TEXAS AMATEURS TO RUN OPEN-SOURCE VERSION OF HAM.LIVE

It was a race against the calendar to keep the service known as Ham.Live [pron: Ham Dot Live] on the air while it made the transition to an open-source model at the end of this month. With so many amateur radio net participants relying on it for net logging and realtime chat, the June 30th deadline loomed large. Now it has been picked up as an open-source service by the Sachse Amateur Radio Club N5SAC, which is asking fellow hams to help beta test its operation on a new server.

Keeping communications going under challenging circumstances is a specialty of this group, which comprises both the Sachse RACES and ARES teams. To help with the effort in testing Ham.Live, visit their website at sachseraces.org - that's spelled s a c h s e r a c e s dot org.

Other clubs or individuals wanting to develop and run Ham.Live for their own activities can visit the link on Github that appears in the text version of this week's script at arnewsline.org.

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA SEEKS NOMINATIONS

The Radio Club of America would like to recognize outstanding achievers in the fields of radio and wireless technology and the deadline for nominations is the 30th of June and it is approaching fast. If you know of someone devoted to preserving the history of wireless, consider sending in their name for the Ralph Batcher Memorial Award. If you would like to honor someone whose contributions to the field have advanced electronic communications, submit their name for the Sarnoff Citation. The club will also be presenting the Wireless Innovation Award to someone who has developed a groundbreaking product or concept.

There are also two business-related awards. The Excellence in Sales and Marketing Award and the Wireless Small Business Award.

Visit the website radioclubofamerica dot org, that's radioclubofamerica - one word - dot org for more details (radioclubofamerica.org)

INDIAN HAMS HELP FAMILY FIND TROUBLED YOUNG MOTHER

Already traumatised by a number of tragic deaths in her family - a young woman suffering from mental trauma has been returned to the home village in Uttar Pradish that she had wandered away from five months ago in apparent confusion and grief. According to media reports, the woman, Usha Devi, had stopped talking coherently shortly before her disappearance. Usha had been troubled for most of her life by a series of deaths in her family, beginning with the incident in which her father was hit by a passing train - a death that she witnessed. Relatives told police that the recent death of her husband this year preceded her disappearance by several weeks. Like her father, her husband was fatally struck by a train in an incident she also witnessed.

The hams had been told by police that the woman had been found in the care of a shelter home for her mental trauma where she was taken after having wandered on the streets of West Bengal for some time.

The hams connected with their contacts in Hindi-speaking regions and across several states, reaching out through numerous amateur radio networks until relatives could be located. Usha recognised family members during a video call arranged by the club.

The club's secretary, Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2FJA told Newsline in a text message that Usha returned to her village on Friday the 12th of June.

NASA DECLARES MARS 'MAVEN' MISSION OVER

Since 2013, the project known as MAVEN - for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution - was on a mission to study that planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and its interactions with the Sun. The spacecraft's signal was lost on the 6th of December after a pass behind the red planet, prompting NASA to immediately begin a review of what actions the agency would take next. At a media teleconference earlier this month, officials declared MAVEN to be no long useful and said there will be no attempts at recovering it.

Although MAVEN's original mission was to last only a year, it proved useful for more than a decade beyond that period as it continued to transmit data, even serving as an antenna during the delivery of the Perseverance rover to Mars in 2020.

Preliminary findings of MAVEN's failure determined that its batteries may have drained, shutting down its communications system, when it emerged from its orbit behind Mars. A review board is studying the mission to discover the cause while NASA decommissions the MAVEN program and archives its data.

TOUR DE FRANCE IS A TOUR DE CALLSIGNS

The route of this year's Tour de France cycling race passes through 37 towns and cities - 10 of them are new to this legendary race that has endured since 1903. Through it all, from the start in Barcelona to the finish line on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, cyclists will be making contact with local people who will watch and cheer them on.

