Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-08.mp3
Text edition:

WIANEWS - April 8 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


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THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


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THE FOLLOWING STORIES IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 8 2012.



Now we seldom report on virus's or Trojans, believing that the emails about
such things can be almost more intrusive than the 'bug themselves' and let's
face it if you are not running an auto updating virus scanning program you
deserve what may happen! Hihi.

BUT


Is your computer infected with DNSChanger?

ACMA put out a note about DNSChanger which is malicious software (malware)
that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Approximately 10,000 Australian internet users are currently infected with
this malware.

If your computer is infected you need to remove it.

If you don’t remove it by 9 July 2012, you won’t be able to connect to the
internet.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, CERTAustralia (the
federal government’s computer emergency response team) and the Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy have collaborated to
develop a diagnostic website that, in most cases, shows you whether or not
you are infected with DNSChanger.

This website is dns-ok.gov.au

If you are infected, dns-ok.gov.au provides links to tools and detailed
documentation that may help you remove the infection.

(ACMA)





MyMP

Improved reception of the commercial radio service 3MP in northern and
western Melbourne as the Australian Communications and Media Authority
allows an increase to the maximum transmitting power of Melbourne commercial
radio broadcasting service 3MP–from 1225 volts to 2140 volts (equivalent to
5 kilowatts to 8.2 kilowatts) and change the direction of its radiation
pattern.

This will allow expanded coverage of northern and western Melbourne.

3MP has been previously known by the on-air identities, 3MTR and MTR1377.

This follows public consultation on the proposal, released in November 2011,
to vary the Licence Area Plan – Melbourne Radio – June 2000
(the Melbourne LAP).





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ


TARC AND TASSIE do WIA National Field Day

The WIA National Field Day will be happening next Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th theTARCinc will be running displays about the different aspects
of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville store in
Ingham Road West End Saturday April 14th from 7-30am.

Hams need to help with this activity to publicise the worthwhile hobby
of Amateur Radio to the wider community.

Get along to wave the flag and have some fun as well !

Those listening in VK7 REAST will hold a display again this year as part of
the WIA National Field Day. It's on NEXT weekend April 14th and 15th.

Have you got some equipment such as an outdoor marquee or gazebo to help set
up a display?

It's a few DAYS away but please give it some thought as to how you can help
make this event a success for the club and the hobby in general.





WIA CONFERENCE

I’m Bob, VK6POP, reminding you that the Wireless Institute’s Annual
Conference is coming up fast. It’s now next month instead of sometime in
the future.

The Conference dates are Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May.

The weekend program is centred around the Mildura Grand Hotel. The weekend
will commence on Friday evening at the historic Settlers Club with a buffet
dinner.

On Saturday morning the WIA Annual General Meeting will be followed by the
Open Forum. I can assure you that the AGM will be brief and to the point, and
should serve as a model for club agms.

The open forum gives Amateur an opportunity to ask Questions of the Board, or
to raise issues of interest and concern. Lunch is provided for all
registered attendees.

On Saturday afternoon there is a technical symposium at which several items
of interest will be presented.

On Saturday evening the Annual Dinner will be held in the Grand Ballroom at
the Mildura Grand Hotel.

Sunday will feature a cruise and lunch on the famous Paddleboat Mundoo. For
those remaining in Mildura on Sunday night, a casual BBQ has been arranged
at the home of Noel Ferguson VK3FI, Fergus Park, Nichols Point.

Accommodation is available at the Mildura Grand Hotel, as well as in several
other hotels and caravan parks.

So how about it? Still thinking about going? Or maybe you never gave it any
thought until now? Well give it a go. These annual conferences are great
weekends, where you get to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Information about the weekend and an online booking form are on the WIA
website, www.wia.org.au





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-



VK4 SILENT KEYS @ 2011 - 2012 QAC YEAR

VK4MUJ Jean Bowden passed away 2nd January 2012 advised by VK4ZZ
VK4BAY Roy Mahoney January 2012 advised by VK4BSH
VK4AFW Frank Alloway 15th January 2012 advised by VK4FABR
VK4KEL Geoff Sanders 4th April 2012 advised by VK4OD





Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP and I’ve been thinking.

When computers first entered the consumer electronics market, software soon
became available for the original “digital” mode, Morse Code. Soon followed
RTTY, Slow Scan TV and Fax. Derivatives of other modes such as TOR, Teletype
over Radio and Packet came along.

Today there is a plethora of software especially written for the amateur
operator. Nobel prize winner, Joe Taylor, has put his skills to work in
developing programs optimised for the weak signal operator. There is so much
more work being done in this part of the hobby.

In an attempt to utilise the features of the internet to provide greater
diversity of contact types, our sister society, the JARL, sponsored the
development of the D-Star modes. For the translation between digital and
analogue voice, a firmware codec was chosen. The catch is that the codec is a
commercial product which attracts a licence fee for each device in which it
is used.

The challenge for the amateur programmers is to successfully develop a
freeware alternative. This would allow many of the digital commercial radios
coming out service to join the amateur ranks as their analogue antecedents
have done.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





CLUBBING

Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to

Submit audio, read "how to submit items" on the weekly WIA news page.
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/

Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being
broadcast in the very next edition of QNEWS.





BARC
http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba
or, by E-mail to

This is Stuart, VK4MSL with news from the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club.


BARCfest will take place *two weeks later* than usual, at 9:30AM
Saturday,
26th May 2012, at the usual venue, 1600 Logan Road, Upper Mt.
Gravatt.



There will be the usual displays of equipment and parts for sale, tech
talks,
and of course, an opportunity to catch up with old friends at
Cafe-de-BARC.
Admission is $7.00.

For further information, see the BARC website:

http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba/






Redcliffe and District Radio Club
www.redclifferadioclub.org.au/

I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

The year just seems to be getting busier and busier. After a successful
Moyle, and more about that later, the activities for the club this month
are:-

9th April General Business Meeting. Please note Roger, VK4ZLQ will not be
present for the meeting and has requested you bring your copy of the minutes
to ensure that the they are correct.

From the 11th till the 16th April, the Wednesday group will be involved in
assembling the portable station and equipment for the Titanic anniversary,
setting up the station at Maritime Museum, Stanley Street, South Bank,
Brisbane, participating in the activity and finally packing up and returning
all equipment to the club.

16th April Technical Talk with evening Kevin VK4UG – Meteor Scatter
Propagation, and to end the month:-

23rd April Fox Hunt

Well the Moyle has come and gone for another year. This year we had the
rain. It was the first time in some 5 years that the club had to stop
transmitting for a period of about of 6 hours as it was just too dangerous
to the equipment to continue. 2 stalwarts of the club and of the Moyle were
Andy, VK4KY and Glenn, Vk4FZ who were back again this year. Antennas were
set up on the afternoon of Friday in fine conditions and by 3.30 pm on the
Saturday, RAIN. Heavy “Brisbane type” rain for the next 6 hours. Too
dangerous to operate in and with the possible damage to the equipment and
nothing else to do but to enjoy a few cordials and resume when conditions
improve.

Despite all this the field day was a success, many contacts made. Many
thanks to the stream of helpers who were there to set up, bringing food and
other supplies and for the clean-up who had the site totally cleared by 2 pm
on Sunday afternoon.

WIA Queensland Centenary. Kevin VK4UH advised that this year is the
centenary celebration of the WIA in Queensland. The club has decided to
participate and will apply for the use of the special call sign.

Grace Lutheran College. Kevin VK4UH advised the club that he had approached
Grace Lutheran College enquiring about access to the large steerable dish
that they have on their grounds. The dish is currently used by senior
physics classes and is operational. The College was most receptive to
interacting with the club and Kevin believes that the dish could be used for
EME activities on 2 metres and higher frequencies.

Just a reminder that James, VK4TJF, conducts CW courses at the club on
Thursday evenings from 7.00pm until 9.00pm and about the regular trivia
contest conducted on the 70 cm repeater each Wednesday night starting about
7.30 pm. If we don’t use the frequency allocation we will lose it!

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from Ray,
VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.


News from Townsville

As local VK listeners heard in QNEWS last weekend there is to be a 2012
WIA-QAC Presidents Lunch and 100th Anniversary of organized Amateur Radio in
Queensland. We now have the venue, Presidents Lunch, hosted by Hervey Bay
Amateur Radio Club will be at the Hervey Bay RSL Club starting at 10am on
Saturday 21st July. That’s at the lower, or Eastern end of the Bay.

WIA President Michael VK3KI will be special guest speaker and attendees
will include WIA Directors and members of the WIA-QAC along with committee
and members of various QLD Amateur Radio Clubs.

The Centenary Celebration BBQ will also be hosted by the Hervey Bay Amateur
Radio Club on Sunday 22nd July.






What use is an f-call?
(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)




Recently I was sitting on a plane talking to a person whom I had just met.
We were discussing our interests and experience and the subject of Amateur
Radio came up.

There was the obligatory CB radio comment and some discussion about marine
radio, but the discussion boiled down to this:

"What's the point?"

I eased into
the subject by observing that as a hobby I found it to be technically
challenging without it having a direct relationship to my day-job in IT.
We discussed the ideas that embody the hobby, non-commercial use,
experimentation, discovery, camaraderie. We talked about the natural
disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Earthquake and
Tsunami in Japan and the subsequent issues with their nuclear power plant. I
explained about making contacts and exchanging information, call-signs,
signal reports, dealing with electricity and backup batteries and the like.


The conversation went for about an hour, we talked about the SES, about
HF long distance contacts, the solar cycle, the ionosphere, experiments and
the development of technologies like the mobile phone.


The thing that struck me during this conversation, looking at the topics we
discussed, some in passing, some in-depth (well, to the depth of my eclectic
knowledge at least), that Amateur Radio touches a lot of aspects of society.



I used to think that IT was the only field that impacted the world every
where in every which way. Now I'm not so sure. Amateur Radio to me appears to
have dibs on a large chunk. I supposes I'm saying that Amateur Radio has a
public relations issue, people don't know it exists, yet it affects their
lives in ways that most never even notice.

Perhaps all this just relates to
my better understanding of the Radio Frequency spectrum and my personal part
in the puzzle, but I think society would benefit from at least a smidgen of
the understanding that comes with having an Amateur License.



If you have thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear from you.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






SILENT KEY


Geoffrey Allan Sanders VK4KEL has gone silent key following a VERY long
battle with various forms of cancer. He was but 62 , born in September of 49
in Horsham VK3.

Geoff was a past President of the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club,
Past President of the Wireless Institute of Australia Queensland Division,
a former VK4 Federal Councillor and Alternate Federal Councillor of the
Wireless Institute of Australia.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - Geoff VK4KEL will be remembered for his support for
we VietNam Vets. Geoff, 217459 served with 104 Signal Sqn Vietnam IN 1969.

Geoff was given just 2 hours as he lay in the Prince Charles Hospital
Sunday yet fought on until he passed 4th April being kept comfortable
during his last days with Jen and his children by his side.

His loss will leave a huge hole in our lives as he has been a friend of ours
since commencing QNEWS back i 94-5.

Geoff was President and Secretary of the old WIAQ and when we first started
QNEWS on packet radio was the first WIA Official who started to tell it's
members "what was what".. thanks to Geoff the walls of WIA secrecy started to
be broken...

It wasn't again and not since the late Chris Jones that we knew week to week
what our society was doing for us.

I know Geoff will be sadly missed by many others who knew by QSO, WIA work,
and his work with the Vet community, knew him well.

More in local QNEWS bulletins as it comes to hand.





INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

JOE WALSH, WB6ACU, IS AN ANALOG MAN

Grammy Award-winning rock-and-roll legend Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, returns with
Analogue Man, set to be released June 5.

This is Walsh's first solo album since 1992's Songs for a Dying Planet.

Walsh -- best known for his powerful guitar licks -- joined the Eagles in
1976 and is credited for bringing a harder rock sound to the band with the
acclaimed Hotel California, The Long Run and Eagles Live.

No stranger to the analogue way of life, Walsh -- an ARRL Life Member --
enjoys operating on 80 metres AM.

Check out Analogue Man -- the title track of Walsh's new album and details of
his South African tour starting on 4 April in Cape Town
http://www.joewalsh.com/

(SARL)





World Amateur Radio Day

On April 18, 2012 we will celebrate the World Amateur Radio Day on the
87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space" and we will have much more on this
world event shortly in our special interest group segment.





50 watts for Foundation holders in Belgium

The UBA reports on plans to allow Belgian Foundation licence holders to run
50 watts on HF instead of the previous 10 watts.

Belgian Foundation holders are currently permitted 50 watts on 144 and 430MHz
and 10 watts in the bands from 3.5 to 52 MHz The new proposal means they
would be able to run 50 watts on the HF and 6m bands.

The website of the national radio society the UBA says that taking into
account the 3dB rule this would permit the use of a standard 100W
transceiver.

See the proposals in Google English at
http://tinyurl.com/Belgium50wFoundation





Lightning strike survivor feels lucky to be alive

K.A.K.E. News reports that radio amateur Bill Isles KD 0 IIF is recovering
after he survived a lightning strike and used his ham radio to call for help.

Seems the volunteer storm spotter was standing in his backyard and thought
the lightning was far away!

"In the distance, I would hear thunder and see lightning. I didn't think
anything was quite that close," said Bill. "And it came as quite a shock."

That shock knocked Bill to the ground. The only thing nearby was his amateur
radio. When Bill called for help through the ham radio, Mike KD 0 IJO, heard
his call and phoned 911.

Read the full KAKE News story at
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/Wichita_Man_Struck_By_
Lightning_During_Thursday_Storms_145019845.html


=============================================================================


JAPAN TO LAUNCH AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES

Big news on the ham radio space scene. This with
word that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
has announced the upcoming launch of five amateur
radio satellites. This, on two launches taking
place this spring and summer. Amateur Radio
Newsline’s Stephen Kinford, N8WB, is here with more:

The first launch is the H2A that takes place on
May 17th. It will carry the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2.

This will be followed on July 21st when the HTV3
mission. It will deliver the JEM-Small Satellite
Orbital Deployer or J-SSOD to the International
Space Station. That unit will enable small
satellites to be deployed from the ISS using the
Japanese Experiment Module robot arm.

The Japanese amateur radio satellites WE-WISH and
FITSAT-1, along with San Jose State University’s
TechEdSat and Vietnam’s F-1 will also be
delivered to the I-S-S on this mission. Plans
are for them to be deployed to orbit on September 20th.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.





ARRL SPONSORING WEBINAR TO HELP YOU PUBLICIZE FIELD DAY

The ARRL Public Relations Committee will be
holding a free Webinar on Thursday evening April
12 for Public Information Officers, radio club
officers and anyone else wanting to join
in. This, to teach the easiest and most
effective way to write a press release for Field
Day and actually get it noticed by the mass media in your home region.

The webinar will begin at 9 pm Eastern Daylight
Time and will run for about 90 minutes. Several
experts in mass media communications will be on
hand to teach the tricks of the trade in dealing
with radio, television and print publications.

Pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot
simply take your web browser to
tinyurl.com/arrl-field-day-webinar or directly at
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/278619454.

Space is limited so if you want to take part you
need to sign up today.





ESPN EMPLOYEES CREATE THE WORLDWIDE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Current and former employees of the Entertainment
and Sports Network, better known to the public as
ESPN, have formed the Worldwide Amateur Radio
Club. Located on the grounds of the ESPN
facility in Bristol, Connecticut, the group has
now been granted the club call WE1SPN .

At present the club has about 40 members. Inaugural
operations were to take place on 7.177 MHz at 21:00 UTC
on March 29th.

This opening gala was to include trying to contact as
may radio clubs at Disney theme parks as possible.

The Worldwide Amateur Radio Club is the latest
bin a long series of broadcast industry based
employee recreation entities. It joins similar
employee groups at the CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
networks as well as at a number of broadcast
stations nationwide and world-wide.

More about WE1SPN can be found by checking the
listing page for their callsign on QRZ.com





ANDY SENNITT TO RETIRE FROM RNW END OF APRIL

Andy Sennitt who edited the now closed Radio
Netherlands Media Network weblog says that he
will be retiring from that international
broadcaster at the end of April. Sennitt says
that during his last weeks at Radio Netherlands
that he will be writing a series of articles
reflecting on the changes in international
broadcasting since he started appearing on the
Media Network radio show in 1981 as well as
looking ahead to the coming decade.

This perspective will be published on the Radio
Netherlands English language website. Sennitt
asks that if you have any memories of Radio
Netherlands or any other international
broadcasters that you would like to share, please
e-mail them to him. He can be reached at
MediaNetwork (at) rnw (dot) nl. Sennitt adds
that he will try to include them in the articles
as is possible.





NASA ANNOUNCES ISSLIVE! APP

NASA has announced the release of the ISSLive!
app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Amateur
Radio Newsline’s David Black, KB4KCH, has the details:

The ISS Live! app delivers live streaming data
from the International Space Station. Users can
take a virtual 3-D tour of the Mission Control
Centre and the space station, and view mission
control console displays with real-time
data. Interactive educational lessons using the
data, as well as crew and science timelines with
individual crew member, social media and
international science experiment details are also available via the app.

The space agency calls ISSLive! an innovative,
interactive application that provides a novel way
to learn about the International Space Station
while on the go. To learn more and find links to
download the ISSLive! app, visit
spacestationlive.jsc.nasa.gov. That’s where you
will find the icons for the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.

I’m David Black, KB4KCH, from the South-East bureau in Birmingham, Alabama.





NASA CONSIDERING LAGRANGE POINT OUTPOST

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value
of a human-tended outpost near the far side of
the moon. One that would embrace international
partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation,

According to SPACE.com, William Gerstenmaier is
NASA's Associate Administrator for Human
Exploration and operations. And in a February
3rd memo Gerstenmaier says that a team is being
formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a
spot in space known as the Earth-moon Lagrange point.

Lagrange points sometimes called liberation
points, are places in space where the combined
gravitational pull of two large masses roughly
balance each other out. This would allow a
spacecraft or other object to essentially park in
that spot without being pulled toward either one of the masses.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of Lagrange Point
EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has
spotlighted this destination as the leading
option for a near-term space study. EML-2 could
serve as a gateway for exploration of multiple
destinations including near-lunar space, our own
moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars and
ultimately, the red planet itself.

=============================================================================




WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

Around the World 28 MHz Balloon

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a
50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.

The balloon was released from Annapolis in Maryland and started its journey
heading SE at 6 knots finally reaching 96 km/h.

It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to
locate it by signal strength and beam headings only.

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and
especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope.
Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum
altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and
that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons
3' in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The
Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain
Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of
the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings
and signal reports.








SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19




T.C.S.W.A.T. active again at Gallipoli for AM and CW on ANZAC Day

Tevfik TA1HZ has confirmed with Mike VK4MIK that the Turkish Portable
Operations team TCSWAT will be active again as TC57A from Gallipoli for
AM and CW on ANZAC Day.

They will arrive at the site of operations on Saturday 21st April and
finish operations there on Thursday 26th April.

TCSWAT hope to operate SSB, CW, PSK31 and maybe even SSTV from the
Gallipoli.

Is your station going to be involved with AM and CW on ANZAC Day ?

Contact Mike VK4MIK now on email





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


DXCC Country/Entity Report

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday,
25th-March, through Sunday, 1st-April there were 235 countries active.





ZD8, Ascension Island

The ZD8, Ascension Island bureau has closed. A full list of countries that
do not have a bureau is available on the http://www.irts.ie/cgi/qsl.cgi





"DX Code of Conduct"
Audio by John VK2JJW


I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.

I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.

I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station's
call sign before calling.

I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and
will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.

I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.

I will always send my full call sign.

I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call
continuously.

I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.

I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.

I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than
mine.

When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think
he has copied it incorrectly.

I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.

I will respect my fellow radio amateurs and conduct myself so as to
earn their respect.





AWARDS

RSGB Commonwealth Century Club Jubilee Award 2012

Of course this year is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and mindful that the
Queen is the head of the Commonwealth of Nations we remind you of that new
operating award

To qualify for this attractive certificate all you need to do is to work as
many different countries and call areas on the Commonwealth Century Club list
during 2012.

Certificates will be awarded for working 60 and 100 different call areas.

Use any mode or bands you like and QSL cards are not required.



Score sheets and full details can be downloaded from
www.beru.org.uk/CCCaward/CCCindex.html







WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

AMSAT-VK UNOFFICIAL HF Net.
2nd Sunday each month.
April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz
November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz


MicroThrust Motor for Nanosats

Imagine reaching the Moon using just a tenth of a litre of fuel.

With their ionic motor, MicroThrust, EPFL scientists and their European
partners are making this a reality, ushering in a new era of low-cost space
exploration.

The goal is to provide efficient propulsion systems for nanosatellites
(1-100 kg), which are currently stuck in whatever orbit they were initially
placed: the plan is to free them to allow nanosatellites to perform orbital
manoeuvring, and missions to the Moon, to Near Earth Objects, or even to Mars.





World Amateur Radio Day - April 18

On April 18, 2012, radio amateurs will be celebrating World Amateur Radio Day
on the 87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union, IARU.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space” in remembrance the launching of
OSCAR 1 on December 12, 1961 and the launch of OSCAR 2 on June 2, 1962.

For this reason there will be several special event stations from IARU’s
Member Societies active on different dates during April:

6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who has
commissioned this operation to Grupo DXXE. This station will be
active from 13 to 18 April in all modes and bands. QSL via LoTW and
N7RO, direct or bureau. Daily logs uploads will be available in
ClubLog.

3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile. This station will be active throughout
the month of April. QSL via CE3AA.

LZ1WARD by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs also will be active
throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

EL2RL by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association will be active on April 18
on 10, 15, 17 and 20 meters. Direct QSL to EL2BA.

HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure to be active also on
April 18. This first time callsign will be on the air by HB9JOE and
a group of radio amateurs from Bern. QSL via HB9JOE.

HF87WARD by members of the SP-CFF (SP0CFF). This station will be active from
April, 17 to 30. QSL via eQSL.cc and WFF LogSerach.

For those who want to send card direct, please send SASE to:
Polish Club Flora & Fauna, Suchacz, Wielmozy 5b, 82-340 Tolkmicko, Poland.
They will even have an award for this operation.

IARU Region 2
http://www.iaru-r2.org/





SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- STAMP COLLECTING AMATEURS


LUXEMBOURG ISSUES STAMP TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO

Founded in 1937, the Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes
Courtes (RL ) -- that country's IARU
Member-Society -- is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In honour of this
milestone, Luxembourg's Entreprise des Postes et Télécommunications
(P&TLuxembourg) has issued a .60 € postage stamp
(about 80
cents in US currency); P&TLuxembourg is that country's government owned
corporation for mail and telecommunications. This is one of three
commemorative stamps issued by Luxembourg in 2012 .

(ARRL)





LOW DOWN IN THE NEWS

NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast

The NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast #2012-14 has been
published at 0000 UTC on Friday March 30, 2012, valid 0000 UTC Saturday
March 31, 2012 through 2359 UTC Friday April 06, 2012.

http://www.mwfrequencypropagation.org .

73 & GUD DX,

Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA








SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day.

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

November 15TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE hosted by V.A.R.C. in Ho-Chi-Minh
City, Vietnam.

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.








Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
Vk1wia-
http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)

Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-08.mp3
Text edition:

WIANEWS - April 8 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FOLLOWING STORIES IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 8 2012.



Now we seldom report on virus's or Trojans, believing that the emails about
such things can be almost more intrusive than the 'bug themselves' and let's
face it if you are not running an auto updating virus scanning program you
deserve what may happen! Hihi.

BUT


Is your computer infected with DNSChanger?

ACMA put out a note about DNSChanger which is malicious software (malware)
that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Approximately 10,000 Australian internet users are currently infected with
this malware.

If your computer is infected you need to remove it.

If you don’t remove it by 9 July 2012, you won’t be able to connect to the
internet.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, CERTAustralia (the
federal government’s computer emergency response team) and the Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy have collaborated to
develop a diagnostic website that, in most cases, shows you whether or not
you are infected with DNSChanger.

This website is dns-ok.gov.au

If you are infected, dns-ok.gov.au provides links to tools and detailed
documentation that may help you remove the infection.

(ACMA)





MyMP

Improved reception of the commercial radio service 3MP in northern and
western Melbourne as the Australian Communications and Media Authority
allows an increase to the maximum transmitting power of Melbourne commercial
radio broadcasting service 3MP–from 1225 volts to 2140 volts (equivalent to
5 kilowatts to 8.2 kilowatts) and change the direction of its radiation
pattern.

This will allow expanded coverage of northern and western Melbourne.

3MP has been previously known by the on-air identities, 3MTR and MTR1377.

This follows public consultation on the proposal, released in November 2011,
to vary the Licence Area Plan – Melbourne Radio – June 2000
(the Melbourne LAP).





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ


TARC AND TASSIE do WIA National Field Day

The WIA National Field Day will be happening next Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th theTARCinc will be running displays about the different aspects
of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville store in
Ingham Road West End Saturday April 14th from 7-30am.

Hams need to help with this activity to publicise the worthwhile hobby
of Amateur Radio to the wider community.

Get along to wave the flag and have some fun as well !

Those listening in VK7 REAST will hold a display again this year as part of
the WIA National Field Day. It's on NEXT weekend April 14th and 15th.

Have you got some equipment such as an outdoor marquee or gazebo to help set
up a display?

It's a few DAYS away but please give it some thought as to how you can help
make this event a success for the club and the hobby in general.





WIA CONFERENCE

I’m Bob, VK6POP, reminding you that the Wireless Institute’s Annual
Conference is coming up fast. It’s now next month instead of sometime in
the future.

The Conference dates are Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May.

The weekend program is centred around the Mildura Grand Hotel. The weekend
will commence on Friday evening at the historic Settlers Club with a buffet
dinner.

On Saturday morning the WIA Annual General Meeting will be followed by the
Open Forum. I can assure you that the AGM will be brief and to the point, and
should serve as a model for club agms.

The open forum gives Amateur an opportunity to ask Questions of the Board, or
to raise issues of interest and concern. Lunch is provided for all
registered attendees.

On Saturday afternoon there is a technical symposium at which several items
of interest will be presented.

On Saturday evening the Annual Dinner will be held in the Grand Ballroom at
the Mildura Grand Hotel.

Sunday will feature a cruise and lunch on the famous Paddleboat Mundoo. For
those remaining in Mildura on Sunday night, a casual BBQ has been arranged
at the home of Noel Ferguson VK3FI, Fergus Park, Nichols Point.

Accommodation is available at the Mildura Grand Hotel, as well as in several
other hotels and caravan parks.

So how about it? Still thinking about going? Or maybe you never gave it any
thought until now? Well give it a go. These annual conferences are great
weekends, where you get to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Information about the weekend and an online booking form are on the WIA
website, www.wia.org.au





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-



VK4 SILENT KEYS @ 2011 - 2012 QAC YEAR

VK4MUJ Jean Bowden passed away 2nd January 2012 advised by VK4ZZ
VK4BAY Roy Mahoney January 2012 advised by VK4BSH
VK4AFW Frank Alloway 15th January 2012 advised by VK4FABR
VK4KEL Geoff Sanders 4th April 2012 advised by VK4OD





Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP and I’ve been thinking.

When computers first entered the consumer electronics market, software soon
became available for the original “digital” mode, Morse Code. Soon followed
RTTY, Slow Scan TV and Fax. Derivatives of other modes such as TOR, Teletype
over Radio and Packet came along.

Today there is a plethora of software especially written for the amateur
operator. Nobel prize winner, Joe Taylor, has put his skills to work in
developing programs optimised for the weak signal operator. There is so much
more work being done in this part of the hobby.

