Amateur Radio Newsline" Report 1667 - July 24 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, with some words of thank you to our listeners, heres our Support Fund Administrator Andy Jarema, N6TCQ:

--

In the month of August last year we heard from regular contributors Benton Bonney, W4PE of Orlando; Joseph Bartzi, Jr., KC8DKF of Columbus, OH; William Walters, WA2IBM in San Jose; Stephen Perluss and the South Orange Amateur Radio Association in Mission Viejo.

Also the Albemarle ARC in Earlysville, VA; the Seqouia Amateur Radio Group, N6KRV in Lake Isabella, CA; Leo Halog, KR6EG in San Francisco; The Calveras Amateur Radio Society, N6FRG in Angels Camp; John Rice, KE6YFV in San Pedro and our good friends David, W6AQ & Alice Bell W6QLT in LA.

Via PayPal there was Greg Danes of Alexandria, VA and the 147.590 Echolink Mills Computer & Electronics- W3YNI in Irwin, PA. Also, Warren Anderson- Plymouth, MN; Jim Sellars- Springfield, MO and the SW Missouri Regional Skywarn Spotters; Andrew Hansis- K7FED in Henderson, NV; Tom Stanley- KB7VOO in Bonney Lake, WA; Douglas Gilbert- WA6LXB of West Hills, CA.

It costs almost $1000 a month to gather the news and put these newscasts on the air. Please do what you can to keep these newscasts coming by logging onto our website and going to our PayPal secure contribution link, or contacting us at our Arcadia support fund address given at the end of this newscast. If you choose the easy PayPal route, be sure to include your callsign in the Notes section, so that we can say it on the air.

For now, I'm Andy Jarema, N6TCQ, and thank you.

--

Thank you Andy. Now, Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1667 with a release date of Friday, July 24th, 2009 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. Ham radio says goodbye to a great American legend as Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, passes from the scene. Also, the World Administrative Radio Conference is delayed until 2012, the ARRL meets in Connecticut, DX goes to Twitter and RF ID tags hit the London subway. Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline" report number 1667 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

**

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: WALTER CRONKITE KB2GSD - SK

The man credited with setting the "gold standard" in broadcast journalism has passed away. CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, who once held the title of ''Most Trusted Man in America,'' has passed away. Cronkite died with his family at his bedside on Friday, July 17 after at age 92.

Walter Cronkite became a ham for a slightly different reason than most of us. He was a sailor and loved to be on the water in the boat that he owned. He was also very safety conscious and when some of his colleagues at CBS suggested that he put ham radio gear on board his vessel, he thought it would be a good idea. Only he needed a ham ticket to go with it. Enter two then CBS hams, Rich Moseson, W2VU and Steve Mendelson, W2ML. Back then they were N2BFG and WA2DHF respectively. Rich Moseson tells us how he got drafted as one of the two volunteer examiners that would give Walter Cronkite for his Novice exam:

--

Rich Moseson, W2VU: "I remember my boss at the time, Joel Heller, WA2FFI, who was an Executive Producer at CBS News calling me into his office one day. Steve Mendelsohn and Walter Cronkite were sitting there and he (Heller) said that Mr. Cronkite has decided to get his ham license and wants to take his test. Steve's going to do (supervise) the written test for the Novice and would you be willing to give him the code test. And of coarse I said "yes.""
--

Walter Cronkite was soon KB2GSD and while he was rarely on the air, he was keenly aware of the hobby and its importance. And on two occasion when approached by film maker Dave Bell, W6AQ, he gladly lent his voice and image to a pair of ham radio video's. The second of these was made in 2005 and was called "The ARRL Goes To Washington." It was inspired by then ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, who wanted something to rally ham radio to the danger of Broadband Over Powerline or BPL internet access and the devastating effect it would have on ham radio High Frequency operations. Haynie turned to Dave Bell and his ham radio production team for assistance. Bell once again approached KB2GSD to host the presentation. And with a script written by the late Alan Kaul, W6RCL, Walter Cronkite lent his voice and his image to the fight to restrain BPL

--

Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, audio from The ARRL Goes To Washington: "The Federal Communications Commission is the agency that issues ham radio licenses and regulates amateur radio. Congress created the FCC an like a mindful parent it occasionally overrules the agency, a fact of which Jim Haynie is well aware. Thats important because at this exact moment the FCC is pushing a controversial Internet access scheme caulked Broadband Over Powerline or BPL."

