All South Africa License Renewals Due by February 28

South African Telecommunications Regulator ICASA has announced that the closing date for that nations radio amateurs to file their license renewal will be February 28th. This applies to all amateur radio licenses including repeaters and beacons. Failing to do so will result in cancellation of the license. According to the South African Radio League, this is also an opportunity to renew an amateur license for 5 years at a discounted rate. (SARL)
 

Peruvian IOTA DXpedition

In DX up front, word that a joint Peruvian expedition composed of members of the Radio Club Peruano and the Radio Club Grupo DX Bahia Blanca of Argentina, will be on the air from Isla San Lorenzo from February 20th to the 24th. The Island is located in the Pacific with the group signing the special call OC0I. The operators plan to have two stations active simultaneously 24 hours a day on 80 through 10 meters, including WARC bands. Modes mentioned include CW, SSB and PSK-31. QSL direct to LU7DSY or via the bureau to LU3DXG. Electronic QSL’s go via eQSL. 
source: Southgate
 

Cape II Amateur Radio Satellite Cube OSCAR 75 or LO-75

The Cape II ham radio satellite is now known as the University of Louisiana OSCAR 75 or LO-75. This according to OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO, who recently informed AMSAT mentor Nick Pugh, K5QXJ, of the decision.

The CAPE II ham satellite operates on 145.825 MHz FM with a CW beacon signing the call W5UL. The bird also includes a digipeaters, text to speech operation, a simplex repeater, e-mail and tweet functions. The ground station software can be downloaded at www.ulcape.org

DX News

In DX, UA4WHX is now active stroke CE0Z from Robinson Crusoe Island. As always, the length of his stay is unknown but he has been heard in the past on 80 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via the information found on QRZ.com.

OE4AAC is reportedly on the air stroke 3B9 from RodriguesIsland and will be there through February 18th. Activity is holiday style on 40 through 10 meters using CW only. QSL via OE4AAC.

F5MVB and F5AOW are planning to be active as 5V7MP and 5V7BJ, respectively, from Avepozo, Togo from March 23rd to the 31st. Operations will be on CW and SSB. QSL via their home callsigns, either direct or by the Bureau.

G3XAQ be on the air from Kampala, Uganda, as 5X1XA between February 25th and March 16th. Activity will be CW only. QSL 5X1XA via G3SWH.

GM4YXI and GM3WOJ will be operational as A35X and A35V respectively, from TongatapuIsland between April 4th to the 18th. Activity will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW and SSB and some RTTY. QSL both A35V and A35X via N3SL

Lastly, M5RIC will be active stroke 5B from Cyprus between July 22nd and the 29th. His operation will include the RSGBIslands on the Air Contest slated for July 26th and the 27th using the callsign C4I. Outside of the contest, look for him on SSB and RTTY. QSL via M0OXO.

Revision of the Communications Act

According to United States Senator Mark Pryor of Tennessee, the Senate won’t be following the House’s lead this year to overhaul the sweeping law regulating TV, radio and all other telecommunications services.

The Communications Act, first written in 1934, created the Federal Communications Commission and outlined rules governing communications as it stood at that time. Over the years it has been amended on many occasions to try to keep up with emerging technologies. The Act was last updated in 1996, when the Internet was still in its infancy.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has already begun to look into ways to bring the Communications Act into line with the needs of the 21st Century, but Pryor who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications said the overall Senate Commerce Committee probably will not be following suit.

Critics of the current Communications Act have said that it creates what they call silos for different type of communications. That they say has posed a problem for new technologies such as Voice over Internet Proytocol phone calls that are transmitted over broadband and other Internet lines.

The House of Representatives effort to rewrite the law is expected to take multiple years, and has only just gotten started. This past January an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held its first hearing on the issue with five former FCC chairmen in attendance.

source: Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF

Amateur Radio Operators Responding to Slovenia Electricity Disruption

Since January 31st Slovenia has been affected by extreme cold weather such as blizzards, heavy snow and sleet. This has caused the collapse of power lines under the weight of ice and falling trees with electricity disruptions now affecting 250,000 people at the height of the outage. The restoration of electric mains supply was being made difficult by the continuing bad weather. This has prompted Slovenia to request assistance from the European Union in the form of mobile high power electric power generators.
While there has been no wide-spread national request for communications assistance Slovenian radio amateurs are preparing to respond if required. In the meantime a number of radio amateurs have been assisting in communications operations on a local community level. This, due to problems with the mobile phone service and other radio networks falling victim to the severe weather outbreak.
The European Union Civil Protection Mechanism has asked for assistance from nearby European states with Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria providing assistance. Because of uncertainty of both weather conditions and overall communications, the Austrian teams responding to Slovenia will be carrying their own gear so as to communicate back to their home bases using Pactor and Winlink.  

source; Heather Embee, KB3TZD

Going to Space: Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu

If you have ever wanted to vicariously into space, now is your chance. NASA is inviting people around the world including ham radio operators to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to the asteroid Bennu in 2016.

