Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2294 for Friday October 15th, 2021 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2294 with a release date of Friday October 15th, 2021 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. A new California ham radio station has a very terrestrial mission. Students in India receive a gift that opens the airwaves to new licensees — and the first modern microsatellite turns 40. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2294 comes your way right now. *** BILLBOARD CART ** NEW CALIFORNIA HAM STATION HAS EDUCATIONAL MISSION PAUL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week is about a new amateur radio station on the West Coast of the US that is designed to be used by hams—but also nonhams. Its goal is to expand appreciation for what goes on on-the-air as well as terrestrially. Ralph Squillace KK6ITB has the details. RALPH: A $35,550 grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications is helping fund the creation of an amateur radio station at the new Chrisman California Islands Center in Carpinteria, California. Amateur radio station K6TZ will function as an educational outreach facility and become part of the center's exhibit gallery. The Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club and the Santa Barbara Wireless Foundation will make the station available to the public when it is not on the air so that visitors to the nonprofit center can access in in the gallery. They can view an interactive presentation about amateur radio and other forms of wireless technologies, especially as those technologies relate to researchers and travelers on the islands off that part of the coast. Webcams will be connected via the club's microwave data network, giving gallery visitors a look at the islands themselves. Club trustee Levi Maaia, K6LCM, said in a press release that the station will be open next year. The club website describes the station as [quote] "a fully-functional HF-VHF-UHF and microwave amateur radio station." [endquote] For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ralph Squillace KK6ITB. (DAN ROMANCHIK KB6NU) ** GIFT PUTS STUDENT CLUB ON AIR IN INDIA PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile in India, another new amateur radio station is being put together for a newly formed student club. This club has also benefitted from a generous benefactor. Graham Kemp VK4BB picks up that story for us. GRAHAM: For more than three dozen students at a government school in India's Nalgonda District, lessons are about to become more than just academic. Forty-three newly licensed radio amateurs are creating their club on campus and have just received equipment for their shack from the nearby Lamakaan Amateur Radio Club in Hyderabad (Hydra-Bod). The Dindi Amateur Radio Club's faculty supporter is Sayed Jilani VU3OND, the teacher who encouraged and coached the students to take the exam for their restricted grade amateur radio licenses. The shack's new equipment, however, is a gift from the Lamakaan Club, whose vice president is Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE. Ashhar is a well-known experimenter and accomplished homebrewer whose designs for the microBITX open-source HF SSB transceiver have brought him a global reputation. The club presented the equipment to the student club earlier this month. The students are now QRV with a microBITX transciver, a power supply, an antenna and coax cable. Calling CQ from a school in their village in Telangana, the students are ready to take on the world. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Graham Kemp VK4BB. (TELANGANA TODAY) ** DEEP SPACE ATOMIC CLOCK ENDS MISSION PAUL/ANCHOR: NASA has ended the mission of an experimental navigation aid that transmitted from deep space for two years. Kent Peterson KC0DGY brings us the details. KENT: NASA has a message for its Deep Space Atomic Clock, the ultra-precise spacecraft-navigation aid that's been in test mode for two years: Your time—however precise it may have been—is up. To its credit, the instrument outlived its original one-year test mission that began with its launch in June of 2019 on board General Atomics’ Orbital Test Bed spacecraft. On September 18th of this year, that journey came to an end when NASA turned the clock's power off. Its ambitious function was not without some high points: NASA credits it with breaking the record for stability among atomic clocks sent into space. Hosted on board a spacecraft, the clock had the same mission as its ground-based counterparts: keeping time measurements to aid in the calculations of a spacecraft's journey, factoring in that radio signals travel at the speed of light, 300 thousand kilometres per second. As spacecraft travel farther and farther from Earth, onboard atomic clocks such as this one are seen as preferable to the current ground-based instruments. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory say the clock has one more mission to complete, however. Its data will be used in the development of Deep Space Atomic Clock-2 another tech demo. Clock-2 is to be onboard NASA's Venus mission set for 2028. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY. (NASA) ** FIRST MODERN MICROSATELLITE TURNS 40 PAUL/ANCHOR: Happy anniversary to UoSAT-1. Satellite enthusiasts recently marked the 40th anniversary of its launch into orbit, which took place on October 6th, 1981. Developed by a team based at the University of Surrey and led by Martin Sweeting G3YJO, it was the first modern microsatellite accessible to amateur radio operators. The BBC carried an interview with the professor, who discussed the evolution of his largely homebrew project and its subsequent launch by NASA. See the text version of this week's Newsline script for a link to the BBC podcast. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v7pb ] Meanwhile, three ham radio CubeSeats made by students from the Philippines and Australia were sent into orbit from the International Space Station on Wednesday. Australia's Binar-1 and the Philippines' Maya-3 and Maya-4 arrived at the ISS in August via a Cargo Dragon spacecraft. Details about their operating frequencies can be found on the AMSAT-UK website. (AMSAT-UK) ** ARISS CONNECTS DEAF UK STUDENTS TO ISS PAUL/ANCHOR: Right on schedule, students at the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in the UK had their QSO with astronaut Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP aboard the International Space Station. To hear this first-of-a-kind ARISS contact follow the YouTube link in the text version of this newscast's script at arnewsline.org [https://youtu.be/wmI3qKZgjJ4 ] (YOUTUBE) ** FRANCE CELEBRATES YOUNGEST REUNION ISLAND HAM PAUL/ANCHOR: Amateur radio loves to celebrate its newest and youngest operators and in France, all eyes are on a certain proud 10-year-old. With more, here's Jeremy Boot G4NJH. JEREMY: Congratulations to Florian Barret of Reunion Island who at age 10 has received the call sign FR4UG, making him the youngest radio amateur in France and its Overseas Territories. The announcement was made recently by the amateur radio club in Saint-Leu in Reunion Island, following Florian's training by Jacky FR4NP. France has only one class of amateur radio licence and the French HAREC exam contains 40 questions. According to an article in the outremers360.com website, Florian was inspired to study to become a ham after watching his father get on the air using a Citizens Band radio. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (OUTREMERS360.COM) ** RSGB CONVENTION AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE PAUL/ANCHOR: Although the 2021 Online Convention of the Radio Society of Great Britain is over, if you missed it you can watch the interviews and other parts of the program on the society's YouTube channel. Individual presentations are not yet available but much of the other content can be watched using the link that appears in the script for this week's newscast. [www.youtube.com/theRSGB ] ** BRAZIL, NORWAY JOIN POTA PROGRAM PAUL/ANCHOR: Two new DXCC entities have joined Parks on the Air. Vance Martin N3VEM brings us that report. VANCE: [actuality audio "CQ CQ POTA, CQ Parks on the Air”] And now in Parks on the Air news: In September POTA welcomed Brazil and Norway to the program, which means we now have parks in 102 different DXCC entities. Activators in Brazil can now choose from over 700 different parks to activate, while activators in Norway, which is rich with nature reserves, have more than 2,500 parks to choose from. In POTA events, coming up on October 16th and 17th is the Autumn Support Your Parks Event. This is a great opportunity to get out for low-key weekend activity, and make some contacts before the weather turns cold, or for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, as seasons start to warm up. In our last item of POTA news we’re excited to announce that September of 2021 was an all-time record-setting month for POTA with more than a quarter of a million contacts made in one month. Although logs are still coming in, the QSO count is currently 263,478. This is November 3 Victor Echo Mike with your month ending September 2021 Parks on the Air update. Be sure to visit parksontheair.com for information about the program, and pota.app for spotting, park information, leader boards, and more. (POTA) ** WRTC COMPETITOR LIST RELEASED PAUL/ANCHOR: The Italian WRTC 2023 organization has released the list of competitors for this four-yearly competition of the best contesters in ham radio "The Olympics of Amateur Radio." The event has been delayed by a year because of COVID-19. The list's URL can be found in the script of this week's newscast at arnewsline dot org. (https://www.wrtc2022.it/score_redirect.asp?alltl=1 ) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the N7OEI repeater in Arizona's Navajo and Apache Counties on Thursdays at 7 p.m. local time. ** ALEXANDERSON ALTERNATOR TO TRANSMIT ON UN DAY PAUL/ANCHOR: The Alexanderson Association is once again marking United Nations Day - Sunday the 24th of October - by transmitting a global message in Morse Code on the historic Alexanderson alternator at the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station in Sweden. This year's message was written by Parul Sharma, a Swedish human rights lawyer and a proponent for sustainability. The CW message will be transmitted on 17.2 kHz. The transmitter uses the call sign SAQ. Test transmissions will be conducted on the 22nd of October between 