Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Feb 22 2019 10:50 am CINCINNATI AMATEURS PREP FOR MAKER FAIRE PAUL/ANCHOR: Skill and inventiveness in the fields of engineering and science, are the hallmarks of the modern maker fairs, and there's one coming soon to Cincinnati, Ohio. Jack Prindle, AB4WS, filed this report, for the Amateur News Weekly podcast, and we share it here. JACK: The Cincinnati Mini-Maker Faire has announced the 2019 date. The Faire returns to the Cincinnati Museum Center at the restored Cincinnati Union Terminal, for one day only, on Saturday April 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The OH-KY-IN amateur Radio Society hosted a booth last year, and was very successful. if you are interested in volunteering to man the booth, please contact Cesi at kd8oob at gmail dot com(kd8oob@gmail.com) Covering your Amateur Radio News in the Greater Cincinnati Area, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, this is Jack Prindle, AB4WS, normally in Big Bone, Kentucky, by tuning in this week from sunny Clearwater, Florida. (AMATEUR NEWS WEEKLY) PAUL/ANCHOR: Our thanks to our friends at Amateur News Weekly for that report. For more news in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, visit amateurnewsweekly dot com (amateurnewsweekly.com). ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K7MMA repeater in Spokane, Washington, on Fridays at 5 p.m. local time. ** OSCAR SATELLITE SUCCESS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN AMATEURS PAUL/ANCHOR: Imagine the excitement of a receiving signals from the first geostationary amateur radio satellite. Well, there's a ham in South Africa who didn't use his imagination -- just his rig. Jason Daniels, VK2LAW, tells his story. JASON: The Qatar (KAT-R) OSCAR 100 transponders on-board the Es'hail (S-HAIL) Two satellite create the first geostationary amateur radio satellite, and is covering the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, and indeed, there's one ham in South Africa, who is mighty glad for that: Rickus de Lange, ZS4A, is credited with being the nation's first amateur radio station to monitor QSOs on the OSCAR 100, after his dish received the satellite's signals on the 13th of February, on the eve of its official Feb. 14 inauguration. The satellite became available for amateur use on an experimental basis on the 12th of February. Rickus told Newsline in an email: [quote] "What an experience it was, eventually running around in the rain at night, to quickly put up the Dish on a Tripod, and getting it aimed correctly." [endquote] He had received the LNB as a gift from his friend Leon, ZED-S-ONE-MM, and Leon had converted it to a lower Local Oscillator frequency. Rickus told us [quote] "I started playing with it, and searching for the Engineering beacon for 2 weeks, but with no luck." He told Newsline that contributing to the lack of initial success, was the fact that he was unaware the first dish was an offset-fed one too. But he was encouraged. He said: [quote] "The first signals that I could hear on the WebSDR was the kick in the backside that encouraged me further to put more effort in." [endquote]. He switched to a normal DSTV Offset 60cm Dish, and from inside his shack, where his laptop was using an SDR dongle, he could see the signals on the waterfall, and hear the SSB signals clearly. That's when he ran outside in the rain, and put up the station outside. He said it felt great hearing hams operating out of Europe, and surrounding countries, instead of just hearing OSCARS flying past. Two days later, Rickus and Leon shared another "first" - Leon called him in CW, becoming the first ZS station to transmit over the satellite. Rickus said [quote] "This is a fantastic Bird that they have put up, and this will help a lot of hams to be able to DX on UHF, which is otherwise only possible via EME and not so easy to do." [endquote] We think Rickus speaks for many hams who welcome OSCAR 100 to the sky. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jason Daniels, VK2LAW. (AMSAT-SA, SOUTHGATE) ** HAMS SIMULATE CYCLONE RESPONSE IN INDIA PAUL/ANCHOR: Hams in India spent two days recently preparing for the cyclone they hope will never come. Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, shares this report. JIM: The gathering of hams in the Indian state of Odisha, was part Field Day and part amateur radio camp. Members of the Amateur Radio Society of Odisha spent two days on an uninhabited island, unreachable by conventional communications, and simulated a scenario of natural disaster. The exercise on February 16th and 17th, was designed to sharpen the operators' readiness, in case of such calamaties as cyclones, which are not uncommon in that region. The drill did not go unnoticed by public officials. Officials from the Puri district administration visited the island to observe the hams in action. They had a stake in the outcome of the exercise too: During Cyclone Titli in October of last year, Gajapati district was cut-off from the outside world for a few hours, but communications stayed intact because of ham radio. Meanwhile, the hams had a very proud showing by the end of the exercise on Sunday evening. Using solar power and their radios, the eight operators were able to contact 130 hams - many from elsewhere in India, but also in Denmark, Russia, Australia, Thailand, and Indonesia. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF. (THE HINDU NEWSPAPER) --- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32 * Origin: RadioWxNet: The Thunderbolt BBS tbolt.synchro.net (801:1/2) þ Synchronet þ Temple of Doom BBS - tod.eothnet.com .