Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1826 - August 10 2012 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1826 with a release date of August 10 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a Q-S-T. Curiosity is now on Mars and there may be a way to hear its signal; hams respond to a massive power outage in India; B-P-L is once again a problem in the UK and guess who is thinking of running for Congress. Find out the details are on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1826 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** ULTIMATE DX: LISTENING FOR THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER AND LANDER Want to try your hand at some truly out of this world DX listening? With the successful lading of NASA's rover Curiosity on Mars, some hams are thinking of trying to catch signals from the new rover directly or those from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the Red Planet. Is it possible? Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW takes a look at the communications aspect of the mission: -- Thanks to some research by the Southgate News, it turns out the Curiosity rover transmits on frequencies around 401 MHz but the transponder on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or MRO has a CCSDS Forward Frequency in the 437 MHz Amateur Satellite Service band. This is because 435 to 438 MHz is shared with the Military and 432 to 438 MHz is also a Space Surveillance Radio Band. In fact, general space usage extends beyond that. So how does it all work? Well the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a UHF transponder known as MELACOM that operates between 401 to 437 MHz. It also has a pair of patch antennas to communicate with any landed asset on Mars surface supporting the CCSDS Proximity-1 protocol. And with it all working the way it has throughout this mission, signals from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are being received back on Earth. While NASAs Deep Space Network has no problem in hearing the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the question might be if a ham radio station with its simple equipment might be able to do the same. If you want to give it a try there are two papers from NASA that might be of assistance. The first describes the operation of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It can be found at tinyurl.com/mro-operations. The other is titled Mars Express and the NASA landers and rovers on Mars - Sustaining a backup relay in an interplanetary network. Its URL is tinyurl.com/space- communications. Both of these documents are in Adobe .PDF format. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I,m Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in Los Angeles. -- Oh, if you are successful in hearing either the lander or the orbiter please be sure to record any audio you hear along with the story of how you accomplished it. We will be happy to share it with our listeners, world wide. (Southgate, ARNewsline) ** RESCUE RADIO: HAMS RESPOND TO MASSIVE INDIA POWER FAILURE Back here on planet Earth, ham radio was called out after the world's worst blackout in recent times cut power to 700 million people in India on July 31st. Jayu Bhide VU2JAU is the National Coordinator for Disaster Communication in India. He reports that the North-East grid failed due to a fault in the plant and 20 states were affected by the power failure. VA2JAU said that hams in and around the affected areas provided emergency communications during the outage. He noted that all voice repeaters in the areas hit by the blackout remained in operation despite the heavy duty back- up power that was required. Up to 20 of India's 28 states were plunged into darkness as suppliers failed to meet the growing demand caused by heavy demands. The blackout halted hundreds of trains, took out traffic lights were out and caused surgical procedures to be cancelled. Several miners were trapped underground when their elevators failed. The blackout raised concern about India's infrastructure. (VK3PC, VU2JAU) ** RESCUE RADIO: GAREC 2012 PUTS OUT CALL FOR PAPERS Delegates representing their amateur radio emergency communications services, national societies or clubs are being invited to submit proposals information papers and reports. This for the 8th Global Amateur Radio Emergency Conference or GAREC which will be held November, 12 to 14th in Port Dickson, Malaysia. Of primary interest will be information regarding the activities of any given group in regard to any emergency or disaster relief operations that it may have actively participated in from September of 2011 onwards. The closing deadline of submission to the GAREC Secretariat is this coming September 31st. Documents should be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word format to secretariat (at) mygarec2012 (dot) com. (IARU) ** RADIO RECOGNITION: UNESCO RECOGNIZES IRESC WITH SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS A major coup for a relatively new ham radio emergency communications radio group. This as the United Nations Economic and Social Council known by the acronym UNESCO adopts the recommendation of the Committee on Non- Governmental Organizations to grant Special Consultative Status to the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition. A