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Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1714 - June 18 2010
Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1714 with a release date of Friday, June 18, 2010 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a Q-S-T. Amateur radio gets ready for the 2010 Scouting Jamboreee, hams assist as floods hit Arkansas and tornadoes hit Ohio, a dispute over first place in the International Amateur Radio Headquarters Station category and a balloon ride across the English Channel gets tracked using A-P-R-S. Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1714 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** RADIO CELEBRATIONS: HAM RADIO AT THE 2010 BOY SCOUT JAMBOREE The 2010 National Scout Jamboree is a little more than a month away. This years theme is the celebration of 100 years of scouting in the United States and ham radio will be an important part of the festivities. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, is at our East Coast bureau with mo -- For anyone who's ever been or still is a Boy Scout - youth or leader - celebrating an anniversary of this significance is truly a once-in-a-lifetime happening. And, why not do it with a huge campout or jamboree at a military base called Fort AP Hill, Virginia, just outside of Woodbridge? Of course, to make it really a special event you set up an amateur radio station! The staff of K2BSA - the call sign of the Boy Scouts of America - is making final preparations for the event - which runs from July 26 through Aug. 4. Ed Dudley, WA4ISI, is the volunteer coordinator for the K2BSA staff. He says the staff of nearly 50 volunteers is made up of folks from a variety of fields who will be coming from all around the country. "We have doctors and lawyers," Dudley says. "We have scientists, engineers and we have youth that are Scouts that will be part of the staff." Among the youth, Andrew Koenig, KE5GDB, Amateur Radio Newsline's 2009 Young Ham of the Year. Dudley says the centerpiece of the K2BSA operation is a large demonstration station located inside a large circus-style tent with HF and VHF stations set up, a temporary antenna farm that might rival some of the smaller DX operations, and plans in the works for a contact with one of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. But Dudley says that's not all. "We'll also be doing the Radio merit badge at the merit badge midway and we have a third group that will be doing licensing and testing," Dudley says. "We'll have classes and give the test every evening that there's not an arena show. "When they have the arena shows, everything shuts down. But every other night we'll have testing for the amateur radio licenses, all levels." Dudley says the mission of the K2BSA staff is clear - showing off the best of amateur radio. "Well, we have an opportunity here to show ham radio to lots of Scouts, and when I say lots, I mean lots," Dudley says. "There are approximately 40,000 Scouts and adults that are actually participants in the jamboree, plus there's six or seven-thousand staff members. "All of these people can come in and see what's going on. But, beyond that there may be several hundred thousands of visitors." At the K2BSA demonstration, Dudley says the idea is to get Scouts and visitors talking on the air with other Scouts around the country and around the world. "I'd like to see Scouts from all over the world that can come into a local ham station and make a contact and talk to some of these guys at the jamboree," Dudley says. "That's what the demonstration is "It's sort of like Jamboree on the Air in that we're trying to do contacts with other Scouts. Of course we'll talk to everyone else, too." The bottom line: Dudley would love to see the ham community get active during the jamboree. And, of course, if you contact K2BSA, there is a nice little bonus. "Get on your radio and give us a call," Dudley says. "If you'd like a QSL card, we'll have a unique QSL card for the jamboree. "We do ask that you send an SASE along with that because we may make thousands of contacts and we'd love to send you a card but we can't afford to pay for the mailing for all of them." Check out the July QST cover story by Bill Morine, N2COP, to learn more about K2BSA's operations at the National Boy Scout Jamboree and listen for the web address at the end of this story, too. Your humble correspondent will be part of the K2BSA staff for the third time in my Scouting career. And, I hope to be able to file a story or two for the Amateur Radio Newsline while there. For now, for the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia. -- More information on this years Scout Jamboree is on line at www.nsj2010ham.com (NT3V, ARNewsline(tm)) ** RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO CALLED OUT IN ARKANSAS CAMPSITE FLOOD Ham radio was called out on June 6th to assist in the search for missing people following flooding in the Albert Pike campground, about 75 miles west of Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite