Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2145 for Friday, December 7, 2018 Audio Podcast - https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2145.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2145 with a release date of Friday, December 7, 2018 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Hams hear a new satellite's voice beacon. In Australia, amateurs study communications during bushfires -- and a QSL card arrives, 25 years after the DX contact. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2145 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** RADIO COMMUNICATION TO CONQUER AUSTRALIA'S BUSHFIRES NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with news of the bushfires plaguing Australia. With the sweep of fires this month in Queensland still pressing on Australians' minds, amateurs in Victoria, farther south, are looking at a highly local strategy making use of amateur radio - a blueprint they say can be replicated elsewhere. John Williams VK4JJW has that story. JOHN: Like wildfire season in California, bushfire season in Australia brings the prospects of runaway, deadly destruction. That time is happening now. TONY: Our bushfire are wildfires that are a danger everywhere from spring to autumn and the season like everywhere else is getting longer. JOHN: That is Tony Falla VK3KKP, who is about to help conduct a training project in the Shire of Mount Alexander in Victoria, Australia. The effort is designed to provide a greater safety net against the deadly fires, also known as fire tornadoes. Tony said that while the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network works on a grand scale, this effort is designed to be very community-based, expanding on small radio networks that already exist in communities within the shire where hams regularly check in with one another anyway. TONY: Most of the time everyone has got this things covered. They have radio systems all in place between the emergency networks. What they havent got what I think is the missing link -- is the person in the bush who needs to call for help and cant get through and thats what I would hope we could provide. JOHN: Most particularly that means disabled residents of the shire, individuals who would have difficulty if evacuation is needed or simply getting the message out that theyre in trouble. Starting on the 12th of December, Tony, who is a member of the Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club, will be working with committee members of the Mount Alexander Shire Disability Advocacy Group who have expressed an interest in getting a Foundation Licence to help build this critical community-based network. TONY: This is basically friends training friends to become eligible to communicate using licenced equipment and thats all. It is a bit like the Air BnB of communication really. Just a friendship ostensibly that develops into a network of people who listen out for one another. JOHN: The new hams will then go on to help other candidates, establishing regular nets, health-and-welfare checks and of course being ready for those emergencies when they happen. TONY: Well be acting as an intermediary between the person calling and 000 which is our 911 -- but if someone is in dire danger we will be able to tell the police the fire brigade and so on that thats the case. JOHN: Thats life-saving communication for the people in the shire of Mount Alexander. For Amateur Radio Newsline Im John Williams VK4JJW ** VOICE BEACON GOES LIVE ON FOX-1CLIFF SATELLITE NEIL/ANCHOR: At different times of the day, depending upon where you are in the world, you might point your HT skyward, tune it to 145.920 and hear this: [insert clip] Fox-1Cliff Safe Mode. That voice beacon also has a telemetry stream sending data back to AMSAT-North America using sub-audible tones, giving the status of the Fox-1Cliff satellite, which was among numerous ham radio satellites launched on December 3rd from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was activated a few hours later. Paul Stoetzer N8HM, the executive vice president of AMSAT-NA, told Newsline that its still in the testing phase so its for listening only. Thats what Newslines Dale Cary WD0AKO was doing when he captured that clip for us as it passed over his Minnesota QTH on Monday, December 3rd at 9:54 p.m. local time, shortly after its activation. Sometime after the second week of December, AMSAT hopes to enable operations on the 70cm and 23 cm uplink frequencies as well but not just yet. Meanwhile, hams are encouraged to listen for this transmission of initial telemetry with the beacon on the satellites passes and then join the more than 110 amateurs around the world who have already uploaded details to the organizations servers at amsat dot org (amsat.org) The message repeats every two minutes. As for the voice youre hearing deliver it, thats a young woman named Veronica who is the daughter of Tony Monteiro AA2TX. Tony had been AMSATs vice president of engineering and an unwavering advocate for the FOX series of satellites. Tony became a Silent Key in 2014 but now it is his daughter who is spreading the word that another satellite is making its way across the sky. ** TALLYING THE RESULTS FROM JAMBOREE ON THE AIR NEIL/ANCHOR: There were big numbers and big results for radio scouts in this year's Jamboree on the Air. Bill Stearns NE4RD adds it all up for us. BILL: This week in Radio Scouting, we take a look at our results from Jamboree on the Air, we have one December activation to share, and we take a look ahead to 2019. Jamboree on the Air in the United States brought out 10,700 scouts, 4,005 visitors, and 266 reporting stations. This was a 36 percent increase in scouts and