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Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1979 October 2 2015

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by KB7TBT, Oct 2, 2015.

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  1. KB7TBT

    KB7TBT Ham Member QRZ Page

    Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1979 October 2 2015

    Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1979 with a release date of Friday, October 2, 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

    The following is a QST. Amateur radio mourns the loss of Wes Schum, W9DYV, a pioneer in single sideband. ARRL veteran staffer Perry Williams, W1UED, becomes a Silent Key. An email scam targets amateurs. More delays as the FCC processes license exams. And Pennsylvania prepares for its QSO party. All this and more in Amateur Radio Newsline report 1979 coming your way right now.

    (Billboard Cart Here and Intro)

    WES SCHUM DEATH/TRIBUTE

    The man who could be called the father of single sideband on amateur radio is a silent key. Wes Schum, W9DYV passed away last week at the age of 94. Wes Schum founded Central Electronics in 1949, the first product that Central Electronics manufactured was a hearing aid device.

    But radio was what Wes envisioned for CE. He had a budding interest in single sideband during World War II. He and colleague Joe Batchelor began development of amateur SSB transmitters for use on 75 meters. The Central Electronics 10-A exciter, the company's first amateur product, is credited for being amateur radio's first practical SSB transmitter.

    Wes's story is best told by those who knew him well. One of those is Nick Tusa, K5EF. Nick shared with Ham Nation viewers how he and Wes Schum met and struck up a decades long friendship.

    [TUSA audio - 3:23]

    Wes Schum, W9DYV. The next time you call CQ on single sideband send up a little thank you in memory of this unsung amateur radio pioneer.


    **

    PERRY WILLIAMS, SILENT KEY

    Perry Williams, W1UED, a veteran ARRL staffer and the League’s former Washington Coordinator, became a Silent Key on Sept. 25. Williams’ tenure with the League included a stint in Washington, D.C., speaking on Capitol Hill on behalf of amateur radio, assisting the ARRL’s general counsel, and communicating with the FCC on behalf of the League.

    The Unionville, Connecticut, ham had worked for the ARRL for four decades before retiring in 1994, the same year he was named Dayton Hamvention’s Amateur of the Year. In 2002, he returned as part-time archivist, a position he held until 2011.
    Remarking on Williams’ decades of contributions, ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ said, QUOTE“If Perry didn’t know something about ARRL history, it wasn’t worth knowing.”ENDQUOTE Williams died just weeks before what would have been his 87th birthday.


    **

    PHISHING

    If you use an arrl.net email alias and the ARR L email forwarding service, be on the lookout for a phishing scam. A number of ARRL members have reported to the League that they received an email from “Arrl Webmail Admin” with “account upgrade” in the subject line. The email requests such personal information as user names and passwords, and includes a bogus message telling the recipient that the accounts are being removed and upgraded to an enhanced service. The ARRL emphatically states this is not an official message and is cautioning recipients of these emails.

    Andy Shefrin, KB1YHB, the ARRL’s IT Infrastructure and Operations Manager, says: QUOTE“The ARRL is aware of this phishing scheme and is working to block the sender’s email address at our upstream provider. As with any emails of unknown origin, do not open or reply.”ENDQUOTE

    In short, ignore it. If you do develop problem with e-mail forwarding, contact the ARRL IT Department. And be careful out there.

    **

    UPSET OVER THE UPGRADE

    Hoping for streamlined service under the FCC’s Universal Licensing System’s electronic batch filing, hams are growing impatient and disappointed. The FCC’s IT staff has been looking into why, despite the website’s server switchover in early September, recent VEC license and examination files aren’t being processed. The ARRL’s VEC Manager, Maria Somma, AB1FM, said her office has been pressing the FCC to correct the situation which she said came as QUOTE“a bit of a surprise.”

    She said even the license search function was only working sporadically. Stay tuned. And continue to stand by.

    **
    RETIRING AT 88

    Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, chairman of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station-Europe (ARISS-EU) has announced that Emanuele D’Andria, I0EL, will be his successor. Bertels is retiring following a service that began when the ARISS Working Group was formed 15 years ago. His contributions included the installation of ham radio equipment and antennas on the ISS Columbus module and the installation and commissioning of Ham TV DATV on the ISS.
    ARISS members include AMSAT organizations in Belgium, France, Italy, Sweden, and the UK, and the IARU member societies in Italy, Germany, Poland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the UK. IARU member societies in Malta and Lebanon are associate members.

