Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2408 for Friday December 22nd, 2023

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2408 with a release date of Friday
December 22nd, 2023 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams help restore a broadcast station's signal.
A campus in India becomes an emergency-response hub - and once again,
Newsline's holiday gift to listeners around the world. All this and
more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2408 comes your way
rightnow.

**
HAMS HELP COMMUNITY RADIO STATION GET BACK ON AIR

NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with another story of
amateurs-to-the-rescue. Hams know that without an antenna, a station
has no voice. So when a small broadcast station in northern California
needed help, amateur radio was there. Kent Peterson KC0DGY picks up the
story from here.

KENT: Because of amateur radio, community radio station KNYO, is going
to start the coming year very differently from the way it did this
year. Eleven months ago, the low-power FM station in Fort Bragg,
California lost its antenna after the collapse of the 70-foot pine tree
which was being used as its tower. The FCC authorized a temporary fix
that authorized the antenna to be installed on a mast one-third that
height, putting the all-volunteer station back on the air. Then an
October thunderstorm struck and the signal went silent again. That's
when hams from the Mendocino County Amateur Radio Communication
Service, NC6MC, stepped in. After station volunteers could not
determine what had gone wrong, the club's president Derek Hoyle,
KE6EBZ, sent over a team to help investigate. The hams discovered that
the antenna had been struck by lightning during the storm. The
lightning arrestor was damaged and several connectors had been knocked
out. Repairs quickly got under way. In a commentary posted on the
RadioWorld.com website this month, the station's manager, Bob Young,
publicly thanked the hams for using their amateur antenna expertise to
restore the community's voice.

Bob wrote: [quote] "The KNYO Ft. Bragg antenna saga serves as a
testament to the power of community and the generosity of individuals
who come together in times of need." [endquote]

Hopefully 2024 will begin with smoother operation - and better weather
- for station KNYO. If not, amateur radio is standing by.

This is Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

(RADIO WORLD)

**
GLOBAL RESPONSE TO SIGNALS FROM IRELAND'S 1ST SATELLITE

NEIL/ANCHOR: The excitement over the launch of Ireland's first
satellite gained a great deal of momentum from a contest the European
Space Agency launched at the same time: Who would receive its first
signals? Jeremy Boot G4NJH tells us - because the results are in!

JEREMY: Hams from around the world responded enthusiastically to an
invitation from the European Space Agency to be the first receive radio
signals from EIRSAT-1 after its launch on the 1st of December. The
Educational Irish Research Satellite, a two-unit CubeSat from
University College Dublin, is a ham radio satellite and an educational
satellite that took to the sky from a California launchpad on the 1st
of December.

The ESA announced the winners from each continent. There were no
entries from Africa. There were no entries from Africa. Winners were
the first to send in confirmed signals.

The ESA said it would send a QSL card and a small prize to each of the
winning amateurs. All others who sent in confirmed reports will receive
QSL cards as well.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY)

NEIL/ANCHOR: For a list of the winners and to learn more about
Ireland's first satellite, see the link in the text version of this
week's Newsline report at arnewsline.org

[FOR PRINT ONLY:
https://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/EIRSAT-1_Ra
dio_amateur_competition_winners ]

**

SILENT KEY: FORMER RAC PRESIDENT DANIEL LAMOUREUX, VE2KA

NEIL/ANCHOR: A former president of Radio Amateurs of Canada has become
a Silent Key. We have the details from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: Radio Amateurs of Canada has announced the death of a former
president, Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA, who became a Silent Key on the 2nd
of December. Daniel's tenure with the RAC included roles on the
administrative and financial committees. He had also served earlier on
the school selection committee for ARISS, and was active supporting the
growth of amateur radio in space and amateur satellites in Canada.

Daniel was also active on the local level, serving from the mid-20th
century to early in the 21st century, as president of the RAQI, Radio
Amateur du Qu�(c)bec Inc.

