Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Feb 04 2022 11:23:55 AMATEURS CLAIM NEW QSO DISTANCE RECORDS USING SATELLITES DON/ANCHOR: Some new long-distance records are being claimed for contacts using amateur radio satellites. Congratulations to Juan Felipe, A65GC, and Jerome, F4DXV, for their QSO on HO-113 made on the 13th of January between the United Arab Emirates and France. Their contact at 1952 UTC reportedly spanned a distance of 5,298 km, or nearly 3,300 miles. Jerome, F4DXV, also reported a contact with Sergei, ES4RM, which would be a new record for AO- 109. That contact between Estonia and France on the 22nd of December last year, they believe covered 2,445 km, or 1,500 miles, setting a new record for that satellite. Their contacts were reported on the AMSAT News Service. Well done! (AMSAT NEWS SERVICE) ** SPECIAL EVENT MARKS 90 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORP DON/ANCHOR: Australian amateurs are paying tribute to nine decades of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. They're doing it by - what else? - getting on the air. Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF, has those details. JIM: Just weeks after hams in the UK began operating with a special callsign marking the 100th anniversary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, similar on-the-air festivities are taking place Down Under: Ham radio operators in Australia are using the callsign VK90ABC to mark the 90-year anniversary of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It's a nod to that memorable moment when the nation's airwaves came alive on the 23rd of November in 1923, with Australia's first licensed public radio broadcast, which featured the St. Andrews Choir. All amateur radio operators throughout Australia will be eligible to use the callsign, but must apply for it first through an email to info at vk 90 abc dot net. (info@k90abc.net) According to the callsign's QRZ page, there will be no QSLs sent direct or by the bureau. Contacts are to be confirmed via LoTW and eQSL, with logs uploaded once a month. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Meachen, ZL2BHF. (VK90ABC.NET) ** SPECIAL EVENT STATION BEING HELD AT LINCOLN HISTORIC SITE DON/ANCHOR: Another special event, this one in the US, marks the life of an American president, as we hear from Skeeter Nash, N5ASH. SKEETER: There's a lot of history in the logs of the log cabin in Lerna, Illinois, home of the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. The cabin was home to Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Lincoln, father and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln, the lawyer who was to become the 16th president of the United States. The National Trail Amateur Radio Club is marking Lincoln's February birthday by putting two callsigns on the air between February 7th and 13th. Be listening for K9L, which will be used by members operating from their home QTH; and W9L which will be used at the historic site itself. There will be commemorative QSL cards for successful contacts on all bands in all modes. The 86-acre historic site is no stranger to important moments in history, and this amateur radio event expects to be one of them. To learn more about how to get in the log - the radio log, in this case - visit the QRZ page for either call sign. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Skeeter Nash, N5ASH. (NATIONAL TRAIL AMATEUR RADIO CLUB) ** MYSTERIOUS PULSES DETECTED BY AUSTRALIAN RADIO TELESCOPE DON/ANCHOR: What's that up in the sky? A radio telescope in Australia has picked up some unusual signals and Graham Kemp VK4BB tells us what they might just be. GRAHAM: We've all heard strange transmissions on the air but perhaps none as strange as these: A radio telescope in Western Australia has been picking up highly polarised signals in a repeating series of pulses, suggesting that the bright object which appears to be its source possesses a strong magnetic field. The scientists at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research are detecting the radio waves at a rate of three times an hour. An astrophysicist at Curtin University believes this might be a magnetar, something that only existed in theory until recently. Researchers have known about the bright object since it was first seen in March of 2018. The more than 4,000 low-frequency antennas of the Murchison Widefield Array are picking up transmissions, which originate some 4,000 light-years away from Earth. Curtin University astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker has stated that no, this isn't coming from aliens. To solve the mystery, researchers at the Pawsey Supercomputing Center in Perth will be exploring data from similar pulsing objects to compare to this one. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (INTERESTINGENGINEERING.COM) --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (618:250/33) .