TWIAR News Feed

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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.�

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.