Amateur Radio NewslineT Report 1690 - January 1, 2010

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1690 with a release date of 
Friday, January 1, 2010 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.   
 
The following is a Q-S-T.  A congressman wants every hertz of spectrum 
cataloged for possible transfer to wireless broadband, the mayor of San 
Francisco wants warning labels on cellphones, MARS gets a new mission 
and the story on the record.  Find out what we mean when we say on the 
record on Amateur Radio NewslineT report number 1690 coming your way 
right now.


(Billboard Cart Here) 
 
**

RESTRUCTURING:  WIRELESS BROADBAND WANTS MORE SPECTRUM FROM ANYONE

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, wireless devices are 
transforming the way the world access the internet and even how people 
interact with one another in every day life.  But these devices also  
chew up a lot of radio spectrum.  Now wireless providers fear they are 
in danger of running out of bandspace to expand current services and 
introduce new ones.  They want more frequencies and this could put 
every radio service in a firefight to save their allocations and this 
could include ham radio.  We have more in this report from Norm Seeley, 
KI7UP:

--

It's a well known fact that as mobile and hand-held wireless devices 
become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive more data over the 
airwaves.  But the radio spectrum is finite and cellphones, texting 
devices and the like are only allotted a specific number of megahertz 
in which to operate.  

Now, with demand for broadband wireless growing at a rapid pace, the 
giant telecommunications corporations say they need a lot more 
bandspace.  At least 800 Megahertz more of dedicated spectrum to start 
and the government from the White House on down seems to agree that 
this is a need that must be quickly met.

And where will this spectrum come from?  That's exactly what one 
elected official says that Congress needs to determine and do so right 
now.  Democratic Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia is sponsoring 
a bill that would mandate a government inventory of all of the 
airwaves.  This to identify unused or underused bands that could be 
quickly reallocated for wireless services.

Boucher who is the chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on 
Communications, Technology and 
the Internet says that it is not a question of whether we can find more 
spectrum.  Rather he says that we have to find more spectrum.

Because of this need, wireless companies are eyeing some frequencies 
used by TV broadcasters, satellite telephone communications companies 
and even federal agencies including the Pentagon.  But several key 
wireless experts note, any reallocation of spectrum from current users 
to wireless broadband won't happen without a fight.

Broadcasters in particular have become very vocal of late in telling 
government regulators that any attempt to usurp spectrum used by that 
industry will be met with resistance.  You can read that as likely a 
long and drawn court battle that could drag on for years.  

Other potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle 
everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations.  
But agencies such as the Defense Department say that it needs spectrum 
for such mission critical equipment as precision-guided weapons, 
advanced Radar systems and drone aircraft.  And while the government 
has vacated some frequencies and is committed to finding compromises 
that work for the government and commercial sector, it can only do this 
if it does not jeopardize military capabilities or national security.

So why should all this concern ham radio?  If you confine your 
operations to the High Frequency bands or even 6 or 2 meters its not 
likely that any proposed reallocation of spectrum would affect you.  
None of these bands are very appealing to wireless service providers.  

Its when you get to 200 MHz and above that the hunt will likely be 
focused and right there lies the relatively silent 222 to 225 MHz 
allocation.  Above that is the 70 centimeter ham radio allocation which 
is secondary to the Federal Government.  If the government were to 
decide to move completely out of 70 centimeters it could put a lot of 
weak signal operators and repeaters in a fight to keep the spectrum on 
which they now reside.    

But likely the real losses would be up in the microwave range where 
hams hold a lot of spectrum that to date is used mainly by 
experimenters.  And a lot of it sits adjacent to bands used by other 
services that might eventually be pushed by government decree into 
moving elsewhere or simply told to disband to make way for more 
wireless broadband services.  

For amateur radio as an FCC licensed communications service this means 
being vigilant about attempts at reallocations that might include any 
bands that we use.  It also means making certain that our ham radio 
political leaders are aware that every hertz from DC to light will be 
under scrutiny by both the wireless broadband industry and the 
government in the coming months and years. 

