<*>[Attachment(s) from James-KB7TBT included below]   
      
   Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2001, March 4, 2016   
      
   Amateur Radio Newsline report number 2001 with a release date of Friday,    
   March 4, 2016 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.   
      
   The following is a QST. Hams in Australia and New Zealand lose a    
   longtime favorite retail giant. A satellite lets an unprecedented QSO    
   happen between Antarctica and Argentina. Hamfests are gearing up in New    
   Jersey and West Virginia. And, at long last, there's a reasonable    
   explanation for the "space music" heard four decades ago aboard Apollo    
   10. All this and more in Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2001 coming your    
   way right now.   
      
   (Billboard Cart Here and Intro)   
      
   **   
   DICK SMITH ELECTRONICS CLOSING   
   SKEETER: We begin this week's newscast with news that Dick Smith    
   Electronics, a longtime mainstay for amateurs in Australia and New    
   Zealand, is closing. The story of the closure of this electronics giant    
   comes from Amateur Radio Newsline's Graham Kemp, VK4BB   
      
   GRAHAM: It's the end of an era for loyal purchasers of gear and    
   components from Dick Smith Electronics.   
      
   The giant Australian retailer, which bears the name of its amateur radio    
   founder, is closing its doors during the course of the next two months,    
   shutting 301 retail locations throughout Australia and 62 in New Zealand.   
      
   The closure follows an unsuccessful attempt by the company's receivers    
   to complete a sale.   
      
   Founded in 1968 in a Sydney suburb by Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith    
   AC, VK2DIK, Woolworths Limited purchased a majority stake in the    
   business and ultimately in 1982, became the electronics chain's sole owner.   
      
   Woolworths sold the company to private equity firm Anchorage Capital    
   Partners in 2012. But it was announced on Jan. 5 of this year that the    
   electronics company, which had amassed large debt, was being placed in    
   receivership under Ferrier Hodgson, with the hope that a sale would    
   rejuvenate the enterprise.   
      
   Receiver James Stewart of Ferrier Hodgson announced in late February,    
   however, that none of the offers received for Dick Smith Holdings were    
   considered acceptable, either as a bid for the group in its entirety or    
   for the stores in either Australia or New Zealand as standalone offers.   
      
   Smith was quoted in the Australian media as characterizing the offers as    
   either being too conditional or too far below the liquidation values.   
      
   Over the years, before he sold, the stores enjoyed a robust reputation    
   as the go-to place for radio components as well as kits, including the    
   Dick Smith HF, UHF and VHF transceivers.   
      
   A fire sale began at all locations on Feb. 26, and Hilco, a liquidator    
   based in the UK, will look over the sale of stock as locations shut.   
      
   The move leaves a total of nearly 3,000 employees in both countries    
   without jobs.   
      
   The AC after Smith's name is an honor, an Officer of the Order of    
   Australia awarded in 1999, for his services to the community, charity    
   and business. In 2015 he was advanced to a Companion of the Order of    
   Australia "for eminent service to the community as a benefactor of a    
   range of not-for-profit and conservation organizations, through support    
   for major fundraising initiatives for humanitarian and social welfare    
   programs, to medical research and the visual arts, and to aviation.   
      
   VK2DIK was Patron of the Wireless Institute of Australia for its 100    
   year Celebrations.   
      
   The Dick Smith Electronics Chain is yet another of Outlets for VK Hams    
   that has closed in recent times.   
      
   For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB.   
      
   (ABC.NET.AU, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, NEW ZEALAND HERALD)   
      
   **   
      
   SILENT KEY: NZART'S BRUCE DOUGLAS, NL2WP   
      
   Also from New Zealand, we receive word that the past president of New    
   Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters and a longtime core member of    
   the organization, Bruce Douglas, NL2WP, became a Silent Key on Feb. 13.   
      
   Licensed since 1992, he became part of NZART's management team in 1999    
   to help with the organization's financial business. Bruce made use of    
   his vast knowledge and experience as trust lawyer to assist NZART, and    
   helped establish the group's Radio Science and Education Trust document    
   that is still used today.   
      
   He served as president from 2005 to 2009, stepping down for health reasons.   
      
