Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1551 - May 4, 2007

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1551 with a
release date of Friday, May 4th, 2007 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. The ARRL backs away
from Regulation by Bandwidth but says that it
will be back. Also, researchers say that the
next solar cycle is late and so will be the High
Frequency D-X. Find out the details on Amateur
Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1551 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

**
RESTRUCTURING: ARRL RECALLS REGULATION BY BANDWIDTH PETITION

The ARRL has requested that the FCC permit it to
withdraw its "Regulation by Bandwidth" petition
known at the Commission as RM-11306. The ARRL
says it wants time to reassess and re-file but
those who oppose the concept are calling it a
victory over what they see as a misguided attempt
to change the service. Amateur Radio Newsline's
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, is here with the rest of the story:

--

The bloggers are having a field day. They claim
that they are the ones who forced the ARRL to
withdraw its November 2005 Petition for Rule
Making. One calling on the FCC to establish a
regulatory system that would have done away with
traditional by-mode subbands and brought about a
new regulatory scheme based on the bandwidth of a given signal.

Whether or not it was the web log writers had
anything at all to do with the ARRL decision to
abandon the measure the FCC dubbed as RM-11306
will be forever open to debate. The real
deciding factor was likely the 1000+ comments
filed with the FCC, the majority of which opposed
the idea. And rather than face the possibility
of a wrenching political defeat, the League
wisely chose to walk away from this initial
attempt but has left the door open to try again at some later date.

So what was so wrong with RM-11306? That really
depends on where your interest in Amateur Radio
lies? For the average ham in the street it
really meant nothing more than doing away with
the concept of subbands and instituting handshake
agreements as to whom would operate where. No
longer would there be the traditional band
segments dedicated to a given mode or modes like
CW and SSB. Instead, anyone could operate
anywhere as long as his or her signal did not
exceed a specific bandwidth for a particular
spectral parcel. This meant that in a given band
one might see a legacy mode such as SSB mixed
with all sorts of emerging digital modes that
have yet to be devised. This change in itself
was one that a lot of folks seemed to have a
problem understanding or simply opposed because they oppose any sort of
change.

Another point of contention was automated digital
messaging. Amateurs involved in emergency
communications say that this is a must if the
hobby is to maintain its status as a support
organization to first responders. But opponents
fear that permitting unattended operation by more
and more automated stations would lead to a
massive interference problem all across the High
Frequency bands. Whether or not this would have
happened can only be theorized on because the
ARRL has asked that RM-11306 be withdrawn from
consideration from the FCC's agenda and it likely
will be if the regulatory agency has not done so already.

In the end, if one looks as the comments filed on
this matter with the FCC, one realizes that there
are really two schools of thought expressed. A
small contingent says that ham radio must march
forward into the age of digital communications at
all costs. A much larger group appears to wants
to maintain the status quo or initiate any change
at what can best be described as a snails
pace. In the end it looks as if the
ARRL leadership after reading the comments from
the ham community concluded that RM-11306 simply
did not have the support from the ham radio
community to make it a viable plan even if the
FCC issued a Report and Order agreeing worth
it. So it decided to take a step back, reassess
what is needed and to try again at some later
date. And in its statement withdrawing RM-11306,
that's exactly what it has done.

How soon will the ARRL re-file? Only the League
knows the answer to that one. But one thing is
certain. Whether it's the ARRL some other group
or the FCC itself leads the way, the road to
regulation by bandwidth is one that the ham radio
community is going to have to travel one of these
days. The only real question is how soon.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles.

--

By the way, now that the ARRL has decided to
withdraw RM-11306, we have decided to close down
our web based straw poll as to how many folks are
for or against the concept of Regulation by
Bandwidth. When we took the poll off line on
April 30th, 1138 of you had taken the time to
cast your vote. Of these, 694 or 61% favor a
shift to Regulation by Bandwidth while 395 or
34.7% oppose the idea. Another 49 or 4.3%
responded by noting that you had no idea as to
what Regulation by Bandwidth is really all about. (ARNewsline(tm), others)


**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: KD5PLB TALKS TO SCHOOL KIDS IN GERMANY

Saturday, April 28th is a day that students at
the Samuel von Pufendorf School in Floeha,
Germany, will long remember. Gathered in the
gymnasium, they were there to hear a voice from
space. And they would not be disappointed as the
voice of astronaut Suni Williams, KD5PLB,
operating as NA1SS from the International Space
Station rang forth from the speakers:


