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Letters Vets ham operators recall the URC4 radio Planet Analog The promise of plugin hybrids Less pollution more energy Seattle Post Intelligencer
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EE TIMES NETWORK Online Editions EE TIMES EE TIMES ASIA EE TIMES CHINA EE TIMES FRANCE EE TIMES GERMANY EE TIMES INDIA EE TIMES JAPAN EE TIMES KOREA EE TIMES TAIWAN EE TIMES UK EE TIMES EUROPE ANALOG EUROPE INDUSTRIAL EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE DL EUROPE POWER DL EUROPE Web Sites Audio DesignLine Automotive DesignLine Career Center CommsDesign Microwave Engineering Deepchip.com Design Digital Home DesignLine DSP DesignLine EDA DesignLine Embedded.com Elektronik i Norden Green SupplyLine Industrial Control DesignLine Planet Analog Mobile Handset DesignLine Network Systems DesignLine Power Management DesignLine Programmable Logic DesignLine RF DesignLine RFID World Techonline Video Imaging DesignLine Wireless Net DesignLine ELECTRONICS GROUP SITES NEW SpecSearch eeProductCenter Electronics Supply Conferences and Events Electronics Supply Electronics Express Webinars December Letters Vets ham operators recall the URC radio EE Times December AM EST Many EE Times readers responded to David Carey s analysis of the U.S. military s RT A URC radio which was widely used during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Here s a sample Reader Wilbert Foerster remembers the URC as an electronic wonder. Paul Alexander used the URC as a ham radio. Reader Bill Pileggi recalls a hamfest. Edwin Pettis provides more URC details Dennis McFayden corrects a mistake Reader Alan Tasker fills in some more gaps. Reader Wilbert Foerster remembers the URC as an electronic wonder. Dear Mr. Carey I was heartened to read your story. The RT A URC was the state of the art of electronic wonder based on how much power it could put out for its size and the battery pack that was used with it. In those days battery converters used to get higher voltage were usually vibrators or dynamotors a motor generator type of device . At the end of my active service as a radio radar technician the motor alternator was coming in as an upgrade. My contact with this particular radio was periodic we would check the units for operation physical condition condition of the battery pack by the way the battery pack included two sets of batteries sealed in a case the same size as the RT A . The metal strap laying on the top cover in your article would clamp it to the transceiver. Each set of batteries were isolated one was for filament voltage and the other for plate voltage. I m surprised that I can remember that much. It is surprising that the electronics of that day worked so well when you think of the cellphone of today that transmits more information then any of the military airborne or ground radios. You might also be intrigued by the CRT Gibson Girl emergency transmitter it used a crank operated generator to create the power to send an SOS and it also had a hydrogen generator to fill a balloon to lift the long wire antenna to send out the emergency signal. It was said that its signal could be heard up to a thousand miles away. Maybe this was just propaganda to convince the flight crew that there would be help coming. Thank you for lifting the hood on this unit. It sure brought back some great memories from fifty years ago. Wilbert Foerster Kiel Wis. Back to top Paul Alexander used the URC as a ham radio Dear David I just saw your EE Times article on the URC distress radio. I had one of these as a kid while just starting out as a ham radio operator. I converted mine to operate on meter ham radio frequencies MHz by replacing the crystal and retuning the receiver. All the power for the radio was supplied by a single battery pack that was made for this unit. Back in the vacuum tube days it was common to find batteries that would combine all the voltages needed for a particular type of radio into a single unit. Batteries capable of supplying or volts were quite common. Even volt packs were commonly used by photographers for powering portable photoflash units. Thanks for the article it was very enjoyable Paul Alexander Senior Reliability Engineer Philips Home Healthcare Solutions Monroeville Pa. Back to top Reader Bill Pileggi recalls a hamfest. Dear David Imagine my surprise at seeing the URC in the Dec. issue of EE Times I know the radio well. The radio is quite common on the electronics ham radio surplus market. The most common use was converting the radio to cover the amateur radio frequencies between MHz. and MHz. I purchased a large carton filled with them in the very early s for at a hamfest . The receiver is easily tunable between MHz. I used one unit as a receiver at a job located in an industrial park inside an airport. I tuned it to the tower frequency. As the receiver is quite broad little selectivity transmissions on nearby frequencies were also heard. I considered this a bonus The pencil diameter tubes are indeed called sub minature or pencil tubes. The transmitter crystal is military type CR U. This is a series resonant third or fifth overtone type. I have a few spares if your unit is missing it s crystal. The receiver detector is regenerative and quite stable . This means the receiver is quite sensitive microvolt range but broad as a barn door see above comment . The yellow inductors are commonly broken. The plastic is quite fragile. Most of the units you see from the past years have broken coils. Despite the broken coil forms if the coils themselves haven t been mangled the receiver will still likely work. The radios were considered nearly disposable so they were cranked out by the thousands. Inverter power source No. They were powered from a dry cell battery pack attached to longish rubber covered cable. The pack itself was light and relatively small as the current consumed by the tubes was in the milliamp range. The filament consumption was quite a different matter. Dry cell packs have other advantages longish shelf life no toxic materials to speak off and even if they have sustained significant physical damage like a bullet hole they ll likely still work. State of the art Only if they d been manufactured during World War II. By or so the circuitry and assembly technique was quite conventional. For reference compare to the PRC or PRC portable radios which also use subminiature tubes and were first deployed during the Korean war. By the late s and early s the URC arrived a hybrid design using transistors and tubes was in service. Smaller and much lighter but still using an external dry cell battery pack. Today the URC has no practical use except to collectors of military radios and restorers. Ahhhh the smell of MFP military fungus protection in the morning it smells like victory or at least an old time hamfest . This is one of our collector mottos. Thanks for your report. Bill Pileggi KA AIS Abington Pa. Back to top Edwin Pettis provides more URC details. Dear David I enjoyed your article on this classic. I can clear up a few things about it V V V and V are tubes with earlier production units using the CK from Raytheon. V and V were V was a E and V was a common commercial battery operated radio tube the Q Madison was a private label a supplier or the manufacturer of this set . The A battery was the filament supply a single cell . volt battery filaments of these tubes were designed to run from a wide range voltage supply . The B battery was supplied by a high voltage battery common back in those days. The B voltage is listed as volts on the schematic making the nominal battery voltage approximately volts when brand new. I ve misplaced my Allied catalog or I could tell you which battery it was. The battery pack probably added almost as much weight as the radio since its case was also likely to be similar to the radio s. LS was a standard cone speaker with a high value coil impedance. I have seen them with values of ohms or higher but today I rarely see one higher than ohms and those aren t too common. Edwin G. Pettis Pettis Engineering Grand Junction Colo. Back to top Dennis McFayden corrects a mistake. Dear David I enjoyed your report on this device. You did make one big mistake. The battery supply did not have an inverter. For the high voltage plate supply B batteries were used. You might take a look at some of the so called portable radios used in WW . As a kid I remember something called a TBY. This was a man pack radio. The high voltage was derived from the equivalent of an inverter but was really a vibrator transformer and rectifier combination. All of the supply power came from a rechargeable wet cell. This was a very interesting radio since all of the tubes were acorns. My dad acquired a couple of these radios. I enjoyed investigating the construction and modification to the ham radio bands. Dennis McFayden Back to top Reader Alan Tasker fills in some more gaps. Dear David A couple of points. The mercury battery used cells in a series for the B voltage. Negative went to ground via a small value resistor bypassed so as to develop a negative bias for the grids. . V for the filaments was developed by many small cells in parallel. Unfortunately the first to fail drained all the others really quickly. Today s lithium is so much better. As a Boy Scout during that era I visited Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire. I asked a flyboy what he thought of the rescue sets. He said Not very much. It seems that the jerk of the parachute opening put such a stress on the vest