Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2195 for Friday November 22nd 2019 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2195 with a release date of Friday November 22nd 2019 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. A coveted DX is back on the air from a monastery in Greece. AMSAT celebrates a satellite marking middle age, despite the odds -- and a first for Newsline: announcing the launch of our International Newsmaker Award. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2195 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** COVETED DX BACK IN ACTION ON MOUNT ATHOS NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with good news for DXers. Mount Athos is back on the air! Ed Durrant DD5LP has the details. ED: DXers are now listening with greater intensity for Monk Iakovos SV2RSG/A who has been heard mainly on 20 meters from Mount Athos. According to several reports, contacts with Monk Iakovos are now recognized as good for DXCC. Several sources including DX.net have reported confirming this with Bart Jahnke W9JJ, the radiosport and field services manager for the ARRL. Monk Iakovos himself announced the upbeat news on his QRZ.com page, adding [quote] "I am honored by this very serious decision, and I thank ARRL and all the new Ham friends for their support and concern about me." [endquote] Monk Iakovos' voice has been called a welcome sound on the amateur bands since the death of Monk Apollo SV2ASP in May of this year of complications from cancer. Mount Athos is the 20th most-wanted DXCC entity. QSL information for Monk Iakovos can be found on QRZ dot com (QRZ.com) For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP. ** AMSAT CELEBRATES OSCAR 7, THE SATELLITE THAT DIDN'T DIE NEIL/ANCHOR: AMSAT is celebrating 45 years of Oscar 7, the satellite that wouldn't - and didn't - die. Kent Peterson KC0DGY has that story. KENT: The AMSAT satellite known as AO-7 has taken a page right out of the book of American humorist Mark Twain who said: "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Launched in November of 1974, AMSAT-OSCAR 7, as it is known, suffered battery failure in June 1981, barely 7 years into its orbital journey. Its whereabouts and its fate remained unclear until 2002, when a report surfaced that a CW beacon was detected around 145.970 MHz from an unknown OSCAR satellite. That satellite was soon confirmed to be lucky number 7 -- and despite rumors to the contrary, it hadn't died at all. Now 45 years into its travels, AO-7 may be showing a little wear and tear at middle age, as the oldest operational satellite in orbit in any service. There'll be no cake to celebrate but a jubilant AMSAT is instead auctioning off an AMSAT 50th annniversary lab coat, size 42 Regular, and a set of gold-plated AO-7 cufflinks. Not even Mark Twain, who lived to be 74, ever did that. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY. ** WHEN QRM HITS HOME - IN THE GARAGE, TO BE EXACT NEIL/ANCHOR: Radio interference is no fun for hams but imagine if it messed with your garage door? Homeowners in Virginia don't have to imagine, as Jim Damron N8TMW tells us. JIM D: It's no surprise that you don't have to be a ham to be plagued by QRM. The latest incident comes from Virginia's Faiquier County (Faw-KEER), where residents of two nearby residential subdivisions have reported radio signals playing havoc with their garage-door openers. The subdivisions, known as Olde Gold Cup and Silver Cup Estates are in Warrenton, not far from the Warrenton Training Center Station B, a top-secret federal facility northwest of their hometown. In a news report in a recent edition of the Faiquier (Faw-KEER) News, federal officials admitted that new land mobile radios being deployed by the Department of Defense may be responsible for interfering with the homeowners' devices. The newspaper quoted a statement from defense officials that said the radios [quote] "“operate in the same frequency range . . . as many unlicensed, low-powered garage door openers, which have operated in this range for years." [endquote] According to the newspaper report, the training center agreed that they would not use the radios for a 30-day period beginning November 5th while they sort things out. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jim Damron N8TMW. (FAUQUIER NOW) ** NEW ZEALAND HAMS KEY UP FOR A NIGHT OF CODE NEIL/ANCHOR: In New Zealand, hams are keying up for an old-school night of code. Here's Jim Meachen ZL2BHF with more. JIM: What's on 80 metres, lasts one hour and is as old-fashioned and retro as anything can be? Try Straight Key Night, Summer edition, which is back to present another 60 minutes of challenging CW, honouring its important role in New Zealand's radio history. According to the website maritimeradio dot org (maritimeradio.org), competitors can forget the fancy bugs and electronic keyers. This is an exercise in accurate code dispatched with a straight key. Maximum transmitter output is 100 watts and all contacts must be CW to CW. Another old-fashioned element of the evening is pride in one's skill. The three stations with the highest scores will be awarded certificates. If you have further questions, contact the event manager SKN at maritimeradio dot org (skn@maritimeradio.org) Then start cleaning and polishing your straight key. