Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1849 - January 18 2013 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1849 with a release date of January 18 2013 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a Q-S-T. Developers of free D V digital audio say a change in the FCC Amateur Service rules is needed; the Sun wakes up and hurls a large C-M-E toward Earth; the ARRL holkds it first Board of Directors meeting of 2013 and the FCC to hold open hearings on the impact to communications caused by hurricane Sandy. All this and more on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1849 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** EMERGING HAM RADIO TECHNOLOGY: DEVELOPERS OF CODEC 2 DERIVED FREE DV SAY A RULES FCC PART 97 RULES CHANGE IS REQUIRED The Codec2 digital voice project has developed a new program called FreeDV. This is a system to encode digital voice on any two-way radio using only 1.125 KHz of bandwidth. But says Codec 2 researcher Bruce Perens, K6BP, FCC regulations aren't up-to-speed with the challenges of software-defined radio and Open Source architecture: -- K6BP: "One of the changes we (need to) make is bandwidth based regulation. Rather than what (the) FCC does today in that it grants permission piecemeal permission to use a different modulation letter (suffix) and if you change the letter you have to go back to FCC for permission." -- According to Perens there will be a filing of a 24 page request to the FCC that will propose the regulatory agency make several changes to the Part 97 rules. Among this will be to allow all digital modulation schemes and all published digital codes on the ham radio bands. It will also push for a change to bandwidth-based regulation of the Amateur Service rather than the mode segmented way that the hobby is governed today. And he points to our neighbor to the North and its success with Regulation by Bandwidth: -- K6BP: ".Now contrast this to Canada. Canada (regulators) say here's 6 kHz, do what you want with those 6 kHz. Makes more sense today." -- You might remember that it was only a few years ago when the ARRL proposed a similar bandwidth based regulatory change that was widely criticized by many of its members as well as the overall United States ham radio community. At that time the League said that its petition would provide the Amateur Radio Service the flexibility to experiment with new digital transmission methods while permitting present operating modes to continue to be used for as long as there were hams who wish to use them. Back then the overall ham radio community shouted the idea down. But this is 2013 and technology has reached a point where some change may be desired to accommodate digital telephony on the High Frequency bands as well as on VHF and UHF. It will be interesting to see where this takes ham radio in the months and years ahead. (Codec 2 - FreeDV) ** PROPAGATION: SUN EMITS LARGE CME ON JANUARY 13 A huge sun eruption on Sunday January 13th at 07:24 GMT unleashed a wave of solar plasma aimed at Earth that may amplify the planet's northern lights displays and possibly cause difficulty in High Frequency radio communications. Amateur Radio Newslines Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has the latest: -- The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection or CME was expected to take about three days to reach Earth bringing it in sometime between midday Wednesday the 16th and when this newscast goes to air. The good news is that scientists say that this particular event is not strong enough to interfere with satellites on-orbit or electrical systems on Earth. Observations from NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory or STEREO spacecraft showed that the CME moved away from sun at speeds of 275 miles per second. This equates to about 990,000 miles per hour. NASA officials said that solar eruptions at this speed are fairly typical and have not caused substantial geomagnetic storms in the past. They explain that geomagnetic storms occur when the charged solar particles interact with the Earth's magnetic field. At that point they hold the potential to cause problems for satellites in space, communications systems , and terrestrial power grids. Two particularly active sunspot regions, called AR 11652 and AR 11654, have produced four low-level M-class flares since January 11th. NASA says that the sun is in an active phase of Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to reach its peak sometime this year. The bottom line is that should you find the High Frequency bands kind of dead for a few days you might want to switch to 6 or 2 meters and beam North. When these solar storms hit, you never know what signals you might hear through Auroral Propagation. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Stephan Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio. -- The most powerful solar eruptions are X-class flares. They have the most significant effect on Earth because they can cause long lasting radiation storms in the Earth's upper atmosphere and trigger severe radio blackouts. But solar storms similar to this eruption mostly produce supercharged northern and southern polar lights and possibly short lived communications blackouts on the high frequency bands while possibly bringing enhanced communications at 50 MHz and above. (spaceweather, others) ** LEADERSHIP: ARRL BOD MEETS IN NEW ORLEANS JAN 18 - 19 The ARRL Board of Directors will be holding its first annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana beginning on Friday, January 18th and likely continuing through Saturday, January 19th. The ARRL Board meets twice a year and from the looks of the agenda for this January gathering it appears as if the leadership of the United States national amateur radio society has a lot of work cut out for it. You can see the entire agenda at tinyurl.com/arrl-january- 2013 and we will have more on the outcome of this conclave in future Amateur Radio Newsline reports. (ARRL) ** RADIO LAW: FCC TO FREE UP 5 GHZ FOR EXPANDED BROADBAND FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says that the commission will begin a government-wide effort to increase broadband speeds and alleviate Wi-Fi congestion at major hubs, such as airports, convention centers and large conferences. In addition, this would also increase speed and capacity for Wi- Fi in homes where multiple users and devices are often on a network at the same time. Genachowski made the announcement at last weeks Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. There he said that the FCC will take the first steps next month to free some 195 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band. This will be the largest block of spectrum to be made available for expansion of broadband since 2003. According to the FCC, this effort should increase spectrum available for ultra-high-speed, high-capacity Wi-Fi by up to 35 percent. This should enable higher data speeds and greater capacity that will likely be most notable in the area of improved High Definition video distribution. (RW) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: SPRINT AGREES TO MAKE SOME PHONES FM RADIO RECEIVERS Sprint says it has come to preliminary arrangement with the radio industry to enable an FM radio receiver chip to be included in some Android and Windows smart phones. In announcing the agreement Sprint said that FM radio could be delivered through the NextRadio tuner application or other radio apps or services. Currently, radio stations can be streamed over phones, but the inclusion of this technology would allow the phones to receive over-the-air broadcasts. This is something broadcasters have been pushing for both radio and digital TV. The company made the announcement at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sprint says that it will begin including this feature over the next three years. This agreement marks the first time a United States wireless carrier will offer the ability to access local FM radio on a broad array of its devices. (B&C) ** RADIO FROM SPACE: RUSSIA TO LAUNCH MOON PROBE IN 2025 Russia appears to be getting back into the space-race. According to published news reports, that nation will resume its long dormant program to explore the moon by sending an unmanned probe there in 2015. The spacecraft will be called Luna-Glob which translates to Moon-Globe in English. According to the Interfax news agency, Roskosmos director Vladimir Popovkin said says the exploration payload will be carried by the first rocket to blast off from a new facility that Russia is building in its far eastern Amur region. Popovkin is the head of Russia's space agency. He and other Russian space officials have said Luna-Glob would consist of an orbital module and a probe that would land on the moon. Once there it will radio back information about samples it takes from the Lunar surface. The last successful Russian launch of an unmanned probe to the moon was in the 1970s. Unfortunately that nation has suffered setbacks in its space program in recent years, including unsuccessful satellite launches and the failure of a Mars probe in 2011. More is on the web at tinyurl.com/russia-moon-mission and we will have more space related news for you later on in this week's Amateur Radio Newsline report. (Published news reports) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, we are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the VU3MGH repeater serving Madurai City, India (5 sec pause here) ** RADIO LAW: FCC TO HOLD HEARINGS IN WAKE OF HURRICANE SANDY In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski announced plans to convene a series of field hearings. These to examine challenges to the nation's communications networks during natural disasters and in other times of crisis. Amateur Radio Newsline's Buill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has the details: -- The FCC says that these first hearings will facilitate a wider national dialogue about the resiliency of communications networks by focusing on the impact of hurricane Sandy. It will also help form recommendations and actions to strengthen wired and wireless networks in the face of such large-scale emergencies. The first of these hearings are slated for February 5th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House in New York City. This will be followed by an afternoon session from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Stevens Institute of Technology located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The FCC adds that it will attempt to accommodate as many attendees as possible; however, admittance will be limited to seating availability. The Commission will provide audio or video coverage of the meeting over the Internet from the FCC's Web page at www.fcc.gov/live. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the Newsroom in Los Angeles. -- As this report is being prepaid its unknown if representatives of any of the numerous ham radio groups involved in providing emergency communications during and after hurricane Sandy plan to attend. (FCC) ** PUBLIC SERVICE: HAM RADIO AND THE EAGLE CAP EXTREME SLED DOG RACE Amateur radio will once again be providing communications for the Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race through the rugged Wallowa Mountains in Northeastern Oregon. This year two systems are to be linked to cover the race area. The Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race first utilized amateur radio as its primary means of communication around the race course in 2009. The technology provided by the volunteer radio amateurs gave a big boost to logistical and strategic planning plus an extra measure of safety for volunteers, race officials, spectators, and the sled teams. This years Eagle Cap Extreme is slated for January 23rd to the 26th and been described as challenging, fun and beautiful by participants and fans alike. If you can't be there in person, be advised that all communications during the event can be heard on the DAWGGONE Echolink conference provided by the DODROPIN conference server permitting those who want to listen in. More is on-line at www.eaglecapextreme.com/ (KB7DZR) ** PUBLIC SERVICE: CANADIAN SKI MARATHON 2013 LOOKING FOR RADIO OPERATORS Also, the Canadian Ski Marathon is spooling up with ham radio an important part of this evwent. The race is slated for the weekend of February 9th and 10th and it depends on ham radio volunteers to provide timely safety and logistical communications for the benefit of the skiers. The event runs between Lachute and Buckingham in western Quebec regardless of weather conditions. This year is the 47th anniversary for the marathon and the 40th year for Amateur Radio supporting the event. If you would like to volunteer this year, please email Harold Hamilton, VA3UNK to radio1 (at) admin2 (dot) ca or va3unk (at) gmail (com) com. More information is on-line at the Canadian Ski Marathon amateur radio webpage. Its in cyberspace at www.radio-1.ca. (VA3UNK) ** RADIO LAW: ILLINOIS GUARANTEES BROADCASTERS ACCESS IN EMERGENCIES Broadcasters in Illinois have been guaranteed the right to serve the public in times of crisis. Amateur Radio's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, reports: -- A new law assuring Illinois broadcasters and cable operators that they will have the emergency credentials necessary to gain access to their operations while also allowing the delivery of fuel to power emergency generators during disasters has unanimously passed both Illinois houses of the Illinois legislature. The bill titled Illinois HB-5528, was sponsored by Representative John Bradley in the Illinois House and Senators Antonio Munoz and Kirk Dillard in the Senate. The Illinois state measure recognizes the important role local broadcasters serve in times of emergencies and disasters and ensures that key personnel needed to keep stations operational during times of emergencies will have access to their facilities. It also insures fuel needed to power emergency generators will be allowed to be delivered. Dennis Lyle is the President of the Illinois Broadcasters Association. He credited law enforcement officials as well as the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for supporting the passage of the bill. Also crucial was a lack of objections from the City of Chicago, the Illinois Sheriff's Association or the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion, Illinois. -- The Illinois Broadcasters Association says that it will now work with the states Emergency Management Agency to design a training curriculum that personnel must complete before being issued emergency access credentials. (RW) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: N3A TO CELEBRATE 2nd INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT OBAMA The District of Columbia Amateur Radio Society has announced that it will be activating special event station N3A. This for the inauguration of Barack Obama on his second term as President of the United States. The station will be operational through January 22nd operating from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Listen out for N3A on SSB, CW, RTTY and various digital modes. There is no fixed operating schedule, so please check the various on-line sources for activity. QSL electronically via Logbook of the World or by the U.S. Postal Service mail and include an SASE. (W3DQ) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: EARLYBIRD REGISTRATION FOR DAYTON CONTEST UNIVERSITY Early bird registration is now open for 2013 Dayton Contest University to be held all day on Thursday May 16th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. 