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N9PMO > LETTER 04.06.15 21:03l 505 Lines 21612 Bytes #999 (0) @ ARRL
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Sent: 150604/1950Z 15752@N9PMO.#SEWI.WI.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.63
Texas, Oklahoma Ham Volunteers Stand Down Following Spate of Severe
Weather
WX4NHC Reports It's Ready for Hurricane Season
Radio Call Saves SOTA Climber Following Fall
It's Alive! LightSail Spacecraft Restored After Being Silenced by
Software Issue
Delayed Return of Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, Set for
June 11
British Astronaut to Share His ISS Experience with Students via
Amateur Radio
Sarah Brightman Spaceflight Postponed
Nayif-1 CubeSat to Have FUNcube Transponder
Another Australian Balloon with a Ham Radio Payload Circumnavigates
Earth
In Brief...
The K7RA Solar Update
Just Ahead in Radiosport
Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions and Events
Texas, Oklahoma Ham Volunteers Stand Down Following Spate of Severe
Weather
Severe storms and flooding in Texas and Oklahoma that extended beyond
the Memorial Day holiday weekend kept ARES and SKYWARN volunteers busy
or on alert through the rest of May, which now is being crowned as the
wettest month on record in both states. Texas received more than 8.8
inches of rainfall during May, while Oklahoma got a whopping 14.4
inches. Wichita Falls, Texas, saw 17 inches of rain
Flooding on the North Canadian River below the Lake Overholser Dam in
Oklahoma City. [Chase Rhoades video]
during May, while Oklahoma City got nearly 19.5 inches. The resulting
flooding and property damage -- with some severe wind incidents thrown
in -- caused numerous ARES callouts and SKYWARN net activations.
In Oklahoma, Section Emergency Coordinator Mark Conklin, N7XYO, said
Amateur Radio volunteers provided communication for several American
Red Cross damage assessment teams in the wake of flooding in Comanche
County and elsewhere. "ARES-OK volunteers in action this month have
provided 436 hours of service," Conklin reported on May 31. "Teams
were deployed to the Bridge Creek community and Comanche and Leflore
counties. In addition, Conklin added, nearly every storm complex that
rolled through Oklahoma spawned numerous SKYWARN nets with volunteers
providing "many hours of service."
ARES teams in his state stood down on June 2.
Flooding at Barton Springs Pool in Austin, Texas. [Chris Ivester
video]
South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Frank Aguilar, N5SSH, said
all districts in his Section had stood down by June 1. "Weather events
are over, and the forecast does not show rain for the next week or
two, which means search and rescue and clean-up will be the main
focus," he said. A summary of activity showed that ARES volunteers
assisted in local emergency operations centers and the Red Cross. In
addition, he noted, SKYWARN nets were called up in vulnerable
counties, and other ARES teams remained on standby in case they were
needed.
ARRL South Texas Section Manager Lee Cooper, W5LHC, called the spate
of heavy rainfall, tornadoes, and flooding over some two-thirds of his
state "pretty much unprecedented" for the region. "The main event is
over," Cooper said this week. "We are looking at a approximately
10-day period of dry sunny weather in South Texas and do not
anticipate any additional activations."
This spring's torrential rains stood in stark contrast to the severe
drought the region had experienced over the past few years. May's
heavy rains have been linked to a burgeoning El Niño in the Pacific.
While fair weather returned to the region this week, forecasters fear
the now rain-saturated ground could make things worse during the
hurricane season, which began on June 1.
WX4NHC Reports It's Ready for Hurricane Season
WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center
(NHC) in Miami, reports that it has stood the test and is ready for
the 2015 Hurricane Season, which began on June 1 and will continue
through November. WX4NHC conducted its Annual Station Test on May 30,
at the end of Hurricane Preparedness Week. This marked the 35th year
of volunteer public service by the WX4NHC Group at the NHC. WX4NHC
Amateur Radio Asst. Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R, said the station
was tested on many frequencies and modes, including digital modes, and
that all radio equipment and antennas performed well.
"The WX4NHC test event is also good practice for Amateur Radio
operators worldwide, but especially in hurricane prone areas, to test
their station's ability to contact WX4NHC, should they need to during
a hurricane," Ripoll said. "It was also a good opportunity for NWS
Office staff to become aware of the unique capabilities of Amateur
Radio during severe weather and disaster communications, when
conventional communication modes fail."
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has forecast that the 2015 Atlantic
hurricane season will likely be below normal, but, it added, "that's
no reason to believe coastal areas will have it easy."
For the 2015 hurricane season, NOAA has predicted a 70 percent
likelihood of anywhere from six to 11 named storms (winds of 39 MPH or
higher), of which three to six could become hurricanes (winds of 74
MPH or higher). That forecast included up to two "major hurricanes"
(Category 3, 4, or 5) with winds of 111 MPH or greater.
