YOUTH ON THE AIR JUNIOR CAMP HOLDS FIRST SESSION

Youth on the Air Junior Camp USA, the younger sibling of Youth on the Air in the Americas, is preparing to welcome campers for the first time this month – and you can too, by working them when they get on the air. The debut session of this camp is being hosted by the West Chester Amateur Radio Association at National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester, Ohio. Youngsters under the age of 15 will be calling CQ with the special event callsign W8Y throughout the weekend of July 25th and at specially scheduled times.

When they are not in the shack, the campers will be involved in radio-related activities similar to those at the regional YOTA camps for young people 15 through 25. You can participate too by watching the opening ceremony at 1700 UTC on Friday, July 25th on the Youth on the Air YouTube channel, where videos will highlight some of the day’s activities. Of course, getting these youngsters in your log is the best way to support them. Be listening on the HF bands, especially at the following dedicated times: Friday, July 25th from 2230 to 0100 UTC; Saturday, July 26th from 1500 to 1600 UTC and Sunday, July 27th from 2000 to 2100 UTC.

STUDENTS SOLAR-CAR EVENT GETS GOOD MILEAGE WITH HAMS

The Texas Motor Speedway is the scene of the Solar Car Challenge, an event that has been encouraging high school students to experiment with alternative energy since 1993.

According to a post in the QRZ.com forums, special event station K5S will be on 20 meters from the 17h to the 25th of July to celebrate the cars built by students from California, Florida, Washington state, Texas and elsewhere. Listen for radio operators around 14.340 MHz for SSB and 14.074 MHz for FT8. They'll be on the air from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. US Central Time. The actual four days of the race are the 20th through to the 23rd.

Naturally, everyone is hoping for good terrestrial - and solar - weather. Everyone, start your engines!

CW OPS PREPARE TO FLY WITH 'FLIGHT OF BUMBLEBEES' EVENT

So here's the buzz: If you're a CW operator and enjoy QRP, four hours on July 27th have been reserved just for you. It's the annual "Flight of the Bumblebees," organized by the Adventure Radio Society and anyone can operate from 1700 to 2100 UTC.

Because the objective is for bumblebee stations to work portable and home-based stations to chase bumblebees, it promises to be quite a hive of activity. You'll know you're working a bumblebee because the operators will append /bb [stroke b b] to their calls. Each bumblebee will be assigned their own number so that they aren't just...bumbling along.

This popular event has also worked well for POTA hunters and SOTA chasers but, as always, there are rules to follow and there is a necessary exchange of bumblebee numbers and other information - but always, short and sweet.

For details, visit the Adventure Radio Society website. The link appears in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org. The society was formed in the 1990s by Russ Carpenter, AA7QU, in Oregon, to promote the enjoyment of QRP radio outdoors.

HAMS REUNITE MISSING DAUGHTER WITH FAMILY AFTER 8 YEARS

The parents of a woman missing from West Bengal, India, for eight years were reunited with her in early July by amateur radio operators after she was found in Bangladesh. Her parents told local media that she had disappeared from home eight years ago and they were convinced she had died during that time. Local media reports said that the woman, who is now 28, has been determined to have mental challenges.

A report in the Indian Express said that Muhammed Abdul Gani Fitu, S21BD, a ham in Bangladesh, first spotted the woman at a railway station not far from the social services agency he operates. He told the newspaper that when he spoke with her, he was surprised to learn she was from India. He contacted amateurs in West Bengal and provided information about her home village and her parents' names, which she was able to provide.

In West Bengal, Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, said he received the woman's photos and other details and asked Sanjib Sarma, a shortwave listener who belongs to the West Bengal Radio Club, to assist by locating her parents. They were tracked down the next day and, following a video call between them and her daughter, arrangements were being made with government authorities for her eventual return after her medical condition could be further assessed and managed.

A LIFE-SAVING DISTRESS CALL SENT IN 'DOG MODE'

A July 4th hike in the Swiss Alps near the Italian border turned into a fight for life for one hiker after he lost his footing and plunged into an icy crevasse that trapped him 8 metres deep below the glacial surface.

