Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Sep 30 2022 09:29:28 Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2344, for Friday, September 30th, 2022 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2344, with a release date of Friday, September 30th, 2022 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Hams take to the airwaves for Hurricane Ian. A new report offers insights into the collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope -- and radio rides along for a bicycle climb up an iconic mountain. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2344, comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** HAMS MUSTER SUPPORT DURING HURRICANE IAN JIM/ANCHOR: Our top story this week looks at amateur radio's response as a life-threatening hurricane brought destruction in the southern United States. Randy Sly, W4XJ, brings us those details. RANDY: As Hurricane Fiona left Canada's Maritime provinces as a tropical depression, another hurricane was beginning to form in the Caribbean tracking toward western Cuba, the Cayman Islands and the western shores of Florida. The handoff between the two storms gave little time to relax for amateur radio operators working with the Hurricane Watch Net, VoIP Net, Salvation Army Emergency Radio Network, and emergency communications groups, such as ARES. By the time Ian reached the Florida coast near Fort Myers, it was a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. This catastrophic storm caused significant damage along with storm surge, torrential rains, flooding, power outages, and spin-up tornadoes. Bobby Graves, manager of the Hurricane Watch Net, said that the net would remain in full emergency mode to assist with any emergency, medical, or priority traffic as well as working with SATERN, the Salvation Army's network, to help in handling any outgoing health and welfare traffic. The net was to remain active after Ian's downgrade so hams could assist with post-storm reports for the National Hurricane Center. The FCC has also adopted a 60-day waiver that permitted hams to use a higher symbol rate for data transmissions - above the legal limit of 300 baud -- when assisting Hurricane Ian traffic. This is Randy Sly, W4XJ. ** REPORT PINPOINTS FACTORS IN ARECIBO COLLAPSE JIM/ANCHOR: A new report has pinpointed some contributing causes behind the collapse of what was once the largest radio telescope in the world. Kent Peterson, KC0DGY, brings us up to date. KENT: Engineers have identified a number of key factors that led to the 2020 collapse of the Arecibo Telescope, once the world's largest radio telescope. A forensic examination by the New York-based firm Thornton Tomasetti identified issues that included design of the cable system with relatively low safety factors for gravity loads as well as the force of naturally occurring events in the environment. Those included Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the January 2020 earthquake tremors in Puerto Rico where the telescope was located. The report said that despite having a hurricane-resistant design, Arecibo's cable system had already led it to suffer stress under its own weight whenever storms hit. The engineers recommended higher safety factors for cable systems under such conditions. Although the investigators said they found the telescope to be generally well maintained, they did note in their report that they found that moisture had intruded, paint had degraded and individual wires had broken within the cable system. This is Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. (THORNTON TOMASETTI, NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION) ** AMATEURS HELP WITH REUNION ACROSS BORDERS JIM/ANCHOR: A family in Bangladesh has been reunited with a long-missing relative, thanks to hams on both sides of the border with India. Graham Kemp, VK4BB, gives us the rest of this story. GRAHAM: It took 12 years and, ultimately, two groups of amateur radio operators to return a man to his home and his family in Bangladesh. The reunion took place on September 21st, allowing the man to leave the state-run home in Kolkata where he had been following a lengthy hospitalization. His family reported that he had gone missing a dozen years ago. He had apparently crossed the border into West Bengal. Press accounts in the Millennium Post and other media outlets described the 27-year-old man as mentally challenged and thus unable to provide information about his origins either to hospital personnel or later to those at the state home. Authorities at the home contacted the West Bengal Radio Club. Club secretary Ambarish Nag Biswas, VU2JFA, visited the man and determined he was from Bangladesh. He reached out for help to Anup Bhowmick [ANOOP BOWMICK], S21TV, secretary of the Amateur Radio Society of Bangladesh. The two clubs arranged for a video call between the man and his family and after that, details were worked out for his return home. This is Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (MILLENNIUM POST, AMBARISH NAG BISWAS, VU2JFA) --- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (954:895/7) .