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VK7AX > NEWS 18.05.09 03:46l 695 Lines 22938 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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To : NEWS@WW
VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 17TH MAy 2009
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Unfortunately we start this broadcast with some very sad news.
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SILENT KEY
Peter Clark VK7PC
Pete passed away on Saturday the 9th of May in St. Helen's hospital
after a long and difficult battle with cancer, despite his illness
he still managed to keep sense of humour and cheeky grin.
He was 61 years of age, Pete was first licensed in April 1979 and
was active on many bands until sickness made voice transmission
difficult but he maintained an interest as a short wave listener.
Pete is survived by his wife of 40 years Sue and his daughters
Tania and Amanda.
Vale VK7PC
(David, VK7KDO)
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Our condolences and thoughts are also with Bill VK7AAW who's XYL,
Rosemary passed away during the week.
(Charles VK7PP)
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SILENT KEY
John Serino VK7UJ
I am sorry to tell of the death of John Serino, VK7UJ, following a
period of poor health. He was 78 years old.
John was born in Italy and became interested in radio as a teenager,
obtaining his amateur licence with the call I1UJ.
Some years after moving to Australia, John passed the Australian exam
and obtained the call VK7UJ.
He was an enthusiastic Morse operator and after his first year as
VK7UJ, he told me that he had talked to a 9 year old, a 90 year old
and to someone sending Morse with his foot.
Vale John.
(Richard VK7RO)
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VK7 EVENTS CALENDAR
A summary of the events across VK7 over the coming months:
REAST May 20 & 27th ATV Experimenter's Nights
7:30pm Queens Domain Club rooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
NWRESG May 23rd Coffee morning - Two Oaks Cafe 10:30am
NWTARIG May 30th - Special General Meeting at Penguin Lions
club Rooms 2pm
http://www.my-x15.net/nwtarig/
REAST June 3rd - Presentation on Landline Telegraphy
8pm Queen's Domain Clubrooms.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#duplexlandline
SMS June 6 & 7th - Great Southern Winter Ham fest
- Sorell Men's Shed, Station Lane, Sorell.
http://www.sorellmensshed.org/
NWT-ATVG June 6th - General Meeting and discussion on radio history.
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
REAST June 16th Advanced/Standard Assessment Session.
http://reast.asn.au/amateurradio.php#exams
REAST June 23rd Foundation Licence Course and Assessments Session.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#FoundationLicenceCourse
WMBD June 27th World Moon Bounce Day celebrating the Echoes of
Apollo 40th Anniversary of the first Moon landing.
http://echoesofapollo.com/
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NORTHERN NEWS
Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club
There is to be a ham fest in Hobart in early June, and if there are
enough interested members, we may be able to arrange for a mini bus
to take a group from Launceston to Hobart and return for the day.
If you'd like to register your interest for this, get in touch with
Ann VK7FYBG, and we'll see if this is a feasible idea.
Thanks from
(Jason VK7ZJA, NTARC Secretary)
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NORTH WEST News
North West Tasmania Amateur Radio Interest Group
http://www.my-x15.net/nwtarig/
Last month Winston VK7EM and Joe VK7JG made a trip up Mt Duncan to
check out the repeater which has been suffering ongoing noise problems.
On Tuesday the 5th of May. Joe, Winston and Wayne, VK7FWAY made another
trip up the mountain and installed a second antenna for the 2metre
transmitter.
The end result is that the persistent interfering noise is gone,
and signals have improved.
Many thanks to Joe for building a new antenna on short notice and
to Winston, Wayne and Joe for their combined efforts in installing the
second mast and antenna.
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On Saturday 30th of May, 2pm, the North West Tasmania Amateur Radio
Interest Group will be holding a Special General Meeting.
The proposed motions to be considered are as follows:
- Vote on a Motion to change club name
- Vote on a Motion to accept new rules
- Vote on a Motion to incorporate
I urge all members to attend and have your say on the future of your club.