"A below-normal season doesn't mean we're off the hook," NOAA
Administrator Kathryn Sullivan said. "As we've seen before,
below-normal seasons can still produce catastrophic impacts to
communities."
Ripoll said WX4NHC logged contacts during the test with some emergency
communication notables. These included FEMA Administrator Craig
Fugate, KK4INZ, on EchoLink and on the Florida UHF SARnet, plus a 20
meter contact with FEMA Chief Technical Officer Ted Okada, K4HNL.
WX4NHC also worked ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey,
KI1U, and Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV.
"Mike, Bobby, Craig, and Ted all understand very well how Amateur
Radio can help their communities during and after severe weather and
other natural disasters," Ripoll said. "We expressed our thanks to all
of them for their strong support of the Amateur Radio volunteers and
WX4NHC." Ripoll also expressed appreciation to SKYWARN volunteers.
"You may never know, but your efforts may someday save someone's
life," he added.
WX4NHC during the 2015 Station Test: (L-R) Julio Ripoll, WD4R; Lloyd
Kurtzman, N4LJK; Jan Lederman, K9JCL, and John McHugh, K4AG.
During the 8-hour test, contacts were made and surface reports
received from many stations throughout the US and Canada, as well as
in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, Ripoll said. He
noted that more than 40 D-STAR/D-RATS surface weather reports were
received at WX4NHC. John Davis, WB4QDX, coordinated the D-Star/D-RATS
net and reporting, Ripoll said.
"We are excited of the potential that D-STAR/D-RATS modes can produce
hurricane surface reports in a similar format that is used at WX4NHC,"
he said. "These reports may someday fill a very important gap in
surface data during a hurricane that we could not receive on other
modes."
WX4NHC also took part in the Florida State Hurricane Exercise on the
UHF SARnet, making contacts throughout Florida and with stations in
emergency operations centers. SARnet currently has 25 UHF repeaters
connected statewide, including one on the NHC campus.
Radio Call Saves SOTA Climber Following Fall
A Littleton, Colorado, radio amateur and mountaineer was happy to have
his handheld transceiver along on May 17 after he slipped and fell
from an icy ledge in Berthoud Pass while snowshoeing. Summits On The
Air (SOTA) enthusiast Brad Byland, WA6MM, said he's been climbing and
mountaineering for many years now and never before came this close to
what he called "a possible life-ending disaster."
"I'm doing fine," Byland told ARRL. "I didn't get hurt...only bad wind
and sunburn on my face! My daughter says my geeky hobby -- ham radio
-- saved me from my dangerous hobby -- climbing and mountaineering!"
Byland said that while this was his first climb in the Berthoud Pass
area, he was never "lost," as some media accounts reported. He had
prepared to climb Mount Flora -- which would have been his 29th SOTA
peak -- by studying maps and others' trip reports, plus he had his
iPhone with GPS, a compass, and his radio along.
"[T]hings went smoothly until about telemetry
back to Earth on the 70 centimeter Amateur Radio band. The
communication issue now out of the way, the LightSail team will soon
determine when to attempt deployment of the spacecraft's Mylar® solar
sails.
"Our LightSail called home! It's alive!" The Planetary Society's CEO
Bill Nye (The Science Guy) said in a statement on the organization's
website. "Our LightSail spacecraft has rebooted itself, just as our
engineers predicted. Everyone is delighted. We were ready for three
more weeks of anxiety."
According to Nye's statement, the LightSail team has coded a software
patch and has it ready to upload. "After we are confident in the data
packets regarding our orbit, we will make decisions about uploading
the patch and deploying our sails -- and we'll make those decisions
very soon," Nye said. "This has been a rollercoaster for us down here
on Earth, all the while our capable little spacecraft has been on
orbit going about its business."
In a lengthy May 26 blog post, the Planetary Society's Jason Davis
said the LightSail mission had "paused, while engineers wait out a
suspected software glitch that has silenced the solar sailing
Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye. [BD Engler photo]
spacecraft." Following its successful May 20 launch, LightSail sent
about 140 data packets back to Earth, Davis said. Over the Memorial
Day weekend, however, the spacecraft's automated telemetry went
silent.
Telemetry data are sent on 437.435 MHz (AX.25, 9600 bps FSK). Davis
said a lot of radio amateurs have been helping to track LightSail and
sent in data packets.
According to Davis, the LightSail team believes that "a vulnerability"
that controls the primary avionics board was the problem. As he
explained, the CubeSat's onboard Linux-based flight software writes
beacon packets to a spreadsheet file -- beacon.csv -- which, when it
reaches a certain size, can cause the flight system to crash. A patch
was devised to address the problem in later software revisions, but
LightSail's software did not include the update, and before the fix
could be uploaded, the satellite went silent.
