Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2054 for Friday, March 10, 2017
 

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2054 for Friday, March 10, 2017

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2054 with a release date of
Friday, March 10, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. A ham in Maine tracks down some unconventional
interference. A Morse Code operator is honored for her service in World
War II -- and a Hurricane Watch Net founder becomes a Silent Key. All
this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2054 comes your way
right now.
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BILLBOARD CART

**
SHEDDING LIGHT ON AN RFI ISSUE

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our report begins this week with an RFI detective
story. We've all experienced interference on the bands - but one ham in
Maine followed its trail and found a rather unconventional source.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Kent Peterson KC-ZERO-DGY (KC0DGY) spoke
tohim.

ROGER: It first started about three years ago I have a pan adapter and
was looking at the 160 meter band which is the band I operate most. I
noticed down at the end of the band was a strange looking signal down
there and wondered what heck was that? Then later on as the season went
on this signal gradually kept increasing.

KENT That's Roger Johnson N1RJ of Limington Maine talking about his
discovery of RFI on his favorite ham band.

ROGER I went on the web and found out it was pretty much the signature
of a switched mode power supply. I found out this was probably a a
grow light. Since these grow light ballasts operate at power levels up
to thousand watts. A lot of them are ordered from the far east and
have fake FCC compliance stickers, so there's no filtering built into
these things at all.

KENT Johnson's hunt for the interference was on.

ROGER I started to do some DFing I made a SDR receiver and started
driving around until I found the guy. I went up and talked with him. A
nice young guy who was astonished to find out he was creating
interference to someone a mile away. He showed me all around his grow
operation, he has a marijuana grow license and he's very proud of his
operation. I got to thinking about that, I don't want to report him to
the FCC because they'll issue him to cease and desist order, he'll have
30 days solve the problem or or shut down. How is he going to solve
the problem he's not an RF guy? He bought these ballasts in good
faith, but they have a false FCC sticker on them. If he goes out and
buys new ballasts, there is nothing assuring him he'll not get another
batch of bad ballasts. He's providing a service and he's doing it
honestly and complying with Maine law.

KENT Johnson estimated this guy could be looking at an additional
thousand dollar expense to filter his ballasts. He went on to tell me
he proposed legislation to get the state to ban ballasts that produced
interference. His suggestion was for out-of-compliance ballasts to be
refunded or replaced with a units that doesn't�t produce noise, but
that proposal died in the Maine Senate. Johnson pointed out the FCC had
about 300 field engineers back in 1960, today that number now sits
at43.

ROGER: What are the chances getting a field engineer to drive five or
six hundred miles on a complaint some ham has to interference complaint
from grow lights? I think it is nil.

ROGER: With Maine and more and more states legalizing these grow of
marijuana I can see these small time guy these are going to spring up
like mad. These things legally cannot be imported since they don't meet
the rules for conducted radiated interference. But no one is minding
the store, They're bringing in these things by the thousands if these
grow operations take off. It is going to get a lot worse before it
gets better. If they just keep issuing letters to these offenders,
they're going to run out of stationery pretty soon because there's
going to be too many of them.

Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY
**
WWV: THE DAY THAT TIME STOOD STILL

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Daylight Saving Time, which starts Sunday, March 12,
confuses lots of people - at least temporarily. But radio station WWV
had another issues recently with keeping. Here's Newsline's Neil Rapp
WB9VPG.

NEIL's REPORT: Radio Station WWV, operated by the United States
National Institute of Standards and Technology, continually transmits
the current time on several frequencies from just outside Fort Collins,
Colorado. If you tuned into WWV recently, and it seems they
disappeared... well, it wasn't another David Copperfield TV special.
WWV was off the air recently for installation of a 250 kVA backup
generator. Matt Deutch, N0RGT is the chief engineer at WWV, and
explains what took place.

