Twitter telegraph?

Just when you think you know about technology convergence, along comes the simple Arduino project.
It involves a Morse code key, somewhat an old switch, with a new use in the form of modern Twitter.
Becoming a Tworse key you can send standard Twitter messages through a LAN cable and decoder.
The Arduino project includes the source code, hardware schematics and building instructions.

Check out @tworsekey on Twitter to read some examples sent from the actual device.

Or visit Google at https://code.google.com/p/tworsekey/

NOAA Satellites Aid in the Rescue of 207 People in 2011

In 2011, NOAA satellites were critical in the rescues of 207 people from life-threatening situations throughout the United States and its surrounding waters. The satellites picked up distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers, and relayed the information about their location to first responders on the ground.

NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons called PLBs.

Of the 207 saves last year, 122 people were rescued from the water, 14 from aviation incidents, and 71 in land situations where they used their PLBs. Other rescue highlights from the year include:

• Alaska had the most people rescued on land last year with 39, followed by Florida with 11, and California with 8.
• NOAA SARSAT played a critical role in the rescue of a group of student hikers from a grizzly bear attack in Alaska by directing first responders to the scene.
• In the pitch of night, two people were rescued from a life raft after their boat sank 140 miles off the coast of Marco Island, Fla.
• An elderly hiker was rescued 74 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo., during a heavy snowstorm.

“With each rescue, this system performs the way it was intended — as a real, life-saving network,” said Chris O’Connors, program manager for NOAA SARSAT.

When a NOAA satellite finds the location of a distress signal, the information is relayed to the SARSAT Mission Control Center based at NOAA’s Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. From there, the information is quickly sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated by either the U.S. Air Force for land rescues or the U.S. Coast Guard for water rescues.

Since 1982, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with supporting more than 30,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 6,700 in the United States and its surrounding waters.

By law, owners of emergency beacons are required to register them with NOAA at: http://www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov. That registration information often helps provide better and faster assistance to people in distress. It may also provide information about the location of the emergency, how many people need assistance, what type of help may be needed and other ways to contact the owner. At the end of 2011 NOAA’s registration database contained over 329,000 registrations.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

source

WorldRadio founder Armond Noble, N6WR, Silent Key

Armond Noble, N6WR, founder and publisher of WorldRadio magazine for 37 years, died February 1 in Sacramento, California after a short illness.

Noble, publisher of Sacramento-based International Travel News magazine, was hospitalized about two months ago, according to Editor David Tykol.

WorldRadio was published monthly from July 1971 until the end of 2008, when Noble sold the magazine to Hicksville, New York-based CQ Communications, Inc. With its February 2009 edition, it was renamed WorldRadio Online and became the first online-only major amateur radio publication.

Noble had a long and distinguished career in communications. From 1953 to 1955 he served in the U.S. Army with a VHF radio relay unit. He went on to positions at commercial radio and TV stations around the United States, including: KTWO-TV and KATI in Casper, Wyoming; KOOK-TV, Billings, Montana; KTVB, Boise, Idaho; KERO-TV, Bakersfield, California, WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and KCRA Radio in Sacramento.

During the Vietnam War, Noble was a reporter-photographer for TIME magazine and the Milwaukee Journal. He also served in the TIME-LIFE bureau in Sacramento

source; http://www.southgatearc.org/

RS-39 Now in Orbit.; Reception Reports Needed

The Chibis-M microsatellite, also known as RS-39, was placed on-orbit from a Russian Progress M cargo spacecraft on Tuesday January 24th. The satellite is designed to study atmospheric phenomena such as Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes associated with lightning.

RS-39 also carries CW beacons on 435.215 and 435.315 MHz. Hams hearing these signals are being asked to submit reception reports via e-mail to the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences at amateur-rs39 (at) chibis (dot) cosmos (dot) ru. Each report will be acknowledged with a special QSL card.

We will have more ham radio space related news later on in this week’s Amateur Radio Newsline report.

SumbandilaSat Fails

South Africa’s Defence Web reports that the nations second satellite, SumbandilaSat also known as SO-67 is no longer fully operational.

Rob Olivier is the head of Business Development at SunSpace. He told Defence Web that although contact can still be made with the satellite, it cannot capture images. As such it is no longer fulfilling its main purpose.

Oliver added that chances of repairing the satellite on-orbit are virtually none. As such SunSpace has moved on to other projects.

SumbandilaSat was damaged during a solar storm in the June of 2011.
The power supply to its onboard computer stopped working and the satellite stopped sending back images.

