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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2289 for Friday September 10th, 2021

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2289 with a release date of Friday September 10th, 2021 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. A rocket explosion destroys two European
satellites. Hams help safeguard animals in a California wildfire -- and
have you ever logged a contact with a hot-air balloon? All this and
more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2289 comes your way
rightnow.

***
BILLBOARD CART

**
RADIO OPERATORS SUPPORT WILDFIRE ANIMAL RESCUE

DON/ANCHOR: We begin this week with an update on the wildfires plaguing
the US West Coast. In California, the Caldor Fire hasn't just left its
impact on residents and business owners in the more than 200,000 acres
it has destroyed: The animals who live there are suffering as well.
Amateur radio operators are stepping in to help these victims of this
historic blaze too. Ralph Squillace KK6ITB has the details.

RALPH: As flames of the Caldor Fire began sweeping perilously close to
their homes starting in mid-August, residents were quickly evacuated to
safety, often having to leave behind their pets and livestock. That's
where hams in the El Dorado County Amateur Radio club and members of
its Neighborhood Radio Watch program have stepped in. They've been
providing radio communications support to those who have not forgotten
the animals. According to Alan Thompson W6WN, the club's public
information officer, radio operators have been assisting the South
County Large Animal Rescue Group, El Dorado County Animal Services and
the various emergency response agencies around California. The
organizations are conducting welfare checks throughout the fire-damaged
county, looking after animals who are sheltering in placeâ-"or
facilitating a rescue when necessary. The hams themselves are getting
support too: They're being joined by volunteers in the club's
Neighborhood Radio Watch program, area residents using inexpensive
General Mobile Radio Service, or GMRS, radios.

Alan wrote to Newsline: [quote] "We desperately love our animal
companions." [endquote] The club reminds people in the affected areas
to contact El Dorado County Animal Services or the shelter if they
have animals they are concerned about. You'll find the phone numbers in
the printed script of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.

[PRINT ONLY, do not read: Western slope: 530-621-5795; the shelter: 530-621-7631; South Tahoe area: 530-573-7925]

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(ALAN THOMPSON W6WN)

**
GENESIS SATELLITES DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION

DON/ANCHOR: Two European-built amateur radio satellites were destroyed
in an explosion during their rocket's first test flight. Ed Durrant
DD5LP has details.

ED: The pair of AMSAT-EA Genesis satellites that were aboard the first
test flight of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha launch vehicle were destroyed
when the rocket, fueled by kerosene, launched from the Vandenberg Air
Force Base north west of Los Angelesâ-"and then exploded. The blast
blew apart the GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N satellites that had been built
in collaboration with the Universidad Europea and ICAI. The satellites
were outfitted for amateur communications using Amplitude Shift Keying
and CW. Earliest reports on Twitter described what happened two and a
half minutes after lift-off, saying the vehicle [quote] "appeared to
lose control and tumble moments before the fiery explosion." [end
quote]. According to a report on SpaceNews, the lift-off occurred only
after a first launch attempt was made an hour earlier but was aborted
in the final seconds of the countdown. The two digital repeater
satellites were among several on board the rocket built by Texas-based
Firefly Aerospace. Firefly tweeted [quote] "Alpha experienced an
anomaly during first stage ascent that resulted in the loss of the
vehicle." [end quote] The company was previously known as Firefly Space
Systems before entering bankruptcy, which it emerged from in 2017 with
new owners.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP.

(TWITTER; SPACENEWS, AMSAT)

**
MEET ARRL MAXIM AWARD WINNER: KATHERINE FORSON, KT5KMF

DON/ANCHOR: A Texas high school honor student has received the ARRL's
premier honor, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award. Paul Braun WD9GCO introduces us to her.

PAUL: As we discover every year with our Young Ham Of The Year award,
there are some amazing young people in our hobby today. One of those is Katherine Forson, KT5KMF, the American Radio Relay League's 2021 Hiram
Percy Maxim Award winner.