temporary cell phone towers being installed, emergency personnel still need help communicating in the remote Arkansas wilderness. Because of this local law enforcement has requested the help of ham radio operators across the state. The Central Arkansas Ultra-High Frequency Amateur Radio Club was quick to respond. Its spokesman is Josh Carroll, N5JLC. He says cell phones can only cover so much of an area. According to Carroll the cellular towers and services that have been put in place are functioning properly. The problem is they're working for a certain portion of the affected area, and the area we're currently concerned with is still very spotty as far as cellular service and communications. So that's why they requested the assistance of the ham radio community. The flash flood swept through a popular Arkansas campground on Friday, June 4th. At least 19 people have been confirmed killed, and one person is still missing after sudden severe floods rampaged through the area. (NPR, N5LJC) ** RESCUE RADIO: OHIO HAMS READY AS TORNADOES STRIKE The ARRL reports that during the early overnight hours of Saturday, June 5 through Sunday, June 6, severe weather and tornadoes ripped across an area of Northwestern Ohio, laying a large path of destruction. ARES and SKYWARN groups in Erie, Huron, Sandusky and Wood Counties activated nets as early as 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on the 5th, with many not standing down until 4:30 a.m. the next day. According to ARRL Ohio Section Manager Frank Piper, KI8GW, traffic on the nets was filled with reports of severe weather damage, flooding and downed power lines. (ARRL) ** ENFORCEMENT: CONNECTICUT HAM ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF ARSON A Norwich, Connecticut ham arrested last month on charges he called in a fake report of a gunman at Wal-Mart is in custody again. This time on charge of suspicion of arson linked to a 2007 fire. According to the Norwich Bulletin on-line newspaper, Keith Mutch, KB1RBI, was arrested Wednesday, June 16th on a warrant on charging him with second degree arson and first degree criminal mischief in connection with a June 7, 2007 fire at a vacant home in Norwich. No injuries were reported at the blaze. Mutch was also charged with tampering with a witness for actions connected to his May 28 arrest on charges he used a two way radio on January 26th to call in reports of an armed man threatening to shoot people outside Wal-Mart in Norwich. Police said they developed information that Mutch had contacted one of the witnesses in the Wal-Mart incident and tried to convince her to change her story. Mutch was arriagned on Thursday, June 17th in Norwich Superior Court. He is being held on a total of $325,000 in bonds. Norwich Police Lt. Stephany Bakoulis said that an investigation continues into suspicious fires and more arrests are expected. More is on-line at tinyurl.com/2ffee7h From the newsroom, Im Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in Los Angeles. (NorwichBulletin.com, TheDay.com) ** ENFORCEMENT: CALIFORNIA SOS HOAXSTER SENTENCED TO 30 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON A federal judge sentenced Kurtis Thorsted of Salinas, California to 30 months in federal prison. This, after the 53 year old pleaded guilty in July in U.S. District Court in San Jose to broadcasting a fake distress signal in October 2008. At that time he made the transmissions Thorsted told would-be rescuers in that he was in a kayak off the coast of Santa Cruz and having difficulty getting to shore. However it was found that he was actually at his home in the city of Salinas. Thorsted also pleaded guilty in October to making two other fake mayday calls to the Coast Guard. In all, the court found that Thorsted has made 51 false distress messages over six months and costing the Coast Guard $102,000 in search and related costs. This is not the first time that Thorsted has been convicted of transmitting a false distress message. In April 2004 he was sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $29,000 in restitution to the Coast Guard for a similar series of hoax calls. And in one of the earlier incidents, Thorsted's phony call interrupted a real distress call from a 33-foot boat 4 miles off the coast of Santa Cruz island. More on this story is on-line at tinyurl.com/2f63oq8. (VHF Reflector, SF Chronicle) ** BREAK 1 From the United States of America, we are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the N9AKN repeater serving Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (5 sec pause here) ** WORLDBEAT: NO FIRST PLACE AWARD IN DISPUTED IARU HQ CONTEST The 2009 IARU contest between the world's national amateur radio society headquarters stations has produced a bitter dispute over the scores. This as an argument rages between the Spanish and German national societies over who actually finished in first place as the ARRL says that nobody will be declared to have taken first place. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has the details: -- Dave Patton, NN1N, is the Manager, ARRL Membership and Volunteer Programs. In a June 7th statement for the ARRL Awards Committee Regarding headquarters station entries in the 2009 IARU HF World Championship he writes that a most unfortunate dispute has arisen in connection with the outcome of the 2009 IARU HF World Championship. This, between AO8HQ on behalf of Spain's Union de Radioaficionados Espanoles or URE and DA0HQ on behalf of the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club or DARC. Pattons says that as the administrator of the contest on behalf of the IARU, the ARRL regrets that it has contributed to this development in two ways. He says that far to much emphasis has been allowed to develop on competition between headquarters station entries. He explains that the special category of headquarters stations was intended to raise the visibility of the IARU member-societies among active radio amateurs, and to make the contest more interesting to participants by providing additional multipliers. But says Patton, it was never intended to be a competition for the highest world score. Clearly there can never be a "level playing field" for such competition, nor does it further the objectives of the IARU. Second, in adjudicating the 2009 contest results a serious error was made in the initial computation of scores. He explains that many contacts were incorrectly identified as "busted calls" that were not. As a result of this error, when the results were first published AO8HQ was shown as having the highest score when in fact the DA0HQ score, after correction of the computation, is slightly higher. Therefore, the ARRL Awards Committee has decided that no certificate will be awarded for the high scoring IARU member society HQ station in 2009. Instead, a certificate will be awarded to each continental leader, and certificates of appreciation for their participation will be awarded to all headquarters stations. And there are major changes coming to get this event back on track. Effective with the 2010 IARU HF World Championship, no adjudication of HQ station logs will be conducted by the ARRL. A certificate of participation will be awarded to each IARU member society headquarters station and that will be it. Also effective with the 2010 event, by submitting a log the submitter agrees that the log may be made public, at the discretion of the contest sponsor. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Brice Tennant, K6PZW, in Los Angeles. -- In the committee statement Patton says that the ARRL will not engage in any further correspondence with regard to the 2009 IARU HF World Championship but it does welcomes suggestions for improvements for future events. He also says that it is extremely regrettable that the matter has escalated into a distraction from the other issues facing the words amateur radio organizations today. The ARRL Awards Committee Statement can be seen on line at tinyurl.com/3xfo54h (radio-sport.net, DARC, URE) ** ENFORCEMENT: FCC SHUTS DOWN UNLICENSED BROADCASTER IN BROOKLYN NY The FCC has issued a Forfeiture Order in the amount of $4,500 to Mark Nierman and Kakadu Productions, Inc.. This for willfully and repeatedly violating Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934 by operating an unlicensed radio station on the frequency 99.9 MHz in Brooklyn, New York. The investigation revolving this matter goes back almost 9 months. In response to several complaints from licensed area broadcasters, on October 12th and 13th of 2009, an agent from the Enforcement Bureau's New York Office used a mobile direction-finding vehicle and determined that the source of broadcast transmissions on 99.9 MHz was a radio station operating from an apartment building located in Brooklyn's Coney Island area. The agent also observed an FM broadcast antenna on top of a water tank on the roof of the apartment building. The agent subsequently took field strength measurements and determined that the signals being broadcast exceeded the limits for operation under Part 15 of the Commission's Rules and therefore required a license. After taking the measurements the agent went to the office of the building management company. The office's director stated that he was aware of the antenna and that a five-year lease had been executed between Luna Park and Mark Nierman of Kakadu Productions allowing a radio station to operate in the bulkhead room of the structure beginning on May 30, 2009. The lease price was $6,000 a year. Accompanied by the building superintendent, the agent then returned and conducted an inspection of the FM broadcast antenna on top of the water tank. The agent observed coaxial cable connecting the antenna to radio station equipment located inside the bulkhead room. The agent also observed that the radio station equipment was active and recorded information about the apparatus. The building superintendent then shut down all the equipment at the agent's request. On October 16th the New York Office issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation to Kakadu Productions. The