Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at:
http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2023-09-24.mp3 Text edition:

2023 SEPTEMBER 24 VK NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST ON VK1WIA
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THE BEST NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL WEEK

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

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NATIONAL NEWS FOR WEEK COMMENCING SEP 24 2023
IN OUR 28th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS

THIS WEEK:-

WIA DIRECTOR STEVEN GREEN VK2TSG. -

WIA PAST DIRECTOR BOB VK6POP. -

WIA EDITOR IN CHIEF OF AR MAGAZINE, AUSTRALIAS ROGER HARRISON VK2ZRH. -

WIA DEPUTY YOUTA CO ORDINATOR ALEC CHERRY VK2APC. -

AND YOUR'S TRULY GRAHAM VK4BB ANCHORING THE BEST 30 mt. NEWS YOU'LL GET ALL
WEEK

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Interstate and OS memberships Now Available

A new Membership Tier available from REAST to all outside of VK7.

Yes those listening outside the state of Tasmania and would like to
join as a REAST member this is now available to you at a discounted
rate of $20/year. For a full list of benefits you receive as a member
or to join, check out the REAST Membership portal link shown, as are
all points of contact - in the web edition of this News Cast best
read at wia.org.au

reast.tidyhq.com/public/membership_levels

(vk7wi news)
OUTSIDE THE BOX TWO

Another club who thought outside the box is that VK2 club who organised
the inventor of EchoLink to speak to them and others via a zoom
platform.

With the follow up story VK2FA

On Thursday the 14th of September, The Hunter Radio Group had an
incredible lecture via Zoom from Jonathan Taylor K1RFD from Connecticut
in the USA. This was a massive effort on Jonathan's part because of the
time difference. His local time was 4.00 am

Jonathan is the guy who developed the very popular Amateur Radio
program Echolink.

We must thank The staff from the Electronics section at TAFE Newcastle
for their support , Eric Van De Weyer VK2VE from Amateur Radio NSW for
supplying the Zoom support, The National WIA news for helping publicize
the event, John Williams VK4JJW for his behind the scenes support with
publicity and Jonathan for his unbelievably informative lecture.

I would give Jonathan 10 out of 10 for a fantastic job.

The meeting had nearly 50 people from all over the Globe check in and
listen to the talk including the United Kingdom and the USA.

A link to the lecture will be on the ARNSW web site in the near future.

I'm Grahame VK2FA for the Hunter Radio Group and WIA National News.

A special call you MUST try and work

VI4ACRO.

With more here is Bernie V K 4 K X.

Gday listeners, Bernie VK4KX here with some news from the Sunshine
Coast in Queensland.

For many years I have had a relatively rare medical condition known as
Acromegaly, and on the first of November each year is Acromegaly
awareness day, so this year I decided to do my part to increase
awareness of this condition by having a Special Event Call sign,
VI4ACRO.

I only know of one other amateur with this condition, VK4XR and
Eric has kindly volunteered to be an operator on my Roster. So if you
or any other Amateur you know has been effected by Acromegaly and would
like to participate in raising awareness for this condition please
contact me, as I would like more operators on the roster in November.

To find out more about this Special Event activation or to know more
about Acromegaly you can look up VI4ACRO on QRZ.com or use your
favourite search engine to search Acromeglay.

Hope to catch you on air.

73 for now VI4ACRO, or VK4KX
Bernie

WIA

JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y

This is WIA Director Steven Green VK2TSG

Last week WIA Director Lee VK3GK advised us that the ACMA held their
Assessor information session for all current AMC assessors. This
session was attended by 108 people and was designed to inform assessors
the current status of the planning and implementation of the assessor
program and the many finer details of enabling a smooth transition from
AMC to the ACMA assessor network for conducting Amateur exam sessions
Australia wide.

The new assessment system will be fairly similar to that which was in
place when the WIA undertook the amateur examinations.

The WIA encourages all of the assessors who were accredited at that
time to reapply to become an assessor under the proposed scheme.

