PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE This is Michael Corbin VK2PFQ. I hope that this is the last of these sorts of Broadcasts that I will ever have to deliver. Lets look back on events and examine our "achievements" so far.... Last April we had an "election" which, because of various perceived anomalies, in the opinion of the Returning Officer, was declared invalid. A legal opinion was obtained by the Divisional Solicitor who informed us, on the evidence supplied to him, that we were able to form a Council. A group calling themselves the Concerned Amateurs Group, largely comprised of the old Ad Hoc Committee, got together and at their OWN EXPENSE, obtained THEIR OWN legal opinion. In the opinion of their solicitor, the Election was... INVALID. The Wireless Institute of Australia N.S.W. Division then submitted more information to the Solicitor, who decided that in view of him having given an opinion, which he had based on the original evidence supplied, he could hardly give another opinion based upon different evidence. It was for this reason that advice was sought from Richard Parsons. You will remember that he was the Barrister Council used to sort out that Tower Case business. The brief given was that he find the cheapest, quickest possible solution, as Council believed this was the wishes of the members. His suggestion was that we conduct a straw poll of the membership to see what YOU thought of various propositions. There were three questions.... lets look at them again. 1. I am satisfied that the election procedures have been followed and I would support an application to the appropriate Court to have the election of the Council ratified. 2. I am not satisfied that the Council has been properly elected and I request that another election take place after directions have been sought from the Court as to how such an election should take place. 3. I would seek to be joined as a party to any application to the Court and would argue against the ratification of the election of the Council. The Poll was conducted and the results were obtained. 73.27% of the Respondents voted to support an application to have the election ratified.21.8% said they wanted another election and 1.99% representing 15 people, wanted to be joined in any Court Action. The results were forwarded on to the Barrister and he in turn provided us with his response. The response was.. Have another Election because. .. this is the CHEAPEST and QUICKEST solution. It has been suggested by a minority group on the Council, that I had gone to the Barrister to TELL HIM what to do. This is not true. I went with the Solicitor to HEAR what the Barrister had to TELL US, HE had decided, and what action HE suggested should be taken. You will recall that I had said on many many occasions on my weekly Broadcasts that Council was pursuing the cheapest possible solution. Now, the word solution is defined in the Dictionary as... "solving of or way to solve a problem." Well members, the way suggested by the Barrister was to seek the Court's approval to have a Special Meeting. This meeting, would resolve to have another election and make suitable changes to the M & A's to allow this to happen. At the last Council meeting it was argued, by the Secretary that we should discard the advice given and go to the Court ourselves and ask the Court to declare.... that the last election was legal. Now he used the word OURSELVES .... This means we would be our own Barristers ....he even assured us that the court would be glad to help us....What a great idea!.... except, that anyone opposing this, if they had an atom of intelligence would engage the Institute's discarded Barrister and have him represent them to direct the Court to call a new election .... what do you suppose the Judge would do, when he was made aware of this fact ... Hmmmmmmm. All this is, is a great example of the "shoot the Messenger Syndrome." I am at a loss to understand why anyone would seek advice, pay for the advice and having paid for this advice ... IGNORE IT!....I'll resist the urge this time. To seek a new election is the quickest way. I understand "the system" works something like this..... There is a Duty Judge and he hears the "Open and Shut" and non-contested cases. Our matter would be one of these, IF IT IS UNOPPOSED! If it is opposed, then, it might take 2 to 3 years to get the matter completely resolved. The Institute could not weather this storm, not by any stretch of the imagination. However, it might be argued that, we could be lucky, if some Judge thought this case was "interesting", and he decided to hear the case because it was....different. On the other hand, this case could be held up because it is not urgent; there is not a great deal of money at stake and nobody is really interested in the politics of some Radio Club they had never heard of before. It would go onto a list and stay there.... That's it in a nutshell. I believe that all Amateurs, Members and non-members alike, want this matter settled, and settled once and for all, so that we can get on with our hobby and from my point of view, so that I can study for my Full-Call. I sincerely believe that despite the fact 551 people said that they wanted to regularise things, these people really only want an end to it all. I'm sure that had nobody wanted to go to court, then this would have been what the Barrister would have suggested. The regularisation of the election . Most, if not all of us, are reasonable people. I don't expect that any of us really thought that anyone would really want to go to court and fight over this sort of