pockets holding the radio and mercury battery that they ripped right through the vest and kept right on going. Alan Tasker Back to top Related Products Vishay rolls out low profile high current IHLP inductor HB LED driver supports green lighting designs Step down controller line provides input voltage range up to V Dual digital pulsers use active clamping to enhance ultrasound imaging High end graphics board from Nvidia boasts GB frame memory eeProductCenter EE Times TechCareers Search Jobs Enter Keyword s Function Engineering Arch. Information Tech. State Post Your Resume Employers Area Most Recent Posts Agilent Technologies seeking Manufacturing Technician in Chandler AR ITT seeking Senior Staff Engineer Systems in Fort Wayne IN ITT seeking Staff Engr Systems Architect in Fort Wayne IN D. E. Shaw seeking ASIC Design in New York NY Tyco Electronics seeking S W System Engineer IV in Lowell MA More career related news resources and job postings for technology professionals Sponsor Links All materials on this site Copyright TechInsights a Division of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions Privacy Statement Your California Privacy Rights We also heard fro the Greensboro North Caolina ARS W GSO the Tampa Florida ARC t he Reading PA ARC W BN K OX the Antelope Valley ARC in Lancaster and the Conejo Valley ARC based in Thousand Oaks California who passed the hat on our behalf at their holiday party. During this season of giving and thanks we at Newsline are thankful of our listeners who give. Give to keep these up to the minute newscasts on the air. We ve made it easy for you to do so through PayPal at our website arnewsline.org. Or you can help directly at our address which will be given at the end of this newscast. Either way you will help continue a year tradition of getting you the news of Amateur Radio first. I m Andy Jarema N TCQ and the very best of holidays to you. Thank you Andy. Now Amateur Radio Newsline report number with a release date of Friday December th to follow in . The following is a Q S T. The ARRL Antenna Defense Fund donates to help a California ham in his suit against a the city of Palmdale Switzerland gives it hams access to meters South Africa to host I A R U Region One conference go Q R P with a tree and a musical trip to a rare DXpedition spot highlight Amateur Radio Newsline report number coming your way right now. RADIO LAW ARRL ANTENNA DEFENE FUND MAKES DONATION TO WB X LAWSUIT The ARRL s Amateur Radio Legal Defense and Assistance Committee has voted to contribute toward the costs of a lawsuit against the City of Palmdale California. This after the city forces a ham to take down his antenna after issuing a permit for him to put it up. Amateur Radio Newsline s Bruce Tennant K PZW has been following this case and has the latest The suit against the city of Palmdale was filed by ARRL Volunteer Counsel Len Shaffer WA QHD on behalf of Alec Zubarau WB X. Zubaru who lives in the city located about miles north east of Los Angeles was forced by to remove an antenna tower erected under a previously issued and valid building permit. The permit revocation followed complaints of radio frequency interference by some of Alec s neighbors. Those complaints were never substantiated and in any case are a matter of federal preemption and not within the jurisdiction of the city. Over had already been contributed by clubs and their members from throughout the ARRL s Southwestern Division. This contribution from the League managed Antenna Defense Fund is meant to further help defray the expenses of preparing for the February court date. Even with attorney Len Shaffer performing the legal work free of charge just compiling the record to present in court can be costly. The Chairman of the ARRL Defense Committee is Jay Bellows K QB. Bellows noted that although the case has not yet reached the appellate level the egregious nature of Palmdale s actions including ordering removal of a previously approved antenna tower the potential impact on a large number of amateurs and the existence of substantial local financial support from the ham community were significant factors in the Committee s decision to provide support for this case. Meantime it appears as if Palmdale is trying to play a political get even game with its local ham radio community over the Zubaru matter. Shortly after issuing the WB X permit revocation order the City of Palmdale began drafting an amended antenna ordinance. One that places severe restrictions on all Amateur Radio antennas. This includes a height limit of only one inch above a buildings roof. The draft was released just before Thanksgiving and a hearing was scheduled for December th. At the request of ARRL Vice Director Marty Woll N VI who attended the Palmdale Planning Commission meeting along with about a dozen local hams and supporters ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay W KD wrote a lengthy letter to the City Attorney pointing out numerous flaws in the proposed ordinance. Imlay s letter also explained why many of its provisions are unenforceable due to federal and state preemption. Thanks to help from Keith Hoyt K GXO Eugene Humphreys KG SLC and others in the Antelope Valley Amateur Radio Club Woll has an opportunity to meet with management of the Palmdale Public Safety Department which is supportive of hams. He and Hoyt are also scheduled to meet with the Planning Department and Assistant City Attorney in early January. Unfortunately the restrictive nature of the proposed ordinance has made it a hot topic on ham radio Internet chat sites. Much of the information appears to be hearsay. Some of it is simply opinions that others consider to be fact even though many of the posters live thousands of miles away and really have no idea of what the situation is. Obviously they can have no idea of the organized effort that local hams in concert with ARRL officials are working on to bring the matter to a positive conclusion for the hams of Palmdale. As such far better way for those outside of the region to show support for the Palmdale ham radio community is to make a donation to the W BX Defense Support Fund. Checks should be made payable to Leonard J. Shaffer Esq. P.O. Box Tarzana CA . Make certain to include the words WB X Defense Fund on the memo line. For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Bruce Tennant K PZW in Los Angeles. If we at Newsline may be permitted to express an editorial comment. With local hams along with ARRL division and national representatives devoting considerable time and resources toward resolving the issue any direct intervention by outsiders can only put Palmdale into a position where politically it cannot back away from its hard line stand. If that happens it could very easily force the Palmdale ham radio community to spend thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in litigation fees fighting the matter in the federal courts. And that s the last thing the hams of Palmdale want to have happen. Please respect their wishes as you would want them to respect your. End of editorial. ARNewsline from information supplied by ARRL Southwestern Division RADIO LAW SAN DIEGO TOWER HEIGHT ISSUE Still in California the City of San Diego has also proposed a modification of its antenna zoning rules. Up to now ham antennas have not been subject to the height restrictions applicable to buildings and other structures. Under the modification however those restrictions will apply unless the amateur obtains a time consuming and cost prohibitive Process Three Site Development Permit. A Three Site Development Permit requires very specific site plans engineering studies public hearings and perhaps hiring a land use attorney. And after all of this an applicant may be denied the request for a height increase. Attorney Larry Serra N NC San Diego DX Club President Glenn Rattmann K NA Section Manager Steve Early AD VI and others are staying on top of this proposal which has a short comment deadline of January . The San Diego ham community has also engaged the services of a prominent local land use attorney to prepare and file a comment on their behalf. Also ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay W KD is preparing a formal League response to the City. More on both of these issues in future Amateur Radio Newsline reports. ARNewsline from information supplied by ARRL Southwestern Division RESTRUCTURING SWITZERLAND ALLOCATES METERS TO HAM RADIO ON JANUARY Some good news for hams in Switzerland. Swiss telecommunications authorities will allocate the MHz band to amateur radio on a secondary basis beginning January . Swiss and foreign CEPT class licensees will be permitted to transmit with up to watts PEP on to MHz without any antenna restrictions. The one caveat is that primary users may not be disturbed. This includes some TV stations active on the VHF band I in Northern Italy. Southgate WORLDBEAT SOUTH AFRICA TO HOST IARU REGION CONFERENCE Sun City in South Africa will host the next IARU Region Conference in . The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club website reports that the IARU Region Conference meeting in Cavtat Croatia held a ballot to choose the venue for . Of the votes cast there were to Sun City to Malaga and votes to Hatfield. According to the DARC s website. newly elected secretary Dennis Green ZS BS was visibly surprised. He s quoted as saying that the delegates would be welcome in South Africa. IARU Southgate Wishing you a most joyous holiday season from Auckland New Zealand and Los Angeles California