Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1932 – August 22 2014

Amateur Radio Newsline™ Report 1932 – August 22 2014

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1932 with a release date of August 22 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams in Hawaii are ready as tropical storms head their way; The Global Amateur Radio Emergency Conference looks at the future; Ham radio gets the message through when all else fails; a new microsat is hand launched from the ISS and the story of a retirement community that has adopted ham radio. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio Newsline™ report number 1932 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


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RESCUE RADIO: HAMS IN HAWAII RESPOND TO TROPICAL STORM ISELLE

Hams in Hawaii were once again ready as Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall on the Big Island on Friday, August 8th. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with the details of how radio amateurs on the Island State were ready for this severe weather event:

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As soon as hams on Hawaii were informed that Hurricane Iselle was headed toward them, preparations for its arrival began:

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AH6RH: “We figured that there would be landfall in about 10 days, so we already began to put out the word and the preparation. The baseline plan was to run our communications over a common channel on VHF and UHF. We have a statewide repeater system for that. So the National Weather Service and SKYWARN people would take the lead and state Civil Defense and county Civil Defense in case there was storm damage on any particular island.”

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That’s Ron Hashiro, AH6RH, who serves as both Hawaii State RACES coordinator and Emergency Coordinator for ARES. He tells Amateur Radio Newsline that everything was in readiness when Iselle made its closest approach:

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AH6RH: “As the storm approached the Big Island it approached as a category 1 Hurricane and then just off shore it fizzled out a little bit to a very, very high end tropical storm. It hung off shore for 5 ½ hours and in the process the brutal winds and the punishing rains ground down on the South-East coast of the Big Island and they took quite a beating over there.”

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As a result of the storm, some 21,900 residents were without electric power. And landline and cellular service was down in some area. But ham radio kept the emergency responders in communications with one another:

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AH6RH: “The governor had previously declared an emergency. With that declaration we were able to activate our repeater on the top of Mauna Kea. That single repeater covered about 2/3 of the island and provided communications for a lot of the people.

“The county brought up their volunteers. Many of them are CERT members and a lot are amateur radio operators and they used that repeater to keep in touch.

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It took about 10 days for things to settle back to normal with all power and telephone service restored as we go to air. Hashiro says a lot of the success of the ham radio response is that all hams who work as emergency responders do so together for a common goal:

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AH6RH: “ We all work cooperatively together. We do not make a strong distinction between SKYWARN, ARES or RACES. We all work together and very often it’s the same leaders who are serving in different capacities at different times.

“But we do want to stress interoperability between all amateur radio groups. Because Hawaii being the most populated area in the most remote part of the world, should anything adverse happen we all have to rely on each other. We all have to back each other up and amateur radio is a big component of that plan.”

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AH6RH adds that he wants to give a lot of credit for this well planned response to Paul Agamata, WH6FM, who organized the amateur radio response on Hawaii’s Big Island. Hashiro says that it was because of WH6FM, that the Big Island was prepared for the arrival of Tropical Storm Iselle and for the area’s recovery.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles.

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All in all, a job well done by a group of radio amateurs who are always ready to expect the unexpected. (ARNewsline)

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RESCUE RADIO: GAREC 2014 LOOKS AT RESCUE RADIO

The recent Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communication conference, or GAREC 2014 held in Huntsville Alabama held just prior to the Huntsville Hamfest shared many informative presentations, videos and discussions on recent experiences plus some media interest. This while looking at the future of ham radio emergency communications worldwide.

GAREC 2014 was hosted by ARRL Alabama Section and the Huntsville Hamfest and was attended by delegates from all three International Amateur Radio Union regions. Organizer Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, said that besides routine items such as IARU regional reports that presentations were received on many topics. These included Emergency Communications as an element of promoting Amateur Radio along with the Salvation Army's SATERN program and digital modes and remote control operation. Other presentations included the United States Defense Department use of the Military Affiliate Radio Service for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, and a combined Emergency Services Dispatch Centre providing interoperable communications.