nearly 18 percent increase in reporting stations. It was a busy weekend for all, including those participating in Jamboree on the Internet which saw an increase of 300 percent in activity. I see this as a call to the Amateur Radio community to double our efforts for next year! Our featured station in the report this year was K4L at Camp La-No-Che, in Paisley, FL which reported: This was our first official JOTA-JOTI at our camp in over a decade. We had a soldout weekend of 1800 Cub Scouts for Cub Halloween & Fall Festival. We setup our new 60-foot tower, and used everything under the sun: HF, VHF, UHF, D-Star, DMR and Fusion. With 5 hams and 5-10 helpers throughout the day we managed to get everything through our two little pop-up tents. Congratulations to them and to all the other units and amateurs that helped to make this year such a success. For December activations we have one to share by Thomas Barker, WA1HRH. He'll be activating a special event callsign W1M at the Moses Scout Reservation in Russel, MA, from December 13th through the 16th. All the radio activity for scouts will be Saturday during the Woronoco Heights Outdoor Adventure where they not only have radio as activity, but scouts will be participating in Blacksmithing, Disc Golf, Geocaching, Orienteering, and more. Catch this active group on the bands! Finally we're looking at very busy 2019 ahead of us. We have new goals to meet for Jamboree on the Air 2019, but before we get there we'll be doing World Jamboree this summer. This will truly be the year of Radio Scouting, and we're looking forward to you participating! For more information on Radio Scouting, please visit our website at k2bsa.net. For Amateur Radio Newsline and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, this is Bill Stearns, NE4RD ** ONE QSL CARD'S SPECIAL DELIVERY - EVENTUALLY NEIL/ANCHOR: We all know that waiting for that special QSL card to arrive can sometimes feel like forever. Well, it took forever - or almost forever - for one QSL card to reach one amateur in Italy: try a quarter century! Graham Kemp VK4BB tells us this tale of patience and its great reward. GRAHAM: Whether you are working on a kit build or troubleshooting an antenna issue, patience is always a virtue that pays off for amateur radio operators. Then, of course, you have Luigi, IV3XNF, for whom patience proved a virtue for QSL cards. He only discovered recently that his 1993 contact with FT4WD on Crozet Island was apparently overlooked so quietly in fact that Luigi himself believed that he had actually got the QSL card from long ago before discovering that no, it apparently was never sent. Realizing this, Luigi wrote to the QSL manager Norbert F6AXX this past October and then settled back into his wait. On Nov. 27, a jubilant Luigi posted a picture of the card on Twitter which featured penguin after penguin after penguin on the subantarctic island and the proud 5 and 9 signal report for the SSB contact with a French operator named Christian who held the call sign FD1NOG at the time. His contact with IOTA AF008 has thus been confirmed at last. As Luigi wrote on Twitter, after 25 years: never say never. For Amateur Radio Newsline Im Graham Kemp VK4BB. (TWITTER) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the Midstate Hams WA9RDF repeater in Greenwood Indiana on Sundays at 7 p.m. local time. ** HONORS IN OHIO FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE NEIL/ANCHOR: Being a steady, reliable presence when the community needs them has been the hallmark of one group of amateurs in southern Ohio. Jack Parker W8ISH shares this club's latest achievement. JACK: Ohio residents who attended this years Christmas parade in Ironton, the seat of Lawrence County, may have noticed members of the Southern Ohio Amateur Radio Association providing communication for the annual spectacle. Well, the ARRL has been taking notice of the club too and recently presented members with the Special Service award for work serving the public at everything from annual parades to emergency work during communications outages. Club president James Rowe N8TVO received the award on behalf of the club at its last meeting. Club members also train in first aid, CPR, fire services and serve as SKYWARN watchers for the National Weather Service, among their many other community assistance efforts. Congratulations to the Southern Ohio amateurs. For Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Jack Parker W8ISH. (IRONTON TRIBUNE) ** HAM FINDS MORE U.S. LICENSEES THAN EVER BEFORE NEIL/ANCHOR: If you're licensed in the U.S. and ever feel like you're in diminishing company, think again: Kyle Pilquist KD0NDG reported on his blog recently that his study of the FCC database, along with some number-crunching, revealed that our hobby still enjoys good health indeed. He reports on his blog that the ratio of new members to cancelled licenses is 1.4-to-1. Kyle writes: "So you could say for every cancellation we have almost 1 and a half new licenses to replace that with." Although the FCC told Newsline it could not confirm the trend Kyle observed, the ARRL's Dave Isgur, N1RSN told Newsline that yes indeed there is a slight uptick in the number of licenses the league tracks. Dave said it might be due to the emphasis these days on STEM education and a focus on technology, along with the exposure amateur radio got during the hurricanes of 2017. Whatever the reason, we all welcome the news -- and the company on the air. ** ONTARIO RADIO AMATEUR ADMITTED TO HALL OF FAME NEIL/ANCHOR: The Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame just gained a new member. Kevin Trotman N5PRE tells us more about him, his radio career and this special honor. KEVIN: Neil Carleton VE3NCE