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29-DEC-2007

8th New Zealand/International 2007/2008 Scouts Jamboree

To be held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 29 December 2007 to 5 January 2008.

Over 4,500 Scouts along with 1,000 plus Scout Leaders and support personnel from 14 Countries will participate in this event.

Amateur Radio will be there too with volunteers from local Radio Clubs headed by Paul ZL3TX who will have a fully operational HF/VHF/UHF station running under the Callsign ZM6JAM (OC-134).

The main activity will take place between the hours of 2000Z to 0800Z (9AM to 9PM NZDT) each day apart from New Years Eve when the station will remain active till 1200Z (1AM NZDT). Remember though that NZ is 13 hours ahead of UTC time and one of the first countries in the world to see in the New Year!

ZM6JAM will be active on 80 through 10 meters mainly SSB/Digital Modes along with Echolink via the ZL3CAR repeater Node 101553 and IRLP on 145.625 repeater Node 6900.

All Qsl's via ZL Buro or ZL3TX (See Qrz.com).

For further information or for those wanting to set up skeds please email: zm6jam@yahoo.co.nz

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23-DEC-2007

Official Broadcast

Details presidential update from NZART President Bruce Douglas ZL2WP. NZART Headquarters update from the General Secretary, Debby Morgan ZL2TDM... all this and much more in this months Official Broadcast.

Click on the above link to navigate to the Official Broadcast page to download the full broadcast in MP3 format (approximate. size 4.6 MB - about 14-18 minutes at 56K dial up speed or faster by broadband).

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23-DEC-2007

Headquarters InfoLine Issue 152

NZART's Headquarters InfoLine No: 152. General Secretary, Debby Morgan ZL2TDM advises:

Report: NZART and MED Meeting

- Purpose of Meeting - Introducing ZL2TLL NZART ALO

- Fees Review

- Reduced Licence Fees

- Single Letter Callsigns

MED grants the All New Zealand STSP licence

One Letter Call Signs - Call for comment

ZM6JAM International Scout Jamboree

Contest News

- VHF Contests

Results of the VHF Field Day Contest-1st and 2nd December 2007

- HF Contests

Scouting and Guiding in NZ: Canterbury Jamboree or "CJAM"

Break-In Closing Date Reminder

Auto-Subscription and Un-Subscribe

Dates for Official Broadcast (OB) and Headquarter's InfoLine (HQIL)

Click on the above link to download the PDF (approx. 48kb).

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22-DEC-2007

Jock White Memorial Field Day - 23/24 February 2008

Jock White Memorial Field Day Contest Manager, Stuart Watchman ZL2TW advises to start planning for this contest in February 2008.

Contest rules have been updated with 2008 dates, and the Branches Sheets as well. More information will follow in January 2008.

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21-DEC-2007

ARRL's Logbook of the World Counts More Than 150 Million Contacts

ARRL's Logbook of the World Counts More Than 150 Million Contacts (Dec 20, 2007) -- ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW) -- a repository of log records submitted by users from around the world -- passed its latest milestone Wednesday, December 19 as the QSO counter clicked past 150 million contacts entered into the system, with more added since. When both participants in a contact submit matching QSO records to LoTW, the result is a QSL that can be used for ARRL award credit, such as DXCC. ARRL Membership and Volunteer Programs Manager Dave Patton, NN1N, said, "These 150 million QSOs represent a doubling of the total since July 2005 when ARRL Contributing Editor H. Ward Silver, N0AX, wrote an article for QST, "Logbook of the World -- 75 Million QSOs Can't Be Wrong!" Thanks for using LoTW. We are planning to improve usability and add support for new awards in 2008."

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21-DEC-2007

DXCC Desk Announces New Entity

DXCC Desk Announces New Entity -- The ARRL DXCC Desk is pleased to announce the addition of St Barthelemy (FJ) to the DXCC List, making the island entity number 338 with an effective date of 14 December, 2007. Cards with contacts dated December 14, 2007 or after will be accepted for DXCC credit. New card submissions for St Barthelemy will not be accepted until January 1, 2008 in order to allow time for administrative adjustments. Full story

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09-DEC-2007

Headquarters InfoLine Issue 151

NZART's Headquarters InfoLine No: 151. General Secretary, Debby Morgan ZL2TDM advises:

Subscriptions

HQ Closed - Christmas closing dates

One Letter Call Signs - Call for comment

Contest News

- VHF Contests

- VHF Contest Date & Rules for 2008

- Results of The Microwave Contest - 6 and 7 October 2007 (overlooked - Editor)

- HF Contests

Scouting and Guiding in NZ: Canterbury Jamboree or "CJAM"

Break-In Closing Date Reminder

Auto-Subscription and Un-Subscribe

Dates for Official Broadcast (OB) and Headquarter's InfoLine (HQIL)

Click on the above link to download the PDF (approx. 38kb).

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08-DEC-2007

Council Minutes November

NZART Council On Air Minutes for November 2007, are now available as outlined in previous HQ InfoLine's, as a download in PDF format. By clicking on the above link you will be taken to the Minutes Page.

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06-DEC-2007

Headquarters InfoLine Issue December 2007 Special - 6 December 2007

NZART's Headquarters InfoLine Issue September 2007 Special - 2 September 2007.

