Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
This Week in Amateur Radio News for Friday 3 February 2017
TWIAR News Feed
/////////////////////////////////////////// Washington Club Gets North Cook Islands Ham Back on the Air after Lengthy Absence Posted: 03 Feb 2017 05:31 PM PST http://bit.ly/2k5HtRA Thanks to the generosity of members of the ARRL-affiliated Western Washington DX Club (WWDXC) Pia “Papa Pia” Taraeka, E51PT, of Manihiki, North Cook Islands, is back on the after a more than 3-decade absence. “My interest in Amateur Radio started around 1962 as a radio operator working for the Cook Island and New Zealand governments,” Papa Pia recounted on his QRZ.com profile. “My primary job was relaying radio Morse code traffic destined for the Cook Islands and other places, including New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, and Niue.” /////////////////////////////////////////// 95 Years - A celebration of radio station 2MT Posted: 03 Feb 2017 05:13 PM PST http://bit.ly/2l5S0gJ February 14, 2017 marks the 95th anniversary of the start of the UK's first ever regular, advertised broadcast radio station, 2MT, which came live from Writtle in Essex To commemorate this anniversary, and to celebrate the young, pioneering team of engineers, the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society will be transmitting from the same building from where the original broadcasts commenced. One of their members, Jim Salmon 2E0RMI, will also be operating a three-day internet radio service, Radio Emma Toc, featuring radio related documentaries, vintage comedies and live programmes from various locations. The first 2MT broadcast started at 7.15pm on February 14, 1922 from an ex-army Marconi hut - a 'Long Low Hut' - sited in a waterlogged field in Lawford Lane Writtle. This famous hut is now on permanent display at Sandford Mill, Chelmsford, and can be visited during the summer open days at the Mill. /////////////////////////////////////////// ARRL Board of Directors Adopts Legislative Objectives for 115th Congress Posted: 03 Feb 2017 05:12 PM PST http://bit.ly/2l6Q0UC The ARRL Board of Directors has unanimously adopted five legislative objectives for the 115th US Congress. The Board took the action when it met in Connecticut January 20-21. ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, chaired the session. The first objective is to seek early congressional passage of the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2017, H.R. 555 and of any Senate companion bill that might be introduced. H.R. 555 cleared the House on January 23. The Board was told that specific instructions to the FCC on implementation of the bill would be included in the report language from Congress. /////////////////////////////////////////// UK Ham Does Summits on the Air Activation the Hard Way Posted: 03 Feb 2017 05:12 PM PST http://bit.ly/2l2jpDD A radio amateur in the UK, Colin Evans, M1BUU, attained Summits on the Air (SOTA) Mountain Goat status on January 28 on the summit of Whernside, the highest peak in Yorkshire, but he took an unusual approach by waiting until after he reached the summit to construct his station equipment. He had taken along a 20-meter QRPme RockMite kit, a homebrew key kit, a vertical antenna kit, and a gas-powered soldering iron. Conditions were not exactly ideal. Sheltering from wind, rain, and snow in a small tent, Evans was able to constructed the RockMite, key, and antenna in less than 4 hours. Better yet, his first contact with the 250 mW RockMite was with N1EU near Albany, New York, more than 3,000 miles away. He also completed three subsequent contacts with European stations, satisfying the SOTA requirement of four contacts to claim the activation points. /////////////////////////////////////////// via HACKADAY: Books You Should Read: Making A Transistor Radio Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:42 PM PST http://bit.ly/2kCh2q5 When a Hackaday article proclaims that its subject is a book you should read, you might imagine that we would be talking of a seminal text known only by its authors’ names. Horowitz and Hill, perhaps, or maybe Kernigan and Ritchie. The kind of book from which you learn your craft, and to which you continuously return to as a work of reference. Those books that you don’t sell on at the end of your university career. So you might find it a little unexpected then that our subject here is a children’s book. Making A Transistor Radio, by [George Dobbs, G3RJV] is one of the huge series of books published in the UK under the Ladybird imprint that were a staple of British childhoods for a large part of the twentieth century. These slim volumes in a distinctive 7″ by 4.5″ (180 x 115 mm) hard cover format were published on a huge range of subjects, and contained well written and informative text paired with illustrations that often came from the foremost artists of the day. This one was published at the start of the 1970s when Ladybird books were in their heyday, and has the simple objective of taking the reader through the construction of a simple three transistor radio. It’s a book you must read not because it is a seminal work in the vein of Horrowitz and Hill, but because it is the book that will have provided the first introduction