Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1739 - December 10 2010

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1739 with a release date of
Friday, December 10th 2010 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. ARISS celebrates a decade of International
Space Station to schoolroom contacts, the National Conference of
Volunteer Examiner Coordinators releases its new General Class Question
Pool, a roadblock catches unlicensed radio operators in Brunei and
researchers in Belfast Ireland propose humans as walking cellphone
towers. Find out the strange details on this one on Amateur Radio
Newsline(tm) report number 1739 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ARISS CELEBRATES ITS 10th ANNIVERSARY

Amateur Radio on boards the International Space Station, better known
by the acronym ARISS is celebrating the 10th anniversary of student ham
radio contacts with crew members on board the orbiting outpost. We
have more in this report:

--

On December 21st of the year 2000, astronaut William Shepherd turned
from his usual activities aboard the newly occupied International Space
Station. Floating over to a ham radio station attached to an I-S-S
bulkhead, he called the Burbank School in Burbank, Illinois and was
soon talking with 14 students earger to know more about life in space.
Now in 2010, amateur radio operators world-wide are celebrating the
tenth anniversary of this first ARISS school contact.

Since that first QSO, the ham operators coming to the Space Station
along with their ARISS volunteers on the ground have conducted 565
successful contacts in 40 countries and 5 continents. This has allowed
thousands of students to share the excitement of those first 14.
Moreover, tens of thousands of students, faculty, and parents have
participated in the program by working on the planning phase and
attending these events.

ARISS contacts have prompted countless students to seriously consider
pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math careers, including
becoming an astronaut. Educational programs and amateur radio clubs
established at participating schools continue to inspire students long
after the contact has ended.

The value of manned amateur radio on-orbit was so apparent to NASA and
the Russian Space Agency that the ham radio from orbit became the first
experiment to be activated on board I-S-S.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in Los
Angeles.

--

The use of amateur radio in space began in the early 1980's when
Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, became the first ham to operate from
orbit on board the Space Shuttle Columbia. His ground breaking ham
radio from space operation was chronicled in the ARRL distributed video
titled Amateur Radio's Newest Frontier produced and hosted by the late
NBC newsman Roy Neal, K6DUE. In all, what became known as the Shuttle
Amateur Radio Experiment or SAREX flew on 28 shuttle missions, proving
the educational and crew morale benefits of ham radio. Ham radio also
proved popular with the cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station
Mir. (N5VHO, W8AAS, ARISS, ARNewsline(tm) Archives)

**

AMATEUR RADIO TESTING: NCVEC RELEASES NEW GENERAL CLASS QUESTION POOL

If you plan to upgrade your ham ticket, listen up. On Tuesday,
December 7th, the Question Pool Committee of the National Conference of
Volunteer Examiner Coordinators released the new General class question
pool also known as the Element 3 exam. This new question pool includes
graphics and diagrams It will become effective for all General class
examinations administered on or after July 1st of 2011 and will remain
valid until June 30th, 2015.

The new General pool contains 457 questions, from which 35 are selected
for an Element 3 examination. The current General question pool that
became effective July 1, 2007 will expire June 30, 2011.

And for those interested in the other classes of United States ham
radio license testing, the current Technician class question pool that
became effective on July 1, 2010 is valid through June 30, 2014. The
Amateur Extra class pool that was effective July 1, 2008 is valid until
June 30, 2012. (ARRL, FCC)

**

BREAKING DX NEWS: SABLE ISLAND DXPEDITION POSTPONED

Some breaking news in the world of DX. This with word that the long
awaited Sable Island DXpedition has been postponed.

According to team spokesman Randy Rowe, N0TG, the group has been
advised that the beach at Sable Island will not be suitable for landing
at this time. That puts the DXers into the holiday period. As such
they have no choice but to return home, re-group and come up with a new
re-schedule.

