Friday, September 27, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1885 - September 27 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1885 with a release
date of September 27 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QS-T.  Hams in Australia may keep access
to part of the 2300 MHz band; amateur radio operators in
Portugal get new spectrum and some rules changes; Congress
asks why first responder radios failed during Washington
Navy Yard shooting; the FCC says no to encrypted ham radio
communications and researchers admit that Solar Cycle 24 is
quite puzzling.  Find out the details on Amateur Radio
NewslineT report number 1885 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RESTRUCTURING:  VK AMATEURS MAY WIN PARTIAL REPRIEVE FOR
2300 MHZ

Some good news for hams down-under in V-K land.  This with
word that the Australian amateur radio community could win a
partial reprieve on the expected loss of 2300 to 2302 MHz.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, has the
details:

--

The Wireless Institute of Australia reports that VK amateurs
may win a partial reprieve for access to the 2300 to 2302
MHz amateur band.  This is spectrum that is currently under
threat of reallocation and restructuring.

This past February the Australian Communications and Media
Authority or ACMA  released a discussion paper proposing to
withdraw the 2300 to 2302 MHz amateur allocation so that the
band from 2300 to 2400 MHz could be re-allocated for other
spectrum licensing.

The Wireless Institute of Australia filed a response to the
discussion paper, seeking to have a 150 kHz segment, from
2300 to 2300.15 MHz, retained for the amateur service on at
least a co-primary basis.

The ACMA has posted a report on its website on September
17th saying that it had received 124 submissions in response
to the discussion paper, from which an overwhelming number
objected to the ACMA's proposal.  Specifically, a staggering
93% of submissions disagreed with the ACMA's suggestion, and
of those, 30% indicated support for the position advocated
by the Wireless Institute of Australia.

Even so, the ACMA has advised that, after considering the
information provided in the submissions, its view is that
the amateur service would not be able to retain co-primary
status if 2300 to 2400 MHz was relicensed.  However, the
ACMA goes on to say that it will work closely with the
Wireless Institute of Australia to test whether a
coexistence licensing arrangement might be developed under
section 138 of that nations Radiocommunications Act.
Section 138 provides for a license to be issued within
spectrum where it would not result in unacceptable levels of
interference to equipment operated under the primary users
spectrum license.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF,
across the Tasman Sea in Nelson, New Zealand.

--

In its own statement, the Wireless Institute of Australia
says that it looks forward to working with the regulatory
authority to achieve a positive outcome for the 2300 to 2302
MHz band in that nation.  More is on-line at
tinyurl.com/good-news-down-under.  (VK2ZRH)

**

RESTRUCTURING:  NEW SPECTRUM IN PORTUGAL

CT1JHQ reports that hams in Portugal have some new operating
spectrum as well as a few rules changes.  He says that on
September 6th the nation's telecommunications regulator
issued an addendum to Portugal's National Table of Frequency
Allocations.  In summary, the changes include the allocation
of the new 472 to 479 kHz band to the Amateur Service with
secondary status, and changes to conditions for access to
the 50 to 52 MHz and 1270 to 1300 MHz bands.  The latter
affects only some license classes.  More about this
restructuring is on the web as a PDF file in the Portuguese
language at tinyurl.com/new-Portugal-bands.
(CT1JHQ, South

**

RESCUE RADIO:  COLORADO FLOOD FOLLOW-UP

A follow up to last weeks report on ham radios response to
the massive flooding that hit the state of Colorado.  Bill
Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with the latest:

--

Ham radio volunteers assisting in damage assessment
following the recent flooding to hit parts of Colorado have
a new piece of equipment to work with.  These are remote
control drone aircraft equipped with fast scan amateur
television cameras that permit ARES volunteers the ability
to provide actual real time pictures to served agencies from
the air.  Amanda Alden, K1DDN, lives in Canyon City,
Colorado and is part of the Ham Nation reporting team:

--

K1DDN:  "... They've done some awesome things with amateur
TV and using drones at the same time.  Its... Allen Bishop
who controls this and he is one of those up there in Boulder
ARES.  It has been a pretty neat introduction to helping
them see where damage has been in remote locations and
things like that."

--

The Allen Bishop that Amanda refers to is Boulder County
ARES Emergency Coordinator K0ARK.  According to ARRL
Colorado Section Manager Jack Ciaccia, WM0G, Bishop is one
of the key people involved in rescue radio operations and
kind of the father of the  Mountain Emergency Radio Network
or MERN as described in last weeks newscast.  Meantime
Ciaccia says that amateur television played another role
early on in this emergency:

--

WM0G:  "We have been broadcasting live ATV pictures of the
evacuation choppers from the National Guard back to the
EOC's and we have been linking that through the Internet all
across the country back to FEMA headquarters in D.C.."

--

While the rains are gone there's still a lot of damage
assessment to be done.  And as Jack Ciaccia, WM0G, told us
last week, ham radio volunteers will be there for as long as
they are needed.

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

--

More on this story as developments warrant.  (ARNewslineT,
Ham Nation)

**

RADIO FROM SPACE:  SCIENTISTS ADMIT SOLAR CYCLE 24 LOW IS
PUZZLING

Predictions that 2013 would see an upsurge in solar activity
and geomagnetic storms have proved to be a false alarm.
Instead, the current peak in solar cycle 24 is among the
weakest for a century.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan
Kinford, N8WB, takes a look at what scientists are saying:

--

Subdued solar activity has prompted controversial
comparisons with the Maunder Minimum. The Maunder Minimum,
also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum, is the name
used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to
about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted
by solar observers of the time.  These minimums supposedly
coincided with the coldest period in the last millennium.

But Giuliana DeToma, a solar scientist at the High Altitude
Observatory in Colorado says that the unusually low number
of sunspots in recent years is not an indication that we are
going into a Maunder Minimum, but added that researchers do
not know how or why the Maunder Minimum started.  As such,
they really cannot predict the next one.

Other solar experts think the downturn is linked a different
phenomenon called the Gleissberg cycle.  The Gleissberg
cycle, named after Wolfgang Gleissberg, is thought to be an
amplitude modulation of the 11-year Schwabe Cycle which
predicts a period of weaker solar activity every century or
so. If that turns out to be true, the sun could remain
unusually quiet through the middle of the 2020s.  However,
as scientists still do not fully understand why the
Gleissberg cycle takes place, the evidence is, at best,
inconclusive.

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

--

The bottom line appears to be that the sun has gone
unusually quiet and no one really knows why or how long this
lull in activity will last.
(Macedoniaonline.eu)

**


BREAKING DX NEWS:  VIETNAM COMING TO THE AIR IN OCTOBER

Vietnam will be on the air in a few weeks.  This with word
that N0ODK will be operational from Ho Chi Minh City as
3W2DK  between October 17th and the 24th.  He will then
travel to Phu Quoc Island and be operational from there
using the call XV4MN between October 24th through the 29th.
His operations will be on 20, 17, 15 and 10 meters from both
locations.  After his Phu Quoc Island operation, he will
return to Ho Chi Minh City and will again be on the air from
there until November 2nd.  If you work this rare one, QSL
via N0ODK, direct, by the Bureau or Logbook of the World.
And we will have more DX related news for you later on in
this weeks newscast.  (OPDX)

**

BREAK 1

Time for you to identify your station.  We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the Twin City Amateur Radio Club Net serving
Champaign Urbana Illinois.

(5 sec pause here)

**

RESCUE RADIO: CONGRESSIONAL LAWMAKERS ASK WHY NAVY YARD
RADIO FAILED DURING SHOOTING

Two California lawmakers are calling on federal regulators
to investigate reports that first responder radios failed
during the recent shooting at Washington's Navy Yard.  The
newspaper The Hill reports that Representatives Henry Waxman
and Anna Eshoo sent a letter on Monday, September 23rd to
the heads of the Federal Communications Commission and the
Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, urging them to work with other
federal and local officials to investigate the problems.

In their letter of inquiry, the two lawmakers reportedly
stated that it is imperative that lawmakers understand what
happened to these communications systems and why.  They also
urged the officials to ensure that FirstNet, which is a
planned nationwide wireless network for first responders,
avoids similar communications breakdowns.

The newspaper had previously reported that some federal
firefighters and police officers were unable to communicate
using their radios during the Navy Yard attack.  According
to union officials for first responders some equipment
stopped working as officers entered buildings and at least
one officer was forced to rely on his cellphone.  There were
also widespread reports of battery problems that prevented
the some of the radios from working. More on this story is
on the web at tinyurl.com/Washington-shooting-radio-fail.
(The Hill)

**

RADIO LAW:  FCC SAYS NO TO ENCRYPTED HAM RADIO COMMS

Encrypted communications won't be coming to ham radio
anytime soon.  This as the FCC dismisses a rule making
request from a Massachusetts ham who had asked the
regulatory agency to amend the Part 97 Amateur Service rules
to permit the encryption of certain amateur communications
during emergency operations or related training exercises.

RM-11699 was filed earlier this year by Don Rolph, AB1PH.
In it, he had asked the regulatory body to add an exception
to section 97.113 so as to permit limited encryption during
crisis communications or training exercises related to
readiness for such events.  He argued that communications
when participating in emergency services operations or
related training exercises which may involve information
covered by medical privacy requirements or other sensitive
data required such encryption.

However in denying Rolph's rule change request the FCC
concluded that while the proposal could advance one purpose
of the Amateur Radio in its value to the public that it
would at the same time undermine other characteristics and
purposes of the service. Therefore the FCC says that it
agrees with those who filed comments opposed the concept of
encryption and turned away the request.

Among those who filed in opposition to RM-11699 was the
American Radio Relay League.  As we go to air we have not
heard if AB1PH will appeal the Commissions decision in this
matter.  (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  ATLANTIC CARE ISSUED $4000 NAL FOR
UNAUTHORIZED OPERATION

The FCC has issued a $4000 Notice of Apparent Liability to
Atlanticare Medical Center E-M-S of Egg Harbor Township, New
Jersey.  This for operating radio transmitting equipment on
154.4825 MHz from an unauthorized location in Hammonton, New
Jersey.

In its September 23rd release, the FCC said that on October
17, 2012, the Enforcement Bureau's Philadelphia Office
received a complaint of interference from Sunshine
Communications in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, alleging that
an unidentified digital transmitter was causing harmful co-
channel interference on 154.4825 MHz.  Agents from the
Philadelphia Office monitored radio transmissions
immediately after receiving the complaint.  They then T-
Hunted it to a mobile relay station operating from a water
tower in Hammonton, New Jersey.  The agents conducted an
inspection of the radio transmitting equipment, which was
located inside the Water Tower.  With the assistance of a
Town of Hammonton employee, the agents soon confirmed that
Atlanticare was operating a mobile relay station on the
frequency 154.4825 MHz from that location.

After the inspection, the agents searched the Commission's
records and found that Atlanticare holds a license for
Private Land Mobile Radio Station WQME366, but that it did
not authorize operation of a mobile relay station from the
water tower.

