GAINS FOR JAPAN's OPEN-SOURCE MULTI-MODE LINEAR TRANSPONDER

The Japan Amateur Satellite Association, or JAMSAT, has announced progress in its development of an open-source multi-mode linear transponder for amateur radio on CubeSats. The project is called Blueberry JAM.

The international team working on the project believes it will have a model available by the middle of 2026 and hopes to make it available to satellite developers and universities where CubeSats are being prepared for flight. According to a report by AMSAT News, Blueberry JAM will support linear operation and will have the potential for delay modes, data handling and other digital capabilities.

Because of the project's fully open-source design, the ham radio community can expect to have access to design documents and details about the transponder's development. The ultimate goal is to have up to 10 spacecraft in flight with the transponder on board.

CANADIAN STRAIGHT KEY MONTH IS ON THE AIR

This year it takes just four letters - C S K and M - to let everyone on the air know that they're hearing a CW operator in one of Canada's provinces who's taking part in the Canadian Straight Key Month of the Straight Key Century Club. The event has eliminated the use of special callsigns. Now, hams will be heard calling "CQ C S K M," followed by their own callsigns.

According to the SKCC website, the change was made to make it easier for everyone to enjoy the event, which runs through to the 31st of September. Operators who work at least six different provinces are eligible for a special downloadable award.

The annual event is similar to the SKCC's Straight Key Month featuring US stations. That event, which uses the callsign K3Y, takes place every January.

NASA DEPLOYS LARGEST ORBITING RADAR ANTENNA REFLECTOR

Unfolding, some say, like a huge hidden flower emerging in bloom, a radar antenna with a 39-foot, or 12-metre diameter has been unfurled aboard a satellite in low Earth orbit, following its launch in late July from India.

The mission is known as NISAR, an acronym reflecting the partnership between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO.

NISAR will be capturing detailed data about forest and wetland ecosystems undergoing change, about the impact of earthquakes on the Earth's crust and the motion of glaciers and sheets of ice over time.

The mission is designed to help communities around the world plan ahead for natural disasters and implement recovery from them more efficiently. Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division in Washington, DC, said this project will go a long way toward using science to assist in decision-making under these difficult circumstances -- from responding to disasters to formulating agricultural policy.

The antenna reflector, made of gold-plated wire mesh, has been compared to the "eye," of the system and it operates on both the L-band and the S-band. According to NASA, the system that operates on the L-band is particularly suited to penetrate forest canopy and clouds. The S-band system has particular sensitivity to light vegetation and moisture in snow.

The unprecedented joint satellite project will collect an estimated 80 terabytes of data daily.

NASA SEEKS VOLUNTEER TRACKERS FOR ORION SPACECRAFT

NASA is looking for volunteers to track next year's Artemis II Orion spacecraft during the crewed mission's roundtrip journey between the Earth and the Moon.

The US space agency is asking for those with the necessary capabilities to observe the Doppler shift on the Orion's S-band return link carrier signal. The monitoring is designed to achieve and keep a carrier lock solely for purposes of tracking the spacecraft. Volunteers will not be transmitting or uplinking signals. Orion's S-band range is between 2200 and 2290 MHz.

The crew aboard the Artemis II test mission will be NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman KF5LKT, the commander; Victor Glover KI5BKC, the pilot; and Christina Hammock Koch [pronounced "COOK"] as well as the Canadian Space Agency's astronaut Jeremy Hansen KF5LKU. The launch is expected to be no later than April of 2026 and the flight will last an estimated 10 days.

This planned flight follows the Artemis I mission of 2022 which featured an uncrewed Orion spacecraft that was tracked by 10 volunteers.

NASA hopes to hear from prospective candidates no later than 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 27th.

For more details see the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

SILENT KEY: BA-MA-TECH OWNER MARKUS BASELER, DL6YYM

Ba-Ma-Tech, the maker of precision keys popular with CW ops around the world, has announced the sudden death of its owner Markus Baseler DL6YYM and the company's plan to close its doors. No details about his death have been immediately provided but there is a message posted on the business website saying that it is reviewing existing orders to determine whether they can be fulfilled.

Markus was known as an enthusiastic CW op, operating QRP in POTA. He had made plans to operate in Greenland in August but called off the trip, writing on his QRZ.com page [quote] "Due to unexpected illness, unfortunately I have had to cancel everything." [endquote]

The company website includes an earlier message posted by Markus himself, noting that DHL had temporarily halted its shipments to the US.

