Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1979 October 2 2015   
      
   Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1979 with a release date of Friday,    
   October 2, 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.   
      
   The following is a QST. Amateur radio mourns the loss of Wes Schum,    
   W9DYV, a pioneer in single sideband. ARRL veteran staffer Perry    
   Williams, W1UED, becomes a Silent Key. An email scam targets amateurs.    
   More delays as the FCC processes license exams. And Pennsylvania    
   prepares for its QSO party.  All this and more in Amateur Radio Newsline    
   report 1979 coming your way right now.   
      
   (Billboard Cart Here and Intro)   
      
   WES SCHUM DEATH/TRIBUTE   
      
   The man who could be called the father of single sideband on amateur    
   radio is a silent key.  Wes Schum, W9DYV passed away last week at the    
   age of 94.  Wes Schum founded Central Electronics in 1949, the first    
   product that Central Electronics manufactured was a hearing aid device.   
      
   But radio was what Wes envisioned for CE.  He had a budding interest in    
   single sideband during World War II.  He and colleague Joe Batchelor    
   began development of amateur SSB transmitters for use on 75 meters.  The    
   Central Electronics 10-A exciter, the company's first amateur product,    
   is credited for being amateur radio's first practical SSB transmitter.   
      
   Wes's story is best told by those who knew him well.  One of those is    
   Nick Tusa, K5EF.  Nick shared with Ham Nation viewers how he and Wes    
   Schum met and struck up a decades long friendship.   
      
   [TUSA audio - 3:23]   
      
   Wes Schum, W9DYV.  The next time you call CQ on single sideband send up    
   a little thank you in memory of this unsung amateur radio pioneer.   
      
      
   **   
      
   PERRY WILLIAMS, SILENT KEY   
      
   Perry Williams, W1UED, a veteran ARRL staffer and the League's former    
   Washington Coordinator, became a Silent Key on Sept. 25. Williams'    
   tenure with the League included a stint in Washington, D.C., speaking on    
   Capitol Hill on behalf of amateur radio, assisting the ARRL's general    
   counsel, and communicating with the FCC on behalf of the League.   
      
   The Unionville, Connecticut, ham had worked for the ARRL for four    
   decades before retiring in 1994, the same year he was named Dayton    
   Hamvention's Amateur of the Year. In 2002, he returned as part-time    
   archivist, a position he held until 2011.   
      
   Remarking on Williams' decades of contributions, ARRL CEO David Sumner,    
   K1ZZ said, QUOTE"If Perry didn't know something about ARRL history, it    
   wasn't worth knowing."ENDQUOTE  Williams died just weeks before what    
   would have been his 87th birthday.   
      
      
   **   
      
   PHISHING   
      
   If you use an arrl.net email alias and the ARR L email forwarding    
   service, be on the lookout for a phishing scam. A number of ARRL members    
   have reported to the League that they received an email from "Arrl    
   Webmail Admin" with "account upgrade" in the subject line. The email    
   requests such personal information as user names and passwords, and    
   includes a bogus message telling the recipient that the accounts are    
   being removed and upgraded to an enhanced service. The ARRL emphatically    
   states this is not an official message and is cautioning recipients of    
   these emails.   
      
   Andy Shefrin, KB1YHB, the ARRL's IT Infrastructure and Operations    
   Manager, says: QUOTE"The ARRL is aware of this phishing scheme and is    
   working to block the sender's  email address at our upstream provider.    
   As with any emails of unknown origin, do not open or reply."ENDQUOTE   
      
   In short, ignore it. If you do develop problem with e-mail forwarding,    
   contact the ARRL IT Department. And be careful out there.   
      
   **   
      
   UPSET OVER THE UPGRADE   
      
   Hoping for streamlined service under the FCC's Universal Licensing    
   System's electronic batch filing, hams are growing impatient and    
   disappointed. The FCC's IT staff has been looking into why, despite the    
   website's server switchover in early September, recent VEC license and    
   examination files aren't being processed. The ARRL's VEC Manager, Maria    
   Somma, AB1FM, said her office has been pressing the FCC to correct the    
   situation which she said came as QUOTE"a bit of a surprise."   
      