--

According to Dave Bell, having Walter Cronkite as host of the ARRL Goes To Washington is what made the video the effective anti BPL tool that it was:

--

Dave Bell, W6AQ: "Getting Walter to host a film about BPL gave it weight that no other person in the entire country could give it. When a Congressman or an executive in Washington of any kind gets a DVD and it says '&narrated by Walter Cronkite' that means its true. And I do not think that film would have been nearly as effective with anybody else narrating it."

--

There have been many accolades written and voiced with the passing of Walter Cronkite. One of the most poignant are the words of FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. He said and we quote:

"One of my fondest memories during my time at the FCC will always be the opportunity I had to get to know the legendary Walter Cronkite. I was privileged to visit with Walter on several occasions and to imbibe some of the unmatchable feel he had for journalism and its crucial role in sustaining a healthy and vibrant democratic dialogue.

On one occasion, in 2007, we shared a platform at a Columbia University forum on the future of the media. By then, Walter had been speaking out for a number of years about excessive media consolidation and the declining resources that were going into journalismparticularly investigative journalism. He ended his remarks this way:

""America is the most prosperous and powerful nation in perhaps the history of the world. We can certainly afford to sustain a media system of which we can be proud.""

I will miss this good and wise man. And the country will miss his sage counsel as we finally begin to grapple with the crisis in journalism that he saw coming long ago. We will best honor Walter Cronkite's memory by tackling this issue with the urgency it deserves.

To which we will add that we too will all miss the man the country came to know as Uncle Walter and ham radio operators came to know as KB2GSD. He was truly an American treasure and we in ham radio were lucky to have him as one of us.

As an aside, Amateur Radio Newsline has prepared a 14 minute audio tribute to Walter Cronkite hosted by Mark Abramowicz, NT3V. Its at our website under Special Reports. Simply scroll down the page and left click to download and save it to your computer. Its our small way of saying farewell to the man America trusted the most and who hams knew by the call letters KB2GSD. (ARNewsaline")

**

THE BPL FIGHT: FCC ISSUES NEW NPRM ON BPL

Speaking about BPL, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States has finally issued new proposed regulation for Broadband over Powerline Internet access. In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking the FCC is seeking comment on the power levels that should be permitted for BPL systems so they don't cause interference with other services.

The new proposal is the result of litigation won by the ARRL last year regarding new requirements and measurement guidelines for Access Broadband over Power Line Systems. So far the ARRL is yet to make known its response to the new proposal. (Southgate)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WC8OH repeater serving Kettering, Ohio.

(5 sec pause here)

**

RADIO POLITICS: WRC 11 BECOMES WRC 12

WRC-11 Is Now WRC-12. This, as the 46-nation ITU Council which is the administrative oversight body of the International Telecommunication Union agrees to move the next World Radiocommunication Conference to 2012.

Originally scheduled for October 24th to November 18th, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Council has proposed January 23rd to February 17th as the new dates. According to ARRL Technical Relations Manager Brennan Price, N4QX, the full ITU membership is now being consulted on the change and responses are due by August 3.

According to Price, the ITU Council had previously proposed dates for fall 2011, but various scheduling conflicts and the lack of available facilities during some weeks made this schedule impractical. (ITU)

**

WITH THE ARRL: BOARD MEETING RESULTS IN BRIEF

The ARRL Board of Directors held its Second Meeting of 2009 in Windsor, Connecticut on July 17th and 18th. According to the League, most of Saturday was devoted to reviewing and revising the ARRL Strategic Plan that was adopted in October 2006.

During the two day gathering the Board considered and acted on a number of organizational, regulatory and operating issues, including the formation of an ad hoc committee to study and prepare guidelines to identify inappropriate use of Amateur Radio. Also looked at was updating of the terms of reference of the Volunteer Consulting Engineer Program; establishing of an Emergency Liaison Station appointment at the national level to link ARRL Headquarters to affected areas during disasters; the formation of a study committee to conduct research and consider developing a plan for narrow-band channel spacing in the VHF and UHF bands.

Several other items were also acted upon. These include the creation of the George Hart Distinguished Service Award to be given for exemplary service in the ARRL Field Organization, and updating the terms of reference for the Bill Leonard, W2SKE, Professional Media Award. The Board also conferred several awards on deserving nominees. (ARRL)

**

WITH THE ARRL: W1AW BULLETINS TO ADD DIGITAL

Still with news from the League, word that its W1AW bulletin station will add new digital modes to its transmitting schedule in mid-August. This following a survey of listeners who say that they want the digital transmissions.

