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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2033, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2033, Friday, Oct. 14, 2016
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2033 with a release date of Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. ** The following is a QST. Ohio school kids contact the space station -via an amateur in Italy. The bicycling ham from Denmark returns home to Copenhagen -- and hams from Australia, Europe and points in between prepare for a global Summit-to-Summit event. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline's Report #2033 comes your way right now. *** BILLBOARD CART HERE ** MUSEUM'S HAM CLUB LINKS STUDENTS TO ISS JIM/ANCHOR: We open this week's newscast with a space station contact that took a deliberate and well-planned detour from Cincinnati to Italy. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephen Kinford N8WB with the details. STEPHEN: Sometimes the best route to take to get from Cincinnati to the International Space Station goes through Italy. On a map this might not make geographic sense but to everyone who was involved, it made radio sense. The Telebridge in Italy with IK1SLD was just what was needed for a group of Science Technology students in Cincinnati, in the iSPACE program, who spoke with astronaut Kate Rubins KG5FYJ on Saturday, Oct. 8, The 10-minute contact was facilitated by members of the West Chester Amateur Radio Association at the National VOA Museum of Broadcasting. That would be Jocelyn Brault KD8VRX, son Christopher Brault KD8YVJ and Joe Gruber WD8AZQ, museum board member, who provided their technical expertise to make it happen. According to the VOA Museum of Broadcasting, the contact marks the first connection Cincinnati area students have had with the ISS in more than a decade. It was also the 50th Telebridge contact for IK1SLD. It's likely one everyone will remember for an even longer time. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB. (ARISS, JOCELYN BRAULT KD8VRX, VOA MUSEUM OF BROADCASTING) ** CANADA 150 ANNIVERSARY and LIGHTHOUSE ACTIVATION JIM/ANCHOR: There's nothing like a lighthouse to help illuminate a special occasion -- in this case, the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation. We hear more from Amateur Radio Newsline's John Williams, VK4JJW. JOHN: When it turns 150 years old next year, Canada will become even more of an OM - that is, if a nation itself can be considered an OM. Amateurs however celebrate just this kind of special longevity and in that spirit, there will be an amateur radio activation of the East Point Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island which was recently named Canada's Confederation lighthouse. The lighthouse's site manager, Nova MacIsaac, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the lighthouse is the only one in the country that was built the same year as Confederation - which would be 1867 - that is still functioning as a lighthouse. That designation makes it eligible for funding to upgrade its exterior and make other improvements. Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island amateur George Dewar VY2GF is now hard at work planning an activation befitting this milestone birthday. Since that's next year, the event is going to come up fast -- like a flash of light, even. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams, VK4JJW (GEORGE DEWAR VY2GF, CBC) ** DANISH AMATEUR COMES FULL CYCLE JIM/ANCHOR: The noted bicycling radio amateur is back home in Copenhagen -- off his bicycle but not off the air. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jeremy Boot G4NJH has that story. JEREMY's REPORT: Danish cyclist Thomas Andersen OZ1AA/K9DXX thinks the world of his most recent adventure as a radio amateur. It's because his adventure embraced the world itself, or at least 36,000 miles of it in 58 countries. He's back home now but not before completing a bicycling adventure begun six years ago, much of it with an HT in his hand. Andersen wrote on his online diary, cyclingtheglobe.com: QUOTE "I have cycled through Eastern Europe learning all about the local beer, I have been chased by dogs in Turkey. I have pedaled through Syria before the war. I have been a celebrity in Malaysia, and worked on a huge cattle station in Australia." ENDQUOTE He celebrated his arrival back home in Copenhagen by operating Special Event station OZ1BIKE, a way of saying hello to his hometown after a long, mostly uninterrupted absence as he cycled through the United States, Canada, South America, parts of Africa and Europe. Now it's time for the 33-year-old engineer to hop off his cycle for a bit and simply gear down. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (cyclingtheglobe.com) ** MAKING A PRESENT OF THE PAST JIM/ANCHOR: If you're a ham in the New York area, or if you used to be one, this next story is for you. Here's Newsline's Paul Braun, WD9GCO. PAUL's REPORT: When living in the present, it's often easy to forget about how important the past can be. The realization of that came to A-Double-R-L member Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, while looking at random stuff at a hamfest: MIKE: I was looking at a hamfest - I'm the Hudson Division director so needless to say I spend a lot of time going to hamfests and club meetings and what-have-you - and I typically go to these things with empty pockets so I don't come home with a ton of garbage instead of cleaning my stuff out. What happened was I was talking to somebody and I happened