   She said even the license search function was only working sporadically.    
   Stay tuned. And continue to stand by.   
      
   **   
   RETIRING AT 88   
      
   Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, chairman of the Amateur Radio on the    
   International Space Station-Europe (ARISS-EU) has announced that    
   Emanuele D'Andria, I0EL, will be his successor. Bertels is retiring    
   following a service that began when the ARISS Working Group was formed    
   15 years ago. His contributions included the installation of ham radio    
   equipment and antennas on the ISS Columbus module and the installation    
   and commissioning of Ham TV DATV on the ISS.   
      
   ARISS members include AMSAT organizations in Belgium, France, Italy,    
   Sweden, and the UK, and the IARU member societies in Italy, Germany,    
   Poland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the    
   UK. IARU member societies in Malta and Lebanon are associate members.   
      
   Bertels told the ARRL it was time to step down. He said "I'm now 88 and    
   slowing down a bit.   
      
      
   ***   
   DON'T KEEP YOUR OPINION TO YOURSELF   
      
   Yes, opinions count. That's why the Radio Society of Great Britain has    
   invited all licensed amateurs in the UK to go online and complete a    
   questionnaire to help it update the society's strategic goals. The    
   survey will be accessible through Dec. 31, and the data will be    
   published on the RSGB website with a summary in RadCom during the first    
   quarter of 2016. Find the questionnaire at http://www.rsgb.org/ar-survey   
      
   The CQ World Wide DX Contest Committee is also conducting a survey,    
   mainly to get feedback from participants in the last three years'    
   contests. The committee is making the 10-minute survey available in five    
   languages and has sent links to it via email to any ham who submitted a    
   log in last year's SSB and CW events. Deadline to complete the survey is    
   Oct. 10   
      
   And finally, here's one questionnaire that really paid off: K3DN, the    
   Warminster Amateur Radio Club in Pennsylvania, surveyed its members to    
   get to know them better, and recently released results of that 2015    
   first-quarter survey. With 81 responses out of 120 requests sent out,    
   here's what they learned: Most of the club members have been licensed    
   for more than 20 years, and nearly 60 percent of them hold an Extra    
   Class license. The majority of club members are older than 50, and 41    
   percent are retired. The survey also reported that these longtime    
   Warminster hams are decidedly progressive and forward-thinking. The    
   results showed that in addition to participating in the newer digital    
   modes, members' highest levels of interest were both in homebrew and new    
   radio equipment.   
      
   **   
      
   BREAK 1:   
      
   This is Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the    
   world and brought to you by the volunteer services of the following radi    
   amateur:   
      
   **   
      
   ELMERS FOR ETHIOPIA   
      
   [ANCHOR]: Any ham who's ever been an Elmer to another ham knows that, to    
   be truly helpful, you sometimes have to be willing to go the distance.    
   Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephen Kinford spoke with one ham who did just    
   that - going many hundreds of miles, in fact, as part of a team of    
   Elmers helping young hams in Ethiopia.   
      
   [STEPHEN KINFORD'S REPORT]:   
      
   Ken Claerbout, K4ZW, is an electrical engineer and a member of the    
   Potomac Valley Radio Club near his home in Stafford, Virginia. But    
   sometimes you can catch him on operating out of the ET3AA club station    
   in Ethiopia where he has been part of a team that includes Bob Schenck,    
   N-2-OH-OH (N2OO), of the Old Barney Amateur Radio Club in XXXX. The    
   veteran radio amateurs have been lending moral and technical support to    
   the 20 or so students at Addis Ababa University's Institute of    
   Technology. Claerbout had already been traveling to Ethiopia on business    
   more than two years ago when he first heard that the student hams needed    
   a helping hand.   
      
