Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Mar 15 2019 09:36 am ICELANDIC CONTESTERS GET A BOOST NEIL/ANCHOR: Contesters in Iceland have just gained even more room for competing on 160 metres. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, has that story. JEREMY: Hams in Iceland have been given approval again this year to use the frequency range between 1850 and 1900 kHz for a number of major competitions, including the ARRL's separate DX Contests for SSB and CW, along with the CQ World-Wide 160 metre competitions for SSB, and for CW, and the IARU HF World Championship. Iceland's national amateur radio society, Icelandic Radio Amateurs, reports that the Post and Telegram Administration has authorised the use of this frequency range solely for the purpose of participating in the contests, as in the previous eight years. These are frequencies that are otherwise used by the Maritime Traffic Service, which has given its own approval for the hams to operate there. Hams in Iceland otherwise make use of the frequencies on that band between 1810 and 1840 kHz using full power, or 1 kw on a primary basis. The Post and Telegram Administration has told the hams that those with G licences are permitted to use the allowable full power of 1 kW in that temporary frequency range, but N licencees' operation cannot exceed 10 watts. So, if you're in any of the big contests with 160 metres this year, be listening for call signs from Iceland. The president of Icelandic Radio Amateurs, Jonas (Yo-NAS) Bjarnason, TF3JB, told Newsline that each licensee needs to renew their request to the Administration individually by E-mail. For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (SOUTHGATE) ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, Nigel, G3TXF, is operating as 3B8XF, from Mauritius until the 24th of March. Beyond his plans to take part in the RSGB Commonwealth and Russian DX contests on the 16th and 17th of March, he will be operating CW and FT8. QSL via Club Log's OQRS and LoTW. Meanwhile, if you've been waiting with the rest of us for the start of the Bouvet Island DXpedition Three Why Zero Eye (3Y0I), here's an update: The team's web page reported recently that the team has reassembled in Cape Town, South Africa. Final vessel preparations are being made. As the team says [quote] "Stay tuned for further news coming soon." [endquote] ** KICKER: HIGH IN THE SKY BUT NOT ON AMATEUR RADIO NEIL/ANCHOR: Finally, we report that the launch of a special CubeSat project by Virginia students is on schedule - but it won't be on the amateur bands, after all. The scheduled April 17 launch of four Virginia universities' CubeSat constellation is going forward, but licensing issues are keeping its UHF packet repeaters from using the amateur spectrum, according to a report posted online by Mike, KQ9P, one of the project's team members. The repeaters will instead operate at 401 MHz. Students from four Virginia universities are participating in the project, which is launching their trio of small satellites in Houston, on a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket. Their destination is, of course, the International Space Station. The Virginia Cubesat Constellation mission is designed to deploy the three nanosatellites, so that they orbit almost simultaneously. The CubeSats will be measuring various properties of the Earth's atmosphere. The participating schools are the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Hampton University, and Old Dominion University. Mike wrote online that the team hopes that the next CubeSat project will at last have an amateur radio payload aboard. (ARISS, AUGUSTA FREE PRESS, SATNEWS) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; the Augusta Free Press; Amateur News Weekly; AMSAT; ARISS; the ARRL; CQ Magazine; Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure; the G-QRP Club; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; K2BSA; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QRZ.COM; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; SatNews; the Washington Post; Wireless Institute of Australia; 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 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 Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, in Bloomington, Indiana, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. --- 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 .