[Ham-News] Amateur Radio Newsline 1278 - February 8, 2002

Mon Feb 11 03:50:27 EST 2002

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1278 - February 8, 2002 

The following is a Q-S-T. 

Another Anthrax scare halts mail to the FCC in D.C. and ham radio growth may not be as good as it seemed.  These stories are first on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1278 coming your way right now. 

**  

AMERICA AT WAR:  FCC STOPS D.C.MAIL DELIVERY DUE TO NEW ANTHRAX SCARE  

The Federal Communications Commission says that it will not accept paper mail in the Washington D.C. area until further notice.  This, after a trace amount of the Anthrax virus was found during a routine test.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Paul Courson, WA3VJB, is in the nations capitol with the details 

--  

The scant amount of anthrax contamination found at a Federal Communications Commission mail facility in Maryland last week was consistent with cross-contamination of mail.  At least that's what the result of tests conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed.       

The FCC's mail processing facility in Capitol Heights Maryland, outside Washington, was tested about a week and a half ago as a routine precaution.  One sample taken tested positive for Anthrax.  The C-D-C blames the problem on cross contamination of mail.  This means one or more pieces of mail from another facility may have inadvertently brought the contaminant to the Maryland site. 

The agency is arranging for the facility to be decontaminated and re-tested.  Mail deliveries, which have been halted, will not resume until the area is found to be anthrax-free.  For ham radio, this only affects such things as requesting or commenting on rules change requests. 

The FCC said it would also test the mail room at its Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, facility to make sure that it is Anthrax free.  Gettysburg is where most Amateur Radio related mail including license applications and renewals are sent and is not affected by this latest paper mail suspension order.  At least not so far. 

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Courson WA3VJB in  Washington. 

-- 

Late last year five people, including two postal workers, died of the inhalation form of  anthrax and more than a dozen were infected in a series of attacks that followed the  terrorist raids on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  So far no arrests have been  made in that case.  (Published news reports)

** 

SPACE AND SCIENCE: ON-ORBIT COMPUTER FAILURE CAUSES ISS OUTAGE    

Ham radio was there but it was not needed.  That's the basic wrap up after a computer  failure aboard the International Space Station sent the 17-story complex into a slow drift  for a few hours on Monday February 4th. 

The temporary outage also disrupted voice communications with the ground using normal channels.  It also brought science research to a halt.  But NASA officials said that neither the station nor its crew ever were in any danger. 

The station drift was halted about 17:00 GMT.  That enabled the crew to begin the job of re-orienting the stations solar panel arrays.  Once normal power levels were restored, systems and experiments that had been shut down were brought back on line.  

The computer shutdown was eventually traced to a defective hard drive.  James Hartsfield, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston said that the three ham crew was never in any danger as a result of the failure.  He termed it nothing more than an interruption to their normal work day.   

Launched last December 5th on board the shuttle Endevour, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko RK3DUO and U.S. astronauts Daniel Bursch KD5PNU and Carl Walz KC5TIE are the forth crew to inhabit the I-S-S.  In addition to all of the high tech communications gear the crew also has ARISS - the ham radio station on board the International Space Station as backup voice and data communications.  It was available, albeit not needed this time around. (ARNewsline(tm) from NASA Release)  

** 

HAM RADIO GROWTH:  CENSUS REDUX 

Some dark news following the good news on ham radio growth patterns.  The numbers may not be as good as we reported two weeks ago.  So says Fred Maia, W5YI, who follows growth trends in ham radio.  And Fred says that the numbers we presented are overly optimistic:  

-- 
Fred Maia: 

"The FCC database is a database of all amateurs who have been licensed for twelve years.  Thats ten years for the license term and an additional two.  The reason it stays in the database for the additional two is so that it can be renewed diring the grace period.  Thefefore, the licenses in the database are two years more thanthe ten year term or twenty percent inflated."  

-- 

In our story we used statistics from several sources including QRZ, W5YI and others.  But Fred says that there are more recent numbers that show things may not be as good as they may seem on the surface.  

