Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1771 - July 22 2011

Please note that this is an extended Amateur Radio Newsline report and
contains three breaks. Thank you.

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1771 with a release date of
Friday, July 22 2011 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. Another conviction in the highjacking of a
yacht that lead to the death of three United States hams; a South
Dakota radio amateur looses his life in a tower dismantling accident;
South Sudan becomes a sovereign nation recognized by the U-N as well as
amateur radio; ham radio bids farewell to the space shuttle and Media
Network re-releases the Hitch Hikers Guide to DXing. What is that you
ask? Find out on an extended Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number
1771 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RADIO JUSTICE: YEMENI MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN HIGHJACKING THAT RESULTED IN
THE DEATH OF THREE HAMS

A Yemeni man pleaded guilty to acts of piracy on Thursday, July 14th in
connection to his role in the hijacking of a yacht off the coast of
east Africa that resulted in the deaths of four Americans including
three ham radio operators. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley,
KI7UP, has the details.

--

As previously reported here on Newsline, Scott Adam, K9ESO, and his
wife Jean, KF6RVB, along with Bob Riggle, KE7IIV, and Phyllis Macay
were on board the yacht Quest off the coast of Oman when pirates
boarded their vessel on Friday, February 18th. Officials were in the
process of negotiating for their release when gunfire was heard around
1 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, February 22. United States forces
responded and then boarded the Quest. It was then that they discovered
that all four hostages had been shot by the high seas bandits. Despite
immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages
ultimately succumb to their wounds.

Now, one of the alleged pirates identified as 23 year old Mounir Ali
has accepted a plea bargain by U.S. District Judge Mark Davis, where he
plead guilty to taking part in the armed hijacking. Ali claimed that
he and four other men from Yemen were crew members aboard another
vessel that was pirated by Somalis earlier in February. But
prosecutors say that Ali willingly elected to join the pirates in
return for a share of the ransom money. However they also say that he
did not personally shoot nor did he instruct anyone to shoot any of the
four Americans.

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

--

Ali is the 11th person convicted in relation to the highjacking and
murders of the four Americans on-board the Quest. Sentencing is
scheduled for October 21st. (Published news reports)

**

RADIO SAFETY: RADIO AMATEUR KILLED IN TOWER COLLAPSE ACCIDENT

A Hot Springs, South Dakota ham radio operator was killed and another
seriously injured Saturday, July 16th. This after a communications
tower they were helping dismantle was blown over by a gust of wind.

According to Fall River County emergency manager Frank Maynard, Tim
Anderson, K0OR, died of his injuries at Rapid City Regional Hospital
shortly after arriving by Life Flight helicopter. The second man, Tom
Embree, NC0K, also of Hot Springs, was also flown to Rapid City
Regional Hospital where surgery was performed Sunday. He remains in
serious condition.

The men were helping their amateur radio club remove a 110 foot high
tower on the top of a near-by peak known as Gull Hill. The tower was
no longer in use, and the owner had offered it to the radio club, which
was going to move it to a new location.

News reports say that several other radio club members were on the
ground at the time of the accident. They had taken down all but the
final 30 foot section of the tower and were just beginning to release
some guy wires when a gust of wind blew the tower over with the two men
still on it and then collapsed on them.

Both Anderson and Embree are members of the Hot Springs Amateur Radio
Club. Hot Springs is located about 60 miles south of Rapid City. At
the time of his death, Anderson was the club's president. (KELO, other
published news reports)

**

WORLDBEAT: SOUTH SUDAN BECOMES SOVEREIGN ENTITY - ADDED TO DXCC AND CQ
DX AWARDS

The Republic of South Sudan is now the world's newest country and as
expected, it became the 193rd member of the United Nations on July
14th. It also became a new DXCC entity on the same date and was also
added to CQ DX Awards Countries List as entity number 342.

Meantime, the latest news regarding the planned South Sudan operation
by the combined DX Friends and Intrepid DX Groups is that the two
groups were to meet in Cairo on July 21st. On July 22nd, they planned
to fly to Juba which is the capital of the South Sudan. As we go to
air on the 23rd, they were to meet with the Ministry of Communications
to amend licenses to whatever new I-T-U prefix is assigned to the South
Sudan. If all goes as the DX'ers hope they expect to take to the
airwaves sometime between July 23rd or as late as the 25th. The
operation will continue until August 10th.

