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2020 SEPTEMBER 13 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA



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THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

THIS LINK IS A VIDEO VERSION OF NEWS COMPILED BY VK5BD BEVAN
tinyurl.com/WIA-News-Videos

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NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 13 2020
IN OUR 25th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS



WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS

5 MHz

G 5 MHZ " Remembering Gordon

In the UK, the 5 MHz band has been available since 2002.

This, UK hams owe to the initiative of Gordon Adams, G3LEQ, at the
time Spectrum Director of the Radio Society of Great Britain, who was
central to negotiations with the Regulator and the UK Ministry of
Defence, the primary user of the band.

One of the elements of Gordon’s proposals for use of the band was as
a vehicle for countrywide coverage of the GB2RS news bulletin,
produced by the RSGB.

Gordon became a Silent Key in 2018 and the GB2RS 5 MHz news reading
team have looked for a way to actively remember Gordon’s vital
contribution.

The opportunity arose when Ofcom recently released the G5 + 3 Letter
call series. The 5 MHz Newsreaders, as ‘The 5 MHz Pioneers Group’
applied for and received the call G5MHZ.

The call G5MHZ is in recognition and remembrance of the work done
by Gordon in obtaining a band at 5 Megahertz for UK Radio Amateurs.

The callsign? ‘ 5 MHZ’ is obvious and the ‘G’? Well what else could
it stand for but Gordon!

Look out for G5MHZ on 60 m.

(PAUL GASKELL G4MWO)





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- BALLOONING

VLF Balloon with 210m long antenna launches Sept 12

A high-altitude balloon experiment, launched by Warsaw University of
Technology, was planned to lift off September 12, carrying a
VLF 210-m-long fully-airborne antenna system, transmitting on
14.2 kHz

14.2 kHz is the former frequency of the Babice Radio Station in
Poland.

The project is delivering very important data for a doctoral
dissertation " any and all feedback on the reception of the signal
(reception location, SNR, bandwidth etc.) is extremely important;
your help with the listening to the transmission would be invaluable!

The balloon will also be transmitting APRS on 144.800 MHz FM,
callsign SP5AXL.

alexander.n.se/grimetons-sister-station-shall-reappear-in-the-stratosphere/?lang=en

(SouthGate)





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- CW
FISTS Club - East Asia feacw.net
FISTS Club - Australasia fdu.org.au
FISTS Club - UK & Europe fists.co.uk
FISTS Club - Americas fists.org

Recommended FISTS calling frequencies (MHz):
1.808 3.528 7.028 10.118 14.058 18.085 21.058 24.908
28.058

FISTS Log Converter latest version, 4.0.1 for Windows is now
available.

FISTS Log Converter can be used in conjunction with almost all
amateur radio logbook programs or for anyone not currently using one,
it includes its own easy-to-use logbook.

The program is available from the download web page of FISTS UK

fists.co.uk/flc

(fdu)





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FEMALES IN RADIO.

Amateur radio featured in a TEDx talk (Pronounced 'Ted Ex')

In a TEDx talk entrepreneur Lital Marom recalls that back in the
last century when she first attended an amateur radio class
she was laughed at because she was female and young, 10 years old.

The talk was given at a TEDx event in Amsterdam, in it Lital
describes how as we shift from a stable, linear economy to an
innovative and dynamic one, we need a new definition of success,
and a new approach to learning. Through examples of her own journey
and her interesting, personal, and funny take on the business of
hacking our world, Lital’s talk explains the idea behind a hacker
mindset in developing new young leaders.

Watch Morse Code and the Future of Leadership at
youtube.com/watch?v=2jdDdY3d8M0

Fortunately much has changed since the era when Lital started her
hobby. Not only is the hobby now inclusive but the old Morse exam
requirement has been scrapped.

(SouthGate)





WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org

The ARISS team is pleased to announce that set up and installation
of the first element of the next generation radio system was
completed and amateur radio operations with it are now underway.

