Friday, April 26, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1863 - April 26 2013






Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1863 with a release
date of April 26 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST.  Ham radio rallyes to assist in the
wake of a killer quake that hits China; another loss in the
ongoing fight against B-P-L; a number of new hamsats are now
on-orbit; the latest news on Hamvention 2013; a new D-Star
repeater where few might expect it and a new book to
interest the new ham and non ham alike.  All this and more
on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1863 coming your
way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  HAMS ASSIST AFTER SICHUAN CHINA EARTHQUAKE

Amateur radio was there to provide emergency relief
communications after a powerful earthquake killed more than
185 people and injured several thousand in China's rural
south-west on Saturday, April 20th.  Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of
the WIA News has more:

--

Fan Bin, BA1RB, reported that amateur radio operators swung
into action to provide emergency communications and
coordinate parts of the disaster response.  With toppled
houses everywhere, rescuers frantically began their search
of the rubble for survivors, while medical staff treated
those hurt on the ground and in make-shift hospitals.

Panic was evident with survivors sheltering in cars and
tents.  Badly hit Lushan County is now like a large refugee
camp with volunteers providing meals.

Fan Bin, BA1RB, has recently reported that public
communication was back to normal in the disaster area and
the local repeater systems continued to work.

He said the Chinese Radio Sports Association, also known as
the Chinese Radio Amateur Club, no longer required emergency
communication frequencies.  It expressed thanks for the
support from IARU member societies and others.

A role for some radio hams was maintaining traffic control,
with emergency supplies arriving including tents, water,
food and medicine.

Rain hampered search and rescue efforts in the quake zone,
and added to fallen trees and landslides making progress
slower in some areas.  After-shocks also occurred.

The Sichuan provincial government reported that 3,000
kilometres of road and 327 bridges had been damaged.  The
total repair bill from the earthquake was put at $3 billion.

The central government of China, local officials, rescuers,
relief workers and radio amateurs are much better prepared
to deal with disasters, than has been the case in the past.

Neighboring Russia sent rescue teams, and the Red Cross from
Hong Kong with an embedded radio amateur, are helping the on-
going effort.

For the Amateur radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of
the WIA News in Australia.

--

Five years ago a massive quake hit the same area.  The 2008
disaster killed tens of thousands and left some five million
people homeless.
(WIA News, VK3PC,BA1RB, QRZ, BBC, others)

**

THE BPL FIGHT:  FCC RULES AGAINST ARRL IN BPL APPEAL

Back here in the United States, word that the FCC rejected
an appeal from ARRL and has upheld its current Broadband
over Power Line rules.  In denying the ARRL appeal the FCC
said that the League had raised no new arguments, nor proved
previous that FCC B-P-L related decisions contained
mistakes.

The FCC went on to say that its previous decisions regarding
B-P-L strike what it calls the right balance between the
need to provide Access Broadband over Power Line technology
while protecting incumbent radio services against harmful
interference.

In a related story on the ARRL website ARRL Chief Executive
Officer Dave Summer, K1ZZ,  said that he wasn't surprised at
the decision.  However he also noted that some of the
rhetoric used by the agency in continuing to defend what he
termed as its wrong-headed promotion of the flawed BPL
technology is disappointing.  (ARRL)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  ANTARES CARRYING PHONESATS MAKES IT TO
ORBIT

The twice-delayed maiden flight of the Orbital Sciences
Corporation Antares rocket carrying three CubeSats with
amateur radio payloads has been called an overwhelming
success as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill
Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with the details:

--

After a pair of delays due to technical and weather related
problems the Antares rocket lunged skyward at 5 p.m. Eastern
Daylight Time Sunday afternoon April 21st from a launch pad
at NASA's Wallops Island Virginia Flight Facility.  On board
were three ham radio cubesats dubbed Phonesats because they
were built using off the shelf smart phones.

All three of the Phonesat based cubesats carries an amateur
radio payload downlinking on 437.425 MHz. Each cubesat will
transmit during individual time slots using AFSK modulation
at 1200 bps, AX.25 packet coding and have vertical linear
polarization.

The two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites code named Graham and Bell
transmit with a period of respectively 28 seconds and 30
seconds. The PhoneSat 2.0 beta satellite, Alexander,
transmits with a period of 25 seconds.   All of the tiny
birds are using the callsign KJ6KRW.

The PhoneSat web page at www dot phonesat dot org provides
access to the "Dashboard" allowing hams to track the
location of the satellites in real time. Detailed
information on the downlink packet telemetry format can be
found on this page as well.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
in Los Angeles.

--

The orbit of the PhoneSat satellites is very low and are
expected to only remain on-orbit for two weeks.  The
satellites are battery powered with no additional charging
from solar cells or any other source.  (ANS, NASA, others)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  OSSI-1 AMATEUR RADIO CUBESAT LAUNCHED

The OSSI-1 CubeSat along with three other satellites were
launched to orbit from the Bikenour  Cosmodrome in Kazikstan
on Friday, April 19th.  Also on-board the Soyuz-2-1A launch
vehicle were some research and commercial satellites.

Korean artist Hojun Song, DS1SBO has spent 7 years
developing his Open Source Satellite Initiative satellite
that he named OSSI-1.  He has designed and built it from
scratch using readily available components rather than
expensive space qualified hardware.  The launch reportedly
cost him a cool $100,000 and is believed to be the first one
person privately constructed and launched ham radio bird.

We will have more ham radio space related news later on in
this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report.  (ANS, Southgate)

**


RESCUE RADIO:  CELLPHONE FAILURE AT THE BOSTON MARATHON

Neither the Federal government nor any Massachusetts state
agency or the Boston police ordered a shutdown of cellular
telephone service in the Boston area following the terrorist
bombing of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April, 15th.  The
systems simply failed of their own accord because too many
people trying to use them at the same time.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, explains:

--

On April 18th outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said
the FCC would follow up on cellular service issues at the
Boston Marathon.  This while emphasizing that broadband
services had not been shut down after the bombings.

Genachowski conceded that the event again raised issues of
communications and public safety like those the FCC has been
working on for some time.  However he went on to acknowledge
that wireless networks were so overwhelmed by the temporary
surge in traffic, that there were incorrect media reports
that mobile services had actually shut down when they had
not been.

What appears to be a fact is that most cellphone subscribers
erroneously believe that the phone in their pocket should
function perfectly 100 percent of the time.  The reality is
that the no cellular system currently in use can handle 100%
of all of its subscribers at any one time.  Or even 50% for
that matter.

Most experts say that when most cellphone systems reach
between 15 to 20 percent of its subscribers simultaneously
using the service that it is at a point of limited network
density.  In other words it cannot handle any more
subscribers more until those on-line hang up.

And that's what appears to have happened in Boston after the
two bombs at the marathon finish line went off.  It's also
why the autonomous  Boston Marathon ham radio communications
networks continued to function flawlessly even when the
cellphones failed.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in
Scottsdale, Arizona.

--

Genachowski said that the FCC will certainly pursue this
issue along with other agencies.  He called it an
institutional imperative for the FCC.  Meantime an excellent
reference guide on what you can really expect from your
cellphone including in emergency situations has been
published on-line by the FCC.  You can find it on the web at
tinyurl.com/cellphone-reality.  (FCC, Wikipedia, published
news reports)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the KB5ELV repeater serving Erie, Pennsylvania.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RESCUE RADIO:  WAS EAS USED FOLLOWING THE BOSTON MARATHON
BOMBING

Emergency Alert System expert Richard Rudman, W6TIA, says
initial feedback from the Boston area indicates emergency
officials did not use the EAS to issue shelter-in-place
warnings when authorities were looking for the bombing
suspect.

According to Rudman, if reports from the greater Boston area
show that EAS was not used to issue the shelter-in-place
warning, it's time for the entire emergency management
community to take to heart and put in practice FEMA's still
new protocol known as the Integrated Public Alert and
Warning System or IPAWS.

If you happen to know for certain whether or not Boston
officials did or did not utilize the Emergency Alert System
for public notification in the aftermath of the marathon
bombings or to issue the shelter in place order, please let
us know.  We in turn will be happy to pass along the
information to W6TIA.

More on this story is on-line at tinyurl.com/boston-eas-
alerts  (RW)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  FCC ADOPTS RULES TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY INFO TO
THE BLIND

The FCC has adopted rules requiring that emergency
information provided in video programming be made accessible
to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.  It's
also mandating that that certain apparatus be capable of
delivering video description and emergency information these
citizens.

Specifically, the rules clarify that the new emergency
information requirements apply to video programming provided
by entities that are already covered by Section 79.2 of the
Commission's rules along with  any other distributor of
video programming for residential reception that delivers
such programming directly to the home and is subject to the
jurisdiction of the Commission.

The complete text in PDF format is on-line at
tinyurl.com/emergency-alerts-for-the-blind.  (CGC, FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  TWO BUSINESSES CITIED FOR CELL JAMMER USE

Two businesses have been told that they will have to pay
some heavy duty fines for importing and using cellphone
jamming devices.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Steffen Kinford,
N8WB, reports:

--

On April 9th the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent liability
in the amount of $144,000 to The Supply Room in Oxford,
Alabama.  On the same day a $126,000 N-A-L was imposed on
Taylor Oilfield Manufacturing in Broussard, Louisiana.

In both cases the FCC received anonymous tips that cell
phone jamming was occurring at both businesses.  Using
direction finding FCC agents discovered strong wideband
emissions in the cellular bands that they determined to be
one or more signal jammers at each site.  On inspection,
both the Supply Room and Taylor Oilfield Manufacturing
admitted to the agents that they had each purchased a number
of cellphone signal jammers off of the Internet from
overseas sources.

And here's where it really gets interesting.  Not only did
each business freely admit to purchasing and using the
cellphone jammers but their excuses were interesting as
well.  In the case of the Supply Room, it's general manager
admitted that the jammers were in place to prevent its
employees from using their cellular phones while working.
Not only that, but that the devices had been in operation
for more than two years before they were caught.

Meantime, managers at Taylor Oilfield Manufacturing told FCC
that the devices were also being utilized to prevent its
employees from using their cellular phones while working,
but in this case following a near-miss industrial accident.
One that the company alleges was partially attributable to
employee cell phone use.

While both companies voluntarily surrendered their jammers
to the FCC, that did not help mitigate the penalties that
have been imposed.  In fact, the FCC told both companies
that they must submit payment in full by May 9th or file a
written appeal.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.

--

Both businesses were also directed by the FCC to file a
statement to be signed under penalty of perjury no later
than May 9th that would provide the source or sources from
were each purchased or received the jamming devices.  (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  FLORIDA RESIDENT ORDERED BY FCC TO ELIMINATE
WELL PUMP INTERFERENCE TO HAM RADIO

The FCC has issued an Official Citation1issued to Ruben D.
Lopez, Jr. of Pomona Park, Florida.  This for operating an
incidental radiator and causing harmful interference in
violation of Section 15.5(b) of the Commission's rules.  In
this case the incidental radiator was of all things a well
pump that was putting out a signal at 1800 Kilohertz and
interfering with ham radio operations.

On July 15, 2010 and February 28, 2011, in response to
complaints of interference to Amateur Radio Service
reception of medium and high frequency radio signals, the
Enforcement Bureau issued Lopez two letters informing him of
the complaints.  The letters summarized the relevant rules,
instructed him to resolve any interference, and suggesting
he install new AC line filters for his well pump.

On October 23, 2012, in response to another complaint of
interference to Amateur Radio Service reception, agents from
the Commission's Tampa Office of the Enforcement Bureau used
direction finding techniques to identify Lopez's well pump
as the source of transmissions on the frequency 1800 kHz.
The agents from the confirmed that Mr. Lopez's well pump was
the source of the interference by conducting on/off tests.
The interference ceased when the well pump was turned off.