Now, in issuing its decision, the FCC says that pursuant to
the Commission's Forfeiture Policy Statement and Section
1.80 of the Rules, the base forfeiture amount for operating
on an unauthorized frequency is $4,000.  As such,
Atlanticare was given the customary 30 days to pay the
proposed fine or to file an appeal.  (FCC)

**

RADIO LAW:  FCC ANNOUNCES OCTOBER 3 WEBINAR ON LOW POWER FM
RADIO

The Federal Communications Commission has announced that it
will hold its second webinar to answer questions about low
power FM or LPFM radio stations and the process for applying
for a new license during the upcoming October 15th to the
October 29th open filing window.  The webinar will be held
Thursday, October 3rd, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern
Time and will be broadcast live over the Internet at
www.fcc.gov/live.

The session primarily will be a question and answer period
where potential applicants can ask Media Bureau staff their
specific questions on areas such as using the LPFM Channel
Finder, filling out the application and any other issues
related to the LPFM filing window.   Participants will be
able to submit questions by e-mail during the webinar to
lpfm@fcc.gov or by Twitter using the hashtag,
#LPFMquestions.  The Bureau says that it will respond to as
many questions as possible during the session.  Open
captioning will be provided.

The FCC says that it created the Low Power FM broadcast
service in 2000 to create opportunities for new voices to be
heard on the radio airwaves.  (FCC)

**

RADIO BUSINESS:  YAESU INTRODUCES SYSTEM FUSION DIGITAL
AUDIO AT DCC

Yaesu used the occasion of the recent ARRL and TAPR Digital
Communications Conference held in Seattle, Washington to
introduce the latest links in its chain of new products
aimed at the VHF and UHF digital voice market.   Called
System Fusion, the new product line uses the previously
introduced  C4FM / FDMA mode introduced in the company's FT
1DR Handheld and FTM 400DR mobile digital and analog dual
band transceivers coupled with its soon to be released DR-1
dual mode repeater.  It will also have an optional
interconnect to the Internet using a stand alone HRI-200
Wires X interface unit.

Yaesu's System Fusion repeater differs in one important way
from most previous entries into the ham radio digital
marketplace as it retains traditional FM interoperability
along with C4FM / FDMA digital voice operation.  This
according to Yaesu means that both analog and digital users
can share one repeater and communicate with each other.

The presentation of the new System Fusion was made by Dennis
Motschenbacher, K7BV, who is Yaesu's Executive Vice
President Amateur Radio Sales.  It was video recorded by
Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, of Ham Radio Now dot TV.  You can see it
on line at tinyurl.com/yaesu-digital-audio-dcc.  Theres also
a new remailer set up to comment on this new digital voice
system.  Its at groups.yahoo.com/group/YaesuSystemFusion and
YaesuSystemFusion is spelled as one word.  (Yaesu,
HamRadioNow, ARNewsline)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  W6OBB TALKS ABOUT HIS SIRIUS XM RADIO
SHOW

Some names in the news.  First up is radio talk show host
Art Bell, W6OBB, who appears in a recently posted video
where he discusses his new Sirius XM show Dark Matter with
Las Vegas journalist George Knapp.  In the interview, which
was recorded before the premiere of Dark Matter, W6OBB,
explains that it simply the right time to come back.

Bell notes that many questions that he first brought to
radio more than a decade ago are still out there.  Also,
that they more important now to many people then when he was
doing the original Coast to Coast AM show on terrestrial
radio.

Art Bell's Dark Matter premiered on Monday, September 16, on
Sirius XM channel 104.  It airs live Monday through Thursday
from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am Eastern Time.  We are sorry we
can't bring you any sound bites from the interview as it is
copyrighted material, but you can see it on the web at
tinyurl.com/art-bell-video.  (Southgate, YouTube)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  COSMONAUT LEAVES SPACE PROGRAM FOR JOB
IN GAS INDUSTRY

Space travel seems to have lost its magic for at least one
person.  This after a Russian cosmonaut  Colonel Yury
Lonchakov, RA3DT, quit as a commander on a future mission to
become a gas industry worker.

The Mail Online newspaper reports Lonchakov opted out of the
Russian space program for a what the newspaper called a more
interesting job and forgoing his chance to lead a flight to
the International Space Station.

Why leave what's definitely one of the most interesting jobs
a person could ever get?  The Mail says that as a gas
company worker he is expected to make two to three times the
salary as that of a Cosmonaut.  It adds that quitting the
space industry was his personal decision.  He thought he did
enough for space program and got an offer he could not turn
down.  (WIA News, MailOnLine)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  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:  VOYAGER 1 ENTERS INTERSTELLAR SPACE

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is now officially the first man
made object to venture into interstellar space.   Amateur
Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reports:

--

New data indicates that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been
traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas,
present in the space between stars.  The 36-year-old Voyager
is about 19 billion kilometers from our sun in a
transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble,
where some effects from our home star are still evident.

Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of
interstellar space on the heliosphere in 2004.  That's
bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches
far beyond the outer planets.  It was at that point in time
that scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of
the spacecraft's interstellar arrival, knowing the data
analysis and interpretation could take months or years.

Voyager 1 does not have a working direct plasma sensor, but
does carry a plasma wave instrument.  As luck would have it,
a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields that
erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the
data they needed.  When this energy from the sun eventually
arrived at Voyager 1's location on April 9th of this year
the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate causing
the plasma wave instrument to detect the movement.  The
pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the
density of the plasma. The particular type of oscillations
meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times
denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of
the heliosphere.  This was to be expected and was the
confirmation astronomers needed to prove that Voyager 1 had
entered into interstellar space.

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

--

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days
apart in 1977.  Mission controllers still talk to or receive
transmissions from the twin Voyager probes daily though the
signals are currently very faint.  Data from Voyager's
instruments is transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits
per second, and captured by NASA's Deep Space Network
receiving stations. Traveling at the speed of light, a
signal from Voyager 1 takes about 17 hours to travel to
Earth.  (Space and Science)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE :  DIGITAL ATV FROM ISS COMMISSIONING TO
BEGIN

According to a note from ARISS Europe chairman Gaston
Bertels, ON4WF, the new Digital ATV transmitter on board the
International Space Station, will soon be installed in the
Columbus module and commissioned.  This will be done in
several steps, each during a full pass of the ISS over the
Matera ground station.  It is not yet known if these passes
will be chosen in close succession, or if they will cover
several weeks.

ARISS has proposed to the European Space Agency to operate
so called "blank" transmissions during the commissioning
period.  If this is accepted, it means that Ham Video will
transmit permanently without camera.  The camera will not be
used because it is fed on batteries and servicing it would
require a prohibitive amount of crew time. Transmitting
recordings is part of a future project, but not available
presently.

Although ground stations will receive a black image without
audio, these so called blank transmissions will contain all
information needed for the setting up and the fine tuning of
the station.  Collected data will be used for a performance
study of the ARISS L/S-band antennas as well as for an
evaluation of the global system.  (ARISS Europe)

**

HAM RADIO TO SPACE:  SAY HELLO TO JUNO ON OCTOBER 9

NASA has invited hams around the world to say hello to its
Juno spacecraft as it passes close to Earth on October 9th.
The experiment will utilize the amateur 10 meter band using
CW and you will need to know basic Morse to send the two
letters HI.  More information on how to take part is on the
web at www.jpl.nasa.gov/hijuno  (NASA)

**

ON THE AIR:  AZ QSO PARTY OCTOBER 12 - 13

The 2013 Arizona QSO Party, sponsored by the ARRL Arizona
Section and Catalina Radio Club, takes place from 1600 UTC
on October 12th and runs through 0600 UTC on October 13th.
It then continues at 1400 UTC on the 13th and finally
concluding at 23:59 UTC on that same date.  Modes will be
phone, CW and Digital on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 10, 6 and 2
meters.  More information can be had for an e-mail sent to
info (at) azqsoparty (dot) org  (AZ QSO PARTY)

**


RADIO EDUCATION WWROF TO HOST WEBINAR ON NEW CQ WW CONTEST
RULES

The World Wide Radio Operators Foundation has announced
plans to host a webinar to review the updated rules for
the CQ World Wide DX Contest.  The cyberspace event will
take place at 1900 UTC on Sunday, October 6th and will be
hosted by CQ World Wide DX Contest Director Randy Thompson,
K5ZD.  According to a news release, Thompson will also take
questions following the presentation.

The CQ World Wide DX Phone Contest takes place on October
26th and 27th while its CW counterpart is slated for
November 23rd and the 24th.  Pre-registration for the
October 6th webinar is required and can be done on-line at
tinyurl.com/cq-ww-contest-webinar.  (WWROF, DX remailer,
others)

**

DX

In DX, JF2WGN will be active as AH2EA from Guam between
October 17th and the 21st.  His operation will be on the HF
bands. QSL via the bureau to his home callsign only.  If you
want a QSL direct do not send your card until after January
2014.

JF1CCH and JA1FUF will be on the air from West Kiribati
between November 28th and December 4th.  Activity will be on
the HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK.  Their callsigns
and QSL info will be announced shortly.

Lastly, HL05GDB will be active from South Korea around until
November 3rd. Listen out for him on 80 through 6m using all
modes and QSL via HL4CEL.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  THE AGE OF DIGITAL DETOX

And finally, if you have been spending far to much time in
front of your computer screen, then a Pennsylvania hospital
may be able to help you.  This as it becomes the first to
offer an inpatient detox program for those addicted to the
internet.  No we are not kidding as we hear from Amateur
Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK:

--

Bradford Regional Medical Center in Bradford, Pennsylvania
will soon have a program available to assist those whose
lives have spiraled out of control because of their
addiction to the World Wide Web. The program will offer a
voluntary, 10-day in-patient treatment program that was
created by experts in other, more traditional addictions
like alcohol or drugs.

In the hospital wing already occupied by patients with
addictions of other sorts, groups of four internet addicts
will take classes and take part in the sort of group therapy
traditionally reserved for chemical and other dependencies.
This program can also intervene with medication, if needed,
to treat withdrawal symptoms and diagnose and treat the
underlying issues that often accompany the web addiction
problem.

Only one catch.  The price tag of the program could be
prohibitive enough to keep all but the most desperate of
internet addicts away.  A stay for this digital detox
facility will cost around $14,000 and currently no insurance
program will cover it.  So if you are a ham who may be
addicted to web based contacts or just surfing the web night
and day, it may pay to simply try limiting your time on the
Internet and spending most of it using RF to make contacts
on the air.

But before you do anything be sure to consult your physician
for advice.  That's because none of us are doctors nor do we
play one on TV.

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

--

The United States is not the only place where digital detox
will be taking place.  According to a report in The Japan
Times, that nations Education Ministry plans to set up the
camps next year, offering addicted students a chance to
unplug from their computers and smartphones, enjoy some time
in the real world, and face their web based addiction head-
on with tablet-free counseling sessions and lectures.
(London Daily Mail, CTV News, other published reports.)

