Congress May Change FCC Sunshine Rule

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and the Senate are reintroducing a bill to allow three or more Federal Communications Commissioners to meet in private, as long as no official agency action is taken.

Under current law, something known as the "sunshine" rule prohibits more than two FCC commissioners from talking to each other outside of a public meeting. The FCC Collaboration Act was reintroduced in the House by Representatives Anna Eshoo, John Shimkus and Mike Doyle. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Dean Heller plan to introduce the Senate counterpart.

The bill got sidelined last year when it was tucked in as a provision to a larger bill on FCC reform that Democratic party did not support. Otherwise, modifying the sunshine rule is something both sides of the aisle support.

Amateur-Satellite Service & Weak Signal Users

The IARU Region 1 2013 Interim Meeting slated for Vienna, Austreia in April will be discussing two proposals of importance to Amateur-Satellite Service and weak signal users. One that’s not very controversial is an amendment to the 28 MHz Bandplan to remove of the downlink only restriction in the 29.300 to 29.510 MHz satellite segment. But the other has raised some eyebrows. The one proposes the introduction of a new satellite downlink band for CW and SSB transponders at 144.000 to 144.035 MHz.

The latter proposal could have the affect of putting United States hams in a rather precarious position. As pointed out on the W6YX VHF Reflector, SSB transmissions are not allowed below 144.100 in the US, even if they come from space. More important is that 144.0 to 144.035 is already used almost exclusively for C-W based Earth-Moon-Earth communications and experimentation and interference from SSB voice would not be very welcome in that spectrum. (IARU-R1)

Australian amateurs could soon loose access to the band from 2300 to 2302 MHz

Australian amateurs could soon loose access to the band from 2300 to 2302 MHz.

  The Australian Communications and Media Authority or ACMA has informed the Wireless Institute of Australia of proposed changes to spectrum usage in the 2300 #to 2302 MHz band. Changes that will result in Advanced Licensees losing access to that spectrum.

The ACMA proposes to acquire the spectrum for LTE radio purposes. LTE, or Long Term Evolution, marketed as 4G LTE, is a wireless standard for high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. The change would give LTE services the full 100MHz segment from 2300 #to 2400MHz, which would resultin twenty 5MHz LTE channels

Losing any spectrum is of great concern to Australian radio amateurs as this secondary allocation is the only viable option for Earth-Moon-Earth contacts to Region II where the this activity is on 2304 MHz or Region I which uses 2320 MHz. After the reallocation Australian amateur EME activity would be confined to 2400 MHz and above, where wireless medical and Wi-Fi equipment is likely to cause interference weak signal reception by EME stations. And for hams in VK land it could mean that most EME operations could come to an end.
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The Australian Communications and Media Authority plans to recommend the change to the Minister for Broadband Communications and Digital Economy in the near future. If the Minister approves the change radio Australian amateurs will probably lose access to the spectrum sometime in 2015. More on this situation is on-line at wia.org.au (WIA)

ARC to Phase Out Emergency Communication Response Vehicles

American Red Cross to Phase Out Emergency Communication Response Vehicles 

The American Red Cross has made the decision to phase out and decommission its Emergency Communication Response Vehicles (ECRVs), due to changes in technology, as well as a new satellite system and other factors regarding the vehicle fleet. “Retrofitting the decade-old vehicles with new equipment is not a good use of donated funds, as the long-term strategy is to move to more portable systems,” American Red Cross Disaster Services Technology Manager Keith Robertory, KG4UIR, told the ARRL. “This is consistent with the trends in the telecom and technology industries.”
The American Red Cross will be removing the Amateur Radios from the ECRVs as part of the decommissioning process. These radios will either become part of the deployable inventory or provided to the local American Red Cross chapter to build local capacity. Equipment that can be used by the American Red Cross will not be phased out with the vehicle. According to Robertory, every communication capability of the ECRV already exists -- or will soon exist -- as a rapidly deployable kit that can be loaded on any vehicle that is owned or rented by the American Red Cross, providing more flexibility in shaping its response to match the disaster.
“From a radio perspective, the American Red Cross has a variety of different kits for amateur, business and public safety bands covering HF, VHF and UHF with portable radios, mobile units and base stations,” he explained. “Two-way radio remains a valuable tool, providing communications in the initial days or weeks of a disaster, until normal communications is restored. Each American Red Cross chapter should continue with -- and improve -- the relationship with their local Amateur Radio operators. In a disaster, Amateur Radio will be the fastest deployed radio network because operators already live in the impacted communities.”
Robertory called the ECRV operators “the key to the success of the ECRV program through the years,” saying their skills, dedication and flexibility have made the ECRV one of the most visible aspects of the American Red Cross Disaster Technology team. The ability to establish connectivity and communications remains vital to the American Red Cross, and their skills will continue to be needed as the American Red Cross implements new technology strategy and tactics. The commitment and flexibility of technologists -- including radio operators -- is what makes technology on a disaster successful. Building our future path based on the lessons we have learned is important to keep us all successful.”
Radio amateurs who are concerned about how the decommissioning of ECRVs will affect opportunities to serve the American Red Cross can be assured that such opportunities still exist. “This should not be seen as a setback for those radio amateurs who are working with the American Red Cross,” said ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, KI1U. “In disaster response, adaptability is critical and keeping up with new technology is essential. This all must be done with a mind toward an effective and efficient response. Amateurs have played an important role in assisting the American Red Cross with their mission and I know we will continue to do so in the future.”
Information about how to purchase these vehicles will be shared at a later date.

source; ARRL
http://www.arrl.org/

This news item originally appeared in the February 20 edition of the ARRL ARES® E-Letter. Click here to subscribe.

