Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1944 - November 14 2014 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1944 with a release date of November 14th 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. The FCC revokes the amateur license of a convicted sex offender; the ARRL asks the FCC to continue issuing paper amateur license documents; permanent access to 60 meters moves a bit closer for hams in Argentina; the 4M Lunar fly-by transponder goes Q-R-T; more non-ham intruders hit the amateur radio bands and the capturing first light gives a look back in time. All this and more on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1944 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RADIO LAW: FCC REVOKES LICENSE OF CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER The FCC has reversed an earlier decision made by one of its Administrative Law judges and revoked the Amateur Service license of a Seattle Washington resident who had been convicted of at least one felony sex offense involving a minor. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has the details: -- According to the FCC, back in 2007 its Enforcement Bureau received information that David Titus, KB7ILD, had been convicted as an adult of the Class 3 sex related felony and served 25 months in prison. The bureau issued an Order to Show Cause why his license should not be revoked when the agency learned Titus may have been convicted of earlier felonies for sex related crimes while a juvinile. In his initial decision made in 2010, Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel concluded the bureau had not met the burden of proof to determine that Titus lacked the qualifications to be a commission licensee. Though he found Titus had committed at least four sexual offenses against children, he stated that only the adult conviction should be considered because the other offenses took place when Titus was himself a minor. He also noted that this had been more than a decade before the then ongoing FCC show-cause proceeding. The adult offense occurred when Titus was 18. Judge Sippel found what he apparently believed to be credible evidence Titus had been rehabilitated between then and 2007. That was backed up by testimony from a psychologist and several other character witnesses. Also noted at the time was that Titus had expressed his personal remorse. The Enforcement Bureau appealed Judge Sippel's decision to the full commission. The bureau argued judge Sippel failed to take into account the number and the egregious nature of the Titus offenses and that the passage of time should not have mattered in adjudicating this case. The bureau also asserted that the judge ignored the danger to children when a sex offender has access to amateur radio. In rendering its November 5th decision, the commission agreed with the Enforcement Bureau and found that Judge Sippel should have considered Titus' juvenile convictions. Also that that Judge Sippel should have given more weight to the Washington State Police advisory that Titus remained a high-risk sex offender. The Commission then found Titus unqualified to hold an amateur license and ordered that it be revoked. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in New Orleans. -- In rendering its decision the Commission stated that it would be remiss in its responsibilities as a licensing authority if it continues to authorize David Titus to hold an amateur radio license that could be used to put him in contact with children. At this point it would appear as if Titus only option to try to regain his amateur service license would be to take any further appeals into the Federal Court system. The complete 10 page decision can be rad on-line at tinyurl.com/titus-license-revoked. (FCC, RW, other published reports) ** RADIO LAW: ARRL ASKS FCC TO KEEP ISSUING PAPER LICENSES FOR RADIO AMATEURS The ARRL is giving partial thumbs down to virtual licenses for radio amateurs. This in comments filed November 5th, where the League has recommended the FCC continue to provide paper license documents to amateur radio licensees who want them. According to the ARRL Letter, the League's comments were in response to an FCC Public Notice in WT Docket 14-161. Among other issues it proposes the regulatory agency wants to cease the routine issuance of hard-copy license documents to all Wireless Service licensees but will permit the agency to continue the issuance of paper documents during the transition period to specific classes of licensees that specifically request them. Under the FCC proposal once a license application is granted, the Universal Licensing System will generate an official electronic license but will no longer mail a paper copy license unless notified that the licensee wishes to receive such a document. Until new procedures are finalized, however, the Commission will continue to print and mail paper licenses, unless notified to stop. The FCC claims that the proposed elimination of most paper documents is an action being taken under the Report on FCC Reform issued earlier this year. It says that to the extent permitted by Federal records retention requirements that licensing bureaus should eliminate paper copies of licenses. You can read the entire twelve pages detailing proposed changes on the FCC website at tinyurl.com/no-more-paper- license. The ARRL's comments are at tinyurl.com/arrl-paper- license-response. (ARRL) ** RESTRUCTURING: FULL 60 METER ACCESS MOVES CLOSER IN ARGENTINA BUT NOT YET The IARU member society the Radio Club Argentino has gained support for future access to the 60 meter or 5 MHz band. This, ahead of the issue being decided in November 2015 by the next World Radiocommunications Conference. Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has more: -- In its November 10th newsletter the Radio Club Argentino said that the release of the 60 meter band in Argentina could happen sooner than most thought. This after it raised the issue to the nation's telecommunications authorities. The meeting had included an in depth discussion on the matter. At that gathering, the Argentine Ministry of Communications delegation supported the allocation of a continuous 60 meter band segment of 5.275 to 5.450 MHz for amateur radio on a secondary basis. It also had agreed to bring the matter up at a meeting of the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission known as CITEL meeting held recently in Mexico. The initiative won sufficient support from CITEL delegates to be adopted as the regional position. The 60 meter band was first introduced in 2002. Ever since that time various nations have released it temporarily to their radio amateurs as various spot frequencies or with a wider multi-channeled allocation. Making it a world-wide ham radio secondary allocation will be discussed at the next World Radiocommunications gathering to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, next year. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kindord, N8WB, reporting. -- The International Amateur Radio Union supports a 60 meter world-wide allocation because it sits between the 80 and 40 meter bands. This provides useful propagation for local to medium distances, often needed for disaster communication training and actual emergency response events. (VK3PC) ** INTRUDER WATCH: LATEST IARUMS REPORT ON HF RADIO INTRUDERS The International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring System reports on interference caused by Russian taxis operating in the 10 meter amateur radio band. The report says that the taxi cabs were monitored flooding all of 10 meter FM on a daily basis and that so far nobody seems to be able to stop the taxi intrusions. The report noted that the MUF or maximum usable frequency has been rather high, and the F2 layers were strong and stable. The Monitoring Service also reports on some strong disturbances that were caused by an Over the Horizon system in China in the evening hours of evening hours October 26th and 27th covering 80 percent of the 40 meter band. It also says that Spanish fishermen were heard daily on 3.500, 3.510, 3.520 MHz and several other frequencies using upper sideband every morning and evening. The report notes that many Far East intruders were also found on 10 meter FM in the mornings. (IARUMS) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: 4M LUNAR FLY-BY PACKAGE FALLS SILENT The Lux Space 4 M moon circling ham radio mission carrying an amateur radio JT65B payload has fallen silent. This after transmitting continiously for 438 hours which was well past the predicted 100 hour limit. The Southgate News reports that during the afternoon of November 10th the battery voltage dropped from 13.1V to 12.1V and continued falling. The last signal was received by Rein Smit, W6SZ, in Alta Loma, California at 01:35 UTC on November 11th when the battery voltage had fallen to 8.4 volts. 4 M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission. Carried to the Moon on a Chinese Long March booster, it successfully completed its loop around the moon on October 28th. It then returned to Earth and went into a high elliptical orbit around our home planet where it remains today. (Southgate) ** BREAK 1 Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the N2VRO repeater serving Hudson Valley New York. (5 sec pause here) ** WORLDBEAT: RSGB ANNOUNCES 10,000 USERS FOR DMR Digital Mobile Radio better known by the acronym DMR appears to be coming of age in ham radio. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has more: -- The Radio Society of Great Britain reports that on October 29th the world-wide Digital Mobile Radio system added its 10,000th ham radio user ID. According to the society, there are now over 800 Digital Mobile Radio repeaters in 33 countries, allowing amateurs using DMR radios to talk to each other globally using the internet. DMR was not developed specifically for ham radio. Rather the standard is a VHF and UHF digital voice method that was published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in 2005 with the goal of providing digital communication systems that are low cost, of low complexity and interoperable between equipment vendors. The system uses a 12.5 KHz or narrower channel bandwidth, 4 FSK digital modulation and the ability to be used anywhere between 30 MHz and 1 Gigahertz. As such products built specifically to the DMR standard also complies with the FCC mandates for narrowband systems here in the United States. For yet unexplained reasons, DMR has begun creating its own following within the ham radio community as an alternative to other digital voice modes. How far DMR will grow within the world of amateur radio digital audio as compared to the various systems designed specifically for use by radio amateurs is impossible to predict, but 10,000 is a pretty good start. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles. -- You can find further information about DMR and its adoption in amateur radio circles at www.va3xpr.net. (GB2RS, RSGB) ** EMCOMM: FCC EYES NEW RULES TO PROTECT CONSUMERS AS VOICE NETWORKS TRANSITION TO IP The Federal Communications Commission will likely consider new rules to ensure consumer choice and safety as the nation shifts from copper-based networks to Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP transmission. This, when it meets on November 21st. In making the announcement agency officials said that Chairman Thomas Wheeler will offer a set of proposals during the meeting designed to protect voice customers. This will likely include network-sharing rules and possibly requiring power backup systems on VoIP networks. Traditional copper wire based telephone networks supply power to connected telephones, but phones connected to fiber based networks require their own power source. During natural disasters and other emergencies utility supplied power can be disabled. The FCC believes it to be important for VoIP customers to be able to make phone calls, FCC officials said. (Published reports) ** ENFORCEMENT: FCC OPENS INQUIRY INTO FALSE EAS ALERT A follow-up to our story two weeks regarding the October 24th false emergency alert that hit AT&T U-verse customers in parts of Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan and Mississippi. Late word is that the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has opened a full scale inquiry as to how it happened and to prevent it from happening again. Soon after the incident FEMA spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre stated that there had been an inappropriate playing of the national emergency alert notification tones on a syndicated radio broadcast. It was later revealed the unauthorized activation originated during a broadcast of the Bobby Bones Show out of Nashville. Tennessee. While stations that aired the alert may yet face Enforcement Bureau action or fines, the real concern is that the incident revealed potential flaws in how Emergency Alert System is set up. So the just-launched inquiry will focus on ways to improve the system to prevent a similar problem in the future. Among the issues being looked at are how stations authenticate an alert message and what sort of actions local police agencies take when faced with a flood of public confusion after an authorized alert is sent. At the same time, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is urging stations to immediately check their equipment to make sure the fake alert isn't still armed and ready to broadcast. This is a possibility that equipment manufacturers have told the FCC is possible. (Inside Radio) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: LOTW ERROR HANDELING CQ WPX SUBMISSIONS According to the ARRL, its been determined that some CQ WPX Awards Program applications using the League's Logbook of The World were not properly processed. Specifically, applications for WPX credits submitted via Logbook of The World from October 8th at 0500 UTC until November 5th at 1700 UTC were never processed but these applicants credit cards were not charged. Applicants should now re-submit any application for WPX credits made during this period. (ARRL) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: MONTANA RADIO CLUB PRAISED BY MEDIA OUTLET Members of the Yellowstone Amateur Radio Emergency Services received some words of commendation from a local media outlet in their home base of Billings, Montana. According to a report on the KPAX.com website, the ham radio group has helped with many cicic activities including the Peaks to Prairie Adventure Race, the Big Sky State Games and the Montana Marathon. But a lot of the praise is toward the clubs efforts in helping to train those interested in entering the hobby and preparing them for the required FCC test. It noted that the club sponsors training classes every other month. The report cites the clubs disadter preparedness. Ron Glass, WN7Y who serves as the emergency coordinator for the Yellowstone group notes that hams are on call with the county and the city and the state to provide back-up communications if they need to anytime the communications is threatened or overloaded. Yellowstone Amateur Radio Emergency Services is an ARES program sponsored by the Yellowstone Radio Club. The complete story about its work is on the web is at tinyurl.com/yellowstone-radio-club. The sponsoring clubs own website can be found at www.k7efa.net (eHam.net and other published news reports) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: COMMEMORATING B36 CREW LOSS The Sun City Amateur Radio Club of El Paso Texas will be operating a special event station K5WPH on December 13th and 14th from 1600 to 0100 UTC. This to commemorate the crew of a B-36-D bomber that crashed in the near-by Franklin Mountains on December 11th 1953. If you make contact, please QSL with a self addressed dtamped envelope to the Sun City Amateur Radio Club, B-36 Special Event, 3709 Wickham, El Paso, Texas, 79904. (KD6CUB) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: K6LCS FUNDRAISING FOR AMSAT-NA WITH A DIFFERENCE Some names in the news. Clint Bradford, K6LCS, is making donating to AMSAT-North America's Fox satellite project a bit more interesting. This as he announces that he is cleaning out his closet of some space-related memorabilia and offering it as incentives to donate. Among the first items that Bradford has donated are a United States Postal Service commemorative first-day cover celebrating the Soyuz/Apollo mission. Also posted is a 24- stamp plate block, and an Apollo 11 Tenth Year first-day cover. According to Bradford, this is a way for satellite supporters to acquire a piece of history and at the same time support future satellite projects. More information on the web at tinyurl.com/fox-fundraising. (Southgate, K6LCS) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: VE3AJB ACCEPTS SEVEL ACTING POSITIONS IN RAC ONTARIO SECTION Radio Amateurs of Canada has announced that Allan Boyd, VE3AJB has accepted the position of Assistant Section Manager for Ontario North Section. He will also continue in his role as Chair of the Ontario Section Managers Council and will also undertake two other positions related to the Ontario Section. Boyd was the Ontario Section Manager before the creation of new sections in Ontario. (RAC, VE4BAW) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: M0PHI NEW CHAIR OF RSGB TRAINING AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE The Radio Society of Great Britain has announced the appointment of Philip Willis, M0PHI as the new Chairman of its Training and Education Committee Willis succeeds Steve Hartley, G0FUW, in this position. (GB2RS) ** BREAK 2 This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur: (5 sec pause here) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ISS EXPEDIITION 41 COMES HOME After nearly six months on the International Space Station, three crew members of Expedition 41 are are back on solid ground. Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO, of Germany, Reid Wiseman, KF5LKT, of the United States and Commander Max Suraev landed safely in Kazakhstan on Sunday night November 9th after a three and a half hour descent from the orbiting outpost in a Soyuz vehicle. While on-orbit, Gerst signing OR4ISS made contact with several Earth bound stations including one with the Explorers Club on October 25th. During that exchange he got to speak to Apollo 16 Astronaut Charlie Duke who asked Gerst what was the most interesting in flight experiment he was working on. Gerst had a hard time in declaring any one in particular. Their replacements, who will launch to the ISS on November 24th are Expedition 42 crew members Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF. Russian cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and U-S astronaut Barry Wilmore are already on the ISS and have already activated the Expedition 42 operations. As an aside, only a few weeks ago the International Space Station marked the 14th anniversary of the arrival of its first crew. The station has been manned continuously since November 2, 2000. (various news sources) ** WORLDBEAT: LISTEN OUT FOR 91 NEW SOUTH AFRICA HAMS There should be upward of ninety-one new South African amateurs on the air soon. The South African Radio League reports that one hundred candidates recently took their ham radio exam and of these ninety-one passed the test. Thanks to an agreement with the nation's telecommunications regulator and the South African Radio League those who passed the exam should be on the air as soon as their call signs get posted to the South African Radio League list of successful candidate's web page. (SARL) ** ON THE AIR: SPECIAL-EVENT STATION FOR 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF OSCAR 7 LAUNCH On the air, Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, has secured the special call sign W7O. This for use in commemorating the 40th anniversary of the launch of AMSAT-OSCAR 7 that took place on November 15th 1974 from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's southern coastline. Stoddard plans on having the W7O call for 10 days between November 15th through the 24th working many of the ham radio satellites as he can and possibly other terrestrial ham radio bands as well. Stoddard says that he will work as many birds as he can from his location in Arizona, including passes of the now four decade old AMSAT OSCAR 7. He may also recruit some operators to work High Frequency bands using the W7O commemorative call. WD9EWK