On August 17th W1AW will replace its AMTOR and ASCII transmissions with PSK31 and MFSK16, respectively. RTTY will continue to be the first digital mode used in the transmission schedule. The frequencies used by W1AW for all its digital transmissions will remain the same.

The W1AW operating schedule complete with times and frequencies can be found on the ARRLWeb page .
at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#w1awsked. (ARRL)

**

RESCUE RADIO: THALES INTRODUCES SDR LMR PORTABLE

The US Department of Homeland Security has picked 14 groups from across the country to pilot an ambitious Multi-Band Radio project. This in an attempt to permit all responding units to talk with one another and with incident command no matter what frequency or mode of communication they use. Amateur Radio Newslines's Jeff Clark, K8JAC, tells us about the radio that they will be testing:

--

Currently radios only operate within a specific frequency band. As a result responders are often unable to communicate with other agencies and their support units that operate in different radio frequencies. Having a fully interoperable portable that is comparable to today's single band sets was the reason that the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate in 2008 awarded a $6.2 million contract to Thales Communications. Its job was to develop and demonstrate the first-ever portable radio prototype that lets emergency responders-police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and others-communicate with partner agencies, regardless of the radio band they operate on.

The result of that investment by the government is the Thales Liberty software defined multiband mobile radio which received FCC certification in April. The prototype is capable of operating in the primary public safety bands between 136-174 MHz, 380-520 MHz as well as in the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands. And because it is software defined it can be reconfigured to operate in emerging spectrum that will be dedicated to emergency communications as well.

--

The Liberty radio is made in the U.S. and is the first multiband portable designed specifically for government agencies and first responders. And while it can be programmed to operate across the 2 meter ham band, don't look for very many of them to show up on your local repeater. They are priced at priced at a hefty $4,000 to $6,000, each. (Press release)

**

RADIO EDUCATION: HAMTESTS INTERNATIONAL TO LAUNCH IN THE USA

After successfully running the UK-only Hamtests.co.uk for just over 3 years, HamTests International is launching world-wide starting here in the US with the Technician, General and Amateur Extra license levels. Each randomly generated test will have the same question pools as real tests. 35 Questions in Technician and General practice tests. 50 in Amateur Extra practice tests.

HamTests International will also feature its 10 questions in 10 minutes technique. This is a quick practice designed for when you don't have the time to take a full practice test. It tests your ability to answer questions quickly and thoroughly so that you can ace the real exam on test day.

Yet another feature will allow the questions pools for US tests to be downloaded as a specially formatted PDF files for Sony eBook Readers, but can also be viewed in other ebook readers with PDF reading capability, or on a P C with any standard PDF reader.

To get an idea as to what to expect when the new HamTests Internation website is up and running you can visit Hamtests.co.uk and take a peek. (Southgate)

**

COMMUNICATIONS SAFETY: THE STORY OF THE TEXTING TEEN

Communications can be hazardous to your health. Especially when one is not watching where they are walking because they are text messaging and wind up falling down a manhole.

According to news reports that's exactly what happened as a New York City teenager while she was sending a text message on her cell phone. On June 12th Alexa Longueira was about to send a text to a friend when she fell down the open manhole on Staten Island. The girls suffered only mild cuts and bruises.

Longeueria mother said workers told her they left the manhole uncovered and unattended for only seconds while they went to get cones from their truck. The city's Department of Environmental Protection said it was investigating the incident.

The girl's family said they are planning to file a lawsuit against the city. (Published news reports)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE AND LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND

Turning to the ham radio social scene, entries in the 2009 International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend, have reached 262. Organizers say that this is well on schedule to equal or better last year's total of 406.

Australia currently leads the list with 42 entries, followed by Germany with 40. Some of the more exotic places taking part include light houses or light ships in Egypt, Panama, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Sardinia, Iceland and Namibia.

