Amateur Radio Newsline[TM} Report 1841 - November 23 2012
( audio at http://www.arnewsline.org/storage/audio/nsln1841.mp3 )

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1841 with a release
date of November 23, 2012 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams in China develop a new digital
protocol based on their own written language while mystery
signals are being heard on the High Frequency bands coming
from that nation. Find out the details are on these stories
and more on Amateur Radio Newsline[TM} report number 1841
coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: NEW CHINESE DATA MODE CP-16 ANNOUNCED

China makes news again this week with word that hams in that
nation have developed their own new data mode. One based on
characters in the Chinese alphabet. Amateur Radio
Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has the details:

--

Up until now, most amateur radio data modes have been based
around the English alphabet. The problem is that does not
work well for languages that are built around graphic
characters rather than letters. Because of this the Chinese
Radio Amateurs Club has been working since 2011 on a project
to develop a new data mode called CP-16, which stands for
Chinese character Pattern of 16 x 16 dot-matrixes.

To achieve the goal of allowing easy communication at very
low signal to noise ratio, CP-16 is designed to directly
transmit the graphic image of Chinese a character one line
at a time at about 10 milliseconds per line but adjustable
according to propagation and other conditions. This makes
the total transmission speed of 2 to 5 characters per
second, which is suitable for real-time reading.

To make the system work, CP-16 uses 16 on-off keyed audio
carriers spaced at 17 Hz intervals, with the total bandwidth
under 400 Hz. A CP-16 message can be received by any
Software Defined Receiver or the combination of an ordinary
SSB receiver and a computer equipped with any type of S-D-R
audio analyzing software that produces the traditional
waterfall display. The text will be directly shown on the
waterfall graph. Designers say that the human brain can
then easily filter out all sorts of noise and correctly pick
out the character.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in
Los Angeles.

--

A paper on the work was presented by the Chinese Radio
Amateurs Club to the International Amateur Radio Union
Region 3 conference held recently in Vietnam. It can be
seen at tinyurl.com/CP16-data. (IARU Region 3)

**

INTRUDER WATCH: MYSTERY CHINESE SIGNALS BEING HEARD ON HF
BANDS

Wolfgang Hadel, DK2OM, who is the IARU Region 1 Monitoring
System coordinator reports that there are some strange
signals coming from China and making their homes on various
parts of the Amateur Service spectrum. DK2OM says that
since October 25th hams have been hearing from mysterious
signals on 7, 14, 21 and 21.010 MHz. He notes that they are
also audible in the shortwave spectrum at 15, 18, 19 and 20
MHz as well.

DK2OM says that initially the A3E signals sounded like grunt
or cow mooing. Now reports are that thy have become very
strong multi-tone signals with a carrier and both sidebands
and heard every morning. He speculates that this night
become kind of special kind of encrypted broadcast or a new
generation of Over the Horizon radar but at the moment its
actual purpose is unknown.

For further details visit www.iarums-r1.org/ and look under
"Latest Intruder News". There you can also find a link to a
recording of this new intruder to the High Frequency bands.
(IARU-R1)

**

INTRUDER WATCH: RUSSIAN TAXIS ON 15 METERS

And here's a rather strange one. A taxi dispatch system
seems to have set up shop on 15 Meters in Russia. This as
DK2OM confirms a report of a taxi company in the Russian
Federation is transmitting FM around the clock on 21.404.2
MHz. He says you can often hear a female voice organizing
the business. (IARU-R1)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: NASA PHONESAT COMING SOON TO HAM RADIO

Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center have built the
most affordable ham band satellite to date. Amateur Radio
Newsline's Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has the details:

--

The $3,500 orbital device is a cubesat the size of a coffee
cup that uses an off-the-shelf Nexus One smartphone as a
central processor and an inexpensive off the shelf radio for
communications with the ground.

Called PhoneSat 1, the tiny bird is scheduled to launch by
the end of this year. Once on-orbit it will transmit back
photos of Earth on an amateur radio band for 10 days, or
until the battery dies.

Subsequent iterations will be capable of much more. For
example, PhoneSat 2.0 will have a two-way S-band radio
transponder which most satellites use to communicate with
the ground and solar panels for extended life.

More on PhoneSat 1 is on-line at tinyurl.com/phonesat-one.
An overview of the entire NASA PhoneSat mission can be found
at tinyurl.com/phone-sat-project. At airtime, exact
operating frequencies for these tiny birds has not been
announced.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD,
near Berwick, Pennsylvania.