MATT: We've had the same diesel generator to back up WWV since 1967, 68
something like that, and it worked wonderfully for us, but over the
years it has slowly started to accumulate its problems. And the
reliability was in question. It was having trouble starting sometimes
especially when we needed it, and so the division scraped together some
money and said let's get a new generator. So we've installed a new
generator. The testing isn't done quite yet. We're still in the midst
of... Cummins is gonna test it... but we've run it. We have a new
automatic transfer switch, and we're hoping to do a load test next week
and transfer it onto the building also and make sure everything
worksokay.

NEIL: Matt further explains what took place instead of the expected two
days of service outage that was anticipated.

MATT: That was to pull the new cable through the conduit... put in new
conduit and pull cable through it, and reconnect it to the distribution
panel. So it was just for safety measure for the workers to work on
that equipment. And it went a lot faster than we thought it would,
which is good. And so, we just had two short outages instead of the day
long outages like we had anticipated.

NEIL: So for the couple of weeks until the testing is complete, WWV is
running without a backup generator. And ironically, that's exactly the
time that an unexpected outage took place.

MATT: We did have one outage that was unscheduled. We need the
generator about once every five years. And, we did have a snow storm
last week, and one of our outages was unplanned. We didn't have a
backup generator, and sure enough we lost power. We were off the air
for about two hours without a backup generator.

NEIL: The generator will be fully functional soon, and WWV will be back
to being all time, all the time. And it sure was fun to call WWV and
ask, "What time is it?" But alas, it's happened many times before.

Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG in
Bloomington, Indiana.

**
A MEDAL FOR HER MORSE CODE

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A 90-year-old former Morse Code operator in the UK has
just been honored for her World War 2 service, as we learn from
Newsline's Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: A World War II wireless operator who used her Morse Code skills
transmitting coded messages between India and England has been awarded
a war medal recognising her service. Diana O'Brien is now 90 years old.
She was 17 and her name was Diana Ballantyne when she joined the First
Aid Nursing Yeomanry in 1944. She'd decided to help the war effort even
more by learning Morse Code and working as a wireless operator.

She trained at Henley-on-Thames and Bletchley Park but was eventually
posted to India, where she worked in Delhi and then Calcutta,
transmitting coded messages back to England, supporting troops behind
enemy lines in Burma. She returned to the UK in October of 1945 and
eventually married and settled in the Lake District.

The Mayor of Shrewsbury, where Diana has lived since 2015, presented
her recently with the campaign War Medal 1939-1945.

Her family told the Westmorland Gazette that her spirit for public
service stayed with her even after the war. Before moving into a
residential care home, she volunteered for a number of local
organisations, including the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, the
League of Friends at Westmorland County Hospital, the Red Cross, the
Victoria League and the Women's Institute.

And yes, her family says, she still remembers Morse Code.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(THE WESTMORLAND GAZETTE)

***
BREAK HE

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including W4GS,
the Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on
Sundays at 8 p.m.

**

NOMINATE YOUR "YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR"

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: This is another reminder that the nomination period has
opened for Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill Pasternak Memorial Young Ham
of the Year Award. We accept nominations through May 31. Candidates
must be 18 or younger and be a resident of the United States, its
possessions or any Canadian province. Find application forms on our
website arnewsline.org under the "YHOTY" tab. The award will be
presented on August 19th at the Huntsville Hamfest in Huntsville,
Alabama.

**

SHE'S A SCHOLAR - AND A TOP HAM

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Ham radio may have just helped launch the physics
career of one Indiana teenager. Here's Newsline's Neil Rapp WB9VPG.

NEIL: Maria Lysandrou, KD9BUS, is one of 150 students nationally to be
named a Coca-Cola Scholar. Maria was selected from over 86,000
applicants. The scholarship program focused mostly on community
involvement, which included her music -- and of course ham radio. The
senior at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Indiana, who is
the president of the Amateur Radio Club, plans to study physics next
year... partially due to her involvement in the school's ham radio
program. Maria explains how ham radio played a role in landing this
$20,000 scholarship.

