Friday, February 22, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1854 - February 22 2013


Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1854 with a release
date of February 22 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T.  Australian radio amateurs may
lose the 2300 to 2302 MHz band; Over the Horizon radar
invades 10 meters; amateur satellite allocations on the
agenda at I-A-R-U meeting in Vienna; Mainland China
manufacturer releases low cost all service multi-mode High
Frequency transceiver and zombies invade the nations
Emergency Alert System.  Find out the details are on Amateur
Radio NewslineT report number 1854 coming your way right
now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RADIO LA:  VK HAMS COULD LOOSE ACCESS TO 2300 TO 2302 MHZ

Australian amateurs could soon loose access to the band from
2300 to 2302 MHz.  Amateur Radio Newsline has the details in
this report:

--

The Australian Communications and Media Authority or ACMA
has informed the Wireless Institute of Australia of proposed
changes to spectrum usage in the 2300 to 2302 MHz band.
Changes that will result in Advanced Licensees losing access
to that spectrum.

The ACMA proposes to acquire the spectrum for LTE radio
purposes.  LTE, or Long Term Evolution, marketed as 4G LTE,
is a wireless standard for high-speed data for  mobile
phones and data terminals.  The change would give LTE
services the full 100MHz segment from 2300 to 2400MHz, which
would resultin twenty 5MHz LTE channels

Losing any spectrum is of great concern to Australian radio
amateurs as this secondary allocation is the only viable
option for Earth-Moon-Earth contacts to Region II where the
this activity is on 2304 MHz or Region I which uses 2320
MHz.  After the reallocation Australian amateur EME activity
would be confined to 2400 MHz and above, where wireless
medical and Wi-Fi equipment is likely to cause interference
weak signal reception by EME stations.  And for hams in VK
land it could mean that most EME operations could come to an
end.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
in the newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

The Australian Communications and Media Authority plans to
recommend the change to the Minister for Broadband
Communications and Digital Economy in the near future.  If
the Minister approves the change radio Australian amateurs
will probably lose access to the spectrum sometime in 2015.
More on this situation is on-line at wia.org.au  (WIA)

**

INTRUDER WATCH:  OVER THE HORIZON RADAR HEARD ON 10 METERS

The IARU Region 1 Monitoring Service reports on a mysterious
Over The Horizon radar causing interference in the 28 MHz
amateur radio band.  The mysterious signal disturbs the 28
to 29 MHz segment of 10 meters often with signals are 60 kHz
wide, and jumping in bursts.

The location of the transmitter appears to be someplace in
the Middle East but so far getting precise bearings have
proven to be difficult.

The entire report covering this situation and other
intruders to our ham bands can be downloaded free of charge
at tinyurl.com/iarums-jan2013.  (IARU-R1)

**

RESTRUCTURING: AMATEUR SATELLITE ALLOCATIONS ON THE R-1
AGENDA AT VIENNA

The IARU Region 1 2013 Interim Meeting slated for Vienna,
Austreia in April will be discussing two proposals of
importance to Amateur-Satellite Service and weak signal
users.   One that's not very controversial is an amendment
to the 28 MHz Bandplan to remove of the downlink only
restriction in the 29.300 to 29.510 MHz satellite segment.
But the other has raised some eyebrows.  The one proposes
the introduction of a new satellite downlink band for CW and
SSB transponders at 144.000 to 144.035 MHz.

The latter proposal could have the affect of putting United
States hams in a rather precarious position.  As pointed out
on the W6YX VHF Reflector, SSB transmissions are not allowed
below 144.100 in the US, even if they come from space.  More
important is that 144.0 to 144.035 is already used almost
exclusively for C-W based Earth-Moon-Earth communications
and experimentation and interference from SSB voice would
not be very welcome in that spectrum.  (IARU-R1)

**

RADIO LAW:  RCFT REVERSES DECISION ON NORTHERN IRELAND EXAM

The U-K Radio Communications Foundation Trustees have done a
complete about face in regard to a decision made last year
not to issue Advanced Radio Amateur Examination pass
certificates to two candidates in Northern Ireland.  This
following internal reviews which had suggested that the
results might be unsafe.

Following further consideration of this issue in conjunction
with representatives of Ofcom and the Foundation's own
internal examination, the  committees of Trustees have made
a decision to now award the candidates their Advanced Radio
Communications Examination Pass Certificates.  Also they
want to re-emphasize that there is no evidence of wrong
doing by the club, its examiners or candidates themselves.

The Radio Communications Foundation Trustees also want to
confirm that the Foundation remains committed to ensuring
the highest possible standards of integrity in the
examination system and will continue post-examination
reviews of returned papers to support this objective. The
Foundation's Standards Committee will review all examination
appeal processes and procedures drawing on lessons learnt in
this case.

The Foundation and the club have mutually agreed that no
purpose would be served by further public comment on this
matter.  More o this matter is on the web at
www.commsfoundation.org/rce/news.  (RCFT)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  AMATEUR RADIO GOES TO EMCOMM SCHOOL

An article in the just out March issue of QST Magazine
"Amateur Radio Goes To School" will be of interest to anyone
involved in emergency communications.  Authored by David
Witkowski, W6DTW, the article is a report on the annual
Disaster Management Initiative Workshop held at Carnegie
Mellon University's campus in California's Silicon Valley.

--

W6DTW:  "Carnegie Mellon's Disaster Management initiative
started a few years ago in an effort to bring academic focus
to Public Safety communications and Disaster Response.  Most
of what we know about disaster response is really empirical.
We've developed it over time and through interaction with
other responders we've put together a body of knowledge
which is suitable but what Carnegie Mellon is trying to do
with the Disaster Management initiative is to apply academic
rigor to the question of disaster response."

--

According to Witkowski, the Carnegie Mellon University's
Disaster Management Initiative is a somewhat unique entity
in that it's one of the very few instances where disaster
management and disaster communications is being studied in a
formal academic setting.  It's also distinctive in that the
Disaster Management Initiative leadership team of deans and
professors and most of the workshop participants are
licensed radio amateurs.

Witkowski notes that while the Disaster Management
Initiative is about a lot of things aside from amateur
radio, that one can definitely see its influence on the
research and the annual workshop.

W6DTW's article appears in Rick Palm's Public Service column
in the March issue of QST beginning on page 82.  If you are
involved in any aspect of emergency service participation,
this commentary is must reading.  (W6DTW, ARNewsline)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the KD6LC repeater serving Guerenville,
California.

(5 sec pause here)


**

ENFORCEMENT:  UNLICENSED OPERATOR ARRESTED FOR THREATS
AGAINST TEXAS RADIO CLUB

A man arrested on allegations he used amateur radio to
threaten to kill members of a local amateur radio club has
been released on bail from the Bexar County Texas Jail.

Twenty-nine year old John David Watkins III, posted a $4,000
bond and was freed before noon Sunday February 17th.  This
after his having been taken into custody the previous night
on two counts of making terroristic threats.

An arrest affidavit states Watkins, known on radio
frequencies as "White Noise," was creating interference and
illegally transmitting without having the required radio
operator license.  A member of a radio club met with Watkins
in January and told him to stop or the group would report
him to the Federal Communications Commission.

Officials said that the next day Watkins allegedly made
threats against the person who visited him and against other
members of the club, saying he would kill them with an AK-47
rifle.  These threats were reported to the police who
provided security at the club's next meeting.

At airtime, what motivated Watkins to make the alleged
threats or if the matter will go to trial is unknown.
(MySanantonio.com, KABB, KSAT, others)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  ARREST MADE IN UK UNLICENSED RADIO STATION
RAID

A United Kingdom man has been arrested in a raid on an
unlicensed radio station in Wolverhampton.

Police and officials from communications regulator Ofcom
raided the premises in Park Village, early on Wednesday,
February 13th.  At that time equipment was also seized,
including microphones, a mixer, a computer and associated
cabling.

Police said the 33 year old man from the town of Dudley, was
arrested on suspicion of offences under the Wireless
Telegraphy Act 2006.  He has since been released on bail.
(BBC)

**

RADIO POLITICS:  CONGRESS MAY CHANGE FCC SUNSHINE RULE

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and the
Senate are reintroducing a bill to allow three or more
Federal Communications Commissioners to meet in private, as
long as no official agency action is taken.

Under current law, something known as the "sunshine" rule
prohibits more than two FCC commissioners from talking to
each other outside of a public meeting.  The FCC
Collaboration Act was reintroduced in the House by
Representatives Anna Eshoo, John Shimkus and Mike Doyle.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Dean Heller plan to introduce the
Senate counterpart.

The bill got sidelined last year when it was tucked in as a
provision to a larger bill on FCC reform that Democratic
party did not support.  Otherwise, modifying the sunshine
rule is something both sides of the aisle support.  (Ad
Week, NAB)

**

RADIO LAW:  COURT RULES RFID NOT MARK OF THE BEAST

A very interesting court case that pitted a students
religious beliefs versus communications technology has been
decided.  Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, is near Houston with more:

--

A Texas student who refused to wear a radio tag that tracked
her movements on campus has lost a federal court appeal
against her school's ID policy.

According to news reports, the 15 year old declined to wear
the RFID badge on religious grounds, saying it was the "mark
of the beast."  After she stopped wearing it she was
suspended and went to court where she won a temporary
injunction to continue her studies at the school  without
the RF tag.

Now a federal court ruling has overturned the lower court.
It says that if she is to stay at the particular school, she
would be required to wear the badge. Otherwise, she would
have to transfer to a new school.

The radio tags are used to track attendance, which in turn
helps secure school funding.

Im Skeeter Nash, N5ASH.

--

More is on-line at tinyurl.com/student-rfid.  (Published
news reports)

**

WORLDBEAT:  NEW INTERNATIONAL REPLY COUPON INTRODUCED

The Universal Postal Union has introduced the newest model
of the International Reply Coupon.  The new Doha coupon
named for the 25th Universal Postal Congress that took place
in Doha, Qatar in October 2012 will replace the current
model, known as the Nairobi model.

Although the US Postal Service no longer sells IRC's, they
are still available in other countries and post offices in
the United States are mandated to redeem them. The Doha
model IRC will be available for purchase on July 1st and is
valid for exchange until the end of 2017. The Nairobi model
remains valid until December 31st of this year.  (ARRL)

**

RADIO BUSINESS:  LOW COST CHINESE MADE ALL MODE HF
TRANSCEIVER FROM CHINA INTRODUCED

A new all mode low priced High Frequency transceiver from
China is on the way.  Called the Feitong model FT-808 the
new radio is being billed primarily as a Marine Band
transceiver but its published specifications read more like
a mid-range piece of ham radio gear.  For instance the FT-
808 has a receive range of 500 Khz to 29.9 Mhz and a
transmitter that covers 1.6 to 29.9 Mhz.  In other words, it
covers all the ham radio bands from 160 through 10 and lots
more.

The receiver is a double conversion superhetrodyne with both
it and the transmitter capable of operating Upper and lower
sideband, CW and AM with 100 memory channels.  Tuning
appears to be by up and down push buttons with a claimed
receiving sensitivity of 12 db SINAD and a squelch
sensitivity threshold on SSB, CW, and RTTY of less than
5.6uV.

One thing of note.  While transmitter power appears to be in
the 100 watt or slightly higher range but according to the
public spec sheet there appears to be no provision to lock
out transmission on 11 meters.  This will likely keep it
from gaining FCC acceptance for legalized sales in the
United States.  At least not in its current non locked out
11 meter configuration.

