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Ärende: Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1877 - August 2 2013
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Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1877 - August 2 2013
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1877 with a release date of August 2
2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a Q-S-T. Hams in Hawaii go on alert for Pacific Storm
Flossie, India recognizes three hams as rescue radio heroes; more than 400
attend ARRL sponsored Hurricane readiness webinar; vandals topple a radio
tower that's home to at least one ham radio digipeter; Monitoring Times to
cease publication at years end and a lighthouse in the middle of the
Australian desert will take part in International Lighthouse and Lightship
weekend. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report
number 1877 coming your way right now.
(Billboard Cart Here)
**
RESCUE RADIO: HAWAII HAMS RESPOND TO TROPICAL STORM FLOSSIE
Ham radio was ready when Pacific Storm Flossie took aim at the Island
State. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with what we know so
far:
--
KH7HO: ".there was a report of an individual that had a hole in the roof
that was touched by lightning; we had some trees that fell and that's
about it. There wasn't ant extensive flooding, no huge storm surge. So we
lucked out in this tropical storm."
--
That's Clement Jung, KH7HO, who is the State of Hawaii's Amateur Radio
Skywarn Coordinator summing up a severe weather event that was called
Tropical Storm Flossie. According to Jung, amateur radio operators across
Hawaii involved in various aspects of rescue radio operation were ready to
respond after the Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued an advisory on
announcing that the storm had crossed Longitude 140 into the Central
Pacific hurricane region.
Flossie approached from the east, heading almost due west at 20 Miles per
Hour. In anticipation of the storms arrival plans had been underway
between the National Weather Service SKYWARN and Hawaii State Civil
Defense to coordinate a joint net on the state-wide VHF Repeater system.
Its purpose would be for the passing storm information to the National
Weather Service Honolulu Forecast Office.
--
KH7HO: "About 8 o'clock on Monday (morning) July 29th was when the action
began to come up. The Hurricane Center meteorologists were concerned
about a development over Maui and approaching Lanai, Molokai and Oahu.
The development was (a storm cell) some 60,000 feet high while generating
a lot of lightning and thunder. They were concerned about more rain, hale
and possibly tornadoes."
--
Meteorologists also requested reports of heavy rainfall to confirm what
they were seeing on their radar. These reports were provided by amateur
radio operators on the SKYWARN net supplemented with messages relayed via
cell phones, text messages and on social media such as Facebook.
This was the first tropical cyclone in Hawaiian waters that encountered
the volcanoes on the Big Island. As predicted, the mass of these
mountains disrupted the circular motion of the storm causing a portion to
separate and head around South Point. It also forced the main portion of
the storm to head north where it encountered the mass of Mt. Haleakala on
Maui. The combined action of these three volcanoes caused the moisture to
deflect upwards, forming thunderhead clouds up to an estimated 49,000
feet. The cold temperatures at that altitude caused the moisture to form
ice and rain, which fell as heavy downpours on the island of Maui and
Molokai.
All in all Flossie did not wreak the damage that some had predicted, and
with the state-wide ham radio network of intertied repeaters using the ALL
STAR Network communications was uninterrupted throughout the event. KH7HO
says that it is cooperation among the various groups that makes Hawaii's
ever ready emergency response possible:
--
KH7HO: ".no matter what hat we wear we all work together. Whether we are
ARES, RACES, State RACES, DM RACES; that's the whole concept. We have
limited resources here; we're an island state and we all have to work
together. Its what we call `ohana' or family in Hawaiian."
--
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the
newsroom in Los Angeles.
--
Flossie faded the morning of July 30th thanks to winds that broke layers
of the storm apart. The ham radio operators who were a part of the first
response effort say that they are ready for anything that Mother Nature
might send their way. (ARNewslineT)
**
RESCUE RADIO: INDIA RECOGNIZES THREE HAMS AS HEROES
Three hams in India have been recognized for their efforts in the
Uttarkhand flood relief operations. The newspaper The Hindu says that
VU3GDS, VU3HVD and VU3HBT have all been honored for their contributions to
public safety during and in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand storms and
flooding.
All three are from the city of Bangalore and were among the first to reach
Uttarakhand and establish a communication link from remote areas. During
the floods, the three were instrumental in establishing communication with
the local district administration in the Himalayan terrains to enable
better coordination for civilian relief. Communicating with the disaster
control center established at Dehra Dun, they relayed messages to the
local district administration which took appropriate measures to reach out
to those stranded or in need of rescue.
