Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Feb 27 2020 22:18:11

A TOWERING VICTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA

JIM/ANCHOR: Hams and their neighbors are often at odds over the towers
on their residential property, but in Pennsylvania, one amateur has won
the support of local officials. Heather Embee, KB3TZD, has that story.

HEATHER: A Pennsylvania town council has upheld the right of an amateur
radio operator to have a 40-foot tower at her house. According to a
report in the York Dispatch, a town engineer told the board of
supervisors in Windsor Township, Pennsylvania, that his on-site
assessment of the tower, constructed by Lindsey Fowler, K0WXT, convinced
him, that despite neighbors' concerns, the structure is safe.

Area residents have been objecting to the tower's presence, since
Lindsey built it last September. Neighbors have expressed concerns
about the tower's safety, and also call it an eyesore, that they claim
will destroy property values of nearby homes. They are also afraid that
exposure to radio waves will prove harmful to them.

The York Dispatch report notes that Pennsylvania state law protects
hams' rights, and municipalities cannot unreasonably restrict towers
standing less than 65-feet high. According to the newspaper, another
amateur radio operator living a few houses away has a similar tower.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD.

(YORK DISPATCH)

**

WORLD OF DX

In the World of DX, an update was recently posted, reporting that the
long-awaited 3Y0I (Three Y Zero Eye) Bouvet Island Dxpedition, the
Rebel DX Group, is on track. Although the team said they are still
needing funds to help with the budget, the trip is becoming a reality,
and the second try will be in December. Meanwhile, the team has plans
to first activate Banaba Island, with the call sign T33T, later this
year. The team is in the process now of securing the call sign T22T
for activate Tuvalu afterward. They promise more updates.

(OHIO PENN DX, FACEBOOK)

**

KICKER: ELECTRICITY THAT COMES FROM THIN AIR

JIM/ANCHOR: In an ideal world, you could operate portable, or even
mobile, without ever worrying about running out of electricity -- but
what if electricity turned to be, well, ALL around you? It's no
fantasy, as Dave Parks, WB8ODF, explains in this week's final story.

DAVE: Electricity doesn't grow on trees - as anyone involved in Summits
on the Air, Parks on the Air, even Field Day, will tell you. Still,
wouldn't it be nice if you could leave all those batteries, solar panels
and generators home, and just pull the power for your activation out
of....thin air?

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst think so. They're
working on a device that creates electricity from humidity, by using a
natural protein. Using a microbe known as Geobacter, they've created an
air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires,
something the microbe produces. Researchers are calling the protein-based
device the Air-gen. Their finding, written up in Phys.org, was first
reported in the journal Nature. The protein nanowires are connected to
electrodes by the Air-gen in a manner that creates electrical current
using ambient water vapor.

Researcher Jun [pronounced: Joon] Yao told Nature: [quote] "We are
literally making electricity out of thin air." [endquote] It's
non-polluting, it doesn't require wind or sunlight, and it even works
indoors.

OK, well don't get too excited right now. Before you ditch that Honda
generator, keep in mind what the scientists have also written in the
Nature abstract: [quote] "the devices produce a sustained voltage of
around 0.5 volts across a 7-micrometre-thick film, with a current
density of around 17 microamperes per square centimetre." [end quote]

At least for now, Field Day may have to wait.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Dave Parks, WB8ODF. 

(PHYS.ORG, NATURE)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; the BBC;
the DARC; David Behar, K7DB; Daryl Stout, WX4QZ; FCC.GOV; Jimmy White
KC1ETT; Nature; Pedro Converso, LU7ABF; Phys.Org; shortwaveradio.de;
Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show;
Virginia Oliver, KC5SAM; 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 arnewsline.org.

For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York,
and our news team worldwide, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, in Charleston,
West Virginia, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.
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