ARISS Contact Scheduled with
Patients at the Children's
National Hospital
Patients at the
Children’s National Hospital
in Washington, DC, will
participate in an Amateur
Radio on the International
Space Station (ARISS)
contact. They will chat with
ISS Astronaut Akihiko
Hoshide, KE5DNI, on Tuesday,
September 21 at 1805 UTC.
This will be a multipoint
telebridge contact via
amateur radio between the
ISS and the hospital, with
IK1SLD as the direct
ISS-to-amateur radio contact
point.
The downlink signal is
145.800 MHz, and those
within the ISS footprint may
be able to copy the ISS side
of the exchange directly.
Audio from IK1SLD will be
relayed to the hospital via
a telebridge. The Children’s
Hospital is not a school,
but it does work with school
districts to coordinate home
and hospital teachers to
provide an educational
program for patients. The
hospital has partnered with the
Alexandria Radio
Club in
Alexandria, Virginia.
When an engineer does his job it
makes the life of the mechanic
sweet...
New superhet radio video
from Electronics Notes
The superhet or
superheterodyne has been at the
centre of radio receiver
technology for over a hundred
years. However it is still
interesting and useful to
understand how it works.
The video provides details of
the concept of mixing, how this
is applied to use in a radio,
the way in which the superhet
works, the advantages of using
the superhet, and also one of
the main disadvantages which is
that if the image response.
In this video we have some
guest industry experts and in
addition to this, the video uses
many clear diagrams to support
the explanations.
The video is ideal
for anyone interested in radio
technology, but it will be of
particular interest to those
studying to licence
examinations.
Student scientists tracking
satellite in space
WVLT TV News
reports student scientists are
learning with guidance from
mentors as they track their tiny
satellite orbiting above the
Earth and transmitting on
436.300 MHz
The
broadcaster says:
The
RamSat device, named for the
Robertsville Middle
School Rams, has been
orbiting the earth since being
launched from the International
Space Station in June.
They are tweaking the device to
get photos of forests in the
Great Smoky Mountains area
around Gatlinburg where
wildfires destroyed hundreds of
acres in 2016. So far, the few
photos the satellite has taken
are showing an area north of
Gatlinburg, so scientists are
helping students reorient RamSat
with computer coding and radio
communication.
Oak Ridge
National Laboratory Scientist
Peter Thornton KN4EWX has
led a team of mentors who have
volunteered countless hours to
students throughout the RamSat
project. They regularly visit
middle school classes, plus they
offer an enrichment time weekly
for students to get an intensive
look at the satellite’s
progress. Thornton said teaching
physics and advanced math
concepts to middle school
students starts by relating
simple concepts such as
exploration, photography and
temperatures. “So we just try to
relate it to things that they’re
already comfortable with and
explain that yes, you can do
that in space.”
8th
grader Paige Lawing explained
that she’s inspired by the
project she’s just now getting
to see up close. “I want to be a
software engineer.”
Audiences say they still
want broadcasters to
consider carefully when, and
how, offensive language is
used, so that children, in
particular, are protected.
But many people recognise
that, in the right context,
it can play an important
role in programmes - for
example, to create dramatic
impact, bring humour,
reflect real life, or even
to inform and educate.
Participants also told
us, however, they felt
increasingly worried about
discriminatory language on
TV and radio – particularly
around race - and expect
such language to be used
only when it is highly
contextualised.
While opinions on older
programmes containing
potentially problematic
content and language were
mixed, most participants
agreed that clear and
specific warnings about the
type of language and content
that might cause offence
were important in helping
audiences make an informed
choice.
Today’s findings will
help broadcasters to better
understand audience
expectations about the use
of potentially offensive
language in their
programmes, and what steps
they may need to take to
protect viewers and
listeners.
The report will also help
Ofcom’s Standards and
Audience Protection team to
understand and take account
of current audiences’ views
when making decisions about
potentially offensive
language on TV and radio,
while having full regard to
freedom of expression.
We are today publishing a
note to broadcasters to
alert broadcasters to the
findings of our research.
MONDAY-TUESDAY EDITION:
Way to busy for someone
that is supposed to be retired.
I got out in the boat yesterday
for a spin and then loaded it on
the trailer and brought it to my
sons for winterizing and
cleaning.....
Enhance your D-STAR experience
with iOS/Android Apps!
The RS-MS1i (for iOS™ devices)/
RS-MS1A (for Android™ devices)
App allows your mobile device to
wirelessly connect to a D-STAR
transceiver and remotely set DR
functions, link with a map app
and send/receive messages in DV
mode.
In addition, pictures on an
iOS/Android device can be
transmitted in DV Fast Data mode
or DV mode.
Download IC-705 exterior
case 3D data and create your
own accessories
Icom is allowing the
download of 3D data of the
exterior case of the IC-705
HF/VHF/UHF Mobile
Transceiver allowing
customers to create their
own related accessories.
The 3D data that will be
made available will be
compatible with several free
3D modelling softwares and
3D applications and will
allow individual users to
create their own IC-705 related
items.
All users of this data will
be required to agree to a
memorandum stating specific
rules of use before
download. The principle of
any items created with the
data is that it will be for
individual use only and not
for commercial purpose.
This is the first time that
Icom have done something
like this and will be a test
as whether they will
consider disclosing 3D data
for other products in the
future.
Joe-K1JEK of Cobra Antennas
must be doing well, he is
now buying in bulk...
Jack Purdum, W8TEE,
joining CQ
Arduino authority
Jack Purdum,
W8TEE, is
joining the
CQ staff as
Microcontrollers Editor,
while current
Microcontrollers Editor
Anthony Luscre,
K8ZT, shifts to
a new column encouraging
hams to explore
different activities
within the hobby,
CQ Editor Rich
Moseson, W2VU, announced
today.
Purdum is a retired
professor of computer
technology at Purdue
University, who
previously taught at
Creighton and Butler
Universities. He is the
author or co-author of
several programming
books, including two
editions of
Arduino Projects for
Amateur Radio as
well as the more recent
Microcontroller Projects
for Amateur Radio.
Jack has written
previously for
CQ, most recently
as Guest
Microcontrollers Editor
in our June 2021 issue.
Purdum's vision for
the column that it "will
talk about tips and
tricks, useful software
tools and even
applications that might
make experimenting
easier. The other thing
I want to do is
encourage hams who have
never tried to program
to see how easy it
really is, yet the power
it brings to the table."
Jack's first column will
appear in the November
issue.
Luscre, who has been
CQ's
Microcontrollers Editor
since 2018 (and New
Products Editor prior to
that), will continue as
a Contributing Editor,
shifting his focus to
exploring the many nooks
and crannies of amateur
radio. His goal is to
help expand the horizons
of newer hams who are
still discovering
different aspects of the
hobby as well as
experienced hams who are
looking for a change of
pace. Anthony's new
column, "Ham Radio
Explorer," will premiere
in the December issue of
CQ.
Amateur Radio Club to
promote Hillsboro's horseshoe
crab roadside attraction
On Saturday, Oct. 2, the
Highland Amateur Radio
Association will operate a
special event station to call
attention to the “World’s
Largest Horseshoe Crab,” which
is just off S.R. 124 at the
eastern edge of Hillsboro.
According to the American
Radio Relay League a special
event station is an amateur
radio station that is
temporarily operated to “help
commemorate or promote a
historic or other special event
or attraction.”
Club
President Pat Hagen tells that
during the club’s 45 years of
existence, HARA has operated
several special event stations
to call attention to the fun and
public service amateur radio can
offer while promoting local
attractions nationwide.
The club has operated past
special event stations from the
Highland County Fair, the
Lynchburg Covered Bridge,
Hillsboro’s 175th and 200th
anniversaries and from the
Highland County Courthouse lawn.
Hagen stated the club was
looking for something unusual to
promote on the airwaves when a
member suggested “Crabbie” – the
“World’s Largest Horseshoe
Crab.”
Most members have
seen “Crabbie,” but did not
realize it is one of America’s
most unusual roadside
attractions and even has a
presence on the internet and
YouTube. Its history and how it
ended up in Hillsboro is very
interesting.
Following
discussions with its owner, an
agreement was made to activate
the site as an amateur radio
special event.
On Oct. 2,
HARA members will set up two
stations and antennas at the
site and make radio contacts
with other amateur radio
operators throughout North
America and the world. Hams who
make successful contacts can
receive a special certificate,
picturing and describing
“Crabbie”, as a memento of the
occasion.
The public is
invited to visit “Crabbie” that
day from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. to
observe amateur radio in
operation as well as to learn
more about this roadside
attraction.
The Highland
Amateur Radio Association is an
organization of over 140
Highland County people who are
either FCC licensed ham radio
operators and/or have an
interest in electronics,
computers and radio
communications. More information
about Amateur Radio is available
at www.arrl.org or by contacting
HARA Information Officer John
Levo, 937-393-4951.
WEEKEND EDITION:
I am just updating the
page, I had a soccer and field
hockey game to watch plus I am
participating in the special
events station for 100th
anniversary of WBZ in Boston
using the call W1W. I luckily
caught the hams who reside on
3928 afternoons and picked up 10
contacts...
QSO Today - Mark
Beckwith, N5OT
Mark
Beckwith, N5OT,
grew up in Southern
California, befriended by
amateur radio’s most famous
television producer,
Dave Bell, W6AQ,
who was his amateur radio
mentor in the 1970s.
Dave opened a lot of
doors to Mark, allowing Mark
to build up his contesting
and DX on-the-air skills.
Mark was a professional
opera singer for over 30
years, leading to some
interesting conversation
both on and off the QSO
Today microphone.
NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top
story this week is the
cancellation of Tokyo Ham Fair
2021, the world's largest ham
radio event. Yoshinori Takao,
JG1KTC, chairman of the Japan
Amateur Radio League, announced
that JARL had been committed to
holding the ham fair as planned
on October 2nd and 3rd using
extreme preventative measures
against COVID-19 but new waves
of infection made it necessary
to call everything off. He
expressed hope for better
chances in 2022. The 2020 ham
fair was also called off due to
the pandemic. According to the
JARL website, more than 42,000
people attended the fair in 2019
over the course of two days.
(JARL) ** IARU REGION
3 OPTS FOR VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
NEIL/ANCHOR: The IARU Region
3 is also responding to the
pandemic—by holding its first
digital regional conference.
Jason Daniels VK2LAW brings us
that story.
JASON: The
IARU Region 3 Conference kicks
off on September 20th and for
its hosting organisation, RAST,
it was supposed to be three days
of business and fellowship in
Bangkok, Thailand. It will
instead be held digitally: a
first for Region 3, but a
necessary response to the
extraordinary circumstances of
the COVID-19 pandemic. RAST's
president, Jack Hantongkom,
HS1FVL, writes on the conference
website: [quote] "We are excited
about the opportunities of
holding an innovative virtual
conference." [endquote] As such,
the member societies will still
meet in working groups to deal
with technical, operational and
policy matters, typical of any
such conference except that
this, the 18th regional
conference, will take place on
the Zoom platform. The tentative
list of participants on the
conference website includes
attendees from ORARI, the
Indonesian amateur radio
society; the Chinese Taipei
Amateur Radio League; the
Chinese Radio Amateurs Club; the
American Radio Relay League and
the Malaysian Amateur Radio
Transmitters Society, among
others. Jack writes further:
[quote] "This conference will
bring us together at what is a
very difficult time for us all.