**

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

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm David Black, KB4KCH, saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1884 - September 20 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1884 with a release
date of September 20 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST.  Ham radio responds as flooding
ravages parts of Colorado; China and the Philippines at
loggerheads over the fate of Scarborough Reef; UK hams set a
new record at 76 Gigahertz; Portugal takes legal action to
combat widespread unlicensed operation and ham radio says a
final goodbye to 73 Magazine founder Wayne Green, W2NSD.
This and more on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1884
coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RESCUE RADIO:  AMATEUR RADIO RESPONDS TO COLORADO FLOODS

Ham radio was once again a first responder as a week of
torrential rainfall brought destruction to parts of
Colorado.  Many of these were the same areas that were
damaged by a series of wind-driven wildfires earlier this
year and back in 2012.  At least seven people have been
confirmed as killed by deadly flooding and efforts to locate
more than 1,000 missing people continue.

Some of the worst flooding followed the path of the High
Park and Waldo Canyon fires.  The 2013 Waldo Canyon fire was
the worst in the state's history burning more than 18,000
acres near Colorado Springs and destroying more than 300
homes.

Jack Ciaccia, WM0G is the ARRL Colorado Section Manager.  He
says that as the flood waters began arriving on Thursday,
August 12th, ham radio operators were ready:

--

Ciaccia"  "The hams in the local ARES groups reported to the
regional and local county emergency operations centers and
manned their positions.  Plus the state Emergency Operations
Center in Centennial Colorado was opened and staffed by
senior ARES personnel"

--

The unprecedented storms dealt a heavy blow to both
utilities and communications.  News reports say that many
cellular telephone towers have either fallen, were washed
away or are simply without power.  This in turn cut off
wireless and broadband communications to several
communities.   Also destroyed have been powerlines and some
landline-based telephone service.  This has left ham radio
as the mainstay of communications into and out of these
areas.


--

Ciaccia:  "The next thing to happen was we started hearing
of evacuation centers being opened kind of spontaneously
because a large building in a dry area was the only
criteria.  And as fast as we could we needed to get
communications to them because in many of the mountain areas
where these evacuation centers were there was no other means
of communications"

--

As the operation progressed, some hams were assigned to
monitor the Boulder County ARES Repeater as well as the two
Mountain Emergency Radio Network Repeaters located in high
altitude communities.  The latter turned out to be true life
savers.  Again, WM0G:

--

Ciaccia:  "We were fortunate to have some hams located in
some of the remote areas which is (the result) of another
project that we had created in the past year since the fires
called the Mountain Emergency Radio Network.  This is a
small network of repeaters that the ARES hams have trained
upward of 60 mountain residents and who have gotten their
licenses.  We then repurposed a bunch of VHF radios - both
handy talkies and mobiles for them to utilize these
repeaters.

"And just tonight we were told by the Fire Chief in one of
those remote communities that had it not have been for that
MERM repeater system that there probably would have been a
lot more deaths because people were able to communicate with
each other as to what was happening, where the destruction
was and how to get out."

--

On Monday the 16th the ARES groups received new marching
orders.  In addition to search assistance, evacuations,
shelter communications and logistics another role has been
added.  That of disaster assessment:

--

Ciaccia:  "Disaster assessment teams from the Red Cross and
from the counties will be mobilizing and we have been asked
to provide hams, radios and also video cameras to record
video of the disaster areas.  So we will be taking on that
assignment as well."

--

According to Ciaccia so far some 200 ham radio volunteers
have been deployed in and around the various flood-stricken
counties with some providing communication where no other
means existed or still exists.  News reports say that at the
height of the flooding that the towns of Estes Park, Lyons
and Jamestown were relying on ham radio as their only
contact with the outside world.

This is a still developing story and we will have more in
future Amateur Radio Newsline reports.  (ARNewslineT)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  XE HAMS RESPOND TO TROPICAL STORMS INGRID AND
MANUEL

Mexican radio amateurs have been using 40 and 20 meters as
part of their response to the effects of tropical storms
Ingrid and Manuel.  According to a posting to Twitter by
that nations national amateur radio society, both 7.060 and
14.120 MHz have been activated in the wake of these severe
weather outbursts.  Amateurs elsewhere are asked to please
keep those two frequencies clear until post storm
communications have been secured. (FMRE, Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT:  CHINA VS. THE PHILIPPINES OVER SCARBOROUGH REEF

DXpeditions to Scarborough Reef and other locations in that
region could become a lot harder if not impossible if
China makes good on its expected move to occupy a disputed
chain of shoals in the South China Sea.  This according to a
top Philippines' diplomat who says that China may act to
expand China's territory before regional rules on maritime
behavior comes into effect.

Albert del Rosario is the Philippines Foreign Affairs
Secretary.  On September 4th he said that his nation
believes China's incursion into the area known as the
Scarborough Shoal is a threat to peace in Southeast Asia.
But in Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman described the
shoal area as China's inherent territory.

Scarborough Shoal or Reef, also known as Huangyan Island, is
a shoal located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon
Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea.  It is
a disputed territory claimed by the People's Republic of
China, by Taiwan and the Philippines.  The shoal's status is
often discussed in conjunction with other territorial
disputes in the South China Sea such as those involving
the Spratly Islands or the Paracel Islands.  Since the 2012
Scarborough Shoal standoff access to the territory has been
restricted by the People's Republic of China.

Tension in the South China Sea has risen of late as China
uses its growing naval might to assert extensive claims over
the oil and gas rich waters more forcefully.  This in turn
has been fuelling fears of a military clash for some time.

The last major operation from Scarborough was in 2007 where
the BS7H team made over 45,000 QSO's.  Currently Scarborough
is listed as number 21 in the Club Log Most Wanted List and
number 7 in the latest most needed list published by the DX
Magazine.

(defensenews.com, inquirer.net, South China Morning Post,
others)

**

RADIO RECORDS:  UK HAMS SET 76 GIGAHERTZ DISTANCE RECORD

A new United Kingdom distance record on 76 Gigagertz of 102
kilometers was achieved on Saturday September 14th.  This in
a contact between Chris Towns G8BKE and John Hazell G8ACE at
Batcombe Hill, in Dorset and Ian Lamb GW8KQW on Eglwysilan
Mountain in Gwent.

The success of this attempt is a result of continual
innovation and systematic improvements and testing of the
equipment built and used by the Wessex microwave
enthusiasts.  This with support from other microwave radio
devotees in the UK and Germany.

This is also believed to be the first 76GHz contact between
Wales and England.

The mode used was narrowband FM.  More is on the web at
tinyurl.com/uk-76ghz-record.  (Southgate)

**

BREAK 1

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the W1QWT Repeater serving Scituate,
Massachusetts.


(5 sec pause here)


**

ENFORCEMENT:  PORTUGAL TAKES ACTION AGAINST ILLEGAL RADIO
COMMUNICATIONS

Portugal is going after the radio bad guys.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has more:

--

Jose Francisco, CT4AN, reports that the Portuguese national
telecommunications regulator ANACOM has taken action against
illegal radio communications in that nation.  In a second
joint action, ANACOM and the Portuguese Maritime Police
seized radio gear and issued heavy fines to ten unlicensed
operators.  Besides having the equipment confiscated, the
operators face monetary forfeitures which may reach close to
1650 US Dollars each.

The Authorities said that the raids were based on
interference complaints to legal Portuguese radio operators.
These included stations licensed to operate in the Amateur
Radio Service, Aeronautical and Maritime Services and on
certain unspecified commercial radio frequencies.

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

--


More is on the web at tinyurl.com/PortugalCommsRegulator.

(Southgate)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  AUSTRALIAN CB OPERATOR ACCUSED OF HARASSMENT

A 44-year-old Adelaide, Australia, man has appeared in court
charged with being abusive over his CB radio.  The
Australian Communications and Media Authority said the man
had been charged with five offences following an
investigation into his alleged abuse and harassment over
that nations Citizens Band Radio service.

The unidentified man appeared at the Adelaide Magistrates
Court on Friday, September 6 and was released under an order
to appear again on November 15th.  Under Australia's Radio
Communications Act it is against the law to operate a CB
radio in a way that would cause a person to be seriously
alarmed or affronted or to harass.  It should be noted that
Australia is a nations whose legal system protects the
identity of those accused of legal infractions until a
conviction has taken place.

(Seven News Australia)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  MYSTERY AM STATION ON THE AIR IN OMAHA NB
ISSUED NOV

The FCC appears to be admitting that it is stumped by a
mystery station in Omaha, Nebraska, that operates on 1490
KHz in the AM broadcast band.

According to the Omaha World Herald newspaper, the station
uses the call letters KOMJ but is seemingly without owners,
advertisers or disc jockeys.  Instead it plays a continuous
loop of oldies that some liken to a 1960's jukebox stuffed
with an endless supply of coins.

In papers filed last month the FCC admitted it was stumped
in that it could not locate the stations owner nor its
studio location.  The regulatory agency said in its filing
that the station is technically owned by Cochise
Broadcasting, in Jackson, Wyoming but that it could find a
phone number nor a website for the company.

Regular listeners to the station's oldies format say that
commercials aren't part of the entertainment cycle leaving
questions about who is paying for the programming.  Meantime
on August 14th the FCC did issue a Notice of Violation to
Cochise Broadcasting for various alleged violations of its
rules in relation to the operation of KOMJ.

More on this fascinating story is on the web at
tinyurl.com/Omaha-mystery-station.  The FCC Notice of
Violation can be found at tinyurl.com/mystery-radio-n-o-v.

(Omaha World-Herald)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  ARMY MARS INVITES PARTNERS TO COLLABORATE IN
HOMELAND SECURITY OPERATION

Army MARS Headquarters has invited the Chiefs of Air Force
and Navy-Marine Corps MARS to join in a National
Communications Exercise.  One that will measure the
auxiliary force's capabilities in the event that normal
communications are disrupted throughout North America.

The test will run for 48 continuous hours from November 3rf
to the 5th and will be closely monitored by a Joint Command
responsible to the Defense Department for homeland security.
This exercise culminates a year-long series of escalating
preparations by Army MARS for responding to all types of
complex emergencies.  These could be anything from a natural
phenomenon or terrorist attack that might render the
Internet, long distance telephone, and national news and
media networks unusable across the United States.

(N1IN, QRZ)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  NEW EMCOMM GUIDEBOOK FROM DHS

A very informative guidebook authored by Ross
Merlin, WA2WDT,  and titled NIFOG is described as a great go-
to compendium of radio frequencies, channels, and other
tidbits if information that can be essential in times of an
emergency.

The guide is authored by Merlin who works in the Department
of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Communications.  He
authored the guidebook for the agency and says that it
contains page after page of frequency information, operating
procedures, formulas, and rules and regulations from both
the FCC and the NTIA.  Specific subject material includes
frequency and channel data for Fire, EMS, Police, and Law
Enforcement as well as Mutual Aid channels in VHF, UHF, 700
MHz, and others.  Also included is communications
information for marine, aviation, NOAA weather, MURS, GMRS,
FRS, and just about any radio you might encounter in an
emergency.