NEW ZEALAND HAMS EYE BAND PLAN CHANGES FOR 30M

Following the lead of the amateur bandplan in place in Australia, the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters is recommending the establishment of a new 10 kHz-wide sub-band for SSB on 30 metres. This change would divide the CW-only band in half, giving it 20 kHz at the bottom of the band.

Digital mode operators would get 20kHz of spectrum -- double their current allocation - at the top of the band. Sideband's proposed 10 kHz would be found between 10.120 and 10.130 MHz.

With SSB operation already legal in New Zealand, the association notes that only the approval of this revised bandplan stands in the way of the change taking place. The proposal is for this to occur on a 12-month trial basis, with a review to take place in the final months.

TARIFFS SPUR HALT IN RADIO EQUIPMENT DELIVERIES TO US

Founded in France in 2014, Passion-Radio.com has become a leading online seller of ham radio receivers, antennas and other equipment to customers around the world. As from the 25th of August, however, the company suspended all shipments to the US, noting that the French national postal operator has stopped accepting US-bound parcels.

The company's director, David, F1JXQ, told visitors to its website: [quote] "With constant changes in tariffs, shipping costs, and carrier processes, we cannot guarantee fair or transparent conditions for our US customers any longer. Our priority is to restore a reliable and cost-effective shipping solution as soon as possible.” [endquote]

He added that import duties are paid by the buyer, not the seller, when the purchased goods arrive in the US; the seller has no control over that. United Parcel and other shipping services are also reviewing their deliveries to the US. UPS expects to apply an extra international processing fee to all imports from anywhere outside the US starting on the 8th of September.

Imports to Europe from the US remain unaffected, David said. [quote] "Our collaboration with five US-based suppliers continues without disruption, as the European Union has not imposed any retaliatory tariffs or reciprocal 15% import duties on products arriving from the United States." [endquote]

A RADIO HOMECOMING, ONE CENTURY LATER

Elizabeth Hutchings, VK3HM, had the distinction of being the first YL licensed as an amateur radio operator in the state of Victoria, Australia. Radio apparently was in the family's genes -- in the 1920s, her son Alan held the callsign VK3HL and her daughter, Marjorie, was licensed as VK3HQ.

Some 100 years later on the Callawadda land where the famliy's old radio shack still stands, Geoff Smart, VK3GCM, is putting amateur radio back into action. He chose this property, known as Bryn Avon, as his QTH for the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association's annual competition. Geoff knew Bryn Avon from commercial consultancy work he had done but he only learned of its connection to ham radio after reading an article by ALARA historian Jennifer Wardrop VK3WQ.

It's been a busy year of celebration for ALARA, which was founded in 1975. The association's contest, held every year during the last full weekend in August, is one of the many ways the group has been marking the occasion. The rules of the international contest stipulate that YLs may work anyone they please but men can only work YLs.

As Newsline went to production, Geoff was making plans to be active from the farm on 40 metres. Whether operating from the home of a notable YL from Victoria gives him a winning edge in a YL association contest remains to be seen. Win or lose, no doubt this would meet with the approval of one radio pioneer from Victoria.

ANDAMAN ISLAND DXPEDITION RECRUITING YOUNG REMOTE OPS

The team planning the Andaman Island DXpedition in 2026 has an ambitious agenda: the goal is to log at least 100,000 QSOs while the team is on the air from the Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.

Contacts from around the world are expected to keep the on-site crew of 18 busy but organisers plan to add to the team by bringing remote operators, especially young licensed amateurs, on board.

The remote team lead, Gerry, W1VE, is a veteran of remote operations for the VP6A, E51D and other DXPeditions, and is hoping to replicate those successes with the Andaman Island DXpedition. Hams who participate in the remote operation will be required to have an Indian visa and an amateur radio license from India even though they will not be physically present. Operators are to be selected by the 1st of April, 2026.

It promises to be a busy time once the activation gets under way on Oct. 19, 2026. The operators expect to participate in the 2026 CQ WW SSB Contest representing India They will also be activating three POTA sites between the 27th and the 29th of October. The entity is also IOTA AS-001.

Gerry asks that interested amateurs contact him directly via email at gerry at remote dot radio. That's "Gerry" spelled "G E R R Y" at remote dot radio (gerry@remote.radio).

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.