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NEWS

  NOTICE: always refresh your browser for each page on this site. Changes
are frequent.


Car Rally

See Car Rally page


January 24 2010

Mid North Coast Amateur Radio Group's Radio Expo 2010 8.30am St Johns Church
Hall, Mc Lean Street Coffs Harbour.
(The largest Amateur Radio Event on the Mid North Coast of NSW. 20 plus
exhibitors, Trade tables, Major brands, Home brew, Historic radio display,
ATV display, WIA, ALARA, WICEN, Volunteer Coastal Patrol, Club Displays,
WIA Book Sales, Disposals tables, Lucky door prizes on the hour, Hot and cold
food, Free tea, coffee. Fee Parking, Disable access, Clean amenities,
www.mncarg.org on rain, hail or shine )

 


Ipswich / Brisbane operation on 135.75 KHz

Approval has been confirmed by A.C.M.A. for operation of an Ipswich / Brisbane
operation on 135.75 KHz under a Scientific Licence, this licence held on
behalf of the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club.
Transmissions and possibly a beacon will be established by Kevin VK4WA using
the callsign AX 2 QJM and will transmit from Redbank Plains.

And yes that IS a figure TWO, AX 2 QJM.

Interestingly Redbank Plains, an Ipswich suburb, is also the site for a
proposed Weather Bureau Radar installation.

(QSP ACMA BOM QNEWS)


 Digital Radio Announces New Initiatives

REAL TIME TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS OVER YOUR RADIO

Commercial Radio Australia has entered into an agreement with Sentinel
Content, (whose investors include the NRMA and RACQ), for the development of
real time traffic solutions via digital radio.

Rather than receiving an audio-only bulletin about a problem, the system
will deliver timely traffic bulletins and answers to the best alternate
routes to the destination. The service will be available on free-to-air
digital radio and using DAB+ will also be able to provide additional updates
for in-car and portable navigation systems.

Extra data such as parking information, fuel pricing and transit lane
restrictions could also be integrated into the system.

Free-to-air digital radio services will begin in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,
Adelaide, Perth and Hobart from January 2009.

More information on digital radio can be found at
www.digitalradioaustralia.com.au


(WIA NEWS April 20 2008)


 Zapping Cancer Cells at 13.56 MHz

John, K3TUP, of Pennsylvania, has been working on an RF-based treatment for
cancer that is currently undergoing testing.

K3TUP was on CBS's 60 Minutes last Sunday, April 13.
John gave as many plugs to his ham radio background as he could in being the
foundations of hands-on learning that led to his research and invention

K3TUP, a very active Amateur Radio operator, aided in the creation of the
upcoming ARRL Technology and Amateur Radio public relations campaign.

Read more about Kanzius and his ground-breaking idea to kill cancer cells with
radio waves in the February 2008 issue of QST.

(WIA NEWS April 2008)


MULTIPSK 4.7 RELEASED BY F6CTE

Patrick Lindecker F6CTE has release a new version of the popular MULTIPSK data
modes software. The latest upgrade provides Automatic Repetition Request and
Fast Acknowledged Exchange when operating in A-L-E and A-L-E 400 modes. It
also features an improvement of the Outlook Express or equivalent outgoing
mails handling, and automatic transfer of received ARQ FAE messages to
Internet addresses via Outlook Express e-mail. The new release called
MULTIPSK 4.7 is on line at
http://f6cte.free.fr/


NEW VIDEO SHOWS HOME MADE TRIODE

Breathtaking and amazing! That's what is being said about a new video that
takes the viewer though the step by step process of creating a triode tube.

It is called "Fabrication d'une lampe triode" but the soundtrack is simply
background music by famed composer George Gershwin. This prevents there being
any language difficulties.

The video was posted to yje World Wide Web by F2FO. Its on-line at
www.dailymotion.com/video/x3wrzo_fabrication-dune-lampe-triode_tech

WIANEWS


Online help to identify data modes

There are a bewildering number of digital modes on the air these days. While
decoders are readily available, it can take a practiced ear to work out what
mode is in use.
Recognising this issue, the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group has put

downloadable samples of around two dozen modes on its web site.
The idea is that by listening to the samples you can more easily identify
modes you hear on the bands.
To get the files go to www.bartg.org.ukand click on the the Datacom link.