At that time the agents informed Lopez that he must cease
operating his well pump until the interference could be
resolved.  After the October 23, 2012 inspection, the Tampa
Office received information that Lopez tried to eliminate
the interference by replacing the AC line filter for the
well pump, but the new filter did not resolve the
interference.

Now, in its April 23rd Citation the FCC has instructed Lopez
to take immediate steps to come into compliance by repairing
or replacing his incidental radiator and eliminating all
harmful interference.  It also directed Lopez to confirm
within thirty calendar days after the release date of the
Citation that he has ceased operating his incidental
radiator or taken steps to eliminate all harmful
interference.  If he fails to do so, the FCC says that he
could be subject to substantial monetary penalties, seizure
of the offending equipment, and criminal sanctions. The
entire text of the Citation is on-line as a PDF file at
tinyurl.com/pump-qrm  (FCC)

**

ON THE WEB:  RADIO FOXTROT 100 INTERNET STATION FOR HAM
RADIO

Tony Bond, EI9GMB, says he is again operating Radio Foxtrot
100.  Foxtrot 100 is an internet radio station dedicated to
ham radio and short wave listeners that has topics related
to ham radio in addition to its music programming.  More is
on the web at foxtrot100.weebly.com  (EI9GMB)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  OUTGOING FCC CHAIR TO JOIN ASPEN
INSTITUTE

Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (PRON: GEN A COW
SKEE) will likely become a fellow at the Washington D.C.-
based Aspen Institute when he steps down from his current
position.  The move makes Genachowski the fifth former FCC
Chairman in a row to become a Senior Fellow of the
institute, following Kevin Martin, Michael Powell, William
Kennard and Reed Hundt.

The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit
organization founded in 1950 and  dedicated to fostering
enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas
and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues.
The institute and its international partners promote the
pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in
a nonpartisan and non-ideological setting through regular
seminars, policy programs, conferences, and leadership
development initiatives.

(Published reports)

**

HAMVENTION 2013:  VHF WEAK SIGNAL GROUP BANQUET AT THE
DAYTON HAMVENTION

The 18th VHF Weak Signal Group dinner to be held on Friday
evening May 17th at the Dayton Grand Hotel in Dayton, Ohio.
This, concurrent with the 2013 Dayton Hamvention.

The cash bar opens at 6:15 PM with dinner to be served at
approximately  7:15 PM.  This years guest banquet speaker is
VHF Contester Jeff Klein, K1TEO.

Reservations are required with seating is limited to 125.
Tickets are $40 per person from Tony Emanuele WA8RJF, 7156
Kory Court, Concord Township, Ohio 44077.  For more
information contact WA8RJF (at) arrl (dot) net.  (WA8RJF)

**

HAMVENTION 2013:  D-STAR TRAINING ON MAY 17

DSTARinfo.com and the Georgia D-STAR group will again
conduct training for beginning and intermediate D-STAR users
during 2013 Dayton Hamvention.  The three hour instruction
will be held Friday, May 17th at the Drury Inn Ballroom,
conveniently located in the Hamvention hotel area at 6616
Miller Lane.

The class will begin promptly at 8:00am.  This training will
provide the basics for new D-STAR users guiding them through
the registration process, getting on the air and get the
most out of handhelds or mobiles.

Class size is limited and pre-registration is required at
tinyurl.com/D-Star-Class.   The cost of the class is $15.00
and attendees will receive all course materials.  For more
information please e-mail info (at) dstarinfo (dot) com.
(WB9QZB)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:   FIRST DIGITAL D-STAR REPEATER ON FROM THE
CANARY ISLANDS

D-Star is bringing some unexpected placed to the VHF and UHF
bands.  This with word that the first repeater using this
mode has come on the air in the Canary Islands.  Amateur
Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TD, has the details on
this one:

--

Sponsored by Radio Club Vecindario, the ED8ZAB D-Star
machine is located on the island of Gran Canaria at an
altitude of about 4,000 feet above average terrain covering
most of the group's 7 islands.

The system currently runs 10 watts out on 438.4625 MHz and
listens for signals on its input that is 7.6 MHz below. It
has been reported as having been heard by stations in both
Portugal and Spain during two recent tropospheric openings;
a distance of more than 1,400 kilometers.

And for those who are not world travelers or DXers, the
Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago located just off
the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the
border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. They are one
of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities and an outermost
region of the European Union.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline. I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD,
in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

--

If by any chance you happen to hear the ED8ZAB D-Star
machine outside of its local coverage area, please send a
report by e-mail to ed8zab (at) yahoo (dot) es. (EA8EE)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM MAY 18

South Africa AMSAT will hold its annual space symposium on
Saturday, May 18th. The venue is the Innovation Hub in the
city of Pretoria with McLean Sibanda, the CEO of the Hub as
its keynote speaker.

The symposium is sponsored by South Africa Telkom and
features an agenda that is packed with interesting
presentations and demonstrations.  Full details and the
registration form are available on the web at
www.amsatsa.org.za.  (SA-AMSAT)

**

WORLDBEAT:  WEB SDR NOW AVAILABLE ON RSGB SITE

A web-based Software Defined Radio for the 5, 7 and 14 MHz
bands is now available on the new Radio Society of Great
Britain website.  The "Web SDR receiver" link can be found
under the "My RSGB" drop-down menu.  Also on the new site
are "Live DX Cluster" and "Live solar data" pages under the
"News" drop-down menu.  Go to www.rsgb.org for more.
(Southgate)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  ILLW REACHES A MILESTONE OF 200

The honor of being the 200th registrant for this years
International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend goes to the
Whitby High Light in England.

Built in 1858 the Whitby High Light helped ships avoid the
Whitby Rock, on the North Yorkshire coast. Its well known as
the place Captain James Cook became a seaman before leading
his epic voyages of discovery.

The special event call GB2WHL will be operated from the
lighthouse by the Denby Dale Radio Club.  A special QSL card
is available on request.

So far there are registrations from 29 countries.  To read
the guidelines for the International Lighthouse and
Lightship Weekend slated for August the 17th and 18th or to
register a lighthouse, lightship or maritime beacon on-line,
please visit illw.net. (VK3PC)

**

RADIOSPORT:  RESULTS OF THE NYQP POSTED

The final results of the 2012 New York QSO Party have been
published.  You can read them on-line by taking your web
browser to rdxa.com/results/2012.

This year's plaque winners will be receiving the awards in
the mail as soon as they are completed.  Participants can
also download and print their own paper awards and
participation certificates or have the New York QSO Party
print them for you.  The latter requires a $3 donation sent
via PayPal to af2k@juno.com.

Please include your name, callsign and mailing address with
any on-line orders.  (NYQP)

**

ON THE AIR:  WB8BZK TO ACTIVATE GRID EO-40 ON 6 METERS

On the air, VUCC grid hunters who need Canadian grid E-Oh-40-
ud may want to listen for WB8BZK Stroke VE3 who will be on
the air from Seseganaga Lake in Ontario Province between May
26 and the 31.  He will be operating only on 6 meters
primarily on 50.135 MHz running SSB and CW only.  Operating
times are tentatively each morning at 12:30 UTC and then
again between 22:30 and 23:00 UTC each evening.  If you make
contact, please QSL with a self addressed stamped envelope
to WB8BZK at his address on QRZ.com  (WB8BZK)

**

ON THE AIR:  DUTCH NATIONAL WINDMILL AND WATERPUMP STATION
WEEKEND

The special event call PD13MILL will be on the air May 10th
to the 12th in honor of the Dutch Windmill and Waterpump
weekend.  Operators will be PD5JFK , PD0ME and PD7BZ and
they will have three Stations active at the same time on 40,
20 and 10 meters using SSB and the digital modes.  A 2 meter
station for local contacts will be operational as well.  QLL
via PD7BZ,direct, via the bureau or electronically on
Logbook of the World or eQSL.  Information about Mills on
the Air is on the web at www.pd6mill.com.  (Southgate)

**

DX

In DX, a multi-national, multi-operator, DXpedition to
Vientiane, Laos, is being planned for September 6th to the
16th.  They plan to operate five stations from 160-6 meters
using CW, SSB and RTTY.  A Web site is currently under
construction and will be available soon.  The callsign and
more details will be announced later.

The Malaysian Special Expedition Team operating as 9M2SE
will be activating Perhentian Besar Island from May 1st to
the 3rd.  The group will use a pair of 100 watt transceivers
on 40 through 10 meters running CW, SSB and some digital
modes.  For QSL information please check 9M2SE carefully on
QRZ.com.

VU2PAI and W4VKU are on the air from Bodu Finolhu Island as
8Q7KP through April 30th.  Their operation is using two
stations on the various High Frequency bands.  QSL
electronically via OQRS, eQSL or Logbook of the World.

DL6JGN and DL2AWG should be operational as Zed-K-3-N from
Nukunonu Atoll until April 30th.  Modes being used are CW,
SSB and RTTY.  This one counts as OC-048 for the Islands on
the Air Award.  QSL as directed on the air.

Lastly, M0HLT will soon be off to the Falkland Islands on a
2 year work contract.  Arrangements have been made to
acquire a VP8 callsign and he will be operating from VP8LP
when work commitments allow. QSL via his home call.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: RADIO READING:  RIDING THE SHORTWAVES:
EXPLORING THE MAGIC OF AMATEUR RADIO

And finally this week, the story of a new book for new and
potential hams.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek,
K9BIK, tells us all about it:

--

Riding the Shortwaves:  Exploring the Magic of Amateur Radio
is a new book by author Don Keith, N4KC, that contains
material of special interest to newcomers to ham radio and
those thinking of joining its ranks.  This includes easy-to-
understand chapters on antennas, choosing a first station,
and a tour of the amateur radio high-frequency bands.  There
are also short fictional and satirical pieces that use humor
or drama to show the various facets of the hobby. According
to Keith, that's why he too the approach that he did:

--

N4KC:  "I felt there was a need for a book for people who
were just on the verge of either committing to ham radio or
walking away from it.  So I had to think about whats keeping
people from entering the hobby and what would it take to
push them over the cliff."

--

Keith also notes that it's just a matter of being in the
right place at the right time and in the right situation for
ham radio to become a part of someone's life:

--

N4KC:  "That was my case.  My dad was not a ham.  He was a
television repair  and he had a shortwave receiver.  We used
to sit around and listen to hams; to Sputnick and all sorts
of things line that and the bug bit."

--

Keith's book also counters the notion that Facebook, the
web, Twitter, smart phones and other new technology have
made amateur radio obsolete.   On the contrary, the author
maintains, in its 100th year, the hobby is more vibrant and
exciting than ever.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in
Zion, Illinois.

--

Riding the Shortwaves:  Exploring the Magic of Amateur Radio
is available in both paper and electronic release from
booksellers everywhere including Amazon.com.

You can hear more from Don Keith, N4KC, talking about this
new book and his other writings on this weeks RAIN Report.
Just take your web browser to www.therainreport.com and tune
in.  (Press release)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News, TWiT-TV and Australia's WIA News, that's all from the
Amateur Radio NewslineT.  Our e-mail address is newsline
(at) arnewsline (dot) org.  More information is available at
Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org.  You can also write to us or support us
at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa
Clarita California, 91350

A reminder that the nominating period for the 2013 Amateur
Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award is now open.
Full details and a nominating form are on our website at
www.arnewsline.org/yhoty.