   (WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA, NZART INFO LINE)   
      
      
   **   
   BEHIND THE BATTLE OF THE ANTENNAS   
      
   SKEETER: In Ohio, where hams have been preparing for an April 23 event    
   called Near Vertical Incidence Skywave Antenna Day, organizers are    
   emphasizing that this isn't just an ARES event. Hap Holly, KC9RP, of the    
   RAIN Report spoke recently with Stan Broadway, N8BHL, ARRL's Ohio    
   Section Emergency Coordinatoron how this one-day adventure in antenna    
   research is designed to work for all hams.   
      
   [CLIP OF STAN BROADWAY EXPLAINING VALUE OF NVIS IN EMERGENCIES]   
      
   SKEETER: To hear more of this conversation between Hap Holly and Stan    
   Broadway, visit the RAIN Report website, therainreport.com. You can also    
   listen via Twitter at @therainreport and via iTunes. Our thanks to Hap    
   Holly, KC9RP.   
      
   (HAP HOLLY, KC9RP, THE RAIN REPORT)   
      
   **   
   HAMFEST IN HUNTERDON   
      
   The Cherryville Repeater Association is opening the doors of its annual    
   hamfest and technology expo on Saturday, March 12, at the North    
   Hunterdon Regional High School in Annandale, New Jersey, from 8 a.m. to    
   1 p.m.   
      
   The hamfest expects to draw a large crowd from the Flemington, N.J. area    
   and beyond.   
      
   In addition to 30 vendors and a variety of seminars, the hamfest will    
   also host an operating Flex Radio station so visitors can experience    
   Software Defined Radio technology for themselves. There will also be a    
   seminar on Digital Mobile Radio technology.   
      
   (QSL.NET)   
      
   **   
      
   SKEETER: Further south, hams in the Charleston, West Virginia area are    
   prepping for that area's big Hamfest. In its 32nd year, it has a whole    
   lot of new offerings. We hear more from Jim Damron, N8TMW.   
      
   [JIM'S REPORT - 1:30]   
      
   **   
      
   BREAK HERE:   
      
   Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio    
   Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the    
   Southern Michigan Repeater Network's six linked repeater systems,    
   serving all of southern Michigan and parts of northern Ohio.   
      
   **   
      
   PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: JIM WEIDNER, K2JXW, AND HAROLD KRAMER, WJ1B   
      
   Two hams are stepping down from leadership roles, one at the Amateur    
   Radio Lighthouse Society and another at the ARRL.   
      
   Jim Weidner, K2JXW, founder, owner and president of the Amateur Radio    
   Lighthouse Society, has resigned due to health reasons. The New    
   Jersey-based society, which sponsors the Intercontinental    
   Lightship-Lighthouse Week as well as National Lighthouse Day in August,    
   is looking for someone to take up the reins as leader. The organization    
   works to promote the roles that lighthouses and hams have in preserving    
   maritime safety. There are about 2,000 dues-paying members.   
      
   If no one comes forward, Weidner has said the society's activities will    
   cease after June 30 of this year. For more information, contact him via    
   email at jxweidner@gmail.com or phone him at 856-486-1755.   
      
   Another executive is stepping down - this one at the ARRL. Chief    
   Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, has retired after 11 Years at the    
   Connecticut headquarters. He has been the author of the "Inside HQ"    
   column in QST Magazine, helped introduce a digital edition of the    
   magazine, and served as co-chairman of the Centennial Convention. He was    
   praised recently by ARRL's Marketing Manager, Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R,    
   with these words:   
      
   QUOTE "Through his 'Inside HQ' column, hundreds of personal tours, loads    
   of hamfest and convention travel, radio club meetings, and shaking a lot    
   of hands - Harold packaged the contributions of ARRL and every staff    
   person, and delivered that story to members, prospective members, and    
   loads of friends and visitors." ENDQUOTE   
      
   (ARRL)   
      
      
   **   
      
   THE HAM LICENSE EXPLOSION   
      
   Hams, you're in good company: FCC records show that growth in amateur    
   licenses continued through 2015, with a 735,405 licensees -- a record -    
   in the agency's Universal Licensing System database by year's end. Those    
   figures reflect an increase of 9,130 over December 2014. In 2014, the    
   Amateur Radio ranks grew by a net 8,149 licensees.   
      
   Not surprisingly, the largest growth area was in the Technician license    
   class, which added 6,570 new hams in in 2015. There were 3,079 new    
   General class licensees, and Amateur Extra class added another 3,496.   
      
   The figures reflect a steady growth in amateur radio's ranks annually    
   since 2007. Looks like there'll be a lot more people calling CQ this    
   year, if they haven't started already.   
      