" [endquote]
** AMSAT
SYMPOSIUM MOVES FROM HOTEL INTO
VIRTUAL MODE
NEIL/ANCHOR:
Meanwhile, in the US, AMSAT has
also announced a change in plans
for its 2021 Space Symposium and
Annual Meeting. Originally
scheduled to take place at the
Crowne Plaza hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota, it will
instead be held on Zoom on
Saturday, October 30th from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. The
program will be a mix of live
Q&A sessions and pre-recorded
video segments. Registration is
required through the AMSAT
member portal. AMSAT plans to
make the event available for
public viewing later on its
YouTube channel. AMSAT announced
the changes, citing concerns
about safety during the COVID-19
pandemic.
(AMSAT)
** SPACEX RECOVERY VESSELS
NAMED FOR 'BOB AND DOUG'
NEIL/ANCHOR: Remember Bob and
Doug? No, not the fictional
McKenzie brothers but the NASA
astronauts. SpaceX is
remembering them and Paul Braun
WD9GCO tells us how.
PAUL: In August of 2020, Bob
Behnken KE5GGX and Doug Hurley
became the first astronauts
launched aboard a crew Dragon
spacecraft in a historic
commercial flight. This year,
Bob and Doug were to play key
roles in the splash-down stage
of another history-making
mission called Inspiration4.
Well....at least their namesakes
were ready: Two vessels in
SpaceX's recovery fleet were
named for the pair, in a nod to
last year's mission which helped
signal a new era in spaceflight.
The ships bearing their names
became part of the recovery
fleet for Inspiration4,
which—with a crew of four
private citizens aboard— marked
the world's first all-civilian
space flight.
For Amateur
Radio Newsline I'm Paul Braun
WD9GCO.
(NASA, SPACE.COM)
** SPECIAL EVENT
CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY OF VOA RELAY
STATION
NEIL/ANCHOR: The
"voice of freedom" transmitted
its first words from West
Chester, Ohio across the ocean
in September of 1944 at the
then-new Bethany Relay Station
of the Voice of America. The
West Chester Amateur Radio
Association WC8VOA, which calls
the iconic building its home, is
celebrating the relay station's
birthday this year with a
special event station on
September 25th and 26th. Jocelyn
Brault KD8VRX/VA2VRX told
Newsline that the club's shack
is actually the original control
room for the relay station. For
the special event, be listening
on 20 and 40 meters for SSB, FT8
and perhaps some CW as well.
Those making a QSO are eligible
for a downloadable certificate
available 24 hours after the
event.
(JOCELYN BRAULT
KD8VRX/VA2VRX)
**
ULTRA-TINY BATTERY SHOWS POWER
AND PROMISE
NEIL/ANCHOR:
When it comes to batteries, tiny
might just be the next big
thing. Kent Peterson KC0DGY
explains why.
KENT: The
smaller the battery, the more
powerful the possibilities? The
designers of a new battery
technology being used in a
fitness tracker would like to
think so. California-based Sila
created the battery for a
wristband tracker that experts
say could revolutionize everyday
electronics and perhaps have
implications for modes of
transportation too. For now, the
ultra-tiny powerhouses are in a
niche-market item, a fitness
tracker called the Whoop 4.0.
According to a New York Times
article, the battery has the
same lifespan as the power
source used in the previous
model of that tracker but it's a
whole one-third smaller.
Sila and Whoop together said the
battery had potential for mass
marketing in other devices in
the next couple of years. Unlike
lithium-ion batteries, which
rely on the ionization and
movement of lithium atoms, these
new batteries use an anode made
of silicon instead of graphite,
requiring smaller space for the
lithium atoms as they move from
the anode side of the battery to
the cathode.
Sila and
another company, QuantumScape,
told the New York Times that
their batteries will likely be
used in a few short years in
smart eyeglasses, electric cars
and maybe even flying cars one
day.
For Amateur Radio
Newsline, I'm Kent Peterson
KC0DGY.
(NYTIMES)
** SILENT KEY: CHARLIE BYARS,
W5GPO, LONGTIME WEATHER SPOTTER
NEIL/ANCHOR: A well-known
weather-spotter and amateur
radio operator in north Texas
has become a Silent Key. Randy
Sly W4XJ tells us about him.
RANDY: Charlie Byars, W5GPO,
took the lead in tracking severe
weather with his local Amateur
Radio Emergency Services Skywarn
group, which he helped create in
1974. A licensed ham since 1959,
Charlie died Sunday, September
12th. Devoted to alerting people
in Archer and Wichita counties
about dangerous weather, Charlie
was a part of the crucial
information network in operation
on April 20th, 1979, when a
deadly tornado swept through the
region, killing 40 people and
destroying thousands of homes.
Over the years Charlie's
commitment to weather reporting
found him in numerous roles,
including ARES district
coordinator for eight counties.
According to a report in the
Times Record News of Wichita
Falls, he was also the recipient
in 2005 of an award from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
Charlie
Byars was 86.
For Amateur
Radio Newsline I'm Randy Sly
W4XJ.
(THE WICHITA FALLS
TIMES-RECORD NEWS)
**
REPLICA TRANSMITTER BEING
PREPPED FOR DECEMBER EVENT
NEIL/ANCHOR: Big plans are
being made to mark the day radio
amateurs proved they could send
signals across the Atlantic.
Jack Parker W8ISH tells us
what's happening.
JACK:
December 11th, 1921 was a
significant day for amateur
radio: It was the day of the
Transatlantic Test Project, when
hams' shortwave frequencies
showed themselves to be capable
of transatlantic radio
communications, even at 200
meters or less. The experimental
transmission of station 1BCG,
using a tube-based transmitter,
was conducted by the Radio Club
of America on 1.3 MHz and
resulted in successful reception
in Scotland.
One hundred
years later, December 11th, 2021
will be an equally significant
day. A replica of that
transmitter will be used to
re-enact that CW transmission on
160 meters not far from the spot
in Connecticut from which the
original CW transmission was
sent. Longtime Antique Wireless
Association member Bob Raide,
W2ZM, now a Silent Key, (SK)
built the replica for a special
event 25 years ago. AWA
volunteers have spent lots of
time lately refurbishing it,
wiring a plate supply, building
a filament power supply and
sorting out usable tubes.
For a day that comes along
once every hundred years, radio
operators—and the
transmitter—need to be ready.
AWA trustee, Joe Stoltz,
K2AEI, told Newsline: [quote]
"We have had the transmitter
powered up and are able to get
350 watts RF on 160 meters with
one amplifier tube. The next
step is to construct a 160 meter
antenna so we can do some actual
on-air testing before December."
[endquote] Then be listening for
the contact of the century.
For Amateur Radio Newsline
I'm Jack Parker W8ISH.
(ANTIQUE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION,
JOE STOLTZ K2AEI)
**
US, UK STATIONS ALSO MARK
TRANSATLANTIC ANNIVERSARY
NEIL/ANCHOR: Some equally
important modern-day contacts
are being planned for the big
anniversary and they involve
radio societies in the US and
the UK. Here's Jeremy Boot G4NJH
with those details.
JEREMY: The Radio Society of
Great Britain also has big plans
for the centenary of the first
transatlantic personal message
between radio amateurs. Nick
Totterdell, G4FAL, the society's
HF contest committee chairman,
told Newsline that the ARRL and
RSGB members are organising a
number of activities surrounding
the anniversary. There will also
be a Transatlantic QSO Party to
be held on the 13th and 14th of
November, being sponsored by the
Radio Club of America. Nick said
other activities will be
disclosed soon on the society's
website and will appear in the
society's RadCom magazine. The
society is hoping to maximise
participation in the US and the
UK and increase worldwide
awareness of this achievement
100 years ago.
For
Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm
Jeremy Boot G4NJH.
**
POTA ADDS MORE THAN 1,000
PARKS TO ITS SYSTEM
NEIL/ANCHOR: If you activate or
even chase Parks on the Air,
you'll want to hear the first of
this new monthly POTA report
from Vance Martin N3VEM.
VANCE: This month in Parks on
the Air news we have two
exciting updates to share with
everybody. Our first: We are
excited to announce that we have
recently added over 1,000 parks
to the Parks on the Air System.
For the last several months
we've had a small contingent of
volunteers combing through user
requests to add additional
parks, validating that those
requested parks meet the
criteria for inclusion in POTA
and formatting the list so they
can be added to the system.
After hundreds of volunteer
hours the lists are now in the
system and ready for you to go
activate. Check out the maps and
search pages at the POTA.APP
website to see if any of these
new units are in your area.
Also in POTA news, we are
excited to share that we are
formalizing a Parks on the Air
support desk. You can always
continue to get community
support via the Facebook group
or via the POTA Help Channel in
the POTA Slack Group. But we
have a small group of volunteers
who have agreed to be on a
rotating schedule to help you
with your official technical
support questions. To reach the
official POTA support desk, all
you need to do is send an email
to help@parksontheair.com
We have coverage for most
days of the week so you will
usually get a response within 24
hours but no worse than 48 hours
based on our volunteers'
schedules. We won't solve every
problem that fast but you'll
know that we're on it. Issues
requiring Level 2 support are
generally resolved within the
week.
This is N3VEM. Be
sure to visit Parks On the Air
dot com for more info about the
program and POTA.APP for
spotting, park information,
leaderboards and more.
(VANCE MARTIN, N3VEM, POTA)
** WORLD OF DX
In
the world of DX, Dom, 3Z9DX,
will be on Conway Reef west of
Fiji activating as a one-man
DXpedition to this, the 41st
most wanted DXCC entity. Dom,
who belongs to the Rebel DX
Group, expects to be on the air
by the 17th of September and
will be using the callsign
3D2CR. Be listening on 160
through 6 meters where he will
be using CW, SSB and FT8/FT4 for
about a two-week period. See
QRZ.COM for QSL details.
Kiyo, JA7NQQ, is on the air from
Katmandu, Nepal as 9N7NQ until
the 23rd of September. This is
not a DXpedition so he will be
operating only during his free
time, likely 23:00 to 0100 UTC
and 12:00 to 15:00 UTC). Be
listening on 40 to 10m where he
will be using mostly FT8 mode.
His QSL information is at
QRZ.com.
Brian, N3OC, and
Bud, AA3B, are on Antigua
operating as V26OC and V26K,
respectively, until September
20th. Be listening on the HF
bands and 6m. QSL via their home
callsigns, LoTW or Club Log
OQRS.
Mike, VK4DX, will
be on the air from Russell
Island OC-137 between September
23rd and the 26th, operating on
40-15m. He will be using CW, FT8
and SSB.
Bo, OZ1DJJ, is
active as OX3LX from Greenland
until the 21st of September,
operating on the low bands with
a vertical antenna. Send QSLs
via OZ0J. (Oh Zed Zero Jay)
(DX-WORLD.NET)
**
KICKER: WITH CW, IT'S NO SPEED?
NO PROBLEM!
NEIL/ANCHOR:
Our final story is a retelling
of the old fable that "slow and
steady wins the race." For one
Australian club, it's especially
true for fans of CW. Graham Kemp
VK4BB picks up the
story....slowly.
