Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2345 for Friday October 7th, 2022 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2345 with a release date of Friday October 7th, 2022 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Two hams are added to next year's Starliner-1 launch. Sweden honors a noted tech entrepreneur -- and the International Telecommunication Union marks a 'first' in leadership. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2345 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** TWO MORE HAMS TO BE ABOARD FOR STARLINER'S 1st FLIGHT STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We begin this week with the US space program, which has selected two more amateur radio operators to be on board the maiden voyage of the Boeing Starliner-1 next year as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Paul Braun WD9GCO reports. PAUL: Two amateur radio operators were recently chosen to return to the International Space Station but this time they expect to arrive there aboard the first flight of NASA's new Boeing Starliner-1. Astronaut Scott Tingle KG5NZA will be its commander and Mike Fincke KE5AIT of NASA will serve as the Starliner's pilot. They will join Jeanette Epps, KF5QNU, who will be aboard as mission specialist. NASA assigned her in August 2020 to join the crew. There is no launch date yet for Starliner-1. It must complete NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which ensures the spacecraft can fly crewed missions to the ISS on a regular basis. This is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The first test flight is scheduled for early 2023. I'm Paul Braun WD9GCO. (NASA) ** SWEDISH AMATEUR TO RECEIVE GOLD MEDAL STEPHEN/ANCHOR: High honors are being conferred upon an amateur radio operator from Sweden who is well-known for the advances he has made in growing the internet. We have those details from Jeremy Boot G4NJH. JEREMY: Congratulations to Swedish tech entrepreneur Peter Löthberg SM4KEL/W4KEL, whose work in helping the internet get an early foothold and grow in Sweden has won him a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. King Gustaf is to present the medal to him next month. Dubbed an "internet guru" by Wired Dot Com (WIRED.COM) in 2007, he has given much sought-after advice to industry giants such as Cisco and Sprint. With this gold medal, Peter joins the ranks of scores of similarly decorated academy innovators. The academy (also known as the IVA) says on its website that its vision is “Technology in the service of humanity," in the belief that technical and economic science can make a positive contribution to society. I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (IVA, SOUTHGATE) ** GET READY FOR SCOUTING'S JOTA-JOTI EVENT STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you're involved in Scouting, or know someone who is, you know that October is a big month on the Scout calendar. Bill Stearns, NE4RD, tells us what's happening in just a few days. BILL: Jamboree-on-the-Air and Jamboree-on-the-Internet (JOTA-JOTI) is the world’s largest Scout event taking place on the internet and over the airwaves. Held every year in October, the event connects millions of young people around the world for a full weekend of online activities that promote friendship and global citizenship. In 2022, JOTA-JOTI takes place from 14 to 16 October. For the JOTA side of the event, Scouts and Guides all over the world connect with each other by means of amateur radio. Short-wave and digital radio signals carry their voices to virtually any corner of the world. It's the sheer excitement of having a live conversation with a fellow Scout or Guide at some other place in the world that attracts so many young people to this event. Event planning information or resources can be found on the K2BSA website at K2BSA.net. Register your station today at jotajoti.info and check out the virtual campsite where you can find lots of activities for this travel-free jamboree. For the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, this is Bill Stearns, NE4RD. ** FISTS CW CLUB PREPS FOR QSO PARTY STEPHEN/ANCHOR: October is also a big month for CW enthusiasts and one club in the UK has picked a date for a big but very informal get-together. Jeremy Boot G4NJH explains. JEREMY: Members of the FISTS CW Club in the UK know that you don't need a reason to declare it's time for a QSO Party. So organisers have declared the 22nd of October as the date for the club's official autumn gathering. The FISTS website says [quote] "This is simply an opportunity to rekindle old friendships and make new ones." [endquote] This means that nonmembers and radio ops who send QRS are just as welcome as are FISTS regulars. The QSO party takes place on that date between 1900 and 2359 UTC. As the club points out on its website, this is an activity that won't help anyone score points or add another certificate to their ever-growing collection - but on the other hand, you might just make some new friends. The website offers a few more encouraging words by adding: [quote]: "Let's wheel out the homebrew, the military gear, the old stuff and the new and let's just chat to each other." [endquote] Details are available at fists dot co dot uk (fists.co.uk) This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH. ** SKCC SEEKS DESIGNS FOR ANNIVERSARY QSL CARD STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Another group of CW enthusiasts has reached out to its members to showcase a talent that doesn't require a straight key, cootie or bug -- just perhaps some pen, ink and a little imagination. Kevin Trotman N5PRE has that report. KEVIN: The Straight Key Century Club is asking its members to call upon a skill that requires