AN "ANTENNA RACING" EVENT THAT'S ALL IN GOOD SPORT

The quartet of contenders were locked in what one on-site moderator called [quote] "a battle of pure technical fury."[endquote] Their telescoping masts, their coax and their antenna analysers were ready for action.  Introducing this world-class portable antenna-building competition was Amateur Radio Newsline's own Jim Meachen ZL2BHF, a commentator on the sidelines along with event organiser, Nick ZL2NEB.

There were more than a few tense moments in this Kaikoura park -- and there was no room for cheating: Speed of deployment and low SWR were everything. This event showcased what Jim called [quote] "high-octane engineering athletics." [endquote] It was all up to Malcolm, ZL4MWB, Nick, ZL2NEB, Graeme, ZL1BDS and Stewart, ZL2STR, each taking turns, one by one, to show that their antennas could resonate with the best of them.

Nick, who had jokingly suggested creating the competition, was pleased to see POTA/SOTA activators embrace this chance to rev their engines. Like Formula 1 cars, competitors had to stay on track.

So who won the coveted 40m dipole that had been donated by Greg ZL1GUD from the HamShack? Tune in to find out, sports fans: We're providing the YouTube link to the recorded action in the text version of this newscast at arnewsline.org

Nick, meanwhile, believes that it might be time for these antenna athletes to go for the gold. He told Newsline in an email: [quote] "I think that we really have a good chance of it being included in an upcoming Olympics at some point." [endquote]

HAMCATION ANNOUNCES 3 TO RECEIVE HONORS

Newsline congratulates three award recipients to be honored at HamCation 2026 in February in Orlando, Florida. Kansas amateur Tony Milluzzi, KD8RTT, has been named the 2026 Gordon West Ham Ambassador of the Year for his support of the Collegiate Amateur Radio Program. The Carole Perry Educator of the Year award is being given to Nathaniel Frissel, W2NAF for his ongoing work with the HamSCI citizen science education program which he founded and continues to grow. The recipient of the new Amateur Radio Hero Award, is a name well-known to Newsline and our listeners: Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA. The West Bengal, India, amateur has been chosen for [quote] "his outstanding support of local and national emergency operations and law enforcement during life-threatening events where lives were saved by his actions." [endquote] He and his club are two-time winners of the former Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award.

Congratulations to everyone. Hamcation will take place on the 13th through to the 15th of February.

DUTCH RADIO GROUP PUTS SIX "SANTA" STATIONS ON AIR

Who's working harder than Santa himself? Probably the Dutch Radio Group, whose operators have been on the air since the 10th of December and will be calling CQ with six special callsigns through to the 2nd of January. Listen for PD25HOLLY, PD25HOHOHO, PD25REDNOSE, PD25SANTA, PD25XMAS and PD26HNWY. There is a special award for anyone who works all six stations. If you want to see who is on the air right now and on what frequency - if you want to see what chasers they have already worked, visit the QRZ.com page for any of the callsigns listed.

HISTORIC STATION TO SEND CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE IN CW

One hundred Christmas Eves will have come and gone when the callsign SAQ transmits the Christmas Eve message from the Grimeton Radio Station in Sweden on the morning of December 24th. The operator will again be using the much-loved transmitter, which utilises an alternating-current generator developed by the pioneering Swedish engineer Ernst Alexanderson.

The Christmas Eve morning transmission will be sent on 17.2 kHz about a half-hour after the transmitter has been started up. It is a festive occasion on the radio station site itself but for those who cannot be there personally, the message can be heard on the air, of course, and seen on the YouTube channel of the Alexander SAQ Grimeton Friendship Association.

It is a Christmas gift to the world, as the association notes on its channel, pointing out that this is the [quote] "only remaining electromechanical radio transmitter." [endquote]" Indeed, its continued operation is a holiday gift worth celebrating.

UK SMARTPHONES OK'D FOR "DIRECT TO DEVICE" SATELLITE SERVICE

Mobile phone companies in the UK wishing to provide direct-to-device services from satellites are being told to request a license change from Ofcom. The regulator has approved the rollout of satellites for delivery of phone calls, texts and Internet in areas of the UK lacking mobile coverage.This shift brings the UK in line with a number of other countries, including the US, where direct-to-device was also approved by the Federal Communications Commission. In the UK, the earliest adopters are the mobile network operator O2, working with Starlink, and Vodafone, working with AST. Smartphone users themselves will not be required to apply for a license.

