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WIANEWS - DECEMBER 30 - 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 nationalnews@wia.org.au

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WIANEWS WEEK COMMENCING DECEMBER 30 2012.

WIA Presidents New Year Broadcast - 2013

WIA Club Grant Winners

WIA ACMA HIGHER POWER

WIA ACMA NEW BAND ALLOWED

THESE STORIES AND MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE
OF AUSTRALIA FOR WEEK COMMENCING DEC 30 2012.






quick index guide


WIA President Christmas Message
-------------------------------
The President, Directors, staff and volunteers of The
Wireless Institute of Australia extend to all radio amateurs
very best wishes for the festive season.
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2012/20121223-3/index.php



Club Grants for 2012 Announced
------------------------------
The Board of the WIA has accepted the recommendations of the
2012 Club Grant Committee and announced the successful
applications.
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2012/20121223-2/index.php



ACMA Announces High Power Trial Assessments
-------------------------------------------
ACMA announces assessment of the use of higher transmitter
output power by amateur advanced licensees.
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2012/20121223-1/index.php



Contest Rules Clarification
---------------------------
After discussion by the Contest Committee, the optical band
will be excluded under the general contest rules because it
is not listed as an amateur band in the LCD.
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2012/20121222-1/index.php



WIA Office Christmas Closure
----------------------------
The Wireless Institute of Australia extends to all radio
amateurs very best wishes for the festive season.
http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2012/20121220-1/index.php





Sad SKnews that Mr SuperMarionation - Gerry Anderson - has passed away
aged 83. Although not an Amateur, any "ham" worth his 'ions' would have
known of "THUNDERBIRDS."

Gerry's company, Century 21 Films, brought to the TV screen Torchy the
Battery Boy, Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Stingray, Thunderbirds,
Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, UFO, Space 1999 plus many many more series featuring
puppetry and live action, sometimes with a futuristic feel and always with a
good dose of dry humour. Because of its US syndication and 2 feature films,
Thunderbirds would be Gerry's most famous work.
So, Vale Gerry Anderson. F.A.B !

(VK4ZZ)





Another storm hits the Philippines

Spare a thought for those who spent a nervous, very wet and windy Christmas
period as Tropical Storm Quinta went through the south of the Philippines,
in areas trying to recover from Typhoon Bopha earlier in the month.

Activated during the storm was the Philippines Amateur Radio Association
emergency net on 7.095 MHz and VHF, to handle emergency and welfare traffic.

A request to keep the HF frequency clear was issued by PARA's Vice Chief
Operating Officer, Ramon J. Anquilan DU1UGZ.

Among those involved were members of the PARA-affiliated club, The District
5 Radio Amateur Network DX5RAN.

They were kept busy coordinating much needed pre-emptive evacuations in Tacloban
City and elsewhere alongside the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Other radio amateurs were also involved in the overall emergency.

Landslides occurred in the Visayas, Southern Leyte and Eastern Samar areas.
There were more than 5,800 ferry passengers stranded with fishermen told
not to venture out.

The archipelago has numerous severe weather events each year. Typhoon Bopha
which made landfall over Mindanao on December the 2nd ripped through the
southern provinces killing 1,067 people, leaving hundreds missing and many
more homeless.

(Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee,
with Ramon J. Anquilan DU1UGZ, PARA Vice Chief Operating Officer)





WIA BOARD TALK

President Phil Wait VK2ASD vk2asd@wia.org.au
Vice President Chris Platt VK5CP vk5cp@wia.org.au
Secretary David Williams VK3RU vk3ru@wia.org.au
Treasurer John Longayroux VK3PZ vk3pz@wia.org.au


WIA Office Christmas New Year Closed till Jan 14.

BUT Urgent enquiries should be directed to the WIA Manager, Mal Brooks
VK3FDSL, via email address out-of-office@wia.org.au or, for very urgent
matters, via mobile 0413 179 347.





The new 630 meter band is now a reality

ACMA Makes Amendments to the Amateur Licence Conditions Determination (LCD) -
The new 630 meter band is now a reality.

