World
World news items
Some volunteers of the FISTS CW Operators' Club and the Japan Brass pounders Association will exhibit a booth named "The Union of the International Morse Code Lovers' Clubs" at Ham Fair in Tokyo 21 and 22 August.
This is no ordinary display. It include communicating with brass ponders all over the world using Morse code via WiMax the ubiquitous microwave access system. A real fusion of old and new technologies.
FISTS will be using the CWCom software for CW QSO through the Internet. It urges all to instal it and connect to Channel "599", to have a QSO with members at the Ham Fair booth.
You will also be able to read our tweets on Twitter or watch the live relay on USTREAM; demonstration of CWCom, or happenings around our booth.
Ham Fair times are:
Saturday, 21 August, 0100 to 0800 UTC
Sunday, 22 August, 0100 to 0700 UTC
http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/4_Library/A-4-6_ham-fair/ham-fair.htm
http://www.jarl.or.jp/Japanese/1_Tanoshimo/1-3_Ham-Fair/
CWCom
http://www.mrx.com.au/d_cwcom.htm
USTREAM
http://www.ustream.tv/user/fists-ea
Twitter
http://twitter.com/fists_ea
Planning has begun for this Biennial event to be held in late 2011 in Australia and hosted by the IARU member society the IARU, the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA).
Fond memories remain of the event held in Ballarat Victoria in 2003 which was a great success attended by 100 ARDF competitors from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan and the USA.
The event in 2011 will be held in regional Victoria (VK3) although a location and venue is yet to be announced. With the knowledge and experience gained from the 2003 championships held at Ballarat, and there been a strong following including ARDF competitors at an international level living in Victoria it is certain to be another success.
WIA ARDF Coordinator and an International Class Referee Jack Bramham VK3WWW has taken on responsibility for the organisation and management of the event, assisted by the resources of the Victorian ARDF Group www.ardf.org.au with the WIA www.wia.org.au providing administrative support.
The event held at Ballarat in 2003 had the assistance of a number of amateur radio groups not normally involved with ARDF with volunteers needed for a range of basic but essential tasks. Organisers have indicated the same approach will be taken when the ARDF Championships return to Australia in 2011.
Hardship continues after the devastating floods in Pakistan that have claimed 1,700 lives and left 14 million people homeless.
The Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS) reports that both mobile and landline phone services are cut and could take months to restore.
PARS, in association with Islamabad Jeep Club (IJC) and Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) has started disaster relief activities.
This includes providing food, tents and medical support to the northern flood effected areas of Nowshera, Charsadda and central Sargodha districts.
The Indus River swollen by intense summer monsoon rainfall this month has wreaked havoc as it flowed across Pakistan.
In response to the communications failure PARS and the Islamabad Jeep Club have set up two teams to provide links with affected areas.
PARS has a 2-meter repeater in place providing a weak signal into affected areas enabling some use of hand-held radios.
PARS has asked the international amateur radio community for help hasmstated it needs:
Three 144-430MHz cross band repeaters, hi-gain dual band antennas, power supplies, 100 foot lengths of coaxial cable with connectors, and 2-metre handheld transceivers.
Inquiries about this matter should be directed to the PARS President, Nasir Khan AP2NK ap2nk.nasir@gmail.com with full information on the website www.pakhams.com/
The number of new ham radio licences being issued in the United States for the first half of this year is more than 18,000 or a 8.5 per cent increase on the same period in 2009.
The continued growth for three years in a row also sees more radio amateurs with General and Extra class licences wanting to become Volunteer Examiners to help meet the increasing demand.
Back earlier this decade amateur radio in the US was in decline with doomsayers predicting it would simply die out.
Others at the time claimed that the removal of the mandatory Morse code requirement had not delivered in its expected stimulation of numbers entering the amateur radio community.
Now despite the global financial crisis the increase numbers of radio amateurs in the US show no waning with predictions of a good result when data is released at the end of this calendar year.
The multi-operator DX0DX DXpedition to The Spratlys in the South China Sea is a much anticipated event for 2011 that has been 18 months in the planning.
Already reports about it appear on dozens of websites and blogs in the English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and a number of European languages.
The licence has been issued and government approvals received for the 19-day activation of this much sought after DXCC entity from the 6th to the 24th of January.
A multi-national team of 30 radio amateurs, including eight Australians, is set to operate from four dedicated operating camps for SSB, CW, RTTY and 2m & 6m operation.
Within weeks of the DXpedition being announced major corporate sponsors gave it their endorsement Icom (America) by supplying ten top-line Icom IC7600 transceivers plus one IC9100 transceiver, Amplifiers promised by Acom International, OM Power and THAMWAY Corp, Antennas - SteppIR, Spiderbeam and Mosley- Electronics, Bandpass Filters courtesy WX0B Array Solutions, Masts (Rohn Products); Head-sets from Heil Sound; Feeders The RF Connection, plus Ham Radio Outlet giving its support.