In an attempt to utilise the features of the internet to provide greater
diversity of contact types, our sister society, the JARL, sponsored the
development of the D-Star modes. For the translation between digital and
analogue voice, a firmware codec was chosen. The catch is that the codec is a
commercial product which attracts a licence fee for each device in which it
is used.

The challenge for the amateur programmers is to successfully develop a
freeware alternative. This would allow many of the digital commercial radios
coming out service to join the amateur ranks as their analogue antecedents
have done.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





CLUBBING

Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to

Submit audio, read "how to submit items" on the weekly WIA news page.
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/

Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being
broadcast in the very next edition of QNEWS.





BARC
http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba
or, by E-mail to

This is Stuart, VK4MSL with news from the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club.


BARCfest will take place *two weeks later* than usual, at 9:30AM
Saturday,
26th May 2012, at the usual venue, 1600 Logan Road, Upper Mt.
Gravatt.



There will be the usual displays of equipment and parts for sale, tech
talks,
and of course, an opportunity to catch up with old friends at
Cafe-de-BARC.
Admission is $7.00.

For further information, see the BARC website:

http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba/






Redcliffe and District Radio Club
www.redclifferadioclub.org.au/

I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

The year just seems to be getting busier and busier. After a successful
Moyle, and more about that later, the activities for the club this month
are:-

9th April General Business Meeting. Please note Roger, VK4ZLQ will not be
present for the meeting and has requested you bring your copy of the minutes
to ensure that the they are correct.

From the 11th till the 16th April, the Wednesday group will be involved in
assembling the portable station and equipment for the Titanic anniversary,
setting up the station at Maritime Museum, Stanley Street, South Bank,
Brisbane, participating in the activity and finally packing up and returning
all equipment to the club.

16th April Technical Talk with evening Kevin VK4UG – Meteor Scatter
Propagation, and to end the month:-

23rd April Fox Hunt

Well the Moyle has come and gone for another year. This year we had the
rain. It was the first time in some 5 years that the club had to stop
transmitting for a period of about of 6 hours as it was just too dangerous
to the equipment to continue. 2 stalwarts of the club and of the Moyle were
Andy, VK4KY and Glenn, Vk4FZ who were back again this year. Antennas were
set up on the afternoon of Friday in fine conditions and by 3.30 pm on the
Saturday, RAIN. Heavy “Brisbane type” rain for the next 6 hours. Too
dangerous to operate in and with the possible damage to the equipment and
nothing else to do but to enjoy a few cordials and resume when conditions
improve.

Despite all this the field day was a success, many contacts made. Many
thanks to the stream of helpers who were there to set up, bringing food and
other supplies and for the clean-up who had the site totally cleared by 2 pm
on Sunday afternoon.

WIA Queensland Centenary. Kevin VK4UH advised that this year is the
centenary celebration of the WIA in Queensland. The club has decided to
participate and will apply for the use of the special call sign.

Grace Lutheran College. Kevin VK4UH advised the club that he had approached
Grace Lutheran College enquiring about access to the large steerable dish
that they have on their grounds. The dish is currently used by senior
physics classes and is operational. The College was most receptive to
interacting with the club and Kevin believes that the dish could be used for
EME activities on 2 metres and higher frequencies.

Just a reminder that James, VK4TJF, conducts CW courses at the club on
Thursday evenings from 7.00pm until 9.00pm and about the regular trivia
contest conducted on the 70 cm repeater each Wednesday night starting about
7.30 pm. If we don’t use the frequency allocation we will lose it!

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from Ray,
VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.


News from Townsville

As local VK listeners heard in QNEWS last weekend there is to be a 2012
WIA-QAC Presidents Lunch and 100th Anniversary of organized Amateur Radio in
Queensland. We now have the venue, Presidents Lunch, hosted by Hervey Bay
Amateur Radio Club will be at the Hervey Bay RSL Club starting at 10am on
Saturday 21st July. That’s at the lower, or Eastern end of the Bay.

WIA President Michael VK3KI will be special guest speaker and attendees
will include WIA Directors and members of the WIA-QAC along with committee
and members of various QLD Amateur Radio Clubs.

The Centenary Celebration BBQ will also be hosted by the Hervey Bay Amateur
Radio Club on Sunday 22nd July.






What use is an f-call?
(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)




Recently I was sitting on a plane talking to a person whom I had just met.
We were discussing our interests and experience and the subject of Amateur
Radio came up.

There was the obligatory CB radio comment and some discussion about marine
radio, but the discussion boiled down to this:

"What's the point?"

I eased into
the subject by observing that as a hobby I found it to be technically
challenging without it having a direct relationship to my day-job in IT.
We discussed the ideas that embody the hobby, non-commercial use,
experimentation, discovery, camaraderie. We talked about the natural
disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Earthquake and
Tsunami in Japan and the subsequent issues with their nuclear power plant. I
explained about making contacts and exchanging information, call-signs,
signal reports, dealing with electricity and backup batteries and the like.


The conversation went for about an hour, we talked about the SES, about
HF long distance contacts, the solar cycle, the ionosphere, experiments and
the development of technologies like the mobile phone.


The thing that struck me during this conversation, looking at the topics we
discussed, some in passing, some in-depth (well, to the depth of my eclectic
knowledge at least), that Amateur Radio touches a lot of aspects of society.



I used to think that IT was the only field that impacted the world every
where in every which way. Now I'm not so sure. Amateur Radio to me appears to
have dibs on a large chunk. I supposes I'm saying that Amateur Radio has a
public relations issue, people don't know it exists, yet it affects their
lives in ways that most never even notice.

Perhaps all this just relates to
my better understanding of the Radio Frequency spectrum and my personal part
in the puzzle, but I think society would benefit from at least a smidgen of
the understanding that comes with having an Amateur License.



If you have thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear from you.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






SILENT KEY


Geoffrey Allan Sanders VK4KEL has gone silent key following a VERY long
battle with various forms of cancer. He was but 62 , born in September of 49
in Horsham VK3.

Geoff was a past President of the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club,
Past President of the Wireless Institute of Australia Queensland Division,
a former VK4 Federal Councillor and Alternate Federal Councillor of the
Wireless Institute of Australia.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - Geoff VK4KEL will be remembered for his support for
we VietNam Vets. Geoff, 217459 served with 104 Signal Sqn Vietnam IN 1969.

Geoff was given just 2 hours as he lay in the Prince Charles Hospital
Sunday yet fought on until he passed 4th April being kept comfortable
during his last days with Jen and his children by his side.

His loss will leave a huge hole in our lives as he has been a friend of ours
since commencing QNEWS back i 94-5.

Geoff was President and Secretary of the old WIAQ and when we first started
QNEWS on packet radio was the first WIA Official who started to tell it's
members "what was what".. thanks to Geoff the walls of WIA secrecy started to
be broken...

It wasn't again and not since the late Chris Jones that we knew week to week
what our society was doing for us.

I know Geoff will be sadly missed by many others who knew by QSO, WIA work,
and his work with the Vet community, knew him well.

More in local QNEWS bulletins as it comes to hand.





INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

JOE WALSH, WB6ACU, IS AN ANALOG MAN

Grammy Award-winning rock-and-roll legend Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, returns with
Analogue Man, set to be released June 5.

This is Walsh's first solo album since 1992's Songs for a Dying Planet.

Walsh -- best known for his powerful guitar licks -- joined the Eagles in
1976 and is credited for bringing a harder rock sound to the band with the
acclaimed Hotel California, The Long Run and Eagles Live.

No stranger to the analogue way of life, Walsh -- an ARRL Life Member --
enjoys operating on 80 metres AM.

Check out Analogue Man -- the title track of Walsh's new album and details of
his South African tour starting on 4 April in Cape Town
http://www.joewalsh.com/

(SARL)





World Amateur Radio Day

On April 18, 2012 we will celebrate the World Amateur Radio Day on the
87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space" and we will have much more on this
world event shortly in our special interest group segment.





50 watts for Foundation holders in Belgium

The UBA reports on plans to allow Belgian Foundation licence holders to run
50 watts on HF instead of the previous 10 watts.

Belgian Foundation holders are currently permitted 50 watts on 144 and 430MHz
and 10 watts in the bands from 3.5 to 52 MHz The new proposal means they
would be able to run 50 watts on the HF and 6m bands.

The website of the national radio society the UBA says that taking into
account the 3dB rule this would permit the use of a standard 100W
transceiver.

See the proposals in Google English at
http://tinyurl.com/Belgium50wFoundation





Lightning strike survivor feels lucky to be alive

K.A.K.E. News reports that radio amateur Bill Isles KD 0 IIF is recovering
after he survived a lightning strike and used his ham radio to call for help.

Seems the volunteer storm spotter was standing in his backyard and thought
the lightning was far away!

"In the distance, I would hear thunder and see lightning. I didn't think
anything was quite that close," said Bill. "And it came as quite a shock."

That shock knocked Bill to the ground. The only thing nearby was his amateur
radio. When Bill called for help through the ham radio, Mike KD 0 IJO, heard
his call and phoned 911.

Read the full KAKE News story at
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/Wichita_Man_Struck_By_
Lightning_During_Thursday_Storms_145019845.html


=============================================================================


JAPAN TO LAUNCH AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES

Big news on the ham radio space scene. This with
word that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
has announced the upcoming launch of five amateur
radio satellites. This, on two launches taking
place this spring and summer. Amateur Radio
Newsline’s Stephen Kinford, N8WB, is here with more:

The first launch is the H2A that takes place on
May 17th. It will carry the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2.

This will be followed on July 21st when the HTV3
mission. It will deliver the JEM-Small Satellite
Orbital Deployer or J-SSOD to the International
Space Station. That unit will enable small
satellites to be deployed from the ISS using the
Japanese Experiment Module robot arm.

The Japanese amateur radio satellites WE-WISH and
FITSAT-1, along with San Jose State University’s
TechEdSat and Vietnam’s F-1 will also be
delivered to the I-S-S on this mission. Plans
are for them to be deployed to orbit on September 20th.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.





ARRL SPONSORING WEBINAR TO HELP YOU PUBLICIZE FIELD DAY

The ARRL Public Relations Committee will be
holding a free Webinar on Thursday evening April
12 for Public Information Officers, radio club
officers and anyone else wanting to join
in. This, to teach the easiest and most
effective way to write a press release for Field
Day and actually get it noticed by the mass media in your home region.

The webinar will begin at 9 pm Eastern Daylight
Time and will run for about 90 minutes. Several
experts in mass media communications will be on
hand to teach the tricks of the trade in dealing
with radio, television and print publications.

Pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot
simply take your web browser to
tinyurl.com/arrl-field-day-webinar or directly at
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/278619454.

Space is limited so if you want to take part you
need to sign up today.





ESPN EMPLOYEES CREATE THE WORLDWIDE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Current and former employees of the Entertainment
and Sports Network, better known to the public as
ESPN, have formed the Worldwide Amateur Radio
Club. Located on the grounds of the ESPN
facility in Bristol, Connecticut, the group has
now been granted the club call WE1SPN .

At present the club has about 40 members. Inaugural
operations were to take place on 7.177 MHz at 21:00 UTC
on March 29th.

This opening gala was to include trying to contact as
may radio clubs at Disney theme parks as possible.

The Worldwide Amateur Radio Club is the latest
bin a long series of broadcast industry based
employee recreation entities. It joins similar
employee groups at the CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
networks as well as at a number of broadcast
stations nationwide and world-wide.

More about WE1SPN can be found by checking the
listing page for their callsign on QRZ.com





ANDY SENNITT TO RETIRE FROM RNW END OF APRIL

Andy Sennitt who edited the now closed Radio
Netherlands Media Network weblog says that he
will be retiring from that international
broadcaster at the end of April. Sennitt says
that during his last weeks at Radio Netherlands
that he will be writing a series of articles
reflecting on the changes in international
broadcasting since he started appearing on the
Media Network radio show in 1981 as well as
looking ahead to the coming decade.

This perspective will be published on the Radio
Netherlands English language website. Sennitt
asks that if you have any memories of Radio
Netherlands or any other international
broadcasters that you would like to share, please
e-mail them to him. He can be reached at
MediaNetwork (at) rnw (dot) nl. Sennitt adds
that he will try to include them in the articles
as is possible.





NASA ANNOUNCES ISSLIVE! APP

NASA has announced the release of the ISSLive!
app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Amateur
Radio Newsline’s David Black, KB4KCH, has the details:

The ISS Live! app delivers live streaming data
from the International Space Station. Users can
take a virtual 3-D tour of the Mission Control
Centre and the space station, and view mission
control console displays with real-time
data. Interactive educational lessons using the
data, as well as crew and science timelines with
individual crew member, social media and
international science experiment details are also available via the app.

The space agency calls ISSLive! an innovative,
interactive application that provides a novel way
to learn about the International Space Station
while on the go. To learn more and find links to
download the ISSLive! app, visit
spacestationlive.jsc.nasa.gov. That’s where you
will find the icons for the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.

I’m David Black, KB4KCH, from the South-East bureau in Birmingham, Alabama.





NASA CONSIDERING LAGRANGE POINT OUTPOST

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value
of a human-tended outpost near the far side of
the moon. One that would embrace international
partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation,

According to SPACE.com, William Gerstenmaier is
NASA's Associate Administrator for Human
Exploration and operations. And in a February
3rd memo Gerstenmaier says that a team is being
formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a
spot in space known as the Earth-moon Lagrange point.

Lagrange points sometimes called liberation
points, are places in space where the combined
gravitational pull of two large masses roughly
balance each other out. This would allow a
spacecraft or other object to essentially park in
that spot without being pulled toward either one of the masses.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of Lagrange Point
EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has
spotlighted this destination as the leading
option for a near-term space study. EML-2 could
serve as a gateway for exploration of multiple
destinations including near-lunar space, our own
moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars and
ultimately, the red planet itself.

=============================================================================




WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

Around the World 28 MHz Balloon

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a
50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.

The balloon was released from Annapolis in Maryland and started its journey
heading SE at 6 knots finally reaching 96 km/h.

It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to
locate it by signal strength and beam headings only.

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and
especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope.
Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum
altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and
that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons
3' in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The
Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain
Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of
the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings
and signal reports.








SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19




T.C.S.W.A.T. active again at Gallipoli for AM and CW on ANZAC Day

Tevfik TA1HZ has confirmed with Mike VK4MIK that the Turkish Portable
Operations team TCSWAT will be active again as TC57A from Gallipoli for
AM and CW on ANZAC Day.

They will arrive at the site of operations on Saturday 21st April and
finish operations there on Thursday 26th April.

TCSWAT hope to operate SSB, CW, PSK31 and maybe even SSTV from the
Gallipoli.

Is your station going to be involved with AM and CW on ANZAC Day ?

Contact Mike VK4MIK now on email





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


DXCC Country/Entity Report

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday,
25th-March, through Sunday, 1st-April there were 235 countries active.





ZD8, Ascension Island

The ZD8, Ascension Island bureau has closed. A full list of countries that
do not have a bureau is available on the http://www.irts.ie/cgi/qsl.cgi





"DX Code of Conduct"
Audio by John VK2JJW


I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.

I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.

I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station's
call sign before calling.

I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and
will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.

I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.

I will always send my full call sign.

I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call
continuously.

I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.

I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.

I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than
mine.

When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think
he has copied it incorrectly.

I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.

I will respect my fellow radio amateurs and conduct myself so as to
earn their respect.





AWARDS

RSGB Commonwealth Century Club Jubilee Award 2012

Of course this year is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and mindful that the
Queen is the head of the Commonwealth of Nations we remind you of that new
operating award

To qualify for this attractive certificate all you need to do is to work as
many different countries and call areas on the Commonwealth Century Club list
during 2012.

Certificates will be awarded for working 60 and 100 different call areas.

Use any mode or bands you like and QSL cards are not required.



Score sheets and full details can be downloaded from
www.beru.org.uk/CCCaward/CCCindex.html







WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

AMSAT-VK UNOFFICIAL HF Net.
2nd Sunday each month.
April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz
November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz


MicroThrust Motor for Nanosats

Imagine reaching the Moon using just a tenth of a litre of fuel.

With their ionic motor, MicroThrust, EPFL scientists and their European
partners are making this a reality, ushering in a new era of low-cost space
exploration.

The goal is to provide efficient propulsion systems for nanosatellites
(1-100 kg), which are currently stuck in whatever orbit they were initially
placed: the plan is to free them to allow nanosatellites to perform orbital
manoeuvring, and missions to the Moon, to Near Earth Objects, or even to Mars.





World Amateur Radio Day - April 18

On April 18, 2012, radio amateurs will be celebrating World Amateur Radio Day
on the 87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union, IARU.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space” in remembrance the launching of
OSCAR 1 on December 12, 1961 and the launch of OSCAR 2 on June 2, 1962.

For this reason there will be several special event stations from IARU’s
Member Societies active on different dates during April:

6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who has
commissioned this operation to Grupo DXXE. This station will be
active from 13 to 18 April in all modes and bands. QSL via LoTW and
N7RO, direct or bureau. Daily logs uploads will be available in
ClubLog.

3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile. This station will be active throughout
the month of April. QSL via CE3AA.

LZ1WARD by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs also will be active
throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

EL2RL by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association will be active on April 18
on 10, 15, 17 and 20 meters. Direct QSL to EL2BA.

HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure to be active also on
April 18. This first time callsign will be on the air by HB9JOE and
a group of radio amateurs from Bern. QSL via HB9JOE.

HF87WARD by members of the SP-CFF (SP0CFF). This station will be active from
April, 17 to 30. QSL via eQSL.cc and WFF LogSerach.

For those who want to send card direct, please send SASE to:
Polish Club Flora & Fauna, Suchacz, Wielmozy 5b, 82-340 Tolkmicko, Poland.
They will even have an award for this operation.

IARU Region 2
http://www.iaru-r2.org/





SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- STAMP COLLECTING AMATEURS


LUXEMBOURG ISSUES STAMP TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO

Founded in 1937, the Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes
Courtes (RL ) -- that country's IARU
Member-Society -- is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In honour of this
milestone, Luxembourg's Entreprise des Postes et Télécommunications
(P&TLuxembourg) has issued a .60 € postage stamp
(about 80
cents in US currency); P&TLuxembourg is that country's government owned
corporation for mail and telecommunications. This is one of three
commemorative stamps issued by Luxembourg in 2012 .

(ARRL)





LOW DOWN IN THE NEWS

NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast

The NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast #2012-14 has been
published at 0000 UTC on Friday March 30, 2012, valid 0000 UTC Saturday
March 31, 2012 through 2359 UTC Friday April 06, 2012.

http://www.mwfrequencypropagation.org .

73 & GUD DX,

Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA








SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day.

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

November 15TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE hosted by V.A.R.C. in Ho-Chi-Minh
City, Vietnam.

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.








Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
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http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)
Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-15.mp3
Text edition:



WIANEWS - April 15 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.

MAYDAY WONNANGATTA

PROJECT HORUS FLYS SUNDAY

WIA NATIONAL FIELD DAY THIS WEEKEND

SKA RESULT UP IN AIR

5 YEAR OLD PASSES LICENCE EXAMINATION

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.





At around 0930hrs 9 April 2012 a mayday call was made on 7090khz by VK3MAC
who was in the Wonnangatta Valley region in the highlands of Victoria.

A person in the camping party had some seizures and was in a bad way
medically. VK3MAC with the operator, Adam, made its way up to a hill in a
4WD with HF fitted and put the call out.

Jack, VK3AJK was the first to respond and took control of the frequency and
the situation. He ascertained the location, situation etc. and contacted
emergency services.

VK3AJK then became the relay person between the emergency services and the
camping party as the precise GPS coordinates were given out as was the
specific medical condition. The decision was made that a medivac would occur
via a rescue chopper.

Both parties were being received by Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT 5-9.

VK3MAC then indicated that he was going to return to the valley floor where
the rest of the camping party, and the patient was with the final
instruction from Jack, VK3AJK, that the rescue chopper asked that all
vehicles in the camping party form a 50 metre circle in a clearing with
hazard lights flashing.

The weather had started to close in by this time.

Upon reaching the valley floor VK3MAC put a call out which had dropped to
5-7 but perfectly readable into VK7 and VK3AJK had a perfect copy on
him still.

Several calls were made to establish that contact was still available
between the two and indicating that the patient was stable. Vk3MAC then
indicated that all vehicles were in position.

Shortly after, he called back to say that the helicopter with a medical team
had landed, and thanked Jack for his assistance.

It was asked several times with the same reply, that there was no mobile
phone service in that area.

Hoping that patient has a speedy recovery and full points to Jack and Adam
who worked calmly during this event.

(TONEMAN Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT)





Oceania DX Group activates Vanuatu

Do you need Vanuatu YJ0 for your DX Award?

The Oceania DX Group will be active on all HF bands from Vanuatu from 21st
April until the 5th May.

A group of six VK operators will be operating three stations with special
focus on the WARC bands as well as 80 and 160 metres. Operation on the lower
bands will depend on conditions, but the team expects to have 160 metres
operating through their local sunrise and sunset as a minimum.

The team will also make a special effort to keep one station active on
digital modes. So listen out for YJ0VK

For more information visit yj0vk.odxg.org

(73 and good DX Chris VK3QB)





Closer to home Friday 20 April four Victorian amateurs will head toward the
most southern point on mainland Australia. South Point is a rocky outcrop
located at the southern end of the Wilsons Promontory National Park and is
accessible only on foot. Peter VK3ZPF, Wayne VK3WAM, Kevin VK3KAB and
Trevor VK3ATB will be running QRP from 0000z on Saturday 21 April on
80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m using both CW and SSB.

Contacts from South Point, or with the team on their return trip, can be used
toward the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award sponsored by
Amateur Radio Victoria.





Project Horus High Altitude Balloon Launch

The Project Horus high altitude balloon group, based in Adelaide, is planning
a balloon launch this Sunday 15th April, shortly after the WIA Broadcast
(planning to be in the air around 10-11am ACST).

This will be an amateur radio oriented balloon launch, with three payloads of
interest to amateurs, intended to coincide with the WIA field days. The
launch designation is Horus 23.

The group is planning on flying the FM voice repeater again. The repeater
will operate with a 70cm uplink and a 2m downlink.

New frequencies will be used and they are;

Uplink: 438.900 MHz FM with a CTCSS Tone of 123Hz

Downlink: 144.650 MHz FM (in the 2m experimental segment) with a CTCSS tone
of 123Hz.

Based on previous flights, it should be possible to access the repeater from
up to 800km away at apogee, with about 30-50W. A beam will help overcome the
inevitable FM capture effect problems. The downlink is easily audible on any
reasonable Omni directional antenna, although if you are under the balloon's
flight path you may see over 20dB fades. The tracking and recovery teams use
cross dipoles on the roofs of the chase vehicles to help with the link budget
and fading.

The Amateur Radio Experimenter's Group will be running net control on the
voice repeater as VK5ARG from launch control in the Adelaide Hills.

APRS will fly on this flight on 145.175 MHz The expected callsign is
VK5ARG-11. We will be also able to look at the new http://aprs.fi/ horizon ring prediction service on this flight. Telemetry format packets are now also broadcast on APRS.

The ever reliable primary 300 baud RTTY telemetry beacon will also fly - at
this stage it will be on 434.075 MHz (note update) (+/- 5kHz thermal drift).
This signal is used as part of the group's "distributed listener" telemetry
network where any amateur receiving the data can upload what they are hearing
over the internet.

The data, which is sent to the http://spacenear.us/tracker website,
contributes to the landing zone predictions used by the chase teams. The
chase-tracker teams have 3G Internet in their vehicles and are actively
looking at that data, so it is one way amateurs can have a behind the scenes
involvement in the flight's success. NOTE: this beacon only runs 25mW,
however we have had people from the horizon and at times beyond still be
able to decode and contribute, so why not give it a go!

If you would like more information about the software setup required to
participate in telemetry recovery take a look at our tracking page:
http://projecthorus.org/?page_id=336

Confirmation that the flight is a go can only be given ultimately on the
morning of the 15th. We are very much subject to the weather and have
various constraints on where we are permitted to fly, so the potential for
the mission to be scrubbed exists up until the last minute. We will endeavour
to update the forum once we get closer, and will post notices on the DX
Cluster once it is in the air. Flight time should be around 2 & 3/4 Hrs.

If you would like to find out more about Project Horus, please visit our
website www.projecthorus.org/

or for some short films of our past activities, the Vimeo channel at
http://www.vimeo.com/channels/projecthorus/

I am Ben, VK5BB for Project Horus and the Amateur Radio Experimenter's
Group





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ

TARC Does the WIA National Field Day this Weekend

The WIA National Field Day will be happening this Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th and theTARCinc ran displays about the different
aspects of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville
store in Ingham Road West End Saturday from around 7-30am.

Checking the WIA website at the time this dispatch was released -

just the following people or groups had registered to participate this year.

Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club, Port Macquarie Town Green.

Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club Shire Office Reserve Rosebud VIC.

Waverley Amateur Radio Society Outside Bondi Beach Pavilion.

Midland Amateur Radio Club Prince of Wales Showgrounds Bendigo.

Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club Jaycar Electronics Springvale.

WICEN (Vic) Mornington Peninsula region JAYCAR Electronics Frankston West.

Orana Region Amateur Radio Club Elston Park, Dubbo Dubbo NSW.

Alice Springs Amateur Radio Club Flynn Church Lawns, Alice Springs NT.

Radio and Electronics Assoc of Sth Tas (REAST) Jaycar Derwent Park.





WIA – Promoting Our Hobby

Greetings Everyone.

The first time you may be hearing this broadcast is while you are
participating in the WIA National Field Day. This event is aimed at promoting
our hobby and the diversity of interests Amateur Radio encompasses.

Everyone who has been involved in promotional events of any kind will have
retained a mental record of how successful or unsuccessful the activity has
been and the reasons for the outcome. The promotion of Amateur Radio is no
different and from your or your Club’s experience you will know what has been
most successful in your community.

The Easter period is past and many Radio Amateurs will have visited friends
and families or travelled to a holiday destination where there was an
opportunity to operate our station in a portable role. Reflect on how we
operated and how it would be viewed by a passer-by.

Was our operation covert or overt? That is, did we project a ‘Go away! Don’t
disturb me!” aura or one which conveyed ‘I’m enjoying this and I’m happy to
welcome you and answer your questions.’

Unfortunately it is all too easy for us to project the former and loose the
opportunity to foster interest in our hobby by those intrigued by what we
are doing and enjoying but apprehensive about asking. By changing our
attitude to be more overt and engaging about our hobby we can carry the
message of the WIA National Field Day throughout the year to those
non-amateurs who did not have the opportunity to pass or visit a WIA National
Field Day station.

Thank you to all those individuals, groups and clubs participating in the
WIA National Field Day activities.

This has been Ewan VK4ERM for the WIA Board asking ‘Who have you introduced
to Amateur Radio to-day?’





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-

Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been
thinking.

Hopefully the weather has been kind to the participants in the WIA National
Field Day. As a recruiting and advertising method, the first 2 National
Field Days certainly got the message out via the mass media. Here’s hoping
number 3 is as successful.

Just to keep the momentum going is the fast approaching ANZAC Day. Not only
is this a day of solemn remembrance but also an opportunity to celebrate all
those whose service life depended on radio. As we have heard, there are
groups of amateurs who will be running CW and AM, the main modes of the
Second World War. Spark was the primary mode of the First World War but was
banned by the time of the Great Depression.