During the conference a number of themes began to emerge. These included the importance of meaningful conversations with served agencies to ensure that their communications needs are met. Another was to focus attention on Amateur Radio as a trusted partner in emergency response in all phases of the communications life cycle. Also topic taken under advisement was use of social media as way to send near real-time information on an event. This as long as doing so does not compromise amateur radio’s relationships with served agencies.

All presentations will soon appear on line at www.w4ozk.com/GAREC14.htm. The next and 10th GAREC will be in Tampere, Finland in June of 2015. (VK3PC, GAREC 2014)

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RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO EMCOMM MESSAGE FROM GOUGH ISLAND

It was ham radio to the rescue on when an important message from remote Gough Island to the South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs could not be sent as the normal lines of communications were down. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Stephan Kinford, N8WB, is here with the details:

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The story really began this past February when Pierre Tromp, ZS1HF, volunteered to go to Gough Island after a member of the Gough Team had passed away on the island. Tromp was then transported to Gough Island where he was assigned the call sign ZD9M.

Over the weekend of August 9th, a serious incident occurred on the island. As the Satellite Phone connection to the African continent had been poor since the first week of August, ZD9M decided to use ham radio to contact Trevor Brinch, ZS1TR for relay of the information back to Cape Town.

While the text was not made public, the message contained 836 words and was sent a few at a time and repeated back for confirmation. The entire process took about 1 hour 45 minutes to transfer via High Frequency radio. During this time the two stations were forced to alternate between 20 and 30 meters as conditions were fading in and out on both bands. After confirmation of the content of the message it was retyped into e-mail format and successfully sent to the listed recipients.

Another example of amateur radio being able to get the message delivered when all others methods fail.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinfod, N8WB, reporting.


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Gough Island is located in the South Atlantic Ocean and is uninhabited except for the personnel of a weather station which the South African National Antarctic Program has maintained continually since 1956. That makes it one of the most remote places on Earth with a constant human presence. (SARL)

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HAM RADIO IN SPACE: CHASQUI-1 HAM RADIO RESEARCH CUBESAT DEPLOYED FROM ISS

The Chasqui-1 amateur radio satellite has been successfully deployed from the International Space Station during a space-walk by two Russian Cosmonauts .

,At 14:00 UTC on August 18th Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev opened the hatch of the docking module to start their space walk or EVA. The tiny satellite was successfully deployed by Artemyev about 23 minutes later.


Chasqui-1 is a research satellite designed to standard CubeSat dimension by the Peruvian National University of Engineering in collaboration with the Southwestern State University in Kursk. Experiments on-board include a cameras that visible light and another that detects only infra-red.

The tiny bird carries a beacon on 437.025 MHz that can transmit either 1200 bit per second Audio Frequency Shift keying using AX.25 protocol or 9600 bits per second Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying better known as GMSK. (AMSAT UK)

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BREAK 1

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W6RHC repeater serving Chico, California.

(5 sec pause here)


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ENFORCEMENT: FCC ORDERS PAYMENT OF $15,000 NAL

The FCC has turned down a Petition for Reconsideration of a $15,000 Notice of Apparent Liability filed by Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick of Austin Texas. This, in regard to an unlicensed broadcast station that agents of the Enforcement Bureau had previously traced to their residence. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, has this latest follow-up report:

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This story goes back to August 12, 2013 when an agent from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau's Houston Office used direction-finding to locate the source of a radio signal on 90.1 MHz to an antenna atop a tower mounted to the side of an apartment building in the city of Austin. Ownership of both the building and tower were traced to Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick at that address.

On September 6, 2013, the Houston Office issued Mr. and Mrs. Olenick a warning letter, which advised them that the operation of an unlicensed radio station from their property violated the Communications Act.

In their reply, the Olenick’s did not deny that they owned the apartment building and operated the unlicensed radio station from it. Rather they stated that the FCC agent did not have permission or consent to enter the premises.

They also stated that because they had no commercial nexus with the Commission, they did not consent, directly or by any implication, to the Commission's policies, procedures, or jurisdiction. They also implied that they do not consider themselves subject to the laws of the United States and stated they expect any future communications to come from the International Bureau only after a treaty to which they are "signators" is signed.

