The Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club

Twice Winner of the RSGB Region 3

'Club of the Year' Trophy for 2013 & 2014

UK & World News Page

 With all the latest Amateur Radio and Technical News
      from Wirral, UK and around the World !

   Click for the RSGB NEWS for Radio Amateurs & SWL's

 

Looking for an archived News Item from last 12 months to read again ? click ARCHIVED NEWS

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TODAY's Local, UK and World NEWS

 

Florida residents get ham radio training

Wednesday 31st August 2022

Broadcaster WCJB reports North Central Florida residents have taken amateur radio training in case of a major disaster

The WCJB story says:

The Alachua County Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the North Florida Amateur Radio Club held a training class to help residents get their FCC radio technician license.

Dr. Gordon Gibby KX4Z teaches some of the training said it’s important to learn how to use a HAM radio in case the power grid goes out.

“You look at Katrina, you look at hurricane Sandy and you look at hurricane Michael and you look at all the disasters that have occurred and you think what is my role how do I help out my neighbor? So a lot of the people in our group are just altruistic they want to help.”

Getting your license takes some studying but Gibby acknowledges that anyone can pass the test.

“Anybody can pass this test, a 9-year-old has passed this test it’s not that hard. But we will be teaching them a lot and to be a volunteer with Alachua County we require them to take even more training so they understand the community emergency response and the professional response.”

Source WCJB
https://www.wcjb.com/2022/08/28/ncfl-residents-get-training-ham-radios-case-major-disaster/

The amateur Technician license they earned permits up tp 200 watts in four HF bands and up to 1,500 watts on the bands at 50 MHz and above.

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Morse code detected an old B52's music gig

Wednesday 31st August 2022

I was listening on Youtube to an ancient recording and could clearly hear NAWS DE CFH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVXfkG7q_0s

I seem to recall that NAWS was the callsign for North Atlantic Weather Service and CFH was Halifax airtraffic control.

Hw did that get there ?
Breakthrough into the sound system ?

Reminds me of GBR on 16Khz on Tubular Bells getting into the recording studio and only detected many years later.

73 de Andy G0FTD

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The Space Weather Woman

Wednesday 31st August 2022

The latest space weather forecast from Dr Tamitha Skov WX6SWW

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Tassie Ham Radio Conference and Expo

Wednesday 31st August 2022

Held in Hobart at the University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus in a spacious and contemporary venue The Sir Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre.

Plenty of free car parking and only a short 20 minute trip from the airport, flights into Hobart run from all major capital cities and direct to Auckland, NZ. You can attend in person or online (via zoom).

Saturday 5th of November 2022 is the Amateur Radio Conference A full day of speakers from across VK and the World with presentations including Youth Engagement and Amateur Radio, Remote Stations, Electrical and RF safety, Low Power Portable EME, QRP SOTA POTA WWFF, Interference mitigation, Digital Amateur TV, Microwave Experimentation and much more - these will be delivered both In-person and Online.

Sunday 6th of November 2022 is the huge Ham Expo With Amateur Radio Vendors and Traders including - ICOM, All About DX and many more making their way to Hobart. There will be many preloved equipment tables, Fox Hunts on the Day, Raffles including transceivers and handhelds and Information Stands - ALARA, Parks, SOTA, ROAR + more!

Registrations for attendance, Vendors and Pre-loved tables are NOW open and registration for the event is essential.

For more information and the registration links please visit the reast.asn.au/news-events/tassie-ham-radio-conference-and-expo/

We look forward to seeing you all in Hobart!

73 Tassie Ham Expo Organizing Committee

WIA

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Goonhilly – the station supporting Nasa’s Artemis moon mission from Cornwall

Wednesday 31st August 2022

History-rich communcation centre in Lizard peninsula will track the rocket using its Merlin antenna

Naturally, mission control in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are the places most closely associated with Nasa’s Artemis 1 moon adventure but a lesser-known spot on a remote heath in the far south-west of Britain is also playing a crucial part.

When the mission does blast off, hopefully later this week, scientists at Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall will help Nasa track the rocket using a giant deep space antenna nicknamed Merlin, and then command six small research satellites that are piggy-backing a ride on Artemis.

It will be a big moment for Goonhilly, which was on the brink of being closed for good in 2006 after four decades of service, and a huge boost for Cornwall’s burgeoning space industry.

“We’re very excited,” said 23-year-old Beth Sheppard, a University of Oxford graduate rejoicing in the job title of deep space network mission operations engineer, who is one of those in the hot-seat at Goonhilly control. “We can’t wait to see it go up and it will be quite a moment when we receive signals from it.”

Sheppard is from the Cornish seaside town of Hayle and can’t quite believe she is making a living as a space engineer in the place she grew up. “I feel a great sense of pride. Cornwall’s a unique place and this helps to put us on the map.”

Read the full and fascinating article at
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2022/aug/30/goonhilly-the-station-supporting-nasas-artemis-mission-from-cornwall?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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Keplerian data

Wednesday 31st August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ

2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ

KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22242.48724767 -.00000044 00000-0 14555-4 0 9993

2 07530 101.9114 222.6079 0011816 260.4810 218.3160 12.53656571186748

0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22242.67862816 .00006690 00000-0 12518-3 0 9997

2 25544 51.6458 327.5435 0003207 178.1382 346.4591 15.49979622356732

0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22242.30016805 .00000193 00000-0 47022-4 0 9994

2 27607 64.5540 75.9033 0081085 280.2842 78.9126 14.76213011 59275

0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22242.44113624 .00001069 00000-0 13206-3 0 9998

2 39444 97.6310 213.0491 0057169 148.2927 212.1752 14.83654458472497

0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22242.48021175 .00015401 00000-0 22118-3 0 9993

2 40903 97.1724 301.2351 0008721 194.3535 290.9650 15.56153183390765

0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22241.99407779 .00000682 00000-0 57781-5 0 9992

2 40931 5.9994 4.4800 0012717 130.4920 229.6398 14.76847075374235

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22242.50245564 .00001494 00000-0 97493-4 0 9999

2 42759 43.0182 284.4076 0009238 27.0124 112.1451 15.12323481287569

0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22242.53588780 .00001314 00000-0 87099-4 0 9997

2 42761 43.0181 282.9570 0009592 28.9283 120.6428 15.12406593287577

0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22242.25448595 .00002222 00000-0 17097-3 0 9992

2 43017 97.6641 133.4153 0245830 306.3340 51.5403 14.81881233258047

0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22242.61268097 .00000755 00000-0 79676-4 0 9996

2 43678 97.9807 16.7921 0010778 47.1255 313.0878 14.92272978208914

0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22242.35118837 .00000146 00000-0 00000-0 0 9991

2 43700 0.0051 178.1400 0001944 16.4039 296.1803 1.00271750 13774

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22242.18257945 .00001407 00000-0 12577-3 0 9995

2 43803 97.6137 307.3465 0014802 25.4112 334.7835 14.97377686204109

0 CAS-6

1 44881U 19093C 22242.52204348 .00000194 00000-0 31315-4 0 9998

2 44881 97.8905 320.6611 0013885 309.0129 50.9852 14.81793927145744

0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22242.30808293 .00000025 00000-0 51165-4 0 9995

2 44909 82.5245 181.2154 0217889 146.7963 214.7032 12.79714415124958

0 XW-3

1 50466U 21131B 22242.52789306 .00000019 00000-0 20824-4 0 9991

2 50466 98.5774 319.7365 0003315 290.8410 69.2422 14.38517187 35562

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Friday, September 2, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31

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QSO Today Bill Jordan AE4S

Tuesday 30th August 2022

Bill Jordan’s, AE4S, love of electronics and radio paralleled his professional career as college professor.

As a founding member of the Tallahassee Amateur Radio Society and the AE4S repeater, Bill is connected and communicates with the lifelong friends he has made through ham radio.

AE4S tells his ham radio story in this QSO Today.

Listen to the podcast

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NASA to provide update on Artemis I Moon Mission status

Tuesday 30th August 2022

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 30, to discuss the flight test of the agency’s mega Moon rocket and uncrewed Orion spacecraft, currently at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of the Artemis I lunar mission.


A NASA helicopter flies past the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard atop the mobile launcher
 at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. NASA’s Artemis I flight test is the first integrated
test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Credits: NASA

Audio of the teleconference will stream live online at: https://www.nasa.gov/live

Teleconference participants include:

The Artemis I launch was scrubbed Monday after encountering an issue getting one of the four RS-25 engines on the bottom of the rocket’s core stage to the proper temperature range for liftoff.

Artemis I is a test flight to launch NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon before the Artemis II mission, which will have astronauts aboard. Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.

For the latest updates online, follow along on NASA’s Artemis blog at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

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GB0DOD Special Event Station - 17th September

Tuesday 30th August 2022

Paisley Amateur Radio Club will be operating the special event station GB0DOD from the Methodist Central Hall, 2 Gauze St, Paisley, PA1 1EP on Saturday the 17th September 2022 as part of Paisley Doors Open Day when historic buildings throughout the town will be open to the public.

Club members will be demonstrating voice, digital and morse modes on HF, VHF and UHF.

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Central Coast Amateur Radio Club News

Tuesday 30th August 2022

The club rooms at Kariong are open every Saturday.

At the VK2RAG Somersby repeater site, the D-Star, Rad-Net DMR and 2m Echolink services are fully functional. Brand Meister DMR and 70cm Echolink and IRLP are still on the sick list.

The club has a Web SDR at Somersby. Websdr.ccarc.org.au is configured to listen on 6 metres, 2 metres, 70 centimetres and 23 centimetres.

The club has resumed 'show and tell' days on the last Saturday of each month; with a very successful day Saturday with members showing off some interesting gear.

The daily Morning Tea Net is held at 10:00am each morning and after the VK2WI broadcast on Sunday mornings.

The Thursday evening net is held at 8:00pm on the same repeater and echolink conferences. This week was run by Brad, VK2FRQ we had a discussion about the IC905.

The Morning Tea and Thursday night nets are held on the VK2RAG repeater – 146.725 MHz with 91.5Hz tone, and on echolink through the HAM and CCARCNSW echolink conferences.

The fortnightly SSTV net, hosted by Adrian, VK2ABS, is on the Club’s 2 Meter WICEN repeater; 147.125 MHz with 91.5 Hz tone, consisting of 2-3 rounds. Adrian has had a large amount of support from other members and would love to see you drop in on the next net on Friday the 2nd of September at 7:30 PM.

The Thursday night and SSTV nets are also video streamed live to the club’s Facebook page and recordings can be found in the “Videos” section.

You can find out more about the CCARC, our upcoming social events and other details that we can’t tell you about here on the web at ccarc.org.au, by phone on 02 4340 2500, or on social media by searching for “Central Coast Amateur Radio Club”. Remember to give the club a “like” to follow for any updates.

73, Alan VK2MG
Publicity Officer,
Central Coast Amateur Radio Club.

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Introducing FISSURE: A Toolbox for the RF Hacker

Tuesday 30th August 2022

No matter what the job at hand is, if you’re going to tackle it, you’re going to need the right kit of tools. And if your job includes making sense out of any of the signals in the virtual soup of RF energy we all live in, then you’re going to need something like the FISSURE RF framework.

Exactly what FISSURE is pretty clear from its acronym, which stands for Frequency Independent SDR-Based Signal Understanding and Reverse Engineering. This is all pretty new — it looks like [Chris Poore] presented a talk at DEFCON a few weeks back about using FISSURE to analyze powerline communications between semi-trucks and their trailers, and they’ve got a talk scheduled for next month’s GNU Radio Conference as well.

We’ve been looking through all the material we can find on FISSURE, and it appears to be an RF hacker’s dream come true. They’ve got a few examples on Twitter, like brute-forcing an old garage door opener with a security code set by a ten-position DIP switch, and sending tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) signals to a car. They also mention some of the framework’s capabilities on the GitHub README; we’re especially interested in packet crafting for various protocols.

The video below has some more examples of what FISSURE can do.

It looks like FISSURE could be a lot of fun, and very handy for your RF analysis and reverse engineering work. If you’ve been using Universal Radio Hacker like we have, this looks similar, only more so. We’ll be downloading it soon and giving it a try, so be on the lookout for a hands-on report.
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/27/introducing-fissure-a-toolbox-for-the-rf-hacker/

Our thanks to
Stephen Walters
Professional Celebrity Photographer / G7VFY
www.facebook.com/mister35mm
Tel 07956-544202

for the above information

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Kosova

Tuesday 30th August 2022

Mike, KN4PRE, is now active as Z6/KN4PRE. He posts the following on QRZ.com, August 24th:

I'm from the USA, currently working in Eastern Europe. My primary focus with HF lies in QRP NVIS. I was in the military for 15 years, working first as a Radio Teletype Operator (MOS 05C) and then as a Special Forces Communications NCO (MOS 18E). Since then, I've worked on P25 networks overseas for the military and the Department of State. My job also provides me the opportunity to work with NATO soldiers in their radio communications missions.

My equipment consists of a Yaesu FT-857D (base/static - mainly for SSB), and an Elecraft KX-2 (portable/hasty - CW and data). I use Chameleon's Tactical Delta Loop (TDL) for static comms, their MPAS for hasty/on the move comms and their Tactical Dipole (TDL) for ALE comms....73!

QSL via the address on QRZ.com

OPDX

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DXCC Country/Entity Report

Tuesday 30th August 2022

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday, 21st-August, through Sunday, 28th-August there were 215 countries active.

Countries available:

3A, 3B8, 3B9, 3D2, 3DA, 3V, 3W, 3X, 4J, 4L, 4O, 4S, 4U1U, 4W, 4X, 5A, 5B, 5H, 5R, 5V, 5W, 5X, 5Z, 6W, 6Y, 7Q, 7X, 8P, 8Q, 8R, 9A, 9G, 9H, 9J, 9K, 9M2, 9M6, 9U, 9V, 9Y,

A3, A4, A6, A7, A9, AP, BV, BY, C2, C3, C5, C6, C9, CE, CE0Y, CE9, CM, CN, CP, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, D4, DL, DU, E4, E5/n, E5/s, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EA9, EI, EK, EL, EP, ER, ES, EU, EX, EY, F, FG, FH, FK, FM, FO/m, FR, FS, FW, FY, G, GD, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, H4, HA, HB, HB0, HC, HH, HI, HK, HL, HP, HR, HS, HV, HZ, I, IS, J2, J5, J6, J7, JA, JD/o, JT, JW, JX, JY,

K, KG4, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX, LY, LZ, OA, OD, OE, OH, OH0, OJ0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OY, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PY, PZ, S0, S5, S7, SM, SP, ST, SV, SV5, SV9, T7, TA, TF, TG, TI, TK,

UA, UA2, UA9, UK, UN, UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, V8, VE, VK, VK0M, VP2E, VP2M, VP6, VP8, VP9, VR, VU, XE, XX9, YB, YI, YJ, YL, YN, YO, YS, YU, YV, Z3, Z6, Z8, ZA, ZB, ZC4, ZD7, ZF, ZL, ZP, ZS

* PLEASE NOTE: The report "could" contain "Pirate/SLIM" operations or more likely a "BUSTED CALLSIGN". As always, you never know - "Work First Worry Later"

OPDX

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Monday 29th August 2022

Loyalty in Amateur Radio

The second clause of the original Amateur's Code reads:

The Amateur is Loyal. He owes his amateur radio to the American Radio Relay League, and he offers it his unswerving loyalty.

The 2022 ARRL handbook presents it with the following words:

The Radio Amateur is LOYAL...offers loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs and the American Radio Relay League, through which Amateur Radio in the United States is represented nationally and internationally.

The ARRL website goes the extra mile to make this hard work and states that:

The Radio Amateur is LOYAL...He/[She] offers loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs, the IARU Radio Society in his/[her] country, through which Amateur Radio in his/[her] country is represented nationally and internationally.

Pronouns aside, this has got to be one of the more tortured efforts you might subject an entire group of humans to. Written in an attempt to enumerate each and every specific version of the global amateur radio community, it excludes more than it includes and in doing so completely fails the one thing it aims to achieve, a sense of belonging, being part of something bigger than you.

So what does loyalty look like?

Is providing constructive feedback loyalty? Is giving your time and energy a loyal thing? What about being a member of a club?

The dictionary suggests that loyalty is a strong feeling of support or allegiance. Originally the code suggested that this should be directed at the ARRL, even the handbook continues to suggest that today, but is that relevant for me here in Australia? Should I be a loyal member of the ARRL, or should I be a loyal member of the WIA? What if there is a second body in your country? In Australia there is another organisation attempting to reshape the hobby, RASA, the Radio Amateur Society of Australia, should I be loyal to that? Can I be loyal to both, or neither? What happens if I am not comfortable with either organisation, who should I be loyal to?

National bodies aside, what about clubs? Am I required to be a club member and be loyal to it? What if I'm a member of more than one club? Should I be more loyal to one than the other? Should I be more loyal to the national body or my local club? What if I'm not a member of any club? What should I be loyal to then?

What if loyalty is coupled to an idea instead of a specific body? What might that idea look like? The revised version of the clause already includes concepts such as encouragement and support to other amateurs. What if we just omit any specific bodies and replace it with the idea of the global amateur community in all its many splendored diversity?

While we're looking at this, the word encouragement includes the action of giving someone support, confidence or hope, so we're repeating ourselves by using support and there's plenty of other things we could share around.

Here's a philosophical question to wrap your mind around. If you have a drivers' license, but you don't drive, are you a driver? Similarly, if you have an amateur license, but you don't do anything with it, are you an amateur? Perhaps the nub of this lies in participation.

Taking those thoughts into account, we could rephrase the second clause of the Amateur's Code to:

The Radio Amateur is LOYAL...offering encouragement and participation to the global amateur community.

If this clause was part of the Amateur's Code, would it help you feel like you belonged, would it travel beyond the borders of your country and would you feel part of something bigger?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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Essex Tabletop Sale

Monday 29th August 2022

The great Essex Table Top Sale, hosted by Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS), returns to Danbury Village Hall CM3 4NQ, on Tuesday 6 th September.

The evening will be in the larger main hall at Danbury. We will have facilities for sales of small/single items to whole tables.

All radio amateurs, clubs and electronics enthusiasts are invited to attend - as buyers or sellers. Doors open for sellers setting up at 7pm, ahead of the main event opening at 7:30pm.

If you have missed Canvey Rally, this is an excellent opportunity for Essex radio/electronics bargains, downsizing or recycling.

Tables are free! - but must be reserved in advance to avoid disappointment, so Book Now!

The evening includes refreshments and a raffle too!

For further details – see the CARS website www.g0mwt.org.uk

Please contact our Treasurer and Sale coordinator John Roe G4IMS to book your table asap by email via tabletop2022@g0mwt.org.uk

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Brazil celebrates 200 years of independence

Monday 29th August 2022

LABRE presents a new Award - WID (Worked Independence Day) - to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Independence of Brazil

It is available to all worldwide amateur radio operators who confirm contacts with Brazilian stations whose last two letters of their respective callsigns correspond to the acronyms of the 27 Federative Units (states or UF) of Brazil, example PY7BAM, PT2DF, PY2TO, PW8EPA, PV8AAP, PY3PR etc. To receive the AWARD, the applicant must prove corresponding contacts to all 27 acronyms of Brazilian UF (see website).

ATTENTION, attention! Only the last two letters of the callsign matter for this AWARD. Contacts can be made with amateur radio operators of any origin. For example, contacts with PY7BAM, PT2DF, PY2TO, PW8EPA, PV8AAP, PY3PR would be valid to prove respectively the abbreviations AM, DF, TO, PA, AP and PR, although these abbreviations do not correspond to amateur radio operators' origin state who verified each one.

LABRE will also operate the special callsign PV200BR and will be on the air from September 1, 2022, on the various bands and modes available to Brazilian radio amateurs.

Contacts with special callsign PV200BR can be used as a wildcard to replace one of the acronyms. Contacts valid from September 1, 2022, 200th year of the Brazil's Independence. The AWARD can be worked on in all permitted modes and bands with endorsement for CW, SSB, Digital and Satellite modes.

For more information on proof of contacts, read the general rules at the end of the LABRE Awards page
https://www.labre.org.br/diplomas/regulamentos/

Source LABRE
https://www.labre.org.br/wid/

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Radio hams in Nuclear Power Plant Exercise

Monday 29th August 2022

The ARRL reports the Ohio Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) just completed a dry-run exercise for the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Lake County, Ohio.

ARRL Ohio Section Emergency Coordinator Stan Broadway, N8BHL, said the drill was practice for the federally judged exercise scheduled for September.

The Ohio Emergency Operations Center (EOC) amateur station, W8SGT, was utilized and on the air to communicate with several counties in northeast Ohio. Amateur radio serves in the emergency planning as a backup communications resource. The actual exercise is focused more on the power plant and its operation, but the state EOC is involved for the process.

"In real life, this was a low-key type of exercise for us. It does not involve a lot of hams or activity, just establishes the line of communication," said Broadway. "It's satisfying to know, through many conversations during the planning stage, that amateur radio is a key ingredient to assure communication with the state."

Ohio ARES is also working on a Simulated Emergency Test (SET) drill for October 1, 2022. For more information about the Amateur Radio Emergency Service®, visit www.arrl.org/ares

Source ARRL
http://www.arrl.org/news/nuclear-power-plant-exercise-includes-amateur-radio-emergency-service

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WRC23 preparatory activities are intensifying

Monday 29th August 2022

The Chair of IARU Region 1 Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee, Barry Lewis G4SJH, reports on the WRC23 preparatory activities

On the IARU-R1 site he writes:

As WRC23 gets closer so the preparatory activities for all the agenda items are increasing in intensity. The most pressing for the amateur community is the 23cm band radio navigation satellite service (RNSS) coexistence agenda item 9.1b. The IARU engagement is continuing with the studies in the regulatory institutions as well as amongst the amateur community. As detailed proposals are starting to emerge so the amateur community needs to be ready to defend its interests in this band.

Most recently the Region 1 PRC and SRLC collaborated to provide a consultation response to the European Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) that develops “Opinions” on the various WRC23 agenda items used by the European Union to develop its positions on the agenda items. Of course the 23cm band related agenda item 9.1b features heavily in the response. The full IARU R1 response can be found here. This is a parallel activity to the EU consultation to which the IARU responded just a few weeks ago (here).

Following the presentations given during the IARU R1 interim conference and the HamRadio2022 event, the IARU was kindly invited to present the 23cm band situation to the eme community at the 19th EME conference in Prague. Reactions were mixed. However the IARU maintains its objective to find a solution that can facilitate all the amateur radio applications active in the band today (including eme operations) even if some compromises will be inevitable.

To progress the 23cm band studies, ITU‑R Working Party 4C will meet during the second week of September. At this meeting the technical studies regarding the amateur service and radio navigation satellite service will be developed further. The IARU global 9.1b team is preparing contributions and will be participating in the meeting.

During the same week the European CEPT will be busy with its own Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) project team (PTA) focussing on the future WRC agenda items (so-called WRC Agenda Item 10). The discussion will develop the CEPT views on those items that CEPT will propose. Already some draft proposals are touching on spectrum bands of interest to the amateur service therefore IARU volunteers will be attending and making contributions this meeting too.

Source IARU Region 1
https://iaru-r1.org/

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ICQPodcast - FT8 as a Messaging Network?

Monday 29th August 2022

In this episode, Martin Butler (M1MRB) is joined by Frank (K4FMH), Chris (M0TCH) and Martin (M0SGL) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature FT8 as a Messaging Network

We would like to thank our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

News stories include: -

The ICQPodcast can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

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Dramatic aging of Swiss radio amateurs

Monday 29th August 2022

USKA report at a recent Section Presidents conference only 25% expressed any concern about the undisputed dramatic aging of Switzerland's radio amateurs

Regarding the situation in Switzerland the President of IARU Region 1 Sylvain Azarian F4GKR expressed his concern saying:

"Not only two generations are missing, but also the squad!"

It's clear: it can't go on like this any longer!
USKA and IARU R1 have the identified an urgent need for action.
But what about the sections?


A translation of the USKA report reads:

On Saturday, August 20, the representatives of the USKA Sections met for the annual Section Presidents’ Conference. This time at the Verkehrshaus in Lucerne, which incidentally allowed for the demonstration of the renewed HB9O shortwave radio station. 24 of the 34 Sections of the USKA were represented.

Several surveys were conducted during the conference to find out the attitude of the Sections.

The Sections react extremely differently to the challenges in amateur radio. For example, only 25% of the sections present are at all concerned about the undisputed dramatic ageing of our clubs (slide 9).

The newer offers of the USKA are still insufficiently accepted (slide 7): Only 11 of 24 representatives participate in a HamGroup. Only 5 out of 24 sections have had HamWebinar.ch speakers so far. This raises the question: How do section committees, which do not use these offers themselves, explain their advantages to their members and motivate them to participate? For the benefit of section life, of course.

Less than half of the represented sections have designated an “EMC 1st Level Supporter” in their section – disturbances thus do not seem to be an “issue” in the majority of the sections – really? Even only 2 sections state that they participate in the USKA’s Götti programme. As if they were not interested in new members or in younger blood!

We can only hope that the sections will now do their homework quickly. There is not much time left. Already 2/3 of all USKA members are not motivated to join a section. This fact is increasingly calling into question the legitimacy of both the USKA Delegates Assembly and the Section Presidents’ Conference. Meanwhile, the “Urabstimmung” ballot represents the only truly democratic decision-making body in the USKA, apart from the presidential election.

The monthly public “USKA Question Time” is open to all members and interested parties and is an important instrument for the USKA Executive Committee to address the concerns of people who are not members of a section.

Willi Vollenweider HB9AMC, USKA President

USKA report
https://www.uska.ch/en/bericht-von-der-sektions-praesidenten-konferenz-der-uska-2022/

Slide pack
https://www.uska.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Presentation_USKA_SPK_CPS_20_Aug_2022.pdf

So far no country in Europe has followed the UK's lead in introducing online amateur radio exams that can be taken from home 7 days a week. The exam systems are still paper-based, in many cases held just twice a year in a very limited number of exam centres.

