WESTLAKES NEWS FOR 22ND JULY 2012

Yesterday at the club was fairly quiet but you may of seen someone walking around with a new callsign. Yes, it was Barrie ex (vk2bxd). Barrie now has the call of VK2ABD.Congratulations Barrie on your new callsign. The meat tray raffle ticket was carefully chosen from the ticket tumbler and the winner was Penny (XYL of VK2CW). So embarrassed was she the tray was handed back and the re-draw was won by that new-fangled Barrie VK2ABD. I wonder how many of you managed to write to your local Federal member and complain about the cost of Amateur radio licences. They say its how much its costs the A C M A to handle the paperwork related to Amateur radio. I wonder when they will out source their work overseas. Something new for the computer. Hitachi have come up with a 1st. It's a 4TB HARD DRIVE that is the same physical size as your old Hard Drive. Now you can't complain about not having enough disk space. While on the subject of Hard Drives why not check out SSD - SOLID STATE DRIVE that’s no moving parts. At the moment the drives are quite expensive but in time the prices will come down. They perform much faster and are more reliable. Also you have to defrag them. The Activity room was a buzz with action. Our projects officer Norm was busy showing the new receiver to budding experimenters and builders. Also in the Activity room was Herb VK2ZVF who had a FM ( could of been AM ) radio built out of bits and pieces from the store and his junk box. Will this end up as another project for WESTLAKES? Also in the Activity room was David VK2UDW. Now you are most probably wondering what David was doing in there as well. He was getting expert advice from Norm VK2KNC on how to make his brand new computer operated antenna analyser work on his laptop. Not sure how David ended up whether Norm got it working or not. Also at the club was Penny. Now was Penny there to win that fabulous Westlakes meat tray again? No Penny was their to man the canteen in the absence of Diane. Diane also made a brief visit to drop off fresh biscuits for the biscuit barrel. Thanks for your help Penny. Last night several clubs in the Hunter took part in the VK TRANS TASMAN 160 and 80 meter digital modes contest. Voice and digital on 160 meters and digital on 80 meters as the Phone section on 80 meters has already taken place. Hope you went well in the contest guys. Reminder of our Field Day which will be held on the 16th of September. This is a Sunday. All the usual stall holders will be there as well as Andrews Communications. Westlakes famous jelly bean guessing competition, BBQ and raffles will be there. This is your club so if you have anything which you would like to donate ( no TVs, VCRs or computer monitors). Ring the club for further details. Stall holders as well as boot sales are most welcome. The next Westlakes Club general meeting will be held on the 11th AUGUST as both the President and Vice President will be away. I am sure we can another week. ILLW continues to grow. With 315 registrations so far, the 15th annual International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend in August is headed for another record year. Australia has the most registrations followed by the United States and Germany, with lots of nations represented. Being among the new ones are Austria, Chile, China, Curacao, Gibraltar, Honduras, Island of Man, Italy, Northern Ireland, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the Ukraine. A month to go and now is the time to register a lighthouse or lightship for the 48 hour fun event held on August 18 and 19, or even part of the weekend. WORLD NEWS: FCC fines Alaskan CBer for interfering with Air Traffic. The ARRL reports on FCC action against a CBer accused of interfering with air traffic on 21.964 MHz. On July 17, the FCC announced that it had issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and Order ( NAL) in the amount of $12,500 to Glenn S. Yamada, of Kenai, Alaska. Yamada is accused of “apparently wilfully and repeatedly violate[ing] Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and Sections 95.409(a) and 95.411(a)(1) and (b)of the FCC Rules by operating his CB radio “without requisite Commission authorization.” In January 2012, the FCC received a complaint regarding interference to an authorized user in the aeronautical band -- a safety of life service -- on 21.964 MHz. According to the FCC, the complaint “Concerned a male subject talking and interfering with the control and monitoring of air traffic over the North Atlantic.” The FCC’s High Frequency Direction Finding Center (HFDFC) monitored the frequency over the next few days, and on January 31, “observed a subject matching the details of the compliant transmitting on the frequency 21.965 MHz. ” The HFDFC noted that the subject was using the call “1600 Alaska,” that the actual operating frequency was 27.025 (CB channel 6)and that the transmissions were coming from Kenai. Haraoa ZL9HR DXpedition to Campbell Island Things are moving quickly on preparations for the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia's ZL9HR DXpedition to Campbell Island (650 km or 400 miles south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean). For those who hate all the hype of the Olympics, Campbell Island is the furthest point on earth that you can stand on, away from London, England! The complete crew of 10 operators is now set (with some reserves in the waiting list should a member have to cancel). The operators are: Tommy VK2IR, John VK3YP,Les W2LK, Gene K5GS, Don VE7DS,Istvan HA5AO, John 9M6XRO, David K3EL, Jacky ZL3CW and Tom KE4KY. A list of equipment that will be taken is already on the web site and the first of the Yamaha generators is due to arrive in Sydney in the next few days. This along with some of the other equipment will be put to the test in the upcoming “Trans-Tasman” 160m SSB contest that the HARAOA won last year and are eager to win again. Heavy workloads on the equipment will also occur in the 80m RTTY section of the same contest. Keen DX-ers who may be looking to get ZL9 on a particular band and mode to move towards a DXCC or other award, should go to the survey on the website at ZL9HR.com and vote for which bands and modes they would like to hear ZL9HR operating on! Well that's all the news we have this week. Do you have a news items that you would like read out on a broadcast? Contact Richard VK2FRKO on email address vk2frko@tpg.com.au or give the item to Richard at the club. Now to wind up. Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. is located in York Street, TERALBA - and is open on Saturday Afternoons from around 12 noon. Also on a Tuesday evening from around 6pm. To make contact at other times, try dialling (02) 49 581588 where an answering service operates. Visitors are alway welcome at the club. We have plenty of tea, coffee, long-life milk, and stale biscuits. Thank you for reading.