Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1850 with a release date of January 25 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Hams in Iceland and Greenland get new spectrum; hams down-under get use of special prefix for Australia Day; the United States hits yet another all time high in Amateur Service license holders; AMSAT North America's main website hacked and two operations from Laos get DXCC credit. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1850 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RESTRUCTURING: HAMS IN ICELAND AND GREENLAND GET NEW SPECTRUM We begin this week with news that hams in Iceland have some new frequencies to use. Here's Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, with the details: -- The national association of Icelandic Radio Amateurs has announced that amateurs in that country have been granted operating privileges on 472 to 479kHz. Access is granted on a Secondary basis, with a maximum power of 5W EIRP. Maximum bandwidth is 1kHz. This new allocation is open to the G license class and higher. In addition, the regulatory authority recently extended temporary permits for 1850 to 1900kHz, 5.26 to 5.41MHz and 70 to 70.2MHz. I'm Jeremy Boot and you are listening to the Amateur Radio Newsline. -- Also, some good news for the ham radio community in Greenland. OX3XR reports that nation has now moved to a full band allocation of 5.250 to 5.450 MHz from its previous channelized status. (GB2RS, OX3XR) ** RESTRUCTURING: SWEDISH HAMS GAIN TEMPORARY SHARED ACCESS TO THE 5 MHZ BAND The IARU Region 1 newsletter that Sweden is now issuing its radio amateurs with temporary permits for operation in the 5.3 MHz or 60 meter band. According to Anders Larsson, SM6CNN, that nations telecommunications regulator the PTS has begun to issue permits for experimental transmitters at 5.310 to 5.313, 5.320 to 5.323, 5.380 to 5.383 and 5.390 to 5.393 MHz. Maximum bandwidth is limited to 3 kHz independent of type of modulation with a maximum output 100 watt peak envelope power. Holders of a Swedish amateur service call sign may use that call sign to identify. Also, it is permitted to make contact with other, presumably non ham radio permit holders. There are however some restrictions. Mobile use is not permitted. Also, this operation must respect all other traffic in the band and not cause any interference to it. The P-T-S will require payment of yet unspecified administration fee and the permits it issues will only be good for a time period of 6 months. More information is at www.iaru-r1.org. (IARU) ** RESCUE RADIO: BROADCASTER JOINS HUNT FOR MISSING CHILD IN SINGAPORE Broadcast radio is playing a major role in the hunt for a missing child in Singapore. This as all four stations under the Star Radio Group have joined in the search for six-year- old William Yau Zhen Zhong, who has been missing since Wednesday, January 16th. Suria FM, 988 FM, Red FM and Capital FM are running public service announcements every alternate hour to ask that their combined 4.3 million listeners to join in the search. Other information and a picture of the missing boy have been uploaded to the stations' websites as well as their Facebook and Twitter pages. Star Radio Group deputy chief broadcasting officer Kudsia Kahar appealed to the public to call the authorities if they see William. Kahar says that the only way to locate him is to cast a wide net. As such, she said that the Star Radio Group is 100 per cent committed in doing its part to try and find him. Kudsia added that she sympathized with the missing child's parents and understood their anguish. (Asia One) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: ACMA TO PERMIT AX PREFIX ON AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL DAY The Australian Communications and Media Authority will once again permit V-K radio amateurs to substitute their normal VK callsign prefix with the letters AX on Australia Day, which is Saturday January 26. This once a year permit gives Australian hams a chance to be part of the national holiday which commemorates the first settlement at Port Jackson in 1788 which is now a part of the city of Sydney. It should be noted that the AX prefixed has been used for other special events. Mostly those on occasions of national or international significance to Australia. For example, this occurred during the Sydney 2000 Olympics and saw AX3GAMES take to the ham radio bands. The call AX3MCG was issued for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. (VK3PC) ** 2012 MARKS ALL-TIME HIGH FOR AMATEUR RADIO LICENSES Back in the United States the number of radio amateurs in the United States has reached an all-time high of almost 710,000. This according to figures released last week by ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has the details: -- In looking at new and upgraded licenses, as well as licensees per ARRL Division, VEC Manager Somma took a close look at the numbers looking for growth within each license class and all of Amateur Radio over the last 40 years. When looking at the three current license classes, the number of Technicians, Generals and Amateur Extras peaked in December at 345,369, 163,370 and 130,736, respectively. Somma says that the total number of US amateurs in the FCC database also continues to grow each year, As of December 31, 2012,the number of licensees reached an all-time high of 709,575 as opposed to 702,056 at the end of 2011 and 696,041 for 2010. In other words, the number of United States licensed radio amateurs increased at an average rate of 21 per day. Somma said that more than 3000 new licenses were issued in 2012 than in 2011, while upgraded license activity remained steady throughout the year. All in all, a very good year for growth in the United States amateur radio ranks. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick, Pennsylvania. -- The ARRL has a more in-depth report about this continued growth pattern. You can read it on line at tinyurl.com/2012- license-increase. (ARRL Letter) ** RESCUE RADIO: FEMA SAYS IPAS USE RISING According to news reports, a growing number of emergency managers are using FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System or IPAWS to send emergency alerts. IPAWS now has some 148 operational users. 93 of those have the authority to send an alert to the public using the FEMA- IPAWS Web-based message origination system through the Commercial Mobile Alert Service or EAS. With Commercial Mobile Alert Service on board, major and rural cellphone carriers tie into IPAWS to send 90-character text-based alerts. According to the latest figures, some 20 messages were sent over the Commercial Mobile Alert Service and 81 were sent using EAS. Of the EAS messages, many of those were required weekly or monthly tests also known as the R-M-T. (RW) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the KD8LWR repeater serving Washtenaw County, Michigan. (5 sec pause here) ** RADIO AND THE NET: AMSAT-NA WEBSITE COMPROMISED BY HACKING Hackers have hit AMSAT North America, Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with the details: -- AMSAT North America says that on or about January 20th its main web site at www.amsat.org was compromised by a hacker. The attack took the form of the contents of the supporting database, including non-public information, being posted on other publicly available web sites. According to AMSAT, the main site was developed roughly 10 years ago by a group of AMSAT volunteers under a more benign Internet environment of the time. The team that built that site is no longer associated with AMSAT, so work has been underway over the last several months to move to a modern, maintainable, and very secure infrastructure. AMSAT says that this recent breach will accelerate that activity. In the interim, www.amsat.org will have limited content. Neither the AMSAT store nor the Fox project web site were affected by this breach. Mail services remain operational. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles. -- A spokesperson tells Amateur Radio Newsline that the AMSAT Store is still open for business, and can be reached directly at store.amsat.org/catalog (AMSAT NA) ** COMMUNICATIONS NEWS: NOT ENOUGH CELLULAR AND BROADBAND AT PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION Many who attended the Inauguration of President Obama for his second term in office on Monday, January 21st were reportedly unhappy with cellular telephone and broadband service from the National Mall. And this included some heavyweights in Congress. One of these was Senator Claire McCaskill who at the end the festivities got on-line to tweet her apologies to those waiting for commentary via the Senators Twitter account. Senator McCaskill is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees wireless companies and their networks.. But the sense from broadband provider ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint was that their networks performed as well as they could have given the heavy demand. This given the enormous number of attendees, many of whom were simultaneously trying to share pictures and messages with others. This in turn created a strain on the finite amount of broadband available to handle the traffic from an ever-increasing number of smartphones and tablet computer that are in common use these days. More about this situation can be found on-line at tinyurl.com/inauguration-cellphone-problem. (Politico, other published reports) ** RADIO HAPPENINGS: NAB BROADCAST ENGINEERING CONFERENCE TOPICS ANNOUNCED The National Association of Broadcasters has released a list of topics for its Broadcast Engineering Conference for its trade show this spring. For radio broadcasters some of the more interesting programs include Advanced Technologies for Radio; IP for Radio; Spectrum Matters; Technical Regulatory Issues; Radio Receiver Technologies; AM Band Revitalization; Cloud Based Storage and Distribution and Planning for Safety. Also planned is a special RF Boot Camp called Understanding Radio and Television Transmission. This is designed for personnel who might be unfamiliar with transmission technology but should have a solid acquaintance with it such as station and network I-T personnel or small station management. The National Association of Broadcasters Convention is slated for April 6th to the 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada. (RW) ** RADIO SCOUTING: GOOD NEWS FOR SCOUTS INVOLVED IN RADIO Some good news for scouts involved in radio and radio communications. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, has the details: -- The national Boy Scouts of America is now recognizing any youth or adult who has an amateur radio license with a special patch that can be displayed on the uniform. The patch, in the form of a strip, has the words: "Amateur Radio Operator" on it and will soon be, if it's not there already, available at local Scout shops or through regional Scouting supply operations. Jim Wilson, K5ND, is the BSA's director of communications services, but known in the ham community as chairman of the national Radio Scouting Committee and national Jamboree on the Air organizer. Wilson says the recognition came from discussions that began some months ago with the scout committee that selects awards and insignia for the scout uniform. He says research shows amateur radio was recognized by the Scouts as early as the 1940s... "There were some proficiency badges or awards that Scouting offered - one of which was a Scout Radioman personal interest badge that was for senior Scouts and Explorer Scouts," Wilson says. "And, you can actually find those badges in copies of the old handbooks and things like that." Wilson says from those discussions came the first of the recommendations for the recently adopted Morse Code Interpreter strip. But Wilson says the awards committee came back after that was approved and asked whether the Radio Scouting Committee could draft something else to recognize ham radio. Thus was born the Amateur Radio Operator patch. "You can put this strip on your uniform and then that way be recognized for your ability to help in communication around events or around emergencies or just as a recognition that you've got this license," Wilson says. And, where does the patch go? "The right sleeve of the uniform underneath the U.S. flag there, a patrol or den emblem, and then there's the unit quality award and it goes right under those three items or if you only have two of them under the first two," Wilson says. Wilson, who also is the volunteer coordinator for this year's K2BSA operation at the national BSA Jamboree at the Becthel Summit Reserve in West Virginia, says you can find out more at the K2BSA website. We have a link (http://www.k2bsa.net/operator-rating) to that within this story published on our website arnewsline.org For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia. -- Last year the Boy Scouts of America Awards and Insignia Committee introduced the Morse Code Interpreter Strip. This based on the recommendation of the organizations National Radio Scouting Committee. (NT3V) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: SHELBY HAMFEST RETURNS TO CLEVELAND COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS The Shelby Hamfest is headed back to its former home at North Carolina's Cleveland County Fairgrounds. This after spending the last five years in Dallas, North Carolina. The Shelby Hamfest moved to Dallas in 2008 after contract disagreements between the Shelby Amateur Radio Club and the Cleveland County Fair Association. That situation has now been resolved and will bring the famed hamfest back to the Fair Grounds on Labor Day weekend which this year is August 31st and September 1st. For more information keep an eye on the events website. You will find it in cyberspace at www.shelbyhamfest.org. You can also follow the event Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShelbyHamfest. (goupstate.com, Shelby Hamfest) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR DAYTON TOPBAND DINNER Reservations and tickets are now available for the 24th Annual Dayton TopBand dinner slated for Friday evening May 17th. This year's venue is the Presidential Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Social hour is at 6:15 PM and the dinner begins at 7:15 PM. All times are Eastern Daylight. Noted Top Band enthusiast Larry "Tree" Tyree, N6TR, will be this years featured speaker. More is on-line at topbanddinner.com (K3LR) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: VIENNA WIRELESS WINTERFEST FEBRUARY 24TH The 37th annual Vienna Wireless Winterfest takes place on Sunday, February 24th. The venue this year is the Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia. Talk-in will be on the 146.91 repeater. For more information please visit viennawireless.org/winterfest.php (Via e-mail) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: W2LPT HONORED WITH QCWA 75 YEAR AWARD Some names in the news. First up is Quarter Century Wireless Association Palm Beach Chapter member Seymour "Sy" Levine, W2LPT. He was to be presented with the prestigious 75 Year Award from QCWA National Headquarters. W2LPT was first licensed in 