Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1942 - October 31 2014
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1942 with a release date of
October 31 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a Q-S-T. Several ham radio payloads are lost in a
launch mishap of an Orbital Sciences re-supply mission to the
International Space Station; Indonesia hams may play a part in that
nations Ebola prevention plan; Islands on the Air program to freeze all
actions involving the Crimea; a flea power pico balloon launched
down-under is heard in the United States and Sunspot A R 2192 says a
temporary goodbye by sending two more X-class flares our way. Find out
the details are on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1942 coming
your way right now.
(Billboard Cart Here)
**
RADIO FROM SPACE: TWO 70 CM EXPERIMENTAL SATELLITES LOST IN ANTARES
LAUNCH EXPLOSION
Two experimental payloads designed to operate in the 70 centimeter
amateur satellite band have been lost. This, after an Orbital Sciences
Antares 130 launch vehicle on a re-supply mission to the International
Space Station was destroyed only a few seconds after it had cleared the
launch tower.
The October 28th launch from NASA's Wallops Island Virginia facility at
first appeared to be going smoothly. But at about 8 seconds after
liftoff the Antares booster exploded in a hail of flames and fell back
toward its launch pad.
While there were no full or half duplex ham radio communications
satellites on-board, two of the microsats being carried to the
International Space Station for later deployment were designed to
operate as data and beacon downlinks in the 70 centimeter amateur
satellite band.
One was the GOMX-2 which was a developmental concept microsat for
aircraft location. It was to transmit data on 437.250 MHz.
The other was to be the Radiometer Atmospheric Cubesat Experiment known
by the acronym RACE. It was co-developed by a student team at the
Texas Spacecraft Laboratory at the University of Texas in Austin in
cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. This was to be a technology microsat designed to transmit
GMSK coding at 38.4 kilobytes per second and CW telemetry on a downlink
frequency of 437.525 MHz
The primary cargo on the Antares was food and other supplies to restock
the ISS day to day crew needs along with some restricted payload not
identified by NASA or the launch provider. Yet another part of the
cargo was material for scientific projects that included a Houston
school's experiment on pea growth, a study on blood flow in space. News
reports say that NASA officials have already apologized to those
students who lost their experiments. In all, nearly 1,600 pounds of
science and research materials were lost in the launch mishap.
(ARNewsline from published news reports)
**
RESCUE RADIO: INDONESIA HAMS MAY BE CALLED ON IF EBOLA HITS THAT
NATION
Ham radio operators in Indonesia could become part of a response team
if the Ebola virus were to hit that nation. This as researchers from a
study program of the University of Gadjah Mada School of Engineering
introduce guidelines for anticipating and preventing the spread of the
deadly disease in that nation.
According to a professor of physics engineering at the college,
Indonesia lacks both the knowledge and the adequate health equipment
needed to detect Ebola early. Using a simulation created for such an
event and in cooperation with the Yogyakarta branch of the Indonesian
Amateur Radio Organization and the Indonesian Red Cross the three will
work together to formulate a standard operating procedure for tackling
Ebola infections. This will be submitted to the governor for his
consideration.
According to the Jakarta Post, it is hoped that the proposal could
provide basic guidelines for an Ebola mitigation procedure on the
national level. The complete story can be found at
tinyurl.com/hams-vs-ebola-part-1 (Jakarta Post)
**
RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO AND THE CLEAN-UP FOLLOWING CYCLONE HUDHUD
The big clean-up continues in the wake of powerful cyclone Hudhud which
affected areas along India's Bay of Bengal coastline and ham radio
continues as a part of the effort. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim
Meachen, ZL2BHF, has the latest:
--
Cyclone Hudhud made landfall on October 12th. The storm packed wind
gusts estimated at up to 135 miles per hour and leaving a path of
destruction in its wake. Some media accounts putting the death toll as
high as 46.
Amid the disaster scene ham radio operators worked to maintain the
communications for the public, the government and relief authorities.
The Amateur Radio Society of India National Coordinator for Disaster
communication is Jayu Bhide, VU2JAU. He says the area had trees
uprooted, railway lines blocked and both telephone lines and mobile
phone towers damaged in the area where the storm made landfall.
