May 2002 Newsletter
LOOKING AHEAD:
May 16, For the May meeting we will return to the Red Cross Building on East Franklin Street. As usual, the meeting will get underway at 7:30 PM. May 23, Advanced SKYWARN Training at the Public Works Building at 7:30 PM.
A PAT ON THE BACK:
Many thanks to the following for their service during the Red Cross Blood Ride: Steve WA3RTC who was the UCARS contact/coordinator who also worked at rest stop #5, Andrew KD5IBO and Peter KG4QLV at the Start/Finish Line, Bob KB5WY who served as the roving net control station and at rest stop #2, Ron KC4YOY who served at rest stop #3, David KF4YOZ who was at rest stop #4, John KF4OYT who was with the Red Cross, and the writer who was at rest stop #1 and #6. Thanks Again.
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE FROM THE ARRL LETTER OF MAY 3RD:
SHUTTLEWORTH ENJOYS BUSY WEEK IN SPACE
It's been a busy, but apparently enjoyable, week on the radio and in the laboratory for South African Mark Shuttleworth, who paid $20 million to have the time of his life in space and conduct a little research. Shuttleworth this week completed four Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contacts. On April 29 Shuttleworth spoke with students at Bishops College--his alma mater--marking the first ARISS QSO with a school in Africa.
"I'm living my own dream here," the 28-year-old Shuttleworth told the Bishops students. "We need to think about our future and dream about a better future, and I hope that this project--the realization of a dream--will inspire some other people to pursue theirs."
Shuttleworth also thrilled several US amateurs by showing up unannounced on 2 meters during a North American pass May 1. Shuttleworth's solo casual operation--at the encouragement of ARISS--resulted in a string of contacts.
"As you can imagine, I was thrilled to work him," said Stan Vandiver, W4SV, who was at or very near the head of the line in working Shuttleworth. "He was doing a pretty good job fielding the calls." Those who routinely monitor the ISS145.80 MHz downlink frequency got a hint that something was up when they began hearing Shuttleworth's British-accented English instead of packet bursts.
"Wow!" was the simple reaction of Bruce Weaver, K3LTM, the advisor to the Cowanesque Valley School Amateur Radio Club in Knoxville, Pennsylvania, after the school's KB3BRT club station made its own brief contact with Shuttleworth.
"The class shouted 'hello' to him, and I told him our QTH and some info about the school," Weaver said in a posting to AMSAT's SAREX (Space Amateur Radio Experiment) reflector. "It was very exciting for everyone."
Among several other stations, Shuttleworth also spoke briefly with ARISS International Group Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. "Thanks, Frank. Thanks very much for your help with A-R-I-S-S," Shuttleworth said, spelling out the acronym.
During a May 2 ARISS QSO with students gathered in Gauteng, South Africa, Shuttleworth spoke at some length about his research projects. He described one experiment from the University of Stellenbosch as especially challenging and ambitious.
"No one's ever done anything like it in space before," he said. The experiment involves carrying sheep and mice embryos and stem cells into space to see how they react to the weightless environment. Upon his return, the embryos and stem cells will be compared to identical embryos and stem cells left on Earth.
Other research involves attempts to crystallize HIV and human immune system proteins to study their structure and provide insights into developing drugs to treat AIDS, a major health problem on the African continent. Shuttleworth said he also was studying muscle degradation and the ways humans burn energy in space.
Accommodations aboard the ISS are "not too bad" and "quite comfortable," according to Shuttleworth. "The International Space Station is all about learning how to make space suitable for human exploration, and we still have a very long way to go," he said. Nonetheless, he added, the food's good and the view is fabulous.
A native of South Africa, Shuttleworth now lives in London. He and his two crewmates--Russian cosmonaut and ISS veteran Yuri Gidzenko and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori, IZ6ERU, blasted off April 25 from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz "taxi mission." They will begin their return to Earth May 5.