has much to be proud of right now. The Ontario amateur has been admitted to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame by the RACs board of trustees. In making its announcement on Dec. 1, the board noted Neils commitment not just to his years as a classroom teacher by profession but an educator in radio science to youngsters in the Ontario school system. According to the RAC, Neil served as one of the key advisors when the RAC Youth Education Program was being developed to open kids eyes to ham radio and, at the same time provide whatever resources teachers and community youth groups need to further the kids education in the subject. Many of the hams who supported Neils induction into the Hall of Fame noted that amateur radio has been as big a deal in his classroom as textbooks themselves. Said Bob Clermont VE3AKV Mr.Carleton has used amateur radio as an educational tool in his classroom for years, with contacts around the world, having his students talking to various countries and exotic locations. I most wholeheartedly support and endorse Neil Carleton to the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. For Amateur Radio Newsline Im Kevin Trotman N5PRE. ** IN INDIA, A FAMILY REUNION THANKS TO RADIO NEIL/ANCHOR: The power of radio is unmistakable. It has the power to help save lives - and in this case, to reunite them, as we hear in this report from Jeremy Boot G4NJH. JEREMY: In India, a young man who had been reported missing for more than six months was successfully reunited with his family in Bihar with the help of the West Bengal Radio Club. Arun Kumar Rais family had reported him missing after he had travelled to Kolkata to look for work. Although the details werent clear about his subsequent whereabouts, he had apparently met with an accident, was admitted to a rural hospital, but had been unable to communicate with the doctors. He was eventually moved to the M.R. Bangur Hospital in Kolkata and their administrators had asked hams from the West Bengal club for their assistance in tracking down his family. The clubs secretary Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, told the Times of India that because it was difficult to ascertain where the young man had been before his admission to hospital, it was difficult to track down his family. He added that the mans photograph was then circulated by other club amateurs, with better results. His family was tracked down to their village in Bihar and they arrived, not long afterwards. Soon the 25-year-old was heading home with them on a train. The reunion came only two weeks after the club had also assisted with the return of a 55-year-old man to his family in Tripura after he too had gone missing four months earlier. For Amateur Radio Newsline Im Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (TIMES OF INDIA) ** WORLD OF DX In this weeks World of DX, listen for Alex, 5B4ALX, active as C4XMAS in Cyprus until December 31st to celebrate the Christmas season. He is on 160-6 meters using CW, SSB and the Digital modes. QSL via IZ4AMS, direct, by the Bureau or ClubLog. In the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Peter, DD1GG, is active through December 19th as DD1GG/HI. He is operating holiday style on various HF bands. QSL via his home callsign. Tom, N9EAW, is on the air as HQ9T from Roatan Island, Honduras, until December 18th. Activity will be on various HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL via N9EAW direct. December is YOTA month Youngsters On The Air. Be listening all month for youngsters active with the "YOTA" suffix in the callsign. Participating stations include 4O18YOTA Montenegro, HA6YOTA Hungary, R18YOTA RUSSIA and dozens of others. Theres an update too on the much-anticipated Three-Y-Zero-Eye DXpedition to Bouvet Island. While the departure date is still not known, the team has room for two more operators competent in CW and SSB and experienced in handling challenging weather. If youre up for the challenge, drop a line to Dom at k38dom at gmail dot com (k38dom@gmail.com) ** KICKER: HAVING A HOLIDAY QSO WITH 'SERGIO & SERGEI' IN JAPAN NEIL/ANCHOR: Continuing its trip around the globe, a popular film about amateur radio during the Cold War Era is about to be released in theaters in two more countries. Mike Askins KE5CXP has the details. MIKE: Who doesnt love a holiday movie? Miracle on 34th Street. Polar Express. Its a Wonderful Life. Only a Grinch among amateur radio operators would dare to challenge the latest one to be released into theaters on Saturday, Dec. 1st. Sergio & Sergei, which debuted in the U.S. earlier this year, has finally made its way to the screen in Japan, as of Saturday, December 1st, and is set to show up in theaters in Poland on December 7th. Set in the Cold War Era, just as the Soviet Union is in the throes of collapse, the film tells the story of the friendship between an amateur radio operator in Cuba and the cosmonaut Sergei, circling the earth in limbo aboard the Mir space station as political dismantling of the USSR gets under way below. The 93-minute film was an award-winner at the recent Havana Film Festival in New York, for best script. Now the creative team is hoping the dialogue in its Morse Code and SSB sequences get a good signal report from movie-going hams and non-hams in any language. For Amateur Radio Newsline Im Mike Askins KE5CXP. (QRZNOW, IMDB) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; AMSAT-North America; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; IMDB.com; Ironton Tribune; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QRZNOW; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Times of India; Twitter; 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.