Effective from the 1st January 2013, Australian Advanced amateur licensees can
now operate in the new band (630 meters) on a secondary basis. This new world
wide allocation from 472 kHz to 479 kHz is an outcome of the ITU World Radio
Conference in 2012 (WRC-12). The ACMA has amended the conditions in the LCD that
gives effect to the WRC outcomes authorising a radiated power of not more than
5 watts pX EIRP, with a maximum emission bandwidth of 2.1 kHz.

There are however two exclusion zones where amateur operation is not permitted
so as to protect aeronautical non-directional beacons (NDB) operating in the
Exmouth and Timor regions.

Also included in the amendments is the withdrawal for general use by advanced
licensees to the amateur secondary allocation, 420 to 430 MHz to allow for
greater harmonisation of government services in the 400 MHz band, following the
ACMA's review of this band. The use of this segment by amateurs was mainly for
fixed links associated with repeater interlinking and a number of ATV channels
where alternative channel assignment have been achieved in the 430 to 450 MHz
band.





ACMA announces assessment of the use of higher transmitter output power by
amateur advanced licensees.

The ACMA recently met with the WIA to advise how it is going to assess the trial
of the use of higher transmitter output power by advanced licensees, commencing
early in 2013.

The ACMA's assessment process will begin with desk-based audits to assess
licensees' compliance with their electromagnetic energy (EME) obligations.

Advanced licensees authorised to use higher power are to be contacted by mail
from the start of February 2013 and asked to provide relevant documentation.
This may be followed up with an on-site audit by the ACMA.

Further information about the audit - including a supporting FAQ - and broader
assessment of the trial will be available on the ACMA website early in 2013.

More information on EME (EMR) licence requirements, including assessment tools,
can be found by following these links:

http://www.wia.org.au/licenses/licensing/hfhighpowertrial/

http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_1833





The ACMA has advised the WIA that the 700 MHz LTE trial in Midland Western
Australia has now ended.

This means that Advanced Amateur licence holders that were within the exclusion
zone can now apply to the ACMA for a variation to their existing licences to
operate up to 1 kW on the primary HF bands during the trial period. More
information on how to apply can be found on WIA Front Page News.

http://www.wia.org.au





WIA AGM

Planning

Have you prepared for the last weekend in May;
the 2013 WIA AGM and Conference?

If you need help in preparing for your journey to Western Australia, we've
created a page with information that will help your planning and budgeting.
You can find that online together with up to date information, programmes,
calendar of events, expressions of interest for workshops and other
information about what's happening with the Conference.

The 2013 WIA AGM and Conference, it's all about Engaging, Learning,
Appreciating, Socializing and Discovering.

You'll find all the information online at the VK6 conference site,
conference.vk6.net.





Club Grants for 2012 Announced

The Board of the WIA has accepted the recommendations of the 2012 Club
Grant Committee and announced the successful applications.

The Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club will receive a grant of $600
to make improvements to Club Station and hall to enable them to conduct
training and education courses.

The Brisbane Amateur Radio Club will be supported by a grant of $600
to provide a laptop computer to run AOCP classes.

The Central Goldfields ARC Maryborough will receive a grant of $500
for a data projector for a new meeting room.

The Eastern and Mountain Districts Radio Club will be supported by a
grant of $1,000 to support their work promoting amateur radio by the
installation of a Digital TV system for both fixed and portable use in
classrooms and public display.

The Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club will receive a grant of $573 to
help them to improve their building shared with a scout group by the
provision of screen doors.

The Scout Members Amateur Radio Team WA will receive a grant of $600
to purchase publicity materials such as posters, website and exhibition
pull up banners to be used to promote amateur radio training and assessment.

The Sherbrooke Community Radio Club will be supported by a grant of
$800 to purchase a 4 kW generator and marquee to better participate in
public events, radio contests and JOTA.

The Tamworth Radio Club will be supported by a grant of $520 to
support their on-going project installing digipeters in NW NSW in
support of Scouts training and Amateur Radio generally.





