| |
PY2BIL > ARNR 12.02.21 14:25l 426 Lines 19599 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 25995PY2BIL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2259 for Friday February 12 2
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RBS<DB0ERF<IZ3LSV<IW8PGT<I3XTY<GB7COW<GB7YEW<AL0Y<KD8FMR<
PY2BIL<PY2BIL
Sent: 210212/1017 @:PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM Sally 7.2.048 $:25995PY2BIL
From: PY2BIL@PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2259 for Friday February 12 2021
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2259 with a release date of Friday
February 12 2021 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. A local EmComm conference goes virtual and possibly
global. Hams in Austria challenge proposed rule changes -- and can spinach
transmit wirelessly? All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report
Number 2259 comes your way right now.
***
BILLBOARD CART
**
PANDEMIC GIVES LOCAL EMCOMM CONFERENCE INTERNATIONAL REACH
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Regrouping to accommodate the pandemic, a respected
emergency communications event has been able to extend its reach far beyond
the Pacific Northwest. Christian Cudnik K0STH tells us what's happening.
CHRISTIAN: For the first time in its 20 years, Communications Academy is
going global. The pandemic has turned the two-day emergency preparedness
conference in Pacific Northwest into a live online event with possibilities
for international participation. It's being held this year on April 10th and
11th. Although it attracts a sizable number of hams, attendees needn't be
amateur radio operators. In fact many of the presenters are hams, including
Tom Cox, VE6TOX, ICS Consultant for Alberta Emergency Management Agency;
Jason Biermann, KI7KVP, director of Snohomish, Washington's Department of
Emergency Management; and Ward Silver, N0AX, who will present on station
grounding and bonding.
If you're anywhere in the world and want to sharpen your emergency
communications skills, this is a free opportunity to receive training while
getting realtime access to presenters. Although the presentations will be
recorded, the experts will be available for live chat with attendees in
question-and-answer sessions.
Tim Helming WT1IM told Newsline in an email that Comm Academy is the only
surviving significant event in Washington state and was made possible by
switching to a virtual event. He said: [quote] "It promises to be a great
training Opportunity for all of us in Washington state and perhaps beyond."
[endquote] Tim said graduates of the two-day academy often go on to do good
work, putting their knowledge into action — which is of course what it's all
about.
For details or to register, visit commacademy dot org (commacademy.org)
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Christian Cudnik K0STH.
(TIM HELMING WT1IM)
**
HAMS SEE THREAT IN PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO AUSTRIAN TELCOM LAW
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Austria's main amateur radio society is fighting back
against proposed laws it considers unfriendly to hams. Ed Durrant DD5LP
brings us that story.
ED: The Austrian Amateur Radio Society, ÖVSV is challenging proposed
regulation changes by Parliament that the amateurs say would diminish
privileges and spectrum allocations. Society president Mike Zwingl OE3MZC
told Newsline that a pending amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 2020
contains language that would erode previous gains made by radio amateurs and
fail to protect their licences.
Mike said that the new law's language institutes measures which would impede
hams' roles in emergency communications and passing welfare traffic. The
change would also raise costs for licences and impose larger fines for
violations. The amendment also would leave amateurs with no protection
against harmful interference. With lifetime licences abolished, all new
licences being issued would expire after 10 years. The radio society would
also lose the ability to administer license exams.
Mike told Newsline that hams enjoyed robust activity following the passage
in 2003 and 2007 of amateur radio laws favouring experimentation and new
technologies.
He said a change in government in 2018 led to a new more complex Telecomms
Law that took over the administration of amateur radio laws as well.
The Austrian ham organisation is encouraging amateurs to contact the
ministry and telecommunications authority indicating their support for the
group's position. Mike said the society had filed its comments earlier with
Parliament.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP.
(MIKE ZWINGL OE3MZC)
**
FIELD DAY RULES MODIFIED AGAIN THIS YEAR FOR PANDEMIC
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: To ensure that clubs and individuals have adequate planning
time for Field Day this year, the ARRL has announced that the same modified
rules from last year's pandemic plan will be in place this year, along with
new power limits for Class D and Class E stations. Both are home stations,
with Class E operating on emergency power. Both will have a limit of 150
watts PEP. As with last year's scoring, club scores will be a sum of all
individual entries attributing their points to a club.