GRAHAM:
The Peel Amateur Radio Group
believes there's no business
like Slow Business, especially
when it comes to CW. The club,
based on Mandurah, Western
Australia, has been on a mission
to get CW to flourish among its
newest members and to rekindle
the keyers of oldtimers among
them. They credit one member,
Tony VK6DQ, with leading the
charge through his nighttime
coaching sessions. The club
itself has already run a pair of
Slow CW contests on 80 metres
this year for members and
nonmembers alike. The third
event, on Saturday September
18th, extends the competition
throughout all of the Oceania
region.
It's actually not
a competition at all. It's about
being friendly and.....Taking.
Your. Time. In fact,
downloadable guidelines on the
club's website tell readers
[quote] "You’ll make mistakes
and you’ll hear others making
mistakes while they’re learning
too – relax, have fun and don’t
sweat the small stuff!"
[endquote]
It's not that
the club is in any big rush to
find slow senders—but members DO
want to encourage the slowest of
the slow to get in on the
action. In fact, members David
Millett VK6FAAZ and Mark Bosma
VK2KI/VK6QI have written in a
Facebook post: [quote] "Please
give it a go, no matter how bad
you think you are, it's all
about having a go and having
some fun." [endquote]
FRIDAY EDITION:
I will be operating as W1W at
noon today on 40 meters SSB for
the WBZ Boston 100th Anniversary
Special Events station...I will
be around 7.175 +/-....Secret
listening post in
WW2....Plans for a replacement
hamfest are in the works. The
Manchester Hamfest will be held
on Saturday, September 18 from 8
AM to 1 PM at the Hope Baptist
Church, 726 Western Ave,
Manchester, Maine (1.6 miles
from I-95 Exit 109B) located on
Rt 202. Admission will be $5.
Thanks Norm-W1ITT....
Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, Joins
ARRL Headquarters Staff
Steve Goodgame,
K5ATA, of Batesville,
Mississippi, has joined the
staff at ARRL Headquarters
in Newington, Connecticut,
where he will serve
as manager of the
Education and Learning
Department (formerly the
Lifelong Learning
Department). He had
consulted for the department
as an instructional designer
and was instrumental in the
implementation of ARRL’s
Learning Network webinars.
Goodgame teaches
middle school computer
science and is in his second
year of teaching amateur
radio to students at his
school. “I have been
teaching ham radio in some
form for 20 years,” he said.
“Over the past 3 years, we
have had close to 60 middle
and high school students
earn their licenses, and
several have upgraded.”
Goodgame’s favorite ham
radio activity is activating
parks in the Parks on the
Air (POTA)
program with his daughter
Jherica, KI5HTA. His wife,
Cyndi, is K5CYN. Goodgame
hosts the
K5ATA Ham Radio
YouTube channel. He is a
Volunteer Examiner and a
volunteer firefighter.
RISS seeks hosts for Ham
Radio contacts with space
station crew
Starting on October 1,
Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station
(ARISS)
will accept applications from US
schools, museums, science
centers, and community youth
organizations — individually or
working together — interested in
hosting amateur radio contacts
with crew members on the
International Space Station
(ISS). Contacts will be
scheduled between July 1 and
December 31, 2022. Crew
scheduling and ISS orbits will
determine the exact contact
dates.
ARISS is looking for
organizations that will draw a
sizeable number of participants
and integrate the contact into a
well-developed education plan.
The deadline to submit is
November 24.
Proposal information and
more details, including
expectations, proposal
guidelines, and a proposal form
are on the ARISS-US website. An
ARISS introductory webinar
session will be on October 7 at
8 PM ET (2400 UTC).
Sign up via Eventbrite.
Each year, ARISS provides
tens of thousands of students
with opportunities to learn
about space technologies and
communications through amateur
radio. Crew members aboard the
International Space Station
(ISS) will participate in
scheduled amateur radio
contacts. These contacts are
approximately 10 minutes long
and allow students to interact
with the astronaut through a
question-and-answer session.
The program offers learning
opportunities by connecting
students to orbiting astronauts
through a partnership that
includes ARRL, AMSAT, and NASA,
as well as other amateur radio
organizations, and space
agencies in Russia, Canada,
Japan, and Europe. The program’s
goal is to inspire students to
pursue interests and careers in
science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) and Amateur Radio.
“Educators overwhelmingly
report that student
participation in the ARISS
program stimulates interest in
STEM subjects and in STEM
careers,” ARISS said in
announcing the contact
opportunities. ARISS says
enthusiasm sparked by a school
contact also may lead to an
interest in ham radio among
students and to the creation of
ham radio clubs in schools. Some
educators have even become radio
amateurs after experiencing a
contact with an ISS crew member.
ARISS is celebrating 20 years
of continuous amateur radio
operations on the ISS.
Contact ARISS-US for
additional information.
CAN RADIO HELP
EDUCATE?
It was mid-1922 and America was
in the midst of the radio craze.
Commercial broadcasting had
emerged in a handful of cities
in 1920, but at that time, few
people had a receiving
set—except for amateur radio
operators, who knew how to build
one. It wasn’t even called
“radio” back then—newspapers
referred to it as “radiophone”
or “wireless telephone.” But
only two years later, there were
several hundred radio stations
on the air, and you could
purchase a radio in a
store—although hobbyists still
had fun trying to build their
own, with varying degrees of
success. Meanwhile, the word
“radio” had become the common
term for that wonderful new
invention that everyone wanted
in their home.
FULL ARTICLE
THURSDAY EDITION:
Rainy and cloudy here
on Cape Ann this morning, good
day to go thru the closet and
cabinet drawers in the ham shack
and find all kinds of crap I
didn't remember I had bought....
Next SpaceX Commercial Crew
to ISS Comprised of Radio
Amateurs
Four radio amateurs will
head to the International
Space Station (ISS) aboard a
commercial flight, thanks to
Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station
(ARISS).
They are Raja Chari, KI5LIU;
Tom Marshburn, KE5HOC; Kayla
Barron, KI5LAL, and Matthias
Maurer, KI5KFH. As the most
experienced space traveler,
Maurer, who is a European
Space Agency (ESA)
Astronaut, could end up with
a very heavy work schedule.
The targeted launch date is
no sooner than October 31,
from Kennedy Space Center in
Florida.
The launch will mark the
third SpaceX Crew Dragon
spacecraft and Falcon 9
rocket launch combination as
part of NASA’s
Commercial Crew Program,
which provides reliable and
affordable transportation to
and from the ISS. The crew
is scheduled for a
long-duration stay aboard
the orbiting laboratory,
living and working as part
of what’s expected to be a
seven-member crew.
The launch will be the
first spaceflight for Chari,
Barron, and Maurer, and the
third for Marshburn. The
crew will complete a 6-month
science mission aboard the
microgravity laboratory in
low-Earth orbit.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 will
be the third crew rotation
mission with astronauts on
an American rocket and
spacecraft from the US to
the space station and the
fourth flight with
astronauts, including the
Demo-2 test flight
in 2020, the
Crew-1 mission
in 2020-21, and the ongoing
Crew-2 flight
as part of the Expedition 65
crew.
Crew-3 astronauts plan to
arrive at the station to
overlap with NASA Astronauts
Shane Kimbrough, KE5HOD, and
Megan McArthur; Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) Astronaut Akihiko
Hoshide, KE5DNI, and ESA
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet,
KG5FYG, who flew to the
station as part of the
agency’s SpaceX Crew-2
mission in April 2021.
RTTY Service Station K6KPH
is Back
RTTY Service Station
K6KPH, operating from the
Maritime Radio Historical
Society (MRHS),
is officially back on the
air. K6KPH also transmits
W1AW Qualifying Run texts
and the W1AW Field Day
Bulletin. The station was
off the air due to COVID-19
restrictions and antenna
damage.
Repairs to the
transmitter site in Bolinas,
California, were performed
under a US National Park
Service grant and support
from the MRHS. Years of
damage from decaying poles,
failing crossarms, and
falling trees necessitated
the repairs, MRHS said. The
next West Coast Qualifying
Run to be transmitted from
K6KPH is scheduled for
Saturday, September 25,
2021, at 2100 UTC on 3581.5,
7047.5, 14047.5, 18097.5,
and 21067.5 kHz.
Deaf pupils to talk to
astronauts on the International
Space Station in a world first
A group of pupils at the
Mary Hare School
for deaf children in
Newbury will be talking to an
Astronaut aboard the
International Space Station
(ISS) as it orbits above them at
11,000 miles per hour.
Mary Hare School, with Pippa
Middleton as its Ambassador, is
the largest school for deaf
children in the UK.
In October 2021 the school
will be using Amateur Radio
equipment set up with the help
of Radio Amateurs from the
Newbury and District
Amateur Radio Society
(NADARS).
These will be the first deaf
children to have done this,
making it a world first. The
pupils will each ask a question
to the astronaut who will then
answer live over amateur radio.
The reply will then be
interpreted into subtitles.
During September the school
will be running a competition
inviting students to enter their
question from one of five
categories, science in space,
space technology, living in
space, space communication and
earth from space. The ten best
questions were chosen by staff
and those students invited to
ask their question on the day of
broadcast. ‘It is a very
exciting event – a world first
for deaf pupils,’ said Mr Ayling
a science teacher at the school.
‘I think it is very important to
our deaf pupils as it shows
whatever your challenges with
communication there is no limit
to what you can achieve. The sky
is not the limit.’
The event will be made
possible by the world-wide
organisation ARISS
(Amateur Radio International
Space Station) that heads up the
amateur radio contacts for space
agencies NASA and ESA. The ISS
has an Amateur Radio station on
board and the Astronauts are
also licenced Radio Amateurs.
The signal will be transmitted
and received on the VHF Amateur
band and can be heard live all
over the UK using amateur radios
or scanners. There will also be
a live web feed available on the
internet enabling people to
watch the event worldwide
including Mission Control,
Houston!
WEDNESDAY EDITION: Not
much news to report today....Amateur
radio enthusiasts in Richmond
are about to run a series of
courses this fall in a bid to
lure people into their hobby.
The Richmond Amateur Radio Club
(RARC) will roll out its
“learning program” next month
with certification courses,
skills development classes and
information sessions relevant to
amateur radio to cultivate
general interest in the
pastime....Dave, K4DRA, wants to
try a double dipole set up in
order to get an omnidirectional
dipole, but he has yet to
understand the circular
polarization that his set up
will create.
Dave here to explain ...
Legendary weather spotter dies
The voice
of severe weather in North Texas
has been silenced. Charlie Byars
died Sunday.
Byars was
a leader of the Amateur Radio
Emergency Services (ARES)
Skywarn group since its
inception. That’s a group of HAM
radio volunteers who spread out
and watch the skies during
severe weather and report to
local authorities.
Byars said
his interest in weather traced
back to 1958, when a tornado
touched down near downtown
Wichita Falls, causing
considerable damage and killing
one person. He got his HAM radio
license in 1959, and combined
his interest in severe weather
and amateur radio through all
the damaging weather events that
followed. He was instrumental in
forming the local ARES group in
1974.
He
directed the radio network
during the historic April 20,
1979, tornado that killed more
than 40 local residents and left
thousands of people homeless.
STORY
Something just
hit Jupiter
Last night, an astronomer
in Germany was surprised
when a bright flash of light
emerged from the cloudtops
of Jupiter. It appears to be
the impact of an asteroid or
comet.
Astronomers will be
watching the impact site
tonight for signs of debris.