The "Messages to Bennu" microchip will travel to the asteroid aboard the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer spacecraft. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the asteroid, which has a width of only about 1,760 feet. The spacecraft will collect a sample of Bennu's surface and then return it to Earth .

The deadline to submit your name online is Sept. 30, 2014. Participants who submit their names to the "Messages to Bennu" campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement. To submit your name for inclusion on this mission please take your web browser to planetary.org/bennu. While there are no instructions as to how to how to include your callsign, we found it simple to just put it right after your last name. (ANS, NASA)

KD8BIG Update

Hello all,

I hope for those of you in the Mid-West USA have enjoyed the winter this year.
I have recorded 82.4 inches of snow at my home.
Just a couple of inches difference from the local airport about 7 miles to the South West.

Sorry for the lack of post.
I've been dealing with health issues for the last several weeks and have not been on the computer as much as I have ben on the iPad.
I can blog from the iPad but it is difficult for me to get comfortable and the touch screen is so sensitive. Having severe tremors dose not help either. 
I seem to spend more time using Twitter and Facebook on the iPad.

I hope to be posting more regularly as I get over this cold/flu.

Best Regards
Mark de KD8BIG

Cuban Hams can use 60m band

Faithful to their promise of a new universal 60m ham band in the last WRC, the Ministry of Communications of Cuba approved this January the access of Cuban hams to this new band.

The law approved on January 20 of 2014, from the Ministry of Communications of Cuba allows the use of the spectrum between the 5418 to 5430 Khz, a continuous segment of 12 Khz, this unlike other countries that are allowing just channels.

The assignation is as a secondary users as per ITU recommendations for region 2, with the emphasis on its use in emergencies nets, as Cuba is in the path of the Caribbean Hurricanes every year and this band allows a steady communication path for all the island.

The new law sets this band for every day use, but once an official emergency is declared by the Cuban State, then the use of the band will be restricted to emergency traffic exclusively, ceasing all others kinds of use on it.

The new assignation allows SSB, CW and Digital, the former limited to PSK31 and PSK63. All ham categories of the three existent in Cuba can access the band based on a power limitations of 10W for the novices and 50W for the rest; with a note of the relaxation of this power limitation up to 100W tops for all users in emergency conditions as needed for a reliable link establishment.

The access of the hams to this band is not immediate, the process involves the request and approval for individual hams to the related Authority and the modification of the ham's licence (an in-office process of about 1 day), so the band will populate steady, but slowly.

Most Cubans hams use commercial radios with full or partial coverage of HF bands or even homebrew radios, so the "hardware" will not be a major problem, for a significant percent of Cuban hams will be a matter of setting up an antenna for this new band or simply tune in his multi-band antenna.











source
Pavel Milanes Costa CO7WT

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...e_60m_band.htm

Horns and Booms

Gabriel, is that you?

It is 3:49am January 22nd and I woke up to my beagle growling. At first I thought she was having a dream, then it saw her looking out the window.
I heard a horn, like a train horn from outside. I looked out several windows all sides of the house and could not determine the direction of the horn other than from the sky.
A half hour after the horn a loud boom came from under the house. It was a unique low tone boom that shook the house and awoke my daughter.
Then the horn started again for about 2 minutes.

Mark Strait
Amateur Radio Operator
Call Sign  (KD8BIG)

Muskegon, Michigan

DX News

In DX, ON6DX has announced the dates for his TY1TT operation fro Grand Popo will be January 26^th through and February 5th. He plans to operate on the highest possible bands. For updates visit his website at dxpedition.be/Benin.html

AF1G is now living and working on Andros Island signing slash C6A. He will be there until November 20^th and is expected to be on 80 through 6 meters on SSB. QSL via Logbook of the World or direct to Tim Hardy, PSC 1012 Box 593, FPO AA 34058-9998, USA.

JA3ARJ and JA1CJA will be active as TO3JA from Martinique between January 12^th to the 19th. No other details are yet available. QSL via JA3AVO, direct, by the bureau or Logbook of the World.