Adding credibility to the exercise has been Bob Schenck N2OO agreeing to be the DX0DX QSL manager. So far 15 individual radio amateurs have given their financial support.
Experienced DXpeditioners (Charles Spetnagel W6KK and David Collingham K3LP) on the team have taken on the tasks of shipping the needed equipment and designing the station layout.
The team's three medical doctors are ready to assist should anyone become unwell, and to also outreach to the island's residents as part of the DXpedition's humanitarian, health and welfare contribution.
Want to know more of to give the DXpedition your support, check out the website DX0DX.net
The friendly rivalry in recent International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekends between Australia and Germany, has VK still ahead of DL in terms of the number of registrations for the ILW on 21 and 22 August.
Between these two countries they have one third of all 360 registrations so far.
The registration of another two lighthouses bumps Australia's total to 56, breaking its previous record of 51 set in 2008.
Trevor Close VK3ATX intends to operate from Gabo Island in far eastern Victoria Australia, while intrepid portable QRP operator Peter Parker VK3YE has chosen the inner-suburban Port Melbourne lighthouse which is at the end of a tram line.
Germany has 54 registrations with a few more expected over the next couple of weeks. North America has 54 too, with eight of those in Canada and the rest in the USA.
Cuba has returned after an absence of five years. The DX Group has announced that a team of five operators will be signing CO0FPM from the Punta de Maisi lighthouse in Guantanamo Province. That operation will be CW and SSB on bands 80m through to 10m bands.
Hopefully more Cuban lighthouses will join ILLW in coming years. Across the other side of the world is Market Reef, a little island between Finland and Sweden that is shared by both countries.
Five DXers signing OJ0SARTG will active for ILLW as well as operating during the Scandinavian Amateur Radio Teleprinter Group RTTY contest. We wish them well.
From Turkey there’s news that the Sile Lighthouse will be activated using a special event callsign TC150SLH to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
The 200th registration this year was from Ting BV1EJ for the Kaohsiung Lighthouse in south-western Taiwan, putting that country into the ILLW for the first time.
A total of 41 countries are registered so far.
Those not already been mentioned are England (33), Netherlands (25), Sweden (18), Scotland (14), South Africa (11), New Zealand (8), Finland, Poland and Wales (6), Chile, Denmark, Italy and Northern Ireland (4), Austria, Belgium, Mexico and Norway (3), Portugal, Puerto Rico, Turkey and Uruguay (2), with Alaska, Falkland Islands, France, Gibraltar, Honduras, Iceland, India, Ireland, Jersey and Malaysia, Namibia, Romania, Russia, Spain and Ukraine – all with one registration.
To see the full registration list or to register a lighthouse visit www.illw.net
The military regime controls being imposed in the Pacific Island nation of Fiji, described by some as media censorship, has sparked interest in alternative news media by way of a pirate radio ship.
The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement (FDFM) is reported to be discussing the use of a ship equipped already for broadcasting.
It could find its way to the Pacific to break the media control and broadcast news, information and music for reception by radio to Fiji’s many islands.
The pirate broadcaster, anchored in international waters, would also transmit popular music including those songs which have been banned from airplay in Fiji.
Apparently the plan is on hold for 30 days until the result of the Australian general election is known so the FDFM can seek support from the incoming government.
Aimed at those who have never had a personal PC is the Simplicity computer that has only six button directing users to basic functions such as email or chat.
The Simplicity computer has no log-in screen when it starts up, contains no drop-down menus and comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials.
So far it is only available in Europe where more than six million in the United Kingdom alone over the age of 65 have never used the internet.
Electronic consumer goods and particularly flat-screen TV sets are selling fast in Australia due to a number of factors.
Retailers really cashed in on the demand for 40 inches screens during the World Soccer Cup and that item recorded a 75 per cent increase in the past year, with 140,000 going out the doors during the six weeks of the soccer in June.
The high favourable exchange rate for the Australian dollar and strong market competition continues to fuel sales. 3D TV and the new iPhone are expected to soak up any surplus money consumers have in the way of tax return refunds.
A downside to all this is the huge amount of electronic or e-waste in the form of old home entertainment appliances that are now being dumped.
All is set for the YJ0VK DXpedition to operate on the HF bands for six days from Friday 27 August from a rent house on Efate Island (IOTA OC-035).
The DX community will be pleased to learn that YJ0VK includes the WARC bands. Team Leader Chris Chapman VK3QB advises that two 100w transceivers will be feeding vertical and dipole antennas and an Inverted-L for 160m.
The other members of the team are Allan Meredith VK2CA who is the Manager & Webmaster, Luke Steele VK3HJ and Benton Vowles VK3CBV.
More information is available on the website yj0vk.vkham.com