The hiker was not alone. He'd held onto his amateur radio HT and used it to call for help. According to various media accounts, although his signal was picked up nearby, that radio operator could not narrow down the hiker's location. He reached out to emergency services instead.

The hiker was also not alone because he had a companion: his small dog, believed to be a Papillon [Pap-EE-Yon]. The little dog remained steadfast in the snow, sitting atop of the glacial hole that held the man captive. As it turns out, the shivering, barking dog is what got the helicopter rescue crew's attention first before they even saw the crevasse.

The Air Zermatt rescue team was able to lift the hiker and his dog to safety and flew them to a local hospital. Air Zermatt released a statement later calling the effort an "extraordinary" rescue mission. Neither the hiker's name nor the dog's name were made public.

Hams know that a lifesaving HT is always a plus for such hikes -- but for extra assurance, perhaps the next essential in the amateur radio "go kit" out to be something called an "LD" -- which in this case, stands for "Loyal Dog."

HEADQUARTERS FIELD DAY FOR OUR 2022 YHOTY WINNER

With 1,536 sites in ARRL's Field Day locator, one in particular stands out: Headquarters station W1AW in Newington, Connecticut. Operators at the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station were, of course, calling "CQ Field Day" but if you were lucky enough to log this 6F-class station on Saturday, June 28th there's a good chance you may have worked Audrey McElroy, KM4BUN. Audrey was the Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the year for 2022. The Georgia resident has been in Connecticut working on an internship in support of her electrical engineering studies at Georgia Tech. Audrey is, of course, a Field Day veteran and a former operator for the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure to Curacao. Dayton Hamvention attendees may have also met her in Xenia, Ohio, as a presenter.

This year's Field Day at W1AW was a proud moment for us here at Newsline and we wish Audrey continued success and, of course, good DX.

GRANT WILL HELP WITH CLUBLOG OPERATIONS UPGRADE

ClubLog, a service that has become a mainstay for DXers worldwide, has received an $8,000 grant in US currency for a hardware upgrade to improve operations. The funding from the Northern California DX Foundation is being given to Michael, G7VJR, ClubLog's author. In a DX foundation press release, ClubLog reminded users that the expensive upgrade of its servers is necessary to support expanded activity. Michael said: "...once the new servers are deployed, Club Log will be using cutting edge servers which are faster, more energy efficient and ready for years of high-endurance 24/7 work. "

According to a press release from the DX foundation, the free ClubLog statistics service supports an estimated 130,000 callsigns worldwide and stores records of 1.25 billion QSOs.

DOUBLE CENTENARY FOR AMATEURS IN JAPAN

Japanese amateurs are marking a double anniversary - both spanning 100 years: They're celebrating the establishment of the Japan Amateur Radio League in June of 1926. The league was created to assist innovators and experimenters who were conducting their radio research without benefit of a licence. That changed in September of the following year, when the callsign JXAX was assigned by the government to the first of what would soon become a handful of radio telegraph and telephone stations. Ham radio kept growing so that just before the Second World War, the nation had 300 such stations.

Hams in Japan will be marking those two formative moments in history during a celebration designed to last 16 months -- the same time period between the events 100 years ago. Awards, ceremonies, special event stations, contests and an anniversary book are among the activities planned.

Clearly there's a lot to celebrate in that 100-year stretch which last year landed Japan in the Guinness Book of World Records for putting JS1YMG, the first amateur radio station, on the moon.

'NIGHT OF NIGHTS' HONORS LONG-GONE MARITIME TRADITION

The silencing of the last maritime radio station in the US in California in 1999 gave voice to an effort to create the Maritime Radio Historical Society, K6KPH, to preserve its treasured Morse Code tradition.

Every year, the event, "Night of Nights," celebrates this tradition on the anniversary of the day that the station signed off - ensuring that July 12th would not mark the station's final signoff, after all. Broadcast engineers, radio operators and history enthusiasts have seen to that. They volunteered to bring new life to the receive site at the Point Reyes National Seashore and to the Bolinas Radio transmitter site - returning Morse service to the station known as KPH/KFS.

