eHam.net News

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ARRL Urges FCC Not to Impose Overbroad Operation Notification Requirement:

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 02:42 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36347


In an ex parte statement, filed March 10
with the FCC, the ARRL has asked the Commission not to adopt "an
overbroad" requirement for notification of utilities in advance of
intended Amateur Radio operation on the pending 2200 and 630 meter
bands.


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Propagation Forecast Bulletin #11 de K7RA:

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 02:42 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36346


Average daily sunspot numbers and solar flux both increased over the
past week. Average daily solar flux went from 92.9 to 96.8, and the
average daily sunspot number from 41.4 to 64.4. Geomagnetic
indicators increased, with the most activity on March 6 and 7.


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MacLoggerDX Version 6.01 Released:

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 02:41 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36345


Dog Park Software is pleased to announce that version 6.01 of
MacLoggerDX has been released.


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Down Home LA: Radio Hams:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 04:04 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36344


The first thing you notice when Darrell Nichols turns on his Ham Radio is
the static that immediately fills the room at the Louisiana Special
Education Center. The next sign is less common. The faces of his two
special needs students, Ryan Trotter and RJ light up with excitement, eager
to begin practice with the old machine. Nichols hands the microphone off to
Trotter who begins his amateur radio call the way he always does. "CQ, CQ
CQ\&" an old radio invitation for any listeners on that frequency to
respond. "This is Whiskey Five Tango Romeo November listening for a call,
over." Hams utilize the "Alpha, Bravo Charlie" alphabet making Trotter's
call letters "W5TRN." After sending out the initial call, Ryan and RJ wait
patiently and excitedly for a response like fisherman out on a lake. They
have no idea where their signal is bouncing around, but they know it could
be "as close as Alexandria, or as far away as Sydney Australia," said
Nichols, their radio instructor. The club started 25 years ago at the
school, but four years ago it was officially adopted to the curriculum with
an important purpose. "We really decided to add it as a part of our
programming to enhance communication," said Kristy Flynn, Principal at the
LA Special Education Center. "Meaningful communication for all of our
students is one of our primary goals."


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Ham On Top of Buck Hill:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 04:04 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36343


Prior Lake resident Nagi Punyamurthula has been into radio since he put his
first AM radio together at the age of 8. For the last year-and-a-half, he's
been putting his hobby to use for the betterment of the community. Most
recently, he collaborated with Buck Hill co-owners Don McClure and David
Solner to install a repeater at the crest of the Burnsville ski slope. The
signal can be picked up for a 50-mile radius. "This is a very exciting
milestone," Punyamurthula said. "I see it as a sort of coming together of
Prior Lake and Burnsville." Next, Punyamurthula intends to visit local
police and fire departments to "evangelize" the new technology. His hope is
that first responders will be able to use the ham radio to communicate
quickly with one another during emergency situations. "If cellphone towers
go out or that infrastructure goes down, it becomes super important for
preparedness," he said.


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DX Engineering Supports the FT4JA Juan De Nova DXpedition:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 04:03 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36342


From March 29 to April 11, 2016, a group of Amateur Radio enthusiasts will
install temporary stations and transmit from the island of Juan De Nova,
giving Ham operators a chance to make contact with this rare entity. The
FT4JA operators relied on DX Engineering for advice on building an HF
receive antenna system that would offer exceptional Ham Radio performance
without having a significant impact on the island's environment. From March
29 to April 11, 2016, a group of Amateur Radio enthusiasts will install
temporary stations and transmit from the island of Juan De Nova, giving Ham
operators a chance to make contact with this rare entity. The FT4JA
operators relied on DX Engineering for advice on building an HF receive
antenna system that would offer exceptional Ham Radio performance without
having a significant impact on the island's environment. Juan De Nova. is a
small strip of sand about four miles long off the coast of Madagascar.
Officially recognized as a French territory, the uninhabited island's
remote location and few visitors means it currently ranks as number six on
the DXCC's most wanted list. The FT4JA DXpedition team worked diligently to
earn permission to land on Juan De Nova. It is a protected bird sanctuary
and the French government is wary of upsetting the island's fragile
ecosystem. DX Engineering recommended the KD9SV Reversible Beverage Antenna
System. It's comprised of two compact transformers connected by a simple
pair of twisted wires that rest harmlessly on the sand. The KD9SV
Reversible Beverage Antenna System gives the FT4JA team the capability to
listen in two separate directions, combatting the immense traffic the
DXpedition is expected to receive.


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Scientists Make Major Breakthrough In Space Weather Forecasting:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 10:06 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36341


The sun has magnetic fields and electrical currents surrounding it in a
region known as the heliosphe Space weather might be the final frontier
given the state of the art in weather forecasting technology. But that is
exactly what a group of scientists at the Institute for Space-Earth
Environmental Research at Nagoya University in Japan are trying to
optimize. The sun has magnetic fields and electrical currents surrounding
it in a region known as the heliosphere. These magnetic fields twist and
turn in such a way that it creates three dimensional structures known
as 'magnetic flux ropes' (see image 2). These 'ropes' are tethered to the
solar surface but have a tendency to break away every now and then. Such
unknotting of the 'magnetic flux ropes' cause massive solar flares that
belches electrically charged gas that periodically stir even the Earth's
magnetosphere (magnetic field). These are like hurricanes in space. The
solar energy particles reaching the Earth's magnetosphere may causes huge
geomagnetic storms that wreak havoc on our planet. Such storms can disrupt
radio transmissions, damage satellites and cripple electricity
transmission. Also, astronauts in space stations and people travelling by
aeroplanes risk high exposure to cosmic rays. The scientists at Nagoya
University have developed a model to simulate the 'magnetic flux ropes'
using real time solar observations. The simulation takes into account the
Coronal Mass Ejections that are closely associated with solar flares. The
scientists can now predict the arrival of such solar energy into Earth's
neighbourhood. This is a big leap is space weather forecasting.


