VK2 DIV. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE This is Michael Corbin, VK2PFQ. Well it seems like I got my weeks mixed up. I thought I would not be here this week, but in reality I have "been and gone" to where I was supposed to go...and I had enough time this week to prepare this item, but I won't be back in time next week.....If you can work that out. During the week I attended the Local Government Association Conference, where the "Old Chestnut" of Amateur Radio Antennae reared it's ugly head once more. Perhaps a little background is in order.....Way back in 1980, when I first joined Local Government, there was a dispute raging about Radio Towers in backyards. Rockdale and somewhere else.... I can't remember exactly where. In an effort to standardize this across all Local Government in N.S.W., Blacktown City Council, the Council on which I am a Councillor, sponsored a motion suggesting that subject to certain restrictions, antennae would be allowed by Councils without the need for a Development Application. The conditions were: Maximum height 50ft. (15.24 metres) All guys to remain within the property. That is, NOT attached to the dividing fences. No intrusion of antennae elements over the adjoining properties. If all these requirements were fulfilled, then only a building application accompanied by a structural engineers certificate would be required. The motion passed the conference..... AH! a commonsense solution to the problem at last! BUT, the Department of Planning in their wisdom would not agree. It was left up to individual Councils to decide the fate of antennae in their own backyards. Well, it was a good idea at the time, and had it been agreed to by the Dept. of Planning, then the troubles and woes of Hams would have been a thing of the past. Well I tried! Blacktown City Council, I am pleased to say, judges each case upon it's merits and after notification to adjoining neighbors. another Department of Planning requirement, not a Council requirement. This was introduced sometime in the late 80's. An acceptable compromise is always reached. That doesn't mean Blacktown approves 100ft. monsters in residential areas....However, to return to the original story ......... The motion before the Conference used the words..... Transmitter/Receiver Masts and Towers. Again a little history. It seems that under the Telecommunications Act, 1991 Telecom, Optus and Vodaphone can erect Mobile Phone Towers as, when and where they wish. Sure, they tell Councils that they intend to erect these Towers, but Councils are powerless to prevent their construction. Inevitably, these monstrous things, the height which is the envy of all of us, are sometimes put in the worst possible places. There seems to be no concern for aesthetics ....Just put'em up wherever there is a good site. I sometimes wonder how the Government would react to one just outside the Opera House or, dare I suggest, on top of the Cahill Expressway!!!! At least that would give the Politicians a better excuse than they currently have for pulling the thing down! As you can imagine, this makes the Planning Departments of Council's furious, not to mention of course the neighbours. The consequence is then, that when us poor little Hams appear at the Counter with an application for a Tower. The wrath of a majority of Local Planning Departments throughout the State and indeed, all Australia, descends upon the heads of us poor little bloke on the our side of the counter..... all we want to do is pursue our hobby. A hobby from which we don't make a "Brass Razoo".... quite unlike our telecommunication friends. Well, so what, you might say. Why's Corbin telling us about this, well it's simple. If any of you could have witnessed the debate, you would have seen elected people getting up and agreeing with the proposition..... The reason? They wanted the power ONLY so that they could.... knock the applications back. Fat lot of hope that leaves the Radio Amateur. For everyone's information, these Councils included, Sutherland, Marrickville and Wyong amongst others. Mosman had the idea that these Facilities should be shared by all service providers on a single Tower. At least they did not want to knock them all back. Despite the attempts of yours truly and VK2DFZ, Councillor Metcalfe from the Greater City of Taree Council, the motion was carried. A sad day for Amateur Radio.... It might pay all Ham Radio Ratepayers at Council Election time next September to write to all candidates and ask them of their opinions on Amateur Radio Towers. In fact there is no reason why the W.I.A. could not do that come to think of it!.....Anyone want the job? There was another motion on Satellite/Microwave dishes in Residential areas in relation to Cable/Satellite