But in its findings the FCC noted that it has every right to observe from common grounds and that it also had the authority to regulate radio transmissions within the state of Texas. With that it gave the Olnicks the customary 30 days from the February 19th issuance of the proposed $15,000 fine to pay or to file an appeal.

This past June 3^rd the FCC affirmed the previously issued Notice of Apparent Liability. In doing so the FCC said that Section 301 of the Communications Act explicitly sets forth the
Commission's jurisdiction over all radio transmissions, both interstate and intrastate. At that time the Olenick's were again given the 30 days from the release of the order affirming the fine to pay it or to file any form of appeal which they apparently did. On August 19^th in a Memorandum, Opinion and Order the FCC denied the Olenick’s Petition for Reconsideration.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, in Victoria, Texas.

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The Olnicks’ were again told that payment is due within 30 calendar days after the release date of the Memorandum Opinion and Order. Whether or not the Olnicks’ will continue the appeals process or possibly take the matter into the Federal court system is unknown as we go to air. (FCC)

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RADIO LAW: UN-NARROWBANDING WAIVER REQUEST DENIED BY FCC

The FCC has denied a June 19, 2013 request from Del Norte County, California that it be permitted to un-narrowband its radio system back to its 25 kHz channels.

In its filing, the County had claimed that its narrowband system had reduced critical coverage by 40 percent. Also that three to five additional towers would be needed to restore it to its capability. Noting that the County had only 30,000 people and no spectrum congestion, it asked to be permitted to return to wideband operation.

But in declining the request the FCC noted that among other reasons, that the county would eventually experience a less reliable system. Also that the wider-bandwidth equipment would become obsolete. (LMR Radio Group, WA6ILQ)

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RADIO READING: LATEST BAA RAGAZINE NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

Volume 2 issue 1 of the free radio astronomy publication RAGazine is now available for download. This edition includes articles on such topics as an introduction to objects that can be detected by the amateur radio astronomer, a simple Digital Interferometer, the quarterly VLF observing report and much more. You can download this and previous issues at tinyurl.com/ragazine. (Southgate)

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HAM HAPPENINGS: WORLD DATV PARTY TO PROCEED DESPITE SOFTWARE ISSUES

Despite software issues the World Digital A-T-V Party will go ahead as scheduled.

While most activity in this global event is based around Amateur Radio ATV frequencies, the Internet-based Skype connection service is used for Interstate and International connections. However Skype is currently grandfathering out older versions of its software and the new version do not support import video from USB Dongles such as EzCap. These are the devices used to take the output video as received from the ATV Repeater and send it to the remote anchor station. Peter Cossins, VK3BFG, appears to have found a temporary work around, but it will be dependant on the administrators of Skype and their timetable.

Either way, the event will take place on Friday August 29 and Saturday August 30 Melbourne Australia time. In the United States the W6A-N Amateur Television Network in southern California will be taking part. Also, the British Amateur Television Club will be streaming the event on its website at www.batc.tv (VK3PC)

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NAMES IN THE NEWS: HAM IN INDIA RARE TYPE BLOOD DONOR

Some names in the news. First up is Shaikh Sadaqathullah, VU2SDU, who was recently featured in the August 11th edition of India’s Trinity Mirror Evening English language newspaper. According to the article, VU2SDU, who has a rare blood group, started donating blood in 1993 at the suggestion of VU2HMN. She told him one of her relatives with the same rare blood group was to undergo heart surgery. You can read the entire story at trinitymirror.net/news by using the search argument VU2SDU. (Southgate, Trinity Mirror News)

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NAMES IN THE NEWS: OSWEGO COUNTY NY HAM HONORED

Back in the United States, Dave Anthony, AC2CM, a member of the Oswego County New York Emergency Communicators and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service has been honored with the 2014 Service Award. This, for his dedication to the amateur radio group that helps government agencies with emergency communications needs.