The Newspaper is calling the three heroes. The complete story in The
Hindu is on-line at tinyurl.com/india-ham-heroes. (The Hindu)
**
RESCUE RADIO: RADIO NZ AM SIGNAL FAILED AFTER JULY 21 QUAKE
An AM radio outage takes place after an earthquake hits New Zealand.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, has the details:
--
Radio New Zealand's AM emergency notification radio service was unable to
broadcast civil defense messages for about 20 minutes after the
6.5-magnitude quake on Sunday evening, July 21st. Radio New Zealand
spokesman John Barr said that the problem was caused when a fuse went out
in the Porirua coastal suburb of Titahi Bay.
Barr said that the company had a technician there quickly to rectify the
situation. He noted that the outage was isolated to the AM broadcast
operation and did not hamper any other civil defense capacity. Barr added
that Radio New Zealand had continued to operate on their FM frequency and
on television through Sky and Freeview.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, in Nelson, New
Zealand.
--
New Zealand authorities recommend that the public tune to the civil
defense recommended frequency of 101 FM. That is the standard FM
emergency notification frequency around most of that country.
(published news reports)
**
RESCUE RADIO: MORE THAN 400 ATTEND 2013 ON-LINE ARRL HURRICANE WEBINAR
A record number of individuals interested in emergency preparedness were
on hand for the 2013 ARRL Hurricane Webinar, which was held Monday
evening, July 15th. According to the ARRL Letter, a total of 410 people,
many of them radio amateurs, participated in the event. This was the
highest attendance ever for an ARRL webinar, administered by ARRL
Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, KI1U.
Those attending heard presentations on a number of topics, including an
overview of the 2013 hurricane season forecasts and the role of
IRLP/EchoLink in disaster communication by veteran SKYWARN volunteer Rob
Macedo, KD1CY. Also covered was a summary of Hurricane Watch Net activity
by Net Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, and the importance of publicizing
Amateur Radio communication support by ARRL Media and Public Relations
Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X.
For those who missed it, the webinar has been posted for download at the
ARRL's website. You will find it in cyberspace at
www.arrl.org/public-service-resources (ARRL)
**
RADIO LAW: ARRL SAYS THAT RECEIVER IMMUNITY STANDARDS IMPRACTICAL FOR
AMATEUR SERVICE
The ARRL says that receiver interference immunity standards are not needed
or of value to ham radio. Amateur Radfio Newsline's Heather Embee,
KB3TZD, reports:
--
Responding to an FCC call for comments based in part on recommendations in
a Technological Advisory Council white paper, the ARRL has told the FCC
that establishing so-called "harm claim threshold" or HCT standards for
receivers would not work in the Amateur Service.
HCTs, expressed in field strength or power flux density, would specify the
level of radio interference that receivers should be expected to tolerate
before a radio service could claim harmful interference. Limits would be
established throughout a given service's assigned frequency range as well
as within certain frequencies outside that range.
But in its filing, the ARRL argues that there is a need for minimum,
perhaps even mandatory, receiver performance standards for home electronic
devices, but the Amateur Service should not be subject to these same type
of receiver immunity standards. The Leagues comments note that any
performance standards for amateur service receivers would be purely
arbitrary, and would compromise the experimental purposes of the Amateur
Radio Service.
The ARRL says that hams have the technical knowledge to differentiate
between interference from spurious or out-of-band emissions from nearby
transmitters and that caused by receiver deficiencies. In other words,
the suggested standards would be of little or no value to receivers
designed to operate in or near the Amateur Service bands.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick,
Pennsylvania.
--
The complete ARRL filing is on the web at
tinyurl.com/hct-not-needed-by-hams (ARRL)
**
BREAK 1
With you 52 weeks a year, every year since 1977, we are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WD6HFR
repeater serving San Diego, California.
(5 sec pause here)
**
RADIO CRIME: VANDALS TOPPLE RADIO TOWER NOT FAR FROM SAN FRANCISCO
Vandals have brought down a multi-use transmission tower East of the San
Francisco bay area. The structure that is the site for microwave links,
land mobile radio, cellular telephone, and an APRS Digipeter.