--

We will have more space related ham radio news later on in
this weeks newscast. (CGC, W7RNA, AI9Q)

**

ENFORCEMENT: US AND MEXICO JOIN FORCES TO COUNTER CROSS
BORDER TRAFFICKING OF STOLEN MOBILE DEVICES

Its going to get a lot harder to activate a stolen smart
prone or other broadband device in both the United States or
Mexico. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has
the details:

--

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced the signing of
a new bilateral agreement with Mexican Communications Under-
Secretary Hector Olavarria Tapia. This to combat the theft
and cross-border trafficking of mobile devices between the
United States and Mexico.

The agreement builds further on the FCC's `PROTECTS
Initiative', and the recent participation of U.S. and
Mexican mobile providers in an international stolen device
database. This database will prevent mobile devices stolen
in U.S. cities from being re-activated in Mexico, and stolen
Mexican devices being re-activated in the U.S. market. U.S.
carriers were able to join the database from October 31st.

But it does not end there. The agreement also commits the
FCC and Mexico's Secretariat of Communications and Transport
to extend their inter-agency cooperation to crack down on
the international trafficking of stolen mobile devices
through a series of new action steps using technology and
transparency. Among other measures, Chairman Genachowski
and Under-Secretary Olavarr�a agreed that the respective
agencies will closely track, analyze, and report progress in
preventing mobile device theft.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in
Scottsdale, Arizona.

--

Both the United States and Mexican telecommunications
agencies will also develop and share best practices with
respect to theft prevention and consumer education. (FCC)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world
including the KM6DF repeater serving Santa Maria, California

(5 sec pause here)

**

RESCUE RADIO: DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS WANT HEARING ON
HURRICANE SANDY COMMS FAILURES

A group of top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee is calling for a hearing to be held on the effect
Hurricane Sandy had on the reliability of Internet, mobile,
telephone and other communications networks. This after the
massive storm whipped across the East Coast.

In a letter sent to committee chairman Representative Fred
Upton and Communications and Technology sub-panel chairman
Representative Greg Walden, W7EQI, the Democrats emphasized
that network outages put lives at risk and noted that the
storm knocked out 25 percent of cell towers in the affected
areas. They argue that a hearing would let lawmakers examine
vulnerabilities found in wireless and mobile networks during
the storm and help with preparation for the next one. The
lawmakers said they also want to examine the performance of
wireless networks during and after the storm. (The Hill)

**

RADIO LAW: ZONECASTING TO BE TRIED ON THE FM BAND IF FCC
SAYS OK

Something new may soon be coming to the FM broadcast band in
the United States. This if a proposed system called
ZoneCasting proves out its proposed technology.

ZoneCasting is the result of research and development by a
company known as Geo-Broadcast Solutions. It proposes to
use a series of booster transmitters to give FM radio
stations the ability to divide their coverage areas into
geographic zones and "geo-target" their advertising and
programming. Geo-Broadcast Solutions says its ZoneCasting
system uses GPS and mobile broadband technologies to slice
up the FM signal but avoid interference via a single-
frequency network made up of FM boosters.

To allow the system to work, the company has asked the FCC
to modify its current rule that prohibits booster stations
from originating programming. A booster operates on the
same frequency as an FM station's main channel and is used
to improve signal within the station's coverage contour.

The company and Harris are partnering on the first
commercial test, which is expected to launch early next year
at WRMF-FM in Palm Beach, Florida. Broadcast engineers say
that limiting interference between a main channel signal and
booster can be a challenge. Geo-Broadcast Solutions said the
purpose of the test at WRMF is to prove ZoneCasting will not
cause that type of a problem. (RW)

**

ENFORCEMENT: FOUR UNLICENSED FLORIDA STATION OPERATORS HAVE
FINES AFFIRMED

Four operators of unlicensed broadcast stations in Florida
have had proposed fines ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 each
affirmed by the FCC. This is because none of them responded
to Notices of Apparent Liability that were issued to them
last summer.

The four unlicensed operators are identified by the
regulatory agency as Damian Anthony Ojouku Allen, Michael
William Downer, McArthur Bussey and Burt Byng. As a result
of their failure to communicate back to the FCC the agency
has upheld a total of $65,000 in fines and issued Forfeiture
Orders.

