TWIAR News Feed

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FCC Chairman: Enforcement Consent Decrees Must Get Okay from Full Commission

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 07:06 PM PST
http://ift.tt/2kXamTZ

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has put in place another process reform measure that
he says will enable the commissioners “to become more fully involved in the
agency’s enforcement activities.”

From time to time, the FCC Enforcement Bureau resolves cases by entering
into a consent decree, in which the party under investigation agrees to
comply with certain terms — and typically make a “voluntary contribution”
to the US Treasury — in exchange for the government’s closing its inquiry.

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New ISS Packet Distance Record Claimed

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:54 PM PST
http://ift.tt/2kd051D

AMSAT-NA reports that Mark Pisani, KK6OTJ, and Jerry Rogers, W8LR, are
claiming a new distance record for their February 1 APRS message packet
contact during a pass of the International Space Station (ISS). The
distance was 3,089 kilometers (approximately 1,915 miles), establishing a
new distance record for the ISS digipeater.

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via HACKADAY: Acoustic Mirrors: How to Find Planes without RADAR

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:54 PM PST
http://ift.tt/2lxbIBg

A lot of science museums and parks feature something called an acoustic
mirror. The one at Houston’s Discovery Green park is called the listening
vessels. [Doug Hollis] created two acoustic mirrors 70 feet apart, pointing
at each other. If you stand or sit near one of the vessels, you can hear a
whisper from someone near the other vessel. The limestone installations
(see right) are concave and focus sound like a parabolic mirror will focus
light.

Just a science curiosity, right? Maybe today, but not always. The story of
these devices runs through World War II and is an object lesson in how new
technology requires new ways of thinking about things.

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Antarctica on the Air

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:54 PM PST
http://ift.tt/2kbyBxS

KC4AAA at the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station has been heard recently
on 40 meters (SSB) at around 0650 UTC. QSL Manager Larry Skilton, K1IED,
reports that QSL cards for recent activity (December 2016 through January
2017) should go out in March. KC4AAA plans to be on LoTW with logs from
2013 to the present. Skilton reports that KC4AAA was not on the air very
often during 2016.

The KC4USV station at McMurdo Station has been off the air for 2 years, and
the antennas are down. KC4USV is on LoTW.

Mikhail “Mike” Fokin, RI1AND, at Novolazarevskaya Base, Antarctica, has
been showing up on PSK31 on 40 and 20 meters, working into the US.

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Local radio club has global reach (South Dakota)

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:49 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2kfc3Yw

The owners of the cars are amateur radio enthusiasts, or “hams”, of the
Pierre Amateur Radio Club.

The club was reincorporated in 1968, with about 12 active members
currently, said Jim Zaradnicek, one of the members. They meet on the second
Thursday of the month.

Zaradnicek has been an active member the longest. He’s made roughly 120,000
radio contacts with people around the world since 1995.

Typically, the hams turn on their radios randomly and make contact with
other hams who are also broadcasting their signals at the same time,
Zaradnicek said.

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Norwegian Broadcast Engineer Discusses Impending FM Shutdowns

Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:49 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2kdgQP3

With the impending shutdown of the national FMs starting in less than a
week in Norway, we thought it would be good to reach out to our
correspondent there, Eivind Engberg, to see what’s really going on. Engberg
is the CTO of Twentyfirst Venture AS and chief engineer of three stations
in Norway: Radio Metro, The Beat and Radio Rox.