As Karl Nebbia, who is the head of the National Telecommunications and 
Information Agency's Office of Spectrum Management points out:  "For 
now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings in 
the airwaves."

And for the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Norm Seeley, KI7UP, reporting 
from Scottsdale, Arizona.

--

In reality, the real worry to amateur radio spectrum below 70 
centimeters is not from direct reallocation of ham bands to wireless 
broadband.  If spectrum is lost between 6 meters and 70 centimeters its 
will more likely be because those services now using 1.2 GHz and above 
will need to find new homes. Where will that spectrum come from?  
Likely from the lowest priority users the FCC can find.  Namely hams at 
222 Mhz or even as low as  144 MHz and above.  (Amateur Radio NewslineT 
and VHF Reflector from various published reports.)

**

RADIO POLITICS VS. TECHNOLOGY: SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR WANTS RADIATION 
WARNING NOTICES ON CELLPHONES

Meantime, the debate on whether cell phones should come with warning 
labels saying they may cause brain cancer is heating up in ultra-
liberal San Francisco, California.  That's where Mayor Gavin Newsom has 
made it known that he wants such labels even though it will likely put 
that city at odds with the Federal Communications Commission and the 
politically powerful cellular telephone phone industry.

The San Francisco mayor is calling for cell phone boxes to carry 
warning labels mush like cigarette packs.  These would contain with 
what's called the radiation absorption rate on humans for each model 
telephone being merchandised in that city.  This is the amount of 
energy that a person might be exposed to by using a cellphone or 
similar device.

According to news reports, cellular telephone radiation is a growing 
concern among politicians from coast-to-coast.  A Maine state 
legislator named Andrea Boland is sponsoring similar legislation that 
would be state wide.

But the FCC says all cell phones sold in the United States are safe.  
And even the prestigious American Cancer Society is on record as saying 
cell phones are unlikely to cause cancer.

Cellular telephones only came into widespread use in the mid to late 
1990's.  Many researchers say it could be years if not decades before 
the long term studies on these devices and any relation to them being a 
cause of any form of cancer is complete.  (SF OnLine)

**

PROPAGATION:  ASTRONOMERS SAY 2009 WAS A BETTER YEAR FOR SUNSPOTS THAN 
2008

According to several scientific journals, 2009 will fall short of 2008 
's record of days with no sunspots or other solar activity.  
Astronomers note that the solar surface continues see occasional 
sunspots as we conclude a very active December 2009.  This they say 
insures that 2009 will fall several days short of the 266 blank days of 
2008 which was the year with the greatest count of sunspot free days 
since 1913.  

The astronomical community says that the overall solar flux continues 
to gradually trend upward and there's every reason to believe the year 
2010 will not dip below the low sunspot counts of the past three years.  
This they say is based on the actual trends since September and not 
only forecast data.  They say that sunspot groups over the past three 
months have emitted more flares of greater intensity than at any other 
time in solar cycle 24. They believe that this is further evidence that 
the solar disc is awakening from its extended sunspot sleep.  What the 
researchers cannot or won't promise is better High Frequency DX 
conditions which usually accompanies increased solar activity.  
(Science OnLine)

**

BREAK 1

Wishing you a Happy New Year 2010, from the United States of America, 
we are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around 
the world including the AA4ED repeater serving Broward County, Florida.

