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 Previous: Hams Aid Columbia Debris Search in Western States |  Next: Michigan Pirate Broadcaster Banned from Ham Radio for Five Years |
Feb 26, 2003
(In alphabetical order: )
 P5/4L4FN's DXCC certificate, awarded last September. |
4L4FN leaving North Korea:
Ed Giorgadze, 4L4FN, the first amateur to operate extensively from North Korea
and to earn DXCC from that entity, will leave for his next duty assignment
March 1. Last fall, after about one year of operation, Giorgadze--an employee
of the United Nations World Food Program who had been operating as P5/4L4FN
from Pyongyang--was ordered off the air by North Korean authorities. The ARRL
accredited SSB and RTTY operation of P5/4L4FN for DXCC, and Giorgadze himself
earned a mixed DXCC Award during his stay. As of the end of his operation last
November 22, P5/4L4FN had logged a total of 16,194 QSOs (12,170 unique call
signs) that included 167 DXCC entities worked. More information on P5/4L4FN is
available on the AMSAT Net Web site of
QSL Manager Bruce Paige, KK5DO. Click on "P5 North Korea."
 Martti Laine, OH2BH, will be the featured speaker this summer in Vancouver at the Pacific Northwest DX Convention DX2003. |
British Columbia club announces DX2003
convention: The Pacific Northwest British Columbia DX
Club will host DX2003, the Pacific
Northwest DX Convention, in Vancouver this summer. Featured speaker will be
world-renowned DXer and contester Martti Laine, OH2BH. Full information on the
convention, July 18-20, is on the convention's Web site. The convention will
include additional speakers and vendor displays.
Ham volunteers to assist Los Angeles Marathon: An estimated 100 Amateur Radio operators will provide communication for the 18th running of the Los Angeles Marathon on March 2. Amateur volunteers will provide emergency communication throughout the 26.2-mile course. Operators will be positioned at every mile location, at first aid stations, in the lead and trail vehicles, at the start and finish lines, shadowing race officials and in the Command Center. Full information is on the on LA Marathon XVIII Web site.
High-definition TV signals successfully captured by software-defined radio: An over-the-air high-definition TV (HDTV) signal has been successfully captured in its native data stream by a software defined radio (SDR) that's free and open source from the GNU Software Defined Radio project. GNU reports its Radio 0.7 includes all the code used to receive and demodulate HDTV images. It also includes new processor-specific speedups. The source station was KSBW-DT, Channel 10 (195 MHz), Salinas, California. GNU reports samples of the program Law and Order were recorded to disk in real time at 20 MB samples/second using the mc4020-read-adc program provided with the GNU Radio MC4020 analog-to-digital card driver. Once the samples were on disk, they were processed using the GNU Radio HDTV receiver, atsc_rx. The output of atsc_rx is an MPEG transport stream consisting of a sequence of 188-byte packets. The MPEG transport stream then was fed into an MPEG player and displayed. Samples of the received video are available on the GNU Radio site.
 Bus Etheridge, K4IX--with visitors--on the deck of the USS Wisconsin. [Ron Young, W8RJL, Photo] |
K4IX wins Roanoke Division Service Award: "Bus" Etheridge, K4IX, of Norfolk, Virginia is the winner of the 2002 ARRL Roanoke Division's Service Award. Instituted in 1968 by then-Roanoke Division Director (and later ARRL President) Vic Clark, W4KFC, this award recognizes a history of significant and consistent contribution to Amateur Radio. Jim Wise, W4PRO, nominated Etheridge for the award, citing his 65 years as a licensee, and his efforts as "an organizer, tireless worker, and CW operator par excellence." A veteran of the CW traffic nets and a founder of the Virginia Traffic Net, Etheridge served as an Assistant Section Communications Manager (SCM) for Virginia under Clark's leadership. More recently, he founded and served as president of the USS Wisconsin Radio Club (N4WIS), which has operated amateur special events aboard the battleship, now permanently docked in Norfolk. He also was the first vice president of the Virginia Air and Space Center Amateur Radio Group during the design and construction of its automated amateur station. He also was largely responsible for the antique radio display that is a permanent part of the facility. K4IX is an ARRL Life Member. He also belongs to the Quarter Century Wireless Association and the Virginia Beach Amateur Radio Club, among other organizations. He's also participated in every ARRL Field Day since 1947. The Virginia Beach Amateur Radio Association, Chapter 119 of the QCWA, the USS Wisconsin Radio Club and the Virginia DX Century Club honored Etheridge with a plaque at the 2001 Virginia Beach Hamfest.