    Bertels told the ARRL it was time to step down. He said “I’m now 88 and slowing down a bit.


    ***
    DON’T KEEP YOUR OPINION TO YOURSELF

    Yes, opinions count. That’s why the Radio Society of Great Britain has invited all licensed amateurs in the UK to go online and complete a questionnaire to help it update the society’s strategic goals. The survey will be accessible through Dec. 31, and the data will be published on the RSGB website with a summary in RadCom during the first quarter of 2016. Find the questionnaire at http://www.rsgb.org/ar-survey

    The CQ World Wide DX Contest Committee is also conducting a survey, mainly to get feedback from participants in the last three years’ contests. The committee is making the 10-minute survey available in five languages and has sent links to it via email to any ham who submitted a log in last year’s SSB and CW events. Deadline to complete the survey is Oct. 10

    And finally, here’s one questionnaire that really paid off: K3DN, the Warminster Amateur Radio Club in Pennsylvania, surveyed its members to get to know them better, and recently released results of that 2015 first-quarter survey. With 81 responses out of 120 requests sent out, here’s what they learned: Most of the club members have been licensed for more than 20 years, and nearly 60 percent of them hold an Extra Class license. The majority of club members are older than 50, and 41 percent are retired. The survey also reported that these longtime Warminster hams are decidedly progressive and forward-thinking. The results showed that in addition to participating in the newer digital modes, members’ highest levels of interest were both in homebrew and new radio equipment.

    **

    BREAK 1:

    This is Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world and brought to you by the volunteer services of the following radi amateur:

    **

    ELMERS FOR ETHIOPIA

    [ANCHOR]: Any ham who’s ever been an Elmer to another ham knows that, to be truly helpful, you sometimes have to be willing to go the distance. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Stephen Kinford spoke with one ham who did just that – going many hundreds of miles, in fact, as part of a team of Elmers helping young hams in Ethiopia.

    [STEPHEN KINFORD’S REPORT]:

    Ken Claerbout, K4ZW, is an electrical engineer and a member of the Potomac Valley Radio Club near his home in Stafford, Virginia. But sometimes you can catch him on operating out of the ET3AA club station in Ethiopia where he has been part of a team that includes Bob Schenck, N-2-OH-OH (N2OO), of the Old Barney Amateur Radio Club in XXXX. The veteran radio amateurs have been lending moral and technical support to the 20 or so students at Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Technology. Claerbout had already been traveling to Ethiopia on business more than two years ago when he first heard that the student hams needed a helping hand.

    [4:10 – 5:13] “Being a very active ham …kind of picked up from there.”

    Basic mentoring, in this case, meant helping the students prepared to test for licenses and to fix or replace equipment, even getting donations.

    [6:07 “What happened……………replacement radio.” [7:12]

    The licensing issue remains, for now unresolved. In Ethiopia, where ham radio licenses are rare, the government will only issue a license to the club, not to the students themselves. Many of them instead have U.S. licenses. There are, unfortunately, some things that even the best of Elmers can’t fix. But Clearbout and his team are working on it. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephen Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio.

    **
    DIFFERENT KIND OF CONTEST

    Listen up: The European Space Agency needs your ears and they’ll make it worth your while. The ESA is inviting hams to listen for the AAUSAT-5 CubeSat that was built by Danish students at the University of Aalborg. The International Space Station is expected to release the CubeSat sometime during the week of Oct. 5. The CubeSat has been poised for its launch since it was sent up to the space station on Aug. 19. Once it’s deployed, it will begin its transmissions, and the race is on for hams to record them and send them on.

    The first ham to record the CubeSat’s signal and send it, via email, to the ESA’s Education Office can count on receiving a prize. They include a poster of the AAUSAT-5 with the team members’ signatures; a scale 1:1 3-D printed model of the satellite and what the ESA Education Office is describing as a “goodie bag.” The satellite will transmit on 437.425 MHz using CW and GMSK. There will be a 30 WPM beacon every 3 minutes and a 9600 bps GMSK every 30 seconds.

