Weekly news from the WIA:
MP3 edition of news available at:
http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2024-03-31.mp3 Text edition:

ALTHOUGH DISTRIBUTED EARLY (due to EASTER) IT IS FOR WEEK COMMENCING
MARCH 31 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 MARCH 31 2024
IN OUR 29th YEAR OF NON STOP NEWS

THIS WEEK:-

With all the latest happenings at WIA Board level, Peter VK4EA one of
the elected board members. -

Denis VK4AE contest Manager of the WIA John Moyle Field Day reminds us
7th April is the FINAL date logs will be accepted! and PLEASE use
the correct logging program. -

BUT WAIT - THERE'S MUCH MUCH MORE IN THIS EDITION OF NEWS FROM THE
WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA. -

So let's buckle up and SALLY FORTH with this weeks WIA National News,
I'm Editor GraHam VK4BB.
WIA

JOIN THE WIA
tinyurl.com/yyj87b9y

Gidday this is Peter VK4EA speaking on behalf of the WIA Board of
Directors.

We are please announce registrations for the WIA AGM 2024 are now open.
The WIA website has a front page item directing visitors to the AGM
2024 registration page.

The Bundaberg Amateur Radio Club has done an awesome job with
organising an event filled weekend which starts on the Saturday 4th
of May and I cannot help myself - May the Fourth be with You. Check
out the BARC website for the full program.

barc.asn.au/

A few members of the board will be attending in person, we look forward
to catching up over the weekend.

The Board is looking for an IT Manager and Digital Manager to help us
modernise our IT platforms and increase our digital footprint. The role
descriptions are in the latest AR Magazine if you think you can help
us out or have any questions please get in touch using my WIA email
vk4ea@wia.org.au

Cheers for now, this has been Peter - VK4EA - on behalf of the
W I A board of directors.
VK NEWS BEAT

SEE YOU IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

And what better way to "SEE" than by drone.

Businesses, investors, training providers and industry stakeholders
have been invited to participate in the Northern Territory Governments
Drone Technology Innovation Cluster to grow the Territorys drone
industry. Challenge participants will design a proposal for the Drone
Technology Innovation Cluster to facilitate the development of drone
and associated industries in the Territory.

The winning design proposal will be judged based on which concept
offers the most value for the Territory.

The winning consortium will be able to negotiate a contract with the
Territory Government for the procurement of the proposal and also
receive $100,000 in seed funding.

One group showing interest is said to be Surf Life Saving NSW.
One of the SLSS units is the provider of the largest coastal uncrewed
aerial vehicle surveillance program in the Southern Hemisphere.

tinyurl.com/2cses9yb

(NT Govt.)
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS With thanks to DX-WORLD, IARU, RSGB, RAC,
ARRL, NZART, eHam, AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, ICQPodcast,
Radioworld.com Hackaday and the World Wide sources of the WIA.

This year, International Marconi Day (IMD) is on April 27.

Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Giovanni Maria
Marconi (to give him his full name)was born on April 25, 1874, and is
credited for inventing the radiotelegraph system, creating Marconi's
law, and sending the first wireless transmission over the open sea.

IMD was created to honour Marconi and is hosted annually by the
Cornish Radio Amateur Club, GX 4 CRC. The purpose of the day is for
amateur radio enthusiasts around the world to contact historic Marconi
sites using communication techniques similar to those that he would
have used.

The 24-hour event will operate from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC, BUT
registration is required.

Participants can register at GX 4 CRC's registration web page.

gx4crc.com/imd/imd-registration/

AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD - WATCH THIS 'SPACE'.

THE GONGS JUST KEEP ON COMING

A couple of WIA National News broadcasts back we announced how VK5DG
had been ranked in the top 50 ROVERS in the GridMasterMap rankings.

NOW FURTHER:-

Dave VK5DG is now #3 in the world for GRIDS activated on MEO
i.e. Greencube IO-117.

The first two place getters have done most of their operating
maritime mobile - they work on ocean going ships.

VK5DG's is land only.

Would seem our VK5 friend is a weapon to be aware of internationally
when it comes to operating satellites portable!!