That said, the Feitong FT-808 carries a delivered list price
of only $410 U-S dollars.  Its complete specifications and a
video of an Italian ham radio operation using it on 40
meters is on-line at tinyurl.com/feitong-808-hf.  (Sparkys
Blog, www.ecvv.com, iv3vjh.me, others)

**

HAM TRADITIONS:  HAM RADIO 100 YEARS OLD AT ISU

The history of amateur radio at Iowa State University is
described as a technological revolution.  This by Jeff Stein
who is an Iowa broadcasting historian, author and a former
lecturer at Iowa State's Greenlee School of Journalism and
Communication.

According to Stein, the fact that Iowa State was one of the
first places to pay attention to this technology that
ultimately revolutionized our lives in the 20th century is
important.  This is because it shows that Iowa State has
consistently been dedicated to being first in developing
communication technologies.

The report of Stein's findings was first reported in
The Iowa State Daily where he notes that amateur radio first
came to the school over 100 years ago.  You can read the
entire story by author Kimberly Woo on-line at
tinyurl.com/Iowa-State-100.  (Cyclone Amateur Radio Club)

**

HAM EDUCATION: FAR ACCEPTING SCHOLARSHIP APPS FOR 2013 TO
2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

The Foundation for Amateur Radio, a non-profit organization
with its headquarters in Washington, D.C., plans to
administer forty-seven scholarships for the 2013 to 2014
academic year.  This, to assist licensed Radio Amateurs in
the pursuit of higher education. The Foundation fully funds
two of these scholarships. The remainder are administered by
the Foundation for various donors.

Licensed Radio Amateurs who compete for these awards must be
planning to pursue a full time course of studies beyond high
school and be enrolled, or have been accepted for
enrollment, at an accredited university, college or
technical school.  The awards range from $500 to $5,000 with
preference given, in some cases, to residents of
specified geographical areas or the pursuit of certain study
programs.  Non-US residents are eligible to apply for some
of the scholarships.

To be considered, completed applications must be received at
the Foundation by April 15th.  Additional information and an
application form may be requested by letter or post card
sent to FAR Scholarships, Post Office Box 911, Columbia,
Maryland, 21044-0911 or by e-mail to dave (dot) prestel (at)
gmail (dot) com.  Applications are available, for download
from the web at tinyurl.com/far-scholarship-2013  (FAR)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  NM RADIO CLUB TO CELEBRATE 63RD ANNIVERSARY
IN MARCH

The Mesilla Valley Radio Club of Las Cruces, New Mexico will
be operating special event station K5BL on March 23rd.  This
in celebration of it being one of New Mexico's oldest,
continuous operating radio clubs.

K5BL will be commemorating the clubs 63rd anniversary by
operating from 1500 to 1400 UTC as near as possible to
14.330 and 21.337, MHz.  A special QSL card for the event
will be available by request.  To get one, send your QSL
card confirming your contact with a business sized self
addressed forever stamped envelope Special Events Station
K5BL Anniversary, in care of the Mesilla Valley Radio Club,
P.O. Box 1443, Las Cruces, New Mexico  88004-1443.

And less we forget to mention, a very happy 63rd to the
Mesilla Valley Radio Club.  (K6SAS)

**

HAMVENTION NEWS:  THE 2013 VHF WEAK SIGNAL GROUP BANQUET

The 18th annual VHF Weak Signal Group dinner to be held on
Friday evening May 17th at the Dayton Grand Hotel in Dayton,
Ohio.  This in conjunction with the 2013 Dayton Hamvention.
The special guest speaker is famed VHF DX operator Jeff
Klein, K1TEO.  For more information contact Tony Emanuele by
e-mail to WA8RJF (at) ARRL (dot)net,  (WA8RJF,  WB8BZK)

**

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)

**

WORLDBEAT:  TV TRANSMITTER CAUSES MARITIME INTERFERENCE TO
NEW ZEALAND VHF DISTRESS CHANNEL

An Interesting interference case has been solved down-under
as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen,
ZL2BHF:

--

A recent case of a very low level of interference affecting
the maritime VHF distress and calling channel 16 at two of
New Zealand's Maritime sites has finally been solved.  The
investigation into the interference took seven days to
resolve.  It involved contacting ships and shore stations on
the New Zealnd coast, as well as both ground and helicopter
searches.

Eventually a very low level signal was detected.  Direction
finding indicated it was from a broadcast transmission
location about 120 km from one of the affected sites and
185km from the other.  A visit to the broadcast transmission
site traced the low level interference to a spur from a high
power television transmitter.  The cause of the interference
turned out to be an inspection panel which had been left
open for maintenance purposes.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, in
Nelson, New Zealand.

--

Word is that sealing the inspection panel solved the problem
immediately.  (WIA)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  UKUBE-1 TO LAUNCH IN JUNE 2013

The United Kingdoms' Herald newspaper reports that the UKube-
1 CubeSat will be launched in June and will carry an amateur
radio transponder to orbit.

According to the news story, the spacecraft is being built
for the UK Space Agency by Clyde Space.  If all goes as
announced its launch will take place from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-2-1B booster this
spring.

UKube-1 will carry a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards to
provide an amateur radio 435 to145 MHz linear transponder.
Also as a part of the payload will be a 1200 B-P-S-K beacon
for educational outreach.

The newspaper also reports that Clyde Space has announced
plans to build a facility in the United States.  More is on-
line at tinyurl.com/uquibe-june-launch  (The Herald)

**

RADIO IN SPACE:  SCIENTISTS OFFER SUPPORT FOR NASA'S NEXT
MARS ROVER

Scientists have applauded a NASA decision to send another
rover to Mars in 2020.  At the same time they are stressing
that the mission should pave the way to return Martian rocks
to Earth.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD,
has the details:

--

The new Mars rover mission was announced last December 4th
by NASA's Associate Administrator for Science John
Grunsfeld.  This, at the annual meeting of the American
Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

At that time it was announced that the next rover will share
some design features with NASA's Mars Science Laboratory
Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August to begin at
least a two-year mission.

Now, in a pair of statements released January 28th ad 30th,
two well-respected groups of researchers have shared their
views on the plan to send another robotic explorer to the
Red Planet in seven years. The Planetary Society and the
American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary
Sciences applauded the announcement that NASA plans another
mission to the Red Planet in 2020.  At the same time both
strongly suggested that the mission should have the
capability to collect and store Martian rock samples as
recommended by the National Research Council's Planetary
Science Decadal Survey.

NASA has released very few details on the proposed new rover
plan.  Because of this it's still unclear whether the robot
will be able to collect Martian rock samples intended to be
brought back to Earth.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in
Berwick, Pennsylvania

--

It should be noted that most plans for returning Mars
samples are multi-phase, with an initial mission to collect
and store the rocks.  Later missions would rendezvous with
the collector and return the samples to Earth.  (Space &
Science)

**

ON THE AIR:  ROTARY INTERNATIONAL END POLIO NOW CAMPAIGN

On Saturday, February 23rd and Sunday, February 24th,
amateur radio operators around the world will take part in a
special operating even.  This to raise awareness about
Rotary International's End Polio Now campaign.

The hams are all members of the Rotary International group
Rotarians on Amateur Radio.  They will be calling "CQ
Rotary" or "CQ Polio" and will be prepared to talk about the
Rotary Club and the accomplishments and challenges of the
End Polio Now campaign.
This is a joint effort of Rotary International, the World
Health Organization, and other non-governmental
organizations.

More information is on-line at www.endpolio.org.  Questions
go by e-mail to Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, to endpoliono (at)
kb6nu (dot) com.  A certificate or QSL card will be
available on request to verify contacts made.  (KB6NU, ARRL
PR Remailer)

**

DX

In DX, G3RWF plans to be in Rwanda between March 4th to the
12th and has requested the callsign 9X0NH.  The license
should be valid for all of 2013 and he could return later in
the year. Activity will be mainly CW. QSL via G3RWF.

A group of Japanese operators will be active from Rodrigues
Island from March 1st to the 10th as 3B9DX.  They will be
operational on 80 through 10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY and
PSK31.  QSL direct only via EA5GL

G3SWH and G3RTE will be operational from Guadalcanal, in the
Solomon Islands, between February 18th and the 28th.  Their
activity will be on CW only on 80 through 10 meters.  QSL
via G3SWH.

SP9FIH and SP6AXW will be active stroke as PJ4 from Bonaire
between April 8th to the 20th.  Operations will be on 160
through 6 meters using SSB and RTTY.  QSL only via SP9FIH

KK4GV will be active as J79GV from the northeast side of the
island of Dominica between March 8th to the 17th.  His
operation will be holiday style and SSB only. QSL via his
home callsign either direct or by the Bureau.

Lastly, N7QT will be heading back to Saint Lucia to operate
stroke J6 on a suitcase between April 5th to the 16th.
Activity will be on 80 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and
RTTY and PSK.  He will also be operating field portable from
the St. Lucia beaches and mountain tops.  QSL as directed on
the air.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  THE DEAD RISE AS HACKERS TARGET EAS
NATIONWIDE

And finally this week, Inside Radio reports that the FCC,
FBI and several state and local law enforcement agencies are
investigating what now appears to have been a widespread
hack attack on the United States Emergency Alert or EAS
System.  One that claimed that the dead were rising from
their graves.  Amateur Radio Newslines Steffan Kinford,
N8WB, has the details:

--

The full extent of the phony zombie EAS attack isn't yet
clear, but several stations recently aired a bogus EAS
message about zombies attacking people and warning the
public to stay clear of them.

Engineers say the hackers apparently had a solid knowledge
of exactly how the EAS operates and how to breach it.  One
of these is Bonneville director of engineering John Dehnel.
He says the company's Salt Lake City stations were among the
targets.   While the fake message never made it to KSL 1160
AM which is the primary message distribution or LP1 station
for the area or its sister station KSL-TV, the bizarre
communication was broadcast on the cluster's three secondary
or HD2 stations.

Dehnel believes the culprit was EAS activation boxes that
were left set to factory-installed default passwords to
accommodate tech support crews.   His guess is that before
the attack you would likely have found most everyone still
had the default password on it.  The FCC has since issued a
warning notice to broadcasters and other EAS decoder users
for them to immediately change the passwords to ones that
are propriety and secure.

The Bonneville HD2 stations reportedly fowarded the bogus
EAS messages about one hour before a Great Falls, Montana
television station that actually was the one that made the
news headlines for airing the phony message.   Several other
stations also aired a fake EAS message, including TV
stations in Albuquerque and Marquette, Michigan.  It's
possible other stations also broadcast the alert but if
there were any they are not known as this newscast is being
prepared.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Stephan, Kinford, N8WB,
in Wadsworth, Ohio.

--

You can read more on this very strange story at
tinyurl.com/zombie-eas and tinyurl.com/montana-eas-hack
(Inside Radio, RW, other published reports)

**

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

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk
in Los Angeles, I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD, in Vero Beach,
Florida, saying 73 and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1853 - February 15 2013


The following is a Q-S-T.





