Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Wed Apr 28 2021 17:34:26

CALIFORNIA AMATEUR HAILED AS 'GPS SLEUTH'

JIM/ANCHOR: A California amateur has used his skills to help in the 
rescue of a missing hiker as we hear from Mike Askins, KE5CXP.

MIKE: The Los Angeles Times is calling Ben Kuo, AI6YR, (Ay EYE Six Y R) a 
"tech-savvy good Samaritan" and a "GPS sleuth." Ben, whose ham radio 
activities have proven especially critical during California's wildfires, 
recently used his skills to assist in another emergency: Los Angeles 
County officials were frantically searching for a hiker who'd gone 
missing on a peak in California's Angeles National Forest on Monday, 
April 12th. Ben's only clue was a photo the sheriff's office had posted 
on its social media accounts: the hiker's photo of his legs atop a rocky 
cliff. Ben, who knows the area as a hiker and SOTA activator, realized he 
might be able to match the terrain in the hiker's photo by using publicly 
available satellite imagery. According to the Times story, when he 
thought he found a close enough match, Ben sent authorities the GPS 
coordinates. The location was close enough: Using the coordinates, a 
rescue team picked up the hiker the next day just as temperatures were 
set to plummet to below-freezing levels. The hiker was in a remote, 
almost inaccessible area about three-quarters of a mile away from the 
spot Ben had pinpointed.

Ben told Newsline he's grateful he could call upon his experience as a 
hiker and SOTA activator, both of which keep his map and navigation 
skills sharp. In fact, he said, the hiker was found not far from SOTA 
summit W6/CT-064, East Twin Peaks. According to news reports, the hiker 
was airlifted to safety by a search-and-rescue team, and did not require 
hospitalization.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mike Askins, KE5CXP.

(BEN KUO AI6YR, ABC CHANNEL 7, LOS ANGELES TIMES, VENTURA COUNTY STAR)

**

OREGON UTILITY FUNDS PURCHASE OF SOLAR-POWERED RADIOS

JIM/ANCHOR: Solar-powered emergency radios are being made available to 
some hams in coastal Oregon thanks to the local utility. Christian 
Cudnik, K0STH, brings us those details.

CHRISTIAN: The sun is shining in more ways than one for the members of 
the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem (nuh-HAY-lum) Bay in Oregon. The 
local electric utility has given them a $5,000 grant to help them buy ham 
radio base stations that run on solar power. A "go-box" has already been 
designed to serve as a solar-powered station with a 25-watt radio, 
antenna, battery, solar panel and other equipment, enabling emails to be 
transmitted over the air. The volunteer corps plans to set the stations 
up around the northern part of Tillamook (tilla-MOOK) County as part of 
their long-range plan to help bolster the coastal region's resilience 
following any major calamity. This is included in an overall 
communications plan that incorporates General Mobile Radio Service as 
well as amateur radio. According to an article in the Tillamook County 
Pioneer website, the region has more than 100 amateur radio operators,
and 400 more residents using GMRS.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Christian Cudnik, K0STH.

(THE TILLAMOOK COUNTY PIONEER)

**

NEW DISCOVERY FOUND IN FAST-RADIO BURSTS

JIM/ANCHOR: Is changing frequencies a good thing? Well hams do it all the 
time and now a mysterious transmission in space known as an FRB, or 
fast-radio burst, has been found to be engaging in that practice too. 
Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, has more on that story.

JEREMY: Researchers have made a discovery that they say changes the shape 
of their search for the source of FRBs, fast-radio bursts detected in 
space that appear to come from – well, no one quite knows. Scientists in 
McGill University's physics department have detected bursts down to 110 
MHz, a good deal lower in frequency than the previously detected 300 MHz. 
Writing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers write that 
this new discovery has led them to think differently about where the 
bursts are coming from. Using radiotelescopes in British Columbia and the 
Netherlands, the team detected the significantly lower frequencies and a 
consistent delay of about three days between detection of the higher and 
the lower frequencies. They're still hot on the trail of the source of 
the bursts but say that the ability to detect 110 MHz transmissions 
brings them much closer to understanding things, especially one burst 
that was first detected in 2018 and is relatively close to Earth.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH.

(PHYS.ORG)

**

BREAK HERE: 

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, 
heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the N2JDW repeater 
in New York City, on Monday at 8 p.m. local time.
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