RSGB NEWS G4NJH


New Digital Voice Mode

FDMDV - Frequency Division Multiplex Digital Voice
Digital Audio over HF SSB
FDMDV is the latest digital voice mode on HF - it caters to high quality digital voice under poor band conditions, in only 1100Hz bandwidth!.
http://n1su.com/fdmdv


Queensland WICEN Secretariat

The Secretariat has been raised to look after any issues which may
need addressing at a state level for WICEN in Queensland. It is not
intended to dictate any local policies or change in any way any
interactions at a local level any groups or clubs may have with their
various Emergency Service Agencies. It will carry out the role
previously attended to by the State WICEN Co-ordinator.

The State has been divided into 6 regions, roughly aligned to the SES
regions, with some modifications according to amateur concentrations,
and each has a representative on the Secretariat (except for the North,
where we are hoping a volunteer will arise to take on the role !!).
The representatives and their regions are as follows:

Richard Philp    VK4YRP     representing Sunshine Coast Region, also Chairman
Gary Bonnor      VK4ZGB    representing South East Region
John Edwards    VK4IE       representing Moreton Region
Wade Millwood  VK4ACB    representing Central Queensland Region
Ewan Cameron   VK4HEC    representing South West Region
VACANT                                representing Far North Region

email address: wicenqld@wia.org.au


If anyone has any queries, or would like to volunteer to assist,
please let the Secretariat know ASAP.


Gary VK4ZGB
South East Region representative


Amateur Logic TV

In Episode 13 Peter Berrett VK3PB joins the team at Amateur Logic TV as their
Australian news presenter and Australian news reporter.

Peter is a member of the Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club, a member
of the Wireless Institute of Australia and is a keen ATV enthusiast famous
for his electronic Fish Bowl on Melbourne’s VK3RTV repeater.

Amateur Logic TV is a Television program made by Radio Amateurs for Radio
Amateurs. It is an IPTV program which in simple terms means you download it
from the internet and watch it on your PC.

You can download Amateur Logic edition 13 from www.amateurlogic.com/downloads.htm


In the June 7th 2007 edition of the show, two of the team members Tommy and Jim visit
the Dayton Hamvention, the worlds largest amateur radio gathering and brings
back some great coverage of the event, including an interview with the infamous
Tom, WA5KUB and his live helmet cam.

Peter Berrett brings to the show some Aussie content with footage of the
Moorabbin and District Radio Club Hamfest held recently in Melbourne. The
show also contains many practical do it yourself type tips with the current
episode showing you how to building your own Homebrew Crimpers for RG213
and LMR400 cable...

All in all its 50 minutes of solid Amateur Radio television…Visit the
website today http://www.amateurlogic.com/


From WIANEWS 24/06/2007 and Amateur Logic TV


The Southern Cross DX Net

VK's longest continual net has been running for 43 years.
Operating 7 days a week, propagation permitting, on a frequency
of 14.238.5MHz at 1215 zulu


WAP MEETS HAM

Suitably designed Web-sites are usually required to allow
mobile phones with their small screens to be viewed properly.

These are called WAP-sites. WAP or 'Wireless Application
Protocol' is the protocol used to send and receive certain
data over mobile or cellphone networks.

Remember that one will not pay for the time connected,
but for the amount of data sent or received.

But what could be interesting enough to view to do that sort of exercise?

Well ZS6RO has designed a WAP-site so anyone can visit from
about anywhere in the world. The WAP Home-Page menu links
the cellphone user to various pages.

It has been running successfully for more than a year.

One link called 'DX-SPOTS' will bring back a screen with the latest
five DX-Spots from the International DX-Cluster network.

Another link called 'DX-Callbook' will allow the user to enter a
callsign, local or DX, and get a screen showing that callsign's
information. Think of the possibilities when you are on your next
field-day trip with your radio gear and mobilephone.

