WESTLAKES NEWS FOR SEPTEMBER 23RD 2012

First of all I would like to apologise for not getting the news up on the blog over the last while. There are reasons for the omission (none of them sinister) but no excuses. Hopefully things will be on track again from now on. Well the Field day has come and gone and he Committee would like to thank all the members and visitors who attended to make it a great success. Now the collecting of items for the clubs 2013 field day starts again. Remember anything of any value may be someone elses treasure. If you have anything, please contact the secretary. A big thanks must go to all the people involved in keeping the grounds looking tidy for the field day. Job well done. If you would like to help maintaining the lawns and surrounds at the club please make contact with a committee member. The library was a buzz yesterday with the drawing of he meat tray. Alex was on hand to reach into the ticket tumbler and select a winner. This weeks lucky meat tray winner was Penny . Congratulations and enjoy your prize. The clubs next general meeting will be held on the 13th October 2012 commencing at 1330 hrs in the library. This is your club so come along and have some input. Don't leave it to the others to make a decision. Guiding Light. The Wireless Institute of Australia Board invites clubs, groups of clubs and even groups of individuals to consider conducting the WIA Annual Conference. The Annual Conference in 2011 was in Darwin and the host club was the Darwin Amateur Radio Club and the Annual Conference this year was in Mildura and the host club was the Sunraysia Radio Group. The "Guidelines for Hosting a WIA Annual Conference Weekend" is based on the experience of those involved in those two conferences, and Spud Murphy (Darwin) and Noel Ferguson (Mildura) have contributed to the "Guidelines". The Board hopes the pattern set by these two highly successful events can be continued, with different clubs in interesting areas hosting weekends, usually in the latter half of May. The 2013 Conference will be in Perth, but clubs are urged to think about Conferences after that. The "Guidelines" set out the general procedures for a Conference, some of the issues that should be considered and the approach to actually coordinating and managing a Conference. Oceania DX Contest: Jointly held by the WIA and NZART since 1935 there are two contests held on the first full weekend of October. Now called the Oceania DX Contests (OCDX), they run for 24 hours from 0800 UTC on Saturday October 6 for the Phone Contest, while the CW Contest starts on October 13. One of the longest running DX contests it aims to promote HF contacts with stations in the Oceania region. Now if the club can get enough interest and from what I have heard there is some interest BUT we need more operators so that the burden is not on the same people all the time. So feel like helping out please contact VK2RD or VK2ABD. Common show what help you can give us. Illegal radio VKHAM advertising stopped and hams visited. The ACMA campaign against what it calls illegal radios includes inspection visits to hamfests and radio shacks, retailer compliance sessions and the advertising of equipment. It declares that the supply of non-standard radio communications devices is an offence under the Radiocommunications Act 1992, and the latest medium caught up has been the trading website VKHAM. The ACMA at the Centre Victoria RadioFest and elsewhere said that amateur radio transceivers that cover the frequencies allowed by the Amateur Services only do not have to meet Australian standards. However if a radio covers frequencies, or has been modified to cover frequencies outside of internationally recognised amateur bands, then it must according to the ACMA meet the appropriate standards. The ACMA mostly relies on the Land Mobile Radio provision of the regulations and only licences equipment that it has been approved to meet those standards. The ACMA said suppliers had an obligation under section 301 of the Act to ensure that equipment is not supplied to anyone who is not appropriately licensed to operate or possess the device. The ACMA field staff were visiting radio amateurs while in the location and during a recent visit took possession of several radios and issued warning notices. It will take possession of Chinese made transceivers or any other brand that does not meet its standards where they are found during routine inspections or in response to complaints about unauthorised frequency use. Recently VKHAM reminded all it had been advised that the ACMA that they may take action directly with the individual advertisers that are in breach of the Radiocommunications Act. One retailer is understood to have a stock of some hand-held Chinese made radios that usually transmit from 136MHz through to 174MHz as well as the 420MHz to 450MHz band. These would be illegal under the ACMA interpretation of the Act. VKHAM undertook to remove all advertising that was deemed to be in breach of the relevant Act. The ACMA continues its education and enforcement campaign and doesn't have much of a chance of stopping imported equipment at the border through customs. ZL9HR equipment shipped. It's on its way! The ZL9HR 'Logistics Team' are very pleased to announce that the packed equipment crates have left the DXpedition's Sydney base heading south to New Zealand, on schedule and in plenty of time to progress through the required quarantine formalities with the authorities on the New Zealand mainland before the final leg of the trip by sea with the operations team down to Campbell Island in the great southern ocean for the activation between November 28th. and December 9th. WORLD NEWS: South Sudan on air. The amateur bands are active with the first two amateur stations in the Republic of South Sudan. The first is James Pratt Z81A followed by Diya Al - Asadi who works for the UN-WFP (World Food Program). South Sudan gained its independence in July 2011 and ITU has given it a group of callsigns. Diya Z81D will be involved in spreading the callsigns throughout South Sudan. For now, only Z81A and Z81D are active so please be patient. Both can be found on the website http://qrz.com Well that's all the news I have this week.