Evening news 24th of January 2010 Good evening listeners, thank you for tuning in. For emergencies the phone number here at the Dural transmitting site is 02 9651 1489. Our office number is 02 9651 1490. This goes to a message bank when the office is unattended. In an emergency, the Secretary of A.R.N.S.W can be contacted direct on mobile 0400 445 829. Divisional Elections As already announced, the Annual General Meeting of the Wireless Institute of Australia New South Wales Division, trading as Amateur Radio New South Wales, will be held on Saturday the 17th of April 2010. At the AGM a new council is to be appointed. Nominations will shortly be open for those members who wish to be on the council for the year 2010 and 2011. Nomination forms will be available from the divisional office. The divisional office can be contacted by means given elsewhere in the news bulletin. Nomination forms will shortly be available for download from the website www.arnsw.org.au. Nominations close at midday on Saturday the 6th of March 2010. Advised by Peter O'Connell VK2EMU Divisional Returning Officer Wyong Field Day Dinner. Amateur Radio New South Wales in conjunction with the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club will be holding the 2010 Dinner at the Wyong Bowling Club on Saturday the 27th of February from 6 pm. The cost is 25 dollars per head. There will also be lucky door prizes up for grabs. For more information or to book please contact the Secretary of Amateur Radio NSW on 0400 445 829. If you are attending please send your money to A.R.N.S.W, PO Box 6044, Dural Delivery Centre NSW 2158. There will be an application form on the WEB Pages soon. It is most important that those wishing to attend make a booking, as we need the numbers to advise the club for catering purposes. Help Amateur Radio New South Wales start the 100 years off to good beginning. Advised by Brian Kelly VK2WBK Secretary A.R.N.S.W. Exams at the Wyong Field Day.   A reminder that various grades of exams for Amateur Radio licenses will be available during the Central Coast Club’s Wyong Field Day on Sunday the 28th of February. Those wishing to undertake an exam are requested to register with the Amateur Radio New South Wales exam personnel by calling the office and leaving a message on 02 9651 1490. Or call the Secretary Brian Kelly, direct on mobile 0400 445 829 or write to A.R.N.S.W P. O. Box 6044 Dural Delivery Centre N.S.W 2158. Pre-registration is essential so that the right number of the various exam papers are available on the day.   Advised by Brian Kelly VK2WBK. VK2 WICEN News, 24th of January The 70 centimetre side of the VK2RWS repeater at Berowra has recently been significantly upgraded. Users must now send a 91.5 Hertz tone to access it. It is recommended that users also turn on tone squelch in their receivers. The repeater transmits on 438.275 MHz. It has a -5.4MHz offset, meaning users transmit on 432.875 MHz. Again, the tone is 91.5 Hz. WICEN is planning to provide a display and presentation at the "Centenary" Central Coast Field Day at Wyong on Sunday, February 28. The Bushwalkers' Wilderness Rescue Service NavShield 2010 will be held on the weekend of July 3-4. Note that this would also involve setup on the Friday afternoon, the 2nd. Also remember WICEN New South Wales is holding it’s A.G.M in two weeks time on Sunday the 7th of February. It will be held here at A.R.N.S.W, 63 Quarry Road, Dural starting at 2 pm. Please consider becoming and office bearer or committee member. If you would like to know what is involved please contact the secretary. You can contact WICEN by sending an email to operations@nsw.wicen.org.au or by calling the Duty Officer on 0408 397 217. The WICEN NSW website can be found at: www.nsw.wicen.org.au Submitted by Julian Sortland VK2YJS for WICEN NSW Inc. Trash & Treasure. Next Sunday - the 31 st - will be the first trash & treasure event for the year at the VK2WI Dural site. Gates will open at 9 am with selling from about 10 am. Some major items being offered are to be found on the AR NSW web site. Beacons. Last Sunday evening the VK2RSY 10 metre beacon on 28.262 MHz was heard by YB9BWN / KC8PPD to our north in Denpasar, Bali. Ketut gave a 5 3 9 report. This is the first DX report received on the recently installed new transmitter. Ketut also advised that he operates a 10 metre beacon on 28.2241 MHz with 2 watts output. The 70 cm VK2RSY beacon has been out of service while Mark checks out a reported second signal. Advised by Tim VK2ZTM. A.R.N.S.W Radio Homebrew and Experimenters Group. The next meeting of the Amateur Radio New South Wales Radio Homebrew and Experimenters Group will be held next Sunday the 31st of January after the Trash & Treasure here at Dural. The meeting will not be the usual talk by someone, while others listen. Instead it will be a hands on calibration session for test equipment. At the November meeting a number of RF power meter sensor heads were available. For