(5 sec pause here)


**

WITH NEWSLINE:  ARNEWSLINE BOD MEETING JANUARY 10 

Amateur Radio Newsline will be holding its annual Board of Directors 
Meeting by teleconference on Sunday, January 10th and we are looking for 
listener and reader input on how we can improve the weekly newscast and 
the Newsline sponsored Young Ham of the Year Award.  If you have 
suggestions please e-mail them to us at Newsline at ARNewsline dot org 
before January 3rd.  This will give us time to look your ideas over for 
possible discussion in the meeting agenda.  Again the meeting is 
Sunday, January 10th and we sincerely welcome your ideas.   
(ARNewslineT)

**

RESCUE RADIO:  MARS GETS A NEW MISSION

The former Military Affiliate Radio System has been re-christened as 
the Military Auxiliary Radio System and has been charged with a new 
mission in the area of Homeland Security.  Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has 
the details:

--

Yes, MARS does have a new mission.  On Wednesday, December 23, the 
Department of Defense issued an official instruction concerning MARS 
that is   effective immediately. This Instruction gives the three MARS 
services -- Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps a new focus and their 
first major revision since January 26, 1988.  

In the past, MARS had focused primarily on emergency communications and 
health and welfare support. The DoD's Instruction now directs the three 
MARS services to provide contingency radio communications to support US 
government operations, Department of Defense components and civil 
authorities at all levels.  This in providing for national security and 
emergency preparedness events. 

MARS units will still continue to provide health and welfare 
communications support to military members, civilian employees and 
other designated groups when in remote or isolated areas, in 
contingencies or whenever appropriate.  However, MARS must also be 
capable of operation in radio only modes without telephone service or 
access to the Interne.  Also, it must be sustainable on emergency power 
when public utility power has failed.  Also, some MARS stations must be 
transportable for timely deployment.  Unfortunately, the Instruction 
does not mention or direct which of the three MARS services will take 
the lead when responding to events. 

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in Los 
Angeles.

--

The Department of Defense defines a "military auxiliary" as "an 
organized body of volunteers prepared to supplement the uniformed 
services or any designated civilian authorities by provision of 
specialized autonomous services when called upon or when situations 
warrant.  It gives the Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary as 
examples of auxiliaries.  A more in depth article on this changes to 
MARS is at the ARRL's website at www.arrl.org.  (KA5S, ARRL, others)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  KIDS DAY ON THE GROUND AND ON AO-51

The first of two 2010 Kids Day operating events takes place on Sunday, 
January the 3rd and this year it will be in space as well as on the 
ground.  This is because AMSAT North America and the AMSAT Oscar 51 
Operations Group will be making that ham-sat available for this twice 
year fun operation.  

The terrestrial version of Kids Day takes place from 1800 to 2400 UTC.  
The ARRL suggests using the following frequencies for Kids Day QSO's:  
28.350 to 28.400 MHz, 24.960 to 24.980 MHz, 21.360 to 21.400 MHz, 
18.140 to 18.145 MHz, 14.270 to 14.300 MHz, 7.270 to 7.290 MHz, 3.740 
to 3.940 MHz, as well as your favorite 2-meter repeater with permission 
of the repeater's sponsor.  In space, AMSAT has announced that its AO-
51 satellite will be configured with its uplink at 145.880 MHz FM voice 
and the Downlink at 435.300 MHz, also FM voice.  In either case, please 
be sure to observe third-party restrictions when making DX QSO's.

The Kids Day operating event is not a contest.  It's a way to tell 
children worldwide about the magic and mystery of two way hobby radio 
communications.  To do this, Amateur radio stations are being asked to 
devote this short time window to promote the terrestrial hobby and ham 
radio satellite operations to youngsters  This, by providing a place to 
make contacts with other Kids Day stations around the world.  

More information is on-line at www.arrl.org.  To find it just use the 
search feature with the words Kids Day.  (AMSAT NA, ARRL, others)

**

OPERATING AWARDS:  THE NORTH SCOTLAND YAESU HERITAHE AWARD

2010 has been named Yaesu Heritage Year by the North Scotland Contest 
Group as they take to the air with the special event callsign GS2MP.  
Operators GM3WOJ and GM0NAI will be using their vintage Yaesu 
transmitters, receivers and transceivers during the whole year and 
sporting a different Yaesu built radio each.