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   The American Radio Relay League's
round-up of the forthcoming week's DX
activity on the amateur radio bands

Friday 26th August 2022

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by IK5WWA, The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

WEST MALAYSIA, 9M2.  Members of the Taiping Amateur Radio Club and Malaysian Amateur Radio Transmitter Society will be QRV with special callsign 9M65MA from Jalan Istana, Taiping between August 30 and September 1 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Independence of Malaysia.  Operations will be on various HF bands using CW, SSB, FM and various digital modes.  QSL direct to 9M2OHM.

EAST MALAYSIA, 9M6.  Special event stations 9M65MQ and 9M65MS will be QRV from Sarawak and Sabah, respectively, between August 30 and September 1 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Independence of Malaysia.  QSL via operators' instructions.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 9Y.  Members of the Trinidad and Tobago Amateur Radio Society are QRV with special callsign 9Y60TT until September 2 to celebrate the 60th anniversary since Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom.  Activity is on all bands and modes with multiple operators active.  QSL via LoTW.

TONGA, A3.  Masa, JA0RQV will be QRV as A35JP from Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu Island, IOTA OC-049, from August 27 to September 30. Activity is in his spare time on 40 to 6 meters using CW, SSB, FT8, and FT4.  QSL to home call.

MOROCCO, CN.  Moroccan amateur radio operators may use the prefix 5E9 until August 29 to celebrate the 59th birthday of King Mohammed VI, and Youth Day.

ESTONIA, ES.  Ed, ES2TT is QRV from Aegna Island, IOTA EU-149, until the end of August.  Activity is on 40 and 30 meters using CW and SSB.  QSL to home call.
    
JERSEY, GJ.  Keith, GU6EFB will be QRV as GJ6EFB from August 29 to 31.  Activity will be on Satellite QO-100.  QSL to home call.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA, HL.  Members of the Gwangju DX Club are QRV as D73G from Nohwa Island, IOTA AS-085, until August 28.  Activity is on 160 to 6 meters using CW, SSB, and various digital modes.  QSL via HL4CCM.

THAILAND, HS.  Brad, VK2BY is QRV as HS0ZNR from Nam Yuen in the Province of Ubon Ratchathani until September 2.  Activity is on 160 to 10 meters. 
QSL direct to home call.

SARDINIA, IS0.  Giuseppe, IK5WWA will be QRV as IM0M from La Maddalena Island, IOTA EU-041, from September 1 to 13.  Activity will be on 80 to 2 meters. 
QSL to home call.

BELGIUM, ON.  Special event station OR1050HERZ will be QRV from September 1 to October 31 to mark the 1050th anniversary since the foundation of the town of Herzele in the Belgian province of East Flanders.  Activity will be on all bands and modes.  QSL via bureau.

NETHERLANDS, PA.  Special event station PA22VUELTA is QRV until September 11 to draw attention to the 77th Vuelta a Espana bicycle race.  QSL via PI4UTR.

MACQUARIE ISLAND, VK0.  Matt, VK0MQ has been QRV on 30 meters using FT8 around 0900z.  He is active until October 1.  QSL via M0OXO.

MYANMAR, XZ.  Simon, HS0ZIB plans to be QRV as XZ2A from Naypyitaw  while working as a teacher in an orphanage.  Activity will be in his spare time on all HF bands, excluding 60 meters.  QSL via EA5GL.

INDONESIA, YB.  Special event station 8A400KJN is QRV until August 28 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Pekalongan Regency. Activity is on 80 and 40 meters using SSB, and FT8 on 40 to 15 meters.  QSL via operators' instructions.  In addition, look for station 7G1RL to be QRV from Liwungan Island, IOTA OC-237, on August 27 and 28.  Activity will be on the HF bands, as well as Satellites IO-86 and QO-100.  QSL via HA3JB.

ALBANIA, ZA.  Nikolas, DG7PX is QRV as ZA/DG7PX.  Activity of late has been on 20 and 15 meters using SSB.  His length of stay is unknown.  QSL to home call.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO. The ARRL EME Contest, QRP 20-Meter CW Fox Hunt, NCCC RTTY Sprint, NCCC CW Sprint, K1USN Slow Speed CW Test, RTTYOps WW DX RTTY Contest, Hawaii QSO Party, ALARA Contest, YO DX HF Contest, W/VE Islands QSO Party, World Wide Digi DX Contest, Kansas QSO Party, Ohio QSO Party, CVA DX SSB Contest and the SARL HF CW Contest are all scheduled for this upcoming weekend.

The QCX CW Challenge, ICWC Medium Speed Test, OK1WC CW Memorial, Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, RTTYOPS Weeksprint, Phone Weekly Test, A1Club CW AWT, CWops CW Test, Mini-Test 40 and Mini-Test 80 are on tap for August 29 to 31.

Please see August 2022 QST, page 70 and the ARRL and WA7BNM contest websites for details.

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The Transatlantic Centenary Tests

Thursday 25th August 2022

The RSGB are hosting an International Amateur Radio Activation, The Transatlantic Centenary Tests, on the HF bands, for the entire month of December 2022, to commemorate the centenary of the achievement of Amateur Transatlantic communication, during the Transatlantic Tests that were held between 1921 and 1923.

24 December 1922 was when the very first amateur radio signal from Europe was heard in North America; this was from the RSGB station (G)5WS which was established at Wandsworth in South London, as part of the Third Transatlantic Tests.

Unlike the tests of the 1920s, which consisted of one-way communication, the 2022 tests will encourage world-wide two-way communication with UK & Crown Dependency based stations by having a series of awards available for making QSOs with activating special stations. The Club Log team have kindly agreed to provide the supporting infrastructure for the Tests.

In anticipation of this centenary celebration, with the assistance of Ofcom (the UK licensing authority), the RSGB have reactivated five call signs which they held in the 1920s:

These historic call signs will be activated by RSGB members and Clubs, using G5WS, G5AT, G6XX, G6ZZ and G3DR (England), GM5WS (Scotland), GW5WS (Wales), GU5WS (Guernsey), GD5WS (Isle of Man), GJ5WS (Jersey) and GI5WS (Northern Ireland).

Full details of how to participate will be published on the RSGB website at https://rsgb.org/transatlantic-tests/

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AMSAT-EA satellites to launch in September

Thursday 25th August 2022

Felix EA4GQS reports Spain's latest amateur radio satellites to launch will be GENESIS-G and GENESIS-J on September 11

The AMSAT Bulletin post says:

This is to confirm that the launch of our new GENESIS-G and GENESIS-J satellites with Firefly will take place, if all goes well, on September 11, with the launch window starting at 3 PM Pacific Time (22h GMT), from Vanderberg. The expected orbit altitude is 300 km with an inclination of 137 degrees.
 
As many of you know, this will be the second attempt of Firefly to reach orbit after the first attempt made in September 2021 and which had to be aborted after two minutes of flight, causing our previous GENESIS-N and GENESIS-L to be lost, among others.
 
These new GENESIS have a more powerful on-board computer than their predecessors and updated software that allows FM voice repeater functionality, AFSK/FSK non-regenerative repeater up to 2400 bps, FSK regenerative repeater up to 50 bps, CW, digitized voice pre-recorded FM and FSK telemetry at 50 bps. The correct retransmission of AX25 / APRS frames over FM up to 2400 bps has been verified in the laboratory.

A small drawback we still have is the antenna deployment mechanism, that is the first version that was made and requires a plenty charged battery. The satellites have been stored for several months, so it is a weak point. Hopefully it will work.
 
These satellites also have the names of ASTROLAND-1 and ASTROLAND-2 to say thanks to the sponsorship of the project by the Astroland Planetary Agency. We also thank the private companies and Universities that helped in the project.
 
As on the previous occasion, two experimental propellants are flown, although this time they are from the Madrid company IENAI Space and, unlike the previous GENESIS mission, they use a liquid ionic fuel. Only the one from GENESIS-J is functional. The one from GENESIS-G carries the electronics but without the fuel.
 
The frequencies coordinated with IARU are the following:
 
GENESIS-G/ASTROLAND-1
145.875 MHz uplink, Modes: FM voice (no subtone) and FSK 50 bps, AFSK, AX.25, APRS 1200 / 2400 bps
436.888 MHz downlink, Modes: FM voice, CW, FSK 50 bps, FM voice beacon with AM2SAT callsign

GENESIS-J/ASTROLAND-2
145.925 MHz uplink, Modes: FM voice (no subtone) and FSK 50 bps, AFSK, AX.25, APRS 1200 / 2400 bps
436.666 MHz downlink, Modes: FM voice, CW FSK 50 bps, SSTV Robot 36, FM voice beacon with AM3SAT callsign
 
We encourage all of you to try to receive their first transmissions once the first keplerians are available.

This flight will be streamed by Everyday Astronaut:
https://everydayastronaut.com/

More information on the Firefly website:
https://firefly.com/alpha-flight-2-to-the-black/
 
73, Felix EA4GQS
AMSAT EA team

AMSAT Bulletin Board
http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Register now for free online amateur radio training course

Thursday 25th August 2022

The next free amateur radio Foundation Online training course run by volunteers from Essex Ham starts on September 4 - places still available. Register Now

The RSGB's introduction of online exams that can be taken at home has led to a surge in demand for free online amateur radio training courses such as that run by Essex Ham.

You can find out more about online training and register to join a course at
https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/foundation-online/

Essex Ham
https://www.essexham.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/EssexHam

 
The
Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club offer excellent opportunities to meet up with and chat with like minded folk for those living within easy reach of Wirral and gain experiences from those who have gone before ... to ask questions in a friendly environment.

As in most walks of life, passing the initial exams is the first stage to proving competence and knowledge to be able to operate responsibly.  There then follows the joys of the initial experiences of an exciting hobby.  From then on, it is often finding the forum to ask a zillion questions and chat with your peers who can add their life experiences and knowledge .. which can act as a welcome short cut to completely help you fulfil your personal enjoyment.

The Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club are unable at this moment in time to offer training opportunities locally and so recommend one of the above courses as an ideal way into the hobby, followed by taking the RSGB on-line exam.

After your success, do consider coming along to the Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club for a few evenings (no charge), and I'm sure we will be able to convince you just how fulfilling and rewarding being a member of a good club can be.  We have several new members who have joined recently achieving just that.  We now interleave ZOOM meetings, introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic with actual face to face club meetings once again. For more information .. contact our Secretary from  our "Who to Contact" page, or check-out our Calendar page for more details.

Our members operate in a wide range of radio communication modes enhanced with computer activities, including contests and as a club we use many of the modes available to us across much of the amateur radio spectrum allocated for our use. 

A warm welcome awaits .. come and talk with us !

 Keep checking our "Calendar of Events"  on the club website for our latest information re: coronavirus and meetings.
 

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United States special event

Thursday 25th August 2022

Look for special event station N3U/Flt93 (N3U/United Flight 93) to be activated once again between September 9-14th, to remind 'Amateur Radio Operators World-Wide' of the tragic events that happened near Shanksville (Pa), New York City and Washington DC, on September 11th, 2001.

This will be the 13th year for N3U and this memorial operation.

Bob, W3BTX (Trustee W3PN/P41USA/N3U), informs OPDX, "N3U was 1st activated in 2010 and has continued every year since. We also ran a special Aruba call P41USA for several years but COVID 19 got in the way."

Activity will be on all bands that are open at the time using mostly FT8/FT4 as well as CW and SSB.

QSL via club callsign W3PN (QRZ.com) if needed. LoTW will also be used for logging all Digital, SSB and CW.

OPDX

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When all else fails, ham radio doesn't

Thursday 25th August 2022

Inside Hamilton reports on the amateur radio club that connects Burlington to the world and beyond

Ham radio is all about connections.

Club members right here in Burlington connect to other operators all over the world and even to astronauts in the International Space Station. The technology, which continues to inspire a passionate group of users, has managed to remain relevant even in the era of email and cellphones due to its reliability.

“When all else fails, ham radio doesn't, and we saw that just recently in this Rogers thing. What am I going to do? I haven't got a telephone. How am I going to talk? Well, ham radio people were talking to each other,” said Tom Montgomery, a member of the Burlington Amateur Radio Club (BARC).

Formed in 1972, BARC has grown from just six members to a 180-person club. Members are primarily located within the city, but some hail from much farther away, including one in Abu Dhabi.

Club member Yves Isabelle VA3YVE, who lives in Burlington, said he has made use of his radio on the other side of the world.

“Just before COVID, like the month before we went into lockdown, my wife and I were travelling. We're in Australia, New Zealand. I had my little hand-held with me. I was able to use my hand-held connect up to a repeater there that was connected to the internet, and I had a conversation with four guys from the club here in Burlington, from Sydney, Australia,” said Isabelle.

Read the full story at
https://www.insidehalton.com/news-static/2544620-halton-about-us/

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Back Together - ARRL Annual Report

Thursday 25th August 2022

ARRL 2021 annual report notes that membership has been relatively flat for some 40 years now while the number of licensed amateurs has shown steady growth

Chief Executive Officer David A. Minster NA2AA says:

"It was just 10 years ago where, in our annual report, we were celebrating the achievement of 700,000 licensed hams in the United States. Today, that number is closing in on 800,000. We began a census project with Section Managers and Affiliated Clubs to examine the makeup of these licensed hams, and to determine how, as an association, we can move more of these licensees to become radio-active!"

Download the 2021 annual report "Back Together" from
http://www.arrl.org/annual-reports

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Class prepares people for ham radio exam

Thursday 25th August 2022

The Humboldt Amateur Radio Club is offering a class to prepare students for the Amateur Radio Technician Class license examination.

The Technician Class license is the entry-level license for amateur radio. The class is free of charge and open to all members of the community.

This class will be a hybrid class, meeting via Zoom and in person at the Humboldt Bay Fire Training Room , 3030 L St. in Eureka.

The class will meet for nine Mondays from 7 to 9 p.m. beginning Sept. 12 and concluding on Nov. 14.  There will be no class meeting on Oct. 31.

The class will introduce radio and electronic fundamentals, tips on operating station equipment, procedures for communicating with other hams, license and operating regulations and radio safety.

Following the class, the FCC licensing test is scheduled for Nov. 19, at 10 a.m. at the Fortuna Fire Department, 320 S Fortuna Blvd. in Fortuna.

Students are encouraged to purchase the textbook used for the class, “ARRL Ham Radio License Manual 5th Edition,” available from the American Radio Relay League store at
https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId/2003373064
for $32.95 plus shipping for spiral bound.

To get the Zoom meeting invitation or for more information about the class, contact Don Campbell at ke6hec@arrl.net or 707-834-0042.

For more information about ham radio in Humboldt County, visit the Humboldt Amateur Radio Club website, https://www.humboldt-arc.org/.

Source: https://www.times-standard.com/2022/08/24/class-prepares-people-for-ham-radio-exam/

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Malaysian special callsign

Thursday 25th August 2022

Members of the Taiping Amateur Radio Club, and coordinated by the Malaysian Amateur Radio Transmitter Society (MARTS), will be active with special callsign 9M65MA from Jalan Istana, Taiping, Malaysia, between August 30th and September 1st.

Activity is to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Independence of Malaysia.

Operations will be on various HF bands using CW, SSB, FM and the Digital modes.

QSL via 9M2OHM direct

OPDX

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Free Windows RF Calculator, WinRFCalc

Wednesday 24th August 2022

https://hollandshielding.com/Windows-RF-calculator

offers a free of charge RF toolbox with many interesting RF calculators and analysers can be downloaded, offering the following capabilities

Antenna numbers
Transmission loss
Unit converters
Attenuators
EMC and Shielding
RF Mixer analyser
DSP
General RF calculators
Butterworth filters
Impedance matching
Interdigital filter calculator

73, Onno PA3AKP

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Cambridge Amateur Radio Club makes contact with ISS

Wednesday 24th August 2022

CTV News reports Ontario's Cambridge Amateur Radio Club recently rode the radio waves out of this world when they connected with the International Space Station (ISS)

"It's very rare for Canada to actually get to contact the ISS," president of the Cambridge Amateur Radio Club, Scott Mitchell VA3GGT told CTV News.

The club says the opportunity to connect with the ISS is a process they started over two years ago.

"We actually made contact with the International Space Station where we spoke with an astronaut Kjell Lindgren," said Michell.

A small group of Cambridge kids had the opportunity to ask the American astronaut any question they wanted, thanks to the club’s hard work.

Watch the TV News broadcast at
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/it-s-very-rare-for-canada-cambridge-amateur-radio-club-makes-contact-with-iss-1.6036454

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
https://ariss.org/

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Radio hams experiment with cutting edge technology

Wednesday 24th August 2022

The Daily Herald reports there are more than 750,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the U.S. and the number is growing every day

The Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club managed to get publicity for the hobby in the Daily Herald newspaper which says:

Technologies used today include simple, inexpensive handheld two way radios, digital based systems using microcontrollers, small simple to large complex antennas and even antique radios using vacuum tubes.

Some Hams participate in radio contests where operators try to contact other Hams with a variety of rules and restrictions to keep it fun.

Other Hams experiment with cutting edge technology or experimental antenna design.

The most rapidly growing segment is referred to as digital mode. Originally, digital modes were mechanical systems used to send telegraph type signals. With the introduction of inexpensive microprocessors, digital modes allow sending and receiving radio signals by bouncing them off the moon or even meteor trails. Some operate at very low power - it's not unusual to see confirmed reports of signals being received at distances over 4,000 miles using 5 watt of power - about the same power as most nightlights.

Some Hams support local events like marathons, bicycle tours or fundraising events. Using handheld transceivers and rapid deploy control stations, they provide extra eyes and ears for fire/police/ambulance services during an event.

Read the full story at
https://www.dailyherald.com/submitted/20220817/ham-radio--i-thought-that-was-dead

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Tanzania update

Wednesday 24th August 2022

Eugen, DL8AAI, who was active as 5H2JK/p during a hiking tour in Kilimanjaro National Park (5HFF-0005) this past week, posted the following update on QRZ.com:
"Hiking in Kilimanjaro National Park is over. Climbing Kilimanjaro up to its top - Uhuru Peak, Africa's highest point - was quite an adventure. Retrospectively, it was the right decision to save my energy for the physical challenge rather than trying to activate Uhuru peak. I leave this opportunity for younger and better trained SOTA activators!

486 QSOs were made from 5HFF-5 plus 263 QSOs from Moshi town. Today, was my last QSO #722 from Tanzania. I want to say "asante sana" (Thank you very much) to all of you for accompanying me on the radio during my hike.

Please be patient getting your QSL cards which have to be printed first. They will not be sent out before October.... CU, 73 de Eugen" QSL via DL8AAI.

OPDX

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Auroras on Jupiter

Wednesday 24th August 2022

NASA has released gorgeous new photos of auroras on Jupiter taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Today's edition of Spaceweather.com takes a deeper dive into the photos, explaining why Jupiter's auroras are so much more than just oversized versions of our own. Spoiler alert: Volcanoes are involved.

Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

Don't miss the next solar flare: Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service receive instant text messages when strong solar flares are underway

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Keplerian data

Wednesday 24th August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ
2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ
KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22235.47225545 -.00000031 00000-0 93709-4 0 9998

2 07530 101.9102 215.5670 0011836 274.3615 238.0623 12.53656493185860

0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22235.50869149 .00006706 00000-0 12409-3 0 9994

2 25544 51.6449 3.0638 0005034 151.5393 297.8763 15.50297674355629

0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22235.05149929 .00000198 00000-0 47714-4 0 9995

2 27607 64.5541 98.0893 0080928 281.6694 77.5335 14.76208227 58203

0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22235.42702250 .00000801 00000-0 10073-3 0 9999

2 39444 97.6300 206.3433 0056564 171.1371 189.0857 14.83640154471454

0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22235.46584396 .00018506 00000-0 26725-3 0 9999

2 40903 97.1734 294.1902 0007970 219.7474 238.7090 15.55970994389679

0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22234.97070245 .00000866 00000-0 31290-4 0 9996

2 40931 5.9992 54.5166 0013216 28.6647 331.4192 14.76846859373190

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22235.49666530 .00003242 00000-0 19657-3 0 9997

2 42759 43.0183 323.0492 0009863 343.2904 129.9313 15.12305887286501

0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22235.59964598 .00002854 00000-0 17416-3 0 9995

2 42761 43.0188 321.2203 0010149 346.9294 153.6758 15.12389620286526

0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22235.43471609 .00002112 00000-0 16248-3 0 9991

2 43017 97.6662 126.8769 0246409 328.7892 29.8883 14.81851230257034

0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22235.57208622 .00000365 00000-0 41518-4 0 9992

2 43678 97.9795 9.6599 0011191 66.8581 293.3786 14.92263201207862

0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22235.23803122 .00000140 00000-0 00000-0 0 9992

2 43700 0.0262 244.5438 0002014 312.4735 245.9652 1.00273169 13699

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22235.16591444 .00000744 00000-0 68823-4 0 9999

2 43803 97.6152 300.5088 0015418 46.9698 313.2813 14.97361292203050

0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22235.34973386 .00000010 00000-0 -82873-5 0 9993

2 44909 82.5238 185.8357 0217604 163.0333 197.8196 12.79714433124067

0 HO-113

1 50466U 21131B 22235.50273144 -.00000005 00000-0 12959-4 0 9995

2 50466 98.5781 312.7175 0003484 319.3490 40.7436 14.38516685 34553

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Friday, August 26, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31.

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IOTA News from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club

Wednesday 24th August 2022

Island activities:

Compiled by Andreas, DK5ON

IOTA QRGs
CW: 28040 24920 21040 18098 14040 10114 7030 3530 kHz
SSB: 28560 28460 24950 21260 18128 14260 7055 3760 kHz

EU-149; ES1,2,4, TALLINN & HARJUMAA / VIRUMAA COUNTY group:
Ed/ES2TT activates Aegna Island until the end of August. QRV on 40 and 30m (CW, SSB) with 100W. QSL via homecall or eQSL.

OC-049; A3, TONGATAPU GROUP:
Masa/JA0RQV operates as A35JP from Tonga between Aug. 24 and Sept. 20 on 80-6m (CW, SSB, FT8). QSL via JA0RQV (d/B).

Deutscher Amateur Radio Club
e-mail: iota@dxhf.darc.de

RSGB IOTA website

Check-out the latest IOTA News bulletin from OPDX

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Icom IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF Transceiver announced at Tokyo Hamfair 2022

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

Icom has announced an exciting industry first at the Tokyo Hamfair, which opened on 20th August 2022. Based on its SHF project, the IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF SDR transceiver will not only cover 144Mhz, 430Mhz, 1200MHz, 2400MHz, 5600MHz but 10 GHz* as well.  (*Optional CX-10G transverter required)

Icom has published a video and pre-release document to coincide with the launch at the show, which you can view here:

Watch IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF SDR Transceiver Video.
Download IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF SDR Transceiver Pre-release Document.

Also showcased at the Hamfair is the IC-PW2 HF/50 MHz 1 kW linear amplifier. Icom has also released a video and pre-release document about this model:

Watch IC-PW2 HF/50 MHz 1 kW Linear Amplifier Video.
Download IC-PW2 HF/50 MHz 1 kW Linear Amplifier Pre-release Document.

As to the launch date and pricing, we don't have those details but rest assured we will publish them on our website and  social media channels  when we have them.

We will be showing them later this year at the National Hamfest so make a note in your diary to come along and see them for yourself on the Icom UK stand at Newark.

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From the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo Team

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

Michael Johnson WO9B Joins the Expo Team

Michael Johnson, WO9B, joins us to build our base of exhibitors for this and future Expos. Mike was a guest in Episode 376 of the QSO Today Podcast, loves QRP and operating CW from the field. He is also the creator of the Spark Plug End Fed Antenna. We look forward to having him on our team helping us to make the Expo even bigger and better.

Expo Video Player Back On the Expo Website

We have gathered over 200 of the videos from previous Expos and made them available today using our simple, blind and vision impaired friendly player on the Expo website. Unfortunately we lost the player for a while because our programmers were in the middle of conflict zones around the Ukraine. While the conflict is not over, Vlad is back, and helping us to keep all of the back office automation running that produces the website and manages the presentations. Click here to get to our library of video content.

Expo Tickets On Sale Now

Our ticket for the next QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo is only $10.00 for the entire weekend of September 17-18, 2022 and for the 30 day period that follows. We will have over 50 amazing presentations, and plenty of opportunity for "eyeball QSOs" in our virtual lounges. Please join us by supporting the Expo by Clicking Here to go to ticketing and registration. Use the emailed credentials to test your login before the Expo weekend. Again the cost is a flat $10.00. We offer a free ticket to students and kids under 18 years of age, Click Here for Application.

New Project Gallery

It is not too late to add your paper, project, or video to our Project Gallery. Perhaps you have drone footage of your new antenna array, video from your raft trip down the rapids while operating CW or operating digital modes from a lonely island, a white paper on your new 20 meter soup can vertical antenna, or your modifications to a old or new rig. Now you can share your experience and expertise with everyone.

You can feature an article, poster, video, or slides, along with a downloadable PDF document about your project from a self service kiosk on our platform. This is a great way to make a presentation in the Expo without making a speaker commitment.

The Project Gallery is up for the entire period of the show including the 30 day on demand period. Each kiosk includes an optional live Q&A text chat to receive and answer questions from visitors to the Project Gallery. Accepted Project Gallery submissions will receive a free ticket to the Expo. For more information, Click Here . To submit your project to the gallery - Click here

Our list of Presentations is: Here

It is completely searchable and will have dates and times within the next two weeks.

See you at the Expo!

73,

Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo

QSO Today Podcast

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Sidmouth: Open day for fans of Amateur Radio

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

Sidmouth Amateur Radio Society got free publicity for their upcoming Open Day by contacting their local newspaper

The Sidmouth Herald newspaper says:

Sidmouth Amateur Radio Society are holding an open day on Sunday, September 4 at their new HQ in Sidford.

The society, who are marking their 40th anniversary this year, are using the former Sidbury Football Club building behind the tennis courts in Byes Lane. It has space for up to 40 people to attend talks, and has internet and WiFi access.

The open day runs from 10am until 4pm. On the day the society will be operating their Club Amateur radio station CallSign G0AXC on both the VHF and HF parts of the radio spectrum. Tea and coffee will also be available.

Anyone who holds an amateur radio call sign or is interested in obtaining a radio licence is welcome to come and find out more about SARS.  