those who purchased the heads and have turned them into a power meter, then this is a good opportunity to test and calibrate them. As well as calibrating the RF power meters, there will also be equipment to test and calibrate CROs, digital frequency meters, and both analogue and digital multimeters. Many amateurs have some fairly good pieces of test equipment in their shacks and workshops, but how often do they test them to see how accurate they are. Not often enough. Just because the gear worked 10 years ago does not mean that it is still accurate now. Crystals change frequency with age or sensors have gone out of alignment. Maybe you lent the equipment to someone and they mistreated it, or maybe you bought it a while ago and have never tested it to see how good it is. So if you have some test gear that you want to check out, then bring it along to the Radio Homebrew and Experimenters group meeting next Sunday. Make sure that you have all the appropriate cables and adaptors if it uses them. The meeting will be held in the big new shed. Tables will be set up to hold the equipment, but visitors are encouraged to bring along a chair. As usual, the meeting will start with a show and tell segment, where members of the group can get up and tell others about one of their latest projects or repairs. The meeting will start at about 1pm. All are invited, so if you are interested in homebrewing your own equipment or doing your own repairs, then come along and meet others with a similar interest. So see you there, about 1pm on Sunday the 31st of January, at 63 Quarry Road Dural - after the Trash & Treasure. Advised by Peter O'Connell VK2EMU. Coordinator A.R.N.S.W Radio Homebrew and Experimenters Group. IPS Weekly Solar and Geophysical Report for the 15th to the 21st of January. SUMMARY Dates across the columns are 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 10cm flux 85 84 83 82 84 82 83Fredericksburg Index (Afr) 2 1 1 2 2 6 5 estimatedAustralian Index (Aaus) 4 3 2 7 3 12 6 estimatedT index 9 7 3 7 4 16 12Solar flare activity was low on the 15th, 17th, 18th, and the 21st; very low on the 16th; and moderate on the 19th and 20th. There was one M1 and one M2 flare on the 19th; three M1 and one M3 flares on the 20th. Geomagnetic activity observed for the Australian region was quiet on the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 19th; quiet to unsettled on the 18th and 21st; and quiet to active on the 20th. Southern Australian ionospheric F2 critical frequencies were near predicted all week. Forecast for the 22nd to the 28th of January. Moderate solar activity is possible early in the week due to new active region 1041; otherwise low solar activity is expected. Geomagnetic activity should see mostly quiet to unsettled conditions, with no recurrent coronal hole activity. Maximum usable frequencies should be near predicted monthly values with possible enhancements due to increased solar x-ray flux levels. There is a small chance of Short Wave Fadeouts. For an explanation of some of the terms in this report, go to www.ips.gov.au/1/2/1. Courtesy of IPS Radio and Space Services Summary by Pat Leeper VK2JPA Some Anniversaries this week. On the 23rd of January 1970 Amateur Satellite – Australus Oscar – A – was launched in a piggy ride from western USA. The satellite – the 5th to be constructed by Radio Amateurs – had been developed and assembled by radio amateurs associated with Melbourne University. They had won a tender against German and American amateurs for this project. Upon launch it became known as – OSCAR 5 – achieving an almost circular orbit of about 1450 Kms. It was in effect a battery powered two frequency beacon as it had no means of charging the batteries. One transmitter was on two metres with 50 mW on 144.050 Mhz and the other on 10 metres, 250 mW on 29.450 Mhz. Two metres had a rod antenna and on 10 there was a dipole, most likely using flexible steel rulers, a common practice. It was housed in a rectangular box. There was also a receiver to accept ground commands. OSCAR 5 identified in morse with H I followed by 7 data streams in a 52 second cycle. The data gave its X Y Z alignment with respect to the sun, then battery current, voltage and temperature and finally its overall temperature. The data bursts shifted the operating frequency which could be observed on an oscilloscope and from tables the values could be worked out. The 2 metre transmitter lasted 23 days and 10 metres about 45 days. Higher than expected temperatures had shortened its battery life. Arrangements had been made in Sydney to get voice circuits from the launch site. This was fed into a three hour broadcast presentation when something was happening at the launch site and at other times with studio guests, interviews and technical fill ins. This in turn was then transmittered by several Sydney amateurson every available frequency to the Australian audiance. In 1967 on a Saturday evening – the 21 st January – a