AC2CM has been a member of the group since 2006. Since then he has participated in numerous RACES activations that provided reliable communications between responding agencies, field to field and field to base locations. As a RACES volunteer, Anthony often works at the Joint Information Center during the county’s nuclear power plant exercises. More about Dave Anthony, AC2CM, and his volunteer efforts is on the web at tinyurl.com/races-volunteer-honored.
(oswegocountytoday.com)

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NAMES IN THE NEWS: KATIE ALLEN WY7YL JOINS HRD LLC

Katie Allen, WY7YL of Sundance, Wyoming, has joined the staff of HRD LLC the developers and distributors of the Ham Radio Deluxe station control package. Allen is an Extra Class with various interests in Amateur Radio from contesting and DX’ing to volunteering. While still a General, she achieved both Worked All States and DXCC. Additionally she serves as an ARRL Volunteer Examiner; as the ARRL Assistant Section Manager for Wyoming, and as the Director of Development for Rocky Mountain Ham Radio. At HRD Allen will be involved in providing technical support, documentation and sales of the company’s Ham Radio Deluxe software suite. (HRD)

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NAMES IN THE NEWS: NEW 73 ON AO-73 AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, has announced a new award for contacts made via the AO-73 which is better known as the FUNcube-1 amateur radio satellite.

Stoetzer says that the requirements for this award are very simple. Just work 73 unique stations on AO-73 on or after September 1, 2014. That’s it.

N8HM says that there are no geographic restrictions on your operating location and no QSL cards are required. When you complete the requirements, simply e-mail your log extract including the callsign of each station worked, the UTC time, and dates of all contacts to n8hm (at) arrl (dot) net. Also include the address where you'd like your certificate to be sent.

According to Stoetzer, there will be no cost for this award however donations to AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-North America’s Fox satellite program are encouraged and will be appreciated. (N8HM, Southgate)

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BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today’s radio amateur. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

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HAM HAPPENINGS: AMATEUR RADIO VILLAGE TO BE AT UK EMF-2014

AMSAT-UK has announced that there will be an amateur radio village and special event station at the Electromagnetic Field or EMF 2014 event taking place August 29th to the 31st. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has the details:

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EMF 2014 is described as a festival for anyone interested in radio, electronics, space, homebrewing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet culture and pretty much anything else you can think of. It is a volunteer effort by a non-profit group inspired by European and US maker groups like the Chaos Communication Camp and Toorcamp to name only a few.

This years’ event will take place at Bletchley near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. Attendees are invited to set up their own village or camps within the camp. That’s where like-minded people can gather and put on their own activities. The EMF team of volunteers will supply power and internet to each tent.

Ham radio-wise, special event station GB2EMF will be on the air from the Amateur Radio Village but as of now no operating schedule, bands or QSL routing has been made public. One thing that likely won’t happen is a portable cross-band repeater that was to be on the air during the gathering. Unfortunately telecommunications regulator Ofcom’s licensing issues may preclude this. Either way, it appears as if EMF 2014 is going to be a maker, hacker and ham radio good time.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reporting.

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For more information on this event go to www.emfcamp.org or follow the event on Twitter @emfcamp. (AMSAT-UK)

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RADIO AIDS: UPDATED WORLDWIDE AMATEUR 5 MHZ ALLOCATION CHART RELEASED

A new and updated 5 MHz allocation chart has been issued by Paul Gaskell, G4MWO, of Saint Helens, in the UK.

According to Gaskell, it has been several months since the last version of the Worldwide Amateur 5 MHz Allocations Chart has appeared. G4MWO says that due to the increasing number of 5 MHz allocations and in terms of readability it is no longer possible to retain the chart in its original pdf-type format. Because of this it has been reconfigured as a Microsoft Excel file instead.

G4MWO says that the newly updated Worldwide Amateur 5 MHz Allocations Chart can be found on the web at tinyurl.com/oofmemh. (G4MWO, Southgate)

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RADIO IN SPACE: THE SEVENTH NEXT GEN GPS SATELLITE IS NOW IN ORBIT

On August 1st, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully carried an Air Force GPS-IIF satellite in the orbit. This is the seventh such satellite launched of a planned constellation of 12 such birds. This satellite is the third launched in 2014, with one more planned for later this year.
(Published news reports)