    The ESA will receive entries at cubesats@esa.int.
    **
    CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME

    Speaking of contests, here’s an opportunity that’s Golden, in more ways than one. The California QSO Party is marking its 50th running with a new take on the Gold Rush on October 3 and 4. The California county-by-county challenge is offering a commemorative coin to qualifying hams who work any combination of special event station suffixes to spell the words “GOLD RUSH.” Those stations would include such call signs as N6G, N6O, K6L and N6D, for example. To quality, operators must also log at least 150 QSOs; for California hams, at least 75 of those QSOs should be outside California.

    For a more thorough explanation of the rules, visit the contest website at cqp.org/

    **

    BREAK 2:

    Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the linked repeater system of the Barstow Amateur Radio Club, WA6TST, in Barstow, California on most Tuesday evenings at 7.

    ** **

    PA QSO PARTY

    ANCHOR: The Pennsylvania QSO Party - called the "Friendly Party" by its organizers - arrives on the amateur bands next weekend. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramowicz, NT3V has the preview....

    [MARK’S REPORT]: The Nittany Amateur Radio Club in State College, Pennsylvania, is sponsor of this event which traces its roots back to 1957.

    Michael Coslo, N3LI, is chairman of this year's PA Party.

    <coslo 1>"The goal is to operate as many counties as possible and as many sections as possible and as many individual contacts as possible if you're from Pennsylvania," Coslo explains. "If you are outside of Pennsylvania, you want to get as many contacts as possible and as many counties as possible. The big goal in the party is to get all 67 counties."

    And, there is also a bonus station running multi-multi (that's multiple operators, multiple stations) in Wyoming County in northeastern Pennsylvania. Coslo says it's worth a bunch of points each time you work it...

    <coslo 4>"Our bonus station this year is KQX group," Coslo says. "They're using the call sign W3C. We had KQX group do it a few years ago and they did a good job and so we're happy to have them doing it again."

    Coslo says one of the issues coming up in the online forums and the PA QSO Party Reflector is the the appropriateness of spotting stations...

    "We not only allow spotting, we encourage it," Coslo says. "We're about people getting out there and getting QSOs. And, that ends up being kind of important for the mobiles. And, they get more contacts, people get more counties and overall it's a lot more fun."

    Coslo says last year he saw an increase in the number of logs and with good propogation, he's expecting an increase this year, too.

    To find out more about the party, go to our website, www.arnewsline.org and click on the script link and scroll down for the PA QSO Party web address.....

    http://www.nittany-arc.net/PAQSO.html

    For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia.

    PIG REVISITED

    The Pig has landed. That’s the report from Andrew Garratt M-ZERO-N-R-D (M0NRD) who, as Amateur Radio Newline reported last week, launched Pinky Pig, a payload tracker, on a high-altitude balloon at the National Hamfest in the UK. He reports that the porker’s flight, and the flight of its backup tracker, Piglet, were both successful, even after being scrapped for 24 hours due to a wind delay. He writes on the website, amateurradio.com:

    QUOTE “Both payload trackers worked flawlessly, PINKY the high speed RTTY successfully sent SSDV as well as telemetry and the backup tracker PIGLET sent the slow speed RTTY telemetry.” Not only did trackers from all over the UK as well as France, Holland and Poland successfully connect, but Pinky and Piglet caused quite a sensation at the Hamfest. Garratt and his family were triumphant later as they recovered both payloads, safely back on earth, still attached to parachutes.

    Garratt reports QUOTE“The payloads had no damage, other than the antenna being bent by the landing.” And there was no damage to anyone’s reputation, either. Strong signals and a good return to earth made it clear these pigs would not be subjected to gentle teasing and would even be spared some ribs.

    (SOUTHGATE AMATEUR RADIO NEWS)

    ** **
    HE DIDN’T NEED ANY JUMPER WIRES

    Mark Meltzer, AF6IM, may have felt a kinship with Pinky and Piglet on September 20: Meltzer was in freefall 13,500 feet above Byron, California after launching himself from a King Air 90 jumpship. He then activated two important pieces of equipment: he deployed a 210-square-foot rectangular ram air canopy, and turned on his chest-mounted Yaesu FT-817 – and probably in that order of priority. With the help of a trailing wire end fed dipole antenna, Meltzer began calling on 28.425, on upper side band. He made a total of 12 contacts while enroute back to earth, but not before switching to 2 meters on FM and grabbing a few more QSOs enroute to the dropzone.

