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VK7AX > BCAST 23.10.21 02:39z 472 Lines 24826 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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From: VK7AX@VK7AX.#ULV.TAS.AUS.OC
To : BCAST@WW
VK7 Amateur Radio News 24Oct21
Text edition:
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VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 24th October 2021
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Welcome to the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 24th October 2021. At the mike of VK7WI this week is Idris, VK7ZIR.
This broadcast goes out on repeaters all over VK7 and on digital radio - DMR Talk Group 5 and D-Star Reflector 91C by Clayton VK7ZCR.
We also go out on medium and high frequency courtesy of the following rebroadcast stations:
On 1.865 MHz by Graham VK7GS
On 3.670 MHz by Dale, VK7DG
On 7.140 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE
On 14.130 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH and
On 28.525 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
You can hear this broadcast again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in Northern VK7 and VK7RTC in Southern VK7.
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QSL News
Report - from Herman VK7HW Manager of the WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
The current list of QSL Cards held as at 15 October from recent WIA delivery, is in the email version of the broadcast.
If you have any questions re QSL cards, please contact Herman by email vk7bureau(at)wia.org.au
REAST members can collect their cards from the Domain Club rooms if they let Herman know to deliver them there. He can drop them off most Wednesdays at lunch time.
Thank you to those amateurs who have already been in touch.
73, Herman, VK7HW, WIA Manager VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
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Under arrangement some of the Cards have been delivered on 15 Oct as follows :-
NTARC Club Rooms - DW, DON, BO
SOTA Glebe Gardens - AC, AN, BBB, GH, KR, NMH, XX, YUM
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VK7 Inwards QSL Cards held as at 15 October 2021
AAA, AB, AD, AIR, AL, AM, AP, AS,, AV
BA, BB, BEN, BYE
CJ, CL, CMV, CV, CX
DD, DG, DIK, DP, DT, DZ
ER, EV
FG, FJFJ, FOTR, FTAS
GA, GC, GG, GM, GN, GZ
HCH, HCK, HDM, HH, HOB, HRS, HRW, HVK, HZ
IK, IS
JA, JB, JJ (for new CH?), JON, JP, JW
KBA, KD, KI, KH, KJ, KL, KO, KRJ, KX
LAZ, LDH, LJ, LTD, LW, L70217
MAG, MBD, MC, MD, ME, MHZ, MI, MK, MR
NA, NET, NRF, NSE, NTE, NWT
OR
PSJ, PW
QP
RG, ROY
SV
TAS, TCE, TED, TK, TU
VAC, VAZ, VH, VKV, VR, VZ
WA, WC, WIA, WT, WX
XDM, XTC
ZA, ZE, ZJJ, ZM, ZT, ZTA, ZX, ZZ
The following Callsigns were not displayed on the ACMA Database on 12 August 2021.
ACN, AG, AO, APZ, ATH, BPV, DN, DO, DQ, EG, FALX, FAZZ, FCIA, FGGT, FLAR, FRJG, FTAS, HSJ, JOK, LLL, LM, LT, LVH, MAT, MBP, MC, ML, MS, NC, NSB, NWQ, PBD, PRN, QK, SN, TL, TS, VA, YN, ZX
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Contest News
2x1 Callsigns Available
If you regularly enter contests, AMC are now able to issue 2x1 call signs. There are potentially 78 callsigns available in VK7, so enough for everyone.
73, Catherine VK7GH with a 2x1 call coming soon!
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH WEST
N W T A R C JOTA 2021 Report
On Saturday 16th October, the Club was to provide amateur operators for the JOTA sites at Spreyton Scout Hall and the Scout Camp at Paton Park behind Ulverstone unfortunately, the Spreyton site was cancelled, as some of the leaders were ill, so we decided to direct all our resources to Paton Park.
The individual radio stations were setup and tested Friday night, so we arrived at 8am Saturday, ready to go on 2 metres, 70cm, HF 20M and HF 80/40M, as well as DMR.
The refurbished HF Beam and the new OCF HF Dipole certainly brought in overseas stations, the radios were operated by Shirley VK7HSC, Anne VK7BYL, Ross VK7WP, Anthony VK7AAQ and Eric VK7EV.
We were advised there would be at least 60 Scouts, Joeys, Cubs wanting to use the amateur radios. Our home station were a little late in operation but Harry VK7HXT was contacted and offered to act as a home station to fill the void at very short notice, thanks Harry.
Rodney VK7HAM spent the afternoon talking to our Scouts/Joeys, pulling teeth we call it...HIHI, getting the Scouts/Joeys to answer with more than a yes/no answer.