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ON THE AIR: PA70OMG COMMEMORATES WW2 OPERATION MARKET BASKET

On the air, keep an ear open for special event station PA70OMG, to be operational from the Netherlands from September 12th to the 21st. This to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World War 2 Operation Market Garden by paratroopers and allied forces which began on September 17th 1944 to help liberate the region after four years of German occupation. If you make contact QSL’s go direct or via the bureau to PB0AEZ. More information on Operation Market Basket and this ham radio special event operation can be found on-line at pa2p.nl/pa70omg. (PA70OMG)

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ON THE AIR: B4YOG CELEBRATES CHINA 2ND YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

Also, be on the lookout for special event station B4YOG to be active until August 28th. This operation is being held to celebrate the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in the city of Nanjing, China. This station has been operational on 40, 30, 20, 15 and 10 meters using CW, SSB and PSK. QSL’s go via BD4WO, either direct or by via the bureau. (OPDX)

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DX

In DX, IZ0CKJ will be active stroke I-B-zero from Palmarola Island until August 31st. His operations are on 40, 20 and 15 meters during his daytime hours and mainly on SSB. Listen for his QSL as directed on the air.

Members of the Romanian Radio Club Association will activate Fericirii Island for the first time as YP0F between August 22nd and September 30th. Operations will be on the High Frequency bands only. QSL via YO9FNP.

EA7FTR will be active between September 5th and October 10th as D44KS from Boa Vista which is the Eastern most island of Cape Verde. Due to work commitments his hours of operation will be limited to his spare time. Listen for him on 40 through 6 meters using SSB and RTTY and QSL via EB7DX.

W5JON will be on the air as V47JA from his vacation home at Calypso Bay on St. Kitts between September 29th and November 12th. Activity will be on 160 through 6 meters including 60 meters using SSB. He will also be operational during the CQ World Wide DX SSB Contest as a Single Operator All-Band entry. In addition his wife who holds the call W5HAM will occasionally operate as V47HAM. All QSLs go to W5JON direct or via Logbook of the World. No bureau QSLs for this operation.

ZL2MF will be operational as E6MF from Niue Island between September 2^nd and the 9th on 40, 20, 15, 10 and 6 meters SSB. Look for him also in the All Asian DX SSB Contest On September 6^th and 7^th. QSL’s go via ZL2MF direct or via the bureau.

AC8G will be operational as J37K from Saint Georges between October 24th to the 26th. Activity will include the CQWW DX SSB Contest on October 25th and 26th signing J3A. QSL J37K via AC8G and J3A via WA1S.

Lastly, DL7DF will be on holiday in Senegal between November 1^st and the13th and plans to be on the air stroke 6w but only as time permits. Operation will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SBB, RTTY, PSK31 and SSTV. QSL to DL7DF, direct or by the DARC Bureau.

(This weeks DX news courtesy of OPDX)

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THAT FINAL ITEM: RETIREMENT COMMUNITY ADOPTS HAM RADIO

And finally this week more than a dozen residents of a Redlands, California, retirement community have become amateur radio operators and are working to familiarize themselves with a local disaster relief plan. This in the event that emergency personnel were unable to reach their Plymouth Valley retirement community should a disaster situation arise. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has more:

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According to the Redlands Daily Facts on-line newspaper, Keith Kasin, AI6BX, is the Plymouth Village executive director who is leading the group. In the article Kasin explained Plymouth Village is required to have an emergency response plan as part of its day-to-day operations. Also that the program provides those involved with a chance to be pro-active.

The group is made up of Plymouth Village volunteers that meet regularly and also hold practice drills using amateur radio. Each volunteer is responsible for a portion of the retirement community. Kasin says that once training and exams are complete, Plymouth Village will see around 30 certified operators working to keep residents safe.

According to Kasen, Plymouth Village is a 37-acre campus with a population of 300.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, reporting.
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The complete story about this unique community self help disaster planning is on the web at tinyurl.com/plymouth-village-ready. (Redlands Daily Facts)

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NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the South African Radio League, the Southgate News, TwiT-TV, Australia's WIA News and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline™. Our e-mail address is newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's™ only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline™, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350.

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors’ desk, I’m Hal Rogers, KC8CMD, saying 73 and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline™ is Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.