WIA Seeks Review of Amateur Radio Exam System

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WIA Seeks Review of Amateur Radio Exam System

The WIA wants a review of the effectiveness of the amateur service examination system in light of the lack of growth of newly licenced operators in Australia

The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) recently made a submission to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the regulatory authority for radio spectrum in Australia, in response to the ACMAs 5-year spectrum outlook. There are two key items on ACMAs agenda that are of special interest to radio amateurs:

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International Space Station to be in Cross-Band Repeater Mode for Field Day

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The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) cross-band repeater will be available for ARRL Field Day, 26-27 June 2021. Contacts will count toward Field Day bonus points as satellite contacts and Field Day contacts.

Field Day rules limit stations to one contact on any single-channel FM satellite. Note that contacts made during Field Day by ISS crew would only count for contact credit, but not for satellite bonus points. ISS cross-band repeater contacts are also valid AMSAT Field Day satellite contacts.

The ARISS cross-band repeater uplink is 145.990 MHz (67 Hz tone), with a downlink of 437.800 MHz.

ARISS suggests that those unfamiliar with the ISS repeater may want to practice with it prior to Field Day. ARISS had planned to switch modes to the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) during the second week of June, but this won't happen until after the first ARISS school contact following ARRL Field Day.

The ARISS ham station will be off-air during spacewalks on 16th June and 20th June 2021.

Aluminium-Ion Battery Development

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The Graphene Manufacturing Group in Brisbane, Australia together with the University of Queensland have according to the GMG website developed a Graphene Aluminium-Ion Battery energy storage technology that has up to three times the capacity of a lithium-ion battery and can charge up to sixty times faster.

The battery was created by inserting aluminum atoms into perforations made in graphene planes.

The company claims that because the batteries lack an upper Ampere limit that would otherwise cause spontaneous overheating, the batteries are also safer. The stable base materials also facilitate their recycling later.

The company hopes to bring these cells to market by the end of 2021 or early 2022

More Information - https://graphenemg.com/