Reply-To: nationalnews@wia.org.au

Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at: http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2023-01-15.mp3 Text edition:

2023 JANUARY 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 JANUARY 15 2023
IN OUR 28th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS
THIS WEEK:-

WIA DIRECTOR CHRIS DIMITRIJEVIC VK3FY

WIA RETURNING OFFICER JOHN MARSHALL

PLUS MUCH MUCH MORE IN THIS 30 MINUTE EDITION OF
NEWS FROM THE WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
I'M NEWS EDITOR GRAHAM VK4BB
WIA

JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y

DECLARATION of ELECTION OF WIA DIRECTORS

Clause 14 of the Constitution of the WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
specifies the way in which Directors of the WIA are to be elected to
that position.

Four directors retire at the conclusion of the next Annual General
Meeting which will be held in May 2023, namely Scott Williams VK3KJ,
Peter Clee VK8ZZ, Greg Kelly VK2GPK and Peter Schrader VK4EA. Each
retiring director was eligible for re-nomination.

A call for nominations for the position of Director of the WIA was
made in the WIA National News Broadcast and in Amateur Radio Magazine
in accordance with the Election Regulations.

I advise that I have received Four (4) valid nominations from
WIA members for the position as director of the WIA by the
advertised closing date for nominations, as follows:-

Scott Williams VK3KJ
Peter Schrader VK4EA
Peter Clee VK8ZZ
Giles Kirby VK5GK

As advised in the Call for Nominations there will be four vacancies
at the conclusion of the AGM to be held in May 2023 and therefore no
election will be necessary. I therefore formally declare these 4
nominees as having been elected to the position of Director of the
Wireless Institute of Australia. These Directors elect will take up
their role at the conclusion of the Annual General meeting in May 2023.
They will remain in that role for a period of two (2) years.

Continuing Directors are:-
Lee Moyle VK3GK
Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY
Steve Green VK2TSG

These continuing directors will retire at the conclusion of the
Annual General Meeting in 2024.

I John Marshall, the duly appointed returning Officer of the
Wireless Institute of Australia confirm that these results
are valid and in accordance with the Constitution of the
Wireless Institute of Australia and the Election Regulations.

This is notice is authorised by
John Marshall, WIA Returning Officer
1st January 2023

Good morning, everyone this is WIA Board Director Chris Dimitrijevic
VK3FY with this weeks WIA Board report for VK1WIA News Broadcast
for 15th January 2023.

As we have just heard/seen, John Marshal the WIA Returning Officer
has now declared results of who will make up the next Board.

Congratulations all and your WIA Board welcome them and thank the
retiring board member and past president of the WIA Greg Kelly VK2GPK
for his services to the WIA. Greg will be retiring his position on
the conclusion of the 2023 Annual General Meeting.

The Annual General Meeting of the Wireless Institute of Australia
will be held on Saturday 13th of May in Canberra. The venue has yet
to be confirmed. Keep this date clear and see you all in our nations
capital for the 2023 AGM. Keep an eye on the WIA website and the
VK1WIA Weekly news for further updates on the AGM.

The Contest Committee has advised there is a current vacancy for the
Russ Hull Contest and they are seeking a volunteer who will be able
to take up the role as RUSS HULL CONTEST MANAGER. Should you be
interested in taking up this role please contact the WIA head-office
via nationaloffice@wia.org.au

This has been WIA Director Chris VK3FY wishing you a great weekend
on behalf of your WIA Board for the VK1WIA weekly news broadcast ------------------------------------------------------------*
HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT

W.R.T.C. 2023 AWARD : January 2023 headset on!

WRTC Organizing Committee is running a 2023 edition of WRTC 2023
AWARD!

This is NOT the WRTC 2022 Contest that will be held in Bologna in
July this year but is a WRTC 2023 AWARD for anybody who wants to
have fun in radio chasing and looking for WRTC Special event stations
all over the world and promoting the real WRTC 2022 event (to be
held as I said in July 2023)

Here in region 3 listen out for event station 8 B 0 RARI QRV during
the January 2023 WRTC 2023 special event that one from Indonesia and
ZL 6 WRTC is QRV during the January 2023 WRTC 2023 special event
from New Zealand. From up in China listen for BY 1 CRA / WRTC

wrtc2022.it/en/news-11.asp?idnews=52
--------------

NOW CONTEST WISE:-
--------------
2023
--------------

1 - 31 January Ross Hull Memorial VHF/UHF DX Contest ( Marathon )

The contest was established in 1950 to honour the memory of
the late Ross A. Hull and his pioneering achievements in the
study of tropospheric propagation and the development of new
equipment techniques for the higher bands.

