Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2080 for Friday, September 8, 2017 Audio - https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2080.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2080 with a release date of Friday, September 8, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. For hams, it's all eyes as Hurricane Irma storms through the Caribbean. Radio operators in India help with monsoon safety and supplies -- and RadioGrams surface as an important resource in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston, Texas region. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2080 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** PAUL/ANCHOR: This has been a season of challenging weather worldwide. Our top story this week is Hurricane Irma which, at the time Newsline went to production, was sweeping through the Caribbean and taking aim squarely at Florida in the U.S. Kent Peterson KC0DGY talked to Bobby Best WX4ALA about this historic weather system. KENT'S REPORT: BOBBY: Hurricane Irma is the second strongest hurricane ever in the Atlantic basin second only to hurricane Allen in 1980. KENT: Newsline reporter Bobby Best WX4ALA is also a broadcast meteorologist who says there are some similarities in this hurricane season to ones from the past. BOBBY: It's mindful of 2005 but but if you look at Jose right behind Irma, it makes you wonder KENT: Best says a lot was learned from all the storms of 2005. BOBBY: We learned a tremendous amount not only from Katrina but from that entire year 2005. We ran out of names we went into alpha beta naming hurricanes we had so many. And we did learn a tremendous account And I want to give credit April 27th of 2011, the largest super outbreak of of tornadoes. We learned a lot about ham radio operators coming in and providing emergency communication assistance to law enforcement, rescue personal etc. KENT: Best thinks hams in the surrounding area will be in a good position to help. BOBBY: Hams in the panhandle are not likely be affected by Irma. Additionally Alabama hams have been placed on standby to assist Florida if necessary. KENT: When this report was being prepared on Wednesday afternoon Best said the National Hurricane HF network was up and running. As Irma slowly moves to the west, the HF net should be getting a lot of good info in and get some good info out to hopefully save some lives. By Friday the latest models are predicting a right hand turn for Irma sometime between Friday night. Just how far a turn could make all the difference in the world for people in Florida. If it makes enough of a turn it would mean the east coast of Florida would be on the east side of Irma which is the least powerful side. At that time we would be relying on local VHF and UHF nets along with the 75 meter with the Florida State Net. With thanks to Newsline's Bobby Best WX4ALA, I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline. ** EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO MONSOONS IN INDIA PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, South Asia has been struggling with the effects of powerful monsoons - but just like their counterparts in the U.S. and the Caribbean, the monsoon victims were able to rely on ham radio, as we hear from Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF JIM's REPORT: As the United States continued to count the toll from Hurricane Harvey's assault on the Houston, Texas area, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh were struggling with brutal monsoons that brought the subcontinent its worst rain in decades. In India, amateur radio operators were dispatched in Pune and Mumbai where public transportation was immobilized by flooding and electricity was cut off. Amateurs Satish Shah VU2SVS and Ankur Puranik VU2AXN were among those in Mumbai bringing food and resources to a local school where children were stranded. Even with VHF equipment in short supply, amateurs were able to make connections using an app that turns a smartphone or tablet into a walkie-talkie - Zello, the same app that proved useful to U.S. rescuers during Hurricane Harvey. Communications in the affected region in India were being overseen by Jayu S. Bhide VU2JAU, the national coordinator for disaster communication in India. He reported that hams in East Bengal and Patna were involved in getting emergency traffic passed. There were no reports of ham involvement in Bangladesh but the big challenge remains the same now as in many other storm-hit areas: the need for safe, fresh drinking water and available food. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jim Meachen ZL2BHF (SOUTHGATE AMATEUR RADIO NEWS) ** RADIO-GRAMS TO THE RESCUE PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, back in the U.S., hams continued to help Harvey victims get what they needed. Sometimes it was just a comforting note from home, as we hear from Christian Cudnik K0STH. CHRISTIAN'S REPORT: Even though the emergency in Houston, Texas was far away from his home in western New York, Luke Calianno N2GDU of Lancaster was able to assist people struggling in the hurricane's aftermath. As the emergency coordinator for the Lancaster ARES Emergency Alert System, Luke was connecting worried relatives with family members affected, perhaps even stranded, in the Gulf region after Harvey. Luke told WIVB television that he has been able to send messages through Radio-Grams. These are not unlike the ones deployed locally right there in the Buffalo, New York area when a major snowstorm takes down the communications infrastructure, affecting even the cell towers. He said the Radio-Grams, which provide written versions of the messages phoned in to the ham operators, have successfully made it to shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi too. The Radio-Grams not only got the word through but in most cases also delivered a whole lot of reassurance. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Christian Cudnik K0STH (WIVB-TV) ** SPEAK UP: FCC REVIEWING ITS REGULATIONS PAUL/ANCHOR: The FCC is looking to change some of its technical regulations and wants to hear from you. Jim Damron N8TMW has more on that. JIM'S REPORT: If you have suggestions or an opinion on technical regulation reform for radio, you have until October 30th to let the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology know about it. The FCC's Technical Advisory Council has opened a public inquiry, looking to either update existing regulations or adopt new ones. The FCC wants the council to single out any rules that are obsolete or in need of being brought up-to-date. The Council also wants comments on how the agency's regulatory process on specific technical rules could become more efficient. The agency stresses that the issues being considered are those of a technical nature. If you have an opinion on this or want to share thoughts, file your comments in ET Docket 17-215 using the agency's Electronic Comment Filing System. You can get additional information from Walter Johnston, the TAC working group's FCC liaison or Greg Lapin N9GL, who chairs the ARRL RF Safety Committee and represents the ARRL on the Council. Again, keep in mind that deadline of October 30th. Meanwhile, the FCC has updated its regulations as they affect wireless devices, radio-controlled models, medical implant devices and personal locator beacons. At the same time, the agency moved to allow new digital applications for the General Mobile Radio Service, setting up intervening channels and extending licenses from 5-year terms to 10 years. The agency also gave additional channels to the FRS, allowing greater power on certain channels, up to 2 watts as well as CB radio operators being given permission to use hands-free headsets. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Damron N8TMW (FCC, ARRL) ** BREAK HERE Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WI9HF repeater sponsored by the Capital City Repeater Association in Madison Wisconsin, which airs our report at 7:30 on Tuesday nights. ** NO FLAGGING INTEREST IN THIS AUSTRALIAN EVENT PAUL/ANCHOR: There are serious contests and then there, well, contests like this one in southeastern Australia. It involves flagpoles, as we hear from Jason Daniels VK2LAW JASON'S REPORT: If you like to take your radio contests seriously, well, think again: The Flagpole Challenge of Australia's Manly-Warringah Radio Society invites radio operators to bring their rig, their flagpole, an antenna for the flagpole and - oh yes - a sense of humor to this competition. It's taking place on the 16th of September starting at 0000 UTC and will run for 14 hours -- locally that's 10 a.m. to midnight in southeastern Australia. Interested amateurs can even bring a flag for the flagpole; in fact, it will score you some bonus points. You get bonus points for portable or maritime operation. All amateur frequencies, including those utilizing repeaters, may be used for the contest. The winner is simply the radio operator who scores the most points. It's that easy. The hardest thing may well be selecting what kind of flag to fly. But remember, any flag at all gains you 10 extra points. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (MANLY-WARRINGAH RADIO SOCIETY) ** KENTUCKY NET MAKES DEBUT ON 220 MHz PAUL/ANCHOR: Who doesn't love trying out a new net? Hams in Kentucky just got one to look forward to on Sundays. For those details we hear from Jack Prindle AB4WS, who shares this report from Amateur News Weekly. JACK: A new net is being held on East Kentucky 220 link system every Sunday night at 8:50 p.m. Eastern Time. The system includes a 224.720 repeater with a PL of 203.5 in Perry County, the 224.980 machine in Clay County, the 224.520 repeater in Pike County, the 224.960 repeater with a PL of 203.5 in Letcher County and the 224.820 with a PL of 100 Hertz in Knox County. All the repeaters are linked and they invite all hams to join in and blow the dust off your 220 gear. Covering your amateur radio news in the greater Cincinnati area and the Commonwealth of Kentucky this is Jack Prindle AB4WS in Big Bone, Kentucky. PAUL/ANCHOR: For