Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1923 - June 20, 2014 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1923 with a release date of June 20 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a Q-S-T. A Northern Arizona county may revise its distracted driving law to exempt radio amateurs and CB operators+ADs- the FCC dismisses proceeding dealing with the 902 MHz band+ADs- SSB and AM on 11 meter CB coming to the United Kingdom+ADs- hams in the Netherlands face new restrictions on 2300 Megahertz and the Heard Island DXpedition team says it plans a complete reorganization. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1923 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) +ACoAKg- RADIO LAW: COCONINO COUNTY ARIZONA CONSIDERING HAM RADIO EXEMPTION TO NEW ANNTI DISTRACTED DRIVING LAW Some changes to a highly restrictive distracted driving law enacted by a northern Arizona county may soon see some revisions favorable to amateur radio as we hear from Bruce Tennant, K6PZW: -- Less than two months after passing an ordinance that bans the use of all non essential two-way radios while driving, the Board of Supervisors for Coconino County Arizona is eyeing changes that would once again make mobile ham and CB radio use legal. This according to a draft of the revised law recently made public The Coconino County Board of Supervisors is slated to meet on June 24th to discuss changes to the ordinance that might remove a number of restrictions against two-way radio use while driving. Among these would be a revision to Section 3 that deals with exemptions. If the statute is changed, it would delete the words +ACI-and is operating an amateur radio under the direction of authorized first responders in the event of an emergency.+ACI- The section would then mean a driver who holds a valid amateur radio operator license or any license issued by the Federal Communications Commission would be exempted. The change could also exempt those who use two way radios in their business and users of 11 meter Citizens Band radio. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in Los Angeles. -- Whether or not this change will be granted will not be known until the Coconino County Board of Supervisors cast its votes. The draft measure in .PDF format is available to the public at tinyurl.com/nn2uyt6 (KB7BGX, QRZ, UCBA, various other sources) +ACoAKg- ENFORCEMENT: COAST GUARD SEEKS PUBLIC'S HELP IN IDENTIFYING HOAX CALLER Attention hams in the Pacific North-West. Heres one where you may be able to be of assistance in locating a station alleged to be making false reports on the VHF maritime band. . The U.S. Coast Guard out of Seattle, Washington is asking the help of the public in identifying a hoax caller that made multiple false distress calls earlier this month in the Puget Sound area. The first of these phony calls was received by the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service on Puget Sound via VHF-FM radio channel 14 around 11 p.m., May 31st. Take a listen: -- USCG Audio: +ACI-May Day May Day. My fishing vessel is going down a little south-west of Lilliwaup. Does anybody her me?+ACI- -- The next night the hoax caller reported that that five people were donning life jackets and abandoning the fishing vessel Bristol Maid which he claimed was fire in Lilliwaup Bay. Coast Guard officials believe the same caller placed a third phony call around 10 p.m. on June 2nd. According to the Coast Guard, well over +ACQ-138,000 was spent in response to these three phony reports. It notes that making a false distress call is a felony with a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a +ACQ-250,000 fine. There is also a +ACQ-5,000 civil penalty and possible reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search. Anyone with information regarding these false distress calls is asked to contact the Coast Guard 13th District Command Center at 206-220-7003. The complete news release along with links to audio files is on the web at tinyurl.com/phony- distress-reports. (United States Coast Guard with audio provided by the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System) +ACoAKg- RESTRUCTURING: FCC DISMISSES PROCEEDING DEALING WITH THE 902 TO 928 MHz BAND The FCC has concluded a long pending regulatory proceeding involving the 902 to 928 MHz band. This without taking any action at all. Back in 2006 the FCC proposed a rule change in WT Docket 06- 49 which was aimed at encouraging development of the Multilateration Location Monitoring Service or M-LMS. This was to be a terrestrial service for location of objects and tracking them. What concerned ham radio was that it holds a secondary allocation status in that band to federal radiolocation and other services including M-LMS. Among other things, the fear in the Amateur Radio community was that wide-spread use of M-LMS could severely hamper weak signal operations. But with almost no elaboration the FCC has now decided not to adopt new rules affecting all service users in the band. In the dismissal order the regulatory agency noted that based on the record before it, and on recent developments pertaining to M-LMS operations it concluded that the various proposals for wholesale revisions of the applicable rules simply do not merit further consideration at this time. The text of the notice can be