    His jump was, however, just preparation. On Oct, 17, he’ll participate in Parachute Mobile Mission 22 that will take place in conjunction with the ARRL Pacifcon event in San Ramon CA.

    (PARACHUTEMOBILE.ORG)
    **
    RUSSIAN DIGITAL CHALLENGE

    Operators using RTTY and BPSK63 can expect to be kept busy on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, as the Russian Digital Radio Club World Wide Digital Contest gets under way. QSOs on QRP should not exceed 5 watts. According to the club’s website, one of the contest’s main goals is to increase the popularity of digital modes for amateur operators in Russia and to help Russian amateurs compete in these modes at the global level. Contest participants will be working on 160 meters, 80 meters, 40 meters, 20 meters, 15 meters and 10 meters.

    (RUSSIAN DIGITAL RADIO CLUB)


    **
    THE WORLD OF DX

    Be listening for Andrey, RK7A, who wil be active from Morocco beginning Oct. 20 through the 27th, operating as CN2BGB. He will be on single sideband between 160 meters and 10 meters. Send QSL cards via UA6GG.

    PY70FEB will operate in Brazil throughout October with a twofold purpose: celebrating 70 years since the end of World War II, and in tribute to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy. Modes will be CW, digital and single side band. Please send direct QSLs to PS7AB with $2, or by bureau, eQSL and Logbook of the World.

    There are also a couple of good DX opportunities during the upcoming the CQ WorldWide DX Contest on single sideband on Oct. 24 and 25:

    9K, KUWAIT
    The callsign 9K2HN will be active in Kuwait during the contest, with a number of operators working the bands. You can send QSL cards via 9K2HN, by the Bureau, direct or Logbook of the World.

    C3, ANDORRA
    During that same contest, listen for the members of the "Andorran Amateur Radio Union (URA)," who will be active once again as C37NL. They are working as a Multi-Multi entry. QSLs can be sent via C37URA or by the Bureau.

    (OHIO PENN DX NEWSLETTER)


    KICKER: YOU THINK YOU HAD A BAD DAY?

    As radio amateurs, many of us all understand all too well the challenges of putting up and maintaining a tower. But some listeners to a professional radio station in Oklahoma got a rude reception on Sept. 23 when the tower of radio station KGUY, 91.3 FM, took a tumble.

    Not on its own, thankfully – but at the hands of a tower crew from American Tower Corporation, which took the broadcaster’s tower down without first notifying the station it had arrived to do the work.

    Dale Bolton, the public radio station’s director of programming and operations, said a crew had been hired because the 418-foot tower had been standing at an odd angle and was in need of repairs for safety reasons. But, Bolton adds, the timing came as a total surprise. He said QUOTE“it would have been nice if we were able to give our listeners notice.”ENDQUOTE

    Instead, the tower came down, crashing into the satellite dish and brushing the station building before landing in an open field -- right in the middle of a classical music program. It knocked the station off the air, sending anxious listeners to the phones.

    Perhaps, though, the listeners should not have been so shocked. According to an online account from Wireless Estimator, music fans might have been tipped off by the playlist, saying the tower’s dismantling was QUOTE“perhaps timed perfectly by the tower techs for it to pancake upon the earth a t the end of Siegfried’s funeral march blasting from their crew cab.”ENDQUOTE


    (WIRELESS ESTIMATOR)

    ** **

    NEWSCAST CLOSE
    With thanks to Alan Labs, the ARRL, AMSAT News Service; CQ Magazine; the FCC; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; The Irish Radio Transmitter Society; the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter; ParachuteMobile.Org; Southgate Amateur Radio News, TWiT TV, the Russian Digital Radio Club; Wireless Estimator; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Our email address is newsline@arnewsline.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, CA 91350.

    For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Don Wilbanks AE5DW in New Orleans, saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.

    Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
     
  2. KB7TBT

    KB7TBT Ham Member QRZ Page

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