[TWIAR] Inside TWIAR Update

[w2xbs]

INSIDE TWIAR - NEWS UPDATE  - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2007

It has been a few months since I posted an update, so here is all the latest
news and happenings "Inside TWIAR".

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TWIAR SITE TO MOVE WEB HOSTING
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As most of you know, our web site for past few years has been hosted by
Digitronix in Western Australia. This week, I was notified that Digitronix
is planning a move from their current location in Perth, to a new facility on
the other side of the continent, in Brisbane.  This move will put Digitronix
in a minimal on-line position until the new facility opens next year.

I have made arrangements (along with our web site guru Greg Williams, K4HSM)
to move our site to a new host here in the States. We hope to make the
transition to the new host as transparent as possible to all of our ham radio
and broadcast affiliates, as well as all of you who subscribe to our podcasts
of both the ham service and our broadcast program.

The move to the new hosting company will happen during the next week, with
transition being completed no later than August 19, 2007.

I will post further updates on this topic as things progress.

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THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO INTERNATIONAL AND WBCQ SHORTWAVE
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This Week in Amateur Radio International, our broadcast program, has become
very popular. We continue to be heard each Saturday at 16:00 eastern time on
WBCQ 7.415mHz. However, the program is no longer heard on the station on
Sunday afternoons. Our second airing on the station was lost, due to lack
of funding, under-writing support, and advertising. I relinquished our Sunday
air-time back to WBCQ in mid-July.

This Week in Amateur Radio International continues to be a very popular
program. Although we do not have specific data on the number of downloads,
we do know that we're moving about 150 to 200 gig of downloads a month.

I am seeking advertising support of the program. If anyone reading this would
like to sponsor the program, please get in touch with me at w2xbs at twiar.org.
The program is an inexpensive buy, and reaches a big audience.

Both of our services are also broadcast on The W0KIE Satellite Radio
Network, (www.w0kie.com) and on numerous Low Power and Full Power AM
and FM broadcast outlets around the United States and other countries.

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LIGHTNING STRIKES
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TWIAR Headquarters is situated on top of a very large hill here in upstate
New York. Although we sit on top of a nice lofty perch, which is great for
radio, it has the unfortunate problem of having a lot of ground water.

This attracts a lot of lightning.

Our towers here to date, have never been hit. But, our under-ground telephone
line gets it all the time during the summer months. (We have numerous power
outages also). This knocks our DSL off line.

If a new edition of TWIAR is not posted at its regular time, it's usually due
to a lightning strike. We'll try our best to work around this problem.

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NEWS ANCHORS
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Since my last post, we welcomed a few new anchors to our ever changing staff.

I would like to formally welcome Jay Silvio, N9WMU from Richmond, Virginia.
Beside being a great anchor, Jay is also a fantastic graphic artist. We are
featuring some of Jays new art work here on the site.

Our newest news anchor is Rowe Hudson, KO4PK. Rowe hails from Naples, Florida,
and premiered on the air in Edition 747.

As always, This Week in Amateur Radio is always looking for on the air talent.

Do you have one of those "radio voices"? Do folks on the air tell you
that you should be in radio? Then This Week in Amateur Radio is
looking for you. Previous broadcast experience is not necessary, but
is helpful.

This position calls for late Friday night, or early Saturday morning
availability. Our news script is delivered to anchors via e-mail,
between 7pm and 11pm on Friday evenings. Completed audio must be
uploaded no later than 11am Saturday morning. All times listed are
eastern time.

Further requirements for TWIAR newscasters are a desire to be on the
air, a commitment to a once every two week rotation, a PC or Mac with
a good audio interface (sound card), audio editing software, and quality
microphone. You will need an internet connection and an FTP client for
file transfers.

News Anchors are the core of This Week in Amateur Radio. If this
sounds like its for you, please contact us today.

Please send your name and ham call if you have one, your city and
state, and very important, a return phone number with a good window of
time where we can reach you. If you like, you can also send a short
mp3 voice demo along with your contact information to: w2xbs at twiar.org.

We look forward to adding you to our growing list of volunteer talent
that keep This Week in Amateur Radio on the air!

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SPECIAL SEGMENT PRODUCERS
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If the frustrated broadcaster in you would like to audition for us,
but you don't have the time availability for a news anchor position,
consider becoming a Special Segment Producer (SSP).

SSP's produce a package once a month on a particular topic of interest, that
s related to amateur radio and technology in general.

Some of our current Segment Producers that are on the air include Bill Baran,
N2FNH with "The Random Access Thought", Bill Continelli, W2XOY with his
segment called "The Ancient Amateur Archives", do name a few.

Each self-contained segment, is delivered ready for air. It can run
anywhere between four and ten minutes maximum in length.

Some suggested topics that we would like to have include segments on
computers and amateur radio, shortwave listening and general DX'ing,
computer networking, it can be anything amateur radio related.

A one-time only special will also be considered.

If you have an idea for a special segment package, and would like to
audition, send an e-mail right away! Space on the air for segment
packages is limited.

Please send your name and ham call if you have one, your city and
state, and very important, a return phone number with a good window of
time when we can reach you. If you like, you can also send a short mp3
voice demo along with your contact information to: w2xbs at twiar.org.

PROGRAM SUPPORT (AND THE LACK THERE OF)

The on-going costs of production, transmission, and distribution of
our news service is always a concern.

If you can help TWIAR stay on the air, please click on the PayPal logo
on the top right of this page. Current TWIAR expenses include web site and
program distribution bandwidth costs, transmission expenses with WBCQ radio,
and the W0KIE Satellite Radio Network, as well as equipment repair. All of
this adds up to about $300/month.

Please consider helping to support our news services to the amateur
radio community. You can do so easily by clicking on the PayPal logo
on the upper right of our web page www.twiar.org, or if you prefer
snail mail, you can send us a check to our mailing address:

This Week in Amateur Radio Support Fund
P.O. Box 30
Sand Lake, New York 12153

Please make all checks payable to our parent non-profit organization
"Community Video Associates Inc" as our bank balks at anything else.

Community Video Associates, Inc., our parent organization, is a
registered non-profit organization in the State of New York. 100% of
the monies received go directly into program support and distribution expenses.

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ADVERTISING ON THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO INTERNATIONAL
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We have been trying to offset the short wave transmission expenses by
selling 30 or 60 second ads on TWIAR International.

If you happen to be a potential advertiser, I can tell you that This
Week in Amateur Radio International is indeed a bargain. We're looking
to raise around $100/week. This will get you our podcast audience,
which last month clocked in at over 3000 downloads, air time on WBCQ
shortwave 7.415kHz, air time on the W0KIE Satellite Radio network, and
internet users that stream our content from our web site. Please call
518.283.3665, and I will be happy to discuss any details with you.
We'll even produce your spots for you if you like.

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REPEATER/BROADCAST REGISTRATION
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We really need to update our affiliate listing page. If you are airing
any of our services on your local repeater, simplex or HF frequency,
Low power or full power broadcast, PLEASE check our AFFILIATE PAGE.

Please update your listing as necessary. If your not on the current
affiliate list, please fill out the information on the form at the
bottom of the page, and click submit.

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A BIG THANKS
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And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the
people who volunteer their time to make This Week in Amateur Radio the
premier news and information service for the amateur radio community.

All of our current news anchors, (see the contact us list) our special
segment producers, our web design, maintenance and audio distribution
people. These folks give back to the amateur radio hobby each week.
This Week in Amateur Radio is all the people you see listed on our
contact list.

Till next time,

Best 73

George Bowen - W2XBS
Executive Producer
This Week in Amateur Radio
This Week in Amateur Radio International