To access ZS6RO'sP site from a WAP-enabled cellphone, use the URL
www.zs6ro.co.za if that isn't successful, add to the URL /index.wml

The reason you may have to add to the URL is because some cellphone
micro-browsers are not always recognised correctly by WAP sites.

As a matter of interest, if one uses the same URL, without
the add-on just mentioned, on a standard desktop PC, the user will
be directed to the normal WebPage on the Internet which contains
other ham-related information.

Some desktop PC browsers may fail when trying to connect to a WAP site.
The reason is that the PC browser expects html content whereas a WAP-site
sends text content and this may 'confuse' the standard WEB browser.

Have fun with your cellphone ...

DICK, ZS6RO
(SDARL news)


HF marine weather service extended

Boat users along the Australian Coastline and High Seas will continue
to have access to the marine weather services through a High Frequency
radio service now that the Bureau of Meteorology has extended its service
to at least 2010.

"The Bureau provides mariners with continuous broadcasts of coastal
weather observations as well as coastal and ocean weather forecasts
and warnings.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage,
Greg Hunt says the Bureau's HF Broadcasts of Marine products allow the
delivery of information central to maritime safety and provides assurances
to mariners operating far from home base.

Mr Hunt says the service is especially important for smaller craft where
coastal radio coverage may be sparse or where long ocean voyages are
involved.

The Bureau has renewed the contract through until 2010 for the continuation
of the service, ensuring mariners would continue to receive maritime safety
information for the coming years.

Mr Hunt also stressed that the Bureau would be evaluating the needs of the
maritime user communities for continuing HF radio information services
beyond 2010, later this decade.

VK1WIA News


ACMA NEWS
 

ACMA changes conditions on the class Licence for LIPD's

ACMA has made variations to the LIPD class licence and the changes are;
* authorise ultra-wideband short-range vehicle radar in the 22-26.5 GHz band;

* increase the maximum EIRP to 100mW for wireless microphones in the 520-820 MHz band;

* authorise RLANs in the 5470-5600 and 5650-5725 MHz bands; and

* reduce the minimum number of hop channels for wideband frequency hopping spread
spectrum devices in the 915-928MHz band.

The variations were passed by the Authority without any changes on 20 July and is
effective from 26 July 2006.

The instrument can be found at
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/

WIANEWS August 6 2006


GRIDCASTING

Many radio broadcasters are making their content available on the
Internet as a live stream. The actual number of listeners who can
be reached using this stream is limited since, by and large, the
Internet is a point-to-point channel.

Presently, the two dominant configurations for Internet streams are
unicasting where each listener requires an individual connection to the
broadcaster's stream server, and multicasting which makes better use of
the broadcaster's server bandwidth but requires the presence of multicast
servers distributed throughout the Internet.

Now a new concept in Internet streaming has been developed by a Danish
company www.octoshape.com and it's called Gridcasting.

This is modelled after the popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks
such as BitTorrent.

Here's how it works:

The audio (or video) stream is broken down into a large number of
(lower rate) data streams such that none of the data streams are
identical. For example, a 400 kbps video stream is broken down
into twelve (different) 100 kbps data streams;

These streams propagate among the various clients that are signed on to
watch (or listen to) the stream. Each client needs to be running the
Danish plug-in.

As these signals move among clients, information about who is
signed on is sent as metadata along with the data streams;

As long as a client is receiving any four (in this example) of the
12 different data streams, these four streams can be used to
reconstruct the original live stream.

Since all users continually monitor connections involving themselves,
bottleneck and congestion problems on the Internet are avoided.

NAB

WIANEWS December 10 2006


New D-STAR NET

An informal "D-Star" users net is now on 14.292 MHz on Saturdays
at 4 p.m. Eastern in the USA.

D-STAR is an open digital protocol published by Japan Amateur Radio
League, available to be implemented by anyone. While much of D-star
involves linking and position reporting, it's narrowband mode and
digital modulation scheme is a very interesting topic for semi-weak
signal mode on VHF simplex.