Dom, 3Z9DX
(aka-3D2USU), member of the
Rebel DX Group, announced that
he has finally received the
Navy's permission to leave the
main island of Viti Levu, and
will be planning a one man
DXpedition (due to the Covid and
travel restrictions) to Conway
Reef for about 10 days.
He will set sail around
September 15-17th. It is about 2
days sail from Fiji and 1 day to
set the camp. So activity could
start around September 17th
signing as 3D2CR.
He states on QRZ.com, "Fiji is
still under 'No Tourism - no
visitors' rules."
Activity will be on 160-6
meters using CW, SSB and
FT8/FT4.
Dom also states on QRZ.com,
"There will be NO internet
conection, NO log online, NO
QSO's request, NO cluster
readings. All log mistakes will
be checked when back to Fiji
Main island after the trip." No
QSL route has been announced.
Most likely it will be ClubLog's
OQRS.
"Havana syndrome" and the
mystery of the microwaves
Doctors, scientists,
intelligence agents and
government officials have all
been trying to find out what
causes "Havana syndrome" - a
mysterious illness that has
struck American diplomats and
spies. Some call it an act of
war, others wonder if it is some
new and secret form of
surveillance - and some people
believe it could even be all in
the mind. So who or what is
responsible?
It often started with a
sound, one that people struggled
to describe. "Buzzing",
"grinding metal", "piercing
squeals", was the best they
could manage.
One woman described a low hum
and intense pressure in her
skull; another felt a pulse of
pain. Those who did not hear a
sound, felt heat or pressure.
But for those who heard the
sound, covering their ears made
no difference. Some of the
people who experienced the
syndrome were left with
dizziness and fatigue for
months.
Havana syndrome first
emerged in Cuba in 2016. The
first cases were CIA officers,
which meant they were kept
secret. But, eventually, word
got out and anxiety spread.
Twenty-six personnel and family
members would report a wide
variety of symptoms. There were
whispers that some colleagues
thought sufferers were crazy and
it was "all in the mind".
Five years on, reports now
number in the hundreds and, the
BBC has been told, span every
continent, leaving a real impact
on the US's ability to operate
overseas.
Uncovering the truth has now
become a top US national
security priority - one that an
official has described as the
most difficult intelligence
challenge they have ever faced.
California Club Assists
Animal Rescue Group with
Communication Support
The El Dorado County
Amateur Radio Club (EDCARC)
has been providing radio
communication support for
small and large-animal
rescue efforts during the
Caldor Fire.
Members of the South County
Large Animal Rescue (SCLAR)
group,
El Dorado County
Animal Services,
and other volunteers have
been addressing the need.
Many of the EDCARC
volunteers are also members
of the Club’s
Neighborhood Radio Watch
program.
As the Caldor Fire
destroyed the community of
Grizzly Flats, threatened
Lake Tahoe, and caused
evacuations in dozens of
communities throughout the
county, thousands of area
residents were forced to
flee their homes without
having time to round up
their pets and livestock.
“We desperately
love our animal companions,
whether big or small, and
being separated and unable
to care for them in the
midst of a disaster is truly
heart-wrenching,” said Alan
Thompson, W6WN, the club’s
Public Information Officer.
“Because of the mountainous
terrain, many of our
neighborhoods already had
little or no cell or
internet communication, and
the fire only made things
worse.”
Thompson said the
club quickly deployed its
Mobile ARES Communications
Center, maintained by
Jay Harmor, KE6GLA, which is
in service as central net
operations. Several
members stepped up,
including Dale
Dennis, KJ6HHY, from Yolo
ARES, and Tom Newman, NN6H,
from Alameda County RACES
(and part of the Alameda
County Sheriff’s
Communications Team,
to volunteer their time and
radios to accompany the
animal rescue teams
dispatched into impacted
areas. Teams of SCLAR
members, Animal Services
personnel, public employees,
and radio communications
staff have been conducting
daily animal rescue missions
and welfare checks
throughout the impacted
areas. Until residents are
permitted to return, these
teams are providing food,
water, and care to abandoned
animals.
Thompson said those
seeking an animal evacuation
or welfare check should
contact El Dorado County
Animal Services — western
slope, (530) 621-5795 or the
shelter at (530) 621-7631.
In the South Tahoe area,
call (530) 573-7925.
SCLAR will respond
as directed by El Dorado
County Animal Services. They
cannot self-deploy or
respond directly to phone
calls for assistance,
Thompson said.
Tokyo Ham Fair 2021 is
cancelled
Japan's JARL
has announced the cancellation
of the world's largest amateur
radio event, the Tokyo
Ham Fair2021,
which had been planned for
October 2-3
JARL say:
We were hopeful to have Ham
Fair 2021 with possible
preventative measures against
COVID-19, but another wave of
infection came in this Summer.
Considering the worse than
expected COVID situation, JARL
reluctantly decided to cancel
Ham Fair 2021.
We hope
that Tokyo Ham Fair can come
back in Year 2022 under safer
conditions.
Until then,
we wish you all to stay safe and
healthy.
73 de JARL
International Ken
Yamamoto JA1CJP
Online talk: Batteries and
Amateur Radio
Bill Coombes G4ERV
will be giving an online talk,
Batteries and Amateur Radio, to
the Denby Dale Amateur Radio
Club at 7:30pm (1830 GMT) on
Wednesday, September 15, all are
welcome to join the Zoom session
MONDAY EDITION:
If anyone has photos to share of
the hamfest in Marlboro, send
them to me......I wonder if the
hamfest will become a "super
spreader event" of
Covid?....Building the
MFJ/Vectronics VEC-121K
Crystal Radio kit.....
How many radio amateurs are
there worldwide ?
In his YouTube talk of
September 7 the RSGB General
Manager quoted 3 million as the
number of radio amateurs
worldwide but where did this
number come from ?
A
figure of 3 million has been
widely quoted over the last 20
years and is the figure that was
published by the IARU in 2000.
In the last century the
IARU used to regularly collect
statistics for the number of
radio amateurs in each country
and IARU published these amateur
radio operator global totals:
Unfortunately
IARU stopped collecting the data
just at the point when amateur
radio numbers started to
decline. Data is available
elsewhere for a few of the
larger amateur radio countries
and except for the USA this
shows a steady decline in radio
amateurs since 2000. For example
the number of amateur radio
stations in Japan has fallen by
over 600,000 in the past 20
years, see Amateur Radio
Licensing Statistics at
http://ah0a.org/AH0A.html
In some countries there are
separate operator and station
permits, Japan is one such case.
The Operator total given in the
AH0A table is for all the
amateurs that have ever lived
since the 1950's. They are not
all still alive or even
interested in the hobby anymore.
A better indication of numbers
is provided by the Station
license totals.
So how
many radio amateurs are there in
2021 ? The answer is no-one
knows but it's likely to be
closer to 1.75 million than to 3
million.
Sounds familiar, Tom P. is the
man you see at every ham fest
with the collection of mores
code keys and the enigma
machine, nice guy....I believe
he published a book about
keys...
Hot air and amateur radio
Members of the Helvetia
Telegraphy Club (HTC) will
activate the callsign
HB9HC/AM in the air
from a hot air balloon.
Hans-Peter, HB9BXE, informs
OPDX that the HB9HC/AM team's
planned date is Tuesday,
September 14th. Alternative
dates are: Wed. 15th, Thu. 16th
and Sat. 18th.
The balloon flight will be 2
hours long (within 0530-0900
UTC). The hot air balloon ride
is very dependent on the
weather. The probability that a
trip will take place on the
scheduled date is around 50
percent and the decision about
it will be made at short notice!
The Web team will try to keep
the information up-to-date (on
QRZ.com) in a timely manner.
Operators mentioned are
Urs/HB9ABO, Hans-Peter/HB9BXE,
Uli/HB9CGA, Peter/HB9TVK and
Thomas/HB9BSH. The equipment is
a KX3 with 15W into antennas for
40/30/20m (hanging vertically).
Other bands may be possible.
On September 6th,
Paul, N6PSE, announced
the following on the Intrepid DX
Group's FaceBook page: We were
happy to receive some news from
our old friend Nigel Jolly. He
has sold the Braveheart
to a new owner who will make her
available for amateur radio
DXpeditions.
Her new home port will be
Ushuaia once she can be moved
from NZ. We are delighted that
she will continue to service the
amateur radio world for years to
come. She is a venerable ship
and a great resource for amateur
radio.
https://www.facebook.com/The-Intrepid-DX-Group-180857615282553/
WEEKEND EDITION:
What a beautiful
weekend for a hamfest....Never
forget 9/11...Who
invented radio?.....
I thank Joe- K1JEK for the
photos at the hamfest setup on
Friday, the weather is perfect
and Joe says the crowd is
building, more than usual during
setup day....
VoIP Hurricane Net to
Activate
The VoIP Hurricane
Net will activate on
September 11, 0000 – 0600
UTC for Hurricane Larry, a
Category 1 storm. The
National Hurricane Center
(NHC) reports that Larry is
moving quickly toward
southeastern Newfoundland
and is expected to bring
hurricane-force winds,
dangerous storm surge, heavy
seas, and heavy rainfall. As
of 1200 UTC, Larry was about
650 miles southwest of Cape
Race, Newfoundland, with
maximum sustained winds of
85 MPH, moving to the
north-northeast at 26 MPH.
Net Manager Rob Macedo,
KD1CY, said reports on the
net’s reporting form will be
forwarded to the National
Hurricane Center’s WX4NHC
and via CANWARN, the
volunteer organization of
ham radio operators who
report severe weather to
Environment Canada. Stations
in the affected area may
connect via Allstar 28848,
Echolink 7203, Hamshack
Hotline 94032, and IRLP
9219.
Reports may also be sent
to Kc5fm-9 on APRS,
kc5fm@winlink.org,
Dstar REF052B, or WiresX
43234. The net accepts
SKYWARN criteria reports,
including damage, hail
greater than a quarter-inch,
flooding, and other hazards.
For more information,
contact Macedo.
The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN)
has announced that it
will activate September 10
at 2100 UTC on both 14.325
MHz and 7.268 MHz.
Foundations of Amateur Radio
The Fox Mike
Hotel Portable Operations
Challenge
Getting on air and making
noise is what it's all about, so
last week, that's exactly what
we did. Randall VK6WR, Jishnu
VK6JN and I participated in the
Fox Mike Hotel Portable
Operations Challenge which is
specifically scored to deal with
power and mode differences
between stations by using a
handicap system that they liken
to playing golf. Having been the
winner of the Sir Donald Bradman
Award in the Millmerran Memorial
Golf Tournament for making the
highest score on the day, this
speaks to me in more ways than I
can say. In case you're
wondering, more hits in golf is
bad and I'm not a golfer.
Scoring in the Portable Ops
Challenge is based around four
different attributes, the power
you're using, the nature of your
station, portable or fixed, the
mode used and the number of
transmitters in use.
To achieve this, you exchange
a maidenhead grid square, a
combination of letters and
numbers that indicates your
location on earth, which is then
used to determine how many
kilometres per Watt are used to
make the contact.
If you're portable, you get a
multiplier benefit in the
scoring.
Depending on the perceived
difficulty of the contact, you
score more points. In this case,
SSB is harder than CW, which in
turn is harder than a digital
mode.
