From AMSAT.org, original post here.  March 10, 2016

Today the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station team (ARISS team) proudly celebrated its 1000th school radio contact!

The very first ARISS contact took place in 2000, and Astronaut Tim Kopra, amateur call sign KE5UDN, on the International Space Station (ISS) did the honors for today’s 1000th link-up to the University of North Dakota.  Kopra spoke in real time to excited scholars in Grand Forks at the event organized by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium (NDSGC).  An additional program milestone—this was the first amateur radio contact with the ISS that has been hosted in North Dakota.

During the 10-minute ARISS contact Astronaut Kopra answered questions formulated by 20 different pupils in kindergarten all the way up to graduate school.  A member of the winning 10th grade team from the Space Grant’s high altitude balloon competition last fall was awarded one of the slots to interview Kopra.

An ARISS event is more than the amateur radio contact, and in this case the NDSGC team that included college student volunteers made multiple visits to pupils in the second through fifth grades at Emerado Elementary (Emerado, ND); Highland Elementary (Crookston, MN); Century Elementary (Grafton, ND); Century Elementary (Grand Forks, ND); and Discover Elementary (Grand Forks, ND).  The university teams led the young students in hands-on activities and learning about aerospace, priming the youth for the interview with Kopra.  The students, many from smaller rural communities, built and launched rockets, crafted and tested parachutes similar to those on NASA’s Orion capsule, and designed and tested neutral buoyant objects.

Students in today’s audience for the 1000th contact numbered 500.  TV and newspaper reporters captured the action; the university media team filmed it, and live-streaming was handled by John Spasojevich, amateur radio call sign AG9D.

One student asked Tim, “What advice would you give to students, such as myself, who wish to work for NASA one day?”

Tim advised: “Study very hard and work hard in school because if you do well in school you’ll learn a lot and it’s like money in the bank for you and your future career.”  A UND staff member said, “Experiential learning has proven to be the most effective method of knowledge retention, so this [ARISS] experience would grant them [students] the skills necessary to be successful individuals in their future careers.  The problem-solving, creativity, and perseverance required by radio communications are cross-disciplinary skills that students can utilize as they enter STEM fields and careers, enhancing the NASA-relevant workforce of North Dakota.”

Frank Bauer, International Chairman for ARISS congratulated the ARISS team on this noteworthy accomplishment: “With the outstanding support of NASA and the International Space Agencies participating in ISS, the ISS on-orbit crew members encompassing all 48 expeditions and the hundreds of ARISS volunteers world-wide, the ARISS team has reached a tremendous milestone: 1000 ARISS contacts between schools on the ground and the ISS crews on-orbit.  Since our first contact in December 2000 to today’s contact in North Dakota, hundreds of thousands of students have participated in hands-on STEM learning that ARISS affords and many millions from the general public have witnessed Human Spaceflight in action through an ARISS contact.  My congratulations to the ARISS international team and our ARISS stakeholders and sponsors on this phenomenal accomplishment!”

The NASA ISS Program Office produced several videos to celebrate the achievement of ARISS contact #1000, and the first two are below:

ARISS telebridge station W6SRJ operators Tim Bosma, W6MU, and Don Dalby, KE6UAY, in Santa Rosa, California, skillfully supported the North Dakota ham radio linkup as the ISS passed overhead, relaying astronaut Tim Kopra’s radio signal to the students.  Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, the ARISS Mentor from the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and the lead operator for ARISS Contact #1, guided the UND Dakota Student Amateur Radio Association and the FORX Amateur Radio Club in all aspects of the ARISS contact.

Congratulations go to the entire ARISS team on its #1000 successful amateur radio contact with ISS astronauts and cosmonauts!

About ARISS

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radiovolunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio.