For the latest details on this upcoming South Sudan operation keep an
eye on www.dxfriends.com/SouthernSudan2011. We will have more DX news
later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (DX Friends)

**

RADIO LAW: HAMS IN FLANDERS (BELGIUM) NOW COVERED BY RADIATION LIMIT
LAWS

The administration of the Flanders (Belgium) area in Northern Europe
has now included ham radio operators in its restrictive public safety
radio frequency Specific Absorption Rate or SAR Ministerial Decree. A
law enacted only this past January 26th. Frank Haas, KB4T, is here
with the details on the position the this puts hams in the region into:

--

The law was originally directed at telecommunications system operators
to protect the public from what some consider dangerous RF levels.

It now appears that radio amateurs in the Flanders region must also
observe the same standards and obligations and pay the same annual fee
as their commercial counterparts. In addition they will be subject to
the same government oversight and can face the same fines or
imprisonment for infractions and violations of the new Flanders
Specific Absorption Rate standard.

Radio amateurs in Flanders will soon have to apply for a certificate of
conformity for their station and presumably re-apply whenever the
station configuration changes. This costs about 75 Euros or $105 U.S.
dollars.

In an application, a ham must supply a complete station location plan;
an installation plan of antennas and an installation plan of the entire
station site. Also required will be an overall safety analysis plan; a
station elevation plan and an overall cross-section layout diagram.

In simpler terms Flanders hams will have to file what amounts to a
complete engineering and electromagnetic impact study anytime even a
minor station change takes place.

Still unknown is what impact the law will have on mobile, portable and
hand-held operations by Flanders area hams.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Frank Haas, KB4T, in Holly Hill,
Florida.

--

More on this rather radical law, most in the Flemish language, is now
on line at thesw various web locations: Antenna File in Google English
-http://tinyurl.com/BelgiumAntennaFile; SAR-Vlaanderen Facebook page
(in Flemish) http://nl-nl.facebook.com/pages/;
SAR-Vlaanderen/165726696825269; Joke Schauvliege Minister of
Environment, Nature and Culture at http://tinyurl.com/JokeSchauvliege
and the Royal Union of Belgian Radio Amateurs (UBA)
http://tinyurl.com/BelgiumUBA) (Southgate, UBA, others)

**

RADIO LAW: RECONROBOTICS ENTERS CONSENT DECREE WITH FCC TO END
INVESTIGATION BROUGHT ON BY ARRL COMPLAINT

ReconRobotics has entered a Consent Decree agreement with the FCC where
it will make whats termed as a voluntary contribution of $17,000 to the
United States Treasury. This, to end an FCC investigation in response
to a complaint filed by the ARRL.

Back in 2010 the ARRL had alleged that ReconRobotics had violated
Section 302a(b) of the Communications Act and Section 2.803 of the
Commission's rules regarding the manufacturing, marketing, distributing
and selling of radio frequency transmitters in the United States. In
the complaint the ARRL alleged that ReconRobotics had unlawfully
marketed a remote-controlled, maneuverable surveillance robot called
the Recon Scout which operates in the 430 to 448 MHz band to public
safety agencies and certain security personnel prior to the grant of a
necessary waiver.

The FCC granted a waiver to ReconRobotics in 2010 to allow public
safety licensees to operate the device in a portion of the 70
centimeter band that's shared with ham radio operations. To date, no
license applications have been granted by the Commission for the device
and the ARRL has petitioned to deny all applications that have been or
might be filed. (ARRL)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W0EF repeater
serving Minneapolis, Minnesota


(5 sec pause here)


**

COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS: REMEMBERING THE FIRST DECADE SINCE 911

This coming September 11th will be the 10th anniversary of the al-Queda
backed terrorist attacks of September 11th of 2001. These attacks
felled the two World Trade Center tower buildings in New York City and
damaged the Pentagon when radical Islamic extremists high-jacked four
United States flag carrier jetliners and crashed them into the two
structures. Over 3000 American citizens were killed as well as a
number of foreign nationals who worked in the twin towers buildings.

Over the years there have been several ham radio operations in
remembrance of those whose lives were lost in this senseless and wanton
carnage. With this being the first decade anniversary of the September
11th, 2001 tragedy, we here at the Amateur Radio Newsline are trying to
compile a list of radio clubs and individual hams who are planning any
form of amateur radio memorial operation to honor those whose lives
were lost that day. If you have plans to commemorate 911, please drop
us an e-mail to newsline at arnewsline dot org and let us know all of
the details. We in turn will list as many as we can on our website at
www.arnewsline.org.

