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VK National News 15Sep24
Text edition:
Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2024-09-15.mp3
Text edition:
2024 SEPTEMBER 15 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA
------------------------------------------------------------*
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
------------------------------------------------------------*
NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 15 2024
IN OUR 29th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS
THIS WEEK:-
WIA President, Scott Williams VK3KJ
NOW WAIT - THERE'S MUCH MUCH MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE
WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA.
I'M EDITOR GRAHAM VK4BB
WIA
JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y
This is WIA President, Scott Williams (VK3KJ) and welcome to all
listeners to the WIA National News Broadcast this week.
What a week of crazy weather we had across the East Coast of Australia
and in particular, Victoria and New South Wales. There were reported
wind gusts in Victoria of 146km/h in Wilsons Promontory and 132km/h
recorded in many Alpine areas. In fact, in my own town just outside of
Warragul in Victoria, we recorded wind gusts of 124km/h which caused
significant damage to the area. Not the mention over 3 days with
no power. I am aware some Amateur Radio operators lost antennas and
suffered damage across Victoria. For me it was nothing more than a
bent mast out the top of the tower, but I did hear of one person
losing several large, sizeable antennas and another that lost a tower,
which is most unfortunate indeed.
I want to talk to you now about communications with Directors on the
WIA Board.
In a recent WIA Board meeting, it was decided to formally appoint
Directors responsible for various Board Committees. It is acknowledged
this is an area that the Board needed to do better and by having a
director as a single point of contact related to activity within that
Committee would improve dramatically communications.
We acknowledge that some communications from working groups or
external committees and even just some clubs enquiring on a particular
matter, did not necessarily find its way to the board.
The Board sets an agenda for each meeting in advance and in the
future, we will have these committees as a standing agenda item
and the Director responsible for that committee will report to the
Board on all committee activity. The appropriate Director will
regularly liaise with committee chairs and ensure there is a good
flow of information.
The Board has decided for the moment to have nine committees.
The committees and the appointed Director are:
1. Representation (Scott Williams) covering IARU, ITU, ACMA,
International member organisations.
2. Education (Lee Moyle & Giles Kirby) covering the Syllabi,
Assessments.
3. Technical (Peter Shrader) covering, TAC, Spectrum Strategy
4. Publications (Lee Moyle) covering AR Magazine, Foundation
Manual, News Broadcast
5. Digital (Steve Green) coving Social Media, YouTube,
Website
6. Contesting (Chris Dimitrijevic) covering Contesting / Awards
/ QSL
7. Systems (Peter Clee) covering Memnet, Office staff,
Office365
8. Finance / Corporate Services / Governance / Strategy
(Scott Williams & Peter Clee)
9. Membership (Peter Clee) covering promotion, retention,
structure, benefits, reports.
This listing is not an exhaustive list of every committee activity
however, this structure will greatly assist with improving
communications internally and externally. The WIA will shortly place
this list of Board Committees and the appropriate Director that is
appointed on our website, wia.org.au
This will be placed under WIA Information and then under a new tab
that will be named Board Committees. All contact details and the
responsibility of the Board Committee will be listed.
Thats it for me this week and this has been Scott Williams,
WIA President on behalf of the WIA Board.
Best Wishes.
AUSTRALIANA
Traffic increased "four-fold" during Paris games.
Nine Entertainment blocked up to 96 million web requests from bots
and potentially malicious traffic during this years Paris Olympics.
The media organisation's "Fastly" web application firewall filters
1.2 billion daily web and application requests, including on its
brands the Australian Financial Review and Nine News.
However, during the Olympics, this daily number of requests increased
four-fold with some peaks even higher on days such as swimming,
Nine technology director of publishing and enterprise practices
Andre Lackmann said.
Andre also touched on Nines challenges with preventing artificial
intelligence bots from lifting its brands content, this is especially
important for Nines subscription-based brands like the AFR,
The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
"AI services are increasingly able to summarise that content for
these brands so we're taking a more strict stance, Lackmann said.
We just updated our robots.txt to be able to enable blocking as much
as robots.txt blocks anything.
Beyond that, its about scraping at a rate-limiting level, but
theres challenges in being able to do it at a more granular level."
tinyurl.com/yzurmhkj
(itnews)
LEAF LETTER! IT'S HOW WE COMMUNICATE.