Entrants may operate on every contest day, but the final score
is based on the best seven days nominated by the entrant.

For amateurs with limited operating time, there is also a
"Best 2 Days" section.

LOGS DUE IN 14th FEBRUARY

(wia.org.au)

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

14 - 15 January Summer VHF-UHF Field Day.

0100 UTC Saturday to 0059 UTC Sunday BUT in VK6 add 3 hours
onto start and end times.

(wia.org.au)
--------------

26th of January Australia Day Contest

After last years successful running of the Australia Day contest,
comments were in favour of making the contest a global event. There
was a strong indication for distance-based scoring and the inclusion
of FT8/4.

A suggested rule set was forwarded to the contest committee for their
input. On agreement with the new rules, we now have the following
outcome.

1. The contest is open to all amateurs worldwide on 160, 80, 40, 20,
15 and 10 meters.

2. Scoring is based on distance, calculated on 4-character grid
squares exchange.

3. Phone, CW and Mixed categories with a separate digital category
for FT8/FT4. a. A log can contain all modes and on submission,
digital contacts will be pulled from the log and
put into the digital category while also keeping
an operator in the phone and CW sections.

4. WSJT-X users can operate as normal as the .adi file can be
imported into N1MM logger for scoring and log creation. Make sure
a new .adi file is used for the contest. As no serial number is
needed, the standard 4 character grid square used during normal
operation is all that'?''?'s required.

5. VKCL will not cater for this contest, so make sure N1MM logger is
ready to go.

6. The User Defined Contest required to be loaded with N1MM is
available from vk4sn.com under contests.

7. It is evident that a lot of operators are migrating over to N1MM.
For new users a N1MM help file for this contest is available at
the end of the rules. Download it from the WIA contest pages.

tinyurl.com/5n88j3fn
The contest is the first Australian distance based scored and
digital contest.

Best 73 Alan VK4SN

(TEXT EDITION ONLY)
--------------

MARCH 18 - 19 (the 3rd Weekend) John Moyle Field Day
UTC 0100 Saturday to 0059 Sunday.
(wia.org.au) ----------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC,
ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE,
Radioworld.com and the World Wide sources of the WIA.
ITU WRC-23 Booklet

The International Telecommunication Union WRC-23 booklet can now be
downloaded in all six languages of the ITU from itu.int
The booklet provides easy access to the WRC-23 agenda as well as to
the pertinent resolutions referenced therein.
NEW SMARTPHONE MODELS GAIN SATELLITE ACCESS

In this new year, sat-phone users and amateur radio operators won't
be the only ones who can bounce radio signals off satellites.

ARNewsLine say some smartphones are gaining a new capability this
year: direct satellite access. Text-messaging that uses satellite communications will be possible for some consumers using Huawei and
Apple devices. While Apple and Huawei expect to use older satellites
that are already in orbit by putting new chips in their flagship
handsets, new low-Earth-orbit satellite networks are also being built.

Those are in the works from start-up companies Lynk Global and
AST SpaceMobile, which hope to provide service to 5G phones in areas
without terrestrial coverage.

Observers note that this satellite functionality on smartphones will
not include the ability to make phone calls or to stream data but its
added capacity of texting will provide another means of calling for
help in an emergency in regions where the caller has a clear view to
the sky.

Working in partnership with Globalstar, Apple devices have offered a
service called Emergency SOS via satellite since last November.
Huawei however has not yet announced the date of its rollout.
REGION ONE

ITALY

Marconi Was Here! is an international amateur radio award organised
by ARI Fidenza Radio Club with the main objective of the award being
to commemorate, historically, some of the most important and
significant Italian cities where Marconi performed scientific
experiments in radio engineering, long distance communications,
radio direction-finding and others; experiments that, in the
following periods, revealed themselves to be crucial for technical
and scientific advancement and the progress of wireless
communications.

The award period lasts the whole of this year.

Each month is being dedicated to a specific Italian city connected
to the story of Guglielmo Marconi and is paired to a different
special callsign. January II 4 TRN is the station call, from the city
of TURIN and celebrates Marconis air ground radio communication
experiments of 1915.

