Please note that this is an extended Amateur Radio Newsline
bulletin and contains three breaks. Newscast begins
following the tone.
(Single beep here)
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1821 with a release
date of July 6, 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a Q-S-T. Ham radio responds as a severe
weather outbreak hits the Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic U-S; a
new D-X record is set using the ageing Amsat Oscar 7
satellite; a big tower victory in Nevada and Erin King,
AK4JG is named the 2012 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of
the Year. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio
NewslineT report number 1821 coming your way right now.
(Billboard Cart Here)
**
RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO RESPONDS AS WINDSTORM HITS MID WEST
AND MID ATLANTIC STATES
The governors of several states have declared emergencies as
temperatures rose in the aftermath of powerful storms that
swept through the mid-Atlantic region Friday night, July
29th. The storm did damage from Indiana to New Jersey,
although the bulk of its destruction was felt in West
Virginia, Washington and suburban Virginia and Maryland.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Fred Vobbe, W8HDU, begins our
coverage of this severe weather outbreak and whats known
about the ham radio response thus far:
--
A "super derecho" of violent thunderstorms left a more than
700-mile trail of destruction across the Midwest and mid-
Atlantic on Friday, cutting power to millions and killing
thirteen people.
A derecho is defined as a widespread and long-lived wind
storm that accompanies rapidly moving showers or
thunderstorms. The most severe derechos are given the
adjective "super."
Winds gusted to 91 mph, equal to that of a category 1
hurricane, at the Fort Wayne International Airport, Ind., on
Friday afternoon. Winds gusts were recorded at 72 mph at
the repeater site KT8APR, which is located at WLIO
Television on Lima Ohio's west side.
According to WLIO's Chief Meteorologist, Kyle Adams, on
Sunday, July 1st , "Thousands here in West Central Ohio are
still w/o power. According to the AEP website over 600,000
people in Ohio have no power. They are comparing the
magnitude of the event to the remnants of Hurricane Ike that
came through in September of 2008. They are saying power
that all power is expected to be restored in 5-7 days."
As the storm moved to the east-southeast lightning and high
winds of more than 80 mile per hour, knocked down
transmission structures, poles, power lines and trees across
AEP Ohio's service territory. The central Ohio counties of
Franklin, Delaware and Licking were the hardest hit, with
approximately 345,000 customers affected.
Statistically, on Sunday, July 1st, 112,760 were without
power in Indiana. 140,461 were without power in Kentucky.
In Ohio and West Virginia the number climbed to more than
600,000. As the storm strengthened Virginia had over 2.5
million people out of power, and Maryland has more than 1.3
million out of power.
Hams performed multifaceted roles from local discussion
between each other, some relaying storm information to the
National Weather Service, and others using advanced ham
technology to relay data on the storm, and reports of damage
to authorities. Hams in counties where storms raged called
repeaters to the east, warning them of what they would be
experiencing, allowing them to mobilize before the storm
hit.
President Obama declared an emergency exists in the State of
Ohio Saturday and ordered federal aid to assist state and
local efforts due to the emergency conditions from severe
storms. Now a second serious situation is unfolded from
Indiana to the mid-Atlantic where millions remain without
power and temperatures are once again soaring. Temperatures
in the south are expected to hit 110 degrees or more.
Fred Vobbe, W8HDU, in Lima Ohio
**
Meantime in Indiana:
**
Indiana's heat wave broke for a short time when strong
storms raced across the north central part of the state
causing wide spread damage. The train of severe storm cells
brought hail and high winds that toppled trees and snapped
power lines leaving thousands of Hoosiers in the dark and
without power.
Fort Wayne, Indiana was one of the hardest hit areas.
Strong winds up rooted large trees and cracked power poles
isolating neighborhoods with downed power lines and tree
branches.
Allen County hams responded with emergency communications as
Ft Wayne police and fire frequencies became jammed with news
of wide spread damage. Many reported dozens of traffic
lights without power throwing traffic into a city wide grid
lock. Now one week after the storm officials report nearly
ten thousand people still without power as daytime
temperatures hover in the 98 degree range. Power crews from
as far away as Oklahoma have arrived to help with the
electrical problems.
