Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (C) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu May 04 2023 18:06:05 MILLING ABOUT ON THE AIR FOR A SPECIAL RADIO EVENT JIM/ANCHOR: In Australia and in the UK, hams will be milling about - literally - for this outdoor special event. We learn the details from John Williams, VK4JJW. JOHN: There's more to mills than wheat, corn or flour. Some mills can produce QSOs. Well, at least that's going to be the case in Australia during the Mills on the Air radio event being held in conjunction with the Mills on the Air taking place at the same time in the UK. That would be the 13th and 14th of May. Hams are on the air activating the mills and also hoping to score points at the same time for SOTA, POTA and World Wide Flora and Fauna. The Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club is proud to be the first to get things started in 2017 with the activation of Andersons Mill in Smeaton, Victoria - but now mill activation are grinding along quite nicely throughout Australia. They will be joining more than 300 windmills and watermills being activated throughout the UK to celebrate its industrial heritage. If you wish to receive a certificate from the Denby Dale Amateur Radio Society, which organises the event in the UK, be sure to register there at the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org [DO NOT READ: www.ddars.net/register.html ] This is John Williams, VK4JJW. (DDARS.NET, MILLS ON THE AIR) ** CELLPHONE USERS LOG DIRECT CONTACT VIA SATELLITE JIM/ANCHOR: A space-based cellular phone network that relies on satellites instead of towers may not be so far off as you think. Kent Peterson, KC0DGY, has that story. KENT: Imagine being able to have a cellphone signal delivered directly to your mobile device from space instead of from a cell tower. Two smartphone users reported recently that they had just that experience. A call between a phone user in Texas, and another in Japan was reportedly routed through a low Earth orbit satellite manufactured by AST SpaceMobile. These were standard, unmodified smartphones: a Samsung Galaxy S22 in Texas and an iPhone in Japan. The BlueWalker3 satellite that made the call possible is powerful enough to pick up cellphone signals from over 1,000 miles away thanks to an array of 100,000 individual antenna elements on board. Smartphones and satellites typically do not share the same part of the spectrum for direct communication, leaving phones to rely on local cell towers instead. According to an article in The Verge, AST SpaceMobile was able to adapt its network architecture so it was similar to 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, standard that cell networks use. Some smartphones are already capable of message-based satellite routing solutions in emergencies but a full-service call with a voice connection like this is said to be breaking new ground. The article said there will be further testing. This is Kent Peterson, KC0DGY. (THE VERGE) ** UK HAMS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF 'DAM BUSTERS RAID' JIM/ANCHOR: Hams in the UK are marking the 80th anniversary of the famous World War II "Dam Busters Raid," and Jeremy Boot ,G4NJH, tells us what's involved. JEREMY: The Royal Air Force sent a squadron of bombers into the night to complete a mission known as Operation Chastise, but better known as the Dam Busters Raid. Its targets, in the heart of industrial Nazi Germany’s Ruhr Valley, were three dams for destruction, but which were heavily protected from any underwater or air assault. The successful mission, which set off on the 16th of May in 1943, is being commemorated from the 14th to 16th of May this year by the Stockport Radio Society with the callsign GB0DBA. Stockport is an industrial town in Greater Manchester, a region with strong ties to the mission that employed the now-famous "bouncing bombs." The planes, modified to carry the bombs, were manufactured at Chadderton and assembled at Woodford. The aircrew trained over the Derwent Reservoir. Manchester University has a building dedicated to Barnes Wallis, the creator of the bouncing bomb -- and to Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who was later proposed as a candidate for the UK Parliament. Listen on the HF bands, with a focus on 20 and 40 metres, for operators using SSB, CW and RTTY. There will also be radio activity on VHF using FM, C4FM and FT8 on 2 metres, and SSB and CW using the QO-100 satellite. Please visit the QRZ.com page of GB0DBA for QSL details. This is Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (QRZ.COM) --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (618:250/33) .