Southgate Amateur Radio Club News

Well known ham radio operator dies in fall from tower
WSAU reports 84-year-old Paul Bittner W0AIH fell 50 feet from his tower on Wednesday and was later found dead at the scene

QSO Today – Greg Latta – AA8V
In episode 33 of the QSO Today podcast, Dr. Greg Latta, AA8V, was described as a renaissance man, a master homebrewer who designs and builds the old tube rigs and fabricates the beautiful metal enclosures that encase them

ARRL Executive Committee updated on regulatory, governance issues
ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, chaired the ARRL Executive Committee (EC) meeting on October 20 in Bloomington, Minnesota

An SDR Cubesat on the cards
AMSAT SA has announced that parallel to its analogue Kletskous CubeSat, the group is working on a digital project featuring a Software defined transponder

Supporting fibre investment: unrestricted duct and pole access, and the BCMR
Companies laying high-speed fibre cables used by large businesses, mobile operators and broadband providers will have greater access to Openreach’s ducts and poles, under proposals set out by Ofcom

AMSAT announces senior leadership positions for 2018
The 2018 AMSAT Board of Director’s Meeting was held November 1-2, 2018 at the US Space and Rocket Center Marriott Hotel in Huntsville, Alabama. The following positions were announced during the meeting

WIA reports success regarding 40m broadcaster
WIA Director Aidan Mountford VK4APM gives this week’s board update which reports success regarding interference from Reach Beyond Australia on 7190 kHz

Live streaming of AMSAT Symposium
There will be a live video stream from the 2018 William A. Tynan W3XO Memorial Space Symposium on Saturday, Nov. 3 starting 1300 GMT (0800 CDT)

France: Draft decree and orders relating to amateur services
REF reports all associations that responded to the DGE public consultation and were present at June 22 meeting received draft texts from DGE on October 25, 2018

FT8: Saving Ham Radio or Killing It?
Al Williams WD5GNR writes on Hackaday about the popular digital mode FT8, “I think what we are seeing is a transformation of ham radio”

New CEO’s ambitions for ARRL
Newly elected ARRL CEO Howard Michel, WB2ITX, would like to see ARRL focus on the future of Amateur Radio and not become the redoubt of a particular generation of radio amateur or interest group

RSGB Spectrum Forum reports released
The RSGB has released the reports from the annual Spectrum Forum meeting held on October, 27

VK6WIA NewsWest
This is a busy edition where we attempt to focus on clubs with notices of upcoming activities by the Peel and Hills groups as well as a special call sign activation by the NewsWest team

Experience high-res science in first 8K footage from space
Fans of science in space now can experience fast-moving footage in even higher definition as NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) deliver the first 8K ultra high definition (UHD) video of astronauts living, working and conducting research from the International Space Station

FCC fines Amateur Radio licensee $25,000 for operating unlicensed FM station
ARRL reports in an FCC Enforcement Bureau case going back to early 2015, a Paterson, New Jersey, Amateur Radio licensee has been penalized in the amount of $25,000 for allegedly continuing to operate an unlicensed FM radio station

Foundations of Amateur Radio #178
Everything you wanted to know about amateur radio but were afraid to ask!

RAC welcomes Directors for 2019
Each year, the terms of office of roughly half of our Directors end – four in even numbered years and three in odd numbered years

DKARS Magazine October 2018
The DKARS (Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society) issues its own free PDF Magazine once every month. It contains articles written in English and Dutch

ARRL releases Oct. 20 Executive Committee minutes
The minutes of the ARRL Executive Committee (EC) meeting held October 20 in Bloomington, Minnesota have been published

Using Authentication in Amateur Radio
Authentication for Radio Amateurs and others wishing to protect their communications from hackers

Geomagnetic storm predicted this weekend
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring a large hole in the sun’s atmosphere, now directly facing Earth

This weekend: EANET Sprint Contest 2018
On November 4, from 08:00 to 12:00 UTC, it will be held the next edition of the ‘sprint contest’ version of the same name Award, devoted to the ‘Radio Clubs of the World’

DX News from the ARRL
The American Radio Relay League’s round-up of the forthcoming week’s DX activity on the amateur radio bands

Galway VHF Group Digital Projects to go Live this coming weekend
Following rigorous bench testing, the Galway VHF Group Digital Projects will be going live from their new site on the Western side of Galway City this weekend

Palmer students to use ham radio to contact ISS
WWLP TV News report on students at the Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School in Palmer, MA, who will use amateur radio to talk to the International Space Station