All of Shuttleworth's ARISS contacts have been via WorldCom teleconferencing hookups using Amateur Radio Earth stations in Australia, South Africa and the US. Vittorio is scheduled to attempt a direct 2-meter ARISS contact with a school in Cervignano del Friuli, Italy on May 4.
ARISS is an international project with US participation by the ARRL, AMSAT and NASA. More information is available on the ARISS Web site: http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov.
AMATEURS MUSTER FOR WEATHER EMERGENCIES
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams activated or stood by to assist as severe weather struck several states in recent days. The National Weather Service (NWS) said storms over the April 27-28 weekend left pockets of devastation from Kentucky to Maryland.
"It has been a wild 24 hours in Charles County, Maryland," said Maryland ARRL Section Manager Tom Abernethy, W3TOM. A tornado April 28 badly damaged the business district in La Plata. Among structures destroyed or damaged were the Charles County Chapter of the American Red Cross office and the building housing the Charles County Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Abernethy said Michelle Sack, N3YRZ--on the job at the LaPlata hospital at the time--broke into a SKYWARN net to report a tornado only one-half mile away to the west heading directly for her location. "She tracked and described the tornado until it struck her location and then continued to provide on-the-scene assessments," Abernethy said. Other amateurs along the storm's track also provided reports on severity and damage.
Charles County ARES Emergency Coordinator and RACES Officer Mike Tackish, KA3GRW, activated the Charles County ARES/RACES team's emergency plan. Amateurs established a UHF command/control net while VHF tactical nets supplied communications for the hospital, which was left without telephone service or internal communication.
ARES/RACES also worked with the county's Director of Emergency Services, Donald McGuire, and provided communication at Red Cross shelters. ARES/RACES teams from Prince Georges and Calvert counties supported Charles County ARES/RACES. After an activation that lasted until 2 AM the following day, amateurs returned a few hours later to enable direct communication between damage assessment teams in the field and the Charles County EOC.
Amateurs specially trained in National Weather Service severe weather investigations also assisted NWS Meteorologist Barbara Watson of the Washington/Baltimore NWS office in its follow-up investigation of the tornado, a record-breaker at F5 on the Fujita scale with winds of 261 MPH or greater.
"Amateur Radio has once again proved to be of immense value to our community in time of disaster," Abernethy said. "With large areas of the county without commercial power and cell phones not useful due to overloading, Amateur Radio provided a communications bridge in the time of need until normal services were restored."
In Kentucky, Section Emergency Coordinator Ron Dodson, KA4MAP, said the Wide Area Repeaters Net (WARN) and Meade/Breckinridge County ARES responded April 28 to assist both the National Weather Service and Meade County Emergency Management when severe weather struck that state.
Dodson said a weather-spotting net activated after a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the two counties. A few minutes later, a tornado was spotted in Breckinridge County. A second report of a possible tornado west of Irvington was followed by damage reports east of the town. As a result of amateur reports, the NWS issued a tornado warning. Several homes in the Irvington area were damaged or destroyed, Dodson said, and one person died. No major damage was reported in Meade County, although the area experienced power outages, high winds and heavy rainfall. Dodson said 11 amateurs participated in the response.
Floyd Sense, K8AC, notes that a tornado that swept through the Jackson Township, Ohio, area April 28 severely damaged the home of Jerry LaRocca, KF8EB, in Massillon. "Jerry and his wife, while in the house when the tornado struck, were uninjured," Sense said. "The home next door, about 50 feet away, was completely leveled."
In Erie, Pennsylvania, Lee Williams, N3APP, reported that a line of severe thunderstorms that plowed through his area April 28 left a trail of destruction. The Radio Association of Erie was providing communications for a March of Dimes nine-mile walk, which was called off after the severe weather hit. "SKYWARN was activated, and the event's net control was advised that a tornado warning had been issued," Williams said.
High winds damaged buildings at the Erie International Airport, which also suffered a power outage. Trees and power lines also were downed, but no injuries were reported.