I believe Kerry VK7MFI also assisted during the afternoon, we are indebted to those amateurâ€Ös, as it enabled Scouts etc. to talk to someone.
We had some of the Joeys from the cancelled Spreyton site travel to Paton Park, and they were allocated time to to use the radios, all the Scouts, Joeys, Cub were able to use the radio at least once and some came back for a 2nd or third time.
During the afternoon VK7BY Bob and his wife Maryl made a surprise visit, to deliver a scrumptious afternoon tea, which would have been at least a 2-hour return trip from their QTH near Wynyard, which was greatly appreciated.
Bob and Maryl in their younger days had JOTA camps onsite at their QTH, as they have at least 3 acres, and the scouts would stay in tents for the weekend at Bobs and use the radios.
The participants also got to locate the 2 metre foxes, using the Radio Direction finding beams, which they enjoyed, and they also got to make an electronic Morse code buzzer they constructed, which Iâ€Öm sure their parents are thrilled about!
The Rovers that were meant to attend between 1800 & 2200 hrs. to communicate on 20m overseas didnâ€Öt appear, so the Scouts and Joeys staying overnight were offered radio time instead. We managed to speak on 40m to a JOTA site in Queensland along with many QSOs, which made the extra hours worthwhile and we finally went QRT at 2200hrs.
We would like to thank Tony VK7AX, who cancelled his normal Saturday morning Broadcast on 70cm RDR, so we could utilize the repeater for JOTA use. We all slept well that night, but enjoyed the day!
73, Eric VK7EV, JOTA Coordinator
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NEWS FROM THE NORTH
SOTA/WWFF PARKS GROUP
The Summits On The Air/World Wide Flora and Fauna parks group is now meeting twice weekly – Mondays and Fridays 10.30AM till 12.00 at the Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry Street, Launceston.
For more information contact Al on 0417 354 410.
73, Al, VK7AN
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Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club Incorporated
www.ntarc.net
Last weekend saw the annual JOTA/JOTI event so we begin this week with an update from Peter VK7KPC NTARCs JOTA Coordinator who reports:
“NTARC JOTA/JOTI preparations started to get serious on the Thursday before the event. Idris VK7IR, André VK7ZAB and Stefan VK7ZSB along with Peter VK7KPC descended onto the clubrooms to move some of the boat anchor class of displayed equipment into the main hall.
While there, tables were set up for the JOTI operation, some old pcâ€Ös shifted to the garage ready for recycling and Skype pc checked.
After lunch on Friday, tables in clubroom were repositioned, echolinks system checked and VHF and DMR transceivers connected. HF transceiver moved out of shack and into main clubroom area. Mid-afternoon rumours of the southern shut down started and these were confirmed a little later.
Peter had a short trip home to try and promulgate alternate JOTI arrangements for those affected.
He returned at about 5pm to allow access for the Scout people who were setting up the 10 networked pcâ€Ös for the JOTI operation.
Saturday morning and thankfully no rain, Tony VK7YBG arrived to set up a test equipment display which would allow scouts to see what their voice looked like. André, Stefan and Stuart VK7FEAT arrived not long after and started preparing the fox hunting equipment and hiding the foxes.
The JOTI team including 9 Venturer scouts arrived about then and fired up their computers. This team were responsible also for hand sanitiser application and other duties as requested.
Brendan VK7VIP, Kevin VK7KJL, Ian VK7IG and Idris arrived during the next hour to complete the operator team. There were homemade sausage rolls for lunch supplied by Kay which were consumed before the noon start time.
We had scouts of various ages on site continuously from noon till 6pm with the last 2 hours fully booked.
After the younger members had left, the Venturers were free to order their pizzas and get ready for a long night of networked computer gaming.
Meanwhile the remaining operators were treated to Tuna Mornay and apple turnovers for dinner again thanks to Kay.
André, Stefan, Tony and Ian returned for 10am start on Sunday. Brendan was given a late start voucher for his good work on Saturday as we only had 1 group booked before noon. He and Lewis VK7IT both arrived in time to help with the full house from 1 to 3 pm.
Kay arrived before the scouts with a container full of scones with jam and cream for the operator team.
On the radio side of operations, HF was a no go, echolink while testing ok with test server seemed to suffer from low rx audio when used with real stations. RAA worked well with North coast station at Paton Park scout camp. DMR was also available.
We had just over 70 through the station, but sadly missed out on 20 Guides visiting due to their activities state wide being curtailed by the lock down.
Operations ceased at 3pm and we were out of there by about 16:30.
The 2 stations down South were also out of action, sadly for the Huonville 7HSD operation with a team of licensed Scout operators.
