SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION APRIL 26 - 28

The 2013 South African Radio League's National Convention
and Annual General meeting will be held April 26th to the
28th at the Sulla Via Venue not far from Johannesburg.  This
years gathering will be hosted by the West Rand Amateur
Radio Club with Kenny Neville from West Rand Astronomy Club
as the featured guest speaker.  If conditions are clear
Neville's talk may be followed by a sky gazing party.  More
information, further program details and reservation forms
should be on-line right now at will be available on
www.sarl.org.za.  The planners hope to see many ham radio
operators there.

APRS EXPERIMENT

APRS works to extend communications range underground.
So says the modes developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, who
reports on an experiment that took place on March 2nd .  One
where he and several other hams tested the use of APRS as a
means to extend radio communications underground in Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky.

According to Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, typically, VHF and UHF
radio in underground caves are limited to only a few hundred
feet and strictly line-of-sight making their routine use of
little value.  But with APRS radios acting as packet
digipeaters, these few hundreds of feet can be extended by
an order of magnitude.

Bruninga says that in the test a total of 14 APRS equipped
radios were used in the cave to establish a network almost a
mile long providing real-time position and text message
communications along the route.  Cavers carried a map of the
cave marked with a Latitude and Longitude grid so they could
manually enter their position into their handheld APRS-
equipped transceivers.   Texting via APRS provided
communications end to end.

Among the interesting findings were that UHF worked about
13% better than VHF withan average link distance of about
450 feet even in the large subway sized passages of Mammoth
Cave.  Also power did not seem to matter much. The Kenwood
TH-D72 walkie-talkie performed as well as several portable
10 watt mobile radios housed in boxes.

Another advantage of using UHF for this APRS network was
that individual links in other caves can just as easily be
pre-tested by unlicensed cave explorers using inexpensive
FRS radios.  This way, all cavers can plan and individually
test the topology of an APRS network before actually
gathering the required APRS equipment and setting up the
actual expedition.
 

Peak of Cycle 24

Something unexpected appears to be happening on the sun.
2013 is supposed to be the year of Solar Max also known as
the peak of Cycle 24.  Yet 2013 has arrived and solar
activity is relatively low.  Sunspot numbers are well below
their values in 2011, and strong solar flares have been
infrequent for many months.  The quiet has led some
observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark.

Dean Pesnell is a Solar physicist at the Goddard Space
Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.  He suggests that this
is the solar maximum, but it looks different from what we
expected because it will be double peaked.

Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back
and forth like a simple pendulum.  At one end of the cycle,
there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares.  At the
other end, the Solar Max brings high sunspot numbers and
solar storms with a regular rhythm that repeats every 11
years.

Reality, however, is more complicated.  Astronomers have
been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen
that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular.  For one
thing, the back-and-forth swing in sunspot counts can take
anywhere from 10 to 13 years to complete.  Also, the
amplitude of the cycle varies.  Some solar maxima are very
weak while others can be very strong.

And as researcher Pesnell notes, there is yet another
complication.  He says that the last two solar maxima,
around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.  He says
that solar activity went up, dipped, and then resumed while
performing a mini-cycle within the Solar Max that lasted
about two years.

Pesnell says that the same thing could be happening now.  He
notes that sunspot counts jumped in 2011 and dipped in 2012.
As such, he expects them to rebound again saying that
another peak will happen in 2013 and possibly last into
2014.  Lets hope he is right.

LES 1

 Phil Williams, G3YPQ, is an Amateur Radio Astronomer in
North Cornwall in the U.K..  According to reports he
accidentally picked up the signal and after cross checking
with various lists, he identified it as LES 1.

LES 1 was built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and launched in 1965. The satellite failed to reach its
intended orbit owing to a wiring error and has been drifting
out of control ever since.

Williams ran across it while monitoring near 237 MHz when he
noticed a signal with a peculiar signal drift caused by the
bird tumbling end over end every 4 seconds as the solar
panels became shadowed by the satellites engine.  Williams
said that gives the signal a particularly ghostly sound as
the voltage from the solar panels fluctuates.

The LES 1 satellite is about the size of a small car and is
not likely to re-enter the atmosphere for a long time as the
orbit is still relatively high.  It poses no threat other
than that caused by the thousands of other pieces of space
junk currently in orbit.  By now its likely that the on
board batteries have now disintegrated so its likely that
some other component failure has caused the transmitter to
start up when its in sunlight bringing the ghost satellite
back to life.

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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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