will handle the QSL requests for the W7O call during this period. If you want to volunteer or have any questions related to this operation please contact Stoddard direct by e-mail to patrick at wd9ewk dot net. But adds Stoddard the W7Ohcall can only be operated from US territory, where amateur radio is regulated by the FCC. It cannot be used from outside US territory, as 1 by1 special calls are not covered by any of agreements between the USA and other countries. (ANS) ** ON THE AIR: TURKEYS TO BE ACTIVATED FOR THANKSGIVING In celebration of Thanksgiving, Terry Joyner, W4YBV, plans to be on the air November 22nd and 23rd. This to activate two islands on the Suwannee River in Levy County, Florida for the United States Islands Award Program. Adptly enough these land masses are called Turkey Island and Little Turkey Island. Look for Terry on 40 through 10 meters from 1300 and 2200 hours each day. More information including QSL routing is available at W4YBV on QRZ.com. (OPDX) ** ON THE AIR: CO0SS CELEBRATING FOUNDING OF TWO CUBAN CITIES And be on the lookout for Cuban special event station C-Oh- zero-S-S between November 21st and the 23rd. This, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the two heritage cities founded in 1514 in south-central Cuba. Operations will be on 40 through 10 meters using CW, SSB, PSK, SSTV and RTTY. QSL via EA5GL. (OPDX) ** DX In DX, DC0KK will active as 4S7KKG from Sri Lanka through April 10th, 2015. He operates mainly using CW and the digital modes. QSL via his home preferably via the bureau. Direct cards go to the information listed on QRZ.com. EA7FTR is active as D44KS from Cape Verde through December 5th. Operations are limited to his spare time due to work commitments but you can listen out for hin on 40 through 6 meters using SSB and RTTY. QSL via EB7DX. OZ1DJJ will be operational as OX3LX from Disko Island between November 26th and December 2nd. Activity will be on the High Frequency bands. QSL via OZ1PIF direct. PA0VDV will be on the air from stroke PJ2 from Curacao between November 20th and December 26th. Activity will be on 80 through 10 meters using only CW only. QSL to his home callsign direct or via the bureau. VE6LB will be active as stroke A6 from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates between December 2nd and the 25th. This will be a holiday style operation on 40 through 10 meters but with a focus on the 12 and 10 meter bands. Paper QSL requests go direct via his home callsign. Electronic QSL's can use either Logbook of the World or eQSL Lastly, DF3FS and DL9OLI will be operating stroke 5Z4 from Diani Beach, Kenya, between February 16th and March 8th of 2015. Activity will be holiday style on 80 through 10 meters using CW and SSB. QSL via their home callsigns, either direct or the via the bureau. ** THAT FINAL ITEM: MEASURING POLORIZATION OF COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION And finally the POLARBEAR Consortium headed by researchers at University of California at Berkeley has reported a major breakthrough in measurement of polarization of cosmic microwave background radiation. This by capturing some of the oldest light in the universe and using newly developed instrumentation to assess it. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Davis, W2JKD, reports: -- POLARBEAR measures remnant radiation from the Big Bang, which has cooled and stretched with the expansion of the universe to microwave lengths. This cosmic microwave background or CMB acts as an enormous backlight illuminating the large-scale structure of the universe and carrying an imprint of cosmic history. To capture this energy the research team says that it developed sensitive instruments called as bolometers to analyze this early light. The bolometers record the direction of light's electric field from multiple points. The team says that it has mapped these angles with resolution on a scale of about 3 arc-minutes which equates to one-tenth of the diameter of the full Moon. The POLARBEAR consortium's Cosmic Microwave Background polarization experiment being conducted by more than 70 researchers from numerous universities. The team's overall mission is to gain an in-depth knowledge of the universe and its origin since the cosmic microwave background carries an imprint of the cosmic history. The research team has provided more information in the paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. More is on-line at tinyurl.com/space-of-the-past I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD. -- In all a very fascinating look back at the history of the universe from the dawning of time. (Phys.org, Uncover California) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Rain, the RSGB, the South African Radio League, the Southgate News, TwiT-TV, Australia's WIA News and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Our e-mail address is newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org. 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 California, 91350. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Hal Rogers, K8CMD, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.