notice warned Kakadu that operation of the unlicensed radio station on 99.9 MHz violated Section 301 of the Act and outlined the potential penalties for such a violation, including seizure of the equipment, fines and imprisonment. The notice also directed Kakadu to terminate operation of the unlicensed station immediately and provided Kakadu ten days to reply. On October 26th Kakadu submitted a reply to the FCC stating that it had ceased operating the unlicensed radio station. Also, that it would comply with FCC directives in any future radio operations. On January 8th, 2010, the New York Office issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $10,000 to Nierman and Kakadu for apparently willfully and repeatedly operating an unlicensed radio station. Nierman and Kakadu jointly submitted a response on February 9th. In it Nierman and Kakadu did not dispute the violations identified in the NAL but request cancellation of the proposed forfeiture based on their inability to pay. In support of their claim of financial hardship, Nierman and Kakadu submitted three years of individual and corporate tax returns. After reviewing the documentation the FCC concluded that a reduction of the forfeiture to $4,500 is warranted. Nierman and Kakadu were given the customary 30 days to pay the fine or to file a further appeal. (FCC) ** MOBILE OPS: DISTRACTED DRIVING SHOULD BE TREATED BY PHYSICIANS Distracted driving should be treated as a medical condition. So says Dr. Amy Ship, a primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who suggests it's time for physicians to talk to patients about driving while distracted. Dr. Ship says that distracted driving is a problem that has risen to the rough equivalence of drunken driving thanks to the proliferation of phones that allow drivers to talk and text. Writing in the June 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Ship notes physicians routinely ask patients about habits associated with potential harm like the use of helmets, seatbelts, cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. And with data showing 28 percent of all accidents in the United States are caused by drivers talking on cell phones or texting, it's time to step into this issue too. While the absolute increase in the risk of collision attributable to distracted drivers is hard to assess, Ship says one study showed talking and driving posed a four time greater risk than undistracted driving. A second study suggested texting raised the risk of collision by a factor of 23. You can read the entire article on Dr. Ship's work at tinyurl.com/25bbt55. (Science Daily) ** HAM RADIO ON THE WEB: FREE ECHOLINK FOR YOUR IPHONE Echolink is now available for your iPhone free of charge from Apple's App Store. EchoLink for iPhone is an edition of the EchoLink software that runs on an iPhone or iPod touch. If you own one of these devices and are a validated EchoLink user, you can access the EchoLink system from nearly anywhere where WiFi networking is available. If you have an iPhone, you can also use it to access EchoLink over the cellular data network. You can get this application on line tinyurl.com/2bzppro. (VHF Reflector) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: NEW ICELAND ARS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NAMED The Icelandic national Amateur Radio society has a new Executive Committee. Its members are TF2JB as president, TF3EE as vice president, TF3UA is the secretary with TF3G as treasurer, The new IARU liaison is TF3KB. The election to these positions took place at the 2010 General Assembly of the society that took place on May 22nd in the city of Reykjavik. (IARU) ** THE SOCIAL SCENE: AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM IN CHICAGO IN OCTOBER AMSAT has announced that its 2010 Space Symposium and Annual Meeting will be held on Friday, October 8 through Sunday, October 10. This years venue is the Chicago area Elk Grove Holiday Inn which is near O'Hare Airport for the event. This is the same hotel that recently has hosted the Central States VHF Conference and W9DXCC events. AMSAT has also put out a call for papers to be presented at the Symposium. These can be on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. A final copy must be submitted by September 1st for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent via e-mail to k9jkm (at) amsat (dot) org. (ANS) ** THE SOCIAL SCENE: N6R FROM THE REAGAN LIBRARY FOR FIELD DAY 2010 And a reminder that for the tenth consecutive year, the callsign N6R will operate as a Field Day station from the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. This, to commemorate the lives of President Ronald and Mrs. Nancy Reagan. Joining the Ventura County Amateur Radio Society which is the primary organizer will be a number of other local groups. These include the Amgen Amateur Radio Club. The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club, the Ventura County Amateur Radio Club and the Hollywood Hills QRP Contest Club. N6R will operate from 1800 UTC on June 25th to 1800 