According to the East Bay Regional Park District Police the guy wires that
supported the structure located on Rocky Ridge near the city of Danville
were intentionally cut causing it to collapse early on Tuesday, July 30th.
Park police Lt. John King said the vandal or vandals went through a lot of
effort to topple the tower. He explained that it was in an area not
easily accessible and that the criminal or criminals involved had to get
through several gates to reach the site.
Nobody was injured in the downing of the fifty foot high antenna support
structure. Police are continuing the investigation of the incident. They
ask anyone with information to contact them at area code 510-881-1833.
According to a post by a ham on Facebook familiar with the area, losing
that tower will have a big impact on radio coverage in the cities of
Danville, San Ramon and along Interstate 680 corridor. (W6DTW, K8WHB,
Published news reports)
**
ELECTRONICS LAW: MOMENTUM IS BUILDING IN CONGRESS TO SQUASH PATENT
TROLLS.
More laws to curb patent trolling appear to be on their way. This as
Representatives Blake Farenthold of Texas and Hakeem Jeffries of New York
introduce the Patent Litigation and Innovation Act of 2013 in the United
States House. Amateur Radio Newsline's Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, has the
details:
--
This is the sixth piece of legislation unveiled this year to address
concerns about patent trolls, and features some provisions that were
incorporated in the earlier bills. This includes forcing an infringement
accuser to reveal more about who is actually bringing the suit, including
details about their patent claims, as well as limiting discovery.
A big difference between H.R. 2639 and its predecessors is this measure
would permit manufacturers to essentially take over a case against an end
user accused of patent infringement. As such the bill adds transparency
and legitimacy to the thousands of cease and desist letters sent out by
patent trolls.
According to the National Economic Council and the Council of Economic
Advisors, patent trolls can threaten to sue a few or thousands of
companies at once, without specific evidence of infringement against any
of them. Some create shell companies that make it difficult for
defendants to know who is suing them and assert that their patents cover
inventions not imagined at the time they were granted.
Last May the White House said that it was taking several steps to curb
patent abuse and that the administration is ready to work with Congress to
resolve the problem.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH.
--
Ham radio operators who produce podcasts dealing with the hobby have a
vested interested in this matter due to an ongoing issue involving a
company that claims it owns rights to the podcasting concept and has
brought suit against several high profile users in various areas of
broadcasting and technology over what that company claims to belong to it.
(Published news reports)
**
HELPING HAMS: NCDXC DONATES $8,000 TO NCDXF FOR FUTURE DXPEDITIONS
The Northern California DX Club has presented an $8000 check to the
Northern California DX Foundation. This to assist in continuing the
Foundations work in fostering DX and DXpeditions where needed.
The Foundation says that this is the largest donation that it ever
received from a club. It says that the monies will help to provide
critical funding to DXpedtions high on the Most Wanted List. It adds that
without this type of support that such DXpedtions might not be possible.
The Northern California DX Club was founded on October 10th, 1946. The
beneficiary of its generosity, the Northern California DX Foundation is a
private non profit organization founded in 1972. Its purpose is to assist
worthwhile amateur radio and scientific projects with funding and
equipment.
More details and a photo of the check being presented is on the web at
www.ncdxf.org and www.ncdxc.org. (NCDXF press release)
**
HELPING HAMS: YASME SUPPORTS EQUIPMENT ACQUISITION FOR NEW ETHIOPIAN
AMATEURS
Some good news for a nation where ham radio is re-emerging. The Yasme
Foundation Board of Directors has approved a grant to be used to purchase
amateur radio transceivers for three members of the Ethiopian Amateur
Radio Society. This is so that these hams can satisfy the requirements of
the Ethiopian licensing process.
Ethiopia came back on the air May 30, 2011, with the re-opening of the
Ethiopian Amateur Radio Society station ET3AA. To support the
reestablishment of amateur radio in that nation the Yasme Foundation
issued a grant to pay the fees associated with license examinations for 25
members of that club. Many were successful but under Ethiopian
regulations could not receive a license without proof of ownership of an
amateur radio station. This latest Yasme grant is a step in getting
individual Ethopian hams back on the air. (Yasme Foundation)
**
HELPING HAMS: YASME SUPPORTS DEVELOPER OF VIEWPROP
The Yasme Foundation Board has also announced that it has made a grant to
support further development of ViewProp. This is a new utility for
propagation visualization developed by Rick Kiessig, ZL2HAM.