Finally, the more
transmitters you have, the less
each contact is worth. Two
transmitters, means you score
half the points for each.
With that in mind, a QRP
portable station with a single
transmitter calling CQ on SSB is
the best way to make points and
that is something that I'm
always up for.
In our adventure, we opted
for a slight change, instead
using FT4 and FT8, using 40
Watts, portable, on the side of
a hill in a local park and
during the four hours we were
active, we managed six contacts,
one over SSB, the rest using
digital modes and we all had
several goes at getting the best
out of our station.
Our set-up consisted of a
small folding table next to my
car with a computer, a radio and
a thermos flask with hot tea to
ward off the chill in the air.
Power was supplied by an 80 AH
battery. The radio was an Icom
IC-7300 that Randall brought
along.
The antenna we used was a
Terlin Outbacker, multi-tap whip
that was attached to my car with
a 12m counterpoise run along the
gutter.
None of us had ever seen such
excellent conditions with such a
low noise floor in the middle of
the city. We were enjoying the
last warm sun of the day from
Kings Park in Perth, Western
Australia. It's a 990 acre park,
larger than Central Park in New
York, set aside for public use
in 1831 and gazetted as a public
park in 1872. The park is open
24 hours a day and features a
botanic garden with thousands of
species of Western Australia's
native flora and fauna,
overlooks the central business
district, the Swan River and the
Darling Ranges and best of all,
there's no radio noise. It did
get chilly towards the end, but
I'm pretty sure we all went home
with all our fingers and toes
intact.
Jishnu also brought along his
FT-817 and a tiny multi-tap
telescopic whip that we strapped
to a nearby steel rubbish bin
and using that set-up was able
to detect and transmit WSPR
signals across the globe as part
of experimentation with his
station.
One of the unexpected
benefits of not yelling CQ into
a microphone ad-nauseam was that
we were able to continue our
conversation, hearing stories
from each other and enjoying hot
pizza when dinnertime came
around without needing to stuff
food into the same place where
CQ calls were intended to
originate.
My car isn't quite ready to
go completely portable, but this
little outing again proved to me
that portable vehicle based
operation has a charm all its
own and the Fox Mike Hotel
Portable Operations Challenge is
going to be on my dance card
next time it comes around!
When was the last time you
left your shack and went
portable?
I'm Onno VK6FLAB
Message to US Educators
Amateur Radio
on the International Space
Station Contact
Opportunity Call for
Proposals
New Proposal Window is
October 1st, 2021 to
November 24th, 2021
The Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station
(ARISS) Program is seeking
formal and informal
education institutions and
organizations, individually
or working together, to host
an Amateur Radio contact
with a crew member on board
the ISS. ARISS anticipates
that the contact would be
held between July 1, 2022
and December 31, 2022. Crew
scheduling and ISS orbits
will determine the exact
contact dates. To maximize
these radio contact
opportunities, ARISS is
looking for organizations
that will draw large numbers
of participants and
integrate the contact into a
well-developed education
plan.
The deadline to submit a
proposal is November 24th,
2021. Proposal information
and more details such as
expectations, proposal
guidelines and the proposal
form can be found at
https://ariss-usa.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact-in-the-usa/.
An ARISS Introductory
Webinar session will be held
on October 7th, 2021 at 8 PM
ET. The Eventbrite link to
sign up is:
https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2021.eventbrite.com
The Opportunity
Crew members aboard the
International Space Station
will participate in
scheduled Amateur Radio
contacts. These radio
contacts are approximately
10 minutes in length and
allow students to interact
with the astronauts through
a question-and-answer
session.
An ARISS contact is a
voice-only communication
opportunity via Amateur
Radio between astronauts and
cosmonauts aboard the space
station and classrooms and
communities. ARISS contacts
afford education audiences
the opportunity to learn
firsthand from astronauts
what it is like to live and
work in space and to learn
about space research
conducted on the ISS.
Students also will have an
opportunity to learn about
satellite communication,
wireless technology, and
radio science. Because of
the nature of human
spaceflight and the
complexity of scheduling
activities aboard the ISS,
organizations must
demonstrate flexibility to
accommodate changes in dates
and times of the radio
contact.
Amateur Radio
organizations around the
world with the support of
NASA and space agencies in
Russia, Canada, Japan and
Europe present educational
organizations with this
opportunity. The ham radio
organizations’ volunteer
efforts provide the
equipment and operational
support to enable
communication between crew
on the ISS and students
around the world using
Amateur Radio.
Kahoku News reports on
August 21 a Japanese radio
amateur received a distress
call from a vessel off the
the coast of Niigata
prefecture
A
translation of the post
reads:
In late
August, Amateur Radio
enthusiast Yukio Sakurai,
59, of Matsuyama, Osaki
City, Miyagi prefecture,
received a distress call
from a small ship drifting
off the coast of Niigata
prefecture, and worked with
other enthusiasts to gather
information, leading to the
rescue of two crew members
by the Niigata coast guard
(Niigata city).
Around 8:45 p.m. on August
21, Sakurai caught a
noise-mixed voice called
"SOS, SOS" at the Hokotaki
Trailhead Parking Lot
(Hokkaho City) on Mt.
Toriumi, which straddles
Akita and Yamagata
prefectures. I thought about
the possibility of mischief,
but when I checked, it
turned out to be received
from a drifting ship, and I
immediately called 110.
The report reached
Niigata Kaiho via the 2nd
District Coast Guard
Headquarters (Shiogama
City), but the small ship
lost power and could not use
the ship radio, and the
crew's mobile phone did not
pass. Niigata Kaiho also
does not have amateur radio
facilities.
Mr.
Sakurai asked for the name
of the crew and the status
of the ship on Amateur
Radio, which became the only
means of communication, and
conveyed information to the
Marine Insurance through
Amateur radio enthusiasts in
Niigata Prefecture.
Based on the information,
Niigata Kaiho searched the
site area and found a small
ship around 2:30 a.m. on The
22nd the following day. The
other day, Sakurai continued
to have communication with
the crew and encouraged them
to "do their best because we
are going to rescue them
from now on." Two men on the
crew were not injured.
According to Niigata
Kaiho, the ship is "The
Seventh Shoryu Maru" (9.9
tons). A man from Okinawa
prefecture broke down on his
way back to Okinawa after
purchasing in Hokkaido,
drifting about 55 kilometers
north-northeast of Sado
City. A maritime security
official said, "We were able
to save lives by reporting
appropriate information to
the people concerned as soon
as possible. We are very
grateful."
Mr.
Sakurai says, "I'm glad I
happened to be in a place
where radio waves in the
Niigata area are easy to
enter. I want you to know
that Ama Radio is also
useful for saving lives."
Amateur Radio Newsline
RADIO OPERATORS SUPPORT
WILDFIRE ANIMAL RESCUE
DON/ANCHOR: We begin
this week with an update on
the wildfires plaguing the
US West Coast. In
California, the Caldor Fire
hasn't just left its impact
on residents and business
owners in the more than
200,000 acres it has
destroyed: The animals who
live there are suffering as
well. Amateur radio
operators are stepping in to
help these victims of this
historic blaze too. Ralph
Squillace KK6ITB has the
details.
RALPH: As
flames of the Caldor Fire
began sweeping perilously
close to their homes
starting in mid-August,
residents were quickly
evacuated to safety, often
having to leave behind their
pets and livestock. That's
where hams in the El Dorado
County Amateur Radio club
and members of its
Neighborhood Radio Watch
program have stepped in.
They've been providing radio
communications support to
those who have not forgotten
the animals. According to
Alan Thompson W6WN, the
club's public information
officer, radio operators
have been assisting the
South County Large Animal
Rescue Group, El Dorado
County Animal Services and
the various emergency
response agencies around
California. The
organizations are conducting
welfare checks throughout
the fire-damaged county,
looking after animals who
are sheltering in place—or
facilitating a rescue when
necessary. The hams
themselves are getting
support too: They're being
joined by volunteers in the
club's Neighborhood Radio
Watch program, area
residents using inexpensive
General Mobile Radio
Service, or GMRS, radios.
Alan wrote to Newsline:
[quote] "We desperately love
our animal companions."
[endquote] The club reminds
people in the affected areas
to contact El Dorado County
Animal Services or the
shelter if they have animals
they are concerned about.
You'll find the phone
numbers in the printed
script of this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org.
** GENESIS SATELLITES
DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION
DON/ANCHOR: Two
European-built amateur radio
satellites were destroyed in
an explosion during their
rocket's first test flight.
Ed Durrant DD5LP has
details.
ED: The pair
of AMSAT-EA Genesis
satellites that were aboard
the first test flight of
Firefly Aerospace's Alpha
launch vehicle were
destroyed when the rocket,
fueled by kerosene, launched
from the Vandenberg Air
Force Base north west of Los
Angeles—and then exploded.
The blast blew apart the
GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N
satellites that had been
built in collaboration with
the Universidad Europea and
ICAI. The satellites were
outfitted for amateur
communications using
Amplitude Shift Keying and
CW. Earliest reports on
Twitter described what
happened two and a half
minutes after lift-off,
saying the vehicle [quote]
"appeared to lose control
and tumble moments before
the fiery explosion." [end
quote]. According to a
report on SpaceNews, the
lift-off occurred only after
a first launch attempt was
made an hour earlier but was
aborted in the final seconds
of the countdown. The two
digital repeater satellites
were among several on board
the rocket built by
Texas-based Firefly
Aerospace. Firefly tweeted
[quote] "Alpha experienced
an anomaly during first
stage ascent that resulted
in the loss of the vehicle."
[end quote] The company was
previously known as Firefly
Space Systems before
entering bankruptcy, which
it emerged from in 2017 with
new owners.
For
Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm
Ed Durrant DD5LP.
(TWITTER; SPACENEWS, AMSAT)
** MEET ARRL MAXIM
AWARD WINNER: KATHERINE
FORSON, KT5KMF
DON/ANCHOR: A Texas high
school honor student has
received the ARRL's premier
honor, the Hiram Percy Maxim
Memorial Award. Paul Braun
WD9GCO introduces us to her.
PAUL: As we discover
every year with our Young
Ham Of The Year award, there
are some amazing young
people in our hobby today.
One of those is Katherine
Forson, KT5KMF, the American
Radio Relay League’s 2021
Hiram Percy Maxim Award
winner.
I spoke with
the remarkable young woman,
who was licensed as a Tech
at the age of nine and was
an Extra five years later.
Forson said she loves the
public-service aspect of
amateur radio, and
participates in a variety of
local events throughout the
year. She’s also fascinated
by the opportunities that
the digital modes, such as
FT-8, afford operators. But
what’s most interesting to
her is that ham radio has
helped her decide her
future:
FORSON: This
is actually pretty
interesting because ham
radio has helped me a lot in
figuring that out. Yes, I am
a trained Skywarn storm
spotter — I actually want to
be a meteorologist. I
finished just a couple weeks
ago my application to Texas
A&M. They have an incredible
geosciences program there
and specifically
meteorology. They have the
oldest ham radio club in
Texas on campus and they
also have a student storm
chasing team.
