Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Feb 18 2021 22:59:23

KICKER: A MARS LANDING FOR PENNSYLVANIA CLUB CALL SIGN

PAUL/ANCHOR: We conclude this week's report by asking: Can YOUR call sign 
go the distance? For one Pennsylvania amateur radio club, the answer is a 
resounding: YES! Ralph Squillace, KK6ITB, tells us why.

RALPH: This could be the world's tiniest QSL card for the world's rarest 
DX thus far: The Perseverance Rover arriving on Mars to look for signs of 
past microbial life and collect climate and geographic data will be 
carrying the name of the Holmesburg Amateur Radio Club with it. The 
Pennsylvania club's name and call sign, WM3PEN, is one of almost 11 
million names on board, stenciled into one of three tiny silicon chips by 
an electron beam as part of NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign. The 
club is perhaps best well-known for running the annual 13 Colonies Special 
Event that takes place around America's Independence Day celebrations each 
year.

Sure, the club had more than enough company on its journey when the launch 
took off at Kennedy Space Center in Florida last summer -- but how many of 
them are space-travel veterans like the Holmesburg hams? Club trustee Bob 
Josuweit WA3PZO, told Newsline that this is the second trek to Mars for 
the club's call sign. The first journey was in 2011 on board the rover 
named Curiosity where the club's call sign joined some 1.2 million names. 
Bob told Newsline the club decided it was worth going along for the ride 
again. Talk about perseverance!

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Ralph Squillace, KK6ITB.

(NASA, BOB JOSUWEIT WA3PZO)

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE: 

With thanks to Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Bob Josuweit WA3PZO; CQ 
Magazine; David Behar, K7DB; EOS; HAMSci; Indian Express; Michaela Wheeler 
VK3FUR; NASA; New York Times; Ohio Penn DX newsletter; PHYS.ORG; QRZ.com; 
Practical Wireless; Radio Society of Great Britain; Redders Bluer M5ACT; 
Short Wave Magazine; Simon Strange, M0SYS; Southgate Amateur Radio News; 
shortwaveradio.de; Southgate; Steve Hartley, G0FUW; Ted Randall's QSO 
Radio Show; 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 Paul Braun, WD9GCO, in Valparaiso, Indiana,
saying 73. As always, we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
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