thing. Well, I saw the responses and I can assure you that these Blokes were "FAIR DINKUM". Since the advice of the Barrister has been made public, I have had NO calls or letters telling me "NOT to go to court" to the contrary. I believe that 551 people agree with the Council's decision... to pursue the cheapest, quickest option. I believe that the 551 people agree that if the Barrister's option means a cheap solution or better still the cheapest solution, then they are in favour of this solution. I believe that the 551 are not interested in settling scores or getting even...... Wouldn't it be nice to be back to normal. You'll recall I said that I was a Bridge Builder. Well I believe I have built a bridge with the help of many many dedicated peoples. All that is left is for everyone to cross that Bridge...TOGETHER .... Come on....How about it!... Lets do it!.... Finally, I told you last week that our Federal Councillors had been replaced. The new Federal Councillor is Peter Kloppenberg VK2CPK. The alternate delegates are Peter Naish VK2BPN and Pixie Chapple VK2KPC.... As to the reasons.....it would serve no useful purpose to discuss them on air. See you next week. Amateur Radio on Channel 31 ------------------------------- Last Wednesday evening (24th August) 2 segments of the ATV test transmission from the Gladesville Amateur Radio Club were taken live by Channel 31, CTS, the community television station in Sydney which has a 1 kilowatt transmitter radiating from a tower at Artarmon. From 7.30 pm to 8 pm, the public saw the opening of VK2TVG's test transmission followed by a tape called "The new world of Amateur Radio". The test transmission was again taken by Channel 31 from 9.45 pm onwards, picking up on the last 10 minutes of an amateur radio theory lecture, followed by a live news segment which also included a short tape on RTTY contesting, next a NASA tape, then signal reports and credits to end the test transmission. The phone ran hot with enquiries about the station. There could be a chance of repeating this experiment and putting the hobby of Amateur Radio before the Channel 31 viewers through a high power television transmitter. The club's regular transmission times are : Wednesday at 7.30 pm Friday at 7 pm Sunday at 7 pm on UHF Channel 35 plus. submitted by Pat VK2JPA Secretary WIA Morse class --------------- The next Morse class at W.I.A. Parramatta will commence on the 28th September 1994 at 7pm, providing there are enough students attend- ing. Could any one interested in attending this course please contact the Office and leave your name and phone number with Mrs. Morris, or on the answering machine at any hour. Jim Walker VK2XJW Education & Exam. Coordinator New members ----------- The WIA bids a warm welcome to the following new members who were entered into the WIA membership Register during the month of July 1994. L20976 Mr J M Stacy L20977 Mr B J Warhurst L20978 Mr D G Cooper VK2IXX Mr J P Asquith VK2JRB Mr J R Bugler VK2KDN Mr B A Newman VK2LYN Mr M T Perry VK2MSC Mr S D Salmon VK2TFP Mr I Chennell VK2TGA Mr J Charlton VK2UPP Mr P J Philippa VK2ZON Mr R Robinson WICEN News Users of the Sydney WICEN repeaters are asked to be patient whilst a problem is being sorted out; it appears that since the re- commissioning of the system several interfering signals have arisen. WICEN's "silly season" is almost over, and the only event this month is the deadline for newsletter articles, on Tuesday. Remember: no submitted articles means a thin newsletter. Unfinancial members are reminded that their membership will officially terminate on 30th September. Looking ahead to October, there is the VRA Annual Conference on the weekend of 8-9th October, to be held in Wagga, and further details will appear in a later broadcast. Any WICEN member wishing to attend should contact the State Co-ordinator, John Howard VK2AMH on (02) 477-6616, by letter to his Call Book address, or the WICEN BBS on (02) 888-2763 before 4th September. The "Hawkesbury Classic Paddle" is on the weekend of 22nd-23rd October; as before, Kevin VK2CKD is in charge, and he advises that packet radio will be tried for this event. The WICEN Co-ordinators conference will be held at Bathurst on the weekend of 29-30th October. The format will be primarily a training Seminar with emphasis on Regional administration, and Operations with a short business session. All members are invited, and they will be able to contribute towards its success. Those regions wishing to have their activities publicised on this broadcast are requested to get the details to the Publicity Officer, Dave VK2KFU, by Thursday night at the latest. Packet radio is the preferred medium, to either VK2AAB or VK2OP BBS, and all items are promptly acknowledged. Alternatively, you can use the WICEN tele- phone BBS. WICEN (NSW) Inc. operates a telephone BBS, and it is accessible at speeds from 300 to 14,400 bps on (02) 888-2763. Brett VK2XMU is the "Sysop", and all listeners are invited to use it. Many programs, such as "virus scanners" and "PGP", are available for downloading. -- Dave VK2KFU, WICEN (NSW) Inc. Publicity Officer Sport Radio ------------ Sports Radio : This newsletter is designed to inform each WIA Division of the progress being made in the introduction and development of radio sport. Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) in Queensland and Australia. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Region 3 ARDF championships in China 1993. Australia was represented by Frank VK4CAU and Wally VK4DO both in the Old Timers section of the Games. In the 2m event, VK4CAU was seventh and VK2DO was eighth. As a team they were fourth. In the 80m event VK4CAU was fourth while VK4DO was tenth. As a team they were once again fourth, International referee --------------------- Before the Games VK4DO attended a five-day course and qualified as an International Class referee. State referee ------------- A course was conducted in Brisbane in May 1994 which resulted in 13 people qualifying as State referees. Region 3 ARDF Working Group --------------------------- This group will meet in Singapore during September and the rules for ARDF in Region 3 will be promulgated. VK4DO is the WIA representa- tive to the group. World ARDF championship, Sweden ------------------------------- These games will be held in September 1994. VK4CAU is a competitor and VK4DO will participate as an International referee. These games were notified to members over divisional broadcasts early this year, however no enquiries eventuated. Equipment --------- Several groups in Queensland are developing and building receivers based on the design by VK3MZ. The Redcliffe ARC are coordinating activities. Ron VK4BRG has developed a kit for a 2m antenna based on the successful HV9CV design. A group at Bathurst are working on an 80m transmitter. Timers are a bit of a problem. ZL are working on onetime EPROM while information is coming to hand from Europe. This will be followed up by personal contact while in Sweden. Future activities ----------------- a) It is anticipated the the first Radio Sport conmpetition will be held in Brisbane early in December 1994. b) The South East Radio Group in Mt. Gambier has been approached to see if a lecture/demonstration can take place at their next convention. c) If a visit to SERG takes place, then I would be prepared to give a lecture/demonstration to other interested groups while travelling to and from South Australia, on the basis of being billetted in each area. d) Townsville ARC has expressed an interest in holding the next Region 3 games most likely in 1996. This will be decided in Singapore at the IARU Region 3 meeting. e) Wherever the next Region 3 games are held, a full team of twelve from the WIA must be ready to participate. The question of finance must be addressed. The Region 3 rules state that all costs ( travel and accommodation) shall be met by each Society taking part. In our case that means the Wireless Institute of Australia. A videotape ----------- A tape of the Region 3 games is being sent to each division for their information, use and retention. Clubs may get copies from VK4DO for $10.00 per person. In the tape emphasis has been placed on the formality and the importance of the games as can be seen by the many high ranking government officials. We were told that if China had won the Olympic Games for the year 2000, the ASRDF would have been a demonstration sport, as it was in the Asian Games a few years ago. Rules ----- These will be available during December after being finalised in Singapore. In general ---------- Wally VK4DO will be away from Strathdickie in the beautiful Whitsundays from the 26th August until the 6th of December, so do not expect any replies during that period. However John Aarsse VK4QA will also be in Singapore and may be of help during my absence. from Wally VK4DO 76th Anniversary of first UK-Australia radio contact ---------------------------------------------------- In 1918 the first radio message from the UK to Australia was sent by Marconi from Carnavon in Wales to Ernest Fisk in Wahroonga. The Wahroonga Amateur Historical Radio Association will be celebrat- ing the 76th anniversary of this historic event with a special event callsign, VK2WAH, on 22 September, 1994. This station will operate for 24 hours and a special QSL card will be available. Jo Harris, VK2KAA President News briefs ----------- The ARRL DX bulletin, number 51, tells us that Australian DX guru, Jim Smith VK9NS, has been discussing a possible return to Bhutan (A5). Jim says that he can be in Bhutan within 48 hours of being granted permission to operate there. The Australian this week reported on some of the latest technological innovations from Japan. Pioneer Electronics Corpor- ation has developed an electronic navigation system for cars, using maps stored on CD-ROM to display the user's position to within a few metres. The system uses the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) saellites, and incorporates a backup that monitors the vehicle's speed and direction, to naintain the correct display even if the receiver loses the GPS signals while going through tunnels. In a typical Japanese twist, some of the CD-ROMs contain popular music, so that the navigation system doubles as a karaoke machine. Still with the Australian, wearers of hearing aids, who are also in the market for a digital mobile phone, might be interested in a letter that appeared in that paper. The writer attacks the providers of GSM telephone technology, over the problems the new phones are said to cause to hearing aids. The letter cites reports from the National Acoustic Laboratory and the Radio Technology Laboratory Project in England, which indicate that users of various digital mobile phone systems are likely to suffer from interference. Richard Murnane VK2SKY IPS weekly report ----------------- 19 August - 25 August 1994 Issue No 34 Date of issue: 26 August 1994 INDICES: Date 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10cm 75 72 71 71 72 72 71 A 5 8 8 10 9 5 (15 estimated) T 23 23 26 22 28 29 26 SUMMARY OF ACTIVITY Solar activity was moderate on 19th, with an M1 flare. low on 21st, and very low for the