Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2426 for Friday April 26th, 2024

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2426 with a release date of Friday
April 26th, 2024 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. A California ham club faces homelessness. Good
copy again from the Voyager-1 space probe -- and big changes are in the
works for MFJ Enterprises. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline
Report Number 2426 comes your way right now.

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BILLBOARD CART

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BREAKING NEWS: MFJ ENTERPRISES TO SCALE DOWN PRODUCT LINE, OPERATIONS

NEIL/ANCHOR: We begin this week with breaking news. As Newsline went to
production late Thursday, April 25th, MFJ Enterprises confirmed that it
was making major changes to the 52-year-old business. MFJ's location in
Starkville, Mississippi will remain open but its operation will be
"shrinking dramatically." The changes are expected to be felt
throughout the amateur radio realm, according to office manager, Nancy
Capps. In a letter released publicly late Thursday, company founder
Martin Jue K5FLU, explained that the devastating impact of the COVID-19
pandemic and his own desire, at age 80, to have more family time were
the impetus for the change. No information was immediately available
about the fate of MFJ's sister product lines such as HyGain, Cushcraft
and Ameritron. Newsline will be following these developments.

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CALIFORNIA RADIO CLUB FACES HOMELESSNESS

NEIL/ANCHOR: Our other top story takes us to California where an
amateur radio club that has provided lifesaving communications and
assistance to its community is about to become homeless. We have that
developing story from Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

RALPH: A California ham radio club that has provided disaster
communications and other community services from its building on city
property now faces an emergency of its own: The Santa Barbara Amateur
Radio Club has until the end of July to find a new home for its members
and all its radio equipment. Since 1975, the club has been permitted to
use the site owned by the city of Santa Barbara, where it built an
earthquake-resistant, climate-controlled modular structure. Now the
city needs the land back to accommodate a construction project that
will replace an aging reservoir near that property with two reservoirs
that are 5-million gallons each. For the project to go forward, the ham
club and a number of other users of the land will need to vacate the
premises.

The club's director-at-large, Levi Maaia, K6LCM, wrote in a recent
Op-Ed piece on the Edhat Santa Barbara website that [quote] "the club
now faces an uncertain future due to the new municipal developments and
lack of a permanent home for its facilities." [endquote] Levi wrote
that the club has been unable to find a replacement site that would
accommodate the club's communications requirements to fulfill public
safety communications needs.

He said that, so far, no alternate site has been identified and the
club remains without a solution. The club has appealed to the local
community for help.

This is Ralph Squillace KK6ITB.

(EDHAT SANTA BARBARA, SBARC, KEYT-TV NEWS)

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SOLID COPY AGAIN FROM VOYAGER-1; RADIO ANTENNA SERVES VOYAGER-2

NEIL/ANCHOR: There's good news for NASA's Voyager 1 deep space probe,
which is back to transmitting usable data to Earth after a chip
malfunction left its messages garbled five months ago. NASA announced
that a coding fix by scientists at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory
restored viable communications. NASA said it has since received good
data from Voyager-1 about the health of its engineering systems and it
is expected to resume its scientific mission shortly.

Meanwhile, it's easy to forget that its twin probe, Voyager-2, has been
maintaining reliable contact with Earth thanks to a very special
antenna in Australia. Jason Daniels, VK2LAW, brings us that report.

JASON: The Deep Space Station-43 radio antenna near Canberra isn't just
Australia's largest antenna but a reliable source of two-way
communication with a variety of space explorers, including Voyager-2 as
it goes out in search of distant planets and investigates the
heliosphere.

It's been on the job for a half-century - since the era of NASA's
Apollo program - and was recently declared an IEEE Milestone. IEEE
president-elect Kathleen Kramer heralded it formally during a recent
ceremony as [quote] "the only antenna remaining on Earth capable of
communicating with Voyager-2." [endquote] It is built to be capable of
capturing transmissions that begin many billions of kilometrers away
from a 23-watt radio.

The DSS-43 antenna, with a dish diameter of 64 metres, has been in
service since late 1972 - and its earliest mission was to receive audio
and video from the Apollo 17 mission from the surface of the moon.

