Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1952 – February 13 2015 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1952 with a release date of Friday, February 13th, 2015 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Ham radio responds as a volcano erupts in Guatemala; a Super High Frequency band could face reallocation here in the United States; the K-one-N Nevassa Island DXpedition winds down; AMSAT-UK puts out first call for speakers for its 2015 Space Colloquium; the FCC renews the only United States 4 meter experimental beacon permit and a fascinating discovery about the new Raspberry Pi 2 pico computer. All this and more on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1952 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RESUE RADIO: HAMS RESPOND TO VOLCANO ERUPTION IN GUATEMALA Disaster relief services with assistance from radio amateurs is providing emergency communications in the wake of the erupting Fuego Volcano in the Republic of Guatemala. Here’s Fred Vobbe W8HDU... [Fred:] The largest eruption in three years took place on Saturday, February 7th and sent a cloud of ash skyward that forced the closure of the La Aurora International Airport. Tourists who were hiking on the volcano and those living in nearby villages had to be evacuated. The Club of Amateur Radio of Guatemala activated emergency station TG0AA on 7.118 MHz. According to a report to IARU Region 2 Emergency Communications Coordinator Cesar Pio Santos, HR2P, TG0AA has established a network with reporting stations located in neighboring Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba and Venezuela. All are involved in the post eruption communication effort. A 2 meter repeater on 147.015 MHz is also in use. The Fuego volcano sits on the border of the Guatemalan states of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango at a height of 12,346 feet above sea level. David de Leon is a spokesman for Guatamala's national disaster preparedness office. He says authorities had already been put area on alert of the possibility of such an eruption and had issued instructions urging people to take shelter, wear masks, cover water tanks and be aware of evacuation routes. Local experts expect the emergency to ease to allow a clean-up of the area to begin. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Fred Vobbe W8HDU in Lima, Ohio. (VK3PC, other published news reports) ** RESTRUCTURING: AMATEUR SUPER HIGH FREQUENCY BAND COULD FACE UNWANTED CHANGE A super high frequency ham radio band here in the United States could be in peril due to spectrum needed for vehicular radar systems. Skeeter: ]The FCC is seeking comment on issues involving expanded use of various radar applications in the 76 to 81 GHz band which Amateur Radio shares with other services. The band--from 77.5 to 78 GHz--is allocated to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services on a primary basis, and to the Radio Astronomy and Space Research services on a secondary basis. Among many issues, the FCC seeks comment on the possibility of reallocating the Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite services from 76 to 81 GHz, and it asks for suggestions on alternative spectrum that it might make available in this general region. The FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Report and Order is in response to a Petition for Rulemaking designated RM-11666 that was filed in 2012 by Robert Bosch LLC. Two petitions for reconsideration of the Commission’s 2012 Report and Order addressing vehicular radar systems in the 76 to 77 GHz band were incorporated at earlier proceedings. [Jim:] That’s Newsline’s Skeeter Nash N5ASH. In its summary the FCC says that its goal is to adopt rules that address amateur use, including Amateur Satellite use, within the 76 to 81 GHz band in a comprehensive and consistent manner. An in-depth look at this situation is on the ARRL website at tinyurl.com/n9aw83y (ARRL, FCC) ** INTERNATIONAL: IARU ANNOUNCES REGION 3 MEETING IN INDONESIA Region 3 of the International Amateur Radio Union has sent formal invitations to member societies to be represented at its 16th I-A-R-U Triennial Conference. The gathering will take place October 12th to the 16th in Bali, Indonesia. An agenda is expected to contain matters and developments of interest to all amateur radio operators as well as reports from directors, societies and coordinators. This year's host is the Organisasi Amatir Radio of Indonesia. (WIA) ** INTERNATIONAL: WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY APRIL 18TH The theme of World Amateur Radio Day 2015 will be the International Telecommunications Union and the International Amateur Radio Union Celebrating 150 Years of Advancing the Telecommunication Art. Each year on April 18th radio amateurs celebrate World Amateur Radio Day, which happens to be the date way back in 1925 when the International Amateur Radio Union was founded. As such World Amateur Radio Day activities and special events are an opportunity to spread the word about what radio amateurs are doing in the 21st century. And as this is considered to be one of amateur radio's most important