Thanks to Adam and his team of Venturer scouts for their work over the weekend. Also thanks to the following operators who made contact with the youth at Rocherlea, Ann VK7BYL, Shirley VK7HSC, Harry VK7HXT and Rodney VK7HAM. There may have been others and thanks to them also.
Overall a great weekend.
Peter, VK7KPC”
Thanks Peter for that update it would appear another great JOTA/JOTI. We now hand over to Idris to bring all up to speed on the happenings of Wednesday Tech session at the club room;
“We arrived this evening to find Peter VK7KPC indulging in the low tech activity of mowing the lawn outside our door, making use of the extended hour of light. Onya Peter.
After a successful JOTA/JOTI last weekend, we finished restoring the Clubrooms back to normal before Ross VK7ALH arrived with the TenTec 544, which is his current work in progress. Ross took us through the changes and additions he had made, showed us more modules he had acquired and work yet to be done. Thanks Ross, itâ€Ös coming along nicely.
Recently donated to the Club is a New Zealand made Blyth 1 kW AM broadcast transmitter, which was determined to be off frequency by the Regulator, and was replaced by a lower power unit, rather than recalibrate the existing. It is a relatively compact well-built unit, with a massive toroidal power transformer. Our resident Broadcast Engineer Stuart VK7ES was very interested and remarked that he had installed a number of these transmitters during his career. Also from Stuart were three mystery items in the form of three shapes cut from thin coated composite material. After a few wild guesses, it was revealed that they were templates for an air spaced variable capacitor which Stuart is constructing. The final stampings will be of aluminium and Stuart is willing to supply stampings to interested members. Thanks Stuart.
While all this was going on, André VK7ZAB had undertaken to give some soldering tuition to Ross, a visitor and aspiring Technician, who is at present at TAFE taking a music business course. They were ensconced in the Radio Shack for virtually the whole session.
Another varied and interesting evening with plenty of coffee flowing, with Bernie VK7BRâ€Ös special sandwiches.
73 Idris VK7ZIR”
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TECHNET – Wednesday 27th October. TestNet/CW course on 3580 from 7pm till 7.30pm….and a TECHNET on 3567 from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm. Your host for the evening will again be Nic VK7WW.
TECH NIGHT – Wednesday 3rd November at the NTARC Club rooms, 19:30 hours until whenever.
Equine Endurance Event – 13th November. The NTARC Safety Communications Team has been asked to provide safety comms at the Tasmanian State Equine Endurance Championships at Merseylea. The rides will be 160km, 95km and 50 Km. The 160km is a 24 hour ride that starts at 00:00 hours Saturday. We will be providing Base Comms, checkpoints and RFID tracking. We will need additional crew members to handle this event so if you can spare some time on that Saturday why not pop down to Merseylea, a pleasant 1 hour or so drive from Launceston and utilise your radio skills. Please advise if you are able to assist by emailing secretary(at)ntarc.net or catch up with Idris at a coffee session.
FUTURE EVENTS
Plenty of notice this time. NTARC will be holding a Christmas dinner on Wednesday 15th December. Venue Mowbray Hotel, meet time is 6.00pm. Tables has been booked under the name of NTARC. Menu is a-la-carte and there is plenty of parking at the rear. Please RSVP the secretary at either of these email addresses news(at)ntarc.net or ypmaxwell(at)bigpond.com or jot your name down on the sheet next to the sign in register on a Wednesday night session or coffee morning. We will need to confirm final numbers with the Hotel on Tuesday 14th December, so please ensure you get your name on the list before that date. A number of members have already advised notice of attending, obviously eager for another night out.
COFFEE MORNINGS – currently held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Catch up time is from 10.00 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all.
These coffee events represent a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards. We currently have cards awaiting collection, so why not pop in and check the QSL box and join us for a cuppa and chat.
Just a friendly reminder, please demonstrate your appreciation of all the effort that goes into operating the club, its facilities and the other services we provide, especially in these abnormal and very trying times, enjoying the company, coffee, biscuits and cake, by leaving a gold coin or two, or even a small bank note, in the jar to assist in our on-going operations.
FINALLY – A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email me at the following address news(at)ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 17:00 on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
Your continued cooperation in this regard will be greatly appreciated.
We will bring you all such contributions next Sunday morning.
73, Yvonne VK7FYMX, Secretary NTARC Inc
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
https://www.reast.asn.au/
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
https://www.youtube.com/reasthobart/
November Presentation
Digital Voice Hotspots
REAST's November presentation will be about Digital Voice (DV) hotspots with a focus on pi-star and openspot3.
