Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1829 - August 31 2012 The following is a closed circuit and is not necessarily for air. With a report on the Amateur Radio Newsline current financial picture here's our producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF: -- Well, the last time I was on here with a financial report I told you that I thought we had enough in the bank to hopefully hold us over the summer months June, July and August, and that I would not be asking for any contributions unless the sky was falling. Sadly, the sky is falling this year. This is mainly because we did not get some of the larger donations that we have come to count on to keep us going over the lean summer months when people are away on vacation. Right now, we only have a couple of hundred dollars left in our bank account. Most of that will vanish as we pay off our financial obligation in regard to presenting this years Young Ham of the Year Award and the outstanding bills for the month of August which are quickly piling up. And unlike the years up through October 2009 when I retired from full time employment, I'm now living on fixed income and honestly cannot afford to underwrite the cost of bringing these newscasts to you. To be candid, I do not like to lead off a newscast with an appeal such as this, but we have no other method of getting the word out to you that we need your financial assistance to keep Amateur Radio Newsline on the air, and that we need it now. To all of us involved, each donation is looked upon as an ongoing vote of confidence in the quality of the news and information that we provide each week. And for this I add my personal thank you. Remember, Amateur Radio Newsline is a 501c3, not for profit corporation and your donations are tax deductible. The easiest way to donate is by going to our website at www.arnewsline.org and clicking on the Pay Pal button. Or you can mail a donation to the address you will hear at the end of this weeks newscast. Whichever method you choose, the all volunteer Amateur Radio Newsline team says thank you so much for caring. We promise to do all that we can to continue bringing you the news and information you want to hear about amateur radio and personal communications in the coming years. Thank you. I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, and now this weeks newscast. -- Thanks bill. Now, Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1829 with a release date of August 31 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2- 1. The following is a Q-S-T. Amateur radio assists as Hurricane Isaac hits the U.S. Gulf shore; the London Olympics ham radio station may have set a world record and a star is found devouring a planet. Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1829 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO WAS READY FOR HURRICANE ISAAC Amateur radio first responders along the United States Gulf shore were ready when Hurricane Isaac slammed ashore on August 28th and 29th. We have the more in this report: -- As Hurricane Isaac made its way across the Gulf of Mexico and then made landfall several miles West of New Orleans, Louisiana, members of the Hurricane Watch Net took to the air to track its approach: -- (Ham in Florida) ".Victor-Radio-4-Golf. The handle here is Bill and Im located in Pensacola, Florida and we've had some winds gusts up to about 44 miles an hour. We went out for a ride along the beach this afternoon and they do now have some roads closed and water was coming over the sand dunes and starting to flood some of the roads, over" -- While band conditions on 20 and 40 meters were not the greatest, the net continued and began passing storm conditions to the National Hurricane Center in Miami: -- (Ham in New Orleans: ".we have wind gusts of about 70 to 75 miles per hour right now. Its really coming bad on us but my antenna is located in the attic." -- One report was rather interesting from a scientific point of view: -- (Ham in New Orleans) "The Mississippi river at the Carrolton gate in New Orleans is flowing backward." -- Also taking reports for the National Hurricane Center was the V-O-I-P Hurricane Watch net. This group gathers information mainly from local repeaters within the storm area and also passes it along to the National Hurricane Center: -- (VoIP Net Audio) "K3-November-Foxtrot-Uniform in Slidell, Louisiana. Estimated winds of 30 and no rain as of this time." -- Hams on the V-O-I-P net also provided ongoing damage assessment: -- (VoIP Net Audio) "I was informed that the power has hone out in mid-city New Orleans, Louisiana near the steets of Murat and Bowden." "Roger. I have Murast and Bowden. Did I copy correctly that was mid-city New Orleans?" -- As this report is being prepared, Issac has been downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm but is soaking Louisiana and surrounding states for yet another day. As such, the job of ham radio operators in coping with the storm is far from over. With thanks to K3VR for the recordings of the 20 meter Hurricane Watch Net, Im Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the newsroom in Los Angeles. -- We will have more on the role of amateur radio in the wake of Hurricane Isaac in upcoming Amateur Radio Newsline reports. (ARNewslineT with audio from Hurricane Watch Net and VoIP Hurricane Watch Net.) ** RADIO LAW: IARU SAYS IT WOULD WELCOME DOT RADIO DOMAIN The International Amateur Radio Union says that it will back the European Broadcasting Union proposal that the top level Internet domain dot radio be used to help to create a global radio community. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, says that his organization believes that the proposal, to be submitted by the European Broadcast Union, could provide a unique opportunity to standardize radio domain names on the Internet. In a recently made public letter, VE6SH said that he recommends that the dot radio domain proposal be approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. European Broadcast Union Director General, Ingrid Deltenre said the International Amateur Radio Union comments are an expression of confidence in the proposal. The complete story on the new dot radio domain and how it will impact all spectrum users is on-line at tinyurl.com/iaru-dot-radio (IARU, VK3PC) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: LONDON OLYMPICS COMMEMORATIVE STATION MAY HAVE SET WORLD RECORD The Radio Society of Great Britain reports that the team at 2O12L, the amateur radio station for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, believe that they have now broken the world record for the number of Q-S-O's by a Special Event Station. As of 21:42 UTC on August 21st, 2O12L had logged contact number 47,791. 2O12L goes QRT on September 9th at the end of the Paralympic Games closing ceremony. As such the operators are fairly confident that they can achieve their target of 60,000 contacts. It is believed the previous standing record for a ham radio Special Event station was held by the group that operated DQ2006X during the 2006 World Cup. That station was on the air from May 13th through July 16th of 2006 and made 47,790 contacts. More on the operation of 2O12L is on-line at www.2O12L.com. (RSGB) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: APRS TO ASSIST VULTURE 2 SPACEPLANE TRACKING The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator Vulture 2 space plane will carry an amateur radio Automatic Packet Reporting System or APRS system. The UK newspaper the Register reports that Anthony Stirk, M- Zero-U-P-U, who was involved in the Raspberry Pi In The Sky mission, is working on the custom control board for the Vulture 2 space plane. As of now, the communications subsystem has a Radiometrix 300 milliwatt HX1 144 MHz band module for APRS and a Radiometrix 10 milliwatt NTX2 433 MHz band module for RTTY. More information on frequencies will ve announced at a later date. More on this upcoming near to space adventure can be read on- line at tinyurl.com/vulture-2. And we will have more ham radio space related news later on in this weeks newscast. (UK Register) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W9RCA repeater serving Indianapolis, Indiana. (5 sec pause here) ** RADIO LAW: VOTE ON ADDING ENGINEERS TO COMMISSION STAFF SEEMS STALLED IN CONGRESS Legislation working its way Congress that would add a technical expert to the staff of each FCC commissioner may not come up for a vote this fall. This is because the House and Senate versions of the bill to allow each of the five commissioners to hire one additional staff engineer are still in committee. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has the details: -- Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe introduced S. 611 in May 2011. The measure seeks to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide commissioners additional technical expertise. However Snowe's intention to retire at the end of this year has led supporters to push for a vote before the end of this Congressional term. The companion House companion measure is H.R. 2102: FCC Commissioners' Technical Resource Enhancement Act. The Society of Broadcast Engineers better known as the SBE is a major supporter of these two pieces of legislation. In a recent press statement, SBE President Ralph Hogan said that his organization has scheduled a trip to Washington to meet with key members of Congress in Washington, This to further groups efforts to move the bills through the House and Senate before the end 2012. However, SBE General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, acknowledged in a column that appeared in the August edition of the SBE publication "The Signal" that time is of the essence. According to Imlay, the SBE's last chance this fall to get H.R. 2102 through the House is `on suspension.' That means the measure is without the usual hearing and report procedure. To move a bill along in these cases normally requires that the bill have a large number of cosponsors. Imlay says that in an election year, this is not easy, noting that there are only four co-sponsors for the House bill now. Currently, FCC commissioners can appoint only three legal advisors to counsel the Commissioners on the wired, wireless and cable media. As part of its legislative agenda, the Society of Broadcast Engineers has sought greater technical expertise on the commission for several years. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale, Arizona. -- Passage of these measures is important to the ham radio community as it will put technical expertise to the highest level of the Commission which for decades has lead primarily by members of the legal profession rather than technologists and engineers. This could lead to a better understanding of our needs than is possible right now. (SBE, RW) ** ENFORCEMENT: RAC ACTS TO PREVENT UNLAWFUL USE OF 2 METERS BY PARAGLIDING COMPETITION Radio Amateurs of Canada took action after a Paragliding competition in British Columbia told its contestants to communicate using a frequency in the 2 meter amateur band. Bob Holowenko, VE7WNK, has more: -- Radio Amateurs of Canada received a report by a British Columbia ham who notified them of what appeared to be the use of the two meter band for the operation of a paragliding competition. Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, witnessed this radio traffic and I was able to talk with him over the phone. - VE7LTD: "I was at a local repeater site helping the locals there by doing a sweep trying to find a source of interference. I had my HP8920A Service Monitor and I was monitoring around the band trying to find what the sources of intermod could be, and I noticed a few spikes in the ham band. Knowing that there is not a lot of VHF activity in the Pemberton area, I decided to tune into each of those and one was on 146.415 simplex where I heard lots of intercommunication between both paragliders in the air and some kind of race coordination on the ground." - This "race coordination" which Dave was hearing was the Canadian Paragliding National Championships held in Pemberton, BC. Dave reported this to The Radio Amateurs of Canada who became extremely concerned about the organizers assertion that all participants must use a VHF radio tuned to 146.415 Mhz for launching and landing. Southern BC is popular for paragliding and hangliding thrill seekers, and the ham community here knows many of those who take part in these events are licensed hams, however it has become apparent that many are not. - VE7LTD: "There was never a call sign used, and never any identification used. Although the communication was very structures, you could tell it was not by ham operators" - Dave did go on to say that of the registered Canadian participants at the event, at least 40% of their names were found in the Ras=dio Amateurs of Canada database. RAC has been in contact with representatives from the Paragliding community and has also requested enforcement action to be taken by government officals at Industry Canada. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bob Holowenko, VE7WNK, in Vancouver, British Columbia. -- According to Radio Amateurs of Canada, protecting the ham radio spectrum from intruders is all in a days work for the group. (RAC, VE7WNK) ** HELPING HAMS: RFINDER.NET SEEKS INPUT FROM FREQUENY COORDINATORS The on-line repeater directory RFinder is inviting Frequency Coordinators to use the World Wide Radio Directory help them in conducting their work. The hams who operate RFinder say that they have already heard from several frequency coordinators who have told them that being able to see the repeaters across borders is very helpful. As such, RFfinder says that frequency coordinators in several countries are using RFinder/Web as a tool in their activities. They are also looking to compile a wish list from the coordination community to build a special portal for them to have the tools they need to make frequency coordination easier. If you are a coordinator who wants to contribute to this wish list please send your thoughts by e-mail to w2cyk (at) rfinder (dot) net. You lraen more about RFinder and the services that it provides all who use repeaters on-line at www.rfinder.net. (RFinder) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: ARRL CENTENNIAL CONVENTION IN HARTFORD CT On the ham radio social scene, the ARRL has announced the organization will hold its 2014 national Centennial Convention in Hartford, Connecticut, from July 17th to the 20th. The Convention will mark 100 years of the ARRL's founding that took place in the city of Hartford. The theme for ARRL's Centennial year is Advancing the Art and Science of Radio Since 1914. More information is on-line at www.arrl.org/expo. (ARRL) ** RADIO HAPPENINGS: NRCDXAS SWITCHING FROM TAPE TO CD MAILOUTS According to Amateur Radio Newsline's Fred Vobbe, W8HDU, the September and October issues of the National Radio Club's D- X Audio Service will be the last to issue on cassette tape. Beginning in November these reports will switch distribution to CD's after 27 years of tape mailouts. Fred asks that if you know someone who is blind or otherwise visually impaired, and who loves the topic of broadcast radio, to please tell them about the DX Audio Service. More information about it can be found on-line at www.nrcdxas.org. (W8HDU) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: BRITISH SOPRANO SARAH BRIGHTMAN MAY BE THE NEXT SPACE TOURIST A world famous entertainer may be the next to travel to the International Space Station. Amateur Radio Newsline's George Bowen, W2XBS, has