How close are we to losing 440?

If you've been paying attention to some of the news items this week, legislation is now introduced (by Pete King of New York) that would force amateur radio operators to give up the popular 70cm (440MHz) band by selling the spectrum off to commercial interests that would offset lost revenue from reallocating first responders' frequencies in order to streamline communications. This comes in light of a review by the 9/11 Commission which recommended a more integrated network of communicating with the different agencies to prevent the communications issues that arose during the attacks on September 11, 2001.

The frequencies given to the first responders is the freed up spectrum from the conversion of TV from analog to digital.

Bill HR 607 has now been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles telecommunications legislation. It's one of the beginning steps that is taken to get an act passed through into law. A long ways to go, but when it comes to raising money through a bake sale method, Congress finds ways to move it through in expedited fashion.

There are a couple of obstacles that could get in the way, in the form of two members of Congress who are hams. One is Greg Walden, W7EQI, who made headlines in December when he tweeted in morse code on Twitter that he was going to chair the House Communications Subcommittee. This may be the biggest ally ham radio has, and he's in a powerful position to force the bill back in to revision.

The other congressional ham operator is Representative Mike Ross, WD5DVR of Arkansas. He is a Democrat (Walden is Republican) so the potential for getting support of the opposition of this Bill in its present form on both sides of the aisle is greater.

Another potential ally is Congressman Billy Long of Missouri, who co-sponsored the Bill. He's gone on record in USA Today stating he's willing to come to an amicable solution to ensure that neither the first responders or hams are affected by this spectrum selloff, so we need to hold him to that promise.

The ARRL has a video on the bill.

I can understand the need to raise "bail money" considering the debt we're getting ourselves into, but doing so at the cost of one the best resources for emergency communications is a grave misstep. Besides, there's some spectrum down in the 220 band that was sold off awhile back and look how that turned out. Why not give that to the first responders? Or give it back to the amateur operators who would use it more than it's being used now.

Titanic Special Event Station W4S next weekend

Next Saturday and Sunday (April 9-10) there will be a special event to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Listen for call W4S on the air from Noon ET Saturday until Noon ET on Sunday, operating from the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge, TN.

Having toured the museum right after it opened last year, I can tell you it's well worth the time and the price of admission to take the self-guided tour if you're ever in Pigeon Forge. The artifacts are not from the ocean floor, but either collected from people who were on the boat and disembarked in Cherbourg, France, or Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, or from the debris during recovery.

The family and I will be up there operating during the evening hours, and I plan to try and stay overnight if possible. So listen for W4S and say hi to me!

Yaesu factory damaged from earthquake

My favorite ham radio brand Yaesu (I own 6 of them) has suffered some damage to its factory in Fukushima, Japan.

Although the damage from the earthquake was minimal, the plant is reducing operations for at least 2 weeks in order repair the damage and get operations back to normal.

Vertex Standard CEO Jim Hasegawa issued a statement saying that while all factory workers at the Fukushima plant were accounted for, the company has been unable to contact many of their vendors located along the Japanese coastline hammered by the powereful tsunami last Friday.

The Vertex Standard plant is about 60 km inland from the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant currently struggling to prevent a radioactive meltdown.

Legit cold fusion breakthrough?

Last month I posted about a suspicious claim from Italian "scientists" that they had a machine that was producing 12,400 Watts of heat power out on 400 Watts on input.

The italian claim is off-base and without much merit, but now the US Navy has researchers in a lab claiming a breakthrough in nuclear energy-based cold fusion:

The scientists on Monday described what they called the first clear visual evidence that low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR), or cold fusion devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists say are indicative of nuclear reactions.

Cold fusion is still skeptical to me, however, the US Navy is more of a respectable source than some questionable scientists who self-publish their hogwash.

I wonder if it would count towards bonus points on Field Day for "Alternate Power"?

Flare biggest of Solar Cycle 24...so far

We're about 3 years into the current Solar Cycle and so far it's been less than stellar (pun intended), that is until now.

If the recent flare is any indication, we might see better-than-predicted activity from the sun this cycle.

The CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) should be hitting earth any time over the next 36 hours with beautiful aurora over the polar latitudes. And it may knock activity on the HF bands down to a standstill.

