WESTLAKES NEWS BROADCAST FOR 12TH MAY 2013

What happened at your club yesterday. The club was very busy, the QSL HQ team was busily sorting cards, the radio shack was testing out the donated radio that will be put out to tender, in the library were some of the Committee members doing what’s best - having a good old QSO. What were they talking about, well that would be secret mens business. This is the best part of the day and is when the club meat tray raffle is drawn. In the absence of Col ( VK2YP ) A MYSTERY HAND went into the ticket tumbler and written on the ticket was VK2FDNE. Diane would like to thank the owner of the mystery hand for pulling her ticket out. The club has a large selection of Amateur Radio magazines and PC magazines that need new homes. So next time you are down at the club, grab a hand full and take them home. In the kitchen- Chef Michael was cooking the VK2CCW hamburger - ONLY available from the club on Saturdays ( except meetings days ) so why not come to the club for lunch next Saturday. Reminder that the clubs ONLY FIELD DAY has been set down for Sept 15th so gather up anything that you wish to sell and have a stall on the day. Westlakes BBQ and jelly bean guessing competition will once again be in operation. Contact Barrie if you wish to have a stall. Reminder that you must bring your own table to put your goods on. Andrews Communications will be there so start saving your money. Last night was the 80 meter TRANS TASMAN phone contest. I wonder how many members had late nights or just gave numbers out. The club did not take part in this contest due to the lack of radio operators. Maybe next year. Have you enabled your radio with the CTCSS tone for the clubs repeater? The clubs repeater now requires a 95.1 Hertz tone so you can access it. WICEN is please to announce yet another NEW REPEATER. Yes, this time it is a 70 cm repeater and located at Nelson Bay on a high Hill. Some of you may know of the hill as GAN GAN lookout. The frequency is 439.625 MHz with a negative offset and you will need a CTCSS of 123 Htz. So why not program your radio up and see if you can access it. Reports say it can be access from some areas of Maitland and up into the Kuruah area. Reports are needed so a coverage plan can be obtained. Don't forget about the other 2 meter repeater that WICEN has just installed on the Wattagan Ranges. The frequency that you will need is 147.150 MHz and a CTCSS tone of 123 hertz Australian police maps warning. A continuing problem with GPS and online mapping is that motorists are being given a bum steer. This can be by turning on to a freeway that is not yet operational, taking the shortest suggested route only to find you are on a rough steep fire track, scorching desert-like national park, without warning. Now the police at Colac in the southwest of Victoria are warning that motorists using Google Maps are being sent down Wild Dog Road, which was not designed for traffic. Similar things are happening to GPS users throughout the country, as ordinary motorists and professional delivery drivers ditch the old street directory, or ignore directions, and rely on GPS navigation. Australian breakthrough in solar efficiency Scientists at the University of New South Wales can now greatly increase the efficiency of solar panels and cut their manufacturing cost. The improvement is ahead of their time uses hydrogen atoms to counter defects in silicon cells used in solar panels. The development enables poorer quality silicon to act like high quality wafers, and reduces the cost by at least half. Solar panels have fallen in price by about 65 per cent in two years and more than one million Australian homes have them. European producers predict a further 60 per cent fall in price by 2020, and with new technology being developed we can see why. Radio Australia could give Asia a miss Shortwave broadcasts of news, current affairs and information from Australia to China and Asia generally could end. Like a budget-caused recent close down of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the greater use the mobile phone and the internet is being blamed. The actual Radio Australia audience in China is difficult to know, but the digital revolution has shrunk shortwave audience in Asia. There is no intention to pull the plug on Radio Australia to PNG, Fiji or the Pacific. On the eve of World War II in 1939, the broadcaster was launched by the Prime Minister Robert Menzies who declared that it was time for Australia to speak for itself. ILLW becomes interesting The battle for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend leadership, held in August, is tied between Australia and Germany with 40 registrations each, out of more than 220 from 30 nations around the world. The USA has 23, England 18, Argentina 12, Ireland and Scotland 9, Canada, Netherlands and Sweden on 8, Portugal and Puerto Rico 4, while Finland, Poland, Northern Ireland and New Zealand each has 3. They are followed by Belgium, Denmark, Cuba, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Wales on 3, and single entries from Curacao, Chile, France, Honduras, Italy and Spain. With registrations and countries numbers only at about the half-way mark, but ahead of this time last year, things are really starting to heat up. To register a lighthouse, lightship or marine beacon on August the 17th and 18th of August online, visit the dedicated website www.illw.net From Jim Linton VK3PC First SOTA Summit to Summit contact with VK9/NO-001 Norfolk Island. Congratulations to Wayne VK3WAM who gathered his gear together quickly and headed up to a local summit when he heard that the Norfolk Island VK9NT DXpedition had decided to activate the new SOTA summit today (Thursday), earlier than the originally planned Saturday. Wayne has already posted a blog with pictures describing the action here http://waynemerry.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/activation-of-mt-dandenong-first-summit-2-summit-with-norfolk-island/ Once again well done Wayne From Ed VK2JI. WORLD NEWS: New world record with digital modulation A 24 GHz EME world record of a huge 16,383 km has been made between Tasmania and the Czech Republic. Rex Moncur VK7MO, a multifaceted exponent on microwaves, used with a 1.14 metre dish and 10 watts to contact the radio club OK1KIR using its 4.5 metre dish and 22 watts. While Rex VK7MO had planned the contact for a year, the club is making itself well-known through participation in VHF, UHF, SHF contests and EME from 432 MHz up to 24 GHz, plus earlier setting records. For example, on March 13, 2013, the first VK-OK QSO on 24 GHz and a then EME world 24 GHz distance record of 15,931 km was claimed by Alan Devlin VK3XPD. Rex VK7MO tried last month to make contact with OK1KIR, reporting firstly that he was able to receive the station during JT4F tests. OK1KIR reports having then decoded Rex, but then had a sudden transmitter failure preventing a complete QSO. Finally on Tuesday, April 23, a two-way contact was made setting a new world distance. The contact needed a Moon elevation at least about 15 degrees, a clear sky without clouds on both sides, and the result is a really an exciting EME challenge. Rex VK7MO and Joe Taylor K1JT in man behind the software used have long been friends through a bond with weak signal working. The pair will jointly publish the latest achievement in the DUBUS magazine devoted to VHF and Microwave bands. 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. Now to wind up. Westlakes Amateur Radio Club Inc. is located in York Street, TERALBA - and is open on Saturday from around 11:00 am. 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, a good Canteen and an interesting selection of biscui