FCC Invites Public Comment on 10-10.5 GHZ Petition

Back here in the United States, the FCC has invited public comment on a Petition for Rule Making titled RM-11715. This is a proposal that would make a significant portion of the 10.0 to 10.5 GHz band available for wireless broadband services while to some extent protect amateur radio terrestrial and space operations from interference.
According to the ARRL the petition by Mimosa Networks Inc. proposes a band plan for the spectrum from 10.0 to 10.5 GHz that the petitioner says would protect frequencies most often used by radio amateurs. The proposal would specify 10.350 to 10.370 GHz as an “Amateur Calling Band,” and 10.450 to 10.500 GHz for Amateur-Satellite operations. This would be in the midst of 21 wireless broadband channels and a small guard band.
The success of the Mimosa petition hinges on FCC adoption of rule changes that would put the 10 GHz band under Subpart Z of the Commission’s Part 90 rules. Subpart Z currently sets out regulations governing wireless licensing, technical standards, and operational standards in the 3650 to 3700 MHz spectrum.

Interested parties may comment on RM-11715 using the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System. You can read the entire proposal at http://www.tinyurl.com/kvbqshn 

source (ARRL, Southgate)

Ukrane Station SZRU Active on 20 Meter

The IARU Monitoring System newsletter reports the Ukraine foreign Intelligence Service SZRU has been active every Wednesday on 14.280 MHz at 1010 UTC running full carrier AM. Reports say that a female voice spelled numbers and encrypted messages. The exact location is believed to be near Rivne.
The newsletter also says that REA4 which is a call used by the Russian Airforce in Moscow was still active on 7 dot 018 MHz with Frequency Shift Keying at 100 Baud and a 1000 Hz shift. Harmonics could be measured on 14 dot 036, 21 dot 052 and 28 dot 072 MHz on February 28th at about 10:50 UTC.
If you hear or are bothered by these or any other illegal user of ham radio spectrum, please report these incidents to the Intruder Watch Coordinator for your nation. Here in the United States that would be The American Radio Relay League. 

source (IARU R1 Newsletter) 

New Spectrum Awarded to Hams in France

French radio amateurs have gained access to 472 to 479 kHz with 1 watt output in I-T-U Region 1 and French territories in Region 2. Also, 435 to 438 MHz is now allocated to the Amateur-satellite service in France for both Earth-to-Space and Space-to-Earth in the same geographic areas. Due to a previous error in the national frequency table, French amateurs did not have Space-to-Earth privileges for this band in their licenses.
Still with space related matters, the 2400 to 2415 MHz band is now allocated to radio stations in the Amateur-satellite service in French territories in Region 2.
Regarding the 1.2 GHz band the national society questioned if Europe’s new Galileo Global Positioning satellite system may call into question the future of this allocation for use by ham radio. Galileo downlinks across 1260 to 1300 MHz band. France’s telecommunications regulator said that it would review this matter and provide a response at some future date.
These changes are the result of a meeting between French telecommunications regulator the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes and the French national amateur radio society R-E-F that was held on March 7th. Discussions also covered the possibility of a future amateur band across the whole of 1.8 to 2.0 MHz spectrum and possible allocations at 5.5 MHz and 70 MHz. The R-E-F report also noted that the regulatory body has also shown an interest in ARISS school contacts which both groups believe have a high educational value.
The complete minutes in Google English is on the web at
 http://tinyurl.com/REF-ARCEP-Minutes-2014-03-07 

source (REF, Southgate)
 

THE ST. PATRICKS DAY AWARD

A group of Northern Ireland radio amateurs have introduced a new award for hams who want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on the air. While details are still a bit sketchy, the organizers hope this to be an annual event every March 17th. Those who want to participate as an award station or who want more information on the event should go to stpatrickaward.webs.com on the World Wide Web. 

source: (MI0RYL, Southgate)

2014 Palm Springs Hamfest is March 15th, 2014

The 2014 Palm Springs Hamfest is slated for March 15th at the Palm Springs Pavilion in Palm Springs California. This one-day event will again be hosted by the Desert Radio Amateur Transmitting Society better known as the Desert Rats. Rehab Radio founder April Moell, WA6OPS and Ham Nation co-host Gordon West, WB6NOA, will be the featured speakers. There will also be demonstrations dealing with Amateur Television, microwave communications as well hunts T-hunts and much more. Further information on this event is on the web at palmspringshamfest.com. 
source; (Palm Springs Hamfest)

Get on the Air with HF Digital

I received my "Get on the Air with HF Digital" today. Lots of great info.