In his latest report VU2JAU said there were many radio amateurs active
on an emergency response net of 7 dot 145 MHz that was operational 24
hours a day. Operators included VU3UFX, VU3PLP, and VU2AOR. Assigned
to the Sambalpur area were VU2DPI, VU2SIC and VU2PGU. Now, some three
weeks later a group of radio amateurs continue to assist both relief
authorities and the general public in regions where normal lines of
communications have yet to be restored.
VU2JAU says that while the worst is over for the time being that many
lessons on how to prepare for the next big storm have been learned. As
the National Coordinator for Disaster Communication in India, he plans
to visit the state of Odisha to help make ham radio as fail-safe as is
possible during an emergency. This includes the use of a repeater for
VHF hand-held radio communications.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, reporting from
Nelson, New Zealand.
--
The Bay of Bengal is well known for some of the world's strongest
killer cyclones. Meantime, amateur radio operators from West Bengal and
Hyderabad are on alert to establish radio communication in case their
help is needed in the wake of yet another storm. Cyclone Nilofar
predicted to hit India about the time this newscast goes to air.
(VK3PC)
**
RADIO POLITICS: IOTA TO FREEZE ALL ACTIONS DEALING WITH THE CRIMEA
The Islands on the Air management has decided that due to the
unresolved political situation in Crimea, it has no course open to it
except to freeze certain actions connected with Crimea for a an initial
period of one year. This, in the routine management of the Islands on
the Air program.
This means that it will not accept or issue credit for EU-180
operations taking place after March 17th 2014 that use a non-Ukrainian
callsign. Nor will it accede to any requests from program participants
for update of their records, changes of callsign and/or checkpoint that
involve a change of DXCC entity.
The Committee says that it will review the situation after one year in
the light of developments. The original announcement made on October
21st can be read at rsgbiota.org (G3KMA, IOTA website)
**
DX UP FRONT: VIETNAM BY KM0O NOVEMBER 25 TO DECEMBER 24
In DX up front, word that KM0O will be operational as 3W3O from Vietnam
between November 25th and December 24th. His main activity will be the
CQ World Wide DX CW Contest on November 29th and 30th but expect him
to be on 160 and 80 meters before and after the contest. QSL to KM0O
direct, via the bureau or electronically using Logbook of the World.
(OPDX)
**
DX UP FRONT: TENERIFE FROM DECEMBER 9 TO JANUARY 8
Also, IK1PMR and PA3LEO will be on the air signing portable EA8 from
Tenerife Island between December 9th of this year and January 8th of
2015. Activity will be on 160 through 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY.
QSL via HB9FKK or each operators home callsign direct or via the
bureau. Electronic QSL's go via Logbook of the World or direct e-mail.
(OPDX)
**
BREAK 1
Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the
KB5ELV repeater serving Eire, Pennsylvania.
(5 sec pause here)
**
PROPAGATION: MORE X-CLASS FLARES FROM SUNSPOT AR2192
Space Weather reports that giant sunspot AR2192 we reported on last
week erupted again at 21:40 UTC on October 24th producing a powerful
X3-class solar flare. A pulse of extreme Ultra Violet radiation from
the flare ionized the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, causing a
brief but strong blackout of High Frequency radio communications over
the dayside of Earth. This was followed by an X 1class flare on
Saturday October 25th at 1709 UTC that had a similar effect.
Coronagraphic data from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
suggest that the explosions did not hurl a significant Coronal Mass
Ejection toward our home planet. Also of interest is that so far none
of the X-flares from this active region has so far produced a major
C-M-E.
Sunspot AR2192 is now approaching the Sun's western limb and by the
time many of you hear this it will be gone for its two-week transit on
our home star's far side. However, the odds of an Earth-directed
radiation storm will remain high for a while. This is because the
western limb of the sun is well-connected to Earth and solar magnetic
fields springing out of that region spiral back to our planet. If a
sunspot passing through the area explodes, those magnetic fields can
funnel energetic particles in our direction. (Spaceweather, Southgate)
**
RADIO LAW: IARU SEEKS TO REIN IN ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE
The International Amateur Radio Union Administrative Council has called
upon all International Telecommunications Union signatory nations to
take steps to ensure that the operation of electrical apparatus or
installations of any kind does not cause harmful interference to
amateur radio operations. The council said new technologies such as
wireless power transfer are likely to be deployed widely in the near
future. As such, it expressed a deep concern that present standards,
regulations, and enforcement resources are inadequate to protect radio
services, including amateur radio, from harmful interference. (WIA
News)
**
RESCUE RADIO: FALSE FEMA ALERT MESSAGE ON ATT U-VERSE ON OCT 24
AT&T has confirmed that it accidentally relayed an incorrect emergency
alert message from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to its
U-verse customers in parts of Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan and
Mississippi.