This year's 26th edition of "Night of Nights" is a collaboration of modern skills and classic style equipment, including "Marconi T" type antennas at both the transmitter and receive sites. KPH and KFS will be operating on assigned commercial frequencies while K6KPH will be operating on several HF amateur radio bands. For times, frequencies and QSL information, please check the Maritime Radio Historical Society website at radiomarine.org.

BRAZILIAN SPECIAL EVENT CELEBRATES 105-YEAR-OLD YL

The special event callsign PP105ASN was on the air for 11 days in June - but the YL being honoured has been on the air for 49 years - and she has been on the planet for 105. Her name is Alda Schlemm Niemeyer, who is known widely as "Grandma Alda."

To mark her 105th birthday this past spring, her fellow members in the Blumenau Amateur Radio Club used SSB and FT8 on HF -- as well as 2m FM simplex. The club's president, Mauro Cerqueira Leite, PP5BSD, told Newsline there were a total of 1,200 QSOs and they were acknowledged via digital QSL.

NYC PROPERTY OWNER GETS "PIRATE" LETTER FROM FCC

The Federal Communications Commission has sent a letter to a property owner in the New York borough of the Bronx, charging them with permitting unlicensed broadcasting from that location. The FCC cited complaints about a broadcast on 89.3 FM coming from an apartment above ground-floor retail establishments in June and November of 2024 and again this past January.

The letter was sent under the PIRATE Act of 2020, which strengthened the FCC's enforcement authority and raised possible penalties against pirate broadcasters. The property owners are required to respond to the agency within 10 days.

Under the PIRATE Act, the FCC can issue a maximum fine of $2.5 million if the broadcasts continue after the response period has passed.

The RadioWorld website, which carried the report, said one of its readers in New York City identified the broadcast as coming from an entity known as "Digital FM WDYM."

This is Kent Peterson KCØDGY.

SILENT KEY: AUSTRIAN MILITARY RADIO SOCIETY's MONIKA WLCEK, OE3YUP

A near-fatal shooting in the head during an armed robbery in Vienna more than three decades ago nearly claimed the life of Monika Wlcek, OE3YUP. She ultimately emerged from a coma and recovered, though she was left partially paralyzed for the rest of her life. Her love of amateur radio, which she shared with her husband Helmut, OE3HCB, kept her in the forefront of the amateur radio community until she became a Silent Key on the 10th of June of this year. Her death was reported recently in the YL Beam newsletter.

Monika was an active member of the Forest District of the Austrian Military Radio Society and an active participant in YL activities each year at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen.

Monika was 79.

YOTA AMERICAS CAMPERS LAUNCH FARTHEST BALLOON TRIP

Thirty two campers traveled from all over the world to Thornton, Colorado in June to attend the annual Americas wide camp for amateur radio operators aged 15 to 25 called Youth On The Air. Jack McElroy, KM4ZIA, has been the leader of the YOTA balloon launch team since he was 14 years old at the camp's first in person event in the Americas.

In 2022, Newsline shared Jack's story of one of his personal balloons becoming the closest any amateur radio balloon has been to the South Pole. At this year's YOTA camp, the youth team in cooperation with Edge of Space Sciences launched a high altitude balloon, tracked it by APRS, and brought back video from near space after reaching a height of 96,600 feet. But, thunderstorms prevented the launch of the two pico balloons scheduled for that afternoon.

Instead, the balloons were transported to NIST radio station WWV in Fort Collins the next day, where the campers were taking a tour of the facility and operated portable stations. The wide open spaces and clear sky at WWV proved to be a great launch site for these balloons as they started the longest journey of any YOTA Americas balloons yet. At the time of recording this edition of Newsline, one balloon is flying over Hawaii and is closing in on an entire orbit around the Earth, while the other balloon made it to western Iran before returning to the ground.