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DX News -- ARRL DX Bulletin #10:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:42 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36340


This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
F6BCG, QRZ DX, OPDX, The Daily DX, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and
the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.


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Just Ahead In Radiosport:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:35 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36338


Just Ahead In Radiosport:


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ARRL Executive Committee to Meet in Texas:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:34 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36337


The ARRL Executive Committee (EC) will hold its first meeting of the
year on Saturday, March 12, in Dallas, Texas. The session will mark
some other significant milestones. ARRL's new President, Rick Roderick,
K5UR, will chair his first Executive Committee meeting since taking
office in January, and incoming ARRL Chief Executive Officer Tom
Gallagher, NY2RF, will be attending his very first EC meeting, as he
prepares to assume his full CEO duties on April 18.


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ARES Groups, Individual Hams Support Army and Air Force MARS Exercise:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:34 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36336


On February 12, more than 300 Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
members and individual radio amateurs participated in the first
quarterly Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) US Department of
Defense (DOD) communications exercise of 2016 (COMEX 16-1). US Army and
Air Force MARS operators across the US, Europe, and the Pacific took
part in the 12-hour HF exercise, which simulated a widespread loss of
telephone and Internet communication across the US. MARS operators
reached out to ARES members and individual hams in as many US counties
as possible to obtain status reports via radio.


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NCVEC Announces 3rd Public Release of 2016-2020 Amateur Extra Question Pool

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:33 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36335


The National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) has
released the third revision of the Amateur Extra class
(Element 4) question pool that goes into effect on July 1.


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Air Force Pledges Continued Cooperation During Cape Cod Radar Upgrades:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:32 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36334


As updating of the Pave PAWS radar installation gets under way at the Cape
Cod Air Force Station in
Massachusetts, the US Air Force has reached out to the Amateur Radio
community to continue the positive working relationship developed
between the two parties since March 2007. Pave PAWS radar installations
on both coasts have required the modification of some 70 centimeter
Amateur Radio systems to mitigate interference to the military radars.
The Amateur Service is secondary on 70 centimeters. ARRL Regulatory
Information Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, said work now has begun to
install the updated early-warning radar standards at Cape Cod.


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National Parks On the Air Update:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:32 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36333


ARRL's National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) event will take center stage at
Dayton Hamvention May 20-22.


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Elementary Schoolers' CubeSat Ready to Deploy from ISS:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:31 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36332


The 400 youngsters attending a suburban Washington, DC, parochial
school are eagerly awaiting the day the CubeSat they constructed will
be deployed from the International Space Station. The little STMSat-1
spacecraft -- an educational project of
pupils attending St Thomas More (STM) Cathedral School in Arlington,
Virginia -- is equipped with a slow-scan TV (SSTV) payload that will
transmit on 70 centimeters (437.800 MHz). The school won a NASA
competition for the launch.


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Fox-1E (RadFxSat-2) Selected for NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:30 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36331


RadFxSat-2, the Space Radiation Effects CubeSat -- also known as Fox-1E
-- has been selected to participate in NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative
(CSLI). RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) is a partnership opportunity between Vanderbilt
University's Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) and AMSAT.
The Fox-1E spacecraft bus
will be built as part of the Fox-1 series but will feature a linear V/U
(Mode J) transponder "upgrade" instead of the standard FM repeater that
Fox-1A through D have carried.


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Amateur Radio Accompanying 'Great Northern Way' Arctic Russia Expedition:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:31 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36330


Amateur Radio is traveling with the "Great Northern Wa" Arctic expedition
in Russia. Listen for
R3CA/8/9/0 along the route. The historical-geographical expedition
commemorates the 400th anniversary of the Northern Sea Route and will
be part of a research program, "Mysteries of the Russian Arctic."


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Heil Sound Celebrating 50th Anniversary:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:27 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36329


Heil Sound, a name that's probably
synonymous within the Amateur Radio community for its microphones and
"boom set" microphone/headset combinations, is marking its 50th
anniversary this year. Heil Sound came into being in 1966 as Ye Olde
Music Shoppe -- a music store in Marissa, Illinois, the hometown of its
founder, Bob Heil, K9EID. The celebration -- called "50 Years of
Maximum Rock N' Roll" -- kicked off at the winter NAMM show.


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Vessel with Rich History, The Bowdoin, Refurbished for Further Exploring:

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:29 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36328


The schooner Bowdoin, which has a prominent place in early Amateur
Radio history, will be relaunched this spring. The vessel relied on
Amateur Radio operators for communication during explorer Donald B.
MacMillan's Arctic Expedition of 1923, and on the
MacMillan-McDonald-Byrd Expedition of 1925. Now it's undergoing
extensive renovation and refitting in Maine.


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World-Famous Moonbounce Enthusiast Doug McArthur VK3UM, (SK):

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:27 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36327


Renowned Earth-Moon-Earth (EME, moonbounce) enthusiast Doug McArthur,
VK3UM, of Glenburn, Victoria, Australia, died on February 21, following
a stroke. He was 74. Within the EME community, McArthur -- a radio
amateur for nearly 60 years -- enjoyed a worldwide reputation for his
expertise, exploits, and accomplishments.


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In Brief...

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:26 AM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36326


Northern California DX Foundation Announces Scholarship Grant to
Falklands Schools: The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) has
announced a scholarship grant to the
Falkland Island Elementary and Middle schools for the acquisition of
Amateur Radio equipment, antennas, electronics kits, and science
curriculum materials.