Dozens of Red Cross blood drives have been cancelled in the
wake of the storms, resulting in a shortfall of more than
1,000 potential blood donations leading into the 4th of July
holiday. The Allen County Red Cross opened shelters for
those without power.
In Hamilton and Tipton counties, just Southwest of ft Wayne
amateur radio operators quickly scrambled to deal with the
pop up storms. There were reports of wide spread wind
damage across the two counties. Skywarn operators in
Hamilton county relayed one report about a tree that had
fallen on a car in Tipton county. Other counties in central
and eastern Indiana reported only Skywarn activity as the
rapidly building storms raced eastward into the Buckeye
state.
Reporting from Indianapolis, this is Jack Parker , W8ISH.
--
More on this story as information becomes available.
(W8HDU, W8ISH, ARNewslineT)
**
HAM RADIO AND THE INTERNET: QRZ.COM GOES OFF LINE DUE TO
AMAZON CLOUD FAILURE
The same storm that wrought havoc across the mid-West and
Mid-Atlantic States also took its toll on the Internet
including one very popular ham radio website. According to
Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, who owns QRZ.com, the severe weather lead
to an outage of what is known as Amazon's Elastic Compute
Cloud center in North Virginia. The result was that
services such as Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram, and other
popular sites including QRZ became unavailable just after
midnight Eastern time on Saturday June 30th.
According to a posting on QRZ by AA7BQ after service was
restored, Amazon's service health dashboard indicated that
there were power issues in its North Virginia data center.
He said that the outage did not affect his servers but did
cause a complete database failure. After waiting all night
for Amazon to restore the QRZ.com data, he restored
information from an automated backup.
According to Lloyd, the outage underscores the
vulnerabilities of depending on the public cloud versus
having your own data center. For those who have never heard
the term Cloud computing, it is the delivery of computation
and storage capacity as a service to a community of end
recipients. As such, Cloud computing entrusts services with
a user's data, software and computation over a network. The
name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol to signify
the service. (QRZ.com, Wikipedia)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: A NEW RECORD FOR THE AGEING AO-7
SATELLITE
A new DX record has been achieved on the ageing OSCAR-7 ham
radio satellite. This between Wyatt Dirks, AC0RA, in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa and Bill Dzurilla, OM3BD, in the Slovak
Republic.
Their GPS-measured 7849 kilometer QSO between grid squares
EN31vx and JN88mf surpassed the prior 7843 kilometer record
set by Luciano Fabricio, PY5LF, and Joe Spandler, K3SZH, by
6 kilometers back in 2010. Take a listen to what a record
breaking weak signal satellite contact sounds like after a
bit of digital audio magic on our part:
--
Contact audio: Please download this weeks MP3 newscast at
www.arnewsline.org to hear part of the contact.
--
To make this record happen Wyatt had to wake up at 3 a.m.,
drive to a hill an hour away from his home, set up his
station, and work OM3BD before sunrise at 09:55 UTC on July
2nd. To make the path, OM3BD was running a Yaesu FT847 with
SP2000 preamp fed by a pair of 10 element yagis on 2 meters,
and an 8 element yagi for 70 cm. On this side of the
Atlantic AC0RA also used a Yaesu FT-847 transceiver with a 7
element yagi on 2 meters and a 12 element yagi on 70cm.
It appears that an even longer distance is attainable.
Wyatt says that he is looking for a suitable place from
which they can try before Bill leaves Slovakia in mid July.
We'll keep you posted.
More is on-line at tinyurl.com/ao7-dx-record. (Southgate)
**
BREAK 1
Celebrating 35 years of uninterrupted service to the world-
wide ham radio community, we are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the
WA4TEN repeater serving Bremerton, Washington.
