Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2424 for Friday April 12th, 2024

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2424 with a release date of Friday April 12th, 2024 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams help shed light during a solar eclipse. 3-D RF filters find a future in wireless devices -- and Hytera radios are banned from sales worldwide. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2424 comes your way right now.

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BILLBOARD CART

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HYTERA COMMUNICATIONS BANNED FROM WORLDWIDE SALE OF 2-WAY RADIOS

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week brings the latest chapter in a long-simmering patent dispute between Motorola and Hytera. A US federal court in the Northern District of Illinois has prohibited Hytera Communications, a major provider of two-way radios, from selling, distributing or importing its radios [quote] "until further notice," [endquote] requiring the company to pay a daily fine of $1-million to the court if they do not comply.

Even as it acted in compliance with the US court injunction, Hytera separately announced it was withdrawing its own counterclaims against Illinois-based Motorola that it had filed in a Shenzhen court. Hytera has denied claims that its H-series radios have infringed on Motorola's trademark and copyright.

The US court injunction banning the radios' global sales came just as Hytera was preparing to show at ISC West, a major security conference being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting on April 9th.

(GLOBAL NEWS, IPVM, ISC WEST)

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HAMS SUMMON HELP AFTER DEATH VALLEY DISTRESS CALL

PAUL/ANCHOR: When getting on the air from a national park isn't a POTA activation - but a call for help - other hams are always there, as one new operator in California discovered. We hear this story from Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

RALPH: A distress call from an amateur radio operator stranded in Death Valley mobilized some quick-acting amateur radio operators - some of them hundreds of miles away - to get the ham and his family some assistance. According to personal accounts and media reports, Moritz Wacker, KO6DZX, was camping with his family on Friday April 5th, when their vehicle became stuck in the mud. Caleb Gustwiller, KD8TGB, and Craig Rower, KE8QJV, were among those who picked up his weak distress call on 28.430 MHz. The stranded ham had his radio along for the trip and used it.  Caleb said in an email to Newsline that he and other hams who were listening -- including fellow members of the Black Swamp Amateur Radio Club -- heard him faintly in Ohio. Those hams along with many others posted on the Parks on the Air page on Facebook to get the word out -- and still others called the county sheriff in Death Valley, police in San Diego, which QRZ.com lists as the ham's address. Other radio operators reached out to the National Parks Service police. Caleb said it was an all-out effort from various locations.

Caleb told Newsline that the stranded ham is a relatively new licensee. This was apparently a camping trip, not a POTA outing, but contacts made with the Xiegu G90 and quarter-wave vertical did the trick. According to all accounts, Rangers found the family and they were back home safely that night.

This Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(CALEB GUSTWILLER, KD8TGB, HAM RADIO CRASH COURSE)

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HAMS' EFFORTS HELP SHED LIGHT ON SOLAR ECLIPSE

PAUL/ANCHOR: The recent solar eclipse over North America gave hams a chance to give back to science in a big way - as big as the sun itself, you might say. Sel Embee KB3TZD has that story.

SEL: The day after the April 8th solar eclipse, logs were already rolling in from hams and radio clubs in North America who had taken part in the Solar Eclipse QSO Party. The party's organizer, the citizen science group HamSCI, was already embarking on its next big challenge: to study the logs and the results of other propagation experiments that were taking place concurrently.

The inboxes were filling up fast, according to HamSCI's public information officer Ed Efchak, WX2R. Ed told Newsline in a phone call one day later: [quote] "We are certainly very very happy with yesterday. A lot of people were on the air who understood that from the standpoint of science you have to populate to propagate." [endquote]

That population included the Suffolk County Radio Club, W2DQ, which set up a Field Day-style operation outside an eastern Long Island library where it operated SSB and FT8. It was also a chance to educate visitors as club vice president Ed Wilson N2XDD explained the hams' roles in the ionospheric studies.