Source Sidmouth Herald  
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/amateur-radio-society-holds-open-day-9225796

Sidmouth Amateur Radio Society
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1207964666698144

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Amateur radio on BBC Radio Wales

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

8-year-old Isabella Payne was interviewed about her recent amateur radio contact with an ISS astronaut as part of the amateur radio segment of the Jason Mohammad show on August 22

The BBC Radio Wales description says  

Frances Donovan sits-in:
How are you managing to care for your animal companions as costs continue to rise? And after 10, did you have a Ham radio growing up? Who did you manage to contact? Get in touch by calling ...


The amateur radio segment starts about 1:30 into the recording of the show listen at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001b96x

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The WW Digi DX Contest

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

The WW Digi DX Contest is a collaboration between the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) and the Slovenia Contest Club (SCC).

It is for amateurs around the world to contact as many other amateurs in as many Maidenhead Grid Fields as possible using the FT4 and FT8 modes.

The contest takes place next Saturday and Sunday. FT4 and FT8 are used, with separate contest subbands on 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz, with three power classes up to five watt, up to 100 watt and up to a maximum of 1.5 kilowatt. Normal FT8 QSOs are valid for points and multipliers on standard FT8 frequencies.

The organisers kindly request logs to be submitted, even for just a few normal QSOs in the contest 24 hour period. For this, an adif-to-cabrillo log converter is available on the contest's website on www.ww-digi.com, making the upload simple. Their website also has a Presentation in PDF format, well worth a look and read, even for non-contesters.

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Meet the 13-year-old restoring old Soviet tech in Georgia

Monday 22nd August 2022

Mariam Ben Nakhi is not your usual teenager. Unlike most 13-year-old girls, she has a passion for fixing phones and computers. After school, Mariam can be found tinkering away in her family’s workshop in Tbilisi. Peering into a magnifying glass, the Georgian native connects tiny intercrate parts to breathe life back into defective devices.

“I like to replace the batteries or clean the fans, replace the paste that is used for cooling down the computers. I like how concentrated I am with connecting the small pieces,” she tells Scenes.

'Feed that curiosity'

Mariam’s interest in electronics was sparked when she was nine years old. Her stepfather, Thomas Burns, a former Hollywood cinematographer and self-proclaimed ‘electronic nerd’, was helping fix a friend’s iMac computer. The colourful wires and shiny components instantly caught Mariam's eye. 

“When they took the screen off, there were a lot of small parts that I was interested in. Also, these wires just going through the computer and I was curious about them. I wanted to how the computer worked,” she recounts. “I was like, let me just ask him about what this is and what that is, and maybe I could help with the things that he's doing.”

With her father's help, Mariam replaced the iMac's hard drive. To cultivate and hone his daughter's interest, Thomas offered to fix more friends and family's broken gadgets.

“Mariam is a naturally very curious person. I wish I could say that I inspired her to follow this path, but it really came from her,” says Thomas. “The most important thing for me is that she feels free to pursue her interests without any limitations and that she's not afraid to feed that curiosity,” he adds.

Family business

It didn't take long for word to spread and referrals to start flowing in. Friends of friends began dropping off their broken hardware in the hopes the duo would restore them back to life. “At some point, we realised that we were one Facebook page away from an actual business and so we made it official, and now it is very much a full-time endeavour,” says Thomas.

In 2021, the father-daughter team launched their family business. “I called it ‘Mariam's Computer Repair’, not only is it projecting the fact that women can repair things, which I think is critically important, but it's also a point of pride for us as a family,” explains Thomas.

Read the full story and watch the video here:
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/08/15/meet-the-13-year-old-restoring-old-soviet-tech-in-georgia?f

Our thanks to
Stephen Walters
Professional Celebrity Photographer / G7VFY
www.facebook.com/mister35mm
Tel 07956-544202

for the above information

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EDR's OZ magazine available

Monday 22nd August 2022

The August 2022 edition of OZ magazine published by Denmark's national amateur radio society EDR is available as a free PDF

The Danish language publication includes several articles that may be of interest to those thinking of trying the QO-100 geostationary satellite transponders:
• The story of the QO-100 satellite
• QO-100 Transceiver
• And it happened in those days. . . about the launch of the QO-100 satellite
• The transceiver for the QO-100 a 'plug & play' version

Download the magazine from
http://www.edr.dk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/05WEB-OZMAG_AUG2022-B.pdf

EDR
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Denmark

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Norway: Poor attendance at NRRL AGM

Monday 22nd August 2022

Norway's national amateur radio society NRRL report at its recent AGM there weren't many online attendees and even fewer attended in-person

A translation of the NRRL post reads:  

NRRL's Annual General Meeting 2022, which was held both physically in Haugesund and digitally via Teams, can be said to have been a successful event where the Haugalandgruppen was an excellent host for the physical part of the general meeting. Apart from a few minor slips, and some waiting sometimes, it all went very well technically.

Despite the fact that the meeting allowed digital participation, there were relatively few digital participants and even fewer physically present in Haugesund. The physical part of the general meeting, in terms of travel expenses, hotel accommodation, meeting room hire, diet etc., costs NRRL relatively much, especially if the costs are compared to the number of people who physically attended.

In upcoming meetings, NRRL's executive board (HQ) will discuss whether future general meetings can be held entirely digitally, or whether the meetings should continue as a combination of a physical and a digital meeting, as now in 2022. Technically, the digital part of the general meeting could well have been driven from NRRL's office in Oslo, at very minimal costs. HQ will have to set this cost picture against the possible benefits NRRL may have as an organization by also offering physical participation during the organisation's future general meetings.


Source NRRL
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Norway

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9Y60TT - Trinidad and Tobago independence anniversary

Monday 22nd August 2022

Trinidad and Tobago celebrates the 60th Independence Anniversary, the Diamond Jubilee on August 31, 2022

The amateur radio special event station, 9Y60TT, will operate from August 26 to September 2, 2022. The event will be multi-mode, multi-band and multi-operator. Modes will include HF SSB, CW, Slow Scan TV (SSTV), Digital Modes FT8, JS8,  FT4 & JT65, 2m EME (Moonbounce), Satellite, APRS via ISS, Digital Voice (DMR, C4FM, D-Star), EchoLink....and more.  

QSL is via Logbook of The World (LOTW).  They also confirm and log via QRZ.com, ClubLog, and HRDLog.

The Special Event represents a unique opportunity for hams to work a new prefix.  Work 1, or 5-plus unique QSOs with the Special Event call sign for a commemorative certificate.  The certificate request form can be found at the Certificate Request link
https://9y60tt.info/certificate-request

For further information see
https://9y60tt.info/

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Two South African Radio League contests next weekend

Monday 22nd August 2022

The fourth leg of the Saturday 40 m Club Contest will be run from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC on Saturday 27 August and will give you a chance to work more grid squares for your ZS Worked All Grid Squares Award. You can operate on phone, CW or RTTY. The exchange is a RS or RST report, your club abbreviation and your 4-character grid square.

Submit your log sheet by 21:59 UTC on Thursday 1 September to contest@sarl.org.za.
The rules are on page 60 in the Blue Book..

The third and final August contest is the SARL HF CW contest which will be on the air from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 28 August. CW activity is spread over three periods - as was done with the HF Phone and HF Digital contests. Remember that you can participate as a single operator single radio - single band station, a single operator single radio - all band station, a multi operator - single band station or a multi operator - all band station. The exchange is a RST report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001.

Submit your log by 21:59 UTC on Friday 2 September 2022 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za.
Get the rules on page 62 of the 2022 Blue Book.

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DXCC Country/Entity Report

Monday 22nd August 2022

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday, 14th-August, through Sunday, 21st-August there were 218 countries active.

Countries available:

3A, 3B8, 3B9, 3D2, 3DA, 3V, 3W, 4J, 4L, 4O, 4S, 4U1U, 4W, 4X, 5A, 5B, 5H, 5N, 5R, 5T, 5W, 5X, 5Z, 6Y, 7P, 7Q, 7X, 8P, 8Q, 8R, 9A, 9G, 9H, 9J, 9K, 9M2, 9M6, 9N, 9Q, 9V, 9Y,

A4, A5, A6, A7, A9, AP, BV, BY, C3, C9, CE, CE0Y, CE9, CM, CN, CP, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, D4, DL, DU, E5/n, E5/s, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EA9, EI, EK, EL, EP, ER, ES, EU, EX, EY, F, FG, FK, FM, FR, FS, FW, FY, G, GD, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, H4, HA, HB, HB0, HC, HH, HI, HK, HL, HP, HR, HS, HV, HZ, I, IS, J2, J3, J5, J6, J7, JA, JD/o, JT, JW, JX, JY,

K, KG4, KH0, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX, LY, LZ, OA, OD, OE, OH, OH0, OJ0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OY, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PY, PZ, S0, S5, S7, SM, SP, ST, SU, SV, SV5, SV9, T5, T7, T8, TA, TF, TG, TI, TK, TT, TU,

UA, UA2, UA9, UK, UN, UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, V8, VE, VK, VK0M, VP2E, VP2M, VP5, VP8, VP8/o, VP9, VQ9, VR, VU, XE, YB, YI, YJ, YL, YN, YO, YS, YU, YV, Z2, Z3, Z6, ZA, ZB, ZC4, ZD7, ZF, ZL, ZP, ZS

* PLEASE NOTE: The report "could" contain "Pirate/SLIM" operations or more likely a "BUSTED CALLSIGN". As always, you never know - "Work First Worry Later"

OPDX

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QSO Today Joe Long, WA2EJT

Sunday 21st August 2022

Joe Long, WA2EJT, has been a frequent contributor to ham radio magazines for decades including 73 and Electric Radio magazine.

Joe loves vintage military transmitters and receivers as well as the best tube type rigs.

Like many hams of his generation he was early into computers, PCs, and programming where his knowledge contributed to his career advancement and his enjoyment of amateur radio.

WA2EJT tells his story in this QSO Today

Listen to the podcast

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Ham radio operators honored by state, county leaders

Sunday 21st August 2022

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and state Rep. John Ragan, both Oak Ridge Republicans, attended the Anderson County Commission meeting Monday night to present Senate Joint Resolution No. 1646, honoring amateur radio operators and their service across the state.

Anderson County leaders joined the legislators in recognizing the service of a number of local residents who are licensed amateur radio operators and members of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), according to a county government news release.

The state’s resolution recognizes the 19,835 licensed amateur radio operators who embody “the historic spirit of the Volunteer State” and provide invaluable services to their fellow citizens and local first responders during emergencies and natural disasters.

The ARES consists of licensed amateurs who voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.

Local members of ARES who attended Monday night’s meeting to receive the resolution were: Darrell Cook, Jim Womack, Jamie Wright, Sam Howard, Jim Bogard, and Bart Rollen.

To learn more about the ARES, visit online at www.arrl.org/ares.

Source: https://eu.oakridger.com/story/news/2022/08/19/ham-radio-operators-honored-state-county-leaders/10348320002/

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1240 MHz band: Switzerland's USKA attends meeting

Sunday 21st August 2022

Switzerland's USKA took part in the three day CEPT ECC-SE40 meeting at Swiss communications regulator OFCOM

A translation of the USKA post reads:

An agenda item is planned for the next World Radio Conference WRC in 2023 that will deal with possible interference by radio amateurs with satellite navigation systems such as Galileo. The working group SE-40 of the "European Communication Committee ECC" is the body that deals with the technical coexistence between navigation systems and amateur radio. Its 77th working session from July 25-28, 2022 took place at OFCOM in Biel, and USKA was able to take part in the meetings as an observer.

The interests of radio amateurs in Europe were represented by Barry Lewis, G4SJH, Chair of the IARU Region 1 Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee. From the USKA Urs HB9BKT and Bernard HB9ALH were present.

The focus was on a theoretical study intended to show that even the smallest performance within a radius of a few kilometers can impair the regular functioning of navigation devices. The task of the IARU was to object to inaccurate information and to propose appropriate formulations.

In the 23cm band we radio amateurs have secondary status and the navigation systems are primary. Restrictions regarding the maximum transmission power (in HB9 today 1 kW) and adjustments in the band plan are probably unavoidable in order to ensure the long-term coexistence of amateur radio and satellite navigation in this band. However, the aim is to be able to receive at least one segment of, for example, 500 kHz for EME and contest with the highest possible power.

It is all the more important that the IARU, which is represented in many committees at the ITU, the CEPT and other organizations with observer status, can competently represent the interests of amateur radio. To do this, it relies on the active (including financial) support of its national member associations. The representatives of the IARU in these bodies are often people who have already gained relevant experience in their professional careers and are correspondingly well networked.

For acceptance on the "international stage" it is very important that as many radio amateurs as possible are members of their national associations. This is the only way they can claim to represent the interests of radio amateurs in a representative manner.

With the membership in the USKA you support the defense of our frequencies from shortwave up to the high gigahertz range!

Bernard Wehrli, HB9ALH  and Urs Lott HB9BKT

Source USKA https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Switzerland

Summary of SE40 #77 meeting
https://cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/wg-se/se-40/news/summary-of-se4077/

Meeting Documents
https://cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/wg-se/se-40/client/meeting-documents/?flid=30314

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Can you host a Flight Aware receiver

Sunday 21st August 2022

The CIO of Cemair (a radio amateur) has contacted the SARL for assistance with a project. The project is looking to improve the coverage of aircraft tracking in the interior of South Africa. Around the major centres there are several enthusiasts already with devices feeding into the network.

The project is with Flight Aware, but they possibly share data across platforms. They are hoping to find hosts along the flight paths, in the areas that have little or no coverage. This would include locations like: Hopetown, Van Der Kloof, Colesburg, Sutherland, Calvinia, Beaufort West, Elliot, Queenstown, Kokstad, Phalaborwa and Hoedspruit.

Flight Aware will provide feeder equipment to those approved, so it is just the hosting of around 200 Mb of data per month and having a reasonably clear sight of the sky that will contribute to their approval. There is no remuneration offered. Once Cemair has a list of volunteers, they will engage with the Flight Aware engineers to determine the best locations to commit to.

If you are interested in providing a home for such a receiver, please contact the SARL Secretary at secretary@sarl.org.za. Read about multilateration at https://flightaware.com/adsb/mlat/

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Saturday 20th August 2022

Consideration in Amateur Radio

The first clause of the original Amateur's Code reads:

The Amateur is Gentlemanly. He never knowingly uses the air for his own amusement in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others. He abides by the pledges given by the A.R.R.L. in his behalf to the public and the Government.

The 2022 ARRL handbook version states it like this:

The Radio Amateur is CONSIDERATE...never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

Today the ARRL website presents it as:

The Radio Amateur is CONSIDERATE...He/[She] never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

It's surprising to see the addition of the He/[She] pronoun when nothing is added by doing so, in fact for some amateurs this actually reduces its relevance, something which I've spoken about before.

We could just simply change the words to remove the pronoun entirely, but does that actually cover all of what we want it to mean? Should this consideration be limited to operating, or should we go beyond that? What about conduct in a club setting, or on social media, email or SMS?

Some of these activities are conducted as a radio amateur and some are not. If we're limiting ourselves to amateur radio, not an unreasonable place to start given that we're talking about a document called "The Amateur's Code", we should really discuss the nature of amateur radio today.

I find myself in a community of amateurs, not a radio in sight, exchanging thoughts, opinions and experience that go beyond the concept of operating. I will note that there are legal definitions in our hobby that describe the notion of operating that do not include QRZ.com, email or Reddit and there is an argument to be made that operating falls strictly within the bounds of a licensed amateur activity.

That said, since "no man is an island", first uttered in 1624 by John Donne, neatly illustrates that although we're licensed amateurs, we do more than key our radios alone and even when we do, there are activities that affect others who are not operating as such.

When we discuss things with each other, face to face, that's not a licensed activity, even if both of us are amateurs. Neither is sending an email to another amateur, or commenting on a social media post. Standing in a club and teaching is also not a licensed amateur activity and cannot be considered under the idea of "operating".

All of what this clause is attempting to say is to be considerate. Don't reduce the pleasure of others by doing things that are unacceptable. It goes to how you are expected to be, to conduct yourself, to behave.

To incorporate this idea that what you do with other amateurs goes beyond operating, I think the word "operate" needs to be changed to the word "behave".

I'd also like to explore the word "gentlemanly" from the original text. Synonyms for this include civilised, courteous, honourable and polite to name a few. It seems to me that words like that would benefit our interactions within our community, not to mention beyond it.

One word that comes to mind is "respectful", something that lies at the heart of how we conduct ourselves towards each other.

So, if we drop the pronouns, update the word operates and add in respect, a revised clause one could be:

The Radio Amateur is CONSIDERATE and RESPECTFUL...never knowingly behaving in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

Let me hasten to point out that I'm proposing this as a starting point for discussion. This is an activity that should go beyond one individual, it should also go beyond a single organisation. Amateur Radio is a global activity and it would do well for us to consider all of humanity when drafting a code of conduct which is essentially what the Amateur's Code is attempting to achieve.

So, how would you approach the first clause, what do you like, what do you think is missing, what would it need for you to consider it words to live by?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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New ICOM IC-905 VHF/UHF/uW transceiver

Saturday 20th August 2022

ICOM announced the new IC-905 VHF/UHF/Microwave transceiver at the Tokyo Ham Fair which is taking place this weekend August 20-21

This multimode transceiver covers the 144, 430, 1240, 2400 and 5600 MHz bands and has an optional module CX-10G for the 10 GHz band.

In addition it appears to provide support for ATV operation.

The ICOM promotional video was released at 01:10 GMT on Saturday, August 20.

Watch (English Subtitles) Icom New Product Introduction Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzGQWmTKNzc

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New HEMA summits

Saturday 20th August 2022

The HEMA summit operation award scheme has just added Rheinland Pfalz and Saarland to the states in Germany where HEMA summits are defined and ready to be activated.

The march northwards continues with Southern Germany already fully defined and the more northern and eastern states being added one by one.

There is also summit definition work going on in Australia and other countries.

For full details of the HEMA scheme checkout www.hema.org.uk.

73 Ed DD5LP

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Keplerian data

Saturday 20th August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ

2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ

KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22231.47438691 -.00000022 00000-0 15133-3 0 9996

2 07530 101.9096 211.5546 0011851 282.2228 194.8250 12.53656421185366

0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22231.77984025 .00005170 00000-0 97713-4 0 9996

2 25544 51.6434 21.5426 0005620 138.7254 6.2998 15.50234287355046

0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22231.39328391 .00000434 00000-0 79950-4 0 9990

2 27607 64.5545 109.2858 0080838 282.3659 76.8404 14.76205796 57668

0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22231.44783376 .00001487 00000-0 18166-3 0 9997

2 39444 97.6294 202.5395 0056185 184.2336 175.8411 14.83632692470867

0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22231.48310888 .00019918 00000-0 28920-3 0 9997

2 40903 97.1733 290.1913 0007730 238.3162 246.6738 15.55810394389057

0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22231.45901757 .00000607 00000-0 -47850-5 0 9991

2 40931 6.0024 79.6398 0013773 341.4111 18.5558 14.76842834372673

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22231.53196877 .00002957 00000-0 18053-3 0 9991

2 42759 43.0184 344.9111 0010455 322.3751 141.0346 15.12276514285907

0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22231.56594228 .00003184 00000-0 19294-3 0 9990

2 42761 43.0188 343.4641 0010787 324.5350 148.8973 15.12364868285915

0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22231.45084404 .00004547 00000-0 34253-3 0 9992

2 43017 97.6662 123.0566 0246871 341.8772 17.3755 14.81827021256449

0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22231.41476596 .00001083 00000-0 11186-3 0 9993

2 43678 97.9796 5.4501 0011321 78.7699 281.4795 14.92262674207240

0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22231.50707437 .00000138 00000-0 00000-0 0 9997

2 43700 0.0131 111.5633 0002072 82.0351 342.5351 1.00273376 13669

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22231.42366773 .00002020 00000-0 17852-3 0 9993

2 43803 97.6157 296.8617 0015951 59.1829 301.0961 14.97353925202494

0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22231.36235858 .00000016 00000-0 18672-4 0 9996

2 44909 82.5231 188.4837 0217421 172.3502 188.1008 12.79714322123555

0 HO-113

1 50466U 21131B 22231.60759206 .00000107 00000-0 49771-4 0 9994

2 50466 98.5782 308.8256 0003657 333.9778 26.1224 14.38516204 33990

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW.

The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31.

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IRROTA - Iowa Railroads on the Air

Friday 19th August 2022

The Freeman Journal reports on the radio amateurs taking part in Iowa Railroads on the Air special event

The newspaper says:

Huddled over their microphones, a handful of people occupied the picnic tables under the trees next to the old Illinois Central Depot at Wilson Brewer Park on Tuesday [August 16] afternoon.

Organized by the Great River Amateur Radio Club, which is in the Dubuque neighborhood, IRROTA began in July and is continuing through August 2022.

“This will be a great opportunity to remember Iowa’s railroad history and the railroad depots across the state,” Great River said in an online statement.

“Iowa has approximately 375 former railroad depots,” it said in its instructions to the radio enthusiasts. “Most have been abandoned, others are active railroad depots, some, such as the one in Dubuque have become museums, some have become business buildings, and some have been drug to other sites to serve other purposes.

“You can operate from any of these train depots.”

Jeff Prater, of Ames, an emeritus professor of music from Iowa State, thought bringing the group to the Webster City depot would serve a double purpose.

Read the full story at
https://www.freemanjournal.net/news/local-news/2022/08/cq-cq-cq/

IRROTA - Iowa Railroads on the Air  
https://www.w0dbq.org/rr

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Brazilian radio show features amateur radio

Friday 19th August 2022

LABRE was invited to talk about amateur radio and DXing in one of the programs of the series 'One Hundred Years in 100 Programs' and which celebrates the 100 years of radio in Brazil  

A translation of the post by Brazil's national amateur radio society LABRE says:

The production is from Radio MEC, based in Rio de Janeiro, the first broadcasting station to officially operate in Brazilian territory. This and the other programs will be broadcast until September 7, the date of the celebration of the centenary of radio and the bicentenary of Brazilian Independence.

The program had the testimony of LABRE's Communication Advisory and also colleague Ricardo Benedito, PY2QB, who also gave his contribution within the theme amateur radio and DXing. The program also presented an excerpt from the speech of colleague PU1ARE, Renan Almeida, during the episode of torrential rains in the city of Petrópolis in February this year, illustrating the invaluable services that radio amateurs have provided to society in support of the authorities during emergencies .

The program, lasting five minutes, is being aired on several occasions throughout the programming of Radio MEC. It can be heard in full at
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/radioagencia-nacional/cultura/audio/2022-08/cem-anos-do-radio-no-brasil-os-radioamores-dexistas

Source LABRE
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Brazil

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Volunteer Monitor Program report for July 2022

Friday 19th August 2022

The ARRL and FCC created the Volunteer Monitor Program to enhance compliance with amateur radio license conditions

The ARRL say:

The Volunteer Monitor (VM) Program is a joint initiative between ARRL and the FCC to enhance compliance in the Amateur Radio Service. This is the July 2022 activity report of the VM Program.

Notices for unlicensed operation on 2-meter amateur frequencies were sent to two logging companies in Kettle Falls, Washington.

Commendations were issued to amateurs in Poughkeepsie, New York, for work in conducting the community daily bulletin board on the 146.97 MHz Mt. Beacon repeater, and Roslyn, Pennsylvania, for work with the Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club, and involving the club in MESH and Field Day operations.

A commendation was issued to an operator in Columbia, South Carolina, for facilitating amateur involvement in the Richland County Emergency Operations Center and assisting amateurs in completing CERT programs.

A Technician-class operator in Martinez, California and a General-class operator in Trenton, New Jersey were issued notices for FT8 operation on 40- and 20-meter frequencies outside their license privileges.

General-class operators in Massapequa, New York, and Trenton, New Jersey, were issued notices for SSB operation on 14.201 and 21.270 MHz. General-class operators have no voice privileges below 14.225 and 21.275 MHz.

An operator in Indian Hills, California received a notice for unlicensed operation on 144.390 MHz simplex APRS during a high-altitude balloon operation. The FCC had canceled his license over a year before the flight.

The final totals for VM monitoring during June 2022 were 1,676 hours on HF frequencies, and 2,099 hours on VHF frequencies and above, for a total of 3,775 hours. —Thanks to Volunteer Monitor Administrator Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH

Source ARRL https://www.arrl.org/news/volunteer-monitor-program-report-for-july-2022

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Streaming revolution stretches TV generation gap

Friday 19th August 2022

Younger adults now watch almost seven times less scheduled TV than those aged 65 and over, Ofcom has found, as the generation gap in media habits reaches a record high.

People aged 16-24 spend less than an hour (53 minutes) in front of broadcast TV in an average day – a fall of two-thirds in the last ten years.

In contrast, those aged 65 and over still spend around a third of their waking day enjoying broadcast TV, sitting down for almost six hours (5 hours and 50 minutes) daily.

Around a fifth of homes (5.2 million) now subscribe to all three of the most popular platforms – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ – costing around £300 per year.

While public service broadcasters have continued to see both audiences and levels of viewing fall, there is better news for their on-demand ‘player’ apps. The average time spent watching services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4 increased to 15 minutes per day, up by three minutes per person per day, bucking the trend of post-pandemic declines in viewing time.

A news release with more details about the announcement is also available.

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   The American Radio Relay League's
round-up of the forthcoming week's DX
activity on the amateur radio bands

Friday 19th August 2022

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

TIMOR-LESTE, 4W. Satoshi, JH2EUV is QRV as 4W/JH2EUV. Activity is on 40 to 10 meters using mostly FT8. His length of stay is unknown. QSL to home call.

CYPRUS, 5B. Look for station P3CG to be QRV from Cape Greco, ILLW CY0004, during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. QSL via 5B8AP.

TAIWAN, BV. Look for station BV1EJ to be QRV from the Kaohsiung Lighthouse, ILLW TW0001, during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. QSL via QRZ.com

MAYOTTE, FH. Marek, F4VVJ will be QRV as FH4VVK from Petite-Terre, IOTA AF-027, from August 20 to April 1, 2024. Activity will be in his spare time. QSL direct to home call.

SCOTLAND, GM. Members of the Zetland Amateur Radio Club will be QRV as GB2ELH from Eshaness Lighthouse, ILLW UK00058, on the Shetland Islands, IOTA EU-012, during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. QSL via GM0GFL.

