Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jun 22 2018 08:42 am
FINAL PREPARATION FOR 'WORLD CUP RADIO' AT WRTC
NEIL/ANCHOR: Calling all sports fans! Er....we mean radio contesting
fans. If you're following the final weeks until the World Radiosport
Team Championship, our good sport, Ed Durrant, DD5LP, is here to help
you make sense of it.
ED: They're all preparing, they're all training, now they're all
packing!
From all parts of the world, the contestants for WRTC 2018 in Germany
are getting ready to come to Wittenberg, for the Amateur Radio World Cup!
It's been a hard-fought effort over the last few years to qualify, by
being at the top of major contest tables, but now it's less than 4 weeks
until they can "prove their metal", competing against the best in the
world on a level playing field.
Amateur radio again shows no respect for politics with two-person teams,
not only from single countries, but across countries who were at one time,
enemies. Russians working alongside Americans, parts of the old Yugoslavia
working together on the radio, old feelings lost in the magic of radio
competition.
There are young and old, and some in between. From New Zealand, there is
a father-and-daughter team, there's three youth teams, including one with
a U.S. and a Chilean ham, one with a Ukrainian and Romanian ham, and one
with a Hungarian and a German ham. Of course, there are the well-known
"old hands" taking part as well.
Unfortunately, this time no contestants qualified from the UK or
Australia. Perhaps they'll have to make do with winning the Soccer World
Cup final, which takes place on the same day as the WRTC!
For a full list of contestants, and their biographies, go to WRTC2018
(dot) DE, and click on "competition", followed by "participants."
One thing is for sure, no matter who wins on July 15th, all competitors,
helpers, and visitors, are looking forward to having a great time
together, no matter what else is happening in the world!
STOP PRESS - this just in: Using two 300 Kilowatt transmitters from
Europe Radio DARC will broadcast just before the start of the
competition, a WRTC special program across Europe on 6,070 kHz, and to
North America on 13,860 kHz on Saturday, the 14th, at 1100 UTC for an
hour.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, this has been Ed Durrant, DD5LP.
**
SILENT KEY: KEYER-CHIP PIONEER JACK CURTIS K6KU
NEIL/ANCHOR: CW enthusiasts are no stranger to the name Jack Curtis,
or his eponymous Curtis Morse Keyer Chip. The man who gave hams a new
way to key Morse Code, has become a Silent Key. Here's Andy Morrison,
K9AWM, with more.
ANDY: The radio amateur who revolutionized CW keyers, with the use of an
IC chip, has become a Silent Key. Jack Curtis, K6KU - formerly W3NSJ -
was the father of the Curtis Morse Keyer chip, reshaping the way keying
could be done with the use of memory. His first chip, known as the 8043,
was released in 1973, followed by a series of others, ending with a
20-pin chip in 1986. The 20-pin chip incorporated A or B iambic modes,
and output for a speed meter.
His chips found their way from commercial keyers into commercial amateur
rigs, and were popular in homebrew projects as well. The Pennsylvania
native, an electrical engineer, worked for Sperry Rand, and later
Corning Glass, after serving in the Navy. His side business, Curtis
Electro Devices, was founded to market his Morse Code iambic keyer, and
later provided memory chips for the emerging cellular industry. The
company closed in 2000.
At the time of his death on June 4, he was a resident of Granite Bay,
California. Jack Curtis was 87.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Andy Morrison, K9AWM.
(ARRL)
**
DISASTER DRILL, BUT WHERE ARE ALL THE HAMS?
NEIL/ANCHOR: What if someone held a disaster drill, and nobody came?
Well, it didn't happen that way exactly in India recently, but the
turnout among amateurs turned out to be a challenge. Here's Jeremy Boot,
G4NJH, with details.
JEREMY: A mock disaster drill held in Uttar Pradesh, India, by the
National Disaster Management Authority, turned out to have one challenge
that was real: finding amateur radio operators. The exercise in Lucknow
focused on the state's 23 flood-prone districts. It relied on the
readiness of the state police, along with the National Disaster Response
Force. On the website of the Amateur Radio Club of Lucknow, Pandit,
VU2DCT, wrote that he turned out to be the sole amateur taking part in
the exercise. It appears that no hams reside in any of the districts
where the drill was scheduled.
Pandit, who is secretary of the ham radio club, wrote that he was able
to provide his fellow participants with an oral presentation on amateur
radio. He posted a hopeful observation too, that most of the dignitaries
present at the day's exercise showed an interest in what ham radio can do.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH.
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