The venue will be the Penguin Lions club rooms at 19 Ironcliffe Road, Penguin.
Once again that is Saturday, 30th of May. All members and visitors welcome.
(David Cleland, VK7DC, Secretary, NWTARIG)
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Radio Experimenters and Social Group
On Saturday the 9th of May the Radio Experimenters and Social Group
held their Coffee Morning at the Blue Wren Cafe in Ulverstone, with
two visitors joining us, one Don VK3MNZ a member of the
Eastern and Mountain District Radio Club of Victoria and Baden
VK7BRY from Hobart.
The morning was enjoyed by all and lots of tall tails were exchanged.
The members are reminded that the next Coffee Morning is set for
Saturday the 23rd of May 2009 and starting at 10.15Am for a 10.30 start
and is to be held at the Two Oaks Cafe located 15235 Bass Highway
Somerset, on the site of the old Somerset Drive-in, now that brings
back memories.
All are welcome to join us and bring a friend."
(Vernon French, VK7VF)
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North West Tasmania Amateur Television Group
http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/atvgroup
Experiments with Video Streaming and Flash Video downloading.
Experiments with video streaming are still continuing, mainly between
Danny VK7HDM in the South and Tony VK7AX, Ivan VK7XL and Rob VK7OM
in the N/West.
Quite acceptable results are being obtained with SVHS quality pictures
being received. The limiting factor being that of bandwidth, and as we
know, this is very low in Tassie but hopefully will improve with the
new speed upgrades for Tasmania by the Government.
In addition to the video streaming experiments, downloading of many
Amateur related Videos from the British Amateur Television Club Archives,
have been downloaded in the FLV or Flash Video format.
These videos are then converted and re encoded to a suitable format such
as MPG or AVI enabling them to be fed into ATV transmitters such as
the Club's ATV repeater.
Testing on the Club's ATV Repeater from Ivan's QTH is continuing with
the propagation tests and links proving a challenge to members.
People interested in general information about
The North West Tasmania Amateur Television Group, are invited to visit
the Club's WIA web Page under VK7 Clubs.
http://www.wia.org/clubs/vk7/NorthWestTasmaniaAmateurTelevisionGroup
73's until next time
(Tony VK7AX, President and News Officer NWT-ATV Gp)
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Southern News
Great Southern Winter Hamfest A Sorell Men's Shed Event
"Community Project"
A Great Southern winter Ham fest will be held at the Sorell Men's Shed,
Station Lane, Sorell.
It will be on the first weekend in June which will be June 6th and 7th
and will be a 2 day event.
Saturday starting at 9am there will be workshops including, bookings
are now being taken for the special work shop activities.
Antenna Construction, winding baluns, making dipoles and yagis,
field strength, satellite dishes and optical communication.
These are just some of the activities planed
Saturday Night the Men's Shed station - VK7SMS will be conducting an on
air award from 6pm till 12pm on HF,VHF and UHF.
Sunday will be a show and tell day with trade and pre-loved tables,
home brew competition and awards for first, second and third.
There will be a BBQ lunch and a few raffles.
All proceeds will go to the Men's Shed.
There will be camping and toilet facilities on site for those who want
to bring their campers and trucks down for the weekend.
More info as time draws near so, start making your plans to be in the
South for this great event.
If you are interest in being involved and/or helping out.
Please email or contact Ken VK7DY for more details or express your
interest in being involved.
windmill(AT)southcom.com.au
http://www.sorellmensshed.org/
(Ken, VK7DY, SMS Coordinator)
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Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
REAST's June Presentation
Richard VK7RO apologises for not being able to do his telegraphy talk
but lets us know that on Wednesday June 3rd he will be presenting the
talk titled -
Landline Telegraphy or "How to Send Signals Both Ways At Once"!
Many of you may have seen last year the ABC TV special A wire through
the Heart which traced the history around Charles Todd putting a
telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin. This was a fascinating historical
look at landline telegraphy that connected Australia to the rest of the world.
