The purpose of the Net is to overcome the lack of member contact
since General Meetings of the VK6 division were discontinued.
As with the General Meetings of the past, visitors (non-members) are welcome to attend.

Call Sign VK6WIA 146.750 MHz Lesmurdie Repeater
and 80 Metre Gateway on 3.564 Mhz controlled by Will VK6UU.

Net Control Tony VK6TS - Meeting Opened at 1930 Hours.

No formal check-in called for except 80 Metres.
VK6BH Bill (Allanson)

A roll call of Divisional Council produced the following check ins:
VK6HK Don Council Minute Secretary VK6LZ Cliff President VK6OO Bruce Treasurer
VK6TS Tony Broadcast/Net Control VK6UU Will Federal Councillor
VK6ZLZ Christine Secretary VK6XH Keith
Apologies from VK6ZSE Eddie VK6IW Dave Membership VK6NE Neil Vice President

Those participating (20) were:
*VK6AD Phil Perth *VK6AX Geoff Perth *VK6AR Mark Perth *VK6BFI Joe Perth
*VK6BH Bill Allanson *VK6CF Chuck Perth *VK6CSW Clive Perth *VK6EH Wayne Perth
*VK6HAO Peter Perth *VK6HK Don Perth VK6 Councillor & Minute Secretary *VK6KAD Greg Perth
*VK6KDC Darryl Manjimup *VK6LZ Cliff Perth VK6 Councillor & VK6 President
*VK6OO Bruce Perth VK6 Treasurer *VK6RF Ron Perth *VK6TQ Kim Perth
*VK6TS Tony Perth VK6 Councillor & Broadcast Officer
*VK6UU Will Perth VK6 Councillor & Federal Councillor
*VK6XH Keith Perth VK6 Councillor *VK6ZLZ Christine Perth VK6 Councillor & Secretary

VK6TS Tony opened the net and listed last months topics,
and commented that the number of country call backs were disappointing.
As no business was brought forward, he invited participants to raise points of interest for discussion.

Subject: Number of Different News Broadcasts on Sunday

The number of different broadcasts available
on Sunday morning in VK6 was discussed.
A replay of the American Newsline commences at 8am followed by Q-news,
and sometimes RSGB, followed at 9.30 am by the VK6 division's Newswest.
Tony as presenter of Newswest was worried
that listeners would have had enough before his broadcast.

One participant suggested that perhaps Q-News could be delayed until Sunday evening,
another suggested that the overseas broadcasts which tended to be mainly
of a domestic nature could be dispensed with,
anything of interest was usually picked up either by Newswest or Q-News.

Loading Coils in each leg of a dipole antenna

Bruce VK6OO asked if they (loading coils not traps)
should be wound in the same "sense" or contra?
He had wound them in contra and had found them hard to tune.

Some participants thought that it should not matter, others thought it did.
The discussion became very technical and ended with the advice to Bruce
that he should start again and try winding both coils in the same sense.
We await a further report from Bruce.

VK6 Morse Survey
Should Morse Code be retained as an Exam Subject

Will VK6UU (VK6 Federal Councillor) commented on the difficulty experienced
by Councillors at the Federal Convention when voting on two WIA policy motions.
These concerned either the retention of morse as an exam subject,
or of reducing the speed to 5 wpm.

As a member of the IARU, it was important that the WIA
was in a position to reflect membership wishes if
called upon to vote on the subject prior to the 2003 ITU conference.

Some divisions had carried out member surveys in the past others had not,
in any case no up to date information on how the membership of the WIA
felt about the subject was available.

The VK6 Council had decided to carry out a new survey
of all VK6 Amateurs, not just members.
Will VK6UU will collect replies.

To keep it unambiguous the question was simply
should morse be retained as an examinable subject
Yes or No

As a postal vote would cost at least $1,000 and be labour intensive,
it was decided to ask for feedback via
news check-ins, packet bulletins, net check-ins, club feedback etc.

This generated a lively discussion which tended to get away from
a simple Yes or No and covered possible replacement subjects
and even the use by the navy of an Aldis lamp in a recent TV news shot

Will also asked a subsidiary question of those who voted yes
If morse was no longer a requirement AND
Amateur numbers increased, would this be a good or bad outcome ?
There were no takers.

Of those on the net who voted, there were 9 YES and 6 NO votes.

Some comments were:

A Limited Novice made the point that his exam had included sideband
although it was not one of his licence grade privileges.

Another participant thought that Intermediate (K calls)
who had passed morse at 5wpm should be allowed
a Novice portion on all HF bands.

One participant thought that the question (morse) would become academic,
as according to news groups around the world the feeling was
that the ITU 2003 conference would probably quash the morse requirement.

Another thought that Valves should no longer be part of the syllabus - others did not agree
the amateur service is unique we are allowed to build our own equipment
including the use and/or construction of relatively high power linear amplifiers,
which are still largely valve based and consequently use high voltages
- therefore must remain as part of the syllabus.

Another thought that lower cost of exams would help get more amateurs.

Tony commented on the cost of AR versus the cost of the Internet.

Low Interference Potential Devices (LIPDs)

Over the past couple of weeks the Perth VK6RTH 70cm repeater (Solar Powered site)
has been suffering interference on it's input frequency (433.225 MHz)
by a data type of signal which has lasted from seconds to hours at a time,
over the whole 24 hours resulting in the repeater being locked on transmit.
This has resulted in the repeater having to be turned off to conserve power
(site also has 2 metres and packet).

Thanks to the dedication of a Member of the repeater group (VK6TRC)
in liaison with the ACA, the interfering signal was traced by him (in the very early hours)
to a crane controller some 8 Km away, operating under the LIPD licence.

The owners of the crane have voluntarily removed the device from the frequency.
The device had been installed together with others in the complex some 4 weeks earlier.

Some LIPD Facts:
LIPD licensed frequency range in 70cm band is:
433.050 to 434.790

Dick Smith Hand held uses 25Khz steps :
Ch 1 = 433.750 to Ch 20 = 434.225

It is also equipped with 38 CTCSS tones
1 = 67Hz to 38 = 250.3 Hz

Internet - VK6 Home Page

Christine VK6ZLZ has further developed the division's home page
and asked that people visit the site
http://www.omen.net.au/~vk6wia/

You can send her an email, [email protected]
she would appreciate any comments,
particularly if you can spot the “diliberate errors”.

Net closed at 2100 hours.

Notes prepared by VK6LZ apologies for Errors and Omissions if any.

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