a good hand and a good eye instead of a good fist and a good ear. The club is preparing for activities marking the 17th anniversary of its founding -- and that means it needs a new and unique QSL card for a special event. Every year the SKCC designates January as Straight Key Month and starting on the 2nd of January, operators get on the air using the special event call sign K3Y. Members have until the 14th of December to submit their designs and then the club gets to vote on the submissions, which are displayed on the event webpage. The design with the most votes becomes the design of the official K3Y QSL card and many of the others become part of the SKCC print calendar for 2023. No, it's not too early to start thinking about 2023 or this special event. If you're a club member who likes to design QSL cards - or if you want to try - this is your chance. Designers are permitted to submit their cards from previous competitions in the hopes of making it to the top this year. For details, see the link the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org [PRINT ONLY: https://skccgroup.com/k3y/k3y-qsl-vote.php ] This is Kevin Trotman N5PRE. (SKCC) ** 1st WOMAN TO LEAD ITU IS AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Members of the ITU have chosen their next leader and she's not just the first woman - she's a ham. Dave Parks WB8ODF has details. DAVE: The International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency that coordinates telecommunications operations globally, has elected an amateur radio operator from the US as its new secretary-general. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, KD2JTX, will be the first woman to hold that office when she succeeds Houlin Zhao on January 1st. Her campaign page on the US Department of State website lists her deep involvement with the ITU, most recently as director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. The website listed her accomplishments in bringing about upgrades that better embrace digital advances, and that her work in the role supported global efforts to promote school connectivity and greater involvement of youth. Under her leadership, the ITU focused on giving youth more of a voice in strategy and programs. She posted on her Twitter account on September 19th: [quote] "Immensely proud to be the first woman ever elected to the post of ITU Secretary-General. We've finally smashed a 157-y.o. glass ceiling! – and I hope this result inspires women and girls everywhere to dream big and make those dreams a reality!" Her rival for the post was Rashid Ismailov of Russia, who lost in a vote of 139 votes to 25. This is Dave Parks WB8ODF. (US DEPT OF STATE, BBC NEWS) ** DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR CLUB GRANT PROGRAM STEPHEN/ANCHOR: This is a reminder that there is a little less than one month left for interested clubs to apply to the ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program. Deadline for applications is November 4th. The program is run with the help of a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications and allows clubs to expand such programs as those focused on education and training, especially new radio amateurs. A total of $500,000 is available to clubs and as much as $25,000 can be provided to any one club for a worthy project. Ham clubs requiring more than that amount are being asked to apply directly to the ARDC. Additional details about the ARRL program can be found at the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org [PRINT ONLY: arrl.org/club-grant-program ] (ARRL) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W3NTT repeater in Palmerton Pennsylvania at 9 p.m. on Sundays. ** AMSAT-INDIA GIVES ENGINEERING STUDENTS AN INTRO TO HAM RADIO STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Amateur radio was the big lesson of the day recently on one university campus in India. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF tells us what everyone talked abouthappened. JIM: There was perhaps no better way to mark the occasion of Engineering Day in September than to hold an amateur radio workshop on a university campus and provide some eye-opening lessons for tech students there. AMSAT-India's regional coordinator, Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP, did just that at Marwadi University in Gujarat, and in four hours the 80 students from the Information and Communications Technology Department, along with a special team assigned to a student project, gained insights into amateur radio as well as ham radio satellites. For that one special team of students, the timing could not have been better: The university recently announced that they will be building a satellite to be launched by the ISRO. The workshop provided some bonus preparatory work for them. The more terrestrial-minded demonstrations - from digital modes and VHF FM to SSTV - were conducted with the help of Sakshi Vagadia, VU3EXP, and Shyama Vagadia, VU3WHG, who is also part of the student satellite team. Workshops also covered such topics as the jargon of amateur radio, operating in the POTA and IOTA award programmes, high-altitude balloon tracking and, of course, CW. Just as every amateur contact on the air is usually followed up with a QSL of some sort, this workshop is not the end of the contact with this campus. Rajesh reported that the university administrators were so pleased that AMSAT-INDIA can expect to come back to conduct more programmes. This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF. (QRZ.COM) ** EXTRA CLASS 'GERATOL' NET TURNS 50 STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A popular Extra Class net is back on the air after taking a break for a few months. We hear about their plans from