   [4:10 - 5:13] "Being a very active ham ...kind of picked up from there."   
      
   Basic mentoring, in this case, meant helping the students prepared to    
   test for licenses and to fix or replace equipment, even getting donations.   
      
   [6:07 "What happened...............replacement radio." [7:12]   
      
   The licensing issue remains, for now unresolved. In Ethiopia, where ham    
   radio licenses are rare, the government will only issue a license to the    
   club, not to the students themselves. Many of them instead have U.S.    
   licenses. There are, unfortunately, some things that even the best of    
   Elmers can't fix. But Clearbout and his team are working on it. For    
   Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio.   
      
   **   
   DIFFERENT KIND OF CONTEST   
      
   Listen up: The European Space Agency needs your ears and they'll make it    
   worth your while. The ESA is inviting hams to listen for the AAUSAT-5    
   CubeSat that was built by Danish students at the University of Aalborg.    
   The International Space Station is expected to release the CubeSat    
   sometime during the week of Oct. 5. The CubeSat has been poised for its    
   launch since it was sent up to the space station on Aug. 19. Once it's    
   deployed, it will begin its transmissions, and the race is on for hams    
   to record them and send them on.   
      
   The first ham to record the CubeSat's signal and send it, via email, to    
   the ESA's Education Office can count on receiving a prize. They include    
   a poster of the AAUSAT-5 with the team members' signatures; a scale 1:1    
   3-D printed model of the satellite and what the ESA Education Office is    
   describing as a "goodie bag." The satellite will transmit on 437.425 MHz    
   using CW and GMSK. There will be a 30 WPM beacon every 3 minutes and a    
   9600 bps GMSK every 30 seconds.   
      
   The ESA will receive entries at cubesats@esa.int.   
      
   **   
   CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME   
      
   Speaking of contests, here's an opportunity that's Golden, in more ways    
   than one. The California QSO Party is marking its 50th running with a    
   new take on the Gold Rush on October 3 and 4. The California    
   county-by-county challenge is offering a commemorative coin to    
   qualifying hams who work any combination of special event station    
   suffixes to spell the words "GOLD RUSH." Those stations would include    
   such call signs as N6G, N6O, K6L and N6D, for example. To quality,    
   operators must also log at least 150 QSOs; for California hams, at least    
   75 of those QSOs should be outside California.   
      
   For a more thorough explanation of the rules, visit the contest website    
   at cqp.org/   
      
   **   
      
   BREAK 2:   
      
   Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio    
   Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the    
   linked repeater system of the Barstow Amateur Radio Club, WA6TST, in    
   Barstow, California on most Tuesday evenings at 7.   
      
   ** **   
      
   PA QSO PARTY   
      
   ANCHOR: The Pennsylvania QSO Party - called the "Friendly Party" by its    
   organizers - arrives on the amateur bands next weekend. Amateur Radio    
   Newsline's Mark Abramowicz, NT3V has the preview....   
      
   [MARK'S REPORT]: The Nittany Amateur Radio Club in State College,    
   Pennsylvania, is sponsor of this event which traces its roots back to 1957.   
      
   Michael Coslo, N3LI, is chairman of this year's PA Party.   
      
   "The goal is to operate as many counties as possible and as    
   many sections as possible and as many individual contacts as possible if    
   you're from Pennsylvania," Coslo explains. "If you are outside of    
   Pennsylvania, you want to get as many contacts as possible and as many    
   counties as possible. The big goal in the party is to get all 67 counties."   
      
   And, there is also a bonus station running multi-multi (that's multiple    
   operators, multiple stations) in Wyoming County in northeastern    
   Pennsylvania. Coslo says it's worth a bunch of points each time you work    
   it...   
      
   "Our bonus station this year is KQX group," Coslo says.    
   "They're using the call sign W3C. We had KQX group do it a few years ago    
   and they did a good job and so we're happy to have them doing it again."   
      
