Good Morning and wecome to this week's local news broadcast. This is VK2ATZ, The callsign of Westlakes Amateur Radio Club
located at Teralba, Lake Macquarie. Your reader this morning is Greg VK2CW. There may be a simulcast being transmitted this
morning on 3.565 MHz courtesy of Warren VK2UWP Callbacks follow at the conclusion of this news.Then at 9.30am is a relay
of the Australia-wide amateur radio news from VK1WIA.
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Whacko, yippee and hooray, the club's books are back from the auditor. I can report that the Treasurer (me) has not been arrested,
and We have a clean bill of health - in fact the auditor said, "I have never seen more accurate or neater set of records." Well he said
somethinglike that. The accounts will be presented to members at the Annual General Meeting which is on 7th MAY.
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Overseas News. The World’s first shower-powered radio has been launched.The team behind the award winning Wind-Up Radio, using new
micro turbine technology, has officially launched the world’s first water-powered radio. The H2O™ brand and its earlier product range
has also previously showcased on the hit BBC TV programme Dragon’s Den.The H2O™ Shower Powered Radio provides users with a convenient,
and energy-efficient, means of listening to their favourite radio stations whilst in the shower. Using a patented micro turbine concept,
the FM radio is powered solely through the motion of water flowing through a small H2O™ micro turbine; driving a generator that creates
energy to power the radio. The radio dispels the need for disposable batteries, as the integral battery recharges as the shower runs.
Turning on automatically when the shower is used, the H2O™ Shower Powered Radio memorises the last chosen radio station and speaker
volume. The radio even allows users to carry on listening after the shower is turned off; using any excess energy stored in an integral
Ni-Mh rechargeable cell.
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Did you see "The pink dot tree" in the club grounds yesterday? It is still there. The pink dot on the tree follows a request to
Lake Macquarie City Council to lop the giant gum because of concerns that a branch may fall and injure someone. After all it's their
tree and their land. At the meeting yesterday, Council's reply was read and I quote," the tree in question has been scheduled for
attention by 11 November 2011." I can't think of anything funny to say.
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Back overseas.City imposes SmartMeter installation moratorium. The City of Clearlake in California has imposed an immediate moratorium
on the installation of SmartMeters. Among the many findings cited in the City Council's statement on the moratorium, is one which will
be of particular interest to the amateur radio community. It reads: "There is now evidence showing that problems with Smart Meters
could adversely impact the amateur radio communication network that operates throughout California and neighboring states, as well as
other radio emergency communication systems that serve first responders, government agencies, and the public."
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A new member - VK2CCW and with a callsign like that, I was tempted to pay his joining fee. Welcome aboard Michael Welsh VK2CCW who hails
from - wait for it - HALEKULANI on the Central Coast. Michael was admitted to membership of Westlakes at yesterday's monthly meeting.
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Back overseas - are you giddy yet? A new 3-D printing method advances electrically small antenna design. Science Daily reported on a new
technique to produce compact antennas that are a twelfth of a wavelength or less. The report says:"Recent attention has been directed
toward producing antennas by screen-printing, inkjet printing, and liquid metal-filled microfluidics in simple motifs, such as dipoles
and loops," explained Jennifer T. Bernhard, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois."However, these fabrication
techniques are limited in both spatial resolution and dimensionality, yielding planar antennas that occupy a large area relative to the
achieved performance.""Omnidirectional printing of metallic nanoparticle inks offers an attractive alternative for meeting the demanding
form factors of 3D electrically small antennas," stated Jennifer A. Lewis, the Hans Thurnauer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
and director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois."To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of 3D
printed antennas on curvilinear surfaces," Lewis stated. So there it is - get hold of some metal ink and print your own Yagi.
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It was another unusual result in the meat tray raffle yesterday. A total of 79 tickets were in the barrel and the winning ticket was drawn
by last week's winner, Mal VK2VON. How unusual? Mal drew from the barrel his own ticket. That's two in a row for Mal.
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More of yesterday at Westlakes. Allan VK2JED presented to the meeting the 2010 Remembrance Day Certificate awarding 2nd place in the HF
multi-operator phone section to VK2ATZ. The club scored 391 points and was beaten only by the the Hunter Radio Group station VK2AWX.
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More drama from the drinks fridge in the club's common room. Our canteen "hostess", Gloria, gave her canteen report at yesterday's meeting
at Westlakes. To put it bluntly, the money has been short! Please, please pay for you takings of ice-blocks and cans, they are only $1 -
beat that price anywhere! The meeting canvassed many options - a lock on the fridge, secret keys to the drinks, you name it.
A suggestion from Gloria was that we put a donation box on the table for the free "afternoon tea" after our monthly meetings. It had it's
first trial 10 minutes after the meeting adjourned - guess how much was in there?.............. $38 good Heavens!
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And finally - perhaps finally for a while, many will know that I have been preparing the Westlakes Sunday News for some time and I am taking
a break. I announced at the meeting yesterday, that today's script will be my final effort and asked for a volunteer to take over. It seems
that No one is prepared to step forward and do the job - a sorry situation. So there will be no 7pm re-run tonight and I supect no more
Sunday News from Westlakes. May I thank those who have offered to help read and relay these broadcasts.
Also thanks to the regulars who call back every week, even when they may have not been listening. Perhaps no Sunday news for a few weeks
will attract a volunteer script writer. If someone does step forward, I will give all the help I can. So sadly, it's over and out from me
on the Sunday News from Westlakes.
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Well that's all the news I have this week. This is VK2ATZ.
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