--

Williams audio - hear it in the MP3 version of
this weeks newscast downloadable at www.arnewsline.org

--

As soon as two way contact was established,
Williams went to work answering questions posed
by students at the school. Here is an edited
sample of her responses as supplied by PA2RPJ and
PD0RKC with the first questioner interested in
knowing whether she watches satellite T-V:

--

Williams audio - hear it in the MP3 version of
this weeks newscast downloadable at www.arnewsline.org

--

Soon the questions became a lot more technical
and so did the answers. Here KD5PLB describes
what its like to watch lightning storms on Earth
from her vantage point in space:

--

Williams audio - hear it in the MP3 version of
this weeks newscast downloadable at www.arnewsline.org

--

And it was also a pretty dynamic event for the
students at the Samuel von Pufendorf School to
get to talk to Suni Williams flying overhead on
the I-S-S. One that they are not likely to
forget. (ARNewsline(tm), ARISS with audio by PA2RPJ and PD0RKC)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: SATGATE CLOSES DO TO LACK OF USE

AMSAT's Satgate is going away. After many years
of packet message forwarding via UO-22, GO-32 and
AO-51 the Satgate System will close due to a lack of traffic being handled.

Using Satgate, traffic was automatically accepted
from the terrestrial packet networks and routed
to the satellites. It was then downloaded from
the satellite and routed into another packet
network untouched by human hands.

A total of thirty five worldwide stations were in
the system a few years ago. This has dwindled
due to this lack of traffic, maintenance
problems, change of location of command stations
and users who have become Silent Keys.

Another reason for its going away was not
stated. That being packet messaging being
replaced by electronic mail over the
Internet. That lead to a major loss of interest
in traditional packet by the worlds ham community
with the lone exception of A-P-R-S. More ham
radio space related items later on in this weeks
Amateur Radio Newsline report. (ARNewsline(tm), ANS ,W0SL)

**

Break 1

Celebrating 30 years of service to the world-wide
ham radio community. From the United States of
America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard
on bulletin stations around the world including
the N7CCD repeater serving Seattle, Washington.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RADIO SCIENCE: RESEARCHERS SAY SOLAR MAX DELAYED A YEAR

Good D-X may have to wait a little while
longer. This is because the next 11-year cycle
will most likely not start next March and peak in
late 2011 or mid-2012. This according to a
forecast issued by the NOAA Space Environment
Center in coordination with an international
panel of solar experts all of whom agree that the
cycle will begin up to a year later than
expected. Amateur Radio Newsline's Evi Simons reports:

--

If you have been waiting for improved D X
conditions on the High Frequency bands, you are
going to have to be patient a bit longer. So
says the NOAA Space Environment Center which led
a prediction panel that issued the forecast at
its annual Space Weather Workshop in Boulder, Colorado.

Expected to start last fall, the delayed onset of
Solar Cycle 24 has stymied the panel. It also
left them evenly split on whether a weak or
strong period of solar storms lies ahead, but
neither group predicts a record-breaker.

One disagreement among the current panel members
centers on the importance of magnetic fields
around the sun's poles as the previous cycle
decays. End-cycle polar fields are the bedrock of
the approach predicting a weak Cycle 24. The
strong-cycle forecasters place more importance on
other precursors extending over a several-cycle
history. Another clue will be whether Cycle 24
sunspots appear by mid 2008. If not, the
strong-cycle group might change its forecast.

In the cycle forecast issued Wednesday, April
25th, half of the panel predicts a moderately
strong cycle of 140 sunspots, plus or minus 20,
expected to peak in October 2011. The other half
predicts a moderately weak cycle of 90 sunspots,
plus or minus 10, peaking in August 2012. An
average solar cycle ranges from 75 to 155
sunspots. The late decline of Cycle 23 has helped
shift the panel away from its earlier leaning
toward a strong Cycle 24. Now the group is
evenly split between strong and weak.

The first year after solar minimum, marking the
end of Cycle 23, will provide the information
scientists need to arrive at a consensus. NOAA
and the panel decided to issue their best
estimate now and update the forecast as the cycle
progresses, since NOAA Space Environment Center
customers have been requesting this forecast for more than a year.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Evi Simons, in New York.