Field Day will be held on June 26th and 27th. Additional updates are
available on the Facebook page of the ARRL and the ARRL's own Field Day page
on its website arrl.org.
(ARRL)
**
YOUNG CALIFORNIA AMATEUR WINS CONGRESSIONAL RECOGNITION
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Congratulations to the California ninth grader and amateur
radio operator who is among those students to win the prestigious
Congressional App Challenge. Neil Rapp WB9VPG has the details.
NEIL: Sean Donelan KM6NGN, is the author of an amateur radio app for mobile
devices that simplifies coordination tasks for net controllers overseeing
hams in the field at public service events. The app, NetHam, was the top
winner in the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in his home state's 11th
congressional district. The United States House of Representatives
established the nationwide award eight years ago to inspire students in the
fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The award is being
given out this year in 308 of 435 congressional districts.
The app makes use of a Raspberry Pi4B, an Arduino and a Nextion HMI Touch
Display. To see it in action, watch Sean's demonstration video at the web
address you'll find in this week's newscast script at arnewsline.org. Well
done, Sean!
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
[FOR PRINT ONLY, DO NOT READ: vimeo.com/454747550]
(PATCH, SOUTHGATE)
**
QSO PARTY BRINGS ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES IN MINNESOTA
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The biggest challenge of a QSO Party isn't necessarily the
propagation. Here's Kent Peterson KC0DGY with the story of one group of hams
who found that out.
KENT: Members of the Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio Association were up
for the challenge of the Minnesota QSO Party and hoped their brand-new
Mobile Communications Bus was too. The hams crossed the state border from
their Wisconsin home into a Minnesota county that is considered rare in
these operating events. Using CW and phone, they joined the action from a
parking lot at a high point in Houston County for the February 6th contest.
They used the call sign Whiskey Zero Minnesota (W0M). Vice president Bill
Kleinschmidt N9FDE told Newsline that 11 hams participated, two serving as
the main ops while others filled in and provided support. Bill said Mother
Nature was ready for the QSO Party too — in a different way. He told
Newsline: [quote] "She dumped six inches of snow on us just before the
contest, then to add insult, she dropped the temperature ten to twenty below
zero for setup and takedown operations." [endquote] The bus passed the test
and kept everyone warm for the full 10 hours. The club did well too with a
total score of 203,392, combining the 1,816 QSO points to the state,
province, country and DX scores. Bill told Newsline the real challenge of
the day came later, when the bus brakes failed just as the hams prepared to
drive down from the hill. The brakes had begun to leak. The hams made one
final call of the day: to Craig N9ETD, who runs a towing business. Bill told
Newsline that repairs were under way and the club should be back on the road
soon for new adventures. Next up: their home state Wisconsin QSO Party on
March 14th and 15th.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY.
(BILL KLEINSCHMIDT N9FDE)
**
MARS MEMBERS AND HAMS PREP FOR INTEROPERABILITY EXERCISES
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Members of the Military Auxiliary Radio System will have
their first interoperability exercise with the amateur radio community on
February 23rd through the 27th. Exercises will begin on Channel 1, the
initial calling channel on 60 meters but may not necessarily be limited to
that channel.
US Army MARS Chief Paul English WD8DBY issued a statement saying that ICS
213 messages will be passed in both voice and digital modes. Radio
operations will also take place in the usual voice modes.
Following this month's exercise, the next one will be held from March 1st to
March 7th.
(MARS)
**
U.S.-BUILT RF JAMMERS TO ASSIST AUSTRALIA'S MILITARY
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: An American-built RF-jamming system is about to begin
production to help the military in Australia. Jason Daniels VK2LAW explains
what it will do.
JASON: Australia's military is expected to benefit from the protective power
of RF jammers under a system being developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation
in the United States. The system of open-architecture RF jammers will be
built by electronic warfare experts to provide protection from radio-
controlled improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The system is designed to
minimise disruption to communications systems while establishing a
protective barrier for the warfighters and their equipment.
