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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2329 for Friday June 17th, 2022

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2329 with a release date of Friday
June 17th, 2022 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams help reunite a family in India. A disaster
drill goes forward in Washington State -- and German amateurs roll out
a national emergency-response plan. All this and more as Amateur Radio
Newsline Report Number 2329 comes your way right now.

**
BILLBOARD CART

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DISASTER-RESPONSE PROGRAM DEBUTS IN GERMANY

DON/ANCHOR: We begin this week with disaster preparedness. As the world
focuses increasingly on changing weather and geologic hazards, a disaster-response program with wide-ranging potential has made its
debut in Germany. Ed Durrant DD5LP brings us the details.

ED: Germany's amateur radio community is launching a wide-ranging
programme of disaster response. The pilot project is being led by the
German Amateur Radio Club, the DARC, in cooperation with Notfunk
Bodensee, a Lake Constance radio response group. The need for broader
and improved response was underscored recently by the devastating
floods in the Ahr Valley. The new network has started to be rolled out
near Lake Constance in Markdorf, where a donated emergency
communications vehicle is being put into service. Organisers say that
the effective radio response during the 1999 avalanche in Galtür
proved to be a good model for Germany's amateur radio response but in
the intervening years, communications capability has progressed even
more. The initiative is expected to expand next into Ravensburg and
Lindau. Greater detail will be unveiled at Ham Radio Friedrichschafen
on Friday, June 24th.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP.

**
HAMS PLAY PROMINENT ROLE IN WASHINGTON STATE EMERGENCY DRILL

DON/ANCHOR: Meanwhile in the US, a disaster drill switched formats and
reported some rewarding results. The Cascadia Rising prepareness
exercise in the Pacific Northwest region tests emergency response by government, business and volunteers in the face of an earthquake and
subsequent tsunami. This year's exercise, however, was unprecedented:
With the region's resources stretched from historic wildfires, periods
of intense rain and the ongoing pandemic, organizers opted to hold this
year's Cascadia Rising as a discussion-based drill. It was conducted
virtually on Microsoft Teams rather than as the customary simulation of previous years. Robert Sabarese, assessment and exercise programs
supervisor with the Washington State Emergency Management Division,
told Newsline that during the drill, which ran from June 13th to 16th,
amateur radio emerged with even greater potential for deeper
involvement. He said there was new clarity in how hams can be further
deployed beyond their critical early roles aiding transportation and resource-delivery to disaster victims.

(ROBERT SABARESE)

**

WEST BENGAL HAMS REUNITE FAMILY AFTER 2 YEARS

DON/ANCHOR: In West Bengal, India, a hospitalized woman was reunited
with her family in Bangladesh nearly two and a half years after falling
ill and becoming separated from them - and amateur radio provided the
vital connection. Jim Meachen ZL2BHF has that story.

JIM: When authorities contacted members of the West Bengal Radio Club
in India several months ago to assist a hospitalised woman in the city
of Jhargram, the hams knew they would have to accomplish something
they'd done so many times before: reunite a family with a missing
member. According to a news report in the Millennium Post, a woman who
was found by the side of the road 30 months earlier was found to be
suffering from a mental condition and was hospitalised to begin a
lengthy course of treatment. She was unable to provide information on
the whereabouts of any family members. Local officials reached out to
the radio amateurs and asked them to get involved. After eight months
of searching, they finally located the woman's brother in Bangladesh.
The woman confirmed that she knew him and expressed a desire to return
home. This month, three of the hams who were able to accompany her to
the border of the two countries to reunite with her brother. Ambarish
Nag Biswas VU2JFA, the club's secretary, identified the hams as
Nirmalendu Mahato, VU3IQW, Parimal Roy, VU3ZIM, and Sujata (soo-JOTTA)
Goswami (Ghos-WAMMI), VU3XBR.

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

(MILLENNIUM POST)

**
HAMS BUILD SKILLS, FRIENDSHIPS AT YOUTH ON THE AIR CAMP

DON/ANCHOR: This year's Youth on the Air camp for young operators in
the Americas is turning out to be a memorable one. Updating us now from
the middle of all the action is Neil Rapp WB9VPG.

NEIL: High temperatures and high winds haven't been enough to put a
damper on the 2022 Youth on the Air camp for the Americas in metro
Cincinnati, Ohio. Twenty-one campers have learned about contesting,
digital modes, and D-STAR, and built two direction-finding kits and a
code key. The team launched a high-altitude balloon with an APRS
beacon that reached just over 97,000 feet (30,000 metres), and a
mid-altitude balloon with a WSPR beacon that is still traveling around
the globe at about 30,000 feet (9,000 metres) with the identifier
K4PRM-1. As this story is being filed, the camp is approaching the
halfway point and about to embark on VHF contests at Kings Island
amusement park -- and of course, the campers have been on the air using
the callsign W8Y. Everyone is having a great time, learning a lot, and building a strong community of youth amateur radio operators.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm camp director Neil Rapp, WB9VPG in West Chester, Ohio.