This first element, dubbed the InterOperable Radio System (IORS),
was installed in the International Space Station Columbus module.
The IORS replaces the Ericsson radio system and packet module that
were originally certified for spaceflight on July 26, 2000.

Initial operation of the new radio system is in FM cross band
repeater mode using an uplink frequency of 145.990 MHz with a
CTCSS access tone of 67 Hz and a downlink frequency of 437.800 MHz

(SouthGate)




A Falcon 9 rocket dodged stormy weather and successfully placed an
Argentine radar observation satellite into an orbit over Earth’s
poles Sunday on SpaceX’s 100th launch. Instead of launching toward
the northeast or east, the Falcon 9 darted through a cloudy sky
and arced to the south-southeast from Florida’s Space Coast,
then made a right turn to fly along the east coast of Florida
over Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the way to a polar orbit.

The launch Sunday was the first from Cape Canaveral to fly
on a southerly track since 1969.

(ANS)




A long-retired NASA satellite has burned up in Earth's atmosphere
the agency has confirmed. NASA launched the satellite, called
Orbiting Geophysics Observatory 1, or OGO-1, in September 1964,
the first in a series of five missions to help scientists understand
the magnetic environment around Earth. OGO-1 was the first to launch
but the last to fall out of orbit; the satellite had circled Earth
aimlessly since its retirement in 1971.

(ANS)




SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- SUMMITS ON THE AIR
sotawatch.org
sota.org.uk

O E SOTA Day is a popular annual Summits on the Air event, organised
by the Austrian SOTA Association and takes place Saturday September
19.

It will be a festival of SOTA activations to mark the end of summer
in Europe. The day should offer a very good opportunity for chasers
to amass a large number of points and unique summits worked.


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THE QNEWS WORK BENCH - the nuts and volts report "
Measure Twice cut Once.

Amongst the solder smoke, Clive VK4ACC found this next article in
the small newspaper produced on the Capricorn Coast at Yeppoon.

This article explains how RADAR CLUB ROCKHAMPTON member
Les Mc Donald VK 4 CLF built a replica of a WW2 RADIO called
Winnie (original housed at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra).

Les had a TV repair business at Yeppoon before retiring and is
excellent with his hands making many fine pieces that RADAR club
have used on many of their radio club displays.


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HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT

Hi this is Alan VK4SN with Remembrance Day Contest Results.

By all accounts the 890 or so participants in the RD had a ball
during the 75th anniversary of the event. Conditions were mostly
favourable except for a bit of static around on Saturday night
due to storms in some areas around the country.

It is no surprise that VK7 have taken honours again. Seventy percent
of VK7 participants submitted a log. That is 20 percent of the states
licenced operators. That has to be a record in anyone’s contest.

VK6 came in 2nd with 52 percent of their participants submitting
logs followed by VK1 AT 41 percent submission rate. Outstanding
efforts indeed. Overall the submission of logs percentages were up
in all states. 259 logs were received compared to 182 last year.

Congratulations go to the following individuals;
SOPH Murray VK7ZMS setting a new Record,
SOCW Allan VK2GR
SOMX Steve VK5SFA setting a new Record,
QRPPH Heath VK3TWO
QRPCW Chris VK3QB
QPRMX Gerard VK2IO

The highest scoring Rookie was won by Tom VK5FAAH with 79 points in
the Single Op Phone section.

Top Foundation operator was Jeff VK6FJLM with 362 points in the
Single Op Phone section.

Top Team was Cronies+1 (Richard VK7ZBX, Murray VK7ZMS, Hayden VK7HH)
with a score of 2937, beating their own record from last year

A full report with all the gory details can be downloaded from the
WIA contest page. The report includes the managers’ report,
team results, overall results, statistics, operator comments,
records since 2012, and golden logs. A new section for this year
called Error Log shows where you and other operators made mistakes.
Not In Log errors have been omitted due to the excessive number of
people who just didn't log a contact. Go figure!.

The report is in callsign order for ease of use.

