Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jul 08 2022 10:28 am
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2332 for Friday July 8, 2022
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2332 with a release date of Friday,
July 8, 2022 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. The amateur radio world loses two prominent
innovators in India. The Hawaiian islands prep for a disaster drill --
and commercial CW is revived for one special night. All this and more, as
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2332 comes your way right now.
**
BILLBOARD CART
**
HAM KNOWN AS 'INDIAN MARCONI' BECOMES SILENT KEY
DON/ANCHOR: We begin this week's newscast reporting on two major losses
in the amateur radio community in India. These are losses that are being
felt around the world as well. The first Silent Key is the man known to
many as "The Indian Marconi." Graham Kemp, VK4BB, tells us about his
life.
GRAHAM: Rama Mohan Rao, VU2RM, was a radio pioneer in India, celebrated
for the many first throughout his long life. According to an announcement
by the Institute of Amateur Radio in Kerala, the retired communications
engineer became a Silent Key on June 29th following cardiac arrest while
hospitalised with a lung infection. The institute recalled that Rama
Mohan Rao was one of a handful of amateurs to hold a licence in India's
earliest days of amateur radio. Although he was known for a wide array of
homebrew equipment including many used in satellite communications, hams
remember him best as the first Indian amateur to build a SSB tranceiver
that put affordable equipment in the hands of those unable to pay for
more expensive rigs. The transceiver, the RM96, was built using locally
available components. Homebrew was his calling and according to his QRZ
page, he was one of the first hams to work the OSCAR satellites using all
homebrew equipment.
A fan of 6-metre operation, he was the first Indian amateur to operate on
the band in 1959. He had also been an adventurous DXpeditioner and his
travels took him to the Andaman Islands in 1960 as part of the first
DXpeition there, where the team used all homebrew equipment and antennas.
The institute in Kerala recalled the nickname given him: "The Indian
Marconi."
Rama Mohan Rao was 91.
(QRZ.COM, INSTITUTE OF AMATEUR RADIO IN KERALA)
**
SILENT KEY: SATELLITE INNOVATOR GURUDATTA PANDA VU3GDP
DON/ANCHOR: A tragic accident has claimed the life of a young innovator
in India, known for his work with satellite communications. We hear more
from Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF.
JIM: Gurudatta Panda, VU3GDP, an engineer who helped launch India into a
prominent status in space communications, has become a Silent Key.
According to several reports, Gurudatta was killed in a tragic traffic
accident on June 26th. The young engineer was best known for constructing
small satellites, many of which were deployed to assist with communications
during natural disasters. Most notable was the ExseedSat CubeSat, created
with an eight-member development team that included cofounder Ashhar
Farhan, VU2ESE, in Hyderabad, India. The 10-centimetre satellite had an
APRS digipeater and an amateur radio FM transponder and was India's first
private satellite, launched in December 2018 by the US-based SpaceX
company. AMSAT designated it VO-96.
Gurudatta also advocated young people's involvement in amateur radio.
Active in disaster communications and disaster drills, Gurudatta assisted
with many major operations including the 2013 cyclone in the Ganjam
district in India.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF.
(FACEBOOK, ARRL, AMSAT-UK)
**
EXPERIMENTAL TRANSCEIVER NEEDS NO BATTERIES
DON/ANCHOR: A laboratory in Tokyo is the scene of some innovative work on
a transceiver that doesn't rely on batteries. Kent Peterson, KC0DGY,
brings us the details.
KENT: Researchers in Japan are working on the prototype of a transceiver
that is able to receive power wirelessly at the same time it sends and
receives data, according to a report in the IEEE Spectrum.
Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology believe the 64-element
millimeter-wave-band phased-array transceiver could become the first of
its kind that no longer is dependent on cables, plugs or batteries.
The IEEE Spectrum article said Atsushi Shirane delivered the research
results in June at an IEEE symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii. He said that
the transceiver, which has a 64-element phased array of antennas on its
front side, is capable of short transmission distances and is able to
receive power from a fixed direction. It also contains a circuit board on
the back where four RF integrated circuit chips are wired into one of
four quadrants containing the antennas.
Shirane said the initial goal is for the transceiver to be used in 5G
service. He told the Spectrum [quote] "We aim to expand the technology as
a batteryless 5G relay transceiver to extend the service area coverage of
millimeter-wave 5G communications." [endquote] He said after DC power
generation is increased, scientists hope to find a way for the
transceiver to be used with battery-free devices tied to the Internet of
Things.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson, KC0DGY.
(FROM IEEE SPECTRUM)
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (432:1/112)
