Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1949 - January 24 2015

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1949 – January 24 2015

The following is a QST. We are back! Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1949 with a release date of January 24 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Michigan gets its own PRB One antenna law; a launch date for the Fox 1 hamsat is announced; ARES called out in Ohio to assist after phone outage; the flight of the VK around-the-world floater balloon falls short of its round-the-world trip; the K1N Nevassa Island DXpedition will be on the SO-50 ham radio satellite, and old Sol is at it again. Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1949 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

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RADIO LAW: HAM RADIO ANTENNA ACCOMMODATION LEGISLATION ENACTED IN MICHIGAN

A decade of work within the ARRL Michigan Section has culminated in an Amateur Radio antenna bill that mirrors the "reasonable accommodation" provisions of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy.

The most pertinent language in the new Michigan law comes directly from Part 97.15 of the FCC Amateur Service rules. It states that an Amateur Radio Service station antenna structure may be erected at heights and dimensions sufficient to accommodate Amateur Radio Service communications. Regulation of an Amateur Radio Service station antenna structure by a local unit of government must not preclude Amateur Radio Service communications. Rather, it must reasonably accommodate those communications and must constitute the minimum practicable regulation to accomplish the local unit of government's legitimate purpose."

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed the measure, Senate Bill 0493, into law on January 15, creating Public Act 556. Senator Rick Jones sponsored the bill. ARRL Michigan Section Manager Larry Camp, WB8R, said Michigan is the 31st state to have a PRB-1 bill on its books. The new law also provides for an advisory committee that may be established jointly by the Michigan Section and other state organizations, such as the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan Township Association.

(ARRL, Southgate)

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HAM RADIO IN SPACE: LAUNCH DATE FOR FOX 1A ANNOUNCED

The long awaited launch of amsat's Fox-1A ham radio satellite will take place on August 27th. The Fox 1A will be carried to orbit on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on a flight for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The exact launch time has not been announced.

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HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AESP-14 CUBESAT TO BE DEPLOYED FROM ISS

PY2SDR reports the Brazilian amateur radio CubeSat AESP-14 is now on the International Space Station awaiting deployment. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks AE5DW...

(Don The AESP-14 is a 1 unit CubeSat developed by undergraduate and graduate engineering students at the Technology Institute of Aeronautics in Brazil. The satellite’s primary mission is to test the various subsystems in the space environment. It also has an amateur radio experiment developed by the Americana Amateur Radio Club.

The satellite was sent to the International Space Station on January 10 by the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and it is now awaiting release into space by the JEM orbital deployer on the Kibo Japanese module.

No date for the release of AESP-14 into space has yet been announced.
(PY2SDR)

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HAM RADIO NEAR SPACE: FLIGT OF VK PICO BALLOON ENDS

The small pico party-type balloon launched from Australia we have been reporting on did not make it home to V-K land. It reportedly crashed near Madagascar just east of Africa. This according to Andy [Wynn] Nguyen, VK3YT, who released the balloon from Melbourne on December 27th. He says that it went down early on January 16, just 25 hours short of three weeks in the air.

A number of radio amateurs from South Africa also reported that the tiny floater balloon had stopped flying and was down. It had traveled easterly across to the southern tip of New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean to South America, then to Southern Africa, and had a forecast path back to Australia.

(VK3PC)

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DX UP FRONT: NAVASSA DXPEDITION ON SO-50 SATELLITE

The upcoming K1N, Nevassa Island Dxpedition will be on the SO-50 ham radio satellite. Sean Kutzko, KX9X, reports that he heard from DXpedition member Gregg Marco, W6IZT. At that time, Marco stated that the DXpedition will be bringing with it a hand-held transceiver and an Arrow antenna in hopes of making some QSOs on SO-50 ham radio bird.

SO-50 carries several experiments, including a mode J FM amateur repeater experiment operating on 145.850 MHz uplink and 436.800 MHz downlink. The repeater is available to amateurs worldwide as power permits, using a 67.0 Hertz PL tone on the uplink, for on-demand activation.

According to W6IZT the dates and times of satellite operation will be dependent on operator availability at the time of a viable pass. Operation will only be on SO-50 and no other satellites are being considered.

Navassa Island is the number one most-needed country in the world by HF DX'ers. Exact dates are still being determined, but the operation is slated for the first two weeks of February. For ongoing updates please log on to www.navassadx.com. [“Navassa” is spelled N-A-V-A-S-S-A]


(OPDX)

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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 South Caribbean Amateur Radio Emergency Network.


(5 sec pause here)


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RESCUE RADIO: ARES CALLED OUT IN OHIO PHONE OUTAGE

ARES volunteers in northeast Ohio activated on January 13th. This after 911 and other telephone services went down in six counties due to a power failure at a major AT&T center in Akron.

The outage was blamed on a burst steam pipe. Cell telephones and the region’s 800 and 900 MHz digital Multi-Agency Radio Communication System remained functioning.

The Medina County Emergency Management Agency requested ARES communication support with surrounding counties, and with the Ohio Emergency Operations Center in Columbus as a backup. At the same time, EMA Directors in Stark, Summit, Portage, Mahoning, and Columbiana counties alerted their ARES organizations.

