Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1945 - November 21 2014 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1945 with a release date of November 21st 2014 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Malaysia shows its support of ham radio emergency communications; an unidentified German ham takes on Russian military communications; Japan announces a deep space satellite mission; some new DMR experiments take place down - under and some space junk turns out to be a new Russian satellite. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1945 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RESCUE RADIO: MALAYSIA INCLUDES HAM RADIO IN FLOOD PLANNING Malaysia is including ham radio in its emergency preparedness for the upcoming monsoon season. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has the details: -- Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia will ensure that all communication towers including those used by radio amateurs will be fully functioning even though they are inundated during the flood season. According to the Ministry, several communication towers that were inundated during the flood season last year, especially in the Kemaman area. To prevent this happening again, many had already been upgraded so that they were located on higher ground and would not be submerged by the rising waters. A Ministry spokesperson noted that there are several areas which could not receive normal communication coverage but can be contacted using the amateur radio. The ministry went on to say that it would cooperate with several amateur radio associations under the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to assist in terms of information sharing in any flood-affected areas. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in New Orleans. -- In its statement Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia indicated that amateur radio has the ability to provide communications into and out of areas that no other quick response radio service can. (Benama Information Agency) ** INTERUDER WATCH: ILLEGAL DEFENFDER TAKES ON RUSSIAN MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS An unidentified German amateur station has tried to disturb military transmissions from Russia taking place in the 80 meter band. Amateur Radio Newsline's Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has what's known so far: -- The action happened on 3 dot 733 MHz on October 22nd at 2000 hours UTC. The Russian Frequency Shift or FSK transmission is believed to have come from a transmitting site in Kaliningrad. A screenshot photograph taken by International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring Service observer Wolfgang Hadel, DK2OM, shows a station trying to insert Morse code dashes on the space breaks of the Russian transmission. It also shows the interfering station putting out spurious emissions at least 2 kilohertz wide. According to the Monitoring Service, the same unidentified operator is believed responsible for similar transmissions against Russian based communications in the 40 meter band but this has yet to be proven. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, reporting. -- At airtime, the source of the interfering signal has not yet been identified. (IARUMS) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: 49.9 MHZ RADAR 16 KW WITH 64 ANTENNAS IN ETHOPIA A new back-scatter radar on 49.9 MHz is currently being constructed in Ethiopia. The Bahir Dar coherent backscatter radar is being assembled by researchers from the University of Oulu, Finland and Boston College, here in the United States. The new system will operate just below the 6 meter band using a 16 kilowatt solid-state transmitter and 64 antennas. The return sampling is based on a number of USRPX model 300 high-performance, modular software defined radios. This is a platform developed by Matt Ettus, N2MJI that combine two extended-bandwidth daughterboard slots covering DC to 6 GHz with up to 120 MHz bandwidth and multiple high-speed interface options. (Southgate) ** PROPAGATION: OLD SUNSPOT RETURNS: QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: Old sunspot AR 2192 now renamed AR 2209 has returned to the side of the Sun facing Earth. As this report is being prepared solar observers say that it still poses a threat for strong flares because the sunspot's magnetic field is unstable and harbors the energy required for X-class eruptions. If such flare were to occur NOAA estimates a 25% chance it will be likely have a direct effect on High Frequency communications because AR 2209 is almost directly facing Earth. You can keep an eye on AR 2207 and other solar happenings by simply taking your web browser to spaceweather.com. (Spaceweather) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: JAPAN ANNOUNCES DEEP SPACE HAM RADIO SATELLITE A Japanese news report says the asteroid mission Hayabusa 