Rowe adds that they will assess the situation over the next couple of
weeks and layout our new plan at that time. Newsline will bring you
another update on this long awaited operation as soon as more
information is released. (Sable Island DX Team)

**

RADIO IN SPACE: SUN DEVELOPS MEGA FILAMENT

A spectacular filament is reportedly snaking around the sun's
southeastern limb. Spaceweather reports that from end to end, this
filament stretches more than 700,000 km. That's a full solar radius or
almost twice the distance from Earth to the Moon. We have more in
nthis report:

--

According to scientists at the Solar Dynamics Observatory the flare
stretches nearly twice the distance between the Earth and moon.

The flare, described by astronomers as a filament, is an elongated
cloud of cooler gases suspended above the Sun by magnetic forces. NASA
scientists say the solar storm is confined to the Sun and poses no
threat to satellites in space or the power grid here on Earth.

Last month we reported that a Purdue University professor had
researched the lack of solar activity in recent years. His published
report indicated that we have not had a sun spot in over 800 days.
Records show that this is the longest solar spot dry spell in 300
years.

Observers are watching to see if we can expect increased sun spot
activity. Those operating high frequency amateur radio bands surely
hope this is just the beginning of a bright solar future.

Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, this is Jack Parker, W8ISH

--

The massive build up is an easy target for backyard telescopes as long
as optical safety precautions to insure no damage to the astronomers
eyes. Solar observers say that the filament holds the potential for an
impressive eruption if it happens to collapse in the days ahead.
Spaceweater.com is carrying a series of ongoing photos as well as
technical updates.

(W8ISH, Spaceweather)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WA3AOP
repeater serving Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

(5 sec pause here)


**

ENFORCEMENT: STATION ISSUED NAL FOR FAILING TO REDUCE NIGHTTIME POWER
TO 15 WATTS

The FCC has issued a $6000 Notice of Apparent Liability to Donald Coss,
owner of KCKX in Stayton, Oregon. This for not operating in accordance
with the authorized 15 watt nighttime power specified on his license.

According to the FCC, its Portland office monitored the signal of KCKX
before and after local sunset. Field strength was found to remain
constant both before and after sunset on consecutive days last April.
The agent also captured KCKX-AM's relative signal strengths for its
daytime and nighttime operations. At that time he determined that
there was no reduction in signal strength for nighttime operation.

A few days later the FCC agent inspected the station at its control
point in Woodburn. The commission said that during an interview with
the Portland agent, the owner said he was aware of the requirement to
reduce operating power at night from 1000 watts down to 15 watts. But
the owner said that it was just too costly to maintain the necessary
time-keeping devices, power switching devices and other equipment to
accomplish this.

Now, in its latest correspondence with the station, the FCC noted that
in 2000 it's Enforcement Bureau had issued a Notice of Violation to
Coss also for failing to reduce the nighttime power of KCKX AM. It
then issued the $6000 Notice of Apparent Liability and instructed Coss
to send a sworn statement about how he'll fix the problem. It also
cautioned Cross that future violations of its rules may subject him to
more severe enforcement penalties.

Cross was given the customary time to reply as well as to pay the $6000
Notice of Apparent Liability or to file an appeal. (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: BRUNAI HOLDS ROADBLOCK TO CATCH UNLICENSED OPS

Unlicensed mobile radio operators in Brunai, some of whom are hams with
expired licenses but still on the air have felt the sting of that
nations government enforcement. This, when several of them were caught
in a good old fashioned roadblock on December 6th.

The roadblock was a joint operation conducted by the Authority for
Information Communications Technology and the Sengkurong (SEN CURE ONG)
Police Station. In only two hour time, all vehicles with an outside
antenna mounted to it were stopped and inspected. Several were found
to contain radio gear capable of operation between 137 to 174 megahertz
which with the exception of 144 to 148 megahertz are supposed to be
blocked from use.