Even if you're not near the route, you can still cheer them on by contacting any number of special-event stations organised by Réseau des Émetteurs Français. Whether the cyclists are crossing a hilly or a flat region, propagation is expected to enable contact with TM00TFR, TM40TFR, TM42TFR and similar stations in many of the regions. For details on these stations, their operating modes and diplomas available, visit the QRZ.com page for TM00TFR.

ANTENNA INSTALLATION ADDS TO TEXAS GROUP'S REACH

Members of the Deep East Texas Amateur Radio Club have been serving the community since the club's creation in 1978. They have passed crucial emergency traffic to the Angelina County Emergency Operations Center and from there to the state operations center in Austin. In one of the group's most high profile activations, hams provided support during the recovery efforts after the Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart upon re-entry in 2003.

According to local media reports, operations are about to improve for the radio volunteers as a new antenna gets installed on the center's tower to provide local, regional and statewide communications with new VHF, UHF and HF capabilities.

In addition to providing on-site support for major community events such as festivals and bike races, the club and its members will now be even more prepared for whatever kind of need comes its way.

MILESTONE MOMENT FOR PROTOTYPE RADIO TELESCOPE

A proposed new antenna array being developed will be massive, consisting of 244 antennas and stretching more than 8,045 kilometers, or 5 thousand miles. Tests of its prototype recently attracted attention for another reason: the new next-generation Very Large Array radio antenna gathered signals for the first time - a key moment for a design that is expected to provide higher sensitivity and spatial resolution than the current system. Working alongside the 27 antennas of the VLA, it tracked the Crab Nebula and the sun and it observed the bright galactic nucleus known as Perseus A.

The National Science Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory sees promise in its ability to go beyond the capacity of the current Very Large Array. The test in the New Mexico desert was conducted in collaboration with the current VLA, which was built starting in the 1970s. Its encouraging results mark the prototype system's transition from being a project under construction to a tool capable of making independent observations and conducting astronomical testing. It is expected to form the basis for the eventual 244-antenna array.

HAMS LAUNCHING A TALL CONSERVATION ENDEAVOR

If I asked you what the date June 21st means to you, you’d probably say that sounds like the first official day of summer in the United States. It marks the longest period of daylight for a day this year.

Coincidentally, this date for the summer solstice this year also marks the celebration of Father’s Day in America..

So, what do “Tatu” and “Joshua” have to do with all of this?

Both of these named creatures – whose origins can be traced to the continent of Africa - are mammals and the tallest animals on the planet.

Come on, Sherlock Holmes – it’s elementary!

They are giraffes!

They’re going to be honored with a special event station to be set up on Sunday, June 21st to observe World Giraffe Day from the Lehigh Valley Zoo outside of Allentown where they both now live.

Walt Skavinsky KB3SBC is coordinating the W3G operation on behalf of the Education Alliance for Amateur Radio.

Skavinsky tells Newsline the W3G special event creates a rare intersection of wildlife conservation and communications technology.

He says [quote] "It will give zoo visitors and the public an opportunity to see real-world radio operations in action while celebrating giraffes and supporting awareness of conservation issues for them." [endquote.]

Skavinsky says giraffes in the wild face significant threats including habitat loss and poaching. He says world conservation groups use World Giraffe Day to focus on the silent extinction the gentle creatures are facing.

More details at QRZ-dot-com, search W3G in the call sign window in the upper left box.

By the way, Skavinsky observes [quote] "This may be the only special event station where the antenna is not the tallest thing around." [endquote]

YOUTH ON THE AIR SUMMER CAMP ACTIVATES W4Y

It's the season for Youth on the Air Americas Camp in Huntsville, Alabama for young amateur radio operators in North, Central, and South America. Be listening for special event call W4Y while camp is in session from June 14th through to the 19th. When the youngsters aren't on the air, they'll be engaging in a number of space-themed activities and will livestream their contact with ISS astronaut Chris Williams, KJ5GEW.

ARDC LAUNCHES DISCORD DISCUSSION THREAD

If you want to engage in a more direct dialogue with the staff at Amateur Radio Digital Communications, you can now join their new thread in the Discord app. ARDC invites discussions about project updates, 44Net, grants and other topics relevant to the kind of work that ARDC does. Anyone involved in amateur radio or digital communications is welcome. Bring your thoughts, ideas and questions.

