Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2032, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2032 with a release date of
Friday, Oct. 7, 2016 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Team USA wins big in an international
direction-finding contest. New York State's getting ready to party
--and our top story for this week, special reports on Hurricane Matthew
and the Colorado wildfires. All this and more as Amateur Radio
Newsline's Report #2032 comes your way right now.

***

BILLBOARD CART HERE

**
AMATEUR RADIO RESPONDS TO HURRICANE MATTHEW

PAUL/ANCHOR: We open this week's newscast with team coverage in a
special report as amateur radio responds to Hurricane Matthew's deadly
sweep up from the Caribbean, where the death toll surpassed 100 by
Thursday, Oct. 6. We hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's Kent Peterson,
KC0DGY and Bobby Best WX4ALA. We hear first from Kent Peterson:

KENT's REPORT:

NATs: (AUDIO) "This is whiskey three echo November kilo for the
hurricane watch net. This is a directed net. Are there any stations
from within the affected area of hurricane Matthew who wish to check
into the net come now please, over"

KENT: The Amateur Radio Hurricane Watch Net is active as Hurricane
Matthew moves towards the United States. This large and dangerous
hurricane which has produced sustained winds of 145 miles per hour
along with very heavy rains as it passed the Caribbean nations.

BOBBY GRAVES: Ham radio is about the only way we can make contact with
Haiti right now.

KENT: That's Bobby Graves KB5HAV the coordinator of the Hurricane
WatchNet.

GRAVES: The Western end of Haiti got slammed hard. Maximum sustained
winds at 145 mph. A lot of folks were trying to get evacuated when the
area started to flood. It's really churning up the waters quite a bit.

KENT: Graves says they have around 40 net control hams, some are fully
bilingual to help with the Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean.

GRAVES: We operate 24/7 until no longer needed. Right now we're
planning way ahead. We don't know where it's going to make landfall
yet. We have a lot of good members with our organization highly trained
and they do a great job with what they do.

KENT: The Hurricane Watch Net operates on 14.325 MHz during daylight
hours and on 7.268 at night. The net also provides backup
communications to various emergency agencies and the Red Cross.

This will be a continuing story as damages from Hurricane Matthew are
assessed. Amateur Radio Newsline will continue to follow this story.
I'm Kent Peterson KC0DGY, and now for the very latest hurricane weather
information here's Newsline's Bobby Best WX4ALA

BOBBY'S REPORT:

With Hurricane Matthew bearing down on the United States, after driving
a path through Haiti, eastern Cuba, and the 700 odd islands of the
Bahamas, where multiple deaths have been reported, hundreds of
thousands are in shelters, and it's assumed unknown numbers may be in
need of rescue, amateur radio operators in the U.S. are deployed.

Florida hams, based out of the state EOC in Tallahassee, are in direct
contact via HF with county EOCs on the primary south Florida ARES
frequency of 3.940 Mhz with the north Florida ARES frequency of 3.950
Mhz and 7.254 Mhz also being used. More locally in predicted impact
regions, hams are manning stations from emergency shelters and
hospitals to assist with the evacuation of some coastal hospitals to
inland locations, as occurred during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Florida along with parts of coastal Georgia, South Carolina and North
Carolina were placed under states of emergency along with orders to
evacuate issued! Plus Florida Governor Rick Scott has requested that
The White House declare Florida a Federal Disaster Area ahead of
Matthew to free up federal funding that will be needed in its wake.

As of this recording, Thursday morning, Oct. 6, Matthew was moving
across Nassau Bahamas. Matthew is predicted to make landfall just north
of West Palm Beach, Florida as a Category 4 Hurricane and then skirt
the East Coast moving northward where as of this recording, Matthew is
predicted to take a swift east, southeast turn out to sea, near the
South Carolina/North Carolina border.

Back on the areas of Hispaniola, radio reports out of this region,
especially Haiti and The Dominican Republic have been slow to come.
Media reports slowly started to come out of this region late Wednesday
and early Thursday. It's unclear, as of this recording, what assistance
from hams this region may or may not need in the future. Stay with ARN,
particularly on our social media page at; ARNewline on Facebook, where
we can update news daily!

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bobby Best; WX4ALA

**

MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF COLORADO'S WILDFIRES

PAUL/ANCHOR: As amateurs are being called into action in emergencies
elsewhere, we have also received an update from Amateur Radio
Newsline's Amanda Alden, K1DDN. She has been among Colorado ARES radio
operators responding to that state's Beulah Hill Fire. She reports that
the Beulah Hill Fire started at 2 p.m. on Monday Oct. 3., in Pueblo
County during a Red Flag Warning which had been issued by the National
Weather Service. A Red Flag Warning, more appropriately known as a Fire
Weather Warning, is a forecast warning issued by the United States
National Weather Service to inform area firefighting and land
management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire
combustion, and rapid spread.

All of Beulah Valley, with between one thousand and fifteen hundred
residents, was evacuated, at which time the American Red Cross called
in Colorado ARES to assist with manning their shelters. ARES operators
have been assisting from all over the Front Range. The State EOC and
Pueblo EOC are being staffed with ARES members as well as one Red Cross
shelter. So far there have been about 20 amateur operators assisting.