2, planned to launch before years end on will also carry an amateur radio satellite named Shin'en 2. The bird will have an elliptic orbit around the Sun and travel to a deep space orbit between Venus and Mars. Shin'en 2' inclination will be almost zero, which means that it will stay in the Earth's equatorial plane. The distance from the Sun will be between 0.7 and 1.3 Astronomical Units. An Astronomical Unit is described as 149,597,871 kilometers. Shin'en 2 already has a set of IARU coordinated frequencies. These are 437.505 MHz for its CW beacon and 437.385 MHz to be used for WSJT telemetry. It will also carry a Mode J inverting SSB and Morse transponder operating with a Lower Sideband uplink between 145.940 to 145.960 MHz and a UHF downlink from 435.280 to 435.260 MHz on Upper Sideband. Shin'en 2 is a deep space satellite built by students at Kagoshima University in Japan. Its primary mission is to establish communication technologies with a long range as far as moon. (AMSAT, SkyRocket.de), others) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: REALTIME BAND CONDITIONS WEBSITE bandconditions.com is a newly created website that supplies real time band condition information to operators wanting to get this up to the minute information. The data provided is based on what the developers call a new Ionospheric Sounding method called "H F Ionospheric Interferometry" which operates very similarly to the PolSAR system used by NASA. Reports are generated and uploaded to the web server every 30 seconds. Header information includes a Date, Time in GMT and a report number in sequential order. A web browser refresh command is also sent so the user does not have to hit the refresh button for the latest report. The web browser does it automatically for them. The display shows the Meter Band in red and the Band Quality Index as blue colored number at the bottom of the band scale. To sample it for yourself go to bandconditions.com and take a look. (bandconditions.com) ** DX UP FRONT: ARNO ISLAND NOV 26 TO DEC 3 In DX up-front, NL8F says that he will be active as V73TM from Arno Island rather than Majuro Island between November 26th and December 3rd. The reason for the change is the hotel next to the airport on Majuro now belongs to the Education Ministry and hence the move of the operation to Arno. During his stay, he plans to operate on 80 through 10 meters using CW, SSB with the possibility of some digital operation. QSL's go via K8NA as shown on see QRZ.com. (OPDX) ** DX UP FRONT: AUSTRAL ISLANDS IN JANUARY 2015 Also word that KK6BT will be operational as TX5W from Raivavae Island in the Austral Island group between January 5th through the 11th 2015. Activity will be on 40 through 10 meters including the 17 and 12 meter bands operating exclusively SSB. His primary objective is to work as many amateurs in Central and Northern Europe as possible during his stay. QSL direct only. (OPDX) DX UP FRONT: BOUVET IN LATE 2015 And the one many have been waiting to hear. This with the announcement that a team of 12 operators, lead by UN7PCZ will be active from Bouvet Island as 3Y0F sometime between December 2015 and January 2016. The group plans to be on the island for 2 weeks with 6 stations on the air. More details and a Web page are forthcoming. (OPDX) ** BREAK 1 Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the WA4FAT audio server in Birmingham, Alabama. (5 sec pause here) ** HAM RADIO ON THE SMALL SCREEN: NBC MAY BRING FREQUENCY TO THE SAMALL SCREEN Will the early 2000's motion picture Frequency show up on NBC as a weekly series? That could happen if the Peacock Network proceeds with plans to bring the big screen thriller to the home screen on a weekly basis. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, who used to work in Hollywood has some insight: -- For those who have never seen it, the movie Frequency is centered on the character John Sullivan played by James Caviezel, a New York City police officer in his mid-30s who is still haunted by the tragic death of his firefighter dad Frank portrayed by Dennis Quaid. The elder Sullivan had died three decades earlier and that experience has haunted the younger Sullivan's life ever since. One night, John locates an old ham radio transceiver that belonged to his father, and begins transmitting. To his shock, John soon gets a response from his deceased father, thirty years in the past. The scientific explanation for this is explained that the aurora borealis is taking place overhead has somehow allowed the two men to communicate across time. John Sullivan uses the contact to warn his father Frank of his impending death and gives him the information on how to survive. But changing what happens with time always has its consequences and John Sullivan's changing of past events inadvertently causes consequences with the potential to be worse for all involved. Now the industry trade publication the Hollywood