According to Fred, as of January 15th 2002 there are actually only 98,030 holders of the Extra class license, 86,425 legacy Advanced, 138,546 Generals, 318,603 Technicians and legacy Tech plus and only 39,972 Novice class.  The total is 681,576.  That is considerably lower than the 720,194 in the latest QRZ census and 10,424 lower than the adjusted 692,000 we believed to be accurate.  

 The bottom line.  Once you take away the expired licenses that are in their grace renewal period, the club and military recreation stations and the like the numbers tell a different story.  One thats not nearly as rosy as we and others thought only two weeks ago.  (ARNewsline(tm)) 

 ** 

WINTER OLYMPICS 2002:  COMMEMORATIVE STATION ON THE AIR 

The Winter Olympics are in Salt Lake City Utah and ham radio is helping to celebrate the games with a special events station.  Linda Reader, N7HVF, has more:  

-- "Its going to start on Thursday at 5 PM Mountain Standard Time and it will go until the 25th of February.  It will be available on all bands, so people will only need to listen around.  The station call will be W7U and the trustee is W7EO." 

--  Again, listen for W7U celebrating the 2002 Winter Olympics through February, 25th.  (N7HVF)  

**  SPECTRUM:  WHITE HOUSE PROPOSES PAYOUT TO CHANGE FREQUENCIES  The Bush administration says that it will propose setting up a $715 million fund to reimburse federal agencies that relocate their RF operations.  This, for moving away from spectrum that has already been auctioned to commercial service providers.  

In the past, federal agencies have had to negotiate with the winning bidders to cover relocation costs.  In fact, following the September 11th terror attacks the Pentagon said it would not move off bands that it uses for military training and other purposes without sufficient funds to pay for relocating.    

This created a stalemate over making available airwaves hotly desired by mobile telephone companies like Verizon Wireless.  Now, in his budget just sent to congress, President Bush proposes setting up a fund to streamline the reimbursement process.  Auction receipts to cover agency's relocation costs would be paid into the fund and federal agencies would be reimbursed for their relocation costs out of the proceeds.    

What does this mean for Amateur Radio you ask?  Simply that more spectrum that hams share with the government and military could be up for grabs sooner than most thought it might happen.  But even with the subsidy some analysts of military communications say that it still could take several years before you see any spectrum moves take place.  (Published reports)      

**  

FCC:  OLYMPICS CAN USE 2300 MHZ HAM BAND FOR OLYMPICS  

Broadcasters at the 2002 Winter Olympics have been granted a Special Temporary Authority from the FCC to use a ham band for their coverage of the Salt Lake City games.  The S-T-A was made available at the request of the  Salt Lake Organizing Committee R-F coordination group to use 2300 to 2305 and 2390 through 2450 MHz for remote pick-ups at various Olympic venues.  Unlike Australia two years ago, this FCC action does not take hams off the air nor does it forbid amateur use of the band during the period of the S-T-A.  Instead it took action reminiscent of one that helped to establish ham radio's "National Frequency Coordination Council."  The agency told all spectrum users that it had designated the Salt Lake Organizing Committee is the single point of contact or "SPOC" in regard to all Olympics radio frequency requirements.  This delegated authority continues with the committee through March 31st.  (FCC, Broadcasting & Cable, ARNewsline(tm))  

**  

PUBLIC SERVICE:  HAM RADIO AT THE SUPERBOWL  

Last week's Super Bowl played in New Orleans between the St. Louis Rams and the New England Patriots was a squeaker to the very last play.  With the game tied at 17 to 17, in the 4th quarter, New England opted for a Field Goal that brought them victory in the very last seconds of normal play.  It was a game seen by millions, but what t-v viewers did not see was the work of a group of New Orleans area hams who were a part of the behind the scenes communications effort for the game.  Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks, KC5MFA, lives in the Big Easy and has this look at the role that ham radio played:  

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While thousands cheered on the Rams and Patriots inside the Superdome and millions watched on television around the world, a handful of New Orleans hams were busy outside in the streets of the Crescent City.  

-- 

 "K5OEP go ahead."  "Checking in, nothing to report.  Everything's normal.  WA5RT 2104 aaah, Poydras and South Claiborne."  "K5OEP roger, 2218.  Other station?"  

