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Ärende: Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1818 - June 15 2012
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Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1818 - June 15 2012
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1818 with a release date of June 15,
2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a Q-S-T. Hams in Colorado and New Mexico go on high
alert as wildfires rage in both states; new problems for a South African
ham radio satellite; Brunei says that it is cracking down unlicensed use
of ham radio gear; a verdict in the case of Greece vs. DJ6SI and ARRL
Field Day 2012 is right around the corner. Find out the details are on
Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1818 coming your way right now.
**
RESCUE RADIO: COLORADO AND NM HAMS STAND BY AS FLAMES RAGE
Ham radio operators in Colorado and New Mexico are on high alert as
wildfires whip across areas of both states. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in
the newsroom with what we have so far:
--
Amateur radio emergency operators in Colorado and New Mexico are on
standby alert and a number are already involved in coordinated relief
efforts as wildfires rage across mainly wilderness areas of both states.
In Colorado, the best information came on Tuesday night the 12th from
Amanda Alden K1DDN. Alden and her husband Jeff, K0JSC, live in Carson
City, Colorado. She reported on the Ham Nation Internet TV show that hams
further North in the Ft. Collins area are very much involved in providing
various types of communications, with APRS markers for the fire areas
being one of the major resources.
Alden said that she has been in contact with Eugene Bentz, KI6MPA. He is
the EOC operator and resource net control. He told Alden that about 25
assistants are providing communications to the Forrest Service, the
Colorado State Patrol, the Larimer County Sheriff, the Red Cross as well
as county officials. Also, APRS information regarding fire locations is
being posted to both AGW Tracker and APRS.fi. The makers show fire
locations as well as EOC's, Incident Command Post and shelter markers. At
the time of K1DDN's report that fire was about 15 miles west of the city
of Ft. Collins.
Moving south into New Mexico, Jay Miller, W5WHN, in Albuquerque has been
in monitoring the work of the hams involved in the Little Bear Fire that
erupted on Saturday the 9th. He tells Newsline that Joe Kenmore, K5FBK
was in the Lincoln County EOC when this blaze was first discovered. As
this newscast is prepared, Gerald Minor, N5RKE, is at the Shelter in
Ruidoso and Ed Meyer, WK7ED, is active at the shelter in Capitan.
Currently, the W5BI system at Rio Rancho has been linked receive only at
this time the 449.3 to 146.98 on Buck Mountain. This allows Albuquerque
and Santa Fe to talk directly to the affected area, if needed. Also the
146.66 MHz NM5ML repeater at Capitan has performed well linking back to
all parts of the State.
As we go to air, there has not yet been any mass call-out of hams in
either state, and hams involved in emergency communications groups were
told on the 13th not to self deploy. But the word is to have their go
kits ready and to be ready to provide assistance as is needed.
More information as we get it.
For the amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the
Newsroom in Los Angeles. Jim.
--
According to fire officials it will be some time before these fires are
contained and controlled. We will have updates in future Amateur Radio
Newsline reports. (ARNewslineT, TWIT.TV, W5WHN)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: BATTERIES FAIL ON SUMBABDILASAT
More problems for the South Africa built SumbabdilaSat ham radio
satellite. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, tells us the
latest on the seemingly problem prone bird:
--
South Africa Amsat reports that the satellites batteries on SumbandilaSat
have failed which means that the satellite is only active when the solar
panels are illuminated.
The report from SA-Amsat says that the satellite recovery team at SunSpace
is still incrementally reading back the program code from the nine power
modules. This, in an effort to determine the extent of the problem. But
with SumbandilaSat going through eclipses, the satellite is not available
for as long each day as the team would like.
According to Johann Lochner, ZR6CBC, because of the shorter illumination
of the solar panels in the Southern hemisphere winter and poor orientation
of the satellite with respect to the sun, progress is much slower than
originally anticipated. Lochner said that there where three passes to
work with in January but this month they currently have one.
That said, ZR6CBC says that SumbandilaSat is responding when it is in full
sunlight. As such, the recovery team is confident that some operations
will be restored. He says that it may even be possible to do some imaging
and have the amateur radio transponder back in operation. However, no one
will speculate as to when.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale,
Arizona.
--
Updates on the condition of SumbandillaSat can be found on-line at
www.amsatsa.org.za (SA AMSAT)
**
ENFORCEMENT: BRUNEI GOING AFTER UNLICENSED MOBILE OPERATORS
The Brunei government says that it is cracking down on anyone found
operating amateur radio gear without government authorization. Members of
that nation's citizenry who are convicted of illegal use of amateur radio
equipment without a license from the Authority for Info-communications
Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam or AITI will face a maximum fine
of 10,000 Brunei dollars, up to three years imprisonment, or both.