Further details, special callsigns and award rules can be found on
the ARI Fidenza Radio Club website.

arifidenza.it/
REGION TWO

HOLLYWOOD USA

Audio Engineering Society to Receive Technical GRAMMY Award.

The Recording Academy, announcing its Special Merit Awards recipients
has said the Audio Engineering Society is to receive a Technical
Grammy Award during its Grammy Week celebration this February.

Special Merit Awards are presented to individuals and/or companies, organizations and institutions who have made contributions of
outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

In receiving this award, AES joins an elite list of previous
recipients, which includes well-known names such as Apple Computer,
JBL Professional, Shure, Sony/Philips, among others.

The Audio Engineering Society is the only professional society
devoted exclusively to advancing audio technology. Founded in 1948
with the key goals of collecting, collating and disseminating
knowledge of audio science and its application, AES facilitates
communication and collaboration that unites audio engineers,
creative artists, scientists, and students, with hundreds of local
sections worldwide.

Seventy-five years on, AESs members continue to set precedents and
standards wherever sound and technology meet, from recording and
entertainment to scientific research in emerging fields such as
Spatial and Game Audio, Networking and Streaming, and Audio for
Virtual and Augmented Reality.
CUBA

Cuban radio broadcaster, journalist and DX-er Arnaldo de Jess Coro
Antich, known to listeners as Arnie Coro, passed away early Jan. 8
aged 80. He was well-known for his twice-weekly program DXers
Unlimited on Radio Havana Cuba, Cubas English-language shortwave
service.

His amateur callsign was CO 2 KK.

Arnie became interested in radio at the age of 12, and joined the
Radio Club de Cuba amateur radio association. In 1957, he began
working as a journalist at CMBF-TV. During the Cuban Revolution,
he was one of the founders of Radio Havana Cuba in 1961, working to
help set up the stations first transmitter ahead of the Bay of Pigs
Invasion.

In 2017, Coro was honoured with the National Radio Award by state
broadcaster Radio Cubana.

Over the years, Coro produced a number of science and technology
radio programs. He also authored the 1984 book " The United States
Radio War Against Cuba.

tinyurl.com/2fhjz5sc
REGION THREE

THAILAND

ICOM Inc. presents letter of appreciation to the Department of
Special Investigation in Thailand.

Now astute readers/listeners will recall this story on counterfeit
ICOMS some 2 years or so ago but it's still a work in progress

It was January 2021, and the Department of Special Investigation had
carried out the clampdown to counterfeit suppliers for Icom products
and other radio manufacturers, seizing 37,694 pieces of counterfeit
products valued at over 50 million Thai Baht (about AUD 2.2 million).
At this time, the judgement on the lawsuit against these counterfeit
suppliers was made and ICOM Inc. expressed deep appreciation for
efforts of the Department of Special Investigation and presented the
letter of appreciation on 2 months ago, Nov 2022.

ICOM will continue to work on countermeasures against counterfeit
products and suppliers and try to supply high-quality and safe
products.
------------------------------------------------------------*
WIRELESS WEATHER

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:

Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.9-class solar flare last
Monday, it's source? hyperactive sunspot AR3184, now emerging over
the sun's south-eastern limb.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flare's extreme
ultraviolet flash:

Radiation ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a shortwave
radio blackout cantered on the Pacific side of South America:
Mariners, aviators and ham radio operators have noticed fadeouts and
other unusual propagation effects at frequencies below 25 MHz.

This was an impulsive solar flare -- intense but probably too brief
to lift a coronal mass ejection out of the sun's atmosphere. It is
too soon, however, to rule out the possibility of debris heading our
way.

(spaceweather.com) ------------------------------------------------------------*
WORLD WIDE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP NEWS - AND - SUMMITS ON THE AIR,
WORLD WIDE FLORA, FAUNA PROGRAM, PARKS ON THE AIR and other
ADVENTURE GROUPS.

hema.org.uk/index.jsp
minesontheair.com/about-mota
parksontheair.com/
sota.org.uk
sotawatch.sota.org.uk/en/
wwffaustralia.com/
Now we do have to start this segment with a call to VK1 Amateurs.

In news from Amateur Radio NewsLine we see a story relating to our
very own call area VK1 yet no one from the SOTA community or
local ham thought it news worthy enough to pass onto you via WIA
National News, so -- with thanks to ARNewsLine here are the details
they have received.

