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Subject: Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2452 for Friday October 25th, 2024
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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2452 for Friday October 25th, 2024
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2452 with a release date of
Friday, October 25th, 2024 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. A shortwave radio giant in Austria is poised to
shut down. One of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers becomes a
Silent Key -- and a TV crime drama in Germany probes a ham radio murder
mystery. All this and more as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2452
comes your way right now.

** 
BILLBOARD CART

**
AUSTRIA'S SHORTWAVE GIANT FACES SHUTDOWN

PAUL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week takes us to Austria where a giant
among the world's shortwave stations is poised to go off the air at the
end of the year. Graham Kemp VK4BB has those details.

GRAHAM: After weeks of speculation, Austria's ORS Shortwave radio
station confirmed that its shutdown date will be December 31st. The
news came to the German national ham radio society's weekly Radio D A R
C programme on October 14th as was reported in their October 20th
programme.

The station recently lost its major broadcast client, Adventist World
Radio, which will end its transmissions this month. That leaves only a
handful of customers for the ORS station, including Radio D A R C, for
whom it carried a special worldwide broadcast of the World Radiosport
Team Championship in 2018.

The shortwave site was formerly the Radio Austria International
broadcast station and is well-known for having had Europe's largest
directional antenna system for shortwave broadcasts.

Various news reports, including those from Radio D A R C in Germany and
the British DX Club, had said that the Moosbrunn site was likely to be
shut down by the 31st of December. 

ORS is among the few remaining shortwave broadcasters in Europe and has
provided programming for listeners in the Near East, the Middle East
and Africa.

(RADIO DARC, BRITISH DX CLUB)

**
FOUR DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH INTO RADIO TOWER

PAUL/ANCHOR: A helicopter crashed into a communications tower near
downtown Houston, Texas on Sunday, October 20th, Kent Peterson KC0DGY
brings us up to date.

KENT: Four people on board a helicopter died after it crashed into a
radio tower in Houston, scattering debris for miles and setting off a
grass fire in the immediate area.

Various media reports said that no one on the ground was injured,
either from the fiery crash or the subsequent collapse of the tower on
Sunday, October 20th. The city's mayor, John Whitmire, told local media
that it was fortunate that the tower, which had guy wires, collapsed
instead of toppling over. The mayor said that the explosion set off by
the crash was like [quote] "a fireball out of the air." [endquote] The
crash victims reportedly included a child.

Houston's ABC 13 news said that the tower was equipped with red
flashing lights designed to make it visible to aircraft but the lights
had a history of malfunctioning. KHOU Channel 11 said that the lights
were reported as not working on the 16th of October. 

SBA Communications, which acquired the tower on September 6th, released
a statement on Monday, the 21st of October, addressing the issue of the
failed lights. The company said that it had filed a Notice to Air
Missions with the FAA, as is required when a tower presents potentially
hazardous conditions that may have an effect  on aircraft. The
statement said the notice was filed while the new ownership began work
to integrate the tower into its Network Operations Center. Antennas on
the tower included those of three Houston area radio stations.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation.

This is Kent Peterson KC0DGY.

(RADIO WORLD, CNN.COM, ABC 13)

**
TUNISIAN HAM CAMP FOR YOUNGSTERS GETS YASME GRANT

PAUL/ANCHOR: Good fortune smiled upon the recent Youngsters on the Air
subregional camp in Tunisia. For one thing, the camp coincided with the
major worldwide scouting event, Jamboree on the Air. For another thing,
they received some important monetary support. We have those details
from Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: Young radio amateurs throughout the north of Africa enjoyed the
weekend subregional camp of Youngsters on the Air with the support of a
grant from the Yasme Foundation. The grant to the Association of
Tunisian Radio Amateurs was announced on the foundation website five
days before the camp itself got underway on the 18th of October. This
is the second year that IARU Region 1 YOTA has been able to organise an
African subregional camp.

This year's participants included two youngsters each from Mauritania,
Morocco, Egypt, Libya and Algeria. Young hams were also joined by
members of the Tunisian Scouts who were very familiar with the location
as a well-used international scout camp facility. Organisers said that
the inclusion of scouts this year will allow the hams to expand their
own network even more. Camp activities include building antennas, fox
hunting, solving problems and, of course, getting on the air.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(DX-NEWS, YOTA REGION 1)

**

SUCCESS FOR FRENCH EXPERIMENT IN LASER COMMUNICATION

PAUL/ANCHOR: Yet another experiment in the use of laser communication
to send data has been declared a success. We hear about it from Jeremy
Boot G4NJH.

JEREMY: Defence officials in France have publicly praised an experiment
in high-speed optical satellite communication that they hope will
eventually become useful in the nation's military space strategy. The
experiment resulted in successful space-to-earth laser communication
between a small ground station and Keraunos, a nanosatellite launched
late last year into low Earth orbit. It is yet another example of
scientists exploring the use of optical waves as an alternative to
using radio. The ground station was described as a white dome 4 metres
in diameter with a telescope sticking out. It was able to track and
receive transmitted data.

The French Defence Ministry released a statement in September extolling
the advantages of optical communication, which include "speed,
discretion and independence from regulations that coordinate the use of
radio waves. Even if this optical link can sometimes be perturbed by
atmospheric turbulence, the Keraunos satellite is able to circumvent
them in order to achieve optimum transmission quality." The project is
the result of a collaboration between France's Defense Innovation
Agency and a small company known as Cailabs.

This is Jeremy Boot G4NJH.

(BREAKING DEFENSE)

**
SILENT KEY: NAVAJO CODE TALKER, JOHN KINSEL SR., 107

PAUL/ANCHOR: One of the three remaining World War II veterans known as
Navajo Code Talkers has died. John Kinsel Sr. died in his sleep at his
Arizona home on Saturday, the 19th of October. He served the United
States military in the elite group of Marines who used their native
language as the basis of a code to securely transmit troop movement
information and other critical messages. The code was never broken by
the enemy.

According to various news reports, with his death only two of the
original Navajo Code Talkers remain. 

John Kinsel Sr. was 107.

(NBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN, THE NY TIMES)

**
YOUNG AMATEURS INVITED TO ENTER "DREAM RIG" ESSAY CONTEST 

PAUL/ANCHOR: Using their imagination and their devotion to amateur
radio, young radio operators are once again being invited to enter the
Dream Rig contest sponsored by the Intrepid DX Group. Sel Embee KB3TZD
========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========