Text 17179, 357 rader
Skriven 2026-11-13 03:06:41 av Rug Rat (1:135/250)
Ärende: ARNewsline Report 2559 - 13 Nov 2026
============================================
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2559 for Friday, November 13th, 2026
 
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2559 with a release date of Friday,
November 13th, 2026 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Goodbye, Swift Observatory. A Florida repeater's future
is in question -- and hams re-enact a message to Mars. All this and more as
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2559 comes your way right now.

**
BILLBOARD CART

**
CRASH ON EARTH ENDS SWIFT OBSERVATORY'S 22-YEAR RUN

NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week by saying goodbye to the Swift Observatory.
Earlier this month, its fall from orbit ended in a crash landing that, after
more than two decades of useful life, seemed rather.....swift. Travis Lisk
N3ILS gives us the details.

TRAVIS: Almost exactly 22 years since it was sent into low-earth orbit by NASA,
the space telescope known as the Swift Observatory has crashed, following
failed efforts earlier this year to extend its time in space.

Tracking by NASA and the US Space Force showed the 1.5-ton telescope
re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia on Wednesday, November 4th.
Several reports said that it burned up over Sumatra.

Since November of 2004, the observatory has focused on finding gamma-ray
bursts, supernovas and other galactic explosions. With three telescopes on
board, the orbiting observatory was capable of observing these events across
various wavelengths, including X-ray, optical and ultraviolet light.

Though its mission was to have lasted for only two years, it was still sending
observations until late October, when NASA shut down its systems.

Solar activity was considered the cause of Swift's declining orbit. After the
failure of a robotic rescue mission in July, scientists resigned themselves to
the fact that its long-running mission would end soon.

This is Travis Lisk N3ILS.

(CBSNEWS.COM, SPACE.COM)

**
RECREATING HISTORIC CW 'MESSAGE TO MARS' 100 YEARS LATER

NEIL/ANCHOR: The historic Rugby Radio Station may no longer be standing in
Warwickshire [pron: WOR-ick-shuh] but one pivotal moment remains foremost when
people remember the government long-wave wireless station and its powerful
transmitter that was tasked, in its earliest years, with sending telegrams
worldwide and, apparently, beyond. Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us more.

JEREMY: It was a curious private telegram, a love letter of sorts sent by
Mansfield Robinson, a lawyer from London. The Morse Code message said [quote]
"Love from Earth to Mars" [endquote]. The government Post Office's Rugby Radio
Station transmitted it in the direction of the red planet on the 24th of
October - almost 100 years ago. It goes without saying - the Martians the
lawyer had tried to reach sent no reply.

Marking the station's centenary, on the same date this year, hams of The Rugby
Amateur Transmitting Society beamed an antenna toward Mars and sent a greeting
three times over 20 minutes, on 144.011 MHz. The society's Steve Jones M1CIZ,
told the Warwickshire World website that each outgoing message takes about
seven minutes to reach Mars and another seven for any reply. Yes, there were
several replies -- but as he told the website, [quote] "I knew that they could
not be from Mars." [endquote]

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(EHAM.NET, WARWICKSHIRE WORLD)

**
VOYAGER PROBE TO REACH MILESTONE DISTANCE FROM EARTH

NEIL/ANCHOR: Mark the date, Wednesday, November 18th, on your calendar. That is
the day NASA's interstellar space probe, Voyager 1, reaches a milestone,
achieving a distance from Earth of one light-day. Simply put, that's how far a
photon can travel in a single day. The big moment is expected to happen at 5:18
a.m. US Eastern Time. So if you're planning to send a radio signal from your
shack to Voyager 1 in the hopes of a QSO, have patience: Your message will take
24 hours to get there - and another 24 hours for the QSL to arrive back home.

(POPULAR SCIENCE)
**

LIGHTNING DAMAGE IMPERILS FUTURE OF FLORIDA REPEATER

NEIL/ANCHOR: Hams in one part of Florida are worried that storm damage to their
repeater may signal the end of having any repeater at all. Jack Parker W8ISH
tells us what's next.

JACK: The future of the regional 2-metre repeater of the Nature Coast Amateur
Radio Society K4NCA in Florida looks bleak, according to various reports by the
club on social media. The repeater, which is hosted by the county, had its
antenna hit recently by lightning.

The county removed most of its equipment as well since, according to the social
media posts, officials do not have the budget to cover the cost of repairs,
which will require the service of professional tower crews. The club said
members will be talking to the county to pin down a more definite estimate of
what the cost would be to complete the repairs to get the repeater back on at
147.330 MHz again.

Nature Coast ended its message by saying: [quote] "It's not looking too good
for the future of 330. If enough could be gathered by the community, then we
may be able to keep this repeater on the air." [endquote]

This is Jack Parker W8ISH.

