Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1753 - March 11 2011

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1752 with a release date of
Friday, March 4, 2011 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. Three hamsats are lost when a launch booster
fails to achieve orbit, the FCC changes the rules on ham radio use of
Spread Spectrum, Argentina is heard on 2 meter FM in North Carolina and
a Digital Amateur Radio record is established down-under. Find out the
details are on Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1752 coming
your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: THREE HAMSATS LOST IN TAURUS XL LAUNCH FAILURE

A launch failure has lead to the demise of several new ham radio birds.
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with the details:

--

Three amateur radio satellites were lost when a launch booster failed
to achieve orbit. The satellites were launched from Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California at 10:09 UTC on Friday, March 4th on board an
Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket.

According to news reports, its believed that the launchers fairing
which covers the satellites on top of the rocket, did not separate
properly. This added drag prevented the Taurus XL from gaining enough
momentum to attain orbit.

The ham radio payload consisted of the Explorer-1, KySat-1 and Hermes.
The rocket is believed to have crashed near the Antarctic.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, in Los Angeles.

--

By the way, Bill actually saw and photographed the launch from his
front lawn in Santa Clarita, California. That's at least 80 miles from
Vandenberg Air Force Base. He says that it was the brightest abject in
the night sky. His pictures, which were a last minute idea are
grab-shots taken without a tripod. They are posted in his 2011 photo
album on Facebook. (Southgate, ARNewsline(tm))

**

RESCUE RADIO: CHRISTCHURCH NZ HAM RADIO QUAKE ASSISTANCE WINDS DOWN

Ham radio emergency communications operations in the wake of the recent
Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake have just about wound down.

In an e-mail to Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, Richard Smart, ZL4FZ,
who is head of the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications team says hat
Christchurch has made or is making the transition from rescue to
recovery. As such the normal services such as cellular, landline and
internet are being progressively restored, although they are yet far
from completely reliable at this stage. Cellular in particular, suffers
from periods where calls can be received but not made or unable to get
any service at all as the very high loads seem to swamp the switches.

Smart says that some cellular sites have been damaged by buildings
collapsing or have been dismantled to allow demolition work to occur.
ZL4FZ says that the damage has affected the capacity of the networks as
infrastructure essential to Christchurch in many cases traverses the
closed off centre of the city and will either need to be bypassed or
overbuilt.

Other essential services, water, power and sewage are being restored,
although for some the restoration will likely be long and protracted.
This he says is an indication of the very large number of faults and
breaks that have occurred.

Smart ends by telling ZL2BHF that at this time only informal amateur
communications is being heard on the repeaters during the day. but
there is no formal AREC activation at this time. (ARNewsline(tm) via
ZL2BHF, ZL4FZ)

**

RADIO LAW: FCC CHANGES PART 97 SPREAD SPECTRUM RULES

Back in the United States, the FCC has changed the rules regarding the
way in which radio amateurs can use Spread Spectrum technology.

In its Report and Order released March 4th, the regulatory agency has
eliminated the requirement that amateur stations transmitting Spread
Spectrum to use Automatic Power Control or APC to reduce transmitter
power. At the same time, the Commission has reduced the maximum power
of a Spread Spectrum emission from 100 to 10 watts PEP.

The changes are to Sections 97.311 and 97.313 of the Commission's
Rules. This all will become effective 30 days after the Report and
Order is published in the Federal Register. (FCC)

**

RADIO LAW: MORE CHANGES MADE TO EAS LAWS

The FCC has made more changes to its Emergency Alert System rules.
This, to allow for national EAS testing and data collection from such
tests.

The commission's Part 11 rules now say all EAS participating stations
must take part in national tests of the EAS system. The first national
EAS test must use the Emergency Alert Notification and the live event
code for nationwide presidential alerts. Whenever the national test
occurs, it replaces the monthly and weekly EAS tests for that
particular month and week.