Presidents New Year Broadcast - 2013

In my broadcast before Christmas I summarised the WIAs main achievements last
year, and thanked the WIA staff and the very many volunteers who all helped us
through a very difficult period.

In this broadcast I want to tell you something about the changes we hope to
achieve during 2013, but first it's important to understand the drivers for that
change.

Recently the WIA has experienced a fall in revenue due mainly to a drop-off in
the number of new licensees, and the general economic conditions affecting sales
to members and advertising revenue.

At the same time costs have been increasing... just like for everyone.

The financial situation is certainly not serious as the WIA has significant
reserves, but it is something which needs to be addressed.

It would be easy to simply jack up the membership fees to cover the shortfall,
but in the present economic climate and with such a large proportion of the
WIAs membership retired and living on fixed-interest incomes, that doesn't sound
a very good idea right now.

The Board is also concerned about the fact that too few volunteers do too much
work, and in recent times the demands on some key volunteers has been
unrealistic. We need to get more skilled volunteers involved in the operation
of the WIA, in a way that it doesn't become a burden.

One of the things we constantly hear from people is that the WIA doesn't do
anything for me, or my particular problem. Well, the WIA does an awful lot for
members, especially in its advocacy role with the ITU, the IARU and the ACMA,
but that work is often behind the scenes and goes largely unnoticed.

All radio amateur's benefit from the work of the WIA, it's just that some get a
free ride. However, we do need to provide more tangible membership benefits, and
we need to improve the information flow to members so they always know what the
WIA is doing, and so the WIA better knows what its members want.

In summary we need to improve the finances, reduce the work load on volunteers,
and improve the member experience.

So, what are we going to do about it?

The WIA Board has decided to introduce two new initiatives which it hopes will
go a long way to addressing these issues. In 2013 we are introducing a new
'cloud' based membership management system called MEMNET.

A "cloud" based system is one where, for a monthly charge to the WIA, the
entire office information system is provided by an outside company as a service
over the internet.

A Cloud based system frees the WIA and its volunteers from having to develop
maintain and upgrade the WIA computer information systems, but it has many other
advantages as well.
With MEMNET, you will log into a members-only section on the WIA website to
update your personal details like address and call sign, your particular
interests in amateur radio, to purchase items, pay your membership fees, and
receive messages from office staff.
You will know that your personal information is up to date, and if you have
registered your interests you can receive targeted Email's alerting you to
upcoming club events, technical information or information about products and
services.
The MEMNET Membership Management System is also expected to offer significant
administration efficiencies. Margaret, who currently works part-time at the WIA
office is retiring early in 2013 and, with the introduction of MEMNET,
Margaret's position will not need to be replaced.

By saving one office position MEMNET is expected to be cost-neutral in the
first year of operation and then offers significant cost savings to the WIA in
following years.
Naturally a change like this is probably going to have some speed-bumps along
the way; some members may not have the internet and some may still prefer more
personal contact with the office. Those members will still be able to call the
office and speak to Dianne or Mal, but things will certainly be a lot quicker
and more convenient using the internet.
Look out for more information about the MEMNET system, and how to set up your
user profile, in the coming months.
You can find out more about the MEMNET system by going to www.MEMNET.com.au

In addition to overhauling the administration system, the WIA Board is also
looking at ways to streamline the work of volunteers, and encourage more member
participation in the workings of the WIA.
We have divided the work of the WIA into about 10 core committee areas, each
with defined terms of reference. Each committee will have a leader who reports
to the WIA Board, and the committees will be tasked with identifying issues and
forming recommendations to the Board in their various specialist areas, and
enacting Board decisions.
It's still early days and we are waiting for feed-back from our many volunteers
to a draft proposal circulated recently, but we hope to have something more
concrete to say soon.

So, there is lot's happening at the WIA in 2013. Much of it is about
housekeeping at this stage, but out of it will come better member services,
a better membership experience, and more reasons for people to join.

