Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2389 for Friday August 11th, 2023 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2389 with a release date of Friday August 11th, 2023 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. The controversy over finance trading over short wave heats up. Voyager 2's antenna is fixed -- and a bigger role for amateur radio on the African continent. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2389 comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** SHORTWAVE PROPOSAL HEATS UP WITH COMMENT WINDOW ENDING NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top story revisits the controversial proposal to make shortwave frequencies available to financial traders. A second FCC comment period is about to come to an end, as we hear from Jim Damron N8TMW. JIM: Although the US Federal Communications Commission has closed the window for initial comments on a business group's petition to make shortwave frequencies available to high-frequency traders, the period to file reply comments - responses to the original set of comments - remains open until August 15th. The stakes remain high on both sides of the issue, even as the ARRL said in its own filing to the FCC that the potential for destructive interference from the nearby 20,000-watt signals could be tremendous. While the proposal from the Shortwave Modernization Coalition does not include the amateur bands, the ARRL believes the suggested protections against interference from the traders on the nearby bands will be ineffective. An article in the Wall Street Journal, published on the 4th of August, quoted amateurs around the United States who expressed their fears. The Journal also spoke to the traders' group, who described those concerns as exaggerated. The traders have said they need the frequencies so financial transactions can take place as quickly as possible. They said that transferring data at the speed of light is a far more efficient method than using methods such as fiber-optic cable employed in intercontinental data transfers. Some hams have also expressed concern that if this petition succeeds, it will open the door for future petitions seeking trader access for parts of the spectrum presently used by hams. The traders' group has said it has no interest in the amateur frequencies, however. As the days tick down to the reply-comment deadline, the FCC told the Wall Street Journal: "We appreciate the importance of amateur radio and make every effort to ensure spectrum uses do not interfere with each other." This is Jim Damron N8TMW. (WALL STREET JOURNAL) ** ANTENNA ISSUE FIXED ON VOYAGER 2 SPACECRAFT NEIL/ANCHOR: Two degrees of separation stood between NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft and its ability to communicate with the Earth due to a faulty command in July that changed the critical orientation of its antenna - but now that's been fixed, from a distance of more than 12 billion miles. Kent Peterson KCØDGY has been following that story. KENT: It was a long shot - as long as the stretch of 12 billion miles - but NASA's Deep Space Network sent a command from its highest-powered transmitter in Canberra, Australia in an attempt to correct the 2-degree shift of the antenna that had knocked the space probe out of contact with the Earth last month. Their attempt worked. The space agency took a literal shot in the dark on Wednesday, August 2nd, but believed it was essential to re-establish communications with the probe, which was launched into interstellar space 46 years ago. The command traveled the distance, taking more than 18 hours to deliver its message. In another 18 and a half hours after that, NASA was celebrating its success. NASA compared the transmission to an "interstellar shout" - one that worked. The agency said in an update afterward that Voyager 2 had returned to normal operation, sending science and telemetry data as before. It is expected to remain on its intended trajectory. This is Kent Peterson KCØDGY. (WASHINGTON POST, AP) ** ENTHUSIASTS REVIVING QRP CLUB NEIL/ANCHOR: There is nothing quiet or low-power about the enthusiasm that QRP operators have for this challenging mode. In fact, the love of QRP is what's powering the revival of one relatively inactive QRP club in the United States. Here's Sel Embee KB3TZD with the details. SEL: It's been a while since the New Jersey QRP Club has been operating at full power - the club, that is, not the hams themselves, who prefer to transmit with the traditional settings of 5w or less. The club's NJQRP Skeeter Hunt, a popular QRP activity, has remained active even after the club itself went dormant in 2016. Now there's an ongoing effort to bring new life into the beloved old club, which hit its stride among QRP clubs in the early 2000s. Old and new members have begun gathering on a newly created Facebook page for the club and a groups.io mailing list is providing a place for an introduction of members and the exchange of ideas. If you are an avid QRP operator or want to explore the experience with like-minded hams, begin by becoming a recipient of the club's email list. You can get on the list by sending an email to Larry W2LJ at w2luj at gmail dot com (w2ljqrp@gmail.com). You don't have to live in New Jersey to participate. This is Sel Embee KB3TZD. (AMATEUR RADIO DAILY) ** HURRICANE WATCH NET SEEKS NET CONTROL OPS NEIL/ANCHOR: The hurricane season is still going strong in parts of the United States, and so is the need for control operators for the Hurricane Watch Net. Randy Sly W4XJ tells us how to get involved. RANDY: As the Atlantic Hurricane Season enters its second month, Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, manager of the Hurricane Watch Net is sending out a “CQ” for new Net Control Operators. These operators are critical to the mission of providing ground-truth weather reports for the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Bobby said he is especially looking for bilingual operators who are fluent in Spanish and English or French-Creole and English, as many of the areas threatened by hurricanes speak those languages. Net control stations don’t need to live in a hurricane endangered area. In fact, given propagation and safety, it is beneficial to live farther away. Not everyone who applies is accepted. New net control stations must also serve a probationary period under the supervision of the net training officer to learn the HWN operating procedures, tune their operating skills, and help remove any undesirable operating practices. As Bobby told AR Newsline, “the heritage of the Hurricane Watch Net is built on service during extreme conditions. We are looking for men and women who can operate in a professional manner and accept the challenges emergency services personnel face every day, specifically with long hours and unpredictable schedules.” Interested amateur radio operators can find out more at hwn.org. This is Randy Sly, W4XJ (BOBBY GRAVES, KB5HAV) ** NEW PACT EXPANDS HAM RADIO USE DURING EMERGENCIES NEIL/ANCHOR: A new agreement between the African Telecommunication Union and the International Amateur Radio Union is being hailed as a landmark agreement on the African continent. Jason Daniels VK2LAW has those details. JASON: Praising ham radio for its responsiveness in a crisis, the secretary-general of the African Telecommunications Union signed an agreement with the International Amateur Radio Union advocating for expanded use of ham radio during emergencies in African nations. The agreement places a special emphasis on ham radio's role in the 51 African countries that belong to the ATU. Both organisations pledged to cooperate when preparing for and responding to crises. A large part of the pact involves coordinating workshops and training programs and stepping up promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education in Africa through the use of amateur radio. Sylvain Azarian, F4GKR, the president of IARU Region 1, said that the agreement would also have an impact on regulatory changes that are needed for amateur radio in Africa. As he signed the pact, he told those in attendance [quote]: "This is our first step to initiating a collaborative approach that is keen to find solutions and to ensure a conducive environment for amateur radio operations in the region.” [endquote] This is Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (IARU REGION 1) ** SILENT KEY: FORMER PODCAST TEAM MEMBER CHERYL LASEK RUSSELL, K9BIK NEIL/ANCHOR: A former member of the Ham Nation podcast team and an occasional reporter for Amateur Radio Newsline has become a Silent Key. According to an online obituary, Cheryl Lasek Russell, K9BIK, died unexpectedly in her sleep on Thursday, the 27th of July. Viewers of the Ham Nation program formerly seen on twit.tv will remember Cheryl as having been part of the team many years ago. She also contributed reports to the newscast here on Amateur Radio Newsline. Cheryl had been a member of the North Shore Radio Club NS9RC and the Lake County RACES. A native of Deerfield, Illinois, Cheryl was 66. (CONGDON FUNERAL HOME) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the WM9W repeater in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesdays at midnight local time during the Nightcrawlers net. ** AMATEUR TV ON PERMANENT DISPLAY IN UK NEIL/ANCHOR: The Radio Society of Great Britain isn't changing the location's name to the National Radio and Amateur TV Centre but yes, visitors are seeing some very visible changes - and a television screen - in a new permanent display there. JEREMY: Amateur Radio TV has become the newest attraction at the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park where visitors can interact with a touchscreen and select signals to be received from the geostationary satellite QO-1ØØ. the signals are being transmitted from the wide-band segment. The television configuration was created with the help of the British Amateur Television Club and it allows visitors to see the signals decoded and displayed on a large monitor. The satellite's wideband transponder has downlinks between 10491 MHz and 10498 MHz and uses horizontal polarisation. The exhibit is part of a permanent display at the radio centre. The RSGB credits Justin, G8YTZ, with its design and for assisting the BATV club with the configuration. This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH. (WIA, RSGB, BRITISH AMATEUR TELEVISION CLUB) ** ANTENNA ISSUES HAMPER SPAIN'S SATELLITE NEIL/ANCHOR: The URESAT-SAT1 pocketQube satellite of Spain's national amateur radio society needs your help. More specifically, the satellite's antennas need your help. Launched on June 12th and sent into orbit on June 22nd, the satellite has been unable to deploy them. Even with limited antenna capabilities, URESAT-1 has been able to send CW, telemetry and SSTV images but a solution is needed so the issue can be remedied. The URE is reaching out to groups that may have a VHF station powerful enough to transmit a successful request to the satellite's antenna system to deploy. Additional details about the satellite can be found by visiting the link that appears in the text version of this week's