ViewProp integrates information from the Reverse Beacon Network and
worldwide spotting networks with station location information from QRZ.com
and mapping through DXAtlas. The result is a real-time, worldwide view of
amateur radio signals and overall ham radio operation.
ViewProp also supports a "playback" function to review historical data and
provides the user with a number of options to configure both the input
data stream and the way in which the information is displayed.
Currently in beta testing by a global user's group, the Yasme grant will
enable ZL2HAM to complete development with appropriate networked software
tools and release it for public use.
The Yasme Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized to conduct
scientific and educational projects related to Amateur Radio. More about
it is on the web at www dot yasme dot org. (Yasme Foundation)
**
RADIO BUSINESS: MONITORING TIMES MAGAZINE TO CEASE PUBLICATION AT THE END
OF 2013
Monitoring Times magazine will cease publication at the end of the year.
This as publisher Bob Grove, W8JHD, tells contributors in an e-mail that,
after 33 years, he and his wife, Judy, have decided to retire.
In his notice Grove said that a combination of a down-turned economy, as
well as the ready availability of free listening and technical information
on the Internet, has reduced sales and subscriptions throughout the
marketplace. Therefore Monitoring Times will be shutting down all
operations after its December 2013 issue.
The impending closure of Monitoring Times leaves CQ Publishing's Popular
Communications, as the only national magazine serving the burgeoning
shortwave listeners, CBers and scanning enthusiasts market. (CQ, MT)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: VK2DIK ON HIS WORLD JOURNEYS AND HAM RADIO
Some names in the news. First off is Australian aviator and entrepreneur
Dick Smith, VK2DIK , who made the first solo helicopter flight around the
world 30 years ago. The journey which ended on July the 22nd, 1983, was
the subject of an unforgettable Wireless Institute of Australia Centenary
speech given by Smith at his Bowylie Flying Club. During the talk he
highlighted the dangers of the Japan to Alaska leg, that included the
finding and landing on a container ship to refuel. Smith also noted that
it was amateur radio that assisted him to circumnavigate the globe and on
other occasions including his famous balloon flight in February of 2000.
(VK3PC)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: W6OBB RETURNING TO NIGHTTIME TALK RADIO
According to a posting by Art Bell, W6OBB, on Facebook, he will be
returning to nighttime talk radio this fall. But you won't be hearing him
on your AM or FM dial. That's because Bell's new program will be a part
of the Sirius XM satellite subscription program line-up.
More information was provided in an article on the bigstory dot com
website. It says that a Sirius XM company representative contacted Bell
through social media a few months ago. This in turn led to the creation
of Bell's new show to be titled "Art Bell's Dark Matter."
Sirius XM says that Bell will talk about things like UFOs, ghosts,
near-death experiences and the weird aspects of science. Also that he
will do interviews and take calls from listeners.
Like in years past, the show will originate from Art's property in Nevada.
Sirius XM is reportedly in the process of building a new studio facility
for him to originate from.
Meantime back on Facebook W6OBB posted that he could not say a word until
now. He added that he tried to tell his followers on Facebook that it was
coming without spilling the beans because he had been sworn not to. He
also directed those interested to see his website at artbell.com for more
details. You can read the in-depth bigstory dot com article at
tinyurl.com/w6obb-returns-to-talk-radio. (W6OBB, bigstory.ap.org,
artbell.com, Fecebook)
**
RADIO PAST: THE VOA DELANO CALIFORNIA STORY
A oldie but a goodie from radios recent past. If you have ever had the
chance to listen to the Voice of America Shortwave station that operated
from Delano California and can recall its booming signal up and down the
West coast and out into the Pacific, here is the story of how it came
about. Also the way it operated for 63 years and its final non-descript
signoff at 03:30 U-T-C on October 28, 2007. And there's even an amateur
radio tie-in when one of the stations 200 kilowatt Federal Radio
transmitters showed up on the ham radio airwaves calling CQ. We won't
spoil it by telling you more. Rather, make yourself a snack, sit back,
relax and take your web browser to tinyurl.com/the-voa-delano-story for a
great evening of reading. (RW)
**
BREAK 2
This is news for today's radio amateur. 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: A LIGHTHOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF AUSTRALIA
An interesting story from down-under. Australia is known as a very big
island nation. At its geographic centre 1,500 kilometres from the coast is
Alice Springs, which hosts the famous Henley-On-Todd Regatta each August -
albeit on a usually dry river bed. What does this have to do with ham
radio you ask? Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has the
answer:
--
Those living in Australia's Northern Territory and many visitors take the
annual regatta which began in 1962 very seriously. In fact there will
likely be some 3,000 people on hand witnessing the event.