Richard will give a presentation using his vast historical knowledge and
skill on how Landline Telegraphy works and how they send signals both ways
at once.
This should be a fascinating and humorous talk by our leading historian
and avid CW operator.
As Richard commented
it will be "A little bit of technical history".
See you there.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#duplexlandline
(Richard, VK7RO)
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REAST Education and Training
There will be on Tuesday 16th June an examination session for the
Advanced and Standard licenses at 7:30 pm in the Queens Domain Clubrooms.
There will also be a foundation training and practical assessment
session on Saturday June 20th starting at 9 am.
Anyone interested in participating in a Standard training course for
about 10 weeks starting around the end of June please let me know.
It could be on a Tuesday or Friday night.
Please indicate if either of these nights is unsuitable.
Reg VK7KK can be contacted on mobile: 0417 391 607 or
email: regemm(AT)ozemail.com.au
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#FoundationLicenceCourse
(Reg, VK7KK, REAST Education Officer and Assessor)
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REAST ATV Experimenters Night
We had a great roll-up to last Wednesday night's ATV night.
We got underway with Justin VK7TW showing his new digital L/C meter
he put together along with a demonstration using the close-up camera.
We then moved to a demonstration of the recently built one transistor
GNAT transceiver along with a receiving CW from a HF receiver.
Justin gave explanation of how he got the GNAT working and on the
80m CW segment of the band. A trap for young players was outlined
and can be summarised as always checking the transistor pin-outs
even if you are used to a particular transistor pinout. The circuit
calls for a common 2N2222 bipolar transistor. Justin had KSP2222
transistors and after much head scratching and consulting the data book
it was found the pinouts were reversed, very frustrating!!!
Justin then moved to an outline of the features of the Yaesu VX-170
handheld and especially the emergency features including the Auto-ID
and Automatic Range Transponder System or ARTS.
The main video features went out on 444.25MHz Analogue ATV and
23cm Digital ADB-S ATV and started with two videos of the then Prime
Minister John Gorton at Honeysuckle Creek tracking station between
when the Eagle has landed on the moon and the moon walk. This was
start the celebrations for the Echoes of Apollo 40th anniversary of
the moon land in 1969.
We then moved to a fascinating video that Peter VK7PD had organised
which included a recently converted 16mm film to DVD thanks to
Bevan VK7CX of the 1965 VK7 Hamfest in Campbelltown.
We also played the audio recording of the last 40m contact of
Len Crooks VK7BQ in 1971.
Both these items are of fascinating historical value to record the
history of amateur radio in VK7. Thanks to Peter and Bevan for these
recordings. They will be placed into the ATV Library for posterity.
Over the next three ATV nights we have a real treat for ATV viewers.
We will be showing the three one hour presentations by Phil Harman
VK6APH who is the designer who describes in detail the Software
Defined Radio project Mercury. These presentations come from the 2008
Digital Communications Conference held jointly by the ARRL and TAPR.
A summary talk of this presentation was given at the WIA AGM/GippsTech
Special Edition a couple of weekends ago.
This presentation honestly shows the future of radio with Direct
Digital Conversion techniques.
This is a not to be missed presentation.
http://www.tapr.org/kits_merc.html
We will be going out on both analog 70cm and digital 23cm ATV.
It should be another great night of experimenting and ATV.
See you there.
http://reast.asn.au/events.php#ATVnights
(73, Justin, VK7TW)
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DX NEWS
Pacific Tour.
Steve, 9M6DXX (G4JVG), will active as FK/G4JVG from Noumea, OC-032,
New Caledonia, between May 22 and June 3, and as G4JVG/VK4 from North
Stradbroke Island, OC-137, Australia, between June 7 and 9.
Activity will be holiday style while celebrating his 25th wedding
anniversary with Eva, 9M6EVA. Operations will be SSB only, on 40,
20 and 17 meters, and possibly 15 meters. QSL both operations via Tim,
M0URX, direct, by the Bureau or LoTW.