found on the web in PDF format at, http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily+AF8-Releases/Daily+AF8-Business/2014 /db0610/FCC-14-79A1.pdf (FCC, ARRL) +ACoAKg- RESTRUCTURING: 27 MHZ SSB CB LEGAL IN THE UK AS OF JUNE 27 United Kingdom telecommunications regulator Ofcom has announced amendments to that nations Wireless Telegraphy license regulations that will enable 27 MHz SSB Citizens Band operation with 12 watt Peak Envelope Power. Specifically, the revised United Kingdom C-B rules will allow two different Amplitude Modulation modes of operation. These are designated separately as AM double side band and single side band. This will be on a license exempt basis with an effective date of June 27th. Until now, 11 meter Citizens Radio in the United Kingdom has been an FM-only service. (Southgate) +ACoAKg- RESTRUCTURING: 13 CM BAND MAY BE THREATENED IN NETHERLANDS It appears that Dutch radio amateurs may lose a substantial segment of the 2300 MHz or 13 cm band. According to information provided by the Belgium national amateur radio society the U-B-A, as of Monday, June 23rd the band segment between 2330 to 2400 MHz may not be used in a radius of 22 miles around the city of Assen. This is a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital of the province of Drenthe. This action follows other European nations that have also made known their intentions to diminish or fully ban radio amateur's access to this spectrum. (UBA, Southgate) +ACoAKg- HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ARTSAT1: INVADER RECOVERED The ARTSAT control team has thanked the ham radio community for its assistance in recovering the ARTSAT 1 INVADER satellite. According to J-eye-one-eye-zed-R with the satellite located a reset command for the on-board computer was successfully sent and plans are underway to activate the digi-talker once again. The downlink frequency for Artsat One Invader is 437.325MHz. It's predicted that the satellite has another month on-orbit before re-entry into the Earths atmosphere. Look for more space related amateur radio related news later on in this weeks report. (JI1IZR, AMSAT-BB) +ACoAKg- DX UP FRONT: HEARD ISLAND TEAM BEING REORGANIZED In DX up front, word that the long awaited VKZ0EK Heard Island operation will go forward but with some changes in personnel. According to a website announcement, over the past two months five team members have withdrawn citing conflicts or the desire to participate in a shorter, less challenging DXpedition. This includes the team leader. The post goes on to say that this has the group short of operators and therefore they have decided to completely reorganize the team. The first step is to identify a new team leader who is experienced with organizing and leading DXpeditions to rare locations. This new leader will have the responsibility for rebuilding the team and managing all amateur radio operations once on Heard Island. No dates or timetable were given. OPDX +ACoAKg- DX UPFREONT: EJ0PL FROM GREAT BLASKET Also, nembers of the Papa Lima DX Group will be operational as EJ0PL from Great Blasket Island between July 26th and the 31st. This bit of land lies approximately one and a half miles from the Irish mainland at Dunmore Head. It was populated until 1953 when the Irish government decided that it could no longer guarantee the safety of the remaining population. Its most prominent feature is its nearly 1000 foot high point however this is often obscured by sea mist. If you happen to contact EJ0PL QSL direct or via the bureau. (Southgate) +ACoAKg- BREAK 1 Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the N8LC repeater serving Sterling Heights, Michigan. (5 sec pause here) +ACoAKg- WITH NEWSLINE: NO YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR AWARD THIS YEAR There will be no Young Ham of the Year Award presented in 2014. This, according to a statement issued by Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, who is Chairman of the committee that judges the program. The statement reads as follows: +ACIAIg-The Young Ham of the Year Award judging committee's decision is to defer making an award this year due to the low number of nominees. This does not in any way reflect on the quality of the nominees we did receive or on their nominators. It's simply the decision of the judges that more nominations and documentation would be needed to make a fair determination of the Young Ham of the Year. Therefore, it's hoped that nominators will begin thinking about 2015 and potential candidates for such a prestigious award.