From the WIA. original post here.

Date : 04 / 06 / 2016 
Author : Jim Linton – VK3PC

The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) held its annual general meeting and associated events on Norfolk Island May 27, 28, & 29 while many also enjoyed visiting the tourist attractions.

The first main activity was an informal evening at the Norfolk RSL.  It was reformed as a Sub-Branch in 1945 after the end of WWII – a part of the local heritage.  WIA President, Phil Wait VK2ASD, gave a short welcome speech while there was enthusiastic support for the traditional RSL raffle.  A few later ventured to the recently opened Jolly Roger live music venue that has become an attraction for locals and tourists alike featuring a guitarist dressed as a pirate complete with a parrot on his shoulder.

On Saturday 28, at 9am in the Paradise Hotel was the formal, statutory AGM, followed after morning tea by the Open Forum with some informative interactive exchanges between the audience and the WIA Board.  Lunch was followed by a two-stream speakers program over the afternoon.  During this time, the partners enjoyed a choice of two tours of the island – Craft and Food, or Island History.  All came together for the annual dinner at 7pm at the Paradise Hotel.  Keynote speaker for the dinner was the Honourable Gary Hardgrave, Administrator of Norfolk Island, who spoke about the island’s intriguing history and the challenging time of change ahead.

Guest speaker at dinner was Doug McVeigh VK0DMV, who gave an illustrated talk about his recent time at Casey Station in the Australian Antarctic, its abundance of wildlife, the science carried out, and how many nations shared their resources on the icy continent.

The WIA Board was pleased to play a video and announce plans to have the next AGM in Adelaide.  Earlier the Norfolk Island repeater VK9RNI was in action and believed to be the first UHF amateur repeater on the island.

From Tuesday May 24 it had a news broadcast each evening at 5.30pm local time with a rebroadcast on 7.105 MHz at 6pm.  This informative session was presented by Fred Swainston VK9DAC with many check-ins.

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From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 02 / 06 / 2016

The WIA held its annual general meeting (AGM) and Open forum was held last weekend on Norfolk Island.  The AGM is the formal part of proceedings where the Silent Keys are remembered, the new elected Board members are formally announced, and the Directors and Treasurers reports are discussed and voted on. Both reports were accepted by the meeting, with two minor items from the Treasurers report referred back to the Treasurer for clarification.

Following the Open Forum the WIA Service Awards were announced.

Life Membership was awarded to Ted Thrift VK2ARA, for his contribution to the WIA and Amateur Radio in Australia in his work in Affiliated Club coordination and managing the Affiliated Club Insurance Scheme since its inception.

The GA Taylor Medal, the WIA’s highest award, went to Dale Hughes VK1DSH for representing the Amateur Service internationally for many years, and for his leadership role in the official Australian delegation to WRC-15 in Geneva, which led to a new Amateur allocation at 5.3 MHz.

The Chris Jones Award was given to Jenny Wardrop VK3WQ VK5ANW for her consistent support of the WIA and ALARA over five decades, as well as her historical research work, particularly on women in Amateur Radio.

The Ron Wilkinson award went to David Scott VK2JDS for his activities in 1296 MHz moonbounce, helping to maintain a profile of Australian participation in this leading-edge amateur pursuit.

The WIA Technical Excellence awards were awarded to Andy Nguyen VK3YT for his work with Pico Balloons especially circumnavigating the Southern Hemisphere, together, David Learmonth VK3QM and Lou Blasco VK3ALB for the re-purposing of ex-commercial 3.5 GHz equipment which increased activity on the 9 cm amateur band.

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Parts from ARVic, original post here.  Additional info from the project webpage here.

The marine buoy ZL1SIX with an Amateur radio package is being tracked as it moves around the Pacific Ocean.  Bob Sutton ZL1RS reports that at the mercy of the tides, currents and wind direction, the solar powered buoy is moving at an average of average speed of half a kilometre an hour.

Tracking is via its transmissions of data on the 30m band each hour on the weak signal WSPR and JT9 modes.  More details on the exciting project along with real-time mapping is available here.

At 00:00 UTC today (June 17th 2016) present position after 30 days in the ocean is AG15FD.  Direct line change from the launch point at RG93SQ: 334km at 062 degrees, average speed 0.46km/hr.

Track the floater’s position on the ‘Nullschool’ ocean current map here.  Read about the build here.