Te guidebook is available in printed and downloadable
formats.   The primary Website where downloads copies are
available is publicsafetytools.info.  Copies printed on
waterproof paper, are reportedly available free of charge
from the Department of Homeland Security.  Please
contact NIFOG (at) HQ (dot) DHS (dot) GOV for details.
(AA7BQ, QRZ.com)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  OCTOBER SKY - THE ROCKET BOYS FESTIVAL

The "October Sky : Rocket Boys Festival" takes place October
4th to the 6th in Beckley, West Virginia.  And as a part of
the celebration the Black Diamond Amateur Radio Club will be
operating a special event station on October 5th with the
call W8R.  Frequencies to be listening on are 7.280 and
14.280 MHz. +/- 3.Khz.  More is on the web at
tinyurl.com/rocket-boys-festival-2013

(KB8QEU)

**

RADIO HAPPENINGS:  COLLEGE RADIO DAY OCTOBER 1

College Radio Day 2013 will take place on Tuesday, October
1st.  This annual event has by now grown to 650
participating stations in 40 countries.  This includes
Italy, Israel, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Mexico,
Colombia, the United Kingdom and Sweden to name only a few.

College Radio Day is described as a 40 hour relay which
involves presenters passing the mic figuratively from
station to station while circumnavigating the globe over the
airwaves.  It was begun by Rob Quicke, who is a
communications professor at William Paterson University, in
New Jersey.  He also oversees programming at WPSC- FM, which
was named the "Best College Radio Station" in the U.S. in
both 2012 and 2013.  More about the event is on the web at
collegeradioday.com.

(RW)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  AMSAT-NA BOD ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED

The results of the 2013 Amsat North America Board of
Directors election has been announced.  Barry Baines,
WD4ASW; Tony Monteiro, AA2TX; Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, and Mark
Hammond, N8MH, will serve on the board for two year terms.
The first alternate is JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM, and the second
alternate is Steve Coy, K8UD.  688 AMSAT-North America
members cast votes in this year's election.

(AMSAT-NA)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  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)

**

CHANGING OF THE GUARD:  WAYNE GREEN, W2NSD - SK

The changing of the guard in amateur radio continues with
word of the passing of one of the hobby's true legends.
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has the story of the life and legacy
of Dr. Wayne Green, W-2-Never-Say-Die:

--

One of the people who truly changed the face of ham radio in
both the 20th and 21st centuries has gone to his final
reward.  This with the sad news that Dr. Wayne S. Green II,
W2NSD, of Hancock, New Hampshire, died September 13th at the
age of 91.

Dr. Green was an outspoken figure during his many years
writing about the hobby.  His public career really began
with a five year stint at CQ Magazine in the 1950's before
founding 73 Magazine in late 1959. While at the helm of 73
he often used the title of El Supremo and Founder of the
magazine which he published until 2003.

Over the years Dr. Green was known for many things.  He
traveled the world and did his best to introduce ham radio
in developing nations.  He was one of the earliest
supporters of emerging modes such as RTTY, FM and repeaters
and even started the first ham radio digital communications
magazine.  And as each new technology came along, there was
W2NSD as its point man urging all of us to embrace the same
dreams that he had.  Be it ham radio, personal computing,
the Compact Disc or numerous other technologies, there was
Wayne Green urging anyone who would listen to give it a try.

But what Wayne Green, W2NSD, will likely best be remembered
for was his editorials.  He wrote over a thousand of them
covering everything from giving his personal support to even
the most mundane aspects of our hobby to alternate science
such as his belief in producing energy through cold fusion.
The list of what he wrote about goes on and on.  It took a
lifetime for him to write and for many of us; it took a good
part of our lifetime to read.  And in the process his zest
for life and commitment to ham radio and technology changed
both for the better.

On his blog, Dr. Green left a short note for all of us.  It
was his final entry.  Please permit me to read it to you as
it sums up the life of the man as he saw himself:

The wall clock clicks out the seconds
With so many yet ahead, I've ignored them
A battery keeps the clock going
I wonder how my own battery is doing?

The one with the most toys wins
Awash in toys, I'll pass on
What did I win?
Now what happens to my toys?

I'll leave books, records, tapes, and photos
By the thousands
A lifetime archive
Worthless to anyone but me.

Pictures of family and friends
Treasured books and music
The mileposts of my life
All will be headed for the trash heap.

Like my father, grandfather, and great grandfather
I'll be another gravestone
In a northern New Hampshire cemetery
And the world will carry on as if nothing had happened.

I have no complaints
I've enjoyed the world and helped it a bit
What would I change if I could do my life over?
Get a thick pad and I'll make a list.

73 Wayne.  We will see you once again on the other side of
the great ethereal abyss.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
remembering the years gone bye.

--

Wayne Green's longtime associate Daron Libby will be keeping
Dr. Green's on-line blog at waynegreen.com/wayne/news.html
active for the foreseeable future.  If you have a personal
thought that you would like to see added to it please e-mail
it to dhlc (at) Comcast (dot) net.

(ARNewslineT)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  HAM OWNED COMPANY DEVELOPS HF ASSET
TRACKING NETWORK

HySky Technologies Inc. is using High Frequency
communications for an innovative asset tracking and
reporting network.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Skeeter Nash,
N5ASH, has the details:

--

The company whose the Chief Executive Officer is Charles
Maynard,  KJ4PPE, recently gained an FCC license to use 954
H-F channels each 3 kHz wide.  The mobile tracking units
using this spectrum will transmit a maximum of 1 watt
Effective Radiated Power using a small low-efficiency
broadband antenna.  The data will be received by nine
stations located at low-noise sites across the USA which
will then be forward the data to customers.

The signal being transmitted will have a bandwidth of 2800
Hz and an emission designator of 2K80G1D.  The company says
that a military High Frequency waveform will be used and
claims the system will overcome coverage and other problems
associated with traditional tracking devices using cell-
phone or satellite transmission interfaces.

The license issued to HySky reportedly covers up to 10,000
devices operating in the United States, including Hawaii,
Alaska and US territories but word is that this service
could expand worldwide.

Im Skeeter Nash, N5ASH.

--

More about the company and its rather interesting work is on
the web at www.hysky.com (Southgate)

**


HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  NEW INFLATABLE ANTENNA FOR CUBESATS

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that
researchers have developed a new design of inflatable
antenna for CubeSats that can fold into a compact space and
then inflate when on-orbit.

Due to their small size CubeSats have up to now been limited
to small monopole or dipole antennas.  Such low gain omni-
directional antennas have in turn restricted CubeSats to Low
Earth Orbits using lower data rates than would be possible
with a large directional antenna array.

But the new inflatable antenna may significantly increase
the communication range of these small satellites, enabling
them to travel much farther in the solar system.   It is
claimed the distance that can be covered by a satellite with
an inflatable antenna array is seven times farther than that
of existing CubeSat communications.

The MIT team, led by Alessandra Babuscia, is part of the
research group of Professor Sara Seager, KB1WTW.  The group
also includes graduate students Mary Knapp, KB1WUA, Benjamin
Corbin, and Mark Van de Loo from MIT, and Rebecca Jensen-
Clem from the California Institute of Technology.
(Southgate)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  KF5LJG HEADED TO ISS IN LATE SEPTEMBER

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, along with Russian
cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryzanskiy are scheduled to
launch September 25 to join their Expedition 37 crewmates
aboard the International Space Station.

Hopkins will be the first member of the 2009 NASA astronaut
class to fly into space. While aboard the ISS, KF5LJG will
install the new Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station Ham Video gear. He has already received pre-flight
training on how to commission the amateur radio digital
video equipment.

Hopkins will join Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin,
RN3FI, and Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP and Karen
Nyberg.  Yurchikhin, Nyberg, and Parmitano arrived in May
and will return to Earth in November.  (K6LCS)

**

DX

In DX, DL1YAF is currently on the air stroke VP9 from
Hamilton. Bermuda.  He will be there through September 25th
operating holiday style on CW, SSB and PSK31.  QSL via home
callsign, either direct or via the bureau.

Members of Canada's Association de Radio Amateurs Sept Iles
Inc. will be active as VE2CSI during the CQ World Wide DX
RTTY Contest on September 28th and 29th as a Multi-2 entry.
Operators mentioned are VE2EBK, VE2SG and possibly others.
QSL via M0URX.

DL3JH will be operational from Sri Lanka as 4S7JG until
September 29th.  He is active on the High Frequency bands
only.  QSL via his home call.

Lastly, JI1LET will be active from Chichijima Island in the
Ogasawara chain from October 25th through November 3rd
operating signing JD1BOI.  He will be active on 80 through 6
meters using CW, SSB and RTTY.  QSL via his home call direct
only

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  NASA TO REACTIVATE WISE INFRARED RADIO
TELESCOPE

And finally this week, a currently mothballed space
telescope will soon have a new mission in space as we hear
from Newsline's Jeff Clark, K8JAC:

--

NASA will reactivate a currently unused infrared space
telescope for a three-year mission.  This to search for
potentially dangerous asteroids on a collision course with
Earth.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, telescope
also will hunt for targets for a future mission to send a
robotic spacecraft to rendezvous with a small asteroid and
relocate part or all of it into a high orbit around the
moon.  Astronauts would then visit the relocated asteroid
during a test flight of NASA's deep-space Orion capsule
which is slated for launch sometime in 2021.

Launched in December 2009, the WISE telescope spent 13
months scouting for telltale infrared signs of asteroids,
stars, distant galaxies and other celestial objects,
especially those too dim to radiate in visible light.  As
part of its all-sky mapping mission, WISE observed more than
34,000 asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter and another 135 asteroids in orbits that come close
to Earth.  In all, researchers cataloged more than 560
million objects from data radioed back to Earth from the
WISE space telescope.

Im Jeff Clark, K8JAC.

--

Orion and a heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System
which will carry Wise follow-on team on their mission are
scheduled for an unmanned debut test flight sometime in
2017.  (NASA)

**

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 Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in South Mississippi, saying 73 and
we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1883 - September 13 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1883 with a release
date of September 13 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST.  New Zealand and Japan sign a new
reciprocal operating agreement; unlicensed operations on 2
meters in Europe becomes a growing problem due to cheap hand
held radios; a wildfire in Northern California destroys
several repeaters; a move to restructure the FCC passes the
House pf Representatives and a pair of solar powered pico
balloons set a new European flight endurance record.  Find
out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number
1883 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

WORLDBEAT:  RECIPROCAL LICENSING AGREEMENT REACHED BETWEEN
NEW ZEALAND AND JAPAN

New Zealand and Japan have signed an agreement formalizing
reciprocal licensing between the two countries.  Amateur
Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, reports:

--


Under the agreement the New Zealand General Amateur
Operators Certificate will be recognized as equivalent to
the Japanese First Class Radio Operator's qualification and
a New Zealand Amateur will be will be permitted to establish
and operate a station as an amateur radio operator in Japan.

Similarly the Japanese First and Second Class Radio
Operator's qualification will be recognized as holding the
equivalent to the New Zealand General Amateur Operators
Certificate.  This means that the holder of a Japanese First
or Second Class Radio Operator's qualification visiting New
Zealand may operate for up to 90 days using their Japanese
assigned call sign, with the addition of the ZL prefix.