+ACI- Right now the plan is to open nominations again in February of 2015. (YHOTY Judging Committee) +ACoAKg- ENFORCEMENT: PROPOSED FINE AGAINST OKLAHOMA CB OPERATOR LOWERED An Oklahoma CB operator who was issued a +ACQ-12,000 Notice of Apparent Liability for interfering with other CB operators has had that fine reduced to +ACQ-1750. In his response to the original proposed fine, Orloff Haines, who also holds the amateur radio callsign KF5IXX, did not deny that he had intentionally interfered with other operations on the 11 meter band, but asserted that he is not able to work or pay that high of a forfeiture. He also provided the FCC with the required proof that such an amount would be a financial hardship. By way of background, in May 2013 the FCC T-Hunted the source of a continuous carrier on CB channel 19 to Haines's residence in Enid, Oklahoma. The FCC agents approached the home and identified themselves. At that time Mr. Haines was not at home, but his wife allowed the FCC personnel to inspect her husband's CB station. The agents found the station to be constantly transmitting on channel 19. The FCC says that Mrs. Haines's told the agent that her husband's radio was continuously transmitting because other CB operators in the area had been harassing her. According to the FCC, Mrs. Haines voluntarily turned off the CB transmitter once the station inspection had been concluded. In its order published on June 17th, the FCC agreed that the proposed +ACQ-12,000 fine would prove to be a financial hardship FOR Haines and lowered it to the +ACQ-1750 level. At the same time it also warned Orolff Haines that that similar violations in the future could result in significantly higher forfeitures that may not be reduced even if proof of financial circumstances is provided. (FCC) +ACoAKg- RADIO LAW: FCC MAY TRY TO KILL TENNESSEE LAW LIMITING CITY INTERNET SERVICE The Federal Communications Commission may nullify a Tennessee law that restricts the abilities of cities to build their own high-speed Internet networks. Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB. has the details: -- Chattanooga, Tennessee, has built a municipal broadband network to consumers' homes, but a state law is preventing the city government from expanding the service to more residents. And now it looks as if the city has a powerful supporter on its side. In a blog post on June 10th, FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler said broadband projects like the one in Chattanooga are bringing new competition and spurring economic growth. He went on to argue that local governments should not be stopped by state laws promoted by cable and telephone companies that don't want that competition. But Wheeler's position could face resistance from Republican lawmakers. Eleven senators sent a letter to Wheeler warning him not to usurp state power. The senators say that it is troubling to them that the FCC may force taxpayer funded competition against broadband providers against the wishes of states. The bottom line is that Wheeler seems to want more competition in expanding broadband and appears ready to use the full power of the FCC to make it happen. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, reporting. -- If the FCC tries to strike down a state law, it would likely point to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, which gives the agency the authority to promote the deployment of broadband. State laws that restrict municipal broadband could be in violation of that provision, according to the FCC. More is on the web at tinyurl.com/wheeler-broadband (National Journal) +ACoAKg- RESCUE RADIO: MASSACHUSETTS HAMS HELP AMATEUR IN DISTRESS Hams in the Plymouth, Massachusetts area assisted with a medical emergency over the Memorial Day weekend when an amateur radio operator took ill while on the road. According to the ARRL's Amateur Radio Service E-Letter, Ron Smith, N1PXX, had pulled over on the side of the highway after he experienced a medical issue. He then radioed over the 146.685 MHz repeater that he was in need of help. Kevin O'Donnell, K1KOD, responded and obtained Smith's cell phone number. O'Donnell then used both the radio and the cell phone to keep in contact with Smith. At the same time he called the emergency 911 response number giving Smith's location to the State Police. He then informed Smith that police and an ambulance were en route. Initially the police drove by Smith's vehicle without stopping. David Ring, N1EA, also assisting, placed additional calls to the police and emergency services that located Smith and transported him to a local hospital. The good news is that N1PXX is reported to be on the road to recovery. (ARRL E-Letter, KB1EVY) +ACoAKg- RESCUE RADIO: WTSP TV STORY PRAISES HAM RADIO FIRST RESPONDERS Hams involved in Emergency Communications in Sun City Center, Florida, recently received some high praise from Tampa television's WTSP news. This in a feature story by reporter Mark Rivera, who took a look at the role played by radio amateurs in emergency situations such as hurricanes and the like. Among those interviewed by Rivera was Sun City Center Amateur Radio Club president Rick Sochon, N1OV. Sochon told WTSP viewers that it gives one a great deal of satisfaction when you could provide life saving services to somebody. His words were echoed by Preston Cook who is the Hillsborough County emergency manager. He said that ham radio operators provide a vital service in so many different areas in his county during a major response. Cook added that's the reason ham radio operators have a seat at the table in its Emergency Operations Center. All in all a very nice endorsement of ham radio in first response situations. Its viewable on-line at tinyurl.com/WTSP-on-hams. (KC5FM, WTSP) +ACoAKg- HAM HAPPENINGS: IOTA 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION In ham radio happenings, the Radio Society of Great Britan's Islands on the Air program will be celebrating its 50th anniversary at a conference July 4th to the 6th at the at Beaumont House at Windsor in the United Kingdom. There are almost 100 guests booked