Hello Everyone, In this episode we meet Caryn, KD2GUT, editor for Amateur Radio Newsline and learn what it is all about. Enjoy! Junie N1DUC Quack, Quack & 73!
Junie, and Caryn, nice to see this retrospective about Newsline, founded as the Westlink Report by WA6ITF, the late Bill Pasternak. My first encounter with that predecessor audio bulletin was around 1976. I was working construction as a summer job during college, and I had a VHF-FM monitor of some kind that could pick up the local 2 meter repeater on which the program aired. Pasternak was a broadcast technician, working at KTTV, a TV station in Los Angeles. His connections included a friendship with K6DUE, the late Roy Neal, who had been with NBC network television based in Los Angeles. Bill and Roy wrote and produced a variety of Amateur Radio-related videos that were among the first of their kind. They featured the hobby's various aspects with a professional style of production resembling a TV feature or a news report. Their crowning achievement in video features was probably their coverage of Amateur Radio on early flights of the American space shuttle. So it was a natural extension that Bill should create a "radio news" style of presentation, covering Amateur Radio. It was an audio format that could be delivered by dial-up telephone, and recorded by those who would then replay the material on FM repeaters, and sometimes on HF. Yes, in those pre-internet, pre-cellphone days, gathering the elements for such a bulletin service involved mailing a reel or cassette of audio recording tape, or else connecting and feeding audio via a telephone line. Bill's legacy today is Amateur Radio Newsline, with "reports" filed by a variety of active radio hobbyists who want to tell others about the activities we enjoy, and that outsiders might consider joining. It's nice to see that it is still on the air. https://www.arnewsline.org/
It's a fine effort. I do wish that ARNewsline concentrated on amateur radio . There is often much that is described which has nothing to do with ham radio, such as the recent LOFAR alleged radio astronomy interference from Starlink;ironically the actual solution option IS ham radio related, but not mentioned. See: Amateur Radio Newsline headlines for Ham Nation. July 19, 2023. | QRZ Forums MO.
I find it hard to gather enough ham radio news for a newsletter so I often have to fill it with other SWL or radio comms/scanning news. I am guessing they have the same issue.
Then why not CB? Why not wireless? Why not RC? Not being sarcastic, just pointing out that sometimes the quantity and timing of news doesn't conicide with a day, or weekly, update. 73 Chip W1YW
I do all of the above. Sometimes I do CB, wireless, shortwave, scanning, space. All radio and radio adjacent activities.
Then why not CB? Yes, that would be good we could all learn about the latest in multi-pill 10kw splatter boxes. No thanks......
Report is heard on W2VL, 146.850 LIMARC Repeater, Monday nights. Have been listening when it was WestLink Report. Used to use the dial up option back in those days with the old "POTS Line" Cheers K1MF