(5 sec pause here)
**
YHOTY 2012: ERIN KING, AK4JG, NAMED AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE
2012 YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR
Erin King, AK4JG, a 17-year-old from Columbus, Georgia, who
re-founded her high school's radio club and then lofted a
ham radio-carrying balloon to over 90,000 feet, recovered
the flight data and used it to produce a truly striking
video of that flight, has been named as recipient of the
2012 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award.
Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, is here with the details:
--
Whoa, thank you. That's awesome! Ahhh...that's really cool!
Thank you so much, I'm very excited!"
And that the reaction from Amateur Radio Newsline's Young
Ham of the Year winner Erin King upon learning in a
telephone call that she had been selected as this year's
winner of the prestigious award.
Erin, who is the daughter of Paul, K4ETY, and Patricia King,
of Columbus, has been a ham since only 2009 and holds an
Extra Class license.
Erin says, ironically, she was in attendance at last year's
Huntsville Hamfest where the Young Ham of the Year Award is
presented, and never dreamed she'd be the one nominated and
chosen to receive the next one...
"I went to Huntsville and saw the young ham last year and I
was like 'that is so awesome,' " You know I feel so happy
for her and everything and I'm just flabbergasted.
"I thought that I would not be eligible anymore and I'd like
forgotten about it and now that this just came out of
nowhere and I'm super excited. Thank you so much."
Erin just graduated from Columbus High School and got
involved in her freshman year in a program that would turn
her focus to technology...
"When I went there, I got involved in robotics and I got
interested in computer science and electrical engineering,"
Erin recalls. "I joined a program called the space program,
which eventually led to how I started to get involved with
ham radio.
"But then, after that, I got more involved in computer
science as well, computer science classes and applied to MIT
and that's where I'll be going to college next year. I was
accepted 'early action' MIT and I'll be studying computer
science and electrical engineering there and I'm also going
to be joining the ham radio club that they have there."
Erin says ham radio came naturally...
"My teacher was a ham and he was my robotics coach as well
and I went on a couple of balloon launches with him after I
got my tech license I continued doing balloon stuff and that
was really how I got involved with it," Erin explains. "It
was like the cool thing that really exposed me to it to
begin with.
"And then after that I joined two local radio clubs and I
upgraded my license to General the next year and then Extra
last year and I've had some fun outside of ballooning.
"Since then I've done some Field Day, a little bit of
contesting, the school club roundup is something that I've
done a couple of years.
"And I started a club at my school with the call sign W4CHS,
for Columbus High School."
Erin really got some attention when she got her acceptance
to MIT in a mailing tube. The school suggested the students
"hack their tubes," meaning do something cool with them."
Erin did just that using her ballooning and ham radio skills
to send her tube to the edge of space equipped with a
camera, GPS units and a radio for APRS tracking and a
parachute for the fall to earth.
She produced a video that's posted on You Tube. You can find
the link
website, arnewsline.org.
Erin says right now, amateur radio is something she shares
with her dad, but there is a link in her mom's family to the
hobby.
"My dad actually kind of inherited my great-grandfather's
call sign - K4ETY is my mom's grandfather's call sign that
he had," Erin says. "And I never met him, but there's just
kind of an interesting fun family fact."
Erin says she's hoping to get her sister, Rachel, who's 15,
interested in amateur radio. She says her 16-year-old
brother, Brandon, really doesn't demonstrate desire to jump
in just yet.
Erin says she's a well-rounded person, who not only enjoys
space, but, the undersea world as well.
"Scuba diving is something that I started a couple of years
ago with my mom and my sister and my brother just got
certified last year," Erin says. "And, it's really fun and
that's kind of something that not a lot of people know about
me is that I'm a certified scuba diver as well as a ham
radio operator."
So congratulations to Erin King, AK4JG, Amateur Radio
Newsline's latest Young Ham of the Year!
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V,
in Philadelphia.
