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VK7AX > BCAST 22.03.20 07:00z 424 Lines 27150 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Text edition: VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR MARCH 22 2020
(Note.. please remove spaces in email addresses before using)
VK7 AMATEUR RADIO NEWS BROADCAST
FOR SUNDAY 22nd MARCH 2020
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Welcome to the John Moyle Memorial Field Day Weekend edition of the VK7 Amateur Radio News for the 22nd March 2020. This broadcast is brought to you by VK7WI, and read today by Justin, VK7TW.
This broadcast utilises repeaters around VK7 and the following HF rebroadcast stations:
On 3.670 MHz by Garry, VK7JGD
On 7.140 MHz by Mike, VK7FB
On 14.130 MHz by Ross, VK7ALH
On 28.525 MHz by Peter, VK7TPE
On DMR Talk Group 5 and D-Star Reflector 091 by Clayton, VK7ZCR
This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on
repeaters VK7RAA in the North and VK7RTC in the South.
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WIA 2020 Annual Conference Cancelled
The WIA wishes to advise members and friends that the WIA 2020 Annual Conference has been cancelled.
This is to comply with the Federal Government directive that precludes meetings or gatherings of more than 100 people and to also refrain from unnecessary travel.
The WIA apologise for any inconvenience caused.
A request has been made to ASIC for a delay in holding the Annual General Meeting.
The WIA 2021 Annual Conference will be held in Hobart and the date will be advised soon.
Again we apologise for any inconvenience caused and we hope to see you in Hobart in 2021.
73, WIA Board
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IMPORTANT NOTICE - Meet the Voice 2020 CANCELLED!
On 12th March, the World Health Organisation classified Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic. With this in mind, Meet the Voice organiser Dani VK7FREQ has made the decision to cancel the upcoming Meet the Voice gathering.
This decision wasn't made lightly, but in the interests of the VK7 radio community's health, it has been deemed prudent and necessary.
Of course, the annual Sewing Circle Award must carry on, and discussions will be held with the 2019 winner Cedric regarding how he would like this to occur.
No firm plans have been made regarding the two other big events on the Tasmanian radio calendar this year, the WIA National conference scheduled in May, and Hamfest scheduled in November, but all updates will be shared through the Sunday broadcast.
Wishing you all the best of health, from Dani VK7FREQ
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QSL NEWS
Report - from Herman VK7HW Manager of the WIA VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
The current list of Cards held, including the latest delivery on 12 March, is in the email version of the broadcast.
Please contact Herman if you can assist in delivery of any of the cards in your area.
If you have any questions re QSL cards, please contact Herman by email vk7bureau @ wia.org.au
73, Herman, VK7HW, WIA Manager VK7 Inwards QSL Bureau
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AA, AAA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AL, AM, AN, AO, AP, AS, ATH, AV
BA, BB, BBB, BBW, BM, BO, BP
CC, CH, CJ, CV, CX
DD, DG, DK, DO, DQ, DW, DX, DZ
EK
FALX, FAZZ, FG, FGGT, FJFJ, FLAR, FOTR, FRJG, FTAS
GA, GC, GH, GL, GM, GW, GZ
HCH, HDX, HPD, HRS, HRW, HVK, HZ
IK, IS
JA, JB, JJ, JJJ, JON, JP, JW
KBA, KD, KH, KJ, KRJ, KL, KR, KT, KX
LAZ, LCW, LDH, LF, LH, LM, LW
MAG, MBD, MBP, MC, MD(dm), ME, MHZ, MI, ML
NA, NC, NET, NMH, NRF, NSB, NSE, NTE, NWQ, NWT
OK, OR, OT
PAL, PBD, PSJ, PW
RB, RG, RN, ROY
SM, SN, SV
TCE, TED, TK, TR, TS, TU, TX
VAC, VAZ, VH, VKV, VR, VZ
WA, WC, WH, WT, WX
XDM, XX
YAD, YUM
ZA, ZCK, ZE, ZJJ, ZM, ZMS, ZT, ZX, ZZ
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News from the North West
North West Tasmanian Radio and Television Group
Meeting Notice
Hi everyone from Shirl VK7HSC,
The next meeting of the club will be on 4th April at the Scout Hall Ulverstone starting at 2pm followed by afternoon tea and a chat and club rooms are open until 6pm if necessary.
Once again Shirley asks for a small plate for afternoon tea and again as she will be providing tea and coffee.
Shirley is looking forward to seeing you there and some new faces would be great.
Visitors are welcome to join us if they would like to and will be made most welcome.
