eHam.net News

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Radio Club Demonstrates World War II-era Military Radio at Festival:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 06:10 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36998


The Oak Ridge Amateur Radio Club demonstrated World War II-era military
radio communications Friday and Saturday as part of the Secret City
Festival. The group also hosted communications as part of the National
Parks on the Air Program, celebrating the centennial of the National Park
Service and the newly established Manhattan Project National Historical
Park. A special event radio call sign, N4M, was issued for this event. The
concurrence of these three events represented a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for local amateur radio operators. Approximately 200 people
visited the exhibit, which, along with live, on-the-air radio operations,
also featured replays of historic broadcasts, such as news programs from
World War II, including the announcement of the existence of Oak Ridge and
the Manhattan Project. "With National Parks on the Air, the National Park
Centennial and the recently established Manhattan Project National
Historical Park, it seemed like a great opportunity to introduce people to
the historical use of radios and to promote amateur radio as a hobby and as
an invaluable emergency communications capability with a rich history of
service to the community" said Garret Scott of ORARC, which organized the
event. More than 270 contacts were made across the county and the world,
with voice or Morse code, as part of the National Parks on the Air program.
Contact was made with stations on five continents, from Mexico to Morocco.
Stations that made contact with the radio station at the festival will
receive a specially designed QSL confirmation card hand-stamped with
official National Park Service ink stamps commemorating the new Manhattan
Project National Historical Park and National Park Service Centennial.


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Maritime History Etched in Stone in Scituate:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 06:08 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36997


SCITUATE -- The Etrusco has returned to Cedar Point, but on a smaller
scale. Two workers engraved a stencil of the Italian freighter that went
aground along Scituate's shore 60 years ago into a granite stone next to
Scituate Lighthouse on Tuesday morning. The stone is part of a larger
memorial meant as a tribute to the Etrusco; WRUL, the "Voice of America"
that broadcast internationally from Scituate; and the one man connected to
both, Jim Howard. At about 8 p.m. March 16, 1956, Howard had just left the
movie theater when someone told him he better get to Cedar Point, Scituate
Historical Society President David Ball recalled. Howard was a member of
the Scituate Civil Defense Team and a radio engineer at WRUL. Upon learning
of the crash, Howard grabbed his ham radio and along with four other
members of the Scituate Civil Defense Team, he went to the scene of the
Etrusco grounding. Howard went to the home of Lena Russo. While only Russo
could speak Italian with the crew, Howard navigated the language barrier
with the captain by using Morse code and they reached out to the Boston
Coast Guard about what happened. "He made it his role to be the guy to keep
communications going through the night, throughout the rescue," Gabe
Crocker, Howard's son-in-law, said.


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ISRO to Launch 20 Satellites:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 06:08 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36996


BENGALURU: The Indian Space Agency has announced that it would be launching
twenty satellites from its Sriharikota barrier Island base off the
southeast coast on June 22. According to the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV) will lift off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with 20 satellites
at 9.25 am that day. While the rocket's main cargo will be India's 725.5 kg
Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation, the other 19 satellites
weighing around 560 kg are from Canada, Germany, Indonesia and the United
States as well as one satellite each from Sathyabama University, Chennai,
and the College of Engineering, Pune, said the indiatoday.in report.
According to Indiatoday.in, the Swayam satellite weighing 1kg from Pune
will provide point-to-point messaging services to the ham radio community.
Ham Radio, or Amateur Radio, is a popular service that brings people,
electronics and communication together. People use ham radio to talk across
town, around the world, or even into space, all without the Internet or
mobile phones.


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Propagation Forecast Bulletin #25 de K7RA:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 03:08 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36995


That was a little scary seeing the daily sunspot number at zero for
four days, June 3 to 6, but conditions seem to have recovered
nicely. Average daily sunspot number for this reporting week (June 9 to 15)
was 29.1, up from 7.7 the previous week. The minimum non-zero
sunspot number is 11, due to the way sunspots are counted. A
sunspot number of 11 does not mean there are 11 sunspots. It means
there is one sunspot (counting as one point) in one sunspot group
(adding 10 points). A second sunspot raises the sunspot number to
12, unless that spot is on its own and not clustered with the other
spot, in which case the sunspot number would be 22. So that average
daily sunspot number of 7.7 from the previous week is due to the
fact that four out of the seven days had sunspot numbers of zero.
The rest were 27, 12 and 15. You would never see a day with an
actual sunspot number of 7.7.


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Early Hams -- Perham Collection Audio:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 03:02 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36994


Good quality audio collection from the Perham Collection! Discussing events
from 1905! Recording made circle 1953.


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Signals from Space -- Astronaut Doug Wheel on w5kub.com:

Posted: 17 Jun 2016 02:49 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36989


Astronaut Doug Wheelock, will be our guest
this Tuesday June 21 at 8 PM CENTRAL on
w5kub.com Doug is presently the Director
of NASA in Russia and is on a 6 month
assignment to Russia. He is in the famous
and somewhat secretive city of Star City,
Russia.