   (ARRL)   
      
   **   
      
   SENIORS ON THE AIR   
      
   SKEETER: Meanwhile, veteran hams are showing some creativity too. A    
   group of hams in a Florida retirement community have their own ham club    
   ... have established an emergency Neighborhood Ham Watch ... and in the    
   process managed to get the blessings of their home owners association.   
      
   Amateur radio newsline's Kent Peterson KC0DGY has their story.]   
      
   [KENT'S REPORT]:   
      
   TED LUEBBERS: We live in an area prone to hurricanes and tornadoes.    
   Most of our club members are very active in  the lake county ares group    
   and we tho if we formed our own club here, we might be available for an   
   emergency in a hurricane or a tornado and report back to our local EOC    
   that everybody is A OK, or B we need some help and be a funnel of    
   information from our gated community to to the emergency operations center.   
      
   KENT That's Royal Harbor Radio club president Ted Luebbers K1AYZ. The    
   club saw a need to include hams in their housing association's emergency    
   disaster plans.   
      
   TED What we have done is actually we've actually set up an community    
   emergency disaster plan for Royal Harbor specifically We presented that    
   to our management board here and they have made it a part of their   
   overall disaster plan for Royal Harbor which has been approved by    
   emergency management at EOC.  And as a matter of fact emergency    
   management was so impressed with the whole thing, they tried to get    
   other retirement communities to do the same thing  So its sort of become    
   a model in this area.   
      
   KENT Luebbers says there also an unforeseen benefit when the club    
   members got involved with the home owners management group.   
      
   TED  As a result of our club here at Royal Harbor and our good    
   relationship with  the home owners association management group we've    
   actually now had two of of our ham club members put on the architectural    
   review committee One of the jobs of the architectural review committee    
   is to sort of police any antenna situations , so you might cause it    
   subversion to some extent. But it works out, the home owners association   
   is happy with what we do they're happy we are taking part in the    
   emergency plan for the community and its given them some publicity and    
   its given us some publicity as well.   
      
   KENT  When he was looking to buy, Luebbers told me he looked at several    
   housing developments but asked if they allowed outside ham antennas.    
   When they told him no, he kept looking.  He says there *are*    
   developments in Florida which *do* allow for ham antennas, you just have    
   to look around a bit to find them.   
      
   For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY   
      
   **   
      
   SATELLITE CONNECTS SOUTH AMERICA AND ANTARCTICA   
      
   It's being called a historic contact and indeed, the satellite    
   communication made on Feb. 28 between Federico Mainz, LU5UFM, in Buenos    
   Aires and Marcelo Duca, LU1AET, in Argentinean Antarctica was just that.   
      
   The Radio Club of Argentina and AMSAT-LU described their call as the    
   first contact via satellite between Argentinean Antarctica and the    
   Argentinean mainland.   
      
   Marcelo was running 15 watts and, using a handheld transceiver; Federico    
   was using 4 watts. Using the SO-50 satellite, their 2-minute QSO clearly    
   went the distance - their signals covered nearly 2,700 kilometers.   
      
   (ARRL)   
      
   **   
      
   KICKER: OTHERWORLDLY QRM OR QRN?   
      
   SKEETER: Was it rock and roll, reverb or something else when Apollo 10's    
   crew heard a certain something on their radios while traveling on the    
   dark side of the moon? Well, the odd sound heard in May of 1969 has    
   finally been sorted out - and the explanation is one that's familiar to    
   lots of hams the world over. We more from Amateur Radio Newsline and    
   Wireless Institute of Australia's newsman, Graham Kemp, VK4BB:   
      
   [GRAHAM'S REPORT]   
      
   **   
      
   NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to ABC.NET Australia; Alan Labs; the ARRL;    
   the Cape May County Herald, CQ Magazine; DX.NET; Hap Holly and the Rain    
   Report; Irish Radio Transmitter Society; the New Zealand Association of    
   Radio Transmitters; the New Zealand Herald; the Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin;    
   QSL.NET; QRZ.COM., Southgate Amateur Radio News; Sydney Morning Herald;    
   TWiT TV; Wireless Institute of Australia; 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.   
      
   For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York,    
   and our news team worldwide, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, in Topeka, Kansas,    
   saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.   
      
   Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.   
      
      
   ***   
      
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   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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   Thank you and good day!   
      
   -73- ARNTE-0.1.0-OS2 build 42   
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