Congratulations to John Schouten, VE7TI, who has been inducted into the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for 2024. John was a founding member of the Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommunications Organization, where he has also been a director. He has also served as the local emergency coordinator for Radio Amateurs of Canada for Vancouver. Over the years, John has been regional amateur radio representative and local municipal amateur coordinator for the British Columbia Provincial Emergency Program. He is active with the Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio group and Surrey Amateur Radio Communications, where he serves as director and developer of its course for the Basic amateur radio exam. He is also editor of the club's newsletter, The Communicator.
The hall of fame honor was also given posthumously to Adam Farson, VA7OJ, who became a Silent Key in March of 2024. A winner of the Technical Achievement Award at Hamvention in 2022, Adam's wisdom and expertise was much sought after on a wide range of HF transceivers and amplifiers. The retired telecomm engineer was a longtime member of the North Shore Amateur Radio Club.
HAMS AID ELDERLY WIDOW LOST FOR 2 MONTHS
The Hindu pilgrimage known as the Gangasagar Mela left an 80-year-old participant lost and alone at the end of the event this past January. She had become separated from the group she had traveled with from her home state. Unable to speak, she was eventually taken to the local police station where officers assumed she was ill and transported her to the district hospital.
That’s when another group - an amateur radio organisation known as the West Bengal Radio Club - was called in by police to solve the mystery of where she was from. The club’s members are widely known for their robust communications network which has assisted scores of displaced persons over the years. Using amateur radio and other means, the club circulated information about the woman - and sent her photograph to amateur clubs around the country. Within a few hours, the response came back that the woman was from the state of Uttar Pradesh and had traveled to the annual pilgrimage by train with a group from the district of Ballia. The hams learned that during the past two months, several people from Ballia had returned to West Bengal to look for her but without success.
The hams provided the missing pieces to the puzzle and according to Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, secretary of the radio club, the police in her home district have since been directed by the local magistrate to bring her safely home.
A CW EVENT TURNS THE CALENDAR BACK TO 1935
It’s time to put away your software-defined rig and enjoy being behind the times - way behind the times. The George Batterson 1935 QSO Party will devote two weekends in April to rigs that were either manufactured or home brewed in 1935 or before. CW ops will be looking to make QSOs on the weekends of April 5th through 7th and April 12th through 14th to honor the Silent Key George Batterson, W2GB, who was one of the original founders of the Antique Wireless Association based in upstate New York.
The CW ops are hoping for contacts with as many other 1935-era stations as possible on 160, 80, 40 and 20 meters – and they expect that, like the rigs themselves, the experience will be a classic.
COURT DELAYS DEFUNDING OF RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY
In related news, a federal court in the United States has declared that Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, one of the government-run news services marked for dismantling by the White House, cannot be terminated. The US District Court said that the news services' continued operation, serving listeners overseas, was [quote] "in the public interest." [endquote] According to a report on the Radio Wold website, the judge's ruling on March 26th concluded that [quote] "irreparable harm" [endquote] would result from any shutdown.
VOICE OF AMERICA MUSEUM REASSURES VISITORS
Although the US administration is making cuts to the parent agency of Voice of America and other international news services, the Voice of America Museum in West Chester, Ohio is assuring visitors that it is not affected by these government decisions. The museum is a standalone not-for-profit entity that relies on support from the public - not federal funding.
The museum's executive director, Jack Dominic, released a statement reassuring concerned hams and other callers that the museum will continue to tell the story of the Voice of America, even as the news agency itself goes silent. As always, the museum looks forward to seeing hams from around the world during Hamvention this coming May. Museum hours during Hamvention will be from noon to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - that's May 15th through to May 17th - and on Sunday, May 18th, from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door. Amateur radio station WC8VOA will be on the air so bring a copy of your license.
HAMS REACH OUT TO BOOST AUTISM AWARENESS
The call for autism awareness will be heard around the world during the week of April 2nd through to April 8th. Hams will be calling "CQ Special Event Autism Awareness Week," encouraging inclusion and awareness of the autism spectrum disorder.
This event is being organized for the third year by James Gallo, KB2FMH, who believes the best impact the activation can have is its engagement of other operators in ragchews or short chats about their experiences with autism. James says that because this is not a contest, the real prize is the experience of meaningful contact and conversation - spreading the word that it's OK to be different.
During last year's event, that message traveled far and wide. According to the QRZ.com page for W2A, operators around the world logged 17,129 QSOs, with signals traveling nearly 83 million miles.