I spoke with the remarkable young woman, who was licensed as a Tech at
the age of nine and was an Extra five years later. Forson said she
loves the public-service aspect of amateur radio, and participates in a
variety of local events throughout the year. She's also fascinated by
the opportunities that the digital modes, such as FT-8, afford
operators. But what's most interesting to her is that ham radio has
helped her decide her future:

FORSON: This is actually pretty interesting because ham radio has
helped me a lot in figuring that out. Yes, I am a trained Skywarn storm
spotter â-" I actually want to be a meteorologist. I finished just a
couple weeks ago my application to Texas A&M. They have an incredible geosciences program there and specifically meteorology. They have the
oldest ham radio club in Texas on campus and they also have a student
storm chasing team.

PAUL: When asked if she had any advice for other young women who may be hesitant about getting into radio or science, like she did, she
offeredthis:

FORSON: If it's something you want to do, you go for it. I can remember
when I first got licensed, when I was taking my test it was this room
full of adult men and I was this tiny 9-year-old girl and I tried to
use a giant calculator. It was awkward at first, but it's become
something that I love, it's given me something that I have in common
with my family, and it's helped me figure out what I want to do with my
life so I think, even if it's intimidating at first, don't let that
stop you. Don't let being one of the few women, one of the few young
girls, stop you.

PAUL: Forson is working with other Texas-area female hams to create a YL-friendly online community tied into the ARRL North Texas section
website.

Promoting youth in amateur radio is something near and dear to our
hearts here at Amateur Radio Newsline. Our 2020 Young Ham of the Year,
Chris Brault, was a former Maxim Award winner himself. Congratulations
from all of us at Newsline to Katherine Forson who has a bright future
ahead. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.


**
US HAMS ACTIVATE THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

DON/ANCHOR: America's Appalachian Trail has always captured hikers' imaginations and next month it will be capturing hundreds and hundreds
of miles of radio signals. Jim Damron N8TMW has that report.

JIM: In the United States, the 2,190-mile-long Appalachian Trail will
present 2,190 miles of possibilities for SOTA and POTA activators on
Saturday, October 2nd. SOTA enthusiasts are already registering to
activate summits that are within a short distance on the trail and hams
will be calling between 1200 UTC and 2100 UTC throughout the day. If
you're an avid hiker as well as a SOTA or POTA activator, you have time
to add your name and your summit or park of choice to the list by
sending an email to A T ontheair at gmail dot com
(ATontheair@gmail.com). SOTA activators may also post an alert on
SOTAWatch. This event is being held on the same day as the W7A s2s
10-point madness so it's recommended that SOTA chasers stand by and
defer to summits calling other summits.

For details visit the Appalachian Trail on the air website. The URL is
listed in the printed script of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Damron N8TMW.

[DO NOT READ: atontheair.com] (SOTA REFLECTOR, ATONTHEAIR)

**

LISATS HAM CLUB TO RETRANSMIT INSPIRATION4 LAUNCH

DON/ANCHOR: If you want to hear history as it happens, be listening for
the audio retransmissions provided by the Launch Information Service
and Amateur Television System. They'll be retransmitting feeds of the
countdown and the booster recovery for SpaceX's Inspiration4, a
three-day mission featuring the first all-civilian crew inside a Crew
Dragon spacecraft. It's a charity flight for the benefit of St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital. At the time Newsline went to production,
liftoff was scheduled for September 15th. According to Joe Dolinsky,
W0WD, the LISATS (LEE-SATS) Amateur Radio Club repeater will carry
feeds of the transmissions. There is also a "listen live" button on
LISATS.ORG, the (LEE-SATS) website, which has links to Broadcastify.
Listening may also be possible via EchoLink at WB4ATV.

(JOE DOLINSKY W0WD)

**
IN SWITZERLAND, HIGH-FLYING QSOS IN HOT AIR BALLOON

DON/ANCHOR: Hams who are up for some high adventure in Switzerland are
taking their ambitions seriously by operating from a hot-air balloon.
Ed Durrant DD5LP tells us about their plans.