we are the Amateur Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world including the Peace River Repeater Association system serving Punta Gorda Florida. KIDS IN THE NEWS YACHT RECRUITS ITS FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS A contest club for youngsters has its first members overseas. Rebecca Bruce has the details The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team better known by the acronym yacht has invited to young South African amateurs to join their group. year old Mitchell Mynhard ZU M and his year old sister Melinda ZU MM will be the groups first international members. The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team was founded by Ed Engleman KG CX of Memoniee Michigan. Its purpose is to generate interest in contesting among younger hams and to foster a greater appreciation of the role that younger license holders play in the overall hobby of amateur radio. For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Rebecca Bruce in Los Angeles. More information on The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team is at the groups website. Its on line at www.wd dx.com yacht.htm YACHT HAM HAPPENINGS ARMAD RECEIVES SPECIAL FLAG The sponsor of Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day better known as ARMAD has received a flag that flew over Camp Fallujah Iraq by U.S. Marines and other United States service members. The December th delivery of the flag to ARMAD though its founder Emory McClendon KB IBW was made possible by Mary Ellen Wooten of the organization From Us To You. This is a military support group that sends packages to our Troops that are deployed. ARMAD has worked with From Us To You and the Albamarle Amateur Radio Club over the past few years on several projects. Among its involvement it has set up a live station at one of their events using amateur radio. This so that U.S. troops could hear the voices of Americans expressing support for them. You can learn more about From Us To You on the Web at www dot fromustoyou dot us. More information regarding ARMAD at www.armad.net. ARMAD RESCUE RADIO HAMS ASSIST DURING NORTHEAST ICE STORM Ham radio was called out the evening of Thursday December th into Friday December th. This as a major ice storm accompanied by freezing rains hit the New England states. Called into action were ARES RACES SKYWARN and MARS. All four groups responded to calls for assistance from served agencies and then participated in the recovery phase of the storm. Hardest hit were Western Central and Northeast Massachusetts as well as parts of New Hampshire and Maine. A full report on what hams did is on line at the ARRL website at www.arrl.org. ARRL RESCUE RADIO NEW RAC ARES OPERATIONS TRAINING MANUAL The recently introduced Radio Amateurs of Canada A R E S Operations Training Manual has met with widespread approval from the amateur radio community and is even being requested by Emcomm groups in other countries. Because of this plans are that it will be printed in a handy and portable hard copy form early in . Once published the new training resource will be offered for sale on the Radio Amateurs of Canada on line store. It will continue to be available for downloading free of charge at www.rac.ca fieldorg RACARESTrainingManual.htm. RAC RESCUE RADIO RAC ANNOUNCES EMCOMM E MAIL ALERT SYSTEM The Radio Amateurs of Canada Field Services Organization has also created an ARES Alert system for Radio Amateurs who are part of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service or other Canadian Emcomm unit. The e mail based system is being provided as a means to alert Canadian radio amateurs of emergencies or disasters or threat of same where ham radio emergency services are or may be required. It will also serve to advise stations of the need to avoid or monitor frequencies that are being used in an emergency event anywhere in the world. RAC HOLIDAY HAM RADIO OPERATION SANTA CLAUS IN FLORIDA Operation Santa Claus continues as Christmas Approaches and it was recognized this week by a Florida news service. The Tampa Bay Connection says that the Bay Care Emergency Amateur Radio group in Tampa recently used amateur radio to connect kids at St Joseph s Children s Hospital with Saint Nick so that they could put in their special gift requests. Len Calahan who is the Senior Maintenance Mechanic for the hospital and a member of the radio club. He told Tampa Bay that the north pole s a long way away and cell phones up there. So he and other club members use ham radio as substitute. Another club member is Bob McElroy who goes room to room letting kids make Christmas requests through a two way hand held. He says that whether they understand the technology or not they are hearing Santa Claus and that s making a little bit of a difference in their lives. This is the first year the St. Joseph s Children s Hospital has had ham radio connect kids to Santa. The call signs of the hams involved were not included in the Tampa Bay Connection report. eHam TampaBay Connection D STAR NEWS SUPPORT NET EXCEEDS AND GROWING There are now more than radio amateurs world wide posting to the D Star on line forum and the number seems to increase every day. Since the introduction of www.dstarforum.com earlier this year membership and site usage has been increasing drastically. D Star usage has also shown a marked increase since the introduction of the DV Dongle giving hams a relatively inexpensive and easy way to gain the benefits of D Star from home. www.dstarforum.com holds a weekly D Star net on reflector A on Saturdays at . UTC. This net chaired by G KSC and all D Star enthusiasts are invited to join in. News release WORLDBEAT CHU CANADA TO CHANGE FREQUENCY TO KHZ After seventy years of broadcasting Canada s official time shortwave station CHU will move the transmission frequency for the kHz transmitter to kHz. This to avoid interference to its operations as the result of band allocation changes approved by the International Telecommunications Union back in April . CHU is a part of Canada s National Research Council s system for disseminating official time throughout that nation. It broadcasts hours a day from a location approximately kilometers south west of Ottawa. Transmissions include tones to mark the seconds voice to announce the time in French and English and digital data to interface with computers. The frequency change to CHU change will occur on January st at UTC. More is on line at www.nrc cnrc.gc.ca W HDU WORLDBEAT UK TIME STATION CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE The UK based M S F kHz time and frequency signal broadcast was to be shut down from UTC to UTC on December th. The interruption to the transmission was required to allow scheduled maintenance work to be carried out. Additional information is on their website at www.npl.co.uk time. RSGB Southgate ON THE AIR NORTH AMERICAN TRAFFIC AND AWARDS NET RETURNS After an absence of more than three decades the North American Traffic and Awards Net is returning to the ham bands. The net resumes operation on New Years Day January at p.m. Eastern Standard Ttime. In addition to its normal operations the net will also be handling formal message traffic at the outset of each session and welcome all stations with messages to be passed to join it nightly on point MHz. The net has also created an award to recognize stations for bringing and passing message traffic. The North American Traffic and Awards Net was founded back in to assist hams trying to earn the ARRL Bicentennial Worked All States Award. Its new goal is to assist in the ARRL s new Triple Play Award announced by the League a few weeks ago. Press release This is ham radio news for today s radio amateur. This week from beneath the Southern Cross we are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur RADIO SAFETY EMI MAY HAVE CAUSED AIRPLANE TO DIVE Electromagnetic interference can make it impossible for hams to communicate but aviation authorities want to know if it almost caused a Quantas airline flight almost falling out of the sky. Amateur Radio Newsline s Don Wilbanks AE DW reports This the incident occurred last month as a Qantas Airbus A flew off West Australians coast en route from Singapore to Perth. A preliminary report into the incident by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says that there is a possibility that transmissions from the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station interfered with aircraft onboard electronic systems. The review board is also investigating the possibility that passenger electronic devices aboard the aircraft caused the problem but admits that both are unlikely. That said it cannot rule either out at this stage. Experts in the field of electromagnetic interference are deeply divided on whether or not random EMI could cause an incident such as this. Science On line EMERGING TECHNOLOGY NEW NAND FLASH MEMORY SYSTEM FROM MICRON Micron Technology has introduced a new serial NAND flash memory technology. One that the company said will enable easier and more cost effective expansion of storage capacity for embedded applications in products like television set top boxes DVRs printers and even automobile navigation systems. The technology with a chip density starting at gigabit improves on traditional NOR flash which typically tops out at a density of megabytes. Company officials said that as many embedded applications transition from merely decoding information to more sophisticated operations like managing multimedia photos and other data intensive content the