Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1821 - July 6 2012
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 Newsline(tm) 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,
ARNewsline(tm))
**
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
at our 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 Newsline(tm) "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.
(ARNewsline(tm), 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. (ARNewsline(tm))
**
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 be
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