Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1968 July 17 2015 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1968 with a release date of Friday, July 17, 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Dayton Hamvention releases attendance figures and the news is good. A Canadian ham operated remotely from the U.S. on Field Day. Will satellites return to 29 MHz? The newest CubeSat from England?s Surrey Space Center. The Courage Kenny Handiham Program for disabled radio amateurs prepares for radio camp in August. All this and an update on our Young Ham of the Year Award in Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1968 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here and Intro) Here is this week?s news with Don Wilbanks AE5DW [or ALTERNATE ANCHOR] BREAKING: FCC CLOSURES We start with breaking news. It was announced on Thursday, July 16th that the FCC would close 11 field offices. The closures are in the cities of Anchorage, Buffalo, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Norfolk, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Juan, Seattle and Tampa. This list is scaled back dramatically from the original plan to close nearly all of the FCC?s field offices. ?It?s a tough decision?, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, He continued saying ?Congress has ordered that we spend less. We?ve been told to do with less.? The vote was 5-0. More in future Newsline reports. (Katyonthehill.com) EVENT: PACKED HOUSE AT HAMVENTION It's hard to argue with numbers, so the recent attendance report from the Dayton Hamvention held in May at the Hara Arena Complex certainly gives its sponsoring group some bragging rights. The official headcount of 25,621 released by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association is an increase of 748 attendees over last year, and an impressive climb of 1,079 attendees over the 2013 event. Still, Hamvention's peak attendance was back in 1993 when 33,669 amateurs were on hand. After 1996, when the date of the annual event was changed from April to May, attendance varied from year to year. However, Dayton Hamvention has clearly grown in its profile as the world's largest gathering of hams and has become a magnet for amateur operators from around the globe. Success breeds only more success, and organizers have already set May 20-22 for Hamvention weekend in 2016. (ARRL, Henry Ruminski, W8HJR) STATION SHOWS REMOTE POSSIBILITIES An amateur radio club station based in Canada's Yukon Territory took a creative approach to operating for this year's Field Day and Canada Day activities. The station, VY1AAA, from the Northern Territories, was being operated remotely from the Contoocook Valley Radio Club's Field Day site in New Hampshire -- call sign K1B. The call sign VY1AAA is assigned to the club station of J. Allen, VY1JA, who is located near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The goal of the arrangement was to give Allen remote control capability during both Field Day on June 27 to 28 and Canada Day on July 1. Some of his remote operation from New Hampshire with the Contoocook Club in June can be seen in a short video posted on YouTube. One of the station's New Hampshire operators, Gerry Hull, W1VE, a former ARRL technical editor who is also licensed in Canada, said the remote Field Day and Canada Day operations ended up generating "a ton" of requests for QSL cards. Canada Day QSOs were also deemed a success, he said, when VY1AAA operated multi-single for a claimed score of 53,000 points. AN ALTERNATE SATELLITE FREQUENCY A panel of international advisors has been encouraging radio amateurs and satellite developers and builders to return to the practice of satellite uplinks and downlinks on 29 MHz, as a way of providing alternatives to overcrowded band segments elsewhere on the spectrum. One panel member, Ray Soifer W2RS, noted that 29 MHz had a solid history for those purposes going back several decades: The segment of the band between 29.300 MHz and 29.510 MHz was used for downlinks beginning with Australis-OSCAR 5 in 1970, followed by AMSAT's first communications satellite, AMSAT-OSCAR 6, two years later. AMSAT-OSCAR 7, launched in 1974, is the sole amateur satellite today actively using a 29 MHz downlink. The older satellites were, of course, larger than the CubeSats in use today. But many of today's CubeSats, in use by science researchers and universities, are utilizing amateur frequencies and overcrowding band segments at 145 MHz and 435 MHz. The International Amateur Radio