large group of Amateurs with fox hunting skills along with an even larger group of interested persons – over 50 in all – assembled in the lower Blue Mountains near Kurrajong with the object of tracking fruit bats – flying foxes – that were raiding the Bilpin apple orchards. The plan was to fit a transmitter to one of the flying foxes and track it back to its roost. A flying fox – Charlie – had been caught and during the evening was fitted with a miniture two metre transmitter and a dipole antenna. About midnight, Charlie was encouraged to fly home. However he had other ideas and would not co-operate and mopped round the launch site for some hours. Then as sunrise approached - he decided it was time to sleep. The transmitter was retrived and everybody headed for their homes. In attendance was a radio reporter and Australia heard how a little bat out smarted the hunters in an ABC midday news bulletin. The story upset a group of researchers who had been trying to obtain frequencies for wild life tracking – how dare those Amateurs up stage them - The department also was not impressed – expressing a view that the exrecise could have endangered aircraft navigation. To prevent it happening again the department issued a directive to all Radio Branches round the country that – flying fox hunts were banned. As a post script – Some years later the department sought details from the organisers of the event about some of the technical aspects of the operation as they were considering an application for wild life tracking frequencies. As for the flying foxes – no doubt they or their decendants are still annoying the orchardists. This has been a historic segment as part of VK2WI News) ARRL DX news for the 21st of January. TUNISIA, 3V. Members of two Tunisian clubs are QRV with special callsign TS8RW until February 14 in celebration of ROVER week. QSL via operators' instructions. TANZANIA, 5H. Igor, UA3DJY is QRV as 5I3A until March 1. Activity is on all bands. QSL via RK3AOL. UGANDA, 5X. Nick, G3RWF is QRV as 5X1NH until March 21. Activity is on all bands, except 160 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL to home call. SENEGAL, 6W. Tom, GM4FDM and Ronald, PA3EWP will be QRV as 6W/homecalls from Le Calao from January 26 to February 9. Activity is mainly on the low bands using RTTY. QSL via operators' instructions. JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND, CE0. Toshi, JA8BMK is QRV as XR0ZA from Robinson Crusoe Island, IOTA SA-005. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters with an emphasis on the lower bands, using CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL direct to home call. GERMANY, DA. Special event stations DR2010L, DR2010O and DR2010N are QRV throughout this year in celebration of Essen and the Ruhr area, capital of culture 2010. SCOTLAND, GM. Operators MM0DFV and GM0WRR will be QRV as MM0DGR/m from the Braehead Moss National Nature Reserve on January 23. Activity will be on 80 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL via MM0DFV. SOLOMON ISLANDS, H4. Bernhard, DL2GAC is QRV as H44MS from Guadalcanal, IOTA OC-047, until April 19. This includes activating Temotu Province in February. Activity is on 80 and 40 meters using mainly SSB. QSL to home call. THAILAND, HS. Eddy, ON4AFU is QRV as HS0ZJF/8 from Koh Samui, IOTA AS-101, until January 30. QSL to home call. DOMINICA, J7. Gaynell, KK4WWW is QRV as J79WWW until February 4 while on work assignment. She is active in her spare time. QSL via N4USA. MINAMI TORISHIMA, JD1. Masa, JD1BMM is QRV from Marcus Island, IOTA OC-073, until the end of February. QSL via bureau. MONGOLIA, JT. Sank, JT1AS is QRV as JT70AS throughout the year in celebration of his 70th birthday. Activity is on the HF bands using RTTY and PSK. QSL to home call. FERNANDO de NORONHA, PY0F. Fred, PY2XB will be QRV as PY2XB/PY0F from January 23 to February 3. He will be active as PQ0F in the upcoming CQ WW 160-Meter contest. Activity is on all bands using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL both calls via PT7WA. MOUNT ATHOS, SV/A. Monk Apollo is usually QRV using RTTY on 160, 80, 40 and 30 meters around 1700 to 2100z. QSL direct. EAST KIRIBATI, T32. Don, G3BJ is QRV as T32BJ from Christmas Island, IOTA OC-024, until January 26. Activity is on the low bands using mainly CW. QSL to home call. BELIZE, V3. Gerd, DJ4KW and Gisela, DK9GG are QRV as V31YN and V31GW, respectively, until February 28. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. This includes activity in several contests held during this time. QSL to home calls. FALKLAND ISLANDS. Michael, G7VJR and Martin, G3ZAY are QRV as VP8DMN from East Falkland, IOTA SA-002, until January 29. QSL via G7VJR. INDIA, VU. Norbert, DJ9RB is QRV as VU2RBQ until February 2. This includes an entry in the upcoming CQ WW 160-Meter contest. QSL to home call. VANUATU, YJ. Nikola, 9A6DX, Hrvoje, 9A6XX and Marko, 9A8MM are QRV as YJ0DX, YJ0XX and YJ0MM, respectively, from Efate Island, IOTA OC-035, until January 28. