Mills on Air event has first Australian mill

millFrom the WIA, original post here.

Date : 11 / 11 / 2016 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

The Amateur Radio activation of Anderson’s Mill at Smeaton in central Victoria in May has gone through its approval and logistic stages, with a clear go-ahead given by all to the project.  The five-storey bluestone flour and oat mill, part of the 19th century gold field region, is on a creek that helped drive its iron water wheel.

The Anderson’s Mill Heritage Weekend in 2017 will have Amateur Radio as part of the festivities.  Anderson’s Mill is managed by Parks Victoria with the free public event supported by the Hepburn Shire Council and many others.

The Mills on Air event run by the Denby Dale Radio Club, through the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, has had only European mills up to now, but that is about to change.  The Central Goldfields Group VK3BI will be active the Anderson’s Mill on May 13 to 15, using 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m and VHF IRLP and UHF Echolink.  Behind this ambitious project are locals Alan and Cheryl Just, and Peter Rafferty VK3CC.  Now they invite more mills throughout Australia to join them on air in May.

It is an ideal club or individual project to activate many of the mills throughout Australia.

There is plenty of scope with old mills once used for sugar, wool, cotton, flour, and timber. Is there one near you? The challenge is to join the Mills on Air event in May 2017.

STEM symposium goes ahead

stem

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 11 / 11 / 2016 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

The Wireless Institute of Australia symposium on the STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program in to take place in Canberra at the Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club.  Fred Swainston VK3DAC told the recent meeting of the WIA Board that the initiative had been well received with 30 expressions of interest, and a number of papers already been received.

The WIA symposium is to look at how a few radio amateurs can impart their knowledge and skills through the STEM program, and help through teachers inspire a greater thirst or awareness.

Fred VK3DAC says it will seek to identify a few realistic outcome projects and those to manage them.  There will be a guest speaker, and is to include a presentation on how to develop a possible teacher resource on STEM projects.

Those attending the invitation-only event on November 19 at the Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club venue, will receive more details next week via email.  To allow for catering, please make a booking to attend by contacting the WIA Office on bruce [at] wia.org.au.

The outcome of the symposium will be reported on this broadcast and on the WIA website.

Hoax radio calls on the aircraft band

virgin-jet

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 10 / 11 / 2016 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

No less than 15 hoax radio calls on AM aeronautical channels have been made in the past weeks at Tullamarine Airport Melbourne, and the Avalon Airport near Geelong.

Police want public help to find the perpetrator.  Here is what happened:

  • A man pretends to be in a control tower and orders three jets to abort their landing
  • Impersonation of a light aircraft with engine trouble putting out a may-day call.

The story has attracted wide media attention across newspapers, television and internet news sites.  Melbourne’s Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers ran a story headed “lone-wolf hoaxer”, and unfortunately included a comment that “… rudimentary amateur VHF radio equipment could be used in such a hoax.”

The media coverage continued that a number of federal government agencies were investigating, but did say there were fears that copycat amateur radio operators might trying the same thing.  Members of various Amateur Radio Facebook sites picked up on the newspaper reports, expressing alarm and concern that Amateur Radio could be implicated in such a negative way.  Some radio amateurs emailed the WIA with their concerns.

The Institute understands that amateurs would be justifiably upset about any connection with such dangerous and illegal rogue transmissions.  Some have expressed the view that individual radio amateurs should write-in to set the record straight, and that the WIA should make a strong statement to the offending publications.  However, the WIA strongly advises caution about individuals making complaints.  In situations like this, misunderstanding is easily compounded and may make matters worse by re-invigorating the original story from another angle.

It is common for the media to focus on the “issue of the moment” in a way that sensationalises matters, which could easily be to our detriment.  Fortunately, the lone-wolf air-traffic radio hoaxer story had a very limited run.  The WIA is prepared for the story to arise again, and is developing a considered response to the media to counteract any negative references to Amateur Radio.

Cheap Dual Band DMR radios are coming

We’re a little (too) spoilt for choice in the Amateur Radio community when it comes to digital voice modes.

DStar was designed for Amateur Radio use by JARL and has been with us a since 2001, and as a result it has well established backend infrastructure – but the entry cost has remained high with (up until now) only Icom supporting it on their premium transceivers – thus limiting its mass appeal.

ORARC has embraced Yaesu’s C4FM thanks to a very generous cashback that comes with the purchase of the Yaesu DR-1X repeater, but mobile C4FM radios for use with our repeaters still begin at $469, more than double the price of an analog only radio.

APCO P25 ex-commercial gear has never really reached the realm of affordable and the backed end infrastructure for P25 is not well supported for Amateur Radio use.

