XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.policy, rec.radio.info

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
DamronN8TMW.

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 KC0DGY 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 KC0DGY.

(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-100. 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 6K0MF.

Listen for TM0BSM, 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-100 satellite. QSL via LoTW only.

In French Polynesia, Eric, F4FJH, will be operating from Moorea, IOTA
number OC-046, 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.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)