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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2414 for Friday February 2nd, 2024
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2414 with a release date of Friday
February 2nd, 2024 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Arrests are made following the destruction of a
radio tower. An island Dxpedition becomes a memorial and a tribute -- and in
New York City, one school serves as a model for ham radio education. All
this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2414 comes your way
right now.
**
BILLBOARD CART
**
TWO ARRESTED AFTER THEFT OF COPPER FROM DESTROYED RADIO TOWER
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our top story takes us to Oklahoma, where arrests have been
made following the destruction of a broadcast radio tower. We have that
report from Kent Peterson KCØDGY.
KENT: Two people have been arrested in Texas in connection with the recent
theft of copper from a radio tower in Hugo, Oklahoma last month. The Choctaw
County Sheriff said that the two were identified by scrap yard employees in
Paris, Texas, where one day after the January 15th incident, they tried to
sell copper wiring from the coax line. Authorities said that Payne Media
Group, the broadcast station's owner, was contacted and confirmed that the
copper had come from the tower for KITX, a 50,000-watt station serving
southeast Oklahoma and northeast Texas. Paris, Texas, is one of the
communities in the station's coverage area.
The station has been live streaming and operating with limited broadcast
range following the destruction of the tower. Its guy wires had been cut and
its backup generator also was destroyed.
As Newsline went to production, charges were still pending.
This is Kent Peterson KCØDGY.
(RADIO WORLD, RADIO INK)
**
WINTER FIELD DAY FOCUSES ON PREPAREDNESS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: For organizers and operators here in the United States and
Canada, Winter Field Day is over. Teams will continue to send in their logs
through the 1st of March, but Mike W4OPS told Newsline that 1,293 registered
locations participated in the event on the 27th and 28th of January. Six
hundred sixty seven of those were clubs. Early results show that 54
countries appear in the log and several countries were hosting their own
Winter Field Day operations. Mike told Newsline in an email: [quote] "We are
very happy with the growth of the event." [endquote] Planning has begun for
next year, when Winter Field Day will be held on the 25th and 26th of
January.
Meanwhile, the Indian media carried a report that amateurs in that nation
also conducted an emergency-preparedness exercise known as the ARSI National
Field Day Contest. Hams from the Mangaluru Amateur Radio Club, Manipal Ham
Club, VU2MHC, the NITK System for Emergency Assistance, Response and
Communications Hub, and the NITK club station VU2REC took part in the
Amateur Radio Society of India's National Field Day on the 27th and 28th.
(MIKE, W4OPS, THE DAIJI WORLD)
**
ORGANIZERS LAUNCH STATE QSO CLUB CHALLENGE
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If working state QSO parties during the year is among your
weekend amateur radio pursuits, there’s a new challenge you might want to
tackle. It involves bringing your fellow hams along for the ride. Amateur
Radio Newsline’s Mark Abram-o-vich NT3V has the story.
MARK: The people behind the State QSO Party group have thrown down the
gauntlet to QPers - as they’re being called - across the US and Canada to
gather your friends together to compete in the State QSO Club Challenge.
Dave Edmonds, WN4AFP, director of the group formed in 2020, tells Newsline
the goal is to generate more activity in the 47 QSO parties held during the
year.
The invitation is open to all – meaning you don’t have to be an entrant in a
particular contest: Just get on the radio and make contacts by scanning the
bands and work any State QSO Party station.
Edmonds says a major sponsor supporting plaques and certificates wants you
to work the QSO Party in your home state as well as those in a couple of
other states. He told Newsline that the State QSO Club Challenge – which was
launched in early January -- would like to recognize not just individuals,
but radio clubs for getting members on the air to have some fun chasing
home, mobile, rover and portable stations. Some of them operate from rare
counties.
As you and your fellow club members are making contacts, he says, there’s a
component for competition between individual club members as well, All-
county hunters have a chance to pick up a bunch of new counties in pretty
quick order. Of course, if you’re still chasing the Worked All States Award,
this is an opportunity to fill in the gaps on some of those hard-to-find
states.
Edmonds says the club challenge runs from February 3rd until November 30th.
You’ll find more at the link posted in the text version of this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org
[DO NOT READ: https://stateqsoparty.com ]
I’m Mark Abramowicz NT3V.
**
FOR DXPEDITIONERS, A MEMORIAL TO A FRIEND
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A group of friends is about to begin a DXpedition that will
fulfill the dream of one of its organizers who was a noted ham in Chile. The
trip will also serve as a memorial to him. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF brings us that
story.
JIM M: The sudden and unexpected death of DXpedition leader Marco, CE1EW,
late last year seemed to leave the fate of the Robinson Crusoe Island
DXpedition in the balance. Marco had been organising this trip and
coordinating the logistics with an eye toward activating. In his honour,
seven members of the team are making sure that the project goes forward. A
report from Guillermo, XQ 3 SA, the team's logistics leader, says that the
equipment is being shipped to the island in the Juan Fernandez National Park
in time to get on the air on February 10th. The activation of the callsign
CB 0 ZA will continue through to the 24th and will be a memorial DXpedition.
