HAMS HELP SONOMA SPRINGS RESIDENTS WITH GMRS

In Sonoma County, California, floods, wildfires and earthquakes are among the best reasons for becoming a radio operator. With that in mind the county's Department of Emergency Management has entered the second year of a three-year program that includes helping more Sonoma Springs area residents to get licensed and get on the air. The initiative has been funded through a $70,000 federal grant.

Emergency management officials are now preparing for training sessions in October that will prepare area residents for an exam leading toward a license to use handheld radios, especially at times when cellular telephone networks fail. The radios are part of General Mobile Radio Services, or GMRS, a licensed service operating between 462 MHz and 467 MHz. The county is coordinating with amateur radio operators in the North Bay Communications Cooperative and its Auxiliary Communications System. The goal is to coordinate frequencies so that the GMRS users can work seamlessly within the broader emergency communications system.

The focus is on residents in the community of Sonoma Springs, which is classified as an evacuation zone when there are wildlfires, but participants who live outside the area are also welcome to enroll.

The county's program can supply as many as 175 of the radios to participants who successfully complete the program.

Emergency management specialist Nancy Brown told the Sonoma News that radio is seen as the ultimate and most resilient backup plan. She said: [quote] “No matter what happens, you have something that will work.” [endquote]

HURRICANE WATCH NET MARKS 60 YEARS OF SERVICE

On the weekend of August 30th, the Hurricane Watch Net celebrates 60 years of service to the U.S. National Hurricane Center and communities impacted by the storms.

The HWN began in 1965 when amateur radio operator Jerry Murphy, K8YUW, heard calls from hams in the Bahamas asking for information about Hurricane Betsy. Seeing the need for an organized net, Murphy began coordinating and relaying reports from hams in the Bahamas, Florida and across the affected region. The current net manager, Bobby Graves, stated [quote] “when information is scarce and lives are at stake, amateur radio can be a lifeline.”

Today, nearly 60 volunteers across the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Aruba relay real-time weather data and storm damage reports directly to NHC’s amateur station, WX4NHC. Since its founding, the Net has supported 156 landfalling hurricanes, including 60 major hurricanes and 12 Category 5 storms.

A special operating event commemorating the anniversary was held in early June, since the actual date fell during the peak hurricane season.

SILENT KEY: LOU DIETRICH, DXER, PAST CHAIRMAN OF INDEXA

Lou Dietrich, N2TU, gave priority to building community across the globe through radio - and he was a prominent advocate of that in his former role as chairman of the board of directors of the International DX Association.

Lou became a Silent Key on the 15th of August.

He had been a DXpeditioner as well as a DXer, knowing that the thrill of the chase is only half of the challenge. He was part of the K1N activation of Navassa Island in 2015 and a team co-leader for the K5P Palmyra DXpedition in 2016. He was also part of the Sable Island CYØS DXpedition in 2023 and the St. Paul Island DXpedition CY9C in 2024.

Lou was originally licensed as WV2RNW as a teenager in high school in the 1960s and after his license lapsed, became relicensed in 1981.

His obituary on the ARRL website noted that he had been part of the league's DX Advisory Committee. His awards from the league include Ten-Band DXCC and the DXCC Top of the Honor Roll. He belonged to the Carolina DX Association

Lou was 78.

SILENT KEY; ODINN THOR, TF2MSN, ICELANDIC DXER

DXers who looked forward to hearing a friendly, familiar voice from Iceland were saddened this month to learn that the contact they were hoping to log had become a Silent Key. The death of Odinn Thor TF2MSN on the 19th of August in Reykjavik was reported by the Icelandic Amateur Radio Association, sharing the news provided by his family.

First licensed in 2011, Odinn began as an enthusiastic operator on SSB, later embracing such digital modes as FT4 and FT8.

According to Jónas Bjarnason, TF3JB, president of Icelandic Radio Amateurs, Odinn had been in poor health for the past 30 years or so, following an accident on a fishing boat. Jonas told Newsline by email that "ham radio was his life" almost 24 hours a day. In addition to being active locally on 2 metres, he was an enthusiastic participant in numerous events held by Icelandic Radio Amateurs, including Field Day.