THAILAND, HS. Brad, VK2FY is QRV as HS0ZNR until September 2. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters. QSL direct to home call.

DJIBOUTI, J2. J28RC is a new club station located in a US Army military camp. QSL via EA5GL.

JORDAN, JY. Nart, JY5IB is QRV from Amman and is active on 60 to 12 meters using FT8. QSL direct to home call.

LITHUANIA, LY. Special call sign LY770CT is QRV until October 14 to commemorate the 770th anniversary since the founding of the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda. Activity is on all bands and modes. QSL via LY1CT and LoTW.

FINLAND, OH. Members of the Scandinavian Young Lady Radio Amateurs, and DL3KWF and DL3KWR, will be QRV as OH1SYL from Katanpaa Island, IOTA EU-096, from August 21 to 23. Activity will be on the HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL via OH5KIZ.

ALAND ISLAND, OH0. A group of operators will be QRV as OG0C from August 22 to 28. Activity will be on 160 to 2 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY, and FT8, with a focus on 30, 17, 12, and 6 meters. QSL via OH5C.

POLAND, SP. Members of the Dobrzycki Amateur Radio Club are QRV with special call signs SO550MK, SP550MK and SQ550MK to commemorate 550 years since the birth of astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus. QSL via SP3PDO.

GREECE, SV. Station SZ8G will be QRV from the Gaidouronisi Islet Lighthouse, ILLW GR0005, or possibly the Didymi Islet near Syros Island, IOTA EU-067, during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. They will be on 80 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8 in DXpedition mode. QSL via LoTW.

AUSTRALIA, VK. Operators Fred, VK2FM, Steve, VK2SPF and Russel, VK4NGN will be QRV as VK2FM from South Solitary Island, IOTA OC-194, from August 19 to 22. This include being active from the Solitary Lighthouse, ILLW AU0054, during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. QSL via VK2FM.

INDIA, VU. Station VU2CW is QRV as AT75RADIO until August 21 in celebration of the 75th anniversary of India's independence. QSL to home call.

INDONESIA, YB. Special event stations 8H77RI, 8H77I, 8H77N, 8H77D, 8H77O, 8I77N, 8I77E, 8I77S, 8I77I, 8I77A, and 8I77RI are QRV until August 20 to celebrate Indonesia's 77th anniversary of independence. 
Activity is on the HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY, FM, and FT8. This includes some Satellite activity as well. QSL via operators' instructions.

ALBANIA, ZA. Vladimir, Z35M will be QRV as ZA/Z35M on August 23. Activity will be on 40 to 15 meters using CW and SSB with 5 watts. QSL to home call.

CAYMAN ISLANDS, ZF. Station ZF1PB/9 is QRV from Cayman Brac, IOTA NA-016, until August 22. Activity is holiday style on the HF bands using SSB.
QSL direct to home call.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO
The ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest, ARRL RTTY Rookie Roundup, The International Lighthouse, and Lightship Weekend, North American SSB QSO Party, QRP 20-Meter CW Fox Hunt, NCCC RTTY Sprint, NCCC CW Sprint, K1USN Slow Speed CW Test, SARTG World Wide RTTY Contest, Russian District Award Contest, Feld Hell Sprint, CVA DX CW Contest, NJQRP Skeeter Hunt and the FISTS Sunday CW Sprint are all scheduled for this upcoming weekend.

The Run for the Bacon QRP CW Contest, K1USN Slow Speed Test, ICWC Medium Speed CW Test, OK1WC CW Memorial, Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, RTTYOPS Weeksprint, SKCC CW Sprint, Phone Weekly Test, A1Club AWT, CWops Test, Mini-Test 40 and Mini-Test 80 are all on tap from August 22 to 24.

Please see August 2022 QST, page 70, and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM contest web sites for details

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Algerian broadcaster causing interference to radio amateurs

Thursday 18th August 2022

DARC report the broadcast station Télédiffusion d'Algerie has been causing interference to the 21 MHz primary amateur radio band

A translation of the DARC post reads:

Algerian radio is now broadcasting in the early evening hours at 21450 kHz with the lower sideband of its A3E signal in the 15 m band. Bandwatch has already involved the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in order to effect a frequency change.

Télédiffusion d'Algerie recently attracted negative attention with its morning broadcasts on 7200 kHz. There, too, the transmitter radiates into an exclusive amateur radio band with the lower sideband.

This is reported by Daniel Möller, DL3RTL, head of the band watch.

Source DARC
https://darc.de/

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Bicycle Mobile competition at ham radio event

Thursday 18th August 2022

VERON report a 144 MHz bicycle mobile competition will take place during this year's DNAT amateur radio event

A translation of the VERON post reads:

It will not have escaped anyone's attention that from August 25-28 the German Dutch Amateur Radio Days (DNAT) event will be organized again. But do you also know that the organization is once again offering a bicycle mobile competition this year?

This special competition starts on Saturday, August 27, 2022 at 10:30 am. The place of departure is the DNAT campsite "Am Badepark". All additional information such as the rules, questions to be answered, proposed route and log sheets can be found at
https://dnat.de/mobilcontest/

So take your bike to Bad Bentheim to participate in this bicycle mobile contest. And that may well be a bit more modern than in the photo with this article. During this competition we only work on the 2 meter band. Fortunately, there are no long-wire antennas between bicycles to fear.

Source VERON
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Netherlands

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EME conference proceedings made available

Thursday 18th August 2022

The UK Microwave Group (UKuG) has made available on their site the proceedings from the Cambridge Moonbounce (EME) conference  

The original printed proceedings/DVD by RSGB are no longer available. However, in August 2022, the RSGB kindly gave permission for UKuG to release most of the content online.

USAGE: Please do not mirror the website - just link to it. Material may be downloaded, copied and redistributed provided that it remains unmodified and its source (RSGB/UKuG) is acknowledged.

Download the conference papers from
https://www.microwavers.org/eme2012/eme/psa.html

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Geomagnetic Storm Watch (G3)

Thursday 18th August 2022

NOAA forecasters have issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Aug. 18th and 19th when a series of CMEs is expected to graze Earth's magnetic field.

Individually, none of the impacts will be particularly direct or strong, but collectively they could cause a G3-class (strong) geomagnetic storm. The primary source of the CMEs, unstable sunspot AR3078, is still actively flaring today. Updates  @ Spaceweather.com.

Don't miss the storm: Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service receive instant text messages when geomagnetic storms are underway.

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New: SolderSmoke YouTube Playlists

Thursday 18th August 2022

In an effort to make the SolderSmoke YouTube channel more useful, and to help me reach the goal of 4,000 viewing hours (which I need in order to get YouTube to pay me!) I recently put PlayLists on my YouTube channel.

Most are rig or project specific.  There are a couple of big ones -- one has all the recent Podcasts, the other has ALL of the videos (long and short).  The beauty of the Playlist is that you can turn it on and it will continue to play through all of the videos on the list.  In this way you can just leave the videos on while working at your bench.  

I will be adding more Playlists. 

Here is the blog post about the new Playlists:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2022/08/help-soldersmoke-playlists-for.html

Or to go directly to the Playlists: 
(21) SolderSmoke - YouTube

We've been having a lot of fun on the blog and on the podcast. Recent topics include subharmonic mixers, Farhan's Daylight Receiver,  my 17/12 and Mythbuster (20/75) SSB rigs and a lot more. 

Check out the blog:  
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/

Thanks and 73! 

Bill N2CQR

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Lighthouse Activities

Thursday 18th August 2022

25th International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW):
This event will take place throughout the upcoming weekend. For a list of participants see:
https://illw.net/index.php/entrants-list-2022

DE0061/FED142; Lightship Laesoe Rende:
Michael/DK9BM, Ecki/DH8AF, and Andreas/DK5ON operate from there on the weekend as DK5T/Lightship with 3 rigs on CW, SSB, and FT4/8 on all HF bands. QSL via DK5ON (d/B), LoTW, ClubLog.

FR0014; FRA 15c; Berck-sur-Mer: A team (DJ8EI, DK5OPA, DL5KA, DL1DCT, DL8KR, and DJ5KX) activates the lighthouse Berck-sur-Mer (QTH JO00SJ) as TM0BSM from the 17th to 22nd and HF and via QO-100. Contacts also
count for FFF-534; PB075 - D.P.L.F. (Diplome des Phares du Littoral Francais - French Lighthouse Award), FR0014. QSL via DK5OPA (B), sending cards is not necessary.

IL0001; Jaffa Light, IL0002; Stela Maris Light, IL0003; Ashdod Light, IL0004; Akko Light, IL0005; Tel-Aviv Light:
These locations will get activated by 4X01LH (Jaffa), 4X02LH (Stela Maris), 4X03LH (Ashdod), 4X04LH (Akko), and 4X05LH (Tel-Aviv). An award is also available: https://iarc.org/lighthouse/. QSL for all via 4X6ZM.

IT0004; Goro Lighthouse:
IR4DX activates this lighthouse during the weekend. QSL via LoTW, eQSL, ClubLog, e-mail.

MT-0001; Delimara Point:
A team of 10 from Germany pays a visit to the LH Delimara as 9H6LH. QSL via DL1KJ (d/B). For more information see: 9h6lh.com.

US0228/USA922; Port Clinton, Ohio:
Only on the 20th (15z-21z), W8GNM, K8CJY, KB8SRQ activate this lighthouse with the callsign W8GNM/8. QSL via LoTW.

DXNL

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IOTA News from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club

Thursday 18th August 2022

Island activities:

Compiled by Andreas, DK5ON

IOTA QRGs
CW: 28040 24920 21040 18098 14040 10114 7030 3530 kHz
SSB: 28560 28460 24950 21260 18128 14260 7055 3760 kHz

EU-002; OH0, ALAND ISLANDS:
Alex/OH5UY, Pasi/OH2MZB, Jouni/OH2JIU, Niko/OH5CZ, Toni/OH5CY, Jere/OH5ELX, and Juha/OH5CW pay a visit to Aland from Aug. 22 to 28. QRV as OG0C on 160-2m (CW, SSB, FT8, RTTY) with a focus on 6m and WARC bands. QSL via OH5C.

NA-029; VY2, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:
Peter/ZL2HM, Everett/W6ABM, Joseph/N7BF, and Barclay/WT4BT sign VY2/homecalls/p from Prince Edward Island between the 17th and 29th. QSL via h/c (d/B).

NA-104; V4, ST KITTS AND NEVIS:
Gary/G0FWX pays a visit to John's/V47JA QTH from the 21st to 30th and operates as V47FWX. QSL via M0URX OQRS, sending cards to him is not necessary.

OC-194; VK2, NEW SOUTH WALES STATE NORTH group:
A team consisting of Fred/VK2FM, Steve/VK2SPF, and Russel/VK4NGN activates South Solitary Island from the 19th to 22nd as VK2FM. They will also put the Solitary lighthouse (AU-0054) on the air. QSL via VK2FM.
 

Other IOTA news
===============

AS-082, RI0QQ:
The log has been uploaded to ClubLog.

3Y0J, BOUVET ISLAND:
Adrian/KO8SCA has scheduled a presentation concerning the upcoming DXpedition to Bouvet for Aug. 19 (1030z):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4blDDQQ1JQ

Deutscher Amateur Radio Club
e-mail: iota@dxhf.darc.de

RSGB IOTA website

Check-out the latest IOTA News bulletin from OPDX

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BBC TV feature 8-year-old's ISS amateur radio contact

Wednesday 17th August 2022

Isabella Payne being interviewed by BBC TVs Josie Hannett

On Tuesday, August 16, BBC TV's Josie Hannett interviewed 8-year-old Isabella Payne about her amateur radio contact with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS on the International Space Station

On August 2, Isabella, a member of Hilderstone Radio Society G0HRS, used her Dad's amateur radio station M0LMK to make contact with Kjell who was using the ISS amateur station, callsign NA1SS.  Isabella has been involved in several amateur radio events and hopes to have her own amateur radio licence soon.

The BBC News item was broadcast in the show BBC South East Today at 1830 BST (1730 GMT) on Tuesday, August 16. It is available on the web, fast forward to 15:25 into the show at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001b8bk/south-east-today-evening-news-16082022

You can read BBC News item at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-62563215

Isabella was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday, August 16, at 1740 BST (1640 GMT) and BBC Radio Kent on August 17 at 0820 BST (0720 GMT).

Press coverage of eight-year-old's ISS ham radio contact
https://amsat-uk.org/2022/08/11/press-report-8-year-olds-iss-contact/

ISS astronaut’s favorite ham radio contact
https://amsat-uk.org/2022/08/03/iss-astronauts-favorite-ham-radio-contact/

BBC South East on Instagram: "A dream come true for eight-year-old Isabella!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChU0oenDiD6/
 

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Special Event Stations - 75 Years of Indian Independence

Wednesday 17th August 2022

AT75RADIO and AT75CW - Special Event Call Sign Commemorating 75 years of Indian Independence. Operator is VU2CW, Handle is Rajesh. QTH is Gurgaon in North India.

AT75RADIO to be active from August 10-21, 2022. So far 82 QSOs made with 28 Countries on SSB Voice mode on 20 m and 15 m bands.

AT75CW to be active from September 01, 2022 to October 02, 2022.

My conditions are Yaesu FT-991A, Carolina Windom Inverted 'V' Dipole Antenna, Power is 100 watts (expect power out would be 85 watts). Location is ML88mk. Antenna Height is 65 feet from Ground. Coaxial Cable is Times Microwave LMR-400 imported from USA. Microphone Heilsound PRO7.

From my location, 20 m band opens at 1600 Hrs UTC (that is 2200 Hrs Indian Standard Time).

73
VU2CW
Rajesh Chandwani
Gurgaon, Haryana,
India

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DXCC Country/Entity Report

Wednesday 17th August 2022

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday, 7th-August, through Sunday, 14th-August there were 213 countries active.

Countries available:

3A, 3B8, 3B9, 3D2, 3DA, 3V, 3W, 4J, 4L, 4O, 4S, 4U1U, 4W, 4X, 5A, 5B, 5H, 5N, 5R, 5T, 5W, 5Z, 6Y, 7Q, 7X, 8P, 8Q, 8R, 9A, 9H, 9J, 9K, 9M2, 9M6, 9N, 9Q, 9V, 9Y,

A4, A6, A7, A9, AP, BV, BY, C3, C9, CE, CE0Y, CE9, CM, CN, CP, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, D4, DL, DU, E3, E5/n, E5/s, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EA9, EI, EK, EL, EP, ER, ES, ET, EU, EX, EY, F, FG, FK, FM, FO, FR, FS, FY, G, GD, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, H4, HA, HB, HB0, HC, HH, HI, HK, HL, HP, HR, HS, HV, HZ, I, IS, J2, J6, J7, JA, JT, JW, JX, JY,

K, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX, LY, LZ, OA, OD, OE, OH, OH0, OJ0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OY, OZ, P2, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PY, PZ, S0, S2, S5, S7, S9, SM, SP, ST, SU, SV, SV5, SV9, T2, T7, T8, TA, TF, TG, TI, TJ, TK, TU, TZ,

UA, UA2, UA9, UK, UN, UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, V8, VE, VK, VK0M, VP2E, VP2M, VP8, VP9, VR, VU, XE, YA, YB, YI, YJ, YL, YN, YO, YU, YV, Z2, Z3, Z6, Z8, ZA, ZB, ZC4, ZD7, ZF, ZL, ZP, ZS

* PLEASE NOTE: The report "could" contain "Pirate/SLIM" operations or more likely a "BUSTED CALLSIGN". As always, you never know - "Work First Worry Later"

OPDX

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Israel Amateur Radio Club to activate 5 lighthouses

Wednesday 17th August 2022

Members of the Israel Amateur Radio Club will activate 5 lighthouses and participate in the upcoming International
Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend (ILLW), August 20-21st.

Look for the following lighthouses:
Lighthouse Callsign ILLW#
---------- -------- -----
Jaffa 4X01LH IL001
Stella Maris 4X02LH IL002
Ashdod 4X03LH IL003
Acre 4X04LH IL004
Tel Aviv 4X05LH IL005

QSL all callsigns via 4X6ZM. Look for details on how to obtain a special certificate on QRZ.com or (https://iarc.org/lighthouse/).

OPDX

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Register now for free online amateur radio training course

Wednesday 17th August 2022

The next free amateur radio Foundation Online training course run by volunteers from Essex Ham starts on August 21 - places still available. Register Now

The RSGB's introduction of online exams that can be taken at home has led to a surge in demand for free online amateur radio training courses such as that run by Essex Ham.

You can find out more about online training and register to join a course at
https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/foundation-online/

Essex Ham
https://www.essexham.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/EssexHam

 
The
Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club offer excellent opportunities to meet up with and chat with like minded folk for those living within easy reach of Wirral and gain experiences from those who have gone before ... to ask questions in a friendly environment.

As in most walks of life, passing the initial exams is the first stage to proving competence and knowledge to be able to operate responsibly.  There then follows the joys of the initial experiences of an exciting hobby.  From then on, it is often finding the forum to ask a zillion questions and chat with your peers who can add their life experiences and knowledge .. which can act as a welcome short cut to completely help you fulfil your personal enjoyment.

The Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club are unable at this moment in time to offer training opportunities locally and so recommend one of the above courses as an ideal way into the hobby, followed by taking the RSGB on-line exam.

After your success, do consider coming along to the Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club for a few evenings (no charge), and I'm sure we will be able to convince you just how fulfilling and rewarding being a member of a good club can be.  We have several new members who have joined recently achieving just that.  We now interleave ZOOM meetings, introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic with actual face to face club meetings once again. For more information .. contact our Secretary from  our "Who to Contact" page, or check-out our Calendar page for more details.

Our members operate in a wide range of radio communication modes enhanced with computer activities, including contests and as a club we use many of the modes available to us across much of the amateur radio spectrum allocated for our use. 

A warm welcome awaits .. come and talk with us !

 Keep checking our "Calendar of Events"  on the club website for our latest information re: coronavirus and meetings.
 

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Keplerian data

Wednesday 17th August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ

2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ

KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22228.52073051 -.00000041 00000-0 33187-4 0 9994

2 07530 101.9091 208.5903 0011878 288.0704 184.3022 12.53656300184991

0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22228.81314231 .00005590 00000-0 10511-3 0 9999

2 25544 51.6420 36.2439 0005519 128.9230 8.6666 15.50201881354580

0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22228.41250959 .00000422 00000-0 78289-4 0 9994

2 27607 64.5547 118.4086 0080765 282.9350 76.2742 14.76202250 57221

0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22228.48028426 .00001374 00000-0 16836-3 0 9992

2 39444 97.6290 199.7030 0055902 194.0617 165.9045 14.83623923470425

0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22228.52120444 .00019334 00000-0 28201-3 0 9999

2 40903 97.1741 287.2180 0007345 251.4063 215.8372 15.55694714388593

0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22228.01483857 .00001020 00000-0 52472-4 0 9999

2 40931 5.9980 104.1735 0014103 294.9000 64.9815 14.76844759372161

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22228.49672534 .00003350 00000-0 20289-3 0 9993

2 42759 43.0179 1.6489 0010702 306.3221 173.6058 15.12259281285447

0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22228.52307337 .00003053 00000-0 18562-3 0 9997

2 42761 43.0191 0.2488 0010919 307.7330 139.6838 15.12343562285459

0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22228.41224463 .00003997 00000-0 30150-3 0 9995

2 43017 97.6666 120.1428 0247211 351.8509 7.8721 14.81800078255995

0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22228.53146045 .00000729 00000-0 77192-4 0 9991

2 43678 97.9783 2.5293 0011219 86.5642 273.6879 14.92253950206818

0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22225.69538810 .00000125 00000-0 00000-0 0 9993

2 43700 0.0248 117.5015 0001982 65.4695 55.2441 1.00268968 13606

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22228.41648359 .00001950 00000-0 17254-3 0 9998

2 43803 97.6164 293.9307 0016304 68.9548 291.3416 14.97341835202049

0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22228.39137149 .00000011 00000-0 -40821-6 0 9998

2 44909 82.5226 190.4566 0217287 179.2921 180.8531 12.79714239123177

0 HO-113

1 50466U 21131B 22228.54712388 .00000062 00000-0 35010-4 0 9994

2 50466 98.5786 305.7676 0003825 344.9218 15.1855 14.38515245 33558

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Friday, August 19, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31.

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Lighthouse weekend imminent

Tuesday 16th August 2022

This coming weekend, 20-21 August, is a great opportunity to chat to a lighthouse and work some rare DX.

There will be over 350 lighthouses on the air in over 40 countries. Germany has 70 registered, USA 41, Australia 38, England 19. Some smaller countries with 1 entry are Canary Islands, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Iceland, Isle of Man, Latvia, Malta.

As this will be the 25th anniversary for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend, one of our Indian supporters has organised a set of first day cover postage stamps to be printed.

After the event there will also be a 25th anniversary certificate available for download from the ILLW web site for those who would like to have a record of their participation in the event.

It is interesting to note that some stations have taken part in the event every year some, with the same call sign and some at the same lighthouse. It is the support of amateurs globally that has grown this event into what it has become, one of the most popular events in the amateur radio calendar.

Kevin vk2ce & Ted w8tts

https://illw.net

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Press story on radio ham's prostate cancer awareness campaign

Tuesday 16th August 2022

Essex press report Andrew Brown M0ONH has been using a special amateur radio callsign GB8PCA to raise awareness for prostate cancer - after he was diagnosed with the disease himself

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, but is now in remission after surgery.

Andrew Brown's awareness campaign launched last week with the aim of using the radio airwaves to highlight the importance of seeking help for your body.

He said: "One in eight men in the UK will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their life, and this event is a way of combining my own personal journey through having prostate cancer this year, and my love of amateur radio. I will be using amateur radio as a way of communicating and raising awareness of prostate cancer, as well as raising funds for the charity Prostate Cancer UK."

Read the full story at
https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/essex-radio-enthusiast-who-beat-7454576

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IARUMS newsletter - Over The Horizon Radars

Tuesday 16th August 2022

IARU Monitoring System (IARUMS) Region 1 newsletter says in July, like every month for many years, Over The Horizon Radars were the most numerous transmissions causing interference to our HF amateur radio bands

The newsletter says:

The front runner was the RUS Contayner (BW = 12K0E; 40 sps), received in all bands from 40 to 12 m. The CHN OTHRs sending short bursts (BW = 10K0E; 41.7, 50, 66.7 and 83.3 sps) were also very active and were mostly observed on the 20 m and 15 m bands.

The International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring System (IARUMS) Region 1 July 2022 newsletter can be read at
https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/IARUMS-R1-Newsletter-2022-07.pdf

Recordings of military transmissions can be found on the Signal Identification Guide Wiki at
https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military

Monitor the short wave bands on-line with a web based SDR receiver at
http://www.websdr.org/

IARU Monitoring System (IARUMS)
https://www.iarums-r1.org/

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ICQPodcast - International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend 2022

Tuesday 16th August 2022

In this episode, Martin Butler (M1MRB) is joined by Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Chris Howard M0TCH to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature Edmund Spicer M0MNG previews International Lighthouse and Lightships Weekend 2022.

We would like to thank our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

ARISS contact with Summer Camp students at Kopernik Observatory and Science Center, Vestal, New York, USA

News stories include: -

A Radio Relic
Two New Amateur Radio Bands for Canadian Hams
Hams on SOTA Event Help Prevent Major Forest Fire
Angola DXpedition Promises People the moon
Failure in Launching Indian Schoolgirls’ Ham Satellite
NRAO Program to Educate Emerging Generation of Scientists using Amateur Radio
QSO Expo Returns for Autumn 2022 Show
Remembrance Day Contest
AP75PAK Celebrates 75th Anniversary of Pakistan

The ICQPodcast can be downloaded from http://www.icqpodcast.com

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Wanted enthusistic amateurs for Full UK distance learning course

Tuesday 16th August 2022

The Strangford High Frequency Enthusiasts Group are hosting a new Full UK Licence distance learning program starting September 12th Via Google Meet.

Places are still available and commence at 20:00 hrs each Monday evening. The course lasts fifteen weeks and will prepare you for Both the new Direct to Full or traditional Full exam on the three tier system. Full support is also available via email and the material is also presented via 140 usefull videos and documentation.

All services are completely free and there are no minimum entry requirements, only enthusiasm.
Contact GI0VKP@gmail.com for more details.

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Wireless microphone marketer faces hefty fine

Tuesday 16th August 2022

A Brooklyn, New York marketer of wireless microphones has been fined nearly $700,000 US by the US Federal Communications Commission for what the agency said is a decade-long practice of selling these devices, which are not RF-compliant.

The FCC said that 32 microphones sold by Sound Around failed to comply with FCC requirements governing emissions power and use of the spectrum, rules that protect against harmful interference to other spectrum users.

The FCC has rejected the business' assertion that the dollar amount of the proposed fine was too high, that a decade of warnings and notices sent by the FCC was insufficient and that photos of the company's marketing websites did not provide proof that the item was available for purchase.

According to a press release from the FCC, the US Department of Justice will be given the case to handle if Sound Around fails to pay the fine.

WIA

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Young Amateurs Radio Club to host inaugural special event

Tuesday 16th August 2022

The Young Amateurs Radio Club (YARC) will host their first annual youth-organized special event from September 1 - 15. Using their call sign, WY 4 RC, the event is known as 'Worked All YARC Zones (WAYZ).'

Operators will be activating WY4RC stations from all 10 US call zones. Different awards are available for youth operators who activate a station, and for those who contact at least six WY4RC stations.

Any young amateur or club interested in operating during the event can find the rules and additional information at the Young Amateurs Radio Club website.

YARC, founded in 2017, is an international amateur radio club with a focus on promoting adoption and innovation in amateur radio among young people. In 2018 the club was officially recognized by the FCC as an official amateur radio club under the call sign WY4RC.

YARC has over 1,000 members on their Discord server as of 2022, and has been changing its structure to bring back community events and increase engagement.

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Ham Radio for Papua New Guinea

Monday 15th August 2022

On the GoGetFunding site Roly ZL1BQD describes his aim of getting new people licensed as amateur radio operators in the many nations in the Pacific region that have few or no radio amateurs

Roly writes:

"Many of you know, I do a lot of travelling throughout the Pacific Islands fixing/maintaining FM Broadcast Stations, a lot of them are Mission type stations but there are a fair number of Commercial stations in the mix as well.