(QRZ.COM FORUMS, FACEBOOK)

**
INDIANA COMMUNITY PITCHES IN TO RESTORE HAMS' DAMAGED TOWER

NEIL/ANCHOR: In one Indiana county, it was the community's turn to step up and
respond to a ham emergency, after a storm destroyed a vital amateur radio
tower. Daniel Garcia W2DIY has that story.

DANIEL: March 2025 left an unfortunate legacy for some Indiana residents. The
tower used by the Fulton County Amateur Radio Club and for Skywarn's weather
spotting service had been destroyed by a storm, hampering vital communication
between the county and the surrounding region during severe weather. 

The community has its tower back, however, because its restoration wasn't just
an amateur radio issue; it became a community project. The county's Highway
Department, the Rochester Fire Department and a number of local businesses all
donated time and muscle, as did club members Doug Garvison KD9PMT and Tom
Murray KB9WSL. This past summer, the 30-foot tower was ready for some serious
Skywarn spotting and other ham radio communication.

Club president Brian Johnson, KD9SFY, told Channel 57 TV news [quote]: "If we
had a severe weather event like a tornado go through and take out a lot of
communications capabilities, we can be up and running here at [the Emergency
Management Agency] in a very short time frame and provide those backup services
or primary communications if needed."

This is Daniel Garcia W2DIY.

(ABC CHANNEL 57, ROCHESTER SENTINEL)

**
FULL LICENSE-HOLDERS IN UK GAIN BROADER 2M USE

NEIL/ANCHOR: Privileges have been extended on 2-metres for some hams in the UK,
as Jeremy Boot G4NJH reports.

JEREMY: With the goal of encouraging more experimentation on 2-metres for
another year, Ofcom, the UK regulator, has granted a temporary change of
privileges to full-licence holders, extending the band from 144 to 146 MHz, to
144 to 147MHz.

Ofcom's action, which favours innovation on digital voice and data modes, came
with the support of the Radio Society of Great Britain, which is encouraging
eligible amateurs to apply for the Notice of Variation via their website. The
new privileges are granted on a non-interference basis and will be available up
to and including 31st October 2027. An application can be found at r s g b dot
org stroke nov

Meanwhile, John Regnault, G4SWX, the society's VHF manager, is interested in
seeing reports from amateurs to monitor their use of the new frequencies.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(RSGB)

**
FCC PETITIONED TO EXTEND FM STATIONS' FILING WINDOW

NEIL/ANCHOR: A temporary outage in the FCC's Licensing and Management System
reportedly caused a breach making more than 100 confidential applications for
noncommercial FM translators publicly visible. According to a report on the
Radio World website, the system was restored on Thursday, November 5th, just
hours after the disruption on the same day.

The timing of the outage was critical, in another way; noncommercial and
community radio stations and the broadcast consultants assisting them have been
preparing applications in order to meet the tight filing deadline of November
17th. Citing the outage, high demand among applicants, and a short filing
window, the consulting groups have petitioned the FCC to extend the filing
window for at least another week, perhaps as late as November 25th.

(RADIOWORLD)

**

BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the N8VAA
repeater, serving parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania
and the Potomac Highlands Amateur Radio club from Moorefield, West Virginia on
Monday nights at 8.


**
FCC CITES OPERATOR FOR INTERFERENCE ON GMRS REPEATER

NEIL/ANCHOR: A California man with two expired GMRS licenses has been sent a
notice from the FCC, charging him with disrupting the operation of a local GMRS
repeater. Kent Peterson KCODGY has the details.

KENT: Acting on complaints from a General Mobile Radio Service repeater club in
southern California, the US Federal Communications Commission has sent a notice
of unauthorized operation and harmful interference to a radio operator whose
two GMRS licenses have long since expired.

According to the FCC, the licenses WPQM265 and WQHR501 were not valid on July
27 of this year when agents say Jerry Lee Seehaas repeatedly transmitted siren
sounds lasting 6 seconds each on the repeater input frequencies of 467.675 MHz
and 467.7 MHz. The FCC notice sent to him on the 4th of November said that
agents from the FCC's Enforcement Bureau in Los Angeles traced the sirens to
handheld radios he had with him inside a vehicle in El Segundo, California.

FCC records show that Seehaas is the holder of an active amateur radio license
KG6UMF. He is also listed as the trustee of callsign KG6OPA on QRZ.com, where
the callsign is associated with Seacoast REACT, a nonprofit public-service
group that provides emergency communications and assistance at community
events.

He was given 10 days to respond to the notice.

This is Kent Peterson, KCODGY.

(FCC, QRZ.COM)

**
SSTV EVENT CELEBRATES SPACE SHUTTLES' ACHIEVEMENTS

NEIL/ANCHOR: The ISS is hosting a slow-scan TV event this month that pays
tribute to NASA's shuttle program. Ralph Squillace KK6ITB tells us how to
capture those images.

