Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu Feb 11 2021 21:26:29 WORLD OF DX In the world of DX, members of a group known as "The Fifth Ocean" with the support of the Union of Radio Amateurs of Russia will be on the air as R115AN to celebrate the 115th anniversary of the birth of legendary aircraft engineer Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, a legendary aircraft designer, until February 14th. He is considered the father of transport aviation in Russia. Listen on various HF bands as well as VHF. There will be an operators' diploma honoring him as the "Father of Transport Aviation." For QSL details, visit QRZ.com. In Brazil, Charles, PU3NVN; Douglas, PU3DPA; and Gilberto, PY3GIL; will use the call sign ZW3CM from a lighthouse in Tavares, during the 13th American Lighthouses Weekend. Activity begins February 19th and runs through to the 21st. Send QSLs to PU3DPA, by the Bureau. Be listening on 20 meters. (OHIO PENN DX) ** FOX MIKE HOTEL PORTABLE OP CHALLENGE IS RETURNING STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Expect to see the return of the Fox Mike Hotel Portable Operations Challenge later this year with changes. The event will happen earlier - on the 4th and 5th of September - and will consist of three separate four-hour "sprint windows" for operators, a departure from last year's format. Each 4-hour session is a contest in itself but all three will be totalled to find the overall winner. As in last year's contest, scoring system is kilometre-per-watt–based and uses a handicapping system to level the playing field between the large and small stations. Mark it on your calendar. Details will follow later this year. Meanwhile, you can visit foxmikehotel.com/challenge for more details. ** KICKER: RESEARCHERS PUT A NEW SPIN(ACH) ON WIRELESS EMAILING STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Finally, we end this week's report by asking: Do you think that's just spinach on your plate? Ralph Squillace, KK6ITB, tells us why we may need to rethink this popular salad ingredient. RALPH: Popeye, the classic American cartoon character, knew that eating spinach could make him strong, but imagine if that same spinach could help you send emails wirelessly? Sure, hams are doing this right now with the proper software - but not with vegetables. According to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers there have used nanotechnology to transform spinach into sensors that can detect explosives. When they do, they relay that information back to the scientists, wirelessly. This complex feat of engineering electronic components and systems into plants is known as "plant nanobionics." In this instance it takes advantage of spinach's extensive root network which has the ability to sample and transport groundwater from the soil up into the leaves. If the roots detect that groundwater possesses nitroaromatics, something often found in explosives, the carbon nanotubes embedded in the spinach leaves emit a signal that can be read by an infrared camera capable of emailing an alert to a handheld device similar to a mobile phone. If this sounds a little too wild to believe, consider our story on Newsline last year about researchers in Huntsville, Alabama, who discovered that there's electrical signal propagation going on between tomato plants. Whether any of this is ultimately useful to us in the ham shack remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure: We may soon be looking at our salads with newfound respect. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Ralph Squillace, KK6ITB. (SCIENCE.SLASHDOT, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Bill Kleinschmidt, N9FDE; the Central Coast Amateur Radio Club; CQ Magazine; David Behar, K7DB; HAMSci; MARS; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mike Zwingl, OE3MZC; Military Aerospace.com; Ohio Penn DX newsletter; QRZ.com; Patch.com; Phys.Org; Science.Slashdot; Southgate Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; Southgate; Space.com; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; Tim Helming, WT1IM; the Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; YOTA; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website at arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Stephen Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio, saying 73. As always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (618:250/33) .