DX Code of Conduct

I ( KD8BIG ) am a supporter of the. DX CODE OF CONDUCT

I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.

I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.

I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station's callsign before calling.

I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.

I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.

I will always send by full call sign.

I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call continuously.

I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.

 will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.

I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than mine.

When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think he has copied it incorrectly.

I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.

I will respect my fellow hams and conduct myself so as to earn their respect.

OSCAR-11 / UOSAT-2 Celebrates 30 Years in Orbit

UOSAT-OSCAR-11 has now been in orbit for 30 years and remarkably its signal on 145.826 MHz FM (AFSK 1200 bps ASCII) is still being received.

OSCAR-11, also known as UOSAT-2, was designed and built by a team of engineers at the University of Surrey in Guildford, Surrey, UK as the successor to OSCAR-9 / UOSAT-1 (see Hobby Electronics August 1981).
It was launched from the Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Base, in Lompoc, California along with LANDSAT-5 on a Delta 3920 rocket on March 1, 1984.

OSCAR-11 was the most rapidly designed OSCAR, going from inception to launch in only five months. It was also the first amateur satellite to carry a digital communications package into Earth orbit, and the first to be controlled by a CPU running software written in the high-level programming language “Forth”.

OSCAR-11 carries beacons in three amateur radio bands.

The 145.826 MHz beacon transmits FM Audio Frequency Shift Keying (AFSK) 1200 bps ASCII data. It the early years it also transmitted a voice message from the digitalker experiment.

The 435.025 MHz beacon transmitted either 1200 bps FM AFSK or 4800 bps PSK data. This beacon was used to downlink information from the Digital Store and Readout (DSR) Experiment, which includes CCD Earth image data, results from the Particle Wave Experiment, and engineering data from the RCA COSMAC 1802 CPU.

The 2401.5 MHz beacon transmitted FM and PSK signals. Antenna polarization for all three beacon transmitters is left-hand circular (LHCP). Only the 145.826 MHz beacon is now operational.

Addition OSCAR-11 information
http://www.g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm

OSCAR-11 page on the DK3WN satellite blog at
http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=47

SSTL Blog – Happy 30th Birthday to UOSAT-2
http://www.sstl.co.uk/Blog/March-201...ay-to-UoSAT-2-

OSCAR-9 and OSCAR-11 TV News Reports
http://amsat-uk.org/2011/10/30/oscar...-news-reports/

BBC Micro ASTRID UoSAT receiver and AMSAT-UK Software Library
http://amsat-uk.org/2011/12/11/
bbc-micro-and-amsat-uk-software-library/



http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...s_in_orbit.htm

Launch of Two Hundred 437MHz Satellites

The largest ever launch of 437 MHz satellites is planned for March 16 at 0841 UT when 200 Sprite satellites will be launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS 3 mission
They will be deployed into a 325×315 km 51.5 degree inclination orbit. You should be able to watch the launch live on NASA TV at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv
A Sprite is a tiny, 3.5 by 3.5 cm, single-board spacecraft that was developed by Zac Manchester KD2BHC. It has a microcontroller, radio, and solar cells and is capable of carrying single-chip sensors, such as thermometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, and accelerometers.
The 200 Sprites are carried in a 3U CubeSat called KickSat. They are stacked atop a spring-loaded pusher and secured by a nichrome burn wire system.
On reaching orbit KickSat will perform a de-tumble maneuver and establish communication with Cornell University’s ground station. After check-out, the spacecraft will be put in a sun-pointing attitude and spun up to maintain that attitude.
A command signal from the ground station will then trigger the deployment and the Sprites will be released as free-flying spacecraft. After deployment, telemetry and sensor measurements from the individual Sprites will be received through Cornell’s ground station in Ithaca, NY, as well as several other amateur ground stations around the world.
Due to the low orbit Sprites will have a short lifetime before they re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. In the best-case scenario the orbital lifetime could be six weeks but realistically it may be considerably shorter depending on atmospheric conditions.
All Sprites operate on a single frequency of 437.240 MHz and use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The transmitter runs 10 mW output of Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) modulated binary data with each data bit modulated as a 511 bit Pseudo-Random Number (PRN) sequence. The ITU emission designator is 50K0G1D.
The KickSat CubeSat has downlinks on 437.505 MHz and 2401-2436.2 MHz.
KickSat Sprite Ground Station by Andy Thomas G0SFJ http://kicksat.wordpress.com/support...round-station/
British Interplanetary Society: Sprite Technical Summary http://www.bis-space.com/2013/03/09/...hnical-summary
KickSat project information http://zacinaction.github.io/kicksat/
KickSat on KickStarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/
kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space/
Check this site for the latest CRS 3 launch date http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/


http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...satellites.htm

United States Department of Defense has Released Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy

The United States Department of Defense has released its complete 2013 Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy. This to increase available spectrum in order to meet growing demand from the commercial wireless industry.

