Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Oct 13 2017 08:21 am A PORTABLE CHALLENGE FOR SUMMITS ON THE AIR STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Summits on the Air operators have a challenge on Oct. 21, and it's not the upward climb. Here's Ed Durrant, DD5LP. ED's REPORT: Within Summits on the Air, participants from time to time plan activities. The next event is to try to get contacts between Europe and the Antipodes. While band conditions are slowly improving, allowing home station-to-home station contacts using long path on twenty and forty metres, and even allowing portable to home station contacts, the most difficult are portable-to-portable contacts, and this is exactly what is being planned. Stations located on Summits in the UK, Continental Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, with simple antennas and low power, will be trying to make Summit to Summit or "S2S" contacts. While those using CW or the new FT-8 data mode will probably have some success, the real challenge will be for SSB contacts. As always though, even in these low sunspot times, you never know what is possible until you try. We wish the best of luck to all taking part in this event, on Saturday, October the 21st. If you hear someone calling CQ SOTA, from about 0600 UTC on the 21st, why not give 'em a call. I know it'll be appreciated. For details of the SOTA award scheme, and a link to their spotting cluster SOTAWatch, please go to SOTA dot ORG dot UK. For Amateur Radio Newsline, this is SOTA Activator, and Chaser, Ed Durrant, DD5LP. ** KICKER: HAPPY SPECIAL EVENT BIRTHDAY OSCAR NORRIS W4OXH STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our final report is about a once-in-a-lifetime birthday gift to a 100-year-old ham. We'll let Paul Braun, WD9GCO, tell this story of generosity and brotherhood. PAUL: Birthdays are like milestones in a person's life. It's a big deal when you turn one year old. Or when you turn 16, and get your driver's license. Your first beer at 21. Turning 30, and then 50. But not many make it to their 100th birthday. If you do, it is most definitely something to celebrate, which was exactly the thought that Dan Kern, W-Zero-D-F-U, had during a conversation earlier this year, on a DMR talkgroup. I talked to Kern about his adventure: DAN KERN: Back in, we'll call it April-ish or May of this year, I had made a DMR contact with Oscar Norris, whose callsign is W4OXH, and he was introducing himself to me, telling me he's from Gastonia, North Carolina, and that in September, he'd be turning 100. Now, he doesn't sound 100 on the air. And so I said, "That is awesome! What are you doing for your 100th birthday?" He said, "Well, I live here in an assisted-living home, and just don't really have any plans." So I think, "Oh, no! This is terrible!" because the call that preceded mine, he told the gentleman that he was going to be turning 100, and the gentleman from England said that the Queen either personally calls, or sends a letter to their centenarians. After hearing that, and talking to him, I just felt compelled to do something special, not only because he's a fellow ham, but also because he's one of our seniors. I contacted ARRL, and also got a special-event callsign set aside for him, which was November 1 Charlie. He opted for November 1 Charlie meaning to him "Norris 1 Century." He said it was his best birthday present, having his own special callsign. PAUL/ANCHOR: Kern worked with the local club in Gastonia, and arranged to use a church hall for the event, with food, friends and radio. Norris was touched: DAN KERN: He sat down with me, and he and I were sitting there talking, and it was more than just a handshake - he grabbed my hand during the entire conversation, he wouldn't let go! He was so tickled that this event came together, and that we were celebrating his 100th. PAUL/ANCHOR: Despite bad band conditions, Kern said they made around 1000 contacts, and the event was a success: DAN KERN: He was getting calls from all over the world, wishing him a happy birthday, and at the very end, they took a group picture, and he said his thank-you's and then he said, "Oh! I have one more thing to tell you guys. I just love you all!" PAUL/ANCHOR: All of us here at Newsline, would like to thank Dan Kern, for his thoughtfulness, and a very happy 100th birthday to Oscar Norris! For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** NEWSCAST CLOSE NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; KGW.COM; New York Daily News; Ohio Penn DX Bulletin; Rob Fenn KC6TYD; Ron Wright W7ERY; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; WTWW Shortwave; and you, our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website, located at www.arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. --- þ Synchronet þ The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org .