Ham radio responds to a Nor-Easter that hits the U-S-A and Canada;the IARU to do a review of the Region 2 High Frequency bandplan; a Utah Medical Center adds ham radio as a major back-up; the STRAND
One ham radio phone-sat to launch late this month and a
Charlotte North Carolina TV station accomplishes what hams
have been doing for over a decade.  Find out the details are
on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1853 coming your
way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RESCUE RADIO:  HAM RADIO RESPONDS TO NORTH-EAST BLIZZARD
NEMO

Ham radio was ready when a severe winter storm hit the North-
East.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
reports:

--

Amateur radio operators in the North-East were kept busy as
a gigantic midwinter storm nick named Nemo buried the
Northeast in snow on Saturday, February 9th.  The storm left
behind a geographic region digging out of heavy white drifts
and reeling from gale-force winds.  And ham radio severe
weather spotters were on the job as well.  Take a listen:

--

Taunton Skywarn audio.

--

That was the sound of the Taunton Skywarn Amateur Radio
Club's emergency activation network in Massachusettes as the
network passed along snow levels to the National Weather
Service while the mega storm continued on its Northward
trek.  During the storm WX1BOX was also tweeting flooding
information down on the coast and reported that Martha's
Vinyard had suffered some storm related damage.

In all, more than three feet of snow fell on parts of
Connecticut, and more than two feet accumulated on New Yorks
Long Island.  The storm also caused coastal flooding that
forced evacuations of some Massachusetts low-lying
communities.  This as waves off the south shore of Boston
and parts of Cape Cod measured as high as 20 feet.

According to news reports, hundreds of thousands of people
were without power as wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour
cut power lines and toppled trees.  More than 400,000
customers were reported without power in Massachusetts and
at least another 180,000 in Rhode Island.   Also lost in
some areas was both wireline and cellular telephone service.
For some it was several days before utilities were restored.

Meantime, hams involved in Skywarn and other severe weather
spotting services did their best to keep the National
Weather Service and through it the public informed on the
very latest in information regarding this bitterly cold Nor-
Easter as it played havoc with those in its path.

With thanks to Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, for supplying the
WX1BOX audio clip, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the
newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

(KC5FM)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  CANADIAN HAMS READY WHEN STORM HITS

But the United States North-East was not the only region
affected by Nemo.  The storm then moved North into Canada
and Stefan Kinford, N8WB, has that part of the story:

--

After several days of warnings, a major winter storm moved
into the Canadian Maritimes.  Messages from Bob Robichaud,
VE1MBR, at the Atlantic Storm Prediction Centre in Dartmouth
were being sent out to all CANWARN members to prepare them
in case of activation.  Information was also being posted on
the Maritime Amateur website.

On Friday morning the call was made to activate CANWARN in
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on Saturday February
9th beginning at 8am Atlantic Time.  A message went out to
all CANWARN members to let everyone know of the net and that
information Environment Canada would be looking for.

At 8 a.m. Saturday Morning, Net Control began operations by
linking up 13 repeaters throughout Nova Scotia through the
MAVCOM system, IRLP, Echolink and HF operations on 80 meters
3.770 MHz.  CANWARN spotters were asked to record snowfall
amounts each hour, visibility, wind speed, direction and
storm surge.  Notes would also be kept for any changeover
from snow to freezing rain, ice pellets, rain, flooding and
any other damage reports.

Starting at 11 a.m. damage reports starting coming in of
trees down, roofs being blown off, flooding in coastal areas
and roads being breached. Power outages were reported all
over the province.

Over the next 12 hours Net Control recorded close to 200
messages. As darkness approached hams were told by
Environment Canada that hams could close the net for the
evening after the high tide at 10 pm in case of any reports
of storm surge.  The net activated again Sunday morning for
only one hour to record any damage reports. At that time the
net was terminated.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Stephan Kinford, N8WB,
reporting.

--

More information about CANWARN Atlantic can be found on The
Maritime Amateur website at www.maritimeamateur.ca  (VE1JBL)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  UTAH MEDICAL CENTER ADDS HAM RADIO EMCOMM
BACKUP

Utah's Intermountain Healthcare Southwest Region's Dixie
Regional Medical Center has completed installation of two
special antennas.  Both will serve as a part of its backup
communications system powered by amateur radio.

Bob Vosper, AE7HY, is the Technical Manager for Washington
County Amateur Radio Emergency Service.  He notes that much
of Intermountain's communications system is Internet-based.
He notes that if the web connection goes down, that a
possible communications blackout could occur.

To cope with this potential situation, the hospital arranged
for Washington County Amateur Radio Emergency Service to
install an amateur radio system as a back up that can
function without the aid of the Internet or local radio
repeaters.  The system will also be able to transmit large
blocks of data over amateur radio bands.

According to Vosper, other backup systems were already in
place but adding ham radio is just an added redundancy.
(StGeorge.com)

**

WORLDBEAT:  IARU TO REVIEW REGION II HF BABDPLAN THIS YEAR

The ARRL reports that the International Amateur Radio Union
Region 2 High Frequency bandplan will be a topic of
discussion at a conference will be held later this year in
Mexico.  According to the League, the Region 2 conference is
held every three years and is attended by delegations from
the national Amateur Radio societies in the western
hemisphere that are members of the IARU.

The ARRL is the IARU Member Society for the US.  It notes
that IARU band plans are voluntary guidelines.  It adds that
they do not have the force of FCC regulations and that for
radio amateurs in the US, IARU band plans are informational,
not regulations.  However most other countries do not have
the detailed sub-band regulations as are in place here in
the United States, so for radio amateurs in those nations
the voluntary IARU band plans may offer the only guidance on
frequency usage.

Hams living in Region 2 can find the current bandplan on-
line at www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan. The Region 1 and Region 3
band plans are also posted there as well.  (ARRL, IARU)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  STRAND-1 AMATEUR RADIO SMARTPHONE
CUBESAT TO LAUNCH FEBRUARY 25

The BBC says that the world's first 'smartphone-sat' project
called STRAND-1 will be ready to launch at the end of
February.  The STRAND-1 CubeSat will carry a Google Nexus
One Android smartphone into space to demonstrate the
feasibility of using cheap smartphone's electronics to
control a spacecraft.

Also included will be a software-based speech synthesizer to
commemorate the U-O-SAT family of amateur radio satellites
that were launched in the 1980's. There will also be an
amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.575 MHz.

The STRAND-1 satellite was built in Guildford in the United
Kingdom by volunteers from the Surrey Space Centre and
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in their spare time.  It
is planned to be launched on February 25th into a 785 km
orbit by the Indian Space Research Organization rocket.
More is on-line at www.amsat-uk.org and we will have more
ham radio space related news later on in this weeks Amateur
Radio Newsline report.  (AMSAT-UK)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the N3EVW repeater serving Scranton Pennsylvania.

(5 sec pause here)


**

ENFORCEMENT:  CONTINUED UNLICENSED OPERATION BRINGS NEW
$25000 FINE

The FCC has affirmed a second $25,000 proposed fine to
Whisler Fleurinor for unlicensed operation and this one it
says its going to collect in full.  Amateur Radio Newsline's
Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has more:

--

You may remember back to October of 2011.  That's when the
South Central Region of the Enforcement Bureau issued a
Forfeiture Order to Whisler Fleurinor affirming its findings
in a 25,000 Notice of Apparent Liability for unlicensed
operation of a radio transmitter.  At that time the agency
agreed to reduce the forfeiture amount to $500 based solely
on his inability to pay claim.  Fleurinor then paid the $500
forfeiture and that was supposed to be the end of the
matter.  But it turned out to be just the tip of a much
larger unlicensed radio iceberg.

On several dates in late 2011, agents from the Miami Office
used direction-finding to locate the source of radio
frequency transmissions on the frequency 99.5 MHz.  Once
again the signal was traced it to Whisler Fleurinor's
commercial property in Fort Lauderdale.  As a result, the
Miami FCC Office issued Fleurinor a second Notice  of
Apparent Liability for Forfeiture on February 1, 2012, which
proposed a $25,000 forfeiture.  This included a $15,000
upward adjustment because of the deliberate nature of the
violation and given that Fleurinor had already been fined
and issued multiple Notices of Unlicensed Operation for the
same infringement.

In his response to the proposed fine Fleurinor denied that
he violated the Communications Act or any FCC order.  He
asserted that there had been no radio transmission of any
kind for at least 6 months, and that there is no radio
equipment at this location.  Fleurinor also asserted that
the only remnant of any radio equipment is a roof antenna
which has been disconnected and was not operational.
Finally, Fleurinor states that he is unable to pay the
forfeiture and urged cancellation on that basis as well.

However, in its February 8th decision, the FCC says it's not
buying Fleurinor's explanation or defense.  It notes that
agents from the Miami Office determined that unlicensed
radio transmissions on the frequency 99.5 MHz weew
transmitted from the antenna located on top of Fleuronior's
commercial property on several occasions during 2011.  Also
that he admits that the antenna at issue was his, but denies
that he was operating the unlicensed station on the
specified dates.  This says the FCC says it does not find
credible because its agents collected their evidence over
several months.

As to his inability to pay the proposed fine, the FCC says
that hes going to have to find a way to do so.  This is
because in an
individual's inability to pay a forfeiture is just one of
the factors we consider in determining the appropriate
forfeiture penalty.  In this case the FCC says that the
record evidence in this case shows that Fleurinor is a
repeat offender, having already received and paid a
forfeiture for the very same violations at issue and has
been in violation, either continuously or intermittently
since at least 2008.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seely, KI7UP,
watching this one from out here in Scottsdale, Arizona

--

The bottom line is that the $25,000 fine stands and
Fleurinor was given the customary 30 days to pay it, or the
matter may be turned over to the Department of Justice for
further action.  And Norm adds that the other voice - er -
bark you heard in his report is that of Henry J who wants a
bit of credit too.  (FCC)

**

RADIO CRIME:  COPPER THEFT TAKES NWS RADIO SITE OFF THE AIR

National Weather Service Coordination Meteorologist Hector
Guererro reports that a case of vandalism at the Coleman
National Weather Service transmission site in Texas.  One
that took the Weather Radio station transmitter temporarily
off the air.

Guererro said that county authorities reported that vandals
broke into the transmitter building north of Coleman and
stole the copper data feed lines that come from the city of
San Angelo.  The weather alert transmitter, which identifies
as WXN-89, operates at 162.475 MHz.  News reports say that
many area Weather Alert radios and scanners are tuned to
that frequency.