Not included in the agreement are Japan's Third and Fourth
Class amateur license holders because there appear to be no
New Zealand licenses with equivalent levels of
qualification.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, on
the South Island in Nelson, New Zealand.

--

No date was announced for when this new reciprocal licensing
agreement will take effect.  (NZART)

**

ENFORCEMENT: UNLICENSED OPERATIONS DISCOVERED ON 2 METERS IN
EUROPE

The August issue of the International Amateur Radio Union
Monitoring System newsletter reports the amateur 2 meter
band in Europe is being used illegally by unlicensed
stations using what are described as cheap hand held
transceivers.

The monitoring service says it has already received reports
from several countries about unlicensed operators using VHF
FM handhelds in the 144 MHz band.  These include such wide
ranging activities as taxi-nets in the Canary Islands,
fishery operations in the Bay of Biscay and a number of
undefined private users in Germany.

The IARU Monitoring System asks that all radio amateurs to
be aware of this situation.  Additionally they should inform
their relevant national authorities when this type of
activity is encountered.   Also to please log their reports
of any amateur band intruders online at tinyurl.com/2-meter-
intruder-watch.  (IARU-R1)

**

RADIO HAZARD:  CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE TAKES NUMEROUS REPEATERS
OFF THE AIR AND DESTROYS SEVERAL

A wildfire in Contra Costa County, California that started
on September 8th forced the evacuation of at least 100
homes.  It also took a cluster of repeaters primarily
serving the San Francisco Bay area off the air.  Four of the
repeaters are owned by the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club.
They were the lucky ones because all they lost was power to
their systems.  Jim Siemons, AF6PU, is a spokesman for the
club:

--

AF6PU:  "MDARC has three ATV repeaters on 440, 900 MHz ans
1.2 GHz and an APRS Digipeater ob 144.390 MHz. There are
other buildings up on the hill which are being fed by
generators and the owner of the site is going to string
additional power lines to feed our vault and we might be
back on the air by this weekend. (ed Note:  That would be
Sept. 15th.)

--

According to Siemons, the clubs W6CX APRS digipeater was
only recently moved to the north peak of Mount Diablo after
vandals toppled the communications tower which was the
systems home on another peak known as Rocky Ridge.

Not so lucky on Mt. Diablo were several other repeaters
housed in another container.  This included the K6MDD D-Star
repeaters, the W6UUU MotoTRBO repeater, and one of the sites
of the Cactus Intertie.  The latter is a privately owned
amateur radio system made up of a large number of remotely
controlled FM base stations that are interconnected
utilizing full duplex links.  This includes the system on
Mt. Diablo.  According to AF6PU, salvaging anything from
that site is unlikely:

--

AF6PU:  "They were actually closest to where the fire went
into the vault and firefighters were able to put the fire
out but they had to break into the vault and spray water all
over the equipment so it appears to be a total loss."

--

Siemons said that it was only thanks to the firefighters who
risked their lives in fighting the Mt. Diablo fire that most
of the radio sites were saved:

--

AF6PU: "The efforts of the firefighters up there were
incredible.  I was watching them drive around through my
binoculars and was monitoring their tactical channels and I
can tell you that they put themselves in a position that no
normal person would put themselves in to try and save the
communications towers that are on the North and South peaks
of Mt.  Diablo."
--

As this newscast is being prepared firefighters were calling
the blaze as being only 20 percent contained with no control
date mentioned. (AF6PU, MDARC, published News Reports)

**

RADIO LAW:  FIRST RESTRUCTURING MEASURE PASSES HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES

The United States House of Representatives has passed the
first of two FCC reform bills by a 415 to nothing vote.

The FCC Consolidated Reporting Act is co-sponsored by
Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg
Walden, W7EQI, Representative Ranking Member Anna Eshoo and
Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise.  The measure
consolidates what are now eight separate reports required by
Congress on the industries regulated by the commission into
one biennial report.  The measure known as H.R. 2844 also
eliminates four outdated reports, including one on the
status of competition in the telegraph industry that dates
back to 1934.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are still working on another FCC reform
bill which would, among other things, establish more shot
clocks for proceedings along with requiring the agency to
publish the full text of a rule for public comment before a
commission vote.  A shot clock is used in some sports to
quicken the pace of a given athletic event game.  In this
case the game is speeding up the activities of the FCC.
(RW, TVT, other news reports)

**

RADIO LAW:  NAB OPPOSES CERTAIN CHANGES TO RF EXPOSURE
REGULATIONS

The National Association of Broadcasters has come out in
opposition to a pair of proposed changes to the FCC's RF
exposure rules as outlined in ET Dockets 13-84 and 03-137.
The trade association is focusing specifically on a
suggestion to reduce the allowable amount of RF emissions
for so-called transient persons near a radiating antenna.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has the
details:

--

Currently, the FCC allows broadcasters to treat transient
people or persons, which include untrained employees or
members of the public, the same as RF-trained employees.
This is provided such transients are made aware of their
possible exposure and such exposure is only brief and not
normally repeated.  The transient exception only applies to
controlled environments, like fenced areas near tower sites
or antennas on rooftops with locked access.

Under changes to the RF exposure rules the FCC recently
adopted, workers in controlled environments must be made
aware of their possible exposure by verbal or written
communication and must receive training on how they can
control their exposure.  The stricter general population
uncontrolled exposure limits typically apply to situations
where members of the public or employees have no or little
knowledge of potential exposure and little means to mitigate
their exposure.

According to NAB Instead of applying the occupational or
controlled limits to such transients, the FCC proposal would
instead apply a newly created, and effectively undefined,
general population controlled limit.  This in turn would
likely require significant and costly changes to the way
licensees comply with RF exposure rules.

The broadcast lobby group also disagree with the FCC
proposal that transient people should be supervised by
trained occupational personnel within the controlled area
where the general population limit is exceeded.

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

--

Comments on further changes were due to ET Dockets 13-84 and
03-137 were due to the Commission.  by September 3rd.  Reply
comments are still open with a cutoff date of November 1st.
(RW)

**

BREAK 1

Time for you to identify. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the
KC2DAA repeater serving Mount Beacon New York.

(5 sec pause here)


**

DISTRACTED DRIVING:  NHSTA ISSUES VOLUNTARY DISTRACTED
DRIVING FUTURE ELECTRONIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

A new set of voluntary guideless for the operation of future
vehicle electronics has been issued by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration.  Amateur Radio Newsline's
Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has more:

--

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has
released its visual-manual driver distraction guidelines for
electronic devices in vehicles.  They apply to original, in-
vehicle electronic devices used by the driver to perform
secondary tasks where the driver must look at a device,
manipulates a related control with his or her hand and
watches for visual feedback.  Communications, entertainment,
information gathering and navigation fall under this
umbrella.  Although the guidelines apply to new technology,
they also are applicable to common electronic devices
referred to as conventional information or communications
systems, such as AM/FM radios, satellite radios, CD players,
cassette players and MP3 players.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes
some secondary tasks also interfere with a driver's ability
to control the car safely.  Two examples would be displaying
video or scrolling text.  Other activities the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration considers distracting
include displaying video not related to driving,
automatically scrolling text, large amounts of static text
for reading and manual text entry.  The guidelines recommend
these devices be designed to lock out the driver's ability
to access them at a certain point if the vehicle is moving.
However they would not  mean to block simple map displays
and related text, so long as the material is displayed in a
safe manner.

The bottom line according to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration is that any task performed by a driver
should be interruptible at any time, and that the driver,
not the device, should control the pace of task
interactions.

How this could all impact on the development of the next
generation of add-on mobile two-way radio gear including
rigs used by ham radio operators can not even be speculated
on at this time, but simplified eyes on the road operation
will be most likely

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

--

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a part
of the Department of Transportation.  It issued these
nonbinding, voluntary guidelines to promote safety by
discouraging the introduction of excessively distracting
devices in vehicles.  You can find the entire 281 page set
of guidelines on the agency's website www.nhtsa.gov and on
the Department of Transportation's distracted driving
website distraction.gov.  (RW, NHTSA, DoT)


**

RADIO LAW:  POWAY CALIFORNIA MAY LOOSEN ITS HAM RADIO
ANTENNA REGULATIONS

Some good news for hams living in Poway, California.  At a
meeting on Tuesday September 3rd the Poway City Council took
action to assure about fifty local amateur radio operators
that the regulatory body will take a serious look at
revising local planning codes.  This to make certain that
they conform with federal laws including PRB One regarding
the placement of antennas on private property.

Currently the city requires every antenna installation to go
through a minor development review application process,
which costs the applicant $719.  In late 2005 the council
gave its preliminary approval to some changes, but never
followed through with the final adoption.

Now, all five council members have agreed that the
application fee should be waived or at least significantly
reduced.  They then instructed the city staff to return in
30 days with a plan and timeline for the regulation review.

The radio operators were invited to the meeting by Poway
Mayor Don Higginson.  They reportedly applauded at the end
of the discussion.  (pomeradonews.com)

**

RESCUE RADIO: NM HAMS AID IN SEARCH FOR MISSING FIREFIGHTER

Ham radio was involved in a search for a missing
firefighter found dead Friday, September 6th atop a New
Mexico mesa, where he apparently had crashed his All Terrain
Vehicle.

Hundreds of volunteers, firefighters, search and rescue
teams and the Civil Air Patrol had spent a week combing some
50 square miles of steep canyons looking for Token Adams.
Adams was a 41-year-old U.S. Forest Service fighter who
disappeared August 30th while checking a report of smoke.

Some of those involved in the search effort included
Sandoval and  Bernalillo County ARES Members.  New Mexico
Section Emergency Coordinator  Michael Scales, K5SCA, and
Section Manager, Bill Kauffman, W5YEJ, were both directly
involved in the search mission.  (W5WHN)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  NEW WILLIAMSON COUNTY TEXAS EOC INCLUDES HAM
RADIO

A new $18 million Emergency Operations Center in Williamson
County, Texas, will provide a room for amateur radio
operators.

Jarred Thomas is the Emergency Management Coordinator.  He
says that local amateur radio operators will also have a
room in which to gather.  He notes that natural disasters
such as a 1997 F 5 tornado with winds in excess of 200 miles
per hour is in part the reason for the Emergency Operations
Center's existence.

