OSCAR Meeting
The next OSCAR meeting is 11-Apr @ 9:00 AM, the second Saturday of the month. Meetings are held at the Happy Chef at US-14 West and I-35.

SKYWARN Meeting
The next SKYWARN meeting is 21-Apr @ 7:00 PM, the third Tuesday of the month. Meetings are held at the Owatonna Fire Station.

Fargo Flooding
The news from the Fargo area changes on an hourly basis as I write this Newsletter. Concerns about major flooding extend well beyond Fargo, including North Dakota and Winnipeg, Canada. Amateur Radio is involved in several areas of communications. If you are thinking about offering any assistance, current information is available at the Red River Radio Amateurs web site. You may also contact Mike Heiler, KA0ZLG, Clay County EC at 701-730-0701 for more details.

VE Session
OSCAR sponsored a Volunteer Examiner (VE) session on 05-Mar. VEs at the session were Paul WØFEI, Deuel NSØL, Dennis NØRPI, Dennis NØRPJ, Dale WBØPKG, and Tom NØUW. There were 11 successful candidates:

• Kevin KD0AJB and Mike KDØDKC both upgraded to General.
• Chris KDØGVV and Bob KDØGVU passed both element 2 and Element 3, earning a General Class license.
• Nate KDØGVN, Kathy KDØGVO, Todd KDØUGVP, Carl KDØGVQ, Greg KDØGVR, Jim KDØGVS, and Mike KDØGVT all earned Technician Class licenses.

Elmer Night
About a dozen new and experienced hams had a fun evening on 24-Mar. Topics included all types of antenna designs, radio purchasing/installation, and RFI problems. Thanks to Elmers Marv NØFJP, Dale WBØPKG, Jeff KCØUOW, Tony WØIU, and Tom NØUW.

OSCAR hosted this evening specifically as a follow up to the VE session. Everyone (new and experienced) should remember to be sure to ask for assistance when working on something you have not worked on before. The members of OSCAR are always willing to help because we have all gone through the same learning process. There is a wide range of talent in the local ham community. Help can be solicited at an OSCAR meeting, casual conversation, Sunday night net, SKYWARN meeting, or send an e-mail to OSCAR. We'll do our best to help.

Field Day
Dennis NØRPI indicates that preparations for Field Day are in full swing. For 2009, Field Day is a Steele County RACES training event. This does not mean the event is restricted to RACES members only. Anyone with an interest in Amateur Radio is invited to visit and/or participate. The location of the event has changed to the Flying Field of the Owatonna R/C Modelers. Check the Field Day web page for current and updated information.

Burghardt From Several Sources
Burghardt Amateur Center in Watertown, SD announced that the company will no longer sell Amateur Radio transceivers and accessories. Now called Burghardt Radio Repair, they will continue to provide radio repair service.

World Amateur Radio Day
Each year on 18 April, radio amateurs celebrate World Amateur Radio Day. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was founded on that day in 1925. The theme of the 2009 World Amateur Radio Dayis "Amateur Radio: Your Resource in Disaster and Emergency Communication." More information on the activities can be found at IARU.

GLOBAL SET From Multiple Sources
The 2009 Global Simulated Emergency Test (GlobalSET) is set for 18-Apr from 1100-1500 UTC. The GlobalSET will take place on and near the emergency Center of Activity (CoA) frequencies on 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 meters, +/- QRM. The intent of the 2009 GlobalSET is for established IARU Headquarters stations and EOCs to test their capabilities. Unlike Field Day, GlobalSET is not a contest, but an emergency communications exercise with four objectives:

• To increase the common interest in emergency communications.
• To test how usable the CoA frequencies are across ITU regions.
• To create practices for international emergency communications.
• To practice the relaying of messages using all modes: Voice (SSB),Data or CW.

40-meter Broadcasts From Multiple Sources
Short wave broadcasters had a 29-Mar deadline to vacate the 7.100 MHz to 7.200 MHZ sub-bands. This should clear up a lot of QRM on the 40 meter band for Amateur Radio communications.

Shortwave listening (SWL) in North America has been mostly a hobby for decades. Shortwave also is distinctly old fashioned compared to iPods and satellite radios. Like any other HF activity, SWL allows you to hear and learn things that you would never find even if you work your search engine like a mule. Shortwave can deliver news faster than you might find it online, and they often resist many government attempts to jam them.

Shortwave radio enthusiasts acknowledge the thrill of going out at night and snaring news, music, odd bleeps, religious zealots and other broadcasts from the wild sea of frequencies in the sky. The signals whoosh from clouds of static and are subject to the whims of sunspots and atmospheric disturbances. Unique satisfaction can be achieved when you hear voices over the noise and squeal, and realize you are hearing Mongolia.

70cm Notice of Proposed Rulemaking From ARRL Letter
The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), proposing to allocate spectrum and adopt service and technical rules for the utilization of new implanted medical devices. Operating in a 20MHz sub band on 70 cm, four specific segments are identified at 413-419 MHz, 426-432 MHz, 438-444 MHz and 451-457 MHz. ARRL evaluations suggest the project should have little, if any, impact on Amateur Radio operators. The low power output of the devices would have virtually no impact to Amateur Radio. The redundant layers of interference rejection mechanisms built into the product that should protect its users from strong Amateur Radio signals.

