QRZ Forums - Amateur Radio News

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40th anniversary of ham radio satellite OSCAR 7

Posted: 02 Nov 2014 02:21 AM PST
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...7&goto=newpost


OSCAR 7 Dick Daniels W4PUJ Jan King K8VTR-W3GEY Marie Marr and Perry Klein
K3JTE.jpg40th anniversary of ham radio satellite OSCAR 7



Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK/VA7EWK
has secured the special call sign W7O (Whiskey Seven Oscar) for use in
commemorating the 40th anniversary of the launch of OSCAR 7 on November
15, 1974



(Picture right: OSCAR 7 with Dick Daniels W4PUJ, Jan King K8VTR-W3GEY,
Marie Marr and Perry Klein K3JTE)



On the AMSAT Bulletin Board he writes:



I plan on having this call on the air between
November 15-24 2014, working satellites and possibly other bands. I will
work satellite passes from Arizona, including AO-7 passes, and hope to
recruit a small group of operators who can work other passes that cover
eastern North America along with other places I canÂ’t work from here
(Europe, North Africa, South America). I may also try to get some
operators working HF with this call.



I will handle the QSL requests for W7O during this period. I am thinking
of incorporating the original QSL card design AMSAT used to confirm AO-7
reception reports from the 1970s in the W7O card.



The QSL cards will be printed after the W7O activity wraps up. I will
also upload W7O QSOs to ARRLÂ’s Logbook of the World system.



Please contact me directly if you have any questions related to this
operation, or if you are willing to operate on satellites and/or HF as W7O
during this 10-day period.



Thanks in advance, and 73!



Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK

http://www.wd9ewk.net/



The amateur radio satellite AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched by a Delta rocket
from Vandenberg Air Force Base on November 15, 1974 and provided many
years of service until it went silent from battery failure in mid 1981.



For 21 years nothing more was heard until June 21,
2002 when Pat Gowen G3IOR came across a beacon sending slow 8 -10 wpm CW
on 145.973.8 MHz. It sounded like old OSCAR satellite telemetry, it had
the familiar HI HI followed by a string of numbers in groups of three.
After monitoring by many radio amateurs it turned out to be OSCAR-7, and
it seemed to have come back from the dead.



It is believed that in 1981 the batteries failed short-circuit,
however, in 2002 they became open-circuit enabling the satellite to run
again from the solar panels. Since that day OSCAR 7 has been operational
when in sunlight and provided radio amateurs with many long distance (DX)
SSB/CW contacts.



Oscar 7 Information http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1031



AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/













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OSCAR 7 Dick Daniels W4PUJ Jan King K8VTR-W3GEY Marie Marr and Perry Klein
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Milestone shortwave contacts with Australia

Posted: 02 Nov 2014 02:12 AM PST
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...a&goto=newpost


howden01112014.jpgMilestone shortwave contacts with Australia



The first direct two-way radio contact between A3BQ in
Melbourne and U6AHP in the USA in 1924 helped open up the age of shortwave
long distance communication.



The breakthrough on 87 metres came during the
transpacific tests run by the WIA Victorian Division in cooperation with
the American Radio Relay League.



The aim was to prove that signals could be detected and
amplified sufficiently to communicate long distances. Ross Hull A3JU in
Melbourne heard faint US signals through the static and is credited with
being the first Australian to do so. But (Walter Francis Maxwell) Max
Howden A3BQ (pictured right) at Box Hill made the first contact with the
USA using his now primitive home-built equipment.



It was on November 2 that A3BQ made a contact with
William L. Williams U6AHP, of Pomona California, USA.

Max ran 130 Watts using a single-tube transmitter
feeding a six wire antenna. His antenna consisted of six wires, 65 feet
long and 80 feet in the air.



The first transpacific QSO was a very significant
achievement at a time when radio amateurs were seeking to prove that
long-distance communication was possible on short wavelengths that
governments had considered to be useless.



Max went on to make further contacts. Nine days later
he achieved the first Australia to UK two-way wireless telegraphy contact
by working E. J. Simmonds, G2OD, in Buckingham, England. A telegram the
next day confirmed the first Australia to England contact. Others repeated
the feat.



Until then everything was in Morse code, but by January
1925, A3BQ was able to copy G2OD on telephony.