-- 

K5OEP is the call sign of Southeast Louisiana ARES.  New Orleans area hams assisted the American Red Cross as they provided tracking for those sent to area shelters or hospitals should the unthinkable occur.  Several Emergency Response Vehicles were in use feeding the workers and standing by in reserve should they be needed in an emergency.  The ERV's had a staff of 2 plus a ham with voice capability and APRS tracking.  There were "Action Teams" standing by with a ham and a dual band HT.  Hams also manned a command post trailer at City Hall as well as the Red Cross operations center on Canal Street and another Red Cross office in suburban Metairie.  The communications operations began on Friday, February 1st and continued Saturday as well as Super Bowl Sunday.  Tom Miller, AC5TM, ARRL Louisiana Section Emergency Coordinator and Keith Barnes, W5KB of the Red Cross were instrumental in putting the effort together.  The local CBS affiliate, WWL-TV channel 4 did a lengthy report on the Red Cross, of which about a minute was focused on the hams.  Several hams were featured on camera in the piece.  Thankfully, this is representative of most of the radio traffic.  

-- 

"K5OEP this is W5GAD."  "W5GAD, K5OEP go ahead." "Just checking in Josh and, um, if it's possible could we get a cup of coffee next time the truck comes down this direction?"  "This is KC5BCR, we're gonna take care of that coffee request."   

--  

Only three things occurred that could be considered out of the ordinary... a semi-nude escapee jumped off a bridge to evade capture, a Rolodex in the Superdome caught fire from being too close to a light and the New England Patriots finally won the big game.  And isn't it fitting that an underdog team called the Patriots would be victorious on this first Superbowl since September 11th.  Next on the agenda for the city... Mardi Gras on Tuesday, February 12th.  From Party Central in New Orleans, Louisiana, I'm Don Wilbanks, KC5MFA.  

--  

Before we leave this one we have some interesting statistics.  According to the Broadcasting and Cable newsletter, Super Bowl 36 delivered the Fox Television Network a 42.5 rating and 61 share in what are called the metered Nielson overnight market ratings.  This means that about 67 percent of United States households with television sets had them tuned to the game at some point during the telecast.  (ARNewsline(tm) - Produced by KC5MFA with sound provided by KD5BLV)  

** 

RESCUE RADIO:  HAMS ASSIST FOLLOWING QUAKE IN TURKEY  

Amateur Radio operators in Turkey were among the first to respond in the wake of a earthquake that rocked the province of Afyon on Sunday February 3rd. More than forty were killed and at least 170 were injured injuries were reported in the aftermath of the 6 point zero tembler.  Structures were destroyed and lines of communications were cut.  Enter Amateur Radio.  

According to an ARRL bulletin members of Turkey's Civil Defense Search and Rescue Team responded following the quake.  The bulletin quotes Aziz Sasa, TA1E, the president of the Turkish national Amateur Radio society as saying that S-A-R communicated with it's headquarters in Ankara and within the affected area.  This was because ham radio was the only long and medium-range communication resource available until normal lines of communications were restored.  Most ham radio communications was on VHF using a system of linked repeaters.  (ARRL)  

**  

RESCUE RADIO:  AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS HELP SAILBOAT IN DISTRESS   

The ARRL Letter says that Amateur Radio played a role in the rescue of two people aboard the sailing vessel Antigone.  This, after it ran aground off Honduras on Thursday, January 24th.    

Ed Petzolt, K1LNC, of Hobe Sound, Florida, told the Letter that, despite some apparently deliberate interference, members of the Intercontinental Net on 14.300 MHz helped relay communications from the vessel, which was equipped with an High Frequency marine radio.   

David Walz, AG4LI/HR6, in Honduras was in contact with the boat and passed traffic from the stranded mariners to the Net.  Petzolt said he was able to patch the US Coast Guard in Miami through to Walz, so the Coast Guard could obtain additional information and coordinate with Honduran authorities.   