Here is an opportunity for all amateurs to participate. For the F-calls,
remember that many of the radios used during WWII operated at QRP levels so
taking part on Anzac Day is following a 70 year old tradition. Check the net
frequencies in “Amateur Radio” or the web.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

At the end of today’s news, or just before we end, in REWIND I’ll pop back
with much more detail on this TITANIC event, stay tuned!

The Wednesday group had some 40 members at the club house last Wednesday
packing equipment for the weekend activity. One welcomed visitor was Ray,
VK4UG and his XYL. Club President David, VK4DC, said that the car parking
at the club was a nightmare but it was fantastic to see the club full of
members all enjoying the Morning.

Next Monday night is the Technical talk By Kevin, VK4UH, it is a good one on
meteor scatter.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from
Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





DISCUSSION POINT

What use is an f-call?



(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)


Recently I heard an f-call ask on-air about the performance of their HF
antenna. It reminded me that in order for any learning to occur, there needs
to be two elements that come together. While it's simple to ask questions
among your friends, it takes a leap of faith to ask a stranger.



So, one of the elements you need is a Leap of Faith, "I have a problem and I
wonder if anyone might be able to help."



For this leap of faith to pay off, you also need to gain access to the
knowledge required to solve your problem. It can come in many guises, from
"read the manual", through "I have done that and I solved it like this." to
"Let me come over and give you a hand."



The second element that is needed is Generosity.

The interesting part for me
is how the discussion opens up many possibilities when experienced people
enter the conversation. It's one thing to acknowledge the original Leap but
two inexperienced people talking to each other about a problem when neither
of them have more than rudimentary understanding is less than satisfying,
both for the two people and for any listeners on frequency.



I'm glad to say that in this particular case some personal skill and
knowledge was added to the discussion by some experienced hams, but I've also
heard discussions where the blind were leading the blind.

While it is
possible that a question is asked by a novice f-call and answered by an
experienced advanced-call, that is not always the case. In fact to me it
seems, more often than not, the level of license bears little relation to a
person's level of experience.

Amateur Radio is like an aural history, made of story tellers and listeners.
If you don't tell your stories pretty soon you'll run out of listeners and
the history dies.

So, no matter your place, taking a Leap of Faith, or
providing Generosity, remember that in order for the hobby to endure we need
to keep talking.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

5 year-old passes Foundation exam

The Humber Fortress DX Amateur Radio Club in the UK is proud to announce
and congratulate its youngest new member Kayleigh Huntley on passing her
Foundation exam at age 5 years.

While Kayleigh may well be the youngest to have passed her foundation test
in the UK (Samuel Lewis KB9RYP and Sarah Bruno KB9SEG were just 4 years old
when they got their amateur radio licenses in 1998), even though she holds
a license to operate alone, this will not happen.

Kayleigh’s only access to radio is via her Granddad Andy G7LRR, or at the
Radio Club under supervision and very closely monitored.

Kayleigh has been involved in radio for over 3 years now, having been
allowed to say hello on her granddad’s radio to radio friends all over
the world.





No Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site decision

We will have to wait till at least mid-May before it may be decided whether
South Africa or Australia will be the country to host the SKA.

Members of the SKA Organisation met in Amsterdam on 4 April for their first
general meeting. They noted the SKA site selection advisory committee's
report and associated commentary that had been passed to them by the
SKA Organisation's board, which met last month in the UK.

The members wished to move ahead with the site selection process and
recognised that it is desirable to maintain an inclusive approach to the SKA.
They noted that it is important to maximise the value from the investment
made by both candidate regions. A small scientific working group was set up
to explore possible implementation options that would achieve this.

The working group will report back in mid-May.


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

ELECTRONIC HERITAGE - SCHNECTADY MUSEUM GETS ALL GE VIDEO

And finally this week a story about the work of a
museum doing all it can to preserve some of
electronics past. Here’s Jeff Clark, K8JAC:

The Schenectady Museum is using the YouTube dot
com website to rebroadcast more than 1,000 of its
General Electric films, which date back to
1915. According to the museum curator Chris
Hunter, the archive was previously available only
on 16 millimetre film and was viewed infrequently
because of its physical condition and the
cumbersome process to watch the films using an optical projector.

Hunter said that the museum had long wanted to
digitize the collection in order to preserve it
but until recently it had been cost prohibitive
to do so. Now, thanks to grants from the
Institute for Museum and Library Services and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Life Members’ Foundation, the museum was able to
purchase a high-definition film transfer unit and hire and operator for it.

Among the film artefacts now existing in the
digital domain are advertisements, raw footage of
equipment tests, company picnics and promotional
clips. Also transferred is the famed early
television series titled the General Electric
Theatre. It was hosted by former President Ronald Reagan.

The museum hopes to finish uploading all of its
film transferred videos to YouTube in the next
year. It will then begin digitizing its 1,200
video tape based archives. A direct link to what
has already been uploaded and available for
viewing is at tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube

Again that U-R-L to screen all of those historic
General Electric films is tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube





CANADA BEGINS ISSUING 60 METER EXPERIMENTAL LICENSES

Canada has begun issuing experimental licenses
for the 60 meter band. Regulator Industry Canada
issued the first such developmental license on
April 2nd to Russ Hemphill, VE3FI, to use the call sign VX9GHD at 5 MHz

Canadian radio amateurs have been waiting three
years for an opportunity to join the USA, Britain
and other nations in making use of the 60 meter
spectrum. When a true Canadian amateur radio
allocation on 5 MHz meters might be approved is at this time unknown.





RADIO NETHERLANDS TO DROP DUTCH SHORTWAVE LANGUAGE BROADCASTS IN MAY

Radio Netherlands is in the news again with word
that the international broadcaster will terminate
Dutch language transmissions world-wide on May
11th. And to say farewell to Dutch speaking
listeners around the world the station plans to
hold a 24-hour marathon broadcast from 2000 UTC
on May 10th until 2000 UTC on May
11th. Frequencies and a listing of program
content should be posted soon to the Radio Netherlands Dutch
language website.


=============================================================================


IRTS NEWS DESK

Gi2012MGY

A special event station located in Belfast from on board the SS Nomadic,
Titanic’s 'Little Sister'.

To mark the Centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, City of Belfast
Radio Amateur Society ( CoBRAS ) will be QRV on most HF bands, CW and SSB,
from on board 'the Nomadic' from 12th - 18th April.

The SS Nomadic is the only remaining historic link to the Titanic left
afloat, and she is also the last surviving White Star Line vessel in the
world. Like Titanic herself she was built at the shipyards of Harland and
Wolff in Belfast, and served as a tender to the Olympic and Titanic.

She is currently undergoing restoration work in the docks where she was built,
adjacent to the new Titanic Belfast visitor attraction.

International interest in all things 'MGY' is reaching extraordinary levels
and the extremely rare Gi2012 prefix is sure to add extra interest from
WPX hunters. CoBRAS members look forward to working many EI stations during
the week of activity from on board this unique ship.

Further information and QSL details can be found under Gi2012MGY at QRZ.com





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE

W1AW CLAIMS 5BDXCC

Nearly four decades after the introduction of the Five Band DXCC Award
W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station has achieved this milestone.

"As with most stations, we found that 80 meters was our stumbling block,"
W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, explained.

W1AW's 5BDXCC plaque will hang in a place of honour at the station.

Prior to achieving 5BDXCC, W1AW held DXCC on 40 thru 10 meters for many
years, but was always searching for the last few remaining entities on 80.

"Now that W1AW has 5BDXCC, we are gunning for DXCC Honour Roll," Carcia
said. "Like with 5BDXCC, there are just a few more entities to go
before W1AW can claim that award."

(sourced to arrl letter)





To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, the
Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland will be transmitting a special
bulletin near 500 kHz, the distress frequency used by the radio
officers of the Titanic to send their CQD call to Cape, Race
Newfoundland. Please listen on 507.77 kHz CW for VX9MRC between 0001
and 0400 UTC on 15 April 2012. Please note this corresponds to
Saturday night, 14 April, for listeners in the western hemisphere. For
further information, please see the MRCN web page by searching for
VO1MRC on the internet.

(Charles Marsh, VO1VZ NL Section manager - Radio Amateurs of Canada.)





North Cork Radio Group on the air for Marconi weekend

The North Cork Radio Group will be activating Mizen Head Visitors Centre
for Marconi weekend.

The callsign, EI 0 IMD, will be on the air from 20th April - 22nd April
inclusive.

Marconi Day is on 21st April this year.





This is Julian Sortland, currently MW/VK2YJS in North-West Wales.

The other day I went to Caernarfon, where Marconi had a number of
transmission stations in the early 1900s, including the experimental
station used to send the first official radio message from Britain to
Australia, back in 1918.

It was sent on behalf of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who was
in Britain at the time, and who had just visited the troops in France. That
message was received by Ernest Fisk, at his home in Wahroonga, in the north
of Sydney.

This link allows the Hornsby and Districts Amateur Radio Club can participate
in International Marconi Day, in which stations around the world celebrate
Marconi's birthday, which falls on 25th April. As the event is on the
nearest Saturday, this year it will be the 21st, and being an international
event, this is the UTC day. Therefore, VK2IMD will be operating next
Saturday from 10:00am Sydney time, through to 10:00am on Sunday, on various
HF bands, and possibly 160m – mostly using SSB, depending on the operators.

It is also the 25th year for the global event, so the lead station, GB4IMD
has a licence variation to use GB 25 IMD. Further information about the
event search for “GB4IMD”.





BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS

HF WebSDR in Sweden

An online Software Defined Radio (SDR) located in Sweden for the amateur
radio 3, 5, 7 and 14 MHz bands is now available.

Located in Mora, Sweden, it is operated by SM4JLX e-mail and
comprises 3 x Soft66lite receivers and band-pass filter.

You need both Java and JavaScript enabled for the WebSDR to work properly.
If you don't hear anything, probably Java is disabled or its version is too
old (i.e., pre-1.4.2).. .

Listen to the 3 band HF radio at
http://sk4ko-websdr.no-ip.org:8901/

Soft66lite
http://zao.jp/radio/66lite/





Radio Canada International announces end of its shortwave broadcasting

Spending cuts announced in Canada's latest federal budget have reached Radio
Canada International.

Speaking to employees at RCI's headquarters in Montreal, RCI director
Helene Parent declared that two out of three RCI employees---about 40 people,
will lose their jobs by the end of July.

RCI's Russian and Portuguese sections will be closed along with the English
and French-language newsrooms. All shortwave broadcasts will cease as well.

RCI will continue to exist solely on the Internet in five languages

English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin.

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/news/15_56_27_2012-04-04-rci-slashed/





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video
arvideonews.com
hamradiotube.com
youtube.com
qdg.org.au

Japanese Earth-Moon-Earth - Project Big Dish

A 2007 Japan-Broadcasting Corporation TV report about amateur radio
Moon bounce (EME) operation has just been made available on YouTube.

KDDI, one of the Japanese telecommunication services companies, had assigned
to make experimental cooperation with the Project BIG-DISH, composed of some
forty Japanese moon bouncers, and JARL.

The operation took place late February and early March, in 2007.

Watch 8N1EME-NHK-NEWS(NHK(Japan-Broadcasting Corp.))





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FEMALES IN RADIO
ALARA - AUSTRALIAN LADIES AR ASSOCIATION
http://alara.org.au
Net is held each Mondays on 3.570± MHz, commencing at 1030 UTC.
(1000utc during daylight saving)


After 20 years, Dot VK2DB has written her last ALARA newsletter.
Many thanks Dot for a fine job and keeping our listeners "in the loop"
ALARA wise.





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
http://rsgbiota.org

AS-109. CANCELLED

The RT9K/P DXpedition was cancelled because the temperature in Nadym was
climbing to over 0 deg C and the snow is melting.

The next few week's forecast also predicts higher temperatures which will
weaken the ice for the snowmobile and tricky for a boat to navigate.

The team has returned home to find a different method of transportation.

(sourced to kb8nw)





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

WICEN Victoria are involved in 5 events during the next quarter.
If you are available to participate in any of these events, please
get in touch with the contact listed for the event.

Friday April 20th 2012
Oxfam Trailwalker
Jells Park to Warburton
Contact: Ian Morris VK3IFM phone: 03 9763 0565
Email:

Sunday April 22nd 2012
Wombat 100 Bike Ride
Woodend
Contact: John Weir VK3XD phone: 03 9431 0667
Email:

Sunday April 29th 2012
Coordinators and Commanders Meeting
Box Hill
Contact: Mark Dods VK3ZR phone: 03 9849 0501
Email:

Saturday May 5th 2012
East Gippsland Stages
Bairnsdale
Contact: Colin Pomroy VK3BLE phone: 03 5149 7228
Email:

Sunday May 6th 2012
Kenda Nav Rally
Rubicon
Contact: Peter Weeks VK3YZP phone: 03 5772 1454
Email:

Regards,
WICEN Secretary,





REWIND

Hereford Times - Titanic Messages

Richard Langford G4FAD has been helping to recreate the chilling messages
sent from the Titanic just hours before it sank in the Atlantic with the
loss of 1,517 lives.

Richard, a member of the Hereford Amateur Radio Society, was one of three
radio enthusiasts invited to Liverpool to record the exact Morse code SOS
calls sent from the doomed ship on April 14, 1912.

Read the Hereford Times newspaper story at
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9340562.Wellington_farmer_
helps_recreate_chilling_messages_from_the_Titanic

I’m Ray, VK4CF with more TITANIC news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

Bevan, VK4BCM, who is coordinating the Brisbane activities, said that
currently there are some 39 stations participating worldwide.

Associated with the Titanic Day, is a worldwide contest CW contest to
celebrate the two wireless operators who let the world know of the tragedy.
One operator was rescued and the other lost his life whilst transmitting
when the ship went down. The surviving operator after his rescue started to
send out lists of survivors from the rescue ship until he reached the
United States.

The contest is therefore a CW contest only.

In the contest, QSO with a dedicated Titanic station merits 10 points.
A “FISTS HQ” Station 5 points
FISTS Affiliated station 3 points
FISTS member station 2 points and
1 for non-members.

Logs should include date/call/ name/qth/time/fist number or non member
points. Logs can be emailed to or posted to R.D.Walker,
FISTS, P.O.Box 6743, Tipton, DY4 4AU England.

The Redcliffe Club with association with the FISTS group have designed a
beautiful QSL card and there is only one way to get one and that is to give
the local guys a call either on 20, 40, and 80 metres in the CW segment of
the band. If you want further information use the following computer link,

http://www.m0bpt.org.uk/Titanic%20SES/titanic.htm

ABC local radio 612, interviewed Bevan on Friday Afternoon Drive program
and there is also a cross by Macca on his Sunday radio Program also on the
local ABC radio.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until you hear from me
in QNEWS in the Queensland Zone. I'm Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day on now!

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.







Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
Vk1wia-
http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)

Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-08.mp3
Text edition:

WIANEWS - April 8 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FOLLOWING STORIES IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 8 2012.



Now we seldom report on virus's or Trojans, believing that the emails about
such things can be almost more intrusive than the 'bug themselves' and let's
face it if you are not running an auto updating virus scanning program you
deserve what may happen! Hihi.

BUT


Is your computer infected with DNSChanger?

ACMA put out a note about DNSChanger which is malicious software (malware)
that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Approximately 10,000 Australian internet users are currently infected with
this malware.

If your computer is infected you need to remove it.

If you don’t remove it by 9 July 2012, you won’t be able to connect to the
internet.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, CERTAustralia (the
federal government’s computer emergency response team) and the Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy have collaborated to
develop a diagnostic website that, in most cases, shows you whether or not
you are infected with DNSChanger.

This website is dns-ok.gov.au

If you are infected, dns-ok.gov.au provides links to tools and detailed
documentation that may help you remove the infection.

(ACMA)





MyMP

Improved reception of the commercial radio service 3MP in northern and
western Melbourne as the Australian Communications and Media Authority
allows an increase to the maximum transmitting power of Melbourne commercial
radio broadcasting service 3MP–from 1225 volts to 2140 volts (equivalent to
5 kilowatts to 8.2 kilowatts) and change the direction of its radiation
pattern.

This will allow expanded coverage of northern and western Melbourne.

3MP has been previously known by the on-air identities, 3MTR and MTR1377.

This follows public consultation on the proposal, released in November 2011,
to vary the Licence Area Plan – Melbourne Radio – June 2000
(the Melbourne LAP).





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ


TARC AND TASSIE do WIA National Field Day

The WIA National Field Day will be happening next Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th theTARCinc will be running displays about the different aspects
of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville store in
Ingham Road West End Saturday April 14th from 7-30am.

Hams need to help with this activity to publicise the worthwhile hobby
of Amateur Radio to the wider community.

Get along to wave the flag and have some fun as well !

Those listening in VK7 REAST will hold a display again this year as part of
the WIA National Field Day. It's on NEXT weekend April 14th and 15th.

Have you got some equipment such as an outdoor marquee or gazebo to help set
up a display?

It's a few DAYS away but please give it some thought as to how you can help
make this event a success for the club and the hobby in general.





WIA CONFERENCE

I’m Bob, VK6POP, reminding you that the Wireless Institute’s Annual
Conference is coming up fast. It’s now next month instead of sometime in
the future.

The Conference dates are Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May.

The weekend program is centred around the Mildura Grand Hotel. The weekend
will commence on Friday evening at the historic Settlers Club with a buffet
dinner.

On Saturday morning the WIA Annual General Meeting will be followed by the
Open Forum. I can assure you that the AGM will be brief and to the point, and
should serve as a model for club agms.

The open forum gives Amateur an opportunity to ask Questions of the Board, or
to raise issues of interest and concern. Lunch is provided for all
registered attendees.

On Saturday afternoon there is a technical symposium at which several items
of interest will be presented.

On Saturday evening the Annual Dinner will be held in the Grand Ballroom at
the Mildura Grand Hotel.

Sunday will feature a cruise and lunch on the famous Paddleboat Mundoo. For
those remaining in Mildura on Sunday night, a casual BBQ has been arranged
at the home of Noel Ferguson VK3FI, Fergus Park, Nichols Point.

Accommodation is available at the Mildura Grand Hotel, as well as in several
other hotels and caravan parks.

So how about it? Still thinking about going? Or maybe you never gave it any
thought until now? Well give it a go. These annual conferences are great
weekends, where you get to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Information about the weekend and an online booking form are on the WIA
website, www.wia.org.au





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-



VK4 SILENT KEYS @ 2011 - 2012 QAC YEAR

VK4MUJ Jean Bowden passed away 2nd January 2012 advised by VK4ZZ
VK4BAY Roy Mahoney January 2012 advised by VK4BSH
VK4AFW Frank Alloway 15th January 2012 advised by VK4FABR
VK4KEL Geoff Sanders 4th April 2012 advised by VK4OD





Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP and I’ve been thinking.

When computers first entered the consumer electronics market, software soon
became available for the original “digital” mode, Morse Code. Soon followed
RTTY, Slow Scan TV and Fax. Derivatives of other modes such as TOR, Teletype
over Radio and Packet came along.

Today there is a plethora of software especially written for the amateur
operator. Nobel prize winner, Joe Taylor, has put his skills to work in
developing programs optimised for the weak signal operator. There is so much
more work being done in this part of the hobby.

In an attempt to utilise the features of the internet to provide greater
diversity of contact types, our sister society, the JARL, sponsored the
development of the D-Star modes. For the translation between digital and
analogue voice, a firmware codec was chosen. The catch is that the codec is a
commercial product which attracts a licence fee for each device in which it
is used.

The challenge for the amateur programmers is to successfully develop a
freeware alternative. This would allow many of the digital commercial radios
coming out service to join the amateur ranks as their analogue antecedents
have done.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





CLUBBING

Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to

Submit audio, read "how to submit items" on the weekly WIA news page.
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/

Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being
broadcast in the very next edition of QNEWS.





BARC
http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba
or, by E-mail to

This is Stuart, VK4MSL with news from the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club.


BARCfest will take place *two weeks later* than usual, at 9:30AM
Saturday,
26th May 2012, at the usual venue, 1600 Logan Road, Upper Mt.
Gravatt.



There will be the usual displays of equipment and parts for sale, tech
talks,
and of course, an opportunity to catch up with old friends at
Cafe-de-BARC.
Admission is $7.00.

For further information, see the BARC website:

http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba/






Redcliffe and District Radio Club
www.redclifferadioclub.org.au/

I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

The year just seems to be getting busier and busier. After a successful
Moyle, and more about that later, the activities for the club this month
are:-

9th April General Business Meeting. Please note Roger, VK4ZLQ will not be
present for the meeting and has requested you bring your copy of the minutes
to ensure that the they are correct.

From the 11th till the 16th April, the Wednesday group will be involved in
assembling the portable station and equipment for the Titanic anniversary,
setting up the station at Maritime Museum, Stanley Street, South Bank,
Brisbane, participating in the activity and finally packing up and returning
all equipment to the club.

16th April Technical Talk with evening Kevin VK4UG – Meteor Scatter
Propagation, and to end the month:-

23rd April Fox Hunt

Well the Moyle has come and gone for another year. This year we had the
rain. It was the first time in some 5 years that the club had to stop
transmitting for a period of about of 6 hours as it was just too dangerous
to the equipment to continue. 2 stalwarts of the club and of the Moyle were
Andy, VK4KY and Glenn, Vk4FZ who were back again this year. Antennas were
set up on the afternoon of Friday in fine conditions and by 3.30 pm on the
Saturday, RAIN. Heavy “Brisbane type” rain for the next 6 hours. Too
dangerous to operate in and with the possible damage to the equipment and
nothing else to do but to enjoy a few cordials and resume when conditions
improve.

Despite all this the field day was a success, many contacts made. Many
thanks to the stream of helpers who were there to set up, bringing food and
other supplies and for the clean-up who had the site totally cleared by 2 pm
on Sunday afternoon.

WIA Queensland Centenary. Kevin VK4UH advised that this year is the
centenary celebration of the WIA in Queensland. The club has decided to
participate and will apply for the use of the special call sign.

Grace Lutheran College. Kevin VK4UH advised the club that he had approached
Grace Lutheran College enquiring about access to the large steerable dish
that they have on their grounds. The dish is currently used by senior
physics classes and is operational. The College was most receptive to
interacting with the club and Kevin believes that the dish could be used for
EME activities on 2 metres and higher frequencies.

Just a reminder that James, VK4TJF, conducts CW courses at the club on
Thursday evenings from 7.00pm until 9.00pm and about the regular trivia
contest conducted on the 70 cm repeater each Wednesday night starting about
7.30 pm. If we don’t use the frequency allocation we will lose it!

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from Ray,
VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.


News from Townsville

As local VK listeners heard in QNEWS last weekend there is to be a 2012
WIA-QAC Presidents Lunch and 100th Anniversary of organized Amateur Radio in
Queensland. We now have the venue, Presidents Lunch, hosted by Hervey Bay
Amateur Radio Club will be at the Hervey Bay RSL Club starting at 10am on
Saturday 21st July. That’s at the lower, or Eastern end of the Bay.

WIA President Michael VK3KI will be special guest speaker and attendees
will include WIA Directors and members of the WIA-QAC along with committee
and members of various QLD Amateur Radio Clubs.

The Centenary Celebration BBQ will also be hosted by the Hervey Bay Amateur
Radio Club on Sunday 22nd July.






What use is an f-call?
(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)




Recently I was sitting on a plane talking to a person whom I had just met.
We were discussing our interests and experience and the subject of Amateur
Radio came up.

There was the obligatory CB radio comment and some discussion about marine
radio, but the discussion boiled down to this:

"What's the point?"

I eased into
the subject by observing that as a hobby I found it to be technically
challenging without it having a direct relationship to my day-job in IT.
We discussed the ideas that embody the hobby, non-commercial use,
experimentation, discovery, camaraderie. We talked about the natural
disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Earthquake and
Tsunami in Japan and the subsequent issues with their nuclear power plant. I
explained about making contacts and exchanging information, call-signs,
signal reports, dealing with electricity and backup batteries and the like.


The conversation went for about an hour, we talked about the SES, about
HF long distance contacts, the solar cycle, the ionosphere, experiments and
the development of technologies like the mobile phone.


The thing that struck me during this conversation, looking at the topics we
discussed, some in passing, some in-depth (well, to the depth of my eclectic
knowledge at least), that Amateur Radio touches a lot of aspects of society.



I used to think that IT was the only field that impacted the world every
where in every which way. Now I'm not so sure. Amateur Radio to me appears to
have dibs on a large chunk. I supposes I'm saying that Amateur Radio has a
public relations issue, people don't know it exists, yet it affects their
lives in ways that most never even notice.

Perhaps all this just relates to
my better understanding of the Radio Frequency spectrum and my personal part
in the puzzle, but I think society would benefit from at least a smidgen of
the understanding that comes with having an Amateur License.



If you have thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear from you.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






SILENT KEY


Geoffrey Allan Sanders VK4KEL has gone silent key following a VERY long
battle with various forms of cancer. He was but 62 , born in September of 49
in Horsham VK3.

Geoff was a past President of the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club,
Past President of the Wireless Institute of Australia Queensland Division,
a former VK4 Federal Councillor and Alternate Federal Councillor of the
Wireless Institute of Australia.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - Geoff VK4KEL will be remembered for his support for
we VietNam Vets. Geoff, 217459 served with 104 Signal Sqn Vietnam IN 1969.

Geoff was given just 2 hours as he lay in the Prince Charles Hospital
Sunday yet fought on until he passed 4th April being kept comfortable
during his last days with Jen and his children by his side.

His loss will leave a huge hole in our lives as he has been a friend of ours
since commencing QNEWS back i 94-5.

Geoff was President and Secretary of the old WIAQ and when we first started
QNEWS on packet radio was the first WIA Official who started to tell it's
members "what was what".. thanks to Geoff the walls of WIA secrecy started to
be broken...

It wasn't again and not since the late Chris Jones that we knew week to week
what our society was doing for us.

I know Geoff will be sadly missed by many others who knew by QSO, WIA work,
and his work with the Vet community, knew him well.

More in local QNEWS bulletins as it comes to hand.





INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

JOE WALSH, WB6ACU, IS AN ANALOG MAN

Grammy Award-winning rock-and-roll legend Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, returns with
Analogue Man, set to be released June 5.

This is Walsh's first solo album since 1992's Songs for a Dying Planet.

Walsh -- best known for his powerful guitar licks -- joined the Eagles in
1976 and is credited for bringing a harder rock sound to the band with the
acclaimed Hotel California, The Long Run and Eagles Live.

No stranger to the analogue way of life, Walsh -- an ARRL Life Member --
enjoys operating on 80 metres AM.

Check out Analogue Man -- the title track of Walsh's new album and details of
his South African tour starting on 4 April in Cape Town
http://www.joewalsh.com/

(SARL)





World Amateur Radio Day

On April 18, 2012 we will celebrate the World Amateur Radio Day on the
87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space" and we will have much more on this
world event shortly in our special interest group segment.





50 watts for Foundation holders in Belgium

The UBA reports on plans to allow Belgian Foundation licence holders to run
50 watts on HF instead of the previous 10 watts.

Belgian Foundation holders are currently permitted 50 watts on 144 and 430MHz
and 10 watts in the bands from 3.5 to 52 MHz The new proposal means they
would be able to run 50 watts on the HF and 6m bands.

The website of the national radio society the UBA says that taking into
account the 3dB rule this would permit the use of a standard 100W
transceiver.

See the proposals in Google English at
http://tinyurl.com/Belgium50wFoundation





Lightning strike survivor feels lucky to be alive

K.A.K.E. News reports that radio amateur Bill Isles KD 0 IIF is recovering
after he survived a lightning strike and used his ham radio to call for help.