The operation was part of an awareness campaign to urge operators to
obtain ham radio licenses and confine their operation to within the
confines of the amateur radio bands. Also, to avoid the possibility of
a fine of up to $10,000 and /or three years in jail. The ventire story
is on-line at tinyurl.com/brunai (Borneo Bulletin)

**

WORLDBEAT: FRENCH ATV'ERS CONCERNED OVER NEW SAT NAVAGATION IN 1.2 GHZ
BAND

French amateur television enthusiasts have voiced their concerns over
the future of the 1.2 GHz band. At a recent meeting, the trepidations
of the French A-T-V Association were raised regarding the use of the
Amateur Radio 23cm band by the Galileo and Glosnass satellite
navigation systems. Heres why.

The European Union's Galileo system will use 1260 to 1300 MHz while the
Russian Federation Glosnass system will be on 1240 to 1260 MHz. Both
systems are expected to be operational by 2015 and there is fear among
some hams I FDrance that Amateur Television operations could be
impacted. Complete proceedings of the November 27, gathering in Google
English is on line at tinyurl.com/38c4vhw. (Southgate)

**

RADIO SCIENCE: RESEARCHERS IN IRELAND PROPOSE HUMAN ANTENNAS

Turning to an interesting story out of Ireland, scientists are
proposing to increase broadband nework availability by making people
into walking cell phone towers. Jim Linton, VK3PC, of the WIA News is
here with the rather strange details:

--

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast are looking to improve the
reliability of modern wireless systems. They believe that humans could
be turned into wireless towers to create what they call body-to-body
networks.

A five year research project is investigating how small sensors carried
by people could communicate with each other to create a ubiquitous
wireless networking paradigm.

This would provide enhanced bandwidth needed when too many people use
their phone in the same cell area, help the service to penetrate weak
signal areas or black holes and counteract drop outs that result from
interference.

In a rapidly developing science of body centric communications, new
sensors carried by everyone with a mobile phone would interact with
each other and wireless devices embedded in local surroundings to
transmit data, providing anytime, anywhere mobile network connectivity.

The technology also promises to open up the use of wireless
communications in a wider range of activities including law enforcement
and first responder teams, sports applications through to medical
monitoring of patients in their own homes.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Jim Linton, VK3PC.

--

While an interesting idea, its likely to be another of those scientific
advances that prove to have little practical application. At least not
until scientists first prove conclusively the effect that radiation
from cellphones have no adverse affect on the human body. And that may
not be proven either way for decades. (WIA News)


**

HAM RADIO ON THE NET: NEW FREE SPANISH LANGUAGE HAM RADIO MAGAZINE

A new Spanish language amateur radio magazine is now available free on
the Internet. Called Radio Noticias, the publication includes
information on transceivers, receivers, antennas tests and much more.
Also included is news from the worlds of DX, contest operation,
shortwave, propagation and much more. And its picture filled website
has photos of radio gear some of which is not available in the United
States including a very simple to operate 2 meter mobile rig. You can
download the current issue and see it for yourself at
www.radionoticias.com. (Southgate)

**

HAM RADIO EVENTS: JANUARY 2 2011 IS KIDS DAY

If you are free on Sunday, January 2nd, consider using the hours of
1800 bto 2400 UTC to help introduce youngsters to amateur radio on Kids
Day.

The Kids Day operating event is sponsored by Oregon's Boring Amateur
Radio Club in association with the ARRL. It was created to expose
young minds to the magical world of ham radio by putting them on the
air under the supervision of a licensed radio amateur so that they can
experience making a contact first hand. And as a Kids Day volunteer
station you get rewarded by knowing that you have done your part in
passing the hobby on to the next generation.