So far D-star is only supported commercially by ICOM, but its growing
popularity means that other companies are bound to come on board.
More information on the D-Star system is at
www.icomamerica.com/support/forums/tt.asp?forumid=2


Grid Locator on Google Earth

Laurent, F6FVY, has programmed a tool based on Google Earth so that you
can click on any spot in the world and automatically the corresponding
full grid locator is displayed.

http://f6fvy.free.fr/qthLocator/fullScreen.html

Just adjust the map to the desired resolution. Then click on the spot you want
to know and a small window pops up with longitude, latitude and the grid locator!

Binu VU2NGB


Queensland  APRS users group

Andrew VK4TEC has formed a QLD APRS users group.
Initially this will be a web page and email list.

This is not to be a registered club as such, but a users group.

If you are interested please drop Andrew an email and register your interest.
Details can be found on the following web site:

http://www.tech-software.net/


 EMR limits are a licence requirement in Australia

The operation of all amateur stations in Australia requires compliance with
Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) controls which limit the public's exposure
to radio frequency radiation.

The EMR controls also apply to other radio transmitters and mobile phones
that operate between 3kHz and 300GHz.

Last year the Australian Communications Authority carried out the first of its
annual audits of randomly selected apparatus licensees including amateur stations.

These audits require licensees to attest, in writing, that their station is
EMR compliant.

An article entitled "Will your station meet EMR requirements?" appeared in
the June 2002 edition of the WIA journal Amateur Radio magazine and it
provides basic information.

A copy of the article can be found in the AR magazine archive section of the
WIA website
http://www.wia.org.au/armag/2002/AR_June02_pp1-5.pdf


Power Supply Hazard Warning

 John VK3ZRX has reported to his local QNEWS Coordinator the following tale which has a very important message for all hams.

During a very `colourful' incident at the QTH a near disaster occurred.
While it did not threaten either life or property as he was present at the time he has prepared a warning for other hams.

The shack suddenly filled with copious black smoke which stopped after shutting every thing down. The challenge was then to determine the source and to clear the smell out of the shack.

By `nose' elimination the faulty piece of equipment was located by the characteristic smell. After the unit was dismantled the offending device was identified. A rather large black mark was clearly visible on the printed circuit board - in the vicinity of the mains supply entry.

Culprit: -Capacitor - brand: - AEE - 'Miniprint'

Description: radial lead capacitor encapsulated in a clear or slightly amber coloured resin, with silver label inside resin.
Label has brand, type, and other info. The edge that is opposite side to leads is rounded.

Problem: Although rated for 250 VAC service, the capacitors are unreliable in this role. Typically the encapsulation splits, allowing moisture to enter the capacitor element leading to eventual catastrophic failure of the capacitor.
A few years ago there was a spate of domestic fires caused by 'MISTRAL' box fans - this type of capacitor was the culprit.

(Although not stated in the press, I am certain this is correct. I had one of these fans which failed with large amounts of black smoke.
One of the AEE caps in the thyristor-based motor speed control unit had failed.)

I have now seen several failures of this type capacitor and I have also found several unused ones in the junk box with cracked encapsulation.

Solution: Get rid of them!
If you have any in the junk box, a much better place for them is the bin.

I think these caps predated the 'X' and 'Y' mains rating system -
I have only ever found them in 'X' type applications (i.e. from line to neutral). If used as a 'Y' cap (i.e. line or neutral to ground) they would be especially hazardous.

Further Activity: - As most amateurs are inherently bower birds and plenty of older equipment can be found in many shacks it would be advisable that any equipment of Australian manufacture should be carefully inspected and any of the offending capacitors replaced with a more modern device.

Moral: - When purchasing older equipment bear in mind that while the unit is cheaper than a new one it bears the potential to become a `time bomb' that can cause havoc in the future -

Peter Ellis VK1KEP
QNEWS April 18 2004


AM MODULATION IMPROVEMENT ANNOUNCED
 

A new modulation technique for AM broadcasting is being touted by industry pioneer Mike Dorrough in the United States.
Mike claims the Advanced Modulation System can increase carrier modulation to 200% while improving the performance, range and sound quality of AM radio.
He discussed the system at a recent meeting in Sacramento and plans other presentations.  Ross du Clair, CE/DOE for Clear Channel in Sacramento, who attended the meeting, is quoted as saying, "This is real and it does work...."  Read more:
 http://www.rwonline.com/dailynews/one.php?id=2143
 (CGC Communicator)


How to sidestep EMI regulations

Do you wonder about computers that are supposedly EMI compliant, but still put out heaps of RF interference?  How do they do it and still comply with the regulations?