--
The 2012 Amateur Radio NewslineT "Young Ham of the Year
Award" will be presented to Erin King, AK4JG, on Saturday,
August 18th at the Huntsville Hamfest in Huntsville,
Alabama. We hope to see many of you there. (ARNewslineT,
YHOTY Judging Committee)
**
PROPAGATION: LARGE SUNSPOT ERUPTS ON THE SOLAR DISK
Space Weather reports that a strong solar flare has erupted
on the face of the Sun.
According to the solar forecast reporting service a large,
active sunspot named AR1515 is growing on the Earth looking
side of the solar disk. On the morning of July 2nd it
erupted, producing an M5.6-class solar flare that ionized
Earth's upper atmosphere with a brief but intense pulse of X-
rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation.
SpaceWeather says that more eruptions are in the offing as
the sunspot turns more toward Earth. These will likely
affect radio wave propagation on most of the frequencies
used by radio amateurs and other radio based communicators.
For more information, including a video, and updates check
spaceweather.com (SpaceWeather)
**
RADIO LAW: NEVADA HAM WINS LIMITED TOWER VICTORY
A happy ending to a long court battle involving the right of
a Nevada ham radio operator to install towers and antennas
on his own property.
You may remember back about four years ago when Tom
Taromina, K5RC, and the W7RN Comstock Memorial Station crew
were in the midst of a big antenna project on Tom's 10-acre
homestead outside of Virginia City. Taromina had obtained a
building permit for two rotating monopoles. The bases had
been installed, and there were other existing antenna
structures on the property.
Suddenly, the County issued a Stop Work Order on grounds
that were never clear. The US District Court would later
write: "The court is sympathetic to Plaintiff's frustration
with the county's inconsistent interpretation of its zoning
ordinances."
Now, after two trips to the U.S. District Court, the case is
closed and K5RC may erect eight towers. Four of these will
be less than 45' tall, and the other four greater than 45
feet. You can read the full text of this big win on-line at
tinyurl.com/nevada-antenna-victory. (K7VY)
**
PUBLIC SERVICE: NYC HAMS ASSIST AT HAWAIIAN AIRLINES
LIBERTY CHALLENGE
Members of the New York City Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications Service provided maritime communication
support of the recent Hawaiian Airlines Liberty Challenge.
The race took place on June 23rd on the rivers of New York
Harbor between the Port of New York and New Jersey. The
mission of the ham radio volunteers was to be an additional
set of eyes and ears on the rescue and safety boats. Also
to ensure that reliable communications was available in case
an emergency condition arose on the water.
Team members utilized UHF and VHF repeaters, simplex, and
VHF Marine radios to communicate with each other, to pass
messages in regard to race setup, operations and to other
safety boats. They also were in communications with boats
in transit in the harbor, to operators of the Staten Island
Ferry and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary.
The radio operators were at this event for 12 hours from
6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. They were stationed on
rescue and safety boats, as well as on shore with race
officials. (Via e-mail)
**
BREAK 2
This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:
(5 sec pause here)
**
ENFORCEMENT: NORCAL HAM ISSUED $17000 NAL FOR UNLICENSED
OPERATION AND FAILURE TO PERMIT STATION INSPECTION
A Northern California amateur radio operator has been issued
a $17,000 Notice of Apparent Liability or N-A-L. This,
after the FCC accuses him of operating an unlicensed
transmitter on 104.9 MHz and refusing to permit an
inspection of his station. Amateur Radio Newslines Don
Carlson, KQ6FM, has more:
--
In its July 2nd Notice of Apparent Liability, the FCC
accuses Brian R. Ragan, KF6EGI, of Suisun City, California,
of apparently willfully and repeatedly violating the
Communications Act of 1934 as Amended. This by operating an
unlicensed radio transmitter and failing to allow an
inspection of his station by FCC personnel.
According to the FCC order, last February an FCC agent T-
hunted a signal on 104.9 MHz to Ragan's residence. About
two weeks later, agents repeated the exercise to locate the
source of a signal on the same frequency after hearing the
unlicensed station identifying itself over the air using the
call letters KBRS. Again the chase took them to where Brian
R. Ragan, KF6EGI, lived.
The agents were able to determine that the signal on 104.9
MHz exceeded the limits for operation under Part 15 for
unlicensed devices. A search of the FCC database showed no
authorization issued to Ragan or to anyone else for
operation of a broadcast station on 104.9 MHz in Suisun
City.