The new rules require the FCC to give stations at least two months'
notice before a national test; and stations must submit test-related
diagnostic information. This includes whether they received the alert,
if they re-transmitted it and the make and model of their EAS
encoder/decoder. And the submission is due to the FCC within 45 days.
The data won't be released to the public but can be shared with other
federal agencies and state governmental emergency management agencies.

These latest changes, were adopted on February 2nd. Thy have now been
published in the Federal Register and are in effect. The goal of the
national test is to determine whether EAS functions as intended to
deliver a national presidential alert. (RW, FCC)

**

PROPAGATION: ARGENTINA HEARD IN NORTH CAROLINA ON 2 METER FM ON WIRE
ANTENNA

The recent sunspots have brought some interesting propagation. Even on
some of the VHF and UHF bands.

According to W0WOI reporting over the VHF Reflector, at 16:55 U-T-C on
March 2nd, Johnathon Ballard, KI4UKF who lives in Stokes County, North
Carolina heard Claudio Costa, LW2ECC in Argentina calling CQ on 144.48
MHz FM.

What really makes this interesting is that KI4UKF was using a Moxon
wire antenna tacked to a wall. He said the signal was steady for
several minutes at about S6, before it faded away. H e emailed
Claudio, who confirmed the transmission. Claudio reported that he was
using three 5/8 wave verticals and 160 watts. (W0WOI via VHF
Reflector)

**

BREAKING DX NEWS: DX0DX SPRATLEY ISLAND ON HOLD

The DX0DX mission to the Spratly's has been postponed to April 2012.
This, following the initial expedition attempt in January this year.

Team Leader VK3FY says he is determined to recover as much of the costs
as possible to put things right for all the team members, sponsors,
organizations and individuals involved. This rare DX-entity was to
have been activated from 6 January 2011 until 1 February 2011.

More DX news later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report.
(Southgate)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the world
including the W5DSC repeater serving Victoria, Texas.

(5 sec pause here)


**

ENFORCEMENT: FLORIDA UNLICENSED BROADCASTER ISSUED $20,000 NOTICE OF
APPARENT LIABILITY FOR FORFEITURE

The FCC has issued a $20,000 Notice of Apparent Liability for
Forfeiture to Whisler Fleurinor. This for his alleged willful and
repeated violated section 301 of the Communications Act by operating an
unlicensed radio transmitter at his commercial property in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. Here's the back-story.

--

On March 16th and August 24th of 2010, in response to complaints about
an unlicensed station on 99.5 MHz, agents from the Enforcement Bureau's
Miami Office used direction finding techniques to locate the source of
radio frequency transmissions on to a commercial property in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. The FCC says it found that the property is owned
by Whisler Fleurinor.

On March 16, 2010, the agents determined that the signals from Mr.
Fleurinor's building exceeded the limits for operation under Part 15 of
the Commission's and therefore required a license. Following up, on
August 24th, the FCC agents inspected the unlicensed station. The
Commission says that at that time Mr. Fleurinor showed them his antenna
and transmitter. He admitted that the equipment was his, and then
turned off the transmitter.

Prior to leaving the property, the agents issued a Notice of Unlicensed
Operation to Fleurinor, which he signed acknowledging that he was in
receipt of it. The Notice warned that operation of an unlicensed
station violated the Communications Act and the Rules and could result
in further enforcement action.

But the Commission alleges that not long after Fleurinor came back on
the air with the unlicensed station. And so it was that on August 31,
2010, agents from the Miami Office again used direction-finding
techniques to locate the source of radio frequency transmissions on
99.5 MHz to Mr. Fleurinor's commercial property in Fort Lauderdale. The
agents again determined that these signals exceeded the limits for
operation under Part 15 of the Rules and therefore required a license.
As such, Whisler Fleurinor was issued a second Notice of Unlicensed
Operation.

Pursuant to the Commission's Forfeiture Policy Statement and the base
forfeiture amount for operation without an instrument of authorization
is $10,000. In assessing the monetary forfeiture amount, the FCC says
that it must also take into account the statutory factors set forth in
section 503(b)(2)(E) of the Communications Act. These include the
nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violations, and with
respect to the violator, the degree of culpability, any history of
prior offenses, ability to pay, and other such matters as justice may
require. Consequently, the $10,000 base forfeiture amount is subject to
adjustment.

