Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1801 - February 17 2012 Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1801 with a release date of February 17th, 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. WRC 2012 ends and ham radio get a new 600 meter allocation. Also, the 2 Gigahertz band comes under attack in Sweden; ham radio gets an exclusion from a proposed Illinois distracted driving law; a high altitude ham radio balloon heading from Texas to China disappears over the Gulf of Mexico and spray on antennas become a reality. All this and more on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1801 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RADIO LAW: WARC 2012 ENDS - THE OUTCOME FOR HAM RADIO The 2012 World Radiocommunications Conference, better known as WRC 12 has come to a close. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is in the Newsroom with some good news for ham radio: -- At its Plenary meeting held on February 14th, the World Radiocommunication Conference approved a new secondary frequency allocation to the Amateur Radio Service from 472 to 479 kHz. Having passed its First and Second Readings it is normally a formality that this change be included in the conferences Final Acts when the gathering concludes and the Table of Frequency Allocations would then be amended accordingly. As a secondary user, amateur radio shares 472 to 479 kHz with the Maritime Mobile Service which is the primary user in all three ITU Regions and with the Aeronautical Radionavigation Service which is a Secondary user except as noted in the following footnotes: One footnote reads that a number of countries will identify their intent to elevate the status of their Aeronautical Radionavigation Service to Primary as a step in ensuring protection from secondary users. Also there is a footnote that says that the power which radio amateurs may use in 472 to 479 kHz will be limited to 5 watts effective radiated except for amateur stations within 800 km of the borders of a number of countries. These are principally Russia, many of the former Soviet bloc nations and the Arab states. For those affected amateurs the power output limit will be 1 watt. It is, of course, up to individual administrations to authorize use of the band by their amateurs. How long it will before the band is available to hams in the United States? That's up to the bureaucrats in Washington D.C.. At this point that is unknown. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the Newsroom in Los Angeles. -- The new band at 600 meters will represent the return of amateurs to the medium waves. This is an area of spectrum that hams have not had access to since the earliest days of radio regulation. More on WRC 12 in future Amateur Radio Newsline reports. (RAC) ** RESTRUCTURING: SSA SAYS HAM RADIO AND BROADBAND CAN SHARE 13 CM The 13 centimeter ham band is under threat of reallocation in Sweden. This as that nations Telecommunications regulator the Department of Post and Telecommunications has suggested that the 2300 to 2450 MHz spectrum be transferred for use by broadband systems. Amateur Radio Newsline's Heather Butera-Howell, KB3TZD, is here with the details: -- As part of the rule making process the Swedish national amateur radio society, the SSA, has submitted it's response to Sweden's telecommunications regulator on this matter. In it, the SSA argues that the nations amateur service should remain in the 2.3 GHz band and if needed share this spectrum with any other users. SSA notes that wideband digital systems are becoming less sensitive to narrowband signals. This it says improves the possibilities for such a form of band sharing arrangement. Among its position points the SSA believes that communication with amateur satellites in the band from 2400 to 2450 MHz should continue to be permitted. The SSA is also requesting a meeting with the Department of Post and Telecommunications to discuss the technological basis for continuing the amateur service in the this band. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Butera-Howell, KB3TZD, near Pittsburg, PA. -- More on the amateur radio response to the proposed reallocation translated into Google English is on-line at tnyurl.com/SSA2300MHzResponse (Southgate, SSA) ** RADIO SCIENCE: COMMUNICATIONS LOST WITH BLT-28 TEXAS TO CHINA HAM RADIO BALLOON Communications with a high altitude amateur radio floating balloon that was launched from Texas with a final goal of reaching Nanjing China has been lost. BLT-28 transmitting callsign KT5TK-11 on APRS was lost at 00:50 hours UTC on February 12th. This was only 3 hours after the balloon was lofted skyward from Katy, Texas, just west of the city of Houston. Signals were lost when the balloon was passing through the 45,700 feet over the Gulf of Mexico about 110 miles south of Holly Beach, Louisiana. This was possibly the coldest part of the journey to that time with the last telemetry reporting a temperature of -50 degrees Celsius. There is some speculation that the lack of signals from the balloon may have been caused by the batteries freezing up. There is some hope that a so-called watchdog circuit will keep the electronics package alive until the batteries have rejuvenated, if they ever do. There was some hope that BLT-28 may have actually crossed the Atlantic Ocean sometime Monday morning, February 13th, but that has yet to be confirmed either