RAC Bulletin 2015-07-11

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for July 11, 2015

This is V__3____, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of
Canada, with this week's bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

ONTARIO SECTIONS NEWS

1. CANWARN Training Summary for 2015

Geoff Coulson reports "Across the province, just shy of 1500 people came
out this year.
Of that total, about 500 were first time attendees, so the overall
number of spotters in the database
now rests at around 6500.

Also for those of you interested in learning more about Weatheradio, a
CANWARN volunteer of long-standing,
Gord Maybee, has been producing a Weatheradio Newsletter for the last
little while.
If you’d like more information about the newsletter, please feel free to
contact Gord at blindgordie@gmail.com

Keep your eyes to the sky and feel free to report occurrences of severe
storms that you may experience."

-- Geoff Coulson, Environment Canada

ITEMS OF INTEREST

2. AM transmitters switched off in Germany

Radio Magazine reports on the shut down of two German AM broadcast
transmitters on July 6.
While there is general gnashing of teeth regarding some countries plans
(or lack thereof)
to shut down their FM networks, there seems to be no equivalent with
respect to plans on
shutting down AM medium-wave stations.

At 2 a.m. local time, July 6, both of the WDR (West German Radio) MW
transmitters were turned off for good.
Funds thus saved will be re-allocated for DAB+ radio.

The transmitters were in Langenberg (720 kHz @ 63 kW) and Bonn (774 kHz
@ 5 kW).
The programs that had been transmitted via the two AM stations are
already available via the internet,
over DAB+, satellite radio, and on local cable systems.

-- 
http://www.radiomagonline.com/trends/0004/wdr-will-switch-off-mw-stations-reallocate-funds-for-dab/36701

3. Satellite Made "on the Cheap" Closing in on 2 Years in Orbit and
Still Ticking

At just a few months shy of turning 2 years old, the Amateur Radio
“PocketQube” microsatellite —
also known as Eagle 2 (MO-76) — is still operating, although it’s not
entirely well either.
The satellite, which transmits on 437.505 MHz at a power of 100 mW, may
be heard using a handheld transceiver,
but it does not include a transponder.

The tiny satellite actually was constructed from about $250 worth of
parts and measures just
5 × 5 × 7.5 cm and weighs 210 grams.

One of the builders said the power situation on board continues to
deterioriate, the satellite
requires 3300 mV for the transmitter to fire up.

“we never really thought it would last this long. We would have been
happy if it just worked,
and really happy if it lasted a month or two."

-— Full story available on ARRL.org in the news section.

4. From the Project Bin (RTTY keyer) ..

If you are considering Tinyfsk for FSK transmit with 2Tone decoder, all
you need is an Arduino Board,
a 2N2222 and 1K resistor to drive the FSK TX port on your transmitter.
After you get it working,
you might want to put it in a little metal box for RFI protection.
For the full article see: http://www.frontiernet.net/~aflowers/tinyfsk/
or google "tinyfsk arduino"

This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V__3____ returning the frequency to net control.