September - October 2022
September - October 2022
 WIA Member Digital Edition Download
Editorial
No doubt most readers will have heard of the expression, ‘when things go wrong, they tend to really go wrong!’ It reminds me of that line from an old 1950s pop music classic, “. . everythin’s wrong, nothin’ ain’t right . .” (Guy Mitchell, 1957, Singing the Blues). Perhaps that was the case with our last issue. If you didn’t notice anything, don’t look now!
Laying out the issue went ahead as normal, without any unusual dramas, never mind the Covid pandemic. The electronic files were uploaded to the printer’s server at Bairnsdale as per the arranged scheduled. All well and good. A week rolled by and magazines began to land in members’ letterboxes. Right then came a mysterious phone call.
‘Things are all over the place. Pages are way out of registration. Colour’s up the putty. Production file numbers and registration marks are appearing on borders where they shouldn’t be appearing. Pages have been trimmed too close.’ Well. Thanks for letting us know. My member subscription copy had not yet arrived. Another Publications Committee member received his issue and rifled through the pages. Well, it turned out that page 57 had many of the problems detailed. But, the issues laid out seemed confined to Page 57. Nevertheless, time to write down the facts and prepare to talk to our customer relations manager at the printer. The head shearing. The boss.
I was still waiting for my copy in the post. Hence, I had no first-hand experience of the issues raised. Next best thing, have some smartphone shots taken and emailed to me. Not a pretty sight. Bound to create furrows in one’s brow (over and above those there already!). Just as we were getting a handle on all that, a member called the National Office. Half the pages from his issue were missing! Gulp. Damn it – that line from Singing the Blues was becoming an earwig!
It’s bad enough that, in the present era, with social media bound to light up and spread unfortunate misinformation at the drop of a pixel, when small matters are exaggerated such that people draw the sort of conclusion that goes ‘one thing bad, everything’s bad’.
Ask disappointed member to post his half-bitten copy to the National Office and request Executive Administrator, Bruce Deefholts VK3FBLD, to send the member a replacement issue (hoping desperately that there aren’t hundreds of them out there). Have half-bitten issue forwarded to Sergio VK3SO, who lays out and assembles AR’s pages, so he can accost our contact at the printery and gently ask what happened. Finally, Australia Post comes to the party and my member subscription copy is awaiting me in the family PO Box. Rip, tear, flick through to Page 57 . . . gasp, horror of horrors. Just as described. All the egregious issues rolled into one. Well, that’s comforting. They don’t seem to be spread across page after page through the issue. Still. Not a good look. None of it is evident in the digital issue that I posted to the WIA website. Sergio went through the digital production files that he’d uploaded to the printer. Definitely nothing amiss there.
Subsequent discussions with the printer . . . respectfully, along the lines of ‘let me top up your drink, Mr Smith’ . . . revealed that the registration of Page 57 was moved at some stage of the print run, the whys and wherefores of which have yet to be pinned down. The matter of the half-bitten issue is a rare misstep in the binding process, but one that is well-known to those of us who work, or have worked, in the publishing trade. Now that these matters have been brought to the attention of all and sundry involved in producing AR, eternal vigilance will mitigate any likely repetition. Guy Mitchell fades into the noise.
Table Of Contents
General
 Riley rings-in the revolution in online remote assessments
The retro-tech for Anzac Day event - Mike Patterson VK4MIK
After 45 years, the 5-billion-year legacy of the Voyager 2 interstellar probe is just beginning - Alice Gorman
Collected QSLs reveal history of amateur radio and the march of technology - Michael Goode VK3BDL
The story behind the WIA’s Wilkinson Award - Chris Skeer VK5MC
Technical
Antenna Modelling using 4nec2 – Part 3 - Michael Barbera and Gregory Mew VK4GRM
Arduino-based 12-line automatic home telephone intercom exchange - Dale Hughes VK1DSH
Easy digital compass for an antenna rotator - Lou Destefano VK3AQZ
Collins S-line conservation and conversion: job 1 - Phil Fitzherbert VK3FF
Valves and valve testers – what you never knew that you need to know now - Phil Wait VK2ASD
Collected QSL cards reveal history of amateur radio and the march of technology
Michael Goode VK3BDL lifts the veil on a raft of rare, important and "everyday" QSL cards exchanged between operators during the 1920s and 1930s.
From the era when spark rigs reigned to the time "AM Phone" took hold, from the time when amateur bands were on metre wavelengths to when they became kilohertz (kHz).
Among the mundane material conveyed on these QSLs are gems of personal views and achievements, and the extraordinary "palaeontology" of the early development of communications technology. Curiosity and nostalgia can be satisfied from the download below.
The story behined the WIA's Wilkinson Award
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm", so said Ron Wilkinson VK3ZER / VK3AKC, who achieved the first successful mounbounce contacts on 1296 MHz from Australia to the USA and Europe in March 1972.
A prolific homebrewer, Ron also set a number of terrestrial VHF and UHF records. Read how the WIA's Wilkinson Award came to be - download the story below.
Files For Download
Page Last Updated: Friday, 07 Oct 2022 at 15:35 hours by Armag
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