1938 in New York City. The ceremony was to take place at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Riviera Beach, Florida on January 23rd. In addition to the award, Levine was also to be presented with a Life Membership in the National QCWA. (W2TMT) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: WAYNE MILLS, N7NG, NAMED CQ MAGAZINE DX EDITOR Renowned DXer, DXpeditioner and contester Wayne Mills, N7NG, of Jackson, Wyoming, has been named CQ magazine's new DX Editor. First licensed in 1953 at age 11, Mills began DXing in 1956 and went on his first DXpedition in 1985. He was part of the Zed-A-1-A team that reintroduced amateur radio to Albania in 1991, and the inaugural operation from the newly- independent Republic of Kosovo in 2008. From 2000 to 2007, Mills was manager of the ARRL's Membership Services Department and worked on developing the Logbook of the World electronic confirmation system. He also set several contesting records over the years, but says he considers himself much more of a DXer than a contester. N7NG will begin writing the CQ DX column as of the magazine's April 2013 issue. Mills who was a 1999 inductee into the CQ DX Hall of Fame succeeds Carl Smith, N4AA, who has stepped down after writing the magazine's DX column for 13 years. (CQ) ** BREAK 2 This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United States of America, 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) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMSAT-DC WORKSHOP ON PORTABLE SATELLITE GROUND STATIONS The AMSAT-DC Group is planning a Spring Workshop on portable satellite ground stations slated to take place on Saturday, March 23, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This will a nearly all-day workshop for those who wish to learn more about satellite operations and develop their own portable ground stations. Participants will be encouraged to bring their projects to assemble, show, and explain to others. For more information please contact Pat Kilroy by e-mail to n8pk (at) amsat (dot) org. Registration information will be announced on or before February 15th by the AMSAT News Service and posted to the Calendar of Events at www.amsat.org (ANS, N8PK, Southgate) ** RADIO IN SPACE: NASA TRANSMITS MONA LISA IMAGE TO ORBITER AT THE MOON As part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite orbiting the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter program have successfully transmitted an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth using only a high powered laser. The digitized image traveled some 240,000 miles form from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging station at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on the spacecraft. By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses that are routinely sent to track the devices position, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and satellite location. The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to Earth using the spacecraft's radio telemetry system. Typically, satellites that go beyond Earth orbit use radio for tracking and communication. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the only satellite in orbit around a celestial body other than Earth to be tracked by laser as well. One of many stories on this latest accomplishment can be read on- line at tinyurl.com/mona-lisa-moon (NASA, others) ** SPACE EXPLORATION: NASA TO ADD EXPANDABLE MODULE TO THE ISS NASA has officially signed a contract to attach an inflatable private module to the International Space Station. Under the agreement announced on January 11th, NASA will pay $17.8 million to the Nevada based private spaceflight firm Bigelow Aerospace for the company's Expandable Activity Module or BEAM which will be attached to the orbital lab as a technology demonstration. BEAM is likely to be similar to Bigelow's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 prototypes, which the company launched to orbit in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both Genesis modules are 14.4 feet long by 8.3 feet wide, with about 406 cubic feet of pressurized volume. NASA officials have said that BEAM could be on orbit about two years after getting official approval. The module will likely be launched by one of the agency's contract cargo carriers such as SpaceX or Orbital Sciences Corporation. More is on-line at tinyurl.com/new-iss-module and bigelowaerospace.com. (NASA, Bigelow Aerospace) ** DXCC NEWS: TWO LAOS OPERATIONS GET DXCC CREDIT ARRL Awards Branch Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, reports that the 2010 to 2011 XWPA and the current XW4XR operations from Laos have been approved for DXCC credit. Cards for those operations can now be submitted and will be counted toward your DXCC standing. And yes, XWPA is the correct callsign. There was no number designator in it. For more background on this strange but very legitimate callsign take your web browser to http://dx- world.net/2010/xwpa-laos (DXCC, DX World) ** DX In other DX news, members of Verona DX Team will