The FCC says that as proven by its investigation, on two separate
occasions Fleurinor was issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation. It
says that despite having acknowledged receipt of both notices that he
continued to operate the unlicensed radio station. It says that the
fact that Fleurinor continued to operate with full knowledge that such
activity violated the Communications Act and the FCC's Rules
demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the Commission's requirements.
As such it believes that the $20,000 proposed fine is warranted.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale,
Arizona.

--

The action in this case was adopted and released on March 4th, 2011.
Whisler Fleurinor was given the customary 30 days to pay the $20,000
forfeiture amount or to file an appeal. (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: FCC ISSUES OFFICIAL CITATION FOR ERRANT WIRELESS CAMERA

The FCC has issued an Official Citation to SecurityMan Inc. of Ontario,
California. This, for marketing a non-compliant wireless camera that
caused interference to other service.

According to the Citation, the camera in question apparently radiated
an excessive second harmonic of the 902 to 928 MHz band on which it was
designed to operate. This in turn caused interference to a nearby PCS
cell site.

The matter goes back to In December 2009. That's when the FCC's
Enforcement Bureau received a complaint alleging that the SecurityMan
SM-302T wireless camera was causing harmful interference to U.S.
Cellular's licensed operation of its PCS network in the 1850 to 1865
MHz band. If you do the math, a second harmonic of a 902 to 928 MHz
transmitter has a good chance of falling within the cellular P-C-S
band.

Once suspicious that the camera might be the cause of the interference,
Enforcement Bureau staff visited the SecurityMan web site at
www.securitymaninc.com. There they observed that SecurityMan was
marketing the SecurityMan SM 302T wireless camera. They then purchased
a SecurityMan SM 302T wireless camera, and forwarded it to the FCC's
Office of Engineering and Technology Laboratory for testing. The
lab's tests demonstrated that the SecurityMan SM-302T does not comply
with the radiated emission limits specified in sections 15.249(d) and
15.209 of the rules. (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: LASER HITS COCKPIT OF PHOENIX NEWS HELICOPTER

Pointing a laser at aircraft is illegal and now authorities in Phoenix,
Arizona, are looking for whomever it was that did just that to a news
chopper. Jeff Clark, K8JAC, has mo

--

A Phoenix news helicopter was the victim of an attack from the ground
in late February. This as someone shot a bright laser beam into its
cockpit that was also caught by the choppers on-board camera.

According to The Arizona Republic, authorities are currently
investigating the incident and have yet to identify the perpetrator.
The newspaper goes on to note that local police actually searched
door-to-door in the area where the beam originated but so far have come
up empty handed.

A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration commenting on the
incident said that the message here is very simple. If you want to
engage in this kind of dangerous and irresponsible behavior, you can be
caught and arrested.

Im Jeff Clark, K8JAC.

--

The helicopter in question shoots footage for multiple Phoenix
stations. These include CBS-affiliate KPHO and independent station
KTVK. If caught, and if prosecuted by the perpetrator of this stunt
could face up to 20 years in prison. (Published news reports)

**


RESCUE RADIO: COMMUNICATIONS ACADEMY 2011

Registration is now open for Communications Academy 2011 to be held at
South Seattle Community College, April 16th and 17th. ARRL Western
Washington Section Manager Jim Pace, K7CEX, says that the theme this
year is "Bringing Professionalism to Amateur Emergency Communications".

According to Pace, planners has an exciting lineup of speakers and
breakout sessions scheduled. Saturday's keynote speaker is ARRL Media
and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP. He will be
presenting an address titled "Reality Check: The four stages of ARES."
On Sunday, Alan Komenski, AC2K, State Interoperability Executive
Committee of the Washington State Patrol.