Union envisions 29 MHz as a way of relieving some of that traffic. (EE Publishers, QRZNOW) STALKING THE LATEST CUBESAT One of the more recent CubeSats to be launched, The DeorbitSailCubeSat, went into orbit on Friday, July 10. It was built by researchers and radio amateurs at the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford, England, carrying a 1200 bps BPSK beacon transmitting on 145.975 MHz. Ken Swaggart, W7KKE, gave the first DeorbitSail packet reports to Surrey Space from his station in Oregon. As the CubeSat passed over India, Nitin Muttin, VU3TYG, reported receiving signals as well. The satellite will eventually burn up in the atmosphere as it gradually loses altitude and returns to Earth. Tracking information is available on the AMSAT-UK website. All telemetry files can be sent via email to Christopher Bridges, 2E0OBC, the lead engineer and researcher at the Surrey Space Center, at c.p.bridges@surrey.ac.uk (ARRL, Surrey Space Center) BREAK 1 Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world. We are being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur: (5 second pause) REPORT FROM CAMP COURAGE The Courage Kenny Handiham Program for disabled radio amateurs is accepting applications for radio camp to be held August 18 through August 24 in Minnesota. Kent Peterson, KC0DGY, talks to Matt Arthur, KA0PQW, who shares his many summers of experience there. [INSERT LEDE-IN FROM KENT, INTERVIEW WITH MATT] For an application package for Handiham Radio Camp, call Nancy at 612-775-2291. NEW BALLOTING FOR KOSOVO A revote is in the works among members of the International Amateur Radio Union on whether to admit the Republic of Kosovo's national amateur radio association. A previous membership vote, taken last year, failed narrowly when 49 ballots were cast in favor -- just shy of the 51 needed to formally recognize Kosovo. Although the two necessary votes of approval arrived not long after member voting had concluded, the timing rendered the votes ineligible for being counted, according to IARU secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD. In an email to IARU members, Stafford urged a revote as soon as possible. The Republic of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has had a formal amateur radio organization, known by the letters SHRAK, since 2000. In 2008, however, the government set aside the call sign of Z6 for the nation's hams, as amateur radio began to establish a stronghold. The IARU did vote to admit Burundi, with 67 affirmative votes clinching membership for the African Republic. (ARRL, Amateur Radio Europe, International Amateur Radio Union) BREAK 2 Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WC8OH Repeater serving Kettering Ohio. (5 second pause) THE WORLD OF DX NA-067, OCRACOKE ISLAND Jon, WB8YJF, will once again be active as WB8YJF/4 from Ocracoke Island between July 19-26th. Activity will be on CW, SSB, and possibly RTTY. He also plans to be in the Radio Society of Great Britain's Islands on the Air contest on July 25 and 26th. Please QSL direct for a fast QSL or via the Bureau. Two other operators, Keith/W4KAZ and Nathan/N4YDU, will also be active on Ocracoke Island. They will operate as W4O between July 23 and July 26th. Activity will include the Radio Society of Great Britain IOTA Contest as a Multi-Op/ Single-Transmitter/Low-Power entry. Operations will be on 80 through 10 meters. QSL direct only to N4YDU. ET, ETHIOPIA Operators Andy/UR4LRQ, Yaroslav/UW7LL and Igor/UY5LW will be active as ET3AA from the Ethiopian Amateur Radio Society club station on the HF bands until Aug. 21st. QSLs only via US0LW. FY, FRENCH GUYANA Christian, F5UII, will once again be active as FY/F5UII from the radio club station FY5KE in Kourou City between July 20-28th. Because he will be working, activity will be limited, but he suggests looking for him on 80 meters through 10 meters, between 1000-1100Z and after 2100Z. He may also make a side trip to Royal Island during the Radio Society of Great Britain IOTA. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by the Bureau. On July 15, Aeriel NY4G moves from Prince Edward Island, Canada to the St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands where he will be using the call sign FP/NY4G until July 21. He will be working mostly CW and RTTY on 80 through 10 meters, with his logs uploaded to Logbook of the World and Club Log. QSL direct via NY4G or Club Log OQRS . (Ohio Penn DX newsletter, DXWorld) YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR And finally, meet this year?s Young Ham of the Year, who was chosen by a unanimous vote. We hear more from Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, who chairs the Young Ham of the Year Committee: "You're kidding, right? You're kidding?" "No, I'm not, you are our choice." "Hey dad, did you hear that, I'm the winner." That's Anna Veal, W0ANT, our newly minted Young Ham of the Year, in a phone conversation during which she learned she was the unanimous choice of our judging committee. Before we told Anna she was our winner, I asked what she would think if she was awarded the honor. "The hobby itself is just super fun," she says. "So, I would just think of it as a huge honor and a fun opportunity." Anna is 14. She'll turn 15 in August. She is the daughter of Paul Veal, N0AH, and Peggy Veal, KD0ISN, and lives in Littleton, Colorado. He has two sisters - fraternal twins. They are Claire and Leah, both 10. Anna holds a General class license. Her story of how she entered amateur radio is unique. But it had something to do with dad. "Well, I was around 8 years old and my sisters, were at the time, three," Anna recalls. "And so, one day, my sisters and I were downstairs in the basement messing around with my dad's keyer with zero power on. "And, he was talking to us about how he was going to be going to Dayton in a few months. And, so, I decided that it would be kind of fun if I got my license in Dayton. So, I started studying then and once we went to Dayton, on my first try, I got it." Even though she didn't have to, Anna decided to pursue learning Morse Code and while in fourth grade in 2010 decided to take and pass the General test and changed her call to the one she has now - W0ANT. Anna - with dad's help - started a ham radio club in her elementary school and started rubbing shoulders with the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Club members who exposed her to various aspects of the hobby. She discovered contesting and DXing, and earned invitations to join contest stations and sit and work with those who understand how it's done, especially on CW. It was back to Dayton in 2010 and an appearance at the Radio Club of America's youth forum.ÿ Anna attended Contest Uniiversity in Dayton and earned an invitation to the TI5 Youth DX adventure team. "I went to Costa Rica when I was I believe I was about 10 or 11 with a bunch of other kids. It was a really, really great trip," Anna says. "I was really interested, I was contesting at the time. I still am, it's just harder to get into contests with my busy schedule. "But, yeah, Costa Rica was a blast. We learned how to DX and Keko was the one who introduced me to satellites and propogation." Keko is TI5KD. Anna earned the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division's Young Ham of the Year Award in 2011 for all of her achievements at such a young age. She credits her activity in ham radio with helping her to get into and succeed at the STEM School and Academy. "It started out as me just wanting to mess around on my dad's keyer when I was 8 all the way to me giving presentations in Dayton Ohio and receiving awards all the way to me going to Costa Rica," she says. "So, amateur radio has given me a lot of opportunities as well as led me to meet a lot of really nice people that I stay in touch with now. "It's also given me an open door to my school because if I wasn't interested in amateur radio, I don't know if I would be going to the school I am now. So, overall, amateur radio has just given me a lot of opportunities and friends." Among them, those who are part of the AB0EX STEM School and Academy Spartan Amateur Radio Club where she is president. On behalf of the Young Ham of the Year Award judging committee, congratulations to Anna Veal, W0ANT. You can be sure, Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, who started this award and has since left us, would be proud of your achievement. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia. NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, Amateur Radio Europe, the ARRL, DXWorld, the International Amateur Radio Union, the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter, Henry Ruminski, W8HJR, Handihams, EE Publishers, TWiT TV, QRZNOW, the Surrey Space Center, and you our listeners. Our email address for news tips and comments is arnewslinetips@gmail.com. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita, CA 91350. For now, with our news team worldwide, I?m Don Wilbanks AE5DW with [ALTERNATE ANCHOR] saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.