WESTLAKES BROADCAST NEWS FOR THE 14TH JULY 2013.

Last weeks lucky meat tray Herb (VK2ZVF) reached into the ticket tumbler and drew this weeks lucky winner. It was Diane"s duty to read out the call sign on the winning ticket. The meat tray winner was Greg VK2CW - enjoy the meat tray Greg and see you next week. In the library yesterday afternoon Marcel ( VK2FMDB) gave a very interesting talk on programming of the AT Tiny 85 chip. The AT Tiny 85 chip is used for menu processing and an example that was demonstrated was a beacon. A small group of members attended the lecture. The program is written in C language. These little programming chips are available on the web and Marcel said he bought 10 for $20.00 delivered to his door step. Marcel then showed everyone how the program is entered and what the different symbols meant. This chip has unlimited uses. Thanks Marcel for a great lecture. Diane and Michael would like to advise all members that visit the club that he only supplies a limited amount of fresh mince meat and salad for hamburgers. They ask that in the future anyone who wants a hamburger could you please pre book one with your name. That way no one misses out and this also stops wastage. Please contact Richard VK2FRKO via his his email address or contact Diane VK2FDNE at worley51@tpg.com.au Just a reminder that the canteen will only be serving pies and sausage rolls and as next Saturday as this is meeting day and a feast will be held afterwards. While speaking of meetings next Saturday commencing at 13:30 hrs will be the clubs General meeting. Everyone is invited and remember this is your club so come along and have your say. Not forgetting our club Field Day which will be held on the 15th September ( this is a Sunday ) and the club is looking for donations of equipment for the auction table. Remember no TVs, computer monitors, VCRs. Why not come and have your stall. If you are interested please contact Barrie VK2ABD to book your spot and remember to bring your own table for your goods. The famous Westlakes BBQ will be cooking steak and sausages and serving fresh salad for sandwiches. The guessing competition for the number of jelly beans in the jar will once again be there as a fund raising venture. Andrews Communications WILL NOT BE HERE THIS YEAR AND THIS IS DUE TO OTHER COMMITTMENTS. Richard VK2FRKO is looking for a circuit diagram for a WAGNER 829 MR. This is a MARINE HF TRANSCEIVER. You may have one in your garage collecting dust. Either as spare parts or in working order. Please contact Richard if you can help. A MESSAGE TO ALL AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS. Richard- VK2FRKO would like to know if there are any amateur radio operators who would like to have lunch at a central point to most of us. There are many amateur operators from various clubs,areas and districts and this is one way that we can get together and meet and greet others that we just talk to on air. Possible venues could be the Cardiff RSL or Club Macquarie. It could be that we all meet at a Park for a BBQ and perhaps play a bit of radio or it could be a radio free day. If anyone is interested please contact me direct via my email address which is vk2frko@tpg.com.au So think about this and let him know please. NEWS FROM AROUND VK. W.I.A. NEWS. At its first meeting this past week, the new Board of the WIA for 2013-2104 re-elected the outgoing executive that steered the Institute since October last year, since the untimely death of Michael Owen VK3KI. Remaining in their former roles are Phil Wait VK2ASD as President, Chris Platt VK5CP as Vice-President, John Longayroux VK3PZ as Treasurer, and David Williams VK3RU as Secretary. For the first time, the Board got together via an online application known as "Go To Meeting". Investigated and set up by Treasurer, John Longayroux VK3PZ, it proved a great success, with directors joining the online meeting from locations scattered across the country. The system offers significant cost-savings. The four newly-elected directors were welcomed by President Phil Wait VK2ASD, being Roger Harrison VK2ZRH, Ewan McCleod VK4ERM, Fred Swainston VK3DAC and Robert Broomhead VK3DN. High on the Board’s agenda for discussion at its first meeting were the Foundation Licence Review, which is ongoing and with many issues to consider, the Institute’s next steps in progressing the WIA submission to the ACMA concerning retention of spectrum at 2300 MHz, and progress with the High Power trial, which is under way. Crane depletes microwaves. Optus mobile services were cut for almost four days recently because of a construction work crane at the Rockhampton Hospital blocking the microwave path on the Capricorn Coast in Queensland. Customers in the Yeppoon, Emu Park, Great Keppel Island, Capricorn Resort and Byfield areas suffered intermittent mobile coverage. Optus restored coverage by installing additional fibre connections between Rockhampton and Yeppoon. The crane had blocked the line-of-sight between two towers, and due to occupational health and safety reasons the wind mitigation function of it could not be changed. SPECIAL STATION. VK0JJJ at Mawson Station, Antarctica. Craig Hayhow VK0JJJ at Mawson Station, Antarctica. QSL via VK3ZAZ. Event date: Sunday, February 10, 2013 Event end: Friday, January 31, 2014 WORLD NEWS: FCC reviewing HF CB Radio. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is have a close look at the 27MHz CB band. A particularly focus is to look at CB radio that is supposed to be a short range service, while some are using it over long distances during ionosphere propagation (skip) openings. The FCC is considering a ban on directional antennas in order to bring it back to the intended short range only communications. While power amplifiers are illegal to use and even sell in the US for use on 27MHz, this latest development appears to herald a tougher stance on CB Radio. CB Radio now exists in various forms in a number of countries but appears to have begun in the United States in 1945. In later decades in the US it had both commercial and hobbyist users. In the 1970s it gained popularity following due to a number of movies such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Convoy (1978), and television shows like The Dukes of Hazzard. In 1973 there was an oil crisis being experienced in the US that hit the trucking industry hard with government imposed restrictions. As a result few new CB radio were being sold. Stockpiles of CB radios languished in warehouses in Hong Kong and Japan and needed to find new markets. Could this happen in AUSTRALIA. Morse code gets another turn off. The Indian army has dropped Morse code considering it to be an obsolete communications means in this electronic era. The Signal Corps had until recently included it as a compulsorily subject, but now modern means including the internet are only taught. Once a predominate means of passing messages by the army during conflicts and disasters, it no longer uses that means of signalling. Still keeping it alive are radio amateurs around the world that use Morse code or CW mode on the bands. Now a pill for passwords. Phone company Motorola is about to offer a swallowable device that has a multitude of passwords that we use each day to restart or open devices. Powered by stomach acid it sends details to code readers. It comes from ‘America's smartest engineer’, Regina Dugan, who unveiled to pill at the recent at the All Things Digital conference in California. The pill has a tiny chip powered from the acids in your stomach. She was the first female director of the US government's spy technology agency - Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency - before joining Google's Motorola Mobility Division. The password pill will give people more power over their online activities. Regina has a sticker with an antenna and sensors broadcasting security details. The experimental technology needs US Food and Drug Administration approval for medical use, and efforts led by Motorola seek to make it more widely available by just touching a password protected device. SMALLEST TRANSMITTER. Murata Manufacturing has developed what it says is the world's smallest transmitter module (PAD) integrating a 3G power amplifier, coupler and duplexer. The company says it has achieved this by integrating the previously separate power amplifier, duplexer and coupler into one unit. Designed for mobile phones and smartphones, Murata says the devices have been created to address the growing number of frequency bands supporting 3G networks – with the more complicated circuit board layouts making it more difficult to achieve compact design. The modules support gain switching, for energy conservation and four types have been developed to support each single band – B1, B2, B5 and B8. Each module incorporates enhanced battery usage efficiency with power amplifier efficiency conversion. 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 biscuits.