Early registration by April 3rd saves you 15% and groups of 5 or more
registering at the same will save an additional 10%. You can register
right at www.commacademy.org. (Press Release)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: VHF CONVENTION DOWN-UNDER IN APRIL

The show must go on down-under. This with word that the Wellington VHF
Group will hold its VHF Convention from April 22nd to the 24th Tawa
College in Tawa. This years convention is being held in conjunction
with the annual Wellington Radio Expo and Wellington Expo-11.

According to planners, the VHF Convention offers a great program
line-up for both the newcomer and the experienced radio amateur alike.
Some of the topics include forums on VHF, ATV, Satellites, Special
Interest Groups and a forum for Repeater and Beacon Trustees.

More information along with registration forms are available on the
Wellington VHF Group website. Its in cyberspace at www.vhf.org.nz
(Wellington VHF Group)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY TO THE OPDX NEWSLETTER

And congratulations to our friends at the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin which
celebrated its 20th anniversary and published its 1000th issue last
week. To celebrate, the Northern Ohio DX Association which publishes
the on-line newsletter was to activate the special event station
NO8DX/20 between March 11th and the 13th. If you made contact, please
send your QSL via the events QSL manager and editor of the OPDX, Tedd
Mirgliotta, KB8NW at his callbook address. (DXNL)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: NAMIBIAN AMATEUR RADIO LEAGUE CELEBRATES 21st
ANNIVERSARY

And on March 21st the Namibian Amateur Radio League or NARL celebrate
its 21st birthday. At the same time Namibia will celebrate 21 years of
its own independence.

To commemorate these two event the NARL has been issued the special
event callsign V521NAM. Plans are to activate the call from Saturday
the March 19th to Monday the 21st. All amateurs in Namibia are
allowed to use the special event callsign for the duration of the event
but they will be required to send in their logs so the NARL QSL Bureau
can send out special QSL cards to all worked stations.

All incoming QSL's should be via sent via the bureau or electronically
using e-qsl. More on this special event operation is on the web at
www.qsl.net/narl. (NARL)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the

United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline

with links to the world from our only official website at

www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer

services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

WORLDBEAT: INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY - APRIL 30th

This years International Marconi Day takes place on Saturday April
30th. This is not a contest but there are several awards available for
working the officially listed stations, each of which has an historic
connection with Marconi. The event is organized by the Cornish Amateur
Radio Club. For more information please visit the club's website at
crac.g4usb.net/cracblog. (GB2RS)


**


WORLDBEAT: CANADIAN HAMS ASK RAC FOR ASSISTANCE IN RIDDING PLASMA TV
INTERFERENCE


Members of Canada's Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club say that noise
and signals originating from Plasma screen digital television sets are
causing considerable interference to their HF activities. They have
asked their national society for help.


According to a news release from Radio Amateurs of Canada, complaints
of this nature require specific and detailed information before it can
consider taking this matter to telecommunications regulator Industry
Canada. To gather this information, Radio Amateurs of Canada invites
its members who own a Plasma screen television receivers to report
their experiences of interference from such products. Specifically,
these reports should describe the make and model of TV, a description
of their HF station and antenna system and the exact nature of the
interference. This means what bands are affected, what the interference
sounds like and any other pertinent information. Remedies should also
be tried and reported such as using ferrite chokes on power cords and
signal cables if interference is detected.


Amateurs with advanced instrumentation such as spectrum analyzers and
calibrated antennas should measure signal intensity levels at given
distances; these measurements will add credibility to our
investigation. Canadian hams suffering from this type of interference
should send their reports to Norm Rashleigh, VE3LC, via email to ve3lc
(at) rac (dot) ca. (RAC)

**

WORLDBEAT: RNW LAUNCHES IPHONE APP IN 9 LANGUAGES

Radio Netherlands Worldwide has developed a free news application in
nine languages for the Apple iPhone. This application gives iPhone
users 24-hour access to Radio Netherlands latest internet postings,
including web articles, radio programs, videos and podcasts. The
application called RNW. It is available free of charge from the iPhone
App Store. (Media Network)

**

DX

In DX, word that JA1JQY, JA1KJW and JA8VE will be active from Thimphu
Bhutan between April 19th and the 26th. Operations will be on 160
through 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL as directed by the
operators.