In the US, listen for the callsign W2A. Listen for other stations around the world, including GB2AA, 8A2AAW, S76A, VO1BIG/VE3 and 7A2M.
Visit the QRZ.com page for W2A to see which callsigns are participating and to learn more about the autism spectrum disorder, which is an often-misunderstood diagnosis - or may go altogether undiagnosed.
OFCOM PROPOSES DIRECT SMARTPHONE-SATELLITE CONNECTIONS
The UK is poised to have the first European telecommunications system that enables standard smartphones to send and receive signals from space. The system, known as "direct-to-device" technology, connects smartphones wirelessly to satellites. A similar permission was recently authorised in the US by the Federal Communications Commission.
The UK regulator, Ofcom, is proposing to allocate radio frequencies for use in the UK, especially for rural and other currently underserved communication network areas and is inviting comments from the public until 20th of May. Ofcom believes that this could both facilitate sending texts and internet connections during outages, and that access would be allowed to the mobile airwaves for two-way communications between smartphones and satellite operators' networks. If approved, service could begin to roll out later this year.
There has already been a promising field test of the technology in January, under a trial licence issued to Vodafone, who, using a standard smartphone, completed the first satellite video call from a remote part of Wales currently without standard mobile network coverage.
EARTH-VENUS-EARTH BOUNCE A FIRST FOR NETHERLANDS
Amateur radio signals that were bounced off Venus some 26 million miles away, have returned to Earth where they were picked up by the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope, PI9RD, in the Netherlands, according to news reports on the 25th of March.
The achievement - the second of its kind in Europe - means that amateur radio signals covered a distance that is more than 100 times greater than those that are traveled by Earth-Moon-Earth, or moon-bounce signals.
Scientists’ fascination with using Venus-bounce dates back several decades when radar was bounced off the planet from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here in the United States. Much later, radar from the Arecibo [ARRA SEE BO] Observatory in Puerto Rico was bounced off Venus and the signal's return to Earth was picked up by the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The radar trace was used to create imagery of the planet's surface.
It was a German observatory that achieved what is considered a first for Europe using amateur radio waves: A team from AMSAT-DL achieved bounce and successful reception 16 years ago at the ground station at the Bochum observatory sending a CW signal. Until the Dwingeloo Venus-bounce, this was the only such achievement to date of its kind.
Meanwhile, in the US, a California not-for-profit group, the Open Research Institute, has begun a project as well involving Earth-Venus-Earth experimentation. ORI asks interested hams to contact them via their website, openresearch dot institute. That’s openresearch - one word - dot institute. (openresearch.institute)
FOR AM RADIO, SIGNOFF IS A SIGN OF THE TIMES
The website for New York radio station W I R Y-AM, screams: [quote] "Hometown radio. Playing all the hits from yesteryear to today." Now after 75 years, however, there will be no hits played for any tomorrows. The upstate New York State broadcaster has announced it is going silent, the result of a changing audience and a changing media environment.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are presently debating whether a law is needed to ensure that carmakers keep AM radio in vehicles sold in the US -- but for this broadcaster, a locally owned station in the Champlain Valley, the argument is over and AM radio has lost. WIRY made its announcement earlier this month. The announcement did not specify the last day before its transmitter would go silent.
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FROM NEW ZEALAND'S NEW MOBILE EOC
The new mobile Emergency Operations Centre of the Manawatū District Council was years in the making. Recently unveiled to the public at Family Fun Day in Victoria Park, Feilding, the EOC was a concept in administrators' minds for quite some time. They recognised for a long time that a transportable EOC was essential for Civil Defence emergencies in a region that has a large rural population. Until now, the district's urban-based EOC was all everyone had.
The mobile EOC can be trailered from place to place and set up quickly - usually within a half hour. Once in place, it can accommodate as many as 40 people and shield them well from winds of up to 100km per hour, or about 62 miles an hour.
When discussions began years ago, Cyclone Gabrielle was on people's minds. Hawkes Bay, which is also on the North Island, suffered terribly during the 2023 storm but mobile coordination centres responded quickly there, creating a tent city for communications and other assistance.
The NZ Net newsletter quoted Mayor Helen Worboys, who praised the new EOC and the promise it brings in times of crisis. She said [quote]: "In times of emergency, every second counts, and having a mobile, highly equipped response unit like this will make a tremendous difference in our ability to coordinate effectively and deploy resources quickly.” [endquote]
As the newsletter editors also noted in their report, the new mobile EOC will be ideal for next year's Field Day operations.
