Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2121 for Friday, June 22, 2018 Audio - https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2121.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2121 with a release date of Friday, June 22, 2018 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. A pioneer in CW keying becomes a Silent Key. The Technician class license exams in the U.S. are about to get new questions -- and we look ahead at the Ducie Island DXpedition. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2121 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** MAKING THE ROUNDS FOR DUCIE ISLAND NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with an update on the Ducie Island DXpedition which sets off in late October. Excitement is building - and progress is too. For that update we turn to Jason Daniels VK2LAW. JASON: The Ducie Island DXpedition team continues to gather momentum toward its operations as VP6D on October 20th through November 3rd. The newest member of the pilot team is 15-year-old Mason Matrazzo KM4SII, who made his debut DXPedition last year at age 14 operating from Iceland. He is heading to Curacao next month as PJ2/KM4SII. The DXpedition team has been making the rounds, attending at Dayton Hamvention and the International DX Convention in Visalia (Viz-AIL-yah) California in the U.S. and Friedrichshafen (FREED RICK'S Harfen) in Germany to talk up the trip and meet with corporate sponsors. They also continue with their fundraising to help defray personal expenses of the team members themselves. For more information about this much-awaited South Pacific DXpedition or to help support it visit vp6d.com For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (SOUTHGATE) ** FIELD DAY: SMALL VOICES, BIG DREAMS NEIL/ANCHOR: Remember your first Field Day? Whether it was long ago - or just last year - one group of hams in California is hoping you'll make this year's Field Day memorable for some young first-timers. Don Wilbanks AE5DW tells us more. DON: Field Day has been in everyone's sights for quite some time now -- but for one group of youngsters in California, it marks their long-awaited first Field Day and a first opportunity to operate on HF. Members of Scout Troop 44 and Cub Scout Pack 458 are operating side by side with the San Mateo Amateur Radio Club using the club call sign W6UQ. In addition they will be running their own small-scale Field Day operation as KZ6BSA. Donn Lovell K8DLL, whose son 14-year-old Connor K7CBL, will be among those radio Scouts, said that the youngsters will have their own miniature Field Day with simplex contacts on 2 meters and 70 cm. He also said they will get some practice air time, just for fun, using FRS/GMRS radios and later, repeaters. Donn told Newsline the Scouts' hope that even with all the QRN and pileups that are sure be happening, hams will be listening for those squeaky little voices out there calling "CQ Field Day." For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks AE5DW. ** FIELD DAY GREETINGS FROM GERMANY NEIL/ANCHOR: In an apparent show of solidarity with Field Day participants in the U.S., the Mighty KBC, as it is known in Germany, plans to transmit greetings in MFSK64 in the hopes it will be heard by amateurs throughout North America. The transmission by the 100 kW HF broadcast transmitter is set for the 24th of June sometime around 0130 UTC. This is to occur during the weekly "Giant Jukebox" broadcast of the Mighty KBC on 9925 kHz. Naturally, reception reports are encouraged. Hams should email them to themightykbc@gmail.com. ** FINAL PREPARATION FOR 'WORLD CUP RADIO' AT WRTC NEIL/ANCHOR: Calling all sports fans! Er....we mean radio contesting fans. If you're following the final weeks until the World Radiosport Team Championship, our good sport Ed Durrant DD5LP is here to help you make sense of it. ED: They're all preparing, theyre all training, now they're all packing! From all parts of the world, the contestants for WRTC 2018 in Germany are getting ready to come to Wittenberg for the Amateur Radio World Cup! It's been a hard-fought effort over the last few years to qualify by being at the top of major contest tables but now it's less than 4 weeks until they can "prove their metal" competing against the best in the world on a level playing field. Amateur radio again shows no respect for politics with two-person teams not only from single countries but across countries who were at one time enemies. Russians working alongside Americans, parts of the old Yugoslavia working together on the radio, old feelings lost in the magic of radio competition. There are young and old and some in between. From New Zealand there is a father-and-daughter team, there's three youth teams including one with a U.S. and a Chilean ham, one with a Ukrainian and Romanian ham and one with a Hungarian and a German ham. Of course, there are the well-known "old hands" taking part as well. Unfortunately, this time no contestants qualified from the UK or Australia. Perhaps they'll have to make do with winning the Soccer World Cup final which takes place on the same day as the WRTC! For a full list of contestants and their biographies go to WRTC2018 (dot) DE and click on "competition" followed by "participants." One thing is for sure, no matter who wins on