Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2150 for Friday, January 11 2019 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2150 with a release date of Friday, January 11 2019 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. The ARRL's new chief addresses Ham Radio University. Amateur radio takes a page from kindergarten -- and in Colorado, youngsters have sky-high ambitions. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2150 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** ARRL'S NEW CEO ADDRESSES HAM RADIO UNIVERSITY PAUL: We begin this week at Ham Radio University in New York where the ARRL's new chief recently addressed hundreds of attendees in anticipation of the league's first board meeting of 2019. Kevin Trotman N5PRE has that story. KEVIN: Just days before the scheduled board meeting of the ARRL on Jan. 18, the league's new CEO Howard Michel (pronounced MICKLE) WB2-EYE-TX declared he has a three-year timeline for making changes at the nonprofit membership organization which has a changing and shrinking population. Michel was delivering the keynote address on January 5th at the Ham Radio University in Brookville, New York, which drew 400 or more to the ARRL's NYC/Long Island Section convention, a daylong event that also featured forums and workshops. Although Michel offered no specifics in his talk, he said one of his goals is to find a better way for staff and volunteers to partner together within the $15 million organization and better position it for the future. The former president and CEO of the IEEE (EYE Triple E) told the group: [quote] "I don't want to sink this ship while changing its course." For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kevin Trotman N5PRE ** ITALIAN AMATEURS CELEBRATE NATION'S WIRELESS PIONEERS PAUL/ANCHOR: Can you name at least 12 inventive Italian scientists who helped change the shape of wireless? By the time this year is over, you might be able to - and Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us why. JEREMY: In Italy, 2019 is quickly becoming the year of the pioneering scientists of wireless. An amateur radio awards scheme has been launched by A.R.I. Fidenza and the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation honouring 12 Italian innovators or entities - one for each month of this year. In all, there will also be 12 commemorative radio stations with special call signs. At the same time, another special event station, known as the "Jolly Station" will use the call sign IQ4FE and be on the air all year at random times, allowing amateurs to pick up bonus points for QSOs not made with the 12 tribute stations. Those to be honoured include Marconi, of course, but also Luigi Solari, Augusto Righi, Cesare Bardeloni and Gruppo Radiotecnico Milanese, with stations all carrying the prefix II4 (EYE EYE FOUR). The awards scheme concludes on the 31st of December 2019. For additional details visit arifidenza.it For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH (RSGB, A.R.I. FIDENZA) ** 2 NEW FCC COMMISSIONERS CONFIRMED PAUL/ANCHOR: In the U.S., the Senate has confirmed two nominees to serve full five-year terms as FCC commissioners. Democrat Geoffrey Starks and Republican Brendan Carr will serve on a panel where Republicans outnumber Democrats 3-2. Brendan Carr, former FCC general counsel, had been confirmed last August to fill the vacancy created after the departure of Tom Wheeler. Geoffrey Starks Starks had been assistant chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau. (ARRL) ** WYONG FIELD DAY PREPARATIONS ARE UNDER WAY PAUL/ANCHOR: In Australia, preparations are under way for one of the grandest gatherings of hams in the hemisphere. Jason Daniels VK2LAW has the details. JASON:The Wyong (pronounced WHY-YONG) Field Day, a Hamfest run by the Central Coast Amateur Radio club located about an hour's drive north of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia is happening again. On February 24th, the sixty first CCARC Fieldday takes place at the Wyong Horse racing course. This is not only the longest-running and largest gathering of amateurs in the southern hemisphere it also has the largest covered radio flea market in Australia. Commercial traders have the luxury of a large air conditioned marquee as they have had for the last couple of years. Licence training will take place at the same venue on Saturday with the exams and the rest of the event happening on the Sunday. There will be lectures in the main race club building along with representation from the national society - the WIA, national groups including ALARA, the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association and local clubs. For full details go to the club website at CCARC (dot) ORG (dot) AU and click on the "Wyong field day" tab or button or follows the event details on Facebook under "ccarcwyongfieldday." For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (CENTRAL COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB) ** ON FACEBOOK, HAM RADIO TAKES A PAGE FROM...KINDERGARTEN? PAUL/ANCHOR: If you've got amateur radio pride and you love to boast about your shack, your rig or any other installation, this next story from Don Wilbanks AE5DW is for you. DON: There is a new Facebook group devoted to ham radio and it brings back fond memories of a favorite Kindergarten activity - show and tell. In fact, the group is called Ham Radio Show And Tell. As you can imagine, it's a place for you to show off your shack, mobile installation or anything ham radio that you're proud of. The group's founder is Kevin Duplantis, W4KEV of Knoxville, TN. He tells Newsline that he noticed a plethora of Facebook groups devoted to Citizens Band show and tell, but he couldn't find anything like that for ham radio. CBers seem particularly proud of their rigs and installations, so why don't we find the same for hams? Judging by the popularity