eHam.net News

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UITM Students Communicate with Japanese ISS Astronaut:

Posted: 08 Oct 2016 05:18 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37726


KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty-four students from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM),
Shah Alam's Faculty of Applied Sciences had the opportunity to communicate
live with a Japanese astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS)
early today. The Information Department newsroom in a statement today said
the students who are also members of the university's Physics Society
conversed with Takuya Onishi at 2.24am, using an amateur radio station
facility available at the National Planetarium. "The Amateur Radio station
with the call sign 9M2RPN, is the only station in Malaysia allowed to
communicate with astronauts at ISS since the launch of the first Malaysian
astronaut, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, to ISS, in 2007. "9M2RPN
communicated live with ISS at between 330km and 435km from the surface of
the earth while it was moving at a speed of 26,700km per hour and capable
of circling the earth 15 times day and night," it said.


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VI4SEA:

Posted: 08 Oct 2016 05:21 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37725


Announcing the activation of the Special Event station VI4SEA This
commemorative call sign, VI4SEA, is in honour of the Officers and Sailors
of the Light Cruisers, H.M.A.S. SYDNEY, and S.M.S EMDEN who gallantly
fought in the first ever naval action of the Royal Australian Navy, on
November 9th 1914, off the coast of the Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian
Ocean. VI4SEA will hit the airwaves on November 1st 2016, and continue
through to November 9th. Our operations will see us transmitting between
the 630m band through to the 6m band. Our team of Amateur Radio Operators
are a combination of ex naval, military and professional individuals.


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Proposed 40-Foot Ham Radio Antenna Tower Causing Static In Marblehead:

Posted: 08 Oct 2016 05:17 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37724


A group of neighbors banded together over concerns regarding a 40-foot
aluminum ham radio operator tower going up in their neighborhood got some
good news when the Zoning Board of Appeals voted to revoke the permit. "It
is the best we could have hoped for," Cathyann Swindlehurst, said referring
to the outcome of the Sept. 27 ZBA hearing. Swindlehurst, a Casino Road
resident representing the abutters, told ZBA members she believed vague
zoning bylaws and a certain amount of protection under the federal
government resulted in the Michael Crestohl receiving a building permit for
the tower. She is alarmed however that "the building permit was issued
without any restrictions attached." Swindlehurst said the neighbors
recognize that state and federal government view amateur radio operation as
a public good. In the face of a disaster that knocks out electricity and
other forms of communications, ham radio's still operate. But she also
noted that the federal government allows communities to place restrictions
on such towers for safety and aesthetic purposes. Marblehead's bylaws
appear to make only one mention of ham operator antenna's, Swindlehurst
said. Under auxiliary uses, wireless communications antennas it states that
antennas used solely and exclusively for ham operation and television are
are allowed as a matter of right and are excluded from this section.
Crestohl also noted that town's by-laws "specifically and clearly state
that antennas used 'solely and exclusively for ham radio are considered a
matter of right' and are excluded from the section of the by-laws dealing
with zoning. I operate my station by authority of the F.C.C. and there is
federal legislation, PRB1, that requires local authorities to
make 'reasonable accommodations' for antennas used exclusively for amateur
radio."