visually or by a resumption of electronic tracking. If the APRS transponder does return to life, it should be transmitting on 144.800 MHz and will eventually appear on various world wide APRS tracking websites such as aprs.fi. BLT-28 was the latest in a long series of high altitude ham radio balloon launches sponsored South Texas Balloon Launch Team. Their website is in cyberspace at www.w5acm.net. (ARNewslineT, Southgate, WB5ITT) ** RADIO LAW: ILLINOIS DISTRACTED DRIVING LAW WONT AFFECT HAM RADIO Amateur radio as well as 11 Meter CB and several other services have won a complete exemption from a proposed Illinois state law aimed at curtailing the activities of distracted drivers on that states roads and streets. Amateur Radio Newsline's Matthew Chambers, NR0Q, has this follow-up report: -- There were actually two proposed measures before the Illinois state legislature aimed at accomplishing the same thing. As originally written, both House Bill 3972 introduced by Representative John D'Amico and House Bill 3970 by Representative Karen May would have banned the use of all electronic communication devices with a very few limited exceptions. These were the use of two-way radio by law-enforcement and operators of emergency vehicles; cellphones used in a hands-free or voice-activated mode or in parked vehicles. And that was it. Now, after consultation with representatives of the Illinois ham radio community, Representative D'Amico has amended his proposal to exclude numerous types of two-way radio based communications from his measure. This, while leaving the original intent of the proposed law aimed which is primeraly aimed at curtailing texting or using a hand-held cellular telephone while ta vehicle is in motion. Item 7 of the Amended D'Amico measure is the part that's important to the ham radio community. It states that a driver using two-way or citizens band radio services or twoway mobile radio transmitter or receivers for licensees of the Federal Communications Commission in the Amateur Radio Service are exempt from the proposed law. And that's good news for anyone with radio gear in their car driving in or through the state of Illinois. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Matthew Chambers, NR0Q, reporting. -- While this still leaves House Bill 3970 by Representative Karen May as active as originally written, it's believed that this measure will shortly be amended to follow the House Bill 3970, if this has not taken place already. (ARNewslineT, others) ** BREAKING DX NEWS: LONG AWAITED VK0HI HEARD ISLAND OPERATION CANCELLED Jim Linton, VK3PC, reports that Chris Dimitrijevic, VK3FY, has announced the permanent cancellation of the 2013 VK0HI Heard Island DXpedition. Linton notes that VK3FY was also the team leader of the cancelled DX0DX Spratly Islands DXpedition. VK3PC was serving as the Publicist for the Heard Island 2013 DXpedition. More DX information later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (VK3PC) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W8HVG repeater serving Southern Michigan. (5 sec pause here) ** WITH NEWSLINE: OUR NEW WEBSITE Amateur Radio Newsline's new website with its all new look is now on-line and fully operational. One of the new features is that from this week forward that all newscasts will remain on the very front page as an ongoing audio and text blog. This should make it easy for those who may have missed the previous week need not look anywhere else to find it. Also, the Young Ham of the Year Award and its associated forms now have their own tab at the top of the front page. Click it and you are at the place where you can download the 2012 nominating form as well as learn about the award programs history. For now, if you find you are having any problems reaching the site, you can use the temporary URL of arnewsline.squarespace.com. This is because it may take up to a week before all the Domain Name Servers around the world have update www.arnewsline.org to the new host. Lots more changes will be coming soon to make the overall site easier to navigate. Our thanks to Robert Sudock, WB6FDF; Kevin Trotman, N5PRE and Dale Cary, WD0AKO, for spearheading the new design and for the smooth transition to our new web host Squarespace. Please check www.arnewsline.org and let us know what you think. (ARNewslineT) ** RADIO LAW: FCC SAYS IT WILL SEEK TO CANCEL LIGHTSQUARED PROPOSED BROADBAND NETWORK The Federal Communications Commission says that it will seek public comment on revoking LightSquared's permit to build a proposed national high-speed wireless data network. This, after concluding that such a system held the potential in some cases jam personal navigation and other Global Positioning System or GPS devices. According to news reports, the FCC had seen LightSquared's proposal as a way to make more spectrum available to feed the need of the public and industry for added broadband capability for a wide variety of fixed and mobile devices. But the manufacturers of GPS receivers and those who rely on them feared that GPS signals would suffer from adjacent spectrum interference caused by the proposed LightSquared network. As previously reported here on Newsline, after conducting tests, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said that it found interference with dozens of personal navigation devices and aircraft control systems that rely on GPS for positioning. The NTIA concluded that there's no way to eliminate the risk of interference with such GPS devices. As we go to air, LightSquared, which is based in Reston, Virginia, had not made any comment to the press on this latest development. (PC World Blog, Yahoo News, Bloomberg News, others) ** ENFORCEMENT: FCC REDUCES STUDIO TO TRANSMITTER LINK FINE BY $800 The FCC has reduced a fine for Gila Electronics that was based on a studio-to-transmitter link violation two years ago. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Davis, W2JKD, reports: -- During a September 2009 inspection of KUKY - FM located in Wellton, Arizona, agents discovered what appeared to be a 950 MHz Studio to Transmitter or S-T-L that was relaying KUKY programming's main studio in Yuma to its transmitter site near Wellton. Gila provided the agents with a copy of the license for the relay station which authorized operation on 956.65 MHz as a Private Operational Fixed Point-to-Point Microwave radio station. The licensed location was listed as Telegraph Pass, Arizona near Wellton but the microwave station was installed at the KUKY studio in Yuma, about 15 miles from the licensed location. In January 2010, the San Diego Office issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for $4,000 to Gila for failing to operate the relay at its authorized location and for providing a private carrier service not in accordance with the rules applicable to its particular radio service. In its response, Gila had not disputed the facts. However it asked for a reduction because it said there were no interference reports from other licensees nor any substantial potential for interference to other users. This based on the sparsely populated desert terrain. But the FCC was not persuaded by this argument. It noted that the absence of public harm is not considered a mitigating factor in a rule violation. However, the agency did give Gila a break based on the company's past good behavior, noting that the company has not received a prior violation during its more than 20 year history. That's why it cut the fine by $800. I'm Jim Davis, W2JKD. -- Gila was given the customary 30 days to pay the fine or to file a further appeal. (FCC) ** PUBLIC SERVICE: HAMS NEEDED FOR BOSTON MARATHON COMMUNICATIONS Bob DeMattia, K1IW, of the Marathon Amateur Radio Communications group tells Amateur Radio Newsline that his organization is still looking for approximately fifty more volunteers. This, to help on the ham radio team at the Boston Marathon. This years run takes place on Monday, April 16th. Bob says that positions are available in Hopkinton, along the route, and in Boston itself. If you are a ham living in that area or plan to be at the event, and if you are interested in volunteering, please visit marc.mmra.org on the World-WideWeb.(K1IW) ** RADIO READING: BAY AREA RADIO Arcadia Publishing is set to release "Bay Area Radio," detailing the key events and history of radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. The book highlights some of the area's early events, including Charles "Doc" Herrold's broadcasts in 1909 from his radio school in San Jose to a young NBC settling its West Coast headquarters in 1926. "Bay Area Radio" was written by noted radio historian John F. Schneider with assistance from the California Historical Radio Society and the Bay Area Radio Museum. It goes on sale March 5. (RW) ** RADIO READING: A DOT OF BUTTER AND A DASH OF SPICE FIELD DAY COOKBOOK And "A Dot of Butter and a Dash of Spice" is a new cookbook dedicated to Field Day culinary delights from UK amateur Steve Norman, M0MVB. In explaining his new work Norman says that as we all need to eat, he has combined his love of doing field day and of food by writing a BBQ cook book aimed at the ham radio operator. "A Dot of Butter and a Dash of Spice" contains over 100 recipes as well as covering what is the best BBQ to take on field days and loads of other help. Priced at œ9.99 British Pounds or $15.75 US dollars, it can be ordered on-line in the United State from Amazon.com and other booksellers. (M0MVB) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: N6SL SAYS QCWA 40 METER CW NET SPPED LOWERED TO 15 WPM Some names in the news. First up is Ben Russell, N6SL. He says via the Quarter Century Wireless Association's remailer that to encourage more participation the 40 meter QCWA 40 Meter CW Net hat the code speed has been reduced to approximately 15 words per minute. Russell, who is the Net Control Station, says that this net meets every Wednesday evening at 8 PM Eastern Time on 7 point 035 MHz +/- any QRM. Anyone interested in QCWA and its activities is invited to take part. (N6SL via QCWA Remailer) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: JIM LAPORTA, N1CC, NAMED NEW QCWA GENERAL MANAGER Jim LaPorta, N1CC, of Marbank, Texas, has been selected as the new General Manager of the Quarter Century Wireless Association. He will assume the position on or about March 26th. LaPorta replaces Chuck Walbridge, K1IGD, who will be terminating his current contract as General Manager on March 31st after seven years in that position. (N0UF) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY TO REC.RADIO.AMATEUR.MODERATED And a big happy birthday shout-out to the rec.radio.amateur.moderated Usenet newsgroup which will be five years old this month. The group was founded on February 22, 2007. It was created as a moderated