The ABFSL2HM$29.9 million order for the system, which is designed to protect foot
soldiers, vehicles and permanent structures, according to officials of the
United States Naval Sea Systems Command, which announced the order. Work
will be done in San Diego, California and is expected to be ready for
delivery to Australia by December of 2022.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW.
(MILITARY AEROSPACE.COM)
**
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the Utah
Amateur Radio Club's W7SP repeater on Sundays as part of the club's 9 p.m.
net.
**
HAMSCI PROPOSAL DEADLINE APPROACHES
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Organizers are still looking for amateurs' ideas for
presentations at next month's HamSCI Workshop – but the deadline is almost
here. Sel Embee KB3TZD explains.
SEL: With this year's HamSCI Workshop coming up on March 19th and 20th, the
deadline is approaching fast for hams, scientists and other experts to
submit presentation abstract proposals. This year's theme is midlatitude
ionospheric sensing but presentations are not required on that subject. The
workshop will again be held virtually on Zoom, as it was last year, in
cooperation with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and sponsored by
the National Science Foundation.
A team meeting will also be held for HamSCI's Personal Space Weather Station
project. This project's goal is the creation of a citizen science instrument
that enables space weather to be studied right from your QTH.
Abstracts for presentations are due by the 15th of February. They can be
sent via the conference webpage at hamsci dot org (hamsci.org), that’s ham-
s-c-i-dot-org.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Sel Embee KB3TZD.
(HAMSCI)
**
AUSTRALIA'S WYONG FIELD DAY REPLACED BY 'MAYHAM' EVENT
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The popular Wyong Field Day in Australia has been cancelled
due to COVID precautions but Ed Durrant VK2JI tells us what will be
happening in its place.
ED: In light of the recent new COVID events across Australia and the
situation's changeable nature at present, the executive committee of the
Central Coast ARC, with input from a survey of club members, has decided not
to run the Wyong Field Day 2021 which was planned for Sunday the 28th of
February. This is a decision that was not easy and was taken considering the
safety of the club members, traders and those who attend the day.
However, open your calendar's as the club wishes to announce the Central
Coast Amateur Radio Club “Mayhamö event which will be held on Sunday the
30th of May 2021 at the Wyong Race Course. We would like to see this one-
time event attract as many visitors as the Field Day does every year, who
knows, this could be the largest gathering of radio amateurs in the Southern
Hemisphere this year!
Traders have already been contacted and informed of the new date and we
expect the exhibitor and lecturer variety to be just as broad as was planned
for the 2021 Field Day.
Full details and information regarding this event will be updated on the
clubs website at ccarc (dot) org (dot) au and through social media as it
becomes available.
Looking forward to NO MAYHEM at the MayHam event, For the Central Coast ARC
this was Ed VK2JI.
(CCARC)
**
CANADIAN SATELLITE CONSTELLATION WOULD PROVIDE NEW INTERNET ACCESS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A Canadian satellite operator has become the latest player
to join the low-earth orbit action over Earth's skies. The company Telesat
announced on February 9th that it intends to build a constellation of 300
satellites in order to deliver high-speed internet worldwide in the next two
years. Known as Lightspeed, it will be designed to serve fixed and mobile
network operators, aeronautical and maritime users, enterprise customers,
and governments. Consumers wishing to use Lightspeed's services would
purchase their service from one of Lightspeed's direct customers.
The company said financing still needed to be finalized. If Telesat is
successful, that would make the company the latest seeking to offer
satellite-based internet services. The most well-known one perhaps is
SpaceX's Starlink service which is already serving parts of North America.
Project Kuiper (KIE-PURR) has also announced it is moving forward but has
had no launches yet.
(FORTUNE MAGAZINE)
**
RSBG ANNOUNCES AWARD-WINNERS
STEPHEN:/ANCHOR: The Radio Society of Great Britain has announced the
winners of its construction competition held during lockdown and Jeremy Boot
G4NJH has the results.
JEREMY: The Radio Society of Great Britain has announced the winners of the
construction competition held for projects created during the autumn 2020
lockdown, the Christmas and New Year holiday period and the early part of
this year.
Response exceeded the society's expectations and the decision was made to
name four winners instead of one.