SPECIAL EVENT STATION MARKS POLIO VACCINE ANNIVERSARY
Members of the Narwhal Amateur Radio Society are marking the 70th anniversary of the approval of the vaccine against polio, which was developed by the American physician and researcher, Dr. Jonas Salk. On April 12th, 1955, the US government permitted the use of Salk's injectable vaccine, which contains inactive forms of the virus. There had been several epidemics at the time of polio, a paralyzing virus also known as poliomyelitis.
Radio operators in a number of locations around the US will be calling "QRZ Salk" or "Polio on the Air" from the 5th through to the 19h of April and to ensure that everyone has a chance to make contact with the special event stations, they will be operating on HF, VHF and UHF. Operators will be using SSB, FT4, FT8, EchoLink and AllStar.
The hams will be using callsigns that spell out the word "Polio," so listen for W7P, W7O, W7L, W7I and W7O. Each station will be sending out individual QSL cards so there's an opportunity to collect all five.
The Narwhal operators are also looking for volunteer operators. Anyone who wants to participate or has questions about the event should send an email nars@narwhal.be
US NAVY COMMUNICATORS LOOK TO HAM RADIO TECHNOLOGY
Amateur radio has provided the inspiration for a new initiative within the Resilient Communications program at the US Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division in the state of Washington. Organizers in Keyport, Washington, are working to use ham radio's reliability as the backup for its emergency communications when there are disruptions to the Internet, computer function or mobile phone services.
Eric Seeley, the division's director of innovation in Keyport, said that the program embraces the technology of ham radio for this purpose and will be establishing a network of licensed hams to make use of amateur radio frequencies when the need arises. Organizers have also been encouraging nearby naval bases to join in their effort.
The Keyport team is reaching beyond the military too. Everyone needs an Elmer, so organizers have contacted local ham radio clubs as well as emergency responders to help with training the new operators to grow the network. Some members of the team have already obtained their GMRS license, for General Mobile Radio Service, but acknowledge that the next step is the FCC's Technician test to become a ham.
WORK AT REPEATER SITE COSTS WEST COAST HAM HIS COUNTY JOB
Repair work that a ham radio operator and fellow club members conducted on a shared repeater site in Washington State has cost the ham his government job.
Asotin County officials said that Russell Pelleberg KA7MPX was not authorized to give the other members of the Hells Gate Amateur Radio Club access to the secure site and that their work caused a communications outage and a power meter disturbance for other users of the site. County agencies operate two nearby radio repeaters and the local utility, Clearwater Power Co., also has facilities.
According to a report in the Lewiston Tribune, Pelleberg said he had discussed the work with county commissioners and they appeared to be supportive. He told investigators that he had even written a resolution for the county to vote on but there were delays producing the document. The newspaper report said he has apologized on behalf of the club for proceeding ahead of the necessary vote and that the hams meant no harm.
No criminal charges were filed or recommended. Pelleberg, who has worked in government for 35 years, was terminated from his job as the county’s public works director in late January.
SILENT KEY: WALTER CARLINGTON, VP9KD, FORMER NET DIRECTOR FOR CARIBUS NET
The callsign of Walter Carlington, VP9KD could be heard often at the family home in Bermuda when his son, Scott, was growing up. Walter, who became licensed in March of 1978, became devoted early on to operating in CW but soon added the joys of SSB to his repertoire.
Walter became a Silent Key at home on the 11th of March. According to his son, he had been diagnosed with cancer. The retired mechanical engineer belonged to the Radio Society of Bermuda, the International Sideband Society and the OMIK [OH MIKE] Amateur Radio Association, where his fist and his voice were well-known on a number of the group’s nets.
He had also been net director for the Friendly CARIBUS Connection Net on 2 metres.
Walter was 81.
YOUNG AMATEURS PREPARE FOR DX YOUTH ADVENTURES
The adventure promises to be twice as big for young amateurs participating in the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure experience in June and July. There are two trips planned.
The first trip takes a group of youngsters to one of the top contesting stations here in the US. The young hams will serve as a team operating special event station W-3-Y from June 13th to the 15th, hosted by the K-3-L-R Multi/Multi Contest Station in Pennsylvania.
In July, other young participants will be going to Curaçao to another super-contesting station to operate as P-J-2-Y. The program is being hosted for the fourth time by the Caribbean Contesting Consortium, P-J-2-T. This four-day activation will take place from the 17th through the 22nd of July.
Be on the lookout for applications for both of these trips. In the meantime, you can visit the team page to get more information. The website is youthdxa dot org. That's youthdxa - all one word - dot org.