UTC on June 27th with up to 16 stations on all of the High Frequency bands. Also listen out for the N6R call on the VHF and UHF bands from 6 meters on-up using many modes including fast-scan ATV and satellite operations. If you are lucky enough to make contact with N6R this year, please QSL with an Self Addressed Stamped Envelope to Ventura County Amateur Radio Society in care of Peter Heins, N6ZE, 1559 Norwich Ave., Thousand Oaks, CA, 91360 ( N6ZE, W6AQ ) ** 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) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: KJ4GQV BALLOONS ACROSS ENGLISH CHANNEL TRACKED BY APRS A ham has successfully crossed the English Channel using helium filled party balloons. Jonathan Trappe, KJ4GQV, recently strapped himself to 54 balloons and floated across the English Channel. Tied to an assortment of red, green, yellow, blue and white balloons the thirty-six year old Trappe is from of Raleigh, North Carolina made his trip across the Channel on May 28th. KJ4GQV took off from a field at the Kent Gliding Club, near Ashford in the UK. He landed , and landed at 7:42 UTC in a farmer's vegetable patch a few miles from Dunkirk., France. To make his flight KJ4GQV was strapped in a specially equipped chair below a bright cluster of balloons. About five hours later, he lowered himself into a French field by cutting some of the balloons away. His equipment list didn't stop at balloons and a chair. It also included an aircraft transponder, aircraft radios, emergency locator beacon, in-flight satellite tracking, and am oxygen system. He also carried APRS gear that provided real time tracking of his KJ4GQV callsign via his website. Trappe says crossing wasn't a matter of just grabbing a few balloons. Rather KJ4GQV says on his website that he made a trip in March to gain clearance from French and British aviation authorities. He also to gain permits for the trip from customs and immigration offices on both sides. Jonathan Trappe, KJ4GQV, is no stranger to balloon flights. Two months ago he claimed the record for the longest free-floating balloon flight. This, after spending 14 hours cruising over North Carolina and traveling 109 miles. On another flight, his website says he ascended to 17,930 feet, just below controlled airspace. You can read more on-line at www.clusterballoon.com/ (Various published reports) ** RADIO RECORDS: FIRST TWO WAY CONTACT MADE ON 8.97 KHZ What is believed to be the first Amateur Radio two-way contact on 8.97 kHz using truly radiated fields took place on Friday, June 4, 2010 between DJ2LF and DF6NM. The distance was over a is 20.2 km path. Both DJ2LF and DF6NM were using small backyard Marconi antennas for transmit and receive. DJ2LF antenna had an estimated effective height of about 5 meters while DF6NM was at about 7 meters. Both had an effective radiated power of about five microwatts using a 100 watt car radio amplifier as a transmitter. A computer and sound car with no preamplifier served each station as a receiver. Both stations employed a special "micro-QSO" format,. This system is designed to exchange the minimum single-bit report and confirmation in only three turnovers, each containing a single dash. Station identification was by frequency alone. (DF6NM) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: THREE HAMS IN NEXT ISS CREW A new crew with two licensed U-S hams will soon be on board the International Space Station. Set to go on-orbit are U.S. astronauts Douglas Wheelock, KF5BOC and Shannon Walker, KD5DXB, They will be joined by Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, on for a mission lasting about six months. Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin will arrive on Russian Soyuz booster launched on June 15th. They will be onboard the orbiting space station when the final shuttle flight of a United States Space Shuttle departs from its last planned mission to the lab in November before the fleet is finally retired. That flight will use the shuttle Endeavour. The new three-person crew will join Russian commander Alexander Skvortskov, NASA flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russia's Mikhail Kornienko, who have been on the orbiting laboratory since April and are set to return to Earth shortly. A Russian Progress cargo carrier is also due to arrive at the orbiting lab later this month. (NASA, AMSAT, others) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMSAT HAMVENTION VIDEOS POSTED ON-LINE Five videos from the 2010 AMSAT Forum at the Dayton Hamvention can now be viewed online. The complete presentations are now available on the AMSAT website at http://www.amsat.org/. From the menu on the left side of the home page, select "AMSAT Video News". (AMSAT - NA) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: PARIS GPS MADE PUBLIC The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space or PARIS project has made public more information and pictures of their space GPS unit. The output from the G-P-S is formatted into Amateur Radio standard AX.25 APRS data packets and transmitted