Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu Mar 31 2022 20:54:27 RSGB REOPENS NATIONAL RADIO CENTRE AT BLETCHLEY PARK STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park has opened its doors again following a brief COVID-related closure. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, brings us up to date about returning to visit. JEREMY: Visitors are again welcome at the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park. The centre reopened on Monday, the 28th of March having been shut after many members of its volunteer team had fallen ill with COVID-19. While visitors are still encouraged to wear face masks, they are not now mandatory. Amateur radio operators will have to wait a little longer to operate from the GB3RS amateur radio station on site, however, as it remains unavailable. The radio room itself is open, however; and groups may visit in small numbers. RSGB members will be allowed to use their vouchers for free entry to the centre and it is no longer necessary to book arrival times in advance. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (RSGB) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the J88CU repeater on Fridays at 6:30 p.m. local time in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. ** HAMVENTION WEEKEND BANQUET WILL HONOR APRS PIONEER STEPHEN/ANCHOR: If you're going to Hamvention, get your tickets early for the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet. The dinner is honoring a pioneer who became a Silent Key this year. Jack Parker, W8ISH, has the details. JACK: One of the highlights of Dayton Hamvention weekend this May is expected to be the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet which is being held in honor of APRS pioneer Bob Bruninga (BREW nin guh), WB4APR. Bob, who became a Silent Key in February, developed the widely used packet system more than a quarter century ago, enabling real-time tracking and data transfer over amateur radio frequencies. The dinner is taking place on Friday, May 20th at 6:30 p.m. local time and will showcase Bob's life and achievements. Tickets are $57 each, and must be pre-purchased no later than Friday, May 13th from the AMSAT store; they will not be sold at the AMSAT booth. The banquet will take place at the Kohler Presidential Banquet Center in Kettering, Ohio, a 20-minute drive from Hamvention at the fairgrounds in Xenia. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jack Parker, W8ISH. (AMSAT, TAPR) ** TELESCOPE'S DETAILED IMAGES CAPTURE 'ODD RADIO CIRCLES' STEPHEN/ANCHOR: With the help of a radio telescope in South Africa, mysterious radio circles in space are becoming a little less mysterious. Graham Kemp, VK4BB, tells us about that telescope's recent discovery. GRAHAM: The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory has captured the most detailed images to date of what are known as ORCs, for "odd radio circles," in a discovery astronomers are calling unprecedented. The circles themselves are nothing new: The first three were discovered in 2019 by astronomers at Australia's national science agency CSIRO using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. Archival data from radio telescope imagery in India in 2013 contained the fourth image. The Australian radio telescope identified a fifth one last year. Scientists are curious as to why ORCs show up in radio waves but are undetected by optical or X-ray telescopes. Astronomers theorise that the huge circles take about 1 billion years to reach their maximum size. Their diameter is said to be 10 times the diameter of the Milky Way, measuring about a million light-years across. Some have a galaxy at their centres. ORCs beam out radio signals every 18 minutes on average but little else is known about them. That could change. Scientists said that with the newest images from South Africa's high resolution radio telescope, they may be a bit closer to understanding them better. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (NATURE, CNN) --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (454:1/33) .