Thanks to all the participants, especially those who submitted logs
and photos, and to Peter VK1PE for organising the speech.

best 73 and see you next year

Alan VK4SN


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


Portable Operations Challenge

The challenge is a new kind of HF contest, taking place 2nd and 3rd
of October and the aim is to create a level playing field for small
portable stations against the large contest stations by using
handicapping algorithms similar to that used in golf.

Participants choose their own 8-hour contiguous time window within
the 48-hour weekend.

Find out all you need to know at the link we like

foxmikehotel.com/challenge.

(rsgb)


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


OCEANA CONTEST

"This is VK7GN for the Oceania DX Contest Committee.

This year will see the 75th running of the Oceania Contest which was
previously called the VK/ZL Oceania Contest. It all began in 1934
when a contest was run to celebrate 100 years of the founding of
Melbourne. In 1935 following the success of this contest another
event was organized in cooperation with the New Zealand amateurs and
the VK/ZL contest was born.

There were no contests during world war two but they returned when
it was again possible to operate.

For many years the control of the contest was exchanged each year
between the WIA and NZART. This did cause some confusion as rules
sometimes changed year on year. Eventually a team got together under
the leadership of Brian Miller (then ZL1AZE) now VK3MI. Under the
overall sponsorship of WIA and NZART the committee of volunteers have
managed to get sponsorship for plaques " always room for more!
As well as increasing automation of the log checking process so
that most entries are now electronic in Cabrillo format. We still
accept small log entries by post, less than 50 contacts, but even
those are preferred electronically as each mailed log has to be
transcribed manually to Cabrillo so it can be included in log
checking. A number of logging programs are set up for this contest
including the free programs VKCL and N1MM.

Log checking and creating lists of results are still very time
consuming and we are trying to get the automation working well to
speed up the process.

Getting plaque trophies to overseas winners is proving a problem
under covid restrictions. Many will be unavoidably late for last
year’s contest.

Please join us again but note the new operating times

PHONE: 06:00 UTC Saturday 3rd Oct to 06:00 UTC Sunday 4th Oct 2020
CW: 06:00 UTC Saturday 10th Oct to 06:00 UTC Sunday 11th Oct 2020

Full rules on oceaniadxcontest.com

Just exchange signal reports starting at 001 (like 57001)

There are awards available for all sorts of operation, low power,
QRP, club awards and this year a plaque for the highest scoring YL
in Australia. However, the main thing is to have some fun and defy
the solar gods who have not been kind to us recently!

73 from Martin VK7GN"

AGAIN

VOICE from 0600 UTC Saturday October 3 to 0600 UTC Sunday October 4

CW from 0600 UTC Saturday October 10 to 0600 UTC Sunday October 11


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

CQ WW DX SSB OCTOBER 24-25

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CQ WW DX CW NOVEMBER 28-29

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December 6 - 8 160 Meter WW

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DECEMBER 14 - 15 10 Mtr World Wide

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

All major AUSTRALIAN contests, rules and results, are on the
Contest Section of the WIA website.

wia.org.au/members/contests/about

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


DX WINDOW


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

DXCC Most Wanted

The 'DXCC Most Wanted' entities list has been updated on ClubLog
as of September 3 and the list contains 340 entities. In our part
of the world high up on the list at 23 is the ZL 9 New Zealand
Subantarctic Islands whilst at number 12, VK 0 M Macquarie Island.

No surprise still at number one is. P5 DPRK (North Korea)

(opdx)

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Members of the Bulgarian Radio Club are on the wireless with special
call LZ 59 5IP during the month of September to honour the memory of
Orthodox saints. QSL via the bureau.

(ARNewsLine)

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

Special call sign 9 H 3 SAT is in Malta throughout September.
HF bands and 6 meters as well as the QO-100 satellite using
CW and SSB.

Send QSLs to his home call DL 2 AAZ

(ARNewsLine)


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


9 M 63 MJ is special event callsign for the 63rd Malaysia
Independence Day Celebrations and is on air until- 16 September 2020
QRV on 10m-80m in CW, SSB and Digital.

