Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Dec 29 2017 09:48 am
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2096, for Friday, December 29, 2017
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2096, with a release date of
Friday, December 29, 2017, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Short wave service returns to part of
Australia. A West Virginia school ham club has a special role --
and get ready for Contest University! All this and more, as
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2096 comes your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART
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NEW 60 METER SHORT WAVE LAUNCHES in AUSTRALIA
PAUL/ANCHOR: We begin this week's report with word that 60 meter
short wave service is now operating in a part of Australia that
have been without short wave for almost a year. This is welcome
news to listeners, as we hear from John Williams, VK4JJW.
JOHN'S REPORT: At last, short wave radio station 4KZ is on the
air at 5055 kHz from Queensland, Australia. Signal reports are
coming in from New Zealand, and parts of North America. Al Kirton,
VK4FFKZ general manager of NQ Radio, reports that transmissions,
started on the 20th of December, and currently will be at half-power,
or 500 watts, until repairs can be made of one of the RF boards. The
station will then operate regularly at its 1 kW of power, using an
inverted V antenna at a site in Tropical North Queensland. Although
the 60 meter transmissions are intended for the listening audience
in the northern outback and the Cape York area, signal reports have
come in from as far away as New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand,
Canada's province of Alberta, and even Monterey, California in the
U.S.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation ended its short wave transmissions
to the northern outback in January.
If you're interested in listening for the signal, and want to receive
a 4KZ shortwave QSL card, be listening from 0500 to 2300 hours UTC,
and send your report to Al Kirton by writing to Al at nqradio dot com
dot au (
[email protected]) or to Radio 4KZ, P.O. Box 19, Innisfail,
Queensland 4860 Australia.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm John Williams, VK4JJW.
(WIA)
**
IRISH HAMS' TRIBUTE TO A DOOMED FLIGHT
PAUL/ANCHOR: In Ireland, a special event station is getting ready to
mark a particularly somber event. It was the biggest tragedy in the
country's aviation history, as we hear from Jeremy Boot, G4NJH.
JEREMY: Mystery still surrounds the deadly crash in 1968 of Aer Lingus
Flight 712, an event that came to be known as the Tuskar Rock tragedy.
The 61 people on board the Vickers Viscount 803 aircraft perished when
it crashed into the Irish Sea, making it the worst air disaster in
Irish civil aviation history.
Starting on the 22nd of January, and continuing through the 24th of
March - the fiftieth anniversary of the crash, Special Event Station
EI50AOM, will remember that flight from Cork, which was bound for
London's Heathrow Airport, when tragedy struck.
The amateur radio operators are devoting each day to a different
victim. The passengers and crew were from Sweden, the Netherlands,
the U.S., Switzerland, Britain, Belgium, and Ireland. According to
various news reports, only 14 bodies were ever found.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH.
(IRTS, QRZ)
**
NEW SCHOOL HAM CLUB IS ANYTHING BUT ACADEMIC
PAUL/ANCHOR: Amateur radio is all about communications, but as one
group of students in West Virginia is learning, it can mean so much
more. Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, explains.
NEIL: It's always exciting to hear about a new high school ham radio
club getting on the air. But this one had a little twist. In fact,
it took me a while to get in touch with this group, that has introduced
ham radio to Pocahontas County High School in Dunmore, West Virginia
because they have no cellular telephone service. It's not necessarily
by choice. The entire county is inside the United States National Quiet
Zone, near the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West
Virginia. So when students had the chance to talk to the rest of the
world on something other than a cable, they were more than interested.
I had a chance to speak with Rudy Marrujo, KD8WPG, about the visit to
the school from the Eight Rivers Ham Club.
RUDY: We want to show these kids, hey; Pocahontas County is not the
only place in the world. It's a big world. And, you know, when a child
talks to someone in London or Australia, imagine looking at the smile
between their ears. It's ear to ear!
NEIL: When the Eight Rivers Ham Club members visit the school, they are
teaching not only how to communicate with the outside world, but also
how to build the antennas and equipment to do so. And, they have a
limited amount of time available.
RUDY: [We have] two times a month that we can do it for an hour, each
class. We have to summarize everything that we can give to a student.
So, we make a major impact in one hour.
NEIL: An HF rig and some handhelds are already in a classroom at the
school, and all the students who pass the license exam will be given a
free handheld radio. Best of luck to yet another school, sharing the
love of ham radio with students, and in this case sharing an entire
world that otherwise might not be well-known. Reporting for Amateur
Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, in the New York suburb of West Islip, Long
Island, another high school group will soon know the same excitement
they're feeling in West Virginia. Students at West Islip High School
have just been assigned a call sign, and are awaiting approval of
their requested vanity call, WI2HS. Ben Piecora, KD2NOU, and teacher
Brian Buonomo, KD2FKP, the club trustee, are working together to help
move things forward. The weeks ahead will be spent setting up logbooks,
and other details, in anticipation of getting the new call sign, and,
of course, antennas, and radios. There's never been a ham club in the
school, said Ben, who has promised to keep Newsline updated. We can't
wait to hear what comes next in the new year for this new school club.
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