   Coslo says one of the issues coming up in the online forums and the PA    
   QSO Party Reflector is the the appropriateness of spotting stations...   
      
   "We not only allow spotting, we encourage it," Coslo says. "We're about    
   people getting out there and getting QSOs. And, that ends up being kind    
   of important for the mobiles. And, they get more contacts, people get    
   more counties and overall it's a lot more fun."   
      
   Coslo says last year he saw an increase in the number of logs and with    
   good propogation, he's expecting an increase this year, too.   
      
   To find out more about the party, go to our website, www.arnewsline.org    
   and click on the script link and scroll down for the PA QSO Party web    
   address.....   
      
   http://www.nittany-arc.net/PAQSO.html   
      
   For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia.   
      
   PIG REVISITED   
      
   The Pig has landed. That's the report from Andrew Garratt M-ZERO-N-R-D    
   (M0NRD) who, as Amateur Radio Newline reported last week, launched Pinky    
   Pig, a payload tracker, on a high-altitude balloon at the National    
   Hamfest in the UK. He reports that the porker's flight, and the flight    
   of its backup tracker, Piglet, were both successful, even after being    
   scrapped for 24 hours due to a wind delay. He writes on the website,    
   amateurradio.com:   
      
   QUOTE "Both payload trackers worked flawlessly, PINKY the high speed    
   RTTY successfully sent SSDV as well as telemetry and the backup tracker    
   PIGLET sent the slow speed RTTY telemetry." Not only did trackers from    
   all over the UK as well as France, Holland and Poland successfully    
   connect, but Pinky and Piglet caused quite a sensation at the Hamfest.    
   Garratt and his family were triumphant later as they recovered both    
   payloads, safely back on earth, still attached to parachutes.   
      
   Garratt reports QUOTE"The payloads had no damage, other than the antenna    
   being bent by the landing." And there was no damage to anyone's    
   reputation, either. Strong signals and a good return to earth made it    
   clear these pigs would not be subjected to gentle teasing and would even    
   be spared some ribs.   
      
   (SOUTHGATE AMATEUR RADIO NEWS)   
      
   ** **   
   HE DIDN'T NEED ANY JUMPER WIRES   
      
   Mark Meltzer, AF6IM, may have felt a kinship with Pinky and Piglet on    
   September 20: Meltzer was in freefall 13,500 feet above Byron,    
   California after launching himself from a King Air 90 jumpship. He then    
   activated two important pieces of equipment: he deployed a    
   210-square-foot rectangular ram air canopy, and turned on his    
   chest-mounted Yaesu FT-817 - and probably in that order of priority.    
   With the help of a trailing wire end fed dipole antenna, Meltzer began    
   calling on 28.425, on upper side band. He made a total of 12 contacts    
   while enroute back to earth, but not before switching to 2 meters on FM    
   and grabbing a few more QSOs enroute to the dropzone.   
      
   His jump was, however, just preparation. On Oct, 17, he'll participate    
   in Parachute Mobile Mission 22 that will take place in conjunction with    
   the ARRL Pacifcon event in San Ramon CA.   
      
   (PARACHUTEMOBILE.ORG)   
   **   
      
   RUSSIAN DIGITAL CHALLENGE   
      
   Operators using RTTY and BPSK63 can expect to be kept busy on Oct. 3 and    
   Oct. 4, as the Russian Digital Radio Club World Wide Digital Contest    
   gets under way. QSOs on QRP should not exceed 5 watts. According to the    
   club's website, one of the contest's main goals is to increase the    
   popularity of digital modes for amateur operators in Russia and to help    
   Russian amateurs compete in these modes at the global level. Contest    
   participants will be working on 160 meters, 80 meters, 40 meters, 20    
   meters, 15 meters and 10 meters.   
      
