Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Mar 19 2021 00:15:15 INDIAN HAMS MARK 100 YEARS OF RADIO NEIL/ANCHOR: This is a big year for amateur radio in India. Jason Daniels, VK2LAW, tells us why. JASON: Since January, radio amateurs throughout India have been celebrating the 100th year since the first ham radio licence was issued in that nation. It has been a busy year as well for Nilkantha Chatterjee, VU3ZHA, and Amrita Bose Chatterjee, VU3VCV, who have been involved in training throughout India through a group known as OSCAR, Open Source Classes for Amateur Radio. Nilkantha told Newsline in an email that OSCAR has been providing online webinars, homebrew sessions, coaching institutes for YLs and, when possible, antenna-building workshops, also with a special emphasis on teaching YLs. OSCAR, which is part of the Smart Future Foundation initiative, also has its own smartphone app in English, downloadable from Google Play. In addition, Nilkantha has been operating with the special callsign AT2YAR, marking the 100-year celebration. India's first licenced amateur was Amarendra Chandra Gooptu who had the call sign 2JK 100 years ago. He was followed later that same year by Mukul Bose with the call sign 2HQ. By the 1930s, India still had only 50 licenced operators, a number that grew to 1,500 by 1980. Much later, India's former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was not only a supporter of amateur radio but a licensed operator himself with the call sign VU2RG. India launched its first amateur radio satellite, the HAMSAT, in 2005. There are now more than 45,000 licensed hams in India as it moves into its second century on the air. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jason Daniels VK2LAW. (NILKANTHA CHATTERJEE VU3ZHA) ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, Mats, SM6LRR, will be active as 8Q7MS from the Maldives between March 28th and April 10th. He is operating holiday style on mainly 40-15 meters using CW, but he will also be using some SSB too. He does not plan to be on either 160 or 80 meters and will post QSL information soon. Be listening for the special callsign DQ11WCA to be active from Germany until April 17th. Hams are activating different areas in the World Wide Flora Fauna and World Castle Award programs and successful contacts earn points in both awards schemes. The station also has a DOK-region number of WCA11 for the DLD award of the German Amateur Radio club. There is no need to send QSL cards; all QSOs will be confirmed automatically via the Bureau. Bodo, HB9EWU, is on the air in Zambia where he is on a humanitarian mission. He is using the call sign 9J2BG and is active on 20 meters. Send QSLs to HB9EWU, direct or by the Bureau. He is unsure of the length of his activation but will send QSL cards in 2022 when he returns to Switzerland. Members of the International Amateur Radio Contest DX Club are active as C7A during March for the World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations. Operators are on 60 through 6 metres, including the WARC bands and are using CW, SSB and the Digital modes. You can also hear them in the CQWW WPX SSB Contest being held March 27th to 28th. Send QSLs to UA3DX, direct or by the Bureau. According to the group's Q R Zed.com page at press time, the DXCC status of this station based in Vienna, Austria is not yet defined by the DXAC or ARRL. (OHIO PENN DX, SOUTHGATE) ** KICKER: HIS CALL SIGN'S JUST THE TICKET NEIL/ANCHOR: Our final story of the week is for all of you who think it would be impossible - just impossible - to EVER forget to renew your license. Here's Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. KENT: The last name Garriott isn't one you easily forget if you're a ham and you follow the US space program. The late astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL, is credited with having made the first QSO from space on amateur radio. That was in 1983 when he was aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. His son is astronaut Richard Garriott, who was assigned the callsign W5KWQ, and who in proud tradition has also used amateur radio from space, as part of the ARISS program. Richard has a lot of other accomplishments to his credit: He is the first person to have visited both the North and the South poles and last month he traveled to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench on Earth. As accomplished as he may be, Richard still has some unfinished business and it relates to amateur radio. His call sign apparently expired recently. So he took to Twitter on the 7th of March and in a reply to Trevor, M5AKA, acknowledged that his status as an "ex" ham was only going to be temporary. Acknowledging the lapse, he tweeted: [quote] "Will correct ASAP!" [endquote] His return to the ham bands should come a whole lot sooner than another goal he's got his eye on: Richard recently applied to be part of the dearMoon project, a private lunar tourism mission. The trip is planned aboard a SpaceX Starship in 2023. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. (TWITTER, AMSAT NEWS SERVICE) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to the Amateur News Weekly; AMSAT News Service; the ARRL; Associated Press; CQ Magazine; David Behar, K7DB; David Jordan, AA4KN; Frank Bauer, KA3HDO; Hackaday; Mike Curta, KD0UFO; Nilkantha Chatterjee, VU3ZHA; the NIST; Ohio Penn DX newsletter; QRZ.com; Radio World; Radio Society of Great Britain; Southgate Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; Twitter; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the Wireless Institute of Australia; 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 Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, in Bloomington, Indiana, saying 73. As always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. --- SBBSecho 3.13-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (454:1/33) .