Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2085 for Friday, October 13 2017Audio - https://www.arnewsline.org/s/Report2085.mp3 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2085 with a release date of Friday, October 13 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Amateur radio assistance deepens amid Puerto Rico's storm damage. Good preparation serves hams well during Hurricane Nate -- and a North Carolina centenarian gets a birthday gift only a ham could love. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2085 comes your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here and Intro) ** HAMS CONTINUE POST-MARIA WORK IN PUERTO RICO STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We open with an update on amateur assistance to Puerto Rico. Not quite a month after Hurricane Maria's devastating hit, hams are helping to get that struggling island on its feet. Jim Damron, N8TMW has the details. JIM: Not all the ham radio assistance going on in Puerto Rico has been happening on the air. The team of amateur radio operators deployed to the storm-wracked island has been able to provide some real boots-on-the-ground aid in assessing the supply needs at area hospitals, reuniting families and even installing a mountaintop repeater that now covers more than half of Puerto Rico and serves part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The volunteer team who answered the ARRL's earlier call for assistance included Gary Sessums KC5QCN, Valerie Hotzfeld NV9L and Andy Anderson KE0AYJ. Hams have also been busy cataloguing data into the "safe and well" website used by the Red Cross and providing storm survivors with access to satellite phones or cellular service to telephone loved ones with their whereabouts and condition. The volunteers' deployment has been further assisted by donations of radios and other equipment. Forty Icom handheld radios were donated by El Paso Communications Systems and the Yasme Foundation is making a repeater available for installation at the Arecibo Observatory. Meanwhile, the Northern California DX Foundation has made a grant of $2,500 to the ARRL's Ham Aid Fund, which provides resources to hurricane-ravaged regions in the Caribbean and the U.S. The grant will be available for future storm response. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Damron N8TMW (ARRL) ** NEW YORK SCHOOL CONNECTS WITH HURRICANE MARIA VICTIMS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In one New York City school, teenage hams are also helping Puerto Rico. Skeeter Nash N5ASH has that report. SKEETER'S REPORT: For a group of amateur radio operators attending a school in Queens, New York, the ham radio shack inside the school building may as well have been a classroom. There were big lessons learned there in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Amateur Radio Club K2GSG has about 20 student members and the club itself - like the students - is still fairly new to the airwaves, having been founded only two years ago. But the youngsters were ready to step in and help connect people with people on the storm-ravaged island so far from their Jackson Heights neighborhood. With the help of their faculty adviser, John Hale KD2LPM, Station K2GSG received messages from concerned family members in the United States and transferred those words to a Radiogram, limiting the message to 25 carefully chosen words. The Big Apple Net and the National Traffic System sent the message out through the system into Puerto Rico for relay to their intended recipients. One high school senior, the ham club's president Lea Marie Medina KD2RYU, said that sending these important messages has been very much on her mind since the storm. "I think of these messages, I read them and I say this needs to be done and that's what I wake up to every morning" she told WPIX/Channel 11. According to local media reports, not only are the messages getting through to Puerto Rico but right there in the school, other students in the Queens school are getting a message too: that it's useful and downright cool to be a ham. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Skeeter Nash N5ASH. (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) ** HAMS MEET THE CHALLENGE OF NATE STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Elsewhere, tropical storm Nate built to hurricane force and ARES command centers were prepped, as we hear from Bobby Best WX4ALA. BOBBY: Tropical storm system Nate left its deadly mark on portions of Central America; with torrential tropical rains, flooding, and storm surge. The Southeastern U.S. was spared what, in the last hours before landfall, was feared would be a far stronger storm, but amateur radio operators were there to offer communications assistance from Nate's unorganized appearance on satellites the southeastern Caribbean sea, as early as October 2. Nate was officially upgraded from a trough of low pressure to a tropical depression at 1500 Zulu on October 4. Early on, National Hurricane NET