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen ZL2BHF. (NZART, MARITIMERADIO.ORG) ** CANADA TO HONOR MILITARY'S FIRST FEMALE WIRELESS OPERATOR NEIL/ANCHOR: A history-making Canadian woman is getting a special tribute in the town where she grew up - all because of radio. Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us about her. JEREMY: The event is a little less than one year away but organisers already see it taking shape right in front of them: It's a celebration of a young Canadian woman who served Canada as its first female wireless radio operator at sea, serving aboard the Norwegian M/S Mosdale during World War Two, making 78 Atlantic crossings between eastern Canada and Britain. On October 17th 2020, a life-sized bronze statue of Fern Blodgett Sunde will be unveiled, along with a plaque, at the waterfront in Cobourg where she grew up. Glenn MacDonell VE3XRA, president of Radio Amateurs of Canada, said the RAC has given its full support to the project, which is being led by the Cobourg Museum Foundation. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (NORTHUMBERLAND NEWS, COBOURG BLOG, RADIO AMATEURS OF CANADA) ** NEWSLINE ANNOUNCES 'INTERNATIONAL NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR' AWARD NEIL/ANCHOR: Get ready for a Newsline first - the"International Newsmaker of the Year" Award. Amateur Radio Newsline launches the honor this year and we hope to confer it every year, starting next month. Here's Newsline's editor Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT. CARYN: Amateur Radio Newsline prides itself in bringing not only national but international news to our listeners each week. Being one of the few amateur radio news sources to have a global footprint, it only seemed right that Newsline create an award for International Newsmaker of the Year. We will be announcing our inaugural winner during the second week in December. Our candidates were carefully chosen by our staff based on news reports that have been part of our broadcasts during 2019. We will confer the honor upon a newsmaker who has consistently shown leadership and commitment to the community - locally as well as globally - helping to promote ham radio to the public in the best possible light. We look forward to sharing the name of our first winner in early December. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT. ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WW8GM repeater of the General Motors Amateur Radio Club in Detroit, Michigan on Saturdays at 9 p.m. local time. ** RADIOMAN INDUCTED INTO CRYPTOLOGIC HALL OF HONOR NEIL/ANCHOR: A radio amateur who was a gifted Navy cryptologist has been inducted posthumously into the Cryptologic Hall of Honor. Christian Cudnik K0STH has been following that story. CHRISTIAN: At a ceremony at the United States National Security Agency, a radioman and amateur radio operator who served the U.S. Army Signals Corps and later the U.S. Navy, was among four people inducted into the Cryptologic Hall of Honor this month. Chief Radioman Harry Kidder served the military for four decades, training and mentoring generations of Navy cryptologists. The Navy valued Kidder's skill as a radioman and an Elmer for less experienced crew members -- and had a great appreciation as well for his hobby of amateur radio. He was known for operating on his homebrew equipment with the call sign 1HK. He had learned to build and maintain radio and telegraph systems after enlisting in the Army Signal Corps in 1910. By 1914, he began his service in the Navy and was eventually transferred to the Radio Control Station in Maryland where he established a program of formal cryptology training. After retiring from active duty in 1935, he kept up with amateur radio -- but in 1941 he was called back into service during World War II. He became a Silent Key in 1963. The Hall of Honor was created in 1999 to recognize America's cryptology pioneers and heroes. Harry Kidder has now become the second enlisted person to be inducted. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Christian Cudnik K0STH. (CHIPS, THE U.S. NAVY IT MAGAZINE, STATIONHYPO.COM, DEFENSE VISUAL INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SERVICE) ** NEIL/ANCHOR: This week, our “Nets of Note” feature returns with an example of how EmComm efforts benefitted from combining technologies. Paul Braun WD9GCO brings us more. PAUL: There’s a saying that the best tool for the job is the one you have with you. This was very evident during a recent pier collapse in West Bengal, India when a number of hams utilized Echolink on smart phones connected through a node on a repeater in California to coordinate with other stations and disaster responders inside India when local 2-meter coverage had failed. This event led to the creation of the SARCHO Net, which stands for South Asian Regional Cooperation for Ham Radio Operators. I spoke with Greg Lee, KI6GIG, the coordinator between the West Bengal club and the KM6EON node in California: LEE: In 2017 I went to present a paper on using Echolink in EmComm at a hamfest in India. At that time I took over some things that would help them interface their Echolink to their RF base station. It took them a while to get it all sorted out. I think it was a couple of months ago that they finally got everything squared away while the RF interface was there and we started to do a more regular net. Very shortly after that, they started the SARCHO net. Every morning now, at about 9:30 to 10:30 L.A. time, which is evening for them, they’ll get on and do this rapid-fire check-in to keep our repeater transmitter on this end from heating up too much. PAUL: Lee said that the members of the club in India, along with hams in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal all check into the KM6EON node regularly now to practice for actual emergencies. This truly is an example of not only local hams cooperating, but hams across the world working with each other, expanding the tools available to them in an emergency. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, be listening again this year for special event callsign AU2JCB marking the November 30th birth date of Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Indian scientist whose pioneering work in wireless communication is still celebrated today. The station will be operated on various HF frequencies by Datta VU2DSI from the 23rd of November to the 16th of December. Send QSLs direct to VU2DSI. Listen for 6W7PCT operating in Senegal from the 18th to the 25th of November. You will hear this team of four amateurs operating on the HF bands. They will also be participating in the CQWW CW contest on November 23rd and 24th. Send QSLs direct to F8GGV, by OQRS or to F5KKD via the bureau. Be listening for Burkhard, YB9/DL3KZA who is operating with some Indonesian friends through December 2nd from the islands of Sumbawa and Lombok. They will be on the air holiday style on SSB and FT8. Send QSLs by the bureau or direct. A group of operators will be on the air as OC3CS from archaeological zone Cerro Sechin in the Peruvian province of Casma from November 29th to 30th. Be listening on the HF bands where they will be using SSB and various digital modes. Send QSLs to OA4O (OH AY FOUR OH) by the Bureau, Direct or through LoTW. (DX-WORLD.NET) ** KICKER: HELP FOR BLIND AMATEUR LEFT HOMELESS BY BUSH FIRES NEIL/ANCHOR: Australia's bush fire emergency continues across all of the nation's southern and eastern states and in New South Wales, the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network NSW continues deploying operators to fire control centres for the Bush Fire Information Line. With no end in sight to this crisis, hams are also reaching out to help one of their own. John Williams VK4JJW has that story. JOHN: Hams are almost always at their finest as helpers - whether methodically Elmering a newcomer at home or stepping into the frantic environment of emergency communications. Their amateur radio talents have proven especially invaluable during the bush fires ravaging parts of Australia. In a plea on a recent VK6ARN NewsWest broadcast, amateurs were asked to be helpers again -- this time to assist one of their own. Bush fires destroyed everything for Barry VK2WB, whose home in New South Wales was one of those consumed by the blazes. He also lost his shack which was outfitted with state-of-the-art radio gear that enabled Barry, who is blind, to use the equipment. Listeners in West Australia may be familiar with Barry's voice as well: As VK6WF, a call he still holds he was a reader for the WIA news on 40 metres before he moved to New South Wales. VK6ARN broadcast news presenter Roy VK6XV said in the report that the search is on for equipment suitable for a white stick operator such as Barry. He said anything would be a welcome donation to help a fellow amateur get back on the air as soon as possible. He said the donations could be "new, old or otherwise pre-loved." Giving is, after all, among the things that amateurs do best. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm John Williams VK4JJW. (VK6ARN NEWSWEST) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; CHIPS Magazine; Cobourg Blog; CQ Magazine; Defense Visual Information Distribution Service; DX News; Edwin Lowe, VK2VEL; Northumberland News; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QRZ.com Forums; Radio Amateurs of Canada; Radio Society of Great Britain; StationHypo.com; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; VK6ARN NewsWest; 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 arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Bloomington, Indiana saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.