Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at:
http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2024-01-14.mp3 Text edition:

2024 JANUARY 14 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 JANUARY 14 2024
IN OUR 29th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS

THIS WEEK:-

WIA Director and President Scott Williams VK3KJ .-

WIA CONTEST MANAGER OF AUSTRALIA DAY CONTEST Alan Shannon VK4SN .

PLUS 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 Director and President Scott Williams VK3KJ and welcome
to the WIA broadcast this week.

The WIA Regulatory Counsel, consisting of Justin Giles-Clarke (VK7TW)
and Peter Young (VK3MV), along with fellow Director and Vice
President, Lee Moyle (VK3GK) and myself met with the Australian
Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) this week to kick off our
first meeting for 2024.

The first order of the meeting was to acknowledge and pay tribute to
Patrick Emery of the ACMA, who tragically passed away on Christmas
Day. As outlined in the broadcast last week and both published on our
website and through social media channels, Patrick sadly suffered a
medical event on Christmas Day and passed away peacefully that
evening. As President, and on behalf of the WIA, I passed on our
sincere condolences and thoughts to all Patricks work colleagues
that were on that call.

The meeting then focused on the transitional arrangements to class
licensing, which of course in approaching quickly.

The ACMA confirmed that a letter on the transitional arrangements is
in the process of going out to all license holders. In fact, letters
started circulation to your preferred delivery method, either postal
or email on Friday 12 January, so it is possible you might have this
letter in your possession already if your delivery method is via
email. This letter will confirm transitional arrangements and will
also confirm both callsign and the qualification level that you hold.

On another matter, the ACMA confirmed that if your license is about to
expire, please do not wait for the commencement of class licensing and
delay the payment of your license fee. It is highly recommended to not
let your license lapse and make sure your license is valid and you are
operating legally.

The ACMA have confirmed that if you have just paid or are about to pay
for your license renewal, you will be eligible for a part refund. The
ACMA have published information on how to obtain a refund on their
website.

The WIA discussed a range of other matters with the ACMA in regard to
the introduction of class licensing and in general, the WIA are very
satisfied that the ACMA remain very engaging and consultative on all
matters. We are confident the transition to class licensing will be
fairly smooth and please remember, read the information provided by
the ACMA as many of the concerns raised to date have already been well
documented.

Thats it for me this week and this has been Scott Williams,
WIA President for this weeks WIA National News broadcast.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to IARU, RSGB, RAC,
ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, eHam,
Radioworld.com Hackaday and the World Wide sources of the WIA.

Western Europe's 1st vertical spaceport is cleared for launch and
hopes to see rockets fly this year.

The SaxaVord spaceport on the Shetland Islands off the northern coast
of Scotland has officially become western Europe's first licensed
spaceport capable of launching rockets vertically. SaxaVord received
the license from the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The SaxaVord license allows the spaceport to host up to 30 launches
per year. The U.K., which has a strong small-satellite manufacturing
industry, hopes that the convenience of having a U.K.-made satellite
launched from a U.K.-port on possibly a U.K.-made rocket could put
SaxaVord and its counterparts at an advantage with customers compared
to their foreign competitors.

YASME Foundation Grant

The Board of Directors of the Yasme Foundation has announced a
supporting grant of $7,500 to the World Radiosport Team Championship
United Kingdom 2026 organizing committee.

As the committee states, WRTC is a means to demonstrate international
goodwill and friendship in the true ham spirit. It also allows youth
operators to demonstrate their skills within this highly competitive
event. WRTC UK 2026 will focus not only on providing a fair and
enjoyable event for those who qualify either as a competitor or
referee but will also provide engagement to spectators all over the
world.

Further information about WRTC 2026 can be found at wrtc2026.org.

MOBILE BASE STATIONS TO EXPAND FREQUENCY USE WORLDWIDE

Mobile band communication gained new parts of the spectrum at the
World Radiocommunication Conference late last year.

The designated parts of the spectrum are at 700 to 900 MHz, 1.7 GHz and 2.5
GHz. This is intended to give greater flexibility to operators around the
world making use of HAPS mobile broadband communication, also known as High
Altitude Platform Station communication. According to the International
Telecommunication Union, any fixed-point radio station situated 20 to 50
kilometres above the Earth is a high-altitude platform station.

The company that has led the spectrum-expansion proposal for the past few
years is the SoftBank Corporation. The Japanese company has been studying
international standardization for such use since the issue was put on the WRC
2023 agenda four years ago during WRC 2019. HAPS technology has also been
recognised as useful for communications during disaster recovery, especially
when storms or other events have left terrestrial networks damaged.

STUDENT PROJECT PROVIDES NEW SATELLITE FOR INDIA

India's HAMSAT, the microsatellite decommissioned in 2016, has been
replaced following the New Year's Eve launch of a small satellite
created by students.

The Somaiya (SO MAYA) Beliefsat- takes its name from the
K.J. Somaiya Institute of Technology. With the launch of this
satellite, Somaiya Beliefsat-0 pays tribute to 100 years of ham radio
in India and endeavours to succeed its predecessor.

The project's faculty coordinator, VU3CDI, told the Hindu Times
Newsgroup he expected it to become " a crucial player in the realm
of global amateur radio."

The satellite has a UHF to VHF-FM repeater and VHF digipeater
sending APRS standard telemetry every 30 seconds.
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HAM RADIO OPERATIONAL NEWS - IT'S A CONTACT SPORT

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NOW CONTEST WISE:- 2024
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JANUARY 2024 VHF-UHF Summer Field Day.
THIS WEEKEND CONTESTERS! ie 13 - 14 January.
0100 UTC Saturday to 0059 UTC Sunday BUT to make it a
little fairer in VK6, they add 3 hours onto start and
end times.
(wia.org.au)

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Ross Hull Memorial Contest.
Running on VHF and above NOW, the month of January.
You nominate the best 7 day or 2 day period per category.

For more information visit the contest page at
wia.org.au/members/contests/rosshull/

(VK2TBC)

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AUSTRALIA DAY CONTEST

HI This is Alan VK4SN with info for the Australia Day contest.

Amateurs in VK will endeavour to contact other amateurs around the
world using SSB CW and FT8.

Most VK operators will be using the AX prefix to celebrate Australia
day, as it's wanted by many amateurs around the globe.

Scoring is distance based and calculated using 4-character grid
squares.

Times for the contest on Australia Day, the 26th of January are
2200 UTC 25th to 1000 UTC 26th January.

Categories for DX and VK
Single Operator
Multi-Single
Multi-Two

Sub-Category Modes for Single Operators
Phone (Includes AM, FM & SSB)
CW
Mixed
DIGI - FT8/FT4 (Separate digital section)
An operators Log can contain all 3 modes or mixtures there-of.
Due to FT8/4 operation gaining massive numbers over Ph and CW, all
logs will have digital contacts scored separately and added into
the digital section automatically by the log checker website.
Example: If a log contains phone and digital contacts, the log will
be valid for the phone category and the digital category. Enter the
log as mixed category.
* WSJT-X users can operate as normal and use the .adi file to create
their log. No contest mode setup isn ecessary with in the WSJTX
program.
Exchange
A valid exchange consists of RS(T) or SNR followed by a 4 character
grid square.
Permitted Bands
160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands only.
**** Stations using the 2x1 contest calls CANNOT substitute AX as a prefix.

Please see the WIA Contest website pages for more information.
wia.org.au/members/contests/australiaday/
Best 73
de Alan VK4SN