station WX4NHC along with hams from Central America and monitoring stations in the States were doing their best to relay both storm reports and calls for help from Central America. Nate was upgraded to a minimal tropical storm at 1200 Zulu on October 5th and moved ashore in Nicaragua shortly thereafter. By the time Nate had moved off shore and was passing through the very warm waters off the Yucatan, it had already left just under 40 deaths in its wake. By October 7th then Category 1 Hurricane Nate had not only broken the record for the fastest forward moving hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico but weather models continued to change their forecast with almost every update. States of emergency were declared for portions the Florida Panhandle, the entire state of Alabama, multiple counties on and near the coast of Mississippi, and multiple parishes of Louisiana. These declarations put ARES command centers in all four states, especially Alabama, on alert. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said "Nate was going to be an Alabama hurricane" and late fears were predicting that by Saturday afternoon Nate was expected to make landfall along a path similar to Katrina in 2005 and Camille in 1969 but as a Category 2 hurricane. From my vantage point, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa County ARES members manned station WA4EMA at The Tuscaloosa EOC monitoring and relaying traffic from ARES members at the state EOC in Clanton and on the coast in Mobile. Fortunately, Nate never reached Category 2 strength and landfall was made just before midnight Saturday night in extreme Southeast Louisiana and secondary landfall was made just West of Biloxi, Mississippi at 12:30am Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane. Nate then rapidly moved North-Northeast in Alabama, but by 10:14 am Sunday morning inland tropical storm warnings were already being canceled in west Alabama as far north as Tuscaloosa. In the U.S. it seems damage was limited to high surge waters along the Gulf Coast, inland flooding mainly close to the coast and trees and power lines down with just over 100 thousand customers at any given time without power. Because of Nate's fast forward movement though and quick downgrading in strength, first responders and power company officials were able to quickly respond and all in the Southeast was very lucky considering late fears. ARES members' pre-planned emergency drills and actual deployment, came through in great fashion though. S.E.T. drills are what help ARES members to be prepared for the real thing, like Nate was. The only U.S. deaths reported were; a rain soaked road related traffic accident on I-24 in Tennessee and a firefighter struck and killed while cleaning up road debris in North Carolina. Reporting from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bobby Best; WX4ALA. ** ARRL FOUNDATION ACCEPTING SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you know a young ham with a promising future, this report by Geri Goodrich KF5KRN is for you. GERI'S REPORT: If you're a licensed amateur planning to pursue a higher education - or if you know someone who is - you might start thinking now about the ARRL Foundation Scholarship program. There are some new opportunities and new scholarships for the 2018 award year. More than 80 scholarships are being made available, with funding in the range from $500 to $5,000. Each scholarship has different requirements and qualifications so you'll need to visit the ARRL Foundation Scholarship Program page on the league's website to sort through the list. The new scholarships being offered include the Ladies Amateur Radio Association of Orange County Scholarship, the Medical Amateur Radio Council Scholarship, the Harry A. Hodges W6YOO Scholarship and the Old Man International Sideband Society Scholarship, among others. Applicants should complete form available on the ARRL website and have until Feb. 15 2018 to send along their most recent academic transcript. Please note, however, that the applications themselves must be received by the ARRL by the 31st of January. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Geri Goodrich KF5KRN. (ARRL) ** PARACHUTE MOBILE'S UP AND ON THE AIR AGAIN STEPHEN/ANCHOR: You may remember Newsline's report this summer about Parachute Mobile's 28th mission held in August. Well, the skydiving, airplane-jumping hams are ready to call QRZ from the clouds again on Mission 29. It's taking place Saturday, October 21 in conjunction with PACIFICON, ARRL's Pacific Division Convention. This time they're going all out, convention-style: In addition to having volunteers at the Drop Zone in California and at the relay location, the team will have a table at the convention site to keep attendees posted on what's happening. If you're going to the convention, check them out. Or if you're going to be on the air, be listening on 20 meters and 2 meters for the big leaps when they happen. For details about the mission, visit their website