Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2414 for Friday February 2nd, 2024

[Amateur Radio Newsline]

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2414 for Friday February 2nd, 2024

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2414 with a release date of Friday
February 2nd, 2024 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Arrests are made following the destruction of a
radio tower. An island Dxpedition becomes a memorial and a tribute
--and in New York City, one school serves as a model for ham radio
education. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number
2414 comes your way right now.

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BILLBOARD CART

**
TWO ARRESTED AFTER THEFT OF COPPER FROM DESTROYED RADIO TOWER

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our top story takes us to Oklahoma, where arrests have
been made following the destruction of a broadcast radio tower. We have
that report from Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

KENT: Two people have been arrested in Texas in connection with the
recent theft of copper from a radio tower in Hugo, Oklahoma last month.
The Choctaw County Sheriff said that the two were identified by scrap
yard employees in Paris, Texas, where one day after the January 15th
incident, they tried to sell copper wiring from the coax line.
Authorities said that Payne Media Group, the broadcast station's owner,
was contacted and confirmed that the copper had come from the tower for
KITX, a 50,000-watt station serving southeast Oklahoma and northeast
Texas. Paris, Texas, is one of the communities in the station's
coverage area.

The station has been live streaming and operating with limited
broadcast range following the destruction of the tower. Its guy wires
had been cut and its backup generator also was destroyed.

As Newsline went to production, charges were still pending.

This is Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

(RADIO WORLD, RADIO INK)

**
WINTER FIELD DAY FOCUSES ON PREPAREDNESS

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: For organizers and operators here in the United States
and Canada, Winter Field Day is over. Teams will continue to send in
their logs through the 1st of March, but Mike W4OPS told Newsline that
1,293 registered locations participated in the event on the 27th and
28th of January. Six hundred sixty seven of those were clubs. Early
results show that 54 countries appear in the log and several countries
were hosting their own Winter Field Day operations. Mike told Newsline
in an email: [quote] "We are very happy with the growth of the event."
[endquote] Planning has begun for next year, when Winter Field Day will
be held on the 25th and 26th of January.

Meanwhile, the Indian media carried a report that amateurs in that
nation also conducted an emergency-preparedness exercise known as the
ARSI National Field Day Contest. Hams from the Mangaluru Amateur Radio
Club, Manipal Ham Club, VU2MHC, the NITK System for Emergency
Assistance, Response and Communications Hub, and the NITK club station
VU2REC took part in the Amateur Radio Society of India's National Field
Day on the 27th and 28th.

(MIKE, W4OPS, THE DAIJI WORLD)

**
ORGANIZERS LAUNCH STATE QSO CLUB CHALLENGE

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If working state QSO parties during the year is among
your weekend amateur radio pursuits, there's a new challenge you might
want to tackle. It involves bringing your fellow hams along for the
ride. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abram-o-vich NT3V has thestory.

MARK: The people behind the State QSO Party group have thrown down the
gauntlet to QPers - as they're being called - across the US and Canada
to gather your friends together to compete in the State QSO Club
Challenge.

Dave Edmonds, WN4AFP, director of the group formed in 2020, tells
Newsline the goal is to generate more activity in the 47 QSO parties
held during the year.

The invitation is open to all - meaning you don't have to be an entrant
in a particular contest: Just get on the radio and make contacts by
scanning the bands and work any State QSO Party station.

Edmonds says a major sponsor supporting plaques and certificates wants
you to work the QSO Party in your home state as well as those in a
couple of other states. He told Newsline that the State QSO Club
Challenge - which was launched in early January -- would like to
recognize not just individuals, but radio clubs for getting members on
the air to have some fun chasing home, mobile, rover and portable
stations. Some of them operate from rare counties.

As you and your fellow club members are making contacts, he says,
there's a component for competition between individual club members as
well, All-county hunters have a chance to pick up a bunch of new
counties in pretty quick order. Of course, if you're still chasing the
Worked All States Award, this is an opportunity to fill in the gaps on
some of those hard-to-find states.

Edmonds says the club challenge runs from February 3rd until
November30th.

You'll find more at the link posted in the text version of this week's
newscast at arnewsline.org

[DO NOT READ: https://stateqsoparty.com ]

I'm Mark Abramowicz NT3V.

**
FOR DXPEDITIONERS, A MEMORIAL TO A FRIEND

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A group of friends is about to begin a DXpedition that
will fulfill the dream of one of its organizers who was a noted ham in
Chile. The trip will also serve as a memorial to him. Jim Meachen
ZL2BHF brings us that story.

JIM M: The sudden and unexpected death of DXpedition leader Marco,
CE1EW, late last year seemed to leave the fate of the Robinson Crusoe
Island DXpedition in the balance. Marco had been organising this trip
and coordinating the logistics with an eye toward activating. In his
honour, seven members of the team are making sure that the project goes
forward. A report from Guillermo, XQ 3 SA, the team's logistics leader,
says that the equipment is being shipped to the island in the Juan
Fernandez National Park in time to get on the air on February 10th. The
activation of the callsign CB 0 ZA will continue through to the 24th
and will be a memorial DXpedition.