Seems the volunteer storm spotter was standing in his backyard and thought
the lightning was far away!

"In the distance, I would hear thunder and see lightning. I didn't think
anything was quite that close," said Bill. "And it came as quite a shock."

That shock knocked Bill to the ground. The only thing nearby was his amateur
radio. When Bill called for help through the ham radio, Mike KD 0 IJO, heard
his call and phoned 911.

Read the full KAKE News story at
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/Wichita_Man_Struck_By_
Lightning_During_Thursday_Storms_145019845.html


=============================================================================


JAPAN TO LAUNCH AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES

Big news on the ham radio space scene. This with
word that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
has announced the upcoming launch of five amateur
radio satellites. This, on two launches taking
place this spring and summer. Amateur Radio
Newsline’s Stephen Kinford, N8WB, is here with more:

The first launch is the H2A that takes place on
May 17th. It will carry the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2.

This will be followed on July 21st when the HTV3
mission. It will deliver the JEM-Small Satellite
Orbital Deployer or J-SSOD to the International
Space Station. That unit will enable small
satellites to be deployed from the ISS using the
Japanese Experiment Module robot arm.

The Japanese amateur radio satellites WE-WISH and
FITSAT-1, along with San Jose State University’s
TechEdSat and Vietnam’s F-1 will also be
delivered to the I-S-S on this mission. Plans
are for them to be deployed to orbit on September 20th.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.





ARRL SPONSORING WEBINAR TO HELP YOU PUBLICIZE FIELD DAY

The ARRL Public Relations Committee will be
holding a free Webinar on Thursday evening April
12 for Public Information Officers, radio club
officers and anyone else wanting to join
in. This, to teach the easiest and most
effective way to write a press release for Field
Day and actually get it noticed by the mass media in your home region.

The webinar will begin at 9 pm Eastern Daylight
Time and will run for about 90 minutes. Several
experts in mass media communications will be on
hand to teach the tricks of the trade in dealing
with radio, television and print publications.

Pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot
simply take your web browser to
tinyurl.com/arrl-field-day-webinar or directly at
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/278619454.

Space is limited so if you want to take part you
need to sign up today.





ESPN EMPLOYEES CREATE THE WORLDWIDE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Current and former employees of the Entertainment
and Sports Network, better known to the public as
ESPN, have formed the Worldwide Amateur Radio
Club. Located on the grounds of the ESPN
facility in Bristol, Connecticut, the group has
now been granted the club call WE1SPN .

At present the club has about 40 members. Inaugural
operations were to take place on 7.177 MHz at 21:00 UTC
on March 29th.

This opening gala was to include trying to contact as
may radio clubs at Disney theme parks as possible.

The Worldwide Amateur Radio Club is the latest
bin a long series of broadcast industry based
employee recreation entities. It joins similar
employee groups at the CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
networks as well as at a number of broadcast
stations nationwide and world-wide.

More about WE1SPN can be found by checking the
listing page for their callsign on QRZ.com





ANDY SENNITT TO RETIRE FROM RNW END OF APRIL

Andy Sennitt who edited the now closed Radio
Netherlands Media Network weblog says that he
will be retiring from that international
broadcaster at the end of April. Sennitt says
that during his last weeks at Radio Netherlands
that he will be writing a series of articles
reflecting on the changes in international
broadcasting since he started appearing on the
Media Network radio show in 1981 as well as
looking ahead to the coming decade.

This perspective will be published on the Radio
Netherlands English language website. Sennitt
asks that if you have any memories of Radio
Netherlands or any other international
broadcasters that you would like to share, please
e-mail them to him. He can be reached at
MediaNetwork (at) rnw (dot) nl. Sennitt adds
that he will try to include them in the articles
as is possible.





NASA ANNOUNCES ISSLIVE! APP

NASA has announced the release of the ISSLive!
app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Amateur
Radio Newsline’s David Black, KB4KCH, has the details:

The ISS Live! app delivers live streaming data
from the International Space Station. Users can
take a virtual 3-D tour of the Mission Control
Centre and the space station, and view mission
control console displays with real-time
data. Interactive educational lessons using the
data, as well as crew and science timelines with
individual crew member, social media and
international science experiment details are also available via the app.

The space agency calls ISSLive! an innovative,
interactive application that provides a novel way
to learn about the International Space Station
while on the go. To learn more and find links to
download the ISSLive! app, visit
spacestationlive.jsc.nasa.gov. That’s where you
will find the icons for the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.

I’m David Black, KB4KCH, from the South-East bureau in Birmingham, Alabama.





NASA CONSIDERING LAGRANGE POINT OUTPOST

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value
of a human-tended outpost near the far side of
the moon. One that would embrace international
partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation,

According to SPACE.com, William Gerstenmaier is
NASA's Associate Administrator for Human
Exploration and operations. And in a February
3rd memo Gerstenmaier says that a team is being
formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a
spot in space known as the Earth-moon Lagrange point.

Lagrange points sometimes called liberation
points, are places in space where the combined
gravitational pull of two large masses roughly
balance each other out. This would allow a
spacecraft or other object to essentially park in
that spot without being pulled toward either one of the masses.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of Lagrange Point
EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has
spotlighted this destination as the leading
option for a near-term space study. EML-2 could
serve as a gateway for exploration of multiple
destinations including near-lunar space, our own
moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars and
ultimately, the red planet itself.

=============================================================================




WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

Around the World 28 MHz Balloon

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a
50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.

The balloon was released from Annapolis in Maryland and started its journey
heading SE at 6 knots finally reaching 96 km/h.

It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to
locate it by signal strength and beam headings only.

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and
especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope.
Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum
altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and
that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons
3' in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The
Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain
Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of
the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings
and signal reports.








SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19




T.C.S.W.A.T. active again at Gallipoli for AM and CW on ANZAC Day

Tevfik TA1HZ has confirmed with Mike VK4MIK that the Turkish Portable
Operations team TCSWAT will be active again as TC57A from Gallipoli for
AM and CW on ANZAC Day.

They will arrive at the site of operations on Saturday 21st April and
finish operations there on Thursday 26th April.

TCSWAT hope to operate SSB, CW, PSK31 and maybe even SSTV from the
Gallipoli.

Is your station going to be involved with AM and CW on ANZAC Day ?

Contact Mike VK4MIK now on email





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


DXCC Country/Entity Report

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday,
25th-March, through Sunday, 1st-April there were 235 countries active.





ZD8, Ascension Island

The ZD8, Ascension Island bureau has closed. A full list of countries that
do not have a bureau is available on the http://www.irts.ie/cgi/qsl.cgi





"DX Code of Conduct"
Audio by John VK2JJW


I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.

I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.

I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station's
call sign before calling.

I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and
will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.

I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.

I will always send my full call sign.

I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call
continuously.

I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.

I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.

I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than
mine.

When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think
he has copied it incorrectly.

I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.

I will respect my fellow radio amateurs and conduct myself so as to
earn their respect.





AWARDS

RSGB Commonwealth Century Club Jubilee Award 2012

Of course this year is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and mindful that the
Queen is the head of the Commonwealth of Nations we remind you of that new
operating award

To qualify for this attractive certificate all you need to do is to work as
many different countries and call areas on the Commonwealth Century Club list
during 2012.

Certificates will be awarded for working 60 and 100 different call areas.

Use any mode or bands you like and QSL cards are not required.



Score sheets and full details can be downloaded from
www.beru.org.uk/CCCaward/CCCindex.html







WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

AMSAT-VK UNOFFICIAL HF Net.
2nd Sunday each month.
April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz
November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz


MicroThrust Motor for Nanosats

Imagine reaching the Moon using just a tenth of a litre of fuel.

With their ionic motor, MicroThrust, EPFL scientists and their European
partners are making this a reality, ushering in a new era of low-cost space
exploration.

The goal is to provide efficient propulsion systems for nanosatellites
(1-100 kg), which are currently stuck in whatever orbit they were initially
placed: the plan is to free them to allow nanosatellites to perform orbital
manoeuvring, and missions to the Moon, to Near Earth Objects, or even to Mars.





World Amateur Radio Day - April 18

On April 18, 2012, radio amateurs will be celebrating World Amateur Radio Day
on the 87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union, IARU.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space” in remembrance the launching of
OSCAR 1 on December 12, 1961 and the launch of OSCAR 2 on June 2, 1962.

For this reason there will be several special event stations from IARU’s
Member Societies active on different dates during April:

6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who has
commissioned this operation to Grupo DXXE. This station will be
active from 13 to 18 April in all modes and bands. QSL via LoTW and
N7RO, direct or bureau. Daily logs uploads will be available in
ClubLog.

3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile. This station will be active throughout
the month of April. QSL via CE3AA.

LZ1WARD by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs also will be active
throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

EL2RL by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association will be active on April 18
on 10, 15, 17 and 20 meters. Direct QSL to EL2BA.

HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure to be active also on
April 18. This first time callsign will be on the air by HB9JOE and
a group of radio amateurs from Bern. QSL via HB9JOE.

HF87WARD by members of the SP-CFF (SP0CFF). This station will be active from
April, 17 to 30. QSL via eQSL.cc and WFF LogSerach.

For those who want to send card direct, please send SASE to:
Polish Club Flora & Fauna, Suchacz, Wielmozy 5b, 82-340 Tolkmicko, Poland.
They will even have an award for this operation.

IARU Region 2
http://www.iaru-r2.org/





SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- STAMP COLLECTING AMATEURS


LUXEMBOURG ISSUES STAMP TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO

Founded in 1937, the Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes
Courtes (RL ) -- that country's IARU
Member-Society -- is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In honour of this
milestone, Luxembourg's Entreprise des Postes et Télécommunications
(P&TLuxembourg) has issued a .60 € postage stamp
(about 80
cents in US currency); P&TLuxembourg is that country's government owned
corporation for mail and telecommunications. This is one of three
commemorative stamps issued by Luxembourg in 2012 .

(ARRL)





LOW DOWN IN THE NEWS

NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast

The NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast #2012-14 has been
published at 0000 UTC on Friday March 30, 2012, valid 0000 UTC Saturday
March 31, 2012 through 2359 UTC Friday April 06, 2012.

http://www.mwfrequencypropagation.org .

73 & GUD DX,

Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA








SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day.

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

November 15TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE hosted by V.A.R.C. in Ho-Chi-Minh
City, Vietnam.

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.








Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






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Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-15.mp3
Text edition:



WIANEWS - April 15 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.

MAYDAY WONNANGATTA

PROJECT HORUS FLYS SUNDAY

WIA NATIONAL FIELD DAY THIS WEEKEND

SKA RESULT UP IN AIR

5 YEAR OLD PASSES LICENCE EXAMINATION

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.





At around 0930hrs 9 April 2012 a mayday call was made on 7090khz by VK3MAC
who was in the Wonnangatta Valley region in the highlands of Victoria.

A person in the camping party had some seizures and was in a bad way
medically. VK3MAC with the operator, Adam, made its way up to a hill in a
4WD with HF fitted and put the call out.

Jack, VK3AJK was the first to respond and took control of the frequency and
the situation. He ascertained the location, situation etc. and contacted
emergency services.

VK3AJK then became the relay person between the emergency services and the
camping party as the precise GPS coordinates were given out as was the
specific medical condition. The decision was made that a medivac would occur
via a rescue chopper.

Both parties were being received by Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT 5-9.

VK3MAC then indicated that he was going to return to the valley floor where
the rest of the camping party, and the patient was with the final
instruction from Jack, VK3AJK, that the rescue chopper asked that all
vehicles in the camping party form a 50 metre circle in a clearing with
hazard lights flashing.

The weather had started to close in by this time.

Upon reaching the valley floor VK3MAC put a call out which had dropped to
5-7 but perfectly readable into VK7 and VK3AJK had a perfect copy on
him still.

Several calls were made to establish that contact was still available
between the two and indicating that the patient was stable. Vk3MAC then
indicated that all vehicles were in position.

Shortly after, he called back to say that the helicopter with a medical team
had landed, and thanked Jack for his assistance.

It was asked several times with the same reply, that there was no mobile
phone service in that area.

Hoping that patient has a speedy recovery and full points to Jack and Adam
who worked calmly during this event.

(TONEMAN Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT)





Oceania DX Group activates Vanuatu

Do you need Vanuatu YJ0 for your DX Award?

The Oceania DX Group will be active on all HF bands from Vanuatu from 21st
April until the 5th May.

A group of six VK operators will be operating three stations with special
focus on the WARC bands as well as 80 and 160 metres. Operation on the lower
bands will depend on conditions, but the team expects to have 160 metres
operating through their local sunrise and sunset as a minimum.

The team will also make a special effort to keep one station active on
digital modes. So listen out for YJ0VK

For more information visit yj0vk.odxg.org

(73 and good DX Chris VK3QB)





Closer to home Friday 20 April four Victorian amateurs will head toward the
most southern point on mainland Australia. South Point is a rocky outcrop
located at the southern end of the Wilsons Promontory National Park and is
accessible only on foot. Peter VK3ZPF, Wayne VK3WAM, Kevin VK3KAB and
Trevor VK3ATB will be running QRP from 0000z on Saturday 21 April on
80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m using both CW and SSB.

Contacts from South Point, or with the team on their return trip, can be used
toward the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award sponsored by
Amateur Radio Victoria.





Project Horus High Altitude Balloon Launch

The Project Horus high altitude balloon group, based in Adelaide, is planning
a balloon launch this Sunday 15th April, shortly after the WIA Broadcast
(planning to be in the air around 10-11am ACST).

This will be an amateur radio oriented balloon launch, with three payloads of
interest to amateurs, intended to coincide with the WIA field days. The
launch designation is Horus 23.

The group is planning on flying the FM voice repeater again. The repeater
will operate with a 70cm uplink and a 2m downlink.

New frequencies will be used and they are;

Uplink: 438.900 MHz FM with a CTCSS Tone of 123Hz

Downlink: 144.650 MHz FM (in the 2m experimental segment) with a CTCSS tone
of 123Hz.

Based on previous flights, it should be possible to access the repeater from
up to 800km away at apogee, with about 30-50W. A beam will help overcome the
inevitable FM capture effect problems. The downlink is easily audible on any
reasonable Omni directional antenna, although if you are under the balloon's
flight path you may see over 20dB fades. The tracking and recovery teams use
cross dipoles on the roofs of the chase vehicles to help with the link budget
and fading.

The Amateur Radio Experimenter's Group will be running net control on the
voice repeater as VK5ARG from launch control in the Adelaide Hills.

APRS will fly on this flight on 145.175 MHz The expected callsign is
VK5ARG-11. We will be also able to look at the new http://aprs.fi/ horizon ring prediction service on this flight. Telemetry format packets are now also broadcast on APRS.

The ever reliable primary 300 baud RTTY telemetry beacon will also fly - at
this stage it will be on 434.075 MHz (note update) (+/- 5kHz thermal drift).
This signal is used as part of the group's "distributed listener" telemetry
network where any amateur receiving the data can upload what they are hearing
over the internet.

The data, which is sent to the http://spacenear.us/tracker website,
contributes to the landing zone predictions used by the chase teams. The
chase-tracker teams have 3G Internet in their vehicles and are actively
looking at that data, so it is one way amateurs can have a behind the scenes
involvement in the flight's success. NOTE: this beacon only runs 25mW,
however we have had people from the horizon and at times beyond still be
able to decode and contribute, so why not give it a go!

If you would like more information about the software setup required to
participate in telemetry recovery take a look at our tracking page:
http://projecthorus.org/?page_id=336

Confirmation that the flight is a go can only be given ultimately on the
morning of the 15th. We are very much subject to the weather and have
various constraints on where we are permitted to fly, so the potential for
the mission to be scrubbed exists up until the last minute. We will endeavour
to update the forum once we get closer, and will post notices on the DX
Cluster once it is in the air. Flight time should be around 2 & 3/4 Hrs.

If you would like to find out more about Project Horus, please visit our
website www.projecthorus.org/

or for some short films of our past activities, the Vimeo channel at
http://www.vimeo.com/channels/projecthorus/

I am Ben, VK5BB for Project Horus and the Amateur Radio Experimenter's
Group





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ

TARC Does the WIA National Field Day this Weekend

The WIA National Field Day will be happening this Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th and theTARCinc ran displays about the different
aspects of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville
store in Ingham Road West End Saturday from around 7-30am.

Checking the WIA website at the time this dispatch was released -

just the following people or groups had registered to participate this year.

Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club, Port Macquarie Town Green.

Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club Shire Office Reserve Rosebud VIC.

Waverley Amateur Radio Society Outside Bondi Beach Pavilion.

Midland Amateur Radio Club Prince of Wales Showgrounds Bendigo.

Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club Jaycar Electronics Springvale.

WICEN (Vic) Mornington Peninsula region JAYCAR Electronics Frankston West.

Orana Region Amateur Radio Club Elston Park, Dubbo Dubbo NSW.

Alice Springs Amateur Radio Club Flynn Church Lawns, Alice Springs NT.

Radio and Electronics Assoc of Sth Tas (REAST) Jaycar Derwent Park.





WIA – Promoting Our Hobby

Greetings Everyone.

The first time you may be hearing this broadcast is while you are
participating in the WIA National Field Day. This event is aimed at promoting
our hobby and the diversity of interests Amateur Radio encompasses.

Everyone who has been involved in promotional events of any kind will have
retained a mental record of how successful or unsuccessful the activity has
been and the reasons for the outcome. The promotion of Amateur Radio is no
different and from your or your Club’s experience you will know what has been
most successful in your community.

The Easter period is past and many Radio Amateurs will have visited friends
and families or travelled to a holiday destination where there was an
opportunity to operate our station in a portable role. Reflect on how we
operated and how it would be viewed by a passer-by.

Was our operation covert or overt? That is, did we project a ‘Go away! Don’t
disturb me!” aura or one which conveyed ‘I’m enjoying this and I’m happy to
welcome you and answer your questions.’

Unfortunately it is all too easy for us to project the former and loose the
opportunity to foster interest in our hobby by those intrigued by what we
are doing and enjoying but apprehensive about asking. By changing our
attitude to be more overt and engaging about our hobby we can carry the
message of the WIA National Field Day throughout the year to those
non-amateurs who did not have the opportunity to pass or visit a WIA National
Field Day station.

Thank you to all those individuals, groups and clubs participating in the
WIA National Field Day activities.

This has been Ewan VK4ERM for the WIA Board asking ‘Who have you introduced
to Amateur Radio to-day?’





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-

Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been
thinking.

Hopefully the weather has been kind to the participants in the WIA National
Field Day. As a recruiting and advertising method, the first 2 National
Field Days certainly got the message out via the mass media. Here’s hoping
number 3 is as successful.

Just to keep the momentum going is the fast approaching ANZAC Day. Not only
is this a day of solemn remembrance but also an opportunity to celebrate all
those whose service life depended on radio. As we have heard, there are
groups of amateurs who will be running CW and AM, the main modes of the
Second World War. Spark was the primary mode of the First World War but was
banned by the time of the Great Depression.

Here is an opportunity for all amateurs to participate. For the F-calls,
remember that many of the radios used during WWII operated at QRP levels so
taking part on Anzac Day is following a 70 year old tradition. Check the net
frequencies in “Amateur Radio” or the web.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

At the end of today’s news, or just before we end, in REWIND I’ll pop back
with much more detail on this TITANIC event, stay tuned!

The Wednesday group had some 40 members at the club house last Wednesday
packing equipment for the weekend activity. One welcomed visitor was Ray,
VK4UG and his XYL. Club President David, VK4DC, said that the car parking
at the club was a nightmare but it was fantastic to see the club full of
members all enjoying the Morning.

Next Monday night is the Technical talk By Kevin, VK4UH, it is a good one on
meteor scatter.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from
Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





DISCUSSION POINT

What use is an f-call?



(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)


Recently I heard an f-call ask on-air about the performance of their HF
antenna. It reminded me that in order for any learning to occur, there needs
to be two elements that come together. While it's simple to ask questions
among your friends, it takes a leap of faith to ask a stranger.



So, one of the elements you need is a Leap of Faith, "I have a problem and I
wonder if anyone might be able to help."



For this leap of faith to pay off, you also need to gain access to the
knowledge required to solve your problem. It can come in many guises, from
"read the manual", through "I have done that and I solved it like this." to
"Let me come over and give you a hand."



The second element that is needed is Generosity.

The interesting part for me
is how the discussion opens up many possibilities when experienced people
enter the conversation. It's one thing to acknowledge the original Leap but
two inexperienced people talking to each other about a problem when neither
of them have more than rudimentary understanding is less than satisfying,
both for the two people and for any listeners on frequency.



I'm glad to say that in this particular case some personal skill and
knowledge was added to the discussion by some experienced hams, but I've also
heard discussions where the blind were leading the blind.

While it is
possible that a question is asked by a novice f-call and answered by an
experienced advanced-call, that is not always the case. In fact to me it
seems, more often than not, the level of license bears little relation to a
person's level of experience.

Amateur Radio is like an aural history, made of story tellers and listeners.
If you don't tell your stories pretty soon you'll run out of listeners and
the history dies.

So, no matter your place, taking a Leap of Faith, or
providing Generosity, remember that in order for the hobby to endure we need
to keep talking.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

5 year-old passes Foundation exam

The Humber Fortress DX Amateur Radio Club in the UK is proud to announce
and congratulate its youngest new member Kayleigh Huntley on passing her
Foundation exam at age 5 years.

While Kayleigh may well be the youngest to have passed her foundation test
in the UK (Samuel Lewis KB9RYP and Sarah Bruno KB9SEG were just 4 years old
when they got their amateur radio licenses in 1998), even though she holds
a license to operate alone, this will not happen.

Kayleigh’s only access to radio is via her Granddad Andy G7LRR, or at the
Radio Club under supervision and very closely monitored.

Kayleigh has been involved in radio for over 3 years now, having been
allowed to say hello on her granddad’s radio to radio friends all over
the world.





No Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site decision

We will have to wait till at least mid-May before it may be decided whether
South Africa or Australia will be the country to host the SKA.

Members of the SKA Organisation met in Amsterdam on 4 April for their first
general meeting. They noted the SKA site selection advisory committee's
report and associated commentary that had been passed to them by the
SKA Organisation's board, which met last month in the UK.

The members wished to move ahead with the site selection process and
recognised that it is desirable to maintain an inclusive approach to the SKA.
They noted that it is important to maximise the value from the investment
made by both candidate regions. A small scientific working group was set up
to explore possible implementation options that would achieve this.

The working group will report back in mid-May.


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

ELECTRONIC HERITAGE - SCHNECTADY MUSEUM GETS ALL GE VIDEO

And finally this week a story about the work of a
museum doing all it can to preserve some of
electronics past. Here’s Jeff Clark, K8JAC:

The Schenectady Museum is using the YouTube dot
com website to rebroadcast more than 1,000 of its
General Electric films, which date back to
1915. According to the museum curator Chris
Hunter, the archive was previously available only
on 16 millimetre film and was viewed infrequently
because of its physical condition and the
cumbersome process to watch the films using an optical projector.

Hunter said that the museum had long wanted to
digitize the collection in order to preserve it
but until recently it had been cost prohibitive
to do so. Now, thanks to grants from the
Institute for Museum and Library Services and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Life Members’ Foundation, the museum was able to
purchase a high-definition film transfer unit and hire and operator for it.

Among the film artefacts now existing in the
digital domain are advertisements, raw footage of
equipment tests, company picnics and promotional
clips. Also transferred is the famed early
television series titled the General Electric
Theatre. It was hosted by former President Ronald Reagan.

The museum hopes to finish uploading all of its
film transferred videos to YouTube in the next
year. It will then begin digitizing its 1,200
video tape based archives. A direct link to what
has already been uploaded and available for
viewing is at tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube

Again that U-R-L to screen all of those historic
General Electric films is tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube





CANADA BEGINS ISSUING 60 METER EXPERIMENTAL LICENSES

Canada has begun issuing experimental licenses
for the 60 meter band. Regulator Industry Canada
issued the first such developmental license on
April 2nd to Russ Hemphill, VE3FI, to use the call sign VX9GHD at 5 MHz

Canadian radio amateurs have been waiting three
years for an opportunity to join the USA, Britain
and other nations in making use of the 60 meter
spectrum. When a true Canadian amateur radio
allocation on 5 MHz meters might be approved is at this time unknown.





RADIO NETHERLANDS TO DROP DUTCH SHORTWAVE LANGUAGE BROADCASTS IN MAY

Radio Netherlands is in the news again with word
that the international broadcaster will terminate
Dutch language transmissions world-wide on May
11th. And to say farewell to Dutch speaking
listeners around the world the station plans to
hold a 24-hour marathon broadcast from 2000 UTC
on May 10th until 2000 UTC on May
11th. Frequencies and a listing of program
content should be posted soon to the Radio Netherlands Dutch
language website.


=============================================================================


IRTS NEWS DESK

Gi2012MGY

A special event station located in Belfast from on board the SS Nomadic,
Titanic’s 'Little Sister'.

To mark the Centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, City of Belfast
Radio Amateur Society ( CoBRAS ) will be QRV on most HF bands, CW and SSB,
from on board 'the Nomadic' from 12th - 18th April.

The SS Nomadic is the only remaining historic link to the Titanic left
afloat, and she is also the last surviving White Star Line vessel in the
world. Like Titanic herself she was built at the shipyards of Harland and
Wolff in Belfast, and served as a tender to the Olympic and Titanic.

She is currently undergoing restoration work in the docks where she was built,
adjacent to the new Titanic Belfast visitor attraction.

International interest in all things 'MGY' is reaching extraordinary levels
and the extremely rare Gi2012 prefix is sure to add extra interest from
WPX hunters. CoBRAS members look forward to working many EI stations during
the week of activity from on board this unique ship.

Further information and QSL details can be found under Gi2012MGY at QRZ.com





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE

W1AW CLAIMS 5BDXCC

Nearly four decades after the introduction of the Five Band DXCC Award
W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station has achieved this milestone.

"As with most stations, we found that 80 meters was our stumbling block,"
W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, explained.

W1AW's 5BDXCC plaque will hang in a place of honour at the station.

Prior to achieving 5BDXCC, W1AW held DXCC on 40 thru 10 meters for many
years, but was always searching for the last few remaining entities on 80.

"Now that W1AW has 5BDXCC, we are gunning for DXCC Honour Roll," Carcia
said. "Like with 5BDXCC, there are just a few more entities to go
before W1AW can claim that award."

(sourced to arrl letter)





To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, the
Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland will be transmitting a special
bulletin near 500 kHz, the distress frequency used by the radio
officers of the Titanic to send their CQD call to Cape, Race
Newfoundland. Please listen on 507.77 kHz CW for VX9MRC between 0001
and 0400 UTC on 15 April 2012. Please note this corresponds to
Saturday night, 14 April, for listeners in the western hemisphere. For
further information, please see the MRCN web page by searching for
VO1MRC on the internet.

(Charles Marsh, VO1VZ NL Section manager - Radio Amateurs of Canada.)





North Cork Radio Group on the air for Marconi weekend

The North Cork Radio Group will be activating Mizen Head Visitors Centre
for Marconi weekend.

The callsign, EI 0 IMD, will be on the air from 20th April - 22nd April
inclusive.

Marconi Day is on 21st April this year.





This is Julian Sortland, currently MW/VK2YJS in North-West Wales.

The other day I went to Caernarfon, where Marconi had a number of
transmission stations in the early 1900s, including the experimental
station used to send the first official radio message from Britain to
Australia, back in 1918.

It was sent on behalf of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who was
in Britain at the time, and who had just visited the troops in France. That
message was received by Ernest Fisk, at his home in Wahroonga, in the north
of Sydney.