PAUL:
When asked if she had any
advice for other young women
who may be hesitant about
getting into radio or
science, like she did, she
offered this:
FORSON:
If it’s something you want
to do, you go for it. I can
remember when I first got
licensed, when I was taking
my test it was this room
full of adult men and I was
this tiny 9-year-old girl
and I tried to use a giant
calculator. It was awkward
at first, but it’s become
something that I love, it’s
given me something that I
have in common with my
family, and it’s helped me
figure out what I want to do
with my life so I think,
even if it’s intimidating at
first, don’t let that stop
you. Don’t let being one of
the few women, one of the
few young girls, stop you.
PAUL: Forson is working
with other Texas-area female
hams to create a YL-friendly
online community tied into
the ARRL North Texas section
website.
Promoting
youth in amateur radio is
something near and dear to
our hearts here at Amateur
Radio Newsline. Our 2020
Young Ham of the Year, Chris
Brault, was a former Maxim
Award winner himself.
Congratulations from all of
us at Newsline to Katherine
Forson who has a bright
future ahead. For Amateur
Radio Newsline, I’m Paul
Braun, WD9GCO.
**
US HAMS ACTIVATE THE
APPALACHIAN TRAIL
DON/ANCHOR: America's
Appalachian Trail has always
captured hikers'
imaginations and next month
it will be capturing
hundreds and hundreds of
miles of radio signals. Jim
Damron N8TMW has that
report.
JIM: In the
United States, the
2,190-mile-long Appalachian
Trail will present 2,190
miles of possibilities for
SOTA and POTA activators on
Saturday, October 2nd. SOTA
enthusiasts are already
registering to activate
summits that are within a
short distance on the trail
and hams will be calling
between 1200 UTC and 2100
UTC throughout the day. If
you're an avid hiker as well
as a SOTA or POTA activator,
you have time to add your
name and your summit or park
of choice to the list by
sending an email to A T
ontheair at gmail dot com
(ATontheair@gmail.com). SOTA
activators may also post an
alert on SOTAWatch. This
event is being held on the
same day as the W7A s2s
10-point madness so it's
recommended that SOTA
chasers stand by and defer
to summits calling other
summits.
For details
visit the Appalachian Trail
on the air website. The URL
is listed in the printed
script of this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org
For Amateur Radio
Newsline, I'm Jim Damron
N8TMW.
**
LISATS HAM CLUB TO
RETRANSMIT INSPIRATION4
LAUNCH
DON/ANCHOR: If
you want to hear history as
it happens, be listening for
the audio retransmissions
provided by the Launch
Information Service and
Amateur Television System.
They'll be retransmitting
feeds of the countdown and
the booster recovery for
SpaceX's Inspiration4, a
three-day mission featuring
the first all-civilian crew
inside a Crew Dragon
spacecraft. It's a charity
flight for the benefit of
St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital. At the time
Newsline went to production,
liftoff was scheduled for
September 15th. According to
Joe Dolinsky, W0WD, the
LISATS (LEE-SATS) Amateur
Radio Club repeater will
carry feeds of the
transmissions. There is also
a "listen live" button on
LISATS.ORG, the (LEE-SATS)
website, which has links to
Broadcastify. Listening may
also be possible via
EchoLink at WB4ATV.
(JOE DOLINSKY W0WD)
** IN SWITZERLAND,
HIGH-FLYING QSOS IN HOT AIR
BALLOON
DON/ANCHOR:
Hams who are up for some
high adventure in
Switzerland are taking their
ambitions seriously by
operating from a hot-air
balloon. Ed Durrant DD5LP
tells us about their plans.
ED: Plans for the
Helvetia Telegraphy Club's
next big activation are up
in the air. In fact, the
radio operators hope to get
up in the air and stay there
for at least two hours
aboard a hot-air balloon.
Their scheduled launch date
is the 14th of September
when they hope to start
operating sometime after
0530 UTC. The callsign
HB9HC/AM will be activated
by members of the USKA/HTC
National Mountain Day
Commission as hams ascend to
the sky over Switzerland,
operating all the while on
40m, 30m and 20m. They will
be transmitting with 15
watts of CW power, making
use of vertical dangling
antennas. If you're
interested in a contact,
watch the Reverse Beacon
Network or the DX clusters.
You can also use APRS if
you're interested in
tracking the balloon's exact
position. Are the radio
operators' hopes perhaps a
bit overinflated? Probably
not: They're already
advising everyone to get
familiar with such important
Q codes as QAH for Altitude
and QAL for Landing.
All details are on their
website at the URL given in
the script on our
arnewsline.org website.
** BBC INTERVIEWS
DEVELOPER OF WORLD'S FIRST
MICROSATELLITE
DON/ANCHOR: If you're a
satellite enthusiast, you
owe a bit of thanks to one
notable homebrewer, tinkerer
and distinguished professor
in the UK. Jeremy Boot G4NJH
tells us about a recent BBC
interview with him.
JEREMY: With an imagination
fueled by NASA's Apollo
missions a decade earlier,
Martin Sweeting G3YJO went
on to launch a new era in
space himself: the age of
microsatellites, which began
as a homebrew project built
partly at home and partly on
the University of Surrey
campus. That first, very
basic microsatellite -
U0Sat-1, the granddaddy of
all that would come later -
was eventually launched by
NASA in 1981. Martin, an
amateur radio operator since
his student years, recalls
in a new interview with the
BBC what it was like being
the creator of the first
microsatellite in a
pre-internet era. More than
amateur radio communications
tools, today's
microsatellites aid the
world in navigation,
scientific research, weather
and environmental
monitoring. As satellite
mega-constellations now
revolutionize communications
yet further, Martin, a
Distinguished Professor of
Space Engineering at the
university, also makes a
plea to clean the skies of
the hazard of space junk.
The BBC posted the half-hour
interview on its website.
That URL is available in
the script of this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org
** YL AWARDS
INTRODUCED INTO OCEANIA DX
CONTEST
DON/ANCHOR:
The Australian Ladies
Amateur Radio Association is
introducing a new twist or
two on an old favorite DX
contest now in its 76th
year. With those details,
here's Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.
JIM: If you're looking
for contacts with stations
in the Oceania region and
you happen to be a YL,
you're in luck. The Oceania
DX Contest is taking place
on two consecutive weekends
— October 2nd and 3rd for
phone and October 9th and
10th for CW — and this year
the spotlight includes two
awards being introduced
specifically for YLs. Both
awards, sponsored by ALARA,
the Australian Ladies
Amateur Radio Association,
are being given to a
single-operator YL who
achieve the highest combined
score in phone and CW. YLs
inside the Oceania region
are eligible for the
Florence McKenzie Award,
named for Australia's first
known licensed female ham
radio operator who received
the callsign A2GA in 1925.
YLs in the rest of the world
are eligible for the Austine
Henry Award, named for a
prize-winning homebrewer who
was a member of the YASME
Foundation, the RSGB, NZART
and the ARRL. She became
Australia's third licensed
YL in 1930 when she received
the callsign VK3YL. YLs
who want to be considered
for either award should
select the YL box on their
entry form when they submit
their log.
For
Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm
Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.
(YL BEAM)
**
AUSTRALIAN HAM CLUB INVITES
THE WORLD
DON/ANCHOR:
There's something for
everyone in a new Special
Interest Group that's about
to begin meeting up in
Sydney, Australia. Best of
all, you don't even have to
be in Australia to attend,
as Graham Kemp VK4BB tells
us.
GRAHAM: The
Bendigo Amateur Radio &
Electronics Club is inviting
you all to Australia. The
occasion is the startup of
the club's Special Interest
Group Session, or SIGS. The
first one is set for Friday,
September 17th at 7:30 p.m.
local time. The location is
club headquarters in Bendigo
East Hall in Bendigo but
don't let the small obstacle
of an ocean or two prevent
you from being a part of it:
the club is opening the
session to attendees
everywhere, via Zoom and
every radio club is
encouraged to participate.
According to an email from
Graeme Knight, VK3GRK, these
sessions are being held on
weekends at BAREC
headquarters and will cover
a variety of topics, led by
club members with expertise
in those areas. They will
cover such topics as CW,
JS8Call, WinLink, mentoring
and an introduction to
amateur radio.
The
Zoom details can be found in
the script for this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org.
For Amateur Radio
Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp
VK4BB. **
WORLD OF
DX
In the World of
DX, special event stations
ED3SDC, EG1SDC through
EG8SDC and EH1SDC through
EH8SDC are on the air from
Spain until the 12th of
September. The stations are
commemorating the Asturias
Day Festival and its patron
saint, Santina de Covadonga.
Send QSLs to EA1AUM, direct,
by the Bureau, LoTW or eQSL.
There are also downloadable
certificates. For more
details visit QRZ.com.
Be listening for Mark,
W5MED, who is at McMurdo
Station on Ross Island in
Antarctica, AN-011, until
October. Mark can be heard
on the air on 14.243 MHz SSB
and 14.070 MHz FT8. Send
QSLs direct to K7MT and
Logbook of The World.
If you're planning to
work any amateurs from
Belgium, be listening for
the special prefix OS being
used through the 12th of
December. The Belgian
Institute for Postal
Services and
Telecommunications has given
permission for the
substitution of the usual ON
prefix to mark the 120th
anniversary of the first
transatlantic radio
transmission by Guglielo
Marconi.
(RSGB, OHIO
PENN DX)
**
KICKER: BROADBAND FOR THE
BIRDS?
DON/ANCHOR:
Our final story is
transmitted signals, pigeons
and a bit of a flap that has
nothing to do with those
feathered wings. Neil Rapp
WB9VPG flutters in on a wing
and a prayer with all those
details.
NEIL:
Satellite enthusiasts are
known to call their passion
"working the birds." Who
doesn't love the thrill of
bouncing signals from on
high with a little help from
some ham-friendly tech in
the sky? But not all birds,
apparently, are friendly to
radio signals. In this case,
we mean the feathered kind
of birds which are being
eyed for possible disruption
of a satellite broadband
service. Call it suspected
RFI - for Ruffled Feather
Interference. Pigeons, it
seems, may be a source of
trouble for at least one man
who is beta-testing Elon
Musk's Starlink service in
the UK. Signals from the
low-earth-orbit satellite
system are sent to small
rooftop receiving dishes
that could appear to be a
birdbath in need of
refilling — that is, if you
happen to be a thirsty bird.
Alan Woodward, a professor
at the University of Surrey,
told the BBC in a recent
report that he blames
roosting pigeons for his
intermittent lack of
reception. The BBC
interviewed an unnamed
expert who said the presence
of pigeons could impact
service but the BBC had no
comment from Starlink
itself. One thing is
certain, however: satellites
most definitely benefit from
line of sight, not line of
flight.
FRIDAY EDITION:
I am hoping Joe-K1JEK and gang
send some pictures of the
hamfest, hint......I have
grandkids field hockey and
soccer games on Friday and
Saturday and will not be able to
attend....
August 2021 Volunteer
Monitor Program Report
The Volunteer Monitor (VM)
Program is a joint
initiative between ARRL and
the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to enhance
compliance in the Amateur
Radio Service. This is
the VM Program Report for
August 2021.
Licensees in
Pawcatuck, Connecticut;
Wamego, Kansas; Valley
Cottage, New York; Long
Valley, New Jersey;
Columbia, South
Carolina, and Maryville,
Tennessee, were sent
Advisory Notices
concerning operation on
frequencies that were
set aside for Haiti
earthquake emergency
communications by the
International Amateur
Radio Union (IARU)
Region 2 Emergency
Coordinator.