 While i am at an Island location I also operate a “one man DXpedition” in my spare time, of which there is an abundance !! To date i have activated 28 different countries over 35 DXpeditions.

So, to the project. It has long been my ambition to train up one or two Indigenous people in the countries I visit and try to get them through a Ham Radio licence. In many of these locations they would be the first and only Indigenous person to hold a Ham Radio licence."


Read the full post at
https://gogetfunding.com/ham-radio-for-papua-new-guinea/

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Radio ham who kickstarted the counterculture movement

Monday 15th August 2022

The UK's Far Out Magazine has published an article about the radio amateur who played a pivotal role in the 1960's counterculture movement - Augustus Owsley Stanley III K6HEN

His Wiki entry notes: In June 1956, he enlisted in the United States Air Force as an electronics specialist, serving for 18 months (including stints at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Edwards Air Force Base's Rocket Engine Test Facility) before being discharged in 1958. During his service, he secured an amateur radio license [K6HEN] and a general radiotelephone operator license.

In 1963 [aged 28], he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became involved in the psychoactive drug scene. He dropped out after a semester, took a technical job at KGO-TV, and began producing LSD [patent had expired and it was legal then] in a small lab located in the bathroom of a house near campus.

Read the Far Out Magazine article by Tom Taylor at:
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/augustus-owsley-stanley-iii-counterculture-acid/

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25th anniversary of International Lighthouse On The Air

Monday 15th August 2022

Humber Fortress Amateur Radio Club (HFDXARC) are proud to have been invited back to Spurn Point Lighthouse by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for the 25th International Lighthouse On The Air event on Sat 20th August and Sunday 21st August 2022.

This is a very special place to operate from, dark skies, low electical interference with salt water only a dozen yards away on 2 sides. Estimated first transmission at 10:30hrs UTC

Listen out for GB2SL on the airwaves, this is from a little worked square of JO03BN, with the WAB square of TA-41.

Full details of the event can be gained from www.hfdxarc.com.

Best 73 and good DX for the following event.

John Cunliffe G6LNV
Chairman HFDXARC

www.hfdxarc.com

https://www.ywt.org.uk

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Just how good is a tape measure antenna ?

Monday 15th August 2022

Dan Maloney KC1DJT writes on Hackaday about a drawback of tape measure antennas

Amateur radio operators have played a longstanding game of “Will It Antenna?” If there’s something even marginally conductive and remotely resonant, a ham has probably tried to make an antenna out of it. Some of these expedient antennas actually turn out to be surprisingly effective, but as we can see from this in-depth analysis of the characteristics of tape measure antennas, a lot of that is probably down to luck.

At first glance, tape measure antennas seem to have a lot going for them (just for clarification, most tape measure antennas use only the spring steel blade of a tape measure, not the case or retraction mechanism — although we have seen that done.) Tape measures can be rolled up or folded down for storage, and they’ll spring back out when released to form a stiff, mostly self-supporting structure.

Read the full post at
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/14/just-how-good-is-a-tape-measure-antenna-anyway/

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Dark plasma explosion on the sun

Monday 15th August 2022

Earlier today, the sun hurled a plume of relatively cool, dark plasma into space.

Traveling faster than 1.3 million mph, the plume tore through the sun's atmosphere, producing a CME that could sideswipe Earth later this week. Minor to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible beginning Aug. 17th.

Developing story @ Spaceweather.com.

Don't miss the incoming CME: Subscribers to our Space Weather Alert Service receive instant text messages when CMEs are about to hit Earth

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HAREC exams

Monday 15th August 2022

Declan (EI9FVB), the Chair of the IRTS Exam Board writes on irts.groups.io:
The IRTS Examination Board are pleased to announce that the next HAREC examination will be held on Saturday, the 15th of October 2022 at 11:30, at both the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, Dublin and the Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Cork.

Registration will begin from 11am. Candidates will be contacted directly regarding venue preference and registration requirements, but if any candidates have not been contacted already or have any further queries regarding the exam, please contact irts.exams /at/ gmail.com for more details.

It is hoped that this exam will clear any backlog of previous postponements and facilitate any candidates looking to sit the examination before the end of 2022. The next HAREC examination after this one, will likely be spring 2023. So time to brush up on your study and pencil in the date!

Furthermore, any anyone interested in doing the CW test can contact Dave (EI4BZ) at any time to organise the test. More information on the IRTS morse test can be found on the IRTS website. I would also like to mention a special thanks to the IRTS examination team for the work they do voluntarily behind the scenes, to make these examinations possible.

Information about the exam venues can be found on www.maldronhoteltallaght.com and on www.claytonhotelsilversprings.com

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Sunday 14th August 2022

QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo Coming March 12-13, 2022

Expo Tickets On Sale Now

Tickets are on sale now at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo website. Click Here to go to ticketing and registration. Use the emailed credentials to test your login before the Expo weekend. The cost is a flat $10.00. We offer a free ticket to students and kids under 18 years of age, Click Here for Application.

Share Your Project or Article in our New Project Gallery

Share your latest ham radio project in our new Project Gallery. You can feature an article, poster, video, or slides, along with a downloadable PDF document about your project from a self service kiosk on our platform. This is a great way to make a presentation in the Expo without making a speaker commitment.

The Project Gallery is up for the entire period of the show including the 30 day on demand period. Each kiosk includes an optional live Q&A text chat to receive and answer questions from visitors to the Project Gallery. Accepted Project Gallery submissions will receive a free ticket to the Expo. For more information, Click Here . To submit your project to the gallery - Click here

Sneak Preview of Coming Expo Presentations

Here is a list of presentations coming to the Expo in September:

A Broadcast Engineer's Version of an HF Station

For more information on our Presentations and Speakers, Click Here

Presentations from Previous Expos Available on our Vimeo Channel

All of the video presentations made at the previous Expos, over 200 of them, are edited and available on our Vimeo channel. The catalog is completely searchable by name and keyword. Go to this link: https://vimeo.com/showcase/qsotodayhamexpomar2021

Thanks for your consideration. See you at the Expo!

73,

Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo

QSO Today Podcast

Click Here to Go to Expo Registration and Ticketing

QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo Main Website

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Finland's SRAL allows members to choose digital magazine

Sunday 14th August 2022

Finland's national amateur radio society, SRAL, is giving its members the option of having their magazine emailed to them in digital format instead of paper

A number of national amateur radio societies now provide their magazine as a PDF which as well being convenient is also perceived to have environmental benefits.

A translation of the post by the SRAL reads:

By answering the survey below, as a member of the Finnish Amateur Radio Association, you can now choose whether you want the radio Amateur Magazine for the rest of 2022 as a digital magazine, as usual as a paper magazine, or whether you want both a digital Magazine and a paper magazine.

Answer the survey from this link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesX-UPZ1BA8s8sgAvcAcWysOEn-xzssJblJ9JgCXegEcp7sg/viewform

In a survey conducted last year related to the association's membership benefits, 37% of the association's members expressed a wish for a digital version of the Radio Amateur magazine. The Amateur Radio Magazine is not only an important member benefit, but also one of the biggest costs of the Association.

Although the magazine's articles are created by volunteers, printing and mailing the Magazine in particular is one of the biggest individual costs in SRAL's budget. In today's world, the possibility of a digital Magazine is also justified on environmental grounds, because delivering a paper Magazine to someone who doesn't want it is a waste of both money and the environment.

The printed version of the Amateur Radio Magazine is normally sent to all members who do not express a desire for the digital magazine.

The digital magazine will be sent to the e-mail address in the member register. If you wish, you can also use the same form to provide your e-mail address for the membership register.

Source SRAL
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-SRAL

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QSO Today - Conner Black, W4IPC and CJ Pokowitz, WW0CJ

Sunday 14th August 2022

While many of us 'old timers' may think we know what drives youth interest in amateur radio, a discussion with Conner Black, W4IPC, and CJ Pokowitz, WW0CJ, today's amateur radio youth leaders, may lead us to believe that old timer 'value propositions' for ham radio do not resonate with today's youth.

Join Eric and his guests in this discussion of how to potentially increase our numbers in this QSO Today.

Listen to the podcast

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Ham radio emergency comms in trade association mag

Sunday 14th August 2022

Amateur radio featured in the quarterly magazine SKEF News produced by Sweden's Communications Electronics Entrepreneurs Association (SKEF)

A translation of a post by Sweden's national society SSA reads:

Recently, there was an article about emergency communications in SKEF News published by the "Sveriges Kommunikationselektronik Företagare Förening", a trade association of retailers and vendors targeted at professional users of wireless communications. Amateur radio got its own box, featuring the Öland gang from SK7RN.

Thank you SM1HEV / Jens for the information.

A PDF of the SKEF item is at
https://www.ssa.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Betydelse-av-amato%CC%88rradio-_SKEF.pdf

Source SSA https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Sweden

Ölands Radio Amateur
https://www.sk7rn.se/

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What just happened to Betelgeuse?

Sunday 14th August 2022

Astronomers have identified a new type of stellar explosion: An SME or 'Surface Mass Ejection.'

Think of it as a CME on steroids; SMEs outmass CMEs by 400 billion to one.

An SME on Betelgeuse may be responsible for the red supergiant's recent dimming.

Full story @ Spaceweather.com

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Central Coast Amateur Radio Club News

Sunday 14th August 2022

The club rooms at Kariong are open every Saturday. Members are reminded that Annual Membership is now due.

Yesterday the club held its Annual General Meeting. Thank you to the outgoing team; welcome to the incoming team and keep up the great work to those continuing.

At the VK2RAG Somersby repeater site, the D-Star, Rad-Net DMR and 2m Echolink services are fully functional. Brand Meister DMR and 70cm Echolink and IRLP are still on the sick list.

The club has a Web SDR at Somersby. Websdr.ccarc.org.au is configured to listen on 6 metres, 2 metres, 70 centimetres and 23 centimetres.

The daily Morning Tea Net is held at 10:00am each morning and after the VK2WI broadcast on Sunday mornings.

The Thursday evening net is held at 8:00pm on the same repeater and echolink conferences. This week we had a discussion about “what do you enjoy most about Amateur Radio”; with consensus around simply being able to communicate in so many different ways.

The Morning Tea and Thursday night nets are held on the VK2RAG repeater – 146.725 MHz with 91.5Hz tone, and on echolink through the HAM and CCARCNSW echolink conferences.

Adrian VK2ABS, hosts fortnightly SSTV net on the Club’s 2 Meter WICEN repeater; 147.125 MHz with 91.5 Hz tone, consisting of 2-3 rounds. Adrian has had a large amount of support from other members and would love to see you drop in on the next net on Friday the 19th of August at 7:30 PM.

The Thursday night and SSTV nets are also video streamed live to the club’s Facebook page and recordings can be found in the “Videos” section.

You can find out more about the CCARC, our upcoming social events and other details that we can’t tell you about here on the web at ccarc.org.au, by phone on 02 4340 2500, or on social media by searching for “Central Coast Amateur Radio Club”. Remember to give the club a “like” to follow for any updates.

73, Alan VK2MG

Publicity Officer, Central Coast Amateur Radio Club.

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New RadCom team

Saturday 13th August 2022

‘We announced earlier in the year that RadCom Managing Editor, Elaine Richards, G4LFM, was planning to retire after leading the RadCom team for 14 years.

Very soon after that announcement, we had to come to terms with the sad and sudden news that RadCom Technical Editor, Giles Read, G1MFG, had passed away.

RadCom obviously needs a strong team who are focused on continuity but also on developing the future of such a well-respected family of publications. Elaine very kindly offered to delay her retirement so that we could have time to create that future RadCom team.

Working with a professional agency, I led the recruitment team. The President, the current Managing Editor and members of the Board of Directors were all involved to ensure as wide a selection profile as possible. That recruitment process is now complete.

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Edward O’Neill, M0TZX as RadCom Managing Editor and Matthew Smith, M0VWS as RadCom Technical Editor.

Ed O’Neill, M0TZX has held a number of roles in the Civil Service and in a Local Authority where his responsibilities included the publication of material for the public. He has had a life-long interest in all things technical. Most of his radio operating is done on the HF bands via CW, but he can sometimes be heard in the phone sections of the HF, VHF and UHF bands.

Matt Smith, M0VWS comes from an aerospace background dealing with electrical integration of satellite hardware with more than 16 years’ experience. On the amateur front, he enjoys working DX, IOTA, Field Days and spending time in his extensive workshop.  

Ed and Matt are working very closely with Elaine and the rest of the team to ensure a smooth handover in the coming months. I’m very much looking forward to working with both of them, continuing to deliver and develop a RadCom suite of publications that supports the future of amateur radio.’

Steve Thomas, M1ACB
RSGB General Manager

https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/rsgb-notices/2022/08/12/rsgb-radcom-team

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Saturday 13th August 2022

A code for amateurs

The American Radio Relay League or ARRL is one of the oldest amateur associations on Earth. 1926 saw the birth of 'the Radio Amateur's Handbook', the first edition of what we now know as "The ARRL Handbook For Radio Communications" featured chapters on what it means to be an amateur, how to build and operate a station, how propagation works and how to experiment. The very first handbook had 5000 copies printed and thanks to the website WorldRadioHistory.com we have access to a signed copy by the author himself, the Communications Manager of the ARRL, Francis Edward Handy (W1BDI). He starts the 228 page book with the following words:

This Handbook is written as a guide for member-operators of the League. It is also useful as a source of information to the man who wants to take part in amateur radio activity but who has no idea of how to get started. Written first of all for the beginner, such an amount of useful and up-to-date information has been added that the Handbook in its present form is equally valuable as a compendium of information for the experienced brass-pounder and the beginner alike.

The first edition doesn't show a cover price, but the third edition, published a year later shows a charge of $1. The 2022, or 99th edition has nearly six times as many pages, 1280 of them, it costs ten times as much per page and sells for nearly 50 times as much at $49.95. The current handbook features topics such as Radio electronics theory and principles, Circuit design and equipment as well as articles and projects that include 3D printing, portable battery selection, safe antenna and tower work practices and comes in a variety of formats including electronic and box sets.

I'm giving this background to give you a sense of how things have evolved in the past century. For example, one thing that the very first edition didn't have was a page called the Amateur's Code. The oldest copy I've found appears in the 1927 or third edition.

If you're familiar with the words, you're in for a treat. If not, sit back and imagine it's 1927, or 1923, more on that in a moment.

The Amateur's Code

I - The Amateur is Gentlemanly. He never knowingly uses the air for his own amusement in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others. He abides by the pledges given by the A.R.R.L. in his behalf to the public and the Government.

II - The Amateur is Loyal. He owes his amateur radio to the American Radio Relay League, and he offers it his unswerving loyalty.

III - The Amateur is Progressive. He keeps his station abreast of science. It is built well and efficiently. His operating practice is clean and regular.

IV - The Amateur is Friendly. Slow and patient sending when requested, friendly advice and counsel to the beginner, kindly assistance and cooperation for the broadcast listener: these are marks of the amateur spirit.

V - The Amateur is Balanced. Radio is his hobby. He never allows it to interfere with any of the duties he owes to his home, his job, his school or his community.

VI - The Amateur is Patriotic. His knowledge and his station are always ready for the service of his country and his community.

This version is credited to Paul M. Segal 9EEA, Director, Rocky Mountain Division ARRL.

The code appears on page 9 of the 1927 edition of the handbook. It uses Roman numerals to identify each point, the title is beautifully rendered with the Old English Typeface and it's shown inside a rectangle on a page on its own.

Over the next 45 years the text stays the same. There are changes like colons to semi-colons, an additional comma and the evolution from Roman numerals to modern numbers, and then written numbers and finally the removal of the numbers entirely. At one point the title is changed from "Amateur's Code" to "Our Code", but that only lasts for one edition. Speaking of editions, the 1936 edition, the thirteenth in the series, is referred throughout as the 1936 edition, superstition is alive and well.

The credit changes over time as well. In 1929 Paul's callsign is changed from 9EEA to W9EEA.

In 1943 we see a once-off credit appear. It states that the code was written in 1923 by Lieut.-Commander Paul. M. Segal, General Counsel of ARRL. It's the only credit that shows a different year from any of the other references which all point at 1928 as the original year, which is what the ARRL uses today. Interestingly, we have a copy of the handbook from 1927 that features the code, so it's entirely possible that 1923 is actually correct and it's not hard to imagine that a poorly printed 3 looks like the remains of the number 8.

To add to this, there's a 1944 FCC report to the President of the United States of America that contains a reference to "Lieutenant Commander Paul. M. Segal, the radio industry attorney". In addition there's an announcement in the New York Times, dated 25 May 1968 with the headline: "Paul M. Segal Is Dead at 68; Expert in Communications Law"

I don't have access to any version of the Second Edition of the handbook which had two print runs in 1927. It's entirely possible that the code appeared there, but I have no evidence either way. I do believe that Paul M. Segal, 9EEA Director of the Rocky Mountain Division of the ARRL is the same person as Lieutenant Commander Paul. M. Segal, General Counsel of ARRL and radio industry attorney who became a silent key in 1968.

Credits, layout and font changes aside, 1973 sees the first time when the words of the Amateur's Code actually change.

Let me illustrate.

The original first clause reads:

I - The Amateur is Gentlemanly. He never knowingly uses the air for his own amusement in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others. He abides by the pledges given by the A.R.R.L. in his behalf to the public and the Government.

In 1973 that's changed to:

One The Amateur is considerate . . .He never knowingly uses the air in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

The first four clauses are modified to greater and lesser degree, clause five and six stay the same.

Today the ARRL website shows the first clause as:

The Radio Amateur is CONSIDERATE...He/[She] never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

And the credit reads: "adapted from the original Amateur's Code, written by Paul M. Segal, W9EEA, in 1928"

It's noteworthy that going back to the original text the very first clause encourages the amateur to be gentlemanly, something which we can relate to in terms of being respectful, polite and civil.

It's also clear that the Amateur's Code is a living document and has been moving with the times. I think that we as a community have the opportunity to participate in another review and I will investigate and share with you some of my thoughts on the matter.

I think that it is important that we have a code of conduct that reflects our values and at present the best starting point we have is the Amateur's Code.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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Simultaneous operations of APRS and Voice Repeater now a reality on ISS

Saturday 13th August 2022

ARISS is pleased to announce that starting August 11, simultaneous operations of the ARISS Voice Repeater and digital APRS communications on the International Space Station (ISS) is now a reality. Current ARISS operations include voice repeater transmissions with the JVC Kenwood D710GA in the Columbus module and APRS packet operation from an identical radio in the Service Module (Zvezda). Packet operations are on 145.825 MHz.

The ARISS Russia and USA teams have been working for several weeks to prepare theService Module radio for APRS operations. ARISS Russia team member Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, led the effort, working with Russian mission controllers and the on-board ISS cosmonauts to configure the Service Module radio for APRS ops. On August 11, final checkouts were completed and the APRS packet mode was switched on for amateur radio use.

ARISS-International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO states, “Simultaneous operation of APRS and the voice repeater on ISS is transformative for ARISS and represents a key element of our ARISS 2.0 initiative, providing interactive capabilities 24/7 that inspire, engage and educate youth and lifelong learners—especially life-long learning in ham radio operations.” Bauer continues, “Our heartfelt thanks to Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, for making this crucial ARISS 2.0 initiative become a reality.”

The Columbus Module radio uses the callsign NA1SS and the new Service Module radio uses RS0ISS. Aside from the callsigns, the radios are identical and packet operations are the same as before. You can use RS0ISS, ARISS, or APRSAT as the packet path. Also, both radios are expected to be on full time, except during educational contacts, EVAs, anddockings or undockings.

You can find operational status and expected downtimes of the ISS radios at 
https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations
.

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) and NASA’s Space communications and Navigation program.

The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org .

 

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

 

Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and @ARISS_status.

Check out ARISS on Youtube.com.

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Upcoming ham radio conventions emphasize learning and youth

Saturday 13th August 2022

Two major ham radio events in August will host Division Conventions for ARRL.

The National Association for Amateur Radio®. On August 20 – 21, the Huntsville Hamfest will be the host of the ARRL Southeastern Division Convention at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. On August 26 – 28, the Northeast HamXposition will host the combined ARRL New England and Hudson Division Conventions at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

“Both conventions include an exceptional amount of programming to encourage and instruct radio amateurs across a variety of interests,” said ARRL Education and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, K5ATA. Goodgame, who used his recent experience of him as a school teacher to help high school students earn their ham radio licenses, will participate in both events. He will lead forums to share ways for engaging youth and offer tools and tips for approaching schools about including amateur radio in their programs and curriculum.

The Huntsville Hamfest will also include a Youth Lounge where young and prospective hams can participate in hands-on activities and demonstrations, including kit building, fox hunting (find the hidden transmitter), and opportunities to get on the air.

You can read much more at:
https://articlesblink.com/upcoming-ham-radio-conventions-emphasize-learning-and-youth/

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MFJ to celebrate 50th anniversary

Saturday 13th August 2022

MFJ Enterprises, an amateur radio electronics manufacturer and retailer, will celebrate 50 years in business this October.

Martin Jue, K5FLU, founded the company in 1972 after building a CW filter kit that sold for less than $10. Since 1990 the company has made five acquisitions, including Hy-Gain and Cushcraft antennas. MFJ Customer Services and Public Relations Manager Richard Stubbs says the company continues to grow with the popularity of amateur radio and currently manufactures over 2 000 products. “I’ve been with the company for 28 years and the numbers are good,” said Stubbs. “Amateur radio continues to grow worldwide.”

Martin Jue graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He served as a professor of electrical engineering at Mississippi State University from 1972 until 1979, but abandoned his doctorate in 1977 because of MFJ’s growth.

SARL

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Propagation de K7RA

Saturday 13th August 2022

Solar activity did a rebound this week, back to more active levels.

Average daily sunspot number increased from 36.6 to 65.4. Average daily 10.7 cm solar flux rose from 95.7 to 111.9.

Solar wind caused geomagnetic numbers to rise, with average planetary A index going from 7.7 to 14.4, and middle latitude numbers from 8.6 to 12.1.

An improved outlook shows solar flux over the next month peaking at 116 on September 2 to 4. The forecast from USAF/NOAA on Thursday evening was improved from Wednesday.

A look at ARLP032 from 2021 gives a perspective on solar cycle progress. A year ago, average sunspot number was 6 and average solar flux was just 74.8. Quite a difference from 65.4 and 111.9 during the past week.

Predicted flux values are 115 on August 12 to 14, 110 on August 15 to 18, 108 on August 19, 104 on August 20 and 21, then 98, 100, 102, 100, 102, and 100 on August 22 to 27, then 102 on August 28 to 30, then 108 and 114 on August 31 and September 1, 116 on September 2 to 4, 112 on September 5 to 7. 110 on September 8 and 9, then 108 on September 10 to 12, 106 on September 13, then 104 on September 14 to 16, 102 on September 17 and 98 on September 18.

Predicted planetary A index is 12 on August 12, 5 on August 13 to 16 then 10, 12 and 15 on August 17 to 19, 8 on August 20 and 21, 5 on August 22 to 26, 12 on August 27, 8 on August 28 to 30, 5 on August 31 through September 2, then 14, 18, 14, 10 and 8 on September 3 to 7, and 5 on September 8 to 12, then 22 on September 13, 15 on September 14 and 15, 8 on September 16, and 5 on September 17 to 22.

OK1HH commented:
"A geomagnetic disturbance rarely comes completely unexpectedly. And even more so in a situation where its source cannot be located (or selected from several locations). Moreover, lasting five days.

All this happened between August 7th and 11th.

At higher latitudes, the 'STEVE' phenomenon was sighted on August 7 (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). STEVE is a recent discovery. It looks like an aurora, but it's not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEVE

It all started with a positive phase of disturbance in the ionosphere, when shortwave propagation improved. The development continued with a deterioration of propagation in the negative phase on August 8, followed by generally below average conditions in the following days. With a strong influence of sporadic layer E, whose activity usually increases as the Perseids meteor shower approaches maximum (expected on 12 and 13 August). They are also called the 'Tears of St. Lawrence'.

Starting August 12 onward, we expect a longer mostly quiet period."

NASA expects increasing activity:
https://bit.ly/3QjOLk5

Always appreciate The Sun Now page from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Yet another cycle prediction method:
https://bit.ly/3SKm29J

Tamitha Skov, WX6SWW has a 200 minute part 2 of a course on ground effects:
https://youtu.be/cOom5LQ_LBY

If you would like to make a comment or have a tip for our readers, please email the author at, k7ra@arrl.net

For more information concerning shortwave radio propagation, see http://www.arrl.org/propagation and the ARRL Technical Information Service at http://arrl.org/propagation-of-rf-signals. For an explanation of numbers used in this bulletin, see http://arrl.org/the-sun-the-earth-the-ionosphere.

An archive of past propagation bulletins is at http://arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-propagation.
More good information and tutorials on propagation are at http://k9la.us/.

Instructions for starting or ending email distribution of ARRL bulletins are at http://arrl.org/bulletins

Sunspot numbers for August 4 through 10, 2022 were 52, 69, 69, 87, 63, 58, and 60, with a mean of 65.4. 10.7 cm flux was 108.8, 112.2, 116.3, 116.1, 113, 109.4, and 107.6, with a mean of 111.9.

Estimated planetary A indices were 6, 6, 4, 24, 31, 19, and 11, with a mean of 14.4. Middle latitude A index was 7, 7, 5, 20, 21, 15, and 10, with a mean of 12.1.

ARRL

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Press coverage of eight-year-old's ISS ham radio contact

Friday 12th August 2022

Kent's Isle of Thanet News reports on the amateur radio contact between 8-year-old Isabella Payne and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS on the International Space Station

In the Isle of Thanet News, Kathy Bailes, writes:

A Broadstairs eight-year-old has chatted with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station and a recording of the conversation will feature on the NASA website.

Isabella Payne spoke to Astronaut Kjell Lindgren as the ISS flew overhead last week.

The youngster was with dad Matthew [M0LMK] who is a license holding amateur radio enthusiast and tutor. He and Isabella are both members of Hilderstone Radio Society.