This link allows the Hornsby and Districts Amateur Radio Club can participate
in International Marconi Day, in which stations around the world celebrate
Marconi's birthday, which falls on 25th April. As the event is on the
nearest Saturday, this year it will be the 21st, and being an international
event, this is the UTC day. Therefore, VK2IMD will be operating next
Saturday from 10:00am Sydney time, through to 10:00am on Sunday, on various
HF bands, and possibly 160m – mostly using SSB, depending on the operators.

It is also the 25th year for the global event, so the lead station, GB4IMD
has a licence variation to use GB 25 IMD. Further information about the
event search for “GB4IMD”.





BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS

HF WebSDR in Sweden

An online Software Defined Radio (SDR) located in Sweden for the amateur
radio 3, 5, 7 and 14 MHz bands is now available.

Located in Mora, Sweden, it is operated by SM4JLX e-mail and
comprises 3 x Soft66lite receivers and band-pass filter.

You need both Java and JavaScript enabled for the WebSDR to work properly.
If you don't hear anything, probably Java is disabled or its version is too
old (i.e., pre-1.4.2).. .

Listen to the 3 band HF radio at
http://sk4ko-websdr.no-ip.org:8901/

Soft66lite
http://zao.jp/radio/66lite/





Radio Canada International announces end of its shortwave broadcasting

Spending cuts announced in Canada's latest federal budget have reached Radio
Canada International.

Speaking to employees at RCI's headquarters in Montreal, RCI director
Helene Parent declared that two out of three RCI employees---about 40 people,
will lose their jobs by the end of July.

RCI's Russian and Portuguese sections will be closed along with the English
and French-language newsrooms. All shortwave broadcasts will cease as well.

RCI will continue to exist solely on the Internet in five languages

English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin.

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/news/15_56_27_2012-04-04-rci-slashed/





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video
arvideonews.com
hamradiotube.com
youtube.com
qdg.org.au

Japanese Earth-Moon-Earth - Project Big Dish

A 2007 Japan-Broadcasting Corporation TV report about amateur radio
Moon bounce (EME) operation has just been made available on YouTube.

KDDI, one of the Japanese telecommunication services companies, had assigned
to make experimental cooperation with the Project BIG-DISH, composed of some
forty Japanese moon bouncers, and JARL.

The operation took place late February and early March, in 2007.

Watch 8N1EME-NHK-NEWS(NHK(Japan-Broadcasting Corp.))





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FEMALES IN RADIO
ALARA - AUSTRALIAN LADIES AR ASSOCIATION
http://alara.org.au
Net is held each Mondays on 3.570± MHz, commencing at 1030 UTC.
(1000utc during daylight saving)


After 20 years, Dot VK2DB has written her last ALARA newsletter.
Many thanks Dot for a fine job and keeping our listeners "in the loop"
ALARA wise.





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
http://rsgbiota.org

AS-109. CANCELLED

The RT9K/P DXpedition was cancelled because the temperature in Nadym was
climbing to over 0 deg C and the snow is melting.

The next few week's forecast also predicts higher temperatures which will
weaken the ice for the snowmobile and tricky for a boat to navigate.

The team has returned home to find a different method of transportation.

(sourced to kb8nw)





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

WICEN Victoria are involved in 5 events during the next quarter.
If you are available to participate in any of these events, please
get in touch with the contact listed for the event.

Friday April 20th 2012
Oxfam Trailwalker
Jells Park to Warburton
Contact: Ian Morris VK3IFM phone: 03 9763 0565
Email:

Sunday April 22nd 2012
Wombat 100 Bike Ride
Woodend
Contact: John Weir VK3XD phone: 03 9431 0667
Email:

Sunday April 29th 2012
Coordinators and Commanders Meeting
Box Hill
Contact: Mark Dods VK3ZR phone: 03 9849 0501
Email:

Saturday May 5th 2012
East Gippsland Stages
Bairnsdale
Contact: Colin Pomroy VK3BLE phone: 03 5149 7228
Email:

Sunday May 6th 2012
Kenda Nav Rally
Rubicon
Contact: Peter Weeks VK3YZP phone: 03 5772 1454
Email:

Regards,
WICEN Secretary,





REWIND

Hereford Times - Titanic Messages

Richard Langford G4FAD has been helping to recreate the chilling messages
sent from the Titanic just hours before it sank in the Atlantic with the
loss of 1,517 lives.

Richard, a member of the Hereford Amateur Radio Society, was one of three
radio enthusiasts invited to Liverpool to record the exact Morse code SOS
calls sent from the doomed ship on April 14, 1912.

Read the Hereford Times newspaper story at
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9340562.Wellington_farmer_
helps_recreate_chilling_messages_from_the_Titanic

I’m Ray, VK4CF with more TITANIC news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

Bevan, VK4BCM, who is coordinating the Brisbane activities, said that
currently there are some 39 stations participating worldwide.

Associated with the Titanic Day, is a worldwide contest CW contest to
celebrate the two wireless operators who let the world know of the tragedy.
One operator was rescued and the other lost his life whilst transmitting
when the ship went down. The surviving operator after his rescue started to
send out lists of survivors from the rescue ship until he reached the
United States.

The contest is therefore a CW contest only.

In the contest, QSO with a dedicated Titanic station merits 10 points.
A “FISTS HQ” Station 5 points
FISTS Affiliated station 3 points
FISTS member station 2 points and
1 for non-members.

Logs should include date/call/ name/qth/time/fist number or non member
points. Logs can be emailed to or posted to R.D.Walker,
FISTS, P.O.Box 6743, Tipton, DY4 4AU England.

The Redcliffe Club with association with the FISTS group have designed a
beautiful QSL card and there is only one way to get one and that is to give
the local guys a call either on 20, 40, and 80 metres in the CW segment of
the band. If you want further information use the following computer link,

http://www.m0bpt.org.uk/Titanic%20SES/titanic.htm

ABC local radio 612, interviewed Bevan on Friday Afternoon Drive program
and there is also a cross by Macca on his Sunday radio Program also on the
local ABC radio.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until you hear from me
in QNEWS in the Queensland Zone. I'm Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day on now!

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.







Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
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http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)
Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-22.mp3
Text edition:



WIANEWS - April 22 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 22 2012.

Hobby farm death not suspicious.

SUMMITS ON THE AIR VK ACTIVATION

Spectacular explosion on the Sun

VK100WIQ

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 22 2012.




Hobby farm death not suspicious.

Police are investigating the death of a man who fell from his vehicle onto
an antenna at his hobby farm.

The 51-year-old man is believed to have suffered fatal injuries after he
fell onto the 20-metre high metal antenna at the Cunderdin property in WA.

Police spokeswoman Ros Weatherall said the antenna was used for surveying
services, and had been removed by the man from the roof rack of his
Landcruiser utility before the incident. Initial investigations reveal that
he may have slipped from the top of the car and fallen onto the antenna.

Read more:
watoday.com.au/wa-news/hobby-farm-death-not-suspicious-20120416-1x2ed.html#ixzz1sA3VujOO

(Trevor VK4BAT)





Spectacular explosion on the Sun

On April 16th around 17:45 UT, magnetic fields curling over the sun's
north-eastern limb rose up and erupted, producing one of the most
visually-spectacular explosions in years.

The event, which also produced an M1.7-class solar flare and a coronal mass
ejection, was not Earth-directed.

Nevertheless, it confirms suspicions that a significant active region is
rotating onto the Earth-side of the sun.

Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies and updates.





The blue mountains ( www.bmarc.org ) Amateur radio club’s May meeting will be
its AGM.

The meeting is on Friday 4th May and will be held at the new club house
4 Moore Street Glenbrook at 8pm.

There is a $2 fee for anyone attending the club. All are welcome.

(Danny Clark VK2FDCA Blue Mountains Amateur radio club)





PADDLE FOR LIFE - LISMORE TO BALLINA BY RIVER. 14-16 Apr.

About 40 canoes took part to complete the second stage, no adverse incidents.

Lismore, Coraki, and Woodburn six boats, and two civvy boats gave safety
cover.

Comms assistance provided by WICEN with five operators with good comms.

Lions and other service clubs provided feeding and assistance at the stops,
with no accidents, everyone completed the courses with sometimes a little
boat help.

Pics on the Album page http://www.ourphotos.net.au/albums.php?album=3473





BLACKHAWK DOWN

A Blackhawk Pilot will be down at Paluma in NQ, active during AM and CW on
ANZAC Day.

Chris VK4FR has advised that he will be leaving the chopper in the hangar
and travelling to Paluma by road with a vehicle equipped with HF gear and
portable internet to activate a site near the old World War 2 Radar Bunkers
and is excited about Joining The Gang on AM and CW.

(sourced to theTARCinc)





SUMMITS ON THE AIR VK ACTIVATION
www.sotawatch.org
www.sota.org.uk


You have heard of Islands on the Air.

Now think tops of hills and mountains instead of islands, and you will be
thinking of Summits on the Air or SOTA.

SOTA commenced on the 1st of February in VK3 with six hundred and nine
summits. Operators around all of VK can participate by chasing activations on
these summits, or any other SOTA summits around the world. Indeed some VK
operators are already well on their way to the entry level SOTA awards for
both activators and chasers.

For chasers, there are SOTA activations in VK3 on most weekends, and many of
these are on either 20 or 40 metres. Activations can be on any amateur band
using any mode, so an activation can be as simple as carrying a handheld FM
rig to a summit top.

Don't miss out on your chance to be the first VK Shack Sloth or Mountain Goat.





This is Allan, VK4FABR , from the Queensland Centenary Committee.

On behalf of Mike Charteris VK4QS, and members of the Committee, we can
announce that June 1st, 2012, will see the official launch of “VK100WIQ” on
the airwaves to celebrate the Centenary of the establishment of the
Wireless Institute in Queensland.

Our Centenary has its origins at a meeting organised in 1912, by
Mr Sydney Victor Colville, a Broadcast Radio Engineer, who held
the Amateur Call Sign “XQF” in Queensland.

From this meeting in 1912 came the establishment of the Wireless Institute
in the state of Queensland.

Therefore, we, the members of the Queensland Centenary Committee would like
to invite all amateur radio operators in Queensland and the rest of Australia
to embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity to work “VK100WIQ .

Those Radio Clubs of Queensland wishing to participate, will be required to
seek a three day block by way of an on-line roster currently being
established.

VK100WIQ will be on air during the period June 1st to July 31st , from
Radio Clubs of Queensland, operating on HF, VHF, UHF, and most other amateur
modes. They will be looking forward to working stations all over Australia
and the rest of the world during their individual three day blocks.

The Centenary Committee, is currently organizing a special QSL Card and
Centenary Certificate for those making contact with VK100WIQ.

Details will be posted on the Centenary Website at www.wiaq.org.au by
June 1st 2012.

One of the highlights will be the holding of the Centenary President’s
Luncheon at the Hervey Bay RSL Club, on Saturday July 21st 2012.
Special guests include WIA President, Mr Michael Owen, VK3KI, and
WIA Director, Mr Ewan McLeod VK4ERM.

If you will be attending, this very special luncheon, then please contact
Norm Greenaway VK4NP at President of the Hervey Bay Club,
He would love to hear from you.

The next day, Sunday July 22nd will see the Hervey Bay Amateur Radio Club
hosting a free BBQ at the Hervey Bay SES Buildings, on Old Maryborough Road
Pialba. What better way to top off the President’s Luncheon on Saturday,
then to go out for dinner Saturday night, and stay for the Sunday Free BBQ
and make a weekend of it in beautiful Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay will be hosting VK100WIQ, and will be on air with it from the
SES Buildings on the day of the BBQ.

So that’s all from the centenary committee for now.

Be sure to check your calendar, mark the dates in July, and check out our
website at www.wiaq.org.au

We look forward to seeing you at the Presidents Luncheon and working you on
air.





What use is an f-call?


The annual National WIA conference is just over a month away in Mildura.
This year I'll be participating in my first and I wondered if there are any
f-call's who'd like to go, but have some trepidation on the idea of attending
an event with lots of strangers.

Perhaps you might like to come along and share a room.

I've got a large family suite with spare beds available and if you're
hesitant to be there because you know no-one, perhaps this might help you.
I'm sure that we'll find something to talk about - amateur radio perhaps
- hi hi.

If you'd like to take me up on this offer, get in touch - contact details in
the text edition.

email:
phone: 04 1219 8888

People are inventive, continually trying new things, solving problems,
discovering new ones, making and breaking things, scratching an itch.
Amateurs are no different. Well they are, but in essence they're no different
from people.

Amateurs just like to invent more stuff than the average person on the
street. Meet any group of amateurs in the wild and before long you'll be
embroiled in a discussion about how to solve a problem that is bugging one of
you. There will be hand-waving, charts, calculators and good cheer to fill up
the room.

If you're new to Amateur Radio, you might find yourself overwhelmed
by all this interaction. All you did was get your shiny new license and turn
up. Now all these experts are jabbering on about stuff you know next to
nothing about.

Ironically, if you stop and think about it for a moment, you'll quickly come
to the realization that this is true for everyone in the room. Some people
did this yesterday, others last year, and some have been around since before
you were born. The only trick in interacting with these people is to ask
questions.

Hearing a new Amateur on-air is a similar experience. What do you talk about
and how do you avoid looking silly?

I can't help with looking silly, but wearing a clown-costume on air is
generally not a problem, since we're really only working with audio. More
seriously, looking silly is in the eye of the beholder, if your intent is to
learn, there can be no place for looking silly.

So, my advice to you is to walk into the room or push your talk button and
have a go. Ultimately, this hobby contains many different people, some of
whom are going to share many of your interests.

I'm Onno - VK6FLAB






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

João Alberto Costa CT1FBF brings news of an extension to the amateur radio
6m band.

He writes:
The National Communications Authority of Portugal (ICP-ANACOM) welcomes the
proposal of 2 amateur radio colleagues, José Carlos CT1DHM and
João Costa CT1FBF, in order to amend the upper range limit of
50.5 MHz on the 6 metres band, from next April 26, 2012; the date of the
complete switch-off of the analogue TV broadcasting transmissions to
digital terrestrial television.

The new limits of the band allocation for Portugal will be from
50 MHz to 52 MHz.

Such opening, regarding the new upper limit for Portuguese ham radio 6 metres
band, was possible thanks to the end of the old analogue signal TV
broadcasting transmissions, on the lower VHF band (channels 2 to 4) after
that date.

UK C5 Discussion Group (VHF/UHF/Microwave matters)
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukc5discussion/

Rede dos Emissores Portugueses (REP) in Google English
http://tinyurl.com/PortugalREP

Portugese Regulator Anacom
http://tinyurl.com/PortugalCommsRegulator





World Amateur Radio Day

On 18 April 2012, radio amateurs celebrated World Amateur Radio Day, on
the 87th anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union or IARU.

This year's theme was "Amateur Radio Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in
Space" in remembrance of the launching of OSCAR 1 on 12 December 1961 and
the launch of OSCAR 2 on 2 June 1962.

Nothing was heard after our initial notification here on VK1WIA News from
any society/organisation in Australia of any celebration in VK.


In 1924, ARRL President Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, had scheduled a business
trip to Europe. While in Europe, Maxim was asked by the ARRL Board of
Directors to represent the ARRL in fostering international relations between
amateurs.

Following an informal meeting in 1924, representatives from France,
Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Canada and
the United States formulated a plan to hold an International Amateur Congress
in Paris, France, in April 1925, for the purpose of founding the IARU.

Representatives from Europe, North America, South America and Asia attended
the congress, adopting a constitution for the IARU on April 17.

At a closing assembly on the following day, officers were elected and the
actions of the congress ratified by representatives from 25 countries. Thus,
April 18 became the official "birthday" of the IARU and is now designated
World Amateur Radio Day.

There were HOWEVER several special event stations from OTHER IARU's Member
Societies active on different dates during April:

South Africa - ZS6IARU, was active 18 April. QSL via ZS4BS.
Bulgaria - LZ1WARD, by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs,
active throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

Switzerland - HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure, active
18 April. QSL via HB9JOE.

Poland - HF87WARD, by members of the SP-CFF will be active from 17 to
30 April. There is an award for this operation. QSL via eQSL.cc and
WFF LogSearch.

Liberia - EL2RL, by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association active 18 April.
Direct QSL to EL2BA.

Mexico - 6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who
were active from 13 to 18 April. QSL via LoTW and N7RO.

Chile - 3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile, active throughout the month of
April. QSL via CE3AA.


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

NZART CHANGES ITS REPEATER LICENSE FEE METHODS

A decision from the New Zealand Association of Radio
Transmitters will have an impact on several of its branches.
Those where repeater and beacon licenses currently held in
the name of NZART will be handed back to them.

The current system of invoicing and renewals means a heavy
administrative workload for society's resources at a time
when subscription renewals are also being processed. This
will mean that this coming November when the individual
licenses are up for renewal, each branch will receive the
license renewal invoice direct from the government
telecommunications regulatory authority. This in turn means
that branch secretaries will need to be aware of this and
ensure that payment is made by the date due. Failure to do
so may result in the license being cancelled.

Unlike the United States where individual hams own and hold
license to repeaters, in many nations it is the national
society that is the repeater and beacon licensee. Those
hams involved merely build and maintain repeaters. In fact,
in some nations these hams are known as repeater keepers
rather than as owner operators of such devices.





NEW 50 MHz EME DIGITAL SARL DX RECORD

Derek Gravette, ZS5Y, in Scottburgh, South Africa established a new 50 MHz
South Africa Radio League Earth-Moon-Earth record. This, by making contact
with Mike Staal, K6MYC, in northern California in the United States.

On April 4th, the two completed a QSO on E-M-E using the JT65a digital mode.
JT65 was developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT and released in late 2003. It is
intended for extremely weak but slowly-varying signals, such as those found
on tropo-scatter or of coarse E-M-E paths.

(SARL)





N0BYH GIVEN AWARD FOR AIDING HAM RADIO SCOUTING

In the United States, Tim Arimond, N0BYH, has been awarded the Boy Scouts'
District Award of Merit. This for his work in promoting amateur radio with
the Boy Scouts in the Minneapolis and St Paul area.

The award recognizes Airmond’s extraordinary service to youth that has
included instruction to help prepare scouts to take the amateur radio exam as
well as his service as a merit badge councillor for Electricity, Electronics,
and Radio. It was also noted that he was also one of the adult leaders
behind the local K0BSA.

(KD0NYS)





RADIO SPORT AND OPERATIONAL NEWS

TITANIC EVENT IN VK4

The Redcliffe club’s brightly coloured tent stood out among the old maritime
relics in a pristine area on the banks of the Brisbane River and as Bevan
reports, the tent was not in the best position for radio communication but
the operators persisted. There were many visitors to the radio tent
including families as a result of media advertising with many asking
questions about Morse code, and the role radio played in the Titanic disaster.

Most visitors were fascinated at actually seeing the operators sending and
receiving CW and many visitors were able to send morse themselves with keys
attached to audio oscillators. The club had 3 operators until about 1100Z
and one from then until the station closed at about 2230Z.

Bevan also said that that the QSL cards for the event were printed last
Wednesday as soon as the logs are collated the task of sending QSL cards will
begin.

(Ray vk4cf)





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012

VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
VK Winter VHF-UHF Field Day June 23-24
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19
VK Spring VHF / UHF Field Day November 24-25

AM CW FOR ANZAC DAY

The SA Repatriation General Hospital will be on-air for AM and CW on
ANZAC DAY - Andrew VK5CV has advised that a team of operators will be
activating Adelaide's Repatriation General Hospital during the event
as part of the hospital's 70th year celebrations.

Andrew has confirmed that special event call VI 70 RGH has been issued for
this historic activation.

(THETARCINC)





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


First activation of Botley Flour Mills for Mills on the Air weekend

Botley Flour Mills near Southampton in the UK is one of the oldest known
milling sites and is listed in the doomsday book and is believed to have
been a mill site in pre-Roman times.

The Mill will be activated for what is believed to be the first time with
the callsign GB 0 BFM for Mills on the Air weekend on the 12/13th of May
from 10:00-1600 BST with an NoV for 80m, 40m, 2m & 70cm.

The station will be run by M 0 IED and father G 6 FRT and other members of
Itchen Valley Radio Club with added assistance from Southampton University
Wireless society.

Itchen Valley Radio Club: http://www.ivarc.org.uk/
Southampton University Wireless society: http://www.suws.susu.org
Botley Flour Mills: http://www.botleymills.co.uk/heritage.htm




In DX, EA3OW is now active through May 12th as EA 3 0W/HH8 from Southern
Haiti. Listen out for him on 40 through 10 meters using SSB, RTTY and
digital modes. QSL via his home callsign, EA 3 OW





DJ 9 RR will be on the air as S 79 RR from Mahe Island between May 15th and
the 23rd. Activity on 40 through 10 meters using CW and RTTY.
QSL via his home callsign, JJ 9 RR.





Members of the Jersey Contest Group will be active as GJ 2 A from the
Isle of Jersey during the Radio Society of Great Britain’s’ Islands on the
Air Contest July 28 and 29.
QSL direct to GJ 3 DVC.





Mozambique operation

ZS6JR and ZS6DJD will be operating from Mozambique for seven days starting
the 3rd of May 2012.
QTH is Shai Shai, Mozambique, 400 km north of the capital and they will
operate all vertical antennas with the earth wires in lake water.
40m to 10m.






The 2012 Asian Weightlifting Championships is being held this month in
South Korea. To celebrate the event the special callsign DT 12 AWC is
activated until 30th of April.
QSL Manager is DS 2 GOO.





REWIND

Radio Ham established Broadcasting

Amateur radio operator Frank Conrad 8XK established the concept of radio
broadcasting.

Frank first became interested in radio in 1912 when, in order to settle a bet
on the accuracy of a watch, he built a radio in order to hear time signals
from the Arlington, Virginia Naval Observatory.

He then constructed, in his garage, a new transmitter, licensed in 1916 as
8XK, whose signal could be heard throughout the Pittsburgh area.

In response to popular demand, Frank began broadcasting for two hours each
Wednesday and Saturday night.

Watch Frank Conrad Invents Broadcasting by doing a youtube google.

(SouthGate)






SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 28 VK6 HARGfest (Hills ARG)

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 4 VK5 Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society HAMFEST @ Goodwood

NOV 11 VK3 Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group Hamfest

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.






Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






_______________________________________________
Vk1wia-news mailing list
Vk1wia-
http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)

Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-08.mp3
Text edition:

WIANEWS - April 8 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FOLLOWING STORIES IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 8 2012.



Now we seldom report on virus's or Trojans, believing that the emails about
such things can be almost more intrusive than the 'bug themselves' and let's
face it if you are not running an auto updating virus scanning program you
deserve what may happen! Hihi.

BUT


Is your computer infected with DNSChanger?

ACMA put out a note about DNSChanger which is malicious software (malware)
that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

Approximately 10,000 Australian internet users are currently infected with
this malware.

If your computer is infected you need to remove it.

If you don’t remove it by 9 July 2012, you won’t be able to connect to the
internet.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, CERTAustralia (the
federal government’s computer emergency response team) and the Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy have collaborated to
develop a diagnostic website that, in most cases, shows you whether or not
you are infected with DNSChanger.

This website is dns-ok.gov.au

If you are infected, dns-ok.gov.au provides links to tools and detailed
documentation that may help you remove the infection.

(ACMA)





MyMP

Improved reception of the commercial radio service 3MP in northern and
western Melbourne as the Australian Communications and Media Authority
allows an increase to the maximum transmitting power of Melbourne commercial
radio broadcasting service 3MP–from 1225 volts to 2140 volts (equivalent to
5 kilowatts to 8.2 kilowatts) and change the direction of its radiation
pattern.

This will allow expanded coverage of northern and western Melbourne.

3MP has been previously known by the on-air identities, 3MTR and MTR1377.

This follows public consultation on the proposal, released in November 2011,
to vary the Licence Area Plan – Melbourne Radio – June 2000
(the Melbourne LAP).





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ


TARC AND TASSIE do WIA National Field Day

The WIA National Field Day will be happening next Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th theTARCinc will be running displays about the different aspects
of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville store in
Ingham Road West End Saturday April 14th from 7-30am.

Hams need to help with this activity to publicise the worthwhile hobby
of Amateur Radio to the wider community.

Get along to wave the flag and have some fun as well !

Those listening in VK7 REAST will hold a display again this year as part of
the WIA National Field Day. It's on NEXT weekend April 14th and 15th.

Have you got some equipment such as an outdoor marquee or gazebo to help set
up a display?

It's a few DAYS away but please give it some thought as to how you can help
make this event a success for the club and the hobby in general.





WIA CONFERENCE

I’m Bob, VK6POP, reminding you that the Wireless Institute’s Annual
Conference is coming up fast. It’s now next month instead of sometime in
the future.

The Conference dates are Friday 25th to Sunday 27th May.

The weekend program is centred around the Mildura Grand Hotel. The weekend
will commence on Friday evening at the historic Settlers Club with a buffet
dinner.

On Saturday morning the WIA Annual General Meeting will be followed by the
Open Forum. I can assure you that the AGM will be brief and to the point, and
should serve as a model for club agms.

The open forum gives Amateur an opportunity to ask Questions of the Board, or
to raise issues of interest and concern. Lunch is provided for all
registered attendees.

On Saturday afternoon there is a technical symposium at which several items
of interest will be presented.

On Saturday evening the Annual Dinner will be held in the Grand Ballroom at
the Mildura Grand Hotel.

Sunday will feature a cruise and lunch on the famous Paddleboat Mundoo. For
those remaining in Mildura on Sunday night, a casual BBQ has been arranged
at the home of Noel Ferguson VK3FI, Fergus Park, Nichols Point.

Accommodation is available at the Mildura Grand Hotel, as well as in several
other hotels and caravan parks.

So how about it? Still thinking about going? Or maybe you never gave it any
thought until now? Well give it a go. These annual conferences are great
weekends, where you get to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Information about the weekend and an online booking form are on the WIA
website, www.wia.org.au





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-



VK4 SILENT KEYS @ 2011 - 2012 QAC YEAR

VK4MUJ Jean Bowden passed away 2nd January 2012 advised by VK4ZZ
VK4BAY Roy Mahoney January 2012 advised by VK4BSH
VK4AFW Frank Alloway 15th January 2012 advised by VK4FABR
VK4KEL Geoff Sanders 4th April 2012 advised by VK4OD





Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP and I’ve been thinking.

When computers first entered the consumer electronics market, software soon
became available for the original “digital” mode, Morse Code. Soon followed
RTTY, Slow Scan TV and Fax. Derivatives of other modes such as TOR, Teletype
over Radio and Packet came along.

Today there is a plethora of software especially written for the amateur
operator. Nobel prize winner, Joe Taylor, has put his skills to work in
developing programs optimised for the weak signal operator. There is so much
more work being done in this part of the hobby.

In an attempt to utilise the features of the internet to provide greater
diversity of contact types, our sister society, the JARL, sponsored the
development of the D-Star modes. For the translation between digital and
analogue voice, a firmware codec was chosen. The catch is that the codec is a
commercial product which attracts a licence fee for each device in which it
is used.

The challenge for the amateur programmers is to successfully develop a
freeware alternative. This would allow many of the digital commercial radios
coming out service to join the amateur ranks as their analogue antecedents
have done.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





CLUBBING

Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to

Submit audio, read "how to submit items" on the weekly WIA news page.
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/

Remember the sooner you submit material the more the likelihood of it being
broadcast in the very next edition of QNEWS.





BARC
http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba
or, by E-mail to

This is Stuart, VK4MSL with news from the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club.