Delayed Return of Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, Set for
June 11
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, now on an International
Space Station duty tour that was extended by about a month, will
return to Earth on June 11. Cristoforetti has conducted several
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school
contacts during her ISS stay. In early May, NASA and its international
partners postponed the return of Cristoforetti, astronaut Terry Virts,
and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, following the failure in late April of
the Russian robotic Progress 59 cargo spacecraft to reach the ISS. The
Progress went out of control, even station in March as part
of the Expedition 43/44 crew increment. Kelly and Kornienko will
remain on the ISS for 1 year. Padalka also will return to Earth in
December.
The next Russian cargo craft, Progress 60, will launch in early July
to deliver several tons of food, fuel, and supplies. The space station
has sufficient supplies to support crews until the fall.
A private SpaceX robotic Dragon capsule is still slated to blast off
on its next resupply mission on June 19, but the timing of that flight
is now under review, NASA officials said.
British Astronaut to Share His ISS Experience with Students via
Amateur Radio
The UK's first European Space Agency astronaut, Tim Peake, KG5BVI,
plans to share his "Principia" mission space adventure with students
on Earth via Amateur Radio. He's invited youngsters in his country to
contact him while he's onboard the International Space Station (ISS)
later this year. Peake is scheduled to head to the ISS in November for
a 6-month duty tour. Nearly a year in development, the
Astronaut Tim Peake, KG5BVI, will use Amateur Radio to share his
"Principia" space mission with youngsters on Earth.
program represents a collaboration of the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) program, the UK Space Agency
(UKSA), the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), the European Space
Education Research Office in the UK (ESERO-UK), and the European Space
Agency (ESA) to raise awareness in Space, Amateur Radio, and STEM
subjects.
"I hope to share as much of my mission as possible and am delighted
that I will be able to talk to UK students when the ISS flies over
Britain, thanks to the Amateur Radio equipment on board the
International Space Station and the ARISS program," Peake said.
The RSGB lead for ARISS and ARISS operations in the UK, Ciaran Morgan,
M0XTD, said, "ARISS...is delighted to help UK students connect with
Tim whilst he is in space, using only Amateur Radio equipment on the
ISS and in schools, to help inspire our future generations of
scientists, technicians, engineers, and mathematicians."
Schools throughout the UK have been solicited to host one of the
limited number of contacts. The events will include space workshops,
where students can explore space and space-related technologies, and
analyze data from satellites in orbit.
Students taking part in the contact events would have to obtain a full
UK Amateur Radio license in order to operate the radio gear, and one
lucky student at each of the schools selected will be responsible for
making contact with the ISS. An RSGB team and the ARISS UK operations
team will work with the chosen schools to prepare them for this
exceptional opportunity during the mission of the first British ESA
astronaut.
During his training, Astronaut Tim Peake, KG5BVI, gets familiar with
the Ericcson hand-held transceiver he'll use on board the ISS.
Selected schools/organizations will host a direct ham radio link-up
with the ISS during a 2-day, space-related STEM workshop. ARISS-UK
will provide and set up all necessary radio equipment, including
low-Earth orbit satellite tracking antennas and radios, to establish a
direct radio link with the space station while the ISS is over the UK
so that students can ask Peake about his life and work on board the
ISS. The program also plans to promote many aspects of Amateur Radio,
including the Amateur-Satellite service, obtaining data from orbiting
spacecraft (FUNcube and the Fox satellites), the latest equipment on
the ISS, and, if operational, the "Ham Video" digital amateur
television (DATV) system.
Peake will use the GB1SS call sign when in contact with UK-based
schools. The British Amateur Television Club will stream the contacts
live on the web. Read more. -- Thanks to AMSAT News Service via the
RSGB and AMSAT-UK
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Sarah Brightman Spaceflight Postponed
Singer Sarah Brightman has announced that she is postponing plans to
go into space as a paying guest aboard the International Space
Station. She was set to launch on the September Soyuz TMA-18M mission
with Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, KG5GCZ, and Russian cosmonaut
Sergei Volkov, RU3DIS.
There had been some speculation that Brightman might use Amateur Radio
during her ISS stay; she apparently would be eligible to do so using
the GB1SS call sign.
Sarah Brightman undergoes medical testing in preparation for her
now-delayed visit to the ISS.
The British soprano is reported to have paid $52 million to be a
"spaceflight participant" for 10 days. Brightman said she was putting
her spaceflight on hold for personal and family reasons, and she has
postponed her cosmonaut training and flight plans.
"Since 2012, Sarah has shared her story of a lifelong dream to fly to
space," said Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space
Adventures Ltd, which arranged the flight. "We've seen firsthand her
dedication to every aspect of her spaceflight training and to date
[she] has passed all of her training and medical tests. We applaud her
determination and we'll continue to support her as she pursues a
future spaceflight opportunity."