The new nerve center will be command central for major
emergencies and also houses the county's 911 communications
department, which had outgrown its home at the sheriff's
office.  A large conference center and separate room for
media are also included at the EOC. More is on the web at
tinyurl.com/hams-at-new-eoc.  (The Statesman)

**

RADIO BUSINESS:  AMERICAN TOWER TO ACQUIRE GLOBAL TOWER
PARTNERS

If you own a repeater or remote station sited on a tower or
other structure operated by Global Tower Partners you will
likely soon have a new landlord.  This with word that
American Tower Corporation has announced an agreement to
acquire the outstanding common membership interests of MIP
Tower Holdings LLC, for a purchase price of approximately
$4.8 billion.  MIP is the parent company of Global Tower
Partners, and its related companies

American Tower says it expects that the acquisition of the
MIP Tower holdings portfolio will generate approximately
$345 million in revenues and approximately $270 million of
gross margin in 2014. The transaction is subject to
customary regulatory and closing conditions.  If all goes as
expected the purchase will likely be completed in the fourth
quarter of this year.  (American Tower, Global Tower
Partners, RW)

**

RADIO BUSINESS:  FUTURE AES SUPERFEST CANCELLED

The annual March Amateur Electronic Supply Superfest is no
more.  In an e-mail posted to the Chicago's NS9RC North
Shore Amateur Radio Club remailer, Don Whitman, KK9H, says
that he learned from AES employee Ray Grenier, K9KHW, that
there would no longer be an AES Superfest held in Milwaukee.

Grenier, who spoke to Whitman at the recent Radio Expo
convention  reportedly mentioned several factors that led to
the decision to abandon future Superfests.  Among these are
the high prices for gasoline that has curtailed the number
of Illinois residents that drive up to Wisconsin for the
event.  Also there has been a drop in the number of
commercial exhibitors willing to come due to increased
expenses and the difficulty of finding interesting speakers.
(KC9RP, NS9RC)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  W2TRR JOINS BURK TECHNOLOGY

Burk Technology has announced that it has added former
Buckley Broadcasting and WOR - AM Director of Engineering
Tom Ray, W2TRR,  to its team.   Burk Technology designs,
builds and sells high-quality electronics that monitor and
control mission-critical facilities and functions.

During his 15 years tenure WOR AM in New York, Tom Ray
rebuilt the facility and made WOR the first high-power AM HD
radio station in the country.  He is a regular contributor
to the trade publication Radio World, has published several
papers for the National Association of Broadcasters
Engineering Conference, has been on the Society of Broadcast
Engineers board and was chairman of SBE Chapter 15 in New
York City for nine years.

Currently, W2TRR owns Tom Ray Broadcast Consulting in New
Windsor, New York.  His QRZ.com bio says that he is a member
of the Orange County New York Amateur Radio Club and the
Broadcast Engineering Amateur Radio Society which is run by
ABC Radio and Television. Ray also operates an APRS
digipeater and i-gate station. The home station call is
W2TRR and mobile operation is as W2TRR-9.  (RW, QRZ)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  CONTEST UNIVERSITY 2014 IN DAYTON OHIO

Its never to early to plan for the future and in that vein
comes word that Contest University 2014 will be held next
May 15th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dayton, Ohio.

According to organizer K3LR, if you stayed at the Crowne
Plaza for the 2013 event, filled out a 2014 reservation form
and dropped it off at the registration desk, then you should
already have an e-mail confirmation from the hotel for your
2014 reservation.  If not and you would like to reserve a
room contact the hotel directly and use the code CON.  The
base room rate for the Contest room University is $139.00
per night.

Hamvention 2014 runs from May 16th to the 18th with separate
ansulary activities like Contest University taking place
earlier in the week.  (Contest University)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  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)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  STANFORD SOLAR SCIENTISTS SOLVE ONE OF
THE SUN'S MYSTERIES

Solar scientists at Stanford University in California have
solved one of the few remaining fundamental mysteries of how
the sun works.  And its something that hams will want to
know as it does affect propagation.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has the details:

--

According to researchers, the mechanism in question is known
as meridional flow and is said to work something like a
conveyor belt.  Magnetic plasma migrates on the sun's
surface from the equator to the poles.  It then cycles into
the sun's interior on its way back to the equator.  The rate
and depth beneath the surface of the sun at which this
process occurs is critical for predicting the sun's magnetic
and flare activity, but has remained largely unknown until
now.

To find out how it actually worked, researchers used
the Stanford-operated Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager or
HMI instrument onboard NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory to
track solar waves in much the way seismologists would study
seismic movements beneath the surface of the Earth.  Every
45 seconds for the past two years, the HMI's Doppler radar
recorded images of plasma waves moving across the sun's
surface which were then radioed back to Earth.  By
identifying patterns of sets of waves, the scientists could
recognize how the solar materials move from the sun's
equator toward the poles, and how they return to the equator
through the sun's interior.

One startling discovery is that the equator-ward flow is
actually sandwiched between two layers of poleward flowing
currents.  This is a more complicated mechanism than
previously thought.  Its also one that could help refine
predictions of the sun's activity.

For example, some computer models projected that the current
solar cycle would be strong, but observations have since
showed it is actually much weaker than the previous cycle.
This inconsistency could be due to the previously unknown
inaccuracies of the meridional circulation mechanism used in
the simulations.

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

--

The report was published in the online edition of The
Astrophysical Journal Letters.  (Space & Science)

**

RADIO IN SPACE:  US RESEARCH PROBE HEADS TOWARD THE MOON

More than 40 years after the last Apollo astronauts left the
moon, NASA has launched a small robotic spacecraft to
investigate Earths primary satellite.  The Ladee spacecraft,
which is charged with studying the lunar atmosphere and
dust, soared aloft aboard a Minotaur launch vehicle rocket a
little before midnight on Friday, September 6th with its
destination being the moon.

Ladee is a acronym for the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust
Environment Explorer mission.  It is using the so-called
sling-shot effect of Earth's gravity to propel it to moon.
This by it making three increasingly larger circuits around
our home planet before getting close enough to transfer into
a lunar orbit.  Because of this the spacecraft will require
a full month to reach Earth's closest neighbor.

Ladee, which is the size of a small car, is expected to
reach the moon on October 6th.  Researchers hope to use it
to learn the composition of the moon's weak atmosphere and
how it might change over time.  Another puzzle, dating back
decades, is whether dust rises of its own accord  from the
lunar surface.

To accomplish its mission the Ladee spacecraft carries three
scientific research instruments.  And in addition to
traditional radio gear it is also carrying a. experimental
Laser communications package that could revolutionize data
relay.  NASA wants to experiment with this system to see if
it might eventually be able to replace its traditional RF
based communications with coherent modulated light
transmission that might afford greater bandwidth using
significantly less power and smaller devices.  For now, data
gathered by Ladee will reportedly be sent back to Earth
using both systems.

The $280 million moon-orbiting operation will last six
months.  It will end when the spacecraft is commanded to
make a final plunge to the surface of the moon.  More about
Ladee mission is on the web at tinyurl.com/back-to-the-moon
(NASA, guardian.com)

**


EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: QSCOPE LOG STATISTICS AND CHARTS

Back on the ground, QScope.org is a new online application
that provides statistics and charts from amateur radio logs.
While some features are designed with contesting in mind,
most of the statistics will be useful for DXers and
DXpeditions.  You just import your ADIF 2 or Cabrillo logs
into QScope database and then browse the statistic and
charts pages.  Registration and access to the website are
free at www.qscope.org  (OPDX, Southgate)

**

ON THE AIR: CELEBRATING HUNGARY'S TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF
THEODORE PUSKAS

On the air, listen out for HA75KBF which is on the air
celebrating the 75th anniversary of the amateur radio club
at Hungary's  Technical College of Theodore Puskas.  If you
work them, QSL via the clubs regular call sign of HA5BKF.
(Via e-mail)

**

DX

In DX, Bill Moore, NC1L, the ARRL Awards Branch Manager,
reports that the current JY9FC operation beginning this past
August has been approved for DXCC credit.  If you have a
card for that operation now is the time to submit it.

HA3JB will be operational slash 4O  from Montenegro between
September 23rad to the 30th.  Activity will be on CW, RTTY
and SSB.  QSL via HA3JB direct

N4WDT and K4ZIN are planning to on the air from Sierra Leone
between October 16th and the 21st.  They are currently
waiting for a license approval and plan to operate 160
through 10 meters with a focus on 30, 17 and 12 meters as
well as the lower bands. QSL electronically via Logbook of
the World or via their home callsigns.

OH6KZP, will be active as CR2X from the Azores during the CQ
World Wide DX SSB Contest on October 26th and 27th.  This,
as a Single-Operator/All-Band/High-Power entry.  Before the
contest begins he may be on signing his own call portable
CT8.  QSL via OH2BH.

DJ7RJ will be active stroke  FR from Reunion Island between
September 28th and November 2nd.  His operation will be on
160 through 10 meters using CW and SSB.  QSL via DJ7RJ,
direct or by the bureau.

Lastly, K7AR will be active as E51AAR from Rarotonga in the
South Cook Islands, between October 21st and the 26th.  His
operation will be mainly using RTTY but he will also
participate in the CQWW DX SSB Contest.  Log will be
uploaded to Logbook of the World upon his return home.  QSL
via K7AR, direct or by the Bureau.

(Above courtesy of various DX news sources)

**

EMERGING TECHGNOLOGY:  SOLAR POWERED PICO BALLOONS SET NEW
ENDURANCE RECORD

A pair of solar powered pico balloons launched from the
United Kingdom have set what appears to be an all time
endurance record over Europe.  Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in
the newsroom with the latest on the flights of B-11 and B-
12:

--

United Kingdom experimenter Leo Bodnar in cooperation with
members of Europe's ham radio community has set some
interesting records flying radio equipped pico balloons.
His latest, simply called B-11 and B-12 were launched by Leo
from the town of Silverstone on September 1 and 2
respectively.  As of late on September 9th, both balloons
were still in the air transmitting in the Domino EX 16 data
mode on 434.500 MHz USB.

During their long duration record-breaking flights, the two
balloons have between them flown over most countries in
Europe. B-11 was last reported over Turkey and B-12 over the
Ukraine.  Both balloons are powered by small solar panels
which recharge a tiny on-board battery.  Unfortunately, B-12
did suffer a battery failure so it only transmits when in
sunlight.

As this newscast goes to air, both pico balloons have so far
floated at least 1550 miles from their launch point could
still be in-flight.  Keep an eye on leobodmar.com/balloons
for the latest.

From the other side of the world, I'm Bill Pasternak,
WA6ITF, in the newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

Pico balloons do not go to extremes altitudes but instead
float at anywhere between 6500 to 26000 feet for an extended
period of time.  From those heights above sea level their
434 MHz transmitters can have a radio range of up to 250
miles depending on line of sight.  You can see the tracks of
these latest radio equipped pico balloons on the web at
tinyurl.com/b11-b12-flight.  (Southgate, Leo Bodnar
Balloons)

**

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 Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, near Houston, Texas, saying 73 and
we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1882 - September 6 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1882 with a release
date of September 6 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T.  A trans-Pacific emergency
communications test is deemed a success; a ham radio
satellite band at 5 Gigahertz could be in jeopardy in
Europe; registration is now open for the Western
Hemisphere's biggest transmitter hunting event; a ham flies
a Presidential Medal to the International Space Station and
some very unexpected words at the wrong time from on high.
Find out the details on Amateur Radio NewslineT report
number 1882 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

WORLDBEAT:  PAN PACIFIC RESCUE RADIO EXERCISE DEEMED AN
UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS

A follow-up to our recent story on a planned joint MARS and
civilian trans-pacific emergency communications drill.  It
was called operation Pacific Endeavor-13 and it teamed the
United States Military Auxiliary Radio System with hams
across the Pacific in an ocean spanning emergency exercise.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has the
details:

--

Everything about the August 25th and 26th Pacific Endeavor-
13 simulated emergency response was staged except for one
unexpected occurrence.  Electric power actually did fail in
the pretend nation of Pacifica which was the supposed
disaster beaten Asian nation that a small band of ham radio
operators were trying to assist.