MARIA: For some of the essays, they were just mainly about leadership
and how you've been a leader throughout your community... and one of my
communities was that I talked about ham radio. So, I talked about how
I'm a woman in science, and how I go to my research lab and I'm one of
the only people in my astrophysics research lab. I'm the only woman in
my research lab, and it makes me want to continue to pursue science
because I want to merge that gender gap in science, especially in
physics. And so, I talked about ham radio and how during contests I'm
like one of the only women on air, and how I went to the Dayton
Hamvention. Mr. Rapp invited me to the Dayton Hamvention, and he
contacted the people there, and I actually talked at the educator
forum... at the teachers' forum. And I talked about how to get more
women in science and more women in ham radio specifically. And so, I
talked about how I hope to, in my future, to be a leader in ham radio
and be a leader for women in ham radio especially younger women.

NEIL: Maria will be making her college selection soon, as she puts the
finishing touches on AP Chemistry.

Basking in the sunlight radiating off of Maria, I'm Mr. Rapp, WB9VPG
reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline.

**

K2BSA ACTIVATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND OHIO

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Radio Scouts are back on the air with more activations
this week, as we hear from Newsline's Bill Stearns NE4RD.

BILL'S REPORT: This week in Radio Scouting we have 2 activations of the
K2BSA callsign in LA and OH, 2 activations from Scout Camps on the Air,
and we're eight months out to Jamboree On The Air.

Michael Nolan, KD5MLD, will be the control operator for the K2BSA
portable 5 station at the Istrouma Area Council Centennial at Airline
Highway Parish Park in Baton Rouge, LA, on March 23rd to 26th. Michael
will be operating on Friday evening from 6pm until 10pm central, on
3905 (+ or - 5k) and on Saturday during the day from 8am to 4pm central
on 7225, (+ or - 5k) or 14270 (+ or - 5k), depending on band
conditions. There will be demonstrations of CW and other digital
modalities during the celebration. Those frequencies will primarily be
in the 40 & 20 meter band plans. Code will be around 10 to 13 wpm.
They are expecting around 5000 scouts to attend this event.

John Baddour, KC8KI, will the control operator for the K2BSA portable 8
station at the Radio Merit Badge Midway Classes at Lorain County Joint
Vocational School in Oberlin, OH, on March 25th. John will be working
with scouts on their Radio Merit Badge and will most likely be on VHF
and possibly HF for the on-air component of the program.

Gary Hinton, AC7R, will be the control operator for KJ7BSA at the Mesa
District Varsity Scout Mongollon Mountainman Rendezvous at Camp
Geronimo in Payson, AZ, on March 18th. Gary will have scouts on the
air on HF, VHF, and UHF. Scouts will also be doing a Fox Hunt.

Chuck McBride, WS5ADV, will be the control operator for WS5BSA at the
Webelos Woods for Sooner District of the Last Frontier Council at John
Nichols Scout Camp in Oklahoma City, OK, on March 25th. Chuck will
have a FT-817 QRP rig on 17 and 20 meters on a half-wave dipole
antenna. This group will also be monitoring VHF and UHF.

We're eight months out for JOTA, so hopefully you've been following our
countdown suggestions on our website. This month you should be
contacting your local clubs for support and personnel, and get on the
agenda at a club meeting to inform the members of what JOTA is and how
they can help. Now is also the time to register your event on the
JOTA-JOTI registration system, last year this was a slightly
complicated process. So, the earlier the better to get started on
that! Also, try to look for events on the scout calendars where you
can do a demostration station.

For more information on K2BSA and radio scouting, please visit
http://www.k2bsa.net/.

For Amateur Radio Newsline and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association,
this is Bill Stearns NE4RD.

**
HURRICANE WATCH NET'S DON KAY K0IND, SK

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A founding member of the Hurricane Watch Net has become
a Silent Key, as we hear from Newsline's Mike Askins KE5CXP.

MIKE's REPORT: The Hurricane Watch Net has lost one of its original
members, U.S. Air Force Col. Don Kay K0IND. He became a Silent Key on
March 1 following a three-year battle with lung cancer.