(ARRL DX News)
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SPACE News
Scientists Predict Solar Cycle 24 to Peak in 2013
Scientists predict that Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90
sunspots per day on average. At the annual Space Weather Workshop
held in Boulder, Colorado last month, an international panel of experts
led by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) predicted that
Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day on average.
If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest
cycle since Solar Cycle 16 which peaked with 78 daily sunspots in 1928,
and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began.
The panel predicted that the lowest sunspot number between cycles
-- the solar minimum -- occurred in December 2008, marking the end of
Solar Cycle 23 and the start of Solar Cycle 24. If December's prediction
holds up, at 12 years and seven months Solar Cycle 23 will be the longest
since 1823 and the third longest since 1755.
Solar cycles span 11 years on average, from minimum to minimum.
An unusually long, deep lull in sunspots led the panel to revise its
2007 prediction that the next cycle of solar storms would start in
March 2008 and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012. The persistence of a
quiet Sun also led the panel to a consensus that Solar Cycle 24
will be what they called "moderately weak."
Although the peak is still four years away, a new active period of
Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928.
The most common measure of a solar cycle's intensity is the number of
sunspots -- Earth-sized blotches on the Sun marking areas of heightened
magnetic activity. The more sunspots there are, the more likely it is
that solar storms will occur, but a major storm can occur at any time.
www.arrl.org
(ARRL Space Bulletin Mailing List)
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Technology News
'Star Trek' Warp Speed may be possible?
Two Baylor University physicists believe they have an idea that can
turn travelling at the speed of light from science fiction to science,
and their idea does not break any laws of physics.
Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and
Dr. Richard Obousy, a Baylor post-doctoral student, theorize that by
manipulating the space-time dimensions around the spaceship with a
massive amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could push
the ship faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble,
the Baylor physicists believe manipulating the 11-dimension would
create dark energy. Cleaver said positive dark energy is responsible
for speeding up the universe as time moves on, just like it did after
the Big Bang, when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light.
"Think of it like a surfer riding a wave," said Cleaver, who
co-authored the paper with Obousy about the new method. "The ship
would be pushed by the bubble and the bubble would be travelling
faster than the speed of light."
The method is based on the Alcubierre drive, which proposes expanding
the fabric of space behind a ship into a bubble and shrinking
space-time in front of the ship. The ship would not actually move,
rather the ship would sit in between the expanding and shrinking
space-time dimensions. Since space would move around the ship,
the theory does not violate Einstein's Theory of Relativity,
which states that it would take an infinite amount of energy to
accelerate an object faster than the speed of light.
String theory suggests the universe is made up of multiple dimensions.
Height, width and length are three dimensions, and time is the
fourth dimension. Scientists believe that there are a total of 10
dimensions, with six other dimensions that we can not yet identify.
A new theory, called M-theory, takes string theory one step farther
and states that the "strings" actually vibrate in an 11-dimensional
space. It is this 11th dimension that the Baylor researchers believe
could help propel a ship faster than the speed of light.
The Baylor physicists estimate that the amount of energy needed to
influence the extra dimensions is equivalent to the entire mass of
Jupiter being converted into energy.
"That is an enormous amount of energy," Cleaver said. "We are still
a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that
type of energy."
The paper appeared recently in the Journal of the British
Interplanetary Society.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507175838.htm
(Sourced from the ScienceDaily Website)
Beam me up Scottie
.[Ed]
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Space Weather News
Space Debris
Spaceweather.com reminds us that back on February 10, 2009, the
Iridium 33 satellite crashed into the Cosmos 2251 satellite and
the two shattered.
Since then, US Strategic Command has catalogued nearly a thousand
pieces of debris that was created by the collision.
The SpaceWeather website contains some interesting footage of
wreckage of one large piece of the Iridium 33 satellite that is
visible to the naked eye as it tumbles through the night sky flashing
every 4.7 seconds.