July 15th, all competitors, helpers and visitors are looking forward to having a great time together, no matter what else is happening in the world! STOP PRESS - this just in: Using two 300 Kilowatt transmitters from Europe Radio DARC will broadcast just before the start of the competition, a WRTC special program across Europe on 6,070 kHz and to North America on 13,860 kHz on Saturday the 14th at 1100 UTC for an hour. For Amateur Radio Newsline this has been Ed Durrant DD5LP. ** SILENT KEY: KEYER-CHIP PIONEER JACK CURTIS K6KU NEIL/ANCHOR: CW enthusiasts are no stranger to the name Jack Curtis or his eponymous Curtis Morse Keyer Chip. The man who gave hams a new way to key Morse Code has become a Silent Key. Here's Andy Morrison K9AWM with more. ANDY: The radio amateur who revolutionized CW keyers with the use of an IC chip has become a Silent Key. Jack Curtis K6KU - formerly W3NSJ - was the father of the Curtis Morse Keyer chip, reshaping the way keying could be done with the use of memory. His first chip, known as the 8043, was released in 1973 followed by a series of others, ending with a 20-pin chip in 1986. The 20-pin chip incorporated A or B iambic modes and output for a speed meter. His chips found their way from commercial keyers into commercial amateur rigs and were popular in homebrew projects as well. The Pennsylvania native, an electrical engineer, worked for Sperry Rand and later Corning Glass, after serving in the Navy. His side business, Curtis Electro Devices, was founded to market his Morse Code iambic keyer and later provided memory chips for the emerging cellular industry. The company closed in 2000. At the time of his death on June 4 he was a resident of Granite Bay, California. Jack Curtis was 87. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Andy Morrison K9AWM (ARRL) ** DISASTER DRILL, BUT WHERE ARE ALL THE HAMS? NEIL/ANCHOR: What if someone held a disaster drill and nobody came? Well it didn't happen that way exactly in India recently, but the turnout among amateurs turned out to be a challenge. Here's Jeremy Boot G4NJH with details. JEREMY: A mock disaster drill held in Uttar Pradesh, India by the National Disaster Management Authority turned out to have one challenge that was real: finding amateur radio operators. The exercise in Lucknow focused on the state's 23 flood-prone districts. It relied on the readiness of of the state police, along with the National Disaster Response Force. On the website of the Amateur Radio Club of Lucknow, Pandit VU2DCT wrote that he turned out to be the sole amateur taking part in the exercise. It appears that no hams reside in any of the districts where the drill was scheduled. Pandit, who is secretary of the ham radio club, wrote that he was able to provide his fellow participants with an oral presentation on amateur radio. He posted a hopeful observation too that most of the dignitaries present at the day's exercise showed an interest in what ham radio can do. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the Spokane, Washington UHF Repeater of K7TMF and K7MMA on Fridays at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. ** NEW QUESTION POOL FOR TECHNICIAN CLASS EXAM NEIL/ANCHOR: In the U.S., the question pool is changing for the Technician Class license exam as of July 1st. Every three years the questions are changed, modified, and brought up to date by the National Conference of Volunteer Exam Coordinators. So as of July 1, you can consider all the old license test preparation materials like manuals, online practice tests, Power Point presentations and such to be outdated. Approximately 60 of the Technician license questions were replaced. Most of the questions focus on the same concepts but wording changes will bring the material up to date. If you are part of a Volunteer Exam team, you must use the new exams starting on July 1st. So VEs, be sure to change out those tests. And if youre studying with old books, be aware that some of those questions will change while the topics, for the most part, wont. If youve been studying with the old books, June 30 is your last chance to take the test before the big change. ** GET YOUR FEET WET WITH 'BEACHES ON THE AIR' NEIL/ANCHOR: Now here's an awards program that will have you wishing for an endless summer. Mike Askins KE5CXP is our man on the beach for this story. MIKE: While some people bring suntan lotion and a surfboard - or maybe just a good book -- to the beach, others wouldn't be seen on the shore without their rig and an antenna. Because a beach day can also be a ham radio day, the program known as Beaches on the Air is encouraging hams to operate portable and qualify for awards as activators. Chasers - the hams who contact them - can also compete for honors. The idea took root in a conversation in 2013 between Diego EC1CW and his friend Ernesto EA1LQ, a fellow ham and SOTA activator. Diego told Newsline that the awards scheme really took off sometime after December of 2015 when he chose the windy Atlantic coastline of the Spanish beach at Riazor (ree-ah-Zore) for the first activations. Beaches on the Air was on the map at last. International users now call CQ from the shore in Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, the UK and elsewhere around the world. In fact, just a few weeks after Diego's first activations, Vlado, Z35M, an amateur in Macedonia, requested that the program include the beaches there. A ham for nearly 35 years, Vlado is a big proponent of portable operations and a frequent activator. BOTA covers not only sea-side beaches but also those on inland lakes and rivers. A full list of the approved sites and the awards that can be earned is at beachesontheair.com. So with summer arriving in some parts of the world, be listening as hams on the beach catch a wave - a radio wave, that is. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP. (DIEGO VARELA EC1CW) ** IN AUSTRALIA, GETTING KIDS WIRED OVER ELECTRONICS NEIL/ANCHOR: Some school kids in Australia are getting ready to have a summer of solder and circuit boards. Robert Broomhead VK3DN has more on these special summer workshops. ROBERT: What do crickets, frogs and grasshoppers have to do with ham radio? Everything, if you ask the organizers of the School Holiday Electronics Workshops being offered for school kids in July. The Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club has organized the workshops in Castlemaine to help grow the next generation of engineers and, of course, radio amateurs as well. In sessions geared to beginners age 7 and older, students will learn the basics of electrical circuitry and get to build a solar-powered grasshopper of their own. The workshop for students 10 and older will teach the basics of soldering. Those students will get a homebrew cricket or frog. The club is also planning a third workshop for returning students who already have been through the basics in previous workshops. For information about fees and schedule, contact the club via email at secretary at barec dot net dot au (secretary@barec.net.au) For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Robert Broomhead VK3DN (BAREC) ** WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, you can work Haru JA1XGI operating as H44XG from Honiara in the Solomon Islands through the 27th of June. He will be on 40 10m mainly on CW, with perhaps some FT8. Bodo DF8DX is operating from Taiwan from June 24th to the 30th. He will be using the BW/DF8DX call sign on the HF bands. QSLs go via his home call. He will upload logs to Logbook of The World. Be listening for the call sign TM65EU being used by three French amateurs on the air from three islands off the French coast. They can be heard on June 22nd and June 23rd. Their QSL manager is F4ELK. You have a chance to work Antonio, EA5RM, operating as CP1XRM from Bolivia until July 10th. He is in Bolivia as an NGO volunteer but is on the air during his free time on 40-10 meters using SSB and the Digital modes. He may also be on 60 meters. QSL via EA5RM. ** KICKER FROM GRAHAM ON WKRP NEIL/ANCHOR: We end this week with a story about radio waves that truly know no bounds - not even inside the walls of a high-security prison. From Australia, here's Graham Kemp VK4BB. GRAHAM: There's something to be said for the power of radio, even if in this case it's not amateur radio - and even if, in this case, it's radio produced inside a remote high-security prison. The inmates here call their service the West Kimberley Regional Prison Radio Hour - or WKRP. No, not *that* WKRP, the name of the radio station in that wildly popular American TV series of some years ago based in Cincinnati. This is radio programming that gives details on prison happenings. When it was launched last year it was envisaged as a bulletin service of sorts for simple updates but now the program is heard outside the Western Australian prison's prison walls on community stations. If you've ever had "mic fright" as a ham, you have something in common with the inmates here who received expert coaching from Rebekah O'Meara and encouragement from producer Brad Spring of Derby Aboriginal Media Corporation. Now the hourlong weekly show is heard through the National Indigenous Radio Service. The audience isn't a captive one but the program's announcers are, at least until their time served is over. Hams can relate, no? There's nothing better than getting the word out - no matter what walls you may be behind - and knowing others really hear you. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp VK4BB. (RADIOINFO.COM.AU, ABC) ** NEIL/ANCHOR: Finally, some terrific news on a personal note: Dr. Tamitha Skov, aka The Space Weather Woman, has come through on her promise to get a Ham licence. She's currently waiting on her vanity call sign, but all of us here at ARNewsline welcome her to our great hobby that she has been supporting already for a few years with her propagation reports, that are keenly followed on her website, twitter and on Ham Nation. ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to ABC; Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; BBC; Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club; CQ Magazine; Diego Varela EC1CW; DX World; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QRZNOW.COM, RadioInfo.Com Australia; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Wireless Institute of Australia; 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 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 Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Bloomington Indiana saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.