Jack told Newsline, "This all would not have been possible without the curiosity and efforts of the campers, for they were the ones assembling, balancing, and launching the balloons. I hope that through experiences like this, youth can be inspired to bring their amateur radio expertise into areas that they never thought possible, from research projects to future careers." The balloon launch was sponsored by the North Fulton Amateur Radio League. You can follow the trek of these balloons on WSPRNET.ORG under KM4ZIA and on APRS.FI under WØY-1 and WØY-11.

FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT TO SPEAK AT DALLAS 'MOON DAY'

Retired Colonel Carl Walz, formerly KC5TIE, will deliver the keynote address at the Dallas Frontiers of Flight Museum during Moon Day, which celebrates space exploration and encourages attendees to participate in activities involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Moon Day is taking place on the 19th of July, a date close to the July 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. The Ohio native, a former ISS astronaut, spent more than 18 hours conducting spacewalks to evaluate tools for the refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope.

AMSAT Ambassador Thomas Schuessler, N5HYP, will join with satellite enthusiasts from North Texas to demonstrate CubeSats using models and a simulator, and talk about amateur radio in space. Members of the Dallas Amateur Radio Club will be on hand to also share amateur radio's role in supporting science education.

For details about attending - or if you live nearby and want to volunteer - email Tom at n5hyp@arrl.net

HAMSHACK HOTLINE TO BE DISCONTINUED

Say goodbye to Hamshack Hotline, the free VOIP telecomm service. The service announced it would be discontinued, effective the 29th of August. The project began in 2018 and grew to be a global communications network with a peak establishment of 7,000 interconnections across numerous servers. Hamshack Hotline's board of directors said it will donate whatever cash reserves it may have to a charity that supports military veterans.

POTA ACTIVATOR ELECTROCUTED IN NORTH CAROLINA

Tripp Owens, N4NTO, a well-regarded POTA activator died on Friday, July 4th, when, according to investigators, his antenna mast made contact with an overhead power line at the Chicora Civil War Cemetery near the Averasboro [pron: aver-us-burro] Battlefield Historic Site, US-11375. According to several local news reports, emergency crews were called to the scene after Tripp was found unconscious in the parking lot. One news report said that fire crews found him with his foot touching the mast beneath the power lines. Power company crews turned off the power to give the responders access. Tripp was pronounced dead at the scene.

A report on the QRPer.com website relayed information from Dave W4JL, who said Tripp had been spotted on the Reverse Beacon Network between 12:02 and 12:13 UTC that morning but noted on the POTA spots page that he was going QRT. QRPer's Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL added: "This is heartbreaking news for those of us in the Parks on the Air and WWFF communities. Tripp was a well-known and well-loved North Carolina POTA operator—a dedicated hunter and activator whose callsign appears in my logs many times over the years."

Tripp's death was ruled accidental. Within hours of the news, the ham radio community offered condolences to his family on social media and shared memories of a man who they praised for his spirit of mentorship and his gentle sense of humor. Mark Gibson, N4MQU, praised him for his achievements as a top CW operator and a devoted contester.

He had been a ham since 1985. "Ambrose 'Tripp' Owens the third was 57 years old.

TOILETS ON THE AIR? GO WITH THE FLOW

Are you sitting down? Well, it's time to lift the lid on the news: Toilets on the Air is coming in August. If you happen to be in the New York City area that month, well, you gotta go, you just gotta go! The amateur radio contest was begun by Georg DH5GH at the Chaos Communication Congress, a hacker conference in Germany. It is making its debut in the US at the HOPE 16 conference in New York City in August. Because HOPE is a hub for hackers and innovators, contest organizer Todd Mazierski KE2AEQ, thought this venue would be perfect to launch a creative challenge to licensed hams there. Activators select designated restrooms on the campus of St. John's University to make the most CW, voice and digital contacts with others on 2 meters and 70 cm.

Now let's be clear, activators are permitted to sit or stand while they are doing their business while holding their HTs -- but they must be outside the restroom doors -- and a few meters away. They can only go inside the bathroom to, uh, "go" inside the bathroom for the usual reason. Yes, you heard that right: bathroom breaks are OK. Now that's a relief!

