Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Jul 30 2020 22:16:05

BREAK HERE:

Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K7MMA repeater
in Spokane, Washington, on Fridays at 5 p.m. local Pacific time.

**

CHANGES MADE TO AUSTRALIAN CALL SIGNS

JIM/ANCHOR: Australian call signs are undergoing some changes. John
Williams, VK4JJW, tells us what they are.

JOHN: The Australian Communications and Media Authority has made some
administrative changes to call signs, which the authority says is
designed to give more flexibility, and options to amateurs who are being
given a more active role in managing their own call signs.

All licenced hams will have the ability to obtain a three-letter call
sign. This change removes the association between the call sign suffixes
and amateur qualifications, whether the licence is for foundation,
standard, or advanced level. The result is that a ham can now have a
call sign to last their lifetime. This includes any moves the amateur
may make from one state or territory to another - a change that formerly
required a change in call sign.

The changes are also designed to make access to digital modes easier for
foundation licensees. The foundation call sign structure has not been
compatible with all modes of digital operation.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams, VK4JJW.

(ACMA)

**

2ND SATELLITE JOINS EUROPEAN DATA RELAY SYSTEM

JIM/ANCHOR: The European Data Relay System just got a bit of a boost
with a new satellite in its network. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, tells us more.

JEREMY: Almost a year after its launch, a second European Data Relay
System satellite has become operational, on a laser communication
network, that speeds the data flow between Earth-observing-satellites
and Earth itself.

The EDRS-C satellite, launched on August 6th, 2019, has entered full
service after a user-commissioning review, and joins the network's
first satellite EDRS-A. It is in geostationary orbit, about 36,000
kilometers, or more than 22,000 miles, above the Earth.

The two EDRS satellites are part of the EU's Copernicus program, and
join two other Sentinel satellites, that assist in the transmission
of images and other data gleaned from monitoring vegetation, waterways,
and soil. The satellites can also be used to relay data in emergency
situations.

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

(SCITECH DAILY)

**

MAINE TO GET STATE'S FIRST CUBESAT

JIM/ANCHOR: They're calling it MESAT1, and it's going to become the
first CubeSat produced in the U.S. state of Maine. The University of
Maine Wireless Sensing Laboratory has signed an agreement with AMSAT
for the construction of the small satellite. It will carry an amateur
radio payload, along with a variety of science payloads. The launch is
still about three years away, and will take place under NASA's CubeSat
Launch Initiative. Amateurs around the world are expected to be able to
make use of MESAT1, once it is commissioned. It will carry a VHF/UHF
telemetry beacon, command receiver, and linear transponder.

(UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, AMSAT)
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