Best wishes
(Shirl VK7HSC)
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News from the North
SOTA and WWFF Parks and Reserves Group
Meeting times are from 10:30am on Monday and Friday At Glebe Gardens Cafe, 166 Henry St, Launceston.
For more details contact Al on Mobile: 0417 354 410.
(73, Al, VK7AN)
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Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club Incorporated
www.ntarc.net
Unless you have been taking a leaf from the pages of Rip van Winkel, you will be well aware of the Coronavirus, now formally titled COVID-19, pandemic that is now having an escalating effect world-wide. Even among the amateur radio ranks here in VK7 it is having its impact, with cancellation of the annual Meet-the-Voice gathering at Ross announced last weekend and now, within the past two days, we have had news that the 2020 WIA AGM and Conference that had been scheduled for Hobart in May, has also now been cancelled. Hopefully the latter will be rescheduled for 2021 but first the WIA will need to negotiate a deferment of its 2020 AGM with ASIC.
Here at NTARC Inc we are taking a cautious approach. At this time, we are not proposing cancelling our twice weekly coffee mornings, our Wednesday evening technical sessions or, with one exception, our monthly general meetings, since we are unlikely to reach the "100 individuals attending" limits set by the emergency proclamations. We will keep the situation closely monitored though, after all, the Prime Minister's recommended maximum attendance limit was 500 only a matter of a week ago.
There will be some changes to the format of our monthly meeting events though, at least partly reflecting the COVID-19 situation. I will come to these shortly in subsequent news items.
Meanwhile, an interesting fact was brought to my attention over recent days. Back in 2015, Bill Gates, yes the famous Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, gave a talk in which he said that the next great global risk would be a highly infectious virus, not missiles or armed warfare. It would appear his prediction has come to fruition. Over the past days he has given many talks in relation to this topic and even allowing for a healthy dose of skepticism, it makes very interesting reading. If you have an interest in this sort of thing, why not google it and have a read on what he has been saying in relation to the Coronavirus.
In any event, can we please urge all listeners to remain vigilant, not only for themselves and the immediate family but also their wider community members. Please all exercise the recommended precautions and take care of yourselves. I guess one saving grace is that as licenced amateurs, we at least have the means to keep ourselves actively engaged in our hobby from the safety of our shacks during any necessary quarantine period, 14 days or longer.
Now onto club news, as foreshadowed last week, the following is a brief rundown of our March lunch and meeting.
Lunch commenced at noon and as a change, consisted of wraps, cheese and cold meat platters accompanied by fruit platters. We had a good attendance, most of whom appeared to thoroughly enjoy the change of fare so this menu may reappear at a future lunch meeting. The meeting commence at 14:02 hours with an increased attendance from what we saw at lunch, obviously the ranks had been swelled by some warm-meat loving carnivores. The agenda was worked through in reasonable time, actually 43 minutes but we covered a lot of subjects.
In previous news segments I had put a call out for donations of cakes slices etc for afternoon tea. Well I can assure you that on this occasion, the response was staggering. What a feast we had, with donations ranging from pavlova, bee-sting cake, vanilla cake and cinnamon tea-cake, plus leftovers from lunch. At the end of afternoon tea we still had plenty left over to cover us for coffee morning on Monday. Those that attended that session therefore also thoroughly enjoyed it all. Many thanks to those that donated cakes etc for the afternoon tea.
A couple of matters covered in general business merit mention today for those members who didnt make the meeting. Due to our April meeting being scheduled for Wednesday 8th, which of course will be immediately before the Easter break, it was decided that we would forego an April meeting. The reasons for this change was that the meeting was so close to the Easter break and follow-on school holidays and therefore for many of us who are grandparents, we will likely be engaged on child minding duties. Another factor was that NTARC will be providing Safety Comms at the Easter Equine event at Scottsdale, which at today's date is still scheduled to proceed, and which will require attendance for setting-up purposes on the Thursday for a number of those members, including key members of the committee, who have volunteered their time.
What we didn't discuss at the meeting but what more recent developments have brought into sharp focus is the COVID-19 virus and the general call for the population to adopt the social-distancing call by our collective Commonwealth and State governments. Skipping a general meeting in April would appear to assist in that regard.
For all those reasons, there will not be a general meeting in April, so would all members please amend their diaries accordingly.
Another item to mention is that during the winter months June, July and August we will be holding meetings only, no BBQ's and that all these meetings will take place on the relevant Saturday, rather than alternating between Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, as has been the pattern of recent years. This decision was taken in the light of much reduced member numbers attending the Wednesday evening general meetings over the cold months. Understandably, many don't relish venturing out into the cold, hence the change to day meetings over this period. Over those months the meeting will commence at 14:00 hours (2.00pm) and each will be followed by Show and Tell and afternoon tea.
