Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2067 for Friday, June 9, 2017 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2067 with a release date of Friday, June 9, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Hams face the tough challenge of a deadly monsoon in Sri Lanka. Two federal agencies help amateurs put tower safety first -- and radio helps those of us on land track a ship's epic journey through Canada's Northwest Passage. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2067 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** HAMS BRAVE SRI LANKAN MONSOON STEPHEN/ANCHOR: This week's top story shows the courage that hams can have even in the face of the most extreme obstacles. It takes more than carrying an HT -- it takes a special kind of heart -- to fly into dangerous conditions following devastation of a storm. But that's what radio amateurs did in southwestern Sri Lanka, where dozens of people died in a monsoon, and hundreds more were left in need of critical assistance. We turn, for that story, to Amateur Radio Newsline's Jason Daniels VK2LAW. JASON: During a torrent of monsoon rains that battered southwestern Sri Lanka in late May, hams responded to some greater challenges -- namely, how to get in there and respond to the government's requests for help. The siege that left nearly 200 people dead amid landslides and flooding presented few options. With communications down and roads impassable, the Sri Lankan Air Force was called upon to help by providing air rescue support, which included the airlift during challenging weather conditions, of radio amateurs who could establish communications links. One of the hardest hit areas was remote Kalawana village which had been cut off from Ratnapura, the base of one of the government's main coordinating centers. The president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka, Jaliya Lokeshwara 4S7JL, was among the two teams of hams flying in on the MI-17 military helicopters. He worked with other hams, establishing an HF link on 40 and 75 meters within 30 minutes of landing. Another link was set up on 2 meters. This enabled communications support for patients' transport for medical care as well as other rescue flights and food drops. The radio society's website noted that it was the first time this kind of mission has been undertaken by the hams in Sri Lanka. Emergency radio communications stayed intact until mobile phone services were operational again and the roads were open. By May 30th, the hams were safely on their way home. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (RADIO SOCIETY OF SRI LANKA, IARU) ** SPACE STATION ASTRONAUT IS TEACHER'S HELPER STEPHEN/ANCHOR: How do you make magic happen in a classroom? That's easy - you get on ham radio and let kids talk to astronauts. Amateur Radio Newsline's Paul Braun WD9GCO tells us how it happened recently in one New York school. PAUL: Two of my favorite things growing up (and actually, still are well into adulthood) were ham radio and the Space Program. The men and women of the Astronaut Corps have always been heroes to me. Since the very first OSCAR was launched early 1960s, ham radio and space have been becoming more and more intertwined. There's also moonbounce, meteor scatter,and since the beginning of the Shuttle program, there have been hams flying into space and talking back to hams on Earth. In recent years, NASA has been very open to allowing school children access to the astronauts on the International Space Station through amateur radio. I recently spoke with Jennifer Medordi, W2WIN, who was involved in just such a project: JENNIFER: I'm a teacher at St. Joseph School in Ronkonkoma, New York and I've been a ham radio operator for a few years, but I grew up in a house that was ham-radio-centered. My father, WS2N is a ham radio enthusiast and a space enthusiast, so he told me about the ARISS organization which is dedicated to helping organizations such as my own contact the International Space Station so when I found out about that I was super excited! I submitted a proposal and we were one of twelve schools chosen this cycle. We spent the entire year doing space activities with the kids. We figured out pretty quickly that it was going to have to be embedded in the curriculum for these kids to get an idea of space and ham radio which is something they're not really exposed to on a daily basis. PAUL: Medordi said that they taught the kids about the history of the Space Program throughout the year, and then she and her husband Vincent, KC2WMR set up a portable station at the school and had a ham radio day. She said they also had help getting ready for QSO Day: JENNIFER: We had a mentor involved who helped us through the whole process leading up to this. His name was Dave Jordan, AA4KN, and on the phone with us - it was a telebridge - we had W6SRJ in California. They help schools reach the ISS if the school can't set up a direct contact. We didn't really have the ability to do that so we were happy to work with California with that. And then in England we had Ciaran Morgan, M0XTD. He helped us prepare the call so he was basically making sure everybody was ready, and there was myself on the call. We waited and finally they said they were ready to go. There were five CQs calling the NA1SS and finally, when Jack Fisher answered it was clear, it was beautiful, and I could just see the audience wanting to break out into applause they were so excited! PAUL: Medordi, the technical director at St. Joseph, made sure that as many people as possible could see the event: JENNIFER: I think we had about 300 people - we went to capacity in our gym. I telecasted it over UStream so we had a bunch of other schools watching at the same time and we also had people outside of our state - I think I counted 600 people watching live with us as we were inside of the gym. PAUL: The children got to ask 20 questions in their allotted time and, according to Medordi, we thrilled by the experience. A few of the older kids even expressed an interest in getting a license. If you'd like to read a transcript of the QSO, visit the school's website. The ARISS program is a wonderful opportunity for school children, one that I really wish I had when I was young. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** BACK ON EARTH, THE PRIDE OF FRANCE STEPHEN/ANCHOR: For the past six months, the International Space Station was home to France's 10th astronaut. Now that he's home again, two radio amateurs are celebrating the achievements of their fellow ham with a special event station. Here are the details from Amateur Radio Newsline's Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT. CARYN'S REPORT: French astronaut Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG has helped turn two French amateurs into Space Station enthusiasts. Thomas ended his six-month mission and returned to Earth on Friday June 2. Now he's orbiting earth via another means - a special event station set up by Adrien F4GVE and Nicolas F4HTN. The two hams are celebrating the achievement of the 39-year-old pilot, who has become became France's 10th astronaut in space. Every weekend through July 19th, the two are operating special event station TM1ISS in his honor. They're making contacts on single sideband, digital modes and a little CW. Adrien says the station was born out of pride in France but also in appreciation for Thomas for kindling the imagination of young people through his experiments, his school contacts and his talented use of videos and social media: ADRIEN: "This is kind of the new generation of astronaut...." to "........ARISS." CARYN: If propagation is cooperative, the French hams are also hoping to make lots of contacts during Field Day. So be listening on HF and VHF in SSB, CW, RTTY and BPSK. You can find the operating schedule for TM1ISS on QRZ.com. Now that this astronaut has his feet planted back on Earth, is it possible we'll hear Thomas Pesquet work the very station that commemorates his flight? Adrien shares his thoughts on that prospect. ADRIEN: That would be super......why not? Let's hope. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT. ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the W8SRC Southern Michigan Repeater Network on Fridays at 9 p.m. ** HAM RADIO, A SERVICE TO VETS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Not all the ham radio news out of Xenia has to do with last month's Hamvention. Another important meeting of amateurs has been quietly going on since last year, bringing results and hope to some military veterans who need both. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Mike Askins KE5CXP with that report. MIKE: While Xenia, Ohio made big ham radio news this year as the new home of Dayton Hamvention, other hams in that same community have been working a more quiet kind of amateur radio magic. The station is called W8DVA and it's based on the campus of the Dayton VA Medical Center where it was set up - just like Hamvention - with the help of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. It's not even a year old yet but already it has begun to fulfill its mission to help military veterans get over the trauma of combat. Xenia amateur Jim Simpson WB8QZZ, who assisted with the station's setup, told the Xenia Gazette newspaper that radio communication provides an extreme focus that helps redirect the veterans' minds toward something more positive. The veterans are in good company at the hospital. It seems that one of the physicians there is a ham too. The chief of radiology is Dr. John Mathis WA5FAC, an enthusiastic fellow amateur. He told the newspaper that many of the veterans respond positively to the sight of the vintage equipment in the shack. The tube radio, he said, was used in the military during the Vietnam War. Mathis said many of the veterans get on the air and talk to others across the U.S., or perhaps the world, who have had similar struggles of their own, whether in the military or not. In this radio shack, commiseration not only loves company but can be downright therapeutic. Jim said the VA's ham shack is also another means by which local amateurs can fulfill the community service obligation that comes with having an FCC license. Not all needs, requiring life-saving assistance from radio are visible to the eye, after all. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP (XENIA GAZETTE) ** A TOWERING NEED FOR SAFETY FIRST STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you've got tower work on your list of things to do at your home QTH, or are planning to climb and help out a friend or local club, you might want to have this guidebook in your shack. It was released jointly by the FCC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on June 1. This special report comes to us courtesy of Amateur News Weekly's Phil Thomas W8RMJ. PHIL'S REPORT: The FCC and OSHA have announced the release of a free publication, "Communications Towers, Best Practices Guide." The guide offers information applicable to the amateur radio community and to contractors working on amateur radio antenna support structures. The FCC said the guide was the result of two tower safety workshops regarding the risks that tower employees face. OSHA and the FCC held a workshop on communication tower safety on Oct. 14, 2014. During this workshop the families of communication tower employees who had been killed on the job gathered to discuss issues affecting the safety of communication tower workers. A second workshop