SILENT KEY: QSL.NET/QTH.NET FOUNDER ALAN L. WALLER, K3TKJ

When Alan Waller, K3TKJ, created the QSL.net and QTH.net websites in 1996, he succeeded in expanding the universe of online information for his fellow amateurs. Al, who got his license in 1962, made a name for himself over the years as a top contester, as someone well-versed in technical matters and as a big fan of DXing on 6 metres.

Diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, he became a Silent Key on the 30th of November.

In 2002, Al's contributions to amateur radio earned him the Dayton Hamvention Technical Excellence Award. In 2008, he retired from running his two websites, entrusting them to Scott KA9FOX so the resources could remain available.

A statement on the QSL.net home page recalled his lifetime of work, adding that [quote] "Al's pioneering spirit and technical achievements will be fondly remembered by friends and colleagues alike." [endquote]

Al was 80.

BELGIAN EVENT MARKS BATTLE OF THE BULGE ANNIVERSARY

The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler's final major offensive on the Western Front. His attempt to repel the Allies from German-held territory did not succeed. On the 22nd December 1944, the Germans delivered an ultimatum to surrender to the Allies in Bastogne, Belgium -- and the single-word response from US Gen. Anthony McAuliffe became one for the history books.

His reply was "NUTS!"

That word forms the suffix of the special event station callsign being used by members of the Brussels Radio Club BXE. Station OR81NUTS will be on the air from the Bastogne Barracks using CW and SSB on the HF bands until the 31st of December.

For details, visit the station's QRZ.com page.

APPLICATION PERIOD OPENS FOR YOUTH ON THE AIR CAMP

The application period has begun for young amateurs living in North Central or South America who want to attend ‘Youth on the Air’ summer camp next June. To be eligible, hams must be between the ages of 15 and 25, and have a current amateur radio license.

The camp will be held in Huntsville, Alabama, with a focus on STEM activities that relate to space travel and space exploration. Here on Earth, the camp will take place from the 14th through the 19th of June.

For details, or to find an online application, visit youthontheair dot org (youthontheair.org). That's youth-on-the-air, all one word, dot-org.

JORDANIAN AMATEURS APPROVED FOR NEW CLUB STATION

The Royal Jordanian Radio Amateur Society has established a new club station with the callsign JY6SC - one of many stations to be established at schools, universities and within Jordan's Armed Forces, to promote amateur radio. It recently received permission to set up the station from the Jordanian Special Communications Commission, the governmental agency that oversees the nation's communications network.

The Royal Jordanian Radio Amateur Society was created in 1971 by the celebrated radio amateur King Hussein, JY1. The amateur group enjoys the involvement of the royal family, including Prince Hussein, JY2A, who in 2018 supported the society's launch of the nation's first amateur satellite. The student-built CubeSat bears the callsign JY1SAT, in memory of King Hussein, who became a Silent Key in 1999.

FCC GRANTS HAMS NON-CHANNELIZED USE ON 60M

Hams in the US are getting expanded, non-channelized use of parts of the 60m band under a recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission. The new access applies to General and Extra Class license-holders who, until now, were granted use on a secondary basis of four discrete channels: 5332, 5348, 5373, and 5405 kHz. In a decision released on December 9th, the FCC reaffirmed the continued amateur use of these existing four channels at 100 watts of power, saying there have been no interference issues with federal operations.

The FCC said, that in-line with the international WRC15 allocation, contiguous use between 5351.5 and 5366.5 kHz with a limited emission bandwidth of 2.8 kHz and power of no more than 15 watts EIRP is being granted.

To see the FCC decision and other announcements, see the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

VERMONT ENDS AMATEUR RADIO RACES SERVICE

Vermont state officials have ended the RACES program, calling the action taken November 1st [quote] "a move toward streamlining and modernizing our communications systems and volunteer programs to improve coordination and efficiency." [endquote]

Vermont RACES volunteers learned of the decision in a letter to them from Brett La Rose of the state's emergency management office. Hams were instead encouraged to join the state's Medical Reserve Corps program, which is part of the Vermont Department of Health. A number of Medical Reserve Units across the US have a communications component that engages hams in passing emergency radio traffic on behalf of hospitals and other healthcare institutions.

In a letter shared on Facebook by the Green Mountain Wireless Society and other Vermont ham clubs, La Rose wrote that the decision does not reflect on the quality of volunteers but was a move toward greater efficiency.

He added: [quote] "Your contributions to our state have been invaluable." [endquote]

REDESIGNED WEATHER WEBSITE DRAWS STORM OF PROTEST

Each year, more than 2.6-billion pairs of eyes check in for guidance in Australia on the government's Bureau of Meteorology website.