1100 and 1400 UTC and listeners are invited to submit comments to info at alexander dot n dot se. The event itself will be carried live on the association's YouTube channel. (THE ALEXANDERSON ASSOCIATION) ** IRELAND'S HAM EXAM MAY GET NEW OVERSEER PAUL/ANCHOR: In Ireland, the regulator is seeking applicants to oversee the amateur radio exam there. Jeremy Boot G4NJH has the details. JEREMY: Ireland's communications regulator, ComReg, is looking for organisations to oversee the country's amateur radio exams after the current agreement expires with the Irish Radio Transmitters Society on the 21st of December. The Harmonised Amateur Radio Certificate, or HAREC, is to be set, organised and corrected by whoever enters into the new agreement with the regulator afterward. ComReg is expected to publish its invitation to the tender process shortly on its website. The IRTS has been administering the 60-question HAREC exams on paper. There has been no option to take the exams online. A report on the Southgate Amateur Radio News website noted, however, that the Radio Society of Great Britain has been using a Dublin-based provider for its own online exams. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (SOUTHGATE, COMREG) ** AUSTRALIA BEGINS ALLOCATION OF 2x1 CONTEST CALLS PAUL/ANCHOR: The allocation of the new 2x1 contest callsigns has begun in Australia. Be listening sometime soon for 2x1 calls with the prefixes VK, VJ and VL followed by the state number and the letters A through Zed. The applications for these callsigns started being accepted on the 13th of October by the Australian Maritime College on behalf of the Australian Communication and Media Authority. They will cost 70 Australian Dollars and are limited to only contest use during a 12-month period after which all Advanced licence holders can apply for them, no reservation of the call for a further year will be allowed. (ACMA) ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, be listening for members of the International Amateur Radio Contest DX Club who are using the call sign 4U2U until October 31st. They are celebrating United Nations Day, which is October 24th. This station counts as a contact with Austria, prefix OE, for DX purposes and it counts as 4U for the Vienna International Centre for the CQ DX Marathon Award. Send QSLs to UA3DX, direct or by the Bureau. The CQ WW DX SSB contest taking place on October 30th and 31st offers the opportunity for a number of stations in Indonesia, Kuwait and Hawaii. In Indonesia, a team using the callsign 7A2A will be operating from a contest station in central Java. QSL using LoTW or send QSLs direct or to YB2DX. In Kuwait, Abdallah, 9K2GS, will be active in the contest as 9K2K. Send QSLs to EC6DX or QSL via LoTW. Be listening for Alex, KU1CW, in Hawaii, using the callsign KH7Q from Oahu Island. He will also be active before and after the contest using the callsign KH6/KU1CW. QSL KH7Q via LoTW or direct to AH6NF. (OHIO PENN DX) ** KICKER: WI-FI? WHY NOT? A DIFFERENT KIND OF DX PAUL/ANCHOR: For our final story we look at a most unusual kind of DX. It was accomplished recently using a mode that is usually associated with very local signals. Ed Durrant DD5LP tells us about it. ED: It's hardly the preferred mode for DXing, but Wi-Fi certainly went the distance recently for two hams in Italy who succeeded in making contact between the island of Sardinia and the Tuscan summit of Monte Amita, 304 kilometres, or nearly 200 miles away. The connection made across the Tyrrhenian (TUH-REEN-EE-YUN) Sea was a project undertaken by the Italian Center for Experimental Radio Activities and was reported recently on the Wi-FiPLanet website. The report didn't say who the hams were but the Italian center's spokesman Mirco Paesante (PIE-SANTAY) IZ3HAD called the achievement a world record for Wi-Fi and a first step in creating [quote] "a wide-band digital network to connect all Italian ham radio users to each other and to other services provided by our associations." [endquote] Those services include D-STAR, Echolink and Amateur TV. The 802.11a link was created using radio modules on both ends from Ubiquity Networks based in San Jose, California. The modules were connected to 35dBi 5GHz parabolic dish antennas. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP. (WI-FIPLANET.COM) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to the ACMA; the Alexanderson Association; AMSAT-UK; the ARRL; COMREG; CQ Magazine; Dan Romanchik, KB6NU; David Behar K7DB; NASA; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; Outremers360; QRZ.com; Radio Society of Great Britain; Southgate Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; SOTA Reflector; space.com; spacenews; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Telengana Today; Wi-Fi Planet; WTWW Shortwave; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. You can write to us at newsline@arnewsline.org. We remind our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that incurs expenses for its continued operation. If you wish to support us, please visit our website at arnewsline.org and know that we appreciate you all. 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. As always we thank you for listening. 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