--

Scientists have issued solar cycle predictions
only twice before. In 1989, a panel met to
predict Cycle 22, which peaked that same year.
Scientists met again in September of 1996 to
predict Cycle 23 -- six months after the cycle
had begun. Both groups did better at predicting timing than intensity.
(NOAA)

**

RESCUE RADIO: CONGRESS COULD DESIGNATE BROADCASTERS AS FIRST RESPONDERS

U-S Senator Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana says that
she and a colleague plan to introduce
congressional legislation that would recognize
the role of local broadcasters in responding to
disasters on a federal level. Co-sponsored by
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the First Response
Broadcasters Act of 2007 would designate
broadcasters as first responders, and as such,
entitled to federal supplies of "fuel, water and
emergency supplies so that they can remain in
operation in or near a disaster zone. The
Landrieu-Stevens legislation would also direct
FEMA to expedite access to the disaster area by
broadcast engineers to restore transmitters and
other key facilities of a broadcasters
infrastructure. The bill establishes a $10
million Broadcast Disaster Preparedness Matching
Grant Program that could be used to protect,
upgrade or enhance facilities. (RW)

**

RESCUE RADIO: NEW EMCOMMS DATABASE BEING DEVELOPED IN LOS ANGELES

A University of California at Los Angeles center
is developing an online database and mapping
system for first responders. This, to better
address the needs of Los Angeles County's
vulnerable populations in the event of a disaster.

The Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at the UCLA
School of Public Affairs is using a 500,000
dollar endowment from the state Homeland Security
Grants Program to develop the database. It along
with maps are being designed for use by the Los
Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.

The information will also be used the Los Angeles
Mayor's Office, Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, Los Angeles Police Department, and
city and county fire departments. No word if the
database will be available to volunteer agencies
that utilize radio amateurs as primary communications. (CGC, others)

**

ENFORCEMENT: FCC SAYS THAT'S NO WAY TO RUN A REPEATER

Turning to enforcement news, the FCC has written
to John C. Kimbrough, WR3S, of Murfeesborough,
Tennessee, asking why has repeaters operated
without apparent control and rebroadcast portions
of commercial television programming and music on
several dates in March of this year. The FCC
told WR3S that this contrary to the FCC Part 97
rules. It also noted that its monitoring found
that repeater control operators were failing to properly identify
themselves.

The letter to Kimbrough goes on to note that the
Commission requires that repeater be under the
supervision of a control operator. Also, that it
both requires and expects control operators to
take whatever steps are necessary to insure that
the repeater is in fill compliance with all FCC rules.

WR3S was given 30 days from the date of the FCC's
April 12th letter to provide detailed answers to
a list of questions asked by the FCC. He was
also told that the information he submits will
determine what additional action, if any will be
taken in this matter by the FCC. (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: FCC CANCELS HARTMANN JR ALJ HEARING AND DENIES APPLICATION

The FCC has told a hard to locate ham radio
applicant that he will not get a hearing before
an Administrative Law Judge and that his license
application is denied. This, after Joseph W.
Hartmann Jr of Lansing, Michigan, wrote to the
judge assigned to the case telling him that he
did not have the money to fight the agency's claims of alleged wrong doing.

For a long time the FCC could not communicate
with Hartmann, Jr. Correspondence to him was
returned unopened and unclaimed. Then Hartmann
decided to contact the agency on his own
initiative. In several electronic communications
to Administrative Law Judge Arthur I. Steinberg,
Hartmann Jr. stated that he did not have the
resources to obtain legal counsel for a hearing
nor have the resources for driving to hearing in Washington.D.C..

By way of background, the FCC had earlier
designated Hartmann's license application for a
hearing after noting that it had evidence
suggesting that he had intentionally submitted
fraudulent administrative updates to obtain the
privileges associated with the General class
license of another radio amateur with a similar
name. That ham is Joseph V. Hartman Sr, K3GUX, of Oceanview, Delaware.

The Commission had earlier placed put Hartmann's
January 2006 application for an Amateur Radio
license on hold. This, while it was looking into
why he'd filed numerous requests back in 2005 in
attempts to change the name and address of the
Delaware Hartman to that of his own.