Trees in Melbourne have been receiving fan mail from around the world,
YES TREES.
The city councils project to assign an email address to each one
back some 11 years ago and it's still going strong.
The trees are mapped in a project called Urban Forest Visual, with
each tree assigned an identification number.
Officials in Melbourne, originally assigned email addresses to
specific trees so that locals could report issues and damages.
Instead, being received daily are thousands of love letters to the
trees. One of the letters read, "As I was leaving St. Mary's College
today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty.
You must get these messages all the time.
You're such an attractive tree."
The emails have come from as far afield as Russia, Germany, the US,
Britain, Hungary, Moldova, Singapore, Brazil, Denmark and Perth.
melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/
(calm/abc/web)
------------------------------------------------------------*
INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to ARRL, DX-WORLD, eHam, Hackaday,
IARU, ICQPodcast, IRTS, NEWSLINE, NZART, RAC, Radioworld.com, RSGB,
SARL and the World Wide sources of the WIA.
Phil A. McBride, VA3QR/HP3QR Radio Amateurs of Canada President
and Chair resigns.
In an announcement to the hams of Canada Phil said, and I quote.
It is with mixed feelings that I announce my resignation as President
of Radio Amateurs of Canada, effective November 1, 2024.
While leading Canadas national organization has been the pinnacle of
my time as a Radio Amateur, my family has moved full-time to Panama
and I have secured operating privileges as well as the call sign
HP 3 QR.
There is a Parks On The Air (POTA) entity about an hour from our
house that has never been activated and I plan to fix that! I also
plan to become involved with the communitys educational program
and show youth in my area the wonders of Amateur Radio.
I would like to thank the RAC Board, Executive and volunteers for
their support during my time as President and previously as a Regional
Director. I would also like to thank you, the member, for the support
youve given and continue to give to Radio Amateurs of Canada."
Well done and congratulations Phil McBride, RAC President and Chair.
Amazon is poised to unveil a significant overhaul of its Alexa virtual
assistant, incorporating advanced AI capabilities to create a more
personalized and conversational experience. According to reporting
by Caroline O'Donovan of The Washington Post and discussed on
Tech News Weekly, the new AI-powered Alexa is slated for a
mid-October release.
Key features of the upgraded Alexa include:
Conversational AI:
The new Alexa aims to be more "likable" and "charismatic," engaging in
natural conversations and remembering user preferences.
Personalization:
Alexa will ask questions about users and their families, using this
information to tailor responses and recommendations.
Enhanced shopping features:
Alexa will monitor prices for items users express interest in
and alert them to price drops.
Unlike the current free version, the AI-powered Alexa will be a
paid product.
While the new features show promise, concerns remain about privacy,
especially regarding children's interactions with AI. Additionally,
the launch's proximity to the U.S. election raises questions about how
Amazon will handle potential misinformation risks.
As Amazon prepares to roll out this major update, it remains to be
seen how consumers will respond to a paid, AI-enhanced Alexa and
whether it can compete effectively in the rapidly evolving
AI assistant market.
Interestingly when we first came across this story, top of page the
disclaimer "AI created, human edited."
Yes a rapidly changing world we live in don't we.
twit.tv/posts/tech/amazons-alexa-set-major-ai-upgrade-fall
YOU NEVER NEVER KNOW - TILL YOU GIVE IT A TRY.
A great way to encourage new members to ham radio and their National
Society was shown by the IRTS, Irish Radio Transmitters Society at a
very successful and fun participation in the Dublin Maker 2024
festival.
Over two days, the IRTS stand proved very popular and had massive
crowds on both days.
Tony EI5EM's homebrew equipment was a big hit with everyone who
stopped by the stall. To encourage the kids to try some CW any kid
who sent their name by Morse got to design a badge which they took
away with them. Also, on both days a free raffle was held for a chance
to win an SDR dongle.
Nokia and Axiom Space have announced a partnership to integrate
advanced 4G/LTE communication capabilities into the next-generation
spacesuits that will be used for the Artemis III lunar mission.
Axiom Spaces spacesuits will provide astronauts with advanced
capabilities while providing NASA with commercially developed
human systems needed to access, live and work on and around the Moon.
Nokia, meanwhile, plans to deploy the first cellular network on the
Moon as part of Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission, which is scheduled
to be delivered to the launch site in 2024.