need for cheap and easy storage expansion is increasingly important. Press Release EMERGING TECHNOLOGY THEY CALL IT TREE POWER Imagine being able to run a QRP station by powering it from a near by tree. Sound strange Well that s one of the possible uses for an emerging technology called tree power. Jim Linton VK PC of the WIA News explains A voltage difference exits between a tree and the ground. Researchers have found that the metabolism of a tree works to maintain the voltage difference whether it s day or night rain or shine all year round. Up to two volts is available enough to trickle charge a battery or power a wireless transmitter. Tree power will be helping to collect improved local climate data that is essential for computerized fire modeling. The United States Forest Service is about to field test a tree powered wireless network. It looks like being an alternative to installing intrusive solar panels in a forest. The bio energy source may have other applications too such as border security and managing agriculture. Could this lead to self illuminated Christmas trees or even radio amateurs tapping in it for QRP operation. Anyone pine for the day that this kind of energy becomes poplar For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Jim Linton VK PC. A rather cute play on words from our friend in Australia VK PC. WIA News HAM RADIO IN SPACE L BAND EXPERIMENT ON THE ISS Another experiment using the ham station on board the International Space Station. From December th through January rd ARISS plans to reconfigure the on orbit crossband repeater for test of its L Band uplink capability which to date has not been proven out. Plans call for an for an uplink of . MHz and downlink on the standard frequency . MHz. The system will be in low power transmit. Given the substantial cable losses of the L band system ARISS hopes that some big gun stations on the ground will be able to penetrate through keep up with Doppler and make a contact. ANS HAM RADIO IN SPACE AMSAT TO OFFER DXPEDITION LOANER GEAR The AMSAT North America Operations Team is in the process of acquiring a few sets of basic loaner gear that will be available to DXpeditions and other groups. This as a way to promote activity on the satellites from rare locations around the globe. Initially these loaner packs will consist of simple FM portable stations including a full duplex dual band HT and an Arrow or other suitable antenna. Depending on the success of the program AMSAT says that it will likely expand it to include the all mode transponder and digital satellites as well. They also expect to be able to integrate AO into this program at a future date. ANS HAM RADIO IN SPACE W KWQ SPACE MOBILE QSL CARD UPDATE Those of you lucky enough to hold a QSO with Richard Garriott W KWQ when he was on board the International Space Station can receive an ARISS QSL card using the normal process as outlined at www.ariss.org. But that s not al. W KWQ is also planning a personal card which is in development. Once it is ready it will be shipped to the ARISS international QSL volunteers for distribution. Those that have already sent in for an ARISS QSL card will also get a Richard Garriott personal card once it is available. If you made a contact with W KWQ but have not sent in your QSL and would like Richard s personal card please stand by until the that card is ready. The distribution of this special QSL will parallel how we are distributing the th anniversary certificate. ANS RADIOSPORTS THE CQ DX MARATHON. The fourth running of the CQ DX Marathon begins at UTC on January and runs through UTC on December . The goal as always is to work as many countries and CQ zones as possible at least once during the calendar year. The only change from the rules is that the prohibition on assistance such as lists and passes for the Unlimited Class is deleted however this limitation remains in effect for the Formula Class. Once again they will use a downloadable Microsoft Excel template which may be filled in and e mailed to a special address as your log entry. For complete details please visit the website at http cq amateur radio.com DX Marathon Rules Dec .pdf CQ OPDX In DX G SWH and G RWL will be active from Mayotte here between February th and March th. Both operators will use the single callsign of G SWH portable FH. Their activity will be mainly on CW on through meters with a possibility of CW on as well. . QSL via G SWH either direct with a self addressed stamped envelope and adequate return postage. Lastly HA RE and a team of operators will be active from Wallis Island as FW RE early in . The group is expected to arrive on the island January th and may begin operation as early as the th. Activity will be on through meters including and meters using CW SSB and RTTY. Above from various DX news sources THAT FINAL ITEM CHRISTMAS ISLAND THE SONG And finally this week its not likely that Broadway television and motion picture entertainer Kristin Chenoweth ever dreamed that she would be mentioned in a ham radio newscast. But guess what. This week she is and Bill Pasternak WA ITF is here to tell us why No Kristin Chenoweth is not a radio amateur. But her new holiday CD titled A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas contains a song that radio amateurs in general and DX ers in particular will likely want to embrace. The tune written by Lyle Moraine is titled Christmas Island. It musically tells of the fun one can have spending the upcoming holiday on that Indian Ocean rock located some miles northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth. And while it may not make you want to immediately pack your bags and head out to operate anyone who is knowledgeable about Christmas Island will be left smiling. Because its music we cant play it for you here. However you can get to hear it and the rest of Kristin Chenoweth s new holiday CD on her own website at www.kristin chenoweth.com. Just click on the words Launch Player next to the advertisement for the album right at the top of the page. Then sit back and enjoy the magic of the season as songstress Kristin Chenoweth vicariously transports you across the oceans for a true DX holiday treat. Enjoying the holiday season I m Bill Pasternak WA ITF in the studio in Los Angeles. For those not aware Christmas Island ranked as number on the DX News most wanted countries list. ARNewsline With thanks to Alan Labs AMSAT the ARRL the CGC Communicator CQ Magazine the FCC the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin Radio Netherlands Rain the RSGB the Southgate News and Australia s W I A News that s all from the Amateur Radio Newsline . Our e mail address is newslinearnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline s only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline P.O. Box Arcadia California . For now with Bill Pasternak WA ITF at the editors desk I m Jim Meachen ZL BHF saying from Auckland New Zealand saying the best of seasons greetings to all and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline is Copyright . All rights reserved. There are no comments on this article Post One Email Subscription My Subscriptions Subscriptions Help Other News Articles Santa Patrol Helping Police Gus Kovats W RSI SK Children are Invited to Get Radio Active with Hams Magnetic Field Hole Could Cripple Communications This Week on the Radio Copyright eHam.net LLC eHam.net is a community web site for amateur ham radio operators around the world. Contact the site with comments or questions. Site Privacy Statement Washington D.C. Africa Asia Australia Canada Europe Latin America Middle East Sports Mariners MLB Seahawks NFL NBA Storm WNBA Sounders FC Soccer College Football College Basketball Olympics High Schools Snow Sports Other Sports Art Thiel Jim Moore Business Tech Boeing Microsoft Bill Virgin Real Estate Wire Tech Wire Personal Finance Sci Tech A E Event Calendar Movies Showtimes TV it s that plug in hybrids will store a lot more energy on board. That s also why they re not available yet. We re waiting for a new generation of batteries to be ready. Ray Current hybrids use nickel metal hydride batteries NMh . That was an improvement over the first hybrids which used a boatload of Eveready D cells. But NMh batteries are still too big and heavy for practical plug in hybrids. Tom Within the next few years carmakers are anticipating the mass production of lithium ion batteries Li which are far more dense. Sort of like my brother. Ray I m a different kind of dense. Tom In the case of batteries more dense means they store more energy in a smaller package. So with lithium ion instead of having to fill the entire back seat of a Prius with batteries they can make a plug in hybrid that maintains the interior room people expect in a family car without weighing the thing so far down that it s too heavy to be moved by its own batteries Ray Perhaps the greatest advantage of plug in hybrids however is that they ll allow us to address our oil use and pollution by focusing on a relatively small number of power plants rather than on million individual cars. Tom Right. So once cars run primarily off the electrical grid we could add wind power solar power nuclear power cow flatulence or anything we want to our power grid while retiring dirtier less efficient plants. If we follow through with that plug in hybrids would be a great step toward energy independence and reducing pollution. Write to Car Talk c o the Seattle P I P.O. Box Seattle or send an e mail at the Car Talk Web site cartalk.com. Car Talk is heard at a.m. Saturdays on KUOW radio . 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Letters Vets ham operators recall the URC4 radio Planet Analog The promise of plugin hybrids Less pollution more energy Seattle Post Intelligencer