Other than one being Hartmann Jr. and the other
being Hartman Senior, there is also a difference
in the spelling of the name. Joseph V. Hartman
Sr, K3GUX, is spelled with only one letter "n"
while Joseph W. Hartmann Jr. uses two. Its
unknown if that's what caught the FCC's eye in
this matter, but its likely a good guess. (FCC)

**

ENFORCEMENT: ONLY EXTRA CLASS CAN OPERATE THERE

Edib Zildzo, K2AAW, of Roselle, Illinois, has
been sent a letter by the FCC. One that asks
him to explain why he has been heard operating on
frequencies reserved for Extra class license
holders when he only holds a General class license.

In its note to Zildzo, the FCC says that it has a
copy of documents submitted by him to unnamed
radio organization s where-in K2AAW claims that
between February and July of 2006 that he
operated at least 200 times on frequencies
reserved for Extra class licensees. As such, it
says that this raises questions whether or not
Zildzo holds the qualifications to continue to
hold an Amateur Service license.

Zildzo was asked to respond within 30 days to a
series of questions regarding the operation of
his station. He too was warned that future
punitive action, if any, will depend on the
information that he provides. (FCC)

**

ELECTRICAL SAFETY: SIGNS MIGHT HAVE SAVED STUDENTS LIFE

Purdue University says that it will update
warning signs at all high-voltage areas,
including the one where the body of an
electrocuted freshman was found on March 23rd.
The school said it will hold an independent
review into the circumstances surrounding the
death of 19-year-old aviation technology student
Wade Steffey who had been missing since January 13th.

Under federal safety law, buildings constructed
or renovated after 1981 are required to post
signs on doors of rooms containing more than 600
volt circuits. Owen Hall, the dormitory where
the Steffey was found was built in 1957.

According to published news reports investigators
believe that Steffey probably walked into the
room containing the high voltage
circuitry. This, after trying several doors to
enter the dormitory to retrieve a coat from a
friend's room. An autopsy suggested that he
died instantly when he made contact with the wiring. (Published reports)

**

INDUSTRY NEWS: ICOM IC-R3 MINI-TV RECEIVER IS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

The Icom IC-R3, a small handheld receiver with a
2" T-F-T color display has been popular with
ATV'ers involved in Emergency Communications for
mobile reception of TV pictures may soon go
extinct. Icom announced on April 26th that the
IC-R3-26, blocked version for the United States
market is currently on backorder with the delay
is due to the FCC's Part 15.112 rules change.
This ruling states that all TV receivers imported
into the United States, after March 1, 2007, must
be DTV compatible. As the IC-R3 is analog only,
so it will no longer be imported for domestic
sales. When existing stocks are gone, that's all there will ever be. (CGC)

**

HAM RADIO ON THE WEB: THE DAYTON AMATEUR RADIO FORUM

Turning to ham radio on the World-Wide-Web, word
of a new on-line discussion board for hams in the
Dayton Ohio area. Its called the Dayton Amateur
Radio Forum and is in cyberspace and is billed as
a place to discus anything from vintage gear to
the latest operating modes and much more. Its
on-line at www.hamradioboard.proboards56.com/index.cgi (W8JWA)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: HAMVENTION 2007 - THE ANNUAL VHF DINNER

This years Dayton VHF Dinner is slated
for Thursday evening, May 17th at 6pm. The
venue is the Shuckin Shack, at 5512 North Main
in Dayton; This is a very casual. Affair where
such things as VHF contesting, gear and antennas will be discussed.

Seating is limited to about 60 and reservations
are required. If you plan to attend please
e-mail Dick Hanson, K5AND, at to reserve your spot.

Hamvention 2007 takes place May 18th to the 20th
at the Hara Arena in Dayton Ohio. Newsline's Ham
Radio Town Meeting is Saturday, May 19th from
12:45 to 2:45 PM. We hope to see you there. (VHF Reflector)

**

BREAK 2

Thirty years and still here to serve you. 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)

**

THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD: HOWARD LESTER, W2ODC - SK

One of the grates of the Amateur Radio service
has passed from the scene. This with word that
Howard Lester, W2ODC, passed away on April 16th.

Lester was best known for his work in forming the
Upper New York Repeater Coordination Committee
after the sudden collapse of the NorthEast
Repeater Association in the early 1970's. He was
also a member of the Schenectady Amateur Radio
Association and heavily involved in the regions
emergency communications planning.