group better known by its initials of IRESC. For those who may have never heard of it, the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition bills itself as a global coalition of volunteer communicators, with dedicated members spread around the world providing assistance to those in need at all times of day or night. The main objectives of IRESC are to foster efficient collaboration between radio amateurs, extending friendships across the world and providing international emergency communication in times of need when all else fail. Currently, IRESC has members in at least 40 countries. Most are also affiliated with national organizations such as the International Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the United Kingdom's RAYNET, the Israel's Magen David Adom, local amateur radio clubs, and many other groups the world over. The decision to grant the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition this status was made at the recently concluded UNESCO session held in July. More about this important milestone for the IRESC can be found on-line at www.irescintl.com. (9Z4FX) ** THE BPL WAR: RSGB CONCERNED OVER PUSH TO LEGITIMIZE PLT Broadband over Powerline called PLT in Europe is once again raising its noise generating head and that's of special concern to ham radio operators in the UK. Now, the Radio Society of Great Britain has issued a statement expressing grave concern at what it calls the continuing headlong rush to legitimize high levels of emission from various Broadband over Powerline devices. This, in direct contravention of the Essential Requirements of the nations EMC Directive. You can read the full statement on the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org. Simply click on Update on Draft PLT Standard. (RSGB) ** RADIO POLITICS: RAC ANNOUNCES NEW STRUCTURE FOR ONTARIO Radio Amateurs of Canada has announced that as of September 1st that its current Ontario Section will be replaced by four new Sections. These are Ontario North, Ontario East, Ontario South, and the Greater Toronto Area. A map depicting the new section boundries is available for viewing at tinyurl.com/ontario-new. Meantime, word that the American Radio Relay League has already recognized the four new sections and they will be effective for the ARRL November Sweepstakes contest. Radio Amateurs of Canada adds that several vendors of logging and contest software have also announced changes to coincide with the new make-up of the Ontario sections. Unfortunately, some of these will not available or effective until January of 2013. (RAC) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: EUROPE YOUTH ON THE AIR AUGUST 19 To 26 Two European national amateur radio societies are teaming up to give young people a chance to find out what ham radio is all about first hand. Called Youngsters on the Air from Belgium and the Netherlands 2012, many young radio amateurs from nine different European countries will be participating in contesting, direction finding competitions, a Field Day like operation and much more. Youngsters on the Air will be held the week of August 19th to the 26th at a location in Belgium adjacent to the Dutch border. The sponsors are Belgium's U-B-A Youth Commission and the Dutch national amateur radio socirty society VERON. For more information please contact Tommy Degrande, ON3TD, by e-mail to tommy (at) uba (dot) be or Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, to pa2ls (at) veron (dot) nl (ON5CFG) ** BREAKING DX NEWS: CY9M ST. PAUL OPERATION SHUTS DOWN EARLY The long anticipated CY9M St. Paul Island DXpedition was forced to go QRT earlier then expected at the request of their transport ships skipper due to a forecast of poor weather conditions. As a result they departed from St. Paul at about 1900 UTC on July 31st. The good news is that in the short four and a half days of operating, the team made over 33,000 QSO's. All contacts will be verified electronically via Logbook of the World once the operators return home. Those in need of paper cards should QSL to Tim Beaumont, M0URX. Meantime their logs are now available for viewing on ClubLog, and we will have more DX related news later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (OPDX) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W0BZN repeater serving Newton, Kansas. (5 sec pause here) ** RADIO TECHNOLOGY: NXDN DIGITAL AUDIO SPEC TO BE MADE PUBLIC Another Digital protocol will soon be available. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Davis, W2JKD, has more: -- The Southgate news reports that the technical specification for NXDN which is an FDMA digital voice technology supported by Icom and Kenwood, is being opened to the public domain. According to a press release the chair of the NXDN Forum has announced that the Forum Steering Committee has decided to open the NXDN technical standards to the telecommunications industry. For the past 5 years both ICOM and Kenwood have been producing VHF/UHF mobiles, handhelds and repeaters to the NXDN standard. The equipment has a transmitted bandwidth of 4.0 kHz and is typically used in 6.25 kHz channel spacing systems. NXDN Digital products are deployed throughout the world in hundreds of thousands of professional radio applications. The specification is currently available in response to an e- mail request but the NXDN Forum indicates it will be available for direct download later in the year. Interested companies can obtain the information for the NXDN technical standards by following the instructions on the forum web site at www.nxdn-forum.com/instructions For the amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD -- The NXDN Forum says that it will continue to accept new members after opening the technical specifications and will govern the NXDN specification and related interoperability testing and certification. (Southgate) ** ENFORCEMENT: FCC AFFIRMS $11000 TOWER VIOLATION FINE The FCC says Ely Radio, licensee of KWNA - AM of Winnemucca, Nevada must pay an $11,000 fine for various tower violations. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, is here with the details: -- The case began in 2008 when the San Francisco office of the Enforcement Bureau originally fined Ely Radio $13,000 because its red obstruction lights were out and the licensee had not notified the Federal Aviation Administration of the outage. The commission also found that Ely had apparently and repeatedly failed to notify the FCC about a change in ownership information for the tower. In its appeal, Ely denied owning the tower and said it wasn't responsible for the structure's upkeep. As a result, the FCC sent a Letter of Inquiry to KWNA's former owner, Sheen Broadcasting Company. In its reply Sheen confirmed it's no longer a commission licensee. Sheen told the commission the company sold all of the equipment used to operate the station, including the tower, to Ely in 2006. In its appeal, Ely urged the FCC to reverse its decision, arguing that it's really a tenant, not an owner. It is said was because it leases the station building and land from Sheen. But the commission did not find that argument credible, saying in its decision that at best, it appears that Ely and Sheen may have a continuing disagreement about how each of them interprets their sale agreement. That said the FCC says that it has determined that Ely is indeed the tower owner and that it's the only licensee using the structure. It also claims that Ely's personnel actually improperly extinguished the tower lights that resulted in the fine. Because of Ely's past history of good compliance with commission rules, the agency lowered the original fine by $2,000 bringing the amount to $11,000. But it says Ely Radio must pay the fine. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Im Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale, Arizona. -- Ely Radio was given the customary 30 days to pay or to file a further appeal. (RW, FCC) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: DIGITAL ATV PARTY AUGUST 24 - 25 The World QSO Digital Amateur Television Party takes place on Friday August 24th and Saturday the 25th. This years event will involve California and Arizona in the United States, plus Australia and the British Amateur Television Club website in the U-K. Here in North America, Bob Minnick W8ARZ and Lee Weitzel K0CCU, both in Arizona, will use the resources of linked ATV repeaters. Also, K0CCU has Skype video of very high quality and tested through the VK3RTV Digital A-T-V repeater. The first such QSO Party organized by Peter Cossins VK3BFG occurred during the Centenary celebrations of Amateur Radio Victoria last year. (VK3PC) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: NCDXF RECEIVES $4000 FUNDING BOOST The Northern California DX Foundation is the recipient of a $4000 donation from the Northern California DX Club. This is said to be the largest donation ever received by the group from a club. Of late more and more DX oriented clubs are making donations to the Northern California DX Foundation. The organization thoroughly analyzes the financial needs of planned DXpeditions and helps provide critical funding to operations high on the DX'ers Most Wanted List. Its been said that without support many DXpeditions would not be possible. (OPDX) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: FLORIDA RADIO CLUB SEEKS TO EXPAND MUSEUM EXHIBIT The Florida-based West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group Inc. has announced the start of what it calls an ambitious project to expand the WS4FSM exhibit at the South Florida Science Museum. This is an exhibit that it calls "Lasting Moments of First Excitement." According to the group, the exhinit combines technology available over the Internet with the world wide communications offered by Amateur Radio. This, to lead to a new generation of creativity and scientific advancement. To help raise funding for the expansion the group has launched a project on KickStarter to take its story to the world. You can more about it on-line at tinyurl.com/palm- beach-kickstarter. The West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group bills itself as the largest amateur radio club in Palm Beach County with a history that dates back to the 1930's. More about the group is on the World Wide Web at www.wpbarc.com (AJ4XM) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: YU1YU ELECTED PRIME MINISTER OF SEREBIA Some names in the news. Former Serbian Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic, YU1YU, was elected as that country's newest Prime Minister on July 27. Dacic is the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia. From 2008 