Ohio ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator Stan Broadway, N8BHL, also requested activation of RACES station W8SGT at the Ohio EOC. Communication was established on 75 meters with several county Emergency Coordinators. The EOC also was able to link up with the Stark County 2-meter repeater, some 135 miles away. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Heather Embee KB3TZedD in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

Amateur Radio tactical communication regarding the status of systems and repairs confirmed what was being reported via The Multi-Agency Radio Communication System. The Amateur Radio activation terminated after 4 hours, once the 9-1-1 system was brought back online.

(ARRL)

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RESCUE RADIO: DHS AUXCOMM TRAINING WILL WITH HAMVENTION 2015

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Emergency Communications will offer its Auxiliary Communications or AuxComm training course May 12th to the 14th, prior to Hamvention 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. This course covers emergency communications in a public safety context within the National Incident Management framework.

The AuxComm workshop is designed for auxiliary emergency communicators who volunteer to provide backup emergency radio communications support to public safety, and emergency response professionals and their agencies. Volunteer emergency communications operators and groups have been providing back-up emergency communications to the public safety community for over a century. Their contributions are discussed in the 2014 edition of the National Emergency Communications Plan.

This intensive three day course provides lectures, student exercises and interactive discussions. More than 1,000 hams have completed this course which trains qualified amateur radio operators to assist their local, county and state governments with emergency backup communications.

Details for registration for the course will be provided at hamvention.org beginning February 1st. Applicants must meet all prerequisites and provide documentation to attend this class. Registration will close when the class limit of 50 qualified students has been reached. (W8HJR)

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ENFORCEMENT: FCC AFFIRMS $11,500 FINE TO PENNSYLVANIA HAM

The FCC Enforcement Bureau has affirmed an $11,500 fine against Brian Crow, K3VR, of North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, for deliberately interfering with other Amateur Radio communications. The FCC had first proposed the fine last July, and it released a Forfeiture Order on January 13. The FCC said it imposed the financial penalty because of Crow’s “willful and repeated violation” of Section 333 of the Communications Act and of Sections 97.101(d) and 97.119(a) of the Amateur Service rules “by causing intentional interference to licensed radio operations and failing to transmit his assigned call sign.”

On July 22, 2014, the FCC also issued a similarly-worded NAL to Michael Guernsey, KZ8O of Parchment, Michigan, proposing to fine him $22,000. In both cases, the FCC said the evidence indicated that the transmissions at issue were aimed at interfering with other radio amateurs with whom each licensee “had a long-standing and well-documented dispute” that had spilled out onto the air.

The Enforcement Bureau had warned both Guernsey and Crow in the past regarding interference to other Amateur Radio operators. In Crow’s case, the FCC said the fact that he subsequently interfered with other amateur operators “demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the Commission’s authority,” warranting an upward adjustment of $3500 to his proposed base forfeiture. Guernsey’s case is still pending. (FCC)

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WEBNOTES: ARRL LIBRARY NOW ON LINE

The ARRL Library is now online. Here is Geri Goodrich KF5KRN:

This online library is a repository of educational presentations and oral histories. It will initially consist of three major areas. These will include: PowerPoint presentations that may be used at club meetings, outreach efforts to the general public or other public presentations; PDFs of general educational material about amateur radio; and oral histories of radio amateurs describing their personal experiences with amateur radio. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Geri Goodrich KF5KRN, in Topeka, Kansas. You’ll find the ARRL Library on the web at arrl.org/library.

(ARRL)

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NAMES IN THE NEWS: YASME FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES ACTIONS

The Board of Directors of the YASME Foundation has announced the recipients of its Excellence Awards for the just-past 2014 year. Winners include Kimo Chun KH7U; Dick Flagg AH6M; Florin-Cristian [PRED-eh-shoe] Predescu, YO9CU and Lisa Leenders, PA2LS.

The Yasme Excellence Award is presented to individuals who, through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. The contribution may be in recognition of technical, operating or organizational achievement, as all three are necessary for amateur radio to grow and prosper.

The YASME Board also approved several grants to organizations. These include the California Historical Radio Society, the Foundation for Amateur Radio, Region One of the International Amateur Radio Union; the Egyptian Radio Amateurs Society for Development, the World-Wide Radio Operators Foundation, the ARRL Foundation and the ARRL Second Century Fund.

The Yasme Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized to conduct scientific and educational projects related to amateur radio, including DXing and the introduction and promotion of amateur radio in developing countries.
(YASME Foundation release)

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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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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: FCC LICENSES WIDEBAND HF DATA COMM EXPERIMENTS

The FCC recently granted two companies experimental licenses to use High Frequency bands for data communications at far greater bandwidths and data rates than have been used by amateur radio operators in the USA.

Writing in TV Technology, Doug Lung says the license application by MITRE is to use HF modes with emission designators of 5K00Q3N, 500KD7D, 500Q3N, 500W7D, 1M00D7D, 1M00Q3N and 1M00D7W. 1M00 has a necessary bandwidth of 1 MHz.