(SouthGate)

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Saudi Arabian special event

Members of the Saudi Amateur Radio Society will be active as HZ 90 ND
to celebrate the 90th anniversary of their National Day of the
Unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (September 23rd) between
September 17-25th.

(opDX)

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

Battle of Britain 80th Anniversary

Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society (RAFARS) members will operate
GB 80 BOB, a special event call sign for the 80th anniversary of
The Battle of Britain between the 1st and 28th of September.

Operation will be on all bands, as conditions allow, SSB and CW.
A special QSL card is available.

Details are at
rafars.org/GB80BOB/ and QRZ.com

(SouthGate)

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

NETHERLANDS.

Special event station PD 538 RNI is QRV until September 30 to
commemorate Radio Northsea International and Radio Veronica.

From June 1971 until the end of August 1974 Radio North Sea
International was a regular and reliable broadcaster from
international waters, four miles from the coast of the Netherlands.
The main MW transmissions at about 50 kW on 1367 kHz, and 557 kHz
(539 metres), announced as 538.

QSL via PD 0 ARI.

Oh and their theme? 'Les Reed's rendition of "Man Of Action".'

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



GREECE

QRV is SX 1 AFM from September 1 to 30 celebrating 70 years of the
Hellenic Air Force History Museum, the station is on all modes
80 through 6 meters. QSL via qrz.com information.

(arrl)



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

ARUBA.

Members of the Aruba Amateur Radio Club will be QRV with special
event call P 42 WW this month of September to commemorate the end
of World War II. QSL via P 4 1G.

(arrl)


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INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, SARL, Southgate AR Club,
ARRL, RAC, NZART AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE & the World Wide sources of
the WIA.

WRC23 preparations across the Regional Telecommunications
Organisations.

For a number of years preparations for ITU World Radiocommunication
Conferences (WRCs) have been conducted in recognised Regional
Telecommunication Organisations (RTOs)

These organisations permit participation in each other’s WRC
preparatory committees.

Our zone or region is ITU Region 3 and comprises the Asia Pacific
region, the APT.

The 26th Meeting of the APT Wireless Group (AWG-26) is set for this
Monday, 14 September 2020 running, via ZOOM till Friday September 18.

The 1st Meeting of the APT Conference Preparatory Group for
World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (APG23-1) again by ZOOM
is from 24 to 25 September 2020. The objective of the APG23-1 is to
initiate the preparatory process of the APT for the World
Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) and Radiocommunication
Assembly 2023 (RA-23). The APG23-1 is expected to:

Elect the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the preparatory group;

Form the structure of the preparatory group;

Nominate other Office Bearers of the preparatory group based on the
structure;

Develop a tentative work plan for the preparation of RA-23 and WRC-23





USA

Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico have
discovered a new way to track and characterize sporadic E, which
occurs when large structures of dense plasma form naturally in the
upper atmosphere.

“Previous methods to observe these structures were insufficient for
identifying and tracking the structures over large regions,” said
Ken Obenberger, a research physicist at AFRL

The new method, developed by Obenberger and collaborators at AFRL
and the University of New Mexico, leverages unintentional
RF emissions from power lines, and, using broadband radio noise
they can map and track dense sporadic-E structures.

“Since power lines are widespread, we can observe sporadic E over
a very large region surrounding our observatory, the Long Wavelength
Array, an asset of our collaborators at the University of
New Mexico,” Obenberger said. “This technique could be used anywhere
in the world where there is an electrical grid and an instrument
similar to the LWA.”





Arnold Spielberg is known as the father of filmmaker
Steven Spielberg but on the air, many knew him through the years
as W 8 IDX or W 9 AUM. Like his notable son, this father had big
dreams that led him to professional prominence. For Arnold Spielberg,
most of those dreams began with amateur radio. He became a Silent Key
at the ripe old age of 103 on August 25th.





Bluetooth beacon offers a massive 32km range

With a range 20 times longer than the nearest competitor, the
Bluetooth beacon from Apptricity Corporation in Texas can track
equipment coming in or going out of building sites.

