Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2066 for Friday, June 2, 2017- Audio: https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2066mp3.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2066 with a release date of Friday, June 2, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. One ham gives a sky-high tribute to Amelia Earhart. In India, amateur radio reunites a family after four years -- and a former pirate goes legit. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2066 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** FAMILY REUNION, RADIO STYLE PAUL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week is about a ham radio rescue - one that didn't come in the aftermath of an earthquake, a cyclone or a flood. This rescue was a bit more personal. Here are the details from Amateur Radio Newsline's John Williams VK4JJW. JOHN'S REPORT: Ham radio has been known to help bridge vast geographic distances, but what about huge gaps in personal memory? For one woman in India, who lost the whereabouts of her family and the ability to recall what happened, ham radio has provided a solution and ultimately a reunion - at a distance some 900 miles away. The woman, known as Visalakshi, had been under psychiatric care in a West Bengal hospital for the four years since she was found wandering about, disoriented and separated from her family. After her memory began to gradually improve recently, she asked hospital administrators to help locate her relatives. The hospital reached out to the West Bengal Radio Club, led by Ambarish Nag Biswas and a team of nine hams connected with six of their colleagues in Tamil Nadu, where Visalakshi's home is located. They connected via EchoLink during one of their regular 9:15 p.m. nets and passed along the information. Hams spread the word to other hams and eventually one of the administrative officers in the woman's village located her brother. At that point, the brother contacted the hospital and shortly thereafter, plans were being made for a reunion - and to bring her home. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams VK4JJW. ** ONE HAM'S TRIBUTE TO AMELIA EARHART PAUL/ANCHOR: Eighty years ago, Amelia Earhart -- the first woman to cross the Atlantic on a solo flight -- attempted to fly around the world. Now Project Amelia Earhart is honoring that attempt with a ham radio operator at the helm, as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. KENT's REPORT: BRIAN: Two things I've been for a long time: A ham and a pilot. Both go back to before I can remember, love of radios and love of airplanes. KENT: Brian Lloyd WB6RQN is taking off in June to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's famous attempt at circumnavigating the world. What sets this flight apart is Lloyd's plan to work hams on HF along the way. BRIAN: What does amateur radio have to do with it? Anytime you cross the ocean, you are required to have HF communications. Being a ham, I can use that for not only communicating with air traffic control but also with other hams. So I'll have it on and work people as I travel around the world. KENT: Lloyd's ham rig will be a Motorola Micom 3 HF transceiver with Automatic Link Establishment or ALE. BRIAN: Making a contact with ALE is nothing more than entering a person's call sign and the radio then figures out oh I can reach that person on this band. Once it establishes the connection it switches to SSB voice. Its almost like dialing a telephone. I press a button to establish the call and we talk. KENT: Lloyd hopes hams will give ALE a try. BRIAN: If you operate digital modes now, like Olivia or PSK31, you can pick up a copy of PC ALE and install that and you will be able to operate ALE and communicate with me that way. It can be a bit tricky, but if you've operated the digital modes, it is really straight forward. Mostly I'll be operating in the DX portions of 40 and 20 meters depending on band openings. You can track me directly. The web page is all one word: project Amelia Earhart dot org, That web site links to the face book page. I hope to get a chance to work many of your listeners as I make my way around the world. KENT: Lloyd hopes to finish his trek by landing on Monday July 24th at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. ** FCC ACTS ON TWO INTERFERENCE CASES PAUL/ANCHOR: Interference is the scourge of every amateur on the air. Recent actions from the FCC are taking on two more such instances. Amateur Radio Newsline's Neil Rapp WB9VPG has the details. NEIL'S REPORT: On May 23rd, the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau issued an Order and Consent Decree which imposed a $90,000 fine, a compliance training program, mandated reporting, and other measures on a marketer of LED light fixtures which reportedly caused interference to radio transmissions. After an investigation, the FCC found that the product was in violation of the rules. AFX, Incorporated