alternative to the chaotic problems on many of the un-moderated newsgroups of the time. Since then it has become a model that other hobby radio Newsgroups are attempting to emulate. If you haven't participated on Usenet in a while you might want to take a look at rec.radio.amateur.moderated. Its quite a bit more mature than other hobby groups in the Usenet genre. As an aside, Amateur Radio Newsline has been distributed on rec.radio.amateur.moderated almost since that Newsgroup was formed and we hope that we helped in some way in the group's long term success. (ARNewslineT) ** HAM HAPPENINGS: SARL LEAP YEAR CHALLENGE Hams are invited to take part in the South Africa Radio League-sponsored Leap Year Challenge on Wednesday February 29th. The challenge starts at 00:01 and ends at 23:59 South Africa Time. Modes acceptable include phone, CW and digital activity on all bands including HF, VHF, UHF and microwaves. The objective is simply to make as many contacts as you can on this day. The rules permit you to work a station once only regardless of band, mode or call sign. Logs go by e-mail to zs4bfn (at) netactive (dot) co (dot) za and must be received by midnight Friday March 2nd, 2012. A South Africa Radio League membership is up for grabs for the log received with the most QSO's made. Also this reminder: If you do not take part, you will have to wait until 2016 to put the date February 29th into your logbook! (SARL) ** 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) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: A SPRAY-ON ANTENNA Ever found yourself without a signal and wished you could just spray one on like magic? Soon, you may be able to do just that. Michael Grebert, N4OZ is here with more: -- Chamtech Enterprises, of Sandy, Utah, has developed a sprayon antenna material that it says is more lightweight and energy efficient than current technology. Revealed at Google's inaugural "Solve for X" symposium, the company says than an antenna can be painted onto almost any surface including trees, walls and even on fabrics. Chamtech says that it is already talking with governmentbased customers, and as such can't give too much detail on how it works. However it has released information that its material uses organic elements that have the ability to interact with magnetic and radio-frequency fields. The company's Chief Technology Officer is Rhett Spencer. Spencer is quoted as saying the antenna could increase mobile energy efficiency by 10 percent. Also that it was found to work particularly well under water. Observers at the event say that being organic could make it ideal for subaquatic telecommunications infrastructure. Prelimnary tests on current a generation cell phone showed that the product was able to boost signals by an impressive 20 dbm when painted over the standard internal antenna. From our point of view, for ham radio operators living in antenna restricted areas such as apartments or condominiums, the possibilities of a product such as this could be endless. All a ham might need is a bit of imagination and some of the spray-on antenna paint to get on the air with a signal much stronger than from the rubber duckie on his or her HT. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Michael Grebert, N4OZ, not far from Music City, Nashville, Tennessee. -- For more information about the Chamtech spray-on antenna material you can take your web browser to www.chamtechops.com. A video with a talk about the technology involved is on-line at tinyurl.com/spray-onantenna. (N4OZ, FutureTech) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ESA FIRST VEGA LAUNCH A SUCCESS The maiden voyage of the European Space Agency's new Vega launch vehicle has successfully lofted a research satellite along with eight student built microsats into space. The first Vega launch took place from the ESA spaceport in Korou, French Guiana at 10:00 UTC on Monday, February 13th. The primary payload was the Italian Space Agency's Laser Relativity Spacecraft. Its primary mission is the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect, also known as frame-dragging. The satellite may also be used for measurements in the fields of Geodynamics and Satellite geodesy. The secondary payload of the eight student-built MicroSats will transmit telemetry in the VHF, UHF and microwave amateur bands. One of the tiny birds named PW-Sat includes a voice repeater in addition to its telemetry transponder. Its uplink is at 435.020 MHz with its downlink at145.900 MHz. PW-Sat sends its telemetry using1200 baud packet as well as CW on 435.020 MHz. (ESA, AMSAT) ** RADIO IN SPACE: RUSSIA SAYS RADIATION CAUSED PHOBOS-GRUNT FAILURE Russia is blaming solar radiation for a computer glitch that doomed its Phobos-Grunt Mars moon mission, but space industry experts cast doubt on the findings of an investigation into the crash of what was to be Moscow's first deep space mission in two decades. Amateur Radio Newsline's Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, reports: -- The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was stranded in Earth orbit after launch in November and crashed into the Pacific Ocean in January. Russian Space Agency Chief Vladimir Popovkin said that in the opinion of the commission, the most likely reason for the mishap was the local impact of heavily charged space particles that led to a failure in the memory of the main onboard