The team announced on the 17th of January that the DXpedition will also
include an off-island team of more than 30 remote operators from around the
world, who will be making use of a Radio in a Box on FT8 and CW. This
operation will have the callsign CB Ø ZEW. The NexGen RiB will be taken by
Hal, W8HC, from West Virginia to the island. Operators will access it
remotely via Starlink satellite internet.
The DXpedition's page on QRZ.co recalls Marco as [quote] "an avid DXer, park
activator, family man - but most of all a terrific person." [endquote]
The team writes that their goal is to have his contributions remembered as
[quote] "the cornerstone of this, Marco's 'last' DXpedition project."
[endquote]
This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.
(WIA, DX WORLD)
**
AMSAT MAKES PLEA TO KEEP GREENCUBE IN SERVICE
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A busy satellite digipeater is scheduled to end its service
- but AMSAT hopes the satellite operators will have a change in plans. Andy
Morrison K9AWM has that story.
ANDY: AMSAT has made a plea to Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance
Laboratory to postpone its scheduled shutdown of the digipeater aboard the
amateur satellite known as GreenCube, or IO-117. The satellite was scheduled
to be decommissioned on the 5th of February.
Radio operators around the world have been making use of its digipeater for
QSOs for more than a year, including those for the high-profile TX5S
DXpedition on Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean. AMSAT said this marks
the first activation in three decades of Clipperton Island via amateur
satellite.
In a January 25th letter requesting the decommissioning's postponement,
AMSAT's president Robert Bankston, KE4AL, reminded S5Lab's Green Cube team
that amateur satellites such as AMSAT-OSCAR 7 often enjoy extended
lifetimes. The still-active OSCAR 7 was launched in 1974. AMSAT committed
itself to involvement in helping manage GreenCube in cooperation with AMSAT
Italia, S5Lab and other AMSAT organisations.
He said in his letter that GreenCube, amateur radio’s first medium-earth
orbit satellite, has [quote] "opened worldwide long-distance contacts via
amateur radio satellite that had not been possible since the loss of AMSAT-
OSCAR 40 in 2004." [endquote]
This is Andy Morrison K9AWM.
(AMSAT NEWS SERVICE)
**
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the K4EX
repeater in Dade City Florida on Tuesdays after the 7 p.m. net.
**
DO YOU HAIKU?
Does your amateur radio experience ever inspire a bit of poetry? Amateur
Radio Newsline challenges you to immortalize that incredible QSO or
fantastic antenna by participating in our weekly haiku challenge. Use the
entry form on our website, arnewsline.org and please follow the rules for
writing your three-line haiku -- we cannot accept any entries that aren't
written in traditional haiku form. Visit our website and check out our
previous winners!
**
"HAM RADIO AND MORE" JOINS DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTION
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you remember the show, "Ham Radio and More," that was
popular on commercial talk radio in the 1990s, you'll be happy to know it's
back - well, sort of. The Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications
has gained more than 300 episodes of the program for its growing collection.
The show's devotion to amateur radio eventually took it from its home studio
in Arizona and landed it in national syndication, as guests discussed the
issues of the day. If you don't remember the show but think you might become
a fan now, check it out by following the link that appears in the text
version of this week's script at arnewsline.org
[DO NOT READ: https://archive.org/details/hamradioandmore ]
(AMATEUR RADIO DAILY, DLARC)
**
FCC ADDING STAFF, VEHICLES FOR HUNTING PIRATES
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The FCC is investing in more resources to fight pirate radio
in the US. Jim Damron N8TMW has those details.
JIM: The FCC is stepping up its pirate radio enforcement with four new hires
and the purchase of six vehicles with mobile direction-finding equipment.
The FCC outlined the move in the annual report its Enforcement Bureau makes
to the United States Congress. The vehicles are to be equipped in 2024 and
2025 and additional hires will be made beyond the initial four.
The FCC has been intensifying these enforcement efforts since 2020, the
first year of a new law known as Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse through
Enforcemnt, known by the acronym PIRATE. The act set higher caps for fines,
hiking them to 019,000 per day and .4 million total. It is not known,
however, whether any of the fines imposed under the four-year-old act have
yet been collected. The FCC is not authorized to collect the fines, which
must be done by the US Department of Justice by going to court.
This is Jim Damron N8TMW.
(RADIOWORLD)
**
NEW SOTA GROUP IS GROWING FOR WEST MALAYSIAN HAMS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: SOTA is reaching new heights in Western Malaysia and Jim
Meachen ZL2BHF tells us how hams there are staying on top of things.
JIM M: Barely a month old, the West Malaysia SOTA Association is growing its
membership and encouraging hams to join if they are interested in chasing or
activating mountain summits as a portable operation. The association's
manager, Piju, 9M2PJU, provides hams in Malaysia with an introduction to the
history and importance of the worldwide award scheme, which began in 2002 in
the UK. It now covers more than 150,000 summits around the globe. Piju is
the Malaysian coordinator for communication with other SOTA organizations
and his role is to ensure Malaysian SOTA ops follow all relevant regulations
and standards. Piju said that the West Malaysia region has 373 summits.