Operation will mostly be on 40 and 20 meters, SSB and CW, using classic 
radios like the FT-dx-100 , FT-200 and FT-dx-401 to name only a few.  
Yaesu UK Ltd. is sponsoring the event and supplying special QSL cards, 
small trophies and a special prize to the overall winner.  Hams 
worldwide are invited to work GS2MP and earn points towards the  Yaesu 
Heritage Year Award.   

For more details, please visit www.gm7v.com/yaesu2010.htmb on the World 
Wide Web.  (Southgate)

**

RADIO EDUCATION:  RADIO SOCIETY IN WALES RECEIVES TRAINING GRANT

The Welsh Aberdare and District Amateur Radio Society has been 
presented a o5,000 (pound) grant from the Awards for All Wales fund.  
The cash will be used by the group to provide training facilities, 
materials, equipment and projects for students wishing to undertake a 
course leading to a Radio Communications Foundation, Intermediate or 
Advanced accredited examination. 

The society was formed in March 2009 and has around 20 members. It has 
already helped five people whose ages ranged from 14 to 65 through the 
Foundation License and there are currently two more students preparing 
for their examinations.   The group has also obtained two recognized 
tutors for all levels of the amateur radio license preparation and has 
been designated as an official examination center.  A spokesman says 
that some money will be spent on equipment to upgrade the existing 
station to add new or 190-wales
additional modes.  (WalesOnline)

**

HAM RADIO SCOUTING:  A SUMMER QRP SCOUTING TREK DOWN UNDER

And while it may be cold and wintry in the Northern Hemisphere, down 
under its summertime and some Scouts in Australia have decided to take 
a hike and bring ham radio with them.  Not only that, these scouts want 
to make contact with you.  Jim Linton, VK3PC, of the WIA News has the 
rest of the story:

--

Four members of the Scout Australia, Victorian Branch Scout Radio and 
Electronics Service Unit will be hiking the French Island National Park 
southeast of Melbourne and operate the scout callsign VK3SAT for the 
Keith 
Roget Memorial National Parks Award.

Peter Fraser VK3ZPF, Hayden McManus VK3FRST, Marcus Berglund VK3TST and 
Adam Scammell VK3YDF will be on air 0400 UTC on 9 January until 0100 
UTC 10 January.

The bands proposed are 80m, 40m, and 20m using wire antennas strung in 
the low trees on the island. As the team has to carry everything in 
backpacks to the camping ground the transceivers are to operate a 
maximum of 15w PEP will be powered from small sealed lead acid 
batteries. 

VK3SAT hopes to make many contacts and will be QRV as long as the 
battery power lasts. Details of the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks 
Award can be found on the Amateur Radio Victoria website in cyberspace 
at www.amateurradio.com.au

I'm Jim Linton VK3PC and you're listening to the Amateur Radio 
Newsline.

--

15 watts from backpack radios into makeshift antennas in the Australian 
wilderness is going to make this one a hard contact to snare no matter 
where in the world you may live.  (WIA News)

**

HAM RADIO ON THE WEB: HAMTUBE.COM WEBSITE FOR SALE

The popular hamradiotube.com website is up for sale.  According to an 
announcement on the website by its owner Donald Dubuque, W4DJD, 
operating costs coupled with a lack of donations from the viewing 
public have lead him to make the decision to divest himself of the 
site.

To quote Dubuque's website posting:  "These types of sites don't run 
cheap.  It takes money to keep the bandwidth and storage that videos 
require."

Hamradiotube.com is an amateur radio only version of the YouTube.com 
web operation.  W4DJD says that he enjoys running the site and that he 
is sad to let it go.  If you have the financial means to take it over, 
please contact W4DJD at his callbook address.  (Southgate, 
HamradioTube)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  WHITE HOUSE NAMES W7HAS AS NEW CYBERSECURITY 
COORDINATOR

Some names in the news.  The White House has named Professor Howard A. 
Schmidt, W7HAS, of Issaquah, Washington as its new Cybersecurity 
Coordinator. 