Sel Embee KB3 T Zed Dee. SEL: The GERATOL Net is back. That's spelled G E R A T O L, which stands for Greetings Extra Radio Amateur Tired of Operating Lately, except after a few months of NOT operating lately, the net is back on the air. You can find Extra Class operators checking in every night on 3.668 MHz, starting at 0100 UTC. Now in its 50th year of operation, the net is marking the occasion by adding an anniversary award to the array of awards it already confers to qualifying hams. To be eligible, hams must make 50 contacts - one for each year of the net's lifetime - during a session of the GERATOL Net. These contacts must be logged during the period of the net's anniversary year. The contacts must include the club staton WØNL. For details about the award or additional information on how to find and check into the net, visit the website g e r a t o l dot net (geratol.net) This is Sel Embee KB3TZD. (GERATOL NET) ** STUDENTS IN UKRAINE AWAIT THEIR SATELLITE'S LAUNCH STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A student-built CubeSat is being prepared for launch next month and its young creators in UKraine have included amateur radio operators in their plans. Ed Durrant DD5LP brings us up to date. ED: Students at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine are looking forward to the November launch of an educational satellite they built with a group of space-exploration enthusiasts. The students' Cubesat is designed to work on a variety of scientific and technical issues related to research at the institute's school, the National Technical University of Ukraine. The Cubesat, QBUAØ1, will be in a sun-synchronous orbit and accessible to hams around the world who can receive telemetry, beacon and science payload data. The nano-satellite project will focus its studies on near space and will explore the operation of solar sensors, magnetometers, gyroscopes, electromagnets and flywheels used in stabilization and orientation in space. Research will also focus on thermal regulation of a payload using heat pipes and on new software for controlling satellite systems and obtaining telemetry. Frequencies to be used are still being finalized.A 9k6 GMSK UHF downlink is proposed using AX25. This is Ed Durrant DD5LP. (IARU) ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, Didier, F6BCW, is active from the Marquesas Islands, IOTA number OC-027, using the call sign TX7G until the 15th of October. Listen on 80-10m, where Didier will be using CW, SSB and possibly FT8 and RTTY. QSL via F6BCW. Don K6ZO will again be active from Malawi as 7Q6M from October 19th through to the end of November. You can listen for him on 160-6m. He will also operate during the CQWW SSB and CW contests. See QSL details on the QR Zed dotcom page for 7Q6M. Be listening for Helmut, DF7EE, who will be operating from Madeira after the 25th of October as CT9/DF7EE along with CT9/D D 8 Zed X. He will be using the callsign CQ3W for the CQWW SSB contest. See QSL information on QRZ.com. In Antarctica, Oleg, ZS1OIN [Zed Ess 1 Oh Eye Enn], will be on the air on the HF bands as RI1ANU from Novolazarevskaya (No-Voh Lazza Rev Sky Yuh) Station at the end of October. QSL to his home call. (DX-WORLD.NET) ** KICKER: WITH HAMS' HELP, A FESTIVAL OF HOMECOMING JOY STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We end this week's report with a story of how hams helped bring about a well-timed family reunion in India. Graham Kemp VK4BB tells us how it happened. GRAHAM: The annual festival of Durga Puja is a big source of celebration in India, especially in eastern states such as West Bengal. It marks the journey of the goddes Durga as she returns to her family home. For the Satpute family in the Indian state of Maharashtra, however, there was a more immediate return home that brought them joy: The family's 73-year-old patriarch, who went missing 15 years ago and was presumed to be dead, came home with the help of a network of amateur radio operators. It was an extra source of happiness, too, for members of the West Bengal Radio Club, who specialise in accomplishing reunions such as these -- especially because it happened during this holiday. Club secretary Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA told Newsline that he was contacted by Dipankar (DEE-PANK-ARR) Chatterjee, a retired member of the Indian Air Force, who was out walking with friends when he noticed the man eating scraps of food off the street. The friends guided the man to a location where he could get food and clean clothing. Chatterjee reached out to the hams, explaining he believed the man to be mentally challenged. Club members were able to determine that that the man was from a part of Maharashtra, nearly 12,000 kilometres away. It did not take long for hams in Maharashtra to respond to the West Bengal amateurs' calls and to track down the family. Suddenly, the holiday took on even more meaning as the Satpute family prepared for a long overdue reunion. This is Graham Kemp VK4BB. (INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, WEST BENGAL RADIO CLUB) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA; the ARRL; BBC News; CQ Magazine; David Behar K7DB; DX-World.Net; GERATOL Net; IARU; Indo-Asian News Service; NASAp QRZ.com; SKCC; Southgate Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; US Department of State; West Bengal Radio Club; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. 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. We also remind our listeners that if you like our newscast, please leave us a 5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Stephen Kinford N8WB in Wadsworth Ohio saying 73. As always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2022. All rights reserved.