to look down at a box of ephemera that they had and I went through it and I found a program from the 1982 Hudson Division Convention. I picked it up and purchased it and took it home and started going through it, and there's pictures of people from forty years ago, with no gray hair or with full heads of hair, looking young -- and ads from some clubs that are still around and some that are now defunct, dealers and what-have-you, and I came to realize that there was no repository anywhere in the Division for items of a historical nature to the division such as other conventions. We have conventions going back to the 30s, apparently -newsletters that directors used to send out to the division, QSL cards from people who are very active or club cards, things of that nature. I realized that the aging of the membership was such that if we didn't start to collect this information now, it would be gone in no time and that I found very disturbing. So I came home and started going through some of the stuff that I had accumulated over the years and put it aside, and put out a call to the Division asking for any information that they have that either they're willing to part with or are either willing to lend me so that I can scan them or scan them themselves and send me the jpegs and then ultimately with the goal of putting up all of this data that we get onto the Hudson Division website so that somebody in the future, if they wanted to take a look and see what it was like going on, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, sixty, a hundred years ago would be able to take a look at that and have a sense of the history of both the hobby and the division." PAUL: If you have anything to contribute to the project, Mike said it would be easiest to contact him via email at N2YBB at a-double-r-l dotorg. It's good to have a sense of your roots to truly appreciate how far this hobby has come. Perhaps this is a project you'd like to start in your own division. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** BREAK HE Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the W0CRA repeater system in Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs on Sundays at 9 a.m. local time. ** PATCHWORK STUDY PAYS OFF FOR SCOUTS JIM/ANCHOR: Here's some good news for Girl Scouts who also aspire to be YLs. The newly launched Scouting patch for their radio studies has proven to be very popular, as we hear from Newsline's Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. NEIL: In May, the ARRL announced a new initiative to educate young ladies about ham radio and other wireless technologies. The Radio and Wireless Technology patch program is now in full swing. In the 4 months since the initial announcement at Hamvention, the ARRL has received reports of over 170 girls who have met the requirements for the patch, according to Education Services Director Debra Johnson, K1DMJ. A troop leader from Troop 772, Bernadette Purnell from Antelope Valley, California, reports that she had 10 girl scouts complete the patch program with the help of a local ham radio ARES group. BERNADETTE: 'We hunted on Google, and we found our local club. And, the ones out here were the ones that did the emergency services for the hospital if there's a national disaster. So they have a whole communications program that they do throughout the hospital. When we contacted them, we said, you know, 'We want you to come and explain to the girls what you do because some of them don't even know this radio exists.'' NEIL: So this program has created an awareness of ham radio. But, it didn't stop there. BERNADETTE: 'The girls were like - this is actually kinda interesting to hear about. We didnÕt know. We asked because it was when they first came it was right around September 11th. So we asked them, and weÕre like going, 'Well, what happened? Were you guys used during the World Trade Center attack?' And he said, 'Ham radios were the only ones available for the first 72 hours after the attack. And we were like, wow! So it was just interesting to see. And then I think right around that time, we had a brush fire that was not too far away from us that burnt almost like 60,000 acres. And we were just like - Where you guys used then? He goes, 'Yeah, cause we sometimes when you go in there, there 's no radio communication whatsoever. So they use us as a backup and the girls were like that was just cool!' NEIL: So after earning the patch and hearing all about ham radio, five of the ten scouts are preparing for the Technician license exam. BERNADETTE: 'They offered a free radio to the first girl that passes her test. So all the girls are in competition right now to pass thetest.' NEIL: Troop 772 reports that the patch program went very smoothly, and the girls thought learning morse code and talking on the radio was a very cool thing. The Troop plans on promoting their participation in the patch program to other girl scout troops, and are considering expanding their program to the Daisies and the Brownies. So look out world, there's a new set of YLs on the way. Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG in Bloomington, Indiana. JIM/ANCHOR: We also remind you that October 15th and 16th are the dates for the world's largest Scouting event, Jamboree on the Air, or JOTA. You have the whole weekend to make contacts. According to the World Scout Bureau, nearly 1 million Scouts and nearly 20,000 amateur radio operators were involved in last year's event. This year, make sure you are among them. ** EYE ON PEAK CONDITIONS FOR SUMMIT-TO-SUMMIT JIM/ANCHOR: How do amateurs in Australia, Europe and points in between celebrate improved propagation? Why they climb a mountain and get on the air, as we hear from Newsline's Graham Kemp VK4BB. GRAHAM's REPORT: "You don't need power when you have altitude" October 22nd 2016 will see an increase in Summits on the Air activity between Europe and Australasia. As has been the case for the last few years, a special event is being organised by Andrew VK1AD to coincide with the improving radio propagation conditions. This "S2S" (Summit to Summit) 'all mode' CW, SSB, Data, and even FM, event already has commitments from VK, ZL, G, GM, DL, and OE stations with other European stations expected to join in the climb to the top of mountains in each region. These "activators" aim to make as many "S2S" contacts as possible with other hams on SOTA summits in Europe and Australasia. The timing will be from 06:30 UTC for about two hours and is planned to coincide with long path propagation between Europe and "down under." Around the same time, short path communications between Europe and North America is often possible. So if some SOTA activators in North America could listen out from a SOTA summit, this activity has the chance to create a World-Wide Summit to Summit event this year. Most stations will be running low power with simple omni-directional antennas, so this event also aims to show just what can be achieved with limited equipment from a location with a low noise floor. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. ** AMATEURS PLAY KEY ROLE IN INDONESIAN FLOOD RESCUE JIM/ANCHOR: Radio amateurs in Indonesia recently demonstrated how consistent communications can help guide rescue and then the recovery process after the massive and deadly flooding there. We hear the details from Amateur Radio Newsline's John Williams VK4JJW. JOHN: Recovery work continues in West Java, where massive flooding late last month created deadly landslides that killed dozens and left a number of people missing. Cars were overturned and buildings destroyed as a search team moved in with sniffer dogs. The disaster scene was further complicated when two rivers overflowed their banks. ORARI, the amateur radio organization in Indonesia, responded early on the 21st of September, assisting with emergency communications by operating an HF net on 40 meters. Hams also made use of a VHF repeater to assist search and rescue personnel as well as government officials, who moved in during the recovery phase. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams, VK4JJW. (INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO UNION REGION 3) ** THE WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, eight German amateurs using the callsign S9YY will be operating from Sao Tome until the 23rd of October. Find them on CW, SSB and Digital on the HF bands as well as 2m EME. Their QSL manager isDH7WW. Be listening for Harald DF2WO in Burkina Faso where he is active until the 20th of November. Harald will be using the callsign XT2AW and working on the HF bands. His QSL manager is M0OXO. You have a few more days to listen for the group of Indian amateurs operating a DXpedition on Shiyal Bet Island. They are using the callsign AT2SL and they will be active until the 17th of October. Their IOTA reference number is AS-176. Send QSL cards via Club Log OQRS. ** KICKER: A GREAT SIGNAL REPORT FOR THE DUKE AND DUCHESS JIM: We end this week's report with a visit to Canada's Yukon territory, where British royals have broken new ground -- not in construction but in communication. Amateur Radio Newsline's Graham Kemp VK4BB tells us how. GRAHAM: It has been said that some husbands and wives eventually learn to communicate in code. Though the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge could hardly be considered an old married couple, they have certainly embraced the "code" part -- and added a little modern touch of a Tweet. The royals were making their first official visit to Canada's Yukon territory late last month and wished to sign the visitors' book inside the historic telegraph office of the Yukon's MacBride Museum. In this case, it was an online guest book. How could they make their presence known? They tweeted -- but in Morse Code, with the help of telegraph operator Doug Bell. At 90 years of age, the former World War II radio operator knows his way around the dots and dashes and was the perfect guide for Kate and William. There inside the Whitehorse Telegraph Office, Doug tapped out their message on a 100-year-old key while husband and wife depressed the "send" button that dispatched the message to the Telegraph-to-Tweet Twitter account. The telegraph-to-tweet technology was developed by a Canadian company called Make IT Solutions. The message became the online guestbook's first entry and read simply: "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, September 2016, Whitehorse Yukon." No translation needed there. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB (HUFFINGTON POST) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; cyclingtheglobe.com; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; The Huffington Post; the International Amateur Radio Union; Irish Radio Transmitter Society; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the VOA Museum of Broadcasting; Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at . More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Jim Damron N8TMW in Charleston, West Virginia saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. |
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