Those whose lives were lost on 911 deserve to be remembered. We will do
our part by providing web-space to list ham radio commemorative
activities. It's up to you to do the rest. (ARNewsline)

**

ON THE NET: FIRST LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST OF BOB HEIL'S HAM NATION ON
JULY 26

If you are hearing this newscast before Tuesday, July 26th, be certain
to tune into Bob Heil, K9EID, show Ham Nation for its first live out of
studio remote broadcast. Bob along with co-host Gordon West, WB6NOA,
plan to originate from the historic radio room on board the famed Queen
Mary ocean liner. This is a major Southern California attraction
moored in Long Beach Harbor.

Their special guest will be Nate Brightman, K6OSC. Brightman is the
person generally credited with first bringing the radio room to life as
an operational ham radio station with the call sign W6RO several
decades ago.

Ham Nation airs live on Leo LaPorte's Twit internet television network
every Tuesday at 9 P.M Eastern time. To tune in simply take your web
browser to www dot twit dot tv and click in the tab marked "live." You
can also see a replay of the show about 24 hours later by downloading
the podcast at www dot twit dot tv. (ARNewsline)

**

RADIO SITE NEWS: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTES $150 FIRE PREVENTION FEE

If you own a repeater, a remote base station or even a home in the
state of California, a new law signed by Governor Jerry Brown may
affect you. Measure ABX1 29 imposes an annual fee of up to a $150 on
every habitable structure in the State Responsibility Area or SRA to
fund fire prevention activities. The governor said that due to
population and development growth in these SRA's, taxpayer borne costs
for fire protection have risen in recent decades.

California hams may need a local map to determine whether their
repeaters, remote transmitter sites or even their homes are located in
an State Responsibility. One fire official notes that, "As written,
revenue from the fee would go to CalFire and an equivalent amount of
General Funds would be removed from CalFire's budget for no net gain. A
copy of ABX1 29 is on line at tinyurl.com/150FireFee. (CGC
Communicator)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: ILLW THE WEEKEND OF AUGUST 20 - 21

With only a few weeks to go to the International Lighthouse and
Lightship Weekend, a total of 290 entries have been received but many
more expected before the event.

So far this year 13 Lightships are entered mainly from Belgium,
England, Germany and the USA. There's also one each in the Netherlands,
Sweden and Wales. For those not aware, lightships are a rarer breed of
the long-gone era of magnified flashes a light used by ships as they
navigated along the coast and around the world.

Since 1998 the 48 hour, third weekend in August event has attracted
more than 440 entrants, from some 50 nations. This year the dates are
August 20th and the 21st. More information is on the World Wide Web at
illw.net. (VK3PC)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: ARRL MIDWEST CONVENTION IN CEDAR RAPIDS IA. AUG 5 - 7

And the ARRL Midwest Division Convention and Summerfest 2011 will take
place August 5th through the 7th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Events on
August 5th and 6th will be held at Clarion Hotel & Convention Center
with events for Sunday the 7th to be held at the near-by Teamsters
Hall. A convention brochure containing a speakers list, forum line-up,
registration form and more is available ob-line at
tinyurl.com/cedar-rapids-summerfest. (Press release)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: RAC AGM AND HAMFEST 2011 IN NEWFOUNDLAND

Radio Amateurs of Canada will hold the eighteenth Annual General
Meeting on July 30th in St. John's Newfoundland. The venue is the
Battery Hotel and Conference Center at Signal Hill which is also
playing host to the concurrent Hamfest 2011 events hosted by the
Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs. Please visit www.sonra.ca for
more details. (RAC)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: YO0YOA & YO0TSL CELEBRATE YOUTH AND TESLA

Romania's Zamolxes Foundation Radio Club will be operating the special
call sign YO0YOA through years end. This, to promote the first youth
ham radio organization in Europe known as Youngsters on the Air.

Youngsters on the Air is operated under a grant from Youth in Action
and is financed by the European Commission to interest youngsters in
amateur radio. Operation of YO0YOA will be on all HF and VHF bands.