BARCfest will take place *two weeks later* than usual, at 9:30AM
Saturday,
26th May 2012, at the usual venue, 1600 Logan Road, Upper Mt.
Gravatt.



There will be the usual displays of equipment and parts for sale, tech
talks,
and of course, an opportunity to catch up with old friends at
Cafe-de-BARC.
Admission is $7.00.

For further information, see the BARC website:

http://www.qsl.net/vk4ba/






Redcliffe and District Radio Club
www.redclifferadioclub.org.au/

I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

The year just seems to be getting busier and busier. After a successful
Moyle, and more about that later, the activities for the club this month
are:-

9th April General Business Meeting. Please note Roger, VK4ZLQ will not be
present for the meeting and has requested you bring your copy of the minutes
to ensure that the they are correct.

From the 11th till the 16th April, the Wednesday group will be involved in
assembling the portable station and equipment for the Titanic anniversary,
setting up the station at Maritime Museum, Stanley Street, South Bank,
Brisbane, participating in the activity and finally packing up and returning
all equipment to the club.

16th April Technical Talk with evening Kevin VK4UG – Meteor Scatter
Propagation, and to end the month:-

23rd April Fox Hunt

Well the Moyle has come and gone for another year. This year we had the
rain. It was the first time in some 5 years that the club had to stop
transmitting for a period of about of 6 hours as it was just too dangerous
to the equipment to continue. 2 stalwarts of the club and of the Moyle were
Andy, VK4KY and Glenn, Vk4FZ who were back again this year. Antennas were
set up on the afternoon of Friday in fine conditions and by 3.30 pm on the
Saturday, RAIN. Heavy “Brisbane type” rain for the next 6 hours. Too
dangerous to operate in and with the possible damage to the equipment and
nothing else to do but to enjoy a few cordials and resume when conditions
improve.

Despite all this the field day was a success, many contacts made. Many
thanks to the stream of helpers who were there to set up, bringing food and
other supplies and for the clean-up who had the site totally cleared by 2 pm
on Sunday afternoon.

WIA Queensland Centenary. Kevin VK4UH advised that this year is the
centenary celebration of the WIA in Queensland. The club has decided to
participate and will apply for the use of the special call sign.

Grace Lutheran College. Kevin VK4UH advised the club that he had approached
Grace Lutheran College enquiring about access to the large steerable dish
that they have on their grounds. The dish is currently used by senior
physics classes and is operational. The College was most receptive to
interacting with the club and Kevin believes that the dish could be used for
EME activities on 2 metres and higher frequencies.

Just a reminder that James, VK4TJF, conducts CW courses at the club on
Thursday evenings from 7.00pm until 9.00pm and about the regular trivia
contest conducted on the 70 cm repeater each Wednesday night starting about
7.30 pm. If we don’t use the frequency allocation we will lose it!

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from Ray,
VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.


News from Townsville

As local VK listeners heard in QNEWS last weekend there is to be a 2012
WIA-QAC Presidents Lunch and 100th Anniversary of organized Amateur Radio in
Queensland. We now have the venue, Presidents Lunch, hosted by Hervey Bay
Amateur Radio Club will be at the Hervey Bay RSL Club starting at 10am on
Saturday 21st July. That’s at the lower, or Eastern end of the Bay.

WIA President Michael VK3KI will be special guest speaker and attendees
will include WIA Directors and members of the WIA-QAC along with committee
and members of various QLD Amateur Radio Clubs.

The Centenary Celebration BBQ will also be hosted by the Hervey Bay Amateur
Radio Club on Sunday 22nd July.






What use is an f-call?
(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)




Recently I was sitting on a plane talking to a person whom I had just met.
We were discussing our interests and experience and the subject of Amateur
Radio came up.

There was the obligatory CB radio comment and some discussion about marine
radio, but the discussion boiled down to this:

"What's the point?"

I eased into
the subject by observing that as a hobby I found it to be technically
challenging without it having a direct relationship to my day-job in IT.
We discussed the ideas that embody the hobby, non-commercial use,
experimentation, discovery, camaraderie. We talked about the natural
disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Earthquake and
Tsunami in Japan and the subsequent issues with their nuclear power plant. I
explained about making contacts and exchanging information, call-signs,
signal reports, dealing with electricity and backup batteries and the like.


The conversation went for about an hour, we talked about the SES, about
HF long distance contacts, the solar cycle, the ionosphere, experiments and
the development of technologies like the mobile phone.


The thing that struck me during this conversation, looking at the topics we
discussed, some in passing, some in-depth (well, to the depth of my eclectic
knowledge at least), that Amateur Radio touches a lot of aspects of society.



I used to think that IT was the only field that impacted the world every
where in every which way. Now I'm not so sure. Amateur Radio to me appears to
have dibs on a large chunk. I supposes I'm saying that Amateur Radio has a
public relations issue, people don't know it exists, yet it affects their
lives in ways that most never even notice.

Perhaps all this just relates to
my better understanding of the Radio Frequency spectrum and my personal part
in the puzzle, but I think society would benefit from at least a smidgen of
the understanding that comes with having an Amateur License.



If you have thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear from you.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






SILENT KEY


Geoffrey Allan Sanders VK4KEL has gone silent key following a VERY long
battle with various forms of cancer. He was but 62 , born in September of 49
in Horsham VK3.

Geoff was a past President of the Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club,
Past President of the Wireless Institute of Australia Queensland Division,
a former VK4 Federal Councillor and Alternate Federal Councillor of the
Wireless Institute of Australia.

MORE IMPORTANTLY - Geoff VK4KEL will be remembered for his support for
we VietNam Vets. Geoff, 217459 served with 104 Signal Sqn Vietnam IN 1969.

Geoff was given just 2 hours as he lay in the Prince Charles Hospital
Sunday yet fought on until he passed 4th April being kept comfortable
during his last days with Jen and his children by his side.

His loss will leave a huge hole in our lives as he has been a friend of ours
since commencing QNEWS back i 94-5.

Geoff was President and Secretary of the old WIAQ and when we first started
QNEWS on packet radio was the first WIA Official who started to tell it's
members "what was what".. thanks to Geoff the walls of WIA secrecy started to
be broken...

It wasn't again and not since the late Chris Jones that we knew week to week
what our society was doing for us.

I know Geoff will be sadly missed by many others who knew by QSO, WIA work,
and his work with the Vet community, knew him well.

More in local QNEWS bulletins as it comes to hand.





INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

JOE WALSH, WB6ACU, IS AN ANALOG MAN

Grammy Award-winning rock-and-roll legend Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, returns with
Analogue Man, set to be released June 5.

This is Walsh's first solo album since 1992's Songs for a Dying Planet.

Walsh -- best known for his powerful guitar licks -- joined the Eagles in
1976 and is credited for bringing a harder rock sound to the band with the
acclaimed Hotel California, The Long Run and Eagles Live.

No stranger to the analogue way of life, Walsh -- an ARRL Life Member --
enjoys operating on 80 metres AM.

Check out Analogue Man -- the title track of Walsh's new album and details of
his South African tour starting on 4 April in Cape Town
http://www.joewalsh.com/

(SARL)





World Amateur Radio Day

On April 18, 2012 we will celebrate the World Amateur Radio Day on the
87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space" and we will have much more on this
world event shortly in our special interest group segment.





50 watts for Foundation holders in Belgium

The UBA reports on plans to allow Belgian Foundation licence holders to run
50 watts on HF instead of the previous 10 watts.

Belgian Foundation holders are currently permitted 50 watts on 144 and 430MHz
and 10 watts in the bands from 3.5 to 52 MHz The new proposal means they
would be able to run 50 watts on the HF and 6m bands.

The website of the national radio society the UBA says that taking into
account the 3dB rule this would permit the use of a standard 100W
transceiver.

See the proposals in Google English at
http://tinyurl.com/Belgium50wFoundation





Lightning strike survivor feels lucky to be alive

K.A.K.E. News reports that radio amateur Bill Isles KD 0 IIF is recovering
after he survived a lightning strike and used his ham radio to call for help.

Seems the volunteer storm spotter was standing in his backyard and thought
the lightning was far away!

"In the distance, I would hear thunder and see lightning. I didn't think
anything was quite that close," said Bill. "And it came as quite a shock."

That shock knocked Bill to the ground. The only thing nearby was his amateur
radio. When Bill called for help through the ham radio, Mike KD 0 IJO, heard
his call and phoned 911.

Read the full KAKE News story at
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/Wichita_Man_Struck_By_
Lightning_During_Thursday_Storms_145019845.html


=============================================================================


JAPAN TO LAUNCH AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITES

Big news on the ham radio space scene. This with
word that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
has announced the upcoming launch of five amateur
radio satellites. This, on two launches taking
place this spring and summer. Amateur Radio
Newsline’s Stephen Kinford, N8WB, is here with more:

The first launch is the H2A that takes place on
May 17th. It will carry the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2.

This will be followed on July 21st when the HTV3
mission. It will deliver the JEM-Small Satellite
Orbital Deployer or J-SSOD to the International
Space Station. That unit will enable small
satellites to be deployed from the ISS using the
Japanese Experiment Module robot arm.

The Japanese amateur radio satellites WE-WISH and
FITSAT-1, along with San Jose State University’s
TechEdSat and Vietnam’s F-1 will also be
delivered to the I-S-S on this mission. Plans
are for them to be deployed to orbit on September 20th.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.





ARRL SPONSORING WEBINAR TO HELP YOU PUBLICIZE FIELD DAY

The ARRL Public Relations Committee will be
holding a free Webinar on Thursday evening April
12 for Public Information Officers, radio club
officers and anyone else wanting to join
in. This, to teach the easiest and most
effective way to write a press release for Field
Day and actually get it noticed by the mass media in your home region.

The webinar will begin at 9 pm Eastern Daylight
Time and will run for about 90 minutes. Several
experts in mass media communications will be on
hand to teach the tricks of the trade in dealing
with radio, television and print publications.

Pre-registration is required. To reserve a spot
simply take your web browser to
tinyurl.com/arrl-field-day-webinar or directly at
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/278619454.

Space is limited so if you want to take part you
need to sign up today.





ESPN EMPLOYEES CREATE THE WORLDWIDE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Current and former employees of the Entertainment
and Sports Network, better known to the public as
ESPN, have formed the Worldwide Amateur Radio
Club. Located on the grounds of the ESPN
facility in Bristol, Connecticut, the group has
now been granted the club call WE1SPN .

At present the club has about 40 members. Inaugural
operations were to take place on 7.177 MHz at 21:00 UTC
on March 29th.

This opening gala was to include trying to contact as
may radio clubs at Disney theme parks as possible.

The Worldwide Amateur Radio Club is the latest
bin a long series of broadcast industry based
employee recreation entities. It joins similar
employee groups at the CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox
networks as well as at a number of broadcast
stations nationwide and world-wide.

More about WE1SPN can be found by checking the
listing page for their callsign on QRZ.com





ANDY SENNITT TO RETIRE FROM RNW END OF APRIL

Andy Sennitt who edited the now closed Radio
Netherlands Media Network weblog says that he
will be retiring from that international
broadcaster at the end of April. Sennitt says
that during his last weeks at Radio Netherlands
that he will be writing a series of articles
reflecting on the changes in international
broadcasting since he started appearing on the
Media Network radio show in 1981 as well as
looking ahead to the coming decade.

This perspective will be published on the Radio
Netherlands English language website. Sennitt
asks that if you have any memories of Radio
Netherlands or any other international
broadcasters that you would like to share, please
e-mail them to him. He can be reached at
MediaNetwork (at) rnw (dot) nl. Sennitt adds
that he will try to include them in the articles
as is possible.





NASA ANNOUNCES ISSLIVE! APP

NASA has announced the release of the ISSLive!
app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Amateur
Radio Newsline’s David Black, KB4KCH, has the details:

The ISS Live! app delivers live streaming data
from the International Space Station. Users can
take a virtual 3-D tour of the Mission Control
Centre and the space station, and view mission
control console displays with real-time
data. Interactive educational lessons using the
data, as well as crew and science timelines with
individual crew member, social media and
international science experiment details are also available via the app.

The space agency calls ISSLive! an innovative,
interactive application that provides a novel way
to learn about the International Space Station
while on the go. To learn more and find links to
download the ISSLive! app, visit
spacestationlive.jsc.nasa.gov. That’s where you
will find the icons for the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.

I’m David Black, KB4KCH, from the South-East bureau in Birmingham, Alabama.





NASA CONSIDERING LAGRANGE POINT OUTPOST

NASA is pressing forward on assessing the value
of a human-tended outpost near the far side of
the moon. One that would embrace international
partnerships as well as commercial and academic participation,

According to SPACE.com, William Gerstenmaier is
NASA's Associate Administrator for Human
Exploration and operations. And in a February
3rd memo Gerstenmaier says that a team is being
formed to develop a cohesive plan for exploring a
spot in space known as the Earth-moon Lagrange point.

Lagrange points sometimes called liberation
points, are places in space where the combined
gravitational pull of two large masses roughly
balance each other out. This would allow a
spacecraft or other object to essentially park in
that spot without being pulled toward either one of the masses.

A pre-memo NASA appraisal of Lagrange Point
EML-2, which is near the lunar far side, has
spotlighted this destination as the leading
option for a near-term space study. EML-2 could
serve as a gateway for exploration of multiple
destinations including near-lunar space, our own
moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars and
ultimately, the red planet itself.

=============================================================================




WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

Around the World 28 MHz Balloon

A long duration balloon mission that is using 6 Party Balloons to carry a
50 gram amateur radio 28.223 MHz CW beacon, is hoping to go around the world.

The balloon was released from Annapolis in Maryland and started its journey
heading SE at 6 knots finally reaching 96 km/h.

It has no APRS, just the 28.223 MHz CW telemetry system and it is hoped to
locate it by signal strength and beam headings only.

The mission is to give an insight into constant-pressure balloons and
especially the use of common mylar party balloons as a fixed volume envelope.
Unfortunately, these balloons have a high mass and so the theoretical maximum
altitude no matter how many balloons are used is only about 26,000 feet and
that is with no payload other than the fixed balloon mass.

The payload weighs about 50 grams. The team are targeting 6 party balloons
3' in diameter which should give a float altitude around 16,000 feet. The
Telemetry will be in CW on 28.223 MHz (USB DIAL) and will contain
Battery voltage, inside and outside temperatures, and surface luminosity of
the ocean/clouds. It has no GPS. The team will rely entirely on DF bearings
and signal reports.








SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19




T.C.S.W.A.T. active again at Gallipoli for AM and CW on ANZAC Day

Tevfik TA1HZ has confirmed with Mike VK4MIK that the Turkish Portable
Operations team TCSWAT will be active again as TC57A from Gallipoli for
AM and CW on ANZAC Day.

They will arrive at the site of operations on Saturday 21st April and
finish operations there on Thursday 26th April.

TCSWAT hope to operate SSB, CW, PSK31 and maybe even SSTV from the
Gallipoli.

Is your station going to be involved with AM and CW on ANZAC Day ?

Contact Mike VK4MIK now on email





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


DXCC Country/Entity Report

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday,
25th-March, through Sunday, 1st-April there were 235 countries active.





ZD8, Ascension Island

The ZD8, Ascension Island bureau has closed. A full list of countries that
do not have a bureau is available on the http://www.irts.ie/cgi/qsl.cgi





"DX Code of Conduct"
Audio by John VK2JJW


I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.

I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.

I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station's
call sign before calling.

I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and
will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.

I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.

I will always send my full call sign.

I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call
continuously.

I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.

I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.

I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than
mine.

When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think
he has copied it incorrectly.

I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.

I will respect my fellow radio amateurs and conduct myself so as to
earn their respect.





AWARDS

RSGB Commonwealth Century Club Jubilee Award 2012

Of course this year is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and mindful that the
Queen is the head of the Commonwealth of Nations we remind you of that new
operating award

To qualify for this attractive certificate all you need to do is to work as
many different countries and call areas on the Commonwealth Century Club list
during 2012.

Certificates will be awarded for working 60 and 100 different call areas.

Use any mode or bands you like and QSL cards are not required.



Score sheets and full details can be downloaded from
www.beru.org.uk/CCCaward/CCCindex.html







WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

AMSAT-VK UNOFFICIAL HF Net.
2nd Sunday each month.
April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz
November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz


MicroThrust Motor for Nanosats

Imagine reaching the Moon using just a tenth of a litre of fuel.

With their ionic motor, MicroThrust, EPFL scientists and their European
partners are making this a reality, ushering in a new era of low-cost space
exploration.

The goal is to provide efficient propulsion systems for nanosatellites
(1-100 kg), which are currently stuck in whatever orbit they were initially
placed: the plan is to free them to allow nanosatellites to perform orbital
manoeuvring, and missions to the Moon, to Near Earth Objects, or even to Mars.





World Amateur Radio Day - April 18

On April 18, 2012, radio amateurs will be celebrating World Amateur Radio Day
on the 87th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union, IARU.

This year´s theme for the World Amateur Radio Day is “Amateur Radio
Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in Space” in remembrance the launching of
OSCAR 1 on December 12, 1961 and the launch of OSCAR 2 on June 2, 1962.

For this reason there will be several special event stations from IARU’s
Member Societies active on different dates during April:

6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who has
commissioned this operation to Grupo DXXE. This station will be
active from 13 to 18 April in all modes and bands. QSL via LoTW and
N7RO, direct or bureau. Daily logs uploads will be available in
ClubLog.

3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile. This station will be active throughout
the month of April. QSL via CE3AA.

LZ1WARD by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs also will be active
throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

EL2RL by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association will be active on April 18
on 10, 15, 17 and 20 meters. Direct QSL to EL2BA.

HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure to be active also on
April 18. This first time callsign will be on the air by HB9JOE and
a group of radio amateurs from Bern. QSL via HB9JOE.

HF87WARD by members of the SP-CFF (SP0CFF). This station will be active from
April, 17 to 30. QSL via eQSL.cc and WFF LogSerach.

For those who want to send card direct, please send SASE to:
Polish Club Flora & Fauna, Suchacz, Wielmozy 5b, 82-340 Tolkmicko, Poland.
They will even have an award for this operation.

IARU Region 2
http://www.iaru-r2.org/





SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- STAMP COLLECTING AMATEURS


LUXEMBOURG ISSUES STAMP TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO

Founded in 1937, the Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes
Courtes (RL ) -- that country's IARU
Member-Society -- is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In honour of this
milestone, Luxembourg's Entreprise des Postes et Télécommunications
(P&TLuxembourg) has issued a .60 € postage stamp
(about 80
cents in US currency); P&TLuxembourg is that country's government owned
corporation for mail and telecommunications. This is one of three
commemorative stamps issued by Luxembourg in 2012 .

(ARRL)





LOW DOWN IN THE NEWS

NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast

The NZ4O MF (300-3000 KC) Radiowave Propagation Forecast #2012-14 has been
published at 0000 UTC on Friday March 30, 2012, valid 0000 UTC Saturday
March 31, 2012 through 2359 UTC Friday April 06, 2012.

http://www.mwfrequencypropagation.org .

73 & GUD DX,

Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA








SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day.

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

November 15TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE hosted by V.A.R.C. in Ho-Chi-Minh
City, Vietnam.

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.








Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

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TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



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WIANEWS - April 15 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.

MAYDAY WONNANGATTA

PROJECT HORUS FLYS SUNDAY

WIA NATIONAL FIELD DAY THIS WEEKEND

SKA RESULT UP IN AIR

5 YEAR OLD PASSES LICENCE EXAMINATION

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 15 2012.





At around 0930hrs 9 April 2012 a mayday call was made on 7090khz by VK3MAC
who was in the Wonnangatta Valley region in the highlands of Victoria.

A person in the camping party had some seizures and was in a bad way
medically. VK3MAC with the operator, Adam, made its way up to a hill in a
4WD with HF fitted and put the call out.

Jack, VK3AJK was the first to respond and took control of the frequency and
the situation. He ascertained the location, situation etc. and contacted
emergency services.

VK3AJK then became the relay person between the emergency services and the
camping party as the precise GPS coordinates were given out as was the
specific medical condition. The decision was made that a medivac would occur
via a rescue chopper.

Both parties were being received by Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT 5-9.

VK3MAC then indicated that he was going to return to the valley floor where
the rest of the camping party, and the patient was with the final
instruction from Jack, VK3AJK, that the rescue chopper asked that all
vehicles in the camping party form a 50 metre circle in a clearing with
hazard lights flashing.

The weather had started to close in by this time.

Upon reaching the valley floor VK3MAC put a call out which had dropped to
5-7 but perfectly readable into VK7 and VK3AJK had a perfect copy on
him still.

Several calls were made to establish that contact was still available
between the two and indicating that the patient was stable. Vk3MAC then
indicated that all vehicles were in position.

Shortly after, he called back to say that the helicopter with a medical team
had landed, and thanked Jack for his assistance.

It was asked several times with the same reply, that there was no mobile
phone service in that area.

Hoping that patient has a speedy recovery and full points to Jack and Adam
who worked calmly during this event.

(TONEMAN Tony Lathouras, VK7VKT)





Oceania DX Group activates Vanuatu

Do you need Vanuatu YJ0 for your DX Award?

The Oceania DX Group will be active on all HF bands from Vanuatu from 21st
April until the 5th May.

A group of six VK operators will be operating three stations with special
focus on the WARC bands as well as 80 and 160 metres. Operation on the lower
bands will depend on conditions, but the team expects to have 160 metres
operating through their local sunrise and sunset as a minimum.

The team will also make a special effort to keep one station active on
digital modes. So listen out for YJ0VK

For more information visit yj0vk.odxg.org

(73 and good DX Chris VK3QB)





Closer to home Friday 20 April four Victorian amateurs will head toward the
most southern point on mainland Australia. South Point is a rocky outcrop
located at the southern end of the Wilsons Promontory National Park and is
accessible only on foot. Peter VK3ZPF, Wayne VK3WAM, Kevin VK3KAB and
Trevor VK3ATB will be running QRP from 0000z on Saturday 21 April on
80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m using both CW and SSB.

Contacts from South Point, or with the team on their return trip, can be used
toward the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award sponsored by
Amateur Radio Victoria.





Project Horus High Altitude Balloon Launch

The Project Horus high altitude balloon group, based in Adelaide, is planning
a balloon launch this Sunday 15th April, shortly after the WIA Broadcast
(planning to be in the air around 10-11am ACST).

This will be an amateur radio oriented balloon launch, with three payloads of
interest to amateurs, intended to coincide with the WIA field days. The
launch designation is Horus 23.

The group is planning on flying the FM voice repeater again. The repeater
will operate with a 70cm uplink and a 2m downlink.

New frequencies will be used and they are;

Uplink: 438.900 MHz FM with a CTCSS Tone of 123Hz

Downlink: 144.650 MHz FM (in the 2m experimental segment) with a CTCSS tone
of 123Hz.

Based on previous flights, it should be possible to access the repeater from
up to 800km away at apogee, with about 30-50W. A beam will help overcome the
inevitable FM capture effect problems. The downlink is easily audible on any
reasonable Omni directional antenna, although if you are under the balloon's
flight path you may see over 20dB fades. The tracking and recovery teams use
cross dipoles on the roofs of the chase vehicles to help with the link budget
and fading.

The Amateur Radio Experimenter's Group will be running net control on the
voice repeater as VK5ARG from launch control in the Adelaide Hills.

APRS will fly on this flight on 145.175 MHz The expected callsign is
VK5ARG-11. We will be also able to look at the new http://aprs.fi/ horizon ring prediction service on this flight. Telemetry format packets are now also broadcast on APRS.

The ever reliable primary 300 baud RTTY telemetry beacon will also fly - at
this stage it will be on 434.075 MHz (note update) (+/- 5kHz thermal drift).
This signal is used as part of the group's "distributed listener" telemetry
network where any amateur receiving the data can upload what they are hearing
over the internet.

The data, which is sent to the http://spacenear.us/tracker website,
contributes to the landing zone predictions used by the chase teams. The
chase-tracker teams have 3G Internet in their vehicles and are actively
looking at that data, so it is one way amateurs can have a behind the scenes
involvement in the flight's success. NOTE: this beacon only runs 25mW,
however we have had people from the horizon and at times beyond still be
able to decode and contribute, so why not give it a go!

If you would like more information about the software setup required to
participate in telemetry recovery take a look at our tracking page:
http://projecthorus.org/?page_id=336

Confirmation that the flight is a go can only be given ultimately on the
morning of the 15th. We are very much subject to the weather and have
various constraints on where we are permitted to fly, so the potential for
the mission to be scrubbed exists up until the last minute. We will endeavour
to update the forum once we get closer, and will post notices on the DX
Cluster once it is in the air. Flight time should be around 2 & 3/4 Hrs.

If you would like to find out more about Project Horus, please visit our
website www.projecthorus.org/

or for some short films of our past activities, the Vimeo channel at
http://www.vimeo.com/channels/projecthorus/

I am Ben, VK5BB for Project Horus and the Amateur Radio Experimenter's
Group





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ

TARC Does the WIA National Field Day this Weekend

The WIA National Field Day will be happening this Saturday and Sunday April
14th and 15th and theTARCinc ran displays about the different
aspects of Amateur Radio at the front door of Jaycar Electronics Townsville
store in Ingham Road West End Saturday from around 7-30am.

Checking the WIA website at the time this dispatch was released -

just the following people or groups had registered to participate this year.

Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club, Port Macquarie Town Green.

Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club Shire Office Reserve Rosebud VIC.

Waverley Amateur Radio Society Outside Bondi Beach Pavilion.

Midland Amateur Radio Club Prince of Wales Showgrounds Bendigo.

Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club Jaycar Electronics Springvale.

WICEN (Vic) Mornington Peninsula region JAYCAR Electronics Frankston West.

Orana Region Amateur Radio Club Elston Park, Dubbo Dubbo NSW.

Alice Springs Amateur Radio Club Flynn Church Lawns, Alice Springs NT.

Radio and Electronics Assoc of Sth Tas (REAST) Jaycar Derwent Park.





WIA – Promoting Our Hobby

Greetings Everyone.

The first time you may be hearing this broadcast is while you are
participating in the WIA National Field Day. This event is aimed at promoting
our hobby and the diversity of interests Amateur Radio encompasses.

Everyone who has been involved in promotional events of any kind will have
retained a mental record of how successful or unsuccessful the activity has
been and the reasons for the outcome. The promotion of Amateur Radio is no
different and from your or your Club’s experience you will know what has been
most successful in your community.

The Easter period is past and many Radio Amateurs will have visited friends
and families or travelled to a holiday destination where there was an
opportunity to operate our station in a portable role. Reflect on how we
operated and how it would be viewed by a passer-by.

Was our operation covert or overt? That is, did we project a ‘Go away! Don’t
disturb me!” aura or one which conveyed ‘I’m enjoying this and I’m happy to
welcome you and answer your questions.’

Unfortunately it is all too easy for us to project the former and loose the
opportunity to foster interest in our hobby by those intrigued by what we
are doing and enjoying but apprehensive about asking. By changing our
attitude to be more overt and engaging about our hobby we can carry the
message of the WIA National Field Day throughout the year to those
non-amateurs who did not have the opportunity to pass or visit a WIA National
Field Day station.

Thank you to all those individuals, groups and clubs participating in the
WIA National Field Day activities.

This has been Ewan VK4ERM for the WIA Board asking ‘Who have you introduced
to Amateur Radio to-day?’





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-

Welcome to QNews from VK4WIA. I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been
thinking.

Hopefully the weather has been kind to the participants in the WIA National
Field Day. As a recruiting and advertising method, the first 2 National
Field Days certainly got the message out via the mass media. Here’s hoping
number 3 is as successful.

