Text 6174, 532 rader
Skriven 2014-01-25 15:32:02 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Kommentar till en text av Y'all
Ärende: Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1902 - January 24, 2014
==============================================================
Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1902 - January 24, 2014
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1902 with a release date of January
24, 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Two meter DXCC comes to a ham in South Africa; a
ham radio news service takes issue with UK licensing figures; a Canadian
newspaper says ham radio is the right fit for emergency communications;
the Northern California DX Foundation announces a major grant to the
upcoming Tromlin Island DXpedition; the ARRL releases its 100th
anniversary video and Russia ends an era of long-wave broadcasting. All
this and more on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1902 coming your
way right now.
**
RADIO RECORDS: ZS6OB ACHIEVES 1ST SOUTH AFRICAN 2 METER DXCC
A new record for VHF DXing from South Africa. David Conradie, ZR6DHC,
tells us about the success on 2 meters by Pine Pienaar, ZS6OB:
--
December saw a landmark for South African VHF DXing when Pine Pienaar
ZS6OB applied for the DXCC award using only contacts made in the two meter
band. With this Pine became the first amateur in Africa and only the
second in the southern hemisphere to achieve this feat.
DXCC is issued by the American Radio Relay League for proven contact with
at least 100 entities. Most of these entities are countries, with a few
additions that are regarded as separate, mostly for geographic reasons.
More than two thirds of two meter DXCC holders are in Europe, with their
concentration of almost 70 countries in close proximity. North America
features about a fifth of applicants, with about a tenth in Japan. Bob
Macquarie ZL3TY was the first in Oceania and the southern hemisphere, with
ZS6OB being first in Africa. South America has yet to produce its first
winner.
Pine used digital modes with a four-Yagi station. He has been working on
his DXCC for a full decade. His single-band award brings the number of
bands on which South Africans have earned DXCC to eleven.
For the Amateur radio Newsline I am David Conradie ZR6DHC
--
Our congratulations to ZS6OB, on this truly difficult achievement.
(ZR6DHC)
**
WORLDBEAT: NUMBER OF HAM RADIO LICENSEES IN UK IN DISPUTE
The U-K based Southgate news says that the number of ham radio operators
in the United Kingdom is on the decline and not growing as reported by
other news sources. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP reports:
--
The on-line Southgate News Service cites a sentence near the end of an
article published on the American Radio Relay League's web page using
numbers compiled by AH0A that the newsletter says gives a rather
misleading impression of the situation in the United Kingdom.
At the time it was posted, the ARRL article said that: "In the United
Kingdom, 76,362 licensees were on record as of March 2012 up by 3.9
percent over 2011, and growth was consistent." This says Southgate paints
a completely false picture of the situation where the reality is that the
number of UK radio amateurs has fallen by 47% over the past 7 years.
According to Southgate, United Kingdom Amateur Radio licenses should be
renewed or revalidated every 5 years. But says the news service, U-K
telecommunications regulator Ofcom recently admitted that 47% of the
licenses reported in its monthly statistics had not been renewed. Also
that the license statistics still include people who became Silent Keys or
who gave up the hobby as far back as 7 years ago.
Southgate says that in the UK there is also a double or even triple
counting of licenses. It notes that when people upgrade from Foundation
to Intermediate and Full Advanced their previous licenses remain in the
figures. In addition, a significant number of amateurs hold two Full
Advanced licenses as a result of that nations old Class A and Class B
licensing structure.
While all of this may be true, anyone outside the United Kingdom can only
go by the official information provided by a nation's telecommunications
regulator. And as this story is being written the numbers on the Ofcom
website show a grand total of 82,793 licensed radio amateurs in the UK as
of January 1st of this year. That's an increase of 6,431 total UK hams
since the numbers cited by the ARRL web article appeared.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, reporting.