using Audio Frequency Shift Keying. This means that it can be decoded by an Amateur Radio receiver tuned to 433.950 MHz and connected to a PC via the soundcard. More is on-line at tinyurl.com/2wh5dzd (Southgate) ** ON THE AIR: HAM RADIO AND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE WEEK On the air, the 2010 National Wildlife Refuge Week is set for October 10th to the 16th and Amateur Radio will again be helping to mark this event. Amateur Radio observation will take place between Saturday, October 9th and Sunday, October 17th. With stations are expected to operate from several national wildlife refuges. Contacts made with 5 special refuge stations listed as active sites will earn a special certificate. For more information, contact the National Wildlife Refuge Week Amateur Radio coordinator by e-mail to info (at) nwrweek-radio (dot) info. More details are on line www.nwrweek-radio.info (Via e-mail) ** DX In DX, the long anticipated Spratley Island DXpedition slated for January of 2011. This according to VK3FY has just returned from The Philippines where he held high level discussions related to the upcoming DX0DX operation. The series of meetings included one with the current Municipal Mayor of Thitu Island where the DXpedition will be mounted. Another was held with the Mayor-Designate who will take office in September. Other discussions were held with military authorities plus officials of the Philippines Amateur Radio Association which is strongly in support of the DXpedition. VK3FY says that those face-to-face discussions enabled the amateur radio and humanitarian aims of the DXpedition to be fully explained and agreed. It also clarified the requirements of both local and federal authorities. The operation will last three weeks and require upward of 30 operators. Bill Moore, NC1L, ARRL Awards Branch Manager, reports that 2010, E4X operation from Palestine operation will now be accepted for DXCC credit. If you worked this operation, the QSL route is via EA5RM. JA6CNL, will be active as KH0N from Saipan between June 18th through the 22nd. His operation will include the All-Asian DX CW Contest on June 19th and 20th. Outside the contest, he will spend some time on the 80, 30, 17 and 12m bands operating only Morse. QSL via his home callsign. VE3ZIK will be active from Bilice on the Croatian coast between July 1st and September 27th as 9A stroke VE3ZIK. He will try to activate several I-O-T-A Islands in the EU-170 group as well as take part in the RSGB Islands on the Air or I-O-TA Contest. QSL via DO7ZZ. Lastly, VE3EY will be active as portable FJ from St. Barthelemy Island from November 22nd to the 30th. Operation will be on 160 through 10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via his home callsign. Four members of Yamakto Amateur Radio Club will be active from Yap Island in Micronesia between June 22nd and the 29th. The team will brings five transmitters and one 500 watt amplifier with plans to operate 160 through 6 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. They will be on the air 24 hours, operating at least two bands and a 6 meter beacon, but with a maximum five bands operating as time permits. This is their 19th DXpedition since 1993. Please QSL as directed on the air. (Above from various DX news sources) ** RADIO SCIENCE: THE WORLDS BIGGEST RADIO TELESCOPE And finally this week, word that the world's biggest radio telescope has been established in The Netherlands. Amateur Radio Newslines Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, takes a look at its very unusual design: -- Scientists in the Netherlands revealed the largest radio telescope in the world while claiming that it is capable of detecting faint signals from almost as far back as the Big Bang that many believe created the universe. Called the LOFAR the acronym stands for LOw Frequency Array, its owner is the Netherlands Radioastronomy Institute which says that its construction is unique. Iinstead of a traditional large dish the new radio telescope is made up of 25,000 small antennas measuring between 50 centimeters and two meters across. The main unit is based near the northeastern Dutch town of Assen, but the antennas are spread out across the rest of the Netherlands and also in Germany, Sweden, France and Britain. When you combine all the antennas you get a giant telescope with a diameter of about 1,000 kilometres or about 600 miles. A unique design for the modern times we live in. For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the newsroom in Los Angeles. -- The data gathered by the telescope will be processed by a supercomputer at the University of Groningen and then transmitted to the Netherlands Radio Astronomy Institute. (W0WOI via VHF Reflector) ** 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), 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350 For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Don Carlson, KQ6FM, in Reno, Nevada, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. |
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