until his election as Prime Minister he served as First Deputy Prime Minister, as well as Minister of Internal Affairs. In March 2012, Serbia became a candidate for membership in the European Union. In the world of amateur radio Dacic is a member of the Amateur Radio Union of Serbia which is Serbia's IARU Member Society. He is said to be a member of his local club known by its call letters as YU1AAV. Dacic succeeds Mirko Cvetkovic who served as Serbia's Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. (Southgate) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: WB4NWS REPLACES KG4IUM AS ARRL SOUTHEASTERN VICE DIRECTOR ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, has appointed James Millsap, WB4NWS, of Acworth, Georgia appointed to the position of ARRL Southeastern Division Vice Director, effective August 1st. This after former Vice Director Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM, resigned because she has accepted a job outside of the Division. In a message sent to members of the Southeastern Division, KG4IUM stated that while she is incredibly excited about her new career and her future, it has not come without cost. That because her move is to be outside of the division, that she is no longer eligible to serve as Vice Director. Hartlages replacement, Jim Millsap began his ham radio career at age 12, operating 6 meter AM from Atlanta. Over the years he has served as Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Cherokee County Amateur Radio Emergency Service since 2002, was appointed ARRL Emergency Coordinator in 2010, and has been the District Emergency Coordinator for Metro Atlanta District since 2011. He was selected Georgia's "Ham Operator of The Year" in 2010 for his volunteer work in Georgia ARES. Millsap's appointment runs until noon January 1, 2014. And for those of you who many not remember, Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM, was the 2004 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year. (ARRL) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: VE3LC APPOINTED TO CITIG 700 Norm Rashleigh VE3LC, has been appointed by Radio amateur of Canada to serve on the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group or C-I-T-I-G 700 Mhz definition working group. This group will help to define the network architecture and technical interoperability requirements for a Nation wide broadband mobile data network operating in the 700 Mhz band. VE3LC is currently on the RAC Radio Advisory Board of Canada and has just completed a term as Vice President Industrial Liaison. (VO1DTM/VO1DM) ** 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) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ECUADOR TO LAUNCH AN EDUCATIONAL CUBESAT LOADED WITH FIRSTS An upcoming launch of 17 amateur radio satellites will also carry one with several firsts to orbit. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, reports: -- Among the birds to be lofted this November will be an innovative educational satellite built in Ecuador and known as NEE-01 Pegasus. This tiny 1 Unit CubeSat has a large fold-out solar array and carries a 902 MHz, 720 line Progressive Scan High Definition camera and associated TV transmitter. The latter will send video of the Earth to school students in Ecuador. The NEE-01 Pegasus engineering team was led by Commander Ronnie Nader who was Ecuador's first astronaut. The satellite was featured in the July 15 edition of Ecuador's El Murcurio newspaper. That article in electronically translated English is on-line at tinyurl.com/Ecuador-in- Space Im Dom Wilbanks, AE5DW. -- Cubesats are tiny satellites that are economical to both build and carry to orbit making them attractive to institutions of learning as well as to the ham radio community. (ANS) ** WORLDBEAT: NEW PORTUGAL REPEATER LIST AVAILABLE A newly updated list of Portuguese analogue and digital repeaters dated July 30th is available for download. The listings are displayed in the Portugese language at tinyurl.com/brhdbld courtesy of Joao Costa, CT1FBF. (CT1FBF) ** WORLDBEAT: UK NATIONAL RADIO CENTRE OPENS The United Kingdom's National Radio Centre is now officially open This after Mr. Ed Vaizey, who is the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries officially opened the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes. After a tour of the new building and unveiling a plaque in the entrance, Mr Vaizey stated that the Centre will do an enormous amount to spread the knowledge about the history of radio and its continuing importance in the 21st century. The National Radio Centre is open Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11.00 to 16:30 local UK time. More details, and photographs of the event, can be found on-line at www.nationalradiocentre.com (GB2RS) ** RADIO HISTORY: MARCONI CHELMSFORD SITE TO BE RE-DEVELOPED The BBC reports that the Marconi New Street factory in the United Kingdom city of Chelmsford is to be redeveloped after being left derelict for several years. Marconi New Street was the world's first purpose designed and built wireless factory. It was opened in June 1912 by radio pioneer Guillermo Marconi and where he carried out his research work and built a large electronics and telecommunications business. It also provided housing for many of those who were employed by Marconi. According