The power failure happened right at the start of the globe-
spanning exercise organized by the U.S. Defense Department.
At 9N1AA in Nepal, the real "Pacifica," operators kept going
on battery power with only 25 watts output.  But a stroke of
the other kind of luck provided a low-power digital link to
an amateur in Afghanistan. That was Tim McFadden, T6TM.  He
is a retired Army communicator now helping train Afghan
troops who had only joined Army MARS less than a month
before the exercise

Although the operation only lasted just under three hours,
months had gone into its planning.  The Pentagon and U.S.
Pacific Command set it up as a test of amateur emergency
support in Asia after Japan's tsunami catastrophe, using
procedures of the International Amateur Radio Union, the
Military Auxiliary Radio System, military stations and radio
amateurs.

When power was restored in Nepal there were some limited
voice contacts with Afghanistan and Germany.  Hawaii could
hear but not talk to Nepal because propagation lasted only a
few minutes.

But the real star of the exercise was the digital mode PSK31
that appeared to propagate well on low power.  This even in
the otherwise poor High Frequency band conditions
experienced during the exercise.

Only one negative note.  During rehearsals, messaging was
disrupted by hams seeking to contact Nepal, which is rarely
heard on the air.  That was alleviated by the use of
abbreviated call signs plus the dependence on digital
communications during the actual exercise itself.

One unique feature of the event was use of the Defense
Department's open bulletin board for civil emergencies
called the All Partners Access Network or APAN.  Army MARS
Operations Chief David McGinnis coordinated information flow
via APAN to the Department of Defense and U.S. Pacific
Command.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in
New Orleans.

--

A preliminary account had a total of 60 stations logged at
MARS headquarters at Fort Huachuca and to the station in
Germany of MARS region director Daniel Wolff.  (N1IN /
AAR1FP via QRZ.com)

**

WORLDBEAT:  AMATEUR RADIO LICENSING EXAM TO BE HELD IN
BANGLADESH

After a five year wait the Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority has announced that an amateur radio
licensing exam session will be held on November 9th.  The
test will be made up of 50 multiple choice questions
covering the fundamentals  of radio engineering, basic
electronics, that nations amateur radio rules, and several
other topics.  An applicant must score at least 50% to pass.
More information is on the Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority website at www.btrc.gov.bd. (S21SM,
Southgate)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  HAM RADIO SUPPORT IN FIGHTING RIM
FIRE WINDS DOWN

The California Rim Wildfire continues and so does the
volunteer communications support provided by radio amateurs.
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has been following this story and
has the latest:

--

As we go to air, there's good news.  Shifting weather
patterns have brought some level of moisture to the fire
ravaged area.  This together with massive firefighting
efforts means that at airtime that the Rim fire is about 80%
contained.  That does not mean the fire is under control,
but rather its not expected that the blaze will be able to
move past those areas of the containment line.

With the 80 percent containment the sheriff's offices in
Tuolumne and Mariposa counties have been able to lift
evacuation advisories for several communities.  This
includes those with several thousand structures that were in
the fire's path.  It also means that after some sixteen days
of continuous duty that volunteer ham radio operators with
Tuolumne County ARES and RACES were able to stand down and
return to their normal lives.

As previously reported, ham radio was first asked to assist
back on August 19th.  That was when communications
assistance was required to the towns of Tuolumne and Mi-Wuk
Village which were under voluntary evacuation alert.

We've since learned that hams also served duty assisting the
Red Cross in setting up an evacuation center in the town of
Groveland and later at the Tuolumne County Fairgrounds in
the city of Sonora.  Operators associated with the Amateur
Radio Emergency Service provided information into and out of
these centers during the time that evacuees were being
housed and fed at those locations.  At the height of the
evacuation news reports say that the Tuolumne Fairgrounds
was the temporary home to upward of 100 evacuees.

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

--

Full containment of the Rim Fire is not expected until
September 20th at the earliest.

**

RADIO LAW:  CEPT CONSIDERS USE OF 5830-5850 MHZ HAM RADIO
SATELLITE BAND

Ham radio satellites could wind up being forced to share
spectrum at 5 point 8 Gigahertz with terrestrial devices.
At least in those nations that are CEPT signatories.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW has the
particulars:

--

A CEPT Short Range Devices or SE24 meeting took place in
Vienna, Austria on August 26th and 27th.  This to discuss
the future use of 5350 to 5470 MHz and 5725 to 5925 MHz for
wireless access systems including wireless or radio-based
local area networks.

The Amateur Satellite Service has a downlink band lies from
5830 to 5850 MHz.  Those involved in space communications
believe that introducing such ground based services in this
spectrum would inevitably raise the noise floor.  This in
turn could make the weak signals from satellites difficult
if not totally impossible to receive.

Right now, no final decision on the future of this spectrum
has been made by the CEPT, but as the squeeze for more
commercial bandspace grows, the entire 5 Gigahertz band
appears a prime target for more sharing on an international
basis among CEPT signatories and that includes most of
Europe and possessions of European nations.

More on this recent meeting is on the World Wide Web at
www.cept.org/ecc

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

--

CEPT stands for the European Conference of Postal and
Telecommunications Administrations.  It was established in
1959 by 19 countries, which expanded to 26 nations during
its first ten years of existence.  Today 48 countries are
members of CEPT's with the organizations activities
including co-operation on commercial, operational,
regulatory and technical standardization issues.
(Southgate, CEPT, others)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: FIRST DANISH ASTRONAUT TO FLY TO THE ISS
IN

Andreas Mogensen will be the first Danish astronaut to make
a trip to the International Space Station. Mogensen will
ride to the ISS on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be
launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in
September 2015.  During his stay onboard the ISS, Mogensen
will conduct a series of experiments in preparation of
future missions and in the orbital testing new technologies.

This 10 day mission will be Mogensen's first foray into
space.  The flight is directly connected to the new era in
ISS operations where 2 experienced spacefarers from the USA
and Russia will work on the ISS for one year starting in May
of 2015.

More about his upcoming space adventure is on the web at
tinyurl.com/Andreas-Mogensen-ISS.  And we will have more ham
radio space related news later on in this weeks newscast.
(ESA)

**

BREAK 1

We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin
stations around the world including the WA2JWR repeater
serving Toms River New Jersey.


(5 sec pause here)


**

RADIO LAW:  CHANGES COME TO THE TRAVELERS INFORMATION
STATION SERVICE

The FCC has updated its rules governing Travelers'
Information or T-I-S radio Stations.  It's also seeking
public input on further planned changes.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has more:

--

The commission created the Travelers Information Service in
1977.  At that time it authorized stations to operate low
power transmissions on 530 kHz on a primary basis and in the
535 to 1705 kHz band on a secondary non-interfering basis
with broadcasters who are the primary spectrum users.

At inception, the agency envisioned local governments would
use Travelers' Information Stations to reduce traffic
congestion.  Commercial broadcasters opposed the creation of
the service on grounds that the information conveyed would
duplicate what they provided and as such would siphon off
their add revenues or cause interference to their
operations.

The government prevailed and over the years, Travelers'
Information Station operators have wanted to broaden the
scope of their content and eliminate the restriction that
confines their transmitting sites to areas near roads,
bridges, highways and public transportation terminals like
bus stops, train stations and airports.  For example the
American Association of Information Radio Operators wanted
to broadcast excerpts of NOAA Weather Radio transmissions
and AMBER Alerts.  As a result AMBER Alerts are now allowed
on Travelers' Information stations.

In its latest decision FCC has clarified that Travelers'
Information stations operators can already transmit weather
alerts regarding difficult or hazardous conditions.  This is
in addition to information regarding motor vehicle crashes,
emergency points of assembly, road closures and
construction, parking, current driving travel times, air
flight status, truck weigh stations, driver rest areas,
locations of truck services, and road closures.

The FCC says that all transmitted content must remain
noncommercial and must relate to travel, an emergency or an
imminent threat of danger.  As such, the commission has
nixed the idea of routinely retransmitting entire NOAA
Weather Radio Alerts.  However, the commission will now
allow Travelers' Information Stations to integrate those
alerts into broadcasts but only during especially hazardous
conditions.

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

--

In a Further Notice, the agency is proposing deleting
requiring the filtering of Travelers' Information Station
audio frequencies above 3 kHz.  So far those commenting for
the most part have told the agency that filtering makes it
harder to hear the broadcasts while adding little to
interference protection of commercial AM stations.  (FCC,
RW)

**

PUBLIC SERVICE:  IDAHO HAMS NEEDED FOR KOOTENAI RIVER RIDE
SEPT 14

An Idaho Amateur Radio Emergency Services group will be
providing radio communications for that states Kootenai
River Ride to be held September 14, and the group is in need
of additional licensed radio amateurs to assist.  A planning
session is slated for Tuesday evening September 10th at the
Bonners Ferry Main Fire Station in Boundary County and any
radio amateur from that area who wants to be a part of this
outing is invited to attend.  If being a part of this very
worthwhile public service is of interest you them please
contact Gary Leonard by e-mail to gary (at) pvfd (dot) us.
(newsbf.com, eHam.net)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  FCC'S GREG COONS IS HEADING BACK TO
VIRGINIA

Some names in the news.  First up is Greg Coons, who
currently works as an agent in the FCC's Denver field
office, but has been promoted to resident agent to be based
in Norfolk, Virginia.  Coons grew up in Virginia Beach and
started his commission career in Norfolk in 1991.  He was
transferred to Denver in 1996 after a reorganization of FCC
field offices, and has been based there for 17 years.  He
received his BSEE from Old Dominion University in 1986.
(SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section and SBE Chapter 48)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  ASTRONAUT HAM FLIES PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL
TO ISS

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station has paid
tribute to the late United States president John F. Kennedy
by flying a medallion to the orbiting outpost that bears the
likeness of the 35th President of the United States.  NASA
astronaut Chris Cassidy, KF6KDR, who is serving as a flight
engineer on board the space station, radioed photos down to
Mission Control on Wednesday, August 21st showing the medal
floating in front of a window with a view of the Earth
below.

The 3-inch bronze medallion that Cassidy took to the space
station was created as part of the U.S. Mint's presidential
medallion series. The front of features a bust of the late
United States president.  Its reverse side in inscribed with
a quote from Kennedy's  1961 inaugural address which says:
"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the
survival and the success of liberty."