for the Saturday Gala Dinner, with overseas attendance from 20 countries and five continents being epresented. More information on both the conference and the banquet is on the web at www.rsgbevents.org. (GB2RS) +ACoAKg- HAM HAPPENINGS: AMATEUR RADIO FLOAT IN OKLAHIOMA LIBERTY DAY PARADE The Edmond Oklahoma Amateur Radio Society will be is sponsoring a float in the 41st annual Edmond Liberty Fest Parade slated for July 4th. What makes this unique is that the clubs float will feature an operational High Frequency ham radio station using the call K4J. Operations will begin as soon as the radio is installed on the float around 07:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time with the station on the air during the entire time that the float is traveling the parade route. Look for K4J mainly on 20 meters but frequencies will depend on band conditions. QSL's go via K5EOK. (WA6LBU) +ACoAKg- NAMES IN THE NEWS: BRITAINS QUEEN ELIZABETH VIEWS SSTV GEAR Some names in the news. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has seen equipment developed in 2012 by Dave Akerman, M0RPI. This at a June 9th gathering of some 350 of the United Kingdom's most successful and most promising technologists who were invited to Buckingham Palace by the Queen and the Duke of York. The Raspberry Pi payload created by M0RPI was used to transmit Slow Scan Digital Video on 434 MHz from a High Altitude Balloon that achieved a height of over 94,000 feet. From that vantage point the on-board transmitter had a radio range of up to 450 miles. A photo of Her Majesty observing the ham radio space gear can be seen at amsat-uk.org. (AMSAT-UK) NAMES IN THE NEWS: QST EDITOR WB8IMY TO SPEAK AT AMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUM QST magazine Editor and ARRL Publications Manager Steve Ford, WB8IMY, will be a presenter at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford, England on Saturday, July 26th. According to advance releases, Ford will talk about the satellite operations at the ARRL Headquarters station in Newington, Connecticut. In addition to his day to day work at the ARRL, WB8IMY has written many amateur radio books. These include the ARRL Satellite Handbook, Get on the Air with HF Digital, the VHF Digital Handbook and Remote Operating for Amateur Radio. (AMSAT-UK, Southgate) +ACoAKg- 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) +ACo-+ACo- HAM RADIO IN SPACE: OSCAR NUMBER ASSIGNED TO LITUANICASAT-1 In ham radio space related news, word that LituanicaSAT-1 will now also be known as LituanicaSAT OSCAR-78, or LO-78. The announcement of the OSCAR number designation was made by OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO who announced that LituanicaSAT-1 has met all of the requirements for such a designation. Meantime, LituanicaSAT-1 controllers have announced activation of the satellites FM transponder. A general rule to find out if the transponder is working at any given moment is simply to monitor the beacon frequency on 437.275 MHz. If you can the hear it that means that the transponder is off. If you cannot hear it, then the transponder is on and listening on its uplink at145.950 MHz for a signal with 67 Hz access tone. The downlink frequency is approximately 435.1755 MHz 10 kHz Doppler shift. (ANS, W3XO) +ACoAKg- HAM RADIO IN SPACE: SPROUT SSTV IMAGES FROM ORBIT Slow Scan Television images in Scottie 1 format have been successfully received from the amateur radio SPROUT satellite on 437.600 MHz FM. SPROUT was built with the intent to let pictures of Earth to be transmitted by SSTV that radio amateurs on the ground can receive using free software such as MM SSTV. As part of SPROUT's Earth mapping project its control team is asking radio amateurs around the world to contribute pictures they have received from the satellite for display on the satellites website. It's in cyberspace at tinyurl.com/sprout-sstv. (SPROUT team) +ACoAKg- HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMSAT-UK ENGINEERS PREPARE UKUBE-1 FOR LAUNCH Word from AMSAT-UK is that engineers Steve Greenland and Andy Strain are in Kazakhstan to prepare the UKube-1 satellite for launch on June 28th. UKube-1 carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards providing a 435 to 145 MHz linear transponder for SSB and CW communications along with an educational telemetry beacon. Some of the frequencies that UKube-1 will operate on include 145.840 MHz as a telemetry downlink and a FUNcube subsystem beacon at 145.915 MHz. The same launch vehicle will also carry the Tech Demo Sat research satellite built at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. to orbit as well. (AMSAT UK) +ACoAKg- UPCOMING EVENTS: INTERNATIONAL AIR AMBULANCE OPERATING EVENT Down the road a bit, mark down September 27th as the beginning of the nine day International Air Ambulance operating event. This is held each year in support of the many Air Ambulance Services in operation around the world. The length of the happening includes two weekends to give as many hams as possible a chance to participate. More details on its aims and a registration form can be found at radio- amateur-events.org. (GB2RS, others) +ACoAKg- RADIOSPORTS: WRTC ANNCOUNCES 2014 CALLSIGNS In the world of contesting, the World Radiosport Team Championship which is the coordinating group of the upcoming