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   Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2510 for Friday, December 5th, 2025   
        
   Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2510 with a release date of Friday,   
   December 5th, 2025 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.   
      
   The following is a QST. Scientists announce a new finding about what triggers   
   auroras. Restrictions are imposed on Germany's short-range UHF radios -- and   
   Australia's redesigned weather website stirs up a storm. All this and more as   
   Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2510 comes your way right now.   
      
   **   
      
   BILLBOARD CART   
      
   **   
   LINK CONFIRMED BETWEEN RADIO EMISSIONS, AURORAS   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week looks at auroras - something a lot of us   
   have been doing, or trying to do, especially if those brilliant shimmering   
   light shows have been keeping us off the air. Scientists have just made a new   
   discovery about what exactly makes them happen - and curiously, it's radio!   
   Travis Lisk N3ILS has those details.   
      
   TRAVIS: Scientists at the University of Southampton have confirmed what they   
   consider to be an unmistakable cause-and-effect relationship between radio   
   emissions and sudden auroral eruptions.   
      
   The international teams findings, called unprecedented by the scientific   
   community, have been published in the journal Nature Communications. The   
   researchers speculate that this will alter the means by which space weather is   
   forecast.   
      
   According to published reports, the use of advanced ground-based observatories   
   made it possible for the researchers to detect and identify signature patterns   
   of low-frequency radio wave emissions in the magnetosphere that were   
   immediately succeeded  repeatedly  by auroral explosions.   
      
   This discovery provides a missing piece for physicists who, until now, were   
   never certain of the immediate trigger behind the violent energy release that   
   expresses itself as the northern and southern lights.   
      
   This is Travis Lisk N3ILS.   
      
   (NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, THE DAILY GALAXY)   
      
   **   
      
   INDIAN SPECIAL EVENT IS A TRIBUTE AND AN EXPERIMENT   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: In India, one hams annual on-air tribute to a 19th century   
   innovator is, perhaps fittingly, also designed as an experiment this year. We   
   have those details from Jason Daniels VK2LAW.   
      
   JASON: Jagadish Chandra Bose would probably approve of this years tribute to   
   him by Datta VU2DSI. Datta is using the callsign AU2JCB through to the 15th of   
   December honouring the scientist known in India and beyond as a pioneer in   
   wireless communication.   
      
   From both a commemorative and scientific standpoint, the timing could not be   
   more appropriate. Datta has activated this station every year for the past 19   
   years to coincide with the anniversary of Boses birth date on the 30th of   
   November, 1858. This year the timing reflects the theory that Bose shared   
   about electromagnetic radiation. In 1897 in London, he formally presented his   
   theory to fellow scientists that the suns electromagnetic radiation had a   
   definite impact on communication via radio waves. During this activation Datta   
   is measuring the global impact of solar radiation, flares and storms on HF   
   propagation from India at this key point in Solar Cycle 25.   
      
   Datta will share the callsign with Pramod VU2XPN, a university professor of   
   electronics.   
      
   Details are available on the QRZ.com page of AU2JCB.   
      
   This is Jason Daniels VK2LAW.   
      
   (DATTA VU2DSI)   
      
   **   
   NEW RESTRICTIONS FOR SHORT-RANGE UHF RADIOS IN GERMANY   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: In Germany, amateur radio may get an unintended boost following   
   major restrictions that the nation's regulator has placed on the use of   
   private mobile short-range hand-held radios known as PMR446. Jeremy Boot G4NJH   
   has the details.   
      
   JEREMY: PMR446, the popular short-range UHF radios enjoyed in much of Europe,   
   could be enjoyed much less in Germany this month after changes enacted by the   
   regulator BNetZa. The regulator will prohibit operators from using any   
   external antennas with their radios and from using the radios as base stations.   
      
   PMR operators will also lose the ability to use their radios as repeaters or   
   as Internet gateways -- two functions widely available to amateur radio   
   operators. The PMR radios, which operate on 16 frequencies within the 446 MHz   
   band, will be only be permitted to be used for so-called "peer-to-peer" or   
   person-to-person mode.   
      
   Explaining these changes on his YouTube channel Funkwelle - the German word   
   for "radio waves" - Art Konze DL2ART told viewers that he expected PMR   
   operating to drop off, saying [quote] "the only alternative that remains is to   
   get into amateur radio." [endquote] He said that holders of the new N-class   
   entry level licence have the ability to use relays and Internet gateways and   
   can communicate worldwide. Art reminded viewers that these changes closely   
   follow similar restrictions placed earlier this year on Freenet, Germany's   
   licence-free personal mobile 2-way radio service.   
      