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL all calls via 9A8MM. THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO. The ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes, BARTG RTTY Sprint and the YL-ISSB SSB QSO Party are scheduled for this weekend. The SKCC CW Sprint is scheduled for January 27. Club news. The Summerland Amateur Radio Club. The Summerland club is holding a CARBOOT sale at its Clubrooms on Sunday the 28th of March. Come along, bring and sell, only $5 per car. The next Foundation Course held by the club will be on the 17th & 18th of April. Last year the club had a total of 23 candidates attend its courses. The money from the Small Equipment grants has arrived, Radios have been purchased. A soldering iron, Projector Parts and other items are still to be purchased. Northern Rivers Wicen will be assisting with the Eden Creek Horse Enduro on the 20th & 21st of February. That is the weekend after the clubs AGM. It will also assist with the Horse Enduro at Copmanhurst, on the 13th & 14th of March. And possibly also the 10th & 11th of April. The Summerland Club A.G.M is on the 14th of February at 1400 hrs. Office seekers are advised to please get your Nomination Forms to the Secretary or any other member of the Committee. The club has begun to receive membership renewal payments. The club thanks those who have paid. Members are reminded not to post their renewal to the old PO Box. The new and correct address is to the Summerland Amateur Radio Club, 414 Richmond Hill Rd, Richmond Hill, N.S.W 2480. Members are asked to please send your renewal as soon as you are able, it saves a rush at the end. Advised by John Alcorn VK2JWA for Summerland A.R.C The Mid South Coast Amateur Radio Club Inc. The next meeting of the Mid South Coast club will be held at the CWA hall, Wason Street Milton, on Saturday the 13th of February. Members, past members, guests and visitors are very welcome to attend. There will be a guest speaker who will present a talk on his wartime radar experiences. There will also be a different raffle prize up for grabs. Arrivals are from 10:30 onwards, please bring your picnic lunch, as usual the club provided tea and coffee etc. Hope to see you there from Stan VK2EL, Club Secretary The Central Coast Amateur Radio Club. A big hello to all Amateur Radio Enthusiasts from the members of the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club. Members are asked to please let Ray VK2HAY know if you are going to the Centenary Dinner that is being organized by A.R.N.S.W & C.C.A.R.C at Wyong on Saturday, the 27th of February. They need the numbers and money so they can keep the Bowling Clib informed well in advance of the night. Ray will also be ordering the new Cotton Polo shirts next week, if any member wishes to obtain one please let Ray know as soon as possible. Also do not forget that they have Club Caps for sale, they will make you stand-out in the crowd on the Field Day. Advised by Ray VK2 HAY who can be contact on 02 4325 2182. St. George Amateur Radio Society The next meeting of the St. George Amateur Radio Society will be on Wednesday week the 3rd of February. This will be the annual general meeting, but don't let that put you off. As well as the election of the office bearers for the next year, there will also be some discussion and planning of events for the next few months. This will include the John Moyle field day contest and other contests during the year. There will be the usual tea, coffee and biscuits as well as the friendly discussion. The meeting is at the usual venue - the first Kyle Bay Scout Hall, Donnelly Park, Kyle Parade Connells Point, right next door to the sailing club. The doors open at about 7:30, so see you there. Members, non members and in fact anyone interested in radio and electronics is invited to attend. All amateurs in the Sydney area are reminded of the weekly 2 metre net that takes place on the Heathcote repeater on Thursday evenings at 8pm. The net starts as a voice net for about 30 minutes then becomes a slow scan TV net. All amateurs interested in slow scan TV who can access the Heathcote repeater are invited to join in. Foundation Licence holders can also receive the transmissions. The Heathcote repeater VK2RLE is on 146.800 MHz with a negative 600 kHz offset. Advised by Peter O'Connell VK2EMU Publicity Officer, St. George Amateur Radio Society. The Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Inc. The next meeting of the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club. will be the February Monthly General meeting at 2pm on Saturday the 6th of February 2010 in the SES Building in Central Road, Port Macquarie. Users are reminded that the VK2RPM UHF repeater on 438.525 MHz requires a 123 Hertz CTCSS sub audible tone to be transmitted in order to access the repeater. The UHF repeater is co-sited with the VK2RPM 146.7 MHz 2 metre repeater at Middle Brother