Congratulations to: first-prize winner Gordon Lean, G3WJG ; runner-up Paul
Graham, M0PGX; third-prize winner Laurence Fletcher, G4SXH and to Robert
Lynch, M0NVQ who was chosen as highly commended.
Learn more about their projects in the April RadCom and on the RSGB website
at the URL given in the written text on the arnewsline.org website.
[FOR PRINT ONLY, DO NOT READ: www.rsgb.services/gota2c-construction-
competition].
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH.
**
WORLD OF DX
In the world of DX, members of a group known as "The Fifth Ocean" with the
support of the Union of Radio Amateurs of Russia will be on the air as
R115AN to celebrate the 115th anniversary of the birth of legendary aircraft
engineer Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, a legendary aircraft designer, until
February 14th. He is considered the father of transport aviation in Russia.
Listen on various HF bands as well as VHF. There will be an operators'
diploma honoring him as the "Father of Transport Aviation." For QSL details,
visit QRZ.com.
In Brazil, Charles, PU3NVN; Douglas, PU3DPA; and Gilberto, PY3GIL; will use
the call sign ZW3CM from a lighthouse in Tavares, during the 13th American
Lighthouses Weekend. Activity begins February 19th and runs through to the
21st. Send QSLs to PU3DPA, by the Bureau. Be listening on 20 meters.
(OHIO PENN DX)
**
FOX MIKE HOTEL PORTABLE OP CHALLENGE IS RETURNING
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Expect to see the return of the Fox Mike Hotel Portable
Operations Challenge later this year with changes. The event will happen
earlier - on the 4th and 5th of September - and will consist of three
separate four-hour "sprint windows" for operators, a departure from last
year's format. Each 4-hour session is a contest in itself but all three will
be totalled to find the overall winner. As in last year's contest, scoring
system is kilometre-per-watt–based and uses a handicapping system to level
the playing field between the large and small stations. Mark it on your
calendar. Details will follow later this year. Meanwhile, you can visit
foxmikehotel.com/challenge for more details.
**
KICKER: RESEARCHERS PUT A NEW SPIN(ACH) ON WIRELESS EMAILING
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Finally, we end this week's report by asking: Do you think
that's just spinach on your plate? Ralph Squillace KK6ITB tells us why we
may need to rethink this popular salad ingredient.
RALPH: Popeye the classic American cartoon character knew that eating
spinach could make him strong but imagine if that same spinach could help
you send emails wirelessly? Sure, hams are doing this right now with the
proper software - but not with vegetables. According to a report from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers there have used
nanotechnology to transform spinach into sensors that can detect explosives.
When they do, they relay that information back to the scientists,
wirelessly. This complex feat of engineering electronic components and
systems into plants is known as "plant nanobionics." In this instance it
takes advantage of spinach's extensive root network which has the ability to
sample and transport groundwater from the soil up into the leaves. If the
roots detect that groundwater possesses nitroaromatics, something often
found in explosives, the carbon nanotubes embedded in the spinach leaves
emit a signal that can be read by an infrared camera capable of emailing an
alert to a handheld device similar to a mobile phone. If this sounds a
little too wild to believe, consider our story on Newsline last year about
researchers in Huntsville Alabama who discovered that there's electrical
signal propagation going on between tomato plants.
Whether any of this is ultimately useful to us in the ham shack remains to
be seen but one thing's for sure: We may soon be looking at our salads with
newfound respect.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.
(SCIENCE.SLASHDOT, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Bill
Kleinschmidt N9FDE; the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club; CQ Magazine; David
Behar K7DB; HAMSci; MARS; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mike
Zwingl OE3MZC); Military Aerospace.com; Ohio Penn DX newsletter; QRZ.com;
Patch.com; Phys.Org; Science.Slashdot; Southgate Amateur Radio News;
shortwaveradio.de; Southgate; Space.com; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Tim
Helming WT1IM; the Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; YOTA;
and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please
send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is
available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website at
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.
As always we thank you for listening.
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
73 de Bill, PY2BIL
PY2BIL@PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
BBS: PY2BIL - Timed 12-fev-2021 10:16 E. South America Standard Time
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