WASHINGTON.

The FCC is looking into whether any security threats are being created
by US mobile phones having access to satellites that are operated by
adversarial foreign countries.

Only access to the Galileo GNSS system in Europe has been approved,
however as early as 2018 FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel had expressed
concern that chips in US phones make them capable of operating with
other nations' global navigation satellites; hence, the agency's
concern.

In another move, the FCC is not playing around when it comes to selling
illegal signal jammers. The agency just went public with an
investigation into Amazon and other major retailers for allegedly
pushing these dodgy devices that can block your mobile phone signal,
GPS, and more.

Typically advertised as drone deterrents or privacy tools, these
nefarious gadgets are specifically designed to block radio frequencies.
This has serious ramifications, cutting off cellular devices and GPS
units and impacting emergency communication channels.

So now maybe not your phone blocked, but the sellers will be blocked.

JARVIS ISLAND.

Remember the call N5J

US Fish and Wildlife Service have granted a Ham Radio Team to land on
Jarvis Island for a 13 day DXpedition, starting around August 1, 2024
(the date may change due to WX).

6 RIB stations on the island, including a 160 meter station. 160m will
be very challenging, but the transmission antenna will be a 45 ft. tall
vertical without top loading (wires can hurt birds). While this is a
compromise antenna, it will be standing in salt water at most tides and
should put out a decent signal

They also will have a 6m station with a 6 element Yagi.

The on-island team will be augmented by 25 remote operators from Asia,
Europe and North America, running CW and FT8. FT8 operations will use
the Fox/Hound mode.

OH THE IMPORTANT FACT, CALL SIGN IS N 5 J i.e. N5J.

Jarvis Island was last on air way way back in 1990 so good luck to
George AA7JV and Don N1DG, permit holders for this,
the Jarvis Island NWR 2024 DXpedition.

Does radio have more of a potty mouth than ever?

That conclusion can be drawn from ChartCipher's analysis of songs
charting in 2023 on Billboard's weekly Radio Songs chart ranking
airplay audience impressions across all formats, showing the share of
songs using some degree of profanity jumping to a five-year-high
of 42%.

Maybe not AMATEUR radio but radio we and even a number of Grandkids
hear has changed, and not necessarily for the better.

In the past, if you released a song to radio [with] words the FCC or
our case, the ACMA, even a soccer mom would feel uncomfortable with,
you were D.O.A. Now [that] songs are designed for streaming first,
the strategy could be, we're going to put in the profanity we feel is
artistically appropriate for this song, and if it becomes big enough,
we'll worry about the radio edit later.

Before you think it's all the fault of Hip Hop Rap songs, plenty of
hits from top 40 pop acts during 2023, including Taylor Swift's Karma
and Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire, also include profanity in their
original versions.

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL.

Every 26 months, Earth and Mars come tantalizingly close by virtue of
their relative orbits. The closest theyve been in recent memory was a
mere 55.7 million kilometres, a proximity not seen in 60,000 years,
this, when it happened in 2003.

You know weve been playing close attention to Mars for longer than
2003. All the way back in 1924, astronomers and scientists were
contemplating another close fly by from the red planet. With radio
then being the hot new technology on the block, the question was
raisedshould we be listening for transmissions from fellows over on
Mars?

Flashback to 1924, a time when the cosmos was less understood but no
less marvelled at. Earth and Mars were drawing near, and with that, an
ambitious, albeit quaint by todays standards, attempt to probe the
Red Planet for signs of life was set into motion. The plan was to keep
out a listening ear for potential Martian radio broadcasts.

So U.S.A. orchestrated a grand gesture, just on a chance,
National Radio Silence Day.

The idea was that terrestrial radio transmissions should be hushed as
much as possible such that any Martian transmissions might better be
heard by radio operators. Citizens were urged to quiet their radio
transmissions for the first five minutes of every hour. US naval
stations were instructed to lend Earths ears to the cosmos, noting and
reporting any electrical phenomenon of unusual character across
as wide band frequencies as possible. This was all in the hope that
someone, somewhere might hear a faint howdy or hello from a Martian.