During the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, ensuring robust and reliable
communication for public safety forces was a top priority.
One of the critical tools that proved integral to this effort was the
M.D.R. (Mic Dual Radio). This innovative device played a crucial role
not only during the Olympic Torch Relay but also throughout the entire
duration of the Games, maintaining secure and seamless communication
across various public safety units.
French Police and Gendarmerie equipped over 28,000 officers with the
MDR. This large-scale deployment underscored the importance of the
MDR in ensuring that all units, regardless of their location or the
communication network they were using, remained connected. The MDR
provided dual connectivity, allowing simultaneous communication over
both legacy professional mobile radio (PMR) systems and mobile
networks through smartphones
tinyurl.com/36bnrm94
-------------------------------------------------------------------
OPERATIONAL NEWS - A FELIX VK4FUQ PRESENTATION
--------------
--------------
NOW CONTEST WISE:- 2024
--------------
--------------
Oceania DX Contest
Dates/Times:
PH - The first full weekend in October each year from 0600 UTC
Saturday to 0600 UTC Sunday
CW - The second full weekend in October each year from 0600 UTC
Saturday to 0600 UTC Sunday
Log deadline for PH and CW logs - 31 October.
This years contest will be held on October 5th and 12th
respectively.
oceaniadxcontest.com
wia.org.au/members/contests/oceania/
-------------------
INTERNATIONAL EARTH - MOON - EARTH CONTEST
0000 Zulu, November 16 - 2359 Zulu , November 17
Work as many amateur stations as possible via the earth-moon-earth
path on any authorized amateur frequency above 50 MHz.
EME Logs due back to the ARRL December 17.
-------------------
VHF UHF Field Day
Upcoming Contest Date & Time
Spring 2024 - 0100 UTC Saturday 23 November through 0059 UTC Sunday
24 November (0400 / 0359 in VK6).
wia.org.au/members/contests/vhfuhf/
-------------------
YOTA CONTEST
Youth on the air test 3 of 3 will be from 10:00 to 21:59 UTC on
29 December on the five classic bands CW and SSB.
(yota)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
DX WINDOW TO THE WORLD.
--------------
MALAYSIA
To celebrate Malaysia Day, special callsign 9M61S has been active
until the 16th of September. Operators are working on the HF bands
using SSB, CW and digital modes. For more information see QRZ.com
(rsgb)
---------------
Be listening for the Zurich City Police Radio Amateur Club throughout
the year, operating as HB 2 SP the club is marking its 20th
anniversary. Unfortunately no Bureau QSL's but you
can use Logbook Of The World, and HB20SP runs until December 31.
(sourced to ARNewsLine 2410)
--------------
Listen throughout the year for the special callsign 9 A 1 RKZ
marking the 100th anniversary of the Radioklub Zagreb which was
founded the 24th of March 1924 in Croatia
QSL via 9A1ADE.
(ARNewsLine 2410)
--------------
DXpedition to Namibia.
This DXpedition will run from the end of October through the first
week of November.
Call-Sign will be V 55 LA.
With their QTH already secured, the team is now working on the antenna
farm layout and exploring options to make the most of their ideal
location.
M0OXO is QSL Manager for V55LA.
( m0oxo.com/ )
-------------
AUSTRIA
OE100RADIO [OSCAR-ECHO-ONE-HUNDRED-ROMEO-ALPHA-DELTA-INDIA-OSCAR] is
active until the 31st of December celebrating the 100th anniversary
of the beginning of regular radio transmissions in Austria in 1924.
The station has heard recently on the 40m band using CW.
QSL via the Bureau.
(gb2rs)
----------
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.
E 7 100 RADIO is the special call sign for the Bosnia and Herzegovina
IARU member society to celebrate 100 years of amateur radio
innovation, community, and advocacy.
QSL via operators' instructions.
(eHam)
-------------
Y
Listen for TM 24 JPO until the 8th of September for the Paralympic
Games, QSL TM24JPO by the operators home station F 8 GGZ
(dx net)
-----------
Y
AUSTRALIA
VI7POL
For 2024 National Police Week in Australia, a special event call of
VI 7 POL will be on air. The call will be active between 14th
September an 29th September to celebrate the 7th annual National
Police Week, a celebration of our nations police.
National Police Week includes the 15th annual Wall to Wall Ride For
Remembrance and National Police Remembrance Day on 27th September.