Mountain. Visitors are always made very welcome at the club’s monthly general meetings at 2pm on the first Saturday of each month, and at the Friday night gathering at 7pm on the evening of the fourth Friday of each month. The venue for all these meetings is the SES Building in Central Road, Port Macquarie. Please contact the club via PO Box 712 Port Macquarie NSW 2444 if you are interested in attending Foundation Licence or Standard Licence training courses and assessments in Port Macquarie and Wauchope. The next courses and assessments will take place in Port Macquarie during late February or early March. For more information about the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club, please visit the club’s website at www.orarc.org The website contains a photo gallery and the club information including the January 2010 issue of the bimonthly newsletter, “Oxtales”. Submitted by Henry Lundell, VK2ZHE on behalf of the Oxley Region Amateur Radio Club Inc. The Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club. The Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club wishes to advise all members that they will be conducting their January general meeting on Wednesday January 27th at the Campbelltown RSL Club, Carberry Lane the corner of Cordeaux St Campbelltown commencing at 7.00PM. Please page Wal Kelly or Chris Newton at the door. Visitors wishing to learn more about the hobby of amateur radio are most welcome to attend. The Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club would also like to thank all the amateur stations who gave their time to make contact with VI2AJ2010 during the recent 22nd Australian Scout Jamboree. Over 1500 contacts were made during the duration of the Jamboree The response from the young scouts was very enthusiastic and hopefully many will take up Amateur Radio as a hobby. Advise by Ian Hawkins VK2MCI On behalf of the Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club. The Hornsby and Districts Amateur Radio Club, Inc. Meetings of the Hornsby club will recommence in February. First is the informal mid-monthly on Tuesday the 9th. The main meeting will be on the 23rd, and this will include a talk and slide-show on the VK2MA Spring and Summer Field Day efforts. The club meets at the Mt Colah Community Centre from 8:00pm. Club nets will continue through January, using the club's call sign, VK2MA. Last Friday morning marked 5 years of the Club's 40 metre "Morning Tea with HADARC" net. Congratulations to Rod VK2DAY for acting as net controller for almost all of them. The net can be heard across south-eastern Australia on 7.104 MHz LSB from 9:00am Sydney time. Those who wish to come to the Lunch on Thursday are reminded to contact the club, as indicated in QUA, to RSVP. Those wishing to have a pie should indicate this. The Club offers licence training and examinations. If you wish to gain or upgrade your licence, please contact the Training Team for more information. More information on the club, and contact forms, can be found at: www.hadarc.org.au The Club also uses a number of social media websites. Facebook users can find HADARC by searching for "VK2MA". As the club's tweets are public anyone can see these by visiting: twitter.com/VK2MA A free twitter membership allows you to "follow" the Club. From Julian Sortland, VK2YJS, Publicity Officer, Hornsby and Districts Amateur Radio Club, Inc. Summary of coming events. January Fishers Ghost meeting on the 27th. Trash & Treasure and Homebrew at Dural on the 31st. February St George A.G.M on the 3rd. Orange & District meeting on the 5th. Oxley Region meeting on the 6th. WICEN New South Wales A.G.M on the 7th. Hornsby Mid-Monthly meeting on the 9th. Mid South Coast meeting on the 13th. Waverley training and exams on the 13th & 14th. Summerland AGM on the 14th. Eden Creek Horse Enduro on the 20th & 21st. Hornsby meeting on the 23rd. Central Coast Centenary dinner at Wyong on the 27th. Central Coast Centenary Field Day at Wyong on the 28th. March Nominations for Council close on the 6th. Horse Enduro at Copmanhurst on the 13th & 14th. Summerland Car boot sale on the 28th. April W.I.A New South Wales division A.G.M on the 17th. Summerland foundation course on the 17th & 18th. International Marconi day on the 24th. Submitting news items Please get your news submissions in by the Friday night preceding the broadcast. Please specify if you want the item to run for more than one week. It may not be necessary for items to run continuously as all events will be included in the summary of coming events. Submission of news items should be sent to news@arnsw.org.au Broadcast roster Next week the 31st of January, the announcer in the morning will be Allan VK2VEC with Peter VK2HC as engineer. For the evening broadcast we will have Nick VK2ZNF as announcer and Kevin VK2CKD as engineering support. That concludes our evening news. All the best from the broadcast team at VK2WI. Have a great week. Thank you for listening.