was held on the best practices that could reduce injuries and fatalities among tower workers. The document is a collection of the best practices gathered from those workshops and from discussions that continued beyond those events. Among other points, the guide emphasizes that all tower workers need to have and use proper safety equipment at all times and that no work should be done if proper safety equipment is unavailable or if the safety equipment is not functioning properly. The guide also notes that drones are being used today for tower inspections. This technology has the potential to reduce unnecessary climbing and to avoid putting tower workers at risk. FCC chairman Ajit Pai said that communications tower workers today face potential hazards that can prove fatal if not performed safely. Every tower worker's death is preventable. STEPHEN/ANCHOR: That was Amateur News Weekly's Phil Thomas W8RMJ. For more news from the Cincinnati-Ohio-Kentucky area, visit amateurnewsweekly.com ** NOT JUST A CRUISE ALONG THE COAST STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Want to ride along on a ship that's making its way through Canada's Northwest Passage? Be listening on the air for the ship's onboard WSPR beacon - and give a listen, meanwhile, to this report from Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen ZL2BHF. JIM'S REPORT: What a journey it has been for Canada's C3 Vessel, which departed from Toronto, Ontario on June 1 for 150 days of travel to Victoria, British Columbia via the Northwest Passage. The ship bears the special mission of marking Canada's Sesquiceentennial - but it's also carrying an important passenger of sorts: CG3EXP, an Amateur Radio WSPR beacon that is part of an onboard science experiment. Radio Amateurs of Canada reports that the mission's organizers have worked with Barrie Crampton VE3BSB to make the beacon operational to enable others to track its sailing voyage along the world's largest coastline. The live tracking link, which generates a dot for each Maidenhead grid square of the journey, is being hosted by Jeff Milne VE3EFF. One of the experiment's goals is to produce a map, at the end of the journey, showing the course the vessel took, displaying the number of listeners who logged the beacon and where they were located. To see the live tracking link, visit QRP hyphen labs dot com forward slash cee three (qrp-labs.com/c3) Canada C3 has an ambitious schedule of daily stops so there's plenty of opportunity for tracking. Its agenda includes 13 national parks, 20 migratory bird sanctuaries and 50 coastal communities. Don't expect the beacon to have an easy time of it on this cruise. The RAC notes that a number of the locations on the itinerary are in marginal areas for radio, subject to auroral disturbances and "arctic flutter. For CG3EXP, it looks like this scenic trip is going to be a working holiday. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF. (ARRL, CANADA3C WEBSITE) ** WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, the Frontenac Amateur Radio Club is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Amateur Radio Federation. The Federation was Canada's first successful national amateur radio society. In 1993 it joined with the Canadian Radio Relay League and formed Radio Amateurs of Canada. Listen for them operating as XM3CARF through the 3rd of July. Now through the 23rd of June you can work J48GEO from the GeoPark on Lesvos Island, where members of the Radio Amateur Union of North Aegean SZ8LSV are set up. They are on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and Digital modes. QSL via SZ8LSV, direct or LoTW. Meanwhile, don't forget Brian WB6RQN is on his Aeronautical Mobile flight around the world operating on HF as he goes - see projectameliaearhart.org for details, including real-time tracking. (IRISH RADIO TRANSMITTERS SOCIETY, OHIO PENN DX BULLETIN) ** KICKER: BILL PASTERNAK WA6ITF SK AND HIS YHOTY LEGACY STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Finally, we mark a bittersweet anniversary this week. On June 11, 2015, Amateur Radio Newsline lost its cocreator when Bill Pasternak WA6ITF became a Silent Key. Beloved among his many friends, he helped take Amateur Radio Newsline to the global status it enjoys today. To say he is missed is an understatement but with every newscast we still feel - and benefit from - his talents and his contributions. A big part of Bill's legacy is our Young Ham of the Yeard award which he created in 1986 and which now bears his name. We'd like to think Bill would be especially proud to learn that our 2016 award recipient, Skyler Fennell KD0WHB, of Denver Colorado, has just added another accomplishment to his already stellar amateur radio resume. The ARRL Foundation has just awarded Skyler a $2,500 Victor Poor W5SMM Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations Skyler -- you have made all of us proud and you have honored the spirit of ham radio that was always so precious to Bill. ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Cedar Creek Amateur Radio Club; CQ Magazine; the FCC; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; the IARU; Irish Radio Transmitters Society; Monitor.net; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; QRZ; the Radio Society of Sri Lanka; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; WTWW Shortwave; the Xenia Gazette; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Jim Damron N8TMW in Charleston, West Virginia saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2017. 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I really enjoy the Amateur Radio Newsline, but the way it's formatted lately has been difficult for me. I wish you all would let me edit your posts so it's more eye-friendly.