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EE TIMES NETWORK Online Editions EE TIMES EE TIMES ASIA EE TIMES CHINA EE TIMES FRANCE EE TIMES GERMANY EE TIMES INDIA EE TIMES JAPAN EE TIMES KOREA EE TIMES TAIWAN EE TIMES UK EE TIMES EUROPE ANALOG EUROPE INDUSTRIAL EUROPE AUTOMOTIVE DL EUROPE POWER DL EUROPE Web Sites Audio DesignLine Automotive DesignLine Career Center CommsDesign Microwave Engineering Deepchip.com Design Digital Home DesignLine DSP DesignLine EDA DesignLine Embedded.com Elektronik i Norden Green SupplyLine Industrial Control DesignLine Planet Analog Mobile Handset DesignLine Network Systems DesignLine Power Management DesignLine Programmable Logic DesignLine RF DesignLine RFID World Techonline Video Imaging DesignLine Wireless Net DesignLine ELECTRONICS GROUP SITES NEW SpecSearch eeProductCenter Electronics Supply Conferences and Events Electronics Supply Electronics Express Webinars December Letters Vets ham operators recall the URC radio EE Times December AM EST Many EE Times readers responded to David Carey s analysis of the U.S. military s RT A URC radio which was widely used during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Here s a sample Reader Wilbert Foerster remembers the URC as an electronic wonder. Paul Alexander used the URC as a ham radio. Reader Bill Pileggi recalls a hamfest. Edwin Pettis provides more URC details Dennis McFayden corrects a mistake Reader Alan Tasker fills in some more gaps. Reader Wilbert Foerster remembers the URC as an electronic wonder. Dear Mr. Carey I was heartened to read your story. The RT A URC was the state of the art of electronic wonder based on how much power it could put out for its size and the battery pack that was used with it. In those days battery converters used to get higher voltage were usually vibrators or dynamotors a motor generator type of device . At the end of my active service as a radio radar technician the motor alternator was coming in as an upgrade. My contact with this particular radio was periodic we would check the units for operation physical condition condition of the battery pack by the way the battery pack included two sets of batteries sealed in a case the same size as the RT A . The metal strap laying on the top cover in your article would clamp it to the transceiver. Each set of batteries were isolated one was for filament voltage and the other for plate voltage. I m surprised that I can remember that much. It is surprising that the electronics of that day worked so well when you think of the cellphone of today that transmits more information then any of the military airborne or ground radios. You might also be intrigued by the CRT Gibson Girl emergency transmitter it used a crank operated generator to create the power to send an SOS and it also had a hydrogen generator to fill a balloon to lift the long wire antenna to send out the emergency signal. It was said that its signal could be heard up to a thousand miles away. Maybe this was just propaganda to convince the flight crew that there would be help coming. Thank you for lifting the hood on this unit. It sure brought back some great memories from fifty years ago. Wilbert Foerster Kiel Wis. Back to top Paul Alexander used the URC as a ham radio Dear David I just saw your EE Times article on the URC distress radio. I had one of these as a kid while just starting out as a ham radio operator. I converted mine to operate on meter ham radio frequencies MHz by replacing the crystal and retuning the receiver. All the power for the radio was supplied by a single battery pack that was made for this unit. Back in the vacuum tube days it was common to find batteries that would combine all the voltages needed for a particular type of radio into a single unit. Batteries capable of supplying or volts were quite common. Even volt packs were commonly used by photographers for powering portable photoflash units. Thanks for the article it was very enjoyable Paul Alexander Senior Reliability Engineer Philips Home Healthcare Solutions Monroeville Pa. Back to top Reader Bill Pileggi recalls a hamfest. Dear David Imagine my surprise at seeing the URC in the Dec. issue of EE Times I know the radio well. The radio is quite common on the electronics ham radio surplus market. The most common use was converting the radio to cover the amateur radio frequencies between MHz. and MHz. I purchased a large carton filled with them in the very early s for at a hamfest . The receiver is easily tunable between MHz. I used one unit as a receiver at a job located in an industrial park inside an airport. I tuned it to the tower frequency. As the receiver is quite broad little selectivity transmissions on nearby frequencies were also heard. I considered this a bonus The pencil diameter tubes are indeed called sub minature or pencil tubes. The transmitter crystal is military type CR U. This is a series resonant third or fifth overtone type. I have a few spares if your unit is missing it s crystal. The receiver detector is regenerative and quite stable . This means the receiver is quite sensitive microvolt range but broad as a barn door see above comment . The yellow inductors are commonly broken. The plastic is quite fragile. Most of the units you see from the past years have broken coils. Despite the broken coil forms if the coils themselves haven t been mangled the receiver will still likely work. The radios were considered nearly disposable so they were cranked out by the thousands. Inverter power source No. They were powered from a dry cell battery pack attached to longish rubber covered cable. The pack itself was light and relatively small as the current consumed by the tubes was in the milliamp range. The filament consumption was quite a different matter. Dry cell packs have other advantages longish shelf life no toxic materials to speak off and even if they have sustained significant physical damage like a bullet hole they ll likely still work. State of the art Only if they d been manufactured during World War II. By or so the circuitry and assembly technique was quite conventional. For reference compare to the PRC or PRC portable radios which also use subminiature tubes and were first deployed during the Korean war. By the late s and early s the URC arrived a hybrid design using transistors and tubes was in service. Smaller and much lighter but still using an external dry cell battery pack. Today the URC has no practical use except to collectors of military radios and restorers. Ahhhh the smell of MFP military fungus protection in the morning it smells like victory or at least an old time hamfest . This is one of our collector mottos. Thanks for your report. Bill Pileggi KA AIS Abington Pa. Back to top Edwin Pettis provides more URC details. Dear David I enjoyed your article on this classic. I can clear up a few things about it V V V and V are tubes with earlier production units using the CK from Raytheon. V and V were V was a E and V was a common commercial battery operated radio tube the Q Madison was a private label a supplier or the manufacturer of this set . The A battery was the filament supply a single cell . volt battery filaments of these tubes were designed to run from a wide range voltage supply . The B battery was supplied by a high voltage battery common back in those days. The B voltage is listed as volts on the schematic making the nominal battery voltage approximately volts when brand new. I ve misplaced my Allied catalog or I could tell you which battery it was. The battery pack probably added almost as much weight as the radio since its case was also likely to be similar to the radio s. LS was a standard cone speaker with a high value coil impedance. I have seen them with values of ohms or higher but today I rarely see one higher than ohms and those aren t too common. Edwin G. Pettis Pettis Engineering Grand Junction Colo. Back to top Dennis McFayden corrects a mistake. Dear David I enjoyed your report on this device. You did make one big mistake. The battery supply did not have an inverter. For the high voltage plate supply B batteries were used. You might take a look at some of the so called portable radios used in WW . As a kid I remember something called a TBY. This was a man pack radio. The high voltage was derived from the equivalent of an inverter but was really a vibrator transformer and rectifier combination. All of the supply power came from a rechargeable wet cell. This was a very interesting radio since all of the tubes were acorns. My dad acquired a couple of these radios. I enjoyed investigating the construction and modification to the ham radio bands. Dennis McFayden Back to top Reader Alan Tasker fills in some more gaps. Dear David A couple of points. The mercury battery used cells in a series for the B voltage. Negative went to ground via a small value resistor bypassed so as to develop a negative bias for the grids. . V for the filaments was developed by many small cells in parallel. Unfortunately the first to fail drained all the others really quickly. Today s lithium is so much better. As a Boy Scout during that era I visited Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire. I asked a flyboy what he thought of the rescue sets. He said Not very much. It seems that the jerk of the parachute opening put such a stress on the vest pockets holding the