Broadcast News for December 16th 2012.

Yesterday was Westlakes A.R.C.'s Christmas Frolic at the club and around 40 members including their wives were in attendance. The BBQ was fired up around 1100 by Michael vk2ccw who did an excellent job feeding everyone. Thanks Michael, will you be free again next year to cook. Various members were there taking pictures with their cameras and tablets so we should be getting some great pics for the club magazine. Life Member Peter Sturt ( VK2ZTV ) and his wife were also there. After lunch the darts competition commenced with everyone having 2 goes to obtain the highest score in total. There were some pretty shocking shooters I tell you. The winning Female was Sonya and the winning male was Alley VK2AFZ. Congratulations to the both of you. Now Greg VK2CW was going around trying to flog off tickets for someone to win a ham. After Greg has sold as many tickets as he could a draw took place. The winning ticket was none other than Steve VK2LW. Looks like everyone missed out again. Now the regen receiver was judged by Peter VK2ZTV after checking the receivers out carefully, testing to see if they all worked etc etc a decision was made. The 1st place went to David Lawerence VK2PIRATE, 2nd place went to Ken VK2KJ, and 3rd place went to Greg VK2CW. A 4th prize went to Geoff VK2GL in the category of Honary winner ??? Congratulations everyone for taking the time to build this great receiver. Garry VK2DBI was out there also selling Rickety Kate tickets for a chance for someone to win some money. When all tickets were sold the draw for 3 winners took place. 3rd place went to Karen VK2NYL, ( this prize was a bit dodgy ) but Garry won 2nd prize and 1st prize went to Herb. Congratulations winners. A great day was had by all and thanks to the organisers as this was a great day. Wonder what we will do next year. Just a reminder that club membership fees are now due. Please send your payments either to the club P O Box c/- of the secretary or bring them to the club in person on Saturdays. Not a member of Westlakes A.R.C. now is the time to join. Our next club meeting will be in February on the 2nd 2013. Everyone welcome. The clubs next project is the 40 metre QRP set made by OZQRP. Norm VK2KNC has already completed his kit and it works fantastic. 3 kits have been ordered by other members of the club. Now wait for the 40 meter QRP westlakes contest. VK NEWS: A slim key for pedestrian mobile CW. Operating CW when pedestrian mobile can be tricky so Peter Parker VK3YE devised this portable Morse key. A super slim key for pedestrian mobile CW. Also great for portable use as it's so cheap to make. Parts needed are as follows: * thin strip of PC board material * momentary pushbutton normally open switch * lead to plug * plug to suit transceiver I'll mention something you should definitely avoid doing and demonstrate the key in use making HF pedestrian mobile contacts. Watch the Youtube video by Peter Paker VK2YE. WORLD NEWS: Barcode inventor dies. The co-creator of the ubiquitous barcode, Norman Joseph Woodland, has died aged 91. He and a classmate Bernard Silver created a thin and thick line system in the 1940s. The only code Woodland knew was the Morse code learnt from the Boy Scouts. One day he drew Morse code dots and dashes as he sat on a sandy beach and traced a series of parallel lines. Woodland and Silver submitted their patent in 1949 for a code patterned on concentric circles. The idea was patented. When the patent expired in the 1960s, IBM where Woodland was working, tweaked the design into the one we recognise today. He joined IBM in 1951 wanting to develop the barcode, but it was not for two decades when lasers made it possible to read the code readily. Then IBM developed a bar-code-reading laser scanner system in response to a demand from grocers wanting to automate and cut costs. IBM promoted a rectangular barcode that led to a standard for universal product code technology. The first item scanned was a packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974. It is now on millions of everyday devices worldwide. Woodland and Silver were both last year inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame. Bernard Silver died in 1963. End of the portable cassette player. The consumer electronics giant Sony has announced that after 33-years it will next month stop making the iconic tape cassette player. However it will continue to sell blank cassettes, tape decks, and boom boxes with cassette support for the foreseeable future. Sony sold its first cassette tapes in 1966 along with its first cassette tape recorder. Consumers caught on to the new medium, particularly those bent on live recording with a device that has a high audio quality. The popularity of the cassette began to fall off in the 1980s with the arrival of the CDs, MiniDisc, and MP3 players giving bigger storage, faster and improved recordings. Sony is also discontinuing its Walkman DVD players due to low sales, with consumers turning to smartphones, tablets, and MP3 players for of digital music. The play-only Sony Walkman had its day but it was now time for it to retire as newer technology has taken over. ZL9HR delights DX chasing radio amateurs. The Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia scored 42,922 contacts during its recent two week DXpedition to Campbell Island. After a delay at sea reaching their destination, ZL9HR with its ten operators activated the remote, uninhabited, subantarctic island of New Zealand on all bands from 160m through to 10m. In the period from 0425z on December 1 through to the last on December 12 at 1604z the team contacted 15,487 unique callsigns. On the popular 20m band were 13,899 QSOs. Breaking that down we find in CW it had 7,530 contacts working 118 DX entities, while for SSB it had fever contacts at 5,821 but more countries on 123. A ClubLog may be found at: http://www.campbell2012.com/index.php/log Well that's all the news I 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. 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 always welcome at the club. We have plenty of tea, coffee, long-life milk, and an interesting selection of biscuits.