The answer was revealed on the VK-VHF mailing list .  Many computer designers, who tend to design down to a price and don't care much about the interference consequences of their products, have resorted to some ingenious trickery to maintain compliance.

With a stable oscillator you get a hard line spectrum that may exceed EMC limits.  However if you randomly frequency modulate the clock frequency you can reduce EMI readings by as much as 20 decibels.  Total RF output remains high, but it's spread over a range of frequencies.

Thus the regulations are complied with, but the computer puts out as much interference as ever.  As Chas VK3BRZ pithily wondered, do the design engineers concerned wash themselves properly, or just spread the dirt around thin enough that it's not so noticeable?!

Related reading:  "Why digital engineers don't believe in EMC"
http://signalintegrity.com/Pubs/news/noEMC.htm


Amateur Radio Exams

Please check the WIA web site for exam and course information

 

Always check with the clubs for the latest information


Australian AMSAT

VK5AGR is the AMSAT National Coordinator, vk5agr@amsat.org
VK5ZAI is the Australian Co-ordinator for ARISS.

AMSAT-VK HF Net.
2nd Sunday each month.
November through March 0900 UTC 7.068 MHz
April through October 1000 UTC 3.685 MHz 


NZ KIWISAT TO BE HAM RADIO ENVIRO-BIRD

The planned New Zealand KiwiSAT ham radio satellite will also be a ham
radio environmental research bird as well.

Late word from AMSAT New Zealand is that the KiwiSAT ham radio
satellite will now carry an additional special beacon available for
use by radio amateurs around the world. This, to collect data on
atmospheric aberrations and to assist with information collection
directly associated with global warming concerns and carbon balance monitoring.

Details have yet to be finalized however the KiwiSAT structure has been
modified to incorporate a second 70cm monopole antenna and a high level of
filtering has been incorporated to minimize any desensitising of the on-board
70 centimetre receivers. Once in space, the beacon will be switched as
required but will normally be "on" for a given whole orbit to provide for data
collection

Meantime, the KiwiSAT linear flight transponder is currently
transmitting from the Whangaparaoa area with beam antennas pointing
South. This transponder is inverting type to compensate for Doppler
shift when in orbit. Its transmit Power is 2 Watts PEP. Its uplink
is Uplink is from 435.265 to 435.235 MHz on lower sideband and the
downlink 145.850 to 145.880 MHz on upper sideband. The inverting
transponder is used to correct for Doppler shift.

Reporting from Auckland, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, for the Amateur Radio Newsline.

KiwiSAT is currently planned for launch in mid to late 2009. Its
planners say that KiwiSAT is designed for low duty cycle modes and the
use of FM wile not outright banned will be discouraged. Further
information is on-line at www.kiwisat.org and we will have more ham
radio space related items later on in this weeks news.

Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF (WIANEWS)


Lasers for satellite communications

 Scientists suggest laser technology to block possible bottleneck Several scientists are calling for the use of lasers to beam scientific data back to Earth instead of the usual radio waves, saying it will prevent an imminent communications bottleneck. Creating the potential problem are spacecraft planned in the next decade by NASA and other satellite users that will zap back at least 10 times the data sent now. That will create gridlock unless the satellite industry switches to a laser telemetry system. The move would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but experts said the technology is well worth the investment. Using near-infrared lasers to communicate would essentially be like fibre optics without the fibre but the technology is still being developed. 

(from a packet bull distributed by ZL2VAL)


Where else are LIPD's to be found ?

The 70 centimetre band is not the only place where small  transmitters such as so-called LIPD'S or "low interference potential devices" can be found.

An ACA brochure called  "Spectrum Opportunities for Short-Range Radio-communications"  lists many more.

You'd be amazed at the sorts of applications to which low powered transmitters have been put.