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, near Houston, Texas, saying 73 and
we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1862 - April 19 2013


Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1862 with a release
date of April 19 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T.  Ham radio takes the point
position after a terror attack on the Boston Marathon; the
SARL gets two frequencies at 5 MHz to do a propagation
study; the FCC says that the 2011 national EAS test is
considered to be a success; a special event station in May
will honor the Native American Code Talkers and will
everyone in the world be on-line by 2020?  All this and more
on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1862 coming your
way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RESCUE RADIO:  HAM RADIO RESPONDS TO BOSTON MARATHON
TERRORIST ATTACK

Some 250 ham radio operators were providing communications
for the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15th, when a pair
of bombs believed planted by a terrorist went off killing
three onlookers and sending scores to local hospitals.  Some
with very serious and life threatening injuries.  Amateur
Radio Newsline's Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, is here with what's
known about the attack and the role played by the hams on
scene:

--

It is a day Paul Topolski, W1SEX, will never forget.

Topolski tells Newsline he was working with radio operators
close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon and things
were going well. And then, there was the first blast..

"I was in the net control trailer about 400 feet from where
the blast was," he recalls. "Things were going pretty smooth
and we had and were commenting all of the operations that we
had were up and running and no real issues.

"And, within a couple of minutes my assistant and I just
happened to be looking at each other out of the corner of
our eye and then that blast hit and shook the trailer and we
knew it wasn't good."
Topolski says then the second blast went off and they knew
things were going to be brought to a halt. He says their big
concern, operators at the medical tents at each mile along
the route...

"Net control immediately started doing a roll call and
finding out where all our people were - exact locations and
their condition, making sure that they were okay. And, as it
turns out everyone was just fine and continuing operations."

Just before that roll call began, Topolski told his
counterpart overseeing net-control on the course to reach
out to him on a secure line..

Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, who also spoke with Newsline about the
events of that day, was on the receiving end of that call
and was a bit surprised...

"He calls me on the radio and says, 'Call me on my cell
phone.' And, I know something's got to be wrong because
he'll only talk to me on the cell phone when it's something
he doesn't want anybody else to hear," Schwarm says.

"So, I called him on the cell phone and that's when he told
me that two bombs had gone off in downtown and said I don't
know what's going to happen next, but thought you'd like to
know and I said thanks.

"So, I stoppped all the activity in my net control and
announced it to everybody there and I said that we don't
know what's going to happen next, but I'm quite sure the
race is probably over."
Topolski, who was at the medical tent close to the finish
line, says once it was established all those close to the
bomb locations were okay, there was general agreement among
the operators to stay at their posts and assist...

"It was a kind of a mindset, 'Okay, we did have a problem
and let's continue to do our jobs,' and everybody did just
that until we were finally sent on our way by the Boston
Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police because
we were literally right in the "ground zero" area," Topolski
says. "We were in the crime scene so we had to bug out."

But, before they were sent out, Topolski says the operators
were busy helping medical personnel...

"Instead of taking care of runners, we were no working with
the medical people who were serving casualties from the
incident itself," Topolski says. "We had medical coverage,
or coverage in the medical tents and we started receiving
reports of those injuries and the types of things that were
going on and then we were relaying that information to the
public safety people via WebEOC and other means."

Topolski estimates those closest to the blast zones were
there for about 35 minutes afterward until they got sent out
because of concerns among authorities about other possible
devices.
Back to Schwarm at course net control, who in the minutes
after the blasts was now working with operators still out on
the course.

"Police were ordering people to stop," Schwarm says. "So
runners tended to congregate at the first aid stations and
the water-fluid stations along the course. And all of them
had ham radio operators.

"So, as soon as that happened, we told everybody on the
frequency what was going on. The event had stopped and they
would start to organize those people. And, then we started
to use some of our medical sweep buses to take the runners
to some pre-determined shelters.
"The original thought was that if we had something like a
thunderstorm come through and had lightning and things like
that we wouldn't want all these people on the course. So,
that was the original intended use for the shelters but they
found out that they could be used for this as well."

Schwarm says for the operators close to the blast zones, it
was a hectic time....

"They supplied communications for the medical tents and that
was where a lot of the initial triage of the runners
occurred and a lot of lives were probably saved because they
had basically a first-class emergency room right there,"
Schwarm says.

But the day was far from over for Topolski and his operators
who were evacuated from the developing crime scene, Schwarm
says....

"The roles actually got reversed because they were concerned
about having another device in the area so they had a lot of
people evacuated," Schwarm says. "Paul and his team
evacuated and several of his operators came up to help me in
case we were going to be doing an extended operation.

"It wasn't clear how long it was going to take for us to get
this thing cleaned up and they came up to help in case we
needed some backup. I was very concerned about some of my
net control operators getting exhausted, needing some
backup. So I knew he had some good people and they came up
to help out."

So, where was net control for the course? Schwarm says the
Boston area hams put it at a perfect location...

"We're actually quite a distance from the course," Schwarm
says. "We're about a mile or two from the course. It's at a
facility, it's a private school in Brookline which is a
suburb of Boston.

"And, it's on top of a very high hill, which, if we had to,
we could probably work every single repeater we use with a
100-milliwatt walkie-talkie because we can see them all -
literally. And, it makes an ideal location for it and we
also then have high-speed internet at our fingertips and
several phone lines and a few things like that. It's a very
nice facility."

So what form of communications do the hams who work the
Boston Marathon use? VHF frequencies only, Schwarm says...

"The Boston Marathon is the only marathon that's run in a
straight line," Schwarm explains. "And we plan on having HT-
coverage for the entire course and the finish and the start.
So, as a result, you tend to use a fair number of
frequencies to make that happen.

"We use five separate repeaters to cover five sections of
the course. And, then we have a network of linked repeaters
that we use to cover the entire course from beginnning to
end just for things that need to be covered across that
range."

Topolski has been involved in the marathon amateur radio
coverage for 20 years. For Schwarm, this was his 13th year
and he says it won't be his last.

"I think what you'll find is that next year we're going to
have a bigger and better Boston Marathon and we're going to
go on," Schwarm says. "I mean we went through a lot of
planning and soul searching for these kinds of things after
9-11 and this was probably a wake-up call to re-think some
of those."

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V in
Philadelphia.

--

Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost loved
ones and to those injured in this unprovoked and uncivilized
attack against humanity.  We will have more for you in
upcoming Amateur Radio Newsline reports.  (ARNewslineT and
various other sources)

**

WORLDBEAT:  ICASA COUNCIL APPROVES TWO 5 MHZ FREQUENCIES FOR
SARL

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has
last approved two frequencies at 5 MHz for the South African
Radio League to carry out propagation research.  This is in
response to the society's application to collect information
about country wide propagation conditions in that spectrum.

The South African Radio League had applied for access to 5
MHz in 2010, 2011 and again in 2012.  In its application the
society told the telecommunications regulator that while the
propagation of signals are fairly well known for high power
broadcasting, there is still quite a lot that can be learned
by radio amateurs, especially away from the coastline.

The licenses are being issued for an 8 month period but the
regulator says that at the end of the period the South
African Radio League can apply for an extension.  (SARL)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the KA8HDY repeater serving Jackson, Michigan.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RESCUE RADIO:  NATIONAL EAS TEST DEEMED A MODERATE SUCCESS

The final results of the first National Emergency Alert
System or EAS Test show that 83% of broadcasters
successfully received the alert.  Amateur Radio Newsline's
Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reports:

--
The first national EAS test was held on November 9th of
2011.  Now, in a long awaited and very detailed review, the
FCCs Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau says that
while the test demonstrated EAS would generally perform as
designed, it also shined a bright light on several areas
that require improvement.

The 19-page report says that of the nearly 14,000 radio and
TV stations that submitted result data, only 2,300 failed to
successfully receive and rebroadcast the alert.  The number
would likely have been lower however 3 of the 63 Primary
Entry Point stations failed which meant a larger number
stations further down the daisy-chain did not get the alert.

While the majority of stations received the national EAS
alert, results varied state-by-state.   The report points
out that while fewer than 2% of Texas stations didnt get the
test on the air, nearly every Oregon station didnt broadcast
the complete alert.

The bottom line is that the FCC and FEMA have concluded that
the nationwide EAS architecture is basically sound, but
there is still room for improvement.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in
Berwick, Pennsylvania.

--

The agencies involved say that they plan more national EAS
tests in the future.  You can read the FCC's in-depth report
on the national EAS test at tinyurl.com/eas-results.  (FCC,
Inside Radio)

**

RADIO LAW:  FCC SEEKS COMMENTS ON BROADCAST INDECENCY

The FCC is seeking public comment on a proposed regulatory
change to limit complaints to the agency dealing with
broadcast indecency.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley,
KI7UP, is here with the details:

--

The FCC indicates that General Docket No. 13-86 has been
issued because it has a backlog of complaints dealing with
alleged broadcast indecency and no way for it to investigate
and act on each one individually.  It notes that after the
Supreme Court's decision in FCC vs. Fox Television Stations,
Inc in September 2012, Chairman Genachowski instructed
Commission staff to begin a review of the Commission's
broadcast indecency policies and enforcement to ensure they
are fully consistent with vital First Amendment principles.
In the interim, the Chairman directed the Enforcement Bureau
to focus its indecency enforcement resources on egregious
cases and to reduce the backlog of pending broadcast
indecency complaints.

Since September 2012, the Enforcement Bureau has reduced the
backlog by 70%.  That amounts to more than one million
complaints.  Most of these were simply beyond the statute of
limitations or too stale to pursue, that involved cases
outside FCC jurisdiction, that contained insufficient
information, or that were closed by settled precedent.

The FCC says that the Enforcement Bureau is actively
investigating egregious indecency cases and will continue to
do so.  However it is now seeking comment on whether the
full Commission should make changes to its current broadcast
indecency policies or maintain them as they are.

For example, the Commission wants to know if it should treat
isolated expletives in a manner consistent with the way it
currently does based on its decision in the Pacifica
Foundation case of the 1960's, or should it instead maintain
the approach to isolated expletives set forth in its
decision in complaints against various broadcast licensees
regarding their airing of the "Golden Globe Awards" program
in 2004.  It also wants to know if it should treat isolated
non-sexual nudity the same as or differently than isolated
expletives.

The FCC says that commenters are invited to address these
issues as well as any other aspect of the Commission's
substantive indecency policies.  It also notes that the
issuance of  General Docket No. 13-86 does not alter any of
the Commission's current substantive indecency policies.
That means acceptance of new complaints and ongoing
enforcement action will continue as is until the issues in
General Docket 13-86 have been decided.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in
Scottsdale, Arizona.

--

Comments on FC General Docket Number 13-86 will be due 30
days after publication in the Federal Register with reply
comment due no later than 60 days after publication in the
Federal Register.  You can download and read the text of
this proposed rule making at tinyurl.com/fcc-indecency-
rules.  (FCC)

**

NEW PRODUCTS:  FREE REPEATER LOCATOR FOR IPHONE/IPAD

A free Repeater Directory App for the UK, Europe, Australia,
New Zealand, South America and more is now available for
iPhone and Android based smart devices.  Repeater Locator
enables the traveling ham to easily find repeaters across
most populated areas of the world using GPS or a Locator to
find repeaters.  The app also makes available the complete
database of United Kingdom analog, IRLP, Echolink and D-Star
repeater and a growing world repeater database covering all
but North America.  Also the Android version supports the
BlueCAT, FT-857 and FT-817 Bluetooth CAT interface that
allow a user to simply touch a repeater to instantly his or
her your radio.  You can find Repeater locator by searching
for ZBM2 at the Apple App Store or the Play store  (M1HOG)

**

HAMVENTION 2013:  ROOMS AVAILABLE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
DAYTON

According to an April 13th posting to the Dayton Hamvention
Yahoogroups Remailer from the University of Dayton, the
campus housing had about 15 rooms each accommodating between
4 to 6 people available for Hamvention weekend.  The posting
by the University notes that it has been offering lodging to
Hamvention attendees for over 15 years.  If you are looking
for a last minute place to stay for this years Hamvention
try taking your web browser to  tickets.udayton.edu.
(Hamvention Remailer)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  IDXC 9TH ANNUAL DX CONVENTION

IZ8EDJ reports that details of Italy's 9th International DX
Convention to be held on April 28th, in Capaccio-Paestum are
now available at tinyurl.com/italy-dx-meeting.  The offical
Web site for the convention itself is on the web at
www.dxitalia.it (Southgate)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  KJ4EMJ NAMED TO SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT
TELECOM POST

Back here in the USA, Julie N. Zoller, KJ4EMJ, has succeeded
Richard C. Beaird at the Department of State.  This in the
role of Senior Deputy Coordinator of the Office of
Multilateral Affairs, Communications and Information Policy
Directorate, Economics and Business Affairs Bureau.