The California-based foundation provides support to projects involved in scientific research, amateur radio, experimentation, digital communication and communication technology.

You'll find a link to the server in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

FOLDABLE ANTENNA BOOSTS DATA RATES FOR CUBESATS

Using a folded antenna design, researchers have succeeded in helping CubeSats overcome their typically limited data transmission rates. The design, known as the Origami Antenna, increases to 25 times of its stored size on board the tiny satellite. When stored, the 64-gram antenna is 10x10x6 centimetres. Its deployed size creates a surface that is 50x50 centimetres.

Researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo have found that the antenna not only supports transmissions at higher rates but strengthens signals by focusing the transmissions into a narrow beam. The antenna transmits at a frequency of 5.8 GHz and has a gain of 18 dBi.

The antenna was deployed on the 23rd of May on Science Tokyo's OrigamiSat-2 CubeSat, which was launched in late April.

The researchers' next task challenge will be a larger foldable antenna to be installed on larger satellites conducting observations of Earth.

EVACUATED ASTRONAUTS RETURN TO ISS AFTER LEAK

Five space station astronauts, including the four-member team of Crew-12, returned to the space station on June 5th after taking shelter in their Crew Dragon spacecraft where they were sent under evacuation orders from NASA. The space agency reversed its earlier evacuation order that had been prompted by an air leak discovered in the Russian service module. Cosmonauts were working to repair the recurring leak which Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said did not pose any immediate danger to the crew or the spacecraft itself. NASA and Roscosmos have been working together to determine their cause.

TIME TO SWITCH HAMCLOCK BACKEND SERVER

This is a reminder that the original backend server for the popular HamClock shack accessory is set to stop working this month. If you wish to continue using HamClock and all its features and to receive its updates, you will need to switch your backend server as soon as possible.

OpenHamClock Backend is an open-source server run by a development team that is also providing updates to the HamClock client. The client version is now at V4.26

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

AMSAT EXPLORES CUBESAT PAYLOAD ON ARTEMIS MISSION

AMSAT hopes to develop a CubeSat that will become a secondary payload on board one of NASA's next Artemis missions. In a letter of intent submitted recently to the space agency, AMSAT said that the high-Earth deployment offered by the missions would align well with AMSAT's own goals to bring ham radio satellites into increasingly higher orbits.

The proposed CubeSat payload would be a 6U-class spacecraft, weighing less than 14 kilograms, or 30 pounds. It should have deployable solar arrays and an amateur radio communications system developed by AMSAT to support VHF uplinks and UHF downlinks. The CubeSat would also have a 5 GHz uplink and a 10 GHz downlink. Hams around the world would be asked to provide telemetry reception using AMSAT's analysis tools.

AMSAT responded to a NASA request for interested parties for its Artemis 3, 4 and 5 missions, which can accommodate 6U and 12U size CubeSats.

NASA ANNOUNCES ASTRONAUTS FOR ARTEMIS III MISSION

The Artemis 3 mission is designed to be the last NASA mission leading up to a planned 2028 moon landing - and the four astronauts chosen for it will be responsible for tests on two commercially built lunar landers. The Orion spacecraft's pilot will be Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, an Italian astronaut from the European Space Agency. He is the only member of the Artemis 3 team with an amateur radio callsign.

The team includes test pilot and flight veteran Randy Bresnik, first-timer Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, who holds the United States record for the single longest spaceflight - a total of 371 days. The lunar landers are being build by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

IRTS SEEKS OPERATORS FOR TEAM IN IARU HF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

As the date for the IARU HF World Championship approaches, the Irish Radio Transmitters Society is still in search of hams who can represent Ireland by calling CQ with the callsign EIØHQ. There are 12 operating slots that remain to be filled for the event, which runs for 24 hours from the 11th to the 12th of July on all the HF bands, excluding the WARC bands. If you are interested in being part of Ireland's headquarters station team contact Mark EI6JK, the contest manager, by emailing him at contestmanager at irts dot ie (contestmanager@irts.ie).