The team announced on the 17th of January that the DXpedition will also
include an off-island team of more than 30 remote operators from around
the world, who will be making use of a Radio in a Box on FT8 and CW.
This operation will have the callsign CB 0 ZEW. The NexGen RiB will be
taken by Hal, W8HC, from West Virginia to the island. Operators will
access it remotely via Starlink satellite internet.

The DXpedition's page on QRZ.co recalls Marco as [quote] "an avid DXer,
park activator, family man - but most of all a terrific person."
[endquote]

The team writes that their goal is to have his contributions remembered
as [quote] "the cornerstone of this, Marco's 'last' DXpedition
project." [endquote]

This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.

(WIA, DX WORLD)

**
AMSAT MAKES PLEA TO KEEP GREENCUBE IN SERVICE

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: A busy satellite digipeater is scheduled to end its
service - but AMSAT hopes the satellite operators will have a change in
plans. Andy Morrison K9AWM has that story.

ANDY: AMSAT has made a plea to Sapienza Space Systems and Space
Surveillance Laboratory to postpone its scheduled shutdown of the
digipeater aboard the amateur satellite known as GreenCube, or IO-117.
The satellite was scheduled to be decommissioned on the 5th of
February.

Radio operators around the world have been making use of its digipeater
for QSOs for more than a year, including those for the high-profile
TX5S DXpedition on Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean. AMSAT said
this marks the first activation in three decades of Clipperton Island
via amateur satellite.

In a January 25th letter requesting the decommissioning's postponement,
AMSAT's president Robert Bankston, KE4AL, reminded S5Lab's Green Cube
team that amateur satellites such as AMSAT-OSCAR 7 often enjoy extended
lifetimes. The still-active OSCAR 7 was launched in 1974. AMSAT
committed itself to involvement in helping manage GreenCube in
cooperation with AMSAT Italia, S5Lab and other AMSAT organisations.

He said in his letter that GreenCube, amateur radio's first
medium-earth orbit satellite, has [quote] "opened worldwide
long-distance contacts via amateur radio satellite that had not been
possible since the loss of AMSAT-OSCAR 40 in 2004." [endquote]

This is Andy Morrison K9AWM.

(AMSAT NEWS SERVICE)

**

BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including
the K4EX repeater in Dade City Florida on Tuesdays after the 7 p.m.net.

**
DO YOU HAIKU?

Does your amateur radio experience ever inspire a bit of poetry?
Amateur Radio Newsline challenges you to immortalize that incredible
QSO or fantastic antenna by participating in our weekly haiku
challenge. Use the entry form on our website, arnewsline.org and please
follow the rules for writing your three-line haiku -- we cannot accept
any entries that aren't written in traditional haiku form. Visit our
website and check out our previous winners!

**
"HAM RADIO AND MORE" JOINS DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTION

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you remember the show, "Ham Radio and More," that
was popular on commercial talk radio in the 1990s, you'll be happy to
know it's back - well, sort of. The Digital Library of Amateur Radio &
Communications has gained more than 300 episodes of the program for its
growing collection. The show's devotion to amateur radio eventually
took it from its home studio in Arizona and landed it in national
syndication, as guests discussed the issues of the day. If you don't
remember the show but think you might become a fan now, check it out by
following the link that appears in the text version of this week's
script at arnewsline.org

[DO NOT READ: https://archive.org/details/hamradioandmore ]

(AMATEUR RADIO DAILY, DLARC)

**
FCC ADDING STAFF, VEHICLES FOR HUNTING PIRATES

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The FCC is investing in more resources to fight pirate
radio in the US. Jim Damron N8TMW has those details.

JIM: The FCC is stepping up its pirate radio enforcement with four new
hires and the purchase of six vehicles with mobile direction-finding
equipment. The FCC outlined the move in the annual report its
Enforcement Bureau makes to the United States Congress. The vehicles
are to be equipped in 2024 and 2025 and additional hires will be made
beyond the initial four.

The FCC has been intensifying these enforcement efforts since 2020, the
first year of a new law known as Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse through
Enforcemnt, known by the acronym PIRATE. The act set higher caps for
fines, hiking them to $119,000 per day and $2.4 million total. It is
not known, however, whether any of the fines imposed under the
four-year-old act have yet been collected. The FCC is not authorized to
collect the fines, which must be done by the US Department of Justice
by going to court.

This is Jim Damron N8TMW.

(RADIOWORLD)

**
NEW SOTA GROUP IS GROWING FOR WEST MALAYSIAN HAMS

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: SOTA is reaching new heights in Western Malaysia and
Jim Meachen ZL2BHF tells us how hams there are staying on top of
things.

JIM M: Barely a month old, the West Malaysia SOTA Association is
growing its membership and encouraging hams to join if they are
interested in chasing or activating mountain summits as a portable
operation. The association's manager, Piju, 9M2PJU, provides hams in
Malaysia with an introduction to the history and importance of the
worldwide award scheme, which began in 2002 in the UK. It now covers
more than 150,000 summits around the globe. Piju is the Malaysian
coordinator for communication with other SOTA organizations and his
role is to ensure Malaysian SOTA ops follow all relevant regulations
and standards. Piju said that the West Malaysia region has 373 summits.