Meanwhile, HamSCI reported that WSPR data was already coming in from a concurrent event, the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge. He said valuable results were collected as well from HamSCI's personal weather stations, the time-delay-of-arrival experiment and the medium-wave recordings experiment.

Conclusions are, of course, a long way off -- but visitors to Hamvention in Ohio next month will be hearing more of what's to come.

This is Sel Embee KB3TZD.


PAUL/ANCHOR: If you were involved in the QSO Party and haven't already done so, upload your logs in .ADI or Cabrillo format, following the link in the text version of this week's Newsline script at arnewsline.org.

[DO NOT READ: https://seqp.contesting.com/seqpsubmitlog.php    ]

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NASA IDENTIFIES MEMORY CHIP THAT GARBLED VOYAGER'S DATA

PAUL/ANCHOR: Scientists at NASA have identified a damaged memory chip that compromised Voyager 1's transmissions. We have more details from Travis Lisk N3ILS.

TRAVIS: NASA engineers are confident they have traced the source of the garbled data that was coming from the deep-space probe, Voyager 1. According to the NASA website, one of the on-board computers was found to have corrupted memory and that a single chip within the Flight Data Subsystem failed, causing this to happen. Since November any science and engineering data sent to Earth has been garbled. Engineers were able to link the small percentage of corrupted data to that single memory chip.

Whether the failure was the result of wear and tear after 47 years of flight -- or something else -- NASA engineers are now hopeful that they can fashion an alternate method of keeping Voyager 1 on the job.

This is Travis Lisk N3ILS.

(NASA.GOV, HACKADAY)

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DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR OMIK SCHOLARSHIP FUND APPLICANTS

PAUL/ANCHOR: There's still time left for high school seniors or college students to apply for assistance from the OMIK (OH MIKE) Scholarship Fund. This nonprofit organization was established as a separate entity by the OMIK Amateur Radio Association to fulfill the mission of motivating youth in their education. The fund supports those pursuing studies in electronics, science, mathematics or communications.

The deadline for applications is the first of May. Previous years' scholarships were supported in part by grants from Amateur Radio Digital Communications. For additional details on how to apply, see the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

[DO NOT READ: https://www.omikradio.org/omik-scholarship/info ]

(OMIK AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION)

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WEST VIRGINIA BROADCAST TOWERS DESTROYED IN WINDSTORM

PAUL/ANCHOR: This year has not been kind to broadcast radio towers in the United States. The latest towers to be destroyed are in West Virginia but this time it was by an act of nature - a fierce windstorm with gusts of up to 90 mph. Jim Damron N8TMW has that report.

JIM: High winds have destroyed two of the four towers serving the West Virginia MetroNews network's flagship radio station, WCHS-AM and its sister FM station. WCHS, a news, talk and sports broadcaster, is known as "The Voice of Charleston."

The AM radio station, which broadcasts on 580 kHz with a 5 kw signal, is the Primary Entry Point Emergency Alert System for West Virginia. Its programming serves the southern and southwestern part of the state. 

The tower damage also affected AM station WSWW, which broadcasts on 1490 kHz. That station, an ESPN radio affiliate, returned to its regular sports programming a day later.

A pair of FM translators also broadcast the stations' signals on 95.7 MHz and 104.5 MHz.

A report on the Radio World website showed photos of the wreckage. Questions remained on how or when the towers would be replaced.

On a personal note, I had the privilege of working at WCHS radio several years ago.

This is Jim Damron N8TMW.

(RADIO WORLD)

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NOMINATE NEWSLINE'S NEXT YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR

PAUL/ANCHOR: We're getting closer to the deadline time for this year's Bill Pasternak Memorial Young Ham of the Year award. Let Newsline know of any promising young amateurs who are deserving of this honor. Candidates must live in the continental United States and be 18 years of age or younger. Tell our judges about your nominee's talent, promise and commitment to the spirit of ham radio. This is your chance to help honor and acknowledge that person who will, no doubt, go on to teach and inspire others. Find the nomination form on our website arnewsline.org under the "AWARDS" tab. Nominations close on May 31st.