The ARRL reports that in this position, she will serve as
principal advisor to the United States Coordinator for
International Communications and Information Policy.

More on her appointment is on-line at tinyurl.com/zoller-
appointment.
(ARRL)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  SPECIAL EVENT STATION TO HONOR CODE TALKERS

The Lawton Fort Sill Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a
special event station from May 8th to the 11th at
the Comanche National Museum in Lawton, Oklahoma.  This to
commemorate the work of the Comanche Code Talkers of World
War II.

According to Wikipedia, the Code talkers were people who
used obscure languages as a means of secret communication
during wartime.  The term is now usually associated with the
United States soldiers during the world wars who used their
knowledge of Native-American languages as a basis to
transmit coded messages.

There were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in
the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was the
transmission of secret tactical messages.  Code talkers
transmitted these messages over military telephone or radio
communications nets using formal or informally
developed codes built upon their native languages.  Their
service improved communications in terms of speed
of encryption at both ends in front line operations
during World War II.  (KC5FM)

**

RADIO HAPPENINGS:  CRYSTAL RADIO AWARDS PRESENTED AT NAB

The recent National Association of Broadcasters annual Radio
Luncheon provided the setting for the presentation of the 10
NAB Crystal Radio Awards.  The event also featured a keynote
address from famed composer, musician and program host John
Tesh, the induction of Dave Ramsey into the NAB Broadcasting
Hall of Fame and a Crystal Heritage Award to radio station
KNOM AM and FM of Nome, Alaska.  The Crystal Radio Awards
recognize radio stations for their outstanding year-round
commitment to community service. The luncheon was sponsored
by ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers.  For those not aware, John Tesh wrote and
performed the music score for the 1986 ARRL video "The New
World of Amateur Radio."  (RW)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  RADIO AMATEURS GET $25,000 FOR CUBESAT
FROM JPL

Two college professors who are also ham radio operators have
received a substantial monetary grant from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory to help them construct and launch a
research satellite.  Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in our
newsroom with more:

--

Professors Sharlene Katz, WB6FFE, and James Flynn,
WB9AWX, are a part of a California State University at
Northridge team that has received $25,000 from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for a CubeSat research project. There
is also an award of $30,000 for the project listed by The
University Corporation.

The April 15th edition of the campus newspaper The Sundial
carried a report on the university's CubeSat project that
has a mission of testing alternative power techniques for
satellites and spacecraft.  Measuring only 10 by 10 by 20
centimeters, the satellite will be packed with solar cells
and special software to achieve this goal.

In order to communicate with the CubeSat, the team is also
building an automated ground station on top of a campus
building.  The station will not only help the team track
university's CubeSat, but other satellites as well.  This is
because it will become part of the Global Educational
Network for Satellite Operations.  This is a community of
universities around the world that track and communicate
with satellites.

Currently, the project is in phase one.  Phase two is set to
start during the fall semester of 2013, and the team is
hoping to complete the satellite by December of 2014.
Typically, it would cost another $45,000 just to launch the
satellite, but thanks to the sponsorship from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory the satellite will be hitching a ride
into orbit in just a few years.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, in the
newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

You can read the full story of the creation of this new bird
on-line at tinyurl.com/cal-state-northridge-satellite.
(CSUN)

**

RADIO AND SCOUTING:  WASHINGTON STATE EVENT A MAJOR SUCCESS

A ham radio related Youth Workshop on Saturday, April 13th
at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland,
Washington is being called a big success.  This thanks to
the hard work of the amateur radio support team at the
event.

According to planners, there were over 100 Electricity,
Electronics and Radio Merit Badges completed by the 58
youngsters who were registered at the event.  These are
considered Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
or STEM Merit Badges and part of the STEM / NOVA Award
sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America.

There were 14 adults and 14 scouts that qualified for their
amateur radio licenses.  Five of the adults were Scout
Masters.  Some of the others were from scouting troops and
the Lake Washington Ham Club.   Another event of this type
is in the planning stages for September 14th.  (N7DRW, K7APS
and AE7TD via K9JA)

**

HAM RADIO PUBLICITY:  PAPA SYSTEM AND PALOMAR ARC AT FRYS

Southern California's PAPA System and the Palomar Amateur
Radio Club will jointly host an Operating Day at Fry's
Electronics in the city of San Marcos on Sunday April 28th.
This will be a demonstration to educate the public about how
amateur radio helps in the community.

This operation will begin at 9:00 am and run though 4:30 pm
Pacific Daylight time.  Club members will be available to
answer questions and encourage the public to try amateur
radio on site.  They will be demonstrating HF through 70cm
operations plus D-Star, Packet Radio and Winlink.  Also
available will be past copies of CQ and QST magazines,
flyers from local clubs, and a public radio use flyer.

For more information on this event please drop an email to
admin (at) papasys (dot) com.  (PAPA)

**

HAM CELEBRATIONS:  40 YEARS OF THE CATALINA REPEATER

And word of congratulations to the Catalina California 2
meter repeater.  This as it celebrates of 40 years of
continuous service to the regions ham radio community.

On April 27, 1973, system came on the air with a 10-watt
voice from Catalina Island and amazing 1,300 square mile
coverage.  Now in 2013 the system, operated by the Catalina
Amateur Repeater Association remains one of the most popular
in the region.  And over the four decades of its operation
there have been many improvements to both its coverage and
the service it provides to the community.

The complete story of the creation of this system located
some 26 miles off the Pacific coastline was featured in the
April 1974 cover story of 73 Magazine.  Even though the
magazine itself is long gone you can read the story or
download it at from an on-line archive tinyurl.com/catalina-
repeater-at-40  (CARA)

**


DX

In DX, listen out for special event station XR86PL to be
active until April 30th to commemorate the 86th Anniversary
of the Chilean Police.  Operations are on all bands using
SSB, RTTY and PSK.  QSL via the operators home callsign or
CE3ETE.

CT1FTR will be in Khartoum, Sudan until June. He is signing
ST2FT.  QSL as directed on the air.

AC6DD will be active stroke 9A from Sveti Nikola, Croatia.
This during the RSGB Islands on the Air Contest on July 27th
and the 28th.  If you make contact QSL via AC6DD.

KT3Y, K9VV and WP2XX will be active from the KP2M rental
shack on St. Croix Island during the CQ World Wide WPX CW
Contest from May 25th to the 26th as a Multi-Single entry.
QSL direct only via AI4U or Logbook of the World. No QSL's
will be accepted via the bureau.

Lastly, ZL1GO and ZL3CW reportedly will use the callsign N8A
during their American Samoa operation between November 12th
and the 26th.  More information on this upcoming operation
as soon as it is made available.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  GOOGLE EXEC PREDICTS EVERYONE IN THE WORLD
ON-LINE BY 2020

And finally this week, do you believe what Google Executive
Chairman Eric Schmidt says that everyone in the world will
be on-line by the end of the decade?  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has the rest of this rather
interesting prediction.

--

On Saturday April 13th Google Executive Chairman Eric
Schmidt stated on his Google Plus blog that for every person
online, there are two who are not.  He went on to add that
by the end of the decade, he predicted that everyone on
Earth will be connected by 2020.  A day later, Schmidt added
- and we quote:  "Think about how great the internet is now
with 2 billion users.  Now think about how amazing it will
be when 5 billion come online in a decade."

But can Schmid's prediction come true?  As pointed out in
one news article, Google itself supports a project
called Geeks Without Frontiers.  This is described as a
nonprofit group that donates computers and related wireless
access technology to poor areas around the world.  The
organization's current focus is to bring such wireless
access to parts of Mexico, Central America and Africa.
These are regions without any traditional form of wired
Internet access.

Also, back in 2011 Geeks Without Frontiers announced that it
had developed its own low cost open source WiFi software.
At that time it said that by driving down the cost of
metropolitan and village scale Wi-Fi networks, millions more
people will be able to reap the economic and social benefits
of significantly lower cost Internet access

The rise of the mobile access expected to play a role.  In
parts of Africa it's reported that more people have access
to a mobile phones than have electricity.  Google itself
notes that in South Africa 25% of its searches during the
week are made via mobile devices and that rises to 65% on
the weekends.

So will every man, woman and child be on-line by 2020?
There's no way to be certain but Google leaders rarely make
predictions that they know won't come true.  So the bottom
line is, don't rule this one out.  And if it does happen it
will likely be thanks to Wi-Fi which is in itself nothing
more than a form of digital two-way radio.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in
Zion, Illinois.

--

According to the International Telecommunication Union, at
this time approximately 38% of the world's population is
currently using the Internet in some way.  That's up from
about 35% who were on-line in 2012. But with poor and
developing nations around the world isolated by nonexistent
Internet infrastructures, and others hindered by government
censorship, some wonder if Eric Schmidt's vision might be a
bit overly optimistic.  Then again as time has proven,
Google is rarely wrong.   (bizjournals.com, digitalspy.com,
others)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News, TWiT-TV and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from
the Amateur Radio NewslineT.  Our e-mail address is newsline
(at) arnewsline (dot) org.  More information is available at
Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org.  You can also write to us or support us
at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa
Clarita California, 91350

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Jeff Clark, K8JAC, saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1861 - April 12 2013







Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1861 with a release
date of April 12 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST.  Ham radio developed software is now
a part of an ongoing NASA solar observation mission; hams in
Hawaii appear safe from a new distracted driving law; Over
the Horizon is back on the ham bands; the Dayton Hamvention
withdraws its 2013 Radio Amateur of the Year award and a
nice place for senior citizen hams to retire. Find out where
on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1861 coming your
way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  AMSAT-DL TURBO CODE NOW ON NASA STEREO
SPACECRAFT

Ham radio is now contributing directly to some vital space
research.  This with the announcement that Turbo Code
software written by AMSAT-DL is now in use on the twin NASA
STEREO spacecraft.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley,
KI7UP, has the rest of the story:

--

According to AMSAT-Germany, on April 2, the two NASA STEREO
space-based solar observatories permanently switched to
Turbo Code to transmit their real-time space weather data
back to Earth.  A network of four ground stations, located
at Germany, France, Japan and amateur radio station DL0SHF
in Germany receives the data, and uses software also written
by AMSAT-Germany to decode it.

The switch to Turbo Code has reportedly improved reception
capabilities of the ground stations by about 2 dB.  This is
a very welcome improvement given that the two STEREO
spacecraft are currently 269 and 286 million kilometers
respectively away from Earth.

STEREO which stands for the Solar Terrestrial Relations
Observatory is a solar observation mission using two nearly
identical spacecraft.  They were launched in 2006 into
orbits around the sun that cause them to respectively pull
farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This
enables stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and other solar
phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections and the like.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'M Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in
Scottsdale, Arizona.

--

More on the NASA STEREO solar observatory mission is on the
web at tinyurl.com/stereo-in-space.  (AMSAT-DL)

**

PROPAGATION:  INCOMING SOLAR STORM MAY AFFECT RADIO
TRANSMISSSIONS AFTER APRIL 13

A strong M6-class solar flare has hurled a Cornal Mass
Ejection or CME toward Earth.  This after the magnetic field
of sunspot AR1719 erupted at 0716 UT on April 11th.

