Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu Feb 18 2021 22:59:13 VARIETY OF EVENTS MARK WORLD RADIO DAY CELEBRATIONS PAUL/ANCHOR: A lot of celebrating took place around the world and on the air during the weekend of February 13th and 14th. It was the 10th anniversary of UNESCO's World Radio Day, recognizing radio as the single most-consumed medium with an ability to reach the world's largest and most diverse audiences. Amateur radio was, of course, a big part of the global activities. In Spain, call signs were activated with the suffix WRD from the 12th to the 14th of the month. Hams throughout India had a variety of activities on tap. In the southern Indian state of Kerala (KER-uh-luh), the Institute of Amateur Radio had hams on the radio reminding people of the rescue and disaster assistance hams provide during floods, cyclones and other events. A radio festival displayed antique and unusual equipment, from handhelds to rare transmitters. Hams also got busy preparing for a two-day Field Day in India on the 27th and 28th of February where emergency communications will be given a test run. The website, weather.com, even got into the act by posting an article reminding people of hams' unique ability to assist in emergencies even when commercial power has been cut off. One celebration began over the weekend and will continue at least for a while longer. Be listening for the callsign 4U13FEB until the 28th of February. Members of the UN Global Service Center ARC in Brindisi, Italy, are calling QR Zed until then to promote World Radio Day. Meanwhile, get ready for the next big event specifically for hams: Sunday, April 18 is World Amateur Radio Day. (SOUTHGATE, WEATHER.COM, INDIAN EXPRESS) ** REVIVED ANTENNA RECONNECTS WITH VOYAGER 2 PAUL/ANCHOR: If you've ever been off the air for a year or so, you know that your first contact has got to be a good one. Especially if it's serious DX like the one we hear next about from Graham Kemp, VK4BB. GRAHAM: The completion of a complicated upgrade of an aging antenna at the Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia has restored full contact between Earth and the Voyager 2 probe. The trailblazing spacecraft, which was launched 44 years ago by NASA, had been crossing the heavens in relative silence after a 70-meter dish there known as DSS 43 was shut down and dismantled for a needed refreshing. In space as on Earth, however, few things are immune to the impact of the global pandemic. The ordinarily large team of experts NASA would have sent to Canberra for the makeover was limited to four for safety reasons — and the reduced size of the team delayed the upgrade's progress. With DSS 43 being the only antenna capable of communicating with Voyager 2, the probe had few options for communicating: It could only transmit to the smaller dishes in Canberra but was unable to receive any commands, especially those that could have fixed problems if any had been detected on board. After a test message was sent last October when DSS 43 was partially reassembled, NASA and other experts were optimistic. Now with DSS 43 back in business, the long silence is over but two-way contact still requires something of a wait: Round-trip communication between Earth and the far-away Voyager 2 takes 35 hours. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. (NYTIMES) ** SILENT KEY: LIGHTHOUSE ACTIVATOR HANDEL 'ANDY' BLUER G3UUZ PAUL/ANCHOR: A ham known for years of powerful operations at lighthouses throughout the UK has become a Silent Key. Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, tells us about him. JEREMY: Handel Bluer, G3UUZ, who was also known as Andy, is perhaps best recalled by hams throughout in the UK for the remarkable longwire antennas he would string from atop whatever lighthouse he happened to be activating. That included those times he operated from Bishop Rock between 1976 and 1980 where he worked pileup after pileup, according to his son Redders M5ACT. Redders told Newsline he remembered his father saying that he was able to work stations in America from there long before anyone else in the UK was able to do so. Andy became a Silent Key this month at the age of 92. He had achieved recognition in The Short Wave Magazine in July of 1971 for his noted abilities in Top Band operation from such lighthouses as Nash Point in South Wales. Andy's fondness for lighthouse operations earned him a profile in the March 2000 issue of Practical Wireless magazine where the authors of the article said they were pleased to be shared his insights into [quote] "finding a happy medium between being a lighthouse keeper and a radio amateur." [endquote] For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (REDDERS BLUER M5ACT, THE SHORT WAVE MAGAZINE, PRACTICAL WIRELESS) ** BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K7ECI repeater of the Elmore County Amateur Radio Club in Mountain Home, Idaho on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. local time. --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (618:250/33) .