In addition to his devotion to Amateur Radio,
W2ODC was also an engineer and was credited as
one of the inventors of color television during
his tenure at RCA. He also devoted many hours
helping local, State, and Federal officials solve
radio communication problems. This included the
Schenectady Police Department and the Schenectady
County Emergency Operations Center.

Services for Howard Lester were held at Calvary
Episcopal Church in Burnt Hills, New York on
Sunday, April 22nd. He is survived by his wife
Ruth; sons, Carl, David, Donald and Eric plus
eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. (E-mail)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: THE TINY FRACTAL 2.4 GHZ ANTENNA

A new and very tiny Fractal antenna has come to
light . In press release dated March 6th, the
Spanish wireless antenna company Fractus released
a 2.4GHz fractal antenna that is the size of a grain rice.

Fractus, the pioneer developer of fractal antenna
technology says that it has set a new standard
for antenna miniaturization with the launch of
its smallest antenna for the I-S-M 2.4GHz band.
The 3.7mm by 2mm Micro Reach Xtend provides
device designers with significantly more
available space to enable new multimedia
applications or reducing the antenna space needed within devices.

The miniature antenna was developed especially
for Bluetooth headsets and mobile handsets. It
supports all standards working at the 2.4GHz ISM
band, including Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Now the
only problem is to convince Fractus that there's
a restricted antenna ham radio market for a full
kilowatt 20 meter version that would be about the
size of a dime. More information s on line at
http://www.fractus.com/main/fractus/news_english/ (New Technology )

**

RADIO IN SPACE: NASA MISSION TO STUDY THE AURORA BOREALIS

NASA has launched five satellites into orbit on a
mission to study aurora like the famous Northern
Lights. During the mission, the five satellites
will observe an estimated 30 substorms in process
and radio their findings back to Earth. At the
same time, 20 observatories in Alaska and Canada
will study the aurora from the ground.

The overall mission of these satellites is to
solve the mystery of what causes geomagnetic
substorms. Substorms are atmospheric events
visible in the Northern Hemisphere as a sudden
brightening of the Aurora Borealis that can have
an impact on radio propagation. Researchers say
that the findings may help protect commercial
satellites and humans in space from the impact of
particle radiation. Discovering why aurora
fluctuate and fade will also provide scientists
with important information on how the planet's
protective magnetosphere works. (Space OnLine)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: FO-29 GOES QRT

The Fuji-Oscar 29 satellite may have gone
silent. Reports received from JE9PEL say that
the Japan Amateur Radio League is asking for any
received telemetry to be forwarded to them. The
e-mail address given is . (VHF Reflector)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: INDIA PLANS HAMSAT-2

The secretary of AMSAT India says that
organization that planning for a second Indian
amateur radio satellite. It will be called
Hamsat-2 and AMSAT India is asking for proposals
from satellite operators, designers, and
international AMSAT organizations. You can send
your comments to . (AMSAT India)

**

WORLDBEAT - UK: GB400AA CELEBRATES FOUNDING OF JAMESTOWN

Three clubs U-K radio clubs are banding together
to celebrate the founding of Jamestown. The
Clacton Radio Club, Felixstowe and District
Amateur Radio Club and Harwich Amateur Radio
Interest Group have joined forces to operate
GB400AA as a special event station.

The station will commemorate the founding of
Jamestown, Virginia 400 years ago. This, when
the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery
arrived in that then U-S colony. They carried
102 passengers and founded the first English
speaking settlement in North America.

GB400AA will be operated at the Mayflower Museum
on the Halfpenny Pier at Harwich where the
Harwich Society will have an exhibition showing
the local area's connections with the inaugural
voyages. The station is planned to operate from
May 11th to the 13th and again on May 25th and 26th. (GB2RS)


**
WORLDBEAT- GREECE: NEW 4 METER BEACON ON 70.040 MHZ

A new 4 meter beacon is on the air from Greece on 70.040 MHz..

4 meters, which was once a United Kingdom only
ham radio allocation is gaining favor across
Europe. The latest offering is the new SV1FOUR
beacon operation located in Athens that started operation on April 24th.

SV1DH is the beacon keeper. He reports over the
Four Meter website that the beacon is licensed
for 5 watts output to 5-element yagi antenna
beaming 315 degrees toward the UK.