Licensees in
Prineville, Winston,
Silver Lake, and
Roseburg, Oregon; Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, and
Houston, Texas, were
sent Advisory Notices
concerning failure to
identify, as required by
Section 97.119(a) of the
FCC Amateur Radio
Service, pursuant to a
nationwide rule
compliance review of
operations on 3.819 MHz
and 3.953 MHz.
A former licensee in
Seabrook, Texas, was
sent an Advisory Notice
concerning operation
with an expired license.
An FT8 operator in
Orion, Michigan, was
sent to an Advisory
Notice reminding him of
the 200 W power limit on
30 meters.
A licensee in New
Caney, Texas, was sent a
final notice that his
case was being referred
to the FCC for license
revocation or deletion
of voice privileges from
his license.
A Good Operator
commendation was sent to
an operator in
Roseville, California,
for Exemplary Amateur
Procedure on May 21,
2021, during the
40-meter California
Rescue Communications
Net.
The revised total for VM
monitoring in July was 5,746
hours — the highest
number of hours monitored
since the inception of the
VM Program.
The IT staff at ARRL
Headquarters completed work
on an automated system for
Volunteer Monitors to report
monthly monitoring hours and
Incident Reports. —
Thanks to Riley
Hollingsworth, K4ZDH,
Volunteer Monitor Program
Administrator
20th Anniversary of 9/11
ARRL The
national association for Amateur
Radio® honors the memories of
those who died in the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001,
at the World Trade Center, the
Pentagon, and in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania, including these
radio amateurs: Steven A.
“Steve” Jacobson, N2SJ, 53, of
New York City (WTC); William V.
“Bill” Steckman, WA2ACW, 56, of
West Hempstead, New York (WTC);
Michael G. Jacobs, AA1GO, 54, an
ARRL member from Danbury,
Connecticut (WTC); Lt. Robert D.
“Bob” Cirri, Sr., KA2OTD, 39, an
ARRL member from Nutley, New
Jersey and Port Authority police
officer who was helping to
evacuate workers from the
building when it collapsed;
William R. “Bill” Ruth, W3HRD,
57, of Mt. Airy, Maryland
(Pentagon); Gerard J. “Rod”
Coppola, KA2KET, 46, of New York
City (WTC); and Winston A.
Grant, KA2DRF, 59, of West
Hempstead, New York (WTC). An
assembly of articles, stories,
and messages from the November
2001 issue of QST magazine is
available at
tinyurl.com/ARRL-QST-9-11.
Several special events will
commemorate the attacks of
September 11, 2001, and honor
the victims.
Saturday, September 11, 1200
– 2359 UTC, the Somerset County
Amateur Radio Club and Nittany
Amateur Radio Club will activate
N3M. Frequencies: 14.293,
7.293, and 3.993 MHz. QSL c/o
Nittany Amateur Radio Club, P.O.
Box 614, State College, PA
16801.
Saturday, September 11, 1400
– 1900 UTC, the Harrisburg (PA)
Radio Amateurs Club (HRAC) will
operate
W3M. Frequencies: 7.265 and
14.265 MHz. For a certificate,
visit www.w3uu.org/w3mqsl/.
Saturday, September 11, 1200
– 2400 UTC, the Pentagon Amateur
Radio Club (PARC) will sponsor
special event station K4P.
Operation will be in the
General-class portions of 80,
40, 20, 15, and 10 meters on CW
and RTTY. There will be a
special QSL card available via
PARC, P.O. Box 2322, Arlington,
VA 22202. For more information,
contact Gary Sessums, KC5QCN.
Saturday, September 11, 1400
UTC – 2400 UTC, members of the
Great South Bay Amateur Radio
Club (GSBARC), and the Northeast
Wireless Radio Club will
activate special event call sign
W2T.
Through September 13, 1600 –
0200 UTC, members of the
American Legion Post 10 Amateur
Radio Club, Albany, Oregon, will
be active as N7F. QSL with SASE
to American Legion Post 10, 1215
Pacific Blvd. SE, Albany, OR
97321. Email for more
information.
Through September 13, 0000 –
0003 UTC, the Wireless
Association of New York City,
Staten Island, will activate
WA2NYC. Frequencies: 28.450,
21.350, 14.340, and 7.238 MHz.
D-STAR Reflector XLX020B will be
monitored at the top of the hour
QSL to Wireless Association of
New York City, 233 Wolverine
St., Staten Island, NY 10306.
Email for more information.
Through September 14, N3U
will be on the air from
Pennsylvania to remember all
victims of 9/11. QSL via W3PN.
Operation will be mostly on SSB
and CW, with some digital
activity.
The early 1920s saw the
dawn of international
amateur radio. A series of
significant milestones led,
over some five years, from
no amateur transmission ever
having been heard on another
continent, to
intercontinental two-way
communications becoming
commonplace.
The RSGB
will commemorate these
historic events by
encouraging everyone to get
on the air to make QSOs –
focusing on December 2021
and December 2022.
Full details of how you
can participate will be
published via the Society’s
communications channels over
the coming weeks and months.
There will be features
and photos in RadCom but you
can also read the
fascinating story on the
RSGB website:
www.rsgb.org/transatlantic-tests
Louisiana ARES returning
to normal status in
storm-affected parishes
Louisiana ARES Section
Emergency Coordinator James
Coleman, AI5B, said this
week that Amateur Radio
Emergency Service® (ARES®)
teams in his Section 'should
now be on normal status,
with the affected parishes’
status as appropriate for
local conditions.'
Emergency Coordinators in
some hard-hit parishes have
activated volunteers for
relief and recovery
operations. More than 30
parishes were affected by
the storm, although cell
telephone outages in the
affected area stood at 3.7%
as of September 8 and
recovering rapidly. All 911
systems were reported
operational as of September
8.
The Louisiana ARES
Emergency Net now is on
standby. “If it becomes
necessary, the net will be
active from 2 PM to 6 PM CDT
on 7.255 MHz, and from 6 PM
to 10 PM CDT on 3.878 MHz,”
Coleman’s report said. The
Louisiana Traffic Net is
operating 7 days a week at 6
PM CDT on 3.910 MHz.
ARRL Headquarters shipped
Ham Aid kits to Louisiana
Region 3 for use during
their recovery efforts.
Region 3 District Emergency
Coordinator (DEC) Miriam
Barrett, KG5BNH, and St.
Mary Parish’s Emergency
Coordinator Jacki Price,
KA5LMZ, have coordinated
their efforts to assist the
Council on Aging in
Terrebonne Parish. The Ham
Aid kits include equipment
for HF, VHF, and UHF,
including hand-held
transceivers and “base
station” antennas.
The W5RAR VHF repeater
(146.805 MHz) was in use
over a four-parish area — La
Fourche, St. Charles, St.
John, and Terrebonne, which
suffered significant
wireless system damage as
well as a 911 system outage
in St. John Parish. The St.
Charles emergency operations
center was transmitting
requests via the LWARN
440-MHz linked repeater
system to WB5LHS.
A communications team in
support of Florida Baptist
Disaster Relief established
operations in a
communications trailer at
the Metairie Baptist Church.
The Jefferson Parish
Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) with DEC Nick
Frederick, W4NDF, and the
City of Kenner EOC with Mary
Vernoy, WB5IOE, assisting
maintained a VHF net.
Kenner’s fiber optic cable
that provided internet was
cut by Entergy so it could
access one of its lines for
repair. That left “two
erratic cellphones and a VHF
net” as the only
communications Kenner had
with Jefferson Parish.
Vernoy had to climb onto the
roof of the EOC to pick up
the 2-meter antenna that had
been knocked down by wind.
She was cheered by the
arrival of the Baptist team
from Florida.
Gordon Gibby, KX4Z,
reported that Metairie was
hard-hit, with power out and
boil water notices, although
the areas around hospitals
have had power restored.
“Hams can be a big benefit
by partnering with
organizations like Florida
Baptist and work to meet
their specific
communications needs,” said
Gibby, who has connections
with the Florida group and
drove from Florida to help
out for a day. He said hams
were “somewhat embedded”
within the volunteer
organization.
A report from Tangipahoa
Parish said that as weather
conditions deteriorated on
August 29 — the day
Hurricane Ida made landfall
— local repeaters lost power
and went on battery backup.
Two repeaters were lost when
a tower collapsed. Formal
weather nets were not
conducted to conserve power
for emergency transmissions
only. As of September 6,
both the WB5NET and W5TEO
repeaters remained on
battery pack-up power and
conserving power.
Elmer Tatum, N5EKF,
reports that, as of
September 8, all of the
repeaters in Ascension
Parish Region 2 remain off
the air, and two of them —
the 145.31 and 146.985
repeaters — sustained
damage. The 147.225 repeater
has no power. Two radio
amateurs at the state
emergency operations center
staffed the EOC for some 20
hours straight. Tatum
relieved them on Monday,
August 30, and passed “quite
a few messages” for the St.
Charles EOC via the 146.805
and 444.350 repeaters,
including one request for an
ambulance. Some parish
emergency operations centers
passed traffic via VHF
simplex.
ARES Region 2 Assistant
District Emergency
Coordinator Michael Nolan,
KD5MLD, reported that four
Region 2 objectives were
accomplished during the
storm, all involving major
challenges. These included
establishing amateur radio
communication with the state
EOC, Region 2 EOC, and the
American Red Cross;
requesting implementation of
auxiliary communication
rapid response teams to
assist served agencies;
promoting to parish EOCs the
value of real-time situation
reports from radio amateurs
operating from their homes,
and to educating amateur
radio emergency operators to
become embedded with their
served agencies prior to
activation. — Thanks to
Louisiana ARES Section
Emergency Coordinator James
Coleman, AI5B
THURSDAY EDITION:
Ham radio
bicycle mobile using APRS
for tracking in a marathon
video...If you can make it, this
is the weekend for the big New
England hamfest in Marlboro,
MA.....I was talking to a ham on
75 last night checking two
antennas for performance. The
dipole gave me a reading of 20+
and then he switched to an
endfed antenna and I could
hardly hear him. He said, boy
that endfed sucks. I asked him
how he switched so fast from one
antenna to the other. He said
well I matched the antenna with
my manual tuner for the dipole
and then just switched to the
endfed. I tried to explain he
needed to tune the endfed with
the tuner first, he tried it and
he was 10 over. His transceiver
folded back the power out when
it saw a high swr. He should
watch this.......
HamSCI Founder Nathaniel
Frissell, W2NAF, Awarded
$481,260 NASA Research Grant
Ham Radio Science Citizen
Investigation (HamSCI)
founder Nathaniel Frissell,
W2NAF — an assistant
professor in The University
of Scranton’s Physics and
Engineering Department — has
been awarded a $481,260
grant through the NASA Space
Weather Applications
Operations Phase II Research
Program. Frissell will serve
as principal investigator
for a research project
entitled, “Enabling Space
Weather Research with Global
Scale Amateur Radio
Datasets.” He’ll collaborate
with Philip Erickson, W1PJE,
of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Haystack Observatory and
Bill Engelke, AB4EJ, at the
University of Alabama.
“This grant includes
significant funding for
participation of Scranton
undergraduate students in
this research, as well as
support for new computation
resources,” Frissell said.
He explained that the grant
will fund “the development
of an empirical model for
the prediction of traveling
ionospheric disturbances
(TIDs) in high-frequency
radio communications while
investigating the
geophysical drivers of these
disturbances.” The grant
will cover 2 years of work.