WRTC-2014 competition has announced the call signs that will be used by the contending teams. All competitors will use 1 by 1 call signs starting with the prefix W, K, or N. This will be followed by the number one (1) designating the United States first callsign district where the event is being held. Also a number of the available calls will not be used for various reasons. This includes the longest and shortest Morse suffixes letters. (WRTC) +ACoAKg- HAM HAPPENINGS: VE3RCMP TO CELEBRATE RADIO USED BY THE RCMP On the air, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police amateur radio Group has announced that it will be operating special event station VE3RCMP during the Field Day weekend, June 28th and the 29th. This special event station will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the first Royal Canadian Mounted Police owned and operated radio-to-patrol-car dispatch system. During Field Day, VE3RCMP will be operated by current and retired members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police National Radio Services Directorate of Ottawa. They also plan also to activate the call sign during the Canada Day Contest to be held on July 1st. Special QSL cards are being prepared to confirm contacts made with VE3RCMP. (VE3LC) +ACoAKg- DX In DX, LZ1GC will be active as C21GC from the Republic of Nauru between September 28th and October 14th. Operation will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and some RTTY. Electronic QSL's via Logbook of the World are preferred. Paper QSL's via the bureau could be delayed between 1 to 2 years. K0AP and N3CZ will be active stroke 4 from Anna Maria Island between July 12th and the 19th. Their operation will be holiday style on 40 through 10 meters using CW and SSB. QSL via their respective home callsigns. NN7A will operate stroke 4 from Chincoteague Island between July 7th to the 13th running an all CW holiday style operation. No bands were mentioned but the QSL route is to NN7A, direct or via the bureau. W9DR will be active as J38DR from Grenada between June 19th and July 1st. This will be a 6 meter only DXpedition on the north shore of the island in Grid Square FK92EF. Operating frequencies will be 50.115 MHz SSB, 50.115.6 MHz CW and a breakable Beacon on 50.115.6 MHz running when no stations heard. QSL direct to W9DR at his home address. JG8NQJ will be operational stroke JD1 from Marcus Island in the Minami Torishima group through August 19th. Activity will be limited to his spare time mainly on 17 meters but also listen out for him on 15, 12 and 10. QSL via JA8CJY either direct or via the bureau. (Above DX news courtesy of OPDX) +ACo-+ACo- THAT FINAL ITEM: NASA BEAMS 'HELLO WORLD+ACE-' VIDEO VIA LASER FROM SPACE STATION And finally this week, NASA has successfully beamed a high- definition video 260 miles from the International Space Station back to to Earth using a newly developed laser communications instrument. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has the details: -- The transmission of +ACI-Hello, World+ACEAIg- as a video message was the first 175 megabit communication for the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science or OPALS system. This is described as a technology demonstration that allows NASA to test methods for communication with future spacecraft using higher bandwidth than radio. Optical communication tools like OPALS use focused laser energy to reach data rates between 10 and 1,000 times higher than current space communications, which rely on radio portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because the space station orbits Earth at 17,500 mph, transmitting data from the space station to Earth requires extremely precise targeting. The process can be equated to a person aiming a laser pointer at the end of a human hair 30 feet away and keeping it there while walking. To achieve this extreme precision during this initial demonstration, OPALS locked onto a laser beacon located at the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory ground station at the Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, California. It then began to modulate the beam from its 2.5- watt, 1,550-nanometer laser to transmit the video. The entire transmission lasted 148 seconds and reached a maximum data transmission rate of 50 megabits per second. It took OPALS 3.5 seconds to transmit each copy of the +ACI-Hello World+ACEAIg- video message. By comparison the same message would have taken more than 10 minutes using traditional downlink methods. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick Pennsylvania. -- The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science Project Office is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California where the instrument was built. It was taken to the space station on April 20th aboard SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft. You can see the animation of this experiment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v+AD0-1efsA8PQmDA. For more information about the OPALS project please visit go.nasa.gov/10MMPDO (NASA) +ACoAKg- NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, 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 NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, in Victoria, Texas, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.