As Sunspot 1158 continues to grow, more Earth-directed flares could erupt and wreak havoc on the bands.

An couple of amazing animations of the flare can be found here and here.

This could very well be the kick-start that sun-watchers have been looking for that shows the activity on the sun is accelerating towards a peak in the activity, predicted to be in May, 2013.

Solar X-rays:
Geomagnetic Field:
From n3kl.org
Here are some sites to bookmark for solar weather:

• My space weather page
• Spaceweather.com
• SolarCycle24.com
• SOHO
  
• STEREO spacecraft
• NOAA Space Weather
  

ARISSat-1 delayed until July

Due to changes in the work schedule for the current EVA, the launch of ARISSat-1, scheduled for right now, has been delayed until NET July, 2011.

More info can be found on AMSAT-NA's web site.

Tough times for towers

They say things happen in threes, and tower fights are no exception.

Within a week, 3 articles appear online about homeowners fighting neighbors over towers in their backyards:

• In Maryland, residents in Severna Park are up in arms over construction of an 80' tower despite owner Richard Hambly (W2GPS) obtaining all the necessary permits for the tower. Hambly, who designs GPS hardware and is a consultant on Satellite projects (someone who's quite familiar with radio interference issues) is facing complaints that neighbors have about the tower affecting property value and aesthetics and one complained that neighbors were not consulted beforehand. I didn't know hams needed their neighbors' blessings before putting up towers...
  
  An appeal to rescind his permit was on February 9th.
  

• In New York City, residents are complaining that a 30' tower was constructed illegally and is obstructing their view (as if there's much to see in NYC other than more buildings, judging by the slideshow).
  
  Paul Isaacs, W2JGQ contends it was constructed legally but the city apparently revoked the permit.
  
  Citing a work order stoppage, residents are demanding the tower be removed permanently.
  

• And out in Arizona, Lee Winsor, K1VIK is in a dispute with neighbors over 2 towers he wants built (40 and 33 feet respectively) and is claiming his knowledge of ham radio and the need for antennas trumps that of the city planning staff and wants an engineering study performed. Casa Grande ordinance states that towers cannot exceed the height of the roof of the main structure on the property, which in this case is 16 feet.
  
  68 residents signed a petition to have construction of the tower blocked.
  

25 years after Challenger

It's one of those questions anyone over college-age gets asked every so often about this time of year: Where were you when you heard about Challenger? You don't have to ask, you know which mission being asked.

STS-51L was one of those missions that, with the exception of the planned teacher in space, received little news coverage leading up to the launch. I myself forgot the shuttle was supposed to even go up that morning 25 years ago today, and I'm a self-proclaimed "NASA nerd".

I was a Sophomore in high school, and was on my way to pre-algebra class when I walked through the hall in front of the library and in passing heard a student talking to another mumble "...space shuttle blew up!".

I was hurrying to get to class and thought it had to be some sort of joke, and missed the punchline. While in my pre-algebra class my mind kept going back to that remark. Was there a launch today? What was the mission? Who was going up?

We would go to lunch after 30 minutes in class, so we dismissed for lunch, and as I was eating, a classmate came up to me and said "Did you hear? the space shuttle blew up!"

"...and?..." I replied, waiting for a punchline. Praying for one...

"No, seriously, it blew up, the TV's on in the library!"

I spent a couple of minutes telling him it couldn't be true, but he said to go up and see for myself, so I did. I rushed through lunch (I think it was another one of our many "pizza pig-out" weeks we had, where they crammed pizza down our gullets all 5 days until we were sick of it) and hurried up to the library.

The TV was on ABC and they began another of one of the hundreds of replays shown over and over that day. All the students were silent and transfixed on the small screen as the events played out, and Challenger lifted off, rolled, climbed, accelerated, then disappeared behind a fireball, the SRB's separating apart, spiraling and wandering aimlessly out over the Atlantic.

The shock of watching 7 lives end on national television was a powerful moment. Right before my eyes I'm seeing history, and not the history I wanted to witness. And then, they show it again. And again. And again. And again...