This new anti pirate operating campaign appears aimed primarily at those
unlicensed individuals who use mobile gear on the VHF and UHF amateur
bands. It was announced by the AITI during a briefing on the first of
several joint operations with the Berakas Police to crack down on illegal
use of radio equipment. The operations involved a dedicated corps of
sixteen police personnel and seven AITI officials. (Borneo Bulletin)
**
RADIO LAW: DJ6SI VS. GREECE - THE COURT DECISION
A court decision in the case of DXer Baldur Drobnica, DJ6SI, who stood
trial last week in Greece on three charges involving his operation of an
amateur radio station on the vacation island of Kos. The three crimes he
was eventually charged with were conducting radio traffic without
permission from the Greek Government. Operating a transceiver that
covered more spectrum than just the ham radio bands permitted by Greece
and his refusal to surrender his equipment to the officer who investigated
the incident.
According to a note posted to the Internet by his attorney, Drobnica was
acquitted on counts 1 and 2 after the court ruled that he was a properly
licensed radio amateur. However he was convicted on the third count of
refusing to surrender his equipment to the arresting officer.
No word of what penalties if any were imposed on the single count
conviction. However his lawyer is reported to already have filed an
appeal on count three and the court is expected to hold a separate trial
on this issue at a later date.
Please keep in mind that this report is based on multiple language
translations beginning in Greek with some of it electronic. As you all
know, the latter have been known to leave you wondering if the translation
is completely accurate. One report in translated English is on-line at
tinyurl.com/dj6si-verdict. (SV5BYR)
**
WORLDBEAT: RADIOSPORT FEDERATION OF AZBERAIJAN APPLIES FOR IARU
MEMBERSHIP
The Federation of Radiosport of Azerbaijan has applied for International
Amateur Radio Union membership. The IARU Region 1 website reports that
the application has found to be in order and a proposal that organization
be elected as an IARU member has been put out to vote. Member Societies
have been requested to return their vote forms not later than November
1st. The Federation of Radiosport of Azerbaijan was founded back in
December of 2001. (IARU Region 1)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: POWER OUTAGE AFFECTS HAM-COM PLANO TEXAS
If you are old enough, you may remember 1970's Bobby Russel southern the
folk song titled The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Well this time
it wasn't a song and it took place in Texas when the lights and the air
conditioning went out at the Plano Center on Saturday, June 9th. This
during the annual Ham Com gathering. Chip Margelli, K7JA, of CQ Magazine
was there and gave a brief synopsis of what occurred:
--
K7JA: "Well, early in the afternoon the lights in the Plano center went
out. They had gone out the previous day and stayed off for about 30
seconds so it was no big deal. But on Saturday they stayed off for quite
a while and folks that got onto the Internet to the Plano power company
were told it would be 4 hours that the power would be out. S a lot of
exhibitors along about 2 o'clock and 2:30 began packing up because it
appears as if power was not going to come back on. It came back at about
3:30 or 4 - somewhere in there - but by then some of the crowd had gone.
So it really was quite an impact. The lights were bad enough but the lack
of air conditioning really impacted on everyones willingness to stay
inside."
--
Unlike most ham radio shows that are full weekend events, Ham-Com is held
Friday and Saturday that closes both days at 6 p.m. local time. Even so,
K7JA says that it was "interesting" to have the lights come back on and
discover that many of the other exhibitors had already packed up and left.
Not to mention the attendees:
--
K7JA: "At the CQ booth we were quite fortunate because we were by an
exit, so there was a little bit of light there. We were doing `candle
light specials' to entice people to stop by our booth.
"But if was definitely a downer for everybody in the exhibit area. The
dealers and especially the manufacturers who'se radios are so dependant on
their displays. A lot of the transceiver manufacturers were just stopped
dead in the water because they couldn't get their displays to show off all
of the neat things that the radios could do."
--
At airtime the reason for the power failure has not been announced.
According to Chris Boone, WB5ITT, the outage appeared to affect only the
convention facility. In a e-mail to Newsline Boone said that all the
stores around the convention center were ok and the street lights still
worked as well. (ARNewslineT)
**
RADIO POLITICS: FCC ANNOUNCES TWO SPECTRUM-SHARING AGREEMENTS WITH MEXICO
A new spectrum sharing agreement between the United States and Mexico for
the 800 Mhz and 1 point 9 Gigahertz bands has been negotiated by the FCC.