Odinn was 62.

AERONAUTICAL ROVER JOINS ROUTE 66 ON THE AIR

Look up in the sky! It's not a bird.....no, it's a plane and it's piloted by Bill Hartsell, N3WSH. Bill will be using the callsign W6Y as the first-time aeronautical rover for this year's Route 66 On the Air special event. When hams get on the air on September 6th, he'll be in the air, operating as this year's first-time bonus station through September 9th.

Bill, a retired US Air Force pilot from Oklahoma, will be flying about 7,000 feet high above the traffic on the nation's Mother Road, making the trip from Chicago to Santa Monica and making QSOs with licensed hams on the ground who are near his route, which he will travel both eastbound and westbound during the event.

He will be calling QRZ on 146.490 MHz simplex. If you get him, it's a bonus. Either way, you can still get a Clean Sweep chasing the other stations.

The 26th annual special event, organized by the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club, will remain active for a few more days after Bill's activations, coming in for a landing itself on the 14th.

MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE NETWORK AIDS SAILING VESSEL

Sailing off the coast of San Francisco on August 3rd, the captain and crew of four aboard the vessel, Windchaser, found that their boat had become dead in the water, adrift after its propeller got entangled with a rope. Without cell service available, the captain. Dennis Dickerson, KI6KQJ, reached out to the Maritime Mobile Service Network on 20m, contacting net control John McGowan, K2JBX. After hearing that all aboard were safe, John said he would check in with Dennis the next day because the crew hoped to paddle ashore for repairs then. That scheduled check-in proved significant: Park rangers at the hoped-for landing site, Point Reyes Marine Reserve, were initially hesitant to grant access to the boat because the reserve is so environmentally sensitive. According to net manager Jeff Savasta, KB4JKL, John was able to help secure special permission for the boat to land for repairs - but by the time that critical permission was granted, propagation had changed.

The boat could not be reached immediately, however, when conditions changed, Jeff, on the next shift, was able to deliver the good news -- and the boat was on its way.

AST SPACEMOBILE SATELLITE FACES LAUNCH DELAYS

The US mobile broadband provider that hopes to use amateur radio frequencies to support its planned satellite-based network has rolled back the date for the launch of its prototype satellite. This is the second delay by AST SpaceMobile, which had originally hoped to launch the satellite, known as FM1, in August and first postponed it to October or November. India's space agency, ISRO, confirmed the delay in a press conference with local Indian media, adding that FM1 would likely not launch until the first quarter of 2026. FM1, which has a phased-array antenna, is designed to function as a cell tower from space.

The announcement comes barely a week after the company said it expects to launch between 45 and 60 satellites by next year.

No reason was given for the postponement, which was reported on the PCMag website. AST SpaceMobile is building its network in partnership with Verizon and AT&T and is considered a rival to Starlink services which are partnered with T-Mobile.

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile has asked the FCC to authorize its network's use of amateur radio frequencies between 430 and 440 MHz - a request that has drawn challenges from the amateur radio community. In July, the FCC assigned FM1 the callsign WP2XRX, which expires on July 1st, 2027. Its license authorizes experimental operation for mobile satellite services only on 37.5 to 42 GHz, and 2.235 GHz and 2.245 GHz.

FOR THIS EXPLORER, 15 WAS THE AGE OF DISCOVERY

High up in attic room in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, young Arthur Collins often got a view of the world from the other end of his 20-meter radio signal. On the 3rd of August, 1925, those high-frequency transmissions brought the frozen landscape of Greenland into sharp focus for him: Arthur made contact via CW with the Arctic Expedition undertaken on behalf of the US Navy by explorer Donald MacMillan. Their exchange of CW messages ultimately traveled so much farther, in a way, because the shortwave signals from Arthur's 1,000-watt homebrew transmitter accomplished what the Navy's longwave transmissions, lacking the ability for skip, could not. Media attention followed, of course, and the teenager's smarts with radio technology soon became well-known.