**
NASA STUDIES DAMAGE TO WEBB TELESCOPE

DON/ANCHOR: Scientists are taking a second look at the damage caused by
a fragment that struck the Webb space telescope recently. Paul Braun
WD9GCO brings us up to date.

PAUL: The US Space Agency NASA is assessing the impact that a
micrometeoroid strike had on the James Webb Space Telescope, which it
struck last month. The dust-size fragment is reported to have hit one
of the primary mirror segments used in data collection. Engineers'
initial assessments show only a slight change in the performance of the
mirror and were able to reposition it in an attempt to compensate for
the strike. Reports say this was the fifth impact of its kind since the telescope was sent into space in December as the heir apparent to the
aging Hubble Telescope. NASA wrote in a blogpost that its analysis and measurements will continue. NASA is still on track for its July 12th
date to release the first images collected by the telescope.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Paul Braun WD9GCO.

(BBC, SPACEFLIGHT NOW)

**
PLANS PROCEED FOR OUTDATED SATELLITES' REMOVAL

DON/ANCHOR: The European Space Agency is involved in a project to
reduce the clutter of outdated satellites from the skies. John Williams
VK4JJW explains.

JOHN: Think of it as a high-flying system of air traffic control â-" an extremely high-flying system of air-traffic control. The European Space Agency's Sunrise Programme is preparing to rid space of
telecommunications satellites that have outlived their usefulness and
are junking up the skies. The removal process is being coordinated by Astroscale, a private company that removes orbital debris, and OneWeb,
the satellite network providing internet broadband. The ESA Partnership
Project is the first of its kind and is expected to produce a prototype
that can remove the outdated satellites from their low earth orbits.
The goal is to protect the environment where low-earth orbits take
place and to reduce the chance of collisions.

When the contract was awarded to Astroscale in 2019, the company said
the ESA initiative would [quote] "advance the environmentally
sustainable use of space" [endquote] and preserve its use for
generations to come.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm John Williams VK4JJW.

(AMSAT NEWS SERVICE, ASTROSCALE)

**
BRITISH HAMS ARRESTED AS SPIES IN ALBANIA

DON/ANCHOR: Two British radio amateurs were arrested by Albanian
authorities who claimed they were operating as spies. We have that
report from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: Authorities in Albania are investigating the activities of two
ham radio operators from Great Britain who were arrested in May after
amateur radio transceivers were discovered in their baggage. A report
of the incident appeared in the UK's Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily
Express newspapers. The men were not identified in the media accounts
but were said to have been charged with spying after being stopped at
Albania's Tirana International Airport on 30th May.

The news reports said that the men told police they were IT engineers
on holiday. After extensive questioning, the men were permitted to
return home. Their Kenwood radios were taken for further examination to determine whether they were capable of interfering with Albania's
military and secret service analogue radio frequencies. Investigators
were also studying the radios to see whether they could record
transmissions.

There were no further details about the case.

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

(THE DAILY MIRROR, DAILY MAIL AND DAILY EXPRESS)

**

BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world including
the W8SRC repeater in Dexter, Michigan on Fridays at 9 p.m.

**
EU COUNTRIES TO STANDARDIZE CHARGERS FOR HANDHELD ELECTRONICS

DON/ANCHOR: Life for users of handheld electronics in EU countries is
expected to get a little bit simpler, as we hear from Ed Durrant DD5LP.

ED: Electronics users in the EU nations will soon only be permitted to
use one kind of charger with their smartphones, headphones, tablets and
many other handheld electronic devices. The European Commission, the
executive branch of the EU, said that standardisation of all handheld
devices to use the same USB-C port by 2024 will make products more
sustainable and generate less electronic waste. Observers immediately
noticed that the move will have an especially big impact on companies
with proprietary chargers, such as Apple. Makers of laptops are being
given until later to complete the transition to universal
chargingports.

The tentative agreement was reached June 7th and amends the Radio
Equipment Directive. The agreement will undergo a formal vote after the
summer recess has ended.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Ed Durrant DD5LP.

(WASHINGTON POST, NPR, TECHMONITOR)

**

ITU's AMATEUR STATION MARKS 60 YEARS ON AIR

DON/ANCHOR: Congratulations to 4U1ITU, the amateur radio station of the International Telecommunications Union, which is marking 60 years of
operation as part of the United Nations specialized agency for
communication. Its first QSO in June of 1962 was with DL4VK in Germany
and that contact marked the start of a busy 24 hours in which more than
1,300 contacts worldwide were logged. The station has since logged more
than a million contacts in CW, SSB and digital modes, including its
first use of the weak signal mode software WSJT, which bounced signals
off the moon. That activation was made by Nobel laureate Joe Taylor
K1JT, the software's creator and was logged on the occasion of the
station's golden anniversary. In recent years 4U1ITU has logged
contacts with astronauts aboard the International Space Station and participated in the ARISS program with students in Switzerland.

(ITU)

**

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED IN IARU REGION 1 HAM CHALLENGE

DON/ANCHOR: Judges in the IARU Region 1 Ham Challenge have identified
the five finalists and Jeremy Boot G4NJH is here to tell us who
theyare.

