From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 12 / 02 / 2017 
Author : Roger Harrison – VK2ZRH

Noting an expressed desire among some members and others in the Amateur Radio community for a formal process for the WIA to encourage consultation on issues affecting Amateur Radio, the WIA Board has formalised a policy and processes for this in its Consultation Policy, which is now available for download.

Despite the fact that various means for members and others have always been available to send comments and feedback to Institute – and these are used daily – the advent of specific online ‘Have Your Say’ facilities by government agencies at national, state and local levels, as well as unions, professional societies and other non-government organisations, has given rise to a general expectation that such a specific facility be instituted by organisations generally.

The principal objective is that all WIA members, and the amateur radio community generally, have the opportunity to provide views and comments to the WIA on identified matters or issues of interest or importance via the means of a specific online channel, with secondary channels via traditional means of email, fax and post.

You can download the WIA Consultation Policy here.

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 12 / 02 / 2017 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

This WWII event is to be commemorated including the callsign VI8BOD that has been issued to the Darwin Amateur Radio Club for a month.

There were two bombings of on Darwin, an aircraft carrier used to hit Pearl Harbor in December 1941.  It was followed two hours later by 54 land-based bombers from the Dutch East Indies occupied by the Japanese engaged in war in the Pacific.

VI8BOD will be at the old Qantas hangar in Parap, with home of Darwin’s first airport and now an inner suburb.  The event starts at Noon (0330 UTC) Saturday 18 February until 9pm, and continues 6am to 4pm Sunday 19 February.  It will include the warning message in Morse code as used at the time and received by Darwin from the Mission Station Bathurst Island, before it was bombed by enemy aircraft.  The message said: “NUMBER OF BOMBERS PASSED OVERHEAD BOUND DARWIN”.  This will be followed by an explanation of the message and that Morse code was the communication method of the day.

The station will feed a Triband beam antenna on a cherry picker, 40 metre band dipole from the flag pole for voice communication, with Morse code transmissions using a “squid pole” supported vertical antenna at selected locations.  Operating in a public space gives scope for interaction with visitors, and club members able to generate interest and answer any questions about Amateur Radio.  The event is due to start at noon from (0330 UTC) Saturday 18th February until 9pm, and 6am until 4pm Sunday 19th February.

Many VI8BOD contacts both nationally and internationally are expected with the club having the callsign for a month.

More information about VI8BOD and the QSL information can be found at qrz.com.

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 09 / 02 / 2017 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

An MAI-75 Experiment SSTV event is planned on February 13 0925-1800 UTC and February 14 1125-1630 UTC.

The downlink frequency is expected to be 145.800 MHz and the transmission mode is expected to be PD180.

This opportunity should cover most of the world during the operational period.

The MAI-75 experiment uses a notebook computer on the ISS Russian Segment, which stores images that are then transmitted to Earth using the ham radio, specifically the onboard Kenwood TM D710E transceiver.

Images received can be posted and viewed here.

Please note that the event, and any ARISS event, is dependent on other activities, schedules and crew responsibilities on the ISS and are subject to change at any time.

While preparations are being finalized please check for new and the most current information on the AMSAT.org and ARISS.org websites, the AMSAT-BB@amsat.org, the ARISS facebook at Amateur Radio On The International Space Station (ARISS) and ARISS twitter @ARISS_status for the latest information on this event. 

As spotted by Henry VK2ZHE.

Here’s an article from this month’s (February’s) “The Senior” from Fairfax Regional – the article claims D’Arcy Hancock at 106 as Australia’s oldest active Amateur having been licenced as VK5RJ for 90 years!

Read the paper here – linking direct to the published article is not supported.

Henry VK2ZHE, always the radio spotter, adds:

I like the mid 1970s VK5RJ shack photo accompanying the article.  It shows a Yaesu FT-401 HF transceiver as the centre piece of the VK5RJ operating desk with a Drake SSR-1 Wadley Loop HF receiver on the shelf at the top left.  The black Icom IC-701 all solid state HF transceiver just to the left of the FT-401 is hard to discern.  All state of the art in the 1970s.

Aged Care Online also ran a story on D’Arcy turning 106 in December 2016.  Read it here.