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Scouts Learn Survival Skills at Camporee:

Posted: 03 Nov 2012 05:40 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/29276

At 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, briskets were braising on the campfire grill  
at Alcove Spring as leaders prepared a stew for 140 hungry campers later  
that day. Boy Scouts and Webelos from several troops in the Oregon Trail  
District of the Jayhawk Council worked up an appetite throughout the annual  
Fall Camporee Friday, Saturday and Sunday near the actual path of the  
Oregon Trail. The boys stopped at a series of stations set up to teach them  
various skills such as walking across a rope bridge, building a forest  
shelter, and fire starting with various impromptu tools. The Marshall  
County Amateur Radio Club of ham radio operators were also set up in  
Grace's Meadow at Alcove Spring for a Jamboree on the Air. They helped the  
young Scouts talk with a troop in Iowa and other ham radio operators as far  
away as Germany.

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A Satellite That Spells Messages for Earthlings with Morse Code:

Posted: 03 Nov 2012 05:38 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/29275

As satellites become smaller and launching them becomes more affordable,  
people are putting all sorts of wacky things into space. The Space Age has  
never been smaller. The era of mini (and micro, nano, and pico) satellites  
is upon us. After the last century of government-funded, multi-billion  
jaunts into space, the costs of space travel are coming within reach of the  
(almost) average citizen. Interorbital Systems claims it will launch  
TubeSat kits, "literally a satellite in a can," with hardware to "capture  
videos, send e-mail from space, and conduct experiments" for $8,000. The  
initial launches are scheduled to leave Spaceport Tonga in the Pacific  
Ocean. For those wishing to place their ashes into space, you (or your  
remains) can reach suborbital altitude for about $1,000 and deep space at a  
bargain basement price $13,000. But the plummeting costs and widening  
accessibility are inspiring more playful approaches to space travel as  
well. Takashi Tanaka, aeronautics proessor at the Fuzhou Institute of  
Technology in Japan, recently launched a microsat, called the FITSAT-1 or  
Niwaka, to flash Morse code messages to Earth using high-powered LEDs. The  
small, three-pound satellite has beamed a flashing message, "Hi this is  
Niwaka Japan" in dots and dashes visible around the world. FITSAT-1  
launched aboard an unmanned supply vessel to the International Space  
Station and entered orbit this September. After about 100 days (and  
circling the earth 16 times daily), it will burn up in the atmosphere.

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The Gambia C5WP QRV 11-18 Nov:

Posted: 03 Nov 2012 05:43 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/29274

Pedro is visiting the Gambia to help a  startup company  
www.africajeepsafari.com run by locals to get into tourism and earn their  
own living in a fair way, setting up a micro economy around locally  
organised (non multi national) jeep safari trips for Europeans/Americans.