins us
The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light,
other space telescopes capture X-ray images, and observatories like
the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large
Millimetre Array and dozens of other observatories around the world
work at radio wavelengths.
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit.
As the small satellite circled the globe, amateur radio enthusiasts
all over the world were able to pick up the radio signals it was
beaming back to Earth. Since that historic flight, wireless signals
have become part of almost every aspect of modern life --
from aircraft navigation to Wi-Fi -- and the number of satellites
has grown exponentially. The more radio transmissions there are, the
more challenging it becomes to deal with interference in radio quiet
zones. Existing laws do not protect these zones from satellite
transmitters, which can have devastating effects. In one example,
transmissions, said to be from an Iridium satellite, completely
obscured the observations of a faint star made in a protected band
allocated to radio astronomy.
tinyurl.com/vkdaz8w9
A solar eclipse visible in much of Australia will occur on 20 April.
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - DIGITAL
Last week, our Editor Graham told us of the substantial grant to
the FreeDV team by ARDC. FreeDV you'll recall is that project
where VK5DGR is a leading light in its development.
To advance the state of the art in HF digital voice and to promote
its use, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) award is over
some $630,000 Australian Dollars!
With these dollars, the FreeDV Project team will, among other
things :
HIRE experienced digital signal processing developers to work with
the volunteer staff to improve speech quality and improve low
signal-to-noise ratio operation, making FreeDV performance superior
to single-sideband over poor high-frequency channels.
AND
Work with commercial HF radio companies to embed FreeDV into at
least two commercial radios, greatly reducing set up effort and
reducing latency.
(pr.com / eHam)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org
Dubai:
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre has revealed how the UAEs
second astronaut, Sultan Al Neyadi, KI 5 VTV, will bring the wonder
of outer space to classrooms and communities in that country during
his six-month long, historic longest space expedition by an Arab.
Over the course of 20 weeks, students will follow KI 5 VTV
Al Neyadi on his ground-breaking space journey aboard the ISS.
They will also hear from authors, space experts, and fellow
astronauts Hazzaa Al Mansoori and Nora Al Matrooshi as they discuss
the various challenges of working in space and the innovations that
help overcome them.
Alec, vk2apc has more.
" Yes a new website, along with some 13 live calls and
10 ham radio calls have been announced as part of the community
outreach programme of Al Neyadis space expedition.
The website, titled ELF in Space, will be the platform through
which he will interact with students.
M.B.R.S.C. said episodes will be released weekly, with each episode
focusing on a different topic to help students connect the dots
between what they learn in class and its impact on their lives and
the world around them. Extra activities and resources will also be
available for download each week to keep students engaged and
propel their own explorations of the subject. "
(gulfnews.com)
Now we have had many a volunteer here on VK1WIA News but even today
Alex has not let us down with this story.. and today of all days
he may have had an excuse. You see today is Alec's 13th Birthday.
Congrats you OT to be.
The International Space Station has had another 'regular' cargo
delivery, essential for keeping the Stations seven-person crew
supplied with experiments, consumables, and equipment during its
operation in low Earth orbit. This mission, CRS-27, lifted off
from the Kennedy Space Centre.
A notable payload on this flight is a ball clamp monopod
manufactured by students that can simplify filming in space.
However, this is not the only payload on CRS-27 that students
have been involved in with experiments from Canadian and German
universities on-board.
NASAs ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 50 mission flew
a pair of CubeSats aboard this CRS-27.
ARKSAT-1, developed by the University of Arkansas, is a CubeSat that
is equipped with an LED light. This light will be activated, and a
spectrometer on the ground will conduct orbit-to-ground atmospheric
measurements by tracking the light.
ARKSAT-1 will also attempt to deorbit itself at the end of its
mission with a Solid State Inflation Balloon. Inflating the SSIB
should increase the atmospheric drag on the satellite, causing it to
deorbit sooner than it otherwise would. If this technology works, it
can be used to deorbit CubeSats at the end of their useful lives,
preventing additional space junk from cluttering low Earth orbit.
Another 1U CubeSat that is part of ELaNa 50 is LightCube, a
cooperative effort between Arizona State University, CETYS
Universidad in Mexico, and Vega Space Systems. Like ARKSAT-1,
LightCube will have a powerful light as its main payload. In this
case, LightCube is equipped with a flashbulb that can be controlled
by amateur radio operators.
(various NASA sauces)
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2023 Social Scene
Clubs are welcome to submit text with audio for this section
Details of all WIA affiliated clubs and societies can be found
on the WIA website, including email addresses and website links.
VK - WIA AGM May 13 at 10:30am AEST proposed for Canberra (vk8zz)
A hybrid event conducted both in person and by video
conference and able to be viewed on an internet streaming
platform.
VK - ALARAMeet2023 4/5 November in HOBART (luther8@bigpond.com)
IN VK3 2 GATHERINGS OF NOTE:-
VK3 - Antennapalooza at Drouin West April 15 & 16 (vk3kj)
VK3 - MOORABBIN HAMFEST - May 6 (vk3gl)
TO VK4 WHERE THE 2 GATHERINGS TO TAKE PLACE THIS YEAR ARE
FIRST -
VK4 - REDCLIFFE - REDFEST APRIL ONE
Greetings from the Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club VK4RC right
here in South East Queensland! Robert Thomson VK4TFN here.
The Redcliffe Club will hold our Hamfest on Saturday the 1st April
9:00am at St. Michael's College, Caboolture. Please mark the date
in the calendar on your mobile phone.
There will be raffle prizes.
BREAKFAST is served from 8:00am.
REDFEST opens at 9:00am. $5 Admission.
Vendors: Order your tables in March. $10.00 per table.
Vendors are admitted free.
For Table Bookings Email:
redfest@redclifferadioclub.org.au
go to: redclifferadioclub.org.au We're also on Facebook.
It'll be a good day out. We look forward to seeing you.
Thank you and 73 from the Redcliffe & Districts Radio Club VK4RC
FROM REDCLIFFE TO THE SUNNY COAST" -
VK4 - SUNFEST SEPTEMBER 9 (vk4an)
At Mountain Creek State Schools massive air conditioned
auditorium, just off the Sunshine Motor Way. Mountain Creek
is tucked in to the west of Mooloolaba
FINALY TO VK5
VK5 - SERG CONVENTION/FOX HUNTING CHAMPIONSHIPS June 10-11 (vk5dj)
GRAHAM WALK SOFTLY
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
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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
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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 recorded item will only be broadcast once, if you want a couple
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Promote your local rebroadcast; details on
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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 will not give blatant 'plugs' to raffles, be it raffles
at the event or "on-line".
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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)
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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
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Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who
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Who and where are they?
wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/
Promote your local rebroadcast; details on
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The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of
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in Australia and the globe.
We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of
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Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who
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