At the moment SV1FOUR is only running at about 1
watt out and transmits its callsign followed by
several dashes and locator KM27AW in Morse. More
is on-line at www.70mhz.org (Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT - UK: INTERNATIONAL MUSEUMS WEEKEND

The seventh International Museums Weekend special
event will take place on June 16th and 17th.
M1BYT, who is organising the event, asks that all
those intending to join in should please register
their museum via the International Museums
Weekend website at www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw.
Hams world-wide are encouraged to participate in
this event by setting up stations in their local
museums and showing the public the magic and mystery of Amateur Radio.
(GB2RS)

**

WORLDBEAT - ITALY: THE PONETE LIGURE DX MEETING

And the 4th annual Ponente Ligure D X Meeting
will take place in Imperia, Italy on May
19th. Topics covered include DXing, contests,
the Summits On The Air and Islands on the Air
award programs, and much more. Also, further
discussions will be held regarding the proposal
of an Italian team to build a permanent contest
station in Morocco. Award hunters may bring
their QSLs along to have them checked for the
DXCC, WAS or IOTA. More information is on line at
www.ariloano.it and http://www.arimperia.net (Southgate)

**

DX

In DX, word that the long awaited Scarborough
Reef BS7H DXpedition is on the air! At 03:00 UTC
on Wednesday, May 2nd, it was reported that four
operating positions had been built and that
operations are ongoing. Two stations will stay on
20 meters while the other two will search 15, 17, 30 and 40 for openings.

In other DX news, DS4DRE is currently active
stroke 4 from Hong Island. He will be there
until the 30th of June. Activity is on 80 through
10 meters using CW and SSB. QSL to his callbook address.

And EA4ATI is returning to Dakar, Senegal and
will remain there until April of 2008. He
expects to be active as with his own call
portable 6W and also as 6W1EA. Listen for him on
10, 15 and 20 meters using a beam and on other
bands using dipoles. QSL direct to his EA4ATI home call.

Lastly, PA5CW, will be active portable YB9 from
Bali through the 10th of May. QSL this one as directed on the air.

(Above from various DX sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: THE DX ENTITY THAT NEVER WAS

And finally this week the story of the DX entity
that never was -- and likely never will be. Its
another tale from down-under described by Lim Linton, VK3PC:

--

The Hutt River Province Principality announced
two years ago plans to begin short-wave
broadcasts and also seek amateur radio DXCC
entity status. Not heard of it? Well this
self-proclaimed independent territory on
Australia's mainland is located just north of
Geraldton, Western Australia and began in 1970.

The Royal Amateur Radio Society was formed as a
body to represent the interests of amateur radio
on the Hutt River Province. It was full steam
ahead seeking United Nations, IARU and ITU recognition.

Special Hotel Five prefix callsigns were being
made available to inaugural members of the Royal Amateur Radio Society.

ARRL DXCC rules were being quoted as enabling the
Principality to qualify for separate country
status. DXers and contesters were claimed to be
eager to operate from Hutt River.

However today it is all but a memory, no mention
is made on the Hutt River Province website of the former radio plans.

A source close to the ruler of the Hutt River
Province, Prince Leonard, reveals he's gone
totally cold on the radio ideas and is now very
busy engineering a pyramid in his Principality.

I'm Jim Linton VK3PC.

--

Sounds as if Prince Leonard and ham radio have
gone their separate ways. (WIA News)

**

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 and Australia's W-I-A
News, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline(tm). Our e-mail address is
. More information is
available at Amateur Radio Newsline's(tm) only
official website located at
www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or
support us at Amateur Radio Newsline(tm), P.O. Box
660937, Arcadia, California 91066.

Two reminders before we go. First we have a new
poll for the month of May. This one asks the
question now that the Morse exam is part of ham
radio history, do you plan to upgrade or remain
the license class you are right now. Of coarse
this is unfair to Extra class licensees because
they cannot go any higher so this poll kind of
leaves them out in the cold, To compensate, we
added a third possible answer, but you will have
to go to our website at www.arnewsline.org to see what it is.

Also, the nominating season for this years
Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year
Award is now open. Any radio amateur age 18 or
younger residing in all 50 United States, plus
Puerto Rico and all 13 Canadian Provinces can
qualify. Full details and nominating forms are
on our special website at www.yhoty.org. Also
see the Vertex-Standard sponsored ad on page 8
of the March issue of QST Magazine.

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the
editors desk, I'm Don Willbanks, AE5DW, saying 73
and we thank you for listening.

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