Don, a native of Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of the U.S. Naval
Academy, served in the Air Force after attending Basic Flight School
and later became an All Weather Pilot. Don's military service lasted
from 1946 until 1977 and included 175 combat missions, including more
than 610 hours in Vietnam, where he was with the Vietnam Defense
Campaign and Air Campaign from April 1965 to March 1966.

He was known to many as a devoted ham and Elmer and qualified for his
amateur radio license in the early 1950s while stationed in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. He is considered a co-founder of the Hurricane Watch
Net, which he joined in 1965 as one of the original members. He was
assistant net manager for 23 years and later, net manager for four,
ending in 1992. He even designed the Hurricane Watch Net logo in the
early 1980s.

Don Kay was involved with the Maritime Mobile Service Net and Air Force
MARS, working as well with the Medical Amateur Radio Conference, where
he helped missionaries and doctors running phone patches in the
Caribbean and Central America.

Through his assistance in the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana in 1978 and
the Grenada conflict in 1983. Don was added to the Congressional Record
in recognition of his work by Sen. Barry Goldwater K7UGA, now a
SilentKey.

Don Kay was 89.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP

(BOBBY GRAVES KB5HAV, HWN NET MANAGER)

**
WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, the F6KOP expedition team is in the Ivory Coast
operating as TU7C through March 19th. They will be active on all HF
bands CW, SSB and Digital. Send QSL cards to F1ULQ or the Web pageOQRS.

Listen on all bands, from 160 through 10 meters, for a multi-national
team operating from Niger as 5U5R until March 20th. They are operating
on SSB, CW and RTTY. Send QSL cards to EA5RM.

Also through March 20th, be listening for the "Echo India" DXPedition
team operating from Nepal as 9N7EI. The team is operating as many as
five stations continuously over their nine-day period in Nepal and can
be heard on all bands and modes, 80 meters through 10 meters. They are
working 40 kilometers outside Kathmandu about 6,000-feet above sea
level. The group's QSL manager is M-ZERO-OXO.

(IRISH RADIO TRANSMITTERS SOCIETY)


**

KICKER: FOLLOW THE 'MORSE CODE BRICK ROAD'


STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our final story is all about how Morse Code has gotten
underfoot - literally - on two college campuses. Here's Newsline's Paul
Braun WD9GCO.

PAUL'S REPORT: To those hams who thought learning Morse Code was hard
-possibly even harder than a brick - meet artist Jackie Ferrara whose
works feature Morse Code numbers and letters that actually ARE bricks.
The colorful objects, set into walkways and walls, spell out words in
Morse Code in at least two public spaces Jackie redesigned and
redefined: a walkway at the University of Rochester in upstate New York
and a memorial rooftop garden at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

In Rochester, her patterned walkways outside the Memorial Art Gallery
spell out the gallery's name and the name of the school in red and dark
brick dots and dashes. At Tufts University, Code was used to spell out
the name of a young man who killed himself in 2003 during his sophomore
year. The library rooftop garden is now dressed in planters, decorative
mosaic brick, a sundial - as well as the student's name spelled out in
Morse. More recently, Jackie's Code-infused creations turned up on the
walls of a New York City art gallery exhibit in a collection of line
drawings. Here, Morse Code was used to spell out titles of films the
artist has collected over time.

It's not clear whether Jackie Ferrara has actually memorized - or can
even copy - Code, or has ever used a bug or even a straight key. But
her career has been long and it has also been successful, so clearly
she's getting her message across somehow, one brick at a time. For
Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun WD9GCO.

(NY ARTBEAT, TUFTS UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the
ARRL; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Hurricane Watch Net; Irish Radio
Transmitters Society; NY Art Beat; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QRZ.COM;
Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Tufts
University; University of Rochester; Westmorland Gazette; WTWW
Shortwave; and you ourlisteners, 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 Stephen Kinford N8WB in Wadsworth,
Ohio saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.