parachutemobile dot org (parachutemobile.org) (ROB FENN KC6TYD) ** BREAK HERE Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the 4GS Repeater of the Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, following the Sunday night 8 p.m. Net. ** SCHOOL CLUB ROUNDUP? DO YOUR HOMEWORK! STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Are you ready for School Club Roundup? Jump in but, as Neil Rapp WB9VPG cautions us, be mindful of emergency frequencies. NEIL'S REPORT: The fall session of the School Club Roundup starts on Monday, October 16th and runs through Friday, October 20th. It's a great chance for schools to get on the air and talk to each other, but it's also a great chance to expose young people to ham radio by making contacts with anyone and everyone. So get on the air and listen for schools participating in the roundup. There is one temporary last-minute change being made to the semi-annual event. Due to the number of hurricane-related nets in the usually recommended segment on 20 meters, 14.250 to 14.280, School Club Roundup sponsors are urging participants to stay clear of these frequencies to avoid unintentional interference. So look for schools just above and below those frequencies. While the recommended frequencies on other bands should not be affected, staying away from similar nets on other bands is still encouraged. As always, be sure to listen first! For more information about School Club Roundup, visit arrl.org/school-club-roundup. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG ** IN WASHINGTON STATE, NEW KID ON THE BLOCK STEPHEN/ANCHOR: By the way, there's a rookie in this year's School Club Roundup with big dreams. Kevin Trotman N5PRE tells us more. KEVIN'S REPORT: There's a new freshman in class at Wahkiakum (wuh-KAI-uh-come) High School in Wahkiakum, Washington State. This particular newcomer could not possibly want a warmer welcome. It's the school's new amateur radio club and it has already got more than $3,000 in donated equipment from Northwest Aluminum Outfitters and the Wahkiakum Amateur Radio Club N7WAH, which is sponsoring these student hams. The kids have wasted no time in getting on the air and already have contacts in parts of the U.S. and Canada in their log. Not content with terrestrial transmissions, however, the youngsters are aiming higher. According to Ron W7ERY, a retired teacher, Richard KC4ONA has already begun work with the school district to apply for a contact with the International Space Station that would involve all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Meanwhile, members are eager to participate in this year's School Club Roundup. Can the project succeed in a digital age and give kids newfound respect for the power of RF? Ron says "we don't have hope because we are certain! If we do our jobs thoughtfully we will be successful." There's one other certainty here: We here at Amateur Radio Newsline will be listening for these new kids on the block on the air. For Amateur Radio Newsline, this is Kevin Trotman, N5PRE, in Aiken, SC. (RON WRIGHT W7ERY) ** SILENT KEY: SATELLITE PIONEER PATRICK GOWEN G3IOR STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Satellite enthusiasts and others are mourning the death of a major player in AMSAT-UK, as we hear from Jeremy Boot G4NJH. JEREMY: A pioneer in the world of amateur radio satellites has become a Silent Key. Patrick Gowen G3IOR, a cofounder of AMSAT-UK died in August after a length illness. Patrick was not only an advocate for satellite communications but a polished practitioner of the craft: He was the first amateur to use a low-Earth obit satellite to work 100 DXCC entities. He was also known for his contacts with cosmonauts on board the International Space Station and MIR. Pat wrote frequently for the AMSAT Journal and Oscar News and was the satellite columnst for Practical Wireless. Pat made especially big news in 2002 when he detected a beacon sending slow CW on 2 meters, a transmission that turned out to be from the Oscar-7 satellite. That satellite, launched in 1974, was long believed to be dead after a battery failure during 1979. A resident of Norwich in Norfolk, Pat was 85. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (SOUTHGATE AMATEUR RADIO NEWS) ** WORLD WAR 2 CODE TALKER DAVID PATTERSON DIES STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The Navajo nation is grieving the loss of a World War II hero, a legendary Code Talker. Mike Askins KE5CXP tells us more. MIKE: The United States has lost another World War II hero, David Patterson Sr., a Navajo Code Talker who served in the Marine Corps and made use of his Navajo language on behalf of the military fighting Japanese forces in the Pacific. David Patterson's service between 1943 and 1945 won him the Congressional Silver Medal. The Code Talkers' role during the war was significant; history notes that the Navajo language was the only spoken code never deciphered by the enemy. The Navajo nation announced his death on October 8th from pneumonia and complications from a subdural hematoma in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. David Patterson was 94. He was to be buried on the military side of Shiprock Cemetery in Shiprock New Mexico. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP (KGW.COM WEBSITE) ** A PORTABLE CHALLENGE FOR SUMMITS ON THE AIR STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Summits on the Air operators have a challenge on Oct. 21 and it's not the upward climb. Here's Ed Durrant DD5LP. ED's REPORT: Within Summits on the Air participants from time to time plan activities. The next event is to try to get contacts between Europe and the Antipodes. While band conditions are slowly improving allowing home station-to-home station contacts using long path on twenty and forty metres and even allowing portable to home station contacts, the most difficult are portable-to-portable contacts and this is exactly what is being planned. Stations located on Summits in the UK, Continental Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Japan with simple antennas and low power will be trying to make Summit to Summit or "S2S" contacts. While those using CW or the new FT-8 data mode will probably have some success, the real challenge will be for SSB contacts. As always though, even in these low sunspot times, you never know what is possible until you try. We wish the best of luck to all taking part in this event on Saturday October the 21st. If you hear someone calling CQ SOTA from about 0600 UTC on the 21st, why not give 'em a call. I know it'll be appreciated. For details of the SOTA award scheme and a link to their spotting cluster SOTAWatch, please go to SOTA dot ORG dot UK. For Amateur Radio Newsline, this is SOTA Activator and Chaser Ed Durrant DD5LP. ** KICKER: HAPPY SPECIAL EVENT BIRTHDAY OSCAR NORRIS W4OXH STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our final report is about a once-in-a-lifetime birthday gift to a 100-year-old ham. We'll let Paul Braun WD9GCO tell this story of generosity and brotherhood. PAUL: Birthdays are like milestones in a person's life. It's a big deal when you turn one year old. Or when you turn 16 and get your driver's license. Your first beer at 21. Turning 30 and then 50. But not many make it to their 100th birthday. If you do, it is most definitely something to celebrate, which was exactly the thought that Dan Kern, W-Zero-D-F-U had during a conversation earlier this year on a DMR talkgroup. I talked to Kern about his adventure: DAN KERN: Back in, we'll call it April-ish or May of this year, I had made a DMR contact with Oscar Norris, whose callsign is W4OXH, and he was introducing himself to me, telling me he's from Gastonia, North Carolina and that in September, he'd be turning 100. Now, he doesn't sound 100 on the air. And so I said, "That is awesome! What are you doing for your 100th birthday?" He said, "Well, I live here in an assisted-living home and just don't really have any plans." So I think, "Oh, no! This is terrible!" because the call that preceded mine, he told the gentleman that he was going to be turning 100 and the gentleman from England said that the Queen either personally calls or sends a letter to their centenarians. After hearing that and talking to him, I just felt compelled to do something special not only because he's a fellow ham but also because he's one of our seniors. I contacted ARRL and also got a special-event callsign set aside for him which was November 1 Charlie. He opted for November 1 Charlie meaning to him "Norris 1 Century." He said it was his best birthday present, having his own special callsign. PAUL/ANCHOR: Kern worked with the local club in Gastonia and arranged to use a church hall for the event, with food, friends and radio. Norris was touched: DAN KERN: He sat down with me, and he and I were sitting there talking and it was more than just a handshake - he grabbed my hand during the entire conversation he wouldn't let go! He was so tickled that this event came together and that we were celebrating his 100th. PAUL/ANCHOR: Despite bad band conditions, Kern said they made around 1000 contacts and the event was a success: DAN KERN: He was getting calls from all over the world, wishing him a happy birthday and at the very end they took a group picture, and he said his thank-you's and then he said, "Oh! I have one more thing to tell you guys. I just love you all!" PAUL/ANCHOR: All of us here at Newsline would like to thank Dan Kern for his thoughtfulness, and a very happy 100th birthday to Oscar Norris! For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO ** NEWSCAST CLOSE NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; KGW.COM; New York Daily News; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; Rob Fenn KC6TYD; Ron Wright W7ERY; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; 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 Stephen Kinford N8WB saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. 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