Downer and Allen were fined $20,000 each for operating
unauthorized stations on 101.1MHz in Pompano Beach and 102.1
MHz in Lauderhill. Bussey was told he has to pay$15,000 for
operating on 89.1 MHz in Fort Lauderdale while Byng received
a $10,000 penalty for operating an unauthorized facility on
107.1 in Miami.

As is usual in these cases, each was given 30 days to pay
the fine or to file an appeal. If they fail to do either
the cases may be turned over to the Justice Department for
collection. (FCC, RW)

**

ENFORCEMENT: ALLEGED COPPER THIEVES CHARGED IN OHIO

Federal officials in Cleveland, Ohio, have charged 28 year
old Thomas M. Carbone and 23 year old Katie M. Stanton with
the malicious destruction of federally-licensed
communications lines. U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach said
that the defendants are accused of allegedly breaking into
and seriously damaging radio towers.

The indictment charges that on or about August 17 to 18,
2012, Carbone and Stanton unlawfully entered the property of
Radio One in North Royalton, Ohio, and willfully and
maliciously destroyed and removed copper material from four
radio station towers on the property. According to the
indictment, this unlawful removal of copper depleted the
signal strength of the radio station, thereby impeding its
ability to broadcast emergency messages. As such emergency
repairs cost nearly $11,000 while permanent repairs will
cost an estimated $125,000.

The indictment also charges that Carbone and Stanton
conspired together to commit these unlawful acts. (CGC,
Published News Reports)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY TO REC.RADIO.INFO

A very happy birthday to the popular Usenet newsgroup
rec.radio.info which is about to turn 20. This with the
first articles having appeared back in January of 1993.

Usenet is an electronic discussion and bulletin system that
predates much of the Internet. It later began using the
Internet to carry its discussion categories, known as
newsgroups. Amateur radio was one of the very first topics
to have these newsgroups.

The rec.radio.info newsgroup carries a wide range of
bulletins, announcements, and other informational articles
about all kinds of radio. These include amateur, shortwave,
and domestic broadcasting all of which are submitted by its
readers and selected by its moderation team. Articles from
rec.radio.info suitable for amateur radio transmission are
also relayed to the amateur packet radio bulletin board
service network.

The rec.radio.info newsgroup can be accessed using a
newsreader and subscription to a News Service Provider. A
web-based interface to Usenet newsgroups, including
rec.radio.info, is available from Google Groups at
groups.google.com. (K3FU, K9YA)

**

SOCIAL SCENE: HAMFEST INDIA 2012 TO HOLD US LICENSE EXAMS

Hamfest India 2012 is in the process of organizing a USA
amateur radio license exams session on for this December
16th in city of Radakrishnan. Planners say that they are
trying to find a location near to the hamfest venue with the
exact location to be updated as soon as its known.

All the three classes of United States licenses will be
tested. As anywhere else, applicants must present a photo
identification of whom they and pay the exam fee of $15 or
850 Rupee in Indian currency. Walk-ins allowed and results
will be made known to each applicant on the same day.

Oversight for this exam session will be by the ARRL VEC.
More information is on-line at tinyurl.com/us-exams-in-
india. (AB9US)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: THREE ASTRO-HAMS RETURN TO EARTH

Some names in the news. First up are ISS Expedition 33
Commander Suni Williams, KD5PLB, and Flight Engineers Yuri
Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and Aki Hoshide, KE5DNI. All three
returned to Earth on Monday, November 19th after 127 days in
space.

The descent and landing took over 3.5 hours and occurred at
5:56 am U-T-C. This with a successful touchdown to the
north-east of the town of Arkalyk in the Ukraine.

Expedition 34 arrived at in October is now in charge of ISS
operations. It consists of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky
and Evgeny Tarelkin, as well as NASA astronaut Kevin Ford,
KF5GPP. They will spend five months on the orbiting
laboratory. (NASA, Southgate, published news reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: ARRL DIVISION ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED

Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, who has been elected the new Director
of the ARRL's Hudson Division. Lisenco of Brooklyn New York
handily defeated incumbent Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF, for the
top slot in that Division.

Meantime in the Northwestern Division, incumbent Jim
Fenstermaker, K9JF, defeated challenger William Balzarini,
KL7BB, to retain his Directors seat. James Pace, K7CEX, was
elected as Vice Director in a three-way race.