based in Waukegan, Illinois agreed to the order, and resolved to solve the interference problem to bring the devices into compliance. The FCC asserted its authority to prevent electronic equipment suppliers from legally marketing their products by denying equipment certifications. In other enforcement news, the FCC issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation to Bradley C. Pike of Dallas on May 17. The notice was issued in response to a complaint from Dallas County Consolidated Services regarding interference to their VHF public safety radio system. Agents used direction finding to determine the source of the interference. Pike then surrendered a radio signal jammer and admitted to causing the interference. Pike could face a fine, seizure of equipment, and criminal sanctions. He has 30 days to respond to the notice. Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Neil Rapp WB9VPG. (FCC) ** K2BSA CONTINUES PREP FOR JAMBOREE PAUL/ANCHOR: The radio scouts of K2BSA are on the move again as Jamboree Day comes even closer. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill Stearns NE4RD gives us an update on their next activities. BILL'S REPORT: This week in Radio Scouting we have one activation of the K2BSA callsign, one activation from Scout Camps on the Air, and the National Jamboree is quickly approaching. Jeffrey Phillips, KN4FRG, will be activating K2BSA/0 at a Merit Badge University in St Robert, MO, on Saturday June 3rd. Scouts will be completing their on air component of this merit badge. Gary Hinton, AC7R, will be activating KJ7BSA at Mesa East Stake Young Men Encampment at Camp Toone in Blue Ridge AZ, the week of June 12th through the 17th. This camp will be active on HF, VHF, and UHF, and will also be doing ARDF. Hamvention was a great success for K2BSA. We enjoyed the many vistors to the booth and new venue. We are now looking to our next major event which is the National Jamboree from July 15th through the 28th at The Summit Betchel Reserve, in West Virginia. We are almost fully staffed for the event at this time. We will have the K2BSA callsign active on the HF bands, Echolink, and Satellite. We are planning a balloon launch, a SOTA activation, and an ARISS contact. We will be talking more about this event as it gets closer. For more information on K2BSA and radio scouting, please visit http://www.k2bsa.net/. For Amateur Radio Newsline and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, this is Bill Stearns NE4RD. ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W2GLD repeater in Pinckney, Michigan on Saturdays at 8 p.m. **** WHEN PIRATES WERE IN THEIR PRIME PAUL/ANCHOR: No one can look back on the history of radio without devoting a good bit of attention to pirate radio. A new project in Ireland hoping to do just that in a much more formal way, as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Jeremy Boot G4NJH. JEREMY: Pirates are almost always in search of buried treasure, but what kind of a treasure hunt is in search of PIRATE treasure? This is an important hunt being conducted by the Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame, which is hoping to put together a pirate radio history gallery or full-scale pirate radio museum containing memorabilia from the era dating back to 1916. That was the year of the Easter Rebellion, or Easter Rising, which occurred while the UK was enmeshed in World War I. Easter Rising marked the birth of the first radio broadcasts from Dublin, which announced the declaration of an Irish Republic. According to the hall of fame website, a meeting will be held on the 7th of June to discuss what the museum should contain and how to curate its exhibits. Broadcasters, former pirate radio employees or even radio enthusiasts and collectors are invited to brainstorm at the session which will be held at Branigan's Pub near St. Mary's Pro Cathedral. For details, send an email to irishbroadcastinghalloffame@gmail.com For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH PAUL/ANCHOR: The first UK offshore pirate radio station back in the 60s was Radio Caroline, which broadcast its Medium Wave AM signal from the converted ferry Frederica in the Thames estuary. Well, Caroline has officially closed the books on its pirate reputation. Ofcom has just granted Radio Caroline an AM community radio broadcasting license, allowing it to provide its classic 1960s rock format to its target audience of those aged 45 and older in Suffolk and northern parts of Essex in the UK. It should prove popular as ever since its pirate heyday in the mid-60s, Radio Caroline boasted having more listeners than the three BBC networks combined. (OFCOM, IRISH RADIO TRANSMITTERS SOCIETY) ** THEY'RE SOUR ON HIS TOWER PAUL/ANCHOR: Hams are no stranger to unneighborly opposition when antennas or towers go up. Just ask one amateur in British Columbia. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee KB3TZD with that report. HEATHER: Brian Summers VE7JKZ of Saanich, British Columbia is finding his plans for a 50-foot ham radio tower to be a hard sell in the neighorhood. The locals have taken their case to the local council, saying his plans for the backyard tower are playing havoc with their property values, the aesthetics of the community - and even their privacy. Neighbors say they have even circulated a petition that already has signatures from 25 neighbors who don't want the project to go forward. Brian, however, has been a ham for more than 60 years and has put up towers before, at his former residence in Richmond, Calgary and Ottawa. He told the local Saanitch News paper that there's never been a problem with neighbors and he believes residents in Saanich wouldn't even notice it after a few days. Although the local council has received input, planning authorities told the newspaper that the ultimate decision will rest with the agency known as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Agency spokesman Hans Parmar told the newspaper that the office is permitting 30 days of public comment in writing and will permit Brian 60 days to respond after that, before reaching a decision. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Heather Embee KB3TZD. (VICTORIA, B.C., SAANICH NEWS) ** ** THE WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, be listening for Haru JA1XGI, using the call sign 9H3XG from Malta between the 7th and 12th of June. Find Haru on 40 through 15 meters using CW and RTTY. Send QSL cards via his home callsign or LoTW. Reiner DL2AAZ, is active through the 7th of June as FG/DL2AAZ from Sainte Rose. Reiner is working holiday style and can be heard on 30-10 meters using CW and SSB. Send QSL cards via DL2AAZ, direct or by the Bureau. You can find Oliver, DK7TX, active as SV8/DK7TX from Erikoussa Island on June 9th and 10th. Listen for Oliver on various HF bands. Send QSL cards via his home callsign. Scottish amateurs from the Stirling and District Amateur Radio Society are operating as HB0/GM4UYE from Liechtenstein from 1st to 6th June. QSL manager is M0OXO. Thomas F4HPX is on St. Denis on Reunion Island and will operate holiday style as FR/F4HPX between the 4th and 16th of June. He plans to use digital modes and may even operate some CW. For just a few more days, you can catch Vlad UA0FAM operating on Kunashir Island, which is IOTA AS-025. Vlad is using the callsign UA0FAM/P through Monday June 5. (OHIO PENN DX BULLETIN, IRISH RADIO TRANSMITTERS SOCIETY) ** KICKER: A TALE OF TWO HOLLANDS PAUL/ANCHOR: There are many kinds of mills - paper mills, or mills that grind wheat and corn. And then there are mills that generate contacts between amateurs, across continents and across oceans. In this case, both of them were in Holland - but in different parts of the world. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jeremy Boot G4NJH explains. JEREMY'S REPORT: The springtime amateur radio event that has come to be known as Mills on Air is a natural for Holland, the land of windmills. On the weekend of May 13th and 14th, hams were active at windmills and pumping stations throughout the Netherlands and participated in the Mills on the Air event with other hams in Europe and even, this year, Australia. Using call sign PB17MILL, Dutch hams activated a mill in the northeast part of the Netherlands about 25 kilometers from the German border. The three operators, Frank PD5JFK, Mark PD0ME and Bernard PB7Z were active all weekend and according to Bernard, they made a total of 725 QSOs in 53 DXCC entities, with the farthest contact being in Argentina. While this was the ninth year for the Holland mill to be participating from the Netherlands, another Holland - this one in the U.S. - was making its debut. Bernard told Amateur Radio Newsline that he had been in touch with two American hams in Holland, Michigan - Phil K8PVH and Jeff KB8QAP - to help get their authentic Dutch Mill into the game. This year the mill, known as De Zwaan, made it, using the call sign K8DAA and operating on SSB, CW and PSK. The Mill was even on EchoLink. Bernard said that, from a distant Netherlands, the Dutch hams couldn't be prouder of that mill. Built in Holland, it arrived in the U.S. during the 1960s. Now it's not just the only authentic Dutch mill operating in the U.S., but the only one operating on the radio spectrum! For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (BERNARD PB7Z, WMUK.ORG PUBLIC RADIO) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Bernard PB7Z; CQ Magazine; the FCC; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Irish Radio Transmitters Society; K2BSA; Ofcom; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; Project Amelia Earhart; QRZ; Saanich News; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; WMUK Public Radio; WTWW Shortwave; 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 saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.