The company hopes to achieve reliable HF communications at a data rate between 1 and 4 bits per Hertz per second. MITRE said it will develop a 100 kHz bandwidth waveform that can achieve approximately 256 kbps with forward error-correction coding. More is at tinyurl.com/nprsuje (TV Tech, Southgate)

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WORLDBEAT: UK REGULATOR OFCOM CONSULTATION ON SPECTRUM ABOVE 6 GHZ

United Kingdom telecommunications regulator Ofcom has announced a consultation on bands above 6 GHz for that nation’s next generation of wireless communications. With that story from the UK, here is Jeremy Boot G4NJH:

In its Notice of Proposed Rule Making, Ofcom is seeking views on spectrum bands above 6 GHz that might be suitable for future mobile communication services, often referred to as ‘5G’ – the 5th generation of mobile services. The exact nature of 5G is not yet defined, but to lay the foundations for its future introduction, Ofcom needs to understand how it might use spectrum.

5G is likely to provide much faster mobile broadband speeds than the current generation of mobile technology and the use of large blocks of spectrum is likely to be important to achieve the fastest speeds. Large blocks of spectrum are difficult to find at lower frequencies; therefore higher frequency bands, above 6 GHz for example, are likely to be important. (Ofcom, Southgate)

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RESTRUCTURING: CZECH REPUBLIC HAMS GET EXPANDED 60 METER SPECTRUM

Following last year's 5 Hz amateur operation in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the Czech telecommunications regulator, together with the Czech Ministry of Defense, have agreed to changes in 5MHz permits for that nation’s radio amateurs.

The number of 5 MHz channels available under the new 2015 permit has been increased from 6 to 12, and a substantial number of these have been aligned internationally, primarily with the UK and also the US allocations.

This action brings the Czech Republic's 5 MHz allocation in line with that found in various nations, and will give that nation’s hams greater access to contacts worldwide in the 60 meter band. (GB2RS)

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WORLDBEAT: VK TO ONE WAY ON 600 METERS

It has yet to be certified as a record, but using the new OPERA Dynamic Medium- and Low-frequency beacon mode, VK5CV transmitted at 16.30 GMT on 15th January using 477kHz and was spotted by G8HUH, receiving at -37dB.

Data recovered from the PSK-Map database shows the capture to fit exactly with the OPERA Dynamic time signature. Opera Dynamic provides an additional 5 or 6dB gain over the conventional Opera Beacon, and is automatically engaged should the decoder fail. The facility is linked to the OP8 477kHz and OP32 136kHz modes only.

VK5CV reported using 50 watts carrier power into a 160 meter inverted L with a base-loaded variable inductor to resonate it to the 477 kHz frequency. Those involved say that this may have been one of the 'Flash' propagation events linked to that Medium Frequency band. To date, a two-way contact on 600 meters between Australia and Europe has yet to be achieved. (GB2RS)

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DX

In DX, word that the Rockall DX Group travelled to Iran to put Kish Island on the air through January 31st. The callsign will be EP6T and they will have five high-powered stations on the air. QSLs go via M0URX.

VE7BV will be active stroke TG9 from Guatemala between January and February 17th. He plans a holiday style operation on 20, 17 and 15 meters using CW and SSB. QSL via his home callsign, direct, by the bureau or electronically using Logbook of the World.

And listen out for Special event station TC100GLB to be operational until April 30th to commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli 100 years ago. Activity is on the HF bands using SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL via TA1CM.

Lastly, KC0W will be in Haiti operating stroke HH5 until the 3rd of February. This is a CW-only expedition on 160, 80 and 40m. QSLs go directly to his home callsign.

(This weeks DX courtesy of OPDX and the RSGB)

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THAT FINAL ITEM: THE SUNSPOTS ARE STILL HERE

And finally this week, we may be on the declining portion of the latest solar cycle, but don't try to tell that to our home star, the Sun, which is still whipping up some good solar out bursts.

The latest flare peaked at 04:24 UTC on January 13th. Classified by solar scientists as an M5.6-class flare, it came from Sunspot AR2257. This particular solar flare caused a pulse of extreme UV radiation, which ionized Earth’s upper atmosphere over Australia and the Indian Ocean. It might have caused a brief communications blackout at frequencies below about 10 MHz.

An M-class solar flare is considered the second-most powerful type of solar flare, on a scale with five. The weakest are A-class flares, followed by B, C, M, and X-classes. A, B, and C-class flares are too weak to have consequences for Earth. X-class flares are the most intense and 10 times as powerful as an M-class flare.

M-class flares can cause short radio blackouts at the poles, and can be hazardous for orbiting astronauts. A powerful flare can disrupt GPS and other communications systems. The strongest solar flare ever observed happened on November 4, 2003, during the maximum of the last solar cycle. In the January 13th event, there was no significant coronal mass ejection escaping from the site of the flare. This means there was no increased sun-Earth interaction with this event, and no geomagnetic storm. (Tamitha Skov, Earthsky.com, NASA-SOHO)


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NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, 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 Don Wilbanks AE5DW in New Orleans and Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF/6, in the hospital in Los Angeles with the portable editors' desk, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm)is copyright 2015 and all rights are reserved.

 

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