The NAL says that the FCC agents heard the station operating
in the garage and attempted to inspect the station, but did
not get any response when they knocked on the residence
door. At this point the agents posted a Notice of
Unlicensed Operation on the front door and departed.
About 48 hours after the Notice was left, a person who
identified himself as Brian R. Ragan contacted the FCC
concerning the matter. According to the FCC, during the
conversation Ragan admitted to operating a broadcast station
on frequency 104.9 MHz for six months. He also told the
Commission that he was present when the agents were knocking
at his door, but was afraid to answer because he heard the
agents say that they were with the FCC.
Now in issuing the proposed fine, the FCC says that Brian R.
Ragan by his own admission, consciously operated the station
and did so on more than one day. This says the regulatory
agency makes the apparent violations of the Communications
Act both willful and repeated.
As to the penalties the FCC has not only ordered the
monetary $17,000 monetary forfeiture, but has also ordered
that Ragan must also submit a written statement pursuant to
Section 1.16 of the FCC Rules. This statement must be
signed under penalty of perjury and state that he is in full
compliance with Section 301 of the Communications Act and is
no longer engaged in the unauthorized operation on 104.9 MHz
or any other frequency for which he has no license. Also
that he will make his authorized amateur station available
for inspection as required by the FCC Rules.
While Ragan may request a reduction or cancellation of the
$17,000 forfeiture, he must still provide the written
statement on or before July 31st. That's also the last date
on which he can file an appeal.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Carlson, KQ6FM, in
Reno.
--
In the text of the Notice of Apparent Liability the
Commission said that Ragan, as a licensed Amateur Radio
operator for at least six years, should gave known that any
radio equipment at his station must be made available for
inspection at any time when requested by the FCC. Also he
should be aware of the proper operation of his amateur
station in accordance with the FCC's Rules. (FCC)
**
ENFORCEMENT: TWO IN BOSTON FINED $15000 EACH FOR UNLICENSED
RADIO BROADCASTING
Two unlicensed broadcasters in Massachusetts will have to
pay fines of $15,000 each. This after the FCC turns down
both of their appeals. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce
Tennant, K6PZW, is here with the details:
--
The FCC has dismissed as late a pair of petitions for
reconsideration from Lloyd Morris and Robert Brown whom the
FCC alleges operated an unlicensed radio station in Boston,
Massachusetts.
In 2010 the agency had fined each man $15,000 for allegedly
operating a station called "Datz Hits Radio" on 99.7 MHz.
In their appeals, both Morris and Brown told the FCC they
didn't respond to the original notice nor pay the fine
because they couldn't get advice on actions to take and how
to file a response.
But in its order denying the appeals, the FCC noted that
Morris and Brown broke the law by operating an unauthorized
station despite repeated warnings and letters from the
Commission ordering them to stop, actions which the FCC
found particularly egregious.
The FCC also noted that once a public notice of action is
released, petitions for reconsideration must be filed within
30 days. Morris and Brown filed a day late, and the FCC
dismissed their petitions as untimely.
In the end, the agency upheld the fine for both men, saying
in its decision their explanation was not sufficient to
excuse a late response to the original notice.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in
Los Angeles.
--
Morris and Brown were given the customary 30 days to pay the
outstanding fines. (FCC)
**
RADIO LAW: SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST THE FCC IN WARDROBE
MALFUNCTION CASE
The so-called Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" indecency
case which led to increased profanity delay equipment
installations for both TV and radio stations has come to the
end of the legal road. This after the United States Supreme
Court says that it will not review a lower court's ruling
that overturned the FCC's $550,000 fine against CBS
Corporation for televising a fleeting view of Janet
Jackson's breast during the live 2004 Super Bowl half time
show.