He is encouraging interested hams in Malaysia to register and create a free
account on the SOTA websites which provide lists of valid summits, their
locations, elevation, and point values. The West Malaysia SOTA Association
launched on the 1st of January and does not include the two Malaysian states
that belong to the East Malaysia SOTA Association.
Bonuses will be given to hams who activate during the monsoon season or
during other harsh-weather conditions.
This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.
(BLOG POST OF PIJU, 9M2PJU)
**
STATEN ISLAND SCHOOL SERVES AS MODEL FOR HAM RADIO EDUCATION
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The spring semester is getting under way at Staten Island
Technical High School in New York City where in one class becoming a
licensed ham is part of the curriculum. We have those details from Neil Rapp
WB9VPG.
NEIL: Thirty-two newly licensed hams are learning in one NYC high school
that being a radio amateur is not just a textbook exercise. In the
engineering classroom of Everton Henriques, KD2ZZT, they will be making use
of HTs, repeaters, building directional antennas for fox hunts and perhaps
making a contact via the International Space Station's repeater. This school
is the first in New York City that is being built into a model school,
according to Steve Goodgame, K5ATA. Steve, the ARRL's education and learning
manager, said this is also the first NYC school to receive an ARRL grant for
the STEM Kits being used in the classroom, funded by Amateur Radio Digital
Communications. Everton prepared for bringing radio operations into the
classroom by attending the ARRL's Teachers' Institute on Wireless Technology
held last fall at its headquarters.
He told Newsline that for these juniors and seniors, passing the amateur
radio license exam was a course requirement. It is his vision to show the
kids what a difference a knowledge of radio and electronics can make in
their lives. It opens up scholarship opportunities and later, careers.
For now, the homework assignment for everyone is to get on the air and show
the rest of NYC's schools how it's done.
This is Neil Rapp WB9VPG.
(STEVE GOODGAME, K5ATA; EVERTON HENRIQUES, KD2ZZT)
**
WORLD OF DX
In the World of DX, a team of 15 operators from various regions of India
will be activating Nachugunta Island, IOTA Number AS-199, with the callsign
AU2RS between the 23rd and 25th of February. The operators will be using CW,
SSB, and FT8 on 160-6 metres and via satellite QO-100 with five stations.
The operators hope to be the first to activate the island on a digital mode
and via QO-100. See QRZ for details. QSL via MØOXO.
Listen for BJ, WA7WJR, operating as DU3/WA7WJR while operating holiday style
from the Philippines. He will be on the air from the 4th to the 9th of
February, operating CW, SSB and some digital modes on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10
metres. His trip will include the Governor Macario Arnedo Park, POTA number
DU-0082, and the Mount Arayat National Park, POTA number DU-0002. See
QRZ.com for QSL details.
**
KICKER: MARITIME MORSE CODE PROVES SEAWORTHY, EVEN ON LAND
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Although the commercial use of Morse Code in the US can only
be found in history books these days, radio listeners around the world
enjoyed a tribute recently to that long-gone practice. Ralph Squillace
KK6ITB gives us the details.
RALPH: There was no international intrigue - just some entertainment and a
challenge - as radio listeners copied a series of Morse Code messages that
employed methods once used by Cold War-era stations. Numbers in clusters of
five were sent over commercial HF frequencies using RTTY and CW on the 20th
of January from historic maritime California station KPH. This was the third
such cryptography event by members of the Maritime Radio Historical Society,
which was created in 1999 to preserve the tradition of maritime Morse Code.
The society estimates that about 150 people participated from around the
world. The station is located at Point Reyes National Seashore and it is a
National Park Service Historical Site.
Of course the society doesn't have to wait for one of its events to send
Morse Code. Volunteers get on the air on the society's amateur station K6KPH
where they send CW the old-fashioned way - by hand.
This is Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.
(RADIO WORLD, MARITIME RADIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
**
NEWSCAST CLOSE:
With thanks to the Amateur Radio Daily; AMSAT News Service; ARRL; CQ
Magazine; David Behar K7DB; Digital Library of Amateur Radio and
Communications; DXWorld; Everton Enriques, KD2ZZT; FCC; Maritime Radio
Historical Society; Piju, 9M2PJU; QRZ.com; Radio Ink; Radio World;
shortwaveradio.de; Steve Goodgame, K5ATA; SOTA Reflector; Winter Field Day
Association; Wireless Institute of Australia; Worldwide DX; YouTube; and you
our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. We remind our
listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit
organization that incurs expenses for its continued operation. If you wish
to support us, please visit our website at arnewsline.org and know that we
appreciate you all. We also remind our listeners that if you like our
newscast, please leave us a 5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us. For
now, with Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and our news
team worldwide, I'm Stephen Kinford N8WB in Wadsworth Ohio saying 73. As
always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright
2024. All rights reserved.
73 de Bill, PY2BIL
PY2BIL@PY2BIL.SP.BRA.SOAM
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
BBS: PY2BIL - Timed 02-fev-2024 08:14 E. South America Standard Time
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