Video of Summits On the Air talk
A video of the talk on Summits On The Air (SOTA) given by Michael Sansom G0POT to the Swindon and District Amateur Radio Club is available on YouTube

Foundations of Amateur Radio gets a new home
With the increase in popularity of the ‘Foundations of Amateur Radio’ weekly podcast, it’s time to update the website and make it more accessible to mobile users

Build a Secret Radio Chat Device
An article in Raspberry Pi magazine MagPi by PJ Evans of Milton Keynes shows how you can build a 433 MHz radio chat device to send wireless messages without needing WiFi

FCC satellite related filings
For easier navigation of US FCC Satellite related filings Luke Rehmann has built an RSS feed of the FCC’s ELS and IBFS systems

Licence to supply radio transmitting equipment
New Zealand’s regulator, RSM, have issued the following statement regarding the import, supply or sale of radio transmitting equipment in New Zealand

Hackaday Superconference this weekend
The Hackaday Superconference is this weekend and it’s the greatest hardware con on the planet. Tickets are completely sold out, but you can still get in on the fun by watching the livestream and joining Supercon chat

Radio Amateurs ready and on standby to render emergency communications as South African fires rage
An intense heatwave and gale force winds in the Western Cape resulted in devastating run-away fires threatening the towns of George and Karatara in the Southern Cape Area since 24 October 2018

ARRL says manufacturers’ WPT-EV petition is premature
ARRL is opposing a Petition for Rulemaking by some vehicle manufacturers which could result in pollution of the precious radio spectrum by Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles (WPT-EV)

Radio ham’s book on India’s space program
A new book The Leapfroggers: An Insider’s Account of ISRO by radio amateur Ved Prakash Sandlas VU2VP (SK) tells the story of India’s success in the field of space science

BYLARA at Hamfest 2018
ICQ Amateur Radio Podcast’s Martin Butler M1MRB met members of BYLARA, the British Young Ladies Amateur Radio Association at the National Hamfest

AREDN: Mossel Bay Mesh Network assist in search for 2 people missing in fire-ravaged area of South Africa
The Amateur Radio AREDN JOC received a written request on 30 October 2018  at 09h10 SAST to assist a frantic daughter in the search for her parents (Anton and Irana Murry)  who recently moved from Gauteng to Karatara

Kingdom of Bhutan to be QRV for another week
While the A5A CQWW team is leaving today (Tuesday), the station will remain QRV as A52BH until Monday next week. The activity will utilize the permanent A5A set-up with multiple beams plus verticals on 160M and 80M.

ARISS receives Yasme Foundation grant
The Board of Directors of The Yasme Foundation announces that it has made a significant grant to ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), in support of the Critical Infrastructure Fund

NASA spacecraft makes record close approach to the Sun
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the sun than any other spacecraft in history

RaDAR Challenge on 3 November
The last South African RaDAR Challenge for 2018 takes place from 00:00 UTC to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 3 November 2018

Propagation Report from Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there are no sunspots visible

OP prefix for Belgian radio amateurs in November
The UBA reports radio amateurs in Belgium can use the OPprefix during November as part of the 100th anniversary of WWI commemorations

WRC-19: 5 GHz and the impact on amateur radio
SARL News say the next World Radio Conference will take place in the last quarter of 2019, and there are a number of agenda items that may impact amateur radio

Ham College 46
Ham College episode 46 is now available for download.
General Amateur Radio Exam part 17. Solar Propagation Effects, Delta Loop and Log Periodic Antennas

2018 AMSAT Space Symposium named in honor of Bill Tynan, W3XO
AMSAT has announced that the 2018 AMSAT-NA 36th Annual Space Symposium and General Meeting has been named in honor of Bill Tynan, W3XO

VHF/UHF workshop fired up new enthusiasm for beacons
SARL News reports that Brian Jacobs, ZS6YZ presented a paper entitled Beacon Coordination to gain maximum benefit. In his paper, he highlighted the need for setting up a proper coordinated beacon system which should include an automated monitoring system much like the HF noise floor monitoring system which automatically uploads data to a central server

8 meter band operation
Phil EI9KP (ON4TA) is back in Ireland for the next few weeks.
Following tests with Dominic EI9JS, he is now fully QRV on the 40 MHz 8 meter band with a converted FT 857 in CW, SSB and FM

What’s my WAI Square?
During the recent Irish 40-metre Counties Contest, a number of contesters were asked which Worked All Ireland square they were operating in, which led to some enquiries about the WAI Awards Scheme

Satellite operation from the RMS Queen Mary
A day of satellite operating from a deck on the RMS Queen Mary, docked at Long Beach in southern California, is slated for December 15

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