Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Feb 26 2021 10:14:28 NOMINATIONS OPENING FOR NEWSLINE'S YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR DON/ANCHOR: Do these names mean anything to you? Chris Brault, KD8YVJ; Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO; Emily Stewart, KC0PTL; Kaitlyn Cole, KS3P. They are all past winners of Amateur Radio Newsline's Young Ham of the Year Award which since 2015 has carried another name - that of Newsline's late cofounder, Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF. These award-winners mean a lot to us here at Newsline, because they make us proud of the generation we are watching grow and flourish. On Monday, March 1st, downloadable nomination forms for this year's candidates will become available on our website arnewsline.org If you know a young amateur 18 or younger living in the United States, its possessions or any Canadian province and they are devoted to radio and community service, visit arnewsline.org and consider making them your nominee. The award will be presented at the Huntsville Hamfest in Huntsville Alabama this August. ** HAMS PREP FOR DXPEDITION TO WILLIS ISLAND DON/ANCHOR: An adventurous group of radio amateurs has some big p lans for a very small island just off the Australian coast. Can you say "DXpedition?" That's just what Graham Kemp, VK4BB, describes for us here. GRAHAM: What does a group of Aussie hams do when they see the 100th anniversary of one of the last remaining manned weather stations coming up? Well as the station is difficult to get to, located as it is on a very small, 19 acre, island 450 kilometres off Cairns in Queensland, it wouldn't be a simple special event station set-up. No, this has to be a proper DX-Pedition. The group is the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia who have a long record of running DX-Peditions. The location is Willis Island, which at number 38 is one of the more wanted locations for DXCC. The hams are hoping to use the call sign VK9W, but if not allocated will use VK9HR (the clubs own call sign) from this rare IOTA Island - OC-007. If you are looking to add this entity to your collection, get ready for this Aussie team who will be joined by some international friends heading out to the Coral Sea to get on the air on 160 through 10 metres between November the 3rd and the 13th 2021. For more information check the URL given in the text version on the AR Newsline dot ORG website. (FOR PRINT, DO NOT READ: https://dxnews.com/vk9hr/). For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB. ** WORLD OF DX In the World of DX, Gareth, M0MOL, is on the air as MM0MOL/P from the main Island of Shetland for the remainder of February and into March. He will be operating QRP with a portable setup. Listen for him mainly in the evenings local time after work. Send QSLs to his home callsign. The Pride Radio Group is using the special event callsign VI2021PRIDE throughout the Sydney Mardi Gras until March 7th. Be listening for operations on SSB and FT8. QSL directly to Michaela Wheeler VK3FUR or via the ClubLog OQRS system. The Welland Valley Amateur Radio Society will be putting several special event stations on the air in the months ahead to celebrate the patron saints of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The first event will be for the feast of Saint David, patron saint of Wales. Be listening for GB0SD between February 28th and March 2nd. The actual feast day is on March 1st. QSL by eQSL, LoTW and by the Bureau via manager G4XEX. (OHIO PENN DX, SOUTHGATE) ** KICKER: ON MARS, ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE INGENUITY DON/ANCHOR: Finally: Have you ever dreamed of having the frequency all to yourself to make that one perfect, historic QSO? Well it can happen: On Mars. Newsline's space cadet Paul Braun, WD9GCO, takes us there. PAUL: Talk about operating mobile! NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter, prepped to accomplish the first powered flight on that planet, has already achieved its first QSO. According to reports from NASA, the 4-pound helicopter, which is actually a drone, is resting comfortably in the underbelly of NASA's Perseverance rover which landed on the red planet on February 18th. Its mission is to conduct a test of the first powered flight in the thin atmosphere there, where it is capable of achieving an altitude of no more than 15 feet, or 5 metres. The tiny helicopter employs point-to-point wireless communication with the rover. A day after the landing, the helicopter sent its first message back to Earth via the rover by making use of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, saying all systems, including its power supply of six lithium-ion batteries, were working as expected. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that a downlink from the orbiter confirmed that all was well. According to NASA, it will be at least a month before Ingenuity makes its maiden flight. One has to wonder, though — is Ingenuity going to apply for a QSL card? And if so, does that go direct or through a bureau? I've got to imagine it's going to need one for that "Worked All Planets" award. That's a lot of postage. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. (NASA, CNN, MSN.COM) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to the ACMA; Amateur News Weekly; the ARRL; Burlington Free Press; CQ Magazine; CNN; David Behar; EOS; KCAL Los Angeles; MSN.COM; NASA; Ohio Penn DX newsletter; QRZ.com; Raisa R1BIG; Southgate Amateur Radio News; shortwaveradio.de; Space.com; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; YouTube; YOTA Americas Camp; 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 Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in Picayune Mississippi, saying 73. As always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. --- SBBSecho 3.13-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (618:250/33) .