Geomagnetic storms and high-latitude auroras were being
predicted when the fast-moving ionized cloud was to reach
our planet, on April 13th.  Solar forecasters believed that
radio, television, satellite and other communications would
likely be affected for several days afterward.  Keep an eye
on spaceweather dot com for the latest updates.
(Spaceweather)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  HAMS ASSIST IN ARGENTINA FLOODING

Hams in Argentina are reported to be providing
communications support in response to the recent flooding to
hit that nation.  A statement provided by RAYNET-HF on April
6th said that High Frequency nets are currently operating on
7 dot 070 MHz and 7 dot 120 MHz.  This is in addition to VHF
and UHF repeaters that are being kept on alert by the Radio
Club La Plata operating as LU8DZE.   There is also a lot of
emergency communication taking place through the Facebook
Emergenciaslu Amateur group page that is maintained by the
Amateur Radio Emergency Service of Argentina.  (RAYNET-HF)

**

INTRUDER WATCH:  RUSSIAN AND IRANIAN OTH RADAR CAUSING
INTERFERENCE ON HF

The dreaded sound of Over the Horizon Radar is again
interfering with communications on or near several ham radio
bands.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is
here with the details:

--

The latest Region One International Amateur Radio Union
Monitoring System newsletter reports a Russian Over the
Horizon Radar has been transmitting between 3.555 to 3.590
and 3.750 to 3.785 MHz.  The signal is always 35 kHz wide
with its location believed to be in the area of Makhachkala,
in the Caspian Sea.

Amateur radio as well as many other services are being
interfered with in the evening hours by this annoying signal
source.  A letter has been sent to the Russian Radio Society
-- the SRR -- asking for assistance in ending the operation
of this Radar system.

Meantime an Iran based Over the Horizon Radar has been
interfering with ham radio operations on the 10 meter band.
This Radar is on the air daily on 28.000 to 29.700 MHz
transmitting bursts that are 60 kHz wide.  The splatter from
the signal often covers spectrum 500 kHz or more in
bandwidth. The German Department of Post and
Telecommunications has sent an official complaint to its
counterpart in Iran.

Lastly, the Dutch Datawell buoys are still operating
illegally on 10 meters.  The Datawell Company was informed
that the transmissions are illegal by DK2OM and PA2GRU way
back in March of 2012, but so far the company has not
responded and the interference continues.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
in the newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

If you happen across signals in the ham radio bands that you
know do not belong there, please send a report to the
Intruder Watch Coordinator for the nation that you live in.
(IARU R-1 IARUMS Newsletter)

**

RADIO LAW:  HAWAII DISTRACTED DRIVING LAW EXEMPTS HAM RADIO

Some good news for hams in Hawaii.  A new distracted driving
law making its way through the state legislature contains a
full exemption for  radio amateurs.

Hawaii State Legislature House Bill 980 involving mobile
electronics has passed the Senate and has been transmitted
back to the House.  Testimonies by amateur radio operators
have kept the exemption intact to allow hams to operate
their radio gear while driving.

This bill is expected to pass, as the State of Hawaii needs
a state-level cellular telephone law banning text messaging
in order to receive Federal highway safety funds.  It lost
the funds in 2012 by not having such a law.

From here, the remaining steps are that a joint conference
committee will get together to work out the differences
between the House and Senate versions.  That whats called
the CD1 draft and will have to be ratified in both the
Hawaii House and Senate, before finally being transmitted to
the Governor for signature.  The text of the new mweasure
and any updates will be available on-line on Ron Hashiro,
AH6RH web page at tinyurl.com/hawaii-cell-law,  (AH6RH)

**

HAMVENTION 2013:  HAMVENTION RESCINDS RADIO AMATEUR OF THE
AWARD TO DL1BDF

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association, sponsor of the annual
Dayton Hamvention (R), has withdrawn its 2013 Radio Amateur
of the Year Award.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan
Kinford, N8WB, is in near-by Wadsworth, Ohio, with whats
known so far:

--

In early March the Dayton Hamvention Awards Committee
announced that it had selected Captain Mustapha Landoulsi,
DL1BDF, as its choice for 2013 Radio Amateur of the Year.
But on April 4th the Hamvention announced that Landoulsi
would not be getting the award after all.  In fact, this
year, nobody will.

The announcement of the decision to rescind the award came
in a posting to the Hamvention website and also distributed
on the Hamvention's Yahoo Groups remailer.  Both said and we
quote:

"We have received conflicting information from credible
sources regarding the accuracy of the winning nomination.
The General Chairman of Hamvention this year, Charles
Kaiser, received these reports and followed up to verify
their accuracy. Unfortunately these changes the way we score
for the Amateur of the Year award and since the competition
was close with other nominees the outcome would have been
different. Based on all of this research the decision has
been made by the Hamvention General Chairman not to award
the Amateur of the Year for 2013."

Captain Landoulsi is a retired Lufthansa airline pilot, had
been named recipient of the award for his ongoing work in
promoting and developing amateur radio in the Middle East
and for organizing delivery of emergency medical equipment
and medication to countries in Africa.  There was no
indication from the Hamvention or its Awards Committee as to
the nature of the "conflicting information" or any
additional details regarding this action.

In reply to our request for comment on the situation,
Captain Landoulsi responded in part that is not the awards
cancellation that made him sad.  He notes that he already
has a number of awards but that collecting awards has not
been his goal in life.  Rather giving to others and helping
every one he can is what his life is all about.  DL1BDF
added that he will have a more in depth statement for
release shortly.

It should be noted that the decision by the Hamvention to
rescind the Radio Amateur of the Year Award will have no
impact on this year's Technical Achievement, Special
Achievement and Radio Club of the Year recipients.  These
three awards will be presented as originally announced.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephan Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.

--

This is the first time since the Radio Amateur of the Year
Award was created back in 1955 that it has been withdrawn
after being announced.  And as far as we can determine, it's
also the first time that this award will not be presented.
(Dayton HamventionT, CQ, ARNewslineT, others)

**

BREAKING DX NEWS:  NCDXF ANNOUNCES MAJOR GRANT TO FT/Z
AMSTERDAM ISLAND DXPEDITION

The Northern California DX Foundation has announced a grant
of $50,000 to the upcoming FT stroke Z Amsterdam Island
DXpedition currently planned for January and  February of
2014.  This is the second largest grant in the history of
the Northern California DX Foundation history.  Amsterdam is
number 4 on the DX Magazine's Most Wanted List of rare DX
locations for 2013.  Check www.amsterdamdx.org in the near
future for more DXpedition details.  (NCDXF)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the N8LC repeater serving Sterling Heights,
Michigan.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RADIO BUSINESS:  NEW YAESU FT-400DR DIGITAL DUAL BAND MOBILE

Big news in the world of digital VHF and UHF voice
communications that the Yaesu FTM-400DR dual band mobile
transceiver has received FCC approval, but when it will be
available for sale is not known.

According to the Universal Radio website, the new 2 meter
and 70 centimeter radio is power selectable at 50, 20 or 5
watts on either band, features wide band receivers covering
108-470 and 800-999 MHz minus the cellular band four scan
modes and 500 memories per band and all the other bells and
whistles you would expect in a top of the line dual bander.
But it's Kevin Sanders Amateur Radio and Scanning Blog adds
that reveals the most important aspect of this new rig.
That of it being capable of full C4FM FDMA digital voice
operation as well as conventional FM.  This means it will be
the base and mobile radio that will compliment Yaesu's long
waited FT1D digital voice hand-held.

How much will the FTM-400DR set you back?  At airtime there
is no manufacturers suggested price listed.  All the
Universal Radio website says is that the information shown
is preliminary and may be subject to change without notice
or obligation.  You can take a look at the new Yaesu
offering at tinyurl.com/yaesu-digital-mobile.  A video of
the radio taken at last years Tokyo Hamfair can be seen at
tinyurl.com/ftm400.  (ARNewslineT, Universal Radio, Kevin
Sanders Sanders Amateur Radio and Scanning Blog)

**

CALIFORNIA CB OPERATOR CITED FOR TALKING TO MUCH TO NOBODY

A California CB operator has been cited by the FCC for what
amounts to having been long winded while talking to nobody
on 11 meter CB.  Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce
Tennant, K6PZW, with the details.

--

Talking to nobody on 11 meters but taking a long time to say
it is the crux of a Notice of Violation issued on March 12th
to Joseph Loiacono who lives in the Los Angeles suburb
Lakewood.

According to the FCC, back on January 29th the FCC received
a complaint of interference to CB radio communications on
27.165 MHz.  In response agents from the Los Angeles Office
Enforcement Bureau T-hunted the signal and determined that
they were coming from an antenna at a residence owned by Mr.
Loiacono.

While monitoring the frequency the agents observed someone
whom they allege to have been Joseph Loiacono engaging in
extended one-way transmissions which resulted in intentional
interference to other CB stations.  Some of these
transmissions the FCC says lasted up to twenty minutes in
length.

This in led to the FCC issuing the Notice of Violation
seeking additional information concerning the violations and
any remedial actions that Loiacono had since taken.
Specifically his response had to fully explain each
violation, including all relevant surrounding facts and
circumstances.  It was also was to contain a statement of
the specific actions he had so far taken to correct each
violation and preclude any recurrence.

But it did not end there.  In accordance with Section 1.16
of the Rules, Loiacono was directed to support his response
with an affidavit or declaration made under penalty of
perjury, verifying the truth and accuracy of the information
that he provided to the FCC.  He was also warned that to
knowingly and willfully make any false statement or conceal
any material fact in reply to the Notice of Violation was
punishable by fine or imprisonment under Title 18 of the
U.S. Code.

Joseph Loiacono was given 20 days from the release of the
Notice of Violation to submit his written statement
concerning this matter.    That date is now past but at
airtime it's not known what information he had in his reply
to the FCC.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW,
monitoring this one from Los Angeles.

--

For what its worth, this is the first time in years if not
decades that we have heard of anyone on the 11 meter
Citizens Band being issued a Notice of Violation for making
a one way transmission that was far to long.  In fact its
one of the few instances of any real enforcement action on
11 meters in a long, long time.  (FCC, CGC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: MOJAVE CA RESIDENT ISSUED WARNING AFTER FCC
LOCATES AV TRANSMITTER INTERFERING WITH NASA TELEMETRY

The FCC has issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation of an
audio-visual transmitter used in the home of a Southern
California resident.  This after receiving a complaint from
NASA that it was receiving interference to a telemetry
receive site from radio transmissions centering on 2390 MHz.

In its March 26th release the FCC said that its
investigators from the Los Angeles office used direction
finding to locate the interfering device at the home of
Julius Magos in the city of Mojave, California.  This is not
far from the NASA receive site.  The FCC says that when the
power was disconnected from the transmitter, the
interference to the NASA telemetry operations ceased.

Now in issuing Magos the Notice of Unlicensed Operation the
FCC says that its records show that no license was issued
for operation of a transmitter on 2390 MHz from his home
location.  As such operation of the device must cease
immediately.

