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Subj: Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2470 for Friday, February 28th
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From: PY2BIL@PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2470 for Friday, February 28th, 2025
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2470 with a release date of Friday,
February 28th, 2025 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Astronomers devise a novel way to battle RFI. A
special event remembers Bloody Sunday, a painful moment in US history -- and
a prominent figure in amateur radio and a friend to Newsline becomes a
Silent Key. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2470
comes your way right now.
**
BILLBOARD CART
**
COMBINED TECHNOLOGIES HELP ASTRONOMERS FIGHT RFI
NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top story is about something ham radio operators know all
too well - the plague of RFI that disrupts communications. Astronomers have
come up with what they hope is a solution for what's been troubling their
sensitive radio telescope in Australia, and Graham Kemp VK4BB tells us about
it.
GRAHAM: An unlikely source of RFI that was compromising signals received by
a radio telescope in Western Australia has been identified as an airplane
deflecting broadcast signals. Realising that the ever-growing presence of
orbiting satellites may pose the same hazard, causing astronomers' data to
become contaminated, scientists have devised what they hope is a solution.
The stray signals that were interfering with the sensitive telescopes in the
Murchison Widefield Array were even more puzzling because the array is an
area designated by the government as a radio quiet zone. Stranger still, the
signal turned out to be a broadcast signal from Australian TV and appeared
to move across the sky. Researchers at Brown University in the US who are
involved with the Murchison project, determined that an airplane had been
deflecting the signal, and had likely been doing so for nearly five years.
This form of signal deflection, of course, held implications for other
objects in the sky, most prominently, satellites whose numbers are growing
each year. With this in mind, researchers at the university devised a method
of filtering the RFI via a new method that combined two existing
technologies already in use: Near-field corrections and beam forming. The
former allows the radio telescope to adjust to closer objects more
accurately instead of strictly peering into deep space. The latter adds to
the sharpened focus through use of a beam, just as its name suggests. Using
this combination, scientists confirmed that the RFI had been deflected off
an airplane moving at 492 miles per hour and had originally been transmitted
by Channel 7 on Australian digital TV.
This is Graham Kemp VK4BB.
(SPACE.COM, BROWN UNIVERSITY)
**
BRAZILIAN YL DXPEDITION CELEBRATES WOMEN'S PROGRESS
NEIL/ANCHOR: Saturday the 8th of March is International Women’s Day but in
the amateur radio world, it is being celebrated as International YLs’ Day by
one group of DXpeditioners. We hear about them from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.
JEREMY: The São Paulo chapter of LABRE, Brazil’s national amateur radio
society, has organised a two-day DXpedition that will take seven YLs and
their radio equipment to Ilha Comprida, IOTA number SA-Ø24, an island off
the state’s south coast. Three of the seven operators are younger than 20.
The team will be on the air on the 8th and 9th of March to recognise and
celebrate women’s progress in the world and, of course, to help any and all
radio operators score contacts toward IOTA, POTA, WWFF and DIB, Brazil’s own
diploma Island award. The YLs will be calling QRZ as PR2L, using CW, SSB and
the digital modes.
A commemorative QSL card will be available. For details, visit QRZ.com
This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.
(GUILLERMO CRIMERIUS, PY2BIL)
**
YLRL OFFERING 3 MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
NEIL/ANCHOR: Speaking of YLs, the Young Ladies Radio League is offering
scholarships again to promising young women who have their ham license - and
the deadline to apply is a little more than a month away. We have details
from Jack Parker W8ISH.
JACK: The international list of YLs honoring the memory of Ethel Smith
K4LMB, Martha Wessel, KØEPE and Mary Lou Brown, NM7N, is a long and
impressive roster. Scholarships from the Young Ladies Radio League are named
in memory of each of these three women.
The YLRL is accepting applications for this year’s scholarships. The
deadline is April 30th.
The Ethel Smith and Mary Lou Brown scholarships award .500 each. The
Martha Wessel scholarship awards 0.500. Winners will be announced in July.
An application form and details on how to qualify are available on the
website. You’ll find a link in the text version of this week’s newscast at
arnewsline.org
[DO NOT READ: https://YLRL.net/Scholarship ]
This is Jack Parker W8ISH.