Kentucky ARES teams have busy month: Amateur Radio Emergency Service members stood ready to help February 20 after an insulation factory exploded near Corbin in southern Kentucky. The blast killed one worker and injured 43 others. With the area still reeling from an ice storm and flooding earlier in the month, commercial communication and power system delivery were spotty. Kentucky Section Emergency Coordinator Ron Dodson, KA4MAP, said there were initial reports that burn victims from the factory fire also possibly suffered cyanide exposure. He said Kentucky ARRL Official Emergency Station Ron Nutter, KA4KYI, was instructed by Lexington Emergency Management to help with getting vital chemical information from the affected area to treating hospitals, so doctors would be prepared for the injured and implement decontamination procedures. Nutter contacted two other Lexington hams--William DeVore, N4DIT, and Joseph Leitner, WD4EJA, both of whom still had power at their residences--to call into Corbin-area repeaters and ask for information on the chemicals. It was determined subsequently that there was no chemical contamination of the injured. The factory disaster apparently began near a furnace, where raw fiberglass is mixed with a resin. The blaze sent black smoke billowing through residential areas, forcing hundreds of people to temporarily evacuate. US government officials are studying the cause of the explosion, but a report is not expected for several weeks. On February 24, operations ceased for amateurs involved Lexington-Fayette County ARES in response to the weather emergency. ARES members were on duty for more than a week.
Kid's Day a hit for Ohio youngsters: Bill Porter, N8LFP, was among those turning their stations over to their youngsters for a few hours on Kid's Day, January 4. "My youngest two kids had such a great time with the event, I only hoped to share this to encourage others to participate in the next one," Porter said. "My daughter Chelsie at age six is very shy, and it took some coaxing to get her up to the mike.
 |  |
Chelsie Porter and Sage Porter at N8LFP during Kid's Day in January. | |
After about 10 minutes of telling her what to say, she kindly told me she knew what to say, she had it under control." Chelsie made several contacts, her dad reports. "I've never seen her not so shy with people she didn't know. It was great!" Porter says his son, Sage, was not as active as his sister but did make a few contacts. The next Kid's Day will be June 21.
Paper Chasers' Log is the Windows upgrade for DXLog: Mark Kachel, N0OKS, reports that he has purchased the rights to DXLog from Drew Vonada-Smith, K3PA, and has been working on a Windows upgrade ever since. Since then I have been working on a worthy, Windows upgrade to DXLog. "In addition to tracking DXCC, Paper Chasers' Log tracks a large number of other awards," he reports. Full details are available on his Web site, where users may download and install the complete program on a trial basis.
Pioneer 10 spacecraft sends last signal: Talk about weak-signal DX! NASA says that after more than 30 years, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer's last, very weak signal was received on January 22. NASA engineers report Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source has decayed, and it may not have enough power to send additional transmissions to Earth. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) did not detect a signal during the last contact attempt February 7. The previous three contacts, including the January 22 signal, were very faint with no telemetry received. The last time a Pioneer 10 contact returned telemetry data was last April 27. NASA plans no additional contact attempts for Pioneer 10, which is venturing into parts of the solar system where nothing built by humans has ever gone before. Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington said Pioneer 10 "ranks among the most historic as well as the most scientifically rich exploration missions ever undertaken." Among other things, the spacecraft was the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. The spacecraft has continued to make valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of the solar system until its science mission officially ended March 31, 1997. Since that time, Pioneer 10's weak signal has been tracked by the DSN as part of a new advanced-concept study of communication technology in support of NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. At last contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth. At that distance, it takes more than 11 hours 20 minutes for the radio signal to reach Earth. Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque that describes what we look like, where we are, and the date the mission began. The spacecraft will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, some 68 light-years away. More information is available on the Pioneer 10 Web page.
Summits on the Air (SOTA) encourages portable hilltop operation: Richard Newstead, G3CWI, is encouraging participation by US amateurs in the Summits on the Air (SOTA) program, which promotes portable, hilltop operation. "It started about a year ago, and, so far, seven countries have schemes running," Newstead told ARRL. "The scheme is based on a core set of rules, and each country adds its list of summits to enable it to participate." Newstead says the list of summits need not be comprehensive but must include a mix of easy and difficult peaks. He says there are awards for both activators and chasers. Details are available on the SOTA Web site or by contacting SOTA General Manager John Linford, G3WGV.
Yahoo group for Mac-using hams established:
Jeffrey Swiger, N8NOE, has established a Yahoo group for Amateur Radio
operators who use the Mac operating system. "This group is for any
ham--Mac/Windows
user, dedicated to, but not limited to, digital communications," Swiger said.
"I have been asked by countless hams about the Mac and software for the radio.
This is the place now!" The group is for Macintosh and Apple users running
APRS, packet, digital modes, tracking and other amateur-related software. "It's
really for any ham who has a Mac/Apple and would like to use it with their
radio," Swiger said. "Everyone is welcome!"
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