to electronics for many people whose path took them from this humble start into taking the subject up as a career. Including me as it happens, I received my copy in about 1979, and never looked back. /////////////////////////////////////////// Centenarian, Maines First Woman Radio Amateur Mary Cousins, ex-W1GSC, SK Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:42 PM PST http://ift.tt/2jDgL6T Retired librarian Mary S. Wallace Cousins, ex-W1GSC, of Deer Isle, Maine, the first woman in Maine to obtain an Amateur Radio license, died on January 28. She was 108. Cousins, whose “Amateur First” license was issued in 1933 by the old Federal Radio Commission when she was 24, had celebrated her 108th birthday to some fanfare last September at the nursing home where she’d been living. She recalled operating Morse code, although she no longer remembered the code, and said she used to relay weather information in that mode. A native of nearby Stonington, Maine, Cousins had worked as the town’s librarian for 30 years, retiring at the age of 90. She also had worked for the telephone company for more than a decade, and she transported kindergarten pupils to and from school in her station wagon. /////////////////////////////////////////// FCC Chairman Announces Pilot Program Aimed to Increase Rulemaking Transparency Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:36 PM PST http://bit.ly/2kbtdcN FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced a pilot program the Commission says is designed to dramatically increase the transparency of its rulemakings. “For the first time, the Chairman is releasing to the public the full text of documents he circulated to his fellow Commissioners for a vote at the FCC’s next Open Meeting on February 23,” an FCC news release said. Under prior practice, such documents and any draft proposals they contain would circulate internally 3 weeks before an open Commission meeting, but were not made public until after the final vote. At the same time, the Commission would announce its tentative agenda for the next meeting, followed by a formal agenda 1 week prior. “We believe that releasing these documents — rather than keeping them behind closed doors until after our vote — will increase the public’s understanding of our decision-making process, and result in final rules that better serve the public interest,” Pai said in announcing the change. If successful, Chairman Pai’s pilot project will become a new part of this process going forward. /////////////////////////////////////////// Special Call Signs to Mark 50th Anniversary of First France-to-US EME Contact Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:36 PM PST http://bit.ly/2kC74F1 To mark the 50th anniversary of the first France-to-US EME (moonbounce) contact, special call signs TM8DO (for F8DO) and TM1BF (for F6BEG, then F1BF) will be on the air from February 4 until February 11 on 2-meter and 70-centimeter 144 MHz EME using JT65. The original contact was between Marius Cousin, F8DO, in Dracé, France, and Bill Conkel, W6DNG, in Long Beach, California, on January 27, 1967. TM8DO will be on 2 meters (144.21 MHz) and 70 centimeters (432.060 MHz), and TM1BF will operate on 2 meters (144.128 MHz). Stations will transmit in sequence. Real-time information and skeds may be arranged via the N0UK (A) and (B) or HB9Q chatrooms. /////////////////////////////////////////// Oldest, Longest-Licensed US Ham, Educator Charles Hellman, W2RP, SK Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:36 PM PST http://bit.ly/2l5NNK4 Charles “Charlie” Hellman, W2RP, of Hastings on Hudson, New York, died on January 25. He was 106 and may have not only been the oldest surviving radio amateur in the US but, at 92 years, also may have been the longest licensed. By 8 days, Hellman outlived Harry Wolf, W6NKT, of Morro Bay, California, who had been considered the oldest US ham when he died on January 17, just a couple of weeks shy of his 108th birthday. In 2015, the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) honored Hellman with a “90 Year Continuous Licensed Certificate Award” (No 1). At the time, the QCWA had thought Hellman was the oldest living radio amateur, but announcement of his QCWA honor served to flush out Wolf, who, while not licensed as long as Hellman, was 1 year older. No formal records are kept regarding the oldest or youngest US hams. Hellman joined QCWA in 1975 and was a member of QCWA Chapter 181 in New York’s Hudson Valley. He had been regularly active on the air until a few years before his death, when his backyard tower fell victim to Hurricane Sandy. /////////////////////////////////////////// Consultation on RSGB future Posted: 03 Feb 2017 04:36 PM PST http://bit.ly/2kqXylW Lots of people have views on what the RSGB should or should not do. Here is your chance to have your say. The RSGB Board has been working with strategy expert Chris Deacon, G4IFX, the Leadership Team and Headquarters staff to develop a strategy for the next five years. That work has been boiled down into a one-page document with a narrative to explain the context and background. We would now like your views. The draft strategy and narrative are online at rsgb.org/strategyreview. |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|