Frissell said that the
predictive, empirical TID
models will be developedusing data collected
by the Reverse Beacon
Network, WSPR, and
PSKreporter — automated,
global-scale radio
communication observation
networks operated by the
amateur radio community.
Undergraduate students will
help the faculty researchers
to create algorithms used
for the model development.
This new NASA award
complements a 5-year
National Science Foundation
grant of more than $616,000
that Frissell received in
2020. That investigation
aims to understand the
source of TIDs observed in
amateur radio and other
scientific datasets.
In 2019, Frissell
received a $1.3 million
National Science Foundation
grant to fund a 3-year
initiative to measure
modulations produced in the
Earth’s upper atmosphere.
The grant supports a
collaborative team to
develop the HamSCI Personal
Space Weather Station, a
modular, multi-instrument,
ground-based space science
observation platform used to
study variability in the
coupled geospace system and
to better understand HF
radio propagation.
This is Frissell’s second
NASA grant. A space
physicist, he is among the
researchers working on a
NASA Living with a Star
Program (LWS)
project, “Wave-Driven
Asymmetries in the
Ionosphere-Thermosphere due
to Asymmetries in the
Northern and Southern Polar
Vortices.” That project is
being led by Richard Collins
of the University of Alaska
Fairbanks Geophysical
Institute.=
Here we take a look at the
RS-HFIQ 5 Watt HF SDR
Transceiver by HobbyPCB.
The RS-HFIQ is an open-source HF
transceiver project designed to
translate I and Q baseband
signals to RF in the
80/60/40/30/20/17/15/12/10M
Amateur Radio bands. The I and Q
signals must be
provided/processed by external
signal processing which could be
a PC running Software Defined
Radio software or a stand-alone
digital signal processor
WEDNESDAY EDITION:
Fun Facts: Ford
pardoned Nixon this day in
history and Biden has a 67%
disapproval rate on how he
handled the pullout in
Afghanistan....Engaging
and Educating Youth in
Amateur Radio Through Hands-on
Space Science Activities ....An
'Internet
apocalypse' could ride to
Earth with the next solar storm,
new research warns
GENESIS Ham Satellites among
Payloads Lost in Launch Failure
The GENESIS-L and
GENESIS-N ham radio
satellites were among
several carrying amateur
radio payloads
lost
following the failure of the
Firefly Alpha rocket during
its first launch on
September 2 from the
Vandenberg Space Force Base
in California. An anomaly
occurred about 2 minutes
into the mission, causing
controllers to destroy the
launcher in flight. The
anomaly has yet to be
explained.
This was sad news for
AMSAT-EA (Spain), as
GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N were
the first satellites they
had built themselves.
According to the AMSAT-EA
website, the GENESIS
satellites were destroyed
after the Firefly Alpha
vehicle presented an anomaly
as it hit a velocity of Mach
1 and reached Max Q, a point
of maximum aerodynamic
pressure on the vehicle. The
launch had been halted a few
seconds before takeoff, but
the countdown was
subsequently resumed.
GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N
were to conduct a series of
telecommunications-related
experiments, while a
ground-station analysis of
the received signals would
try to attain Doppler
variations in order to
perform orbit determination
and satellite identification
from radio amateur stations
around the world.
Also lost in the launch
failure were the Serenity,
Hiapo, the Cresst Dream
Comet, and QUBIK-1 and
QUBIK-2 satellites, and
Spinnaker-3/Firefly Capsule
1. All were designed to use
amateur radio frequencies
for telemetry and/or
communication.
Serenity, a 3U CubeSat,
was developed by Teachers in
Space (TIS) to provide
low-cost opportunities to
test educational experiments
in space. TIS has previously
guided high schools and
other academic institutions
in developing and flying
sub-orbital experiments
using high-altitude
balloons, stratospheric
gliders, and rockets. This
was the first orbital
satellite mission for TIS.
Serenity carried a suite of
data sensors and a camera to
send data back to Earth
using amateur frequencies.
Hiapo was an educational
1U CubeSat developed by the
Hawaii Science and
Technology Museum (HSTM).
The Hiapo project was
intended to provide hands-on
STEM curriculum for Hawaii
students in grades K – 12.
Part of this curriculum
involved obtaining data
about solar flares, solar
particle events, and
disturbances in Earth’s
magnetic field. Data would
be available for amateur
operators to download
directly from the satellite.
Mexico special event
To commemorate the 211th
anniversary of the Grito de
Dolores (1821) and the 200th
anniversary of the
Consummation of the
Independence of Mexico
(2021), look for special
event callsign 6I1M
to be active between
September 10-27th.
Activity will be on
80/40/20/15/10 meters using
CW, SSB, FT8/FT4, Echolink
(XE1SOV-L) and DMR (TG
33456).
Operators mentioned are
Andres/XE1SGW, David/XE1DRM,
Diego/XE1DVC,
Gerardo/XE1SVT,
Ismael/XE1AY, Maria/XE1LOV,
Patricia/XE1SPM,
Ricardo/XE1ELI and
Ricardo/XE1SY.
QSL via XE1SPM. NO Bureau
Software Defined Radio
Academy talks on YouTube
The Software
Defined Radio Academy
SDRA 2021 took place June
26-27 and the talks are now
available on YouTube
Two of the biggest
sunspots in years are
turning toward Earth. Wide
enough to swallow planets,
the active regions are
entering Earth's
'strike-zone', meaning any
flares or CMEs this week
would probably be
Earth-directed.
Even if they don't
explode, the sunspots are
prime targets for amateur
astronomers and sunset
photographers.
TUESDAY EDITION:
I hope you all had a a
good weekend...I will be one of
the operators for the WBZ Radio
station 100th special event, the
dates are September 17-19th. I
selected the 40 and 75 meter SSB
slots, more info to follow.
Special event callsigns (W1W,
W1B, W1Z, WB1Z)...
3-band vertical for portable
use
In this video Bruce G4ABX
demonstrates a 3-band (40m, 30m,
and 20m) portable vertical 1/4
wave antenna (also suitable for
a small garden if matching unit
waterproofed)
The
matching section (base loading
coils) is courtesy of the
'QRPGuys'
https://qrpguys.com/
My application uses a 7m
fibreglass fishing pole and a PA
Speaker stand as the base
support -- so the antenna is
completely free standing. The
design has 4-off 10 foot
radials. More radials will
improve efficiency -- slightly,
but at the expense of
convenience. (More, or longer
radials will not be so quick to
deploy or take up!)
The
complete antenna can be deployed
-- or taken down in less then 10
minutes and the telescopic
fibreglass mast is stored inside
the speaker stand for safe
transportation and storage.
SWR for all three bands is
less than 1.7:1 and this is s
resonant design so no ATU is
needed. (Ideal for the FT817ND
or ICOM IC-705 etc.)
I
use this antenna in conjunction
with my KX3 GoBox and
performance is very good.
Power handling of the matching
unit is 20 Watts PEP max. (I
also use it with a Xeigu G90.)
Safety: Check there are no
overhead cables above the area
you plan to deploy the antenna.
Never deploy an antenna in the
vicinity of overhead cables.
New England Hams
you might run across 75
meters.........
K1TP-
Jon....Editor of As The World
Turns....
KA1BXB-Don...Regular
on
3928
afternoons....just
don't
mention
politics
to
him,
please! WB1ABC-
Ari..Bought an amp and now we
can here him on 75 meters,
worships his wife, obsessed with
Id'ing N1BOW-Phil...Retired
broadcast engineer, confused and
gullible, cheap, only uses
single ply toilet paper KB1OWO-
Larry...Handsome Fellow
,only cuts lawn in August, plows
snow the rest in Jackman, Maine W1GEK-
Big Mike....Nearfest Cook, big
motor home, electronics software
engineer ... AA1SB-
Neil...Living large traveling
the country with his
girlfriend...loves CW N1YX-
Igor....peddles quality Russian
keys, software engineer K1BGH...Art.....Restores
cars and radio gear, nice fella... N1XW.....Mike-easy
going, Harley riding kind of
guy! K1JEK-Joe...Easy going, can
be found at most ham flea market
...Cobra Antenna builder.. KA1GJU-
Kriss- Tower climbing pilot who
cooks on the side at
Hosstrader's... W1GWU-Bob....one
of the Hosstrader's original
organizers, 75 meter regular,
Tech Wizard!!! K1PV-
Roger....75 meter regular, easy
going guy... W1XER...Scott....easy
going guy, loves to split
cordwood and hunt... WS1D-
Warren- "Windy" - Bullnet KB1VX-
Barry- the picture says it all,
he loves food! KC1BBU-
Bob....the Mud Duck from the
Cape Cod Canal, making a lot of
noise. W1STS- Scott...philosopher,
hat connoisseur,
KB1JXU-
Matthew...75 meter regular...our
token liberal Democrat out of VT KMIG-Rick....75
Meter Regular....teaches the
future of mankind, it's scary! K1PEK-Steve..Founder
of Davis-RF....my best friend
from high school K9AEN-John...Easy
going ham found at all the ham
fests K1BQT.....Rick....very
talented ham, loves his
politics, has designed gear for
MFJ... W1KQ- Jim- Retired
Air Force
Controller...told quite a few
pilots where to go! N1OOL-Jeff-
The 3936 master plumber and
ragchewer... K1BRS-Bruce-
Computer Tech of 3936...multi
talented kidney stone passing
ham... K1BGH- Arthur, Cape Cod,
construction company/ice cream
shop, hard working man.... W1VAK-
Ed, Cape Cod, lots of experience
in all areas, once was a Jacques
Cousteus body guard.... K1BNH-
Bill- Used to work for a bottled
gas company-we think he has been
around nitrous oxide to long .
Silent
Key
Neil
-K1YPM
.....a
true
gentleman
Silent Key
K1BXI- John.........Dr.
Linux....fine amateur radio op
....wealth of experience... Silent KeyVA2GJB-
Graham...one of the good 14313
guys back in the day. Silent Key
K1BHV-
David...PITA Silent Key
W1JSH-
Mort...Air Force man Silent Key
K1MAN--Glen....PITA
Silent KeyKB1CJG-"Cobby"-
Low key gent can be found on
many of the 75 meter
nets......... Silent KeyWB1AAZ-
Mike, Antrim, NH, auto parts
truck driver-retired
Silent KeyWB1DVD-
Gil....Gilly..Gilmore.....easy
going, computer parts selling,
New England Ham.. Silent Key
W1OKQ-
Jack....3936 Wheeling and
Dealing......keeping the boys on
there toes....
Silent Key
W1TCS-
Terry....75 meter
regular, wealth of electronic
knowledge...
Silent Key
WIPNR-
Mack....DXCC Master, worked them
all!.. 3864 regular for many
years... Silent Key
WILIM- Hu....SK at 92... 3864
regular for many years...
Silent Key
N1SIE-
Dave....Loves to fly Silent Key:N1WBD-
Big Bob- Tallest ham, at 6'10",
of the 3864 group Silent Key:
W1FSK-Steve....Navy
Pilot, HRO Salesman, has owned
every radio ever built! Silent Key:
W4NTI-Vietnam
Dan....far from easy going cw
and ssb op on 14275/313 Silent Key:K1FUB-Bill-
Loved ham radio....