Like MacMillan, Arthur Collins himself was an explorer and his new paths across - and above - the world were shaped with increasingly shorter radio waves. The young inventor became a pioneer, pushing that early technology in inventive ways. He was barely a decade away from becoming a businessman and seeing the rise of Collins Radio, Rockwell Collins and Collins Aerospace.

The Collins Aerospace Museum in Cedar Rapids has been celebrating him all month on the 100th anniversary of that MacMillan contact, displaying artifacts, documents and photographs that capture his decades of discovery that began when he was a young explorer. The museum features a replica of the attic space that was his laboratory and radio shack where it all began. The replica room was created by Arthur A. Collins Legacy Association with help from students at the Cedar Rapids Metro High School. Like young Arthur Collins, no doubt many of these teenagers are already on course to make some cutting-edge discoveries of their own.

RSGB AWARD INVITES WORLD TO WORK THE UK

The newest award series available from the Radio Society of Great Britain is open to anyone anywhere in the world - but the real winners are most likely to be hams throughout the UK and its Crown Dependencies. That’s because these awards encourage people to make contact with them.

Available at many different levels of achievement, the new “Worked All UK and Crown Dependency Prefixes Award” recognises contacts among UK amateurs themselves as well as those from around the world with UK amateurs. There are awards for collecting prefixes in Scotland, in the Crown Dependencies and even the entire UK. The top award is called - just as its name suggests - the Worked United Kingdom Prefixes Supreme Award. Details of how to achieve this award or any of its subsets () can be found on the RSGB website - and at the link that appears in the text version of this week’s newscast script at arnewsline.org

You will also learn ways to share your story about chasing some of these new awards - because after a QSO, almost everyone likes to hear a good story too.

INDIAN OFFICIALS ACT AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED HANDHELDS

In India, officials are taking aim against the sale and marketing of hand-held radios that they say violate consumer and telecommunications regulations. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF explains.

JIM M: Authorities in India have announced a crackdown on the listing and sale of hand-held transceivers from China that they say break laws governing consumer protection and the unauthorised use of radio frequencies.

Stories in various Indian media outlets identify some of the 13 e-commerce sellers in question as Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart and IndiaMART, among others.

The nation’s consumer affairs commissioner Pralhad Joshi said that the violations of the Indian Telegraph Act, the Wireless Telegraphy Act and rules governing the use of low and very low power short-range RF devices were being broken. Acting as an advocate for radio users, the West Bengal Radio Club’s secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas VU2JFA, told the Statesman website that users of these radio sets could interfere with police and other agencies’ communications and gather sensitive information relating to national security.

CANADIAN STUDENT SATELLITE PROJECT MOVES AHEAD

The Canadian Space Agency's CubeSats Initiative for STEM, a project known as CUBICS, is moving ahead toward the manufacturing phase after its design passed final review recently.

Professors and their students are involved in the design, build and launch of satellites as part of CUBICS at nine universities. Ultimately the nine 3U CubeSats are to be deployed next year by Exolaunch, a German launch-services company based in Berlin. The satellites will conduct a number of experiments relevant to amateur radio and utilise the ham spectrum for their command and control. They will also conduct research on wildlife migration, monitor oceanic and atmospheric changes and study radiation-mitigating technologies that can be used in space.The payload will include digipeaters as well as digital and CW telemetry beacons.

HAMCATION PLANNERS SEEK AWARD NOMINEES

Nominations are now open for awards to be presented at HamCation early next year - and one of the three honors will be making its debut: The Amateur Radio Hero of the Year. This honor was created to recognize the radio operator whose selfless and extraordinary actions provided exemplary public service in times of crisis, whether during a natural disaster or in some other critical or emergency scenario.

Nominations are also being accepted on the HamCation website for the two other annual awards: Gordon West Ambassador of the Year and Carole Perry Educator of the Year.

