CIA documents about Ham radio declassified online

From Southgate AR News, original post here.

CIA reports about amateur (ham) radio in the former Soviet Union (including the Baltic States) and Warsaw Pact member countries have been declassified to a new online search engine.

The website is here.

The documents include translations and assessments of amateur radio clubs, including DOSAAF; training; monitoring sputniks; technology and equipment; and even QSL cards.

All the documents have been de-classified and made available to the public for the first time in this internet archive; some were previously available in a closed system at the US national archives.

EBU Readies for .radio Launch

From Radioworld, original post here.  By Marguerite Clark, 26/1/17.

The European Broadcasting Union is launching a new top-level domain name —.radio — for the radio community.  The EBU will manage .radio, which it says can be used for web and email addresses, with the support of other world broadcasting unions, including ABU, AER, AIB, AMARC, ASBU, AUB, CBU, EGTA, IAB, NABA, OTI and URTI.

According to the organization, this project is a community TLD and is run for the benefit of the whole radio industry and amateur enthusiast and reserved for people and companies with active interest in the radio sector.

“We are proposing that the radio community may like to consider securing the integrity of their web presence by requesting appropriate .radio domains for defensive reasons initially,” explained EBU’s .radio TLD Manager, Alain Artero.

“The TLD will be focused on content and matters specific to radio and we want to prevent speculators and cybersquatting in this TLD; this extension will therefore rapidly become a high-value internet space for websites, mail systems and other internet applications,” he said.

Categories that will be accepted for the use of a .radio domain include radio broadcasting stations, broadcaster unions; internet radios; radio amateurs; radio professionals (journalists, radio hosts, DJs) and radio-related companies selling radio goods and services.

The pre-launch phase, which the EBU points out is exclusively reserved for radio stations, will run from May 3 to July 5.  All other categories of applications will be managed during the launch phase within a similar period of 60 days.

Those interested in requesting a .radio domain should contact an authorized registrar or the EBU directly.  Prices will run between €200 and €250 per domain each year for companies, but are expected to be “much lower” for individuals.

‘It’s essential’: outback workers fight ABC decision to ditch shortwave radio

From the Guardian, original post here.  By Helen Davidson, 18/1/17.

For some living and working in Australia’s outback, shortwave radio is the only way they can listen to the ABC – and their main daily contact with the rest of the world. But the ABC will end the service in two weeks

A cattle and sheep property in the Australian outback. ‘You can imagine how isolating that would be without having access to the outside world via radio during the day,’ says Tracey Hayes. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

People that live out in contracting camps or mustering stock camps or outstations, and even a lot of the people who live in the bush on cattle stations, spend probably 100% of their waking hours out on the land and have very minimal contact with other human beings,” says Tracey Hayes, the chief executive of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association.

“You can imagine how isolating that would be without having access to the outside world via radio during the day while you’re out in the workplace.  But I don’t think they took that into consideration.”

Hayes is referring to a recent announcement by the ABC that, at the end of January, it would terminate its shortwave radio service, which broadcasts to the NT, Papua New Guinea and some parts of the Pacific region.

It said the move was “in line with the national broadcaster’s commitment to dispense with outdated technology and to expand its digital content offerings”.

For some people living and working in the outback, shortwave is the only way they can listen to the ABC. Continue reading →

Amateur Experiences, Comments and Proposals from Lou VK5EEE

The following is an excerpt from the International Amateur Radio Union Monitoring System (IARUMS) Region 1 December 2016 newsletter which can be read in full here.  The IARUMS monitors the state of the Amateur bands and reports on interference and Intruders.  See their website here.

VK5EEE offers the following opinion piece on the state of the Australian Amateur scene:

[Commenting on previous reports of South American Fisherman using the Ham bands]

I’m not surprised to hear this about Latin American region.  My antennas seem to favour that area but I almost never (at least on CW) hear any active radio hams there.  I think it could be useful to report findings from around the world about the general state of QRM on our bands, and what could be done short, medium, long term to forecast and reverse these trends.  In our area our 40m CW band is useless in the evenings due to strong SSB QRM every 5kHz USB and LSB — which thus covers the entire CW band — from powerful Indonesian pirates.  These pirates also seem to occupy a great many frequencies between 10000 and 11400kHz – there are huge number of them in a population of 200 million.

THAILAND A GOOD EXAMPLE

But we can contrast Indonesia to Thailand where there are a total of ZERO pirates on HF.  In HS-land you cannot buy any gear without showing license.  You cannot import either without inspection.  And you cannot operate in any location without a location license in addition to your operating license, and this system clearly works, no matter it is a bit slow to get a ham license.

This even though the HF population of HS amateurs is quite small, perhaps 200 or less, while the VHF population of HS amateurs is high, a quarter million or so.  The radio amateur license density per population in Thailand is at a rough guess 10 times what it is in Australia.

CW BAND PRIME TARGET FOR PIRATES

For CW operators, the problem is pirates which almost invariably use SSB, of course use the CW band, because there, they hear no other SSB. They don’t use the SSB parts of the band because then they would be afraid when they hear a strong local SSB radio amateur telling them off, or even direction finding them potentially.  So some CW operators, myself included, have gravitated to the SSB part of the band, which after all is shared CW-SSB it’s fine for CW, and due to radio amateur inactivity, it is also often empty.  Right now, 20m and 17m are open — and yet tuning the entire bands from top to bottom and bottom to top several times, I did not hear ONE radio amateur signal on CW nor SSB, nor Data.

NATIONAL SOCIETY FAILURE

During the week day, and remember a great many hams are retired, I can more often than not tune the entire 40m band also without hearing any SSB, Data, nor CW.  And this even though the now manifestly corrupt national society seeks in a misguided effort to make amateur radio a public CB social media extension, they have not succeeded.  They have taken the view that amateur radio is in decline and the way to reverse that is to make it easier to get a license at least at lowest level (which still gives 100W, though officially 10W, to anyone sitting a short course without possibility of failure, and then access to 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m) and yet the vast majority of these don’t get on air since amateur radio offers little to them compared to internet social media. Continue reading →

United Kingdom: RSGB Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) 2017

Via Stuart VK2FSTU, who adds:

Perhaps this is a way we could think beside JOTA of gaining more young bods into Amateur Radio ranks?  Bears thinking more about me thinks.

The RSGB Youth Committee is delighted to announce that the bid to host the IARU Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) 2017 summer camp was successful.

We are proud to be hosting this prestigious international event at Gilwell Park, the UK Scouting HQ, from 5-12 August 2017.

What is it?

It’s a fantastic chance for young people to build relationships with like-minded people from other countries and develop international friendships through amateur radio.

Around 100 young people under the age of 26 from all over IARU Region 1 will come to the UK to take part.

There will be a week-long range of wireless technology activities including a special event station, a buildathon, antenna building, an Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) contest and a Summits on the Air (SOTA) activation.

There will also be an opportunity to visit Bletchley Park—including the National Radio Centre—and the Science Museum, and to take part in some other non-radio activities such as kayaking, raft building and assault courses.