more news of the Cincinnati-Ohio-Kentucky area you can hear the Amateur News Weekly podcast at amateurnewsweekly.com ** REMEMBERING A SILENT KEY'S LOVE OF CODE PAUL/ANCHOR: At the end of September, amateurs will polish up their best Code for an event that honors a ham who was likely one of CW's biggest proponents until her death: Nancy Kott WZ8C. Heather Embee KB3TZD has the details. HEATHER'S REPORT: When Nancy Kott WZ8C became a Silent Key in 2014 at the age of 58, she left behind a legacy of good work in the ham community and most especially her years of devotion to promoting Code on the air. The Nancy Kott Memorial KN-ZERO-WCW (KN0WCW) event honors her each year, as it will this year during the last weekend of September. The on-air celebration is not a contest, say organizers, but a communal recognition of her work with the FISTS CW club. The Michigan radio operator was head of what became the Americas Chapter of FIST. She had also been editor of the magazines WorldRadio and WorldRadio Online. Her advocacy for learning Code made Nancy an inductee in the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2014. A special QSL card honoring Nancy will be available to hams who work the Americas Club callsign KN-ZERO-WCW. The event will be held on all HF amateur bands, between 0001UTC Saturday the 30th of September and 0600UTC on Monday the 2nd of October. For more details, visit the website fistsna dot org (fistsna.org) For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee KB3TZD. (THE YL BEAM) ** THE WORLD OF DX Tev TA1HZ and Golkem TA7AZC are in Morocco until the 13th of September as CN2HZ and CN2ZC respectively. They will participate in WAE DX - SSB Contest with their CN callsigns. Their logs will be uploaded to LoTW. The QSL manager for CN2HZ is LZ3HI. For CN2ZC please send directly to TA7AZC. Be listening for Hans PA3HGT operating as 3B8/PA3HGT from Mauritius through the 22nd of September. He is on the air holiday style on 40/20/10 meters using SSB and possibly some digital modes. Send QSLs via his home callsign, direct or by the Bureau. If you're a fan of Special Events, you can contact a group of Colombian operators using the special callsign 5K300PF through the 15th of September. The hams are commemorating the visit of Pope Francis. They are operating on all modes and bands. Send QSLs via HK1X. Be listening too for Bodo DF8DX active from Algeria as 7Y0A from the 11th of September to the 22nd. Bodo will be on the HF bands using SSB as well as CW. QSL via info on QRZ.com. (OHIO PENN DX BULLETIN) ** KICKER: SUMMITS IN THE SKY?? PAUL/ANCHOR: Our last story redefines the concept of going on the air - largely because it involves amateur radio operators wearing parachutes. And using them! With this story, we hear from Mike Askins KE5CXP. MIKE's REPORT: If you remember the time you took that big leap into ham radio, perhaps you can relate, even a little, to Rob KC6TYD, Troy W7BIG and Mark AF6IM. When these three took their leap as amateurs just a few weeks ago, it was out of an airplane flying at an altitude of twelve thousand feet over Tracy, California. Parachute Mobile Mission 28 in late August marked the team's latest try as Parachute Mobile operators, activating a piece of the sky for their very own twist on Summits on the Air. Rob said the four jumps made at Skydive California consisted of three operations on 2 meters with the last one being an HF activation on 20 meters. The team logged a total of 62 contacts, 12 of them on HF. Although almost all the stations they logged were in and around central California, the team did score a contact in Florida which -- yes -- counts as DX. Rob told Newsline that the hard part wasn't the jump itself but getting ready to go on - and in - the air. Setting up the gear and completing the safety checklist and manifest can take up to 30 minutes, with another 30- to 40-minute wait for an airplane. Then - the pressure is on! "Keep in mind," he told us, "the jumper only has about a ten to fifteen minute window to make as many QSOs as possible." The team isn't quite done yet. Mission 29 is is next on the agenda, and that's in a few short weeks. It's scheduled for October 21st. Visit their website parachutemobile.wordpress.com for more details. As Rob noted, plans for that are anything but up in the air. For Amateur Radio Newsline, with my feet definitely planted on the ground, I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP. (PARACHUTE MOBILE, ROB FENN KC6TYD) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; the FCC; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Irish Radio Transmitters Society; the Manly-Warringah Radio Society; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; Parachute Mobile; Rob Fenn KC6TYD; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the Times of India; Victoria News; WIVB-TV; WTWW Shortwave; the YL Beam; 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 located 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 Paul Braun WD9GCO in Valparaiso Indiana saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.