The lines are being replaced and the transmitter should be
back on the air by the time you hear this report.  Federal
officials as well as Coleman county authorities are
investigating the break-in and vandalism that damaged the
federal government transmitting facility. (Nuizer.com,
Brownwooid News)

**

RADIO CRIME:  KWWK KNOCKED OFF THE AIR BY COPPER THIEF

Rochester Minnesota police are investigating a recent copper
theft that took a local radio station off the air.  Early
Monday, February 4th, someone broke into the KWWK radio
transmitter and tower site.  The thief made off with both
copper transmission line and a motor.  An engineer found the
crime when he went into work around 4 a.m..  Damage to the
property is estimated at $550.  (KTTC, others)

**

DELIVERY NOTICE:  USPS TO SUSPEND SATURDAY MAIL DELIVERY

Receiving a QSL card could soon take a little bit longer.
This with word that the United States Postal Service has
announced that effective the week of August 5th, it will
stop Saturday delivery of most mail  first-class and
standard mail, periodicals and direct-mail advertising.  The
only exceptions will be packages, mail-order medicines,
priority and express mail which will still be delivered six
days a week. At least for the time being.  (USPS, others)

**

HAM RADIO BUSINESS: HARBACH TO DISCONTINUE PETER DAHL
TRANSFORMER LINE

The famed Peter Dahl line of transformers used in many ham
radio power amplifiers is going away.  According to an
announcement on the Harbach Electronics website, the company
says that producing these transformers in these hard
economic times is simply no longer cost effective.
According to Jeff Weinberg, W8CQ, of Harbach, he is in
negotiations with other entities for someone else to take
over the manufacture of Peter Dahl transformers and other
components in that product line but as of airtime nothing
has been decided.  Harbach will discontinue the Peter Dahl
product like effective February 14th.  More is on-line at
harbachelectronics.com.  (Harbach Electronics)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  HEIL SOUND TO AGAIN HOST NAB HAM RADIO
RECEPTION IN LAS VEGAS

Heil Sound has once again signed on as a major sponsor of
the Amateur Radio Operators Reception at this years National
Association of Broadcasters Convention.  The gathering is
slated for Wednesday, April 10 from 6 to 8PM Pacific at the
LVH Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This will be Heil Sound's eighth year as a sponsor and,
according to company president Sarah Heil, there will be a
"pile of Heil" with prizes being awarded throughout the
evening.  Company founder Bob Heil, K9EID, will be on hand
to help emcee and entertain the crowd with his stories from
the Ham Radio world.

Again that's The 2013 Amateur Radio Operators Reception,
sponsored by Broadcast Supply Worldwide, Heil Sound, Ltd.,
and Turner Engineering, will be held on Wednesday, April
10th from 6 to 8PM at the L-V-H Hotel for the 2013 NAB
Amateur Radio Operators Reception.  This reception is open
to all NAB badge holders and Bob and Sarah Heil say that
they hope to see you there.  (Heil Sound)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  CENTRAL STATES VHF CONFERENCE JULY 15 - 18

Conference registration is now open for the 2013 Central
States VHF Conference that will be held July 25th to the
28th at the Elk Grove Holiday Inn in Elk Grove Village,
Illinois.  Conference features this year include an antenna
test range, various talks and presentations as well as a
special area for rover vehicles to be displayed.  ARRL C-E-O
Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, is slated as the banquet keynote speaker.
More information is on-line at
www.csvhfs.org/2013conference.  (ANS, Central States VHF
Society)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  ALEX TARSHA, N0AMT JOINS QRZ.COM

Alex Tarsha, N0AMT, has joined QRZ dot com  as a full time
staff member in its systems engineering department.  Tarsha
is a US Air Force veteran who comes to QRZ from the defense
industry where he has recently been serving as a Lead
Software Security engineer.  At QRZ he will function as an
Information Technology Engineer performing server
maintenance and software development.  Prior to Alex's
arrival, and for the past 20 years, all of the software and
engineering behind QRZ dot com  has been done by site
creator and owner Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ. (QRZ)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  CHIP MARGELLI, K7JA JOINS INNOVANTENNAS

And word that Chip Margelli, K7JA, has joined InnovAntennas.
At Innov Margelli will manage sales and marketing activities
in the Americas and will also contribute to the company's
global strategic planning.

For those of you who might not be aware, K7JA has been as a
champion contester, DXer and DXpeditioner for over his five
decades and was a 2008 inductee into the CQ Amateur Radio
Hall of Fame.  On the professional side Margelli has over 35
years experience in the amateur radio industry with stints
at Yaesu, Heil Sound and CQ Communications.
(InnovAntennas)

**

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)

**

THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD:  FORMER HAMVENTION CHAIRMAN
WALLACE WRIGHT AD8N - SK

The changing of the guard in ham radio continues with word
of the passing of former Dayton Hamvention General Chairman
Wallace Wright, Jr. AD8N, on Sunday, January 27th.
According to Ron Moorefield, W8ILC, Wright, then WA8ZCA
served in the Hamvention's leadership role in the 1977 year.

Wallace Wright spent most of his career with Dayton Power
and Light retiring after 32 years of service.  He also
provided spiritual leadership in several communities within
Southwest Ohio for over 40 years as an AME pastor and
pastoral assistant at Agape Bible Fellowship.

Wallace Wright, AD8N, is survived by his wife of over 43
years, Sylvia and his two children.  At the time of his
passing he was age 73. (W8ILC)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  SDR TOUCH TURNS TABLET OR PHONE INTO
SDR RECEIVER

Ham Radio Science reports on an interesting new app called
SDR Touch.  This is software that allows you to use your
Android tablet or cell-phone along with a RTL2832U USB plug
in thumb drive as a Software Defined Radio.

All you need do is to plug the relatively inexpensive drive
into your Android 4.0 devices USB port and load the SDR
Touch app.  The combination is reported to allow you to tune
and decode the audio from it.  Simple, easy and if we may
add, cheap.

More about the device itself is on-line at
www.realtek.com.tw.  A video showing it in action is at
tinyurl.com/sdr-tablet.  (Southgate, Ham Radio Science)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  ARISS SWITCHES TO ERICSSON RADIO AFTER
EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH THE KENWOOD D700

ARISS has switched radios.  After experiencing issues with
the Kenwood D700 on two consecutive school contacts, Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station operations have
announced plans to  use the Ericsson radio on the Columbus
module for all contacts until problems with the D700 are
resolved.

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, is AMSAT's Vice President for Human
Spaceflight Programs.  He says that for some reason signals
from the Service Module Kenwood D700 radio are much
diminished.  He notes that a recent contact with Israel had
low audio levels.  Another contact with the Hospital for
Sick Children was even worse.  Only one student was able to
talk to Chris Hadfield before signals on the ground were
lost even though the crew reports hearing the ground station
well.

It should be noted that both these contacts were with made
using telebridge stations which have above average gear.
Also astro-ham Hadfield used the space stations IP Phone,
immediately after the hospital radio contact and answered
all the student's questions so that all was not lost.  A
later contact with a school in Japan using the Columbus
Module Ericsson radio proved very successful. (ANS, ARISS)

**

ON THE AIR:  CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE ALGERIAN AMATEUR
RADIO ASSOCIATION

On the air, listen out for members of a group of Algerian
hams who will activate special event callsigns 7T9A and
7T50ARA.  This to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
Algerian Amateur Radio Association.  QSL both callsigns by
the Bureau or direct to: PO Box 1, Algiers RP 16000,
Algeria.  Sorry, but no International Reply Coupons will be
accepted for this one.  (Via e-mail)

**

DX

In DX, V47JA will again be operating from his Calypso Bay,
St. Kitts, vacation home from February 20th until March
21st. Active will be on 160 throuhgh 6 meters and will
include 60 meters.  Jon also advises Amateur Radio Newsline
that he plans to take part in the CQ 160 Meter Contest
February 22nd through the 24th and the ARRL International DX
Contest on March 2nd and 3rd, both on SSB.  QSL's via W5JON
either direct or electronically via Logbook of the World.

VE3DZ will be on the air from Jamaica as 6Y2T until February
19th. He's reportedly operational on 160 through 10 meters
using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via VE3DZ.

An international team will be on the air from Burundi
through February 23rd. In total they will have 9 operators
and four stations using the callsign 9U4U.  Activity is on
160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY.  The
operations QSL Manager is M0URX

W1VE will be active as 8P9RM from Barbados starting February
26th. His operation will be on 160 through 6 meters with a
focus on CW and the lower bands. QSL via W1VE.

An International group, along with the Tunisian Radio
Amateurs and the Engineering University of Gabes, are
planning another DXpedition to Djerba Island between April
29th and May 6th.  The Tusisian Amateur Radio Society is
expected to receive the callsign TS8TI on or about March
15th.  Operations for this DX outing will be on all HF bands
including the 30, 17 and 12 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY,
AMTOR and PSK31.  Late word is that they are looking for
operators, sponsors and individual contributions to make
this operation possible.

Lastly, Bill Moore NC1L, the ARRL's Awards Branch Manager
says that the current 5X8C operation from Uganda, along with
the T6TJ and T6BP operations from Afghanistan have been
approved for DXCC credit.  If you've had cards declined
except Logbook of the World applications please send an e-
mail to bmoore (at) arrl.org to be placed on the list for an
update.  If your QSOs were confirmed only via Logbook of the
World, they were not imported to DXCC since at the time of
your application these were not yet approved.  Moore says
that Logbook of the World confirmed QSOs' can be reclaimed
via your next submission only.  Also from NC1L word that the
Zed-81-A and Zed-81-D operations commencing back in 2012
from Republic of South Sudan have also been approved,

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  TV STATION LAUNCHES BALLOON TO EDGE OF
SPACE

And finally this week, , Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC,
decided to do what ham radio operators have been doing for
many years.  That being to put some consumer grade video
cameras inside a box, tie it to a helium filled balloon and
launch it toward near-space.  Amateur Radio Newsline's
Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has the story of this unexpected
extended flight:

--

Corrie Harding is WCNC's news director.  He says that he saw
a video on YouTube of two people launching a beer can toward
space and wanted to see if his station could do the same
thing.  So with the help of Hackerspace Charlotte the
station took two Go-Pro cameras, a lunchbox, a helium filled
balloon, a 3D model of an astronaut with meteorologist Larry
Sprinkle`s face attached and launched it to see how high it
would reach.

The balloon rose to an altitude of 102,457 feet before
breaking and sending both the cameras and the astronaut
model plummeting back toward Earth.  The package took 3 1/2
hours to ascend and 45 minutes to fall back to Earth. The
station says that the package was found 25 days after the
balloon was found by an air search lying in several acres of
briars 172 miles from where it launched.

You can watch the video of the flight and the payload
recovery at tinyurl.com/wcnc-balloon.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in
Zion, Illinois.

--

According to Mark Garrett at least one ham radio operator
was involved in the WCNC mission.  Garrett identifies him as
August Flassig, N6TYE, whose APRS call was used for the
flight.  (Media World)

**

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 WIA 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 Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, near Houston, Texas, saying 73 and
we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012.  All rights
reserved.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Why U.S. Internet Is Still Slow, and Why Consumers are Paying More for Less


The Huffington Post  |  By 
Posted: 

Susan Crawford, law professor and former special assistant for science and technology to the White House, recently sat down with journalist and commentator Bill Moyers and explained something that might surprise confortable Americans: U.S. Internet access is, even today, costly and slow compared to access in other parts of the world.
How so? Crawford lays out the numbers: In Hong Kong, Crawford says, a citizen can purchase 500 megabit data pipeline for $25 a month. In Seoul, the same service is $30 a month, but subscribers have a choice of three different providers, all of whom will set up a connection within a day because of cutthroat competition.
But in New York City, arguably the most industrialized city in the U.S., the same connection costs $200, and subscribers have no choice of providers.
This is a video worth watching:

Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly, and Unfair 



Crawford names the usual culprits: telecommunications companies, whose local monopolies encourage them, she says, to "gouge" the rich and neglect the poor, and the U.S. government, which she says refuses to consider the Internet a utilityor promote competition between current carriers. In November, HuffPost reported that AT&T had failed to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans after assuring Congress it would do so.
The U.S. government has lots of catching up to do: The Federal Communication Commission's 2011 "Connect 2 Compete" program, which was supposed to give Internet access to low-income citizens, only operates on a small scale, while the recent "Super WiFi" rumors proved a massive flop. Existing telecommunications players have little reason to change because, as Crawford says, they're for-profit businesses whose motive is to make money in the most efficient way possible.
Change within the telecommunications industry may come from an unlikely source: other corporations. Google’s Fiber project, an experimental broadband network that delivers speedy, inexpensive Internet to chosen communities, has forced Time Warner Cable to increase speeds and lower prices. Similar projects might help spark change among telecommunications monopolies across the country.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1852 - February 8 2013






Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1852 with a release
date of February 8 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T.  New Zealand to take a fresh look
at its 70 centimeter bandplan; Italian amateurs regain
temporary access to the pan-European 70 MHz band; an update
on ham radio assistance in the flooding down-under and radio
helps solve another mystery of the universe.  Find out the
details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1852
coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RADIO LAW:  REVIEW OF THE 70 CENTIMETER BAND PLAN DOWN-UNDER

A frequency conflict on 70 centimeters has lead to the
review of a ham radio bandplan down-under.  Amateur Radio
Newdline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, reports:

--

The New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitter's or NZART
Council has decided a review of the current 70 cm bandplan
is desirable as a conflict with the IARU Region III bandplan
has been identified by a number of formal complaints to both
NZART and Radio Spectrum Management or RSM.  The Council
considers it part of its responsibilities to amateur radio
that it reviews the Bandplans when significant changes occur
in the use of the spectrum.