Ballots were counted on November 16th. Those standing for
election in other divisions were unchallenged. Terms for
all Directors and Vice Directors elected or re-elected begin
at noon on January 1, 2013 and run for three years. (ARRL)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: WALDEN TO CHAIR NATIONAL REPUBLICAN
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

Newly re-elected Oregon Representative Greg Walden, W7EQI,
says he will remain chairman of the House Subcommittee that
oversees communications and technology policy. This as the
former radio station group owner is being promoted within
the Republican party leadership in Congress.

In addition to his other duties, W7EQI will chair the
National Republican Congressional Committee. Elected to the
post by House GOP members, the National Republican
Congressional Committee chairman works with House leadership
to set the agenda of that body. The committee also
coordinates national efforts to elect Republicans to the
House. (Published news reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: 2012 ARRL UHF CONTEST RESULTS POSTED

Sean Kutzko, KX9X, who is the League's Contest Branch
Manager says that the results for the 2012 ARRL August UHF
Contest are now on-line. You can view them at
www.arrl.org/contest-results-articles. (ARRL)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the
United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline
with links to the world from our only official website at
www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer
services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: INCREASING EFFICIENCY OF WIRELESS
NETWORKS

Professors at the University of California, Riverside Bourns
College of Engineering have apparently developed a way of
doubling the efficiency of wireless networks. According to
researchers Yingbo Hua and Ping Liang it appears the
doubling of efficiency could be achieved by using full-
duplex with "time-domain transmit beam forming." They say
that the latter digitally creates a time-domain cancellation
signal, couples it to the radio frequency front-end to allow
the radio to hear much weaker incoming signals while
transmitting strong outgoing signals at the same frequency
and same time.

Wireless Design says scientists Hua and Liang see
applications in cognitive radio. They say that this is a
type of wireless communication in which a transceiver can
detect which communication channels are in use and which are
not, and move into vacant channels while avoiding occupied
ones. You can read the Wireless Design Online article
at tinyurl.com/highly-efficient-radio. (Southgate, Wireless
Design)

**

TECHNOLOGY CHANGING: SPACE WEATHER TO INTRODUCE TWO NEW
PRODUCTS

This note from National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Tentatively on December 11th the Space
Weather Prediction Center will introduce two new forecast
products titled the 3-Day Forecast and the Forecast
Discussion. These new products will be available twice a
day at 00:30 and 12:30 UTC to provide space weather
information in abbreviated and detailed formats.

Both will use NOAA Space Weather Scale information.
Examples of these new products are available at
tinyurl.com/caqy4ox and for the concise, 1-page summary and
tinyurl.com/bm9flp6 for the in-depth space weather analysis.
These two products will supplement the existing product
suite and no current forecasts will be discontinued. (OPDX,
W8KVK)

**

RADIO IN SPACE: DARPA RECRUITING AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS FOR
SPACE JUNK SURVEILLANCE

The U.S. military is launching a far-out neighborhood watch.
But instead of warding off burglars, it's recruiting amateur
astronomers to assist in tracking orbital debris and there-
by help in avoiding possible satellite collisions in Earth
orbit.

The sky-monitoring project, called SpaceView, is a Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA program that
enrolls the talents of amateur astronomers to help protect
American space assets from orbital trash. These dangerous
objects include spent rocket stages, defunct satellites and
fragments from other spacecraft that are the result of
erosion, explosion and collision. DARPA says that a
collision between one of these small pieces of debris and a
satellite could release more than 20,000 times the energy of
a head-on automobile collision at 65 miles an hour.

The concept of the SpaceView program is to provide more
diverse data to the Space Surveillance Network. This is a
U.S. Air Force program charged with cataloguing and
observing space junk and debris to identify potential near-
term collisions. NASA estimates more than 500,000 pieces of
hazardous space debris orbit the Earth, threatening
satellites that among other things support peacekeeping and
combat missions.

For more information on DARPA's SpaceView project take your
web browser to www.spaceviewnetwork.com. (Space.com)

**

ON THE AIR: SPECIAL EVENT STATION GB0IDD TO CELEBRATE UN
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

The United Kingdom's Wakefield District Radio Society will
be operating the special event station GB0IDD over the
weekend of December 1st to the 3rd. This in celebration of
the United Nations International Day of Persons with
Disabilities.

This United Nations sponsored Day of Action takes place each
year. Its overall aim is to raise awareness and
understanding of disability issues and to promote the
independence, inclusion and choice of disabled people and
their rights, abilities and well-being worldwide.

This year's theme is Removing Barriers to Create an
Inclusive and Accessible Society for All. Operation will be
mainly on 20 through 10 meters and you should confirm this
contact electronically via e-QSL only.