International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend, which this year begins on August 15th is fast becoming the most popular international event on the ham radio calendar. More information is on-line at illw.net (VK2CE)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: NORTH QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA IN SEPTEMBER

Australia's North Queensland Amateur Radio Convention will be taking place in the garrison city of Townsville from Friday September 18th to Sunday 20th. Daytime events will be happening at James Cook University Douglas Campus with night time events centered on one of the better bistros and convention rooms in the city. The registration deadline for Convention services is Friday August 28th. For an electronic copy of the Venue and Events notes and a Registration Form either surf to the TARC website at www dot tarc dot org dot au or by e-mail to vk4wit (at) wia (dot) org (dot) au (VK4ZZ)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: HAM RADIO HONORS TO W4RA

Some names in the news. First up is former ARRL and IARU president Larry Price, W4RA. He was honored at "Ham Radio 2009" in Germany. This in a presentation made by IARU Vice President Ole Garpestad, LA2RR. Price was honored with the highest Norwegian Radio Relay League award called the Knight of the Order of the Golden Key. The award was given for W4RA many years of service to the IARU, the ARRL and Amateur Radio in general. But that's not all. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, then conferred the title of IARU President Emeritus upon Price. Price served as ARRL President from 1984-1992 and as IARU President from 1999-May 2009. (Southgate)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: FRANK BOLDEN JR., EX-KE4IQB TO HEAD NASA

Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., the former KE4IQB, has been confirmed by the Senate as the twelfth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Bolden commanded Shuttle missions STS-45 and STS-60 and was an active participant in the Space Amateur Radio Experiment or SAREX program.

Bolden's confirmation marks the beginning of his second stint with NASA. His 34-year career with the Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA's Astronaut Office. After joining the office in 1980, he traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions. (NASA)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United States of America, 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)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: K5LBU SAYS SWAZILAND DXPEDITION NEEDS YOU

Charles Frost, K5LBU, better known on the air as Frosty is looking to put together a team of operators to do the CQWW DX SSB Contest in October 2010 from Swaziland. According to Frosty, this would be a 10 or 15 day operation with the contest in the middle. He plans to use one callsign for the contest and the rest of the time you can operate with your own 3DA0 callsign. If you would be interested in going on this operation please contact K5LBU by e-mail to frosty1 (at) pdq (dot)net

**


EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: DX GOES TO TWITTER

DX is going to Twitter. Ast least one DX news source is. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has the details:

--

GB7MBC, one of Europe's busiest DX Clusters, is now on the Twitter social networking system. Postings provide such things as DX news, contests news and solar information. To follow GB7MBC on Twitter, just go to twitter.com/GB7MBC and add it to your list of 'tweets' you follow.

With the growing popularity of ham radio on Twitter its very likely that lots of other activities like radio club bulletins and the like will be soon showing up there as tweets as well. Maybe even a synopses of important Newsline stories will show up sometime soon. We are already looking for a volunteer who is willing to do that.

I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles.

--

More information on Twitter is at www dot twitter dot com. (G0YLM)

**

STATISTICS: 1.5 MILLION NOT WATCHING TV

You might find this one hard to believe, but more than a month after the nationwide switch to all digital television, the AC Nielsen company says that some 1.5 million United States households with television receivers in them remain unready for DTV. The good news is thats down 200,000 households from the 1.7 million households that weren't ready two weeks before the June 12th changeover took place.

The A.C. Neilsen Company is a survey organization that specializes in television viewership statistics. It defines as unready any homes that rely on over-the-air TV and don't have a digital TV set or a DTV-to-analog set-top converter hooked up. It was Nielsen's statistic last January that 5 million homes not prepared for DTV that lead Congress to delay the DTV move to June. Put another way, about 1.5 million people who used to watch TV in the USA are not doing so right now. (MultiChammel OnLine)

**

RADIO FROM SPACEL LUNAR ORBITER PHOTOGRAPHS APOLLO LANDING DITES

NASA has released new photos recently taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures, radioed back to Earth, show the Apollo missions lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface This, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules descent locations very evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reached lunar orbit June 23rd and captured the Apollo sites between July 11th and the 15th. Though it had been expected that orbiter would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came even before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks. Future images from these sites are expected to have two to three times greater resolution. You can see the pictures at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html (NASA)

**

RADIO IN SPACE: THE COLDEST OF THE COLD

Talk about the cold of space. On July 2nd the flight detectors of Planck' spacecraft's High Frequency Instrument reached the amazingly low operating temperature of -273°C and did it by radio.

The cool-down took place as the spacecraft has just entered its final orbit around the second LaGrange point of the Sun-Earth system. Planck is equipped with a passive cooling system that brings its temperature down to about -230°C by radiating heat into space. Three active coolers were ordered to take over from there to bring the temperature down further to an amazing low of -273.05°C. That's only 0.1°C above absolute zero which is the coldest temperature theoretically possible in our universe.