   This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.   
      
   (BNETZA, ART KONZE, DL2ART)   
      
   **   
   SILENT KEY: EDITOR, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR JOHN WALKER, ZL3IB   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: A treasured friend and life member of the New Zealand Association   
   of Radio Transmitters has become a Silent Key. We learn more about him from   
   Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.   
      
   JIM:  John Walker ZL3IB, was a prominent editor and author of articles and   
   publications devoted to amateur radio in New Zealand and beyond. He had served   
   as acting editor of the Christchurch Amateur Radio Club newsletter, HamLarks   
   and 18 years as editor of Break-In, the official journal of New Zealand   
   Association of Radio Transmitters. John received his callsign in 1971.   
      
   He became a Silent Key in Christchurch on the 2nd of November.   
      
   When it came to amateur radio, John didn't just believe in operating; he   
   believed in educating - a natural motivation for him because education was his   
   career: He had been a professor of botany at the University of Canterbury in   
   Christchurch. He was a founding trustee of the Radioscience Education Trust in   
   1998. The trust, which is part of NZART, supports persons wishing to advance   
   their education in radio science.   
      
   John was also the widely published author of dozens of technical articles and   
   columns on amateur radio and equipment.   
      
   He was made an honorary life member of NZART in 2014.   
      
   John was 92, just three weeks shy of his 93rd birthday when he became a Silent   
   Key.   
      
   This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.   
      
    (NZART, CRAIG CRAWFORD, ZL3TLB)   
      
   **   
   SILENT KEY: GANESH SUBRAMANIAM, VU2TS    
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: As Newsline went to production we also learned of the death of   
   Ganesh [GUH-NESH] Subramaniam [soo bra monny om], VU2TS, an influential ham in   
   Bangalore and beyond. Ganesh became a Silent Key on the 2nd of December,   
   reportedly after a brief illness.   
      
   In online posts on Facebook and websites, many remembered him as an   
   enthusiastic CW operator who embraced the code from the very start. In an   
   October 2019 interview on the QSO Today podcast, he spoke about his   
   enthusiastic radio beginnings as a shortwave listener, culminating in taking   
   his exam in 1960 at a time when amateur radio operators were few and far   
   between in India. He said he did not receive his licence - a Grade 1 licence -   
   until April of 1965 at the age of 29. He learned he had just become the 350th   
   ham in India.   
      
   Always active and enthusiastic, he became the founder and net control operator   
   of the Charminar (Shar Me Nar) Net and a life member of the Bangalore Amateur   
   Radio Club. He was also an avid contester and had served for a time as editor   
   of  Ham Radio News, the Amateur Radio Society of India's magazine.   
      
   Ganesh was 90.   
      
   To hear Ganesh tell his story on the QSO Today podcast, visit qsotoday.com and   
   type his name in the search bar.   
      
   (QSO TODAY, MADHU MOHAN, VU2UWZ, INSTITUTE OF AMATEUR RADIO IN KERALA)   
      
   **   
   UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LAUNCH 'LIGHT SAIL CHIPSATS'   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: Students and their professors at Cornell University are hoping   
   for smooth sailing for a project known as the Alpha CubeSat mission  but   
   theyre looking for ham radio assistance to help them track its progress.   
      
   Their project has deployed what are known as Light Sail ChipSats, small   
   free-flying flight computers in low Earth orbit, to transmit telemetry on   
   437.4 MHz at 100 mW of power using LoRa transceivers. The ChipSats are mounted   
   on a retro reflective laser sail. The project, which relies only on solar   
   power, was sent to the International Space Station aboard 1U CubeSats   
   developed by students at the schools Space Systems Design Studio.   
      
   The project website explains the short time window saying [quote] Between the   
   sunlight-only, low power and short orbital lifetime, we need all the help we   
   can get to collect telemetry from the sail and establish LEO-to-ground   
   communications for this new generation of tiny spacecraft. [Endquote]   
      
   For details on how to participate, follow the link in the text version of this   
   weeks Newsline report at arnewsline.org. You can also contact Joshua KD2WTQ at   
   the email address jsu4@cornell.edu   
      
   (AMATEUR RADIO DAILY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY)   
      
   **   
       
   BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio   
   Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the K2ADA   
   repeater in Ocala Florida on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m.   
      