The release follows the release of a memorandum issued in 2010 by President Obama titled Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution. In it the Department of Defense is required to make available 500 MHz of spectrum for commercial use by 2020.

It should be noted that a good number of amateur UHF and Microwave spectrum allocations are shared with the Department of Defense but at this point in time its not known what impact, if any, the release of the required 500 MHz could have on future ham radio operations.

You can read the entire Department of Defense Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy document on line in PDF format at http://www.defense.gov/news/dodspectrumstrategy.pdf

Village of Swanton,Ohio is Appealing the States PRB-1

OHIO TOWN TAKES STATE PRB-1 LOSS APPEAL TO HIGHER COURT

An Ohio town is appealing the States PRB-1 like law into the court system. This after it lost an appeal by a ham who was given the right to put up an antenna that the municipality had denied. We have the latest from Amateur Radio Newsline’s Stephan Kinford, N8WB:

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On February 4th the Village of Swanton Ohio filed a notice of appeal of its intention to challenge the decision of the Fulton County Common Pleas Court in the case of Gary Wodtke versus the Village of Swanton.

The legal issue began when the Village denied Gary Woodtke’s tower application and Wodtke, who holds the call WW8N, appealed that decision to the Fulton County Common Pleas Court. The Court ruled in favor of Wodtke telling the Village that it must approve a variance to WW8N’s antenna support structure. Instead the Village is now appealing that order into the Court of Appeals for the Sixth District.

In its docketing statement the Village of Swanton asserts four potential issues including one that questions whether Revised Code Section enacted by H.B. 158, which is Ohio’s version of the Federal PRB-1 statute is constitutional. It also questions whether H.B. 158 was constitutionally applied in this case.

Ohio law grants a right of appeal from final decisions of a Common Pleas Court. Appellate decisions are heard by a three judge panel that is usually designated near the time for oral argument. Decisions normally take a number of months after oral arguments are made.

Appellate decisions are generally final, unless further review is granted by the Ohio Supreme Court. While such a Court of Appeals decision represents the law only in that appellate district, it has the ability to be used as a significant precedent in other Ohio courts. It also can be cited in cases in other states that have passed similar state versions of the FCC regulations that are outlined in the text of PRB-1.

Late word is that the ARRL has announced its intention to file a Friend of the Court brief on behalf of Woodtke. This is likely because of the long term potential a finding against WW8N might hold by impacting on any ham living anywhere in the United States.

WW8N is represented by Toledo attorney Carey Cooper and by Fred Hopengarten, K1VR. Hopengarten is considered a national authority on zoning law and amateur radio antenna issues.
 
source; Stephen Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donations to help cover WW8N's mounting legal costs can be sent to him through PayPal to ww8n73@centurylink.net .

It's a long complicated story, but this has been in the courts since 2008. And Gary still doesn't have his tower.

And this is NOT a CC&R or HOA issue! It's the city council who is stopping him at every turn. More details at http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...ll-US-amateurs. Ignore all the thread hijackers and the incorrect assertions that "he shouldn't have moved into an HOA" because that is NOT the case here!  
W0BTU http://www.w0btu.com/

DX News

In DX comes word that JA1IST, will be on the air stroke FK from New Caledonia between February 25th and March 1st. His activity will be holiday style on High Frequency bands. QSL to his home callsign or via the bureau.

F5MNW will once again be operational stroke FR from Saint Leu between March 16th and April 8th. Activity will be on the HF bands using only CW. QSL via his home call either direct via the bureau.

F6ARC will be active stroke FG from Guadeloupe between March 11^th to the 23rd. Activity will be holiday style with a focus on the 30, 17 and 12 meter bands and the lower bands using 100 watts and operating Morse only. QSL via FE1IDX either direct or via the bureau.