A long time public servant, Schmidt became interested in computer 
forensics as a police officer.  He started working with the Air Force 
in the early 1990's when he was called upon to assist the Office of 
Special Investigations to assist in countering hackers trying to 
penetrate Department of Defense systems.  

In addition to his work with the Air Force, W7HAS served as an 
information security advisor to the government for more than 30 years 
working for the FBI and the Bush administration after the September  
11, 2001 terror attacks on U-S soil.  He left the public sector in 2003 
to join eBay. Schmidt was also the first chief security officer at 
Microsoft and a co-founder of the company's Trustworthy Computing 
initiative.

Howard Schmidt holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and 
a master's degree in organizational management from the University of 
Phoenix.  He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters.  
In addition to amateur radio, he is an avid Harley Davidson rider, 
private pilot, fisherman and outdoorsman.  

In his new position he will have regular access to the President and 
serve as a key member of his National Security Staff.  He will also 
work closely with the President's economic team to ensure that 
cybersecurity efforts keep the United States both secure and 
prosperous.  (Published news reports)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS:  CANADIAN ARTIST WANTS TO PAINT COMMUNICATIONS IN 
SOUND

A Canadian artist who works primarily with sound and vision is inviting 
radio amateurs with good HF capabilities to take part in an audio art 
project on 20 meters.  Kapwani Kiwanga, will transmit a message on 20 
meters from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to territories that have a 
historic link with Holland.  These include such places as Surinam, 
Indonesia, and South Africa.

Participants in these countries will be asked to re-transmit the 
received message back to her in Eindhoven. Kiwanga will transmit it 
back to and so on and so on. This ping-pong effect will increasingly 
distort the message finally resulting in an abstract artistic sound 
recording.

Kiwanga says that she would like to get started on this project as soon 
as possible.  If you would like to take part in it, please e-mail her 
to kiwangakap (at) hotmail (dot) com or call her on 0031 617 638 920. 
Also, please copy the South African Radio Leage News at 
[email protected] which is following this rather interesting ham radio 
art creation come to be.  (SARL)

**


BREAK 2

Wishing you a Happy New Year 2010.  From the United States of America, 
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:

(5 sec pause here)

**

THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD:  EXPLORER KNUT HAUGLAND LA3KY - SK

The changing of the guard in Amateur Radio continues.  This, with the 
sad news that Knut M. Haugland, LA3KY, the last surviving member of the 
crew that crossed the Pacific Ocean in 1947 on board the balsa wood 
raft the Kon Tiki has died at age 92.  

Knut Haugland was a former Norwegian resistance fighter and explorer 
who was honored with Norway's Norways's highest decoration for military 
gallantry, the War Cross with sword, for helping prevent the German 
nuclear program from acquiring heavy water to make weapons during World 
War 2.  Similar honors were also bestowed upon him by Great Britain and 
France.  

After the war ended he joined the Kon Tiki ocean going raft expedition 
of Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, as one of its radio 
operators.  The Kon-Tiki eventually sailed 4,900 miles from Peru to 
Polynesia in 101 days to prove Heyerdahl's theory that ancient mariners 
may have migrated across ocean stretches. 

According to Wikipedia, during the Kon Tiki Pacific crossing Haugland 
and fellow crew member Torstein Raaby were in frequent radio contact 
with American amateur operators.  Much of the communications consisted 
of sending meteorological and hydrographic data to be passed on to the 
Meteorological Institute in Washington, DC..  Despite the tiny radio 
which had an output of only 6 watts they managed to contact radio 
operators in Norway, even sending a telegram to congratulate King 
Haakon VII on his 75th birthday.  Haugland also played himself in the 
1950 documentary film about the Kon-Tiki voyage.