According to a June 11th press release by the FCC, the new 800 MHz
Protocol allots band segments between the United States and Mexico,
specifies the technical parameters for operation on these band segments
within 68 miles of the common border. It also creates a bi-national Task
Force to support the transition of incumbent operators along the border to
the new allotment plan.
The new protocol for 800 MHz replaces a previous agreement and paves the
way for completion of 800 MHz re-allocation or re-banding by U.S. public
safety and commercial licensees operating along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Higher up in frequency, a new protocol for the 1 point 9 Gigahertz band
allows the Sprint Nextel Corporation to deploy C-D-M-A service along the
border with Mexico. Sprint obtained access to the 1 point 9 Gigahertz
band in 2004. This, as compensation for vacating its spectrum holding in
the lower segment of the 800 MHz band in accordance with the rebanding
project.
The FCC ordered re-banding will alleviate interference to public safety
licensees in the band caused by commercial cellular licensees. The
relevant documents are available on the International Bureau web site at
tinyurl.com/border-agreement. (FCC)
**
RADIO LAW: FCC RULES THAT STATE COURT CANNOT ORDER RADIO STATION LICENSE
TRANSFER
The FCC has ruled that a license issued by that agency cannot be used by a
local court to satisfy a debt.
In its finding the commission ruled that a court in Puerto Rico exceeded
its authority in ordering a broadcaster to turn over the license of
WEGA-AM to help satisfy a financial judgment.
The FCC had been asked to approve the involuntary assignment of the
WEGA-AM license to Carmelo Santiago Roman, owner of VI/MAN Broadcasting
System Corporation, This, after the local court ordered station owner A
Radio Co. to turn over cash, the license and other property to a
court-appointed holder pending a final court order in their financial
dispute. Both sides then presented arguments to the FCC explaining their
legal views about the involuntary license transfer.
Now in issuing a decision, Peter Doyle, who is Chief of the FCC's Media
Bureau's Audio Division, stated that his agency retains exclusive
authority to license broadcast stations. He noted that when a state
court's decision is contrary to commission policy, the commission is
neither bound by the state court order nor need take action to allow the
order to be carried out.
Doyle continued that a license, unlike a station's physical assets, is not
subject to a mortgage, security interest, attachment or similar property
right. What's more, licenses are subject to the FCC's consent before any
transfer. As such the decision of the court in Puerto Rico to "attach"
the license of WEGA-AM is invalid from the outset. (FCC, RW)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: RFINDER NOW FULLY SUPPORTS D-STAR LISTINGS
The world wide on-line repeater directory known as RFinder now supports
D-Star. This, as a direct result of its editorial staff attending the
D-Star forum at the recent Dayton.
According to a press release by the publication, it became apparent that
there was a lack of D-Star repeater locating options to the vastly growing
population of D-Star user base. As a result, as of May 24th RFinder fully
supports D- Star in the directory.
RFinder is available in the Apple App Store for iPhone and Android
devices. The web version can be found at www.rfinder.net (RFINDER)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: INTERNATIONAL EME CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN CAMBRIDGE
ENGLAND
The 15th International Earth-Moon-Earth or EME conference will be held at
Churchill College, Cambridge, between 15 and 19 August. This is the first
time that this conference will be held in the United Kingdom and its
planners say that this will provide an opportunity to learn about this
most technically challenging aspect of the hobby.
The event will be hosted by the UK Microwave Group. In addition to
EME-specific lectures there will be presentations on radio astronomy and
deep space communications, as both these subjects have much in common with
EME.
Two Nobel Physics Laureates from the world of radio astronomy will be
present at the conference. Joe Taylor, K1JT, is a keen EME enthusiast and
will be presenting a paper on the MAP65 digital mode. His fellow-Laureate
Professor Antony Hewish is the speaker at the conference gala dinner on
Saturday August 18th.
All those wishing to attend must pre-register for this conference before
August 1st. Day passes and a range of accommodation packages from one to
four nights are available. See www.eme2012.com for full details.
(Amsat-UK)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: DARA ANNOUNCES 2012 - 2013 LEADERSHIP
Some names in the news. The Dayton Amateur Radio Association, sends word
from Ron Moorefield, W8ILC, that Ron DuBon, N6JRL, has been re-elected as
the organizations President. This at the organizations meeting on Friday,
June 1st.
Also retaining their seats on the DARA Board are Secretary Nancy Krodel,
KC8RMT; Treasurer Jon Thuermer, KB8SRQ; Senior Trustee Jerry Miller WD8QAI
and Junior Trustee Scott Meyers, AC8DE.
