RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for February 6th, 2021

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. IARU Receives Gift of hamradio.org Domain

Andrew J. Wolfram, KI7RYC, has donated the hamradio.org domain to the International
Amateur Radio Union (IARU) for non-profit educational use to promote the amateur
and amateur satellite services.

In accepting this gift, IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, said, “The hamradio.org
domain offers a unique opportunity for which we are deeply grateful to Andrew.
It is our intention to develop a website that can serve as a focal point for anyone,
anywhere, who may be seeking information on amateur radio, which is better
known as ‘ham radio’ by the general public.”

The IARU is the global federation of national amateur radio organizations with
member-societies in more than 160 countries and separate territories. Since its
founding in 1925, the IARU has successfully defended and expanded access to
the radio spectrum by radio amateurs internationally.

-- arrl news

ONTARIO SECTION NEWS

ITEMS OF INTEREST

2. Radio hams offer network to help community

The Kamloops Amateur Radio Club in British Columbia is offering its expanding communication
network to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District for use during emergencies.

Myles Bruns VE7FSR, club president, said the club's network of mountaintop repeaters could
provide assistance in the event that other lines of communication fail.

The club’s network has served a similar purpose in the past, around the time Bruns first
joined the club. During the 2003 North Thompson wildfires, Bruns said some regular
communication lines between Kamloops, Clearwater and Barriere were severed.

Since then, Bruns said, the club has modernized its infrastructure, moving to an
internet-based linking system. From each mountaintop to each mountaintop, there’s a
microwave link that provides high-speed broadband communication between those locations,
and that whole network is back-hauled to Kamloops.

Watch the Castanet News story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjea5KRk1c0

Read the full story at:
https://www.castanet.net/news/Kamloops/322556/Local-radio-club-offering-use-of-network-to-TNRD-for-emergency-scenarios

3. ARISS and Partners Are Investigating Space Station Ham Radio Failure

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and its partners are troubleshooting
a failure within the on-board NA1SS amateur station in the ISS Columbus module. The problem
does not appear to be with the radio equipment in Columbus, however. ARISS realized the problem
when a contact with a school in Wyoming, between ON4ISS on Earth and astronaut Mike Hopkins,
KF5LJG, at NA1SS, had to abort when no downlink signal was heard.

“Today was a tough one for ARISS,” ARISS-International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, began in a
message on January 28 to the ARISS team. Bauer explained that during a January 27 spacewalk
to install exterior cabling on the ISS Columbus module, the current coax feed line installed
11 years ago was replaced with another built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus.
It included two additional RF connectors to support the commissioning of the Bartolomeo
payload-hosting platform installed last spring on Columbus.

During the spacewalk, an external four-connector coax feed line replaced one with two RF connections.

With the spacewalk completed, the ISS crew restarted the ISS ham radio station on January 28,
but no voice repeater or automatic packet repeater system (APRS) downlink reports were heard.
During a scheduled school contact at 1746 UTC, no downlink signal was heard either, and the
attempted contact had to be terminated.  Troubleshooting continues.

-- for the full article, see arrl website news

4. Plans to Retrieve Titanic Wireless Equipment Put on Indefinite Hold

RMS Titanic, Inc., (RMST) the company that owns salvage rights to the Titanic shipwreck,
has indefinitely put off its plans to retrieve the vessel’s radio equipment for exhibit.
The company cited the coronavirus pandemic for the delay, according to a court filing the
company made on January 29. The Atlanta-based company said its plans have faced
“increasing difficulty associated with international travel and logistics, and the
associated health risks to the expedition team.” RMST’s primary source of revenue comes
from its exhibits of its vast collection of Titanic relics, which have been closed or seen
only limited attendance due to virus-related restrictions.

-- full article at arrl website news

This concludes this week's bulletin.
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Bulletin sent from Official Bulletin Manager

Posted by: Paul Caccamo <va3pc @ rac.ca>