As of Wednesday, October 5, the fire had grown to approximately 5227
acres in two days with 50 percent containment. Eight structures and six
outbuildings were lost so far. With a cold front coming into Colorado,
Incident Command hoped to begin getting the upper hand on this fire in
the next couple of days.

As always, our Newsline team will keep listeners informed as this and
other situations develop. Thank you everyone, and stay safe.

(AMANDA ALDEN K1DDN)

***
BREAK HE

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the
Arlington Amateur Radio Club's W4WVP repeater in Arlington, Virginia on
Tuesday evenings at 7.

**

TEAM USA WINS BIG IN DIRECTION FINDING CONTEST

PAUL/ANCHOR: The Eighteenth World Championships of Amateur Radio
Direction Finding have just concluded and Team USA has medaled again.
Newsline's Joe Moell (MELL) K-zero-O-V has the story.

JOE'S REPORT: The Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs was host for
this year's ARDF World Championships. Over 400 on-foot transmitter
hunting experts from 39 nations converged on a popular resort city on
the Black Sea coast between August 29 and September 9 for competitions
and cultural events. World Championships take place every
even-numbered year and USA began sending a team in 1998. Our team
medaled for the first time in 2006 and has done so every time since.
2016 was no exception, as our team members stood on the medal podium
seven times.

Vadim Afonkin KB1RLI of Newton, Massachusetts won gold in the 80-meter
sprint competition's category for men ages 40 through 49. He also won
a bronze medal in the 80m classic of the ARDF World Cup, a competition
for individuals just prior to the World Championships, and another
bronze in the two-meter classic on the last day. Ruth Bromer WB4QZG of
Raleigh, North Carolina took third place in her age group during the
World Cup sprint, and the next day she got another bronze during the
foxoring event. Ruth also shared a team bronze medal with Karla Leach
KC7BLA of Bozeman, Montana in the 80-meter classic. Alla Mezhevaya of
Rockford, Illinois took second in her age group during the two-meter
competition of the World Cup.

USA's team consisted of nine men and six women, ages 26 through 74.
They were selected from the best performers in the 2016 USA
Championships in Texas and the 2015 USA Championships in Colorado.
Plans are now under way for our 2017 national championships which will
take place near Cincinnati during August.

For more information on ARDF Team USA and the sport of ARDF, plus links
to complete results, point your Web browser to www.homingin.com. That's
homingin as one word. From southern California, this is Joe Moell K0OV
for Amateur Radio Newsline.

(ARDF)

**

NEW YORK'S THE PARTY STATE

PAUL/ANCHOR: In New York, hams are urging the rest of the country, if
not the world, to start getting in a New York State of mind. Amateur
Radio Newsline's Heather Embee KB3TZD tells us why.

HEATHER'S REPORT: What if New York threw a party and nobody came? Well,
that's not likely to happen but hams in the Empire State are still
hoping for a record number of participating amateurs for the New York
State QSO Party which starts on October 15th. Clubs throughout the
state are working hard to recruit as many amateurs to get on the air
from all 62 counties. Operating modes will be mixed, phone, digital,
and CW. Amateurs may work as single operators, multi-operators, mobile,
school, rookie, youth and YL. Any hams outside New York State are
encouraged to work as many hams in as many New York counties as
possible. The party is, of course, all about being a New York amateur
radio operator. So don't miss this party, whether you live in New York
or not. For more details, visit NYQP.org For Amateur Radio Newsline,
I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD.

**

BUSY WEEK FOR RADIO SCOUTING

PAUL: Jamboree on the Air is coming up fast but that hasn't slowed down
the scouts working as K2BSA. Here's Amateur Radio Newsline's Bill
Stearns, NE4RD.

BILL'S REPORT: This week in Radio Scouting, as we are quickly
approaching the weekend of Jamboree on the Air on October 14th through
the 16th, we are pleased to report that you will be hearing K2BSA
portable stations in almost every call area! We also hope to hear your
callsign on the air supporting scouts in this high activity event.

Here are all of our JOTA activations:

Dudley Allen, KD0NMD, will be the control operator for the portable 0
station at the MAC-Jubilee at Eugene Mahoney State Park in Ashland, NE.

Andrew Cogswell, W2PSK, will be the control operator for the portable 2
station at Quail Hill Scout Reservation in Manalapan, NJ.

Donald Kunst, W3LNE, will be the control operator for the portable 3
station in Erdman, PA.

Alonzo Westbrook, KJ4VPE, will be the control operator for the portable
4 station at the Upper Cumberland District Fall Camporee at Camp Tubb
at Charles Parish Scout Reservation in Walling, TN.

Thomas Schuessler, N5HYP, will be the control operator for the portable
5 station at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, TX.

Fred Stieg, KT6K, will be the control operator for the portable 6
station at Table Mountain in the Angeles National Forest in
Weightwood,CA.

Tyler Williams, KI7EDX, will be the control operator for the portable 7
station at the Nez Perce Fair Pavilion in Lewiston, ID.