annual events, several IARU member societies and associated clubs are expected to sponsor special event stations on the weekend to mark the occasion. (IARU) ** DX: NEVASSA ISLAND K1N WINDING DOWN By the time many of you hear this, the long awaited K1N Nevassa Island DXpedition will be QRT… [Don:] Wolf Harranth, OE1WHC from the Amateur Radio Section of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation sent Ohio Penn DX Newsletter a press release based on a satellite phone interview with co team leader Glenn Johnson, W-zero-G-J . In short, Johnson says that the K1N will begin winding down on Friday, February 13th. The team will start by sending their unneeded supplies back to Jamaica. On Saturday, the 14th K-one-N operations will still be on the air, but some of the personnel will begin to leave the island. All radio equipment will remain on the island until daybreak Sunday, when operations will go QRT. In other developments, on February 10th Johnson posted to the DXpedition website that the operation was approaching 96,000 QSO's and hoped to pass the 100,000 point later that day. Also that the fierce pile-ups were continuing with what he called walls of European stations that are being worked each day until the bands close. He also thanked the world wide ham community for its cooperation while working in certain propagation windows, especially to Japan. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Don Wilbanks AE5DW in New Orleans. [Jim:] The latest information including QSL routing is on the web at navassadx.com and we will have a final round-up on this story in next weeks Amateur radio Newsline report. (OPDX, navassadx.com) ** DX UP FRONT: GRENEDA BY J38NN AND J38MM IN MAY In DX up-front, W6NN and KE1B will be operating as J38NN and J38MM, respectively, from Grenada between May 23rd and the 31st. Activity will probably be holiday-style using a single station with 100 watts and a Buddipole antenna system on 40 through 10 including 30, 17 and 12 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. If they have Internet access, they will probably upload logs to ClubLog on a daily basis. QSLs go via their home callsigns as listed on QRZ.com or via by the bureau. Electronic QSL's are via Logbook of the World and eQSL. (OPDX) ** DX UP FRONT: K6W WAKE ISLAND SEPTEMBER 4 – 19 Down the calendar a bit, AG6IP will be active as K6W on Wake Island between September 4th and the 19th. His operation is to celebrate the 70th anniversary and memorial of the “End Battle of Wake Island.” His operation will be on 80 through 6 meters SSB. Look for more details including QSL routing as it gets closer to the beginning of the operation. (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 Sequoia Amateur Radio Group repeater serving Lake Isabella, California. (5 sec pause here) ** RADIO LAW: FCC PROPOSES TO RETURN HAM TO TECH PRIVELEGES AFTER VEC ERROR DISCOVRED The FCC has proposed to modify the license of Brent D. Cullen, KD0YLM, to show Technician Class operator privileges due to a data filing error made by the administering VEC. On December 3, 2014, the American Radio Relay League Volunteer Examiner Coordinator sent an electronic data file to the Commission requesting that Cullen’s operator license for amateur station KD0YLM be modified to upgrade from Technician Class to General Class amateur radio operator privileges. Based on this application, the Commission granted Cullen a General Class amateur service operator license on December 3, 2014. But in correspondence dated this past January 16, the ARRL notified the Commission that there was an error in the December 3, 2014 data file and that an applicant other than Cullen had qualified for a General Class operator license. The ARRL noted that a correction was filed, resulting in the other unnamed licensee receiving the operator license for which he had qualified, but that Cullen’s operator privileges had not been returned to Technician Class operator privileges. As such Cullen appears to be currently authorized to operate with General Class operator privileges due to an error made during the application process. Now the FCC says it wants to correct that clerical mistake. (FCC) ** REGULATORY: FCC ASKS FUNDING FOR NEW HEADQUARTERS The FCC says that it may have to move to a new headquarters in the Washington, DC, area and that it needs funding to make this happen. This came to light when the administration asked for $388,000,000 for Fiscal Year 2016 in the President's budget, which is what the FCC had proposed. That amount is up from the more than 375 million dollars it asked for in Fiscal Year 2015 and is attributable almost entirely the what the FCC says it needs to either move to a new headquarters or re-stacking the current space given the expiration of its lease. Doing either should save the FCC $119 million over 15 years, the agency says. The FCC's budget is entirely covered by regulatory fees, in addition to which the commission will be generating billions for the treasury through its ongoing spectrum auctions. (Published news reports) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: NEW AMATEUR RADIO ROUND TABLE WEBCAST FROM W5KUB.COM