Such low temperatures are necessary for Planck's detectors to study the Cosmic Microwave Background of space. That's the so-called first light released by the universe only 380000 years after the Big Bang that many researchers gave birth to it. It does so by measuring its temperature across the solar sky. (Space)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: OSCAR 5 IN SAT MAGAZINE

The aging Oscar 5 satellite built by Australian radio amateurs at the end of the 1960's is mentioned in the latest issue of SatMagazine. The July through August issue covers the Australian space program and mentions the work of the hams who built Oscar 5 which was launched on January 23, 1970. The article includes a picture of bird which carried transmitters on 29.450 MHz and 144.050 MHz. The July/Aug 2009 issue of SatMagazine is at http://www.satmagazine.com/2009/SatMag_JulAug09.pdf) (WIA)

**

ON THE AIR: CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF BTHE LATVIAN AIRFORCE

The Latvian callsign YL90AIR stands for 90 years airforce in that nation. The commemorative operation will remain on the air through years end. QSL it via bureau or eQSL. (Southgate)

**

ON THE AIR: CELEBRATING SPAIN'S SAN MIGUEL DE PEDROSO HAM GATHERING

On the air, listen out for Spanish special event station EG1SMP to be on the air between July 24th and August 7th, especial during the ham radio gathering in San Miguel de Pedroso between July 25th to the 26th. QSL via the bureau to EA2BT. (Via e-mail)

**

DX

In DX, word that F6ICX, will be active as 5R8IC from Saint Marie Island between November 17th and December 15th. His operation will be on 80-10 meters. QSL via his home callsign.

EA5RM, is expected to be working in Bolivia during the month of August. He says that he expects to be on the air during his spare time as CP1XRM. QSL as directed on the air.

M0TDG and G3ZAY will be active portable FP from Miquelon from September 24th to the 27th. Their activity will be on the low bands using CW and SSB. QSL via their home callsigns.

I1FQH, will be active as 5V7PRF from Kpalime, Togo, through July 30th. This will be a very light DXpedition with activity on 80 through 10 meters using mostly CW and some SSB. He will use 100 watts into a Spiderbeam for 20, 17 and 15m as well as a vertical and wire dipoles for the other bands. QSL to I1FQH via LoTW, eQSL or bureau.

A group of international operators will be operating from Lesotho starting July 29th and continuing through August 13th. Activity will be on all bands with some emphasis on 16o and 80 meters with two stations on most of the time using CW and SSB. There is the possibility of a 3rd station for PSK and RTTY. Calls to listen out for include 7P8AO, 7P8YI, 7P8MM and several others. QSL as directed on the air.

Lastly, DJ7RJ, has received the callsign TO7RJ to be used from Mayotte September 22nd and October 21st. He will then use his call portable FH from October 23rd until he leaves the island on October 25th. Listen out for him on 160 through 10 meters and possibly 6 meters using CW and SSB. QSL via his Callbook address.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: RFID TAGS BEING USED ON LONDON SUBWAY

And finally this week, R F Identification tags that some hams believe could become another serious souce of interference are now being used to assist in maintaining the London subway system. John Williams, VK5BUI, has the details:

--

Confidex, a company with expertise in RFID design, manufacturing and engineering, has supplied more than 10,000 of its Ironside UHF Gen2 hard tags to the London Underground.

The tags are being used to improve escalator maintenance.

The underground escalators carry more than three million passengers every day. Most commuters and tourists don't give the travelling metal staircases a second thought; a fact that is a testament to the reliability of the system and the care taken over the maintenance.

The steps that make up these escalators are subject to constant wear from the feet of passengers and from the mechanical movement on the escalator track.

To address the need for faster, more accurate and more cost-efficient maintenance, RFID technology was chosen. A decision was made to use RFID tags.

The 'step tracking system' uses a PDA with RFID reader mounted on a cradle beside the escalator and application software to read and write information on the tag.

--

So far there have been no reports from the London VHF and UHF ham community of any interference problems being caused by the adoption of the RFID tag system. (WIA News)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's WIA News, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline". Our e-mail 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", P.O. Box

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm David Black, KB4KCH, at the South-East Bureau in Birmingham, Alabama, saying 73 and we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline" is Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.