Lastly, F5MVB and F5AOW are planning to be operational sometime in 2014 as 5V7MP and 5V7BJ, respectively from Avepozo. Details on bands, modes and dates have not been announced yet, but should soon be forthcoming. QSL via their home callsigns, direct or by the bureau.

Pacific, Missouri, has taken the First Step in Setting up a D-STAR Repeater

Previous approval had been given for the city to purchase gear dedicated to amateur radio operation that was to be installed in the city Emergency Operations Center. But according to City Administrator Harold Selby, KA0WXX, technology had advanced so much the city can better serve the emergency communication system with a digital repeater.

Selby said he was recommending the repeater instead of a single radio after he and Bob Masson, KBZ0JDY, met with Franklin County emergency management officials about what communication would be needed if a disaster occurred in Pacific and the Interstate 44 corridor. He noted that amateur radio is way ahead in how public services use radio. He also read a letter from Paul Chambers, N0BBD, the Franklin County Amateur Radio Emergency Services coordinator, who said he fully supported and welcomed the idea of a digital repeater.

Selby also displayed a small blue box with cable that he said would eliminate the need for radio anywhere in the government center. The small apparatus known in the world of amateur radio as a DV Dongle, is a duplex vocoder that connects to a computer via a USB port to provide amateur radio voice transmission capability.

Selby said he contacted St Louis and Missouri repeater councils and they also are on board with the idea. Alderman Ed Gass then made a motion to purchase the repeater, but added that a battery backup would be needed for the unit in case electricity was out during an emergency. Cost of the battery backup is estimated at about $200.

source-- Stephen Kinford, N8WB.

NEW CALEDONIA in Late February

JE2EHP will be active as FK stroke K1HP from New Caledonia between February 18^th and the 26th. His operations will be on all the HF bands plus 6 meters, using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via his home callsign either direct or electronically via ClubLog or Logbook of the World.

A limited number of Czech Radio Amateurs will be returning to the 5 MHz band

According to Petr Ourdnik, OK1RP, this new permit comes as a result of material presented by the Czech amateur radio community regarding their initial 5 MHz operation. It also involved subsequent discussions with the nations telecommunications regulator CTU together with the agreement of the Ministry of Defense. As a result phase 2 of experimental 5 MHz operations began at Zero hundred hours UTC on January 1st. This means that a small number of 5 MHz individual permits will be issued and will be valid until the end of 2014.
While originally limited to only one channel on 5260 Kilohertz, under Phase 2 those Czech amateurs issued with one of these special permits will be allowed use of six channels that are common to many other nations. These are 5288.5, 5330.5, 5366.5, 5371.5, 5398.5 and 5403.5 Kilohertz. Transmissions are limited to Upper Sideband and CW only at a power level of 100 watts Effective Radiated Power.
This experimental operation permit on 5 MHz band is allowed on a strictly secondary user basis. International Telecommunications Union rules for protection of the primary users must be observed at all times.
Those who are issued 5 MHz permits must prepare and send an experimental operation report to the Czech telecommunications regulator no later than October 31st in order that analysis of the operation on the different channels and modes can be made .
  source--- Hal Rodgers, K8CMD.
--
More on this story is at the Czech Telecommunications Office English language page at
http://www.ctu.eu/main.php?pageid=178

Emergency Alert System May go to the Cloud

According to contracting documents posted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on December 27th, it is now looking for a commercially built data storage alternative for its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and Open Platform for Emergency Networks or IPAWS-OPEN system. One that will enable faster action and better communication between federal, state and tribal officials and the public. It also has to be a storage and retrieval system that uses more advanced storage technology, including possibly placing some portions of the system in the cloud.
For those who may have never heard the term, in its most basic form the Cloud is a euphemism for off-site secure data storage. This is a model of networked enterprise storage where data is accumulated in virtualized pools which are generally operated by third parties. These are mostly hosting companies that operate large data centers. Their customers are people or businesses that require their data to be hosted off site so they simply buy or lease storage capacity from them.
FEMA says that its custom-built IPAWS-OPEN has not met a slate of minimum standards, such as operating with 99.9% up time and allowing the president and other officials to alert the public about emergencies within 10 minutes. Rather it has been dogged by glitches, too many layers of technical bureaucracy and mainly insufficient storage space.
The current IPAWS-OPEN system transmits emergency messages to citizens through numerous channels, including local alert systems, traditional broadcast media, the Internet and cellphones. It also needs to be quickly expandable to new public communications systems and platforms as they are created.