Subj : Newsline Part 3
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jan 20 2017 07:03 pm
AN IDEA WORTH SCOUTING OUT
JIM/ANCHOR: In late December, Amateur Radio Newsline reported about
updates being made to Scouting's Radio Merit Badge. We've just gotten
in a few more details, which Newsline's Joe Moell (MELL) K-zero-O-V,
shares with us now. Joe is also ARRL's Amateur Radio Direction Finding
Coordinator.
JOE'S REPORT: It started as the Wireless Merit Badge in 1918, and has
become one of the most popular Scouting achievements. About 7000 Scouts
qualify for the Radio Merit Badge each year. The newest badge requirements
list includes an option for Amateur Radio Direction Finding, or ARDF.
Scouts are encouraged to build a simple direction-finding antenna and to
participate in an on-foot radio foxhunt on the 2-meter or 80-meter band.
In addition, the radio broadcasting section now includes internet
streaming, and cellular telephone topics have been added.
The updates were authored by Jim Wilson, K5ND, who is former Director of
Communication Services at the Boy Scouts of America, and is the current
president of the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association. Jim decided to add ARDF
after his experience at USA's ARDF Championships last April. The new
section was then reviewed by leading members of ham radio's ARDF community.
The new Radio Merit Badge will be offered during the National Scout
Jamboree in West Virginia during July, where a complete ARDF course will
be set up and equipment will be available.
If you're a fan of hidden transmitter hunting, get together with the Scout
leaders in your community to help them give the ARDF experience to Scouts,
and to offer the new Radio Merit Badge. More about the badge updates is
available at K2BSA.org, that's K2BSA.org. Information about ARDF,
including simple antennas, and how to set up foxhunting courses, is at
www.homingin.com. That's homingin, as one word, homingin.com.
From southern California, where ARDF is a part of Jamboree-on-the-air
every year, this is Joe Moell, K0OV, for Amateur Radio Newsline.
**
ZANE GREY EVENT
JIM/ANCHOR: There's nothing like classic American cowboy fiction - except,
perhaps a ham radio event honoring one of the genre's masters. For those
details, we turn to Amateur Radio Newsline's Mike Askins, KE5CXP.
MIKE: When it comes to classic fiction, you can't get drama more western
than Zane Grey. The master novelist brought the romance of American cowboy
life to generations of readers, as he spun his novels, 26 of which are set,
at least partly, in Arizona. Perhaps his most famous is "Riders of the
Purple Sage," published in 1912. A different kind of western drama will
unfold starting Jan. 28 inside the now-historic Zane Grey Cabin, where he
lived and wrote in Payson, Arizona. Members of the Tonto Amateur Radio
Association will be on the HF bands, as Special Event Station K7Z, marking
the novelist's birthday. Hams will operate from the cabin itself on
Saturday, Jan. 28th and Tuesday, Jan. 31st, as well as their own QTHs.
Event organizer Bruce Sperka, AD7MM, said that his wife, Marilyn, KI7DLK,
is a volunteer at the Rim Country Museum next door to the cabin, and the
museum agreed to cosponsor the event. He said it was a natural to
incorporate Jan. 31, the author's birthday, into the activity, and that
Bruce Johnson, N7DDT, president of ham club, was excited that the event
could also raise radio's public profile.
Despite temperatures inside the cabin expected to reach as low as 30
degrees Fahrenheit this time of year, the club is prepared to give a
warm welcome to visitors. Who knows? What they see and hear may feel a
little like the same kind of high adventure of a Zane Grey cowboy novel,
radio style.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mike Askins, KE5CXP.
(TONTO AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION)
**
AN AUSSIE HAM BY ANY OTHER NAME....
JIM/ANCHOR: Happy Australia Day.....well, almost. Hams down under are in
for a good time, and Amateur Radio Newsline's Graham Kemp, VK4BB, has
details.
GRAHAM: So you think you know all your friends' call signs? Guess again.
On Thursday the 26th of January - Australia Day - all we Aussie radio
amateurs get to substitute our normal VK callsign prefix with the letters
AX. All of a sudden, ham radio operators Down Under will find they're more
popular than ever, since contacting an AX call sign is a big deal for many
operators who are also prefix collectors. The prefix privilege is being
granted automatically by the ACMA, following negotiations with the Wireless
Institute of Australia.
Of course, there's another reason Australia Day is so special, and it has
nothing to do with callsigns: the occasion commemorates the First Fleet's
arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788, and the creation of a European settlement
at Port Jackson. Expect to see national flags, and be sure to cover your
ears if you don't like fireworks - there'll be plenty of that kind of QRM
too.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp VK4BB.....soon to be AX4BB.
(WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA)
**
JIM/ANCHOR: Also, on a personal note, in Australia, we'd like to
congratulate the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club, located just north of
Sydney in Australia, on the anniversary in 2017 of their 60th year of
operation, and wish them success with their Hamfest on February 26th, at
Wyong race course, which remains the largest gathering of radio hams in
the Southern Hemisphere.
**
BREAK HERE:
Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K7MRG repeater
in Prescott, Arizona on Tuesday evenings.