Others elected to the DARA board for 2013 are Vice Pesident Reuben Meeks,
W8GUC, Meeks had previously served as Dayton Amateur Radio Association
President back in 2001 and 2002. (W8ILC)
**
NAMES IN THE NEWS: TWO AWARDS CREATED TO HONOR THE LATE EUGENE
ZIMMERMANN, W3ZZ
To honor long-time VHF contester Eugene Zimmerman, W3ZZ, who became a
Silent Key on June 3, two new awards have been introduced for the ARRL
June VHF Contest in his memory.
First, the ARRL Contest Branch has renamed the plaque for the Overall
Winner for the Limited Multi-Operator the Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ Memorial
Plaque. Zimmermann had been a very active as part of the K8GP team in
this category. At the same time the League issued a special thank you to
Jeff Klein, K1TEO, who graciously relinquished his long-time sponsorship
of this plaque to allow this to happen.
In addition, a new award has been created, thanks to Tim Duffy K3LR and
Dave Zeph, W9ZRX. The W3ZZ Rookie Award will be awarded to the top
Single-Op, Low Power score on a minimum of two bands by a "rookie"
submitting a log in the contest for the first time. This award is open to
any operator that has never submitted a log to the June VHF Contest.
Both of these awards were made available beginning with last weekend's
ARRL June VHF Contest. (KX9X, ARRL, VHF Reflector)
pause here)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: ARRL FIELD DAY - JUNE 23 AND 24
For those few who are not yet aware, the annual ARRL Field Day takes place
each year on the 4th weekend of June. This year the Field Day starts at
1800 UTC on Saturday, June 23rd and runs through 2100 UTC on Sunday June
24th. And while its billed as an emergency preparedness exercise, its
also a great chance for you to tell the world about your hobby and the
service it provides to the community. Allen Pitts, W1AGP, is the Manager
of Media and Public Relations for the ARRL:
--
W1AGP: "Its also a chance for us to show off to various legislators and
government agencies to remind them that we are here; that we need the
spectrum. We provide emergency services and most of all, we have fun
doing it."
--
Again, these years ARRL Field Day takes place from 1800 UTC on Saturday,
June 23rd and runs through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 24th. We hope to hear
you on the air. (ARNewslineT)
**
RADIOSPORTS: AUSTRALIA VHF-UHF FIELD DAY JUNE 23-24
Meantime, down-under Australia's Winter VHF-UHF Field Day will be held
over the same weekend of June 23 and 24. The event runs for 24 hours, but
there are also 8 hour sections for operators who may not be able to camp
overnight. There are also separate categories for single and multiple
operator stations. And if you don't like the cold weather of the Southern
hemisphere winter, there is also a separate home station category. More
details are on the contest page at wia.org.au (VK3KM)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: PHONESATS SHOWN AT MAY MAKER FAIRE
Turning to ham radio in space related news, some new amateur radio
satellites based on cellphones were recently shown to the public at the
2012 Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. Amateur Radio
Newsline's Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, reports:
--
Among the displays was one for the PhoneSat amateur radio satellites.
These are a pair of ham radio satellites both of which run the Android
operating system and will be enclosed in a standard 1U CubeSat structure.
PhoneSat 1.0 cost about $3500 and is built around the Nexus One
smartphone. It will operate on battery power only with a mission lifetime
of approx 1 week. Its big brother called PhoneSat 2.0 used a Nexus S
smartphone and has solar panels on each face for a mission lifetime that
should last at least two weeks when it will likely de-orbit.
The IARU has coordinated a frequency of 437.425 MHz for the AX.25 AFSK
downlink.
The first launch is scheduled for the third quarter of 2012 on the
Antares-110 launch vehicle. It will carry two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites and
one PhoneSat 2.0. A second PhoneSat launch is expected to occur sometime
in 2013.
--
The 2012 Bay Area Maker Faire took place May 19th to the 20th. Several
news reports estimate that 65,000 to 70,000 attended this ever growing
West Coast event that was held the same weekend as the Dayton Hamvention.
(Phonesat Team)
**
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ARISS DIGIPETER MOVES TO 437.550 MHZ
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station or ARISS digipeater
has changed frequency from 145.825 MHz to 437.550 MHz. Packet operations
were moved to the Columbus Module UHF radio when the Kenwood D700 radio
was recently powered off due to needing an additional air purifier to
support the recently arrived Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV.
Normally the air purifier is located in the ATV but recent power support
issues necessitated the system be relocated to the Service Module. As a
result the purifier is now using the power outlet that the Kenwood radio
normally uses.