Matthew said: “Isabella has been a member of the radio club ever since she was born and has been playing with the radio since she was six. Because I have the full licence she can sit on my knee and use the radio to speak to people as long as I am controlling it. Everyone at the club can do that. She has been involved in a few radio events, Children On The Air events, and will hopefully go for her own licence soon.


Read full story by Kathy Bailes and listen to the recording on the Isle of Thanet News site at
https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2022/08/10/broadstairs-eight-year-old-to-feature-on-nasa-website-after-radio-chat-with-iss-astronaut/

Matthew M0LMK tweeted about the picture shown above:
"Isabella has been having an email exchange with the @NASA #ISS team, you know, as you do! She sent a photo for their publicity team and asked for it to be sent onto @astro_kjell. Here's what she got in return..."
https://twitter.com/m0lmk/status/1556976125359919105

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ILLW: Veraval Light House AT3VLH

Friday 12th August 2022

For the first time Veraval Light House situated at south coast of Gujarat State from India will be activated with the Special Amateur Radio Callsign AT3VLH on August 19-22

The Lighthouse is activated by active Ham Radio Operator Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP from Rajkot (Gujarat) India. It is SOLO operator Activation to experiment learn and spread awareness with amateur radio spirit.

Location
Lat:   20° 54' 41'' N
Long:  70° 21' 11'' E
Grid:   ML50ev
CQ Zone: 22
ITU Zone: 41

Map https://goo.gl/maps/kgU3xmZ4ezwktvg56

International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend
https://illw.net/

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Ham Radio School Outreach: How to talk about amateur radio with schools

Friday 12th August 2022

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h8HpfjoqRM

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Remembrance Day Contest

Friday 12th August 2022

This weekend is the RD contest which commemorates the Amateurs who died during World War II and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants. It is held on the weekend closest to the 15th August, the date on which hostilities ceased in the southwest Pacific area.

A perpetual trophy is awarded annually to the Australian state or territory with the best performance. The name of the winning State or Territory is inscribed on the trophy, and that State or Territory then holds the trophy for 12 months. The winning State or Territory is also given a certificate, as are leading entrants.

The aim of the contest is for Amateurs to contact other amateurs in all VK call areas, ZL and P29 on all bands except WARC bands. Modes allowed are PHONE, CW and RTTY as per the era being remembered.

VKCL is the logging software that will allow HF and VHF/UHF contacts to be logged. Although there are a few other loggers to use, N1MM is suitable but only if the HF sections are being entered.

Full rules and other information can be found on the WIA website
wia.org.au/members/contests/rdcontest/

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   The American Radio Relay League's
round-up of the forthcoming week's DX
activity on the amateur radio bands

Friday 12th August 2022

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

AZERBAIJAN, 4K. Dirk, DK1DKE is active as 4K7DK until August 13. Activity is on 80 to 10 meters using SSB and FT8. QSL via DK1DKE, by the Bureau or LoTW.

TANZANIA, 5H. Eugen, DL8AAI will be active as 5H2JK/p during a hiking tour in Kilimanjaro National Park (5HFF-0005) until August 17, and some days after hiking, from Moshi. Activity will be holiday style, mainly on SSB on 20 to 10 meters. Check for WSPR beacon signals from 5H2JK/P on 15 meters which will be activated when the antenna is operational. QSL via DL8AAI.

MALAWI, 7Q. Junior, 7Q7JN has been active as 7Q7EMH from the radio station at the Embangweni Mission Hospital in the Northern Region. Activity has been on 30, 15 and 12 meters using CW and FT8. QSL via LoTW or ClubLog.

INDONESIA, 8H7/8I7. To celebrate the 77th anniversary of independence, amateurs will be using 8H7 and 8I7 call signs from August 13 to 21. Activity will be on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters and on 2m/70cm for Satellites, as well VHF Terrestrial on 2 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY, FT8 and FM (Satellite).

MALDIVES, 8Q. Giovanni, IZ2DPX will be active as 8Q7AG until August 20. Activity will be on various HF bands as well as 6 meters. QSL to IZ2DPX direct, via HE9ERA by the Bureau, LoTW or ClubLog's OQRS. Also, Stefan, EA5Q will be active as 8Q7QE from August 14 to 24. QSL via EA5Q. All contacts will be confirmed via LoTW.

USA, N. Special event station N7C is commemorating the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, until August 19. Look for them on 7265, 14265 and 18130 kHz using CW, FT8 or phone. QSL via Herb, N7HG. Herb's father, John V. Goodluck, was one of the US Marine Corps Navajo Code Talkers, serving in the South Pacific in WWII.

PAKISTAN, AP75. Members of the Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS) will operate under special call sign AP75PAK and Pakistani hams may use the "AP75" prefix with their existing call sign suffixes for the month of August to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Pakistan's Independence. Activity will be on various HF bands and modes, 6 meters and the satellites.

INDIA, AT2. Members of the West Bengal Radio Club, VU2WB, will activate the special call sign AT2AAM to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Independence of India. Activity will be on various HF Bands. QSL via AT2AAM or VU2WB.

CUBA, CO. Lefty, CO2QU will be active until December 31 on 30 meters (FT8/FT4) and 6 meters (FT8). QSL via CO2QU direct or LoTW.

MAYOTTE, FH. Marek, F4VVJ will be active as FH4VVK from August 20, 2022 to April 1, 2024. Operations will be on various HF bands and modes. QSL direct (see QRZ.com) or eQSL.

ECUADOR, HD1. Members of the Ecuador DX Club will be active as HD1HERO until August 12 to commemorate the August 10th Heroes and will be on all bands and modes.

SAUDI ARABIA, HZ. Members of the Saudi Amateur Radio Society will be using the special call sign HZ1CPCF for the "Crown Prince Camel Festival" until September 4. Activity has been on 20, 17, 15 and 6 meters using CW, SSB and FT8/FT4. QSL via HZ1SAR.

DJIBOUTI, J2. Jeje, F8FKJ will be active as J20EE sometime this month and into September. His activity will be on 40 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and FT8. QSL via F4DXW direct only.

GRENADA, J3. Greg, N9GB will be active as J38GB from August 12 to 19. He expects to be using CW and SSB on 40 to 6 meters including the newer bands. QSL via his home call sign, LoTW, and possibly ClubLog.

ISLE OF MAN, MD. Dale, EI7HDB will be active as MD/EI7HDB from August 14 to 19. Activity will be on various HF bands using CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL EI7HDB via the Bureau.

ALAND ISLAND, OG0. Operators Alex, UT5UY/OH5UY, Pasi, OH2MZB, Jouni, OH2JIU, Niko, OH5CZ, Toni, OH5CY, Jere, OH5ELX and Juha, OH5CW will be active as OH5CW from August 20 to 27. Activity will be on 160 to 2 meters with a focus on 6 meters and the newer bands, using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. QSL via OH5C.

SEYCHELLES, S7. Operators EA3WL and EA3BT will be active as S79/EA3WL and S79/EA3BT until August 23. The operation will be in SAT mode only, on QO-100, RS-44 and others, in a holiday style DXpedition, using SSB, CW and FT8. QSL via EA3BT or OQRS.

ST. KITTS, V4. Jim, NT5V is active as V4/NT5V until August 18. Activity will be on various HF bands using CW, SSB and FT8. QSL via home call sign, direct, by the Bureau or LoTW. In addition, Gary, G0FWX will be active as V47FWX from August 21 to 30. Activity will be holiday style on various HF bands using SSB only. QSL via M0URX.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO
The QRP Fox Hunt, 144 MMMonVHF/DUBUS 144-MHz Meteorscatter Sprint Contest, WAE DX Contest, SKCC Weekend Sprintathon, Kentucky State Parks on the Air, Maryland-DC QSO Party and the 50-MHz Fall Sprint will keep contesters busy this weekend.

The 4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint is August 15 and the Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest is August 16.

Please see August 2022 QST, page 70, and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM contest web sites for details

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Icom AH-730 Automatic Antenna Tuner, New!

Thursday 11th August 2022

The AH-730 is a new outdoor-mounted Automatic Antenna Tuner from Icom.

The AH-730 covers a wide frequency range from 1.8 to 50 MHz, providing Amateur radio operators with the opportunity of working multiple frequency bands.

With a 7 m (23 ft) or longer wire element, all band matching is possible from the 1.8 MHz (160 m) band to the 50 MHz (6 m) band (Ground connection is required.)

The  AH-730 emits only 0.3 W of RF output from the antenna during tuning operation. The low power minimises the risk of interference to other stations while matching the antenna.

The body of the AH-730 is made up of an IPX4 waterproof, high-strength resin. It can be safely installed in a variety of outdoor locations. Additionally, coaxial and control cables can be connected without opening the case.

In addition, automatic high-speed tuning in about 2 to 3 seconds is possible. Up to forty-five matching states can be stored, and when the same frequency is retuned, the matching can be completed in about one second.

The AH-730 Automatic Antenna Tuner is now available to order from Icom Authorised Amateur Radio dealer with a suggested retail price of £570.00 inc.VAT.

The AH-730 is compatible with the Icom IC-718 IC-7100 IC-7300 and  IC-7610 transceivers.

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Ham radio operators reunite families

Thursday 11th August 2022

Ommcom News in the Indian state of Odisha reports on the public service activities of the West Bengal Radio Club

The news outlet says:

On the eve of Raksha Bandhan, two families — one from West Bengal and the other from Uttar Pradesh — were reunited with missing family members, thanks to the efforts of the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC), an organisation of ham radio enthusiasts, who have been carrying out this mission of reuniting people roaming on the streets as vagabonds with their families.

Over the last several years, hundreds of people — including those left behind at the Gangasagar Mela — have been reunited with their families, thanks to the vast network of WBRC.

Even government departments now seek help from these ham radio operators to locate families of people languishing in hospitals and shelter homes for years.

Amateur radio is a hobby (requiring licence) and hams normally operate within their own network. However, it was slightly different in the case of WBRC. This organisation has been assigned by both the Central and state governments to provide connectivity during natural disasters or large events like the Gangasagar Mela.

The hams from WBRC also operated during the devastating Nepal earthquake and were among the first to create communication links from the disaster sites. While working at such sites, WBRC members realised that there are thousands of people who are lost and are in need to be reunited with their families. Their service is voluntary.

Read the full story at
https://ommcomnews.com/india-news/families-reunited-on-the-eve-of-rakhi-courtesy-ham-radio-operators

West Bengal Radio Club
http://www.wbrc.in/
https://twitter.com/wbradioclub
https://www.facebook.com/Wbradioclub/

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Indonesian Beaches On The Air (iBOTA)

Thursday 11th August 2022

ORARI members who are members of amateur radio portable Bali, held activities Indonesian Beaches On The Air (iBOTA) and Indonesian Temple On The Air (iTOTA) at Goa Lawah Beach and Temple, Klungkung Regency, Bali, Sunday, July 31

A translation of a post by the Indonesian national amateur radio society ORARI reads:

Goa Lawah Beach tourist destination which is located in the Klungkung Area, is also close to other tourist attractions, namely Goa Lawah Temple, so that these 2 activities can be carried out properly in one day.

The chair of ORDA Bali, I Gusti Ngurah Agung (YB9AG), expressed his joy on completion of this activity. "We always coordinate with the local Tourism and Culture Office, in every similar activity. ORARI has been working with the government for a long time to stimulate tourism." In addition to thanking the organizing committee and Amateur Radio who have participated, Agung also appealed, "So that amateur radio colleagues who like DX-Pedition, continue to explore, and broadcast interesting places in their territory through radio waves". he added.

The head of the event organizer, Suhariyanto (YC9BQM), from the other end of the phone said, "There were 1,043 participants (chasers) who took part in the activity starting from 08.30 – 21.30 WITA. The number of activators who activate this activity is 8 people (iBOTA: 6, and iTOTA: 2 people). In this activity we use a Wire Dipole Antenna to transmit at a frequency of 40m. The place for this activity is also quite comfortable and strategic, we can hold two activities at once. Suhariyanto added, "This activity gives many benefits to our colleagues who have just joined ORARI. In addition to learning to operate HF radio, they also learn to be operators, especially how to deal with pile ups when calling to enter a frequency. We are also planning a similar activity in the near future." he concluded.

YD1RDH/MU

Source ORARI https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Indonesia

Indonesian Beaches On The Air
https://www.ibota.id/

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Earthquake balloons in the stratosphere

Thursday 11th August 2022

For the first time, a network of high-altitude balloons has detected a strong earthquake using infrasound sensors in the stratosphere.

Results from the mission were just published in the Geophysical Research Letters. Now that the technique has been proven on Earth, researchers want to try it on Venus.

Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

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AP75PAK celebrates 75th anniversary of Pakistan

Thursday 11th August 2022

The Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS) is operating under the special callsign AP75PAK and Pakistani operators are using the special AP75 prefix during August  

This is to celebrate 75 years of Pakistan Independence. Please look out for AP75... callsigns On satellites, HF and also on 6 meter.

An award will be given for any combination of 5 QSO's with AP75 stations. Repetitions with same stations on same mode or same band will not be counted.

Full details at
http://pakhams.com/

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Hampton University scholarships to provide opportunities for STEM students using amateur radio

Wednesday 10th August 2022

Hampton University seeks to ensure that African Americans have access to educational opportunities in engineering and technology, as well as to inform the community of significant contributions made to the profession by African Americans and all ethnic minorities. More than 88% of Hampton University undergraduates receive some measure of financial assistance, which is why funding for unrestricted and current-use scholarships is vital to keeping students on track to obtaining a high-quality education.

The $200,000 grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) will provide scholarships to four students for one full academic year and assist with numerous gaps in tuition and associated costs of attending Hampton University. Hampton will introduce its students majoring in STEM related fields to amateur radio and engage them through activities that provide unique hands-on, experience-building opportunities. Additionally, the grant will fund hour-long educational programs highlighting scholars studying STEM topics that will be aired on Hampton’s FM radio station (WHOV 88.1 MHz).

About Hampton University

Hampton University is a comprehensive institution of higher education, dedicated to the promotion of learning, building of character, and preparation of promising students for positions of leadership and service. The mission of the Hampton University's School of Engineering and Technology serves a segment of the U.S. population that has traditionally not had access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. The School of Engineering and Technology is committed to serving as a catalyst to recruit and retain talented African American and female students who pursue research careers in materials science and engineering fields. To learn more about Hampton University, go to https://www.hamptonu.edu.

About ARDC

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication. The organization got its start by managing the AMPRNet address space, which is reserved for licensed amateur radio operators worldwide. Additionally, ARDC makes grants to projects and organizations that follow amateur radio’s practice and tradition of technical experimentation in both amateur radio and digital communication science. Such experimentation has led to advances that benefit the general public, including the mobile phone and wireless internet technology. ARDC envisions a world where all such technology is available through open source hardware and software, and where anyone has the ability to innovate upon it. To learn more about ARDC, please visit https://www.ampr.org.

For more information, contact:
Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
ARDC Communications Manager
858.477.9903, dan@ardc.net

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End of mission for two ham radio CubeSats

Wednesday 10th August 2022

The Manila Bulletin reports on two amateur radio CubeSat's, built by Philippine students and carrying APRS Digipeaters, that have now re-entered the Earth's atmosphere

The newspaper says:

After 10 months in orbit, the country’s first local university-built Filipino cube satellites (CubeSats) Maya-3 and Maya-4 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere Aug.4 and Aug. 8 respectively, ending their mission, the Philippine Space Agency said on Tuesday, Aug. 9.

Built in a local university setting, the two cube satellites were designed and developed by the first batch of scholars under the Space Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) project of the STAMINA4Space Program.

“Maya-3 and Maya-4 were pivotal in the development of the local space industry. These CubeSats are experimental and educational platforms, and while all low earth orbiting satellites will eventually fall to earth, what matters more are the lasting intangibles that the project brought – knowledge, skill, partnerships, and confidence that we can do it,” said Dr. Maricor Soriano, program leader of STAMINA4Space Program.

Read the full story at
https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/09/first-locally-built-ph-cubesats-maya-3-maya-4-end-mission-philsa/

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Surprise geomagnetic storm

Wednesday 10th August 2022

Forecasters were surprised Sunday, August 7th, when a solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field, sparking a G2-class geomagnetic storm.

Northern Lights were sighted in the USA as far south as Pennsylvania, while Scandinavians witnessed a rare summertime display of auroras mixed with twilight.

Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

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Broadcast from LV18 lightship in Harwich

Wednesday 10th August 2022

Alan Pennington writes on the BDXC club newsgroup:

Carillon Wellbeing Radio (Coalville, Leics) 1476 kHz will again relay a broadcast from the LV18 in Harwich on the weekend 13-14 August according to this:

"It is with great excitement that the trustees of the Lightvessel 18 announce our radio broadcast for Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th August 2022.

We will be broadcasting live online at https://carillonradio.com/ and in some areas on 1476 AM Medium Wave.
Similar to last year, we will have 24/7 broadcasting with a variety of DJs including a Sunday show (Sunday 10am to 12pm) by Stephen Foster (formally of BBC Suffolk and now a regular Radio Caroline presenter) and two shows (Saturday 12-2pm and Sunday 2-4pm) by Keith Skues. They will both be broadcasting live from the LV18. Keith will also be around for a meet and greet and book signing from about 11am till 1pm on the Sunday.

As the LV18 is a charity, admission will be charged at £4 for adults, £2 for children under 16 and £10 for families.
The LV18's Postcode is CO123HH It would be great to see as many of you as possible."

(Anon on Keith Skues Fan Group Facebook group, 7 Aug)

Schedule on CWR's website shows programmes from the LV18 actually start at 2000 BST Friday 12th August: https://carillonradio.com/schedule/

(CWR on 1476 kHz is well heard after dark in UK and even Europe - I could hear the final hour from Radio Mi Amigo aboard the LV18 light ship on the same weekend last year down here in Caversham on 1476 - Alan)

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New ARRL Radio Lab inspires innovation in the ham shack

Wednesday 10th August 2022

ARRL has unveiled its new Radio Laboratory, W1HQ. In a new YouTube video, Jherica Goodgame, KI5HTA, a summer intern at ARRL Headquarters, tours viewers through the station.

"The ARRL Radio Lab is an innovative test space designed to reshape the way we imagine and build a ham radio shack," said Goodgame. The station is intended to inspire members to build, organize, and equip their own stations in innovative ways. "From a decluttered workspace and a digital user interface, to being able to remote into the equipment from anywhere, W1HQ is a step towards the future of amateur radio stations," Goodgame added.

The station includes a new tower and antennas atop the main administrative building at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Inside the station, three operating positions provide an interface to rack-mounted and computer-controlled transceivers, amplifiers, antenna switches, and rotators.

Goodgame explained that the Radio Lab will also support equipment testing and QST Product Review. "An extension of product reviews in the future will be to take that piece of gear that we're testing, put it on this test bench, and see how it integrates with a station that's already under full automation and control," she said.

The video is published on ARRL's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/68BJxGHg74Y.

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Keplerian data

Wednesday 10th August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ

2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ

KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

 

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22217.50875953 -.00000029 00000-0 10809-3 0 9992

2 07530 101.9075 197.5394 0011980 309.7025 164.9468 12.53656157183611

0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22217.70805160 .00004768 00000-0 90723-4 0 9991

2 25544 51.6434 91.2781 0005303 85.8690 316.1257 15.50240345352868

0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22217.16679622 .00000273 00000-0 57984-4 0 9999

2 27607 64.5547 152.8248 0080482 285.0856 74.1353 14.76188998 55566

0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22217.48672841 .00000775 00000-0 97902-4 0 9994

2 39444 97.6276 189.1958 0055100 230.7903 128.8412 14.83593114468798

0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22217.59023082 .00012585 00000-0 18712-3 0 9991

2 40903 97.1753 276.2465 0007264 301.5809 195.7830 15.55267340386892

0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22217.54734148 .00000650 00000-0 12480-5 0 9991

2 40931 5.9975 178.8062 0012539 143.9027 216.2253 14.76837408370618

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22217.59382878 .00001374 00000-0 91033-4 0 9991

2 42759 43.0176 61.7780 0010145 245.3815 210.5031 15.12181892283797

0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22217.61540796 .00001719 00000-0 11034-3 0 9997

2 42761 43.0178 60.4096 0010575 246.3085 147.6943 15.12271064283800

0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22217.40531176 .00002929 00000-0 22155-3 0 9994

2 43017 97.6688 109.5889 0248536 27.8627 333.5643 14.81704674254360

 0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22217.46750449 .00000504 00000-0 55214-4 0 9992

2 43678 97.9773 351.3258 0011075 119.8483 240.3855 14.92238696205168

0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22217.30081275 .00000151 00000-0 00000-0 0 9999

2 43700 0.0143 89.8952 0001722 80.6475 277.3616 1.00271555 13515

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22217.18938685 .00001525 00000-0 13615-3 0 9999

2 43803 97.6165 282.9868 0016193 103.9866 256.3158 14.97283452200366

0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22217.44563631 .00000025 00000-0 58709-4 0 9997

2 44909 82.5210 197.7266 0216810 204.9171 154.1341 12.79714198121772

0 HO-133

1 50466U 21131B 22217.48769192 -.00000028 00000-0 54745-5 0 9990

2 50466 98.5792 294.7160 0004555 19.9937 340.1427 14.38512727 31969

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Friday, August 12, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31.

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10 GHz QSO between Portugal and Canary Islands

Wednesday 10th August 2022

On July 30 Michael CT1BYM and Cecilio EB8BRZ achieved a contact on 10 GHz from Portugal to the Canary Islands

In this translation of a post on the REP site Michael CT1BYM writes:

During the evening of July 30 a QSO was made between EB8BRZ (IL28HA) and CT1BYM (IM57PC). This was my first ever QSO done at 10GHz between EA8-CT, using tropospheric propagation, distance around 1187km. It was also a first for Cecilio, EB8BRZ.

A sectorial beacon was installed in my balcony, direction EA8, with 2W and a 10dBi horn, transmitting CW and Opera. The beacon runs 24×7, helping identifying the possible QSO window. Beacon runs at 10368.825MHz, TCXO disciplined.

The beacon signal was received at EB8BRZ at 19:34UT, so we decided to go to SSB immediately.

At Cecilio, EB8BRZ, the working conditions were a 60cm Procom prime focus dish, 2W, IC-705 for IF

Source Portugal's national amateur radio society REP
https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Portugal

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RTTY turns 100

Wednesday 10th August 2022

On August 9, 1922 a text was typed in an airplane and simultaneously printed out at a ground station

A translation of the DARC post reads:

With this experiment, the US Navy Department gave the telex procedure wings - exactly 100 years ago. From now on it was possible to transmit texts wirelessly at a speed of up to 100 words per minute. The ministry immediately pushed for messages to be made available in the opposite direction, namely from the ground to the plane. It was the birth of radio telex - "RTTY".

After the Second World War, the first telexes came into the hands of radio amateurs in the USA, who then modified their transmitters for frequency shift keying (FSK). RTTY had now also arrived in the amateur radio service.

With the advent of personal computers at the beginning of the 1980s, they replaced the previously widespread electromechanically generated RTTY with very simple RTTY programs. With the introduction of digital technology and the development of new types of transmission such as PSK31 and later FT8, RTTY has lost its previous importance in amateur radio. It's different in the maritime radio service: Despite modern and fast digital processes, RTTY transmissions still have their place there, e.g. to warn of dangers or to transmit current sea weather reports to the skippers.

An image in the Library of Congress shows the teleprinter radio used by the US Navy Department in August 1922 to receive typed radio messages from a naval aircraft, see
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002697173/

Source
https://darc.de/

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NRAO program to educate emerging generation of scientists using amateur radio

Tuesday 9th August 2022

A new National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) program aims to educate emerging generations about the electromagnetic spectrum through an interactive, substantive experience with amateur radio. Funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the program Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (and Why Amateur Radio Matters) will focus on broadening the excitement of amateur radio among BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students.

Bringing together the expertise of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), amateur radio enthusiasts, and subject matter experts (SMEs), the two-year program will:

1. Introduce two cohorts of students to radio technologies,

2. Engage these students in hands-on activities that will deepen their knowledge of astronomy, particularly radio astronomy,

3. Support them in attaining their Technician Class and General Class amateur radio licenses, and

4. Develop a scalable curriculum to be shared nationwide (and internationally) through Superknova, NRAO’s online learning platform.

Students will learn about the very real ways in which the electromagnetic spectrum is a natural resource, every bit as limited and precious as the oceans and forests. They will also learn how amateur radio is an essential part of our national emergency infrastructure, and a critical resource in times of climate change and pandemics. The program is expected to start January 2023, initially serving 10 students. According to Dr. Tony Beasley, Director of the NRAO, “Amateur radio continues to be incredibly important to the nation and global communications, and NRAO is excited to be working with ARDC to bring a new generation and diverse communities to the field.”

About the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF), operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Furthering NSF’s mission to advance the progress of science, the NRAO enables research into the Universe at radio wavelengths and provides world-class telescopes, instrumentation, and expertise to the scientific community. NRAO’s mission includes a commitment to broader, equitable, inclusive participation in science and engineering, training the next generation of scientists and engineers, and promoting astronomy to foster a more scientifically literate society. NRAO operates three research facilities: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which are available for use by scientists from around the globe, regardless of institutional or national affiliation. NRAO welcomes applicants who bring diverse and innovative dimensions to the Observatory and to the field of radio astronomy. For more information about NRAO, go to https://public.nrao.edu.

About ARDC

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication. The organization got its start by managing the AMPRNet address space, which is reserved for licensed amateur radio operators worldwide. Additionally, ARDC makes grants to projects and organizations that follow amateur radio’s practice and tradition of technical experimentation in both amateur radio and digital communication science. Such experimentation has led to advances that benefit the general public, including the mobile phone and wireless internet technology. ARDC envisions a world where all such technology is available through open source hardware and software, and where anyone has the ability to innovate upon it. To learn more about ARDC, please visit https://www.ampr.org.

For more information, contact:
Lyndele von Schill
Director of Diversity & Inclusion, NRAO lvonschi@nrao.edu
Dan Romanchik, KB6NU ARDC Communications Manager 858.477.9903,
dan@ardc.net

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Croatian special event

Tuesday 9th August 2022

The YOTA Summer Camp 2022 is being held in the old town Karlovac, Croatia, inside the site of a bastion fort, with four rivers and many parks, between August 6-13th, 2022.