For more information, see the web pages of ARISS, AMSAT, and ARRL.
Join us on Facebook: Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS)
Follow us on Twitter: ARISS_status
Contact: David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS PR – aa4kn@amsat.org

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 11 / 03 / 2016 
Author : Roger Harrison – VK2ZRH

The government has begun the final stages of reforming radiocommunications legislation, releasing a consultations paper outlining its proposals for future planning, licensing and regulation, and the roles of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Minister.

The Minister for Communications, Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, announced the publication of the paper during a speech at the ACMA’s RadComms 2016 Conference on Thursday 10 March.

A new Act is to be drafted following completion of consultation; the Radiocommunications Act 1992 will be repealed.

“A new Radiocommunications Bill will modernise our regime, and allow industry greater scope to respond quickly in the market to emerging technologies and services”, the Minister said.

“The simpler, more clearly structured Act will remove unnecessary process and prescriptive detail. It will better support new investment in spectrum-based networks by allowing new technologies to be deployed and spectrum to be allocated more quickly.”

The Department of Communications says the new legislation seeks to make Australia’ s spectrum framework simpler, more efficient and flexible to use and better support innovative communication 
technologies and services.

The proposed approach in preparing draft legislation is to: 

   simplify regulatory structures for planning, licensing and equipment regulation;
   streamline regulatory processes, particularly for allocating licences;
   clarify the role for government, the ACMA and spectrum users;
   bring broadcasting spectrum into the general spectrum framework while also providing certainty for the broadcasting sector; and
   provide for graduated and proportionate enforcement and compliance tools.

The majority of recommendations in the Spectrum Review Report of May 2015, have been incorporated in the proposals.  The paper does not cover spectrum or licence pricing issues.

The objects of the new legislation will include arrangements for providing spectrum for public or community purposes.

As expected, apparatus and spectrum licensing will disappear, to be replaced by parameters-based licensing.  Class licensing will not be incorporated into the new system, to be replaced with ‘spectrum authorisations’ with allowance for the ACMA to determine whether an authorisation or licensing is appropriate for given applications.

To encourage greater user involvement in spectrum management, the government proposes to continue to enable the ACMA to accredit other persons to issues certificates, and to delegate certain spectrum management functions so that ‘private band managers’ can deliver services or functions more efficiently.

It’s going to be a brave new world in radiocommunications!

Feedback on the Consultation Paper is sought, with a deadline of COB Friday 29 April 2016.

The Consultation Paper can be downloaded here.

From the WIA, original post here.

Date : 03 / 03 / 2016
Author : Roger Harrison – VK2ZRH

The news came as a shock to all; Doug McArthur VK3UM passed away on Monday 21 February 2016, following a stroke the previous day.  Sudden.  Unexpected.  A blow to his wife, Bev, and family, and to all who knew Doug personally, professionally, and indirectly through his amateur radio activities.

The funeral to celebrate his life is on Friday, 4 March, at 2pm in the William Matthews Funeral Home, 45 Cave Hill Rd, Lilydale.  The family has requested no flowers.  The WIA is being represented by Hon. Secretary David Williams VK3RU.

Although licensed for almost 60 years, Doug was probably most well-known – across Australia and around the world – for his moonbounce exploits over decades, in particular with the 8.6 metre dish he commissioned in 2001.  In 2006, using this dish on 1296 MHz, Doug gained a moonbounce DX record on 10 June 2006, working CT3/DL1YMK in Portugal, a distance of 18,342.3 km.

Making a mark

Doug could truly be described as a ham’s ham.  Over the course of the years he pursued his hobby, Doug made his mark wherever he went – geographically or electronically.  He was an inveterate home-builder, right from his teenage years in Adelaide when, over 1956, he and a bunch of school mates – Brian Endersbee, Brian Tideman, John Hilditch and John Drew – all built simple transceivers for the 288 and 576 MHz bands using components from the military surplus store, Waltham’s, in Adelaide.  They believed at the time that a licence was not necessary.  The enthusiasm of youth!  They used their erstwhile “pirate” rigs to chat amongst themselves and for fox hunting.  The 1m band was undoubtedly the Facebook of ’56 for that bunch of Adelaide lads.  Nevertheless, they were all licensed “and legitimate” before the end of 1957, Doug securing VK5ZDA (and later, VK5KK).

