Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Dec 07 2018 10:59 am
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2145 for Friday, December 7, 2018
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2145, with a release date
of Friday, December 7, 2018, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Hams hear a new satellite's voice beacon.
In Australia, amateurs study communications during bushfires --
and a QSL card arrives, 25 years after the DX contact. All this,
and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2145, comes your way
right now.
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BILLBOARD CART
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RADIO COMMUNICATION TO CONQUER AUSTRALIA'S BUSHFIRES
NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with news of the bushfires
plaguing Australia. With the sweep of fires this month in
Queensland still pressing on Australians' minds, amateurs in
Victoria, farther south, are looking at a highly local strategy
making use of amateur radio - a blueprint they say can be
replicated elsewhere. John Williams, VK4JJW, has that story.
JOHN: Like wildfire season in California, bushfire season in
Australia brings the prospects of runaway, deadly destruction.
That time is happening now.
TONY: Our bushfire are wildfires that are a danger everywhere
from spring to autumn, and the season like everywhere else is
getting longer.
JOHN: That is Tony Falla, VK3KKP, who is about to help conduct
a training project in the Shire of Mount Alexander in Victoria,
Australia. The effort is designed to provide a greater safety
net against the deadly fires, also known as fire tornadoes.
Tony said that while the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency
Network works on a grand scale, this effort is designed to be
very community-based, expanding on small radio networks that
already exist in communities within the shire where hams regularly
check in with one another anyway.
TONY: Most of the time everyone has got this things covered.
They have radio systems all in place between the emergency
networks. What they haven't got - what I think is the missing
link -- is the person in the bush who needs to call for help
and can't get through, and that's what I would hope we could
provide.
JOHN: Most particularly that means disabled residents of the shire,
individuals who would have difficulty if evacuation is needed, or
simply getting the message out that they're in trouble. Starting
on the 12th of December, Tony, who is a member of the Bendigo Amateur
Radio and Electronics Club, will be working with committee members of
the Mount Alexander Shire Disability Advocacy Group, who have expressed
an interest in getting a Foundation Licence to help build this critical
community-based network.
TONY: This is basically friends training friends to become eligible to
communicate using licenced equipment, and that's all. It is a bit like
the Air BnB of communication really. Just a friendship ostensibly that
develops into a network of people who listen out for one another.
JOHN: The new hams will then go on to help other candidates,
establishing regular nets, health-and-welfare checks, and, of course,
being ready for those emergencies when they happen.
TONY: We'll be acting as an intermediary between the person calling
and 000 which is our 911 -- but if someone is in dire danger, we will
be able to tell the police the fire brigade, and so on, that that's
the case.
JOHN: That's life-saving communication for the people in the shire of
Mount Alexander. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams, VK4JJW.