Again, the impact of COVID-19 was not the focus of attention during these discussions at the March general meeting, happening when they did, but again, the decision to forego BBQs during this period would seem to align with the more recent announcements by government of recommended, if not prescribed, practices for group events. We hope all will understand.
Now, without further ado, I will now hand over to Idris to give you a rundown of happenings at the Technical session held on Wednesday 18th March;
“It was our APRS night, and members brought in various APRS equipment ranging from a simple Byonics Micro Trak All-In-One to a Kenwood D710 with advanced functions including being able to work as a standalone Digi-peater. Peter VK7KPC also had some examples of home brew equipment with discrete controller, TNC and transceiver.
André VK7ZAB set up an Icom R8500 receiver with the audio output split into a 1994 vintage Kantronics 9612 TNC and the sound card on his PC. With the receiver on 145.175 MHz, he then recorded the audio using a sound recording and editing programme called Sound Forge. This is a professional package and similar to the free software called Audacity. After capturing a packet he was able to zoom into the signal and clearly see the AFSK waveform. Using the package tools he was even able to measure the two tones and confirm their frequencies.
André then hooked up the serial port from the Kantronics TNC via a RS232 to USB converter on his PC. Then using a terminal programme "Putty" to show the raw data in ASCII and HEX formats. He then used the programme AFSK1200 Decoder. This is software that uses the sound card as a TNC and decodes the APRS data into a human readable format to show call signs, location and telemetry information. We then looked at the aprs.fi WEB site which overlays tracking information on a Google maps to see where members had driven over the previous days. Thanks Andre' for a fascinating and informative demonstration.
Peter showed us some photos of his antenna farm, in particular a 30m band antenna for his WSPR setup. His transmissions were received in countries such as Spain.
David VK7YY and Bernie VK7BR were in deep discussion on long wire antennas.
Ross VK7ALH was showing a circuit board from a Kenwood radio he was repairing. He took us through the steps to diagnose the problem and brought our attention to some damaged surface mount components.
Kevin VK7KJL had his two eager students, Wayne and Ray in the radio room giving more instruction for the Foundation licence exam. At this moment in time, all AMC exams have been suspended because of close contact issues. We hope things improve soon.
There were many opinions regarding COVID-19 aired around the discussion table, and this was interrupted by a call over the radio, recognised as the voice of our Entertainment Officer Ebenezer VK7AT. We thought he had now arrived in the Netherlands, as mentioned last week. He had intended to contact us this evening via IRLP, but there was no link announcement or tones to be heard. A scramble for the microphone to acknowledge his call revealed that he was calling from his home QTH. He and his XYL had got as far as the Singapore Airport, but had been persuaded by concerned family members to return, whereupon he is now in self isolation for 14 days. We wished them well and will have to get our jokes and stories ration over the air for a while.
Thanks to all our members who contributed to make it a great APRS themed evening.
73 Idris VK7ZIR
Coming events
Technical session - The next session will be on Wednesday 25th March, government emergency regulations permitting. It is scheduled to commence at the usual time of 7.30 pm, running through to 10.30 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea. Pop in catch up with fellow amateurs, bring along something that you are currently building or just ask questions. You might also be able to answer some from other attendees. That is what the evenings are all about, anything of a technical or near-technical nature, however defined, is fair game. Endless tea and coffee along with biscuits is available for a small gold coin donation.
Easter Equine event - April 10 & 11 Santarena Park Scottsdale. Good Friday events are an 80Km, 60km elevated and 20km rides. Then, on Easter Saturday the Lockhart Challenge will be a 120 km elevated ride and there will also be a 40km and a 20 km ride.
If anyone can assist at this event then our Safety Comms Coordinator Norm VK7KTN would appreciate hearing from you. Norm can be contacted by email at
safetycomms.ntarc @ gmail.com
or at coffee morning.
Easter Club Room closure hours - early notice, please note your diary or calendar that over the Easter period the Club will hold a coffee session on Monday 6th April at the usual time but then will go into recess, re-opening for coffee on Friday 17th April - again, government emergency regulations permitting.
Technical sessions - the last technical session before the Easter break will be Wednesday 1st April and we will resume our Technical nights on Wednesday 15th April.
These changes will give everyone a chance to spend time with family and friends over this period.
May General meeting - as there will be no meeting held in April, our next meeting will be a BBQ meeting to be held on Saturday 9th May, again with the caveat that government emergency regulations permit gatherings of this type and scale at that date. This will be the last lunch meeting for a few months. Lunch will commence at noon and the meeting will follow at 14:00 hours (2.00pm). More information as we get closer to the date but please note your diaries.