   (RUSSIAN DIGITAL RADIO CLUB)   
      
      
   **   
   THE WORLD OF DX   
      
   Be listening for Andrey, RK7A, who wil be active from Morocco beginning    
   Oct. 20 through the 27th, operating as CN2BGB. He will be on single    
   sideband between 160 meters and 10 meters. Send QSL cards via UA6GG.   
      
   PY70FEB will operate in Brazil throughout October with a twofold    
   purpose: celebrating 70 years since the end of World War II, and in    
   tribute to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy. Modes will be CW,    
   digital and single side band. Please send direct QSLs to PS7AB with $2,    
   or by bureau, eQSL and Logbook of the World.   
      
   There are also a couple of good DX opportunities during the upcoming the    
   CQ WorldWide DX Contest on single sideband on Oct. 24 and 25:   
      
   9K, KUWAIT   
   The callsign 9K2HN will be active in Kuwait during the contest, with a    
   number of operators working the bands. You can send QSL cards via 9K2HN,    
   by the Bureau, direct or Logbook of the World.   
      
   C3, ANDORRA   
   During that same contest, listen for the members of the "Andorran    
   Amateur Radio Union (URA)," who will be active once again as C37NL. They    
   are working as a Multi-Multi entry. QSLs can be sent via C37URA or by    
   the Bureau.   
      
   (OHIO PENN DX NEWSLETTER)   
      
      
   KICKER: YOU THINK YOU HAD A BAD DAY?   
      
   As radio amateurs, many of us all understand all too well the challenges    
   of putting up and maintaining a tower. But some listeners to a    
   professional radio station in Oklahoma got a rude reception on Sept. 23    
   when the tower of radio station KGUY, 91.3 FM, took a tumble.   
      
   Not on its own, thankfully - but at the hands of a tower crew from    
   American Tower Corporation, which took the broadcaster's tower down    
   without first notifying the station it had arrived to do the work.   
      
   Dale Bolton, the public radio station's director of programming and    
   operations, said a crew had been hired because the 418-foot tower had    
   been standing at an odd angle and was in need of repairs for safety    
   reasons. But, Bolton adds, the timing came as a total surprise. He said    
   QUOTE"it would have been nice if we were able to give our listeners    
   notice."ENDQUOTE   
      
   Instead, the tower came down, crashing into the satellite dish and    
   brushing the station building before landing in an open field -- right    
   in the middle of a classical music program. It knocked the station off    
   the air, sending anxious listeners to the phones.   
      
   Perhaps, though, the listeners should not have been so shocked.    
   According to an online account from Wireless Estimator, music fans might    
   have been tipped off by the playlist, saying the tower's dismantling was    
   QUOTE"perhaps timed perfectly by the tower techs for it to pancake upon    
   the earth a t the end of Siegfried's funeral march blasting from their    
   crew cab."ENDQUOTE   
      
      
   (WIRELESS ESTIMATOR)   
      
   ** **   
      
   NEWSCAST CLOSE   
   With thanks to Alan Labs, the ARRL, AMSAT News Service; CQ Magazine; the    
   FCC; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; The Irish Radio Transmitter Society;    
   the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter; ParachuteMobile.Org; Southgate Amateur    
   Radio News, TWiT TV, the Russian Digital Radio Club; Wireless Estimator;    
   and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Our    
   email address is newsline@arnewsline.org.   
      
   More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official    
   website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or    
   support us at Amateur Radio Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita,    
   CA 91350.   
      
   For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York,    
   and our news team worldwide, I'm Don Wilbanks AE5DW in New Orleans,    
   saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.   
      
   Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.   
      
      
   ***   
      
   As a Service to the HAM Radio Community and HAM Operators all over the world,   
   this Amateur Radio Newline(tm) message has been gated from the internet and   
   posted to you by Waldo's Place USA, fidonet node 1:3634/12. We hope you   
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   Please address all comments and questions to the ARNewsletter editor as   
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   Thank you and good day!   
      
   -73- ARNTE-0.1.0-OS2 build 42   
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