In addition to its primary mission SumbandilaSat also carried an radio payload as well. This consisted of a voice beacon, a store and forward parrot repeater and VHF to UHF FM repeater.

Yaesu to Introduce New Digital Radios in 2012

Yaesu is hinting that they will be coming out with new digital amateur radios in 2012.

A new pamphlet discussing amateur digital radios shows the new Vertex Standard APCO P-25 commercial radios, as well as new amateur radios based on the C4FM FDMA digital audio system commonly known as MotoTrobo.

The pamphlet makes it appear that Yaesu will be offering amateur gear based on the MotoTrobo digital standard sometime this. The new vertex radios look identical to their Motorola counterparts.

Our guess is that any launch of such a project would likely take place at the Dayton Hamvention in mid-May.

InnovAntennas have come to North America

InnovAntennas have come to North America. According to Bill Hein, AA7XT, the full line of high performance British built High Frequency, VHF and UHF amateur radio antennas from InnovAntennas are now available to customers across the United States at R&L Electronics in Hamilton, Ohio.

By way of background, InnovAntennas was launched in 2011 by Justin Johnson, G0KSC. This after his hobby of designing antennas for his personal use led to a flood of make one for me requests from amateur radio operators who recognized that Johnson’s designs outperformed they could buy in any U-K store.

Today, InnovAntennas is building antennas at a former boat factory in Canvey Island, England and selling its products directly via InnovAntennas.com and via a network of dealers in Europe, Australia, and now, the United States. Designs include the Loop Fed Array and Opposing Phase – Driven Element System Yagis both of which have become very popular in the world of Moonbounce or E-M-E operations.

For more information on the introduction of InnovAntennas to the United States ham radio marketplace, you can e-mail AA7XT to bill (at) innovantennas (dot) com. You can also check the R and L website at www.RandL.com.

SEVHFS Soliciting Papers for April Conference

Papers and other presentations are solicited The 15th Annual Southeastern VHF Society Conference to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 20th and 21st. Submissions are welcomed on both the technical and operational aspects of VHF, UHF and Microwave weak signal amateur radio. The deadline for the submission is February 17th.
More is on-line at www.svhfs.org.

LoTW to support CQ Operating Awards

CQ Communications and ARRL have signed an agreement to begin providing support for CQ-sponsored operating awards by the ARRL's Logbook of the World electronic confirmation system. CQ's awards will be the first non-ARRL awards supported by Logbook of the World and will be phased in, beginning with the CQ WPX award. Additional CQ awards will follow.

The target date for beginning Logbook of the World support for WPX is April 1st. Amateurs will be able to use Logbook of the World logs to generate lists of confirmed contacts to be submitted for WPX credit. Standard Logbook of the World credit fees and CQ award fees will apply.

The ARRL’s Logbook of the World system is an interactive database recording contacts between radio amateurs was created in 2003 and has been adopted by 47,500 radio amateurs worldwide. It already has records of 400 million contacts and grows weekly.

The agreement was announced jointly on Tuesday, January 24th by ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, and CQ Communications President Richard Ross, K2MGA

Emergency Email Launches FEMA Social Media Situation Page

Emergency Email & Wireless FEMA
Social Media Situation Page Links:

Situation Page announcement:
http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=1718&z=34

FEMA Social Media Twitter FEEDS Situation Page
http://www.vuetoo.com/vue1/situationpagenews.asp?sit=7759

FEMA Social Media Situation Fusion Page 2
http://www.vuetoo.com/vue1/situationpagenews.asp?sit=7761

THE EMERGENCY EMAIL & WIRELESS NETWORK
www.EmergencyEmail.org

Anchorage VEC License Element Waiver Request

The FCC has turned away a request from Alaska’s Anchorage Volunteer Examination Coordinator for a temporary blanket waiver of Section 97.505(a) of the Commission’s Rules. This, to allow the VEC to give individuals whose amateur radio operator licenses have expired examination credit for test elements previously passed so that all former licensees could be re-licensed without retesting.

The Anchorage VEC had filed for the waiver pending the outcome of a related rulemaking petition in FCC Docket WT 11-130. That request seeks the same end but on a permanent nationwide basis.

But in its denial order the FCC noted that individuals who do not hold a current or renewable amateur radio operator license, regardless of whether they have held one in the past, must demonstrate their qualifications to be amateur radio operators before obtaining a new license. As such, the approval of the requested waiver to allow examination credit to be granted for any previously held amateur service operator license would not serve the underlying purpose of the regulatory agency’s licensing rules.