Reporter says that NBC is looking to create a television series based on the New Line Cinema thriller. It says that the Peacock Network has already issued a 'script plus penalty' commitment for the series. The term a script plus penalty means that even if a show is not produced that those involved in its initial creation are still paid a fee, but does not guarantee that a movie or television show actually be brought to production. And talking about the development of the Frequency into a television series, its reported that Jeremy Carver is writing the script for Warner Brothers Television and would also be the Executive Producer of the series. Toby Emmerich who wrote the original movie will be a co-producer. As with any show in early development, there are a lot of rumors floating around. For example, another industry trade on-line newsletter says that there's no word yet on if any of the film's original cast members will return if the Frequency TV series gets a go ahead. But it also adds that while unlikely that it may not be outside the realm of possibility. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, for the Amateur Radio Newsline. -- It also notes that the show is in its earliest of development stages and there is no planned premiere date. (nevadahamradio.com, N7UR, Hollywood Reporter, ScreenRant.com, others) ** RESCUE RADIO: MORE CERT TRAINING COMING TO CHULA VISTA CA If you live in and around Chula Vista, California and are interested in public service then listen up. The next Community Emergency Response Team or CERT academy will be offered in May or June 2015. There are a number of classes that include orientation, an introduction to disaster preparedness, fire safety and utility controls. Participants will also learn about disaster medical operations, complete exercises and witness demonstrations, be part of light search and rescue operations as well as learn about disaster psychology and terrorism. Participants must be 18 years old or if a minor have the signature of a parent or legal guardian is required. (San Diego Union-Tribune, other published reports) ** RESCUE RADIO: UK 4X4 RESCUE TEAM GETS HAM RADIO TRAINING A team in the United Kingdom that provides a valuable off- road service during natural disasters and searches for missing people has received training in amateur radio. This with word that members of the Wessex 4X4 Response Team have completed their Amateur Radio Foundation License course. The training was arranged as part of the joint working program between the voluntary agencies within Dorset, with the course being arranged by members of RAYNET. The e Christchurch Amateur Radio Society served as the host organization. . The course was funded using part of a grant from Dorset County Council to Wessex group in order to support an increase in the group's communication capability in the event of an incident. Earlier this year the team provided support to emergency services during floods in and around Dorset. (Dorset Echo) ** WORLDBEAT: DMR EXPERIMENTS TAKING PLACE DOWN-UNDER Hams down under are doing some interesting experimentation using the Digital Mobile Radio or DMR voice mode. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, has the details: -- On September 7th at 12:45pm local time here in New Zealand, Steve Jepson, ZL2KG, who was situated at the Stratford Plateau car park on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki worked John Yaldwyn, ZL4JY at his home in Waikanae over a distance of over 191.7 km. This, using the nations 70 Centimeter Digital Mobile Radio simplex frequency on 432.7625 MHz. A Connect Systems CS700 handheld connected to a dual-band mobile antenna was used at Mt. Taranaki and a Motorola MOTOTRBO XPR 5550 mobile tied to an 8-element Yagi was used in Waikanae for contact with perfect signals in both direction To test the usable range for DMR relay operation, ZL1KG also tried working through the ZL2DMR repeater, which is located on Colonial Knob at a distance of 213 km from his location on Mt. Taranaki. What was found was that ZL2KG could receive without any problem, however he could not transmit through the machine. While the repeater was triggered, however a voice QSO could not be made through it. By moving closer to the repeater to the top of Waitotara Hill, which is located 149 km from the ZL2DMR repeater, voice contact was possible and a two-way QSO made. For the Amateur Radio Newsline. I'm Jim Meachen. ZL2BHF, in Nelson, New Zealand. -- While not trying to set a record the distances of these contacts is quite impressive. It also shows the ongoing interest in DMR by the experimenters within the ham radio community. More information on DMR is at VA3XPR.net. (DMR) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: VK5ZAI TAKING A WELL DESERVED ARISS BREAK Some names in the news. Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI, a communications relay mainstay of Amateur Radio on the Space Station or the ARISS program, is taking a well-earned break. His involvement so far spans 21 years and includes being the ARISS Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Region. His immediate plan is to move to a new location and retire from daily business. While taking a break in arranging school contacts with International Space Station astronauts, he will continue as a well-equipped telebridge station, when at home. (VK3PC) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: KC5LK TO REPLACE N5FG AS CQ WAZ AWARD MANAGER John Bergman, KC5LK, of Brandon, Mississippi, has been named the new CQ Worked all Zones Award Manager, effective January 1, 2015. KC5LK has been licensed since 1978 and holds an Advanced Class license. He has been heavily involved in DX and DXing for over 20 years, is a charter member of the 599 DX Association Bergman will succeed fellow Mississippian Floyd Gerald, N5FG, who has served the DXing community in this position for the past 11 years. (CQ) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: RSGB YOUTH COMMITTEE CHAIR NAMED Still in the UK, the RSGB has appointed 17-year-old Mike Jones, 2E0MLJ, as Chair of its Youth Committee. Jones was originally licensed as M6TMJ and is currently studying Forensic Science and Criminal Psychology at City College in Plymouth England. He is a member of the QRZ.com staff helping on the database forum and is also Youngsters on the Air Month Coordinator for the UK. (GB2RS, Southgate) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: RILEY IS BACK - KIND OF Back here in the USA, retired FCC Special Council Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, gave what is being called an inspirational talk at the Forsyth Amateur Radio Club in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on November 10th. Addressing the group, Hollingsworth explained that while it may seem like there is less enforcement activity in Amateur Radio under current Special Council Laura Smith than when he was doing the job, that's not the case. New FCC privacy rules mean that Smith can only release information after an enforcement action has been completed, not when one was initiated as Hollingsworth did. The talk was recorded and appears as Episode 174 of the online Amateur Radio television series HamRadioNow. You can catch it on the web at hamradionow.tv and click on the link to episode number 174. (KN4AQ) ** 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) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: MAGNESIUM-ION MAY SOON REPLACE LITHIUM- ION BATTERIES Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are the mobile power sources of choice today, used in everything from laptop computers to hand held transceivers and even automobiles. For years, though, it has been known that they can overheat and even catch fire. Now there may be a new battery material that overcomes this problem as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD: -- The overheating problem is much less likely to happen with batteries made with magnesium. And magnesium ions in the battery electrolytes can carry a double positive charge, increasing the device's energy density, or the amount of electricity the battery can store. Still, no one's been able to make a commercially viable magnesium-ion battery, mostly because of magnesium's high reactivity with other materials in such a cell which would interfere with the movement of the ions through the electrolyte. Now, researchers Liwen Wan and David Prendergast of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California have conducted computer simulations that show this reactivity actually isn't a problem. In the October issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, they write that the interference is much lower than had been thought, and therefore that a magnesium-ion battery would be more efficient than expected. On that basis, researchers at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan improved the stability of the magnesium-ion battery. Fei-Yi Hung, one of the three leaders of the team, told the online publication Energy Trends that they accomplished this in part by turning to a new technology that uses electrodes made of magnesium membranes and magnesium powder. The idea of a magnesium-ion battery has long been attractive not only because it's less likely to overheat, Hung said, but also has up to 12 times the energy density of a lithium- ion battery and its charge-discharge efficiency is five times greater. So when can we expect to see Magnesium Ion batteries hit the consumer market? According to the research teams it will be a while as there are still other technical hurdles to overcome. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD, reporting.. -- More on this story can be found on the web at tinyurl.com/magnesium-batteries. (Journal of the American Chemical Society) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: FOUR NEW JAPAN MICROSATS LAUNCHED Four new microsats developed in Japan are now on-orbit. Carried aloft on Thursday November 6th on board a Russian Dnepr rocket were ChubuSat-1; Tsubame; Hodoyoshi-1 and QSAT- EOS. ChubuSat has a CW and AX.35 downlink on 437.485 MHz with its digipeter uplink on 145.980. TSUBAME transmits CW on 437.250 and AX.25 data on 437.505 MHz. Signals from Hodoyoshi-1 should be found on 467.674 MHz while QSAT-EOS carries an AX.25 G-M-S-K payload but its exact transmit frequency is unknown. Kosmotras launch controllers reported all spacecraft were inserted into their target orbits. (Southgate) ** ON THE AIR: COMMEMORATING THOSE LOST IN 1907 W. VA MINE DIASTER On the air, Nathan Banks, KC9HYY, has announced a commemorative operation to honor the memory of the miners who lost their lives on December 6th of 1907. On that date an explosion at the Monongah Mine in West Virginia killed 362 workers and stands as the worst in the history of mining of the United States. In memory of those who lost their lives on that date KC9HYY will be using his call stroke M-M-D From December 5th to December 14th. Operations will be on 40 through 10 meters using SSB and PSK 31. QSL via KC9HYY as listed on QRZ.com. (KC9HYY) ** DX In DX, SM6JBC and SM6GOR will be on the air from Mauritius as 3B8JB and 3B8HB until November 26th. Operations are on the High Frequency bands, using SSB, PSK31 and PSK63. QSL via their home callsigns, either direct or via the bureau. G3VPW will be active from Falkland Islands through December 12th operating as VP8KF. He will be active on 80 through 10 meters. He also plans to use the special call VP8KF stroke 100. QSL via his home call or electronically using Logbook of the world. Members of Lufthansa Amateur Radio Club of Frankfurt will be active as 4S7DLG from Sri Lanka until November 27th. Operators mentioned are DK7TF, DH6ICE and DH0RAK. Operations should be on all HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL via DK8ZZ. JJ2RCJ will be active stroke AH2 from KH2JU's rental shack on Guam between December 27th to the 30th. Activity will be focused on 30, 17 and 12 meters mainly using RTTY. QSL via direct to JJ2RCJ or electronically using Logbook of the World. DJ8VW will be operational as 5P8VW from Romo Island between December 6th and the 21st. Activity will be on 160 through 6 meters, including the 30, 17 and 12m bands, using CW and SSB. QSL via DJ8VW direct only or electronically using Logbook of the world or eQSL. Lastly, and subject to weather conditions in the area, JI3DST will be active stroke 6 from Tokara Island between 0600 UTC on December 27th through 0000 UTC on January 4th. Operations will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB, FM and some of the digital modes. QSL to JI3DST/6 via the bureau or by ClubLog's Oh QRS. (This weeks DX report courtesy of OPDX and the Facebook DX Page) ** RADIO IN SPACE: SPACE JUNK TURNS OUT TO BE RUSSIAN SATELLITE And finally, its well known that there is a lot of junk in Earth orbit as a result of over a half decade, but once in a while a piece of space debris is not what everyone thinks it to be as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Hal Rodgers, K8CMD: -- What was first thought to be a piece of debris left over from the launch of three Russian military communication satellites has turned out to be a fourth bird that is actually on-orbit and capable of maneuvers. The three satellites were designated Kosmos 2496, 2497 and 2498 were launched this past May. An analysis of orbital elements from a United States space radar showed that a ghost spacecraft that had been thought to be debris from the launch had made a definite controlled maneuver between May 29th and May 31st. On June 24, the mysterious spacecraft started maneuvering again, lowering its perigee by four kilometers and lifting its apogee by 3.5 kilometers. The object continued its maneuvers in July and its perigee was lowered sharply, bringing it close to the launch vehicles upper stage which had originally delivered all four payloads into orbit. This is the second time a Russian piece of orbital junk has suddenly started maneuvering while on-orbit. The first time was in early 2014 after a December 2013 launch. At that time the Russians admitted five months later that the supposed junk was itself actually another satellite. I'm Hal Rogers, K8CMD. -- Whatever else may be circling the Earth from space launches of years and decades past is likely only known to those nations that put it on-orbit. (G7VFY, Southgate, russianspaceweb.com) ** 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 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 Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350.. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, saying 73 from Charleston, West Virginia, and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.