Petzolt said the two passengers aboard the 40-foot vessel were safe, and the boat was on the beach.  The FCC is reportedly investigating the interference issue.  (ARRL)  

**  

HAM RADIO SCHOLARSHIPS:  QUARTER CENTURY WIRELESS ASSOCIATION  

The Quarter Century Wireless Association has announced its funding several scholarship for 2002.  There are eleven QCWA scholarships valued at $1000 each and five valued at $1500 each to be awarded later this year.  Hams interested in applying for the QCWA Scholarships should contact the Foundation for Amateur Radio.  The Foundation administers the scholarships sponsored by the QCWA. Additional information and an application form may be requested by letter or QSL card to the FAR Scholarships, Post Office Box 831, Riverdale, Maryland, 20738.  (QCWA)  

**   

HAMFESTS:  LIMARC N.Y. FEBRUARY 24TH  

LIMARC -- New York's Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club will hold its annual indoor Ham Radio flea-market On Sunday, February 24th.  Location is the  Levittown Hall beginning at 9 a-m. More information is on the web http://www.limarc.org.  (N2DO)  

**  

THE HANDI-HAMS:  2002 CALIFORNIA CAMP FULL  The Minnesota based Handi Hams say that their California Radio camp is now full.  This year, campers will be treated to presentations by Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, for Alinco, and everybodys favorite ham radio instructor Gordon West, WB6NOA.  The dates for the 2002 Handi Ham California Camp are March 3rd to the 10th at Camp Joan Mier in Malibu.  More is in cyberspace at http://www.mtn.org/handiham/workshop.html.   (HandiHams)  

**  

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  SUPER NET HAS ARRIVED  Australia's new super-net has had its first successful demonstration,  proving it can carry an enormous amount of data between two locations.  In fact, its not just fast.  It is virtual reality come to life.  Q-News Graham Kemp, VK4BB, has a look at what super net can do:  

-- 

In its 'maiden voyage,' the new high speed networking technology --10 Gigabit per second Ethernet -- ran a revolutionary combination of technology that allowed two people, in different locations, to work together on a virtual 3D object, each being able to feel the object and see what the other person was doing to it. At the  same time they could use a studio quality video link to communicate.  

These two functions were tested in a situation where they had to  compete against a volume of network traffic equivalent to Sydney's telephone system at peak levels.  The demonstration involved networking a virtual environment from two separate sites, CSIRO's Virtual Environments laboratory at the Australian National University and CSIRO's corporate headquarters several kilometres away.   

--  According to Graham, networks such as this will allow users in several locations to feel computer generated objects such as body organs.  Among other things, this tactile ability means a surgeon could train many students in different cities at the same time.  (Q-News)  

**  

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  CENTRAL STATES VHF SOCIETY CALL FOR PAPERS  

The Central States VHF Society will be holding it's 36th Annual Conference later this year.  The dates are July 26th to the 28th  at the  Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.    

And now comes an invitation to those interested in making presentations at this event. You are invited to submit an outline to Marc Holdwick, N8KWX, who is this years Technical Program Cairman.    

Holdwick says that any topic related to weak-signal VHF operation is welcome and can be submitted in either paper or electronic format.  But says N8KWX, those submitting will be required to have the finished work in his hands by May 5th to be included in the printed Proceedings.    

If you are interested in taking part, you can contact Mark Holdwick by e-mail n8kwx at csvhfs.org.  His snail-mail address is PO Box 6051, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, 60089. More information is on the web at http://www.csvhfs.org/CSVHF02.HTML  (CSVHFS)  

**  

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  RF CONTROL OF BIOMOLICULES  

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab report that they can now control biomolecules with radio frequency energy.  Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, reports: 

-- 

Biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids are basic building blocks in nature.  They carry out a wide variety of nano-scale functions, many of which have proven useful in drug discovery, drug delivery, biocatalysis, and bio-materials.  But to optimally exploit these capabilities, researchers must be able to rapidly control their activity.   

Now in the paper, titled "Remote Electronic Control of D-N-A Hybridization Through Inductive Coupling to an Attached Metal Nanocrystal Antenna, researchers describe a unique method to do this.  One that employs the phenomenon of inductive coupling to metallic nanoparticles by radio frequency energy to specifically and remotely control DNA molecules.  And they say, it works.  