A new ultra-long-range Bluetooth beacon from Apptricity is the
longest-ranging secure connection on the market, with the ability
to transmit data up to 32km. It is being used in the construction
industry.

Tim Garcia, CEO of Apptricity said "Many global customers were
struggling with the costs of tracking their expensive on-site
equipment, as well as all of the vehicles coming in and out of
projects. The cost of satellite tags or LTE tags becomes prohibitive,
especially with all of the equipment that needs to be tracked."

"One of the first customers, Endeavor, has sites outside of LTE
coverage, and couldn't afford the cost of satellites.
The Apptricity system turned out to be 90% less than their
alternatives," he said.

The ultra-long-range Bluetooth beacon is also highly configurable.
Versions can be created with or without GPS, multiple battery
options exist to extend life, encryption options are available,
the signal can be tuned for energy savings, and other capabilities
can be adjusted to create a bespoke enterprise system.

apptricity.com

eenewsembedded.com/news/bluetooth-beacon-offers-massive-32km-range?news_id=131381





BRAZIL

Graham VK4BB has filed this AMAZING article for ARNewsLine which we
bring you here..now.

"Taking the Brazilian Amateur Radio League by surprise, the nation's
regulator, the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency, has
proposed eliminating the amateur radio certificate exam for ALL
classes. Regulator ANATEL's published proposal outlines a structure
that would grant free access to the Class C licence, which would
align the process with that used for citizens band radio. The
regulator is proposing advancement to subsequent classes B and A
after the applicant presents a certificate of completion for
technical classes in communications - or a minimum of three years'
instruction.

ANATEL has requested support from the Brazilian radio group LABRE,
which is a strong proponent of minimum requirements for a radio
amateur licence. The regulator's move also contradicts most practices
in the international regulation of licences. LABRE has asked for a
meeting with the regulator to clarify the proposal."

In addition, the aforementioned proposal suggests ending the rules
of different prefixes for each of the States of the Federation,
remaining only the prefix per class and there would no longer be any
special callsigns.


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Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events'
direct for up-to-date status information.


2021

VK4 - TARC Australia Day Long Week Family Radio Camp
Thursday afternoon 21st to Tuesday afternoon 26th January
at Girl Guides Association of Queensland Campsite
and Training Centre Bluewater. (vk4zz)

VK2 - WYONG FIELD DAY (tentative) February 28 ( vk4zz)

VK - ALARAMEET 2021 Bendigo VK3 October 1 - 4 (vk5yl)

VK7 - VK7 biennial HamFest Miena Community Hall (vk7tw)




2020

Miena QSO Muster Saturday October 24th

VK4 - Rockhampton Amateur Radio Annual Dinner Sat Nov 21 (tarc)

VK4 - TARC Xmas Party - Sun 13th December from 2pm (tarc)

VK4 - TARC Xmas Lights Tour - Fri 18th December from 7pm (tarc)

VK4 - CHARC AGM Lake Maraboon, 25 to 27 September. (vk4zz)




SOCIAL DISTANCING

KEEP ONE WAVELENGTH AWAY AT 144 Megacycles



FINAL FINAL

Reception Reports

WIA News rebroadcasters often give Short Wave Listeners a
welcome to the broadcast as they commence call-backs
straight after the Local News. Local news follows the National news
in all states. It would be great if those SWL's would email their
reception reports and location to callbacks@wia.org.au





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We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 minutes in
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A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't plug
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your supporters 'goods' in this text edition "no worries."

We cannot give blatant 'plugs' to raffles.


vk1wia-broadcasters@lists.wia.org.au


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

Email nationalnews@wia.org.au and for audio
wia.org.au click news in member area

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


Click the links below to download the most recent edition of
National News, BUT this is ONLY the backup site!

WIANEWS backup thanks to Brendan VK4BLP can be found on
wiaq.org.au

BACKUPS OF THE BACKUP!! thanks to Tony VK7AX
www.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/

wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/ (This is the link
to the original text version and original audio on wia site)


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

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