Due to the discrepancy between the NZART 70 cm Bandplan and
the IARU Region III Bandplan, the review will give
consideration to concerns regarding the operation of Amateur
Television.  It will also consider interference received
from UHF Low Interference Potential Devices by equipment ham
radio operate such as 70 cm repeaters even though the
National System was re-engineered to be resistant to this
some time ago.

This proposed review is now on the agenda of the Council
face to face meeting in this month and it is hoped that
submissions will be called for shortly afterwards.  The
NZART Council will seek feedback from existing operators on
the 70 cm band. It is interested in learning about any
interference presently being received or any that may occur
in the future while operating on this band.  The review is
also planned to be a discussion topic at the Technology
Convention in Auckland, where it is anticipated it will be
presented as a Draft Final Recommendation for comment,
before being presented to NZART Council.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, in
Nelson, New Zealand.

--

The NZART says that it will soon be inviting comment from
parties interested in providing submissions to a Committee
appointed at the Council Face To Face gathering to perform
this review.  Submissions from New Zealand 70 cm Band users
on the current 70 cm Bandplan or suggestions to improve it
will be most useful.

(NZART)

**

RESTRUCTURING:  ITALIAN AMATEURS BACK ON 70MHZ

Italian amateurs have regained access to the pan-European
70MHz band.  That is at least until December 31st of this
year.

All Italian stations are authorized to use 70MHz, unless
they are within 30km of the borders with Austria,
Switzerland or France. Frequencies in use are 70.100, 70.200
and 70.300MHz, with 25kHz of bandwidth. All modes are
permitted with a maximum power of 50 watts  Effective
Radiated.

(Southgate)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  VK FLOODING UPDATE

Ham radio continues to provide aid in the wake of flooding
that hit the Australian state of Queensland.  WIA Newsman
Graham Kemp, VK4BB, has the latest:

--

VK4BB:  "The Queensland, VK4 disaster continues and as the
state begins its big clean-up and recovery phase, a picture
of emergency communications provided by radio amateurs is
starting to emerge.

Initial reports from Neil McCloud, VK4ERM. WIA National
WICEN Coordinator are that HF links were requested by
Queensland Water Police.  Other WICEN help was given to the
Townsville and Rockhampton regions pending repair by Telstra
of its fiber optic cables to the North.

Widespread power and communications disruption will take a
number of days by repair crews.  No more is immediately
known about WICEN and its emergency role, but this should be
learn't before next weeks broadcastcast.

At least six people have died in Queensland; others are
missing and many thousands are homeless and sheltering in
relief centers while some towns remain inundated and
Isolated.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of
the WIA News in Australia.

--

The weather system that caused record Queensland flooding
was caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, That weather
system then moved south to affect many parts of the
Australian state of New South Wales.  (WIA News)

**

RADIO POLITICS:  ARRL BOARD MEETING REPORT NOW ON LINE

Back on this side of the Pacific, the ARRL Board of
Directors held its 2013 Annual Meeting January 18th and 19th
in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.  At the meeting, the
board set its legislative objectives for the 113th Congress,
approved the organization's amended financial plan, elected
members to the Executive Committee and ARRL Foundation,
bestowed awards and more.  You can read the complete report
of the Boards actions on line at tinyurl.com/arrl-board-
2013.  (ARRL)

**

RADIO LAW:  FIRST FCC HEARINGS HELD ON HURRICANE SANDY

In the first of several field hearings to discuss the
aftermath of superstorm Sandy, several communications
industry experts said access to fuel before, during and
after a crisis was of utmost importance.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is here with more on what
transpired at the gatherings held last week in New York City
and New Jersey:

--

While there was not much that affected ham radio, right off
the top it was noted that none of the broadcast stations in
the areas affected by hurricane Sandy went off the air.  In
the case of Clear Channel Communications which owns a number
of broadcast properties in the region most impacted by the
super-storm the company had pre-staged generator fuel well
ahead of time.  Clear Channel Chairman John Hogan noted that
some employees even camped out for days, making sure the
groups facilities stayed on the air.

Dave Davis is the president and general manager of WABC
television in New York City.  He agreed disaster planning is
essential.  Anticipating power outages due to the storm,
Davis asked asked ESPN to feed content to the company's two
sister radio stations in the affected market. Those stations
also remained on the air.

The manager of social media for the New York Fire Department
described how she kept in contact with residents who had no
phone service using Twitter.  She then passed along their
information to 911 authorities.  As a result, the panelists
discussed how to better incorporate more social media into
emergency alerting.  However WABC's Davis noted that while
social media can be a great tool, that the public needs
accurate information, especially to disprove Internet
rumors.

Finally, in his commentary Clear Channel Chairman Hogan said
the FCC might want to encourage wireless carriers to include
or activate FM chips in their cellphones.  This he said
would make radio available to more people in an emergency
even if other forms of communications are not.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
in the Studio, in Los Angeles.

--

In her comments, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai cited Arbitron
ratings service information that estimated about one million
people were listening to radio the day Sandy hit the East
coast.  (RW, other published news reports)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the JR6YQF Amateur Radio Society serving the
island of Okinawa in the mid-Pacific.

(5 sec pause here)


**

PROPAGATION:  15 TO 10 METER RADIO BLACKOUT CAUSED BY
ERRUPTING SUNSPOT

If you operate 10 and 15 and were listening on Saturday
February 2nd and several days afterward, the bands likely
sounded like this:

--

Actual band noise recording.

--

That's what happened to the spectrum from 21 to 28 or so
Megahertz when a tiny sunspot erupted into a moderately
sized solar flare/  One that radio astronomers say
completely drowned out radio communication on these
frequencies world-wide.

The recording was made at our studio on a venerable Kenwood
TS-520 and MFJ vertical soon after we heard about the flare.
And as reported by several solar observation sources, it
appears as if the sun is beginning a period of high activity
as it enters its maximum of its 11-year solar cycle.

Radio Astronomer James Thieman, who leads NASA's JOVE
project described the event was a fairly good-sized surge.
He explained that the solar burst that happened on February
2nd accelerated electrons to high energies. This electron
stream created plasma in the sun's atmosphere which traveled
to Earth and caused some disruption in high frequency radio
communications.

Despite this, many astronomers note that the Sun has been
relatively quiet for the last few months, producing few
large solar flares or coronal mass ejections.  These occur
when a star throws off charged particles into space that
travel at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour.  (NASA,
SDR, Wired, others)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  CONGRESS REMOVES EXPORT PROHIBITION ON
SATELLITES

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013,
passed by Congress in late December and now signed by
President Obama has removed a restriction that has
essentially shut down international cooperation for building
amateur satellites in the past decade.

Under the old law, satellites and their component parts were
considered to be "munitions" and their export to other
countries was severely limited. This made it impossible for
amateur satellite organizations in different countries to
work together on major projects.  For example, the last big
amateur satellite, Phase 3D.  It was built jointly by AMSAT
groups in the U.S., Germany and other countries, but that
was before the international cooperation measure was put in
place.

The new law restricts satellite exports only to China, North
Korea and countries identified as state sponsors of
terrorism, as well as those under trade embargoes.  A
recommendation from the Departments of State and Defense
said the old law impeded the ability of American satellite
builders to work with international partners while providing
no noticeable benefit to national security.  (CQ)

**

HAM RADIO PUBLIC RELATIONS:  THAT GUY WITH THE HAM RADIO

Kraft foods has produced a new set of television commercials
called the Velveeta-Eat-Like-That-You-Know campaign, and one
of the 15 second spots features ham radio in a very positive
light.

The ham radio spot is titled "That Guy with the Ham Radio"
and appears to be one of five new commercials for Kraft's
Velvita Shells and Cheese lunch and dinner product.  Others
in the series are titled "That Guy That Drives That Limo,"
"That Guy That Paints Those Landscapes," "That Helicopter
Guy at the Mall" and "That Guy That Owns That Aquarium
Store."

All are fast paced and fun to watch.  You can see them on-
line at genericbaldman.com/Velveeta-Eat-Like-That-You-Know.
But be forewarned, watching any of these spots may leave you
quite hungry.  (ARRL PR Remailer)

**

MEDIA SURVEY:  KPMG SAYS TELEVIEWERS ARE MULTITASKERS

A new study by the research firm KPMG has concluded that 60%
of American television viewers are also devoted multitaskers
who watch television while accessing the Internet at the
same time.

KPMG's findings were based on a global online survey of
9,000 people in nine countries, including the United States
that was conducted lasst October.  The survey also concluded
that even though multiple devices vie for consumers'
attention, that most people still prefer to watch television
shows, movies and other video on the TV.  Only 14% of those
surveyed prefer to watch video on their smartphones or
tablets.

According to KPMG, these results suggest that the next big
disruption in living room viewing may come from so called
"Smart TVs."  These arer Internet-connected sets that afford
the viewer access to traditional TV broadcasts as well as
online services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon.com.

KPMG is one of the world's largest professional
services companies and one of the so-called Big Four
auditors with global headquarters located
in the Netherlands.  Its findings hold implications for
network programmers and advertisers, which can no longer be
sure which screen is drawing the viewer's eyes.  (Published
news reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  FCC CHAIRMAN WILL NOT DISCLOSE HIS
FUTURE CAREER PLANS

Some names in the news.  FCC chairman Julius Genachowski
remains silent on whether he is planning to leave that post
anytime in the near future.  According to news reports
Genachowski would not respond to a press conference question
asked on Thursday, January 31st regarding his short-term
plans.