 

Smartphone-Sat- STRAND-1

STRAND-1 AMATEUR RADIO SMARTPHONE CUBESAT TO LAUNCH FEBRUARY 25

The BBC says that the world’s first 'smartphone-sat' project called STRAND-1 will be ready to launch at the end of February. The STRAND-1 CubeSat will carry a Google Nexus One Android smartphone into space to demonstrate the feasibility of using cheap smartphone’s electronics to control a spacecraft.

Also included will be a software-based speech synthesizer to commemorate the U-O-SAT family of amateur radio satellites that were launched in the 1980′s. There will also be an amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.575 MHz.

The STRAND-1 satellite was built in Guildford in the United Kingdom by volunteers from the Surrey Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in their spare time. It is planned to be launched on February 25th into a 785 km orbit by the Indian Space Research Organization rocket. More is on-line at www.amsat-uk.org and we will have more ham radio space related news later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (AMSAT-UK)

NWS Radio Site is Off Air Due to Copper Theft

National Weather Service Coordination Meteorologist Hector Guererro reports that a case of vandalism at the Coleman National Weather Service transmission site in Texas. One that took the Weather Radio station transmitter temporarily off the air.

Guererro said that county authorities reported that vandals broke into the transmitter building north of Coleman and stole the copper data feed lines that come from the city of San Angelo. The weather alert transmitter, which identifies as WXN-89, operates at 162.475 MHz. News reports say that many area Weather Alert radios and scanners are tuned to that frequency.

The lines are being replaced and the transmitter should be back on the air by the time you hear this report. Federal officials as well as Coleman county authorities are investigating the break-in and vandalism that damaged the federal government transmitting facility. (Nuizer.com, Brownwooid News)
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KWWK KNOCKED OFF THE AIR BY COPPER THIEF

Rochester Minnesota police are investigating a recent copper theft that took a local radio station off the air. Early Monday, February 4th, someone broke into the KWWK radio transmitter and tower site. The thief made off with both copper transmission line and a motor. An engineer found the crime when he went into work around 4 a.m.. Damage to the property is estimated at $550. (KTTC, others)

U.S. Tornado Environment Browser

New:  A tornado environment browser for the contiguous United States is now available. A tornado environment—convective mode sample (2003-2011) displays statistical information of supercell-related convective parameters accompanied by smoothed tornadic convective mode climatology images. (Updated: January 22 2013)

source; http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/envbrowser/

ARISS has switched after experiencing issues w/Kenwood D700

ARISS has switched radios. After experiencing issues with the Kenwood D700 on two consecutive school contacts, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station operations have announced plans to use the Ericsson radio on the Columbus module for all contacts until problems with the D700 are resolved.

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, is AMSAT's Vice President for Human Spaceflight Programs. He says that for some reason signals from the Service Module Kenwood D700 radio are much diminished. He notes that a recent contact with Israel had low audio levels. Another contact with the Hospital for Sick Children was even worse. Only one student was able to talk to Chris Hadfield before signals on the ground were lost even though the crew reports hearing the ground station well.

It should be noted that both these contacts were with made using telebridge stations which have above average gear. Also astro-ham Hadfield used the space stations IP Phone, immediately after the hospital radio contact and answered all the student's questions so that all was not lost. A later contact with a school in Japan using the Columbus Module Ericsson radio proved very successful. (ANS, ARISS)

WATCH: Meteorite Crash in Russia - UFO fears spark panic in the Urals

Metorite Impacts Russia; 500 injured.

Meteorite hits Russian Urals: Fireball explosion wreaks havoc, up to 500 injured (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Click Here

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/

Close Earth Flyby of Asteroid

At 2:25 p.m. EST (19:25 UTC) on Friday, Feb. 15th, asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our planet's surface. This will put it well inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, closer than any asteroid of the same size has come since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s. Researchers speculate that Earth's gravity might even cause seismic activity on the 50m-wide space rock. Click to view a computer simulation of the flyby, courtesy of NASA:

During the hours around closest approach, the asteroid will brighten until it resembles a star of 8th magnitude. Theoretically, that’s an easy target for backyard telescopes. The problem is speed. The asteroid will be racing across the sky, moving almost a full degree (or twice the width of a full Moon) every minute. That’s going to be hard to track. Only the most experienced amateur astronomers are likely to succeed. For the rest of us, NASA will broadcast the asteroid's flyby on NASA TV.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is about the same size as previous asteroids responsible for the Meteor Crater in Arizona and the Tunguska Event in Siberia. Unlike those objects, however, 2012 DA14 will not hit Earth. Even if seismic activity breaks the asteroid apart, there is no danger; the fragments would continue along the same non-intersecting path as the original asteroid.

source;
SpaceWeather.com 
 http://spaceweather.com/

NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130201315144.html

QCWA Dayton Banquet Announced

More Dayton Hamvention related news this week.  This in the
announcement by the Quarter Century Wireless Association
that it will be holding QCWA Banquet: on Friday May 17th at
the Dayton Airport Holiday Inn.  The dinner begins at 7:30
p.m. Eastern Daylight Time .  The after dinner speaker will
be  James Crabtree with a presentation on Lincoln.  Cost is
$25 per person.  Reservations and payment go to Jerry
Ragland, WA8BOB, 409 Park Av. Franklin, Ohio, 45005.