Also on the air will be station YO0TSL. This station is to commemorate
155th birthday of famed inventor and researcher Nikola Tesla. (YO9GJX)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: WB4APR AND THE APRS GOLDEN PACKET TEST

Some names in the news. First up is Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, who invites
you to join in the terrestrial annual APRS Golden Packet attempt on
Sunday July 24th. This, from Noon to 16:00 hours your local time.

During this test Bob needs hams with Kenwood D700 transceivers to drive
or hike to the top of some of the highest mountains in the USA. Then
set up as a portable APRS digipeater to see if hams can link a Golden
Packet across thousands of miles.

At airtime it is known that there will be an attempt along the
Appalachian Trail from Alabama to Maine and another along the Pacific
Crest trail from San Diego. California to Seattle, Washington. More
information can be found on line at tinyurl.com/APRS-East for eastern
states operations and tinyurl.com/APRS-West for operations out West.
(WB4APR via VHF Reflector)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: W5NPR APPOINTED WEST INTERIM TEXAS SM

Bill Roberts, W5NPR, of Alpine, has been appointed as the Interim West
Texas Section Manager as of July 8, 2011. Roberts has served as the
ARRL West Texas Section Traffic Manager since 2009. He is a past
president of the Big Bend Amateur Radio Club and is also active as a
back-up net control station for the Big Bend Emergency West Texas ARES
Net and a net control station for the National Traffic System's Daytime
Region Net 5

ARRL Membership and Volunteer Programs Manager Dave Patton, NN1N, made
the appointment in consultation with ARRL West Gulf Division Director
David Woolweaver, K5RAV. Roberts will serve as Interim West Texas
Section Manager until a Section Manager is declared elected. (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: RESEARCHERS DEVELOP ENERGY RECYCLING SENSORS

Researchers at Georgia Tech are tapping RF transmissions from a
television station located half a kilometer from their lab to power a
wireless temperature sensor. Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant,
K6PZW, is in the science center with mo

--

A Georgia Tech Research News article said scavenging experiments using
TV bands has already yielded power amounting to hundreds of microwatts.
It also says that multi-band systems are expected to generate one
milliwatt or more. That says researchers is enough to operate many
small electronic devices, including a variety of sensors and
microprocessors.

The report goes on to note that devices requiring 50 milliwatts or more
should be able to be powered by adding super-capacitors across the
output of the power system for storage and using cycled operation. The
Georgia Tech team is also looking at alternative power for the sensors.
The current line of thinking is most likely solar power for daytime
operations with the scavenged RF power used at night.

The self-powered wireless sensors are created using ink-jet printers
and a special ink containing nanoparticles of silver and/or other
material. The researchers have been able to literally print out a
combination of sensors, antennas and energy-scavenging capabilities on
paper or flexible polymers. The resulting sensors can be used for
chemical, biological, heat and stress testing for defense and industry.

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

--


So far these energy scavenging devices are able to recycle energy using
RF sources ranging from 100 MHz to 15 GHz or higher. More about this
breakthrough is on-line at tinyurl.com/recycled-power. (Georgia Tech
Research News)

**

WORLDBEAT: SAARDT TO UNDERWRITE THE COST OF 5 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENT
HAM RADIO EXAMS

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust has announced that it
is underwriting the cost for a number of students under the age of 25
to take that nations Class A Radio Amateur Exam this October. Through
the generous sponsorship of the Tony Reumerman, ZS6AOG and his family,
the Trust is able to offer five such financial assistance plans this
year. Each includes payment of the examination fee, a one year South
African Radio League student membership subscription and tuition fee of
640 South African Rand. The total package is worth about 1000 Rand
which is the equivalent of $143 United States dollars at the current
international monetary exchange rate. (SARL News)

**

RADIO IN SPACE: FIRST EVER ORBITING OF AN ASTEROID ACHIEVED BY RADIO

For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth is in orbit
around an asteroid and it is radio that has made it happen.

On Monday, July 18th NASA confirmed that its Dawn spacecraft was
captured into orbit around the massive asteroid Vesta after a
multi-million-mile journey. The entry into orbit occurred while the
spacecraft's antenna was pointed away from Earth, so mission
controllers had to wait for Dawn to re-establish radio contact to
confirm its success.