In Missouri on April 24, tornadoes struck southeastern Missouri. Hardest hit were Butler, Carter and Madison counties. More than 100 homes were damaged or destroyed. ARRL Missouri Section Emergency Coordinator Patrick Boyle, K0JPB, said ARES teams and individual amateurs remained on standby to assist if needed during the recovery period.
SOLAR UPDATE
Solar sage Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Both average solar flux and daily sunspot numbers dropped last week. Sunspot numbers were down more than 30 points, and solar flux was down nearly 20 points.
During the last half of April, three coronal mass ejections sent energy past Earth, resulting in geomagnetic storms. Energy from a coronal hole should sweep past us shortly, but it shouldn't cause the kind of upset that April's storms brought us. Over the next few days expect moderate geomagnetic activity with a rising solar flux. Flux values are expected to rise above 180 by Sunday and peak for the near term above 200 around one week from now.
Lower geomagnetic indices are generally good for HF propagation. The solar flux is rising, which is also good. Ten meters should be fading away as we move toward summer, but 15 meters should do quite well over the next month. This summer 20 meters should be excellent during nighttime.
Sunspot numbers for April 25 through May 1 were 208, 160, 173, 121, 124, 113 and 166, with a mean of 152.1. The 10.7-cm flux was 167.3, 162.6, 156.9, 147.1, 153, 153.4 and 162.4, with a mean of 157.5. Estimated planetary A indices were 5, 6, 8, 19, 9, 8 and 5 with a mean of 8.6.
IN BRIEF
* Amateur Extra class population tops 100,000: For the first time ever, the population of Amateur Extra class operators topped 100,000 licensees. According to figures available from the FCC Amateur Radio Statistics Web site: http://ah0a.org/FCC/index.html compiled by Joe Speroni, AH0A, there were 100,153 Extra; 85,690 Advanced; 138,980 General; 319,768 Technician (including Tech Plus); and 38,574 Novice licensees. As of the end of April, there were 683,165 total Amateur Service licensees in the FCC database. According to Speroni's statistics, 1888 new licensees came aboard during April 2002--1800 of them as Technicians.
* Sixth Southeastern VHF Society conference draws a crowd: Fans of the Amateur Radio bands above 50 MHz flocked to the sixth Southeastern VHF Society Conference April 26 and 27 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Those in attendance enjoyed a diverse program of presentations from moonbounce (EME), weak-signal and antenna experts plus a bit of digital signal processing. Presenters covered operating and station-construction techniques for all the bands between 50 MHz and 50 GHz. Highlights included Al Ward, W5LUA, detailing how he and Barry Malowanchuk, VE4MA, completed the first-ever Amateur Radio 24-GHz EME contact. "47 GHz is next!" Ward predicted. L.B. Cebik, W4RNL, showed some improved topologies and element spacings that achieve substantial reduction in the side and back radiation of Yagi and log-periodic arrays. Paul Wade, W1GHZ, told the gathering about his design and use of periscope antenna systems and how they help him get 10-GHz contacts. Dexter McIntyre, W4DEX, won the coveted K4UHF Award. Conference Proceedings are available from ARRL for $20 (order item 8683). Visit the ARRL on-line catalog: http://www.arrl.org/catalog or call toll-free 888-277-5289.--Doug Smith, KF6DX.
UCARS NET CONTROL SCHEDULE:
Assigned stations thus far are:
1st Monday: George & Mary (N4NGC & K4MDV)
1st Wednesday: George & Mary (N4NGC & K4MDV)
2nd Monday: Jairus (KG4PAM)
2nd Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
3rd Monday: Ron (KC4YOY)
3rd Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
4th Monday: Allan & Pam (KF4NJP & N8PAM)
4th Wednesday: Bob (K4RLD)
If you are interested in serving as a NCS on a regular or backup basis, please call me at 704 289-2122 or e-mail me at
[email protected]. Thanks! (The Editor)