Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Nov 09 2018 08:31 am
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2141 for Friday, November 9 2018
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2141, with a release date
of Friday, November 9, 2018, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. A new crew preps for launch to the
International Space Station. The FCC changes its online
registration system -- and a Montana repeater looks to make
connections. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline
Report 2141, comes your way right now.
**
BILLBOARD CART
**
NEW CREW MEMBERS PREP FOR LAUNCH TO ISS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We begin this week's newscast with an update
on a recent story about the prospect of an unmanned International
Space Station. That's not going to happen after all: Russian space
officials announced this month that three new crew members are
scheduled to launch on December 3rd atop a Soyuz rocket, bringing
cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, NASA's Anne McClain, and Canada's
David Saint-Jacques, KG5FYI, to the space station.
Concerns were raised on October about the immediate future of having
a crew aboard the ISS - and Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station - after launch issues with a Soyuz spacecraft on October 11th
forced an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.
The present crew members on board the ISS are scheduled to return to
Earth next month. ARISS is waiting on further developments.
(SPACE.COM)
**
REMEMBERING PAUL BITTNER W0AIH
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Following his fatal fall from a tower at his antenna
farm, friends have been remembering Paul Bittner, W0AIH. Newsline
thought our listeners might want to hear a little more about a ham
who, even in his 80s, was unstoppable in his enthusiasm and his
devotion to the hobby. Here's Kent Peterson, KC0DGY.
KENT: Driving on the interstate freeway just outside Eau Claire,
Wisconsin, it's hard not to miss a collection of ham antennas covering
a 20-acre patch of farmland. What IS hard to be missing now, however,
is the ham who built that iconic antenna farm - noted contester and
retired Lutheran minister Paul Bittner, W0AIH. As Newsline reported
last week, Paul suffered a fatal fall from a tower he was working on,
on Oct. 31 at the superstation known as The Farm.
Bittner's son-in-law Paul Husby, W0UC, said the farm was a beloved
project that just grew to be an entity that - like its creator himself -
was well-known in ham radio for the way it grew, and reached out to
offer seemingly boundless possibilities.
PAUL HUSBY: The farm evolved in a rather strange way, it doesn't have
a great master plan. Perhaps it's not the most well-designed place,
because it just sort of evolved as towers and equipment became
available.
KENT: A regular operator at the farm is Allan Schlaugat, N9ISN.
ALLAN SCHLAUGAT: We can never say it was finished, he was always
climbing the towers and improving things, adding antennas, changing
antennas, always trying to improve things.
HUSBY: Started building towers in 1982. All the towers out there are
things that Paul scrounged over the years. He'd take down towers for
whenever he had the opportunity to get his hands on something. He
would collect towers for the cost of what it takes them down.
KENT: Schlaugat once asked Paul how many antennas are at the farm.
SCHLAUGAT: Do you actually know how many towers are there? And he goes,
"Oh I don't know, I think maybe 45 towers, and 25 poles, but I lost
count about ten years ago." If there was something he would throw
another tower up, and put another antenna up. Over the years, he just
lost count, so the ballpark we say 45 and 25 and we'll call it good.
KENT: Schlaugat says the loss of Bittner is great.
SCHLAUGAT: He left a hole in the entire ham radio community. We're
talking all across the country, or all across the world. Be it
contesting, DX and socially. It's very very tough.
HUSBY: His family has always been very interested in his activities
all these years. They don't really understand what the radio is all
about, but they know he got an awful lot of fun out of it, and
everyone is glad he died working on something he really loved.
KENT: Paul Bittner, W0AIH, is survived by his wife Mary, WB0PXM,
four daughters, six grandchildren - and all those who worked or
visited the farm, or perhaps just admired it from afar.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson, KC0DGY.
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