      
   **   
   COMPUTING IN SPACE? STUDENTS FACE THE CHALLENGE   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: Registration is open for a European Space Agency Education school   
   project that asks teachers to challenge their students to create computer   
   programs that will run successfully on board the International Space Station.   
   Jeremy Boot G4NJH brings us up to date.   
      
   JEREMY: Whether students are beginners or more advanced at coding, there is a   
   place for them in the European Astro Pi Challenge. The UK Space Agency and the   
   European Space agency are offering the challenge to students up to age 19 with   
   different levels of coding competency.   
      
   Beginners are invited to participate in the Astro Pi Mission Zero by designing   
   a piece of pixel art for display to astronauts aboard the ISS on Raspberry Pi   
   computers known as Astro Pis. Students capable of handling more complex code -   
   in this case, programming in Python - are asked to be part of the Mission   
   Space Lab instead. Their challenge is to calculate the speed of the ISS by   
   utilising sensors or a camera with the Astro Pi.   
      
   Mission Zero's deadline is the 23rd March 2026 and Mission Space Lab's   
   deadline is 16 February 2026. Resources are being provided to the Educators by   
   the project.   
      
   Astro Pi's ambassador is ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN, who will be   
   undertaking her first mission to the ISS in early 2026.   
      
   This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.   
      
   (AMSAT NEWS SERVICE)   
      
   **   
   MARATHON QSO PARTY ENDING FOR SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: A milestone QSO Party celebration is coming to an end for South   
   African amateurs, as we hear from John Williams VK4JJW.   
      
   JOHN: It's been quite a year for the South African Radio League - but not as   
   big a year as 1925, the year that the league came into being. SARL, which   
   launched its Centenary Marathon QSO Party in January, is concluding it this   
   month. At 23:59 UTC on the 31st of December, its participating callsigns -   
   most notably ZS1ØØSARL - will be going QRT. Contacts have been made since the   
   first of the year on CW, Phone, digital - and via satellites or repeaters.   
   Contacts have been on HF, VHF and UHF.  Even shortwave listeners have been   
   involved, accumulating points and applying for different levels of awards.   
      
   Many of these modes did not even exist 100 hundred years ago when the league -   
   formerly known as the South African Radio Relay League, became a reality   
   thanks to the efforts of hams who decided amateur radio needed a unified voice   
   to advocate for their interests.   
      
   The marathon recognises the growth and reach that SARL has attained through   
   the ensuing decades.   
      
   Even if you're getting a late start in chasing the activators, there's still   
   time. Visit mysarl.org.za [mysarl dot org dot zed ay]  for details.   
      
   This is John Williams VK2JJW.   
      
   (SARL, TECH CENTRAL)   
      
   **   
   INDIAN AMATEURS HELP WOMAN LOST IN BANGLADESH   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: A ham radio club in West Bengal, India, best known for its   
   special skill in helping reunite family members who are lost - sometimes for   
   years - has once again made use of its robust network on behalf of a woman   
   whod gone missing two decades ago. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF brings us the details.   
      
   JIM: An older woman, believed to have been begging on the streets of   
   Bangladesh for survival for years, has reconnected with her family in India   
   through the efforts of the West Bengal Radio Club, an organisation with a   
   specialty in missing-persons cases.    
      
   The womans disappearance was traced to a religious pilgrimage she made nearly   
   20 years ago - an annual gathering near the Ganges River. With the volume of   
   pilgrims at the event, known as the Gangasagar Mela, it is not uncommon for   
   many attendees to get lost or to go missing. According to the clubs secretary,   
   Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, the woman, who is now about 70 years of age and   
   from a village in India, somehow joined a group of pilgrims from Bangladesh.   
   That is how she is believed to have taken a detour to Bangladesh instead of   
   returning home.   
      
   News accounts said that she was soon living on the street, begging. Recently,   
   ham radio contacts in Bangladesh reached out to the West Bengal hams asking   
   them to intervene after they questioned her and she uttered one of the few   
   words she could: Sagar, the name of the district she came from in India. Using   
   photographs of her and their wide network of contacts, the West Bengal hams   
   finally reached her surviving family members, according to a report in the   
   Australia India News. She has two surviving sons in Delhi. Her husband and one   
   son have since died. Attempts at uniting her with her sons were under way as   
   Newsline went to production.   
      
   This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.   
      