T.V. Hornsby Council sought to develop a Statewide Policy to cover approval of all such structures. This meant that if the Local Government Association decided that dishes of 30cms. (that's 1 foot) were the go, then everyone from Bondi to Broken Hill would be bound by such a rule. Fortunately, Conference listened to my views on the subject and the motion was defeated. This means ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, get those dishes up before your council places a requirement upon them. Blacktown allows l.2m dishes without the need for any application....Progressive is the word you're all looking for HI! HI! As promised Part 2 in the series from David 9VIRH/VK3QV on the IARU Region 3 Conference.....And I quote... "A couple of rectifications.....about two weeks ago, when I summarised Mainland China's report to the Conference, I mentioned the various CW speeds required, up to 80 words per minute. Well, when Mr. Chen Ping, the Delegate, presented his report, he apologised for a small printing error, the "w" for words per minute is in actual fact a "c" for characters per minute. And this brings the certificate requirements more in line with normal practices, 80 words now becomes 80 characters or 16 words per minute. Let me assure you that it had quite a number of the delegates confused. The delegates were split up in three working groups, A, B and Finance.... lets first start with the Finance Group under chairmanship of Anthony Jayaranjan, 4S7AJ....an important suggestion, to base subscriptions on the NUMBER of transmitting amateurs in each country, was not accepted and the present system of a structure based on the number of transmitting MEMBERS of each society was maintained. Expenses at the Secretariat are kept to a minimum although, for the coming years, money has to be found to cover costs for the new position of Coordinator for beacons in Region 3. The outcome of it all is that the fees had to be increased by 13%. The rates are now as follows: number of members up to 5000 is US $ 71 cents per member, number of members from 5001 to 10000 US $ 44 cents and organisations with over 10000 members pay US $ 12 cents per member. The WIA is most likely forced to pay US $ 71 cents per member unless membership grows to over 5000 when the subs will drop to 44 cents per member. Smaller organisations, such as in some of the Pacific countries, must pay a minimum of US $25 per annum to remain members of IARU Region 3. And if you think that all this is big bikkies, the total expenditure for next year is 42.750, then 45.250, growing to 46.800 dollar for the period 1997/1998. All in all, a real shoestring budget. Now to working group B, the technical group under chairmanship of Kevin Olds, VK1OK. A sub-working group was established to review packet radio. And I will start with this one, as many amateurs are gradually sliding into this mode. The packet radio guidelines established in 1991 by region 3 and subsequently improved on in Region ! in 1993 were further discussed and the group resolved that the term DIGIMODE be adopted to cover RTTY, PACKET, PACTOR, AMTOR, G-TOR etc. It further resolved the revised guidelines for Digimode operations and recommended that the region 3 Administrative Council adopts those changes. Some points from the new guidelines....Digimode operators take pride in being self regulated, they should like all other amateurs, observe the published band plans, they should not send the following traffic, either direct or via mail boxes.....all advertising for selling, buying or trading goods, all statements of propaganda or political or religious subjects, all appropriate language such as swear words, obscenities, defamatory or libelous language, all material that may infringe copyright, all material which infringes privacy, whether personal or corporate. As a matter of fact, Digimode Bulletin Board Operators are now more or less held responsible for all messages forwarded by his or her system and may take action to exclude a user who persistently contravenes the guidelines for Digimode operations. This exclusion should only be used as a last resort after local regulations. finally, Digimode Bulletin Board operators should be aware of their responsibilities for the content of messages and are encouraged to use authentication mechanisms."