Think of the amateurs you know and admire anywhere in the world and what they have brought to the community. Then visit hamcation dot com slash award [hamcation.com/award] to get them in the running. HamCation, which is taking place on the 13th through to the 15th of February, is the convention of the ARRL's southeastern division.

YOUTH INVOLVEMENT A CORE PART OF SOUTH GEORGIA DXPEDITION

The planned DXpedition for South Georgia Island in March of 2027 isn't just about activating one of the rarest and more challenging sites for portable amateur radio. A central focus for the team will be its role in mentoring the young radio amateurs who will be accompanying the more experienced operators to the sub-Antarctic island. The team, using the callsign VPØSG, is giving these youngsters top priority.

Project team leader Rune, LA7THA, told Newsline in an email that one or two licensed young operators are expected to be part of the operations on the island. He said: [quote] "They will be involved in every phase of the expedition - from setup and daily operations to teardown - working alongside veteran DXpeditioners in challenging real-world conditions." [endquote] He said the team is working closely with NCDXF on this initiative, which is in sync with so many amateur radio youth engagement activities around the world.

Meanwhile, there is much work to be done regarding this environmentally sensitive DX entity with its mountainous landscape and volatile weather patterns. The shore camp will have five operating positions but details still remain unclear on any additional stations that are capable of being operated remotely. Rune said that final team composition and operating plans also need to be fine-tuned.

The DXpedition fulfills the mission of the Norway-based Amateur Radio DXpeditions, which devotes itself to giving hams around the world a chance to contact remote parts of the globe.

EMERGENCY-ALERT GRANTS TO EXCLUDE PUBLIC RADIO

An updated emergency-alert system to be rolled out in the United States will exclude funding for it at public radio stations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which faces closure at the end of next month after its own defunding, has told member stations that applied to its warning-system grant program that there is no money for them.

In an August 18th email, the corporation's CEO Kathy Merritt wrote: [quote] "CPB is deeply disappointed that critical equipment intended to protect the American public in times of emergencies will go unpurchased.[endquote] She said, however, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting had no choice.

The nation's emergency-alert system, which delivers public-safety traffic when severe weather or other threats are imminent, has been under review by the Federal Communications Commission.

NASA TOLD TO END GREENHOUSE-GAS TRACKING SATELLITE MISSION

In the US, the White House has told NASA employees to end two widely used, state-of-the art satellite missions that keep a watchful eye on greenhouse gases heating up the Earth. The satellites, known as Orbiting Carbon Observatories, are the federal government's only ones of their kind and are relied upon by farmers, scientists and the nation's oil and gas companies to keep track of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In a post on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory website dated the 15th of August, the agency said the 10-year-old mission is viewed as [quote] : the gold standard for carbon dioxide measurements from space and has quietly become a powerful driver of technological, ecological and even economic progress." [endquote]

Recent media reports about the directive have said no reason has been given for the terminations, which would destroy one of the satellites and its sensitive instruments because the spacecraft would burn up on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere. The other satellite is attached to the International Space Station.

AST SPACEMOBILE EYES CELLULAR SATELLITE LAUNCH WINDOW

AST SpaceMobile, which has asked the FCC for permission to use amateur radio frequencies for a planned constellation of satellites providing cellular-based broadband service, has announced it expects to have launched between 45 and 60 satellites by next year.

In its second-quarter earnings report this month, the Texas company said that it plans satellite deployments every one to two months into 2026 and expects to begin providing service in the United States by the end of this year. In the first quarter of next year, the company hopes to begin rolling out service as well in Canada, the UK and Japan.

In two separate deals pending, the company is planning to acquire use of portions of the S-band and L-band spectrum for global delivery of its services.

AST SpaceMobile, which is considered a rival to SpaceX, was recently approved to use the amateur radio band on an experimental basis for a low-earth orbit satellite - a prototype known as FM1. It was assigned the callsign WP2XRX, which is valid through the 1st of July, 2027. The company plans to use the 70 cm amateur frequencies to conduct telemetry, tracking, and telecommand between ground stations and its satellites.