Have a very happy new-year, and we hope to see you on air in 2013.
This is Phil Wait, VK2ASD for the WIA.





HAMS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

VK0

Mawson in Antarctica to be activated

Departing next month for the coast of MacRobertson Land and Australia's base
at Mawson is Craig Hayhow VK6JJJ, who will be signing as VK0JJJ.

He lands on February the 10th, planning to soon after install the 6m beacon
VK0RTM and test the propagation on that band.

The main HF rig is a FlexRadio Flex-5000A coupled to an amplifier and feeding
a terminated sloping triangle antenna.

On 6m it will be at 400 watts from Mawson thanks to a power amplifier from
Steve Gregory VK3ZAZ, who is also the QSL manager, and radiated by a 5-element
yagi.

The amateur satellites on 2m and 70cm are to be accessed using a crossed
duo-bander.

During the next 12 months Craig VK0JJJ is in Antarctica to work and amateur
radio is his leisure time activity.

(Jim Linton VK3PC)





VK2
web service:- http://www.arnsw.org.au/html/news_vk2wi.htm
VKG Roundup http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news
Email Address : r_demkiw@yahoo.com.au

VK2WI News is in a morning only format for the next three weeks.
The evening session resumes on Sunday the 20 th January.

(73 - Tim (text only))





VK7
vk7 local news, email vk7regionalnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vk7regionalnews/


REAST Training, Education & Assessment

A Foundation Licence Training and Assessment Day will be held on
Saturday 19 January at the REAST Clubrooms in Hobart. Anyone interested
in attending should contact our learning organiser Reg VK7KK on 0417 391
607, or via email on regemm@ozemail.com.au


Copies of the Foundation Licence Manual - "Your Entry into Amateur Radio"
can be obtained from Clayton Reading VK7ZCR's Caltex Service Station corner
of Main Road and Amy St Moonah for $25.

(73, Reg VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor(text only))





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


DARC TO HOLD STRATEGY MEETING ON DANGERS OF PLC / PLT

This note to our listeners in Germany and of interest to Amateurs World Wide.

Saturday, January 12, 2013 the Deutscher Amateur
Radio Club will be sponsoring a one-day workshop
dealing with the possible hazards to amateur
radio from electromagnetic Power line Transmission
more commonly known in Europe as in-home
P-L-T.


The workshop slated for the DARC headquarters will cover all aspects
of power line Internet transmission and its likely
effects on our amateur radio operations.

More is on line at
tinyurl.com/GermanyDARC





SARL PRESIDENT'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE ON AMATEUR RADIO TODAY

Last week we heard from Phil Waite our WIA President with his
Christmas message, well the SARL President's Christmas and New Year Message
is also be available in both written and audio format on the SARL web
sarl.org.za


In his Christmas message Rassie, ZS1YT said that when Paul M. Segal, W9EEA,
wrote the Amateur's code he gave real meaning to what is meant by amateur radio
spirit.

"Amateur Radio gives us this wonderful opportunity to reach out to many people
and I urge you to do so Christmas and New Year's. Make one or two contacts and
wish the other station and his or her family a happy festive season.

Read the full message on www.sarl.org.za





RSGB remind us of World Amateur Radio Day

Each year on 18th April, radio amateurs around the world
celebrate World Amateur Radio Day.

On that day in 1925 the International Amateur Radio Union
was founded. In 1913, the first recorded instance of
amateur radio being used to provide communications in a
natural disaster, during severe flooding in the Midwest of
the United States. Accordingly, the theme of the event for
2013 is Amateur Radio: Entering Its Second Century of
Disaster Communications.

Activities on the occasion of World Amateur Radio Day 2013
can be a great opportunity to spread the word about what
amateurs are doing in the field of disaster communications
in the 21st Century.





Yasme Excellence Award

Peter, G3PLX is among those to receive the Yasme Excellence Award, given to
those who have made a significant contribution to amateur radio.