National Police Remembrance Day is a time to pause to honour the
826 Australian police officers whose lives have been lost while
performing their duty. It is a time to remember police officers who
have lost their lives through illness or other circumstances.
VI7POL will be active on 10, 15, 20, 40, & 80m SSB, FT8, and FT4.
More information on VI7POL including QSL information can be found on
QRZ.com.
73 Paul VK5PAS.
--------------
Y
K4A
The Alabama Contest Group will be operating the 9-11 Remembering Our
Heroes special event September 8-11. The K4A special event station
will be on the air to honour the victims of 9-11.
This year a new special QSL and certificate "Honouring Our Heroes"
theme will be available. To those who contact K4A on 3 bands using
any combination of bands/modes the group will offer a full colour
glossy certificate on heavy paper which will be mailed in a full size
Manila envelope all postage paid by the Alabama Contest Group, EVEN if
here in Australia. (or any DX).
(ard)
--------------
Y
SOUTH COOK.
Thomas, N2WLG is active as E 51 WLG until September 8 from 40 to 10
meters using CW and digital.
QSL E51WLG via LoTW, home call (N2WLG), direct or bureau.
(dx-world)
--------------
Y
HB0, LIECHTENSTEIN
Leo, DL2COM and Roman, DL3TU will be active (CW only) from the
Principality of Liechtenstein the end of September or early October.
Weather permitting they will operate Field Day style for two days from
the summit of Augstenberg which is 2359 meters A.S.L. using just
50-100 watts and directional antennas.
The location has been carefully chosen to allow a good take off to
VK. Both ops say they are happy to log as many callers as possible
but will focus on VK/ZL/JA during UTC morning.
Updates, such as the exact dates, will be published on their QRZ.com
pages.
QSL via their home callsigns DL2COM and DL3TU in LoTW, direct or
via the bureau.
(dx world)
--------------
Y
NEW ZEALAND
NZART has a special event call sign for the upcoming America's Cup to
be held in Spain later this year. ZL 6 AMCUP has been allocated to
celebrate this event with Phil Garside ZL2RO as the trustee of the
callsign. November 30 is when ZLCAMCUP goes off air.
(NZART)
--------------
Y
OL 80 C.A.R.B.O.N. is active until the 30th of November to mark the
80th anniversary of Operation Carbon during World War Two. This
operation involved the dropping of paratroopers in the Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia.
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexed
territory of Nazi Germany that was established in 1939 after the
German occupation of the Czech lands
A team of operators is active using call OL 80 CARBON on CW, SSB and
digital modes on the HF bands.
More information is available on QRZ.com
--------------
Y
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Radio Belgrade, the Belgrade
Amateur Radio Club is active as YT 100 RB and YU 1924 RB until
November 30. For details of a certificate that is available, see
yu1ano.org
(rsgb)
------------------------------------------------------------*
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - BALLOONS
What activity entails playing with hydrogen gas, sending a fox to
105,000 feet in altitude, ingesting large plates of comfort food,
hiking through dense brush, wading through creeks and running from the
bulls?
A recent West Georgia (USA) Amateur Radio Society high-altitude
balloon launch included all these things and more.
True to form, predictions based on the last known coordinates of the
balloon -- from the Automatic Packet Reporting System onboard- brought
the clubs hunters very close to its landing zone. Brian, WX4BK is the
payload specialist BUT, Murphy was following Brian and the payload
around for a week, WX4BK's persistence finally won out. The payload
including a raspberry pi, GPS, APRS transmitter to send out
coordinates and altitude, a cross-band repeater, pressure and
temperature sensors (gets pretty cold up there) digital cameras and
"The RF Fox" was found.
(eHam)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- DEFENSE
Captain John Konrad (gCaptain author)
Could future naval battles be waged using Morse code flashed between
ships?
One admiral believes so.
At the 3rd Indo-Pacific Security Conference 2024, held at the
Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg, Germany,
a question arose about the ability of navies to protect tankers and
replenishment oilers in the event of war in the Western Pacific.
In a gCaptain article Captain Steve Carmel, a former Vice President
for Maersk LLP said the United States Merchant Marine is at least
100 tankers short of meeting basic energy needs in the event of war
in the Pacific, it will therefore be incredibly important to protect
the few tankers and oilers they do have in the Pacific.