"In the World of DX, be listening for VI10SOTA (VEE EYE TEN SOTA)
which is on the air in Australia to celebrate the 10th year of
Summits on the Air in the VK1 region. The station will be active
through to the end of the year and any amateur with an Australian
licence who is activating a VK1 SOTA peak may use it."
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FINAL FRONTIER
AMSAT-VK Secretary - secretary@amsat-vk.org

Three of the four new astronauts on February's planned launch of the
SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station are amateur
radio operators.

Pilot Warren "Woody" Hoburg, KB 3 HTZ
Commander Stephen Bowen, KI 5 BKB
Mission Specialist Sultan Al Neyadi, KI 5 VTV, will join Mission
Specialist Andrey Fedyaev on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft
Endeavour. The earliest date would be mid-February.

All crew members have learned about Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station

ariss.org/

Have received guidance on studying and testing, and learned how to
operate the ARISS radios and the basics of on-the-air protocol from
ARISS team members at NASA's Johnson Space Centre. The crew will be
able to participate in ARISS, using the ham radio station on the ISS
to contact schools and other educational institutions.

(eHam)
China's 1st Mars rover and Tianwen 1 orbiter may have gone silent:

Something may have gone very wrong for China's first-ever Mars
mission.

China launched Tianwen 1 in July 2020 and the mission's rover, named
Zhurong, touched down on the Red Planet in May 2021. The duo explored
Mars smoothly until May 2022, when Zhurong was put into hibernation,
hunkering down for the harsh winter.

But the rover may not have exited hibernation as expected, according
to reports from Space News, which cite reporting from the South China
Morning Post in Hong Kong, that Zhurong was expected to wake up in
December and hasn't called home yet. And simultaneously, the
Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter appears to be experiencing a communications
glitch.

It's unknown what the issues might be, but "most likely the
sandstorms have seriously weakened Zhurong's capacity to use its
solar panels to generate power"

Tianwen 1 orbiter serves as a communications relay for the rover.
"A Beijing-based source said ground control had encountered
difficulty when downloading the latest data from the orbiting probe,
Amateur radio operators have even observed that Tianwen 1 ground
stations appear to have stopped attempting to make contact with the
orbiter.

China's space agency has yet to comment on the issues with Zhurong
and Tianwen 1.

(space.com)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS - FIVE MHz rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/

The 5 MHz Newsletter

A map of 'The World of 5 MHz' shows that 85 countries now have 60m
band allocations, a success story chronicled by the 5 MHz Newsletter
since its first publication in Autumn 2011. The latest newsletter has
articles about activities on the 60m band in Malaysia, South Africa,
United States, Samoa and a new allocation in Ireland.

The archived and the latest issue of the '5 MHz Newsletter' can be
found on wikipedia.org/wiki/60-meter_band

(irts)
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS --- IOTA
iota-world.org

AF-008 CROZET ISLAND

Thierry, F6CUK has start his activity as FT 8 WW from Crozet Islands,
IOTA AF - 008 and is heard on 80 - 6m and possibly 160m also on
QO - 100 Satellite. And Great News : FT 8 WW has been validated for
DXCC credit

( dxnews.com )
AN-016

ANTARCTICA

George KJ 4 CHT is the overwintering doctor at AmundsenScott South
Pole Station, Antarctica AN-016. Hes a newcomer to the ham radio
hobby, however is becoming familiar with remote set up, using Ham
Radio Deluxe logbook, and is looking forward to trying HF bands soon.

QSL manager, Bill K7MT, suggests George will be on air soon if not
soonest and most likely 20 SSB.

Callsign to listen look out for KC 4 AAA

( dx-world.net/kc4aaa-south-pole-antarctica/ )
WW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP --- MILITARY
Recordings of military transmissions can be found on the
Signal Identification Guide Wiki at
sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military

The Service Academies Radio Group (SARG) was recently formed for
alumni and amateur radio operators who are interested in the five
U.S.A. military academies.

William Curry, W5CQ, founder and net control operator for the SARG
Net, said two months ago there was a new interest in forming a group
and net. He noticed that only one military academy, West Point,
W 2 KGY, was still operating a club station. At one time, every
military academy in the United States had an operating club station.