(YLRL)
**
SILENT KEY: RAIN REPORT'S ALANSON P. "HAP" HOLLY, KC9RP
NEIL/ANCHOR: Our next story is one that Newsline is particularly sad to
report. The amateur radio community has lost an influential and selfless
member -- and Newsline has lost a personal friend. We hear about him from
Don Wilbanks AE5DW.
DON: We at Amateur Radio Newsline are mourning the passing of Alanson P.
Holly, better known as Hap Holly, KC9RP. Hap is known as the founder and
moderator of the Radio Amateur Information Network, The RAIN Report, an
audio information service for amateur radio since 1990. At the age of 4 Hap
began having vision issues. One morning, at age 7, he woke up totally blind.
Both of Hap's parents were totally blind as well. A book written by his
mother in 1988, "What Love Sees", told the story of the challenges of blind
parents raising a blind child. In 1996 it became a CBS made-for-TV movie
starring Richard Thomas and Anna Beth Gish. It aired several times a year on
Lifetime from 1999 through 2002.
Hap earned his Novice license in 1965 at age 14. A year later he earned his
General and in 1981 his Advanced class license. He was a phone patch station
and net control for the Westcars traffic net After graduation from college
in Illinois, he met his future wife, Stephanie. They wed in 1976.
Hap has said that he owes a great deal of gratitude to Newsline's founder
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF. Hap was a faithful Newsline listener and Bill was
only too happy to encourage and help Hap with The Rain Report. Hap would
share his booth space with Newsline at Hamvention when it was at Hara Arena.
I met Hap there. Bill and I recorded and produced several Newsline eposides
over the course of a few years on a laptop sitting in that booth.
In 2002 Hap was named Amateur of the Year at Dayton Hamvention. Away from
ham radio, Hap was a professional keyboardist and a past president of the
Des Plaines, IL Toastmasters Club. He was an audio engineer and monitor for
Horizons for the Blind. For Hap, blindness was never a disability, only a
challenge that fine-tuned his other senses. He was truly an inspiration. Hap
passed from this world on Monday, February 24th. He was a friend to the
entire amateur community, a friend to Newsline and a truly inspirational
presence to anyone having the great fortune to have met him.
Good DX on farther up the dial, Hap. Tell Bill we said 73.
I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW.
NEIL/ANCHOR: The 220 MHz Guys Amateur Radio Club in Chicago, where Hap held
a lifetime membership, told Newsline that a memorial service was being
planned for this May.
**
ALABAMA ACTIVATION RECALLS 'BLOODY SUNDAY' OF US CIVIL RIGHTS ERA
NEIL/ANCHOR: Two hams who'll be on the air in Alabama in March aren't just
activating a POTA site but reminding the world of one of the most painful
moments in the history of civil rights in the US. We hear more from Travis
Lisk N3ILS.
TRAVIS: The challenging road to defending their constitutional right to vote
led hundreds of Black civil rights marchers onto another road -- one that
led them outside Selma, Alabama on March 7th, 1965. There, as they arrived
at the Edmund Pettus Bridge bound for the governor's office in Montgomery,
the marchers were assaulted by state and local police and forced back into
Selma. That violent day came to be known as Bloody Sunday. This protest was
also an outcry over the killing of civil rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson
who was beaten and shot during a march for voting rights one month earlier.
Bloody Sunday marked the first of three historic marches that led to the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 later that year. Its story is told along the 54-
mile route now known as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.
Sixty years later, amateur radio operators are marking the anniversary of
Bloody Sunday by calling QRZ on the weekend of March 8th and 9th to call
attention to that long, painful period in US history. This is a POTA
activation. The trail is designated by Parks on the Air as US-4580. Listen
for Tom KB5FHK and Sloan N3UPS, who will be operating SSB on HF and linear
transponder satellites. Tom told Newsline that the operators will begin on
40m around 0000 UTC on that Saturday. They will return on Sunday after 1300
UTC to operate on 10, 15 and 20 metres as well as via linear transponder
satellites.
Sloan and Tom will be sending commemorative QSL cards featuring an image of
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a symbol of turbulence and struggle - and
ultimately of change.
This is Travis Lisk N3ILS.