I got home from school and turned it on CNN, and watched it, repeatedly, as I tried, like much of America, to find out what in the hell could have caused it. All we had to use for our amateur forensics was the one feed shown on NASA TV as it occurred. The launch replays from all the different angles we often see were never aired (that I'm aware) until months later and the only other video they decided to show was Christa McAuliffe's parents watching from the press section as their daughter was killed in front of millions.

That night, President Reagan addressed the nation (postponing the State of the Union address) and said all the right things we needed to hear:

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

I recall a very somber time those next few days, months, and years as NASA struggled to reclaim the respect and credibility of its days of going to the Moon. I followed the investigations, the accusations, and the blame game passed from one agency within NASA to another. I relived some of those emotions once again when Columbia broke apart 17 years later.

My father was there that day at Kennedy Space Center. He was driving a busload of tourists to the Kennedy Space Center and this was his 2nd launch. He knew immediately something was wrong, but many people, having never seen a launch in person before, thought it was the normal SRB separation and were cheering. He remarked it as one of the more surreal experiences in his life.

There will never be another vehicle like the space shuttle. It was a piece of science fiction turned science fact, and as NASA prepares to sunset this program, we are left wondering what the next step for our manned space program will be.

Going into space is a risky business, and these 7 brave astronauts (and all astronauts who are in the program) know that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong if not addressed properly. As Challenger took off on that cold January morning, they knew the risks involved.

The crew of Challenger will always be remembered for their bravery, inspiration, and most importantly, their spirit to achieve, excel, and succeed.

RS1S heads to the ISS

Hams around the world will be on the lookout for a new satellite to listen for in the weeks ahead.

The KEDR satellite (ArissSat-1)is aboard the Progress M-09M supply vehicle preparing to launch to the International Space Station (scheduled for January 27/28th) for release later in the year via a spacewalk.

Weighing in at 30kg (66lbs), the satellite was named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's radio callsign on his historic flight as the first human in space, and is celebrating the 50th anniversary of that flight.

KEDR will transmit 25 greetings in 15 different languages and will transmit pictures back to earth as well as scientific data and telemetry. The frequency will be 145.950 MHz, callsign RS1S.

Stay tuned!

Cold fusion near reality?

From PhysOrg:

(PhysOrg.com) -- Few areas of science are more controversial than cold fusion, the hypothetical near-room-temperature reaction in which two smaller nuclei join together to form a single larger nucleus while releasing large amounts of energy. In the 1980s, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleishmann claimed to have demonstrated cold fusion - which could potentially provide the world with a cheap, clean energy source - but their experiment could not be reproduced. Since then, all other claims of cold fusion have been illegitimate, and studies have shown that cold fusion is theoretically implausible, causing mainstream science to become highly speculative of the field in general.

Despite the intense skepticism, a small community of scientists is still investigating near-room-temperature fusion reactions. The latest news occurred last week, when Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W. Last Friday, the scientists held a private invitation press conference in Bologna, attended by about 50 people, where they demonstrated what they claim is a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor. Further, the scientists say that the reactor is well beyond the research phase; they plan to start shipping commercial devices within the next three months and start mass production by the end of 2011.

Like most the rest of the world, I call bullshit, and I know jack about physics. The paper they submitted on this reactor has been rejected by their peers, citing lack of proper theory on how the reaction works, but it was published in the Journal of Nuclear Physics. Never heard of it? That's because the scientists themselves fund and operate it!

They have applied for a patent, but it has been partially rejected, citing lack of evidence since it apparently is designed to defy the general laws of physics. I don't see why. After all, the Fushigi defies the laws of physics and they got a patent...

The YouTube video (I'll understand if you don't watch the whole 41 minutes, especially if you don't understand Italian) is vague at best on how it works. How appropriate it was in Bologna...

So there you have it, a reactor you can't see, no details on how it specifically works, a partially rejected patent for how the reactor is supposed to work, and the only "journal" to publish their findings is the one they own! So yeah, perhaps I'm a tad skeptical.

Maybe Wayne Green was right after all...hell, he's probably got his hand in this snake oil pitch...

NanoSail-D comes alive

From NASA:

On Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT.

The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets.

Amateur ham operators are asked to listen for the signal to verify NanoSail-D is operating. This information should be sent to the NanoSail-D dashboard at: http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm. The NanoSail-D beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz.

More at the NASA web site or click here.

Stay tuned!