Newsline report at arnewsline.org [DO NOT READ: https://uresat.ure.es/ ] (AMATEUR RADIO DAILY, URESAT-SAT1 WEBSITE) ** TRY SOME HAM RADIO HAIKU NEIL/ANCHOR: Do your QSOs inspire poetry? Is there a haiku perhaps waiting to be written about the last QSL card you got? Join the Amateur Radio Newsline haiku challenge. In the spirit of fun and perhaps a little bit of literary adventure, we invite you to share the joy of ham radio in the form of a haiku. On our website, arnewsline.org, you will find a submission form. To qualify, you need to follow traditional haiku form: The first line is five syllables, the second line is seven syllables and the finishing third line has another five syllables. We cannot accept any other formats. Our team will pick from the best submissions that follow the 5/7/5 syllable rule and represent the love of amateur radio. Your prize? For now, bragging rights -- and a featured spot for your haiku on the Amateur Radio Newsline website. We may have a surprise for you at the end of the year, however. So visit our website at arnewsline.org and take a look at this week's winning ham radio haiku. ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, be listening for the callsign HL78V through to the end of August. Members of the Korean Amateur Radio League's Chungbuk headquarters are on the air marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japan. QSL via 6KØMF. Listen for TMØBSM, the callsign being used by a team of German operators on the air from the lighthouse at Berck-sur-Mer, France, between the 16th and 21st of August, which includes the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on the 19th and the 20th. They will be using CW, SSB and digital modes on the HF bands. They will also be using the QO-1ØØ satellite. QSL via LoTW only. In French Polynesia, Eric, F4FJH, will be operating from Moorea, IOTA number OC-Ø46, using the callsign FO/F4FJH until the 22nd of August. QSL to his home call. In Belgium, the members of Radioamateur club Diest, ON4DST, will be on the air as special event station ON38IOF on the 12th and 13th of August from the 38th International Oldtimer Fly & Drive In. QSL via ON7QC. (425 DX BULLETIN) ** KICKER: THE ART OF AMATEUR RADIO NEIL/ANCHOR: Many of us have heard that there is an art as well as a science to amateur radio. For our final story this week, we explore the art side. It's a project by a radio amateur in Canada, created with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. ANDY: Radio is an art form for Amanda Dawn Christie, VE9OHM, who has created a multimedia experience - a music and image duet of sorts - using research instruments at the HAARP Ionospheric Research facility in Alaska. This mix of ionospheric audio and imagery, created with the help of air glow experiments, is a citizen science experiment to explore propagation. Amanda expects that when it gets on the air on Monday, August 14th, at 0330 UTC, the one-hour transmission will be well-received. Indeed, the program, known as "Ghosts in the Air Glow," is expected to be received and decoded by hams and shortwave listeners around the world using software defined radio. There will also be a live stream for those who want the experience but have neither the equipment nor the expertise to set up reception. Amanda's website, ghostsintheairglow.space, gives minute-by-minute breakdowns of the various movements of the transmitted piece on various frequencies of the 9 MHz band. The 10 segments contain propagation experiments, poetry readings, vocal performances, recordings of Arctic wolves and a saxophone improvisation, for starters. The website also gives information on how to download and install some of the free open source software that will permit Slow Scan TV and Narrow Band TV to be decoded in real time. You can also find earlier presentations of "Ghosts in the Air Glow" archived online from 2019 and 2022. Find a link to the transmission schedule and frequencies in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org [DO NOT READ: https://ghostsintheairglow.space/transmission/august-2023 ] Amanda says on her page on QRZ.com: [quote] "I make art with the electromagnetic spectrum, mostly with light and radio waves." [endquote] Once again, the world will be looking and listening. This is Andy Morrison K9AWM. (GHOSTS IN THE AIR GLOW WEBSITE, QRZ.COM, GEORGE DEWAR, VY2GF) ** DO YOU HAVE NEWS? We have an important message for our audience: Please note that Amateur Radio Newsline does not send out unsolicited emails and we never have. We only send specific responses to requests for contacts submitted via the form on our website. If you have a piece of Amateur Radio News that you think Newsline would be interested in, send it on! We are not talking about advertising your club's upcoming hamfest or field day participation, but something that is out of the ordinary. If so, send us a brief overview via the contact page at arnewsline.org. If it's newsworthy and we would like to cover it, we'll get back to you for more details. NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur Radio Daily; Associated Press; Bobby Graves, KB5HAV; British Amateur TV Club; Congdon Funeral Home; CQ Magazine; David Behar K7DB; 425DXNews; FCC; Ghosts in the Air Glow website; George Dewar, VY2GF; IARU Region 1; NASA; Radio Society of Great Britain; shortwaveradio.de; SPACE.COM; Wall Street Journal; Washington Post; Wireless Institute of Australia; 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 Neil Rapp WB9VPG in Union, Kentucky saying 73. As always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.