ED: Plans for the Helvetia Telegraphy Club's next big activation are up
in the air. In fact, the radio operators hope to get up in the air and
stay there for at least two hours aboard a hot-air balloon. Their
scheduled launch date is the 14th of September when they hope to start operating sometime after 0530 UTC. The callsign HB9HC/AM will be
activated by members of the USKA/HTC National Mountain Day Commission
as hams ascend to the sky over Switzerland, operating all the while on
40m, 30m and 20m. They will be transmitting with 15 watts of CW power,
making use of vertical dangling antennas. If you're interested in a
contact, watch the Reverse Beacon Network or the DX clusters. You can
also use APRS if you're interested in tracking the balloon's exact
position. Are the radio operators' hopes perhaps a bit overinflated?
Probably not: They're already advising everyone to get familiar with
such important Q codes as QAH for Altitude and QAL for Landing.

All details are on their website at the URL given in the script on our arnewsline.org website.

(DO NOT READ:
https://hb9htc.clubdesk.com/hb9htc5/aktivitaeten/hb9hcam_on_air)

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP.

(QRZ.COM, SOTA REFLECTOR, HELVETIA TELEGRAPHY CLUB)

**
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including
the K7MMA repeater in Spokane, Washington on Fridays at 5 p.m.
Pacifictime.

**
BBC INTERVIEWS DEVELOPER OF WORLD'S FIRST MICROSATELLITE

DON/ANCHOR: If you're a satellite enthusiast, you owe a bit of thanks
to one notable homebrewer, tinkerer and distinguished professor in the
UK. Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us about a recent BBC interview with him.

JEREMY: With an imagination fueled by NASA's Apollo missions a decade
earlier, Martin Sweeting G3YJO went on to launch a new era in space
himself: the age of microsatellites, which began as a homebrew project
built partly at home and partly on the University of Surrey campus.
That first, very basic microsatellite - U0Sat-1, the granddaddy of all
that would come later - was eventually launched by NASA in 1981.
Martin, an amateur radio operator since his student years, recalls in a
new interview with the BBC what it was like being the creator of the
first microsatellite in a pre-internet era. More than amateur radio communications tools, today's microsatellites aid the world in
navigation, scientific research, weather and environmental monitoring.
As satellite mega-constellations now revolutionize communications yet
further, Martin, a Distinguished Professor of Space Engineering at the university, also makes a plea to clean the skies of the hazard of space
junk. The BBC posted the half-hour interview on its website.

That URL is available in the script of this week's newscast at
arnewsline.org

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

[FOR PRINT: DO NOT READ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2h26]

(BBC SOUNDS)

**
YL AWARDS INTRODUCED INTO OCEANIA DX CONTEST

DON/ANCHOR: The Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association is
introducing a new twist or two on an old favorite DX contest now in its
76th year. With those details, here's Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.

JIM: If you're looking for contacts with stations in the Oceania region
and you happen to be a YL, you're in luck. The Oceania DX Contest is
taking place on two consecutive weekends â-" October 2nd and 3rd for
phone and October 9th and 10th for CW â-" and this year the spotlight
includes two awards being introduced specifically for YLs. Both awards, sponsored by ALARA, the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association,
are being given to a single-operator YL who achieve the highest
combined score in phone and CW. YLs inside the Oceania region are
eligible for the Florence McKenzie Award, named for Australia's first
known licensed female ham radio operator who received the callsign A2GA
in 1925. YLs in the rest of the world are eligible for the Austine
Henry Award, named for a prize-winning homebrewer who was a member of
the YASME Foundation, the RSGB, NZART and the ARRL. She became
Australia's third licensed YL in 1930 when she received the callsign
VK3YL. YLs who want to be considered for either award should
select the YL box on their entry form when they submit their log.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.

(YL BEAM)

**
AUSTRALIAN HAM CLUB INVITES THE WORLD

DON/ANCHOR: There's something for everyone in a new Special Interest
Group that's about to begin meeting up in Sydney, Australia. Best of
all, you don't even have to be in Australia to attend, as Graham Kemp
VK4BB tells us.