SILENT KEY: PROMINENT QATARI HAM ABDULLAH BIN HAMAD AL ATTIYAH, A71AU

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, A71AU, was an influential presence in the leadership of Qatar and in amateur radio there. In public life, he was a former deputy prime minister and minister of energy and industry in Qatar. More recently he served as chairman of the Qatar Amateur Radio Society and was a major proponent for the development of the QO-100 satellite. Launched in 2018, the satellite, also known as Es'hail-2, carried the world's first geostationary amateur radio transponder as its payload. The project was a cooperative effort by the Qatar Amateur Radio Society, the Qatar Satellite Company and AMSAT-DL.

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah became a Silent Key on the 27th of May. He was 73.

HAM'S EXPERIMENT WOULD ADAPT TELETEXT FOR AMATEUR RADIO

In Europe for over 40 years, TV sets have been capable of receiving a broadcast information service known as Teletext. Now the broadcasting protocol is being harnessed for a modern digital radio mode using AX.25 packet radio data links on both HF and VHF bands.

This is an experiment by Stephen Cass. KB1WNR, who reported on his work in the IEEE [Eye Triple E] Spectrum, where he is an editor. Stephen writes that he was inspired by BBC's service known as Ceefax, which even in the days of analogue TVs, enabled viewers to select what they wanted to read on screen by entering different numeric codes into their TV remotes.

This experiment works on adapting Teletext for ham radio.

Stephen wrote: [quote] "I thought it would make a great radio protocol. In fact, I thought it could be a digital counterpart of slow-scan television." [endquote] SSTV transmissions are analogue and somewhat slow and are often transmitted a few times to ensure the entire message - images plus text - can be received.

Stephen asks that hams wishing to help him to experiment contact him via the IEEE Spectrum online magazine at spectrum dot i e e e dot org (spectrum.ieee.org)

ARREST IN COPPER THEFT AT US RADIO STATION

Copper communication cables were stolen in late May from the tower site of radio station WDGG, 93.7 FM, launching an investigation by local authorities. A transmission line was also cut, throwing the station temporarily off the air. The 100,000-watt station, which is owned by Kindred Communications, has since returned to broadcasting but at a much lower power, less than 10 watts.

Within days, police announced the arrest of a 63-year-old Kentucky man, Paul Crisp, after they said he was seen fleeing the same site during what police say was a second attempted copper theft.

According to a report on the Inside Radio website, authorities used a search warrant to enter his home and found several pieces of communication cable and tools that they believe were involved in the incident.

The last few years have seen a dramatic rise in copper wire thefts in the US, according to a recent report on National Public Radio. With growing demand for use of copper, especially in AI data centers, the value of the metal has doubled. Todd Swenson of AT&T's construction and engineering division, told National Public Radio that it is also being increasingly stripped out of phone lines throughout the communications system as thieves try to capitalize on what are now a record-high prices.

AMERITRON, MIRAGE BRANDS SOLD TO ITU CORP.

Our top story this week is the sale of Mirage and Ameritron to the Indiana company that acquired the Cushcraft and Hygain brands from MFJ Enterprises earlier this year. Mirage and Ameritron, who are known for their amplifiers, are to join the amateur radio portfolio of ITU Corporation. ITU's president, Dave Carpenter, posted both brands' logos on his profile page on the LinkedIn business platform, referring to their recent acquisition.

As Newsline went to production, the official statement was covered on Linton News, a local online Newspaper where ITU Corporation is located.

This past April, ITU announced it will return Hygain and Cushcraft brands to the marketplace by manufacturing them at a 15-acre property that is the former home of a National Guard Armory in Linton, Indiana. In a joint announcement that month, Dave and Kambi Carpenter, who own the electronics supply business TekShack, announced the deal with Martin Jue, K5FLU, who closed the business he founded in Starkville, Mississippi.