Edward Evans, WV8ED, will be the control operator for the portable 8
station in Welch, WV.

John Phillips, KA9PGC, will be the control operator for the portable 9
station at Potato Creek State Park in North Liberty, IN.

Ray Hollenbeck, KL1IL, will be the control operator for the portable
KL7 station in Wasila, AK.

We also received a report from our KL6 activation on October 1st on the
Island of Oahu. Evan Esaki, WH6ECG, reported that they were expecting
200-250 scouts, but schedule changes meant that Scouts did not rotate
through many of the stations at the event, including the Radio Scouting
station. In spite of this, four Venture Crew members made it over and
talked on the air with contacts from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Central
New England, and Indiana. Evan said that "The station made a
significant impression on this Venture Crew unit, particularly as this
group is focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)."


For more information on K2BSA, JOTA resources, and radio scouting,
please visit http://www.k2bsa.net/.

For Amateur Radio Newsline and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association,
this is Bill Stearns NE4RD.

**
BACK TO SCHOOL WITH A "CLUB ROUNDUP"

PAUL/ANCHOR: As with just about everything else, amateur radio has its
seasons too. The season for "back to school" takes on new meaning a
little later this month. Let's hear more from Amateur Radio Newsline's
Stephen Kinford N8WB.

STEPHEN KINFORD: It's time to get on the air and support our school ham
radio clubs by participating in the bi-annual School Club Roundup! The
on-air activity, which for some is a contest, is 1300 UTC Monday,
October 17 through 2359 UTC on Friday, October 21. During School Club
Roundup, school club stations get on the air to contact as many others
as possible. Multipliers are awarded for contacting other schools and
clubs, but individuals often make up a majority of the contacts.
Bonuses are also awarded for the number of states, provinces, and
countries worked during the week. Give the students someone to talk to
and make a point to get on the air during this week. Each station
counts once per band and mode and the exchange is simply your callsign,
RS(T), class (school, club, or individual), and state, province, or
country. Logs are not required but they are appreciated -- and can be
submitted online. For more information, go to
arrl.org/school-club-roundup, and help our schools make the grade!
Suggested frequencies and complete rules are available on the web
sitetoo.

Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Stephen Kinford N8WB.

**

THE WORLD OF DX

In the world of DX, be listening for Yuri R2DG, who is on the air as
S79PA in the Seychelles until Oct. 12. Send QSL cards to his home call.

Nob JF2MBF and Ken JA2FJP are using the callsign T2J in Tuvalu until
Oct. 10. Find them on 160m to 10m CW, using SSB and RTTY. Send QSL
cards via ClubLog OQRS.

Stan LZ1GC is working from Temotu as H40GC and will be there until Oct.
17. Send QSL cards to his home call sign.

(IRISH RADIO TRANSMITTER SOCIETY)

**

KICKER: IN WASHINGTON STATE, HE'S AN OM AT 7

PAUL/ANCHOR: We end this week's report with an introduction to Toby
Vander Wilt KI7GBB, a newly ticketed amateur in Washington State. At 7
years of age, he has a lifetime of on-air challenges ahead of him. He
told Amateur Radio Newsline's Neil Rapp WB9VPG how he's starting out in
his radio career.

NEIL: The Tri-Cities Amateur Radio Club near Kennewick, Washington has
a new member. His name is Toby Vander Wilt, and his callsign is
KI7GBB. At first this may not seem so newsworthy, but Toby is only
seven years old. His father, Nathan Vander Wilt, AF7TB, is his extra
class mentor who has been licensed for a year. He studied for
his license along with his mother, Hannah, KI7GBA, who also became a
Technician license holder. I recently had a chance to talk to Toby,
and swap some stories about being licensed at a very young age.

TOBY: "I do use my radios on my bike, but I don't have a battery I can
actually put on my bike or an antenna or anything. I, like, bring one
of my handhelds and clip in on my shirt or something." NEIL: At first
it wasn't easy, and with Dad's help he progressed. TOBY: "My dad asked
me the questions and I had to answer them. Yes, I did take a practice
test. I didn't get any of the practice tests right, but some of them I
did get really close I think."

NEIL: He's been making good use of that license by talking to the
people in his life who matter most.

TOBY: "I usually talk to my Mom on walks when I take my handheld with
me on my bike. I sometimes try to talk to my Dad, but sometimes it
doesn't work. I talk to Mom the most, and sometimes I talk to a ham,
and his name is Bernard and his callsign is AB7HB... and the first
person I talked to was him."

NEIL: At age 7, with a lifetime of on-air experiences ahead of him, he
can rest assured this contact won't be his last. For Amateur Radio
Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amanda Alden K1DDN; ARDF
World Championships; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Colorado ARES; Hap Holly
and the Rain Report; Hurricane Watch Net; Irish Radio Transmitter
Society; K2BSA; National Weather Service; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin;
Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the Tri
Cities Amateur Radio Club; Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW
Shortwave; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline. Please send emails to our address at .
More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official
website located at www.arnewsline.org.

For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York,
and our news team worldwide, I'm Paul Braun WD9GCO in Valparaiso
Indiana saying 73 and as always we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.