These adventures reflect the spirit and support given the program by Dave Kalter, K-B-8-O-C-P, the youth adventure's cofounder. Dave became a Silent Key in November of 2013.
STRANDED NASA ASTRONAUTS RETURN TO EARTH FROM ISS
Tuesday night, March 18th, brought a safe splashdown at long last for Suni Williams KD5PLB and Butch Wilmore, the two NASA astronauts left stranded on the International Space Station for nine and a half months after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft malfunctioned. They splashed down inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule off the coast of Florida along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague KG5TMV and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The 17-hour flight home ended a saga that began with what was supposed to have been only a short test flight aboard the Boeing Starliner in June.
(ABC NEWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FCC SEEKS PUBLIC SUGGESTIONS ON POSSIBLE DEREGULATION
In related news, the FCC is looking for public input on what rules, regulations or other forms of guidance should be eliminated as part of the commission's efforts at deregulation. A public notice has set a deadline of Friday, April 11th for initial comments. Reply comments are due by Monday, April 28th. The commission is hoping to hear recommendations based on changes in technology and the market, cost-benefit considerations and regulations that are a barrier to entry in the communications marketplace. All filings must reference Docket Number 25-133. On its website, the FCC refers to the document as the "Delete, Delete, Delete" docket.
US GOVT TO SHUT VOA AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICES
Voice of America, a shortwave service launched in 1942 during the Second World to bring news to countries under authoritarian control, is among US-based news programming for overseas audiences targeted in a deep cut by the Trump administration. According to various media reports, VOA employees have been notified that they were all being placed on paid administrative leave with full benefits - effective immediately.
Cuts to VOA, as well as Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Marti and others are the result of reductions taking place inside the US Agency for Global Media, where these programs originate. These cuts are part of the ongoing down-sizing of the US government. The agency operates with congressional funding to deliver news in 64 languages to listeners around the world via six networks, some of which were created during the Cold War. VOA’s first broadcast, made in 1942, was in German and was transmitted to German listeners to counter Nazi propaganda.
The Agency for Global Media's mission statement reads [quote] "to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy." [endquote]
On Friday the 15th of March, Trump signed the executive order for the cuts, noting in the language of the order itself that the services earmarked for reduction have been deemed [quote] “unnecessary.” [Endquote]
HELLO, MOON TO EARTH? ANYBODY HOME?
That much-awaited wireless call from the Moon to the Earth will just have to be put on hold - for now. Nokia's 4G LTE network was expected to be put through its paces from the south pole of the lunar surface following the March 6th landing of the Athena Lander, built by the private Houston, Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines.
Athena arrived with Nokia's Network in a Box, or NIB, on board. Like its predecessor lander - also built by Intuitive Machines - the lander tipped over upon arrival and, with its solar panels blocked from receiving the necessary recharge from the sun, the mission was quickly declared over.
Undaunted, Nokia pointed out that the company did successfully deliver the moon's first cellular network and powered it up for 25 minutes to transmit data and receive commands from the Earth. Hopes were high, though, that there would be more to report. After all, this mission was supposed to help facilitate communications in 2027 aboard Artemis III. That mission is to be NASA's first human spaceflight to the moon since 1972 and astronauts are expected to be wearing spacesuits that have integrated 4G LTE capabilities courtesy of Nokia and Axiom Space.
Of course that's still two years away so....until then, hold all calls, please.
HAMS UNITE TO MARK 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF ERIE CANAL
September can’t come soon enough for the Warren County Radio Club W2WCR, whose members are planning a club picnic and POTA activation to mark the bicentennial of the Erie Canal. The club’s president Bernie N1NDN told Matt K2EAG and Mike N2MAK that the POTA event the two have organized from the 16th through to the 25th of September provides a perfect opportunity for everyone to try operating a portable station while celebrating the historic canal.
While most of the portable stations are likely to be at various points along the route known as the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, not all the activations are likely to be on dry land. Matt said that the Radio Association of Western New York W2PE hopes to operate aboard the museum ship USS Little Rock CLG4 in Buffalo while, at the opposite end of the canal in Albany, hams are hoping to activate another museum ship, the USS Slater WW2DEM. Matt and Mike are looking for as many individual hams and clubs as possible to sign up. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of room along the corridor, which has the POTA designation of US-6532. The radio event is timed to coincide with the World Canal Conference that kicks off on the 21st of September in Buffalo.
If you’d like to help honor the canal’s history, contact Matt at the email address in the text version of this week’s newscast script at arnewsline.org - or look for him on the Facebook page of Upstate New York Parks on the Air.