Genachowski would only say that he is working hard every day
and that the FCC has a terrific agenda and that he is
focused on that agenda.  That echoed his answer over the
last several months when asked whether he is leaving given
the widespread belief in D.C. communications circles that he
would exit early in the president's new term, either for a
private sector job or another Administration post.  (B&C)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  SATELLITE EXPLORER APP NOW AVAILABLE

Tom Doyle, W9KE, has released "Satellite Explorer."  This is
described as a Windows 8 app that runs on Intel based
tablets, laptops and desktops as well as Windows RT tablets
like the Microsoft Surface.  It is available in the Windows
Store if you search for "Satellite Explorer."  The app
itself is free but if you find it of value you are asked to
please contribute to your favorite AMSAT project.  A video
preview of it can be seen on-line at tinyurl.com/satellite-
explorer-2013.  (W9KE)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  FIRST AWARD FOR ALL VICTORIAN NATIONAL
PARKS TO VK3ZPF

The honor of the achieving the first Keith Roget Memorial
National Parks Award by operating from all 45 parks in
Australia's Victoria State has gone to Peter Fraser, VK3ZPF.
Not only did Fraser operate portable from all national
parks, but also worked from 25 of them on the 20, 40 and 80
meter bands.  In addition he made contact with 25 on mixed
bands and 15 on 40m.  (VK3PC)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  11TH WORLD HIGH SPEED TELEGRAPHY
CHAMPIONSHIP IN BULGARIA

Turning to the ham radio social scene, the Bulgarian
Federation of Radio Amateurs will host the 11th World High
Speed Telegraphy Championship in the city of Borovets.  This
from September 22nd to the 26th.  Competitors from all over
the world are invited to take part.  More information is on-
line at www.bfra.org or by e-mail to bfra_hq (at) hotmail
(dot) com.  (BFRA)

**

ELECTRONIC TRAINING:  PROMER ON MICS IN NYC ON FEBRUARY 12

"Is This Thing On? . Let's Talk Mics" is the title of a
primer on microphones being held on Tuesday, February 12th
by the Audio Engineering Society's New York Section.  The
venue is the New School Jazz Performance Space in New York
City with the session beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The host is David Bialik, who is the CBS Radio streaming
operations project manager.  He'll be joined by Mike Webber,
Peter E. Schmitt Co., David Shinn, and Henry Cohen.

The event is open to the public.  The site is located at 55
West 13th Street, between 5th and 6th Aves on the fifth
floor.  (RW)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  SPEAKERS NEEDED FOR 2013 HAM RADIO TOWN
MEETING

And for the past 15 years or so, Amateur Radio Newsline has
produced and presented "The Ham Radio Town Meeting" at the
Dayton Hamvention.   Whenever possible, we try to stay close
as possible to the Hamvention's overall theme which this
year is simply "DX."  And in going with that theme, this
years Ham Radio Town Meeting will be titled "What DXing
Means To Me" and will be a very personal glance at the
various aspects of DXing from those who are involved in so
many different ways.

The 2013 Ham Radio Town Meeting will be on Saturday, May
18th, at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio.  We usually are
scheduled from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT.  If you are
interested in being a speaker please contact us by e-mail to
newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org or using the fill-in-the-
blanks form at www.arnewsline.org/contact. Either way,
please include all of your act information, including a
SKYPE ID if you have one so that I can get back to you.

Thank you in advance and we hope to see some of you this May
at Hamvention 2013.  (ARNewsline)

**

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)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: TETHERCELL BLUETOOTH REMOTE CONTROL

Looking for a new way to remotely control things?
Tethercell may be the answer to your needs.

Tethercell is a plastic case the size of an AA battery,
embedded with Bluetooth 4.0 transponder, which is powered by
an AAA battery that fits inside. The Bluetooth-enabled
battery is then synced with an app on your smart phone that
allows you to turn the device on and off, set a timer and
even monitor the amount of power remaining.

According to its inventors Trey Madhyastha and Kellan
O'Connor, this first version of Tethercell as a test bed for
future applications.  Its also an opportunity to get the
technology in the hands of the public.

Only one catch.  If you want one, you'll have to wait until
May or June to get one.  More including a demonstration
video is on-line at tinyurl.com/tethercell.   (OnLine News)

**

WORLDBEAT:  COMMUNITY RADIO COMING TO NIGERIA

AllAfrica.com reports that Nigeria is about to activate some
800 low-power community radio stations throughout rural
areas of the country.  This to broadcast information about
the federal government's policies and programs.

Mike Omeri is the Director General of Nigeria's National
Orientation Agency.  He explainede that the venture is in
collaboration with the Nigeria Community Radio Coalition.
Omeri said that the new radio stations are a result of
problems found in rural communities that currently have less
access to information about the government.

Joseph Obodeze is the Director of Research and Policy.  He
added that some areas of Nigeria are so remote that they
only receive radio transmissions from neighboring Cameroon
instead of domestic stations.  Nigeria hopes to have all of
the new low power stations in operation by the middle of the
year.  (AllAfrica.com, RW)

**

RADIO ADVENTURES:  TOUR OF NEW BBC BROADCASTING HOUSE STARTS
IN APRIL

If you are planning a vacation in the United Kingdom and are
interested in radio, then you will be happy to know that the
British Broadcasting Company's new facility tour launches in
April.

While on the tour some of the things you're likely to see
include a camera's eye view into some of the studios
broadcasting such programs as the Six O'Clock News and Radio
1.  Trained guides will also present a rich history of the
building and the BBC.

The Broadcasting House Tour will be available seven days a
week. Further details at tinyurl.com/new-bbc-tour
(Southgate)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  OSSI 1 TO LAUNCH IN 2ND QUARTER OF 2013

OSSI-1, the Open Source Satellite Initiative developed by
DS1SBO, is now planned for launch in the 2nd quarter of
2013.  The tiny satellite will be placed into a 575 km high,
63� inclination orbit after being carried aloft on-board  a
Soyuz-2-1b rocket from the Baikonur launch facility in
Kazakhstan.

Initial reports say OSSI-1 will have a beacon in the 145 MHz
band, a data communications transceiver in the 435 MHz band
although actual operating frequencies have yet to be
published.  The data communications transceiver is reported
to be using an open protocol although details have not yet
been released yet.  OSSI-1 will also carry a 44 watt LED
optical beacon to flash Morse Code messages to observers on
Earth.  (ANS)

**

IARU SATELLITE COORDINATION BOARD SAYS DOVE-1 WILL NOT USE
145.825

The Dove-1 technology development experiment to be launched
on the inaugural launch of Antares rocket in February from
Wallops Island, Virginia will no longer be using frequencies
in the amateur radio bands.  This based on information
posted on the IARU satellite coordination web page for the
mission.

The satellite sponsors had requested coordination for a 1
watt transmitter on 145.825 MHz to downlink a 1200 baud AFSK
AX.25 beacon with telemetry and health data.  What new non-
amateur radio frequencies Dove-1 will use are not shown in
the latest frequency coordination listings.  (AMSAT-UK)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  AMSAT-UK TO PROVIDE AMATEUR RADIO
PAYLOAD FOR ESEO SATELLITE

AMSAT-UK reports that it will be providing an FM transponder
and a BPSK telemetry beacon for the European Student Earth
Orbiter or ESEO satellite.

The target audience of this mission is primary and secondary
students and the project includes the development of a
simple ground station operating on VHF frequencies in the
Amateur Satellite Service.

The ground station will consist of an omni-directional
antenna feeding a FUNcube Dongle PRO+ SDR receiver.  This
system will receive signals direct from the satellite and
transfer the data to specially developed graphical software
running on any Windows laptop.

The satellite is planned to launch in the 2015 to 2016 time
frame into a low Earth orbit and will be the third mission
within the European Space Agency's Education Satellite
Program.  (AMSAT-UK)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  FOX-1 MAIN COMPUTER ENGINEERING
PROTOTYPE COMES ALIVE

The Fox-1 development team reports that the first
engineering model of the satellite's Integrated Housekeeping
Unit or IHU has been constructed.  Bdale Garbee, KB0G,
performed the assembly work, and he was able to load and run
the operating system on  first power up on January 24, 2013.

Meanwhile, the software team is hard at work getting drivers
and features ready to fully test the hardware.  They have
committed to a March delivery of software for IHU testing.
(ANS)

**

DX

In DX, RW6ACM will be active as RI1ANP from the Russian
Antarctic station Progress from February 1st through the end
of year. Modes and exact operating times are not known.  QSL
via RN1ON, direct or via the bureau.

I2JIN is currently operational from El Salvador as YS3CW. He
is reportedly operating mainly CW on the 10 to 80m bands.
QSL via I2JIN, direct, via the bureau or electronically
using Logbook of the World.

F6AML is visiting Zanzibar until February 28th and signing
5H1Z on the 10 to 40m bands using SSB and CW.  He will also
try to activate the Islands on the Air groups AF-054, AF-063
and AF-075 while in the area.  QSL via F6AML via the bureau
or direct.  No eQSLs on this one.

K0YAK will operate as ST2SF from the Sudan until mid-April.
He hopes to be on 40 through 10 meters. QSL to his home
call.

SM7GIB will be active as D44TIB from Cape Verde between
February 25th and March 8th.  His operation will be holiday
style using a wire vertical on 160-10 meters. QSL via his
home callsign.

Lastly, Prefix hunters will be interested to hear that
TC16BURSA will be active through March 19th.  This station
is located in Bursa, Turkey and operated by members of local
branch of the Turkish Radio Amateur Club.  QSL as directed
on the air.

(Above from various DX news sources)


**

THAT FINIAL ITEM:  EXPLAINING A MYSTERY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

And finally this week, thanks to radio and radio astronomy,
another of the mysteries of the solar system has been
solved.  Heres Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Carlson, KQ6FM,
with the details:

--

According to a team of astronomers, they now understand
why particles from inside the solar system bounce off what
is described as a ribbon of energy boundary and as a result,
neutral atoms from that collision stream inward toward the
Sun.  This they say is caused by a strange band of energy
that appears to wrap around the entire solar system and
creates a sort of energy field that push particles inward.

The ribbon of energy was first discovered by NASA's
Interstellar Boundary Explorer or IBEX mission.  Since that
data was radioed back to Earth, astronomers and scientists
around the world have struggled to identify the source of
the barrier, and explain why particles seem to be driven
back towards the sun.

Now, in a paper published in the Astrophysical
Journal, astronomers lead by Dr. Nathan Schwadron of the
University of New Hampshire have put forth the so-
called retention theory that for the first time explains the
key observation of the unexplained ribbon's width.  The
theory says that the mysterious band of energy exists in a
location where neutral hydrogen atoms from the solar wind
meet a local galactic magnetic field.  As a result, the
neutral atoms, which are not affected by magnetic fields,
become charged ions and begin gyrating rapidly around
magnetic field lines. The result is that these ions are
aimed back toward the sun.

While the latest theory is not the first to propose a
solution to the galactic puzzle, Schwadron's hypothesis
provided a key point overlooked by other researchers.  That
being the rapid rotation creates waves or vibrations in the
magnetic field, and the charged ions then become physically
trapped in a region by these waves, which in turn would
amplify the ion density and produce the broader ribbon seen.

The result of all this is that Schwadron's theory could
provide astronomers with a better understanding of how the
solar system interacts with interstellar space. It could
also provide insight into the magnetic fields of the
interstellar medium, which astronomers say still remain
largely a mystery.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Carlson, KQ6FM,
watching the clear nighttime sky up here in Reno.