There is an interesting story of how this location, in one of the driest
parts of Australia, connects with ham radio and also why deserves a
registration this year in the International Lighthouse and Lightship
Weekend. Its because of the Alice Springs lighthouse that is located
there.
Greg Mair, VK8GM, explains that with the help of the Henley-On-Todd team,
a lighthouse has been built to promote the spirit of amateur radio and
lighthouses. Now, the Alice Springs lighthouse joining hundreds of others
around the world this year its pretty is certain to attract the attention
of local, national and international news media. After all, there are not
very many lighthouses out in the desert, anywhere on the planet.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl, Lasek, KB9BIK, half way around
the world in Zion, Illinois.
--
If you want to register a lighthouse, lightship or marine beacon in this
year's event then visit www.illw.net. This years International Lighthouse
and Lightship event takes place on August the 17th and 18th with almost
300 lit locations on the air. (VK3PC)
**
WORLDBEAT: SARL TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN 5 MHZ PROPAGATION RESEARCH
The South African Radio League says that it will activate a new
propagation beacon on 5 point 250 MHz by the end of August. Its
transmitter will be programmed to send signals at regular intervals and
radio amateurs who have the proper software will be able to record these
signals automatically on their computers.
The software to be used is called ALE. This is described as a complex
communications standard also known as MIL-STD 188-141 and USA government
standard FED-STD-1045. In the past usage it had been limited to expensive
military and commercial equipment with built-in controllers. All of that
changed with the development of software that runs on a personal computer
and makes use of the systems sound card. Because of this ALE is now in
regular use by radio amateurs all over the world.
The announcement of the new beacon was made at the Radio in Action
Symposium held in Port Elizabeth on Saturday July 27th. An article by
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, that explains the full operation will be posted on
the Propagation Research page on www.sarl.org.za. (SARL)
**
WORLDBEAT: NORDIC HF CONFERENCE AUGUST 12 TO 14 IN SWEDEN
The popular English language Nordic HF conference will take place in
Sweden, from August 12th to the 14th. Topics to be covered will include
the design of a software-defined radio; an ionospheric chirpsounder for HF
propagation analysis; creation of applications of advanced
VLF/LF/HF-digital signal processing in the amateur radio service and
numerous other offerings.
The conference first took place in 1986 and initially was planned for a
limited audience of Nordic countries. It's now held every three years and
has grown steadily to a point where it now has international acclaim.
More information including a complete program and speaker listing is on
the web at nordichf.org. (Nordic HF Conference)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: MISSING STRaND-1 HAMSAT RETURNS TO LIFE
A missing satellite has announced its return. After 113 days of silence
DK3WN reported that hearing STRaND-1 and decoding telemetry. The
spacecraft has been silent since March 31st.
STRaND-1 transmits on frequency of 437.568 MHz. Further reports from
others hearing the bird would be welcome. Send them by e-mail to
C.P.Bridges (at) surrey (dot) ac (dot) uk (ANS)
**
ON THE AIR: MEXICO SPECIAL EVENT TO CELEBRATE FMRE
On the air, members of the Mexican Federation of Radio Experimenters will
be operating from the resort city of Cancun from October 2nd to the 7th
using the special callsign XE3FMRE. This to celebrate the National
Convention FMRE 2013. Operation will take place on 80 through 6 meters
using CW, SSB, RTTY, PSK31 and possibly WSJT. QSL the event station via
XE1LM. (Southgate)
**
ON THE AIR: PA6SAIL NETHERLANDS SPECIAL EVENT
Also keep an ear open for Netherlands special event station PA6SAIL to be
active between August 19th and September 10th. This to support the
maritime event "SAIL De Ruyter" at Vlissingen.