LORAN-C SK From Multiple Sources
The US Coast Guard announced that due to budget concerns, they would be closing down the 24 LORAN-C (Long Range Aid to Navigation) stations at the end of fiscal year 2009. The LORAN-C system serves the 48 continental states, their coastal areas and parts of Alaska. LORAN-C stations operated at 100KHz to provide navigation, location and timing services for both civil and military air, land and marine users. It is approved for supplemental air navigation system for both Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) and Visual Flight Rule (VFR) operations.

Communication Ban From AR Newsline
The National Safety Council issued a plea directly to motorists to stop using cell phones and urged businesses to enact policies limiting the use of cell phones by their employees. The Congressionally-chartered agency also called on states to pass more laws banning the use of wireless communications devices while driving. The group wants to also eliminate the hands-free exemptions, such as in Minnesota. The news release does not mention Ham radio, C-B radio or any other two-way radio based application other than cell phones and text messaging.

A proposal in the Iowa legislature would prohibit the driver of a motor vehicle from using any wireless communication device without using a hands free adapter while operating a motor vehicle on a street or highway. What is interesting is there are no exemptions are included for law enforcement, fire, rescue or any other certified first responders.

Lightweight Mast From ARRL Contest update
Sounds like there is a lot of local activity in preparation for Field Day. One suggestion for making a cheap lightweight mast is to use the thinnest schedule PVC pipe you can find. Unfortunately, it is not very durable. Strengthen the pipe with a can of "Great Stuff". Make the telescoping mast about 28' long with three diameters of PVC, drill a small hole every foot and shoot the Great Stuff in. You end up with a very rigid mast for Inverted-Vees and other wire antennas.

Woody Woodpecker at Work? From CGC Communicator
Here is an interesting video illustrating nature at work.

Battery Recycling From AR Newsline
Its widely known that the U.S. government classifies alkaline batteries as non-hazardous waste. That means that in most places they can be disposed of in normal household trash. But not all areas agree. The February edition of Popular Photography magazine notes that Hennepin County, MN also requires that you dispose of them through proper recycling. And, depending where you live, Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, Lithium-Ion and even old fashioned Carbon based cells can be considered as hazardous waste. This means that you cannot just toss them into the garbage can. The MN Pollution Control Agency has a guideline on household battery recycling and disposal.

Satellite Crash From Multiple Sources
A collision between two satellites in February was an unprecedented orbital accident. The Iridium and defunct Russian Cosmos satellites were in a path perpendicular to each other. Most of the debris is around 790 kilometers above the Earth's surface and expected to stay in orbit for years. The 66 Iridium satellites can orbit the earth at more than 25,000 kilometers per hour. One of a number of in-orbit spare satellites will be moved into position to replace the one that was lost within a month. In contrast to the low orbit of Iridium, typical communication satellites orbit at 36,000 kilometers so they appear at the same spot in the sky when viewed from earth.

Solar Outages From Public Radio Satellite System
A solar or sun transit outage is an electromagnetic phenomenon wherein a station downlink is temporarily unable to receive a satellite signal due to interference from the sun as it passes behind the satellite. Solar outages occur on a predictable schedule and affect downlinks in the US for about five consecutive days, for as much as six minutes a day, twice each year. Broadcasters must work around these interruptions to ensure content is available during the outages. The predictions for outages in Minnesota for NPR in 2009 include March 1–5 at 1:51 p.m. and October 8–11 at 2:26 p.m.

Tower Building From CGC Communicator
A webcam in Miami, FL is showing the construction of WPLG-TV's new 1049 foot high candelabra tower. Each individual section is thirty feet long with the heaviest section weighing in at about 26,500 lbs. A total weight over 1 million pounds with features a 12 foot wide face with a two person elevator to take repair crews to the top. Fabrication of the new tower began on March 12th.

DRM Radio From Multiple Sources
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is a digital radio system for radio frequencies below 30MHz, short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave. A new DRM receiver designed in France may soon be coming to American shores. The all band plus FM receiver is DRM capable ands expected to make its debut March 25th at the DRM General Assembly in Germany. It is expected to be the first consumer level Digital Radio Mondiale receiver authorized by the FCC for sale in the United States. More information on this technology is available at www.drm.org.

DTV Conversion Updates From CGC Communicator
The DTV conversion confusion now extends to June 12th. Here are several bits and pieces:

• The FCC released lists on which TV stations were allowed to shut down their analog signals in 17-Feb:
  pdf
  pdf
• Two Texas TV stations purchased every model of DTV converter box that is commonly available for sale. They graded them A/B/C/D and provided their impressions of each box. The instruction manual is also available for downloading.
• The DTV antenna is one of the hidden secrets in the transition. You can see one makeshift DTV antenna with reports that it works surprisingly well. It could probably be best described as a small diameter loop anchored to the wall.