Lately, however, visitors to the "Bom," as it is nicknamed, have been declaring the site's redesign a "bomb." In a recent report carried by BBC News, users have weighed in publicly on the re-do, calling it everything from counterintuitive to an outright disaster.

The remake, which cost 96.5 million in Australian dollars, was the bureau's response to a 2015 cybersecurity breach.

A number of users became instant fans and praised the site for its cleaner front page. The bureau has even provided guidelines designed to help visitors navigate the site.

The BBC report said, however, that the majority of vocal visitors to the site have been clamouring for the bureau to roll it back to the old version or simply make it more user-friendly, with farmers in particular unable to find their location relevant weather as they could previously.

Worse for users is that the colour coding on the RADAR maps has changed!

Many users now are putting the letters REG at the beginning of the url which then reverts them to the original site.

Looks like stormy weather ahead for the Bom, at least for the immediate future.

INDIAN AMATEURS HELP WOMAN LOST IN BANGLADESH

An older woman, believed to have been begging on the streets of Bangladesh for survival for years, has reconnected with her family in India through the efforts of the West Bengal Radio Club, an organisation with a specialty in missing-persons cases.

The woman’s disappearance was traced to a religious pilgrimage she made nearly 20 years ago - an annual gathering near the Ganges River. With the volume of pilgrims at the event, known as the Gangasagar Mela, it is not uncommon for many attendees to get lost or to go missing. According to the club’s secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, the woman, who is now about 70 years of age and from a village in India, somehow joined a group of pilgrims from Bangladesh. That is how she is believed to have taken a detour to Bangladesh instead of returning home.

News accounts said that she was soon living on the street, begging. Recently, ham radio contacts in Bangladesh reached out to the West Bengal hams asking them to intervene after they questioned her and she uttered one of the few words she could: “Sagar,” the name of the district she came from in India. Using photographs of her and their wide network of contacts, the West Bengal hams finally reached her surviving family members, according to a report in the Australia India News. She has two surviving sons in Delhi. Her husband and one son have since died. Attempts at uniting her with her sons were under way as Newsline went to production.

MARATHON QSO PARTY ENDING FOR SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE

It's been quite a year for the South African Radio League - but not as big a year as 1925, the year that the league came into being. SARL, which launched its Centenary Marathon QSO Party in January, is concluding it this month. At 23:59 UTC on the 31st of December, its participating callsigns - most notably ZS1ØØSARL - will be going QRT. Contacts have been made since the first of the year on CW, Phone, digital - and via satellites or repeaters. Contacts have been on HF, VHF and UHF. Even shortwave listeners have been involved, accumulating points and applying for different levels of awards.

Many of these modes did not even exist 100 hundred years ago when the league - formerly known as the South African Radio Relay League, became a reality thanks to the efforts of hams who decided amateur radio needed a unified voice to advocate for their interests.

The marathon recognises the growth and reach that SARL has attained through the ensuing decades.

Even if you're getting a late start in chasing the activators, there's still time. Visit mysarl.org.za [mysarl dot org dot zed ay] for details.

COMPUTING IN SPACE? STUDENTS FACE THE CHALLENGE

Whether students are beginners or more advanced at coding, there is a place for them in the European Astro Pi Challenge. The UK Space Agency and the European Space agency are offering the challenge to students up to age 19 with different levels of coding competency.

Beginners are invited to participate in the Astro Pi Mission Zero by designing a piece of pixel art for display to astronauts aboard the ISS on Raspberry Pi computers known as Astro Pis. Students capable of handling more complex code - in this case, programming in Python - are asked to be part of the Mission Space Lab instead. Their challenge is to calculate the speed of the ISS by utilising sensors or a camera with the Astro Pi.

Mission Zero's deadline is the 23rd March 2026 and Mission Space Lab's deadline is 16 February 2026. Resources are being provided to the Educators by the project.

Astro Pi's ambassador is ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN, who will be undertaking her first mission to the ISS in early 2026.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LAUNCH 'LIGHT SAIL CHIPSATS'

Students and their professors at Cornell University are hoping for smooth sailing for a project known as the Alpha CubeSat mission – but they’re looking for ham radio assistance to help them track its progress.

Their project has deployed what are known as Light Sail ChipSats, small free-flying flight computers in low Earth orbit, to transmit telemetry on 437.4 MHz at 100 mW of power using LoRa transceivers. The ChipSats are mounted on a retro reflective laser sail. The project, which relies only on solar power, was sent to the International Space Station aboard 1U CubeSats developed by students at the school’s Space Systems Design Studio.