Communication poses a significant challenge too.
The flag officer noted that even sophisticated communication systems
on advanced warships can be jammed by equipment on enemy facilities
and ships. As a result, convoys and even battle groups might have to
rely on Morse code via blinker lights. Although seemingly old
fashioned, this method provides a dependable way to communicate,
less prone to electronic warfare. Blinker lights transmitting Morse
code would allow vital information to be sent even during intense
jamming.
This highlights the need to maintain traditional communication skills
alongside modern technology.
(eHam)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary(at)amsat-vk.org
JAXA has officially ended the mission of SLIM, Japan's first
Moon lander. Originally only expected to operate for a single lunar
day and then feared to be doomed after it landed in the incorrect
orientation after losing an engine bell, the mission managed to
survive THREE (3) lunar nights and complete All pre-mission success
criteria.
SLIM is the only lunar lander to successfully perform a pinpoint
landing, arriving within 10 meters of its selected landing site.
[ANS]
The average age of a GPS satellite is now 13 years, with half of them
exceeding their designed lifespan.
The USA-132 satellite broke the record for the oldest GPS satellite in
history, having completed 27+ years in operation. While the record is
an indicator of the reliability and robust engineering of the GPS
satellite, it also means that the service still relies on hardware
built in the 1990s. 31 GPS satellites are in operation today,
down from 36 in 2016.
The GPS system was primarily designed for military purposes but was
opened up to wide-scale civilian use in 1983. Since then, GPS has
grown into one of the most widely used services in the world, with
billions of people using GPS on a daily basis today. The overall GPS
network still works well. But the aging satellites, coupled with the
delays in the launch schedule for new satellites, threaten its
competitive edge as international rivals bring into service their own
GNSS systems and private companies develop alternatives.
(ANS)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - MILITARY
Recordings of military transmissions can be found on the
Signal Identification Guide Wiki at
sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military
Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the
Second World War fought in the German-occupied Netherlands.
Its objective was to create a 103 km salient into German territory
with a bridgehead over the Lower Rhine River, creating an Allied
invasion route into northern Germany.
A BRIDGE TOO FAR was a movie of this operation and the taking of the
bridge at Arnhem.
This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: MARKET and GARDEN.
Combined US and British airborne forces (Market) followed by
British land forces swiftly following over the bridges (Garden).
It was the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point,
perhaps the most famous, after D-Day, in the entire history of the
Second World War.
Special event station in the region commemorating 80 years of freedom
is PA 80 OMG back again for the fourth consecutive time and will take
place from 13 September up to 19 September 2024.
radioclublimburg.nl/pa80omg/
(eHam)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- RESCUE RADIO
INDIA
In a recent meeting with Kolkata health department officials,
amateur radio operators proposed a small device which can be used
like a panic button' by doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers
in hospitals in case of an emergency.
Using Ultra High Frequency, this device will be portable and can also
be connected with the nearest phone system.
These panic buttons will be useful in connecting anyone within a
three-kilometre radius, especially in areas which are known as
'voice shadow zones' since a lot of hospitals in Kolkata have trouble
with network coverage on their premises.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/113175480.cms
(eHam)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2024 IT'S A DATE
Clubs are welcome to email text with audio for this section
Details of all WIA affiliated clubs and societies can be found
on the WIA website, including email addresses and website links.
----------------------------
VK4 - SUNFEST was Saturday 14th at Coolum Civic Centre. (vk4vp)
VK6 - PerthTech 2024 Sept 21 for 2 days at Gidgegannup (vk6pop)
VK4 - GOLD COAST HAMFEST OCTOBER 13 at Nerang Country Paradise
Parklands 231 Beaudesert-Nerang Road Nerang. (vk4DMH)
VK5 - Amateur Radio Experiments Group Radio & Electronics Sale
Saturday 26th October 10AM David Roche Park Kilburn (vk5qi)
VK7 - Tasmanian Ham Conference November 2 and 3 Hobart. (vk7news)
Held at the Sandy Bay Campus of UTAS.
VK3 - SPARC Rosebud RadioFest November 17 at Eastbourne Primary
School, Allambi Ave. Rosebud. (vk3pdg)
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 National
news in all states. It would be great if those SWL's would
email their reception reports and location to
callbacks(at)wia.org.au
---------------------------------------------------------------*
(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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