A federal appeals court had ruled the fine was arbitrary and
capricious because it was much larger than indecency fines
had been previously, before the commission began issuing
large fines for so-called fleeting indecent utterances.
Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with the other justices
not to hear the FCC's appeal. In a concurring opinion, he
noted the FCC had changed its indecency policy to include
fleeting utterances, supporting the arbitrary and
capricious arguments, but he also warned that any future
wardrobe malfunctions will not be protected going forward.
The Supreme Court last month tossed out FCC indecency fines
against Fox and ABC on narrow procedural grounds. At that
time it told the regulatory agency that it is free to update
its broadcast indecency guidelines. For their part
broadcasters have insisted for years that the FCC's
indecency guidelines are vague and chill free speech. (RW,
Others)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: W7EQI SAYS THE MEDIA NEEDS A LEVEL
PLAYING FIELD
A ham radio operator who serves in Congress says that its
time to make the overall media landscape more of a level
playing ground. Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek,
K9BIK, has the details:
--
House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman
Greg Walden, W7EQI, of Oregon says the way that the FCC
regulates traditional video providers is based on a bygone
era.
According to Walden, broadcast stations are going mobile and
wireless carriers are streaming video at the same time that
programmers and pay-TV providers are filling smartphone and
tablet screens with their content. Meantime new entities
are coming to market like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and Roku
and the Communications Act does not apply to these emerging
services.
Walden is not suggesting that lawmakers expand video
distribution regulation. Quite the opposite. He says that
could harm competition from emerging Internet video
providers just as existing cable, satellite and broadcast
providers and programmers are experimenting with Internet
distribution.
However if lawmakers don't intend to apply the old rules to
new participants, then he says that Congress must recognize
the inequity of continuing to apply those same old rules to
traditional players such as TV stations, cable and satellite
providers.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in
Zion, Illinois.
--
Representative Walden made these remarks during his
subcommittee's hearing on the future of video. (published
news reports)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: W4ZDP HONORED FOR DEDICATION TO
THOMASVILLE ARC
Billy Joe Lewis, W4ZDP, has been honored by Thomasville
Amateur Radio Club for founding the club in 1953, and for
his dedication to the club for many years.
Lewis became an amateur radio operator prior to the second
World War. He served on the Burma Road during World War II,
worked many years with his brother, Logan Lewis, at Lewis
Enterprises, and spent decades serving as Thomas County Fire
Chief.
Along with being a respected business man and dedicated
public servant, Lewis founded the club in 1953 and served as
Treasurer for 48 years. His dedication to Thomasville
Amateur Radio Club, over many decades, has resulted in a
strong and vibrant organization dedicated to the radio arts
and to the public
The award was presented to W4ZDP at the annual ARRL Field
Day event held at the Thomas County Ambulance Service in
Thomasville, Georgia on June 23rd. (Via e-mail)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: G3PSM AWARDED THE DARC GOLDEN BADGE OF
HONOR
UK radio amateur Colin Thomas, G3PSM, has been awarded
Germany's Deutscher Amateur Radio Club Golden Badge of
Honor. This, for his work in achieving an amateur radio
allocation at 472 kHz.
According to the German national amateur radio society,
G3PSM was involved in the European Conference of Postal and
Telecommunications Administrations or CEPT preparatory
process meetings and at the WRC-12 conference itself. As a
result of his skillful lobbying at many meetings, the CEPT
proposal for an amateur radio allocation near 600 meters was
fully supported and eventually granted.
G3SPM received his award from the DARC Chairman Steffen
Schoppe, DL7ATE, at a recent society hosted dinner. (DARC)
**
CLUB NEWS: WESTSIDE ARC CELEBRATES 60 YEARS
While we're handing out roses, we say congratulations to the
Westside Amateur Radio Club on their 60th birthday.
