Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Feb 14 2020 13:28:43 THAILAND PREPS FOR YOUNG AMATEURS' RADIO CAMP PAUL/ANCHOR: Radio camp season is coming up fast - and in Thailand, preparations are under way. Jason Daniels, VK2LAW, has those details. JASON: The Radio Amateur Society of Thailand is preparing to host a Youngsters On The Air camp in Rayong Province, on Thailand's southeastern coast. The popular, fast-growing YOTA experience will be open to youth throughout the region, from October 1st to the 3rd, at the Rock Garden Beach in Rayong. Hosting the Region 3 camp is the latest effort by the Thai radio society to encourage young students to pursue their interest in ham radio. RAST, which was selected as host during meetings last year, hopes to support young students' education, and give them skills to prepare them for licence exams, and to upgrade whatever licence they may have. The IARU's YOTA Region 3 website reaffirms its commitment to young hams saying: [quote] "Youngsters on the Air is a highly motivated group of people of all ages, and from all over the world working together tightly, to make sure that there will still be somebody to answer your CQ call in the future." [endquote] For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jason Daniels, VK2LAW. (RAST, IARU Region 3) PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, applications are now being accepted for the inaugural Youth on the Air summer camp in Cincinnati, Ohio, in June. Applicants must be licensed amateurs between the ages of 15 and 25 -- but act fast: You have only until the 15th of March to apply. Visit the website youth on the air dot org (youthontheair.org) ** CALIF. MARINES LOG DX CONTACT ON HF MOBILE PAUL/ANCHOR: Almost everyone loves the thrill of a good DX contact - and United States Marines are no different, as we hear from Dave Parks, WB8ODF. DAVE: Hams around the world will be happy to know that even members of the United States Marine Corps love a good DX contact. In late January, Marines at Base Camp Pendleton in California, logged a successful contact some 6,000 miles away with radio operators at Camp Shwab in Okinawa, Japan. The hams in California were operating mobile from the mountains just outside the base camp, transmitting on HF, using a field expedient antenna. Corporal Shelton Needham, a field radio operator, praised the antenna for the value it brings to mobile operations. The Marines noted this was the first such long-distance radio call in many years, for operators at Camp Pendleton, and it gave them renewed confidence in this kind of communication, if other modes, such as satellites, are attacked, or otherwise taken offline. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Dave Parks, WB8ODF. (U.S. MARINES WEBSITE) ** MARINES CONSIDER HF FOR ALTERNATE COMBAT COMMUNICATIONS PAUL/ANCHOR: Meanwhile, United States Marines elsewhere are learning HF operations from the ground up. Kevin Trotman, N5PRE, has that report. KEVIN: At Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, United States Marines are getting some basic training of a different sort from the Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club in Greenville. The hams there are teaching the Marines the nuts-and-bolts of high-frequency radio operations, in classes that include propagation theory, proper on-air operation procedures, frequency band allocation, and antenna theory, that covers both conventional, and field-expedient antennas. The classwork is part of a program called the High Frequency Auxiliary Initiative, which was created by Marine Corps. Col. Jordan Walzer, commanding officer of II MIG. The colonel is hoping the coursework provides additional options for Marines in a combat environment -- options that don't rely so much on space-based capabilities which he believes are more vulnerable to attacks from hackers and drones. The classes, which were held on the Marines' military base in late January, were part of an overall ham radio licensing course. In a press release issued by the military, Walzer called ham radio [quote] "a reliable, low-cost alternative to satellite communications." [endquote] For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Kevin Trotman, N5PRE. (DVIDS) ** --- SBBSecho 3.10-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (454:1/33) .