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Ham radio in
the news
 A quick summary of what is happening in
amateur radio
Click on headline to read full
story
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New
Rules for 5 MHz (60 Meters) To Go Into Effect
March 5 - On
November 18, the FCC released a Report and
Order (R&O), defining new rules for the 60
meter (5 MHz) band. These rules are in response
to a Petition for Rulemaking (PRM)
filed by the ARRL more than five years ago and a
June 2010 Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM). In the February 3
edition of the Federal Register, the FCC
announced that these new rules will go into effect on March 5, 2012.
In summarizing the new rules, the FCC explained
that the new rules amend the current rules to
facilitate more efficient and effective use by
the Amateur Radio Service of five channels in the
5330.5-5406.4 kHz band (the 60 meter band):
"Specifically, and consistent with our proposals
in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this
proceeding, the Commission replaces one of the
channels with a less encumbered one, increases
the maximum authorized power amateur stations may
transmit in this band and authorizes amateur
stations to transmit three additional emission
designators. The Commission also adopts an
additional operational rule that prohibits the
use of automatically controlled digital stations
and makes editorial revisions to the relevant
portions of the Table of Frequency Allocations and our service rules."
The Amateur Radio Service in the United States
has a secondary allocation on 60 meters. Only
those amateurs who hold General, Advanced or
Amateur Extra class licenses may operate on this
band. Amateur stations must not cause harmful
interference to -- and must accept interference
from -- stations authorized by any
administration in the fixed service, as well as
mobile (except aeronautical mobile) stations
authorized by the administrations of other countries.
•
Hams
Active in Philippine Earthquake Relief -
Emergency Net on 7.095 Mhz
- A magnitude 6.7
earthquake struck the central Philippines on
Monday, February 6, killing at least 43 people.
Many more are still missing. Hams are active in
providing communications into and out of the quake zone.
According to Jim Linton, VK3PC,
Chairman of the International Amateur Radio
Union's Region 3 Disaster Communications
Committee, emergency frequencies have been
established on 144.740 and 7.095 MHz. He says the
country's Ham Emergency Radio Operations (HEROs)
group has established a command center on a
Philippine Coast Guard search-and-rescue vessel
and is forwarding traffic between the quake area
and the cities of Cebu and Manila, the national capital.
•
Last
BPL Company Using Ham Bands Shuts Down
- The only
remaining broadband over power lines (BPL)
provider in the U.S. using frequencies that
include amateur radio bands, has gone out of
business. According to the ARRL Letter, IBEC -
which had been the subject of ARRL interference
complaints to the FCC - announced on its website
that losses from last spring's tornadoes in
Alabama had left it with "no other option than to
close our doors and cease operations." The
company had used BPL to provide internet service to rural areas.
ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ,
said that while the League regrets the loss of
jobs resulting from IBEC's closure, "in the long
run, the rural areas that IBEC was trying to
serve will be better served by broadband
technologies that are superior to BPL and do not
pollute the radio spectrum." ARRL Lab Manager
Ed Hare, W1RFI, added, "Now that
IBEC is out of the game, no other (BPL) system in
the country uses the amateur bands in their deployments."
•
WorldRadio
Founder Armond Noble, N6WR, Silent Key
- Armond
Noble, N6WR, founder and publisher of
WorldRadio magazine for 37 years, died February 1
in Sacramento, California after a short
illness. Noble, publisher of Sacramento-based
International Travel News magazine, was
hospitalized about two months ago, according to Editor David Tykol.
WorldRadio was published monthly from July 1971
until the end of 2008, when Noble sold the
magazine to Hicksville, New York-based CQ
Communications, Inc. With its February 2009
edition, it was renamed WorldRadio Online and
became the first online-only major amateur radio publication.
Noble had a long and distinguished career in
communications. From 1953 to 1955 he served in
the U.S. Army with a VHF radio relay unit. He
went on to positions at commercial radio and TV
stations around the United States, including:
KTWO-TV and KATI in Casper, Wyoming; KOOK-TV,
Billings, Montana; KTVB, Boise, Idaho; KERO-TV,
Bakersfield, California, WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, and KCRA Radio in Sacramento.
During the Vietnam War, Noble was a
reporter-photographer for TIME magazine and the
Milwaukee Journal. He also served in the TIME-LIFE bureau in Sacramento.
Noble had a long and distinguished career in
communications. From 1953 to 1955 he served in
the U.S. Army with a VHF radio relay unit. He
went on to positions at commercial radio and TV
stations around the United States, including:
KTWO-TV and KATI in Casper, Wyoming; KOOK-TV,
Billings, Montana; KTVB, Boise, Idaho; KERO-TV,
Bakersfield, California, WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, and KCRA Radio in Sacramento.
•
New
communication exhibit helps kids Get the
Message -
Kristen Morris and her daughters; Lucy - 9, and
Charlotte - 3 , use one of the 15 smartphones
showing that Morse code could be faster than text messaging.
But that's the conclusion of a new exhibit
devoted to communication at the Glazer Children's
Museum. "Get the Message" has 15 hands-on
stations for kids to explore different forms of
communication, from totem poles to sign language.
The instant messaging station uses a video clip
from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno pitting two
guys text messaging against two guys using Morse
code. Contrary to an audience member's
prediction, the Morse code team is the first to
convey the message: "I just saved a bunch of
money on my car insurance." The men in vintage
news-editor uniforms cheer the 170-year-old technology.