The alert messages began popping up on screens around 10 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time on October 24th. Red banners appeared the television
screens of viewers in the affected areas alerting them to stand by for
an important message.
Soon after the incident FEMA spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre stated that
there had been an inappropriate playing of the national emergency
alert notification tones on a syndicated radio broadcast. He went on
to state that there is not a national emergency but that the broadcast
triggered alert notification in states where it had been played.
Lemaitre said his agency was working with the FCC to quantify the scale
of the incident. (TechTimes)
**
RADIO LAW: ANOTHER DELAY IN BROADCAST SPECTRUM AUCTION
The Federal Communications Commission has once again postponed an
auction that would allow television broadcasters to sell a portion of
their spectrum to wireless carriers. This, due to ongoing legal issues
surrounding the auction.
Earlier this summer, the National Association of Broadcasters
petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit to review some aspects of the auction. They stated that they
are concerned about the potential impact that such an auction could
have on TV stations.
Gary Epstein is the Chair of the FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force. In
a recent blog post Epstein stated the FCC is confident they will
prevail in court. That said, and given the reality of that schedule,
the complexity of implementation and many other aspects of the auction,
the agency now anticipates accepting applications in the fall of 2015
with an auction start to take place in early 2016.
This is the second time the auction has been pushed back. It was
originally expected to get under way this year before being delayed
until mid 2015. More is on the web at
tinyurl.com/spectrum-auction-delay (TechSpot.com)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: W9L CELEBRATING VETERANS DAY NOVEMBER 11
Members of The American Legion Amateur Radio Club will operate station
W9L on November 11th which is Veterans Day 2014. W9L will be on the
air from 1400 to 2100 UTC from the clubs national headquarters in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
The High Frequency operation will take place on 14.275 MHz. There will
also be local participation on 146.46 MHz simplex, the Hamilton County
145.17 MHz repeater and an interconnection via IRLP node 4816.
Hams who make contact with W9L or shortwave listeners who hear the
station are eligible to receive a full color commemorative certificate.
More about this operation including QSL routing is at
www.legion.org/hamradio (KJ9M)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: KC9HYY/WSL3 COMMEMORATES SINKING OF HMHS BRITANNIC
Special event station KC9HYY stroke WSL3 which will operational in
remembrance of the 98th anniversary of the sinking of the HMHS
Britannic.
The Britannic was the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liners of
the White Star Line. She was launched just before the start of the
World War One and soon converted to use as a hospital ship. On the
morning of November 21st 1916, the Britannic was shaken by an explosion
from an underwater mine in the Kea Channel and sank 55 minutes later.
There were 1,066 people on board of which 1,036 survived.
Now, in remembrance of this event, callsign KC9HYY stroke WSL3 will be
taking to the ham radio bands from November 21st to the 24th operating
40 through 10 meters using SSB and some of the digital modes. More
information including QSL routing is on QRZ.com under the callsign
listing for KC9HYY. (KC9HYY)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: CELEBRATION MARCONI EXPERIMENTS FROM YACHT ELETTRA
Also keep an ear open for special event station IY1IEY to be on the air
between November 1st and December 31st to commemorate the experiments
conducted by Gugliemo Marconi from his yacht Elettra between 1919 and
1936. Operations will be on all of the High Frequency bands including
30, 17 and 12 meters. QSL IK1QBT direct. (OPDX)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: REGISTRATION FOR ILLW 2015 GROWING
Its not even 2015 yet, but registrations for next August's
International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend already stand at 75 with
nearly half being from Australia. Others already on the list represent
Argentina, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands,
Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States.
It's never too early to register a lighthouse or lightship to take part
in this very popular yearly event. Simply take your web browser to
illw dot net and follow the simple instructions on the page.