Amateur Radio Round Table is a new series of Internet-distributed webcasts being produced by Tom Medlin, W5KUB, and available on-line over W5KUB.com. The webcast will be held Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM Central Time which correlates to 0200 UTC Wednesdays. According to Tom, Amateur Radio Round Table will be an informal discussion of all aspects of ham radio with the intent of allowing viewers to watch or be a guest via Skype or Google Hangout. To simply view the webcast you need only take your web browser to w5kub.com and sign in. If you wish to be an active participant you will first need to send an e-mail to tom (at) w5kub.com so he can provide you with the information needed to join the show. Once again that's the Amateur Radio Round Table every Tuesday night at 8 P.M. Central U.S time on w5kub.com. Tom adds that he hopes to see you there. (W5KUB) ** HAM CELEBRATIONS: LIMARC AT 50 SEEKS INFORMATION ON ITS W2VL CALL LIMARC, the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. As part of that celebration it is trying to learn the story of how and why its primary club callsign, W2VL, came about. While speculation is that it may have been a memorial for one of the early or founding club members, there is no direct memory of this. If you were around the New York City or Long Island area in the early to mid 1960's and have knowledge of who may have previously held the W2VL callsign, please send a note to Lew Malchick by e-mail to N2RQ (at) arrl (dot) net. Or you can write to him at his home address found on QRZ.com. (N2RQ) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: SECOND CALL FOR SPEAKERS FOR 41ST EASTERN VHF-UHF/MICROWAVE CONFERENCE The 41st Eastern VHF/UHF/Microwave Conference has issued a second call for speakers and presentation papers for the gathering and publication in the conference proceedings. Topics can include, but are not limited to, operating, contesting, construction, homebrewing, and microwaves. Also sought is a session leader to discuss 6 meter operations. The meeting is sponsored by the North East Weak Signal Group, will take place April 17th to the 19th in Manchester, Connecticut. Presenters and those submitting papers for publication are asked to first contact Paul Wade, W1GHZ, before March 18th. His e-mail is w1ghz (dot) q (at) gmail (dot) com. (More information is on line at www.newsvhf.com.) (W1GHZ) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: AMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUM 2015 PUTS OUT FIRST CALL FOR SPEAKERS While its still many months away, a first call for speakers has been issued for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2015. Authors are also being invited to submit papers for subsequent publishing on the AMSAT-UK web site. Topics to cover can include but are not limited to micro-satellites, CubeSats, Nanosats, space and other associated activities. This years event will be held from Saturday, July 25 to Sunday, July 26 at the Holiday Inn at Guildford in the United Kingdom. Submissions of papers should be sent only to G4DPZ, via e-mail to dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk. Full information is on the web at tinyurl.com/colloquium-2015 (AMSAT-UK, ANS) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: HAMTECH 2015 IN INDIA MARCH 6 – 7 HAMTECH 2015, an international Conference on amateur radio communications will be held at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar, India on March 6th and 7th. This gathering will be followed by a DXpedition running through March 18th. These events are being sponsored by India's National Institute of Amateur Radio with its objective to promote the hobby within the ham community and to a public audience. The discussions at this convention will address various topics including the promotion of amateur radio in general along with, High Frequency and VHF communications, Dxpeditions, Digital operations, and numerous other topics. There is also an open forum to discuss on disaster management particularly the experiences lessons learned in recent natural calamities. A brochure of Hamtech 2015 is available at tinyurl.com/hamtech-2015 (VU2MYH) ** NAMES IN TE NEWS: PHILLIP ROSARIO NAMED TO FC ENFORCEMENT BUREAU Some names in the news. The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau has announced that Phillip Rosario has been named Deputy Bureau Chief, overseeing consumer protection issues for the Bureau. Mr. Rosario is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He was most recently Department Head of the Consumer Protection Department at the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office. (FCC) ** PROPAGATION: FCC RENEWS ONLY US 4 METER EXPERIMENTAL BEACON PERMIT A beacon on the 4 meter band will continue to be heard across the pond... [Skeeter:] Brian Justin, WA1ZMS reports that the Experimental License for the WG2XPN one-way beacon operation on 70.005MHz has been renewed until May 1st of 2017. As such, it gives the only 4 meter North American beacon a chance to be heard in Europe for another 2 years. WG2XPN runs 3 kilowatts of Effective Radiated Power from United States Grid Square FM Oh 7 fm in Virginia, beaming East across the Atlantic Ocean. WA1ZMS says that thanks go out to both the FCC and the Society of Broadcast Engineers for their continued support of this project as the spectrum in which WG2XPN operates is still reserved for use by telecasters, and no United States 4 meter ham band appears possible in the near future. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Skeeter Nash N5ASH in Topeka, Kansas. [Jim:] WA1ZMS also wants to remind European 4 meter operators to point their beams west during the E skip season and give a long listen on 70.005MHz. He says that you might just hear something not usually heard. (WA1ZMS) ** EDUCATION: STUDENTS IN INDIA LEARN ABOUT HAM RADIO The Department of Electronics and Communication of India's Vardhaman College regularly sends its students to that nation’s National Institute of Amateur Radio to learn more about ham radio communications. A group of 55 students along with 3 teachers visited the institute on January 31st. There they were introduced to various aspects of amateur radio by Ram Mohan, VU2MYH. They were also shown the workings of Pactor and a Buddypole antenna. The tour concluded with a visit to the Radio Museum located on the campus. This educational program is being coordinated by Srinivas Gedela, VU3SXL. (NAIR) ** 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: PUTTING THE INTERNET INTO EARTH ORBIT Space exploration company Virgin Galactic and chip-maker Qualcomm have announced their backing of a venture called OneWeb. Their idea is to put 648 satellites in orbit about 750 miles above Earth's surface, where the RF round trip time is just a few thousands of a second, Both companies say that this is an apropos altitude for any online application. But the two companies are not alone. Not to be outdone, SpaceX immediately announced its own plan to do the same, but upping the numbers by building and launching 4000 satellites to a similar altitude. While some form of radio communications might seem to be the obvious form of connection between Earthbound users and a satellite system, other systems are also under consideration. This includes a possible optical communications infrastructure. No matter what is decided, the concept makes for an interesting expansion of high speed Internet access. An in-depth article on these proposals and other ideas can be found in an article in New Scientist magazine. Its on the web at tinyurl.com/mqjbgpv (New Scientist, Southgate) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: NEW PHONE PROCESSOR CHIP ANNOUNCED Chip designer ARM Holdings PLC, has unveiled new technology for mobile devices that it says will be much faster while using less energy. The company, whose designs are built into more than 95% of smartphones, says more than 10 companies have licensed its new Cortex A-72 processor design. The new technology is expected to be used in phones delivered to customers in 2016. ARM, based in Cambridge, England, says the new processor design is 3.5 times as fast as the ARM technology used in most smartphones sold in 2014. The company expects most chips based on the design to be manufactured using an advanced production process from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. (ARM) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: IRAN LAUNCHES 4TH HAM RADIO PAYLOD PA0DLO reports that the Iranian Fajr satellite has an amateur radio band telemetry downlink on 437.538 MHz. PA0DLO says that the bird also carries a camera for Earth observations and should have and a command uplink in the 144 to146 MHz amateur radio band. The Iranian satellite Fajr or ‘Dawn’ was launched on February 2nd at 08:50 UTC from the Imam Khomeini Space Center. The 50 kilogram bird was carried to space on a Safir launcher into an initial orbit of 223 km by 470 km with an inclination of 55.5°. This is Iran’s fourth satellite and has propulsion in the form of a cold gas thruster. Presumably the thruster will be used to circularize the orbit at around 470 km which may give it a lifetime of over a year. (AMSAT) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: NO US ARISS OPERATIONS NOV 5 TO DEC 6 From November 5th to December 6th there will be no United States operational segment hams on board the International Space Station. Because of this, any school contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. Also, ARISS is always happy to receive listener reports for these contacts and thanks everyone for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n (at) amsat (dot) org or aj9n (at) aol (dot) com. (ARISS, AJ9N) ** SWL CORNER: END OF BBC WORLD SERVICE ON 1323 KHZ BBC World Service Eastern Mediterranean English language operation will end medium wave radio services on 1323 kHz on April 25th. The region affected includes Israel, much of Lebanon, Cyprus and southern Turkey. Audiences in the region will be able to listen to BBC World Service English service 24 hours day through the direct-to-home Eutelsat 13 satellite or over the internet at BBCWorldservice.com (BBC) ** ON THE AIR: ROTARY CELEBRATES ITS 110TH BIRTHDAY The service organization Rotary International will be celebrating