Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu May 25 2023 21:52:30 Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2378, for Friday, May 26th, 2023 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2378 with a release date of Friday, May 26th, 2023, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Deadly floods ravage a region in Italy. Hamvention 2023 is just a memory now -- and a tragic antenna accident claims a noted contester's life. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2378, comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** FLOODS RAVAGE REGION OF ITALY HOSTING WRTC NEIL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week takes us to Italy where deadly floods in one region have displaced and disrupted lives and the economy. This is to be the location of the World Radiosport Team Championship later this summer, as we hear from Graham Kemp, VK4BB. GRAHAM: Besieged by flooding that displaced more than 36,000 people and killed at least 14, Italy's Emilia-Romagna region has received some limited support from amateur radio. Greg Mossop, G0DUB, emergency communications coordinator for IARU Region 1, told Newsline that hams made use of local VHF repeaters to resume communications within affected towns until mobile and landline phone networks could be put back into service. He said the failures were not severe enough for local authorities to ask regional ham radio emergency networks to activate. Hams did remain on standby, ready to use HF, VHF and digital voice if necessary. Greg said the IARU received the information from Alberto Barbera IK1YLO (Eye Kay Won Why El Oh) of the RNRE radio communications network. Alberto said the affected area asked for additional support from other countries in the region to provide extra pumping capacity and those teams made use of VHF/UHF commercial communications supported by Starlink satellite terminals. Separately, organisers of the World Radiosport Team Championship, to be held this summer in Bologna - in this flood-impacted region -- were keeping an eye on the challenging conditions. Luca Aliprandi, IK2NCJ, who handles media and communications for the event, said on the WRTC Groups.io list that if some sites for WRTC are unusable, competitor stations may need to be relocated farther north of Bologna. He wrote [quote] "Our will and dedication to organising WRTC2022 will be stronger than any adversity." [endquote] This is Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (GREG MOSSOP, G0DUB, IARU REGION 1) ** ACMA, COLLEGE END RELATIONSHIP FOR AMATEUR LICENSING NEIL/ANCHOR: As Newsline went to production, the Australian Maritime College announced that it was severing its relationship with the Australian regulator for providing amateur licensee services. The college and the Australian Communications and Media Authority will go their separate ways in February 2024. Before the college's selection in 2019, services such as exams and callsign recommendations were provided through the Wireless Institute of Australia. The ACMA is to take the role of call sign allocation and examination syllabus control "in-house" to go with the licensing role which it already fulfills -- and to do this under the new class license framework. The ACMA said it would release a consultation on the new accreditation scheme this coming August at the same time as the new class licensing arrangements take effect. (ACMA) ** FCC TO REVISIT SPECTRUM ALLOCATIONS NEIL/ANCHOR: In the US, the FCC has a busy June ahead of itself: It's taking a second and perhaps a third look at spectrum allocations -- and there's a new candidate nominated to join them, as we hear from Paul Braun, WD9GCO. PAUL: In June, the US Federal Communications Commission will revisit ways the radio spectrum can be utilized more efficiently and study the propose testing of a few uses on part of the 42 GHz band in the so-called "greenfield spectrum." Greenfield spectrum refers to the part of the spectrum that is unutilized. The FCC's focus has been intensifying on this along with other parts of the spectrum because of the growing demand for its use by emerging wireless services -- and limited places to authorize their operation. FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced this plan in the commission's June agenda, posting her message on the agency website on May 17th. She said the 42 GHZ band was an apt place for conducting experiments with various spectrum-access models because of the absence of licensed users there. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has nominated a longtime telecom lawyer for the government, to join the FCC. Anna Gomez must still be confirmed by the Senate. The president's previous nominee, Gigi Sohn, withdrew from consideration several months earlier. This is Paul Braun, WD9GCO. (FCC) --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (954:895/7) .