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=11&month=05&year=2009
http://spaceweather.com/
(Sourced from the Spaceweather.com mailing list)
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Web & Email Edition Extra Bits!!
QRP Homebrew Links:
http://www.al7fs.us/AL7FS2.html
http://webhome.idirect.com/~va3rj/qrp_build.html
http://www.qrp.pops.net/
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~parkerp/projects/lma.gif
http://www.seboldt.net/k0jd/
http://lea.hamradio.si/~s57nan/ham_radio/tinka/tinka.html
http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=8386 Java tools
Software Defined Radio:
http://www.flex-radio.com/
http://www.tapr.org/kits_merc.html
http://www.softrockradio.org/
Optical Books Galore:
http://www.willbell.com/Default.htm
Astronomy Picture of the Day:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Classic Morse Keys Source:
http://www.hamshack.com.au/index.php?pr=Morse_Keys (Thanks VK7BEN)
Lunar Leftovers:
http://www.scienceray.com/Astronomy/
Lunar-Leftovers-How-the-Moon-Became-a-Trash-Can.699919
HP Notebook Battery Recall
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09221.html
Will Plasmas go the Way of BetaMax?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05072009/tv/rip_plasma_tv_167938.htm
OpenOffice 3.1 now available:
http://gizmodo.com/5249704/openoffice-31-is-now-available
Just how big is the new Enterprise compared to the old one?
http://gizmodo.com/5253324/
how-big-is-the-new-enterprise-compared-to-the-old-one?skyline=true&s=i
Following sourced from CG Communicator:
Check out the former "Radio Caroline," Europe's famed pirate station
broadcasting from a ship at sea:
http://www.eylard.nl/OffShoreRadio/Caroline/index.htm
Outsourcing: This is a video of an American worker outsourcing his
own job (humor, via Oscar Medina):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ
Do you have some interesting amateur related sites you have some
across in the last week send them in to justingc(AT)ozemail.com.au
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VK7 Regional News Group Email Addresses
Post message: vk7regionalnews(AT)yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: vk7regionalnews-subscribe(AT)yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: vk7regionalnews-unsubscribe(AT)yahoogroups.com
List owner: vk7regionalnews-owner(AT)yahoogroups.com
VK7 Virtual BPL Tours Update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdcY0Eetvsw - Mt Nelson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gsxpya3CnQ - North Hobart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DfdxjRkpU - RU ready for BPL?
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If you are interested in becoming an amateur radio operator or
upgrading your licence then we suggest you contact your local club
for details and/or take a look at what the Radio and Electronics School
has to offer. They have a range of courses that can be delivered
through a variety of methods.
They can be found at: www.radioelectronicschool.com
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Finally today, a reminder to those people rostered for next
week's broadcasts:
Newsreader: VK7TW
160m: VK7DM
80m: VK7ZK
40m: VK7RO
20m: VK7IL
10m: VK7ZGK
UHF CB: VK7HGO
HF CB: VK7TED
Thanks to all people and organisations who assisted with this broadcast.
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THAT CONCLUDES OUR VK7 REGIONAL NEWS BROADCAST FOR THIS WEEK.
YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO OR JUST MISSED VK7WI. NEXT WEEK THE NATIONAL
WIA NEWS CAN BE HEARD AT 0900 FOLLOWED BY THE VK7 REGIONAL NEWS AT
0930 HOURS.
DETAILS TO SEND NEWS FOR THIS BROADCAST CAN BE FOUND AT REAST.ASN.AU
AND THE DEADLINE FOR ITEMS IS 21:00 ON FRIDAY PRIOR TO THE SUNDAY OF
THE BROADCAST.
VK7 Regional Broadcast & News Coordinator
Justin Giles-Clark, VK7TW
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- NEWS POSTING TO PACKET -
Courtesy Tony VK7AX VK7AX(AT)VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
*************************************************
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