JEREMY: As the IARU Region 1 Ham Challenge 2022 comes to its
conclusion, the five finalists have been announced. The jury has chosen
these proposals in keeping with the competition's goal to solicit ideas
that will draw more people into amateur radio and invigorate the hobby
for those already involved.

The finalists will continue in the competition at Ham Radio
Friedrichshafen, either online or in person, in a question-and-answer
forum. They are Nestor, 5B4AHZ, for a project known as "Escape Rooms,"
Gustavo, EA4HDN, for "AM BoB," Christian, HB9FEU, for "A public
database of fun projects for innovation," Luca, IU2FRL, for "UrgenSat"
and Guy, ZS6GUY, for "A Workbook that will showcase various aspects of
the hobby."

Their next task is to prepare a video about their project and a
document giving details on how they plan to make it a reality. Both the
video and the paper are due by the 22nd of June.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(IARU REGION 1)

**
SABLE ISLAND DXPEDITION LAUNCHES WEBSITE

DON/ANCHOR: If you're hoping to work the team on Sable Island off the
Canadian coast this fall, you can now track their progress with their
newly launched website. Here's Dave Parks WB8ODF with details.

DAVE: On a small North Atlantic island southeast of Nova Scotia,
Canada, you can expect to find gray seals, wild horses and ... amateur
radio operators. Well, the third group will only be in temporary
residence there on Sable Island, which is also known as the Sable
island National Park Reserve. The team plans a seven- or eight-day
DXpedition in October and November as CY0S.

A website was launched earlier this month to keep DX enthusiasts up to
date and it will be adding new information on a regular basis. The
website is c y 0 s dot com (cy0s.com) and continues to be updated by
webmaster Chaz, W4GKF, and Randy N0TG. The team, which includes three
DX Hall of Famers, expects to operate in a very small area on the
island so as not to have any impact on the animals.

Visit the website regularly for updates.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Dave Parks WB8ODF.

(SABLE ISLAND DXPEDITION WEBSITE)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, Barry, FO/KD6XU, has been active from French
Polynesia and can be heard from the Society Islands. Be listening for
him using CW mainly on 40-12m bands.

Listen for Team ZY8AM from the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil between July
1st and 12th. They will be active on 160m to 6m using CW, SSB and FT8.
QSL using LoTW or Direct only.

In Guatemala, Stephen, K4IM is on the air as TG9AWS until October.
Listen for him from 160 to 10 metres with a focus on RTTY. QSL via home
call, direct, LoTW, OQRS Club Log.

Roland, F8EN is on Gabon Island operating as TR8CR until the end of
July. Listen on 40, 30 and 20 meters where he is using CW. QSL via
F6AJA direct or bureau.

(DX-WORLD. NET)

**
KICKER: MORSE CODE IS KEYING UP IN AUTOMAKER'S NEW CAMPAIGN

DON/ANCHOR: For our final story, we look at how one car maker's ad
campaign has embraced the spirit of the DXpedition. In fact, the car
maker is using that campaign as a vehicle - a four-wheel-drive vehicle
in this case - to honor the kind of adventurous spirit found in amateur
radio and to celebrate - in a big way - Morse Code. Here's Mike Askins
KE5CXP with the details.

MIKE: There's no need to keep a secret about what's going on at Jeep:
the popular carmaker has been into Morse Code now for quite a few
years. In 2015, there was the campaign slogan "Don't Morse Code and
Drive," which gave good safety advice to motorists having off-road
adventures in their four-by-four. Later came a Morse Code message in
the cars themselves, dits and dahs in raised bumps visible on the
driver's left footrest. Decoded, the message spells out "Sand, Snow,
Rivers, and Rocks," the terrain the SUV was made to conquer with
relative ease. Now there's a new campaign called "Jeep Code," released
this past spring by the ad agency Publicis Groupe. The agency's
executive creative director said on the website Little Black Book
online that CW serves as an ideal match for Jeep because Morse Code is
a good form of communication for people in remote, off-road places. The
agency directed the creation of a website to complement the campaign,
letting people generate or translate their own Morse Code messages,
just for fun. That website is jeeplifeiscalling dot com
(jeeplifeiscalling.com)

When miles- or kilometres-per-hour teams up with words-per-minute, the
only thing left for the carmaker to do, perhaps, is to trade in all
those ignition keys.....for straight keys.

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Mike Askins KE5CXP.

(JEEPLIFEISCALLING.COM, LITTLE BLACK BOOK ONLINE, ADSOFTHEWORLD.COM)

**
NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to the Ads Of the World; AMSAT News
Service; ARRL; Astroscale; BBC; CQ Magazine; Daily Mirror; Daily
Express; David Behar K7DB; DX-World.net; JeepLifeIsCalling; IARU Region
1; Little Black Book Online; Millennium Post; NPR; Ohio Penn DX;
QRZ.com; Robert Sabarese; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Sable Island
DXpedition website; shortwaveradio.de; TechMonitor; the Washington
Post; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline. You can write to us at newsline@arnewsline.org. We remind our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that incurs expenses for its continued operation. If you
wish to support us, please visit our website at arnewsline.org and know
that we appreciate you all.

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 2022. All rights reserved.

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