   (AUSTRALIA INDIA NEWS)   
      
   **   
      
   WORLD OF DX   
      
   In the World of DX, Elvira, IV3FSG, is operating from Somaliland as 6O3T (Six   
   Oh Three Tee). The duration of her activation is not known. More details can   
   be found on QRZ.com   
      
   Listen for the special event callsign HS25SG from the 1st through to the 30th   
   of December to celebrate the 33rd Southeast Asian Games. This activation is   
   part of the "SatFinder" educational campaign,  which promotes space, satellite   
   and radio science to students and others by hosting amateur radio activities.   
      
   Listen for Harald, DL7MDX, operating holiday style as 8Q7HT from the Maldives,   
   IOTA Number AS-013, using FT8 on 40 through 6 metres.   
      
   John, NI6D, will be on the air as CE7/NI6D along the Carretera Austral in   
   Northern Patagonia from the 6th through to the 18th of December. John will be   
   using FT8/FT4 on 40 through 10 metres, using low power. Listen mainly during   
   the afternoon and evening hours, during his local time.   
      
   For all these stations listed, please see QRZ.com for QSL details.   
      
   (425 DX BULLETIN)   
      
   **   
   KICKER: REDESIGNED WEATHER WEBSITE DRAWS STORM OF PROTEST   
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: Finally, we visit Australia where there's a new look to an   
   important weather website - but no one could have forecast the turbulent   
   response it stirred up since it went live. Graham Kemp VK4BB gives us the   
   details.   
      
   GRAHAM: Each year, more than 2.6-billion pairs of eyes check in for guidance   
   in Australia on the government's Bureau of Meteorology website.   
      
   Lately, however, visitors to the "Bom," as it is nicknamed, have been   
   declaring the site's redesign a "bomb." In a recent report carried by BBC   
   News, users have weighed in publicly on the re-do, calling it everything from   
   counterintuitive to an outright disaster.   
      
   The remake, which cost 96.5 million in Australian dollars, was the bureau's   
   response to a 2015 cybersecurity breach.   
      
   A number of users became instant fans and praised the site for its cleaner   
   front page. The bureau has even provided guidelines designed to help visitors   
   navigate the site.   
      
   The BBC report said, however, that the majority of vocal visitors to the site   
   have been clamouring for the bureau to roll it back to the old version or   
   simply make it more user-friendly, with farmers in particular unable to find   
   their location relevant weather as they could previously.   
      
   Worse for users is that the colour coding on the RADAR maps has changed!    
   Many users now are putting the letters REG at the beginning of the url which   
   then reverts them to the original site.    
      
   Looks like stormy weather ahead for the Bom, at least for the immediate future.   
      
   This is Graham Kemp VK4BB.   
      
   (BBC)   
      
      
   NEIL/ANCHOR: Want to see what the fuss is all about? Visit the site yourself   
   at the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.   
      
   [DO NOT READ:  www.bom.gov.au  ]   
      
   **   
   If you haven't sent in your ham radio haiku yet, what's been stopping you?   
   Visit our website at arnewsline.org and as you compose your ode to your   
   favorite online activity, we will help you use the correct number of syllables   
   to make an authentic haiku. Submit your work and then sit back and wait to   
   hear whether you are the winner of this week's challenge. The winner gets a   
   shout-out on our website, where everyone can find the winning haiku.   
      
   NEWSCAST CLOSE   
      
   With thanks to Amateur News Daily;  AMSAT News Service; ARRL; Art Konze   
   DL2ART; Australia Bureau of Meteorology; Australia India News; BBC; BNetZa;   
   Cornell University, Craig Crawford, ZL3TLB; Datta VU2DSI; David Behar, K7DB;   
   The Daily Galaxy; 425DX Bulletin; Institute of Amateur Radio in Kerala; Madhu   
   Mohan, VU2UWZ; QRZ.com; QSO Today; South African Radio League; s   
   ortwaveradio.de; Tech Central; Wireless Institute of Australia; Yasme   
   Foundation; YouTube; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio   
   Newsline.  We remind our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an   
   all-volunteer non-profit organization that incurs expenses for its continued   
   operation. If you wish to support us, please visit our website at   
   arnewsline.org and know that we appreciate you all. We also remind our   
   listeners that if you like our newscast, please leave us a 5-star rating   
   wherever you subscribe to us.    
      
   For now, with Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and our   
   news team worldwide, I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Union Kentucky saying 73. As   
   always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright   
   2025. Amateur Radio Newsline retains ownership of its material even when   
   retransmitted elsewhere. All rights are reserved.   
      
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