--
You can read the current Southgate story that covers ham radio licensing
around the globe at tinyurl.com/UK-license-numbers. An earlier article
also from Southgate is at tinyurl.com/hams-in-the-uk. The Ofcom website
with the official UK statistics is at tinyurl.com/uk-ham-radio-numbers
(Southgate, Ofcom)
**
WORLDBEAT: NEW UK BAND PLANS PUBLISHED
The Radio Society of Great Britain has published new band plans for all
United Kingdom amateur allocations from 136 kHz to 250 GHz. Copies of the
band plan pages can be freely downloaded from the Operating section of the
RSGB website at www.rsgb.org. RSGB membership is not required to access
these files. The same information will also be available in printed form
in the February edition of the RSGB monthly magazine RadCom. (RSGB,
Southgate)
**
WORLDBEAT: CANADIAN NEWSPAPER SAYS HAM RADIO PERFECT FOR EMCOMM
The Canadian newspaper the Camrose has run an article describing how
amateur radios unique communications expertise can make all the difference
in times of emergency. The article quotes Rose City Amateur Radio Club
vice-president Gary Horne VE6GD. He says that one of the things hams do
is keep an emergency radio in the county office so if they are called on
for emergency communications that they have a base station already set up.
He also notes that the city also has ham operators names should they need
any help.
The article says that amateur radio operators are often called on to
assist in the coordination of emergency services during disasters like the
Pine Lake tornado, the floods in southern Alberta or the Slave Lake fire.
You can read the entire story on-line at tinyurl.com/camrose-ham-radio.
(Camrose.com)
**
DX UP FRONT: NCDXF ANNOUNCES MAJOR GRANT TO FT5/T TROMELIN ISLAND
DXPEDITION
In DX up-front, word that the Northern California DX Foundation has
announced a grant of $25,000 to the FT5 stroke T, Tromelin Island
DXpedition planned for November of this year.
Tromelin is a very small and very environmentally fragile area. As such,
there are strict limitations to the number of visitors and the time
allowable on the island. Because of this it is currently number ten on
the DX Magazine's Most Wanted List for 2014 and number three most wanted
on the U.S. West Coast.
For the past 42 years the Northern California DX Foundation has funded
major DXpeditions to many Most Wanted Entities. Without this type of
financial support from the foundation, DXpeditions like this to
challenging or rare locations would not be possible.
More on the DXpedition itself is on-line at www.tromelin2014.com/en/
(W0GJ)
**
DX UP FRONT: LESOTHO DXPEDITION NEEDS MORE OPERATORS
K5LBU has announced that he is still looking for a few more team members
for a DXpedition to Lesotho this April. He states that he already has
three DXers but islooking for several more. Plans are to arrive in
Johannesburg on April 21st or 22nd and then drive down to Roma, Lesotho.
If he can end up with 6 or more operators, the operation will have at
least three stations on the air. Those interested can contact him via
e-mail to 3DA0CF (at) gmail (dot) com. And we will have more DX news
later on in this week's newscast. (DX poasting)
**
RESTRUCTURING: CANADA FULLY AUTHORIZES 5 MHZ CHANNELS
Some good news for our friends to the North. On January 22nd, the
Canadian regulator, Industry Canada released a decision to allow that
nations ham radio community the permanent use of five spot frequencies in
the 60 meter or 5 MHz band.
The new grant in Canada is the result of an official Industry Canada
consultation held in the Summer 2012. The frequencies designated are
5.332, 5.348, 5.358.5, 5.373 and 5.405 MHz. Canadian hams can use them
on a non-interference, no-protection basis. The maximum allowable
bandwidth is 2.8 kHz at 100 watts peak envelope power.
It should be noted that in general, the new Canadian grant closely follows
the same permits and restrictions as imposed on United States hams by the
FCC. In reality, Canadian amateurs have had access to these frequencies
since 2012, provided they applied for a special interim 5 MHz
developmental license using a specially assigned VX9 series callsign. You
can read the full Industry Canada 5 MHz decision at
tinyurl.com/canada-60-meter-grant. (IC, VE3QN, PB2T, G3PSM, Southgate)
**
ENFORCEMENT: CHURCH IN PUERTO RICO FINED FOR TOWER VIOLATION
The FCC proposed a $7,000 monetary forfeiture against the Catholic,
Apostolic and Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico. This for it's alleged
failure to have an effective locked fence or other enclosure around the
tower for its WKVM A-M radio station in San Juan.