Its declaration as an IEEE Milestone is recognition of the antenna as
an innovation that has provided a great benefit to humanity.

This is Jason Daniels VK2LAW.

(NASA, YAHOO NEWS, IEEE SPECTRUM)

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DEBATE REOPENS OVER AM RADIO'S FUTURE IN CARS

NEIL/ANCHOR: US lawmakers are about to resume a controversial debate:
Should it be mandatory for new vehicles in the US to have an AM radio
receiver? Kent Peterson KC0DGY picks up the story from here.

KENT: The future of AM radio will be taking center stage among United
States lawmakers starting on April 30. The Energy & Commerce Committee
of the US House of Representatives will begin a hearing on the language
needed to fine-tune the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2024. With
the increased popularity of other listening modes in motor vehicles in
the US, AM radio has been seen by many, including some automakers, as
optional in new cars Those who seek to preserve its inclusion for
drivers stress AM radio's vital and longstanding role in transmitting
emergency alerts to the public over the airwaves. Curtis LeGeyt,
president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, has
called AM radio the backbone of the nation's Emergency Alert System.
The proposed legislation would require the Secretary of Transportation
to mandate access to AM broadcast radio in all vehicles.

DRG News recently reported that the bill has enough support in the
House of Representatives for it to be passed by that chamber.

Last December, Senate supporters tried to pass a similar bill by a
procedure known as unanimous consent but that attempt failed.

This is Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

(RADIO WORLD)

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HAMSCI SHARES EARLY ECLIPSE DATA; WWV'S TIME SIGNALS AFFECTED

NEIL/ANCHOR: The citizen science group, HAMSci, has just released its
very earliest observations about the solar eclipse and its impact on
propagation, as we hear from Sel Embee KB3TZD.

SEL: There's still plenty for researchers to study but data from more
than 52.7 million radio contacts that came in from WSPRNet, PSKReporter
and the Reverse Beacon Network on the 8th of April is providing
researchers with early insights into the solar eclipse's impact on the
ionosphere. Reports published online indicate that propagation was
enhanced on the 1.8, 3.5 and 7 MHz bands, an effect that hints at less
absorption in Region D. Near-range communication challenges on the 14,
21 and 28 MHz bands suggested less electron density in the atmosphere.
The citizen science research group HAMSci, studied the data between
1800 and 2100 UTC, collected during its Eclipse QSO Party.

Meanwhile, speaking of time, a Doppler shift lasting only a few cycles
per second, caused a small change in the frequency of transmitted time
signals in the United States at radio station WWV, which is operated by
the National Institute of Standards and Technology. According to a
published report online, the shift did not cause anyone to lose the
correct time of day. The change was compared to normal variations that
occur between night and day.

This is Sel Embee KB3TZD.

(SPACEWEATHER.COM, AMATEUR RADIO WEEKLY)

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YOTA COLLECTING ECLIPSE SAFETY GLASSES AT HAMVENTION

NEIL/ANCHOR: The next solar eclipse will arrive in October over the
Southern Hemisphere and you can help observers there participate
safely. Jack Parker W8ISH tells us how.

JACK: Parts of the Southern Hemisphere will be treated to a solar
eclipse on the 2nd of October. The "ring of fire" annular eclipse will
be visible over southern Argentina, southern Chile and parts of the
Pacific Ocean. To help fellow amateurs and youngsters experience this
solar event, Youth on the Air will be collecting donations of eclipse
safety glasses from visitors to the YOTA booth at Dayton Hamvention to
send on to the South American hams. The YOTA booth is Number 4304.

While you're dropping your glasses off, learn more about the camp for
amateurs from 15 to 25 years of age. It will take place this summer in
Halifax, Nova Scotia and first-time applicants are encouraged to submit
an application. The camp will be held from the 7th through to the 12th
of July. Follow the link in this week's Newsline script on our website
arnewsline.org

This is Jack Parker W8ISH.

[DO NOT READ: https://youthontheair.org/halifax2024 ]

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BREAK HERE:

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio
Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including FM
radio station KRHJ in Lamar, Colorado, at 88.3 MHz. Newsline is heard
on Fridays at 5 p.m. local time. Congratulations: The station marks its
second anniversary on the air on April 29th.