...Where Have I heard that before? " The subgroup further requested the Conference to endorse the establishment of a region 3 IARU Digimode SYSOP Forum to coordinate Digimode Bulletin Board activities, implementation of Digimode IARU Guidelines throughout the region and liaise with similar forums in regions 1 and 2. As this sub-group's recommendation were accepted by working group B, whose final recommendations were ultimately adopted by the plenary closing session, these recommendation can now be looked at as being the final rules to be adhered to. Next week more on beacons, EMC and standards, IARUMS, satellites and satellite bandplans......." Thanks David. Part 3 next week.... See you then. WICEN News We would like to thank all who took part in last week's Canoe Classic; we are advised that the event next year will be on 14th October, so hopefully this will not conflict with any other event. This weekend is the WICEN Co-ordinators conference at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, and a full report will appear in a later broadcast. WICEN has been requested to assist with the NSW Water Ski Associa- tion Ski Racing Division "Lion Island Classic", on Sunday 11th December 1994. Long distance communications are required from Croppy Point to Laughtondale, and this will probably involve 80m. Three stations are needed, from 0900 to 1430, and those interested are invited to contact David Ramsay VK2KLX. 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. Alternatively, you can use the WICEN telephone BBS. WICEN is always looking for members to provide the community with communications assistance. Write to WICEN (NSW) Inc, PO Box 123, St Leonards 2065 for further information, or come up on one of the WICEN nets: Blue Mountains on the first Monday of each month at 8.30pm on channel 7175 simplex, Hunter each Wednesday at 7.30pm on channel 6900, Northern Rivers each Wednesday at 8pm around 3610 kHz, Central Coast each Thursday at 8.30pm on channel 7125, and Sydney each Thursday at 9.30pm on channels 7150/8275. If there are any other regular nets then we'd like to hear about them. 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 News briefs ----------- Listeners who own a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver may have noticed some funny goings on in the last week. According to a recent advisory to NavStar users, "USERS OF GPS TIME TRANSFER INFORMATION ARE ADVISED THAT THE [positioning] DATA IS SUSPECT AS OF DAY 266 (23 SEP 94) BEGINNING AT 1500 UTC AND CONTINUING UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE." A subsequent advisory noted that "INVESTIGATION HAS REVEALED THERE IS NO CURRENT OR PAST PROBLEM CONCERNING THE TRANSFER INFORMATION. WE HAVE DETERMINED THAT SOME USERSETS MAY NOT ACCOUNT FOR ROLLOVER OF THE 8 BIT GPS UTC REFERENCE WEEK. ... THE USER MUST ACCOUNT FOR THE TRUNCATED NATURE OF THE UTC REFERENCE WEEK. THIS USERSET DISCREPANCY WILL OCCUR EVERY 255 WEEKS AND WILL LIKELY CLEAR AT END OF WEEK ROLLOVER." In other words, it appears that some GPS receiving systems use a single 8-bit byte to represent the "week" field of the GPS time reference. As any computer buff can tell you, a computer byte can represent numbers from 0 to 255... If the receiver's software can't cope with the "week" rolling back over to 0, then the displayed position may be incorrect. Hopefully though, the problem will sort itself out sometime today, but even so will return in just under five years' time. You have been warned. ********************************************* If you find it a bit difficult to get hold of 3 1/2 diskettes in the coming months, blame it all on Microsoft. It appears they have bought up four months' worth of the entire world supply of floppy disks, in preparation for their Windows 95 product. How this product release will affect worldwide supplies of CD-ROMs remains to be seen. ******************************************** A new astronomical observatory at the University of Western Sydney was officially opened this week by NASA shuttle astronaut and planetary astronomer, Dr. Jay Apt. The new 60 cm telescope, costing $360,000 can be remotely controlled by computer. Eventually, users will be able to dial in from their home computers, point the telescope at areas of interest, and download the resulting images via modem. ***************************************** News briefs looks at communications news items that appear in the mainstream media and elsewhere. Thanks this week go to "The Australian", "The Sydney Morning Herald". and the internet "comp.risks" forum. If your local or regional paper runs an item of interest to Radio Amateurs, why not send a clipping to the Divisional Office? -- Richard Musnane VK2SKY Dural Report Here again is another report on activities at the Dural broadcast station. A long-standing intermittent fault in the 2m repeater controller, which manifested itself in various ways such as random "resets" and apparent deafness (the micro-controller was actually "out to lunch" at the time), has finally been fixed. For the technically- inclined, the problem was a hardware watch-dog circuit triggering at random, and those with a Latin education will merely say "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" ("who will guard the guards?"). Thank you Jeff VK2BYY for your persistence! Some minor calibration problems, present since early this year, still remain to be fixed. A 2m SSB transceiver is being modified for broadcast service, to replace the 2m/6m unit that was written off. Should anyone have a 6m SSB crystal-locked transceiver surplus to requirements then be assured that a good home will be found for it here at Dural. Work continues on the 6m repeater and the 10m FM outlet; both are starting to negotiate a paper-warfare maze. Is there any interest in re-forming the Dural Committee, which was apparently disbanded last year? The upkeep and development of the Dural site is too much for one person, and a dedicated team ofvol- unteers with relevant skills is sought to take on this task.Beware -- those on the team will be put to work immediately! By the way, those who have previously volunteered have not been forgotten. -- Dave VK2KFU, Dural Engineer IPS WEEKLY REPORT ----------------- 21 OCTOBER - 27 OCTOBER ISSUE No 43 DATE OF ISSUE: 28 OCTOBER 1994 INDICES: DATE 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 10CM 88 86 84 82 89 93 93 A 1 18 37 24 8 8 ( 7 ESTIMATED) T 27 37 15 15 -21 7 38 SOLAR ACTIVITY WAS VERY LOW 21ST, AND 26TH-27TH OCTOBER, AND LOW 22ND-25TH. THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD AT LEARMONTH (WA) WAS QUIET 21ST, INCREASING TO UNSETTLED TO ACTIVE ON 22ND. ON 23RD THE FIELD WAS AT ACTIVE TO MINOR STORM LEVELS, RETURNING TO UNSETTLED ON 24TH, QUIET ON 25TH, AND QUIET TO UNSETTLED 26TH-27TH OCTOBER. IONOSPHERIC F2 CRITICAL FREQUENCIES WERE NEAR PREDICTED MONTHLY VALUES 21ST-24TH OCTOBER, THEN UP TO 20 PER CENT BELOW PREDICTED VALUES ON 25TH-26TH. ON 27TH THE FIELD WAS ENHANCED 15-30 PER CENT DURING LOCAL NIGHT. FORECAST (28 OCTOBER - 03 NOVEMBER) SOLAR: LOW GEOMAGNETIC: ACTIVE TO MINOR STORM LEVELS ON 30 OCTOBER, UNSETTLED TO ACTIVE OTHERWISE. IONOSPHERIC: NEAR NORMAL UNTIL 31 OCTOBER, 15 PER CENT DEPRESSIONS EXPECTED THEREAFTER. COURTESY OF IPS RADIO AND SPACE SERVICES SUMMARY BY PAT VK2JPA ANARTS BROADCAST OFFICER CLUB NEWS From the St. George Amateur Radio Society ----------------------------------------- The next 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 7.30 pm next Wednesday evening the 2nd of November 1994. The Society's guest speaker for this meeting will be David Peck VK2GIO. David will be giving an interesting talk and demonstration on Amateur Television. Members and interested visitors should not miss this opportunity to improve their knowledge of this emerging facet of our hobby. Visitors are always welcome to club meetings, coffee, tea and biscuits are provided and the members look forward to meeting those interested in attending. from - Allan VK2XF Publicity Officer Blue Mountains The Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club invites one and all to their Trash and Treasure Sale on Friday 4th November, 1994. This is a marvellous opportunity to buy some Trash or sell your Treasure. The meeting starts at 8.00pm but the door is open from 7.30pm for vendors. The Trash & Treasure Sale is preceded by a brief business meeting of the Club. The venue is the usual club room at Springwood High School, Faulconbridge, corner of Grose Road & Chapman Parade. Enter from Chapman Parade. All are welcome. Refreshments are served. ----------------------------------------------------- The big event in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 26th November, 1994 is the Computer & Communications Show. There will be 15 different Trade displays, a large indoor Flea Market and an All Day Sausage Sizzle. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BOOK SPACE IN THE FLEA MARKET PLEASE CALL ALEX, VK2KAS ON 047 57 3256. DON'T MISS THE COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS SHOW! B.M.A.R.C. Publicity Officer, Alex VK2KAS Mid-South Coast Next Saturday, 5th November, is the date for the quarterly social gathering and meeting of the Mid South Coast Club. The site is the famous "H Ranch", on Little Forest Road, Milton and it offers spectacular ocean and mountain views from the eastern fringe of the Budawang Range. The Ranch is 10 km inland from the Princes Highway and the turn-off is 3km north of the township of Milton. Visitors are particularly welcome - please bring your barbecue or lunch. The club will provide the tea, coffee, etc. These are social gatherings with a minimum of business and an we have arranged for an interesting speaker. Club members look forward to welcoming you to the beautiful South Coast! from Stan, VK2EL, Club Secretary News from the Castle Hill Amateur Radio Club -------------------------------------------- The next meeting of the Castle Hill Amateur Radio Club will