The efforts of Max Howden and many other pioneering
radio amateurs of that era, both the southern and northern hemispheres,
significantly added to the knowledge of communications.



It led to the rapid development of radio in terms of
inter-continental and global communications and opened up the short waves
for broadcasting, international wireless telegraph and many other uses
over long distances.



A January 1925 QST article reporting various successful
contacts with Australia and elsewhere proclaimed, "the day of true
international Amateur Radio is here". It also led to changes in callsign
prefixes to clearly identify the country of origin, but originally A
meant Australian, G was used in England, and U for USA.



After a long career in wireless Maxwell Howden passed
away in 1980, but has left his own voice and words to tell the story of
those early days. The national library of Australia has an oral interview
with Max Howden about those days at http://nla.gov.au/nla.oh-vn2239852



Also he wrote a history piece in 1932 that has been
reproduced by the WIA Historian Peter Wolfenden VK3RV, with along with
other accounts that can be read at
http://www.wia.org.au/members/history/reports/



Jim Linton VK3PC















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ACMA decides 3.5 GHz band status quo

Posted: 02 Nov 2014 02:04 AM PST
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...o&goto=newpost


ACMA decides 3.5 GHz band status quo



VK radio amateurs engaged in microwave work can breathe
a sigh of relief as the Australian Communications and Media Authority
(ACMA) has decided to retain the existing mix of apparatus and spectrum
licensing arrangements in the 3.5 GHz band.



Earlier this year the Australian Minister for
Communications, Malcolm Turnbull issued a draft direction to the ACMA to
enable licensing of 3.5 GHz to the National Broadband Network (NBN) in
major mainland cities.

The NBN is rolling out mainly terrestrial cabling so
the nation can progressively gain access to broadband technology including
Internet services. Part of its work does include the use of wireless
technology in some areas.



The draft direction document did specify that the ACMA
look at a 25 MHz block at 3400-3425 MHz and a 50 MHz block at
3492.5-3542.5 MHz.



The 3.5 GHz spectrum band was identified so the NBN had
a 'spectrum gap' filled in the outskirts of metropolitan areas affecting
80,000 homes and businesses.



The proposed directive would require ACMA to take "all
steps necessary" by April 30 next year, to issue the NBN the allocation,
after paying a "market rate" for the spectrum.



However the ACMA said: "After taking into account the
submissions received to the paper, and developments that have occurred
since then, the ACMA has decided to maintain existing licensing
arrangements in the band."



That means the retention of Amateur Radio as a
secondary user of the band, which is good news for everyone. The issue
attracted 24 submissions.

Some submissions came from incumbents on the band
referring to international harmonisation and the essential need to protect
existing and future satellite services.



The Wireless Institute of Australia submitted that the
loss of the band would severely hamper weak signal working, the
exploration of modes, moon bounce and the future use by satellites.

A number of countries also have given secondary status
to Amateur Radio on that band.



Further details on the decision are on the ACMA's
website.

http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/makin...band-in-future



Jim Linton VK3PC















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QRZ Anniversary Sweepstakes Grand Prize Winner!

Posted: 01 Nov 2014 05:30 PM PDT
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...!&goto=newpost


The moment we've all been waiting for in the QRZ Anniversary Sweepstakes
has finally come! Today we've randomly chosen a winner from a pool of
almost 400,000 entries, who will receive the Kenwood TS-990S. That winner
is, David M. Williams, K4DXY, from Birmingham, Alabama! When the QRZ staff
called David this evening to tell him that he'd won, he told us that he
hadn't been feeling well and that our call had woken him from a nap. It
only took a minute or two to convince David that he wasn't dreaming and
that he was in fact the winner of this awesome prize! We sure hope that
this prize will help you to feel better in a hurry, David.



The staff here at QRZ wanted to take a moment to recognize the generosity
of Bob Patton, W4PG, who donated this grand prize. We also want to thank
the folks at Gigaparts who sponsored weekly prizes in the contest, as did
HamShirts.com and NI4L Antennas and Electronics.



Most importantly, we want to thank you, the QRZ community for another year
of allowing us to serve you. It is always our goal to be of service to the
Ham radio community and to provide you with the most efficient and useful
site that we can. Be on the lookout for announcements from QRZ in the
coming year regarding new ways in which we hope to grow and respond to your
feedback. The future looks pretty bright from where we're standing!



Thanks and 73 from QRZ