the details: -- British soprano Sarah Brightman could become the next space tourist to visit the International Space Station. This according to a senior official at the Russian Space Agency who hinted on August 22nd that the 52 year old songstress best known for her creating the role of Christine Daae' in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera is being considered as candidate for such a trip. The Interfax news agency cited a space industry source as saying that the name of the next space tourist, who will most likely fly to the ISS in 2015, will be officially announced in around a month. The source also told Interfax that Brightman visited Russia around a month ago and was given the go-ahead by the medical commission to train at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside Moscow. Previous space tourists visiting the ISS have included the Canadian founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, and computer game creator Richard Garriott, W5KWQ. As most of you know, Richard Garriott is the son of retired Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, who was the first radio amateur to ever operate from space. This on shuttle mission STS-9. Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari is so far the only woman to make the trip to the I-S-S. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm George Bowen, W2XBS, in Albany, New York. -- More about Sarah Brightman's proposed trip to Earth orbit is on-line at tinyurl.com/brightman-iss. (Interfax, AFP) ** 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) ** THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD: MIRAGE AND RF CONCEPTS FOUNDER EVERETT GRACY, WA6CBA - S.K. The man responsible for many pieces of equipment in the shacks of so many hams has become a silent key at age 91. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Carlson, KQ6FM, brings us the story of Everett Gracey, WA6CBA. -- On Sunday morning, August 26, the Amateur Radio world lost a gentle giant, as Everett Gracey, WA6CBA became a silent key. For the many of us who knew Everett, it is loss unlike any other. We have lost a great source of knowledge, but most of all, a dear friend. For everyone else who did not know him, the word "giant" is not adequate to describe him. His contributions to the Amateur Radio world were immeasurable. For those of you who ever owned a piece of gear with the name RF Concepts or Mirage Communications on it, you held a piece of his life and legacy, since he was a co-founder of both companies, which he started with Ken Holaday, K6HCP. Later in life Everett became a consultant to LDG Electronics, who, according to Everett put out one of the greatest automatic antenna tuners on the market, and are sold world wide. Everett spent most of his life in and around Reno, Nevada, where he married his wife Dorothy on July 6, 1940. He was devoted to her, since she was always first and foremost in his mind. He took care of her in their later years, and finally, it was his concern for her well being that prompted his move from Reno to Grass Valley, California, so that her care could be shared with medical professionals. Everett was also a decorated veteran, who fought in with the Army in Europe during WWII, and was awarded both the Bronze Star and Silver Star for bravery in Germany. He was also recipient of the Purple Heart. He was also author of several books, "From A 13 year old Hobo to an Entrepreneur" "My 20 Years of RV Adventures" and "Buying and Selling Real Estate by Owner". One of my most treasured possessions is an autographed copy of his autobiographical book, "From Freight Trains to Airplanes", published in 1999. Everett was always ready to lend a friendly hand with a good piece of advice, Elmering and plenty of wisdom which helped many a ham in need, and always seemed to have exactly what they needed to complete the project, or get back on the air. He even gave away parts used for fixing antennas and gear, at no charge. As a dear mutual friend of Everett's and mine said of his passing, Everett, "I will miss you.you rascal..Oh, and while you are winging your way around the heavens, and you had best not tamper with my RF signal when I am attempting to work DX, or someday, you and I will have a long discussion about that!". With sincere thanks to Joe Wolfe, WA6RKN for his informative help, for the Amateur Radio Newsline, this is Don Carlson, KQ6FM in Reno. -- Per his request no service or memorial will be held. Instead his ashes will be placed next to his wife Dorothy. Everett and Dorothy Gracey had been married 70 years. (KQ6FM, WA6RKN) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: KEPLARIAN ELEMENTS CHANGE WITH ISS HIGHER ORBIT Space-Travel.com reports on August 22nd that a European ATV- 3 unmanned supply spacecraft was used to raise the International Space Station's orbit to about 261 miles. The orbit adjustment was done in two stages, with the ATV-3 engines firing for 348 seconds to lift the orbit to 257 miles followed by another burn four hours later that brought the space station to its final altitude. The maneuver was conducted to prepare for the return to earth of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft on September 17 and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the ISS on October 15th. For amateur radio space enthusiasts this means that you will have to readjust your Keplarian elements when tracking the I-S-S at its new higher altitude. The complete story of this orbital maneuver is on-line at tinyurl.com/ISS-Reboost. (ANS, Spece- Travel.com) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: REGISTRATION OPEN FOR 2012 AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM AMSAT says that registration for its 2012 Space Symposium is now open on-line. To register over the World-Wide-Web simply take your computer to store (dot) amsat (dot) org/catalog and click on the "AMSAT 2012 Symposium" item in the top left box. A mail-in option is also available for those who wamt to register the old fashioned way. A downloadable paper registration forms in MS-Word and PDF format are available on the 2012 Symposium page at tinyurl.com/amsat-2012-reg. This years AMSAT Space Symposium takes place October 26th through the 28th at the Holiday Inn Orlando-International Airport in Orlando, Florida. This hotel is located at only one mile north of the Orlando International Airport. at 5750 T.G. Lee Blvd, in Orlando. (AMSAT) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: CPUT CUBESAT TO LAUNCH END NOVEMBER A CubeSat designed and built by students at the Cape Peninsular University of Technology in Bellville, South Africa, will be launched towards the end of November. Still known by its engineering name ZA Cube-1, the satellite will be shipped in the next few weeks to Holland. There it will be integrated with two other CubeSats in the launch carrier before being shipped for integrating with the rocket. ZA Cube-1 is rare for a ham radio bird in that it carries a High Frequency transmitter operating on 14.099 MHz in the 20 meter band. Also on-board is a small camera and a telemetry transmitter. (SARL) ** DX In DX, N6MW and possibly 1 or 2 other operators will be active stroke KH8 from American Samoa between November 8th and the 19th. Operations will be on 160 through 10 meters using mainly CW, but some SSB and RTTY. QSL via Logbook of the World. A group of radio amateurs from Poland will be on the air as 5T0SP from Mauritania between November 24th and December 10th. Their activity will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and the Digital modes. As of airtime no QSL route has been announced Bill Moore, NC1L, at the ARRL says that the 1998 X-U-one-A operation from Cambodia has been approved for DXCC Credit. Moore says that if you have had QSLs rejected please send an e-mail to bmoore (at) arrl (dot) org to be placed on the list for update. If you remember the submission in which you included the QSL please note this to expedite the search for the rejected QSO. Lastly, SM0JHF reports that he has retired and can no longer afford sending out QSL cards automatically. He notes that for the past 50 years that he has personally filled out and shipped more than 100,000 QSL cards for his activities using numerous past callsigns. He says that he will clean house and dispose of blank cards by the end of this year. If you need a card for any of his calls please contact him by e- mail to sm0jhf (at) gmail (dot) com. A complete list of his operations over the years is under SM0JHF on QRZ.com (Above from various DX news sources) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: STAR FOUND DEVOURING PLANET And finally this week, radio and radio astronomy have brought some new light on the way nature works out in the cosmos. Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, takes us to the far reaches of space: -- Astronomers have found evidence of a planet being devoured by its star, yielding insights into the fate that will befall Earth several billions years in the future. The team uncovered the signature of the planet that had been absorbed by looking at the chemistry of the host star. They also think a surviving planet circling this star may have been kicked into its unusual orbit by the destruction of a neighboring world. The US-Polish-Spanish team made the discovery when they were studying the star BD+48 740 - which is one of a stellar class known as red giants. Rising temperatures near the cores of red giants cause these elderly stars to expand in size. This in turn results in any nearby planets to be absorbed by the expanding star or otherwise destroyed. It's the way of the universe now brought to us thanks to the art of radio and the science of Astronomy. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion, Illinois. -- Details of the work have been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The complete story is on-line at tinyurl.com/planet-hungry-star. (ScienceToday, BBC, others) ** 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, TWiT-TV and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from the Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline(at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350 For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, wishing you a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. 73 and as always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.