The story goes back to April 2nd of last year. That's when an agent from
the San Juan office of the Enforcement Bureau inspected the station's
three-tower array and saw that the perimeter fence was not locked and one
section was lying on the ground. Also, the individual fence around one of
the towers was partially on the ground and the gate was open.
In its response the station management told the FCC that a storm had
damaged the fences in the fall of 2012, however the fences around each of
the three towers was still intact. It also said someone had damaged the
perimeter fence in the beginning of 2013.
The station said it had the individual tower fences repaired and was
planning to have the perimeter gate fixed. However the FCC countered by
noting that the station had still violated its rules and that the proposed
fine is justified.
As is usual station was given 30 days pay or to file an appeal. (FCC, RW)
**
ENFORCEMENT: TWO ALLEGED COPPER THIEVES CAUGHT IN CONNECTICUT
Police have apprehended a pair of individuals whom they allege stole
copper from multiple transmitter sites in the Connecticut Valley.
According to the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 14 newsletter, the
unidentified pair apparently had a list of Connecticut transmitter sites
in their vehicle. It says that the suspects would scout out potential
sites to hit on holidays. They were caught on video on Christmas Eve
while purportedly doing reconnaissance at two transmitter sites in the
state. (RW, SBE Chapter 14 Newsletter)
**
STRANGE TECHNOLOGY: APPLIANCES BECOME SPAMBOTS
Possibly the first proven cyber attack to originate from connected smart
appliances occurred between December 23rd and January 6th. This according
to the e-mail security compamy Proofpoint which says that the scam
involved some 750,000 e-mails from more than 100,000 appliances that had
been commandeered by so called thingbots. These are robotic programs that
can be remotely installed on digital devices.
Proofpoint noted that connected appliances typically aren't protected by
anti-spam or anti-virus software. Nor are they routinely monitored for
security breaches. As such they didn't require sophisticated hacks but
the mere use of default passwords was enough to make them vulnerable.
A complete description of this latest in robot based hacking can be found
at the Proofpoint website. It's in cyberspace at
tinyurl.com/robot-appliance-spam. (Zee News of India, other published
reports)
**
NEW HAM VIDEO: THE ARRL AT 100: A CENTURY OF AMATEUR RADIO
The ARRL has released a preview of its new 100th anniversary video aptly
titled the ARRL at 100: A Century of Amateur Radio. Running 25 minutes,
the show was written by former ARRL Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts,
W1AGP. It is hosted by QST Magazine's Managing Editor Becky Schoenfeld,
W1BXY, whose on screen presence rivals that of some of the very best
network news talent.
The story line itself is simple. It plays out as a timeline in the
history of the League from its earliest days right up to the present.
Along the way you will learn some interesting facts that few know about.
This includes the methods used by ARRL founder's Hyrum Percy Maxim, 1AW,
and Clarence Tuska, 1WD, to insure the survival of ham radio after World
War One when the Navy Department decided to hold onto control of all radio
following the end of hostilities. That tid-bit alone make this video well
worth viewing.
The ARRL at 100: A Century of Amateur Radio was produced by Al Petrunti,
KA1TCH, with graphic design by Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW. It was edited by
Jordan La Mere and you can see it on the web at tinyurl.com/ARRL-at-100.
DVD's suitable for group showing are available at
tinyurl.com/arrl-100-video (ARNewsline from screening)
**
SOCIAL SCENE: 2014 DAYTON RTTY CONTEST DINNER
The 2014 Dayton RTTY Contest Dinner will take place on Thursday, May 15th
at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Dayton, Ohio. This years featured
guest speaker will be Larry Gauthier, K8UT. For more information and to
reserve tickets take your web browser to www.rttycontestdinner.com.