(TOM GAINES, KB5FHK)
**
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the UHF
repeater of the North Shore Radio Club. NS9RC. in Chicago on Thursdays at 8
p.m. local time as part of its weekly net.
**
(10 minutes, 31 seconds)
YHOTY NOMINATING WINDOW OPENS
NEIL/ANCHOR: It’s time for the amateur radio community to help us begin
identifying candidates to nominate for the Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial
Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year award. Amateur Radio Newsline’s
Mark Abramowicz (pronouncer Abram-a-vich) NT3V is chairman of the award
committee and has more…
MARK: Do you know a young ham who brings a unique set of skills to the hobby
we love?
Is it someone who you might have recruited through a Field Day visit or
exposure to a Scouting Jamboree on the Air event?
How about a young person who joined your local radio club after finding an
Elmer and getting licensed?
Maybe you are that Elmer.
How about a young ham who found their way from being a regular check-in for
your club’s weekly 2-meter net to being invited to join the net control team
and working and organizing public service events?
Is it a young person whose love of earth-space science was stimulated by
hearing the International Space Station astronauts on the air – thanks to
your mentorship - and arranging for that person to make contact via ham
radio with one of them?
Perhaps, this future leader in our hobby got exposed to contesting and
became competitive thanks to your help and support after getting on the air
in QSO parties or DX contests.
These are the kinds of young people Amateur Radio Newsline is looking to
recognize for their accomplishments.
Candidates should be 18 years or younger and from the continental United
States.
It’s easy to nominate someone.
But you are the one who has to take the initiative and fill out that on-line
application to bring someone who might be selected as our next Young Ham of
the Year to the attention of our Amateur Radio Newsline judges.
You’ll find everything you need to know at the awards tab on our website –
arnewsline.org.
Deadline for online applications is May 31.
I’m Mark Abramowicz, NT3V.
**
GET READY FOR RAPID DEPLOYMENT AMATEUR RADIO
NEIL/ANCHOR: What amateur radio operating strategy combines a little bit of
being mobile, a little bit of fixed and - if you so choose - a little bit of
maritime? It’s spelled R a D A R, which is the acronym for Rapid Deployment
Amateur Radio. Get ready, RaDAR Rally day is just weeks away, as we hear
from Randy Sly W4XJ.
RANDY: Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE pioneered the operating concept more than a
decade ago in South Africa with an event known as the RaDAR Challenge which
was embraced worldwide by portable operators. This year the RaDAR Rally,
which takes place on April 5th, keeps the spirit and the strategy of the
original challenge. The four-hour rally is particularly appealing to hams
who are accustomed to working portable outdoors and this is an activity that
can be combined with Summits On The Air and Parks On The Air. Operators
spend four hours setting up a station as quickly as possible, making five
contacts, then dismantling the station and moving to another location to do
the same thing again. According to the rules, the required distances vary
depending on whether the radio operator is walking, cycling, driving or even
canoeing. All bands and modes are acceptable but use of terrestrial
repeaters is not.
This is Randy Sly, W4XJ
DO NOT READ: www.radarrally.info
**
TECHNIQUE MAY MAKE SOLAR PANELS MORE AFFORDABLE
NEIL/ANCHOR: If you use solar panels in your portable operation, or are
thinking about it, this development in solar power technology on a much
larger scale may be of interest to you. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF brings us the
details.
JIM: Harnessing the sun’s power doesn’t come easily or affordably but
researchers at the University of Tokyo believe they’re working on a future
for solar panels that will be cheaper and more efficient: They announced
recently that they have combined titanium dioxide with selenium, a
production process that could bring down the heavy costs of extracting
titanium from its ore so it can be used in a variety of energy-related
products, including solar panels. The scientists’ method relies on
introducing an element known as yttrium into the process of purifying the
titanium. So far, they have been impressed with the resulting performance.
According to recent reports in Business Today and on MSN.com, the only
drawback is that the element leaves traces of itself behind in the final
result, enough of a contaminant that it could compromise its durability and
its resistance to corrosion.
The next challenge? Minimise what is left behind so that a new type of solar
cell will be available in the future with a higher level of energy
efficiency and affordability.
This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.