Nayif-1 CubeSat to Have FUNcube Transponder
AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL have announced that a FUNcube communication
package has been selected as a major payload for the Nayif-1 CubeSat
mission. FUNcube-1 (AO-73) carries an inverting U/V SSB/CW
transponder. The Nayif-1 mission, tentatively set to launch toward the
end of 2015, is intended to provide students in the United Arab
Emirates with a tool to design and test systems in space.
The CubeSat is being developed by the Emirates Institution for
Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) in partnership with American
University of Sharjah (AUS). It is expected that this payload will
provide a large amount of valuable environmental data from space
together with a new, enhanced, UHF to VHF linear transponder. The
AMSAT team will work closely with the Emirati students in
collaboration with support partner Innovative Solutions In Space BV
from the Netherlands to develop the new system.
AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL announced the news on April 25, during the Dutch
"Interessedag Amateursatellieten" (Amateur Satellite Interest Day)
event in Apeldoorn. More details, including frequencies and planned
operating schedules, will be made available as soon as possible. --
Thanks to AMSAT News Service via AMSAT-UK
Another Australian Balloon with a Ham Radio Payload Circumnavigates
Earth
The circumnavigation of another party-type foil balloon from Australia
has demonstrated that having one circle the Southern Hemisphere is no
fluke. Andy Nguyen, VK3YT, launched his PS-46 balloon, which carried
an Amateur Radio payload, on May 25. The balloon completed the trip on
June 4. Nguyen's earlier PS-41 balloon was the first such balloon to
circle Earth.
"This time it was in the right position -- before arriving in Western
Australia -- for the jet stream to push it over land," Nguyen said.
The helium balloons in this series carried a solar-powered 25 mW
transmitter which sent WSPR, JT9, and sometimes Olivia signals on 30
and 20 meters, enabling their tracking and the gathering of reports on
altitude, speed, direction, and battery condition. The PS-46 balloon
completed its journey around the globe in slightly more than 12 days.
- Thanks to Jim Linton, VK3PC
Ad
In Brief...
HEX-BEAM® Manufacturer Traffie Technologies Shutting Down Traffie
Technologies, the Massachusetts-based family business that has
pioneered and manufactured the HEX-BEAM line of rotatable wire beams,
is closing its doors. "This is to inform everyone that we are sunspot number at 11 on both days. This was on the ascendant side
of Cycle 24.
In Friday's bulletin, look for reports from readers, an updated
forecast, and an update on our 3-month moving average of sunspot
numbers. Send me your reports and observations.
Just Ahead in Radiosport
June 5 -- NCCC RTTY Sprint
June 5 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder (CW)
June 6 -- Wake-Up! QRP Sprint (CW)
June 6-7 -- 10-10 Int'l Open Season PSK Contest
June 6-7 -- DigiFest
June 6-7 -- VK Shires Contest (CW, SSB)
June 6-7 -- SEANET Contest (CW)
June 6-7 -- UKSMG Summer Contest
June 6-7 -- RSGB National Field Day (CW)
June 6-7 -- IARU Region 1 Field Day (CW)
June 6-7 -- Alabama QSO Party
June 10 -- NAQCC CW Sprint (CW)
June 10 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test (CW)
June 10 -- RSGB 80 Meter Club Championship (CW)
June 13-15 -- ARRL June VHF Contest
See the ARRL Contest Calendar for more information.
Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions and Events
June 5-7 -- Northwestern Division Convention (SeaPac), Seaside, Oregon
June 6 -- Georgia State Convention, Marietta, Georgia
June 12-13 -- West Gulf Division Convention (Ham-Com), Irving, Texas
June 13 -- Tennessee State Convention, Knoxville, Tennessee
July 4 -- Eastern Pennsylvania Section Convention, Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania
July 10-11 -- Northern Florida Section Convention, Milton, Florida
July 13-16 -- Mobile Amateur Radio Awards Club Convention, The
Villages, Florida
July 17-19 -- Montana State Convention, East Glacier, Montana
July 23-26 -- Central States VHF Society Conference, Westminster,
Colorado
July 24-25 -- Oklahoma Section Convention, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
July 31-August 2 -- Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Bryce Canyon,
Utah
August 1 -- Great Lakes Division Convention, Columbus, Ohio
August 7-8 -- South Texas Section Convention, Austin, Texas
August 7-9 -- New Mexico State Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 7-9 -- Pacific Northwest DX Convention, Everett, Washington
August 15-16 -- Alabama State Convention, Huntsville, Alabama
August 16 -- Kansas State Convention, Salina, Kansas
August 21-23 -- New England Division Convention, Boxborough,
Massachusetts
August 22 -- West Virginia State Convention, Weston, West Virginia
August 30 -- Western Pennsylvania Section Convention, New Kensington,
Pennsylvania
Find conventions and hamfests in your area.
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