computer in the second stage of flight. Popovkin went on to say that foreign-made counterfeit or defective microchips were partly to blame for the failure of the $165-million spacecraft, designed to retrieve soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos. He said that a burst of space radiation caused the onboard computers to reboot and go into standby mode. But others doubt this to be the case. Rather experts on spaceflight say that Moscow was blaming external factors for the loss of its ambitious Mars mission to distract from chronic failings with its once-pioneering industry. Alexander Zakharov, was the mission's lead scientist. He has been quoted as saying that even if this was the true which cannot be completely ruled out because it does happen, then there is some kind of problem with the flight system or the programming, which were not designed to guard against space radiation. Another space industry source said potentially damaging bursts of radiation were highly unlikely in low-Earth orbit, where hundreds of satellites circle within the protective bubble of the planet's magnetic field. But Russia's State News Agency has cited an industry source of its own. That unnamed source inferred that the critics are incorrect saying it was absurd to think that the PhobosGrunt had not been made to withstand cosmic rays on its two year interplanetary mission. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Cheryl Lasek, K9BIK, in Zion, Illinois. -- The failure of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft to leave Earth orbit was the latest in a series of mishaps that have plagued Russua's spavce program the past year. (Various published news reports) ** WORLDBEAT: RADIO AUSTRALIA MAY BE BACK ON THE AIR FROM FIJI Radio Australia may broadcast again from Fiji. Andy Sennit reports via the Media Network blog that Fiji's coup installed military government has signaled it is looking at allowing Radio Australia to broadcast inside the country again. Power to the two transmitters, one in Nadi and the other in Suva, was switched off by the interim government in 2009, three years after the 2006 coup led by military commander Frank Bainimarama. But Fiji's permanent secretary of information, Sharon Smith Johns told Pacific Beat's Geraldine Coutts that she is looking at reversing the policy. (Media Network) ** DX In DX, Albania will be on the air during the 2012 CQ WPX SSB Contest. This with word that TA1HZ will operate from that nation as ZA1TC for the period of March 23rd to the 26th that includes the contest weekend. During his spare time outside the contest he will try to work some PSK31, especially on 30m band. Details and QSL info is on www.qrz.com. Lastly, HA5PP will be active from Malta as 9H3PP on May 26th and 27th during the CQ W W WPX CW Contest as a SingleOperator Single-Band entry. Activity outside of the contest will be on 6 and 12 meters, and possibly s 17 meters as well. QSL via HA5PP. (Above from various DX news sources) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: COORDINATING THE SUPERBOWL And finally this week, a tale of frequency coordination to the stars. Not the stars in the sky but those on the football field at this years Superbowl. It's also the story of the part played in the process by a number of Hoosier state radio amateurs. Here's Jack Parker, W8ISH: -- INDY SUPER BOWL HAMS Actuality Audio: "Check one two three four.This is about a team an organization.I've just gone from hotel to stadium..It was a great experience oversall." -- From mic checks to Manning to Madonna to the man on the street the airwaves around downtown Indianapolis were full of frequencies from over 3500 hundred transmitters. For two weeks prior to Super Bowl 46, and through the game itself, hundreds of radio and television stations were vying for radio spectrum in their efforts to cover the greatest show in professional football. Keeping interference to a minimum is the job of the Super Bowl Frequency Coordination Committee. It is a team of 46 six, including 17 Amateur Radio operators from central Indiana. Their mission was to log, tag and tune all wireless transmitters from broadcast media from around the world. As Super Bowl Sunday approached the job of preventing interference became a super task. The Indianapolis Super Bowl village, Lucas Oil Stadium and major hotels are located in a one mile square area. According to one volunteer, that is a lot of RF in a small area. According to organizers the area of frequency control was expanded on game day stretching out about 30 miles into the suburbs of central Indiana. The bottom line for all this effort, was to make sure the radio transmitters to each quarterback on the field was interference free throughout Super Bowl 46. -- Actuality Audio: "Check one two..two..everyones good." -- Reporting from Indianapolis, I'm Jack Parker, W8ISH. -- Radio frequency coordination has become an important part of many broadcast sports, but few other than the Olympics require the amount of spectrum as does the Superbowl each year. (W8ISH) ** 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 and Australia's WIA News, that's all from the Amateur Radio NewslineT. Our e-mail address is newsline(at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350 For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW and I'm Jeff Clark, K8JAC, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.