A parade of hurricanes in the Caribbean, monsoons in Asia, large fires in the Pacific Northwest, collapse of ice shelves in the Antarctic...and yet there is still denial that humans are doing anything to the atmosphere. Well, I'm old enough to remember when the same arguments were used about smoking and lung cancer.
With smoking and lung cancer, it is easy to trace the cause (the cigarette) and the effect (smoke damage to the lungs of the user). Trying to make a comparison to something as complex as climate, into which there are all kinds of inputs, and trying to say that humans are the cause is a case that is yet to be made. How much of the climate is cyclical? With cycles that might go on for thousands of years? How much is due to changes in the complex power output of the Sun? How much of it is due to things in the ocean that we can't even track because our subs don't go that deep? Accurate meteorological records have been kept for maybe 150 years. That's a pretty small window into a system that has been running for a very long time. The case just isn't clear.
That's not what I've read. Humans are a contributing cause to what may be a long-term natural cycle, causing extraordinary measures to be taken to deal with an extraordinary set of consequences, the full extent of which are unknown.
Until somebody can put a number on that (e.g., "humans are 12.75% contributors to an otherwise abnormal warming trend"), how can anybody say for sure? If human activity is 100% responsible for harmful climate change, and that can be proven, then you have a case for adjusting human behavior to arrest the damage. If human activity is 5% responsible for harmful climate change, and natural forces are 95% responsible for that change, then you don't have much of a case for making large changes that harm others' livelihoods. Until there is a number that takes into account all of the other contributing forces to a "harm" that can be quantified, speculating about human responsibility for changes in climate isn't really a discussion that can be conducted on the facts. Granted, that certainly doesn't stop people from trying.
Granted correlation of events does not prove causation, but the basic mechanics of the Greenhouse Effect have been understood for well over a century. All those heat trapping gases we're putting into the atmosphere have to be doing something. (When I was born in 1950 the CO2 level was about 310 ppm, now it is 407.) Plus you have feedback effects due to a warming ocean, possible methane release, etc. (And let's not forget the side effect of ocean acidification.) I agree the atmosphere is very complex and expect that 100% certainty will never be achieved, but to do little or nothing is to make a decision to just hope for the best.
Lets consider the Great Lakes. They were formed by receding glaciers millions of years ago. The glaciers receded before there were power plants emitting green house gasses, before women used hair spray, before cars had air conditioning, before cars burned gasoline, etc., etc., etc. Scientist have proven that climate change is cyclical. The climate cycles were occurring long before Al Gore and the liberals with their Godless agenda invented the lie called global warming. Yes the climate is changing. The climate has been changing since GOD created everything. The climate will continue to change (cycle) until GOD decides enough is enough and wipes out everything he created. The bible says that there is nothing new under the sun. I say not even global warming. Man needs to stop trying to be something he is not... Only GOD controls the climate. Not Al gore and not the liberals with their Godless agenda.
With our love of beef, have we reached the point that cow methane output equals or surpasses Dinosaur methane? What kind of impact did dinosaur farts have on the Ozone layer? Is our love of beef destroying the planet? Become an environmental activist. Eat more possum.
You have got to be kidding. Do really expect anyone to read all that? When creating a thread try to make it brief and to the point. Then later on elaborate on what you want to say, and talk about. Sorry moving on, not interested in reading a book.
