Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1988 December 4, 2015 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1988 with a release date of Friday, December 4, 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Radio amateurs in Australia wind down their tribute to those who fought at Gallipoli. A new island – in New England – is activated. Participants in a solar flare emergency drill celebrate their success. And hams in India press for greater involvement in community service. All this and more in Amateur Radio Newsline report 1988 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here and Intro) ** THE LAST HURRAH [DON/ANCHOR]: The battle is almost over. Well, the Battle of Gallipoli actually ended almost 100 years ago -- but amateur radio’s centennial commemoration of the World War One conflict has almost concluded too. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZAC, made up a big part of that effort – and Australian hams have been transmitting their national pride all year. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Graham Kemp, VK4BB, reports from Australia. [GRAHAM]: The Gallipoli commemoration of the Wireless Institute of Australia is getting ready for its ‘last hurrah,’ just as in the battle itself 100 years ago. Using the call sign VI4ANZAC, an amateur team will be marking the good work of the First Royal Australian Navy Bridging Train. The unit, which was created in 1915 in Melbourne, employed horse-drawn wagons to carry its equipment to the front. Their wartime efforts were feats of engineering, horsemanship and pontoon bridging. The tribute paid to this unit will mark the move toward closure in the WIA’s ANZAC program, which has focused on the battle at Gallipoli. The final commemoration will involve participation of call signs VI3ANZAC, VI4ANZAC, VI6ANZAC and VI8ANZAC. On Dec. 20, an address on the ANZAC 100 campaign, will be heard from VK100ANZAC. And the year will wrap up – and, just like the battle itself, become a part of history. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (Wireless Institute of Australia) ** ISLAND HOPPING Hopefully, three members of the Newport County Radio Club might actually be thawed out by now after their recent adventure on an island in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Paul Silverzweig, N1PSX, Paul Mankofsky, KC1AQP, and Rich Russell, KC1ARO packed their gloves, winter jackets and some toe warmers and, with their radio equipment, headed to Gooseberry Island on Nov. 30 to activate it in the U.S. Islands Award Program. Calling CQ on 20 meters with the club’s call sign, W1SYE, they accomplished exactly what they’d set out to do -- just as the club had done in September on Turnip Island in Connecticut. And so, Island MA-056S became a reality. Russell told Amateur Radio Newsline, however, that this time the November temperatures were a bit more challenging than on Turnip Island. Russell said QUOTE“It was somewhere between 36 and 48 degrees and there was a pretty stiff wind, about 15 knots. We dressed warmly but it was still pretty chilly.”ENDQUOTE Running 80 watts and an end-fed dipole, it must have warmed them, though, to make those all-important 32 contacts, ranging from snowbound Wyoming to such DXCC spots as Italy, Canada, Serbia, Belgium and a notably balmier Puerto Rico. In fact, if anything needed warmimg more than they did, it was the team’s lithium ion phosphate battery. As Russell noted, QUOTE “They don’t like freezing temps.”ENDQUOTE That’s when the men decided to activate just one more thing – the toe warmers they had brought along to put in their shoes and gloves. But they found it also fit nicely with the battery. Said Russell: QUOTE “That worked pretty well and didn’t even overheat the battery. Just took the edge off.” ENDQUOTE. ** GIVE THESE YOUNG HAMS AN “A” – FOR “AGAIN” The results are in, and the Schofield Radio Club in Aiken, South Carolina, has once again proudly announced its top 10 ranking to the world. The youngsters at the Schofield Middle School placed fifth among middle schools and 10th overall among all 62 schools in the nation competing in the annual ARRL School Club Roundup in October. The club is a repeat winner, in fact, having ranked 10th overall in last year’s contest, and third for middle schools. The roundup involved students working contacts for three to four hours after school for one week. The Schofield students reached 40 states, 22 countries and 30 schools, for a total of 520 QSOs. Now the club is concentrating on contacting more students in their own school – and hopes they’ll see more members stopping by after class on Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. (AIKEN, S.C., STANDARD NEWSPAPER) ** GOOD NIGHT FOR A NET Wednesday, Dec. 3 was a promising night for Rebecca Hughes, M6BUB, the Youth Committee Promotional Manager of the Radio Society of Great Britain. The 16-year-old launched the first gathering of a new Youth Net, reaching out on the North Wales 2 meter repeater, GB3MP. She told Amateur Radio Newsline in an email: QUOTE“The Net is hopefully going to be a way for young licensees to interact with other young people. I had this idea because when I first got my license in November 2011, I did not know of any youth licensees, apart from my brother.”ENDQUOTE She said that her work with the Radio Society has brought her into contact with more young amateurs and it inspired the idea of the Net. She said QUOTE “My goals and hopes for the Net are to help young hams who may not know any young licensees to gain friends and contacts that they can talk to even when the Net is not on the air.”ENDQUOTE (RSGB) ** SORRY WRONG (HOUSE) NUMBER Speaking of contests, the ARRL says “Oooops, sorry about