And less we forget, the dates of the next International Lighthouse and
Lightship Weekend is August 15th and 16th of 2015. (VK3PC)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: INDONESIA INNAUGERATES RADIO AMATEURS AS IT NEW
LEADERS
Indonesia's new national leaders are both amateur radio licensees. The
ARRL reports that President Joko Widodo, YD2JKW, holds a General class
license. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, YC8HYK, is an Advanced class
licensee. Elected in July, Jokowi and Kalla were inaugurated on
October 20th in Jakarta. Indonesia is the world's third-largest
democracy, with a population of approximately 250 million. (ARRL)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: M0PHI NEW CHAIR OF RSGB TRAINING AND EDUCATION
COMMITTEE
The Radio Society of Great Britain has announced the appointment of
Philip Willis, M0PHI as the new Chairman of its Training and Education
Committee Willis succeeds Steve Hartley, G0FUW. (GB2RS)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: RADIO AMATEUR RECEIVES IEC 1906 AWARD
International Amateur Radio Union Electromagnetic Compatibility
Coordinator Thilo Kootz, who holds the call signs DL9KCE and AD7IY, has
been presented with the IEC or International Electromechanical
Commission 1906 Award. This award recognizes exceptional and recent
achievement related to the activities of the IEC and which contributes
in a significant way to advancing the work of the Commission. Kootz
received the honor for his contributions in developing the model for
radiated emission limits in the frequency range below 30 MHz.
(Southgate)
**
BREAK 2
This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. 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)
**
RADIO NEAR SPACE: AUSTRALIAN FLOATER PICO BALLOON HERD IN THE UNITED
STATES
A light weight micro power ham radio floater balloon launched in
Australia has been heard in the United States as we hear from WIA
Newsman Graham Kemp, VK4BB:
--
A party-type Pico balloon carrying a payload was launched from
Melbourne on Saturday October the 18th and tracked to Tamworth News
South Wales, between Sydney and Brisbane.
It was launched by Andy Nguyen VK3YT who says that during that flight
solar powered Pico balloon PS-23 balloon payload was heard on WSPR as
far away as the United States by W8AC James Martin in Ohio.
The tracking of the 25-Milliwatt balloon involved stations in VK1, VK2,
VK3, VK5, VK6, VK7 and ZL1 using Olivia and JT65 on 30m and 20m.
Andy VK3YT says PS-23 landed near Tamworth to be recovered by a team of
Scouts from the local JOTA, lead by Ashley VK2XSO and Ron VK2HRD.
It was launched again on Sunday but this time with Payload number 2
using JT9. That flight landed in the Tasman Sea on Sunday night.
Andy VK3YT says the tests performed by the two payloads proved the
viability of using JT9 and JT65 types of weak signal digital modes for
balloon telemetry.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of the WIA News
in Australia.
--
According to VK4BB, both balloons were tracked all the way to ground
level by VK6XT near the city of Perth in Western Australia and ZL1RS in
New Zealand, both of whom are many thousands of kilometers away from
where the launch and the flights took place. (WIA News)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: UK ASTROHAMS CAN USE GB1SS FROM ISS
United Kingdom telecommunications regulator Ofcom has confirmed that
the callsign GB1SS will be made available for issue to UK astronauts
who wish to operate from the International Space Station.
The first British astronaut slated to go on an expedition to the ISS is
Tim Peake who joined the corps in 2009 and hopes to go to the ISS in
November 2015. Peake holds the United States callsign KG5BVI and has
recently been training in the use the Ericsson 2 meter handheld radio
which is installed in the Columbus module of the orbiting outpost.
Also hoping to visit the International Space Station but as a space
tourist is entertainer Sarah Brightman. As previously reported she
will begin her official training for a ten day visit early next year
but its unknown if she will take to the ham radio airwaves during her
time on-orbit.
The very first United Kingdom astronaut ham was Helen Sharman, GB1MIR
who spent time aboard the Russian MIR space station. While there,
Sharman made contact with radio amateurs around the world including
many with students in school classes. (Ofcom, Southgate, others)
**
SPACE RESEARCH: THIRD MOCK MARS MISSION STARTS IN HAWAII
A small group of individuals will spend next eight months living in an
isolated dome-shaped building on a Hawaiian volcano. The NASA-financed
study is called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation or
Hi-Seas Mission 3. It has been designed to examine how well a small
isolated group of people can get along and work together.
The study is a precursor for NASA's future manned-missions Mars to take
place in the 2030's. It will be a long journey as it will take
astronauts around six months to reach Mars. They will then spend at
least 500 days on the red planet followed by another six months to get
back to Earth. The full story is at tinyurl.com/hawaii-space-dome.