A huge thank you to our resident DV hotspot expert Scott VK7HSE who has agreed to give us the presentation.
All you need is a hotspot and internet connection and you can use your DV handheld anywhere and get access to your favourite talkgroups on your favourite DV mode - DMR, DSTAR, Fusion or P25.
They are particularly good in Aged Care facilities where you can set one up and be able to operate amateur radio without having to find space for large antennas.
Happening on Wednesday 3rd November from 7:30pm in the Queens Domain clubrooms.
See you there.
https://fb.me/e/O0kLI5pg
73, REAST Committee
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Training and Assessments
REASTâ€Ös next Foundation Licence course and all licence assessment day is on next Saturday the 27th November 2021 from 9am to 3pm.
If you are thinking of coming along then please let Reg Emmett VK7KK REAST Learning Organiser know ASAP that you will be coming along by phoning 0417 391 607 or email assessor(at)reast.asn.au.
Check out the REAST Foundation Licence Training Videos that can be found on the REAST YouTube Training and Assessment playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsnsP_zjw831mdC6sY4XqavRUY-53ZWUn
Checkout the REAST Facebook page events for further details.
https://www.facebook.com/events/718404075716863/
73, Reg, VK7KK
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DATV Experimenter's Night
We started the night with a recap on what resonance is along with a reprise of the recording of the vent pipe resonance with discone and TV antenna on it.
Justin VK7TW then relayed some feedback about resonance from Tony VK7LOR who let us know in 2013, whilst living aboard my yacht in the channel near Stieglitz, QLD; between the hours 1500 to 2100, the rigging on my 30 footer resonated with harmonics changing the tone in a repeating pattern. It was very audible. Tony's guess was that; the rigging was responding to machinery in the sugar mill that was about 5 Kms away. This was a daily occurrence and at 2100 the sound stopped instantly.
Tony's banjo sits in a stand, and when Tony spoke or sneezed, the banjo would ring in sympathy to the sound generated. Tony has prevented this by hanging a bandana around the fret-board and strings as a damper.
This reminded Justin of the Aeolian harp or wind harp which is a harp that the wind is used as the energy to get the strings vibrating
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp
The effect in play here is the Kármán vortex street effect which is a repeating pattern of swirling vortices, caused by a process known as vortex shedding, which is responsible for the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid around blunt bodies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_vortex_street
This is the same effect with singing telephone and power wires.
This effect is also very common on utility vehicles that have ladders on top of them at speed the wind through the rungs of the ladder sets up resonances - Rex and Justin experienced this driving up the midlands highway when Rex did the first 10GHz contact across Bass Strait with David VK3HZ.
Strings in a piano, harp, stringed instrument all vibrate when one of the strings is struck or strummed or bowed. This sets up many more harmonics and different frequencies that all contribute to the characteristics of that instrument.
For example, an A string at 440 Hz will cause an E string at 330 Hz to resonate, because they share an overtone of 1320 Hz (3rd harmonic of A and 4th harmonic of E). Justin checked this out on a harp at home and it certainly does!
This is very evident with instruments that have sympathetic strings like a Hardanger fiddle and some of the Sitar family of instruments. Those strings are tuned to the same frequency or an octave higher or lower to provide the characteristic harmonic sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_string
We had a series of videos for our RF viewers demonstrating these principles
Lesson 34 - Resonance - Forced Vibrations - Demonstrations in Physics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Bn70PpbrM
Sympathetic Resonance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRkOQmzLgo
Demonstration of Resonance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bJ1gNnlsfE
A better description of resonance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dihQuwrf9yQ
Last week we looked at Chladni Plates resonating with salt this week I noticed some interesting vortices with the fine salt dust in 3D and so have crushed up the salt into finer particles and we take another look.
Next week we will explore RF resonance in detail with some interesting hands on equipment with Grid Dip Oscillators and Crystals. Stay Tuned!
We then moved on to the Low Pass Filter Kits from Minikits with a cutoff at around 500kHz - we swept the filter with the NanoVNA and found there was about a 3dB drop at 500kHz.
Justin then showed one of his Lindenbad 70cm Antennas which is a phased array of four 45 degree folded dipoles using 300ohm ribbon and a bazooka balun. These are low angle commonly used at airports - they are simple to make.
Richard VK7ZBX and Justin then did an update on the 3.4GHz SG-Labs Transverters and grid pack antennas. On last weekend Justin, Richard, Alan VK7KAJ and Hayden VK7HH tested - using Mt Rumney and Mt Wellington.
We finished with a reminder of our next presentation night.