Members of the Croatian Amateur Radio Association will use the following several special callsigns from various locations:
9A22YOTA -- will be used during the entire week from the camp premises.
9A100QO -- will be used exclusively on QO100 satellite from multiple locations.

** The young operators will be using the following callsigns (series 9A1-5YOTA) from various locations and dates: 9A1YOTA -- remote from 9A1TT's station: August 6-13th
9A2YOTA -- Krk Island (IOTA EU-136; CI046) from the seaside town of Baska: August 8th
9A3YOTA -- from Sljeme mountain (SOTA 9A/ZH-002) above Zagreb: August 10th
9A4YOTA -- from Medvednica Nature Park (POTA 9A-0001, WWFF 9AFF-0013) above Zagreb: August 10th
9A5YOTA -- from Dubovac castle (COTA 9A-00099): August 12th

Various certificates are available (see QRZ.com) or for more information check: https://www.hamradio.hr/yota-croatia
https://www.facebook.com/YOTAcroatia QSL via the Bureau or LoTW.

OPDX

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PREDICT Version 2.3.0 released

Tuesday 9th August 2022

John Magliacane, KD2BD announced the release of PREDICT Version 2.3.0. PREDICT is a widely-used open source satellite tracking / orbital prediction application for Linux and Unix computing environments including PCs, laptops, Raspberry PIs, and Android devices running under a Termux environment.

A new limited capability version that operates under a 32-bit DOS environment has been released as well.

PREDICT version 2.3.0 introduces an easy-to-use satellite transponder database editor and support for a mouse (or touch screen under a Termux/Android environment). New features make it possible to run PREDICT in Multi-Satellite Tracking Mode, left click on any satellite displayed on the screen, and be brought directly into Single Satellite Tracking Mode for more detailed tracking information on the chosen satellite. In addition, previously separate "Vocalizer" code has been integrated into PREDICT's mainline source. Text-to-speech operations are now executed in separate threads rather than forked background processes as was the practice in the past.

PREDICT was originally released under an Open Source Software General Public License in late 1999, and is cataloged under the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System hosted by Harvard University. PREDICT has been successfully employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration where it provides orbital prediction and tracking data for VLBI radio telescope steering. PREDICT is employed by the European Space Agency's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory where it provides tracking and velocity profile data used to steer the 25 meter dish antenna at the Chilbolton Observatory (https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2006/03/Chilbolton_Observatory). PREDICT also powers AMSAT North America's on-line satellite prediction service (https://www.amsat.org/track/), and has served as the basis for a host of other derivative open-source software applications.

Additional information, including screenshots and download links, are available via the PREDICT website at https://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/predict.html

John Magliacane, KD2BD

ANS

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Bridge works ahead

Tuesday 9th August 2022

SpaceX and NASA have delayed the launch of the next U.S. crew flight to the International Space Station to no earlier than Sept. 29, allowing time for ground teams to replace an interstage on the missions new Falcon 9 booster after it was damaged during transport.

The Falcon 9 booster stage, riding horizontally on a truck and trailer, struck a bridge during the trip from SpaceXs factory in California, to the companys test facility in Texas.

WIA

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DXCC Country/Entity Report

Tuesday 9th August 2022

According to the Amateur Radio Cluster Network for the week of Sunday, 31st July, through Sunday, 7th August there were 207 countries active.

Countries available:

3A, 3B8, 3B9, 3D2, 3DA, 3W, 4J, 4L, 4O, 4S, 4U1U, 4W, 4X, 5A, 5B, 5R, 5W, 5X, 5Z, 6W, 6Y, 7Q, 7X, 8P, 8Q, 8R, 9A, 9G, 9H, 9J, 9K, 9M2, 9M6, 9N, 9V, 9Y,

A2, A3, A4, A6, A7, A9, AP, BV, BY, C3, C9, CE, CE9, CM, CN, CP, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, D4, DL, DU, E5/n, E5/s, E6, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EA9, EI, EK, EL, EP, ER, ES, EU, EX, EY, F, FG, FK, FM, FO, FR, FS, FW, FY, G, GD, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, H4, HA, HB, HB0, HC, HH, HI, HK, HL, HP, HR, HS, HZ, I, IS, J2, J6, J7, J8, JA, JT, JX, JY,

K, KG4, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX, LY, LZ, OA, OD, OE, OH, OH0, OJ0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OY, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PY, PZ, S0, S5, SM, SP, ST, SU, SV, SV5, SV9, T5, T7, TA, TF, TG, TI, TK, TU,

UA, UA2, UA9, UK, UN, UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, V7, V8, VE, VK, VK0M, VP2E, VP2M, VP8, VP9, VR, VU, XE, XU, YA, YB, YI, YJ, YL, YN, YO, YS, YU, YV, Z3, Z6, ZA, ZB, ZC4, ZD7, ZF, ZL, ZL7, ZP, ZS

* PLEASE NOTE: The report "could" contain "Pirate/SLIM" operations or more likely a "BUSTED CALLSIGN". As always, you never know - "Work First Worry Later"

OPDX

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Press reports on ham radio emergency group

Monday 8th August 2022

A journalist from Norway's Telen newspaper spoke to radio amateurs at the regional emergency response center at Notodden  

A translation of the NRRL post reads:

What has Notodden and not least Notodden municipality done, which has received this entry in the local newspaperTelen?

The journalist came to the regional emergency response center at Notodden in connection with the radio amateur group at Notodden in cooperation with NRRL's group in Grenland, met with management in Notodden municipality and placed a suitcase with mobile communication equipment that will be at the emergency response center. This is important and good, but this is how several other radio amateur groups have done.

The new thing is that notodden municipality has a cooperation agreement with the Notodden group of NRRL, that this is at the top level, signed by the councillor, Per Sturla Wærnes, and politically anchored with Mayor Gry Bløchlinger. This is presumably completely new as far as we have found, and gives an invitation to other municipalities to do the same.

The agreement essentially has two main goals: Firstly, it emphasizes the importance also for the municipality of having a vibrant radio amateur environment in the region, and that this must be followed up by the municipality with a positive attitude and processing of applications and permits. Secondly, a hub is established in the NRRL's liaison and emergency services in the region.

The equipment suitcase on display is part of this collaboration, with placement and anchoring in the regional emergency center which is part of the regional fire station.

Notodden municipality has also made available a location for a "Crossband repeater" and contributed with events, electricity and infrastructure for this. In this way, eastern parts of Telemark are connected to the repeater network in Grenland and Vestfold. There is a close collaboration between the Grenlands group and the Tønsberg group of NRRL, and LB4OA, Kai Vidar and LA7MHA, Tord is the key person in this network. This establishment is also part of the follow-up of the cooperation agreement between the State Administrator in Vestfold and Telemark and all radio amateur groups of NRRL in the county.

Work is now continuing to strengthen the entire regions and a new UHF repeater on Lifjell is already part of this and the new establishment in western parts of the county (Vinje, Tokke, Fyresdal and Kviteseid) through a repeater on Eirefjell. Cooperation and agreements rooted in the municipalities' top management are also essential here and a result of Notodden municipality taking the lead in formal cooperation to strengthen and develop the amateur radio communities in Telemark.

NRRL source with image of article from newspaper is at 

https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Norway

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SolderSmoke podcast 239 available

Monday 8th August 2022

Bill Meara M0HBR / N2CQR has released a new edition of the amateur radio SolderSmoke podcast

This edition includes:
• Travelogue: James Webb Space Telescope
• VFOs and Temp stabilization
• Polyakov Direct Conversion receiver
• 40 AM with DX-100 and MMMRX
• Dominican license
• Mailbag

Listen to the podcast
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke239.mp3

Video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqYMP73AsZ0

SolderSmoke blog
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/

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Hamchallenge: IARU-R1 announces winners

Monday 8th August 2022

The International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 invited amateurs to come up with a game changing idea, which could lead to more licensed radio amateurs, they have now announced the results

The IARU Region 1 site says:

On April 30th, the first edition of “IARU Region 1 Hamchallenge” was announced which is an initiative to bring new ideas to the Amateur Radio community.

After careful consideration and review of all the participants’ proposals, in addition to having an interview with them to present their ideas, the judging committee came to a final decision:

The 1st place goes to 5B4AHZ Nestor and HB9FEU Christian (ex aequo).

Nestor presented the “Ham Radio Escape Room” project, the idea came during the Covid-19 crisis, when people needed to find a way to have fun remotely, while actual, physical escape rooms were closed. The radio-based escape room can be played in a very similar way to a virtual escape room with amateur radio themes/stories where teams playing the game can also communicate via radio rather than a webcam.

Christian presented “A public database of fun projects for innovation”, a public database of fun projects for innovation and technology-oriented hobbyists with no or little experience and equipment. The project description may include an indication of the level of complexity and the required time, prerequisite knowledge, required equipment, etc.

Both projects received the applause of the IARU Reg. 1 Executive Committee and a warm thanks for their involvement in amateur radio future activities.

The 3rd place goes to IU2FRL Luca and his team with their “UrgentSat” project, describing a simple carry-on luggage that can be transported to schools or public demonstrations and providing a brief demonstration of the incredible capabilities of the Ham Radio World, how using cheap and second-hand tools can achieve great distances reliable communications.

The transmissions are directed to the QO-100 satellite, a geostationary device with massive ground coverage capable of repeating SSB voice and both wideband and narrowband digital streams (including high quality video channels).

This project combines multiple sciences interconnected, creating an interesting environment to approach new users in the communication technologies at any level.

Guy ZS6GUY wins the “Youth prize” for “A Workbook that will showcase various aspects of the hobby”. The proposed workbook is designed to help newcomers by increasing their knowledge of different aspects of our hobby and this workbook can become a valid tool for mentors to teach some of the most common amateur radio activities.

The IARU Region 1 EC looks forward to preparing the second edition of the Hamchallenge in 2023, in the meantime, IARU Region 1 is in touch with the winners to provide them further assistance to bring their projects into reality.

Source IARU Region 1
https://www.iaru-r1.org/2022/hamchallenge-and-the-winners-are/

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Irish Language Net

Monday 8th August 2022

As the Irish Radio Transmitters Society previously reported, Tony EI5EM is the net controller for the Monday night Irish language net on the Kippure two-metre repeater, EI2KPR at 8pm local time. It caters for all levels of fluency and none. The net has a bilingual format, so everybody is welcome to call in, in either Irish or English.

Last Monday night saw a very special QSO, when Tommy EI9IPB called in to the net. Tommy only recently passed the HAREC exam, and wanted to make his very first QSO in the Irish language. Tony was pleased and honoured to be part of what is possibly a very unique occasion. A QSL card, in Irish of course, is on its way to Tommy for this, his very first QSO ever. Congratulations and well done Tommy.

At the moment, this is a pilot project. However, it is hoped soon to have an Irish HF net on either 40 or 80 metres for wider national coverage. Tony is currently working on a glossary of terms in Irish to assist participants in the net. Watch out for this in the next issue of Echo Ireland.

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ISRO launch AzaadiSAT satellite

Sunday 7th August 2022

To mark India's 75th year of independence, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launched an amateur radio satellite 'AzaadiSAT' developed by 750 young women from 75 schools across India

The News Bytes App site says:

The project is part of the Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The satellite was launched using the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) on its maiden mission on August 7.

The AzaadiSAT was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:18am IST on Sunday. The satellite weighs 8kg and will have 75 payloads weighing 50g each. The satellite will conduct femto-experiments. It has a UHF-VHF Transponder fin ham radio frequency, a camera, a solid-state PIN diode-based radiation counter, and a long-range transponder.

The UHF-VHF Transponder of AzaadiSAT will be used to enable voice and data transmission for amateur radio operators. The radiation counter will measure the ionizing radiation in its orbit, while the selfie camera will click pictures of the satellite's solar panels. A ground system created by Space Kidz India will be used by ISRO for telemetry and to communicate with the payloads.

"This is the first of its kind space mission with an all-women concept to promote women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as this year's UN theme is 'Women in Space,' said Rifath Sharook, Chief Technology Officer of Space Kidz India.

Source News Bytes App
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/azadisat-built-by-750-girls-to-be-launched/story

Space Kidz India
https://www.spacekidzindia.in/azaadisat/

AzaadiSAT IARU frequency coordination page
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=855

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GB8PCA - Prostate Cancer Awareness

Sunday 7th August 2022

In August GB8PCA will be on the air to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer and that early detection saves lives

Essex Ham is proud to support GB8PCA, a special event organised by Andrew Brown M0ONH to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer and that early detection saves lives.

Andrew is planning to raise not only awareness, but also money, for this important cause that affects 1 in 8 of men in the UK.

The callsign GB8PCA will be active in August with the support of three Essex clubs – a list of planned activations can be seen at
https://www.essexham.co.uk/gb8pca.html

Essex Ham
https://twitter.com/EssexHam

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Apogee View

Sunday 7th August 2022

The Amsat News Service say that this year’s Hamvention theme was Reunion, which was certainly evident among this year's attendees.

After a two-year absence due to COVID restrictions, it was great to see everyone face-to-face and talk about the exciting opportunities of amateur radio in space. Like many of our visitors, I was excited and impressed with the progress and accomplishments in our Engineering, CubeSat Simulator, and Youth Initiative programs.

The AMSAT TAPR Banquet on Friday night was an excellent opportunity to come together with our friends at Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) and pay tribute to Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (SK), who we lost earlier this year. I want to thank everyone who shared their stories of Bob, who has contributed so much to amateur radio and amateur radio in space.

Attendance at the AMSAT Forum was fantastic. Jerry Buxton, N0JY, and Jonathan Brandenburg, KF5IDY, provided an excellent Engineering update on GOLF, our in-house developed reaction wheels, and the new Fox Plus program. Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, brought us up to speed on the AMSAT Youth Initiative program, which takes an innovative and inspiring approach to introduce youth to amateur radio in space. Last but not least, Alan Johnston, KU2Y, and his students demonstrated the CubeSat Simulator and CubeSatSim Lite, which have made a terrific impact on the STEM education community.

I thank the volunteers who donated their time over the long weekend to serve as AMSAT Ambassadors at our booths. Our volunteers, led by Phil Smith, W1EME, did a phenomenal job in answering questions, helping our members, and making AMSAT’s presence at Hamvention 2022 a huge success. THANK YOU!

40th Anniversary of the Space Camp
For those not aware, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Space Camp on June 18, 2022. AMSAT Ambassador Tim Cunningham, N8DEU, hosted special event station K4S, demonstrating his field day amateur radio satellite station and answering questions about amateur radio in space. While Tim worked the International Space Station (ISS) several times, along with multiple contacts through other LEO satellites, the highlight of his efforts was facilitating a contact between a graduating Space Camp young lady and an astronaut aboard the ISS. Congratulations, Tim, on a job well done!

An Innovation Road Map
Innovation and experimentation are the cornerstones of what sets AMSAT apart in the amateur satellite community and what we need to continue to focus on in AMSAT’s future.

In June 2021, AMSAT implemented a strategic plan defining who we are and where we want to go. In this plan, we affirmed our commitment to return to higher orbits and the vital role GOLF plays in helping us to develop the necessary systems and skills to take us there. In addition, we expressed our continued support in providing easily accessible amateur radio satellites in low earth orbit, encouraging the next generation of engineers, software developers, scientists, and mathematicians through STEM educational initiatives, and partnering with ARISS on human spaceflight programs. It is now time that we put that plan into action.

Compliance and Open Projects – Establish export control policy and open project framework to allow AMSAT’s return to international collaboration. AMSAT is committed to complying with U.S. export controls laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations. ITAR and EAR regulations govern the shipment, transfer, and access of export-controlled data, items, equipment, materials, and software to non-U.S. persons or entities (domestically and abroad). OFAC regulations impose sanctions and embargoes on transactions or exchanges with designated countries, entities, and individuals.

To ensure compliance with all Export laws, AMSAT must establish an Export Control policy, including procedures for complying with Export Control laws and educating all individuals working at, with, or on behalf of AMSAT, who work with, or have access to export-controlled technical data software, materials, and equipment, on such laws, policies, and procedures. This policy should require actively managing and monitoring compliance with Export Control laws and authorizing the creation of procedures to administer major organizational functions related to export compliance.

AMSAT also recognizes that a critical component of its mission is supporting fundamental research, developing relationships and participating in the worldwide scientific, amateur radio, and amateur satellite communities to further the pursuit of knowledge.

Export control laws restrict foreign national access to items or information that might be contrary to U.S. interests; however, these laws include exemptions for information published or disseminated in the Public Domain. AMSAT must take advantage of these carve- outs, when available, to further its international collaboration and outreach efforts.

As such, we are working on implementing the necessary online project management and collaboration tools to support our open projects and the required publication processes to share what we have learned with the world.

Experimentation and Education – Develop open and sustainable CubeSat programs to provide technological experimentation and educational support in Low Earth Orbits (LEO).

Low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites play a critical role in AMSAT’s future. LEO FM CubeSats provide a cheap entry point to amateur radio in space. The lower costs associated with building and launching them make them an excellent platform to support our technological experimentation and STEM education initiatives. AMSAT’s Fox Plus program will be the foundation for our future efforts in LEO.

In addition, proposed orbital debris mitigation standards will require all flight systems intended to be flown above low earth orbits to be “proven” in low earth orbit first. AMSAT’s GOLF-TEE (Greater Orbit Larger Footprint - Technology Exploration Experiment) was developed to demonstrate the necessary technologies for higher orbits.

Scientific Research – Develop an open CubeSat program to enable scientific research related to amateur radio above low earth orbits. As space becomes increasingly crowded, obtaining a license to launch a satellite above low earth orbit will require a reason more important than amateur radio. Moving forward, we need to incorporate missions that include benefits for the greater good of society, of which scientific research and education appear to be our easiest path.

AMSAT is not a scientific research institution, but we can certainly benefit by partnering with educational institutions to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on communication and command and control systems. For example, our partnership with Vanderbilt University during the Fox Program provides a template as we chart our return to HEO.

GEO Rideshare – Develop a program to secure an amateur radio payload in geostationary orbit above North America. I am often asked, “When will AMSAT put a satellite in geostationary orbit?” The short answer is NEVER,... if we have to do it ourselves. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not going to allow a bunch of weekend warriors to play in geostationary orbit; not to mention, the price of admission, continued operation, and indemnification is beyond our reach. So, our best opportunity is to partner with someone already going there as a secondary payload.

No one has knocked on our door offering a free ride, nor have we succeeded in our numerous cold call attempts. We need someone on the inside or even a friend of a friend, who can get us in the room. If you know someone and an opportunity, I could use your help. Until next time, thank you for supporting AMSAT. Onward & Upward!

Robert Bankston, KE4AL
AMSAT President

ANS

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Sunday 7th August 2022

The microphone gain game ...

One of the most misunderstood settings on your radio is the microphone gain. You'll often hear people talking about adjusting it up or down depending on what they hear and the results are often displeasing to the ear.

The very first thing to know is that the microphone gain is likely the single most audible setting on your radio, right after the tuning frequency. It's pretty much the first variable between your voice and your transmitter. Set it too low and you'll hear nothing, set it too high and you'll hear gibberish.

I said it's pretty much the first thing, but it's not the very first. That's your voice, unique in all its glory, loud, soft, happy, sad, funny or not, it's the thing that your microphone captures to transmit. Closely coupled to your voice is the distance between your mouth and your mike. The closer you are, the louder, the further, the softer and the more background noise creeps in.

As an aside, speaking of noise, there's background noise at play, but there's also the noise that comes from the audio circuitry itself, which can for example change depending on the temperature of your radio. I'm going to refer to both as noise here, even though they're slightly different.

So, starting with the ideal model where you always speak in the same way, at the same volume, at the same distance from the microphone, with a constant temperature in your radio, at all times, the next thing is the microphone gain, or gain.

Gain is an imperfect attempt at corralling your utterings into electrical signals without causing the audio circuit to distort or drown in noise. Distortion comes as a result of overloading of the audio circuit when the gain is too high, causing clipping, which essentially changes the audio waveform into something that no longer resembles your voice. At the low end of the gain range there is no difference between audio and noise which results in your voice being buried inside a hissing noise.

You might wonder why we don't just build transmitters that cannot clip and increase your volume. Well, we do. We use things like AGC, or Automatic Gain Control to attempt to prevent such things from happening, but this isn't perfect.

All this results in the microphone gain being a setting that you need to tune to your voice and adjust as things change. Overall, the best outcome is when you set the gain so the AGC just engages when you talk normally.

This gain setting also applies to computer generated signals, often fed into your radio via an audio or microphone input. If you set the gain too low, noise is the problem, set it too high and the Automatic Gain Control will distort the signal to the point where it no longer works and causes interference for everyone else including the station that you're trying to contact.

On older radios the output power was fixed. This is also true for Software Defined Radios. To reduce output power, you can change the microphone gain down and reduce the power. Change it to halfway and your output power is essentially reduced to half power. This works for a range of settings, but get too low and we're back to noise and audio fighting each other.

The opposite isn't true.

You cannot increase the microphone gain to increase power. The moment you exceed the audio circuit range your signal is distorted. On an SDR this means that you're exceeding the ability of the Analogue to Digital converter to represent your audio. In digital terms, zero means no sound and all on means 100%. If your audio is so loud as to only be 100% on, that's like sending a tone out the transmitter, resembling anything but your voice.

All of what I've talked about is related to SSB signals and to some extent AM. FM is a different animal entirely. For starters, output power on FM is fixed. The next difference is the signal or channel width. Without going into full detail, FM comes in different widths, WFM or Wideband FM, NFM, or Narrowband FM, and between the two, "normal" FM. To make things more fun, not everyone agrees on what each one means at any given time. Also, channel width and channel spacing are not the same thing, but that's for another day.

Gain aside for a moment, consider two matched FM radios using the same channel width. Your voice volume is determined by how much of the channel you use. Louder means wider, softer means narrower. Adjust the gain up, the signal gets wider, but the limit of the channel width remains, get too high and it clips at the channel width and distorts. At the other end, changing the gain down, you'll use less of the channel width and eventually the noise and your voice will be at the same level and you won't be heard.

Let's look at what happens when you use a normal FM signal to transmit to a narrowband FM receiver. Essentially your signal is too wide and the result is that your voice will be clipped unless you speak really softly or if you've set the gain really low, either way comes with more noise.

Similarly, if you transmit a narrowband FM signal to a normal FM receiver, then your voice will be very low, regardless of the microphone gain setting and turning it up will only distort it due to clipping inside your transmitter.

So, for FM, before fiddling with the gain, make sure that you're using the same FM mode as the other station. One thing to remember is when you use a repeater, if the audio is always too loud for everyone, your mode is probably too narrow. Similarly, if the audio is always too soft and you always need to turn up the volume on your radio, your mode is likely too wide. Check your radio specifications to determine what each mode means.

In broadcast audio this whole thing is managed by calibration using standard tones, but as amateurs we tend to rely on other people reporting their feelings on the quality of your voice with the often heard admonishment to adjust the microphone gain.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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Radio amateur awarded six-figure NSF grant

Saturday 6th August 2022

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a grant of $399,211 to Nathaniel Frissell W2NAF, Ph.D., assistant professor physics and electrical engineering at The University of Scranton

The Scanton press release says:

Nathaniel Frissell, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at The University of Scranton, will lead a $399,211 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant-supported collaborative research project entitled “Measuring Daily Ionospheric Variability and the 2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipse Ionospheric Impacts Using HamSCI HF Doppler Shift Receivers.”

As the lead principal investigator, Dr. Frissell will work with students at the University of Scranton, collaborators at Case Western Reserve University, and volunteers across the nation to study how dawn, dusk, and solar eclipses affect the electrified portion of the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere. This will be done using a network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stabilized/synchronized high frequency (HF) receivers (known as Grapes), which were developed as part of the $1.3 million NSF-funded HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) project he was awarded in 2019.

An annular solar eclipse will take place on Oct. 14, 2023 and a total solar eclipse will take place on April 8, 2024.

“These are the last solar eclipses to traverse the continental United States until 2044, and are therefore important, time-sensitive, information rich opportunities for running unique and ‘controlled’ ionospheric experiments,” said Dr. Frissell. “This project takes advantage of the unprecedented opportunity to study the ionospheric impacts of the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses and the daily ionospheric variability associated with dawn/dusk transitions.”

A better understanding of the impact of ionospheric disturbances is imperative, because these changes can affect crucial navigation and communications systems.

According to Dr. Frissell, this new NSF grant will fund an additional 30 Grape receivers that will be deployed throughout North America. Volunteers from the HamSCI amateur radio community will be able to fund and field additional stations. All stations will run continuously from deployment through at least the end of the project in 2025, and will capture the 2023 and 2024 eclipses. The grant will also support master’s and Ph.D. level student participation in the research data collection and analysis.

“This project will also establish a new network of measurement instruments that, due to its low- cost and operation by volunteers, has the potential to provide measurements for years to come,” said Dr. Frissell, who also noted that results of the project “will be shared widely with the amateur radio community through presentations at amateur radio conventions, local clubs, and publication in amateur radio magazines and journals.”

In addition, Dr. Frissell was awarded a highly-competitive, five-year $616,054 NSF CAREER grant in 2020 to apply sophisticated, physics-based atmospheric/ionospheric models to extensive data sets collected through the international network of ham radio operators.

Dr. Frissell joined the faculty at Scranton in the fall of 2019. He earned a doctorate and a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and a bachelor’s degree in physics and music education from Montclair State University in New Jersey. He is the founder and lead organizer of the international citizen science space physics research collective known as the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI.org). HamSCI is recognized as an official NASA Citizen Science Project.

Source Scranton University
https://news.scranton.edu/articles/2022/08/news-faculty-nsf-eclipse-frissell-2022.shtml

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Young radio amateurs special event

Saturday 6th August 2022

The ARRL report:

Using their call sign, WY4RC, the event is known as 'Worked All YARC Zones (WAYZ).' Operators will be activating WY4RC stations from all 10 US call zones. Different awards are available for youth operators who activate a station, and for those who contact at least six WY4RC stations.