radio and mercury battery that they ripped right through the vest and kept right on going. Alan Tasker Back to top Related Products Vishay rolls out low profile high current IHLP inductor HB LED driver supports green lighting designs Step down controller line provides input voltage range up to V Dual digital pulsers use active clamping to enhance ultrasound imaging High end graphics board from Nvidia boasts GB frame memory eeProductCenter EE Times TechCareers Search Jobs Enter Keyword s Function Engineering Arch. Information Tech. State Post Your Resume Employers Area Most Recent Posts Agilent Technologies seeking Manufacturing Technician in Chandler AR ITT seeking Senior Staff Engineer Systems in Fort Wayne IN ITT seeking Staff Engr Systems Architect in Fort Wayne IN D. E. Shaw seeking ASIC Design in New York NY Tyco Electronics seeking S W System Engineer IV in Lowell MA More career related news resources and job postings for technology professionals Sponsor Links All materials on this site Copyright TechInsights a Division of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions Privacy Statement Your California Privacy Rights We also heard fro the Greensboro North Caolina ARS W GSO the Tampa Florida ARC t he Reading PA ARC W BN K OX the Antelope Valley ARC in Lancaster and the Conejo Valley ARC based in Thousand Oaks California who passed the hat on our behalf at their holiday party. During this season of giving and thanks we at Newsline are thankful of our listeners who give. Give to keep these up to the minute newscasts on the air. We ve made it easy for you to do so through PayPal at our website arnewsline.org. Or you can help directly at our address which will be given at the end of this newscast. Either way you will help continue a year tradition of getting you the news of Amateur Radio first. I m Andy Jarema N TCQ and the very best of holidays to you. Thank you Andy. Now Amateur Radio Newsline report number with a release date of Friday December th to follow in . The following is a Q S T. The ARRL Antenna Defense Fund donates to help a California ham in his suit against a the city of Palmdale Switzerland gives it hams access to meters South Africa to host I A R U Region One conference go Q R P with a tree and a musical trip to a rare DXpedition spot highlight Amateur Radio Newsline report number coming your way right now. RADIO LAW ARRL ANTENNA DEFENE FUND MAKES DONATION TO WB X LAWSUIT The ARRL s Amateur Radio Legal Defense and Assistance Committee has voted to contribute toward the costs of a lawsuit against the City of Palmdale California. This after the city forces a ham to take down his antenna after issuing a permit for him to put it up. Amateur Radio Newsline s Bruce Tennant K PZW has been following this case and has the latest The suit against the city of Palmdale was filed by ARRL Volunteer Counsel Len Shaffer WA QHD on behalf of Alec Zubarau WB X. Zubaru who lives in the city located about miles north east of Los Angeles was forced by to remove an antenna tower erected under a previously issued and valid building permit. The permit revocation followed complaints of radio frequency interference by some of Alec s neighbors. Those complaints were never substantiated and in any case are a matter of federal preemption and not within the jurisdiction of the city. Over had already been contributed by clubs and their members from throughout the ARRL s Southwestern Division. This contribution from the League managed Antenna Defense Fund is meant to further help defray the expenses of preparing for the February court date. Even with attorney Len Shaffer performing the legal work free of charge just compiling the record to present in court can be costly. The Chairman of the ARRL Defense Committee is Jay Bellows K QB. Bellows noted that although the case has not yet reached the appellate level the egregious nature of Palmdale s actions including ordering removal of a previously approved antenna tower the potential impact on a large number of amateurs and the existence of substantial local financial support from the ham community were significant factors in the Committee s decision to provide support for this case. Meantime it appears as if Palmdale is trying to play a political get even game with its local ham radio community over the Zubaru matter. Shortly after issuing the WB X permit revocation order the City of Palmdale began drafting an amended antenna ordinance. One that places severe restrictions on all Amateur Radio antennas. This includes a height limit of only one inch above a buildings roof. The draft was released just before Thanksgiving and a hearing was scheduled for December th. At the request of ARRL Vice Director Marty Woll N VI who attended the Palmdale Planning Commission meeting along with about a dozen local hams and supporters ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay W KD wrote a lengthy letter to the City Attorney pointing out numerous flaws in the proposed ordinance. Imlay s letter also explained why many of its provisions are unenforceable due to federal and state preemption. Thanks to help from Keith Hoyt K GXO Eugene Humphreys KG SLC and others in the Antelope Valley Amateur Radio Club Woll has an opportunity to meet with management of the Palmdale Public Safety Department which is supportive of hams. He and Hoyt are also scheduled to meet with the Planning Department and Assistant City Attorney in early January. Unfortunately the restrictive nature of the proposed ordinance has made it a hot topic on ham radio Internet chat sites. Much of the information appears to be hearsay. Some of it is simply opinions that others consider to be fact even though many of the posters live thousands of miles away and really have no idea of what the situation is. Obviously they can have no idea of the organized effort that local hams in concert with ARRL officials are working on to bring the matter to a positive conclusion for the hams of Palmdale. As such far better way for those outside of the region to show support for the Palmdale ham radio community is to make a donation to the W BX Defense Support Fund. Checks should be made payable to Leonard J. Shaffer Esq. P.O. Box Tarzana CA . Make certain to include the words WB X Defense Fund on the memo line. For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Bruce Tennant K PZW in Los Angeles. If we at Newsline may be permitted to express an editorial comment. With local hams along with ARRL division and national representatives devoting considerable time and resources toward resolving the issue any direct intervention by outsiders can only put Palmdale into a position where politically it cannot back away from its hard line stand. If that happens it could very easily force the Palmdale ham radio community to spend thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in litigation fees fighting the matter in the federal courts. And that s the last thing the hams of Palmdale want to have happen. Please respect their wishes as you would want them to respect your. End of editorial. ARNewsline from information supplied by ARRL Southwestern Division RADIO LAW SAN DIEGO TOWER HEIGHT ISSUE Still in California the City of San Diego has also proposed a modification of its antenna zoning rules. Up to now ham antennas have not been subject to the height restrictions applicable to buildings and other structures. Under the modification however those restrictions will apply unless the amateur obtains a time consuming and cost prohibitive Process Three Site Development Permit. A Three Site Development Permit requires very specific site plans engineering studies public hearings and perhaps hiring a land use attorney. And after all of this an applicant may be denied the request for a height increase. Attorney Larry Serra N NC San Diego DX Club President Glenn Rattmann K NA Section Manager Steve Early AD VI and others are staying on top of this proposal which has a short comment deadline of January . The San Diego ham community has also engaged the services of a prominent local land use attorney to prepare and file a comment on their behalf. Also ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay W KD is preparing a formal League response to the City. More on both of these issues in future Amateur Radio Newsline reports. ARNewsline from information supplied by ARRL Southwestern Division RESTRUCTURING SWITZERLAND ALLOCATES METERS TO HAM RADIO ON JANUARY Some good news for hams in Switzerland. Swiss telecommunications authorities will allocate the MHz band to amateur radio on a secondary basis beginning January . Swiss and foreign CEPT class licensees will be permitted to transmit with up to watts PEP on to MHz without any antenna restrictions. The one caveat is that primary users may not be disturbed. This includes some TV stations active on the VHF band I in Northern Italy. Southgate WORLDBEAT SOUTH AFRICA TO HOST IARU REGION CONFERENCE Sun City in South Africa will host the next IARU Region Conference in . The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club website reports that the IARU Region Conference meeting in Cavtat Croatia held a ballot to choose the venue for . Of the votes cast there were to Sun City to Malaga and votes to Hatfield. According to the DARC s website. newly elected secretary Dennis Green ZS BS was visibly surprised. He s quoted as saying that the delegates would be welcome in South Africa. IARU Southgate Wishing you a most joyous holiday season from Auckland New Zealand and Los Angeles California we are the