Coffee mornings - are normally held every Monday and Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Catch up time is from 10.00 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all.
Please remember that aside from the good company, freely offered philosophical views, maybe less than expert political analysis, tall tales and genuinely good fare on offer, these coffee events are normally a good opportunity to collect your QSL cards. Currently though we have no cards awaiting collection.
As I remind all every week, please demonstrate your appreciation of all the effort that goes into operating the club and its facilities and the other services we provide, by joining us at these sessions, enjoying the company, coffee and the cake and leaving a gold coin or two, or even a small bank note, in the jar to assist in our on-going operations. I dont know of any other venue in Launceston, or further afield for that matter, where you can get endless coffee, tea and eats for a donation of this miniscule amount.
Finally
A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, then please email them to either of the following addresses
ntarc.emails @ gmail.com or ypmaxwell @ bigpond.com as
once again I am having problems with the Internet. However, it would be appreciated if any news could be sent no later than 17:00 hours on the Friday prior to broadcast, to allow its timely insertion into the NTARC segment.
That gives all a chance to get the NTARC segment together and off to Hobart in time for collation into the VK7 Broadcast. Your continued cooperation in this regard will be gratefully appreciated.
I apologise for the degree of uncertainty that surrounds some of our announcements concerning coming events for this and most probably coming weeks we are very much in a state of flux as the country and indeed the world tackles COVID-19. As the ancient Chinese saying reputedly goes, we are indeed living in interesting times. Mind you, on the bright side the empty supermarket shelves have meant that the fortnightly shopping has gotten infinitely easier to carry to the car and then to pack away in the pantry etc.
As always I look forward to seeing you at Rocherlea.
73, Yvonne, VK7FYMX, Secretary NTARC Inc
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NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Radio and Electronics Association of Southern Tasmania
https://www.reast.asn.au/
Successful Assessments
We congratulate Richard HEWSON who passed his Foundation licence assessment recently along with David STEJSKAL VK7FAAB who passed his regulations assessment.
(73, Reg, VK7KK)
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Clubrooms Closed Until Further Notice
Given the recent advice from the Australian Government and Health Authorities about indoor events need 4 square metres per person, the committee has taken the regretful step of closing the clubrooms until further notice.
This affects the Wednesday afternoon group and the DATV Experimenter's Night.
As things develop we will keep members in the loop through regular email and broadcast updates.
(73, REAST Committee)
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Clubrooms Reno - Help Wanted
Considering the news about the MTV and WIA AGM weekend's being cancelled the activity relating to the Queen's Domain Clubrooms has been revised.
Over the next few weeks leading up to the Easter Weekend the equipment in the main room will be sorted to identify the equipment we wish to keep for the museum. This will be a joint lunchtime and DATV Experimenter's night task. This will no doubt result in a range of equipment becoming available for members!
Then on the Easter Weekend the main room and toilet will be prepped (and we dont mean buying more toilet paper...HIHI) for painting and this is where we are asking for some helpers.
If you can spare an hour or two over the Easter Weekend please let us know - we are looking for some helpers.
So, we need go-fers, general assistants, dab hands on the brush that feel confident in painting the odd door or two for both prep and painting days.
If you would like to volunteer for an hour, hours or days, then please contact Tony VK7VKT on
secretary @ reast.asn.au
73, REAST Committee
(PS a huge thank you to Tony for taking the lead on this initiative)
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DATV Experimenter's Night COVID-19 Special Edition Wrap-Up
We started in the studio with Justin VK7TW giving an interesting view of the COVID-19.
"In light of all the events and gatherings being cancelled and postponed there is a silver lining for our hobby of amateur radio.
What is the common view by the uninitiated of our hobby - grey haired men in cellars talking on radios..HIHI
Well think about that image for a moment.
Grey haired well that put most of us in the age group that vulnerable and at risk of catching COVID-19 therefore the health authorities advice is "self-isolate". Even if you are not grey haired, retired and at home for most of the time you may be asked to remotely work for your job to self-isolate from your work colleagues.
The second element is what better way to self-isolate than to disappear into the shack in the cellar or somewhere in the house.
The third element and the most fun is that you can play radio unimpeded by normal life that appears to over the last few weeks to have gone a bit crazy!
Now I am not advocating that you play radios when you are supposed to be remote working for your job or you are trying to recover from sickness or heaven forbid from a COVID-19 infection but it does appear to be the perfect opportunity to do some rare DX at times of the day that may not be available to most of us because we normally work during the day.
Of course if you really want to self-isolate then SOTA or WWFF is a great way to ensure you are away from people and that radio just screams at you to be operated!