Any young amateur or club interested in operating during the event can find the rules and additional information at the Young Amateurs Radio Club website
https://yarc.world/index.php/events/2022/yarc-worked-all-yarc-zones-wayz-contest-event/

YARC, founded in 2017, is an international amateur radio club with a focus on promoting adoption and innovation in amateur radio among young people. In 2018 the club was officially recognized by the FCC as an official amateur radio club under the call sign WY4RC.

YARC has over 1,000 members on their Discord server as of 2022, and has been changing its structure to bring back community events and increase engagement.

Source ARRL Letter August 4, 2022
http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter

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Radio seized for interfering with police transmissions

Saturday 6th August 2022

In Texas, authorities cracked down after a hand-held radio caused emergency interference with police transmissions.

Mike Askins KE5CXP speaking on ARNewsLine said that it had operated for months on emergency frequencies used by the Young County Sheriff's Office. According to local media reports, the transmissions on the dispatch channels often included the voices of a man, woman and some children yelling at one another and the sounds of a barking dog.

A story in the Olney Enterprise newspaper said that the police were so hampered in using their own assigned frequencies that they often had to use cell phones instead to communicate.

Sheriff Travis Babcock contacted the Federal Communications Commission which provided him with an official statement to read on the emergency channel but that failed to bring the transmissions to a halt. The news report said that on July 8th two officers patrolling in their car heard the unauthorized traffic and were able to track down the radio and its owner.

It was not clear what charges would be filed against the owners of the radio, which is now the property of the county sheriff's office. Charges could range from a misdemeanour for interfering with public duty to a federal offense for interfering with emergency communications.

WIA

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WIA supporting Binar satellites

Saturday 6th August 2022

In 2020 the Board of the WIA supported the Binar-1 small satellite/CubeSat mission which was launched from the ISS by Curtin University.

Binar-1 is a 1U CubeSat currently in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and was a technical demonstrator of in-house developed hardware that aimed to become a repeatable platform for research and educational purposes.

This year the Board of the WIA agreed to support the upcoming mission 2 that will see satellites: Binar-2, Binar-3 and Binar-4 be deployed from the ISS in the same way as Binar-1 into LEO. A subsequent mission 3 will follow about a year later with three more CubeSats (Binar-5,6 and 7) to also be delivered into Low Earth Orbit.

Part of the Binar mission is to try to make it easier for young, enthusiastic students to learn more about and how to use amateur radio in a way which directly relates to STEM. We believe that this specific use of amateur radio is a fantastic crossover opportunity for education and encouragement of STEM. Previously young students were constrained by resources, and current progtam wants to provide a platform where students - both high-school and university - can learn about amateur radio, spacecraft, their operations, and science experiments flying onboard the spacecraft.

The satellites in Launch 2 will be Binar-2, 3, 4 will have a multiband radio, capable of operating in the amateur band. The radio frequencies are allocated in the 70cm Amateur Satellite Radio band and, as required by local and international regulatory bodies (ACMA, ITU, IARU), will be coordinated through the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) with the support of the Wireless Institute of Australia as the national association for Amateur Radio in Australia .

The main purpose of the usage of the amateur-satellite band allocation onboard the Satellites in Launches 2 and 3 is to provide a platform to educate high school and university students on satellite technology.

Peter VK8ZZ
WIA Secretary

WIA

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A radio relic

Saturday 6th August 2022

The Astronomy magazine site carries a picture of the radio telescope built in 1937 by radio amateur Grote Reber W9GFZ

Grote Reber was a Chicago-area engineer and ham radio operator who sought, unsuccessfully, to land a job with Karl Jansky after the pioneering radio astronomer's discovery of radio emission from the Milky Way.

In 1937, Reber decided to build his own radio telescope. He used the resulting 9.6-meter dish to confirm Jansky's discovery and published radio-sky surveys in the following years. In the early 1960s, he donated the telescope to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, where it sits now as a historic monument.

This shot is a 14-second exposure taken with a Canon DSLR at ISO 3200 and a 14mm lens at f/4, see
https://astronomy.com/photos/picture-of-day/2022/08/a-radio-relic

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Keplerian data

Saturday 6th August 2022

Special thanks to AMSAT-NA (AMSAT.ORG) for the following Keplerian data.

Decode 2-line elsets with the following key:

1 AAAAAU 00 0 0 BBBBB.BBBBBBBB .CCCCCCCC 00000-0 00000-0 0 DDDZ

2 AAAAA EEE.EEEE FFF.FFFF GGGGGGG HHH.HHHH III.IIII JJ.JJJJJJJJKKKKKZ

KEY: A-CATALOGNUM B-EPOCHTIME C-DECAY D-ELSETNUM E-INCLINATION F-RAAN G-ECCENTRICITY H-ARGPERIGEE I-MNANOM J-MNMOTION K-ORBITNUM Z-CHECKSUM

 

0 OSCAR 7

1 07530U 74089B 22217.50875953 -.00000029 00000-0 10809-3 0 9992

2 07530 101.9075 197.5394 0011980 309.7025 164.9468 12.53656157183611 0 ISS

1 25544U 98067A 22217.70805160 .00004768 00000-0 90723-4 0 9991

2 25544 51.6434 91.2781 0005303 85.8690 316.1257 15.50240345352868 0 SO-50

1 27607U 02058C 22217.16679622 .00000273 00000-0 57984-4 0 9999

2 27607 64.5547 152.8248 0080482 285.0856 74.1353 14.76188998 55566 0 AO-73

1 39444U 13066AE 22217.48672841 .00000775 00000-0 97902-4 0 9994

2 39444 97.6276 189.1958 0055100 230.7903 128.8412 14.83593114468798 0 XW-2A

1 40903U 15049E 22217.59023082 .00012585 00000-0 18712-3 0 9991

2 40903 97.1753 276.2465 0007264 301.5809 195.7830 15.55267340386892 0 IO-86

1 40931U 15052B 22217.54734148 .00000650 00000-0 12480-5 0 9991

2 40931 5.9975 178.8062 0012539 143.9027 216.2253 14.76837408370618

0 CAS-4B

1 42759U 17034B 22217.59382878 .00001374 00000-0 91033-4 0 9991

2 42759 43.0176 61.7780 0010145 245.3815 210.5031 15.12181892283797 0 CAS-4A

1 42761U 17034D 22217.61540796 .00001719 00000-0 11034-3 0 9997

2 42761 43.0178 60.4096 0010575 246.3085 147.6943 15.12271064283800 0 AO-91

1 43017U 17073E 22217.40531176 .00002929 00000-0 22155-3 0 9994

2 43017 97.6688 109.5889 0248536 27.8627 333.5643 14.81704674254360 0 PO-101

1 43678U 18084H 22217.46750449 .00000504 00000-0 55214-4 0 9992

2 43678 97.9773 351.3258 0011075 119.8483 240.3855 14.92238696205168 0 QO-100

1 43700U 18090A 22217.30081275 .00000151 00000-0 00000-0 0 9999

2 43700 0.0143 89.8952 0001722 80.6475 277.3616 1.00271555 13515

0 JO-97

1 43803U 18099AX 22217.18938685 .00001525 00000-0 13615-3 0 9999

2 43803 97.6165 282.9868 0016193 103.9866 256.3158 14.97283452200366 0 RS-44

1 44909U 19096E 22217.44563631 .00000025 00000-0 58709-4 0 9997

2 44909 82.5210 197.7266 0216810 204.9171 154.1341 12.79714198121772 0 HO-133

1 50466U 21131B 22217.48769192 -.00000028 00000-0 54745-5 0 9990

2 50466 98.5792 294.7160 0004555 19.9937 340.1427 14.38512727 31969

Keplerian bulletins are transmitted twice weekly from W1AW. The next scheduled transmission of these data will be Tuesday, August 9, 2022, at 2230z on Baudot and BPSK31.

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Ham radio in SLUG Magazine

Friday 5th August 2022

Salt Lake City's SLUG Magazine reports on the upcoming DIY Festival which will have an amateur radio presence thanks to the local radio club

The magazine says:

With the largest number of vendors to date, The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons returns to the Utah State Fairpark with an exciting variety of homegrown DIY-ers.

No matter what the video star says, radio isn’t going anywhere for the Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club (SLCARC). T Michael Smith, one of the founders of the club, and outreach team members James Bennett and Mike McAinsh explain the appeal of radio in preparation for their Craft Lake City DIY Festival appearance: “With so much to learn and do in ham radio, you will never become bored with all it has to offer,” they say.

SLCARC was founded in 2014 to assist Salt Lake City Emergency Management in disaster communication, but the club offers various options to explore the multifaceted hobby in depth. From helping new hams with “mic fright” to offering a location to obtain licenses, SLCARC is a space for everyone. “Whether you’ve been licensed for years or are just starting out in the hobby, you will find a welcoming community of hams at Crossroads who will help answer your questions, provide help with putting up antennas or programming that new radio and make you feel welcome on air,” the team says, emphasizing the club’s focus on making radio accessible to users with disabilities.

At the DIY Festival, SLCARC will be demonstrating how little you need to get involved, with explanations on homemade antennas and how to transform your computer into a receiver. “We hope to inspire our visitors to pay more attention to their personal and neighborhood emergency preparedness,” the club says.

Source SLUG Magazine

https://www.slugmag.com/community/salt-lake-crossroads-amateur-radio-club-craft-lake-city-diy-engineer/

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The new ARRL Radio Laboratory

Friday 5th August 2022

Introducing the brand new ARRL Radio Laboratory, W1HQ! Join Jherica Goodgame, KI5HTA, as she walks you through everything there is to know about this newest edition to ARRL Headquarters.

The ARRL Radio Lab is an innovative test space designed to reshape the way we imagine and build a ham radio shack. From a decluttered workspace and a digital user interface to being able to remote in to the station from anywhere, W1HQ is a step towards the future of amateur radio.

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French special callsign

Friday 5th August 2022

Members of the Radio Club Vendeen (F6KUF) will activate the special callsign TM3GGR between August 20th and September 4th.

Operations are for the start of the 3rd "GOLDEN GLOBE RACE" (non-stop round-the-world sailing trip, without assistance and without a modern navigation system).

Activity will be on all bands and all modes.

QSL via F6KUF by the Bureau or direct via F5OEV

OPDX

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   The American Radio Relay League's
round-up of the forthcoming week's DX
activity on the amateur radio bands

Friday 5th August 2022

This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by EA4NF, N9GB, The Daily DX, the OPDX Bulletin, 425 DX News, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.

SPRATLY ISLANDS. Operators 4F2KWT, 4F1OZ, DU1VGX, DU1XX and DU3JA will be QRV as DX0NE from Kalayaan, IOTA AS-051. Activity will be on 160 to 6 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8. QSL via IZ8CCW.

RODRIGUES ISLAND, 3B9. Operators 3B8BAN, 3B8CF, 3B8FA, 3B8FV, 3B8GF and 3B8GL are QRV as 3B9BAN, 3B9CF, 3B9FA, 3B9FV, 3B9GF and 3B9GL, respectively, until August 9. Activity is holiday style on the HF bands using mainly FT8, and on Satellite QO-100. QSL via operators' instructions.

AZERBAIJAN, 4K. Operator DK1DKE is QRV as 4K7DK from Baku until August 13. Activity is on 80 to 10 meters using SSB and FT8. QSL to home call.

MADAGASCAR, 5R. Elvira, IV3FSG is QRV as 5R8LH from Andavadoaka until September 8. Activity is on the HF bands and 6 meters using CW, SSB, and various digital modes. QSL via IK2DUW.

BARBADOS, 8P. Philippe, EA4NF will be QRV as 8P9NF from August 8 to 12. Activity is primarily on the FM and Linear LEO Satellites from Grid Square GK03, and IOTA NA-021. QSL via LoTW.

CROATIA, 9A. Special event stations 9A22YOTA, 9A1YOTA, 9A2YOTA, 9A3YOTA, 9A4YOTA, 9A5YOTA and 9A100QO will be QRV from Karlovac from August 6 to 13 during the 10th Youth On The Air summer camp. Activity is on all HF, V/UHF bands, and various Satellites using CW, SSB, RTTY, and FT8. QSL via operators' instructions.

PAKISTAN, AP. Pakistan Amateur Radio operators can use the AP75 prefix during the month of August in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan.

PHILIPPINES, DU. Mike, W6QT is QRV as DU3/W6QT from Olongapo City on Luzon Island, IOTA OC-042, until September 15. QSL to home call.

GUERNSEY, GU. Special event station GB5VAS is QRV on August 6 and 7 from the grounds of the Vintage Agricultural Show. QSL via GU3HFN.

ECUADOR, HC. Special event station HD1HERO will be QRV from August 8 to 12 in remembrance of the heroes from 1809 involved in the Quito Revolution. Activity will be on all bands and modes. QSL via LoTW.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA, HL. Special event station HL77V is QRV during August to commemorate the 77th anniversary of liberation. QSL via 6K0MF.

DJIBOUTI, J2. Jeje, F8FKJ is QRV as J20EE during August and September from Djibouti City. Activity is on 40 to 10 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8. QSL direct to F4DXW.

GRENADA, J3. Greg, N9GB plans to be QRV as J3/N9GB from August 12 to 19. Activity will be holiday style on 40 to 10 meters, and possibly 6 meters using CW, SSB, and possibly FT8. This might include 160 and 80 meters if conditions allow. QSL to home call.

LITHUANIA, LY. Special event station LY786A is QRV until September 30 to commemorate 786 years of Siauliai City. QSL to LY5A.

SEYCHELLES, S7. Nuria, EA3WL and Josep, EA3BT will be QRV as S79/home calls from Praslin, La Digue, and Mahe Islands, IOTA AF-024, from August 9 to 23. Activity will be on various Satellites using CW, SSB, and FT8. QSL via EA3BT.

COSTA RICA, TI. Special event station TI1GOAL is QRV until December to draw attention to the Costa Rican football team participating in the FIFA World Championship. Activity is on the HF bands using SSB and FT8. QSL direct.

CORSICA, TK. Frans, DJ0TP is QRV as TK/DJ0TP from Linguizzetta, IOTA EU-014, until September 6. Activity is holiday style on 20, 15, and 12 meters, and possibly 30 meters, using CW, PSK, FT8, and FT4. QSL to home call.

CANADA, VE. Pierre, VE3KTB is QRV as VY0ERC from the Eureka weather station on Ellesmere Island, IOTA NA-008, until August 16. Activity is in his spare time on 20 and 17 meters using CW, SSB, and FT8. QSL via M0OXO.

FALKLAND ISLANDS. Jonathan, 2E0KZN is QRV as VP8TAA from the Royal Air Force Mount Pleasant Complex until early November. Activity is in his spare time. This includes being active as VP8TAA/p from various SOTA sites. QSL via M0OXO.

THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO
The ARRL 222 MHz and Up Distance Contest, North American CW QSO Party, 10-10 International Summer SSB Contest, VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest, QRP 20-Meter CW Fox Hunt, NCCC RTTY Sprint, NCCC CW Sprint, K1USN Slow Speed CW Test, Batavia

FT8 Contest, NRRL MGM Weekend Contest and the SARL HF Phone Contest are all scheduled for this upcoming weekend.

The ICWC Medium Speed CW Test, OK1WC CW Memorial, Worldwide Sideband Activity Contest, RTTYOPS Weeksprint, NAQCC CW Sprint, Phone Weekly Test, A1Club AWT, CWops Test, VHF-UHF FT8 Activity Contest, Mini-Test 40 and Mini-Test 80 are all on tap for August 8 to 10.

Please see August 2022 QST, page 70, page 70 and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM contest web sites for details

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Eruption proved continuing importance of shortwave

Thursday 4th August 2022

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano exploded earlier this year, bringing down communications to and from Tonga, RNZ Pacific reverted to shortwave to reach the isolated island nation

Public Media Alliance carry an article by Richard Sutherland, Head of News at Radio New Zealand:

In January this year, Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano exploded.  It was the most powerful eruption of its type that the world has seen since Krakatoa in 1883.  In addition to sending atmospheric shockwaves around the world, the eruption badly damaged the international high-speed subsea cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world.

The island kingdom was cut off – it was several days before jury-rigged comms were restored.  Getting information out of Tonga was next to impossible. But thanks to shortwave, RNZ Pacific was able to broadcast vital information into the country.

It may seem strange to be talking about shortwave this far into the 21st century.  “Shortwave” conjures up images of 1930s-style wood-panelled radios jammed with vacuum tubes, receiving programmes broadcast from colonial capitals.

But what many dismiss as a legacy distribution platform continues to show its worth even in the age of the internet. The New Zealand government signed off on a multi-million-dollar investment in a new shortwave transmitter for RNZ Pacific, the international service of New Zealand’s public broadcaster, Radio New Zealand.  This will allow us to continue and build on a service that began in 1948, using transmitters left behind by the US military after the Second World War.

Read the full story at
https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/a-vital-tool-how-the-tongan-earthquake-proved-the-continuing-importance-of-shortwave/

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Poldhu ARC Open Day

Thursday 4th August 2022

This weekend, travellers to Britain may consider a stop-over at Poldhu.

The RSGB reports that the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club is holding an Open Day on Saturday, the 6 August from 10am. They welcome anyone who has an interest in amateur radio, or those that are already licensed, to join them for the day. There will be an opportunity to operate the club station, have a chat and learn more.

The club has a superb site on the cliffs overlooking Poldhu Cove and Mounts Bay, with a triband HF beam and multiple dipoles. The location is close to the Poldhu Cove beach with its café, an ideal location for the family while you indulge your radio passion. Go to Poldhu Cove and follow the signs to the Marconi Centre, where there is a large free car park.

For more information, please call Terry, G4CDY on 0044 776 468 1843.

IRTS

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Johnnie Walker to join Boom Radio to celebrate the pirates

Wednesday 3rd August 2022

Johnnie Walker is to host a show as part of a range of special programmes on Boom Radio on Sunday 14 August in celebration of the era of the offshore pirate stations.

This 14 August will be 55 years since the pirate stations were made illegal when the Marine Offences Act became law.

Johnnie joins Boom for the day, to host the morning show, reflecting on those days on the ships. Johnnie broadcast on ‘Swinging’ Radio England, before crossing to Radio Caroline where he famously defied the law.

Following Johnnie, John Peters will recreate the last Big L Fab 40 – the last chart broadcast by Radio London before the station closed.

Then Roger Day remembers the drama of his days offshore – from the early days at Swinging Radio England, to his time at Radio Caroline and RNI.

DLT will broadcast a special evening show from 6pm and at 9pm, Keith Skues introduces an hour of conversation with some of those who worked on board. Before joining Radio 1, Keith broadcast on Radio Caroline and Radio London. This programme includes colourful stories of the time from Paul Burnett, Tony Blackburn, Roger Day, Colin Berry, Roger Gale and Tom Edwards.

“We know this era really chimes with our listeners”, commented Boom Content Director Paul Robey. “The day is a chance to celebrate the influence of what happened back then on the radio we hear today”.

Source: Radio Today
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2022/08/johnnie-walker-to-join-boom-radio-on-14th-august-to-celebrate-the-pirates/

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IOTA News from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club

Wednesday 3rd August 2022

Island activities:

Compiled by Andreas, DK5ON

IOTA QRGs
CW: 28040 24920 21040 18098 14040 10114 7030 3530 kHz
SSB: 28560 28460 24950 21260 18128 14260 7055 3760 kHz

AF-024; S7, INNER ISLANDS:
Nuria S79/EA3WL and Josep S79/EA3BT activate Praslin, La Digue, and Mahe Islands from Aug. 9 to 23. QRV only via satellites (QO-100, RS-44 and others) on CW, SSB, and FT8. QSL via EA3BT, ClubLog OQRS.

AF-049; 3B8, MAURITIUS (MAURICE) ISLAND:
A team consisting of Francois/3B8BAN, Jacky/3B8CF, Patrice/3B8FA, Gerard/3B8FV, and Patrick/3B8GF puts Rodrigues Island on the air from the 5th to the 9th, all signing 3B9/homecalls/p. QRV on HF and via QO-100.

AS-013; 8Q, MALDIVE ISLANDS:
Giovanni/IZ2DPX operates as 8Q7AG from Aug. 8 to 20 with 100W and a vertical antenna on SSB and digital modes (HF, 6m). QSL via IZ2DPX (d/B), ClubLog OQRS, LoTW.

NA-008; VY0, NUNAVUT (ELLESMERE ISLAND) group:
Pierre/VE3KTB operates during his spare time from the Eureka weather station until Aug. 16. QRV as VY0ERC on 20 and 17m (CW, SSB, FT8). QSL via M0OXO OQRS.

NA-104; V4, ST KITTS AND NEVIS:
James/NT5V signs V4/NT5V between the 8th and 18th from St Kitts on HF (CW, SSB, FT8). QSL via NT5V (d/B), LoTW.

OC-042; DU1-4, LUZON ISLAND:
Mike/W6QT remains active as DU3/W6QT until Sept. 15 from Olongapo City on Luzon Island. QSL via W6QT
(d/B), eQSL, LoTW.

OC-123; A3, NIUAFO'OU ISLAND:
Masa/JA0RQV had to cancel his trip to Niuafo'ou Island, scheduled for Aug. 7 to 20.

SA-002; VP8, FALKLAND ISLANDS:
Jonathan/2E0KZN operates during his spare time as VP8TAA or VP8TAA/p (SOTA), mostly on 20m (SSB, FT8). He stays on Falkland until November. QSL via M0OXO OQRS.

Other Island News

AS-051; 9M0, SPRATLY ISLANDS:
The DX0NE team will consist of Mike DU1XX (AE6DG), Jong DU3JA, Ed 4F1OZ, and Gil 4F2KWT. Their license
is valid from Aug. 1 until the end of 2022 and they plan to operate on 160-6m (CW, SSB, FT8). For more information see: www.mdxc.support/dx0ne QSL via 4F2KWT or IZ8CCW, LoTW, ClubLog OQRS.

Deutscher Amateur Radio Club
e-mail: iota@dxhf.darc.de

RSGB IOTA website

Check-out the latest IOTA News bulletin from OPDX

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Two new bands for Canadian amateurs

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

RAC reports On July 28, 2022, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) released an update to a very important document for Canadian Radio Amateurs: 'RBR-4 – Standards for the Operation of Radio Stations in the Amateur Radio Service'.

The document specifies what frequencies we may operate on and with what bandwidths.

There are two major new additions to our spectrum:

• 472 to 479 kHz, also known as 630 metres: on this new band, we are allowed to run a maximum of five watts EIRP, using emissions with a maximum bandwidth of 1 kHz.
• 5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz in the 60 metre band: this is a new worldwide allocation. Canadian Amateurs are allowed to run a maximum of 100 watts ERP, using emissions with a maximum bandwidth of 2.8 kHz.

The new 60 metre band is in addition to our existing fixed-frequency allocations at 5332, 5348, 5373 and 5405 kHz. The new 15 kHz-wide allocation overlaps our existing authority to use 5358.5 kHz. Canadian Amateurs are unique in having authority to use 100 watts ERP on the four spot frequencies and on the new 15 kHz worldwide segment. Amateurs in most countries are limited to 25 watts or less and may operate only in the new 15 kHz-wide segment.

Please note that Amateur Radio is a Secondary radio service on these bands. Amateurs may not cause harmful interference to Primary users and we may not claim protection from interference by Primary users.

There are other small changes in RBR-4 that bring Canadian Amateur Radio regulations in line with changes agreed at several previous World Radio Conferences (WRCs) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Radio Amateurs of Canada would like to thank former Regulatory Officer Richard Ferch, VE3KI, for his dedicated work over several years to bring these changes forward.

You can find RBR-4 here:
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf10650.html

Dave Goodwin, VE3KG
Regulatory Affairs Officer
Radio Amateurs of Canada

Source RAC
https://www.rac.ca/
https://twitter.com/RACTWEETS

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New Zealand: WLAN use in the 6 GHz Band

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

New Zealand has now made 5925–6425 MHz available for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) following similar action in the UK and Australia

RSM has now made the 5925–6425 MHz frequency band available for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) services under the Low Power Indoor (LPI) use and the Very Low Power (VLP) Indoor and Outdoor regimes through the Radiocommunications Regulations (General User Radio License for Short Range Devices) Notice 2022. By adopting comparable conditions, this aligns with the approaches adopted in Australia and United Kingdom.

This decision follows our June 2021 consultation, where we invited interested parties to make submissions to our consultation paper WLAN Use in the 6 GHz Band on the future use of the 5925 – 7125 MHz frequency band.

In addition, we have made corrections to the conditions applying to the 5150 -5350 MHz band and have also extended the 57 – 66 GHz band to 57 – 71 GHz. This is to bring our provisions into line with other regions including Australia, Europe, and North America.

Read more about WLAN use in the 6 GHz Band
https://www.rsm.govt.nz/projects-and-auctions/completed-projects/wlan-use-in-the-6-ghz-band

Read the Radiocommunications Regulations (General User Radio License for Short Range Devices) Notice 2022
https://www.rsm.govt.nz/licensing/frequencies-for-anyone/short-range-devices-gurl/

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NASA Administrator statement on Chinese space debris

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson released this statement regarding debris from the Chinese Long March 5B rocket:

“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth.

“All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property. Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth.” 

For more information on NASA and agency activities, visit: https://www.nasa.gov

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Isle of Man

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

The Point of Ayre Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse, sited at the Point of Ayre at the northeastern end of the Isle of Man.

Dale (EI7HDB) along with members from the Isle of Man Amateur Radio Society will be activating the lighthouse IM0001 for the weekend of 20th and 21st of August for the Lighthouse and Lifeboat weekend. The club call GT3FL will be used for the event and they hope to be active for the full 48 hours. The station will be live from 80M to 70CM operating CW, SSB and digital modes, so please listen out for them.

Dale (EI7HDB) will arrive on the Isle of Man on the 14th of August to set up the station at the Point of Ayre lighthouse. He will be active on most bands as MD/EI7HDB between the 14th and 19th of August operating holiday style, so listen out for him especially if you are looking to get the Isle of Man in your log. The group posts up-to-date information on www.facebook.com/groups/iomars

IRTS

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If you would like to read more news from previous months

then click on More News

This page will be regularly updated to reflect Club News and Activities and both UK and World News Items deemed to be of interest to members.  If you have an announcement which you think would interest Club members and would like it mentioned here, please send details to:-  webmaster@wadarc.com