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BREAK  HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the ZS0MOT (Zed Ess Zero Em Oh Tee) repeater in Middelburg South Africa on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. local time.

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PRESENTERS NEEDED FOR GNU RADIO CONFERENCE

PAUL/ANCHOR: Fans of open-source software for radio will be attending a conference later this year and presenters are needed, as we hear from Andy Morrison K9AWM.

ANDY: The 14th annual conference focusing on the free, open-source software development tool known as GNU Radio is looking for presenters. Developers and users from around the radio community are being invited to Knoxville, Tennessee in September to share papers, presentations, projects - and even to pose some questions - to fellow radio operators, researchers and educators. The development toolkit has been employed everywhere -- from amateur radio to industry and government -- to be paired with software-defined radio as well as simulated radio environments.

Previous conference topics have included GNU radio's role in atmospheric research, amateur radio, citizen science and channel modeling. Proposals are due no later than June 17th. The conference is scheduled to start on the 16th of September. Visit g n u radio dot org (gnuradio.org) for details.

This is Andy Morrison K9AWM.

(GNU RADIO CONFERENCE 2024)

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SILENT KEY: PUBLIC SERVICE ADVOCATE ANGUS JOE MACPHERSON, VE1CH

PAUL/ANCHOR: A longtime radio amateur who had been active as a leader and educator in the world of public service in Canada has become a Silent Key. We hear about him from Dave Parks WB8ODF.

DAVE: Angus Joe MacPherson, VE1CH, died on April 6th of colon cancer at the Palliative Care Unit of the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. First licensed in 1963 with the callsign VE1AHC, Joe enjoyed an amateur radio career that was complemented by his many professional and volunteer roles as a communicator in public service. Joe was a veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy, which he had served as a radioman.

Later, he served as volunteer telecommunications officer with the Canadian Red Cross and was a visiting instructor at the Canadian Emergency Preparedness College in Ontario. He retired from Industry Canada, formerly known as the Department of Communications, where he had worked in the Cable TV Section and Radio Regulatory Division. He represented the department on NATO's Civil Communications Planning Committee, many of them in Europe. In 2002, he became first vice president of Radio Amateurs of Canada.

Joe was 81.

This is Dave Parks WB8ODF.

(QRZ.COM, FACEBOOK, DIGNITY MEMORIAL)

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3-D RF FILTERS SEEN AS FUTURE FOR WIRELESS

PAUL/ANCHOR: Scientists have found a way to save space and increase performance in wireless devices by using 3-D RF filters, as we hear from Kent Peterson KCØDGY.

KENT: A Florida researcher has developed three-dimensional RF filters that may one day save space inside smartphones and IoT devices, leaving more room for batteries and someday paving the way for 6G wireless devices operating in the terahertz range.

The researcher, Roozbeh Tabrizian of the University of Florida in Gainesville, calls RF filters [quote] "the entire backbone of wireless systems." [endquote]

Writing earlier this year in the journal, Nature Electronics, the Florida research team explained how the 3-D filters were developed to take the place of the more commonplace flat resonators which have varying thicknesses depending upon the wireless frequencies they are using. By comparison, the 3D resonators, known as ferroelectric-gate fin, or FGF, are able to handle frequencies between 3 GHz and 28 

The research team has already manufactured several of them. 
 
This is Kent Peterson KCØDGY.

(IEEE SPECTRUM)

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HAMS IN SPAIN GET PRIVILEGES ON 8 METRES

PAUL/ANCHOR: Hams in Spain recently got good news from the regulator: They have privileges on 40 MHz.

JEREMY: Amateurs in Spain have been given access to the 8-metre band for the next 18 months, joining the hams in other countries such as South Africa, Slovenia, Lithuania, Denmark and Ireland, who also enjoy operational or propagation research privileges on 40 MHz.