The project website explains the short time window saying [quote] “Between the sunlight-only, low power and short orbital lifetime, we need all the help we can get to collect telemetry from the sail and establish LEO-to-ground communications for this new generation of tiny spacecraft.” [Endquote]

For details on how to participate, follow the link in the text version of this week’s Newsline report at arnewsline.org. You can also contact Joshua KD2WTQ at the email address jsu4@cornell.edu

SILENT KEY: GANESH SUBRAMANIAM, VU2TS

As Newsline went to production we also learned of the death of Ganesh Subramaniam, VU2TS, an influential ham in Bangalore and beyond. Ganesh became a Silent Key on the 2nd of December, reportedly after a brief illness.

In online posts on Facebook and websites, many remembered him as an enthusiastic CW operator who embraced the code from the very start. In an October 2019 interview on the QSO Today podcast, he spoke about his enthusiastic radio beginnings as a shortwave listener, culminating in taking his exam in 1960 at a time when amateur radio operators were few and far between in India. He said he did not receive his licence - a Grade 1 licence - until April of 1965 at the age of 29. He learned he had just become the 350th ham in India.

Always active and enthusiastic, he became the founder and net control operator of the Charminar Net and a life member of the Bangalore Amateur Radio Club. He was also an avid contester and had served for a time as editor of Ham Radio News, the Amateur Radio Society of India's magazine.

Ganesh was 90.

To hear Ganesh tell his story on the QSO Today podcast, visit qsotoday.com and type his name in the search bar.

SILENT KEY: EDITOR, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR JOHN WALKER, ZL3IB

ohn Walker ZL3IB, was a prominent editor and author of articles and publications devoted to amateur radio in New Zealand and beyond. He had served as acting editor of the Christchurch Amateur Radio Club newsletter, HamLarks and 18 years as editor of Break-In, the official journal of New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters. John received his callsign in 1971.

He became a Silent Key in Christchurch on the 2nd of November.

When it came to amateur radio, John didn't just believe in operating; he believed in educating - a natural motivation for him because education was his career: He had been a professor of botany at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. He was a founding trustee of the Radioscience Education Trust in 1998. The trust, which is part of NZART, supports persons wishing to advance their education in radio science.

John was also the widely published author of dozens of technical articles and columns on amateur radio and equipment.

He was made an honorary life member of NZART in 2014.

John was 92, just three weeks shy of his 93rd birthday when he became a Silent Key.

NEW RESTRICTIONS FOR SHORT-RANGE UHF RADIOS IN GERMANY

PMR446, the popular short-range UHF radios enjoyed in much of Europe, could be enjoyed much less in Germany this month after changes enacted by the regulator BNetZa. The regulator will prohibit operators from using any external antennas with their radios and from using the radios as base stations.

PMR operators will also lose the ability to use their radios as repeaters or as Internet gateways -- two functions widely available to amateur radio operators. The PMR radios, which operate on 16 frequencies within the 446 MHz band, will be only be permitted to be used for so-called "peer-to-peer" or person-to-person mode.

Explaining these changes on his YouTube channel Funkwelle - the German word for "radio waves" - Art Konze DL2ART told viewers that he expected PMR operating to drop off, saying [quote] "the only alternative that remains is to get into amateur radio." [endquote] He said that holders of the new N-class entry level licence have the ability to use relays and Internet gateways and can communicate worldwide. Art reminded viewers that these changes closely follow similar restrictions placed earlier this year on Freenet, Germany's licence-free personal mobile 2-way radio service.

INDIAN SPECIAL EVENT IS A TRIBUTE AND AN EXPERIMENT

Jagadish Chandra Bose would probably approve of this year’s tribute to him by Datta VU2DSI. Datta is using the callsign AU2JCB through to the 15th of December honouring the scientist known in India and beyond as a pioneer in wireless communication.

From both a commemorative and scientific standpoint, the timing could not be more appropriate. Datta has activated this station every year for the past 19 years to coincide with the anniversary of Bose’s birth date on the 30th of November, 1858. This year the timing reflects the theory that Bose shared about electromagnetic radiation. In 1897 in London, he formally presented his theory to fellow scientists that the sun’s electromagnetic radiation had a definite impact on communication via radio waves. During this activation Datta is measuring the global impact of solar radiation, flares and storms on HF propagation from India at this key point in Solar Cycle 25.

Datta will share the callsign with Pramod VU2XPN, a university professor of electronics.

Details are available on the QRZ.com page of AU2JCB.