Doug’s interest in radio steered him to a career in radiocommunications and broadcasting, which led to working overseas, to Alice Springs in the 1960s and later, Darwin, where he worked for Radio Australia.

In the Northern Territory, he took up the callsign VK8KK and became a devotee of slow scan TV on the HF bands, and of Morse code “sent by hand and received by ear”.  On the bands 50 MHz and up, Doug focused particularly on weak signal propagation modes.  While in Alice Springs, he got his first “taste” of working moonbounce, hearing his own echoes from the moon on six metres.

But, fate intervened – Doug and family were swept out of Darwin with Cyclone Tracy, which devastated the city on Christmas Day in December 1974.

Doug picked up his career in Victoria, and VK3UM at Chirnside Park became a stalwart of the VHF bands, pursuing weak-signal working via various scatter modes, aircraft reflection and inevitably, moonbounce on two metres and 70 cm.  On the latter band, he built an array of sixteen 16-element KLM Yagis, later increased to 24 Yagis.

When Doug retired, he and his wife, Bev, moved to rural Glenburn in the Yarra Ranges region northeast of Melbourne.  They named the property “Tikaluna” (it’s an anagram – think about it – Doug’s sense of humour).  He then set about purchasing the 8.6 metre dish, owned by Telstra and located at One Tree Hill.  Moving and installing it was quite a saga, interrupted by a stroke in late 1999.

Undaunted, in characteristic fashion, Doug worked at recovering with the help of family, and commissioned the big dish in mid-2001.  His first QSO with it was on 432 MHz on 26 July, with Peter SM2CEW.

Doug secured a high power permit from the licensing authorities (now the Australian Communications and Media Authority – ACMA) for his moonbounce operations on 144 and 432 MHz some decades ago.  He was instrumental in working with the WIA and the ACMA to loosen up the regulations on amateurs running powers greater than provided in the licensing conditions.

Doug spent a lot of design effort and experimental time developing and optimising the dual-band feed for his dish, to work on 70 and 23 cm.  His most-recent 70 cm high power amp, built around a YL1056 metal-ceramic, forced-air cooled tetrode, was home-built, as was its three-phase power supply.  On 1296 MHz he used a solid-state high power amp.

Along the way, Doug developed some key software applications that are now used by moonbouncers world-wide.  His EME Calc package, for assessing and simulating every aspect of an EME station’s operation, was last updated on 14th February.

The EMR Calc software Doug developed for assessing any amateur station’s compliance with electromagnetic radiation safety standards, is known and used around the globe.  The ACMA look to it as the authoritative tool for assessing Australian amateurs’ compliance with local electromagnetic radiation safety legislation.

In the true amateur spirit of open sharing, Doug made these important applications freely available for download from his website: www.vk3um.com.

In 2011, Doug was featured in an article on ham radio in The Age newspaper, titled “Ham radio far from over or out”, which gave strong, positive publicity to the hobby.  The article was also syndicated to the Sydney Morning Herald and regional newspapers.  You can read the article online here.

Doug was a long-time WIA member and staunch supporter.  He served on various WIA committees over many years, and freely provided technical advice to the Institute and anyone who asked.  He was a featured speaker at the WIA’s Annual Conference and AGM in Darwin in 2011.

Being naturally gregarious, Doug gave many lectures at club meetings over the years, and in particular at GippsTech, the premium technical conference held annually in Victoria.  Every presentation began with a joke – usually of the lengthy, “shaggy dog yarn” style.

Doug was a larger-than-life character and lived life to the full.  Whatever pursuit he took up, he gave it his all – family, sport, technical lectures, lunch, dinner, socialising, amateur radio.

He was 74.  Too young to leave us.  Valé Doug McArthur VK3UM.