(MSN, BUSINESS TODAY)
**
WORLD OF DX
In the World of DX, Bo, OZ1DJJ, is in Greenland using the callsign OX3LX
until the 14th of March. He will primarily remain on the main island, IOTA
number NA-Ø18 but may take a day trip to Manitsoq, IOTA number NA-22Ø. He
will be operating holiday style since this is a work-related trip. See
QRZ.com for QSL details.
Dave, G4BUO, is on the air from Samoa, IOTA number OC-Ø97, using the
callsign 5WØUO until the 3rd of March. Dave operates mainly CW. QSLs will be
uploaded to LoTW in early April.
In Jamaica, IOTA number NA-Ø97, Iain, G4SGX will be calling QRZ as G4SGX/6Y
from the 1st through to the 21st of March. Iain operates mainly CW and will
be on 80-10 metres. Listen for him in the RSGB Commonwealth Contest on the
8th and 9th of March. See QRZ.com for QSL details.
Mamoru, JH3VAA, is on the air with the callsign 8Q7VA from the Maldives,
IOTA number AS-Ø13, until the 5th of May. See QRZ.com for QSL details.
(425 DX BULLETIN)
**
KICKER: BROADCAST STUDENTS GET SCHOOLED IN AMATEUR RADIO
NEIL/ANCHOR: We end this week by sharing a happy discovery at a Maryland
high school where students learning about professional radio have fallen in
love with the amateur side of things. Here's Kent Peterson KCØDGY to tell us
what happened.
KENT: There was electricity in the air - or perhaps it was electromagnetism
- when high school students in Kent County, Maryland, participated in their
first ARRL School Club Roundup last fall. With the support and some loaned
equipment from the Kent Amateur Radio Society, K3ARS, the students logged
contacts in the US and a number of others overseas. For them it was "a
pivotal moment," the radio society president, Chris Cote, KE5NJ, told
Newsline. He said it exceeded everyone's expectations.
Earlier this year, the sparks flew again, in a manner of speaking, during
Winter Field Day. Some of the teens, who are involved with WKHS, Kent County
High School's FM radio station, returned to experience once more what the
amateur side of the medium can do - and just how far it can go - by calling
CQ from the school parking lot with members of KARS.
Now even more students are along for the ride. With the help of Chris Cote
and KARS, Chris Singleton, KE3MC, is guiding them on that journey -- one
that the broadcast engineer took himself not so long ago when he was still a
student at the school: Chris Singleton teaches the broadcasting course on
the Eastern Shore, Maryland campus where he is also manager of the school's
FM radio station. Along with Chris Cote, he is encouraging the students to
study for their license and to set their sights a little higher. They're
hoping to reapply for an astronaut contact through Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station, crossing fingers that the second time will be
the charm. If they were thrilled about working Moscow during last fall's
roundup, imagine what a low Earth orbit QSO will feel like to them.
This is Kent Peterson KCØDGY.
(RADIO WORLD, CHRIS COTE, KE5NJ; CHRIS SINGLETON, KE3MC)
**
Have you sent in your amateur radio haiku to Newsline's haiku challenge yet?
It's as easy as writing a QSL card. Set your thoughts down using traditional
haiku format - a three-line verse with five syllables in the first line,
seven in the second and five in the third. Submit your work on our website
at arnewsline.org - each week's winner gets a shout-out on our website,
where everyone can find the winning haiku.
NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to the Amateur Radio Daily; Brown University;
Business Today; Chris Cote, KE5NJ; Chris Singleton KE3MC; David Behar K7DB;
Guillermo Crimerius, PY2BIL; MSN.com; Radio World; shortwaveradio.de;
Space.com; Tom Gaines, KB5FHK; Wireless Institute of Australia; YLRL; and
you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. We remind
our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit
organization that incurs expenses for its continued operation. If you wish
to support us, please visit our website at arnewsline.org and know that we
appreciate you all. We also remind our listeners that if you like our
newscast, please leave us a 5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us. For
now, with Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and our news
team worldwide, I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Union Kentucky saying 73. As always
we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2025.
All rights reserved.
73 de Bill, PY2BIL
PY2BIL@PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
BBS: PY2BIL - Timed 28-fev-2025 08:00 E. South America Standard Time
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