Operation will be on the HF bands using CW, SSB, PSK and RTTY as well as
various times and modes on 6 and 2 meters. A special QSL card will be
issued for working this callsign. QSL via PA3GEO either direct or via the
bureau. (Southgate)
**
DXCC NEWS: NINE OPERATIONS APPROVED FOR DXCC CREDIT
Bill Moore NC1L, the Awards Branch Manager of the ARRL has announced a
plethora of operations that have been approved for DXCC credit. These are
the 2013 4S7NZG operation from Sri Lanka; the current W4XR expedition in
Laos; the one day July 9th Z8OID operation from the South Sudan and the
2012 and 2013 9M4SLL operations from the Spratly Islands.
Also now approved is the 2010 through 2011 9Q6CC operation from the
Democratic People's Republic of the Congo; the 2013 XWOYJY outing from
Laos; the 2013 9XOEME from Rwanda and 6OOLA from Somalia Last but by no
means least is the 2012 T6JM operation from Afghanistan
According to NC1L, if you've had any of these rejected in a prior
application, send a note to bmoore (at) arrl (dot) org to be placed on the
list for an update to your record. Also, please note the submission date
and/or reference number where the rejection was noted to expedite the
search for any rejected QSOs. And we will have more DX related
information later on in this week's Amateur Radio Newsline report. (ARRL
- DXCC)
**
DX
In DX, TU5DF will be on the air from the Ivory Coast until sometime in
October. His operation is 40 through 6 meters using CW with some SSB and
PSK31. QSL via F5SWB
UX0HX, UZ1HZ and UT5UY will be active from Namibia signing stroke V 5 from
August 1st to the 8th. Their operation will be on 80 through 10 meters
using SSB and Morse. QSL each operators home call either direct or via
the bureau.
EA4GBA will be operational from Mozambique through December 27th signing
C91GBA. He is reported to be active on all of the High Frequency bands on
SSB however no operating schedule has yet been announced. QSL via his
home call, direct only.
DL1AL is now active as 5A1AL from near Tripoli, Libya. His operation so
far has been on 40, 30, 20 and 6 meters using CW. He recently told the
Ohio Penn DX Newsletter that he will eventually be active on the H-F bands
and 6 meters using CW and SSB. He also plans to try PSK but at this time
the modem does not work. No matter. Whichever way you make contact please
QSL via DL1AL.
HB9ARY is currently operating stroke 3B8 from Mauritius Island. He is
reportedly active on all of the High Frequency bands. QSL to his home
callsign.
Lastly, DL7BC will be on the air stroke F H from Mayotte between March
21st and April 4th, of 2014. Operations will be on 20-10 meters with 40
meters also a possibility. He also plans to participate in the 2014 CQ
World Wide WPX SSB Contest signing TO7BC. QSL via his home callsign,
direct or by the Bureau.
(Above from various DX news sources)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: A PEN FROM GERMANY THAT CORRECTS YOU
From our emerging technology file comes this story a new writing
instrument that warns its user when it thinks that he or she is about to
make a mistake. No we are not kidding as we hear from Wireless Institute
of Australia's Col Herbert, VK3LED:
--
VK3LED: The New India Express has reported on the invention of a new pen
which will vibrate if it senses that the writer is making a spelling
mistake or his or her handwriting is messy.
The brainchild of two German entrepreneurs, Learnshift which means
learning pen in German is a regular pen with real ink but it has a special
motion sensor inside and a small battery operated Linux operated computer
with a WiFi chip which allows the pen to recognize specific movements,
letter shapes and a wide assortment of words. It vibrates if the user is
not careful with letters or writes inelligently.
Arguably, it will be able to correct those whose dependence on spell
checks and typing has played havoc with their spelling and handwriting,
but it is doubtful that how many of we adults use a pen these days; even a
fancy one that vibrates.
I'm Col, VK3LED.
--
Now the only thing this pen needs is to find a way to convince the buying
public that its something that it really needs. With more and more people
turning to PC's, tablets and smart-phones for texting, that job may not
prove easy. (WIA News)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE
With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ
Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the
RSGB, the Southgate News, TWiT-TV and Australia's WIA News, that's all
from the Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline (at)
arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio
Newsline'sT only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can
also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin
Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350
For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Don
Wilbanks, AE5DW, in southern Mississippi saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.
Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.
------------------------------------
R\%/itt, K5RXT
--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-31012
--- D'Bridge 3.92
* Origin: K5RXT HAM Echo Moderator - San Antonio, Texas, USA (1:387/22)
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