the BBC that business dissolved in 2006 and the building has stood empty since 2008. The new owners says that it wants to build homes, offices, shops and community facilities at the site, which covers about 10 acres near Chelmsford city center but also retain and refurbish the main 1912 Marconi building for office space. You can read the entire story on-line at Read the BBC story at tinyurl.com/marconi-factory. (WIA News) ** DX In DX, the International Telecommunications Union has updated its Table of International Call Sign to reflect a call sign change for the island of Niue which will now have the entire E6 prefix block. Prior to the change the island used ZK2 callsign prefix. On the air, word that a team of European operators will be active as D64K from the Comoros Islands through August 20th. Their license covers from 160 to 6 meters, so they hope to be active on all bands and modes and were even considering the possibility of working on 60 and 6 meters. They will have four stations on the air using Elecraft transceivers, amplifiers and at least two Spiderbeams and several vertical antennas. The QSL Manager for this operation is IV3DSH. DJ7RJ will once again be active stroke FR from Reunion Island as between September 26th and October 21st. His operation will be on 160 through 10 meters using, CW and SSB, and he will pay special attention to the low bands for United States and Japan. QSL direct to his home callsign. DG5LAC will be active stroke P from Amrum Island between August 11th and the 24th. His operation will be holiday style on 80 through 10 meters SSB. Log will be uploaded to Logbook of the World and eQSL when he returns home. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by the Bureau. A team of Saudi operators will activate Al-Dhahrah Island as 7Z7AB between October 5th to the 11th. More details and a Web page will be forthcoming. Meantime you can see their logo on QRZ.com. Lastly, listen out for an all Y L DXpedition to be active as GB2YLS from Fair Isle between August 16th to the 22nd. Their activity will be on the HF bands using CW and SSB. They also plan to be operational as an entry in the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend scheduled for August 18th and 19th from the Fair Isle South Lighthouse. QSL via MM5YLO, either direct or via the bureau. Above from various DX news sources ** THAT FINAL ITEM: JOE WALSH WB6ACU SAYS HE IS THINKING ABOUT RUNNING FOR CONGRESS And finally this week, famed rock guitarist Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, has joked about running for political office since way back in 1980. That's when he ran a tongue in cheek campaign for the presidency. Now it appears as if Joe has decided to take politics more seriously, and according to a new radio interview, he could run for Congress. Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, has the details: -- In a recent discussion aired over WASH-FM in Washington DC, famed rock guitarist Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, said, and we quote: "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress." Walsh went on to tell WASH that: "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." Walsh believes he could represent the concerns of real people better than politicians who live in a different world to the rest of the country. He said that he thinks that if you pay attention to Congress and vote for people from where we're all from, and if we can elect people who are not politicians that are from where we're from, that he thinks we can get something done. Walsh added - and again we quote: "So I might run for Congress and see if I can stir up the hornets." Meanwhile, WB6ACU is touring his new solo album "Analog Man" at intimate venues nationwide. And of coarse you can always hear his playing the opening theme at the beginning of each episode of Ham Nation on TWiT.tv. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion, Illinois. -- For those interested in hearing all of what WB6ACU has to say, take your web browser to ultimateclassicrock.com/joe- walsh-to-run-for-congress. Then scroll down until you see the window containing the actual interview and click the arrow key to make it play. (ultimateclassicrock.com) ** 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 W-I-A 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 Before we go this note to those of you who still receive these newscasts over our 661-296-2407 dial in telephone line rater than downloading the MP3 file from our website. Of late we have noticed a major decline in the number of those calling into it and as such we are giving consideration to discontinuing it by years end. But before we do, we want to know how many people are actually using 661-296-2407. If you are one of those who call in each week on the phone, please send us a note telling us who you are and the reason you are using telephone access rather than simply downloading the newscast from the Internet. As we just said, our address is the Amateur Radio Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita, California, 91350. Or you can e-mail us at newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org. We look forward to hearing from you. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk, I'm Jeff Clark, K8JAC, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.