Headquartered just across the Mississippi River from New
Orleans, Louisiana, the Westside Club, founded July 1st,
1952, is the oldest continuously operating amateur radio
club in the New Orleans area. A special event station is in
the planning stages and we'll have full details just as soon
as we know them. (ARNewslineT)
**
BREAK 3
Serving the news needs of the world's ham radio community 52
weeks a year since mid 1976, 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)
**
WORLDBEAT: TASMANIA WELCOMES SOUTHERNMOST D-STAR REPEATER
IN THE WORLD
Tasmania's first D-Star repeater is on the air. VK7RRR is
the southernmost D-Star repeater in the world, and the first
and only such public digital voice repeater in Tasmania.
The system operates in the 70cm band listening on 432.725
MHz and transmitting on 438.125 MHz at 50 watts power out.
Prior to the establishment of VK7RRR, Tasmania was the only
Australian State or Territory that didn't have at least one
D-Star repeater. (WIA)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: STUDENTS DESIGN SUPERCAPICITOR BATTERY
FOR ARISSAT
Students at Penn State university have designed and built a
state-of-the-art super-capacitor type battery for the next
amateur radio ARISSat satellite.
The battery was built to handle 16 charge cycles in a given
24-hour period. That will power the satellite in dark
orbits, when the solar panels are not in sunlight.
Dakshina Murthy Bellur, is an assistant professor of
electrical and computer engineering at Penn State.
According to Bellhur, the unit is a simple design. They
flip a switch, and they throw it out into space.
Bellhur supervised the battery work, which counted as the
students' senior project. More can be found in cyberspace
at live.psu.edu/story/60125 (Pennsylvania State
University)
**
WORLDBEAT: US BBG CRITICIZES CAMBODIA OVER PROGRAMMING BAN
The United States Broadcasting Board of Governors has
criticized the Cambodian Ministry of Information. This for
a decision forbidding FM stations in Cambodia to air Khmer-
language election programming from Radio Free Asia and the
Voice of America during last week's elections.
According to a release the ban involved five stations. The
Broadcasting Board of Governors said that Radio Free Asia
and the Voice of America play a critical role in informing
the Cambodian electorate on fundamental election issues.
They also provide a platform for the full spectrum of
political opinions in the country.
Presiding Governor Michael Lynton stated that news and
information programs help shape a well-educated citizenry
and should be encouraged, not denied. These attempts to
silence Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America are
counterproductive to the goals of building a democratic
society in Cambodia. (RW)
**
HAM AWARD HAPPENINGS: LOTW SUPPORT FOR WPX GOES LIVE
Participants in CQ magazine's WPX award program may now use
the American Radio Relay League's Logbook of the World or
LoTW system to apply for the WPX award and its endorsements.
Amateurs will be able to use LoTW logs to generate lists of
confirmed contacts to be submitted for WPX credit. Standard
Logbook of the World credit fees and CQ award fees will
apply. Logbook of the World support for the WPX award
program went live on July 2nd. (CQ)
**
ON THE AIR: CELEBRATING THE KING OF MOROCCO 13TH
ANNIVERSARY
On the air, keep an ear open for Moroccan amateur radio
operators to use the special prefix 5C13 through July 27th.
This is in celebration of the 13th anniversary of the
crowning of Mohammed VI as King of Morocco. Stations heard
as of airtime 5C13IG, 5C13KD, 5C13NK, 5C13SG and 5C13YZ.
QSL as directed by each operator. (OPDX)
**
ON THE AIR: PC100NOM CELEBRATES THE NETHERLANDS OPEN AIR
MUSEUM
Also be on the lookout for Netherlands special event station
PC-100-NOM to be active through July 29th. This operation
is to commemorate then 100th anniversary of The Netherlands
Open Air Museum in the city of Arnhem. The operator is
PA0FAW who is using CW, SSB and PSK on the various High
Frequency bands. QSL via PA0FAW, either direct, via the
bureau or electronically using eQSL. SWL reports are also
welcome. (OPDX)
**
DX
In DX, N6NB and W6TAI will be active as E51YNB and E51TAI
from Rarotonga for the IARU High Frequency World
Championship on July 14th and 15th. Their operation is
expected to start a few days before the contest and last
several days after the competition concludes. They will be
on 40 through 15 meters using SSB only. QSL both callsigns
via N6NB.