Peter, along with Pawel Jalocha, SP9VRC, received the award
for the development of PSK31, a widely used digital mode
entirely invented by amateurs that is enabling many
amateurs to successfully use HF with very modest stations.


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


IRTS NEWS DESK

EI13CLAN

As you may be aware, 2013 sees a major event entitled 'The Gathering' being
promoted both at home and abroad to engage with the Irish Diaspora around the
globe. This is a 32 county, cross border, initiative and given the unique
ability of Amateur Radio to communicate so effectively, the Society will support
the initiative by way of a variety of events and programmes during the year.

We will announce particulars early in the new year by way of bulletins on the
radio news service, a dedicated page on the IRTS website and of course in Echo
Ireland. ComReg has issued to the Society a special event callsign 'EI 13 CLAN'
which will be active throughout the year, much as our 'EI 80 IRTS' call was
used in 2012.

We expect that the callsign will generate quite a lot of interest from overseas
operators, particularly in the U.S., who have Irish roots, so if there are any
members who have a particular interest in genealogy and who would be willing to
assist with any such queries please contact Seamus EI8BP, or any member of the
committee.


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


NEWS FROM ARNEWSLINE USA

IARU ACCEPTS TWO NEW MEMBERS

The Federation of Radio Sport of Azerbaijan and
the St Vincent and the Grenadines Amateur Radio
Club are the two newest members of the International Amateur Radio Union.

The Radio Sport of Azerbaijan has some 50 members
while the Grenadines Amateur Radio Club hosts 21.
Both nations have relatively small ham radio
populations with the former representing all 50
of its ham radio population and the latter
representing 21 of that nation's 134.

As of February, 2009, the International Amateur
Radio Union was composed of 162 national member
societies. The addition of The Radio Sport of
Azerbaijan and the Grenadines Amateur Radio Club
now brings that total to 164.





CHANGING OF THE GUARD: HELICOPTER NEWS PIONEER JOHN SILVA - SK

The man who invented helicopter coverage for
television, has died. John D. Silva was the
chief engineer for Los Angeles television station
KTLA when he convinced station executives to give
him $40,000 to outfit a rented Bell helicopter
with a TV camera for news coverage.

Silva then worked in secrecy with Hollywood
special effects shops and engineers from the
General Electric Corporation to find or invent
technology small and light enough to fit on a
helicopter. He and his small team broadcast
their first air to ground signal on July 28, 1958
to Los Angeles viewers who would eventually come
to equate a helicopter news coverage with a
high-speed police pursuits and the like.

In an interview with Smithsonian Air & Space
Magazine, Silva said he came up with the idea
while on the freeway. He explained that he was
driving on the Hollywood Freeway one morning and when the idea came to him.

Silva told Air & Space that he never thought
about being a pioneer. Rather all that he ever
wanted to do was get KTLA News there and get the
picture before the competition got it.

The Los Angeles Times reported Silva died in
Camarillo, California, of Pneumonia complications.
He was age 92.


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


RADIO SPORT DATELINE 2012-13


Ed is getting a steady flow of registrations to the Wyong Mini Contest
University which is to be held on the 23rd. of February, the day before the
Wyong Field Day.

The first draft program is on the website fieldday.org.au As well as
presentations on contesting, an informal "ask the panel" session is also
planned to answer all those questions you didn't know who to ask.

There will be a small raffle, drawn from only the names of those who register
before the end of January.

Further updates are planned over the next few weeks.

73 Ed VK2JI.





VK ROSS HULL MEMORIAL VHF-UHF ALL JANUARY

VK SUMMER VHF-UHF FIELD DAY Sat sun JANUARY 12-13

ZL Jock White Memorial Field Day Contest Sat and Sun Feb 23 and 24.





Contest News

Optical Contacts not to count on Field Days!

The Spring Field Day results included several contacts made by means of
modulated light. There were some objections to this on the grounds that
optical frequencies are not within the definition of radio, and our
licence conditions do not mention an optical band. So, this is a can of worms.