--

Right now the ultimate source of the bands itself still
remains largely unclear.  NASA has yet to announce any
future plans aimed at discovering the ultimate source of the
ribbon itself.  You can read more about this interesting
phenomena at tinyurl.com/space-boundry.
(Space Reporter, Space News, 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, TWiT-TV and Australia's WIA 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 Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in Southern Mississippi saying 73
and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1851 - February 1 2013







Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1851 with a release
date of February 1 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T.  The FCC turns down a petition for
reconsideration on its report to Congress about ham radio
emergency communications; The 2013 Global Amateur Radio
Emergency Conference to be held this June in Zurich,
Switzerland and ham radio assistance in the Australian
flooding begins as Tasmanian brush fire communications winds
down. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT
report number 1851 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RADIO LAW:  PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION FROM DENIAL OF
PETITION FOR DECLARATORY RULING GN DOCKET NO. 12-91 DENIED

The FCC has turned down a petition for reconsideration on
the text of its report to Congress dealing with amateur
radio and how land use restrictions might interfere with
emergency communications.  Mark Abramovich, NT3V, is here
with the details:

--

The FCC's Scot Stone, deputy chief of the mobility division
in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, responded to the
petition from James Whedbee, N0ECN, of suburban Kansas City.

And, Stone's legal language was pretty direct - essentially,
the matter is decided and Whedbee should stop wasting the
FCC's time.

In his reasoning for refusing Whedbee's petition, the FCC's
Stone says the division which rejected his first appeal of
the matter was within its rights to do so without any
further public hearing.

Stone also stated in legal terms that Whedbee engaged in a
"frivolous statutory interpretation," of the FCC's
regulations, especially those stemming from PRB-1 which
authorized limited preemption of state and local regulations
governing amateur station facilities, including antennas and
support structures.

But those regulations don't extend to private codes,
covenants and restrictions, known as CC&Rs, including
homeowner association rules that restrict amateur radio
facilities.

However, in 2001, the FCC left open the door on prohibiting
CC&Rs from interfering with amateur radio if Congress so
decided it should do so.

This latest chapter in the ongoing debate was launched in
February 2012 when President Obama signed the Middle Class
Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

That bill also included a provision requiring the FCC to
report to Congress on the uses and capabilities of Amateur
Radio Service communications in emergencies and disaster
relief.

It also directed the study identify impediments to enhanced
Amateur Radio Service communications and make
recommendations regarding the removal of such impediments,
including "the effects of unreasonable or unnecessary
private land use restrictions on residential antenna
installations."

The FCC record shows Whedbee filed comments pretty quickly
claiming CC&Rs violated sections of the Communications Act.

He also demanded the commission issue a legal decision
called a declaratory judgement - essentially asking the FCC
to rule without any further hearings or delays that CC&Rs
were indeed an impediment to amateur radio operations,
causing a controversy for amateur radio and were
unenforceable.

The FCC denied Whedbee's petitions saying that was going to
be addressed in its report to Congress.

But Whedbee kept at it, asking the FCC to reconsider.

When the FCC issued its report to Congress last August, it
stated there was no overwhelming public comment supporting
any problems related to CC&Rs and amateur radio.

The FCC's Stone finally addressed Whedbee's appeal petition
in a January 25th letter in which he explained the report to
Congress essentially trumped Whedbee's appeal and rendered
the matter - using a legal term - moot or essentially of
little value or meaning given the FCC's findings in the
report to Congress.

Amateur Radio Newsline made several attempts to reach
Whedbee, but was unsuccessful as we went to air with this
report.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V,
in Philadelphia.

--

At airtime it's not known if Whedbee plans to file any
further appeals on this matter.  You can read the entire
text of this FCC decision on-line in PDF format at
tinyurl.com/petition-turned-down.  (FCC)

**

RESCUE RADIO: GAREC 2013 TO BE IN GENEVA JUNE 25 - 28

IARU Region One has announced that this years Global Amateur
Radio Emergency Conference or GAREC 2013 will be held in
Zurich, Switzerland from June 25th to 28th.  Among the draft
topics to be discussed are the relevance of Amateur Radio
Emergency Communication in the '1st World,' and the HAMNET
high speed data network.  There will also be presentations
from the three regions of the IARU and talks by groups with
recent experience in disaster relief communications.

General information on GAREC 2013 including information on
the venue, registration fees and the tentative agenda and
the registration forms is now available on line at
www.garec2013.ch.  This website will be updated frequently
to keep all updated with the latest news and program
changes.  You may also e-mail to info (at) garec2013 (dot)
ch for updates.

It should be noted that this years conference has been timed
to precede Europe's largest amateur radio exhibition, HAM
RADIO in Friedrichshafen. Germany.  This is so that people
can attend both events.  (IARU-R1)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  WICEN HAMS RESPOND TO FLOODING DOWN UNDER

Flooding has hit the Australian state of Queensland.  This
as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald that had already caused record
flooding has moved south.

Jim Linton, VK3PC, is the Chairman IARU Regon 3 Disaster
Communications Committee.  He tells Amateur Radio Newsline
that as this disaster unfolds that a picture of emergency
communications provided by radio amateurs is starting to
emerge.  According to Linton, several High Frequency links
have been requested to be set up by the ham radio emergency
response group WICEN by the Queensland Water Police.  These
links are to connect the city of Brisbane to Cairns.
WICEN's role is expected to expand in the coming days.

As this newscast is being prepared, four people are reported
to have  died and others are reported missing.  Many
thousands have been left homeless and taking shelter in
relief centers as the widespread flooding, which included
tornados, is continuing.  (VK3PC)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  WICEN TASMANIAN BUSH FIRES OPERATIONS END

Meantime, ham radio assistance by WICEN in the Tasmanian
brush fires has now come to an end as we hear in this report
from the Wireless Institute of Australia's ham radio news
service:

--

WICEN in Tasmania was finally stood down after 20 continuous
days of operation at the Incident Management Centre at
Cambridge, near Hobart airport.  Operations have now been
wound back.

WICEN was posted by the Tasmania Fire Services to mainly
control the busy 80MHz radio traffic during massive fires.

Although those the major fires, which started on the 3rd of
January on the Tasman Peninsula and in the Derwent Valley,
are still active, one being classified as contained and the
other controlled.

The days serviced by WICEN and other southern Tasmanian
radio amateurs varied between 12 and 24 hours.

WICEN Tasmania (South) Operations Coordinator Rod Finlayson
VK7TRF reports that 24 radio amateurs contributed to the
effort, totalling 666 hours at the radio desk, plus time in
logistical support keeping up the supply of operators to the
task.

Seven operators did in excess of 45 hours each, including
three more than 60 hours and one working a total of almost
80 hours.  Initially there were two operators on each of the
two networks, but this was wound back to one after ten days.

--

For those who may not be aware, WICEN is an acronym for the
Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network.  It is described
as a group of Australian amateur radio operators trained to
assist in emergency situations.  Their job is to provide
emergency and safety communications when normal
communications do not exist or are inadequate.  (WIA News,
VK3PC)

**

BREAKING DX NEWS:  MARION ISLAND TO BE ON BY SUMMER

Some breaking news in the world of DX.  Marion Island should
be on the air before the start of summer in the Northern
latitudes.  This according to reports that South African
radio amateur David Hartzenberg, ZS1BCE, has been appointed
to be the new radio technician to that rare location for one
year between April of this year and May of 2014.

Hartzenberg is expected to depart from Cape Town on April
15th, and his amateur radio operations are expected to begin
about four weeks later.  Currently, he does not have a Zed-S-
8 callsign, but plans to apply for ZS8D.  Once set up, his
operations will be on SSB on most High Frequency bands.

And less we forget to mention:  His QSL Manager will be
Pierre Tromp,  ZS1HF, who just happens to have been the last
operator from Marion Island using the call ZS8M.  And we
will have more DX news for you near the end of this weeks
newscast.  (OPDX)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including WMRP Low Power FM serving Mundy Township south of
Flint, Michigan.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RADIO LAW:  NEW RECOMMENDATION ON PLASMA TV EMISSIONS IN
EUROPE

Tired of hearing this when you tune your favorite ham radio
band?

--

Plasma TV radiation audio here

--

That's the sound made by a near-by plasma television set.
And now Europe is starting to set some standards to make it
a thing of the past

Thilo Kootz, DL9KCE, in Wabern, Germany reports that a
European specification or recommendation on the limitation
of the emissions of plasma TVs between 150 kHz and 30 MHz.
One that was approved in the last meeting of the Comit�
International Sp�cial des Perturbations Radio�lectriques.

Even though it does not have the same legal implications as
a regular Electromagnetic Compatibility standard, it does
show the plasma industry what could be part of one in the
future.  It should be noted that this new recommendation is
the result of work started in 2007 by an Electromagnetic
Compatibility working group of IARU Region One.
(Southgate, IARU-R1)

**

ENFORCEMENT:  FCC ISSUES $8000 NAL FOR EAS VIOLATION

A noncommercial FM station in Puerto Rico has been dinged
$8000.  This after the FCC found that it was incapable of
issuing an EAS alert without human intervention.

Based on a complaint that it received, last April agents
from the Commission's San Juan office inspected WVID FM in
Anasco, Puerto Rico.  At that time the station personnel
demonstrated to the agents that the EAS equipment couldn't
transmit an emergency message without someone manually
reducing the on-air programming volume down to zero or mute.
The station employee also told the agents that he believed
the equipment had needed manual intervention since at least
September 2011.

Now in issuing the proposed monetary forfeiture, the FCC
notes that all stations must ensure that EAS encoders,
decoders, attention signal generating and receiving
equipment is installed and operational so that the
monitoring and transmitting functions are available when the
station is operating.  When a station is unattended, the
rules require stations to use automatic systems to interrupt
programming to transmit an alert.  WVID is only staffed from
6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and unattended overnight.

Centro Colegial Cristiano is the owner of WVID FM and was
given the customary 30 days to appeal or pay the fine.  It
also has the same amount of time to submit a sworn statement
to the San Juan office certifying that its EAS equipment is
now fully operational when the station is unattended.  (FCC,
RW)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  NPR LABS HOPES TO DEVELOP EMERGENCY ALERT
RADIO FOR THE DEAF

A new way to alert the deaf and hard of hearing to oncoming
disaster situations may soon be on its way.  Amateur Radio
Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, is here with the details:

--

The trade newsletter Radio World reports that NPR Labs
personnel hope to begin a project that demonstrates an
emergency alerting system for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
population in the United States.  This, using broadcast
radio as the transmission medium.

The end goal of this research is to develop a deaf-
accessible radio receiver with a large text display and
bright flashing lights.  This in turn could alert the user
of a potential threat to life and property.

Rich Rarey is the NPR Labs Manager of Strategic Technology
Applications.  He told Radio World that there are currently
some AM radios with aural warnings and FM H-D receivers that
have very small text displays but without accessible warning
mechanisms.  He says that the aim of NPR Labs is to create a
receiver that is useful for deaf and hard-of-hearing people,
which will also be helpful for alerting the general public
as well.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD,
in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

--

You can read the entire report of this potentially life
saving project on-line at tinyurl.com/emergency-alerts-for-
the-deaf  (RW)

**

RADIO LAW:  PODCAST IS A PATENTED TERM OWNED BY PERSONAL
AUDIO LLC

If you are a podcaster or thinking of becoming a podcaster,
even on a very small scale, then its worth your time to read
an article on who owns the rights to the term podcasting
that appeared in a recent issue of the chron dot com
business report.

In a nutshell, it appears as if the term podcast is not
generic as most people might think.  Rather it is a patented
system owned by a company called Personal Audio LLC that
developed it and other internet streaming back in 1996.  And
now Personal Audio LLC has decided to assert its rights by
going after both podcast content creators as well as podcast
distributors.

So far it has won every case that has gone to trial.  Even
Apple has lost to them. In that case a jury awarded Personal
Audio LLC an $8 million judgment plus $4 million in
interest for infringing on the company's The Playlist
Patent.