Members of the Trinidad And Tobago Amateur Radio Society
will be active as 9Y4HQ during the same IARU HF World
Champion ships on July 14 and 15th. Operations will be on
all of the High Frequency bands using CW and SSB. QSL only
via DF2RG, either direct or via the bureau.
ZS1WY is currently active from Mozambique as C-91-I-W and is
expected to be there for the next year. However he is there
working and operations may be limted. Recent Q-S-N reports
show he was on 160 meters. QSL via ZS1WY.
A group of hams from the Quito Radio Club will be on the air
as HD081QRC (Hotel Delta Zero Eighty One) between July 14th
and the 22nd to commemorate the founding of that
organization 81 years ago. Activity will be on all bands
using CW and SSB. Equipment will include both modern and
some beautifully restored vintage radios courtesy of HC1BG.
QSL HC1JQ direct or via the bureau.
Lastly, W5JON tells Amateur Radio Newsline that he will once
again be operating as V47JA from his vacation home
overlooking Calypso Bay, on St. Kitts. Listen out for John
from July 12th through August 2nd on 80 through 6 meters
using SSB. He also plans to take part in the RSGB sponsored
Islands On The Air Contest. QSL's to W5JON either direct or
via Loogbook of the World.
(Various DX news sources)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: NEW BROADCAST CENTER PROPOSED FOR ONE
WORLD TRADE CENTER
And finally this week, the new spire built to replace the
fallen twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York
City will also become an antenna site. Amateur Radio
Newsline's Jim Davis, W2JKD, has the details on this
emerging story:
--
The Durst Organization that controls New York City's One
World Trade Center in a partnership with The Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey plans to add an installation for
FM radio and television transmission antennas in the
building's 408-foot spire. One that will ultimately bring
the new building's height to 1,776 feet and make it the
tallest building in North America.
The Empire State Building, 1,250 feet tall with its 204 foot
antenna tower is currently the home to 19 FM stations and
most of the city's digital television transmitters. Many
radio and television broadcasters migrated to the Empire
site after terrorist attacks of 911 caused the collapse of
the World Trade Center's twin towers in lower Manhattan.
Yet to be determined is whether any of the city's FM
broadcasters will leave their current primary sites at
Empire State Building for the new location at One World
Trade Center or if they will treat the new building spire
primarily as a backup site.
I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD.
--
One thing that's pretty obvious is that at the prices being
quoted for site rental income by Durst, it's unlikely that
any ham radio repeaters will find a home at the new
broadcast antenna site. Then again, once should never doubt
the resourcefulness of New York City area hams. (B&C, RW,
others)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE
With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News 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
Before we go, this newscast marks the beginning of our 35th
year of service to the world's amateur radio community. We
find it hard to believe that so many years have gone by
since Jim Hendershot, WA6VQP with some help from Bill
Pasternak, WA6ITF, produced the very 1st Westlink Radio
Network newscast, which eventually became the Amateur Radio
Newsline.
That was some 1820 weeks ago. This is week 1,281 and,
believe it or not, in all this time we have never missed a
newscast release date.
With that in mind, we want to take this opportunity to say
thank you all of those who have come forward over the years
as members of our all volunteer team of writers, producers,
reporters and news anchors. It's their selfless devotion
that has made all of this possible.
And to all of you in our vast world-wide audience who have
so graciously supported our efforts these many years. To
you we make the promise to continue to bring you the news of
amateur radio and personal communications as we have the
past 1281 weeks. Also, to do our very best to keep
improving our air product as we proceed into the weeks,
months and years ahead.
Let me end this week by simply saying thanks to all of you
for being a part of the Amateur Radio Newsline
family. Without your encouragement and ongoing support we
would have no reason to exist. It is you who make it all
worthwhile.
For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editor's desk,
I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, saying 73 for the 1281st time, and,
as always, we thank you for listening.
Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights
reserved.
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