Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Oct 06 2017 07:42 am Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2084, for Friday, October 6, 2017 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2084, with a release date of Friday, October 6, 2017, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. India does emergency planning with the nation's hams. Pennsylvania preps for a friendly QSO party -- and a Tennessee Net does things old school. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2084, comes your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here and Intro) ** INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO HELP HAMS' DISASTER PREP JIM/ANCHOR: We begin this week's newscast with word that the Indian government is giving higher priority to ham involvement. The urgent need for amateur radio operators throughout the year in India, especially during periods of dangerous weather, has prompted government leaders to incorporate hams into more of their disaster planning. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, has that report. JEREMY: Sometime before the end of the year, the government of the Indian state of Pune expects to roll out an effort to efficiently coordinate deployment of area ham radio operators through district collectorates during emergencies such as landslides, earthquakes, and floods, and to assist in public safety support during cultural functions and religious pilgrimages when traffic levels are high. The state's disaster management director Rajiv Nivatkar outlined the plan in a recent report in The Times of India, acknowledging that the project still is unfunded, but officials hope to move it forward by the end of the year. All state governments have received instructions from the National Disaster Management Authority, asking officials to allocate agencies and arrange for the training of volunteers. In the state of Maharashtra, the initiative is already under way in Sindhudurg where district leaders have trained about 20 amateurs for such assistance. An estimated 50,000 ham radio operators are believed to be active throughout India. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (THE TIMES OF INDIA) ** COMMUNICATION STATION MARKS 50 YEARS JIM/ANCHOR: Radio transmissions have always been a mainstay of one station in western Australia, where communications have occurred in the low frequency part of the spectrum for half a century. Here's Graham Kemp, VK4BB, with the details. GRAHAM: For 50 years, radio signals have been transmitted at very low frequencies from an antenna array in western Australia, in an area covering more than 1 thousand U.S. acres. This is the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station, in the shire of Exmouth. Commissioned in 1967, it was transferred in 1992 from the command of the U.S. Navy to the Royal Australian Navy. Its original purpose was to give the U.S. Navy the ability to communicate with its submarines and other vessels in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans. On the 16th of September, the station marked 50 years of operation, in which it has, and continues to play a highly strategic role in the still-vibrant relationship between the U.S. and Australia, supporting both nations' military vessels. Exmouth residents and officials marked the event with a full weekend of celebrations, since the shire's establishment is so tightly linked to the station's creation a half-century ago. The station itself operates with 13 towers, where the tallest antenna among the array stands nearly 400 meters above ground. The station is named for the former Australian prime minister, who was presumed to have drowned mysteriously in 1967, at the age of 59, while swimming off the coast of Victoria. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA, THE WEST AUSTRALIAN) ** ZOMBIE SHUFFLE CONTEST SCARES UP CONTACTS JIM/ANCHOR: There's a Halloween-themed CW contest later this month, and it's frightful fun -- at least that's what we hear from Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. DON: With Halloween only a few weeks away, we have to ask: do you believe in zombies? Perhaps when you're on the air, you might even be mistaken for one. No, that's not an insult - it's the description for a highly prized operating method, that comes in quite handy during this year's Zombie Shuffle, on Friday, the 20th of October. Zombies, you see, don't sprint -- they shuffle - hence the name for this eight-hour QRP contest. It's designed mainly for North and South American operators using CW, and it's marking its 20th year of operations among the undead. To participate, you'll need to be assigned a Zombie Number, which you can obtain free. Visit the Amateur Radio Newsline website at arnewsline.org for details, and a link to the page. Be not afraid! Dust off your key, and get out there, and scare up some contacts. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. LINK: http://www.zianet.com/qrp/zombie/2017/pg.htm --- þ Synchronet þ The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org .