So if you run a podcast or are thinking of creating one, you
might want to take a few moments to read the story at
tinyurl.com/podcast-patent and then talk to a knowledgeable
patent attorney before proceeding or continuing your
podcasting journey.  It could theoretically save you every
penny that you have ever will make or have saved.
(chron.com)

**

RADIO LAW:  MAN WHO POINTED LASER AT AIRCRAFT ARRESTED

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that an unnamed Oakland
resident has been arrested for allegedly shining a laser at
two aircraft hovering over the scene of a shooting on
Monday, January 21st.

The 40-year-old man is alleged to have aimed a red laser
several times at a KGO television helicopter as it flew
about 1,000 feet over the scene of the incident in which an
undercover Oakland officer was shot in the arm.  The man is
also alleged to have shined the laser at a California
Highway Patrol fixed wing aircraft that was circling at
about 3,500 feet.  Thankfully no one aboard either aircraft
was injured.

Under Title 18 Sub-part 39A, whoever knowingly aims the beam
of a laser pointer at an aircraft in the jurisdiction of the
United States, or at the flight path of such an aircraft,
shall be fined or imprisoned for up to 5 years, or both.
(Media News)

**

RADIO LAW:  COALITION PUSHES FCC TO RECLAIM AT LEAST 120 MHZ
OF BROADCAST SPECTRUM

The coalition of broadcasters willing to sell spectrum
rights has grown to 39 major market stations.  This
according to comments filed to the FCC by the Expanding
Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition.  The trade group
also wants the regulatory agency to make the auction as
attractive as possible by not limiting wireless bidders or
which stations can share spectrum.

The coalition was formed because the principal broadcast
trade association, the National Association of Broadcasters,
is focusing on making sure the auctions hold harmless
broadcasters who are not selling and want to remain in the
business.  The coalition members don't have to identify
themselves publicly because of the obvious competitive and
operational issues related to publicizing their willingness
to sell.  However they are reportedly pushing the FCC to
reclaim at least 120 MHz of spectrum.

The deadline for comments on the FCC's framework for
broadcast incentive auctions was  January 25th.  Reply
comments are due in March.
(B&C)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  CQ APPOINTS AA6TS AS NEW INTERNATIONAL
EDITOR

CQ magazine will be adding a monthly international news
column called CQ World Wide as of its April edition.  The
new column will be coordinated by new International Editor
Tom Smerk, AA6TS.  Smerk lives in Dulzura, California and
has been active in ham radio since 1988.  He is active in
ARESr, SKYWARNr, RACES, California Disaster Corps and CERT,
and is a volunteer examiner as well.  For the past 25 years,
he has taught business information technology for the San
Diego Community College District.  Hams with news of events
and activities outside the United States can contact Smerk
by e-mail to aa6ts (at) cq-amateur-radio (dot) com.  (CQ)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  QCWA DAYTON BANQUET ANNOUNCED

More Dayton Hamvention related news this week.  This in the
announcement by the Quarter Century Wireless Association
that it will be holding QCWA Banquet: on Friday May 17th at
the Dayton Airport Holiday Inn.  The dinner begins at 7:30
p.m. Eastern Daylight Time .  The after dinner speaker will
be  James Crabtree with a presentation on Lincoln.  Cost is
$25 per person.  Reservations and payment go to Jerry
Ragland, WA8BOB, 409 Park Av. Franklin, Ohio, 45005.
(WB8IFM)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS:  39th ANNUAL EASTERN VHF/UHF/MICROWAVE
CONFERENCE APRIL IN CT.

Registration is now open for the 39th annual Eastern VHF/UHF
and microwave conference to be held April 26th to the 28th
at the Baymont Inn and Suites in Manchester, Connecticut.
This years program includes numerous talks and presentations
for those who enjoy operating in the world above 50 MHz.
This yearly get together is sponsored by the North East Weak
Signal Group.  More information including registration and
hotel information can be found at
www.newsvhf.com/vhfconf.html  (W1GHX, VHF Reflector)

**

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)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: ADAPTING RFID TO IDENTIFY AND MONITOR
HUMAN ACTIVITY

Australia's University of Adelaide computer scientists are
leading a project to develop a novel sensor system to aid
senior citizens.  One that would help older people to keep
living independently and safely in their own homes.  Amateur
Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, is here with the
details:

--

To accomplish this far reaching goal of aiding the senior
citizen community, researchers down-under are adapting radio
frequency identification better known as RFID sensor
technologies to automatically identify and monitor human
activity.  This in turn makes it possible to determine if an
individual's normal routine is being maintained so that
timely assistance can be provided if it is needed.

Although RFID technology has been around since World War II
and is in common use today in applications such as anti-
shoplifting and vehicle identification at toll road
collection points, its potential use in interpreting human
activity remains largely in the laboratory.

The chief investigator for this project is Dr. Michael Sheng
at he University of Adelaide.  He says that work will be
among the first few projects in the world conducting large-
scale common-sense reasoning in automatic human activity
recognition.  In addition the system will be low-cost and
unobtrusive, and without the privacy issues and intensive
monitoring of video surveillance.  There will be no need for
older people to wear anything or turn anything on or off.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW. In
Los Angeles.

--

The technology will be first investigated in a laboratory
setting and then in hospital trials with geriatric patients.
More aboiut this possible new use for RFID is on line at
tinyurl.com/senior-citizen-RFID
(Radio Comms E-zine, VK7WI News)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  NEW ANIMATED UK VIDEO FEATURES UKUBE-1
AND FUNCUBE

A new animated video has been released that tells the story
pf the UK Space Agency's first CubeSat UKube-1 slated to
launch in the 3rd quarter of 2013.  UKube-1 will carry a set
of AMSAT-UK FUNcube transponder boards to provide a 435 to
145 MHz linear transponder and a 1200 bps BPSK beacon for
educational outreach.  For more information on FUNcube and a
link to the video please take your web browser to www.amsat-
uk.org  (AMSAT-UK, Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT:  SARL ANTENNA DEFENSE FUND GETS A MAJOR BOOST

The South Africa Radio League's Antenna Defense
Fund increased to 37,100 Rand which equates to 4100 U.S.
dollars.  This, on its way to its 50000 Rand or 6000 U-S
dollar target.

The funds first contribution from industry came from the
Radio Accessories and Data Modems Company which made 6000
Rand donation to the fund.  As previously reported, this
fund is to assist South African hams facing antenna
restrictions and the like.  (SARL)

**

WORLDBEAT:  PH00ZWAT ON THE AIR UNANNOUNCED FROM FLEVOLAND

Shortwave radio writer Kim Andrew Elliott advises that a
special short term amateur radio station with the callsign P-
H-00-Z-W-A-T was active January 26th and 27th UTC time.
This from the former Radio Nederlands Flevoland antenna site
near the town of Zeewolde in the Netherlands.

The operators were reported to be using relatively low power
feeding the various curtain type directional arrays at 120
meters height on the various High Frequency amateur radio
bands.

According to Jonathan Marks, G8WGN, there have been several
events like this. The first was in February 1985 when
special event station PA6FLD took to the airwaves.  Video of
that operation was included in the ARRL film "The New World
of Amateur Radio" produced and hosted by the late Roy Neal,
K6DUE.  (G8WGN via Critical Distance Weblog)

**

DX

In DX, word that W1USN, AA1M and W1SSR will be on the air
stroke PJ2 from Curacao between March 8th and the the 22nd.
Their activity will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW,
SSB, PSK and RTTY. QSL via their home callsigns either
direct or by the bureau.

Members of the Westnet DX Group will once again be active as
EJ7NET from the Aran Islands between May 10th and the 15th.
Operations will be on all HF bands and modes. QSL via
Logbook of thr World or direct to EI6FR. No  eQSL or bureau
QSLs will be accepted for this operation.

DF7ZS will again be on the air from Aruba between March 26th
and April 3rd.  Activity will include the CQ World Wide WPX
SSB Contest from March 30th to the 31st as a Single-Operator
All-Band entry. Some casual operations will take place
before and after the contest on 17 and 12 meters. QSL via
his home callsign.

PA0FAW says that he will be operating with the special
callsign PF100ZOO between February 1st and the 28th.  This
activity is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Arnhem Zoo. Operations will mainly be CW and SSB, with some
digital modes. QSL via PA0FAW either direct, via the bureau
or electronically using eQSL.  SWL reports are also welcome
and appreciated.

TU5KG is once again traveling through the South Indian Ocean
on a fishing boat. As in past years, he will be sailing in
both the Kerguelen and Crozet Island regions, and may
activate the islands if he goes ashore) using his new
callsigns.  These are FT5XT for Kerguelen and FT5WQ for
Crozet. When at sea he will sign TU5KG maritime mobile.
QSL via F4DXW, direct only.

Lastly, ten operators from the Oceania DX Group will be
operational from Norfolk Island between May 3rd and the 13th
as VK9NT.  The group plans to have 4 stations covering all
bands 80-10 meters on CW, SSB and RTTY.  An Online QSL
Request Service will be available for bureau and direct
cards on ClubLog which is the preferred method or direct to
VK2CA.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: 15 YEAR OLD INVENTOR FROM SIERRA LEONE
VISITS MIT

And finally this week, the story of a young inventor who is
already leaving a very positive mark on society.  Here's
David Black. KB4KCH, with the rest of the story:

--

Kelvin Doe is not a ham radio operator but he is being
called the wonder kid of Sierra Leone and with good reason.
This is because the 15 year old who recently won a trip to
visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology taught
himself how to build generators, batteries, and FM radios
using parts he found in the trash.

In the best tradition of the maker and hacker movement he
does it using things that would otherwise have been thrown
out and, with almost no formal training, turns them into
useful products.

Doe's inventions are especially valuable in his hometown
where, according to Kelvin, the lights there only turn on
"about once a week."  Kelvin builds batteries and generators
to provide electricity for his family.  He also uses his
home made gear to operate a successful radio station where
he is known as DJ Focus.

Kelvin says he hopes to use his radio station as a way for
the youth in Sierra Leone to debate about issues in their
area.  He says he plans to build a windmill generator to
provide more stable electricity for his town.

Kelvin Doe visited MIT as part of the university's Visiting
Practitioners Program.  The Syllabus allows inventors to use
MIT's plentiful resources and perform their own research in
the schools labs.

Kelvin Doe became the youngest ever Visiting Practitioner
after winning the Innovate Salone Challenge.  Innovate
Salone runs a program that asks young citizens of that
nation to creatively come up with solutions to problems
facing their community.

From the South-East Bureau in Birmingham Alabama, I'm David
Black, KB4KCH.

--

In our view, its young people like Kelvin Doe, who will be
the ones who will truly advance all of mankind in the years
and decades to come, and the world really needs a lot more
like him.  (StarAfrica.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 note to those of you who obtain these
newscasts over the 661-296-2407 dial up line.  While we have
decided to keep it in service a while longer, it will be
down for equipment maintenance from Febdruay 4th to the 12th
or there-abouts.  Parts are getting really scarce for the
antique gear used to feed the phone line, so we must do what
we can to keep things going.  If you are a phone access
user, please make alternate arrangements to obtain the
newscast until we can return the system to operation.

Also 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 Jim Damron, N8TMW, in Charleston, West Virginia, saying
73 and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013.  All rights
reserved.