Todd announced the contest on his blog. So did Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL. It's posted on his site, the appropriately named QRPer.com

FCC ROUNDTABLE FOCUSES ON HURRICANE-RESPONSE COMMUNICATION

The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled a live online roundtable that it hopes will help communicators, public safety workers and power companies improve collaboration during this hurricane season in the US. The Hurricane Season Resiliency Roundtable is taking place on Monday, the 7th of July, and will be conducted by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. Advance registration is required.

The program, which can be attended in person or via a livestream, will take place in three panel sessions: “Challenges to Response and Recovery of Power and Communications Outages in the Aftermath of a Hurricane,”will be the first topic covered. Collaboration will be explored in the second session, “Current Government, Intra-Industry and Cross-Industry Partnerships.” The final session will look at planning ahead. It is called “The Advance Preparation Frameworks for Power and Communications.”

The roundtable begins at 9:30 a.m. at FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

To register, see the link in the text version of this week's newscast script at arnewsline.org

RUSSIA WORKS ON MODULES FOR SPACE STATION

Just as the US prepares to take the International Space Station out of service in 2030, the space agency Roscosmos plans to launch the first modules for its Russian Orbital Station, the world's first drone platform space station employing robot maintenance. The move also marks the end of international collaboration in space between NASA and Roscosmos.

The Russian space agency is eyeing a 2027 launch for the first segment of its space station - the Scientific and Power Module, as the station enters a near-polar orbit. The full transition to the Russian Orbital Station is expected to be completed by 2030, just as the ISS awaits decommissioning. Other modules are also set for launch in 2030, including the gateway, the universal-node and base modules. Roscosmos expects the spacecraft to establish several stable communication channels by 2030, as the number of communication devices increases over the years. Roscosmos views the space station as a permanent fixture for Russia's space activities well outside of Earth's orbit.

OHIO YL CHOSEN AS NEWSLINE'S YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR

Our panel of judges has selected the 2025 Amateur Radio Newsline Bill Pasternak Memorial Young Ham of the Year Award winner. Mark Abramowicz NT3V is chairman of the award committee and has the announcement..

MARK: She is 17 years old and from the small town of Columbiana in northeast Ohio. Meet Katie Campbell KE8LQR.

MARK w/KATIE: You are the 2025 Young Ham of the Year

KATIE: Thank you so much.

MARK: Are you surprised?

KATIE:: Uh, yeah, yeah.

MARK: Not expecting a call like this as the summer begins?

KATIE: No, I was not.

MARK:: Katie Campbell is a bright and talented advocate for youth in amateur radio whose interest in the hobby was sparked when she was 10.

KATIE: My school started an amateur radio and electronics club [in] my fifth-grade year open to just middle-schoolers that year. So, I joined and then pretty quickly made the connection that that’s’ like what my family had been sort of involved with. My grandpa had had his license since he was around 14. And, then my mom she’d also had her license since middle school.

MARK: Katie says she quickly got her ham ticket advancing all the way to Extra by the age of 11. She says she then discovered the music of Morse Code. She immersed herself in CW and contesting and rose to become president of K8LPS, the Columbiana School Radio Club located inside the science classroom of Katie’s mom, Colleen Campbell KB8VAQ.

Her dad is Robert Campbell KE8LYZ. Katie’s maternal grandfather is Thomas Frost N8GGK. It was her interest that got him radio active again.

Katie attended the Youth on the Air camp in 2022 in Cincinnati and has been a key staff member ever since, doing public relations and mentoring campers.

Katie has been a regular presenter at forums at the Dayton Hamvention, Hamcation and SEA-PAC.

Katie has another opportunity as she begins her senior year of high school: as an exchange student in Germany. She’s hoping to make amateur radio a part of her experience.

Congratulations, Katie, from all of us at Amateur Radio Newsline.

I’m Mark Abramowicz NT3V.