Lee went on to advise that ACMA is proposing to implement a portal in
which the assessor can log in and download uniquely generated exam
papers and completed exams and documentation can then be uploaded for
archiving results. Not unlike how the WIA exam service previously
generated unique and secure exam papers for assessors to use. As ACMA
propose to use much of the current AMC process, assessors will be very
familiar to the new process and we believe it should be a smooth
transition come February 2024.

There will be two level of assessors and these will be detailed in the
coming months by the ACMA.

The WIA Bundaberg Convention will be held in May 2024, during
Queensland's labour Day long weekend.

There will be Commercial displays, surplus equipment disposals, talks
on Digital communications, a connection with the International space
station plus a tour of Bundaberg rum facilities and it is sure to be a
weekend not to be missed.

At this months Board meeting we were joined by Daniel Vandenberg, the
president of the NZART. The WIA and the NZART have always been very
close and continue to be so. Danial has been invited to attend the
WIA AGM and Convention in Bundaberg in May next year, and he has
invited our President Scott VK3KJ to attend the NZART Convention in
Christchurch in 2024.

This has been Steven Green VK2TSG for VK1WIA National news.

Dudes! This is Editor-in-Chief of Amateur Radio magazine,
Roger Harrison VK2ZRH.

Last Monday, the files for Issue Number 5 of AR magazine for this year
were uploaded to the printer's server in Bairnsdale, Victoria. Well.
Actually. Truth be told, they went on Tuesday morning. We just had to
make sure that everything we could possibly fit in, went in.
Look out for the issue landing late next week. In your letterbox,
your Post Office Box, or your local newsagent.

The theme for this soon-to-arrive issue as foreshadowed on page 3 of
the last issue is . . . When all else fails. There are
occasions still where amateur radio can assist a community when
emergencies land.

No doubt you heard about the tragic wildfire disaster last month on
the Hawaiian Island of Maui, where the township of Lahaina was wiped
out. The local Amateur Radio Emergency Services responded quickly,
coordinating with state and local officials during the response and
recovery effort, supplanting lost cell phone and other telecoms
infrastructure.

The theme for this issue had its roots in an article that was drawn to
my attention when published mid-year in a local industry magazine.
It was about how local amateurs had helped the authorities respond to
the disastrous impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle that scoured a major
region in mid-February. I chased down the author who was very
forthcoming in enabling me to bring the story to Amateur Radio
magazine. He gave me a version with material additional to what had
already been published!

And thats not all we have on the subject.

This issues theme of When all else fails runs to 15 pages. Just wait
until your issue arrives.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian amateurs are still celebrating the centenary of
organised amateur radio in their state. The featured article this
issue is about how women made their mark across the years. So many
landmarks and achievements, I was astonished to read it. Now its your
turn.

For those among you that succumb to the smell of solder flux, will be
glad to know that Lou Destefano VK3AQZ continues providing the goods
about his rig for the road homebrew three-band 100 W HF
transceiver.

Should you be the lucky owner of an Icom IC-7300, you may have
suffered the misfortune of the real-time clocks battery going
dead . . . or perhaps know someone who experienced that. Well,
Peter Forbes VK3QI has the solution, described in short words and big
pictures, in his article on using a supercapacitor as battery backup
for the Icom IC-7300. The dead RTC solution seems simple enough
hoik-out the tiny now-dead battery and wire-in a fat capacitor of a
few Farads. Thats right. Farads. Not microfarads. Farads. For all you
IC-7300 owners, this articles worth a decko, or a squizz. If you
dont own an Icom its entertaining, anyway.

Now. Pay attention.

We have been well, me anyway banging on all year about reaching
90 years of continuous, uninterrupted publication of Amateur Radio
magazine. To mark this milestone ON-AIR, the WIA Board obtained a
Special Event call sign VK 90 AR with which to get on the bands
and make some noise. The call sign is for use by any member of the
WIA as well as any affiliated club. Getting to use VK 90 AR is a
simple process. Apply on the WIA website Online Event Calendar, where
you can book a roster to suit yourself. If you already know where that
is, go straight there. Otherwise, look up the news item featured
prominent on the WIA website home page.