The FCC also stated that amateur radio testing opportunities are widely available. It said that Volunteer Examiner teams can administer tests at any location and time convenient to them and the examinee. As such Anchorage VEC has not shown that requiring retesting of examinees whose operator licenses expired more than two years ago, including those of advanced years, is inequitable or unduly burdensome, or that these examinees have no reasonable alternative.

But this matter is far from closed. In its conclusion the FCC also noted that the dismissal of the Anchorage VEC’s waiver request is a separate matter from the groups pending Rule Making request in FCC Docket WT 11-130. As such this action is without prejudice to Anchorage VEC’s pending rule-making petition.

The Report and Order denying the Anchorage VEC’s waiver request was issued on Tuesday, January 24th. As we go to air it’s not known if the Anchorage VEC will appeal this decision or simply wait for the outcome on its underlying Rule Making request.

Interference from India Radio

Interference from All India Radio to the 40 meter band has been eliminated.

Wolfgang Hadel, DK2OM, in Siegbach, Germany, reports via the I-A-R-U Region 1 website that back last December 1st he and Peter Jost HB9CET of Zurich, Switzerland, noticed a band of white noise like interference on 40 meters. This from 6 dot 960 to 7 dot 040MHz and also on 7 dot 820 MHz and showing up every evening.

Calculation by DK2OM showed the center of the spurious emissions was expected to be on the center 7 dot 410 MHz. From this point the German and Swiss Departments of Post and Telecommunications became involved.

Both offices filed official complaints to their counterpart in India. VU2GMN assisted by filing a personal complaint. On January 13th the transmitter located near the city of New Delhi was reported as having been repaired, and all traces of this source of interference to 40 meters was gone.

SOPA & Amateur Radio

A follow up to last weeks story about the involvement of ham radio in halting the progress of two measures working their way through the U-S Congress. Laws that many say would have destroyed the Internet as we know it today.

While the giant QRZ dot com website took what could best be described as the amateur radio point position in helping to halt the twin bills in their tacks, it turns out that it was not alone. The Southgate News reports that at least two other ham radio websites took part in the protest. Both the amateur radio HF Link Forum and the APRS site aprs.fi were closed in the United States on Wednesday, January 18th.

The aprs.fi blog noted in advance that it would join Wikipedia and Reddit, and protest the proposed United States Stop Online Piracy or SOPA and the Protect Intellectual Property Act or PIPA legislation by closing down. The blog went on to note that if some APRS user were to post links to copyright infringing material, even when that material would reside somewhere other than aprs.fi itself, that aprs.fi could be shut down in the U.S. and there would not be much that the website owners could do about it.

As we go to air, both SOPA and PIPA have been withdrawn by their respective sponsors in Congress for retooling. That’s a fancy way of saying that enough votes had defected to make passage at this time impossible. At the same time it’s a way of keeping both pieces of legislation alive for re-introduction to the United States Federal law making process at some later date. And it’s a sure bet that content providers such as the motion picture and music industries which basically wrote these two pieces of legislation will try again.

TAPR & iQuadlabs Announce Agreement

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio and iQuadlabs have jointly announced a sourcing agreement for the open source Software Defined Radio or HPSDR boards. These are the ones best known by their nick-names of Magister, Mercury and Pennylane.

Under the new agreement, Tucson Amateur Packet Radio will acquire inventory of iQuadLabs creating a one-stop source for all open HPSDR boards. On the other side, iQuadLabs will gain the inventory from Tucson Amateur Packet Radio to build pre-configured and tested complete open HPSDR systems.

The end result will be that Tucson Amateur Packet Radio will have all open HPSDR boards in stock, in one place, for those wishing to buy boards, kits and components. And, for the first time in the history of open HPSDR, those who wish to by a completely assembled and tested radio will have a source at iQuadLabs. Zephyr Engineering, Inc will continue to manufacture the assembled boards. (TAPR)

ARMY MARS RESUMES USE OF WINLINK 2000

The Army’s Military Auxiliary Radio System better known simply as Army MARS is back using WinLink 2000. The ARRL reports that Lieutenant General Susan Lawrence has reversed the decision to phase out the use of the global radio e-mail system by Army MARS members that was issued late last year.

Lieutenant General Lawrence stated that the Army, after reviewing its capabilities, had decided that the continued use of WinLink 2000 would be in MARS best interest. She went on to call it a valuable asset to Army MARS members and agencies that were using the service.

On January 5, 2012, the Chief of Army MARS officially notified the membership that the phase out notice had been rescinded. Army MARS members and agencies who had been using the service hailed the decision by Lieutenant General Lawrence and have resumed use of the WinLink 2000 radio e-mail system.

More about WinLink 2000 is on the web at www.winlink.org.
source ARRL