This matter has been considered by the WIA contest director Trent
Sampson VK4TS and the contest committee. They have decided that while
the WIA does not want to discourage experimentation, optical contacts
should not be counted towards the final score of any station.

This does not prevent anyone from making optical contacts. They will
still be accepted in future Field Day logs. But they will go into a
separate results table and their scores will not contribute to the final
all-band score.





SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS, DX and BEACON AND NET ADVICE


Special UK prefixes

It was announced in the RSGB magazine that all UK radio amateurs will be able
to apply to use the special V prefix, such as GV, MV and 2V starting July 5th
until the end of the month of July.

These special prefixes will be used to celebrate 100th anniversary of the
Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).





JR1IZM who also holds the call V31IZ will be operational
as 7P8ZM from Lesotho through January of 2013. He will be
active on all of the High Frequency bands. QSL via JO1CRA





K1GI will be active stroke VP9 from Bermuda between December
29th and January 2nd. Operations will be on 160 through 10
meters using CW, SSB and the digital modes. QSL via JG2BRI,
direct or electronically using Logbook of the World. No
bureau cards will be accepted.





BROADCAST MONITORING SWL AND SCANNER NEWS

Radio Pakistan focussing on replacement of old transmitters

Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation is on way to becoming a modern multi-media
organization like BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle and others.'

Addressing a function organized in his honour at Broadcasting House,
Director General, Murtaza Solangi said the organization achieved landmark
achievements over the past four years and is now recognized as the authentic
source of information locally and internationally. 'It is due to
image-building of Radio Pakistan that ambassadors of important countries
like US, China, and other countries spare time to express their views through
this organization,' he added.

He said they are focusing to replace aging transmitters and a 100 kilowatt
transmitter is being inaugurated in Larkana on 27th of this month.
A 500 KW transmitter is also being installed.

(read more at Pakistan observer)





ZIMBABWE THREATENS TO JAM SHORTWAVE BROADCASTS

The South African nation of Zimbabwe thinks it
should jam shortwave broadcasts from outside that
nation's borders. Newzimbabwe.com reports that
at a recent Zanu PF party conference it was
proposed to jam the signals of foreign-based
radio stations such as Voice of America's Studio 7,
Radio Voice of the People and South West Radio
Africa that ruling party officials accuse of
pushing a Western-backed regime change agenda in Zimbabwe.

But critics say such a move would deny the
majority of people access to important
alternative sources of information to make
informed decisions. They argue that President
Robert Mugabe's party wants to continue its
domination of the airwaves in order to maintain
the status quo. But Zanu PF officials maintain
these radio stations are breaking the Zimbabwe
law and should be jammed. More is on-line at
tinyurl.com/zimbabwe-jamming-threats.





WIA VK1WIA HOME OF THE GOOD GUYS


HARAOA will release the ZL9HR financials which is rarely performed by any
DXpedition. Any excess of donation funds will be donated in order to sponsor
future DXpedition events and return to the DX community.

An advance donation of $1000 has already been made to NCDXF.

The HARAOA team has invested a significant amount of their own personal funds
and unpaid work to make ZL9HR possible. The driving factor to activate such a
rare entity such as ZL9 is for the benefit of the Amateur Radio hobby.

HARAOA would also like to acknowledge all the HARAOA members who contributed
and thank all supporters who donated and assisted to make ZL9HR a reality
and they look forward to another HARAOA DXpedition planned for August 2013.





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- FINAL FRONTIER

RUSSIAN HAM TO SPEND A YEAR IN SPACE:

Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, RN3BF, along
with NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly have been chosen
for a one-year long term assignment aboard the
International Space Station.

According to NASA, the mission will which will begin
in 2015 will include collecting scientific data that
will be important to the future of human exploration of
our solar system. Also it should help
researchers to understand better how the human
body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment
of space as NASA plans for missions around the
Moon, to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

(ARRL)





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RADIO SCOUTING
http://www.scouts.com.au
http://www.scout.org/jota
http://www.international.scouts.com.au


CALLING FREQUENCIES
Please QSY off the calling frequency after establishing communication.