Amateur Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world including the Peace River Repeater Association system serving Punta Gorda Florida. KIDS IN THE NEWS YACHT RECRUITS ITS FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS A contest club for youngsters has its first members overseas. Rebecca Bruce has the details The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team better known by the acronym yacht has invited to young South African amateurs to join their group. year old Mitchell Mynhard ZU M and his year old sister Melinda ZU MM will be the groups first international members. The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team was founded by Ed Engleman KG CX of Memoniee Michigan. Its purpose is to generate interest in contesting among younger hams and to foster a greater appreciation of the role that younger license holders play in the overall hobby of amateur radio. For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Rebecca Bruce in Los Angeles. More information on The Young Amateur Contest Ham Team is at the groups website. Its on line at www.wd dx.com yacht.htm YACHT HAM HAPPENINGS ARMAD RECEIVES SPECIAL FLAG The sponsor of Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day better known as ARMAD has received a flag that flew over Camp Fallujah Iraq by U.S. Marines and other United States service members. The December th delivery of the flag to ARMAD though its founder Emory McClendon KB IBW was made possible by Mary Ellen Wooten of the organization From Us To You. This is a military support group that sends packages to our Troops that are deployed. ARMAD has worked with From Us To You and the Albamarle Amateur Radio Club over the past few years on several projects. Among its involvement it has set up a live station at one of their events using amateur radio. This so that U.S. troops could hear the voices of Americans expressing support for them. You can learn more about From Us To You on the Web at www dot fromustoyou dot us. More information regarding ARMAD at www.armad.net. ARMAD RESCUE RADIO HAMS ASSIST DURING NORTHEAST ICE STORM Ham radio was called out the evening of Thursday December th into Friday December th. This as a major ice storm accompanied by freezing rains hit the New England states. Called into action were ARES RACES SKYWARN and MARS. All four groups responded to calls for assistance from served agencies and then participated in the recovery phase of the storm. Hardest hit were Western Central and Northeast Massachusetts as well as parts of New Hampshire and Maine. A full report on what hams did is on line at the ARRL website at www.arrl.org. ARRL RESCUE RADIO NEW RAC ARES OPERATIONS TRAINING MANUAL The recently introduced Radio Amateurs of Canada A R E S Operations Training Manual has met with widespread approval from the amateur radio community and is even being requested by Emcomm groups in other countries. Because of this plans are that it will be printed in a handy and portable hard copy form early in . Once published the new training resource will be offered for sale on the Radio Amateurs of Canada on line store. It will continue to be available for downloading free of charge at www.rac.ca fieldorg RACARESTrainingManual.htm. RAC RESCUE RADIO RAC ANNOUNCES EMCOMM E MAIL ALERT SYSTEM The Radio Amateurs of Canada Field Services Organization has also created an ARES Alert system for Radio Amateurs who are part of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service or other Canadian Emcomm unit. The e mail based system is being provided as a means to alert Canadian radio amateurs of emergencies or disasters or threat of same where ham radio emergency services are or may be required. It will also serve to advise stations of the need to avoid or monitor frequencies that are being used in an emergency event anywhere in the world. RAC HOLIDAY HAM RADIO OPERATION SANTA CLAUS IN FLORIDA Operation Santa Claus continues as Christmas Approaches and it was recognized this week by a Florida news service. The Tampa Bay Connection says that the Bay Care Emergency Amateur Radio group in Tampa recently used amateur radio to connect kids at St Joseph s Children s Hospital with Saint Nick so that they could put in their special gift requests. Len Calahan who is the Senior Maintenance Mechanic for the hospital and a member of the radio club. He told Tampa Bay that the north pole s a long way away and cell phones up there. So he and other club members use ham radio as substitute. Another club member is Bob McElroy who goes room to room letting kids make Christmas requests through a two way hand held. He says that whether they understand the technology or not they are hearing Santa Claus and that s making a little bit of a difference in their lives. This is the first year the St. Joseph s Children s Hospital has had ham radio connect kids to Santa. The call signs of the hams involved were not included in the Tampa Bay Connection report. eHam TampaBay Connection D STAR NEWS SUPPORT NET EXCEEDS AND GROWING There are now more than radio amateurs world wide posting to the D Star on line forum and the number seems to increase every day. Since the introduction of www.dstarforum.com earlier this year membership and site usage has been increasing drastically. D Star usage has also shown a marked increase since the introduction of the DV Dongle giving hams a relatively inexpensive and easy way to gain the benefits of D Star from home. www.dstarforum.com holds a weekly D Star net on reflector A on Saturdays at . UTC. This net chaired by G KSC and all D Star enthusiasts are invited to join in. News release WORLDBEAT CHU CANADA TO CHANGE FREQUENCY TO KHZ After seventy years of broadcasting Canada s official time shortwave station CHU will move the transmission frequency for the kHz transmitter to kHz. This to avoid interference to its operations as the result of band allocation changes approved by the International Telecommunications Union back in April . CHU is a part of Canada s National Research Council s system for disseminating official time throughout that nation. It broadcasts hours a day from a location approximately kilometers south west of Ottawa. Transmissions include tones to mark the seconds voice to announce the time in French and English and digital data to interface with computers. The frequency change to CHU change will occur on January st at UTC. More is on line at www.nrc cnrc.gc.ca W HDU WORLDBEAT UK TIME STATION CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE The UK based M S F kHz time and frequency signal broadcast was to be shut down from UTC to UTC on December th. The interruption to the transmission was required to allow scheduled maintenance work to be carried out. Additional information is on their website at www.npl.co.uk time. RSGB Southgate ON THE AIR NORTH AMERICAN TRAFFIC AND AWARDS NET RETURNS After an absence of more than three decades the North American Traffic and Awards Net is returning to the ham bands. The net resumes operation on New Years Day January at p.m. Eastern Standard Ttime. In addition to its normal operations the net will also be handling formal message traffic at the outset of each session and welcome all stations with messages to be passed to join it nightly on point MHz. The net has also created an award to recognize stations for bringing and passing message traffic. The North American Traffic and Awards Net was founded back in to assist hams trying to earn the ARRL Bicentennial Worked All States Award. Its new goal is to assist in the ARRL s new Triple Play Award announced by the League a few weeks ago. Press release This is ham radio news for today s radio amateur. This week from beneath the Southern Cross we are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur RADIO SAFETY EMI MAY HAVE CAUSED AIRPLANE TO DIVE Electromagnetic interference can make it impossible for hams to communicate but aviation authorities want to know if it almost caused a Quantas airline flight almost falling out of the sky. Amateur Radio Newsline s Don Wilbanks AE DW reports This the incident occurred last month as a Qantas Airbus A flew off West Australians coast en route from Singapore to Perth. A preliminary report into the incident by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says that there is a possibility that transmissions from the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station interfered with aircraft onboard electronic systems. The review board is also investigating the possibility that passenger electronic devices aboard the aircraft caused the problem but admits that both are unlikely. That said it cannot rule either out at this stage. Experts in the field of electromagnetic interference are deeply divided on whether or not random EMI could cause an incident such as this. Science On line EMERGING TECHNOLOGY NEW NAND FLASH MEMORY SYSTEM FROM MICRON Micron Technology has introduced a new serial NAND flash memory technology. One that the company said will enable easier and more cost effective expansion of storage capacity for embedded applications in products like television set top boxes DVRs printers and even automobile navigation systems. The technology with a chip density starting at gigabit improves on traditional NOR flash which typically tops out at a density of megabytes. Company officials said that as many embedded applications transition from merely decoding information to more sophisticated operations like managing multimedia photos and other data intensive content the need for cheap and easy storage expansion is