More information about Kids Day can be found on the ARRL website.
That's in cyberspace at . (ARRL)

**

MILITARY HAM RADIO: TWO STORIES IN MULLIGAN LIFESTYLES

Amateur Radio Military Appreciation is featured in a story in the
winter 2010 edition of Mulligan Lifestyles Magazine. Mulligan
Lifestyles is a publication that honors our troops, veterans, active
duty military, and their families. The story can be found on page 58.
The same issue also contains a story about Amateur Radio on page 42
submitted by Nick Shyshuk. You can read both on line at
tinyurl.com/29v7jv8 (ARMAD)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: ZL2BHF CELEBRATES 25 YEARS PRODUCING NZART NEWSCAST

And a word of congratulations to Newsline's own Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF.
This as he celebrates a quarter of a century producing and usually
voicing the monthly NZART Official Broadcast to New Zealand's national
ham radio community.

The big celebration of this milestone for ZL2BHF takes place on
December 19th. For the event Jim has has compiled some memorial
broadcasts from presenters that are not with us. Also, the November to
December bi-monthly issue of the NZART magazine Break-In will carry a
story on his quarter-century of work on this New Zealand national ham
radio broadcast project. (Break-In / NZART)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United
States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the
world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being
relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ARISSAT ONE ENROUTE TO MOSCOW

ARISSat One is on its way to its launch site. Late word from AMSAT
that the ARISSat One flight hardware and the backup unit are in Germany
and are scheduled to be delivered to Moscow on Saturday, December 11th.
Meantime, Lou McFadin, W5DID, and Mark Steiner, K3MS, will be heading
to Moscow on the 10th of December to assist with integration and
testing of the Kursk experiment and battery. The schedule still has
ARISSat going to the ISS via a Progress vehicle in late January 2011
and release from the ISS in late February 2011. (ANS)

**

HAM RADIO NEAR SPACE: HABEX TO LAUNCH ON DECEMBER 18TH

South Africa's HABEX team will be launching its third high altitude
balloon on December 18th. The balloon will be carrying various
payloads in preparation for a future 2011 launch to serve the
educational needs of students 8 schools.

The payload is made up of 4 separate modular units. The primary
function is the on-board controller board that contains an APRS unit.
This will provide real time the balloon location during the mission.
Also, a store and forward or parrot repeater on 438.500 MHz which
includes a backup APRS unit is also onboard. During the flight, if the
repeater is not in use, the APRS unit will transmit data.

The Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in conjunction with the Gauteng
Department of Education initiated this project. Its purpose is to
support the Electrical Technology Curriculum and provide expanded
opportunities to students in this field. More is on-line at
www.habex.za.net. (SARL)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: DISCOVEREY'S LAUNCH DELAYED

NASA has announced that the 39th planned final flight of the space
shuttle Discovery is being pushed back to early February of 2011. This
in order to give engineers more time to determine the root cause of
cracks in the shuttle's external fuel tank covering . NASA had been
targeting launch for a short window that opens December 17th and closes
December 20th. But Shuttle Program Managers have determined that tests
and analyses intended to determine the cause of the cracks would not be
complete in time to launch during that last 2010 opportunity because
engineers have not yet determined the cause of the cracks.

The space agency' concern is that such a fracture could cause foam
insulation to break loose during launch and damage the shuttle's
heat-shield components needed for a safe reentry to the Earth's
atmosphere. (NASA)

**

WORLDBEAT: HCJB REACHES RADIO DISTRIBUTION GOAL

International religious broadcaster HCJB's recent campaign in
cooperation with Moody Radio to raise funds to deliver pre-tuned radios
to listeners in under-developed regions of the world appears to have
succeeded. According to a press release, enough funding was raised to
send 7,000 radios to Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone and Ghana. That's
or 2,000 above the initial goal.

The radios were designed by HCJB's Global Technology Center in Elkhart,
Indiana in the United States. Their simple operation is designed to
permit listeners to tune in three HCJB partner stations in the target
audience region. (RW)

**

THE DXCC PROGRAM: NUMEROUS OPERATIONS APPROVED

Bill Moore NC1L, the ARRL DXCC Branch Manager advises that a number of
operations are now approved for DXCC credit. They are the 2010
operations as 3COC from Annobon, the 3C9B out of Equatorial Guinea
along with the 3V9A, 3VOA, TS7TI and the TS8P from Tunisia.