remainder of the period. The geomagnetic field at Learmonth (WA) was quiet to unsettled, except for brief active levels 2100-2400 UT on 22nd August. Ionospheric F2 critical frequencies at Sydney were near predicted monthly values with enhancements of up to 30 per cent on 24th- 25th August. Spread F was observed on 24th, and sporadic E observed on 25th. FORECAST FOR THE NEXT WEEK (26 August - 01 September) SOLAR: Very low. GEOMAGNETIC: Quiet to unsettled. IONOSPHERIC: Near predicted monthly values. Spread F and sporadic E may degrade F layer communications at times. Courtesy of IPS Radio and Space Services, Sydney Summary by Pat VK2JPA ANARTS Broadcast Officer Club News: Orange Orange and Dustrict Amateur Radio Club invites members and friends to the September ordinary meeting this coming Friday night, 2nd September at half past seven. This will start at the usual meeting place, the Orange Cultural Centre in Sale Street but will adjourn after a minimal meeting to the Email whitegoods plant for a conducted tour of their high-tech factory. This is a rare opportunity to inspect Email's world class, award- winning, automated refrigerator production line. So bring along guests from your family or circle of friends to an evening which will be a memorable and unusual club event. Colin VK2JCD has arranged this visit through a friend at Email, so don't let them down. Remember, meet first at the Cultural Centre, 7.30pm this Friday before the Email conducted tour. Peter VK2ETK Club President FROM THE ST GEORGE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY Next month's meeting of the Society will be held at the usual venue, that is in the 1st Allawah Scout Hall, corner of Bellevue Pde. and Blakesley Rd., South Hurstville at 7.30pm Wednesday evening the 7th of September 1994. The Society's guest speaker for this meeting will be Roger Henley VK2ZIG who will be giving those present an interesting run down on project Raven, which is the VHF & UHF radio system used for military communications. Visitors are always welcome to club meetings, coffee, tea and biscuits are provided and the members look forward to meeting those interested in attending. Members and other interested amateurs are advised that on Saturday the 17th of September the society will be holding its annual Bill Shakespeare Auction. The auction will be held at the normal meeting venue, that is in the 1st. Allawah Scout Hall corner of Bellevue Pde and Blakesley Rd, South Hurstville. Equipment for the auction will be accepted between 10 and 11am. Viewing of equipment between 11 and 12noon. Auction to start at 12noon sharp. Credit card facilities are expected to be available for those re- quiring this facility and the snack bar will be open during the course of the auction. Inquiries regarding any specific details are welcome, please phone Publicity Officer, ALLAN VK2XF at home on 533-1006. de Allan VK2XF, Publicity Officer. Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club ------------------------------ Members and friends of the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club are reminded that the next series of broadcasts and call backs will take place on Monday Sept. 5. Times and frequencies will be as follows: - 10 am. Melbourne time (2400 hours Zulu) --------------------------------------- 145.700 MegaHertz FM and 7.060 MegaHertz LSB 3.650 MegaHertz LSB 11 am. Melbourne time (0100 hours Zulu) --------------------------------------- 14.150 MegaHertz USB beaming north ----- from Melbourne 12 noon. Melbourne time (0200 hours Zulu) ----------------------------------------- 14.15 MegaHertz USB beaming west ---- from Melbourne 8.30 pm. Melbourne time (1030 hours Zulu) ----------------------------------------- 3.650 MegaHertz for the benefit of members of friends who, for whatever reason are unable to hear any of the morning transmissions. Callbacks will follow all six transmissions. News for inclusion in the club broadcasts will be welcomed by Club Secretary Arthur Evans VK3VQ or Allan Doble VK3AMD both of who are OK in any call book. Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club --------------------------------- The Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club invites one and all to their next meeting. The highlight of the evening is the guest speaker Mr. R.A. Webb who was a radio operator in the Merchant Navy during World War II. We are all looking forward to the old radio stories from a bygone era. Please come and join us. The meeting commences at 8pm on the 2nd of September, 1994 at the Springwood High School, corner of Grose Road and Chapman Parade, Faulconbridge, enter from Chapman Parade. Refreshments will be served, all are welcome. Alex VK2KAS Publicity Officer Coming events Blue Mountains ARC meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 September Orange & District club meeting & Email tour . . . . 2 September Westlakes Vintage Radio Day . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 September St. George ARS meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 September St. George ARS Bill Shakespeare Auction . . . . . .17 September Speial event Marconi - Australia contact . . . . .22 September JOTA 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16 October Second Annual Technical Symposium (S.A.). . . . . . 17 October Hawkesbury Canoe Classic . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23 October -------------------------------------------------------------------- VK2WI Broadcast, 28th August 1994. Copyright 1994 WIA (NSW) & contributors. Material may be used elsewhere if the source is acknowledged.