IT'S TIME FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY - BUT WHAT TIME, EXACTLY?

It's that time of year when many hams prepare for the Remembrance Day Contest, a major amateur radio event here in Australia on the Saturday closest to the 15th of August. It marks the signing of the Armistice and Japan's unconditional surrender, ending the second World War in 1945. It honours amateurs who died in that conflict.

However, another potential conflict persists - one of time. The contest starts at 1300 Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is 0300 UTC on the 15th of the 8th month -- August - but observers of history know that the Armistice was signed later that year.

The answer is: radio! Although history records the signing correctly on September 2nd of that year, this important contest makes note instead of the time and date that Japan's Emperor Hirohito broadcast his nation's surrender over radio. He delivered an announcement at noon on the 15th of August. With Japan's time being UTC plus 9 hours, that places its timing at 0300 UTC. With AEST being UTC plus 10, that places the time at 1300 UTC.

Got that? We thank Michael Johnston, VK2HFN, president and secretary of the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club, for sorting this one out, all the while keeping an eye on the clock before the contest started.

YOUNG AMATEURS IN AUSTRALIA PREP FOR 1ST YOTA CONTEST

The VK YOTA Contest is coming to shacks Down Under as the Fisher's Ghost Amateur Radio Club has announced it will be hosting the event, encouraging hams anywhere in the world to join in. The contest is being held in cooperation with Youngsters on the Air, a programme of Region 1 of the International Amateur Radio Union. The purpose isn't so much to be the highest-scoring operator but to simply be on the air enjoying new contacts and renewing some old ones.

In other words, rag chews are absolutely encouraged! The contest begins 00:00 UTC on the 1st of December and ends at 23:59 UTC on the 31 of December.There will be a bit of overlap with the YOTA contest organised by the Hungarian Amateur Radio Society. Three days before the Fisher's Ghost club contest ends, Round 3 begins for the YOTA contest hosted by the Hungarian operators. That's on December 29th beginning at 10:00 UTC and ending at 21:59 UTC.

It looks like December is already heating up down here in Australia.

UK HAMS TAKE ON CHALLENGE TO BUILD TRACKER FOR BALLOON

On Saturday, the 20th of September, a high-altitude balloon will be launched with a cross-frequency LoRa APRS Digipeater as its payload. Ben Lloyd, GW4BML, a director of the Radio Society of Great Britain, will send the balloon on its way () at 11 a.m. local time from Welshpool in Powys. The balloon is expected to be in the air for about two hours, reaching an altitude of 90,000 feet.

The challenge for amateur radio operators is to build or re-code a LoRa tracker using instructions provided on the RSGB website - then try to get the farthest signal from the launch site. Successful transmissions will reach the airborne relay and be retransmitted to one of the Internet gateways local to the launch site.

Individual hams and some ham clubs may boost their chances through the use of a high-gain antenna or by operating from a summit or other high ground at the same time to get a line-of-sight advantage. If your tracker build is successful, it will beam up packets to the airborne relay to be retransmitted.

The event is part of National Coding Week, in which the RSGB is participating in during the third week of September.

For details, visit the website rsgb.org

CELEBRATING A PARK'S CENTENNIAL BY PUTTING IT ON THE AIR

There is a rich history in Pokagon State Park, one that dates back to its designation as the fifth state park in Indiana in 1925. What was originally known as Lake James State Park was renamed to honor Leopold and Simon Pokagon, the father and son leaders of the Potawatomi Native American tribe who made their home in the region in the 19th Century.

The Land of Lakes Amateur Radio Club is joining with Friends of Pokagon on the 23rd of August to mark the park's centennial. Special event station K9P will be on the air from the park from 9 a.m. until dusk.

The celebration acknowledges the importance of the park, where the government's Civilian Conservation Corps lived and worked from 1934 to 1942, helping shape the park's wooded hills, wetlands and open meadows through the addition of landscaping elements built from natural stone and logs. The park is on the shores of Lake James and comprises 1,260-acres. It carries the POTA designation of US-4182.