The capture was estimated to have occurred at 1 a.m on Friday, July
15th when Dawn was 9,900 miles from Vesta and 117 million miles from
Earth. According to researchers at the Let Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, this put the intercept inside of the main
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

NASA said that after the orbital capture, Dawn sent an initial close-up
image taken of the asteroid for navigation purposes. The spacecraft is
now being prepared to begin a study of a surface that may date to the
earliest era of the solar system, of which Vesta is believed to be a
part of. Before the Dawn mission, images of Vesta were obtained by
ground- and space-based telescopes but did not show much surface
detail. (NASA, Science OnLine)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: CELEBRATING THE FINAL US SPACE SHUTTLE FLIGHT

N4S was the callsign of the special events station that was on the air
to celebrate the final flight of the United States Space Shuttle
program. Operating from a location not far from the Cape Canaveral
launch facility, N4S was on the air from launch through landing of the
space ship Atlantis on the STS-135 and final mission of the space
shuttle program. Take a listen:

--

Audio of contact. Hear it by downloading the MP3 file of this weeks
newscast at www.arnewsline.org.

--

That was recorded here at the Newsline studio on a dipole antenna on a
day with pretty poor propagation. N4S used CW, SSB and PSK on 40, 20
and 15 meters along with D-Star using the KJ4OXT repeater.

Those who made contact with N4S are eligible to receive a special
commemorative certificate in exchange for their QSL. Send QSL's along
with an 8.5 x 11 inch self addressed stamped envelope to the North
Brevard Amateur Radio Club, P O Box 1033, Mims, Florida, 32754 (AA4MI)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ISS AND ATLANTIS CAUGHT IN DAYLIGHT VIDEO

And speaking about the final shuttle mission, an amateur astronomer
named Scott Ferguson has successfully captured video of the space
shuttle Atlantis docked to the International Space Station in broad
daylight.

Ferguson used a video camera attached to an 8 inch telescope to capture
the event. His video was taken about an hour and a quarter after
sunrise. Atlantis is the glowing white object at the top of the ISS.
You can also clearly see the solar panels on the space station itself,
and get a hint of other structures too.

You can watch this rather exciting and historic video and read more
about how it was accomplished by taking your web browser to
tinyurl.com/iss-in-daylight. (Discover On-Line via KB4KCH)

**

BREAK 3

With lots of news to report this week, 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)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: A LOOK BACK AT THE SHUTTLE AMATEUR RADIO
EXPERIMENT

Amateur radio has been an active participant on Space Shuttle flights
since STS-9 Now that the shuttle program is at an end, Newsline
Producer Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, takes a quick look back at how the
shuttle took manned ham radio into space:

--

Audio of W5LFL first CQ approaching the US Pacific coast. Hear it by
downloading the MP3 file of this weeks newscast at www.arnewsline.org.

--

That's what it sounded like on my Icom IC-2AT in the courtyard of the
old Metromedia Square building in Hollywood, California that winter
evening in 1983 as Astronaut and Mission Specialist Owen Garriott,
W5LFL, streaked across the nighttime sky at close to 135 nautical miles
above me in the space ship Columbia.

Dr. Garriott was fulfilling a dream that he'd had since before his
first trip to orbit aboard Spacelab several years earlier. That was to
take a ham radio station with him into space. Now, thanks to some
assistance from the late NBC Newsman Roy Neal, K6DUE, the blessings of
then NASA Administrator Jess Moore, and an amazing flying machine
called the Space Shuttle, it had come to pass.

His first CQ from orbit brought thousands of responses, but the one
that he heard best and who became the first United States ham to
contact W5LFL was Lance Collister, then WA1JXN, now W7GJ, of Frenchtown
Montana. The QSO between the two hams lasted only a few seconds during
which ham radio history was made:

--

First QSO betweek W5LFL/space mobile and WA1JXN in Montana. Hear it by
downloading the MP3 file of this weeks newscast at www.arnewsline.org.

--

To get on the air from Columbia Dr. Garriott used a commercial handie
talkie that had been modified and programmed for operation on several
ham radio frequencies. To get signals out of and back into the orbiting
spaceship W5LFL used a specially-designed cavity antenna engineered to
fit a specific shuttle window and was held in place with Velcro
binders. The antenna, designed by members of the Johnson Space Center
Amateur Radio Club was roughly 24 inches in diameter and looked
somewhat like a large aluminum cake pan with a piece of coaxial cable
running from it to connect it to the hand-held transceiver.

Knowing the number of QSO's would be fast and furious a small cassette
recorder was attached to the system to log anyone he heard and anyone
he talked to.