HQ InfoLine Editor, Jamie Pye ZL2NN advises:

Radio Fee's Review for 2007

It was announced yesterday, via the MED Radio Spectrum Management web site that as a result of the Radio Fee's Review for 2007 - that the fee currently charged by the MED for repeaters, beacons and fixed links for the Amateur Service are not increasing, but remaining at the same level, ($50.00 per annum, reduced by 10% to $45.00 per annum if paid on-line). Additionally it is noted first that the regulations include a ten percent reduction in licence fees for licence holders who undertake their own interference investigations and secondly that the cost for engineering the same licenses has increased from $300.00 to $400.00.

NZART extends it's thanks to the submission submitted by the two previous ALO's, namely Bruce Douglas ZL2WP and Mark Gooding ZL2UFI; as this no doubt lead to the successful case of at least keeping the fee's at their current level. Members will recall that a figure of $250 p.a. was a possibility. This shows the value of the submission process and is good example of what NZART is doing for its members, and for amateurs as a whole.

As part of the press statement from the minister responsible for this fee's increase, David Cunliffe stated in part the following:

"Mr Cunliffe said there will be no changes to the amateur licence fees for repeaters, beacons and fixed links - but these will be included in a review of the amateur fees to be commenced in the New Year."

The new ALO Don Wallace ZL2TLL will be taking up this "new" review referred to by the minister when next meeting with the MED.

The new fee structure takes effect on 1 February 2008.

Stuart Watchman, ZL2TW, NZART Vice President

Click on the above link to download the PDF (approx. 23kb).

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03-DEC-2007

Break-In Editor advises of updates

The Editor of Break-In, John Walker ZL3IB advises of several updates to the Break-In pages on the NZART Web Site.

Firstly the contents of the next issue for November/December are now available (see the above).

Secondly John has also updated the Guidelines for Authors when writing articles for Break-In from this or link (as a PDF file).

And finally, the Index for the 2007 year is available on this page. Or all the indexes going back to 1947 on this page.

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02-DEC-2007

Spanish amateurs get more frequencies

Spanish amateurs have been permitted the use of 7.1 to 7.2MHz on a secondary basis using a maximum radiated power of 24dBW.

Also, the Spanish 50MHz band has been extended to cover 50 to 52MHz with a maximum power of 100 watts, except in the centre of the country where power is restricted to 10 watts. (RSGB News)

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01-DEC-2007

AUSTRALIA: Aurora Pulls The Plug on BPL

ABC news reported today that Tasmanian electricity retailer, Aurora Energy, is planning to end its Tasmanian BPL trial.

The Aurora Chief Executive, Peter Davis, is reported to have said that Aurora's BPL trial "does not have the resources to maintain its viability", and "certainly it hasn"t been a good money-making exercise for Aurora".

Aurora spent about $2 million since the inception of the trial in 2004, and during that time has seriously addressed the interference aspects of BPL with some success. However at the end of the day it appears that the economics in an increasingly competitive environment just didn't stack up for BPL in Tasmania.

Naturally that won?t be the end of BPL in Australia with several mainland trials continuing and possibly more planned, and it is not certain at this stage what will happen to the existing installed BPL infrastructure.

Phil Wait Director, WIA

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01-DEC-2007

AUSTRALIA ISSUES WORLDS LONGEST SPECIAL EVENT CALL SIGN

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has issued what might be the longest callsigns in the history of ham radio for a special event. ACMA, as its better known has made available to the Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club the callsign VI 2 BMARC 50, to commemorate the club's 50th anniversary.

VI 2 BMARC 50 -- yep it is a mouthful -- well -- it will be on-air for 10 days early next year. Listen out for it from January 18th to the 28th 2008.

Details of the operating schedule and QSL information will be posted on the club's web site. (WIA News)

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01-DEC-2007

D-STAR NEWS: ICOM DONATES 5 MORE D-STAR REPEATERS TO THE WIA

ICOM Australia has donated five more D-Star repeaters to the Wireless Institute of Australia. Wireless Institute of Australia President Michael Owen, VK3KI, was the one who made the announcement of the gift and how it will be used:

Just over a month ago, the WIA announced the gift from ICOM (Australia) Pty Ltd of a D-Star repeater to be located at Olinda in the Dandenong ranges, to serve the greater Melbourne area. Now ICOM and the WIA, concurrently with the official opening of the Olin da D-Star repeater VK3RWN, have announced the gift by Icom of 5 further D-Star repeaters to the WIA so that a D-Star repeater will be able to serve each of the other state capitals.

The experience in Melbourne has been used as the basis of formulating what is really a cooperative effort between a club, its individual experts, the WIA and ICOM. The WIA will consult with people in each state capital including the appropriate Advisory Committee to identify a club or group of clubs, supported by people with the necessary RF and computer skills, able to provide a suitable site and supply the ancillary equipment.

Only one caveat. The agreement between the WIA and Icom makes it clear that each D-Star repeater shall be open to all radio amateurs. And for those not aware, D-Star is a digital protocol developed by the Japanese Amateur Relay League and stands for Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio. Most believe that it will likely replace analog FM as the VHF and UHF utility communications mode of choice in years to come. (WIA News)