Magos was also warned that operation of radio transmitting
equipment without a valid FCC authorization constitutes a
violation of the Federal laws and could subject the operator
to severe penalties.  These include but are not limited to a
substantial monetary forfeitures, seizure the offending
radio equipment, and criminal sanctions including
imprisonment.  Magos was also told that the FCC will
determine what if any further enforcement action is required
to ensure his compliance with the agency's rules.  (FCC,
CGC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  FM TRANSLATOR FINED FOR INTERFERING WITH
AVIATION COMMS

The FCC has reaffirmed a $4,000 Notice of Apparent Liability
issued against Playa Del Sol Broadcasters which is the
licensee of FM translator K238AK in Palm Desert, California.
The commission said the translator that operates on 109.5
MHz interfered with the VHF aviation band communications
three times in 2008 resulting from the broadcaster's failure
to properly attenuate the translator emissions.  Interfered
with specifically was Riverside California County sheriff's
helicopter communications,

Playa Del Sol uses the translator to re-transmit KRCK- FM in
Mecca, California.  The broadcaster didn't dispute the
facts, but argued it shouldn't be fined because its
violation was not intentional.  But the commission backed up
the Enforcement Bureau findings.  It said even though Playa
Del Sol didn't intend to break the law, it still did.  It
also gave Playa Del Sol Broadcasters the customary 30 days
from the date of its decision to pay the $4000 fine.  (FCC,
RW)

**

CRIME AGAINST HAM RADIO:  NAURYZ DX CONTEST SITE HACKED

The Nauryz DX Contest website owned by the Kazakhstan
Amateur Radio Club was hacked the morning of April 9th.
According to the Southgate news, vistors to the site were
treated to a picture of a warrior with a scrolling text
telling that said "Admin I hacked your site."

Laying claim to the hacking was made by a group called "Team
Haxorsistz" and "Bl4CK System".  It followed the deadline of
log submissions to the contest committee by Sunday April
7th.

The hackers say that all information was retained.  By late
in the day a visit to the site showed that it had been
restored.  (G0SFJ, Southgate)

**

RADIO HAPPENINGS:  HIGH SCHOOL RADIO DAY - APRIL 24

High school radio stations in the United States will come
together April 24 for High School Radio Day 2013.  Amateur
Radio Newsline's Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, reports:

--

Following the inaugural event last May, a website has been
created at www.highschoolradioday.com to publicize the
activities planned by participating stations. The day's
activities will include live broadcasts from different high
school stations around the country streamed on the High
School Radio Day website. There also will be links to
station streams and schools can register with a link to
their own station website.

High School Radio Day was created following the successful
launch of College Radio Day in October of 2011. Founder Pete
Bowers, the station manager of WBFH-FM in Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan decided to hold High School Radio Day last year on
May 16th because it is the anniversary of the first U.S.
high school radio station WNAS-FM in Albany, New York's
inaugural broadcast in 1949.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH

--

Organizers of High School Radio Day 2013 hope that this
gathering will raise the profile of the limited number of
high school radio stations still broadcasting in the United
States.  (RW)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  WEBINAR RECORDING FIRST TRANS ATLANTIC
SHORTWAVE MESSAGE NOW ON LINE

A Webinar archive presentation surrounding the story of the
first trans-Atlantic short wave message which involved
several Radio Club of America members and station 1BCG is
now available for viewing on-line.  To access the recording,
take your web browser to tinyurl.com/rca-atlantic-message
and click on the title The First Top Band DX Contest - the
1921 Transatlantic Test by Frank Donovan W3LPL.  This
Webinar recording is being hosted at the website of the
World Wide Radio Operators Foundation.  (RCA)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  2013 MARCONI PRIZE TO BE AWARDED TO
HANDLELD PHONE DEVELOPER MARTIN COOPER
The Marconi Society has announced that wireless visionary
and entrepreneur Martin Cooper is the recipient of the 2013
Marconi Prize.  Cooper is credited with developing and
popularizing the concept of the handheld mobile phone. He
led the team that put Motorola at the forefront of a new
industry and in the process, he helped reshape and point the
global telecommunications industry in a new direction.

Martin Cooper will receive the $100,000 Marconi Prize at an
awards dinner in his honor being held on October 1st in
Bologna, Italy.  He also will deliver the keynote address
for a three-day conference preceding the awards gala,
jointly sponsored by the Marconi Institute for Creativity
and the Marconi Society
The Marconi Prize is considered the pinnacle honor in the
field of communication and information science.  (Published
News Reports)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

RADIO IN SPACE:  SPACELAB II PROPOSED BEYOND THE MOON

NASA has propose a concept for a deep space station that has
been dubbed Skylab 2.  It placing such a station on-orbit at
the Earth/Moon L2 point in space.  Here's Amateur Radio
Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, with the details:

--

According to Space.com, the Skylab 2 concept would consist
of a single-piece habitat based on the Space Launch System's
upper-stage hydrogen tank. The resulting space station would
be the equivalent of a two-story house.  That would be
enough to accommodate a crew of four astronauts and several
years of provisions with comfort. Solar arrays, radiators,
and a module that contains equipment for assembly, repair,
and propellant transfer would be attached.

The advantage over using International Space Station modules
is that in the latter case, some assembly would be required.
Skylab 2 would be ready for occupancy by a four-person crew
launched separately in an Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

The news that NASA was considering using the Space Launch
System heavy lift launcher to deploy a deep space station
38,000 miles beyond the moon's far side, was first reported
in the Orlando Sentinel in September.  Such a space station
would be human tended, hosting crews for weeks and then
months at a time.  It would serve as a way station for
expeditions into deep space or back to the lunar surface.
Astronauts on the deep space station could remotely operate
radio controlled robots on the lunar surface and would study
the effects of deep space, which includes microgravity and
radiation, on the human body.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in
Zion, Illinois

--

L Points also known as Lagrange points, are the five
positions in an orbital configuration where a small object
affected only by gravity can theoretically be part of a
constant-shape pattern with two larger objects such as
a satellite with respect to the Earth and Moon.  The
Lagrange points mark positions where the combined
gravitational pull of the two large masses provides
precisely the centripetal force required to orbit with them.
(NASA, Published News Reports)

**

WORLDBEAT:  CELEBRATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST
CLASS CW OPERATORS CLUB

To commemorate their 75th anniversary of the First Class CW
Operators Club this coming May the organization is holding a
month-long on-air event featuring more than 20 special FOC
suffix calls.  This will include GB75FOC which is a special
anniversary callsign for their club station.

There will also be other FOC callsigns operating from the
USA and Canada as well as some exotic locations such as VQ9,
HZ1 and 5T.  Stations will gain points for contacting any
First Class CW Operators  Club member and a certificate will
be presented to stations who reach certain point levels.

Founded in 1938 with its roots, history and management in
the United Kingdom, the First Class CW Operators' Club
promotes good CW operating, Morse activity, friendship and
socializing via its worldwide membership of approximately
500.  Complete details of the group and this event is on-
line at tinyurl.com/first-class-morse.  (Via e-mail)

**

WORLDBEAT:  BBC WORLD SERVICE REDUCES SHORTWAVE BROADCASTS

A new schedule with reduced shortwave transmissions began on
the BBC World Service on April 1st.  As part of the change
shortwave and medium wave transmissions in the English
language will be reduced by a minimum of 6 hours each day.
Also shortwave Arabic language broadcasts ceased complexly.
You can read the full schedule change announcement
at tinyurl.com/BBC-World-English.  (Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT:  BBC WORLD SERVICE OVER TO YOU ON CHINESE JAMMING

The BBC World Service program Over To You has presented a
program that explores the way that the stations shortwave
transmissions are being affected by jamming in parts of
Asia.  This is the result of an e-mail from a listener in
West Bengal who was having problems listening to the
service.

With the help of the World Service's head of business
development, the show discovers how jamming of its shortwave
transmissions inside China is spilling over into neighboring
countries.  It also explores what the BBC can do to remedy
the situation through various international organizations.
You can hear the program on-line at tinyurl.com/bbc-against-
jamming.  (Southgate, BBC)

**

WORLDBEAT:  TWO RADIO STATIONS ATTACKED IN GUINEA

A journalists' association in Guinea says that two privately-
owned radio stations have been attacked, as political
tensions rise before Guinea's legislative elections on May
12.  The Union of Free Radio and Television of Guinea says
Renaissance FM and the Planet FM were both shot at when Faya
Millimo who is the leader of the opposition Liberal Bloc was
being interviewed.  Also, two civilians and one police
officer have been killed in a series of anti-government
demonstrations that rocked Guinea's capital in recent weeks.
(UFR via Facebook)

**


WORLDBEAT:  ALGERIAN AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION CELEBRATES
50TH ANNIVERSARY

The Algerian Amateur Radio Association recently celebrated
its fiftieth anniversary.

The current president of the association is Afif Benlagha,
7X2RO.  During a press conference held to mark this
anniversary he recalled the various stages the association
went through since its creation on March 23, 1963.

Also present at the event was International Amateur Radio
Union, Region 1 president Hans Blondeel Timmerman whose call
is PB2T.  Timmerman highlighted Algerian expertise in this
area of communications.  (Algeria Press Service)

**

ON THE AIR:  CS250CLE CELEBRATES THE BELL TOWER OF CLERIGOS
CHURCH

On the air, word that Portuguese amateurs will be operating
through the end of the year with the call CS250CLE.  This to
celebrate the 250th anniversary of the final construction of
the Torre dos Clerigos bell tower of the Church of Clerigos.
Since its completion the tower has overlooked the city of
Porto as the highest bell tower in Portugal.  If you contact
CS250CLE please QSL via CS5RPT.  (DXNL)

**

ON THE AIR:  FRENCH CW SOCIETY - SPECIAL EVENT

Look for special event callsign TM28UFT to be active during
the 28th annual meeting of the French CW Society which will
be held in Panazol Center, France, through April 21st.
Activity will be on the HF bands and possibly others for
this Morse only operation.  The QSL Manager is F9IE. More
information is on-line at www.uft.net. (UFT.net)

**

DX

In DX, GM0OBX will be running the special event call of
GB1PC during April from Stirling and District Amateur Radio
Society in the United Kingdom.  This to celebrate the new
Police Service of Scotland.  Please QSL to GM0OBX either
direct or via the bureau.

LY5A will be on the air as LY23A until through April 23rd to
celebrate the anniversary of the restoration of Lithuanian
independence.  No times or frequencies have been announced.
If you work him QSL via LY5A.

IK2GZU will be in the southern region of Tanzania through
May 8th working on electrical installations of the local
hospital and orphanage.  He hopes to find time to erect a 3
element yagi and operate as 5H3MB.  If you make contact
please QSL via his home call.

SN0MD to be active in celebration Poland's 40th Debno
marathon.  Operation of this station continues through April
22nd.  QSL via SP1PNW.

Lastly, RW3AH is currently on the air from Egypt as SU9AF.
He's reportedly operational on all of the HF bands.  QSl via
UA3DX .

(Above from various DX sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: RETIREMENT PROPERTIES INSTALLS HAM RADIO
SHACKS

And finally this week the story of some retirement villages
that not only approve of ham radio, but they even provide
places from where residents can get on the air.  Here's
Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramovich, NT3V, with the
details:

--

The Marshalltown, Iowa, Times-Republican newspaper reports
that 81 year old Tom Morgan, W4UTK, has use of three
operating ham radio stations complete with a 500-watt
amplifier in a comfortable ham shack at the Embers
Retirement Community.

The location and equipment were all made possible by Brad
Lee, W0VFT, of Phoenix, Arizona.  Lee is identified as the
CEO of Trilogy-Embers.  That's the company that owns Embers
and a number of other retirement centers in the United
States.

Embers Executive Director is Vicki Bogner.  She is quoted as
saying that Brad Lee picked up interest in short-wave from
his father whom his QRZ dot com page as the late C. W.
"Lee", and the first holder of the W0VFT callsign.

She went on to say that Brad Lee began by installing ham
shacks for residents in his Phoenix area properties.  This
after he learned some had been ham operators in their own
homes but had given up the hobby after moving in to one of
the Embers properties.

The full story is on the web at tinyurl.com/retirement-ham-
shack.  We say this is a great way to support the senior
citizens of ham radio who have contributed so much to this
nation and to the hobby.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V,
in Philadelphia.

