Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Dec 17 2021 08:37:02

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2303, for Friday, December 17th, 2021

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2303, with a release date of
Friday, December 17th, 2021 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. Hams on alert during deadly US tornadoes.
Radio re-enacts historic transmissions - and everyone's on the air
this holiday season: even Santa. All this and more as Amateur Radio
Newsline Report Number 2303, comes your way right now.

***

BILLBOARD CART

**

CENTRAL US TORNADOES BRING HAMS INTO ACTION

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We begin this week with deadly tornadoes that
devastated homes and lives recently in Kentucky and nearby states.
Randy Sly, W4XJ, shares those developments.

RANDY: SKYWARN nets were activated across much of the central
United States from Friday evening into early Saturday, December 10th
and 11th, as a tornado outbreak of unprecedented proportion tore
through Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri,
Ohio, and Tennessee.

Christine Weilgos (Well-gus), Warning Coordination Meteorologist for
the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, which covers one
of the hardest hit areas, reported that their SKYWARN desk was manned
by two local amateurs, Garry Wheatley, KD4GCY, and Jeff Estes, KM4LDP.
The SKYWARN linked repeater system across Arkansas was also active
throughout the night.

At least 50 tornado reports were received by the NWS during the
evening. Of the four strongest tornadoes reported in western Kentucky,
the largest was tracked for over 200 miles on the ground. At least 88
people are known to have perished across five states. The highest
impact was in Kentucky, where the death toll stands at 74, with an age
span from 2 months to 98 years of age. There are reports that
approximately 100 people are still unaccounted for. Early estimates of
damages and economic losses have ranged into the billions of dollars.

ARES and other amateur emergency resources across the area are still
ready to go, should additional communications support be needed.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Randy Sly, W4XJ.

**

AMATEURS MARK 2 MARCONI ANNIVERSARIES

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Radio operators on both sides of the Atlantic marked
two big moments in radio history as Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, tells us.

JEREMY: The two Marconi anniversary activations had everything but 
Guglielmo Marconi himself. Members of the Marconi Radio Club of 
Newfoundland and the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club in Cornwall, England
paid tribute to Marconi's first experimental radio transmission across
the Atlantic. The Newfoundland amateurs contacted the Poldhu radio
operators marking December 12th, 1901, the day Marconi first heard a
transatlantic transmission, Morse Code for the letter "s," sent from
Cornwall to Cabot Tower in Canada.

There was even more excitement, however, the previous day in Ardrossan,
Scotland. Amateurs there received a duplicate of a message sent 100
years earlier from the US on amateur radio frequencies in the shortwave
spectrum.

Shortly after the re-enactment of the December 11th, 1921 transmission
got under way in Connecticut, however, the replica of the 1BCG
transmitter failed and went off the air. The replica, built for the
75th anniversary of the transatlantic tests, had been restored earlier
this year by the Antique Wireless Association in Bloomfield, New York.

The association's Mark Erdle, AE2EA, told Newsline in an email that
that the transmitter suffered a plate choke failure. He said the
association hopes to get it back on the air by February of 2022.

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

(QRZ.COM, MARK ERDLE AE2EA)

STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In case you missed this test re-enactment, up until 
December 26th you can still work UK stations using a "/2ZE" (Slash
Two - ZED -E) suffix on their normal call signs. Until the end of
December, the special event stations GB2ZE (G B 2 ZED E) and GS2ZE
(G S 2 ZED E) will be on-air to celebrate Paul Godley's achievements
back in 1921.

(RSGB)
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (454:1/33)

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