Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Oct 02 2020 00:39:28 HOSPITAL HELPS WASHINGTON HAMS EXPAND EMCOMM COVERAGE STEPHEN/ANCHOR: When it comes to planning for emergency coverage, hospitals and hams are a natural team. Christian Cudnik, K0STH, tells us about one such effort in Washington State. CHRISTIAN: With the help of a local hospital, hams in Clallam County, Washington are hoping to provide the county with a security blanket of RF coverage. Their effort has been a two-year project between the Clallam County Amateur Radio Club and Forks Community Hospital. According to club member Joe Wright, KG7JWW, who is also an area emergency coordinator for ARES in Forks, the goal is to establish "operational areas" throughout the county including the vast prairie and serve those areas with more radios and repeaters. While standard communication will continue to rely on the VHF repeater and vertical antenna, the goal is to extend the range, linking to UHF repeaters beyond. Joe credited the hospital for having established an on-site amateur radio station after 9/11 for Clallam County ARES. He said the hospital has also assisted in other ways, including with installation of a repeater and equipment for an emergency radio site on Gunderson Mountain, just outside of town. He told Newsline "the new repeater location has significantly increased our coverage" and other expansions are in the planning stages. One of them is for a location that will cover the county's farthest northwest areas and cross over to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Christian Cudnik, K0STH. (THE FORKS FORUM) ** AMATEUR TO CAST HER ABSENTEE BALLOT FROM ISS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Although more voters than ever in the U.S. are expected to use absentee ballots in November's presidential election, one amateur radio operator will be casting her ballot from space. Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has those details. DON: Astronaut Kate Rubins, KG5FYJ, has a few important things on her agenda following her mid-October launch from Russia to the International Space Station. Once there, she will begin her research using the Cold Atom Lab aboard the ISS. She will also work on a cardiovascular experiment. And, she plans to cast an absentee ballot, and vote in the United States presidential election. According to Space.com, her vote will take the form of a secure electronic ballot which gets transmitted to Mission Control, and sent on from there to the county clerk back home in Texas. Of course, high-flying absentee ballots are nothing new for her. According to the Associated Press, she and fellow astronaut Shane Kimbrough, KE5HOD, voted for president the same way in 2016, hoping their votes would go the distance. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. (SPACE.COM, ASSOCIATED PRESS) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the N9EOC repeater of the Central Indiana Amateur Radio Association in Noblesville, Indiana, on Sundays at 8 p.m. local time. ** AMATEUR SATELLITE MARKS 27 YEARS IN ORBIT STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Imagine 27 years on the job: The team behind a satellite called AMRAD-Oscar 27 has no trouble imagining it at all. The satellite just marked its birthday in space, as Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, tells us. NEIL: Happy 27th birthday to the satellite that was launched from French Guiana in September of 1993 and is still on the job. Hams around the world have made contacts with AMRAD-Oscar 27, which has also been used for a successful D-STAR mode satellite QSO. Even after a temporary outage in 2012, the team behind the project couldn't be prouder of the satellite's longevity and its reputation for being relatively easy to work. AO-27 was built by the Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation (AMRAD) in McLean, Virginia. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. (SOUTHGATE, AMSAT) --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (618:250/33) .