When he returns to Earth this fall, Cassidy will deliver the
medal back to the JFK Library, where it will become a part
of its permanent collection.  The John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum is located in Boston,
Massachusetts and has a permanent exhibit devoted to the
race for space that began in the 1960's. (space.com,
VenturesInSpace, other news reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  CUBAN AMATEUR LOOKING FOR UK CONTACTS

CO6CBF is looking for stations in the United Kingdom to try
contacts with him over the FO-29 amateur radio satellite.
Currently, when the satellite is in apogee, it has a good
footprint that covers both the UK and Cuba for a few
minutes.  Anyone wanting to try a FO-29 contact with Cuba
should e-mail Hector via co6cbf (at) frcuba (dot) co (cu)
cu.  (GB2RS)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  QRP OPS NEEDED FOR 2014 THIRTEEN COLONIES
SPECIAL EVENT

Ken Villone, KU2US, writing via eHam.net, says that the 13
Colonies Special Event is looking to enlist one dedicated
SSB and CW QRP operator for each the original colony states
state for 2014 and beyond.  Applicants must hold a General
class or higher United States Amateur Radio license but
there are no special station requirements.

KU2US notes that this will be a QRP to QRP operation only as
planners want to give the low power stations a chance to get
a 13 Colony States "Clean Sweep" endorsement on his or her
certificate.  Those interested should contact KU2US via e-
mail using the information found on QRZ.com.

More information on the recent 2013 event as well as the
early planning for next year is on the web at
www.13colonies.info.  KU2US adds that the New York QRP
position is already filled for 2014.  (KU2US via eHAM.net)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  ARRL - TAPR DCC IN SEATTLE SEPTEMBER 20-22

A reminder that the 32nd Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital
Communications Conference is less than three weeks away.
The gathering will take place September 20th to the 22nd, in
Seattle, Washington.  The DCC is an international forum for
radio amateurs involved in digital communications technology
to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and
techniques.  Presenters and attendees will have the
opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent
hardware and software advances, theories, experimental
results, and practical applications.  More about this event
is on the web at www.tapr.org/dcc
(DCC)

**

RADIOSPORTS:  CALIFORNIA QSO PARTY OCTOBER 5 AND 6

The 47th running of the California QSO Party or CQP is
slated this year to begin at 1600 UTC on October 5th and end
at 2200 UTC on October 6th.  The Northern California Contest
Club sponsors this annual event and offers a variety of
awards open to stations inside and outside of California.
These include plaques for the top operators in various
categories including a youth award for those under the age
of 18.   A list of the awards is included in the rules and
can be found on-line www.cqp.org.  (N6WM, W6TCP)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur.  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)

**

RADIOSPORTS:  ORGANIZING THE 2013 USA ARDF CHAMPIONSHIPS

Registration is now open for the Western Hemisphere's
biggest transmitter hunting event of 2013, and you might
become a medal winner there.  Newsline's Joe Moell, K0OV,
has the details.

--

The mountains of North Carolina will be the setting for the
13th USA championships of on-foot hidden transmitter
hunting.  Fans of this international sport, which is also
called foxtailing, radio-orienteering and ARDF, are making
travels plans now, and they want you to join in.

Tuesday, October 8 will be arrival day for the optional
practice sessions on both two meters and 80 meters, which
begin early on Wednesday.  Thursday and Friday will have two
specialty events, sprints and foxoring.

Those who cannot be present for all five days will arrive
Friday, October 11 for the classic championships.  Saturday
morning will be the two-meter main event, followed in the
evening by the banquet and awards presentation.  The 80-
meter main event will be on Sunday morning with awards
presented afterwards, in time for those who must hurry home.

Organizing the 2013 USA Championships are Joseph Huberman,
K5JGH and Ruth Bromer, WB4QZG.  Both have competed at
previous USA Championships and earned medals.  Setting the
courses will be Nadia Scharlau, with radio support from
Charles Scharlau, NZ0I.  Nadia learned ARDF as a youth in
the Soviet Union and won her first gold medal by competing
for USSR at the European Championships in 1984.  In 2006 in
Bulgaria, she became the first Team USA member to win a
World Championships medal.

As always, our national Championships are open to anyone of
any age who can safely navigate the woods.  Most will be
licensed hams, but that's not required, so encourage your
unlicensed-but-athletic friends and family members to join
in.  You can watch and learn from the best in the country,
as well as visitors from around the world.

Registration is now open on the Web and there is an e-mail
reflector for Q&A with the organizers.  Learn all about the
championships and the sport of radio-orienteering at
www.homingin.com.  That's homingin, as one word,
homingin.com.  I hope to see you there.  From sunny southern
California, this is Joe Moell, K0OV, for Amateur Radio
Newsline.

--

Again if you missed it that URL is simply www.homingin.com
(K0OV)

**


RADIO TO SPACE:  US SHUTS DOWN US AIR FORCE SPACE
SURVEILLANCE RADAR

The US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar or AFSSS has
stopped transmitting.  This, as a result of sequester budget
cuts mandated by Congress.

The Space Surveillance Radar which has been operational
since 1961 and is only one part of the nations global Space
Surveillance Network.  The system is designed to transmit
what the military calls a "fence" of radar energy into space
to detect all objects intersecting it.  The operational
advantage of is its ability to detect objects in a random or
non cued fashion, rather than tracking objects based on
previous information.  The disadvantage is the inherent
inaccuracy of the data, based on its dated design.

Military officials have devised what they call modified
operating modes for the Perimeter Acquisition Radar
Characterization System located at Cavalier Air Force
Station, North Dakota and for the Space Surveillance Radar
at Eglin Air Force Base, in Florida.  This allows the
discontinuation of the older Air Force Space Surveillance
Radar operations while still maintaining solid space
situational awareness.

The AFSSS radar's final echoes came from a Russian satellite
and a sporadic meteor.  You can see those traces at
tinyurl.com/last-radar-traces.  Deactivating the old system
will save the Air Force Space Command $14 million annually
starting in fiscal year 2014.  (Space News, VHF Reflector,
WB4JGG)


**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  NEXT PHONE SATS TO LAUNCH IN NOVEMBER
AND DECEMBER

EDN magazine reports that the next generation of Phone-Sats
which are microsatellites built around smartphones will
launch on November 6th and December 6th.  In an interview
with the magazine developer Jasper Wolfe said that these
next Phone-Sats will transmit using Packet Radio on 437.425
MHz using AFSK at 1200 bits per second.  Coding will be AX
dot 25 and the transmit polarization will be vertical.

These and the previous Phone-Sats were developed by young
engineers at the NASA-Ames Research Center.  One of the new
birds will remain on-orbit for up to two years while the
other will have a far shorter lifespan of only three months.
The entire article including photos is on the web at
tinyurl.com/generation-2-phonesats.  (EDN, Southgate)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  UK FUNCUBE 1 TO LAUNCH I LATE NOVEMBER

AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL have been advised that the launch date
for FUNcube-1 is now expected to be November 21st. This date
is still subject to final approval by the authorities.
FUNcube-1 is a 1 unit CubeSat that will provide a
signal directly from a satellite to classrooms with a signal
level that can easily be received by schools and colleges.
(AMSAT, Southgate)

**

DX

In DX, OH2YY hopes to be on the air from Nepal between
October 2nd and the 5th.  He has applied for the callsign
9N2YY, but the final confirmation will not take place until
he arrives in that nation.  After Nepal he will be visiting
the Kingdom of Bhutan between October 6th and the 10th where
he has already been assigned the callsign A52YY.  Listen out
for him during his evenings and nights on 20 through 10
meter SSB.  QSL via OH2YY, the bureau or direct.  Electronic
QSL's go via Logbook of the World.

JK1AJT will again be in Myanmar from September 18th to the
23rd signing X-Zed-one-Zed .  He tells DX Daily that he has
spotted a better location atop a 1557 feet hill and will
bring a tri-band Yagi with him in addition to the Ground
Plains that he used last month.  This next operation will be
mainly CW.  QSL via ClubLog Oh-QRS or direct to JH1AJT.
Meantime the recent X-Zed-one-Zed Myanmar 2013 operation has
been approved for DXCC credit.  If you've had it rejected in
a prior application, send a note to bmoore@arrl.org to be
placed on the list for an update to your record.

The Martello Tower Group are activating Herm Island again
from  October 4th to the 9th on 80  through 10 meters
including the WARC bands.  The group will be using SSB and
some data modes.   All QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of
the World and Club Log.  QSL direct or via the bureau to
G6NHU

WB6OJB and K5LBU will be active as A25JK and A25CF,
respectively, from the extreme eastern part of Botswana
through September 12th.  They should have two stations
running but the A25JK will be the main call to listen out
for.  Look for A25JK to operate SSB on 20 through 10 meters
with a possibility of some time spent on 40 and 75.  A25CF
will be operating some PSK on whatever bands might be open
and A25JK is not on. QSL via their home callsigns.

DL2MDU and his DO3HDA will on the air 8Q7CF from the
Maldives between September 15th through the 27th.  Their
activity will be holiday style on 80 through 10 meters with
the possibly 160 meters Modes will be CW and SSB with some
digital.  QSL via DL2MDU.

JA0RQV hopes to be operational from Tonga as A35JP/N between
September 19th and the 24th.  This operation will depend on
weather and flight availability to the island and his time
on the air will be limited because of limited supply of
electric power.  Operations will be on 80 through 6 meters
using CW and SSB. QSL via his home callsign, by the Bureau,
direct or electronically using Logbook of the World.

DL7AFS and DJ7ZG will be operational as D44TXT from Santiago
Island, Cape Verde between October 19th and November 7th.
The duo will be on 80 through 6 meters using SSB, RTTY and
PSK31.  QSL via DL7AFS.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  UK FUNERAL INTERRUPTED BY RF

And finally this week, we have all heard of RF getting into
public address systems, but this one truly has to take the
prize for the unusual.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl
Lasek, K9BIK, has the rather strange details:

--

Can you imagine being at a funeral service when the sound
coming out of the loud speaker system is suddenly
interrupted by airline stewardess' message to her
passengers?  Well it actually happened recently in the
United Kingdom when what's been described as a mysterious
voice was heard through a church's public address system
during a funeral service telling passengers on a plane to
prepare for landing.

The story goes this way.  Friends and family of Brendan
Duffy had gathered at St Edward's Church in Windsor,
Berkshire, to pay their final respects after the Dublin-born
grandfather-of-four died on August 8th, at age 78.  But as
his nephew Joe Duffy was reading the eulogy, everyone was
suddenly told to fasten their seat belts and for the other
flight attendants to prepare the aircraft's doors for
landing.

While some might have thought it could have been a sign from
the heavens above a more rational explanation is that the
church's wireless microphone system and the two-way radio
system on the aircraft were on the same frequency.  But that
would not explain how the announcement made using a closed
loop in-cabin public address system could get transmitted
outside the airplane unless perhaps someone pushed the wrong
button on the flight deck.

That said, as we go to air, the mystery of the RF signal
from on-high remains unexplained.

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

--

Joe Duffy is a local personality radio.  He told a news
reporter that everyone at the service was looking around and
up to heaven, trying to figure out where the voice was
coming from.  (UK Daily Mail)

**

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

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, saying 73 from Charleston, West
Virginia and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.