Possibly the most common examples are, Remote controlled car alarm systems and Garage door openers.   These operate near 304, 345 and 433 MHz.    Personal and Duress alarms, with medical and safety applications operate around similar frequencies as well as above 900 MHz.

Fancy some radio foxhunting?  Well, animal tracking devices use 151 and 173.5 MHz.    And if you're into tracking Whales and/or Sharks, you need to go down to the 48 to 49 MHz band for this.

What about locating lost joggers?  Lost?  We can only assume that they are - why else would anyone go round and round the same block a dozen times if they're not lost?    No matter, 77.4 MHz is the place to be for athlete location systems.

What is termed "Auditory assistance" is found near 3 MHz, around 42 MHz, the FM broadcast band,  and around 2.4 GHz.

These are generally the systems where people put on wireless headphones for spoken information at museum exhibits and the like.   The 2.4 GHz segment is also shared with other applications, such as barcode readers.

Listening to cordless phones is illegal, yet Baby-monitors are not.  You can find these around 35 MHz, although we have also heard them near 27
MHz.

Cordless phones, by the way, use a variety of frequencies, such as 1.7/40, 30/39,  915, 1900 and 2400 MHz.    Cheap two way radios can be found near 27 MHz, with 55, 152 and 433 MHz also in use.

Radio controlled models use a variety of frequencies, such as 27, 29, 36, 41 and 433 MHz.   And somewhat bigger models, trains to be exact, use frequencies near 900 MHz for tracking purposes.

Perhaps someone is bugging you?   Well,  listen for yourself by tuning around 39.5, 88 to 108, 174 to 230, 520 to 820 and 915 to 928 MHz.   You'll hear a feedback howl in the receiver if your room is being monitored.

We already know about those pesky crane controllers near 433 MHz and an alternative frequency for them is near 472 MHz.
Keeping tabs on crims is easy if you tune to around 314.2 MHz, that's
the "Home detention" monitoring device frequency.

Have you ever thought about communicating with your bodily implants? No, well, apparently 262 kHz is the place to try for 'implantable medical
devices'.

Biomedical telemetry however also uses various VHF and UHF frequencies including the 70cm LIPD band.    We just hope no one is using a 70cm. hand-held in the vicinity!

Moving up, we see the Gigahertz segments used for applications such as distance and speed measurement, cruise control systems, radar fluid measurements and handheld data terminals.

But we've barely scratched the surface.  We could go into e-tags, product security tags, computer networks, underground communications, wireless weather stations, video surveillance and more.

It's amazing what has a transmitter or receiver attached to them these days.

(ACA website)
(APCNEWS)


Interesting microwave frequencies
 

Is there really anything to hear above 1300 MHz?  Murray  VK2KGM says yes, and has submitted the following item on the S-band, which is between 2 and 4 GHz. 

Some interesting S-Band (2-4 GHz) frequencies to watch are the News Helicopters - and other terrestrial links just above the Amateur Band (2.40 GHz to 2.45 GHz) in the broadcast link band.

Equipment needed includes an old Galaxy MDS grid dish and down converter (which has a Local Oscillator on about 1500 MHz or so), an old FM satellite TV receiver and a TV set. The sound is on a 7.0 MHz sub-carrier - you can set your satellite receiver for this.  Many people who have disused Galaxy systems on their roofs are happy to give them to you for taking the trouble of getting them down.

Murray built a down-converter kit from Minikits, but found that many of the old down-converters also work OK.

The list of TV Outside Broadcast S-Band link frequencies Australia wide are:-
ABC - 2477 MHz & 2596 MHz
Seven Network - 2505 MHz & 2624 MHz
Nine Network - 2633 MHz & 2652 MHz
Ten Network - 2561 MHz & 2678 MHz

These are licensed for 20 Watts maximum input into their antennas.

And thanks to Murray VK2KGM for this rundown of microwave activity.


 HFPACK
 

http://www.hfpack.com

HFpack caters for portable type operations,
HFpack WORLDWIDE SATURDAY SUNDAY

HFPACK 3687.5kHz LSB
Is this frequency good in our area?
Please try some QSOs on 3687.5 LSB and report to the group.