--

Random QSO space to ground audio. Hear it by downloading the MP3 file
of this weeks newscast at www.arnewsline.org.


--
In addition to the random QSO's , Garriott also had some interesting
pre-arranged contacts. Among others W5LFL was able to speak with the
amateur radio club in his hometown of Enid, Oklahoma and with the
Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club in Houston Texas whose members
had helped develop his flight ham station hardware. He also held QSO's
with the late Senator Barry M. Goldwater Goldwater and with Jordan's
late King Hussein, JY1.
--
Contact between W5LFL and JY1: Hear it by downloading the MP3 file of
this weeks newscast at www.arnewsline.org.
--
Dr. Garriott's ham radio adventure on STS-9 ushered in a host of
outstanding outreach activities that in following years that put ham
radio onto almost every shuttle mission. It also lead to the creation
of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment or SAREX program. This was the
ground breaking alliance between the ARRL, AMSAT and NASA that over the
years enabled astronauts on-orbit to make contact with thousands of
school kids as well as to their own families back on Earth. And not
only using FM voice. Soon both slow scan Amateur television and packet
messaging were a part of SAREX as well. Eventually SAREX went from the
Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment to be renamed the Space Amateur Radio
Experiment and then to ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station. Today, Earth to space station contacts are almost routine.
More modern equipment and external antennas in the International Space
Station make signals both ways a lot stronger than they were back in
1983 when Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, called that first CQ from the space
ship Columbia and ushered in the era of manned ham radio in space.
Looking back over the years of ham radio operations from the United
States Space Shuttle, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the Newsroom in
the City of Angels.

--

In all there were five videos made chronicling ham radio on board the
United States space shuttles. They live on as a lasting reminder of
manned amateur radios first steps into space. (ARNewsline(tm))

**

DX

In DX, NQ6K will be active as stroke VY0 from Devon Island in the
Canadian high Arctic through August 5th. The crew will be primarily
using 20, 15v and 10 meters running PSK31 and RTTY and possibly SSB.
Other bands will also be used depending on propagation. Please see
devon2011 (dot) nq6k (dot) org for current frequency updates, and
contact information.

DD0CW will active from Mongolia as JT1FDB until the first week of
August. According to his QRZ.com Web page, he has permission to be
active on 160 throgh 6 meters as well as the VHF and UHF bands using
all modes, but he prefers CW. QSL via DD0CW.

Some DX slims appear to be on the air. This according to ZL2TZE,
informs OPDX that there are pirate stations active claiming to be on
Chatham Island using the calls ZL7014 and ZL7PW. ZL2TZE says that there
is no current licensed operator with these callsigns listed.

DJ7ZG and DL7AFS will be active as VK9CX from the Cocos Keeling Islands
between October 19th and November 9th. No modes or times of operation
are yet known. QSL this one via DL7AFS.

Lastly, members of the SV9 DX Team with co-operation of SV5BYR will be
active as J45K from Kasos Island during the RSGB Islands on the Air
Contest the weekend of July 30th to the 31st. The first team with the
equipment will be on the island Tuesday, July 26th. Operations will be
on 160 through 2 meters during weekend. QSL via SV9DJO or
electronically using Logbook of the World.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO DXING RADIO PARODY
RE-RELEASED

And finally this week, it's been thirty years since former Radio
Netherlands Media Network host Jonathan Marks, G8WGN, wrote a parody on
international radio broadcasting. One based on his favorite radio
series at the time, the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. He called it
the Hitchhikers Guide To DX'ing and it was an overwhelming hit when it
first aired back in 1980. Heres a quick sample, courtesy of G8WGN:

--

Sample audio from Hitch Hikers Guide to DXing. Hear it by downloading
the MP3 file of this weeks newscast at www.arnewsline.org.

--

As Marks writes in his on-line blog, there seemed to be so much to make
fun of at the time because of the boring propaganda at the height of
the Cold War. According to Marks, several segments of this classic
series are now available for download from the Media Network Vintage
Vault at jonathanmarks.libsyn.com. The rest says G8WGN, will follow
shortly.

Jonathan also invites everyone to browse through other material stored
at the Media Network Vintage Vault and he encourages you to share your
stories as well. (ARNewsline(tm))

**

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 WIA 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
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For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editor's desk, I'm David
Black, KB4KCH, at the South-East bureau in Birmingham, Alabama, saying
73 and we thank you for listening.

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