Going back in time, also approved was the 2009 approved is the TS9A
also fromTunisia and the 9Q stroke DK3MO from 2007 out of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

If you had any of these operations rejected in recent applications send
a note to dxcc at arrl dot org to have your record updated. Once
updated, this will be reflected in your Logbook of the World account or
in the live, daily DXCC Standings at www.arrl.org/dxcc.

**

DX

In DX, G7BXU, will be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays in
Sierra Leone operating portable 9L. He will be there from December
19th through January 7th likely using the callsign 9L1BXU. QSL via his
home callsign after his return.

PY2ZX will be active portable PT7 from the PW7T contest station through
December 13th. His operation will be limited to 6 and 2 meters looking
mainly for Carribean stations operating weak signal modes and using
horizontal polarization. He will also be checking 70 MHz for openings
to Europe.

NA3J tells Newsline that hew will be operating through December 20th as
J3 stroke NA3J Maritime Mobile aboard the 50 foot yacht the Yaba Jaba.
His operation will be using SSB and CW on all bands and he will make
use of the WARC bands when they're open. He says that he might get as
far north as J8 but there's no real itinerary. QSL as directed on the
air.

N1DG was expected to arrive in the United Arab Emirates on December
5th. He was anticipated to operate from the A61AD station possibly on
12 and 17 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. Logs will be uploaded to LoTW
on his return.

BX5AA, will be active from Taiwan during the ARRL DX SSB Contest slated
for March 5th and 6th. He says that BX5 is a rare prefix for Taiwan.
QSL via BX5AA.

N2RFA will be on the air as C6ABB from Nassau in the Bahamas between
February 7th and the 17th. Activity will be on 80/40/20/17 meters. He
plans to operate on some of the Digital modes including PSK31, RTTY and
possibly SSTV. QSL via N2RFA

Lastly, WJ2O, will be active as stroke 6W from Senegal during the ARRL
DX CW Contest on February 19th and 20th as a Single-Operator, All-Band,
High-Power entry. Dave told the Ohio Penn DX Newsletter that he will
arrive in Senegal on February 17th and will be leaving on the 23rd.
Activity outside of the contest will be 100% on CW and mostly on the
30, 17 and12 meter bands. Logs will be available in almost real-time at
wj2o.com. QSL via WJ2O.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: RADIO CAN LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE

And finally this week, word from down under of a remarkable new
experimental medical procedure. One that holds the promise of lowering
peoples blood pressure through the use of radio waves. Graham Kemp.
VK4BB, of the W-I-A News has the details of this new way of dealing
with what for many is a life threatening medical problem:

--

No not BP as in Broadband over powerlines but BP as in Blood Pressure.
A new procedure which takes just 45 minutes involves a doctor inserting
a catheter into an artery in the upper thigh, then threading it into
an artery next to the kidney.

There, they use low-power radio waves to heat up and effectively turn
off specific nerves which are known to play a role in high blood
pressure.

Professor Markus Schlaich from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes
Institute in Melbourne was a principal investigator in an international
trial which involved 106 patients across 24 separate sites in Europe
and Australia.

After the first ten patients or so were treated, they really were quite
confident that this is a fantastic new technology that allows lots of
people out there who have trouble with their blood pressure.

How long will it be before this treatment is available to people in
Australia? They are quite hopeful that certainly within the next year,
this radio wave treatment for High Blood Pressure should be available
for clinical use.

For the vAmateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of the WIA
News in Australia.

--

As to when this new procedure might become available in nthe United
States? As we go to air, that too, is unknown. (WIA News)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ
Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain,
the RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's WIA News, that's all from
the Amateur Radio Newsline(tm). Our e-mail address is Newsline
(at)arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur
Radio Newsline's(tm) only official website located at
www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur
Radio Newsline(tm), 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Don
Carlson, KQ6FM, in Reno, Nevada, saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.