ZL3TE will be operational as 3D2SE from Viti Levu Island between April 11th and the 14th. His main activity will be in the Japan International DX CW Contest on April 12th and 13th. Operations outside the contest will mainly be on CW, with some digital modes. QSL to ZL3TE or electronically via Logbook of the World.

G0VJG will be active stroke J6 from St. Lucia between June 5th and the 18th. Operation is likely to be on 40 through 10 meters using SSB only. If you make contact please QSL via G4DFI.

Lastly, several sources are reporting that a multi-national team will be on a DXpedition to Malawi as 7Q7Q sometime late November. This will include an entry in the CQ World Wide DX CW Contest. At airtime this operation seems to be headed up by ZS6RJ, and will be the same group that was active as 3DA0ET last year. Look for more details to be forthcoming in future newscasts.

WW8N Tower Court Case

This court case about a tower before a Federal court could affect the ability of amateurs everywhere to erect towers. READ THIS!

February Edition of the Ohio Section Journal
FROM THE STATE GOVERNMENT LIAISON..
---------------------------------

Village of Swanton Antenna Decision Appealed..

On February 4 the Village of Swanton filed a notice of appeal, appealing the decision of the Fulton County Common Pleas Court in the case of Wodtke v. Village of Swanton. The case is the first court case that we are aware of involving application of Ohio’s new antenna legislation, H.B. 158 (129th General Assembly). The Trial Court ordered the approval of an application to the village by Gary Wodtke, WW8N, for approval of an antenna variance. The Village denied the application and Mr. Wodtke appealed that decision to the Fulton County Common Pleas Court. The Court ruled in Mr. Wodtke’s favor and the Village is now appealing that order. In the docketing statement filed with the Court of Appeals the Village asserts four potential issues to be argued in the appeal, including whether Revised Code Section 5502.031, enacted by H.B. 158, is constitutional and whether it was constitutionally applied in this case.

Ohio law grants a right of appeal from final decisions of a common pleas court. The decision here is appealed to the Sixth District Court of Appeals, headquartered in Toledo. The appellate process involves first, filing the record of proceedings in the common pleas court, then briefs of each of the parties and, finally, a brief oral argument to the court. Appellate decisions are heard by a three judge panel that is usually designated near the time for oral argument. Decisions normally take a number of months after oral argument. Appellate decisions are generally final, unless further review is granted by the Ohio Supreme Court. While a court of appeals decision represents the law only in that appellate district, it carries significant precedential value in other Ohio courts and may also be cited in similar cases in other states.

Mr. Wodtke is represented by Toledo attorney Carey Cooper and by Fred Hopengarten, K1VR a noted authority on zoning and amateur radio antenna issues. ARRL leadership at the national level is also aware of the appeal. Scott Yonally, Ohio Section Manager and Jim Weaver, Great Lakes Division Director have enlisted support from the ARRL. In my discussion with League General Counsel, Chris Imlay, W3KD, it appears that the leadership of the League views this appeal as being one of precedential significance, not only for Ohio amateurs, but also for amateurs in other states that have passed state versions of FCC regulation PRB-1.

Discussions are ongoing regarding various ways to help bring this appeal to a successful conclusion. We will keep you informed as further developments occur.

source: Nick, K8NAP

ROTARIANS on the Air to Stop Polio

To celebrate the birthday of community service organization Rotary International and highlight its involvement in eradicating the disease polio, members of the organization will be on air on February the 22nd and 23rd with a number of special event stations.

All participating Rotarians on Amateur Radio throughout the world will call CQ Polio to commemorate the founding of Rotary International in 1905, and educate the public about Rotary's End Polio Now campaign.

Thanks to the vaccine developed by the late researcher Dr. Jonas Salk. Polio is no longer a problem in many nations. However it still remains a major threat to public health in a number of places around the globe. (WAI News)

Cubesats Deployed from International Space Station

Astronaut Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, has successfully deployed the first of the 33 CubeSats that were launched to the International Space Station in the Cygnus freighter on January 9th. The Tuesday, February 11th deployment consisted of the first two of the Flock-1 constellation of 28 Dove CubeSats made by Planet Labs.

In addition to the 28 Planet Labs micro-birds, there are also four amateur radio CubeSats waiting to be placed on-orbit. These are LituanicaSat-1, LitSat-1, ArduSat-2 and UAPSat-1 as well as a 915 MHz CubeSat SkyCube. All are planned to be deployed in the coming weeks.