He is encouraging interested hams in Malaysia to register and create a
free account on the SOTA websites which provide lists of valid summits,
their locations, elevation, and point values. The West Malaysia SOTA
Association launched on the 1st of January and does not include the two
Malaysian states that belong to the East Malaysia SOTA Association.

Bonuses will be given to hams who activate during the monsoon season or
during other harsh-weather conditions.

This is Jim Meachen ZL2BHF.

(BLOG POST OF PIJU, 9M2PJU)

**
STATEN ISLAND SCHOOL SERVES AS MODEL FOR HAM RADIO EDUCATION

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The spring semester is getting under way at Staten
Island Technical High School in New York City where in one class
becoming a licensed ham is part of the curriculum. We have those
details from Neil Rapp WB9VPG.

NEIL: Thirty-two newly licensed hams are learning in one NYC high
school that being a radio amateur is not just a textbook exercise. In
the engineering classroom of Everton Henriques, KD2ZZT, they will be
making use of HTs, repeaters, building directional antennas for fox
hunts and perhaps making a contact via the International Space
Station's repeater. This school is the first in New York City that is
being built into a model school, according to Steve Goodgame, K5ATA.
Steve, the ARRL's education and learning manager, said this is also the
first NYC school to receive an ARRL grant for the STEM Kits being used
in the classroom, funded by Amateur Radio Digital Communications.
Everton prepared for bringing radio operations into the classroom by
attending the ARRL's Teachers' Institute on Wireless Technology held
last fall at its headquarters.

He told Newsline that for these juniors and seniors, passing the
amateur radio license exam was a course requirement. It is his vision
to show the kids what a difference a knowledge of radio and electronics
can make in their lives. It opens up scholarship opportunities and
later, careers.

For now, the homework assignment for everyone is to get on the air and
show the rest of NYC's schools how it's done.

This is Neil Rapp WB9VPG.

(STEVE GOODGAME, K5ATA; EVERTON HENRIQUES, KD2ZZT)

**
WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, a team of 15 operators from various regions of
India will be activating Nachugunta Island, IOTA Number AS-199, with
the callsign AU2RS between the 23rd and 25th of February. The operators
will be using CW, SSB, and FT8 on 160-6 metres and via satellite QO-100
with five stations. The operators hope to be the first to activate the
island on a digital mode and via QO-100. See QRZ for details. QSL
viaM0OXO.

Listen for BJ, WA7WJR, operating as DU3/WA7WJR while operating holiday
style from the Philippines. He will be on the air from the 4th to the
9th of February, operating CW, SSB and some digital modes on 20, 17,
15, 12 and 10 metres. His trip will include the Governor Macario Arnedo
Park, POTA number DU-0082, and the Mount Arayat National Park, POTA
number DU-0002. See QRZ.com for QSL details.

**
KICKER: MARITIME MORSE CODE PROVES SEAWORTHY, EVEN ON LAND

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Although the commercial use of Morse Code in the US can
only be found in history books these days, radio listeners around the
world enjoyed a tribute recently to that long-gone practice. Ralph
Squillace KK6ITB gives us the details.

RALPH: There was no international intrigue - just some entertainment
and a challenge - as radio listeners copied a series of Morse Code
messages that employed methods once used by Cold War-era stations.
Numbers in clusters of five were sent over commercial HF frequencies
using RTTY and CW on the 20th of January from historic maritime
California station KPH. This was the third such cryptography event by
members of the Maritime Radio Historical Society, which was created in
1999 to preserve the tradition of maritime Morse Code.

The society estimates that about 150 people participated from around
the world. The station is located at Point Reyes National Seashore and
it is a National Park Service Historical Site.

Of course the society doesn't have to wait for one of its events to
send Morse Code. Volunteers get on the air on the society's amateur
station K6KPH where they send CW the old-fashioned way - by hand.

This is Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(RADIO WORLD, MARITIME RADIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY)

**
NEWSCAST CLOSE:

With thanks to the Amateur Radio Daily; AMSAT News Service; ARRL; CQ
Magazine; David Behar K7DB; Digital Library of Amateur Radio and
Communications; DXWorld; Everton Enriques, KD2ZZT; FCC; Maritime Radio
Historical Society; Piju, 9M2PJU; QRZ.com; Radio Ink; Radio World;
shortwaveradio.de; Steve Goodgame, K5ATA; SOTA Reflector; Winter Field
Day Association; Wireless Institute of Australia; Worldwide DX;
YouTube; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline. We remind our listeners that Amateur Radio Newsline is an
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continued operation. If you wish to support us, please visit our
website at arnewsline.org and know that we appreciate you all. We also
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5-star rating wherever you subscribe to us. For now, with Caryn Eve
Murray KD2GUT at the news desk in New York, and our news team
worldwide, I'm Stephen Kinford N8WB in Wadsworth Ohio saying 73. As
always we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is
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