return to Cumura, Gunia Bissau between February 10th and March 2nd. This to help with the mission work and be operate whenever possible, They will use the call J52HF and operate on the HF bands as well as 50 MHz using SSB only. More details including QSL routing should be forthcoming. F6AM, will be active as 5H1Z from Zanzibar through February 28th. Operations will be on 40-10 meters using CW and SSB. During his time there, he may also operate from Mafia Island, Pemba Island and an island in the AF-075 Islands On The Air group. QSL via his home callsign, direct as listed on QRZ.com or via the bureau. N6TJ has cancelled his operation as 9Y4W from Scarborough, Tobago Island for the ARRL DX CW Contest that runs February 16th and 17th. His host on Tobago has a broken tower and there is no time to repair it before the contest. DF7ZS will be active from Aruba possibly using the call P41P between March 26th and April 3rd including the CQ World Wide WPX SSB Contest on March 30th and 31st. Some casual operations will take place before and after the contest on 17 and 12 meters. QSL via his home callsign. F6GWV and F6HMQ will be active as TO22C from Guadeloupe between February 17th and March 3rd. Operations will be on all bands, but with a focus on 160 meters. QSL via F6HMQ. GM3WOJ and GM4YXI will be active signing VK9C/GM2MP from Cocos Keeling Island between March 30th and April 13th. Operation will be on SSB and CW, with some RTTY. They hope to have a real-time logging system and upload daily to Logbook of the World if conditions permit. Lastly, AI6MS reports that will be operating portable from Ghana as 9G5MS through May. Marcel explains that he is a volunteer with the non-profit organization called 'Medicine on the Move' and will be using amateur radio in the classroom for the students from the AvTech Academy. Because of this priority will be given for QSO's will be given to schools, universities, and prescheduled contacts. QSL cards are tentatively planned and can be expected in the 2nd half of 2013 if requested. Yours goes as directed on the air. (Above from various DX news sources) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: THE 21ST CENTURY PHONE BOOTH EMERGES IN NYC And finally this week, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the humble phone booth took on renewed importance in the Metro New York area. This as cut-off residents used pay phones to try to connect with one another during and after the emergency. Now, this old but reliable form of public communications is getting a major facelift as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK. -- New York City has officially launched a plan to transform pay phones into giant touch screens that provide city information, emergency broadcasts and local business deals. Located in the same places as existing phone booths, the new platforms are to be operated as a partnership between New York City, Cisco Corporation and City 24/7. These smart screens were tested in a pilot project but now are live across the city and appear to be very reliable. Soon, there will be 250 of the new devices in all five New York City boroughs. This means that a person strolling through a given area would only have to pause a moment to tap on the public screen to find information about the closest subway or a city park. While there, he or she might also tap on the "deals" icon to bring up a list of coupons for nearby shops and restaurants that could instantly be transferred to a smartphone or other wireless device. But maps and coupons are only one dimension of the new platforms role. Like traditional phone booths they will also serve as a communication tool during emergencies but in a far more sophisticated way. For instance, in the event of another disaster like Hurricane Sandy, the screens will become two-way distress devices that let citizens call for help or receive instructions about how to find safety. Welcome to the phone booth of the 21st century. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl, Lasek, K9BIK, wondering if these new public communications tools will be coming our way out here in Zion, Illinois. -- The companies that designed the new system say that they do plan to expand to other cities in the future, but we do not know if Cheryl's hometown will be one of them. That said, lots more about this new dimension in public communications can be found at tinyurl.com/new-video-phone-booths (GIGOM.COM) ** 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, TWiT-TV 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 Before we go a reminder that the Dayton Hamvention is seeking nominations for its 2013 Radio Amateur of the Year, Technical Achievement, Special Achievement and the Radio Club of the Year awards. The cutoff date to submit nominations is February 15th. More information and official nominating forms are now on-line at www.Hamvention.org/awards.PHP. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm David Black, KB4KCH, at the South-East Bureau in Birmingham, Alabama, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.