The passing of LA3KY was announced by the director of the Kon-Tiki 
Museum who said that Haughland died in an Oslo hospital on Friday, 
December 25th.  (KC5FM, N6BQD)

**

WITH NEWSLINE:  ANDY JAREMA, N6TCQ MEMORIAL ON JANUARY 23rd

A memorial celebrating the life of former Amateur Radio Newsline 
treasurer Andy Jarema, N6TCQ, is slated for Saturday, January 23rd in 
Glendale, California.  As regular listeners know, Andy passed away from 
multiple organ failure just before noon on Tuesday, November 24th.  In 
keeping with Andy's wishes this memorial to be co-hosted by his sister 
Ann and his life companion Judy Hurst will be upbeat and a reflection 
of the way Andy lived his life.  (ARNewslineT)

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  NANOCOMPUTING 

The new year brings with it some new advances in nano technology as we 
hear from Jim Davis, W2JKD:

--

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY:  BIOELECTRIC ADVANCES TO INORIVE COMMUNICATIONS 
AND COMPUTING

Combining nanoelectric transistors with bioelectric machinery could 
soon lead to improved electronic, computing and communications 
products.  So say researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory where they have devised what they term as a versatile hybrid 
platform that uses lipid coated nanowires to build prototype 
bionanoelectronic apparatus.

While modern communication and data processing devices rely on electric 
fields and currents to carry the flow of information, biological 
systems are much more complex.  They use an arsenal of membrane 
receptors, channels and pumps to control signal transduction.  This the 
scientists claim is a system of internal signal flow unmatched by even 
the most powerful computers. 

Human is cited as a primary example.  The researchers note that 
conversion of sound waves into nerve impulses is a very complicated 
process, yet the human ear has no trouble performing it.

They add that the mingling biological components in electronic circuits 
could enhance biosensing and diagnostic tools, advance neural 
prosthetics such as cochlear implants, and could even increase the 
efficiency of future computers.

The research appeared in the online version of the Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences and more recently in Science Daily. You 
can read it at 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090811091834.htm

--

Truly a case where the smaller is the better for all of mankind. 
(Science Daily)

**
THE SOCIAL SCENE:  7th ANNUAL STRANGE DX CONVENTION APRIL 17

Only two items on the ham radio social calendar this week.  The 7th 
International DX Convention organized by the Strange Radio Team will be 
held April 17th and 18th in Italy.  The venue is Paestum near Salerno 
which is billed as a fantastic archeological area and tourist site.  
Access by air is through the Napoli Capodichino Airport.  More 
information will soon be on-line at strangeradioteam.com/idxc  (Strange 
Radio Team)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE:  EMCOMMWEST SEEKS SPEAKERS

The 2010 EMCOMMWEST ham radio convention to be held April 30th to May 2nd 
at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, is looking for speakers.  

EMCOMMWEST is an annual forum for radio amateurs to discuss the latest 
emergency communication techniques, learn what served agencies need and 
requirements are as well as learning about both the successes and 
failures from those directly involved in emergency communications work.  

Because of this presentations should be in some way emergency 
communications related.  If you would like to speak at this event, 
please send an e-mail to [email protected].  In return you will 
be sent a speakers application that allows potential speakers a place 
for a short description of your proposed talk as well as an opportunity 
for you to categorize it.

And less we forget.  EMCOMMWEST is recognized by the ARRL as an 
Operating Specialty Convention. The event's website is 
www.emcommwest.org  (KQ6FM)

**


HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  ARIS MEETS TO DISCUSS HAM RADIO IN SPACE ISSUES

Tuesday, December 15th saw a meeting of the Amateur Radio on the 
International Space Station working group.  Agenda items addressed 
included the VHF Automatic Identification System and the new ARISS 
antennas which were recently installed on the Columbus module.  Also 
discussed at this gathering was the status of ARISSat-1 whose 
deployment has been delayed until later in 2010.  This comes after , 
NASA informs AMSAT that the schedule of work for space walks or EVA's 
at the International Space Station is being revised.  (ANS)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  NEW CANADIAN ARISS WEB PAGE