Just to keep the momentum going is the fast approaching ANZAC Day. Not only
is this a day of solemn remembrance but also an opportunity to celebrate all
those whose service life depended on radio. As we have heard, there are
groups of amateurs who will be running CW and AM, the main modes of the
Second World War. Spark was the primary mode of the First World War but was
banned by the time of the Great Depression.

Here is an opportunity for all amateurs to participate. For the F-calls,
remember that many of the radios used during WWII operated at QRP levels so
taking part on Anzac Day is following a 70 year old tradition. Check the net
frequencies in “Amateur Radio” or the web.

I’m Geoff Emery and that’s what I think....how about you?





I’m Ray, VK4CF with news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

At the end of today’s news, or just before we end, in REWIND I’ll pop back
with much more detail on this TITANIC event, stay tuned!

The Wednesday group had some 40 members at the club house last Wednesday
packing equipment for the weekend activity. One welcomed visitor was Ray,
VK4UG and his XYL. Club President David, VK4DC, said that the car parking
at the club was a nightmare but it was fantastic to see the club full of
members all enjoying the Morning.

Next Monday night is the Technical talk By Kevin, VK4UH, it is a good one on
meteor scatter.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until next time from
Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





DISCUSSION POINT

What use is an f-call?



(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)


Recently I heard an f-call ask on-air about the performance of their HF
antenna. It reminded me that in order for any learning to occur, there needs
to be two elements that come together. While it's simple to ask questions
among your friends, it takes a leap of faith to ask a stranger.



So, one of the elements you need is a Leap of Faith, "I have a problem and I
wonder if anyone might be able to help."



For this leap of faith to pay off, you also need to gain access to the
knowledge required to solve your problem. It can come in many guises, from
"read the manual", through "I have done that and I solved it like this." to
"Let me come over and give you a hand."



The second element that is needed is Generosity.

The interesting part for me
is how the discussion opens up many possibilities when experienced people
enter the conversation. It's one thing to acknowledge the original Leap but
two inexperienced people talking to each other about a problem when neither
of them have more than rudimentary understanding is less than satisfying,
both for the two people and for any listeners on frequency.



I'm glad to say that in this particular case some personal skill and
knowledge was added to the discussion by some experienced hams, but I've also
heard discussions where the blind were leading the blind.

While it is
possible that a question is asked by a novice f-call and answered by an
experienced advanced-call, that is not always the case. In fact to me it
seems, more often than not, the level of license bears little relation to a
person's level of experience.

Amateur Radio is like an aural history, made of story tellers and listeners.
If you don't tell your stories pretty soon you'll run out of listeners and
the history dies.

So, no matter your place, taking a Leap of Faith, or
providing Generosity, remember that in order for the hobby to endure we need
to keep talking.



I'm Onno VK6FLAB






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

5 year-old passes Foundation exam

The Humber Fortress DX Amateur Radio Club in the UK is proud to announce
and congratulate its youngest new member Kayleigh Huntley on passing her
Foundation exam at age 5 years.

While Kayleigh may well be the youngest to have passed her foundation test
in the UK (Samuel Lewis KB9RYP and Sarah Bruno KB9SEG were just 4 years old
when they got their amateur radio licenses in 1998), even though she holds
a license to operate alone, this will not happen.

Kayleigh’s only access to radio is via her Granddad Andy G7LRR, or at the
Radio Club under supervision and very closely monitored.

Kayleigh has been involved in radio for over 3 years now, having been
allowed to say hello on her granddad’s radio to radio friends all over
the world.





No Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site decision

We will have to wait till at least mid-May before it may be decided whether
South Africa or Australia will be the country to host the SKA.

Members of the SKA Organisation met in Amsterdam on 4 April for their first
general meeting. They noted the SKA site selection advisory committee's
report and associated commentary that had been passed to them by the
SKA Organisation's board, which met last month in the UK.

The members wished to move ahead with the site selection process and
recognised that it is desirable to maintain an inclusive approach to the SKA.
They noted that it is important to maximise the value from the investment
made by both candidate regions. A small scientific working group was set up
to explore possible implementation options that would achieve this.

The working group will report back in mid-May.


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

ELECTRONIC HERITAGE - SCHNECTADY MUSEUM GETS ALL GE VIDEO

And finally this week a story about the work of a
museum doing all it can to preserve some of
electronics past. Here’s Jeff Clark, K8JAC:

The Schenectady Museum is using the YouTube dot
com website to rebroadcast more than 1,000 of its
General Electric films, which date back to
1915. According to the museum curator Chris
Hunter, the archive was previously available only
on 16 millimetre film and was viewed infrequently
because of its physical condition and the
cumbersome process to watch the films using an optical projector.

Hunter said that the museum had long wanted to
digitize the collection in order to preserve it
but until recently it had been cost prohibitive
to do so. Now, thanks to grants from the
Institute for Museum and Library Services and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Life Members’ Foundation, the museum was able to
purchase a high-definition film transfer unit and hire and operator for it.

Among the film artefacts now existing in the
digital domain are advertisements, raw footage of
equipment tests, company picnics and promotional
clips. Also transferred is the famed early
television series titled the General Electric
Theatre. It was hosted by former President Ronald Reagan.

The museum hopes to finish uploading all of its
film transferred videos to YouTube in the next
year. It will then begin digitizing its 1,200
video tape based archives. A direct link to what
has already been uploaded and available for
viewing is at tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube

Again that U-R-L to screen all of those historic
General Electric films is tinyurl.com/ge-on-youtube





CANADA BEGINS ISSUING 60 METER EXPERIMENTAL LICENSES

Canada has begun issuing experimental licenses
for the 60 meter band. Regulator Industry Canada
issued the first such developmental license on
April 2nd to Russ Hemphill, VE3FI, to use the call sign VX9GHD at 5 MHz

Canadian radio amateurs have been waiting three
years for an opportunity to join the USA, Britain
and other nations in making use of the 60 meter
spectrum. When a true Canadian amateur radio
allocation on 5 MHz meters might be approved is at this time unknown.





RADIO NETHERLANDS TO DROP DUTCH SHORTWAVE LANGUAGE BROADCASTS IN MAY

Radio Netherlands is in the news again with word
that the international broadcaster will terminate
Dutch language transmissions world-wide on May
11th. And to say farewell to Dutch speaking
listeners around the world the station plans to
hold a 24-hour marathon broadcast from 2000 UTC
on May 10th until 2000 UTC on May
11th. Frequencies and a listing of program
content should be posted soon to the Radio Netherlands Dutch
language website.


=============================================================================


IRTS NEWS DESK

Gi2012MGY

A special event station located in Belfast from on board the SS Nomadic,
Titanic’s 'Little Sister'.

To mark the Centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, City of Belfast
Radio Amateur Society ( CoBRAS ) will be QRV on most HF bands, CW and SSB,
from on board 'the Nomadic' from 12th - 18th April.

The SS Nomadic is the only remaining historic link to the Titanic left
afloat, and she is also the last surviving White Star Line vessel in the
world. Like Titanic herself she was built at the shipyards of Harland and
Wolff in Belfast, and served as a tender to the Olympic and Titanic.

She is currently undergoing restoration work in the docks where she was built,
adjacent to the new Titanic Belfast visitor attraction.

International interest in all things 'MGY' is reaching extraordinary levels
and the extremely rare Gi2012 prefix is sure to add extra interest from
WPX hunters. CoBRAS members look forward to working many EI stations during
the week of activity from on board this unique ship.

Further information and QSL details can be found under Gi2012MGY at QRZ.com





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012


WW FISTS TITANIC SPRINT April 15
VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE

W1AW CLAIMS 5BDXCC

Nearly four decades after the introduction of the Five Band DXCC Award
W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station has achieved this milestone.

"As with most stations, we found that 80 meters was our stumbling block,"
W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, explained.

W1AW's 5BDXCC plaque will hang in a place of honour at the station.

Prior to achieving 5BDXCC, W1AW held DXCC on 40 thru 10 meters for many
years, but was always searching for the last few remaining entities on 80.

"Now that W1AW has 5BDXCC, we are gunning for DXCC Honour Roll," Carcia
said. "Like with 5BDXCC, there are just a few more entities to go
before W1AW can claim that award."

(sourced to arrl letter)





To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, the
Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland will be transmitting a special
bulletin near 500 kHz, the distress frequency used by the radio
officers of the Titanic to send their CQD call to Cape, Race
Newfoundland. Please listen on 507.77 kHz CW for VX9MRC between 0001
and 0400 UTC on 15 April 2012. Please note this corresponds to
Saturday night, 14 April, for listeners in the western hemisphere. For
further information, please see the MRCN web page by searching for
VO1MRC on the internet.

(Charles Marsh, VO1VZ NL Section manager - Radio Amateurs of Canada.)





North Cork Radio Group on the air for Marconi weekend

The North Cork Radio Group will be activating Mizen Head Visitors Centre
for Marconi weekend.

The callsign, EI 0 IMD, will be on the air from 20th April - 22nd April
inclusive.

Marconi Day is on 21st April this year.





This is Julian Sortland, currently MW/VK2YJS in North-West Wales.

The other day I went to Caernarfon, where Marconi had a number of
transmission stations in the early 1900s, including the experimental
station used to send the first official radio message from Britain to
Australia, back in 1918.

It was sent on behalf of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who was
in Britain at the time, and who had just visited the troops in France. That
message was received by Ernest Fisk, at his home in Wahroonga, in the north
of Sydney.

This link allows the Hornsby and Districts Amateur Radio Club can participate
in International Marconi Day, in which stations around the world celebrate
Marconi's birthday, which falls on 25th April. As the event is on the
nearest Saturday, this year it will be the 21st, and being an international
event, this is the UTC day. Therefore, VK2IMD will be operating next
Saturday from 10:00am Sydney time, through to 10:00am on Sunday, on various
HF bands, and possibly 160m – mostly using SSB, depending on the operators.

It is also the 25th year for the global event, so the lead station, GB4IMD
has a licence variation to use GB 25 IMD. Further information about the
event search for “GB4IMD”.





BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS

HF WebSDR in Sweden

An online Software Defined Radio (SDR) located in Sweden for the amateur
radio 3, 5, 7 and 14 MHz bands is now available.

Located in Mora, Sweden, it is operated by SM4JLX e-mail and
comprises 3 x Soft66lite receivers and band-pass filter.

You need both Java and JavaScript enabled for the WebSDR to work properly.
If you don't hear anything, probably Java is disabled or its version is too
old (i.e., pre-1.4.2).. .

Listen to the 3 band HF radio at
http://sk4ko-websdr.no-ip.org:8901/

Soft66lite
http://zao.jp/radio/66lite/





Radio Canada International announces end of its shortwave broadcasting

Spending cuts announced in Canada's latest federal budget have reached Radio
Canada International.

Speaking to employees at RCI's headquarters in Montreal, RCI director
Helene Parent declared that two out of three RCI employees---about 40 people,
will lose their jobs by the end of July.

RCI's Russian and Portuguese sections will be closed along with the English
and French-language newsrooms. All shortwave broadcasts will cease as well.

RCI will continue to exist solely on the Internet in five languages

English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin.

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/news/15_56_27_2012-04-04-rci-slashed/





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- ATV (Every pixel tells a story) - Video
arvideonews.com
hamradiotube.com
youtube.com
qdg.org.au

Japanese Earth-Moon-Earth - Project Big Dish

A 2007 Japan-Broadcasting Corporation TV report about amateur radio
Moon bounce (EME) operation has just been made available on YouTube.

KDDI, one of the Japanese telecommunication services companies, had assigned
to make experimental cooperation with the Project BIG-DISH, composed of some
forty Japanese moon bouncers, and JARL.

The operation took place late February and early March, in 2007.

Watch 8N1EME-NHK-NEWS(NHK(Japan-Broadcasting Corp.))





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FEMALES IN RADIO
ALARA - AUSTRALIAN LADIES AR ASSOCIATION
http://alara.org.au
Net is held each Mondays on 3.570± MHz, commencing at 1030 UTC.
(1000utc during daylight saving)


After 20 years, Dot VK2DB has written her last ALARA newsletter.
Many thanks Dot for a fine job and keeping our listeners "in the loop"
ALARA wise.





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
http://rsgbiota.org

AS-109. CANCELLED

The RT9K/P DXpedition was cancelled because the temperature in Nadym was
climbing to over 0 deg C and the snow is melting.

The next few week's forecast also predicts higher temperatures which will
weaken the ice for the snowmobile and tricky for a boat to navigate.

The team has returned home to find a different method of transportation.

(sourced to kb8nw)





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

WICEN Victoria are involved in 5 events during the next quarter.
If you are available to participate in any of these events, please
get in touch with the contact listed for the event.

Friday April 20th 2012
Oxfam Trailwalker
Jells Park to Warburton
Contact: Ian Morris VK3IFM phone: 03 9763 0565
Email:

Sunday April 22nd 2012
Wombat 100 Bike Ride
Woodend
Contact: John Weir VK3XD phone: 03 9431 0667
Email:

Sunday April 29th 2012
Coordinators and Commanders Meeting
Box Hill
Contact: Mark Dods VK3ZR phone: 03 9849 0501
Email:

Saturday May 5th 2012
East Gippsland Stages
Bairnsdale
Contact: Colin Pomroy VK3BLE phone: 03 5149 7228
Email:

Sunday May 6th 2012
Kenda Nav Rally
Rubicon
Contact: Peter Weeks VK3YZP phone: 03 5772 1454
Email:

Regards,
WICEN Secretary,





REWIND

Hereford Times - Titanic Messages

Richard Langford G4FAD has been helping to recreate the chilling messages
sent from the Titanic just hours before it sank in the Atlantic with the
loss of 1,517 lives.

Richard, a member of the Hereford Amateur Radio Society, was one of three
radio enthusiasts invited to Liverpool to record the exact Morse code SOS
calls sent from the doomed ship on April 14, 1912.

Read the Hereford Times newspaper story at
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9340562.Wellington_farmer_
helps_recreate_chilling_messages_from_the_Titanic

I’m Ray, VK4CF with more TITANIC news from Redcliffe & Districts Radio club.

This weekend members of the Redcliffe Radio Club will be operating the
special event station, VI4MGY, from the docks of the Queensland Maritime
Museum, Southbank in Brisbane from 1000 hrs. Sunday until 1000 hrs. Monday.

Bevan, VK4BCM, who is coordinating the Brisbane activities, said that
currently there are some 39 stations participating worldwide.

Associated with the Titanic Day, is a worldwide contest CW contest to
celebrate the two wireless operators who let the world know of the tragedy.
One operator was rescued and the other lost his life whilst transmitting
when the ship went down. The surviving operator after his rescue started to
send out lists of survivors from the rescue ship until he reached the
United States.

The contest is therefore a CW contest only.

In the contest, QSO with a dedicated Titanic station merits 10 points.
A “FISTS HQ” Station 5 points
FISTS Affiliated station 3 points
FISTS member station 2 points and
1 for non-members.

Logs should include date/call/ name/qth/time/fist number or non member
points. Logs can be emailed to or posted to R.D.Walker,
FISTS, P.O.Box 6743, Tipton, DY4 4AU England.

The Redcliffe Club with association with the FISTS group have designed a
beautiful QSL card and there is only one way to get one and that is to give
the local guys a call either on 20, 40, and 80 metres in the CW segment of
the band. If you want further information use the following computer link,

http://www.m0bpt.org.uk/Titanic%20SES/titanic.htm

ABC local radio 612, interviewed Bevan on Friday Afternoon Drive program
and there is also a cross by Macca on his Sunday radio Program also on the
local ABC radio.

Well this is about all at the moment and so it’s 73 until you hear from me
in QNEWS in the Queensland Zone. I'm Ray, VK4CF, from the Redcliffe club.





SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 14-15 VK WIA National Field Day on now!

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.







Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






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http://lists.wia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/vk1wia-news
)
Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-22.mp3
Text edition:



WIANEWS - April 22 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Please... If you are only submitting text and not audio, write your story as
you would expect to hear it being read back and NEVER send just links &
url's.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 22 2012.

Hobby farm death not suspicious.

SUMMITS ON THE AIR VK ACTIVATION

Spectacular explosion on the Sun

VK100WIQ

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 22 2012.




Hobby farm death not suspicious.

Police are investigating the death of a man who fell from his vehicle onto
an antenna at his hobby farm.

The 51-year-old man is believed to have suffered fatal injuries after he
fell onto the 20-metre high metal antenna at the Cunderdin property in WA.

Police spokeswoman Ros Weatherall said the antenna was used for surveying
services, and had been removed by the man from the roof rack of his
Landcruiser utility before the incident. Initial investigations reveal that
he may have slipped from the top of the car and fallen onto the antenna.

Read more:
watoday.com.au/wa-news/hobby-farm-death-not-suspicious-20120416-1x2ed.html#ixzz1sA3VujOO

(Trevor VK4BAT)





Spectacular explosion on the Sun

On April 16th around 17:45 UT, magnetic fields curling over the sun's
north-eastern limb rose up and erupted, producing one of the most
visually-spectacular explosions in years.

The event, which also produced an M1.7-class solar flare and a coronal mass
ejection, was not Earth-directed.

Nevertheless, it confirms suspicions that a significant active region is
rotating onto the Earth-side of the sun.

Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies and updates.





The blue mountains ( www.bmarc.org ) Amateur radio club’s May meeting will be
its AGM.

The meeting is on Friday 4th May and will be held at the new club house
4 Moore Street Glenbrook at 8pm.

There is a $2 fee for anyone attending the club. All are welcome.

(Danny Clark VK2FDCA Blue Mountains Amateur radio club)





PADDLE FOR LIFE - LISMORE TO BALLINA BY RIVER. 14-16 Apr.

About 40 canoes took part to complete the second stage, no adverse incidents.

Lismore, Coraki, and Woodburn six boats, and two civvy boats gave safety
cover.

Comms assistance provided by WICEN with five operators with good comms.

Lions and other service clubs provided feeding and assistance at the stops,
with no accidents, everyone completed the courses with sometimes a little
boat help.

Pics on the Album page http://www.ourphotos.net.au/albums.php?album=3473





BLACKHAWK DOWN

A Blackhawk Pilot will be down at Paluma in NQ, active during AM and CW on
ANZAC Day.

Chris VK4FR has advised that he will be leaving the chopper in the hangar
and travelling to Paluma by road with a vehicle equipped with HF gear and
portable internet to activate a site near the old World War 2 Radar Bunkers
and is excited about Joining The Gang on AM and CW.

(sourced to theTARCinc)





SUMMITS ON THE AIR VK ACTIVATION
www.sotawatch.org
www.sota.org.uk


You have heard of Islands on the Air.

Now think tops of hills and mountains instead of islands, and you will be
thinking of Summits on the Air or SOTA.

SOTA commenced on the 1st of February in VK3 with six hundred and nine
summits. Operators around all of VK can participate by chasing activations on
these summits, or any other SOTA summits around the world. Indeed some VK
operators are already well on their way to the entry level SOTA awards for
both activators and chasers.

For chasers, there are SOTA activations in VK3 on most weekends, and many of
these are on either 20 or 40 metres. Activations can be on any amateur band
using any mode, so an activation can be as simple as carrying a handheld FM
rig to a summit top.

Don't miss out on your chance to be the first VK Shack Sloth or Mountain Goat.





This is Allan, VK4FABR , from the Queensland Centenary Committee.

On behalf of Mike Charteris VK4QS, and members of the Committee, we can
announce that June 1st, 2012, will see the official launch of “VK100WIQ” on
the airwaves to celebrate the Centenary of the establishment of the
Wireless Institute in Queensland.

Our Centenary has its origins at a meeting organised in 1912, by
Mr Sydney Victor Colville, a Broadcast Radio Engineer, who held
the Amateur Call Sign “XQF” in Queensland.

From this meeting in 1912 came the establishment of the Wireless Institute
in the state of Queensland.

Therefore, we, the members of the Queensland Centenary Committee would like
to invite all amateur radio operators in Queensland and the rest of Australia
to embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity to work “VK100WIQ .

Those Radio Clubs of Queensland wishing to participate, will be required to
seek a three day block by way of an on-line roster currently being
established.

VK100WIQ will be on air during the period June 1st to July 31st , from
Radio Clubs of Queensland, operating on HF, VHF, UHF, and most other amateur
modes. They will be looking forward to working stations all over Australia
and the rest of the world during their individual three day blocks.

The Centenary Committee, is currently organizing a special QSL Card and
Centenary Certificate for those making contact with VK100WIQ.

Details will be posted on the Centenary Website at www.wiaq.org.au by
June 1st 2012.

One of the highlights will be the holding of the Centenary President’s
Luncheon at the Hervey Bay RSL Club, on Saturday July 21st 2012.
Special guests include WIA President, Mr Michael Owen, VK3KI, and
WIA Director, Mr Ewan McLeod VK4ERM.

If you will be attending, this very special luncheon, then please contact
Norm Greenaway VK4NP at President of the Hervey Bay Club,
He would love to hear from you.

The next day, Sunday July 22nd will see the Hervey Bay Amateur Radio Club
hosting a free BBQ at the Hervey Bay SES Buildings, on Old Maryborough Road
Pialba. What better way to top off the President’s Luncheon on Saturday,
then to go out for dinner Saturday night, and stay for the Sunday Free BBQ
and make a weekend of it in beautiful Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay will be hosting VK100WIQ, and will be on air with it from the
SES Buildings on the day of the BBQ.

So that’s all from the centenary committee for now.

Be sure to check your calendar, mark the dates in July, and check out our
website at www.wiaq.org.au

We look forward to seeing you at the Presidents Luncheon and working you on
air.





What use is an f-call?


The annual National WIA conference is just over a month away in Mildura.
This year I'll be participating in my first and I wondered if there are any
f-call's who'd like to go, but have some trepidation on the idea of attending
an event with lots of strangers.

Perhaps you might like to come along and share a room.

I've got a large family suite with spare beds available and if you're
hesitant to be there because you know no-one, perhaps this might help you.
I'm sure that we'll find something to talk about - amateur radio perhaps
- hi hi.

If you'd like to take me up on this offer, get in touch - contact details in
the text edition.

email:
phone: 04 1219 8888

People are inventive, continually trying new things, solving problems,
discovering new ones, making and breaking things, scratching an itch.
Amateurs are no different. Well they are, but in essence they're no different
from people.

Amateurs just like to invent more stuff than the average person on the
street. Meet any group of amateurs in the wild and before long you'll be
embroiled in a discussion about how to solve a problem that is bugging one of
you. There will be hand-waving, charts, calculators and good cheer to fill up
the room.

If you're new to Amateur Radio, you might find yourself overwhelmed
by all this interaction. All you did was get your shiny new license and turn
up. Now all these experts are jabbering on about stuff you know next to
nothing about.

Ironically, if you stop and think about it for a moment, you'll quickly come
to the realization that this is true for everyone in the room. Some people
did this yesterday, others last year, and some have been around since before
you were born. The only trick in interacting with these people is to ask
questions.

Hearing a new Amateur on-air is a similar experience. What do you talk about
and how do you avoid looking silly?

I can't help with looking silly, but wearing a clown-costume on air is
generally not a problem, since we're really only working with audio. More
seriously, looking silly is in the eye of the beholder, if your intent is to
learn, there can be no place for looking silly.

So, my advice to you is to walk into the room or push your talk button and
have a go. Ultimately, this hobby contains many different people, some of
whom are going to share many of your interests.

I'm Onno - VK6FLAB






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

João Alberto Costa CT1FBF brings news of an extension to the amateur radio
6m band.

He writes:
The National Communications Authority of Portugal (ICP-ANACOM) welcomes the
proposal of 2 amateur radio colleagues, José Carlos CT1DHM and
João Costa CT1FBF, in order to amend the upper range limit of
50.5 MHz on the 6 metres band, from next April 26, 2012; the date of the
complete switch-off of the analogue TV broadcasting transmissions to
digital terrestrial television.

The new limits of the band allocation for Portugal will be from
50 MHz to 52 MHz.

Such opening, regarding the new upper limit for Portuguese ham radio 6 metres
band, was possible thanks to the end of the old analogue signal TV
broadcasting transmissions, on the lower VHF band (channels 2 to 4) after
that date.

UK C5 Discussion Group (VHF/UHF/Microwave matters)
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukc5discussion/

Rede dos Emissores Portugueses (REP) in Google English
http://tinyurl.com/PortugalREP

Portugese Regulator Anacom
http://tinyurl.com/PortugalCommsRegulator





World Amateur Radio Day

On 18 April 2012, radio amateurs celebrated World Amateur Radio Day, on
the 87th anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio
Union or IARU.

This year's theme was "Amateur Radio Satellites: Celebrating 50 Years in
Space" in remembrance of the launching of OSCAR 1 on 12 December 1961 and
the launch of OSCAR 2 on 2 June 1962.

Nothing was heard after our initial notification here on VK1WIA News from
any society/organisation in Australia of any celebration in VK.


In 1924, ARRL President Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, had scheduled a business
trip to Europe. While in Europe, Maxim was asked by the ARRL Board of
Directors to represent the ARRL in fostering international relations between
amateurs.

Following an informal meeting in 1924, representatives from France,
Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Canada and
the United States formulated a plan to hold an International Amateur Congress
in Paris, France, in April 1925, for the purpose of founding the IARU.

Representatives from Europe, North America, South America and Asia attended
the congress, adopting a constitution for the IARU on April 17.

At a closing assembly on the following day, officers were elected and the
actions of the congress ratified by representatives from 25 countries. Thus,
April 18 became the official "birthday" of the IARU and is now designated
World Amateur Radio Day.

There were HOWEVER several special event stations from OTHER IARU's Member
Societies active on different dates during April:

South Africa - ZS6IARU, was active 18 April. QSL via ZS4BS.
Bulgaria - LZ1WARD, by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs,
active throughout the month of April. QSL via bureau.

Switzerland - HB9WARD by Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure, active
18 April. QSL via HB9JOE.

Poland - HF87WARD, by members of the SP-CFF will be active from 17 to
30 April. There is an award for this operation. QSL via eQSL.cc and
WFF LogSearch.

Liberia - EL2RL, by the Liberia Radio Amateur Association active 18 April.
Direct QSL to EL2BA.

Mexico - 6H6IARU by the Federación Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores who
were active from 13 to 18 April. QSL via LoTW and N7RO.

Chile - 3G87IARU by the Radio Club de Chile, active throughout the month of
April. QSL via CE3AA.


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

NZART CHANGES ITS REPEATER LICENSE FEE METHODS

A decision from the New Zealand Association of Radio
Transmitters will have an impact on several of its branches.
Those where repeater and beacon licenses currently held in
the name of NZART will be handed back to them.

The current system of invoicing and renewals means a heavy
administrative workload for society's resources at a time
when subscription renewals are also being processed. This
will mean that this coming November when the individual
licenses are up for renewal, each branch will receive the
license renewal invoice direct from the government
telecommunications regulatory authority. This in turn means
that branch secretaries will need to be aware of this and
ensure that payment is made by the date due. Failure to do
so may result in the license being cancelled.

Unlike the United States where individual hams own and hold
license to repeaters, in many nations it is the national
society that is the repeater and beacon licensee. Those
hams involved merely build and maintain repeaters. In fact,
in some nations these hams are known as repeater keepers
rather than as owner operators of such devices.





NEW 50 MHz EME DIGITAL SARL DX RECORD

Derek Gravette, ZS5Y, in Scottburgh, South Africa established a new 50 MHz
South Africa Radio League Earth-Moon-Earth record. This, by making contact
with Mike Staal, K6MYC, in northern California in the United States.