"Get the Message" caters to children ages 5 and
up - - slightly older than the Clifford the Big
Red Dog exhibit it replaced. It exposes visitors
to the various ways we send and receive
information and messages on a daily basis,
starting with the simplest human facial expressions.
•
NASA
Selects AMSAT Fox Satellite to Join Program
- Project ELaNa,
NASA's "Educational Launch of NanoSat" managed by
the Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space
Center, announced on February 10 that the AMSAT
Fox-1 CubeSat has been selected to join the program.
NASA will work with AMSAT in a collaborative
agreement where NASA will cover the integration
and launch costs of satellites deemed to have
merit in support of their strategic and educational goals.
AMSAT teamed with the ARRL to write and deliver
the 159 page educational proposal to NASA.
Letters documenting the importance of AMSAT's
satellites in the education programs at the ARRL
and also at the Clay Center for Science and
Technology at the Dexter and Southfield schools
in Brookline, MA, were important parts of the proposal.
AMSAT President Barry Baines,
WD4ASW said, "The ELaNA Launch
opportunity marks AMSAT's return to space after
the conclusion of the successful ARISSat-1/KEDR
flight. We need to get the flight Fox-1, along
with an operational flight backup satellite,
built, integrated, tested, and delivered. Our
ability to provide a spacecraft and get it
launched is dependent upon the active support of
our donors who wish to see Fox-1 fly."
•
World
Record Balloon Attempt
- A group of
Amateur Radio operators hopes to establish a
world distance record for an unmanned,
helium-filled balloon. The BLT-28 balloon will
launch from Katy, Texas, on a journey that will
take it across the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean, and then on to Nanjing, China. The
South Texas Balloon Launch Team plans to release
the balloon at 3 PM CST (2100 UTC) Saturday, February 11.
During the trans-Atlantic crossing, when out of
range of shore based stations, the balloon's APRS
beacon will operate on the International Space
Station (ISS) packet digipeater frequency of 145.825 MHz.
The balloon payload package weighs only about 5
ounces and contains a high altitude GPS tracking
system and a 144 MHz FM APRS Amateur Radio
transmitter. To conserve weight and battery life,
no camera equipment will be on board. The maximum
altitude is expected to be above 19 miles, with
horizontal speeds between 100 and 150 miles per hour
•
The
2012 ARRL International DX CW Contest Takes to
the Air Next Weekend
- CW DXing and
contesting take center stage the weekend of
February 18-19, as the 2012 ARRL International DX
CW Contest takes to the airwaves. "After years of
lackluster conditions on 15 and 10 meters, 2011
finally saw the propagation gods giving us a
break," said ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X.
"Since September 2011, the high bands have been
in excellent shape, with worldwide openings on 15
and 10 meters becoming an almost-daily
occurrence. As a result, activity has spiked in
almost every major contest, with hundreds more
logs being submitted. If conditions hold -- and I
don't see why they wouldn't -- we're in for
another high-band treat in another week or so."
If you've never operated the CW contest, now is
the time to start. "You can work a lot of DX with
100 W and a simple dipole or vertical antenna,"
Kutzko explained. "If your CW is a little rusty,
this event is a great way to get your CW skills
back up to snuff -- and get some new DX countries
into your bag. If you live in one of the rarer
states -- such as Delaware, North Dakota, West
Virginia or Wyoming -- DX stations from all
around the world will be looking for you. This is
your opportunity to be the rare one!'"
Stations in the US and Canada work only DX
stations (Alaska and Hawaii are considered DX for
this contest), while DX stations work only the US
and Canada. DX stations will be trying to make
contacts with as many US states and Canadian
provinces as they can. The contest exchange is
simple: US and Canadian stations send a signal
report and their state or province, while DX
stations send a signal report and the amount of
power they are transmitting with.
•
Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, Addresses
Plenary Session at WRC-12, Receives ITU Gold
Medal - On
Friday, February 3, delegates and attendees at
the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC-12) had the pleasure of listening to
Joe Taylor, K1JT, share his
vision of the future of radiocommunication.
Taylor -- an ARRL Member -- won the Nobel Prize
in physics in 1993 for the discovery of a binary
pulsar, a discovery which has opened up new
possibilities for the study of gravitation. After
the speech, International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) Secretary General Dr Hamadoun
Touré, HB9EHT, presented Taylor with the
ITU Gold Medal in recognition of Dr Taylor's
outstanding contribution to the research in the field of radiocommunication.
Dr Touré introduced Dr Taylor to the Plenary. In
his introduction, he told the audience that
Amateur Radio led to Taylor's career as a radio
astronomer, and ultimately to his winning the
Nobel Prize: "I'm told that an early interest in
Amateur Radio led Joe Taylor to an exciting
career in radio astronomy, which then earned him
the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics. I share his
interest in Amateur Radio with passion, but will
that lead me to a Nobel Prize? I'm working on it!"
Dr Taylor began his seven minute speech by
thanking the WRC-12 delegates for the job they
were doing at the Conference. "I understand that
you have come to Geneva from more than 150 of the
ITU's Member States," he said. "You are here to
do an important job, an essential one, for nearly
all of humanity in today's world. You are charged
to do your upmost to accommodate the wide variety
of competing interests of all users of the radio
frequency spectrum and its available orbits for
Earth satellites. This is surely not an easy task.
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