(WW4LL)
**
SOCIAL SCENE: DAYTON TOP BAND DINNER ON MAY 16
And a day later the 25th Annual Dayton 160 meter Top Band dinner will be
held Friday evening May 16, also at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Dayton,
Ohio. Social hour begins at 6:15 PM with dinner at 7:15 PM. Dinner
reservations and tickets are now available on the web at
topbanddinner.com. (K3L)
**
THE SOCIAL SCENE: ORANGE COUNTY NY SPRING HAMFEST APRIL 27
The Orange County New York Amateur Radio Club will hold its spring 2014
hamfest on Sunday, April 27th from 8 a.m to 2 p.m.. The venue this year
is the Wallkill Community Center in the city of Madison. Free parking
will be available with talk-in on the local 146.76 Mhz repeater that
requires a 100 Hertz tone to access. For more information please contact
Tom Ray by e-mail to W2TRR (at) ocarc-ny (dot) com or check the clubs
website at tinyurl.com/ocarc-hamfest. (OCARC NY)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: MORRISON REPLACES GALLAGHER AT NETCOM
Some names in the news. First up is Brigadier General John B. Morrison
Junior who has been named to run the Army's Network Enterprise Technology
Command or NETCOM operation. This is the parent of the Army's Military
Auxiliary Radio Service.
Morrison previously served as commanding general of the 7th Signal Command
which is the subsidiary unit serving the Western Hemisphere. He replaces
Brigadier General Peter Gallagher who has been serving as NETCOM's interim
commander. (Army MARS)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: WHARTON REPLACES BURCHFIELD AT TEN TEC
Ten Tec, Inc has announced that effective January 1st that Jack
Burchfield, K4JU, has turned over day-to-day management responsibility at
the Tennessee based amateur radio equipment manufacturer to President Jim
Wharton, NO4A. According to Wharton, Burchfield will remain as Chief
Executive Officer and majority stock holder, however he plans to begin
retiring and spending more time with family. Wharton said his challenge
will be to coordinate and oversee production as well as to manage the Ten
Tec design and sales teams. (ARRL, TEN-TEC)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: VU3BNH AND EMCOMM FEATURED IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
India's The Hindu newspaper reports on an interview with B.N. Umesh,
VU3BNH, about amateur radio emergency communications. VU3BNH was among
the team of ham radio operators who helped provide communication in the
state of Gujarat, after it was struck by a devastating earthquake in 2001.
In 2004, Umesh went again as a ham radio operator to the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands after the 2004 Tsunami.
The news article says that on both occasions, VU3BNH thought nothing of
his own safety. It quotes him as saying that his mind was set on rescuing
people and providing prompt communications. The full story is on-line at
tinyurl.com/VU3BNH (The Hindu)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: KAY CRAGIE, N3KN, RE-ELECTED AS ARRL PRESIDENT
And congratulations to ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, on her election
to a third two year term in that leadership position. N3KN is the
League's 15th president,. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, and has been
in office since 2010. (ARRL)
**
RADIO IN SPACE: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ROSETTA WAKES UP IN SPACE
Waking up after almost three years of hibernation, the comet chasing
Rosetta spacecraft sent its first radio signal back to Earth on Monday,
January 20th. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reports:
Japan will soon be lofting a number of new ham radio micro satellites as
we hear from Hal Rogers, K8CMD:
--
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
have announced the launch date for the liftoff of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle
Number 23 carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement core observatory
along with seven amateur radio satellites.
The amateur radio birds are STARS-II, ShindaiSat, TeikyoSat 3, KSAT-2,
OPUSAT, ARTSAT, INVADE and ITF-1. It is understood they will be put into
a 407 km orbit with an inclination of 65 degrees.
The launch window is scheduled to begin on Friday, February 28th Japan
Standard Time from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space
Center in Japan.
Im Hal Rogers, K8CMD.
--
Several more ham radio cubesats from various nations will be launched
during 2014. (AMSAT-UK)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: SOUTH AFRICA AMSAT INVITES SCHOOLS TO PARTICIPATE IN
NEW HAMSAT
The South African Amateur Radio Satellite Association is inviting schools
and universities in that nation to submit proposals for an education
project for inclusion in their CubeSat satellite currently being
developed. The satellite will carry a telemetry beacon which report on
the health of the tiny bird and provide opportunities for school students
to acquire more knowledge about space.