be held this Wednesday, 2nd November. The lecturer for the night will be our esteemed President, Harry Tyreman, who will complete his lecture on antennae and Smith Charts. Visitors are always welcome to our club functions. Meetings commnce at 8 p.m. and are held at Castle Hill Military Radio Museum. For further details ring Ian O'Toole VK2ZIO on 680 2112. From Ian O'Toole Publicity Officer A.A.T.C. The next general meeting of the A.A.T.C. Inc. is on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 1.00 pm at Chipping Norton -- more details later. The technical lecture on the day will be announced closer to date as it will be a Christmas AATC members bar-b-que end of year function. The Committee of the AATC wishes to thank all those who gave us time and assistance to our club in the staging of the television internet for the Scouts and Guides to be involved in a 'hands on' for the JOTA. The A.A.T.C. also wishes to thank the Gladesville ATV group for its technical input at the sharp end, thus making the final product very professional. Watch ch35 for future info re AATC and ATV. For more information about the A.A.T.C. listen to the net on Tuesday nights from the Liverpool area on 146.625 MHz - approx 19.30 hrs - or watch us on 1250 MHz from our Oakdale repeater any- time. --AATC Publicity Officer Bob Barnes VJ2R Gladesville GLADESVILLE UHF VOICE REPEATER BACK ON AIR THE GLADESVILLE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB REPORTS THAT THE 70CM CLUB REPEATER VK2RRS ON 438.475 MHZ HAS BEEN RETURNED TO SERVICE AT ITS TEST SITE IN LANE COVE WEST. SIGNAL REPORTS WILL BE WELCOMED AND WE REGRET THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED BY ITS ABSENCE. AND A REMINDER -- GLADESVILLE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB INC. CONDUCTS ATV TEST TRANSMISSIONS ON UHF CHANNEL 35 ON WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHTS, COMMENCING WITH A TEST SCREEN AT 7.00PM ON WEDNESDAY, AND 6.30 PM ON FRIDAY AND SUNDAY. ALSO, ON WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY, CONDITIONS PERMITTING, THE TEST TRANSMISSION APPEARS ON UHF CHANNEL 16 IN THE CENTRAL COAST, ON VK2RAG, VIA THE AUSTRALIAN AMATEUR TELEVISION CLUB'S REPEATER VK2RFM AT OAKDALE. FROM PAT LEEPER VK2JPA CLUB SECRETARY Summerland Amateur Radio Club ----------------------------- All members are reminded of the Special General Meeting to be held, in our club rooms, on Sunday 6th Nov. 1994, at 2pm. Important changes are proposed to some of the by-laws, regarding Associate Membership and voting rights. Also it is planned to rationalise the membership fee structure for all grades of member- ship. Please make every effort to be there and to voice your opinion on these matters. For more information check the details on your October newsletter. VK2GJ - Graeme - Publicity Officer P.S. Don't forget our Computer Expo on the 26th November. Coming events Now, a summary of upcoming events of interest to members and other Radio Amateurs ... CQ WW DX phone contest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ends today WICEN Coordinators Conference at Bathurst . . . . . .ends today Parramatta ARC Foundation Week station VK2ARE active. . . today Australian ATV Club PCB Open Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . today Westlakes ARC Field day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . today Castle Hill ARC meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wednesday St George ARS meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wednesday Parramatta ARC meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thursday Central Coast ARC business meeting. . . . . . . . . . . .Friday Blue Mountains ARC Trash n'Treasure . . . . . . . . . . .Friday Mid-South Coast ARC quarterly meeting . . . . . . . . .Saturday Summerland ARC Special General Meeting. . . . . . . Next Sunday Northern Corridor Radio Group Hamfest (Perth) . . . Next Sunday Central Coast WICEN meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . .11 November Cave Rescue "Vertical techniques" exercise . . . 12-13 November Australian Amateur TV club meeting . . . . . . . . .13 november Blue Mountains ARC Computer & Communications Show. .26 November Summerland Computer Expo . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 November Do you have an event you'd like publicised on the weekly broad- cast? If so, then please send details to the Divisional Broadcast Officer, Michael Corbin VK2PFQ, by phone on (02) 626- 9288, or by fax on (02) 626-6066. Items can also be forwarded to the Divisional Office. ----------------------------------------------------------------- VK2WI Broadcast, 16th October 1994. Copyright 1994 WIA (NSW) & contributors. Material may be used elsewhere if the source is acknowledged.