2013 will be the seventh year in a row for Contest University in Dayton. Early signups will have the opportunity to help select this years class outline topics. A list of suggested topics as well as registration information is on the web at contestuniversity.com (K3LR) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: DAYTON CONTEST DINNER TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE The North Coast Contesters have announced that the 21st Annual Dayton Contest Dinner will be held on Saturday night, May 18th also at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Master of Ceremonies is CQ Contest Hall of Fame member and World Wide Radio Operators Foundation Chairman, John Dorr, K1AR. Dr. Robert G. Cox, K3EST, will be the featured speaker. The CQ Contest Hall of Fame inductions for 2013 will take place at this dinner. Tickets are only available for pre-purchase only on-line at contestdinner.com. There will be no tickets for sale at the door. (K3LR) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: KO0Z NAMED CQ BEGINNERS EDITOR Ron Ochu, KO0Z, of Girard, Illinois, has been named Beginners Editor of CQ Amateur Radio magazine, Ochu will begin writing the "Learning Curve" column as of the April 2013 issue. Ochu succeeds Rich Arland, K7SZ, who stepped down after a decade of writing various columns for several CQ Communications magazines. (CQ) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: AUSTRALIAN HAM GIVEN AN AMSAT ACCOLADE Tony Hutchisson VK5ZAI, has received an award from AMSAT North America. THis for the voluntary work he has done for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program. Hutchisson is the Australian ARISS Coordinator and a Telebridge Earth Station involved in many contacts between the International Space Stations and schools taking part in the program. In accepting the award VK5ZAI said it was a very nice honor which made him feel humble. (VK3PC) ** BREAK 2 This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United States of America, 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) ** CHANGING OF THE GUARD: FORMER ABC ENGINEERING SUPERVISOR AND QST TECHNICAL EDITOR STU COHEN N1SC - S.K. Yet another changing of the guard in amateur radio. This with the sad news that former QST Technical Editor Stuart Cohen, N1SC, of Colbert, Washington, passed away January 4th following a long battle with cancer. Better known as Stu Cohen, he was first licensed in 1954 as K2IOC, Cohen enjoyed operating CW and chasing DX on 40 and 20 meters. He also was active on 75 meters AM. Cohen came to ARRL Headquarters in 2002 after a highly successful career in television broadcasting. Prior to his service with the League, Cohen was an Emmy winning Engineering Supervisor at ABC-TV in Los Angeles where he worked from 1974 to 1993. After leaving the ARRL in 2005, he continued his relationship with the League, becoming a Technical Advisor. Services for Stu Cohen, N1SC, were scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 9th at the Charles Francis Adams Memorial Chapel in Portland, Oregon. At the time of his passing he was age 70. (ARRL) ** WORLDBEAT: LED LIGHTS JAM CITY BUSES The Swedish national amateur radio society the S-S-A reports on a case of LED lights in a shop jamming the VHF radio used by buses. The lighting in shop windows at a business called Punkt House jammed the city bus system which uses 167.0375 MHz for communications and dispatch. The lights causing the problem were LED spotlight lamps. It was found they did not conform to the regulations on Electromagnetic Compatibility and they are now being replaced. The full story in Google English is on-line at tinyurl.com/LED-VHF-Interference, (Southgate) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: SA AMSAT ACCELERATING CUBESAT PROJECT South Africa AMSAT has decided to accelerate its CubeSat project and expects to have the first prototype version of the transponder and control system on the table for testing by end February. As part of South Africa's contribution to the African Resource and Environmental Management Constellation of satellites, the South African National Space Agency or SANSA, in collaboration with local industry and academic experts, have been in discussions on the specifications for the new satellite called Zed A-ARMC1. Specifically in regard to its benefits for South Africa and the continent. South Africa AMSAT is making a presentation to SANSA to have an amateur payload included in the project. Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE, last year demonstrated a locally designed space frame. He is currently working on the second prototype. Full details are on the web at www.amsatsa.org.za. (SARL) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: NEW ARISS ISS CONTACT SCHEDULING A reminder that a new process is in place for schools in the United States to schedule a ham radio contact with crew members on the International Space Station. For a US school to have an ARISS contact, it must fill out a proposal, submit it to NASA, and see if it is approved. Once a school gets the go ahead, it will be put on the list and an ARISS mentor will be assigned to assist. NASA will have two open windows a year for schools to submit a proposal. A school or whomever is representing the school must first go to NASA to get the proposal material. To do so, contact Teaching From Space to JSC-TFS-ARISS (at) mail.nasa.gov. (ANS) ** DX In DX, members of the 'Buddies in the Caribbean' suitcase mini-DXpedition group are going to Barbados and will be active between January 29th and February 6th. All members will use Buddipole portable antennas at 100 watts or less. Several teams will be battery-only, field portable either from Barbados beaches or from scenic mountain tops and will sign their own call stroke P. QSL via Logbook of the world or direct to each operator with an SASE. KX9X will be operational stroke 4 from Dewees Island on Friday, February 1st from 1500 to 2000 hours UTC. Dewees Island counts as SC-042 in the US Islands program, is part of NA-110 for Islands on the Air and has never been operational according to the US Islands website. He will operate QRP with portable antennas on SSB and CW only. QSL as directed on the air. Bill Moore, NC1L, ARRL Awards Branch Manager, reports that the current 8Z1Z operation is from the Republic of the South Sudan has been approved for DXCC credit. This operation began on January 8th. Also approved was the 3D2C operation from Conway Reef that took place back in 2012. G3PJT will be on the air from Grenada from March 5th to the 20th as J34G and active on High Frequency bands. QSL via his home call. N3ME and W3UR will be active from the island of Dominica through February 11th operating as J76A and J77A respectively. They will be on 160 through 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL J76A via N3ME and J77A via W3UR. Both will also accept electronic confirmation using Logbook of the World. Lastly, WN3R will be on the air from Grand Cayman Island February 20th to the 26th as ZF2RW. Listen out for him on 40 through 6 meters and QSL via WN3R. (Above from various DX news sources) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: PACK YOUR HAM GEAR AND MOVE TO MARS And finally this week, you might want to call this the ultimate one-way DXpedition. While not specifically directed to the ham radio community, the Netherlands based nonprofit organization Mars One, has released its basic astronaut requirements setting the stage for a televised global selection process that will begin later this year. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has the details: -- Mars One hopes to put the first settlers on the red planet by 2023. The organization is not looking for scientists or former jet jockeys as colonists. Rather anyone who is at least 18 years old can apply to become a Mars pioneer. Officials at Mars One say that the most important criteria are intelligence, good mental and physical health and dedication to the project. Those selected as its astronauts will undergo eight years of training before launch. Norbert Kraft is Mars One's chief medical director and a former NASA researcher. He is quoted as saying that gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria. Kraft says that now a days space exploration planners are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others, in the long journey from Earth to Mars and for a lifetime of challenges that would lie ahead. Mars One plans to launch a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021. These would be used to build a habitable outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023. More settlers would then arrive every two years thereafter. And less we forget to mention, this will be a one way trip as there are no plans to return the pioneers to Earth. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, staying on this side of any RF pile-up here on Planet Earth in Scottsdale, Arizona. -- If you think you have the right stuff to help colonize Mars you can learn more about the selection process at www.thenextgiantleap.com. And if we might speculate a bit, it will be interesting to see if anyone from the world wide ham radio community will pack up their station and take advantage of this truly rare and exotic DX location. And we also guess all QSL's would go electronically on this one. (Mars One, space.com, others) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate News, TWiT-TV and Australia's WIA News, that's all from the Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT 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 Jim Davis, W2JKD, in Vero Beach, Florida, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.