By the way: Some 30 percent of the Wakefield District Radio
Society members are disabled in some way, (GB0IDD)

**

ON THE AIR: 5G12ITD CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL TOLERANCE DAY

And special events station 5G12ITD is on the air Morocco in
celebration International Tolerance Day. The United Nations
sponsors International Day for Tolerance annually observed
to educate people about the need for tolerance in society
and to help them understand the negative effects of
intolerance. 5G12ITD will be active all bands and all modes
through December 16th. QSL via RW6HS. (Southgate)

**

DX

In DX, word that Members of the F6KOP team expected to be
active from Ugands as 5X8C between February 6th to the 18th,
2013, from a location some 20 Km from Entebbe airport. They
have announced they will comply to the last IARU bandplan on
40 meters for the region with the frequencies of the PSK and
RTTY moved to 7040 and 7042 kHz. For more details see
www.5x2013.com

H44RK has announced that he will be active from Samoa for a
while in early December. More details will be forthcoming
shortly.

DL5RMH will be active from Guatemala until middle of January
signing stroke TG9 stroke KF5LSG though he is hoping to
obtain the call TG9IDX. If you make contact, please QSL via
his home callsign.

VK6DXI will be active stroke FK from New Caledonia until mid
December. He has been heard early on Sunday mornings on
28.485 MHz around 07:20 UTC. QSL only via his home callsign.

LA9JKA continues to be operational as JX9JKA from Jan Mayen
Island and will be there until approximately April 11th,
2013. He operates SSB and the digital modes on 160 through
4 meters including 60 and 6 meters. QSL direct only to his
home callsign as listed in QRZ.com.

Lastly, special event station 8J6HAM will be operational
from the Island of Kyushu Japan, between December 10th and
March 3rd. Activity is in celebration of the 12th West Japan
Ham Fair with operations on all bands and using many modes.
QSL via the JARL Bureau.

**

NEWSLINE FOLLOW-UP: L.A. AIRPORT'S TRAVELERS INFORMATION
STATION IS HISTORY

And finally this week, thanks to the efforts of a sharp-eyed
CGC Communicator reader, we now know why the 530 kHz
Travelers Information Station at Los Angeles International
Airport reported on last week is silent. Amateur Radio
Newsline's Bill Pasternak tells us who found out and why its
goods and bad news for broadcast band DX'ers:

--

According to the CGC Communicator, it was a reader
identified as Mark Nodine who provided the answer to the
question of why the station went dark. According to Nodine,
who holds the call KJ6MS says Los Angeles World Airports
canceled their recently renewed license for WNHV296
effective October 1, 2012.

Los Angeles World Airports is the City of Los Angeles
department that owns and operates three airports. These are
Los Angeles International, Ontario International and Van
Nuys. The latter of the three being mainly used for private
and corporate aviation.

The CGC Communicator goes on to give some interesting
technical date about the now defunct Los Angeles
International Airport Travelers Information Station. For
instance, the station consisted of two separate
transmitters. A 10 watt unit was used to provide service to
street traffic in a tunnel under the runways while a 100
watt transmitter broadcast to the general public. An FCC
waiver was necessary in order to run 100 watts with the
above-ground transmitter. That power level was granted back
in 2004 after being deemed necessary to communicate with the
general public in case of a terrorist attack.

The bottom line: As we said in our last report, the
disappearance of this Travelers Information Service station
does open up that frequency in the Southwest United States
for DX'ing a 50 Kilowatt religious station in Turks and
Caicos islands that operates on the same frequency. But it
also means another low power AM broadcast band station that
was a challenge for DXing listeners has gone away.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
scanning the medium waves from the newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

As an aside, the Los Angeles World Airports still holds but
is not using the license for station WQEA967 on 770 kHz. It
is supposed to be a 10 watt station at Southern California's
Ontario International Airport. (CGC Communicator)

**


NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC
Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX
Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate
News, TWiT-TV and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from
the Amateur Radio Newsline[TM}. Our e-mail address is
newsline(at) arnewsline (dot) org. More information is
available at Amateur Radio Newsline'sT only official website
located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or
support us at Amateur Radio Newsline[TM}, 28197 Robin Avenue,
Santa Clarita California, 91350

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors' desk,
I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH, saying 73 and we thank you for
listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline[TM} is Copyright 2012. All rights
reserved.

AND what does this have to do with the / CB radio?