So, there just might be a silver lining to this global pandemic of COVID-19 for our hobby!
The ARRL has reported a 700% surge in people signing up for people wanting to sit their amateur radio licence due to COVID-19. This is another huge opportunity for the hobby however in VK the AMC has shutdown amateur radio assessments so that's a pity!"
We then moved to a review of the latest Low-Key magazine from the VK-QRP Club and we homed into an article by Peter Parker VK3YE on what you can use 20m of wire for and some different types of antennas that are possible.
The next segment was a review of the recently delivered magazine OTN or old-timers news from the Radio Amateurs Old Timers Club of Australia. There were some interesting articles about many different subjects.
This was followed by a promotion of the recently released VK3YE - Australian Ham Radio Handbook.
Then for the perfect "self-isolation" activity we reviewed the John Moyle Memorial Field Day contest rules which is operating this weekend. Help hope to make contact with fellow amateurs this weekend.
For our RF viewers we then showed some funny COVID-19 and interesting amateur radio videos.
In the clubrooms we were admiring the brand spanking new heat pumps that had been installed Monday by Scott Hutchins VK7HVK and his team. These heat pumps where very generously funded through a Tasmanian Community Grant and they will substantially reduce the power consumption relating to the heating of the clubrooms.
Richard VK7ZBX showed off his recent project of a Push To Talk interface for his IC9100 and IC9700. This allows for PTT through the microphone or for external interfaces like a transverter. Great stuff Richard.
Given we can run the DATV Experimenter's Nights with 1-2 people from the studio and our audience can either be watching via RF or on the Internet Stream this Wednesday night may be coming to you from the DATV Studio. Watch the REAST Facebook page for event details.
We go out on RF on 445.5MHz DVB-T 7MHz Standard Definition. So, if you have a TV, Set-top box or USB DTV Dongle that you can tune and scan 445.5MHz and you can see the Queens Domain, then you have a good chance of receiving the DATV Experimenter's Night Signal. Look out for VK7OTC. We also stream the nights on the REAST YouTube channel and Facebook.
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/amateur-tv/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64To_tq1E7PfK1pqtX_vRw/
https://www.facebook.com/reasttas/
We get underway with the DATV Experimenter's Night from 7:30pm.
73, Justin, VK7TW
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Regular VK7 gatherings and events over the coming months:
Regular gatherings:
SOTA Group - Monday and Friday Coffee Sessions from 10:30am at Glebe Gardens Cafe 166 Henry St, Launceston
NTARC - Monday and Friday Coffee Sessions from 10am, Technical Sessions on Wednesdays from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm in the clubrooms Archer Street, Rocherlea, Launceston.
REAST - Clubrooms are closed until further notice.
https://www.reast.asn.au/
REAST - MICROWAVE QSO Party - following after the Sunday broadcast on 1296.15 MHz FM.
https://www.reast.asn.au/special-interest-groups/23cm-transmissions/
Events:
VK/ZL - John Moyle Memorial Field Day Weekend – 21/22 March 2020.
http://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/johnmoyle/
Meet the Voice - 22 March 2020 - Cancelled
http://meetthevoice.org/meet-the-voice
WIA - Annual Conference weekend of 8-10 May 2020 – Cancelled.
https://www.wia.org.au/joinwia/wia/2020agm/
NWTR&TVG – 4 April - Meeting from 2pm Ulverstone Scout Hall
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A reminder to those people rostered for next week's broadcast:
Newsreader: VK7ZIR
Repeaters: REAST, NTARC and NWTR&TVG
80m: VK7ALH
40m: VK7TW
20m: Any takers
10m: VK7VKT
DMR: Talk Group 5 and
D-Star: Reflector 091 VK7ZCR
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This broadcast is repeated on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on repeaters VK7RAA in the North and VK7RTC in the South.
Thanks to all people and organisations that assisted with this broadcast.
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That concludes our VK7 Amateur Radio News Broadcast for this week.
You have been listening to VK7WI or have just missed. Next week the National WIA news can be heard at 0900 followed by the VK7 Amateur Radio News at 0930 hours.
Items for the broadcast can be emailed to vk7arnews @ gmail.com
Further information about the broadcast can be found at the VK7 Amateur Radio News Groups.IO Group.
https://groups.io/g/vk7arnews
The deadline for items is 21:00 on Friday prior to the Sunday of the broadcast.
VK7WI is now closing but will reopen shortly for callbacks and relay reports. Callbacks will be taken on the frequency to which you are listening. Relay stations will use their own callsigns during the callback.
From the VK7 Amateur Radio News, it is 73 from Justin, VK7TW.
(Posted to the packet network courtesy Tony VK7AX)
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