--

The Times-Republican story notes that Marshalltown resident
Tom Morgan, W4UTK, has been a ham radio enthusiast much of
his life.  Also that he knew he wanted to become an
electrical engineer by the time he was age 12.  (Southgate,
Times-Republican)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News, TWiT-TV and Australia's WIA News, that's all from the
Amateur Radio NewslineT.  Our e-mail address is newsline
(at) arnewsline (dot) org.  More information is available at
Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org.  You can also write to us or support us
at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa
Clarita California, 91350

A reminder that the nominating period for the 2013 Amateur
Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award is now open.
Full details and a nominating form are on our website at
www.arnewsline.org/yhoty.

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Bon Wilbanks, AE5DW, in Southern Mississippi, saying 73
and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1860 - April 5 2013






.

.
.
The following is a closed circuit advisory and not
necessarily for air.  With the latest on Amateur Radio
Newsline's fiscal situation here's our producer Bill
Pasternak, WA6ITF:

--

I want to thank all of you who have donated so far to our
spring fund raising.  While we set no monetary goal, we can
say that things are looking better.  However things are far
from great.  So we need your continued support to help keep
threes newscasts coming your way.  The easiest way to donate
is via Pay Pat at our website at www.arnewsline.org or you
can mail a donation to the address you will hear at the end
of this weeks newscast.  Which ever way you choose, we say
thank you.

Im Bill Pasternak WA6ITF and now here is this weeks newscast
with Skeeter Nash, N5ASH.

--

Thanks Bill.

Now, Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1860 with a
release date of April 5 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST.  The FCC says it is reviewing RF
exposure limits in all radio services; a look at the
possible candidates to be the next FCC Chairman; a UK ham's
signal is heard 2000 Kilometers away with only 10 milliwatts
from a Raspberry Pi transmitter; the tiny Baofeng HT becomes
a paradise for makers and hackers and the story of how ham
radio help to stop a civil war.  All this and more on
Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1860 coming your way
right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RADIO LAW:  FCC TO REVIEW RF EXPOSURE POLICIES

Amateur Radio operations on all levels may be impacted by an
FCC decision to review the agency's R-F exposure policies.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW explains:

--

The FCC is re-evaluating its RF exposure policies.  This as
the agency says that it wants to update its guidelines and
make sure they comply with the National Environmental Policy
Act or N-E-P-A requirements for environmental reviews.
Especially those related to health and safety of RF
emissions from just about all types radio transmitters.

To accomplish this, the commission has released a Report and
Order and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in ET
Docket 13-84, and a Notice of Inquiry named ET Docket 03-
137.

In the Report and Order the commission concludes several
technical and semantic issues initiated in 2003 that revise
and update its regulations implementing the National
Environmental Policy Act.  In the Further Notice the agency
proposes to update and revise its procedures and treat all
services equally.  And in the inquiry the FCC seeks public
input to determine whether its RF exposure limits and
policies need to be reassessed including those that pertain
to amateur radio.

The overall inquiry focuses on the propriety of existing
standards and policies, possible options for precautionary
exposure reduction,  possible improvements to the FCC's
equipment authorization process and policies as they relate
to RF exposure.  The commission proposes to revise and
harmonize the criteria for determining whether single or
multiple fixed, mobile, or portable RF sources should be
routinely evaluated for compliance with the RF exposure
limits or exempted from such evaluations.

No matter the outcome, ham radio installations appear likely
to be included in any final action.  This is because the
agency says that it will codify in its rules the extent to
which occupation controlled RF exposure limits apply to
amateur radio licensees.  This policy was established in the
RF Report and Order of 1996, but was not incorporated in the
rules at that time.

More specifically the FCC says that amateur radio operators
are knowledgeable about the appropriate use of their
equipment and as such that separation distances are likely
to be maintained to ensure compliance with the agency's
exposure limits.  However, since the existing amateur
exemptions are based only on transmitter power and do not
consider separation distance or antenna gain, exempt
transmitting antennas that are unusually close to people
could potentially lead to non-compliant exposure levels.

As one example the FCC cites that a separation distance of
at least 24 feet would meet its proposed exemption criteria.
This, considering a currently-exempt 50-watt transmitter at
VHF in accord with section 97.13(c) and assuming an antenna
gain of 6 dBd.  The FCC adds that the existing
classification of amateur exposure as occupational is
consistent with use of its proposed general exemption
criteria based on general population exposure limits because
awareness of exposure greater than the general population
limits is required in all occupational settings, including
amateur radio households.

The FCC goes on to state that the application of the general
exemptions proposed to amateur radio installations would
preclude the possibility of overexposure and require further
evaluation only when necessary, giving guidance for both
fixed and mobile transmitting antennas.  As such it invites
comment as to the impact of this proposal on the amateur
community.

Parties that support maintaining the current exemption based
on power alone are requested to explain how it provides
adequate assurance that the public is protected against
exposure to RF energy in excess of FCC limits and the extent
of the burden imposed by this proposal.  The FCC is also
encouraging interested parties to comment on the relative
costs and benefits of the proposed changes as well as those
of alternative approaches.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in
Los Angeles.

--

Both the Report and order and the proposed changes can be
read in their entirety in .pdf format at tinyurl.com/fcc-rf-
standards-2013. Comments on Docket item 03-137 will be due
90 days after publication in the Federal Register.  (FCC,
RW)

**

COMMUNICATIONS POLITICS:  CHOOSING THE NEXT FCC CHAIRMAN
WONT BE POLITICALLY EASY

President Obama will likely face some difficult political
decisions over who should replace Federal Communications
Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The reported front-runner, Tom Wheeler, faces opposition
from some consumer groups over his former ties to the cable
and mobile industries, while junior FCC member Jessica
Rosenworcel, a favorite of 37 Democratic senators, could
prove problematic.  This is because the President would have
to bypass senior FCC member Mignon Clyburn who is  the
daughter of Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina's
6th District.

Karen Kornbluh, ex-ambassador to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, and Larry Strickling,
the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration chief, are seen as possible compromise
candidates.  Even so, no matter whom the President picks
will likely not have an easy confirmation process other than
Clyburn or Rosenworcel who are already seated Commissioners.

For a deeper look at the decision that t President Obama
faces in making his decision on who will replace Julius
Genachowski as head of the FCC please take your web browsers
to tinyurl.com/next-fcc-chair.
(The Hill)

**

COMPUTER DXING:  2000 KM USING 10 MILLIWATTS FROM A
RASPBERRY PI

Eddie Bennett, G3ZJO, of Northampton in the United Kingdom
is not making any claims.  Even so he may now hold a Q-R-P
distance record for a micro power transmission using a
Rasberry Pi microcomputer as a transmitter.

Bennett reportedly used the 10 milliwatts of RF that can be
generated from the Raspberry Pi computer board to be heard
at over 2000 km on the 7 MHz band.  The Raspberry Pi board
can be made to operate as a WSPR mode transmitter covering
Low, High and VHF frequencies up to 250 MHz.  G3ZJO
connected the board via a low pass filter to a dipole for
the 7 and 14 MHz bands.  A small Marconi inverted L at a
height of only 6 meters was used on 472 kHz.

Among the stations who received his WSPR signal on 40
merters was LA9JO in grid square JP99 at a distance of 2124
km.  On 20 meters he was heard by LY2BOS in grid KO24 at a
distance of 1736km.  472 kHz did not fare anywhere near as
well.  Even so he was heard some 80 kilometers away by
G4KPX in grid JO02.

If you want to give micro power Raspberry Pi DXing a try,
the PE1NNZ code and binary to turn the mini computer into a
super QRP signal emitter is available at
tinyurl.com/raspberry-pi-transmitter.  And we will have some
more traditional DX news later on in this weeks newscast.
(Southgate)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the Catalina Repeater Association serving Los
Angeles and Orange County California from 26 miles across
the sea.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RADIO LAW:  COALITION OF BROADCAST INVESTMENT WANTS TO
PERMIT MORE FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF US BROADCAST PROPERTIES

If a group representing investment holders in United States
broadcast properties has its way then we could see major
foreign investment and there-by control of broadcasting here
in the United States.  Amateur radio Newsline's Stephan
Kinford, N8WB, tells us what the broadcast investors want
and how the FCC is reacting:

--

The idea of loosening the FCC's restrictions on foreign
investment in United States media holdings and vice versa
has taken another step.  This with the issuance of MB Docket
13-50 by the FCC.

MB Docket 13-50 is based on a letter to the regulatory
agency from the Coalition for Broadcast Investment.  It says
Congress intended the current 25% limit on foreign
investment to be a flexible benchmark, not a rigid cap.
They also claim that in this age when consumers can get
their media from a numerous sources that the restriction is
too severe.

The Coalition for Broadcast Investment had previously asked
the commission to clarify its policies that restrict foreign
ownership and voting interests in entities that hold
commission licenses to no more than 25% in the parent
company of a broadcast licensee.

This restriction on foreign investment in United States
broadcast properties was enacted some 80 years ago.  It
dates to a time when the Congress believed allowing too much
foreign control over a U.S. broadcaster posed a threat to
national security.  The big question that the FCC must now
decide if foreign interests controlling U-S broadcast
properties are in the best interest of national security or
if they are the same or possibly worse then when the
ownership limit was put in place eight decades ago.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephan Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.

--

The FCC is taking public comments on the letter from the
coalition as MB Docket 13-50. Comments are due April 15th
and replies by April 30th.  And you can read an interesting
view on this entire matter on the Comm Law Blog.  Its in
cyberspace at tinyurl.com/foreign-broadcast-ownership.
(FCC, RW)

**

ENFORCEMENT FOLLOW-UP:  $15000 FLORIDA FINE AFFIRMED

And a follow-up in the case of Florida resident Pierre Nixon
Jean who was issue a monetary forfeiture of fifteen thousand
dollars on June 14th of 2012.  This, for his alleged
operation of an unlicensed radio station on the frequency
92.5 MHz in the city of West Palm Beach.

According to the FCC, Jean never filed any form of response
to the proposed fine.  Therefore, based on the information
at hand the FCC affirmed the forfeiture on February 28th and
gave Jean the customary 30 days to pay.  At airtime it's not
known if this forfeiture has or has not been collected.
(FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT FOLLOW-UP:  MORE ON BROCKTON MASSACHUSETTS
UNLICENSED FM STATION CASE

A follow-up to our recent story about an unlicensed radio
station in Brockton, Massachusetts that interfered with
aviation communications in the greater Boston area.  A
warrant has been unsealed in U.S. District Court that
details the seizure of radio transmission equipment.  We
have more in this report:

--

As reported two weeks ago, the seizure by federal officials
on March 1st occurred at the unlicensed station's last known
address on Rutland Street in the city of Brockton,
Massachusetts.  The station is alleged to have been using
frequency 91.7 MHz without a license from the FCC.  A civil
action was brought seeking forfeiture of the equipment
because it was allegedly being used in violation of federal
law.

According to an affidavit filed with the civil complaint,
the unlicensed FM radio station was causing interference to
a Federal Aviation Administration frequency of 120.6 MHz.
This is one of the primary frequencies used by pilots to
communicate with FAA controllers when flying in the Boston
metropolitan area.  The FCC had previously issued verbal and
written warnings to the residents of the Rutland Street
address on several occasions, but the radio station
continued to broadcast.

Now the government appears to have decided to pursue the
matter further.  United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz and FCC
Enforcement Chief Michele Ellison jointly made the
announcement that the case is being prosecuted by Assistant
U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers of Ortiz's Civil Division.
Exactly what form this prosecution will take is  unknown as
we go to air.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
in the newsroom in Los angeles.