The SARG net meets every Thursday at 2200 UTC on 7.280 MHz, and
every Saturday at 1600 UTC on 14.338 MHz. All amateur radio operators
whether they are veterans, or just have an interest in the military
or history of the academies, are invited.

(arrl)

I will wrap up this weeks edition of special interest group news
with a thought - yes not everyone involved in ham radio has one
particular interest , so strong, they have joined a club or forum
delving into its cause.

Some of us just like a good old fashioned rag chew.

This story, which involves a VK5, like the first story of SOTA
I brought you today only came to light because it was passed to
ARNewsLine.. so we'll cross to ARNEWSLINE who in turn swing over to
John VK4JJW with the story to "tie (thai/.. ) the ribbons.

Here is Paul Brown WD 9 GCO

SAYING 73 TO THE OLD YEAR AROUND THE WORLD

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our final story has a little bit of magic in it. Some
of it is amateur radio magic and the rest is simply New Year's magic
-- because we can't put a final ribbon on the holiday season without
this story of a QSO that happened in two countries across the change
of the year. John Williams VK4JJW explains.

JOHN: With poor conditions on the bands, the 10-minute QSO between
one ham in Australia and another in Thailand might have felt more
like it lasted for a year. Well....in a way, it actually did.

Supoj E25JRP was on 20 metres at 2130 local time in Bangkok in the
final hours of the old year, but very few CW operators responded to
his call in that first half-hour. At 2200 local time, someone more
distant came back to him - like the others, his call began with a
V - perhaps it was VR, from Hong Kong, or VU, from India. Battling
serious QSB, Supoj asked for a repeat - and then another.

He told NewsLine: [quote] "After a couple of question marks and
'again,' I got all of his callsign." [endquote] It was VK5PL, Dave,
a colleague from the Long Island CW Club in the United States. Dave
was at home in Australia and recognised Supoj's callsign when he
heard it on the air. Two thousand twenty-three was already well
underway at his QTH. The year-change had started two hours earlier.

Riding the fickle QSB, the two had just enough time to exchange new
year's wishes - and for Dave to log his first QSO of the new year and
Supoj to log one of his final ones of the old year.

Dave wrote on the club's forum on groups.io: [quote] "I had a great
start to the year." [endquote]

Supoj told NewsLine: [quote] "I turned off my rig with a big smile."
[endquote]

Now, of course, with everyone properly settled into 2023, the only
thing that needs to get in sync are those band conditions.

This is John Williams VK4JJW. ------------------------------------------------------------*
2023 Social Scene

Clubs are welcome to submit text with audio for this section and just
in case we or someone makes an error in dates times events etc.
we will NOT pass on 3rd hand information, ONLY what you, your
WIA affiliated club sends National news.

We have seen a date for a HamFest in WERRIBE and have asked that
club, via email, for their audio and text so we can let all know..

VK3 - BARG HamFest 5th of February BARG clubrooms
barg.org.au/ (vk3kqt)

VK - ALARAMeet2023 4/5 November in HOBART (luther8@bigpond.com)

Submitting news items

If you would like to submit news items for possible inclusion
in the VK1WIA broadcasts, please email your item in text to nationalnews@wia.org.au and don't JUST send url's links or
posters, but take the time to pen YOUR contribution.

To submit audio, email nationalnews@wia.org.au
and send BOTH the audio and the text

We would appreciate items certainly no longer than 1.5 mts in
length as we only have a half hour.

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

Each recorded 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 it in the 3rd person. (First if YOU are
reading your own item)

Promote your local rebroadcast; details on wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/

A reminder when supplying HamFest info we obviously can't
plug DEALS from commercial traders "on air", but we at the
WIA will put your supporters 'goods' in this text edition
"no worries."

We will not give blatant 'plugs' to raffles, be it raffles
at the event or "on-line".

------------------------------------------------------------*

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

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

TWITTER twitter.com/VK1WIA

Societies and Club News Letter Editors can EXCHANGE a feed
prior to the actual broadcast date, e-mail
nationalnews@wia.org.au

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.
Who and where are they?
wia.org.au/members/broadcast/where/
Promote your local rebroadcast; details on wia.org.au/members/broadcast/contribute/
The purpose of "WIANews" is to rapidly provide news of
interest to WIA affiliated clubs and 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 IF broadcast, are
done so in the spirit in which they were submitted."

If you would like to see the call-backs reported each
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* Origin: Wireless Institute of Australia (3:633/280.2@fidonet)