DL7BC will be active from Morocco as CN2BC during the CQ WW WPX SSB
Contest as a Single-Op, All-Band, Low-Power entry. QSL his operation
via DL7BC. You can visit his Web page at www.qslnet.de/dl7bc for
further information regarding this one.

VE3ZIK will be once again active portable 9A from Croatia between March
13th and the 30th. He also plans to be active in the Russian DX
Contest, the CQ WPX SSB Contest and mentions that there is a good
chance he will be on from Vrana Lake as well. QSL via DK8ZZ, via the
bureau, Logbook of the World, eQSL or direct. E-mail Bureau requests
for QSLs can go to ve3zik (at) gmail (dot) com.

And keep an ear open for F2JD will once again be active as stroke HR5
from Copna, Honduras starting mid-March and continuing through to
mid-May. Operations will be on all HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL via
F6AJA.

A group of hams from the Amateur Radio Society of India plan to become
active as VU4PB from the Andaman Island capital Port Blair. This, from
March 15th through the 31st. Modes used will be CW, SSB and RTTY on
all bands using up to four stations. They also hope to work via
moonbounce on 6 meters. Their QSL manager will be W3HNK, which means
that QSLs are confirmed only direct but reliably.

Lastly, I2DMI will be active as CE0Y from

Easter Island between July 30th and August 8th.

His operation will be RTTY and what bands he

plans to use are at this time unknown. QSL via

his home callsign.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: DIGITAL ATV RECORD SET DOWN

UNDER

And finally this week, word that new records for Digital Amateur
Television have been set down-under. Robert Broomhead, VK3DN, of the
WIA News is here with an in-depth look at what took place to make it
all happen:


--


On Wednesday evening, 23 February 2011, Digital Amateur Television
signals from Victoria were received in the northwest of VK7 by Winston,
VK7EM. After noting the band conditions improving with a lift in the
70cm beacon strength and the appearance of Community TV Channel 31,
Winston monitored VK3RTV, the Melbourne Digital ATV repeater.


At around 5.30pm color bars appeared. Then with liaison with Peter
VK3BFG on 147.4 MHz simplex, who had made sure the repeater was
activated, live pictures were organized, with Peter proudly showing off
his equipment with a very professional `on camera' appearance.


Word spread and other stations like Neil VK3BCU, John VK3DQ, and Jack
VK3WWW joined in. At one stage there were two independent pictures
arriving, John 3DQ on one channel, VK3RTV1 and Peter 3BFG on VK3RTV2,
and both in contact with each other.


At 8.00 PM signals on VK3RTV began to fade. It was then that a
separate receiver monitoring 1250 MHz suddenly came to life with a
perfect color bar signal. A call on 2 meters established that it was
Rob, VK3TRX who chatted and then held up a 10 gig. antenna he will use
in an upcoming ATV field day. These pictures on 23 centimeters
analogue FM, became quite noise free.


The equipment used by Winston consisted of home-brew yagis on each band
to a K7MEM design, masthead mounted preamplifiers designed by VK5EME,
fed into a Teac SDB451 Digital Set Top Box on 70 centimeters, while for
23 centimeters a Drake ESR 700 satellite receiver.


I'm Robert, VK3DN.


--


For those listeners in North America who have never heard the term
"lift conditions" it's the way most of the rest of the world describes
what we call improved band conditions, especially on frequencies at and
above 50 MHz. (WIA News)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ
Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain,
the RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's WIA News, that's all from
the Amateur Radio Newsline(tm). Our e-mail address is
. More information is available at Amateur
Radio Newsline's(tm) only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur
Radio Newsline(tm), 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editor's desk, I'm Jim
Davis, W2JKD, says 73 and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.