Satellites planners want to extend the learning experience by including a
student built project in the flight. As such they are now accepting
proposals for a project from South Africa high schools and universities.
The project needs to be small enough to fit in with the rest of the
equipment of the 10x10x10 cm CubeSat and draw as little as power as
possible. The criteria for judging includes originality and once
operating from space the estimated level of interest it is likely to draw
among young people. The most interesting proposal received will be
considered for inclusion in the satellite.
Proposals from South Africa schools should be documented as completely as
possible and be emailed to saamsat (at) intekom (dot) co (dot) za. The
closing date for proposals to be received is this coming February 28th.
(SA AMSAT)
**
DX
In DX, ARRL Awards Branch Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, says that the TT8ES
operation from Chad that was previously approved for 2012 and 2013 has had
the license extended through February 28 of this year. This means that
DXCC credit for this operation will continue through that date.
In an e-mail to Newsline, CP6XE says effective January 15th, that IK6SNR
is no longer his QSL Manager. His new QSL manager is via IK6GPZ. Please
QSL via that routing. No reason was given for the change.
On the air, OZ5BD will travel to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland to be active as
OX5T between January 31st and February 2nd. His operation will be on 160
through 10 meters with an emphasis on 160, 80 and 40. Modes mentioned are
CW and SSB.
DL2AWG, DL6JGN and K5YY will be on the air from Nauru between April 3rd
and the 16th. They are searching for operators to join them to operate
CW, SSB and the Digital modes. QSL will go via DL2AWG. More details
should be forthcoming soon.
N4SIA and K4MIL will be operational as KG4AS and KG4SS respectively, from
Guantanamo Bay through January 27th. Activity will be on 160 through 6
meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via their home callsigns.
Lastly, F5IRO will be active /FK from Mare Island sometime during the
second week in February. His operation will be 40 through 10 meters using
CW only. QSL via F5IRO direct via the REF Bureau.
(Above from various DX news sources)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: RADIO AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE MAKE POSSIBLE
WEATHER FORECAST FOR ALIEN PLANET
And finally this week, radio communications and an orbiting telescope have
made it possible for astronomers to provide a kind of weather forecast for
an alien planet. Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasik, K9B-IK, is here
with the details:
--
Astronomers from the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the
University of Chicago have actually been able to characterize the
atmosphere of an Earth class planet orbiting another star. The team of
researchers led by Laura Kreidberg and Jacob Bean detected clear evidence
of clouds in the atmosphere of planet GJ1214b from data collected with the
Hubble Space Telescope and radioed back to Earth.
The Hubble observations used 96 hours of telescope time spread over 11
months. This was the largest Hubble program ever devoted to studying a
single exoplanet. The researchers describe their work as an important
milestone on the road to identifying potentially habitable, earth-like
planets beyond our solar system.
The scrutinized exoplanet is called a super-earth or water world because
its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. It was found
orbiting a red dwarf star some 40 light-years from Earth.
An exoplanet, or extra solar planet, is a world outside the Solar System.
To date, over a thousand such planets have been found.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, not far from
Chicago in Zion, Illinois.
--
More on this amazing discovery is on the web at
tinyurl.com/new-waterworld-discovered. A NASA artists rendition of the
planet and its home star is at tinyurl.com/kb5y4kf (NASA, Business
Standard)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE
With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, 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 Jim
Damron, N8TMW, in Charleston, West Virginia, saying 73 and we thank you
for listening.
Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.
_______________________________________________________________________
R\%/itt - K5RXT
"It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and
if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain."
Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
Thus, we have "Climate Change Science" - which isn't capable of
explaining anything.
--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-31012
--- D'Bridge 3.98
* Origin: K 5 R X T (Royz Xtra Terrific) So-Central Texas, USA (1:387/22)
|