Perhaps the thing stopping digital modes reaching the mainstream are affordable digital radios?  The Chinese have done an amazing job mass producing capable little radios such as the ubiquitous Baofeng UV-5R, of which I think every Amateur owns at least 2 – and why not when the cost of them takes them beyond an impulse buy and virtually into disposable territory?

The Chinese have properly embraced DMR as their chosen digital mode of choice, and for a while now the TYT MD-380 has been the darling radio of the digital amateur radio community with its affordable price ($150AUD) and hackable, upgradable firmware.  This radio, combined with a DV4mini dongle at less than $250 will get you into the reflector network and let you chat in crystal clear digital voice to other reflector network users around the world.

As good and cheap as the MD-380 is, it’s still very much a commercial radio that we’ve adopted for ourselves, and whilst the price is fantastic it still has a single big crux – it’s mono band.  You can have it in VHF or UHF, but not both at the same time.  This obviously precludes it from most peoples lists when shopping for a new general purpose handheld.

How about this then?  Meet the Baofeng DM-5R Dual Band DMR Mobile:

baofeng-dm-5r

VHF: 136-174MHz, UHF: 400-480MHz, 5W, 2000mAh – $92.99AU posted, available now.  Note that this is a first generation product, and for the moment it’s only a Tier 1 radio – meaning (out of the box) it can’t be used with DMR repeaters, though apparently this is being resolved for $10 extra?  At the time of writing I’d say it’s probably wise to wait for a version with native Tier 2 functionality.

Irrespective, I don’t think there’s any question that the format that’s going to become the default standard will be the one that’s shipped in sub $100 radios.  Even if you’re not interested in the wide area internet based communication these radios are capable of, digital simplex voice still has many advantages over analog FM, such as:

  • Up to 40% better battery life than FM.
  • Static free communications.
  • Better range than FM, with digital clarity right up to the cliff.
  • Auto callsign ident of transmissions on the display*.
  • Text messaging*.
  • Position reporting*.
* If supported by the transceiver.

It’s not just Baofeng either, slightly more upmarket Wouxun has the KG-D2000 on the way:

wouxun-kgd2000-bild1Dual Band, 1024 memories (I personally find the 128 on the Baofengs a little limiting), VHF: 136-174MHz, UHF: 400-520MHz, 5W.  No doubt these will be more than the Baofeng, but they’ll still unquestionably be affordable.

Keep an eye out for new entries on the market.  Note that radios of interest to us (again at the time of writing) support MOTOTRBO DMR and are ideally Tier 2 compliant.  dPMR and NXDN are also digital radio standards that are similar in name and transceiver appearance, but are totally incompatible with the DMR standard.

WIA Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer report after their first week

accounting

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 05 / 11 / 2016 
Author : Phil Wait – VK2ASD

At the Tuesday night Board meeting the WIA’s new Treasurer, Chris Hendry VK3PAT and Assistant Treasurer Jeff Tubbenhauer VK5IU gave an outline of the financial and operational position of the WIA.  Both Chris and Jeff have significant corporate experience to tackle the accounting and operational systems of the WIA.  Chris has had a week in the office and reviewing the WIA’s accounting records.

Clearly, the WIA is solvent and it can pay its current liabilities such GST, Employee PAYG and Employee Superannuation as they fall due.

Unfortunately, getting the accounting up-to-date will be both a challenge and a time consuming exercise.  The sub-systems such as the online bookshop, and MEMNET do not integrate easily with the MYOB Accounting software.  Many of the transactions relating to these sub-systems have been incorrectly entered into the accounting software.  Chris has found that the bookshop inventory is incorrectly valued in the Accounts and that debtors, that is people who owe us money, are too high and more importantly may not have been reconciled correctly.

We now have many hours work reviewing all transactions to discover past errors.  This will take two to three months.  Producing an accurate Profit and Loss and Balance sheet to the Board will take some time.  Once we are satisfied that the accounts are accurate our goal is to have a reconciled set of financials provided to the board monthly.  In addition, the Treasurers are developing an operating budget for 2017 for approval by the Board.  A budget compliance report will be submitted to the Board each month.

Processes have already been put into place to make sure that all expenses are scrutinized.  For any proposed expenditures over $1,000 competitive quotes must be sought and approved by the Treasurer.  All unbudgeted expenditure over $1,000 must be approved by the Board.  Members can be assured that the issues are not life threatening but there are significant challenges to maintaining our revenue streams and providing member benefits.

The board has created a new volunteer charter which will be distributed shortly.

There are many operational issues to tackle and to solve these issues a strategic review is recommended.