Details of the two past simulated Mars missions is at
tinyurl.com/hi-seas-hawaii. (Uncover Michigan, Carol Bailey)
**
ON THE AIR: HAM RADIO FALKLAND ISLANDS WWI COMMEMORATION
The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society is sending
an expedition to the Falkland Islands to coincide with the 100th
anniversary of the WW1 'Battle of Falklands' on December 8th. VP8RAF
stroke 100 and VP8FIR stroke 100 will operate from the Joint Services
Welfare Facility Amateur Radio Station from December 5th through the
9th. Also, all VP8 prefix stations will be able to use stroke 100
between 1st November and 15th December 2014 (GB2RS)
**
ON THE AIR: DIGITAL ONLY OPERATION TO CELEBRATE THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF
NOTED INDIAN SCIENTIST
And listen out for the special callsign AT1JCB from India between
November 21st through December 9th. This in celebration of the birth
of Scientist Aacharya Jagdish Chandra Bose and of his many scientific
achievements. This will be a digital-only operation by VU2EXP using
PSK31, PSK63, PSK125, JT65 and other digital modes on 40 through 10
meters. QSL via VU2EXP direct or electronically using Logbook of the
World or eQSL. (VU2EXP)
**
DX
In DX, PG5M has announced that he will be operational as CE0Y stroke
PG5M from Easter Island between November 23rd to the 28th. This will
be a holiday-style operation with further details forthcoming. QSL via
his home callsign direct, via the bureau.
Members of the F6KOP Team and Lyon DX Gang are activating Tromelin
Island between as FT4TA through November 10th. They plan to have 4
stations on the air for 10 days on 160 through 10 meters using SSB, CW
and RTTY. QSL via F1NGP.
Members of the 9M2SE Malaysian Special Expedition Team will be active
from Pangkor Island between 0800 UTC on November 7th and 0100 on
November 9th. Activity will be on 40 through 10 meters using SSB and
CW. No QSL information was provided in the announcement.
UA3IPL will be active as stroke JW from Spitsbergen Island for 4 months
starting October 30th. His operation will be on the High Frequency
bands using slow speed Morse, SSB, RTTY, PSK31 and JT65. QSL via RW6HS
direct.
Lastly, G8OFQ will be active stroke HC8 from the Galapagos Islands from
July 1st to September 30th of 2015. Operations will be on 160 through
6 meters but no times or modes have been mentioned. QSL via HA3JB
(This weeks DX news courtesy of the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: 15 YEAR OLD HAM WORKS CYCLONE HUDHUD EMCOMM
And finally this week, when Cyclone Hudhud swept through the India's
city of Visakhapatnam it took out all normal means of communications.
As already reported, ham radio operators were called on to create a
communications network to fill the void. One of those responding was
15-year-old Tom K. Jose, VU3TMO. Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephen
Kinford, N8WB, has his story:
--
Taking time off from school, Tom K. Jose, VU3TMO was stationed in the
emergency response control room set up at Visakhapatnam Police
Commission. There he spent hours collecting messages from other team
members spread over the cyclone affected areas that he passed on to the
administrators in charge of relief measures.
VU3TMO who is a first year student at Little Flower Junior College
received his amateur radio license at the age of 13. Together with the
first response team he operated under adverse conditions, often
skipping meals and spending long hours on the radio, waiting for
messages. Some days VU3TMO and the others in the team handled upward
of 500 health, welfare and direct relief messages directly related to
the cyclone.
Tom K. Jose, VU3TMO comes from a ham radio family. According to his
page on QRZ.com, his parents are VU2JOS and VU3LMS, his brother is
VU3TNI and his grandfather is VU2ACN. He is a member of India's
National Institute of Amateur Radio and the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association and one of the youngest active radio amateurs in his
nation.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, reporting.
--
The complete story of the assistance provided by VU3TMO and the other
volunteers provided in the wake of cyclone Hudhud is in cyberspace at
tinyurl.com/young-cyclone-communicator (The Hindu On-Line)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE
With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, The
Hindu on-line, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Rain, the RSGB, the South
African Radio League, the Southgate News, TwiT-TV, Australia's WIA News
and you our listeners, 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 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 Jim
Davis, W2JKD, saying 73 and we thank you for listening.
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.