Subj : Newsline Part 2
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Dec 23 2016 07:23 am
DRUMMING UP A LICENSE UPGRADE
JIM/ANCHOR: What's more exciting to a musician than landing a hit on the
charts? Amateur Radio Newsline's Ed Durrant, DD5LP, tells us.
ED's REPORT: Never mind the name of the latest hit or album from the
Britpop group Blur. The bigger news, at least to radio amateurs, is just
as chart-busting an event: The group's drummer, amateur radio's Dave
Rowntree 2E0DVR, has upgraded his license to Advanced. Dave first became
a ham with his Foundation license in 2012. Working first as M6DRQ, he
passed his Intermediate exam, and more recently completed this latest
test successfully to rock the bands as an Advanced licensee.
That's as big a deal - or maybe bigger? - than having another album on
the charts. Just like the band has undergone some reinvention since its
creation in 1988, so too, has Dave become an amateur who is always
evolving.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Ed Durrant, DD5LP.
(SOUTHGATE)
**
CELEBRATING RADIO HISTORY AND A LITTLE OF HIS OWN TOO
JIM/ANCHOR: Earlier this month, when radio operators assembled in
Greenwich, Connecticut, and Ardrossan, Scotland, they re-sent the
original message that became the first confirmed amateur radio
transmission across the Atlantic 95 years ago. While other radio
operators have also re-enacted this transmission, for one amateur,
who grew up in Greenwich not far from the monument marking 1BCG's
historic transmission, participating this year as N1BCG -- his
3-year-old callsign reflecting the Connecticut operators' callsign --
was especially fulfilling.
CLARK: After after having a couple of sequentially assigned call signs
for ham radio I thought "wouldn't it be nice to get something that is
more a tribute to the history of international communications, which
occurred right here in Greenwich? What are the chances, since I happen
to live here, too? It was such a significant event from a historical
standpoint. N1BCG was available."
JIM: That is the voice of Clark Burgard, N1BCG, of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Clark worked single sideband earlier this month in the latest re-staging
of the contact with Scotland. The event was a partnership of the Radio
Society of Great Britain, the ARRL, and the Radio Club of America -- but
the location from which he transmitted turned out to be his grade school
alma mater, where he operated his first childhood radio station.
CLARK: It goes back to about 40 years ago, and that is actually one of
the reasons the Greenwich Country Day School was selected for this year's
1BCG anniversary, because the school to me, is rich in radio history --
whether they intended it or not. They were very helpful in getting us a
location for this past December 11's anniversary event.
JIM: As Clark notes, it was the same school where he'd played with radio
as a child, and where something else caught his eye.
CLARK: We were in the boys gym, because there is a flagpole - I'd had my
eye on that flagpole for 40 years. I thought that would be great to hang
an antenna off that. I would be in a world of trouble if I actually did
that as a student. I had to let some time go by. I think I've been pretty
patient."
JIM: That was Clark Burgard, N1BCG, of Greenwich Connecticut, who finally
got to hang three dipoles on that childhood flagpole, and helped radio
relive a milestone in shortwave history, while celebrating some of his
own radio history, too. He spoke with Amateur Radio Newsline's Caryn Eve
Murray, KD2GUT.
**
BREAK HERE:
Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world, including W5AW, the Big
Spring Amateur Radio Club Repeater in Big Spring, Texas, on Thursdays at
8 p.m.
