Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Dec 23 2021 08:43 pm
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2304, for Friday, December 24th, 2021
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2304 with a release date of Friday,
December 24th, 2021, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. A first-time activation of a South Pacific Island.
A solar probe 'touches' the sun -- and Newsline's annual Christmas card to
our listeners. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number
2304 comes your way right now.
***
BILLBOARD CART
**
NEW IOTA ACTIVATED BY TEAM FROM INDIA
DON/ANCHOR: We begin this week's report with a group of adventurous
DXpeditioners. They have succeeded in activating a new Island on the Air in
the South Pacific, in a quest worthy of the 19th century science fiction
masterwork, "Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne. Here's Graham Kemp, VK4BB.
GRAHAM: It is not science fiction, but radio fact, that the Manic Monkeys
team of radio operators made a 600 kilometre journey this month from
Bangalore, India to Sao Jorge Island, designated AS-177 by IOTA, activating
the remote island for the first time. They had gone in search of the
fictional Lincoln Island that appears in Jules Verne's classic novels but
the adventuresome hams with the callsign AT7SJ were also in search of QSOs.
Between December 3rd and December 6th, they logged 1,600 such contacts on
SSB, CW and FT-8, while camped in difficult terrain, according to team
leader Madhu Prasad, VU3NPI. Madhu told Newsline of other discoveries:
[quote] "The island had mysterious propagation conditions: the signals
would go up and down like the tide and mysteriously close abruptly on all
bands with S9 noise." [endquote]
Madhu said that the team had been landlocked in India for two years by the
pandemic and were still grieving the loss of the team's Elmer, Dev, VU2DEV,
to cardiac arrest. Now they can proudly add this uninhabited, thickly
forested, island to their earlier activations of St. Mary's Island AS-096
and Danushkodi Island AS-173.
Madhu told Newsline that the team unfortunately did not find mysterious
Lincoln Island, nor did they locate the Aquaphone, the fictional wireless
device used by Jules Verne's protagonist, Capt. Nemo. They're leaving that
quest - and Lincoln Island - for 2022.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB.
(MADHU PRASAD, VU3NPI)
**
NASA SOLAR PROBE 'TOUCHES' THE SUN
DON/ANCHOR: With Solar Cycle 25 upon us, who isn't even a little bit
obsessed with the sun? So this news from NASA is well-timed, as we hear
from Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
NEIL: NASA has announced a milestone moment in the life of the Parker Solar
Probe: this year it reached the corona of the sun, a move into the solar
atmosphere that is expected to yield more - and more detailed - insights
into space weather. The US space agency is commenting only now on the
achievement, which happened last spring, three years after the probe's
launch, following the publication of a recent paper in the Physical Review
Letter, which discussed the latest chapter of the Parker probe's journey.
NASA said the probe's entry into the super-hot corona meant it was [quote]
"flying into the eye of a storm." [endquote] Once there, it studied solar
wind and examined magnetic patterns known as "switchbacks" which have their
origins on the surface of the sun itself.
The paper's lead author, Justin Kasper, was quoted by National Public
Radio, as saying that entry into the corona lasted for several hours and
was an expected and much-anticipated occurrence. The probe, which is built
to tolerate more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is expected to re-enter the
corona in January of 2022.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
(NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, SPACE.COM)
**
OPEN SOURCE WORKSHOP AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE
DON/ANCHOR: YouTube once again provides an opportunity for those who missed
an amateur radio event. This one's on Open Source CubeSats. Here's Ed
Durrant, DD5LP.
ED: If you missed a chance to attend the Open Source CubeSat Workshop held
virtually on December 9th and 10th, you can still view the two days of
presentations by visiting the Libre Space Foundation Channel on YouTube.
This virtual workshop held on Zoom was its fifth iteration since its launch
four years ago in Germany.
The opening remarks by Artur Scholz, DO4ALS, of the Open Source CubeSat
Workshop Committee, stressed the importance of open-source CubeSats as a
means of conducting small space missions. Developers and mission operators
attended the online sessions to collaborate, compare notes and build
community. As with previous sessions, attendees participated as members of
research institutes, businesses, learning institutes or as individuals.
See the link to the two days of presentations in the text version of this
week's script at arnewsline.org
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Ed Durrant, DD5LP.
[FOR PRINT: DO NOT READ,
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCzrYL9QmZiR7vmiQBZYV9E2WGyDmiC3m]
(AMSAT, YOUTUBE)
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (432:1/112)