The Russian team has agreed to briefly power the purifier off for the
scheduled ARISS school events but then will re-activate the purifier right
afterwards. This appears to be a long term impact as ATV is currently
scheduled to depart from ISS in September. (ARISS, AMSAT, N5VHO)
**
RADIO IN SPACE: NASA SCRAPS GEMS X-RAY RESEARCH TELESCOPE PROJECT
According to space.com, NASA has cancelled a project to build an X-ray
telescope designed to look for black holes, neutron stars, and the
remnants of dead star systems and radio the results back to Earth. This
due to cost overruns.
The GEMS telescope, short for Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small
Explorer, had a budget of $105 million plus additional costs associated
with launching it into space. But what have been termed as soaring
development costs caused NASA to scrap the project.
The telescope was reportedly still in the design stage and no hardware had
been built when the space agency pulled the plug on the mission.
(Space)
**
HAM HAPPENINGS: EFC 2012 ON THE AIR.
On the air keep your ears open for numerous special event stations from
the Ukraine and Poland to be active during the 2012 European Football
Championship 2012 that runs through July 5th. This is an on-the-air
activity by Polish and Ukrainian amateurs that are affiliated with PZK and
UARL national societies and will use special prefixes such as 3Z2012 from
Poland and EM2012 from the Ukraine to mention only two. Operations will
be on all the amateur bands and there are two awards which can be earned
during this period. More detailed information about their activities can
be found on the web at efc2012.pzk.org.pl. (Southgate)
**
DX
In DX, word that F4EBT will be traveling in the French Polynesia area of
the Pacific until 24th June. He is using the callsign FO stroke F4EBT
from at least two different locations in the Islands on the Air OC-046
group and at least four different islands in the OC-067 group. QSLs go via
his home call or via the French bureau.
NK8O is working at Mwanza on Lake Victoria, Tanzania and plans to be
active as 5H3CP through June 22nd. Activity will be in his spare time with
QRP power on various HF bands using CW. QSL direct to his home call.
Lastly, M0AEP under the call VP2MDD will be on the air from Montserrat
until August 6th. He says that he will concentrate on 12, 10 and 6 meters.
Please QSL this operation as directed on the air.
(Above from various DX news sources)
**
THAT FINAL ITEM: SHORTWAVE NEWS: WASHINGTON DC GATHERING FINDS NEW
INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING INITIATIVES
And finally this week, a large number of the presentations at the recent
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters meeting centered on the
idea how shortwave radio can find a place in the 21st century. Amateur
Radio Newsline's Heather Butera-Howell, KB3TZD, has the details:
--
Dismissed by some as a relic of the Cold War era disappearing under the
shadow of emerging digital communications, many of the conference's
speakers argued that the answer to shortwave's future may reside in
providing service to areas of the world with little electric power. Also,
that it remains an effective means of relaying information to citizens of
countries with repressive regimes. It was noted that because shortwave
radio is harder to interrupt than the Internet, Radio Free Asia, the
conference host, broadcasts to the highly censored areas like North Korea.
Presenting the results of a study on which audiences were tuning into
shortwave across the globe was Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott. Elliott is an
audience research specialist. He pointed out that in countries like
Nigeria and Zimbabwe, people tended to own more radios than televisions.
According to Elliott. 32% of those surveyed face to face in the
impoverished, politically tumultuous nation of Zimbabwe said that they own
shortwave radios,
Another presenter was Thomas Witherspoon, who founded Ears to Our World.
This is a U-S based non-profit organization that supplies shortwave radios
to developing, conflict-riddled nations like South Sudan. Witherspoon
said he is skeptical when people dismiss shortwave radio's future on
premises like the Internet is everywhere.
Witherspoon says that we can look at the reasons why radio is on the
decline, or instead the ways we can invest in shortwave radio and why we
should do that. He says that it's affordable, and broadcasters are doing
it pretty efficiently.
One of the conference's attendees was Shahnaz Ghavami of the United States
FCC. She said that after that after spending the day with the
international broadcasters it makes you think about shortwave as something
new.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heater Butera-Howell, KB3TZD, in
Berwick, Pennsylvania.
--
The National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters meeting was held May
10th and 11th in Washington, D.C. (RW, B&C, others)
**
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 W-I-A News, that's all from the
Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline(at) arnewsline
(dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT
only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write
to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 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 NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
R\%/itt
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* Origin: Roiz Flying \A/ Service * South Texas * USA * (1:387/22)
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