its founding 110 years ago with ham radio operators taking part by using the special event callsign VI110ROTARY that will be heard from Australia for three months. Rotarians of Amateur Radio or ROAR will launch the special callsign from New South Wales Central Coast on Sunday, February 22nd possibly using a new software defined radio. Suggested operating frequencies include 7 dot 118, 14 dot 295.2 and 21 dot 295 MHz and these will be on from various locations around Australia during the course of the operation. The Rotary International fellowship and amateur radio have a long-standing and very cordial relationship. According to Jim Linton, VK3PC, similar events may also be planned in other countries as well. (VK3PC) ** ON THE AIR: RC70YC COMMEMORATE 70 YEARS SINCE THE YALTA CONFERENCE Look for special events station RC70YC to be operating through February 22nd to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Yalta Conference, which was held between February 4th and the 11th, 1945. The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. Now RC70YC is on the air celebrating this historic gathering. If you make contact QSL via the Oh QRS on ClubLog or direct via K2PF. A special free award will be available. Details can be found on QRZ.com (OPDX) ** DX In DX, SM6CPY will be on the air as 99X0PY from Kigali Rwanda through March 2nd. Operations will definitely be on 20 through 10 meters with the possibly of some signals on 160 and 40 meters as well. QSL direct to his home callsign or via the bureau. H8PHT will be active between March 11th and the 15th as AH0KT from the rental shack on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Island. Activity will be on the High Frequency bands and 6 meters using CW, SSB, the Digital modes. He also plans to try 10 meter AM and FM on 29 dot 600 MHz only. QSL via his home callsign. Three operators from Poland will activate Kathmandu, Nepal between March 18th and the 30th. The callsign will be announced later. Operators mentioned are SP2FUD, SP9FIH and SQ9CNN. The operations actual call will be announced at a later date at 9n dot dxpeditions dot org. DK5ON will be active stroke A6 from the United Arab Emerates between March 18th and the 27th. His operation will be on 40 through 10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK31. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by the bureau. LU1FM, will be operational as 5J0B from San Andres Island between March 21st and April 4th. Activity will be on 160 through 6 meters using SSB and the digital modes. He also plans to participate in CQ World Wide WPX SSB Contest on March 28th and 29th. QSL via his home callsign. Last but by no means least, F5RAV, will be active as as C5LT from Kololi in The Gambia between October 20th to the 27th. Operations will be on 40 through 10 meters using SSB, RTTY and possibly CW. QSL direct only via F5RAV. (This weeks DX news courtesy of the Ohio Penn DX Newsletter) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: NEW RASPBERRY PI 2 CAN REBOOT IF EPOSED TO XENON CAMERA FLASH And finally this week it appears that the latest version of Raspberry Pi's mini computer appears to be camera shy. At least the Raspberry Pi 2 does not like the spurt of high intensity light from Xenon camera flashes and may reboot itself when exposed to it. With more, here is Heather Embee KB3TZed-D… [Heather:] The glitch is a result of the photoelectric effect phenomenon. Raspberry Pi creator Eben Upton admitted to the BBC that he had not been aware that the Raspberry Pi 2 would be sensitive to camera flashes, but that he was not too upset about it. Rather, he termed it an unintentional educational bonus and an interesting demonstration of the photoelectric effect. According to the the Southgate News, it was Essex radio amateur Peter Onion, G-zero-D-Zed-B, who discovered the Raspberry Pi 2 reboots when photographed using a Xenon flash. The reason seems to be that a chip on the board is not light-resistant. The simple fix appears to be covering the offending integrated circuit with something like Blu Tak. Blu Tak is a reusable pressure-sensitive putty-like adhesive commonly used to attach lightweight objects such as posters or sheets of paper to walls or other dry surfaces; but it also seems to have the ability to block out a flash of Xenon light. For Newsline, I’m Heather Embee KB3TZD in Warwick, Pennsylvania. [Jim:] The company that created the Raspberry Pi2 says that it has has received in excess of 300,000 orders for the new $35 device since its launch two weeks ago. More about this story is on the web at tinyurl.com/raspberry-pi-reboot (Southgate, BBC) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Rain, the RSGB, the South African Radio League, the Southgate News, TwiT-TV, Australia's WIA News and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Our e-mail address is newsline (at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350. For now, for producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF in Los Angeles and our news team world wide, I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD, saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.