GRAHAM: The Bendigo Amateur Radio & Electronics Club is inviting you
all to Australia. The occasion is the startup of the club's Special
Interest Group Session, or SIGS. The first one is set for Friday,
September 17th at 7:30 p.m. local time. The location is club
headquarters in Bendigo East Hall in Bendigo but don't let the small
obstacle of an ocean or two prevent you from being a part of it: the
club is opening the session to attendees everywhere, via Zoom and every
radio club is encouraged to participate. According to an email from
Graeme Knight, VK3GRK, these sessions are being held on weekends at
BAREC headquarters and will cover a variety of topics, led by club
members with expertise in those areas. They will cover such topics as
CW, JS8Call, WinLink, mentoring and an introduction to amateur radio.

The Zoom details can be found in the script for this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp VK4BB.

[FOR PRINT ONLY, do not read: Meeting ID: 870 7458 1685 Passcode:
749704] Link to meeting is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87074581685?pwd=aXdrQ2l4eXlCdzdJOVRoOVdWQmtDd
z09

(BAREC)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, special event stations ED3SDC, EG1SDC through
EG8SDC and EH1SDC through EH8SDC are on the air from Spain until the
12th of September. The stations are commemorating the Asturias Day
Festival and its patron saint, Santina de Covadonga. Send QSLs to
EA1AUM, direct, by the Bureau, LoTW or eQSL. There are also
downloadable certificates. For more details visit QRZ.com.

Be listening for Mark, W5MED, who is at McMurdo Station on Ross Island
in Antarctica, AN-011, until October. Mark can be heard on the air on
14.243 MHz SSB and 14.070 MHz FT8. Send QSLs direct to K7MT and Logbook
of The World.

If you're planning to work any amateurs from Belgium, be listening for
the special prefix OS being used through the 12th of December. The
Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications has given permission for the substitution of the usual ON prefix to mark the
120th anniversary of the first transatlantic radio transmission by
Guglielo Marconi.

(RSGB, OHIO PENN DX)

**

KICKER: BROADBAND FOR THE BIRDS?

DON/ANCHOR: Our final story is transmitted signals, pigeons and a bit
of a flap that has nothing to do with those feathered wings. Neil Rapp
WB9VPG flutters in on a wing and a prayer with all those details.

NEIL: Satellite enthusiasts are known to call their passion "working
the birds." Who doesn't love the thrill of bouncing signals from on
high with a little help from some ham-friendly tech in the sky? But not
all birds, apparently, are friendly to radio signals. In this case, we
mean the feathered kind of birds which are being eyed for possible
disruption of a satellite broadband service. Call it suspected RFI -for
Ruffled Feather Interference. Pigeons, it seems, may be a source of
trouble for at least one man who is beta-testing Elon Musk's Starlink
service in the UK. Signals from the low-earth-orbit satellite system
are sent to small rooftop receiving dishes that could appear to be a
birdbath in need of refilling â-" that is, if you happen to be a
thirsty bird. Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey,
told the BBC in a recent report that he blames roosting pigeons for his intermittent lack of reception. The BBC interviewed an unnamed expert
who said the presence of pigeons could impact service but the BBC had
no comment from Starlink itself. One thing is certain, however:
satellites most definitely benefit from line of sight, not line of
flight.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Neil Rapp WB9VPG.

(BBC)

**
NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Thompson, W6WN; AMSAT; Appalachian
Trail on the Air; the ARRL; BAREC; BBC Sounds; CQ Magazine; David Behar
K7DB; Daily DX; FCC.Gov; Helvetia Telegraphy Club; Ohio Penn DX;
QRZ.com; Radio Society of Great Britain; the SOTA Reflector; Southgate
Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; Spacenews; Ted Randall's QSO
Radio Show; Twitter; WTWW Shortwave; the YL Beam; and you our
listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. You can write to
us at newsline@arnewsline.org. For more information or to support us
visit our official website at arnewsline.org.

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. As always we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

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