Australian voice calling frequencies:
3.650, 7.090, 14.190, 21.190, 28.590, 52.160

World CW calling frequencies:
3.570, 7.030, 14.060, 18.080, 21.140, 24.910, 28.180, 50.160

World voice calling frequencies:
3.690 & 3.940 MHz, 7.090 & 7.190, 14.290, 18.140, 21.360,
24.960, 28.390, 50.160


Calling frequencies for Slow Scan TV (SSTV):
3.630, 7.033, 14.227

Calling Frequencies for PSK31
14.070


By Christmas Eve, major shopping venues in Maryborough, Queensland, were
starting to display advertising to the scouts currently arriving in town.
The usual Speedway venue is fast becoming a parking lot for the many coaches
sitting out the days to the return journey from the National Jamboree, AJ2013.
The visitor car parking will be conducted at the Speedway for a $2-00/day
donation with visitors using the shuttle bus service to the Jamboree.

Whilst most of us have been enjoying the Christmas festivities, the volunteer
workforce has been preparing the local Showgrounds and Equestrian Park
ensuring that camp sites are prepared, services are upgraded to support some
14,000 campers and the necessary infrastructure is in place. From medical
services to on site security, the Dream It Live It activities on site and off
site, plans have been turning into facilities.

As previously announced, on WIA National News, the Jamboree is home to VI4ASJ,
a call sign not heard since 1998. Listings are appearing on web sites in the
amateur radio as well as scouting worlds. It is hoped that conditions are
going to favour good DX but VI4ASJ also has a presence on Echolink and
IRLP with a feed to aprs.fi allowing operators to check beam headings.

In the background, people have been working on the design of the official QSL
card which, courtesy of the WIA, can now carry the "via buro" label. The
IC-718, donated by Icom Australia, has been tested on air with an auto-tuner.
Coax cable and fittings have been brought on site and rigging the antenna
farm on the roof undertaken.

Fox hunting equipment has been loaned and is arriving with one of the
Queensland contingents and what will probably be the DX station has travelled
from Victoria in its trailer complete with 15m pneumatic mast.

With a level of redundancy in the station equipment and amateurs from the
Scouts, as well as the local area, VI4ASJ should provide both an instructive
activity on site as well as a sought after contact.

For WIA National News this is Geoff, VK4ZPP, from MERG, Inc.





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 February 23rd 2013
Pajero Rally
Woods point area
Contact: Dirk Versluys VK3FPAJ phone: 03 9879 8384
Email: versluys@optusnet.com.au

Sunday March 3rd 2013
MAD Bike Ride
Woodend - Wombat State Forest
Contact: John Weir VK3XD phone: 03 9431 0667
Email: zzrvelec@bigpond.net.au





SOCIAL SCENE 2013

FEB 23 VK Wyong Mini Contest University Wyong racecourse

FEB 24 VK WYONG FIELD DAY Wyong Racecourse

MAR 24 VK7 "Meet the Voice" barbecue at Ross.

MAY 24-26 VK6 WIA AGM AND CONFERENCE IN PERTH

Just so you're aware, there is a calendar online at
http://conference.vk6.net/ The preliminary programme has
registration on the afternoon of Friday 24, followed by a
Welcome Dinner at Wireless Hill. Saturday features the AGM,
Open Forum and Seminars and Technical Talks, followed by the
Conference Dinner. Sunday the 26th contains social outings and
activities followed by the Sunday Sundowner at one of the
host clubs, the Northern Corridor Radio Group.


AUG 17-18 WW ILLW

Oct 3- 7 VK4 North Queensland Amateur Radio Convention Charters Towers

NOV 3 VK5 hamfest Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society Goodwood.

NOV 15-17 VK3 Victorian National Parks Weekend

Nov 24 VK3 Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club: Rosebud RadioFest









Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for inclusion in the
VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to nationalnews@wia.org.au

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 'and always if the news room is to read your
item write in the 3rd person.

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The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of interest to
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