And a new Canadian Web page has been developed to promote the Amateur 
Radio on the International Space Station or ARISS program.  The page is 
sponsored by the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club and is located in 
cyberspace www.ovmrc.on.ca.  Just select "ARISS" at the bottom of the 
left hand side menu.  (Press Release)

**


DX

In DX, word that DC0KK, is active until January 7th as from Sri Lanka 
as 4S7KKG.  Operations are on all HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY, PSK and 
WSJT.  QSL via DC0KK, direct or by the Bureau.

W2APF will be traveling on board the ship 'National Geographic 
Explorer' heading to the Antarctica region between February 8th to March 
5th.  He is expected to be operating as W2APF/C6A/MM while on board the 
ship.  In the Antarctic territories he will be signing W2APF/KC4 and 
VP8DML while in the territory of the Falkland Islands.  QSL all of this 
activity via W2APF.

N6QEK will be active portable VY1 from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory 
through January 4th.  Listen out for him on all bands between 80 through 
10 meters using RTTY, PSK31 and SSB.  His main goal is to activate the 
Yukon Territory for the ARRL RTTY Roundup Contest on January 2nd and 3rd. 
QSL direct to his home call or via Global QSL.

Lastly, looking ahead to next spring, the Midwest 6 Meter DX Group will 
operate stroke J 8 on 6 meters from Bequia Island between June 28th and 
July 5th.  QSL via KB3RHR.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM:  HOW RECORDS WERE MADE

And finally this week, have you ever wonder how records were made.  We 
are talking records as in phonograph not computer files.  Amateur Radio 
Newsline Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, knows because he has seen the movie:

--

Running almost 24 minutes, the movie is called "The Sound and the 
Story."  And it is the story of the record industry as told back in 
1956 by RCA when it was one of the worlds biggest producers of 
phonograph records, record players and associated products.  

 "The Sound and the Story" follows the process of making a 33-1/3 RPM 
"Long Play" or "LP" record, from original recording to first its play 
on a consumer record player.  The movie begins with a lesson in early 
recording technology including the mastering on an early Ampex tape 
machine that's fed by a crude by today's standards recording console 
used back then.  It in turn is fed by a number of  RCA ribbon 
microphones of the type we have all seen at radio museums or for sale 
on-line on eBay.  The show also touches on practices such as multiple 
takes and terms such as dynamic range, though with little  explanation 
of what any of this means. 

The exacting and surprisingly complex methods used in crafting the 
record "master" and the process of stamping the platters are 
illustrated in great detailed.  Additionally there is an explanation of 
the distribution system that was used at RCA's Indianapolis plant, 
which also supplied the roots of the RCA Music Service and other 
similar operations. These operations -- as we all know -- are now just 
memories of an era gone by.

"The Sound and the Story" clearly was aimed at the general audience 
with viewers of the film will also learning that RCA really took its 
end to end record quality control very seriously. However, those with 
experience in the record industry or the technically curious will have 
much to entertain them for the 20 some odd minutes that this show 
plays.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the 
studio in the City of Angels.

--

"The Sound and the Story" would make an excellent program for radio 
club viewing if a tape, DVD or even a projectable 16 millimeter film 
print were to be made available.  Meantime you can enjoy this piece of 
electronic nostalgia on-line at www.archive.org/details/SoundAndTheS to 
enjoy. (RCA)


**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

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 WIA News, that's all from 
the Amateur Radio NewslineT.  Our e-mail address is 
[email protected].  More information is available at Amateur 
Radio Newsline'sT only official website located at www.arnewsline.org.  
You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio NewslineT, 
28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita California, 91350 

For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Don 
Wilbanks, AE5DW, saying 73, Happy New Year and we thank you for 
listening.  

Amateur Radio NewslineT is Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved.