Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2089 for Friday, November 10, 2017Audio - https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2089.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2089 with a release date of Friday, November 10, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. The Baker Island DXpedition gets a big boost. Morse Code averts a boating tragedy -- and Pope Francis makes a heavenly contact - via satellite feed! All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2089 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART HERE **** BIG BOOST FOR BAKER ISLAND DXPEDITIONERS JIM/ANCHOR: If you like chasing DX -- really challenging DX -- our top story this week is for you and it comes to us courtesy of the HamTalk Live podcast. Here's Neil Rapp WB9VPG. NEIL'S REPORT: A team heading to Baker Island for a DXpedition in June just received a major boost. The team of eleven people will be heading to the Pacific to the small island located between Hawaii and Australia for the first activation since 2002. DON: Baker Island is currently number four on the wanted list, and it's going to be number three on the list after the folks going to Bouvet get done. NEIL: Like most DXpeditions, the expenses for the trip are extensive. DON: Any large, far away place requires a lot of money because it's a long sail from anywhere. All your equipment has to be frozen, has to be be purchased new. We are not taking any chances of bringing any invasive species or new bugs onto the refuge. We hope to make lots of Qs. So, when people work us and request a QSL card, they put in a little tip for our good efforts. We just started the fundraising because we only got permission to go a couple of months ago, and then we had to negotiate with the Fish and Wildlife Service on the actual operating conditions and had to find a boat. NEIL: The cost of the trip is in excess of $430,000. Team members are paying for about half of the cost, while the other half must come from contributions from individuals and foundations. A major donation was just announced last week by team leader Don Greenbaum, N1DG on Ham Talk Live! DON: We've applied to the Northern California DX Foundation for support. They let us know this morning that we will be receiving a grant of $75,000. To put that into perspective it's the second largest grant ever given by NCDXF, the biggest one being $100,000 to the upcoming Bouvet. So we're honored they had so much faith in this group that the wallets were opened in quite a substantial way. NEIL: For more information about the KH1 Baker Island DXpedition or to make a contribution, be sure to visit baker2018.net and their Facebook group. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG (HAM TALK LIVE) ** JAMBOREE STATIONS START REPORTING IN JIM/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, radio scouts are back on the air as results pour in from the recent worldwide Jamboree on the Air, as we hear from Bill Stearns NE4RD. BILL'S REPORT: This week in radio scouting we have one activation from Scout Camps on the Air and we check up on our Jamboree on the Air Reports. BSA Troop 20 Amateur Radio Club, WS5BSA, will be on the air from John Nichols Scout Ranch in Mustang, Oklahoma, on Saturday November 11th from 8am to 5pm Central Standard Time. They will operate SSB on 40m through 10m, and VHF/UHF FM on the WX5LAW and KB5LLI linked repeater systems throughout the day. With over 12,000 locations registered for JOTA-JOTI world-wide, including an astonishing 990 from the United States, we need reports from all those locations to determine the number of Scouts, amateur radio operators, and guests, in attendance. Here's a couple of the great reports we've received so far: William Mitchell, W0WMM, from their station from WoodSmoke in Gibson Island, Maryland, reports that the scouts enjoyed DXing and making contacts with Spain, Argentina, Brazil and the UK. The highlight of the event was when they talked to scouts on the Nuclear Submarine Savannah in the Baltimore harbor. Jeremy Brown, KA7BIF, with the K7MVA activation from the Snake River Boy Scout Council in Twin Falls, ID, reported that this was their first time doing JOTA and that they had a blast and can't wait for next year. With the local Council's help it was a success and we helped 22 boy scouts earn their Radio Merit Badge. For more information on radio scouting and to file your JOTA report, please visit our website at www.k2bsa.net. For Amateur Radio Newsline and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, this is Bill Stearns, NE4RD ** COMMEMORATING A DOOMED GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER JIM/ANCHOR: Two special event stations have been marking a Great Lakes tragedy that happened 42 years ago. Kevin Trotman N5PRE has that story. KEVIN's REPORT: It's a tragedy that still captures the American imagination: the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald 42 years ago in the storm-tossed waters of Lake Superior. The entire 29-person crew was lost on November 10th 1975 shortly after the Great Lakes freighter passed the Split Rock Lighthouse. Minnesota's Stillwater Amateur Radio Association kept the HF bands busy November 3rd, 4th and 5th as operators made contacts from Split Rock Lighthouse State Park during a Special Event Station that it has organized for 13 years. Hams who missed making contact with W0JH get to try again, though. Special Event Station W8F is also commemorating the sinking. In Michigan, the Livonia Amateur Radio Club's station goes on the air on Sunday, November 12th at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Island in Detroit. Even if you're not able to work W8F on that Sunday, stay tuned to the HF bands anyway. Members of the club are operating from their own QTHs and keeping the Special Event Station going right through the 20th of November. For Amateur Radio Newsline in Aiken, South Carolina, I'm Kevin Trotman N5PRE. (STILLWATER ARA; LIVONIA ARC) ** MORSE CODE TO THE RESCUE JIM/ANCHOR: Another boating story - one that didn't end in tragedy - comes to us from Jeremy Boot G4NJH. It happened in late October. JEREMY'S REPORT: Now here's a twist on the saying: "When all else fails, there's amateur radio." This version says: "When all else fails, there's Morse Code." A yacht sailing off the coast of Cornwall recently was observed as being on a collision course with the Dales rocks which are submerged at high tide and not visible. The rocks posed a definite risk for grounding. A watchkeeper at the National Coastwatch Institute at Bass Point, however, could not reach the crew. They did not have an Automatic Identification System beacon and could not be reached on VHF radio to be warned of the danger ahead. The watchkeeper turned to an old relic - an Aldis lamp, which emits pulsing light, and he flashed the crew a Morse Code message - the letter "U" - which warns of danger. The craft had come within 10 boat lengths of the rocks when it was seen to respond by changing its course to head south where it resumed its journey to Falmouth. Bass point NCI station manager Peter Clements was quoted in news reports afterward as saying that such flashing lamps are more commonly seen these days in vintage movies about the Second World War. But in this case, an old wartime tool turned out to take on a hero's role in peacetime too. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (CORNWALL LIVE) ** SILENT KEY: MARIO AMBROSI I2MQP JIM/ANCHOR: The president of the Italian radio association and a CQ amateur Hall of Famer has become a Silent Key. We hear more from Ed Durrant DD5LP. ED'S REPORT: Hams are grieving the loss of a noted DXer and active member of Italy's amateur radio community. Mario Ambrosi I2MQP has become a Silent Key. Mario, who was inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2005, was president of the ARI - the Italian amateur radio association. He had a lifelong love of radio that began at age 14 when he heard the first Sputnik satellite broadcasts using homemade equipment. On Oct. 25 1975 Mario made his first QSO - that was just the beginning. At the time of his death he had logged more than 222,000 QSOs in 352 countries and collected numerous top awards, including those given for operation in CW and RTTY. Mario had been president and secretary of the A.R.I. - the Italian radio amateur association - a director of Radio Rivista, a writer for the DX News Bulletin and a QSL card checker for the DXCC and WAS programs of the ARRL as well as several programs for CQ Amateur Radio. Mario Ambrosi died on November the 6th. Vale Mario I2MQP. JIM/ANCHOR: Thanks for that report Ed Durrant DD5LP. (FILIPPO RICCI IK7YCE) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world including the Lookout Mountain Amateur Radio Club's W4EDP Repeater in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. ** HONORING VETERANS ON THE AIR JIM/ANCHOR: If you want to thank military veterans for their service to the U.S., be listening November tenth through twelfth for this special event station. Paul Braun WD9GCO tells us how. PAUL's REPORT: Most of us enjoy a good special-event station. And when it's tied into something remembering our veterans, it makes it even more special. This weekend, Wentzville, Missouri will be on the air celebrating a historic event, as organizer Larry Scantlan, KE-Zero-KZ tells us: LARRY: I live in Wentzville, Missouri, which is just West of St. Louis proper, and back in 1967, December - I want to say the 12th, I believe, they erected the very first Vietnam War memorial. PAUL: Scantlan saw an opportunity to tie ham radio into the celebration: LARRY: The city of Wentzville is planning a commemorative celebration of that accomplishment hosted by the VFW Post 5327, and so I saw that as a great opportunity to partner with them as ham radio operators knowing how hams love special events. And since I myself am a Vietnam veteran I thought it was a perfect marriage, if you will. PAUL: The station will be on the air as W-Zero-W starting on Friday the 10th, through Sunday the 12th working as many of the HF bands as they can, primarily single-sideband with other modes if they have enough operators. Scantlan sees this as not only fun for hams, but also as a way to build public awareness of our hobby: LARRY: It is drawing a lot of public attention - we expect to have all three TV stations covering this. We're also opening this up to the public to let them come through and see ham radio in action. For me, I think that's the critical element because I think we need to do a lot more promoting of ham radio in the public sector. PAUL: You can find out more on the event's QRZed page. Here's a chance for a fun new contact, and a way to help celebrate an important event remembering our veterans and their sacrifices for our country. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** A MIGHTY MICROWAVE ACHIEVEMENT JIM/ANCHOR: One ham in South Africa has truly gone the distance - achieving a record contact on microwave. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF has more. JIM MEACHEN's REPORT: South African amateur Alex Artieda ZS6EME feels like he's in the record-books - and indeed he is, at least in the microwave record books. Alex logged the first microwave EME QSO from South Africa on 10 GHz in a contact with HB9Q in Switzerland on October 22nd. Alex was operating QRA64D, a new digital mode, on 50 watts. That was only the beginning for him. The very next day Alex was able to make 10 more EME QSOs on the same frequency. One day later - on the 24th of October - Alex was on the air again at 5.7 GHz and completed the first Digital EME QSO with PA3DZL in the Netherlands. His good fortune continued and he had 7 more QSOs after that. Making note of his achievements, the South African Radio League proudly announced that Alex was "putting South Africa back on the world microwave map." For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jim Meachen ZL2BHF (SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE) ** TEEN INSPIRES SCHOOL'S ASTRONAUT CONTACT JIM/ANCHOR: Thirteen-year-old Dhruv (DROOVE) Rebba (REH-BAH) KC9ZJX and his father Hari (HAH-ree) VU2SPZ are hams who know that sometimes you have to try more than once to make a coveted contact. The eighth-grader and his father were among those who worked for two years to help Chiddix Junior High School in Normal, Illinois get selected for a QSO with the International Space Station. According to Dhruv's former science teacher, Daniele Hopper, the school applied to the ARISS program at the urging of father and son when Dhruv was in the sixth grade. It didn't happen. Undaunted and undiscouraged, the two reached out to the Central Illinois Radio Club W9AML, the Challenger Learning Center at Heartland Community College and the Children's Discovery Museum and this year - success! The contact with astronaut Joe Acaba (Uh-COB-buh) KE5DAR happened on Oct. 23. Hopper called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the school and the district. She said Dhruv worked many hours with Grant Zehr AA9LC of the Central Illinois Radio Club and was on the planning commmittee for the big event for two years. As for Hopper, she ended up with a lesson from Dhruv in what ham radio is all about and, she siad, she hopes his classmates will be inspired to go for their licenses too. (DANIELE HOPPER, WGLT RADIO) ** WORLD OF DX Nuri, TA3X will be active as TC630MECCA from Izmir, Turkey from the first of November to the 14th of January 2018. He will operate CW, SSB and digital modes on 160 to 10 metres. QSL via TA3X, direct or bureau. Rob N7QT is leading a team of 9 radio operators from Mellish Reef in Australia as VK9MA through the 16th of November. The team will be active from Heralds-Beacon Islet, the only permanent land in the reef on all the HF bands, using SSB, CW and RTTY. The operators ask all amateurs to please note that they are always going to be working split. Send QSLs to N7QT. Get ready! November the 18th sees the next annual Europe to North America SOTA Summit to Summit event where SOTA activators will be out on both continents trying to make contacts. Look for stations to be spotted on the SOTA Cluster at SOTAWATCH dot ORG between around 12 and 1500 UTC on the 18th. and give the activators a call, they appreciate all calls. We are hoping for better propagation conditions for this weekend where both SSB and CW stations will be heading up some hills and mountains for the event. (OHIO PENN DX) ** KICKER: PAPAL 'VISIT' TO THE ISS JIM/ANCHOR: Students aren't the only ones who get excited to talk to the Space Station. Mike Askins KE5CXP tells us about one recent contact that was blessed - truly blessed - by good fortune. MIKE'S REPORT: It's a given that when Pope Francis has some big questions to ask about life and the universe, he looks to the heavens. That's just what he did on October 26th, in fact - and he got some answers - only this heavenly exchange didn't come from the source you might imagine. The pontiff got a chance to chat via a satellite feed with the six astronauts on board the International Space Station and his questions were understandably tough. Like the rest of us, he was seeking to understand humanity's place in the universe - but these were challenges that space travelers such as Paolo Nespoli IZ0JPA, and Joseph Acaba KE5DAR could only take a stab at from a scientific point of view. NASA'S Randy Bresnik, the Expedition 53 commander, told the Pope, however [audio clip]: "People cannot come up here and see the indescrable beauty of the earth and not be touched in their souls." With this exchange, Pope Francis became the second pope to speak with astronauts, following Pope Benedict in 2011. Paolo, of course, did take the opportunity to make a kind of confession. Humbled at not knowing all the answers to the pope's questions he said "our aim here is to spread knowledge [but] the more we learn the more we realize we do not know." So together, they will all continue to look to the Heavens. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP. (SPACE.COM) NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; the ARRL; Cornwall Live; the CQ Magazine; Daniele Hopper; Filippo Ricci IK7YCE; HamTalk Live; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Irish Radio Transmitters Society; K2BSA; Livonia Amateur Radio Club; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; South African Radio League; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Space.com; Stillwater Amateur Radio Association; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; WGLT public radio; WTWW Shortwave; 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. All rights reserved.