In Spain, radio operators may use a maximum PEP of 25w for transmissions on 40.650 to 40.750 MHz. The announcement was made by the country's Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, which granted the permission after advocacy from the URE, the national association for radio amateurs in Spain. Hams in Spain may only transmit from the fixed location to which their licence is assigned and before doing so for the first time, must notify the telecommunications authorities.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(AMATEUR RADIO WEEKLY, EI7GL BLOG)

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WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, listen for Dominique, F5PTI, on the air as TM500NA from the 14th to the 28th of April to mark the 500th anniversary of the first visit made to the New York City area by the European explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano. QSL via F5PTI.

Listen for Janusz, SP9FIH, and  Leszek, SP6CIK, operating from Bhutan as A52P and A52CI,  respectively. They are on the air from the 19th of April through to the 4th of May, calling QRZ on 40-6 metres using CW, SSB and the digital modes. For QSL details visit QRZ.com.

There are some activations to listen for in recognition  of  World Amateur Radio Day and the founding 99 years ago of the International Amateur Radio Union. The Emirates Amateur Radio Society  will  operate with the special  callsign A6ØWARD from the 15th through to the 24th of April. The callsign will be appended by a number of different numeric extensions. See QRZ.com for QSL details.

Listen too for the callsign CN99HR. Hams in Morocco will be active on the 13th through to the 21st of April, marking the IARU's anniversary. QSL directly to CN8RAH.

(425 DX BULLETIN)

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KICKER: YL CREATES APPLE APP TO PUT PARKS ON THE MAP

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our last story for this week takes us to Australia where an enterprising YL has given a gift to iPhone and iPad users who felt a bit left out in the woods when they were doing portable activations. We hear about her from Graham Kemp VK4BB.

GRAHAM: Parklands and summits are anything but a wilderness for Sue Southcott, VK5AYL. For her, inspiration grows abundantly under the canopy of trees. The retired computer programmer is the author of a free app in use by iPhone and iPad owners in Australia and New Zealand. They make use of it to view and create spots, alerts and logging for SOTA, POTA, HEMA, WWFF, SHIRES and Silos on the Air. She introduced the app, known as Parks & Peaks, at a meeting of the Wireless Institute of Australia in 2017.

Creating it did not come easily at the time for Sue, who was still employed as a PC programmer - and whose knowledge of Apple devices only included a few basics about their programming language known as Swift. So she did her homework on nights and weekends to learn it, with an eye toward filling the need for a complementary app already available to Android users.

She's currently working on Version 4 and at some point would like to release an international version.

Best of all, Sue isn't just a programmer, she's an activator who gets to field test her own creation. One of her last activations was near the Pinnacles, spectacular limestone structures on Western Australia's Coral Coast. Needless to say, both the app and the activation were a success.

This is Graham Kemp VK4BB.

(SUE SOUTHCOTT, VK5AYL)

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DO YOU HAIKU?

If a good day of radio is like poetry to you, pick up a pencil and join the Amateur Radio Newsline haiku challenge. Share your experience by sending an original haiku to us here at Newsline. Use the entry form on our website, arnewsline.org and please follow the rules for writing your three-line haiku -- sorry but we cannot accept any entries that aren't written in traditional haiku form. Share with fellow listeners the poetry that is inspired by your ham radio experience!

NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur Radio Daily; ARRL; CQ Magazine; David Behar K7DB; Dignity Memorial; DXNews; DXWorld; EI7GL Blog; Facebook; 425DXNews; Global News; GNU Radio; Hackaday; HamSCI; IEEE Spectrum; ISC West; NASA.GOV; OMIK Amateur Radio Association; QRZ.com; Radio World; shortwaveradio.de; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline.  We remind our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that incurs expenses for its continued operation. If you wish to support us, please visit our website at arnewsline.org and know that we appreciate you all. We also remind our listeners that if you like our newscast, please leave us a 5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us. 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. As always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.