RALPH: One hundred thirty-five missions in space is something to celebrate. By
the time the US space agency NASA concluded its Space Shuttle program, that's
how many trips the fleet flew between its first launch on April 12, 1981 to its
final touchdown on July 21, 2011.

The shuttle program's three decades of operation helped clear the path for the
International Space Station, which is paying tribute to the program's history,
challenges and accomplishments in a slow-scan TV event called "Space Memories,"
beginning November 9th through to the 16th. This is series 35 of the slow-scan
TV programs offered by the ISS on amateur radio frequencies. The images will be
sent, once again, on 437.550 MHz, plus or minus Doppler shift, using Robot 36
Mode.

Back home on Earth, you can submit all received images to Amateur Radio on the
ISS through the online SSTV Gallery.

Images can be uploaded via the website link that appears in the text version in
this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

[DO NOT READ:  https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_SSTV/  ]

This is Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(NASA)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, listen for Giovanni, IZ2DPX, from Boa Vista, Cape Verde,
IOTA Number AF-086, where he will be operating with the callsign D44PX through
to the 11th of November on 40 through 6m. Giovanni will be using SSB and
FT8/FT4.

Eric, F6ICX, is on Saint Marie island, IOTA Number AF-090 using the callsign
5R8IC until the middle of December. Listen for Eric on 40-10m. He will be
focusing on CW but will also operate with some SSB and FT8 in fox-hound mode.

Chuck, KG9N, is operating from Montserrat with the callsign VP2MCV through to
the 16th of November. You'll find him on all bands using all modes.

The DXpedition to Alexander Selkirk Island (IOTA Number SA-101) has been
postponed until later in November as a result of unfavorable weather
conditions. The team has requested an extension of its previously assigned
callsign XROZ covering their planned activation from November 11th through to
December 23rd. Operators hope to be on the air by the 25th or 26th of November.

For more operating details or QSL information for any of these stations, visit
their pages on QRZ.com

(DX WORLD)

**
KICKER: SATELLITE IS GAME FOR SOME GAMING

NEIL/ANCHOR: We end this week's report to tell you that, out there in space,
there really IS a Doom Satellite. No, this is not a fatal scenario, despite
what the name suggests. As Dave Lee M9TLB explains, it's actually rather fun.

DAVE: Are you game for some gaming?

Well, that's essentially what a team of ham radio operators asked an
experimental CubeSat earlier this year, transmitting voice commands from their
ground station in Oslo, Norway. The response from the small European Space
Agency spacecraft, was yes.

The satellite, known as OPS-SAT PRETTY, then fulfilled the request by starting
up the video game Doom.

What sounds like a trivial incident, however, marked an important milestone.
That moment in July is believed to be the first time a command was transmitted
by voice, instead of digital packets, and carried out successfully by a
satellite. Using the callsign LA4O, the Oslo Group of the Norwegian Radio Relay
League had achieved their success with the help of earlier tests by hams in
Poland using the callsigns SQ6RDP and SQ6QV.

Scientists are taking a fresh look recently at this demonstration of machine
learning, in which OPS-SAT PRETTY copied the transmitted signal and transcribed
the voice command using speech-to-text AI.

It's not clear who actually won the game but Tanagra Space, the
machine-learning specialists behind the experiment, believes everyone might
come up ahead of the game. That's especially true with regard to distress calls
that are on a grand - or global - scale.

The company's founder and principal investigator Georges Labrche, told
SpaceNews: [quote] "Maybe this could be turned into a service where suddenly
you can point to the air, call out for mayday and then a network of satellites
is able to relay that immediately." [endquote]

That hardly sounds like a recipe for Doom.

This is Dave Lee M9TLB.

(GIZMODO, TANAGRA SPACE)

**
NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to ABC Channel 57; AMSAT News; Amateur Radio Daily, David Behar,
K7DB; DXWorld; FCC; 425 DX Bulletin; Gizmodo; NASA; Popular Science; QRZ.com;
Radio Society of Great Britain; Radio World; Rochester Sentinel; Tanagra Space;
Wireless Institute of Australia;  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
2026. Amateur Radio Newsline retains ownership of its material even when
retransmitted elsewhere. All rights are reserved.

** Support BBSs - The audio version of this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline is
available in .mp3 format on The Rat's Den BBS!

 Rug Rat (Brent Hendricks)
 Blog and Forums  - www.catracing.org
 IMAGE BBS! 3.0   - bbs.catracing.org 6400
 C-Net Amiga BBS  - bbs.catracing.org 6840
 Ham's Over IP - 104196
--- CNet/5
 * Origin: The Rat's Den BBS (1:135/250)