--

The Communications Act of 1934 prohibits the operation of
radio broadcasting equipment without a license issued by the
FCC. The Act also authorizes the seizure and forfeiture of
any electronic or radio frequency equipment used to
broadcast without such a license.  More on this latest
development is on-line at tinyurl.com/brockton-followup.
(DoJ, FCC)

**


HAM HACKING:  BAEFONG UV-3R BECOMES HACKERS PARADISE

The tiny and very inexpensive Baefong (PRON BAY FONG) dual
band H-T has developed a big following among the makers and
hackers in ham radio.  So much so that the DIY site Hack A
Day reports on how you can write new firmware for the UV-3R
to make it do things that its developers likely never
thought of.  You can see for yourself what's going on with
this tiny set as the hackers and makers have a literal field
day with it at tinyurl.com/uv3r-hack.  (Hack A Day)

**

RADIO HONORS:  RCA SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR FELLOW STATUS

Radio Club of America members please take note that the
organizations Awards Committee is asking you to nominate
those among you whom you feel deserves Fellow status in the
group.  Please download the nomination package in .PDF
format at tinyurl.com/rca-fellow-form, fill it out and
return it.  The deadline for accepting nominations is April
15 and they can be emailed to pat (at) radioclubofamerica
(dot) org or faxed to 973-838-7124. According to Wikipedia,
Fellows are the highest grade of membership of
most professional or learned societies.  (RCA)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  N4TZ NAMED NEW DIRECTOR OF WPX CONTESTS
AT CQ

Some names in the news.  First up is Terry Zivney, N4TZ, who
has been named Director of the CQ World Wide WPX Contests,
effective immediately.  Licensed since 1961, Zivney has had
numerous top-five USA finishes in the single-operator all-
band low power category of various CQ and ARRL DX contests.
He also competed in the 2010 World Radiosport Team
Championship in Russia, and has had three articles published
in the National Contest Journal.  Zivney succeeds Randy
Thompson, K5ZD, who has been WPX Contest Director since
2008.  (CQ)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  LATEST HANDHELD RADIO WEBSITE LAUNCHED

Bill Carmichael has launched a website to provide
information on the latest handheld radio technology.  The
site includes product reviews and articles from radio
enthusiasts globally discussing what they consider their own
best handheld radio gear.  Ham radio wise the quad band
Yaesu VX-8DR and the dual band Yaesu FT-60R handhelds are
among the radios featured on the site.  You can read for
yourself at   www.besthandheldradios.com.  (Southgate)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  G6LBQ AND 2E0SDR FORM DXKITS PARTNERSHIP

Andy Hunter, G6LBQ, says that he is releasing the MKII
version of his multi-band transceiver through a partnership
with Adrian Lane, 2E0SDR.  The two have formed a company
called DX KITS that will operate on-line from their new
dxkits.com website that Andy says is operational but still
in the development stage.  DX Kits will be the sole
worldwide supplier for the G6LBQ MKII and all of Andy's
future developments.  You can follow developments on at
dxkits.com as well as the G6LBQ Yahoo group at
groups.yahoo.com/group/G6LBQ.  (G6LBQ, 2E0SDR)

**

HAMVENTION 2013:  A FLEA MARKET HELPING HAND FROM W9FIZ

Barry Gose , W9FIZ, has announced over the Dayton Hamvention
reflector that he will be providing a number of really
needed services at this year Hamvention gathering.  Barry
says that he has rented a pair of Flea Market spaces where
he will have available free of charge access to both 110
volts AC line and 12 volts DC for testing newly purchased
gear along with a watt meter and dummy load to test the
output of HF, VHF and UHF transmitters.  He does state that
linear amplifiers are excluded.

But that's not all. Barry's booth will also have a vacuum
tube tester to check purchased tubes and he also plans on
running a paging service on 147.525 MHz simplex in the 2
meter band.  Last but by no means least will be access to
free advertisement boards for those looking to buy or sell
radio gear.  He says that you can e-mail him your ads in
advance to w9fiz (at) arrl (dot) net or just drop them by
his booth on standard 3 inch by 5 inch file cards.  Photos
are also OK and will be posted if he has room on the board.

There is no charge for any of these services but W9FIZ says
that he will graciously accept donations to offset the cost
of doing it again next year.

Gose says that the reason he decided to provide this service
is that from hearing year after year from other hams that go
to Dayton and who ask why someone has not done something
like this.  Well this year it is going to happen at Flea
Market spaces FW 3976 and FW 3977 located along the north
fence of the Hara Arena near gate E thanks to Barry Gose,
W9FIZ. (Hamvention remailer)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

HAM RADIO SCIENCE:  IMPROVED FREED VHF DIGITAL AUDIO
SOFTWARE NOW AVAILABLE

A new upgrade to FreeDV has been released.   Amateur Radio
Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD has the details:

--

FreeDV is a part of a ham radio developed digital audio
system that should eventually allow just about any SSB radio
and any computer operating system to be teamed together.
This to enable transmission and reception of what developers
call high quality narrow-band digital audio for the High
Frequency amateur radio bands.

To make this happen speech is compressed and then modulated
onto a 1100 Hz wide QPSK signal which is sent to the
microphone input of a SSB radio.  On receive, the signal is
demodulated and decoded by the FreeDV software.

The new upgrade called version dot 96 became available on
March 23rd.  It provides a 1600 bit-per-second mode that
communicates at much lower signal levels than previously
envisioned.  As such, signals should be readable down to a 2
dB Signal to Noise Ratio, and long-distance contacts have
already been reported using only 1 to 2 watts power. A
compatibility mode for communication with the older dot 91
version is included.

Developers say that an executable program for Windows is
presently available.  Also that Linux and other platforms
will follow shortly.

FreeDV was brought into being by an international team of
radio amateurs working together on coding, design, user
interface and testing.  It is open source software, released
under the GNU Public License version 2.1.  The FDMDV modem
and Codec 2 Speech codec used in FreeDV are also open
source.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD,
in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

--

The new version of FreeDV for Windows along with
documentation and a demonstration video is available
from freedv.org.  (VK2JI)

**

WORLDBEAT:  FINAL IARU-R1 VIENNA 2013 PAPERS RELEASED

Turning to international news, the final set of
VHF/UHF/Microwave papers for presentation at the
International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Interim meeting
have been released.  Included are such topics as Increased
Amateur-Satellite Service 144MHz Usage; Recommendations for
DATV Transmission; a Region 1 Satellite Coordinator Report;
New Narrow-Band working frequencies in the 2300-2450 MHz
band and 2400MHz Amateur Satellites.  The meeting will be
held in Vienna, Austria, on April 20th to the 21st.  You can
download these papers for your own reading at
tinyurl.com/iaru-vienna-presentations.  (IARU-R1)

**

WORLDBEAT:  YOUNGSTERS ON THE AIR CAMP 2013

The 2013 "Youngsters On The Air" European youth radio camp
will be held near Tartu, Estonia from August 5th to the
12th.

This year there will be 10 teams participating from
different member societies of Region One of the
International Amateur Radio Union.  During the week long
event the young radio amateurs will be participating in
different activities including contesting, visiting radio
station installations, a radio observatory and much more.

The 2013 camp is organized by the Estonian Radio Amateurs
Union.  Two previous "Youngsters On The Air" events in
Romania and Belgium and the Netherlands have shown that it
will be a great experience for the Europe's young hams which
they will likely never forget.  (IRTS)

**

WORLDBEAT:  AUSTRALIA'S NORTH QUEENSLAND HAM CONVENTION IN
JEOPARDY

Australia's North Queensland Amateur Radio convention in
jeopardy and could be cancelled.  This as word that the
Charters Towers convention venue has had to close its doors
due to poor local patronage and mounting debts.

The Wireless Institute of Australia News Service reports
that moves are afoot to find another single locations or
combination of venues in Charters Towers area to house the
North Queensland ham radio outing.  More information will be
made public as it becomes available.  (TATC Inc., WIA)

**

PROPAGATION STUDY:  NEW 70CM BEACON FROM DENMARK

A new 70cm beacon based upon the Next Generation Beacon
platform has come to the airwaves from Denmark.  The
OZ7IGY beacon on 432.471 MHz became operational on March
30th and is expected to remain very stable in frequency as
the transmitter is locked to a GPS receiver.

The transmission sequence is timed to start at 00 second
sending PI4 followed by a short pause then CW ID sending
callsign and locator.  Its then is in carrier only mode
until next cycle begins.

The OZ7IGY 70 centimeter beacon joins its counterparts on 6,
4 and 2 meters operating from the same location and running
the same ttransmission sequence.  All four use the PI4
digital modulation system which was specifically designed to
work with beacons and propagation studies in mind.  You can
download the PI-RX to decode PI4 at tinyurl.com/pirx-beacon-
software.  (DX News)

**

DX

In DX, a team of 15 German operators will be active as 5W0M
from Le Lagoto, Samoa through April 18th.  Operation will be
on 80 through 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY plus 2 meter
EME.  They plan to have four stations active simultaneously.
QSL HF through 6 meters via DL4SVA, direct or by the Bureau
and EME QSOs to DL9MS.

CT1FTR is now active from the Sudan as ST2FT operating both
the HF and VHF bands using a Yaesu FT-857 and a loop
antenna.  Word is that he will be there until June.  QSL via
CT1FTR.

H3QFL and JH3AZC will be operational as V6H and V6S
respectively from Pohnpei Island beginning April 29th and
continuing through May 5th.  They will be active on 80
through 6 meters using SSB, CW, and RTTY and JT65.  QSL
direct to each operators home call.

2E1EUB will be operational from eastern side of Scotland in
the Cairngorms National Park as 2M1EUB through April 13th.
Activity will be on 160, 80, and several satellites  as well
as 2m SSB.  Check out QRZ.com under 2M1EUB for more
information.

DL6JGN and DL2AWG will be on the air from Tokelau as ZK3N
between April 15th and the 30th and not April 23rd and May
8th as first announced.  The reason for the date change is
that the shipping service used has changed it boat schedule
from Samoa to the Tokelau Islands.  If you work this one QSL
as directed by the operators.

A group of at least fourteen operators and growing are
expected to be on the air from Amsterdam Island for 18 days
beginning on January 15th of 2014.  Further information will
be released as things progress toward the operations start-
up date.

Lastly, members of Mexico's Club de Radio Experimentadores
de Occidente are celebrating the 80th anniversary of the
founding of their organization using the special callsign
4A1TD.  Look for this call during various contests as
throughout the year.  The QSL Manager is XE1GZU.

(Above from various DX news Sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: HAM RADIO STOPS A CIVIL WAR

And finally this week the story of ham radios connection to
ending a war.  Heres Jason Law, VK2LAW:

--

To stem the flow of weapons from Mozambique into KwaZulu-
Natal, a two-man special operations team was inserted into
Mozambique for this mission.

One of those two persons was Anthony Turton, selected in
part because of his skills as a radio operator, which was
deemed to be a necessary element for the success of this
high risk but strategically important mission.

Anthony used these skills, honed to a high level of
technical competence as an active radio amateur, to gain
strategic access to the rebel group RENAMO.

Anthony has now authored a book "Shaking Hands with Billy'
which tells this story for the first time.

With international news, I'm Jason, VK2LAW.

--

The book that Jason mentions; Shaking Hands With Billy is
published by Just Done Productions in Durban, South Africa
but appears to only be available at the website
www.shakinghandswithbilly.com. That's where you will also
find more biographical information on the author as well.
(WIA News)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News, TWiT-TV and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from
the Amateur Radio NewslineT.  Our e-mail address is newsline
(at) arnewsline (dot) org.  More information is available at
Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org.  You can also write to us or support us
at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa
Clarita California, 91350

A reminder that the nominating period for the 2013 Amateur
Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award is now open.
Full details and a nominating form are on our website at
www.arnewsline.org/yhoty.

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, near Houston, Texas, saying 73 and
we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.