that.” Participants in last year’s 10 Meter Contest who received certificates may have discovered quickly that they were intended for someone else. The problem, it seems, was a formatting error in a data file that caused confusion over the mailing addresses. The ARRL’s Interim Contest Manager, Dan Henderson, N1ND, said: QUOTE “We have heard from several certificate recipients recently that they were receiving certificates for other award winners. After checking, we determined that some address data retrieved from submitted Cabrillo logs in the data file were misidentified, which resulted in many certificates being sent to the wrong recipients.” He quickly clarified that the error is limited only to addresses, not anyone’s scores or standings. So be patient, advises Henderson. The plan is for new certificates – the correct ones – to be in the mail no later than Dec. 11. Yours may be on the way very soon. (ARRL) ** HAM RADIO IN A DAY? It takes more than 24 hours to learn enough to qualify for an amateur radio license, but the Holland Amateur Radio Club in Michigan thinks it’s a good beginning. That’s why the group is offering a class called “Ham License in a Day” on Dec. 12 at the American Red Cross of Ottaway County. And it’s actually a five-hour session. The coursework will be presented from 1 to 6 p.m., and the licensing test will be given afterward. The fee for the half-day program is $35. For more information or to register, contact Tom Bosscher at k8tb@bosscher.org or phone 616-648-0058. (MICHIGAN LIVE) ** A FLARE FOR SUCCESS [DON/ANCHOR]: An emergency drill, in the form of a huge coronal mass ejection, sent radio amateurs scrambling early last month. And though their response was real enough, the chaos was simulated – with good results. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bobby Best, WX4ALA, has more: [BOBBY'S REPORT] Imagine an outage of all conventional communications throughout the U.S. Imagine too, massive solar flares known as coronal mass ejections, as the source of the stirred-up ionosphere behind the blackout. This was the reality for members of the Military Auxiliary Radio System and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service for two days beginning Nov. 8. It was only an exercise but, for two days, it was still a challenge. And ultimately, said the organizers, it was a success. MARS operators were given the directive to make direct contact with as many radio amateurs in the nation's 3,142 counties as possible, using mainly HF NVIS bands, along with VHF and UHF repeaters. Other methods, such as store-and-forward messaging systems and Internet-linked systems, were necessarily off limits. Paul English, WD8DBY, the U.S. Army's MARS program manager, praised the work of the radio operators at the conclusion of the exercise. He told the ARRL that MARS members got messages through to 816 counties around the country - or 26 percent of the nation's total. He said advance publicity helped boost performance during the two-day drill, and inquiries about participation had poured in from 41 states and more than 50 ARES groups who wanted to be part of the test. Best of all, he said, the mission was accomplished. He said: QUOTE“The purpose of these exercises is to reach beyond interoperability and focus on our ability to exchange usable and relevant information from the local level to the national level following a crisis event. Only through the cooperation among MARS and the larger Amateur Radio community can we hope to achieve that synergy.”ENDQUOTE For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bobby Best, WX4ALA, in Jasper, Alabama. (ARRL) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the Lakes Area Amateur Radio Club repeater, W5JAS, in Jasper, Texas, Monday nights at 7:30. ** INDIAN HAMS AIR THEIR FRUSTRATION [DON/ANCHOR]: What happens when hams, who expect to be called to public service, aren’t? That’s the situation right now in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, has the details: [JEREMY]: Radio amateurs are accustomed to action, and not sitting idly by, but in Andhra Pradesh, India, a group of otherwise enthusiastic radio amateurs claims their only call to public service lately has been to play a waiting game. Amateurs who formerly coordinated the Ham Radio Training Centre in Krishna district, have been urging state officials to engage their services next year during the Hindu festival known as the Krishna Pushkarams. The hams say the need is especially pronounced, in the wake of stampedes that occurred this past July during the Godavari Pushkarams. That riverside festival, well-attended by devoted pilgrims, was held July 14 through 25. Twenty-seven were killed and more than 30 critically injured at the gathering. In a Dec. 1 issue of The Indian Express newspaper, the government has said that, while it regretted the stampedes that occurred, the number of those in attendance had greatly exceeded the number expected. That's all the more reason, say the Indian amateurs, for their services to be sought at the next festival. The Krishna Pushkaram is to be held August 12 through 23 in Vijayawada. Says Arza Ramesh Babu, coordinator of the now-defunct Ham Radio Training Centre in Krishna district, “At least in the ensuing Krishna Pushkarams, we want the government to use HAM radio operators as a parallel communication network." The hams have left that training centre, established by the local Urban Development Authority, and are meeting in the Regional Science Centre at Bhavanipuram. Speaking to the newspaper, The Hindu, Ramesh Babu adds: “A growing number of people, especially engineering students, are evincing interest in this mode of communication. The government should develop the sector." He said there are nearly 500 ham radio operators in and around Vijayawada who are ready to serve at times of disaster or large gatherings but for now they simply wait. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, in Nottingham, the UK. (THE HINDU, INDIAN EXPRESS) ** TRANSMITTING A TRIBUTE One of the fathers of modern radio science, the late Jagadish Chandra Bose, has received a number of tributes posthumously. An Indian botanic garden just outside Kolkata was named in his honor in 2009 -- and in 2012, the IEEE recognized him for his pioneering work in the discovery and development of radio. Ham radio hasn’t forgotten him either. The scientist, who died in 1937, also has a special amateur radio event marking the anniversary of his birth in what is now Bangladesh on Nov. 30, 1858. The special event call sign, AU2JCB, launched on Bose’s birthday and will once again pay homage to him through Dec. 13. The operator is Datta Deogaonkar, VU2DSI, whose mission each year at this time has been to spread the word about Bose’s lifetime of contributions to the radio art. He will be operating throughout the HF bands and has even devoted a portion of his page on QRZ.COM to information about Bose, everything from his work in microwave optics technology to his critical contributions to the work of Guglielmo Marconi. Though many consider him the unsung hero of radio, at least for the next week or so, the airwaves will be singing his praises. (QRZ.COM) ** AWARDS ROUNDUP The Intrepid-DX Group is looking for nominees to receive its Intrepid Spirit Award, an annual prize that honors the memory of Silent Key James McLaughlin, WA2EWE/T6AF. Honorees are recognized for their commitment to amateur radio in a manner that is, according to the group’s recent announcement, “courageous, dedicated, innovative and fearless,” among other things. The award will be presented in April at the International DX Convention in Visalia, California. Nominations are due by Dec. 15 and may be sent via email to intrepiddxgroup@gmail.com The ARRL is seeking candidates for the Hiram Percy Maxim Award, which honors a radio amateur and ARRL member younger than 21. Nominations for this award are due by March 31 but should first be sent to your ARRL Section Manager for forwarding. This year’s winner was Colorado’s Anna Veal, W0ANT, who was also the recipient of Amateur Radio Newsline’s first Bill Pasternak Young Ham of The Year Award. The ARRL is also seeking nominees among hams who are educators and innovators. The awards include the Herb S. Brier Instructor of the Year Award, the Microwave Development Award, the Technical Service Award, the Technical Innovation Award and the Knight Distinguished Service Award. For details about all of these, visit the website, www.arrl.org. (ARRL) ** THE WORLD OF DX Martin W8AKS will be active as 8P9EZ from Dec. 5 through 12 in Barbados, operating on 40m through 10m. He will upload logs to Logbook of The World. Haru, JA1XGI, will be operating through Dec. 10 in the South Cook Islands as E51XGI. He will work all HF bands, CW, SSB and digital. Send QSL cards to his home call sign Antoine, 3D2AG, will be using the call sign 3D2AG/P while he operates in Rotuma from mid-December until mid-January. He will be using solar power and a Spiderbeam/wire antenna and will work all bands from 80m to 6m. And look for Freddy, F4HEC, as he travels through the Pacific region this month. He will operate as KH2/F4HEC from Guam through Dec. 9, and then travel to Saipan, where he will work the bands from Dec. 10 to Dec. 13 as KH0/F4HEC. (OHIO PENN DX NEWSLETTER) ** KICKER: THEIR MUTUAL SALVATION Working phone during a special event is almost second nature to most veteran hams. But when “phone” is actually a conventional landline and the radio transmitter belongs to a commercial FM station doing a fundraiser for the Salvation Army, “working phone” is more of a transmission with a mission. As it did last year, the Marion County, Indiana ARES group is jumping in on Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5 to do its part during FM station WIBC’s radiothon to raise money for the Bed and Bread program of the Salvation Army’s Indiana Division: Hams will be ringing bells at the trademark red kettles, answering the telephone when listeners call in with pledges – and even loading trucks with donated goods. Matthew Bechdol, W9SOX, the Emergency Coordinator for Marion County ARES, told Amateur Radio Newsline that the partnership is a good one for this group of community-minded amateurs. Bechdol said in a recent telephone chat, QUOTE“we are both committed to each other and our end goals. They have their mission – and our mission is to help them with theirs.”ENDQUOTE It’s all part of being good citizens, he added. ARES members, of course, are more accustomed to being mobilized during moments that follow public disasters. But by volunteering to ring a bell or answer one, Marion County ARES members may actually be doing more to prevent some private calamities. (MARION COUNTY ARES) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs; the Aiken, S.C., Standard; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; the Hindu newspaper; the Indian Express; Marion County ARES; Michigan Live; Newport County Radio Club; the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter; QRZNOW; the Radio Society of Great Britain; Southgate Amateur Radio News; TWiT TV; Wireless Institute of Australia; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Our email address is newsline@arnewsline.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, CA 91350. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW in Picayune, Mississippi, saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.