of the Show Me Your Shack segment on Ham Nation, it's certainly an idea who's time has come. Since the Facebook group went online on December 26th there are nearly 300 members showing off everything from their shack setups, mobile installations, antenna projects, hamfest pics and lots more. Clifton, KM4ZJL posted a video of his 4 year old foster son getting on 3916 for a little chat with Santa. We agree... the Ham Radio Show And Tell Facebook group is an idea that was way overdue. You're invited to join in the fun too. It's easy to find... Just search Ham Radio Show And Tell on Facebook. Then get to showing and telling! For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW https://www.facebook.com/groups/219702478955703/ (KEVIN DUPLANTIS W4KEV) ** COLORADO YOUNGSTERS HAVE SKY-HIGH AMBITIONS PAUL/ANCHOR: Science and space used to be just for the nerdy kids in school. But in recent years, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math -- or STEM -- curriculum has become very popular with a wide variety of students. A chance to contact the International Space Station dovetails perfectly as the students of Park County, Colorado are finding out. I spoke with Dan Kern, W Zero DFU of the Park County Amateur Radio Club who is helping teacher Pat Shepard, K Zero TQT to arrange the contact. He found out that Shepard was teaching STEM classes and suggested that an ISS contact would be great experience for the children. She agreed, and the plans were put in motion. KERN: We started them out on the very basics - just learning the phonetic alphabet - then we went into how the radio works -- and antennas so they learned about circularly-polarized antennas, Yagis, omni-directionals and so forth and how that works with the ionosphere, how it works with the spacecraft and so forth. Then we do actual hands-on exercises with each class again reinforcing everything we learned from the previous classes, then start making contacts. Part of the contact program is they have to then go to the globe or the map and find out where that station was and then using QRZ find out how many miles away it was from the station. Along with that we include some math so they're getting the basics of all the science, technology, engineering and math as well as they do the actual hands-on station setup. I have a portable station that includes HF/VHF/UHF analog and digital. They get to use all of those radios and set up all the antennas on tripods, and actually participate in third-party traffic throughout the world so they're having a great time. PAUL/ANCHOR: Kern said that they started with a couple dozen students, but as the excitement about the possibility of talking to an astronaut grew, so did the number. They now have around 200 participating in the STEM classes and there are a few who are taking it further and going for their ham licenses: KERN: I have about a dozen kids right now. We've had one person test already. Our next VE session is coming up here in January so I have some more both student and parent teams that are actually going to test together - they wanted to get their testing and their license at the same time. PAUL/ANCHOR: The ISS contact is scheduled for the week of April 15th. Kern said that NASA will contact them early in the week when they have a more specific time. He also said that this contact will be different than many school contacts because the amateur ground station will be right there at the school, set up in part by the students, rather than by using a telebridge. ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the K6SOA repeater in Laguna Beach California on Tuesday nights at 8 local time. ** CHRISTMAS WISHES COME TRUE FOR '12 DAYS' SPECIAL EVENT OPERATORS PAUL: The holidays are over but the celebrating continues for organizers of the first 12 Days of Christmas Special Event station. Neil Rapp WB9VPG, spoke with one of the hams behind the big event. NEIL: Amateur radio's first 12 Days of Christmas special event was a big hit! Salli Rosato, K2RYD tells us some of the details. SALLI: We had such a great response, you can’t even believe it. And, during the whole thing, people were emailing us to become operators, asking us if we needed help. We had someone from the 13 Colonies. We had the organizer of the Lake Havasu Lighthouse event that they run in November. We had so many people. We had 18 operators that made 12,200 contacts. We worked over 50 countries. We had a Worked All States - and all the operators had at least 45 states. So I would think that it was pretty successful. NEIL: If you worked one of the stations, you can now download your certificate. Just go to the Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club web site gsbarc.org and click on special events. Then you can click on the link to receive your certificate. As the interview with Salli was taking place, the 1,000th certificate was already downloaded. If you can’t download the certificate, just mail $5 to K2RYD, and she will print and mail yours to you. Salli says plans for next year are even bigger and better. SALLI: I have my callsigns for next year. And I already have confirmations from different operators that are going to operate for me at the end of this year for the second annual Twelve Days of Christmas. So I’m really psyched out about it. NEIL: I even joined in on the operation for a couple of days, including some satellite contacts. I’ll be back for this year as well helping people collect all 184 birds. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Neil Rapp, WB9VPG in Bloomington, Indiana. ** GET READY FOR WORLD RADIOSPORT TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 2022 PAUL/ANCHOR: Just as the Olympic Games return, the World Radiosport Team Championship will be back before you know it. Ed Durrant DD5LP tells us about the first qualifying event - coming soon! ED: It's not too early to start thinking about the World Radiosport Team Championship. The next one is being held in July of 2022 in Bologna, Italy. Qualification rules are now available for review and discussion before they are published in their final form on the 31st of January. Then, get ready for the first qualifying event. That will be the ARRL's International DX CW Contest, which is taking place on the 16th and 17th of February. To view the proposed rules in English visit wrtc dot it slash en slash. (wrtc2022.it/en/) For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP. (WRTC) ** OHIO CONTEST IS COMPETITION WITH A PURPOSE PAUL/ANCHOR: If you live in Ohio and enjoy operating on VHF and UHF, you might be one of the hams in this contest described by Stephen Kinford N8WB. STEPHEN: There are contests....and then there are contests. This one, held on the 12th of January from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time, happens on 6m, 2m and 70 cm in Ohio - with all the operators on simplex. It's the Ohio ARES VHF Simplex Contest and its purpose is to test simplex coverage areas on those bands and to scrutinize station and antenna capabilities. The contest organizers note that while the contest is meant to be enjoyed, the underlying purpose is a serious one: in extreme emergencies when even repeaters fail and simplex is the only method of communication so it needs to be tested and documented. Hams may compete in categories that include fixed, fixed EOC, portable and rover - and spotting assistance is allowed. All modes are acceptable for this exercise. Entries are due no later than February 15th and should be emailed to contest at k8es dot org (contest@k8es.org). The contest is being held by the Ohio ARES Group of the ARRL's Ohio Section. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Stephen Kinford N8WB. (LLOYD COLSTON KC5FM) ** WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, thousands of Hindu pilgrims are preparing to arrive on Sagar Island in the Ganges Delta south of Kolkata India and members of the West Bengal Radio Club VU2WB will be marking the occasion with Special Event Station AU2HAM. The activation of IOTA-AS 153 from the 10th through to the 17th of January marks the Ganga Sagar Mela, a solemn time of worship when pilgrims immerse themselves in the water where the Ganges River meets the Bay of Bengal. Hams contacting the special event station during this annual event should QSL via VU2NRO. Be listening for Art, NN7A operating as V31JZ/p from South Water Caye in Belize from the 31st of January through to the 6th of February. He will operate mainly CW on 80-10 meters. QSL via Club Log's OQRS, or via NN7A, direct or by the bureau. Bernie W3UR is active as V47UR from St. Kitts until the 20th of January. He is operating holiday style on 160-6 metres CW, SSB and FT8. QSL via LoTW, Club Log's OQRS or via his home call. Members of the North Country DX Association will be active between the 15th of January and the 28th of February using callsigns with the suffix of "RST. Listen for them operating from Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Greenland. The callsigns will include KL7RST, VY1RST, VE8RST, VY0RST and OX7RST. There will also be N1RAC/KL7 operating from Fairbanks, Alaska. QSL direct to K7ICE. (OHIO PENN DX) ** KICKER: THE QSL CARD IS IN THE MAIL - EVENTUALLY PAUL/ANCHOR: Our last story for this week asks the question: Can a QSL card be a member of the quarter-century club? For that answer we turn to Mike Askins KE5CXP. MIKE: It pays to send those QSL cards, even if it takes a while. Even if it takes 24 years - the time that elapsed between the New Year's Day QSO in 1995 between Doug Grant K1DG and John Fulton N9NJX on 20 meters - and the New Years arrival this year of Doug's card. John had worked Doug's station during a 50-year anniversary celebration for CQ Magazine. As the author of a now-out-of-print almanac for CQ, Doug had been part of the coveted group of "CQ Family" operators being chased and he had been using the call sign K1DG/50." Doug told Newsline recently that the event was [quote] "fun with some nice pileups." [endquote] Not long after the event, however, another pileup appeared -- the QSL cards that went unanswered after the special event ended and Doug ran out of cards. N9NJX's card went into a shoebox with others earmarked as "cards to be answered" someday. Doug told Newsline however that "Someday never came," despite his practice of always answering cards as an active contester, paying special attention to envelopes that are self-addressed and with postage. The shoebox eventually surfaced after Doug and his wife moved. He told Newsline "I felt guilty about having not answered them so I worked my way through the pile." [endquote] The 20 or 25 hams he determined were still active today got updated postage and updated cards and a hand-written note of explanation. Two hams emailed him directly, surprised and happy. John, who recently returned to ham radio after taking a break, posted his New Year's treasure on Facebook saying its arrival initially baffled him because he hasn't yet put an antenna back up. Doug, meanwhile, told Newsline: "My conscience is clear." His schedule unfortunately is not: Doug's next project is following up on QSLs for DXCC band-entities, including for QSOs from the 90s or before. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP. ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; A.R.I. Fidenza; the ARRL; Central Coast Amateur Radio Club; CQ Magazine; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Kevin Duplantis W4KEV; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; Lloyd Colston KC5FM; QRZ.COM; Radio Society of Great Britain; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website at www.arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Paul Braun WD9GCO in Valparaiso Indiana saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.