To arrange a QSO schedule with another HFpack operator in your country or region, please post your schedule on the HF NOW egroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hfnow

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Here are the 80m SSB "bandplans" for the IARU regions and a few of the most popular HFpack member countries:

"Region 1 bandplan" 3600-3800 kHz
"Region 2 bandplan" 3525-4000 kHz
"Region 3 bandplan" 3535-3900 kHz

Australia 3535-3620 ; 3640-3700 ; 3794-3800 kHz
New Zealand 3550-3620 ; 3640-3900 kHz
USA 3750-4000 kHz

From the above list, you can see that the "DX Window" 3794-3800 is the only SSB frequency that is in common worldwide... but with many QRO stations on it!

Our best option for HFpack is a compromise of 3 frequencies in different areas of the world.

Worldwide = 3687.5kHz LSB (3687 CW or 3686+1000Hz PSK)
USA/Canada = 3996.0kHz USB (3997 CW) or 3998kHz LSB
(Bonnie KQ6XA)

QNEWS December 28 2003


Digital Amateur Television
 

Digital Amateur Television (DATV) was transmitted for the first time in Brisbane. 
The tests were from the Brisbane Digital Television Group and were conducted by VK4XRL. 
The signal uses the DVB-s standard as found in Digital satellite receivers.
The Frequency used was 1250mhz, FEC Rate 3/4, Symbol Rate of 6000Khz. 
Further tests will be carried out at 13cm.
Richard VK4XRL December 3 2002

More details: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cardenrj/


RESCUE RADIO INTERNATIONAL

 An innovative CD-ROM training package developed by two Brisbane-based
 companies is being hailed as a world-first in first aid training.

Minister for Innovation and Information Economy, Paul Lucas, joined swimming identity Laurie Lawrence for the poolside launch of First Aid Now in Brisbane.

The training package requires a user to briefly connect to the Internet on a multimedia computer to register their details and submit results for assessment. In less than four hours a person can complete their CPR training and assessment.

2 CD-ROMs cover CPR as well as first aid in emergencies such as head and spinal injuries; poisons, bites and stings; fractures; and motor vehicle accidents.

Users can attain a nationally-recognised Senior First Aid qualification.

 For more information on First Aid Now, visit www.lifeint.com.au or Laurie Lawrence's "Kids Alive Do the Five" website www.kidsalive.com.au
 (Media contact: Alison Smith 04 0716 6084)


LINUX for Amateur Radio

 CANBERRA REGION AMATEUR CLUBS RICHARD JENKINS VK1RJ speaking of LINUX for Amateur Radio says one of the drawbacks of adopting Linux is that there is often poor support for amateur radio programs.  One of the better attempts at providing amateur radio operators with a suite of 'free' programs for amateur radio is to be on the web
 
http://www.afu-knoppix.de

This variant on Knoppix comes complete on a single CD-ROM ... and is freely copyable onto your friend's disk, etc.  Originally written for the German  amateur, it has English version ... and VK1RJ has easily downloaded it onto a partition on his hard drive and has it happily running on a laptop with a 4 Gig partition.
 
Located on the disk are a raft of amateur radio programs ... for psk31, Morse, SSTV, etc.  As well there are the standard Linux programs including an office suite and various graphics and multimedia manipulation programs.
Additional programs can be readily downloaded from Knoppix and/or Debian repositories.

 
This is a four-star distribution and well worth a download.


 Richard VK1RJ

WIA NEWS March 6 2005


Space

ISS
Keep 145.2 and 145.8 MHz Clear for ISS Contacts in the Northern Hemisphere.
145.8 MHz and 145.990 Clear in the VK ZL area.

Stations in VK and New Zealand listen on 145.8 and to talk back to the ISS we transmit on 145.99.
The reason for the oddball frequencies is because the ISS is a satellite and needs to conform to the satellite requirements.

The space frequencies have been used by some stations for terrestrial contacts, please don't. This may cause the amateurs on the International Space Station to avoid activity on 2-metres when over stations causing interference on these frequencies.


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