Daniel was 79.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(WIA, RAC)

**
LASER SENDS NASA'S FIRST ULTRA-HD VIDEO FROM SPACE

NEIL/ANCHOR: As NASA advances toward using laser light instead of radio
to enable more rapid, efficient deep-space communication, a Jet
Propulsion Lab scientist's tabby cat helped prove that this option has
real possibilities. A 15-second, ultra-high-definition video of the cat
named Taters was successfully beamed from NASA's Psyche spacecraft
earlier this month, traveling 19 million miles - or 30 million
kilometres - in less than two minutes to Caltech's Palomar Observatory.
The images traveled at 267 megabits per second - the maximum rate.

Scientists praised both the speed and quality of the video, which was
transmitted on the 11th of December. NASA recently released the images,
pleased that the experiment achieved its goal to show that data can be
sent from space at rates that are more than 100 times greater than
radio systems now in use on spacecraft.

Of course, no one asked for Taters' opinion about laser but the cat's
feelings were evident from the video: The graphics contained in the
images displayed include the cat's heart rate, color and breed - while
showing Taters engaged in a favorite activity - chasing a beam of light
from - what else? - a red laser pointer.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS, NASA JET PROPULSION LAB)

**
CAMPUS IN INDIA BECOMES EMERGENCY-RESPONSE NEXUS

NEIL/ANCHOR: The campus of a technical institute in one part of coastal
India is now a hub for emergency communication. Graham Kemp VK4BB takes
us to the scene.

GRAHAM: An amateur radio project at the National Institute of
Technology Karnataka has transformed the campus into an important nexus
for ham radio emergency response in the coastal areas of the Dakshina
Kannada district in the Indian state of Karnataka. The cutting-edge
resource is known by the acronym SEARCH - for System for Emergency
Assistance, Response and Communication Hub. A dedication ceremony held
on the 11th of December showcased a variety of antennas, including the
Hex Beam HF antenna, Spider Beam HF antenna, Triband JK Yagi Antenna
and dual band VHF/UHF Diamond antenna, among others. The control and
command centre for communications is housed by a number of nearby units
of portable container housing. Many faculty members, including those in
Transdisciplinary Research & Developent, helped bring the project to
fruition with help from the Mangalore Amateur Radio Club and hams in
Manipal and elsewhere. Students and staff at the institute will be able
to get on the air using amateur radio club callsigns VU2REC and the
contest team callsign AT3K.

In an announcement he provided to Newsline, Pruthviraj Umesh, assistant
professor in charge of the Transdisciplinary R&D, said that the roles
of the SEARCH project are not limited to disaster response. It will be
an educational hub that is also capable of providing Coastal
Regulations Zone officials with data that will aid environmental
management decisions. The system has various applications built in that
monitor water and air quality and observe such conditions as erosion.

This is Graham Kemp VK4BB.

(PRUTHVIRAJ UMESH)

**
COMPANY PRODUCES VIDEO ON REPEATERS' EVOLUTION

NEIL/ANCHOR: When it comes to radio, there is often very little gap
between the amateur and professional realms. A short video created by
two hams about two-way radio systems for business use is making the
rounds of social media, shedding the kind of light that hams find
useful too, as we hear from Patrick Clark K8TAC.

PATRICK: Executive producer Mark Abrams, WA6DPB, coproducer Mark
Lidikay [LID-Uh-KAY], KE6TNM and producer/director Keith Salmon call
their 15-minute video "The History of Two-Way Radios." It gives a
glimpse into the earliest personal hand-held radios of the 20th
century, the evolution of repeaters and ultimately, the development of
networked and trunked repeaters. The narrative combines a technical
overview with a short history lesson. Its screening in September at the
Cannes Corporate Media and TV Film Festival garnered it a Silver
Dolphin award, one of the festival's top corporate media honors.

No, it's not a full-fledged theatrical film but it does feature some
lighter moments including a cameo appearance by Bigfoot - so clearly,
the dialogue here is not just talk about tech.

Mark Lidikay told Newsline in an email that the video's story of the
modern networked trunking used by Mark Abrams' California business,
Mobile Relay Associates, holds particular interest for amateurs,
especially as HTs increasingly make use of the digital modes. He said
[quote] "It has been a mystery to most hams and it was one of our
focuses to make the concept more understandable." [endquote]