increasingly important. Press Release EMERGING TECHNOLOGY THEY CALL IT TREE POWER Imagine being able to run a QRP station by powering it from a near by tree. Sound strange Well that s one of the possible uses for an emerging technology called tree power. Jim Linton VK PC of the WIA News explains A voltage difference exits between a tree and the ground. Researchers have found that the metabolism of a tree works to maintain the voltage difference whether it s day or night rain or shine all year round. Up to two volts is available enough to trickle charge a battery or power a wireless transmitter. Tree power will be helping to collect improved local climate data that is essential for computerized fire modeling. The United States Forest Service is about to field test a tree powered wireless network. It looks like being an alternative to installing intrusive solar panels in a forest. The bio energy source may have other applications too such as border security and managing agriculture. Could this lead to self illuminated Christmas trees or even radio amateurs tapping in it for QRP operation. Anyone pine for the day that this kind of energy becomes poplar For the Amateur Radio Newsline I m Jim Linton VK PC. A rather cute play on words from our friend in Australia VK PC. WIA News HAM RADIO IN SPACE L BAND EXPERIMENT ON THE ISS Another experiment using the ham station on board the International Space Station. From December th through January rd ARISS plans to reconfigure the on orbit crossband repeater for test of its L Band uplink capability which to date has not been proven out. Plans call for an for an uplink of . MHz and downlink on the standard frequency . MHz. The system will be in low power transmit. Given the substantial cable losses of the L band system ARISS hopes that some big gun stations on the ground will be able to penetrate through keep up with Doppler and make a contact. ANS HAM RADIO IN SPACE AMSAT TO OFFER DXPEDITION LOANER GEAR The AMSAT North America Operations Team is in the process of acquiring a few sets of basic loaner gear that will be available to DXpeditions and other groups. This as a way to promote activity on the satellites from rare locations around the globe. Initially these loaner packs will consist of simple FM portable stations including a full duplex dual band HT and an Arrow or other suitable antenna. Depending on the success of the program AMSAT says that it will likely expand it to include the all mode transponder and digital satellites as well. They also expect to be able to integrate AO into this program at a future date. ANS HAM RADIO IN SPACE W KWQ SPACE MOBILE QSL CARD UPDATE Those of you lucky enough to hold a QSO with Richard Garriott W KWQ when he was on board the International Space Station can receive an ARISS QSL card using the normal process as outlined at www.ariss.org. But that s not al. W KWQ is also planning a personal card which is in development. Once it is ready it will be shipped to the ARISS international QSL volunteers for distribution. Those that have already sent in for an ARISS QSL card will also get a Richard Garriott personal card once it is available. If you made a contact with W KWQ but have not sent in your QSL and would like Richard s personal card please stand by until the that card is ready. The distribution of this special QSL will parallel how we are distributing the th anniversary certificate. ANS RADIOSPORTS THE CQ DX MARATHON. The fourth running of the CQ DX Marathon begins at UTC on January and runs through UTC on December . The goal as always is to work as many countries and CQ zones as possible at least once during the calendar year. The only change from the rules is that the prohibition on assistance such as lists and passes for the Unlimited Class is deleted however this limitation remains in effect for the Formula Class. Once again they will use a downloadable Microsoft Excel template which may be filled in and e mailed to a special address as your log entry. For complete details please visit the website at http cq amateur radio.com DX Marathon Rules Dec .pdf CQ OPDX In DX G SWH and G RWL will be active from Mayotte here between February th and March th. Both operators will use the single callsign of G SWH portable FH. Their activity will be mainly on CW on through meters with a possibility of CW on as well. . QSL via G SWH either direct with a self addressed stamped envelope and adequate return postage. Lastly HA RE and a team of operators will be active from Wallis Island as FW RE early in . The group is expected to arrive on the island January th and may begin operation as early as the th. Activity will be on through meters including and meters using CW SSB and RTTY. Above from various DX news sources THAT FINAL ITEM CHRISTMAS ISLAND THE SONG And finally this week its not likely that Broadway television and motion picture entertainer Kristin Chenoweth ever dreamed that she would be mentioned in a ham radio newscast. But guess what. This week she is and Bill Pasternak WA ITF is here to tell us why No Kristin Chenoweth is not a radio amateur. But her new holiday CD titled A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas contains a song that radio amateurs in general and DX ers in particular will likely want to embrace. The tune written by Lyle Moraine is titled Christmas Island. It musically tells of the fun one can have spending the upcoming holiday on that Indian Ocean rock located some miles northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth. And while it may not make you want to immediately pack your bags and head out to operate anyone who is knowledgeable about Christmas Island will be left smiling. Because its music we cant play it for you here. However you can get to hear it and the rest of Kristin Chenoweth s new holiday CD on her own website at www.kristin chenoweth.com. Just click on the words Launch Player next to the advertisement for the album right at the top of the page. Then sit back and enjoy the magic of the season as songstress Kristin Chenoweth vicariously transports you across the oceans for a true DX holiday treat. Enjoying the holiday season I m Bill Pasternak WA ITF in the studio in Los Angeles. For those not aware Christmas Island ranked as number on the DX News most wanted countries list. ARNewsline With thanks to Alan Labs AMSAT the ARRL the CGC Communicator CQ Magazine the FCC the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin Radio Netherlands Rain the RSGB the Southgate News and Australia s W I A News that s all from the Amateur Radio Newsline . Our e mail address is newslinearnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline s only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline P.O. Box Arcadia California . For now with Bill Pasternak WA ITF at the editors desk I m Jim Meachen ZL BHF saying from Auckland New Zealand saying the best of seasons greetings to all and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline is Copyright . All rights reserved. There are no comments on this article Post One Email Subscription My Subscriptions Subscriptions Help Other News Articles Santa Patrol Helping Police Gus Kovats W RSI SK Children are Invited to Get Radio Active with Hams Magnetic Field Hole Could Cripple Communications This Week on the Radio Copyright eHam.net LLC eHam.net is a community web site for amateur ham radio operators around the world. Contact the site with comments or questions. Site Privacy Statement Washington D.C. Africa Asia Australia Canada Europe Latin America Middle East Sports Mariners MLB Seahawks NFL NBA Storm WNBA Sounders FC Soccer College Football College Basketball Olympics High Schools Snow Sports Other Sports Art Thiel Jim Moore Business Tech Boeing Microsoft Bill Virgin Real Estate Wire Tech Wire Personal Finance Sci Tech A E Event Calendar Movies Showtimes TV it s that plug in hybrids will store a lot more energy on board. That s also why they re not available yet. We re waiting for a new generation of batteries to be ready. Ray Current hybrids use nickel metal hydride batteries NMh . That was an improvement over the first hybrids which used a boatload of Eveready D cells. But NMh batteries are still too big and heavy for practical plug in hybrids. Tom Within the next few years carmakers are anticipating the mass production of lithium ion batteries Li which are far more dense. Sort of like my brother. Ray I m a different kind of dense. Tom In the case of batteries more dense means they store more energy in a smaller package. So with lithium ion instead of having to fill the entire back seat of a Prius with batteries they can make a plug in hybrid that maintains the interior room people expect in a family car without weighing the thing so far down that it s too heavy to be moved by its own batteries Ray Perhaps the greatest advantage of plug in hybrids however is that they ll allow us to address our oil use and pollution by focusing on a relatively small number of power plants rather than on million individual cars. Tom Right. So once cars run primarily off the electrical grid we could add wind power solar power nuclear power cow flatulence or anything we want to our power grid while retiring dirtier less efficient plants. If we follow through with that plug in hybrids would be a great step toward energy independence and reducing pollution. Write to Car Talk c o the Seattle P I P.O. Box Seattle or send an e mail at the Car Talk Web site cartalk.com. Car Talk is heard at a.m. Saturdays on KUOW radio . 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