On April 4th, the two completed a QSO on E-M-E using the JT65a digital mode.
JT65 was developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT and released in late 2003. It is
intended for extremely weak but slowly-varying signals, such as those found
on tropo-scatter or of coarse E-M-E paths.

(SARL)





N0BYH GIVEN AWARD FOR AIDING HAM RADIO SCOUTING

In the United States, Tim Arimond, N0BYH, has been awarded the Boy Scouts'
District Award of Merit. This for his work in promoting amateur radio with
the Boy Scouts in the Minneapolis and St Paul area.

The award recognizes Airmond’s extraordinary service to youth that has
included instruction to help prepare scouts to take the amateur radio exam as
well as his service as a merit badge councillor for Electricity, Electronics,
and Radio. It was also noted that he was also one of the adult leaders
behind the local K0BSA.

(KD0NYS)





RADIO SPORT AND OPERATIONAL NEWS

TITANIC EVENT IN VK4

The Redcliffe club’s brightly coloured tent stood out among the old maritime
relics in a pristine area on the banks of the Brisbane River and as Bevan
reports, the tent was not in the best position for radio communication but
the operators persisted. There were many visitors to the radio tent
including families as a result of media advertising with many asking
questions about Morse code, and the role radio played in the Titanic disaster.

Most visitors were fascinated at actually seeing the operators sending and
receiving CW and many visitors were able to send morse themselves with keys
attached to audio oscillators. The club had 3 operators until about 1100Z
and one from then until the station closed at about 2230Z.

Bevan also said that that the QSL cards for the event were printed last
Wednesday as soon as the logs are collated the task of sending QSL cards will
begin.

(Ray vk4cf)





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012

VK/ZL AM/CW on ANZAC DAY April 25
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
VK Winter VHF-UHF Field Day June 23-24
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19
VK Spring VHF / UHF Field Day November 24-25

AM CW FOR ANZAC DAY

The SA Repatriation General Hospital will be on-air for AM and CW on
ANZAC DAY - Andrew VK5CV has advised that a team of operators will be
activating Adelaide's Repatriation General Hospital during the event
as part of the hospital's 70th year celebrations.

Andrew has confirmed that special event call VI 70 RGH has been issued for
this historic activation.

(THETARCINC)





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


First activation of Botley Flour Mills for Mills on the Air weekend

Botley Flour Mills near Southampton in the UK is one of the oldest known
milling sites and is listed in the doomsday book and is believed to have
been a mill site in pre-Roman times.

The Mill will be activated for what is believed to be the first time with
the callsign GB 0 BFM for Mills on the Air weekend on the 12/13th of May
from 10:00-1600 BST with an NoV for 80m, 40m, 2m & 70cm.

The station will be run by M 0 IED and father G 6 FRT and other members of
Itchen Valley Radio Club with added assistance from Southampton University
Wireless society.

Itchen Valley Radio Club: http://www.ivarc.org.uk/
Southampton University Wireless society: http://www.suws.susu.org
Botley Flour Mills: http://www.botleymills.co.uk/heritage.htm




In DX, EA3OW is now active through May 12th as EA 3 0W/HH8 from Southern
Haiti. Listen out for him on 40 through 10 meters using SSB, RTTY and
digital modes. QSL via his home callsign, EA 3 OW





DJ 9 RR will be on the air as S 79 RR from Mahe Island between May 15th and
the 23rd. Activity on 40 through 10 meters using CW and RTTY.
QSL via his home callsign, JJ 9 RR.





Members of the Jersey Contest Group will be active as GJ 2 A from the
Isle of Jersey during the Radio Society of Great Britain’s’ Islands on the
Air Contest July 28 and 29.
QSL direct to GJ 3 DVC.





Mozambique operation

ZS6JR and ZS6DJD will be operating from Mozambique for seven days starting
the 3rd of May 2012.
QTH is Shai Shai, Mozambique, 400 km north of the capital and they will
operate all vertical antennas with the earth wires in lake water.
40m to 10m.






The 2012 Asian Weightlifting Championships is being held this month in
South Korea. To celebrate the event the special callsign DT 12 AWC is
activated until 30th of April.
QSL Manager is DS 2 GOO.





REWIND

Radio Ham established Broadcasting

Amateur radio operator Frank Conrad 8XK established the concept of radio
broadcasting.

Frank first became interested in radio in 1912 when, in order to settle a bet
on the accuracy of a watch, he built a radio in order to hear time signals
from the Arlington, Virginia Naval Observatory.

He then constructed, in his garage, a new transmitter, licensed in 1916 as
8XK, whose signal could be heard throughout the Pittsburgh area.

In response to popular demand, Frank began broadcasting for two hours each
Wednesday and Saturday night.

Watch Frank Conrad Invents Broadcasting by doing a youtube google.

(SouthGate)






SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 28 VK6 HARGfest (Hills ARG)

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 4 VK5 Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society HAMFEST @ Goodwood

NOV 11 VK3 Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group Hamfest

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.






Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


/ex






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Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2012-04-29.mp3
Text edition:



WIANEWS - April 29 - VK NATIONAL NEWS


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

Oh... and to contact us with your news because
If It Matters To You It Matters To Us!

Email

http://www.wia.org.au (click news in member area) Submit your audio news

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIANEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING APRIL 29 2012.

Are You coming the WIA Annual Conference in Mildura ?

With only one month remaining on the calendar till
this years WIA Annual Conference registrations have
been filling quickly particularly since the announcement
of our special guests and details of the weekend Technical
program. In previous weeks we have talked to Peter Cossins
about his Digital ATV Presentation, Andrew Martin VK3OE
about the developments with his chirp radar system
and we have interviewed Jan King W3GEY a founding member
of AMSAT and we spoke with Jan about his much anticipated
presentation of the AMSATsatellite program. A major feature
of the technical program is the presentation by the Adelaide
based Project Horus team who will be both presenting in the
Saturday afternoon technical Symposium AND launching a real
Horus balloon, Horus 25 on Sunday morning from the old
aero ovals a publicly accessible councilproperty in Mildura.
So this morning it's my pleasure to introduce to you Terry
Baum VK5VZI who one of the lead members of the Horus team
Good morning Terry...


Good morning Robert


First up Terry thanks to you and your team for being part of
the WIA Annual Conference in Mildura. Now I'm sure that many
will have heard of and be familiar with the Horus program,
but for those listeners who are not, could you tell us a
little of the background behind the program.


No problems Robert and a very good morning to all the
listeners here on this WIA news broadcast. Project Horus is
a amateur high altitude balloon project. Our aim is to
build and fly low cost weather balloon payloads into
the stratosphere, capturing photographs, recording
sensor data and providing a reliable launch platform
for high altitude experiments. Our typical launches
attain altitudes in excess of 35,000m (115,000ft),
passing through regions of extremely low pressure and
temperature - temperatures frequently reach as low as -55
degrees Celcius. Payloads are tracked by GPS and radio
communications - once the balloon has burst, the payload
descends to Earth and is retrieved. We had our first launch
in 2010 and since then we have launced 23 balloons, Mildura
will be our 25th launch and so it has the designation Horus 25


So the plan is to launch Horus 25 on a public oval on
Sunday Morning at 8:00am and everyone attending the WIA
conference and the general public is invited to come along
and watch the launch. What happens after the balloon is
launched?


Well as part of the payload on the balloon, we will have a
rtty stream of telemetry on 70cm, with the aid of some
software that people can install on their laptop, using
the laptop sound card hooked to their 70cm radio they
will be able to decode telemetry data. We will also be
sending this same information to our Project Horus website
in real time so people with internet access including
interested Midura residents will be able to track the
balloons progress via the internet. Horus 25 will also
have and amateur voice repeater on board with input on
70 cm and output on 2m. We expect the balloon will
remain in the air for about two and a half hours before
it bursts and the payload parachutes back down to the ground.


I guess your balloon launches would normally attract a lot
of public interest.


Yes they do and quite often we get inquiries from people if
they can come and watch a launch, in many cases this may not
be practical for a number of reasons, sometimes they are on
private property, sometimes access is a problem etc, so for
all the people out there who have been hanging out to see a
launch, come to Mildura and see us launch Horus 25


And there is a prize for the person who tracks and recovers
the payload.


Yes I have been informed a Yaseu FT 1900r has been
generously donated as a prize for the person who locates and
recovers the balloon payload, mind you it's much easier
these days with the balloons onboard GPS than it was in days
gone by when you had to DF the payload, I doubt it will land
on the Paddleboat Mundoo so if you plan to follow and track
the payload that will be separate exercise to the Mundoo
lunch and afternoon boat trip. I understand the boat boards
at 11:00 an departs at 11:30


Well thanks again Terry for you and your team, we are
looking forward not only to your talk during the Saturday
technical Symposium but also the Sunday morning balloon launch.


Thanks again Robert and our team are very excited about
coming to Mildura

Join us at the WIA Annual Conference in Mildura and be part
of history in the making with the launch of Horus 25.
Register online today, simply visit the WIA website
www.wia.org.au and click the link to the Annual Conference
Mildura






Olympic Games 3D TV trials

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has agreed to issue
licences to Nine Network Australia, provided certain conditions are met,
to conduct trials of 3D TV featuring daily highlights of the 2012 Olympic
Games, ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman has confirmed.

The ACMA has considered Nine’s applications to use unassigned TV channels
for 3D TV trials in Adelaide, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and
Sydney.

’Viewers with a 3D television should be able to view the trial if they are
within the coverage area of the trial services,’ Mr Chapman said.

To ensure that viewers understand the month-long transmission will only be
available in certain areas, the Nine Network has agreed to implement a range
of consumer protection measures.

The ACMA developed the measures in consultation with the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission following misleading statements from a
number of electronics retailers during previous 3D TV trials.

‘Viewers need to be aware these broadcasts are temporary trials of the
3D TV format and that the long term technology is still developing,’
Mr Chapman said.

Detailed information about the coverage areas and other aspects of the trials
will be available from the Nine Network before the services are due to
commence on 16 July.





WIA
President Michael Owen VK3KI
Vice President Phil Wait VK2ASD
Secretary Sarah Thompson VK3AUD
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ

In recent times a number of amateurs have asked questions about the WIA
Awards program.

I expect that the release published in the last few days will answer those
questions.

Shortly after becoming the WIA Director for Awards Chris Platt VK5CP found
that he had very little time for the task because of increasingly intense
work pressures.

WIA Director Trent Sampson VK4TS has been appointed Acting Director for
Awards until Chris is able to devote the necessary time to the role.

Steve Chamberlain VK6IR was appointed Awards Manager last February but found
that he was unable to use the time he had set aside for establishing the role
and so felt it better to allow someone else the opportunity to deal with this
important area of WIA interest.

Bob Robinson VK3SX has been appointed Awards Manager.

In addition, Allan Meredith VK2CA has rejoined the Awards Committee and
Laurie Davison VK7ZE has joined the Committee. Laurie is expected to become
the first VK ARRL card checker in the very near future.

Last March Dale McCarthy VK4DMC retired from the Awards Committee as he felt
that he was no longer able to devote the necessary time to that role.

The routine management of the Awards process will continue to be through the
WIA office, and WIA Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ, currently overseas, has
reorganised much of the basic current data to provide a basis for the work
being undertaken by Trent, Bob and the Awards team.

The Awards pages on the WIA website have been updated, work is continuing to
update the DXCC standings and the delay in issuing WIA Award certificates is
expected to be largely overcome in the next 6 weeks.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for their efforts to
overcome the difficulties we ran into and their ongoing work to improve the
program, and in particular Trent Sampson, Bob Robinson and John Longayroux
working as ever in the background.





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK2
web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm
VKG Roundup http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news
Email Address :

Its all happening at the Summerland Amateur Radio Club this Sunday the 29th.

Starting at 10 am today, there will be a big tidy-up, and with many tasks to
be done they need all hands on deck.

Things to be done include weeding, sorting out the magazine collection,
tidying the workroom and storeroom, and also sorting out surplus sales stuff,
ready for the Spring Hamfest.

There will be a BBQ lunch, then at 2pm will be the AGM of Northern Rivers
WICEN. All members are asked to be there if possible, and all interested
persons are welcome to attend.

That's this Sunday, at the clubrooms:

a map is available on the Summerland Club website.

www.sarc.org.au.

(Chris VK2ACD)





VK4 - QNEWS
Send your stories for news. SCRIPT to
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-

Centenary of organized Amateur Radio in Queensland

Special Event Callsign and Operations


VK100WIQ will be available to Clubs during July and August and a special
QSL card is being designed and printed for the operation.

Clubs interested in using the special call for a 3 day bracket (or more if
you are keen) need to contact Michael VK4QS.

or telephone 41 222 927

(sourced to thetarcinc)





VK5

For the last year the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society has held the call
VK5MGY. MGY being the radio call sign of the Titanic.

Doc VK5BUG and Shaun VK5ASC have used the call at Titanic displays. Doc, who
operates exclusivly on CW has made over 300 contacts worldwide to over
30 countries. QSL's have been printed and distributed from a winning
competition entry of James Zinkler.

Thanks to Doc and Shaun for their efforts.

Across Australia from VK1WIA you're tuned to the WIA National News Service.
In Adelaide it can be heard on VK5RAD at 9am local time. I'm David VK5KC.





DISCUSSION POINT

What use is an f-call?



(Past editions of What use is an f-call can be found online at harg.org.au
under F-troop.)




Recently I had the opportunity to see a group of amateurs show and tell lots
of little inventions, from antennas through measuring equipment, hand-made
and historic. The atmosphere was electric, HAMs showing off their technical
achievements. It was exciting to see the glint in the eye of each
demonstrator, proudly sharing their accomplishments.

I realized that in many places in life there is competition, even in Amateur
Radio there are contests, but this was something else. This was an experience
that highlighted to me what Amateur Radio is all about, figuring out how to
achieve something and sharing it with others.

I understand that you could
think that this too could turn into a competition, but the web-sites I've
seen in the past year contradict that notion. Everywhere I look there are
people trying to share their knowledge, trying to make Amateur Radio a great
place to be, telling stories, inventing things, making and building.



All this is a run-up to something, a run-up to one question:



"What have you shared lately?"



If you received your license recently, you may think that you have nothing to
share. Ironically that is absolutely untrue. You bring with you a new
curiosity, a fresh set of inquisitiveness that you can share with fellow
amateurs. You bring an excitement to the hobby that might assist experienced
HAMs with a thrill of their own.



So, don't be shy, young HAM or old hand, share and share alike.



I'm Onno vk6flab






INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club, ARRL,
Amateur Radio Newsline, NZART, ARVictoria and the WW sources of the WIA.

Amateur Radio Posters for Download

The RSGB has made available a collection of amateur radio promotional
posters that can be used when demonstrating the hobby to the public.

The posters can be downloaded from
rsgb.org/posters





Meteoroid the size of a mini-van explodes over California

An explosion over California that rattled homes across at least two states
has been analyzed by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office: It was a natural
meteoroid the size of a mini-van.

Analysts say the space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equal
to nearly 4 kilotons of TNT and might have sprayed the Sierra Nevada
mountains with meteorites.

Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information





Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT new SARL President

Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, was elected as the South African Radio League (SARL)
President.

In his address at the annual dinner he said that his objective for his year
of office is "Together we will achieve more for amateur radio."

He said "I believe that clubs should become more active in the SARL and its
national activities and on the flip side, the SARL must be more engaged with
clubs. The old cliché of "unity is strength" could not be more true today
than ever before.

While we achieve successes at international level, we need to work harder at
successes at national level. We need to work better together, communicate
more with each other. Clubs and the SARL need to support each other to grow
and expand. The IARU's international voice is only strengthened by national
members and societies.

"I urge each club to affiliate with the SARL and appoint a liaison officer to
strengthen the communications channel. Communications must be two way and
that is the important role of a liaison officer at every club. Communicate to
the SARL what is happening at club level and how the SARL can add more value.
It should also be the task of the liaison officer to ensure that the SARL
communication channels reach club members by including information in local
bulletins, at club meetings and at club committee meetings."





RADIO SCOUTING: NEW DEDICATED IRLP TOPIC CHANNEL FOR SCOUTS

Radio Scouting and the Jamboree on the Air now have a common
meeting place for Internet Radio Linking Project contacts or
IRLP. As one of the new Topic Channels, scouts need only
connect to IRLP Node 9091 to make contact with one another.

The Radio Scouting and Jamboree on the Air Topic Channel is
available for use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A
recommended time for calling has initially been established
for 1800 UTC for weekend activities, such as Radio Merit
Badge events, as well as contacts during Summer Camp.
Another suggested time is 0100 UTC to accommodate most
scouts during the evening hours.

For detailed information on available IRLP repeaters in your
area, how IRLP works and operating guidelines, visit
www.irlp.net on the World-Wide-Web. For more information
about this and other IRLP Topic Channels take your web
browser to www.irlptopics.net


=============================================================================


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

NEW OTH RADAR REPORT RELEASED BY DK20M

A new paper released by a ham in Germany may shed some light
on sources of interference on the ham bands caused by radar
systems world-wide. Jim Davis, W2JKD, has more:

--

Wolfgang Hadel DK2OM has made available a report documenting
High Frequency Over The Horizon radar systems used around
the world. Also included are Ionosphere and Troposhere
Diagnostic Radars as well as well as Ocean Wave and Coastal
Radars. All of these can interfere with amateur radio and
shortwave listening.

The report is an exceedingly thorough look at these various
Radar systems and their uses. It also includes explanations
of how some of these systems work and include photographs,
maps and graphs of some of the operations.

The 36 page report is free to anyone who wants a copy. You
can download it in Adobe .pdf format at
tinyurl.com/oth-radar-report.

I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD.






WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

JAPAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY PLANS SPACE ELEVATOR

And finally this week, while it might the stuff of science
fiction dreams are made ofr, a Japanese construction company
has announced that it will have built a working space
elevator by 2050. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Butera-
Howell, KB3TZD, is here with this glimpse into the future:

--

Imagine putting a microsat under your arm, taking it on an
elevator ride to a geostationary on-orbit outpost and
eventually hsving it tossed into space. Such might be the
case in about 40 to 50 years if the plans of a Japan-based
construction company come to pass,

According to the The Daily Yomiuri newspaper, the company
known as Obayashi Corporation has announced it will build a
kind of space elevator by the year 2050. One that will be
capable of shuttling passengers and supplies 36,000
kilometers above the Earth.

The company plans to use carbon nanontubes, which are said
to be 20 times stronger than steel, to produce the cables
required for the elevator. Those cables will be stretched to
a counterweight 96,000 kilometers above our planet. Thats
about one-fourth of the distance between the Earth and the moon.

An Obayashi official told the newspaper that the terminal
station to be located 36,000 kilometers above Earth, will be
reached by cars that can carry 30 people and travel at 200
kilometers per hour.

He adds that at this moment, the company cannot estimate the
cost for the project. However, they will try to make steady
progress so that it won't end just up as simply a dream.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Heather Butera-Howell KB3TZD,
looking at the future from near Burwick, Pennsylvania.

--

The Obayashi spokesperson could not estimate the cost the
cost of the project but did admit that it will be high. And
whether this project can actually become a reality is up for
discussion for at least the time being.





RADIO SPORT

Greetings Everyone - this is Trent VK4TS- Coming up shortly is the WIA AGM
and its time to reflect over the past 12 months in contesting - my area of
special interest

2012 has seen the formation of the WIA Contest Committee and the introduction
of general rules for WIA contests - Contrary to some misconceptions these are
not an attempt to make all contests the same but rather to use the same terms
for all our sponsored contests.

Sadly we saw the resignation due to ill health of our long time RD Contest
manager Peter VK4OD - however Peter recommended Alan VK4SN as his replacement
and Alan has taken on the role with gutso - Interestingly he has proposed a
couple of changes to the rules and these are in the May issue of AR or on the
WIA website

The Oceania Dx Contest has another record in logs received (over 1200 logs)
an amazing turnaround by a contest that only 15 years ago was almost extinct
Well done Brian VK3MI and team.

The Field Day contests have continued to increase activity with the
John Moyle capably managed by Denis VK4AE leading the way however more
interest is also being shown in the VHF/UHF only events under the stewardship
of John VK3KM.

With the changes to the RD Contest there has been a proposal put forward for
individual sponsored trophies, Chris VK3FY has already volunteered the South
Pacific Contest Club to donate a shield for the highest scoring Multi
Operator and I look forward to hearing from any others groups interested in
sponsoring one.

this has been Trent VK4TS





SPECIAL EVENTS AND ON AIR CONTEST COLUMN - D A T E L I N E 2012

VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80metres Phone May 12
VK Shires Contest June 9-10
VK Winter VHF-UHF Field Day June 23-24
ZL NZART Memorial Contest July First full weekend
VK/ZL Trans Tasman Contest 80+160metres July 21
VK Remembrance Day Contest August 11-12
WW International Lighthouse Lightship Wknd August 18-19
VK Spring VHF / UHF Field Day November 24-25





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE

N6G TO CELEBRATE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AT AGE 75

A Healdsburg, California ham has announced a special event
operation to celebrate the 75th anniversary of one of the states
most usefull landmarks.

Will Pattullo, AE6YB, tells Newsline that he will be hosting
special event N6G an May 26 and the 27th. This to celebrate the
75th anniversary of the opening of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

AE6YB says he will definitely be on 7.265, 14.265 and 21.265
MHz during the two-day operation. He will also try to get
on 80 and 10 meters if time permits. Domestic U-S stations
should QSL N6G via AE6YB with a self addressed stamped
envelope direct via his callbook address. DX stations are
asked to include a US dollar to cover return postage.

Details on www.sfarc.org




F4CYZ iS operational from Morocco as CN2YZ through years end. His activity
will be from Tangier especially on the weekends. The Mediterraneo DX Club
is supporting his activities and is also providing a Web site with a
log-check. Its in cyberspace at
mdxc.org/cn2yz





MEDIA WATCH
www.cq-amateur-radio.com/WorldRadio.html
VK Club Bulletins http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aarnie/

When a new broadcaster comes on line they are encouraged to subscribe to
the wiabroadcasters at yahoogroups.com webservice.

Twice a week you receive emails, the first is posted detailing that weeks
news broadcast, duration and where the audio can be downloaded from.

The 2nd email is a detailed tally sheet from all the official rebroadcast
stations across VK. Remember the only rebroadcast stations of this news shown
on the WIA "where to hear us" web page are the ones regularly sending us the
number of callbacks each week.

If you wish to join and are a rebroadcaster drop us an email now, to


Also when sending National News Material PLEASE read the "how to submit items"
on the weekly news page at wia.org.au

Don't send us just url's and please post your audio onto the news area, not
by email.





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

16 Japanese educational satellites to be launched

Sixteen educational satellites are under construction in Japan. The first
should be launched in May followed by the others over the next two years.

The first to launch is the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2 built by students
at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT). The launch is on a Japanese
H-IIA rocket planned for May 17 at 1639-1642 UT.

The mission aims to take pictures of the Earth using a small CMOS camera
SCAMP (Surrey Camera Payload) developed by the University of Surrey, a sister
university of KIT. SCAMP takes a 640×480 pixel picture in a JPEG format. From
700 km altitude, one pixel corresponds to 1.6 km.

HORYU-2 will be followed in July by the launch of the HTV3 to the
International Space Station (ISS). This will deliver the JEM-Small Satellite
Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) along with the Japanese CubeSats WE-WISH, FITSAT-1
and RAIKO. These CubeSats should be deployed from the ISS in September using
the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) robot arm.

FITSAT-1, also known as NIWAKA, will use a neodymium magnet for attitude
control. It has multiple downlinks, CW on 437.250 MHz, AX.25 on 437.445 MHz
and a 4 watt high speed data transmitter on 5840 MHz capable of sending a
640 by 480 VGA JPEG image in 6 seconds.

In addition it carries high power LEDs that will be driven with 100W pulses
to produce extremely bright flashes. These, it is hoped, will be observable
by the unaided eye or with small binoculars. Both the 5840 MHz and optical
downlinks have a high power consumption so it may be that they are only
activated over Japan.

In December TSUBAME is planned to be launched on a H-IIA. It aims to have a
CW beacon on 437.250 MHz and AX.25 1200/9600bps telemetry on 437.505 MHz.

Further information on all the satellites can be found on the AMSAT-UK
website at http://www.uk.amsat.org/6691

AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, which is full of
Amateur Satellite information.

Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf

Join online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO AMATEUR OLD-TIMERS
http://www.raotc.org.au

WITH QCWA BECOME A MEMBER OR PAY DUES ON-LINE

The Quarter Century Wireless Association has announced that those
eligible can now join the organization or renew membership on-line.

The link to the applications are at www.qcwa.org/how-to-join.php
After you complete the form, click 'Add to Cart. From there you will
be taken to PayPal to complete the transaction.

You don't need to be a member of PayPal to use a Debit or
Credit card. You do need to be a member of PayPal to use
your checking or savings account electronic transfer.
Eligibility to join QCWA requires a continuous 25 years as a
licensed amateur radio operator.





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


Saturday May 5th 2012
East Gippsland Stages
Bairnsdale
Contact: Colin Pomroy VK3BLE phone: 03 5149 7228
Email:

Sunday May 6th 2012
Kenda Nav Rally
Rubicon
Contact: Peter Weeks VK3YZP phone: 03 5772 1454
Email:

Regards,
WICEN Secretary,





SOCIAL SCENE 2012

APR 28 VK6 HARGfest (Hills ARG)

MAY 3-18 VK5 YL International 2012 Australia ()

MAY 5- 6 VK4 RADAR and MARC Clairview Gathering

MAY 25-27 VK3 WIA Annual Conference Mildura

MAY 26 VK4 BARCFEST (a hamfest) Mt Gravatt Showgrounds 9am.

JUN 8-11 VK4 FNNQARG! QLD Cassowary Coast

JUN 9-10 VK5 South East Radio Group Convention, Mt Gambier.

JULY 14 VK4 Wide Bay Hamfest. West Maryborough Scout Hall

JULY 21 VK3 Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club Hamfest @ Cranbourne

JULY 21 VK4 WIA VK4 CLUB PRESIDENTS LUNCH Hervey Bay AR Club

NOV 4 VK5 Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society HAMFEST @ Goodwood

NOV 11 VK3 Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group Hamfest

NOV 25 VK3 SPARC HAMFEST AT ROSEBUD





WIA Annual Conference Mildura

May 25th, 26th and 27th 2012

Details for the WIA 2012 Annual Conference being held in Mildura are on
wia.org.au

Host club is Sunraysia Radio Group, led by Garry Briant VK3KYF and
Noel Ferguson VK3FI.

WIA Members who register for the event will be able to participate in a
range of fascinating and memorable activities.








Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to

to submit audio read "how to submit items" in the weekly news page on
wia.org.au

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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


=============================================================================

WIANews - we've reported...YOU decide.

TWITTER http://twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed prior to
the actual broadcast date, e-mail

Call-backs follow the RF editions, but also for text readers you may
lodge a quick reply to let us know you read it, who knows, you might
even get a "cheerio call".


Thanks to our dedicated band of broadcast volunteers who utilize
their time and equipment in bringing you this weekly broadcast.

The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
active amateurs residing in Australia and the globe.

We strongly encourage membership in the Wireless Institute of Australia
and participation in the activities of local clubs.

Opinions expressed in "WIANews" are those of the writers who submit
material and do not necessarily reflect those of the rebroadcasters,
nor the National WIA, but are broadcast in the spirit in which they were
submitted.

Material may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, a credit to
WIANews wouldn't go astray...

Compiled by VK4BB on behalf of the National WIA.



*****************************************************************************


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