A recording of the night is available on the REAST YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dmo6Ph4aAc
This week at the DATV Experimenterâ€Ös night we will have a focus on RF resonance, more 3.4GHz experimentation and much more. It will be coming to you from the Queenâ€Ös Domain clubrooms and we get underway from 7:30pm.
Keep an eye on the REAST Facebook Events for more details.
And a reminder that we go out on RF on 445.5MHz DVB-T 7MHz Standard Definition. So, if you have a TV, Set-top box or USB DTV Dongle that you can tune and scan 445.5MHz and you can see the Queens Domain, then you have a good chance of receiving the DATV Experimenter's Night Signal.
Look out for VK7OTC. We also stream the nights on the REAST YouTube channel.
https://www.reast.asn.au/news-events/live-stream/
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/amateur-tv/
https://www.youtube.com/c/ReastHobart/
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Weak Signal News
WSJT-X Version 2.5.1 released
We are pleased to announce the General Availability (GA) release of WSJT-X version 2.5.1. This release mainly contains improvements and defect repairs related to Q65 and JT65 modes when used with non-standard and compound calls. Also included is a new feature for microwave aircraft scatter, and repairs for defects detected since the 2.5.0 GA release.
IMPORTANT: If you expect to use the JT65 or Q65 modes to make weak-signal QSOs that involve a nonstandard callsign, be sure to upgrade to WSJT-X 2.5.1!
Links to WSJT-X 2.5.1 installation packages for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh are available here:
http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
We hope you will enjoy using WSJT-X 2.5.1.
73 from Joe, K1JT; Bill, G4WJS; Steve, K9AN; and Nico, IV3NWV
Sourced from the VK-Microwave mailing ist via VK2XAX
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Regular VK7 gatherings and events over the coming months:
Regular gatherings:
SOTA/WWFF Group – Meeting Mondays and Fridays 10.30-12.00 midday at Glebe Gardens Cafe, Henry St, Launceston.
NTARC – Friday coffee session – Rocherlea clubrooms Launceston from 10:00am
NTARC - Tech Night sessions Wednesday 3rd November - Rocherlea clubrooms Launceston
NTARC - TestNet and TECHNET – Wednesday 27th October. TestNet/CW course on 3580 from 7pm till 7.30pm and a TECHNET on 3567 from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm
NW VK7 – Wednesday from 2000 local – NW Tassie Amateur Repeater Group Net on VK7RMD
NW VK7 - Thursday commencing at 09:30 UTC (20:30 local) - N.W. Tassie 2m DX Net 144.190 USB (upper sideband).
REAST – MICROWAVE QSO Party – following after the Sunday broadcast on 1296.15 MHz FM.
REAST – WAGS – Wednesday Afternoon Group meet in the Queens Domain Clubrooms from 12 noon.
REAST – DATV Experimenterâ€Ös Nights from 7:30pm live in the club rooms also on DVBT RF and YouTube Streaming
Sewing Circle Net – Daily on 3.640 MHz commences at 6:00pm AEDST.
Events:
JOTA/JOTI 2021 – 15-17 October worldwide.
REAST - 3 November - Digital Hotspots Presentation with VK7HSE - Queens Domain clubrooms from 7:30pm
NTARC - 15th December - Xmas Dinner at Mowbray Hotel from 6.00pm - let secretary know if coming along.
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A reminder to those people rostered for next weekâ€Ös broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7FB
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and in the NW thanks to N W T A R C, West Coast Radio Group, Cradle Coast Radio Amateur Radio Club, VK7AX, and VK7DC
160m: VK7GS
80m: VK7TPE
40m: VK7ALH
20m: VK7JGD
10m: VK7DG
DMR: Talk Group 5 and D-Star: Reflector 91C VK7ZCR
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You can hear this broadcast again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in Northern VK7 and VK7RTC in Southern VK7.
A huge thank you to all people and organisations that assisted with this broadcast.
--------------------------------
That concludes our VK7 Amateur Radio News Broadcast for this week.
You have been listening to or have just missed VK7WI. Next week the National WIA news can be heard at 0900 followed by the VK7 Amateur Radio News around 0930 hours.
Items for the broadcast can be emailed to vk7arnews(at)gmail.com
Further information about the broadcast can be found at the VK7 Amateur Radio News Groups.IO Group.
https://groups.io/g/vk7arnews
The deadline for items is 21:00 on Friday prior to the Sunday of the broadcast.
VK7WI is now closing but will reopen shortly for callbacks and relay reports. Callbacks will be taken on the frequency to which you are listening. Relay stations will use their own callsigns during the callback.
On behalf of the VK7 Amateur Radio News Team itâ€Ös 73 from Idris, VK7ZIR.
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(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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