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW.  

--  

Their paper was published in the January 10th issue of the journal Nature.  More information is available at http://www.engeneos.com.  (Technology Today)  

**  

INTERNATIONAL - UK:  NEW RSGB PRESIDENT  

The Radio Society of Great Britain has a new President.  As of January 1st, Bob Whelan, G3PJT, has taken up the leadership position at the United Kingdom's national ham radio society.    

Whelan says that he is looking forward to the challenges ahead in raising the awareness of the value of Amateur Radio as a way of interesting  the next generation of radio engineers and scientists.  He will serve a two year term leading the RSGB.  (GB2RS)  

**  

INTERNATIONAL - SOUTH AFRICA:  NEW SHORTWAVE GUIDE  

Media Network reports that a new comprehensive country-by-country guide to domestic and external shortwave broadcasts from sub-Saharan Africa, including opposition broadcasts to the African continent, has been added to the British DX Club web site.  The guide, compiled by BDXC editor Tony Rogers and fully updated for the winter schedule period, is available in by-country and by-frequency versions.  It can be found on the Articles index page of the web site at http://www.bdxc.org.uk. (Media Network)  

**  

CONTESTS:  GREAT LAKES QSO PARTY  

The Great Lakes QSO Party will begin on Saturday, March 9th at 17:00 UTC and run through Sunday March 10th at 04:00 UTC.  The object of this contest is to work as many Great Lakes States as well as VE3 and VE4 Canadian provinces as possible during the allotted time. C-W and SSB are the only modes permitted and operation is on all bands except for WARC.  Logs must be submitted by mail before April 25th to the address listed at the contest website.  Look for more information at http://www.geocities.com/mdxa1/qsoparty.html. (E-mail)  

**  

DX  

In DX, the Trindade 2002 PWOT team reports that several major sponsors have come forward providing vital support for the upcoming  DXpedition.  ICOM America will be providing a number of ICOM IC-756 PRO II transceivers.  ICOM will also be sending along  an IC-910H for satellite operation.  Possibly the first-ever satellite activity from Trindade.    

But that's not all.  Electril, a Brazilian manufacturer, has begun shipping antennas to the team staging area and Bob Heil, K9EID, of Heil Sound has personally made arrangements to insure that the DX'ers will have new reliable headsets.   Meantime, JA1FGI and JA1WSK have covered the cost of purchasing and shipping a complete RTTY, PSK-31 and SSTV equipment package.  Lastly, its reported that the Six Meter Amateur Radio Klub and the Chiltern DX Club are the first organizations to provide the D-Xpedition with financial support.  

The operators will leave Rio de Janero on February 15th for Trindade.  More information is at the DXpedition website located in cyberspace at http://www.trindade2002.com  (PW0T release)  

**  

THAT FINAL ITEM:  THE SWOOPER  

And finally this week, a loud buzzing noise being heard in the international shortwave band is apparently a new RADAR system used to measure wave height.  According to Mark Fine, the system is located at Barnegat Bay New Jersey and transmits a one megahertz wide signal in varying five megahertz wide segments.  

--  

Fine tells Amateur Radio Newsline that he made that recording on  4.795 MHz at 1850 UTC on February 5th. He was listening on a Drake R 8 A receiver set to upper sideband and a 2.3 kHz bandwidth.  He says that during the evenings this beast takes over a  whole band and is heard as far away as Europe and South America.  

Already, some SWL's have nick-named the noise a "swooper" because it sweeps quite fast making a "swoop" noise as it goes by in SSB.  Others have called it the Windshield Wiper Network, which they say is very apropos. (DXLD, CGC Communicator with "Swooper" audio provided by Mark Fine).  

**  

NEWSCAST CLOSE  

With thanks to Alan Labs, Amateur News Weekly, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB and Australia's Q-News, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline(tm).  Our e-mail address is newsline at arnewsline.org.  More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's(tm) only official website located at http://www.arnewsline.org.  You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline(tm), P.O. Box 660937, Arcadia, California 91066.   